The Mental Intelligence Behind Football with Coach Micah Brown

We sit down with Coach Micah Brown — former pro quarterback, founder of BATLX, and a leader in Atlantic Canada’s football development scene. 

Micah breaks down the mental intelligence behind football and why the best coaching is about way more than schemes and stats. We talk leadership under pressure, building confident athletes, mentorship and representation, and the real responsibility coaches carry as community leaders. 

The conversation goes deep on self-care and mental health, what it takes to stay locked in when life gets loud, and how Micah’s mission is helping develop both better players — and better people — here at home. 

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Transcript

Meet Coach Micah Brown

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Cheers, welcome to the afternoon fight. I'm Mike Tovin. I'm Matt Conrad.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

And I'm Micah Brown.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Micah Brown. There you go. All right, Coach Micah Brown. Just for full disclosure, this is a second attempt, but here we go, right? Yeah, it is. So, all right, Micah, why don't you give us our audience a little bit of a background about you? Just kind of a quick 30-second kind of biography on you.

SPEAKER_04 0:39

Yeah, well, I mean, I'm from Florida originally. I mean, I think that's important. And when we look at where we're at now in Canada in this cold, wet, snowy kind of weather. Traveled the world. I use football as a vehicle to be able to do that. And I've been in every corner of this earth and I chose to settle in Canada where my wife is from, and we wanted to have a family and start our young family there. And that's kind of where things kicked off. Jeez, man, you you got a big ring on your hand. What's that about? Oh, yeah, that's that's part of it. That's one of the travels right there. That was from the the world champions. Wow. Being on the U.S. national team. Holy smokes.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Yeah. So so Matt, he was your coach.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Like, so you guys, like, you he doesn't look much older than you. I envisioned when you told me your coach was coming on, I thought, like, you know, like, you know, rock like the guy from Rocky be coming on here today, but like, this guy's looking a lot younger, right? So, so how did Micah become your coach, Matt?

From U.S. National Team To Halifax Roots

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Yeah, so I mean, we're the same age. So basically, I was playing football up until about three years ago in in the Maritime Football League. So if people who are listening don't know or aren't aware, the Maritimes has a kind of uh uh senior uh tackle uh men's football league, which is you know it's some pretty good caliber football for if you're uh not in university anymore and you're you're not pro playing pro, it's some pretty good football. So, first of all, I encourage you to go and check it out. We actually have several teams in in the three provinces, and and it's yeah, it's been pretty, it's been pretty fun to play. And that's how actually how I met Micah. Uh, I played for a different team for a few years. Uh and uh just because of the inner workings of that team and the time, the ownership of that time, and some of the mentality, I thought it was time to move on. And the Halifax Harbor Hawks, which is uh the sweater I'm wearing right now, that's I had to wear the old merch for the for this. They uh welcomed me on the team with open arms, and uh it was what a difference uh in uh you know discipline and coaching and structure, which was a great thing. Uh I met a lot of great people who I still really have friendships with and still stay in touch with, even long after retirement. That's one of the coolest things about football, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

That's awesome. So that's how I met that's how I met your side. How did you end up in Halifax coaching that guy?

SPEAKER_04 3:00

Yeah, I mean, my my story for Halifax is kind of in and out. My initial presence in in Halifax was in 2010. I was playing at St. Mary's, playing and going to school there. That was my second time at the university kind of stage. Obviously, I was in the States playing at some pretty big schools down there, went to the CFL, got released, found out I could play in Canada. So I ended up being at St. Mary's, and I met a lady who ended up being my wife. And so after 2010, we go away, we're in Europe, and we're traveling the world. And then uh 2017, I retired from playing professionally. And she she again, she's from Halifax, and you know, we felt like it was a really good place to start our young family, and that's how it came back. And then we started the team, you know, I have a master's and two bachelor's degrees, and I and I couldn't get a job anywhere. So uh I started training athletes and grew that into a company called Battle X, which stands for Brown Athletics, and it was football-specific training and athletic development. And then I also noticed and then realized that you know there's a developmental gap for you know that high school going into university and then also creating some sort of a structure for for guys post-university that still want to play, still want to take it. When I say serious, I mean in the sense of like they want they want to feel like they're playing football. You know, they want to have real practice, real plays, and like, you know, be able to connect with some of the younger players. And so we did that. We started the team, the Halifax Harbor Hawks, and you know, I think in the time that we were there, we sent a couple a couple of the players professionally over to play in Europe. We sent some to the CFE all. You know, we we created kind of our you know, a mini pro team for us, if you would say.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Cool. So so I I know I played we played with um, I mean, we had one guy on our team who I played with for two years, and he ended up going pro over in Europe, and he ended up winning MVP the the year after that. Which would be freaking cool.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

That's crazy, yeah. So it's it's it's a there's some high caliber uh athletes and and football players that play in this league that you know people really should get out and support kind of thing, right?

SPEAKER_03 5:00

What's the age range of this league?

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Above 18.

SPEAKER_04 5:06

That's it. Well, actually. Actually, so I that was one of the sticking points that I had to get that change. It's actually 17 plus.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Oh, is it 17? Okay.

Founding The Harbor Hawks And Battle X

SPEAKER_04 5:16

It's 17 plus. So, you know, a little bit on that one is the 17. If you're 17 and you're a well, you all wouldn't say junior, but if you're in 11th grade and 17, you can't play provincial football. So, in essence, they would have a whole calendar year, 365 days, before they could play football again. And I thought, you know, again, when you look at the lack of development, like this is an opportunity that they could come, and this is a bit of a transition year for them, right? Where they could come in, they're playing with older men, they're playing with people that have had university experience or played junior football. Some played, you know, professionally, but they get an opportunity to play in a supportive and uh structured environment that they can go back, finish their last year of high school, and then again, hopefully that helps them in their transition and become a better player. And we've seen a lot of success in that. Uh, we got quite a few guys that were in that bracket of being 17, 18 as a 11th grader that came to play with us, and then they go back to high school and they absolutely dominate it to the point that they, you know, were able to max out their financial you know implications from universities when it comes to their their their athletic award, their scholarships, which is really cool.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yeah. I I will say that when the moment I started realizing that maybe I was playing a little too long, was we had a guy who came on the field and he came up and he said, Are you Matt Conrad? And I said, Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was like, Yeah, he's like, Do you know this guy? Like, I and I was like, Yeah, yeah, I know, I know that guy. I said, I I worked with him like 15 years ago. He's like, Yeah, that's that's my uncle. And I was like, Oh, maybe I'm if I'm playing with people's nephews, maybe it's time to call it quits. But uh, you know, I still played for two more years, and and realistically, like I think the only reason I stopped really playing was because the team kind of folded up and we uh you know I I didn't really know, I don't know, it felt weird going to another team. I considered it. Um but also in the last season that I played with the Harbor Hawks, I actually tore my uh MCL and played for played through it stupidly because then I ended up after the season was over and after making it through it, playing flag in a flag league that summer postseason. I actually ended up re-injuring the knee and tearing my meniscus partially. So then I was just kind of like, you know what? I'm old. Let's just I gotta go to work on Monday. Let's just stop stop doing this. So yeah. It is what it is. But you know what? If if if Micah was still there, um I probably would have toughed it out, but then I was kind of like, ah, you know what? But that being said, it's real commitment. Like, you know, uh Micah can tell you, like, we we were meeting two times a week, sometimes three, and then we had games, and sometimes we were traveling on weekends. It's a real, real commitment. Uh-huh. And I wouldn't have been able to do this show if I was still playing football because it just would have both things would just occupy too much of the time, kind of thing. So I lost something that meant a lot to me and uh kind of gave birth to something else. So, you know, things work out that way, I guess. But uh yeah, you're you're you're a great coach, man. So it's uh people are lucky to have you, and people were lucky to, you know, have that. Like it's uh I want to I do want to circle back and talk about what it was like, you know, growing up for you and everything. But I think uh anyone who's has gets the opportunity to get you have as a coach, I think it's it's good. And and the relationship and the foundation and and kind of brotherhood that you've uh built with that team uh means a lot to a lot of people. So yeah, kudos to you.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

That's awesome. Thank you. And it's really nice to hear that. Yeah, it's really nice to hear that. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Yeah, so uh let's go back, rewind, and talk about young Micah and uh your first experience with football.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

Yeah, absolutely. Again, I'll take you back to Florida.

Opening The League To 17-Year-Olds

SPEAKER_04 9:06

This is in Tampa in the middle of the summer, six years old. My mom takes me out to to the school in the back where they have the field at, and we had our equipment that we had from the the days before. This would, and I was on the Chiefs, they were called the PAL Chiefs, PAL, Police Athletic League Chiefs. Uh so I'm a real Chiefs fan, and I take you back to 93. Not on the bandwagon because of my homes and my little guy looking like him. But yeah, you know, I you know, the first couple days of practice was just running. It was basically hell on earth. It was non-stop running, it was six inches, it was, you know, pounding the belly with the feet in the air, it was the push-ups, it was, you know, the up downs, it was all of that grueling stuff. And then, you know, once we went through a couple days, then it was like, okay, time to break you in, right? So now we get into the hitting. You know, you had drills like Bull in the Ring, and you had uh Oklahoma's, which are now, by the way, outlawed. You cannot do those anymore. But at that time, that was that was a way to kind of check the ego to see who was ready and who wasn't. And I tell you what, I damn sure wasn't ready because when I got that first hit, man, I I voodoo cried. And I cried the rest of practice, and I had to like practice through my tears and all the things. And my mom picks me up. She's like, you know, hey babe, that was it. Like, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm crying, and you know, I'm in the backseat, you know, because that's what you do when you're stitching in the backseat with the seatbelt on, I'm sobbing, and I'm like, I don't want to play anymore. I quit. She's like, okay, you don't have to play anymore. And I'm trying to like stop crying. Thinking went, okay. She said, You don't have to play anymore, but you're gonna finish this season now. And after that, if you don't want to play, then you don't have to play. But you're not gonna quit because you gave your word, and that's all you got. And it was like a lesson that I again to this day, like I carry that a lot. And anytime, you know, something happens, you know, you mentioned, you know, shutting down uh Harborhawks and shutting down battle wax, and you know, there's things like that that are bittersweet, you know, and on the bitter side, it it's hard because it's like, man, when do you know? You know, I I think about the that meme they show this, you know, it's like a cartoon, they show a guy with a pickaxe, and he's like trying to chop through, you know, some brick or some cement, and uh you got one walking away, and if he had one more chip, there's a there's a diamond there, you know, a pot of gold for him. But you got the other guy, there's nothing there, but he's still just chopping, right? And it's it's kind of one of those like when when do you know you've hit that wall? When do you know, okay, you've done everything that you could, you've exhausted any, you know, opportunity or potential. That for me, not I don't, I don't know something in here doesn't compute that. It's always go, go, go, go. Um and until it's not, right? So I think growing up there was that learning how to distinguish decipher or or have that delineating factor of like, okay, I know I've done what I needed to do, or or i it's time to move on, type of deal, right? So yeah, there's definitely a lesson I I learned at a really young age.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Yeah, I mean uh that's probably never really easy to do, especially when it's things that you've created, right? To know when to kind of walk away.

SPEAKER_03 12:45

But it's tough, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Always you gotta do what you gotta do what's best for your family and know what's you know what when did uh when did Battle Act shut down?

SPEAKER_04 12:54

Officially in August 2024.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

And why'd you have to shut it down if you don't mind me asking? Like what was the story there?

SPEAKER_04 13:01

Yeah, uh, you know, to be honest with you, it was burnt out.

SPEAKER_03 13:03

It sounded like a beautiful thing.

When Injuries And Life Force Tough Choices

SPEAKER_04 13:05

Yes, it was. And I still believe in the mission, I still believe in everything. And it was very much like the Hard Rocks, man. I was I was burnt out. You know, we got on, you know, we couldn't meet in person at a time, so we got on a team, you know, meeting like this virtually, and you know, I was really honest with everybody, me and Kelly, my wife, about like what we were going through and what was happening. I think one of the stories kind of resonated with the guys where it was right around just when COVID was kind of ending, I had a flight down to Virginia to see my oldest boy, and you know, the whole family were going down there. We're on a cruise with them and all the things. And then things opened up where we could have the league and we were able to play. And I got stuck with do I go see my son or do I stay here and coach this game? And it was like, you know what, I'm going to see my son. So I, you know, I told the guys, and then it was, you know, hey, they they needed me on the call. So I'm on this cruise with my family, and I'm on the call at the same time, trying to call in the game at the same time. And, you know, what really hit me is when my my oldest boy says, Man, like, dad, like, I don't even know why you came. If you were gonna be on this call while we're on this cruise, you should have just stayed up there and coached. And like, man, I thank him, you know, you know, we talk about it, you know, and I love being able to have a relationship where he can tell me something like this. But on him for being honest with you like that.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

I think that's really cool.

SPEAKER_04 14:24

Yeah, it is. You know, and it's cool for me too to know that he's gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_03 14:27

Speaks of what a good dad you are that you guys can talk like that.

SPEAKER_04 14:30

You know, thank you. Yeah, we could communicate like that. And like, man, I tell you, that hit me, that hit me hard, right? And you know, I talk about being where your feet are and you know, enjoying those moments, and that was something that I I didn't do, but I couldn't put it down, and I felt like I, you know, I was torn between two spots, right? And just because I'm in one place where my feet are doesn't mean I'm there mentally, right? So you got to have that alignment, and I didn't, and it got to the point where it was really time consuming, it was energy sucking. There was a lot of work, you know, and the way we ran the team. Again, you know, I I mentioned it being like a mini, a mini pro team, you know, then you can ask Matt or anybody that played for that organization. You know, we we prided ourselves on how we did things, you know, and the way we did anything was the way we did everything, which is all 100%, right? So it was a lot, you know, and I didn't have anybody to lean on, I didn't have anybody to kind of help support and pick things up for me as well.

SPEAKER_03 15:20

But financially, it must have been tough too, right? Like it must have been hard putting all this time in something while not earning an income by doing it, right? That's always a real tough thing. Like it comes to a point of volunteering where when you over-volunteer and you overextend yourself, you're like, well, gee, I gotta feed my family too. How the heck can I do all this, right?

SPEAKER_04 15:38

Yeah, you know, there was that stuff, and we looked at this as more of like, you know, a social enterprise in the sense of, you know, being able to construct something that brings so many different people together. You know, Matt talked about, you know, his buddy's nephew that he's playing in football with, you know, like that shit never happens in really many other kinds of fields, right? But you're in football, and you know, one of the you know, connections that would have with the guys, you know, I was telling them about things like, hey, you know what, we're all here for different reasons, but we all need to respect while we're here. We have younger guys that are looking to use this as a stepping stone to get film and to go higher, you know, different levels. And then we have adults, old people, unc status, like Matt, who's here to enjoy and meet people, but that, you know, on either end, we can't slack off, right? You know, if he's here just to have a good time, that's great, but you got to be committed. You still got to do everything that we're doing. And if you're here to grow, you know, you got to understand that this guy's coming from work and has a family. You know, he's gonna do everything that he can, but you also need to support him and do everything that you can and vice versa, right? So we had this really good balance and mix of uh love that.

SPEAKER_03 16:45

It's such a cool way with generational gaps and stuff, and you know, getting through that that mindset of, you know, just working alongside somebody and you're seeing the real them because they're bringing their full selves to that game, right? Like you said, working with the family and all that kind of stuff, right?

Burnout, Boundaries, And Family First

SPEAKER_04 16:59

And yeah. So, you know, we had that and it was a year-round operation, and then in between all of that and around all of that, we had Battle X, you know, where I'm training athletes and teens and developing coaches and you know, which was a lot of fun. And I again I'm I'm still passionate about it, but I had to figure out a different way to kind of go about it. And as I had those things in mind, things started getting hard though. You know, it's more than the training on the physical stuff, it's more than the mental, you know, X's and O's, but you know, you kind of become a bit of a, I don't know, I don't want to say therapist, but you know, they lay it on you, you know, the challenges that they're going through. And, you know, you got to respond in such a way to help them. You know, you can't just, oh, you know, F this, F that, F them, like, we'll do this. No, like you got to help them, you know, with coping mechanisms, help them learn how to get through things and how to communicate, how to stand up for themselves. And, you know, at the end of the day, you hear so many of these stories and how they're being treated and the experience that they're having, you know, I carry that, you know. So then I here I am, you know, now going home because that was my only outlet in some a lot of these situations. And but now I'm taking it home. And now I'm taking it to my my wife. And then then it's like, oh, can we create something to help support these these athletes and these people to you know be better? And then it's like, you know, it just continues to to grow and almost become insurmountable the amount of things you're doing, and then you get burnt out. You know what I mean? I didn't have anybody to lean on like that.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

So altogether it was it had happened in another, you know, another something completely different from football. Another world will say, but uh yeah, I totally get the feeling of just giving you all to something that's not your nine to five or not your and then you're trying to have a family or you're trying to have it keep that relationship going, and it's just too get it just grows too too much, right? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

So yeah, that's that's uh ultimately what what ended up for some of it happening with Battleaxe and and Harbor Hawks.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Yeah. But I mean, you it's not the only people that you've coached. You've got you've had a long uh extensive list of of coaching with different universities and things like that as well, though. So there's it's it's not just that that uh you know, you've left a long, a long trail of people that you've coached. You know, these like the it was like Dow, SMU, and St. Avex, is it?

SPEAKER_04 19:17

Um, not so much with Dow. I worked with a lot of their athletes, but I definitely coached at you know, St. Evex, coached at SMU. I'm coaching obviously here at Bishops, coach Football Ontario for a number of years, and and that would be, you know, in Canada, done some guest coaching in the CFL level. You know, and even then when I had Battle X, again, you you know, I talk about being where your feet are. I was kind of kind of stuck to the brick and mortar, you know. I had opportunities to coach in the CFL and to coach, you know, big-time college football, you know, FPS in the in the States in the NCAA. And, you know, those opportunities don't come all the time, and when they do, it's it's kind of like, you know, do you take it? Because if you don't, you may never get it again. And, you know, I kind of got hit with that, and I I didn't take it because I felt like the work I was doing in Halifax was, you know, took precedence for me. And I also didn't want to leave my family, right? You know, when you get in those situations, you almost come, you know, quote unquote kind of military family where you're, you know, in a place for a period of time, then you're in another place, and you know, you kind of hop around, and I I didn't want that for my family.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Yeah, people don't really realize that about the coaching world, right? You, you know, where people can see coaches, like we, you know, we see it every day. Like, you know, we just we just we're in postseason now, right? And we saw coaches getting fired from NFL and hired from the NFL and all this other stuff. People don't realize that, that like those are people's families and lives that are now, you know, have probably having to pack up and go somewhere, kind of thing, right? Like you said, like almost military style, where you're just like go where the next coaching job is, and sometimes it's not gonna be in the same city, right?

SPEAKER_03 20:53

Not only as a coach, too, like around the world as a player, Matt, your notes here. Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Poland, Italy. You play in all of these places, hey, France. Wow. Yeah. Like, like I I mean, I always think of football as such an American thing, to be honest with you. I don't think of it as a world thing. I just in my my little brain, right? Like, what was it like playing football in Germany? Oh man, loved it. Loved it.

SPEAKER_04 21:17

I mean, all of Europe was absolutely great. You know, fun fact for you there's more college football on the island of Japan than there is in the US.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

What?

SPEAKER_04 21:26

Yeah, and they play really good football. But being in these different countries, man, like it was it was an experience and it was awesome. Like I learned to speak German. My wife and I speak German.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

Like same American football. Same American football. They're not playing that CFL game over there, are they? No, no, not CFL game, which I absolutely love.

Why Football Is Uniquely Inclusive

SPEAKER_04 21:44

But it's uh it's American football, right? College rules. American football. You know, yeah, it's really cool, you know. And and each place is different, it's unique in the sense of like something that I I think I caught on to is like each country, how they're known as a culture, you get that same kind of feeling on the field, you know. So, you know, I look at uh Poland, for example. Man, Poland, I think, was the probably the most physical league I've played in outside of playing arena football. Finland was the most technical game that I've played in. Like they were extremely precise. Japan, extremely disciplined. Like, you know, you could go games without seeing a penalty flag. You know, you get into Germany, you get a mix of the physicality and the finesse and tactical. You know, you go down to Austria, I mean, they are tactical and and finesse, you know. Like when I was playing in Italy, it was very what's a nice word, passionate. You know what I mean? It was passionate. So, you know, and in Switzerland it was kind of the opposite. It was a lot of fun, but it was very uh passive.

SPEAKER_03 22:48

What a roller text you're building for strategy, man. Like, holy smokes. Like to think that you've been all around and you've seen all these different ways the game can be interpreted, you can really master that to learn how to conquer an opponent, right? It's like MMA almost, like you know, from the football world.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

And just I'll have to put it here, like we are talking to a Hall of Famer actually in Europe.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Oh yeah?

SPEAKER_00 23:12

He's in the Hall of Fame, actually, football hall of fame in Europe.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, thanks.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

So that's that's pretty cool. What is it? It's it's something like you have like, what is it, seven titles, seven championships? Is that what it is? Eight. Eight. Okay, there you go. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 23:28

Yeah, so you know, I love Tom Brady, but uh, you know, I got him beat on this one. I mean, obviously his are on a far bigger stage, but I mean a championship is a championship, no matter where it's at. They're hard to come by at any and every level. And so it's something to definitely take pride in and really cherish, right?

SPEAKER_03 23:48

100%. You can say you're a global champ. Brady can't say that. He's only playing one country. That's a great one. You know, you gotta hold on to the global champ.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

That's it. That's right.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

That's how we're gonna introduce this episode. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

As much as the NFL wants to say that you know the Super Bowl are world champions. I don't know, right? Yeah, exactly. I mean, just because they're they're they're they are growing, I will say that they're playing what is it like something like eight international games now? So really wow, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:20

That's what the the 17th game comes in, which actually I think is also gonna change. I believe they're gonna go to 18 game season. They're gonna cut out one in a preseason, and every team will have an opportunity to play a game in you know internationally.

SPEAKER_03 24:34

Yeah, it's a cool idea. I think it's great for the sport.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Just goes to show you how fast the sport is growing. I mean, listen, I'm a Canadian and you know, obviously Canada is known for hockey, and I love hockey, don't get me wrong, but football has kind of always really been the sport that is called me for many reasons, though. I mean, like it's it's it's a chess game played with Titans. And you have the other thing that I really like about it is from my perspective, I find it's a more all-welcoming sport. You know, it it's one of those things where, and I'm sure, Micah, you can probably say that the uh the culture in the US is probably could get pretty toxic, similar to how it can get toxic with hockey here in Canada. But my experience is it wasn't that way. The other thing too is like all body types are welcomed in football. You don't just have to be the, you know, the absolute athlete in shape guy who's you know on ice, who, you know, or basketball, like, you know, you have to be six, five or whatever, or at least jump a bunch or whatever, you know, and things like that where it's like you can be, we have guys who weigh 400 pounds, and we have guys that weigh 165, right? And they all have a role, they have a way to fit into football. It's the most welcoming sport that I've ever encountered because of that.

Playing Across Europe And What Each Country Teaches

SPEAKER_04 25:57

You know, when when people talk about you know sports being inclusive, like you know, is it's very understandable. But you know, basically what you're saying, Matt, too, is you know, you look at these other sports, uh, you know, you look at soccer, you look at volleyball, you look at basketball, you look at hockey, you look at any of these other sports, pretty much the same kind of a player, you know, and it's a skill-based sport, right? You know, if you want to be good at basketball, if you dribble more and shoot more, you're probably gonna be pretty good, right? Same in hockey. You you want you want to become a better hockey player, you handle the puck more, you skate more, you shoot more. Now, you have some that are better at defending, you have some being better skilled when it comes to being able to get the puck into the net. You know, you have those kind of variances, but you got to be able to put the ball in the net, the puck in the net, put the ball over the net. You got the same skill sets. Everybody's doing the exact same thing, right? Whereas in football, there's so many different positions and so many different variables per position. For example, if we just look at a quarterback, you know, you can have a tall quarterback, a short quarterback, a wide one, a thin one, and any combination of those, you can have a quarterback that's a runner, one that's a thrower, one that's both, you know, and even with the thrower, you know, you have some that have a strong arm, some that don't, you have some that are really accurate, some aren't. But being able to make, you know, have a spot for them and design a system to their strength and their skill set is like the other part of the beauty of like this this chess game, right? Which I, you know, again, you when you talk about being an inclusive sport, you know, it, you know, we're seeing it now with flag football and how that's how that's exploding. But even with a flag, you know, you have you know some limitations. You know, it's starting that's more of a a basketball kind of thing, right? You know, you gotta be able to run, you catch, and you can defend. Well, you'll probably be pretty good at flag football.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

You have your eyes on the Olympics?

SPEAKER_04 27:53

Say it again?

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Come coming out of retirement for the Olympics or what?

SPEAKER_04 27:57

Man, listen, no. And if I did, you know what? I would actually try to play for Canada. There you go. Okay. Canada US. That would be pretty that would that would be pretty cool. But you know, I'm I'm good where I'm at, man. I I had a good career and I enjoyed him. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:28

I'm all right. Sounds like you did to me. My gosh. Like when you go and you I mean, there's another great thing Matt had to ask here, like transitioning, you know, you went from player to thinker, you went from student of the game to to now the like a coach. And you you've got all this world data that you've kind of collected going all around the world. So, like, in your opinion, whether you want to make this a quick hot take or really take the next 20 minutes to explain, it's up to you. But like, what data do you think matters the most in football?

SPEAKER_04 28:59

You talk you're literally talking to a geek. I love data.

SPEAKER_03 29:02

So I love the question that Matt put there, so I had to ask it. I was like, that's a great question.

SPEAKER_04 29:07

Yeah, I mean, there's so there's so much, there's so many data fields and football that, you know, it all kind of just depends on you know how you're looking at it. But I I really enjoy, you know, I'm still a student of the game, even as a coach, and you know, I was a very cerebral player. I really, I really enjoy the chess match, I really enjoy the teaching aspect, I really enjoy hyper-defining things, you know, being able to break things down. What does this mean? What's this terminology? And how do you execute it, and then when do you execute it? And then now we get into the tools of like what you can use to be better and more efficient at executing it, right? And taking that from a micro level and that hyper definition to the you know the bigger macro on the entire schematic, and then ultimately in the in the game. But I mean, when you ask that question, man, that's a load of question. Like, as are we looking at this as like an opponent scout? Are we looking at this as, you know, as a fan trying to, you know, watch and enjoy and interpret the game?

SPEAKER_00 30:04

So this is another thing that I believe, and you know what, people might have other people, other big fans of other sports might have, you know, might disagree with me, but obviously I'm biased towards football. But I think coaching has the biggest impact in football than any other sport there is. We we we see it all time and time again that even uh NFL caliber coaches uh struggle when it comes to clock management, when it comes to you know when to start running the ball and when to start throwing the ball, right? It's things like that that you know so I guess for me it's like how do you as a coach take the data and and then use it to kind of get your team ready and so you're talking about game time, just game time. So it's it's game planning, yeah. Like it's game planning, okay. It's it's a it's a whole thing. I don't I think people who don't because you get the saying all the time, it's like oh football, stupid football, but it's not listen, man.

The Chess Match: Data, Tendencies, And Game Plans

SPEAKER_04 31:05

I don't mean to cut you off, but you don't hit a pain point. Let me tell you. So this is something, you know, being a coordinator or a head coach at a of a football team, you know, you were essentially and can run Fortune 500 company. You are doing everything that these companies want. And a CEO, you know, you talk about, I mean, if we go down a list of like things, skill sets that you would need when it comes to managing people, presentations, building reports, project management, any of these things. It's so much more. There's so much there. Just in the managerial side, and not even including the workload side. So, you know, we when when you talk about like how do we do this, you know, when you look in the business side and they talk about SWOT analysis, right? We're we're doing the same thing, right? And building reports. So now we're also looking at what are our strengths, what are our weaknesses, what's our opponent's strengths, what are their weaknesses, what are their tendencies, what are ours, how do these things match up? So, you know, we we take this information in and we analyze what they're doing. You know, for example, let's say we're on, we're on offense, we look at a defense, we want to know when we line up, we present a formation, you know, how how how many people we have on the side or whatever, what's the reaction of defense? Do they give us just one reaction? Do they give us one and two, or do they give us a 1A, one B, two A, two B? Like, what are the options that we're gonna see when we're lined up like this? And then if we move somebody, what happens to that defensive structure? You know, do they bring somebody with us? Do they bump people over? Do they bring another person down? So now we get into the point of like, how can we manipulate them? And then based off of that, now we're looking at, okay, what are they good at? You know, who are their stronger players? What coverages do they like? What kind of pressures or blitzes do they like bringing? And then you get into even deeper stuff. Now it's like based on down and distance, you know, is it P and 10 or first and 10, P being in possession, you know, after a terminal down or transition turnover of the ball? Is it, you know, the mid-game, you know, second and mid being four to seven? Is it short game, you know, two to three? Is it, you know, goal line? Is it, you know, then you get into like now where they're at on the field because the way a team, you know, performs being what we call backed up, meaning their back is to their end zone and they have the field to drive versus being in the middle of the field versus being what we would call like the fringe, you know, where they're in that kind of field goal range or in the red zone area. You know, how do they how do they act and and move according to where they're at on the field? Then pair that with the down and distance. So the situation, how much time is on the clock, then you get in the personnel, you know, who do they like having on the field? And when they have, you know, these people on the field, what are they like doing with those people? You know, if they bring in a Travis Kelsey, is he a guy that just blocks? Or is he a guy that runs routes and catches the ball? Does he do both? Which one is the biggest thing?

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Travis Kelsey doesn't block.

SPEAKER_04 34:02

Well, exactly. There you go. Travis Kelsey ain't blocking. And so we know he comes in, so they're gonna throw the ball, but they bring in the other tight end, he's more or less gonna be the guy that blocks, right? So you know, it's being able to figure out these things, but from the defensive side or the offensive side, depending on the side of the ball you are, construct their identity. And then now it's like, okay, based on their identity, here's what we can attack, and here's how we can attack it with who we have, how we can dress things up, how we can disguise things, protect things, and being able to build plays off of that. So, I mean, there's you know, and when you go through all of that, you know, there's scripting, there's reporting. We we run reports, we run multiple reports daily. We have multiple presentations daily. We have multiple, you could say board meetings daily. This is like, again, if people could spend a day or even a week with you know, a coach at a university level or higher, like it's a lot. It's a lot, and and it's really cool, don't get me wrong, but it there's a lot. You know, you even get into like some of the things, you know, engineers use uh video or or some sort of drawing tool and how precise and accurate these drawing tools are. We use those as well.

SPEAKER_00 35:18

You know what? And so like you listen to that kind of like detailed rant of all the different things that go into the game, into one game, into the thought process of the game. And this is what I find, and this is what I love about football, is like you hear the comic complaint about how like little action football actually has. But here's the thing when you understand the game of football, a whole bunch is going on before the ball is snapped. And when you're looking at it, and when they're lining up and they're kind of moving around the pieces and everything, anyone understands the game? That's action to us. Like, that is action. You're sitting there watching, you're like, oh, look, this guy's now here. I bet you this is where he's going. Like, watch their targeting that guy. They're gonna this is all of that goes into the guessing game of trying to read the offense and the defense, and that's part of the fun when you understand the game. It's not, but everyone thinks the seven to ten seconds that happens after the ball is snapped is the action. And it's really not, right?

SPEAKER_01 36:21

No, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:23

And I mean, and then on top of that, the really cool thing about it is is like understanding uh how to game manage a game, right? You know, I'm a Patriots fan, second generation Patriots fan, so I'm not on a bandwagon either, right? And the it's it's one of those things where like I just watched a Patriots game where they had a nine-minute drive and didn't score. That is a successful drive. When you're in the lead, that's exactly what you want. I mean, you want to score, obviously. Like that's obviously the cherry on top, but but if you can kill nine minutes in a game while you have possession of the ball and you have the lead, that is a successful drive, right? Yeah, yeah, for sure. It might people might look at it and they might go, oh, they didn't score. They didn't get any points on the board. That's you know, what's that? It's like what that is is almost a quarter gone and they have the lead.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

Right.

Clock Management And Hidden Strategy

SPEAKER_00 37:14

Right? It's it's clock management seems to be also like, and you, I don't know, Mikey, you might disagree with me, but clock management seems to be something that NFL coaches struggle with still. It's a hard, hard thing to know when when to do it and like you know, when to like when to run the ball and when not to. I actually think during the Texans Patriots game, I think they actually started running the ball all the time, like too frequently, too soon in the game. When I was watching it, I was like, they're trying to they're they're running the they're running the ball like they think the game is almost over, and it's not kind of thing. It was still like four minutes left in the third, and it's like there's a lot of football left, and you don't have that much of a lead. So get get two scores on the board and start doing that kind of thing, right? Yeah. So I don't know. This is the game. This is the the cool thing about it, right? It's it's uh this is the uh this is the thing I could I could talk about it all all day too, but I just know that you I know you're a data guy, I know you like to take kick that thing, and I I like talking football, so maybe some of our casual listeners who who are tuning in might be like this is way too much football talk, but I don't know. I I'm also trying to sell it to to people because I mean it's a it's a it's a great game, it's all welcoming, and if people like gave it a fair shot, I think they'd love it a lot more than they would even really realize. So yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 38:33

I mean, before you I guess we move on, you you know, you had mentioned something at the very beginning of that, and you said, you know, the these this you know dumb football players, and I you know, I think if again, you know, if I could say anything about like the level of intellect that you have to have for this game, it's it's different than any other sport that's out there. The amount of verbiage, we speak our own language, literally. Yeah, um, we have our own culture. We have like it's it's very different. You know, you get into you know a game or you're on a team and you know, you come in and you have a playbook that's you know 400 and something pages, right? Full of information that you have to know. You know, some people could say memorize, you know, I'm more on the side of like understanding the concepts, and then you'll be you know better in that aspect. But like, you know, terminology and like you know, we call a play, and it's just like you know, like the verbiage, you know, and sometimes it could be very long play calls, and other times it can be something short and more implicit, but there's still a lot of information in there, and and when people can understand that or kind of see that, then they would get a much better appreciation for football as a whole and and the athletes themselves.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Yeah. And I mean, this kind of naturally kind of rolls into the next thing and which that I want to talk about, is like along with the coaching and mentoring and and you know, the the the great things that kind of come along with football, but you've really outside of just like having a family here, you've really kind of laid roots because you've done a lot for the community and some and our youth in Halifax with you know the elite flag, like stuff that you were putting on and a lot of the coaching you were going on. Like, why don't you talk a little bit about what it means to kind of be that guy for for youth and and giving them a you know an outlet?

Language, Playbooks, And Football IQ

SPEAKER_04 40:31

Yeah, I mean that that was uh a branch from Battle X. Battle X again was more one-on-one small group, and and again, being being able to have a holistic approach to the sport and the sports itself. Again, it was more than training, it was more than the X and O's, you know, there was leadership development in there, there was personal development, you know, wrapped up in there. There was a there was a lot, right? But then it was like, okay, how can I how can I reach more of these athletes, you know, because I only have there's only so many days or out or so much time in a day. I can only have so many athletes at a time. But how can I create something that can reach more and impact more of these athletes? And that's where Lead Eight came in. So Elite Eight is the passing, basically a passing league. So everything you see in football when they're throwing the football is is basically something that we created into a league. But more than just a play. At the time, I didn't really care for creating something for athletes to just play. For me, playing and not knowing what I'm doing is not fun. And I also wanted this as a developmental piece. So, you know, this was something where if they can learn and understand these concepts and what's happening, that they can take this with them in their transition to the university level or even at their high school or minor where they can just be better, right? And uh, so I finally put together a way of having this league play that's developmental. So, for example, we had cards, you know, we would show pictures, you know, before every play for offense and defense that explained exactly what they were doing, what these routes were, what the concept names were, how deep they had to go, what they had to do versus certain coverages, you know, if you're on the defensive side, you know, what's your responsibility is, what's your progression, where are your eyes going, how do you get there? And, you know, we were able to create basically a developmental camp prior to the league starting. It was all kind of in one. So they would come in, uh, we'd have a bit of a combine to teach them, you know, the combine movements and events. Then we transitioned from that into uh we call the install. So we we talked about, well, before the install, we actually did a skills camp. So now we taught them all the movements for offense and defense. Everybody did both sides. Then we got into the install where everybody did both sides. So even if you were playing quarterback, you had experience on the defensive side of the ball in a coverage, in different coverages. So now as a quarterback, you go back to offense, you now have a better understanding of when this coverage is called and when you see this coverage, what they're trying to do with that, you know. So we did that for all of the positions, and then we went into a true, you know, side of the ball kind of install where if you were a quarterback or a receiver, you just did that. And we worked on concepts. If you were a defender, we worked just on your coverages. We had a mop game, we had teams made, and then it was league play with the coaches having the cards for each of the plays. So it was it was extremely beneficial. It was a lot of fun, it was a lot of great action. It was extremely competitive. And when you can get something that's competitive, fun, and developmental, those three things typically don't aren't in the same sentence when you're talking about a league, right? You know, typically if you're in something that's developmental, it's not really competitive or it's not fun, right? Or if you're in a fun league, well, it's not developmental or it's not competitive. Or if you're in a competitive league, it's not fun or it's not developmental. So to be able to have all three of those indicators being hit was really cool. And then the amount of athletes that we had that went on to continue playing high school and did really well, and then those that went on to the university level and got there and was like, hey, I actually know this stuff. And they've learned a lot of it from being with us was really cool. And I think it was really eye-opening. And you never know. It's like when you go to the gym, right? And you're lifting weights and you're doing all this thing. You never know when it's gonna show until you realize that it actually showed. You know, that consistency, that time that 42 is still hasn't showed yet, man. Right?

SPEAKER_03 44:39

Well, well, keep going though. One day, one day I'll be like, ah one day, right?

SPEAKER_04 44:43

So you know, just you gotta stick with it, right? And then one day it'll be there. So, you know, to see those athletes get that aha moment is also, you know, obviously a lot of fun, right? So yeah. And then it went from that, branched from that into you know, real life. That like I wanted to be able to help coaches. You know, coaches are going to have more reach and more impact on the players that they have. And, you know, I also identified a gap in coaching development. It's not a regulated industry. So people were just learning from others or trying to figure it out on their own. So if I could have, you know, for me, if I was able to provide some sort of structure and guidelines on, you know, the coaching philosophies in addition to the schematics and all that kind of stuff, that's what I wanted to do. And I did, and I found that to be a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 45:29

That's awesome. And I on top of that, too, because I mean, one thing I wanted to cover off is like why representation matters. So I mean, you've done a like work with like free like football camps and with for like you know black Nova Scotian communities, and yeah, you've worked with some like like black wellness and things like that. So like how do you like what why did that matter to you to kind of do that stuff here in Nova Scotia?

Lead Eight: A Developmental Passing League

SPEAKER_04 45:55

Well, because that that's me, you know, and I and I feel that there is you know, Black Wellness Code, BWC, the the black communities out there, the indigenous communities, and even Halifax is a whole Halifax Dartmouth, the whole HRM, really accepted me as somebody like if I was one of theirs, which I'm forever grateful for. But representation does matter. But I think good and quality representation matters even more. You know, you can't just have a spot for a black person and they're not good enough, right? But they're there. That doesn't look good for us as the blacks, right? But being able to have, being able to be there and show them, like, hey, you know, you can come from these situations and you can do something positive with it. You know, we have to be great just to be considered good, you know, and that sometimes is is an unfortunate truth. But, you know, it's things that I I currently live that I I have to be that way. I have to be a certain way because I don't have the space to slack and I can't. I can't give anybody that excuse. I'm damn sure not going to give myself that excuse. But, you know, it's something that, you know, obviously develops character and develops resilience. And, you know, being able to keep putting one foot in front of the other is it's hard. It's hard, and you know, it's a lot harder when things are stacked up against you and you don't have the resources or the opportunity to be able to do those things. So again, being able to go in those communities and say, hey, here's another option for you. Hey, you have somebody that has your back. It's hard to reach out. It's hard to ask, ask for help, you know, and I'm that's something I'm literally going through right now. You know, I had a call earlier today with with a buddy of mine that was like, hey man, like I need to lean on you. Like, I actually need some help. And I've always been the one people came to. And again, I didn't have, or at least didn't think or know that I had somebody that I could lean on. And like, man, I I literally broke down crying, asking for help. Because it was the first time I like actually had to do it. And like, man, what a fucking relief knowing that somebody says, hey man, you can lean on me. I got your back. Like, that's that's cool, you know. And and you know, it's something you mentioned earlier, Matt, you know, and that's something that I absolutely love about football. And it's something I miss, and you know, not even just football, I think any sports, but you know, throwing touchdowns and all that stuff is cool. But the things I miss is being in the huddle with the guys during crunch time, being in the locker room with the guys, being in the weight room with the guys, you know, going through that grind. You know, when you share life experiences and and tough experiences with people and you overcome them, you know, those are people that end up being like lifelong friends, right?

SPEAKER_00 48:27

Yeah. 100%. No, I couldn't echo that yeah, anymore.

SPEAKER_03 48:35

We're throwing them at you. You're just hitting them back pretty quick. Yeah, man. Throw them out, man.

SPEAKER_00 48:38

Yeah, yeah. I mean, and and I I think, I mean, we'll we'll move into our 10 questions here shortly, but it's like uh, you know, these are kind of like the the 10 rapid fire questions kind of thing. But I think like it's one of those things where it's going into some of these underrepresented communities are a big thing to show that there is something else out there that you can do to kind of, you know, it's one of those things sometimes you just need something to do, right? And to show a different way, to show a different life. I mean, I'm actually currently re-watching Friday Night Lights, and man, like such a great show, and it's just one of those things where you watch it and you just it just it shows that where it's like the these underrepresented communities where they think they have nothing or they think that everyone around them is pretty much given up on them, and you have this coach that's like, no, you got talent and you're worth more than what your society is telling you, right? It's important, it's really important.

SPEAKER_04 49:39

Yeah. It is, and I mean, you know, having external shots of confidence definitely helps and helps you build up that internal confidence, right? And that's something, you know, when when I talk about, you know, my journey of growing up, you know, I I didn't know I was good. I never thought I was actually good. I didn't know if I was fast or not. You know, everybody in Florida is fast, so I'm thinking I'm slow. I mean, it wasn't until, honestly, until I got to college. And even then, I didn't know if I was gonna play college football. I was small, I'm a 5'10 quarterback, and in an era where being a short block athletic quarterback wasn't like a thing like how it is now. But I realized quickly what my strengths were and the things that I could control. I was I knew I wasn't gonna get any taller, I wasn't gonna get much bigger. I could only get as fast as I could or as strong as I could, but the one thing I knew that couldn't be tapped was how much I understood when it comes to processing. So, you know, my competition, I I literally just out outsmarted and outwilled my competition. That was it. You know? So, you know, at the end of the day, you know, for coaches that, you know, that this is their livelihood, they want production. So if you're scoring touchdowns and winning games, that's all they kind of care about. You know what I mean? So for me, it was like, I don't I don't care who this guy is, who his dad was, and all this kind of stuff. If I can put the ball in these guys' hands faster, more efficient, and score more points, you know, get more first down, score more touchdowns, and win more ball games, that's it. And once I do that, just don't come out the game. Right? Like, right. And that's kind of what uh, you know, that's that's what it was for me. So, you know, talk about being a student in the game. Like this when I'm sharing this stuff with athletes and with coaches, yes, this is coming from my lived experience, but that experience like helped perpetuate my career, man. If I again, I'm not an impressive guy when you stand next to me. I'm like the dude next door. I'm again a 5'10 guy, right? But that muscle here was what made it. And then it was like, okay, from there, now I can refine, you know, my skill set to match the processing part.

Coaching The Coaches And Building Standards

SPEAKER_00 51:46

Well, I mean, probably the top 10 best quarterbacks that we've ever seen in the NFL are probably the smartest quarterbacks that we've seen, realistically. They're not always the most gifted, gifted people, right? You can sit there and argue that there's a lot of great, or some really, really great football quarterbacks that are athletically impressive haven't won anything, right? And uh, and sometimes struggle to win, not just, you know, you can say that you haven't won a Super Bowl, but I mean, like sometimes struggle to get to the playoffs or strum to struggle to win a playoff game, or the smartest ones, it's the it's you're right. That that brain muscle is the one that they work the most, right?

SPEAKER_04 52:22

And that and that's a and that's one of those skill sets that can't be evaluated. There's no, you don't see that on the film. You know, you get that, and then you get all the other soft skills. You know, you talk about you know, guys being physically gifted or even also having the mental processing, but still not being able to get to a certain level of excellence. And then that comes down to the soft skills. How do you communicate with your teammates? How do you communicate with your players? How do you communicate with the coaches? You know, and that was something that I also prided myself on, the accountability aspect. If a guy showed up to practice, I was the first one there to be like, hey man, we got a standard here. Like you're either here or you're not. When I used to think I was an asshole. So I went through this kind of process, you know, as I was getting older, and you know, I'd reach back to some of my former teammates and coaches and be like, hey, you know, I'm sorry. Like, sorry for being an asshole and blah, blah, blah. And, you know, the response I got back, man, was like absolutely unreal. You know, and and one of the there was two movies I saw. One recently, it's slipping my mind right now, but the the previous one was the the Michael Jordan one.

SPEAKER_03 53:24

The documentary on Netflix?

SPEAKER_04 53:26

Yeah, Last Dance. Yeah, yeah, that's amazing, eh? I mean cried the entire movie.

SPEAKER_01 53:30

Dude, dude.

SPEAKER_04 53:31

Because I'm like I'm like, man, is that is that me? Like, obviously I'm not Michael Jordan, but like, you know, how he was thought to be like an asshole, but he just demanded excellence and he didn't demand anything more from his teammates than he gave himself, right? Him, Kobe Bryant, all these cats, right? So for me, like I had to do all the right things. And this goes back into like having to be great in order to be considered good and you know, all of these kind of things, right? So, you know, in the classroom, in the community, in the weight room, like all of these things, I had to make sure I was fucking squeaky clean. Because if I tried to call you out and you say, oh man, you just got drunk yesterday, man. Shut up. What can I say, right? I can I can't do that. Or if I try to get on you and you tell me I was late, well, you know what I mean? My hands are tied. But if I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be doing and I'm producing, and then I come at you like, hey man, you cannot be late again. It carries weight very differently, right?

SPEAKER_00 54:26

So that's leadership, though. You can take that into the workplace.

SPEAKER_03 54:29

Like, I'm listening to this whole conversation, honestly. Uh Micah, not as a football guy, just as I watch the game, I'll be watching the Super Bowl, and I'll just be eating. That'll be my favorite part about it. Like, you know, the food. But but but you know, all the same, like I'm listening to so many great leadership things you've said here today. That good, that being good just to be great, or being great just to be uh good, gosh, it's a hard, bitter pill to swallow, but it's so true, and I never heard it before. And it's unfortunate that it's true, right? For for a lot of folks, but man, that really hits the CEO-like leadership in the game to when it's game time. You gotta make all those quick decisions, like you're telling me today. Everything tells me today, this feels like an entrepreneur show that we've done in the past in so many ways. Like, you know, you really are carving your own path, and you're teaching uh young folks how to do that, man. So kudos to you. I gotta, I I I said this the first time we tried to do the episode. I'm gonna say it again. Matt wanted you on our show since we started doing this podcast. You were on the wish list, and I was like, Who's that? And he's like, This is my football coach and all this, yeah. And I I just think it's totally cool. I mean, it took us a long time to press out of this conversation, but I I very much appreciate it. So thank you so much. Matt, do you got anything else or should we get to the big uh the 10 dumb questions? It should be they're probably gonna be football questions this time because Matt wrote them. We take turns right into questions, so I I don't know what I'm gonna be saying here, so probably for the most part. Okay, I can understand this one. I'll start I'll kick them off, Matt.

SPEAKER_00 55:56

You're doing odds? Okay, I'll do evens.

SPEAKER_03 55:58

Okay, but and okay, so favorite European country you played in? And why? Helsinki. What was it?

Representation, Community Work, And Asking For Help

SPEAKER_04 56:05

The ladies? What was the reason? Oh, my wife was with me. It wasn't that, but like man, Helsinki was just the it was a vibe, man. Like everything that you could think about being great in Canada, yeah, times 10 in Helsinki, you know, even down to the to the to the fish, the seafood, like the sushi, the salmon, the saunas, the way people enjoy life, the the quality of the beer, you know, everybody, there's no there's no judgment there.

SPEAKER_03 56:31

Like what's language in Helsinki?

SPEAKER_04 56:35

English. English?

SPEAKER_05 56:36

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 56:38

I know that one, yeah. I would actually say Finnish. They speak Spanish there, which is you know, uh very, very different. So like if I was to say hi and Finnish, it would be Moy Moy. But in in Finland, what I found really fascinating, I remember walking down the street, like the shopping area, and I look back because I'm hearing English. I'm like, oh, who is this? And it's two Finnish people walking down the street speaking English. And I'm like, why are they doing that? And I was like, oh, I gotta stop them. So this is me being out going. I was like, excuse me, are you both Finnish? They're like, yeah. And I'm like, okay, why are y'all speaking English? They're like, ah, it's just easier to translate in English, or we just communicate in English instead of trying to translate some stuff and Finnish. And it's just easier. We like it better. And I found that almost everybody there was like that.

SPEAKER_03 57:24

That's a chill response. I like that. Uh, you know, I like that. I like how relaxed that response is.

SPEAKER_00 57:28

I will also say that if you if you pay attention to Finnish hockey players, they're the ones that you cannot hear an accent in versus any other country.

SPEAKER_01 57:40

Really?

SPEAKER_00 57:41

Yeah. You can't they they lose their accent, they they sound like North American. Weird. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. Cool. All right, number two, buddy. Question number two. In your opinion, what's the hardest position to coach on the on the grid iron?

SPEAKER_01 58:03

Defensive backs.

SPEAKER_00 58:04

The most athletic guys in the field.

SPEAKER_04 58:06

And I coach them currently. The the quarterbacks, I don't necessarily find that hard. I mean, there's a for me, I find it a very simple process. But from the defensive backs, they are just as intelligent, if not more intelligent, than a quarterback needs to be. They have so much that they have to process from being so far away from the ball, and they are the most exposed. If they make a mistake, oh, it's gonna show. Like big time, right? Yeah. But there's a lot of information from the defensive back that you you have to do in addition to the physical stuff. But I would say defensive backs.

SPEAKER_01 58:38

Okay. All right. All right. Question number three.

SPEAKER_03 58:42

Question number three. I'll give you an A or B here. You can give me either the craziest football story you can think of quickly or the craziest game. Get into the game, the craziest situation where you didn't think you were gonna make it to a game on time. A or B.

SPEAKER_04 58:55

I got a couple of those.

SPEAKER_03 58:57

Yeah, I'm sure you do. Yeah. So give me a lot of things.

SPEAKER_04 59:00

I didn't think I was gonna make it to the game. Okay, so we were in Germany. This was 2013. I was hospitalized from food. I had food poison. I lost a bunch of weight. I'm in the hospital in Germany with an IV in my arm. What you eat? Some bad chicken wings. Yeah, at a it was at a Mexican restaurant in Germany. And it was, man, I was hurting. So I'm in the hospital, I got an IV in, and we're at this position in the season where we have to win this game to make it to the playoffs. Man, and they're getting ready, we're getting ready to go into, obviously, it's going into the weekend. So the doctors don't work on the weekend, so they would have kept me there. So my wife is there, me and Kelly, and I'm just like, like, what's gonna happen? So she's Googling how to take this IV out because we didn't know you could just pull it out. So she's Googling it, like YouTube and it. So we're like, fuck it. So she had my bags packed. She helps me, she takes the IV out. We sneak out the hospital, we hop on the bus. Literally, as it was taken off, seven-hour bus ride down to Munich, excuse me, Sar Sarbrugin or Sar Louis, and uh go down there. I again I'm on the bus, I'm like dying profusely, sweating, cold sweats, all the things. We get there, it's hot now, but I'm like freezing, I got this jacket on, and I'm just kind of like in the stands while the game is happening, and like things aren't going too well. So I'm like, oh my God. Like, I think I might actually have to dress and suit up. So I go in the locker room at halftime. We come out, I come out, I didn't even have a warm-up. We go in, I get in there for like four plays. We had three touchdowns. I get out in the fourth quarter, the other guy goes back in and we win the game, and that was it. So that was true. That was crazy. Amazing. Uh another crazy one playing arena football. So one of my best friends, I call him my brother. He played with me in Europe for a number of years. We started our football journey together in Odessa, West Texas, playing arena football. And arena football is played in a hockey rink. They throw turf over, kind of like the the uh how they do with the Thunderbirds with the lacrosse there. They throw you know turf on top of the ice, they got pads on the walls, and they got the slack nets up to for the rebound for the ball to come off the net, right? So when you're throwing an arena, it's it's very different. So, Matt, you'd understand this. You know how we know what a post route is.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:21

So post route, you throw it on the same side the guy is. Well, in arena football, you throw the post on the opposite side of the rink.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:29

Okay.

Leadership That Travels Beyond Sport

SPEAKER_04 1:01:30

Because the the way the rink is, the dimensions, right? So you're throwing it over here and he has to go get it. So anyway, I take a drop back, I let the ball go, it's a post route, and my guy runs, he jumps up, catches it over the corner, and like the way the arena in West Texas is, the corner of the bleacher was like overhanging the roundness of the rink a bit. And man, he got folded, and like my heart dropped. I'm like, I literally killed my receiver. And then the refs is looking over there, and the ref throws his hands up, and then the refs waving for the EMT and the ambulance to come over. We look over, and then my buddy pops up. You see him kind of shake his head, and then he does like some little dance, and then he falls down. That was absolutely crazy. And then the same guy, last story, same guy, we're in Germany. This is in this is in Germany. This one's 2014. Man, I throw a dig route, which is uh, you know, 15-yard in route, throwing the ball, he catches it as soon as he turns around. Let me let me back up. So this is when these new helmets came out. So this was like the the Rydell. What's that? What's that big helmet that they got now?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:46

Oh, yeah, the one with yeah, the prevent the concussions or whatever. I can't remember what's called. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:51

Anyway, this new helmet, super, so they sent it and they sent the wrong size. So it was a one size too big. So he had to wear it though, because the other one wasn't in. So inside they got these things where you could pump it up. So it's all inflated, you know, to protect them. Runs this route, catches this ball, turns, and gets smacked. He gets smacked so hard, the helmet literally stoots off his head. And I'm talking about, I kid you not, this helmet went like 20 feet in the air. And you can just hear the crowd just and then the helmet just falls and just kind of lingers. And yeah, anyway, I've never seen anything like that a day in my life. Just the helmet, just the way it just shot off his head. And he was alright, didn't have a concussion. He had to come off the field for three plays, came back on, and did fine. Those are my three kind of credences.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:40

Great. All right. Jeez, okay, those are good ones. So question number four. I'm gonna give you four offensive positions, and I want you to assign an animal that would best suit those positions. So quarterback, receiver, running back, and O-line.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:58

O-line, grizzly bear, running back, a cougar, a mountain lion, a receiver, a cheetah, okay, okay, and quarterback.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:08

What's a really, really, really intelligent animal? Chimpanzee, my coach said.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:18

Chimpanzee, all right, there you go.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:20

That's good. A good answer, yeah. All right, next one. Favorite song to run on the field to? An easy one. What's something you're listening to these days when you're getting uh getting your laps in?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:34

That's a good question.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:36

It just kind of depends on the on the mood. I don't know. When I was playing, I was in very much uh slow jams kind of RB style. I love that, slow down the heart rate, the tempo, and enjoy that. Then there's other times where you know I need I got one. I got one. If I was coming out of a tunnel and going to hit the field, the Seven Nations Army. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that would be that would be one.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:02

All right, question number six. So what's scarier starting a business or having a D-lineman coming at you unblocked?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:14

A D-lineman by far.

Rapid Fire: Travel, Positions, Music, And Stories

SPEAKER_03 1:05:16

What's scarier to death or starting a business? That's most pretty much what that sounds like to me. Right. Yeah. What NFL team did you grow up cheering on? And is it the same team today? Was it the Chiefs? Yes. The life who told us that.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:33

My little guy Jackson, he's uh dubbed as Minnie Mahomes.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:36

He looks like a man. Oh my god, it's like a short version of him. It's crazy. Yeah, that's true. That's very true. All right, question number eight. So, what's the most important advice someone starting a business should know?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:03

Make sure you're passionate, make sure you're passionate about it.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:09

It's one of those things that you know, people say, you know, if you do something you love, you never work a day in your life.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:19

That's a lie.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:21

If you're doing something you love, you're gonna work even harder at it. Okay. Make sure you're passionate about it because it's gonna take a lot of work.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:30

I like that. Yeah, 100%. I don't disagree with that. Question number nine. Super Bowl is February 8th, right? Yeah. Correct? Yeah. So this set this episode is gonna be coming out on February 3rd. So that's perfect. So for this question. So who's gonna win the Super Bowl this Sunday?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:46

What kind of answer do I give here? It's gonna be the team that can process the information and execute the The fastest, the most efficient in limiting turnovers.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:03

We're looking for a day, Michael. We're looking for a day. Who's it gonna be? Give us a team, please. Come on, you gotta just say one team. If you're if you it and then we'll we'll see if you're right Sunday. Come on. Just just gotta.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:13

Oh, I gotta sit back on that.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:17

I'll get my sports betting app out too, so don't get don't be wrong, please. I figure you know the game better than I do. You know what? Like I I would say, man, that's hard.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:27

Sam Donald's awesome. But I got I think I think the Patriots might have this one, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:32

No way! Okay, let's go. You know what? I was gonna give you respect just for even thinking and pondering about it because everyone's like, oh, the Patriots are getting steamrolled. But respect. All right, respect.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:45

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:46

I and I really like the Seahawks, man.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:49

Thanks for answering it. All right, let's see. Uh number 10 back.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:52

Question number 10. So this is a little bit more serious one, but with all the chaos that's going on down south of the border, what advice that you, a American-born Canadian, would like to pass on to our Canadian-American listeners?

SPEAKER_01 1:08:10

That's a heavy question, Matt. It's a heavy question. That's loaded. It's the last question, so we had to go heavy. You know what? I'm I'm circling this back to everything we've been talking about.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:24

Leadership, teamwork, those sorts of things, right? Passion, being great, you know, having a certain level of excellence. These are things that we I think we all can understand and really take in. Not only will we be better countries individually, but we can be a better community together. You know, does it take a lot of work? Yes. You know, and it takes accountability. People got to be able to hold their own, but we also got to be able to support one another and we got to be able to move in the same direction. Sometimes that's parallel, and other times, you know, that's being able to hold each other's hands. But, you know, if we want to be better and we want to grow, we want this thing to, you know, we want to be able to thrive as people. We got to be able to do shit the right way and we got to be able to communicate and hold each other accountable and and do it together.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:08

I like the moving in the right direction part. 100%. You know, I mean, yeah, moving together, right? I mean 100%. It's it's it's sad to see. We want Americans to be our friends. I love America. I love visiting America. I want to go back there, right? I haven't seen uh I haven't seen Nashville yet. I want to go or no, I've seen Nashville. I haven't seen uh Las Vegas yet. I want to do uh I want to do the Hunter S. Thompson thing, you know, where you drive down desert highway and like a convertible. I always thought that'd be really cool to try. So but they gotta make the peace down there first, right? I don't like seeing this ice stuff. It's not fun, right? It's not not the America I grew up loving. As a Canadian, we grew up loving America, right? Like and uh uh idolizing it. We wanna we want that America back again. The one the one that was the place where we all wanted to live and be where we grew up as Canadians, right? So hope we get that. I really do. Great answer. Great answer.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:57

Sobin wanted to take last call.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:59

Yeah, so you've already helped so many.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:02

You know what?

SPEAKER_04 1:10:03

This is uh this is a really good ass question. And it might not be the answer that people would be expecting. What am I still gonna do to be able to help people around me and help me impact them? I can't say this this is a still because this is something I've never done, really. But now I need to help myself so that way I can be there to help others. Yeah, I gotta be able to do for me, I gotta be able to pull myself back together. You know, my my my personal development, my growth, my health, my mental health, my like it's all about me. And I and I have to say it that way. And I'm not even apologizing if it sounds selfish. If it does, it fucking does. I need to be, I need to do for me so that way I can, you know, help others and be there for others.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:57

Bro, listen, here's the thing. They tell you in an airplane, put your air mask on before start helping other people, right? There's something to be said about that, right? You can't help people if you're suffocating, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:11:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:10

So no, I I totally, totally agree with that. So cheers to that and cheers to you, Micah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:16

It was an honor to meet you, man. I hope to do this in person next time, right? I don't like the Zoom calls as much, but this is this has been really nice getting to know you, man. So next time you're in Halifax, you got a little extra time, ring us up and we'll see if you were right on that Super Bowl, dude.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:29

Yeah, that sounds good, man. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:31

We can end this, we'll end this on this and we'll see if you get it. Clear eyes, full hearts.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:38

I know this one, but I don't know. Can't lose. Can't clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. Who's that?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:46

That's just what they said on uh on Friday Night Lights. That was the Night Lights. Okay. Okay, cool. I was about to say, like, I heard this.

Advice For Entrepreneurs And A Super Bowl Pick

SPEAKER_03 1:11:55

I don't want to mess it up. All right. Well, anyways, guys, cheers. Cheers. Bye. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you guys. We're all done. That's like that. Yeah. Really nice meeting you, man. Uh, yeah, so uh