Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning.
Speaker 2: Everybody is d j en Vy, Charlamagne, the gud We
Speaker 2: are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in
Speaker 2: the buildings. A special guests, I should say, we have
Speaker 2: Nate Burlson and Melanie Few welcome.
Speaker 1: What's up? What's up? How y'all doing? Appreciate you having?
Speaker 2: We got Melanie's chair? Can we live Melanie share please?
Speaker 2: The mic is all in in front.
Speaker 1: Of the face. I ain't never hold on a little bit.
Speaker 3: There, there we go, there we go, right, there we go,
Speaker 3: all right everywhere?
Speaker 1: Nate, how you got time to be here? Man? I'm working, but.
Speaker 4: I got a few breaks and then y'all told me
Speaker 4: to pull up. I'm pulling up, man.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So we don't really care about them bum ass cowboys
Speaker 2: playing tonight anyway. So that's that's how you're starting. The
Speaker 2: cowboys is falling this year exactly?
Speaker 1: You want to talk about New York teams? No, okay, I'm.
Speaker 3: Good, My d is good. Were good, y'all good?
Speaker 1: Though? This morning I wake up at four a m.
Speaker 4: We live at seven, done and nine, and then after that,
Speaker 4: if I have a shoot in the city, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: stick around, get that done, or travel out somewhere. But listen, man,
Speaker 4: I'm blessed and hoighly favored. I'm not tripping about working
Speaker 4: too much.
Speaker 1: That's right, best blessed, black and highly favored. That's that's it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no doubt.
Speaker 5: Now y'all here to talk about the best of Super
Speaker 5: Bowl Soulful Celebration.
Speaker 1: What is that exactly?
Speaker 6: Am I?
Speaker 5: Okay?
Speaker 7: So the Super Bowl Soulful Celebration was originally the Super
Speaker 7: Bowl Gospel Celebration, and so it is a wonderful, uplifting
Speaker 7: event that puts a light on players as well as talent,
Speaker 7: whether it be gospel or RB and soul. And just
Speaker 7: to give you a little bit of history, I went
Speaker 7: to Super Bowl.
Speaker 6: But I'm aging myself a bit.
Speaker 7: But back in the early nineties, and I couldn't figure
Speaker 7: out why there was no gospel event during Super Bowl.
Speaker 7: So I wrote the NFL, and I wrote them and
Speaker 7: got seven years of rejection letters. And that's why I
Speaker 7: know that Bibically, the number eight is about new beginnings,
Speaker 7: and that's so I know it matters because on the
Speaker 7: eighth year, they said, well, this lady is crazy and
Speaker 7: she's gonna keep writing us, so we will sanction you.
Speaker 6: I didn't know what the sanction was.
Speaker 7: I didn't know the importance of it, and I said, well,
Speaker 7: what is a sanction? I was hoping they were gonna
Speaker 7: say meet them at the bank somewhere, but they said,
Speaker 7: we would give you the rights to use our intellectual
Speaker 7: property to do this event, and so we have been
Speaker 7: doing it. Now we're coming up on our twenty fifth year.
Speaker 7: But we wanted to take a moment and look back
Speaker 7: on the twenty four years beautiful testimonies from players like
Speaker 7: Russell Wilson and Dione Sanders and some of the most
Speaker 7: amazing talent from pad Laville to Gladys Knight to Yolanda
Speaker 7: Adams and Moorees and Fantasia. And so when we were
Speaker 7: trying to decide, Okay, how do we really look back
Speaker 7: over these twenty four years and make it a beautiful experience,
Speaker 7: we immediately thought about Nate to be the person to
Speaker 7: show our journey.
Speaker 3: You know, because connection with and gospel culture number one.
Speaker 7: We knew that Nate was just an exceptional person. We
Speaker 7: had done our research on what players and he's his
Speaker 7: to me, his life is a testimony because a lot
Speaker 7: of times people feel like players are only good for
Speaker 7: being on the field. He has shown that he has
Speaker 7: taken his career in the NFL and shot to the
Speaker 7: heights of media. To me, that is a testimony. And
Speaker 7: then not to mention he's fly. The only problem I
Speaker 7: told Nate we're having with him is all these church
Speaker 7: women are emailing us and we're having to remind him
Speaker 7: he's married.
Speaker 6: I'm like, I'm working for you.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: Where is the soulful celebration.
Speaker 6: It's going to be in Las Vegas.
Speaker 7: It's wherever super Bowl is, and so we are usually
Speaker 7: the Wednesday of the Thursday night before Super Bowl, and
Speaker 7: it's just like I said, it's an amazing journey. We
Speaker 7: do a faith and action segment where we've honored everybody
Speaker 7: from Russell Wilson to Cam Newton to Dion Sanders and others.
Speaker 7: And we've had everybody God has really been good to us.
Speaker 7: We've had Tom Brady on the show. We've had Dak Prescott,
Speaker 7: we have had a lot.
Speaker 5: Of him pray for who I'm a cowboy Fana.
Speaker 6: We were keep him protected.
Speaker 7: And so we've had all these amazing players and really,
Speaker 7: what it is it weaves up, It tells a story.
Speaker 7: So we take player testimonies and they talk about their
Speaker 7: faith and what drives them on the field, and then
Speaker 7: we blend that with these beautiful performances by people like
Speaker 7: Yolanda Adams, Fantase, You're, Gladys Knight Done, mccl kirk, Franklin,
Speaker 7: New Dog Win, his gospel album and all that.
Speaker 6: So it's been.
Speaker 5: I want you to talk about this process, Melanie, because
Speaker 5: you ought to found an executive producer.
Speaker 1: But how were you able to take.
Speaker 5: This idea and then have the web with all to
Speaker 5: say I want to partner with a big enterprise like
Speaker 5: that the NFL.
Speaker 1: How did that happen?
Speaker 7: I was that little girl when my parents would tell
Speaker 7: me no, never understood that they really meant it for real.
Speaker 6: So I used to have to get a spanking.
Speaker 7: And so to give you guys an honest opinion, when
Speaker 7: I went to Super Bowl, I'm gonna tell you that
Speaker 7: was my before christ days back and we had parted
Speaker 7: all weekend.
Speaker 6: So we were all.
Speaker 7: We had parted all weekend and we were looking for
Speaker 7: Jesus by side, come on, somebody smelling.
Speaker 1: Like last night?
Speaker 6: Yeah, real bad.
Speaker 1: And so.
Speaker 7: That's when the Lord gave me the idea to write
Speaker 7: the NFL and so to make a long story short
Speaker 7: after and I'll actually tell you guys how it started
Speaker 7: after writing them. For some reason, I couldn't let the
Speaker 7: concept go writing them, writing the NFL PA. All these years,
Speaker 7: they just kept getting those. Finally, and this is a truth.
Speaker 6: Bless his heart. He's deceased now.
Speaker 7: But Jeane Upshaw was alive at the time, and Gene,
Speaker 7: one of my friends, worked that he didn't realize she
Speaker 7: was my friend. He was like, y'all, this lady is crazy.
Speaker 7: She's been emailing us for seven years. Well calling and
Speaker 7: he was like, I know how.
Speaker 6: I figured out how we're gonna get rid of her.
Speaker 6: And so they said how. He said, I'm gonna tell her.
Speaker 7: We'll do it, and I you know, get the NFL
Speaker 7: the Saints her if she can get glad As Night
Speaker 7: because that was like his favorite singer. So he thought
Speaker 7: that was gonna be the final nail on the head.
Speaker 1: It was too tall. He didn't know your guy.
Speaker 7: So Gladys is from Atlanta and she went to high
Speaker 7: school with my aunt. So when I called him, I said,
Speaker 7: I got Gladys, what's next, what's up? He was like,
Speaker 7: you're telling a lot I.
Speaker 6: Was like, no, I'm not.
Speaker 7: And so interestingly enough, that first year in nineteen ninety
Speaker 7: nine in Miami, he said we're gonna do I said,
Speaker 7: you want to do advanced ticket sales because the money,
Speaker 7: a lot of the moneys go to charity, different charities,
Speaker 7: and so I said, you want to do advanced ticket
Speaker 7: sales because you know, church people really do come out
Speaker 7: and support faith based consumers. And he was like, hmmm,
Speaker 7: We're just gonna do a walk up and so he
Speaker 7: prepared food. It was a blunch back then for three
Speaker 7: hundred people, and four thousand people showed up, so everybody
Speaker 7: had to be let in for free. And after that
Speaker 7: they knew, okay, this is really culturally relevant for you know,
Speaker 7: this consumer base.
Speaker 6: And so that's what happened.
Speaker 2: So what did y'all do with four thousand people with
Speaker 2: only three three hundred plates of full.
Speaker 7: Well, they did let the ones. They let everybody in free.
Speaker 6: And that's and it was on the beach that year.
Speaker 7: So that's how you know, we were limited in numbers
Speaker 7: and seeding.
Speaker 5: Do you feel like the social celebration gets as much
Speaker 5: as exposure as it should.
Speaker 7: I don't, and probably because I'm really passionate about about
Speaker 7: whenever something is your baby, you think you could do more.
Speaker 7: But I'm grateful that we have experienced so many wonderful
Speaker 7: milestones over the years. We started out, we were broadcast
Speaker 7: on like the Gospel Music Challenge. Then we went on
Speaker 7: to be on BT for eight years. And I'm excited
Speaker 7: because for the first time in our history and the
Speaker 7: first time in Super Bowl's history, we will be on
Speaker 7: the network that's carrying the game. Well, it will be
Speaker 7: first time in the history of black owned event will
Speaker 7: be on CBS the night before, in prime time, the
Speaker 7: night before the game. And so I'm telling you I
Speaker 7: give all the praise and honor because and I also
Speaker 7: I'm so grateful that God put the team of people
Speaker 7: who have supported this vision all these years, because if
Speaker 7: it were up to me, it would have ended a
Speaker 7: long time ago.
Speaker 6: I couldn't carry this journey to the place.
Speaker 4: They had and Melanie, it also helps that players are
Speaker 4: more vocal about their faith nowadays.
Speaker 1: You know, people don't realize.
Speaker 4: I know it's a violent sport and you got helmets
Speaker 4: knocking together and it's a lot of male bravado involved,
Speaker 4: But you sit in that locker room, guys are praying
Speaker 4: when they run out on the field, they run to
Speaker 4: the end zone, drop it on a knee, and then
Speaker 4: after the game they get together and pray together after
Speaker 4: the battle. So you know, guys are now creating that
Speaker 4: parallel between their careers and their walk.
Speaker 1: So it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 4: And to have Melanie and this platform that she has
Speaker 4: built for guys to say, yes, I am a man
Speaker 4: of football, but first I'm a man of faith.
Speaker 1: In this cross section that she has created as awesome.
Speaker 5: One of your intentions made to like try to show
Speaker 5: that players in a different light. Let people know that, Yo,
Speaker 5: these are god fearing individual Yeah.
Speaker 4: We all work in media and we know that sometimes
Speaker 4: the stories that create the most engagement aren't the ones
Speaker 4: that are the most flattering. So in order to combat
Speaker 4: that in the way that I can is to show
Speaker 4: the beautiful things that these guys are doing. And I
Speaker 4: think there's a lot of players that either or men
Speaker 4: of faith that seeing it, like the NFL players a
Speaker 4: quirre or men that lead in their own ways in
Speaker 4: their communities, and this is a spotlight for that.
Speaker 3: I want to ask.
Speaker 2: You know, back in the day, you wouldn't see as
Speaker 2: many players praying. Was it something that the league was
Speaker 2: against because you did you never seen it. I just
Speaker 2: remember growing up as a kid watching the Giants. Whether
Speaker 2: it was you know, Lawrence tailing them back there you
Speaker 2: never seen them praying, or maybe TV just didn't show them.
Speaker 4: I think it was I think it was more TV
Speaker 4: wasn't showing them. You know, if a camera is panning
Speaker 4: to guys on the sideline before a game, I think
Speaker 4: they'd rather show a guy shedding a dramatic tear than
Speaker 4: someone on the knee mumbling their prayer. I do feel
Speaker 4: like the league has done a better job of showing
Speaker 4: that there are men of faith in the NFL, and
Speaker 4: there's also non believers too, But the spotlight that we
Speaker 4: have to create is on us.
Speaker 1: He's not on the league.
Speaker 4: You know, we can't expect the league to highlight our
Speaker 4: walk if we're shy about it. And I think nowadays
Speaker 4: guys aren't shy about what they do off the field.
Speaker 3: And who's performing this year, who we have on the lineup?
Speaker 1: Do we know yet?
Speaker 7: We haven't announced it yet, and that announcement is coming
Speaker 7: from CBS, but it's going to be really bigger and
Speaker 7: better than it's ever been. I will tell you, I
Speaker 7: was so glad that Nate mentioned the NFL players Choir
Speaker 7: because I don't know if you guys know this, that
Speaker 7: is a There is a choir of former and current
Speaker 7: players that can sing their faces off, and it's been
Speaker 7: a blessing to take the helmet off and show that
Speaker 7: there are guys that really have all this amazing talent.
Speaker 7: You have a classically trained pianist in the group as
Speaker 7: well as others, and they actually made the final, They
Speaker 7: made the semi finals of America's Got Talent, And so
Speaker 7: the shock value of players that can actually sing is
Speaker 7: is really capturing singer?
Speaker 4: No, no, not a poet, you know, a rapper, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean. I got bars like that, but
Speaker 4: I can't sing that. God, God can't bless me with everything.
Speaker 5: God know your heart. He gave you that sense of humor.
Speaker 5: You dropped a line of watches this year, too, rightnck Yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Did something with Shaanola. It was a collaboration brand. You know,
Speaker 4: it's a Detroit brand. I played ball in Detroit, so
Speaker 4: I'm like an adopted son. Do a little bit of that.
Speaker 4: Also have a clothing line. I got a suit line.
Speaker 4: I gotta get you on some suits. I know, y'all,
Speaker 4: all I need is your sizes.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna hook you up. And my suitent's got the jog.
Speaker 4: Abottom so you can rock it with the kicks.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Melanie.
Speaker 5: Do you ever worry about being compared to like other
Speaker 5: gospel shows like the Stellar Awards things like that, and
Speaker 5: what separates you'all from.
Speaker 6: Yeah, no, because it's room for everybody.
Speaker 7: But I don't because what's different about this show is
Speaker 7: we really put a focus on NFL players and their
Speaker 7: stories and their testimonies, and so that's what makes us
Speaker 7: stand out. And we don't have just gospel artists. Like
Speaker 7: I said, We've had everybody from Anita Baker, Rita Franklin when.
Speaker 6: She was alive, so we focused Fresh. We've had Dougie Fresh,
Speaker 6: it was amazing.
Speaker 7: Speaking of rapping, I think we need to hear some
Speaker 7: bars from Night before.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, you got it.
Speaker 4: And it's a rapoll poem. Now it's more of a poem.
Speaker 4: First of all, I didn't know you was about to
Speaker 4: do that.
Speaker 1: So this isn't playing.
Speaker 4: Yes, we talked, were talking gospel, so I gotta remove
Speaker 4: the whole catalog of.
Speaker 1: The secular stuff. I got something that's fitting.
Speaker 4: Actually, yeah, there's an artist, his name is Andrew that
Speaker 4: we've we've collaborated on something. So I've been working on
Speaker 4: something fully baked out, but I'll see if I can
Speaker 4: get it out. All right, This is the essence to
Speaker 4: recognize his presence of the inception of every single blessing.
Speaker 4: Blessed is the understatement. I know I'm highly favored. Now
Speaker 4: look to the right. Go ahead and tell your neighbor.
Speaker 1: God is good. God is good all the time, all
Speaker 1: the time.
Speaker 4: To the left, go ahead, repeat that line all the time.
Speaker 4: Raised on the biblical but led by the spiritual. You
Speaker 4: also shatrack me shacking the bendigo. In other words, Babylon
Speaker 4: and to you and Babylon, I use my words like
Speaker 4: birds to fly through each and every storm. The Bible
Speaker 4: says that Daniel means God's gift. I can fish for myself,
Speaker 4: but even these rods miss little something something, little something.
Speaker 6: Now you want to know why we've chased him down.
Speaker 5: And I'm sure that led to CBS airingot right, Yeah, no,
Speaker 5: doub out a little bit. You have to go in
Speaker 5: there and shake up, shake the table a little bit.
Speaker 4: She shakes the table up around there, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 4: Melanie actually made that happen. I think I was just
Speaker 4: an added benefit that I worked for CBS.
Speaker 1: Yeah, has the Super Bowl ish year?
Speaker 3: Who's gonna be in the Super Bowl ash year?
Speaker 4: It won't be your Giants. I'm gonna just tell you
Speaker 4: the Cowboys, the Cowboy. You know the Cowboys are playing with.
Speaker 4: If I'm looking at the NFC, I think the Cowboys
Speaker 4: have a shot. Of course, the Eagles are balling, and
Speaker 4: then the forty nine Ers. Those are my three teams
Speaker 4: now out of the AFC. The Kansas City Chiefs are
Speaker 4: still the top dogs. But look out for the Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 4: Man down in Miami two a tongue of Vilo and
Speaker 4: Tybriek Hill.
Speaker 1: They are cooking up something.
Speaker 5: You think, Aaron Rodgers, you should play this season? If
Speaker 5: the doctors give him the green.
Speaker 4: Lake as a player who's been injured, I say no.
Speaker 4: But Aaron Rodgers doesn't care what I think or other
Speaker 4: people think. I don't think he's coming back because he's
Speaker 4: getting paid a certain amount of money. I don't think
Speaker 4: he's coming back because he thinks suggests can make the playoffs.
Speaker 1: I think he's coming back for.
Speaker 4: A majority of his career, he has done what people
Speaker 4: said he couldn't do. Maybe that's ego, Maybe that's bravado.
Speaker 4: Maybe that's the mindset of one of the greats. They
Speaker 4: all have it where they have this switch in their
Speaker 4: hair what they think, even though you tell me I
Speaker 4: can't do it, I'm gonna do it to prove you wrong.
Speaker 1: I bet you that's a part of it.
Speaker 4: I'm not speaking for him, but as an athlete on
Speaker 4: the outside looking in, and that's what he's doing. For
Speaker 4: him to have this surgery, which is typically a nine
Speaker 4: to twelve month injury, and he's back in a couple
Speaker 4: of months, that's crazy.
Speaker 5: Have things changed that much in regards to how people
Speaker 5: will treat acls.
Speaker 4: That achilles and typically the normal surgery he would have
Speaker 4: been out the whole season would have been done, but
Speaker 4: he had some type of new procedure that allows his
Speaker 4: body to heal differently. But I'll tell you this, though,
Speaker 4: I think there's something that's sick and twisted about athletes.
Speaker 4: When Adrian Peterson towards Aco, he came back in like
Speaker 4: five six month and we praised him and this dude's
Speaker 4: an alien and we love that. Like I to ac
Speaker 4: I was trying to get back, and I wanted to people.
Speaker 4: I wanted people to whisper and say, man, he came
Speaker 4: back so fast and look at him.
Speaker 1: He still got the juice. He can run, jump and
Speaker 1: do all the things he used to do.
Speaker 4: I think there's a part of athletes that want to
Speaker 4: defy the odds I want. I think Aaron Rodgers wants
Speaker 4: people to whisper, Yo, look at him. Dude, ain't from
Speaker 4: this earth the way he came back from that Achilles.
Speaker 4: Because there's so many things he can hold onto this year.
Speaker 4: I don't think he's gonna win a super Bowl. Nope,
Speaker 4: he's not going to break any records. He's not gonna
Speaker 4: catch Tom Brady when it comes to Super Bowls. But
Speaker 4: he can put this on his discount double belt and
Speaker 4: say I came back from Achilles faster than any other
Speaker 4: athlete in history.
Speaker 1: I think that's why he's playing. Wow.
Speaker 2: And what I wanted to ask with the NFL, right, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I feel like a lot of players get hurt, try
Speaker 2: not to hurt other players.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, goa happen.
Speaker 3: So what do you think about that?
Speaker 2: And of course when it comes to people say they
Speaker 2: soften it up, even with the with the quarterback, and
Speaker 2: I feel like even when they play with the quarterback,
Speaker 2: like the quarterback fake slide and keep running, but the
Speaker 2: players don't want to hit him and it kind of
Speaker 2: messes up the games.
Speaker 3: What are your thoughts on the NFL loosening up some
Speaker 3: of those doors.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know your stuff, man, You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Even though I've seen you in the football jersey, you
Speaker 4: didn't really fill it out.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I play for.
Speaker 1: The way Yeah kills out the jersey. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's why he's demanded hoseat your mouth.
Speaker 4: You know what, That's a really good question because the
Speaker 4: rules have changed so much to protect the players that
Speaker 4: as a wide receiver, I'm running across the middle, I
Speaker 4: know that you can't hit me because I'm a defenseless player.
Speaker 4: So if I go out for the ball and it's
Speaker 4: not there yet and you take me out, a flag
Speaker 4: is up. Now as a defender, the whole mindset is different.
Speaker 4: Your gaze of the play is that I am going
Speaker 4: to try to hit him to knock this ball out,
Speaker 4: but I can't get there before him, so I have
Speaker 4: to let him catch it and then react. And if
Speaker 4: you're aiming right here, but all of a sudden, I
Speaker 4: get scared and dug damn on. Now your helmet's hitting
Speaker 4: my helmet. Whose fault is it? What it looks like
Speaker 4: it's yours, right helmet to helmet. That defender was wrong,
Speaker 4: but in reality, I count a little bit and I
Speaker 4: changed my target, so that accidentally led to a flag
Speaker 4: and maybe a penalty and then also a fine. Now
Speaker 4: you have defenders that have to think about all that
Speaker 4: in a split second, and most of them are like,
Speaker 4: you know what, I'm not gonna try to knock this
Speaker 4: dude out or knock the ball out because if I do,
Speaker 4: I can get fined, I can get kicked out of
Speaker 4: the game, and that sometimes leads to him being injured.
Speaker 1: As an offensive player.
Speaker 4: I feel bad for defenders now because I can run
Speaker 4: free and do whatever I want. Now, their second guess
Speaker 4: in what makes them good, which is the impact.
Speaker 3: And even with the quarterbacks, like I've seen quarterbacks fake
Speaker 3: slide right.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah yeah, Dan Jones did that. I think
Speaker 4: that's a fake slide and kept running. That's a problem
Speaker 4: because you know you fake slide. Basically you're saying, don't
Speaker 4: hit me. I'm giving myself up.
Speaker 1: Which defenders have to fit his to So.
Speaker 3: Now you fake slide. I'm about to give up, but
Speaker 3: you keep running.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. That's a little trickeration right there.
Speaker 4: I think they'll address that this off season, you know,
Speaker 4: because you can't as a quarterback look at the defender
Speaker 4: and act as if you're going to face slide and
Speaker 4: then everybody lets up on the play.
Speaker 3: As if it's It's like flopping in the NBA.
Speaker 4: No doubt it's like flopping in the NBA. But I
Speaker 4: think these things will be addressed. As much as I
Speaker 4: want guys to be protected, because I'm all for guys
Speaker 4: getting as much money as they can from the league
Speaker 4: and then walking away healthy. I do feel like that
Speaker 4: old school grittiness that makes the game fun to watch.
Speaker 5: Absolutely absolutely. You also recently talked about about with depression.
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you.
Speaker 5: Think NFL and teams do enough to help players who
Speaker 5: may be dealing with, you know, depression and other mental
Speaker 5: health issues.
Speaker 4: I think they're doing a better job because players have
Speaker 4: spoke up. Players have battled with mental health issues, not
Speaker 4: just in the off season, but as they retire and
Speaker 4: shout out to Yesterdyear, the older generation.
Speaker 1: They played in an era where it was.
Speaker 4: Taboo for guys to talk about things like this, and
Speaker 4: some of us, some of them, are no longer with us,
Speaker 4: and as young puffs in the league, we paid attention
Speaker 4: to all of those who came before us.
Speaker 1: We heard the stories.
Speaker 4: We heard about guys like Junior Seau, who were well
Speaker 4: respected Hall of famers, ended up taking his life. So
Speaker 4: for us now in the league, in a society that welcomes,
Speaker 4: that embraces that says, all right, come here, we'll give
Speaker 4: you a warm hug of mental health conversation, the NFL
Speaker 4: has embraced it. Some teams even have a therapist on
Speaker 4: staff that they have an open door to walk into
Speaker 4: on a weekly daily basis if they need to. You
Speaker 4: can always do a better job, not just the NFL,
Speaker 4: but in our workplace in general. But what I do know,
Speaker 4: and I'm super proud of guys in the league for,
Speaker 4: is that they're not afraid to talk about it. People
Speaker 4: think that a locker room was full of grade A
Speaker 4: AHOs and we don't talk about mental health. We're not inclusive.
Speaker 4: It's not the case. I've been in a few different
Speaker 4: locker rooms over the course of my career and we
Speaker 4: were embracing of everything, whether it was your sexual identity,
Speaker 4: sexual preference, your religion, your race, your culture, even your
Speaker 4: bouts with mental health. And as long as I'm on
Speaker 4: TV and have a platform, I'm gonna continue to talk
Speaker 4: about it, not just for the players, but also for
Speaker 4: my kids. I got a nineteen year old shout Out
Speaker 4: the Little Nate, a seventeen year old Nehemia, and my
Speaker 4: daughter's thirteen. I want them to be able to come
Speaker 4: to me, shed a tear, I'll cry with them and
Speaker 4: then we can get over it together. So I gotta
Speaker 4: walk the walk if I want to talk to talk.
Speaker 3: Do you kids play football?
Speaker 1: Yeah? My two oldest play play football.
Speaker 4: I got my older son plays wide receiver at University
Speaker 4: of Nevada scholarship athlete, and then my seventeen year old
Speaker 4: just finished the season at Ramapo. They lost in the
Speaker 4: championship game. My daughter plays volleyball, but my boys do
Speaker 4: play football.
Speaker 3: Did you want them to?
Speaker 2: Because a lot of parents that play, a lot of
Speaker 2: professional players don't want their kids to play for.
Speaker 4: I wanted them to, but I didn't push them to.
Speaker 4: And I wasn't afraid of the injuries because I knew
Speaker 4: if they played sports. Whether it was football, basketball, track,
Speaker 4: or whatever, it's inevitable. There was a one hundred percent
Speaker 4: injury rate in sports. It's an inevitability that you will
Speaker 4: get banged up. The severity of it depends on the
Speaker 4: type of sport you're playing. Now, my boys have had
Speaker 4: significant injuries. I remember my oldest when he was sophomore.
Speaker 4: I get a call and they're like, you got to
Speaker 4: come to practice now. It was his little brother who
Speaker 4: was playing on the younger team. This is high school
Speaker 4: and I already knew my stomach dropped. We get there
Speaker 4: and the trainer walks up to us with a soft
Speaker 4: voice and says he heard his arm he got rolled
Speaker 4: up on. It was accidental. And then they bring him over.
Speaker 4: Hees tears in his eyes, but he's not crying, and
Speaker 4: I'm like, so tell me about it. They're like, well,
Speaker 4: I think he broke his arm. How bad is it?
Speaker 4: They wouldn't really say, And I know what that means.
Speaker 4: That means it's way worse than they're letting it off.
Speaker 4: So we get in the car and as soon as
Speaker 4: we start hitting those bumps on the way to the hospital,
Speaker 4: my son is crying, ball in his eyes out everybody
Speaker 4: in the car is crying. I'll never forget this conversation
Speaker 4: because as he is crying, he says, I never want
Speaker 4: to play this sport again.
Speaker 1: I'm done.
Speaker 4: Why is this always me? He had a few injuries
Speaker 4: before that, and he's like, f this sport. And I
Speaker 4: repeated him. I said, the sport that football. You don't
Speaker 4: ever have to play football. I said, this is about you.
Speaker 4: When you heal up, we can walk away from the
Speaker 4: sport forever. And that stuck with me because I thought
Speaker 4: my son would never pick up a football again. At
Speaker 4: his surgery, played some screws, held up rehab. Six months later,
Speaker 4: he's back on that field, finished the season, So it
Speaker 4: was his decision.
Speaker 1: Was his decision right, So I leave it up to
Speaker 1: my kids.
Speaker 4: I feel like there's more benefits than there are negatives. One,
Speaker 4: whether it's injuries, not playing, getting bench, you're gonna have
Speaker 4: to deal with stuff in life. It's parallels everything we
Speaker 4: go through football is also this. Michael Cosmo, what what
Speaker 4: society is a lot of people can't coexist with their coworkers.
Speaker 1: In football.
Speaker 4: You got fifty something dudes on the roster, all from
Speaker 4: different walks of life. The common goal is to win.
Speaker 4: If you can do that, by the time you get
Speaker 4: to college and walk into the American workforce, you'll be good.
Speaker 4: You'll you'll make life more about others than it is
Speaker 4: about you.
Speaker 1: That's why I left football.
Speaker 2: Oh all right, we appreciate you guys. Tell them whe
Speaker 2: they can see the Super Bowl soul Full celebration. And
Speaker 2: it's sad because I go to the Super Bowl most
Speaker 2: of the time every year. Honestly, I didn't know about it.
Speaker 2: I'm just And also it's usually because if it's on
Speaker 2: a Wednesday, most people get there Thursday Friday.
Speaker 7: You know, it used to be on Thursday, but we
Speaker 7: do Wednesday, so we have extra time to edit and
Speaker 7: make it right. And now that we're on CBS, we
Speaker 7: need the extra time to it's got to be up
Speaker 7: to their standards.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Period, you know, go.
Speaker 1: And sell on the first, right, they're gonna sell on
Speaker 1: the first.
Speaker 6: If you all happen to be in town, please.
Speaker 3: Come absolutely well, thank you so much for joining.
Speaker 1: You'll have in us and the whole tickets going sell
Speaker 1: December fir Us.
Speaker 5: You can go to the ticket Maath and get your
Speaker 5: tickets for the best of Super Bowl Soulful Celebration.
Speaker 3: Today. That's today, today, today, today, this is tomorrow.
Speaker 1: So this is tomorrow, yes today, yes, today, right now.
Speaker 5: Tickets are on sale right to watches too for the
Speaker 5: best of Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Watch.
Speaker 3: There we go, there we go, thank you.
Speaker 1: Watch yeah you know, a little some every day watch
Speaker 1: you can wear, you go, thank you.
Speaker 3: It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, thank you.
Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.