Special Guest Jim Tressel & Ryan Shazier

Count money, man, money back riches.

I'm trying to talk, trying to talk to my mom, a beast bug.

What's up, gang?

Welcome to the grind cast.

Stop it, area's here.

Get ready.

It's a new day.

What's up?

And welcome back to another episode of the grind cast.

Get ready.

It's a new day.

And we have two very, very special guests, friends of mine,

mentor of mine, coach Jim Tressel, president,

Tressel, now president at Youngstown State

and Ryan Shazir, currently formerly of the Pittsburgh

Steelers and former Ohio State Bucki, first round draft

pick and unbelievable husband and father and friend

and just for those of you that haven't met Ryan,

what I could tell you is his character on the inside,

who he is on the inside is even sweeter and better

than what you saw him do on the football field.

And I could speak that from experience.

So I'm excited to expose those two great young men

to all of you to OG.

We're going to talk about transitions today, transitions.

And so age before beauty, Ryan, let's go to coach first.

And sorry, I always call you coach.

Maybe you could talk a little bit about your transition

from where you were going into Youngstown State

for the first time as a head coach

and how that transition looked to going from not being

a D1 AA head football coach to I think a one and nine

program to one of the best probably runs

that a lot of teams at that level have ever gone on,

winning multiple national championships in a row.

Do you want to maybe start there?

Sure, and I think for our listeners and viewers

and so forth, transition is constant.

We always said that the only thing constant is change

and that we have to be ready.

Many times we are preparing and we want the change

that's happening.

And then there are other times when change occurs

that we weren't counting on, that we were never dreamed

what happened.

And so there are certain fundamentals.

We've got to follow whether it's the transitions

and change that happened that were part of our plan

and those that weren't.

And that preparation thing is so important.

And I thought about it when you're introducing Ryan

and talking about his husband and father

and great football player.

But the biggest blessing he had was his parents

because they prepared him and they had an environment

where he could grow and be prepared for anything

that might happen in his life.

And when you're a parent, if you can do that

and you can have your child ready to handle anything

because you don't know what's coming.

Can't control it all the time.

Can't control it.

And so that preparation begins, I think,

with having a solid foundation

and what you think is important.

Something that you can always go back to.

Whenever a season goes bad for a while,

what do you do?

You go back to fundamentals, right?

I mean, that's what you do.

Like, man, we're not tackling, we're not blocking

or we're making poor play calls or what.

You always go back in business.

I'm sure you go back to the fundamentals.

And so.

I mean, that is that right?

You taught me that.

Any time anything goes off in life,

be it any part of your life,

you go back to the looking at the fundamentals,

going back to the fundamentals.

And I know you mentioned that on one of the years

where you didn't have a great year of,

at Youngstown State and then you came back the next year,

I think, in one of national championship

and what you found is that you got off the fundamentals.

Is that right?

Yeah, absolutely.

And I think that's what Ryan's parents taught him

was that there are certain foundational fundamentals

that you need to grow and be ready in your life.

And the real magic is what you guys do

and you and Permer, you know, up at five in the morning

and you do the fundamentals of things

and you get the grind cast going

and you send all those fundamental messages

out from the locker room, you know, to your team and so forth

because we've got to constantly work on those fundamentals

so that we're prepared for whatever happens.

And then, of course, there are those transition moments.

So he goes from being a high school player to a college player.

That's a transition.

He goes from a college player to being a pro.

There's a transition.

He now is going to be going from a pro player to a businessman.

That's a transition, you know,

you go from being a single person to perhaps married

or you go from not having any children to having children.

There are transitions in the only way, in my opinion,

we can prepare ourselves for that is to have that foundation

that you're constantly working on.

And when it gets a little rough, you really go back

and you think about those foundational things.

No doubt.

It's kind of hard to back up coach Tressel.

And I still say coach also, but yeah, my parents

they definitely made a strong foundation for me.

I even have them tattooed on me as a faith integrity

and discipline.

So I try to, you know, live my life through those three principles

and teach my kids the same things.

But you can pretty much coach.

Well, you know, it's interesting.

So let's think about both ways of transitioning.

The ones that we hoped for and the ones that we didn't hope for.

Okay.

So how do we get really good along the path that we're planning?

Is we work hard?

You know, we read, you know, you become a big reader,

you study, you get mentors,

you learn from one another, you evaluate your experiences,

you progress, you evaluate yourself, you know,

every day, if you recall it on how state we graded

you guys every practice, right?

Every practice.

So, because we wanted to go where we're going.

Now let's take the time where we're transitioning

and we didn't plan for that.

Well, we go back and we work on our fundamentals

and then we say, okay, we got to write a new plan.

And then we've got to go do the things

that it takes to execute that plan.

Can we talk about that?

You know, the come up at Youngstown State,

you know, people see that know the story,

that know that if you're not a football fan,

you know, what coach Jim Trussell

brought to Youngstown State was never done before.

I was lucky, I grew up watching champions.

So, I kind of, I wanted to win a state championship.

I watched winning happen a lot.

So, it's like I wanted to win.

It was part of our culture.

And Youngstown is a football town,

boxing, fighting, hard-nosed town, football town.

And, you know, before the national championship came,

you know, there was you coming in from a transition

there as a new coach.

And so, then you won some titles,

but maybe can you hone in on what you were just talking about?

What was that moment between you,

you won a title or two, and then you had a year

that wasn't, that you didn't win a title

and it wasn't the greatest year

where we talked about you started to come back

and look at the fundamentals.

How did you transition back into being

at a national champ from already being there?

What went wrong, do you think?

Because we've talked about it before.

You know, I think timing is so important with everything.

And so, when we got to Youngstown State,

we had goals in mind and we put a plan together

and we slowly progressed toward it.

And it took us five years before we were national champions.

Then we got on a run, we were played for four straight,

which is tough to sustain.

Five years first.

It took five years to win the first.

So, when you're first, we got into the playoffs

a couple times in advance, a couple times,

but you have to learn.

What was your first year?

What was the record of first?

Come on, man, it was two and nine.

Two and nine.

I said, why did you get it in high up?

The oldest bring up that stuff, don't they?

Because people see that you're a Hall of Fame college football coach

and you're in the college football Hall of Fame as a coach.

But people forget that the first season was two and nine.

And so, there's a message there in transition.

Oh, there's a message there.

When you first get started in something,

people see the national championships hanging,

but they don't see, did you give up after going two and nine?

Did you think that you made the wrong decision?

Did you ever think that what keeps you going in that process

when you go two and nine?

Because a lot of people probably started their first year

as a coach better than two and nine,

but not many people finished their career

with what you've been able to accomplish.

So, I think that's a mental transition.

And I think we don't want to confuse transitions with journeys.

So, when you're having that journey toward

you're carrying out your plan and you're progressing,

that's one thing.

And then when adversity strikes,

or do I have to break out my Latin, my pocket?

I got a little Latin in my pocket for the viewers.

Did you get a picture of this already, Ron?

Oh, I've got a picture of it.

Can you share it with me?

Per Angusta ad Augusta through difficulties to greatness.

And so, in that journey, you're gonna have difficulties.

I mean, that's just the way it is.

But we were able to continue the journey.

Okay?

There are sometimes though, when the journey has to change.

And that's what I would call transition.

You know, there's the journey,

and we didn't have that long journey of,

took five years, we were getting better all the time,

got on a roll, then took a fall.

Our evaluation was, you know what?

We lost our focus on the fundamentals.

So, we got back onto the journey

and back to the national championship.

That's one thing that we all have to face is,

how do you pass the test of time?

Our guy Tristan was talking about, huh?

You know, excellence, consistency, greatness.

That's the greatness, that's the greatness.

And the hallmarked excellence.

But the other topic we wanted to talk about

because he and I have both had very visible transitions,

coach, to president,

player to businessman, you know.

And that's a different thing than a journey.

As soon as you start the transition,

now you're on the journey.

Right, yeah.

Transition, then the journey.

Right, again.

But Ryan, you know, I think something

that a lot of people could benefit from you

is as I've had friends that went to big time college football

programs and I've watched how some of them have slipped

in that transition, you know.

So what are, you know, we were talking about a house,

state, any given day, if there's, if there's class,

you know, going on there, there's over 100,000 people

or something there in a day, right there.

And let alone the stadium.

And so you're an 18 year old kid,

you coming in and now you're in the shoe

and there's 100,000 fans and there's 100,000 people

every day on campus.

And so you go from just a young kid to like, you know,

that's their version of, that's a professional team to them.

And that's their, that's their, that's what they do.

You know what it means?

Like Pittsburgh Steelers here.

I mean, it's the, so what is that transition like coming

from a high school kid into a big time program?

And how would people that are making that transition now?

Maybe there's a young kid out there playing high school

football, getting ready to transition to play big time football.

What things do you think you can give them?

What wisdom could you give them on how to not mess up

that transition and make the best out of it?

So to me, everybody's situation is a little bit different.

I kind of grew up in a decent sized city for a lot

of their Florida.

It's not the biggest, but it's not the smallest, you know.

And one thing I always told myself is I want to go

to a big time university.

And the thing is, before I went to a high state,

I was going to go to Florida.

I was committed to Florida for like three years the whole time.

And it was crazy because, you know, coach Meyer resigned

and then I opened up my recruitment again.

And then I went to go see Coach Trussle and then I went to LSU.

When I went to a high state, I was like, man, this place is,

this is a real city, but this whole state is behind the city.

Like you get the feel of that the moment you get on campus.

And when I went to LSU and in Florida,

the cities, the states are behind them,

but it's more like country or it's smaller cities.

Baton Rouge is the capital, but it's still a smaller city.

We went last year in Gainesville.

In Gainesville is small.

It's small.

So if Florida, you could be for three different schools.

In a high state, you know, I know youngstown, you know,

y'all are the big dogs in youngstown,

but a high state is, they're bigger than the protein.

Well, you know what's cool about a high state here is,

everyone has their favorite team in the state.

Maybe they went to a youngstown state, bowling green, OU, Miami,

Baldwin, Wallace.

It doesn't matter.

But everyone's a Buckeye fan.

Regardless of where you went.

Yeah.

You're a Buckeye fan as well.

Yeah, so that's an advantage.

And that's what I love about Ohio.

So when I transitioned there, my dad talked

and we was like, Ryan, because I played,

I actually played defensive end in high school.

And obviously I'm not the biggest guy, but I played defensive end

and I transitioned to a linebacker.

So me and my dad talked and we thought,

hey, Ryan, the best thing for you is probably

to go to college in January, because then that allows you

the opportunity to get a step ahead of everybody else coming in.

Because learning a new position, it didn't clean in two months.

Like, because we would have been going in June and July,

then we're playing in August.

So.

He was teasing me for being two and nine.

That when I first started.

You know how much he weighed when he got to a house date?

190.

No.

That was one idea.

No, you weren't.

That's what I was saying.

He was, he was one 68.

Oh, no one was the one.

You were, you were, you were one 68.

No, Bob, when I was six.

No, I was, I definitely wasn't 200.

He wasn't 200 pounds.

There he is going to play linebacker.

Linebacker at the Ohio State, not even 200 pounds.

I wasn't even 200 pounds.

So me and my dad was like, hey, first of all, if I go in January, it gives me time to

get acclimated in the system, to learn, to learn linebacker at the position because I

never played it.

And then also, you know, gain weight.

But this is what people don't know.

When you're a freshman going in in January, it's totally different if you're a freshman

going in in June.

If freshmen going in June, you kind of eased into it.

And like you're not taking, you're not, you're taking

hard classes, but you know, you're, you know, it's only freshman there, it's only

athletes there.

In January, I came from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, it was 75 degrees when I got there, when

I left.

I landed in Columbus, it was negative 10.

Crazy, come on.

That's the transition.

Transition.

I transitioned.

The moment I got off the plane, you know, I got, I went on the plane with a short, because,

you know, we're young and you don't check the weather.

So it's had like a long sleeve shirt on some shorts.

I literally got off the plane.

We went through the jet wave and I was like, well, I got my bag.

Indie airport took clothes out and look like I have to put my clothes on now.

Yeah.

And, but it really helped me get acclimated of being away from my family, but also transitioning

to learning a new, a new role.

And I love the fact that I got thrown into the fire because it allowed me to learn a new

city, it allowed me to get away from my family and allow me to transition.

How did you transition in that?

I think that's a big part of just being away from home as a kid.

You know, you're homesick.

You know, how did you get over that?

Let's say somebody can't come in January and they come, you know, what advice do you give

them to transition into college?

One thing that I did and I've always been really good at is just socializing with people,

getting to know people and networking and things like that.

And I feel like that's one thing that people should constantly work on.

It doesn't matter if you're five years old or five year old, you need to not network

as much, probably when you're like 15, you know, but like, if you're a young kid or

you're an adult, it doesn't like the more relationships you build, it, I'm not trying

to say it helps you down the road, but it does because it doesn't matter what kind of

relationships you get into.

You kind of always have somebody to lean on.

And when I went up north, the people, not only people I knew were my teammates and my coaches,

so that gave me time to lean on them just like, these are the people I'm actually getting

to know.

I have to actually get to know them.

If I went to Florida or Miami, if I was feeling uncomfortable, I'm going home.

It was no going home.

Right.

You getting on a two hour flight, if my parents didn't have the funds, they're just like,

hey, you're coming back and forth.

So if it was a Thanksgiving or my teammates going home, I'm going with them.

You know, I'm getting spent time with their family.

If I was like, mom, I'm home sick, you know, she's like, hey, you're going to have to

grind it out.

You know, like you want to go that far?

They, it's going to, it's going to adjust you for when you get away.

And, you know, every kid feels like, hey, they're going to go to the NFL.

And I always felt like I was going to go to the NFL from the moment I got to high school

and me and my dad taught about this also.

It's like, hey, Ryan, if you go to Florida, when it's December, it's going to be, no,

when it's December in Florida, it's going to be cold as it's 50.

I was like, hey, if you go to, if you go to Ohio in December, it's going to be in the

teens or it's going to be below zero.

So if you go to a cold weather team, when you get drafted, you're going to be able to

adjust already.

So getting drafted, wow, talk about preparation.

Getting drafted from Columbus to Pittsburgh.

It was like, hey, I'm used to midwest weather.

But if I have a lot of teammates that go from getting drafted from Miami or South Florida

or Georgia, then coming up here, when the winter comes there, like, man, I don't want

to play football.

I don't want to be here in the winter.

A lot of guys are like, man, it's too cold up here.

That's why they go home so fast.

Man, me and Michelle, when the season's over, we're like, hey, we can chill.

We don't have no reason to rush.

If we want to go somewhere, we can go somewhere.

But that transition allowed us in that preparation allowed us to, hey, we can move.

We want to move.

We're not allowing something else to adjust how I move.

I really feel like those transitions in college really allowed me to be able to move more

as a person and grow as a person and be able to be away from my family while other people,

you know, all they know as their family, and it doesn't allow them to get out.

So even when it came to my wife, she's from San Antonio.

It was a lot harder for her to transition here than me because she got thrown into the

fire like I was in college.

It took me, I was there three and a half years and then I was in Pittsburgh.

This is six, seven years now, so it's 10 years.

My wife only been here for like four and a half years.

So I still have six years on her because she's still a transist.

And you had a team.

And a team.

And she didn't have a team.

I was your first hit when you got hit in the cold.

So I was the first, so the thing is since I came early, I kind of got weaved into it and

then in Ohio, in up north in the spring, it's still cold.

So we had spring ball.

And sometimes in spring ball is 30 degrees when it's supposed to be.

Especially early.

Yeah, it's supposed to be 65.

So that, you know, that spring ball I'm playing, it kind of like the first few games,

I'm like, man, this is sucks.

Like it hurts.

Everything you do hurts is, when you catch a football, it's like throwing a rocket.

So it hurts.

But it really helped me because when we had guys that we had younger guys and we actually

played in November or we played in October and it started getting cold in them.

They're like, man, I don't want to play in this, but I already had a spring playing in

that weather, even though it wasn't technically part of the season, we're still tackling.

We're still hitting each other.

So my body is already kind of adjusted.

What was that transition like coming from Ohio State to playing professional football

and drafted in the first round?

So, so, man, I always tell my friends I had a joke.

I told myself, hey, I have a thousand days at a Ohio State.

So if people don't know, it's 360 days in a year, 365.

365 times three is kind of close to a thousand days.

Right.

You know, so I told myself, I'm going to be there three years.

You know, and obviously, if I didn't play as well, I would have been longer, but I was

like, I'm grinding it out.

Grind cast.

I'm grinding it out.

You know, and I think being at a Ohio State really helped the transition of going to

somewhere else because Ohio State is unlike most big schools.

A lot of other big schools are down south, you know, don't have super cold weather or

Ohio State, Notre Dame, you know, the team of North, you know, they're big schools, but

they're not Ohio State, you know, and Ohio State is like an SEC school of North.

That's what I like to say.

So I was going against competition.

I was in a field calbular all the time, but we always had the faster team.

So it's like, if I'm going to be fast, I'm competing against my teammates.

They're fast too.

That helped me out a lot.

I would have been at 100,000 students on campus every day, then having the whole state

watch you as if you were a pro team.

Every game, it really is like, hey, help to transition go on to the NFL.

It's like, hey, I mean college is like this is how college was.

I just, I don't have as much guidance over us.

Like I don't every time we do any something, you have more guidance when it comes to college.

But when you get to NFL, it's like, hey, we are already experiencing.

What did it feel like the day that they called your name at the draft?

went first round. I was waiting for him to call my name and never call it.

They call George.

And I said, that was an amazing feeling.

That was an amazing feeling because I remember I had got hurt around the time

when it commons came and I pulled my hamstring and I ain't no running to four

three. So I thought I was going to go from I thought I was going to be second

round at first. But then when I ran to four three, I was like,

teams love speed. So I'm going to get drafted in the first.

Sorry about that. And when it was just an amazing experience because when they said,

Hey, Ryan, we want to invite you to the draft because we think you'll be one

of the people drafting the first or second round. So I was like, yeah, I love the

goes. It's an honor just to be one of the people selected. It's over 300 people.

And you know, it's only 20 people that they say, hey, come to the draft.

And the thing that was so funny is at the draft, I had took my shoes off because I

was because, you know, everybody trying to look fly. I had a bit stuff on and I had

bought some shoes, but it was too small. Oh, yeah. So I took my shoes off and I was walking

around and draft with like obviously, we in the green room. So people don't really look

at your feet. So I had socks on, but I was like walking around the draft room because I was

back there for about an hour when my shoes off because I was like, we got clowny, you know,

they, you know, they had my draft class was a really stocked draft class. So it was

a clowny, clil mac and all those guys. And I was like, man, I feel like I'm just as good

as these guys, but they have the, you know, they had a pedigree there. They're big, you know,

clowny six six runs a four five or something like that. Like obviously, I'm not that big,

you know, but I was like, hey, I'm probably going to go around 15 or later. I'll just

be realistic with myself. And so I took my shoes off and I was like around the 14th pick.

I was like, hey, all right, this around the time I'm about to get drafted. So my phone

ring, you know, my agent phones ring. So boom, somebody called him. It's like, hey, Ryan,

your body get drafted. And it was the Dallas Cowboys. And they had the 16th pick. So he's like,

Ryan, the Cowboys are about to drive through with the next pick. So it was the 14th pick.

The bears had to just draft it. So they, my age is on the phone. Then the 15 pick, the phone

at the draft rings. And no, my phone ring. And then I see a 412 number. So I was like, 412.

And the thing is the only reason I knew a 412 number was Pittsburgh is because I had two teammates

from my team, three, three teammates from my team. Jordan Hall, he's from Pennsylvania. And

Jeanette, they're like Greensburg. So they can have 412 or 724. So it then I had a dude on my team

named Pip Brown, then you know, to real. So I seen 412. I'm like, that's Pittsburgh. I'm about

essence. I answer coach, you know, coach Tom, I was like, hey, hey, Ryan, do you want to be,

no, it was, it was coach, coach, coach Tom, he was like, hey, Ryan, do you want to be a stiller?

Yeah, yeah. I was like, hey, you ought to be a stiller. You know, Mr. Roney got on. And then

Dick LaBurg got on. He was like, it was a, what's up, but guy, you know, it was just a,

it was a really cool moment because, you know, every kid dreams the draft in the first round. And then,

and it was super cool because my dad, we used to watch a lot of football and I was kind of like a

bandwagon fan. But we liked it as stillers because they always had really good defense. And my

dad was a defensive coordinator in high school. So we liked it as stillers. So, but my, my uncle,

who was at the draft also, he's a huge cowboy fan. Oh, so like my dad texted me like, hey, Ryan's

going to the cowboy. So, when the stiller is drafting, he's like, what you thought, I thought

he was going to the cowboy's, but it was just like, there's one to pick to lay in the rest of his

history. And I think this is the best thing that ever happened. What, what, what, one more question

for you? Because I got to know, when you, I mean, we could, we could cut this out if you don't want

to say it, but I got to ask, okay, when you, when you got drafted in the first round, there's,

there's something, there's currency that comes with that. If you get paid for being drafted in the

first round, millions of dollars, a hundred thousand dollars. A hundred thousand dollars. Yeah,

time, how many, you know, a millions of dollars. This is public information. So I know it's millions

of dollars. So you go from a house state, you went from not being able to fly home when you get

homesick to you answer the phone and now it's like, oh, millions of dollars. Yeah. How long did it take

for like the first big sum of money to get ACH into your bank account? So like, was it a month?

Was it six months? It's a little bit, it's almost like a month because you have to, you have to,

you know, sign the deal with the team. So you have to really sign a contract. You didn't,

you're not gonna get your money to sign a contract, but your agents negotiate with the team also,

because most teams, you have guaranteed money, your contract in first round draft picks from all

the way from like pick one to like 25 or something like that. Your whole first round contract is

guaranteed. Like once you're towards the later, it's like 80% or something like that. And a signing

bonus. Yeah. But yeah, but an exciting bonus. But, but the first round draft picks is slated. So

it's just, you don't, you don't really need an agent when you're, it is what it is. You're a

Ricky. Yeah. Now what is ACH? Like automatic. Okay. Put into your account. I mean, like,

you know what? Yeah, that's what it is. But what's ACH? I don't know. I made it up. I made it up.

Made up. ACH. That's so fun. Hey, he knew what I was talking about. From the young

sound Ohio. The

ACH. Show him your picture show him your shirt. Here is a shirt. Show the camera. Let me stand up here.

I want to be like Jim. It's a picture of coaches. There you go right there.

Face like like like a cartoon character says I want to be like, let's get back. Let's get back

on because here's the two lessons I learned. Yeah. As I listen to his, his

transitions, changes, journey, whatever you want to call it is. What a blessing to have that

parental. Yeah. Yeah. Foundation. Mm-hmm. And so as the first thing you ever said to me before,

we were going to do the one event here where you said, I think I might be able to grab a

couple of friends to help with with your event for the kids. When you started to tell me about Ryan,

the first

The first thing you told me about him was how highly you thought of his dad and his mom,

his parents.

The first thing I ever knew about you.

But to me, the message for the listeners, viewers, the world is parenting is so critical.

You know, and we hear about all these issues that are critical.

And I don't think we hear enough about parenting.

That's just me.

And the second thing, as I listen to Ryan talking about journey transitions and so forth,

is you need to have those experiences.

You had to figure out that it's not impossible to play in the cold.

It's not impossible to be away from home.

It's not impossible to adjust and to put on some weight so that you can compete.

So that preparation, those experiences, and so let's say now we're shifting.

I'm not coaching anymore.

He's moving to be a businessman.

And now we've got to go and get some of those experiences.

We have to learn about where we're going.

So we can't be afraid of the transition.

Just like when he got on the plane to come to Ohio State,

if he was afraid, he couldn't have made the transition.

Well, if you're starting a new journey,

you know, you go from big.

Snowboard will be a little bit nervous of that.

But even maybe even a little, but you just do it anyway.

Ryan's going to say that what they say courage is is, you know, it's,

it's not the absence here.

Yeah, but just being willing to go ahead.

And so being willing to go do it and then go figure out what's

going to take to be a college president.

I got to go, I got to go learn about how do you do that, you know?

What's it take to start a business?

What's it take to start a podcast?

What's it take to, what a transition for you to go from coaching 10 years

at Ohio State, playing, think coach for three national championships,

one, one, one, uh, to, to being a president of a university,

where before that you weren't doing anything like that.

So that, I mean, that is an interesting transition.

You talk about somebody that's just like somebody that played basketball,

going to play professional football and then doing it at a high level on the back end.

You know, it's like that's a major.

You don't see many coaches.

I think you told me that there, you know, when, when you looked up someone,

maybe he was in Washington or there was only one other person that was a, uh,

a, a president that wasn't through the education system or, or something like that.

So very rare transition to, to find yourself in how did you,

how did you, you know, what lessons can people learn from your transition?

Well, I spent 37 years coaching, um, then all of a sudden,

I spent two years as a vice president, which was like training camp.

It was like, you know, the university of Akron, Dr. Proenza said,

hey, why don't you come here?

You've been in higher education in the coaching world,

but I really think that you would enjoy going in the administrative level.

Ain't that well?

I'm gonna check that out.

Just like you're gonna check out maybe some businesses or you're gonna check out a podcast or,

you know, I'm gonna check that out.

I'm gonna figure out how to get good at it.

So I spent two years as a vice president studying the world of higher education,

reading everything I could read, picking the brain, going and talking to everybody,

um, just trying to absorb as much information as I could.

Not with necessarily the goal of being a president,

but hey, I'm in this arena now.

And, you know, whatever arena I'm in, I'm gonna be the best I can be in that arena.

And it ended up after two years timing.

We always talk about timing.

Timing happened all of a sudden.

The presidency at Youngstown State's open.

I had familiarity there.

Part of being a president has been able to raise some money.

Well, I knew a lot of the people that had some money.

So it helped me at least get a conversation.

And still though when you go from being a vice president to a president, that's a transition.

It's a whole different world.

So you just study the heck out of it.

But let me say this that I think is this maybe if on one end,

parenting's the most important thing.

What I think is the most important thing on the other end is ultimately,

whether it's the journey or a transition that's a hard one that you didn't count on.

You better believe you can do it.

You're not gonna make the NFL.

You don't believe it's by lifting weights and playing some high school and playing some college.

You've got to believe you can do that.

You're not gonna win the national championship as a team

until you believe you can do that.

Now, doesn't mean you don't have to do the things necessary.

But you can do all those things to prepare for success.

But if you don't believe it, it won't happen.

That's right.

It's not gonna happen.

And so, you know, for our viewers, listeners and so forth,

you're gonna have journeys.

That's life.

You gotta figure out how you can be the best.

You're gonna have things that happen that you didn't count on.

That you didn't plan for.

You gotta have the courage to transition.

But ultimately, you have to believe in yourself.

Believe you have to believe.

And it's sure helps at the front end.

If you had parents who gave you every reason to believe in yourself

and trained you up with the fundamentals.

One of the things you helped me with my perspective on

talking about transition that I think people would find value in

is, you know, we talked about, you know,

you leaving Ohio State after 10 years.

I think it was 10 years.

And it wasn't a plan, something that maybe was planned.

You didn't see it coming, you know, two years before that.

And so I don't know if you could speak on that or not.

But what I know we can grab from that is you told me when I asked you,

you know, how did you handle that adversity?

And you said, adversity compares to what?

Compared to a kid, you know, right now somewhere that doesn't have a good home to live in

or you started to compare to people that had it worse.

And your perspective on the way that you looked at that thing,

that happened that moment of time, that was adversity.

It was adversity.

But your perspective of how you digested that adversity mentally of

I'm blessed that I was there for 10 years.

I'm happy I had a great experience.

We accomplished a lot of great things.

And I still got a good offensive line around me.

I got people around me that are in my corner.

But my perspective was that a lot of other people have it worse.

So I got to check myself to say, I'm grateful for this experience.

And there's a lot of people that got it worse.

And I've pulled from that.

I've learned a lot from that when I've had adverse situations come up.

I've went back to, yeah, hard.

That's just an obstacle but compares to what?

You know, sometimes your adversity is another person's dream.

You know what I mean?

Your adversity coming out of Ohio State,

yeah, but somebody's dream was that can I coach there?

People can't coach 10 years period at that level.

It's so hard to keep a job because the expectations are so high.

Let alone do that.

So the perspective of, yeah, but I got to do this.

And that's a lot of people's dream.

And I got to play in the NFL.

And that's a lot of people's dream.

And that goes back to that old saying that it's impossible

to be grateful and unhappy at the same time.

So which are you?

You know, like you said, I got 10 years at Ohio State.

How many people get that?

So I'm either going to be grateful or unhappy.

That's a decision.

How many people get to play in the NFL?

A lot.

So many people can't even coach Lily.

Right.

You know, so

but I think that's a decision.

That's a decision.

When you're facing that moment of transition,

that's a decision.

You got to decide how you're going to look at.

Now, how you're going to view it?

Yeah, it doesn't make it easy.

Doesn't mean it's without pain.

And without, you know, I mean,

how hard was all this PT you've been doing?

Hey, man, you know, you can't even imagine.

But like you said,

adversity is in, uh,

adversity is dependent on the person.

You know, some people don't, some of our listeners

don't not all of them listen or watch football.

You know what I mean?

So, you know, if some of our listeners,

what's wrong with you?

Talk about what's wrong with you.

I'll probably lose half of the listeners now.

But, but, but, uh, but Ryan just,

we just had a transition in our relationship.

He just found out

that I was a Browns fan recently.

Yeah, I just, he was so disappointed in me.

I was, his wife, his wife, Michelle,

you know, I should have gave her a heads up

because I know it's a lot to take in at one time,

but I had, I was talking to a pastor.

I'll be for them now.

Next to me, and I was just getting ready to introduce

the pastors to, because they were a house state fans

and they wanted to meet Ryan and Michelle.

I was talking, I was getting ready to introduce them

and his wife was so shocked

that I was a Browns fan

that she started swearing at me

because we got that, we got that relationship already.

You know what I mean?

She, she, she got, she's a little firecracker.

She started swearing.

She couldn't believe it.

You know what I mean?

And, and then later he left.

I got to tell her.

I said, you know, that was a pastor.

They were so disappointed in me.

My wife was chiming in.

She's a Steelers fan.

I was getting said.

That was a transition.

But Ryan, you know, do you,

you were in the league for a few years.

You were drafted in the first round.

You played at a high level.

You were a starter.

You were leading, you know, leading your team.

And, you know, people may not know

even not everyone may know exactly what happened.

You know, to you, how are you transitioning into business?

Why are you transitioning into doing other things in, in, in business?

What happened, you know, do you, do you, can you tell us about, you know,

that what that was like transitioning out of the NFL?

What happened with that moment was like.

So, you know, the people that don't know,

I end up having a spinal cord injury, you know, football game in 2017.

The thing is with spinal cord injuries,

that is not common at all in football.

Not common at all.

Not at all.

No, not at all.

So, I think people, I mean, spinal cord injuries happen every year, about,

for instance, in the Pennsylvania area, almost like 1700 people get a spinal cord injury,

you know, in the round-end.

Car accidents, and what accidents and all type of things like that.

But typically, you don't get spinal cord injuries playing football.

But when I got a spinal cord injury, I got paralyzed from waist down.

And, you know, I just been rehabbing every single day since then.

But that play was, I remember you telling me it was like a routine play.

Yeah, it was not a major.

If you watch football, if you don't even watch football,

you look at attacking me like, whoa, that's not that bad over here.

It's not bad here.

It's like a regular tackle that I would.

That was not one of those, woo!

Yeah, you know, it was just a regular tackle.

And I made that tackle over a thousand times.

Yeah.

A thousand times.

And, you know, just,

what happened?

What did you fit?

Did you know at that point?

Yeah, no, obviously.

You weren't getting, like, how fast did you realize, oh,

shit, I can't walk.

Yeah, like, immediately.

You know, I hit the guy, I didn't.

Normally, when you talk to somebody,

you can like, drop your legs.

And when I hit him, I just dropped to the floor.

You know, and it was just super unfortunate.

You know,

and it was just, you know, a lot of times,

when it comes to sports,

you don't expect people to get hurt.

Let me say this.

Football is 100% injury, but it doesn't matter what you play.

Like, what position you play,

somebody's going to get hurt.

You can, if you break your pinky, that's considered hurt.

You're going to get hurt.

You're going to get hurt.

You know, but nobody think of it, that severity.

But, when that happened, it was just,

I was like, man,

oh my gosh, I can't believe this happened.

And when crazy things happen to people,

most of the time, and I'm just being honest,

you don't see it happening to one of the best players

that's playing the game either.

You know, obviously, you don't want anybody to get hurt.

But if somebody's the best guy on the field,

you really see that guy as the guy.

That's hurt.

That guy is the guy that normally keeps up with himself,

so he can keep playing.

You know, and-

What do you mean by that?

The best guy on the field,

like, keeps up with himself so they can start playing.

Most of the, like in Coach Trussle,

might know, it's most of the best players,

a lot of times, especially when it comes to NFL,

they do a lot of rehab.

They do a lot of,

they eat right.

There's a reason why they're the best.

They're doing these things.

They're doing these things to be the best.

And normally, you know,

guys don't get season in the injuries,

but a lot of times, the household names

are the guys that do everything possible

to make sure that they're available.

You know, and I was one of those guys that did that.

So when I got hurt,

it's like everybody was like,

How?

How?

You know, like how did this happen?

Like it was just, but you know,

then at that moment,

I just, you know, pray to God and just say,

can you give me protection?

Just watch over me and allow me to recover.

And I mean,

and now what was that recovery transition like?

You know, mentally, how did you get out of that?

Right. You want to talk about it.

You want to talk about a transition that's tough

to come out of.

You know, what and it's still,

we're still transitioning,

but but you,

your mental state,

your heart, the way you carry yourself

is very rare.

I think most people would be more negative,

more down, more,

more not being able to move forward,

the way that you're moving forward.

How have you mentally talked yourself through that?

What was rehab like?

Yes.

And then maybe dancing at your wedding,

you know, people told you wasn't going to be able to walk.

You know, like with anybody that's going to do something

in any type of transition,

my rehab,

and anybody,

most majority of people have gotten hurt in some capacity.

If you haven't gotten hurt in any way in form of life,

you're just living in a bubble.

You know, but like,

because you can walk on the street and swing or anything.

Right.

You know, but most people is going through some type of rehab,

some type of recovery process.

And it's mine is just like yours.

But it's just when you see it, it just seems a lot worse.

And obviously it felt terrible.

But I just always told myself,

hey, Ryan, the only way you're getting through this

is looking through to the other side,

thinking positive about it.

It like Coach Truss will say it,

if you don't believe you can do something,

it's not happening.

So the moment I got hurt, I'm like,

hey, I'm going to be all right.

I'm going to walk again.

I'm going to run again.

You know, I'm going to have more kids.

And you know, and in the day,

you have scary moments.

If you never get scared, you're not human.

You know, but in the day I just trusted y'all,

and I pushed forward and then every day I try to laugh.

I try to enjoy my life because I'm not going to live in a bubble.

I'm not going to just, just because I got hurt,

it doesn't change who you are.

You know, but every day wasn't easy.

No, every day wasn't easy.

That's what you have to understand, right?

You know, while you've decided,

you're going to have the right attitude,

you're going to have faith and you believe,

that doesn't mean every day.

You're going to have some days.

You're going to have some days,

you're like, man, I don't know if I want to do this.

I don't know if I want to keep going.

But that's when you have your family,

your parents, mentors, you talk to those people like,

hey, man, like I don't know if I want to do this no more.

I don't know if I want to keep rehabbing, man.

This sucks.

And those are the people that you lean on

in the moments that you need them the most.

And you're like, hey, this is what you said you want it.

Hey, this is a bad day.

All right, take this day off.

All right, let's get back on it tomorrow.

You know, and then once tomorrow come,

you feel like a different person.

Or sometimes it might take a week,

but most people, you just have to, not most people,

but you have to just continue to believe in yourself

and just continue to just say, hey,

I want to continue to get better,

no matter what I'm going through.

It doesn't, even if I can't play football again,

even if I can't tackle somebody again,

that doesn't define who you are.

The person that you are is the person that's

in you every day, the person that, you know,

that lasts at the jokes.

So the person that you're around,

the person that loves everything that you do,

it doesn't matter when it comes to sports,

it doesn't matter when it comes to coaching.

It's the who you are away from that.

Amen.

And I wanted to continue to be the same person

I was playing the game as I was, not playing the game.

Right.

That's my advice that I give to people

where I'm allowed to be in their life

in moments of transition.

I'm always in, you know, we're always in moments of transition.

But when it's my turn, you know,

to talk to someone I care about, you know, in that respect,

what I tell them is whatever it took you to be great

on the football field, you know,

like you were talking about success leaves clues,

you know, there's, there's being around president,

Tresil, you know, now for years,

as a mentor of mine consistently,

I just, I can see why you've been so successful

for so long at helping people win

because of the way that you treat people,

the way that you carry yourself,

the consistency, the work ethic,

still at this level.

He's far, still.

He's saying that I'm old.

Sorry, here you are.

Sorry, there you go.

I hear him.

But I tell you what, when Perm named this podcast,

The Grindcast, really, that's a great message.

Even if you have the right attitude,

even if you believe all these fundamental things

we're saying, it's still gonna be a grind.

100%.

You, you, so you never want someone to be great.

It's exhausting.

That's on my wall downstairs.

I got that from you.

Can you talk to us about what that means?

Like, what does it mean?

It's exhausting to be great.

Well, a lot of times we'll want to read a book

or listen to a podcast, watch a speech,

or whatever and get the answer that, you know,

oh, it's easy.

I got the answer.

Well, you might have gotten some good clues.

You might have gotten some good thoughts

but to be great, it's a grind.

It's exhausting.

You know, people talk about they want a good job

or whatever, I said, well, do you know how hard

those people that make it to med school study?

I mean, it's-

Everyday all day.

It's exhausting.

To be the best, we were just down at Oak Ridge National Labs,

which is in Knoxville, Tennessee,

and it's kind of the center of research and development

for Department of Energy, Department of Defense.

I mean, they're, you know, working on things that,

2030, 2040, we gotta be thinking about.

And they have their staff meetings at 5.30 in the morning.

I said, man, 5.30.

I mean, I get up early.

I'm not in the staff meeting at 5.30, right?

So what's on the weekend up for that?

I said, I said, why do you get up?

I mean, why do you meet so early?

They said, we have to innovate faster than China can copy.

It is a grind to stay ahead in the world.

So we're gonna meet at 5.30.

It's exhausting to be great.

You think the Steelers Browns game or the Buck Eyes,

Wolverine's game is a tough one?

How about the world scene?

The competition we have in the world now?

Because if you don't think-

Yeah, US and China versus the Michigan and Ohio State.

If you don't think that's a battle,

then your head's in the sand.

And it's a grind.

It's exhausting.

The only way that freedom, as we understand it,

and maybe take it for advantage, you grant it, or whatever,

if you don't think that's exhausting,

then we're not gonna have it.

Amen.

And so that's the same with transition.

We hope no one tuned in for some magic potion.

Yeah, take this supplement.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That it shrinks this every day.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bill, you'll be all right.

It's exhausting.

And I'll leave you with this.

My last nugget for you.

Because you do have to believe,

you better figure out a good plan,

so you better have good parents,

you better have good friends,

you better have good mentors,

you better study things, all that.

And we said, you better believe.

And here's the first thing I asked our team

at Youngstown State to do in 1986.

We'd never been national champs.

I said, we'll be the national champs.

But we don't have a chance unless you believe.

So I want you to memorize this poem.

And they're like, oh man, what this, this, this, guys.

Come on, what's up with this?

There you go.

Here you go.

Oh, huh?

Here you go.

It's pretty sour.

He's already down.

Perm, you ready?

Somebody said that it couldn't be done.

But he with the chuckle replied that maybe it couldn't.

But he would be one wouldn't say so

until he tried.

So we buckled right in with a trace of a grin on his face

if he worried he hid it.

And he started to sing as he tackled the thing

that couldn't be done.

And he did it.

But it's exhausting.

Exhausting.

It's exhausting.

But you better believe.

And you better have parenting in this, in our society.

You talk about a fundamental, we better get better at.

And that's why I'm proud of you guys.

You young parents, that you're going to make sure

that they do get the foundation.

That you're going to take responsibility for them.

That they really are a reflection of you.

Not how much money you make, not how much business

you have.

Your children are a reflection.

No doubt.

And it's exhausting being great.

So one more thing to that, because it just,

made me think of this.

So I remember asking you before, when you were going over

scheduling and how to put things in your schedule.

And what I needed to do, you know,

just spending time with this one, spending time.

And I'm like, well, where do you,

like, how do I fit that in?

Where would you find the time?

And that's when you hit me with,

it's exhausting to be great.

Like, man, sometimes I would have to meet players in midnight

to get time with them, you know, if I had to.

And I'm like, whoa, I thought I was grinding.

You know, I had one last night at eight o'clock at night.

And I'm like, midnight, you know what I mean?

It's crazy.

But you talked about parenting.

So, and you coached through being a parent.

You were coaching as you were raising children.

You were making moves and transitions

in a transition of being a parent.

What tools or tips would you give for someone that,

because there's a price that comes from being the president.

There's a price that comes from being the head coach

at Ohio State.

There's a price that comes from playing at that level

or coaching or helping others at that level.

What advice would you give for someone

to be able to parent and play at that level?

How can you do that?

How can you fulfill that responsibility as a parent

and still put into work that's necessary to win

and play at that level?

You know, I think most important is your children

have to totally be convinced how much you love them.

I mean, and that could be spending a lot of time

with them or not as much time.

But they can read clues just like you were talking about.

If possible having your children understand what you're doing.

So I was fortunate.

My kids went K through 12 in Youngstown.

So people asked all the time

after all those good seasons,

why didn't you guys leave and so forth?

Part of it was, you know, we had a pretty good situation

because when you're the head coach,

I always tell my assistants,

when you're the head coach, you can set the meeting times.

And so my daughter has an orchestra concert

or a little league game or volleyball match

or I can set the meeting.

Okay, now there are certain things that, you know,

during the season and so forth that we're hard to,

so making sure above all else they know you love them

and that you're spending quality time with them

and how do you phrase quality?

Sometimes us guys say, well, you know, honey,

I'm spending quality time.

You might not think it's enough or whatever,

but it's always got to be in your mind

that they are so crucial.

But like anything else, what you model is gonna be as,

my dad was the head football coach of Baltimore's College.

He was the athletic director

and he was the chairman of the Health and Physed Department.

Just a lot of hours.

That's great.

Right, he was gone.

But we lived on campus.

I could see what he was doing.

I could see the impact that he was making

and my mom never had a job.

So she was committed to us.

We were fortunate.

And so finding that formula and above all else though,

they gotta be able to look into your eyes

and know how much you love them.

No, you care.

And that's the key.

Because that's what people don't see.

You know, I tell people, all right, you wanna play

in the NFL, guess when did they play?

They play Sundays.

They're preparing Saturdays.

If you have a trip, if you play Jacksonville,

you're in Florida on Sundays.

You can't be with the kids at that time.

You wanna coach at Ohio State?

Did you ever coach on a weekend?

Every game's on Saturday.

Did you ever watch films on Sunday at all?

We had, we counted up one time.

We had between six and eight weekends off a year.

Six and eight weekends off a year out of 52.

Oh, so I mean, it's exhausting to be great.

It's exhausting to be great.

Yeah, I mean, I remember when I was playing

in the problem of my career,

I used to wake up at four a.m.

Workout, this used to be my schedule every day.

Workout, we wake up at four, work out at five,

get to facility at six.

We have meetings at nine.

Get to facility at six, three hours of film by myself.

Then, by yourself.

Then we have, by yourself.

Three hours of film by yourself.

Did you hear that?

This with people, these are the things people miss.

Six to nine, film by yourself.

I bet you there was people that wanted your spot.

Yeah.

That were not doing that.

How do you let someone that has what you have,

that has what you want and are where you want to be,

outwork you?

That's the stuff that leaves clues.

Like, guys are joining like towards the back end of the nine.

You know, so like eight, you know, they'll get there,

whatever.

But then we have meetings.

So the stuff I'm watching is already the stuff

we're about to watch as a team.

You're already ready.

He's all I'm already ready.

Then, after we're down around three,

I go, normally to like one of my teammates house

who has the therapy at his house,

I'll be at his house for two hours.

Then I get back home and work at,

I mean, then I do a little bit more therapy with my trainer.

By the time I get home is seven o'clock.

And then, I probably get like an hour.

Up before I am, back home seven o'clock.

Yeah.

Maybe later.

Sometimes eight, nine.

But then if I do get to see,

I usually see my son, it'll probably be 30 minutes.

He go to bed right back at the next day.

I get a little bit of time with him on Fridays.

And a little bit of time Michelle on Friday nights.

And then Saturday we're going.

And then Sunday is game.

And then it's, and if you play in the Super Bowl,

you make that so.

So the season is, is 16 weeks.

Preseason is five, four, five weeks.

So season, so season actually 17 weeks.

Preseason was what four, five, four, five.

Okay, so there's 21 weeks.

Then you got camp, which is four, a month.

Okay, so there's 25 weeks.

And then if you make the playoffs,

you know, there's another four, four, five weeks.

So you're talking about 30 weeks of that

where it's non-stop.

And then, so that's more than half the year.

And then the off season.

Then off season, you're still growing.

Is it growing?

So, normally I'll get myself,

because I go on in this cruise every year,

it's called a Bugger cruise.

And it raises money for cancer.

So I'll go on that cruise

since the end of February, every year.

And right after that cruise,

that's when I start about working out.

So unfortunately we didn't make it to Super Bowl.

We always made it to right before the Super Bowl.

So that's right at the end of January.

So I get a month to kick it.

It didn't march.

We're right back at it.

Back at it.

Someday I'm gonna get a job where I got a month to kick it.

I haven't had that job yet where I get a month to kick it.

Man.

You know, I know that's a really long time but you know,

I put that grind in.

For 11 months straight.

Yeah, I went you.

So 12 hours is half a day by the way.

People don't understand that.

They say, oh man, I had to work 10 hours a day.

I said, what's you?

12 is only half a day.

I had a man tell me, you know the secret to be in successful

is you only have to work half days.

That's right.

You just gotta pick which half the day you wanna work.

12 hours.

That's right.

You gotta put the grind in.

You gotta put the work in, put the grind in.

I tell people that are transitioning sometimes into what we do

or have played a sport at a high level.

I said, did it all wait, did it come easy to you

or did you have to put work in?

Did you be the best, did you prepare like the best?

The same type of things that it requires to be great.

Like I love which, I'll never forget what you just said

that the best players on the field,

there's a reason why they're the best.

They're preparing to be the best.

It's not an accident.

These are the ones that are doing,

those are what people don't see.

They just watch the thing and they think,

oh, he just must have been a beast.

They think, no, it's a grind.

It's up and forth.

There's a reason why success leaves clues.

Well, it's the same stuff that it takes to be great

at that level in that is the same stuff

that it's gonna take for you to be great in business.

It's the same thing.

It's the same thing.

Different game, but it's the same grind.

Same sacrifice, same focus, same type of schedule,

same type of commitment, same type,

all of that stuff.

And so, you know, for those out there listening,

if you're in a transition and you've had a period

of your life where you were very successful at something,

there's a reason why you were successful,

whether it was at ballet or gymnastics or football

or being a doctor or education, whatever it was,

at some point you had to go extremely hard.

At some point you had to make sacrifices.

At some point you had to grind.

At some point, there was a lot of that going on

to be that great.

And so, if you can just take that and apply that

to everything else that you're about to do,

the same results are gonna happen.

There was a book that I read by Urban Meyer above the line.

Have you ever read above the line?

So, I read above the line.

And the one thing that stands out to me

and above the line is E plus R equals O,

the event plus your response equals your outcome.

You didn't choose that event.

You couldn't really, it's like a lot of the events

are uncontrollable.

Some of them are within your control.

You cause that, cause an effect, there's an event,

but a lot of times, life's transitions,

event you can't completely control

or you don't even expect it.

There's no way to really prepare to have two boys,

two kids, two young kids.

I mean, I could tell you,

but you gotta live it yourself.

Pray for my babysitter me at a night.

She's gonna be watching RJ and Lion,

and Simon, and CNF.

She's gonna prove.

She's gonna prove.

So, this'll be her, you know what I mean?

She'll enjoy it, she's great,

but this'll keep her, you know,

she'll wait to have kids probably, you know, for a while,

but your event, your event that happens

you control the outcome by your response.

The way that you respond to things,

if you choose a positive response, CPR,

you gotta give yourself CPR,

choose a positive response, you know,

you just, you give CPR to that situation,

and you have to learn how to respond.

We watch Patrick Mahomes sign a half a billion dollar deal,

was it 500 million or something crazy?

But, but look how he responded.

When his team was down at halftime,

he had no points on the board in the Super Bowl.

Did you get paid that way if you can respond

to negative situations?

If you can respond to a hand that you're dealt,

that's not positive.

It's easy to respond to a hand that you're dealt,

it's positive, but the greats, you know, LeBron coming back

from down three to one in the finals.

So, that's how you become one of the greats.

It's, you chose that response.

Brady, I watched him come back against Atlanta Falcons,

you know, 28 to three or 28 to 10, something like that.

I think he threw an interception,

one of his first passes of one of the Super Bowls I watched.

It's the way that you can respond to negative circumstances

or transitions that you're handed in life,

that you are in control of your perspective,

you are in control of that response,

that dictates how well you can transition

into whatever it is that you're trying to transition.

And it's both things though,

because the event, if it's a good one, how do you respond?

In fact, success is a bad teacher at times.

I would suggest that it's harder to have the right response

to a good event.

I think there's something instinctive

in coming off a record month.

Yeah, coming off a record month.

Coming off a record month.

Or signing a half billion dollar contract.

Now, how do you respond?

You know, it's okay, you know.

And then I have another thing about it.

Most people, you're naming all these great guys,

and most people think, oh man, they're just so talented.

They're so special, they're so gifted.

Two of the best people I can name in the NFL right now

are not in the most talented people.

Who?

Patron Holmes is super talented.

But Tom Brady, he was a seven round draft pick.

So obviously, he didn't have to pedigree.

Six, I think.

Six, six, six seven.

You know what I'm saying?

I'll play it here.

You wouldn't get first draft.

You're first draft.

You can say it was draft.

You don't matter.

You don't matter.

But Tom Brady.

Wait after me.

But Tom Brady considered the greatest,

wanting the greatest quarterback for all time.

No doubt.

And then another guy, my name, he's gifted, but Aaron Donald.

Aaron Donald's not the fastest.

He's not the biggest.

He's not the strongest.

But he grinds every single day.

You can see his Instagram,

and then I actually see him grow.

Doug was just here in the podcast.

He trains with him with Aaron Donald.

He was just here day before yesterday.

He told me the same thing.

He works super hard.

Tell me dudes work ethic is impeccable.

Like for instance, clowny, six, six, two, 90.

I don't know how hard he works,

but I know Aaron Donald gets it every single day.

He's a short D-Lawman.

He's under size.

But he has three defensive champion, defensive MVP's.

And he literally can't be blocked.

He can't be blocked at all.

And nobody knows how to stop him.

And he's a guy that doesn't have all the pedigree.

Another guy, Antonio Brown.

Antonio Brown, he's not the fastest.

He's not the biggest.

He's not the strongest.

But you can't guard him.

And all I'm saying is, some of these guys,

they might have different paths.

But all I'm saying is to be great at something,

it takes a grind.

And it also takes getting used to doing the boring stuff.

This is what a lot of people do.

This is what a lot of people don't understand about grace.

They're used to doing the boring stuff.

They're used to getting used to a routine.

Because most people went again to a routine and I mean,

this is boring.

This is in front.

I want to do something else.

If it works, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Come on, say it again.

Run that back.

No, no, no.

You know what?

I wasn't with you long enough to teach you this one.

If it ain't broke, break it and make it better.

No, no, 100%.

All right, you just want to make sure.

No, no, no, we don't have for saving.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

I know what you mean.

I know what you mean.

But all I'm saying is, some of these guys understand,

like, hey, this is the grind that I have.

Waking up at 4 a.m. sucks is boring.

Man, nobody else is in the gym.

I have nobody to talk to.

But if waking up at 4 a.m. works, keep doing it.

Don't come in at 8 because you can talk to everybody.

You know, and that's what.

It's a boring stuff.

Doing the boring stuff.

Doing the stuff that's not fun.

Fundamentals aren't fun.

Yeah, one of the best lines I ever heard was the people

that succeed do the things that failures aren't willing to do.

Yeah.

Think about it.

Yeah, it doesn't mean there are more talented.

Like your point doesn't mean they do the things

that failures are not willing to do.

You're in doubt.

So you have to fail.

You're going back up.

You're willing to do the things that people

that aren't as good as him aren't willing to do.

I remember, I remember, there's a few times

I was in a work watching film.

You guys would like me how early you're here?

My mass six.

I was like, y'all can come.

I'm not tripping.

Because I'm going to watch it.

I'm going to be there.

It was like, all right, y'all come.

Two or three of them come about six, six, 30.

There for one day.

Yeah, right.

And that's like, man, I can't get up there already.

I'm like, why not?

I mean, I just go to sleep too late.

And I say, come on.

And I was like, man, you're right.

But the thing is, I go to sleep late and I still get here.

If I go to sleep late, I'm still getting here.

You know, at a day, I'm like, how bad you want it?

Some guy say, hey, a lot of football players,

some of them love the game and some want money.

If you really want the money, working leads to money.

And be honest, a lot of guys like, hey, I want to,

I want to let them get you.

I want this, I want that.

You have to grind to get that.

You can't just go out there playing football

and thinking you're the best guy.

I'm not understanding and catching all these pigs

because I'm lucky.

Lucky, hard work leads to love.

No, no.

So let's get back to Simon.

How did you feel when he changed and told you

that he wasn't still a fan?

Hey, man, you don't want to be in such a bad place.

Y'all love killing me.

I mean, it really hurt my heart because this is a theme

that threw me off.

It really hurt your heart.

I saw it in his face.

I thought he thought less of me after that.

This way hurt my heart because the thing is,

he doesn't tell anybody that's a bronze fan.

He doesn't say, he's silent.

He's silent.

He's a silent bronze fan.

But then when somebody say, hey, who's your team?

He's like, oh, I'm a bronze fan.

But he's not going to be like, oh, I'm a bronze fan.

You know, like, he doesn't wear any bronze.

He doesn't wear.

He doesn't wear.

Yes, I do.

I wear it here once in a while.

When he crossed the state line into Ohio,

he goes through his trunk and he changes his clothes.

That's it.

I keep it in the trunk.

I haven't seen someone wear one thing orange or brown.

Not one thing.

What do you see when I wear today?

What do you see?

I'm buying a whole brand new.

Just wait till I show up now for this.

I'm rocking it for like a week straight now after this.

So what do you say, Perm?

What threw his mind?

Yeah.

Yeah, what went through your mind when you find that out?

No, I was just disgusted, man.

It just disgusted?

It didn't want to be his friend anymore.

Just like, you know, and they, you know, people,

this is the thing with me.

When I found out people were fans of a thing.

Now that you have stiller stuff all around the house.

Yeah, I definitely am.

I'm kind of out here still there.

But he told me, yeah, I know he has stiller stuff in the house,

you know, not only runs the house, yeah.

Yeah, right.

No stillers gears up in my house.

I said, I'd never have a Steelers jersey on that wall

unless it was yours.

He said that.

He said that.

He said that.

No, so I appreciate that.

But the one thing now cool, it is a lot of people,

I don't get mad at them for being a fan of a certain thing.

Because you were a fan of that team before I met you

or before I was even born, you know.

And some people are fighting over and, you know,

just mad at each other about who they care about.

But, man, I grew up here.

This is where I'm from.

You know, this is who I support, you know.

So I don't, I don't really get mad at them.

I told Ryan that look at how loyal I am to be in Pittsburgh,

to marry a Pittsburgh woman, to be around your Pittsburgh self,

and to be a Pittsburgh, or to be a Cleveland Browns fan,

takes a lot of loyalty.

But he's like a lot of losing season.

Back to back years, I think we didn't win a game.

He's like a double agent.

Still a Browns fan.

Oh, look at you.

Okay, let's go off.

Let's go.

You look, you got black on now.

I said, I wear black.

He wear the yellow sometimes too.

Oh, so more yellow than Brown.

No Steelers care though.

More yellow than Browns.

Coaches are Browns fan too.

Yeah, but here's the jump over here.

Here's the difference.

This is when I get jumped everywhere I go when it comes to stuff.

People ask me all the time, who's your favorite NFL team?

Well, it's wherever my guys are playing.

No, let's play.

Yes, but I grew up in Cleveland.

And the Browns are my favorite team.

But as soon as I have, like I have Steelers stuff in my man cave,

I have a picture of Santonio catching the Super Bowl touchdowns.

I got pictures of Cam, you know, that he signed,

and that kind of thing.

I don't have a picture of Ryan that he signed.

But anyway, you know, Ryan left me hanging.

Come on.

But I'll be up in Georgetown.

So, but I'm for whoever my guys are playing for.

Absolutely.

My generic team is Browns.

Now, this looks like your generic teams, the Bengals.

This is red and black.

This looks like orange and black.

This looks like orange and black.

Looks like this is black and red.

I met it.

I don't know, like if he was a brown, red.

If he was a brown, red.

If he was a brown, red.

If he was a brown, red.

I was like, I opened this up.

Why did I open this up?

I was like, no, brown stuff.

Why did I open this up to myself?

Oh, man.

See how they do me, Perm?

What position would you put Perm at right now?

No, it's toggle.

No, free safety.

Free safety.

Free safety.

Because Perm always has the whole field in front of him.

Boom.

Perm knows what's going on all over the field.

He could get us lined up and we, I have him at first.

I watched Perm take a shot this week.

Remember you were with us?

We were with him.

Perm, look like he got shot in his calf.

He looked like he got, there's a hole in his leg like this.

Yeah, it was a seat buckle.

It was a seat buckle that the buckle was off.

You know, like when you buckle that he got popped

and we were traveling and we looked like he got shot back

at this thing.

It got stuck into my life.

I should have been like most people would have thought

on the floor like Christmas.

He passed it up.

It just kept going.

I said, I had to force him to go get butterfly.

I'm like, dude, there's a hole in your leg.

I had to force him to, no, he wouldn't go.

I'm good.

He put the thing on the thing and he's been running every night.

Why?

Why town?

He's the town of Y.

Youngstown.

Youngstown town.

Yes, sir.

Yup.

I appreciate you guys in your time coming on the ground cast.

Both of you mean so much to me.

I'm grateful that you introduced me to Ryan.

Ryan, you become a great friend to me.

Man, you're an unbelievable person.

We got some things shaking and moving.

Stay tuned.

Print labs coming a couple months. We got our printing company. We got some real estate company up in poppin right now

In coach you have to ask for a loan

You know you know you know, you know, we're at least porches

I need a loan from you

My portion by ten years old

Now we like that brown well how is it brown? It's not brown is gold

First of all Michelle pick that coming she won the match cars

Michelle's Puerto Rican 100%

Yeah, I can't be having it's blue. It was sky blue. Okay, go more style. That's so you so you know Spanish right now

What do you know?

That I'm sorry, I'm sorry. No, I'm not this video. So you don't speak no English

No, it's best. Yeah, it's been you guys. I'm sorry. I got do a lingo

Tratt coach coach you've met so much to me

Inventored me over these last years. I literally I don't think that I would be

The father I am right now. I try to do my best

You know, I don't think that our business would have had a record month this month

If it weren't for the impact that you've made in in my life just those couple hours that we get together

I try to not ever waste your time, you know

I try to always take notes

You know, I took I got like a book of stuff

I feel like you know

I could put together from the things that you've shared with me and impacted me and

So so many people I introduced a Tristan today

You know he's 21. He's killing in our business, and you know, I said indirectly

I wanted him to meet you because it's in indirectly

You've impacted him so much because so much of what you've given to me

I've been able to give to him and so much that he gives me credit for learning

I've learned from you over the last few years

So I just want to thank you even today. We're here Saturday

Yeah, you know Saturday morning and and you didn't have to do this Ryan, you know

You didn't have to do this and and to drive all the way up here, you know in the rain on a weekend

You're already working you're already grinding

You're going through COVID-19 as a president of youngstown state. I don't have COVID don't start room

I don't have COVID just so everyone out there know at least right now

I don't you never know day by day come on

But thank you, all right, I appreciate you guys

Thanks for joining us on another episode of the grind cast get ready as a new day

Count money man money that bridges by time told trying to hold a mum a beast