 put the headphones down, grab your helmet. I was like, oh, okay, here we go, you know? And it was like this, bam, like immediately, like adrenaline rush. We're gonna challenge the leadership and by the time we're juniors and seniors, like that's gonna be the standard. Oh, that is getting goosebumps, bro. Just thinking about that. You know, trying to win a national championship. The Heisman Trophy, NFL Draft, like, you know, playing in the NFL, that it was like, I didn't really have time to do other stuff. To think about the other stuff. And then I retired and I was like, it's community, it's neighborhood, it's family. Like that's what it is for me. And so we take those four students every year. We give them a four-year college scholarship and the accolades and the awards and like football became who I was and not what I did. 70,000 people either screaming for you or against you and having the type of pressure to know that for the next three hours, I have to be damn near perfect. What I didn't learn was how to get kicked in the face. So I'd like to have everybody introduce themselves, get the things started off hot. Let us know who you are, where you're from and you know what you're all about. All right. My name is Joey Harrington. You know that, obviously. Where am I from? From Northeast Portland. What am I all about? Man, played football at the University of Oregon for, well, four or five years. Spent seven years in the NFL. Retired and now I run my foundation, the Harrington Family Foundation and we give community leadership scholarships to graduating high school seniors from around the state and help connect them with mentors. Our goal being to find the next generation of leaders in the state of Oregon. So there you go. There's 45 years of me in about 45 seconds. Well, we got a post award at and it's dope because like you said, you've been doing the foundation for over 20 years now. And you have a lot of experience with the NFL, different stuff like that. And you have a lot of different angles to bring to the kids as well now, which I'm excited to hear about. But we got to hear about the journey along the way because we had you on the channel before and you had some of your own like PEs, some Oregon PEs that you had done for the foundation, different stuff like that. So I'm sure we could talk about that with sneakers and everything. We'll get back there. Yeah. So Northeast Portland, bring it back for me. Paint the picture, grade school, middle school era, what was it like? What was your family lifestyle like? What did you guys know about finances? What did you guys, what was the dynamic in the home? You have siblings? Yeah. I mean, you know, it's so funny is like, I didn't think about much as a kid growing up. Like we, you know, growing up in Northeast Portland, like it was truly like just like middle class neighborhood. Like we, there was a group of us, you know, like my core group of best friends right now, like Jeff was a block that way, Mike was right here than me and then Steve was two blocks over and Kevin over here. So in that five block stretch, we counted one time, there were 94 kids along that street. And so like every, you know, every, every season you were playing some different sport. Every Saturday you were up at all saints or you were down at Lowell Hurst Park or you were, you know, over at Grants. Like it was just like that, that childhood where, you know, my dad was a teacher and coach and then became a high school principal. You know, my mom worked, she was an architect, she worked out of the house though. Like it was just like we were back and forth that at everybody's house, it was a family, it was a community, it was a neighborhood. And like, you know, first time it would snow, like I'd call Mike and Mike called Jeff and Jeff called John and John called Phil and we all meet at the circle and play snow football. And everybody, everybody just kind of took care of each other. Right, right. You ended up at somebody's house for lunch and you call up and say, hey mom, I'll be, you know, I'll be home at home for dinner. And like, we never really, and we're never worried. You know, you never, yeah, I guess maybe as a kid, I'm sure parents worried, you know, but like it's been really interesting to see. And look, by no means, nobody in the neighborhood was rich. Nobody in the neighborhood was poor. And you just kind of existed in this place where you just kind of all took care of each other. And it wasn't until, you know, really going to college that I had the opportunity to understand how lucky we were. You know, like that is not the reality for the majority of people. You know, it's, and I still tell people, like, this is so funny. So that group of, you know, the five, Jeff and the Mike and me and Steve and Kevin, Jeff married his, Jeff married Michelle. Michelle and Jeff went to kindergarten together and then went to junior and senior prom together. Mike married his high school girlfriend, or his high school girlfriend, whose best friend married Mike's brother. I married Emily, whose best friend Erin married Kevin. I mean, it's just like this big, like incestuous, like family that I tell people about that. And like, you've got to be kidding. Like, but it wasn't, it wasn't any, I didn't know any better. I didn't know any different. Like that's just how and whether it was, you know, so I went to Central Catholic, you know, Grant High School was right down the street. You know, whether it was Grant or Franklin or, like, or, or Jeff, like you just, you just kind of had this, I don't know. Like there was just tentacles. It's funny because like, as you're explaining all this, I am like reliving the same memories of feeling because I, you know, I was born in 91, but like, I grew up in the 90s and I remember, you know, playing kickball out on the corner, racing down the street, playing 500 in the middle street. Oh, and how often were you down at the bull? Like at the Grant bull, just like play, or it snows. Like everybody was going down the hills on 33rd and everything. Like there would be so many things versus, yeah, definitely during high school, especially like, oh, we got a snow day. Like we're out the streets. Like we're just having fun. And yeah, there wasn't as many worries. And it's crazy because I don't know if it's because we're as adults now and we're so much more aware of what's going on, but I truly do feel like there's just a lot going on in these streets. Like these kids aren't able to just go out and have fun and they're more inclined to now like play video games to have a safer route or whatever it may be. Or the other thing too that like, you know, we can get into this a little bit is, but like, everybody is, let me say specializing, right? If you're a soccer player, you're a soccer player. If you're a basketball player, you're a basketball player. Like I played football in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball in the spring, golf and tennis in the summer. I did track, you know, on the weekends, on the swim team. Like it's a sport. Cool. Let's sign up and let's try it. Like literally like you're doing something different every single, every single season. And now it's like you are, like you are, whether it's whether it's just the makeup of neighborhoods, whether it's the way that kids communicate like, you know, hey, I'm communicating through phones or video games or whether it's just like the specialization of, hey, I got a kid who's talented at soccer. He's going to just be a soccer player from, you know, age 10. And I'm going to keep him focused on this path. Like, I don't know. Like kids aren't allowed to be kids. That's so crazy hearing you say this because I've heard this a couple of times already on the pod. And like I'm hearing people is like, what happened to just sport, just play? Like those type of things. Or like, yeah, I was playing this one sport and I thought it was my thing, but I ended up going to be a pro in this other sport. Like, and it's just crazy hearing these stories multiple times as the, you know, our generation, you guys' age and everything, like hearing it over and over again. And I don't got kids yet, but it makes me wonder, like, how do you, you know, with having kids, having stuff, like how do you navigate that and try to create that, you know, fun play type of environment for your kids? You know what part of it is just letting them letting them, I don't want to say dictate, but letting them tell us and listening. Like, I don't know, there's part of being a parent where you kind of have to guide. You have to say, hey, let's, let's check this out. Right. You know, and part of it too is like, you know, they may say, you know, it's like, it's like vegetables at dinner. It's like, yeah, I don't really like that, dad. Well, have you tried it? Well, no. Well, okay, let's give it a try. Right, right, right. And if you don't like it the first time, you know, hey, let's, you know, okay, fine, I can hear that. Make it a different way. Let's try it again. Like, let's try it this way. That's with cheese on it. Exactly. You don't like broccoli? Hey, now you like broccoli with cheese. The thing for me is I really tried to make sure that my boys got to play whatever it is they wanted to play. And it's funny because unlike me, they actually kind of wanted to specialize and not like, because, you know, I want to be, you know, at age 10, they said, I'm going to be, you know, I'm going to be Ronaldo. But just because like that's kind of, that's where their interests were. I asked my youngest the other day, I was like, okay, so soccer's your favorite sport, right? What's your second favorite sport? And he kind of looked, he said, nothing. It was like, nothing? Like you don't really, you don't like any other sports? He's like, no, I don't. And it's, and I got to listen to that as a parent. You know, for me it was, I could, I mean, whatever, whatever season it was, like I was watching football, I was watching basketball, I was watching baseball, like I'm, you know, I still remember being glued to the 2004 World Series. And, you know, Dave Roberts stealing third, stealing second base with, you know, two outs in the, in the bottom of the ninth against the Yankees. I remember, you know, I remember Jordan hit the shot against, you know, Brian Russell and, you know, swiping and by like, because I was just glued into those things. I asked my youngest, you know, there was a, there was a time, you know, it was about a, maybe about a year ago. And they were doing their soccer tryouts and the coach said to us, he's like, Hey, we've got a spot open on this, on the next team up for a goalkeeper, both my, both my boys love playing goalkeeper. It was stressful as a parent. Yeah. I remember now, or I realize now what my parents went through with me as a quarterback, like the, the heart attacks I gave them. But I said, Hey, we're, you know, we've got a spot open. Would Emmett like to, would he like to, you know, try and take that, get that spot? And it would require a little bit more, you know, a little more work, a little more, you know, stuff on the side. And, and I said, Hey, let me talk to him about it. I said, Hey, you know, you know, coach said this, this spot's open. They'd like to see if you want to take it and, and, you know, here's what it would require a little more work on the, you know, on the days outside of practice. And, and at night he said, Yeah, yeah, I think I could do that. I want, I want to do it. He comes down to breakfast the next morning. He said, Hey dad, remember that thing about, you know, the team was red two, like that was the, remember the thing about being the red two goalkeeper? I was like, Yeah, I don't think I want to do that. It's like, that's cool. I'm not going to force you. You mind telling me why? Like, so I can understand what you're thinking. And he says, well, if I go play on the red two team, that means that I don't get to play with Keon and I don't get to play with Matheson. I don't get to play with Jake and I don't get to play with Canon. And I don't get to play with all my friends. And I'd rather play with my friends than play on a higher team. I was like, man, you, that and like, you got it figured out. Like you're a 10 year old and you got it figured out. Like, so, so part of it is like shaping them and giving them guidance back to your original point. But part of it is just listening to them and saying, this is what I want. And this is, this is how I want my sports journey to go. You know, my older son, he's like, I want to play college soccer. And he said, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get there. Great. It's like, okay, let's let now that we're, you know, into high school, let's, let's make that happen. And, you know, he was at, he went to do a training last night and all the lights on the, on the field were gone or were out. And I was like, Jack, you still want to do that? And he looked around and his coach was over there. He's like, yeah, yep, I can do it. I can do it in the dark. I was like, okay, like that's, so two different kids, two different mentalities. Like one, like I want to play sports and I want to be with my friends. And the other, I'm willing to do whatever it takes, even if it's like, hey, someone's going to take, you know, I'm going to play goalie in the dark. And I may not know where this ball is going to, you know, come from. And the coach was laughing or laughing. He's like, hey, I may send him home with a broken nose, but you know, at least he's getting the work in. So for my kids, like it's just listening to what makes them happy. Forcing them out of their comfort zone a little bit, saying, hey, let's try this. Let's get you exposed to as many things as possible and then listening to what they have to say. So that makes me wonder too, like, because everybody knows, I mean, I'm a competitor. Like I want to, like it's just natural what I want to do. I've been like that since I was a kid. It's always like that. So for you, same thing, like top dog in college football, going to the NFL, knowing what it takes to be a pro consistently year over year in a limelight, not only just playing in college ball, but like everybody's eyes is on you. Everything you do, like you said, all those types of things. How do you like take all that energy and all those different things and knowing what it takes and then still like, let them know, like, hey, you, if you want to be great, you know, that's the thing, right? If you want to be great, you got to do these things, right? But how do you do it like in the smooth way? Because I feel like a lot of people are so forceful and then that's what causes people, or the kids that may not like the sport or like friction with the parents or whatever it may be. You know what it is? It's an understanding that their path may be different. You know what? And that's what I see too many parents doing is trying to force something that they want as a parent or this was my experience or this is what I want for you on their kids, right? As soon as, yeah, because I was, I mean, I was the competitor of all competitors. Like, it was, no matter what sport, no matter what, like I'm trying to, I played in the Furnwood Middle School Jazz Band and I still remember losing to Ocly Green in the finals of the Jazz Band competition. I was pissed. Like, I wanted to win at everything. But understanding that that might not be what they want and like starting from that point, right? Okay, starting from the point that it's not about me. It's about them. What do you want? Well, I'm not sure what I want. Okay, great. Let's try out some things. I'm going to help you. What do you want? This is what I want. Okay, great. Well, this is what it's going to take. I've been there. I can help you, you know, but you may not want to listen to dad or we can find, you know, so we can find someone else who can help you. Like helping to facilitate what it is that they want and they need, I think is the key, or I should say has been the key for me. And that starts from an understanding that, you know, what I experienced, even though it was absolutely incredible, may not be what they want and may not be in the long run, what's best for them. It makes sense. Okay, so we talked about the kids. Now we got to talk about you. All right, so what was your sneaker relationship? We're going straight to sneakers, huh? Yeah, what was your relationship with sneakers, you know, in middle school or high school? Like, you know, you grew up around here with some legends in the neighborhood. Like, how did that kind of go for you? Like, you remember your first pair of J's or whatever? I was 30. 30? 30. Really? I had just retired from the NFL. Really? I remember my junior year in high school, our varsity basketball team, we all, well, I should say we all, they all got the 11s. Okay. The black and white 11s. Okay. Because it was, you know, we had to have black and white shoes. Right. That's better. I was the only one on the team who didn't get them. Really? Why? What happened? My parents just said, we're not going to pay a hundred and some dollars for the pair of basketball shoes. Also, okay, so everybody had to go buy them and then you were like, no. Yep. What did you feel? You didn't feel no way? Um, I felt left out. Sure. Yeah. But part of me was like, I don't know. Like, I don't know. I don't know. Like, I definitely remember looking around and seeing everybody with shoot, you know, with the 11s on and being like, well. What was you rocking? You remember? It was like some random hoops. Something with black and white. You know, something with black and white and we had a swoosh on it. Yeah. That's, you know, but that's, like that kind of stuck with me. And then I kind of got to the point where it was like, I was too busy with, like, I don't know. Like I was so focused on getting to the NFL or getting to college. You know, playing college football, you know, trying to win a national championship, the Heisman Trophy, NFL Draft, like, you know, playing in the NFL, that it was like, I didn't really have time to do other stuff, to think about the other stuff. And then I retired and I was like, hey, I remember like that. I think they just came out with like a retro. I was like, oh, I remember those. Oh, that. Oh yeah. I'm like, now I'm going to get those. Like that was, and then it was kind of like, okay, well, I remember those too. Oh yeah. They had those. And it was like, okay. And then it was almost kind of like a reliving what I, what I saw everybody else have. Yeah. And then it got to the point where my kids, my oldest especially, was, was old enough that, you know, you know, it became cool for him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'd, you know, I'd have something on and, you know, like you develop the relationships. Wait, you know, I'd played at Oregon and, you know, with Tinker and all the stuff. And they would, they'd give, you know, the alums some shoes. And, you know, when they, I helped start, actually I was, I was one of the original 10 founding members of the pit crew. So when like, Oh, fire. So when the pit crew, you know, first, you know, first got their, their Jordan 3's, I got mine at home. Like so I, so I had those around. And I, you know, I'd kind of wear them every once in a while and Jack, my oldest, and then his friends would be like, Oh man. And it became a way that I could connect with, with my kids. It's like, Oh, okay. Yeah. You want to ignore dad? Okay. I'll put these on. And then all of a sudden I was like, Dad, where'd you get those? I don't know. What do you think about your biology homework? Oh yeah. We can sit down and do it. Hey, tell me about what happened at school today. Oh man. I hung out with this guy and then I, you know, I asked this girl to the, to the home. Like it became a way to like, to open a door to conversation. It's so crazy what sneakers can do. That's what we're trying to tell people. Like it's more than just shoes. Like a lot of people that, you know, care less about shoes. I'm like, bro, it reels relationships. It gets, it's just so many different stories behind a single pair of shoes. Like it's so wild, but I love hearing that. That's why. Yeah. It's, it's, it's a way to like, I'm a, I'm a parent of a teenager now. And, you know, if. You got heat though. Dad, can I get, no, I don't know. Save your money. You know, I'd be coaching, I coached this basketball team from third through eighth grade. And, you know, those last couple, those last year or two, you know, if, if I felt like, you know, the kids are being, you know, going a little sideways when practice or I want to get their attention, I'd throw something on them, you know, and we're to practice and be like, coach, where'd you get those? I don't know. But here we go. Hey, they'll cut out, right? Use your screen, set it up, you know, back to here we come. And like, okay, yeah, yeah. Like it gets their attention. And you can, you can connect, you know, it's a way that I can connect with, with my kids. Yeah. I hear a lot of people was like, Oh, it's so materialistic, all these different things. Like at the end of the day, if that's something that brings people together or gets your attention or makes you work harder, let it be that thing. Like that's how I feel about it at least. It's fun. I mean, it's, you know, it's definitely not like, like this. Okay, I got a problem. You know, you got, well, but yours is, yours is a, is a business. It's a, you know, it's, it's a livelihood. You know, mine is just a closet at home. It's like, man, I, I need to, you know, I need to slow down. Like, I don't think I'm ever gonna win. Um, but yeah, it's, it's, it's something that's been fun, especially with Oregon, you know, Oregon's relationship with Nike with, you know, Tinker was one of the, one of our first mentors for, for my foundation. Right. Um, it's, it's just something that's growing up here in Northeast Portland. Like it's just something that's. It's a part of the culture, man. It is a hundred percent. And I'm trying to tell people that it's like, it's literally again, DNA show. It's in my DNA. Like it's, it's, I don't know how to explain it to people. When they come here, they're like, oh, I see now. Like everybody got kicks. Like it's just a part of the thing. Like it could be some random person walking down the street with some crazy dope shoe on. Well, but the other thing too is like, it's, everybody knows somebody who works at Nike. Oh, for sure. Right. For sure. Like it's part of, I had, I had somebody say, and, and for me personally, like I don't, I don't want to thank before I say this. I don't own a pair of Adidas. Okay. Right. And, and you know, for me, it's not necessarily a sneaker, like all encompassing sneaker culture. For me, it's a Nike because that is, and I know Adidas has, you know, North American headquarters here in, in Portland and, you know, everything with Dane, but like, I'm about personal connection. I'm about neighborhood. I'm about community. I'm about like personal relationships. And I, I was with a friend one time when they had a pair of Adidas on and their mom worked for Nike. And they looked and mom looked at them and was like, and didn't say anything, but you could tell like there was, there was something there. Right, right, right. And, and later on, you know, the mom said something to, to, you know, to her kid and it's like that, that's hurtful because Nike is a part of, of, of what I do and who I am. And like, this is, this is something that's our livelihood and to see you in something else is, is, you know, it does something. And that was kind of like, yeah, like, man, you give me 30 seconds and I could name, you know, 10, 10 people, you know, it just down the street that are part of Nike and helped build it and have helped shaped it. And, and so for me, it's, it's that's part of Portland. And that's part of like, we talked about like my, you know, what was childhood like? It's funny. I told, I was driving through over to my parents house the other day. And I was like, Hey, Jack, there's, there's Peter Moore's house. And he's like, Peter Moore. I was like, yeah, Tinker didn't design the first two pairs of Jordan's. Peter Moore did. And he's like, Peter Moore, I've never heard of him. I was like, yeah. He left and he went to, he went to start, you know, try, start his own shoe company. And it, you know, it didn't take off, but right there. And I, you know, that, that was his house. And I went to school with, with his son, Hagan, you know, he was a couple of years ahead of me. Like it's, it's community, it's neighborhood, it's family. Like that's, that's what it is for me. Yeah. I like that. Okay. So take me to, like you was talking about in high school, you went to central. I went to Grant. Yep. When I went to Grant central was trash. Then they got better. I don't know how they was back when you was there, but take me through those. Trash and what? Okay. Football. Okay. In basketball. But we're state champs in basketball. When? Matt Santander. When you were, when you were, during your time. I was a freshman. Okay. Your time. I was a freshman. Yeah. And we had Santan, remember Gonzaga, Richie Fromm, Casey Calvary. Matt Santangelo. Yeah. So Matt was our point guard. And then Mike Doliak, who went to Utah, played with Rick Majeris and Keith Van Horn. And Andre Miller. Okay. He was a, he was a lottery pick to Orlando. So he was a seven foot center for us. Okay. And Santangelo was our point guard. I was a freshman. I wasn't on the team. Right. But, um, yeah, no, don't be calling this trash. We're state champs. You know, I'm a general baby. I gotta represent. Okay. So, uh, during this time, where did you kind of realize like football is your thing? And then like, when you, like, how was the offer process with scholarships and everything? Because there's a lot of young ballers out there listening, um, that are trying to figure out how to navigate. It was different. I'll say it was different now, or it's different now than it was then. When did I realize that football was my thing? Probably the summer between my junior and senior year. Okay. It, I was at, I was at a camp, I was at the Stanford football camp. Okay. Down in Palo Alto. Did you go solo or with the team? No, just solo. Okay. And I had a con, it was like one of those, trying to think of how to describe it. They played this game that it was kind of a rugby, football, soccer combination. And they just put the people into teams. And they said, and our team ended up winning the championship. Right. Okay. Right. And it was just this fun thing. And Coach Willing, actually Coach Willingham, Ty Willingham, pulled me into his office afterwards. And he said, you know, it's like you, we're going to offer, you know, we're going to end up offering you a scholarship. Okay. And yeah, you're a great football player, but like the leadership you showed in that game is one of the reasons why. Like you can be a leader on this football field. And I was like, oh, okay. You know, it just kind of clicked in that moment. Because I played, I played everything. I mean, I played like we talked about football, basketball. And it's funny, I learned, I learned something different from each of my, each of my coaches. Right. And from my dad as a young, as a young kid, I learned the love of sport. From my high school football coach, I learned how to have fun. From my high school basketball coach, I learned how to compete. Like learned like, you want the ball, you throw yourself on the floor. Like you better throw your body at that thing, because there's somebody else who will. And it took me a while to like put all those pieces together. And it wasn't really until like the end of my junior year that it's like, all right, this is, this is something that I could do beyond high school. Okay. So you got an offer within like that same like month in of that camp or like, was it immediate or? It was, it was, I can't remember the exact. So that was like your first offer. Well, I got offer from Oregon state, but that doesn't count. Okay. So you got offered from Oregon state. You went to the camp. You got an offer from Stanford and then when did Oregon come into the play? That's where you wanted to go originally or is it like? Oh man, this is a long, this is a long story. I'm here. So it's funny, like I ended up at Oregon. My dad played quarterback at Oregon. My dad actually started the first, he was the starting quarterback for the first game at Odson Stadium. What? Yeah. 1968, I think. That's when they had them old school jerseys. Oh, 1968, they had an old school everything, but like the throwback or was that before the throwbacks? Oh, no, no, this was like, I'm trying to remember. You know, I'm talking about like the high green with the yellow and it had the duck on this side. Man, you're talking, you're you're talking like 90s, 90s. This is 1968. I was ages like pinstrap bumblebee staff. It was like some green and some yellow. And that was it. Yeah. And it was all like this like wool or cotton or something. Oh my gosh. But no, so my dad, my dad played quarterback there and then was a high school football coach afterward. And he stayed in touch with his coach. Len Kazanova. Okay. So Kaz wrote my dad a letter when I was born. Today's partner is shopdnashow.com. Are you tired of wearing low quality gear? I completely understand. I made a personal mission to go out and find higher quality stuff and give it to you guys at an affordable price. And not only because of that, I have to wear this stuff every day. And I don't want to be wearing cheap clothing all the time. So I want to make sure that you guys know about it and our understanding that we have a lot of cool stuff coming out as well. Hit the link down below or pinned or wherever it may be. It's going to be shopdnashow.com. There's new drops every single month. I'm excited to see you guys in the gear. And now let's go ahead and get back to the podcast. Kaz wrote my dad a letter when I was born. And it was a recruiting letter, like offer me a scholarship. I'm sure he's a little bit undersized right now at seven pounds, two ounces. But we've got a great weight program. We can put some weight on him. And it's funny, that obviously became a story as I started playing. And Kaz offered him a scholarship when he was born. He was bound to be a duck. That is hilarious. But I wanted to go to Stanford. Or I should say like... Was it for academics as well? I wanted to go to Stanford because I had a hard time convincing myself. Or I had a hard time turning down a degree from Stanford. If someone comes to you and says, hey, Harvard wants you. You don't have to pay for it. Go to Harvard. It's like, hell yeah. Hey, Stanford wants you. You don't have to pay. Here's a degree. Here is literally like, we can open any single door. And I was like, God, how do I say no to that? And I told both Coach Bellotti and Coach Willingham that I'll have a decision made by... It was December, December 10th or something. And I was sitting there with the organ hat and the Stanford hat and the organ hat and the stand. Like in the mirror and trying to figure it out. Like where do I... And I remember sitting there in the living room with my mom and dad. And my dad said to me, he's like, look, you can't make a bad choice. But if you plan... And this is, you're never going to know this for sure. But in your heart, if you feel like you're going to live and work and raise a family like somewhere else, California, New York, Florida, Pennsylvania, go to Stanford. Because that degree will open doors. That will be worth something. You know, it'll get you an internship on Wall Street, whatever it is. But if you feel like you plan on living and working and raising the family here in Oregon, even if you have a mildly successful career, even if you barely step on the field, the relationships you build, the people you meet, the family you become a part of, will do more for you than a piece of paper from a school in California. And that's what it was. In the end, that's what it was for me. It was like, kind of like we talked about, like, this is me. This is where I come. This is Northeast Portland. This is Oregon. This is family and connection. And I said, you know, my grandpa at the time was 78 years old. And, you know, he and my grandma could come and watch every single home game. And, you know, my parents could come. It just felt right. And he couldn't have been more spot on. And it's like, it's crazy because the way you're explaining this, it sounds like you're talking to somebody who's like 25, but you're like 17. Yeah, you know, like that's the thing is, and that's the tough part about recruiting and making a decision when you're 17 years, you know, like, hmm, you know, let's see. When I get married and, you know, like, where am I going to want to raise? And again, it's like you have no real way of knowing that. But I think it was one of those things like you just kind of felt it. Like it was just kind of, it was just part of me. It's funny hearing that too, because like my parents had me when they were young, like my dad was 20. And so my thought was like, oh, I need to have a kid by the time I'm 20, like my dad, they bought a house, everything. So like they were having already these things going at this age. So like I was on that same kind of like 16, 17 years old already preparing myself like, okay, I got to do this. I got to prepare. What am I going to do to provide for my family? So I feel you on that same state of mindset of like, okay, because I want to play football too, like all the different things. It's crazy how you're like running through all these things at your head at such a young age. But it is good for to have those conversations and have those mindsets and those thoughts, for sure. Oh, I mean, it is having those type of conversations with kids, you know, is huge. It's like, you know, it's a funny and maybe this is a transitional. Our oldest, Jack, is, hold on, 14. And we just opened up his first investment account. Right. You know, like, hey, it's not too early to start thinking about these things. Like how do you want to prepare? How do you want to treat people? How do you want, like what is it that you want to do? Like it's okay to say at an early age, this is what I want. Okay, great. If this is what you want, how do you prepare for it? Mm-hmm. I like that. Okay, so you were destined to be a duck. Now, senior year comes. Yep. Would you ball in our senior year at Central? At Central? Yeah. We made the playoffs. Okay. See, I made the playoffs. That's about it. Okay. So you make the playoffs. No, we were, we were, we made the playoffs sophomore. We didn't make the playoffs as a junior. You're right. We weren't very good. Essentially wasn't very good. Then senior year, we won the league and yeah, we ended up like nine and one, 10. I remember when we did the last video, I had like, I think I had to look up a picture to pop up for the video or something. Yeah. And it was like one photo of you online at Central or something like that. Yeah, I'm sure. I can probably, I can probably think of what it is. Yeah, I don't know. It was, it was something like dark image. I don't even remember. It was like some, you know, back in the day, the cameras weren't as good. Yeah. But yeah, I just remember thinking about that. So, okay, so did you get an offer? Did you walk on? What happened? No, I got it. I got it. So it was technically still an offer? Oh yeah. No, I had three scholarship offers. Okay. I said one from Oregon State, which, you know, I wasn't going to go there. And then Oregon and Stanford and I chose Oregon. Okay. So you go come in freshman year. You had already been down there before. You know, what was it like? Freshman in college, trying to ball, trying to be a big dog? No, just trying to, just trying to survive. Okay. Like just trying to learn, like just, just like for me, it was don't step, don't be the guy that screws it up, right? And it's so funny too, because like, that's how, that's like the mindset. Like I'm just going to come in. I'm going to work. I'm just going to come in and work and just do, do the work earn respect and, you know, and then all the other stuff will kind of come. It's funny because it was after that after my freshman year, there was a group of, there's a group about five or six of us. Myself, Rashad Bowman, Wes Mallard, Justin Peel, Steve Smith, looking at, and not that we didn't respect the seniors, but like you have to understand where, where Oregon football was when we came in in 97. They had, they'd been to the Rose Bowl and the Cotton Bowl 94, 95, which were like these incredible, like out of the blue, God, this never happens. The Oregon had just been to their bowl game, first bowl game in like 60 years in 1989. Like Oregon was literally, like when you were born, Oregon was nothing. Like they were lit like a few years before you were born, they were talking about kicking Oregon and Oregon State out of the Pac-10. Like that's how bad they were. And so there was this, I don't want to say a belief in the seniors, you know, but like nobody would ever, I said to, I said to coach Belladio, I was like, why doesn't anybody talk about winning a national championship here? Like it's not on any of our goal boards. Nobody mentions it. Nobody's, you know, and when I do mention it, like people just kind of laugh or like scoff. It was like, like something's, this isn't right. And so that group of us as freshmen like sat down and was like, we're going to, we're going to challenge it. Like we're going to, we're going to challenge the leadership. And by the time we're juniors and seniors, that's going to be the standard. Oh, that is getting goosebumps. Well, just thinking about that. And it was, it was a process. I mean, and God, man, I will, Rashad Bowman, like one of the smallest dudes on the team, just but the biggest mouth. I mean, this guy would, this guy would challenge anybody. And he's like this little freshman just like, screw you, get out of my way kind of guy. And, and everybody had their own way of kind of doing it. But by the time we were juniors and seniors, like that was the standard culture. And we, we won the, we won the pack 12 or the pack 10, then, you know, finished top 10 in the country as juniors. And then senior year, you know, we ended up finishing number two in the country. Didn't, didn't get a chance to, to actually play for the national championship. But, you know, we were 11 and one and a couple plays away from, from playing for a national championship. And since then, since then that has become the standard for Oregon. Like that is the, that is, that is what is expected. Like, I, that's what, that's why when I say like Oregon legend, all those different things, cause I do remember those times of like, y'all was the first group that I remember seeing y'all, cause I was going to them games as a kid, seeing them play, seeing all this stuff. And I'm like, bro, y'all was really like changing the culture. And then, yeah, like you said, you had next guys to come and the Dennis and Marcus and all the other guys in between, like, and they set that same standard and they kept doing the same thing. And it was doing, you know, it was even a, who had ever had been a Heisman candidate besides you from Oregon? We hadn't had one. Nobody. And then we had what? Three after that? Two after that? Well, we got one more after this year, right? So, so I was, I was a finalist in 01 and then LaMike was a finalist in. Oh yeah, that's right. Man, was he 2010? What, he was a finalist? Yeah. And then Marcus won it. Yeah. And then both Dennis, Dennis is right on 100%. Oh, he would have, he would have absolutely won it. And then, and then Bo's on, on track right now. So yeah, I mean, it is. Look, like sometimes you have to, sometimes you have to blend it. Sometimes you have to put your head down and just, and just do the work. Sometimes you got to stick out. Sometimes you got to, you got to make waves. You have to challenge, you know, you have to challenge the system. You have to say this isn't good enough. I mean, and I want better. And, you know, you asked was like, was I coming in trying to, as a freshman? No, like those, those, that first season, it was just like, God, like I just, just earn people's respect and don't screw it up. By the end of that first year, you know, we looked around and it was like, this, this can be better. And we, you know, I'm not going to sit here for, for four years and, and just kind of swim in, in mediocrity. Like I came here, I came here for a reason. And let's, let's do it. Mm-hmm. So did you start, you started sophomore year? I started halfway through my sophomore year. Halfway through, okay. Yeah. So I played, I played the second half of my sophomore year and then junior senior. So I played 30, 30 games at, at Oregon. What was that first start? Like, what, that feeling like you remember that? You know what? I remember, I remember the first time I came into a real game more than my first start. So the first game I came in at halftime. Okay. Or just after halftime, we're at Arizona and we were losing. And it had been a couple of games where we lost. And I remember, because I was doing the signals, I was on the headphones. So Coach Tedford would be up in the booth and he'd call the play to me and then I'd signal it in to AJ and then, and then they go. We came out after halftime and went one drive and Bellotti was not happy. Mm-hmm. And he looked at me and he says, take the headphones off. Okay. And so I took the headphones off and he walked to the other side of the field, or the other side of the sideline and I see him screaming like, and, you know, didn't know that, didn't realize that he and Tedford were going back in. Okay. And he walks back over, he says, put the headphones down, grab your helmet. I was like, oh, okay, here we go, you know. And it was like this, bam, like immediately like adrenaline rush. Right, yeah. And I came in, first pass was a, was a 18-yard comeback over there, threw one up the sideline to, up to Keenan, up the sideline, I think it was. We ended up coming back and winning in overtime. Fire. 30, like 38, 35 or something on a last, on an overtime field goal. But then I didn't start the next game either. Okay. And again, came in at halftime at home against Dotson, against Arizona State. Okay. And that was the one that was like, we went, we were down, like we're down four, three or four with 52 seconds left. Okay. And we went 78 yards. And I still remember it, like left tom, 757 throwback. So half roll to the left. I had a drag coming across. I had a deep in cut. And then on the backside, I had a post corner. Okay. Marshawn Tucker was on the back, on the backside. We were going into the East End zone. Like I literally remember like, like it was yesterday. I half rolled, bam, flip the hips, touched down with nine seconds left. Okay. The place went crazy. Yeah. Right. Of course. It's so far up in there. But I stood there and it was like, and just took a second and just looked around. Right. And like that snap, I don't know what, I don't know what prompted me to do that. But like something said, take this moment and like just take a picture. Because this is this. Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. This is against Arizona? Arizona State. Arizona State. Okay. I'm like, because I'm like, 1999. I remember which game I always do when I seen you out there. Because I was a little kid when I was there. I had my big old jersey. I was just out there. Yeah. That would have been 99. Arizona State, my sophomore year. And then I started, I started from then on out. That's fine. Yeah. So and over those, like, and that was the thing too is like we had, I mean, Oregon now is just, you know, blowing people out. But we had, we had 10, 11 games, just like that. Whereas like, all right, like last, last second. Yeah. But we, you know, of those 30 games, we won 27 up. Okay. You know, I very clearly remember the three games we lost. We lost at Wisconsin to start my junior year. We lost at Oregon State at the end of my junior year. Oh, he's finding a way to get there. That was Chad Johnson, T.J. Hushmanzata, Jonathan Smith, like they, and then we lost to Stanford, my senior year. Like those are the only three games that we lost. But so many of them were just, all right, last drive. Here we go. But you do it once, you do it twice, and all of a sudden it's like, for sure, like, you know your plays, you know your routes. Well, but it's more than that. It's like, you just know it's, all right, cool. We got the ball like minute, minute and a half. Let's do it. All right. Yeah. Cool. Like, hey, coach, we're going to score. So get defense ready. Like, you know, like it's just like, hey, you know, fuel, what do we need? We need to get to the 37 for field goal. All right, cool. Hey, kicker, be ready. Here we come. There's just this confidence that, I don't want to say we knew, but we knew. Right. That's when you in your zone, though. That's like when you balling, bro, for real. Like it'd be like that when you, like everything is just clicking, you feeling right. Like it don't come like that for everybody in the whole season or a team especially. Sometimes you got one person that's really clicking like that. And it's just the team ain't doing well. Like you see that happen often. But when everybody come together like that and they all click in, like that stuff is rare. But you got to, like you said, y'all built that from freshman year. It's not just like, oh, this one season. Like, this is a. Oh, and that's the thing too. Like, I mean, I'm talking about Rashad. I remember we were at, we were at Arizona State my junior year. And that's, that's the game we won like 56-55 or something, double over time. And defensively, they were playing horrible. Like, I mean, this walk on quarterback for Arizona State, I'm not kidding. His name was Jeff Kron. And he threw for like 400. Oh my. He threw for like 480 and five touchdowns. It was, it was crazy. And Rashad got hurt that game. And he's from Phoenix. He's from that. And, and I was, I just walked up to him. I was like, and you know, we're down 20, you know, we're down 14. We can't stop him. And I just walked up and I was like, I got you. Like, don't you worry. Like, I got you. We got this for you. And we can't, you know, we came back and won 56-55 and double over time. Same thing. Like Oregon State game my senior year, it's raining sideways. I can't do a damn thing. Like I played horrible. And Rashad just walks up to me. He's like, you know, he's like, I got you. And sure enough, Oregon State had the ball on the, on the, on the last drive of the game. Jonathan throws a ball to the sideline. Rashad steps in front, boom, picks it off. He walks over. He's like, I told you, we got you. And it was like that, that back and forth. Like, hey, like, and that's, like you said, that's what was built over the course of like four years is, is that, that team, that, that trust that, yeah, that family. Right, for sure. Okay. So tell me about the feeling that you felt when you found out, like, I'm in this Heisman race. I'm in this, like, I have to do all these things externally now off the field, taking photos, doing all these different, you know. See, that was, that was before, that was before the season. So the thing that like, I feel like that's even more pressure too. It is, sure it is. They put up a 10 story billboard of me in New York City across from, across from Madison Square Garden. Like, and people said, you were either on one side or the other. It was either the most incredible marketing, you know, idea in the history of the world, or it was the, it was the, the anti-Christ and is going to ruin college football forever. Like, there was no, like, you were on one side of the other. And yeah, put a target on my back. Like, had we, you know, we played, we played Wisconsin at home to start the season. And had I gone out and threw, you know, three picks and we lost, you know, we lost by two touchdowns at home. Boom, game over. But, you know, went out through for, I don't know, 280 and a couple of touchdowns and we win by three. And like, all of a sudden we start just rolling. And look, it's tough. You can't say there's no way to completely turn it off. There's no way to completely, like, shut off all the noise. For like, for the reason you said, like people keep, the more we won, the more people were talking. Oh, for sure. Like, hey, the, you know, you know, where do you fit in the Heisman race? And what do you, and you can say, I don't care. I don't care. It's a team. But the more people talk to you about it, the more real it becomes, you know, I don't know if, I don't know if it's part of the reason why I played so bad against Oregon State at the end of the, you know, at the end of my senior year, but I knew, like, there was an opportunity, we were on national television, which was a big thing back then. Like, the entire country was watching. And this was my opportunity to say to the Heisman voters, like, here's why you should vote. Here's why I should win. Right. I think I threw for like 121 yards, like, you know, I didn't throw a touchdown. Right, right. And it was, you know, was it the reason I finished fourth? You know, probably not. Right. But I feel like there's a lot of politics in it too, though. Oh, I mean, this was, yeah, we can go down that route. You know, I finished fourth because, you know, there were other people that are better. And that's fine. But my whole point was, like, there is a pressure that exists. Even if you don't, it's a team game. Like, this is a team, you know, I'm only in this because, you know, because of our success on the field, which is true. But you still got to be able to, like, silo those things off. That's what I was about to ask you. Not only just running for the Heisman, but anything in life. I'm assuming that was something that you learned in that time that you might have never had faced before, that you was able to take things from and use that for later parts of life. So what do you think those things were that you used those different methods that you may have to have peace of mind or think of it differently or whatever it may be to keep you at peace as well throughout the process? You know, it's funny. I think there's something that I did learn and something that I didn't learn. Okay. I learned how to work. Okay. Right. I mean, I'm, you know, semi-athletic, six-foot-four, 200-pound kid from Northeast Portland. I wasn't, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't running a 4540. I was barely running a 5040. Okay, okay. I had a good arm, not a great arm. Like, there were, I learned how to work. Okay. And there's no substitute for hard work. Right. One of the things I didn't learn, and I think it's funny because, like, all of those, all of that success, all of that, you know, like I said, winning 27, we only lost three times. Every time, it could seem like every time we had the ball in the fourth quarter, we won. Right. We take a team that, you know, is, why were we my freshman years, you know, six and five or seven and four or something like that. And we're, we finished number two in the country. I never truly failed. Got you. Up to that point. Okay. And I think that that's an important thing for people to learn, especially athletes, is to learn that a failure on the field is not a failure in life. Right. And that's, that's something that, you know, I had this idea that like, all right, you work and work and work and you know, it all works out for you. You just keep working. Yeah. You just keep working. I'll work and pay off. Exactly. Like hard work paid off. Oh, great. You know, we lost a game. Oh, it was a bump in the road. Like come back and work harder and then you just get right back on track. And that's, that's not how it works most of the time. Right. And so like for me, what ended up happening is football because of all the success, because of all the billboards, because of all the interviews and the, and the accolades and the awards and like, football became who I was and not what I did. You're right. And I wasn't, You're not allowed to. And I wasn't able to separate the two. Yeah. And it's tough because in order to get to the NFL, you are truly like, this is what I tell people like, Ryan Leaf and I were talking about this a couple of months ago. Ryan Leaf, who was viewed as like the biggest bust in NFL history, right? Right, right, right, right. At one point in Ryan's career, he was a starting quarterback in the NFL. There are only 32 jobs in the entire world. Exactly. 32 starting quarterback jobs in the entire world. Ryan was one of the 32 best people in the world at what he did. Are you the 30, one of the 32 best teachers in the world? Right. Are you one of the 32 best surgeons in the world? Are you one of the 32 best construction? Like to get to that point, Exactly. It is like mind boggling how, how much you have to believe in yourself and how much like this, like the amount of work you have to put in, the amount it has to consume you. Right. Like there is nothing else, nothing else exists in this world, except this one thing. This is all I'm going to do. This is where I'm going. This is what I'm going to win a national championship. I'm going to win a national championship. Hey, you want to go to a party this week? No, I'm going to win a national, I'm going to win a national championship. You know, come on, come out with us. Okay, fine, great. I got to go home because I'm tired. I got to get some sleep because I need my eight hours because I have a workout tomorrow because I need to win a national championship, right? What I didn't learn is what happens when you fail. And not just like finish number two in the country instead of number one. Right. Or not just, you know, lose a game and then come back and go on a six-game winning streak. Like what I didn't learn was how to get kicked in the face and then to get stepped on and then to have the people who are supposed to be on your side turn their back. And that's the thing that I had to learn in the NFL. And it's funny because that lesson allowed me to come to the realization that football wasn't who I was. It was what I did, right? And once I was able to truly understand that, I played better, right? That's the irony of it is because that pressure to perform is gone. I didn't have to be somebody for somebody else. I didn't have to live up to this standard. I didn't have to, like, I could just be comfortable and happy with who I was. And also say, I'm a hell of a football player, too. Let's go do this. So I kind of went down a tangent there. But like your question of like, what did you learn? I learned how to work. But there was also something that I wish I would have learned. Or I should say like, I think if I learned it earlier, I would have had a more successful NFL career. Do you think it's, I don't know, it's hard, we're making our way to the NFL career anyways. But I feel like it's also the system that you're in in the other parts that go along with it. You know what I'm saying? For sure. Like there's other factors that you can't control. Absolutely. You can take 50, 32 jobs. You can take 60, 64 guys. Every, hell, you can take more than that. You can take another 32 who aren't on a team, right? Every single one of those people can go make every throw at any time and make like, like physically do everything that is needed to, that you need to do to be an NFL quarterback. You know, there's, there are three or four guys when I was playing Peyton Brady. Sorry to interrupt the podcast, but I had to quit question. Are you guys interested in taking your shoe game to another level, but you just don't know where to start? I built a full program just for somebody like you. The six figure sneaker head. It's an eight week program that takes you through all the steps that you need to know. We have a full community where you can engage with everybody else that's going through the same program as you have monthly live meetups where you can connect with me and other members on the inside. And we set goals for each other and held each other accountable. Also, we give away a free pair of shoes every single month with different challenges. If this is something that's for you or you're looking to take your game to the next level or even flip your sneakers to turn that into real estate, this is the place where you need to be. I can help you with finding loans and remodeling properties and getting yourself on the right path to become a millionaire if that's something that you desire. If this sounds like something for you, hit the link down below in the description and get signed up today. This is more than just sneakers. I want to see people grow and succeed in all aspects of life. Let's get back to the podcast. Peyton Brady Breeze. And probably a little bit bigger. I don't think he would have fallen on that group. Nah, he's in a good system. I don't. That could go anywhere and make that team better. Yeah, I'm just a stealer. But everybody else, and you'd see it all the time when quarterback leaves in free agency. I'm trying to think of something. Russell Wilson, obviously got traded, but goes from the Seahawks to the Broncos and can't just immediately recreate what is not the same. So yeah, there absolutely are other factors that go into it. But at the core, because everybody has the physical talent, there are only a handful of guys that can deal with all of the success and the failure. And that's what I think I wish I would have learned earlier. So what would you say is your quote unquote like dealing with it? Like what is your thing that you do to deal with it? Do you just tell yourself? Do you feel a different way now? Now? Or is it like? Now or then? Now. Well, now I've been through a lot of therapy. I was seeing a sports psychologist. I started seeing a sports psychologist and trying to figure out ways. I would say a lot of positive self-talk. For sure. I feel like a lot of people need that too, especially even athletes in all calibers because in their little area, they might be glorified as this person, but then they still battle with a lot of stuff with themselves mentally. And like because like you said, if I'm not the number one and still, because even when you're number one, you're still like I could be better and you're going to just keep kind of beating on yourself. And over time, it's just going to take a toll. And then eventually you're going to be like, bro, like I'm not good at all like all this stuff. And then like you said, it could change your performance. See, here's a thing like for me was it got to the point where because football is I mean, it's literally a game of like not just seconds, like milliseconds. Right. No, for sure. And I knew I was, you know, I knew I was not a football player. Like that, that didn't change, but I got into the game and I'd make a mistake. And then I'd have that, I'd have that dread and that feeling of like, oh man, just don't screw it up. Like don't do it again. And then if I threw, you know, I threw an interception. The next time I come back to throw a ball across the middle, I'd hesitate. You just don't, you know, don't want to screw up and hesitate for that millisecond. And now that what was an interception before, now it becomes a pick six. Right. Like, and it's that moment of hesitation that of just that. And it's not, like I said, it's not a, man, I'm terrible. I'm horrible. It's just a moment of self-doubt that is the difference between a touchdown and a pick six. So how do you get your confidence up? I guess I would say in yourself now in current time in life. Obviously you don't have to deal with that, but it might be other elements that were just like, you know, like, yeah, you mentally are there or working towards it more. But what is it that you do? What is it that you say to yourself? You know, I think it's just reaffirming that even if you, even if I make a mistake, like at my core, I'm still a good person. Right? It's, it's the idea of this isn't, this isn't no matter what happens, this isn't who I am. This is what I did or didn't do. And no matter what happens, you know, on the football field, at the school board meeting, like, you know, whatever it is, like this, this is just what I do. It's not who I am. I also think that, you know, there are very few things. I've found very few things post NFL life. There's nothing, I would say very few. There's literally nothing that compares to running out of the tunnel and having 70,000 people either screaming for you or against you and having the type of pressure to know that for the next three hours, I have to be damn near perfect. And if I'm not, I got to deal with it. And you're not, you're not a DVE or a lineman or something. You're the quarterback, though, and that literally everybody is watching the entire time. And that, that, that type of pressure, you know, maybe in certain professions that I, you know, I'm not a part of, that doesn't exist anywhere else, right? So for me, like the post football or the post NFL has been trying to find, trying to find something that makes me feel valued. Okay. Trying to find something that makes me feel like I'm doing something worthwhile or important. That's making it different. Right. Because like this, the life of the NFL is just, it's not, it's not real life. Right. It's, it's not, it's like this fairy tale exists on your TV, you know, for this tiny little snapshot of your, your existence on this plant. Like it's just this little blip that people just glorify and fawn over, but it's not real life. And when you're done, you have to sit there and, and you know, honestly, like, sure, people will say, you know, I remember watching you or, but at the end of the day, nobody cares. Right. It doesn't, you know, oh, great. I remember watching you. Okay, now I'm going to go and I'm going to work and I'm going to put food on my table and I'm going to, you know, deal with my family. Cool. You know, it's been fun. Like nobody cares. See, and it's, it's definitely interesting because like when I hear you say that, I'm like, okay, me in particular, I cared, at least I thought I did, because like I said, I'm from here. I grew up in this area and I went to those games. I saw you as a young player and when I was a young athlete, like my team was the Titans. So Eddie George, Steve McNair, all those guys. Stephen Dyson. Yeah, that was my favorite quarterback. But then when it came to the Ducks, it was like you. And then like when Dennis came, like him, and like I had looked up to y'all, I struck, because I played quarterback too until I got to college. But, but, but if you would have met Steve, right, you know, Steve was awesome. I mean, God rest his soul. Man, he was amazing guy. But you would have had that experience and then moved on with your life. Yeah. Right. But I feel like. But, but, but see, here's what I'm saying. It's like that interaction that you had with Steve would be this blip. Right. And then you go off and you do your, you're like, you live your life. And Steve, you know, or whoever it is, then has to go about like, that interaction with you isn't paying his bills. That interaction with you isn't, isn't, you know, isn't like, there has to be something that you find when you retire that, like that fills your bucket. Like that, that says I'm doing something worthwhile. I'm doing something that is, that I enjoy, that, that, that makes me feel good. That makes, you know, for everybody else, for everybody is different. Like, you know, for me, it's, you know, I want to feel like I'm contributing. I want to feel like I'm, I'm giving back and, you know, we talked about the, the community and then, you know, the neighborhood, the family. Like that community helped make me, like now, you know, I got to this point. Now I want to be able to feel like I'm helping to, to give, you know, to, to give back. Like that's what's important for me. But there's got to be something afterward. Yeah. It's interesting too. Cause like you said, you're just, I'm, I got to win a national championship. I got to win a national championship. But then at the same time, you do need to be building something else to fill that next bucket and preparing for that. Like, and it's hard to then juggle and balance those things. Because then you have like these immediate transitions in life and it's like, all or nothing, all or nothing, all or nothing. Yeah. And in the NFL, if you're not all in, then you're out. Right. And like, if you're not completely invested, like a hundred percent focused, like even like nothing else in your life matters, you're, they'll find somebody else who doesn't. Yeah. Yeah. Cause they'll be looking at your social media posts and everything like, what you doing? You supposed to be over here doing this or like, why are you doing that on your free time? Well, or, or it's just, you know, you, you make a mistake because you weren't fully prepared. Right. And if you make a mistake, then they say, fine, we'll find somebody else who doesn't. Nah, for sure. So, okay, fill in your bucket. This is what I'm excited to talk about too. The community, but not that, the scholarships and the community that you built in with those scholarships. You said you've been doing it for over 20 years now. So you got generations of students. Well, so, so that's, that's the funny part, but that's, it's an interesting story. Sorry, I got this again, like knee brace, like knee. I keep shifting, you know, shifting along. That's another thing you get when you leave the NFL is you get surgery. So I started, I started my foundation in 2002 when I was drafted. Okay. You know, I started with my signing bonus from Detroit and, and because again, like one of those things, like I knew that at some point, whatever it was I was done, I wanted to give back. I wanted, I wanted to do something in the non-profit world. I had no, literally no idea what that was. So for the, you know, based on the 501C3 rules, you have to, you have to set up a mission statement and you have to give a certain amount of way or a certain amount of money away every year to, you know, to qualify. And so we had this broad mission statement that, you know, we're set up for the healthcare, care, wellbeing, education, you know, of kids around the world. And I mean, it was like, you know, everybody, kumbaya, hold your hand, you know. And we literally gave, I'm not kidding when I say this, we helped build a science lab at a local Catholic school here. And we gave soccer, soccer balls to kids in Uganda. Like literally, like we were all over the place. Like we're, and we just kind of gave small, small grants. So was your wife running this stuff? No, this was, this was, I was literally drafted. This was, I was 20, I was 23. So it was me and my mom and my dad. And we would each take a chunk of what we needed to give away. And we'd say, all right, this is a project. And so mom and dad was helping on the back end with that type of thing. Exactly. And so I retired and I was like, all right, let's do like, you know, let's do the foundation thing. All right, let's go home. And so, yeah. So I walked in and to the, to the office of one of the guys, he was a president of a bank at the time, local bank. And he had helped in some of our fundraisers. And I said, all right, you know, let's, here's what I want to do. I'm retired. Let's make this happen. And he looks at me and says, Joey, I love your passion. I love your enthusiasm. But if you're telling me that the money I give to you, you're just going to turn around and give us a grant back to Boys and Girls Club, why wouldn't I just give the money to Boys and Girls Club? Right, right, right. I don't know. You got a good point. I'll call you in six months. And so like, and so I had to go back to the drawing board and like, okay, what is it that if I'm going to, if I'm going to run a nonprofit, if I'm going to make this foundation my post football life, it's got to be something unique. And I said, okay, if you think of me, if, you know, people think of me, what is it going to be? It's going to be an Oregonian. Left, came back, a quarterback, a position of leadership, you know, rooted in family and community. And so I came up with this idea of, and I call it, we still have this back and forth, our executive director and I, I like to call it a community quarterback scholarship. But people are the first couple of years people thought you had to be an athlete. So it's just community leadership. Yeah, but so what we do is we give four, four year scholarships away every year to graduating high school seniors from around the state of Oregon. Purely based on financial need and community leadership. What are you doing? Because there's nothing wrong with being a four point student and being on the honor roll and being in the national honor society. But again, it's that, it's that idea, like it's that Stanford idea. The kid who gets a 4.2 and, you know, is on national honor society and, you know, mom or dad, you know, or a lawyer in town, they're going to end up back east and they're going to have somebody who, you know, they end up at Penn or Cornell and they get an internship on Wall Street and they're, you know, KPM, you know, they're, you get their accounting internship and they're pushing a pencil for a quarter million a year. Like they're going to be fine. But my, my goal is I wanted to find leaders. I wanted to find the people that were willing to do the work. And so we give our scholarship based on, like, do you have an idea? Have you, have you seen something that's missing from, from your community? From, and, and what have you done about it? Like for so long, we have these, we have the discussions, you know, every year when we read through the applications, it's like, this person was part of this club. This person was part of this club. This person was part of the social justice club. This person started the club. Like this is what I see that is, that need, that our community needs, and this is what I'm doing. Yeah, I like that. And so, and so we take those four students every year, we give them a four year college scholarship. Each year, you know, those students, they learn, they grow, and they come back and say, hey, I'd like to, I'd like to, you know, learn more about this, right? I'd like to be connected here. So we have a board of mentors and those mentors are, you know, everyone from, you know, state supreme court justices to, you know, like I said, Tinker was one of our first mentors. He's not, you know, on the, he's a little busy, you know, traveling the world, but, you know, finance, design, you know, Wyden and Kennedy, banking, you know, literally all of the, the president of, of a winery, like things that are intrinsically Oregon. Gotcha. That we can help say to our students, all right, great. Hey, this is what you want. Let me introduce you to DJ and you want to learn more about, you want to learn more about how to run a great podcast. Like, you know, great here. You know, let me like, and just, let's, let's have coffee. And so these mentors just become a resource. They help open doors. They help them build relationships. They say, hey, I can't, I can't help. You know, I don't have exactly what you're looking for, but let me introduce you to this person. You know, hey, so, you know, this student who I'm, I'm working with, hey, they applied for your internship. Hey, maybe take a look at their application, right? And those are the things that you need. You know, it's that old, it's not what you know. It's who you know. Not for sure. And for so many of our students, they don't have the who you know for reasons of finances or because maybe they live in like rural, like Southern Oregon. And you know, they're just, they just not around, you know, they just don't have that network of people. So the great thing about like this program is it's a long-term play. You know, you said we've got 20 years of students. We actually, we're in, this'll be year 11 of the program. So we started in 2000, 2011, 2012. And you know, now we are having those students who have graduated, like you said, that are becoming established, that are establishing themselves in the nursing profession, in the marketing world. Like who say, hey, you know, if you have somebody who needs some help, send them my way. And that's the great thing is like, what started out as like, it was literally four students. First group. Dave Fronemeyer, who was the president at the University of Oregon, a former attorney general, you know, in our state and Tinker. And then, you know, the students parents, you know, we're sitting in a restaurant. And it's like, all right, you know, here we go, like one, two, three change the world. Like, you know, and, you know, they all sit there twiddling the thumbs and it's like, you know, so what are you majoring in? Like it's, it's turned into, you know, almost 100 people getting together for family dinners in the springtime. And to be able to see, you know, you know, my favorite example is she was actually just appointed to a federal judge, Justice Adrienne Nelson. She was the first black woman to be appointed to the state supreme court. And has now moved on, appointed by President Biden to be a federal judge. I will never forget like her sitting at table, you know, and I say, holding court. Like, all right, you, okay, great. Call me on Tuesday and we'll have lunch. And I know who I can, okay. But hey, don't you go, you know, you don't you go running away like, okay, you need to call me on Thursday and I'm going to introduce you to. So like, it's just like turned into this family of just people sitting at the table and just connecting. And, you know, that's why I tell the mentors, you know, when, when I asked them to be part of this program is it's, I'm not looking for you to be calling our students every, every week and say, are you doing your homework? I'm just looking for you to be a resource. Be somebody who can lend some advice. Be someone who can make a phone call. Be someone who they could, you know, hey, twice a year, just go get a cup of coffee and check in. Just let them know that there's somebody that's there for them. And that's been a really cool process to watch developed, you know, to start as, you know, 10 people in a, in a, in a restaurant turn into, you know, 100 people getting together and, you know, making sure, you know, like I said, like my goal is to find the next generation of leaders. And that can be, you know, that could be in Nike, it could be in nursing, it could be in farming, it could be in government, it could be, you know, but just making sure that our state is taken care of by people who truly care and are invested in our state. That makes sense. It just gets me excited too, thinking about like your kids could potentially like take this on and be a part of it. They're not going to make a whole lot of money out of it, but, you know, yeah. Like, you know, but just having it, you know, a part of their, you know, lifestyle as well later. Well, they get to, they get to see it. And pass that legacy, you know, when your time is up and this is something that could live past your lifetime. You know what I'm saying? Like this is something that you're building that's more than like you said, just those couple of comments about sports or whatever. Like this is something that's going to make an impact and continue to last for a while. Well, it is. I mean, it's, we are, our scholarships are endowed in perpetuity. So, you know, forever, we will be able to give, every year we'll be able to give four $20,000 scholarships to students in the state. And yeah, we're going to, you know, hopefully I'm doing this. How old am I? 45. Hopefully I'm doing this for the next 65 years. Right, right, right. You know, at some point, yeah, I will. 65, 55. I'm going to be late. I'm going to do some quick math. I'm 45. Yeah, 55. Yeah. But yeah, I'm hopefully at some point I'm passing this on and to people who truly care about not just Northeast Portland, but like who care about our state and who want to make sure that it's run by people who are invested. I love it. I love it. Okay. We're wrapping up. Okay. I know you got to go soon. Got to take care of the knee. I just got to ask a couple of questions because I know you was talking about it. Just tell them real quick what happened to the knee. So, give them a quick rundown. You want the, you want the medical version or the, or the, the layman's version. The layman's version. The layman's version. Okay, cool. They, I had three cartilage transplants. He's wearing a knee under. He's wearing a, he's wearing a. I only got two. He's wearing a brace underneath his. Yeah. I got two pair of pants that I can, they're like stretchy. They can fit over the top. Three cartilage transplants and then what's called a tibial osteotomy where they cut through my shin and screw in a titanium wedge to change the angle that my shin comes into my knee. Oh, okay, okay. Like where the bone, or. So instead of like coming in like this, they put the wedge in. So now it kind of comes in like that and takes the, takes the pressure off that. Okay. Yeah. Essentially like where the meniscus is at. Oh hell, I don't know. Right? That's why I was like, do you want the. That's like the pads that protect the knee. You're asking too many questions. Okay, I don't know. That's why I was wondering. I don't know because I had ACL meniscus so I remember like a little bit, but I'm like, yeah, it's been a while. Yeah, I don't know. I just know I got to stay on crutches for eight weeks. Okay, okay. Yeah, he pulled over the crutches. He was dedicated. I appreciate it, bro. Okay, final questions. These are the questions everybody always asks me. It's about sneakers. Hot round. What is the most? I can't really ask you that one. Why? What do you know? What's the most you spent on a pair of shoes? Or your most expensive pair of shoes? Most I've spent on a pair of shoes. Probably a couple of hundred bucks. A couple of hundred bucks, yeah. But then you have shoes that are worth thousands of dollars. So, I mean, yeah, so I've got the pit crews, you know, because I helped start the, yeah. But the one that, look, I don't know what the hell I'm going to do with it. Right. But Tinker was just like, literally, he's on like this paddle board, skateboard like rowing through the neighborhood during, you know, a Christmas time and he walks up to the house. He's like, here, just Merry Christmas from the, I was like, what the hell is this? And I open it up and they're the low, the, the 11s. 11 lows. The 11 lows, but they have on each of the tongue, it's this drawing that he did, one of himself and one of, of, of, of Mike, of Jordan. Fire. And they're each signed one, you know, one tongue is signed by Tinker and one tongue is signed by, by Jordan. That's crazy. And Tinker wrote like this little, it's almost like a little holiday poem, and then did like this little card with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, I don't know how much that's worth. His little cards are dope. Oh yeah. But like, so I, you know, what, what am I supposed to do? I'm not going to be wearing that. Yeah, that's probably your most expensive shoe for sure. Yeah. But I don't even know what that would even be, be worth. But, yeah. How many pairs of shoes do you have in your collection? In you say collection, like, things. So I'm just, I'm just, you know, shoes that I wear or shoes that I like collect and put, you know, I don't have like this, but I got a collection. I don't know, some people just kind of count them all. You know, I'll say maybe 50. Okay. That's solid. Yeah. That's solid. Okay. What is the greatest sneaker of all time? It's either got to be for style. It's either got to be the three or the 11. The threes or the 11. That's a good one. I like well for those. But for performance. Okay. Because like you put on a, like you put on a pair of threes. It's like, I don't know that I could really go out and play in these right now. Yeah. Like they just don't, they don't move like, like today's the greatest sneaker. Oh man. Man, they got some good running. Are we talking like running shoes now? We're talking like, if you're going to go out and hoop. It's up to you, bro. You don't matter. I'm thinking about this way too much. Okay. I'm going to say the three or the 11. All right. The threes or the 11. All right. Now final question. If you could have one shoe for the rest of your life, what would it be? It's going to be the 11. The 11th? Yeah. Because one, because I didn't get to have it when I was in high school. Do you have the concords yet? The black and white? I have, I have the jubilees. Okay. We got to get this man some concord. I got some, I have the space jams. Okay. But so here's the thing is like you can, you said one pair for the rest of your life, right? Right. Well, that's the patent leather. You can dress it up or dress it down. You can wear it with the tux. You could wear it with, you know, so like if I'm just going one pair, I got to go with versatility. So, you know, and it just happens to me that, you know, that's the one that's like, man, I still, I still remember the guys. Like, man, it's like I need a pair. Don't let me find out you got a pair next week. He's like, Hey, man, I just got a pair. I had to do it. We talked about it on the podcast. I had to get some. Okay. Let everybody know where they can find you. We'll link everything down below in the description, foundation information, everything will be down there. Yeah. So HarringtonFamilyFoundation.org is our foundation. We got our scholarship applications opening up here coming up in the next couple of months. We run a couple of fundraisers. We just finished our fall fundraiser with a barrel of bourbon, which, you know, isn't exactly this podcast, but we have our spring fundraiser, which like you said, I have four pair left. Oh yeah, you're doing the thing. So Tinker made a HarringtonFamilyFoundation Jordan one, which, you know, so I had, you know, I have a pair. I just found out Tinker made a pair. Like he made himself a pair and you didn't even tell me. So I get this box with six and one of them was mine. And I was like, okay, I got five for to raise money. And we're doing a, you know, getting ready for the fundraiser last year. And he's like, Oh yeah, I got this one too. I was like, where'd you get that? He's like, well, it's a 10 and a half. I had to make one for me. That's what's up. So yeah, we got that. We got, we'll have our Jordan fundraiser coming up in the spring time. That's fire. But yeah, I guess, I guess I'm on Twitter at what? What? I don't even know what I'm at. Joey, three Harrington or something like that. I don't know. Like, but that's how I'll find it. All the information for, you know, for our fundraisers. Cause that's, yeah, that's, that's the focus. Making sure we raise money for these kids. Okay, dope. Well, I appreciate it, bro. Thanks for popping in. I hope your recovery goes amazing. And, uh, however I can help you already know, just hit me up whenever you need me. Much appreciate it. Make sure you guys subscribe, like, download, all the different buttons. Leave a five star review on the podcast too. I forgot. I've learned in the link. You know, you're an influencer now. All right, y'all, we out.