Biggest Pivots 2023

FOLLOW THE PIVOT PODCAST: MERCH | https://pivotpodcast.com YOUTUBE | https://www.youtube.com/thepivotpodcast INSTAGRAM | https://instagram.com/thepivot TWITTER | https://twitter.com/thepivot TIKTOK | https://tiktok.com/@thepivot FACEBOOK | https://www.facebook.com/thepivotpodcast Happy Thanksgiving! Hope our Pivot family is celebrating and spending time with loved ones this time of year. We took the day to spend with our families too but still wanted to bring you guys something special today so we picked our favorite Pivotal moments of the year to share and hope it gives you a chance to reflect and realize there’s always time to accept, adjust and move forward. So sit back and hear from Travis Kelce, Deion Sanders, Snoop, Lil Wayne, Mike McDaniel, Ice Cube, Chris Paul, Gillie Da Kid, Steve Sarkisian, Mina kimes, Ty Lue, Dawn Staley and more. And be sure to visit our website as our Black Friday Merch is on sale all wknd! Check it out now! 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.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Here's your report.

• 0:01Speaker 01

  Oh, thanks, Jane. I wish I could hire someone just like you.

• 0:04Speaker 00

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• 0:20Speaker 01

  Let's do it. You're irreplaceable, Jane, but another you would be great.

• 0:24Speaker 00

  Hire right the first time. Post your job for free on LinkedIn today at LinkedIn.com/quality.

• 0:30Ryan Clark?

  Well, Freddie T., looks like it's just me and you to kick off the show. It's Thanksgiving holidays. It's time for people to get fat. And we actually are gonna take a break. I know, man, we shoot them a show every Tuesday and Friday. I mean, it's the Zubikowski model, you know? But today, man, we're just gonna give them some highlights, kind of go back through what we've done this entire season. But before we get there, I just want you to tell me, man, what do the holidays mean to you and what makes family so important during this time?

• 1:02Fred Taylor?

  It's just me and you. That's what the pivot is all about. You gotta make it go, man. That Zubikowski model, man, it's a grind, but I think we built for it. The holidays, you know what, man? A couple of years ago, I just liked for the holidays just to speed up because around holiday season, everything just slows down and it's like this, you know, repetitive nature. And I started hating the holidays. Yeah. And then, most recently, dealing with my grandmother, I realized exactly how important, you know, being with family and spending that family time is. So this year, I'm gonna cherish the holidays a lot more than I have in the past. Doesn't mean I'm gonna eat all the food in the house, you know?

• 1:46Fred Taylor?

  But I'll enjoy those moments, looking around, being able to smile, looking at my kids, seeing them growing up over the years, just reflecting on memories, looking at photos of myself, my grandmother, you know, my mom's sisters and brothers, who I won't be close to, but we will be on the phone and stuff like that. So... Yeah, I'm glad I have a renewed spirit for the holidays, for sure. How about you?

• 2:08Ryan Clark?

  Man, for me, man, every day above ground is a blessing. Pants are really tight right now. So this is a bad time for, um, for Thanksgiving to fall, so I'm gonna try to be a little smart. I think it's always been about family. I don't really necessarily know if I need a day to commemorate it, but I, I think that's what's, that is the good part about the world.

• 2:31Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 2:31Ryan Clark?

  Slowing down because sometimes because we're all moving so fast, because we're kind of just living around each other, you don't get an opportunity to, to sit down, really break bread. Like, I can't remember the last time, other than a holiday, that my family sat down at a kitchen table.

• 2:47Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 2:47Ryan Clark?

  Or we sat down and actually put the phones down and had conversation. And so I think that that's always a, a good part of the holidays. And for me, it's about being able to truly be grateful for the blessings. You know, to be able to move people around and have people be in different states and different spots so they can come together. You don't do that without opportunities to be able to provide. And so I think for me, you know, that's what it's about, the ability to give my family the space to do certain things. I think that's why we all work. That's what God made us for as men, you know, so I'm grateful for that. I think other than that, man, I just like,

• 3:28Ryan Clark?

  shoot, I just like the fact, brother, like, I get to move around the holidays, though, in the sense of, like, I'm still working.

• 3:34Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 3:35Ryan Clark?

  Right, you still working, you know what I mean? Like, that's the, I think that's the dope part, is, is like, for, for us, we got to do things that the holidays can't stop. Because it's part of, like, fake ball football.

• 3:47Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 3:47Ryan Clark?

  Right? You've played on Thursdays, you've played on Christmases, you've played on New Year's Eves and, and New Years.

• 3:54Fred Taylor?

  Actually, I didn't play on a Thursday.

• 3:56Ryan Clark?

  You didn't play on Thursday?

• 3:56Fred Taylor?

  Well, Thursday night football, yes.

• 3:58Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 3:58Fred Taylor?

  But for the holidays?

• 3:59Ryan Clark?

  Yeah.

• 4:00Fred Taylor?

  I never had an opportunity to play, and I guess most teams don't.

• 4:03Ryan Clark?

  Nobody wanted to put Jacksonville on TV.

• 4:05Fred Taylor?

  What?

• 4:05Ryan Clark?

  You know?

• 4:06Fred Taylor?

  Hold up, bro.

• 4:06Ryan Clark?

  And too, y'all wasn't gonna play Detroit or, or Dallas.

• 4:10Fred Taylor?

  Yeah, yeah, that's true.

• 4:11Ryan Clark?

  You know what I mean? So that, so that's what it was.

• 4:12Fred Taylor?

  Mostly NFC teams, right?

• 4:13Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, so that's what it was. Was for y'all. I mean, we played, we played a night game against the Ravens. But you know, it's those big rivalries with the really good teams that normally.

• 4:22Fred Taylor?

  All right, let me go back to this whole holiday thing. You mentioned, um, sitting around the table. You know, most, I know in most black households, we got that one sacred room. That is just a decorated room you never go in and eat in, the dining room. Do you guys sit around the table and eat dinner on, um, holidays?

• 4:39Ryan Clark?

  No, so, so normally, so I've always hosted Thanksgiving. Like even when I was in Pittsburgh, my family would fly up, cook or whatever. Um, you kind of just sit everywhere.

• 4:48Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 4:48Ryan Clark?

  You know, but like the table at my, at my house, I live in Louisiana. The table only opens up for Thanksgiving. Like you can only go in that room on Thanksgiving and actually sit down with a plate. Most of the other times you see it, it's just in a picture.

• 5:03Fred Taylor?

  It's just a photo, ten chairs.

• 5:05Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, it's just a, it's just a photo. But that's what's, I mean, I think culturally, like so many things are unique about us. And I think the holidays are a time to experience it. Uh, we miss Chan, Chan's actually with his family spending Thanksgiving in New York. And guys, also, Black Friday, we got the drop, it's for the Pivot. We really want to give you guys some new merch. We want you to get some of the stuff that we wear here now on the show. All gratitude from us. Happy Thanksgiving, happy holidays. And now we're just going to look back on some of the biggest pivots of our guests throughout the entire season, some of those pivotal moments that they feel like made them exactly who they are. It's Freddie T's question. It's the best question to me on the show.

• 5:49Ryan Clark?

  Remember, go to the site, pick up the merch. More importantly, enjoy our holiday show.

• 6:19Ryan Clark?

  Name of the show is The Pivot, is what has been their biggest pivot in life? What has been that moment that helped shape Chris Paul? What is that moment that changed your life, whether good or bad, that you'll never forget? And being that you're an author now, and your book 61 comes out on June 20th. We know some of the events that have gone on in your life, but the floor is yours just to say and talk about something that helped make you. Dang, that's a deep question. That's against everybody.

• 6:52Speaker 04

  Yeah, it's tough because, I mean, I've been there for the birth of both of my kids. My wife is unreal. She the strongest. She everything in our family. I'm thinking about like the death of my grandfather, you know, and how that just seems prevalent. Because even now, 20 years later, I still, I just work, right? Just do the work. My wife out of town with some of our homegirls, my kids. We left the house this morning, like 7:30 to take them to school. But I was up in the gym at 5:15. You know what I mean? Like, working out. And I just think about doing the work. I don't know. And people, some people may say, "Why?" or whatnot.

• 7:36Speaker 04

  But I just think about, like, even when I was growing up, and it might be a party or something like that going on, and some people go and they say, "Why you ain't going?" I always say, like, I want to enjoy things maybe later in life, right? Because doing the work, it's just always been about that. And so, I don't know. Probably as I get older, the word gratitude just means more and more to me. Just appreciate my family. And then I'll tell you this, this is crazy that you said that, is that I've always been a people pleaser, right? Always, just always like a people pleaser. And that's like, I've always had a hard time saying no, right? To this or that. You'll show up here, "All right, I got you." This, that, and the other.

• 8:20Speaker 04

  But the biggest thing I've been trying to work on is showing up for the people who show up for me, right? Like, I let people do me dirty for so long. Talk crazy about me, still show up for them, still do that. But it's just, just recently, I had a conversation with my wife. It's like, I'm done. I'm done with that. And so, probably just the pivot is investing more time in those who deserve it.

• 8:49Fred Taylor?

  On our show, obviously pivot, we like to ask our guests, "What's your biggest pivot in life?" Of everything we've talked about, you know, from rap, coming up, doing knucklehead shit in the street, becoming a man, you know, losing loved ones, having success, just everything that we've talked about, everything you've gone through in your life. What's been that one moment, that one defining moment that, you know, you can consider the most pivotal moment in your life?

• 9:21Gillie Da Kid?

  One day I was sitting in the house and my oldest daughter, Deanna, had like ran past me. Like, kinda was like in my peripheral, it was her and cheese at the crib. And it was kinda like... And then I just sat there and I looked at both of them. And right then and there, I asked myself, "Like, what the fuck is you doing? You got fucking kids out here, man. You got whole responsibilities out here, man. And you running around here

• 10:04Gillie Da Kid?

  throwing fucking rocks at the penitentiary, man? What the fuck are you doing, man?" That was the day that changed my life, that I pivoted. I was like, "Yo, man, you gotta smarten up out here. You tripping, man." So then the wildness went from this level to this level. You know what I mean? And then as the wildness, then it became, "Now I gotta cut certain niggas out my circle, man." You know what I mean? "No, I ain't none of that type shit no more, man."

• 10:45Fred Taylor?

  Right.

• 10:46Gillie Da Kid?

  "No, no, no, man. Them niggas with them niggas doing, them niggas bout, them niggas trying to get indicted, man. No, I'm good, man." I just separated myself away from the bullshit. You know what I mean? And it was really from around street niggas. I just started surrounding myself around good people. Feel what I'm saying? Niggas that didn't operate off of egos. You ain't gotta worry about a motherfucker backdoing you. You ain't gotta worry about a motherfucker counting your money. You ain't gotta worry about a motherfucker worrying about, well, you got that watch and I got this watch and...

• 11:24Gillie Da Kid?

  And then when you start doing that, then the energy changes. And then once the energy change, opportunity change. Because it was like, once I changed the aggressiveness and I changed the energy, it was like this cloud just left me, like, alright nigga, we was here long enough. We was waiting for you to smarten up, nigga. We was tired of raining on your motherfucking parade, man.

• 11:51Gillie Da Kid?

  Okay, you get it now, alright. And it was like the cloud left. It was like, I'm doing something right.

• 11:59Fred Taylor?

  Right. I love it.

• 12:02Gillie Da Kid?

  And the other pivot was when we pivoted a million dollars worth of game. God damn it.

• 12:09Gillie Da Kid?

  Hell of a pivot.

• 12:14Fred Taylor?

  Usually, we ask all of our guests the biggest pivot in their lives. So thirty-six years ago, you were eighteen then. Would you say, that particular moment when he wasn't home, would that be your biggest pivot?

• 12:29Speaker 06

  Nah, not at all. You know, that was, you know, a moment in time. And I think my biggest pivot was, I used to play football too.

• 12:41Fred Taylor?

  What position?

• 12:42Speaker 06

  Fullback and linebacker, outside linebacker. And I stopped playing that to hang out with Dr. Dre. You know, I quit the team. Well, it wasn't fun no more. Because I wasn't trying to...

• 12:58Speaker 06

  I wasn't thinking about I'm playing football to go to college. Right. To play in the pros. I was playing football because it was fun. I like to play football. The coaches was just way too serious, you know what I mean? They was just way too serious for me. They were so worried about their job. It wasn't fun, so I was on the fence. And then I got into the music. I met Dr. Dre. We just hit it off, you know, always running creative ideas by each other. And we was both serious about hip hop. And so I chose to quit the team in 11th grade and go hang with him. And that's my biggest pivot.

• 13:46Ryan Clark?

  You have to tell us what your biggest pivot in life has been. What's that one moment that you can always, that you can point to and say, this either changed me, this affected me, this moved me in a certain way?

• 13:58Speaker 07

  Oh, yeah, that's easy. Ah, there's two. Two pivots.

• 14:05Speaker 07

  I have sick basketball moves. I pivoted twice.

• 14:08Ryan Clark?

  Hawk said you taught him using Allen Iverson.

• 14:10Speaker 07

  I did. I did. I've always used basketball terms because I think people, the terms, like a crossover. You make someone crossover and they naturally get in a release pattern. I used drop step too. January 4th, 2016, when I stopped drinking.

• 14:30Speaker 07

  That has been monumental. Again, things were happening in life and I wanted to dictate the terms. And I recognized, I mean, shoot, I had alcohol every day. But I realized that I was not addressing problems and running from them and hurting my wife at the time, so I stopped.

• 14:59Speaker 07

  And then when I stopped doing that, that control.

• 15:03Speaker 08

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• 15:12Speaker 09

  My boss asked for results, so I opened my dashboard for the only positive sounding metric I had: impressions.

• 15:20Speaker 08

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• 15:34Speaker 10

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 15:44Speaker 11

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• 16:05Speaker 07

  Made me focus on doing my job and only my job. And that's when I started getting promoted. That's when it finally took off. And then October 2nd, 2020, when my daughter was born. So, we'd been married for five or six years, been together for a while. And we didn't think it was in the cards. We couldn't get pregnant. We did fertility testing on both sides. And then, push comes to shove, it's actually Kyle Shanahan's wife, Mandy Shanahan, was

• 16:48Speaker 07

  with my wife one day where I was at work. And she like keeled over and threw up from like menstruation pain. And Mandy was like, "What is wrong with you?" And she's like, "Oh, no, this just happens once in a while." And Mandy was like, "That is not right." They went to see the specialist. I was making enough money at the time. I was running game coordinator, so I could afford an exploratory surgery. Turns out she had endometriosis. Got that cleared out. Then the day before we left for the Super Bowl, San Fran against Kansas City.

• 17:26Speaker 07

  Like, wasn't even thinking, like, had gone through the whole thing. And it was a big deal to me because, you know, I wanted to be a dad. I had a lot of bone to pick in my life about to rectify that. And it wasn't in the cards. And all of a sudden randomly, "Oh, she's pregnant." "What?" And I tell you what, like, everything that people say about fatherhood and being a parent, like, yeah, I get it. And it doesn't even do it justice. I mean, it's been the most fulfilling, cool, daily thing. It doesn't even do it justice. It is everything. Everything to me. That girl,

• 18:11Speaker 07

  new words, her moods, the things that she... I mean, they say some crazy stuff. So innocent. I just hadn't been around it. I didn't have any siblings. These little kids are so happy with just what it is. And like, how do we lose that in our journey? Like, we shouldn't. But we should gain that back when we witness that because it's just like the beauty of, like, a human being with no scars. When their world,

• 18:55Speaker 07

  it's okay for it just to be mom and dad. They don't need it to be bigger. All of the insecurities and all of the things that come as we grow. It's just pure. And it's so, so beautiful. I'm gonna be a psychopath. First of all, my wallet already has a hole in it. Second of all, these dudes that are trying to date her in her teenage years, man, you better believe I'm gonna have the most goony of goons on our football team. Show them a wife beater and flex on somebody.

• 19:43Ryan Clark?

  We're coming up on a year, though, where Robert Hoobler passed. It was last July. And he essentially saved your life. And, you know, you've told the story before. And the relationship that you continue to keep with him. When you, but when you think back to that day, what was it, was it like 94?

• 20:05Lil Wayne?

  Yeah.

• 20:06Ryan Clark?

  When you, when you think back to that day and what he, what he did for you, man, I would just love for you to get an opportunity on this platform to just, to just give him some praise, man, for not waiting on ambulance.

• 20:19Lil Wayne?

  And first of all.

• 20:20Ryan Clark?

  Picking up a young cat, man.

• 20:22Lil Wayne?

  What, and man, first, he was off duty. He was off duty. And so you say, yeah, he admitted, like, I was being nosy. You know, he was like, I was off duty, but, you know, it came through my, you know, it came through his radio or dispatch or whatever. And he heard it was the spot, you know, that's his, he felt like, man, that's my spot. You know what I mean? Like, I, I know everybody in that kind of damn complex.

• 20:42Ryan Clark?

  Uncle Bob.

• 20:43Lil Wayne?

  Yeah, so he was like, who the hell, he was like, who the hell done got shot over there? So that's why you say, that's why he even came over there. And when he got up there, I'm laying down, he was like, I see you laying down at the door. And I was like, I'm expecting to see four, five more bodies. Because why they like, why they ain't picking you up? And that's when, you know, that New Orleans, you know, you gotta be, that New Orleans came out and right there at the door, like, what the fuck? He woke me up. See, if I was conking out, he woke my ass up. He woke me all the way up. I was always messing with him though. Because he got a bad, I think he had one bad leg or whatever thing, one of his legs was fucked. I was always like, Uncle Bob, you be talking that shit. You just couldn't, you just couldn't crawl. You couldn't jump over my head. Why you stop right there? Yeah, I can't go no fucking more. Where, where, where, Bobby?

• 21:28Lil Wayne?

  He got me, picked me up. He did, he said after, he told me something I never knew. I never knew, he said, nah, he said, we sent an ambulance, whatever. Yeah, I never knew that. He said the ambulance would do that. He said they had, he said they got this dumbass. Now that we all know the, you know, general, we all know the rule. But he's like, they got the three, the three tries. Whatever he said, they had to go through their three tries. It was done.

• 21:49Ryan Clark?

  Really?

• 21:50Lil Wayne?

  On God. I never knew that. I had to, I had to, that was, I met, that was me sitting down, talking to him to find that out.

• 21:56Ryan Clark?

  And so, and so he scooped you after that?

• 21:59Lil Wayne?

  Yeah, cuz he was like, he saw that I was, you know, I guess, I don't know if I had my eyes open or whatever, if I was reacting, but I was clearly awake. I could hear him talking and shit. And so he must have, you know, like, what you mean? He ain't dead. You know what I mean? So he brought me straight to the bus, through the, through the emergency room, through the waiting room. I had everybody in the waiting room at my, at my, at my hospital room after, you know, after they passed me. I'm just like, turn people on, or just like a line. It was coming up, babe, we just wanted to see if you made it.

• 22:27Ryan Clark?

  That's New Orleans, though, right?

• 22:28Lil Wayne?

  You already know. Come through that with you like that in his hands. I ain't think you would. I'm just glad you, you know, glad you made it, babe.

• 22:42Ryan Clark?

  Mina Khan, and this is your last question. What is your biggest pivot? What moment in your life do you remember, whether it was an adverse moment, whether it was some, a success that made you feel a certain way, but the moment where you said, okay, I have to take this and grow from it, and this will allow me to be better going forward?

• 23:03Speaker 13

  You know, it was kind of when I realized that I could be myself on television. I thought I had to be polished. I'm thinking about women on TV are polished. I'm not polished, Ryan, you know that. And, you know, I was like, I don't really look like everyone on TV and I've seen, and I'm doing a job that women don't do or whatever. And so I gotta really like, you know, make sure it's like, pretty like polished and buttoned up, and I don't fuck up like we've been talking about. And I don't laugh my weird ass laugh, and I don't make dumb jokes. And at a certain point, I just got tired of trying to be...

• 23:44Speaker 13

  What I thought a woman on TV was supposed to be and I just started being myself. The same, you know, the person you talk to offline is, I don't think it's that different from-

• 23:55Ryan Clark?

  I cuss less.

• 23:56Speaker 13

  Okay, I guess I cuss less. But other than that, it's pretty the same.

• 23:59Ryan Clark?

  Yes, exactly.

• 24:00Speaker 13

  Once I realized that is really when stuff started to take off a little bit for me, honestly. Because I think people just kind of want you to be yourself.

• 24:13Ryan Clark?

  Your grandfather, who passed last year, and sorry, you know-

• 24:16Speaker 14

  I appreciate that. He lived a good life. He was a good man.

• 24:19Ryan Clark?

  Yeah, you know Coach, you know John McVay, he's an executive with the 49ers, part of those those five championships. And you mentioned just how much he meant to you. How much you learned from him. But also, I love the awareness of like, nah, like I could get in different rooms because of who my grandfather is. When you think about his legacy, how proud are you to continue that?

• 24:41Speaker 14

  You know, I don't take that responsibility lightly, you know, and I think the one thing that's consistent is just the way that he was through it all. Because before, you know, he won five, he was a part of all five championships for the Niners. But he also was a coach, you know, so he was a high school coach, college coach. He was actually the coach of the Giants when they had the miracle at the Meadowlands, you know. And that ended up leading to him transitioning into personnel and different things like that. But man, he was just steady. He was consistent. And I think like when you always knew what to expect of like somebody, you know, you're like, you can really appreciate that. Like I think consistency is the truest measurement of performance and this guy was as consistent as it gets. And he was just a good man. He respected people, you know, and he treated

• 25:24Speaker 14

  people the same. It wasn't like, alright, I'm gonna treat Bill Walsh great, but not necessarily these interns. Like, the stories that I get from people that now are, you know, in positions in the NFL, that they had experiences with him when they were younger guys coming up, it's all the same. The way he treated me, the way that he moved, you know, he made situations better. He was a problem solver, didn't make things worse. You know, just a great man, you know, and I think that's something that, you know, you can really appreciate. And he was always figuring out how to make others better. And so self-deprecating and also just, you know, self-deflecting, where didn't ever really want the credit. Um, but he was a really, it was cool. Even going to his funeral, Eddie

• 26:06Speaker 14

  DeBarlo came and we just had it as a family situation. And, you know, Eddie comes and and just the, the stories and the way that people consistently talk about him. And, you know, you can't fake that kind of stuff. And so that is where you're saying, man, like, let's make sure we honor those that set the legacy the right way. And, you know, we always talk about, you know, Eddie, how do you spell your last name? M C V A Y or M C V E Y? He says, you know, we spell it A Y. Let's always make sure we're doing the things that the A Y, the pop did, man. And that's John McVay Senior. And, uh, what a good man he was.

• 26:46Fred Taylor?

  I know I tried to rap a few times. And we usually ask everyone, what's their biggest pivot in life?

• 26:52Speaker 15

  My biggest pivot? Like, I'm at my best when I was at my worst. Like, I think I was at my worst because we didn't win the national championship. Like now, like-

• 27:03Fred Taylor?

  Kind of like a reset?

• 27:04Speaker 15

  It is. It is. Especially when people don't think, you know, that we're gonna be where we, where we were. So, that's it.

• 27:13Ryan Clark?

  I heard something. I saw something-

• 27:15Speaker 15

  The way you break football down, you make me think I know what I'm talking about.

• 27:22Speaker 00

  Emmy nominated, though.

• 27:23Speaker 15

  There you go. Congratulations. Like, you break it down. Now, I couldn't repeat it, but I understand it when you're saying it.

• 27:29Ryan Clark?

  Thank you.

• 27:34Fred Taylor?

  Gotta ask your biggest pivot to this point in your life. What's been your biggest pivot? My biggest pivot?

• 27:40Speaker 08

  Blowing ad budget on metrics that look great till the CFO sees them? That's bull spend. And marketers are calling it out. In. Dashboard. Confessions.

• 27:50Speaker 09

  I remember telling my boss, "It'll be good for the brand," when leads were slow. Yeah, it, it wasn't.

• 27:58Speaker 08

  Cut the bull spend. LinkedIn lets you target by company, job title, and more. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/campaign. Terms and conditions apply.

• 28:11Speaker 11

  Every game day, you show up for your team. Now, it's your time.

• 28:22Speaker 11

  Ask your prescriber about Wegovy. Semaglutide injection, 2.4 milligrams a GLP-1. Call 1-8334-WEGOVIE or visit wegovie.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about Wegovy. Why wait?

• 28:46Speaker 16

  I gotta say, finding who I am in Christ.

• 28:52Speaker 16

  I definitely probably have to say the growth that I've made in therapy. And I know you said two, but a third, I think the support that I have in my life. Because I don't think without the three, any of those three I am, or you see who you are, who you see today. From my girlfriend, to my parents, to my homeboys, you can't tell them nothing. They think I'm the baddest dude walking the planet.

• 29:19Ryan Clark?

  That matters though.

• 29:20Speaker 16

  It matters. My dad, you couldn't tell him nothing growing up. To have a father who was there, and sometimes I didn't necessarily believe.

• 29:30Speaker 16

  He believed I was gonna be here, no matter what. He thought I was the baddest dude on the planet. From my mother, and my village, the prayer warriors that I have in my life, praying over me, supporting me. The love of my girlfriend, who's gonna be there to be that soft spot for me, who doesn't see me as this bigger life figure. I could just be myself. My homies, I think that's truly what's been the pivot for me. And I'm excited to see how those all grow.

• 30:02Ryan Clark?

  To go through what you went through, not as just a coach, but as a person, and to come through that adversity to be at this point, is a story of perseverance, but also will and effort. Just take us back to that time in your life.

• 30:16Speaker 17

  Yeah, it was a tough start. Like, I like that we started there, because the reality is, that's when my life changed, right? That was when you're out of work. You can't get a job, you can't get an interview, you're trying to figure out who you are as a person and you start chopping away and you find out who is close to you and who's supporting you and you lean into those people and you lean into the people that have good intentions for you and you just start trying to find your way. And in 2015, as I came out of that and had gotten fired at USC, gone to recovery, started working on me personally and then coming out of that, not being able to get a job, somewhere in there, somebody's gotten extending all the branch to you.

• 30:59Speaker 17

  And in 2016, I was ready to go do TV. I couldn't get an interview for a job and Nick Saban saved my career and he offered me an analyst job and I was willing to do it for free, but he said, "I gotta pay you $30,000 so you can get benefits." And I said, "Okay, I'll do that." I'm forever indebted to him because at that time, you know, somebody in life has gotta give all of us a second chance, right? And it totally changed my perspective. It changed my perspective on how I coach, how I deal with our players, because everybody's going through stuff, right? Everybody's got stuff, whatever your stuff is, you just try to get through it.

• 31:43Speaker 17

  And if I can be that guy that can extend that olive branch to our players as we go through this journey, I always lean back to that time because here's the greatest coach of all time in our era, right? And for whatever reason, he saw something in me to give me a chance, to give me a shot. From there, he actually makes me the offensive coordinator for the national championship game against Clemson and I was an analyst, I wasn't even a coach. I call that game, it was amazing game, Jalen Hurts scrambles and scores, Deshaun Watson goes down, wins the game. Coming out of that game, Dan Quinn offers me the offensive coordinator job at the Atlanta Falcons and I'm thinking... Kyle Shanahan just goes to the 49ers. I'm going to go to the Atlanta Falcons. And I go do it for two years.

• 32:28Speaker 17

  For whatever reason, that didn't work, you know? And I was like, okay. I figured it out and I realized again, I'm a pretty good coach. I was going to stay in the NFL. That was the plan. And I'd actually verbally accepted a job to be an offensive coordinator of the NFL. And guess who called me again? Nick Saban called again.

• 32:45Speaker 18

  When Nick calls, man, whether you're a player or a coach, it's tough to say no.

• 32:48Speaker 17

  I called the woman in my life at that time, who now is my wife, Lorie L. And I said, she didn't want me to leave Alabama the first time. And I said, why did you not want me to leave? And she reminded me that he gave me that chance and that I owed him. I went back and I went back for that very reason. Like I had unfinished business with this man that we didn't accomplish what we set out to do. And two years later, we go win a national championship, an amazing run. I had turned down some jobs along the way and Texas called. And it was like, okay, this is the one. This is the one you're supposed to go take. Because you never know if you're going to get another one. So the one you get, you hope that it's one that you can go achieve greatness and win a championship

• 33:33Speaker 17

  and build your own legacy. And here we are, man. It's amazing. It's been an amazing ride.

• 33:44Fred Taylor?

  Travis, as we wrap right here, man, I wanted to ask you, was 2008 when you transitioned to tight end, your freshman year at UC, was that your biggest period in life?

• 33:54Speaker 18

  Yeah, the year that I got kicked out, when I came back, that's when they moved me. Yeah. Because I was still doing a little Wildcat QB stuff under Brian Kelly's offense. But when I made that transition to tight end and the focus that I had at that point in my life to try and do things the right way, and I really found that routine to find a way to get better, and I found a love to play tight end that I didn't really have at quarterback. There was a lot of nitpicky things that I was like, man. Shut up. Why are you worried about this one little foot and the angle that it's at? And like where I'm releasing the ball? Like it's still got there. You know what I mean? Like I was that quarterback. I was like, man, you guys are getting too nitpicky, man.

• 34:37Speaker 18

  Let's just go out there and ball. You know? And I realized that that's not the quarterback mentality that you need to have. But at tight end, when I started to figure out and nitpick my game at tight end, I had so much success because of the ability I had. And really being back in the pocket, understanding like, man, if this guy would have ran that route a little bit more this way, he would have been wide open. I would have been able to hit him. Having that feel, that transition point, that 1,000% was probably the biggest difference. So that year with 100% was probably the pivoting year for sure.

• 35:18Fred Taylor?

  In your journey to this day, what's been your greatest pivot in life? The point that I guess changed everything for you, that one moment?

• 35:28Speaker 19

  It's been a lot of moments, man. You know, I've been blessed and been lucky to really get out of a lot of situations that I don't know how I got out of. When I moved to Kansas City, my sophomore year in high school, and just seeing how my mom was crying because she didn't want me to go, I knew I had to make it worth it. You know, I knew like if I'm gonna leave my mom and Mexico, my sister's toy, my little brother Greg, if I'm gonna leave and do this three-year bid in Kansas City, like it's gotta be worth it. You know what I mean? And so I'll never forget the look on her face when she was crying. And it was more like a family decision. Like we all sit down like, if we want to take this next step, if we want to get them seen by colleges and have a chance to play, like we gotta make this move.

• 36:10Speaker 19

  And so seeing her cry the way she did and seeing how hard it was for me, I knew I had to make it worth it. And so that was my biggest pivot.

• 36:24Ryan Clark?

  In sacrificing things for Jackson State to elevate to where it was, part of that was your health.

• 36:31Deion Sanders?

  Yeah.

• 36:32Ryan Clark?

  When you see the fastest man I've ever seen with the football, fighting through these things, riding in carts, a noticeable limp, and you're still coaching your team, putting them in a situation to where you leave with a higher winning percentage than Eddie Robinson, the great Eddie Robinson. Where is your health now as you embark on this new journey? Because you've got to take care of yourself too.

• 36:55Deion Sanders?

  True. It's a challenge. It's a daily challenge. It's a new normal. It'll never be the same. My dream is to one day run. I want to run again because I used to love to run. I used to always say, "A mile a day, keep the fat away." And I used to try to run a mile a day. Now I'm into biking because I like, that's the only way I can get my cardio because I can't stand still or get on a treadmill or elliptical too long because I've got to go, I've got to move. But it's a new normal. It's not easy. When you understand that you was built for speeding, you was built for certain things and you can't do that no more, you have no idea how much that hurt. And see, you've got to, when I talk, I see things. I can see the scenes when I talk.

• 37:38Deion Sanders?

  That's the gift that God gave me. I can see everything when I'm talking. And to look back and to be in that hospital for a darn near month and couldn't move. And then when I got out, they had to carry me into the car, carry me in the house. They had to build ramps up my house and in the bathroom. I had to have rails on my bathroom. Somebody had to take me in the bathroom, bring me out of the bathroom, put me in the bed, get me out of the bed. Do you understand for a guy that was the pride of himself on being in shape and being dominant in every darn thing, for someone to carry you, man?

• 38:11Deion Sanders?

  Woo, help me, Lord.

• 38:16Deion Sanders?

  You have no idea, like mentally, what I went through that season. Then my son, Shallow came quite a bit, but Shador was there about every day. And I could see every game Shador ever played in his life, Shallow as well, but he went to South Carolina for a year. I coached him.

• 38:38Deion Sanders?

  I had never been away from him,

• 38:41Deion Sanders?

  coaching him, being on the sideline. So I'm watching the games and I'm seeing 74% completion percentage, 72, 70, 68. And he said, Dad, I need you.

• 38:58Deion Sanders?

  He said, Dad, I need you.

• 39:01Deion Sanders?

  I need you back. I said, OK, I'll be there. And I reconciled in my mind right there. I'm going to the game at Southern.

• 39:12Deion Sanders?

  And regardless how it looked, I'm in a big old wheelchair, man. You know, remote control. And it was about 40 degrees out there. And I probably had lost 30, 40 pounds. And that was tough. But he said he needed me. And any parent out there, if your child say, I need you, you're gonna break your neck to be there. Forget my health. I had to be there. And when you know it, we were down in the fourth quarter. And he marches down the field, threw the game-winning touchdown. And I look at the scoreboard and it had 21 up there. Then I look back. They're driving down.

• 39:56Deion Sanders?

  They throw a deep ball. Shallow picks it off. So it was 21, 2, and 21.

• 40:06Deion Sanders?

  I just said, Lord, I thank you because it was just something I had to see. I had to be there to witness that moment and that moment meant everything to me. That was a moment that forget Super Bowl, World Series, forget anything, that moment right there.

• 40:47Speaker 11

  Every game day you show up for your team. Now it's your time.

• 40:52Speaker 10

  We go V.

• 40:55Speaker 11

  We go V. Ask your prescriber about WeGoV. Some maglutide injection 2.4 milligrams a GLP-1. Call 1-833-4-WeGoV or visit WeGoV.com to view the medication guide and to learn more about WeGoV. Why wait?