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You Can't Afford Me
Making the leap from employment to entrepreneurship can be a scary time. The biggest fear people have is the unknown. Here on the “You Can’t Afford Me Podast” we speak with hustlers and innovators on how to make the most of your journey. If you have questions we have answers.
You Can't Afford Me
Tim Hightower On Money, Mindset, And Building A Flag Football Movement
A single scholarship. A rookie Super Bowl. A second act built on patience, process, and purpose. Tim Hightower joins us to share how a less than 1% journey through the NFL became a blueprint for entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and community-building that actually lasts.
We start with the long odds at the University of Richmond and the obsessive study habits that carried Tim to the league. He opens up about the financial whiplash of rookie checks, the shock of having no credit, and the hard conversations that come with generosity and boundaries. Expect concrete takeaways on cash flow, setting giving rules, replacing handouts with opportunities, and understanding how money magnifies character. Then we step onto the biggest stage in sports to explore the true speed of the game, how film study becomes fate, and why the playoffs punish even small mistakes.
From there, Tim maps a thoughtful life after football: cold-calling schools, learning sales like a sport, and rebuilding identity through service and leadership. Fatherhood anchors everything. He brings his kids into the rooms where deals are made so more is caught than taught, modeling respect, presence, and accountability. Finally, we dig into why flag football is exploding—safer, more accessible, now Olympic—and how Tim’s league “RVA Under The Lights” is designed as more than a game. Think operations, data analytics, content, partnerships, law, and sports medicine—real pathways for the 93% who won’t play pro but still love the industry.
If you’re chasing a career pivot, raising competitors with character, or building something that needs to earn trust one on-time kickoff at a time, this conversation is your playbook. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs the nudge, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find the show.
www.themrpreneur.com
Welcome to the You Can't Afford Me podcast. Get the fluff and straight to the real entrepreneur. Real drugs. And the unfiltered drug. Hey guys, thanks for joining us on another episode of the You Can't Afford Me Podcast. So today we got a very special episode for you guys. This man has played in the Super Bowl his rookie year, which is insane. Had a half-day, half a decade career in the NFL, but post his NFL career, this man has been doing incredible things. For me, at my age now, I judge a man based on how he acts with other people and in particular his kids. And every time I've seen this man, the interaction I see that he has with his kids and other kids lets me know that he's a stand-up guy. So beyond all the football accolades, y'all just need to know that this is a good brother. So today on the podcast, we have Mr. Tim Hightower. Tim, how are we doing today, buddy?
SPEAKER_00:Man, I'm doing great.
SPEAKER_02:Awesome for having me. Awesome. So give everybody a quick rundown of who you are and what you do now.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, yeah, Tim Hightower. Um I'm a father, as you mentioned, as first father, uh, father of four. Nine, eleven of the boys, six, and four of the girls. Um went to the University of Richmond, played football there, uh, graduated, and um was fortunate to play professional football for close to a decade. I had a few few years missed with some injuries. Um currently now I work with the commanders um in the front office there, working with all the former players, alumni relations. Um entrepreneur at heart, man. I love building things. Uh I love the intersection of the development of kids, sports, business. Um, and so started the Flag Football League. Um an author wrote a book. Uh, but that that's who I am, man. I'm a father, community-driven, um, and and entrepreneur in business, and um just somebody who really believes in uh the creation and the building of people and things and places, and um that's who I am.
SPEAKER_02:Love it, love it. So let's talk, let's start with your college career. Um, and really I want to get to the business, but I know people want to hear us on the football side, so we're gonna dive into that. The probability of someone coming out of the university of Richmond and playing in the NFL has to be like less than 1%. Yes, right. When you're not coming from a major school like that. So, first off, how did you even get noticed by recruiters coming out of the University of Richmond?
SPEAKER_00:Man, that you know what? I I in a nutshell, I tell people, um, sometimes what you need is what you have. And they they were the only people, they were the only school that even offered me a scholarship. I had one. So many of my colleagues growing up in high school, and you know, they had offers from 10, 15, 20 schools, and it looked really cool, right? And I'm like, man, I wanted, I just needed, I just wanted one. I can't even get one. And so I bounced around to four different high schools and and um, you know, couldn't it was it took me a while to kind of find my footing. Um, and and so I didn't go to a lot of the camps where you get rated and all these things. Uh, I was just trying to find a home, you know what I mean? And uh so I was fortunate uh finished finished at Episcopal High School as a boarding school in Alexandria, Virginia. Um, and I end up missing my s most of my senior year with a a foot injury. And so that just on top of bouncing around a few different schools, I missed a lot of my senior year.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And, you know, so I didn't have a lot of opportunities. And fortunately, the University of Richmond came around. I had no clue who they were. Um like Richmond, who, what? Like what I went, where's Virginia? Where's V Tech? Where's Maryland? Where's Florida? Where, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Where are you originally from?
SPEAKER_00:I was born in California.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:But I moved to, we moved to uh we moved around a lot. That was kind of the thing uh growing up. My parents were just, you know, my parents did a tremendous job of keeping the family together, but just trying to find opportunities, right? So uh my dad was a Marines. We were born, he was stationed out there in California. We moved to Oklahoma, spent some time there, and then finished up in Maryland, and that's been the my family's been there ever since. But uh yeah, high school was just it was tough, man. Just trying to find my footing. But like I said, fortunately University of Richmond came around and and uh they saw something in me. And um as as I say, the one scholarship that I had turned out to be the only one that I needed. And you know, as long as you got an opportunity, you take advantage of the opportunity that you have and you know, forget about what you don't have. You got you got one, and so I wanted to make the most out of it.
SPEAKER_02:So did you end up getting drafted in the NFL? Were you undrafted? How did you?
SPEAKER_00:I was drafted fifth round. So it it um it was something that, you know, coming into the University of Richmond, at I was at first I was frustrated. I was frustrated because, you know, that I felt like I missed a lot of my senior year. I felt like I didn't know what the University of Richmond was, I knew Richmond was. I was I'm I'm one who I study success. I study those in whatever thing that I want to do, who's had success, what are some of the blueprint, what uh some of the uh lessons that I could uh learn from whomever has been there. And so I studied all the best running backs from Emmett Smith, the Walter Payton, the Tony Dorsett, Earl Campbell, I mean Eric Dickerson. I knew everyone's 20 running backs. Like I knew Ladanian Thomason, I knew who they were, I knew what they did. I was obsessed with finding I took ballet in in college because I found out Emma Smith took ballet, right? I ran track because I found out some of those guys. I ran hills because I found out Walter Payton ran hills. So I literally just would find out who was the best, what were they doing, and how could I replicate that? Um, but I didn't find anyone who had success at the University of Richmond, right? So I'm like, I knew there was Barry Redden, right? So the first thing I did when I got to the University of Richmond, who was the best? It was Barry Redden. Got drafted. Uh and he did make to the NFL in '85. He got drafted. I think he got drafted. Um I'm like, okay, there's somebody. It's possible. There's not a lot, but somebody did. So what did Barry Redden do? I want to break all his records. And so I just, it was that. So there weren't there wasn't a ton, but there was somebody.
SPEAKER_02:And so But it was that mentality of if one person didn't have to be a good one.
SPEAKER_00:If one person did it, sometimes that's all you need is just one person. I'm like, I I don't know Barry Redden. I ended up meeting him later on, but it is possible. Somebody came out of here. Yeah. So why not me? Why can't I be the next person to come out of here? And so um, yeah, that would that just set off that college career of just whatever it took. Um, I'm gonna get there by whatever any means necessary. I'm I'm getting fit and felt.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, that's that's been my motto for the longest time is you may look better than me, you may have more money, you may be more educated, but you will never outwork me. That's right. Every room I walk into, I'm determined to be the hardest working man in that room. That's right. Um, let's talk about the financial side of things with becoming pro. Because you know, you hear all the stories about, and it's easy for people to be like uh a Monday morning quarterback where it's like, oh man, if I made 10 million, like I wouldn't have blown through all that, da-da-da. But like, especially when you have vast majority of guys coming into a uh the game at a pro level, or it's basketball, football, baseball, whatever it is, a lot of them are not coming from circumstances where they've grown up learning about money, where they've learned about credit, where they know about 401ks and stocks and all these different things. So for you, what would walk us through that moment when you went from playing football at the University of Richmond getting drafted in the fifth round, and those checks start to come. What was your mentality? Because you said you studied some of the greats at your position. Did you also study the financial side of what? I wish I would have.
SPEAKER_00:No, I didn't. And I mean it's a good it's it's a principle that you know I tell my kids all the time now it's principles are are applicable to any any discipline. And you know, sometimes we can be masters in some in some things, but we can be deficient in other things and just not realize that man, we just gotta translate some of these principles over. And so no, I I I didn't. And for you know, kind of to take a step back, one of the things, and I just had a conversation with my kids this morning in the car, but one of the things if you look at our society as a whole, right, and you look at you know where we are, the average amount of savings people have, and you know, all these things.
SPEAKER_02:I think the average amount of savings people have in America right now is a thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_00:So if you we when you we look at just like we have in money management just just crisis in general, right? Right. But so you take that into you you you're ill-equipped, a lot of guys come from you know, modest means, right? And that's part of the driver to get you to where you are.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:And so you did all that hard work to get there, but now all of a sudden you get this, you get it quick.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:And one of the things with the NFL that I learned very quickly is anything that, and just a principle, anything that comes, you feel like it comes quick, can sometimes be hard to maintain.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Right, as opposed to over a little incremental over time, and you learn how to do that, you now all of a sudden you get I remember the first time sitting down with a check that I f I'm like, man, my mother doesn't make this in a year.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Wait, you mean to tell me I get 16 of these? Yeah. Right? I get for some teams it's weekly, some teams it's bi-weekly.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:So I can go below 40k this week, and I'm gonna get it again next week.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Wait a minute, and then you get it, you get it, you get it, you get it, get it. And then January for us, we went to the Super Bowl my rookie year. So then there's four more weeks of those.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Right? Of playoff checks. And so I'm like, man, wait a minute. For five straight months, I'm getting these checks, not weekly. And then all of a sudden it dries up.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. During all season yeah, June.
SPEAKER_00:You don't get paid. Right? Like, so just that idea of okay, you go from being a college kid, as you mentioned, in a dorm, like you're living on meal swipes, yeah, right? So next thing you know, you're drafted, and you're overnight, you're expected to be a professional. Yeah, you gotta hire people, you gotta fire people, you gotta now start, you know, budgeting and putting things, you know, setting up bills. And I remember the first time my my track coach from high school was out there, my cable bill was off. She's like, Tim, your cable's off. I'm like, Oh, I forgot to I forgot to put it on auto pay. I didn't and I'm like, Can you just set it up for me? Yeah, but it was small things like that that you get drafted, and a week later I'm in, I'm in minicamp. A few weeks later, like you're in training camp, and it's like, hey, no, you're expected to be a professional.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So if you don't have a team of people around you, there's there's no learning, there's no kid who's gonna have that learning curve is too steep to say all of a sudden now I'm gonna know how to manage hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars overnight. No, I'm skilled at being a professional football player.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:I know that game. I know X's and O's, I know how to execute. Um, so for me, I just remember that being a challenge and not knowing how much money I should spend, what should I spend? What should I save? What can I help people? I would, you know, anything that uh I'm a firm believer that uh there's a Jay-Z line, he's one of my favorite uh artists, you are who you are before you got there. Right? Money magnifies who you are, right?
SPEAKER_01:And so Yeah, if you're a jerk, if you're a jerk, if you're broke, you're gonna be a jerk broke, and you're gonna be a jerk.
SPEAKER_00:Man, if I had that kind of money, no, you would do exactly what you're doing now.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:You would do that at scale. If you can't save ten dollars, you're not gonna be able to save a hundred dollars, you're not gonna be able to save, but if you can replicate, if you can double ten, you can double a hundred. If you can double a hundred, you can double a thousand, and you keep keep doing that. So I was one, we grew up being very generous, my parents, because we needed a lot of help. Yeah, and so I remember that. We stayed with people, we lived with people, people helped us out. So for me, I wanted to help everybody, right? All of a sudden now you're the lifeline. So-and-so's four months behind on the mortgage about to get evicted. Well, I know what it feels like to be evicted.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, what's me sending them 5k?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I can do it. I mean, I I think I do I can do it. And so it's like you're trying to figure out every single day, right? You're trying to learn this playbook and figure out how to be the best professional you can be. But all of a sudden now you're exposed.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because your salary's on TV, your bank account, your contract, your public figure. And so now you get all these people, some family, some friends, some somewhere in between. And you're trying to figure out how do I say no? What do I say yes to?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So it I remember being a very I'm a matter of fact, I I remember struggling when it comes to financially, not just because I didn't know what to do financially, but because I didn't know where my responsibility ended, began.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, because a lot of people they're like, uh, you see a little success, and they're like, hey boy, I used to wipe your butt when you were four years old. Like, I need that to be a good thing.
SPEAKER_00:Don't all of a sudden you change. That's the first thing that people they want to make sure, oh man, you change. You flipped up, you forgot about and that that's just that's such a challenge for people, especially in your first generation. You, you know, whether start to you know, start a business or what come into some kind of resources, there's this feeling that, man, I don't want to change. I don't want to forget who I am and where I came from and the people who helped me out. But yet there's this desire and capacity to figure out how do I succeed in at this season of my life. I've got to surround myself by where around people who can kind of who can take where I am now and help me kind of get to the next level, or else I fall back to what I what I've known, and then I can't help anybody.
SPEAKER_02:So I start one thing I picked up years ago was the second you announce that you're an entrepreneur, people are like, oh man, saying it's paid. Let me tell you something, man. Let me go. And they don't have any idea what's going on in the back end. Like, people don't know how much my rent is here for this space. People don't know how much I have to pay and equipment costs each month. People don't mind insurance costs, all these different things. Um, so what I ended up doing was when someone came and asked me for money, whether it was a friend or family member, there were times in the beginning where I was like, Yeah, man, it ain't no thing. Like, you know, thousand bucks to me at this point ain't really much. That's not gonna hurt me. Like, yeah, let me go ahead and bless somebody else. But then I started saying, you know what? I'm just gonna start providing people with opportunities. So I'll never forget one good friend. Uh he hit me up and he's just like, man, I'm down on bad times. Like, da-da-da, I need like$300. And$300 ain't a lot of money. Um, and a group of friends like came together and they hit me up. They're like, Sam, my friend needs help. Like, we're all gonna put in X, Y, and Z, like we're gonna get them straight. And I was like, first off, if you guys give him all this money, understand that you're never gonna see this again. So be giving it as a gift. Don't expect that it's gonna be paid back to you. Two, you're just enabling bad behavior. Sure. I will, because at the time I had like five businesses when this dude hit me up. And I was like, hey man, I had the bubble soccer business, I had all this other stuff. I was like, hey man, um, I need somebody to run an event for me on Saturday. More than willing to help you out and give you money, but I need you to go earn it. Or, hey, we had just moved into a different office space, and I was like, hey, I got all these boxes and stuff that needs to be moved or furniture that needs to put together. Hey, this is how much I'll pay you to come through and do it. And didn't hear from that brother. He wanted the handout, he didn't want to work for it. Um, sticking with that financial tip, was it because I always remember the story of Shaquille O'Neal when he came in the league and he, I mean, he had a massive contract coming in the game. And I think at that time he had he broke a record, it was the biggest one-time purchase in Walmart history. He went to Walmart after he was drafted to Orlando and went through and like furnished his whole place. I think he went through and spent like four or five hundred thousand dollars. Then he went to a car dealership and the guy didn't know who he was, and the guy was like, you know, can you even afford this car? And sure, can I afford it? Not only can I afford that, give me three more. And then his accountant calls him, you know, the next week, be like, hey man, you out of money. He said, What are you talking about, man? I just got a$10 million check anyway. Yeah, you ran out of money, man. So for you, was it post-your professional career in football, or was it sometime during your career that that financial switch clicked for you? And if so, also kind of yield to what was your lowest moment in terms of finances that you were dealing with becoming a professional?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, i as they say, there's levels to everything. I wasn't on those Shaq. I I didn't make Shaq, Shaq level money. Um, but I I would say a combination of both, man, and that's something I'm still learning. You know what I mean? There's so many, there's so many things that I'm still you don't know how much you don't know until you start learning. Yeah, and you figure, oh man, what was I doing? I mean, I first sat down at a car dealership my rookie year, and what I did know was, okay, don't buy a brand new car. It's a depreciating, uh, it's not an asset, but it depreciates in value. Yeah. Okay, whatever that means. So I'll go buy a car that's I knew I wanted a Lexus.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I'll go buy a two-year, one to two-year-old car.
SPEAKER_02:Which is extremely smart. Lexus is one of the best brands.
SPEAKER_00:Right, so I'm like, okay, um, I'll go buy a one to two-year-old car. So I sit down, I'm like, okay, I got you know, a hundred, a few hundred thousand, two hundred thousand dollars in my bank account at that time. I can go buy this car. Sixty thousand dollars, fifty-somethers. Okay. Doesn't seem like a bad idea. I'm not gonna buy cash, I'll put some money down. I'm I I have no clue where this logic is coming from, right? But it's I sit down, they come back, um, they say how much you gonna put down? I just say half. I put half of it down. I'll put twenty-five, I think, down. Right, I got my brought my checkbook, and they come back and they say, Hey, uh uh, Mr. Hyta, you weren't approved. I'm like, what are you talking about? Your your credit. I'm like, I've never used my credit. What do you mean? This is my rookie year, you know.
SPEAKER_02:At a zero credit score.
SPEAKER_00:It was the the the the part that was embarrassing was I didn't know what they were talking about.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Right? Like I didn't understand, I couldn't really quite understand what the issue was.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. You're like, I got money, I have a product, let me get it.
SPEAKER_00:Like, what's the so it they they they were oh we can work something out? We can work something out, you know, that's what they all pay for. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't even look at the interest rate. I was paying 20%, almost 20% on that vehicle. No clue until I refinance the next year working with this financial advisor. But it's things like that that no, it wasn't the major purchases, but it's just like not knowing basic things, not knowing cash flow, not knowing that how much I'm giving out, right? Like for there's only a certain amount that you can give and you know that you're not you're taxed on. And for me to give 5,000, I've got to make, right? Because the tax bracket that I'm at, the NFL, I don't have any tax shelters, right? I didn't have a business side business that I created. This is me, right? And now I'm just giving this money away. And so it's the small incremental thing. Sometimes I think what gets publicized is the major purchases. You've got lots of houses and jewelry, and maybe for some of the guys who are making 10, 50, 15, 20, 30 million dollars. But for the guys who are making anywhere from 700 to you know 1.5, 2 million dollars, which is good money. Yeah, it's the small things. And then afterwards, it's the lifestyle, right? Being able to say, hey, can I maintain this lifestyle? If this all ended tomorrow, yeah, how long could I maintain this lifestyle? Right? And now all of a sudden I've got to either sell everything, I've got to get rid of everything, I've got to downsize, or else I'm gonna be out of cash. And right? And so for me, it wasn't necessarily I I wasn't one to make lavish, you know, big have jewelry and cars and houses. It just was not understanding cash flow, man, and and how much can I help? I don't need to write you a$10,000 or$15,000 check.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:For me, that was a lot of money. Maybe I can help you out with$500. Yeah. You may not like that, but just making sure having people around you to say, hey, what's your plan? Um, what's your plan, and how can we execute this and be consistent with this over time?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I think that was more so my thing as opposed to the even not having all the knowledge and the fact that you went out and said, I'm gonna get the 60k car, I'm gonna buy something that's two years old, even though you didn't fully understand what you're doing, that smart as hell right there. Like looking at from the used perspective and different things like that. Because you got a lot of guys that like what we all want to impress people for th and these are people that we don't even know. Where like I I read a study one time where it talked about like if you see somebody drive by in a dope dope. Car, like let's say a Bentley or a Ferrari or something crazy like that. You think, hey, I'm being flashy and I'm showing off, and people want to be like me. But instantly a man looks at that car flying past. He doesn't even see who the driver is. He envisions himself in that vehicle. So you spend all this money to impress people that you don't even know. I remember when uh I was the owner of uh Indianapolis Colts. Um he got a DUI, and this was maybe a decade ago or something like that. And everybody's like, I mean, I'm hearing the chatter online and in social media and people talking about it. But when I read the article, I saw something completely different than what everybody else was chirping about. Um they said which vehicle he was driving. This man was driving a Toyota Forerunner, and it was like six years old. This man's a billionaire with a B, and he was driving a Toyota Forerunner. And we gotta get in this mentality where we understand, like, it's not about impressing people, it's not doing all these things. Because half the people that you have out there driving a BMW and these high-end cars, like, they don't even really care about that. They just want the reaction of when they roll up how this looks. And sticking with the financial theme, so the first time I actually met you in person, got to chat with you a little bit, was at the uh Big Dipper Summit uh presented by JMI. And the only reason I bought a ticket to that conference because the guys you were interviewing on stage. Uh solid guy. Yeah. Earn your leisure, market Mondays. I never miss an episode. Um, talk about that as it sounds like you're still evolving, um growing your financial literacy, which I think that's something we never stop learning. You always want to continue to grow in that area. Having the moment with those guys, what did you learn from them during those moments that has helped you moving forward?
SPEAKER_00:And they, you know what? That that was such a uh an awesome experience, man. Like there's some there's sometimes uh the challenge in the social media era, we're all selling, right? We're all selling something and we've got to sell ourselves, right? We've got to sell a product, we've got to sell ourselves uh to a degree. And you never really know of what people are putting out there as to who they really are and the lifestyle they really live. I was more impressed backstage with those guys than I was on stage. Getting a chance to talk with those guys, I'm like, this is true to who they are. They keep a small circle, it's not all flashy. They're very patient. You can just they're not they're not desperate for anything. Yeah, they're very patient, very methodical, very just you know, they're students of whatever it is that they're in, right? And it's just like, hey, we're gonna build this thing over time. It wasn't you talk to them, we've got these big ambitious goals, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this, we're gonna do this. It's it was almost like this, it their their pace.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_00:The pace at which they moved, which you would think is counterintuitive, man. You gotta get things done. You gotta move, you gotta move, you gotta hustle, you gotta move. It was very no, we're sure about where we're going, we're sure about who we are, we're careful about who we surround ourselves with, and we're gonna build this thing overnight. Not overnight, we're gonna build this thing over time the right way, with the right people who have the right values. And I was so impressed with that, man, because it's like you get this sense, and Rashad is one of those people where he looks like he's half asleep most of the time.
SPEAKER_02:Dude, he got like the chillest vibe of any of it. Are you you have a post, man?
SPEAKER_00:He's just this cool cat that but that's exactly how he was, and that's exactly his philosophy of just I'm gonna do this thing the right way over time, and I know I'm gonna make good choices over time, surround myself with good people. I'm not gonna be in a rush, I'm not gonna get into bad deals because I'm I'm desperate to get rich or desperate to get money. Yeah, um, and I was very impressed with that. So that that was a very good perspective.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, a lot of people look at the the short term. I'll I'll make a confession to you. Um, I snuck my ass backstage for that one. There you go. One of my boys kept getting pictures with like Scott Van Pelt and stuff, and he's at the conference. I'm seeing him on social media. I ran up to him. I was like, yo, how are you getting with all these dudes? He's like, yo, security ain't that tight, dude. Just walk back to act like you know what you're doing. So I told my boy Javon, who you met uh while we were there, I was like, yo, just follow me. Act like you've been here. We're gonna get vaccinated. We gotta meet these dudes, man. I'm not letting them leave leave Richmond without that. Um so I haven't had time with them and you backstage real quick. Um, but yeah, and let's jump back to uh the Super Bowl piece. I gotta touch on that, man. Oh man. You know, I'm a big Pittsburgh Steelers fan. I know it. Um, to make it to the Super Bowl your rookie year, man, is no small feat whatsoever. And it wasn't like you were riding the bench the whole year with the Cardinals. Like you were an active player on that team that helped them get to that point. Talk about the mentality of what changes from regular season to the Super Bowl, because I don't think a lot of people as spectators, as fans, we truly understand what a massive difference this is. Like I remember there was a guy, uh, Gold's Gym I used to work at McKork out at in McCannsville. Um, starting this trainer, and I was like, yo, he looked a little bit more in shape than most of the trainers you see at Gold's Gym. So I was like, let me let me get a segment with this brother. Found out that uh he was actually on the practice squad for the Pittsburgh Steelers, ended up getting cut, but like he was trying to work his way back into the NFL. Um and I was sitting there chatting with him, and he was like, Man, the one thing I want fans to understand is like, you know, you see somebody get crossed over or like juked or something like that, and you're like, man, that dude'll bum. Like, you know, if I was out there, I'd be doing X, Y, and Z. People don't understand. You were dealing with the best in the entire world. He was like, dude, even the guys on third string and practice squad, like, they will cook anybody else out of this league. Like, it's it's no competition. So talk about that level of competition and the mindset shift you had to make from regular season or even playoffs to playing on the big stage of the Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_00:Man, that was first of all, that was that was just an incredible and unbelievable experience. Um, you realize the magnitude of that platform. And I remember Media Week, and you're there, and there's thousands of cameras from all around the world.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Right? Like you're it it's they're translating all the Japanese languages. You're thinking, like, oh my gosh, this is this is the biggest stage in sports, right? Like it it's one thing that to hear about it, but like being there and you're seeing all these people represented across uh media platforms all around the world, you're like, wow, this is man, I'm on the stage. There are great players who played this game for 10, 15, 20 years and never made it to this game. Made it to this to this stage. Um as a team, we had never made it, right? You know, the veterans in the locker room saying, Rookie, you do have no clue, man. Like this is like you don't have no clue either. You can walk too much either thing. Right, right, right. So I think this understanding the platform, man, it that it was, but you go from preseason, right? Um, that's a certain level. I'm like, oh, this is okay, you adjust to that. Yeah. In the regular season, it cranks up the speed, right? Um, division games are even heightened, right? Because, you know, that that's the first thing you gotta do to get in the playoffs, you gotta win your division.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So those are always a bit faster and a little more dialed in. They're studying film a little bit more. You play that team twice a year. But playoffs now, what people don't realize is as a coach would tell me, they get paid too.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Right? Everyone's someone's getting fired in this league every single year.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Right? There's no just, oh, well, they're just better than me. No, no, no. We're paying you to be the best, but they're also getting paid to be the best. So someone's gonna get fired all the time. It's inevitable. But all year you've got scouts who are literally focusing on what you do wrong. And what you do well, what you do wrong. Hey, 30% of the time he struggles going to his left, doing in these plays, play action.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:So now you've got a culmination of that all year. You got a body of work. At this point, you are who you are. You got 16 games, and in the Super Bowl, you've now got 19 games, depending on worth of film. Yeah, those scouts' job is to look at those 19 games and break down tendencies and say, This, like, here are the plays, here are the formations, here's what this team, this player, struggles with. So now sometimes the playoffs is not even about who's the best team, it's who makes the most the least amount of mistakes. You've got to be dialed in, right? So the intensity is up. The mistakes, like, all right, like you you can't make the the room for error is is very, very low. And so it's playing at a high pace and being very precise in your attention to detail, right? In your steps and your progression. And then, of course, yeah, playmakers are gonna make plays and big time plays, so in big time moments. So I just remember um, and I'll one story to illustrate that man, we we had a running back coach, Maurice Carthon, the guy who drafted me. Every week in practice, he would say, if there was an interception thrown, go chase down the ball carrier. Go chase down the ball carrier. Like, even if you're on the sideline, he's screaming at all the running backs, go chase down the ball carrier. He would say, Man, the last thing's gonna happen. You know, we're gonna be in the Super Bowl, and they're gonna throw an interception and we're gonna lose on an interception return. And you're thinking, like, what's the probability, likelihood of that happen? Well, now you can go pull up James Harrison, one of the greatest plays, and guess who's trying to chase him down? Yours truly. I'm the last one. I got put I got blocked in the back, by the way. That's a that's a block in the back and check the tapes. But all I can think about was my coach, and it would forever haunt me because all year he talked about like the intention, the detail, and all the and being prepared for those moments. Go figure it happens to me in my rookie year. Yeah, we lose a we lose a Super Bowl because a guy runs a touchdown back and none of us can chase him and get him down.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Right? So it's it's those kind of things where you look at that level, the intensity is high, but the the the room for error is very, very low.
SPEAKER_02:I gotta say, man, like James Harrison is the definition of a silverback gorilla. Like, that dude is a monster. I'll never forget one of the first interviews I heard from him. Like, everybody was like, Debo, like, why you always wearing sweats and stuff in the gym? Like, why don't you ever let your arms out? He's like, man, I gotta wear hoodies because these dudes be scared to death to death if they saw these arms coming out in the middle of a workout. Like, dude, and still to this day, like he's still like that. He is built completely different. One of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history.
SPEAKER_00:Still a block in the back, but we're gonna go.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna go back and look at the technique. As a fan, I'm just cheering because I see him running down the field, but I'm gonna go back and look at that. Um on that competitive nature, let's talk about. I don't think I've ever asked you, do you play golf?
SPEAKER_00:Do I do I do I play golf or am I good at golf?
SPEAKER_02:I can't say not if you play well, because we all suck. Okay, all right.
SPEAKER_00:I I get it, I like to get out there and chop some grass up here.
SPEAKER_02:All right. So that that was leading to my next question. Is like you've seen the you've kept yourself in shape uh post-your NFL career. Um talk about how you feel that level of competitiveness being out the league now. Because basically, your whole life growing up, you've been a competitor. So, what do you do now to fill that void? Is it the business component? Is it going out and playing around the golf with friends? Like, what is it that fills that void for you now? Because that didn't go away from you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, look, I that was very difficult for me. And I and talking to a lot of guys, you know, in the work that I do now with former players, that's one of the hardest things that guys um have in that transition is because that was their sense of purpose for their entire life. Competing and being in less than you know, the identity of being in the less than 1% category, right? Like there's something that's just like knowing that you're doing something that less than 1% of the population can do, like that's something that that's an identity piece, right? It's not just a game of football, it's that piece of man, I get to come out here and compete at a high level and do something that I put myself through and you know most people will not be able to do. And how do you feel that, right? Now you go back home and and you know, your wife, if another is like, yeah, you can save all the energy. Don't bring all that here, right? Your kids don't want to hear about all that. You're in corporate America, and and sometimes it's like the deadlines are, oh, it's due Friday. Is it really Do Friday? I had this and I had that, and you're like, nah, the environment I came from, it's for the one, you get it or you don't, right? And so I think uh adjusting to life outside of it, it's like you it it's it was very difficult for me. And so I I do think uh business is something that like the deal, right? And like, you know, uh just figuring out how to you know go back and forth. It's it's for some people it's like, man, that's a loss. Yeah, but now it's you get that rust where it's like, okay, that didn't work. How can I make it work? How can I solve this problem? How can I that's been really kind of the only thing. Yes, I take care of my body, man. I've got four kids and I want to, you know, have the energy and the capacity to to compete with them, keep them going, and also model uh just healthy behavior. But I think from the competitive side, I think business is something that um it allows me to be a student. I you know, I'm I'm very young in it, right? Uh it allows me to study something, it allows me to really measure yourself around. There are others who are doing it very, very well. Um, and you get that feedback. Yeah. You get that feedback of, man, that didn't work, you know, or that worked, or whatever that is. So that's definitely been something to help fill some of that void.
SPEAKER_02:And one thing I noticed about you, and I want to transition to that business part, but I will actually no, let me not say that yet, because I I want you to kind of breach us into that. What was so what was the immediate move post your NFL career? What did you decide? Hey, I'm gonna get into this, like what was your next move?
SPEAKER_00:You know what? The first thing I decided was, so after after I got cut with the uh 49ers, man, I remember just like tears and crying. Like I knew it was this was it for me, and and um so there was there was this this mourning, right? Like this grieving of this loss, you know, this loss of identity, this loss of something that I've been doing since the fourth grade. Um but the first thing I remember doing was I wrote down all the lessons that I learned from football. Right? All the success, the failures, the things, and you know, and one of the things that I that I told myself was I'm gonna give myself time to figure out um what I wanted to do. Because I didn't know what I wanted to do next. Um I thought I was gonna play for 15 years, be a Hall of Famer, make you know, you know, make a bunch of money and and you know I knew I wanted to be a dad. Um but I ran off into the sunset and I'll figure out what's next. And that didn't quite happen. I got injured. Um it it didn't happen the way that I that I that I wanted it to happen, and so the first thing I said was, let me give myself time and like try different things and fail, be okay at failing at different things. Be okay with okay, I used to be an expert in the less than 1%. Man, I've got to start at ground zero.
SPEAKER_02:I may have to go back to school, I may have to uh try some things, and and so So pause right there, real quick, because you just dropped a major gym. That's a thing a lot of people don't realize. Like as kids, we're taught, like, hey, it's okay to fail. Like, try a bunch of different things, like you're not gonna be great at everything, da-da-da-da. But then we get into our adult years, and it's like the worst thing that could possibly happen is failure. Well, no, I I don't ever feel I've failed in any of the businesses I've started. There are lessons I've learned. That's right. There are opportunities that have been opened up from that. Yeah, that may not have been the best route for me, but now I understand and I know which direct because those things have helped me understand which direction I'm supposed to be going. But the fact that you just said, let me take some time. That's right. I feel like a lot of people, anytime I run into somebody who just got laid off or fired from a job, I tell them the worst thing you could do is immediately run out and just go get into another job. Take some time. This may be the only point in your life where you're gonna get unemployment. You've been paying into it your entire adult life. Go ahead and take that time, whether it's a month, two, three, whatever the case is. But take that time to really look in yourself and figure out what is it that I'm on this earth to do? That's right. What brings me happiness? What would I enjoy doing? Um, so I think that's a valuable lesson. So you you talk about all these things like, hey, like nobody taught me this, I didn't pick up on this, but even like the thing with the Lexus or taking time post-career, like those are very insightful things that a lot of people just don't pick up on, and you just naturally picked up on those things. Um so transitioning from that, you're taking the beat. What came next for you?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, look, so I I first off, I I appreciate that, man. It's I do believe in living from the inside out. And I I I do think um sometimes, you know, like there's a lot of pressure and we make decisions a lot of times because the external pressures as opposed to internal forces, right? Like intuitive, intuitively we know what's right, what what feels right, what doesn't feel right, um, and we just it's like anything else, the more we listen to it, the stronger that gets. Um and the more we don't, the more that drowns out. And now we've got it. We need all this validation from other people, we're determined dictated by the market, with you know, all these different things. So I've just always been a firm believer of living from the inside out. I may not know all the answers, but I know if I make a decision that doesn't sit right with me, I probably made the wrong decision. I know if if if it feels like peace to me, and even though it doesn't seem right, like at a certain point I can live with myself that man, I trusted with the information that I had, I trusted what was what was right to me. But man, um I I started down this road, but you know, I wanted to be a uh entrepreneur and I knew I wanted to work with kids, and so I was doing this call, call a consultant, going around. I called every Virginia school and just trying to get them. You know, I wanted to put in like this leadership program and and uh develop these kids in different ways. And I remember calling cold calling every single Virginia independent school, right? Like you literally take the same principles that you did that you know that allowed you to have success in one area, and sometimes you just carry those over.
SPEAKER_02:Now hold up, somebody needs to hear that again. NFL star Tim Hightower was cold calling.
SPEAKER_00:Cold calling, man.
SPEAKER_02:Some of y'all have been doing what you've been doing for six months and think you're too good for a cold call. No, this man got out and hustled. Doesn't matter what level you were ever performing at, nobody's above the program.
SPEAKER_00:But you know what though, what I learned in that process was I learned how to get people's attention. And there was there was something I was studying, uh listening to Jim Rohn. He was talking about the the law of averages.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:And it was something, okay, if you if you need 10 sales, you gotta call, you know, a hundred people, right? To get 10.
SPEAKER_02:And 10, one of those will be in the closet.
SPEAKER_00:When I heard when I heard that, I'm like, okay, it's just a game of numbers. Absolutely. So I don't need to worry about the no's, I just need to get the volume.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And it's like, how quick can I get to the next one?
SPEAKER_00:How quick can I get how quick can I just get out there? And so what I what I what I started finding out was, okay, what is what's the common thread that people are responding to?
SPEAKER_06:Right?
SPEAKER_00:Okay, I gotta do a little bit of research on their, I gotta give them, I gotta j provide a genuine compliment, right? I gotta have some credibility. Who am I? How can I add value to them quickly? How can I highlight something that they're doing? And like, how can I give them immediate value? Like identify a quick problem that they may have based on the research that I have, get some credibility and solve a problem for them very quickly. And I've got like three to four sentences to do that. Yep. Does that make sense? And so it was like it became like a like a like a game, like a like a challenge for me. Yep. And then I started noticing, man, I'm getting more feedback and response. Yes, probably half of it was because I'm an former NFL player.
SPEAKER_04:Sure. But use that.
SPEAKER_00:But I'm starting to get more, like there's some who just didn't respond at all.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And so I think that process was like, okay, it was more about that was more about like sales and a deal. How can I get in front of people? How can I get people's attention? And then now, once I got that, how can I convert that? Okay, you got the meeting, how can you get the next meeting?
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, you got the next meeting, how can you get the how can you get the proposal? You got the proposal, how can you close the deal? You got the deal, how can you get repeated?
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02:It was like one thing, it was like how can you retain them for the how can I write?
SPEAKER_00:So it was like, okay, that was a process. And so I started doing that. Um and then I started working with this this company and and um Dotterra, uh, this essential oil company who had an endorsement with out of Utah. And um had a really good relationship with one of the executives there who's now the CEO. Um end up moving out to Utah to work with them full time and and um as they were expecting. Expanding uh their business. And while I was out there right before COVID, that's when uh our former team president for the commanders, Jason Wright, former teammate of mine, he got hired, first black team president, uh first black president team history, smart dude, man, sharp dude. Um, and so he called me and said, Hey, uh, we'll love to bring you on board and kind of help us um as we're kind of re you know, essentially rebuilding this the front office here, and and uh we've got some work to do, man. So I've been with the commanders ever since 2020. Um but that's kind of where it started, man. It was just like, hey, I I want to be in business, I want to figure out how to solve problems, um, and that kind of led me down this path.
SPEAKER_02:Gotcha. Uh what do you think about Trump wonning? I ain't gonna put you there. I ain't gonna Mr. Brandon. We can talk off camera about that. Um, all right, let's talk about uh because I want to get to the the football league. Um, but let's talk about first being a husband and a father because that's honestly what impressed me about you the most is number one, anytime a man's networking and he makes the decision to bring his children along, that's showing me that like, hey, I'm trying to build legacy. And at that age, the kids ain't grasping everything. But years down the road, because I think the lessons that my dad taught me that he may have told me at 12 years old, but I didn't grasp fully until I was 24, 25 years old, and I heard his voice in the back of my head saying that. I'm like, oh, that's what he meant. So to give your kids a first uh hand experience, like I'll never forget the first property that I bought. Um, my son was probably a year and a half old. But I had him in the stroller and I was like, we're gonna go out and look at these properties today. Does he still recall this? Is that something that's cemented in the back of his brain? I don't know. But I always wanted to make sure that my kids have grown up in those environments to see, hey, I'm not gonna push you into entrepreneurship. I think it's a great way to go, but I want you to be exposed because even if you become a driver at UPS, you still need to understand how to get your money working for you while you're not working. Um I'll never forget reading an article on a guy from he retired from UPS uh with a net worth of$10 million. And he wasn't making but$50,000 a year. He just put his money to work the entire time throughout his career, and he retired better than probably some of the executives at UPS just because he knew how to manage his money a little bit better. So talk to us about number one, as you've navigated this entrepreneurial world, how you've been able to pull your kids into it, and then also finding that balance to me, and I've said this several times on this podcast: when you're an entrepreneur, there's no such thing as like life work balance. Like one is teetering one way or the other, and I'm sure you got that as a pro football player. Like you're on the road, like yeah, there's only so much you can do, there's only so much time in the day. So, how do you find ways to manage that, involve the kids, make sure that you're present enough? Because one thing I never want to be was an absent dad. Like, yeah, I want to go out and I want to build this, and I know being an entrepreneur is one of my major purposes, but I also know God put me on this earth to be a great husband and a father. So talk to us about that experience with raising kids in this environment and how you've brought them along with you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, look, I appreciate that question because I I do think um I'm a firm believer that you know strong families, you know, create a strong society. And uh, you know, the foundation of the fabric of this is is the family and the core unit. And I do think that's something that unfortunately um is being lost on the value of family um and what that really means. And and you talk, you spend time talking to any successful person, unsuccessful person by whatever metrics you want to use, it all started at home. It all started at home. Everyone's gonna every single one of us, you spend you spend more than five minutes talking to someone, because the first five minutes is the it's the surface level. Yeah. You know, where you from, what you do, you know, all that kind of shit. But most of our identities have been shaped by mother, father. So something that started at home, but yet that sometimes can be the most overlooked. So I I appreciate that question. I'm I grew up, man, my my my pastor used to always say more is caught than taught. And um you know, we can you can say all the things that you want, but they're seeing and they're hearing more than what they ever will say.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Um and so for me, man, like it was one of those things where I knew when I had kids, I didn't want to just I know I can talk a lot to them, um, but that's intentional. And I'm always gonna keep talking and it is it's like a a a plant, right? You're you're just watering it, you're watering it, you're watering. You don't know which raindrop is gonna be the one to to cause you know to to to get there, cause that plant to take root and sprout. But you need all of them. Right? And so for me, I'm just like, man, I'm like, it's rain. It's rain, I'm draining, and I'm gonna sat oversaturate your your souls and your mind, to where at some point, one of those words that I say or my presence is gonna take root at some point. So I'm just gonna keep doing that. But also, man, I I I would just talk to people and ask them. And it was one of those things where they would say, you know what? The only way that my kid doesn't resent is if I involve. They feel like they're a part of it. Right? Like I can tell my kids that, oh, this is for you.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But if they're not involved in it, there's no way that they can understand that interaction and that connection, right? Um and so involving them, right? Like, they now see it. This they're part of that process. So, yes, they understand like whatever that value and lesson in that transaction is, but they also know that hey, we are doing this. This is a family decision that being made. A second thing that that that changed my perspective around all this was when I found out 95% of our decisions are controlled by our subconscious. 95%. So you said that one year old, he's not paying attention.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That's our subconscious. Our subconscious is programmed by the things that we hear, the things that we see, the environments that we're in. 95% of the decisions that we make are controlled by our subconscious. Whether I open my mouth or not, 95% of the things that I do is dictating, is being predicated based on all those things that programming.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:And so for my kids, all the words that I'm telling them, right? Some of those rain jobs are gonna fall, but more so the environments that they're in and them seeing their dad interact with people, those things are starting to take root. And they may not think it is, but now it's starting to program into who they are.
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:You understand how they talk to people and how they interact with people and how they sell themselves, how they communicate, how they articulate themselves. And so for me, as much as I can, um, and part that night, it was part I didn't have a babysitter that night. But part of it is, man.
SPEAKER_02:But you could have told them you could have turned the car on, put the heat on, and stuck them in the car.
SPEAKER_00:For me, man, there's there's there's if anybody knows, man, my kids, as much as I man, I love being around my kids. And like I love being a dad. You know, you know what I'm saying? Like the marriage piece has been a lot more full transparency, has been more difficult for me personally. But being a dad, man, just like came natural to you. It came natural to me, man. Like being able to develop the like the minds and the hearts and the bodies of of of my seed and just others, um, is something that I take take very seriously, man. And for me is I want they're gonna have their own personalities, but I want to leave with them not just financial resources, but whether it's character, confidence, values, things that irrespective of whatever they face in life, they knew how their dad handled no. They knew how their dad handled adversity, they know how to communicate and stand up and talk to people, how to bounce back from how those are the things that I wanted to leave with them and want to leave with them, and help them find their own path so that they can put all those together and find their own road and have their own level of success or whatever it is that they want to do in life.
SPEAKER_02:Love it. And that was as you mentioned, some of the stuff there in terms of your interactions with other people and them picking up on that. Um when we were filming with you for uh the flag football championship, which we're gonna touch on that next. Um, I said I'm a very observant person. So, like a lot of people like you talk about Rashad, like how he just looks like he's zoned out. Like, you know, that brother's paying attention to everything that's going on. And I sat and watched you as you just worked the crowd. Like you're you literally went to every food vendor, made sure you introduced yourself, shook the hand. Hey, I appreciate you guys being here. You're walking, talking to the parents. Like, there was never a moment where it was like, yo, I'm Hollywood, like I ain't got time. Like, you were getting ready for a championship game. You're the coach, and you're still going through and taking the time and shaking people's hands. And I could see how the kids, they weren't necessarily, you know, that attentive to what you were doing. But I can see how like them hanging around you and being in that environment, they see how you interact with other people and how you treat people. Um, let's touch on uh the flag football league. So, first let's start with um, because you hit me with this and I had to go do my research after I heard you talk at uh Joe Dunn's event. That flag football is the fastest growing sport in America right now. Um give us the reason behind that. Like part of it is also I think the whole CTE era that we're dealing with. Like you're seeing, like I think Antonio Brown just got arrested for like uh attempted murder or something like that. And I remember seeing seeing Antonio Brown in interviews prior to that big hit that he had with Cleveland Browns, it was like a switch went off. Like everybody's called him crazy and all this stuff. I can seriously see from prior to and after that moment how his behavior just switched. Um, and you've had other guys, NFL legends that have ended up committing suicide and things like that. And CTE is this thing that we're just learning about now. So is that and now it's officially become an Olympic sport. I think guys like Justin Jefferson and people like that have signed on to play in the Olympics in flag football. So what it is that part of what's bringing this huge transition with flag football?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, f first off, man, I look for somebody who, you know, what I do now as alumni relations, senior director of alumni relations with the commanders of me, it's a role that I take very, very seriously. And um knowing how difficult it is to make that transition after the game and um understanding, you know, what we signed up for, right? Like it's a violent sport, yeah. Right, and and we signed up for that, and um but I'm also working with this population and I I'm seeing the other side of this game that I love so much.
SPEAKER_02:And the corporate side and I'm seeing what you see the business of it, right?
SPEAKER_00:But you also see the the cognitive and the physical, just like the physical toll that it's taken on so many guys. Yeah, it's not just them, man, they're families, right? And um so my heart goes out to not just Antonio Brown, man, but to I and I don't know personally in the personal situation, man, but I don't those are not laughing matters for me. Yeah, it it's it's it's the other side sometimes of a game that again I love and respect, and and it's it's a beautiful game, and and um but it also it takes a toll on your body, yeah, and it takes a toll on guys over time. And so um I hope my prayers are for with him and any any anybody else, man. We really gotta take care of our bodies. But uh because of that, I do think, and because of the uh I think anytime there's a you know there's an information push, right? And um around what's happening and the impact that it has on guys, it creates other opportunities. So I do think that opened the door for flag football that um it used to be at one point in time America or baseball was America's time and favorite sport. I I by every every metric out there it is football, right? Football has the viewership. Yeah, it's got the eyes of people and people love the game. But I think flag football provides a safer alternative that's also more accessible, it's accessible to more people.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_00:I think a huge part of that wave is girls. We talked about girls in flag football, that for so long it hasn't been that pathway hasn't been provided, and uh door hasn't been provided for um for young girls. And so you see the growth of that game with young girls and young women um at the high school level, professional level, and even at the at the grassroots youth level, as well as internationally.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_00:We don't need all this equipment, we don't need these big stadiums, we need an open space and we need some flags. Yeah. That's it.
SPEAKER_02:Paraclets and some flags.
SPEAKER_00:And so I I think because the viewership of the game has has just grown exponentially, and now you've got a game that's accessible, it's affordable, it's safer, it's just a perfect storm where it it's it's a great entry sport, right? You don't have to be tall, you're fast. You man, just go out there and play. And so I love to see it because again, I love there's so many things that I love about the game of football, and that it's taught me. And to be able to share that with the next generation, with my kids, yeah, for me it was a it was it was a win-win to say, hey, man, I can take something that I love in a safer way, and then now teach that and give that and grow that, and it's also you know, create a business opportunity out of it. It was a it was a win-win for me.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and the big one big thing that we discussed with that too was um the other opportunities that come with this sport. That's right. So, like, even in the NFL, like we talk about, you know, 50-some guys are gonna make the roster. That's right. But there are thousands of other jobs that the NFL offers that have nothing to do with lacing up and being on the field. That's right. So talk about that, the other pathways that you see for careers with kids getting involved in flag football.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I and I appreciate you uh bringing bringing that back because the one thing as I looked at, okay, hey, um, my kids may want to get into it at some point. I'm like, man, I get uh people ask me all the time, what do you what are you gonna do? Yeah. And I'm like, number one, I'm not gonna force them in anything. I'm gonna help lead and guide them, but I'm dealing with a population that, okay, they all made it to the other side. And then what happened next, right? How do I transition? Where do I go? I feel ill-equipped, underskilled, all these things. And so now I'm thinking about for with the rise in youth sports, all these kids and parents want their kids to play. They they want them to play division one, they want them to play at the highest level. College is becoming a lot more uh expensive, and this this allure of professional sports, right? But the reality for me and the statistic that I saw was look, seven percent of these kids are gonna play in college. Yeah, less than one percent are gonna play pro, we know that. But seven. So the 93%, what are they doing? Right? And so being fortunate, being fortunate enough to be on the business side of the commanders, I'm asking different individuals, how did you get into this role? How did you get into that role? How did you get into this role? Yeah, and most people fell into it. There wasn't like a true career pathway to the business of sports. As we talked about, there's man, it is when I pull up to that stadium, it is it is a full fledged concert every single week.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:The hours that go in the preparation of getting to that, right? And in the from from legal into finance and to PR into data analytics into marketing into merchandise. There's all of these different, there's like this big flywheel that just like security. There's there are probably 20 different divisions of so many industries within the sports industry, right? And um, I'm like, man, how are we not knowing why do we not know about all of these other career pathways in sports? And so for me, my my vision with with creating this flag football league was okay, this is a fast-growing sport, means there's a ton of interest, there's a ton of traction. There's investment from NFL and you know at the executive level. There's uh there's policy that's being reinforced to help make sure it's a high school, college, sanctioned sports for women. So there's opportunity and interest here. Number two, I also saw that that girls by the age of 11 are dropping out at twice the rate of sports than young boys are. So what happened to that is all the mental health and all the other issues with that. So if this is a fast-growing sport, primarily among girls, girls are dropping out. Okay, you connect all those together, yeah, perfect storm.
SPEAKER_03:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:But number two, knowing that 97%, 93% of these kids are not gonna pay professional, yeah. How do I build a brand that takes advantage of that growing interest, but also prepares these kids for long after the sport? And so that's where um that's what I'm excited about when you know we started under the lights, but it's it's the game, but it's how do I create more opportunities and career pathways for kids using sport to create other skill sets and experiences where these kids, we use this game, and now we're looking at the next, you know, these kids are in data analytics and they're in in sports law and they're in all these other fields, sports medicine, yep, that maybe they didn't go college or professional, but they started that love in our league, and we helped them develop them, and that's the hope, that's the goal for the next generation of student athletes, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_02:Love that, love that. As we as we wrap up, um, this is a question I've I've started to ask all my guests, is you know, as entrepreneurs, the term entrepreneur has been glamorized and made sexy. Like I tell people all the time, anytime I give a talk, and people are like, you know, what's it like being your own boss? Like, da-da-da-da-da. Well, I gave up one boss in corporate America to have a thousand bosses, which are now my my clients. Um, so it's not the life that a lot of people imagine. Um, but I like to highlight like the low moments in entrepreneurship because as it's been glamorized, like people need to understand if you decide to get into this game, which I you play one of the greatest sports in the world, I think entrepreneurship is the top sport in the world. Um, how you navigate and understand that you know life's not always going to be easy. And if I remember Ice Cube saying something where he was like, if you start a business and you're not prepared to not make any money for three years, then don't even bother starting. And most people can't stomach not making money for three months, let alone three years. Um, what was your greatest obstacle as an entrepreneur so far, and how have you overcome that?
SPEAKER_00:That's a great question. Um, well look, I'll I'll I'll stay I'll stay with um I'll stay with the flag football, man, because this this thing is is is building this, you know. We started with a hundred and twenty kids, and then we unfortunately have four hundred kids um a season later, and so uh we're projected to have close to a thousand and not over north of a thousand um in the spring of twenty twenty six. And um the greatest obstacle.
SPEAKER_02:It could be something on a personal level, just it could be a mental obstacle.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think number one realizing that you know you are responsible. Like you are directly responsible, like your brand is your responsibility, your business is your responsibility. Yeah, and I don't care where there was an error or breakdown, right? Falls back on communication and execution and whatever that is, whatever it is, your you are responsible for your brand. Number one, right? And so seeing last season, and we had a ton of hiccups in our first season. Um we had a ton of hiccups and and and I I think the lesson that I'm learning in and you know, we we didn't execute at a very, very high level. I I would say the product that we put. Families had a great time and they gave me the benefit of the doubt. I'm you know, I'm apologizing all the time. I'm up at 11, 11:30, 12 o'clock, checking emails after you know, after my real job.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Uh as they say, my main job. And I'm like, man, what am I doing? Right? I'm I'm responding. I s somebody else can do this. But number one, what I appreciated was it forced me to learn the four operations of what it takes to run a flag football league.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:From concessions, right? To hiring referees to identifying the fields to communication to marketing. To it like you had to learn, I had to learn all of it. I had to understand, oh man, okay. It's and the one the first thing that I learned was number one, no, you are responsible for your brand. Now you can't put that off in anybody else. It's Tim's League. And people are saying Tim's League didn't run on time. Tim's League didn't communicate. Tim's League didn't communicate, right? Like that's your brand. And I built a reputation in football. That's only gonna get you but so far. Now your brand and now your credibility is here. Number one. Number two, underpromise and over-deliver. It sounds so simple, but I had all these big, like lofty goals and things the way that I want to operate. Okay, you can't share that with everybody.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Keep it very, very simple and just deliver at a high level.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:If you say you're gonna start a game at six o'clock, start the game at six o'clock. If you say this where the game, like we had to change fields and all these different things, and the credibility, you start to wear at your credibility.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Right? And in business, we like places that are consistent, that deliver. We want our fries to be a certain way. We go to the city. That's why Chick-fil-A's so successful. Right? And so, like, that's what I had to learn, which is like, man, try that in this fall season when I challenged our team. We are going to like, I know where we're going. I've got a five to ten-year roadmap of where we're going.
SPEAKER_04:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:But can we be patient and say, you know, no? We're gonna simplify.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I want I want our games to start on time, I want them to finish on time, and I want the families to have a great experience.
SPEAKER_02:That was the biggest thing I saw. I was like, You won't know CP time. No, no, no. Yeah, stuff was getting started on time.
SPEAKER_00:There was one there was one game where I had to stop. I'm like, hey, can you can you cover coaching for me? Start the games on time. Like I'm going around to each ref. No, no, no, we're not gonna be casual with this. Start the game. I don't care if they're on the field or not, start the clock, right? Because I made a commitment that, hey, we're gonna start on time, we're gonna finish on time, and we're gonna provide a high quality product to where when they finish, they say, hey, my kid had a great experience.
SPEAKER_02:Yep.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and so number one, you're responsible for your brand. Number two, you got to learn and understand how how it really works, what are the drivers of your business? And then number three, simplify and over-deliver.
SPEAKER_01:Love it.
SPEAKER_00:Simplify and execute at a high level and over-deliver and provide a good experience. And then as you get that process down, then add one more thing, then add one more thing and then grow from there.
SPEAKER_02:Love it. Love it. All right, man. This has been a phenomenal interview. Um, if people want to get more information on Flag Football League, um, I know you do some workout classes and things like that too. Um, if people want to get in touch with you, they want to get information on the leagues and the training, where can they find you at?
SPEAKER_00:Tim Hightower, I'm on uh social media, Instagram, um, but also RVA under the lights. So it I I link back and forth between the two, but Tim Hightower is the main page, and RVA Under the Lights is uh the flag football league. So we're growing it, man. It's coming to the city near you near you. We're in Richmond now, Richmond, Chesterfield now, but uh we look forward to continuing to grow. But I appreciate this opportunity.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, man. Appreciate you. We'll see you guys on the next episode.