Rich Watts on Family, Sports, and Supporting Your Kids' Dreams

What does it truly mean to support your children unconditionally in their athletic journeys and life paths? Former Pittsburgh Pirate and UC Davis Hall of Famer Rich Watts opens up about his philosophy of fatherhood that has guided his two Division I athlete children through both triumphs and challenges.

Rich takes us deep into his family story, sharing how his own upbringing by a tough-as-nails former college football player father and dedicated mother created the blueprint for his parenting approach. The parallels between his childhood sports experiences and watching his own children navigate their athletic careers reveal timeless truths about resilience, support, and knowing when to step back. "You never quit anything," Rich recalls as a fundamental rule from his youth – a value that would later help him guide his son through the challenging transition from high school sports to a junior college path during COVID and eventually to a national championship.

The conversation explores the rapidly changing landscape of college athletics with transfer portals and NIL deals, offering both cautionary perspectives and nuanced insights from someone who has experienced these systems from multiple angles. Rich thoughtfully examines how these developments affect not just the business of college sports, but the fundamental character-building aspects these institutions have traditionally provided.

What truly sets this episode apart is Rich's vulnerable reflection on what matters most in the parent-child relationship. "If you have to push your kid, then your kid doesn't love it enough," he observes, challenging listeners to reconsider how they support their children's passions. His stories of catching footballs with his son echo his own father's dedication, creating a generational thread of showing up rather than merely telling.

Whether you're raising athletes or simply seeking to be more present in your children's lives, Rich's perspective offers both practical wisdom and emotional resonance that will transform how you think about your role as a parent, mentor, and guide.

Transcript

Introducing Rich Watts & His Journey

Speaker 2 0:03

Hi , I'm Riley and I'm Ryder and this is my dad show . Hey everybody , it's Casey Jaycox with the quarterback dad cast . Welcome to season six , and I could not be more excited to have you join me for another year of fantastic episodes and conversations really unscripted and raw and authentic conversations with dads . If you're new to this podcast , really it's simple . It's a podcast where we interview dads , we learn about how they were raised , we learn about the life lessons that were important to them , we learn about the values that are important to them and really we learn about how we can work hard to become a better quarterback or leader of our home . So let's sit back , relax and listen to today's episode on the Quarterback Dadcast . Well , hey , everybody , it's Casey Jaycox with the Quarterback Dadcast .

Speaker 2 0:49

We are in season six and this next gentleman again , it's just the power of being curious and the power of connection . And I met the one and only talented , rich Watts , through his amazingly talented sister , who I've yet not to be in person , but I met her on Zoom . And I met Abigail through her friend , tracy , who I met at a conference in November . So if you tried to follow that one , that might be random , I actually call it serendipitous . So power connection . Rich is an attorney at Peterson Watts . He's a former Sun Devil , turned UC Davis Aggie . He might still have the highest batting average for UC Davis as a catcher we might find that out . He's in the Hall of Fame at UC Davis . He's a former Pittsburgh Pirate , played some minor league baseball We'll hear about that A hockey guy and a golfer , but , more importantly , a dad , and that's why we're having him on today to talk about Rich Zadad and how he's working hard , continues to work hard , to be that ultimate leader of his household . So , without further ado , mr Watts , welcome to the Quarterback Dadcast .

Speaker 1 1:49

Thanks so much for having me , Casey .

Speaker 2 1:51

How about that intro ?

Speaker 1 1:52

That was a lot , I was impressed .

Speaker 2 1:55

I didn't have a the smoke machine . It broke right before I was getting it recorded because I really wanted to get some energy and bring the noise . Oh , that's funny . I wish this episode was sponsored by Zen too , but it's not . But maybe they're out there All right ? Well , we always start each episode with gratitude , so tell me , what are you most grateful for as a dad today ?

Speaker 1 2:17

Oh , definitely most grateful for my family , my kids and all the effort that they provide to be amazing children and contributors to our society , and I'm truly blessed with an amazing wife who kind of runs it all .

Speaker 2 2:31

We have that in common Most good marriages we marry up and they quickly their mother's intuition and the mom game . They read the defense better than most . They see problems happening before us . Dads , I'll speak for myself . My wife's even more handier than I am , which doesn't say a lot .

Speaker 2 2:50

But I'm grateful today for I think , right before we record , we just talked about the journey of high school sports , just the journey your kids go on , and I'm just grateful for taking a back seat . Taking a backseat , um , using curiosity as a superpower and just watching them , them , grow . And even though I think about my well , you got kids in college . But like that first few months when you're , when your kid goes , like the , the amount of maturity I've seen from my son from like the summer till his halfway through his freshman year , I'm like whose kid is this ? It's like I just am blown away by how much he's changed . And I know people warn me but I just I didn't realize it until now . It's happening , but I'm very , very grateful for that Awesome . Well , bring me inside the Watts huddle and , you know , in terms of the family , talk a little bit about each member of the squad and how you and your wife met .

Speaker 1 3:42

Sure . Well , the story with my wife is she was an all-conference basketball player at UC Davis . We actually met in the training room . I can take my bad knee and her bad back at the time for that introduction . We were introduced by a childhood friend of mine who happened to be on her team , who I didn't even know was at the school .

Speaker 1 4:00

I was a transfer myself from Arizona State and after that we've been college sweethearts and married since 1996 . So we're pushing 30 years here and we've just had an incredible journey together . We were planners , probably back in even to our days she loves to joke about when we went on our first real date . I was telling her that someday , if I have a son , he's going to be named Richard M Watts III . He's not , he's Richard C Watts , but we planned that far back . I mean , that's how we've done it , and we started out as two broke college kids , getting married very young , getting a couple of grad degrees she has an MBA and I went and got a law degree and we built a lot together and that's been , I think , something we're extremely proud of .

Speaker 2 4:53

Very cool , and then each of your kids talk about that a little bit .

Speaker 1 4:57

So my son , richie , is 22 , our first . He's an incredible personality . He really lights up a room , controls a room when he walks into it . He's an incredibly dedicated athlete and student . He gets excellent grades both my kids do , but he's probably the more emotional of my two kids but they both have an incredible fire . He's a football player at Cal Poly . He's a quarterback there . In his second year there he transferred from University of Buffalo and he had transferred to there from a junior college where he won a national championship at the College of San Mateo . So he's had a really fun time in college and his high school career . I mean we were talking earlier about going and going to the games . I think probably my favorite time of being his dad was Little League baseball . It was pure , it was our town , it was playing against your buddies and from that point forward things got more intense . My kids a little too old for the big travel ball deal . We didn't really do a lot of that , but I do miss going to the games .

Speaker 1 6:06

Gosh , that was pretty much one of my favorite things to do is Monday , tuesday , wednesday , thursday . We usually had something going and my daughter , alexa , is a outside hitter at Murray State in Kentucky . She is purely a volleyball player . She was an excellent swimmer growing up . She is intense , a little quieter than my son , but she's definitely as competitive as there is out there . That comes definitely from both mom and myself . Outstanding student and truly one of the most loving people you're ever going to meet in your life . I mean , she may be relatively quiet but , um , when you're in her circle you're in for life . She's an amazing girl .

Speaker 2 6:51

Love it , and um , how good is it to have a tough daughter .

Speaker 1 6:56

Oh , it's it . It's a huge relief . I mean , I know , uh , we all try to teach our kids , especially our daughters , um to be their own advocates and to be tough and to do those things and stand up for yourself . And , um , I don't exactly know how it worked , it just did that . She is , um , she's just not afraid to advocate for herself and she's extremely strong personality , um , in interpersonal relationships , and I know that , um , she's going to never back down in the standup for herself . She's a lot like her aunt , uh , abigail , who you introduced us . She's another tough one .

Speaker 2 7:34

I uh , do you think it's because of the brother to older brother a little bit ?

Speaker 1 7:37

I think so . I mean , I think there's some of that . Um , I'm not sure if that's what created the dynamic with Abigail and I , but I think there's some of that . For sure . I think a lot of it comes from her mom . I mean , she got to see her mom when we had COVID out in California and they locked us down and shut down sports for the kids . My wife was on the front lines on the news often and as much as she could get the message out to advocate for kids getting back on the fields , she could get the message out to advocate for kids getting back on the fields , and so she saw that firsthand and she's seen . You know there's the saying mama bear is probably taking it too light with my wife . She's more like a terrifying lion if you do something to her kids , and so my , my wife's been a great example for that to my daughter . And of course my daughter always knows she can ring the bell and I'll come running . But I don't know how much she needs that too much anymore .

Speaker 2 8:27

She's pretty dang tough three dribble max . He couldn't score in the paint . That was , that was the rule and I was the , I was the ref and I obviously let it go a little bit . Well , there's one time , I mean , he literally fouls the living shit out of her like , flies her into the house and like I'm like what are you doing , dude ? And she's like dad , I'm fine , I'm like that . He that's like a double flagrant t . Yeah , you should be ejected . But like I think , like it was some days we'll talk about that now as a family and those memories are playing backyard one-on-one . And she says a lot of my toughness comes from Ryder , from COVID .

Speaker 1 9:13

Oh , there's no doubt some of her toughness comes from her brother . I mean , she stood up for herself plenty as a kid , but he's also pretty darn protective of her . So I think her high school

The Watts Family Huddle

Speaker 1 9:23

, while he was there , there wasn't a lot of fear of anybody messing with her . Put it that way .

Speaker 1 9:29

I think , I saw an interview with one of the Diaz , with Nate Diaz , and he was talking about . The guy asked him have you ever been ? Were you bullied in high school ? He said no , I got a brother and his brother just happens to be a world champion fighter . But I think that's how Alexa would look at it . I mean , she always knew that and I think everybody in high school knew that you don't mess with Alexa because her big brother's coming if you do So- . Love it but she didn't need much of that yeah .

Speaker 1 9:59

And what does your wife do ? My wife stays at home . She worked for five years six years , no , actually longer than that , about 10 years when we got married in corporate , corporate world to be a full-time mom , and she is beyond what I could have ever expected as a mother . She's of Greek descent and if you know any Greek people , they will . A mother in that world is the ultimate caretaker and caregiver .

Speaker 2 10:42

Love it . Yeah , it's fun . We were similar journey very grateful and I it . Yeah , it's fun , it's um , we were similar journey very grateful when my and I'm glad it was my wife's decision , not mine um , and when she hung up the cleats , um , I don't know what age it was , maybe when the kids were like like five and three or four and two or something like that .

Speaker 2 10:58

And , uh , for me is when I was in corporate . It was like this relief because then I know that I still try to get home as early as I could to be , you know , have family dinners , but like knowing that if someone they were sick , I could still go work , absolutely , you know . And they just took so much pressure off and she's actually now gone back to work , which is kind of cool . She got a job during COVID for one of my it's kind of funny story One of my clients that hired me to coach one of their sales executives . They ended up hiring her to do like operations work and she's been there shoot over four years and got the job like during COVID .

Speaker 2 11:27

Yeah , it's kind of fun .

Speaker 1 11:28

Yeah , my wife's life now is a little more dedicated to uh to me , obviously , because now I'm the only one she takes care of and she definitely has to take care of me . I'm a real pain , um , but you know she's she's really , uh still heavily invested in the kids . I mean , we talk to the kids probably every day , but she is a fitness buff and she's in incredible shape and she works out harder than I possibly can imagine at this point in my life and I think her emphasis , she put her time in as a as the full-time mob . You know that's a 24 seven job . So now she gets to enjoy her semi-retirement so now she gets to enjoy her semi-retirement .

Speaker 2 12:08

Wow , our , uh , our stories are similar , man . I I have . My wife is um . See , my fitness goals at this age are don't get fat , don't get hurt , and hers she's still doing freaking power , cleans and deadlifts . I'm like a hard pass on that . Yeah , yeah , I want to go to golf joking .

Speaker 1 12:20

The other day someone was asking me about my workout routine and what you know , what my , what my squats were these days , and I said well , I can tell you this , my last day of baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates , I told myself I was never going to do a power clean again the rest of my life and I was never going to do squats .

Speaker 1 12:35

Now I've done some squats and I've done some power cleans , but it's not something I enjoy . And she's out there doing the same thing Deadlifts , power cleans , deep lunges . I'm like . I'm just like you said , trying to stay healthy and not get heavy .

Speaker 2 12:47

Yep , a hundred percent . All right , man . Well , I always like transitioned it to , to dad stuff , now Like . But I like ask my guests to go back in time to try to reflect on what was life like growing up for you and share a little bit about how your , the impact your parents had on you . Now that you're a dad .

Speaker 1 13:02

Sure . Well , I think my dad said something to me when I was pretty young . I never forgot it . He said you know you're never going to know how much I love you until you have your own kid . And no doubt I learned that and I think I appreciate it . You know my dad was a little more old school kind of not a big disciplinarian , but you knew you didn't want to disappoint him . That was . That was the biggest threat . It wasn't about getting spanked or even grounded , it was just hearing that rotary phone on the wall where my mom called him at work and knowing he was coming home and you'd have to talk about something you messed up . So he was there for me in sports always . He was an incredible dad , taught me how to fix things and work on things . Never missed anything he could . If dad taught me how to fix things and work on things , never missed anything If he could make it somehow some way . He did and he was just amazing support and someone who I still call for any complex question I have in my life . I'm going to call and ask him that question .

Speaker 1 13:59

And my mom was truly an amazingly dedicated mother , a lot like my wife , where there was food always ready to go . There was . If I needed to learn flashcards , she was going to sit down at the table with me and we were going to learn flashcards . She's more emotional than my dad was , so she showered us with love . Not a big thing in my dad's upbringing I don't think that there was a lot of the word love being used , but you knew he did . But she was sort of the emotional one who shared that with us and , frankly , I took that part from her and continued to do that with my kids from day one . I just felt like they need to know it . Like I said , I never didn't think my dad loved me , but he didn't have to say it , but I said it and I made sure my kids understood it and understand it to this very day .

Speaker 2 14:53

We close every call with I love you , that's how we do it . That's two . That's so good . When is your ? Is mom and dad still with us ?

Speaker 1 15:06

Mom and dad are still here . They live in Georgia . They are , you know , obviously very retired now and loving all their grandkids . And you know my dad loves to go ride on an airplane when someone asks , do you have grandkids ? Because he gets to talk about all of them . And my , as you probably know , my sister's son plays in the NFL or other son plays at Syracuse . My oldest niece was a Star track star . Probably could have kept going . She ran at Marshall for a short time and then focused on her education . Both my kids play Division One sports . My brothers both played college football and it's just a crazy story .

Speaker 1 15:37

So I think my dad's favorite thing is to sit on an airplane . He'll always tell you at the end of telling you about these conversations and just know what he's going to believe you . But it's pretty neat what they built as a set of grandparents and I think every one of their grandchildren just absolutely adores them . My dad is far more touchy , feely with his grandkids . I mean , the guy will hug the heck out of them and I'm like I never got those as a kid . He still has a hard time when I pull him in and give him a big hug because it's just not the way he was raised , but just amazing , and I probably talked to my parents at least three or four times a week , sometimes more . It used to be every single day . And they'll say and they talk to four kids every day , almost every day . We all call . So that shows how much of an impact they had on us .

Speaker 2 16:27

That's awesome , that's you know , it's it's you're making me think about . I hope that what you described is what I have later with my kids , cause I lost my dad in 2020 , uh , 2021 , december 29th 2021 . My mom , um , she's 75 , 75 . Um , they live in Eastern Washington . I talk to her every couple of days , you know , and she's like obsessed with watching my daughter play high school basketball . And then she's obsessed with , you know , she's the grandma that like , if , like , the high school website didn't update when our games changed , but I'm telling her the games changed , she's like , no , you're wrong . I'm like mom , I know , I just talked to Riley Like she change , but I'm telling her the games change , she's like , no , it , you're wrong . I'm like mom , I know , I just talked to riley , like , she's her games , I know . But I'm looking at the website and it says I go , I , I get it , mom , but that's not updated . And so , like , she's like that intense about it . Um , that's what we know . They care and but like , but my son will .

Speaker 2 17:18

I'm on snapchat now , rich , what I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd ever be on Snapchat , but that's me and my son every single day and , to your point , we always end each other , whether it's my daughter's going to school . Hey , love you honey . You know same thing and and I want that should be normal . It shouldn't be , absolutely . You know . And but my dad , he was born in 42 and kind of the same thing you talked about , didn't ? I don't remember a lot of you know . I knew he loved me and he didn't miss one of my college football games never missed one . But I mean , I don't know if it's more like why this now , because we didn't have that , so we want to make sure that we , our kids , have it , or if it's just generationally . I don't know , but it's interesting to think about .

Speaker 1 17:57

I think it's a combination of you know your upbringing with your both your parents . For me , at least , it certainly was that . You know , I saw the things that that I tried to take from both my parents the positives , and we all have our negatives , but I tried to focus on the things that I appreciated as a child and there's no doubt that that I appreciated how much I knew my mom would love me because she'd tell me and I knew my dad would love me . I mean , no doubt , but it was just a different way to express it , right . So I think , taking those things as generations move forward , I mean it's , I think there's a lot of positive things . I think one of the things that concerns me is sort of the taking the manhood out of the man , out of manhood in the last 20 years , and I still think of father's role as a protector . But I think you can also share some of that nurturing side as well . I mean , I love lions . I think they're the most amazing animals and they're very similar to us , right , you have the females that feed the cubs and they do all the daily stuff and then if there's a cry , you know , out of the bush comes dad to come save the day , but they'll also lay on the ground and let the cubs bite their ears and do all that stuff . I think that's you know , if your kids know that , that you're behind them and you're going to be there for them , that's step one . If you can show it to them , that's a great step and I think it's a positive step that we've seen in our society .

Speaker 1 19:25

I really do appreciate that my wife and I have different roles . I can't do what she does . I simply don't have the bandwidth to to care , to give , to share the emotion as much as she does . She just has an ability to do it as a mother that I just don't have , just has an ability to do it as a mother that I just don't have . Um , and but I think you know we , we move forward , we grow as a society and but I I still believe in , you know , I don't know it doesn't necessarily be gender roles , because someone can . Whoever works works . That doesn't bother me , but I think it's great when you can have um , you know the father be a father and talk to his son about those things , and then and my wife talks to my daughter about things I don't talk about . You know there's lots of those things . So I think the evolution has been an interesting thing , but I've definitely kept some of the old school values that I think are valuable as a father .

Speaker 2 20:16

No , that's cool . I appreciate you sharing that . Um , what , what did mom and dad ? Well , what did dad do for a job ?

Speaker 1 20:23

My dad worked for AT&T for a very long time in the evolution from Pacific Telephone out in California to what became AT&T he consulted for many years . After he retired from AT&T , my mom stayed at home . She worked a little bit . She has a degree from Cal . She went back to school when I was a kid , which was a great example to set for us .

Growing Up With Unconditional Support

Speaker 1 20:50

I mean , she went and got a degree while raising four kids and graduated with amazing honors from Cal Berkeley . So that was pretty awesome . But so you know , dad was a suit and tie guy . Every day when I was a kid , you know he'd take the bus into San Francisco and work downtown for a long time and we my sister and I would go out and meet him at the bus stop and carry his briefcase home , and that was pretty much daily event when we were little . We'd we'd walk over to do that . So he was a . He was a corporate guy for a very long time , but he's also , you know , former college football player went to camp with the Atlanta Falcons and I'll never forget this .

Speaker 1 21:26

I was probably in eighth grade and they were tearing down the high school football locker room to rebuild it for the varsity room and one of the guys who was four or five years older than me I mean , these guys don't know I'm an eighth grader comes in . Oh my God , your dad is an animal . And I said , well , why is that ? Well , he pushed over the entire locker set by himself and took it right off the bolts and I was like , well , that sounds like my dad . That's the kind of guy he was . But he , to this day , is still a huge human being . I mean , he's muscular . At almost 80 years old , he still lifts weights .

Speaker 1 21:59

Wow , what position did he play ? He played middle linebacker , so he't . He had a . He had an interesting he my grandfather was . It was a tough lineman and so , uh , they're raising a quarterback was a very interesting transition , so they just didn't get it . I mean , this is a different world . I didn't want to smash people , I wanted to to throw touchdowns and put my hands up in the air like joe montana that's .

Speaker 2 22:22

You know , it's interesting , my college college teammate , one of my roommates . He was a lineman , Just the angriest lineman , the epitome of a judgmental . He's that lineman , A little undersized which made him even more chippier . His son was a freaking stud quarterback . Up in the Bellingham area he played JC ball . Then he got hurt . But yeah , same thing . I'm like how the hell does a fricking hog upfront raise a quarterback ?

Speaker 1 22:49

You know , I think it was kind of nice because my dad didn't know anything about playing that position . So and I was , you know , later my emphasis became baseball . But my dad wasn't one to criticize how I played . But he caught thousands of footballs at the high school field for me as spot catching balls and I did the same exact thing and still do it to this day for my son . But he didn't really know the job . So it was kind of nice and I think it was something I tried to keep with . Me is to .

Speaker 1 23:21

The best I could is to never give input on how my son played . Certainly he would ask and I would share it with him , but I never . I can't recall a time when I started with the conversation saying , hey , I don't think you played well today . My dad never did that , I just knew he was there Most of the time he was .

Speaker 1 23:40

I was the one who was self-critical and he would have to talk me out of me thinking I played a bad game and my sons carried on . Both my kids kind of carried that on . I'll tell them great game . I mean , you played amazing . Well , I missed this ball or I missed this throw or I missed this . So I think that's kind of a nice thing about having a father that didn't play the position . I don't know anything about volleyball , barely can follow the game with all the rules they have , but I've been trying to learn for a long time . But , um , I'd just love to watch my daughter play um quarterback . I know a little bit more about that , so with my son I'll share my stuff . But the position has evolved so much in the last 25 , well 30 years since I played it that even the way you throw the football is not the same .

Speaker 2 24:23

So it it's like a sidearm .

Speaker 1 24:25

It's like a three quarter motion now and they've got all this . You know they just changed a lot of the mechanics , and so that's been pretty interesting to see and learn from him .

Speaker 2 24:37

Yeah , they . Well , you're back to your dad . That's like a lineman's dream . He gets to run routes for his son . Like this is like he's not hitting the sled , he's actually catching balls .

Speaker 1 24:45

Oh it was great , I have great memories of doing it and a few times I will say my dad said , hey , you know , are we throwing today , you know ? And I was like , oh , I want to go to the pool with my buddies . But I never regretted it and to this day I appreciate every one of those throwing sessions . I never tell my son , no , ever I'll go , I'll come home from work , whatever it is , I will go catch footballs Cause . So only so many times you get to do that in your life .

Speaker 2 25:10

I'm going to miss rebounding and we have a little putting green outside our house here . It's like we have a chipping contest where there's a scoreboard back here that's tracking me and my son , like we have this little game , but it's like I know those times are going to be gone before I know it . So it's like same thing , man , if I get a chance to rebound or go chip and putt , I'm in .

Speaker 1 25:28

It's all in , every time .

Speaker 2 25:30

Okay . So I want to go . I want to go back real quick to like values that were that your parents that were like super important to you . I'm obviously I don't want to assume but I'm guessing you know hard work , grit , resilience , all those things . But if you can think back to like a couple that really stand out , maybe with a story of how you had to learn them that you've now transitioned into your role as a dad like , tell me what comes to mind .

Speaker 1 25:52

I think um , and I've I've kind of talked about this a long time in my life that um first rule was you don't quit . You never quit anything . That was just pretty much the standard rule . You don't quit anything . You start , you're going to finish it . Whether you like it or not , you're not quitting the team . Uh , you're , there was . I would never even consider quitting in a game , um , and in competition , I'm not sure how much they had to . I think there's just some of that you're just born with , but that was something . And then the other thing was being able to .

Speaker 1 26:23

My dad's big thing always was to treat every challenge as an opportunity to grow . And specifically for me , I had a really bad injury in eighth grade and when I was going up prior to eighth grade , I was , I was a pretty good baseball player and everyone sort of talked like this guy was going to go to the big leagues , he has all this stuff as a 12 , 13 year old and they would tell my parents stuff like that . And then I broke my arm and had a nerve injury . I had a really serious injury and things . It was , frankly , probably looking pretty bleak from their perspective as this kid whose whole life was going to be .

Speaker 1 26:59

Sports is now maybe never going to play again and and from you know , both my parents were were very essential in teaching me that this is an opportunity to grow . This is an opportunity to figure out who you are . And it I recovered and I was able to do the things I did athletically later in life . But I never forgot that and I think I took and along my career I had challenges and school change and a sport change . My sport was football for my freshman year and then after that I never played it again . So , taking each little challenge and saying how do I A learn from this and what do I do to fix this and how can I get better from having this thing happen , and I think that was just an overall theme that my parents taught us how to be I don't want to say chameleons , because that's not the word but how to adjust to adversity and to treat each adversity as a potential opportunity for a positive change .

Speaker 2 27:55

Have you ever asked your , your mom or dad like how difficult that was watching you go through that injury ?

Speaker 1 27:59

You know it's funny , we , we ? I don't think we've talked about it in a long time , but I think at the moment you know , you know , you , you're a kid you can tell what the look on your parents' faces when the doctor comes in and says , well , he should be able to have use of his hand again , comes in and says , well , he should be able to have use of his hand again . And I mean it didn't pass over me . I'm sure they were devastated . And then what was the identity going to be of me after that point if I could never play sports again ? Reality was they never even put that in my mind . It was never an issue that I wasn't going to play again . It was just when and what was going to take to get there .

Speaker 1 28:34

And frankly , it was sort of their message even then and I think it still continues to this day today was you're just not going to accept this situation as the end . And maybe I would have been a sports caster or something different if I couldn't have played . But they didn't even go to the next . If you can't do this , we're going to do this . They're just you're going to do this , you can do this . And that was sort of the focus , I think . You know the last time . I kind of remember talking about it . It was sort of like , oh well , you , just we knew you'd get better , and I'm sure they didn't think that when I was laying in the hospital in Oakland . But you know , at the same time , um , they just didn't permit me to accept anything less than getting to what I wanted .

Speaker 2 29:17

Yeah . Power of the mind yeah no doubt .

Speaker 2 29:20

Is an untapped resource . A lot of the work I do in my corporate I guess my business job is I just have , like , either mindset work for executives or just teaching sales teams . So like , if you don't have belief , hence the sign behind me , it's like you're already losing . Yeah , and the words we say matter . I'm a big I will guy that phrase . It's amazing how just writing I will before a goal will dramatically impact the chance of you actually achieving it , versus anxiety-based language , like anybody who says I need to lose weight or I need to start working out , they never do . Yeah , you know , to lose weight or I need to start working out . They never do . Yeah , you know . Um , but I ?

Speaker 2 29:57

The reason I ask is uh , I my , I mean , I squeezed every ounce of athletic ability out of me to get to like I would have been probably a one double a or that's

Overcoming Adversity Through Opportunity

Speaker 2 30:07

why I end up playing d2 guy .

Speaker 2 30:08

But I broke my foot . Senior year was out for I mean , and then I had to go watch a guy who I beat out my junior year now have to go play . He ends up having this fantastic high school career sets , all the records I was supposed to break and I had to just watch , yeah , and I can't imagine , as a parent , how difficult I mean , I know it's hard on me and I learned about , true , what it means to be a good teammate . I learned about vulnerability , humility . I learned that we're all replaceable , um , but like as a parent , um , you know , I've ever it's funny my mom , like they , they knew , I mean , they , they remember it , but they don't remember Like I remember it , which is kind of interesting . Like for me , I , I'm 48 years old and I still remember that , like yesterday , oh yeah , you know , um , do you have your kids ever gone through anything similar like that , where you're like , oh , I mean sure , I think COVID was the first thing .

Speaker 1 31:00

My son had a pretty darn good junior year . We were talking to a lot of schools and it was looking like you know , he was going to get a scholarship out of high school and he was going to have an opportunity to play and it it was not it wasn't all the perfect schools , but there was a lot of really good opportunities . And then when COVID happened , we didn't play football in California until basically almost May of his senior year . I mean , you're looking at we went from talking to really good FCS schools and kind of the FBS schools that were not the elite top 25 , but other schools that were really good schools to , oh God , he's going to junior college if he wants to play football , and it's crazy to send a 4.3 student to junior college so you can go play football . But it felt crazy . But it was probably the greatest learning opportunity he could have ever had in his lifetime .

Speaker 1 31:52

So I remember to this day showing up at College of San Mateo and meeting the coaching staff . It was windier than I've ever seen anywhere in California and they talked about how he was going to play well there . And then , after his first , when he got there there were seven quarterbacks in the room at a two-year school and they told us after like the second week that you , you know , like they had , we had been warned that most junior college players are going to gray shirt and they have a really good program that mean you don't enroll in full classes and doesn't burn eligibility . And they and I we were kind of a little shocked by it . And when the coach called us he said well , he's going to win us a championship . It just won't be this year . And I remember just thinking man , he's stuck going to a junior college away from home . You know , junior college is definitely no free pass . It is like being in the minor leagues , it is a grind . And watching him go through you know the period of the gray shirt year and then really stepping in and taking ownership of the position the next year . And then , you know , winning a state national championship for junior college was probably one of the most proud things I've ever had in my life , because I know where that started . I remember the phone call , the Zoom call , with the coach of the junior college going gosh . This is where we're at now . We're talking to junior college coaches . Now .

Speaker 1 33:16

Would things have been different if he hadn't had COVID happen ? I think they would have been . I think we were on a really positive path . But the lessons he learned at the junior college I don't think he would have learned anywhere else . And the group of kids , the brotherhood they shared at College of San Mateo , is something that I've never seen anywhere else . I never experienced it . It was something just next level , and it's partly due to Coach Tulloch and Coach Dovenberg and Sakona and all the guys that run that program . Coach Green , they're amazing men and they raise , they take 18-year-olds and turn them into men there . But I don't think he would have learned that anywhere else . I just think that was amazing for him to get that experience .

Speaker 3 34:01

Hello everybody . My name is Craig Coe and I'm the Senior Vice President of Relationship Management for Beeline . For more than 20 years , we've been helping Fortune 1000 companies drive a competitive advantage with their external workforce . In fact , Beeline's history of first-to-market innovations has become today's industry standards . I get asked all the time what did Casey do for your organization ? And I say this it's simple . The guy flat out gets it . Relationships matter . His down-to-earth presentation , his real-world experience apply to every area of our business . In fact , his book Win the Relationship and Not the Deal has become required reading for all new members of the Global Relationship Management Team . If you'd like to know more about me or about Beeline , please reach out to me on LinkedIn . And if you don't know Casey Jaycox , go to CaseyJaycoxcom and learn more about how he can help your organization . Now let's get back to today's episode .

Speaker 2 35:01

Isn't it funny how your mind can easily go down the path of oh , but this or that and Uncle Rico and that would have been a hot tub soulmate , but it's like no , that happened . For I look at these . I'm a definitely believer of things happen in life for a reason . Sometimes it's like you know , bad stuff happens . Like I don't ever wish to eat bad stuff on people , but like , like even COVID is horrible , as COVID was for like it brought us closer as a family . It gave us more , it slowed us down to have more family dinners . It brought my son and my daughter closer together . I'm very lucky , like we're very lucky our kids were younger . I can't even because my niece was a covet . She got same thing kind of . Her college basketball experience got totally changed because of that . Um , sometimes I still think , like , did we really go through that ?

Speaker 1 35:49

it's like it's been what five years now and we go from almost five years to the to the day and you go from the where you say this is going to be a couple of weeks . This is weird to watching them . You know , my son went to vert and daughter went to virtual school for a year , yeah , and then when he finally got in the classroom it was the , you know , wearing masks and all this stuff . But I think you're right . No doubt when COVID happened and we were all locked down , it was kind of nice . I mean , we did have the slowdown . We didn't have volleyball tournaments every weekend and we didn't have a seven on seven tournament every weekend , but but we did . I think I'm missing out on , my wife and I especially , the joy of just watching our kids play . I don't even care what they do on the field , but just to watch them play gives us so much joy and you know , as the clock starts ticking down here , we're treasuring every single moment no doubt Do you guys try to travel to a lot of the games .

Speaker 1 36:45

Yeah , we did a ridiculous travel schedule last year . You know we went to Cal Poly's , five hours from us , so we would drive there . We went back to see my daughter play in Kentucky , where Murray is , and we also saw her play in Chicago . The harder thing with volleyball is you can travel across the country to go to Murray and they'll do a three-game sweep and the game's over in an hour and the next day they do the same thing and that's it .

Speaker 1 37:13

You travel 4,000 miles for that , or six to 8,000 round trip , but everything's on ESPN plus for us , so we're able to watch . We don't miss anything . We watch every single game , whether it's either kid . In fact , my son's first touchdown he scored in college at division one level was we were what we watched it on my iPad at , and I think UIC or one of the schools that we were visiting watching our daughter play . So we don't miss it . We're nuts , we are . But we traveled and we plan on traveling for 11 weeks starting at the end of August and we have a great house sitter and we're gone pretty much Friday , saturday , sunday for 10 weeks .

Speaker 2 37:53

Love it . So you guys are a few years ahead , but we're about to enter that journey . And um , my son , he plays golf in college at a small school called Southern Oregon . And um , my daughter , she's an aspiring um , we'll see what happens . She's just , she's finished up her junior year right now .

Speaker 2 38:08

Um , but yeah , just like the , the joy you get is , and for people I know , I know what you're , I know , I know what you're going , I know what you're talking about because I'm experiencing it too and it's it , it even it surpasses any joy as a , as a former player , at least for me , like I love the experience . But seeing your son or daughter do something like I get , I was telling my daughter too , like if my dad was still alive , like my dad was the guy he dropped crazy gd bombs . You know , just freak out in the crowd and sometimes bad , sometimes good , but more good than bad . But like he , if he watched my daughter play hoop , like because she's just like this tasmanian devil , never gets tired , really good shooter , but like does not back down anybody , he would just be like loving it I mean it's , it is amazing and we enjoy it .

Speaker 1 38:52

Um , highs and lows . You know the there it's . The one thing I try to explain to people about college sports is getting there is really hard , then having a career is really hard and then just being a college athlete even compared to . I was just talking about this yesterday with someone you know my freshman year of college . We showed up as freshmen beginning in August . We had a freshman camp . We started , the season season ended and then we didn't come back to actual practice until spring ball . We had weight training in the off season and voluntary workouts . Nowadays the season ends , you get your Christmas off If you're not in a bowl game , then you come back and you're at 6 am workouts . Then you start spring ball and then you have 6 am workouts again until you start summer ball and then that starts the whole season over again .

Speaker 1 39:41

It's a real grind and you know , my dad told me this about when he showed up at the Falcons . He said he looked around the locker room . He said everybody in here was the best player on their team in college . And that's pretty much what college sports are like Everybody in there was the best player on their high school team , some of the best players in their leagues or in their counties , and you're competing with those people for playing time . So it is definitely a grind . You're going to have coaches you love , you have coaches you don't like so much . You've got to deal with personalities , but I think the lessons that are learned in college athletics translate directly into the workplace in life . I mean , that's just how it is . Adversity is just like I said . It's another opportunity to find another path or a way to get success .

Speaker 2 40:22

A thousand percent Before I got . I want to ask about your kids again . But how ? Where do you think you strike me ? Even though we've never met before ? You strike me as a guy that really embraces kind of like mental toughness and power of the mind . Where do you think that was either learned or taught , yeah .

Speaker 1 40:42

I I'm not sure how much it was taught at all , I think , growing , you know , just even talking to my parents about how I was playing little kids sports , it was it just came from my parents and I think there's a lot of that where it was just innately I'm innately competitive , I'm pretty goal driven . My dad definitely was a person who who , just in talking to him , you knew that if you wanted to do something bad enough , you just have to work hard enough to get it and and that's that's the example he showed us , particularly in the sports world , was there's just the concept that if you want it bad enough and you're willing to sacrifice enough to get it , you'll achieve your goals .

Speaker 1 41:28

Now , I didn't achieve all my goals for sure . I didn't play in the big leagues , I didn't make it past A ball , I was stuck where I was , but it just led me to the next chapter of my life and to take those things , those skill sets that I learned playing sports and that my dad taught me . That I learned playing sports and that my dad taught me . That mental toughness is a strange thing , because I think that phrase is kind of ambiguous . Right , it can mean lots of different things , but for me , I think not accepting somebody else's evaluation of what my limits might be is certainly one of those things I've always felt .

Speaker 1 42:03

I had a coach tell me one time a basketball coach , Coach Kitchens where it's the effect of you know , all I have to do to make you do something is say you can't do it . And

College Sports & NIL Challenges

Speaker 1 42:14

I definitely that's true . I think that's with both my kids . I think you know , knowing how hard it is to get to the next level . They both worked incredibly hard . I mean , they sacrificed so much to get to where they are today . I think they they can continue to , to keep that practice in their lives yeah , it'll be fun to see .

Speaker 2 42:35

I mean , obviously you more as uh taught when they see it , I mean we can talk about when they , when your kids see it . Um , you know , it's like extra . My kids work out all the time . Now that's not even . That's just what they do . You know and it'll be know it's like extra . My kids work out all the time . Now that's not even not . This is what they do , you know , and it'll be interesting to see , like the lessons , I mean a your family's . The freaking lineage is like insane to see how many d1 athletes you guys have , but it's pretty crazy right now yeah it's insane .

Speaker 2 42:59

Then you got pro athletes , you got your pops , but like those skills , they're going to be beasts in business world . Yes , I hope so , and if they don't decide to be a beast business world , there'll be a beast in something else .

Speaker 1 43:09

Yeah , and it may be being a beast as a as like my wife , I mean I it's funny . I wouldn't call her a beast , but she's definitely terrifying . You don't want to mess with her Beast in a good way .

Speaker 1 43:21

Yeah , Well , my daughter's my daughter , Well , my daughter's my daughter . We used to always call her beast mode because when she played basketball , I mean she was , she was 5'11 in eighth grade and very strong , she was a swimmer . So I mean her rebounding was . I have a video that I love to this day and I send it around once in a while , where she got a rebound . A girl was hanging onto the ball and she , full on , tomahawked that girl onto the ground just ripping the ball , and I remember watching it and my wife did on the video here and go , oh , and I just like she's good , yeah , she's , she's fine , She'll be fine at whatever she wants to do . Oh , those are the best .

Speaker 2 43:59

Okay , I'd love to transition . So obviously a hot topic right now . And if kids in college is like NIL , which is completely changed college sports Transfer portal . I don't know if it was meant to be what it is , but I definitely it seems like at times it can be completely out of control . There's horror stories , there's success stories . I just maybe I'd love to know your experience as a dad , like going through it , lessons learned that maybe other dads or moms might be able to learn from your guys' experience .

Speaker 1 44:27

Yeah , I mean it's funny because I , when I went to Arizona state to play football , I ended up playing baseball as well . There I played on the JV team and I went through a transfer to play I mean , they weren't going to let me play both there and I was told that one of our JV games by the then Montreal Expos that you know , if you go to junior college we'll draft you next year . I said , well , that's fun , but my next , this is probably my last baseball game . I'm , I'm , you know , going to just play football . And he said that's a mistake and I was left handed . Catcher is 220 pounds . You know , six foot two kid , you know I was a big kid . So I did go into the .

Speaker 2 45:05

I transferred but it wasn't a portal .

Speaker 1 45:13

I didn't get to put my market myself or put it out there for the world to see I'm available , but I benefited from a transfer . I think today and part of me always was concerned that coaches have the flexibility to leave whenever they want and you can get recruited by a guy who's gone . Not even by the time you get there he's already gone , and now you're playing for a guy who didn't recruit you and maybe doesn't see your skill set as fitting into his vision for his offense or his defense or his baseball lineup or whatever . So I kind of welcomed the concept of the transfer portal . I thought it was a good idea . I think what happened that I think is negative for college sports today is the combination of the transfer portal with NIL , and NIL money is great . It's great , I think , to support athletes beyond a scholarship .

Speaker 1 45:57

When you're at a school and you're on a scholarship , you're living pretty poor , I mean , unless your parents can supplement it , and a lot of kids' parents can't . Poor , I mean unless your parents can supplement it , and a lot of kids' parents can't . And when my brother played at Cal , the scholarship money the lieu check for in lieu check for their living expenses wouldn't cover a one bedroom apartment anywhere in Berkeley . You had to live in the worst part of town . And that is nice with NIL that you know your jersey's hanging in the bookstore . You might as well get some money for it , right With your number on it . But I'm afraid of what it's become today , because now every if you're not a top 25 , maybe 30 football team , even those teams are poaching their players with NIL . But if you're anybody outside of that world , you have to be terrified that each one of your good players is going to go for a paycheck and leave . And my son's team had happened this year . They lost a pretty darn good player , offensive lineman , and he ended up going to Michigan . My understanding is he got a lot of NIL money to do it . Would he have gone in the portal without it ? Maybe he got to play at a top school ?

Speaker 1 47:04

But I think the combination of those two things has created a unintended circumstance that every college athlete's a free agent year to year and good , bad , I'm not sure . Yet I I think you can see what's already happening now , where when you watch a college football broadcast they say well , this kid was at this school last year . The year before that he was at this school and it's just that was a foreign concept when I was growing up . So good , bad , not sure yet , but I'm not sure that I think the worry I have about NIL is the Habs being having so much power and money that they're going to take you know the Boise States who went a bowl game years ago . Take you know the Boise States who who went a bowl game years ago , they're going to just going to be non-competitive because they're good players , are just going to be gone the next year .

Speaker 1 47:53

And we're seeing it . I mean , we're seeing great players on on from Mac schools or from Mountain West schools just being poached and playing one year , two years , a coach's investment in you as a young 18 year old and two years later you're off playing for somebody else who wouldn't even talk to you in high school . But my son , he went in the portal after Buffalo , Loved the new staff there , Loved the guys that recruited him there . But after a California kid moving to Buffalo , New York , I think we thought it was going to be a fun adventure . But living in Buffalo , New York , I think we thought it was going to be a fun adventure , but living in Buffalo , New York , was pretty tough between October .

Speaker 2 48:33

That's not sunny in 70 .

Speaker 1 48:35

Yeah , I mean , and that's what he lives in today at Cal Poly , and when he went into the portal , one of the things we talked about was was geography .

Speaker 1 48:42

He wanted to be in a location that was going to make him happy , and he is so happy today , I mean , he lives in paradise but he benefited from the portal . I think it was a great you know tool for him to find a place to go play for a good staff or guys that that seemed to appreciate him , in a place he wanted to be in on a , in a school which had academics that were going to be going to be . In a school which had academics that were going to be very , very strong I mean , some of the strongest in our state and an opportunity when you're done playing , because everybody's going to end playing someday , whether you play in the NFL or you finish in high school , the day it's over . You want to have a future and I think that was a big part of why he chose Cal Poly . It was just this is going to be a place that's going to set me up for life . Yeah , it's just , this is going to be a place that's going to set me up for life .

Speaker 2 49:26

Yeah , it's funny Like I've not gone through the portal at all yet , but , like I , the thing that concerns me and my thoughts might be naive , but it seems like if you're starting , I look at like you know Caleb Williams , who went from Oklahoma , starting quarterback Oklahoma , like why would he need to transfer to USC ? It's like you're still the starter , so now that just it just shakes up recruiting and now it's like it impacts like high school kids are going to go there and I just don't know if the positive , the economics positively , if it outweighs the negative .

Speaker 1 49:57

And , yeah , that to me is actually kind of shocking and that's where I my . My take on the NIL pool would be that if you're at Oklahoma and you have 105 players on your roster , the NIL pool gets shared amongst 105 players . In my opinion , that would be a way to stop this , because , yeah , I might go from Fresno State to Oklahoma because my NIL pool money will be $100,000 more , maybe more than that , but it takes away the ability to go purchase a starting quarterback . And I think that's the sad thing is like Caleb Williams is a very good example . I mean , the amount of money he made at USC .

Speaker 1 50:40

It's almost like why would you even want to come out and go to the NFL ? You're going to make less money unless you're like what he ended up being the first pick in the draft . But for everybody else , I mean , you're going to make more money . A lot of these quarterbacks . Quinn , you're a perfect example down in Texas . He can make more money staying in college as a transfer guy getting an L money than he can as a as a first year NFL player . So how do you stop that ?

Speaker 2 51:04

I know .

Speaker 1 51:04

So I do like and Major League Baseball has a .

Speaker 1 51:07

I don't know if they still do , but when I was playing had the licensing fund and everybody who has who meets the minimum time in the big leagues got a share of it , and it was a big number . It was probably more than the league minimum back when I was playing . You're all contributing to it , so that's one way at least on a team-wide basis you could even do it by conference , I think , making it so it's harder to offer one guy all the money . Very few players on these teams are making the money that we hear about .

Speaker 2 51:36

There's guys that are getting $10,000 , $20,000 .

Speaker 1 51:43

One of my son's best friends kicked at a Pac-12 school . It was really minimal money . He was a starting all-conference player , outstanding kicker . I mean really , if you wanted to , you could probably go to the NFL at least get a shot at it , and he was that good . But he was making barely anything . You know getting some free golf here and there , whatever . But there were kids like the quarterback was making 2 million bucks and how do you have that disparity amongst two very valuable players on your team ? I mean , the left tackle isn't getting the money that Caleb Williams got . He was just as essential to USC's success that year , so I think it needs to be reworked . I'm not sure who's going to do it . I think the NCAA is now a pretty toothless entity . I'm not sure they're even going to exist in 10 years . You know one of these super conferences like you keep hearing about . You know the SEC breaking off and creating a super conference and just having , you know , sort of a it's not even amateur anymore , but a NFL light with the SEC .

Speaker 1 52:41

I mean , you know they're just going to be minor league players before they go to the NFL , and I don't think that's good for college sports , I don't think that's good for the kids that go to college and don't play sports Well , the college experience you lose .

Speaker 2 52:55

Absolutely , I mean the growth you know it's like maybe . And one thing I talked to my buddies about maybe it's okay , you're going to get NIL money or you got to sign a two-year deal .

Speaker 1 53:09

Yeah , you can't transfer unless you got to be there two years unless you get hurt or something . And I think you're going to start seeing more sophistication from the boosters that give the NIL money and doing things like that and maybe that that might help . But I also someone also mentioned the concept to me that you know if there's NIL money given to an athlete . But I also someone also mentioned the concept to me that you know if there's NIL money given to an athlete , they should only get the money if they graduate and incentivize a degree , and so you can give them a portion of the money , like 20% of the money , you know , month to month , whatever but then when they graduate they get this money from that institution . I mean that would be a big incentive to keep people to stay Because you , if you go to the NFL your junior year great , you're going to go get paid .

Speaker 1 53:48

You don't need the money , but for the rest of the people that this is the end of the road . It's a heck of a good start to have a half million dollar check waiting for you in a trust account .

Speaker 2 53:59

Yeah , crazy man , it is crazy .

Speaker 1 54:02

It's a wild West out there right now .

Speaker 2 54:04

Oh , it's going to be interesting to see as it just evolves . As you know , my kids further get older in this journey . But if we , if you were to summarize kind of what we've talked about , we talked a lot of good stuff that dads can take from our episode that they can , or conversation they can say . Man , I learned a couple of things today and I can apply these , maybe two or three things from Rich and Casey's conversation that allow me to be kind of hopefully maybe a better leader , my huddle , better leader , my , my team or my family Tell me , tell me what comes to mind , rich .

Speaker 1 54:33

I mean , I think for me , in looking back on where we've gone so far and where we're at right now , I think the biggest thing for me as a father has been to support the kids just , and that's maybe it's too maybe the catch-all statement , but whatever they decide to do , if it's , you know , my son , I , to this day , I have every one of my college teammates will say why isn't he pitching ?

Speaker 1 54:56

I mean , he's almost 6'4" , he's 220 pounds , he throws gas . Why isn't he throwing a baseball ? Well , because he chose not to . And I'm supporting him in that journey and I'm going to support him in whatever journey he takes in his life . But I think being there for your kids unconditionally you know they're going to make mistakes , they're going to make decisions you don't agree with , but being there unconditionally is probably the most valuable thing I think I can be as a father and yeah , I probably have done more than I should have from time to time and helping my kids get out of trouble or whatever , but I don't regret any of it . I mean I want to make sure they're safe and happy and they're going down the right path .

Speaker 1 55:33

I know they have the right values , because they show it to me all the time . But I think support's a huge thing . I think sharing from an athletic side of it , I think the outcome is far less important than the experience side of it . I think the outcome is far less important than the experience . I think I mean , sorry , the experience is far less important than the outcome . I think seeing my kids go through the college experiences and high school experience as athletes the games are great , winning and losing is important to consider .

Speaker 1 56:05

But I played a lot of games . I don't remember . I mean I remember a lot of the plays still to this day , but I don't really remember all the games I won or lost . I remember the guys I played with or played . It was crazy that I missed the locker room to this day . That's why I played adult hockey was I got to compete again and be in a locker room and share the wins and losses with teams and all the other things that go with it . But I think being supportive and unconditional support , if they have a bad game , I don't really care . I'm usually there as a therapist to try and get them to say , okay , next one , I don't care what the outcomes . I want them to win . Sure , I really do . I want them to have success Absolutely . But if it doesn't happen , when ?

Speaker 1 56:50

it doesn't happen because it won't happen from time to time . What can be learned from it ? How can I best support my son or daughter ? I don't need to make them feel like if they had a bad game . They don't need me to tell them .

Speaker 1 57:06

That's probably the most important thing is just unconditional support . I mean , there's going to be a day when you know my son's going to decide it's over , or it's over because it times out , and then I'm going to be an unconditionally supportive grandpa or you know , at his wedding or whatever . It's going to be and same thing with my daughter . So I think the most important thing to me as a father is it's going to be and same thing with my daughter . So , um , I think the most important thing to me as a father is is it's really just being there , and it doesn't mean physically , cause sometimes you can't be , but to know that they can . If they text me , I'm going to call them right back , or if they call me , I'm picking it up . I will walk out of a meeting and go pick up a phone call to make sure that everything's okay , and that's what my job is for the rest of my life .

Speaker 2 57:48

It's gold dude . I , um , you know , I think it's . I think it's something all parents , specifically hopefully there's a younger dad listened to . It's like right now they get so wrapped up in the outcome about . And it's funny , where I play golf , I've become buddies with a younger dad . It's probably like 10 years , 10 years younger in terms of like where they're at in life .

Speaker 2 58:05

And we had breakfast , a few soda pops one day and I was like , if I can give you any advice , dude , just chill the F out . Oh , no , no , and just , you have no control over what's going to happen . I mean , you do in a little bit , but at the end of the day , if they're going to be really really good , they're going to be really really good . If they're going to be really really shitty , they're going to be really really shitty . And you getting involved , talking to the coach , talking to the refs , it's just like do what you exactly just did , Like your journey is not their journey , their journey is their journey , and just let it happen and support them . You know , if they want to go play catch , go play catch , but if you're the , one always driving it , they're not going to want to do it .

Speaker 1 58:47

There's no doubt I've coached a lot of kids that were really good athletes and I've seen burnout where the dad says I can kind of close with this story because I thought it was ridiculous . I was at the gym and a friend of mine said hey , I want you to meet this guy . His son's a really good baseball player . And he starts to talk to me about his son . He played 140 games last year . I'm like wow , he's like 17 , 18 , must've played in a bunch of travel teams , all this stuff . He was a kid , he was like 11 years old , and I remember looking up years ago when I coached Little League . I looked up the odds of a Little League or making the big leagues it's like one in 11,000 or 12,000 . The odds of a high school player , it's like one in 6,000 , making it just to get into pro ball . And I remember thinking I told him look , man , you got to let your kid love this game , for what it is Like make him play 140 games . I promise you you want to go play with his buddies .

Speaker 1 59:38

And I watched , I waited , and that kid didn't even play high school baseball . He shut it down in like ninth grade . He's just like that's enough baseball for life . Let the kids be do things . Play lots of sports if you can . It's harder today than it was but touch them all . I mean , my daughter didn't want to play volleyball she . I tried to bribe her to try out for the volleyball team in seventh grade and she only tried out because the PE coach said I'll let you be my TA if you do it . And it ended up being something that got her a scholarship to go to college and a game she truly loves , and I had nothing to do with that . Don't my attempt fail to push her into that ?

Speaker 2 1:00:14

It took somebody else .

Speaker 1 1:00:15

But yeah , I mean the experience .

Speaker 1 1:00:18

I'm not going to say I've never yelled at a ref , I've yelled at a few um you know , and and but I will say as a coach a lot of the kids I coach , the ones I saw whose parents had to push If you have to push your kid , then your kid doesn't love it enough . If you don't love the game enough , you're you're going to have a plateau . That's going to come up pretty quick because you got to want to go shoot those baskets in the driveway and take a hundred free throws before you go to bed or hit off the tee or throw the football to your dad . You know , on Saturday afternoon when your buddies are at the pool , you got to love the game for that . And you can't I can't , dads can't , moms can't you can't make your kid love the game . That just happens and I've seen it happen . I've seen it blow out . I've seen kids just decide yeah , dad , I know this is what you love , but I don't . And you got to accept that . That's just the way it goes .

Speaker 2 1:01:12

Yep , and I was going to say , and that's okay , and it's not failure , it's just because they don't want to do what you want them to do . I remember throwing three picks in a college game . I don't remember my mom saying you piece shit , you suck . I mean they were like hug me , like it was just no big deal . Yeah , like I already knew I threw three picks , I don't need anybody , like I mean , yeah , like I'm gonna hear from my coaches the next day we watch film .

Speaker 2 1:01:37

Last thing I need to do is my you know my unathletic dad trying to tell me what I should have done I shouldn't do . It's like it's not my you know . So , yeah , I , I love this is really good to kind of just reinforce hopefully not for myself hearing what you talked about today , rich , but I hope that there's a parent that listened that just let them , let's let it play out and and and . Um , there's , you won't regret it , man . I'll tell you that if you choose this path of parenthood , no doubt um greatest thing in my life Before I learn a little bit more about your work stuff how does one guy , a California kid , get into ice hockey from baseball ? That's actually a funny story .

Speaker 1 1:02:14

So I as a kid growing up in the Bay Area in San Francisco Bay Area , there was Berkeley Iceland used to have a deal for a dollar you could skate all day and I thought hockey looked cool . You know , I thought the gear was cool , those gloves were awesome , and so I'd go out with my buddies and we skated . In fact I dug my best friend's two front teeth out of the ice at Berkeley Iceland with a screwdriver and I knew how to skate pretty well . And then I was taking . A friend of mine said , hey , I'm trying out for this adult beginner hockey deal . I said that sounds fun and I went and watched them play a game . Oh man , this looks really fun . But I was like , ah , whatever , I don't know how to play the game .

Speaker 1 1:02:50

I'm not going to do it . Then I took my daughter to a skating trip to the local ice arena , saw the sign , said I'm going to go do this . So I signed up to play at the lowest level hockey and just love the game and I can skate pretty well . Couldn't do all the hockey skating yet , but I learned it pretty quickly . And then , frankly , being a baseball player , it's a heck of a lot easier to hit a puck on the ice than it is to hit a baseball coming at you at a hundred .

Speaker 1 1:03:15

So I had some success early and I loved , absolutely loved , every one of my teammates I played with . We played at outrageous times 11 o'clock at night on Sunday night , you know , 10 o'clock on Monday night and I couldn't wait all day to go play . I played it as long as I could . I definitely enjoyed getting back into contact and that was an absolute blast . But at some point I started to just get old and that sucked and I couldn't do what I wanted to do and I started to get a little banged up and I'm like , okay , I can't come to work where I can't walk for three days from this game . So , but it was a blast . I actually think it was one of my favorite things .

Speaker 1 1:03:53

I did as an athlete was to play hockey . It was so much fun .

Speaker 2 1:03:57

I , so I'm a new , I'm going to . I've never . I can't skate worth of shit , but I love . Hockey is probably my favorite sport . I'm a diehard Seattle Kraken fan . Oh , that's awesome . I watch every game Me and my son love it . I actually interviewed John Forslund , who's our play by play NHL guy , on the podcast before . Oh nice , that was a I when I got him . I'm like you gotta be kidding me . Um , I just love the . I think it's just some of the best athletes in the world .

Speaker 1 1:04:30

I think it's one of the the my my favorite things I've ever done in sport is jumping over the wall with my two line mates to go out on our shift and know I'm going to go out there for a minute . I'm going to skate till my heart's going to explode and I'm going to come and collapse on the bench and I get in two minutes . I'm going back out and it was absolutely . I had so much joy playing that game , so much .

Speaker 1 1:04:52

I still have my bag packed . It's in the garage . I just saw it the other day . My bag's packed and ready to go 55 and over . Leagues coming quick . I might be out there again , who knows .

Speaker 2 1:05:01

I think you just announced your . This is like a press conference for you on the podcast .

Speaker 1 1:05:06

We're coming back , baby . Yeah , I'm unretiring like Brady .

Speaker 2 1:05:10

Tell us about Rich Watts , the attorney . How can people learn more about you and your work ?

Speaker 1 1:05:15

I mean , I'm a real estate transactional attorney for the most part Do some real estate litigation , new business work . I got into this . I was a real estate broker . Another

The Lightning Round

Speaker 1 1:05:28

broker burned me . I was really young , didn't have any money and I said I'm never going to let this happen again . I went to Borders Books , bought the LSAT prep book and went to law school with the intent on being a real estate broker with a legal background and offering that . And then that changed . It's been 23 years of practicing law .

Speaker 1 1:05:44

I love what I do . I'm working for my clients , making deals . It's still very competitive in my world . I've got a . I really I'm kind of blessed with a group of really brilliant real estate minds who I work for or work with . I've learned a ton from them . I'm just out here doing my job and enjoying it . But one of the things I love about it is the flexibility it gives me to work from a hotel room and knock out some documents for a client and then go out later that day to watch my kids play . So good , Really fun .

Speaker 2 1:06:19

All right , well , I'll make sure . If you want , we can tag that in the show notes to make sure people can . They want to learn more about Peterson Watts , they'll learn more about the firm and we can send people your way if they're , if they're interested in that , what you shared , rich , it's now time to end with a lightning round , which I go completely random on you . I'm going to show the hits . I've taken too many hits , not bong hits , but football hits against .

Speaker 2 1:06:42

Cal Poly , we're at a concussion in college and UC Davis , which , against Cal Poly , were at a concussion in college and UC Davis , which I had another concussion , ironically , and that's the mighty Central Washington University . My job is I mean your job is to answer these questions , hopefully as quickly as you can . Your job , my job , is to get a giggle out of you All right go for it . Okay , true or false , you once beat Wayne Gretzky in a skating race . False , okay . You got inducted through the UC Davis hall of fame for squatting 600 .

Speaker 1 1:07:09

Maybe true .

Speaker 2 1:07:12

Uh , if I came to your house for dinner tonight , what would we have ?

Speaker 1 1:07:15

We would have Turkey burgers , pasta and a salad Cause . My wife's helping me get back to my playing weight .

Speaker 2 1:07:23

Okay , there we go . Um favorite movie of all time is back to my playing weight .

Speaker 1 1:07:27

Okay , here we go . Um favorite movie of all time is Ooh , that's a tough one . I'd probably say red Dawn . Uh , just because I will yell Wolverines at the end of anything , um , I'll have to stick with that one .

Speaker 2 1:07:36

Favorite comedy .

Speaker 1 1:07:38

Oh it's , I have to be careful , but I'd say dumb and dumber probably .

Speaker 2 1:07:44

Okay , that's a good if you're telling me there's a chance . Last book you read .

Speaker 1 1:07:50

Last book I read was the most recent Mitch rap book . Can't remember the title but I love the author . Vince Flynn passed away . But these ghost writers amazing . And I read those Mitch rap books religiously . I've read every single one .

Speaker 2 1:08:03

Very cool If I went into your phone . What would be the one genre of music that might surprise your kids ?

Speaker 1 1:08:09

The one . Well , they wouldn't be surprised only because they know about it . But I listened to East coast . I'm sorry East Bay rappers and South Bay rappers from the Bay area that my brother , my son , played with and you can find them on Spotify . Do a shout out to lace IV Love you , bud . Awesome , that would be the music .

Speaker 2 1:08:29

There we go , love it . Um , okay , if there was to be a book written about your life , tell me the title .

Speaker 1 1:08:35

Ooh , I would just say just driven .

Speaker 2 1:08:41

Now Rich when we're traveling on these airports , um , and I'm going to , I'm going on my Amazon , uh , I'm going to the Barnes and Noble . I can't find driven , because the thing's selling out like crazy . Everyone , everyone wants a copy of this bad boy . So now Hollywood's found out about it and they're going to make a movie out of it . You're the casting director . I need it . I need to know who's going to star you in this critically acclaimed , hit new movie .

Speaker 1 1:09:08

I'm , I'm , oh man , that's a tough one . I'd , I would say Brad Pitt , you know , but I'm a little better looking than him . Um , I don't know , I I've . I've heard many times that I've got a little uh , um , bradley Cooper in me .

Speaker 2 1:09:16

So I'd love to see that you do a thousand percent . Dude , I was like shallow , let's go . Yeah , there you go . You a hundred percent . Could pull off a Bradley Cooper , you got you a hundred percent . Could pull off a Bradley Cooper , I , you got to run with that one man . I had to hear it before he did so yeah , he told me he's got to get off here . Stop copying you . He's copied me . Um , okay , and then last question Um , tell me two words that would describe your wife Freaking amazing .

Speaker 2 1:09:38

There we go Lighting rounds complete . We got a teeny of me , which it means I lose again , which tends to happen . I laugh at my own dad jokes . Um , dude , this has been so fun . I love learning about your story . Um , fantastic information for so many dads to take and learn from . And um , I just really , really appreciate abigail trusting the guys she never met , but I'm like you and your brother got me and my , you and my brother got to meet . I think you guys will like each other so I've enjoyed it .

Speaker 1 1:10:02

A ton casey and uh , you know I , you know I would just , you know we . There's no right way to do this job of being a dad . But you know , if you're all in , I think you're going to do it All right .

Speaker 2 1:10:12

So good . Thank you to our sponsors , thank you to everybody who continues to listen . If this episode has touched you or impacted maybe your mindset today , please share it with somebody else . If you um have not left us a comment , wherever you consume our podcast , please go ahead and do so now . Find us on YouTube , spotify , apple or , mainly , wherever you will able to consume your podcast Thanks to my friends over at Buzzsprout and Zencaster . But , rich , thank you again so much for your time . Brother , it's great talking to you and hopefully our paths will be able to cross and meet in person one day .

Speaker 1 1:10:40

It'd be fun , absolute pleasure , casey . I've loved every minute of it .

Speaker 2 1:10:43

Awesome .