Jan. 12, 2026

Second Act: Pressing Into Purpose and How to Navigate Changing Seasons

Second Act: Pressing Into Purpose and How to Navigate Changing Seasons

Send us a text We map the journey from porch rules and legacy expectations to a crash that rewrote the plan, then to a comeback that finished the old vision and opened a bigger calling. Faith reframes pressure as privilege, and mentorship becomes a lifelong vow to build others. • growing up third in a namesake line and guarded by a praying grandmother • crossing the tracks into private school and learning new literacies • leadership formed in the classroom before dominance on the field • nat...

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Send us a text

We map the journey from porch rules and legacy expectations to a crash that rewrote the plan, then to a comeback that finished the old vision and opened a bigger calling. Faith reframes pressure as privilege, and mentorship becomes a lifelong vow to build others.

• growing up third in a namesake line and guarded by a praying grandmother
• crossing the tracks into private school and learning new literacies
• leadership formed in the classroom before dominance on the field
• national recruiting and the weight of communal expectation
• the hydroplane crash, neck fusion, and God’s waiting room
• TDC method for transition: time, distance, covering
• fatherhood, coaching, and a purpose-built comeback at Boston College
• choosing family over fantasy during COVID-era setbacks
• recommitting to Christ and stepping into scholarship and teaching
• mentorship as a lifelong commitment, not a feel-good project

Please like, share, subscribe. We want you to be a part of the family. We want you to continue to learn more as we continue to unlearn. We want you to join us on this journey of unlearning.


00:00 - Setting The Second Act

02:50 - Childhood, Legacy, And Grandma’s Guardrails

08:05 - Crossing The Tracks To Private School

12:05 - Leadership, Growth Spurts, And Ambition

16:15 - National Recruiting And Weight Of Expectation

19:25 - Championship Highs And The Crash

23:20 - God’s Waiting Room And Recovery

27:30 - TDC: Time, Distance, Covering

31:10 - Fatherhood, Coaching, And The Comeback

34:10 - Awards, Closure, And Finishing What He Started

37:20 - Post-College Reality And Covid Detour

41:00 - Humility, Provision, And Returning To Faith

44:00 - Mentorship As A Lifelong Vow

46:10 - Connect With Richard And Closing

WEBVTT

00:00:03.359 --> 00:00:04.400
What's up, everybody?

00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:06.480
Welcome back to the Unlimited Podcast.

00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:14.800
This is the second act, the place where we reflect on where we've been so we can redefine our now to rewrite our next.

00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:23.839
This is your girl Jaquita, and I am joined today by my brother, my friend, my PhD comrade.

00:00:24.079 --> 00:00:28.079
Y'all, he has a story for you guys today.

00:00:28.239 --> 00:00:29.920
He is an amazing scholar.

00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:31.760
He's a mentor to many.

00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:33.280
He is a father.

00:00:33.439 --> 00:00:35.600
He is a he is a husband.

00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:40.240
He is a son, and he is just an all-around outstanding person to know.

00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:43.520
And I am excited and a motivational speaker in his own right.

00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:44.799
Okay, let me put it out there.

00:00:45.039 --> 00:00:48.799
He's gonna tell you about a lot of the other amazing things he does.

00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:54.159
I would like to introduce you guys to my brother, Richard Year in the thing.

00:00:55.200 --> 00:00:58.320
Hey, what's going on, everybody?

00:00:59.280 --> 00:00:59.920
Hey!

00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:01.679
You already know.

00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:04.480
Oh man.

00:01:05.040 --> 00:01:05.760
God is good.

00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:08.319
They're about to get some vibes today, bro.

00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:08.879
Okay.

00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:10.640
They're about to get some vibes.

00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:45.439
Listen, you guys, when I was thinking about um this podcast or this segment of the Unlearned uh podcast, the second act, um, I really wanted to bring people on who have stories that really capture um hidden struggles, things that people may not see or know, but that give stories of triumph and victory, and that can really help people through times of uncertainty and times where they feel like, man, I really thought that the first act of my life was setting me up one way, but then I got to the intermission, right?

00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:56.560
I got something happened that threw me off course, and I need to figure out how to redirect myself back to what God always intended for my life.

00:01:56.799 --> 00:02:13.759
And you guys, Rich has almost if I could have written the story for my by myself for what an amazing second act looked like, I would have absolutely adopted his narrative because what God has done in his life is nothing more than tremendous.

00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:16.159
And you see what's behind my brother, okay?

00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:17.680
He already set the stage.

00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:20.240
We got Jyra in the back, okay.

00:02:20.560 --> 00:02:29.840
God, our provider, okay, and Rich, I'm so excited for people to hear more about who you are and what God has done in your life.

00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:38.159
I mean, following that act and that introduction, I don't know how I'm gonna live up to the expectations that you've placed on my life.

00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:44.800
But I tell you this, with his help and putting me behind the cross, and may I decrease so that he can increase.

00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:46.240
I tell you this.

00:02:46.560 --> 00:02:50.159
Um and I appreciate uh everything.

00:02:50.240 --> 00:02:52.560
Uh I appreciate you inviting me into this space.

00:02:52.639 --> 00:02:54.479
I appreciate your heart.

00:02:54.560 --> 00:03:04.879
I appreciate the relationship that we've cultivated behind the scenes over the past three years as brother and sister in Christ, as as colleagues.

00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:15.759
Um in so many different capacities, we have exercised the liberty in Christ to be who he's called us to be together, right?

00:03:16.000 --> 00:03:17.120
Over the past three years.

00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:27.039
And so I I just want to say to you, um, this space that you've created, I bless it in Jesus' name and that it'll continue to grow.

00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:31.439
Um, because I'm I'm humbled and honored uh that you invited me into this space.

00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:32.639
So thank you, first and foremost.

00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:33.919
Appreciate that, bro.

00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:35.280
I appreciate that, bro.

00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:39.199
I want you I want you to help us set the scene, right?

00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:44.000
When we think about when uh when we go to a play, or even when we might watch a movie, right?

00:03:44.159 --> 00:03:47.360
It's literally broken up into these different acts, right?

00:03:47.520 --> 00:04:03.120
And you have the first act where you're introduced to a character, you learn a little bit about their story, you learn about some of their pitfalls, some of their strengths, some of their weaknesses, but you really start to uh build a hope around who that character is going to become.

00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:06.800
Can you tell me a little bit about the beginning of your story?

00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:20.079
And feel free to start it anywhere that you like, about what was your first act, what was the story being written that kind of started to build the character that we were learning in the beginning of your narrative?

00:04:20.480 --> 00:04:26.240
Yeah, I mean, so October 14th, 1996, uh, you know, I was born to Janice and Richard.

00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:32.959
Yeah, I was born to Richard and Janice Jurgen in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

00:04:33.199 --> 00:04:36.079
Um, and my father being Richard Jurgen Sr.

00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:44.399
And you know, having had my older brother, him and I 11 and a half years apart, you know, that was a whole narrative within itself.

00:04:44.560 --> 00:04:52.800
Like my dad's name's Richard, my older brother's name is Richard, and now I'm the third like incarnation of Richard, right?

00:04:52.959 --> 00:04:56.560
Within the same household, but a whole different generation, right?

00:04:56.639 --> 00:05:05.519
Oh because my brother and I being 11 and a half years apart, my parents being 40 years of age when they had me, right?

00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:08.800
That was a challenge in within itself, right?

00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:13.439
And so my entire life has been on accelerated mode.

00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:34.399
So I started school actually a year earlier than most, and I was put in um like a really gifted like learner type situation early on in my life that helped speed up my development and my growth because where I went to school, they taught a grade or two ahead, and they gave you more than you can handle.

00:05:34.639 --> 00:05:45.920
Um, and it was a very strict curriculum, and I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, my father's mother, Margaret Jurgen.

00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:55.199
And you know, my grandmother, you know, she just like any praying grandma, she knew how to get through to the Lord.

00:05:55.439 --> 00:06:01.519
Um, and I think early on in my life, what helped set the stage was losing her.

00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:13.600
Um, at such a young pivotal age for me in the third grade, shifted the whole narrative for me because that safety net of what I'm describing to you that I grew up in was altered.

00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:15.120
It was disrupted, right?

00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:18.399
With the death of my grandmother or the sudden death thereof of my grandmother.

00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:23.680
I had spent from 96 all the way to the third grade almost every other day.

00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:28.000
When I get out of school, my routine was I go to grandma's house.

00:06:28.160 --> 00:06:29.439
I'm in the kitchen with grandma.

00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:31.199
My uncle lives in the back.

00:06:31.360 --> 00:06:33.759
My grandfather had passed when I was two years old.

00:06:33.839 --> 00:06:35.199
So I got an old school grandma.

00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:37.040
She's from Simpsonville, South Carolina, right here.

00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:40.879
Yeah, so she's old school.

00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:42.720
Yeah, yeah.

00:06:42.800 --> 00:06:49.279
They migrated down in like the 60s when work was good because my grandfather, he's a tradesman with his hands by by nature.

00:06:49.360 --> 00:06:50.959
He's a he's a he's a craftman.

00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:55.120
So he moved, they moved down there and shifted our family down there for more opportunity.

00:06:56.160 --> 00:07:00.879
So and so I was kind of like my grandmother's little guy.

00:07:00.959 --> 00:07:01.600
You know what I mean?

00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:03.279
Like out of all of her grandkids.

00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:09.279
I mean, I got a lot of cousins, a lot of, you know, my grandmother birthed four boys, and my father is the youngest.

00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:11.600
And so she got a lot of grandkids.

00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:16.959
And so I was sort of like her baby, the one that she really, her arm baby.

00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:21.199
Like everybody else gets a certain amount of food, but my food put off to the side.

00:07:21.680 --> 00:07:23.759
Now you you were that cousin.

00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:25.279
You was that cousin.

00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:27.759
Your plate already in the refrigerator.

00:07:27.920 --> 00:07:29.279
So you the one I don't like.

00:07:29.439 --> 00:07:29.759
I'm good.

00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:31.040
I stole your plate.

00:07:31.120 --> 00:07:32.160
I'm gonna tell you that right now.

00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:33.120
I'm good.

00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:36.720
I got the I got the remote to all the TVs, I got the universal remote.

00:07:36.800 --> 00:07:37.120
Oh no.

00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:40.000
I got access to the one that played all the channels.

00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:44.240
Like, so I she's giving me all the access to the refrigerator.

00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:46.240
Everybody else gotta ask for permission.

00:07:46.399 --> 00:07:47.439
I always had you taste.

00:07:49.279 --> 00:07:52.319
First taste, I'm always tasting the banana pudding off top.

00:07:52.720 --> 00:07:53.439
Like off top.

00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:55.279
Soon as I get home from school.

00:07:55.519 --> 00:07:56.720
As soon as I get home from school.

00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:00.079
See, nah, you the you the banana pudding grandchild.

00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:02.160
I know nobody likes you now.

00:08:03.040 --> 00:08:03.920
Ain't you no way?

00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:10.720
I really, I really want to hone in, Rich, on this idea of living legacy, right?

00:08:10.959 --> 00:08:17.040
Because you have your father, Richard, you have your older brother Richard, and you have you the third, right?

00:08:17.120 --> 00:08:32.799
And a lot of times when you have like a senior, a junior, and a third, when you talk about those being different generations, they are literally like grandfather, father, son, but kind of all being kind of in not in the same space because you grew up with your grandmother.

00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:38.720
How did that impact your understanding of who you were meant to be?

00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:42.799
Like, did you see the other riches and say I'm supposed to be like them?

00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:46.559
Or were you trying to find your own identity?

00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:52.080
Well, I always knew I wanted to be a businessman, and I always knew I wanted to be somewhat of a hustler.

00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:53.679
I I knew the game, right?

00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:57.120
At a very young age, you got a job, but you got another job.

00:08:57.279 --> 00:08:57.919
You know what I mean?

00:08:58.000 --> 00:08:58.799
Whatever that may look like.

00:08:59.120 --> 00:09:00.080
I don't know what that might look like.

00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:01.440
You got this on the top.

00:09:01.600 --> 00:09:02.159
Yeah, right, right.

00:09:02.320 --> 00:09:02.720
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:04.159
You know what I'm saying?

00:09:04.320 --> 00:09:07.679
And so I always seen my dad go to work, right?

00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:11.120
My father worked for the county um in housing and finance.

00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:16.159
HBCU grad graduated from South Carolina State secretly, don't tell nobody.

00:09:16.320 --> 00:09:17.759
He was the bad guy.

00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:26.159
And and right, and and so my life has been like predestined, right?

00:09:26.240 --> 00:09:34.320
Like my dad played football, played sports growing up, but he didn't have that support system like I had in terms of the early age development.

00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:38.159
My grandfather, I told you, he worked on roofs and with his hands.

00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:48.320
He ain't got time, like he's old school, he ain't got time to back in them days be talking about taking him to football, practice, and that man is out there working and fighting for his life every day.

00:09:48.480 --> 00:09:50.799
So my dad was fighting for his life.

00:09:50.879 --> 00:09:52.879
Like he was a first generation college student.

00:09:53.120 --> 00:09:53.919
You know what I'm saying?

00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:55.759
So he's trying to figure it out.

00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.600
So now I know it's incumbent upon me to go to college, right?

00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:05.440
Like my brother goes to South Carolina State, pledges Q, plays football for Buddy Pew.

00:10:05.759 --> 00:10:07.120
I mean, he's living the life.

00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:12.240
He marries a Delta, he yeah, he's living his greatest life, you know what I'm saying?

00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:14.639
Like, so I grew up seeing, right?

00:10:14.799 --> 00:10:18.639
And being a young boy, like, oh, I know I'm going to South Carolina State, like, you know, wherever.

00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:19.679
I'm going somewhere.

00:10:19.759 --> 00:10:20.320
I don't know.

00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:22.639
I'm just for whatever, right?

00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:23.679
At that point in time.

00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:30.720
And that's so interesting, though, that like that all of y'all were like football players, right?

00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:34.080
When did football enter into your life?

00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:36.559
Or was it just kind of always there?

00:10:37.360 --> 00:10:44.480
It was always kind of there, uh, naturally, because my older brother, like I said, um, set the stage for that for me, right?

00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:51.919
Because I would grow up going to his high school games, I would grow up um traveling to his college games.

00:10:52.080 --> 00:10:53.600
Check this out, by train.

00:10:53.759 --> 00:10:56.399
Because you got to think, I'm growing up in Fort Lauderdale.

00:10:56.559 --> 00:10:57.039
Yeah, right.

00:10:57.360 --> 00:10:58.559
He's in SC State.

00:10:58.799 --> 00:11:00.320
He's at South Carolina State.

00:11:00.399 --> 00:11:02.320
We're 11 and a half years apart.

00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:06.240
I'm maybe like second, third grade, he's in college, right?

00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:10.000
My dad's raising and my mom, right?

00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:20.240
But they also got to take care of him, even though he's, you know, so my mom wasn't able to always make a lot of what was going on in terms of like games, because my mom does hair by nature.

00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:23.919
So, you know, if you're a hairstylist, you you won't call you gotta be available.

00:11:24.080 --> 00:11:26.960
Friday night at Friday night.

00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:30.480
I mean, you know, they need them perms.

00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:31.679
Let's call it what it is.

00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:33.200
You know what I'm saying?

00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:36.639
And so my mom, the hustler, right?

00:11:36.720 --> 00:11:44.159
Like the second act, my mom sells clothes, she, you know, got her own boutique, got her on this, that, Mary K, you know.

00:11:44.320 --> 00:11:49.440
So my mom, my dad's the businessman, loan officer, dealing with houses.

00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:51.279
My mom, she's getting it.

00:11:51.440 --> 00:11:52.320
Bom, bum, bum.

00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:54.080
So that's the that's the operation, right?

00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:57.039
That I'm saying that's the environment you're growing up in.

00:11:57.279 --> 00:11:57.519
Right.

00:11:57.840 --> 00:11:59.360
Every everybody's getting to it.

00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:00.480
Everybody's getting to it.

00:12:00.559 --> 00:12:02.399
Nobody's sitting around with idle hands.

00:12:02.480 --> 00:12:03.279
You know what I'm saying?

00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:05.919
Like everybody's moving, everybody's got something to do.

00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:11.039
And so my dad and I would travel up to see my brother at least like two or three times a year.

00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:16.559
Um make every game because I was playing little league football now at this time, right?

00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:20.639
So now I'm being introduced, but my brother is light years ahead of me.

00:12:20.720 --> 00:12:26.879
He's in college, but you know, on his journey on the back end of it, I'm on the very front end of mind.

00:12:27.200 --> 00:12:28.000
You see what I'm saying?

00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:32.480
So I'm growing up, going and seeing, like, oh, I know I'm gonna play in college.

00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:34.159
My brother's playing in college, right?

00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:38.159
Seeing the fullness of the process at a young starting age.

00:12:38.399 --> 00:12:42.480
And so I'm hungry because I gotta get on a train, right?

00:12:42.559 --> 00:12:45.519
Like, we ain't got it like that to get on no plane.

00:12:45.679 --> 00:12:49.679
Sometimes that life in the second act, yeah, you know.

00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:57.200
So for me, I I understand, I see it, I know how all this works at a very young age.

00:12:57.519 --> 00:12:59.600
Father's battle with cancer, you know.

00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:16.399
Like I said, we just lost my grandmother, his mom, he was dealing with loose properties, it's 08, the recession's about to hit, you know, so it's it's a lot of things that are happening around us while we're trying to move forward that birthed a football player.

00:13:16.960 --> 00:13:28.320
If that kid that was an innocent, like church going kid, that you know, grandma, like raise him up in the church, don't go outside past the porch because you know them little thugs be down there on the corner.

00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:28.559
Uh-huh.

00:13:28.720 --> 00:13:30.480
You know, and I'm I don't need you going down there.

00:13:30.720 --> 00:13:31.120
Yeah.

00:13:31.360 --> 00:13:34.639
You stay in the yard and you look from a distance over there.

00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:37.919
No, a lot of us had that stay in the yard uh rules.

00:13:38.159 --> 00:13:38.480
Yeah.

00:13:38.879 --> 00:13:39.200
Yeah, yeah.

00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:40.240
Don't go too far.

00:13:40.320 --> 00:13:41.360
Don't go too far now.

00:13:42.559 --> 00:13:43.519
Stay where I can see you.

00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:45.360
Water that grass right there.

00:13:45.440 --> 00:13:48.559
Don't move past that part right there.

00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:50.080
Don't go down that apartments.

00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:51.759
The apartments on the other side, though.

00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:52.960
What you say?

00:13:53.360 --> 00:13:54.159
Don't go over that too.

00:13:54.399 --> 00:13:54.720
What you say?

00:13:54.960 --> 00:14:00.240
Because it was a place literally two blocks from my grandmother called the Gov, the government apartments.

00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:00.960
That's what it is.

00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:10.000
I mean, you know, they hang their clothes on the clothesline outside, and you know, but you know, they pool is the community pool, and you know, you know, you know how all the rest of that go.

00:14:12.320 --> 00:14:15.519
My grandmother was like, Look, you're a porch kid.

00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:16.399
You know what I'm saying?

00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:18.080
I don't want you out there.

00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:25.440
But when grandma gone and you off the porch and you playing football now with your homeboys and everybody you play.

00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:27.200
Yeah.

00:14:27.519 --> 00:14:29.039
It's a whole different vibe.

00:14:29.200 --> 00:14:31.679
Now, now, now Jurg is on the scene.

00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:35.279
Lil' Lil Jurg is hilarious.

00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:37.759
But you know, I think it's so funny to me.

00:14:38.000 --> 00:14:49.759
One, I loved what you said when you talked about how you were going to see your brother, and it was like Richard, little Richard looking at older Richard and seeing yourself in the future.

00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:57.039
And so even though, you know, you were little Richard at the time playing little league football, and you were a porch kid, right?

00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:03.759
You had a vision of my older brother, you know, football player in a fraternity at a HBCU.

00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:11.360
He's that guy, you know, and like, and so like you're building this vision of of who you're going to become.

00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:21.440
Um and and uh when I look back on my own life, right, I I didn't necessarily have kind of the vision or or kind of that example, you know.

00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:23.759
Unfortunately, I am not a Dekuita the third.

00:15:24.080 --> 00:15:25.840
Um, there was no Draquita Jr.

00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:27.360
or no Jaquita Sr.

00:15:27.600 --> 00:15:31.600
Uh, but you know, and and I was, you know, really first generation.

00:15:31.759 --> 00:15:43.360
So I didn't really know what I was building to, but like you, I had the safeguards around me to say, you don't do what the other kids do because there's a vision ahead of you.

00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:47.200
And maybe what your grandma saw was what was ahead of you.

00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:52.080
We gotta protect you here so that we can protect what's ahead of you.

00:15:52.240 --> 00:16:00.639
Um, and I I I love that you say that, you know, that you were a porch kid until until Yuri came on the scene.

00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:02.480
So Yuri came on the scene.

00:16:03.919 --> 00:16:10.240
And I started looking around and saying, oh, they hotboxing in Jack and Cars over there.

00:16:10.559 --> 00:16:13.120
Oh, they they stealing.

00:16:13.360 --> 00:16:15.440
Oh, they, you know, you in it now.

00:16:15.519 --> 00:16:16.240
You in the world.

00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:18.960
You supposed to see all that.

00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:21.360
Man, you weren't supposed to go off that porch now.

00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:24.399
We told you, we told you not to go off that porch.

00:16:25.120 --> 00:16:31.200
But it's how many times, you know, even of course, as young people, we gonna test the boundaries, right?

00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:32.879
We gonna we're gonna go off the porch.

00:16:32.960 --> 00:16:35.440
We wanna see what's that what's happening at the apartment.

00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:36.799
We wanna see what's over there.

00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:42.320
But the the thing is, is that even in some of our adult years, right?

00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:54.879
There are things that we got God has placed safeguards around us to protect the identity that we're growing into, to the vision that He's taking us to, to the dream, to the second act.

00:16:55.039 --> 00:17:01.679
You know, your grandma was literally protecting your second act while you were in the first act.

00:17:01.840 --> 00:17:12.880
She was preparing you, saying, Hey, listen, you can't go because where you where you're going, I gotta protect you here on this side of it, so that you'll have what you need when you're going.

00:17:13.359 --> 00:17:16.160
But we all like to go off that porch, man.

00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:24.240
We we all like to go and see what everybody else is doing when a path for you to be different, for you to be set apart had already been laid.

00:17:24.559 --> 00:17:26.480
But I ain't I ain't judging you, my brother.

00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:29.920
Okay, because listen, we all got off that path a time or two.

00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:47.039
So, so talk to me about how your identity, because football player and a college football player specifically, was kind of the vision that was set before you as a as a young child and where you saw yourself kind of building to, right?

00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:51.759
To college, to football, to I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I know I had to get there.

00:17:52.480 --> 00:17:54.319
Talk to me about high school, right?

00:17:54.400 --> 00:18:01.440
Because I'm sensing that that might be, that might be when the porch, when we got up off the porch, right?

00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:10.559
So, so and and high school is also, I was not a student athlete, although I kind of was because I was in the band, and I don't care what y'all say, marching band was a sport.

00:18:10.640 --> 00:18:14.079
We've already had this argument on the podcast before, right?

00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:22.319
But I I I imagine as an athlete that becomes such a part of your identity, right?

00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:32.160
How did that how did you kind of navigate that during those years where you were deciding who you were gonna be as a young man?

00:18:33.440 --> 00:18:35.039
I appreciate that question.

00:18:35.279 --> 00:18:39.680
Um It started with church.

00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:42.400
Um started as a junior deacon.

00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:52.240
You know, getting on that right path after middle school had some rocky moments and some times, you know, where I was really trying to figure it out.

00:18:52.400 --> 00:18:55.519
Like it was either gonna be or not be with life.

00:18:55.759 --> 00:19:09.279
Um and God led me to greener pastures, and what I mean by that is a kid being from the inner city of Fort Lauderdale and being sent across the trip, the railroad tracks is a big deal.

00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:17.680
So I was accepted into a private school environment where my parents did not have to pay much of pretty much anything.

00:19:17.839 --> 00:19:19.680
Tuition there is reductive, yeah.

00:19:20.319 --> 00:19:27.759
Tuition there is about maybe$12,000 to$18,000 a year, just to be like completely blunt and transparent.

00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:35.759
Yeah, I had to take an entrance exam because my middle school years were not good as far as attendance, behavior, and coursework, right?

00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:38.319
The ABCs did not match, right?

00:19:38.640 --> 00:19:45.759
The entrance exam scores that I that I presented when I went to take the entrance exam to get into this uh this school.

00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:52.880
And so my dad knew he was like, you know, in order for you to really make it, you gotta leave being around what's familiar to you, right?

00:19:53.200 --> 00:19:53.839
Wow.

00:19:54.480 --> 00:20:07.599
So I I think the the hardest thing was when my parents dropped me off into an environment where You know, for the very first time, and I say this candidly, I was around people that didn't look like me for the first time.

00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:08.079
Yeah.

00:20:08.319 --> 00:20:28.960
And so that energy that I lead with, talking greasy and talking like from the street or talking raw, like that language to hear a young Caucasian man, um you know, that father, that grandfather, excuse me, owns a golf course on that side of town, right?

00:20:29.119 --> 00:20:29.359
Wow.

00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:30.240
Near the beach.

00:20:30.799 --> 00:20:30.960
Yeah.

00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:34.000
Say to me, I don't understand anything you're saying today.

00:20:34.720 --> 00:20:36.160
Slow down when you speak.

00:20:36.720 --> 00:20:44.240
That was what changed life for me, and I had to learn how to decompartmentalize everybody.

00:20:44.319 --> 00:20:45.119
Don't come from that.

00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:46.000
You know what I'm saying?

00:20:46.079 --> 00:20:50.400
Like sometimes slow down and like deal with people where they are.

00:20:50.640 --> 00:21:01.039
Because I'm coming to an environment that's not necessarily built for me, but God's already gone ahead, made the provision to be here, right?

00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:07.279
He's cleaned my record for me to dwell amongst people that are of the affluent.

00:21:07.519 --> 00:21:08.319
You know what I'm saying?

00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:15.039
Like, yeah, I'm going to school with the mayor's son, the judge's son, these influential people in Fort Lauderdale.

00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:21.039
Now, Fort Lauderdale, again, a lot happened over the course of time in Fort Lauderdale.

00:21:21.359 --> 00:21:26.400
And one of the things that happened was the inner city is where all the talent comes from.

00:21:26.640 --> 00:21:29.359
If we want to be very blunt, I'm just telling you.

00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:33.119
The talent did not come from the suburbs.

00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:34.559
It came from the inner city.

00:21:34.720 --> 00:21:39.200
So they called, we answered, and we came running because I said there's opportunity.

00:21:39.359 --> 00:21:41.759
I'm going to meet opportunity with passion.

00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:42.160
Right?

00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:50.880
I'm going to show these people everything I got because, first of all, my parents, they worked their entire lives.

00:21:51.039 --> 00:21:59.839
Like I said, starting me off at a program when I was really young with strict curriculum where I knew competitively I can compete with them in the classroom.

00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:11.519
Like I was, I was, I was playing down to my level of the competition around me once I realized like they're not that much smarter than me.

00:22:11.759 --> 00:22:11.920
Yeah.

00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:14.160
And I became a 4.5 student.

00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:16.480
I became an AP honor roll student.

00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:18.400
I'm just talking about the student right now.

00:22:18.559 --> 00:22:18.880
Yeah.

00:22:19.039 --> 00:22:19.440
Right.

00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:24.319
And that was through seeking out um help, right?

00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:29.519
So I learned one of the biggest things I had to do was admit I don't know everything, right?

00:22:29.599 --> 00:22:31.440
And I need to ask for help.

00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:35.680
I mean, you got world-class teachers teaching you every day with crazy backgrounds.

00:22:35.920 --> 00:22:38.799
I mean, you got some of the best faculty, some of the best exposure.

00:22:38.960 --> 00:22:54.000
So the environment in and itself, right, like started to challenge me to think like, I'm joining student government in ninth grade, running for class prep in an environment where it wasn't too many people that would try something like that.

00:22:54.160 --> 00:22:56.880
They was looking around, like, hey, what's going on?

00:22:57.119 --> 00:22:57.839
And I was here.

00:22:57.920 --> 00:23:00.880
I was like, hey, I'll sign up, I'll run against you.

00:23:01.359 --> 00:23:04.000
And it right there, it was like, whoa.

00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:06.640
You know, I realized I said, you know what?

00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:10.720
It's gonna be easy to take over on the field if I could take over in the classroom.

00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:11.680
Whoa.

00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:20.640
Let me tell you something, because I think, you know, I I've been watching, I like to watch athletic shows.

00:23:20.720 --> 00:23:23.359
I was not an athlete except for marching band, which is a sport.

00:23:23.839 --> 00:23:30.160
But I wasn't an athlete, but for some reason I love watching shows about athletes.

00:23:30.400 --> 00:23:34.480
And so recently I just watched a show on Apple TV called Swagger.

00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:35.599
Have you seen Swagger?

00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:37.519
It's so good.

00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:38.720
It's so good.

00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:39.759
Go check it out.

00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:48.480
But you know, it's a it's a young, it's a young basketball player who's getting it from the inner city and watching the journey of people.

00:23:48.960 --> 00:24:04.240
It's so one, when you have such a gift, when you have a type of gift that people can uh can kind of rally behind and get behind, such as being like a really good athlete, right?

00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:11.279
People will get behind, you know, a young inner city kid that's athletic, that's gonna be getting it, right?

00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:15.920
But what you're telling me is is that you were not one-dimensional, right?

00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:26.400
And that you had many gifts, and that God, and I love the way that you said that when you were younger, those gifts were already starting to be on display, right?

00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:31.039
You were already starting to be in gifted and talented programs, you were already skipped a grade.

00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:44.319
So when you got into this new atmosphere, you may not have been able at first to talk like you belong, but you had everything in you that you needed to succeed on that level, right?

00:24:44.559 --> 00:24:53.039
And if we were to look at you as a one-dimensional being, we'd be like, oh yeah, his whole journey was to go play football because he's Richard Yeergin, right?

00:24:53.119 --> 00:24:54.400
He he's another Richard.

00:24:54.480 --> 00:25:01.839
So he's gonna be another football player, he's gonna go to another HBCU, he's gonna do it just like his father and his brother did it.

00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:09.920
But God, even though you did have that, right, you have your legacy, but you have your identity as well, right?

00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:19.519
And so we're all carrying, we're carrying what was given to us from our parents, from our families, from our situations.

00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:26.079
But then there's this part of our life that God leaves for us to define for ourselves, right?

00:25:26.160 --> 00:25:33.440
And you got an opportunity that nobody else in your family got to have a different launching pad, right?

00:25:33.519 --> 00:25:46.079
You got to go across the tracks, you got to go to this rich school with these affluent people and have a different start because everything that was in you needed the opportunity to thrive.

00:25:46.319 --> 00:25:47.039
There you go.

00:25:47.279 --> 00:26:05.440
And so I love I love that that you were in this uh, and I love that because you know, listen, we we get in these we get in these type of situations where somebody tells us, I don't understand what you're saying, and immediately the black woman in me was like, excuse me, what you mean?

00:26:05.599 --> 00:26:08.000
You don't understand what I'm saying, right?

00:26:08.079 --> 00:26:09.680
Like something in you rises up.

00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:11.279
You wanna fight, you know, you get offended.

00:26:11.440 --> 00:26:13.039
Yeah, yeah, you mean what you mean?

00:26:13.440 --> 00:26:14.640
It's English, ain't it?

00:26:14.799 --> 00:26:15.039
Right.

00:26:15.119 --> 00:26:26.720
And there's there's no disregard of where you came from, but there's still the realization that in the space, I still need to be heard, I need to be understood.

00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:29.759
And I can't wait for them to get me, I need to get them.

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:35.279
I can't wait for everybody to learn how to understand me and to and to get on my level.

00:26:35.440 --> 00:26:41.039
I need I need to figure out what I need to do on the scene so that I can push and make moves.

00:26:41.359 --> 00:26:51.119
And I think sometimes we get into new situations in life and we walk into a new place that has a different set of standards that may be right or wrong.

00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:53.440
I'm not here to argue that, but it's different.

00:26:53.599 --> 00:26:59.519
And we get in those spaces and we say, you have to accept me as I am, and you gotta make space for me.

00:26:59.599 --> 00:27:03.440
And I'm not saying that they shouldn't, but what happens when they don't?

00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:14.960
I'm not saying that they shouldn't take the time to get to know you and get to know your language and get to know how you talk and be okay with who you are, but what are we gonna do when they don't?

00:27:15.279 --> 00:27:20.960
You still gotta do what you have to do to get in the room and to stay in the room.

00:27:21.279 --> 00:27:47.200
And sometimes we're gonna have to, as we're uh moving through talking about kind of our first act and some of the challenges that you were facing and some of the different elements of your story that were kind of building up to the next piece of your narrative, there is a space where you are gonna have to go through some things and you are gonna have to be the person to say, okay, I'm gonna figure out this landscape.

00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:53.359
Because once I get real, real good at this, I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna bring, I'm bringing more with me.

00:27:53.599 --> 00:27:59.359
Y'all couldn't understand me, but when I when I get the opportunity, I'm coming back and I'm coming back with more of us.

00:27:59.599 --> 00:28:04.559
But I I gotta make space while I'm at the table and I gotta get to the table.

00:28:04.799 --> 00:28:08.400
Um, and so I love how you navigated that as a young person.

00:28:08.640 --> 00:28:12.720
Because a lot of a lot of people would would not have handled it that way.

00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:14.400
Well, here's the thing.

00:28:14.640 --> 00:28:20.000
We think people are getting on to us when we don't conjugate our nouns and our verbs properly.

00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:26.640
When we when we don't take the time to express our fullness of our thought process, right?

00:28:26.720 --> 00:28:29.759
And we just talk it off the top of the head all the time, right?

00:28:29.839 --> 00:28:39.839
And what I learned in that environment is when you're around people who come from like money and stuff like that, they joke a little different, right?

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:48.480
It's a little bit like you when you're young, right, and you know my people, we always have money, you free.

00:28:48.720 --> 00:29:00.799
Like I saw some stuff in private school that I never would have saw even with us, and the stuff that they can get away with versus the stuff I couldn't get away with while I was there was different, right?

00:29:00.960 --> 00:29:11.599
Like, I mean, for example, if you're the mayor's son and you want to go egging the entire um A18 by the beach and hitting old people with eggs, you're not gonna get in trouble doing it.

00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:13.759
All they're gonna say to you is, hey man, cut that out.

00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:14.880
That's not cool, man.

00:29:15.119 --> 00:29:15.839
Call your dad.

00:29:16.079 --> 00:29:17.039
Stop that, buddy.

00:29:17.920 --> 00:29:18.559
Exactly.

00:29:18.640 --> 00:29:21.039
I'm gonna call your daddy, call him.

00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:30.000
But if I am doing it by myself with my friends from the other side and come to their side and do that, we're going to jail.

00:29:30.400 --> 00:29:31.440
Like we're going to jail.

00:29:31.599 --> 00:29:32.480
You see what I'm saying?

00:29:32.720 --> 00:29:42.880
So I learned that too, which was what empowered me even more on the field, was because I wasn't just a football player, but I learned how to be a leader first.

00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:47.440
So everything that I did was to help the team.

00:29:48.559 --> 00:29:49.599
I never put me first.

00:29:50.079 --> 00:29:50.400
Break it down.

00:29:50.799 --> 00:29:51.599
Break it down.

00:29:52.079 --> 00:29:55.359
So I was always willing to do the dirty work.

00:29:55.519 --> 00:29:58.960
So I initially started out as a safety in high school.

00:29:59.200 --> 00:30:03.759
My whole time, so from a position standpoint, a safety is the person furthest from the ball.

00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:07.519
And so for me, I was used to playing up on the ball.

00:30:07.839 --> 00:30:12.880
But what happened to me was when I first got to high school, I was underdeveloped.

00:30:13.039 --> 00:30:19.680
I was maybe about 5'10, 5'11, maybe 160 pounds soaking wet.

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:26.720
But out of nowhere in the middle of my ninth grade year, I had that growth spurt that you would have going into high school.

00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:27.119
Yeah.

00:30:27.279 --> 00:30:28.720
And going into 10th grade.

00:30:28.880 --> 00:30:34.799
Now all of a sudden, I'm 6'3, 200 pounds, and everybody looking around like, What do you come from?

00:30:35.519 --> 00:30:36.559
Where'd he come from?

00:30:36.720 --> 00:30:37.200
Whoa.

00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:43.359
And so the value that they projected when I was younger exceeded.

00:30:43.599 --> 00:30:48.960
And so now they were like, Whoa, he done got real smart, real big, and he's real aggressive now.

00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:53.440
So it like that kid that came in a year ago.

00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:56.160
Well, he's a he walk around like a man now.

00:30:56.240 --> 00:31:00.240
He done been lifting weights and he on the program, he's serious.

00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:03.200
And so now I'm asking questions.

00:31:03.279 --> 00:31:06.160
I'm sitting down with the head coach, what's your goals?

00:31:06.640 --> 00:31:09.440
How many games you plan on us winning next year?

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:11.599
Maybe one more than the last one.

00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:13.519
Okay, I'm I'm I'm leaving.

00:31:13.759 --> 00:31:17.200
This is where this is where I exit, because me and you, we're not talking the same language.

00:31:17.359 --> 00:31:21.599
So I appreciate the initial opportunity, but now this is business, right?

00:31:21.759 --> 00:31:33.519
And so I'm gonna take my talents to the next best program, which is Down the Street, which is another rival program, which is a private school that has a challenging curriculum and everything.

00:31:33.759 --> 00:31:38.400
And so now everything that I've learned there, I take to this next place.

00:31:38.559 --> 00:31:40.480
And this is where I become an all-American.

00:31:40.799 --> 00:31:44.240
University finds me, all this stuff starts to happen.

00:31:44.559 --> 00:31:46.799
My GPA is through the roof.

00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:50.079
I become a top five African-American scholar athlete in the country.

00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:53.359
All these things happen, and so now everybody in the country wants me.

00:31:53.440 --> 00:32:01.359
I'm choosing between University of Florida, Notre Dame, University of Texas, Clemson, and University of Michigan.

00:32:01.599 --> 00:32:15.039
And so I'm getting pulled in many different directions by all these politicians to sign with Notre Dame and do all this stuff, and they're gonna take care of my family, was one of the best decisions in my life.

00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:23.839
But it was also one of the hardest because let's be honest, in most black families, money can be the root of all evil.

00:32:24.000 --> 00:32:25.440
I'll just be honest with you.

00:32:25.680 --> 00:32:32.240
And what I started to learn was everybody could count the money faster than you can make it.

00:32:32.400 --> 00:32:38.640
And so when you're young and you have a lot of potential and people are thinking pro, I'm in high school.

00:32:38.720 --> 00:32:40.720
I'm not even ready for the pros yet.

00:32:40.880 --> 00:32:52.079
But when you're performing at that level, when everybody's looking at you, now you've become the center of attention, you're in the news every week, you're in the newspaper, everybody knows your business.

00:32:52.240 --> 00:33:01.039
I can't go out anywhere publicly with my girl at the time, or girl, or anybody without people and chatting.

00:33:01.119 --> 00:33:14.400
And so I started to understand that like be careful what you ask for in life, because when you get it and people know who you are, that comes with a certain level of, again, expectations that are placed on your life that maybe you didn't sign up for.

00:33:14.640 --> 00:33:23.519
But now you've worked and worked and worked from the background to have this life, live this life, be a top-ranked player, all these things, have schools wanting you.

00:33:23.680 --> 00:33:25.920
Now you got to make a sound decision.

00:33:26.240 --> 00:33:29.279
And you only make a decision one time, right?

00:33:29.440 --> 00:33:29.680
Wow.

00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:32.799
It's not like it is today where guys are transferring and doing different things.

00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:36.640
Like you make a decision, you gotta stand on that all ten toes firmly.

00:33:36.960 --> 00:33:41.359
And so, you know, for me, I knew it wasn't gonna be an HBCU no more.

00:33:41.519 --> 00:33:45.200
I knew that dream of playing for Buddy Pew fast, you know.

00:33:45.359 --> 00:33:52.240
Um and I knew that, you know, the reality was I was gonna be playing at a big time institution.

00:33:52.319 --> 00:33:53.839
And I was thankful for that.

00:33:54.000 --> 00:34:04.960
And um, you know, all of that hard work that I did off the field, it paid off not only in the academia, but the athletic side.

00:34:05.119 --> 00:34:11.039
Um, and it helped prepare me for my opportunity, you know, once I once I got the college.

00:34:12.079 --> 00:34:12.719
Wow.

00:34:13.039 --> 00:34:16.960
One, I all American, come on, you bro.

00:34:17.119 --> 00:34:18.800
So it's it's so funny to me.

00:34:18.880 --> 00:34:31.119
It's it's almost as if the Lord kept elevating your profile, you know, like you would you started off, you know, Lil' League football and you had the vision, right?

00:34:31.199 --> 00:34:36.639
Because again, you're Richard Euron III, and you had your dad who did this, and you had your brother who did this.

00:34:36.800 --> 00:34:45.840
But it's almost like the Lord kept giving you these like boosters, like, I'm gonna launch you forward here, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put you in a private school.

00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:49.920
I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you, you know, four, five more inches, you know.

00:34:50.079 --> 00:34:54.800
I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna put a little bit more dynamic power inside of you, right?

00:34:54.880 --> 00:35:08.800
It's almost like you kept getting these little, these boosts that kind of launched you forward um to the point where your story, I think, became more than like what you just said, it became more than what you expected it would.

00:35:09.039 --> 00:35:19.760
That first act was just you just kind of zooming forward, and you kept, and I'm sure that, you know, because again, I watch these little athletic shows and movies, okay, right?

00:35:19.920 --> 00:35:30.719
And just the the amount of pressure it that is on a talented young person who everybody has their hope built on.

00:35:30.960 --> 00:35:34.719
Right now, you succeeding is the family succeeding, right?

00:35:34.800 --> 00:35:38.000
You you going forth to the next level is all of us.

00:35:38.079 --> 00:35:45.519
This for all of us, this for the community, this for the neighborhood, this for the hurgens, this for the, you know, this is for everybody.

00:35:45.840 --> 00:35:55.119
And going and and being in kind of this first act of your life, and us literally seeing the weight of that pressure on you, right?

00:35:55.280 --> 00:35:58.400
Like we see the enormity of the gift, right?

00:35:58.559 --> 00:36:12.639
We see the enormity of the opportunity, but we also feel the extreme weight of the pressure that you were under as you were now about to become a college athlete in a really on a really, really visible platform, right?

00:36:12.880 --> 00:36:18.559
Um, and so you had some successful years though as a college athlete, right?

00:36:18.880 --> 00:36:19.920
You need some things.

00:36:20.320 --> 00:36:22.239
Some things happen for you, right?

00:36:22.320 --> 00:36:26.400
Yeah, talk to me about what it was like competing, you know.

00:36:26.559 --> 00:36:28.239
Now you're in a place, right?

00:36:28.400 --> 00:36:35.679
You you have now gotten to the place that little Richard was at when he was looking at older Richard, right?

00:36:35.760 --> 00:36:40.320
When he was traveling to see, you know, his brother's games with Richard Sr.

00:36:40.559 --> 00:36:40.800
Right.

00:36:40.880 --> 00:36:42.960
You're and now you're there, right?

00:36:43.119 --> 00:36:47.119
You're at the point where you have now exceeded everyone's expectations.

00:36:47.280 --> 00:36:50.960
You're on a high-profile team doing doing big things.

00:36:51.360 --> 00:36:51.679
Okay.

00:36:52.239 --> 00:36:56.960
Uh, talk to me about what that was like both on and off the field.

00:36:57.360 --> 00:37:03.840
Man, it was a lot, and I say this, you know, pressure is a privilege that most people don't prioritize.

00:37:04.079 --> 00:37:04.480
That's good.

00:37:05.119 --> 00:37:05.840
Oh, wait, what?

00:37:05.920 --> 00:37:07.840
Because that's a way I'm gonna go to it.

00:37:08.159 --> 00:37:08.960
Pressure is a privilege.

00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:12.880
Is a privilege that most people don't prioritize.

00:37:13.039 --> 00:37:13.519
That's good.

00:37:13.679 --> 00:37:16.239
So they never reach their promise.

00:37:17.599 --> 00:37:19.679
I should have known you was gonna come on here preaching.

00:37:19.760 --> 00:37:23.039
I don't even know why I thought you was just gonna get on here and talk about it.

00:37:23.199 --> 00:37:32.400
Pressure is a privilege that most people What I'm saying is everything you just talked about, it was a privilege to go through that.

00:37:32.480 --> 00:37:39.360
It was a privilege to see life in a way that most people would dream of.

00:37:39.679 --> 00:37:44.000
And it not had to be about money, but it was through education.

00:37:44.320 --> 00:37:52.960
And one of the things I kept showing me was the more you study, the more I'll show myself, I'll show you approved, right?

00:37:53.039 --> 00:38:00.159
So, like the more you spend time off the field trying to figure it out, I'll help you figure it out on the field.

00:38:00.480 --> 00:38:10.320
So my time at university, it was challenging because I experienced the very high of college football.

00:38:10.480 --> 00:38:18.559
You win a national championship, you're a year away from signing a contract that could change you and your family's life.

00:38:18.719 --> 00:38:19.039
Yeah.

00:38:19.360 --> 00:38:22.880
And you know, in the middle of that, you meet adversity.

00:38:23.039 --> 00:38:24.480
James 1, 2 through 4.

00:38:24.559 --> 00:38:34.480
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, when you face trials and tribulations of many kinds, because it will produce that testing of that faith is gonna produce perseverance.

00:38:34.559 --> 00:38:51.280
And on June 3rd, 2017, after all the parades and all the the great ride, and you know, we're about to get this degree and we're about to ride off into the sunset, most accidents happen when you're five miles away from the destination.

00:38:52.400 --> 00:38:59.119
Seriously, most accidents when you when you're real close to something, that's where that pressure turns up.

00:38:59.519 --> 00:39:04.559
And for me, the pressure was on my head, literally, 2,000 pounds of it.

00:39:04.960 --> 00:39:14.880
And to say life got flipped upside down and totally caught me by surprise would be an understatement because God never says, oops, or my bad, right?

00:39:15.119 --> 00:39:20.159
And so I'm never gonna shame the devil and not glorify God, right?

00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:23.280
Like what happened was a shifting of an assignment.

00:39:23.440 --> 00:39:25.360
What happened was a shifting of a calling.

00:39:25.440 --> 00:39:27.840
What happened was why me?

00:39:28.239 --> 00:39:29.760
No, no, why not me?

00:39:29.920 --> 00:39:50.800
And so what I had to realize was I was in God's waiting room as I sat, I woke up in the hospital after having overcome, you know, a terrible one person automobile accident where I hydroplane and I wake up screaming Jesus' name, right?

00:39:51.119 --> 00:40:10.480
Because I saw the white clouds of heaven for a split moment as I Remember flipping and I go, Oh, you know, and I'm looking and I'm waking up in the hospital and I'm talking to a doctor.

00:40:11.840 --> 00:40:12.480
Wow.

00:40:12.960 --> 00:40:20.079
And he's telling me you should be dead or paralyzed for life.

00:40:20.320 --> 00:40:21.360
And you're neither.

00:40:22.079 --> 00:40:22.800
Congratulations.

00:40:23.440 --> 00:40:24.400
You're neither.

00:40:25.599 --> 00:40:26.639
Congratulations.

00:40:26.800 --> 00:40:28.880
You're gonna walk again at some point.

00:40:29.039 --> 00:40:32.000
You're gonna play football, but it'll be a long time.

00:40:32.719 --> 00:40:37.119
You're gonna hate your life though for the next six months because you're gonna be on bed rest.

00:40:38.239 --> 00:40:41.119
And that was my verdict in guy's waiting room.

00:40:41.519 --> 00:40:43.840
And I said, And it was a head injury.

00:40:45.119 --> 00:40:47.360
It was a head injury and it was a neck.

00:40:48.559 --> 00:40:55.440
Essentially, from levels C5 through C6 or C5 through C7 are fused.

00:40:55.599 --> 00:41:02.960
So they went in through the front, got to the back, opened me up, and fused the three levels together, or the two levels together.

00:41:03.840 --> 00:41:04.719
So yeah.

00:41:05.039 --> 00:41:07.519
And on your head.

00:41:08.320 --> 00:41:10.880
First of all, you just dropped so many gems.

00:41:11.280 --> 00:41:15.039
All like and you you took me, you took us fast.

00:41:15.519 --> 00:41:20.639
But that most accidents happen five miles within your destination.

00:41:20.960 --> 00:41:21.440
Destination.

00:41:21.760 --> 00:41:22.000
Yeah.

00:41:22.159 --> 00:41:22.400
Yeah.

00:41:22.480 --> 00:41:24.159
When you're real close, that's when most accidents.

00:41:24.480 --> 00:41:31.280
When you're real close, when you're real close, guys, when you're real close, that's when something is coming for you.

00:41:31.360 --> 00:41:34.639
And it's coming to take off your head, right?

00:41:34.800 --> 00:41:35.920
And I'm so grateful.

00:41:36.079 --> 00:41:51.679
One, I'm grateful that the enemy didn't get any victory that day, because for you to have gone through that accident and to wake up and the doctor tell you that you are either supposed to be dead or paralyzed, but you're neither, right?

00:41:52.559 --> 00:42:00.079
I'm sure in that moment you might you felt both the blessing and again the pressure and the weight of that, right?

00:42:00.239 --> 00:42:03.199
Like there, there's a there's still a life, right?

00:42:03.360 --> 00:42:04.719
We had a whole vision.

00:42:04.880 --> 00:42:06.960
We we had contracts on the line.

00:42:07.039 --> 00:42:09.519
We were about to go to the next level, right?

00:42:09.679 --> 00:42:14.239
We had we had an idea of what the second act was gonna look like, right?

00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:17.599
All right, Lord, the first act already I fulfilled that.

00:42:17.679 --> 00:42:24.639
I made it to the college football team at a at a top-tier institution, won national championship.

00:42:24.800 --> 00:42:34.159
I'm out here and I'm about to go, I'm about to go to the level that I know God wanted me to go to next, which is to sign contracts to continue to play professionally.

00:42:34.400 --> 00:42:49.599
But what uh Rich, I think it's so interesting to me because we talked earlier about how when I look through your life journey, I see where God sent these boosts where you were just launching forward and launching forward and launching forward.

00:42:49.920 --> 00:42:56.320
And the accident to anybody else would have looked like a setback, but it actually was another boost.

00:42:57.360 --> 00:43:00.159
It was it looked like a setback, but it was actually a setup.

00:43:00.400 --> 00:43:02.880
See, I love having, I love having y'all.

00:43:02.960 --> 00:43:03.840
Let me tell y'all something.

00:43:04.000 --> 00:43:07.360
One of the first days I met Richard, we were in class together.

00:43:07.440 --> 00:43:13.039
And this man, you know, everybody else pulling out their laptop, their notebooks, we getting ready to take notes.

00:43:13.199 --> 00:43:16.559
I look at Richard's desk, I'm like, is that a Bible and a prayer show?

00:43:17.519 --> 00:43:22.239
He took out his Bible and his prayer show and had it on the desk.

00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:25.840
And I said, I said, he had the word on me.

00:43:26.000 --> 00:43:28.400
He said, Oh yeah, I'm always keeping that thing on me.

00:43:28.639 --> 00:43:31.440
And ever since then, I said, This is about to be my brother.

00:43:32.159 --> 00:43:41.199
Anybody who pop out with a Bible and a prayer show to to our uh what class probably our quality method is.

00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:43.039
The quality search.

00:43:43.199 --> 00:43:44.159
Yeah, the call research.

00:43:44.320 --> 00:43:46.159
I was like, okay, I see you.

00:43:46.559 --> 00:43:47.760
I see you, yeah.

00:43:48.480 --> 00:43:49.519
With this guy right here.

00:43:49.679 --> 00:43:55.679
Um but any anybody else would have saw a setback.

00:43:55.920 --> 00:43:59.360
Anybody else would have said he lost everything.

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:02.800
He lost everything, right?

00:44:02.960 --> 00:44:07.119
And I love the other thing that you uh said that I will be stealing.

00:44:07.280 --> 00:44:10.239
Um, you said that you were in God's waiting room.

00:44:10.719 --> 00:44:11.760
Intermission, baby.

00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:13.920
That's what an intermission is.

00:44:14.239 --> 00:44:21.519
You get to a point where in the first act, we had the we had the vision, we had the playbook, if you will, right?

00:44:21.599 --> 00:44:27.280
We knew, all right, I'm gonna go to this level, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna rock it out in the classroom, I'm gonna rock it out on the field.

00:44:27.360 --> 00:44:31.840
You know, I'm gonna enjoy my four years so I can get to the next level of this thing.

00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:36.320
You had the playbook, but then God pulled you into an intermission.

00:44:36.800 --> 00:44:43.039
He pulled you into a waiting room and said, hold on, because you're about to make your life into something.

00:44:43.280 --> 00:45:03.599
And and a lot of people would maybe sit and talk about what you missed out on, but you don't know who you miss becoming that would not that would have changed not just the trajectory of what you did for your family, but it might have introduced you to some things that you would not have been able to turn away from.

00:45:05.119 --> 00:45:09.280
Because you are the guy that's supposed to stay on the porch.

00:45:09.599 --> 00:45:13.039
See, that that you gotta stay on the porch.

00:45:13.360 --> 00:45:14.239
That's deep.

00:45:14.400 --> 00:45:15.360
That's that's deep.

00:45:15.760 --> 00:45:16.320
That's deep.

00:45:16.480 --> 00:45:16.800
Yeah.

00:45:16.960 --> 00:45:17.440
That's deep.

00:45:17.679 --> 00:45:32.400
And and and all through your life, and you know, I'm sure you could tell us all the notes about, you know, the times you went off the porch, about the times you did some things that seemed like they were completely contradictory to who God was calling you to be, right?

00:45:32.719 --> 00:45:41.519
I know you have those stories, but everywhere you look, God still had his hand of protection and he had his hedge around you.

00:45:41.679 --> 00:45:46.079
That even in those times where you went out of the yard, right?

00:45:46.239 --> 00:45:56.880
Um, but you had you had um you had this grandmother who set a who set a pattern for your life that the enemy could not break.

00:45:57.199 --> 00:46:00.800
She set the pattern that this is a porch kid.

00:46:01.039 --> 00:46:05.760
This is a kid that's gonna stay close to the house because of what's inside of him.

00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:08.880
He can only be exposed to so much.

00:46:09.440 --> 00:46:19.519
He can only get involved in so much because the call on his life is greater than the call that maybe he had seen, than the legacy that he had adopted.

00:46:19.679 --> 00:46:27.760
There's something else to him, there's something more to him, and you had to grab other pieces of your identity to get to it.

00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:32.639
So you're in a hospital, the enemy tried to take off your head, completely fail.

00:46:33.119 --> 00:46:33.679
Right?

00:46:34.159 --> 00:46:38.960
Well, how are you processing that moment honestly?

00:46:39.119 --> 00:46:55.519
I was so confused because again, I was just talking about all my plans and graduation and moving forward and my legacy beyond university that I wasn't focused on the moment, right?

00:46:55.760 --> 00:47:01.280
Because I couldn't grasp all of that was kind of in question, right?

00:47:01.360 --> 00:47:05.679
And so my mindset is I'm so used to acceleration going forward.

00:47:05.920 --> 00:47:09.599
My position is to take on a blocker head first, right?

00:47:09.679 --> 00:47:13.440
Like everything is a head first mentality for me, right?

00:47:14.159 --> 00:47:18.000
And for once, I had to let God lead head first.

00:47:18.960 --> 00:47:32.159
It wasn't about me being physical, it was about me getting mentally stronger to be able to sustain for when I'm now 30 years old, trying to pursue a PhD and raise a family and be sane, right?

00:47:32.480 --> 00:47:33.199
My Lord.

00:47:33.920 --> 00:47:44.960
Just be honest, because a lot of folks that go on to play professionally in sports, when they retire, they don't transition well financially, yeah, faith-wise.

00:47:45.119 --> 00:47:53.199
A lot of things take root in their life, and I had a chance to experience that early without all the money, without all of the things, right?

00:47:53.280 --> 00:47:59.760
And so God really had me in a place of submission where I had to come to him for every little thing.

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.079
God, can I get up and can I go to the bathroom without feeling pain?

00:48:04.800 --> 00:48:12.880
God, can I get in the car and turn my head and eventually be able to drive without you know what I'm saying?

00:48:12.960 --> 00:48:14.159
I had to depend on him.

00:48:15.119 --> 00:48:18.880
My wife now, girlfriend, then need a shower.

00:48:19.199 --> 00:48:21.440
Can you help me do that?

00:48:21.599 --> 00:48:22.559
You know what I'm saying?

00:48:22.639 --> 00:48:40.320
Like pick me up out the bed, a big 6'4, 270-pound man out of his bed to get in the shower, to get his day going, so that I can go to treatment and you know, so life in and itself, I'm so used to go, go, go.

00:48:40.880 --> 00:48:43.360
It was whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, big fella.

00:48:43.599 --> 00:48:44.159
You know what I mean?

00:48:44.719 --> 00:48:49.360
I like that's hard to slow me down and tell me sit still.

00:48:49.519 --> 00:48:53.440
And so you can see my brother is doing this interview standing up, right?

00:48:53.599 --> 00:48:56.719
Yeah, like that's how much he don't like being still.

00:48:56.960 --> 00:49:00.480
Okay, he was like, I might have to do some demonstrations, I don't know what I'm having to do.

00:49:04.079 --> 00:49:14.239
But I was confined to the bed, and that's the hardest place to be while hallucinating, right?

00:49:14.400 --> 00:49:17.119
About what should have been, right?

00:49:17.599 --> 00:49:24.239
And then writing about where you are and where you want to go and not knowing how you're gonna get there.

00:49:25.280 --> 00:49:25.920
Wow.

00:49:27.360 --> 00:49:30.480
While you were in God's waiting room, right?

00:49:30.639 --> 00:49:39.679
There's there's still the vision, like you, and I think that's what is so important to understand about the intermission seasons of our life.

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:42.880
You have not lost the vision of what was.

00:49:43.599 --> 00:49:51.199
You can still clearly see what you were hoping and expecting for in a past season, right?

00:49:51.440 --> 00:49:54.880
And you don't yet see what's ahead.

00:49:55.119 --> 00:49:56.719
You don't can't see it.

00:49:57.360 --> 00:50:02.880
You can't see it, but I'm wondering, Rich, how do you how do you transition?

00:50:03.039 --> 00:50:14.480
How do you make the turn to say, okay, I have grieved what I lost and I'm now ready to endeavor into what God has for me now?

00:50:14.880 --> 00:50:16.800
So how do you make that turn?

00:50:17.920 --> 00:50:23.280
Three-step process that I used, and it's not TLC, but it's TDC.

00:50:23.920 --> 00:50:29.920
And uh TDC, time, uh, distance and covering.

00:50:30.159 --> 00:50:44.559
Um, you know, it's one thing to give your life to the Lord when you're a young man, you know, after my grandmother passed in the third grade, I you know we all Lord, the spirit hit you.

00:50:45.920 --> 00:50:55.280
Yeah, you see everybody getting communion, and then what happens to you is you want to you don't want to be like not like the rest of the other Sunday school kids and not like know Jesus, you know what I mean?

00:50:55.360 --> 00:51:02.159
Because when they call on you and ask you who knows them, then they tell you to recite the 23rd Psalm and you don't know it and you feel bad.

00:51:02.239 --> 00:51:06.000
And so you start you start feeling convicted early, which is a good thing.

00:51:06.320 --> 00:51:14.079
But then that teaching and what keeps you and sustains you over the course of time is having a real relationship with Christ, right?

00:51:14.239 --> 00:51:17.679
And that's where that piece kicked in for the first time.

00:51:17.840 --> 00:51:22.400
I wasn't giving God my plans and saying, Here go my plans, approve them.

00:51:22.559 --> 00:51:26.800
I was finally saying, Hey, like, I actually work for you.

00:51:26.880 --> 00:51:28.000
You don't work for me.

00:51:28.159 --> 00:51:37.840
Because the thing was, I got so transactional with God, like, okay, I do this, I do that, then you give me this, you give me that, and for this time, you didn't give me this, so I didn't get that.

00:51:38.000 --> 00:51:43.599
And so then I started having conversations with him, like, hey yo, my man, like you left me.

00:51:43.760 --> 00:51:47.599
He's like, No, no, no, I didn't leave you, I told you to wait.

00:51:49.039 --> 00:51:53.840
And it and it's I felt that in my, I felt that in my uh Sean, nah nah.

00:51:53.920 --> 00:51:55.360
I've I told you to wait.

00:51:56.159 --> 00:51:56.960
I told you to wait.

00:51:57.119 --> 00:51:58.000
I told you to wait.

00:51:58.079 --> 00:52:01.760
I told you John 13, 7, I'm watching you right now.

00:52:02.480 --> 00:52:04.880
I just got done, I just got done watching you.

00:52:04.960 --> 00:52:05.599
Just chill.

00:52:05.760 --> 00:52:07.519
I'm trying to show you something.

00:52:07.840 --> 00:52:08.320
Wow.

00:52:08.559 --> 00:52:12.480
You don't understand it now, but you'll understand it later once I'm finished with you.

00:52:13.039 --> 00:52:20.320
And it's like it's like when when a man leaves you in that position, you don't understand what I'm doing now, but you'll understand later.

00:52:20.480 --> 00:52:21.599
It's like, what do you mean?

00:52:21.679 --> 00:52:23.360
Like, why what what's going on?

00:52:23.519 --> 00:52:24.400
Like, I'm confused.

00:52:24.559 --> 00:52:31.280
Like, I've been I've been running my whole life, and now you got me sitting up here getting a pedicure and a manicure in the waiting room.

00:52:31.360 --> 00:52:31.840
I don't do that.

00:52:31.920 --> 00:52:32.559
You know what I mean?

00:52:32.639 --> 00:52:34.159
Like, yeah, I ain't got time for that.

00:52:34.320 --> 00:52:38.719
Like, but God, like, no, no, no, you have time for what I tell you, you now have time for.

00:52:38.960 --> 00:52:39.440
That's it.

00:52:39.599 --> 00:52:40.639
Like, that there's no debate.

00:52:41.039 --> 00:52:44.000
Yeah, because the the vision, the vision of what was, right?

00:52:44.159 --> 00:52:53.840
Like, I'm sure that like the the opportunities that were presenting themselves before the incident, they're they're no longer there.

00:52:54.159 --> 00:52:57.519
I I'm sure people are sending regrets now, right?

00:52:58.000 --> 00:53:03.760
But but God is saying, sisil, son, Cecile, I got you.

00:53:03.840 --> 00:53:06.880
I'm what I I love the I'm washing you.

00:53:07.519 --> 00:53:07.679
Right?

00:53:07.840 --> 00:53:15.360
Because I I think what we don't give God the opportunity to do, which is exactly what you have to do.

00:53:15.519 --> 00:53:19.280
Oh, Lord, I'm sorry, I'm feeling I'm getting some answers from my own life right now.

00:53:19.360 --> 00:53:39.039
And if I just go off in a moment and just, you know, but but what we don't do in between the first act and the second act is we don't take that time in the intermission to allow God to wash us of that old vision, of that old understanding of ourselves, of that old hope.

00:53:39.360 --> 00:53:46.480
Because maybe what we had written for ourselves was not the plan that he had all along.

00:53:46.960 --> 00:53:51.039
And at the time, Rich, and Rich is still young, you know.

00:53:51.199 --> 00:53:57.920
I Rich is a whole, you don't get fooled, you know, he he done lived five million lives, okay.

00:53:58.159 --> 00:54:00.480
But Rich is Rich is a youngin', okay.

00:54:00.639 --> 00:54:02.400
He's one of my young friends.

00:54:02.719 --> 00:54:13.760
Um, but but you know, at the time, you know, we don't think about, you know, having to grieve that version of ourselves.

00:54:14.239 --> 00:54:18.400
But you absolutely you have to take a moment and let it go.

00:54:19.039 --> 00:54:20.480
And that's a process.

00:54:21.519 --> 00:54:25.039
And and that's what makes the intermission so significant.

00:54:27.760 --> 00:54:29.920
You know, it's the it's the washing.

00:54:30.960 --> 00:54:42.480
I think I think the thing is in the intermission when Jesus sat his disciples down and he did to them what they thought they should have been doing for him, that confused them.

00:54:43.119 --> 00:55:03.440
It's like he loved me before I loved him, and so he washed my feet when I was dirty and helped make me clean, but I didn't peep because I'm thinking it's just about the feet, but it's about the spirit behind the act of sacrificing the time for Christ to say, listen, I got a plan.

00:55:04.480 --> 00:55:08.159
It's not what you think, but I got a plan.

00:55:08.480 --> 00:55:16.480
And now at 30, right, or going on 30, I could see what I couldn't see at 20.

00:55:16.719 --> 00:55:19.039
Ten years ago, I was confused.

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:22.239
Ten years later, I have clarity.

00:55:22.960 --> 00:55:24.320
Wow, it's been 10 years.

00:55:24.559 --> 00:55:29.920
That's 10 years, that's a decade of battling with my identity.

00:55:30.159 --> 00:55:30.880
A decade.

00:55:31.039 --> 00:55:31.440
Wow.

00:55:32.239 --> 00:55:33.039
Of becoming.

00:55:33.199 --> 00:55:33.519
Wow.

00:55:33.760 --> 00:55:34.960
That's what we're talking about.

00:55:35.280 --> 00:55:36.960
Whole 10 years of becoming.

00:55:37.920 --> 00:55:39.360
Spent the whole 10 years.

00:55:39.840 --> 00:55:42.960
Rich, that is so stinking good.

00:55:43.599 --> 00:55:43.920
Okay.

00:55:44.719 --> 00:55:58.800
So we're in this intermission season, um, and you had this old vision that had these guardrails on it, where God had done so much, you know, and I think that's the other thing.

00:55:58.960 --> 00:56:08.079
Uh I I really want to encourage people because a lot of times when we look at the first act of our lives, the way you tell the story matters.

00:56:08.400 --> 00:56:08.800
Right?

00:56:08.960 --> 00:56:16.000
The way, the way you explain to people your beginning and your starting place, it matters, right?

00:56:16.159 --> 00:56:27.679
And so a lot of times we tell the starting place and and we tell it from a state of, you know, yeah, here's what I, you know, I almost was this and I almost was that.

00:56:28.000 --> 00:56:38.639
And and and I almost had this, and but you had so much, you know, your first act was so rich, and God, like I said, kept giving you these boosts.

00:56:38.800 --> 00:56:45.039
And and I go back to when you said the the that pressure was a privilege, right?

00:56:45.360 --> 00:56:56.960
Everything that you gained in that first act is gonna be so critical for where you are now as a person that reaches back to people who are now in their first act, right?

00:56:57.199 --> 00:57:20.639
And so I'm wondering as you are in that season, you know, because when we talk about washing, God is not washing away the lessons that you learned, he's not washing away um what he's built inside of you, he's washing all of the things that got added on top of his vision for your life so that he can get you back to his original intent.

00:57:20.800 --> 00:57:21.119
Yes.

00:57:21.360 --> 00:57:28.960
How did you, because you know, now you know, Rich is out here, we out here, we three years into a PhD program, you know what I'm saying?

00:57:29.119 --> 00:57:31.679
We about to be doctors in a year, okay?

00:57:32.000 --> 00:57:36.239
Catch us May 2027, me and my brother live at Little John.

00:57:36.559 --> 00:57:36.960
Little John.

00:57:37.199 --> 00:57:38.800
Live at little, let me tell you something.

00:57:38.960 --> 00:57:45.599
Live and in live and in full effect, baby, okay, because I'm so ready to be done with a PhD.

00:57:46.000 --> 00:57:52.000
Okay, all my PhD friends, if you if you in the struggle with us, man, send us send us some encouragement.

00:57:52.079 --> 00:57:54.159
Let's encourage each other in the Lord.

00:57:54.400 --> 00:58:04.079
Because when I tell you this last little step, got me, got I'm like, let's just do this, let's do this and get it done in Jesus' name.

00:58:04.320 --> 00:58:10.960
But talk to me about what I I'm I'm understanding your first act.

00:58:11.119 --> 00:58:16.320
I think I have a picture of your intermission and kind of and kind of how you felt during there.

00:58:16.400 --> 00:58:20.159
And if you'd like to talk more about the intermission season, more than happy to.

00:58:20.559 --> 00:58:20.880
Yeah.

00:58:21.119 --> 00:58:23.760
Um well, let's talk a little bit more about the intermission.

00:58:23.920 --> 00:58:28.400
What, what, what, how did we transition through that and out of it?

00:58:28.719 --> 00:58:30.719
So I became a father, right?

00:58:30.880 --> 00:58:38.800
You know, I think in b in the midst of all of that, the hardest thing you can do in college is become a parent out of wedlock.

00:58:39.199 --> 00:58:39.840
Yeah.

00:58:40.239 --> 00:58:44.639
And I think the challenge for me was I was in grad school.

00:58:44.800 --> 00:58:49.599
I was coaching at the time because I wasn't quite sure what my future was gonna look like.

00:58:50.239 --> 00:58:57.679
Coach extended grace for me to be able to be on staff as a student coach and still work on um getting my master's in AL.

00:58:57.840 --> 00:59:06.320
So what God was doing at the intermission, see, what God was doing at the intermission was preparing me to be a professor.

00:59:06.639 --> 00:59:06.960
Wow.

00:59:07.199 --> 00:59:08.079
I didn't see it then.

00:59:08.239 --> 00:59:09.119
You see what I'm saying?

00:59:09.199 --> 00:59:09.440
Yeah.

00:59:09.679 --> 00:59:22.480
Because I'm coaching, I'm a father now, I'm trying to figure out how do I get married, I'm trying to figure out school, and then all of a sudden I have this surgery, I recover, and now I'm playing again.

00:59:22.800 --> 00:59:28.480
And so I'm back, I'm at Boston College, and that's where the comeback comes into effect.

00:59:28.639 --> 00:59:33.199
So now I'm a grown man, I've applied for my sixth year of eligibility.

00:59:33.440 --> 00:59:49.039
That year of always being ahead pays off because during those two years away from football, right, after my sophomore season at university, I take two years to get my master's, build a family, work on me.

00:59:49.599 --> 00:59:53.760
And so when I step back on the field, I'm giving them hell, right?

00:59:53.920 --> 00:59:59.519
And coach supporting it because I handle my business here as a man at university and as a player.

01:00:00.000 --> 01:00:06.239
And so he intended that grace for me to play again and go somewhere else to do so because he's got to run a business.

01:00:06.400 --> 01:00:10.400
And so at the end of the day, I had an opportunity somewhere else.

01:00:10.719 --> 01:00:25.440
And I took that opportunity, became the second player in history at Boston College to win the Brian Piccolo Comeback Player Award, uh, given to ACC's most courageous player um for that physical year.

01:00:25.760 --> 01:00:34.960
And uh was awarded several other awards and featured on the Jim Rome show, featured on ESPN for the story and in itself, right?

01:00:35.119 --> 01:00:36.239
Which is all great.

01:00:36.480 --> 01:00:45.679
And I praise God for it because again, I tell you no lie, it was no money attached, it was all God's glory.

01:00:45.840 --> 01:00:48.239
Like this was all God getting glory.

01:00:48.400 --> 01:00:53.440
It wasn't about me getting paid because at the time college athletes weren't getting paid or anything like that.

01:00:53.519 --> 01:00:55.679
So I'm I'll contract.

01:00:55.920 --> 01:01:09.760
I'm doing all of this from the heart, off the muscle, off of who was birthed October 14th, 1996, at 3820 Northwest 27th Street, which is a two, now extended to a three-bedroom home, right?

01:01:09.920 --> 01:01:11.760
That I grew up in, right?

01:01:12.079 --> 01:01:22.719
So that kid, that kid said, I'm going to get myself together and I'm gonna go finish what Lil Yerk started.

01:01:23.280 --> 01:01:25.519
That's his football career, right?

01:01:26.000 --> 01:01:32.480
And so I did that to prove to my son Elijah now we finish what we start.

01:01:32.639 --> 01:01:35.679
Whatever we said we started, we're gonna finish it.

01:01:35.840 --> 01:01:36.639
However that may be.

01:01:57.920 --> 01:01:59.920
First of all, I ain't know that.

01:02:04.400 --> 01:02:05.519
I know that.

01:02:05.760 --> 01:02:06.639
That's amazing.

01:02:06.800 --> 01:02:10.719
Oh, so so you you finished the vision.

01:02:10.800 --> 01:02:16.079
That see, see, see, y'all gonna have me out here.

01:02:16.239 --> 01:02:19.519
Now don't don't worry about my next what my next summer is gonna be about.

01:02:19.599 --> 01:02:21.280
All right, you might be some notes.

01:02:21.599 --> 01:02:23.920
You might hear some of your notes in there.

01:02:24.159 --> 01:02:31.280
But I I love that I love that you went and finished finished the vision so that God could start the next one.

01:02:32.079 --> 01:02:34.239
And and because it was in you to do.

01:02:34.400 --> 01:02:40.239
That's why you had to close out that part of the legacy so that God could give you your own.

01:02:40.559 --> 01:02:41.679
Yes, yes.

01:02:41.920 --> 01:02:43.199
Let's see, let's see, let's see.

01:02:43.440 --> 01:02:45.360
All right, talk to me about second act, bro.

01:02:45.519 --> 01:02:47.199
Talk to me about second act, right?

01:02:47.360 --> 01:02:51.119
What happened after that, after that final year playing?

01:02:51.840 --> 01:02:52.480
Life.

01:02:52.800 --> 01:03:08.159
Um, and when I say life, I mean life, you know, when you move back home to Fort Lauderdale, 3820 Northwest 27th Street, to that three-bedroom home that you came out of with your family, you're gonna have some problems and you're not married.

01:03:08.239 --> 01:03:10.000
I'm just calling it what it is, right?

01:03:10.079 --> 01:03:18.079
Yeah, and so, you know, as I'm training for the NFL, the pressure, all these things have come back into my life now because I've invited it, right?

01:03:18.320 --> 01:03:18.639
Yeah.

01:03:18.880 --> 01:03:26.800
Um, you know, you sign in with an agent, you know, your agent's telling you one thing, you're training, doing all these things, and then COVID hits.

01:03:27.119 --> 01:03:36.320
So COVID presented an unusual situation because I was no longer able to go and visit with pro teams.

01:03:36.480 --> 01:03:49.280
So the pro teams that I had met with prior to COVID that said they would possibly bring me in or whatever after the draft, right, for a workout or what have you, were not able to bring in rookies.

01:03:49.440 --> 01:03:52.000
They were only bringing in proven veterans at the time.

01:03:52.159 --> 01:03:55.440
So a lot of rookies in my class didn't get signed.

01:03:55.599 --> 01:03:59.039
And so my agents was like, You want to go to the CFL?

01:03:59.280 --> 01:04:00.719
I'm like, dude, how much do they make?

01:04:00.880 --> 01:04:04.079
He was like, you know, 50, 60 grand in six months.

01:04:04.320 --> 01:04:09.280
I was like, I can go get a job in sales and make that, and I can go back to the hood and do something else.

01:04:09.360 --> 01:04:09.920
You know what I'm saying?

01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:10.960
I'm gonna go do that.

01:04:11.119 --> 01:04:21.599
Like, so I started really looking at life, like, you know, in order to continue to do this thing called football, I was gonna have to give up my family.

01:04:21.840 --> 01:04:27.599
I was gonna have to give up my faith and pursue something, not knowing what the outcome was gonna be.

01:04:27.840 --> 01:04:32.880
Or I can go ahead and deal with real life in the face, get me a job.

01:04:33.280 --> 01:04:39.679
Started coaching and teaching, taught sixth grade science back in my old high school where I was the man.

01:04:40.800 --> 01:04:42.480
And that was interesting.

01:04:42.559 --> 01:04:44.480
I coached high school football.

01:04:44.960 --> 01:04:46.480
We won a state championship.

01:04:46.559 --> 01:04:47.760
It was a humbling experience.

01:04:47.920 --> 01:04:50.880
I'm making$12,000 a year, soaking wet.

01:04:51.119 --> 01:04:51.519
Wow.

01:04:51.760 --> 01:05:04.800
I'm lucky working 40 to 80 hours a week, raising a family, living back in that three-bedroom with my parents, and trying to figure it out, you know.

01:05:05.119 --> 01:05:22.079
Um and so it's kind of like, you know, you go from this ride back down to reality, and that second act, you know, I've got my degree from university, I've got my second degree.

01:05:22.320 --> 01:05:28.960
I've started on a third degree at Boston College, which is another master's degree in healthcare administration, which I didn't finish.

01:05:29.119 --> 01:05:32.000
Um, because at the time I only spent a year at Boston.

01:05:32.079 --> 01:05:36.000
I didn't spend multiple years, I just went there for my last year of eligibility.

01:05:36.639 --> 01:05:44.719
Um and so for me, all this education, all these experiences, where's the money?

01:05:44.960 --> 01:05:47.039
I'm just gonna call it what it is.

01:05:47.119 --> 01:05:48.239
I'm like, God.

01:05:49.920 --> 01:05:52.400
You said you wouldn't leave your child begging for bread.

01:05:52.480 --> 01:05:54.320
Well, I'm over here in the unemployment line.

01:05:54.480 --> 01:05:55.119
I'm begging.

01:05:55.440 --> 01:06:04.880
I'm down here in Fort Lauderdale with these people that I grew up with, and I'm looking around like, what's going on?

01:06:05.360 --> 01:06:07.599
Like, I'm in the unemployment line.

01:06:07.840 --> 01:06:08.880
Like, for real.

01:06:09.199 --> 01:06:09.679
Yeah.

01:06:09.920 --> 01:06:16.800
I was just training for the NFL doing all this stuff, and now I'm in the unemployment line.

01:06:17.679 --> 01:06:18.320
Wow.

01:06:19.440 --> 01:06:20.079
Yeah.

01:06:20.559 --> 01:06:28.239
So I say all that to say, don't feel sorry for a man that has education, because you could be an educated fool.

01:06:28.480 --> 01:06:37.519
And so I knew that my foolish ways had to be cut out, you know, because at a certain point you got to put away childish things, right, as a man.

01:06:37.599 --> 01:06:37.840
Yeah.

01:06:38.000 --> 01:06:38.239
Right.

01:06:38.320 --> 01:06:40.960
And you gotta seek the full glory of God.

01:06:41.039 --> 01:06:44.239
And so I wasn't in that space at that time.

01:06:44.400 --> 01:06:47.760
I was still trying to find myself, right, as a man.

01:06:47.920 --> 01:06:52.559
And I made some very poor mistakes and choices with my words and with my actions.

01:06:52.719 --> 01:06:57.679
And that led to, you know, me having to rekindle and rebuild my family.

01:06:57.840 --> 01:07:03.119
Um you know, that as a man, you know, thinketh in his heart, so is he.

01:07:03.360 --> 01:07:05.760
And I saw myself as a little lion.

01:07:05.840 --> 01:07:08.960
I didn't see myself as as the big lion.

01:07:09.119 --> 01:07:11.199
I saw myself as Simba, right?

01:07:11.599 --> 01:07:17.119
And I was in the shadow of little rich around all the other richers now.

01:07:17.199 --> 01:07:18.400
Yeah, you see what I'm saying?

01:07:18.880 --> 01:07:22.559
So that big lion, yeah, I was back little yard.

01:07:22.719 --> 01:07:28.400
And what that does to a man is it puts him in a place of fight or flight, right?

01:07:28.480 --> 01:07:31.440
And so I knew my back was up against the wall.

01:07:31.519 --> 01:07:34.400
If I wanted to, you know, grow my family.

01:07:34.559 --> 01:07:35.599
I gotta grow my income.

01:07:35.760 --> 01:07:36.719
I gotta figure something out.

01:07:36.800 --> 01:07:40.639
I gotta figure, I gotta put together a plan because this is real life.

01:07:40.719 --> 01:07:47.519
This isn't football no more, where you know, you thinking you're gonna get this or they promising you that.

01:07:47.760 --> 01:07:50.480
Like, people want their money on time.

01:07:50.960 --> 01:07:52.960
Like, and it's pretty serious, right?

01:07:53.039 --> 01:08:00.400
And if you don't have enough money to pay a bill or the bills, you're gonna be stuck looking at Chuck, right?

01:08:00.480 --> 01:08:02.400
You're gonna be stuck like Chuck, right?

01:08:02.559 --> 01:08:10.320
And so I I know what it's like to be short, I know what it's like to man, just be hungry, right?

01:08:10.400 --> 01:08:12.559
And be looking for an opportunity, right?

01:08:12.719 --> 01:08:14.719
To serve or to do anything, right?

01:08:15.199 --> 01:08:29.199
And when you're in that space, sometimes you run across the wrong people that offer you some of the wrong opportunities, and you gotta know how to use your discernment, that kid from the porch or that kid off the porch, the kid from the porch or the kid off the porch.

01:08:29.279 --> 01:08:34.319
Well, I do I'm in the real world, like there's no excuses, it's over, right?

01:08:34.479 --> 01:08:42.800
Like the hardest thing is when your homies tell you, hey man, we're proud of the run you was on, you the guy, but you here with us now.

01:08:42.960 --> 01:08:43.920
What you finna do?

01:08:44.159 --> 01:08:50.880
And you gotta be like, man, I'm gonna go coach these kids, I'm gonna do something positive today, because if I don't, I'm gonna be on that.

01:08:51.039 --> 01:08:52.960
And I'm really not trying to be on that.

01:08:53.199 --> 01:08:54.479
You know what I'm saying?

01:08:55.600 --> 01:09:01.920
I'll say God had me in a place where I was I had to be humble and wait again.

01:09:02.239 --> 01:09:09.279
You know, after the ride, after everything was said and done, I was so thankful the day I got a call from university.

01:09:09.520 --> 01:09:14.800
Right after I had just gotten, I decided to get saved for real, for real, August of 2021.

01:09:15.439 --> 01:09:16.079
What?

01:09:16.560 --> 01:09:20.560
Yep, gave my life back to Christ and said, you know what?

01:09:20.800 --> 01:09:27.439
The missing piece of this puzzle and why things are not happening for me is because I haven't given it back over to him.

01:09:27.840 --> 01:09:32.479
And the moment I did that, I found myself back with my wife.

01:09:33.279 --> 01:09:37.039
I found myself in a nice starter home.

01:09:37.199 --> 01:09:40.880
I found myself with more than enough money to pay our bills.

01:09:41.119 --> 01:09:46.399
I found myself, you know, in just a space and then university calls.

01:09:46.479 --> 01:09:53.039
It offers me the opportunity to come back here and get my PhD and to teach in the athletic leadership program.

01:09:53.600 --> 01:09:57.439
And I would say from there, man, my life changed, you know, in an instant.

01:09:57.520 --> 01:10:02.720
You know, I was thinking one way, but again, God has something completely different set aside.

01:10:02.880 --> 01:10:17.359
And so um just super grateful um for the journey, you know, and just just for God keeping his hand on me, uh, even in that time of confusion, yeah.

01:10:17.520 --> 01:10:21.600
Um, and in that time where you know you just really don't know what you don't know.

01:10:21.760 --> 01:10:25.680
You're young, your brain as a man doesn't fully develop until you're 26.

01:10:25.920 --> 01:10:32.399
And so to have gone through all that trauma so early in my life, I'm thankful for it.

01:10:32.560 --> 01:10:34.880
You know, I appreciate the pressure.

01:10:35.119 --> 01:10:35.520
Yeah.

01:10:35.760 --> 01:10:37.760
Ooh, ooh, back to the pressure.

01:10:37.920 --> 01:10:46.960
Uh one, I love that you had an opportunity, you know, you had to close out a seat, you had to close out the vision, right?

01:10:47.039 --> 01:11:02.399
And you did that externally, where you you went and you played that that next football season, but then you also had to close, close it out internally, where you you were able to tell yourself, okay, you know what, this this is it.

01:11:02.560 --> 01:11:09.039
You know, the this this is I I'm not gonna try to keep trying to revamp this old vision.

01:11:09.199 --> 01:11:14.319
I'm gonna allow God to redefine who I am so that he can rewrite my story.

01:11:14.479 --> 01:11:20.479
So one of the things that's really important to both me and Rich is this idea of mentorship, right?

01:11:20.640 --> 01:11:28.079
This idea of taking things that we've learned through our journeys, ways that we've grown through our journeys, and investing it back.

01:11:28.479 --> 01:11:45.520
Rich, as you've kind of just talked through, you know, your years of of being on the porch, of of being introduced into new seasons and new places and having to seek to understand before being fully understood and going into these places where there were different levels.

01:11:45.840 --> 01:11:50.399
How has that informed how you give back to young people?

01:11:50.800 --> 01:11:53.039
Well, it's all about intentionality with young people.

01:11:53.199 --> 01:11:55.039
You can't start something and don't finish it.

01:11:55.119 --> 01:11:59.760
And so what I realized is that mentorship is till death doors apart.

01:11:59.840 --> 01:12:02.079
It's really not till graduation doors apart.

01:12:02.319 --> 01:12:06.960
And so just like I'm gonna be with my son, that's how I treat mentorship.

01:12:07.119 --> 01:12:10.319
Just how I'm gonna be with my daughter, that's how I treat mentorship.

01:12:10.479 --> 01:12:12.079
It's like a lifelong commitment.

01:12:12.239 --> 01:12:13.039
You know what I'm saying?

01:12:13.119 --> 01:12:23.039
And you don't play with that responsibility of someone entrusting you for wisdom because that's where counseling and all those things come from, wise men.

01:12:23.279 --> 01:12:26.239
Like there was a bunch of wise men that poured into me.

01:12:26.479 --> 01:12:33.359
So why would I not give that same level of pouring um back to the next generation, you know?

01:12:33.520 --> 01:12:44.319
And so I think uh when you're dealing with mentorship, it is not a feel-good thing, it's not always easy to mentor, it's not convenient to mentor.

01:12:44.560 --> 01:12:48.960
It's again, it's an intentional of kindness, right?

01:12:49.680 --> 01:12:52.479
There's no glory, no need from it.

01:12:53.039 --> 01:12:55.520
It's what'd you think from the heart?

01:12:55.760 --> 01:12:59.119
I mean, yeah, you know, I mean it it's just what it is, right?

01:12:59.279 --> 01:13:07.199
So I think we always have to be in that posture of by giving or receiving lending, right?

01:13:07.600 --> 01:13:10.399
I think we've been on so much tunes.

01:13:10.479 --> 01:13:11.840
Why can't we lend a little bit?

01:13:13.600 --> 01:13:15.920
Yeah, no, that's amazing.

01:13:17.680 --> 01:13:25.520
So listen, listen, Rich, listen, one, your story is absolutely amazing.

01:13:25.600 --> 01:13:28.239
It's it even the parts I didn't know, right?

01:13:28.319 --> 01:13:30.079
I thought I thought I had seen it all.

01:13:30.159 --> 01:13:33.279
You know, I've heard this man speak on multiple platforms.

01:13:33.520 --> 01:13:35.680
I've I've watched him tell the story.

01:13:35.760 --> 01:13:37.439
It's such an inspiring story.

01:13:37.600 --> 01:13:46.640
It's such a a story that people love to grab onto because it gives hope to it's a it's an intergenerational inspirational story.

01:13:46.720 --> 01:13:51.199
You know, it speaks to it speaks to so many people at different levels of their life.

01:13:51.279 --> 01:14:01.119
And I'm grateful that you would consider coming on the Unlearned Podcast to the second act to tell it because truly God has done so many amazing things for you.

01:14:01.359 --> 01:14:07.920
Rich, if the people want to connect with you and to learn more about what you do, listen, my brother's still a hustler.

01:14:08.319 --> 01:14:14.000
Okay, he always got an idea, always got a new venture, always got a new little thing he's doing.

01:14:14.159 --> 01:14:16.880
How can the people keep up with what you're doing?

01:14:17.520 --> 01:14:18.239
It's simple.

01:14:18.399 --> 01:14:27.279
Um, you know, you can find me on my website, uh, richmurigan.com, uh, or you can shoot me a direct email to my foundation.

01:14:27.439 --> 01:14:30.560
Um, you know, we're we're tr we're transitioning this year.

01:14:32.640 --> 01:14:40.560
It's just a straightforward back into a little mixture of dealing with the nonprofit ministry.

01:14:40.880 --> 01:14:45.119
You know, you'll see me if you catch me at church, you know, throughout the week.

01:14:45.439 --> 01:14:52.880
You know, obviously as we know, my place of uh employment and where where I'm at and what I'm doing.

01:14:53.119 --> 01:14:58.079
But you know, um I appreciate those that do visit my websites.

01:14:58.319 --> 01:15:01.840
It's gonna be under construction over the next month or so.

01:15:02.079 --> 01:15:10.560
But um you know, feel free to reach out with any requests on the channel or um social media.

01:15:11.680 --> 01:15:12.640
What's the social media?

01:15:13.039 --> 01:15:20.079
Professor Yuri, Instagram, Twitter, you know, I do a little Facebook as well, some personal.

01:15:24.000 --> 01:15:24.479
Perfect.

01:15:24.640 --> 01:15:28.560
Yeah, I try to be connected, you know, with with people.

01:15:33.039 --> 01:15:34.399
Thank you so, so much.

01:15:34.800 --> 01:15:35.680
Thank you all for having me.

01:15:36.079 --> 01:15:36.720
Appreciate you, bro.

01:15:36.880 --> 01:15:38.399
Yeah, no, this was amazing.

01:15:38.560 --> 01:15:39.520
All right, friends.

01:15:39.840 --> 01:15:44.800
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01:15:44.960 --> 01:15:46.640
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01:15:46.800 --> 01:15:50.800
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01:15:50.880 --> 01:15:53.680
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01:15:53.920 --> 01:16:02.880
And as we are thinking through what God is doing for us in our second act, I want you to always remember you don't have to stay stuck in intermission.

01:16:03.359 --> 01:16:06.399
You can raise the curtain to your second act.

01:16:06.560 --> 01:16:08.319
We'll see you guys in the next week.

01:16:12.079 --> 01:16:14.960
Thank you once again for listening to the Unlearnt Podcast.

01:16:15.039 --> 01:16:19.279
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01:16:19.520 --> 01:16:25.920
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01:16:26.079 --> 01:16:32.239
We're looking forward to the next time when we are able to unlearn together and move forward towards freedom.