NFL Football Player, Author, Yoga Master Keith Mitchell S3 Episode 17

I am re-releasing this episode to honor Keith Mitchell's incredible legacy.  Keith passed away on July 2nd, 2026.  I only had the opportunity to speak to him once but his story had a profound effect on me.  I hope you are as inspired by him and I was. His journey is one of the most powerful reminders that greatness doesn’t end when the game does and you can always reinvent yourself and following your true calling.

A standout linebacker at Texas A&M University and in the National Football League (NFL) with the New Orleans Saints, Houston Texans, and Jacksonville Jaguars, Keith recorded 400+ tackles and earned a 2000 Pro Bowl selection. Then, at just 31 years old, a career-ending spinal injury left him paralyzed and forced into early retirement.

What happened next is the real story.

Instead of letting tragedy define him, Keith found healing through yoga, meditation, and mindfulness—and in the process, discovered a new purpose. Today, he’s a Master Certified Yoga Instructor, a global wellness leader, and a pioneer helping people reframe adversity and reclaim their power.

Keith has been featured in USA TODAY, Sports Illustrated, Yoga Journal, Men’s Health, Essence Magazine, and appeared on CNN, BBC, Fox News TV, The Dr. Oz Show, and more. He’s partnered with brands like Lululemon, Champion, The Four Seasons, and taught yoga to everyone from Tyler Perry to Paris Hilton. He’s spoken at the United Nations, co-founded the Congressional Yoga Association, and helped lead the Just Breathe initiative supporting veterans with PTSD.

Now, he’s sharing his wisdom in his new book,

The Mindfulness Playbook: 8 Championship Strategies for Life.

This episode is about resilience, reinvention, and redefining what a championship mindset really means.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Game Changers. We hope you found inspiration and motivation in the stories of resilience and adversity shared by our incredible guests. Remember, no matter what challenges you face, your ability to overcome them lies within. Stay resilient and keep pushing forward towards your goals. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing it with others who may benefit from these powerful stories. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I want to take a moment to re-release one of the most meaningful conversations I've ever had on the Game Changers podcast. This episode originally aired on December 21st of last year, but after learning of Keith Mitchell's passing, I felt like it deserved to be shared again. Like so many others, I was really shocked and so sad to hear the news. Although I only had the privilege of speaking with Keith once, our conversation left a lasting impact on me. Keith was an extraordinary person. He possessed an incredible competitive spirit. He refused to let anyone define his limits. Despite being underestimated through his football career and not getting drafted, he fought relentlessly to earn his place in the NFL. And what struck me the most about him was his peace and humility and perspective that he carried with him when his career ended. He had a remarkable ability to balance fierce determination with genuine kindness and gratitude. And he shifted into a whole new stage of his life. His willingness to openly share his story was an incredible gift to me and to my listeners. His words continue to inspire me, and I believe they'll inspire everybody who listens. If you haven't already, I encourage you to read his book. It's called The Mindfulness Mastery Playbook. His life was cut too short, but honestly, I am so grateful to have this episode of the podcast and the ability to share with you. Thank you for listening. So when I get to talk to people who have every reason to be negative, every reason to say why me, every reason to say I'm gonna quit, and they don't, honestly, that fills me up and that keeps me going and that motivates me to be better. And it allows me to coach people through because I use these stories, you know, as examples of what happens when you don't give up. You get to taste glory again, whatever that glory is. And man, I'm lucky to talk to some of these people. They really are incredible.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

Welcome to the Game Changers Podcast. I'm your host, Linda Martindale. I'm so excited to share my show with you today.

SPEAKER_02 2:34

You see, I've always been fascinated by comeback stories and really captivated by athletes and coaches that have experienced setbacks or challenges that really seemed impossible to overcome.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

Although every guest, every story on my show is different.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

The underlying theme is my personal favorite superpower. Resilient. Join me as I dig in and uncover the real scoop. Not the fluffy stuff, but the real juicy details. Sit back, get inspired by my guests who face some really tough stuff that came back stronger than ever. Here we go. Feeling so grateful to have people like Keith Mitchell on the Game Changers podcast. Keith was a standout linebacker for Texas AM and then played in the NFL for the New Orleans Saints, Houston Texans, and Jacksonville Jaguars. He also earned a spot in the 2000 Pro Bowl and recorded over 400 tackles during his NFL career. At the peak of success, a career-ending spinal injury cut his journey short, leaving him partially paralyzed and forced into early retirement at just 31. But he refused to let tragedy define him, and he turned to yoga and meditation for healing and really found a new purpose that transformed his life. Today, he's a master-certified yoga instructor and a mindfulness pioneer. He uses his platform to inspire self-empowerment and holistic wellness in communities all over the world. He's been featured in USA Today, Sports Illustrated, Yoga Journal, Men's Health, Essence. He's also had multiple television appearances. As a wellness leader, he's partnered with so many brands and he's taught yoga to celebrities and was featured in Deepak Chopra's One World Yogis. He's co-founded the Congressional Yoga Association, spoke at the United Nations for International Day of Yoga, and helped lead the Just Breathe Initiative alongside Congressman Tim Ryan to provide integrative care for military veterans with PTSD. He also just wrote a book called The Mindfulness Playbook, Eight Championship Strategies for Life. So much to talk about. Welcome, Keith.

SPEAKER_06 4:46

It's great to be here, Linda. I'm looking forward to a great conversation.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

I think I want to start with kind of your growing up in Texas and your relationship with football, because nobody gets to the NFL if they don't start young and have a passion for it. Tell me a little bit about growing up.

SPEAKER_06 5:02

Well, growing up from East Texas, and really what gravitated me to playing football was Sunday, Sunday morning. And it was really after service. So we all we went to church first and then we came home and everyone watched and tuned into the NFL, and typically the Dallas Cowboys. And so I saw a lot of admiration with sports and religion. And so I had to pick the two, right? And I I went with the sport route because that was more interesting to me, come to find out. And yeah, it kind of set my trajectory of really kind of being that person that people inspire to be, that people that admired. And so that was an interesting thing as a kid. And also it was one of the things that I saw my family come out of all the things we could come together on in unison and harmony and peace, it was to watch sports. And so maybe as a kid, I was looking at that being the possible solution to my family's problems at that time.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

I love that you said that because I think that there's a lot of people that disagree on a lot of things, but if they're supporting the same team, they come together. There's that unity piece. So you start playing football and football's not easy. Tell me about, you know, going through grade school and school and starting to figure out that you maybe could play at the next level and maybe college football was a possibility. When did you figure that out?

SPEAKER_06 6:22

Well, interesting enough, I started late because again, it was a whole process of convincing my parents to allow me to play the game, particularly my mother, you know. Actually, my father too. No one was willing at the beginning. And so I I didn't come into the game until when I was 13 or so. And so after convincing them, and obviously when I started, I was very awkward because guys, like you're saying, the guys playing, they had started, you know, as soon as they're out of the womb, they're playing, they got a ball in their hand, they're playing sports. And for me, it was a little bit louder. So it forced me to really have a discipline, an intensity, a focus, a drive, an intention to what I was doing because I didn't have the luxury of of just weighing on my knowledge of the game. I had to catch on as we were going. So it was a learning curve. But I jumped on really quickly.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

Okay. And was there a coach that you can think of at that time who sort of embraced you and helped you grow? Or tell me about that.

SPEAKER_06 7:22

Interesting enough, in conjunction with this book, the coach who what really dawned on me is he said, where do you see yourself in five years? And so that was an interesting question that I proposed to myself. And then I thought about college. I thought about all these things that I aspire to do. And I'm like, well, do my parents have the finances to be able to afford me to go to college? Or can I do something on my own to help me get to college? And so that was a very interesting turning point for me because I believe all these things that we want to do stimulate mentally first. And when we activate the mind, the body will follow. So for me, in that thinking about the question, and this is even how I teach meditation, ask yourself a question and sit in silence and see if you've told yourself the truth. And so that began to put me on my trajectory of fixing and solving my problem. And college was a problem, and I wanted to get there.

SPEAKER_02 8:13

I love that. And so some amazing coach knew enough to ask a young person where they saw themselves in five years. And I'm sure at the time that was a question like, what? What are you talking about? I don't know where I'm gonna be. And then you sat down with it and said, if I'm gonna do any of this, I got to figure it out.

SPEAKER_06 8:31

Yes. I think that's what we're meant to do. I mean, you know, in the schema thing, on the Buddhist terminology, what's the meaning and purpose of life? Well, we give meaning to it. We experience life. Life gives us an understanding of it. We see people in suffering, we begin to fixate our minds of how we've been through suffering and how we can lend a helping understanding to someone else who's been through the same suffering we've been through. And so we just pay the information forward. And then that gives purpose to us, our existence, and the world that we live in.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

Okay. Listeners, we're just jumping right in. We're just getting right into it. No, I love this because I feel like we don't ever ask young people those questions. We do a lot of telling. We tell them how it's gonna go. We try to solve their problems, we try to tell them how we're gonna get. I've saved money for college, I've done this for you, I've done that for you. You were not in that spot. You were in a spot of if I want to do something, I'm gonna have to figure it out. So here you are. You're catching up to football. You're obviously what? Are you athletically gifted? Are you fast? Are you wise? Are you what are you at that point that you think you could play college football?

SPEAKER_06 9:35

I'm pretty awkward at that time, believe it or not. I gained height. And, you know, my parents, my father's five's seven, my mother's five seven. So we don't have giants in my family. My sister's five foot tall. So it's like I really put myself, my mind in a trajectory now. I drank a lot of milk too in the process. So I really was in tune to it. And I, and it was one of those things when that light switch turned on, because really, to be honest, it was about acceptance. I wanted to be accepted by a community of people, you know, we call friends. I wanted to have those. I wanted to be considered a part of the group and what better fit sports. And so I was adamant about just putting myself in the mix to make it happen however I need it to happen. So I just applied myself open, watched the older guys, and I did what they did, and I learned to do it better through the process.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

And that comes from what? Is that an innate desire to be better? Like tell my listeners, is that something you had to work on and practice and get to, or is that desire and ambitious innate in you?

SPEAKER_06 10:42

What's interesting is you don't really know what's on the other side of all this, right? What you do is you see the intricate things. You know, one of the guys that were getting scholarships. And what I looked for was likeness. And when I realized, well, what's the difference between that person and me? Well, nothing. They applied themselves. So, all right, well, let me apply myself to maximize my capabilities. Let me develop my understanding of the game and my attributes. And then that can be possible for me. I think that was the interesting thing. I saw likeness. And when I saw they're no different than me, well, then I can do it too.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

I love that. And by the way, it's almost a little naive too. Like it's almost like, oh, you're this small kid. You need to be bigger, you need to be better, you need to be faster. You were like, oh no, I don't. I'm watching someone do it. I can do that too. Okay. That is the driving force. And tell me about getting recruited and what was that process like to end up at Texas AM.

SPEAKER_06 11:38

Well, I chose, it was between USC, actually, after I answered that question to myself, where do I see myself in five years? And I started putting myself on that trajectory of playing the game, and I started having success. My next goal was I wanted every school in the country to recruit me. And so I narrowed it down to USC and Texas AM.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

So literally, I mean, you were that driven. Like you bold little high school football player, you were gonna be that bold and you started getting these offers.

SPEAKER_06 12:11

From nowhere.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

This is incredible. Okay. And I mean, you're not choosing, you know, between small schools. How were you academically? How were you as a student?

SPEAKER_06 12:21

I was probably, you know, B's. I didn't really start making C's until I got to college.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Okay. Okay, so you were a good enough student, but you were a great player. At that time, if you can remember, what made you great? What were college coaches seeing in you?

SPEAKER_06 12:39

Well, I had leadership and I had big play capabilities.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

Big play capability. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 12:45

So when the game is on the line, we needed to play consistently, I could come through for my team. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Okay. I love that. This is unbelievable. Where does that come from?

SPEAKER_06 12:55

Drive and determination.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

Drive and determination.

SPEAKER_06 12:58

Yeah. I look at it like this. If I'm going to put my energy out, right, why don't we maximize it? Maximize your potential.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

By the way, this seems so simple when you say it. I love it so much. If I'm going to do it, why don't I just do it? You know, okay, so really, that is a mindset of a young man who is ambitious with a capital A.

SPEAKER_06 13:18

Yeah. But it's a concept of mastery. If I'm going to do it, why don't I maximize? You know, you think of time and energy. That's the greatest currency that we have. Everything else is a consequence of that, whether it be money, you know, love, you know, it's an application of applying ourselves, disciplining ourselves to achieve that thing. And it's a mindset. And then we have to drive and develop that mindset. And what comes along with that mindset and developing that is a stamina, a language. And we discuss this and we talk about this in the book. And it gets you on and prepared to be able to do those things that we want to do. We lack the resources, begin to be our limitations.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

Yeah, I totally agree with you. And it's funny because I coach college athletes now really from the perspective of I didn't have any of those things. I wish I did. I wish I knew all of these things that you're describing. And again, I was a college athlete, a division one college athlete, but I didn't know that I needed a better mindset. I didn't know that if I was more mentally fit, it would have helped. I just worked on physical fitness. I just was in the gym lifting and running and jumping. I didn't realize I needed my mind to do that. So you had something inside of you that knew enough that your mind needed to lead your body. So you go to Texas AM.

SPEAKER_06 14:41

Well, let me make a statement before I get to Texas M.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

Please, yes.

SPEAKER_06 14:46

Well, I can't take the credit from now. I had a a really hard father. He was military and religious preacher at Pentecostal. So I had that.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_06 14:57

He raised me hard. He raised me tough. He raised me to have a standard. He raised me to look at myself and have pride in myself. And like, don't disrepresent our name or misrepresent our last name.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

So that was underlying for sure.

SPEAKER_06 15:11

That was underlying. And so when I and I played, it was to represent everything and every place I'm from. And the people who were watching who who love me and was my support, it was bigger than me. And I saw that.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

Okay. I think that's very important. And I'm very glad you interrupted me because that's the root of it all. That's where it starts. Okay. And that's self-pride. And that is you are representing our family. Okay. That makes a lot of sense to me.

SPEAKER_04 15:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

And now you go into college, and again, this is a little bit of a different time, but it is craziness because you get there and you feel and see, and what's it all about?

SPEAKER_06 15:50

Yeah. And it's even bigger than the game I expected it to be.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Is it, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 15:54

Yeah. We had a statement in in college. It was linebacker U, and that was the position I played. And I'm coming in as this, you know, five-star athlete from Texas, which Texas is pretty competitive. But going there, you're talking about these are compared to me, grown men, and I'm having to sit here and play with these guys, and I wasn't ready. And so I had to start all over in a sense.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_06 16:17

Well, I came in probably six string. You know, every coach is promising me, yeah, you're going to get a chance to play, but then you're coming in and seeing these big, large men. I'm like, well, I think I'm going to sit back and I gotta, you know, observe a little bit because I'm not ready to play in this game like this.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Good. If anyone is listening right now, it's very important. You don't start at the top every time. You start at the bottom.

SPEAKER_06 16:36

Yeah. And in fact, going to this level, you're going to go back and forth a couple of times, actually. And so I kind of got a scope of the game. I got to, even in my book, I talk about modeling from the concept of NLP. I started associating myself with players that I saw that I aspire to play like and be like. And I modeled my game after them. And I put some of my twists with it, with what I saw they did well. And then we had a lot of players to choose from. So I can mix and match some different people and put their game together with my game. And then by my sophomore year, I had arrived.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

Okay. And you know, I talk to athletes about comparing themselves to others in a negative sense, meaning he's so much better, I could never be that. He does this, why don't I do that? Da-da-da. In negative, you did the Kobe Bryant. You watched people and took what you wanted for yourself. Is that fair to say? Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 17:28

You have to.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

So I like that you call modeling because there's comparing to me is almost negative. Modeling is the positive side of comparison.

SPEAKER_06 17:36

Yeah. Like even in my book, I talk about it. I have a section, what would Jesus do? Because if you don't know your truth, then you can again see someone with the body type that you aspire to have, the career, the relationship that you aspire to have, and you can model yourself from their perspective. Because a lot of the things that we're talking about and we're aspiring to be, we don't know what it looks like on the other side. It's just an idea.

SPEAKER_02 17:57

It's faith. Yeah. There's some faith. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_06 18:00

But we get the ground of faith and say, okay, now that's what it is. And I see that. And then now I can attain that. And then I can go to even to another level of it.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Okay. And I do talk to a lot of athletes who face hard times. And many of them, including, you know, last few ones that I've talked to, there is some faith in something. So if your faith is Jesus, if your faith is whatever it is, they have some faith in something. And that is grounding their values. So your father lays this out for you. You have the values that you grew up with. You have some faith and you allow that to push you forward when things are hard. Is that fair? Okay. And your sophomore year, so your freshman year is tough. You kind of watch, you model, you see what's up. Sophomore year, you arrive. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_06 18:51

Well, yeah, I arrived. I think we played Oklahoma. They were ranked really high. We went to OU and played them, and I made a big play as a sophomore. I blocked the kick and it equated to a safety. And what's interesting about that is once we get on, it's like we have to get familiar with what it likes, not to get overzealous, not to be over caught up in ourselves, but just getting comfortable in the success. It's a gradual understanding to get my mind to stabilize myself.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Okay, talk to me about that because, you know, there is a level of ego in this. And we do want you to have some level of ego, right? Because that builds some confidence. But what you're saying is allow it to come to you a little bit or tell me about that.

SPEAKER_06 19:32

Well, I have a philosophy around ego that it's not a necessarily a bad thing. We have to develop it. It's like the the warrior mentality when you realize that the extremities of violence, well, then you don't lead with violence, but you've mastered it, you know? And so when we master the ego, we get familiar with it. We go into the highs and lows, we learn to stabilize it. Like I don't need to be so overzealous here. I don't need to show off here. I can just be and get comfortable being, right? Then that's developing it. Then I can like pay it forward and get comfortable in this space and expect these things, but be noble through the process, be respectful through the process. I think that's an opportunity we can do with the concept of ego.

SPEAKER_02 20:12

I love this. I love it so much. You are so wise. And where does this wisdom come from at this young age? I'm assuming it's rooted in your values. Give me an example of a time where you do let your ego get out of check and you do, you're overzealous. Tell me about that experience and then what you learned from that and could pull it back.

SPEAKER_06 20:34

Well, reality sits in because even as the dominant one, you could be the alpha one in the game, and the game will show you that you can't play it forever. And so now you have moments in life where it happened to me when I was in Jacksonville and going through the spinal contusion. You know, the tackle I had made so many times in my life. And you know, on this particular play, I'm laying flat on my back. That's the reality check.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

Yeah, that's the whole thing. And we're gonna get to that because that's the part where you get up when you get knocked down. So, and it sounds to me like things go very well for you in college. You have a great experience, and you go into the NFL draft. Is that where we are? Like, is this what's next? Or tell me.

SPEAKER_06 21:15

So in college, I was two-time All-American, AP All-American. I was first team Southwest Conference, and then I was first team Big Twelve. I say that because most people can't say that they were two-time AP All-American, and most people were not first team in two conferences, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Listen, I mean, I want to toot your horn. I really do, because you are unbelievable. I mean, that's why I want my listeners to understand who you are. Tell me about that because you are excellent. I mean, you really have this excellence in college. Where is it coming from? Tell me about it.

SPEAKER_06 21:50

It's coming from the drive. Once I realized that I can achieve it now, I'm like, I want to go harder.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

Why did you realize you could achieve it? Like, where did that come from?

SPEAKER_06 21:58

It came from when I did the first And I had every school literally recruiting me to play football from. I'm from Garland, Texas, a small town outside of Dallas. And for me to manifest when I didn't even know the terminology of manifesting, but bringing that forth, if I created that, what else can I do? And so that was what my mindset was.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

I know. I love it. And I'm like, I can't get the dotted line to fill in. I really can't, because you have tremendous success. And it sounds to me like this is coming from your drive. It's coming from this idea that you could be more. I could be more. I could be more. And that is obviously ambition. Tell me about coaches who led you in the right direction, or tell me about coaches that didn't, and you overcame that.

SPEAKER_06 22:44

Well, even with the success I had in college, I mean, I didn't have the best relationship with the coach, the head coach I had in college. And why I say that is because that's also to my next stage, it was a learning curve. And again, a reality check to come back to the ground roots and to build myself back up, even.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

And that's important. I want you to talk about that because I have a lot of athletes too say, like, either a coach doesn't believe me or I don't connect with the coach or I'm having a hard time with the coach. And you're now describing your inner coach. Yes. I mean, this amazing inner coach that you have could overcome and not maybe a coach you're not connecting with. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_06 23:24

So I didn't get drafted from even being, again, two-time All-American, first team all conference, two conferences. My senior, I was projected to be a high pick, but I didn't get drafted. What's interesting about this also, in the seventh round, which is the latter stage of the draft, a Hall of Fame coach, Bill Cowler, calls me. He calls my home and he says, I'm thinking about drafting you. And because he said I'm thinking about drafting you, it moved me in a different way. I wasn't thinking that you chose me, right? And so even in an adolescent mindset of, but still knowing who I am, I made the statement to him and he chose another guy. And ironically enough, wait, what statement?

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What statement? Go back. He says, I'm thinking about drafting you, and you say what?

SPEAKER_06 24:10

I say, I think you'd be better drafting the other guy because he made a mention, Linda, check this out. He made a mention of another guy who was from guess what? The University of Texas.

SPEAKER_02 24:22

Oh, what? Okay.

SPEAKER_06 24:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

So we need to unpack that a little bit. You get a call and he says, I'm thinking about drafting you. Tell me, what is the conversation? What do you say?

SPEAKER_06 24:35

I said, you know what, coach? He's like, it's between you and Mike Adams from the University of Texas. And I was like, you know what, coach? I think you'd be better off drafting another guy because I don't know how I feel about football right now. That was my response.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Okay. I'm just speechless for a second.

SPEAKER_06 24:50

And then naturally he drafted the other guy, and then the draft is over.

SPEAKER_02 24:56

But why would you do that to yourself? I mean, isn't that counterintuitive to somebody who wants to play?

SPEAKER_06 25:02

Well, I was devastated in my mind. And again, you know, going through the process really myself, I didn't really have, you know, I had an agent at the time, but we really went in communication like this around what was happening because we didn't know what was happening. We didn't have any answers. But that was my my response. But after the draft, ironically enough, you know, back to the Dallas Cowboys growing up, Coach Mike Dicker, who got the job in New Orleans, first time getting the job there in New Orleans, he calls and he says, son, I don't care what happened. I believe you're a good player. I want you to play for me. And because I knew who Coach Dicker was from being in Dallas, I was like, you know what, Coach? If I could play for you, I can play for anybody. Sign me up. I'm coming.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

And it's almost like that different conversation of, I'm thinking about drafting you. He says, I want you to play for me. That's a different thing.

SPEAKER_06 25:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Were you devastated over not being drafted?

SPEAKER_06 26:02

At that point, I was so numb to it. It didn't even matter at that point.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

Okay. Why weren't you drafted higher?

SPEAKER_06 26:09

Well, again, I had a coach in college who I've heard I can't necessarily confirm, but obviously if you look at the draft, and this is why I really, when I saw the deal with Shador Sanders in the draft, it really hit my heart because seeing that, I went through that in a sense. But the interesting thing about that is of believing in you, when I've laid myself brick by brick, I put myself together, my mindset, my abilities, and I knew and I know what I can do. So I know on any arena, any circumstances, I know what I can do showing up. And so when Dick had called and I answered it, I was like, yes, I'll be there. And so I've came in as a rookie undrafted, and I was a starter.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

I know. I know that. And that's why I wanted to talk to you because no one can understand that. Are you really saying to me right now that part of this is staying rooted in believing who you are and what you value?

SPEAKER_08 27:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 27:09

Okay. And you were underestimated. I mean, which is hard to imagine. You're a two-time all-American. Underestimate is ridiculous. But like you maybe didn't have a coach who was supporting you and carrying you through it. And in spite of that, and in spite of the fact that maybe people were telling you, maybe you're not that good, that's why you were good.

SPEAKER_07 27:30

Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:33

I'm going to drop my mic. I don't know what else to say. Like, that's unbelievable. So you really, really, who was sitting with you? Who was supporting you? Who was holding you up when you were struggling in self-belief?

SPEAKER_06 27:44

Well, it was actually in that case, it was me. My relationship with my parents was more or less arm slint at that time. You know, I didn't let them inside of what was going on with sports. I mean, in some cases, that's just a hard conversation. Most people will never understand those things. That's also what's confusing with sports because you live a life that most people can understand it. So who would relate to your conversations about it? So who can you complain about it to? And so you just internalize it. But I again, having that strong foundation, a strong mind, a strong belief in myself and my capabilities, I was voted to the Pro Bowl my third year. I actually made the all-pro team my third year and then the Pro Bowl my fourth year. And that's how I went. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 28:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Wow. Okay. Mike Ditka tells you that he believes in you and tells you that he wants you to play for him and you say okay. And you go to New Orleans. And what's that like? Is that back to the beginning again? Because you started. So, like, how did that happen?

SPEAKER_06 28:47

Yeah, it's back to the beginning again because in college I played more of an edge rusher, is famous now. The, you know, the outside, the smaller guy outside who gets to the quarterback, like a Micah Parsons type player. It was kind of a new thing in those times. I came into the league in 97 and I was kind of like on the brink of that in college. But in New Orleans, they wanted me to be a traditional drop back linebacker. So I basically had to learn football all over again on the highest level.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

And did they see you? So tell me, you called it an edged rusher.

SPEAKER_06 29:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 29:23

Tell me, because I'm not that familiar, what makes someone really good at that position?

SPEAKER_06 29:29

It's the tenacity of just getting to the quarterback. You know, you're up against 300 plus pound guys, and it's you defying it with speed. You're putting pressure on the edge, you're containing the edge because you have to play the run also, but your tenacity of getting to the quarterback, nobody can stop you. They can put one person, two, three people on you. It doesn't matter. You're gonna get to that quarterback.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

Well, that sounds about right for you. So he he knew what he was talking about. Okay. So here you are, you get your opportunity, you have an amazing experience. How is your life off the field through all of this? Or is it just so much football, there's nothing else to think about?

SPEAKER_06 30:06

Well, it is a lot of football, but there's an interesting lifestyle on that level, too, that a lot of times maybe you're prepared for it. A lot of times you're not. And, you know, you're dealing with that too. This is why I think in sports, every sport team needs a mental health meditation, mindfulness type, you know, situation and no organization.

SPEAKER_02 30:27

You are speaking my language right now. I could not agree with you more. And and I call it mental fitness because we talk about physical fitness. My nephew is a professional soccer player in the MLS. He's a young, young guy. You're right. It's lonely. Life is hard off the pitch. What kinds of things do you do off the pitch and outside of football to connect with people and have some kind of life? What does it look like?

SPEAKER_06 30:54

It's very difficult, especially when you build in chaos. Like, you know, what I mean by chaos is all over the place. It's not really a strategy structure. It's like, it's like this light switch that you can't turn off, right?

SPEAKER_02 31:07

Oh, I like the way you put that.

SPEAKER_06 31:08

Yeah. So you're doing what you're doing on the field. You're doing it in a sense off the field also. And it it may still be under the rules and you may not get in trouble or anything like that because you you're still abiding by the laws and living life accordingly, but it's still on an edge of not necessarily taking care of your body the best and not getting enough sleep, you know, excess partying, things of that nature. So you're kind of creating that kind of situation for yourself. And I was doing that. I was I had created that momentum. And I even thought at a point that that was a tribute to my success.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

For sure you do. And also you talk about your childhood and you wanted to be a part of something. You want to connect. We want to connect as human beings. And so here you are in the NFL. And if you dropped, and I have three sons and one daughter, if you dropped one of my sons into the NFL, he's gonna want to do what others are doing. He wants to be a part of something. And if you don't know any different, you do what you do. Yes. Was there a piece of you that wanted to disconnect from it, but just didn't know how to, or were you just going with the flow?

SPEAKER_06 32:15

I was going with the flow because it was fun in the beginning. It was a lot of wins in the beginning. It was a lot of, you know, people welcoming you, putting you on a pedestal. It was great to be on that level. But at the same time, as you go through the process, okay, four year, five years, six year, now you're like, okay, there's gotta be something else. Like, what else is there like?

SPEAKER_03 32:36

For sure.

SPEAKER_06 32:37

You're in it so deep, you can't like rethink your thoughts because it could mess up your current game. It could mess up the edge that you've built for so long to have success in your game. So you can't renegotiate that in a sense.

SPEAKER_02 32:52

You can't renegotiate that. Yeah, I get that. However, with that said, which makes your story incredible, is you didn't have to renegotiate. Something happened to you that forced you into it. Tell us about what happened, how it happened, and where it stopped everything.

SPEAKER_06 33:11

Yeah, so after New Orleans, I went to Houston and then I went to Jacksonville. I was a starter in Houston as well. When I went to Jacksonville, I met up with the coach Jack Del Rio, who was with me in New Orleans, and he got the head coaching job there. So I went to Jacksonville. And second game of the season, our first home game in Jacksonville, we were playing the Buffalo Bills and making a tackle I had made, you know, so many times in my life, you know, and on this particular play, I go in for the tackle, and I and the consequence of that, I end up flat on my back. Typically, after I would make a tackle like that, I'd get up and get the crowd going, getting momentum to get our defense up and get our my teammates up. But on this particular play, I'm on my back and I'm helpless. I can't move.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

You literally can't move.

SPEAKER_06 33:57

I can't feel.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 34:00

Yeah. But I know something's wrong. It's like it's it's an interesting thing when you can't feel that you're hurt or in trouble, but you just know something's wrong. Like and it's in your body. It's like that's a weird feeling.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

I can't imagine.

SPEAKER_06 34:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

What happens next?

SPEAKER_06 34:20

So I go through the protocol, get enrolled into the hospital. My mother's in the stands, my sister, so they meet me in the hospital and sitting here in the doctor's office, and I'm I'm waiting for them to give me a result of what happened.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

You regained feeling?

SPEAKER_06 34:34

Not yet.

SPEAKER_02 34:35

At this point, you have no feeling?

SPEAKER_06 34:37

Not yet. No.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

Feeling from where? From where down?

SPEAKER_06 34:40

The right side of my body was completely Wow.

SPEAKER_02 34:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 34:43

Yeah. And it stayed like that for about a month.

SPEAKER_02 34:47

Scary.

SPEAKER_06 34:48

And again, depending on the doctor to give me some insight. What's wrong with me? What's happening? Give me something. When the doctor says, I don't know what's happening, I don't know what to tell you. That's also a pretty frightening situation.

SPEAKER_02 35:01

Terrifying.

SPEAKER_06 35:02

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

And what's going through your mind?

SPEAKER_06 35:06

Well, my life is over because I had all only had developed myself as a football player. I was this character and I didn't know myself outside of this character. And so 100%. That's the reality check that I feel that life brings us with things. And it's not something to check out with it, but it's something to kind of put your chair up to it and pay attention to it because you're going to a whole nother perspective of life, university here. And what is it to be learned?

SPEAKER_02 35:36

Yeah. You hear people who are just retiring from their sport and they have the same feelings. I'm nothing else. I don't do anything else. This is what I'm good at. This is who I am. And in your case, it was sudden. I mean, the door slammed shut. You didn't even get a chance to prepare.

SPEAKER_07 35:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

Tell me about the next six, nine, twelve months from that.

SPEAKER_06 35:58

Well, in the hospital, I met this nurse and she talked to me about conscious breathing. And she she talked to me about breathing from the diaphragm. And I never heard of this concept. You know, on the inhale, the diaphragm pushes down, on the exhale, it pushes up. And the reason why she f felt she needed to tell me this is so I could handle the emotions that are going to be wrapped into my next journey. And the irony of that, if I get specific, the liver is anger, the kidney is fear, the intestines is worry. So through the process of breathing that we do on a consistent basis day to day, it's like massaging your internal organs. And if you understand that, the diseases manifest internally from this emotional body. And so by doing so, which goes along with meditation, allowing ourselves to process the moment, which equates to presence. And so through the process, I didn't know all that, but I was learning that I could just breathe and relax myself so I don't get too caught up in this and too caught up in that, and I can have some patience. It's like it was something like a tool for me at that time. And I began to use this tool consistently. And then it's an interesting thing when you realize in the predicament, no matter what predicament you're in, when you have a tool, a resource to contribute, to help you through it, you don't live like the victim in it. You understand that I got something that can help me through it. And for me, with my breath and understanding how that worked, it was interesting for me.

SPEAKER_02 37:29

Wow. So this nurse is so wise to explain this to you. I have had four children. I understand lamas and breathing, but I never really understood it. This conscious, this intentional breathing that is very, very powerful. Tell me about practicing it because I have athletes come to me all the time saying, I know I'm supposed to do this kind of breathing. I can't do it. It doesn't make sense for me. I get frustrated. When you're first practicing it, it sort of slips away. You try it a little bit, it slips away. Is the mindset just keep trying it? Don't give up, or tell me about that.

SPEAKER_06 38:06

Well, it begins to be a habit. And habit creates a practice, and practice creates a lifestyle. So through the process, and again, she didn't tell me all of those things I just mentioned.

SPEAKER_02 38:18

But why did this breathing thing, like, why was this working for you?

SPEAKER_06 38:22

It just connected with me. It calmed my nervous system, it calmed my mind, it gave me something to another thing to put my focus on.

SPEAKER_02 38:31

Gave you something to put your focus on.

SPEAKER_06 38:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 38:34

Okay. I love that.

SPEAKER_06 38:35

It distracted me from the situation I was looking at.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

And you are in the worst situation ever. So it gave you some reprieve. It gave you a moment to step away from this absolute disaster, like my life is falling apart. What am I gonna do? And you focused on breathing.

SPEAKER_08 38:49

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

And that resonated, and that helped you build this idea that we have control over it.

SPEAKER_06 38:57

Yes. Because again, I already came in with a str a strong mind. So I had a very strong mind, which equates to discipline. So now I get a resource like that. Now I'm paying it forward. I'm executing it because again, I have nothing else. Exactly. I have nothing else actively. You know, you can believe in a higher power, yes, and I do that and believe that. But as an active role in it, this is what I could do, and this is how I could participate in my own healing.

SPEAKER_02 39:27

Wow. Okay. That makes sense to me. I get that. Okay, so here you are now, breathing, finding your way through. How does that turn into meditation and yoga and some of these other things that change your life?

SPEAKER_06 39:42

Well, when you tap into yourself in that way, you start to kind of listen to what yourself is saying to you. You start to, you know, empathize with yourself and how you've treated this relationship with yourself. And for me, even on a deeper level, I realized through the process how my body didn't trust me. And it didn't trust me because I had constantly put it in harm's way. So that was the relationship that I had with my body that I didn't even know I had. I knew how to push myself, but I didn't know how to listen to myself.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

You knew how to push yourself, but not listen to yourself. Like that's a very common thing, I would think, with athletes.

SPEAKER_06 40:20

Yes. And so in listening to myself, my body had so much to say. It had so much to tell me.

SPEAKER_02 40:27

You had to be quiet for a minute to hear it. Okay. Yeah. And here you are, you start down a different path. I mean, you're forced to and you start to. Do you find yourself in that path? And what does that look like?

SPEAKER_06 40:40

Well, that path starts to, in a sense, you know, pick up the pieces of the puzzles that connect the dots for why I wanted to do this. What was I really looking for here? Wanting to be accepted, wanting to be liked. How do I see myself? Am I patient with myself? Am I compassionate myself? Just the basic concepts of all these different things start linking up. And I read this really profound book that kind of puts some words and understanding to things that I was feeling. And it was a book by Eric from The Art of Loving.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

And did somebody recommend that book to you?

SPEAKER_06 41:14

Yeah, someone recommended that book to me. And then I found through that process, Jay Christamurti, he taught the practice of contemplation. He's actually speaking about it. He's talking about love as a psychology, not just as an emotional response, but as how we psychologically and our needs from it, from that perspective. And it kind of put it into a whole nother perspective for me. Because even how I say I love football, what does that actually mean? And how I equate it, you know, it's like kind of going into, like in my book, I talk about the etymology of words, define your words, because a lot of the words have been defined for us, and we don't really speak and understand terminology from our own conviction. It's just what we've been told. So it's like through this process, I begin to unpeel, unpack, sorry, what was going on in my world.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_06 42:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

It's a, I don't even want to use this term loosely, but like it's a rebirth. Like you're sort of born again because you're completely different. You have to change everything. You're literally learning how to breathe.

SPEAKER_06 42:15

Yes. Okay. Learning how to breathe. It changes everything.

SPEAKER_02 42:18

It's incredible.

SPEAKER_06 42:19

Yeah. It changes everything. And then just learning and allowing, again, this developmental thing to happen.

SPEAKER_02 42:27

Okay. And this starts to work for you. This initially starts out as sort of a selfish, this is for me thing, of course. Like I'm going to do this because I'm in chaos, I'm in pain. My body is rejecting me, all these sorts of things. You go through, you start to learn about yourself, you learn how to breathe, all these sorts of things. When does it start turning to, I need to share this with other people? Now I need other people to know about this because it's so incredible. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_06 42:54

Well, I begin to, when I got functional, I begin to get into a yoga practice. And understanding yoga is a concept of union. It's basically anything could be a yoga. You know, just standing upright and connecting and presence and your breath can be a yoga practice. A forwardfold can be a yoga practice. But like understanding it with depth as having a conversation with your body when you forwardfold or when you stand or when you put yourself in these different movements, it began to really allow me to embody the concepts beyond the verbiage, but to embody it, to feel it, to see these things transition through me physically as I had breakdowns. Because again, I've for years put myself in so much of harm's way, and my body's still holding this thing. You know, my body is still like holding that chemistry in my body. So through the process, I'm letting all this go, you know?

SPEAKER_02 43:53

Yeah. Having a conversation with your body. I love the way you said that. I mean, that's the connection piece. That's literally connecting mind and body. Wow. I mean, you have so much credibility because if you were just telling me a bunch of this stuff, I would tell you, well, you don't understand athletes. You don't know what athletes go through. Nonsense. I mean, you're an athlete at the absolute highest level. You have the highest level of success as an athlete. And you realize that you haven't even been having conversations with your body. You're totally disconnected.

SPEAKER_07 44:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

Tell me about the process of writing this book and tell me why I should read it.

SPEAKER_06 44:31

Uh, you know, the book is such a dear and vulnerable situation for me. I never thought in a million years I'll write a book, right? And then I just started putting the pen to the pattern.

SPEAKER_02 44:42

So literally, you're just start writing not knowing what's going to come of it.

SPEAKER_06 44:46

Well, I had an idea from the standpoint of what I wanted to write about. And the first one was define your words. I didn't even really want it to be a football book. I didn't really want it to be a yoga book. And in fact, we speak very little bit about football and very little about yoga. It's a concept of what I call just logic, a question and answering concept and basic fundamentals that we can actually create a playbook as a concept. Because what I noticed through playing the game of football, I was developing myself as a player when I had no idea what being a football player was about. But through the process of practicing repetition, it led me to a concept of mastery. That's the character. But what happens if I put this intention to me being the human and developing the human and building the capacity to be the mother, to be the football player, the entertainer, whatever it is you want to do, but never lose the essence of who you are. Just build the capacity of what you can do. And I begin to understand and wanting to put that to pad and see what that looked like. And when the first chapter we started with is define your words. You can start with who am I? You know, what do I represent? Where do I want to go? Where do I want to be?

SPEAKER_02 46:01

Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 46:02

Yeah. And so even define that. From what perspective are you answering this question? Again, I feel there's three concepts of of our existence. It's the reality of who we are, who we desire to be, and who we truly are.

SPEAKER_02 46:16

Say that again. You lost me on the third one. So defining who you are.

SPEAKER_06 46:21

Define who you are.

SPEAKER_02 46:22

Defining who you want to be, and then tell me about the third one.

SPEAKER_06 46:26

Well, define who you are, like from an unapologetic perspective, and then who you desire to be. And then the last one is who you told that you are. You know, the perspective of how you've been told that you are, you know, how people perceive you, how you present in front of the world. Because a lot of times we're presenting and it's not a real truth. There's a true element there.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

Oh, so deep. It's like it really, really gets to you when you start. It almost makes you uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_06 46:55

Yeah. And that's the purpose. Because only until we get uncomfortable can we actually equate change. That's how muscle is built. It has to be broken a bit.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

Has to be broken a bit.

SPEAKER_06 47:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 47:06

Okay. I believe you. And this book is for athletes, non-athletes, coaches, people, humans.

SPEAKER_06 47:14

I feel it's for people who aspire to get more out of this. If you realize it and have a thought that there could be more, you want more substance, you want more pleasure, you want more peace, whatever it is, I think it could be for you. It's a concept. If I'm doing something, right, whether it be if I'm exercising, if I'm going for a walk, maximize it. Learn to maximize my potential in my efforts. Learn about it. Learn the mechanics. If it's intimacy, I want. If you break the word down, into me I see. So it's an allowance of me to allow you to come into me instead of the other way around. It's a very interesting concept that's happening when we begin to break these terminologies down.

SPEAKER_02 47:55

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And I know you have eight championship strategies for life because I love them. Do you want to kind of break these down for us? Because I think that they're really easy to understand when you break them down into eight pieces. To me, they were. Tell me.

SPEAKER_06 48:12

It is. So basically, in the sense I'm trying to show you where in the process you can start from your foundation and even go to like I'm looking at it as like with sports, we with football, we go through the process from the off-season to the preseason to the game. And so in our life experience, can we find a preseason? Can we find an off-season even to learn the things and integrate the things that we've just learned into a process? So I'm kind of breaking it down in tiers like that through this book of ways you can implement this, whether it be a meditation, whether it be nutrition, whether it be anything you can think about, we're kind of creating a formula based off your attributes. And then I'm also calling things that we're not so good at as a so-called weakness, because you don't have to suggest it as a weakness. It just hadn't been developed yet. Right. You know? And so, but when we spend time to develop it, like what we would do in a physical practice and in a game like sports, you'll develop and work on your weaknesses and make them your strengths.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

Right. Like I can't throw a spiral, but that doesn't mean I never will be able to.

SPEAKER_06 49:19

Exactly. So we can put time in to develop these things and how that equates to our personality, again, it could be forgiving. It doesn't have to be this big thing of solving the world's problems. It could be loving the best or loving better or adding more depth to your love or forgiving more. My mother used to get mad at me, right? Because when she would say, as a mother, I'm like, well, what does a mother mean? How do you see the mother and how do you grow this mother concept from your perspective, not what you've been told, not what you've seen, but from, you know, the experiences you've had. How do you teach the lessons that you've learned to us to go forward? It's like, so it's just other things that we can do to add on to concepts that we kind of play with or have been told, it kind of expands us, if you will.

SPEAKER_02 50:06

100% it does.

SPEAKER_06 50:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

And tell me what happened to your relationships when you started through this process. Like, have you found that you're more connected to people through this? Or tell me about that.

SPEAKER_06 50:18

Yeah, definitely. You they either connect with you or they you're you're speaking a language that they don't understand.

SPEAKER_02 50:24

For sure, because you're afraid, right? When people start going woo-woo, you're like, oh, I don't get it. So I'm gonna run away from this.

SPEAKER_06 50:31

Yeah, yeah. But I've created solid relationships and connections through this. The community of people that I've gotten a chance to to engage with and call family, extended family, has been tremendous. It's been all over the world. And I'm so grateful. Like, again, being from a small city outside of Dallas now that I've been to 78 countries, I've seen a lot of the world. And I've gotten a chance to share some of my message to a lot of the world now. And it just feels good. It feels great. And now I'm kind of coming back because my former teammates and a lot of guys I played with our head coaches now. They're like, man, we need you. It's like you left us. I was like, well, I had to go find myself.

SPEAKER_02 51:10

I gotta come back better. Yeah, yeah. And are they opening doors for you to come in and speak? Because it's very, very powerful. But if you don't know anything about it, it can be intimidating too.

SPEAKER_06 51:23

Yeah. They're tuning in, and I noticed, you know, I I get messages. I'm bought, I bought your book, I'm reading your book, you know, it's refreshing and it allows me to come back and be a better teammate, even better than I was when I played.

SPEAKER_02 51:37

So you have credibility. I mean, at the end of the day, you've been there. So it's not like somebody can say to you, Well, you don't know what it's like.

SPEAKER_06 51:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 51:44

You know, you can say, I do. I was there. Okay. And tell me, what's the dream now for you?

SPEAKER_06 51:51

The dream now for me, I'm doing a few things. I've bought some land. I'm looking to develop it, to grow food, to grow a situation where it's eco-friendly, a real eco-friendly, no concrete, all nature's materials, and create a home and create an experience where people can come in and heal and uh connect to nature, uh, connect back to themselves and pay the information forward. You know, we have extended families now, we have kids. They need some insight. They need to know uh some of the things that we, you know, didn't have guidance on. We can share the information. You know, a lot of things that I was doing as a kid, making decisions with real money, I had no one to lean on. You know, very few people that I could really trust to lean on. And so our kids shouldn't have to go through that.

SPEAKER_02 52:43

Well, especially because money is coming into sports much younger. So we're really talking about, you know, 18, 19-year-old men and women. I call them boys and girls. And I have four children. So I know they're young. Money is being thrown at them, which changes things.

SPEAKER_06 53:00

Yeah, so we can give them some of this insight that we've learned. And yeah, and that's the goal. And really ultimately solve our problems. You know, a lot of times we look for other people to solve our problems, but we, we, there's so much that we can do. There's so much that we know. We always talk about we what we don't know, but there's a lot that we know. And how do we know? Because we're still here. We've gone through these experiences, tremendous experiences, and we made it to the other side of it. So there's a strategy involved. There's information involved that we can give back and share forward to people who are coming up behind us. And I think this is what life is about.

SPEAKER_02 53:39

I agree with you. Wow. Okay. I'm gonna stop you really quick because I play a game with all my guests. Although there's literally a piece of me that's like, should I even play this game right now? Because I'm floored. But we're gonna stop because I do it all the time. Two things, I name them, you tell me which you would prefer.

SPEAKER_00 53:59

It's time to play would you rather?

SPEAKER_02 54:02

Hamburger or hot dog?

SPEAKER_00 54:04

Hamburger.

unknown 54:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 54:05

Would you rather prioritize short-term goals with immediate results or focus on long-term strategies that take longer for results?

SPEAKER_06 54:13

Short-term goals.

SPEAKER_02 54:14

Short-term, okay. Would you rather make a game-saving tackle in the Super Bowl or guide 20,000 people through a mindfulness session?

SPEAKER_05 54:23

I'd say mindfulness session.

SPEAKER_02 54:25

Okay. Would you rather spend an hour in the weight room with all of your old NFL teammates showing them how to breathe through workouts, how to do stuff through workouts, or an hour on the yoga mat with current people that you do yoga with?

SPEAKER_06 54:39

I would go with teammates.

SPEAKER_02 54:41

You would, okay. Would you rather vacation in the mountains or at the beach?

SPEAKER_07 54:45

At the beach.

SPEAKER_02 54:47

Would you rather go back and play one more healthy NFL season or use that time to teach mindfulness to an NFL rookie?

SPEAKER_05 54:55

Teach mindfulness to the NFL rookie.

SPEAKER_02 54:57

I knew that answer. I knew that answer. Would you rather lead a global wellness retreat in Bali or a mindfulness workshop for NFL players?

SPEAKER_06 55:06

Mindfulness workshop for NFL players.

SPEAKER_02 55:08

Okay. I'm getting the theme here. Pizza or chicken wings?

SPEAKER_06 55:13

Chicken wings.

SPEAKER_02 55:14

Would you rather be remembered as one of the NFL's greatest linebackers or as a pioneer who helped athletes redefine what strength really means?

SPEAKER_06 55:24

A pioneer that redefines what strength really means.

SPEAKER_02 55:27

Would you rather have a movie about your life or a book?

SPEAKER_06 55:31

Uh let's say movie, because people tune into movies more.

SPEAKER_02 55:35

Well, and you have a book too, so it's like you can watch the movie and read your book. Okay. Would you rather, if you could go back in college right now, would you rather play basketball or soccer?

SPEAKER_06 55:45

Neither.

SPEAKER_02 55:46

Neither? Okay, now you have to pick a sport in college. What would you pick?

SPEAKER_06 55:50

I would do football.

SPEAKER_02 55:51

You can't. You already did football. Pick another one.

SPEAKER_06 55:54

Lacrosse.

SPEAKER_07 55:55

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

My little one is a lacrosse player. Okay. Last question is would you rather be a division one assistant coach or division three head coach?

SPEAKER_06 56:06

The head coach. I'll go head coach.

SPEAKER_02 56:08

Okay, division three head coach. And the reason I asked that last question is because we have a lot of disparity in our college sports. And I work with division three athletes and I have division two and division one. There's a lot of money put into division one and a lot of excess in terms of what we give them. And then we have division three athletes who barely have uniforms. From the mental side of things, I know that, you know, your best work is going to be done with people who can afford to have you and afford to be there for you. Tell me what's going on in your mind with this disparity in sports because the money schools are getting everything and the other schools are sort of struggling.

SPEAKER_06 56:50

Yeah. Well, the interesting thing is the mindset and what is your intention for doing this? What is your plan? What do you have a a goal in mind? You know, what are you creating? Because a lot of times these injuries that you sustain, and especially the more violent games, are going to last you a lifetime.

SPEAKER_02 57:09

Regardless of where you're playing.

SPEAKER_06 57:11

Regardless of where you end up, yeah. So it's like you really want to understand what you're doing and what you're taking your body through, or at least have a plan of once you take your body through the damage or the violence of the game, how can you heal it? And it's important to have a recourse of building yourself back up as you break it in various ways or break it down in various ways because football is such a violent game.

SPEAKER_02 57:35

So you're, you know, my question is really about sort of funding. Would you say to some of these schools that don't have a lot of funding, make the investment and the mental side of it, because regardless of what level you play at, you have a life to live afterwards.

SPEAKER_06 57:49

Now the life to live. But also what's interesting with the mentality game, putting that and implementing that in, you actually have a really successful team. We just go with the physical and we bring in the physical attributes. But a lot of times football is about heart and will. You know, the Patriots showed us that. They didn't have the most talent. They had a talented quarterback, but the players were just guys who could get on one page and play together.

SPEAKER_02 58:15

Yeah, I agree with that. And I feel like we're gonna get there a little bit, but I mean, I am constantly coming across situations where it's like we don't have funding for the mental part of the game. Like, forget about it. But we, you know, back when I played in college, we barely had funding to get you in the weight room until we realized it could maybe prevent injury. And all of a sudden it's like, well, we could prevent injury.

unknown 58:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:38

You could prevent mental health crisis by working on your mental ahead of time. That's mental fitness.

SPEAKER_07 58:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

Tell me about your mental fitness, was obviously really strong, but I'm sure you were surrounded by people that didn't know how to cope.

SPEAKER_06 58:53

Yeah, but you know, that's another thing. You can position yourself to win. That's another thing we talk about strategy-wise. In the premature stage of your setting a new goal, a way of being, you know, where to position yourself and where not to position yourself because you're gonna need a a learning curve to be able to sustain being around people who may try to distract you. Like I became a vegan. I was a vegan for 14 years. I just started eating meat in January. So I couldn't just go hang around people who were just meat eaters until I would build up the stamina and the strength to be able to sustain myself being around that.

SPEAKER_02 59:30

Okay, so explain that to me because I feel like what you're saying is you got to get yourself together and you got to get mentally tough before you expose yourself. Is that what you're saying?

SPEAKER_06 59:40

Exactly. Yes. But you have to allow yourself that time to build. So now you can sustain in the midst of distractions and other mindsets and other different types of thinking.

SPEAKER_02 59:51

Okay. So what do you say? I'm one of you have one minute to talk to this college football player, and he's saying to you, I am overwhelmed, I'm not playing my best. Can you in one minute tell me what you would recommend? Where do they start?

SPEAKER_06 1:00:08

Well, I would change the terminology of overwhelmed. I use the term whelmed. You're still capable with well. You still have an understanding, you still have the ability. That's why you're here with well.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:18

Now it's just an application of applying yourself to achieve.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:22

Okay. Now I get that. And I love that too. And I say I hate yips or I hate a slump or I hate all these negative terms. So you say to them, okay, you have what you need right here in some. Yes. What do I start with? I start with breathing. I start with connecting myself to my body. How do I do it?

SPEAKER_06 1:00:38

Yeah, you start with breathing. Breathing is going to guide you to your purpose. It's going to guide you to processing the moment because without that, you're emotionally responding. You're emotionally erratic with your thinking.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:51

Okay, good. I love it, but I want to tell you this too. And by the way, I don't teach breathing, but I it's part of my practice. Okay, I'm trying it, but every time I go to try to breathe, I lose my train of thought. What do I do?

SPEAKER_06 1:01:02

It's okay. Come back because any practice is going to need consistency to really work. So you just try it one time, now try it two times, try it three times. You keep going back to it and through the process, again, you'll build stamina. That's how you build stamina. You can't just go out and run a mile. If you hadn't ran a mile, you're gonna fatigue. So, same with this concept.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:24

Same with breathing. Like connect to it. And if you find yourself distracted, just come back again.

SPEAKER_06 1:01:29

Yeah. Or you can even play with your thoughts as you find yourself distracted. Like check in with your thoughts. Listen to the words of your thinking, slow the words down. Play with it's a game. It's just like the chalkbook. Play with these positions, play with these concepts. Use your words as tools to propel you forward, not to be a limitation or weight to hold you down.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:49

I love that. That makes a lot of sense. And I feel like we do that all the time. We use our words to limit ourselves. Yes. So think about the words you're using. Think about what they mean and how they feel, because I know we have control over how we think. Yeah. We have control over how we think. When people say, Well, I think I'm not good enough and I think so-and-so is better, and I think this and I think that, and I go, Okay, well, don't think that.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:13

Yeah. And the cool thing about your thoughts is also your conversation. It's your conversation to other people. So again, you're those same things you're thinking and how you talk with yourself replicates how you talk to other people. So again, this is why it's vital. This is why it's so important. So I don't want you to run away from thinking. You can play with your thoughts, take the good things, the plus things out of your thought that can attribute you. And then you push away the negative thoughts.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:44

Yeah, it's like there's no space for them anymore. They don't even fit.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:48

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:49

Okay, I understand that. My last two questions. First is world's sexiest yoga person or something. What's that all about? Like, that's awesome. I mean, first of all, we think sexy is confidence and being comfortable in your own skin and being somebody, and clearly you're those things, but tell me about that.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:08

Well, I didn't solicit that. They came to me. So I, you know, who would have thought, you know?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:14

I love it. That's so awesome. Okay. My last question is where can people find your book? Tell us where to go buy it because people want to buy it.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:25

Okay, so we're on Amazon and we've been on Amazon since mid-September, and we're gonna have a hard copy come out in December. So you can either buy the softcover copy on Amazon, or you could wait until December to have the hard copy that's gonna have some other things contributing in there.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:41

And what do you say to people who are like, I'm scared to buy this book because it's just like not in my kind of thing. I I don't know if I should do it. What do you say?

SPEAKER_06 1:03:48

I say buy it anyway. Take a leap of faith. I believe it's one of those books you could just open up and find a space to start reading that can resonate with you. I think you are it has that ability as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:01

I agree. I absolutely agree to my listeners. Like, there's something in that book for you. You don't need to read it cover to cover. I mean, I will because I'm fascinated. But I know some people who buy books and feel like they have to read the whole book. You don't. Open the book.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:18

Okay, good. And where do we find you? Social media and things like that.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:22

Instagram, the Keith Mitchell and TikTok. I have a new website out, thekeithmitchell.com.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:29

ThekeithMichell.com.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:31

Yes. Check it out and have some upcoming things that I think you'll be intrigued with and love to see on one of my retreats. And yeah, just looking forward to the connection.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:42

Good. Well, I appreciate you coming on so much. I feel like that I have a list of questions I didn't even look at it. I'm gonna look back and be like, why didn't you ask any of these questions? Because I'm just fascinated by your wisdom. I really am. Like from the get, I feel like you are doing exactly what you're meant to do because this journey took you here. And I just believe it. It's amazing. So thank you for sharing everything with us.

SPEAKER_06 1:05:08

Thank you for having me on, Linda. Really appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:22

Thanks again for listening to the Game Changers Podcast. You can stay updated by visiting martindalecoaching.com. And you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Please rate, review, and follow this podcast. And remember, adversity reveals character, but resilience defines champions.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:40

The Game Changers Podcast.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:42

Game Changers is recorded in Boston, Massachusetts, and produced in Los Angeles, California.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:52

It's all about resilience.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:03

Learn more at sportsepreneur.com.