#91 Dwayne Blakley

Episode 91 – Dwayne Blakley. We expand our reach on the podcast diving into former college and pro athletes and how athletics shaped their lives.  This is the first in More Than The Scoreboard Podcast expanding.  Dwayne Blakley is a former University of Missouri tight end who went on to play professionally in the NFL and NFL Europe before building a successful career as a personal trainer. In this episode, Dwayne reflects on how athletics shaped his life and shares the adversity, relationships, and defining moments that helped shape the man he is today. He discusses suffering a frightening broken neck while at Missouri, how that experience completely reset his approach to football and life, and a second health scare after his professional career that ultimately led him into personal training. Dwayne also shares what he looks for when working with young athletes—work ethic, coachability, perseverance, and the willingness to keep competing when success doesn’t come immediately. He reflects on the changing landscape of college athletics, NIL and the transfer portal, and why today’s athletes can’t lose sight of the value of earning opportunities instead of expecting immediate results. Most importantly, Dwayne explains how the lessons learned through sports extend far beyond the field: understanding that every decision matters, developing the perseverance to keep going through adversity, and having a vision for who you want to become.

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

What's it been? Like 20 some years?

SPEAKER_02 0:07

Oh shoot. I'm yeah. Yeah. Just over 20 years. Man, that's crazy. So how old are you now? I just turned 47.

unknown 0:17

Dang.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

God, you know what's funny? That that I'm 53. I'll be 54 in December, but it just makes me realize like how young I actually was. Yeah, we all were. I know. Um, I hey listen, I appreciate you getting on, and um I'm kind of doing this thing. So this podcast, I've I've I've been sticking to coaches, mainly high school coaches, but but college coaches, pro coaches, and just talking about leadership and character and culture and trying to keep that at the forefront of the game because you know how it is nowadays, man. It's crazy. Yeah. But just try and talk about how athletics kind of shaped our lives, you know. So you're the first one in this new series. Oh, okay, okay. So, yeah, it's crazy, man. Um, well, I'll go ahead. I I know you're busy, and we'll just catch up as we go, but uh, I'll go ahead and introduce you. So this is super special to me, Dwayne. Dwayne Blakely um played tight end at the University of Missouri and then and then bounced around in the league, played in some NFL Europe, but really, really kind of honed in and settled down with the Falcons um, you know, your last three or four years, and um you're you're from St. Joseph, Missouri. You're living back in St. Joseph. And uh kind of tell us, I I appreciate you coming on. So just so people know, so um Blake was uh his name's Dwayne, but I always called him Blake. Nobody's been Dwayne. Only my mom says Dwayne. No, yeah, of course she does. But um we we had I've been in a lot of rooms as a player, as a coach, meeting rooms, and our quarterback room at Iowa was I I mean, it was it it was crazy, right? Full of personality. But our our tight end room at Missouri, those last couple years that I was there, was I mean, it was the best. Because did because you um Brandon Ford, who we called Dirty B, Garrett Hill, who we called G. Hill, and then young, young JD McCoy came in towards the end there. But but um you, Dirty B and G Hill all came in the same year, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00 2:42

Yeah, hey, coach, so crazy story. So the whole recruiting process, you know, Moller, Andy Muller was recruiting us, me and uh Aaron Critney. Right. And so Andy's and Coach Muller's coming up and he's recruiting us. Hey, he never says anything about Garrett or Dirty B. So the way I find out that they're in my same recruiting class is the first day we report for it was summer workouts or summer something, and I go in the locker room, and like there's two dudes next to my locker. And I'm like, hey, man, what's up, guys? Hey, like, what's up? Like, man, what position y'all play? We play tight end, and we just start chit-chatting, and we find out we're all in the same, like we're all freshmen. So never knew, but it turned out to be a really good thing.

SPEAKER_02 3:24

Yeah, it did. And and and then when um you know, when Cubit came in and and Pittman and and those guys came in, our whole offense changed. And it, you know, it really suited you more than any of those guys. I mean, nothing against Dirty B. And you know, Dirty B knows it, and G Hill knew it. But, you know, I mean, you were that all-around tight end. You were that guy that um we could plug in anywhere. Um, you could block, you could run, you could catch, you were you're big and tall and lanky. And I mean, it was, it was, you were kind of before your time. I'm I'm I'm thinking. The more I think about it, you were that tight end that you see nowadays, you know, that can really run and and long.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Coach, the crazy part is like when I look back at that, so when I first get to Mizzou, and you guys may not knew, I'm two years removed from not even wanting to play football. I didn't want to play. And so, yeah, and so that's why like when I get there, I'm trying to figure it out. But then by the time that Cuban and those guys get there, you know, I kind of understood. But that whole year for me, Coach, man, I wasn't focused. Like I just wasn't, I wasn't focused. Then, you know, I break my neck at the end of the year. And honestly, like looking back, it was a traumatic deal. That was the best thing that could have happened for me personally because it was like a reset.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

How did how did it reset you? When you say it was a reset, what do you what do you mean? Because there's a lot of coaches that, you know, they have kids that get injured. And I want to talk about your injury specifically here in a sec, but there's a lot of coaches, a lot of athletes that get hurt, and you know, they'll kind of wallow in it, or they'll be more cautious, or they just decide that, hey, maybe this isn't for me. So when you say reset, how did it, what was, what was that reset like?

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Well, number one, just the experience itself, like it was very traumatic. You know, man, we've all seen guys sprain an ankle, we've seen guys tear an ACL, but never, I had never seen anything like what happened to me. And then going through it, I was conscious, but I thought I had got knocked out because my arms went limp and I couldn't move them. So, you know how you see guys that get hit in the jaw and everything just drops? I thought it was that. Yeah. I hit the ground, coach, I'm still conscious. You know, so just going through that in itself was like, man, not being focused, not being attentive to what you're doing, and not say that's why it happened, but regardless of how you approach a situation, that situation can be taken from you, you know, in an instant. And so that that was the main thing where it made me realize, like, hey, like, man, you're out here messing around, not giving your full, and it can be gone tomorrow. So that that was the biggest thing that hit me.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

Yeah, that's good. So let me explain to the listeners what happened. So back then when when Bill Cuba was our offensive coordinator, um, we were doing a lot of H back stuff with our tight ends. So, you know, we were a one-back team the majority of the time, but we were a two-back run game. Um, and we would motion you guys as tight ends to become the fullback. And we ran a, I think we ran a week side ISO in practice. And I I can I vividly still remember it. And I was standing back behind the ball, and I I remember you went when motion to the right. Um, you you went up through the, I don't know, A gap, B gap, whatever. Uh huh. And you hit the linebacker, and and just so people know, like you didn't have your head down. I can still your knees were bent, you normally great knee bender, knees were bent, face mask right in his chest, and you go down. Yep. And I'm standing back there and I'm like, Blake, get up, Blake, get up, Blake, get your ass up. And I was giving you shit, and I walked over because you you wouldn't get up. Didn't do it. Bent over, and you're like, you're like, Coach, I can't move. Yeah. Got to trainers over there. I you probably don't know this, but I cried for two days. Grown ass man, I cried for two days. I still remember calling your mom. Oh boy. And uh man, I I mean, what do you what do you say? Yeah. You know, and and and then I remember going to the hospital and talking to the the doctor, and he's like, Coach, he's like, just so you know, he said, the way the way we're made, he said, because I was telling him it was a perfect, perfect hit. Like you didn't do anything that where most people think you break your neck. He said, You can if you walk straight with your head up and you walk into a wall and you walk into it the right way, he said you can break your neck. Yeah. But I think didn't you fracture a transverse process? Or did you did you actually C5 vertebrae?

SPEAKER_00 8:08

It was fracture, so broken, whatever you want to say that, but it was C5. And like I said, I'm a kid at the time, coach. Like I don't understand the severity of that. I just knew that it was something I had never seen. And I didn't really realize like how serious that could have been until years later, you know, and so yeah, it was just one of those things where just it was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

Yeah, yeah, got lucky. Yeah, um, I'll never forget that, man. That's one of those things that that I've told that story so many times in my life, Dwayne. It's it's crazy. So um what tell everybody what you're doing now. I know what you're doing, but tell everybody kind of what you're what you're doing and been doing for a while, right? I'm a personal trainer.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

Uh this is year, see 10, 15 years. This is year 15. 15. So uh I kind of just started with adults and then I kind of mingled in. I do some basketball workouts, I do speed agility, but I have more adults than anything. And uh man, it's just taught me a lot seeing things from this perspective. But it's it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Yeah, good. Um, do you own your own gym or you just kind of contract work and bounce around wherever they work out and then I'm a contractor and and the reason is like, coach, I'm at four different gyms.

SPEAKER_00 9:28

So what I pay and rent basically, I could have my own spa. But strategically, you gotta think, if I have my own spa and the treadmill breaks, I gotta replace that. Or if I have my own spa and the toilet breaks, I gotta fix that. It's much easier to pay these folks their rent and I can jump around and come and go as I please, and it's just a lot easier.

SPEAKER_02 9:49

Yeah, most people probably most people that know you know this, but you were a heck of a basketball player. You could have probably you could probably still be playing. At least I thought so. Coming out of high school.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

I still hoop three days a week.

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Good. Good. That's important, especially at the age you're at, man. Um what what's it like? Why do you why do you think you gravitated? Because I know a lot of guys that have coached that that I played with that have been personal trainers their whole life. And um, you know, they they dive into to the older generation, people want to get in shape, they dive into the younger ones, they do speed and agility, all that kind of stuff, but it it it's not really that um what's the word I'm looking for? It doesn't surprise me. And and but I want to hear, and I think the people that are listening, why why were you attracted to that? What makes you because I know you're good at it, what makes you so so successful in helping other people?

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Okay, so we just talked, we just talked about me breaking my neck and how traumatic that was. Well, I had another traumatic experience. Um I was done with football. I was done with the NFL. I I made the Titans roster, and then uh I ended up getting released after week two. We had a crazy situation with Vince Young where he went off the rails. Long story short, they had to bring another guy in, they cut me off the roster. Well, so I'm here in St. Joe that whole season, and I had opportunities to go work out for other teams. I was just done. And it was like December, Christmas time. My mom's out of town, she's in Houston visiting my uncle. Coach, I'm hooping. I'm at my old high school, I'm hooping. And I knew I was thick. Like I, you know, I congested and you coughed. So I had all of that. Coach, I take two trips up and down the core, and I can't breathe. I couldn't breathe. Two trips. Hey, so I pull the old, hey, I gotta tie my shoe to try to catch my breath. And it, I couldn't catch it. So I called for a sub, and you know, guy subbed me out. And I go down to the locker room, which was right off the gym, and I just knew something was wrong. So I came back up and I was like, guys, you gotta call the ambulance. And they looked at me and they was like, What? And I went down. Boom. Coach, I start throwing up all this stuff. Uh there was a dude. Oh, coach, it's crazy. There was a dude there who he's trying to calm me down. I'm reaching for his shoe. The paramedics came, I fought the paramedics because I'm I'm in shock. They wrapped me up in a sheet to get me out of the gym. I wind up in here in ICU on a ventilator. Uh they really couldn't tell me what happened, coach. Like uh, they said I had pneumonia, but my kidneys shut down, and that's why I couldn't breathe. But I was in ICU three days, come out of that with no issues. Knock on wood. So I recovered from that, and I'm thinking, like, man, this health stuff is a serious deal, and I just got really into my health. And that's what brought me to personal training. Like, if I can do this for me, I can help other help show other people how to do it too.

SPEAKER_02 12:56

Yeah. Well, good. I I didn't know about that, man. Oh, yeah. I mean, you and and the thing about it is it sounds like, I mean, obviously you were heavier than you are now, but you weren't like heavy, out of shape, heavy. No, I mean.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

You just got done playing. Yeah, I coach, that was December. I got cut in September, October. I I never stopped working out. It had only been a couple months. And like I said, even though I got cut, I was still hooping. Like I hoop, I came here and just started hooping immediately. So I was in good shape, but I we really don't know. They gave me every kind of doctor you can think of: uh, pulmonary specialist, heart specialist, kidney doctor. I'm going through all this stuff, and they really could never tell me why that happened. Um, maybe it wasn't an allergic reaction because I was self-medicating. I was taking Benadryl and Nucinex and all this stuff, and maybe that happened, but we still don't know. But I I haven't had any issues since.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

That's scary, man. Oh yeah. Before I forget, my my mom told me to tell you hello. She called me like literally 10 minutes ago, and I'm like, I gotta go. And she's like, please tell Dwayne. I said hello. Oh, yeah. She's almost 80. She's almost 83 years old.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Your mom doing good? See, her birthday is tomorrow. She'll be 74.

unknown 14:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Shout out moments.

SPEAKER_02 14:14

Yeah, exactly. Um, I I want to kind of dive into your high school experience, um, both on the court and on the field. Um your coaches back then. Right. Um, did you have did you have a good relationship with them?

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Oh, absolutely. So Tony Dudic was my football coach, and then Paul Athens was my basketball coach. But more importantly, once again, going back to mom, my mom was also a middle school and high school coach in St. Joe. So they all knew her.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

I didn't know.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

So anytime they had an issue with me, you go to her and the problem's solved. So uh I can I can credit Coach Dudik, he's the football coach, but like I told you, I wasn't gonna play like him and a couple of other ones, they wouldn't leave me alone. I don't want to say they made me play, but they let me realize the opportunities that I would have if I did play.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

What what do you what do you think? I mean, you kind of alluded to it with the impact, but what do you remember most about your high school coaches and how they really kind of shaped from from, I don't know, a character standpoint, an adversity standpoint. I mean, you've you've, you know, people see successful people, you know, people see successful individuals that are in business, that played in NFL, that had a great college career, and they just assume that they they haven't had to deal with adversity. And it's it's always funny because it's quite, it's quite the opposite. You know, athletes probably deal with more adversity than non-athletes. Well, not probably they do. But so what are some lessons that you remembered from your high school days when it came to any of that? Leadership, adversity, character, whatever, whatever you want to say. Got a million of those stories, especially from high school.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

So, football, I can remember this. We were we're we were a big school, and my first couple years there, we started playing suburban conference. So we're St. Joe, but that meant we got to play Blue Springs, Blue Springs South, Lee Sum. We got to play all those guys every year. And they beat, they beat up on us my first year as sophomore. They beat up on us. And I remember one game we lost, and I'm sitting on the steps of the stadium, and I'm crying because I wanted to win. We lost. And Coach Dudic and my mom, like they're yapping at me, boy, you better get your butt up, all this stuff. And I think the one thing that I learned just from going through things like that, resolve. I mean, okay, yeah, you lost, but you got to pick yourself up and go on to the next battle. You're not gonna win them all. You know, so we dealt with a lot of that. Basketball, very similar, uh, same thing. Sophomore year, we're playing the big boys and they're kicking our butt. You know, and it was it was the same type of feeling where it's like, man, you put in all this work and you lose and things aren't going your way. Man, you got to keep working.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

I just I remember my dad, he used to always, you remember he every time we got beat, he would have some kind of trinket. He would do something, whether it was the tennis balls and you'd have to write bounce back on it or or the or the uh rubber bands snap back or just whatever. Um I I remember, I mean, we would we would talk in our in our um position meetings every day. And I remember, you know, obviously, and I'm I'm not gonna get into it, but but Brandon Ford, you know, had some troubles in college.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

And he was just up there.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

He just came and visited about a year ago.

SPEAKER_00 17:35

And we talked about it. Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

And so, but he called me after everything had settled, and he's like, Coach, I've been trying to get a hold of you for eight months. You'll never believe how many Corbin Smiths there are out there. And this was, I mean, I didn't recognize the number. This was, gosh, probably 20 years ago. And and again, I started crying like on the phone. I'm like, you know, but we used, and he told me something. He said the whole time, he said every single day, I would always remember you talking to us about choices and about how important our choices were. And regardless of the choices you make, you know, they're gonna have you know some sort of repercussions, whether that's good or bad. Yep. But you have to own it. And because he owned the situation right away. I mean, I'll tell you, I'll tell you off camera, and but you know, when everything went down, I was I was instructed not to have any contact with him. And uh 30 minutes later he was over at the house. But yeah, um I I that that really stuck with me just because I I I knew that my coaches in high school, they were big on that, on on making, you know, the choices you make, you have to own it. Um did did that impact you at all? I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but I'm just curious, you know, things you say as a coach, like what impacts the people that you've you've had the privilege to coach.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Man, so like so would be, you know, like he's one of my best friends, you know, from those years. And we didn't really know what the heck was going on when all that went down, coach. We're I think we're just like Thanksgiving break or something like that around that time. Yeah, it was and we just got the I think he might have called or I'm not sure or something, but we got wind of it like that, and I don't even know if it really thunk into us for you know immediately. Like maybe it took a couple of days, like, dang, B kind of kind of messed up. But to see that happen, and and once again, it just puts things in perspective because you know, when you're young like that and you're in college and you've got so much going for you, you don't always realize that there's another side to this to this thing called life. Right. You can mess it up and all that stuff can be gone. You know, and and that's kind of what happened with B. So I mean, we were not only shocked, but just super sad because we're getting ready to go into our senior year and we've lost our guy. And I mean, just didn't really know how to handle it.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's I mean, and and you know the greatest the greatest thing about it is when he called me, he told me what he was doing. KC Hampton hi had hired him and uh to help him with his his um I don't know, if he had a like a management group. Uh and I know he's doing well, I know he's married and all that kind of stuff. Coach he was just up here, Doug.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

He was uh he was just up here last year. He was trying to work out. B one get in shape. So I said, B, hey, we go to the gym a couple days a week, man. We'll get you right. And so he was coming up and we're just chit-chatting about this stuff, and man, we just we did more laughing than working out because we're thinking back about all this stuff. But no, he's doing good, man. He's doing really good. He did say this though. He said it was his fault that I broke my neck because I don't know if you remember this, but that day he did not come to practice uh wisdom teeth, something like that. He didn't come. He was the H-back. I was more the online guy. He was. I'm playing his role. I was playing his role, and he said it was his fault. I said, B, it ain't your fault, though. I mean, it just it was something that had to happen and no hard feelings, but he was very remorseful of not only that situation, but the situation he went through where he got in trouble. Uh, but he's he's doing really well.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Yeah, you know, it's it's funny you bring that up because I knew exactly, because I still remember that too. Because he he called me at like 2 30 in the morning. And you know, like for people who don't know, like he he's from like Galveston. Yeah. Like he like his his language was truly his own. And it was hard to understand him sometimes. So he calls my wife and my wife at the time answered. She's like, Brandon's on the phone phone and said he has a toothache. And I'm like, How'd you get that? She's like, I've talked to Brandon enough to know. So he gets a I get on, I'm like, B, what's up? And he's like, Coach, I can't sleep. My tooth is killing me. I feel like I'm gonna die. You know, as dramatic as he is. And I'm like, well, come see me in the morning, we'll get it taken care of. So I think he had his wisdom tooth full, so he couldn't come to practice. Right, right. Um, yeah, but I I remember that. What are um what are what are some things that do you work with with athletes at all? Absolutely. In your personal training?

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Yeah, I I've got I've got a guy right now who uh he played NBA G League last year, and now he's playing overseas, and uh he's been coming in, getting workouts. So it's it's very interesting to get his perspective, especially for me, because uh I'm I love basketball. I like to see how that stuff works. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

What what kind of what kind of traits do you really look for in those, specifically those younger athletes that are training, whether the high school kids, college kids, out of college, uh, you know, playing playing professional sports somewhere at some level, um, what are some some traits that you you try and dissect very quickly so you can train them and touch those nerves that that probably people can't get to.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

The first thing I look at, I'm looking at work ethic. Are you a hard worker? Do I have to tell you to go harder? Do I have to tell you to go faster? If I gotta tell you those two things, we got issues. You know, so I'll always start with that. If you're a hard worker, we got something. And then secondly, I look at are you coachable? Meaning that, okay, if I'm trying to instruct you on how you can do things better, do you take it personal or do you take it as constructive criticism and try to move past it and do things uh how you're supposed to be done?

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

The reaction to that, and people, I think a lot of kids, especially nowadays, and you know, they don't they don't understand the coachable coachable aspect of it. When you say, are you coachable? Because everybody wants to take everything personally. Right. You know, and and back when you were in high school, and I'm not that much older than you, but back when you were in high school, when I was in high school, I mean, same generation, like we didn't have time to feel. You know, we we and it's so now so when I before I got out of coaching, I would tell all my teams almost every day, like, listen, you don't have time to think. Uh-uh. You don't have time to feel. You just have time to do. Just do it. And don't take things personally. Right. And um, you know, it's it's kind of sad nowadays that you have to tell a kid, listen, if I'm not, if I'm not on you, if I'm not even talking to you, it's because what's the point? You know, and and that's maybe harsh, but it's true.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

One thing, one thing I've seen, coach, from a lot of them just over the years is if things get a little bit difficult and they start doubting, not necessarily themselves, but the situation where if it's like, okay, well, I might make varsity, but I'm not gonna start. Or I'm not gonna make varsity, but I'm gonna be on JV, coach, they'll just cash it in and quit. That they won't even play because they don't feel like they're gonna be a starter, so why work at it? And I just I tell the kids, I was like, hey, when I was a freshman, I played freshman. When I was a sophomore, I played JV and I got lucky to play varsity because somebody got hurt. But now it's just the mentality is if I don't get this immediate success, if I'm not varsity as a freshman, why am I playing?

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Yeah, it's it's and it's funny you say that because I went to Loyola High School in Los Angeles, what which at the time we were one of the top schools in Southern California. I mean, our our league, the Del Rey League, was us, modern day St. John Bosco, but St. John Bosco was they were awful then. Um, servites, all those Catholic schools in Southern California that that are dominated. But my freshman year, I I started on both sides of the ball and and um was a punter. And then my sophomore year, I played JV football, but on Friday nights, I would go up on varsity and be the third team quarterback. And my sophomore year, we were ranked number one in the country by USA Today. And uh two guys get hurt, and and our coach was an old school guy. Um, and when I say old school, like he was about this tall, white dude, backed up OJ Simpson at SC, was just mean. He'd he'd he'd run four miles a day at lunch, but he smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. I mean, just hardcore, right? And uh he had this philosophy that his starting quarterback was we were only gonna be seniors. He was only gonna start a senior quarterback. Um and so our senior got hurt. The next game, our junior got hurt, so here I am. So I ended up starting like three games until the senior came back, but I didn't, and then my junior year, I started because if you were gonna start a quarterback as a senior, you his philosophy was you had to be tough enough to start on defense. So my whole junior year, I started at strong safety outside linebacker. Play quarterback? Didn't play quarterback and didn't play, no, didn't play quarterback until my senior year. Okay, I'm about to say. So um what the all the I don't even want to talk about NIL, but let's just talk about the transfer portal. Um are you glad that it wasn't like that when you were playing?

SPEAKER_00 27:30

And I don't know, I mean I just I don't know how anybody makes it with the current situation of college sports where how do you build a program, you know, from a coaching perspective when you've got guys that jump ship. Uh, you know, you said not to talk about the NIO, but I mean the money is is the factor why guys are jumping ship, we're trying to find a better situation for yourself. So I, as an old school guy, I'm not necessarily a fan, but I understand that that's where the game's at. But I I do think they've got to do something to clean this up because I don't know if we'll ever see another guy where they go to one school and play four years and you know, and just stay there. It's very rare.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

Yeah. I do, I will say I do like the five for five. Uh-huh. I like the the change of them giving guys five years to play five years. And personally, and I've said this a million times on this podcast and outside of it, I don't have a problem with the NIL stuff. Um, what I do have a problem with is when you combine the NIL, like you said, with the transfer portal, where there's no repercussions.

unknown 28:40

Right.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

You know, I understand with the transfer that listen, if if you go somewhere for the coach and the coach leaves or gets fired or whatever, you know, there's reasons why guys should transfer, want to transfer. There's legitimate reasons and give them a one-time reprieve, and then after that, do what I had to do and sit from competition for a year. Right. Um, but yeah, it's it's did did you, when you were playing, did you ever did that ever cross your mind about transferring? And back then it was if you transferred, you get your scholarship at the new school, you could practice, you participate in everything, you just couldn't play in games. Did you did that ever cross your mind?

SPEAKER_00 29:22

Oh, hey, heck no, coach. Like, because I remember we had guys that came in as transfers, and I'm sitting there watching them. I'm like, man, okay, you transfer, but dog, all you're gonna do is practice. Like you just transfer, you're gonna come here to practice and not play in the games. Like, man, you should have just stayed where you was at. Uh never thought about it. I'll tell you what did hit me though. So it's a St. Joe guy, and I don't know what year this was for me, maybe freshman, sophomore year. But I came back home and there was a billboard down the street from my house, and it was like me, Julian Jones is on there, and Justin Smith. And it was for like 1-800 cat paws calling now for tickets. And I'm like, man, how come they put us on a billboard like that and sell tickets, but we have no, like, we don't get anything from that. Like, and that's probably the year 2000. That that went across my mind. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

I think it went across everybody's mind. And at all, I mean, I remember I wasn't on a billboard, but you know, I remember and SC was different, and I don't, you know, want to blow things up, but you know, I mean, back then, and that was went to SC in 91. Um, but even back then, like, you know, everybody was paying everybody. Oh, yeah. I mean, alumni would just slip you whatever, but guys were, you know, guys that were starters, guys who were not starters were were getting money. Um, and it just wasn't SC, it was everywhere. But still, and that's why I say I I I I like the NIL. I think it needs to be handled differently, but I think guys should get paid. Yeah, the money's on the billboard. Like, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

And even like it was down the street from my house, like it was at the end of my block. And I'm driving by and I'm like, man, how can they do that?

SPEAKER_02 31:12

Yeah. Well, I'm uh I want to wrap this up, but the last question, Blake, I I just want you to really think about this. And what what do you think that three to five of the most important lessons you have learned as a man? Um, you know, not not not that you implement only in athletics, but just life lessons that you learn from playing athletics.

SPEAKER_00 31:40

The biggest one, number one, and like you hit on this earlier, is decision making. So we've already been through, you know, the fact that I wasn't gonna play football. I went to my coach, Tony Dudick, and I told him I was not going to play. And so think about that. At the time, small decision, didn't think it had much of a meaning on it on my life. But if I stuck with that decision, who knows what I'd be doing now? It'd be drastically different. So that's number one. Every decision that you make, no matter how big or small you think it is at the time, it could definitely have a huge impact at some point in your life. Uh secondly, you know, I think the main thing is just this perseverance. You know, we kind of talked about that earlier as well, too. You're gonna go through stuff, man. I mean, you're gonna have ups, you're gonna have downs, you're gonna have times where you don't think you can do it. You gotta keep going, you know, because the second that you stop, it's done. But as long as you keep picking yourself up and getting back to it, man, you got a chance, you know. And I think for the young kids that I work out, that's all I tell them, man, all you can ask for is a chance, you know? And then the last one is, man, you've got to have some kind of belief, some kind of vision for yourself. And me as a young guy, I knew I wanted to be an athlete. I didn't know if it was going to be football, basketball, my first love was baseball, but I knew I wanted to be an athlete. You know, and so with this sports stuff, and I always wanted to go to Mizzou, so that was part of my dream. And coming up, you know, even when I was eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 years old, I had those things in my sights. You know, and so just having those goals and those visions for myself, it let me know what I needed to do. And so those are the three biggest things.

SPEAKER_02 33:32

That's awesome. Well, I appreciate you coming on and kicking this off. And it's great to see you. It's it's so good to see you and catch up. And um, that smile hadn't changed, man. Smile hadn't changed.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

You still had a lot of guitars, Coach.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

I know we did. I know we did. Um well, let's keep in touch, okay? All right, uh, just keep doing what you're doing. Just hang on a sec. So I'm gonna shut off this recorder, but just keep doing what you're doing, Dwayne. All right. Thanks, Blake. Yes, sir.