Kez McCorvey - What if Your Talent Is Not Your Identity

One bad 40-yard dash. One letter read out loud in class. One decision to cut distractions and get serious. Kez McCorvey’s path to a Florida State scholarship and pro football is the kind of story that sounds like a highlight reel, but what hit us hardest is what happens when the game stops loving you back.

We walk through Kez’s childhood in small-town Mississippi, the mentors who stepped in when he needed direction, and the coaches who planted seeds long before he was ready to hear them. He opens up about pride, getting derailed by attention, and the grief of losing his sister, then the sharp moment where motivation returns and he gets dialed in. From Florida State to the NFL, Kez shares the hidden side of elite sport: insecurity, injuries, and the shock of being cut and brought back, and how that rejection exposed where he had placed his value.

The conversation turns to faith, healing, and learning a new “operating system” built on grace instead of performance. Kez explains what freedom looks like for a Christian athlete, why sport can reveal your gifts without becoming your identity, and how his time with the Edmonton Eskimos helped shape what he now does through Legacy Playmakers Inc, mentoring students and planting seeds in schools.

If you care about athlete mindset, coaching mentorship, purpose, and faith in sports, listen all the way through, then subscribe, share this with a teammate, and leave a review so more people can find the gospel in the game.

Transcript

Freedom, Purpose, And Identity

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm trying to get something from this person right here, as opposed to now I can live free right here. What does kids want to do? What's my purpose, right? What has God built me to do that's only kids can do?

SPEAKER_00 0:15

You are listening to the gospel in the Game Sports Podcast with your host, Dan Dromarski.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

Okay,

Favourite Athletes And Sports Fandom

SPEAKER_02 0:26

Kaz, question of the day for you, and this one is big time trivia. Who is your all-time favorite athlete and why?

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you, I have I I had a couple of them, right? So overall, just through sport period, uh, I would say I grew up as a Michael Jordan fan.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

Tough tough not to like that guy. Tough not to like that guy.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

I grew up in that era where he was on TV all the time, winning games, doing amazing stuff, and so it was almost impossible not to admire his physical capabilities and his his uh grit and athleticism. So uh definitely could say I can say as far as an athlete, Michael Jordan, uh, and also Jerry Rice was uh a guy that I, you know, you know, naturally gravitated to his ability to play sports. Um so I would say those are the two guys that I kind of um you know gravitated towards, you know uh had them as an athlete.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Yeah, and you know, there's certain athletes that have moments. Michael Jordan was a moment guy where he was clutch in the moment, but he just had opportunities to do that. Rice was smooth. Man, did that guy have hands? Unbelievable. And then boom, gone.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Gone, exactly. And and and then just the the way they played football in San Francisco was so exciting, right? And I grew up in Mississippi, and and uh we we had we had the choice of a couple of teams, and they were all bad. Our choices were bad. So we had New Orleans was the choice, and New Orleans at the time was very bad. And when they were good, they were still boring to watch because they ran the ball a bunch of times and they threw the ball maybe once or twice, and it was short throws, so it wasn't very exciting football. And then we had the Atlanta Falcons, the Atlanta Falcons was boring and terrible, and so it was boring to watch, and it was terrible, and then we had the Tampa Bay Yuccineers. Oh, oh back in the Yuccineer days.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Those those were those all white uniforms.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Oh man, the popsicle orange, and so it was just it was miserable. I grew up in the area where it was miserable football to watch, period. And so when the San Francisco came, when San Francisco came to town, it was exciting because you got a chance to watch some exciting football. They threw the ball a lot, it was high scoring, they did complex stuff, and it was fun, what fun watching them play football. And so that was uh that was kind of you know the rationale, the reason, you know, and uh as far as football is concerned.

SPEAKER_02 3:15

Now being involved in sports and growing up around sports, and like you said, as a as a young guy, being surrounded by terrible teams, it's hard to be a fan of a terrible team. I can't even imagine playing for one.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

No, it was terrible. I I didn't I don't think I like that's I didn't like football growing up because it was just the football was so terrible. You didn't, you know, and in in Mississippi, you didn't have a local college team to root for. And so I'm I'm at the southern part of Mississippi. Mississippi is on the Gulf Coast, and then all the state schools, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, they're way up there, way up there. They're way up there north, yeah. So you don't have a team to kind of root for that's localized, right? You had Southern Miss, but it Southern Miss wasn't one of the big teams, right? And so you had uh Alabama. Alabama was a team that you saw on TV every day. So in my little area, Mississippi, Alabama was the predominant school that you heard about all the time. Alabama was on TV all the time, and so that that was really the only football you got a chance to watch. It was so different back then. Now every every team and every channel is on, I mean, every team in every area is on TV. You know, you can't, you can't, it's impossible to miss a game because you know, my high school team is on TV. Well, yeah, yeah. So it's not, it's not, you don't miss a game. But back then, obviously, it was different because you know it was regionalized, and then whoever was the dominant team, which was Alabama at that time, was the team that was on TV.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Well, and nowadays you drive past some of these high school football stadiums. We went down through Dubuque, Iowa, all the way down to Nebraska, and then drove across through Colorado. And you okay, but let's take Nebraska. There's not a whole lot in Nebraska outside of uh Lincoln and Omaha, and but college towns are massive. But you go through a community, the high school team is the show. Yeah, big time.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Absolutely. Absolutely. I and I grew up like that too. And my little high school team, I mean, we had 15,000 people that came to our games. 15,000 people for a high school game. That's incredible, right? Football's important in my little town because we didn't have a college team locally in my area, and so high school football became very important. And that's that's that's the culture here for a lot of the southern states here. Football, sports are super important, and their high school football teams are important as well. And so you can look at the facilities and see that I've been on places where they got indoor, most of a lot of the schools, especially in Georgia and Alabama, they got indoor indoor facilities. They got indoor turf, indoor weight rooms, indoor practice facilities, stuff that colleges have, they have here, uh in in our southern states here. So it's it's a different animal than when I grew up, you know. And and I grew up in a place where our facilities were probably above everybody else's. We had probably the premier facilities, but now everybody has that. Everybody has a stadium, everybody has you know super giant weight rooms and all that kind of stuff. So that's just normal part of it now.

Growing Up In Small-Town Mississippi

SPEAKER_02 6:28

Well, this is a sports podcast, but we don't always talk about sports. Let's talk about life before sports for Kes McCorvey. What did that look like growing up in the South?

SPEAKER_01 6:38

Well, yeah, I I grew up in a little small town in Mississippi. Uh I don't know if I was into sports. Really, I grew up and I grew up in a uh like on a farm. Uh, and so my grandfather, he loved farming. He was he he didn't farm for a living, he worked for oil company, a lot like they do in Edmonton, right? He worked for Chevron. And but he he enjoyed the farming, and so that was his hobby. And so he had a large giant hobby, which all his grandkids partook in the working of that farm, and it helped me to first of all learn that I didn't want to do that for a living. And and then he would always say this right here, he would say, Boy, you lucky you get at them sports because you you're a terrible worker, and so, but uh, but I I I enjoy growing up on a farm. I enjoyed that. And I and I go there now, I just like nostalgia, just you know, the memories you have growing up on a farm in a wide open area and a lot of land and all that kind of good stuff like that. And so still hate working on the farm, but I love just being there.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Yeah, well, isn't it probably it's I think it's kind of the role of grandpa to you know what, make sure kids learn A, how to work, but B, quickly discover what they don't want to do. Yeah, okay. So growing up, tell tell me a little bit about your family.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Um, so I grew up, I grew up my dad, right? You know, and uh you know one of those situations. My mother, uh, you know, she had me, you know, and then I had an older sister, and she was two years older, and uh she's hemophilic. She actually died when I was 16, she was 18, she she passed away from uh from hemophilia. And then I uh uh I well I I grew up with, I grew up and then she got remarried, and I had a little brother and a sister, and then I think she ended up getting remarked again too as well. So we had a couple of different things going on with our family growing up, but I always stayed close to my grandparents uh as I was growing up, and so they were a very important part of my uh kind of being reared, and she made us go to church and all that kind of stuff like that. And and I I resisted that the whole upbringing, I resisted going to church, didn't want to do it, but she she made sure that we were there for the most part, and then we moved away, and then uh you know that's when I started playing more sports. But I grew up in sports. I had a cousin, his name was Kurt, he was the Michael Jordan of the neighborhood, and so you know it's it's one thing when you grow up and you are by yourself, it's another thing when you grow up with a guy that's driven by sports and you have to compete against him every day. And I hated it. Uh, but he and he was three years older than me, and so he dominated me as a young kid growing up, and so it's like I was like I it was like I had a big brother, but that but he was my cousin, and he would just ruthlessly, you know, with the age disparity, just destroy me every day and make me hate basketball and sports and other things like that, and because he was just so much better than not only me, but everybody in the neighborhood. But I had to live with him. Wow. So, and so that's that's that I think to me, I think that's part of my developing of the competitive uh spirit was uh living with him and having to compete against him, whether I wanted to or not. I had to compete against him.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

Well, you had to compete about him, compete with him, but then you also had to hear about it afterwards.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Yes, yeah. You know, you couldn't whoop him. And then when I moved away from him, it was like a relief. It was a relief. And then I got a chance to be around kids that were my own age, and I found out I'm I'm pretty good. You know, when you get around kids your own age, you okay, well, I'm not so bad after after all. I thought I was terrible because he was destroying me every day, but I'm not that bad, you know. And so you started to actually enjoy some of the sports because, you know, you started to excel. And for me, uh my sport was baseball. I could, you know, I was really, really good at baseball. I could hit and I could field and I could throw, and I was just very good at baseball. And so um, but when I moved to a we moved to uh uh another little town, you know, you found out that baseball wasn't the sport that all your peers and your friends were playing.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

And so I was good at baseball, and and some of my peers, some of my peers played baseball, but most of my peers didn't play baseball. And so we got to middle school. Uh, you got into middle school and you were playing the sports. They didn't have baseball on the middle school campus. It was with the rec leagues. And then we got to campus, you were trying to fit in, and and some of the sports that helped you fit in were basketball, obviously football, and then track. And I didn't do any of those, but soon I I did because I wanted to fit in with my friends and I wanted to have those relationships. So I started to try out for the team and go out for the other teams. And so that's kind of how I started with sports, and that's that was kind of my youth growing up too as well. I had a I had an older sister, I had a little brother, I had uh another little sister who was four of us. And uh we loved my mother, and and uh and basically most of the time she was single, she got divorced and she was single, and and we actually lived uh in a place called Gaucher.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Okay, okay.

Coaches As Life-Changing Mentors

SPEAKER_02 11:44

Uh I talked a little bit with uh Eddie Joseph and another Eskimo player, football player, and we talked about athletes and and being a dad and and family, and growing up in an environment, how the male role model plays a significant piece in the life of a young man. You mentioned your grandfather and how important he was to you. Growing up outside of your cousin, did you have anyone that instilled life into you as a as a young man, not just as a young athlete?

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Yeah, you know what? Growing up, I know it was it was kind of a a different animal. I don't I don't know if I did necessarily. I don't know if I had a strong role male role model outside of my grand grandparents that uh spoke into my life at a certain level, except coaches. I had a you know, had a coach that was a male role model that was speaking into my life, but I didn't have a male that was actually taking that took me, took me under his wing, so to speak, and said, Hey, you're my guy, all right, I got you. Alright, I didn't have that growing up outside of coaching. And so if you ask me, where did I get that? What did I if I got any of that, where did I get that from? I got that from uh uh coach. Yeah, I think my first yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

That's important. That's important. It is so important. I think um a lot of coaches don't get acknowledged in that way in the role that they play outside of coaching the physical sport.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Yeah. I think my first coach was super important in my life, really. Because I'm I'm very active, you know, very active. And if you don't, if you if I don't have an outlet, you know, I'm I'm probably gonna misbehave. And I think that's what I was doing growing up. And so I was getting a lot of trouble with my my grandmom and grandmom and stuff like that. They were having a hard time trying to figure out how to, you know, keep me from getting in trouble. And then I think well my mother had a friend that she worked with. She was a ship, she was a welder uh for a shipbuilding company in Mississippi, and he was also, and they went to school together in high school. And so she had a he had a son that was the same age as me, and he was starting a t-ball team, right? And so he was gonna start a t-ball team. So he asked my mother, uh Margaret, you know, hey, you you got a son that's seven. I'm I got a son that's seven, I'm starting a t-ball team. Won't you let me coach your son? And her immediate thought was, I don't know if you, I'm I'm I'm probably too embarrassed to let you let him go out there and play with you because he's he's just you know, he's he's he's not he's not the most uh you know easy, he's not the easiest to control and get him to do what you need him to do, because I probably wasn't. And uh so she was thinking twice about letting me do it, and then my grandmother kind of convinced her, you know, hey, let him let him play ball. Maybe it'll keep him out of out of trouble.

SPEAKER_04 14:52

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Yeah, and so so they decided to do it. And then I I remember going out for tryouts, never threw a ball, never fielded it, and never had a glove, anything like that. And I remember taking the first infield uh uh ground ball for the trials. I remember throwing the ball over the dugout. Well, long story short, is he still picked me on his team. I was on his team, and and actually he actually uh you know poured into me so much to where he had me fall in love with being out playing baseball. I enjoyed going out there. Him and his wife would make it easy, they would come and pick me up. My mother, they would come from work, his wife would pick me up and take me to the park, and then and then he would come after after working and be there to practice and everything. And they made it easy for me to do it and and really took care of me uh out on the football field. And I fell in love with uh base T-ball. And then I, you know, I I loved him too as well. I enjoyed being around him and and you know and wanted to please him as a as an athlete. So I actually really worked at the sport, even though I, you know, initially it was scary to be involved because I'd never done it before. But I wanted he he encouraged me to do it. And then I I fell in love with that and fell in love with playing ball for him. And so uh I spent the like the next couple years playing on his teams and and got really good at being uh athletes. So, you know, his involvement and his sacrifice helped me to grow uh in confidence uh and you know, and in that in that relationship. And and and in the situation where you're in Mississippi in the 70s. Mississippi in the 70s is a different place. You got a lot of tension going on, you got a lot of situations going on there. And I was kind of starting to, I you know, as a young man, I you know, I didn't grow up knowing about those tensions, but as soon as you go to school, you start to get introduced to a lot of those things that are going on in the community, the separate the separational community, you start to notice those things, and and you know, and I was struggling with those things. And but then I had somebody come in who was different than me, looked different to me, to now uh uh counteract those things that were going on in the community. You know, and he cared about me and loved me and uh took care of me. Uh and I felt safe with I was with him. And so it just kind of at that time in my life, a person that kind of counteracted the norm that was happening uh in the communities and in the those that region at the time. Wow so very blessed for myself to be, you know, to have a person that you know kind of not only took care of me, but also, you know, went against the norm to uh bridge the gap in relationships uh for myself.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

You know what? That that is huge. Thank you for sharing that. Because I think so often we're sheltered from things. We're sheltered in in our own world, our own little bubble that we kind of live in. And once you start realizing the world outside of that bubble and things that are going on, especially for kids and young people, I think it's so important for people to model relationships by having relationships with people and helping them realize that there are safe places, that there are people who care. Um, because I think the the influence, the culture influence outside of the bubble that we have or in our community can really be impactful, not always in a positive way, but having that relationship modeling that for you. Now you look back at it um years later, and that that's a powerful influence. Now speaking to a little bit in into your youth, you're growing up, you're playing sports. When did sports become like a thing?

Realizing Athletic Gifts Early

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Like, okay, I I can do this. I'm gonna become an athlete.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Yeah, I think probably it really became when I was when I was seven, I first played, I was okay. By the end of the year, I became pretty good. When I was turned eight, I was bigger and stronger than most of the kids around me, right? So when I hit the ball, the ball went. I threw the ball, the ball would go. And then I turned nine and I went to the next league, and then I turned 10. I turned 10. When I turned 10, I was an explosive, I was athletic, and I could throw the ball faster than everybody else could throw it. And I saw the difference of my athleticism, especially in baseball, because I only played baseball, right? I didn't play football, I didn't play basketball.

SPEAKER_04 19:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

And when I played basketball, I played against my cousin, who was I was 10, he was 13, and he was dominating me. So I didn't think I was good at all anyway. But when I played baseball, I could see the difference. I was hitting home runs, I was throwing the ball very, very fast than everybody else could throw it, I could run, I could feel all that kind of stuff like that. I knew I was different. And so that is when I, okay, I'm I am different than everybody else. I could, I could, you know, you know, you can I mean you measure, you measure it in some kind of way I'm different than everybody else in this deal. And I didn't know to what extent, right? Because I grew up in on a farm and and you know, you had an older cousin that was whooping you up every day, and so you didn't think about it. And now all of a sudden, you know, I'm pretty good at baseball. I know that for sure. You don't know how to play you're 10, you don't know how to put it into a category, but you know that I'm pretty good at baseball. And so now you have a little bit of swagger or overconfidence in in at least in this. May not it may not carry over the other things, but at least in this, I'm I'm pretty I know I'm pretty good at this. You know, I got uh you know, I got this in the back. I don't know what that meant. I don't I didn't think about you know going to college, I didn't think about going to pro or nothing like that, but I knew when I step on this baseball field with people my age, I'm I'm you know, I'm the guy. You know.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

And then things then things took a shift. All of a sudden, a different sport comes into play.

SPEAKER_01 20:58

Yeah, so then I started, so I got I moved to this new town, and and and then I get to town and I got a it's a bunch of really, really good athletes. So even in baseball, I kind of the gap was closed. I left from a small town where I was the best, and then I go to a bigger town where they have a bunch of athletes, really, and and I mean I mean, not only just a bunch of athletes, but a bunch of future professional athletes in a small in another small town, but it's a bunch of guys that are probably professional athlete levels that are in that town that I go to now. And then now the new horizon of sports opens up. Now now you got I'm in middle school now, and now you got, you know, you got uh guys, basketball guys, you got baseball, you got track, you got football guys in middle school. So in my middle school, my middle school on the basketball team, we had two seven-footers and both of them played professional football. We had uh I grew with the a couple other guys that played college football too, came from my my school, uh college basketball. I had uh I had uh probably three guys, maybe not not three. I probably had uh it was three guys that played professional football uh at my Middle school that I went to. And then we had a bunch of other guys, probably maybe maybe 20 guys that play college football at my middle school.

unknown 22:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

That I played middle school football. And so we're very athletic, very, you know, sport, affluent, affluent uh community. I mean, it was athletes all over the place, everywhere. And I so when I was special, now I'm not so special anymore. So I went from being the best guy to the to now I'm the, you know, I'm the, you know, I'm one of the guys. And, you know, and and uh now it's it's a different story. So I grew up with a guy named Terrell Buckley. Terrell Buckley was is in a college football hall of fame. I think he has 56 interceptions as a pro, you know, all that kind of stuff. And Shane Matthews, I grew up, you know, Shane Matthews and and a bunch of other football players that you probably never heard of that probably could have been at that same level, but they just did not escape some of the uh community neighborhood uh pitfalls that you have when you're growing up. But I mean, it was I mean, that's what it was like. It was just it was a bunch of guys that were very, very athletic and it was of athletic culture, and everybody played sport, all the sports, and they were very uh athletic and strong and big, and you know, and and it was just different.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Okay, then now middle school, you go from dominating, you go to being part of it. Now you're into high school. Uh yeah. In high school, how how did that build out? Were you keeping up with everyone? Were you trying what was it was the challenge in middle school pushing you into high school?

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Uh yeah, you know, the challenge in middle school kind of pushed me because really it got me, it it it first of all, it humbled me because I was not the best. And and and when it took it took a lot of pressure off me too, because I didn't have to be the best. I was just one of the guys. But when I got to high school, really uh what happened was is some of my gifts started to show this, show their face. And so I was very skilled, and I, you know, and I think you know, you've got physical capabilities and physical skills that give you an advantage if you're big, if you're fast, or if you're strong, right? But then you have some uh mental capabilities that also kick in that give you advantages as well. And so when I got to high school, I found that some of my uh my other gifts that God has given me would kick in to uh allow me to excel at sports. And so now my ability to be able to uh see things and repeat them, right? And movement patterns that are that you can utilize to be able to help you get open. So I had I I was a very good route runner, and so I could manipulate guys and make guys miss and make guys go that way when I go this way, right? And and so, and when you run the route, and when you're in middle school, you don't throw the ball a whole lot, you know, you most of the time running. But when you get to high school, now you're throwing the ball a lot more, your quarterback's better, game is more advanced, and then now I fit. And so I get to high school as a 10th grader, and we just happen to be on the one of the best, the best teams in the state of Mississippi. And we actually go to the state championship and we win it. And and I'm a big part of that. I didn't play the whole year, but we get to the playoffs in some kind of way, I get in

Success, Ego, Then A Hard Reset

SPEAKER_01 25:50

the game and I get to be the hero of the game. This this 10th grader, first year guy, gets to be the hero of the game. And I catch a long pass in the rain, right, to help save the game and save the season so we can win the state championship. And then we get to the state championship game, and I catch a couple passes that help us pull away and win the state championship game. And now this guy that was like the 10th best guy on the middle school team is now he's one of the guys on the high school team, just that quick. And so I went from nobody, you know. Matter of fact, I had one of my I had a guy when I first got to high school, he and like in the summer before I got to high school in the summertime. He said, you know, one of the guys, I guess he devalued me. He said, kids, if you know, if you if you if you would disappear today, they nobody would know your name. I remember this too. If he if you disappeared today, you would nobody would know your name, right? And and I listened to him say that, and I'm and I didn't, you know, but now I listen to him, not now I hear that, and I just think, you know, people do that all the time, right? They don't know the what God has inside you, what purpose God has inside, and they're just looking at the outside surface of those things. And and he thought that about me. But then that same year, I go and help the team win a state championship. And then my head gets big too, as well. My head, my head gets big and I get full of myself, and now I got extra attention, attention that I had didn't have it before. And so that stuff is alluring, and it can derail you too as well. And so I was I got derailed my second year. So I've my first year, I'm the toast of the town. I played four sports, I run track, I played baseball, I played basketball, I played football, I'm the hero of the football team, you know, I'm newly playing baseball, which is my main sport. All right. I I run track and I go to the stage to stay games in the track as a hurdler, and then, you know, and then I played bat on the basketball team too as well. And then the next year I get so caught up into all that stuff that I don't do any of that stuff. I have a terrible year playing football, really. I I quit the basketball team, I quit the baseball team, I didn't run track. And so it all falls apart because you know, you have a little bit of success and you misappropriate that success to you and and and not not putting this in the right place.

SPEAKER_02 28:15

Okay, you go you go from zero to hero to zero. Wow. Yeah. So so you you got humbled.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Yeah, I did. Even more, even more than you think. The next part of the story is even more humbling.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

Okay, okay, let's go, let's go, keep going.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

Okay, so uh coming my junior coming out of my junior year, I would go to play football again, and uh in spring for the spring. We have spring season here too, and so I come back and I have a great spring. I've kind of re-re captured myself, right,

Grief, A Letter, And Getting Dialed In

SPEAKER_01 28:50

from my junior year to going into my senior year. I'm gonna put it together. I'm having a really good spring, and I have a tragedy happens. My uh older sister, who is two years older than me, she uh actually passes away. She was a hemophilag. I didn't know my cousins come to pick me up because usually my mother comes to pick me up from practice, but my cousins come to pick me up, and then they tell me that uh your sister died. And I'm in shock. I'm you know, confused. Uh, you know, you're looking to try to blame somebody or reason why this happened. And uh and I'm now I'm I'm demotivated again. You know, really don't care about playing sports or ball or anything like that. You kind of, you know, you kind of lose all interest. And I remember being in class, and I tell this story a lot. Remember being in class in Spanish class with uh one of my baseball teammates that I had the year before, and we're back there messing around, joking, and the teacher comes to the front of the class and somebody opens, somebody knocks on the door. Matter of fact, somebody knocks on the door, and they give her the the teacher, his or him, uh a letter. And he gets the letter, he sees my name on the front, he says, I have a letter here from for Kez McCorvey for from Florida State University. And I'm like, and and when they say it, all the whole class claps, you know, and I'm surprised, and I'm you know, just really kind of, you know, my goodness, just kind of in awe and shock of you know, the reception of that thing. And so I get up and I go get the letter from him, and he pats me on the back, and I go back to my desk, and everybody passed me on my bag and they clap, and and then it seemed like a big thing. Now, and I look at the letter. The letter is a a camp invite. Come to camp and it's a questionnaire, ask you about, you know, how tall are you, you know, how fast you run, how much you weigh, you lie, and all that stuff. I'm 6'3, and I run 4'1 and all that kind of stuff, and you know, you tell a bunch of lies. But just the way I got it was a thing that actually made the difference. Because I got it in front of my peers. It seemed like it was something that you know said that cares, you're valuable. We want you. Now, I can look back now and say, I'm sure everybody on my team got one of those letters. Maybe not in class, but everybody got one of those letters. But I got mine in a situation where it seemed like it was someone wanted me in front of my peers. Kes got value. And when I got that letter, I was so excited about it. Now, in the same day, in the same day, we did testing. We did testing, we did like the 40-yard dash, we did the bench press, we did the bra jump, we did the, you know, all the testing that you do for at the end of the school year. And I tested terrible. I mean, I hadn't been working out, you know, I tested terrible. I went out there and I ran an embarrassing time in the 40. And so I and I had a bunch of a team full of guys that could run, fast run. And I ran like a 4'9, embarrassed. And so what it did is this right here, it was a contrast of this thing I just got with some, it seems like somebody wants me. And then this other thing right here that says, kids, if you don't do something quick, you're gonna lose this opportunity that you have in front of you. All right. And so uh right then, I was I was afraid. I won't say I was afraid, but I was, I was, I felt like I was, you kids, if you don't do something right now, you're gonna miss it. If you don't do something right now, you're gonna miss it. And so right then I made my mind up, all right, I need to make some moves right now. And so I started moving things out of my way. I had a girlfriend, I was hanging out with probably some, you know, hanging out doing some wrong things, bad things, some things that probably wasn't beneficial to me. And so I immediately stopped doing those things. And then the weight room, I reintroduced myself to the weight room, I reintroduced myself to running and working out all the day long. And so I just changed my focus and I focused on this opportunity. I mean, I was so focused to where I worked out every day, all day long. I worked out so much my mother got tired of washing my clothes. And so I would be in my room with just my underwear on and tennis shoes working out, and so that's how much I wanted it. And then by the end of the summer, by the end of the summer, I'm in the best shape of my life. And it just so happened that we were getting ready to go to that camp. Uh and and we're getting ready to go to that camp. And hold on a second. Yes, my son. And so we're getting ready to go to that camp, uh, that Florida State camp that they sent me the questionnaire for, right? And they had some of the best players in the in the nation at that camp. And I go to that camp, and when I go there, I I line up to run the 40. The same 40 I ran earlier, where I ran a 4.9. I go and I line up on the on the track and I'm gonna get down to my stance. And I remember I remember the coach, it was um, it was the coach from uh old coach from Florida State, Mickey Andrews. Mickey Andrews gets down and he speaks to me. He says, McCorby. I didn't know he knew my name, but he says, McCorby, you're gonna run, is that how you're gonna run your 40? You're gonna get down to three-point stance? I said, I looked at him and I said, it sounds cool when I say it now. I said, Coach, this is how I play ball. And I got down in my two-point stance and I shot out of there, and I ran a four-five. And we get to the football field, and they had the you know, these number one guy, this number one guy, they had the number one receiver in the nation was there too as well. And I just tore up everybody on that field. I tore my tore up everybody on that field. At the end of that deal, the receiver coach comes over to me, he says to me, he says, McCorby, you got a scholarship if you want it. And I just looked around like, man, is that how they do it? I, you know, I thought it would be something bigger than this, but you know, he offered me a scholarship right on the spot. Later that year, I signed with Florida State. But that was that was kind of my story. And I I I always ask this question right here, is you know what is I I don't really ask the question. I I I noticed this, like, you know, that opportunity was already there. I almost missed it. It was every year we went to Bobby Balden football camp. Every year. It took about 50 kids to go to Bobby Balden football camp. It's not like that was a new thing that was happening, it was always there, always there. I could, I could have been the weight room, the weight room was already there. It's not like all of a sudden kids had an epiphany and they built a weight room. No, it was already there. I could have been, you know, got rid of some of the distractions that I had going on in my life. All right, but it took those series of events to get me to see clearly what was already in front of me, the opportunities. And I could have missed it. I could have been, you know, so distracted with all the things that were going on in my life, right? And even myself and my even the success I had that I could have missed the opportunity to be able to achieve goals that I had, that I would I wanted to achieve. And I tell that story to kids all the time. I say, you know, are they are there things that are in your heart now that you would love to do, that God has planned for you, that you're missing because you got too many distractions. You got things in your life that are pulling your gaze off things that are most important. And so to me, I I love that story because I in first of all, I lived it. I lived that. And so it speaks to me on a daily basis to have that story in my pocket that to remind myself of of you know you know, of not getting distracted from the things that are most important. Uh, but uh it's it's great for me to tell people too, because it's you know, I think it's true to um how we live today pretty well.

SPEAKER_02 36:39

I think it's important that you said that as well with this, because I think we we deal with athletes from all over the place, whether it's football, basketball, soccer, football, baseball, like you name it, sport-wise, track wise. What you just shared, the youth these days have a term dialed in, they say. And uh it's funny because they say it, but very few actually live it. Yeah. And I always say when I'm coaching young men that there's a cost to this, and you have to be willing to pay the cost for future gain. And one of the questions I'll ask guys, I'll say, Are you working out hard enough and developing yourself hard enough and focusing on the right things enough that your future self will thank you? Yeah, or is your future self gonna be ticked off at you?

SPEAKER_01 37:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:33

And say you should have worked harder, you should have done this, you should have given up that. If anything your future self says that you should give up on, you should not have it, you shouldn't do it. And even as even in as a coach, sometimes I'm I'm focusing or doing game prep or doing something else and thinking about who I'm utilize and pray about who I can speak into their life today. And it's like, okay, Lord, like I gotta have the same mentality when it comes to coaching, not just as an athlete. Okay, Lord, is there something that's keeping me from being the best version of a coach that I need to drop or that I need to add? And so, like you said, too, it was adding elements, but it was taking away elements. Okay, you're you've gone, you got your scholarship. Where does your scholarship take you?

SPEAKER_01 38:21

Well, I get a scholarship to Florida State, D, Florida State University at that time. One of the big schools. Yeah. One thing about it though is people, you know, people ask me, hey, how many how

Florida State Breakthrough And Confidence

SPEAKER_01 38:32

many scholarship offers did you get? I said, I got one. I got one scholarship offer to one of the best schools in this in the nation, right? I got one. And uh it was it was it was funny, you know. Usually in high school, and I didn't really do great in high school during the season. I really didn't. They signed me really sight unseen. Sight unseen. They didn't see, you know, they didn't really see me play in high school. They saw me at camp, but they didn't, they didn't see me play in high school. And I really didn't do a whole lot in my high school team. I for some reason I just underperformed. And then when I get to Florida State, I get there, and I'm and I'm really uh scared that I cannot live up to the hype of playing at this level of college football. I don't know. I feel like I feel I really feel like I'm good, I'm pretty good, but I didn't know because I hadn't done it in high school enough to be able to prove the pudding. And so when I get there, I'm just very hesitant until we get to the field. Matter of fact, this is what happened too. I I get there a little bit early. I go and visit my friend, I watch their a bunch of my other teammates' highlight films, and I'm in my and I'm in amazement watching their highlight film, the stuff, the stuff they can do. I mean, they'll they're doing superhuman feats, they're making 20 guys misses and going 80 yards, and they're knocking people out, and they're doing all this amazing stuff, and I'm I feel average. And then I remember the day I get in there, I'm sitting there trying to really try to hide. I'm trying to hide in the atrium with all the freshmen. I'm trying to hide, and then this one guy calls me out. This one guy, he's my teammate now, but he calls me out. He said, Hey, you that you that guy that tried out for the team. And when he said that, it was like a back-handed, you know, you know, deal. And I just like when I saw him, I just I gave him those snake eyes. Just like, you know what? You on my list, buddy. You I don't know if I'm I don't know if I'm gonna be good for this team, but you gonna I'm gonna destroy you. You know, I'm gonna I'm gonna get you. And then we got to the field, we got to the field, and it was business as usual. I got out there and I was better than everybody. I was better than the other guys. I don't know what happened, but I was just better than the other guys at doing this. And so that was uh that was the eye-opening moment for me of you know something. I you know, you look at it, you're like, man, you know, you you build it up in your mind, it's been this thing right here, but it's really, you know, I feel like God had purposed this for me. I was meant to come to Tallahassee, I was meant to be in the position I was in. I was meant to not do anything that grade in high school, but when I got to Florida State, things started to fall in line for me. I got there and I got redshift my first year. The next year I was a starter. I started for four years at Florida State. When I left, I was the second all-time leading receiver in Florida State history in yards and reception. I was all American. I'd been in a bunch of games. I won, you know, we've national champion, you know, all the kind of different things we want to do. I got a chance to do way more stuff than I did in high school. We won a state championship in high school, too, as well. I was a part of that. And I thought I think that's a prelude to being able to do the same thing in college. But in college, I performed at a higher level. You know, I performed at a higher level, like 10, like 10 times the level I performed in high school, I performed in college. And so it just, you know, and for for a guy that had one scholarship offer, the guys didn't think that, you know, belonged there, especially myself, to go there and and have a kind of a career that you had. And then I was with I actually I was with great coaches. I was with Coach Bobby Bowden, who's an excellent coach, you know, even I mean, more spiritual focus than than even the X's and O's. And I had great coaches around me that focused on me too as well. And so I had people that I felt like that cared about me. And so if you ask me about coaches, uh those were some of the coaches that actually poured into my life that pointed out value to me. My value.

SPEAKER_02 42:46

So we've got coaches pouring into your life, and you kind of see that God's placed you there. Looking back on it, you can kind of see God's I I use the term God's fingerprints. Because you can see, okay, Lord, like why am I better than everyone? I know I'm good, and you've graced me with that, but you're open, this is a door getting fly flown right open. Yeah. How how does that transition go to pro then?

SPEAKER_01 43:14

Well, it's different. It goes different. So I, you know, I come from college, and I, you know, I think the year before in 1993, we won the national championship, and I was trying to decide decide whether to come out early or stay in one more year,

NFL Reality, Injury, And Conversion

SPEAKER_01 43:28

you know, and I didn't have anybody that was advising me on whether to do that or not. And so you can see now I can see my weaknesses at that time of not having this male role models to be able to speak and to be able to talk to and communicate with about decisions that you make. You're basically making them on your own. And so a lot of times we make them on your own. I'm, you know, 20, 21, 22, not a whole lot of wisdom. You think you are wise, meaning 20, 21, 22, 23, all that kind of you know, that age. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Don't you tell me what to do? I'm 21 now.

SPEAKER_01 44:03

Yes, yeah, you know nothing. And so that's the same thing for me. I didn't know anything. And then at the time, I I'm newly married, I got a baby, and so I'm a family person, a husband, and all that kind of stuff. I got a lot of things going on in my life. And so you end up, you know, the next year I end up playing my senior year, and you end up getting some injuries, which you didn't want to get your senior year, and then I get drafted by the Detroit Lions. Um, and and I can, and at the time, I now I can look back and say, you know what, that was God's purpose. To as well get drafted by Detroit Lions and meeting the people I needed to meet. And then me not me having the injuries that I had that prevented me from doing some of the other things that I would have liked to do. Right. You know, you want to be a starter in the NFL, you want to have a long career in the NFL, but that didn't happen. You know, uh by the time I got a chance to become a starter, I ended up getting injured and and uh and things go in another direction. But the other direction was also God's direction because that was the year that I got saved and became a Christian. And so we had a coaching change. Uh the coaches, the coaching change also brought a bet brought brought a uh a culture change on the team. So we went from a whole lot of veteran guys that were kind of, you know, they kind of did what they want to do, and then we had a new coach come in there who was kind of more of a you know down the line type of guy, right? And then he brought in the culture of other guys, other teammates that were uh more Christian uh leaning uh guys on the team. And so the culture changed. And then I happened to get hurt at the right time too, you know, it's hard to say you get hurt at the right time, but I got hurt at the right time in the middle of that. And so now uh now the uh the atmosphere and the circumstances are primed for you know my heart to be open to hear and see what's already there. And so uh, you know, that maybe a year before that I got in. Well, this is the funny thing about it. The year before that I had an issue happen. My wife actually actually lost our first baby boy of the pre, yeah. We can, you know, she uh uh uh I guess we had the, I mean, he died in the womb after eight months, like almost nine months, really. And that was a tough situation, but my heart wasn't ready just yet. It's funny how that happened. You think the worst thing in the world is to lose a child, and it is terrible, but when your heart's not ready, your heart still won't receive it the right way. And so God was still preparing my heart for the open opportunity. Now I prayed, I talked to God, I tried to talk to God, but my heart wasn't gonna surrender. He wasn't ready to surrender. And it wasn't until next year, until I got injured, that my heart got to the point to where it's ready to surrender. So next year, we're coming into the season, new coaches. I feel great. Finally, they've gotten got they let go some of the other receivers out of there. So now finally it's my turn to start, right? I'm at least the third receiver, fighting for the second receiver's position. Really, I just I won the second receiver's position opposite the other guy, Herman Moore. And, you know, that that and what that means, that means it's a big contract for me the next year. I'll make a lot more money, all that kind of good stuff. You're starting now, you're getting a chance to put your name out there and do the things you want to do. And then I get hurt before the season starts. I turn my foot. You end up uh, you know, looking, end up starting as the guy that dominates everybody else and nobody wants to see. Then now you're the guy that everybody wants to see now. Now they want to come and play against you and compete against you in practice. And so I I I felt, you know, yeah, I felt vulnerable. And so, but they keep it, they keep me on the team. They don't cut me to keep me on the team because I had done enough to show them that I, if I was healthy, that I would be an asset to the team. And so I'm sitting on the sideline waiting for my foot to heal, and then um, like towards the middle of the season, the the head coach calls me in his office and he says, Kez, uh, I I you know, you know, I need to talk to you. And I'm thinking, okay, now why do you need to talk to me? You know, he said, and then they then he tells me, he says, Kez, we need a we need a special teams player. And I'm I look at him and I say, you know what, I don't play special teams. He said, Exactly. And so I need your spot to bring a special teams player in. Right? And so, and I'm like, what are you saying? Basically, we're firing you, and we're gonna bring you back. And they try to clean it up at the end. I'm we're gonna bring you back on Monday if you get through waivers. Well, you know, nobody's gonna, you know, I'm injured. Nobody's gonna pick me up. And so uh they cut me, and it was the hardest thing uh because I've never been fired. You know, you get used to this point to where you've always been useful, you've always been one of the first ones to get picked. Ever since the seventh group, seven years old, I've been the first one to get picked, right? Most of the time. And so you get used to that. And but now, you know, you you're in a situation where you you're getting cut, you get fired. You're not valuable, you're not, you're not worth it. And that hurt me. Right? Because that's that's what you that's you get used to putting your value into, you know, into that. And like and then I I remember just, you know, having a hard time struggling, and then I came back on Monday, they signed me back on Monday, I remember coming back and seeing the locker room different. In the locker room different, and not putting all my coins in this one pot, right? The coins was on the ground. Uh the marbles were on the ground, they weren't in the pot pan over here. They were kind of like, you know, I was hesitant about putting them over there because I just I just gotten bit. And so what it did is open my eyes and look around the locker room a little bit. And so I looked around the locker room and I saw my teammates uh living a different life than everybody else was living. And so I saw him reading his Bible, and I saw him not going up and down uh with the emotions of the wins and losses, and I thought myself, something's different about him. Uh and and I started, I can I continued to watch him week after week, just you know, hey man, something is different about this dude here. You know, two things, you know. I and I knew what it was because I grew up in the church, right? So I knew he was a Christian, but was he a real Christian? And and I also I knew he was from California too. So California folks are different in a way, they're weird. And so I was remembering just watching him and watching him, and then about a time maybe a couple of weeks, right? I I realized I come to the point where, okay, this dude's for real. You know, and then he has some peace that I don't have, and I want that. And so I ended up uh making a mind up to go and confront him and ask him about you know what he's doing. I feel like I already knew what he was doing, right? And who he was, but I won't and I wanted to, I I really wanted that, but I wanted to confront him and touch base with him to be able to ask him about it. And so I went to a chapel service before a game. It was the Minnesota game, Minnesota Vikings game. I remember, you know, you don't remember the dates, but I remember the game. And so I followed, I went to the chapel service and I waited to the end of the chapel service. I don't think I heard a word the chaplain said. Sorry. But I waited to the end of the chaplain service and I stopped him at the door and uh told him, I said, Man, I I've been watching you and uh and I want what you got. And he said, Kes, come to my house on our off night and we can talk about it. And so I did. So that Tuesday, I think that Tuesday night, I went to his house and uh he had a friend come over there, and his friend preached the gospel. And that night I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Praise God. So yeah, so uh that don't mean all of a sudden my reckless my foot healed. It didn't, you know. Uh and so my stiff foot still was bothering me, and then the next year I end up couldn't it didn't heal. The next year I ended up getting cut and and uh and and on to the next thing. But I I now had a I now had a new direction in my life, which was my faith that was directing me.

SPEAKER_02 52:25

So keep on going, keep on going, keep on going. I'm just soaking this up like a sponge, Kaz.

SPEAKER_01 52:32

Well, that's but that's uh that's kind of how it is. And when you when you have that, you're trying to discover now this new thing that I have, right? How do I now operate in this thing? The thing that I was running from. I was running from this thing, and now I'm in it. I'm in it. And I remember when I first got saved, the first place I went to is I came to Florida State and I went to meet with the coaches because I now I now recognize that those guys were pouring and putting seeds into me. You can't tell right now at the time when I was when it was happening, I was running from it. It's seen I didn't see the seeds uh being planted, you know, and I was actually running from the seeds. But then when you become a Christian, you see, okay, these guys were uh investing in me. You know, Dave and Hallinger, who was the strength coach, who would, you know, cons consistently say, Kids, I love you, right? And try to speak life into me. Uh Mark Rick, same way, would consistently uh try to speak life into me. Uh Coach Bobby Bowden made a habit, a consistent habit of speaking life into all those players and the where the program was running. And so I went over there to uh let them know that the mission the mission had been accomplished. You know, I'm I'm a Christian. I'm a c I am a Christian. I see it. And so uh, you know, that was to me kind of uh it wasn't the end, but it at the time you think it's the end, right? But it's it wasn't the end, but it was a a a a marker in my life of you know where I was going, where I was kind of bearing to and kind of where I was at and where I grew up, right? And then now this is the direction I'm starting to go into that's uh really changing the trajectory of my life.

SPEAKER_02 54:23

Well, just such a wonderful contrast. Hearing the whole story, I think the listeners really going to appreciate knowing some of the seeds that were planted from grandparents and then building up, and like you mentioned, the coaches planting seeds and having uh being a chaplain, often we plant seeds and we never see the fruition of things. Life goes on and new set of players come in, and you just keep on planting seeds, and you rarely ever see a harvest. And uh when you do see a harvest or you see someone come back and their life has been changed, oh man, like this year I went, I I got reconnected with a player that I had worked with years and years before. And I hear that he comes to the Lord and I see I see on social media that he's been baptized, and I was like, I gotta hear your story. And so hearing where he came from, all the way where to he went, that's fuel for a seed planter. Like, I'm I'm good now for the next like eight, ten years when it comes to planting seeds, by all means. So I think it's really important that you that you shared that because you not only see the contrast of where you've been, but also where God's brought you as well. So now you've turned pro, now you've gone through the process, you know the Lord, you've gone back to the to the to uh Florida. Um how does football change life after injury? And now you have a faith component in there too. How is God shifting things for you?

SPEAKER_01 56:01

Yeah, you know what now, you know, it's I I

Healing, Marriage, And A New Operating System

SPEAKER_01 56:04

feel like my family focus is really on healing now. You know, you don't know how much you need to heal until God reveals the truth, right? Hey, how far am I off the mark? All right, God's like, yeah, you're a lot, but I love you. You probably need to go heal your family, you probably need to go sit with your wife, and you know, sit with me first more than more than anything else. And so that's what you end up doing. You end up getting around people that uh can pour into you. I started to get discipled. Uh, and so people started to pour into me to be able to get me to, you know, get to get these wounds, these life wounds in my heart healed.

SPEAKER_02 56:40

Now, how now pause for one second? How did it change your family? What was your wife's response to this life changing you?

SPEAKER_01 56:46

Oh, we she was there with me, but she and I don't I don't think she understood either. I think she just knew she wanted a better husband. She just wanted a better husband, and she didn't know what that meant, right? But she was on for it. Whatever, whatever's better than this one I got right here. This old jalapia I got right here is whatever you can give me that's better than this. And so I think that was the the kind of the deal because she knows she was a new Christian herself, right? Just trying to figure out, you know, her life, you know, how to, you know, operate in the same type of deal. And so now we're together trying to figure out what does it mean to, you know, to put God first and not put yourself first. Because I was so used to putting myself first. I was so used to, you know, believing this idol of sport, right, that I love. And it and it was it came about so innocently that it it snuck in so small, and then it it blew up to where it controlled all the things you you did because you know your value kind of was surrounding how good you can play, how good you can perform. All right. And so now it's now it's now you gotta destroy that that avenue or of thinking to be able to input this new avenue of thinking, right? God loves me irregardless of whatever I do. God loves me. And then working from that as opposed to working, trying to work to that. I gotta work to God, I gotta work to people to like me. And then, you know what? Now now it's okay, God's our God already loves me. Before, you know, yeah, while I was still a sinner, God still sends down the downloads for us, right? So that's a pre-emptive. God's already God already loves you. There's nothing I can do to make him not love me more, to make him to make him love me more. And that's nothing I can do to not make him, I all I can do is not accept it. And so just changing my mind was the thing. And I think that's what you have to some people have you have to get to the point where you really accept that. So even when you become a Christian, right? It's you know, you still are battling that battle on a daily basis, those that old flesh, that you know, even though you may say it, you confess it, you bleed in your heart, I'm used to doing this stuff over here consistently. I'm used to, you know, doing these things that are not in line with what the word says. And so now I'm in this battle of trying to now, all right, uh be around people that encourage me to see the way I need to see it, be in my word, to understand, to get more word in my heart. All right, and then you know, pray more, have that be my main, you know, uh relationship that everything else springs out from. And so it's just changing the whole system, this whole operating system that I this going from this old operating system to this new, you know, operating system right here and figuring out how it works.

SPEAKER_02 59:38

It's neat to see how as you tell a story, I'm picturing all this in my head about how like the response when that letter was presented to you in class and you felt accepted. And then when you're in the you're on the team and and you're you're hurt and you're injured and you're feeling this rejection and you're wanting something, and God filling in that gap, that emptiness. And I think a lot of people can speak to that because people fill in that gap with a lot of things drugs, alcohol, sex, all these things that don't work, and they just actually leave you more empty inside. Yeah, and then when you see someone actually living life, and I think uh sometimes people like think of Christianity like a genie lamp. Oh, I'm just gonna rub it, boom, get my wishes, boom, life's gonna be great, awesome, wonderful, it's gonna be perfect now. And where it's not, and you see guys go through the process. The guy who recommended having you on this podcast, Rob Herod, my brother, my brother. Why he is a guy who lives life for the Lord, and you can see it, you can see it in his life. And there's some of those guys that just say it, and there's other guys like, man, bro, you're living it. You are living it. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:51

And and it's I was gonna say this right here. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:55

No, I no, no, I'm I'm just saying it there's a big difference, like you said, it's now it's living it. We uh life abundantly, like live unto the Lord, like eternal life starts now. I'm redeemed, I'm forgiven. God, I I got another, I got another grasp, another chance at real life.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:15

Yeah. And it's it's it that's the thing too, is is you know, you I'm free. I am free to, you know, I don't I don't have to I don't have to do something to prove anything. I gotta do the things I enjoy. So it's so really what I'm doing now is just right here is I get a chance to be authentic. You know, sometimes we can be fake, right? We're trying to we're trying to do something, but it's really I'm doing it for this other person to notice me. I'm trying to get something from that person right here, as opposed to now I can live free right here. What do I what does kids want to do? What's my purpose, right? What's God what does God built me to do that's only kids can do? Not not not do stuff that you know that looks like other people need to do. That's that's what happens a lot of times. I'm I'm trying to fit I'm trying to fit your shoes or fit what you uh think is good so I can fit in, right? And what it does, it makes my feet hurt, right? Your shoes make my feet hurt. And but if I hit my own shoes on, I can walk free. I can walk free because they fit for me. They fit for me. They meant they fit, they meant for the way God built me to operate and the way He has for me, the things He has for me are great for me. And so can we do that? Can we can we can we do that? Or do we have to accomplish something? Do we have to be you know, for my life to matter, then I need to be the head coach for the Jets. So my life to matter, I need to be, you know, I need I need to get me one of those jackets, those all, you know, uh Hall of Fame jackets. And if I don't get one of those Hall of Fame jackets, my life is a failure, right? Yeah, you know, do I do I mean do I do I need to win win 20 state championships in high school to be for my life to be significant, or do I need to make a gazillion dollars for my life to be significant? Or can I be successful at who I'm called to be?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:15

So you you're so now your let's go back in the timeline a little bit. Now your your NFL career, that door is closed. Yeah. What's the what does the Lord open now that you're living for him? What does he open? What's next?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:30

Well, I think that's right. The rest of that story is I got a chance to go and play football in NFL Europe, and then I got a chance to go play football for your Edmonton Eskimos, where I meet Rob Harriet, your friend, yeah, over there in the Eskimos, and I had the most fun I've ever had playing football in my life for Edmonton. My first year I get there, uh, you know, I don't think

Edmonton Joy And Legacy Playmakers

SPEAKER_01 1:03:51

I'm I don't I don't know if I'm gonna make the team or not. Uh but I this is what happens is I finally have surgery on my ankle and I get my ankle repaired. And so now, guess what? I'm back at full strength. So I was there in Detroit for two years, not at full strength. And then I get a I go to NFL Europe, I come back, go to Carolina. All right, I think the doctor tells me, Kes, you got something wrong with your foot. Okay, I go home and get it, get surgery on it. It gets healed. I I'm trying to get back into the league. Uh, and then I'm convinced by somebody that say that says, Kes, you need to get filmed. So I sign with the Edmonton Eskimos. I come up to Edmonton, I come, I come to camp, I meet Rob Harrod and two other guys there. The thing that we have in common is that they're all that we're we're all Christians, and we become this tight close together. I actually introduced Rob to his wife. All right.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:40

Okay, you got credit.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:42

Yeah. And so uh, but um, but we become close friends because really because we're Christian. We don't have a whole lot in common outside of that, but we're Christians on a team, and we and we we we stick together and we get a chance to spend a lot of time together, but developing our friendship and our faith together. And and after that, you know, I get into coaching and I get into owning a business. And now what I do now is I'm in full-time ministry. I coach at a high school, I'm a head football coach at a high school, but I have a foundation here in town where I do ministry in schools. And so I do the same thing we're talking about here, really. The same is the same thing I get a chance to do. I I'm I'm I feel like I'm repeating, I'm repeating what God has done in my life to the the kids and the in the and the young adults and the and the people in our community. I get a chance to do that same thing in their lives that God done in my life, right? So I'm the I'm the the carrier, the conduit of that same grace that I was given into the lives of the people in our community. So I'm I'm proud of that. Uh I my my uh my foundation is called uh Legacy Playmakers Inc. And so when I was at Edmonton, right, we used to say after every breakdown at the end of practice, we would say playmakers. And so, some kind of way that thing, 20 years later, 20-something years later, that thing is still stuck with me. Uh and the joy that I had uh playing here at well, playing there at Edmonton stuck with me until I kept the name and it became my the name of my um uh my foundation, Legacy Playmakers Inc.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:22

So Legacy Playmakers is a seed company, you're planting seeds.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:29

And uh it go it kind of go comes full circle now because you had seeds planted in you and now you get to plant those seeds. Absolutely. Uh so good, so good. Uh if you could speak into the life of a young athlete who's listening right now and maybe was dr referred to this podcast. Or saw your name or something that says, I want to listen to this. What's one thing that you would tell them is the most important thing

Advice For Young Athletes

SPEAKER_02 1:07:02

as a person, not just as an athlete, as a person that they need to discover in order to be better?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:11

I would say this right here. And we talked about it earlier. It's about freedom, right? God has set you free uh to be able to be the best you can be, the best you can be. And I think a lot of times you we we we try to compare ourselves with the people around it, but God has freed you to be the best you can be. I was telling my players today the same thing, you know, why are you out here? You're out here for a purpose, God, for this point in your life, right? You're not out here because you have to accomplish something that you need to do anything. You're out here because you're free. God has freed you to come out here and do the very best you can be, not for football, but for the rest of your life. This is really just a um a football or sport. So whatever sport you might play, it's just really an open door for God to show you who He is in your life for now and for later. So the best thing I think I love about sport is it feels like real life. It feels like this life or death, but it's not. But what you do is you discover some things about yourself that God is showing you so that you can make some corrections or you can be encouraged about uh yourself so you can move forward. And so that's why I like sport so much. It's revealing, it reveals some things that God wants to speak to you. God can speak to you through sports, right? Because you learn things about yourself. You learn things about you being a good teammate, about your faith, or about you know your ability to work hard, or right, what your giftings are. God has hidden giftings, hidden sit, he's hidden uh giftings inside of you that sport can help you discover. You can discover if you're an encouragement, you can discover you if you have leadership, you can discover you have the administrative ability because you're gonna use those same abilities while you're doing the sport, they will help you be successful. And then now, guess what? Having having learned that you can take those same abilities and you can apply them to the other things in your life. How are you gonna serve other people? And so it's funny how much that leadership or that ability to work hard now opens the door for you to serve people in your community. And when you serve people in your community, that's how you some a lot of times you get paid. God is giving you the ability to create wealth, right? How do you do that? Through the gifts he's giving you to serve his people. So, and so it it's it's really some people you know say this right here. Well, I need, yeah, I've had players come and say, Coach, I need to get a job, buddy. Your best job could be out here playing these sports with me so you can discover your gifts, and so you can now, knowing your gift, go out and utilize it in other areas.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:37

Ah, yes, yes, yes. And sport may lead to other aspects of it. You you've been a coach. Yes. Did you ever think you were gonna coach?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:49

No, no, not in close. But even in even in the businesses I've I've been in, in the jobs I've had, guess what? I did I coach. I coached. When I owned the gym, I coached. When I was I had I had staff people I was working with and developing when I used to work for a fellowship of Christian athletes. And when I was there as a director, I was really coaching. I was leading in coaching. So I didn't have the name as coach, but I was doing it automatically because I had already done I had done it before. I had utilized it on the field. So I had used it on the field, the the ability to lead, the ability to uh jump, you know, encourage my guys in the middle of the battle. And I do the same thing when I'm doing the other things that I'm doing, like when I'm coaching or when I'm uh you know leading a group of men in a business or organization, we're doing the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:42

And you know, I love that one. The word coach, there's two things I'll share with you. When I was coaching hockey years ago, I remember I was in a grocery store, and on the opposite end of this aisle, I see this kid, and he all I hear is coach. And I'm like, what? I'm a coach. Oh, he knows me as coach. Okay, that's a good thing to be known for. And then this past year, coaching hockey, um, I have my boys working out um at a gym. And Odell Willis is uh running the gym. Odell Willis. Odell Willis. And I walk in, he goes, coach, and I'm like, man, you're oh out of all the guys calling me coach, Odell Willis is calling me coach. I I'm feeling pretty good right now. And uh if you know anything about Odell, it's like he definitely knows how to speak into the lives of young men. And uh and Odell, and I was like, wow, a player's calling me coach. It's a privilege, isn't it? A privilege, it's a privilege to coach. And looking back in your career and you talking about the coaches that have invested into you, and now you get to invest into these into these young guys, it it's amazing how God brings things around, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:05

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it is amazing. Just uh uh things that you didn't think were in you, they're in there. One of my favorite Bible verses is 2 Peter 1:3, and it says, uh, through his divine power, God has already given us everything we need for life and godliness. And it says at the end, it says, through the knowledge of him who's called us to his own glory and excellence. I have been eaten off of that Bible verse because it says a lot. It has some truth in it to it, into it, in it, that if you look at it, you'll be able to do spiritual math to be able to understand all the things God has done. And so I do this right here. I say, God has already given us through his divine power, not my divine power. I don't have any divine power, through his divine power, it's divine. God has already passed tense, it's already been done. What has he done? He's already given us. Who's he given it to? He's giving it to us. Everything. Everything, not most, not some, but everything we need. All right, not your wants all the time, but your needs, the things that you need, all right? For life here on earth and for life in heaven, life in godliness. He's already given it. So everything we it's not like and I think about it too, is it's not like God is is waiting in the on the throne there and he's waiting to get it to us. Will you take this? No, he says I've already given it to you. Okay, can God can I have this? You already got it. I've already given it to you. God, I need this right here, bad. You got it. And so how do we and it and and so how do we how do we how do we get it? How do we take hold of it? How do we take hold of it? And it says at the end, it says, through the knowledge of him who's called us to his own glory and excellence. How do we get it? No God. How do we get it? No God. The more you know him, the more he opens and reveals what he's already given to you.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:01

Okay, so so so so young athlete's gonna ask right now, Kez, what do you mean, know God? Yes, how do I know God?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:11

We're relational, right? Relational. In the Bible, it's a word called conosco. It's to know intimately. It's to know intimate. You can know about a person, right? But when you know somebody intimately, when you are friends, when we sit and we can hang out and you know all the stuff about me that I don't want people to know about me. We're intimate. We're friends. When God and you guys are so intimate where you know about him and he knows about you, I confess to you, God. All right, all the things I mess up, I mess up. You know me, God. You know the things I mess up with, I struggle with, right? And you know the things I possibly sometimes do good. You know me because I'm open to you. I'm open hearts and my heart's open to you. And then I know you. I know I'm seeking after you. I'm seeking up, I'm seeking to know your face through prayer, I'm seeking to know your face through relationships with other people, I'm seeking to know your face through your word, right? I'm in your word. I want to know who you are. And so that's that to me, that's knowing. That's knowing, that's conosco knowing relationally. All right, and then now I can know I can trust you. I can trust you. And so if I mess up, guess what? The first person I'm gonna go to is not gonna be outside of God, it's gonna be God. Because I know, guess what? I know him. I know I messed up, but guess what? He's my friend, and he's gonna help me with my situation. You know, he's not gonna look at me and look down and say, Kids, you boy, you mess up again. He's gonna say, Kids, I love you. All right, I'm gonna help you. Okay. I'm glad you came to me. And so it's a different.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:38

It's it's so different. I when I when I spoke with Eddie Joseph, we talked about fathers and the relationships. And like, if one of our boys messes up, we want him to say, Oh man, uh, I'm in trouble. I need to go talk to my dad. Not the opposite. We don't want to be like, oh man, and my dad finds out I'm a dead man. No, like we need to have that relationship, and you're right, it's building that relationship. And Hebrews chapter one tells us God, who in various times and various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through me also made the worlds. And isn't it awesome that like God provides us with this opportunity to have relationship? Like, man, like, and to someone offering relationship to someone who has rejected relationship. We we don't see that in our world. Someone rejects a relationship with you, like kind of it's done lots of times. But God is the pursuer, isn't he? He's the pursuer of relationships.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:48

Yeah, I just think about this on the you know on the cross, right? You know, uh, I mean, even on the cross, Jesus is Jesus is is patient, he's loving, he's helping, right? Even on the cross, I don't know if it'd been me, if it'd have been me on the cross, it might not have turned out the same way there. I'd have been bringing it out. Hey God, get them jokers, get him the one that put the crown on my head, get him extra, get him, get the one that slapped me in the side, get him to get the one that slapped me. What's the one that slapped me? Get get him. You better get him, get him, God. I would have not been so patient, but that's how God is. Even past his circumstances, God's character stays the same. You know, his character, he can't he knows who he is enough to weigh, even the circumstances that are coming out of the terrible circumstances will not change his character. Will not change his character. So uh so that's what I want to be as well. I want to be, you know, what you know what, yeah. I'm if you ring me out, right, only thing that comes out is Jesus juice. You know, Jesus juice. And so, and that's what happens with Christian, right? You you you can tell when when trauma hits, right? What's coming out. Because that's that's what that's when you can really tell what's going on with a person is when trauma hits, when something hap happens, right? You know, who do you who do you what do you run to? You know, what do you run to? And so that's just uh, you know, I think that's just the truth of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:26

So I think I forgot the question, but no, no, no, that was such a good response. I I got a question though for you. Um, you talked about the rebellious youth fighting back against grandma and grandpa who probably had the best of intentions and wanting him to be the future version of himself that they knew God was building into. Did they get to see the finished product?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:50

Yeah. You know what? I one of the best things in my life was this right here. My grandmother said to me, and she said to me, and I used to have dreams of me coming to the house and being, you know, her being proud of me. And she said this, he said, she said to me, said I'm I'm so proud of the man you become. And so that is one of the things that um that feeds me. And I'm I'm proud of her. I'm thankful for her. And that that was one of the things that's like a crown in my in my uh uh in those and they're just words, right? I got a bunch of little rings and things like that, but that is one of my biggest crowns, and one of my biggest awards was Grandmama saying, I'm so proud of the man you become. And you know, nobody can take that away. Uh and so uh yeah, they they they did get the chance to see me, you know, become in some dire some way the person that they, you know, hoped I would be.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:56

Now you're a dad too. Yeah. And uh fathers are important. You know what it's like uh to have young men and and coaches and other things invest into your life. How has this challenged you uh to do in your fatherhood?

SPEAKER_01 1:20:13

Well, yeah, man, you know what? Because when you when you don't have someone to model that for for you, you you know, you struggle. I think when I was younger, I struggled, you know, wanting to love my kids, wanting to love my wife too as well, but I feel like I had to learn. And I had some good people in my life that taught me that I've learned through to be able to become a better husband, a better father, too. And you know, you have a desire to to uh uh be a really good father, and then you realize how hard it is. And so what it does, it gives me compassion for my dad. I have compassion for him, and I see in a different way even our relationship, uh because of just going through the whole process. You get you, you know, you don't get you don't get to the point where you think you're a bit better than anybody else. No, I don't. What I do is I I really can see, you know, you can have compassion for people that struggle or have issues or have things going on in life. I think that's what it that's what it does for you. That's what it did for me. And so I get a chance to have compassion for him. I get I get a chance to have compassion for other people that are going through the similar situation too. That is uh it's is good because you know, we're all caught in these um deceptive traps and tricks by the enemy. And uh and when somebody falls, fall for the trap, it's not like you can say, ah nah, you got you got tricked, you know, you lost. No, it's it's we we lost. You know, we don't get the benefit of of you know having the blessing that God has for you in that moment. And and what what do you do with that? You you you are uh you you lament and then you you know uh you pray for the next opportunity, but you don't stay there. And so that's kind of how I feel with you know that situation, even with my dad, uh and and and really trying to uh put it in the right picture. Because the Bible talks about it. We don't battle against flesh and blood with spiritual principalities. My my beef is not with my upbringing and how you know I didn't get all the stuff I even wanted to get. My beef is with you know the enemy and how sin corrupts, you know, all the things that God has for us, and then how do we now uh negate the effects upon the rest of the world? And so that's where the gospel comes in, and that's where you know what we're doing now as far as ministries is concerned.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:45

Love it, absolutely love it. Kevin, we could talk for a long time, and you know what? If you're ever up this way, I got brisket to smoke, and and we probably could if we got four hours of my back deck, bring your family.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:00

Okay, I appreciate you. I would love to come back to everything this is beautiful in this beautiful in the spring and the summer. I love it. Love walking through the river belly.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:09

We're gonna move to the next portion of our uh program here. We got five fast, quick questions, dear. This is gonna test you, keep you on your toes. Um, so let's uh let's give you a little bit of a challenge here. Are you ready? Yep. If you could have any pet that's domesticated, what what's Kez? You're walking

Five Quick Questions And Finish Well

SPEAKER_02 1:23:33

in, you're walking into uh an interview, and you you're bringing your pet. What's your pet?

SPEAKER_01 1:23:40

My pet, it's uh it's a little French bulldog. Oh, okay. Yes, a little fatty, a little fat little rascal. He's just he's so fat, he's so cute, and he can't jump. He's not very athletic. He'd probably try to jump on the couch and he'd probably hit his face there, but then I would laugh at him.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:58

And you laugh at him, and then you got like the collar with the big spikes on it. There you go. Yeah, and then yeah, you get, but you but his name is Killer, just just to intimidate everyone. Okay, well, a little lighthearted question to start things off and just to settle the mood a little bit. Um, you know what? It's always fun doing these questions because every once in a while I'll just I'll just throw one in like that, just to just to lighten the mood. Um, another question for you. If you um if you could speak into the life of young Kez McCorvey um in in middle school, uh what what would you tell him? Give him a little piece of advice.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:38

Absolutely. Well, I would tell I would tell him the same thing I would tell my son. I would tell him that you are valuable, that you are loved, that you are more than enough. All right, God has a great plan for your life, right? And and it may not seem like it now because the circumstances, I would try to tell them the truth. The circumstances, the other people are being spoken into the life about things that don't matter, and just because they're speaking it to you, don't mean it works that way. And so it's hard to because I just I remember me hurting young kid, you know, susceptible to all these circumstances that are going on. And and if I had a voice that I would listen to, that's the question. Is do you think would I listen to me, would I listen to me enough? And if I would, I would tell him that that he's valuable, that he's loved, that God loves him way more. He has a great plan for his life, right? And I would try to point out some of the things in his life that are gonna happen, you know, because I think back then I was I didn't think this stuff was possible. Uh the things that happened in my life. And so, you know, I'm I feel like I'm living a miracle, really. You know, I'm not rich by any means. I don't have everything going right for me, but I think the stuff I gotta go to my life is on a miracle from where I thought and where I hoped in my life.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:03

Okay, now we're gonna flip to the other side of you. You gotta write a note to the older version of yourself. Um, you're the grandpa now. What what are you gonna say to him? To remind to remind him of where you are today in this moment.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:21

I would say this right here, I would say, you know what? Um keep moving forward. God has great life, great, God has greatness in front of you. Even though you're old, God has greatness in front of you. Still live and love and hit this thing 100%. So I would yeah, I would still even to the last breath. I got I got a I got a cool story.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:45

I love cool stories. Go, go, go.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:48

Yeah, but I was uh I was I when I moved back to town here, I was I worked for FCA, and I got a chance to uh be the the the liaison and the person that that traveled with Coach Bobby Bowton. And so uh he he had gotten a little bit older and he was having a hard time uh traveling in my truck. My truck was a tall truck and he couldn't get up there, he was short, he couldn't get up there. So I had to borrow my wife's car and I had to put him in. So he still he still was having a hard time getting in and out of my wife's car. And so I started to think about Coach Bowden, we don't need to go to every person that asks us to come and speak at their place. And he would tell me, he would say, Kez, I don't care who asked me to speak, I'm gonna speak. And I'm like, man, I'm gonna speak. And he did that to his last deal. I was struggling to get my out of cars, traveling overnight. He was and I what I did is I learned how to finish well. Learned how to finish well from him. You know, into his very his very last breath. He was uh they had made the announcement that he was getting ready to pass. And I was like, yes, you know, you know, should I go over there? I don't want to interrupt the family, the you know, the proximity of the family, and and the you know, I don't want to interrupt that, but I spent a lot of time with him and I was struggling. Should I do it or shouldn't I do it? And go over there. And then, you know, I would drive past his house and I'd like, no, I don't want to do it. I don't want to go over there and interrupt and be that guy that's you know obnoxiously, you know, when the family's there and I'm just struggling with it. Finally, I said to myself, you know what? I'm gonna, I'm gonna go. And so I drove over there, parked in the parking in the in the driveway, went to the house, knocked on the door. His daughter answered the answer to the door. She said, Hey kids, how you doing? And I said, I came to see Coach Bower. She said, Okay, well, he's in the back back there. And when you go back there, he'll he'll wake up. He'll wake up and you'll he'll see him. All right, and I was just my anticipation was that he would, you know. Be, you know, kind of out of it, and I'll probably be crying or something like that, trying to hug him or whatever. You know, I didn't know what to expect. I go to the door, open the door. When I open the door, he wakes up. He says, Hey Cass, how you doing, buddy? Buddy, I'm so proud of you, buddy. You're doing a great job. Boy, I'm so proud of you. Keep it up now. You keep working hard. I'm proud of what you're doing in the Lord, man. You're doing a great job. Man, golly, boy, you're doing a great job. He patted me on the shoulder and everything like that. And I'm looking around, looking at him, thinking to myself, ain't you supposed to be dying? Aren't you supposed to be dying or something? You don't seem like he's dying. You know? And I left the room out of there. I didn't get a chance to encourage him at all. He encouraged me. Oh, so good. He encouraged me to in his dying list breath. I mean, I think maybe a week later he died. He's encouraging me. He was being who he was all the way through. That is the same thing we talk about, Jesus, right? What happens when stuff is, you know, even to death. What happens to you when you get squeezed? What comes out? Is it Jesus juice? And when I say Jesus juice, I mean your character, who God's called you to be. You can't not be who you're called to be.

unknown 1:30:13

Right?

SPEAKER_01 1:30:13

So if you're a coach, coach to the last moment. If you're encouraged, encouraged to the last moment. Alright. If you got any kind of gift that God's giving you, do it to the last moment. Because that's what we're meant to do. It don't matter if the it don't matter if you have an official job or you're retired or you're not retired, you do what you're called, you do who you are. So that's what I would write a letter myself, is to keep doing who you are.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:39

So good. So good. There's so many I think there's so many young athletes that are on the cusp that they're it's their dial-in moment. And they gotta they're at the fork of the road. Which way do I go? Is it worth it? Is it worth it to dial in for the Lord?

SPEAKER_01 1:31:00

Oh absolutely. Absolutely, because now you can you get a chance to when you dial in for the Lord, guess what? You get a chance to become single-minded. And when you become single-minded, there's nothing you can't accomplish. I think a lot of times what happens is you get guys that are not single-minded. They got so many things going on and they and they're not sure about it. When you become sure about what God's called you to do, you can accomplish most anything. That's when the adventure happens. And I think a lot of people are just missing out because they're they're they're going for the cheap version as opposed to the God-purposed version of what their life's supposed to be. And so uh it is worth it. It is worth it because it makes you it makes you it it gives you trying to think of the right word. Um it gives you a a powerful voice. If your voice is aligned with God's voice, your voice becomes powerful. If your voice over here is squeaky, just saying any little thing right here, you don't believe it, you don't even believe it yourself. But when you align, man, you have a powerful voice. And so that's what I would say to young people.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:19

I love that response because I think there are a lot of even young Christians like that have that the enemy puts that seed of self-doubt in. Yeah, and and they and they wonder if it's gonna be worth it or not. And I think that's a good voice to hear from someone who's walked the path. Well, Kaz, I got one last question. Will you please come back again and be interviewed? This has been so good. I love it, brother. I absolutely do.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:48

Well, I I I I definitely, definitely, uh whenever whenever you ask, I'm I'm here. So I appreciate you, man. I enjoyed it. I've enjoyed it myself. And so I gotta tell you more Rob Harris's story. How he I gotta Yeah, you know what?

SPEAKER_02 1:33:04

God is good, God is so good, and I think the wonderful thing about knowing the Lord and loving sport is we need we need eternity, don't we? Because it there's gonna be so many stories and conversations about the goodness of God, it's gonna take forever.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:24

I can't I can't wait to see because this is the thing right here, you know, the behind the scenes of how God, and I just sometimes I can imagine, you know, how yeah, I look at my life and imagine how God was utilizing my circumstances to get his goal accomplished. I thought I was in charge, but God says, No, I'm in charge of this thing. Before you were born, I had already known, I known the path you would take, I'd known the direction you would go, and I had pre-ordered, I had already knew that you were gonna go over here, right? I'm I'm putting these things in place. I got you. We're so concerned and worried about you know, all these things are happening, and God said, I got this under control, but I'm good at this. I'm good at this, right? You can trust me in these things, right? And that's what I realize now. You know, it's all the things I've all the times I've worried about stuff for what, for nothing. Go to Bible verse. Go to Bible verse right now. It's it's uh I got two of them. I got uh Matthew 6, 33, seek first the kingdom and his righteousness and all the things we added to you. And then 2 Peter, the one I just said earlier, 2 Peter 1, 3, through his divine power, God's already given us everything we need for life and godliness. And so those would probably be like the

Key Bible Verses And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_01 1:34:37

ones that right now, right now, right now in my life. You know, you got different ones at different times, but right now, those will be the ones that I've kind of you know readily have available to shoot down any attacks of the enemy.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:50

Love it. Well, let's close them with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this time we've been able to spend together, this conversation that's been guided by you and surrounded by you. And Lord, we just pray for Kez and the different opportunities that you have and work with to coach and to plant seeds. And Lord, we just pray that as He does, you would receive all glory, honor, and praise in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:35:12

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