Episode 10: Turning Back The Clock

In Episode 10 of The Locker Room, we talk about athletic regret and how former athletes can make peace with the parts of their careers they wish had gone differently. This conversation explores the difference between what actually happened and what we know we could have done differently, while unpacking how confidence, assertiveness, mindset, and playing it safe can shape the way athletes experience regret after the game is over.

We also get into the current college sports landscape, including development vs. production, redshirting, and having realistic expectations, Malik Beasley’s gambling case, Coco Gauff’s historic Grand Slam consistency, and the conversation around Americans not rooting for the American soccer team in America.

The Locker Room is a podcast for former athletes navigating the confusing and often painful transition from a life centered around sports to a life outside of the game. For many athletes, walking away from sports is more than the end of a season. It can feel like losing purpose, community, and even a piece of who you are. One day, your life is built around competition and performance. Then suddenly, it's not. No schedule. No team. No clear version of who you are supposed to become next. This podcast explores the emotional weight of that transition: the identity crisis, the anxiety, the depression, the feeling of being lost, and the pressure to “move on” before you have fully processed what you left behind. Through honest conversations, personal reflection, and relatable stories, The Locker Room creates space for former athletes to feel seen, understood, and reminded that they are not alone. Life after sports is not just about finding a new career or routine. It is about rediscovering purpose, rebuilding identity, and learning that who you are has always been bigger than what you did.

Transcript

Understanding Athletic Regret

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What is up everybody? It's your boy Jalen, and welcome or welcome back to the Locker Room Podcast, the number one podcast in the world for former athletes to engage in conversations about the difficulty of transitioning out of a highly committed sports lifestyle and into normal life. Today's conversation is centered around one big question. How much of our athletic regret comes from what actually happened and how much comes from knowing we could have approached the game differently? Because when you really think about regret, it's not just about wishing for opportunities to turn out differently. It's about wishing you had handled the opportunities you did have more appropriately. It's also about the dangers and reality of playing it safe and how changing your mindset from surviving the moment to seizing it will change your career. So today we're going to talk about how confidence and assertiveness are two common factors that affect whether or not athletes experience regret in retirement. Why no great athletes make a name for themselves by competing this way, and what former and current athletes can do to fix it. And today I'm having this conversation by myself, but I think that actually fits the topic because regret is personal. It's one of those things every former athlete has to wrestle with in their own way. The moments you wish you handled differently, the opportunities you wish you took more seriously, the habits you wish you'd built earlier, the version of yourself you wish showed up when it mattered. So today I want to take some time to reflect honestly on my own athletic career, the parts that still hurt, the parts that still hurt when I think about it, and what I've had to learn from those things I cannot go back and change. In this episode, we're going to break down three things. The first is how regret shows up after the game is over and why the moments we rep we replay are more about subjective experiences rather than more objective ones. Two, what current athletes can take away from these regrets while they still have time to adjust their mindset and maximize their opportunity. And three, why this conversation matters right now is because a lot of athletes don't realize what they'll miss until the moment is gone. Whether you're a former athlete, a current athlete, a parent, a coach, or just somebody who loves the game, this conversation is gonna be this conversation is sure to give you something to think about. Before we get into it, make sure you subscribe to follow the show, leave a five-star rating, like, comment, and share this episode with another athlete or sports fan who needs to hear this conversation. Now let's bring it back to the locker room.

Personal Reflections on Regret

SPEAKER_00 2:25

When I look back on my athletic career, there are four specific moments that I think about that still hurt to this day. All of them were within my control. There was nothing else I needed in those moments to be more prepared to change the outcome. Except maybe for one, but I'll save that for last. The first was my senior year of high school. I played corner from ninth grade all the way up to a junior in college. I did some things very well, some things okay, and some things not so well. One of those things I didn't do so well was catching the football. On any given pass, I'd give myself maybe a 40% chance of catching it. And that may be generous, so anybody who knows me, if you're listening to this, let me know if that's accurate or if I'm being a little too generous. Anyways, we've got this team pinned back so deep in their own end of the field. It had to be like third and 25. They line up in a two-receiver set, one split out to my side. I take my read steps and see the quarterback staring dead at me. I feel the receiver pushing me downfield, so I know the deep ball is coming. Quarterback chucks it. I'm running thinking, wow, this is might be the easiest pick I'll ever get. The ball's coming down uncontested. I jump, get both hands on the ball, and do a double-handed gronk spike as I crash to the ground. When you're out on the field, you don't really hear much from the stands, but I didn't need to that day. That was the most embarrassing moment in my sports career by far. And the others are bad, but I'll let you be the judge of that. The second moment from my career I still think about is what would be my second year in college when I was at Georgia Military College. It was our spring game, and it was a pretty exciting time for me and some of the other guys who weren't any big names or talents that shocked you, but we could still be an asset. There were a lot of off-the-field issues that I would probably have to talk about another day because the more I talk, the more I realized you all know nothing about my early college years, which were wild to say the least. Anyways, the spring game is here after a long semester filled with daily 5 a.m. wakeups and mandatory lights out at 11 p.m. I've been having a decent spring up to this point, even getting plenty of extra sessions in solo or with some of the guys. At this point in my career, I haven't played an actual football game in over a year. And anyone who's played football in college or even high school knows the spring games are always a little more intense than practice because it's supposed to emulate a game atmosphere. That wasn't an issue for me. Similar situation to before. Line up, get a single receiver to my side, take my read steps, quarterback staring me down, receiver pushing me downfield, so I open and run. Two small mistakes that affected the outcome of this particular moment. The first mistake to my fellow footballers, as a corner, when you're in cover three with a single receiver and he goes deep, what does the coverage convert to? If you said man to man, you are correct. I got that part. However, in man coverage, do you turn to the ball or to the receiver? If you sit into the receiver, you are correct. So the quarterback throws the ball. I had him absolutely blanketed over the top, and I'm forcing the receiver to the sideline so he tries to hit him back shoulder. He does throw it back shoulder, but it's underthrown. I made a beautiful, crispy zone turn. Broke on the ball, barely got two hands on it as I'm trying to keep my feet in bounds and make this great play. And got the pass breakup, next play, whatever. Here's why it haunts me so much. The second mistake was that because I did not man turn in the beginning, that zone turn, the crispy zone turn took a half second longer. We all know football is a game of inchance. Although I did end up getting a good break on the ball, imagine if I had man turned, saw the ball through the receiver, and then got a crispy man turn. It definitely sucked in the moment because it was literally right at my fingertips, but I put myself a step behind. The third moment is one that will definitely give me a little anxiety if I'm not careful and divert my thoughts to something else. It was my senior year at Morehouse. We have a track meet of Clock Atlanta. I ran the 200 and 400 that day, and I still had the 4x4 on the B-team. 400 was bad, no sugar coming at 200 was decent. So I'm looking to redeem myself. And anybody who knows, the 4x4 is a lot different than running the open four, unless you're the first leg. Don't ask me how or why, but it is. I can't remember all the details, but I know that our main competition was Albany State, and our second leg got us in the first place. The third leg lost the lead by about 20, 25 meters by the time I got the baton. No exaggeration. I literally took off in a dead sprint, took off like a missile in that first curve. And we barely broke the straight, and I was literally already on it. But I slowed down to match him. Why would I do that? We were on the straight too, and that's the perfect time to pass. I thought, ah, you know what? I'll slow down and pick it back up at the end. But the pickup never came. Not how I expected it to, at least. I was on his hip from the first curve to the finish line. They won and we didn't. And to make it worse, I had just watched the A-team come back and beat Albany. And I had the opportunity to do the same and didn't have that dog in me. That was probably the worst part about it. Having the realization you're not a dog. Physically, sure, but not mentally. And you can't be a dog without both. I always lacked in that area, from a kid in rec ball all the way up to a senior in college. I'll talk more about that later. But the fourth and final moment isn't one specific event like these others were, but rather an entire season of my life. In my senior year of high school, I got a scholarship to play football at the University of Charleston in West Virginia. I had maybe one or two others, and that was by far the best opportunity for me. I'm going to try to make a long story short here, but I got up there, had a pretty decent summer with workouts and practice, but like most freshmen, I was running at like five or six on a depth chart. I think it's important to point out that I had never smoked or drunk seriously up to this point in my life. Anyways, we're going through the season, injuries are happening left and right in the corner room or in the DB room. I went from barely running with the threes to switching out with the ones by the third or fourth game of the season. The fifth game I'm starting. And I went on to start like two or three more games after that. If I'm not mistaken, I was one of two true freshmen that season. And I had just turned 18 right before the season started. After one of these games, I go to I go to a teammate's house party. At the party, one of them handed me a cup of which I did not know the contents, and I had a blunt for the first time. That was followed by frequent smoking and occasional drinking for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, that led to my addiction to weed and chronic class skipping, which resulted in me being placed on academic probation after my first semester. And after a lot more of that behavior in my second semester, I was placed on academic suspension following the spring semester and was forced to leave the school. And that hurts because I just wonder what could have been if I hadn't gone down that path. I was young, far from home, literally under the wrong influence in two different ways, and it didn't help that I was lonely and couldn't relate to most of my teammates. At the time, each of these moments had its own significance, which I very acutely recognized as being career defining in its own way. As I said in the beginning, none of my regrets were objective, X's and O's, stat sheet type. They were all regrets from my often passive demeanor that reared its head at the worst times and has caused me great stress in my personal life as well. Once my career was officially over, it came back to haunt me way worse. I went over this in season one, so I won't reiterate too much, but during that slow season after sports and before work, I would have constant replays of these moments over and over again. It's hard for me to look back and say I was fully prepared and fit for any challenges that presented themselves to me because mentally I wasn't. I lacked confidence, I lacked swag, I didn't really know who I was, which affected that. I didn't have that dog mentality that it takes to separate yourself from your peers in competition. I worked hard. There weren't many people who outworked me and still don't. But the proper preparation requires you to look at yourself as an entire athlete. You have to look at where you are now and where you want to be. I looked at all the highlight videos, all the workout videos, all the drills, all that. But what I didn't realize until much later, after my career was over, is that although the top athletes are extremely physically gifted, it's their mind and mindset that take them over the top and make them stand out amongst standouts. Not to make any excuses for all the opportunities I missed, but I didn't really mentally mature until I was about a senior in college. And even then I still had work to do. But if you remember, I talked about that last season. Part of what sucked was that everything started to click as it was all coming to an end. What has helped me from not beating myself up about what's happened in the past is acknowledging that if some of these moments were different, I may not have met my wife. I may not have my beautiful children or the life I have now. I may not have the same relationships or have learned what I've learned about the game, about life, and about myself. I also have to acknowledge the reality that even if I had made some of these plays, that doesn't guarantee my future will look any different. The greatest thing that has helped me is trusting God that He will use my past to transform my future. Of course, these things affected my transition out of sports. Having the chance to openly and honestly reflect on all these things I've mentioned here, and more I'm not remembering, brings up the harsh truth that my shot at being a pro was short anyway. It takes a lot of things going right for an athlete of any sport to become a pro. It takes an unquantifiable number of hours of hard work and dedication to get your body, your mind, and your attitude to that level. It takes favor. You've got to stay as healthy as you can and hope some giant lineman doesn't come stumbling out and crashing on your knee. You got to hope you don't accidentally step on somebody's foot, roll your ankle, and get a major sprain. You got to hope the timing of your path isn't blocked by someone else with the same dream who just happens to be better than you despite all your hard work, effort, and favor. Then you got to hope someone actually picks you up. Even if everything goes right and you make it to that peak, someone else who hasn't been in your shoes has to deem whether you are worthy of a spot or not. My regrets have helped me to be more grateful for what I've accomplished. I earned a full ride scholarship to play college football at the Division II level, which is a lot more competitive than casuals may think. I survived JUCO, even though it wasn't one of the worst. It was still one of the toughest things I've endured to this day, and a lot of people didn't make it out. I earned another scholarship at Morehouse to play football after not playing in a game for almost two years. Because of the work I put in, the faith I had in myself, and the mark I made on my team and coaches at the time. And I revived a track career that had literally been dead for four years. When you look at it like that, that sounds like success to me. Based on how I defined it at the very beginning, it wasn't. But I can proudly say I was a scholarship college athlete, and if I had more time in track, I probably would have got some money from them too. Either way, of course regrets affect you, but you can't allow it to define you. You have to find a way to use it for motivation so you don't fall victim to the same mistakes that led to regret in the first place. That regret has taught me a few things about who I was as an athlete, who I needed to become as a person, and serves as advice for current athletes so they can avoid the same fate. The first thing is that if you want to stand out in sports and have a shot at making it to the next level, you need to make your mark on the game. You need to make your impact felt on 65 to 70% of this season, and that may not even be enough. Your absence should be dreaded because what you do cannot be replaced. Again, a lot of these things will be physical, but not all, and none without the right attitude. Through your physical and mental preparation, you will develop the confidence you need to make those tough decisions others will be afraid to make. You'll have the confidence to go 100%, even if you fail. The best athletes are not afraid of failing. Giving it your all guarantees you will fail at some point. But it also guarantees you will stand out amongst players who are not giving 100%. And the largest number of players who are not giving that effort are in high school and then college. There are some of the pros too, but it's a lot smaller. The same is true in life. If you want to stand out, make your mark. The second thing is not being afraid to fail. The best athletes and most successful people are not afraid to fail. If I had to guess, they are afraid of not trying their best. Not trying your best, not taking risk, will inevitably lead to regret because you left some in the tank. You left an opportunity on the table. And this isn't to say that giving all your effort will automatically or always lead to success, but you can always go back to the drawing board and adjust your approach. You can never go back and adjust how much effort you gave. This also doesn't mean that the fear of failure will never enter your mind. But you can train this mental ability by putting yourself in all kinds of different situations and challenging yourself to do your best. This type of training exposes you to the reality that in life you will fail and that it's a natural part of the learning process. If you embrace it rather than run from it, it will benefit your career as an athlete and your life as a person. The third and last thing is preparation. It takes reps upon reps upon reps to build habits. It takes a lot of great reps to build great habits. Without them, there's no difference between the couch coach and the best athletes in the country. However, without having the clearest understanding of why you are doing what you're doing, those reps will ultimately fail you when it matters the most. Don't confuse what I'm saying. You can still reach a high level by having good habits, but the best players know why every rep is being performed in what situations would benefit their use. I had heard man and zone turn countless times during my career. I had done even more man and zone turns during my career. But that experience I talked about showed why it's important to understand the fundamental differences and advantages of what you're doing so that in the split second you're reacting to what's happening in front of you, your brain reaches for that knowledge and pulls it out without missing a beat. So to recap, for any athletes, current or former, if you want to impact your career or life for the better and not have to look back with regrets, number one, make your mark, be assertive, be irreplaceable. Number two, don't be afraid to fail. Be afraid of not trying your best. You can always go back and adjust your approach, but you cannot go back and adjust your effort. And number three, prepare. Prepare your mind, prepare your body, understand why you're doing what you're doing, how can it benefit you, and what situations you can and should use it in. We're gonna take a quick break here, but in the next segment, we're gonna talk about the college landscape and how this experience connects to the bigger picture, where the game is now, where it's headed, and what it means for the athletes coming up in it. So we'll be right back after this.

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Navigating the College Sports Landscape

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Okay, so now we're gonna move on to talk about the college sports landscape. To have a successful start to your college career, athletes need to understand what they're getting themselves into. I played football, so I was on campus in late July, more than a month before any other students or athletes were there to start summer practice. For that time until school starts, it is nothing but football. Arriving on campus in shape is not optional. Learning the playbook is not optional. Being coachable is not optional. Adjusting and embracing your role at the bottom of the totem pole is not optional. And I'm sure other sports have similar periods, but football is unique because once school starts, the season starts too. And as a freshman, there are a lot of changes going on at once. You're not just moving from high school football to college football, you are moving into a legit full-time student athlete where your body, your mind, your time, your grades, your habits, and your maturity are all being tested at the same time. You're competing for a spot, you're trying to get noticed, and you're trying to stand out. But on top of that, you still have meetings, lifts, recovery, film, travel, games, assignments, classes, study hall, and your personal life. As a student athlete, you are forced to be a master time manager, or else you will get crushed by the weight of the 40-plus hour work week schedule. Your grades will slip, your performance will slip, or both will. And you can't blame the failure to manage it all on anyone else because you should have known exactly what you were signing up for when you decided to come to the school. Incoming freshmen need to understand that college sports are not just a higher level of competition, it's a complete lifestyle change. That is why realistic expectations matter. A lot of freshmen come in from being the best player on the high school team, but college not only shows you that there's levels to it, it forces you to prove that you can handle the full weight of being a student athlete. It's not just about whether you're talented, it's about whether you are ready. That's why red shirting can be one of the best things for a young athlete. A lot of athletes see red shirting as punishment or a sign that they're not good enough. But in reality, red shirting can be protection, preparation, and development. It gives an athlete time to adjust to the speed of the game, the physicality of college athletes, the demands of the weight room, the expectations of the coaching staff, the academic schedule, and the maturity required to survive in the program long term. Especially in football. You're not just competing against people your age. You may be lining up against literal grown men who have been in a college strength program for three, four, maybe even five years. Their bodies are different. Their understanding of the game is different, their confidence is different, their habits are different. So the question becomes are you really ready to play? Or do you just want to play? Because those are not always the same thing. Redshirting gives athletes time to become ready without burning a year of eligibility trying to prove something too early. And this leads to the bigger question. Is the focus on production or development? Production is about what you can give the team right now. Development is about who you are becoming over time. The problem is that a lot of athletes want the production without respecting the development. They want the playing time, the travel roster, the recognition, and the role before they have fully adapted to the level. But if you rush yourself onto the field before you're ready, you may sacrifice your confidence, your health, your grades, your development, or your long-term opportunity. That does not mean every freshman should redshirt. Some athletes are ready right away. Some are physically mature, mentally sharp, academically, academically disciplined, and prepared for the moment, all that. But for most athletes, the first year should be about learning what it means to be a student athlete and succeeding before worrying about your playing time. Because if you focus on producing too early, you may miss the chance to develop into the player you were supposed to become. Like I said before, I went to a D2 school. Going in, I thought I was about to be the best player there by far. I didn't even think it would be a competition for a spot. That could not have been further from the truth. I played on the other side of a receiver who plays for the Commanders right now, and he's been in the league for the past three years. There was a defensive end on that team who played in the league for five years. Two other players had real NFL shots, but for whatever reason, it didn't work out. That's not even counting the many other great athletes I encountered as soon as I stepped on campus. I was surprised at the speed of the game. I remember one-on-one my freshman year against the same receiver who went to the league. I was playing off coverage, mind you. This dude is like 6'6. In high school, you usually see a dude that big and he's not that fast. I consider myself a pretty fast dude. I may have I don't know my speed now compared to what I used to be, but pretty fast nonetheless. This dude took off and within like six steps, he was already past me. Mind you, I'm playing off coverage. So, anyways, I was better adjusted closer to the end of the summer, especially after covering those guys every day. But there was another receiver out there. This was the shiftiest, the buffest dude I have ever seen in my life run routes. Fast guy. Didn't have the best hands for a receiver, but the point is there are levels to the game. You may be the best player on your team in your state, in your country. These dudes in college are different. It doesn't matter where you are. For skill positions in football, the divisions really don't even matter. And I know I've been talking about football a lot, but it doesn't matter what sport it is. You need to respect your teammates and you need to humble yourself. I'm not saying to devalue yourself, but understand that some of these guys have been here for a long time and have almost seen it all. Every athlete's college adjustment period is different. Using the red shirt is a great way to allow yourself to mature into a young man or young woman with much less oversight than in high school. Physically, you have an entire year to get stronger, learn the playbook, watch film, adjust to a new team environment, a new coaching staff, and all new classes and professors without the pressure of needing to also contribute to the team. You also get to establish your social life without feeling like it's impossible to have one. The danger of rushing out on the field early are obviously injuries, first and foremost. The wear and tear of a college season is no joke, especially with the size and speed of your competition. You've got to think that most of the athletes there are just like you, clearly good enough to get a scholarship. Some have developed more, some less. Some are walk-ons, but all have still developed a callus of the college season, and you have not. The point being, everyone there is talented enough to be on the roster. Everyone there has earned a spot just like you. But not everyone is ready to contribute. That's why there are starters, then you've got backups, and then you have the others that fill up the rest of the spots and hope nothing goes wrong with the other groups. And you also have a group that doesn't travel at all. Every athlete is different, and depending on their situation and that of the team, it'll have a strong hand in determining whether an athlete will redshirt or not. But you also have to remember to advocate for yourself. This is your future that's riding on these decisions. If you end up playing over the allotted time for a redshirt, you can't take it back. I would encourage any current athletes who will be considering this soon or any coaches to understand that you are also going to college to earn an education and create opportunities for yourself that you may not have gotten otherwise. Another part of having realistic expectations is understanding the low percentage of athletes who go on to play professionally. This shouldn't be used to derailing athletes' dreams, but to keep them grounded in the reality that if this all ends tomorrow, you need to put yourself in the best position to succeed long term. For most college freshmen, a redshirt will give them the best of both worlds. For example, Johnny Manzel got to Texas AM in 2011. In 2012, he became the first freshman to win the Heisman. Jameis Winston got to FSU in 2012, redshirted, and as a redshirt freshman in 2013, won the Heisman and a national championship. Joe Burrow redshirted when he was at Oh when he was at Ohio State. Later on, he came to LSU, won the Heisman, the Natty, and was the first overall NFL draft pick. And then you have people like Travis Hunter, an absolutely generational, game-changing player who was a true freshman at Jackson State, played on both sides of the ball, and did pretty much did that the rest of his career. But like I've been saying the whole time, even with these extreme examples, red shirting still has major benefits that are usually reaped later in an athlete's life. Alright, we're gonna take another break. Uh next and last segment, we're gonna go to the commentary corner. We're gonna cover uh the Malik Beasley story. That's pretty wild if you haven't gotten uh gotten caught up with that. We're gonna briefly go over that. Coco Goff making a splash at Wimbledon if you're familiar with tennis. Uh Coco Goff was one of my favorite young players. She's she's American and she's black too, so that's great. And kind of some weird stuff that's going on with the with the FIFA in America. I'll reveal what we're talking about a little later, but let's take a break and we'll be

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right back. Former athletes know what it feels like to step into a new phase of life and realize there's clutter you can't carry with you anymore. Sometimes it's mental, sometimes it's emotional, and sometimes it's the old couch, broken dresser, bags of junk, or garage clutter that you've been meaning to get rid of. Jay's junk removal is your go-to to help with that. Whether you need a cleanup when you're moving, furniture removal, or garage cleanouts, Jay's junk removal shows up with effort and professionalism every time. So if you're in the South Atlanta area and you need junk removed, don't keep putting it off. Let us help you clear out the old so you can make room for the new. Call or text 678-631-6171 for a quote today, and use code junk, that's J U N K for 15% off. Once again, that's 678-631-6171 for a quote today, and use code Junk, that's J U N K for 15%

Commentary Corner

SPEAKER_00 30:34

off. All right, we talked about the college landscape. Now it's time to get some takes off, to get the headlines, uh, what's been going on in the in the sports atmosphere recently. So if you have not heard, ex-MBA player Malik Beasley uh just pled not guilty to gambling charges in a federal case where he's been just, you know, if you've seen the videos of this guy trying to, you know, maybe win his bet or win a bet for somebody else, it's just sad, man. And it's wild from that from the outside looking in because it feels like another example, or it doesn't feel like it is another example of a professional athlete blowing an opportunity that most people would dream of having. But I think there's a deeper conversation. Athletes are still people, they may have more money, more attention, and a bigger platform, but they still deal with the same problems everybody else does: debt, addiction, bad decisions, pride, pressure, and the wrong people in their circle. The difference is that their mistakes happen in front of the whole world. And when you add sports gambling into the conversation, which we talked about that last episode, it gets even more complicated because the sports world is making billions with a B off betting culture. Betting lines are everywhere. I was just talking to my wife about this. There used to be states that wouldn't even consider gambling, and now it's legal everywhere. Pregame shows talk about the odds of players winning, apps make it easy to gamble from your phone. Fans aren't even just watching the games anymore. They're just all they care about is a player's stats because money's attached to it. So if these allegations are true about Malik Beasley, not only unfortunately does he have to be held accountable, well, it's not really unfortunate, but he just needs to be held accountable, and everybody else does too. Terry Rogier, similar case going on. You can't manipulate the game, man. We need some integrity. And at the same time, we have to be honest about the industry behind it. How do we, as fans, advocate for the control of sports gambling when they're profiting so heavily off these people's addictions and habits in desperation? Some some reports say that Malik Beasley was in millions of dollars worth of debt. A professional athlete in millions of dollars worth of debt for an addiction. And when something goes wrong, he becomes a headline. While the machine around gambling just keeps moving and moving, money is made, lives are ruined, and it's just Monday. Terrible, man. But, anyways, uh onto a more positive note. Coco Goff is the youngest American woman to make the quarterfinals of all four slams since Serena did it in 2001 at 19 years old, and Coco is 22 years old. So if you don't know, the slams in tennis are basically the four major tennis tournaments throughout the tennis season. You have Wimbledon, which is a grass court, you have the US Open, which is a hard court that most people are familiar with, then you have Roland Garros, which is the French Open, and then you have the Australian Open, which is another hardcore. I think I may have said those in the right order. I can't I can't really remember. But, anyways, she's the youngest American woman to do that since Serena did it. And she did it three years later. But, anyways, she's still a fairly young, up-and-coming athlete. I remember when her name was first coming out, uh, you know, probably that may have been like four years ago, maybe five years ago. But she started pretty young, kind of with her with her breakout and and her talent and everything. So, you know, she's been on the scene for a while, but she did lose. I think that match may have been uh today. I'm recording this on the ninth. I think she may have lost earlier today on the ninth or maybe on the eighth, can't really remember. And uh even though that sucks, because I was rooting for her to win, you know, it's still pretty impressive because a lot of times in sports, we talk about just talk about the result. You know, did you win or did you lose? Did you finish your job or not? But this matters. Uh to her, it matters, it should matter to us too, as Americans and as as sports fans, sports watchers. She became the youngest American woman to reach the quarterfinals at all four Grand Slams since Arena Williams. And she has now put herself in rare air across the entire sport. And I think that brings up a bigger conversation too about how we develop athletes in America. We have so many gifted athletes in this country, but a lot of them get pushed into the same few sports football, basketball, baseball. And I'm not saying those sports don't matter. Obviously they do. But when you look at sports that are recognized globally, like tennis and soccer, or even track, even though the marketing for it isn't as great, you start to wonder what America would look like if our athletic talent was spread out a little more evenly. Because we don't have a talent problem, we just have a distribution problem. If more kids were introduced to tennis, soccer, track, volleyball, swimming, even though volleyball and swimming, I don't know how popular those are across the world. But if those sports were treated with the same seriousness and resources and value as the big three, America could America could become even more dominant globally over the next 20 years. And Coco is just another reminder that we have the athletes. The question is whether we are putting enough of them in the right environments early enough to develop, especially in soccer, with the FIFA tournament coming to America and everything. We kind of briefly touched on this in the last episode. I don't know about you guys, but I've been super excited to see all the different teams. I've never been a soccer guy. You know, I grew up saying that soccer was for wimps and chumps and stuff like that. Obviously, that was another thing I've been incredibly wrong about because you know, these dudes are, you know, insane. And I know the women play, I think, uh every two years in between this one, they kind of go back and forth every two years. You know, the American women's team is pretty good. But the same conversation about Cocoa with tennis, just imagine if all the athletes who just continually sat on the bench with these youth league football, basketball, baseball teams, why not just go try them in in soccer or in tennis? Just try it out as a kid. You can always go back and and and try to play football or or basketball or whatever, but come on, guys. Like, I know it may cost a little bit more startup money up front for tennis, but soccer, bro, there's a soccer field everywhere. Everybody has somebody, everybody knows somebody that you know plays soccer or teaches soccer or somewhere where they can play soccer. Like, there's feuds all over the place. So I don't know, but that leads right into the last topic we're gonna cover in this commentary corner is that Americans are not rooting for the American soccer team in America, and it's interesting because I understand America is a diverse country. Some some people have family from uh from other countries, some people grew up watching another national team, some people have cultural ties that make them support more than one country, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But what I do think is weird is that when Americans seem to take pride in not supporting America at all while they're in America, and I'm not saying you have to be blame blindly patriotic and support everything that America does because extremes are never good, and that's not true. America doesn't always do great stuff, but you don't have to you don't have to act like America is perfect, you don't have to agree with everything that's happening. Wait, but you can still have some level of pride when athletes are representing the country on a global stage, and that's that's the part that feels weird to me because when you watch the World Cup, you see people from all over the world showing up with flags, jerseys, chants, and pride from where they come from, no matter how big or small the country is, they're not embarrassed to support their country, they're all in the streets doing whatever, not that they're doing crazy stuff. But why do some Americans act embarrassed or ashamed to support America? To me, national pride doesn't have to mean arrogance, especially in sports. It doesn't have to mean I'm just blindly following the man or the system or whatever. It's just recognizing them the moment and supporting the people who are representing where I'm from. You can criticize the country without rooting against the athletes. Like they have nothing to do with. I think the issue is a lot of people are making it a political thing, but it's just sports. It's not it's not that deep. Like, and maybe maybe it's maybe I'm making it too deep. I don't know, but that just rubs me the wrong way when Americans aren't supporting America in these international tournaments. When I'm like, man, we we can't just just get some some home country pride, whatever you want to call it. It's just

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sad to me. But before we leave the locker room, make sure you're subscribed and locked in for the next episode. If this conversation gave you something to think about, comment your thoughts and share it with another athlete. And remember, the game changed, but your story's still being written. Take care and God bless.