Erik Harris' Comeback Story

00:00:09 Speaker 1: What's going on? Everyone? Welcome to another episode of Comeback Stories. We got a special guest here today, a former teammate of mine, a guy that was very well respected in our locker room. He's now a member of the Atlanta Falcons, NFL veteran free safety. My man, Eric Harris E. How are you doing today? Man? Man, I'm doing amazing. I'm honored to be on this Comeback Stories, especially after getting to know you, being in the locker room around you and knowing the person you are. Man. So this means a lot, yes, sir. Likewise, and I was telling for the people that didn't know before we started, I was telling Eric that he was on my list, you know, ever since he had been on the team, just from hearing a little bit about his story, and I definitely wanted him to be on here and can't wait for this to get going. But let's dive right into you know, what was it like growing up for you? Where did you grow up? What was the situation like let us into your youth? Yeah? Man, so I grew up you know, majority of my life. I grew up in Pennsylvania, but I started out near Baltimore area, down in Essex area. So it was probably about the fifth grade we moved up to PA. You know, just living a different life, and my mom chose to change her life around and give her life to Christ, and she moved up to PA to be near her, her father, and her two sisters that were up here in PA. And you know, we moved up. We stayed in the hotel at first, or a motel down the street. So we stayed in the motel for a little bit for about a week or two, and then we moved in with my grandfather and then we had to move to a shelter out in Gettysburg, PA. So you know with section eight, you know, we moved into the shelter so that we could move up and pretty much in the rankings or whatever and whatever we needed to do to climb the ladder to get a house first. So that's what we did. We stayed in the shelter for a while Gettsburg, PA. I went to get Itsburg School for in fourth grade, in fifth grade, and then I moved to a new Oxford, Pennsylvania in sixth grade. Nice, I know, just reading a little bit about you know, your childhood, I know that you know your father wasn't necessarily in the picture, and you talked about how you're moving a lot. What was the impact that those circumstances had on you early on and how it affected your approach to life as a as a young kid. What do you think that impact was. Yeah, you know, rest in peace. My post pass away probably about seven years ago now. And you know, for me growing up without a dad, you know, that's why I got into sports. And you know, I was very fortunate, fortunate to have a male role models and within sports, and that really played a father figure for me. So I really looked up to a lot of my coaches and they helped out my mom a lot, who was a single mother of six kids. So you know, works for me. Has taught me a lot how to be a man, how to be disciplined, and just how to overcome adversity. Yeah. One of the questions we love to always ask is who was your first teacher? And you said that you had a role model early on. What did he instill in you early on? Were there any distinct messages or points that you know that you apply today still that were so valued to you, valuable to you back then. Yeah, my real teacher got to be my mom. You know, like I said, single mother, six kids, she didn't. I mean, she had family up in PA. But you know she was changing her life realm. The going out, the party and the clubs, all that stuff, karaoke in on the weekends at the house and stuff like that. Times will we wake up and he's like, oh, it's one of those days, right. And so for her to take that leap of faith and just say, hey, cold turkey, I'm changing my life around. I'm moving to PA and I'm I'm changing I want to give my kids a better life. So you know, that's been a lot of my story and that's why we're here talking right now. And just taking a leap of faith and just believing in something that you can't see. And that's what my mom taught me, and she taught me. She just taught me how to keep my head down and grinding through hard situations and never give up, no doubt. I know that taking that leap of faith is something that you definitely applied to your football career. I remember reading about you know your mom in the letter that she wrote to California University in Pennsylvania. And then you know the trip that you took to Buffalo to try out for Hamilton with the CFL. So take us a little bit through your football journey and how your faith developed along those journeys, because it wasn't an easy path at all. Take us through that. Yeah, So you know, coming out of high school, I chose to go D two And the choosing part was a little bit of my doing as well, right, mistakes I made and things I didn't take serious as far as my grades and my education, and got humble real quick in that process. But you know, I chose to go D two and play football, and I didn't get read shirt or anything. I played all four of my four years there and have my pro day and everything, and you know, got some got a little bit of love and oh these people might like you. And but reality was I went back to my hometown and I didn't get a single phone call. You know, we call there are certain guys that come into camp, you call them camp bodies or whatever. But it's still an opportunity to be presented in front of coaches and show and have an opportunity to show what you can do. And that's why all I was looking for at the moment. But that didn't even happen. So I went back to my hometown. I was working at Let's Potato Chips, and I was actually like the core mixer. You know, we had an orientation whatever, and everybody else saying, hey, I'm I'm this, I'm like, what's the core mixer? Man? It was the worst job I've ever had, and it was humbling, and my mom actually thought I was going to quit, quit the job, and I just it's not in me to quit and give up on anything. So, you know, for me, it was a life moment for me to realize that, hey, you kind of chose this path. You know. Now you're dealing with some adversity. Embrace it, get through it, and just keep pushing forward. So after that summer, I went back to school to finish up my degree. I was working out my coach at the time, you know, he promised me he would help me get through school. But he ended up retiring and leaving the school. And the new coach came in, who was our former offensive coordinator, and just you know, D two they don't have full rides for everybody. Most D two schools don't, right, So they're just like, we don't have any money to help you out with your school. So I'm like, what I'm gonna do now? So I got a job at UPS. And I was working at UPS and I was loading the trucks at first, and realized that I needed some more income. There was a management position that opened up, so I took that. I was working at about nine o'clock at night and then getting off about four or five in the morning, going home, sleeping for a little bit, getting up, going to class. After class, I work out because I was still obviously had the hope to still play. I would eat about a dozen of eggs. That's all I eight all day because that's all I could have ford with paying bills and everything like that. So you know, I had a CFL and Arena tryout for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Cleveland got Gladiators. At the time, you know, Arena was interested. Winnipeg was like, nah, it's not gonna work, not really fast enough for us. Cool. I went back to school, kept grinding. Then it takes us to Buffalo, New York. Right, I heard that they might have been interested in me, So I drove up to Buffalo, New York. I paid eighty dollars from our workout and they called me two days later offered me a contract. That's crazy, Donnie. I know you hear the similarity between me and Eric, just from the having to work the humbling job, and the lessons and the things that they teaches you, and like it translates into when you have success, you know how to handle it better. I don't know, but it's just like that humbling job of humbling experiences. Just do numbers. Yeah, I hear so much resiliency and grit and adversity and a lot of humility. Sounds like you're very humbled, even going back to having to go to a D two school and being humbled through maybe some of the decisions that you made in your younger years. But there's no doubt that it's it's that path, the struggle that's given you the strength to put you in a position that you are now. It's it's powerful in all of that. I've I've heard some of your story, the eleven hour days at the potato chip factory, one hundred and ten degrees right working in jeans. What would you say, in all of that struggle was like your lowest point, man, I don't even know the lowest point For me, I guess it wasn't even a point because you know, I always try to say stay stay in the present and be present whatever situation you're in. So it wasn't really a point of my life. Besides, you know, after the draft and everything, when I ran this hill that we used to run for a track, and I you know, I just run and run and run until I was exhausted. That was after my agent called me, an old agent called me. I was just like, hey, like, I don't think thing and anything's gonna work out for you. Probably best you just get a different career. Um, and that that that moment hurt. But just saying that the present and for me really just not knowing if I was ever going to get that opportunity, you know, that was just a low point I was living the whole time as I was like grinding and trying to stay present in the in the preparation and everything. So you know, just not knowing if that opportunity is going to come. You know, it's stressful in itself. Well, even hearing that your agent the person that likely you you give the most trust too, and you believe the things we're gonna say, and this agent tells you that you need to go find a new career, and where many might buy into it, or they might go out and get blasted or bury themselves in self pity. Where you had a different take, right, You took action and you went and ran hills. And I believe you were praying and praying to God. What exactly were you saying? What were you asking God for at the time. You know, when my mom wrote that letter to Calpa, she just kept telling me, Erica can't end like this, and that's the only thing I can remember at that moment, and just praying, like you know, we're all motivated by different things, and we're all, you know, trying to be successful in a different way. And you know, some guys in the NFL are motivated by you know, nice things, money or whatever it may be. For me, I saw a community around me. I was tired of my mom struggling financially. There's so many friends parents that had to pay for me to participating certain camps. I had to sell, you know, candy bars and stuff or work basketball camps for the high school just to raise money for myself for me to participate with my team in high school. Because we didn't have the funds to do it, so I just financial struggle was the biggest thing, and just the platform, you know, work done. It's crazy that I actually met him last year in the locker room and I just went up to him. I'm like, look, you probably don't, probably don't notice at all, But my mom pointed me, pointed out to me when he was playing that he still does it to this day. He helps pay for single mothers to buy houses for them and had the program set up for him, and my mom showed me his story and what he was doing, and that just inspired me to give back and to build something, leave a legacy, and just live with comfort. You know, I hear purpose, Donny, Like, that's a common denominator among most of our guests. Is something that is greater than you. Is what motivates you to do certain things. It's not doing something to get something out of it for myself or doing it as a means to an end, but it's like I'm doing this as a vessel or as a channel for God to work through me, or for good to come through me into other people's lives. Because I don't think things in life can really be fulfilling unless you have a deeper purpose. I know you, I know you agree with me. We're talking about it all the time. I'm looking at your tattoo right behind your ear that says the word purpose. And part of my coaching is helping athletes and former athletes deal with anxiety and the pressures of performance to actually find their purpose beyond their sport. And I hear it in your words, I can feel it in your energy, and it's powerful. And you know, I believe for both of you that if football were to go away today or tomorrow, that you guys would be good because you have a greater purpose in your identity and your success isn't fully attached to your performance on the field. It's so much more than that. Yeah. Absolutely, And that's that's so good because I said that all the time. You know, football players are what we do. They're not it's not who we are. And it's hard for guys to disassociate that, right. You know, we all want to have good games and we all want a ball and chase the bag that we all say, um, you know, but then you have social media platforms out there that everybody's crucifying you and they want to say all these things when you have a bad game or you have a bad play and stuff. And you know, some guys they run to that or they read that and it breaks them down. And then they have a great game and they go read those comments and it's like build them up. It's like you're relying on other people's validation of who who they think you are to determine the success you're having in your life. For me, you know, I'm blessed with four beautiful children and a wife who's the MVP and the glue of our family. And for me, walking through that door, no matter what, whether I had a bad game a good game, they don't care when lose or anything. You know, is the only thing that matters that Daddy comes home and he's healthy. And you know, I have a job to do when I come home. And I told people all the time in the off season, it's it's hard for me. People think it's the all season is a bunch of vacations. It's twenty four hour daddy, dude, there are no breaks the all season. It is hard and it's humbling, and it's it's it's amazing. But in season, my wife holds it down and like I said, it's just leaving work at work because that's what it is, and coming home and being present because being a father, being a husband, that's who I am. Your your perspective is so solid. Was it always that way? Was there? I know you talked about some decisions and struggles you had in college or maybe high school leading up to college with grades. But where was the shift, Like, what was the story you had to stop telling yourself so that you could really start to write and shape your own comeback story. Yeah, the shift probably was when I thought I was writing a story myself and I realized that, you know, there's a guy that has plans for your life. And probably my ego probably got in my way in high school, just thinking sports, we're gonna get me through everything, and I didn't have to get the grades I needed to get, you know, SATs, going to falling asleep during the SATs, like just making dumb decisions and just thinking I was the man, and you know, getting treated like I was a man because I was always the best. Everything kind of came naturally and easy to me. And whenever, you know, I went to college, I realized I would say I had to go D two. I had D one offers for track, but I didn't really want to do track. It was hard enough in high school. I couldn't imagine college track workouts. But you know, I chose chose D two and I went there and it was fine. I played four years. That was some university at D two and stuff like that. But it was really just the timing of everything, like, Wow, this all could be the dream that all the papers I ever wrote, being an NFL player, that's what I want to be when I grow up. That it wasn't all just falling in line for me, and that my ego was letting me, was lying to me all along. There's something so much bigger than just being a football player, and it's having a purpose like you guys were talking about, and having a bigger picture that you know, you think you know what you're gonna do, and then God tells you, hey, I got other plans for you. You know, so many people we talked in our Bible study last year that you know, so many people chase their passion through life because they're passionate about it and they're having fun and it's enjoyable, but they chase it their whole life, not realizing it was never their purpose. That's deep, man. I know me and Donnie are part of a particular fellowship, and there are certain prayers that we learned, and there's a prayer that I say every day now and it's God, I offer myself to be to build with me and do with me as Thou wilt, relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will take away my difficulties, that victory over them would bear witness to those I would help of Thy power, thy love, and thy way of life. May I do Thy will always. And so it's like that is something that I take with me and I'll say it like in different moments of the day where I feel like I'm getting caught up in different things in my performance, in you know, anything that may be going on in my head, and it's like those things don't really matter at the end of the day. And we always ask people about affirmations and mantras, like are there certain prayers you take with you, Like how do you make your faith portable? Because I feel like a lot of people maybe like pray in the mornings and pray at night, and it's just kind of like a little robotic thing like, how do you take your faith with you throughout the day. It probably starts in the morning that car ride to work listening to my gospel of music. You're following me Instagram, you probably sing me singing every once in a while now that I think I could really sing. I just enjoy it. And that's where I feel like the most. My biggest connection with crisis is in my worship. Obviously, you got to get in your word and live off of that, but the worship part of it for me is just, you know, I just feel very vulnerable, you know, at that moment, and just giving, surrendering and letting Guy work in my life. And you know, your prayer when I heard it, gainement, goose bumps. And the biggest thing, if I had to pick one word, it's sounding like serve. And that's what we're put on this earth to do, is to serve others. And we talked about having a purpose, a bigger picture, so just serving others having a good attitude about it. One of the things we can control in life is our attitude every day and our perspective on life. So for me, it's just serving and just realizing that there's a bigger picture out there, no doubt about that. Our attitude, like you said, is most important, you know, and especially one of gratitude. And you know, a man in your position, you know through all the things that you've been through and how you've come out on the other side and see your dreams come into fruition, making big picks, big plays and big games. But what are you most grateful for today? Like, take us through your gratitude process. Man. You know, when I got the questions and everything, I don't think. I don't think us as humans reflect a lot on life. You know. It's just it's that race of life. We got to get to the top, got to get to the top, and nobody ever takes time to look back. We all think, oh, the past, the past. But it's okay to reflect on the past because we learn from We always say it, don't repeat history. You learn from history. Reflect on your past. Be grateful for what you're the situation you're in, whether it's good or bad. You know, we all make decisions and things happen to us. And for me, I'm just I'm grateful for the people that I have in my life, the connections I've made throughout you know, their season of life and people come and go and some people stay. So just realized that. And my wife and my kids I'm so grateful for and they've been through everything with me. I mean, my wife was with me when I was broken, asking her for money. She was driving me around in high school because I didn't have a car. So she's she's seen it all and she's never changed on me. And I'm just very grateful for, you know, her patience and my growth as a you know, as a boyfriend to fiance, to husband, to father. It's been amazing, pretty cool to just witness your story and hear and see these seeds that were planted early on from your mom fully surrendering, turning her life around, giving her life to God, planting that seed. Work done planting that seed, and even the stories, both of your stories, using this platform for something greater or it's amazing. The other thing I wanted to mention with Darren's prayer, my prayer early on when I first got sober was God, your will, please not mind like I was begging, like, please not my will because my will landed me in rehab. It wasn't working out too well. And you talked about ego and faith. We talk about in the rooms of recovery, ego stands for edging God out, and especially when we when we start playing God and we think that we're something bigger, and we will get humbled quick. And I hear it in your story that humility clearly has become your strength, right, all of the humility that you've gone through, even as a child, to having to go to a D two school, in your path, the potato chip factory, all of it. It's so beautiful to see a man so solid in his faith and strong on the inside. And when we're strong on the inside, we can stay fluid on the outside. So no matter what curveballs or adversity you're faced with. Now, it's like what you've been through, you know how to handle it. You've you've been in the practice, you've been living it. Yeah, so good. I'm do you mind if I steal that one? Yeah, I'm about to write it down. That's that's good. Yeah, I mean it is. You know, it's always you always have those voices talking to you. And uh, you know, I read this book actually, Jason Whitman put me onto it, The Untethered Soul. Oh man, it's such a good book, and you just talk about hearing that little voice that's constantly talking to you, and no matter what, it's gonna talk to you. It's gonna tell you whatever you want to hear. But it's always there. And as you got to learn that, you know, just listen to your heart and stop listening to your ego. It's funny you say that about that because Donnie introduced me to that book, and that book, like blew Mama, it's so good. It's in the top three that I pass around to other people. It's phenomenal. If you haven't read that, guys, I'm sure every comeback storys live. We've mentioned this book, so everybody that's listening, so check that book out, please. Yeah. And that voice, untethered soul in that voice is I talk about the saboteur, this little self sabotage or in the Four Agreements, the author talks about it being the parasite where it's this voice that tells us things like you're not good enough, who are you to do this? I talk about shooting on ourselves, like you should have done this, you should have done that. Always the not enough story seems to come up. But recognizing that that voice is there, but it's not your voice. It's usually somebody else's voice. Something somebody something, somebody said to us when we were a child, whether it is a parent or a teacher, or a first relationship that we were in, and it's it's not our voice. It doesn't come from truth, it doesn't come from God. It's really just a bullshit story. But recognizing it. Awareness is the first step in creating any kind of change. So a lot of people aren't even aware there. Their whole lives are being hijacked by this voice. So that's why the practices of prayer, which is like talking to God and meditating is listening to God allows us to really create more awareness to hear and see and feel what's true, and then to know what's true. We got to know what's not true. And it certainly helps eliminate the noise when we're in these practices, absolutely absolutely, especially and that voice gets loud too, because it's like somebody that's in your in the spaces that I was in, that you were in, that Eric was in in his past, where it's like we don't know what's next, we don't know what we're gonna do, we don't know what's gonna work? And you know, I want to ask you, Eric, what would you say to somebody that's, you know, working at the chip factory or working the night shift at UPS and they're like, I don't really know what's going on, Like what would you say to them that would keep them going? Or to put that next that one foot in front of the other. I would say, whatever your goal is, whatever your vision is, it's to state discipline in it. And if you're staying discipline in it, there should be no question of whether it's going to work out, because it will because you're disciplining your work, You're disciplining you know, God's purpose for your life. It's when you know, we tend to fall off or we tend to you know, veer off the path a little bit, and then and then those doubts start coming in, you know, So just stay stay focused on your purpose, stay focused on your goals, and uh, don't let anybody determine them. You know, your outcome of life and where you should be, not taking things personally right. I've over the last few years working with athletes and being close to Dare, and I have so much empathy for you guys and all for you women, the athletes out there, of someone that's in the public eye. I had a little taste of that a few weeks ago. I went to this h Incinita street fair and I brought this my little puppy with me, and the puppy like everybody wanted to say hi to the puppy. Everybody wanted. I couldn't walk too feet without someone all up in my face, not even like giving me space to walk by. And I was like, I thought about Darren and I'm like, wow, this is this is what it feels like. And it was not fun at all. Yeah, it's not. It's not always thrilling. I mean it's like cool to interact with people. Sometimes it's just like man, I want to just be I'm a human being, and it's like I can talk about other things other than football or other than like like you said, you have the puppy, Like for me, it's like the football is in my hand like they it's not in my hand literally, but that's what they A lot of people think most of the time. You know, they want to they want to thank you for for winning their fantasy football team. And I'm every time I'm with you, and they say that. Yeah, that's it. So so just getting back to the importance of like you said, discipline and no matter what your focus is, whatever, no matter what your goals are, what we practice will grow stronger, and we have to stay in the discipline because we all have a center, um and at the center, it's basically at the center of our heart, right, this is our core, and we all get pulled in the thousand different directions, and obviously it's so much more heightened with the platform that you guys are on, but regardless, we all have a center and the worlds is trying to pull us off that center with distractions and marketing that's telling us we're not good enough. You guys get all the comments and all the noise. So it's just so important to have those practices. Do you have other practices that really that you stay committed to, Like do you have a morning routine? I know you've talked about your drive into work, but is there anything that you've been super consistent with that or like your non negotiables each day just getting in my word, you know. And for me, it's like some people get discouraged, like oh I got to read, you know, I hour the Bible every day. Pick it up. You can read a verse. That's it. You know, just be consistent. Make sure I see the Word every day to remind myself that I am good enough, because a word will tell you that, it'll tell you that you're good enough. And all the negative things that you might be listening to yourself or other people saying, it's not true. And we're not put on this earth to please everybody, right, We're put on this earth for one job and has to be a disciple of God and to create other disciples of God and just serve our communities. And for me, some people might not link the way I serve and that's okay, But for me, there there's a reason why I do it. So, you know, just getting my word every day and make sure you know I worship every day, and just putting a smile in my face and you know, trying to make somebody's day. Go out, you know, go out my way and do and just do a special gesture for somebody. When you see the state of the world or just um as you move through life, what's like the one thing that maybe breaks your heart more than anything in the world right now that you see is a specific cause. Is there a cause that you believe in? What does that look like? I mean, well, breaks my heart is really just, I guess the lack of parenting and just the love and affection that parents show their kids, you know. And it's not even that there's always bad parents, but again, we just get so caught up in our jobs and chasing life and trying to give our kids the world, you know. And I got to remind myself because I'm guilty as well. You know, Oh, they gotta have this, they gotta have that. They got to have a ton of presents at Christmas and all these things. But really all they all they are seeking for is your attention and your love. And I feel like we get so caught up in life that we forget to give love toward kids. And there's so many kids that are going seeking other things to get that because you know, it's attention. They're seeking attention, they're seeking that they're good enough. And if it's social media that's going to tell them that, if it's a high from a drug it makes them feel that way, you know, whatever it may be, they're seeking that and they're really just looking for that, and just the lack of that with our youth is kind of heartbreaking for me, and just you know in the youth as well, you know a lot of entitlement with the younger crowd as well. I'm so glad you mentioned that. I put on my Instagram story another little question box, and I had asked the question what what did you need as a child that you didn't get? And all of these answers, and it all came down to everything that you just said, you know, having being able to be heard, rite that emotional connection, unconditional love. You're talking about parenting like this, these are the things that we're missing. And for many these these childhood wounds, if you will have determined the outcome, they've allowed it to determine the outcome of their lives because of what they didn't get in their younger years. So I'm really really glad you brought that turns into I read something recently. It's like a lot of people we tend to do things for love instead of from love, And it's like if you didn't get that when you were younger, or if you don't know that you know, like Eric said, when we when we're rolling a blunt up where we drinking, like we're looking for that spiritual experience and you know, we've been looking in the wrong place all along. We've been looking for that substance or that person to give it to us, when it's really something inside of us. It's already there. We just have to tap into it so for us to change to that place. And then Eric, you're just living your legacy like that, giving your kids the love because the things that you give them, they'll have the things, but it's like those things will die out. They'll they'll those things will they'll get tired of them. But your legacy and the love that you give them can be passed on from generation to generation and it's impacting your family and then you never know who your kids are gonna touch when they get older. And so like that's the greatest gift we can give, and it's that love, but we always are searching in the wrong places for it. I did for Solo. Yeah, now you're you're like spot on that and just kind of our parenting style. It is parenting styling. You know a book that we were reading and I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but you know it talked about raising your kids with internal validation, not external validation, and pretty much, you know, we seek everything outside of us to please us, but really it's already inside of us, you know. So they're simple things. You know, my daughter draws me a picture and it's like, hey, daddy, do you love it? What do you feel? Well? If I tell her every time, that's an amazing picture, right, she's just she's looking for me to give her that answer. Instead, it's saying it's amazing every time I asked her, well, what do you think about it? And now she can start processing maybe I could have colored in the lines, maybe I could have used a different color. So now she's starting to self critique herself, and it's coming from within, not from without, which is me, you know, validating her amazing picture, that's beautiful. There's a personality assessment test called the eneagram, fascinating. You could go online and page twelve bucks and it'll break down your Basically, it's your admired self. And for me, I am an achiever and that basically this was a mask of role that I took on in my younger years because when I was successful in sport or in baseball, that is where I received my validation and so somewhere in my younger years I wasn't getting approval or wasn't getting validation, and so where I got it was in sport. So this is our ego, it's our admired self, it's not our authentic self. And we're not supposed to stay in this place forever, not supposed to be an achiever. Although achievers can get very very successful because they're constantly striving and achieving. However, we get like just a few opportunities in our lives to move out of that and really to step into like God's will right or our authentic self. And usually by the age of thirty five or forty, if we haven't done some work to really step out of that or surrender the ego, we will stay in that place for the rest of our lives. And even though we might get very very successful, we are not happy and we're not free. Empty on the inside. Yeah it is. And it's funny. The new song that came out by Torn Wells, it's called empty and he sings, I mean, the whole message it's about that, you know, you can have all these things, you can have the world at your feet and still feel empty. There's the reason why we see you know, billionaires that are committing suicide. You know people people just think, oh, you have all this money, what could be wrong in your life? Oh you're an NFL player, what could be wrong in your life? There could be a lot of things wrong in our lives. Social media is just it's not reality, right, It's not reality we put we put out there what you want, what we want you to see. And you know, I spoke with a group of high school football players last off season and I told him I'm like, you know everybody, you know, I see everybody has these people have the chains on you. You dressed a certain way and stuff like that. You follow us on Instagram, You're trying to mimic what we are on the outside, but you have no clue what we are on the inside. And it's it's just that, it's that simple. It's just learn who you are on the inside and make judgments for yourself and not don't just keep chasing everything that's appearing to you on the outside. Get to know people, speak with people, hold a conversation with somebody, right, We got to go deeper because I always said, like when I tell my story to young people, I'm like everybody enjoyed and respected my life, but myself. This is when I was early on in the league, and you know, I was right, We're all supposed to be at every box checked off of things that I wanted to achieve or accomplish, and there was there was nothing on the inside because like you said, I chased that outside and it's like, what should I be doing and what is admired by people? And instead of you know, what do I love? You know, at the end of the day, I feel like we're all still we have that little kid inside. It's like you like your little daughter is still that little age kid is still inside of me, like still trying to be creative and do things and just have this joy for life. And it's like I still have to work on my internal validation because the world trains us to please people and to put ourselves over the top of people and be better and compete and all these things, and it's like those things are so useless when it comes to just nourishing ourselves from the inside out. And I'm just grateful for you man sharing on here today and just such a nourishing conversation and a conversation that people need to hear, and before we wrap up, we have one more question. We like to give love to people that have been with us on our journeys, on our comeback stories along the way. If there is one person or a few people you could give a comeback story shout out to, who would that be and why? It would definitely be my wife, school sweetheart who's been through everything with me. My mom of course, who you know, change her life around and who knows what direction my life would have went if we would have continued to live in Baltimore. And my grandfather has been a huge influence of my life, you know, just pushing me, always encouraging me, and really helping my mom out financially. He helped her build her first house, dream house. That's all she ever wanted was to have a house of her own, and he helped her do that. So he's always been there to help us out. But there's been so many people in my life that's just been there to encourage me. Coaches and friends, parents, you know, so many people, but definitely those three. Man. I just want to say thank you for joining us today. This has been amazing, even better than I thought I knew, just you being on here. Would not only be a great thing for people to hear, but just great for me to hear. Hear in your perspective on life and just on love and on faith is inspiring, man, and I'm grateful for you for doing this. Glad I get to see you, man, and wish you nothing but peace and prosperity going forward. I appreciate it, bro, I wish the same for you. And you know, the best thing is, you know when you play with a guy like yourself and people always ask, well, how is Darren Waller? And the best part about it is telling them that the person that you come off as and the superstar you are, that your ego and everything the person you are matches up to that because you're so humble. I always say that he's one of the most humblest and real person I've ever met. So that's it's really cool to say that, right. You might get that question You're like, do I really tell him what how this person is? You know, it crushes people sometimes and for me to tell them who you really are, it's amazing. So you have an amazing story, man, and I love what you're doing here. Best to luck this season. Everything. Appreciate you bro. Yeah, Eric, I just want to acknowledge you too, man, for your story, for your strength, your grit, your resiliency, both of you, both of you, guys. I don't think you have any idea of the impact that you're making on the field, that's all. That's all good. I know that's not what's most important to you, but off the field and planting these seeds, just like those people that were there for us early on in our years, to be able to continue to be a living example of what it meant what it means to be a man of service and a man of God. It's a beautiful thing and it's an honor to have you on our show. Brother. I appreciate you. Donnie. You're doing some great things. You know, you're you're making a big change in young men's lives and women's lives. So continue to share your testimony. Man. You know you might not be a football player, but you have to be a football player to have a testimony, and that's the most important thing. People think you have to be a you know, had that blue check on Twitter and Instagram just to make a difference in this work. When you don't, it's not the truth. Thank you, Thank you man. We out appreciate everybody list and then see you next time. Appreciate you, M M