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Sports & Suits
Sports & Suits: Where Athletics Meets Ambition
Welcome to the official Sports & Suits playlist, your ultimate destination for conversations that bridge the world of athletics with the drive and discipline of the corporate arena. Each episode features candid interviews and thought-provoking discussions with top athletes, business leaders, and influencers who share how they harness the competitive spirit of sports to excel in their professional lives. Dive into real-life stories of resilience, leadership, and adaptability—traits that power championship teams on the field and high-performing organizations off it.
Tune in to discover the mindset shifts, training regimens, and success strategies used by champions in sports and business alike. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a seasoned CEO, or simply a curious listener hungry for fresh perspectives, Sports & Suits delivers insights and inspiration that go beyond the scoreboard. Subscribe, hit play, and join us on this journey—where athletics truly meets ambition.
Sports & Suits
Preston Battle's Helmet Design Passion: From High School Player to Social Media Helmet Guru
When Preston Battle's football career ended after his sophomore year of high school due to a knee injury, he never imagined that his fascination with helmet design would lead to a creative career that would connect him with NFL stars and music icons. Today, with hundreds of thousands of followers across social media platforms, Preston's journey illustrates how passion can transform disappointment into opportunity.
From the moment Preston sits down with the Sporting Suits podcast, his enthusiasm for football helmet customization spills over as he reveals how his unorthodox path began. What started as a specific interest in the aesthetics of football equipment – being able to notice when players changed face masks between games – evolved into a legitimate creative outlet. Preston shares candid stories about creating custom helmets for stars like Drake, Jarvis Landry, and Tom Brady, explaining how these connections happened organically through his genuine love for the craft.
The conversation takes fascinating turns through the technical aspects of helmet design, the evolution of football equipment, and Preston's thoughtful critique of newer safety innovations like Guardian Caps. "No amount of padding is going to stop your brain from hitting your skull, which is what a concussion is," he explains, challenging conventional thinking about football safety equipment. His insider perspective on position-specific helmet designs and the true purpose of various face mask configurations offers listeners rare insights into this specialized field.
Beyond equipment talk, Preston offers refreshingly honest takes on college football's transformation through NIL deals and the transfer portal, calling it "the wild, wild west." His experiences working briefly for a helmet company in South Carolina – where he was hired for his expertise but ended up "sweeping ceilings" – reveals the challenges creative professionals face when trying to monetize their unique skills.
Whether you're a football equipment enthusiast, a creative entrepreneur looking for inspiration, or simply love stories of people turning passion into purpose, Preston's authentic journey delivers valuable lessons about persistence, creativity, and finding your niche. Follow him on social media to witness his extraordinary helmet designs and join a community that celebrates this distinctive intersection of sports and artistry.
All right, man Well, welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another episode of Sporting Suits. We got my man Preston Battle here, man.
Speaker 2:I cracked mine already. I jumped the gun, my bad.
Speaker 1:Cheers, man Glad you could make it out.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you having me. This is really cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know we were talking with or I was talking with Sean earlier and he's like man, can we get somebody on here before like 4 o'clock?
Speaker 2:we don't want to do that. I want to get that out of here. Yeah, so when you were texting me, I know I was telling you that's when I get off work, but I, luckily I work for a very flexible company where I'm able to just like if I have to be somewhere during the day. I just showed up early this morning and I I get my hours. I get my hours yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll tell you what man I'm appreciative of you coming on here. I know it was kind of a last-minute deal. I was like, dude, you want to get him on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Dude, it's all. Good man, I appreciate it. I'm being flexible for you guys. I love it, love it. This is cool.
Speaker 1:Well, shit man, We'll just kind of take it from the very beginning and kind of start there.
Speaker 2:Talk about playing yours. The playing career actually is.
Speaker 1:It's pretty embarrassing how it ended and you said you've been here 25 out of 26 years. Oh yeah, yeah. So where were you?
Speaker 2:born. I was born here one year in between. I'll get to that eventually. I lived in south carolina for uh 2021 through 22 okay yeah, I moved up there right after college, okay, but uh, so I was started. Anyways, I played. I played at durant high school. Uh, freshman year, sophomore year and then spring ball after sophomore year. It's my biggest regret. This makes me sound so soft, but I mean, it is what it is. It's how it happened and I hurt my knee during spring ball. I sprained my MCL, my LCL and all that.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a tear or anything yeah, just a sprain it was just like bro, sit out a couple weeks, put on a brace, you're good. The rule it my school was you don't practice, you don't play. That's kind of like a it's kind of standard.
Speaker 1:It's standard, it's not anything crazy.
Speaker 2:But knowing that rule, spring game coming up I rushed my rehab. I got my. I got my uh, my knee brace, which wasn't one you're supposed to play in, it's just like a medical grade brace. I rushed back to practice. I practiced the whole week before the spring game and that night they made me work the chains and I gave my jersey back and I quit. Holy shit, I always regretted it. It was a huge regret of mine. I love the game of football more than just about anything, man, and that's how it happened. And it's a bummer looking back, but I mean, it's just. I also wouldn't be where I am now if I was focusing all my efforts on playing ball all those years later.
Speaker 1:And I'll tell you what, matt. I'm glad you mentioned that, because we've talked, or I've talked, with a bunch of guys that sit right there and there's always something that they regret, but for the most part they're like you know. I think everything happens for a reason exactly, and I mean you know guys are my age and like yeah, I mean once you look back like you hated going through it. But then you know you look back, you're like shit, that happened for a reason. I'm here for a reason I was not depressed.
Speaker 2:I was depressed about that, just mad at coaches, mad at teammates, just mad at everything, just thinking everything was out of my control. But I'd, like you said, looking back now it set me up to go the way I'm going. No doubt so that was your sophomore year. Yeah, that was after sophomore year. I never. That was when I finished playing football. I uh just graduated regular student 4.0 something GPA like a nerd, but I uh I had I had tuition covered if I stayed in state to go to college.
Speaker 1:The bright futures, right yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I started at HCC like everybody does around here, did two years as a Hawk and then I finished. I got my degree online through FIU. Yep, I was a Panther. Pause up. I keep looking at the camera and you I don't know if I'm the case.
Speaker 3:You can look at the camera I'm going back and forth. You can look at whatever man I don't know which one.
Speaker 2:So I'm a Panther man. I've made some ties down there. I never actually went to class like on campus, but I'm a Panther. I rep FIU all the time and I so. When I started college there I was after my sophomore year, so I was probably almost 20. Started making all right back up a little bit, back up After HCC, back up even further I've always been like weirdly into like football uniforms and helmets.
Speaker 2:It's just like a weird passion of mine. I could notice like a player's face would look different to me if he showed up in a different face mask one week and it's just a weirdly specific thing to get into man. But helmets and uniforms just kind of like became my thing. I had an eye for them. I just had ideas for uniforms and different team designs and stuff. So when I was going to FIU I was seriously looking at joining the equipment staff and equipment staffs are awesome. I follow just about every equipment page I can on instagram just because they post cool stuff. They post stuff that I'm into just helmets and jerseys and just cool looking stuff I gotta link you up speaking.
Speaker 1:That I gotta link you up with. I got a kid I used to train is now in the equipment uh offices for university of florida, oh yeah, and I got some buddies that are at South Carolina. Yeah yeah, send them my way. Man Could do something pretty cool.
Speaker 2:Like I'm wearing right now. I'm wearing Western Kentucky just because a few years ago they sent me a helmet and some gear just for shouting out the program. And that's something I like to do on my Instagram now is just promote all levels of football, dude, I mean unless it's Alabama being who I am, just throw that in there. Diehard Auburn Tiger. I won't rep Alabama but any other school. You send me your gear, I'll rep you, I'll shout you out, I'll show love to the program.
Speaker 3:I mean Auburn's definitely a great school oh yeah, they're good man, it's a good school.
Speaker 2:We've had a tough run in football. No getting around that, but loyal to the Tigers.
Speaker 3:How do you feel about Auburn I?
Speaker 1:wasn't going to bring that up. It is what it is. Fuck those guys.
Speaker 2:I got buddies up in South Carolina now I texted this morning I was like do I bring up Cam Newton or no?
Speaker 1:Do I do it or no? There's nothing I can do. I didn't play defense.
Speaker 2:I know, bro, I know.
Speaker 3:Just sit on the sidelines watching that. That was painful. Damn, yeah, that was. Yeah, man, that was a nightmare. I mean, it's the ultimate team sport, right?
Speaker 2:oh yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I just I couldn't imagine standing on the other sideline just being helpless. Yeah, I mean, there was there's two.
Speaker 1:There's two guys that I distinctly remember playing against and I was like it doesn't matter what we fucking do, we can't stop these guys. It was Tebow and Cam Newton. Yep, yes, sir, and I'm just sitting there just like God damn. This is fucking brutal.
Speaker 2:He's running again there, he goes there, he goes there, he goes again Somebody's butt making wide open after a play action man. That was a year, but anyways, I didn't mean to get us off track again.
Speaker 1:No, it's all good man.
Speaker 2:So, transitioning to FIU, I went down there and not really interviewed for an equipment spot but I met with all the managers and stuff and I realized I like certain sides of equipment. But being an equipment manager entailed a lot that I wasn't necessarily interested in and this is going to make me sound bad, but like it didn't. The pay for like the highest ranking equipment manager is not even like this is not competitive with any other like high ranking position in any other field.
Speaker 1:Can you disclose what that was?
Speaker 2:I was told I'd have to be in it, for I'd have to be like a head for at least a decade to crack six figures.
Speaker 1:Holy shit, bro, fuck that. I don't know if that's exactly true.
Speaker 2:I hope I'm not like degrading anybody's line of work, because I truly considered it for a long time. I really appreciate what they did.
Speaker 3:Bro, you're right.
Speaker 2:I admire what they do $116,000 is the highest.
Speaker 1:That's NFL equipment managers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 90th percentile.
Speaker 2:Okay, and it's a super cool job. Like what you get to see.
Speaker 3:That's crazy 42 to 68 is the average. Yeah, dog, you made a good decision.
Speaker 2:See, that was the ultimate. Not even the ultimate. It was that. And for the 10 years you're building up to that, you're just doing laundry and you're just like and you don't know who's.
Speaker 2:If a coach gets fired, he brings in his guys exactly it's all about who you know in that industry too, because I could have. I could have got a job at fiu and they've been through two coaches since I interviewed. I wouldn't even be there anymore, right for all I know. So after the interview with them I just kind of decided at this point I was already posting like custom helmets and just uniform content on my page. I just highlighted the coolest, best looking uniforms I would see on the internet. Repost them, show the school some love and just like the players and stuff love it. The players see like their small school posted online.
Speaker 3:They'll be like yo, I yo.
Speaker 2:I was wearing a Louisiana Monroe shirt in the video where I unboxed this one. Everyone's like oh, I didn't know you were a Louisiana Monroe fan. I didn't know you were from Louisiana. I'm like I'm not man.
Speaker 1:It was just a gift.
Speaker 2:I've got some friends there now and I'll rep them forever. That's just kind of how I operate with that. So I came back home and decided against moving to miami to preserve, to pursue being an equipment manager, and at that point I just kind of ramped up how often I was posting on social media, how seriously I wanted to take it, yeah. So eventually I just started reaching out to people asking like people kind of like you like with a podcast? Yeah, hey, I make custom helmets. You talk about football and you have a set. I think a helmet with your logo on it would look sweet on your set.
Speaker 2:So I reached out to people like that and then I think the first big name guy I kind of hooked up with a helmet was Jarvis Landry. I had his agent actually reached out to me. He's a big name guy. Yeah, he is, he's cool.
Speaker 3:I had his agent actually reached out to me he's a big man guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he is. He's cool. Had a celebrity softball game going on, sponsored by his foundation.
Speaker 1:So you just hit him up on Twitter or Instagram On.
Speaker 2:Instagram and he didn't actually message me, but his manager at the time, kind of like an agent, hit me up. I'm not sure those two work together anymore, but his agent has actually gotten me multiple other like projects over the years like people that he works with. He's like hey, I have a helmet guy like it's such a weirdly specific thing to be, but I've. I've probably customized and sent out 150 to 200 helmets.
Speaker 1:I would say that's insane over how much does each other?
Speaker 2:last last five or six years. It really all depends. This one right here, this one is gonna retail at $1,500. What the f-? Yeah, it's brand new. It is super state of the art. It's absolutely like an investment if you're gonna be playing in one. But, that being said, I also wouldn't have been able to buy one, just if I wanted to buy one what's the other one that uh?
Speaker 2:zenith or something. Yeah, zenith actually just went out of business. What and riddell like acquired the rights to all their stuff? They were zenith. Helmets were the. The helmets were super underrated. They were insanely comfortable and really like safe and super expensive.
Speaker 3:They were expensive how much is the bucks one?
Speaker 2:so this one riddell's axiom. Like I said before, they were only giving them to the nfl in colleges the last two years. This model retails at 989 99 but the model yeah, no the uh, the models that they make for the nfl players probably. I mean they don't retail, obviously, because they don't sell them, but the pads inside, they scan their heads and 3D print the pads to custom fit.
Speaker 1:You know what I think would be really badass Not to cut you off.
Speaker 2:No, no, you're good.
Speaker 1:But I was just thinking. I want to say it before I forget it. Yeah yeah, what would be fucking so sick is to get the old leather you know stitch something on there.
Speaker 2:I bet people would pay for that I love the one bar.
Speaker 1:The vintage stuff, yeah.
Speaker 2:I want to get a one bar thing and make it like the opposite of this Same logos and everything but from 1900.
Speaker 3:Well, that's what I'm saying Also. I mean you got a helmet right in the logo there. I mean I'm looking at these two helmets right there and I'm thinking, have it just sitting right there.
Speaker 2:I mean, helmets right there and I'm thinking I have it have just sitting right there.
Speaker 1:I mean, why not easy? And also I bet he could do some cool shit with that and I could that kind of concept I could also do it for a whole lot less than 1400 or something would be there's.
Speaker 2:There's like youth helmets out there. That the deal with youth helmets is the padding on the inside is different, the sizing isn't all that different. The shells aren't always different, it's just like the quality of the pads, because you're getting smacked around by five-year-olds instead of 15-year-olds, but they're cheaper.
Speaker 3:You were talking about the face guards or the face mask. What's the difference? Like?
Speaker 1:why do some players have a?
Speaker 3:shit ton of bars and then some just have, like you said, the punter helmet versus one.
Speaker 2:So people like me. It's not all aesthetic For people like me. It's not all aesthetic For people like me. It would be mostly aesthetic like what looks cool. A lot of people look at them and couldn't tell the difference between these two faces. They're just face masks, but some of them have like a more open field of vision. Some of them have what they call eye guards right here. They would keep you from like maybe getting poked in the face or something. Linemen tend to wear like bigger, overbuilt masks, that kind of drop down here a little bit it's.
Speaker 1:It's just they make kind of position specific masks, but it's not like a rule but I think they're doing that with helmets in general now too, when, when I was just doing the lead 11 camp in uh tampa a couple months ago, they had a zenith rep there, yep, and he's like all right. So this is the qb helmet with face mask. This is a linebacker. This is an offensive lin. The offensive lineman looked like a Mack truck. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there's a company. It was wild it was like a cage.
Speaker 2:There's another company called Vysis. They're actually owned by Shutt now.
Speaker 1:Maybe it was Vysis then.
Speaker 2:They have what you were talking about. It's called the Trench Helmet. Maybe it was V specifically for the big boys in the trench, like banging heads.
Speaker 1:It's got a big overbuilt thing on the front and the front face mask looks like a jail. So I know exactly what you're talking about. Okay, so that's what it is, and those are the ones that are expensive as shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're probably comparable in price to this one right here and a lot of linemen are also wearing the. Guardian.
Speaker 1:Is that what it's called the Guardian?
Speaker 2:Bro? Is that what it's called the Guardian?
Speaker 3:Bro, it looks like it's fucked. I have a slightly irrational.
Speaker 2:Take on Guardian caps. It might make me sound bad, but it just depends on how you take my message. Football can only be football. You can only change football so much and still have the same game. Concussion, dude. No matter. No amount of padding is going to stop your brain from hitting your skull, which is what a concussion is. Your brain moving around in your head is the cause of a concussion. If a guardian cap actually makes it that much less likely that you're going to get a concussion, why not wear three of them?
Speaker 3:Put five guardian caps on.
Speaker 2:It's just, it's not. They just just they're investing more in helmet technology. Helmets are getting safer.
Speaker 1:They don't put out any unsafe helmets well then, I think the game has changed too. Like you can't leave with your helmet, like they, you know who's? I'm a, I'm a. I don't like any of those roles. I think the defensive guys are so fucking handicapped now it's exactly how I feel it's.
Speaker 2:It's just not the same game. Same game if you're taking the head out of it.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you mentioned that though man, it's not the same game, no matter what you're doing.
Speaker 2:It makes me sound insensitive saying injuries are a part of the game, but every single person that signs up knows that.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a game where you put your body on the line for your team and it's just only so much. You can change so many protective rules you can add and still have it be the same exact game. It's already changed so much the last five, ten years. But just like injuries aren't preventable, you can try to mitigate. There's safety measures you can take, but if you're just I don't know, I'm just not a fan of the guardian casts.
Speaker 2:I don't, and they look ridiculous they look silly, they don't actually help that much and it's just like a talking point.
Speaker 1:People, the guy that's on the Bucs. What is that the right tackle? Yeah?
Speaker 2:I literally comment. Not Tristan Wirth, no, I think his name is getting Just like a big ESPN account will post like look at these new guardian kazi players are so safe and all that. And then somebody in the comments will say what I'm saying. They'll be like it's not actually that much safer, it just looks silliest. You're not. You're not really doing what you think you're doing with these and people defend them like they work. Oh so you like head injuries you love. You love concussions, you. You want people to get cte.
Speaker 3:I'm like that's not what I'm saying. I'm telling you, man, I love it.
Speaker 2:It seems like they have paid people to go defend them in comment sections.
Speaker 3:There's no doubt.
Speaker 2:It's the righteous group of people that like.
Speaker 3:Probably never played football before.
Speaker 2:No not haven't played football and just like. It's a talking point right now, yeah, it's just a trend. I it's a talking point right now, yeah, it's just a trend. I'm sure it'll either fade out or it'll change, but it won't stay, guardian cap, because the guardian caps themselves are not going to actually change anything. Well, you do know what sport has the most concussions right. Soccer.
Speaker 1:Is it soccer? Soccer has the most concussions. It's not even close.
Speaker 2:That makes sense.
Speaker 3:So how come those guys aren't wearing a guardian cap? Exactly? They're not three of them. Big soccer guy or three guardian caps, right, right?
Speaker 2:well, I mean exactly, bro, you're not even thinking about rugby too I was gonna guess rugby, but they play without their head, so it's almost like I don't know how to explain what I'm saying, like when you, yeah, like a concussion, isn't always you getting tackled and hitting your head off the ground after you can get a concussion from running into somebody wrong so it's like how they train in rugby.
Speaker 2:They practice without helmets and they play without helmets. So their game has evolved to not need helmets. The way you play, yeah, they'll get hurt, but like there's not guys spearing with the crown of the helmet, you're not ripping face masks, it's just. It's. It's a different game, like I was getting out with guardian caps. You keep changing it, keep making it safer. It's just make it two-hand touch and call it something else right, right flag.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's a freaking pro bowl I played.
Speaker 2:I played flag football literally five minutes from here a few months ago, where? Uh uh, it was. It was just north of here literally like off this off this road. It was with the church. It was with Grace Family Church.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, I literally live right next to there.
Speaker 2:I played up there the last couple months, man, it was so fun.
Speaker 3:So you were a defensive end, right? Yeah, I was. You think tackling with the crown of your helmet is the best way to tackle?
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no. I was saying you can get a concussion not just from getting tackled, like you can get a concussion from using your head wrong playing football, so like it's what I was looking at my golf, right, he was going head down and that was it.
Speaker 3:But yeah, yeah, don't they teach shoulder instead of head?
Speaker 2:my golf doesn't play by the rules and he doesn't have to.
Speaker 1:That's my golf style. Have you talked to my golf?
Speaker 2:no, no I never have.
Speaker 1:we're gonna to get him on here the padding in his helmet was probably kind of like that too, but they were just built different back then man.
Speaker 2:I was growing up and getting into football in that era. Mike Allstott man.
Speaker 3:I remember Chris Berman, remember all the Sunday night recap or whatever they called it.
Speaker 1:Rumbling, fumbling, grumbling. St or whatever they called it. Rumbling, fumbling, grumbling, stumbling, bumbling. My costa, those were the freaking glory days of football.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh man, I swear that was peak NFL.
Speaker 1:Nowadays you got guys that are just hitting a fucking dance after getting a first down.
Speaker 3:It's like, boy, you got some guys flopping too, you see flop.
Speaker 1:You see people faking injuries. The whole game is fucked.
Speaker 2:It's a totally different sport.
Speaker 3:Yes, I mean it's turning into soccer, but that's the whole world, that ain't just football. Nba too, with LeBron, the pacification is real. Sure, I mean shit. I think flopping should be an automatic, like turnover on downs.
Speaker 2:They're in college football. They're penalizing it this year.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Like fake injuries, injuries at least I don't know about flopping, but like but how do you determine what's a fake injury?
Speaker 1:you know?
Speaker 2:Replay the guy coming right back in the game after I think it's now? No, I don't know if it's penalized after. I think the player has to sit out five or ten plays or something, I think you can get penalized for like blatantly obvious ones, but I'm pretty sure the player has to stay out like goes out with an injury, just because that's that's player safety. Yeah, if he's actually hurt, you don't want to throw him back in the games.
Speaker 3:That makes your trainers look bad right, isn't it just one play that they sit out? No, now it's it used to be.
Speaker 2:It used to be, but I think to enforce it now because, like I was saying, fake injuries and flopping and stuff was becoming like a like an actual strategy teams were using, like it's a timeout.
Speaker 3:It's not a bad idea, but it sucks for football. No, I'm saying it actually not a bad idea, it's a timeout. It's not a bad idea, but it sucks for football. No, I'm saying it's not a bad idea to keep them out for the entire trial.
Speaker 2:Well, if you actually care about player safety. That makes sense right.
Speaker 3:No, I'm not saying that Just to be like, don't do it. It's had to advise players not to do it. No, I got you.
Speaker 1:I got you.
Speaker 3:Ole Miss, yeah, you're going down.
Speaker 2:It was strategy man.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Were you ever coached like that? No, no.
Speaker 1:Even if I was, I'd say I'm not doing that. Are you fucking kidding me?
Speaker 2:It's not football.
Speaker 1:I just saw a video not too long ago they were posting about. It was Jalen Milrow, your boy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:He threw a touchdown and got smoked against. Like his reaction after finding out it was a touchdown pass, he just popped up, so he was like laying down and he's like oh, and literally it was like a two-minute long deal and next thing you know he pops up. Yeah, Fuck yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I saw that video. They were going to throw a flag.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I saw that video. I'm like what are we doing?
Speaker 2:As the players like I kind of get the players. You take advantage of it, you manipulate it as well as you can I mean?
Speaker 1:that's kind of a flop, isn't it? It is, it's 100% a flop.
Speaker 2:It's exactly a flop. But I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1:I think you're 100% right. If it's not illegal and you could take advantage of it, why would you not?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. If I was playing right now and I wasn't getting and we have no timeouts and it's a close game I'm going to lay down in the middle of the field. Give my guys a breather.
Speaker 3:Have you seen what the UFL started implementing?
Speaker 2:Which one UFL? No, I meant what they implemented.
Speaker 3:You can challenge flags Good.
Speaker 2:I think that's a good one too.
Speaker 3:I'm surprised the NFL hasn't adapted that yet Remember they tried in the UFL before they implemented it into the NFL.
Speaker 2:No, that's what they did with the kickoffs. I hate that new kickoff. I can't really explain why I hate it.
Speaker 3:I don't like it, man.
Speaker 2:I don't know why I hated it, but like it was just a change, so I didn't like it, I guess. But it was the UFL kickoff rule. Then the NFL adopted it and the UFL ditched it completely and the NFL was still using the UFL rule.
Speaker 1:Which is what you kick it and yeah, the kicker's back there by himself.
Speaker 2:And there's your whole line of special teams unit. They line up like five yards across from each other way downfield, and when the ball is caught, that's when everybody can move. But the UFL ditched that. Now, yeah, they ditched it, but the NFL still uses it and calls it the UFL kickoff rule.
Speaker 1:So rule. So what are they doing now? I mean, as far as I know, they're gonna keep using that this year. Oh, ufo's, back to regular. Oh they're, they're, they're an experimental league, so they can mess around like that, but it's. That's such an exciting part of the freaking game, though you got a devin hester back there. You don't know our dante hall, that's a legit weapon.
Speaker 2:you strategize a kickoff return. I've I coached at uh riverview high school 2023. I just had no coaching experience. They put out a help wanted thing. I was like I'm going to go out there, I'm going to coach. I took over special teams on JV and I helped on varsity. But I put time into coordinating special team stuff, man, because it affects the game, it can affect the outcome.
Speaker 1:High school doesn't have the UFL kickoff, does it? No, it's a normal.
Speaker 2:No, not as far as I know, I mean unless they implemented it this year, that's a good question.
Speaker 1:No, we've been doing regular kickoffs. I know they did it last year they did it regular, but who knows? Who knows what the hell is going to happen next?
Speaker 2:Literally no idea. There's no way to kind of Exhausting to keep up with.
Speaker 3:Honestly, it is I'm just waiting on the season man.
Speaker 2:I'm ready to watch football and quit talking about it.
Speaker 1:You've got what? 100 days until college football.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly 100. Less for week zero. It's like 100 for week one now, oh shit. It's probably 90s for week zero.
Speaker 1:Well, I know everybody's ready for that again.
Speaker 2:Heck yeah, man, I'm the biggest college football nerd out there, man.
Speaker 1:It's the best. It's a hell of a lot better than the NFL Absolutely.
Speaker 3:See, I love the NFL, but I love college football a million times more With the NIL deals and the transfer portal issues. You still think it's still the same.
Speaker 2:I love it to death, but that's exhausting.
Speaker 3:Players with no loyalty, coaches with no loyalty.
Speaker 2:I hate all that. I listened to nothing but college football podcasts for like the last three years. They've been awful since, like New Year's. It's just exhausting to keep up with it. Like you were saying just all that stuff, nil, lack of loyalty I'm just like all right, get me to game day. I'm just like there's no loyalty. I'm not like you, just like can't get attached to your team's players, man, because they're going to get if they're any good, they're going to get an offer to go somewhere else for more money, and what do you look like?
Speaker 2:telling them not to take that opportunity for themselves? Because what would we do?
Speaker 1:100%. We talked about it with.
Speaker 2:I'm taking the bag and I'm making money while I can, and it's just. It is what it is, but it's I mean, it's a shitty deal.
Speaker 1:They got to figure out some sort of.
Speaker 3:Casual fans suffer, but I mean casual fans, not the most important part of the game, and that's why the NFL is a much better league now.
Speaker 2:The NFL is absolutely a superior like overall product and establishment. I just there's something about college football man. Obviously, before they were getting paid, it was different, it was a lot different. It was a lot different. It was all about the passion. Right, you guys are playing for an opportunity to get to Sunday. Right and it's just and it's totally different now.
Speaker 1:But, like the games themselves, I just you got guys taking a pay cut to go to the NFL. Exactly what's his name? Quinn Ewers, quinn Ewers, yeah.
Speaker 2:Ended up going seventh round. There was a rumor he left eight million on the table.
Speaker 1:From Notre Dame, was it Notre.
Speaker 2:Dame.
Speaker 1:Oh, I thought it was Oregon, it was between six and eight, okay, and he's going to make.
Speaker 2:he probably won't even make that much on his whole rookie deal. No, Like years worth of a rookie deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a four-year $4 million deal.
Speaker 2:Sucks for him, but like it's also like it was his decision to go, yeah. He could have stayed back.
Speaker 1:Well, take a quick little break here. Cool, I'm gonna get another cold beer and uh we'll be back.
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Speaker 2:Cheers, cheers.
Speaker 1:We got a little refill.
Speaker 3:Sean Fabray, out here. I never get shouted out, you know. Shout out to Sean.
Speaker 1:Fabray Frameworks. We're in the studio.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:So yeah, man, we were just kind of talking about at the end of the last segment was about kind of like the NIL and you know what's your, what's your kind of opinion is on that NIL.
Speaker 2:It's name image and likeness itself is not like a debatable topic to me. You should be able to profit on your name image and likeness for the value you bring to your school, for the eyeballs and stuff you bring. It was never supposed to be pay for play and that's what 95 of it is right now yeah like, what's his name getting in a dr pepper commercial?
Speaker 2:that's nil to me. That's what it was supposed to be somebody like getting their face on a probably not a can of beer but a can of something right. Being a sponsor, just being the face of a product, that's what I always imagined. Nil would be making money for signing autographs.
Speaker 2:Johnny manziel got in trouble for that right tons of people got in trouble for autographs and stuff and the idea that you could get paid for your autograph. It seems like a no brainer to me. Stuff like that selling your jerseys, but collectives just like pooling money together and using it as incentives to bring guys to certain places it's just.
Speaker 1:It's created a mess like a mess, a mess beyond words, between that and it was a combination between that and the transport.
Speaker 2:It's all the exact fucking disaster. They introduced them both at the exact same time, with zero guidelines. It's just, it's the wild, wild west.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's not well, I'll tell you what man I've literally had. I don't know how many guests have been sitting in that same seat.
Speaker 3:And they all say the same thing, every single person has said the exact same thing.
Speaker 2:So it's common fucking sense it really is. It's obvious to see, like, what's going on and you can't drag the individual players for taking the best opportunities for themselves but at the same time you cannot love what's happening to the sport. I would never drag a guy who's playing at a smaller school, gets offered a bag to transfer up. That's just what it is. To me, it's the American dream. That's literally what you work for in life.
Speaker 3:I'm hearing what the problem is on these episodes, but I don't think we've ever asked the question what's the solution to this issue?
Speaker 2:I think if there was like one all-encompassing solution, I think it would have been introduced by now. It's like there's not one, there's not like one simple fix. Like I'm saying, they implemented the portal NIL and all this without guidelines, and now it's just like they're trying to backtrack.
Speaker 1:And I think, either way, they're still going to be able to find loopholes.
Speaker 2:Well, the guys are going to start taking it to court. That's what it's going to do as soon as you get denied your pay-for-play after you transferred somewhere and it becomes like the government's duty to determine it like real or not.
Speaker 1:And that's always good when the government gets involved. That's determine it like lie, like real or not, and that's always good when the government gets involved, that's always exactly solution. We love government involvement. God, just more government, please give them into college football.
Speaker 2:Was it the?
Speaker 1:most are the nine most terrifying words I'm from the government. All right now, I'm here to help yeah oh god run yeah you hear that shit.
Speaker 2:You better haul man, it's just so. Like I said, I don't have a solution, obviously. I think if there was one, we'd at least be hearing about it by now. It's just they're just trying to backtrack. You can't like withhold money, like these kids have been promised now, without it going to court, and it's just. It's a huge, huge mess. I have no idea how they're going to clean it up, but they have to do something, right it, literally it can't continue like this, or else guys will just stop playing.
Speaker 1:People aren't going to stop playing, people are going to stop watching and people are going to stop funding it. You know I tell the story every single time I bring it up.
Speaker 2:I got a lot of money for these guys to play and they're not going to fucking play Like fuck this shit up. And you can literally think about it from Cam Ward's point of view and you can completely, totally understand why he did what he did. He's doing things in the best interest of himself Of, but it's not a self game, it's a team game and somebody donating money to the cause and not getting what he hoped for out of the cause. I mean, he can do what he wants with his money too right so.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's just.
Speaker 1:It's a hell of a. It's a freaking mess. It's a pickle.
Speaker 2:It really is. There's not a solution, there's every I got a solution.
Speaker 3:I think everybody's not a solution.
Speaker 2:There's every. I got a solution, I think everybody's.
Speaker 3:Everybody in the collective just stops donating, yeah.
Speaker 2:Now there's no money to go around, yeah. Yeah, that's Well now you've started paying them, so it's just Well, it doesn't matter. Now Football won't exist.
Speaker 3:Now All collectives come together and say you know what? We're not going to contribute to any funding or donations, because that's what it is, because they're tax write-offs, right. It's usually millionaires that are donating and they say we're not going to do that, we're going to go donate to wounded warriors or whatever the hell it is. And now these college players have no ability to get large funding from collectives and all they get is a scholarship, like they used to. Technically, that's not breaking the law, and the ncaa pays them for the ea sports game in their jersey boom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's not. But collectives are not technically a part of the university I know so the people that work there, they're working to get paid themselves like they're. They're just. They're not going to stop taking donations because then they don't have a job like they.
Speaker 1:You who is it trying to figure?
Speaker 2:out how to how to explain this. You get so much in donations and you disperse it to the entirety of the thing, your whole operation and the players.
Speaker 1:Did you see the University of Kentucky with their athletic program? Just did.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it was their entire athletic or just the football program.
Speaker 1:They did something where they completely distanced themselves from the university itself. They made an entire separate entity. So it's like university of kentucky, university of kentucky athletics yeah, and then pay to use their private equity can can fund that, and then they pay.
Speaker 2:That it's yep, you pay to put the uk logo on the side of your helmet. You don't have to worry about your kids going to class and stuff. It's not student athlete doesn't exist in d1 college football anymore it doesn't exist.
Speaker 1:I don't think it existed ever. Yeah, I hear you.
Speaker 2:But just like you know, coaches and all they, they hammer home student athlete, student athlete, like starting from well, they used to yeah, yeah but now it doesn't exist. So why are we pretending like these kids need to go to class and the schools are, like, like, really responsible for football team success? They're completely separate. It's just like, like you were saying about separating the collectives and stuff, I think that if you separate teams from schools, eventually you can like, license their logos and stuff. So you're right.
Speaker 3:So the university of Kentucky athletics department has recently made a significant move by converting its athletic department into a limited liability company called Champions Blue.
Speaker 1:LLC. Yep Champions Blue.
Speaker 3:So now it's even more of a wild fucking way.
Speaker 1:That's our point. What we said last segment, it's like if it's not illegal.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And there's still that loophole Fucking, take advantage of it.
Speaker 2:They're either going to. It's either going to start a trend or it's just going to blow the whole thing up. It's either going to work really well for them and other teams are going to catch on and that'll just become kind of normal, or it could blow up.
Speaker 3:So basically, what it's saying is that Champions Blue is going to manage the athletic department of UK.
Speaker 2:It doesn't. I mean, that makes sense, it does, it's just it's crazy that it's come to that. Yeah, it really is. It's just then, eventually, once everyone's doing that, it's not college football anymore, it's semi, it's like semi-professional football, and I think that's what it should be, you got double A triple A, single A.
Speaker 3:I mean why the fuck it has technically been that forever. Why do you have to go to college to play ball?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Why do?
Speaker 2:you? Why do you have to play for three years?
Speaker 3:Right, yeah Right To play in the NFL. Why?
Speaker 2:Jeremiah Smith would have been a first round draft pick this year, no doubt.
Speaker 3:The NBA had it right. Yeah, when Kobe just went straight from motherfucking high school to the mda, I mean that's really how it should be. Are you good enough to play pro?
Speaker 2:that goes back to their player safety arguments now because if they do that then that's taking back their stance on safety. They were saying we don't want 17 year olds to get run over by 30 year olds and it's just if they do that, then they it seems like they don't care about safety and they the illusion of safety is what they're after.
Speaker 2:It's the illusion of player safety is the biggest is they're just. They try so hard to keep it up and it's just. They'll do anything to keep that, just like player safety first, player safety first, and one of the most inherently dangerous sports ever conceived, right.
Speaker 3:But and play for free for three years before you get. You know, get a bunch of injuries in college, yeah, and then try and make and that's actually a point that I wanted to make, because desmond was on here and he was talking about his acl mcl tears and it's like, well, if he would have just went straight to pro he would have been getting paid dude running before having to waste your time in fucking college.
Speaker 2:Yeah that's running backs. Man, running backs are the most like dispensable position. You just are replaceable. I mean people just go through running backs. They get so much wear and tear unless you're derrick and the knees.
Speaker 2:Yes, he's derrick. Henry's built different but like like your typical running backs, man, three down backs don't really exist because they're being run into the ground. It's just like quite literally run into the ground. So like if a running back, a five-star running back, could go pro right out of high school, get like five years of a prime career going, that's, it would have been only two if he had to go through three years in college.
Speaker 1:That's a good point.
Speaker 2:He's got three years of wear and tear on his body in college and it's nobody would be forced to go from college to the NFL either.
Speaker 3:You wouldn't declare for a draft Right, right for a draft. You think you're ready.
Speaker 1:You don't have to do that.
Speaker 2:You think you're ready you go play, and most of them would probably sit out for a year or two.
Speaker 3:And get paid while they're sitting out. Get paid Learning.
Speaker 2:Exactly that.
Speaker 1:And it's just kind of cutting out the middleman, which would be college football. There's fucking people that don't ever never played a position never played a snap of football. They're the ones that are coming up with these damn rules it's it's it's all analytics man
Speaker 3:people are analyzing football to death football should actually take a page out of european soccer. So what european soccer does is they put these kids in academies when they're five or six years old and they train in this academy until they are like, okay, you're ready to go into the premier league or la liga or whatever, yeah. And then the team uh transfers them, boom done. Now they're making millions of dollars and they never had to fucking go to college and they're not stupid. Yeah, I mean, cristiano ronaldo's worth almost a billion dollars.
Speaker 1:I mean he's worth more than that yeah, probably more than that, but yeah but he could be stupid. Who gives a shit? Yeah, a billion. He's good at kicking the ball, yeah.
Speaker 3:That's it, but I mean football for whatever reason decides that universities get the first say on who's good and who's not good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep, that's a very valid point, yeah, but anyways, I kind of want to transition from that and that's why college sucks. Hey man hold on, now You're going to get us standing up now.
Speaker 2:College football will always hold a special place in my heart. Any negative opinions I have on the sport, it's just what I'm thinking in the moment, man, college football is the best thing ever, yeah.
Speaker 3:I think it's garbage. Yeah, I hear you. I'm not going to argue with you about it.
Speaker 2:I love the NFL too. I love the NFL too, I love the NFL.
Speaker 1:He's a USF guy, so they never really had much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's nothing special going on there, but they're still relatively new, though, for football.
Speaker 3:They started in the 90s, right? I'm not even a USF fan man, oh yeah, yeah, fuck USF, just watch them, or what I don't watch them.
Speaker 2:I don't watch any college.
Speaker 1:He doesn't watch college.
Speaker 3:Oh okay, I got you, I got you. Oh, so you just went there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just went there. Okay, I got you.
Speaker 3:For civil engineering. Yeah, what the fuck is that no bulls? What the fuck is that no bulls?
Speaker 2:I major in history. I'm a history major and I mean, ideally I'll never use. I've had this question when you build these concepts, do you sell them? So none of them bearing NFL logos and marks Back in, like I'll say this I don't want to get in trouble, but it's old, I think the statute of limitations or whatever I was Just say allegedly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, allegedly I was selling custom helmets, but just to fund the next build. If I had put this one together out of pocket, that's a $1,500 helmet right there. So if I had did that, dude, that's like a paycheck. So I wouldn't be able to just go out of pocket and do stuff like that. So if I was making a helmet to sell for somebody. I would just make enough money to start the next project so I could buy the parts.
Speaker 1:So like Jarvis Landry. Yeah, did you sell them? Did you make money off that?
Speaker 2:no, so people like that mostly I kind of donate. People like jarvis landry, tom, brady, drake I. I donate those helmets, I give them to them just because, like it's free advertising yeah, who they are. And drake owns a helmet and it's sitting in one of his houses right now like that's just. That's. That's my biggest flex. I tell people Drake follows me.
Speaker 1:Like Drake the rapper. Yeah, oh shit, that's pretty sick Champagne poppy. Yeah man.
Speaker 3:No, that's his Instagram handle, oh shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I a couple years ago, after SportsCenter reposted some of my concepts. I guess he was just scrolling through and he followed me. I was guess he was just scrolling through and he followed me. I was like holy shit, that's not real. So I've dm'd him. I was like dude, like thank you so much for the follow. That was amazing. And he was like he said. He said, bro, the helmets are sick I need one.
Speaker 2:I was like like say oh, it was right up there at the top I said say less this one right there, that's the one I made for tom that one that was yeah, that's this one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's his oVO logo. Someone's got the Kendrick on there.
Speaker 2:That's dirty, that's not cool, but that stripe had like the OVOs kind of ghosted in it. I don't know if you can tell on this video, but that's really cool.
Speaker 3:Oh, this is OVO right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean like in the actual your house that's my dining room. Yeah, most of the time I have to. You have a lot of packages like that all over the place not, not always. Those are just amazon, I think. But uh, I always got to mute it with my two-year-olds in the background oh, actually you can see the ovo.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then I did the visor visor.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, and also in the L, do you have a printer that you can print the-. I threw the.
Speaker 2:Canadian flag on the back, I threw a six. But no, I don't make my own decals, that would be a game changer.
Speaker 3:What's the six for?
Speaker 2:The six, god. The six is like the barrier code. It's just like a Toronto thing.
Speaker 3:This is what I saw up the six.
Speaker 2:yeah, this that's my post yeah okay, I tagged a buck's account, but it wasn't, it wasn't the official one.
Speaker 3:Maybe that's what you saw, yeah because I saw this getting built and I was like this is their new helmet all these this the laziest thing ever san francisco buccaneers.
Speaker 2:I got 50 of those comments. Yeah, it's the same stripe. But it's also the exact same stripe I put down here I'm imagining this lid being paired with their all pewter threads. I mimic the pant stripe down the center of the helmet and move the pirate ship logo to the helmet, and I put captions, thinking that people read them.
Speaker 1:I get 50 comments.
Speaker 3:Bro, it looks like the 49ers. I'm going to respond to that. It looks like the Niners but it's also the exact stripe the Bucs wear.
Speaker 1:He's commenting on it right now. I'm going to block you. I'm a firm believer. No, no, no.
Speaker 3:I'm mentioning it to him.
Speaker 2:I'm going to be like.
Speaker 3:San Francisco Buccaneers question mark go fuck yourself.
Speaker 1:I'm a firm believer though. If you don't have haters, you're not doing something right? No, exactly.
Speaker 2:I've been copying and pasting the exact.
Speaker 3:Couldn't post comment, Damn dog.
Speaker 2:People have it where you can't add them.
Speaker 3:Okay well.
Speaker 2:It's a security thing. You just go under reply and type it.
Speaker 3:Well, I think it's because of the fuck. Yeah, I guess not Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, but no, that was my recent build. That from uh fiu, in addition to all like the customs and stuff, I do, like I told you, I like to like, promote and shout out, like all these other schools, like smaller schools.
Speaker 1:I'm on your bumper yeah, that's what I put yeah, because bro john gruden if you've seen those videos.
Speaker 2:He's crushing it I have to block it, man. I have like. I'm like so jealous it hurts. Yeah, dude, his helmet collection is better than mine and it's been like a month. I've been doing this for like eight years now, man.
Speaker 1:So you said you don't make the logos or the decals, so what do you have to do? I?
Speaker 2:normally go through a bigger company that makes them called School Pride, or there's another one called Sports Live that makes decals or just like single batch, like custom, one-off stuff. I have a friend that does them for me. Okay, I think that if I because you have to get into Photoshop and everything to really work the dimensions and colors and everything so I think if I could end up getting into making my own decals, that would be a game changer, that could be a business in itself for me. Plus, I wouldn't be waiting around to do any of my own projects.
Speaker 3:Why don't you work for Fanatics so?
Speaker 2:Why don't you work for Fanatics? So I worked for a company called Green Gridiron. That's when I moved to Greenville, when I was getting out of college, their CEO messaged me because they just sell the helmet parts. They don't do the logos or anything, they just sell helmets, face masks, visors, chin straps, and they have a YouTube channel where they put custom stuff together for people kind of like I do. But I was doing it all all my own for years. I built up a following of like probably a hundred thousand before they reached out and they were like hey, like whenever you graduate, if you want to move up here, we have work for you. Like we'll get you on the youtube channel, we'll have you be like our head of custom helmets. I'm like this sounds like a dream. Like I, I moved there on my own dime. I I still haven't paid off the moving truck, but uh, I I got there and day one they had me sweeping the ceilings in the warehouse.
Speaker 2:What after I? Just I moved 10 hours north from where I was brought my wife so I wasn't married yet. We were engaged. Our wedding was in july, but I moved in may. I want to start work. I got an apartment. I got everything I got out. There started working day one, I was sweeping the ceilings and I was on the phone with apple for like five hours trying to get into one of their old computers that they had. After that they had me stuck up, so the very front room of this place just had like helmets and stuff did they hire you as a janitor?
Speaker 3:is that what they hired?
Speaker 2:They hired me as the custom helmet guy. I thought this was going to be my dream job. I told you I moved up there on my own dime and then, after this place was not open to the public but they put me in a retail room that they were going to start advertising, like on the radio, as being open to the public. I get one, maybe two customers a day. We don't have anything inventory up front. It's just like he really likes this place. It was just all the helmet sizes. I, I really do. It's a great company. I have beef with the people that run it. I made great friends there. Some of my best friends are still up in South Carolina. I but I I was very misled and I was kind of taken advantage of when I moved up there because I think they saw me as competition.
Speaker 2:We're like, hey, we bring him on he stops doing his own thing and then we just keep growing. And it was.
Speaker 3:So after about a month of doing that.
Speaker 2:I confronted them. I'm in the office with the CEOs. They're just robots. They don't care about football, they just want money. And I'm like this is not what I moved here for. Like this is, this is borderline, like depressing work. Having me do like this is.
Speaker 2:I'm a college graduate. I have a following on social media. You brought me here to put me on your youtube channel and I got in like one or two as a guest, like in the back. I didn't even put the helmet together, I was standing next to the guy jesus they got to. So after a month there I was like okay, I need a different job here, I can't move yet. Like I just signed a lease and all this, like I'm not leaving.
Speaker 2:But I got moved to shipping and shipping. It was enjoyable, it wasn't a career, but like I just I got to pull helmets off the shelves and build them to people's order all day and send them out and was fun, but that's not a career, right? So my wife got pregnant. This was in july when she I moved in may. We got married in july and then she moved up with me. No, uh, 21. We've been married for almost three years, four years now. Yeah, so she moved up with me in july. I had made the move to shipping. Probably by that time we're in august and she's pregnant in january. So at that point it was it was a no-brainer to come home. I just I told the boss there, they fucking slighted you that's.
Speaker 2:That's a fucked up that is that, that is it's almost like with the equipment manager thing. I look at it like if I didn't go through that I wouldn't be where I am today, like doing my own thing on my own schedule. I post what I want when I want not answered not for anybody else. I'm not on a schedule. I post when I want what I want. But when I had left up there, they, they made me sign a non-compete. Oh no, and then I just I didn't you know those aren't enforceable, right?
Speaker 1:that's what I was just not really, and it's they. How did they make you Put a gun in your head?
Speaker 2:They had me sign it, but it's been up for like three years now, when you left. I think I signed it like in the middle while I was up there, cause we had like a change in like leadership.
Speaker 3:Cause we have some of our photographers sign non, we operate in.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I was doing almost exactly what they do, minus like the retail side.
Speaker 3:I was customizing, but you came back down here, yeah, which means their non-compete is no longer enforceable because you're no longer in the state of South Carolina.
Speaker 2:I didn't even look at it like that honestly. But they were just kind of like that's what our lawyer tells us.
Speaker 1:That's already done, though, right.
Speaker 2:Pretty much when I told them that I was going to leave this was in February and I wasn't leaving until May and I was just like, hey, wife's pregnant. I think it would be in our family's best interest to move back, be around family. And they were just like, ah, we saw this coming. I was like no, you didn't, because I didn't even see it coming.
Speaker 2:This is a shock to me. I moved, I uprooted my entire life life and I brought my girlfriend of like five years here and we were I was going to work for this company for a long time and man, they just, I don't know. It makes me sound kind of like a child complaining, but they really did.
Speaker 1:No, no, that's not at all.
Speaker 2:I gave them my best. They really did me dirty, didn't care about they didn't even utilize your best.
Speaker 3:No, not at all. That's the thing You're sweeping fucking ceilings. Yeah, what the fuck is that, bro?
Speaker 2:They gave me a pole with like a 10-foot extender on it. I'm out in the warehouse getting cobwebbed off the ceiling.
Speaker 1:That's nuts.
Speaker 2:I'm like dude, I'm not 16.
Speaker 3:I was like 21 or 22 at this point College graduate. Yeah, tom Brady already follows me. Degree in what? Don't worry about it.
Speaker 2:Was it psychology History? Oh yeah, Some bullshit. Yeah, I thought you were being serious.
Speaker 1:No man, no, no, no, this is a smart-ass podcast.
Speaker 2:Also, that was Wikipedia. Anybody can put anything on Wikipedia.
Speaker 1:Hey, it's always going to be better a smart-ass than a dumb-ass.
Speaker 3:With that being said, we'll take a quick little break.
Speaker 1:We'll come back and hear the rest of his uh journey back down to the great shun sign state. Appreciate the free state of florida. Like, comment, subscribe, share. Put that notification button on follow suits and sports. Get ready to fucking rock and roll, folks. We got nectar, nootropics all right. It's got cognizant in it. It's got caffeine 50 milligrams of caffeine. I going to go ahead and rip one right now. This is the atomic apple flavor. Absolutely delicious. I'll tell you what man, I'm not a big coffee guy, never have, never will be, but these damn things, 50 milligrams of caffeine. Jumpstart your day, zap your brain a little bit. They got jalapeno, lime, black cherry, spearmint, sweet mango, mango and fresh mint, and let me just tell you the mint will light your ass on fire. It's a whole different kind of kind of buzz, so to speak.
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Speaker 2:Yeah, we're back Every single day, hey we are back on that note.
Speaker 1:It is very, very difficult to watch other people live out your dream, and I see it every fucking Saturday and every goddamn Sunday. Yes, sir, seeing these guys like there's no way this son of a bitch throws a ball better than me, no way way, this is no way, even in my age of 37, there's no way, did not?
Speaker 2:I mean, obviously I never even like touched the level of athlete you were. But just like watching the draft, being like, oh, I'm several years older than these guys already is it's mind-blowing and it kind of hurts, it kind of hurts, and we're 37, 36 you're what? 37, 37 yeah, so yeah man, so a decade. So it only gets worse. It only gets worse, man it does, yeah, cheers to that, yeah, man kind of looking forward to parts of getting older, you know I was gonna ask you about uh, because I was texting.
Speaker 1:I was like, hey, man, do you want anything to drink? He's like ah, I'm not a big drinker.
Speaker 2:I had an episode on a hangover from hell I had a hangover about two years ago that changed my life, so I you want to tell that story Not really.
Speaker 1:No, I just wanted to just mention it, just kind of laugh about it and then move on.
Speaker 2:My very pregnant wife had to get me home. It was not. It was something I'm not proud of at all. It was a bad moment. We've all been there man.
Speaker 1:Playing in a golf tournament, just like. Oh God, I can't get behind a car. You're going to have to come scoot me up, motherfucker. I'm seven and a half months pregnant. Like what do you mean?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this was eight and a half months and I couldn't get out of the bathtub.
Speaker 1:Oh shit.
Speaker 2:And we weren't at our house, so I don't even remember getting home.
Speaker 1:But let's move on, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah Gone, yeah, gone. Part of the deal, man. Yes, sir, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's live and learn. You're here for a reason. I definitely learned.
Speaker 1:You're married for a reason. Yes, sir, you're expecting another child. I am, yeah.
Speaker 2:We haven't announced yet, but oh shit.
Speaker 1:No, no, no.
Speaker 2:No, hold on, I was getting to that. It's probably a good spot to announce. So we're just a couple weeks from finding out the gender, but uh, we've known for about a month now and it's you know what the gender is?
Speaker 1:no, we've just known she was pregnant.
Speaker 2:We don't know the gender yet. I think we find out in the next couple weeks. So we have appointments booked now, but uh, it's, it's a whole lot different feelings the second time around. It's all it's nerves and like anticipation and anxiety, but it's just like it's not as it's totally different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's still like it's jarring to see the positive test. It's just like every plan you had just kind of like takes a back seat. Yep, like whatever you were thinking about, because it's just, it just changes everything, like that and I'll tell you what two kids you got to double up the work.
Speaker 1:I know man. Kids are not cheap. Wives aren't cheap either.
Speaker 2:I've definitely learned. They're absolutely worth it, man.
Speaker 1:There's nothing better.
Speaker 2:They're worth so much more than I could ever provide them, man.
Speaker 3:The wife or the kids, Both man.
Speaker 2:The wife's, my best friend, that little girl, god, that little girl is my world man.
Speaker 1:I just I'd do anything. God, that little girl is my world man, I just I'll do anything for that little girl. Two, two and a half, two and a half. We got a two and a half year old daughter as well.
Speaker 2:I, I remember like right around, I mean I followed you forever obviously so like I was having a baby right around when you guys had your so she's. Was she born? Was she born in october?
Speaker 1:no I was born in october okay, late october like the eighth, okay, yeah we're february.
Speaker 2:She's actually born on October.
Speaker 1:Okay, late October Like the 8th. Okay, yeah, we're February. She's actually born on my birthday.
Speaker 2:Oh, I thought they were closer for some reason, so I was born on my dad's 35th birthday.
Speaker 1:That's cool. Scarlett was born on my 35th birthday.
Speaker 3:Like the exact same day, the exact same day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's amazing, that's really cool, Pretty fucking nuts, but all right. So that's what I want to ask you. So when you have this gender reveal, how are you going to do it? There's got to be something with the helmet.
Speaker 2:I haven't actually thought about that until now. We don't want to do a big party or anything. We know we're going to do some kind of release or reveal the first one. I had a football filled with powder or whatever. I just punted it. I punted it and got pink dust everywhere. Uh, I don't know. I haven't actually thought about how we're gonna do the second one.
Speaker 1:But you got to do something with the helmet man.
Speaker 2:It's got to be the oklahoma drill or something with a with like a powder thing attached right here.
Speaker 1:Bang helmets and I gotta, I gotta show you this. So at our gender reveal yeah, it was a, it was just a party. I mean, we just got all, had a bunch of people over. We're out on the the turf just getting mangled and grabbed the football. The same thing that you punt. I grabbed and tried to throw it at the fence Explode.
Speaker 1:I didn't even make the fence because all that the weight like transfers in the shell so I wanted to go throw it and it just goes straight down. It ended up popping or like breaking, but everybody's looking at me like dude don't you like train quarterbacks to get in a fucking fence?
Speaker 2:Super underwhelming yeah very underwhelming.
Speaker 1:So then after that you know everybody's celebrating and everything. And then a guy Masha's like group of friends. It was her friend and her boyfriend. They were like, yeah, let's do an Oklahoma drill. I'm like, yeah, sounds great. So they do an Oklahoma drill this guy he's a pretty big dude. And so they do an Oklahoma drill this guy he's a pretty big dude and his girlfriend at the time was super skinny.
Speaker 2:Oh, and they did the Oklahoma. They did it. Oh, I thought you just meant like two guys.
Speaker 1:No, he got up and he's kind of a chunky dude. Bad idea Stumbled, freaking, hit her. Her ankle snapped like this, hyperextended her knee completely like buckled. It was absolutely hysterical, so I don't recommend doing a no-go home drill.
Speaker 2:Well, if I was going to do it, I was thinking with one of my friends and just have my wife watching. I wasn't thinking about going head up with her, but that's a.
Speaker 1:Live and learn.
Speaker 2:We'll think about it, we'll consider that.
Speaker 1:But you guys are hoping for a boy.
Speaker 2:I'm hoping for a boy, because we have our girl and I love my little girl more than anything. But like this, it's time, I mean, I'm, I need me my little son man, little little battle little boy battle.
Speaker 1:That'd be cool.
Speaker 2:You got a little uh junior or dude I'm, I'm fighting so hard for pj preston jr and she, she's not on board at all. Just not, just like, not even budging oh man, because we don't have one picked out. But it's not going to be PJ, so it's not.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you get overruled. I know that's the price you pay for these Exactly.
Speaker 2:And she's worth it and I love her. That a boy.
Speaker 1:Nice, you got to look in the camera. On that one I'd like to name my son, pj Preston Jr. Nice, you got to look in the camera on that one.
Speaker 2:I'd like to name my son, pj Preston Jr. Man, you don't have to call him that, you just call him Well it'd be Preston Battle Jr right. Pbj.
Speaker 1:That's what I was saying. I'm like, okay, all right.
Speaker 2:I'm taking this arguing back when I get home. I'm starting it back up brainer man.
Speaker 1:But yeah, so just kind of like talk about. You know the rest of the rest of you, know the what's going on, what's what's your.
Speaker 2:What's your?
Speaker 1:vision. What's your? Where do you want to take this thing?
Speaker 2:And, like I said, I I don't. I'm not like on a schedule, I don't post for like anyone in particular. I post kind of what I want, when I want, and cool like teams dropping new uniforms. I'm cranking out custom helmets as often as I can, just like cool stuff like this, because I mean it gets a lot of views and it's just something I really enjoy doing. Did you make this? I didn't. No, that's what they actually wear, man.
Speaker 1:Their Texans wear this. I don't remember ever seeing that.
Speaker 2:The Battle Red. That's probably my favorite alternate helmet in the league. If this was Wait, go back, go back. If this was white right here, yeah, oh, that kind of looked more.
Speaker 1:That kind of looked Viking-ish.
Speaker 2:It does, it does. It's just like an alternate. They wore once, I think, but uh, cover stuff like that I'm such a nerd about like helmet, or helmets and football uniforms and stuff and it's such like a weirdly specific thing to be into.
Speaker 3:I just, it's just my thing now here's my favorite logo right here oh yeah, bucko, bucko, bruce bro. Yes, sir, that is, that is that, is it?
Speaker 2:I was I was thinking about before I did this. I was considering going with that logo on this helmet, just like changing the colors, doing like red, white and black, and so very creamsicle, yeah, but not a huge fan of the creamsicle yeah, they're awesome, like once a year yeah, once every now and then people talk about.
Speaker 3:I'll bring them back make best.
Speaker 2:People talk about bringing back full-time, get we were always 16 dog people will get sick of it once you make it the permanent again and they'll start asking for the red ones. Like oh, let's see the red again.
Speaker 1:Bring the red back. People's attention spans are nuts.
Speaker 2:I think the Bucs' current uniform like. Overall, I think it's probably top five in the league and that's one of the best alternates.
Speaker 1:I think you just keep it that way.
Speaker 2:Oh there, your guardian tcu. This is on your profile right now. Yeah, so I I collab with them. When I tcu post something, they invite. If it's just like a helmet post, they'll invite me as a collaborator. So click on like the four others. So when tcu posts it, it'll show up on these accounts, because it's on tcu's equipment page, it's on rivals and it's on my page too. So, like, if it's not content, I'm putting out myself, I'm reaching out to all these teams.
Speaker 1:How'd you, how'd you do that?
Speaker 2:I've just I've been reaching out to him because collabing is just, it's a big kind of new feature people are collabing left and right and I've just started messaging teams. I'm like, if you want to get more eyeballs on your like uniform content, I'd be more than glad to accept like a collab invite.
Speaker 1:I just I've been doing it with uh well, get ready to accept one from Sport and Sleep.
Speaker 2:Absolutely man. Last football season probably at least a dozen different schools. I collabed with that was TCU.
Speaker 1:That's sick.
Speaker 2:That's their alternate man, the Frogskin.
Speaker 1:TCU is a. Have you been there?
Speaker 2:Too Cold University, I haven't.
Speaker 3:Isn't it, texas? Christian?
Speaker 2:So, the first kid, iver train played there.
Speaker 1:I've been a TCU fan forever man, so did you design that I didn't.
Speaker 2:No, they just want more eyeballs on their stuff, and I post stuff like that on my page anyways, and so they take note of that, or I've reached out to them in the past. I'd be like yo I'd be more than glad to highlight some of your stuff that yo I'd be more than glad to highlight some of your stuff.
Speaker 1:But I mean, that's a sick helmet. If you want to collab with me, that is ridiculous.
Speaker 2:It really is. It was helmet of the year, I believe.
Speaker 1:Sean. So I posted something just sitting here earlier. When we first started you were on the helmet and I posted it, tagged him and I've already had like 60 freaking kids High school kids are like holy shit. Where's that at? That helmet is sick.
Speaker 2:So sick? Send them my way, man, I'll take all the local followers I can get. Man I love, like I said, I coached at Riverview in 2023, and I built like a. It's just like I'd never coached before. But like that group of kids who always know me as coach, like they DM me and talk about coach, it's just like just being part of the community I've always been here but like just doing something with the kids, man just makes you feel good obviously you know what that's like.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's very rewarding but how do you, how is there a way to monetize? So yeah kind of like what you want to do yeah, it's I get.
Speaker 2:You can get money from views and stuff. It's not enough to like support what I'm doing obviously if I if I dropped my day job and I went 50 hours a week creating and posting content, I could probably live off it. I'm just not in a position where I can make that kind of sacrifice right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a ton of work because juice was telling us when he was sitting right there, what do you say he put?
Speaker 3:six to seven times a day, yeah that's not not, not just monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, every single fucking day, and he's growing like crazy yeah, he's got half a mil.
Speaker 2:He's blowing up like he he probably had less than a hundred thousand when me and him started linking and dude, he's just. I could not be happy for that. Dude, he's just one of the most like genuine just grind until you make it just most determined people like I know.
Speaker 1:He's just like inspiring but to your point, like what you were just saying, though, like that it to post, yeah, six to eight times a day it's.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of editing it and, bro, that's a full-time editing, editing is exhausting, man.
Speaker 2:I've I've probably got 15 minutes of video putting that helmet together and it cut it down to like two or three to post and it takes at least half an hour yeah, to edit to edit it how I want it, and it's just yeah, tell Steven that, let him know. You just throw him up or you spend forever editing.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, he's talking about like with this podcast thing. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, you're going to be on this for a while.
Speaker 1:Part of our agreement was all you got to do is bring the guests to show up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, humbling to know how much work it actually. Sean don't think, and I want to give a shout out to sean for break because, I'll be honest, none of this shit's happening without him, like literally nothing.
Speaker 1:None of this.
Speaker 2:Well, without either of us, specifically you, yeah, yeah, I mean I, I don't have this type of equipment and no, no, no, this is, I don't have that 1440 sat, electrical engineering degree or civil engineering same shit, same thing.
Speaker 3:You know, it is literally kind of the same shit.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I'm just. I'm just curious, like, is there, is there a way to make?
Speaker 2:like, like I said, I the custom ones that I can sell, that I don't have team logos on them. I can make a lot.
Speaker 1:Their helmets themselves are expensive, so like so if we were to ask you to build a helmet to where we could have this sitting right where these things are.
Speaker 3:But make it look better than that, yeah.
Speaker 2:Like the cost of parts and everything. I obviously wouldn't use one of these two models. They're $1,000 each, but like they have several hundred dollar models, just the cost of parts, I could put something together.
Speaker 1:But I'm saying I'm not saying for me specifically, I'm saying for if you go to a local business, yeah, like mac, for sell staff, yeah, okay, I'm sure he would love a football helmet, he's a football guy yeah what? What is like the? What could you pay? What could you charge somebody for something like? That you put his logo on there with whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah it would honestly depend on his budget because, but like the cost of parts range, so like drastically, like I mentioned youth helmets earlier, they look the exact same on the outside for the most part. So if I'm making customs to sell, that's the route I normally go. I'll tell people like it'll fit you the same if you get a large. It's just different padding because the kids that are supposed to be wearing them aren't getting wrapped.
Speaker 2:It's not going to be used, so no padding a prop, so I would do so, like the most cost-effective parts still look decent. I could get a custom With a visor.
Speaker 3:With a visor.
Speaker 1:Gotta have a visor.
Speaker 2:I would say between $350 and $500 for low end.
Speaker 3:That's fair. That's not bad at all. Yeah for part high end.
Speaker 2:Dude, I could make like a priceless helmet if I had to. I could chrome one out in 24 karat gold and get it, and it'd be a $10,000 helmet, and obviously I've never sold anything like that, but it's just Not yet.
Speaker 1:Not, yet you get what you pay for with stuff like this man. Let's see where this thing ends up going shit, we'll start with the $300 one.
Speaker 3:I'm saying I feel like helmet, right there on that table.
Speaker 1:I 100% agree.
Speaker 2:Literally email me your logos. I'll make something I'll be as cost-effective as possible.
Speaker 3:Can you improve the logo?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah I don't know about improve it. I'm not like a graphics guy.
Speaker 3:Just the helmet, though. Yeah, just the helmet, not the logo entirety, just the helmet. Yeah, I mean, it's just a dollar sign, right, so I'm sure you got something up your sleeve.
Speaker 1:Or do you think putting that whole?
Speaker 2:For visibility on the side of your helmet, I would put this yeah, I'd do the dollar sign on the front bumper or something I think or maybe like. This is a creative mind, the center stripe, just with dollar signs down the stripe, something like that. That's just.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's set it.
Speaker 3:Literally, my brain just starts spinning, start spinning when you're talking about helmet stuff, man, and you could probably set a concept yeah for sure, yeah For sure.
Speaker 1:And then I could improve the concept a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, like I'm not, you already have his email, then, right For sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got his email.
Speaker 2:Yeah, shit, send him the Actually we're going to have to link upcharge for the helmet Do you upcharge for? Obviously you gotta charge for it. You gotta make money Just kind of like slightly, cause, like when you make like an expensive helmet, obviously people are gonna be turned away Like the higher the price gets. So I just I try and just not charge much more than the cost of parts, just so I can like like have people come back. Does that make sense, like, but how?
Speaker 1:many, how many people are ordering multiple helmets for something like as a prop? You know I'm saying not not too many, but like so that's what I'm saying, I guess, for like a prop. I'm just thinking like in the business sense, like if you have a prop helmet, not one that's going to be ever used in a game.
Speaker 3:I mean, why not just try I?
Speaker 2:would charge the shit out of them. Yeah, they just. They don't sell like prop helmets, though, like just plain props. If I was gonna do just the shell, I'd still have to buy a helmet and just rip the pads out myself, so like it's.
Speaker 3:We can even have you like put your own name on the helmet itself for a little bit of a discount too. Yeah, you know that way you're advertised, yeah, no and that's we've talked about that.
Speaker 2:yeah, I used to like watermark my helmets and stuff when this was my logo, like when, when I use that a lot, I got away from it just because, like I was, people were under the impression I'm running a business and I'm I really not really, though, I'm just like I'm a personal brand. I don't have, like I don't keep anything in stock. I don't have like a website where you can add things to your cart and buy them. I'm just like I just customize helmets almost to order.
Speaker 1:Preston, I'm telling you, man, the amount of response I just got from that post. I'm telling you, I'm sure your shit's blowing up all the time.
Speaker 2:It really would be. If I wasn't scared to sell helmets with NFL logos on them anymore kind of like I used to in the beginning I could be rolling in it, to be honest.
Speaker 3:But I mean, you don't have to sell helmets with NFL logos on it. No, I don't you can sell to Little League teams. You can sell to yeah, that's who I do sell to, that's when I do sell helmets.
Speaker 2:I just I'm talking stuff like this I can't really sell anymore, but the ones I do sell I just try not to overcharge because first people could Google what the cost parts are anyway. So I don't want to seem like I'm scamming anybody.
Speaker 3:First of all, there is no specific baseline on your time yeah, that's because that is what it is. It is your time, that you're selling, like you said, the people and the the haters are like yeah oh, cool concept, terrible execution okay, well I'm bad.
Speaker 1:You know what if you don't like my price? Yeah, do it, and I tell people that all the time I posted something the other day from my spin it account. I like guys, there's other options for quarterback training, that's. I'm not. I'm not fucking giving discounts.
Speaker 2:I'm done with those yeah, that's exactly you guys are taking advantage man.
Speaker 1:I got some guy that's this family's paying this the the normal price. Now you're charging, or I'm charging you half that, like I'm not doing that anymore that's not fair to these guys.
Speaker 2:That's exactly like I've encountered this situation don't undervalue hundreds of times, yeah, I yeah, I struggle with like gauging like a nice gauging my own value and not wanting to like piss off piss people off or damage my reputation or come across as a scammer because I like I, I think I'm a genuine person I try not to screw anybody over.
Speaker 2:Like constantly, I just, I, I have morals and like if I screw people over I would feel bad about it. So like I just, but you're not screwing anybody no, I know, I know, but I don't want people to get the impression that I'm and like I'm trying to do that.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. So I just I, I price everything kind of reasonably, just where I can make enough to make it like worth my time and kind of fund the next project without I don't know I because I have another job. So I'm not like this, isn't?
Speaker 2:like if I if I don't make this like, if I don't sell this helmet for a certain amount, like I'm not going to eat this week I have a nine to five and I just I sell these when I can like on the side, but would you rather get rid of your nine to five and do this full time?
Speaker 1:absolutely yeah then you kind of got yeah, do it. No, I know.
Speaker 2:But we hinted at that earlier. To make the living off this that I want to. It's more hours that I'm already working and I would have to quit my other job. I'm not in the position where.
Speaker 1:I'm Especially with a kid on the way Because I don't have the cameras like this.
Speaker 2:The content, all my content, comes off my iPhone and I got on Amazon, so I mean, at the end of the day, man, all right.
Speaker 3:So Fabray Frameworks Studios. Fabray Frameworks is a real estate photography company. I went, me and my brother started the company. We went from charging $100 for one shoot to $275 per house, yeah, and then it ranges based on, you know, size, square footage. Yeah, but you eventually have to raise your prices. That's just just at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:That is how places work, I agree. No, the same deal with helmets. Helmets aren't getting cheaper either.
Speaker 2:But don't undervalue what your time is worth man, and if somebody it's not only his time, though, it's his fucking like creative genius, this really is my thing, but also Because if everybody, could do it, they would do it and not a lot of people are yeah, no, I, I hear all that and I've had all these same thoughts before, but also it's like it's just me doing it so like dming people that it just gets it gets to be too much. When people are asking about, like inquiring about helmets, do they just have way too many questions. I have to like streamline the process if I actually want to sell them like yeah, at like a mass or anything to make a living off of it, because by the way, that takes a long time, I'll assume I'll go back and forth to something for 24 hours on what they want to be exactly then, then it just kind of goes away yeah, and I can't do that with everyone other people.
Speaker 3:I have. They'll be like you need AI other people I have like yo.
Speaker 2:Here's my budget like. Ai. I have people to tell me here's their budget. Go crazy, and then that's the best people to work for.
Speaker 1:That's honestly probably the way to do it, because that's what I've kind of done with the spin it stuff. It's like I've had these people hey, I want to get my son, how do I get my son to work out with you, what's it? And I'm telling the price, telling what we're doing, everything else, okay, well, what about this? Like it's quarterback training man. It's not fucking rocket science, you know.
Speaker 3:AI can answer all that. There are AI chatbots that will, literally, just when you sign up, it will ask you a million questions. You answer them all and then AI will use your answers and then formulate a bot that, anytime somebody goes onto your website or whatever it is, will answer in the manner that you may answer yeah, you should be using that.
Speaker 2:that's.
Speaker 3:that's definitely like a somebody or you can hire a person, but it's all.
Speaker 2:It's also like, like in my head, like my I'm not sure exactly what my dream job is. I just over the years I've just been posting like content that I love in the hopes that like somebody or some organization like see what I'm capable of and they can like they can pay me off for what I'm able to do. I'm not sure that my dream job exists Like currently. I just need to be like, I'm just trying to get in the position where that can like-.
Speaker 1:You got a hundred and something thousand people that love what you're doing Exactly Well half a mil.
Speaker 3:And I have teams comment on my stuff all the time a mil and I have.
Speaker 1:I have teams comments all the time.
Speaker 3:I have the nfl teams will come in your biggest, your biggest platform yeah four hundred thousand holy shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I'm shadow banned on there right now. My last few videos aren't getting any views, but that's my biggest platform by far holy shit.
Speaker 1:I don't, I rarely use, I don't, I don't use it, I don't scroll through tiktok ever, I just right. Why would you be shadow banned? What'd you do?
Speaker 2:I don't know, I just I have 400, I have like 400 000 followers and I'll post a video and it'll get like 900 views. Yeah, I'm like where are the other 390?
Speaker 3:000. Why are they not being shown? So what it is is kind of like it goes back to what jews was saying. He was like okay, I post six to seven times a day.
Speaker 2:So it wants to be fed. It wants to be fed. If you take one week off, they're going to be like well you haven't been feeding me for a while, so I'm not going to let you eat Exactly that.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what it is. That's just so much freaking time and energy.
Speaker 2:It really is man and it's enjoyable. I really love what I do. It's just such like a I've said it a couple of times but it's like a weirdly specific thing to get into, but I enjoy the hell out of it. I love customizing helmets. I love building relationships with like equipment, staffs and stuff. I love brainstorming new ideas. I love just seeing cool uniforms, man.
Speaker 1:As soon as this thing is over, we're going to brainstorm an idea for this deal. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:If you have time, easy have one more cold beer and get the creative juices flowing. Let's do it, let's do it.
Speaker 1:But dude, I'll be honest man, this was freaking awesome. I appreciate you bro.
Speaker 2:No. I appreciate you man, holy shit, this was awesome. Yeah, I'm glad you were able to come down area in between valrico plant city kind of.
Speaker 1:So that's, how long did it take you to get here?
Speaker 2:with traffic like 40, 45? Yeah, that's not, that's not crazy no man, I'll make this trip whenever you want to have me yeah, dude this, honestly, this is awesome.
Speaker 1:And seeing like this and seeing like even the kids reaction from what I posted, it's like you're on to something dude, obviously you're on a lot of shit, man. Thank you, and we're gonna we're hire I'm going to hire you to make this thing happen.
Speaker 3:Half a million people think you're onto something. If that many people think you're onto something. I think about that all the time and it makes me feel good.
Speaker 2:I'm just I'm not sure if I'm grinding for myself or I'm waiting for someone else to see it and they can pay me off, that's called imposter syndrome. I just don't know exactly where I'm going with it. I just don't have any plans to stop. It's just.
Speaker 1:Don't stop.
Speaker 2:I love what I do and I'm just going to keep. Well, you're good at it, you're good at it. I'm going to see what happens, you're good at it.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's clear as day, but all I know is that I want to be invited to the beers. Bring the beers. Let me come shag some balls for you. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:All I ever had was hands. I know I played D-line but, dude, I'm about as fast as a three-legged camel. I have no upper body strength, but I'll catch anything you throw in my zip code.
Speaker 3:Well, remember, he could barely throw the ball at his gender reveal yeah, but a real football though, yeah, a real football You're talking about real sessions.
Speaker 1:He saw me throw a football. I scared the shit out of me the roach blood man.
Speaker 2:He came out and he's like I was like throw it at my camera and he had.
Speaker 3:you had your boy.
Speaker 1:Caleb.
Speaker 3:Caleb, yeah, catching the ball, and I was just holding the stick standing right there, he's like 30 yards away. And I was like yeah, bro, just throw it at me.
Speaker 1:Thank God he caught it, man, because I swear to God, hey, pull it up on the Instagram. I know it's on mine.
Speaker 3:Oh, actually yeah yeah we can do that. You're still ripping man. It's on spinning right. I'd love to see it.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, Dude literally, I'll bring a cameraman, I'll bring some helmets, I'll just come get some work with y'all, literally, yeah, further down I think it's this one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, oh, you got it, you got it that going to take your head off.
Speaker 2:It was one. Take that right there. That's how pitch was. That was on rope man. That ball was coming in like this Dude.
Speaker 3:I was fucking, I was shocked. I was shocked, that's a lens cracker.
Speaker 2:I was like what the?
Speaker 3:fuck, just happened, dude, if it goes through, that's breaking flinched, but uh caleb caleb had already caught the ball. I'm like what the fuck, dude? This is how it works you know, it's man well I mean, I played soccer right, so I mean you had to deal with soccer balls, not a fucking spiral going 90 miles an hour or however fast it is oh yeah, I think it was.
Speaker 1:I think it was buzzing yeah, yeah but those are the passes you can hear coming in.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. Well, this is the part I'm I'm fucking.
Speaker 3:I never really played football other than like flag or whatever or two-hand touch in the streets. I never had a real quarterback throw to me yeah, and I'm like bro, just do it so I'm holding the camera like this and the fucking camera's right here. I'm not expecting him to actually hit the mark.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you, a real quarterback is something special man.
Speaker 1:It's like riding a bike. Not too many of them Is this thing still recording.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're still recording. You know what you should have played in the NFL, man. Fuck off, drives me crazy, alright folks.
Speaker 1:Well, that was a hell of an episode. Preston again, man.
Speaker 2:Appreciate you.
Speaker 1:We're going to go over this, uh, this little deal real quick. Let's do it. Like, comment, subscribe, share, turn your notifications on sporting suits. We've got press and battle here. Hopefully we got a little.
Speaker 2:PBJ on the on the way we're going to find out in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 1:Well, get ready to lock and load and watch this shit and, uh, we'll see you next time. Awesome Cheers. Thank you, guys. We got Nectar, nootropics All right. It's got cognoscent in it. It's got caffeine 50 milligrams of caffeine. I'm going to go ahead and rip one right now. This is the Atomic Apple flavor Absolutely delicious. I'll tell you what man. I'm not a big coffee guy, never have, never will be, but these damn things, 50 milligrams of caffeine. Jumpstart your day, zap your brain a little bit. They got jalapeno, lime, black cherry, spearmint, sweet mango and fresh mint, and let me just tell you the mint will light your ass on fire. It's a whole different kind of buzz, so to speak.
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