 to the latest edition of Tell Health in Hawaii. I'm Vikram Acharya. I'm the CEO of Cloudwell Health, Hawaii's only all physician-founded telemedicine organization that's dedicated to providing care to all the residents in the state of Hawaii. We have an awesome show for you today. On our show is Greg Salas, former national football league player and University of Hawaii alum. Greg, how you doing today? I'm good, Vik. Thanks for having me on, man. Looking forward to chatting with you today and having a good discussion and dialogue. Yeah, no, thanks for being on. To get things started, talk to me a little bit about your background, where you're from, what got you into sport, and we'll go from there. Yeah, well, I'm 33 years old, born in 1988, but I grew up in Southern California. I played a lot of sports growing up, and mostly, and a lot of it was because older brothers, I always wanted to do what my older brothers were doing. So shout out to those guys who were kind of playing sports and letting me get involved and play some tackle football in the back yard when I come. But I just grew up playing football from a young age and I skateboarded, I played baseball, I did a lot of outdoor things because I had a lot of energy. So my parents liked to put me in organized sports and I was fortunate enough to receive a few scholarship offers and chose the University of Hawaii. Ultimately, probably the best decision of my life, met my wife here, we have kids, things worked out. So came over here in 2006 and played for four years here and had a solid career and then ended up in the NFL getting to get Harry my name called. And yeah, now I'm post-NFL career, working for Learfield, representing the multimedia rights and corporate partnerships here at the University of Hawaii. So back at my alma mater and yeah, living life. But that's kind of how I got started in sports and that's kind of just my general background. That's very cool. What was it like growing up, training as an athlete? Obviously there's a lot of physical preparation, daily regimens, what was it like when you were practicing, getting on the field? What was it like? Yeah, you know, I say back in my day, Jesus, that sounds weird to say, but at times it changed the sports culture and I guess training regimen and I think we'll talk about this, the mental aspects of sports, it's changed a lot where it's a lot more specified. It's a lot more intense than, you know, people with their social media is involved now and there's a lot of other factors that get into it. You know, I pulled around some heavy weights and ran with a little bit of a parachute on my back and that was speed training. Now it's so much more science focused and they really dial into the things you can do and even for these high school kids, man, they're really doing cutting edge, top edge, resistance and speed training. But yeah, that was it. You know, you kind of just, you had talent and you did things and you practice and you try to learn from people ahead of you and get blessed with some coaches that can instill some knowledge in you. But, you know, preparing back then was, you know, not the same as it is now. You know, I ran some cone drills and stuff in high school to get me prepared, but you know, as you progress and go up levels, you can see the different types of training you can do. So yeah, it's intense for sure to say the least. You, it sounds like you played a lot of different sports growing up, but you ended up going with football. What was it about football that was your pick? I guess natural selection. You know, football chose me, probably if I was better at another sport, maybe I would have chose that one, but no, football just seemed natural. And you know, maybe because I was scared to get hit, I ran away and dodged people really well. Yeah, it just came natural. I, you know, I think I had, you know, some speed and some natural talent and some, you know, some ability to catch the hands and judge ballhand eye coordination that just ended up working out for me. And you know, I ended up really enjoying and connecting with, you know, my family and my dad and my mother was a big football fan and my brother's over football on Sundays, right? We get to wake up and watch some football on Sundays and then our Pop Warner games were a little bit later in the day. So we wake up, watch some football, eat some breakfast and then, you know, get off to your Pop Warner game. And that was kind of our weekends back in the day. But yeah, I have to say that that was just the sport I was most naturally gifted at, you know, for sure. Yeah. Now, when you're finishing high school, obviously you're a great athlete. You have a lot of options in terms of where to go to school. Well, what brought you to University of Hawaii? Well, I really didn't have that many options. I had to be, but I got lucky later on, you know, I was a late developer. I was a late bloomer. You know, I didn't really grow into my body and mature until, you know, at the end of my junior year and I ended up growing about six inches over summer. I had a really big, big growth spurt, you know, and then my senior year, I was able to put some stuff together because you usually get noticed a little bit early on in your career, you know, as a sophomore and junior. I didn't start as a sophomore. I didn't start as a freshman. I didn't start as a junior until halfway through the year. So my senior year was kind of my coming out party and was fortunate enough to get on the radar of the University of Hawaii kind of by force. We put a lot of highlights out there and sent them to a lot of schools and had a lot of help with that from family friends. So yeah, just fortunate to end up them offering me and that was the first division one offer I got. So I already knew, you know, I already kind of had an affinity towards Hawaii. Just the beauty, natural beauty had never been before. And then once they offered me, that was I was all in already at that point. So yeah, easy decision for me. Once you landed, you're like, this is where I wanna be, huh? Yeah, you know, we took a trip out there and my parents came with me and, you know, we're all excited. This is my first, you know, college recruiting trip and the coach just pick you up and show you around and treat you nice. You get to see the campus and do all those fun things. And, you know, I think I've always, you know, I loved surfing growing up. I surfed in high school with my friends back home, you know, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach. So yeah, once we got here, I was like, wow, I can come, you know, my father was really adamant that I get out of Chino, out of California, out of Southern California and, you know, kind of explore other cultures and get a, you know, a real college experience. So, you know, he jokes around that he wanted me to go to a place where I couldn't just drive home. So he shipped me off out into the Pacific Ocean. And no, things worked out. I really benefited from that and grew up a lot in those years. When you're in division one, top tier program, playing on the football team, there's a lot of expectations, not only on the field, but also academically. Now, how were you able to balance all of that throughout your time at UH? Yeah, well, I wish I did a better job, honestly. I think that's why I ended up after my playing career going to pursue my MBA because, you know, I really didn't, you know, it is a lot. You know, it is, you're called a student athlete, but really, you know, I was there majoring in football. I really was at a lot of time and dedicated to pursuing my dreams there. I was still, I still graduated and did, you know, I would say almost, I almost did the bare minimum, which I always caution players against because you have a real finite time to really maximize this opportunity. It's a grind, but it's the funnest part and the part you look back on and never regret. But yeah, you just got to focus. There's a lot of focus, you know, the football part kind of takes care of itself when you're doing the right things, but obviously you still have to be eligible and take care of everything in the classroom to make sure you're able to play on Saturdays. And, you know, I try to tell when I come back and talk to players, high school players, college players right now, I tell them to focus, especially in the classroom, you know, take the time right now. You're here for four years already, here four to five years. Take the time, really focus on a degree that you're going to be interested in once you're done with college because you don't want to graduate and, you know, end up realizing you wanted to focus on something else. So, and majority of them are not going to make it to the next level. Very fortunate that it worked out for me, but a majority of players, you know, the 1% of the 1% that gets it caused, the 1% of the 1% are going to make it to the NFL or whatever, you know, professional sport they're going to make it in. So I always have a heavy emphasis on education because I see the value in what it can do for someone post-athletics because it's going to be, I'm sure we'll talk about this again, the mental part, but you go from, this is your identity, you're an athlete, everyone wants to talk to you because you're a football player. That ends, you know, for a lot of people at the end of college, that's it. You know, you can't play football anymore. That's for sure. You can play pickleball, you know, some basketball, you can play golf, you can do all these other things, but football ends, especially organized football, tackle football. When that's done, it's done. And it takes the transition period to get acclimated to that. You know, you mentioned the importance of mental health and it's mental health awareness month. Mental health is a very significant subject right now in terms of people getting access to the care they need. When you were training, when you were in college at UH as well as in the pros, how much emphasis was there on mental health compared to now when you talk to athletes? Yeah, you know, I wouldn't say there was a real focus on it at all when I was, you know, going through high school, college. Once I got to the NFL, towards the end, so I entered the NFL in 2011. And I'd say around 2015, 2016, you can really see, obviously sports science starts playing a huge role in, you know, making sure the body is maximized, but also mentally, where we actually have a team psychologist there for you. Especially when you're on the East Coast, if anybody on the East Coast is, you know, you come from, especially for me, I came from Hawaii from California where, you know, it can be sunny, you know, 90% of the time, but you go to the East Coast and you're now in New York, Philadelphia, Foxboro, you know, these places, you know, it can be dark out up until, you know, 9 a.m. and then it's dark by 4 p.m., you know, 3.30 p.m., especially on some of those bad winter days. So they kind of know the effects of, you know, sunlight and they start to do those things, but, you know, that can really drain on somebody, not just that, but also the pressures of football, but, you know, be mentally sharp, you take all this time to prepare your body, you got to make sure you take the same amount of time, if not more, to make sure your mind is right. Are there any coaches in particular that were really good about saying, look, you know, we want to make sure you're just as focused and good physically as you are mentally when you were in the pros? Yeah, I think all the coaches, you know, understood for the most part, and that's where the team, you know, the whole setup of an organization comes into play, right? Because, you know, it can be head coach driven, it can be, you know, organizationally driven from owners. So yeah, like I said, you can kind of see that trend. I'm sure everybody has a sports psychologist on, in every organization now, because of the importance of it now. I think it was just an underappreciated segment that was underrepresented in professional sports and even college sports. You can just see the difference, even now here at the University of Hawaii. You know, when I played here, there was less emphasis on it, but now there is more emphasis where there's safe spaces to talk. You can go talk to counselors at any time. So they want to make sure that you take part of the area yourself mentally and especially professional sports, so much of the game is won in preparation and in film study. And, you know, using your mental capacity more so than your physical capacity because you got to make sure you can recover during the week to perform again the following weekend. So the mental aspect of it is huge. I say in professional sports, that's kind of the biggest difference is, you know, how you're able to adapt mentally, more so than physically. Yeah. Let's talk through that a little bit. During the week, what types of mental exercises or mental health related activities are being done by professional football players? Because a lot of the week is a lot of, like you said, it's not a mental, it's not a film study, it's a lot of preparation, which is not physical, but it's more mental, right? Yeah, well, I guess it really depends on the individual, right? If we're really talking about, if we're talking about preparing and kind of what are your habits, your good habits for preparing for an opponent that week, that's a completely separate issue. I'd say from if someone's struggling mentally or whatever the case may be, that people are going through all different types of things, no one really knows what's going on in each individual's life, right? They can have family issues, they can be struggling to make the correct financial decisions, they can have relationship issues, could be a number of things. And if you're not taking care of those things and getting the help you need for that, then it's not gonna take care of itself on the field. You're gonna struggle on that aspect more than likely. So I know now there's more emphasis, there's more opportunity for players to speak to people. I've been retired now for about five, six years, so I can't really speak to the opportunities that are, because I just don't have any firsthand knowledge anymore, but like I said, towards the end of my playing career, they had a sports psychologist there, 24-7 for you to speak to. Mm-hmm. Now, when you're mentoring younger athletes or people who say, I wanna play in the NFL, I wanna play at UH, what types of mental advice do you give them to keep persevering around resilience, around mental health? What advice do you give? You know, it's different. You can see the way people are on certain paths and without knowing too much. Sometimes it's very surface when I'm speaking to people without really getting into what can really be causing them to tick or why they're making certain decisions, right? You're just kind of talking to people in general, but the people that I have had an opportunity, you just try to find out a little bit more about what's going on in their life, more personal stuff. They're upbringing, there's circumstances now, so you can get a better feel for who they are and how they're coping with things. And you just wanna make sure that they're taking care of themselves, right? I think you always gotta take care of yourselves first and foremost, just sort of like on an airplane, right? You gotta put your own mask on first before you can put it on anybody else and help anybody else, right? You gotta do the mental gymnastics there to make sure that you're operating at full capacity. But I just always offer encouragement, right? There's always gonna be setbacks and failures and those are always opportunities. I always tell them failures and setbacks are always opportunities. I can't imagine anybody in life going through it where everything is just success, right? It's never gonna be instant. You're gonna have to put in the work and it's like, I always referred to it as you're making deposits in the bank. Everything you're doing now that it's all adding up and then it'll pay off in the end. It's an investment in yourself. So those are kind of like some of the surface stuff I try to push onto other folks when I'm talking to them in group settings. Is there a moment in particular you'd like to share where maybe something happened in a game or there was a setback during the game personally or on the team side that resilience and perseverance really paid off long-term? Oh yeah, I mean, it's so apparent and everybody has their own, you know, slogan for this but for us, it was always one snapping clear, right? It's, you can't worry about things that have taken place already. You gotta learn from it and you gotta move on and be prepared for the next moment because you have a whole game to play still, right? You can, I could have dropped the ball on a big down, you know, early on in the game but I know, look at the next opportunity I get or the next play I get, the next assignment I have I'm gonna make the most of it. You gotta have a short memory and I think a lot of that holds true in everyday life, right? You gotta learn from mistakes you've made everybody makes mistakes. You gotta learn how to laugh things off and find humor in everything and move on and use that, you know, use it as motivation and I think some people do that better than others that's always something I think I've done well is use setbacks as motivation but everyone's different but those are some of the things that we always talked about the one snapping clear mentality where, you know, you can have a really, you're never gonna be at the top of the top and never even be at the low of the lows. You gotta try to stay even keel and I think that's important in the game of football but also in the game of life. Yeah, you know, there's a lot that's been coming out especially over the past 10 years around the safety of the game. Looking after players, like I said after they're no longer in the NFL. What are your thoughts on player safety after they leave the NFL? Are people being well taken care of? Is the league appropriately providing? What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, you know what, I think the NFL does offer a lot of assistance for players but the thing is you have to want and I think this is something that a lot of people struggling struggle with is admitting that something can be wrong or wanting to seek help. I think that's an issue that can be destigmatized that, you know, you don't have to white knuckle it and be strong because you're a big strong football player. It's okay for things not to be going all right. And the NFL does have a lot of whether it's information packets to hotlines. I mean, you're on this huge mailing list I get things every day. It seems like for webinar series or helping recruitment for players transitioning educational benefits if you play enough years and get vested in the league, right? Hotlines, you name it, there's an emphasis on it and I know they speak about it at the games and in the facilities but yeah, there's help but I think they need to, people need to, I think they need to, the most difficult part is asking for the help and going and receiving it, right? People are afraid of that bad news or what they might hear or what they might let out of their mouth, right? So I think that can be done culturally a better job of destigmatizing that and I think it is. I think enough people are talking about it. It seems every day you hear a celebrity and athletes say they struggle with mental health. It's okay to seek help. It's okay to not be okay. What's not okay is to hold it all in and not seek help. Yeah, that's an interesting point, Greg. That relates to everyone, not just professional football players. If you feel something, you should seek help. You should seek counsel, yeah. And Vic, and likewise, I'd be remiss to remind people that the top CEOs, they all have mental coaches, right? I mean, a lot of successful people, even if you don't have issues, it's okay to still talk to somebody and whatever it is about, right? To a third party that really is no judgments, no motive, just someone to talk to and figure out issues and pill back layers, learn how to attack problems in a different light, maybe just a different perspective. Everybody does it, even people who aren't struggling. And I think it's a very important part for people to understand that even the most successful people in the world have a mental coach or somebody that they can talk to you and confide in. That's a really great point. Greg, you made the transition from professional football to now your current job. And what was that transition like for you? Was it different because, you know, you're training as an athlete all the time and now you're working. How was that for you once that was done? You know, I think I always kept in the back of my mind that you're gonna transition at some point. And I think it was always in the back of my mind to be financially stable, financially ready because you hear about the horror stories or, you know, people mismanaging things or just not having, you know, enough oversight of an ownership of what's going on in their life and leaving things to other people to handle. So I had always kind of had that in the back of my mind. And I kind of, and in the NFL, they say that stands for not for long, not national footballing, but not for long because the average career is two years, two and a half years to give or take. So once I kind of saw the writing on the wall where, you know, I've had a lot of injuries, I've been in the field for six years, you know, that this can be it. I immediately went towards education because I utilize the NFL every off season basically whether it was a personal financial wellness class and like the Wharton School of Business or Miami School of Business, I always kind of utilized those to kind of expand my knowledge outside of football and pursue other things that I knew eventually I would be passionate about. So that's what I did. As soon as this was done, I, you know, the NFL has a great program. They offer financial aid, you know, so not only can I go get an MBA, I can also get my MBA paid for as long as I'm maintaining a certain GPA. So I took full advantage of that. And now I'm sitting here four years later out of the NFL five years later with an MBA, a nice career path that I'm on and enjoying life with my family and not really worried about the things that come with the transition. But I know it's difficult for a lot of people. It was difficult for me, you know, I don't think I let it hit me until a few years out where I'm thinking like, oh wow, football is actually over now. I kind of missed this. I'm watching it on Sundays now. I'm not participating. I started Fantasy Football League for the first time last year. But now I really enjoy it to love the game and watch it, you know, and enjoy just watching good football. Yeah. I mean, you're trajectory through, you know, athletics and now professionally as it relates to mental health, it sounds like it's so much around mindset, you know, just perseverance, optimism, reach out for help if you need it, use the resources that you may have at your fingertips to really make sure that you're in the right space as you ascend through different phases of your life. Yeah. Yeah, I think perspective is a big deal on the right and I'm fortunate to have a good team and, you know, a great wife and kids now and parents and siblings. So, you know, I know it's different for everybody's circumstance, but, you know, there's hotlines, there's things available, right? That are toll-free, whether it's, you know, I know not everybody has the same set of resources and circumstances. So I just think it's important to know what's available to you and, you know, you got to kind of, you got to want it, right? You got to want to seek to help and feel better and like you said, you're never at the highest of highs, you're never at the lowest of lows. So like you said, mindset is key. Yeah, and especially for athletes, you have to pay attention to both the physical and the mental. And a lot of times it's, you have to have the mental to do the physical. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think a lot of people don't realize that people make a living because their mental is so good in the NFL too or in any professional football, right? You know, the more you know, the more knowledge you have, the more valuable you become to an organization. So, you know, it's not always the most physically gifted guy who ends up making it, right? There's also a mental aspect of it. And then for athletes, you know, they need to understand that a lot of it is transferable skills. The things you learn, the grit, the determination, the hard work, you're doing all that. And then now it's just trying to try to focus it in another aspect. Yeah. Greg, it's just a really awesome to have you on the show. I mean, I appreciate you having me on, yeah. Yeah, your ability to articulate mental health is just been phenomenal because, you know, when you think of professional sports and football, you think of the athleticism, the physical athleticism that people see. But this was a really great conversation on just life, but also mental health. And that's the most important topic these days and something that everybody has to keep in mind. No, for sure. It's important, you know, and like I said, you see people talking about it a lot more now. A lot of big celebrities, a lot of, you know, people that, you know, regular folks, you know, look up to people who look, I mean, I look up to these people too, right? And it's important, and I'm glad that people are talking about it more because I think that's the biggest thing is opening up and having the conversation, right? Not being, you know, holding it in and keeping things closed but being able to discuss things. Yeah. Thank you so much. Really appreciate your time, you know, and it's just great to have a conversation on something that, especially athletes, sometimes struggle with, you know, feelings, mental health, and especially now, it's very important to have this conversation. I'm glad we're doing so. And I really appreciate your time and thanks for being on the show. Yeah, no problem, Vic, any time. Appreciate you having me on. You take care. Have a great day. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.