Player Storytelling: Langston Moore

specific challenges they face as legends. Welcome Langston Man. It's it's great to be here, Anias, and it's great to talk button gut. I mean it's a it's is a great, great deal and uh it's gonna be fun. Man. You have a you have a smile, You have a gracious smile. You also have the voice. I know you're doing a

podcast in how much television have you done? Well? My daddy was in radio, and uh, you know, I kind of got the gift of having a face for radio, as folks like to say a lot of times, so I get some of that guy given voice talent from him, and uh, I guess the rest will just attribute to my sweet mother. So um, you know, having the the ability to grow up around a teacher and and somebody was in broadcast. It kind of helped me get onto this path of being a podcaster and trying to be

creative and come up with these ideas. I want to start, well, why you started a podcast specifically for the big guys. Yeah, one of the big things is, you know, um, you

can't have a football game without lineman. You always hear about, you know, winning in the trenches with offense and defensive linement, but a lot of times the star guys that guys who get to take their helmet off for for the touchdowns are for the other things are usually the skinny guys and so um, for me, the biggest thing was just talking about how all of this is kind of tied in being a football guy, because, um, you know, I'm sure everybody has a story if you've made it

to elite level football, playing in college or anything like that, but for the most of us, we've been big our entire life. So you know, trying to figure out and talk about that that Moniker of being a big guy and what that meant like somebody. For myself, I was like a hundred fifty pounds in the third grade, and as long as we had that backdrop of football, you know you're good, you're not you're not an obest kid,

or you know you're doing something positive. But without football, somebody would look at you and probably say what they said to my mother, the doctor said that they're like, we gotta do something about this. So I was still trying to I had those baseball dreams at that time. But my mom, God bless her, she took me to go get ice cream after the doctor said, man, we gotta get this boy to lose some weight. In the

third grade win a hundred fifty pounds. So everybody we kind of talked to in this series are any of the guys we you've ever been in the locker room with. They kind of had similar stories about being taller than everybody, are bigger than everybody, but beyond all that, being extremely talented athletically and trying to figure out how they fit into the world. So you know, for a lot of guys, they take that medium, they take their bodies and they go into uh playing football, and it takes them a

really far place. And what we also wanted to cover in our Button Got series was, uh, the challenges for guys afterwards, you know, losing the week because there's so much food and reward and different things tied in with football. Um, you know when it needs Winns would pick off. You know, all these guys in the NFL. You know, it doesn't

matter if he had five interceptions. That quarterback who threw those five interceptions, he would get a bag of burgers or a pizza or something, and food and rewards and all these different things were always tied in, and we wanted to kind of highlight a lot of that and get into kind of some of the psychology of those things. Like you brought up something that I hadn't anticipated talking about, and it's the psychological dynamics are being big when it

comes down to the game of football. You get, you get accolades for it. Just as you said it. How would you share with those who are bigger and societists saying something is wrong if you're bigger, right, particularly with ladies and with men, the big guys that played the great game in the National Football League, it's an honor to be big. What's the psychological challenges you could speak to for those that don't play football and a big well,

a lot of it is confident, um. You know, especially in the world we live in now, it is very visceral. Everybody sees the highlights and we call that social media Instagram. Nobody ever puts their low lights on there um. And so a lot of times when you see that that guy who is you know, uh six five, you know, two eight pounds and he has the timbercent body fat

and you're like, man, I played in the NFL. I think maybe Andre Wadsworth was maybe the only due to ever was chisel like that, and that was just kind of God given you didn't you know you you you really get to you don't get to see those type of things. So for a lot of folks, if if they're not the typical guy on the chart and the doctors office stage, they start to look at it. Now, there is health consequences for a lot of those things.

And I grew up in the South and so with that, um, that was one of the things we also want to touch on because there is a lot of obesity, diabetes, a lot of these things that are weight related that a lot of folks, especially football guys, have to deal with and we're not immune to those just because we

play in the NFL. A lot of guys we interviewed, like like Kendall Simmons for example, was a guy who played for Pittsburgh for many years and Kendall didn't find out he was a diabetic till he was in the NFL. And you talk about you know, performance and different things like that. Um, it's all the things we touch on within that. But for a lot of folks, especially women included,

you know, it's a big deal body image. UM, A lot of guys we interviewed myself as well, we have daughters and so being bigger guys, you know, we we still feed and you kind of see I got a double chuck, all right, I still so how do we how do we try to change that dynamic for our children. We we kind of touched on all of that within the theories and it has just been really interesting to dive into that that psychology. It's been interesting seeing ledger

Is after they left the game. One of my teammates who's done broadcasting at the collegiate level Ed Cunningham and Ed probably was over three hundred pounds when I played with the man. When I saw him later a few years later and he was out of the game as a legend, Ed looked like he could play strong safety. So so that dynamics. I just want to stick with this weight, just maybe a little longer because it's still it's such a challenge, right, and we're gonna talk about it.

So how do you know when you help it? Like Ed gets down? He's small, But how does a bigger person know when their health Then I guess, well, and that's the that's another thing we kind of find out because for you with think going into it, it it would be a number on the scale for a lot of guys, and that does have something tied into it. We're talking about weight goals and different things, but for a lot

of guys, this functionality. Uh, some of these guys played at the higher end of three hundred, closer to three semi fives. So he put some paths on them. These dudes at the pregame. It might be four d pounds on any given Sunday, but still out there running on their toes like their deers and all those different things. So they gotta figure out what's their ideal way for them? They're they're gonna be. They've been off the charts their entire life, So trying to figure out maybe being under

three D is not realistic. But having my body fat right, having my blood pressure right, having my A one C numbers if I'm diabetic, all those different things. So that was the other interesting thing talking to guys. And if we know anything about football, dudes, is we all know stats, we all watch numbers, we all pay attention to something that's stat related, and there's no difference when we're talking

about our bodies. Talking about self scouting, Uh, if I'm if I'm a zone corner, I know better than to try to lock somebody up man the man who can beat me. But it's the same way with your own self. You gotta skeelf scout and know your own self. As far as when it comes to to your diet and changing that diet, it sweets as your deal. You gotta figure out some way to get that sweet tooth off you. If it's fried foods, you gotta get the air frier,

you gotta you gotta do something. So I think the biggest thing for a lot of guys that having kind of that soberer moment. And we all had this as a football player, like when we were totally going to commit and say I'm gonna go all the way with football, whether it be in college, high school, and once you

made that commitment, you didn't deviate. And I think it's the same way when it comes to really getting serious about not just going after your weight, but the entire holistic type of deal, because there is a lot of mental stuff tied into this. And um, you know, for a lot of guys who were super successful playing football, they were bigger. Um of course you were making money, you have fame and all of those things. But without football, people just kind of look at you like a big dude.

And so if you don't have a lot of your confidence starts to win with a lot of guys, and we see it affect in other things family life, and so that's the other thing we try to tackle within this deal is guys getting more confidence, guys talking about having just control over things and and this is something that ultimately we all as high achievers, we like to

have a sense of control. And that's and that's the thing I think a lot of guys are are figuring out through this whole series and and understanding how they really have control over their weight and their the image. When did you get the mental shift after becoming a legend when you were at the eating you were eating, and when did you start thinking, Okay, I'm no longer playing and I have to be mindful when I now eat. What was that conscious interrupt I just I know this

is gonna help so many people, Langston. I just have a passion. And as this podcast and started to hear how you've the challenges and the guys you've talked with, how that shift has taken place. Well, for me, it's um a couple of things for me, And this has been a couple of kind of uh salient moments in my life. Where my father passed away earlier on. He was a bigger guy. Uh he played some football a little bit, but you know, high school hero of that

type of stuff. But afterwards, I've always known my my old man to be a bigger guy. But he passed away earlier on in my college career because of congested heart failure. UM, a lot of that with my my cardropathy, a lot of the things that going on with COVID, some of the things that's left over. So for him, he was a fit guy, was always working out. Work was never a thing that that hurt him or he

was afraid of. But I saw this, you know guy in essence, you know, his heart just gave out on him because of him being a bigger dude and never really ultimately getting that weight down. The other thing that was really sobering for me with him was there was opportunities for us to, you know, try to do some different things with maybe a heart transplant, different things like that. But because my dad was over three hundred pounds, they're not even gonna put you on the transplants until you're

two seventy five. So if your heart is already at capacity, you can fall dead at any moment. So it's kind of like the catch twenty two. The thing the workout or the are the stuff that might save you is the thing that might actually kill you. But that didn't stop my dad from eating not as healthy as he could have been in that moment, the same way with my mom. But also just to tie it into football, I mean, uh, Norman Ham is a guy who grew

up played in the Saints. He passed away as a guy I used to pay attention to UM all the time, Chester him because Blackling a lot of these different guys who are tied into South Carolina, UM, guys who were my heroes, even some of the guys we try to interview, guys I played against in college, Jared Lorenzen, who is the hefty lefty who again had his own battles of being a bigger quarterback but never really being able to

lose the weight to save himself in essence. And so it's really sobering to hear those things, to see those things, but to also, you know, look around in my my my other brothers and and folks in the NFL and seeing their weight lost journey already and being inspired by that. So that's the same thing, the same thing that inspired me to want to get out there and try to

compete and play football. Those are some of the things that I keep in my mind when it talks about you know, do I reach for those cookies at night? Are are any of those things that I try to make uh Am, I am I presented with a choice to make a bad choice or a good choice. And that's the thing. We've all made great choices to get

to play football. To be legends, and those those skill sets don't the minutes, we just kind of forget that superpower of choice and and skill afterwards, because we are successful, we have money. Who's gonna tell us no? And so that's why you know, your family life is important, you know, making sure your spouses and your kids all having all those things hold you accountable as if all helps and

and every little bit accounts for all of us. Because again, for a lot of big guys, it could be you know, if somebody dropped that of a heart attack at forty two, they're not gonna say, oh, man, he he died. Uh, you know, he died early. They're gonna look and say, no, he was a big dude, and he was a ticking time ball. So and that's the thing. We got to be responsible for what ultimately we put into our bodies

is on the way. Any suggestions as relates to New Year's resolutions for guys who wants to make a difference with their weight right today, Man, you don't have to you don't have to wait. And that's that's the other thing we get. We don't even have to look at a counter or sometimes we can just close our eyes and feel the man, it feels winter time, so either I'm in the playoffs or I'm getting ready for the next season or springtime, so I gotta be in priming

myself up for this type of deal. We all know, we kind of all have that saying kind of calendar, a clock in our brain and we never really lose that. So not to say that we need to go back to training camp mode or different things, but a lot of it is just being aware, uh, starting off with what you put into your body. We're big guys. We've been consumers our whole life. You know, everything we've ever

done has been extra. The coach there, you're gonna run eight half gassers, somebody gonna run four and more after that. And so the same thing happens when we go eat, or when it came to relationships, or when it came to drinking and all these different so we know when it goes down that road. And this is where food

gets really I like this word insidious. It gets really insidious for a lot of the big guys because you know, we can close our eyes and and kill thirty wings sometimes or you know, all these different things, so you're not as a coach used to tell me you're not getting all that weight eating Brussels sprouts and rock you out there eating the bad stuff. So first thing is self scouting, shaking in on yourself, seeing what you're doing, what your habits are. A lot of times it's film study.

We go through the day on on autopilot a lot of times and don't realize, Um, you know I start my in and off with a coffee and a doughnut. Well, maybe you just eliminate some of those things can help going to sleep, especially with a lot of hormonal different things. For a lot of us guys, we get cranky, and you know you talk about brain injuries. Sleep is some of the best stuff that we can do for ourselves

and having consistent sleep. So I think if guys start doing that, watching what they kind of intake, give yourself, maybe a week or two. The holiday times might be a little you know, exacerbated, what your menu might be like because you know mom is bringing the stuff in, or you're gonna Friday at Turkey or whatever it is

you're gonna do. But ultimately putting up game plan together, because that's something we all understand, game planning, having a plan, but also having the ability to adapt and change those plans because you know the Neils. I played for the Cardinals too, man like, we had the best games in the world. Sometimes and get punched in the mouth, You're like, what different, I'm not gonna be vegan this one. I

gotta be. I gotta be in the vegan reserves. I only gonna be vegan Tuesday and Thursdays or something like that. So I think that's the biggest thing with that. But also understanding going to this idea of self scouting is that you gotta know your body. So everybody's injuries are different. Everybody likes something different. Some guys never want to touch weights again. Some guys get into really love and running.

Some guys love to do the old kind of cocoon workout in the pool with all the old folks and all that different stuff. Whatever it is. Try out a bunch of stuff and see what works for you and ultimately have fun with this stuff, because that's why you eventually started playing football, because it was fun, started competing, and that's sounded the same things. In our Button Guts series. One of the guys that we talked to, uh Cold

cublic Um. All these guys do the peloton stuff. They got this thing called the Buns of Anarchy, and all these guys working remotely. Everybody's at home, but they all made a commitment to get on on Saturday mornings, are Friday evenings or whatever, and they all do a group ride virtually together. And so it's that same football stuff

of competing. And you see tons and tons of guys on their Damien Woodie, all these old, big, old football guys still out there spinning it out on these peloton bikes. So combat fishing is something. But also I mean, guys know what they can do. Uh, and they're they're closer to their goal of being on a healthier path than they think they are. That's good. Let's shift into your broadcast career first. Let's talk You talked about your dad and his influence a jazz DJ as well. Is that correct? Yeah,

he kind of did a little bit of everything. My old man. He was you know, always had it in his mind that he wanted to be in radio, had that it was a big guy, had that big voice, but kind of like football, would go anywhere to get that opportunity to be on the radio, whether it be a UM, you know, a country station or working on talk radio. I mean he was, I mean, at one time he was. He was a black man who had the number one country radio show in the state of

South Carolina. So that's kind of like a unicorn really, So that just goes to the goals to say, I mean, you know, I love country music. You know, Charlie Pride, Darius Rucker, all those guys, South Carolina guys. Um, you know, it doesn't matter. So I think ultimately, you know, see and my dad kind of do the broadcast and stuff gave me the opportunity to understand that, um, you know, you're not just pigeonholed is just to being a football guy or just being a uh maybe a hip hop guy.

You I mean, whatever you're interested in, it will come across in the broadcast, and that's where people you know, you can't think authenticity with a lot of folks. So for me that was a great, great thing. But also to see the biggest thing for me, especially in my next kind of career doing podcast, is that you know, you gotta write this stuff out, you gotta you gotta edit this stuff. And that's the thing what we talk about when I go into the schools and speak with kids.

Is that you know, everybody thinks they're gonna play football and that's probably not going right, but everybody has the opportunity to build the skills up of reading, writing, and speaking, and those are the things I saw and my dad made it cool to be well spoken, well written, have somebody read your copy, have compelling copy, all those different things, because ultimately that's what you did as a football player. You just did that in a in a movement and

kind of out there with your body. So that was that was the cool thing. And then you know, you back it up with my mom who was a teacher. You know, God bless all teachers across the world, man, because uh, you know, if they can get anybody to sit still and pay attention, especially big guys who are hungry and classrooms, you know, if it takes a special skill set to do that. So I was very very lucky in that set. And you mentioned righting that's kind

of like a lost art for some of our millennial generation. Z. So you're still you're encouraging them to write. And when you see just write, your thoughts are what are your suggestions. I'm a great proponent of journaling. I'm a great proponent of morning pages. I talked to another former NFL legend, Joe Holly, who played with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, had a phenomenal blog, Man Van Dog Blog where once he retired he traveled around, but he talked about how really

journaling every day helped him in his transition. And that's the thing we tell kids is one there's not very people who actually put pen to paper and write, let alone right in curses sometimes. I don't know the last time you ever routined cursing and showed it like some kids like they look at Dore like, what is you know?

And so it's kind of cool because you know, I'm as much as I used to get teas for not being able to write as a as a student, you know, to be the one that's still out there writing thank you notes and do those different things, he can set you apart. But also I just think for a lot of guys transitioning wise, that ability to journal, and especially to do it I guess in the morning or times

when you're stressed, is such a great outlet. I think for a lot of guys, exercise is another great tool to to download some of those stresses and different things. But we know, just like with our phones, if we uploaded in and we let that battery wig a little bit too much, the functionality is just gonna fry itself right after a while. Another great thing for us is gratitude. We love gratitude journals because you know, no matter what's

going on in the world, we all still love. I mean, for the most of us, we're living in America, We're healthy, we got lights on, we gotta internet connection. I mean, we're we're really really fortunate, and a lot of times we miss out on that when we're comparing ourselves on social media and different things in life. There's a question, did you advantage of the broadcast boot camp or any other programs the NFL off of the players and legends. Absolutely, man,

I had to. Yeah, I remember because it was great to see so many guys that I used to play with seeing them kind of doing the same thing, shopping in their skill set of you know, whether it was the broadcast boot camp being in front of the camera, are just the journalism boot camp because again there's more than you know, there's tons of opportunity and there's only gonna get to be one of Nidius William who gets to be on TV. There's only gonna be so many

pretty faces on there. But there's guys who can do copy. There's guys who are really smart and witty. You think about somebody like a Spice. Adams are Anthony Adams who just does tremendous amounts of content. But he's coming up with these ideas and executing them and doing them all himself. And a lot of times, you know, the broadcast boot camps and a lot of the things that the NFL

uh former players and the players uh deal. It really helped, you know, put you on the path and also met a lot of great coaches because again not to I mean, this is the Legends podcast, but we're not afraid of getting coaching. And that's the thing for us to be elite. And you see this in any field, whether it's you know, Fortune five hundred company or a guy who has a really great marriage. You know, you ask those people, you know, how you doing it, and the more you do that

you can mimic that success. So um, I'm really thankful for all those programs, that transition program I'm probably I'm probably one of those folks that when when when y'all put out stuff in the in the springtime and the wintertime. It's like, oh and again, you just mad you last time, man, you know, but that's that's what it's there for. And we have to extract those resources and use it because

it does help us out and give us direction. How has it been reconnected back in the University of South Carolina and doing your broadcast, What has that been like? It's been phenomenal. Um. I was I was joking around with some people and told people like, you know, yeah, my daddy was in broadcasting, and I never really thought about broadcasting, but when I kind of fell into it, it was kind of like a fish in the water.

But you know, getting getting to be able to cover my team, the team I played for my state school, Um, just gave me a little bit more care. And that's one of the things I learned from, you know, one of my mentors, Coach Holzels, trust, care, commitment and whatever

it is you do. I mean, I could be trusted to be on time and I was gonna know my stuff and I was committed to South Carolina, but I really cared about those guys because maybe it was ten fifteen year difference but does all look like my little brother. So you know, hearing those stories and hearing oh man, I remember that I'm from that same back room you're from. We used to come down there and beat y'all. Are

y'all used to come beat us? And having that connectivity allow me to not only do my job better, but also to develop a relationship and give a lot of that wisdom to those guys and tell them, you know, I played in the NFL. I fooled them for about seven years until there a lot of I couldn't playing anymore.

And so you know, giving that wisdom. You know, it's cool to have all these experiences, but man, unless I share it, and you notice, unless I can kind of tell it to somebody else, I'm just I mean, I'm wasted. I'm wasting all wasting all the trials and tribulations because somebody else can learn from that and they don't have to step on those cracks that I made. What are

the challenges being back home? It's one thing to go do your broadcasts a broad and someone else, right, are their dual challenges being back on the campus and being back home? H For me, the challenge was just um focusing on what it is I wanted to go after because I was home and that name, that NFL stuff was still fresh, So there was a lot of hey, can you you want to do this? Or has you thought about that? And that's the other thing. Every opportunity

ain't gonna be your opportunity. You know, again going back to the football adage, you know if you uh run stopping d n you know, not to say you're not gonna go out there and try to make some place, but you're not gonna go out there and and cover somebody as a as a cornerback. That's just not That's not how you're gonna help the team, and that's not

how you're gonna help yourself. So figuring out what I didn't want to do, even though I had a wealth of opportunities, wealth of folks reaching out to me, Uh, it was just great to get back there and connect.

But through also it gave me kind of the freedom to start writing the children's books and coming up with these different ideas and showing the guys that you know, your options aren't only just being um, you know, a broadcaster and a coach that is pretty much your only Now you can you can be a podcast creator, you can be a writer, you can be an illustrator. All those things that used to interest you along with football, you can go back and revive those interests now because

you've got the time to do it. The guys that you've had on your podcast Linkston particularly legends, do the majority of them know about the benefits that are available? What's the help benefits now? What's changes released the new collective bargaining agreement? Do guys know about these things? Absolutely? Um, you know it's always changing with the new collective Bargaining Agreement.

But one thing that we know for sure is that the locker room, whether it be in person or virtual, our network is really really powerful and so as great as the NFL does a job of sharing the information and let you know about your Cobra plan and all these different things, and you have this opportunity to get

your colon screening and all these different things. A lot of times guys are just busy living their lives, and you know how it is when stuff is going on in the world, you think it's like right here on your head and you can't see past that. So for a lot of guys, um, you know, sharing that information with each other. I just had a conversation with a guy today. Um, you know, he was a pretty successful

defensive alignment. He made a good substantial amount of money, but he was unaware of the Gene Upshaw reimbursement plan. And now again he hasn't gotten to the point where he needs to start tapping into that. But I just know for him that's going to be a phenomenal thing because he also has children and kids, and so we know, no matter how rich you are, you know kids, cause whether it's healthcare, braces, you know, all those different things.

You know, there's a lot of opportunities and a lot of things for us out there that will help us in our transition. We just gotta keep having those dialogues between each other and reading those emails. Correct, do you find a lot of them connected with the Legends community. Connected with the Legends community? Social media? Big deal? Um, of course, you guys have a presence on there, and so seeing the information group chats these you know what's

that chats? You know, it's all just the chat room to me, But you know that's that's the cool thing is that guys will always share that information and say, you know, make sure you're taking the care of this or you know, same way with the coach man, go see so and so because he got my forty time right. And it's the same way with this call. Call so and so at the benefits office. They can help you

out with these things. So again, I think that again is one of our strongest resourcess each other and sharing that information. For sure, I want to close out defensive Lineman writing a children's book, a children's books, want to understand a trilogy? Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, So to talk about that man. So our first book was called Just the Chicken Uh University of South Carolina. Our mascot is

the game Cockets, a glorified chicken. So that story in itself is about a chicken that doesn't realize he's cocky the mascot. So he goes around and compares himself to all the other mascots in the SEC and he realized he doesn't have to be like the alligator, or doesn't have to be like the elephant, or he doesn't have to be like the tigers, the Missouri or l s U Tigers. He's fine with who he is, but until he surrounds himself with other chickens will be like, no,

that's that's not the way to go. Comparing yourself is gonna you know, that's just gonna leave you short. And so that was our first book. Our second book it's called just a Chicken Little uh. And so at South Carolina, keeping with that theme, you know, we kind of think there's a chicken curse and that we're doomed. Uh. You know, just when things are going right, you know, the other shoe is gonna drop. And there's a lot of people who kind of have that same sentiment of life. So

it doesn't matter, um, you know who you are. A lot of times people think, man, my life has been going really good, something bad is gonna happen. The sky is gonna follow me at any point, And no, that's not the case. Good and bad happens at all the time. Um. And so that's another one of the things we wanted

to create. And so our third book in this kind of trilogy is going to be called EU Still was a Rooster that doesn't cruel anymore, And it's pretty much about the older statesman, the older game cock, coming back and telling one of the younger game cocks who had a little bit success was kind of resting on his laurels that man, it's gonna say, the sun is gonna

set on you sooner than later. So you know it's your journey to go out there to pass the baton, because that's the biggest thing talking about the legends, you know, is this ability to pass the baton and do it an efficient manner. That's the same way I think about for my children, I think about it for anybody I connect with, is that the sooner I can give you the information and the mistakes and everything that I know,

so you get it and you internalize it. The faster we can speed up this progression, you can go a lot further. And so you know, it's always in it about the exchange. So it's been really exciting to work on those books. Um No, I can't draw. Just me and my buddy, my former teammates. We work on the

words and and all the educational components behind it. But we partnered up with a with a guy Kevin Roche, who works for ESPN as a Carolina guy, So we had a really good time just being creative and coming up with these ideas and of course sharing these books and showing kids that it's more possible for you to write this book and publish a book than it is for you to play in the NFL and be successful at it. So maybe this is your ticket as opposed to trying to be you know, a Nidius Williams or

something like that. So you play for lou Holts, Yes, sir, So you gotta give us a couple of lou holtz Is. I've heard so many people tell that God, man, give us just a couple of give me two of we we're gonna do rapid fire. Now give me a couple of holes. Okay, Um, I can uh man. So many stories, so many stories. Uh. One story, um, is a Lou Holtz deal where one of our quarterbacks his name he was He was a coach's son and he was a walk on and he was on the team. And then

one of the first years lou Holtz was there. Uh, the quarterback would always overthrow the wide receivers and the coach stop. Coach Holt stop practice and said, hey, hey, Kimry, you want to run forty yards for nothing. It's like, no, sir, we don't overthrew there. So again that was loose deals that he was. So he was so sharp, tongue sharp, witted and just had it all together. Now now obviously you know he had you know, thirty or forty plus years and days and so many different guys. Um, you know,

louis phenomenal. Another one of great Leuism's is if you want a frame, get a dog. You know what I'm saying, like not And that takes at home with me because that's the second my moms like, you know, you're my baby. You can you can hate me all you want, but you're always gonna come home. And that's kind of the same way with Luke, and it's kind of the messoge behind his madness was that lou wouldn't make it so hard on you your freshman and sophomore year. When I

say hard, I mean discipline. And that's the last thing you think eighteen ninety year old alpha males or they think they're alpha males, are higher achievers then recruited being courted by other universities, other grown men to have somebody just tell you know, five minutes is five minutes early is on time, and on time is late and late as unheard of, and you know, things like that, giving me um, you know, just a personal kind of mission

statement you know, talking about trustcar and commitment. Like I didn't think I'd pick up those type of things unless I went into the army, But I got that playing football holes and so those first couple of years are really really tough, and like, man, I wanted to transfer. I didn't come in for this. I came in for the you know, to win some games, and oh, man, we're not winning the football game. Oh this is really

really hard. But later on in life it was the thing that got me through, you know, making a fifty three man roster when you're by yourself, are you know when my mom passes away, understanding certain things that you know, it's it's up to me to be responsible for these things now. So everything that he touted and propped up and showed in his books, that's what he gave us every day. And the biggest thing I always tell people is, man,

I just wish I was writing more. I wish I remembered more, because every day with Lou Holtz was a fortune five hundred see sweet Sweet Sea level executive meeting that a lot of times you just forget how lucky you are to be there, and by the time you figure out how lucky you are, it's over for you. So that's the great thing with having a guy like Lou Holtz and still being able to reach out to him, but also reaching out to some of my past brothers and in college that you get to hear and share

those stories like we do with the Legends. As I close, I want to end with where people can connect with you, your podcast, social media, where to get the book us. Yes, sir, everything we have is on our our website athletes and Artists dot net. It's Athletes and Artists dot net. And uh, you know, the cool thing with with technology I learned this with with just hanging around the kids is that you know, we put everything with our hashtag on it.

So our our podcast hashtag button gut on any medium Instagram,

Twitter or whatever, you can pretty much find that. Uh you know it used to be the tic tac toe symbol for us is now a search engine tool that that all the kids and everybody uses, so they can find anything by using the hashtag button gut just a chicken, Just a chicken, little hashtag um athletes and artists and so we're on all of these mediums, and uh, we try to make sure we get as much attention as we can buy by retweeting and sharing all this stuff

and going on great podcasts like this and links and this has been amazing. Thanks for joining us. The bestage you have to come and keep up the great word. Almost almost have tears man, the work that you're doing. This has been fantastic. Links to greatly appreciate it. Keep up the great work man. Thank you Mart. 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