Athletic Fortitude Show
Athletes all over the world endure countless mental physical and psychological adversities over the course of their careers. We are here to bring you the solutions to those adversities with some of the top professional athletes, coaches, and sport and performance psychologists around the world!
Athletic Fortitude Show
Habakkuk Baldonado- From Italy to the NFL
We speak with Habakkuk Baldonado about his extraordinary journey from soccer-loving Italian teenager to NFL player, exploring how finding American football videos on YouTube changed the trajectory of his life.
• Growing up in Italy where soccer dominates, Baldonado realized he needed to find a different sport since professional soccer players are identified by age 12
• Watched "Here Comes the Boom" football highlights on YouTube which sparked his interest in the seemingly "insane" sport of football
• Made the decision to leave Italy at 17 to play high school football in Florida with what was initially planned as a six-month stay
• Received recruitment offers ranging from D3 to eventually top D1 programs
• Chose University of Pittsburgh partly because a coach challenged his toughness when he almost canceled a visit due to illness
• After an outstanding junior season with double-digit sacks and an ACC championship, made the difficult decision to return for his senior year
• Experienced challenges in his senior season including injuries, team performance issues, and fewer pass-rushing opportunities
• Went undrafted despite previous projections as a top-three round pick
• Currently playing in the CFL while maintaining his NFL aspirations
• Emphasizes the importance of understanding professional football as a business rather than just a sport
Welcome back to the show, everybody. Before we get to our guests, I have an exciting announcement to make. We're going to be rebranding the Athletic Fortitude Show into the playbook with Colin Jonov. Don't worry, going to be the same types of conversations, the same great messaging. We're just going to be expanding the type of people that we interview with. We want to make sure that we are hitting all walks of life, all stories from anybody who's achieved anything extraordinary. We want to be able to get their messaging to you so that you can learn from them, apply what they tell us in the show and then you can apply it into your own lives and achieve your own version of what extraordinary is. With that said, today's guest, habakuk Baldonado. Habakuk, welcome to the show, brother.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:Do you remember our first conversation as teammates? Probably not. It's probably insignificant.
Speaker 2:It's not. I wouldn't say it's insignificant, I just don't remember it.
Speaker 1:So the first thing, when I found out you were from Italy, that I asked you was why on earth did you not play soccer instead of football? And your response, honestly, has stuck with me. It was because you said if you weren't essentially labeled as a professional by 12 years old, that you didn't have a chance to play professional soccer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, that's just how it is in Italy. The sport Soccer, is the main sport around here, and kids start playing since they're like two or three years old. So by, like you know, the age of 14, 15, you already know if you're going to make it to a big team in a big league. And I was definitely not going to make it in Italy, maybe in the. Us but not in Italy, so I had to switch sport.
Speaker 1:Do you feel the pressure as a young kid knowing that, hey, if I'm, if I'm not one of the best in the world? At 14 years old, my professional dreams are shot?
Speaker 2:I wouldn't say so. The beautiful thing about soccer it's is that, even if you don't make it to the pros, it's a sport that you can play forever, like even kids that are not pros or adults. Maybe you go to the park, you just bring a soccer ball, you do a three on three and, you know, just have some fun, which with football you can't do you're not gonna bring hat and helmets to the park and just do a three on three.
Speaker 1:You know um so like what is the environment around, like youth soccer out there, like is it pretty in? I can imagine it's pretty intense yeah, there's a lot of competition.
Speaker 2:There's so many teams, so many um, so many opportunities. The the huge thing that is different between italy and the us is that we don't play sport in schools, so everybody plays club soccer, so we only have club teams after school, in the afternoon or whatever. And yeah, it's really competitive. There's a lot of parents that are really on top of their kids because you know they spend money. It's a pretty expensive sport and whatever you got to go run every weekend for the games, because it's many more games than just football. And then a lot of kids they just either go to private school for high school or some drop out of school third year high school.
Speaker 1:So because Was it pretty easy for you to identify like okay, like these guys are are different, like they're going to to play professional there's a couple guys I have not played to any guys that really made it big, but there's a couple guys that made it.
Speaker 2:they were pretty close and you can tell on the field yeah, like, since they're younger, like the, they move, the way they juggle and shoot or whatever, and you're like, yeah, that kid is good.
Speaker 1:Is it like a skill thing? Because I mean for our listeners, like Bob was like as athletic as it gets for a human being, so like, is it like a skill thing?
Speaker 2:Like what's the difference? Yeah, there's a lot involved because, depending on the position, there's a lot of skills involved in soccer. First, like you know, you're because you play a sport with your feet, not really with your hands, like football. So in my opinion, it's pretty hard to be able to run full speed, stop full speed and do all that while you have a ball between your feet and not get the ball taken and be able to score a goal. That's why it's such a low scoring game, because it's complicated, and at the top you can see that those people have some skills that nobody else in the world has.
Speaker 1:So I know you first started watching football on like Sky Sports. What was it about football where you're like, hey, maybe I could make a life or a career out of doing that when having never played before.
Speaker 2:You know, I never, I never started thinking, you know, I'm gonna make a career out of it, I'm gonna become pro. Like being pro was never a dream. Actually, when I started I knew I was like I knew it was impossible basically like a kid from italy making it pro in american football, where there's millions of kids that play in the us since they're peewee, you know, since they're five, six. So I only started playing for the love of it and I I started liking it because it was ridiculous. Honestly, I know everybody has seen that YouTube highlight tapes. Here comes the boom with all the big hits. You know everybody's seen it and I was looking at that and I'm like it just looks insane and I'm down for it, I want to do it. So I went ahead and found the team and started it it.
Speaker 1:So I went ahead and found the team and started. So when did you decide it was worth coming to America in order to pursue playing more?
Speaker 2:To be honest almost immediately. Well, I started when I was about 11, 12, lasted about a month. Not a lot of people know that, because the team was poor and my dad had to drive me there after work and stuff like that. So it was an expensive sport, it was a hustle and it was a club team that trained. Most of them were grown men, so they had to train late at night after work, so every practice was from 8 to 10 pm and then I had school the next day. So it was just incredibly difficult. So I lasted about a month and then I quit school the next day. So it was just incredibly difficult.
Speaker 2:So I lasted about a month and then I quit, went back into fighting and whatnot, and then, a couple of years after, they brought me back, thanks to one of my great friends. He convinced me to go back because the team had got closer to where I lived and I had a scooter at the time, because in Italy when you're 14 years old you can get a scooter. So I started just driving myself and handling everything by myself and it made it easier. And, yeah, I started when I was about 16. So I just played one year and then I got offered a chance to come over to the US, and if you play the sport, you know that it's American football you have to go to the US to play at the highest level, or if you want to compete, bare minimum, because here in Italy I was already becoming a little decent. So that was the dream and I just made the jump right away.
Speaker 1:What was the process of getting recruited to come to America? Did you do research and reach out out here, or did they find you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it wasn't really a recruitment. There was a coach here in Italy that had contacts with the high school head coach back there in Florida, because that's where I first went, and I guess the coach in Italy recognized a little bit of talent in me and put me in contact with a coach in Florida and they saw my tape, they liked what they saw and they were willing to have me on their team.
Speaker 1:How difficult was that transition coming from Italy to America.
Speaker 2:It wasn't too hard In the terms of sport. Here in Italy I was playing what is called Serie A, which is the major league kind of. It's still not a pro league, so people don't get paid, it's not huge, but it's the main league where the age group that can play is between 19 years old and how old you like, so there's people 30, 35, 40 years old. So when I was 17, I was already pretty good and I joined that league. Yeah, because my team bumped me up, let's say because I was doing pretty decent. So I was already playing against grown men with grown men strength. And when I went back to playing high school, I was playing with kids again. Even though the skill level might have been a little different, because I didn't have maybe the same skills as somebody that had played for years, I still got used to it pretty quick because you know, playing a game is a real man going to teach you a lot.
Speaker 1:How was it culturally? Was it a culture shock when you came over here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was certainly different. I was about to say that that might be the hardest part that I had to get adjusted to. You know, everything bigger, everything faster, everybody about to hustle, never resting. The places were different. I had to learn how to properly speak English, because at the time my English wasn't as good as it is now. I guess we can say it wasn't the best. So I had to learn and at the same time I had to adjust to the new school, new ways of teaching Old, new people. I had to live with a host family because at the time I was 17, so I couldn't live by myself. But everything was smooth. You know, the US are a pretty how can I say it? It's not an insane country like pretty easy to get adjusted to how did you handle that?
Speaker 1:you know emotionally, as a 17 year old kid coming to a completely different country without your family, and essentially you know a new level of sport and you had to just adjust. Like, how did you deal with that?
Speaker 2:It was sick. I was living, like, yes, I went to school and whatnot. School in Italy is insanely hard. Like you have homework all the time. It's from 8 am until 3 or 4 pm every day eight hours. It's a lot Like no sports, nothing. It's a lot Like no sports, nothing. So it's a lot. So going to school in the US, I don't want to hate on it, but it was a little easier so I could like I didn't need to study really much because it was already stuff that I had done already in Italy and I was basically just playing football, bowling. I was loving it because I went from Italy where sport was a side thing that you could do after school if you did your school good enough and you had to do late at night and it was like maybe two, three days a week to just living, breathing, eating, football, the sport. I loved being able to improve my craft and just living in Florida next to the beach always sunny it was, it was beautiful.
Speaker 1:So what do you think breeds a better level of competitive athlete? The way American sports does it or the way that you know Europe does it?
Speaker 2:I would say I would say the way the US do it. There's there, us do it. There's a different intensity to it, there's a different approach to sports. There's a different mindset behind it. You know, in Italy I believe it's I don't know if soft is the word, but it's way softer. It's not as like like they're not emphasizing sports Like in the US you realize that you can make a career out of sports, in whatever sport you want swimming, wrestling, football because you can get a D1 scholarship, which is a huge deal, because basically playing D1 is like playing pro.
Speaker 2:It's pro sports really. Basketball, football, baseball you can say whatever you want to say. Before we didn't used to get paid or whatever. Now they're even getting paid insane amounts of money. So it's basically just pro sports, whereas here in Italy it's like either soccer or you just do some recreational stuff. A couple of sports are getting bigger, like basketball, rugby, but it's not something you can really make a crazy living like the major leagues in the US. So people know that there's not really a possibility. They play sports just to play sports. They're not really into it all day, every day, whereas in the US it'sa dream, it's a part of your culture, your culture, culture and everything do you think if, like the american culture, applied the same intensity to soccer development, that we could produce more world-class soccer players?
Speaker 1:or do you think that because there's this, what's the word? I'm looking for culture, environment around soccer over in Europe, where you're kind of bred to be a soccer player, that you've inherited those skills from previous generations? I know that there's studies out there that suggest that. Or do you think if Americans took the same approach to soccer that they take to football, that we could also produce some world-class soccer players?
Speaker 2:As you said, for sure the history of it plays a little role into it.
Speaker 2:So even the kids are coming up now playing soccer in Italy, learn from the best that came before.
Speaker 2:They know they get all the teaching, they get all the knowledge, but the skill in terms of just like, skill wise, those are skills that a lot of people can have.
Speaker 2:The issue that in my opinion, you have in the us is that, first of all, soccer is not a major sport, so there's not a lot of kids that are going to start playing when they're two, three, because there's so many different sports. You have a bigger population, so there's more kids, but still soccer is not really the main goal for a lot of kids. And then there's just so many different sports and it's not that much into your culture, so you don't really have an older generation that can teach all the skills, all the stuff that is so intimate. But in my opinion, if, say, tomorrow people drop football, basketball and just everybody started going insane about soccer, for sure, like the us could be an insane national team with all the talent, all the athletes that there are like, teach them the soccer skills and the team will be unstoppable when did you first realize in america that you're okay, I have a chance to play Division I football or maybe even professional?
Speaker 2:It was super gradual. When I first moved from Italy I went to the US with the idea of just being there for six months. We said I'm going to go there for six months, do the school stuff and then at Christmas I'll be back, and then we'll see Maybe I'll be back for good or maybe I'll go back. So after six months I actually came back. Before that I received a bunch of it started going from D3 to D2 offers to D1 FCS. When I got my first D1 FCS school offer I thought I made it, I'm like I'm good, I'm great, best Italian ever, and so it was beautiful. And I came back here in December for Christmas.
Speaker 2:And I remember at some point while I was about to sign for my first FBS actually offer Coastal Carolina I received a call from Oregon, jim Levitt. They was like don't sign, we're going to offer it. And then after that, like 20, 30 schools, do you want to start offering or whatnot? In January, february, visited a bunch and ended up at Pitt. So even then I didn't know I was going to get there. I just gave it my all and I was like that's all you can do, like you can just do your best. And if you can do like you. You can just do your best and something happens happens.
Speaker 1:If it doesn't, then life is good why on earth did you come to pittsburgh, pennsylvania, to play college football?
Speaker 2:a lot of people ask me that, and I asked myself that too. A great reason, a funny story, was that, uh, I don't know if I can say here, but when I went during the process, as I said, I received most of my offers January and February and we had to sign, I believe like February 7th or like the beginning of February, something like that. So I was receiving three, four offers a day from schools and places I'd never heard, like I didn't know what Nebraska, pittsburgh, pennsylvania, like I didn't know what that was. I didn't know, like, the prestigious schools. I didn't really know anything about the conferences. I didn't grow up watching football, so no hate on anything, I just didn't know. I knew about FSU, clemson and, like Cowboy Outer Schools, and so it was super cool.
Speaker 2:So I was learning about the US, I was learning about the maps and the places, the history and for some reason, coach Narduzzi and Harley they really stuck with me. I liked them as people and so we scheduled a visit and then the week of the visit, I wasn't even going to go to Pittsburgh because I was sick. I had like a fever, I had a flu, 140 degrees or something like that. So I called him and I was like I'm not coming to Pittsburgh, I'm sorry, because I knew I wasn't going to go to Pittsburgh. I was anxious, I didn't know where I was. I just really liked the people. I thought they were super cool, I thought it worked super cool. And on the phone I told Harley I was like I can't count, I'm sorry, coach. He said oh, you're not going to count, you're going to ruin your future just for a flu, for a cold. Are you a pussy? And I was like who in the world can call me a pussy? Like, get me that flight, I'm coming.
Speaker 1:I don't care.
Speaker 2:That's the only reason why I was in the Pittsburgh. It's crazy, isn't it? Because, like Michigan State, I was really close to go to Michigan State. They flew my mom from Rome all the way to East Lansing, michigan Wow, for a weekend to come. And I remember when we were leaving Michigan State, actually Narduzzi called. And I remember when we were leaving Michigan State, actually our doozy called and my mom was like who's?
Speaker 1:that.
Speaker 2:I was like I don't know, it's just a guy, another one of these guys, we were there and so that was funny. But yeah, I really liked them and they stuck with me. I stuck with them and then when I visited, I visited a bunch of places and all of the places brought me to parties and stuff like that, like UCF or Michigan State, and first of all I was born in the city so I can't really live in the middle of nowhere. I knew I would have hated my life as much as a lot of football or whatever. So Pittsburgh was in the city and then, funny enough, my visit at Pitt was not that much fun. There was not that much party. It was cool.
Speaker 2:If I go to a huge party school, I'm probably not going to focus. Pittsburgh is good, it's in the city, there's a lot of stuff to see, to do big Italian culture. Then it's not a huge part of school. So I can't focus on football in school because at the time I wanted to do engineering and that's why I picked Pitt. Weird way, but it happened.
Speaker 1:It's just funny because, like, obviously so, I grew up in Pittsburgh, grew up a massive Pitt fan, so like the reason I ended up at Pitt pretty evident, right. But even now, like I mean two days ago it was like 30 degrees in April and I'm like why do I live in Pittsburgh?
Speaker 2:Like why am I here?
Speaker 1:I'm like I should be in Florida or just about anywhere else other than Pittsburgh, and so I always find it interesting how people like yourself, who have offers everywhere, end up at Pitt and this is a pro Pitt podcast. I've had multiple Pitt guys. Everybody should go to the University of Pittsburgh Sure Winning culture, but I always find it interesting.
Speaker 2:But that's the thing, like once I got to Pitt and actually got to like realize what it actually was. The city of Pittsburgh is insane. There's like a lot of history. There's a lot of history. There's a lot of stuff to do, amazing restaurants. For some reason, every artist that has a US tour stops in Pittsburgh. There's all the proteins. There's the Steelers, the Penguins, there's the Pirates Beautiful stadiums, there's all the colleges, so many students. I don't know, I don't know, I didn't know about the city. But then you start realizing a lot of people came from Pittsburgh. It's just a special city for some reason.
Speaker 1:How awesome was it to throw out the first pitch for the Pirates.
Speaker 2:That was a fun experience. I had never done anything like that. I never played baseball growing up so I didn't even know I was like I'm going to just throw. Growing up so I didn't even know I was like I'm going to just throw these things see how it goes. But it was amazing. As I always say, their stadium is probably one of my favorite in the world. Just beautiful man with that skyline in the back, right above the river. It's crazy. So it was a fun experience meeting the owner, all the pirates, all the players.
Speaker 1:How did that come to be Like, how were you chosen and like? I know it was like pit day, but how did that all happen? I?
Speaker 2:don't know Dudes asked me when you see him doing the first pitch. I was like, ah, I guess he was trying to make up because they didn't invite me to the ACC media day. They invited other people, so that was his way to say sorry, I guess.
Speaker 1:Now do you ever regret coming back to Pitt for that final year because you have the best year of your career? Decide to come back to improve your draft stock. Doesn't go the way that you want. Battle some injuries. Talk to me about that process a little bit.
Speaker 2:You know, battle some injuries. Talk to me about that process a little bit. You know that was a rough period. I still dwell about it a bunch In my life. I don't really like to regret anything because it is what it is. I'm right here because of all the choices that I made and the choices I didn't make. But that was a tough one Because, as you said at the time, my junior year was my best year Double-digit sacks, double-digit TFLs.
Speaker 2:We won the ACC championship. I had a lot of amazing players and so I was about to leave. Like a lot of people knew I was about to leave. I already had talked with people. You know I was all set and I'm a big team guy, so I'm never going to step away from the team. That's why I play during the bowl game and I trust the coaches. You know their dudes, you know the people Partridge. So I spoke to them a little bit.
Speaker 2:A lot of people suggested that I should have left, which in football you know it's hard because we always think maybe I can come back next year and make it better and do I have a better year. But you got to think that football is a hard sport. A lot of people get injured Like you're just a play away to be done with the sport for your whole life. So maybe the continuing pushing back and trying to do better every year is not the smartest, but, as I said at the, the time I was undecided. I decided to play in the bowl game.
Speaker 2:The last two minutes of the bowl game, the last game of the year, I got hurt. My elbow came out and I took that as a sign of faith. That's faith. They're telling me to stay one more year and try to improve my stock and then just leave the next year. So I wouldn't say I regret it. I think about it a lot. It's one of the few things in my life that it's constantly on my mind, you know, especially for the past couple years, and hindsight is always 20-20. You know, december of 2021 being top three rounds in the 2023 sounded amazing. So you don't know what's going to happen and you make the choices accordingly. Now it's four years after we realized what actually happened.
Speaker 1:It's such a nuanced discussion. It's really challenging for anybody going through that process and every athlete deserves the grace from the fan base, from the university, from coaching staffs, to make the decision that they feel is best for them. You hope that they get the best advice and they have the right mentors and people in their life that can help them make that decision. But that is a really difficult decision Because, like you just said, you're coming off an ACC championship game. Double-digit sacks, double-digit tackles for loss. Your stock is soaring. But you have this opportunity to come back and say, hey, maybe I can improve this, maybe I can get this a little bit better. And as a competitor, you're never going to think like, oh, I'm going to do worse next year. The mindset is always I'm going to do better, or at least relatively it should be, but in that same breath it's like you said there is a lot of variability.
Speaker 1:There's things outside of your control. You can get hurt, the team could perform worse. That could directly impact you. If you guys are blowing teams out more, you may not play as much in the fourth quarter and have less snaps to make impact plays, and so there's so much that goes into the decision-making and it's hard. It's hard. And then you make a decision and you have to make that the right decision, and that's the part where I empathize with you because you made the decision to come back. And then the team next year has a really down year. There's some quarterback controversy, the team underperforms, there's injuries, and talk to me a little bit about how challenging it was going through that year knowing essentially the decision you had made and what you may have lost in your decision what you may have lost in your decision.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's hard, even mentally, preparing for the next season and going through the next season because, as you said, there's a lot to it. You know the team, the scouts, the NFL, what they say, what this person says, there's so much that it's not of your own judgment. It's just like flipping a coin. Maybe it's yes, maybe it's no. It's not one of those situations where you've been starting for three years. You had double digits, actual three years. So you know for sure. It's one of those situations where it could go both ways. So, preparing for the season, you're always preparing with this mindset that I'm going to do better next season. So I want to just go as hard as I can. But again you're coming off an injury because in December I got hurt. So you don't have the same amount of time because you need to go through rehab. You can't step on the field right away and whatnot. Then the team has problems, maybe the quarterback, which people don't really understand. How can a quarterback affect a defensive lineman on the same team, like you're playing two different positions, but now put the quarterback. The OC, the offensive coordinator, might not trust the quarterback as much. So we're running the ball a lot, we're wasting a lot of time. So now there's not that much time and we're not putting up that many points, so we're not throwing, we're running because we don't need to score that many points. The other team is doing the same. They're running a lot. So I'm stopping the run, I'm not rushing the passer, I'm not getting sacks, which is a lot of stats. I might get some TFLs, but it depends. And now the time is running out. I'm getting half the snaps that I was getting on a game that ended up, I don't know, 41-50 maybe, and I got a sack or two. And it's just math, like the more snaps you get, the more plays you can make.
Speaker 2:So it was down here and through the year, staying consistent, you always have this idea that you have to improve from last year. You have to do better. You have to. Last year, you have to do better. You have to make plays, you have to. You can go down, you can slow down, you have to push harder and sometimes you pressure yourself so much, trying to do more than your job, that you end up actually missing the plays that you should have made because you try to do extra. You try to make every play. You try to, you know. So that was tough too. And you go through and you're half of the year so you're pressuring yourself and you're trying to do extra and your body is not working. It's just really just stuff that's out of your control. And then, as you say, I got hurt another couple times. I had to skip three games. So you have to check your mental pretty often.
Speaker 1:How did you check your mental? How did you continue to push through?
Speaker 2:I'm a pretty level guy. I live life in a philosophical way. I'm firmly convinced that everything goes the way it should. All you can do is just give me your best day in, day out, and improve yourself day in and day out, so it never really stressed me too much. And then you know, I have a great family behind me that never pushes me. They always say it goes up, it goes down, we're still here, you're going to be good either way. So that was a big part of it. And, as you said before, your support system is really important, especially throughout these times. And in football it's so rare to make it where all these players make it that there's not that many people that can really give you good advice and each situation is so different. There may be a teammate that left two years ago going to tell you, yeah, you should leave. Another one tell you, no, you should stay, but their situation was so different from yours. It's so complicated.
Speaker 1:I think that's the big thing that you just hit on right. There is everybody's situation is different and it's hard for anybody in the exact same place to give the proper advice. Another piece of that is even someone who went through the exact same situation may have experienced things differently. They have a different philosophical outlook on life. They have a different approach routines that they use that may not be applicable to you, so their advice is coming from their lens, not yours.
Speaker 1:And that's the challenging piece is finding someone with the kind of empathetic qualities that can really put themselves in your shoes, understand where you're coming from, understand your outlook and perspective in life and be able to be like. This is your options, this is what you are accustomed to doing and this is what your lifestyle you're accustomed to is, and this is what your lifestyle you're accustomed to is, and this is how you should maybe approach the situation or think about it. If you haven't started to think about it this way, but I think you get a lot of people who just assume that they know what's best, and that's the challenge.
Speaker 2:That's the only thing that I might have on pit, which I feel like they don't really help you preparing for that jump, like they take you there and then they like now you got to kind of figure it out and it's dangerous that way, because you end up in a pool of people like agents and financial advisors and trainers, which is people that all have a different view on you, a way like they try to.
Speaker 2:I want to say use you, not really use you, but yes, to make money, and everybody has their own interest in you, but it's not people with a genuine interest. So I feel like this role should be more on the shoulders of coaches and head coaches that should prepare you your last two years, maybe junior, senior, your third, fourth or fourth and fifth, whatever it may be. They help you, they make you understand the whole process, they get you closer to agents, instead of pushing you away because you don't need an agent. That's just the truth of things. Like most people don't do it themselves, because it's not easy, because you haven't been there before, you don't have a law degree, you don't understand that, you don't know it. So instead of pushing you away from that role, continuously from that place like. You have to realize that that's your goal. That's where you're going to end up, so we should make the transition as smooth as possible rather than harder.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's one thing is the relationship piece of it, obviously like your inner circle that we just spoke about, but also the relationships with people in those positions, right To build that connecting bridge, to understand that process more, to make it easier to go from one step to another, because already going from college to the pros is a massive jump, a massive change and it's a shell shock. So I agree that universities, not just Pitt but in general, need to find a way to bridge that gap, better Bridge the relationship between players, agents, players, financial advisors, players, different trainers, nutritionists, things like that Because every step of the way and every level that you go up, all the finer details matter. And the one thing about the agents that is really tough because there's a lot of bad agents out there, a lot of scummy people. So, in my opinion, universities should be doing everything they can to find the good ones. But to your point, my opinion, universities should be doing everything they can to find the good ones.
Speaker 1:But, to your point, even if you could represent yourself it's, do you really want to? Do you want to put the skill and time into understanding contracts, negotiations, all the litigation that comes with it? Probably not, and so you need someone that you can trust and rely on to do those things for you, and schools should do a better job of finding the right people and building those connections, and it can just serve as a filter feeder to some of those agents as well, so they're going to be incentivized to do the right thing because they have the right people that they're working with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:And as you know we were told the whole time like, don't talk to agents, like agents are bad people. They only hear like you don't need agents and stuff like that. You need an agent and creating a connection with a person just in that month or two months before you have to sign with them and then go to training, is basically impossible. You're not going to really like get to know a person in a month and be able to trust them, like they're going to promise you the world and then who knows, I could talk about agents for a long time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I could talk about agents for for a long time. Describe to me the feeling you know when you spoke to the Giants and ultimately decided to sign with them. I know a number of teams spoke to you after the draft. What were your emotions going through that process?
Speaker 2:Man, it was tough because, as I said, junior year was big, then senior year my stock went down, but I was still projected to be better than what it ended up. Nobody can give you an answer. Nobody knows what happened. Something happened somewhere, somewhere in the way, in the process, whatever. And so you end up in that seventh round.
Speaker 2:You haven't signed with anybody and received a couple calls that whatever funny calls and then you got to sign with a team and it's a chaotic moment where even sometimes like for example, your agent didn't expect you to get there, so they didn't speak to the other team and make a plan, a correct plan, and you're like, oh, where should I go? What should I think? So you've got to. In that moment you have the team calling you and they're like look, you've got to give us an answer right now, or we're going to the next person. And then you have your agent there Like, hold on, we're talking to this team. So you have to make a decision. It's so hard and so much happens in that half an hour hour. Sometimes you end up not making the best decision because you have to consider the money, the team scheme. What is the chance? You got to look at the roster. You got to see all money, the team scheme. What is the chance? You got to look at the roster. You got to see all the people that offer you. It's tough.
Speaker 1:How did you stay level-headed through that?
Speaker 2:I was just pissed, I was just mad. I didn't even go loud at you, I was just sick as hell. So I was like you know what, whatever, whatever happens, I just do it, just keep going.
Speaker 1:So going from being a top three round projected draft pick to undrafted in signing? You're pissed off, you're mad at the world. How did you channel that energy into properly playing?
Speaker 2:You see, that's another thing. Unfortunately, now that I look back at it, I feel like I didn't do a great job at it. I was just mad the whole time. I got there mad and I was just playing and not really putting my head into it. And if I'm if I'm honest with you at a hundred percent I wasn't loving football the same way that I was in college or high school. I was just sick, trying to do the best, but not there completely with my head.
Speaker 1:If you could go back and give yourself advice now, what would it be?
Speaker 2:It would be. Relax, take it easy. Right now. A lot of stuff is not under your control. All you can control is your mentals, your grind, and you've been doing that for a really long time. So just put your head down, keep working, but relax and do it as you used to do it in college.
Speaker 2:Don't try to overdo it, because at that point it's tough, man, when you make it as undrafted, there's a lot that goes to it. You know, um, you, you, you have guaranteed money, but it's not the same as a person. So there is like trades. There's a lot of stuff that goes underneath that. Sometimes, even if you have great play, great games or whatever, it might not go the way you want it to. Like the first game we played Detroit, I had two sacks and then next game I played 10 sacks. And from being a starter for years in college, you know, and going through all this stuff, it's tough, it's just hard. Like you're grinding, you're hustling, you're living alone in, alone in a hotel, dark, you can't do anything in a different city. Then you go there, you kill it. Still, it goes that way.
Speaker 1:So you know are there any tangible skills that you've developed or routines that you implement now from protecting your your mental and emotional and physical side that you wish you would have done two years ago now?
Speaker 2:It's that switch that everybody has to understand, that now it's a job. It's not anymore college with your buddies, the people in the locker room, it's teammates, whatever it's still a team sport, but now it's a job. You're trying to take the job from somebody else that's feeding their families with it, and that there's decisions at the managerial level that it's about money and it's about people that they think are better or worse. And the fact is, the truth is that there's just so many people for such few spots. There's 1,200 people and that's where a one-inch you feel me, or maybe 10 pounds, one pound, can make the difference. Or maybe wingspan is 82 instead of 80. Like the difference between a 4'5 and a 4'6, like it's a tenth of a second, the difference between a 4'5 and a 4'6, like it's a tenth of a second If you're closing your eyes like five inches on your vertical stuff like that it's insane.
Speaker 1:So is it accepting that reality, that it's a job and not the fact that people are there to develop you and care about you? It's just a job? Accepting that reality would have made that transition a little bit easier for you, for sure, realizing what you're there for and what's your job to do. Do you have aspirations to make it back to the NFL?
Speaker 2:That's always the goal, you know. One great season away.
Speaker 1:What's going to be the difference between you staying in the CFL and then you making it back to the NFL?
Speaker 2:I'd say production at the end of the day. What's going to lead you to better production. Baby, you know all the things I've learned, all the things I've worked on and the consistency of having great games, game in and game out. That consistency to show it every week, every weekend.
Speaker 1:How are you tracking your progress this offseason? Are you using anything to measure? Hey, I've gotten better in this area. Or hey, I'm working on this. This is how I'm tracking that. I'm getting better. Are you using anything particular?
Speaker 2:I wouldn't say any tool. I mean I'm measuring all the measurables you know inside the gym or the speed, the jumps and stuff like that. In terms of mine, I'm doing some cognitive skill training. I'm trying to have my nutritionist. I still have like a little team of people that try to make me better. That's what I use.
Speaker 1:have like a little team of people that try to make me better if I use. What is the biggest challenge you're facing this offseason right now?
Speaker 2:biggest challenge. It's the. The cfl offseason is a little harder because it's so long. It's like five, six months and you're just we're ever doing whatever. So you have to stay consistent and just work without, without any anybody really forcing you to know.
Speaker 1:You just have to work that's the big thing, too, that I think people don't realize. Even after athletics is done, nobody's there to tell you and remind you hey, it's time to train. Hey, it's time to eat right. Hey, it's time to do all the little things. It becomes solely on you. Has that been a challenge for you? Are you someone who's disciplined, or do you have to use tactics to help you stay disciplined?
Speaker 2:That's really just the way I live. Since I started playing college, I understood that in order to get to where I wanted to get, I had to do everything right. Because I was so behind everybody A kid coming from Italy just playing one year I had to day in and day out, from the hour I woke up to the hour I fell asleep. I had to do everything the right way. So I started just doing everything we can say the right way, but just to make me better Eating good, sleeping enough, not doing stupid stuff, not drinking alcohol Like I don't drink, I don't smoke, I go out sometimes, but I still try to get my sleep in.
Speaker 2:So I'm used to do it since college times and I didn't struggle too much. The only big difference that I noticed is that and you know too, it's easier to go through it with somebody else, with your teammates or your friends, people that are doing the same thing it's harder to push yourself and to do it by yourself like I still push myself, but you know, if you have a spotter, you have, like your teammate or somebody like you're challenging each other, like he just did. You know I got to do 355. You feel me? So it's that little competition that competitive energy is contagious.
Speaker 1:It elevates everybody around you absolutely. So what's next Habba? What can we expect from Habakuk Baudenado in 2025 and 2026?
Speaker 2:Big season. Got to go back to Canada and kill it. Nothing. Just go there, clock in and kill it. Nothing, Just go there, clock in and kill it.
Speaker 1:Heck. Yeah, brother, I appreciate you. Well, hey, man, I appreciate you coming on. If people want to reach out to you, they want to ask your advice. Where can people find you? How can they reach out to you?
Speaker 2:Hit me up on Instagram, twitter, whatever, there's not many people with my name, so you just got to look that name up. You're going to find me Habbo and whatever you need.
Speaker 1:What's nice and unique about us is I don't think there's too many people with the last name drawn up. I actually think I don't know if there is anybody outside of my family here. And then, habbo, you got one of one name, baby. So easy to find us. But hey, can't thank you enough for coming on. Man Listeners, thank you for tuning in. Check us out at athleticfortitudecom. Remember, stay tuned for that rebrand. The rebrand is coming soon. Same conversations, great people. Download the pod. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Five stars only. Baby. Thanks, abba For sure.
Speaker 2:Thank you.