Episode 2: Robert Golden

On Episode 2, Former Pittsburgh Steelers safety and University of Arizona standout Robert Golden joins Rudy for one of the most inspiring conversations yet. From wild college stories with Rob Gronkowski and life inside Arizona football… to surviving the pressure of the NFL… to walking away from football and building a $28 MILLION state-of-the-art school — this episode goes deep.

Robert opens up about going undrafted, earning his spot with the Steelers, life under Mike Tomlin, the culture shock from Arizona heat to Pittsburgh winters, and the emotional impact of losing his father during his NFL career. He also reveals how a mentor inspired him to create Golden Charter Academy — a revolutionary environmental-focused school changing the lives of hundreds of kids in Fresno, California.

The conversation also dives into:
 🔥 Wild Tucson & college football stories
 🔥 Playing with Gronk & Nick Foles
 🔥 NFL locker room culture
 🔥 Why modern education is broken
 🔥 AI schools & the future of learning
 🔥 Raising kids with discipline & purpose
 🔥 Environmental stewardship & leadership
 🔥 Cabo, Cancun & post-NFL life

This episode is funny, emotional, motivational, and packed with real talk about sports, education, family, success, and legacy.

#RobertGolden #PittsburghSteelers #NFLPodcast #ArizonaWildcats #Gronkowski #MikeTomlin #CollegeFootball #SportsPodcast #Education #PodcastInterview #RudyBeGood #SteelersNation #NFLStories #Entrepreneur #YouthLeadership

00:00 Introduction and Early Life
02:55 College Experience at University of Arizona
06:04 Playing in the Heat of Tucson
08:56 Leisure and Social Life in Tucson
11:55 Transition to the NFL
14:52 Cultural Shift to Pittsburgh
17:58 Retirement and Community Engagement
20:55 Founding the Golden Charter Academy
23:45 Vision for the New School
25:56 Architectural Vision and Community Impact
28:20 Community Development and Economic Growth
30:32 Student Enrollment and Growth Strategies
32:37 The Golden Rules of Education
34:23 Funding and Financial Sustainability
36:44 Understanding Average Daily Attendance (ADA)
41:06 Attendance Policies and Their Importance
44:39 Family Life and Environmental Stewardship
54:01 Transitioning from NFL to Education
55:08 Innovative School Concepts and AI Integration
59:09 Practical Learning in Modern Education
01:00:58 Travel Experiences and Family Adventures
01:08:58 Life After Football and Building a School
01:13:39 Future Aspirations and Community Impact

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Hello, Robert Golden, former leader of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and more importantly, the University of Arizona Wildcats football team. Bear down. Rob, what's going on?

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Bear down, brother Rudy, man. It's always good to connect, man. All is well and uh excited to be chopping it up with you, man, for the next hour or so.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

It's it's always a pleasure speaking with you and following up and just figuring out what's going on. I know every day you have something new going on. Um just real before we go into what what's going on now, okay. I want to kind of take a step back in your life and kind of talk about you grew up in Fresno, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Correct, correct. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

How did you how did you pick University of Arizona?

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Man, you know what's um interesting is uh when I was coming out of high school, uh, man, I was the number one defensive back in the state of California. And um at that time, my senior year, I started getting a bunch of scholarships. But um Arizona found me, man, when I was a two-star athlete my sophomore year. Um, and they knew that I was going to be a diamond in a rough. So they offered me my first scholarship um in my sophomore year, and they stayed in touch with me, built a relationship with um the coaching staff, and uh man, it felt like home when I went to Tucson. So that's how I ended up being a U of A Wildcat.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

I mean, Tucson is a great place. I obviously I went to school there, spent a lot of time there. Um so when you were in Tucson, okay, the football program is obviously a lot different than when like a regular college student goes there, right? Yeah, so you go to classes, right? Correct. And but like when you're not in season, what are you doing on the off-season?

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Well, man, you gotta remember I went to U of A um during the Rob Gronkowski day.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

So uh that was that was my follow-up was you played with Rob Gronkowski.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Correct, man. And uh when I took a visit there, uh Rob Gronkowski was my host. So uh I spent a lot of time with Rob and his brother Chris um during the times, but man, those guys, although they party hard, um, they worked hard as well, too, man. So um it was just good being around those guys, um, not only just going to school learning, but then being able to hit the gym, hit the training, hit the field with those guys, um, and as we prepare for the season. But um we had a great run together, man, not only with Rob, but a lot of other guys that was able to go off and have NFL careers, man. We were uh the prime of Arizona football at that time, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Yeah, you wasn't Nick Foles was there too, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yeah, Nick Foles was my starting quarterback. In fact, Nick and I, we came in um in the same recruiting class. So had Nick Foles there, had a Trevin Wade there, Kriner, Jeron Kriner, and uh many other guys that was able to go off and play on the next level, but it was a good group of guys, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

So I went back for homecoming. You know, I told you that the uh back in November. And this was November, right? So it was incredibly hot. I was sitting right by the field. It was incredibly how hot is it playing down there?

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Man, I'll tell you what, um, before they got the turf, you know, playing on that natural grass, uh, it felt good. You know, we used that to our advantage because we practiced in it every single day. But now that they got that turf out there, man, uh, it's 120 degrees outside, it's at least 160 on the field. Um and that's one of the things that the coaches, even when I was playing there, used to heavily emphasize you gotta hydrate, you gotta hydrate. But when you see teams come to U of A or come to Arizona in the months of August, um, September, October, man, those guys be cramping up, those guys be dehydrated. Um, so that is part of the home field advantage of being able to play um in that heat in Arizona, man. But it was uh definitely tough um to get used to, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Yeah, because I mean it's ridiculously hot just sitting there. I was like, oh, and especially like you're playing in the sun, and then the sun kind of fades beyond the right, but yeah, you you're like in the sun, you got the helmet on, you got the gear on.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

It's brutal, man. But you know, I think this year uh U of A just announced that they are moving to the visitor sideline instead of being in front of the Zona Zoo. So um the Zona Zoo side, man, that's where the sun is just beaming at. So now they're gonna put the opposing teams on that side and the home team at least have the shade. But you got to remember, too, Arizona is pretty much the number one place um for NFL and for MLB players to go and train in the offseasons because of the heat. And if you're training out there and you get used to working in that dry heat, man, there's no other weather that you can't um get out there and perform in, man. So it's a it's an advantage if you can get used to the heat, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

Yeah. So so did you think when other teams came that you guys used it to an advantage? Kind of like when teams go to like Denver to play in mile high.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

Oh, yeah. Oh, absolutely, man. Um, you know, and that was one of the reasons um that we wasn't even privileged to have a dome back then because regardless, we were going to be outside um working in the heat, man. But one of the cool things that the coaches used to do to kind of give us a break was, you know, during training camp time, we used to travel up to Fort Wachuca. Um, and we used to do our training camps up there in the mountains where it was a little bit cooler. But um, once you get down from Fort Wachuca and you start preparing for the season, man, we were out there in the heat, in the prime of the day, um, really building that stamina. But we use it um to our advantage the same way the Pittsburgh Steelers um use the cold weather to their advantage, especially during playoff time. Um, that is trying to that's the home field advantage that teams usually try to create. It's how can we use the elements? How can we use our fans? How could we use the whole environment to create some type of home field advantage? So um we definitely use that um during our time for sure.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Right. And so now let's talk about leisure time in Tucson. I always ask people I mean, I had I threw a lot of the parties in Tucson, the bars and the clubs, and I always have the football guys coming over. Now I I had an incident once with with uh the two the 1999 uh Arizona Wildcat football team, and Nick told me uh kind of staved my ass. But Chris McAllister days about it. There was a lot of guys on that team. Um but we you know there's so much to do in Tucson. Did you go out at night?

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Did you go to the bars? Well, yeah, man. Um, I mean, that's what Tucson is known for. You know, it's a college town. So uh all of the college, you know, not only athletes, but um student body man, we were always looking for something to do. And um, back in my time being at U of A, man, we used to throw the biggest pool parties up at Star Pass.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

Oh, yeah, Star Pass.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

Those those were legendary. But um absolutely, man, spent a lot of time on Fourth Avenue um on Parkside over there as well. And um, downtown Tucson wasn't what it was, what it is right now, that's for sure. But uh man, it used to be a lot of good times um hanging out out there. But one of the things that I had the privilege of having is again Rob Ronkowski. Um, you know, his house was literally right down the street from the stadium. So uh we spent plenty of time um after the games and on the weekends over at his house. Um and his place was the place to be. So, man, we had lots of cool parties, and the guy had a jacuzzi right in the middle of his front yard. So you can only imagine how wild those parties used to get, but uh it was a good time for sure.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

So do you were the party were you did you prefer going to the parties or going to like fourth half?

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Man, fourth half was um definitely um a bonus anytime you were over there. But when Rob Gronkowski threw a party, you wanted to be at Rob Gronkowski House. So uh when he left, I'll tell you this, he left, um, he ended up entering the draft early, which was uh my junior year, and um my senior year was super boring uh once Rob left, that's for sure. But uh it was good times uh hanging out in Tucson, man, especially on Fourth Ave, and then downtown before all of the upgrades came for sure.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Have have have you seen Fourth Ave like recently?

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Oh yeah, man. You talking about the the the new apartment complexes that they built over there, they upgraded the Jack in the Box right there on Fourth and Park, man. I mean, it's a whole new place there.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

And Maloney's is gone.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Maloney's is gone, yeah. Shandy's still there, right? Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

There's a there's a building, it's like it's crazy, and yeah, downtown is I mean, when I when I was there, downtown was still happening, it was just a little different. We had different places, and when you got there, they were they were gone already, right? But now they have like it's like buildings, uh there's you know, bars, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Man, you can bar hop. People bar hop.

SPEAKER_02 10:23

I mean, I don't know if it's very safe, but people are bar hopping down there.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Yeah, restaurants.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

Let's talk about Tucson restaurants. Did you have like a go-to spot besides Jack in the Box?

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Well, I tell you what, man, there's a really popular burger spot, Lindsay on Fourth Ave. Okay, man. Oh my goodness. Uh, they used to have the guy from Man vs. Food go on there and try to eat the burger challenge. Uh, so that used to be one of my favorite shows. In fact, I wanted that job so bad back when I was in college. So I used to try to do all of the things and try all of the restaurants that he tried. But Lindsay on Fourth Ave, that's one of my favorite burger spots. And then um, if you want some true authentic Hispanic food, Minitos was another one of my favorites down in the South Side. And then you can't forget about BK, man. That's right there on, I want to say it's on Glen Avenue, I believe it is. But BK, I'm not talking Burger King. I am talking the original BK that sells to Sonoran dogs, bacon wrap, extra mayo on there. Those are some of my favorite spots. And those are my go-to spots whenever I head back to town, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 11:37

I've never, I never had, I never went to BK.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

BK, man. They are famous. So it's um right on, I want to say it's on Glen and Park Avenue. Um, heading down, is that Park Avenue? Yeah, I believe it's Glenn and Park Avenue. Um, it's a famous spot, man. They do the city. Oh, wait, I know where it is.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

I know where it is. I know where it is. I've never been there. But actually, we just we just passed it when we was back in Tucson with my daughter. We passed it, and I was like, it said hot dogs on there, and I was like, oh yes, man, it's the best.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

I'm talking about bacon wrap, mayo on there. They put all the toppings on there. If you want a Sonoran dog, um, you can't get it anywhere else better than BK, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Next time I'm in Tucson, I'm definitely heading over there and grabbing.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Man, get you two of them. Get two of them.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Um, so okay. Tucson. You you you're a senior, you left senior year, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:38

Yep, correct. I did.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

You weren't drafted.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

Undrafted.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Undrafted. Undrafted to Pittsburgh. How did it come about Pittsburgh Steelers?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Yeah, you know, what's funny, um, Pittsburgh, they came to the pro day, my junior year, um, which was leading up to it. And um, I had a conversation, really quick conversation with them at that time. But, you know, throughout the draft process, man, I knew I was either going to Miami or the New Orleans Saints. Um, because those were the two teams that I was in conversations with um throughout the whole draft process. But uh, you know, as soon as the draft ended, I went undrafted and um I get a call from the general manager, Kevin Coberg, um, shortly after the draft, and he's like, Man, Robert, we want to bring you in to um compete for one of our backup spots. We got Ron Clark and Troy Palomalu here. They're going to be exiting pretty soon. You can be here for a long time if you come in and compete. Um, and that was really the furthest in-depth conversation that I ever had with the Steelers. I'm like, man, I'm not just trying to be a camp body. I'm really trying to come in and make the 53. Um, and they were like, well, this is the place to be. And uh they ended up flying me out. I went to Pittsburgh, I tried out, made the rookie mini camp, uh, then went to training camp and balled out and made the opening day 53-man roster, man. It was a uphill battle that I had to climb, but uh I was destined to be in a black and gold, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 14:12

And there you go, there you go. And so how so you leave from 120-degree weather to negative 120.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

So, what what was that like? Because I mean, you came from California, you went to Arizona, and now you're like in the snow, it's mad.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Yeah, it was it was definitely a culture shock, that's for sure. Uh, you know, just even being in a downtown, high-flying city, you know. People know I come from California, but I come from Fresno, California. So uh very small town. Um, and then obviously going to Tucson, um, very similar to Fresno, you know, especially in the um population numbers and the city, you know, width. But then I get out to Pittsburgh and I'm in this big city, and it's cold, but it's a blue-collar working city. And um, it was a great opportunity, man. It was a great experience. I'll tell you what, the first day that I truly knew that I was on the East Coast in cold weather is when I woke up on Christmas Day um in 2012, um, and I had my first Snow White Christmas mask. So um that was always magical. I mean, you grow up watching movies like Home Alone, and you see Christmas had a bunch of snow uh when kids woke up in the morning. And just being in California and living in Arizona, I never had that privilege. But 2012, when I woke up for Christmas and it was snow white out there, man, it was like heaven.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

I mean, between you and me, I'm we so we're I'm in New York, I'm actually in New Jersey right now, but we've had a bad winter. There's a there was a lot of snow. And now I can't wait until it gets warm.

SPEAKER_01 16:02

I hear you.

SPEAKER_02 16:03

Starting, I mean, now it's like sunny out, but it's not warm, it's like maybe 50 degrees, which is kind of cold.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Wow, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

I mean, here I saw a guy driving around in a convertible, so it's like it's you know, it's it's weird, but it's yeah, the cold, the cold weather is like I don't know, I'm kind of sick of it. But so the black and gold, is that what you so you're doing the school? Yeah, is that like the black and gold that you have? There's insignia. Is that the color because Steelers?

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Well, yeah, you know, um, I'll tell you a quick interesting story, man. When I was in high school, our colors were black and gold as well, too. Edison High School, man. So um our uniforms resembled the Steelers' uniforms. And uh my mom, she had got a 21 customized jersey for the Pittsburgh Steelers and put golden on the back and wore that jersey every Friday um while I was in high school, attending my high school games. And then, you know, you fast forward five years later, man. I'm playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and she's still wearing that same 21 golden jersey that she had customized when I was in high school. So uh the black and gold ran in my veins uh before the Steelers, obviously, with where I grew up at and went to high school at. Um I grew up playing in the Edison Pop Warner Leagues all the way until I got to high school. So I was wearing black and gold uh from when I first started playing ball until um I finished my career. Arizona, it put the red, white, and blue in my spirit, uh uh, which you know definitely was needed um to add the color schemes to it. And also just from the patriarchy um level that I bring, you know, to the environments of what I create. But um black and gold was definitely um destined for us to create the school colors after, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

Right, right. Um, and happy birthday to your mom.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Yes, it's her birthday today, man. She's uh 65 today, and uh we're gonna celebrate it well with her tonight.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Nice. What are you what are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Uh so got all my brothers uh and our and our children, all of her grandchildren. Uh we're going over to her house. I got this big uh taco truck that is pulling up to the house. And I'm gonna serve the whole family tacos. We're gonna um pick up her birthday cake um later today. Uh, gonna hang out, play some cards, um, but can't stay out too late because we gotta all wake up in the morning and go to our jobs. But uh it's gonna be a good time hanging out with her tonight, celebrating. Then we head to Cancun on Sunday. Um, so she's spending a spring break with me and my family out in Mexico, man. So uh it's gonna be a good time celebrating her, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 18:57

That's great, that's great. Um back to back to the Steelers real quick, and then and then I'm not I'm not gonna really talk about football that much. But you were in the you were what six years in the league?

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Six years with the Steelers and then uh finished up with the Kansas City Chiefs in my seventh year.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Seventh year, right? And then okay, that's it. I'm done with football right now. I might come back to it, you never know. Maybe something will pop up later. But how did you so like how did you get this idea for a school for a school?

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yep. Man, you know what's interesting is um throughout my time of playing in the NFL, I always came back to my hometown and I developed mentoring programs. Um, I developed an anti-bullying program with Dick Sporting Goods. Um, I developed, you know, these different camps to really help children understand that, you know, sports was what they did, but it wasn't who they were as a human being. Um, but I was always active in my community, active with children, and had a mentor that told me, man, when you're done playing in the NFL, you're gonna open up your own school. Um and that kind of went in one ear and out the other because I was in the prime of my career in the NFL. But umce I retired, man, I knew that I wanted to create something that was gonna not only help people thrive, but help the planet thrive as well. And uh decided to create an environmental stewardship school that can help kids understand um what's going on in their environment, but make them be civically engaged as well, um, to have this hands-on learning opportunity to make their communities better. So it started as a seed that was planted from a mentor of mine, um, just given the nature that I've was always heavily active with children, and uh what started as a seed has grown into what it currently is right now.

SPEAKER_02 20:54

So when you when you got the idea, uh-huh, I mean, right now you're you're in the process of building a full-on school. But before that, you did what you did a uh like a mini school, right? Like a smaller.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Yeah, yeah, we um we're we're currently operating right now, and we're in our fifth year. And what was crazy was uh when I was putting this school together, we were in the middle of COVID. So um a lot of schools, man, were closing down, especially private schools and other charter schools. They were closing their doors because everybody wanted to go distant learning and um enrollment was you know all over the place. So uh here I come. I step in on a scene in 2021 and I'm like, man, I want this campus. It was a former private Catholic school that has shed its doors in the middle of COVID and decided that they wasn't opening up anymore. And I'm like, I'll take this campus. Um, and it was funny because they're like, Man, schools aren't even open right now. Why would you want to take over? This campus, I'm like, I have this idea to utilize this campus as a stationary place, but our kids are going to be outdoors, they're going to be learning about the environments, traveling to the mountains, learning at the river, learning at the zoo. So I really just needed a hub location and ended up taking over the current facility that we're operating right now, which has been able to accommodate over 400 kids. And we're yes, we're currently operating. Yep. Well, we serve, you know, transitional kindred through seventh grade right now. And once we move into our state-of-the-art facility in July, we'll be able to accommodate about 550 kids, man. So it started small and it's grown. And uh we're going to be able to add about 150 more kids to this new site once we move into it in July of this year.

SPEAKER_02 22:54

So how many, how many grades you got K through six, you said?

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Um K through seventh right now. Um next year we are at K through eighth. And uh hopefully if I continue to want to do this, I may take it to a high school. But um, as of right now, we serve transitional kind, which is like a preschool, um, probably in New Jersey, but it's transitional kind through eighth grade.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

And how many, how many classes per grade?

SPEAKER_00 23:23

Um, so we have two classes per grade level uh from TK all the way to eighth grade, um, about 27 kids per class. Um, but what's the unique motto about our school is that we have a full-time educator and a full-time um teacher aid or learning aid for our kids. So um our ratios of the kids that we are able to serve in a classroom, um, they all have at least two adults. But then for some of our kids that may have special needs, special learning disabilities, um, we're able to push inside of those Gen Ed classes. Um, so at any given time, there could be between two to four adults inside of a classroom of 24 to 27 kids on a daily basis. So it's been a really unique model that we've had um centered around place-based education and where we really get to utilize a zoo every day um as an extended learning laboratory for our classroom, man. So it's been cool. Um, a lot of kids have gravitated, a lot of families have gravitated towards the model because it's new, it's innovative, and you're giving a kid an opportunity to not only learn um uh from a textbook, but you're giving them the opportunity to actually put their hands in the dirt um and make a difference. So um that's been a unique thing about us, man. We're going into our sixth year next year and uh want to be moving into a $28 million state-of-the-art facility.

SPEAKER_02 24:52

So the the school's called the Golden Academy.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

Golden Charter Academy, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

Golden Charter Academy. Okay, let's let's talk about the new school because I've seen images. Yes. It looks pretty state of the art.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Oh, absolutely. You know, um, I think when I was interviewing architects, you know, I really wanted to go with an architect that was going to design a school that was timeless, but also design a school that when people drive by it, they say, What's that? And um he, Arthur Dyson, was the guy that I came up uh um and ended up hiring. He studied under the great architect Frank Lloyd Wright, um, and was able to really learn a lot about being an organic architect from Frank Lloyd. And uh when I shared my vision with him about how I didn't just want a regular school, but I wanted something that was going to really be able to allow us to utilize outdoor learning spaces and also have this indoor-outdoor component to it. Um, he was able to take literally the vision out of my mind and draw it out, literally draw it out. And uh I knew exactly that that's what I was looking for. And um he's literally brought a vision that I had in my mind um to life. And I am forever grateful for um Dyson's architects that is here based out of Fresno, California.

SPEAKER_02 26:19

It's it's definitely a unique looking building. I mean, can you like so we're obviously we can't show it, but can you describe it what it looks like so that people kind of know what I'm talking about? Because the only thing I could probably think it kind of looks like is Jimmy Goldstein's house in LA.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Yes, absolutely. So um, in fact, you know, Frank Lautner, who was the architect that designed the Goldstein residence, uh, him and Arthur Dyson um studied together um on being organic architects. So um when we designed that building, our building, and then when John Lautner designed um the Goldstein residence, one of the things that they said was that they didn't want was straight lines or corners. Um every single, you know, unique feature on our facility is that there are no straight lines, like everything goes at an angle in the facility. All of our classrooms have this unique rectangular shape to it, but it also provides an outdoor learning space that has like this triangular shape to it. But the goal was to really design something that was timeless. And um, when you're looking at the building from the outside, looking in, you will think that it's an indoor school. But when you actually walk inside of the campus, man, you're exposed to all of the natural elements. You have this really unique courtyard that is going to have a bunch of trees that are going to provide like this Zen garden feel inside of it. But, you know, our pathway to education is through environmental education, and we really wanted to incorporate the environment as much as possible inside of this facility. So it's definitely unique. We put a building like this inside of a community that hasn't seen a significant investment in over 60 years. Um, so you can imagine um, you know, what this is doing, not only for the economy in that area, but um the sense of pride that the community members that live over there in that area have um due to the Golden Charter Academy moving in that community. So we're excited to be moving over there um come July of this year, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Have you since you've been building it, have you seen like other developments go like kind of like around the same area? There's like, hey, I see this building being built. Right. What is it? Oh, it's a school. Okay, well, I'm gonna start developing here, developing here, and like just more businesses are coming to the area because of the school being built.

SPEAKER_00 28:55

Yeah, absolutely. I think um what's really unique is again, we sit adjacent where I'm building my campus at. It's adjacent to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo. And um, our zoo here in Fresno is, you know, a top 10 zoo in the U.S. Um, it's uh credited by the associations of zoos and aquariums. Um here you have right adjacent to this state-of-the-art facility, um, oh, you have a world-class zoo. And um, across the street from where we're building our school at, um, the zoo is building this really magnificent horticulture facility that is going to allow our kids to be able to garden with their horticulture team, um, plant their own fruits and vegetables. Um, but that facility is going to be really unique and nice. They actually just broke ground on that um this month and started grading and all of that. So um that is scheduled to open up next year. Um, but then, you know, the city of Fresno, man, they're doing a lot of, you know, infrastructure around there. We have this high-speed, you know, rail train that was supposed to be done 10 years ago. Um, but hopefully that comes to fruition. But they built this overpath bridge that is less than a mile away from the school. They're closing the off-ramp um on the freeway exit um to be able to create more of a pedestrian feel um in that area. So there's a lot of development that is happening that I didn't even know about until I started developing the school. And um, it was kind of just like the golden opportunity for um us to be able to develop our site where we're building it at. But it's going to be a really transformational space um once the school is open and all of the other improvements that is happening around it um come to completion, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

So, like what how do how initially, when you were opening up, you didn't have 400 kids. Where'd the where'd the kids come from? How'd they hear about it?

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Yeah, so you know, interestingly, we started as a transitional kinder through third grade school, and every year we've been just adding a grade. So our kindergarten kids went to first grade, first grade kids went to second grade, and every year we just added a transitional kinder classroom. Um, but when we first started, man, we started TK through third with like 180 kids. Um, and we've added kids so much so that every single year we've had to do a um public random lottery just to determine who gets inside of the school. So um we've been doing this lottery um based on families. The great thing about us is that we're a public um school. So any zip code kid, no matter where they live at, could attend the school. And uh it's funny, man. We represent over 40% of the city of Fresh. No zip codes from where our student body has come from. But um the crazy thing about all of this is that I never really did know strategic recruitment strategies to go and recruit kids. Um, a lot of it just been word of mouth, man. And uh people seeing our kids out at the zoo, they see our kids at the river, they see our kids at Yosemite National Park, you know, learning in the outdoor spaces and really putting their hands in the dirt um to make a difference uh from an environmental standpoint. Um and you know, when you see that, and then you tack on our branding and you tack on the former NFL player opened up a school. Um, that is how the word has been spreading, and uh we've been growing every year um since we first opened in 2021. So the kids wear a uniform. They wear a uniform, yes.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

And the uniform is the black and gold.

SPEAKER_00 32:38

Their uniform is the black and gold, man. They gotta wear the logo, black or khaki pants, and uh that's the uniform they wear daily.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

So the parents who don't have the kids in the school see the kids and they're like, who are these sharp dressed kids? Where can they go? They ask questions, they're like, huh, I want my kids to go there, and that's how you grow.

SPEAKER_00 32:59

And that's how we've grown, you know. And um, I think too, what what's really unique about us is that we're an academy, you know. So um their structure at our school, you know, unlike um your traditional public schools, man, we really try to not only teach um responsibility and respect, but we've grounded everything in our golden rules, um, which is give respect, obligation, love, learning, dedication, elevate, and never quit. Um, so those golden rules are our foundation on, you know, truly being able to educate kids, man. You can't teach a bunch of kids to learn, man, if it's chaotic inside of a classroom space. So um it's been really unique, man, to ground everything around golden. And um, that's been our motto. Be golden, be excellent, be great.

SPEAKER_02 33:50

The golden rules, the golden rules, or are they the golden rules? You know what I mean? Is it a play? Is it a play on your name?

SPEAKER_00 33:57

Absolutely. Um, it's a play on the brand, that's for sure. But you know, every day uh Marcus recite the golden rules. We talk about what it means to truly be golden. Um, and it is embedded in every single thing that we do from our curriculum to our positive behavior reinforcements. Um, everything is really trying to position these kids to um not only be great academically, but be great citizens of their community and from a global ambassador standpoint. So uh yeah, it's a play on the name, but um it's also bigger than me, that's for sure. It's all about being golden, which simply means um be excellent for sure.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

I mean, it it's a great name. The your last name is a great name, and you could do so many, so many things with it. Absolutely to do that to for the branding purposes, you know.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

The school is a public school, right?

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Correct.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

Where does the funding come from? Does it come from the state? Does it come from Fresno?

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Yep. So we're a public school and we're funded the same way that your traditional public schools are funded um around the country, you know. If you have butts and seats, then you collect um ADA, which is pretty much your average daily attendance. But um, for the state of California, um, each kid is roughly between 12 to about 15,000 to fund their education. Um, unlike your traditional public schools, um, you know, many of the budgets that you operate under, um, they are funded, you know, through your public school system. So for a Fresno Unified School District, who we are authorized by, um, they're the third biggest district in the state of California. So they operate on a $2.3 billion budget. Um, so all of their facilities are covered, all of their um curriculum, food programs, all of that is covered under there, versus when you're operating as an independent charter school like us, you know, our funding got to cover facilities, it got to cover staffing, food programs, et cetera. So if you can imagine to truly offer a world-class educational opportunity, um, lots of fundraising have to continue to be done. Lots of grants have to be going after. And luckily for me, I've been able to leverage a lot of my contacts and um relationships that I've built over the course of my life that um have believed in my vision and has believed in the journey that I take into be more than an athlete. And um, it's afforded me the opportunity to not only provide these kids with everything they need, but be able to build them a state-of-the-art facility as well. So it's been a lot of relationships that I've established, a lot of networking, a lot of fundraising, a lot of brand recognition to really help us do this thing at a level of which we will like to do it at, but um the work don't stop, man, to really be able to offer the world-class opportunity that we're looking to give the kids. That's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 37:00

Yeah, absolutely. You need money to make it to make it happen. You absolutely you said ADA. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 37:05

What average daily attendance.

SPEAKER_02 37:08

Uh so I uh I want you to explain what that is because there's a reason why I'm why I'm asking it. Explain what it what ADA is.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

So so there is it's unlike your your um facility spaces when you got to have ADA access for people to you know have wheelchair access and compliance um spaces in between. But when we talk an ADA in the education system, it's your average daily attendance. So for a kid, they may get $15,000 a year if they show up every single day. But if they only show up 80% of the time, then you get the average daily attendance portion of that kid. So um what's supposed to be 15,000 if they have 100% um, you know, attendance may be 13,000, you know, if they're only showing up about 90% of the time. And it can dwindle all the way down depending on you know what um attendance look like on a daily basis. But um, if you can imagine when your kids miss school and your their the front office is calling, like, hey, we need that absent excuse, um, is because they're calling because every time a kid misses a day, um, it disrupts the funding formula. But average daily attendance.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

So I I I knew there was something with it. I just didn't know what it was until you just point out because every year my kids go to public school, and every year we have that first meeting with the school. Everybody go goes to the auditorium. Now we go to a very small school. There's about it averages between 10 to 20 kids per class. There's only one class per grade. It's a public school. Very small. It's K well pre-K to eighth grade.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 38:58

It's very small. It's kind of like a private school, but not a private school. Right. Um, but they always have this meeting with the parents in the auditorium and they cannot stress enough attendance. I mean, they they probably mention it at least 30 times attendance, attendance, attendance, when you're your kid here, they gotta be on time. The uh see uh butts in the seats, they have to be here. Now for for that to happen, well, like do you have a set uh like 15 absences allowed per school unexcused, or how does that work?

SPEAKER_00 39:34

Yeah, you know, um there's only so many um guardrails um that you can emphasize when you're a public school. Um, but you know, we do highly encourage families to um be in attendance on a daily basis after they miss a certain amount of days or have a certain amount of truancies, um, then they get issued, you know, a SARP, which is where, you know, the student counselors and attendance people may end up doing a home visit to figure out why is the kid missing so many do? Is it, you know, the kid can't wake up on time? Um that's when they start going through the SARP process to try to get a better understanding why the kid is missing so much. Um, if attendance doesn't improve after the SART process, then the kid does run the risk of being dropped in enrollment. Um and especially when you have a dropped. Yeah, yeah, they will get dropped. But um, especially when you have a waiting list of kids that are looking to get inside the school, um, you want to be able to provide that educational opportunity. And if the kids are missing a lot of days, then that means they're missing out on a lot of learning. And if they're missing out on a lot of learning, they're messing with your test scores. And if they're messing with your test scores, they're messing with your funding. Yeah, so it's a whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 40:56

And I can't say they everything goes together. So like the school gets more funding if the kids are there, yeah, the test scores are up, yeah, everybody's good, and then it shows up in rankings, and then you get more money that way. It's uh it's a whole system.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

It's a whole system.

SPEAKER_02 41:14

So the whole ADA thing, like over here. So we I told you we had snow, a lot of snow. They have snow days already built in, but because I I guess there was late openings or something, they added another day to our school schedule. But the problem is they just notified us, I think, like a two weeks ago, but everybody is already like going to camp or already have trips lined up. So I think that's gonna hold screw with their whole age.

SPEAKER_00 41:45

No one's gonna be able to tell. Well, I'll tell you what, when it when it's a when it's a small school like what you just mentioned, you know, 10 to 20 kids um per classroom, one classroom per grade level, man, I can imagine every kid counts um for them to be able to meet their budgets and pay and you know their staff, etc. But um crazy thing is we ended up having to add two days um to our calendars um this year. We didn't have snow, but um um we had a lot of different um activities because we start school before your public your other public schools start school at um and we have to be done by the end of May. So we're on a 10-month calendar, and most of your public schools are on an 11-month calendar. Um so because we started later, uh we usually start at the beginning of August and we're done by the end of May. Um, most public schools they start in the middle of August um and they don't finish until the end of June here in California. So we ended up adding two more days um on our calendar where we were able to, you know, add a day from our um winter break, and then we added a day before um after we returned from spring break. So uh I know our families wasn't too happy about that as well, but man, we're trying to balance budgets out here.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Yeah, I hear you. I I completely understand. I mean, now I get this ADA thing, like I didn't I knew there was something monetarily, I just couldn't figure it out. I thought maybe there was like a teacher bonus, maybe there was something else. I was I wasn't really sure because there was so much emphasis every year. Gotta be in school, gotta be in school. Yeah, and God forbid you miss something. Oh, they call you, they write you an email, you get a letter. I mean, I mean my kids haven't missed that much, but uh still, we still it's a real thing, man.

SPEAKER_00 43:46

Uh you know, growing up, I remember when I was either late for school or we missed school. The attendance person used to always call, leave a voicemail or so, they want that excuse absent. And I didn't understand. Understand why that was so important back then, but I definitely get it now for sure.

SPEAKER_02 44:05

So if you haven't like a doctor's note, is that doesn't that's okay?

SPEAKER_00 44:09

Yeah, it excuses the absent um for the kid, but you still get impacted on ADA. Oh, you still get impacted on ADA, you still get impacted, you know. So the only way that your ADA stays in, you can receive funding for it, is if a kid is going to be gone for like three or four days, and then you put them on an independent study where you can send work home with them. And if they come back, they turn their work in, um, then you can recover those days that they were out. But it has to be more than three days, it has to be notified to the school and ahead of time. Uh, so it's a whole process when it goes to compliance and um recouping that ADA, but man, it's necessary to keep the doors open.

SPEAKER_02 44:54

Yeah, that's it's it's not so okay. You have two boys now?

SPEAKER_00 44:59

Three boys, man. Three boys.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

Wait, when did the when the third one come out?

SPEAKER_00 45:04

I got the nine, the six, and the three-year-old now, man. But my my my three-year-old, he uh he's the baby boy, but he acts like the big brother. So uh it's it's funny just kind of seeing his personality, uh seeing him kind of overtake the house. But uh three boys, man, they keep us busy.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

So wait, nine, six, three?

SPEAKER_00 45:26

Nine, six, and three.

SPEAKER_02 45:27

Nine, six, three. So the so the nine-year-old is in your school?

SPEAKER_00 45:31

The nine-year-old and the six-year-old is that. The six-year-old is what, kindergarten? Kindergarten, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:37

Kindergarten. And nine is what, third grade?

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Third grade, correct.

SPEAKER_02 45:41

And so they're in the school. They look do they like the school? Not just because you're the dad, but do they really like the school?

SPEAKER_00 45:49

Man, you know what's really cool is my my my nine-year-old, he started at the school when we first opened in 2021 and transitional kindergarten. Um, and every year he's grown through the program, and now he's in third grade. But you know, what's really um pleasing for me as a dad is to know that I'm trying to raise up a bunch of environmental stewards, people that care about the earth, that care about their neighborhoods, that care about, you know, um our land that we're stewarding and going to be passing off to the next generation. Um, so to see my nine-year-old, you know, heavily emphasize that we must recycle. Um, we must, you know, conserve Earth's natural resources. He wants to have his own composting in the backyard. He's gardening. Like these are the tools that I was hoping um the kids gravitate towards and fully take on and start to run with themselves. And to see my son being very environmentally cautious and correcting the adults in his life to make sure that we're not leaving no trace and that we're making a great impact on our environment. Um, that's the benefit, man. And I tell you what, every week or two, our kids get to have a special trip. They go to the zoo every day, a grade level go to the zoo every day and use the zoo as their classroom, but then they have this really unique experience where they'll go to the Yosemite National Park or the Kings Canyon National Parks. And like those experiences is what really changes a lot of these kids' lives. And my son, long story short, man, obviously he's uh he's he's been blessed all of his life and he's had an opportunity to um have a lot of things that a lot of kids that attend the school don't get to have. But even the experiences that he's having at this school um has been life-changing for him. So he loves it. Um they wake me up every day to make sure that they're on time for school. So um I tell you what, if they continue to enjoy it the way that they are, um I feel like I'm doing a great job, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 48:03

So when he like on the weekend, is he at the kids at home with you gardening? Or like what are they what are they doing at home?

SPEAKER_00 48:10

Well, uh my son, my nine-year-old, um, he's a real boy, man. This is no doubt about that. He's going to um follow after my footsteps and be um a star when it comes to you know his football and athletic ability. Um, I'm not saying this because I'm his dad, but I'm obviously biased. But he's one of the best little eight, nine-year-olds that I've seen playing on the football field um this year. But um, with their mom, man, they have a huge garden in my backyard that they've grown and planted their own strawberries, their own cucumbers. So um they get to do all of those types of things. But what's really unique about him is that he loves football, uh, but he also loves being outdoors. So, you know, he wants to go on the hikes on the weekends, um, he wants to go sit out by the river um near San Joaquin. Um, he wants to do all of the outdoor nature hiking adventures that I didn't get into until I got into the NFL. So um the fact that he has a day pack um that he's ready to carry out into the mountains, and the fact that he loves going camping um with me and being out in the mountains, and he's doing it um unafraid at nine years old. Man, those are the type of things that I as a dad want for my kid to be able to experience the world and embrace the environment and um be out in nature and be one with it and love it and care for it. And the fact that he has that empathy for it right now, um, that's what excites me about the program for sure.

SPEAKER_02 49:51

It's it definitely teaches him the sense of responsibility that you have to be good to the environment, and the environment will be good to you. So that's that's definitely something because you see a lot of these kids, and like, you know, like I'll go down, we have like a center down here, like you know, down the street, and like you know, there's Whole Foods over there, there's a pizza place, and you'll see like a kid will be like throw something on the ground, you're like, Yeah, why are you throwing that on the ground? There's a garbage right there. Why are you doing that?

SPEAKER_00 50:17

Exactly. Have some respect for sure, man. And that's and that's the whole deal, you know. When I think about why, you know, we took the environmental aspect of it was like I mentioned, where we're building this school at, that community hasn't seen a significant investment um in over 50 plus years, you know. So when I was growing up in this small town of Fresno, the way that neighborhood looked at back then, it's the same way that it looks right now. Um, so in order for change to truly happen, we got to be the change, you know. We got to go inside of those communities, you know, plant the garden beds, plant the community gardens, do the community cleanups, um, put a lot of the love and infrastructure and the time um inside of these communities that's needed. And um, these kids are growing up in those neighborhoods. And if they want better for their community, they're gonna have to learn how to love it and nurture it and care for it, and um then grow off and do great things and come back and um be civically engaged to make it better, um, similar to my path and what I've been able to do. So um the whole goal is for these kids to love their environment, but then go off and do great things and come back and help make it become a better place for the next generation.

SPEAKER_02 51:34

Have you taken your kids back to Tucson to look at the cat eyes, more desert?

SPEAKER_00 51:40

Oh, yeah, man. I um I think it was um two seasons ago, um, I was the honorary captain for um the game at home. And so uh the family got to go out there with me, and um, they see dad's name and Jersey up on the football walls in there. So um it was a unique experience. Was that did you get bang the gong? Uh no. So uh when I when I went there, I don't think they were doing that at that time, but um I was able to do the catwalk with the team. Uh so I met them down um there on the mall. We walked down um in the parade, um, got to run the team out on the field, and then obviously I was there at the coin toss. Um, so it was a really cool experience, man. The kids and my wife got to see um dad back on his old stumping grounds, man.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

So when I was there for homecoming, uh-huh, I'm sitting there, right? And like I know I I probably didn't text you to let you know that I was going out there. I didn't text anybody, but I'm sitting there and I'm looking, and you where where you're sitting, probably the best seats, but the worst seats, you know what I mean? You can't really see what's going on on the field. You gotta look on the screen, and I see Antoine Caseen. Yeah, and he's the guest honoree for so I'm texting him and I'm like, Anfo, is that you? Yeah, zero ghosted me. And I must have I probably spoke to him like six months ago, yeah, and the year before, I'm like, hey, I I think I'm gonna go out to homecoming. He's like, Oh, if you go to homecoming, I'm gonna go to homecoming. Yeah, but this year I didn't I didn't tell anybody I'm hey, I'm going to homecoming because I wasn't like really thinking of it. Like, I'm like, okay, but it happened to be him, and I was like, dude, the go the guy ghosted.

SPEAKER_00 53:35

Yeah, no, I remember, yeah, I remember when he was um the honorary captain for homecoming, man. But it's funny, I was just texting um Tuan this morning, man. Uh, we were texting, he had some ducks in his pool. Um, and he was uh shooting some messages to all of the old Oregon players, and he like, get these ducks out my pool the same way we got the ducks out of Tucson in 2007. Um, so we were laughing about that in a group chat, man. But uh Casey, man, he's one of the main reasons why I went to Arizona as well. Jim Thorpe Award winner, man. Shout out to that guy. Um, he's one of the best for sure.

SPEAKER_02 54:16

But he so he wasn't there when you were there. You kind of like took his yep.

SPEAKER_00 54:21

So when he was going out into the NFL, I was coming in. Yeah, he's a good guy. He's a great guy, man. Great good guy.

SPEAKER_02 54:30

I gotta I I'm gonna text him again and be like, maybe he changed his number. I don't know, maybe he changed his number.

SPEAKER_00 54:36

Probably so. I think it's still the same one. I'll show you.

SPEAKER_02 54:41

When we're finished, I'm gonna I'm gonna add if because if it is, then I'm gonna be like, yo, what the send him another text, like how you ghost me. Because he did message, he did message me a couple weeks ago. He did.

SPEAKER_01 54:54

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 54:54

Not on on Instagram, not on not on uh not on text, on Instagram. It's funny. But so yeah, but sometimes like I'll you know, once in a blue moon, like I'll hit you up and like out of you know, out of nowhere, be like, hey, what's going on? You know, we have a lot of mutual friends, right? So it you know, it everything is good and and all good. But um, okay, the so you got the kids, yeah, you got the school. Yeah, I got a question for you. And I know we've talked about this. There's different now concepts for different types of schools, and a lot of because there's I feel like there's a shortage of schools, there's now all these different concepts. Today, when I was uh when I was driving into work, I was listening to CMBC, and I'm I'm blanking on the name, but there's now an AI school, and there's like there's like 50 of them across the country, and they're opening up more and more and more. And apparently the way it works is it's it's it's teachers, but it's also an AI teacher, and they're spending about three hours, I think she said, being taught, and the rest of the time the same thing that you have, they're out and doing stuff in the environment. Yeah, so it's not the name of the school, but there's all these different types of schools that are popping up, whether it be the AI or the environmental or directly sports. You know, some kids just want to go to sports and they're doing sports learning for three hours, sports the rest.

SPEAKER_00 56:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:36

So where where do you what do you think about all these different schools popping up?

SPEAKER_00 56:41

Man, I tell you, um, it's it's it's a cool concept because at the end of the day, we're trying to prepare these kids to be college and career ready. Um, and when you have a lot of different avenues, um, it's going to give the kids the opportunity um to truly understand what they want to do at a younger age that will ultimately help set them up to be successful. I mean, when we think about it, every kid isn't going to a four-year university. Um, but when they get out of high school, if the education system has prepared them to be career ready, um, then we've done our job to help set them up for success. But um, when you think about the cookie-cutter model that education has been for a long period of time, man, something had to evolve. You know, you look at a 1950s Mercedes Benz and you look at a 2026 Mercedes-Benz, they look completely different. But when you look at education in 1950 and you look at it in the 21st century, um, it still looks the same. So we've been trying to figure out specifically over at Golden Charter Academy, it's like, how do we continue to evolve education the same way that technology, the same way that, you know, the internet, AI, all of these things are continuing to evolve. How do you evolve education? And I think that's where we've kind of you know sunk our teeth into um this environmental stewardship component of it, because at the end of the day, you can create all the robots and things of that nature that you want, but you need people to be able to put their hands in the dirt and turn the dirt. And um, you need people to be able to care for their environment. And you need developers to come back and want to invest inside of communities that have been marginalized and under-resourced, and um, those are the type of people that we're trying to steward and raise up in this program um so that they can go out and really make an impact and a difference in their communities. But um, your traditional public school isn't gonna offer you that. You're gonna get a textbook, you're gonna be tethered to a four-wall classroom all day. And um I'm a great motivational speaker, I think, but um kids don't want to sit in a classroom and hear me lecture for 50 to 60 minutes, you know, or anybody lecture for 50 or 60 minutes, man. They want to be interactive, and I think that's what we have been able to create um over at Golden Academy. And if more schools are gearing towards that versus doing the cookie cutter model, then yeah, man, I say go for it. It's definitely needed for sure.

SPEAKER_02 59:24

There's I feel like kids these days, because they're so stimulated by you know iPads or computers or something that they it's more like hands-on approach, like yeah, the hands in the dirt, or that maybe learning about AI, or learning about computers, or I just sometimes I see what my kids are learning in school, and I'm like, this you don't need this, like it doesn't make sense. Like, yeah, why why are they teaching you this? This the even the math, like I'm like, what this math does not make sense to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:00

Like, uh for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:01

It's two plus two equals four. Not how do you get from these two apples and then the you you know it's it doesn't it doesn't make sense, but yeah, it's a it's a lot, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:13

It's it's it's uh, you know, and and that's one of the things that we try to do, you know. We um we're we're we're taking, you know, that math equation. And if you need to learn your fractions, why do you need to learn them? Because you may be developing some type of garden where you need one-fourth tomatoes over here and um one-third of apple trees over here, but it's really trying to figure out and take those equations and teach kids how do you really apply this math that you're learning um inside of your everyday life. And that's where I feel education needs to continue to evolve because if it don't, then kids are going to be learning all of this algebra and stuff and not know why they need to learn this stuff, you know, at a such a young age, especially if they don't plan on using it um throughout their life. But practical learning is what we're trying to give for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:05

Practical learning. That's what it is. Absolutely speaking about practical learning.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:09

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:10

I yeah, you're going to Cancun.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:13

Yeah. What's your favorite spot? Man, you know, um, it's funny, my wife and I was having this conversation um the other day about, you know, some of our favorite travel spots. But I tell you what, man, I went to um Jade Mountain in St. Lucia. And I can live there. You know, I have every every desire one day to retire, um, especially if I can live at the top of Jade Mountain in St. Lucia. But um such a beautiful, calming, peaceful place. Um, that is probably one of my favorite um destinations to travel when I just want to unplug. But when I need a vacation and my wife and I just want to get away for a while, man, I can never go wrong with a Cabo trip, man. So Cabo is my go-to, but uh St. Lucia is my safe haven to travel to, if you will. Um, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:17

So you're okay. Cancun, you're you said you're taking the kids to Cancun, but when you go to Cabo or St. Lucia, is it just you and the wife, or are you or are you taking the kids with you?

SPEAKER_00 1:02:26

Yeah, man. Cabo trips is usually just me and my wife. It's funny. Um the last six years we've gone to Cabo every every Valentine's Day. Um, we spent our um our Valentine's out in Cabo. So it's usually just me and my wife. Um, this for spring break, we're actually taking the kids to the Nickelodeon Resort Um down in Cancun. They're big on playing with the slime and getting slime. So uh we have a whole experience set up for them for five days out there, but uh it's gonna be a good time getting them over there to hang out and um see some of their favorite characters that they've grown up watching, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:09

That's pretty cool. I didn't know that they had that down there.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:12

In Cabo, is Edith still there?

SPEAKER_02 1:03:14

Do you go to Edith's?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:16

I haven't been to Edith's. Um usually Cabo is opening up a new resort um every year. So my wife and I try to we try to stay on the the new resort that just opened. So um this past year we stayed at the new um resort salas and it was amazing. But every year we try to stay on the resort and try a different newer resort um out when we travel there for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:43

Because when I used to go there when I was a young man. Okay, like I I was going there, like it was still a dirt road, and I don't want to say how old I was going there, but there were resorts, like one and only was still there. There was like still like resorts, but a lot of people went to places to eat, like Edith, there was another place called Trailer Park. Um, then there was in in town, like the the bar Squid Row, I'm sure it's still there. And then there was uh a guy from California opened up a sushi place called Nixon.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:16

Nixon, I've heard of that one. I've heard of that. It's probably still there.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:23

But um I'm getting a glare right now because the sun is going down. Can you see it? I see it. I see it.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:30

Yo, halo coming through.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:32

So um, yeah, but so like it's it's interesting. But yeah, since then there's been like all these resorts and like huge development in Cabo. But I used to like Cobo. Now for for you, it's like what an hour and a half flight?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:45

Yeah, about two and a half hours, two and a half hours.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:47

For me, it's like a it's it's a mission because there I think it's like five and a half, six hour flight.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:53

And and I'm sure it's no direct either, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:56

There used to be. I don't know if there is anymore. I wonder if there's there used to be. It used to be there used to be an airline called Continental.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:03

Uh-huh. Oh, yeah. I remember the other.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:05

And then United ended up buying them out, and then when that happened, they stopped doing direct flights. There was actually, there's actually no direct flight to Tucson anymore.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:13

Is that right? It used to be Continental. Yeah, Tucson, man. I always, whenever I go to Tucson, I always just fly into Phoenix and rent a car and drive down, man. Um, so you do the two hour drive to Tucson. I do the two-hour drive. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:30

Okay. Cause I was thinking about that last time, but we took the flight. We took that little flight. It was like a 20-minute flight.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:37

Yep, yep. I mean, shoot, by the by the time you know you uh check in and drive to Tucson and then got a fly to Phoenix to fly to wherever you're going. Um, I'm like, man, I'd rather just do the little hour and 30 minute scenic drive. Sometimes I'll stop somewhere in Phoenix and hang out there. There's a really cool um taco scene. Spot right there in downtown Phoenix that I gotta go to Taco Cello whenever I'm in Phoenix. So I usually try to make some pit stops before I make the drive to Tucson, but it's always better for me to just land in Phoenix, rent a car, drive up. It's pretty simple for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:19

You ever stop by the farm? What are those uh birds? Ostrich farm. Ostrich Farm. Do you ever get the the eggs there?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:26

You know what? I am terrified of ostrich. Like that is my one bird that I do not want to come close to. But whenever we're making a drive, yeah, they they spit and then they if they stump you out, bad, it could kill you if you uh get caught on the ground. But uh yeah, my wife, she's always asked me to stop when we be driving down. But um I told her I always tell her next time. So uh next time we might do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:54

So I got a funny story. So you do you remember Brian Williams, Bison Dele?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:59

Brian Williams, I do not.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:01

So Brian Williams, Bison, then he changed his name to Bison Delhi. He played for um the Chicago Bulls, okay for the Detroit Pistons, and I forgot what he met his brother ended up killing him. I don't know if you heard that story.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:16

Uh not sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:18

So he was a little bit older than me, but during the NBA lockout, he spent time training in Tucson. So you know, I would be you know, I was like I was a kid, I was in college, and he would always bang on my door. Rudy, wake up, wake up, it's time to go work out. We just sat on TV. He used to come to my place and he would bring the ostrich egg like this big, uh-huh, and he would make the omelet in my in my apartment. He'd be like, and I'm like, and they tasted so good.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:48

Is that right?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:49

And they were huge, and they're and he'd pump out like a bunch of a lot of omelets, and they were and they were great. And so, like, I always tell people, I'm like, if you ever are driving from Tucson to Phoenix, stop by and get an egg.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:05

Man, man, now I'm gonna try. Now I'm gonna have to try it now. I wasn't uh looking forward to going over there, but if you said that, man, I'm gonna have to try it.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:14

I don't know how that works because like if you if you're flying back, I don't know. I don't know. Do they like you on the plane? It's considered uh yeah, that is.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:32

Yeah, right. I'm gonna have to look into that, man. Well, I'm here in the here in the agricultural county right now, man, where we feed the world. So I gotta imagine that there gotta be some ostrich eggs in the central valley of Fresno. It's we don't have any living up to that.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:50

Check out the egg. Yeah, send me a picture, let me know what you think about the egg.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:56

No doubt. I definitely will.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:58

Um, all right, real quick, I know we're we're coming close on time here. So I want to talk to you about how you so you were done with Steelers, you went to Kansas City. Yeah, how you so you decided, okay, I want to go back back to Fresno, or did you have a place in Fresno? Like what happened there?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:20

Yeah, man. So what's crazy is um, you know, I ended up once I signed my second deal with the Steelers, I ended up buying a place in Scottsdale, Arizona. Um, so I was living in Scottsdale. Um, that's where I trained at in the offseason. Um, you know, my second son was born in the Scottsdale, you know, hospital out there. Um, but you know, when I got to Kansas City, um, I remember I was playing in football heaven. Pittsburgh is football heaven, man. You play for the Rooney family, you play under Mike Tomlin. Um, you know, once you go anywhere else, man, it's a it's a job, you know. And in Pittsburgh, it's all about football, it's all about winning. Um, when you go to other organizations, man, it's about, you know, it's a business. You got to show up at a certain time, you gotta have your shirt tucked in when you're on the second floor. I mean, it's a whole business operation. I had got so accustomed to um the Rooney way and the Stillers way that it took a lot for me to adjust to what the Kansas City way and formula um for winning. Um, it took a while for me to adapt to that. But even before I got to Kansas City, my last year or my last two years in Pittsburgh, um, I was really questioning whether I wanted to continue to play. You know, I lost my dad in 2016. Um, so when I lost him, I kind of felt like I didn't need to play ball anymore because my whole goal and ambition was to, you know, make my dad happy and make my dad proud. And once he left, I kind of felt like I didn't have anything to play for anymore. So I was dealing with that for the last two years that I was in Pittsburgh. And then I got to Kansas City, and I was just kind of like, man, football is starting to feel like a job for me. Um, I wasn't having fun with it. So I ended up asking them to release me from my contract. Um, and they ended up doing so, you know, a month later. Um after I just continued to keep, you know, continue asking them for it. So they ended up releasing me from my contract. I went home. I was in Scottsdale, Arizona. Um, and I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life after that, man. And that's when my mentor kind of reached out to me and was like, start developing your school. This is 2019. So 2020, I started putting the school together. COVID hit, and um, I was flying back and forth, and then I decided that once I finalized my partnership with the Fresno Chaffee Zoo to do this zoo school, um, that's when I knew it was time for me to get closer to home to really be able to make this vision come alive. So 2021, my family and I moved back. We opened the school in August of 2021. Um, and man, we've been running with this vision ever since. Um, making this whole thing come alive and making it bigger um each year that we get an opportunity to serve the community.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:16

So, what's next for Robbie Golden? What's next? Yeah. You're doing the school. What's next? Is it another school? I know we talked about you want to do some public speaking.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:27

For sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:27

What what's what's next on your agenda?

SPEAKER_00 1:12:30

Man, I really want to be able to uh, you know, help other people thrive, not only as a human being, but thrive um in their community impact. So whether that's me being an inspirational speaker and providing people inspiration on how they could um make a difference in their life or motivate them to be better, um, that is something that is definitely up my alley. Developing schools, obviously, I've created a blueprint here, and you know, the big term goal and the big term vision is to open up a location at every single zoo that wants to have a zoo school. Um, so that's part of the horizon. But I also want to help, you know, athletes be able to transition from the game. Um, too often we are seeing players, you know, either fall into these deep depressions or take their own lives, man, just because they don't have a sense of identity after they complete, you know, their careers in sports. So I want to be able to help athletes make an impact on people in the planet, but um, at the end of the day, man, my life is an inspirational vessel, and I want to be able to just utilize my visionary expertise to help other people make an impact on people and the planet. Uh, so it's a lot that's next for me. Uh, but I definitely see myself continuing to make an impact on people in the planet, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:55

So the school's opening up in June.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:58

Yes, it'll be completed in June.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:00

And the semester's gonna start in August.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:02

In August, that's correct.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:04

Well, why don't so let's touch base after the school opens. Yeah, maybe you can show some pictures for us. I'll put it up.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:12

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:13

And we'll talk then, regroup.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:16

And I want to thank you very much. You're my second guest.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:20

Awesome, awesome, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:22

It was a it was great having a uh a former Wildcat on you know you gotta stay golden.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:30

Gotta stay golden, man. That's the only way to be. Rudy, it was a pleasure connecting with you, brother, and uh I look forward to showing you the finished product. But I can't just show you photos, you gotta make a trip to California.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:43

Well June is tough.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:45

Tough is that but maybe July 15th is my ribbon cutting ceremony.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:48

Put that one on your if I'm back by then, then maybe I'll maybe I'll make a trip out.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:54

Sounds good, brother. Just let me know.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:56

Good talking to you, likewise.