Strahan Success Secrets w/ Michael Strahan

So how do you overcome self doubt? How is it that one man has dominated in multiple areas of his life over such a long and sustained period of time ? Are you curious to know the type of MINDSET it takes to succeed in all different areas of life all at one time? How to literally become one of the most successful people on planet earth today? Do you want to know how to better manage your TIME AND ENERGY so that you can bring tremendous FOCUS to your work? When you find out about some of his accomplishments, you’ll understand why I’m so excited to hear what Michael Strahan has to say. He starred as a defensive end for the New York Giants for 15 years, setting the single-season sack record of 22.5 sacks in 2001, helping the Giants win a SUPER BOWL in 2007 leading to his induction into the Football Hall of Fame in 2014. With his natural CHARISMA, he made the jump into television, first co-hosting a pair of shows with Kelly Ripa before joining Good Morning, America full-time in 2016. And that only scratches the surface of all that Michael has done. You’re going to learn about the value of a GREAT WORK ETHIC and why that is what makes all other things possible. Michael made up his mind early this would be one of the cornerstones to becoming the BEST POSSIBLE VERSION of himself. Like many of you, believe it or not Michael has also struggled with self-doubt. He offers simple but EFFECTIVE ways he continues to push through it, and how you can, too. You’ll also learn about ways to combat imposter syndrome that many of us fight through as well. We also touch on how to be NATURAL, grow your CONFIDENCE, generate POSITIVE ENERGY, and LEAVE JEALOUSY BEHIND to achieve success. Not easy skills to master, but so essential if you want to follow the same path as Michael. One of Michael’s greatest pieces of WISDOM is simple, but so powerful. “SUCCESS IS MEANT TO BE SHARED.” Let that sink in because it’s great advice every one of us can use and put into practice. Michael Strahan is one of the most HUMBLE people I’ve ever interviewed. You will enjoy this week’s show as much as I enjoyed taping it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 p.m. And my third day, 6:00 p.m. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it. Waiting weeks on a big bank for capital? Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason.

• 0:45Ed Mylett?

  Over 20 years in business, over 12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff. Borrow better.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company, for me, of the explosion on our rig.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  On October 2nd.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me.

• 1:11Speaker 02

  Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and The Revenant.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  What would happen if I stopped drilling? You stop, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:36Speaker 02

  This is The Ed Mileage Show.

• 1:41Ed Mylett?

  I'm so excited. I have today, this is a man I've admired for a very long time. I think he's one of the great American success stories, regardless of industry. The ironic part is he didn't even really grow up most of the time in the United States, and he becomes this incredible success. He could also probably like double as a Dos Equis man, like the most interesting man in the world because of the because of the diversity of the different enterprises he's involved with. He's an entrepreneur. He's got an unbelievable deal right now he's doing with suits with the men's warehouse. He's got this documentary right now or a series called Morbid an Athlete on ESPN plus. He's got a management and production company called Smack. He, oh, by the way, he hosts Good Morning America, the $100,000 pyramid, Fox NFL Sunday.

• 2:26Ed Mylett?

  And oh, he's an NFL Hall of Famer, the single season sack leader, Super Bowl champion. I don't, I can't even believe I'm saying all this about one human thing, but I am. So, Michael Strahan, welcome to the show.

• 2:38Speaker 03

  Hi, thank you, man. Thank you. Appreciate you having me. The show's over. I took all the time right there. Just.

• 2:43Ed Mylett?

  That's incredible.

• 2:44Speaker 03

  With that intro, I guess, but what, yeah, I can't believe you're saying all that stuff or anybody says all that stuff about me, but I'm grateful and I'm happy that I'm, I've had the life that I have and have had the experience of the things that I've experienced.

• 3:00Ed Mylett?

  You know, the other thing I just have to tell you is I want, I know everyone wants to know, how do I do some of the things you've done in their own way? But the other thing, Michael, is just, you know, we have so many mutual friends and, and you've been kind to me as well, but just no one has a bad word to say about you. You know, everybody that I meet, they just have wonderful things to say. I see your face change, but it's true. I've just literally never heard anything but kind and great things about you and you've been that way to me too. So, let me ask you, when you're growing up, you're kind of, you're in Germany most of the time and, and I know you came back, you're in Houston for a while, but did any of this, was any of this a plan?

• 3:35Speaker 03

  No, absolutely not. My biggest plan when I left Germany, I moved in with my uncle. I stayed with my uncle for like five months or so to get a football scholarship because my dad sent me back to stay with my uncle and he said, oh, you're going to get a football scholarship. He just said, you're gonna, you're gonna do it. My dad never said if, it was always like when, when, when. So when he said you're gonna do it, I'd never doubted it. I was so naive about failure. That, okay, I'm gonna get a football scholarship. I'll get one. I come back, I get a scholarship. And then everything was like just the next step. What was the next step from getting a scholarship was, okay, finally going to college. And then, once I'm in college, you know, um, not just being a football player,

• 4:19Speaker 03

  being a part of a team, but like trying to be the best at it. Because, you know, anyone can do something, but if you're gonna do it, why not put all your effort into it? And that's just kind of been how I've been about everything. I never really had a plan. My biggest plan was just never having to move back in with my parents.

• 4:35Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. But that almost happened, right? Like, uh, it's funny in life, we get really close. There's like moments that determine our destiny in our life. But it's very, you know, one decision, one relationship, one meeting away from really changing your life. And was I was prepping for this. I'm like, man, after your freshman year of college, didn't you kind of go back to Germany? Am I getting this right? And you literally almost quit. If that happens, this is probably most of what I just introduced. Probably all of it never happens if you follow through with that decision. So you were that one decision away. Tell us about that. What happened, your conversation with your dad?

• 5:09Speaker 03

  Well, I think that I followed through none of it. None of it happens. I, I was like a lot of kids. I was homesick. And I was just ready to go back to Germany. I had my girlfriend and, you know, you're missing your girlfriend, you're missing your friends, you're missing your mom and dad and, and everyone else. So for me, I just wanted, I wanted to go home. College at that point to me seemed like, okay, I got the football scholarship. That didn't mean I needed to complete it. I did it.

• 5:42Speaker 03

  So I go home and my, I was literally at, I'm there at home. School has started like two weeks had gone by already.

• 5:49Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 5:50Speaker 03

  And then my dad comes in one day, he goes, hasn't school started? And I'm like, yeah. He said, well, what are you doing? Shouldn't you be back? And I'm going, eh, yeah, but you know, I decided I'm not going back. And he looked at me and he goes, what are you gonna do? I said, well, I'm gonna stay here. I'm, I'll get a job. And he looked at me again, his voice got deeper than mine. He said, what are you gonna do? And bam, light bulb went off. First of all, I can't stay here.

• 6:19Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 6:20Speaker 03

  And second, secondly,

• 6:23Speaker 03

  You have to at some point grow up and take care of yourself. Your parents give you all the tools. And I had fantastic parents who gave me everything that I needed to be on my own. Now there's time for me to apply those things. So it just a light bulb went off in my head that, okay, you can't stay home. You're going back to school. When you get to school, since you gotta be there, work hard at it. Just don't be another student. Just don't be another athlete. If you're gonna do it, be your best that you can be at it.

• 6:57Ed Mylett?

  Were you surprised when you got there? I was in college, but maybe surprised by this in the NFL too. You get this opportunity to play college football. And by the way, the other thing too is, he's at a historically black college, it's Texas Southern, right?

• 7:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, Texas Southern.

• 7:10Ed Mylett?

  This is not like pathway to the NFL, right? Like this is not, you know, I think you're the only NFL Hall of Famer from Texas Southern, I think. Am I right about that? Yeah. You're far away, but it surprised me even when I got into business, or I got into, I played college baseball, or you had this in the NFL. Aren't you surprised by somehow the, the, the lack of work ethic, even of people that have these great opportunities? And was that what separated you, do you think?

• 7:36Speaker 03

  Uh, yeah. I, I think, you know, I, I was amazed by the guys who had so much talent.

• 7:41Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 7:41Speaker 03

  Just refused to expand it, refused to like perfect it. And you're never gonna be perfect, but at least strive to perfect the talent that you were given. And I found that guys who weren't as talented seemed to go further because they worked harder. And I, I, I mean, and I'm in an HBCU, not a football factory at Texas Southern University. I didn't know, you know, what the way out of there, what a path led for me once school was over. I didn't know it was going to lead to the NFL. I just knew that this is where I was and I was gonna work hard at it. And once I was a senior and started seeing the scouts and hearing from the scouts,

• 8:21Speaker 03

  I started to go, well, maybe I have a shot, but I never thought that I would, it was legit, until I got that call on draft day. But I saw so many guys who were more talented than me, who weren't, just didn't push themselves, didn't work hard. But once our senior year rolled around, and they realized that after this year, I'm no longer on scholarship.

• 8:45Speaker 03

  Then they wanted to work out.

• 8:46Ed Mylett?

  That's exactly what I saw too.

• 8:48Speaker 03

  The scouts are coming here now.

• 8:50Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 8:50Speaker 03

  It seems to see they be honest with you. They were coming to see me. You're asking me to let you in on my workouts. You didn't earn the right, to be honest with you. And so to see guys scramble because they didn't prepare ahead of time. It was a great lesson for me and everything that I do. Do not ever be in a situation where you regret not putting in the work. When it comes time for that final product to present itself.

• 9:16Ed Mylett?

  It's all interesting to me. I think for people listening to this, it's. You guys, this guy's at a historically black college. He goes back to Germany. He's this coming back. Scott becomes the all time NFL sack leader. Arguably, one of the great, not arguably, legitimately, one of the greatest NFL football players of all time. The all time season sack leader, twenty two and a half. I'm gonna ask you about Favre later. I gotta know about that play. But it's just mind blowing to me because I think a lot of people that listen to my show or watch like, I just feel so far away. From where I need to get. And I think there's just these steps. It's almost like God prepares you when you get into certain spaces. If you outwork everybody with the answers, with the right stuff. And I'm just curious for you. You show up in New York. The New York Football Giants and LT's there.

• 9:59Ed Mylett?

  Arguably, another guy, maybe the GOAT of all time, at least on the defensive side of the football. Now you're comparing those skill sets. But then also in your media life, you walk into a studio, you're not like an NYU, you know, media major person. Have you struggled with self doubt? Because you seem so confident on the outside. Have you struggled with self doubt playing football in your broadcasting career as an entrepreneur? And if you have, what do you do to overcome it?

• 10:24Speaker 03

  I've struggled with every bit of it from football, football especially. Even when I was having my, some of my greatest years, I was struggling with doubt. I'm in a game thinking to myself, can I do this? Am I really that good? Maybe this is the guy who will just gonna just throw me around and take advantage of me. And I won't be effective against this guy in this game. Like I, I, I struggle with that most of the time.

• 10:48Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 10:48Speaker 03

  Quite a bit. And even TV, I absolutely struggled with it. But I always say you will doubt yourself more than anyone else will ever doubt you. Self doubt trumps any doubt that any outside person will ever have in you. For me, I've learned to just try my best to push through it. Understand that everything is not going to be successful. And if it isn't, don't get down about it. You learn from it. You push through it. You move on to the next thing and the next opportunity. And I've struggled with self doubt all the time. I still do. I'm on TV half the time and I'm thinking, huh, am I really good at this? Or are people just

• 11:27Speaker 03

  blowing smoke up my, you know what, my, do I, am I really cut out for this? Because I watch other people come into this business on a different path, from bigger schools, from, you know, opportunities and the way they got there seem more traditional.

• 11:44Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 11:44Speaker 03

  And I'm so untraditional with being there that I struggle with feeling if I do belong. And, but I look at it and I think it's natural. It's natural. And I'm just happy that, um, the world's a different type of world, especially now like news, for instance. No one coming from my background would ever be on A Good Morning America or any other morning program because it seemed as if you had to look a certain way, um, have a certain background and, and deliver it in a certain way. But I think the world has changed where people want to have their news delivered from a, from a different type of person, you know? Do you have that traditional person? Then you have someone who may be a little non-traditional, but maybe who makes a

• 12:25Speaker 03

  better connection with you to make you feel as if it's more real. And

• 12:30Ed Mylett?

  That's a party that's interesting. I didn't mean to interrupt you, but

• 12:32Speaker 03

  No, no.

• 12:33Ed Mylett?

  I'm blown away that you have self doubt to this day.

• 12:35Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 12:35Ed Mylett?

  Anyway, because I do too. And I, people, I think sometimes if I'm walking, there's 25,000 people and I'm speaking to like, are you nervous? Are you scared? Yeah, I have like major imposter syndrome. Like, why do these people want to listen to me at this stage in my life? Like, why would they listen to me? They have no idea what a dork I am, right? I'm about to

• 12:52Speaker 03

  And half the time I'm like, can't get my kids to listen to me, but I have other

• 12:56Ed Mylett?

  I relate to that too. But that's big time. But I'm curious, like, do you have imposter syndrome too? Like you walk in to interview Barack Obama. Which you've done. What did that feel like? Like, are you walking in? I've had these moments and I've met President Obama too. You have met a couple of these guys, but you are like, what am I doing here? Or is it now that you're so far down the road, Emmys? Entrepreneurship, Fox, you've dominated there, you know, good morning. Are you now like, all right, now I know I belong here. Or even then, are you like? Oh, my gosh.

• 13:27Speaker 03

  You still are. Oh, my gosh. You still are. No matter how much stuff you've done. Sometime, you know, when I, when I saw President Obama, I'd met him before. It wasn't like the first time, but it's still, I mean, this is a former president. This is like Obama. So you still walk in a little, little nervous, a little on the sire's side. Trying to fill out the situation, but he's always been great. You know, Michelle has always been great. But you still are a little bit nervous. I, I think. That makes me more nervous than doing more hard, harder news stories when it comes to like interviewing Jonathan Mattingly.

• 14:09Speaker 03

  One of the officers in the Breonna Taylor case and, and things like that. I'm so locked in and focused on it. That it's a totally different thing. Whereas with, you know, President Obama is like, okay, there's politics involved. There's his. Ideas involved, but there's also a certain coolness factor that you have to be aware of. So. But I love it. That's what I love about doing what I do now. It's so diverse. It's no, not one thing. I, I know my personality and if I had to do the same thing over and over again, I would get bored if it never changed. And that was a great thing about football that every day I felt like I was learning. Fifteen years in the pros, I felt like I learned every day until I stopped playing and I watch now and I'm still learning stuff as a spectator.

• 14:51Speaker 03

  And that's what I love about what I do now. Everything's different. There's a new challenge every day. There's issues and problems you gotta work through. It's fun.

• 15:00Ed Mylett?

  You, what time did you get up this morning?

• 15:03Speaker 03

  Five.

• 15:04Ed Mylett?

  You got up at five, okay, so I just want everyone to see, people that become successful, they have to manage time really, really well. And I was, I'm thinking, I'm a pretty busy person. Like, I got a lot of stuff going on. And I was thinking, this man's light. I watched you last week, I think, were you in LA for the, for the football game on Thursday? Where were you last Thursday?

• 15:23Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:24Ed Mylett?

  You were in LA on Thursday, you have GMA, then you gotta do this Sunday, the Sunday football program, then you're gonna come back and do GMA. I know Constance and Smack, she's wearing you out in the agency with stuff to pay attention to, right? I know Con's doing that. And then you got all the other stuff you're doing. You got your production company, you got the deal going on, you got this stupid interview with me, you have all these things. How do you manage your time? Do you have an actual strategy? Is it the people around you? How do you manage your time and your energy?

• 15:53Speaker 03

  I will, I will give, I will have to say it's the people around me. Yeah, I have a great team of people. You name Constance and Jasmine and Jose and Nisha and, and we just have a great team of people who we work with who, who allow me to be able to focus on what I do for my core, core side of my personal business. And then also be involved in our collective business. But also, they don't, I, I will tell them or they will tell me, you're doing too much, and we're gonna cut back. Especially now, when, when we have GMA in the morning, that I have to go Thursday night football, Sunday football, fly back

• 16:34Speaker 03

  on a flight every Sunday. So back and forth to LA 20 something weeks in a row. You, you can, you can wear yourself out if you're not careful with all the extra things. And my assistant Jasmine is, is, she and I were just having a conversation yesterday. And if I feel it, or if she feels it, she'll say, okay, let's pull back. I feel like it's just too much stuff. And sometimes you need people to save you from yourself. You know, it's like an athlete who's injured, but you're like, I can do it. One for the Gipper. And that's the same way that I am, I do stuff away off the field now and in my life now. It's like kind of with that football player, athlete mentality that you can do it all. And sometimes you need people to say, you know what, you can, but why?

• 17:16Speaker 03

  Pull back, relax, it's gonna be here tomorrow and just pace yourself. The pacing myself has really saved me.

• 17:24Ed Mylett?

  What about your workouts? You, you're fit, you're, I watch you on the show, I'm not, I feel like I'm bragging on you too much, but I watched you on the show and I'm like, this dude is, looks so good in this suit. He's obviously still extremely fit. You and I both know, most of our former athlete friends that don't have your schedule, that don't have your time demands, don't keep them together. We both know this, right? Most of these are dudes that you played with. What do you do for your fitness? Cause you're up at five, right? I'm curious, when do you train? Are you conscious of what you're putting in your body? Or are you just like a genetic freak that you're very blessed at your age to look this good?

• 17:57Speaker 03

  I was, I was a genetic freak, man. I really do. I like, I get envious of guys who have the six packs and all that and they don't do anything. They roll out of bed, eat a bowl of cereal. But I had to be, I had to be conscious of everything I eat. I have to work out. I try to at least one hour a day. I feel like if I can work out an hour a day, I got 23 hours to do anything else that I want to do. And, but you have to find the time and, and you have to prioritize the time. And you can't be lazy. The hour that I'm sitting on the couch thinking about working out and watching some TV program, the workout could have been over. That's how I rationalize it. But it's, it's about scheduling my time, like today, a GMA this morning. The second I leave the studio, I drive to New Jersey till my barber can cut my hair.

• 18:42Speaker 03

  Then I drive back, I'm gonna do this podcast with you, then I have a one o'clock doctor appointment. Then I'm going to work out right after the doctor, because at 5:30, I gotta go screen a movie. And then I'll come, you know, so it's like you have to find the little pockets of time that you have and, and, and get it in. And then there are days where now I'll do that workout, I have a pocket of time, that pocket of time, maybe a nap. That pocket of time, maybe reading a magazine or reading a book. That pocket of time, maybe just watching mindless TV. But I just try to do things that certain, at some point you gotta let, I, working out for me is like a, a release. It's like that moment where everything else outside of the music that's in my ears, when I work out, that's the only thing I'm hearing at that point.

• 19:26Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, same with me. That's really good to hear that you watch a little mindless TV. It makes me and a lot of other people feel good, just that you unplug your brain for a while. To disconnect. I'm curious about your ability to be present. If you struggle with this or things you do. As a busy person too, sometimes I have struggled in the past, even with my kids with. When I'm at home thinking about a business deal I've got, or you know, um. I mean, you know, you're in a smack meeting for your production and management company, but you know, you got to prep for an interview tomorrow on GMA, right? Like that, this presence thing, because one thing everyone says about you to me is, he's charismatic. Right? And I do believe you're one of the more charismatic people on the planet. I think part of charisma is being present with people.

• 20:11Ed Mylett?

  And giving them all of your energy when you're in that moment with them, like they're the only person in the world that matters. You're incredible at that. Do you do anything specific to be present? Are you like conscious of it? Or do you struggle with that too?

• 20:23Speaker 03

  No, I'm kind of where I am is where I am. But you're right about that. It takes a lot of energy. And I didn't realize that I'm not consciously. I don't consciously have to think, let me be in the moment. Uh, I do think that I'm just built to be in the moment. And I also think that I'm able to compartment compartmentalize things. Because on the football field, something bad happens, I gotta move on to the next. If we could have this conversation on the sideline, then they say, defense, I grab my helmet, hold on, I'll be right back. Put on my helmet, I run out there, completely switched to a totally different dude. Finished, come back, put my helmet down and pick up the conversation like it never stopped. Like to be able to stop and start. You know, and compartmentalize my thoughts and wherever I'm at and what actions are needed in that moment.

• 21:08Speaker 03

  I'm, I'm just, I had to learn that, but I learned that from football. And that has really helped me in everything else that I do, but you're right, whenever I am into something, I'm into it and I'm focused on it, but it takes a lot of energy. And I've realized that as I've gotten older, that. In order to, you know, that's why certain things I just know, nah, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna go to that event. I just can't go to dinner. I, cause I know it's going to take a lot of energy out of me and the problem is I can't help myself. It's not like I can go there and say, I'm just gonna sit in the corner and quiet and let everyone else, let everyone else talk to him. I can't. I gotta be in the mix and I gotta be involved and that's my fault.

• 21:51Speaker 03

  But also, it's also my responsibility to know, okay, this is gonna take too much out of me. And I need time to recharge my battery because I know that when I'm in that room, that room's gonna get everything that I got.

• 22:04Ed Mylett?

  So good. I, brag for a minute, Michael, for me. This is so good, brother. Um, why are you successful? I mean, I mean, like, don't do the humble, gee golly thing. Like, you've been so successful at many things. If I were your son, I bet your daughter, by the way, one of them. I, I, I, what would you say to me? Like, I'm successful because you did an amazing job as a father too. So, I am successful more than most people because, what would the answer be?

• 22:34Speaker 03

  Because I am successful, more successful than most people, because I am able to be myself. And I, God, that's, that's such a good question, man. I kinda have an answer, but I kinda don't. I think a lot of this is being incredibly lucky in a lot of ways.

• 22:57Ed Mylett?

  Now you're going to the humble card. Don't do that.

• 23:00Speaker 03

  Right place, right time.

• 23:01Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 23:01Speaker 03

  I, I do think because I work my ass off. Like, I work. I don't, I work. I'm not afraid to work. I don't take myself too seriously. I think that has helped me. Because if I did, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have a gap in my teeth. You know, I had the sucker fixed a long time ago. Like, what you see is what you get. I'm, I'm confident in what I know I know.

• 23:28Speaker 03

  So I'm always nervous with a new job, so nervous with TV and so nervous playing football. When I was younger, but once I had experience of something and I know I'm I can do it. Then I'm confident in it and you and and I know I'm good at it. But still, that doesn't mean I don't have doubts every once in a while about it. But when you first start out, of course you have doubts, but I always tell myself and people say I'm so nervous my first time. And I said, well, think about the person who was in your position that you who who you look at and admire, who do what you who does what you want to do. They had a first day too. Everybody had a beginning of a career and people completely forget that. So I've learned to tell myself that at things that are new to me.

• 24:12Speaker 03

  But I did figure things out. I think that's why I'm successful. I figured things out. There's no excuse. There's nothing if I want it, I'll figure it out and get it. I've never once seen anybody or been jealous of anybody's success or been mad is this person have this and I don't have it. Because if I want it, I'll work to figure out a way to go get it legally, you know?

• 24:33Ed Mylett?

  Right. You know what I observe about you that is people that I admire and people that I actually like to be around is they toe a really unique line. It's such a nuance with having tremendous self-confidence combined with a big dose of humility. And it's such a unique line because most people struggle with self-confidence. They're humble, they've got humility, they struggle with the confidence piece. These guys that didn't work when they got to the NFL, for example, right? People that you and I kind of see burnt out, we go, what do they have? They got all the self-confidence, nothing else humility. They don't want to be coached. They don't know they got to outwork everybody. And I noticed that in you in droves. It's um, I I also feel like, Michael, one thing I observe about you is that people are always feeling something from us.

• 25:18Ed Mylett?

  You're always making someone feel something. And the happiest and most successful people are conscious sometimes of how they're making other people feel. And me, you're outstanding at that on camera, off camera. I watched you last year, I won't say who, but it's someone we both know with another NFL football player who was on Fox with you now. And it just wasn't coming quite as naturally to him as it did the other guys in there. And I watched you kind of giving him the energy. You you even pulled him along like as a teammate, almost like you were still on the line, you know, working as a unit, as a group.

• 25:53Ed Mylett?

  Are you conscious of that energy thing? Or is this just a natural thing? If I met you when you were a freshman in college, you had it then, you had it when you were a rookie, you had it when you were playing the Patriots in the Super Bowl, you had it with Kelly, you had it on GMA? Or is it something you're kind of intentional about the energy piece?

• 26:09Speaker 03

  I recognize energy because I've never wanted to be the guy that walked in the room and people go, oh, no. You know, you want to be the guy who walks in the room and people are excited to be there. When I see other people who may, I just, I think I'm sympathetic. And empathy, empathy and sympathy for people. So when I see someone who's struggling or someone I feel can do something better, and if I can do something to bring that out, I'll go out of my way to bring it out. I'll do it at my expense sometimes. Like, I don't, I don't really have the ego to say everything about me and, you know, my name's got to be there. I don't care. I don't care who speaks first. I don't care what name's on the title. I don't care about that stuff. I just want to do great work because I'm a true believer that if, if the work is good, everybody,

• 26:53Speaker 03

  and if the work is winning, everybody gets enough, there's enough credit for everybody. So for me, when it comes to work and, and, and energy and people and trying to help, that's just more from a mentality of, of the teamwork mentality. And I just really sincerely want people to do well. And I've never been a guy who isn't happy to be in whatever room that I'm in. And I just want people to enjoy that I'm in that room. And I also want to enjoy the people in that room. And, and when you had success, I think the more success I've had, the more I've been into making, not caring about my success. I've cared more about other people's success.

• 27:37Speaker 03

  I've cared more about other people feeling good about where they are and where we are and in the things that we're doing together. And I think that that's important because at some point, you know, football, I've had, you know, every trophy that I ever thought about. I remember in college, didn't know how to play football when I first went to TSU out of high school. I'm one year high school coming from Germany. And by the time I left college, HBCU Defensive Player of the Year and few times, I won everything. Then I get these trophies and where do they go? To my parents.

• 28:10Ed Mylett?

  That right?

• 28:10Speaker 03

  They must to me. It was like, oh, I think I'm doing it. I thought I was doing it for myself and I wasn't. Get to the pros. You think you're gonna be, you know, I want to make the Pro Bowl. You make the Pro Bowl. And you're like, oh, this is gonna be great. But by the time we get to the Pro Bowl, you think I feel like playing another football game that means nothing? No, but the only reason I went to everyone is first of all, you were voted in, which is an honor. And two, my family loved to go. It was like something I could see the pride in them. That we were all there together.

• 28:42Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 28:43Speaker 03

  And, and I think that I've, I've just, I've just, you know, learned that success is, is just meant to be shared and, and the more successful you are. The more you should share it and try to bring more people with you. Because there's a lot of room at the top of the hill, man. It's not like the top of the hill is a point. Top of the hill is flat and everybody can stand up there.

• 29:04Ed Mylett?

  Well, that's really good. And I think most people don't know that. I think they think it's this. And so there is that hater jealousy. Cutthroat way. And when you get there, it's exactly what you realize, what you just described. By the way, no one's ever said that on my show. It's one of the most powerful things anybody's ever said. It is like that. He, by the way, was doing his hands where there's room and it's flat. And that's absolutely true. Your, someone else's success does not prevent you from being there also. That's so big.

• 29:32Speaker 03

  And that's what thing. People think, oh, this person's successful. They're blocking me. That person may not even know you exist. I mean, they, they don't even know you're who you are, nothing about you. They're not blocking you. They're just doing what they're doing. They're going through their life. And I remember back when I was playing and guys would get endorsement deals and guys would do commercials and autograph signings. The guys were complaining, well, why is he getting that? And why is he doing this? And why is he doing? And they would get mad at the guy. And I would say, if you were him, and these opportunities came your way, you would take them too.

• 30:06Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 30:06Speaker 03

  So how could you be mad at him for taking advantage of what opportunities came his way? And, and that completely took a lot of the, the, you know, I've never had that kind of jealousy. And I've always realized. When I went to Kelly or when Eli Manning came to the Giants or something like that, the new kid always gets attention. He's a new kid. Everybody wants to figure him out and give him attention and show him love. So you could never get, get so caught up to think that, oh, this. And that doesn't last for everybody, by the way. When you go to McDonald's and, and what's the main sandwich there, the Big Mac, right? Every once in a while, they'll bring out a McRib. Everybody gets really excited for the McRib.

• 30:52Speaker 03

  But if it were on the menu all the time, eventually it just becomes, you know, another sandwich. And the Big Mac is still the Big Mac. So don't be mad or jealous of the young cat who comes in and gets attention. You're still the Big Mac. Plenty for you there. You'll be fine.

• 31:11Ed Mylett?

  It's very good. And you know, what's interesting about that too, is that I'm listening to you. Success is pretty simple and it's all the things that people waste energy and focus on that takes from just being laser focused on the task and it's worrying about other people. They got there before me. Why are they getting this? What are they going to think about me? All these things we deplete our energy on. To me, like the winning for you has been simple. This is a really hard question. I already asked you another one. I watch you and sometimes I wonder this for me. I, I'm kind of a busy dude too, and I, you know, I think externally, people would probably think, wow, what a really cool life and you get to do this or that or the other thing. So I would, this is just me and you one on one. No one's listening. Okay?

• 31:52Ed Mylett?

  Is it worth it? Like really, is it all it's cracked up to be? To be you, to do the things you're doing? And do you ever sit there some days? Maybe it's Sunday, flying back on the plane, knowing you got to get up Monday to do the show. Do you ever sit there and go, I thought I'd enjoy this more? Or I thought there'd be more to it? Or is it, this is even better than I thought? And I, I would really love to know. I think I know the answer and I don't think it's pretty for most people when we're in the moment. But I'm really curious. Look at you really thinking deep. What is the real answer to that? Is it what it's cracked up to be?

• 32:31Speaker 03

  Absolutely. It's it's better than I ever could have imagined. I think it's probably more glamorous from the outside looking in than it is sometimes for the inside looking out. I think the day to day work may be more glamorous from the outside looking in. But the day to day work is worth it because sometime when the mirrors are tinted, no one can see in and I'm on vacation or I'm doing cool things with my family. That if I didn't do this, I'm not able to do, or if I'm at a fight and I'm at the front row watching the biggest fight fighters in the world and I show up at a restaurant and it's like, come on in, we don't have a line.

• 33:11Speaker 03

  I mean, I hate to cut the line of people, but it's like the stuff that comes your way absolutely makes it worth it. And eh eh eh, everything I do now, this is gravy. I think that's why I look at, that's why to me it's it's always gonna be worth it because football. If that was worth it, what I do now is more than worth it because playing, practicing, hitting training camp twice a day, laying on a wet ground to stretch at seven in the morning to putting on pads that are still soaked with your sweat from the day before. And it's seven thirty, eight in the morning and you gotta run into another grown man for next two hours and do that over again in the afternoon and that was work.

• 33:56Speaker 03

  That was work and that led to where I am now. And I would go through it again to get back to where I am now. But it was the hardest thing I've ever done, which now makes talking on TV for a freaking living. Are you kidding me? I I didn't know this was an option.

• 34:14Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 34:14Speaker 03

  Talking?

• 34:17Ed Mylett?

  Right. You know, you are, you're grateful. I'm just listening to you.

• 34:21Speaker 03

  I am, man.

• 34:22Ed Mylett?

  An abundance of gratitude that's abnormal for somebody at your level who sometimes might think they've they're entitled to it or whatever. You just have an unusual amount of gratitude and I bet that if I met you when you were younger and playing that that was true then too.

• 34:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, you know, and I was kind of a, I always tell people I'm an extroverted introvert.

• 34:44Ed Mylett?

  Me too.

• 34:45Speaker 03

  And I'm in this, walking down the street and people say, hey, Michael, Michael, and it makes me uncomfortable. I don't like that attention. But if I'm doing my job. And and that's fine. But when the cameras aren't there and I'm just in the street, I I feel no different than anyone else. I don't think I have special privileges over anyone else. And not like when I walk down the street, it lights up, like in the Michael Jackson video, you know,

• 35:12Speaker 03

  I walk down the street just like everybody else. But I think that there's this perception that, you know, everything that you do is always so cool. And oh my goodness, and that's just not the case. And I I I realized, and I'm, maybe it's a fear, a fear of losing humility would mean that I would lose everything that being humble has gotten me. So it makes me always stay very aware and very conscious of the the opportunities or the the the things that I've been afforded from the opportu- from from in my life. So that I'm very conscious of trying

• 35:55Speaker 03

  to be good to people because I feel like if I were to lose the humility, then everything else goes out the window with it.

• 36:02Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my gosh. You say things that I feel better than I feel them. Like I, I'm, what you just said is exactly how I feel. Almost makes me emotional that you said it because I feel that. Like, if I lose my sense of humility, I think everything's going to go away. And I, it's, I'm gonna lose it. I'm gonna, I will have spoiled all the blessings of my life if I lose my humility. I also consider myself, and I think you said extroverted introvert, or the reverse. Like, I'm very introverted privately. Publicly, I can be an extrovert. I just got asked what you said, and I just want to reiterate it. It's a 10 million times better than you think it is. It's not as pretty or as glamorous to win and make your dreams come true. But it's 10 million times better than you think it is. And and it's not the cool stuff. It's actually

• 36:47Ed Mylett?

  how you feel about yourself, that you're growing, expanding as a person. You're having new experiences and different contributions. It's just a super cool feeling.

• 36:55Speaker 03

  But that's why I think I've done, and I do so many different things, is that feeling of figuring something out, committing to something, coming up with an idea, and actually seeing it through.

• 37:08Speaker 03

  And and then you then, you know, like the clothing business, it's like, oh, this was just an idea we had. Now it's a real legit business. Hundred thousand dollar pyramid. You know, yeah, maybe we could host this game show. Now it's a legit big time game show. It's like, and then to learn every step of the way of thinking about how I felt when I filmed season one to how I feel filming, you know, season six now, whatever it's gonna be, like the confidence and like, man, I started and I didn't know, you know, I kind of was looking at Dick Clark tapes going, maybe I can do this to now actually feeling so comfortable that I can do it in my sleep. Like, I like that feeling of progression in in in in life

• 37:50Speaker 03

  and progression and projects and progression and work. And, um, yeah, man.

• 37:55Ed Mylett?

  I do too. I feel like I die if I did it. I mean, I'm either literally growing or dying. And I feel like the minute I stop growing, I'm gonna go in reverse. I don't know how fast I'll go in reverse, but I'll just start to regress as a spirit, almost like a spirit.

• 38:08Speaker 03

  No, I know.

• 38:08Ed Mylett?

  And it's amazing because people that are not in this stuff, it's different doing GMA than it is the hundred thousand. It's a different energy. It's a different studio. It's a different setting. It's a different communication. Fox NFL. Now he's on a panel. He's got to interact with other people. When are they done talking? When does he jump in? Puts his hand on the guy. Let's all these little things that you only learn when you do them. He did not know when he was back in Germany after his freshman year going down to college. This is proof, everybody, that we do expand as people. If we continue to work, if we continue to try new things, if we step into spaces we are not prepared for.

• 38:44Speaker 03

  People are afraid to fail. People afraid to fail. They feel like they if they failed, then their life is over. People afraid to be judged. And you can't, you can't expand. You can't get better if you're afraid of what other people's opinions are gonna be if you want it on your life. So you want to get better at something, you want to try something new, that's on you. A lot of people, and I know you've heard this before, but a lot of people tell you can't do anything because they have their own restrictions on their, them, their life. So they take their restrictions, their fear, they put them on you, a lot of people put them on their own kids. I was fortunate enough to have a father who was fearless.

• 39:25Speaker 03

  I mean, this guy was in the military with five kids, trade out of high school for 12, 13 years and said, I want to be an officer. I'm getting out of the military and I'm going to go to, to, um, the ROTC program at Prairie View. Then I'm gonna go back in as an officer. And then I, then my, my mom was pregnant with me, so he gets out of the military, five kids, six on the way. And go to the ROTC program at, at Prairie University, which they didn't want to let him into the officers program because they said he was too old. In a chance meeting is the only reason he got in and, and I didn't realize this until my dad wrote this whole big, wrote me, he wrote this whole like little testimony letter.

• 40:07Speaker 03

  And he was saying in his testimony letter, and I'm reading it going, this is amazing story that he, we, went, he got out of the military, went to Prairie View, wanted to get into the officer program, they told him, no, you're too old. Well, he's got, you know, my mom and five kids, me on the way, a lot of mouth to feed. And a gen, and a colonel came to the base and they were looking for more minorities to put into these, to the officer program. He's talking to the colonel. Colonel's telling him about it, you know, what they're trying to do. And my dad go, yeah, I tried to get in the program. And, um, they said, you know, my age and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he said, well, soldier, where were you stationed? You know, I was in France and all these other things. And he goes, you know,

• 40:51Speaker 03

  I was in, when I was in France, man, I saw this boxing match. It was the, the best boxing match I'd ever seen. And he described this whole boxing match. And my dad goes, sir, that was me. Oh, my gosh. My dad was an all-army boxer, Golden Glove box, Golden Glove boxer and in the military. And that colonel was talking about the boxing match you saw my dad fight in France and did not know that that was my father. Come on. And once he heard that.

• 41:22Speaker 03

  You're in the program.

• 41:23Ed Mylett?

  That's bananas.

• 41:24Speaker 03

  And then my dad graduated magna cum laude from the ROTC program as what he can say can call him an old man. And he goes back into the army as an officer, becomes a master jumper in the 82nd Airborne Division. You know, when we moved to Germany, he was running the first CEC Combat Equipment Company. So here's somebody who realized and was fearless to think that my life is going in a direction I want to do better. I can only do better if I'm an officer. So I'll take the chance and be fearless and get out and hopefully get into a program that is going to get me where I want to go. And he did it. And he, you know, for me, it was when Michael, when this, when you're in the Pro Bowl, when you win a Super Bowl,

• 42:05Speaker 03

  when you're in the Hall of Fame, when, when, when it never was if, because I think if you tell your kids or you tell yourself if there's doubt and if, there's no doubt in when, it just may not happen right at that moment. And sometimes it does. But when you always think it's going to happen eventually.

• 42:23Ed Mylett?

  Oh, my gosh, Michael. That's one of the best stories I've ever heard. By the way, that's

• 42:26Speaker 03

  A long-winded, but I'm sorry.

• 42:28Ed Mylett?

  No way. That was not long-winded. You were one meeting away. Your dad had one, was one meeting away from changing.

• 42:33Speaker 03

  One meeting away.

• 42:34Ed Mylett?

  Made that one decision. That's the deal. Speaking of the, the when and the if, by the way, that was not long-winded. That's profound. By the way, what's really crazy is the story of your life is so impressive. Little did I know that on my show, my favorite story would not be about you, be about your dad. Uh, and it kind of explains you though. But I want to go to football. We have a few moments left, but I've enjoyed this so much. Like it's like a masterclass almost, but uh, you said the when and not if. So the year you guys win the Super Bowl, I want to make sure I understand it because I, maybe I have it wrong and I'd like to just understand it. But you guys play the Patriots, they're undefeated and you lose, but it was a really good game. Remember watching the game? Think there was, it was in New York, they came in and beat you guys, right?

• 43:16Speaker 03

  Yep, at the end of the game, came in and beat us.

• 43:18Ed Mylett?

  At the end of the game, and, but I, my recollection is, so they're undefeated. Uh, they've got Brady, they've got Moss, this is a juggernaut of a team, they've got, they're loaded on defense too. They're, really, all their studs were still on their defense then.

• 43:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:31Ed Mylett?

  And, but after that game, is it right that you basically said, when we beat them in the Super Bowl, not if? Like, did you know in that game, that if you played them again, you could beat them? Because, the reason I ask this question, why I think it's so important, yes, you won the Super Bowl, yes, you beat an undefeated team. Yes, Eli should have been ruled in the grass, that's a whole other story.

• 43:53Speaker 03

  Oh, you know, I told him I had a Patriots hat and you're gonna say that, but go ahead, helmet behind you.

• 43:58Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 44:00Speaker 03

  He was not in the grass.

• 44:03Ed Mylett?

  But, but, my point is that, my point is that, that this is from a loss. So, this is a big lesson, I think, if I'm right about the story, if you had this feeling, if it was even in the locker room afterwards. It's from a defeat that you make the decision, when we win. This is important because as a human being, we're suffering losses and defeats and setbacks regularly. That didn't define you, it's an undefeated team, they just beat you at your place, right? At home, is it right that after that, you went, when we play them again, we're gonna beat them? You got this feeling they were beatable or not?

• 44:41Speaker 03

  I think that was a team feeling, but the person who verbalized it, literally walking off the field after that game. We're walking off the field in defeat, and OC Yemen Yorah. If, our other defensive man, our right end, looked at me and said, when we meet them again, we, when we see them again, we're gonna beat them. I'm thinking to myself, that's fantastic, but only way we see them is the Super Bowl, you realize that? AFC, NFC, buddy. And...

• 45:09Speaker 03

  He just, he just, it was just, we had this confidence because we realized going into that game, we knew we were in, we were in the playoffs already. We're going to, we're going to Tampa to play the Bucks. We didn't want to put anything into our, our, our game plan that would show the Buccaneers what we could do. So it was a very vanilla defense and a very vanilla offense that we ran against the Patriots the last game. We didn't have anything to play for. It was pretty much, are the Giants gonna rest their guys? The Patriots aren't resting their guys because for them, they wanted a perfect season. And I think that inspired us because they're not resting their guys. We're not gonna rest our guys either. And the fact that we were just very vanilla and we went to head to head with a team who wiped everybody off the map.

• 45:54Speaker 03

  Me was so dynamic, I think the most points in a regular, they averaged the most points of any team in a regular season history. And you know, they had Harrison, Sayao, Bruski, you name it, they were so loaded. But I don't know what it was. We just felt like if that was the best that they had to give, we're better than we showed. And pre, post, pregame, one of the press conferences, Flacc to go Burr said, you know, yeah, score is gonna be like 21, 17, 21 or something, we're gonna win. And Tom, who's my business partner in religion of sports and my, my boy. When he was like, huh, huh, huh, uh, yeah, okay, we're gonna score like 17 points, uh, okay.

• 46:39Speaker 03

  Like a little, you know, dismissive. That fired us up. Offensively, we just had guys who collectively or individually, you were looking, go, ah, you know, you know. Collectively, we were a team. It was, it was a team. There was no one individual bigger than the other. There was no one individual who wanted to let another guy down. It was never a selfish thing about selfish on our team. Everything was about togetherness. And before the game, my dad go, when you guys won the game on Sunday and blah, blah, and I think a dad, you know, it's a big game. He goes, well, you know, and, and, and I said, yeah, he said, yeah, I know, but you've already won the game. Just gotta go out there and go through the formalities of it now.

• 47:21Speaker 03

  And I'm like, geez, okay, all right, I guess you haven't been watching the film. I've been watching them beating snot out of everybody.

• 47:29Speaker 03

  But we're in that game and I give this speech right before the offense went out there when Eli got out of that, that grasp. And, and the speech was, you know what, guys? The score was fourteen, ten at that point. Seventeen, fourteen will be the final score. One more seventeen, fourteen. One more touchdown, we are world champions. Believe it and it will happen. Seventeen, fourteen will be the final score. And that was my way of kind of channeling my dad to say, this is how it's gonna end. It's not ending how it, you, you control it. I couldn't, I wasn't on the offense. I can't do anything about it.

• 48:09Speaker 03

  And to see people make the most extraordinary plays in their life, Eli to David Tyree, Plaxico catching that ball in the end zone for the touchdown. David Tyree couldn't catch a cold but naked in the wintertime. I mean, he was not our wide receiver of choice. Uh, he was a special teams guy. Due to, I mean, it's true. Eli is so clumsy that he, he would fall in practice like trying to do a rollout, naked bootleg and he's fallen down. So to see those guys do extraordinary things, let me know, it was more than just them. They weren't out there playing for themselves. They were out there playing for all of us and we all played for each other. And so to win that Super Bowl,

• 48:52Speaker 03

  the biggest achievement, better than any MVPs and player of the years and anything I ever earned in football. That was the one thing that you could share with everybody. The most excited I've ever been about anything in my life. And I, every day I'm on an email chain with the entire defensive line. I see Eli a few times a month. I see Sean O'Hara a few times a month. I see Amani Tuma a few times a month. I see these guys all the time. It's like a brotherhood and no matter, no matter where we are in our life, everything stops. Because once we see each other, it's like this. Feeling that you you can't capture with anybody else who wasn't there, wasn't a part of it.

• 49:32Speaker 03

  And um yeah, most special time, man, and it was, I couldn't have asked for a better ending to my career, to be honest with you.

• 49:39Ed Mylett?

  You could have played a couple more years and you chose not to, but I just got to tell you, your whole physiology, your energy, your face definitely is different when you talk about that. There's there's something just life-changing, life-altering, just special above everything, huh, for that. Probably that, not kids or that stuff, but beyond that, it's it's that important.

• 49:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, professionally, it was the greatest moment ever. It is by far the greatest moment ever professionally, and even post-football, there's nothing that compares to that one day, nothing. You could never recreate that stage, and I'll never forget, every moment of running out at the beginning of the game to hearing, I can still hear the sound of the, you don't hear the audience when you're at the crowd when you're there. You're so focused that I can hear the guy across from me breathing. I can only, I can hear Tom, uh, yeah, check this, hey, I can hear the linebackers, you can only hear the people you need to hear. You do not hear eighty thousand people, whatever it may be, yelling until the play is over.

• 50:43Speaker 03

  So you make a tackle, you make a sack, and then all of a sudden, it's like they turn up the radios and you can now hear the crowd.

• 50:48Ed Mylett?

  Are you kidding me? I've never heard this before.

• 50:51Speaker 03

  Your focus is so incredible, and that that actually was a lesson to me that if you really want to focus, you can block everything out. Because I've had to do it without even realizing it for football purposes. It it's really an incredible thing because you do not hear anybody. All I hear is the quarterback, I can hear the linemen talk, and I can hear my guys talking, I can hear breathing, I can hear, you know, yeah, I, you like, you turn your helmet, you click your helmet on your shoulder pad, I can hear all that, but I do not hear, did not hear the people.

• 51:25Ed Mylett?

  That's a thing in your brain called the reticular activating system. My audience knows I talk about this, it's the filter that allows you to focus on what's important to you, but that's the best example. I'm stealing that premise, it's going to be in every talk I ever give.

• 51:37Speaker 03

  can be in an arena full of eighty thousand people stadium and not hear that noise but can hear his helmet clicking on his shoulder pads and the breathing of the linebacker coming up on some package behind him is blows my damn mind that is mind blowing that focus can dial you in that much even you saying that that's mind blowing right that's incredible the mind works that way but I absolutely that's but you know and I don't I could have played a few more years but I realized after that Super Bowl that I just everything I had man you know I OC and Tuck used to always have this joke we gonna kick you out the league old man they just sit in a

• 52:16Speaker 03

  meeting to tell me that and I used to say you know what Tuck you will always be my backup until I decide to retire just to get him back he couldn't say he couldn't say anything back to me on that one because I was the starter but what they didn't realize is when I admired everything that they did they inspired me because I realized these guys are younger stronger faster so I slimmed down they would go home they didn't see that I'm back in that weight room they didn't see me sitting in an ice tub like just trying to take care of myself not to stay uh ahead of them literally just to keep up with that unbelievable so when I retired I realized how much it took just to

• 52:59Speaker 03

  maintain and stay close to these guys and that in my heart after one of Super Bowl I was like you know what I just don't want to do it you by the way you walked from a lot of money Michael yeah they offered for me to come back it was a lot of money and I decided that I had never cheated the game or anything and I was not gonna start now I was not going to get out there and just do something for the money and not have my heart into it and just think okay mentally I'll just get through it your heart's gotta be in it's too hard of a business to just show up and say I'm just gonna do it for the money at least it was for me because it's it's one thing to to be on a

• 53:41Speaker 03

  football team and be a starter right there loving guys out there I could have been eleven guys I could be a starter to be that one of the eleven who not only do you have expectations for yourself that are high but everyone has expectations of you that every time you show up you have to be at a certain level you don't have the liberty to or the ability or the the freedom to drop below a certain expectation And I realized without my heart, I could not reach that expectation. If I still had the heart to do it, I absolutely would have gone back. Absolutely. But I felt going back just for the money would have been a disservice to the Giants, to the NFL, to the fans, and to myself. So I didn't do it.

• 54:24Ed Mylett?

  It worked out okay.

• 54:26Speaker 03

  You know, timing is, think about it, timing, man. I thought about this. Had I gone back, Regis would have retired. Someone else would have got that job because I would have basically been playing football and never had opportunity to do all the guest hosting and all these other things. Like, it's just the timing of everything worked out perfectly that we won a Super Bowl, which was the whole reason I was invited to go on that show as a guest in the first place for them.

• 54:50Ed Mylett?

  That's crazy.

• 54:51Speaker 03

  I was.

• 54:52Ed Mylett?

  That's crazy.

• 54:53Speaker 03

  So, timing of, timing was incredible for all of that. So, when I say a little bit of luck, yeah, it may, it may sound humble, but it's true.

• 55:02Ed Mylett?

  Luck is where opportunity and preparation meet each other, and you obviously crushed it. I want to keep going, but they're telling us we're out of time. So, I, I enjoyed this so much. It exceeded my expectations and I just want to tell you, I'm grateful that you did this today. I'm so impressed with you. And even as this is a distant front, I'm just proud of you, the difference you're making in the world. You really inspire me. I know you inspire a lot of people and I know, you know, millions of people end up viewing or watching or hearing this today. So, I just wanted to say thank you, Michael, for being here and I hope we do it again very, very soon.

• 55:33Speaker 03

  Well, thank you, Ed, and thank you, I appreciate you having me. I've been, I've been wanting to do this because you're inspiring me and so many people out there. So, it's good to be a part of the mission and what you're doing out there to help so many other people, man. I really, really, really appreciate it. Only one issue I have is we need to get you a new helmet as a backdrop.

• 55:53Ed Mylett?

  Send it over there. I'll put it somewhere. I'll put it somewhere.

• 55:56Speaker 03

  I got it.

• 55:56Ed Mylett?

  Hey, God bless everybody. Share the show today. This is epic conversation. I'm so glad we got so detailed. And again, thank you, Michael Strahan. All right, everybody, God bless you. Max out.