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Inside the Mind of Jordan Matthews: NFL, Faith, Family, and Financial Wisdom
23 Plays4 days ago
In this powerful episode of Vulnerability Muscle, host Reggie D. Ford sits down with 11-year NFL veteran and Vanderbilt legend Jordan Matthews for a deeply moving conversation on what it means to live with purpose beyond the game. From early memories of his father cheering him on in Little League to his reflections on fatherhood, humility, and faith, Jordan opens up about the highs and lows of professional sports, mental resilience, and becoming a man of impact.
Jordan shares untold stories from his football career—including being the 42nd pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, switching from wide receiver to tight end, and navigating multiple team cuts—all while balancing faith, family, and service. He reflects on the importance of special teams as a metaphor for life, the misconceptions about the NFL, financial literacy, and why vulnerability is the foundation of real relationships.
We also dive into:
- How to thrive in a competitive, high-pressure environment
- The role of consistent father figures in building self-worth
- Breaking free from toxic hustle culture in sports and life
- The power of spiritual grounding and learning Hebrew
- The truth about fame, finances, and fulfillment in pro sports
Plus, Jordan talks about the Vanderbilt Legends Charity Softball Game happening July 11 at Hawkins Field, benefitting Eli’s House, a nonprofit supporting women and children affected by poverty and the foster care system.
This conversation is packed with truth, wisdom, and humor—and is not just for athletes. It’s for anyone seeking to build a legacy rooted in love, humility, and vulnerability.
📲 Contact & Event Info:
- Instagram: @jmatt3x
- Charity Event:
Vanderbilt Legends Charity Softball Game
📍 Hawkins Field, Vanderbilt University
📅 July 11 – Doors open at 5 PM
🎗️ Proceeds support Eli’s House: a nonprofit dedicated to keeping families together through housing, therapy, and job readiness programs.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Importance of Acceptance in NFL
00:00:00
Speaker
If you can get to that acceptance at the end of the day, yeah, oh, well, I got I got this owner. Okay, everybody has an owner. Even you're a business owner, your customers own you. Facts.
00:00:11
Speaker
You are a grown man that gets paid a lot of money. You can set yourself up and you get to play a kid's game. You are
Introduction to 'Vulnerability Muscle' Podcast
00:00:19
Speaker
blessed. Welcome to Vulnerability Muscle, the inspiring podcast challenging norms and helping you redefine vulnerability as a strength.
00:00:27
Speaker
I'm your host, Reggie D. Ford. Each episode of Vulnerability Muscle dives into a variety of topics such as mental health, social issues, and mindset shifts.
00:00:38
Speaker
We explore the power of vulnerability in fostering meaningful connections, healing, building resilience, and promoting personal growth. Sometimes these conversations are uncomfortable, but good workouts often are.
Reggie's Connection with Jordan Matthews
00:00:52
Speaker
So join us and flex that vulnerability muscle. Welcome to Vulnerability Muscle, the inspiring podcast challenging you to redefine vulnerability as a strength.
00:01:03
Speaker
Today I have somebody who I don't even know needs any introduction, but my man, Jordan J. Matt Matthews. What's up, baby? Jordan Matthews brother. Let's do it. Let's do it. Man, so a little backstory. Me and J. Matt ah played together at Vanderbilt, studied econ together at Vanderbilt. Jordan Matthews was studying.
00:01:25
Speaker
you just you look the They don't know Fitz, but you and Fitz was studying. We were studying. We were studying y'all. we You just made a um a memory from an exam exam period popped in my head.
00:01:38
Speaker
Did you get extra time one time? and Never mind.
00:01:43
Speaker
If yes, if went office hours, no. All right? Me and J-Mac go way back. and in And one of the, if not, no, the best receiver that I have ever had the opportunity of playing with on the same team at Vanderbilt.
00:01:58
Speaker
And
Life Beyond Sports: Jordan's Perspective
00:01:59
Speaker
just to get to witness your rise coming in as a freshman and then seeing all you've done for 11 years now in the league and still going. Still going. he's He's now a tight end, but Jordan Matthews, y'all. Like, welcome. Welcome to the show.
00:02:13
Speaker
Man, bro, appreciate you having me. ah Even just like im walking in. yeah Like I know who you, like when you become two people, you've been that to me. And it's just been cool to see, bro. So when you hit me up and you was like, man, let's let's just do this. Let's have a conversation. I'm like, I'm wayne just have one regardless. Yes, You know, so let's do it, man. I'm excited. Yeah, bro. Man, you got you got so much in the things that you're involved in. with like It's not just sports, which I love. and like you You've always been interested in in so much more understanding that there is a life beyond the game.
The Role of Vulnerability in Relationships
00:02:48
Speaker
And i want to touch into that. I want to tap into that. But first is a segment called What Comes to Mind. Come on, let's do it. First thing that you can think of. right. I can get my mind going now.
00:03:00
Speaker
Let's go. What comes to mind when you hit a word of vulnerability? Relationships. Okay. ah What is something you do to relax when you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed?
00:03:11
Speaker
Meditate. Okay. And then last one. You're thinking too hard over here. No, no, no. I told you. I'm always going, baby. I'm like the fridge. I'm always on. That is. I'm always on. Yo, 24-7. 24-7. Let's
Family Support and Educational Insights
00:03:23
Speaker
go. Let's go. All right. What is one your favorite childhood memories?
00:03:29
Speaker
My dad was always there. My dad was always there And my mom was always there too I'm blessed because you know i was actually speaking at Pearl Cone yesterday Nice And and I was talking to ah This young group of people And were talking about excellence And you know what it means to no become excellent. right And I was telling them, like guys, like let's not make any mistakes about it. like you're we're We're at a Davidson public school, okay? So there's a good chance that maybe some of your parents aren't able to say, we just want to send you over here.
00:04:01
Speaker
but So if there's a lot in my time to work, okay, your teacher says, hey, you need to go home and study 30 minutes. There's a kid somewhere that's growing up in a mansion. His dad owns about 10 businesses, got 20-something streams of income.
00:04:16
Speaker
And his teacher says, you need to study 30 minutes. If both of you guys study 30 minutes, who's still going to be ahead? Yo. Okay. That kid got you. and And that's the harsh reality. And I'm telling you this as a freshman. But the sad part is, if you don't get this by the time you're a senior, the race is the race is done. And by that time, you're already a little bit behind. Right. Right. So...
00:04:35
Speaker
I was telling them though, for me, like my parents showed me that at ah at a very young age, but I had the blessing of both of them always being there. You know I'm saying? So even though there were kids that had a little bit more, i still feel like I had the main thing. I had both of them always present. So every memory I have as a kid,
00:04:53
Speaker
I'm looking up and I see these two people. But when I say my dad, though, why that was the first one that came to my mind. just can't believe it. My mom, though, was there was just this one time, man. I hit one home run my whole time when I played baseball. One where was over the fence. yeah So I was one them like, I'll get you inside the park. Yeah. but And take off. And take off. But I couldn't send one. And my mom missed one baseball game when I was in Little League, just one.
00:05:17
Speaker
She stayed home, and she was just cooking for the family. but She said, that you know, Rod, you got it. And my dad came with me to that game. He was sitting in center field. And I went up there. ah connected with the ball, and I saw my dad go like this.
00:05:30
Speaker
look and turn back and put his hands So proud. So proud. I mean, and at that point, it's like, you know, who do you want to make happier? You know? And that just, so for me, like, now I have three sons. Yeah.
00:05:42
Speaker
Like, yeah i' got um I've got, I've got, I've got unlimited motivation at all times because I'm like, okay, if that's my core memory. When you ask me that, what's theirs going to be? So I'm always kind of like, you know, trying to represent for my family the way that my dad
Fatherhood and Personal Values
00:05:59
Speaker
did. So, yeah. Thank you for that perspective. yeah i am Me being vulnerable, like I am terrified to have a child. like That is something that I'm like... Not that I like feel like I'm ready for. I don't think you'll ever be ready for it. But it's something that I have... like
00:06:15
Speaker
because I can control whether or not I do it, I just, in the world, in looking at my trauma and all that, I'm like, yeah i don't know if I want to have a child.
00:06:26
Speaker
yeah But I don't have that experience that you had. yeah like i didn't have my dad there growing up, but to to hear you say, like what are their core experiences gonna be as you?
00:06:37
Speaker
as with you as the father, it's gonna be dope. I know i know that, I know that. And so I just, that was a good reframe for me to be like, but I will be the one that's helping them make those core members. So, yeah you that was cool. you know, what's crazy though is like, and I just know your heart, Reggie, like you've always been wanting to like, you always wanted to pour into people. Even when I got to Vanderbilt, you know, you just got walk on doing your best to, you know, make a name for yourself on this team.
00:07:04
Speaker
And I'm like, this is a guy that probably should be worried about only what he's doing. It's like any day they could be like, know what, we're cool on you. But you was always trying to pour into other people. yeah And you always want it better for other people than yourself. Well, imagine like with a kid, it's on a whole nother level. true And I tell people all the time, like, you know, if I ask them how they feel about something, hey, what do you think about the music you listen to? What do think about the food you eat?
00:07:26
Speaker
What you think about the stuff you do in your spare time? yeah they They may give me an answer. I'll say, that's not how you really feel about it. And like, what do you mean? i said, well, what if your kid was doing it? That's how they really feel about it.
00:07:36
Speaker
You know, you'll hear like people that make, let's just go music, you know, secular artists, they make crazy music and then they'll come out an article and say, oh, I never let my kid listen to the music I make. why do you make it? Right. It's because we as people, we'll self-sabotage all day, but we will never...
00:07:52
Speaker
want that for our kids. So I just know your heart, like I'm trying to speak to a way to why that hesitation might be a little bit there, because it's like, you know that the stakes are already high for you and the people that
Childhood Influence and Work Ethic
00:08:05
Speaker
God's entrusted you with, your listeners, yourself, the the stakes when it's a child, bro,
00:08:10
Speaker
yes It's through the roof. man It's through the roof. like I have an amazing wife. I love her to death. You know what I'm saying? i've I've never met a person like her. So every time I see my kids, I see half of me and half of her. You know, like the stakes for that are crazy high.
00:08:26
Speaker
So I think I appreciate you being vulnerable with that, but i think it's because you know it's top. You know what I'm saying? When that does come, when Lil' Reggie does come. Yeah.
00:08:37
Speaker
You said unlimited motivation. I think that was so cool. That was so cool. Unlimited. So catch me up, man. So, well, no, take me back, actually. Growing up in Alabama.
00:08:47
Speaker
You got some Alabama folks. I saw that. I know it. Yeah. But but what was what was life like growing up for you, your brother, like the fam? What was that like? Man, it was just, it was blessed. Like I had, like I said, I got two great parents. My parents been married over 30 years. They've always been there.
00:09:05
Speaker
um I never, didn't remember a hot meal being on the table. um But my mom was strict. Like there's people that will still say like, they didn't even know Brenda liked them until like, Years later. That's because my mama is like, she always on, you know, she on the task. and And my dad was always just that leader in the family. Wake up early, go to work, be at every practice. He was there.
00:09:25
Speaker
um He was like the mayor in the city. Okay. So eri everybody knew him. This is Madison? This is Madison, Alabama. Right. and so And they still live there, but they always come. like the The people that they were for me and my brother, they're those same people for their grandchildren. They're just consistent, and they truly have a good foundation. They gave that to me and my brother.
00:09:44
Speaker
We played sports, but sports was not emphasized to the degree that I see a lot of people do it for their kids nowadays. Yeah, it's crazy now. It's crazy. We can talk about that, too, because now I'm seeing it. They were big on academics. They were big on us being well-rounded. You know, I can remember – Most days we had something to do, but it wasn't the same thing.
00:10:05
Speaker
It was always, hey, we're doing something at the church. Hey, we're doing sports. Okay, now we're doing Battillion. Okay, now we're doing Kappa League. They wanted to be real diverse, and there was a standard. Like, when you were in school, you didn't bring home B. Yeah, nah.
00:10:20
Speaker
and what Like, You know what I'm saying? Like, this is your only job. right You know what I mean? and and so, and I just remember stuff that my parents say, my mom would say like, you know, you always finish what you start.
00:10:33
Speaker
ah You always finish, always. And so like, I don't care how bad a hard a class got once I got in high school, once I got into college, it was like, ain't gonna repeat. You gonna finish with your start. And so they just poured that stuff into me at a young age.
00:10:47
Speaker
When sports came and we started to get serious with it. Same mindset. They brought the energy with that. yeah But they never, I mean, we Like how sports, like I said, can be idolized now for kids, it was never that way. yeah Never. um and I think that was good for us. how
Evolution of Youth Sports Environment
00:11:03
Speaker
ah when When did you know that there was a dog inside you that was that was capable of doing the things that you could do right in sports? Right. Right. Well, first I saw it in my brother. So just the the metrics of my house. My dad's six foot. My mom's five four. My brother stopped growing at like five nine, five ten.
00:11:22
Speaker
I don't know what happened. I jumped to six three. But my brother realized that deficit I talked to those kids about. If he worked the same amount time as the five-star recruit, he'd never catch him.
00:11:34
Speaker
I remember my brother ordering a pull-up bar, putting it in his door, and every single time he walked in out of his door, he'd do, like, five pull-ups. Legit, like, just any time he walked in out of his bedroom, he hit five.
00:11:45
Speaker
Because there was this pull-up record in – they had all the records in the high school, you know, like yeah fastest 40, most bench press. And the pull-up record was, like, 25. He was like, I'm going to get 30.
00:11:56
Speaker
And I'm like, that's a weird thing to, like, like meditate on you
00:12:03
Speaker
In your spare time. 30 you know and but But that's a crazy number. too yeah But he was committed to it. yeah Because he was like, okay, well, I can't change my height.
00:12:13
Speaker
But I can still change the way people view me. I can still come out here and you know give myself a better situation. So I watched a ah guy that maybe wasn't giving all these things work to a certain level. So I saw the dog in my brother first. like He would do like...
00:12:30
Speaker
50 pull-ups, 100 sips, and 100 push-ups a night. Wow. Okay? Now he's a he's working for Southwest. He graduated with an engineering degree from Mississippi State. He's a loving husband, and he's got a daughter. Let's go. Right? So it carried him. Yeah. um Once I saw that in him, I started to pick up on those things. Okay, well, this is the standard. This is how you have them to work.
00:12:51
Speaker
It wasn't just about football. it's just about a standard for yourself in general. In life. And then when I would say when I realized I was kind of nice – We're in our sophomore year. We go out there. We're 3A school. We play as 4A team. they're They're pretty, pretty stout. They just won't state the year before.
00:13:07
Speaker
We go out there. My brother, the pull-up king, he goes out there and scores two touchdowns. I'm like, damn, brother, cook it. You know what mean? And I'm this sophomore. I go out there. I get one catch. if I get one catch, I get busy. I get like 20 yards off. I'm like, okay.
00:13:21
Speaker
My brother did two tugs, but I got – I'm kind of nice with my little op, you know what mean? And so I'm like, you know, what could I, if I can get 22 yards off one catch, what could I do with
Balancing Modern Sports Pressures
00:13:32
Speaker
like four in the game?
00:13:33
Speaker
And then it just it just took off, man. From the rest, every time I touch the ball, I'm like, I'm scoring. And so 11 touchdowns as a sophomore. I come back as a junior, another like 13. Then my coach challenged me my senior year.
00:13:45
Speaker
We need to play defense. Had another 1,000 yards, 10-odd touchdowns, eight interceptions. Nice. And so it just it just kind of compounded. But it all started because my brother showed me, like, there's a level that you got to work at. Man, shout out to Justin. he Yeah, shout out brother, man. He's guy. Oh, that's dope. Yeah. so you said you said today, like the kids of today, it's a whole different ball game. It's different, bro. You got video and Instagram and huddle and everything else. It's down bad. Yeah.
00:14:14
Speaker
And you got NIL and people are thinking about that early. Like, what are you seeing as you raise your kids, your boys in this world of sports? And how are you shielding them from some of the craziness or or like leaning into it?
00:14:27
Speaker
Yeah, i will say ah one funny thing is like, it always baffles me when I go like a youth sporting event and I'll see a guy yelling at his kid and I'll look at him and I'm like, okay, I guarantee you didn't play past high school.
00:14:40
Speaker
And then I look at his wife giving out the gummies. I'm like, okay, she didn't. What makes you think? Like, why are you on this? This kid's like, Dad, I just want to watch Bluey. Like, know what saying?
00:14:51
Speaker
Like, you know what saying, Dad? Yeah. So, yeah you know. Let him be average because that's what he's going to be. Like, let's be honest. If I take you to an NBA basketball game, 99% of them won the genetic lottery. Yeah.
00:15:03
Speaker
so Absolutely. Let's just be honest. yeah right Now, there's an aspect of, hey like hey, if you work super hard, you can be like Steph Well, Steph Curry's dad was still Wardell. Right. You know, Tom Brady, as hard as he worked, I saw Tom for the first time. i was like, he looked big as that Alabama locker. He's like still like 6'5". So there's some of this that's just like these kids some of these kids are gifted. I don't want to take away the aspect. We just talked about it where there's an amount of work that should be put in and you can still make it. I've seen a lot of guys in the NFL make it longer than some people that had a lot of talent, but they lasted longer.
00:15:35
Speaker
But what I'm saying is you learn those lessons when you get to like late middle school, high school. You don't learn that lesson when a kid's like seven, eight, and every single weekend you're chasing a little ball around the field.
00:15:47
Speaker
You should be taking that kid fishing. yeah You should be spending time like just, you know what saying, daddy-daughter dates. And... And so for me, when you say like, how are we leaning in, dog, it's going to sound funny, but I was very intentional about this.
00:16:02
Speaker
I always told myself, you know, one, i was going to find love. That's why I was going to married. Because me, the most attractive thing about anybody is their spirituality. Where are they with God? And so my wife has deep faith. Yeah. Deep faith in in more than than any woman I've seen. And that's number one.
00:16:20
Speaker
Nice. But she can go. Yeah. Yeah. Pro athlete too. She won a natty. Yeah. You know what i mean? Like Florida State, no natty. Shayna shows up natty. You know what I mean? Like went to two World Cups. Yeah. So it was intentional though because i'm like okay, well, if I don't want to be that crazy dad, let me at least give them some hamstrings and some quads. yes You know what I'm saying? i be there So they're going to be there. So now I don't got to sit here and freak out every time. Like, oh, we need to go catch. we need to go do this. It's like, you know, know what not like when we were growing up,
Questioning the Emphasis on Sports
00:16:48
Speaker
Let's just be honest. When we were growing up, what was the number one barometer that we looked at to tell, like, the kids that were probably going to make it, like, in high school or further? We would say, line each kid up on field day and see who's the what? Fastest. That's it. Go. if i walk to that bessie go If I walk into my NFL, if I go back to the Carolina today and we had team meeting, I said, all right, guys, everybody raise your hand if you were the fastest kid at your school in first, second, third grade. Yeah.
00:17:14
Speaker
Every hand would go up, even the linemen. Yeah. I believe that. Okay. yeah Okay. You have kids that's slow and parents are yelling at them, run. I'm like, no, you didn't give him that. You didn't give it to That's your fault. We're going gaming. Exactly. We're going different route with this. Now we're going to put a weight to you. to put the parachute on. It's like slow down.
00:17:33
Speaker
You're fighting against nature at that point. You're fighting against nature. You're doing way too much. And it's putting so much pressure on the kid. <unk>s no It's no point. Like, um when I think about the impact that people can make, like, you think about, like, doctors.
00:17:48
Speaker
Like, when when COVID happened, there was no sports. Yeah. Yeah. Shut down. Shut down. You think it's this essential. Okay, we still need doctors. We need lawyers.
00:17:58
Speaker
And if we keep it real. We need this in our community. we We really need this talk. Because if we put half the effort that we put in sports. Speak on it. As we did in some of these other areas, we want to still be in the same situation we're in. But we're all competing for five spots on the Pistons. Man. we're all you know what saying? think about that all the time because, like, before I started playing football, played basketball.
00:18:18
Speaker
Yeah. And going back to that lottery, like, I wasn't going be higher than 5'9". And –
00:18:24
Speaker
You know, there are a couple people who made it at my height, but like the seven-footers out there, like it's crazy. and so It's the 0.1% of the 0.1%. Yeah, the amount of time that I spent playing basketball and then even football – If I could have put that effort and that time and that energy into learning how to code, learning come on science, anything. You would have figured out before anybody. Yeah, like Elon who? like like i would Come on, bro. If we put that same amount of time into just anything else other than sports, we can see improvement there.
00:19:01
Speaker
1,000%. Sports
Family Life and Routines
00:19:02
Speaker
is a vehicle. What are your kids interested in right now? So a couple of things my kids love. My oldest son, he loves Pokemon right now. Yeah. Loves Pokemon. That takes So I found the old yellow version at my house. And so i was like, you know what, let me put him on games. So I went and got him a oh ah Game Boy Advance because we're like not big on the iPads, not big on all that. good But I'm going to give you Game Boy with you. friends gonna talk about this. zag yeah mean It's all pixely.
00:19:31
Speaker
But um but we we have a good time doing that, you know what saying? So he's into Pokemon. um They love friday Friday night family night. So most youth sports, like Saturday's like the Olympics. I don't care if your kid's in anything, like anything, not even just sports related, it's getting scheduled on Saturday. Birthday parties. yeah get togethers, Jack and Jill's, for anything. Yeah. Um, but Friday nights, most families don't touch Friday nights actually.
00:19:55
Speaker
Um, and so that's Friday night, family night for us. So we always pick a movie. Um, so far we've done space jam. We've done Mulan. Uh, we did the goofy movie. Yeah. And so they love that. They love music. So Lionel, my second, uh, my, always is Josiah.
00:20:12
Speaker
That's, that's, that's the Pokemon trainer. Then got Lionel who's, um, he loves music. Yeah. And I'm talking about, he'd be singing. Yeah. seeing like but You named him Lionel. I know. Trust me. he'll He'll walk. If you see my house, we got a little balcony and it would just be dead quiet. He'll walk to the top of the balcony of a sudden you hear ah
00:20:35
Speaker
I'm like, yo, come on, man. Like, it's six. You know what saying? But they they love music. They love Lion King. um And then my youngest one, Cairo, he just follows them. Yeah.
00:20:46
Speaker
He loves both of them. Yeah. I mean, Josiah is kind of like too far. What their ages? So six, four, and two. They were all born during even years. So Josiah was 2018. Lionel was 2020. And then Cairo was 2022. Nice. And that's it. I mean, when say Cairo loves Lionel.
00:21:03
Speaker
Yeah. If they see each other at school, he'll walk up to them. The teachers always tell me that he'll be like, Lionel, you're my best friend. I'm like, I love that, man. That's priceless. At home, they be like, you're not my best friend. But in public, they be like... That's what's up.
Fraternity Experiences and Core Values
00:21:18
Speaker
You and your brother set the tone for that too, though.
00:21:19
Speaker
like I remember your brother showing up to i mean practices, games. He's traveling with us everywhere. like Everywhere. and yeah that was To see that support that you got from your family was amazing, bro. That's dope. yeah I got a Do you remember this? So you were ah pledging.
00:21:38
Speaker
Oh, man, yeah. Do you remember Ed? I try to forget. so So talk about the fraternity that you're in So remember Cap Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated and... Man, go ahead. I can tell you the good stuff. It's not even a question, but if you don't know, there is a process to this, and it is grueling. I don't know the process of it. I didn't go through it, but Jordan can speak to that.
00:22:04
Speaker
But like for months, months on in, I've been He didn't cut his hair, and that was a part of it. And then when the whole reveal comes out of of now showing to the world that he has pledged his return to do, ah he's bald. yeah he came like I used to cut hair on campus, and so he came to me the night before crossing, yeah and I cut his hair. And he's like, hey, can you put this in a bag and save it for me? Do you remember that?
00:22:34
Speaker
I kept your hair for like three years. I didn't come back and get it. It never came I kept your hair for like three years. I'm like, That's how messed up them dudes had me.
00:22:47
Speaker
I'm like, here, keep my hair. Just weird stuff, bro. Just weird stuff. But the coolest thing, you said, I want to show this to my kid one day. And now I'm like, damn, I should have kept it. You should have kept the hair, bro. You jacked it.
00:22:59
Speaker
But like I was moving. I was like, what is this? But no, man. I don't mind telling this one part. I actually was telling this at a dinner last night. There's a lot of stuff about that that out of respect for the fraternity. Yeah.
00:23:10
Speaker
I don't speak on There's one thing that i think is powerful. um So just in my house, I don't have a lot of stuff in there of my accomplishments. i just I'm just not big on that. like In our house, if you walk in you'll see when I came back to the Eagles, I caught a touchdown pass versus the Titans. It was the first touchdown that I caught since my oldest was born.
00:23:29
Speaker
So that was divine. That's nothing but God in that. So I got that laminated, JoJo's first touchdown ball in Nashville, Tennessee. So that's up. um My wife won the national championship.
00:23:40
Speaker
Okay, like they give you a replica jersey. We putting that right there. you know Just so when people don't know. Yeah. Just know. Yeah, you don't know. She doing that. She like that. You know what i mean? Like I know she over there, you know, getting stuff right on table, but – She liked it. um So that's up.
00:23:57
Speaker
um Let's see. others like I don't have... ah I'm serious. My brother got me one painting where like half Vanderbilt, half Eagle. So okay a lot of my accomplishments, I really keep you know away. My wife has some from the World Cup, one thing up.
00:24:10
Speaker
But from Pledge, same thing. like I want my kids to be able to kind of... shape their own reality. The only thing I do press on them is like, it is the faith.
00:24:21
Speaker
I think that's important. We can talk about that later. But from from my time pledging, there was one thing that they did that caused your load. And I love this part about the process. They give you this brick and in three holes in the brick, they tell you, write your three main core values. So I said, okay, here's one. Here's another one.
00:24:37
Speaker
Here's another one. So you write in there and then you tape it up and then know, spray paint it and they put your number on it and they say, all right, Every time you go anywhere, this needs to be with you. So if I wasn't at practice or I wasn't with the guys going through our stuff, like I was carrying a brick in my backpack because it had your three main core values. And you notice your values that you carry are heavy.
00:24:58
Speaker
You got to carry merry-go-round. As a man, you have to. You have no choice, right? And the whole goal is whenever it's my time to, when I hit my expiration date, then my family can finally go get that brick down, they open it up and they can read the three core values. They like, okay, did dad stand on this? You know what saying? See, I going to ask you what they are, but that's not. Exactly, yeah.
00:25:20
Speaker
yeah that's So I don't even speak. You know what mean? supposed though. You're supposed to see it. i even got to say it. What's understood is, yeah, do the do the way you live your life. That's beautiful. So that's like almost your last little note to your wife, know saying, or your kids. And I got three boys. You got that one, you got this one, you got this get old, hey, I can't lift it, but bring that brick down.
00:25:37
Speaker
That's my load. That's what I carry.
NFL Draft and Career Reflections
00:25:39
Speaker
for you guys. That's powerful. And so, man, like that was like, I think that's applicable to anybody. Yeah. Like if I had a football team, that first team meet, I'm like, what these bricks for? I'm like, you're going to find out. You're going to find out. Yeah, we're going find Yeah. And we building this house brick by brick. Brick by brick. Amen.
00:25:57
Speaker
dope That's dope. i didn't I didn't realize that, but man, like yeah you put in some work. I did. And you did. I did. By the crazy guy, yeah. And I mean, that's been you haven't shied away from work at all in your life. And and and you got to the NFL, 42nd pick of the NFL draft, 2014.
00:26:14
Speaker
What was the draft experience like for you? You could talk about the combine, the training, all of that, but like I'm really interested in that night of the draft because you were the best receiver in SEC at that time. Yeah, no, for sure, um which was crazy, man. I mean i even got to, like you said, we're going to back.
00:26:30
Speaker
I remember after my freshman year, I probably had like 100 some odd yards. I caught a touchdown all four games. So we had four like games in the season, Kentucky, Florida, Tennessee, and Wake Forest.
00:26:42
Speaker
ah I caught a touchdown every one of those games. we I went back to Huntsville to spend time my family because the season was always in around Thanksgiving. Mm-hmm. And my cousin was there with me. ah His name's Kurt, and we were just talking.
00:26:53
Speaker
And I said, Kurt, man, pull up ah all the rookie receivers, what they finished with, ah freshman receivers. So it was like Keenan Allen, and it was ah Robert Woods. They were two of the top ones. And still, dude, still on top. you know And he showed me, like, Robert had like 900-something.
00:27:09
Speaker
Keenan had a good year. And I said, I'm catch him. Yeah. I'm going to catch him. I said, by the end this thing, I'll be the active leader. And sure enough, four years later, ah was an active leader.
00:27:19
Speaker
So I felt really good about, you know, when the NFL finally reached out and said, hey, like, we think it'd be a good idea to come to the draft. I was like, okay, so I'm going to go early. um but i'm just I've just always been thankful. going to be honest. that Like, I forgot who said it once. They said, um but we like, they said, we like guys are low-maintenance, high-production.
00:27:38
Speaker
Low maintenance, high production. And that's how I've always tried to be. yeah Like, you can't, I've never, and and God honest truth, and I got a lot of things wrong with me, so we'll get that out of the way. But I'm telling you, like, you never hear me complain about no work.
00:27:52
Speaker
yeah Like, it could be a lot worse. Like, when I hear guys complain and we in the locker room, oh, we got condition, I'm like, We're blessed to have conditions. We're blessed, bro. Are you serious? There's a man that can't walk.
00:28:02
Speaker
Man. know what saying? There's some kid that can't control There's war going on over his head. You mad about some sprints? Like, come on, bro. You have no clue. You're full scholarship. Shut up. You know what I mean? You're a millionaire, dog. Yeah. So going to the draft, it was just a blessing, bro. Like, I remember me and my brother, we walked by, Deion.
00:28:21
Speaker
was like, Deion Sanders. And my brother looked at me like, bro, we ain't supposed to be here. I was like, I was like, I was up here, dog. We tricked him. You know I'm saying? And so I'm there.
00:28:32
Speaker
And um where we're at the draft. And the first round goes, and ain't get picked. And I see dudes walking out of their set. I'm just like, yeah I get another day of free stuff. Wow. Good. da problem Reggie, Reggie.
00:28:46
Speaker
When they finally called me, I dabbed up Roger like I was the first one. He didn't even hand me jersey. He's like, second round. He get a jersey. I'm like, don't care. I'm here. going to get one soon. Oh, that's beautiful. That's a beautiful way to look at it, man. Bro, I'm good, bro. Yeah.
00:28:59
Speaker
I'm good, man. Like, um... I don't know, I've always looked at like it's a blessing. I'm you know i'm going into year 12. On my team right now, you got like um Andy Dalton, you know you got JJ Jansen, you got Adam Thielen. I'm the fourth oldest guy in Clowney's right after. okay What do all four of those other guys have in common? Andy's been signing multi-year deals, big bucks. Adam Thielen has been the guy. I call him Thee. I don't call him Thee. I call him Thee. Deep, you know what I'm saying? Like he's like, the Ohio State? yeah Adam, feet. You know, he, you know.
00:29:34
Speaker
And so then you've got JJ, who's been like one of the best long snappers in the game for years, okay? So then it's like, well, when people see me or my young teammates see me, they're like, oh, like ah I remember you, but how you been sticking around so long? You know what saying? What is the...
00:29:49
Speaker
Because I haven't just been signing a multi-year deal. The average NFL player plays how long? Three. Three years. Three. And you're going into your 12th year. We're about to do that four times. And it's just like, and I love the path that I've had to take.
00:30:00
Speaker
It's made me more relatable. Torn ACLs, getting traded, getting cut multiple times, being drafted high, being a number one receiver, being a number six receiver, being cut as a receiver, changing the tight end.
00:30:12
Speaker
know what I'm saying? Then having to be more active on special teams than I've ever had to be. So now... Somebody once told me this. They join. Everything you go through is just to make you more relatable. Yeah.
00:30:22
Speaker
That's it. If I just had, if I had the same career and the pros I did in college, I wouldn't be able to help out nobody. It'd be like, unless you are the top of the top, I really can't. I can maybe do a little for you, but I can't really reach down and really say, I understand.
00:30:36
Speaker
You know, I got three boys. I got something all of No matter what happens. Well, if you go through it, I probably can't. have been through it. And you're an asset in that locker room too because there's so many dudes who get to that point where they're about to get cut and they got to deal with that mentally. I talk to all of them. So having you in the locker room is a blessing this point. I see every single one of them.
00:30:58
Speaker
Oh, man. I see every – the guy that's making 100 mil, J.C. Horn just became – I think Stingley signed something, but J.C., my highest paid. You know what I'm saying? Corner of the game. The dude's a a beast.
00:31:10
Speaker
But I seen him beginning of the season. I knew he had a couple of years. He was dealing with some injuries. I see him. I say, hey, you're hunting me a horn. Yeah. Yeah. hundred million horn. I'm going speak that to you. Every day I'm speak that of your life. That's all I say. hundred million horn.
00:31:22
Speaker
Sign a hundred million dollar contract. yeah Now, I don't think correlation is causation. You know what I mean? you Like, he was going do that regardless. J-Mad is the reason he got that money. No, like we said earlier, his dad is Jimmy Horn. know what I'm saying? So probably, you know. yeah But I just want to speak that. You know what I mean?
00:31:37
Speaker
um But then I can go see, I know the guy that's about to probably get axed. I see him too. yeah yeah i taught I taught him just like I taught the $100 million dollar guy. They both the same. man They got the same in end, so just always trying to, I guess, be that bridge in the locker room. which I talk to the coaches. yeah no I can tell.
00:31:55
Speaker
Like the coaches, when I first came the league, those guys were like gatekeepers to my success and my happiness. Now, all I see people as is, ah you you saved or unsaved. Like either you were in a good place and we can, words get, I can learn from you or you're hurting and I'm just trying to be like, I'm just trying to be a vessel of positivity. You know what saying? Like it don't matter who it is really. That's beautiful. Yeah, man. So...
00:32:19
Speaker
What are some of the biggest misconceptions or like myths that have been busted about the league? like Growing up as a kid, like so a kid out there, right? They got yeah these these visions. What are some of the misconceptions that you've uncovered?
00:32:32
Speaker
man Oh, my goodness. What are the biggest misconceptions? that's That's tough. That's tough. I mean, there's certain things that just you come in, you you just think like, okay, this is family.
00:32:46
Speaker
Break it down on family. Yeah. It's not your family. Yeah. It's not your family. Yeah. It's job. It's a job. Yeah. um I tell people, they always, you go through three stages.
00:32:58
Speaker
It may be in any business, but definitely NFL. There's naivety. Then there's cynicism. And then there's acceptance. You got to get to, the quicker you get to acceptance. You coin that. Yeah, that's This is the book. This is going to be in the future book. No, no, this is all free. You know what I mean? But if we do write a book, I guess I'll put that in a chapter. But this is something realized. Like, you know, there's that naivety. You get into a league and you got your friend. You ever seen the movie Brian's Song?
00:33:23
Speaker
You just think, oh, it's going be both us running into the suns. You're like, no, bro, this is a job. You got to understand, you got to move like a man. Cats just be like hanging out.
00:33:34
Speaker
I can hear the way they talk, heyer away see the way they conduct meetings. I'm like, you don't realize they already plotting on you. They already trying to find your replacement. You thinking it's sweet. You thinking it's sweet.
00:33:45
Speaker
It is not. It's so sour. And so I'm kind of like, okay, well, that naivety is going to break at some point. Now, the problem is, though, is when you realize, dang, my best friend got cut. Dang, I thought I had a good year, but they traded me.
00:33:59
Speaker
Oh, I finally went to a negotiating table, and they're actually telling me, we really actually don't think you're worth that amount. Then comes the cynicism, and that's when you're that guy in the locker room that's like, man, all this junk is BS.
00:34:11
Speaker
Oh, that coach, man, forget that coach. Man, our owner, dude, dude. And it's just toxic. It's sensitive. that We see it with people when it comes to anything in life. Marriage. Think about many people talk about relationships now with cynicism. yeah Think about me people talk about politics and the government. Cynicism. It's always like, you know, it's like...
00:34:28
Speaker
a Red pill, b blue pill. It's like black pill. It's just like done with everything. And so you have that happen to you in the NFL usually about after that first contract year. Okay. Like that three to four year. Which is a lucky thing to make. A lucky thing to make. Like get there.
00:34:42
Speaker
The cynicism starts to come in. Interesting. you hear it. But then if you can get to that acceptance, man, you really start to see what it is. You are a grown man that gets to make a lot of money playing a kid's game. Mm-hmm.
00:34:57
Speaker
At the end of the day. Yeah. Oh, well, i got I got this owner. Okay, everybody has an owner. If you're a business owner, your customers own you. Facts. So get used to being beholden to somebody. Facts. Okay? Yeah.
00:35:10
Speaker
So it's just part of it. Oh, well, I don't, you know. You are a grown man that gets paid a lot of money. You can set yourself up and you get to play a kid's game.
00:35:21
Speaker
You are blessed. Like, I tell dudes, all and when people ask me, Jamey, how you doing? I'm blessed, baby. I'm blessed, bro. Oh, you make league minimum. That could change somebody's whole life. Stop.
00:35:33
Speaker
Stop. Are you on practice squad this week, dude? Stop. Like, let's stop. Please. Like, don't last don't bring that to me. yeah you You're blessed.
Financial Prudence for Athletes
00:35:42
Speaker
And so for me, um I think, like, I've always kind of, like, recently now that I've gotten to the acceptance, it's like you're free.
00:35:49
Speaker
When they come to you and say, hey, man, like, you know, ah we're going to use you a lot this game. your your Your energy levels don't even go, but oh, it's like, okay, cool. I got you, coach. like yeah For sure.
00:36:00
Speaker
My life don't change. Wives stay the same. Kids stay the same. yeah Oh, hey, man, J-Mac, come upstairs, bring your iPad, man. We got to cut you. All right. You know what I'm saying? You accepted it. How you doing? Bam. Good. All right.
00:36:15
Speaker
well We're going to bring you back tomorrow. Okay. I'll see you tomorrow. Wow. It's just, you move on. Wow. Yeah. That was beautiful. You mentioned you make a lot of money, right? You do. And you, like I, working in wealth management and seeing some of the decisions that people make, especially when they're not used to making a lot of money.
00:36:35
Speaker
and And just like sometimes I scratch my head. But you talk about like what you, how you envision the money that you make, what you do with it, how you're prudent around that.
00:36:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think one good rule of thumb is always like, if you can't buy it twice, don't buy it once. Right? So that house you're looking at like, bro, if you can't do that, don't do it. Don't do once.
00:36:58
Speaker
um I've always tried to steward, you know, my money in good way. I had a good team. I'm always going back to – I don't have all this, like, wisdom just because I'm smarter than thou. You know, it's really because I've had people to help me along the way. um But I just – I didn't buy the lie.
00:37:14
Speaker
I mean, there's an NFL starter pack. yeah we When you get here, you need to go get a change with your name and your number on it. So now you, you know. So so the so the girls know who you are when you walk into the club. Like, bro, they know.
00:37:25
Speaker
They know you're You know? Are you what I'm saying? Okay, now you got to go get the car with the Hellcat. You know, it's like, okay, so how much is that? It's like there's this little starter pack. Yeah. And I'm like, none of that junk matters. Yeah.
00:37:38
Speaker
It does not, you know, but i'd be trying to break down these walls. The good thing is, and tell you what, I'm so glad that I have had a good and mild success in my career early on because the rookie still leaves listening to me. Like, if I ain't do nothing, they be like, and what's this dude talking about? But they know, okay, J-Mac can go.
00:37:54
Speaker
We'll lend him an ear. And so I'm always talking to about some wealth management stuff. because So, like, I have a young guy, JT, you know, Jatayvon Sanders. I'll give real, real rap. So he's played Texas, all right?
00:38:05
Speaker
That's Austin. Austin's very similar to Nashville. yeah When I signed my first Tops and Panini deals, I probably made upwards of three hundred k That's your card.
00:38:16
Speaker
Card, yeah. I'm talking about before I even took a snap. Wow. Before I even touched football field, just off of my college work, you know I probably made $300K, maybe close to $400K. And I was a receiver offensive player. yeah I got drafted high to the Eagles, a high market. So was going little bit more.
00:38:34
Speaker
So I took that money and immediately started trying to find living in Nashville because said, know Nashville is good city. I like it. Bought a condo for amount.
00:38:45
Speaker
This is 2014. Okay. We appraised it around 2020. What do you think? what do You know what I'm saying? Skyrocket. More than doubled. Yeah. Okay. And I still have it. Yeah. Put people in there and we rent it out. Nice. like But I went and got it then because I knew the area.
00:39:03
Speaker
Like, I know that I can always come back here and stay here too. So I'm like, bro, you live in Austin. Yeah. go get you a place. Go get you a condo. like It's a great market. And for what for what it's worth, the people competing for the places you're looking at are very small percentage of people. So just go ahead and go look in there and go get it.
00:39:22
Speaker
So um I think that's kind of like the biggest thing, but I'm not some like savant. I'm not in there every day like, oh, you need to go buy this stock. You know what I mean? i'm not yeah I'm not on that. right um I'm kind of like on the big things. Like, you know, don't go invest in some business that you don't know nothing about.
00:39:37
Speaker
All right, please don't. you You don't need three cars. Yeah. You do not. You got one right foot. Exactly. um You know, stop having kids. Like, that's the number one.
00:39:50
Speaker
Like, I'm going on a crusade for the rest of my career. Stop having these babies. Y'all heard it. With women that's not your wife. You heard it. Please stop. Yeah. Please stop. They ain't asked for it.
00:40:01
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? Because it's bro it's like how much of how much of your money is going to go this way, this way, and this way? Yeah. Like, come on, bro. These babies deserve to wake up and see, okay, yeah there's dad, there's mom. And you deserve to be able to make what you need to make.
00:40:15
Speaker
And I feel like you're splitting it with a girl you have no relationship with. You have no desire to even see, okay, well, guess what? She's half of your kid. Yeah, that's real. That's so real. So um um' I'm big on that. Like, my boy, I keep giving names. Like, Xavier Leggett, I love that dude. Yeah.
00:40:31
Speaker
I love X. bit I know everybody talk about his accent. This dude, heart of gold, man. Great dude. But doesn't have kids, doing the right things with his money. He's got some good endorsements going on. He gives great energy to the fan base.
00:40:45
Speaker
I'm always just like, man, don't make the big mistake. Mm. Let's just get through the weeds. I call it the weeds, man. Like 22 to like 28 is weeds. If you get through the weeds without a big mistake, I think you're going be
Faith Journey and Spiritual Growth
00:40:56
Speaker
good. No, that's dope.
00:40:57
Speaker
That's dope. I mean, you you giving game. And I know there's somebody chest burning right now because they heard that. But hey, that's real. If you felt that, you felt that. but But that's real, man. That's real. ah I don't think you get to a place where you are in life with the mindset that you have without strong faith. yeah Tell me what your faith means to you.
00:41:15
Speaker
My faith really everything. I think all this stuff is going to pass away. All of it. You know, the word of God says that the grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of God going to stand forever.
00:41:26
Speaker
And that's still true. We see a lot of people when they get to end of their life, they start trying to cling on to God. Start trying to cling on to the things of God. Somebody's been telling you for your whole life, hey, man, all that physical stuff doesn't matter. Hey, like, what is the profit of man to gain the world and lose your soul? People kick game to you this all day. But you think, no, you know, I really want to look at this TikTok one more time.
00:41:45
Speaker
You know, I want to go, you know, buy this. I want to go strive for this. When you get to them wee hours, when we get to the quiet, you're about to, you know, what are you going to around you?
00:41:57
Speaker
You gonna want that family, the free stuff. You gonna want that family around you. You gonna want that love. You gonna want more time. You want more time, all right? And you gonna want the word of God spoke over you. yeah You are, you gonna want truth. You gonna know like, what's gonna help my spirit? yeah Okay, so my faith is is everything.
00:42:14
Speaker
um what's What's crazy is um when I tore my ACL, I'd felt the Lord told me for a long time ah to learn Hebrew. He was like, I want you to to take that next step in your faith.
00:42:27
Speaker
And i want you to learn the Bible at a deeper level because this is the level people aren't tapping into. And so there's all these debates that go on about the Bible.
00:42:41
Speaker
And I'm like, really, you're debating this from your experience, this person. Like, what does the word have to say about the word? Yeah. I want to go to. the original part of it. So when I tore my ACL, yeah I told myself i was going to teach myself how to do two things. I was going learn i play chess and I was going to learn Hebrew. yeah And man, I learned chess and I got it and I was like, okay. And I taught it my son, but then after that, I kind of kind of put it down. I play chess every day now. I just learned this year and I play it day. You look at it every day? I love it. You probably kill me right now.
00:43:12
Speaker
um But I learned Hebrew. Yeah. And it was just like, it I mean. I see you studying it. I see it. Like you posted on your story and I'm just like, okay. Bro, it's it's it's little stuff like um one of my good friends, Josh Grady, he's an agent. Yeah. My frat brother, he called me and was- Joshua. Joshua.
00:43:31
Speaker
Yahshua. See, now don't give me my Hebrew. So he calls me and he's like, man, Jordan, I got a question. I got a Hebrew question. right, what's up? He said, hey, sometimes I see like this- Y-H-V-H, and sometimes I'll see Y-H-W-H. So is it Yahweh or Yehovah?
00:43:47
Speaker
And I was able to tell them, oh, yeah, like that that W or that V is just a mixing, whether you use the Vav, which is the sixth letter of Hebrew, where the Vav is Y-H-W-H. a V sound or a W sound, but it's technically the same name. Okay. So, and then the original Hebrew, there were no vowels.
00:44:06
Speaker
All those vowel marks, they came way later. It was all consonants. So that's why you see Yod, Hay, Vav, it's all consonants. So you just, you put them together and you say, Yah, Ha, Va, Ar, or Yah, What?
00:44:20
Speaker
That's how they said it. Okay. and um And as we were talking, we we We go a little bit further and he's like, man, probably what's the coolest thing that you've seen recently? I say, you know, I'm studying Cain and Abel and there's this part where Cain, you know, obviously kills his brother and God banished him to the east.
00:44:39
Speaker
And he says, I'm putting a mark on you. But that word for Mark is kind of like a weird translation. It really is, I'm going to put a sign on you. I'm going put a sign. And the word for sign Hebrew is just a three-letter word. It's an Aleph, it's a Vav, and it's a Tav.
00:44:55
Speaker
Okay, Aleph is the first letter Hebrew. So Aleph, okay, is God's letter. Vav, which we mentioned before, is a sixth letter. It means like a hook. and So God, hook are connected to, and Tav is the last letter of Hebrew.
00:45:09
Speaker
And the tav, its symbol is a cross. So the word for sign, when you put it over here, its meaning is, okay, God nailed to a cross. there's your sign. Some people are like, oh, i want a sign.
00:45:21
Speaker
Well, it's in the Hebrew. It's in the word. Yeah, but you got to go to the original text and understand that. You go the word. And what did John You know, I was the word. The word was with God. So I'm like, we got to go back to the words.
00:45:33
Speaker
You start peeling all these layers back, all those things you have questions about, know, It's all there. Wow. I don't even think it's much of a ah dispute that we even really have. um it's It's a lot of our own preferences. It's a lot of our own human traditions that keep us from really diving into the word and realizing what brings us all back to the center is a loving God that's always had a heart for the nations. Wow. But you got to get back to the word. Wow. Wow.
00:45:59
Speaker
You went deep. like Like Hebrew is a hard language language. Like probably one of the hardest languages to learn. But it's so fun. It's fun. Like think about it. Like the first letter is Aleph. The second letter is Bet.
00:46:09
Speaker
So if you put them together, what's that say? Aleph Bet. So it predates Greek. Because what's Greek? The alphabet. So they just took it. You know saying? Hebrew goes left to right. yeah You know, I mean, um um Greek goes left to right.
00:46:22
Speaker
Hebrew goes right to left. yeah God does one way. What does man do? You know what I'm saying? You start, come on. Look, look, turn these lights. This mic will catch on fire soon. When are we going to see J-Matt in the pulpit?
00:46:35
Speaker
Man, I'm always in the pulpit. Yeah, yeah. Come on. You never saw the Savior. You never saw the Messiah in the pulpit. No, that's real. He was moving. Everywhere. He was everywhere. Everywhere. I think that's sometimes our problem. I don't think there's not a place for it. my One of my ah my greatest leaders a guy named ah James Lowe. He's a pastor at Bethel. Great man. He's got three sons. I look up to him a lot.
00:46:55
Speaker
So I would never down the pulpit at all. But the thing I love about James is he's always out in the community. He's doing things. you know One, you know when God came to earth, he changed the world by just pouring into 12 dudes. yeah That changes everything. yeah We don't know how to pour into a small group of people for a long time intentionally.
00:47:15
Speaker
We trying. I want to just say something to everybody, but it's like, nah, like really it's the consistency that is going to overall you know bring about the change.
Love and Humility as Strengths
00:47:25
Speaker
so um i' um I'm already in the pulpit, man. I'm already there. You speak in life to a lot of people and you you uplifting. You've been an inspiration.
00:47:34
Speaker
I wore this for a reason, bro. You've inspired me for a long time. like appreciate that being i I've looked up to you mainly because you was jumping over my head and i was like, damn, but no. For real, though, you're younger, but I've always looked up to you, man.
00:47:54
Speaker
No, I you. And I just, this has been fun for me. But before we close out, before we close out, I got to ah ask a couple of fill in blanks. So ah first thing that comes to mind, vulnerability means to me blank.
00:48:11
Speaker
Relationships. It didn't change. Okay. Expand on that. I think that's the only way um to truly have real relationship with people.
00:48:22
Speaker
is like they gotta be able to see, they gotta be able to know. you know We always have these masks on and um I get it because somebody will say, well, like that's just my worst side. That's not really like who I am.
00:48:34
Speaker
you know But um man, what's powerful is when somebody can know your worst and still love you. You know what I'm saying? like They can know like, dang, that's what you did or that's who you were. I still see ah the better in you. I see you for the highest part of you.
00:48:50
Speaker
So like, you know, when it says like, man, abne you they were naked in the garden. That's just not physically. That's like whole deeper level. Like now, like everything is there. There's nothing hidden.
00:49:01
Speaker
um I had a friend once say, you're only sick as your secrets. I said, that's tough. That's tough. That's tough. You know, that's tough. And so I don't know, man, just that vulnerability, like with your, with your wife, with your friends, with your audience.
00:49:16
Speaker
um That's why I respect so much about you, bro. is that's scary to say like, all right, this is me. You know what I'm saying? yeah Cause you know, there's going to be people like, ha ha. Like, look at you. But it's like, i'm I'm doing this. I'm purging so that now the good can come out. right um And so that's why I just say, man, it's it's relationships all day, every day. You need that vulnerability if you're going to actually create something real.
00:49:40
Speaker
That's dope, man. My biggest strength is blink.
00:49:46
Speaker
i was going to say love immediately. I got no ill will for nobody. they None. Yeah. It's weird to me. Yeah. People like, like me, spirit. I'm like, what's wrong with you? Like, I don't get that.
00:49:57
Speaker
Right. So I just, um you know, like, and I've said this before, like, I have plenty of things. Like, we need whole other podcast. All right, Jordan, what's wrong with you? All right, let's get vulnerable. You know, like, I got plenty of things that I need to work on.
00:50:09
Speaker
I got plenty of things that, like, if I don't wake up in the morning and push back, that darkness is gonna overcome me. I got to crucify that flesh every morning, you know, in order for me to walk right, you know. so um But I would say it's just love. like When I see people, I try and just be like, okay, that guy has a story.
00:50:27
Speaker
That girl is somebody's daughter. She must mean she means something. right You know, it's not these... I'll just instant. We're all going to the same end. We all got expiration date. Right. So for me, man, I just always try and just lead with love, um talk to people, get to know them, you know, and that's probably my main strength. I got no ill will toward nobody. I love that, bro. well I love it.
00:50:49
Speaker
If I could give advice to my younger self, it would be blank.
00:50:55
Speaker
there's There's always football advice. Yeah, I'll tell you the football advice. Give me both. Give me football advice. I'm going to give you the full one because it it pertains to life. It's a metaphor. play Okay, i would I would tell me, play special teams.
00:51:06
Speaker
And it's like, okay, why? Because some football people aren't football listeners. I thought I was too good for it. I thought I was too good for it. Special teams for people who don't know. Go ahead. So when the ball is being kicked, right, you got kickoff, kick return, you got field goal. Third phase. Yeah.
00:51:22
Speaker
You got those different ah those different parts of a football game that aren't the highlights. They aren't the the most desirable places, they are necessary. They're necessary. they And they can win and or lose a game. Yeah.
00:51:36
Speaker
you know, they're not glorified, but they are necessary. It's not glorified. And so when I was at Vanderbilt and I started emerging as a wide receiver and they would do special team circuit, I would just move to the back of my ass.
00:51:48
Speaker
So the whole time people were like, miss our leader. He's so humble. He works so hard. I wasn't working hard then. i wasn't humble then. i thought that was beneath me. So if I thought that was beneath me, what did I, what was I inadvertently saying about the guys doing it?
00:51:59
Speaker
Yeah. You know, yeah these are my own teammates. I'm kind of like, and it, and it, and it killed me later. You know i'm saying? Because when I started going through injuries in the NFL and when I started scrapping to get back on a team, the number one thing they would say is, don't have any special teams film on you.
00:52:14
Speaker
So it came back. Like, I'll be honest. My college film, what I had, if I would just played Gunner. Yeah. If I would have did one thing on kickoff, kickoff return.
00:52:26
Speaker
Made a tackle. Made a tackle. Anything. but i probably would have made another $5 million over the course of my career. My boy Trent Shurfield. I'm going to big on my guy. Before I get off here, I got to big on my dog. This dude was undrafted coming out of Vanderbilt.
00:52:41
Speaker
Undrafted. He's never not made an active roster out the gate the team. He just signed a, I'm pretty sure, i don't want to get right, like a two-year $8 million dollars deal. unreal.
00:52:52
Speaker
okay Now he can go with receiver, it's undisputed. But he might have had 10 catches last year, maybe. Don't think he not like that, because when the Dolphins fed him, he ate. It was like 40 and 400, don't play.
00:53:07
Speaker
But it's just the way the Minnesota Vikings ran their offense. yeah And it was like midway through the year, we're talking on the phone, and he says, man, I'm about to turn up on these boys on teams. Yeah. They're not going to deny me. And he ended up almost going to the Pro Bowl and just signed $8 million dollars deal. oh Just because he's not like, no, I'm not too big for this. yeah And my problem was I was too big-headed. I was stubborn. I remember Coach Franklin being like, joining i think you should hop in on these.
00:53:31
Speaker
And just like, yeah, okay. You know? Yeah. Talk to me on third down, dog. You know what I mean? But I'm not too big for it now. That's good. Special teams, period. I'm at the front of the line. Yeah. How going to make the team this year? God willing.
00:53:44
Speaker
It's going to be through teams. Like, the stuff that's glorified, man, that's... that's not for me. Yeah. No more. Translate that to to life for me. What does that look like in somebody's working life and their relationships at home? what does that look like? yeahs accepting that role Yeah. There's nothing beneath you.
00:54:02
Speaker
If you see a job that's there, just get it done. I remember me and my wife said this when we first got married. Cause we were like, okay, are some things we can try and do? We're like, if there's a job that we see that can get done, just do it.
00:54:14
Speaker
If there's dishes in the dishwasher, that just finished, I can be like, well, my wife doesn't play pro soccer anymore. I'm the one still getting my body beat up. I still train. She got it.
00:54:27
Speaker
But it's already there. Just do it. yeah Just get the job done. yeah If the baby's crying or something, I'm like, man, I'm the man I usually don't. this gotta be mom's job.
00:54:37
Speaker
But if it's, just go do it. yeah Just get it done. Vice versa for her. And there's times when, you know, she looks at taking the trash out. Like I'm asking her to like a 445 pound deadlift. But if it's there and I'm busy, if I'm on my shift wave getting some meditation in, she's going to like, just do it. Just get the job done. Nothing's beneath you.
00:54:58
Speaker
you know um I think that'll just carry you far even in business. like That janitor's not beneath you? Not at all. like I got a story about look i went' about a janitor. I was at the gym the other day.
00:55:09
Speaker
And I was in the bathroom and the janitor was mopping. And I literally was just like, man, i appreciate you. And I had my headphones on. He said something So I take him off and he's like, you appreciate what I do? i was like, yeah, of course I appreciate what you do. He's like, thank you, man.
00:55:23
Speaker
Like, you'll be you'll be surprised at how many people just like either walk past me or look at me a certain way and everything. It's just like, that's a human right there. It's whole human. yeah And how... like how hard is it to show your gratitude and appreciation for a human doing a job and a service for you? Right. So like, no, that's beautiful, man.
00:55:42
Speaker
No, for sure. So I think that was kind of like, the that's a beautiful story, man. I felt that over my over the course of my life and just realizing like, man, find those things that are special teams in your life. Like, okay, I think that's beneath me. Oh, that's, no, that's actually what's going to help you become the best version of you.
00:55:58
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? Those thankless jobs. Yeah. That's what you got to kind of look into. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's big.
Inspiration from David Goggins
00:56:04
Speaker
It's big. ah Where was I? Oh, I, when I need inspiration, I turn to blank.
00:56:11
Speaker
Okay, obviously the word, but to give you a guy that i love. Okay, it's David Goggins. Goggins. I love David Goggins. David Goggins has you running through walls. dude is in insane.
00:56:24
Speaker
I love a practitioner. He's in it. I love a practitioner. I don't want a theorist. Don't tell me this is what hard work looks like. Do it. now On broken bones. Broken bones. Oh my gosh. And then the people that are always like, oh, I guarantee he's not. Okay, you do it.
00:56:42
Speaker
No. like Like what? Like, come on, man. Like, so, um like, there's just certain people, right? So I've said this before. Like, there's certain pastors. Like, I listen to Francis Chan a lot. um He's a pastor I really enjoy.
00:56:53
Speaker
if you and If you live in a certain sin patterns, you're not going want to listen to Francis Chan. You're just not. my yeah I don't want to get cut like this right now. I want i want something soft. Yeah. That's going to make my ears feel good. Yeah.
00:57:05
Speaker
When you, like, don't want, you do not want to hear David Goggins. Yeah. When you know you're sitting down. well You ain't doing that work. When you're in that self-pity, he the last person. I see you.
00:57:17
Speaker
What are you doing son? He gon' cuss you out and everything. You sitting there on your fucking ass. Like he don't care. Like he don't care. And while he running in the rain with a car driving by him recording what he doing. Like no, that's real. Yeah, some dude said, I think we used it one video. He said, I was running and the guy saw me and he said, Dave, it's raining.
00:57:38
Speaker
Bro, you out here running? I said, cause you're not.
00:57:43
Speaker
I'm like, what? Bro, like you only get to that mental mentality on like the 25th mile. oh You got to be like six miles for your brain to start tapping into a different... He's like back here. know what I'm saying? Like there's stuff that he doesn't... See that you don't see, you know. Have you read his book?
00:58:01
Speaker
Yeah, first yeah. I've only read the first one, but like, You Can't Break Me. First one's sufficient. Can't hurt me. Can't hurt me. Can't hurt me. Yes. Man, this generation needs that. Yeah, yeah. It needs it. It'll change your mindset. It'll make you realize, like, I don't want to get up in Like, the fuck? I don't want to get up in the morning. Or I don't want to do this work. You just go it. People don't realize, man, all they need is already inside of them. It is. It already is. Yes. You got to just go get it. And we always want to look for something synthetic. We want to look for a certain- quick fix. And I'm not saying quick I'm not saying some of those things. We're on probably I think a lot of people in the mental health space definitely admire what you do. So I'm always to be sensitive to that. True. There's times in your life where you do need a crush.
00:58:41
Speaker
You get injured early on. They don't say go out run. Yeah, you do need something that's going to carry you for little You might need the wheelchair. You might need the scooter. But you can't live on the scooter. Man. You got to start doing And so for me, like, I'm a big, like, right now on my wrist, I got this, like, talk less, do more.
00:58:56
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? Do more, like, action, man. Like, you know, um one of my favorite, like, I don't even know what's a quote, but it's the synopsis of the word stress. And Jeff Bezos was talking about it.
00:59:07
Speaker
And he said, like, stress is not from having too much to do. It's from lack of action on the things you need to do. So when you're not actually doing the things you're supposed to be doing, that's when you feel stressed.
00:59:18
Speaker
it's It's not because, oh, I got so much to do. Man, you start checking out that checklist, you're going feel accomplished. yeah And the stress is going to alleviate. But when you're just sitting there and I got this paper I got to do, I got this practice I got to go to, I got this other thing I got to make.
00:59:32
Speaker
You start feeling, oh, man, just check out the check. Just do. Start doing. Do. Start doing. Like, you know, so. I like that. That's why I rock with Goggins, man. It's just like, you know, when it's time, I'm serious. When I wake up in the morning Carolina, the first thing I do, these people probably look at me weird.
00:59:47
Speaker
I go in there, it's early. It's like five something. So I've already done some like, I give, I read the word. You know, they got this morning routine But um I get up, I read the Word, I meditate. you know what I'm saying? So I spend about 30 minutes, 40 minutes to myself just in my room. just Then I get the facility. I go to the cafeteria. I go get straight black coffee.
01:00:10
Speaker
I go get on the gray shorts. I go fully underneath in the cold tub. And I in the cold tub for like three or four minutes. And I just sip coffee. Nice. And the whole time listening to Goggins. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. You ain't getting out. You in there.
01:00:22
Speaker
I'm just freezing, sipping coffee. Like, how is this old man going stay here today? I'm going to find a way. I'm ready for whatever. Yeah, bro. We got practice.
Vanderbilt Legends Charity Softball Game
01:00:33
Speaker
um And you can ask. You can call any of my boys up, man.
01:00:36
Speaker
They know, they like, man, like is Jay gonna be ready to go? He's gonna be ready to go. yeah You know, so yeah um I take a lot of that from Gogus, man. i just love his energy. yeah um hope I get to meet the dude one day. you will You know he's here.
01:00:48
Speaker
I know, I know that. I know. I just gotta go outside and run on a cold day. When it's raining the hardest and it's the coldest, go outside, you'll find yeah yeah Man, J-Matt, this has been a blessing, man. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for doing this and and blessing people. There's so many gyms and so like your energy.
01:01:07
Speaker
As soon as you walked in here, is' like your energy just like elevates the room. Let's go, um any last well Well, first, how can how can people contact you if they want to get in touch? Okay. Yeah, people want know. Yeah, so I would say um my Instagram, okay, at jman3times. You can always follow me. you can see what we're doing. I say number one thing, I want to leave the podcast with it. So right now, you know you got the Vanderbilt hat on.
01:01:31
Speaker
um ah Which camera do I look at? you know what I'm saying? Go here. This one, right? Okay, so I'm throwing a Vanderbilt Legends charity softball game. You know, it's going to be at Vanderbilt University, Hawkins Field, July 11th. Doors open at 5. Okay, so July. I got Hawkins Field. So the highest level of baseball in Nashville is Vanderbilt baseball. Don't get it twisted. Hands down. So Coach Corbin entrusted me with his stadium to throw this charity event. I've got some big names. I got Tony Kemp, nine-year MLB veteran. I got Oren Burke, Super Bowl champion. ah Man.
01:02:03
Speaker
I got some names I just even want to wait to say. I'm going to wait. You guys need to come out. We got a former guest, Shane Foster. Shane Foster going to out there, legend on the basketball court. um But more than anything, this is why people really need to come out. We're doing this for a charity called Eli's House. let Me and my wife are going out to Eli's House tomorrow. But what these women do is their heart is to keep families together. they they their theirre whole Their mission is built off that verse.
01:02:27
Speaker
We're going to bring back the parents to the children and the children's hearts back to the parents. So Tennessee has one of the worst foster care systems in the nation. So they take in at Eli's house women who are close to being homeless or living in really poverty stricken areas. They bring them here. This plays out in a really nice play area in Tennessee.
01:02:49
Speaker
and they give them food, shelter, clothing, trauma relief therapy, classes on how to work a job for two years. They pour into these women for two years straight, them and their kids. And then after the two-year program is up, they do their best to reinstate them into regular life with a nice job, a place to where they can go start figuring out how to live so that the parents can stay with the kids because they don't want the kids to be separated from their moms.
01:03:15
Speaker
Their goal is to keep moms and the kids with their biological mom. Like this is a this is a foundation you can reach out and touch. You can feel them. Now, I don't want to say the number per se, but let's just say a small car. It takes like a small car to truly support one of these families for an entire year. So my my opening goal is 100,000. I want to at least get a few families where we can say, you know hey, all these people in this stadium, all these celebrities that came out, hey, they did that for you. like they they They did this because we believe that you're you're a young kid. You deserve to have a sense of normalcy and to feel seen and to feel supported.
01:03:58
Speaker
So that's the Vandy Legends charity softball game supporting Eli's house at Hawkins Field on July 7-11. Because you know yeah I'm always open. Come on, now. Always open to give.
01:04:11
Speaker
So ah please just come out. I mean, for real, it's gonna be a great thing. I got some i got some big stars I'm trying to hit up too, but it's really about the kids. For real, it's about these families, about these women. Let's just do something good.
01:04:22
Speaker
Let's do something. Hey, we need five more years out of you, because you got some favorite some fans now that's gonna love you. come on You're their favorite player now, bro. I'm grinding. So need five more out of Look, I got three more kids coming. You better follow them.
01:04:35
Speaker
But look,
Episode Conclusion and Invitation for Feedback
01:04:36
Speaker
J-Mac, man, with all that you could be doing and all the places you could be, I appreciate you being here with me embracing vulnerability. You the man, brother. Appreciate you. Love you, dog. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you for joining us in another episode of Vulnerability Muscle.
01:04:49
Speaker
If you've enjoyed these conversations around vulnerability, please consider leaving a review. Your feedback not only motivates us to continue to do the work that we do, but it allows other people to witness the power of vulnerability.
01:05:02
Speaker
Share your thoughts on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify Podcasts, or wherever you're listening from. And don't forget to spread the word. You can follow us at vulnerability muscle on Instagram and me personally at Reggie D. Ford across all platforms.
01:05:18
Speaker
Visit vulnerabilitymuscle.com for additional resources and support. And remember, embracing vulnerability is not a sign of weakness. It is the source of your greatest strength.
01:05:30
Speaker
Sometimes it's uncomfortable, but most workouts are. So keep flexing that vulnerability muscle.