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
Lex Capitano: From Football Grind to Real Estate Hustle
What happens when the Friday night lights dim for good? Lex Capitano takes us on a compelling journey from football fields to boardrooms in this deeply personal conversation about identity, purpose, and reinvention.
Growing up with a helmet strapped on from first grade, Lex's life revolved around the gridiron—from youth leagues to starring at Jesuit High School to catching passes at Furman University. But when injury and graduation forced him to hang up his cleats, he faced the question that haunts many athletes: Who am I without my sport?
Lex candidly shares how he transformed the competitive drive and discipline forged through football into success in commercial real estate development with his family's business. His story reveals the universal struggle of rebuilding identity when the foundation you've stood on suddenly disappears.
Beyond his professional transition, Lex's creation of "National Meat Day" showcases how athletic passion can evolve into community impact. What began as a backyard cookout has grown into a major charity event raising over $120,000 for St. Joseph's Catholic School in Tampa, proving that the leadership skills developed in sports can create lasting change off the field.
We also dive into provocative territory surrounding NIL deals and the transfer portal, examining how money is fundamentally changing the culture of college athletics. Lex offers rare insights from both player and business perspectives on this controversial transformation of amateur sports.
Whether you're an athlete contemplating life after competition, a business professional looking to apply team dynamics to corporate culture, or simply someone navigating major life transitions, Lex's journey demonstrates that our greatest challenges often reveal our most authentic paths forward.
Ready to be inspired by how one athlete turned the end of his playing days into the beginning of his greatest impact? Listen now and discover how to carry your competitive edge into every arena of life.
All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Sports and Suits.
Speaker 2:Keep it closer to you.
Speaker 1:Not up. Mine goes here. Yeah, okay, right here. Yeah, close to your body. You want me to restart that whole deal?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Sports and Suits. We got old buddy here, Lex Capitano yes, sir, that's right of the Capitano crime family. Just kidding, Just kidding, Frank, you know we love you man. But yeah, man, go ahead and introduce yourself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, appreciate you having me on, stephen and brought a little gift. You got it on there. National Meat Day shirt, a little charity event I do, but we've known each other forever. I played football. I'm born and raised here in tampa, played football at jesuit um ran tractor as well, went on to play at firman university and recently, uh, hung up the cleats, put them, hung them in the rafters and now just working commercial real estate development here yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1:So you're working with your dad's like deal yeah, working with um uh lion partners development.
Speaker 3:It's our family offices development firm. So, like my boss, actually funny enough, he left his former group. He did. He developed a chick-fil-a right there no shit, yeah.
Speaker 1:so stuff like that, stuff we're doing nice, nice. Yeah, man, like he said, I've known him for years. My old agent is his mom's brother. So I mean just, uncle Peter, yeah, it's just, it's a crazy deal. You know, ever since I started training quarterbacks, you know Pete was like, yeah, you know, my, my nephew, you know plays receiver and you know is going to Jesuit and this and that. And I was like, well, shit, bring him on out. Yeah, covid, that's right.
Speaker 3:COVID was a start. Yeah, I don't care what anybody says, covid in Tampa was the best time to be alive, no doubt about it it was the best time to be alive.
Speaker 1:It was the busiest I ever was or have been.
Speaker 3:I mean, we threw every day, Sunday to Sunday probably.
Speaker 1:And then there's nothing else to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I would throw and then go home and I'd go fish or I would just do anything else.
Speaker 1:I mean you were just talking about it off camera, Like you would come throw with my group and then you would go and throw with a run and catch for yeah.
Speaker 3:So we'd throw with our old group that we had all the Tampa guys. And then, once we got out of that little like major quarantine break, I was, fortunate enough, my trainer, dylan Smith, at Suka. A bunch of NFL guys go over there, so I got to go throw with Blaine Gabbert, ryan Griffin, scotty Miller is a huge help, like with route running no, scotty. Yeah, cam Brate. So I got to go and learn from those guys and it was just incredible.
Speaker 1:I mean that is a hell of an opportunity.
Speaker 3:Best shape I've ever been in in life. How they throw. It's like so the quarterbacks. It's like so the quarterbacks. It's like we're doing 50 throws today and that's it. Oh, they have like a pitch count kind of thing. It's like a pitch count. That's funny, man.
Speaker 1:Route God. He actually asked me. Yesterday we were at Deontay's house. He's like do quarterbacks have like a pitch count? I said I don't know what the hell that even means, dude.
Speaker 3:So they would go pitch count. So the first time I went out was with Bray, ryan Griffin and I got dogged because they were going fast and Ryan's like we're going to run, it's going to be 30 throws, so 15 routes each, and he would just name the route and you would have to do it.
Speaker 3:And it was like you go down like you're going in, run the route, do the burst, all that good stuff we all know, and then you turn around as you're going out and like just rapid fire. And it was just rapid fire and I got dogged the first time but then the second time it was fine. The second time I was in shape after that I'll tell you what man.
Speaker 1:Those pro guys move at a completely different pace than what we're used to.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean, we were dealing with I mean we're all in high school, but then we were transitioning, like our group. We were transitioning to college, so we were still figuring it out Like, but then we started going out when we come back on breaks, it was. It was a different ball game 100%. I still. I think I still have some fingers broken from Charlie, just probably. Yeah, probably Ridiculous.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I mean, I wish I still had that mask that you guys for your.
Speaker 2:The FU mask. Yeah, the FU mask on. I don't know where mine went. I got some pictures of that.
Speaker 1:I want to ask you while I'm thinking about it Does Blaine or Ben, or who is it? Brett? Brett, his little brother, yeah, do they throw better than I do.
Speaker 3:You and Blaine and my mind are the same person. You and Blaine, we get along well, I think, just how y'all are, yeah, but I mean, I've been there plenty of times with you, 80 yards away, and you still just put it right here on my face. I sent you that video we love incompletions. We love incompletions. That's so unbelievable.
Speaker 1:Unbelievable. But yeah, man, that is a pretty wild story. So yeah, just kind of tell people about you. Know your time? Did you play other sports? I mean, you said you ran track of jesuit I mean growing up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just kind of go from like the early stages, kind of what we would normally do is like yeah, kind of go through like your childhood, growing up playing sports so I started playing flag I think I was four, like to be four or five years old YMCA, and then I first strapped on a helmet in first grade, which is that's young as shit. Young as shit, yeah. Now I think some parents would probably get crucified for doing that. Oh, absolutely, I know. I mean my mom is a football junkie, that's why I love it so much, and my Uncle Peter as well, obviously, and I mean I grew up going to Bucs games with them. Siege.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Siege.
Speaker 3:I saw the very first Bucs kickoff return. I was four years old and it's just memories of how much I loved football. I still do so. I mean I strapped the helmet on first grade, um, so seven years old, I always played up, always played up, um, probably why I'm a little fucked up, a little bit maybe, but um, yeah. So.
Speaker 3:And then growing up, I mean just other sports when football season transitioned out, it was just like we're gonna throw you into swimming because we need something to do. I go to swim practice. Right after swim practice, I would go right into basketball. So there was always football, swimming, basketball. But then I think, once you get to a certain age, it's like swimming's a little stupid, right, so I quit swimming and it was just football and basketball. Then I realized, uh, sicilian, I think all italians suck at basketball, so I'm not doing basketball anymore and I stuck with soccer too. I always played soccer, so it was football and soccer mainly, yeah. And then I hit seventh grade and became strictly football, and I think that's when the love of the game really started to hit me, because I transitioned out of YMCA League, which was pretty funny.
Speaker 3:I did meet Antonio Williamson, coach Antonio, at TNT Sports Tampa. Yep, I mean he talk about route guide. He showed route guide, a lot of stuff. Yeah, I have a lot of memories of being in the old facility and Juice would come in and it would be like, no, this is what I do with my footwork. We all do drills together. So I was with Antonio, since I mean he ran the Y. So I was with Antonio since I mean he ran the.
Speaker 1:Y, so I was with him forever.
Speaker 3:The South Tampa Y right, yeah he was with South Tampa Y and so I was with him forever and he left and he was like, all right, let's go. The Seahawks and the Raiders just merged, greatest South Tampa 49ers, yep, for TBYFL. So I was like, all right, I'll go play TBYFL. I know Frank kind of freaked out a little bit because it's a big upgrade. I was always a little-ass kid and I mean I was one of three white kids on the team so that was just, I loved it because I loved football and all the kids just loved football. Right, that's what it was. Yeah, and I mean I still have great friends from the teams. Eighth grade.
Speaker 1:I played that eighth grade and then just transitioned to jesuit and that jesuit, I ran track, yeah I know I went a little rant there, but no, that's how it works, but that's how it is, man. Yeah, that's how it is, that's. I think every person I've ever asked that you know at least played in college, has played or grew up playing another sport. Yeah, 100 you have to. If you just and that's what I'm trying to tell these parents now of kids that I'm training they're like we're training football all year round, all football, all football, all quarterback, especially just quarterback, I'm like I'll take your money, I don't have a problem with that, but Jesus, let him go fish, let him go dirt bike, let him do something.
Speaker 3:So to that point, another connection between us, coach bradden. Yeah, brian bradden, brian bradden um he was always big in the receiver room at firman first two years. He's like everything's basketball at the line of scrimmage for rear releases. He's like basketball transitions. So much to football and then. So I've been helping out this one kid with footwork stuff and I just told his dad last week I was like you got got to get Andrew training in basketball and other sports next year because like you'll just get burnt out in football.
Speaker 1:That's the main thing, is you'll just get burnt out and I'm like, and then there's so much that translates at receiver to basketball playing basketball.
Speaker 1:I mean really not even just receiver, it's almost every. It's an athletic sport. You know Football you have to be an athlete, especially at the receiver position. But I remember in high school at Jefferson, I played football and basketball. Only white starter on the basketball team as a freshman. Yeah, good fucking hoop back in the day, uh. But I mean I remember like during the football season, like God, I can't fucking wait for basketball season, like this football shit is, it's a grind football is year-round people don't want to admit it's year-round 100, year-round 100 um.
Speaker 1:And I missed. I missed several football workouts and practices because I was playing basketball, but it is a year-round.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was like that with track. I mean I would miss some lifts and practices with track at jesuit, but I'm like I get there in the summer and I'm like I would be smoking kids and conditioning because of track. And then I love track, like I recommend track too, because a lot of kids are running track now. It's I mean, it's a very big on football. It's 90% mental, 10% physical, and track is a hundred percent mental because you're just competing with yourself, like I knew I wasn't the fastest kid out there, but I was there to do it, to make myself better, better, right, and that's all that matters, in a sense. And then you're also like I love the 4x1 relay because it's just team-oriented. Team-oriented, yeah, team-oriented, because football it's like one guy messes up out of the 11 guys on the play. You're screwed.
Speaker 1:You're not going to score that unless there's a jesus christ is healthy on the play, no doubt but didn't somebody just get whacked with a?
Speaker 3:baton in a four by one, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, yeah, the the girl, that girl was whacked yeah, it's hilarious, like intentionally, like just knock the shit out of her. Do you see that?
Speaker 2:yeah, what they're saying or at least what her parents are saying is she did it by accident, she tripped or some shit.
Speaker 1:I saw the video and it looked like she straight up clobbered her in the back of the head. Yeah, that's not an accident.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a black chick to a white chick. So the media likes to spin that a little bit.
Speaker 1:That's for sure.
Speaker 3:The track stuff, though. I love the coach at Jesuit. Coach G was out there and then Coach JT. He was Arianne Knighton. If y'all know Arianne Knighton, he went to Hillsboro. He's anrianne Knighton. If you all know Arianne Knighton, he went to Hillsborough. He's an Olympic track runner set to break, like some of Usain Bolt's record.
Speaker 1:Oh, the young kid? Yeah, the young kid. Yeah, he played with Charlie. He played with Charlie, yeah, I think for a year. Then he's like I'm an Olympic sprinter.
Speaker 3:Yes, football's not my thing. So coach at Jesuit was his coach, aau coach and everything, and he'd come out to some of our practices and I'm like this guy is like the work ethic. You go out there and you see the work ethic. You have to have to just run faster. It's like I need to translate this into my summer conditioning and my summer workouts and that's just going to make me a better player. And then I mean I love it at Jesuit because I mean we would just we're all boys and we would push ourselves like crazy, like Junior Van Der Ross, ricky Parks, caleb Williams. Before Jordan Young transferred out, kyle Kelly was there. I mean we had some dudes. Joe Quez was there, both Bulls, like it was. We had dudes. What the hell is his name With the Giants?
Speaker 1:And Dane, yeah, dane.
Speaker 3:Dane ran one year. He was a year ahead of me. I mean, he was one Dane's, one of my best friends, he's in my inner circle, but yeah, I messaged him.
Speaker 1:I'm trying to get him to come on here when he's back in town, but I remember seeing him at a Team Tampa workout yeah, and I was like who the fuck is this kid? Yeah, dane, dane, it was. I think it was like maybe a sophomore year and I was like this, this kid's, this is gonna be good I give a lot, of, a lot of credit to my success today.
Speaker 3:Um, I mean, as we go, do our thing. But then when I came in to high school it was kind of I was just kind of out of the picture with football right south tampa kid, it's like you're not, like you got to find that cutthroat mentality 100, a hundred percent. You have to find it. And Dane opened. I mean, I had that with Antonio, but to take that next step, dane helped me out because he's like you're coming to 7-on-7 practice with me at Proactive and I'm like, all right, screw it, I'll come. I get out there literally the only white kid, like literally the only white kid, literally the only white kid. And the starting defense it was top safety in the league, top safety in ESPN 300. Top 10 linebacker. Dane was out there, so another top 10 safety.
Speaker 1:You want to talk about doing stuff that makes you better. That's what makes you better.
Speaker 3:First play. I line up at slot. I'm a deer in headlights DJ. He plays at USF at slot. I'm a deer in headlights DJ. He plays at USF. Awesome kid Went to Plant City, Just whacked me right in the chest. I fell down. I mean I was 130 pounds soaking wet at the time Just whacked me right in the chest, Fell on the ground. He's like you got to get. He's like you got to start working. I'm like all right, I got it. Talk to Dane and Dane's like keep coming out, Keep coming out. That year, I mean I just we always say roach up, yeah, Put your head down and work. That's what I did. And I was on the B team. Funny enough, me and Mario Williams were on the B team. No shit, Everyone knows Mario, Another good friend and we just worked our ass off, asses off and became the two dudes of our b team. Yeah, and we made the national championship tournament here in img and we were both starters. Yeah, on the a team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I mean that's just how it works. But I'm telling you, man, that's and that's what a lot of these kids don't necessarily know. You got to work your ass off, you can't, and you got to be consistent. You can't just go have a great day, then two shit days in a row 100, really. Great day, shit day, bad day, great day. It's like you can't, you can't do that. You can't do that. It's.
Speaker 3:You got to be consistent and then with that too, it's like how can I add the value right to make that work? Like, okay, I'm being consistent, but they're still like shaking my play. Where can I plug in? And like I know it's seven on seven, but I knew I was not going to start over Larry Hodges, mario, and then like I mean two of my all-time guys. Like I know I wasn't going to start over those two guys. So I'm like we don't have a fucking running back. Right, I'm playing running back. Yeah, I told the coach. I'm like seven on seven swing routes, seams up the middle rails.
Speaker 2:Angles, yeah everything.
Speaker 3:And he was like all right, you got it. So I started the first game. I remember I scored the touchdown OT to advance. Yeah. So he's like all right, you're the running back for the entire tournament. Yeah. So I was like all right, who was your quarterback for y'all? I couldn't even tell you it was a late Gibson kid. I forgot his name.
Speaker 1:With the curly hair.
Speaker 3:No, not him, not him, I can't. Our team was based in Plant City, so it was awesome because we would pull all the Hillsboro and Polk kids. It wasn't McKenzie, was it? No, mckenzie was the quarterback for the B team. Mckinney's, the best.
Speaker 1:McKinney's out of his mind. He is out of his mind.
Speaker 3:That's how we got close Because we would train and McKinney and I would hightail it and go to our seven-on-seven practices.
Speaker 1:That's so funny. He is an absolute character, he's the best man. That is wild, though, but it's a seven-on-seven, I think, and people ask me all the time, like you, all time, like you know, what do you think about seven on seven? I said I think for receivers, yeah, I think it's beneficial for the quarterbacks. I think it's it's a complete waste of time. Yeah, yeah, it's fun and yeah, you're gonna meet guys and, you know, become friends, you get to travel around a little bit, but for the most part, for your developmental skills, it's complete steps backwards.
Speaker 3:I think, yeah, I agree, because I think with receivers it's all about timing.
Speaker 1:So I think, like but it's so much different now I don't know if you follow much 7-on-7.
Speaker 3:Not anymore. I see like the videos, not anymore.
Speaker 1:These kids are wearing like pajamas, pants and like ski masks.
Speaker 3:It wasn't like that when I was doing it. It was when Adidas started it. Yeah, and it was. I mean you go out there and Cam Newton's walking around. I played George Pickens. Yeah, I remember George Pickens just being an absolute freak at the IMG tournament.
Speaker 1:He's pretty good. Yeah, he's been running routes with us over at Deontay's house.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's, I mean he was one of the most athletic guys I've seen. And then, like, it just taught me, like, timing of the route Because, like, like then it was, you had the ball on the stool. As soon as that ball came off the stool, you had three seconds and that's.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it was three I think it's like four yeah, it's something, something, yeah, but but three or four seconds is a fucking eternity, yeah, and normal football, normal football.
Speaker 3:but as a receiver, it taught you like you go out there and that was the time when all the footwork stuff was going on, yeah. So everyone wanted to like look pretty. And you learn, like if you do that and you're out, you're not getting the ball one, your timing's off with the quarterback, he's going to get pissed off, Then you're going to get pulled and then you're going to get benched. So it taught you to really like learn how to run around.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so like obviously, and it's really like it's four on seven. Yeah so it looked like as a receiver to it taught you how to read a defense. Yeah, but yeah to your point with the quarterbacks, I'd agree. Yeah, I'd agree.
Speaker 1:No, and it's changed drastically. And I was with Team Tampa with Charlie and, yeah, Butash, oh yeah, I remember that those guys I mean it was Coach Grady had those guys, I mean it was a well-oiled machine T in Tampa, yeah. And then I'll never forget we had a tournament up in Tallahassee and we're playing against the Miami Immortals, I think it was. Yeah, I remember that team now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, Fast Force Something something, something.
Speaker 1:yeah, we're beating their Next thing. You know, the guy pulls a freaking gun up and just blasts a few shots.
Speaker 3:I've never seen people scatter like that. It's not like that anymore. I think, Not that I know of.
Speaker 1:I don't know. After that moment I said I will never, ever go somewhere without a little pocket rocket.
Speaker 3:I ain't getting got. We had a tournament in Cocoa Beach and we had Gant on our team. He's at Boulder, his little, and we had Gant on our team. He's at Boulder. His little brother too was on our team. I think he's at Tennessee State now and I remember first play of the game, Gant caught a pick six on these guys, yeah. And then the next like then the turnover, the next drive for them, we finally get the ball. Larry scores like the second play. So before you know it, it we're up 28-0 or whatever it is.
Speaker 3:and these coco the tournaments in coco beach and the team we're playing was hosting the tournament and they got pissed and it was like within two seconds I'm sitting there like lining up for the play and like it's just mayhem like we're right yeah like a brawl was about to break out and I just remember it's like refs, like game's over proactive wins, and we're in the van out of there, jesus, and then come back the next day and we win the whole thing, but like yeah, I mean, people take that seven-on-seven shit very serious.
Speaker 1:Which is stupid to me, because like obviously. Now they're paying like the winners. From what I see on social media, I don't even pay attention to it. It's like $450 entry fee. Winner takes 51%. Yeah, second place gets their money, but whatever the case, may be To me that's just a scam at that point.
Speaker 2:Of course yeah.
Speaker 3:When I was doing it it was like the birthing of it, so it was serious and people did get offers from it 100%.
Speaker 1:I remember seeing what the hell's his name Mark Rick. I remember him coming to some of those tournaments.
Speaker 3:I just don't see that anymore from the little I see. But then I mean, once you mature a little bit, like you get past your sophomore year, you really realize, like it ain't translating to 11-on-11. 100%, so like I'm going to go out there and make myself better, but then, like when it comes to the 11-on-11 training, it's full-on balls to the wall.
Speaker 1:But I mean, should you see some of these 7-on-7 kids and they're like, yeah, I can't work out or I can't go to my high school team's function. I got a 7-on-7 term. I'm like, dude, what? No, it's all about the team.
Speaker 3:Everything's about the team Go to 11-on-11. Go to your high school shit not your seven on seven, bullshit 100 because you're, you're, you're making your bread with your high school, you're not making it with seven on seven 100 and it's.
Speaker 3:That's the other, just the ego play, because now you get paid nil in high school and, like I said, I haven't paid too much about it anymore. I'm such an nfl junkie. And then just college as well. Yeah, we were chatting about it before you walked in, yeah, but yeah, I just think, like from what I see with like young kids now and now I've transitioned out of it, so like all, like when I was a senior at jesuit, all the freshman kids are now playing in college. But like what I see now is high school kids are so worried about itching for an nil deal in high school. That's all they care about. And then it's like how they look on social media.
Speaker 1:But I'm like lex, it's none of that matters lex, the, the group of kids from like your generation to like the kids that are now. It's fucking night and day, absolute night and day, I think.
Speaker 3:If I came out there with kobe like we used to, yeah, and they saw how kobe and I used to work. I think some of the receivers would be like I thank, I like route guides there. Yeah, see him working.
Speaker 1:He works his ass off. I mean shit he got in. He got in one of the kids ass yesterday. Was that that video? Yeah, I saw that watch.
Speaker 3:That was a good because you know it was a good video.
Speaker 1:I was talking to his dad afterwards and he's like man, thank you so much. Like yeah, well, he needs to hear that constant. You know, it wasn't even like an ash to him, it was kind of like dude, if he tells you to throw the ball and do it on time, do what the fuck he's asking you. You make a bad throw, you fuck it up. And he tells you to go get the ball, go get it, don't put your palms up.
Speaker 3:Best rule hands down. Best rule, by the way, is your rule. If the quarterback makes a bad throw, why is the receiver going to get the ball? I know I'm biased, but it's like it's not on me, it's on you. I don't need to run another 100 yards, I just ran that for you.
Speaker 1:If you drop a ball, that's on you. Yes, but if I throw a shit ball and that's what I have these kids do it's like you make a bad ball. I can tell if it's a shit ball.
Speaker 3:I can tell if it's a shit, route him. I mean. I mean, you know I probably have the worst arm in all of america. I'll make a bad throw to him, like stop right there, I'll go get it. It's like. It's like why you shouldn't be going to get my bad ball.
Speaker 1:Yeah but I mean I'm glad you said that um, also about like these kids that are. They're worried about what they're looking like, what their social media. After we get done working out the first thing, I don't even have time to get into my car the first I'm getting five or six text messages. Hey, hey, send me those videos, send me the videos from there. I said, for fucking what, yeah, you're not posting them? No, I have to. I have to bitch at you guys to to promote yourselves and post like the videos. I gotta tell memphis that. I gotta tell you know you remember eddie mamoudi yeah, yeah, yeah, so he's he's going senior at Blake.
Speaker 1:He's throwing the shit out of the ball. But it's like, dude, you gotta I know it's fucking ridiculous and whatever that you gotta post all this stuff. You gotta sell yourself, man. You guys aren't Will Griffin, you're not a four or five star guy. People don't know who the fuck you are. You gotta post it, tag me and all this shit tag Route God.
Speaker 3:Tag whoever you need to tag and get your name out there. Yeah, I think when I was in high school it was at the right time because Twitter recruiting just started. So I was like, okay, I do need to post these videos, but it's not in the sense of I'm chasing NIL and I'm not posting about myself. It's like I need to see what coaches I can reach.
Speaker 1:Right, and that's the main thing about it. But yeah, we'll take a quick little break. We're going to come back and finish talking about that kind of bullshit. Okay, what is?
Speaker 2:what's the same, Sean Like comment and subscribe to sports and suits on all platforms and make sure you hit that notification button so you can get hit up Every time a new episode is released. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1:We got Nectar Nootropics All right, it's got cognizant 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.
Speaker 1: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 kind of buzz, so to speak. Um, but yeah, then they also got a new little operation they got running here. It's called the Zero, so there's no caffeine at all, but it's got all the flavors that I just mentioned. Like I said, jalapeno, lime, black cherry, spearmint, sweet mango and fresh mint. There are many dry pouches. All the ingredients are listed on their website, they're listed on the can, so you're not getting a bunch of bullshit, and that's the way I like it. Man, I don't want to. I don't want all the chemicals, chemical additives in there and these. This is the real deal. This is the way to do it, guys, if you're, if you just need a little little brain zap for you in the middle of the day and the workday. You're on the computer, you're working out whatever you are doing, throw one in I'm an upper-deck guy throw it in there, get zapped for a little bit and there's no crash, you know, you don't feel drowsy afterwards and, yeah, I'm a firm believer in this thing. Again, this is the Atomic Apple. I'm a huge fan of this flavor. I'm looking forward for them to send me the jalapeno lime.
Speaker 1:So again, folks, you can find them at nectarenergy and when you spell nectar, it's N-E-C-T-R. Dot energy, energy, spelled. You know, the normal way. You can also find them on Amazon, all you know the normal way. Uh, you can also find them on amazon. They're now on amazon, like everybody else, so you can find them on amazon as well. Same name, same spelling, n-e-c-t-r. Again, you can use my discount code, garcia5, and get a nice little discount and, like I said, get your brain zapped, get to work. All right, welcome back folks. Uh, yeah, I think we left off. You know talking about nil. And yeah, the whole difference in society from you know, even when you graduated high school. When'd you graduate? 2020, covid, 2020, jesus christ, yeah, that seems like it was yesterday.
Speaker 3:Yeah, seriously, I mean I graduated covid and I mean nil was ramping up. Yeah, I mean great. I do think there should be some type of payment for college.
Speaker 2:I mean, you get it yeah.
Speaker 3:I think that Manziel and Tebow I mean even with you during y'all's arrows was a great example, because I mean Tebow's jersey was being sold for Florida making I don't know A ton. Say it was $15 million and he gets zero bucks with his last name and number. Say it was $15 million and he gets zero bucks with his last name and number on the back. And then say he makes $15 million. That $15 million is going right to the program that he's making all that money for. It's like you deserve some percentage.
Speaker 1:Something, something. I mean I 100% agree. Yeah, here's what you know. Anyone that ever asks or that has any sort of opinion on it, they always ask you know, what do you think on NIL? I think the transfer portal is the fucking worst of the worst it's so bad, I got stories and I'm sure yeah, I can only imagine yeah.
Speaker 1:But like the NIL itself is a double-edged sword, you know. On one hand, that should be getting paid. The other hand is like why the fuck are we paying this incoming freshman quarterback who has never taken a college nap? We're going to pay him $10 million. I don't get it. I don't get it and I tell people, if I'm the starting quarterback at that university and this kid's getting paid $10 million, I'm getting paid a million or two million, whatever the case may be we're going to have a fucking issue.
Speaker 3:It's going to be a huge issue in the QB room and the whole. Obviously we weren't in the locker room at Texas, but Quinn and Manning yeah, I mean it could have happened. You never know A hundred percent. Yeah, but like the transfer portal assistant coach I had at Furman for all four years, love him to death. I call him like hey, how's it going? He's like like the transfer portal. He's like I don't even want. It's insane. He's like the first call you get when you call a guy. He's like this guy's great. Talk to my agent, when am I gonna get paid right? And then one of my best friends is coaching at JMU now called him and he's saying the same exact thing. It's everywhere. And and then, uh, my roommate from Furman's at Boulder and he's like before I got here it was like I messed up. He's like I didn't ask about NIL, so he was like I didn't get paid as much as I could have. He's like granted, he's like one of us.
Speaker 1:He's like I just want to play football, and that's another thing. I don't think there's guys that are like that. I mean there is, but for the most part, all these guys care about is how much are you going to pay me? That's why I love the FCS.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I mean that's what Saban literally came out and said he's like I'm done coaching, because the question no longer is when I'm at these in-home visits and I'm talking with the parents, like we're going to make sure, university of Alabama, we're going to get him ready to play on Sundays. Do you have any other questions? Nope, nope. He said it went from that to all. Right, coach, how much are you going to pay? How much are you going to pay him Before the Rose Bowl? That was the interview. I saw it. I'm like that's just, that's terrible. It's ruining what it's doing. It's pissing off the people that are actually paying the bills.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got a buddy who's a big-time booster for University of Miami and when Cam Ward decided to check out the second half and they ended up losing to Rocco, he was like fuck this, I'm done. I'm not giving him any more money. Why the fuck am I paying? We're paying this kid. I forgot what it was maybe $10 million, and he's not going to play in the second half in a bowl game. I mean, it might be meaningless to him, but it's like our fans. We graduated from here. We want us to fucking win. We want the?
Speaker 3:U to be back what it used to be. The same thing with NFL, though. You can't just check yourself out. It comes down to the business.
Speaker 1:You can't just do that. It's too much wild wild west right now.
Speaker 3:They gotta put a fucking head on it or a cap or something that lawsuit, or whatever it is, is coming out now I think it's gonna get passed where they have to cap the NIL for what your revenue is per sport.
Speaker 1:It's a revenue share. I think it's like 20 million but, that's just a revenue share, so you can still have a collective or a trust I think it was. Clay travis posted something. He said that university of texas yep a 40 million dollar roster? Yeah, for football. It's like how is that sustainable?
Speaker 3:insane. There's got to be under the table stuff like it always used to be there. Always used to be that yeah I never got shit george, which was fucking bullshit. Georgia McDonald's bags. It was bullshit, man.
Speaker 1:That's a known story, yeah 100%, and that's if it's not broken, don't fix it. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3:But I mean, I think that they released it too fast, like you said, they released it as a Wild, Wild West model and they didn't think about very consistently, methodically and like how can we do this?
Speaker 1:Absolutely man, and I'll tell you what it. It is aged. Some of these college coaches significantly.
Speaker 3:I bet.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I love coach Beamer to death. I remember him when he was an assistant coach, when I was playing. I'll go back to Columbia every now and then. I saw him this past, uh, or two weeks ago, three by. By the time this thing airs it'll be probably a month or so, but anyways, I was up there recently and I saw him and he just looked fucking weathered.
Speaker 3:You gotta get a gm, yeah, you have to yeah, you have to shit.
Speaker 1:We threw it, uh at usf the other day and the gm yeah I guess, knew memphis's um grandfather and was like, oh, yeah, you know I'm so and so I know you're, uh, you're papa wayne and this and that and steven, you know, I remember you and this and that, how's everything going? I was like good. I was like, yeah, what are you doing at usf? Now he's like, oh, I'm the gm. I'm like you have a gm for college football. Now you need it because a head coach shouldn't be negotiating, but that's what it was.
Speaker 1:So we're going at these events in columbia and I was at the very end. It's, you know, kind of a. I mean there's a bigger room than this, but I mean all these old white haired, you know rich motherfuckers. He's got to go in there, shake hands, kiss the ring, yeah, the whole deal. Then he finally gets to me and I'm like coach, how you doing, man, you need shot, is what I did. Um, but he's like, you know, you gotta, you gotta bust your ass to recruit kids out of high school. Then, if they play well, you gotta bust your ass to recruit them to stay. That's your program. Crazy, because guess what they're having.
Speaker 1:The north sellers, just you know, came off a pretty decent year, um, especially the latter part of the season. South korea is paying him 2.7 million dollars. Now it's crazy, said auburn offered him like five or five and a half. So how do you, if I'm, if I'm lenore, so I'm like and that's another part of the double that short, it's like you can only make money this portion of your life in this sport. It is a, it is a blip in the whole, yeah, so why not try to make as much as you can?
Speaker 3:I agree, but to that point as well, though, that might not be the best solution for you, because, Because you can like just athlete A or whatever, you can be balling at UF, but then say LSU comes in and offers you another million bucks, that might not be the best fit for you.
Speaker 1:You go there and you're not playing well anymore, so like you miss out on that and I think you piss off and you scorn that UF fan base. Yeah, which guess? But that's what I'm saying. It's why not make as much money as you possibly can while in college, nfl is not guaranteed? No Shit, these guys are taking pay cuts, leaving college to go to the NFL.
Speaker 3:90% of the kids in college football are probably making like power four are probably making more money than they ever will in four years and they will the rest of their life.
Speaker 1:A hundred percent.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So like I get it a hundred percent, I get it, but at the same time, like if you're a kid that is on the brink and towing the line of making the NFL, you got to do like what is best for you in a football role.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but in a football role. Yeah, but that's another. You know, my brain is working in mysterious ways. It's like so if you're at University of Florida, you're making a million dollars. Yeah, LSU calls, they're going to give you $3 million or two million, whatever the case may be. Yeah, just more For your senior year or for your last year. You piss off that entire Florida fan base as you look seen as like a traitor. You come back to florida.
Speaker 1:You have a boss that's a florida grad, yeah, and he's like, yeah, fuck you, I'm not hiring you. Yeah, I saw what you did too, I think it happened yeah, and it it's a resume.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a hundred percent a hundred percent and you know, I think about it all the time and I really never thought about it. Uh, until recently my dad was like did you ever think? You know, you know south carolina, did you ever want to live there like permanently? I was like absolutely not. Well, why not? Like you could be making a lot more money doing a lot of other things in columbia, or you know the state of south carolina, I have no interest. Yeah, I need to be around saltwater, I need to be around same thing, the sun I did.
Speaker 3:I'll go to greenville every weekend. I can, but like I gotta be, I gotta be here I can't be landlocked.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a hundred percent.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a hundred percent I mean, we're both old tampa families. Yeah, it's just how we are.
Speaker 1:But that's that's. I'm glad you said that our families do go way back, way back the cuban sicilians.
Speaker 3:Yep. What tampa is?
Speaker 1:yep um, what's the? Uh, what's the book that came out? I mean, it's an older book like the wasn't, wasn't it the Tampa mafia, or something, or?
Speaker 3:cigar city, cigar city mafia. Yeah, I got it. I haven't even read that book.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, no, my uh, my grandfather would talk about that all the time, I mean our, yeah, garcia's and Cavitano's name is brought up.
Speaker 3:Uh, yeah my cousins, it's a hell of a book.
Speaker 1:So if you guys, Sean you ever heard of that, the Cigar City Mafia yeah, I actually read it.
Speaker 2:What? Did you think I thought it was really good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I need to read it. I need to read it up. You sound really excited about it.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's a lot of good speculation, not really history-based.
Speaker 1:It's like everything, though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a good story though. That's a good story. Um to the point about the fcs, fbs schools, though, it's like why I loved fcs. It's no one gave a shit.
Speaker 1:We were just a bunch of dudes playing football but I feel like now that's completely changed as well, because like all right, so now I'm at fcs, I bust my ass, I play. Well, yes, now I got guys calling there was a sense.
Speaker 3:So uh r a sense. So Ryan Miller he was with the Bucs. Now he's one of my good friends at Furman Great player. Yeah, the guy made $0, and he was a three-time All-American in FCS.
Speaker 2:Holy shit.
Speaker 3:Made $0, and he's like, yeah, I could have made money, I missed out on it and everything like that. But he's like I was here to play football and everything I missed out. But there's that sense like you're right, it's like I can be doing this. Why don't I try and leave and do that? But then, like to Ryan's point, like if he left you never know what could have happened with his NFL career.
Speaker 1:And then the grass is not always greener. Yeah, it really isn't.
Speaker 3:It's what happened, Like he could have gone to a bigger school and not know what could have happened.
Speaker 1:No pun intended, but I mean, is that money, the green, is it guaranteed? I don't know On a college level? Do you know, sean?
Speaker 2:What.
Speaker 1:If NIL is guaranteed if a kid transfers to.
Speaker 3:Well I it's contract-based now, so I think it depends on the contract you sign.
Speaker 1:You got to get Fantetti. On that one I'm looking it up right now.
Speaker 2:No NIL money in the NCAA is not guaranteed in the way of a scholarship. Yeah, in the way a scholarship is guaranteed. Oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:So no pay for play or performance-based Well, I guess you look at the thing that happened with UNLV quarterback last year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know that was Joe Pazanski. That was the guy that started in front of him at Holy Cross.
Speaker 3:So with Joe. His first OC at Holy Cross was my OC my junior and senior year at Furman.
Speaker 3:Really, yeah, okay, yeah, I do remember you saying that, but the whole Nil thing, I mean we can go on for hours, I mean it's the whole thing, but I don't know. There's just so much. I think it just screws over a lot of coaches, players and stuff. Like it needs to happen, like players do need to get paid in a certain way. I just think they released it like the wild, wild west, yeah, and it's caused a lot of stuff and it's trickled down to high school. Like we were saying earlier. 100, like a lot, I think. A lot of work, I think, is lost. And there's that dana white clip of a podcast. Who's like all you have to do is be a remote savage, like remotely a bit of a savage now, and you're going to be successful, and I think that's true. Yeah, I think that's true. Yeah, no, I, I think that's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think you're 100% right. Yeah, it is, I was a walk-on.
Speaker 3:You know that I bet on myself and I earned a scholarship Like NIL, I think ruins that, oh, absolutely For a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there's no plan for the love of the sport.
Speaker 1:I mean, I feel like all these guys, all they want to do is just chase the bag. You know, and shit. I can't necessarily blame them. You know, you're getting that much money thrown in your face at 17, 18, 19 years old.
Speaker 3:Who the hell would it? I can't blame at all. I mean, why would you blame someone going to take $3 million? You can't.
Speaker 1:We were talking about this on the dionte's podcast. He's like, yeah, man, we were getting what do you say? 1600 bucks a month, yeah, stipend, stipend, yeah, and I'm like, I'm like what? We got? 48 a weekend, yeah, and that's and that is. If we went to all of the team meals, all of the classes, we didn't miss anything, yeah, weren't late to a workout, they would find us all the time.
Speaker 3:It's great because I mean, I think what he was playing it was like that's your rent and then some money for food, right? So, like I get?
Speaker 1:I mean, what was it like cost of attendance or something like that is what they were calling it. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, but he was saying that he is also 28 and you're 36, so you're talking about eight year difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot's changed in eight years a lot like's changed in five years.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I grew up I played with some guys that played with him, so like. I knew like you would get that stipend per month, yeah, and whatever it was. It was like that was your rent and that was for food. And I had friends that would send that stipend home for their parents to pay their rent bill yeah, so like. But, but it's just ruining so much of the game.
Speaker 2:It's almost like the NCAA was smelling it coming.
Speaker 1:Don't think for one second that these top guys, even when I was playing I don't want to name any names, but there was guys whose parents got hired on in some role in the athletic department and were making a lot of money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, to literally just be an employee of the school. So I mean, there's always ways around everything and you know, it's just a wild, it's a wild operation and I just don't know how they're gonna put a cap on it yeah, I just think like it takes away from like I was one of the little guys.
Speaker 3:I think like if I think it would be hard in a sense, to like be a walk-on and try and earn that scholarship, because they're so worried now about how can I pay this guy, how can I pay this guy, how can I pay this guy? But I mean it comes down to coaching too. Brad, I love him. He was a great coach. He never lied to me, so I think there needs to be transparency with it too. He's with the Colts.
Speaker 1:Now right, he's still with the Colts. Yeah, Is he the head receiver coach? I haven't talked to him in a bit.
Speaker 3:He was Reggie Wayne's receiver coach. Oh no shit. So he was helping out Reggie Wayne. He's the assistant. That's pretty sick. It's an awesome gig. He called me. I remember we had a spring. We were in the middle of a spring ball. I don't know why we set up like this Two-week spring ball, spring break.
Speaker 3:Like right when spring break started, we called each other. We were like like I like to get feedback from the coaches. Yeah, just how can I be better? So I called him like what can I do better? We chatted, whatever on friday. He called me like that sunday and he's like crying, like I took a roll with the colts. He called the whole oh, the whole receiver room at the same time and told everybody and I like texted him after. He's like I got that call like 30 minutes after we spoke and I had no clue it was coming, like I didn't even interview yet.
Speaker 3:Holy shit, it was something like that and I'm like how can I ever?
Speaker 1:blame you like go, yeah, go, that's. That's the pinnacle man, it's the nfl. Yeah, yeah, brian's a good dude man. I like him a lot.
Speaker 3:He never lied to me I was getting recruited Went to the camp I was the first ever kid offered at a camp for Furman.
Speaker 1:No shit, it was a.
Speaker 3:PW, but I was the first one. That's what I was told by players and coaches no shit. And I remember I had a call. I was trying to get like academic money and he was like they changed it. He's like. But I promise you, from what I hear from like you and jesuit coaches, keep your head down and work. I promise you scholarship, yeah, and even if you don't touch the field, your freshman year, I promise to you you work your ass off there.
Speaker 1:Does the pws usually, yes end up?
Speaker 3:and I ended up getting money my freshman year, which was oh, it was it was like one of the best experiences yeah, I wouldn't like, obviously you want a scholarship, like going in, but it was like one of the best experiences. I wouldn't like obviously win a scholarship going in, but it was like I wouldn't want it any other way. It's just you worked my ass off and I loved it and that's kind of a lost art.
Speaker 1:But you know there's. They don't make them like us as much it's trickling down.
Speaker 3:that's what I love for him, though. I just felt like 90% of the dudes in that locker room were like some of my best friends Callie Chizik, hugh Ryan, nicky Kazemka, danny Siana, ivan Yates, my roommate- I mean, that's the thing, man, I can name, Jake Johaney. I can keep going. All those guys I'd go to war with right now because I know they're going to work their asses off and I'll tell you what man that's.
Speaker 1:That's another thing that's lost in the transfer portal man. You got these guys that you busted your ass with for four years, five years sometimes. Well, shit, now with covid year and everything else, there's what's the guy in miami? He's year nine.
Speaker 3:I don't know how that's possible is. You should have a wife and kid at that point. Hang them up, man, yeah. You should have a wife and kid at that point, dude.
Speaker 1:Hang them up, man, yeah you should have a wife and kid at that point, nine years. But yeah, I mean, you started entering the transfer board and now you've got guys that are leaving, coming back, leaving again. Yeah, it's just, it's hard to keep up with. But I just know that if I'm the starting quarterback at a school and you've got guys that are transferring out, that are transferring out, that are constantly talking, bitching about this, and that it's like how do you, how do you have a culture?
Speaker 3:that's, yeah, that's the big thing with me, because it's like like we were, I mean, if we didn't have a good culture at firman, I really don't see us winning that. Thanks that much because, like, obviously we had talent, we had very good talent, but like that and we always competed like my last two years we competed for so cons both times but because I think how tight our locker room was, just elevated our talent through the roof. There's no doubt through the roof. I mean it was like I tore my ACL my senior year and I still had a role as a player coach and the guys I mean I think I think they did, they respected it, the role I had, and I don't think that happens as much anymore because of all the hoopla 100%, and that's another thing.
Speaker 1:man, I remember talking with God. What the hell is his name? You probably know him. Fuck. It's Coach Brown to me. I don't know what his kid's name is, but he went to like Florida State and then went to Boston College as a D lineman. I don't know what his kid's name is, but he went to like Florida State and then went to Boston College as a D lineman. I don't know Last name, brown. I thought he went to Jefferson or Jesuit Ronnie Brown. Does that name sound familiar?
Speaker 3:That sounds familiar.
Speaker 1:Anyways, he was telling me a story about when the NIL first came out and they were paying some D lineman at Florida State more money than they were paying the actual D line coach State, more money than they were paying the actual D-line coach. It's crazy. And he was like tell him like hey, man, you know, you gotta, you gotta burst off the line or something.
Speaker 3:He's like don't fucking tell me what to fucking do. I heard that yeah.
Speaker 1:Don't tell me, I make more money than you.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like I could not imagine telling that to a grown ass man. No. And it's like you're not in the league either. I would beat the shit out of some kid saying something like that.
Speaker 3:You're always learning football. It's just like life faith everything. You learn something new every single time you tap into it. I coached the last year with my knee, but I loved it. That's a hard life and I have respect for every single coach that does it. It is a grind, it's a grind. Three of the guys for every single coach that does it, because I it is a grind, it's a grind. And so, like three of the guys that just named, they're all coaching now and I respect the hell out of them because it is a grind.
Speaker 1:One of them's weddings this weekend. I was about to say are they married or have kids or anything?
Speaker 3:Nikki's getting married this weekend. We're all like it's, it's going, we're all getting back together. And then his fiancee, soon-to-be wife, played soccer at Virginia Tech, so they're in it.
Speaker 1:They understand it. Gotcha, I think you have to be in it to understand because if not those guys are, I mean I think they. I don't know what the actual term is, but I think they call it guarding the computer. They're just standing there just looking at the computer because the head ball coach is out there just kind of looking around and doing anything, making sure nobody's leaving. Before I'm leaving, I like I, I would have, I couldn't do it I thought about it.
Speaker 3:I got very close. But then I had talks with some of those guys. I'm like 10 years, I'm gonna hate myself because I'm not spending time with my wife and my kids, right, and then it's not enough money to you, you got to really yeah Like.
Speaker 3:I have so much respect for Brad and then my other coach, coach Dudzik, who, after Brad, left because, like they're such they absolutely love their families and they're such good fathers from what I've seen and I know how hard it is being in like they spend more time with me, right Like with the players, than their own kids and like, yeah, like you can only respect it in my mind.
Speaker 1:But I'll tell you what I got a couple buddies that are college coaches and they're trying to look for something else to do. Oh yeah, because they're like dude, this is just. I want to start a family. I want to you know, do other things and so, yeah, that's a tough gig. Yeah, that's a hard ask.
Speaker 3:I'm happy like as much as blowing my knee out sucked. I'm happy I got to see that side of coaching because I think if I kept playing I probably would have just dived into it and not know what I was doing. Right, so it was great. And then, like my girlfriend at the time, like I was like thinking about coaching and everything and like having that thought in my mind about, um, like down the road, like kids, family, whatever, like date to marry, all that, like how I think I'm, like I think chrissy would kill me if I, if I get home at nine every day because like right during nine is early.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like fcs fcs playoffs.
Speaker 3:Like I mean, you have to facilitate. Like I would help out, like that was when I was really like doing those hours, yeah, be there at seven and I'm home at 1. She'd kill me. She'd kill me. She wants to kill me right now. I mean, love her to death. She's the best, helped me with my ACL and everything. But I'm like I can't do that. That's a bad deal Putting myself in her shoes as a girlfriend? No way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a hard, hard deal man. But, yeah, you've got to respect these coaches and I feel like, with these kids that are getting paid that much money, I feel like that's kind of going away as well.
Speaker 3:I get with coaches like it can be very egotistical too, but like if you have a good coach, they only care about making you better as a human being too, and like you need that as a player.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's the main thing is at least that's what kind of coach Spur used to preach is like football is a very small fraction of your life, but it's. It's equates to what your life is. If you're fucking chaos on the field, your life is probably chaos.
Speaker 3:I mean with actual. I miss the locker room every day, everything like that.
Speaker 1:Don't say that yet we're going to take a quick break and then we're going to come back and talk about your transition from football coaching and now what you're doing now. So don't forget folks like comment, subscribe, get your notifications set, the whole operation. Sean's a hell of a lot better at this than I am, but you guys know the deal. All right, take it easy, we'll be back. We got nectar, nootropics All right, it's got cognizant in it. It's got caffeine 50 milligrams of caffeine. I'm going to go ahead and rip one right now.
Speaker 1: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. But yeah, and they also got a new little operation they got running here. It's called the Zero, so there's no caffeine at all, but it's got all the flavors that I just mentioned. Like I said, jalapeno, lime, black cherry, spearmint, sweet mango and fresh mint.
Speaker 1:There are many dry pouches. All the ingredients are listed on their website. They're listed on the can, so you're not getting a bunch of bullshit. And that's the way I like it. Man, I don't want to. I don't want all the chemicals, chemical additives in there and these. This is the real deal. This is the way to do it, guys. If you're, if you're, just need a little, get zapped for a little bit and there's no crash. You know, you don't feel drowsy afterwards and, yeah, I'm a firm believer in this thing. Again, this is the atomic apple. I'm a huge fan of this flavor. I'm looking forward for them to send me the jalapeno lime.
Speaker 1:So, again, folks, you can find them at nectarenergy and when you spell nectar, it's N-E-C-T-R. Dot energy, energy, spelled, you know, the normal way. You can also find them on Amazon. They're now on Amazon, like everybody else, so you can find them on Amazon as well. Same name, same spelling, n-e-c-t-r. Again, you can use my discount code Garcia5, and get a nice little discount. And, like I said, get your brain zapped, get to work. All right, welcome back. Uh, we're going to transition now from a male to female. Just kidding, absolutely just kidding. Shit's unbelievable. That's a whole nother yeah, can of worms.
Speaker 3:That's part two for us.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah uh, but yeah, we're going to kind of transition from your time as a player, a player coach, to kind of what you're doing now and kind of talk about your brand and what else you're doing with work. So yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean I'm excited to talk about this really because I think it's hard. I mean, you went through it too. It's hard when you stop playing. It's very, very hard. Yeah, it's hard because I mean, like I said, I started first grade. Yeah, I started first grade. So football's been my identity, it's been my entire life, yeah. And I mean I've been telling that kid I train, don't take the high school days for granted. Oh yeah, If you look back at it, high school is, it goes by like that. And I think high school is the best form of football because it's strictly ball. Now it's a little different, but it's strictly ball. And then Jesuit-TC rivalry game some of the best.
Speaker 3:It's just all, yeah, and then I hate to tell it to you, but Jesuit-Jefferson, they're in my district. When I was playing, beat y'all seven out of eight times in four years. But I would take those, I love those games, like I would. And so you have all that, like you have all the energy and you're always with your boys, like the training room after the game. And the jesuit, uh, my parent, I was so fortunate they were just order the shit ton of wings and pizza, yeah, and all like the same 10 guys.
Speaker 3:I always had two buddies, coop and marcos, but then a bunch of other kids would come over like ricky, larry, dane, yeah, bulls kids, a bunch of other kids. We'd all come over and hang out my house with pizza and wings and now, like those days are gone. Yeah, like you, just like this is shit. You remember, though, exactly, and I know every single one of those kids like probably misses that day, oh yeah. And then you go into college and then you're really you're in it because you're in a hive mind that in my mind 100 man.
Speaker 1:You go from like you're at your parents house, you have your buddies over to your parents house, you are in your own little comfort zone, yeah, and then you leave and you're eight hours away yeah, both of us were.
Speaker 3:Yeah, both are in south carolina it's like now we you're in the shit. Yeah, you know there's no you know, there's something about it Like I just loved it because I went up to Furman not knowing anybody but Brady and Gilby. We played with each other at Jesuit, but Gilby was still two years older than me, so I didn't know, him great. Now we're great friends. But like my coach Antonio taught me, my coach Antonio taught me he's like be comfortable in the uncomfortable and I just loved it.
Speaker 3:And going in as a walk-on, I'm like I'm here by myself, I'm here to bet on myself and be the best teammate possible, like I was a Jesuit. I can solely say I was probably the only kid on the firm that knew every single kid's name on the team. That's pretty sick. I knew every single kid's name on the team. I made it a point.
Speaker 1:Do you contribute that to your upbringing, like your parents?
Speaker 3:Yeah, 100% I do. I can't deny that Even just being around you, because we were so tight with our crew Right and stuff with Antonio and then Jesuit as well, takes a village. Yeah, it takes a village. I mean you're not going to win without everyone in line.
Speaker 3:The support yeah, 100%. Yeah. So it's like you're so used to like falling in love with the process and you have to as a football player or you won't get better and I don't know. Like every day, like you're like from a conditioning workout, from a shells practice, from a shells practice, a spiders practice, full padded practice, like a fall camp, like anything like that like, and then you just transition to being behind a desk.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's tough it is it's tough because like you said you started in first grade. I think I first started playing in third grade. Yeah, but even that like little league is not even close to the same you go into high school, it is high school is a little bit of a grind, and then you go to college.
Speaker 3:Talent starts to level out. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But then you go to college and it is. I mean, I tell people all the time I think it's a great quote. I didn't go to South Carolina to play school, no.
Speaker 3:I went there to play football.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't go to Furman for academics.
Speaker 3:I went to play football.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 3:I know I wouldn't have gone to Furman without football.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Obviously school matters, and that's your yeah school absolutely matters and I wish, and I tell Memphis and anybody I wish I would have taken it more serious. But you know you go from. That is your entire life for four or five years, depending on if you get registered is structured.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It is absolutely structured and especially someone like, like football junkie.
Speaker 3:it's like I was, like I was off the rails, like I didn't really know what to do.
Speaker 1:Right. And then once that's over, then you know to your point, like you know, once that's over, then you're like holy shit, now what?
Speaker 3:Oh, back in the day, like I'm going to hit the field and do footwork by myself, yeah, just something. And then I mean, like my senior year, like after like I was all done, the very first thing I did after season ended, after I was coaching, was go get a job Because, like I know, like I can't stay cooped up not doing anything. Like obviously I had my ACL rehab, which, like I I don't know it's because I, maybe I'm just fucked up or I'm an absolute maniac but like I fell in love with the process. Yeah, because I think it translated from football like I was in it. I think I had just annoyed the trainers at that point because I was in there twice a day.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just doing stuff getting better. Um, but like, yeah, first thing I did was like what's my other passion? All right, I love cooking. So I was like there's a butcher shop in Greenville. I'm gonna go work for the butcher shop. So I walked in and got like, gave him my resume and got the job and I was working there next week because, like I didn't know, I didn't know that that's yeah it was.
Speaker 3:I loved it like dream job butcher but awesome, um, that's how it was. It was like I didn't know what to do with myself, so I was like I'm just gonna find another one of my passions and then so obviously I graduated, whatever, and I come back home. I haven't been home in five years technically five, because of summer workouts and stuff and, uh, going the job hunt. And it's like like, what, like did I mess up not taking the coaching role right, like, what, like, what am I doing here?
Speaker 1:your brain starts wondering, wondering.
Speaker 3:You don't know what to do. It's like how do I translate? Everyone's like football is a life sport, but it's like how am I going to translate this and everything like that. So I'm going around and then, uh, my boss burden out of lion partners. Um, he was kind of helping me find a job outside of it and we got super busy, was he?
Speaker 1:was he friends with your?
Speaker 3:dad. They knew, they knew each other. They knew each other. Burns, another old Tampa family as well. Um, Vernon Tuttle is his name and, uh, one of the other partners of Alliance, uh, Spencer, they're like trying to trying to help me find a job and everything, Cause Frank's mind and my mind was like I don't, I shouldn't go work for the family business right away. Right, I need to go somewhere, learn, Learn and kind of again.
Speaker 1:Get out of your comfort zone.
Speaker 3:Yeah, get out of my comfort zone and then maybe, like I come back Right X amount of years but you never know, I might not. So I went through the whole process and then it just it wasn't working out. Fortunate and unfortunate, a lot of people knew my dad. So there's like you're going to go work for your dad in a few years and I'm like I sat there and I gave him the spiel, but then I had job offers and then, but still like, as I was having the job offers, it's like did I mess up? Not coaching? Am I going to love this Whatever? But then I kept thinking, like, five years down the line, I'm going to hate. Like I'm going to hate not being able to like see my kid every day. Like like my friend Callie, like he was like his dad's coach and he's like I only saw my dad at the facility. Sometimes he was like I didn't see him in the fall.
Speaker 3:That's tough, man, it's not a it's not a family oriented profession, and then I'm like, what about the spring? I know you saw him in spring. He's like on the road recruiting, right. So I'm like, all right, I ain't doing this, yeah. But then like, still, that mind it creeps in the back of my mind.
Speaker 3:Um, and then so went through the whole process and then burden, once my dad approached my dad and he's like we need a young guy, we're gonna get really busy and I would like to bring on lex this is how I was told. I was like I like to bring on lex, he's young athletics outgoing, whatever. And so I think it took Frank a lot of convincing. And then I had to convince Burden as well that I was committed and I wouldn't leave to go coach or anything. And I was like, no, I'm back in home, I'm back in Tampa. I've missed being with my family. I'm staying here. And then, like one, it's my family's business, starting from radiant, back in the 1931 yeah, that my great-grandfather started. And now we've trained like grandfathered into a development firm, alliant partners. It's like I'm gonna take that serious, I'm gonna give it my all. Just how I was playing like that and it's like the first three months was just awkward, because it's like I like I'm not in a locker room.
Speaker 1:yeah, I don't. I'm not on the field, I'm not physical, I'm not going to be physical, and that's one of the most. That's one of the biggest things that I miss the most is that locker room.
Speaker 3:bullshitting around, you're being a kid God, my locker was next to great friend Taylor Bell. I'll give Taylor a shout out because his mom invented Elf on the Shelf, so one of my best friends at Furman Elf is modeled after him. That is hysterical. It's awesome.
Speaker 1:Holy shit, nicest kid ever T-Bell's the best.
Speaker 3:Then it was me, and then my buddy Ian Williams. He's got a chance for the league. He is the kicker Absolute goofball the man. And then it was Ryan who's in the NFL and just absolute goofball the man. And then it was ryan who's in the nfl, and like just that collective right there was just absolutely.
Speaker 1:You can't.
Speaker 3:You can't be hilarious, you can't beat that like you're never gonna have that cast of character anywhere else, and then on the other side was like just hugh, one of the captains of the team, played safety.
Speaker 3:He's coaching now at firman um and just. And then you had t huff our quarterback, who was an absolute dog and just another jacksonville, florida kid. So I mean, you can guess how that goes right. Right, and it was just like you're not, you're not gonna have all that together anymore. And then you have like, uh, you go from like the joking around the dicking around?
Speaker 1:yeah to, I'm in a corporate environment now and I've brought that in, so you do the office, okay, and. I'm sure they probably.
Speaker 3:They've appreciated it. Yes, they needed it.
Speaker 1:So he said I needed somebody young that was an athlete.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I mean. So you round the corner and there's obviously the offices for people.
Speaker 3:Is the office in Ybor. It's in Ybor still. We'll never leave Ybor, we'll never leave it. That's your fight, though, man. You can't leave that, we'll never leave it. And so, like everyone's got their obvious is obviously that means the shit. And I'm a low man on totem pole. I'm in a cubicle, so when you turn that corner, though, I'm the first guy you hit, and it's just my nature, everyone knows. Now it's like lex is gonna talk shit to me right when I walk in, I don't't care who you are, I'll give it to anybody I love it.
Speaker 3:It's what we're used to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's what we're used to, and in my mind too, like it builds camaraderie, yeah, and it kind of like eases the tension a little bit 100%, you know if you're having a bad day or you know something's fucked up at, yeah, it kind of lightens the mood a little bit and I love our office.
Speaker 3:Everyone in there is awesome. Guy sits behind me, jonathan. He's from Chicago, he gives it right back.
Speaker 1:I was going to say he probably talks to shit.
Speaker 3:His whole family is just a bunch of badasses. They're all firefighters. His brother works SWAT team, chicago Force Holy shit, so he's awesome. We're constantly jawing back at each other and like so we I mean you can imagine we're constantly jawing back at each other and we were going to Bird and Bird was like you guys are like stepbrothers. He's like from the movie.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is.
Speaker 3:He's like your Nighthawk and Dragon. It's like it's just stupid. And then like I'm like the guard dog to Frank too, because my cubicle is right outside his office. Okay, so it's like's like if he walks out and then we're teamed up with each other.
Speaker 3:anyone, any, it's game on for anybody you gotta, you gotta you might want to sneak away yeah, so it's, but like to that point it's like I've brought that into the office, that football element, just to have fun. Like don't be so serious all the time, because with football, like the moment you're too serious, like I had this problem a lot You're going to mess up and you're going to lose some confidence.
Speaker 1:Yep, and like you said, it is 90% mental. There's no doubt you lose that confidence. We were talking about it with. Beyonce and Rock it's like if you don't have confidence, it doesn't matter how talented you are, you are fucking cooked.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's the same like my. My main job right now, as I just told you, off air is cold calling. Yeah, so like I'm cold calling a bunch of landowners all day that just don't want to be called what's a good story?
Speaker 1:you have one in particular like have you just got motherfucked? Oh yeah, plenty of times.
Speaker 3:Fourth street on saint pete, it's a bloodbath. You've called anything on fourth street. You get to fuck you every time. It's but like it's a me, jonathan's got a, jonathan's got a um, I have a few too, but it happened to him first. He's got a text message on his phone where it's like fuck, you call me again. I'm calling the cops. I have your phone number and in our minds it's like you're doing your job right. Yeah, you're doing like you're doing it right. Yeah, because you're doing what you're supposed to do. You're being a it all comes down to being a slot receiver. Just do your job. Be a pest, be scrappy, find a way, find the windows yeah. So it took me, like I said, three months to really learn how to take the attitude, discipline somewhat of toughness like mental toughness, how to be a good teammate. How can I add? Value is the biggest thing, just all those things and have fun with it.
Speaker 1:That's so awesome that you said that man, like I mentioned. I don't know if do you remember Sean Goldrich? No Played quarterback.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:You've thrown with him before. Anyways, he's a coach at University of Delaware. Now I know who you're talking about. He says the exact same thing. He's like how do you, how do you add value to university of delaware? And you know he's asked memphis because they're kind of recruiting him a little bit. And he's like where do you, what do you add value to? Yeah it's, it's.
Speaker 3:If you don't have an answer, then you better find a fucking answer so, like with me, with I got, I'll give a football sense and then a commercial real estate sense. So we work with retailers all over the country and develop for them and it's like, okay, how can we find a pocket where they aren't there and we can plug them in or redevelop an old, tired looking I don't know Wendy's and say it's a big enough property, let's try and put a Chipotle there, right? So my mind was like, okay, how are these guys learning where the pockets are, rather than surfing, uh, google maps and just finding it? Yeah, I found a way to get every single address in the country from all the retailers and I plugged them into a map so I can send it to my bosses and they see where every single chick-fil-a public Publix, wawa, walmart, didn't you say?
Speaker 1:you guys just did this one.
Speaker 3:Burton did it with his last firm. But yeah, like one of the old Radiant stores right down the road, the same thing. So we developed the old gas station down there. So I was like, okay, my value as a young guy is make the best calls I can, so One the company, the firm, doesn't go unless I go, because I'm the first point of contact. Another football I'm the first point of contact. I got to hit it right, or I'm screwed Low man wins.
Speaker 2:You're the wedge buster, yeah.
Speaker 3:So calls need to be good, but I need more value than a call, because that's really just my job Right, and convince and negotiate the owner to sell. So I made a map I make multiple maps of all the retailers in the country so we can find holes and pockets of where to go and plug them in.
Speaker 1:Let me ask this, not to completely change the subject but do you? Do you use a lot of ai?
Speaker 3:yeah, I'm starting to um, not, I mean not a ton, but like just emails.
Speaker 3:I'll write my email out, like, fix it up and then like with the address stuff, like you, really like I'm still learning it Again, like constant learning, constantly getting better Right Of how to get the addresses out of it because it knows like it shouldn't.
Speaker 3:One and then two, it's so much like overload of information, right, but again like overload of information, right, but again, like in my mind, if you rely on ai too much, you'll never be able to do your job. Don't tell sean that if you'll never be able to do your job as the best you can, you lose your human sense. And then it's like it's like what if I'm thrown in a situation where I can't use it right? So, like it's, obviously it's a tool that needs to be used, but there's, there's a scary side of it that like we're very we're approaching, and elon musk does it too, and he's the guy that freaking created it right, it's like you have to like learn how to separate talking about putting putting a cap on something you gotta figure out how to do that in a hurry, so but yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 1:I don't want to talk too much about that.
Speaker 3:It's a big part of the job. That's how I figure out how to add value. But again, how can I add more to that simple thing that I did, because it's still never good enough? With football, my junior year, I really had a role. I finally had a role of playing first five games or whatever, and then Coach Dudzik was very big on fluid depth charts with the receiver room, which I can understand it, and I had a bad week of practice one week. So he's like hey, I'm going to start Ben over you. So I was like obviously you're going to be pissed.
Speaker 3:So I go in like what do I do? Whatever I'm straight up. I'm like, fuck, I had a short leash, whatever. I was with the old coaching staff and we had a good conversation. And then, because I just think this and that have been, I'm like, no worries, ferg is one of my best friends still up there and I went to the special teams guy head coach right after him. I go after him, I go, I want to be on the punt return unit. I. I want to be like what's the role? Yeah, yeah, I go. What's the role? Use me, somehow I'm here, yeah, I go. What's the rule? I like how do I add value? And he was like, yeah, you started the first three weeks and we changed the system, but he's like you, you deserve to be on it. Like all you do is work, all you're doing is that like he's like you care he's like you care more than some of the guys that have on it, right.
Speaker 3:So I was like all right, he's like Spang, let me know what the job is and I'll go do it. Yeah, so he put me outside as the enforcer or whatever Easy job, whatever. But I took that job with pride and then later down the road, with the season, as we progress and get better. He's like punt return unit is yours. Like you're calling the shots and the plays, oh shit. So he's like you're calling out what we're doing, if we're going to fake it or we're going to go. Like obviously he'd give the play call as we roll out, but like him and I would.
Speaker 3:If you see something, it's like yes and then him and being a slap Like you can't be a slap. It's like what am I going to do? And then the other aspect I always had in my mind, too right about my upbringing like if I don't like, yeah, you're playing college football or whatever, you're doing something a lot of people didn't do in their lives, but it's like that's my identity and my family's put everything into this for me. I can't let them down more than myself. It's like how much, like you can't just quit. I know people quit and I have no respect for quitters. Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3:Because you quit on the other 100 people that were counting on you and put in their time and effort for you as well. So you're not adding value to them when they added value to you as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think that's a very valid point. Yeah, with my whole situation in South Carolina, how abruptly that ended, that's something that really kind of shook my confidence up. It's like, man, I started 40-something games in the SEC and was a three-year starter three-year team captain, voted by the players and you get kicked off the team.
Speaker 1:It's like, holy fuck, still graduated. Yeah, I did graduate, Still graduated. Yep, so I got that, which I don't use one part of my degree. Um, I guess I minored in psychology, so I sometimes use use that therapy in a sense, yeah, yeah somewhat. Yeah, you know what it kind of is yeah, it is all right. So then you got that, so you're working with that, and then you know kind of talk about the national yeah, meet day.
Speaker 3:You you've been adam um.
Speaker 1:I know I still, I'm still kind of screwed you on not being a judge. It's okay, you ask me with that and then kind of talk about the national meet day. Yeah, you've been at them.
Speaker 3:I know I still kind of screwed you on not being a judge, it's okay, you ask me every year and it's like oh, maybe I'm in, yeah, but the year before you were there basically the whole time.
Speaker 1:So, Sean, this is an event that you all should come to.
Speaker 3:It's legit, it's awesome, it's just a super fun kickback.
Speaker 2:Is it like butchering?
Speaker 3:Basically.
Speaker 1:So kind of talk about like or do you want to pause and we'll do one more segment?
Speaker 2:Let's do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's take a quick little break. Okay, right now, then we're going to get into his national meat day. Phenomenal, phenomenal event.
Speaker 3:It's grown fucking insane From a backyard event to over 500 people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it's, it's big time. And what? Two years, Four, four years, yeah, so stay tuned. Like comment, subscribe, share, whatever the hell you guys need to do.
Speaker 3:That's your best one.
Speaker 1:Blast this thing out and let's rock and roll. We got Nectar Nootropics All right. It's got cognizant 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.
Speaker 1: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 did. It's a whole different kind of kind of buzz, so to speak. Um, but yeah, then they also got a new little operation they got running here. It's called the zero, so there's no caffeine at all, but it's got all the flavors that I just mentioned.
Speaker 1:Like I said, jalapeno, lime, black cherry, spearmint, sweet mango and fresh mint fresh mint. They're mini dry pouches. All the ingredients are listed on their website, they're listed on the can, so you're not getting a bunch of bullshit. And that's the way I like it. Man, I don't want all the chemicals, chemical additives in there. This is the real deal. This is the way to do it, guys, if you just need a little brain zap for you in the middle of the day and the workday. You're on the computer, you're working out whatever you are doing, throwing in I'm an upper deck guy throwing in there. Get zapped for a little bit and there's no crash. You know, you don't feel drowsy afterwards and uh, yeah, I'm a firm believer in this thing. Again, this is the atomic apple. I'm a huge fan of this flavor. I'm looking forward for them to send me the jalapeno lime.
Speaker 1:So again, folks, you can find them at nectarenergy and when you spell nectar it's N-E-C-T-R. Dot energy, energy, spelled the normal way. You can also find them on Amazon. They're now on Amazon, like everybody else, so you can find them on Amazon as well. Same name, same spelling N-E-C-T-R. Again, you can use my discount code, garcia5, and get a nice little discount. And, like I said, get your brain zapped, get to work. Welcome back Sports and Suits. I had to break the curse, man. I had to drink a freaking white claw, but anyways, we want to kind of transition into now another passion of yours National Meat Day. So walk me through it, was it? Your idea was I know you're yeah, so it.
Speaker 3:I think it was 2018. Um, frank made me clear out the freezer one day. Uh, we had way too much like wild game and stuff in our freezer and I cleared it out. I'm like, what are we gonna do with all this? Like we need to cook it and it and Heights Meat Market in the Heights. I went there that day and they had the kangaroo and I'm like let's just try this kangaroo. And they had a pork butt. I'm like let's smoke a pork butt too. Like why not? And then that day as well, we went fishing and we caught a bunch of snapper yeah, maker snapper. So we had like exotic surf and we had turf with a wild game, and then we had some steak and then we had pork and I'm like I'm calling this national meat day just being an absolute idiot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, as I am like I'm just gonna call it national meat day. And then, uh, I drew up like a menu. I still have a picture of it. I think I still have the paper somewhere in blue Sharpie. It looked idiotic. My older brother, Demi, was all in. One of our best friends, Kevin, was all in. Then my buddy, Ox, one of my best friends, were like yeah, let's cook out and invite a bunch of people. It was us four, a bunch of my buddies from Jesuit, some football guys, and then Demi had some friends over and a few family members came over.
Speaker 1:It was like a little family get-together. It was just.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was a kickback and I mean it was just super fun. And then we did it between my birthday and my older brother's birthday, Demi. So it was like I'm June 18th and he's the 27th, so there's always a week between us, right? So we're like all right, let's just do it, then It'll be fun. That's Saturday, and then it transitioned the next year. It was like people caught on. It's like hey, we're doing National Meat Day again. So I'm like pig, I remember doing the yeah, yeah, you were there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I came for that. Literally an entire pig. How'd you guys do it.
Speaker 3:So that year was at the house and then the next year we did it Cuban style. We did it in the La Calachina.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we did it in the box. That's right. So then the next year, that third year, like third actual year of it, no, sorry, fourth, when you came, um, that was in the parking lot. It was in the parking lot in one of the office, our old office, and it was a charity event. But sorry, we got ahead of ourselves before that. So the third year I did it. We did in the parking lot at evor there, because it got too big for the house. Somehow it got too big and I'm sitting there with frank and I'm like I think this could be like a charity event or something Like Frank's like was pushing me. He's like you can do, like you can scale this, like you can. Yeah, did it already pass.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it passed.
Speaker 2:March 29th 2025.
Speaker 3:Yep, so March, uh, last Saturday, March 28th 2026. That great, great platform to announce it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah so Frank pushed me.
Speaker 1:We'll have Fabray Frameworks come and film some shit. Huh, yeah, that'd be huge.
Speaker 3:We need help, and then it's possible.
Speaker 2:We do real estate.
Speaker 3:Yeah and then. So Frank pushed me, and then this just comes down to work ethic too. Like the first year I did it was out of COVID. I'm playing football, I'm going to school, I'm in South Carolina Right, I'm not in Tampa. So I'm like, all right, we have to do it the only month football players get off.
Speaker 2:May, May right Dead of heat.
Speaker 3:And I'm like no one else is one going going to really believe I can pull this off, with all the factors going, oh yeah, and it's like I'm 20 years old, a kid, like an idiot and stuff. So I'm like I'm going to find a way, I'm going to make it fun, I love it. And then Kevin and I really took it on ourselves to figure it out, kind of cold calling. I was just calling my dad's friends, family members, like hey, can you donate? Can you donate, donate? I ended up raising 25 grand and so you came, we had the whole pig.
Speaker 3:We had eight teams, really like five, eight teams. Yeah, it was just the parking lot. We had a family friend come out and play music, it was. It was a great time yeah, it was super super, super fun and um.
Speaker 3:So that sat there. I'm like this can like, I think we can grow it. And the whole mindset I had was for my uncle. My uncle, joe, used to run festa italiana and ebor, so he's with the events, he gets it. He's been mentoring me with it. He's like invite people out and don't ask them for anything. So they see it and they get hooked and they want to come the next year and help Right.
Speaker 3:So that was the first and second year. Really, I did it. Second year we did it in the office parking lot as well, but I got a stage and everything and I'm like all right, the main, like the beneficiary was always Jesuit because it's alma mater. Help me kick it off. But I go to church at St Joseph's Catholic School, catholic church school in the middle of West Tampa. Yeah, and they need help. The school needs help. So I'm like I'm going to it's. It's not like going to somewhere and I don't know where the money is going to. Like I'm directly helping the school and I know what's going on at the school. I'm there every week and they need it. It's a historic school in Tampa. Yeah, all the cigar factory workers sent their kids there. There's a. All the cigar factory workers sent their kids there as a 125 plus year old school. Um, so the funds from national meet. The second year I raised 35 those and I donated 25, whatever.
Speaker 3:I hate talking about all this, just bragging, whatever, but brag on it, man it's, and then the third year it I mean that second year grew out of nowhere and, mind you, I'm waking up at 530 in the morning to do mat drills, right, so I'm dying in the morning.
Speaker 2:Right, I'm dying.
Speaker 1:Yeah, trust me, I know.
Speaker 3:And then I got out of school at Furman University, which is no slap dick university, then I got to go lift in the afternoon, then I got to do skills and drills.
Speaker 3:Um, I mean, it's a full, it's a full-time job and then you got to do this meals, and from remotely yeah, and then yeah, and then as I get back in my you know, as you leave at five, you get back to the apartment at fucking 7, 30, right, and then I gotta work on, and then I homework whatever I actually had to do homework at furman um I didn't have that problem as little as I did, but yeah, yeah, and then I have to go do this and I'm up until like 11 or 12, majority of my nights, like when it's really ramping up closer to May, and I just had to repeat that.
Speaker 3:But it was like the process where I'm like I know I'm doing something for good, I'm helping a school that needs it and it's fun. It was a passion. My great grandfather did it with uh, he had an optimist club and evor way back in the day, and then my nanu did it with boys and girls club and so did my, my dad and my uncle.
Speaker 3:So I'm like I was like it's, it's cool to keep it going 100, it's cool so I'm like it's, it's something like I took the heart and you guys are doing it at St Joe's. Now we're doing it at St Joe's. So last year 2024, the third annual you were there. Yep, it was like a real like kind of like an event, and it's still like I would. That year was just wild because I had football at my ACL. That's right, yeah. And then I think you're walking around with a brace yeah, yeah. And then, and I graduated the week before, yeah, from college. So it's a lot of shit, yeah. So I was just handling all this stuff and I'm like, so, like, obviously it wasn't perfected, but it's still a good time, and this year I really took it to heart. I'm like I'm doing this shit right and I always tell myself if you can be good at something, why not be great, right?
Speaker 1:if you're gonna do it, don't half-ass it. Yeah, don't put one toe in it just jump in and do it yeah.
Speaker 3:So this year, um, I gotta give a huge shout to hadley chalor. She did all the branding that you see me and steven wearing and it really took the event to a legit, like looking idea, like it wasn't no long, it was no longer like mickey mouse, right and I mean, I remember going that first time at the, at the offices, the old offices yeah, ebor yeah, seeing the pig in the box, and you know just, it was just a bunch of like friends, just kind of just hanging out.
Speaker 1:It was a kickback and then it was a kickback, and then the next. The next time I came was at st joe's.
Speaker 3:St joe's- I guess that was two years ago.
Speaker 1:We had guys out there with barbecue pits and sean, literally like they are, and I forget train uh, train uh trillespi or gillis.
Speaker 3:Uh, brandon, yeah, yeah, they're out there at what five o'clock or four o'clock?
Speaker 2:in the morning, in the morning out there smoking, smoking beef ribs, briskets, everything.
Speaker 3:So what's the? Competition so, yeah, just about to get into that. So I it's like this year I really took a jump with everything. So saint joseph's is the sole, sole benefiter of the event. Uh, national meat day. We're 501 C, three under central park village through services that my family started up.
Speaker 2:So it's a nonprofit.
Speaker 3:It's a nonprofit event.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I ended up bend your ear about that after this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we originally helped St Peter Claver, um, uh. So we originally helped St Peter Claver kind of in the Ybor City area and then I came along the next generation. I'm like I want to help out St Joe's. We're kind of already helping out them. So I took this idea because I was already kind of morphing into a charity event and I morphed it from going to Jesuit with St Joe's and kind of like along the terms of football, like how can I make myself stand out and unique so I can hit the field, like there's so many barbecue competitions that are that all over the place, yeah all over the place so I'm like
Speaker 3:I'm gonna make it a cooking competition, so it's going back to the original uh day. It's surf, pork, turf and exotic. Those are the categories and it doesn't have to be barbecue. And you always hear the competitive side of me. Competitiveness, everyone's like I got the best brisket.
Speaker 3:It's way better everybody everyone's like my brisket's the best. It's better than that ribeye you cook and your beef ribs, yeah. So my idea is let me, let me see. Yeah, I want to see it. So we have people come out. The surf category, in my opinion, is the best. You have people come out. The surf category, in my opinion, is the best. We have people come out there. Surf oysters, lobster, mac and cheese, crawfish, boil I mean the food is unbelievable.
Speaker 1:It's unbelievable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we got some really legit. We had 25 teams this year, jesus Christ, so like, yeah, so like I went from five first year really to 25 in three years.
Speaker 2:So that's the competition idea I had and it stuck. How can I be a judge on that competition? You just got to ask me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so it stuck and people enjoyed coming out to it because I kept it a very old Tampa event. Fuente is a big sponsor of it. Everyone's out there smoking cigars.
Speaker 2:Arturo Fuente.
Speaker 3:So everyone's out there smoking cigars. Arturo Fuente, Everyone's out there smoking cigars. You have a lot of old Tampa families coming out there doing their Cuban and Sicilian dishes. You've got local breweries out there serving beer. My cousins at Wolf Haven come out.
Speaker 2:Oh that's right, I forgot it's a good time this year.
Speaker 3:We had Hulk Hogan do his beer as well. What is it American? Oh, that's right, I forgot. Holy shit it's a good time.
Speaker 2:And then this year we had Hulk Hogan do his beer as well.
Speaker 3:What is it? American, real American? Yeah, yeah, it was funny, it was fun, yeah, so it was really just grinding and me sticking to my guns, me and who I am, as well as Kevin. Like we can be pure idiots like those. Like being an idiot and I got, like football.
Speaker 3:It's like if you take it too serious and it becomes too corporate and you're not having fun, people feel that people yeah, they feel that energy yeah, and then I think at the, at the event too, it's like everyone's out here just having a good time kicking it back, like it feels like I'm in my backyard, and that's what I wanted. The event wanted to do with the event and create that environment. I'm sticking to it. I'm trying my hardest not to take that corporate jump so you lose it right. So that's why I think I always will do it at saint joseph's, because the event layout is big enough it is.
Speaker 2:It is big enough though it is, so I got so you know, you know how they have the italian club and the cuban club and ebor and uh you, you said you're italian cuban I grew up going to the italian club. I'm a, I'm italian, greek, oh, greek, okay um, why not do it during the festival, at the italian festival in ybor city, where you can get a larger turnout?
Speaker 3:because we don't do it anymore. The club's not big enough no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2:So they closed down like seventh ave, I thought they don't do the festa italiana anymore.
Speaker 3:oh, they thought they don't do the Festa Italiana anymore.
Speaker 2:Oh, they don't, we don't do it anymore. Yeah, oh shit.
Speaker 3:So that, yeah, I mean we've actually talked about that, we just don't do it anymore. So, yeah, the day it just kept growing and growing and I just wanted to keep getting better. So you're benefiting the kids like I go to the school and, like the cafeteria hadn't been redone in 50 years that's yeah, it's like they. It's like no one deserves that, like they deserve better. So this year I they had a state like their cafeteria is their their stage performing arts stage and the cafeteria it's used for both and the stage was termite rated, flooded from the hurricanes and everything, and they're like it's time for a new stage and I'm like how much will it cost Whatever?
Speaker 3:And they're like 80 grand all in just, whatever it is For the renovations and the kitchen and everything yeah.
Speaker 3:So I told myself I'm like I'm going to give you 80 grand, I don't care, I'm going to get 80 grand, yeah. So I was like, all right, I really gotta grow this event hard and fast. So I brought on hadley make it look legit, and we did, and it drove, I think, 250 people there. And then I just I mean not having really football and being home I was able to meet people for coffee, lunch, whatever really grow it. And then, um, my, my nanu has a good friend, ted couch andouch, and he had a meeting with St Joseph's about donating $25,000 to the school just for the stage. Yeah, and my aunt invited me to it. She helps out with the school, my aunt Nicole, and she helps me out with this like crazy can't do without her. I'm like I didn't know what the hell I was walking into Right right.
Speaker 3:I was like she's like just come meet joe senior's friend, it'll be a good time. I'm like okay, so he's in there and he they're like he's gonna give like 10 grand, and I think me and my aunt kind of talked about it. It was like I think him seeing the fourth generation walk in kind of hit him yeah and it was like oh shit, like okay, this is awesome, he's committed. And he's like I'm gonna up to 25. And he's like oh shit, like okay, this is awesome, he's committed. And he's like I'm going to up to 25. And he's like I want to go into the stage, yeah, and I'm like it kind of like took me back Because like I don't think anything of myself.
Speaker 3:It's like I'm just doing like my dad, growing up, is always like humble, hungry, always work. That's who I am, that's who I'm always going to be and be myself. So I'm like I'm not thinking anything of myself. I'm like he just like recognized something and I gotta figure out like how can I get him to take it? This is me thinking on my feet. I'm like how can I take him to not give it to the school solely like I need to convince this cat to. I told him like I'm giving him the money for the stage.
Speaker 3:Like I know it's going to the stage, but back of mind I'm like, if I can, announce I want it to come from me.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:If I can announce this, then I really grow the event Right. So I sit there and I'm just spitballing and I convinced him. He's like I want to direct it through Meat Day and I'm like no shit.
Speaker 3:My aunt did too. I'm thinking about it. It's huge. I never thought of myself like that to be able to do that. He directed it to Meat Day. I'm like this is awesome. How much money did you raise Through that $25,000,? I made a bet with my grandfather that if I get $25,000, you match the $25,000. I hit $50,000 in one day. That'll play. Yeah, I'm not going to go to my dad or anything and do that, my grandfather being so charitable. We always spend time with each other. He's like my buddy. So I'm like I'm making this bet with you. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I got it. He's cherished you yeah and I got it.
Speaker 3:So I just told him, if I got 25 in general, so I got it, so I hit 50. Um, I just told him, if I got 25 in general, so I got it, so I have 50. I have a dear friend um his dad at firman I. He's very charitable, he lives in virginia. He's very charitable and I was fortunate enough for him to come help and he gave me another 15. So, boom, right away I'm at 75, wow and 65.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, 65 yeah yeah, not not the brightest, brightest. So I hit there, I'm like I need to get to 100. I want to hit 100. 75 was kind of my goal. I did 45 the previous year, it was like 65, and I'm like now I'm at the point in my mind I'm like I want to hit 100. I'm not going to feel comfortable with myself if I can't hit 100.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Because I know, because Frank had told me the previous year, it's like this is a $100,000 event. I think you can do it Me betting on myself being competitive. I'm like I'm going to make that happen in a year. I'm going to work my ass off to get that done in a year, yeah, so I just I mean, I went hard and I got it done. I think it's same thing with with football and work and life, like you'll hit bumps and adversities, but like use those tools to find a way to advance and like yeah, yeah, like there's like, if you hit a speed bump, you're like oh fuck I'm.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, it's, I'm done, yeah it's like no, I'm, I hit this thing now.
Speaker 1:Let's how do we get, how do we move forward, how do we advance? Yeah what's the solution to the problem? So all in this quitting is not a fucking solution exactly.
Speaker 3:So, like I'm not gonna speak, I could easily sit there and be happy with 65 000. I did 20 000 more than I did the other year, but I'm not. I can always be better right. So, being a 501 3c, you have to spend all that money or donate, correct you have to donate it all, but you can keep money in the account Cause, like I, keep money in the account to help amp up the next year through like paying people to market in et cetera.
Speaker 2:So what's exciting about next year? What's going to go on next year?
Speaker 3:So it's the fifth year anniversary, which is going to be awesome. So back to the point like I invited out a few people to help, like just to see the event. I got Big Race Fish Camp down south of Gandy yeah, Very, very involved for next year it sounds like I'll make it happen. Flying Cattle is a meat market on McDill. That's awesome. I go there all the time. The CEO came out, Loved the event and it's just stuff like that that's really going to help grow it. And then I had a family friend who's in a band called parrotfish. They're awesome. Y'all should check them out like a kind of indie rock and they can do any type of music.
Speaker 3:Uh, they came out and they're obviously in nashville and they're lights out, they're phenomenal. And then another guy named houston keen was phenomenal as well. He played that year. Okay, you were there and they're like we got bands and then connor's up in nashville, a pair of fish. He's like. I got guys who come out here in a heartbeat so like, obviously, as entertainment grows and you have these top companies in the area, it's going to attract the crowd. Yeah, so I got chill bros out. I had brisket shop on armenia, um, and it was. I mean, it was lights out. People just ate it up.
Speaker 2:Have you heard of the Seminole Heights Meat Market?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so they helped originally as well, and even the Hyde Park Meat Market as well. No, because they're More of a restaurant. Yeah, it's just not. It's not our vibe. Like I play very big into, like the community Butcher shop.
Speaker 3:Tampa community. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, like this year all in I did I think it was 120 grand Jesus. But then, like when I look at it, I take away that 50 in my mind. My uncle taught me take away that 50, see what you raised yourself, right. So it came out to whatever. It was like 70, 75.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was like 70, 75 yeah, which was that's still. It was pretty damn good. Yeah, I kind of hit myself my back of mind goal to hit for me and kevin as well, like kevin was big, big playing it. And then this year was also a big help because I had being home and buddies being home. I had friends coming out to help, like friend nash, friend Nash, kevin was there, demi, my older brother was out, franco got some K guys from UF, my cousin Xander and Nicole was huge. It's like the more you grow something, the people see it and it's nice with those people because they've been there since day one so I know they're not in it, just to be in it.
Speaker 3:Right, right, yes, it's just so. I hit the mark and the stage is like today's final touches actually on the stage. Um, that's awesome, and yeah, so it, it was awesome, it was really cool to see. Um, I mean, the day is just, it's just super fun. It's like I had a whole lamb at our tent this year just roasting on a spit the whole time. So it's like that's how it's different. You're not going to go to, like majority of these barbecue competitions. You're going to go to and the barbecue is already done.
Speaker 1:It's done, it's just your classic ribs and right brisket. It's redundant, so I'm like we're doing it, we're as you keep going. There's going to be, you know, copy copycats and things like that. But I mean, I think you're doing it the right way with the. You know the charitable deal and you know I can't fucking wait. I'm pissed I didn't come this year, I itch.
Speaker 3:Like once the day is over, it's like I'm just itching.
Speaker 1:Like obviously Ready for the next, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And then, like this year was just super fun to see I had over 500 people come out this year. Last year it was probably 100 to 200. And that's just. I was in awe and amazement. I never expected that because it was just a kickback family friend thing at the house. And then I was like I'm going to try and make it something like this where I can actually have an impact and live up to my great-grandfather, my grandfather, dad, my uncle, and then my mom's side, my great, my, my pop, with my grandpa, who's super charitable as well in the daytona beach area. So I'm like I gotta like, I gotta do like this. And then I mean it's a grind like day of like.
Speaker 1:I like there's probably 24 hours on the clock. You're not sleeping. I had one hour of sleep the day before, that's.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So it's absolutely crazy and shit goes haywire the day of. I don't see people like this year the judging got all like jacked up. I had to go save it. Me and my girlfriend were like we sat, like we didn't even say hi to people, we just sat there for four hours and fixed it so that they, like that's what I'm saying like behind scenes, like you don't see stuff like that, right, so it's a grind. Like we fix it, everything goes well.
Speaker 3:And then like Demi's running around and like helped, like a government official was there that's high up in Trump's cabinet that showed out Shit yeah. And so showed out shit yeah. And so it's like people like I can't get the rizzler there, but I am, um, so like she was there, it was awesome. Like demy's helping out with that. And then like nash is going around helping the competitions going well and it's just, it's a great vibe because you know like that donation is going to help kids, and yeah, it's going to a community in tampa that really needs it and a historic part of tampa that makes tampa tampa.
Speaker 3:Well, tell us one more time when? When is it again? It'll be march 28th last saturday of 2026 in march, so march 28th 2026 will be the fifth annual we'll blow it out of the water.
Speaker 1:It's, how do they it? We have an.
Speaker 3:Instagram at ntlmeetday and then our website is wwwntlmeetdaycom. So that's where we'll see everything. I know I kind of went on a huge spiel here. The website and the Instagram will kind of really show you how we're a more fun, energetic and laid-back event for a good cause, to really help out a school. That is the definition of Tampa in my mind, just.
Speaker 1:Sicilian old Tampa Sicilian.
Speaker 3:Spanish, cuba, everything. The whole nine yards, and I think Tampa needs to keep that in their identity A hundred percent Helping out the community, because that's what it's all about. Man At the end of the day.
Speaker 1:Any any last thing you got to you want to shout out or Not really.
Speaker 3:I mean we hit all aspects, I mean it's all. I mean this is more therapy than anything.
Speaker 1:If anything in my mind it came out. Man for sure it's been fun. So now you got to get back and make some cold calls. Yeah, I got to get back and make it work.
Speaker 3:Keep the lights on. Back to reality. Yeah, keep the lights on.
Speaker 1:Well, cool man hey love you man, love you God man that was awesome.
Speaker 1:Thank you All right, folks, don't forget like, comment, share, subscribe, sports and the uh social media pages up by then. Hopefully we'll get them done. All right, man, appreciate y'all lex again. Appreciate you, man. That was awesome. We'll see you guys soon. We got nectar, nootropics all right, it's got cognoscent in it. It's got caffeine 50 milligrams of caffeine. I'm gonna 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 kind of buzz, so to speak.
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