April 2, 2025 • 28 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental wealth podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, Jay goes inside the huddle with David Vobora, retired NFL Linebacker and Founder of the non-profit Adaptive Training Foundation. Vobora was selected by the St. Louis Rams with the final pick (252nd overall) in the 2008 NFL draft, earning him the title of Mr. Irrelevant. However, a series of devastating shoulder injuries left him with an addiction to painkillers. The drugs left him helpless, standing on the balcony of a Hawaiian hotel while on vacation, threatening to jump. But it was not until he went through a detox, losing 34 pounds, that he began to listen to the motivator inside him. He is now using that inner voice to helping others. David’s story is truly remarkable!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental wealth podcast
build you from the inside out. Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome into Unbreakable Mental Wealth Podcast with Jay Glazer. I'm
Jay Glazer, and you know I met this guest here,
oh god. It was probably about two thousand and nine
or something like that, and I was training the rams
and mixed martial arts. And he's the type of guy
who will immediately elevate you because of what he's been
(00:35):
through and what he a first had to come through
to play in the NFL, be what he's done with
adversity in his life.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
And I tried to beat up on him back then.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
He took life trying to beat up on him after that,
and he has turned into a whole bunch of rainbows
from many many people.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
With that, I'm going to bring in my dude, David Fobora.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Now let me just explain who he is before you
get all pissed off of me that I call him
mister irrelevant. That's what they call the last draft pick
of the draft and the very last guy was drafted.
That's what they call him. There's a whole thing done.
But also you know, after that, I linked up with him.
He opened a place called the Adaptive Training Foundation in Dallas.
We trans veterans who are handicapped to are amputees and
(01:19):
bark seeds what he did on the football field. And
now he has a podcast called life After podcast he's
doing with my Uh, I got Chris Long, my little
brother there we played with at the Rams. So with that,
I mean, I've got it for four minutes about your introduction,
but I'm just excited to see it, dude, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Likewise, Jay Man, thanks for having me on. Bro. It's
cool because like this is all family between Sea Long
with Chris, green Light and yoat House Media, which is
here's what's crazy. I was in Charlottesville. I did green
Light with Chris and afterwards he's like, man, you're such
a great conversationalist. You know you should start you start
this thing. You should do your own, Like, bro, every
white guy in America has a podcast, like you know,
we don't need another. And he was like, yeah, but man,
(01:56):
I don't care, like, don't worry about the reach otherwise.
Just you know, you're a curio guy. You have interesting conversations.
Why not? So we launched it last week. The doc right,
one of the original members at UAH. His story, you know,
car accident crushing his vocal cords. Ultimately voice sounds like
the voice of a monster. Never goes back to rap ports.
Everything in the Snoop Dogg lives with Dre for thirty years.
(02:17):
It's stories like that. Athletes, entertainers, vets, people that have
had these and again life altering moments show up, right,
You've endured them. I've endured. It's about how you respond
and who you show up as afterwards. That really is
the mark of a champion.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
But because I was just in the combine, I was
talking a bunch of gms, I'm like, if I have
one question for any of his guys, it's what's the
biggest aversion you've been through?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
And now you basically have a show based on that question.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, I mean, look, at the end
of the day, I'm all about learning. You mentioned mister irrelevant,
You call me mister anything you want. I got drafted
in the NFL. I don't know. I was going to
use hard work, allies and alliances to you know, beat
people more talented and so in the mental emotional space,
I feel like exploring these questions you know. I mean,
we're all human, and the human experience is largely ripe
(03:06):
with pain. And what is it about suffering when I
think you suffer when you don't see it for purpose?
And for me, when I got out of the league,
I was severely addicted to opiates, man. I mean, you know,
pressure is high, pain is high. Like, of course you're
not gonna not take something to help you be so
then this made you feel a lot better and delivered.
(03:27):
They work until they were and I was puking and
shipping all over myself. I went through a seven day detox,
lost thirty four pounds. Wow, dude, it was brutal, like
hardest I mean I felt was running into big dudes
and football and pain. But this was this was like
I did this to myself, man, And there was this
deep loathing. There was this self critic you know. And
(03:47):
what I've realized now is like, I'm actually grateful for
that experience because these vets that you mentioned that I'm
serving in my gym, so many of them were handed
a sleeve of opiates when they left, and then all
of a sudden they're like, who am I without this structure?
That's the same thing that I dealt with with ball
and so the gym here is my sanctuary to be
able to have purpose and pay it forward.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So normally I asked, what's your unbreakable moment at the
end of the show, I'm gonna ask you here because
I don't know the background of why you fall off
the reservation and what had happened and when it was.
So I was going to say, give me your unbreakable moment.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Your unbreakable moment is My unbreakable moment is the floor
of drug detox. In Seattle, Washington. Was playing for the
Seattle Seahawks. I'd played three years of the Rams, went
up to Seattle, was covering a punt, got shoved and
laying it on my elbow and that you know that
internal where you just hear everything explode. That and I
went to the sideline. They tried to, you know, shoot
me up with some stuff and I couldn't lift my arm.
(04:39):
And that's the last play. In fact, crazy talk about
the big man upstairs. I needed that game to qualify
for my pension. Wow, bro, that game like that quarter.
So you fast forward and you know I took a
year off the league, rehabbed. I thought I was going
back right, Like all I knew was David and football.
But as I started to rehab and get off first
of the pills and then get healing from my shoulder,
(05:01):
I started to ask really deeper questions, like, man, is
this you know? I mean, because this is all that
I'm built for? Like where do my gifts and talents
match somebody's needs outside of the game of football? And dude,
it was when I moved to Texas I met a
quadruple amputee, a guy that got blown up. There's only
five combat injured quadruple amputee staff Sergeant Travis Mills, and
I walked up to this dude boldly, Jay, I'm exactly
(05:22):
how you are. Didn't think about it, just rolled up
like a hot chick at the bar, and I just said, dude,
when was the last time you worked out. He's like,
I don't want to make you feel like an asshole. Bro,
I don't have arms and legs. What do you mean?
And I'm like, look, I understand, but I'm going to
train you like an athlete. So he took a chance
and all of a sudden, I mean, dude, Merging vets
and players is the perfect example of this too. When
you get a good bunch of guys that have served
our country and literally hooked in jab with bad guys
(05:45):
and they're putting out. There's a guy crawling without legs
and the NFL player's pinky toad no longer is sore.
And it's weird how that perspective uplifts everybody.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
But you know, it's funny because when I put that
foundation together, my whole thing was, like, the.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Common loss is the same, like football players look up
and fighters look up to come vets comment vets look
up to football players and fighters, and yeah, I think
the struggle was the same. But if you put them together,
it's matter because losing your locker room, I mean, look, dude,
I'm fifty five. I've aout twelve ruptures on my back,
five or adiations of my neck, tore them by some
(06:19):
ten and broke my nose seven times, difflucated my elbow,
tore my calf, tore my bicep, and Thursday're gonna spar
a Chuckledell because I can't lose the locker room, like
I'm afraid for myself. That's when I don't have that
locker room anymore, you know. But the fact that you've
taken it to a different level. And I think you
know when I started empty peers more of an emotional
thing yours is emotional, but also teaching them again how
(06:41):
they could do it physically.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Where like, it's not like you and I went to
school for this shit.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Right, where did you decide, Hey, I could I could
really coach a quadruple amputee.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I could make this happen.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Man, it was guinea Piggy, you guy that jumped out
of perfectly good airplanes, the perfect got a guinea pig, Like,
we're going to figure this stuff out. A lot of
it was just like, all right, don't tell me what
you can't do. Let's focus on what you can do.
And through that momentum we can get some wind at
our sales and then all of a sudden there's this
cascading effect. And the kick ass part now is eighty
percent of my trainers at the gym are adaptive athletes,
(07:14):
you know, vets and warriors that have been hurt spinal
cord injuries, amputees like you said, and now they're getting
certified as personal trainers and they're able to train others
like them, and we pay them to do that. So
it's not just like, oh man, this is great, but
like they have a vocation, they have a role to play.
And I think that's the same thing that gave me
a lot of you know, intrigue or passion. Was like, man,
watching empowering somebody to run again that hasn't ran in years,
(07:36):
and those tears are streaming on their faces, like bro
super Bowl rings. Okay, I mean, dude, I had Rex Perkhad.
We just Rex and I just recorded a pod and
you know, he was mentioned about like kind of winning
the championship and being like a feeling a little bit empty.
I know a lot of guys can feel like that,
you know, And that's the thing about these life alters.
One of the athletes that I have on in the
first five episodes is Nastia Lucan, who was the two
(07:59):
thousand and eight around gold medal gymnasts and like she
had no other vision for herself aside from being the
gold medalist at the age of eighteen, and she did
that and then it was like, wait a second, where
do I go from here?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:10):
You know, so it's not always tragedy. Sometimes it's these
moments that are still watershed moments for how we need
to become some new, greater version of ourselves.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, you know what I do with a lot of
our athletes that I work with them, trade with them
past and I forgot. I was in the car with
one after one of the Super Bowl. He had his
hands like his face is and his hands and he's
in a tank. I'm like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
And he's like what now? Like I did it? Like
where do I go from here? And I've seen that
in the fight world too totally.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
As have won titles and you know, besides the you know,
you have your post fight victory party after, but there's
this emptiness of like I have this goal to win it,
Now where does it go? And But I think that
look was saying that I've said to you. I've said
he all our vets and football players like I'm fucked up,
but I'm good with my fucked upness.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Are fucked up this? Let us that's true.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Let mister relevant to start for the Rams. And I
believe you're the first guy to start in fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Who was mister irrelevant?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, Marty Moore, you know there's this guy brock Berdy.
Now he's done all right for the brand. Actually, hey,
I'm gonna say this. I'm gonna speak this into the universes.
I've had this thought, Jay, you might be the guy
for it. You know, you got the Heisman House commercials. Yeah,
well to the audience when you when you win the
honorable title of mister Irrelevant, the last pick drafted, you
get the Loewsman Trophy and instead of this one the
guy's fumbling the football. Here's what's crazy. I want to
(09:33):
do a Heisman House commercial. But it's the Low's house
like we have, Like we're in the backyard with like
an above ground cool and we're like mowing the Heisman's
yard and they're like, who are those guys? And then
brock Party rolls up and we're like hey buddy, and
he's just a peace I'm out dude and rolls out.
So if anybody wants to green light that with Nissan,
hit me and Jay up. There.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Used to be also, I remember hosting Southern for Mister
Irrelevant because there was a.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Big thing in We did that in Pepsi in New York.
That's right, we did right, Yeah, dude, I was Murky.
You were the host for Fox.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, that's right, And how long? So that was what
year was that for you? Like, oh, wait for you right?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That was probably eight oh nine. That might have been
even before we started hooking a jabbing with the ram.
He was yeah, no.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Doubt, Yeah, how wild is that?
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Just like but that's the thing. You get good people
who just vib at each other. They're always going to
come back around each other's lives.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Like I mean, DC talks about trying to get back
to the day before the accident and then realizing like
God always wanted him to be the person that had
to endure that. So Life After Pod every Wednesday we
drop a new episode. This Wednesday is a young cheerleader
who's a world champion backyard accident before homecoming, breaks her
neck becomes a quadriplegic. Well on her pod, I actually
have Dak Prescott show up at her house and surprise
(10:41):
her with a sign jersey. But her story is insane. Bro,
I watched this talk about grit you and I know
some really gritty cats man like the grittiest in the
world in my opinion, But this girl, it was our
goal to army crawl. Remember she could only use her elbows, right,
and she crawled forty yards on our turf to ring
this bell and you go. It took her over twenty
(11:01):
five minutes, and all the vets and all my gym
against she's Oh my god, and dude, we'll share this
video with you too. I'm just bawling right watching this
thing because to me, again, that's the indomitable human spirit.
There's the undefeated, unbreakable human spirit, man, and it's in
all of us. I just want to be there when
it shows up.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
No doubt. That's you know.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I was trying to tell people also, like you play
in the NFL, it's not for you are. Her being
a cheerleader or gymnast is not who either one of
them are. Well, you just talk about her and the gymnast,
it's not who they are. What's behind your ribcage? She
got you to beat out. I don't care if you're
mister relevant or not. You beat out millions and millions
and millions to get to this level.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
That's who the fuck you are, and that's not there
or not, whether you have a uniform or not. Same
with that. That's why I love about what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Also, finding that you know the what's behind your ribcage
and between your years, that's the most powerful weapon on
the planet.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Well, you're you're so unique day because like you have
this confidence and swaggered to the point you just made
and yet you're a guy that comes in a room
and it's there. You are a type of person, not
a here I am type of person. You know, you
realize that your gifts. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, you know
you know what you got, but at the same time,
you recognize how it can benefit others. And that's when
you're living and living well. And I think that's the
(12:15):
thing for me that I was scared. I was scared, man,
I didn't know Frankly bro like a lot of the
things that built my own ego to make it in
the NFL. I was scared that if I lost those,
I wouldn't know who I was.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Dude, I know that feeling. I call it the beast
in the box.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And I've done a lot of work over the last
several years, especially as I've talked about my mental health stuff,
because I created this character the Glaze, you know, so
nobody really know what I'm suffering from.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
But along with.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
That, when I have depression anxiety that really would come out,
I would take a bunch of Viking and I would
take a bunch of adderall again. But I'd rather go
out and get a fight and have my job put
on the line than anybody know.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
But so one of the things that's helped me, and
this is again align with you, also is being of
service and that means all across you know. I started
two different charities already with Touchdown Dreams and m VP,
and how we're about.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
To start a different one where we're helping. We already
started it. We were for veterans to.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Get stem cells and Panama, and I'm working on another one,
Unbreakable Foundation, where we scholarship people to get free therapy,
mental health therapy. There's but it's exactly what you're saying.
It's like my drug I thought was liking in or
at all, and it turns out my drug is being
of service, as is yours and us being it.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Guess what come down to come down is a lot better, better, better.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
But we I think.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I think you and I have gotten addicted to that,
realizing how much it helps us building us up for
the inside out where we used to tear ourselves down
for the inside out.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
I think there's probably you know again, if anyone that's
listening to this, it's like, man, I'm not Jay Glazer,
I'm not Dave for Bor. I didn't play in the NFL.
I didn't this Like that's the cop out because you know,
you and me, we weren't the most gifted people like
we have grinded and probably part of that little boy
in us that always felt like he'd unworthy is what
(14:11):
drove us. And that works to get you here, but
it can't get you there. You know, you can't get
and whether it's therapy, whether it's finding a you mentioned
the locker room right, it's finding a tribe, it's finding
it out how to your team. Yeah, because that team,
man is again they let you get out what you
don't know how to say. And that's why I think
that moving your body to the expression to release a
lot of that energy like anxiety, I've realized is really
(14:33):
helpful when I can aim at properly right, and that's
being able to use it. You know, there's days in
the morning where I get up, I do my meditation, breathwork.
There's sometimes where I'm like I gotta go run or
lift now, or else I'm gonna be and I'm not
going to be good for me and my family, and
so I think that ability of emotional intelligence and being
honest to your same point, you saying I don't want
(14:54):
anybody to really know. That's that's the fallacy, that's the trap.
The real strength comes from yo, Dude, I'm not right.
And dude, you know I've lost. There's ten ten strikes
on my arm right here. It says until Valhalla. And
these are ten guys that I've lost since I started
this almost eleven years ago. Suicide, drug overdose, reckless car crash.
(15:17):
I mean, ultimately, guys that were punching ticket. And you
know it's so hard because when I played football, I
didn't care how many tackles I made. I had cared
if we won the game. But I had a Navy seal,
Clint Bruce, a guy that you know as well. And
Clint said to me, this is the opposite. He said, Look,
the time isn't up to you, but the days that
you had I eed the tackles in this, you know,
(15:38):
relevance to sport. He's like that time that you invested
and looked those men in their eyes and treated them whole.
That's that's all that matters, and those guys are no
longer in pain, and so again, tomorrow's not promise. Man.
I'm trying to do my best to make sure that
I hit the pillow at night. And these conversations on
this podcast are very much in the same vein.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
So we touched on it earlier in Breakable Moment about
you know, crap it out on paying boy you didn't
tell me?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Is what got you to get yourself cleaned?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, so I'll say it kind have been a rock
bottom there. Yeah, And in fact, I'll go a little
further the I like came to night three when I
was in the worst state, and I like, there's a
food tray next to me, in classic hospital food, you know.
I lifted up it was it was tunic casserole, like
nobody likes hospital thank you. So I'm like, all right,
(16:26):
if I can maybe feed myself, I can maybe find
some relief. And I could barely even open my hands.
I had like the tremors, and I tried to get
up to go to the microwave and I fell and
when I did, I shout. The plate shattered on the
ground and I'm.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
In are you talking about when you're in hospital for
you or when you're in rehab.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
When I'm in rehab.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Oh no, but I want you to go back to this.
What got you to put yourself in rehab?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Yeah, that's a good question. Man. So, uh, Moe Kelly,
our player development director is Seahawks man. This is the truth.
This is a bad about you asked this. So my
linebacker coach, So, Jeff Olbrich is oursbacker. So we had
so yeah, Ken Norton Junior is my linebacker coach. Robert
Sala and Jeff Ulbrick are my freaking assistants. Like the room,
(17:08):
it was insane, and Brick had gone through a similar
deal with opiates getting out of the league. Was in
a gnarly one. So he'd walked past me in stretch
lines and he just he knew and he'd look at
me and go, hey, man, when you're ready to talk?
And I'd be like, I don't we talk about what?
And Dude, I opened up to him in his office.
I just broke down, dude, Just and Moe Kelly and
(17:30):
we found a place up at Everett, Washington, and you know,
I'm like, oh, they might find out I'm a Seahawks player.
You know, like, bro, there's a bunch of addicts in
there coming on. They could care less.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Who you are. Y, yeah, fight their own demons.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yep. But that was the genesis, man. Was was people
like mo, people like Jeff that that that saw it
in me and then helped save me from me. You know.
I was on a flight to Hawaii just before going
to Detox and my girlfriend at the time now wife,
three kids, married thirteen years, Sarah.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Still by the way, folks, she's a stud.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
She's a spartan. But I turned to her on the airplane.
She's never done a drug in her life, and I said, hey,
when we get back, you got to take me straight
to the hospital. I'm not right. I'm addicted to these pills.
And you know you're an addict, so you take more
on the trip and gladze. This is a true story, man,
and it's one I haven't told much, but I'll tell
it here because I love you and I trust this.
This is the right thing to say. I went into
(18:25):
detah or went into withdrawal, and uh, she found me.
I barely remember this, but I had climbed up on
the balcony of our twenty four hotel to throw myself off,
and she one that grabbed my legs and pulled me down.
When we got back, I took her to my dealer's house,
which is terrible because I needed to get some right
like you just you're not you. And then from that point,
you know, I went in and I thought like, oh man,
(18:46):
I got this, and dude, I didn't. I didn't have
it at all. It shook my tree. But I'm so
grateful for it, like I said, because it was that
that catapult being pulled back to the more significant work
of my life.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
And also look at like we're talking about find your team,
like talk about like.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
That woman God love man, just insane, which what I
put her through, And that's that's.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
One of the things.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I just talked to my wife about this the early day,
I said, and I just did ready to row with
the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
I'mitt at this, I said, Man, all.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
My crazy antics and my you know, my the depression
and anxiety maybe push away a lot of good people,
a lot of people in my life. I'd say, I
would say some of it. I regret some of it.
I'm kind of like disappointed that they would go the
other way. And that's my point because there are people
out there like your wife will embrace you, say no, no,
come here, I got you. And that's anybody out there
(19:36):
who's listened. That's the high former currency you can have
in this world.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Well said bro, Yeah, I've got to get honest. That's
the key piece is taking inventory. Be really where you are, man,
and if you're mad, be mad, you know, like it'd
be that, but then express that and find you know,
constructive habits, because again, coping with drugs and alcohol is
the quickest way. I mean, you know you've seen it,
Like all these guys that we lost, alcohol was present, man,
and it just it pulls you down into that funnel.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
So I stopped you in the miliar story when you're
saying you're trying to hope the big of the student castle.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
So yeah, So the plate I fall, I can't even stand.
It shatters, and you know, I'm embarrassed. I'm ashamed of
the nurses Russian and I'm apologizing, and quickly I realized
they're not even worried about the mess. But they were
grabbing me because they thought I was going to use
the broken plate to try to slit my wrists. So
now bro, I'm on suicide watch. I get moved to
a floor that you don't want to be on. Wow.
(20:28):
And I'm sitting there essentially cuffed. I mean, it's it's
it's tied to the side of the bed and I'm
just sobbing. Bro. I remember praying for an angel. You know,
grew up with faith, you know, definitely. I think I
love the quote that religion is for people that don't
want to go to Hell's spiritualities for those that have
been there. I haven't heard that, dude, religion is for
(20:49):
people that don't want to go to hell spiritualities for
those that have been there.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
And if you've dealt with what I'm talking about, man,
you've been there. And it's crazy. There was this nurse team.
I'll never forget it. Man. She must have gave all
the other nurses her arounds. She sat with me all night,
she held my hands, she prayed with me. She got
I get emotional, man, because the angel that I needed.
And she was calling Sarah in between and letting her
know that I was okay. That dude, to me was
(21:17):
It just gave me the feeling like, man, God's got this. Man,
I don't have to keep trying to do this on
my own. Like I can rely on people and and
and be so much better.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
You know, when I wrote my book, I talk about
finding your teammates and I'm like, hey, God's your teammate.
And I'm like, I don't I don't ask God. Can
you get me this job? Or can you make this apple?
Can I get this amount of money? I was like,
I got this. I'm a fighter. Just don't let me
do it alone. Just pick me up, brush me off,
Let's keep walking this walk together. And that's why you
really should ask. And by the way, like God's supposed
to be your best friend parent, You're not gonna constantly
(21:49):
ask your friend and get mad at your friend if
they don't get your car, if they don't get your job, if.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
This doesn't happen, that doesn't happen. You don't do that.
You're not gonna be friends with them, you know. But
I love that you.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
We have to kind of that similar view of it also,
and you never know when that atal was going to
step up.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
But it does show you that the universe is there
to help us.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Well, it's cool what you said earlier about you know,
you know fighters that I mean, so I mentioned dak
coming into this, I mean after Dak lost his brother.
Just think about how again, Like how for him, everybody
in the world sees him as the star quarterback and
yet like he is as human as any of us.
And we've had some private talks that again, it's like,
you know, whether it's a good game or a bad game, whatever,
(22:26):
Like you still got to look yourself in the mirror
and know that you're loved and that you're worthy. I
think I've lived a lot of my life where I'm
trying to achieve to make myself worthy. But man's that's
a trap, dude. Then you end up trumping from place
to place looking for, you know, the destination to be
the arrival. And life's not like that. It's non linear. Man.
You're you know, bouncing from X to X on the map,
hopefully making a difference and doing some things that you
(22:49):
felt like you were called to do.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
So again, I talked about I was fighting You're mister irrelevant,
So you had to fight, fight, fight, fight for every
little thing you got. I you know, I just kind
of we just aid Jimmy Johnson. One of the coolest
moments I ever had with him was earlier in our
earlier this season in Our Green Room, and Jimmy and
I got really close.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
These last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
We sitting next to the other in the green room,
and I was like, Coach, being this close to you
and getting your approval is like the coolest thing I
ever had in my career. And he said, Jay, I
got you. You know, I took me a long time.
Then I got you, and I realized you always had
to fight for everything in your life, like you don't
know anything else but to fight. Once I appreciated that,
(23:32):
and I realized that we got great and I was like, Coach,
I'm so glad you got to see that. My question
to you, I guess is I don't think I'm not
fighting fighting fighting anymore for the most part, Like I'm
established some good I'm still fighting.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
The demons pre in my ears. But do you still
feel like, hey, I gotta fight for everything.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I'm mister irrelevant or are you in a position now
like I don't have to go to the same way.
I guess I'm goin to ask them for advice.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, I'd say this. I think, like this computer that
I'm talking through, you need to upgrade to the programming, right,
And I think that my view of fighting today is
much more in lockstep with doing it for intrinsic reasons,
not extrinsic right, Like, and I'll tell you, brother, this
(24:23):
is a scar that was dealt when I was ten
neighbor seventeen year old ended up raping me. It is
a wound that I promise I don't make it to
the NFL unless this happens because I put them the armor,
so nobody, right, I was going to date the hottest chick.
I was going to bang all right, I was going
to be the captain of the football teach I back
(24:43):
to the glaze, right, the persona you wear that and
then all of a sudden you realize, like you can
take that only so far until those walls start to
come in and that death, that the ego death that
I endured, and the process to rediscover, right, who's David
without this and who's David with this? And if there's
(25:03):
a difference, then there's a trap involved. And so I
think for me, there's still a fight. You know, I
still do stupid stuff all the time, Like I'm running
these hundred mile races. I learn well from pain. Like
guys like you and me, we don't do normal well.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Yeah, we pain and us have good relationships.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
We're masochistic in some ways. There's a pleasure piece of
that paradigm. But but I know that life will provide
the curriculum. So rather than going out and creating the chaos,
because that's what makes me feel like I'm in the fight,
I can recognize that there's times between that I just
need to be present in fact all the time. The
only thing that's happened is now. And with my kids,
(25:41):
especially those kids, man, they don't need David daddy the
football player. I was driving past Mile High Stadium and
my daughter oldest, who's eleven now, but she was three,
and I'm like, hey Ley, her name's of lee Ola.
I said, Babe, that stadium Daddy used to play football
in there. Out missing a bja, she said, pass me
my sippy cup. But you go, you know, that's that's
(26:03):
our kids. That's beautiful, supid. They just need dad, man.
They don't need dad to play in the NFL enough
that Blazer like, they just need dad.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Yeah, we're good enough. It's funny to you you talk
about that the chaos. One of the things I talk
about now.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
To people is I've figured out where I've weaponized my
mental health issues. So if you weaponize them, you're not
seeing right, and then we can live in the present
like you're saying, so like my my anxiety, I'm fucking
great and chaos I suck and come, so I will
cause chaos in the business deals because then people just
want they wanted to, they want to tap out, they
want to make up sex.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
That's I'll do it on purpose. It's just it's kind
of this relentlessness.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
If I didn't have that anxiety, I wouldn't be I
wouldn't have a drive that I have.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
And same thing for you and that man, that's so brave.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
You and open up and talk about what you just
talk about here and you know too very fun and
that's always talk about. People are like they say, I'm
so courageous you to open up and talk about your
mental health. I'm like, not courageous. I'm just bad motherfucker.
No one's questioned my manhood, and say with you, right,
he ain't nobody questioned our.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Manhood yep, yep. And I think that the strength that
comes from giving others the permission slip to be vulnerable.
Chair two. I mean that's the magic of the huddle.
MVP is, dude. We've moved our bodies. We've kind of connected.
You know. It's like when dudes go golfing at the front,
they're like shaking hands. By the end they're like, yeah,
you know, a few more beers and their chest bumping.
Once we can break down those walls, it's like, man,
(27:26):
there's more similarities than differences. And to the point that
you made, it's like, I'm a badass man, I've proven it,
So why do I need more validation from y'all. I
I just need to recognize that I'm exactly where I'm
supposed to be and I'm chasing this new Ridge line
and that's okay.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, man, I love it, dude, I love connecting with you.
We gotta do this more man like again. Our lives
keep bringing us back. Then we's got we got to
be better.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
We got it. We'll throw it out a life after
pot on my side of the street and I'll see
if I can't get it there and dig out.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
I'm in, Dude, didn't time you want me in? I'm
I'm on bro, and then I I can't dude. I
love you, you know, dude, And let's make sure we
check out on each other.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
A lot more deal. Love you Jay, You're the man.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Love you brother again. Tell people what the pod is
where they can.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Get Yeah, check out the Life After podcast. It's on
all the platforms. Every Wednesday we release a new episode. Again.
Shout out to my man Chris Long, green Light, Yolk
Media House. They're the ones that push me in this direction.
And I hope you guys enjoy this content because it's
just really meaningful. Man. At the end of the day,
I know that it'll provide hope and inspiration.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Awesome, dude, Hey, let's keep walking, us walk together. Love
you brother,
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental wealth podcast
build you from the inside out. Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome into Unbreakable Mental Wealth Podcast with Jay Glazer. I'm
Jay Glazer, and you know I met this guest here,
oh god. It was probably about two thousand and nine
or something like that, and I was training the rams
and mixed martial arts. And he's the type of guy
who will immediately elevate you because of what he's been
(00:35):
through and what he a first had to come through
to play in the NFL, be what he's done with
adversity in his life.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
And I tried to beat up on him back then.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
He took life trying to beat up on him after that,
and he has turned into a whole bunch of rainbows
from many many people.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
With that, I'm going to bring in my dude, David Fobora.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Now let me just explain who he is before you
get all pissed off of me that I call him
mister irrelevant. That's what they call the last draft pick
of the draft and the very last guy was drafted.
That's what they call him. There's a whole thing done.
But also you know, after that, I linked up with him.
He opened a place called the Adaptive Training Foundation in Dallas.
We trans veterans who are handicapped to are amputees and
(01:19):
bark seeds what he did on the football field. And
now he has a podcast called life After podcast he's
doing with my Uh, I got Chris Long, my little
brother there we played with at the Rams. So with that,
I mean, I've got it for four minutes about your introduction,
but I'm just excited to see it, dude, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Likewise, Jay Man, thanks for having me on. Bro. It's
cool because like this is all family between Sea Long
with Chris, green Light and yoat House Media, which is
here's what's crazy. I was in Charlottesville. I did green
Light with Chris and afterwards he's like, man, you're such
a great conversationalist. You know you should start you start
this thing. You should do your own, Like, bro, every
white guy in America has a podcast, like you know,
we don't need another. And he was like, yeah, but man,
(01:56):
I don't care, like, don't worry about the reach otherwise.
Just you know, you're a curio guy. You have interesting conversations.
Why not? So we launched it last week. The doc right,
one of the original members at UAH. His story, you know,
car accident crushing his vocal cords. Ultimately voice sounds like
the voice of a monster. Never goes back to rap ports.
Everything in the Snoop Dogg lives with Dre for thirty years.
(02:17):
It's stories like that. Athletes, entertainers, vets, people that have
had these and again life altering moments show up, right,
You've endured them. I've endured. It's about how you respond
and who you show up as afterwards. That really is
the mark of a champion.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
But because I was just in the combine, I was
talking a bunch of gms, I'm like, if I have
one question for any of his guys, it's what's the
biggest aversion you've been through?
Speaker 3 (02:41):
And now you basically have a show based on that question.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well, I mean, look, at the end
of the day, I'm all about learning. You mentioned mister irrelevant,
You call me mister anything you want. I got drafted
in the NFL. I don't know. I was going to
use hard work, allies and alliances to you know, beat
people more talented and so in the mental emotional space,
I feel like exploring these questions you know. I mean,
we're all human, and the human experience is largely ripe
(03:06):
with pain. And what is it about suffering when I
think you suffer when you don't see it for purpose?
And for me, when I got out of the league,
I was severely addicted to opiates, man. I mean, you know,
pressure is high, pain is high. Like, of course you're
not gonna not take something to help you be so
then this made you feel a lot better and delivered.
(03:27):
They work until they were and I was puking and
shipping all over myself. I went through a seven day detox,
lost thirty four pounds. Wow, dude, it was brutal, like
hardest I mean I felt was running into big dudes
and football and pain. But this was this was like
I did this to myself, man, And there was this
deep loathing. There was this self critic you know. And
(03:47):
what I've realized now is like, I'm actually grateful for
that experience because these vets that you mentioned that I'm
serving in my gym, so many of them were handed
a sleeve of opiates when they left, and then all
of a sudden they're like, who am I without this structure?
That's the same thing that I dealt with with ball
and so the gym here is my sanctuary to be
able to have purpose and pay it forward.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
So normally I asked, what's your unbreakable moment at the
end of the show, I'm gonna ask you here because
I don't know the background of why you fall off
the reservation and what had happened and when it was.
So I was going to say, give me your unbreakable moment.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Your unbreakable moment is My unbreakable moment is the floor
of drug detox. In Seattle, Washington. Was playing for the
Seattle Seahawks. I'd played three years of the Rams, went
up to Seattle, was covering a punt, got shoved and
laying it on my elbow and that you know that
internal where you just hear everything explode. That and I
went to the sideline. They tried to, you know, shoot
me up with some stuff and I couldn't lift my arm.
(04:39):
And that's the last play. In fact, crazy talk about
the big man upstairs. I needed that game to qualify
for my pension. Wow, bro, that game like that quarter.
So you fast forward and you know I took a
year off the league, rehabbed. I thought I was going
back right, Like all I knew was David and football.
But as I started to rehab and get off first
of the pills and then get healing from my shoulder,
(05:01):
I started to ask really deeper questions, like, man, is
this you know? I mean, because this is all that
I'm built for? Like where do my gifts and talents
match somebody's needs outside of the game of football? And dude,
it was when I moved to Texas I met a
quadruple amputee, a guy that got blown up. There's only
five combat injured quadruple amputee staff Sergeant Travis Mills, and
I walked up to this dude boldly, Jay, I'm exactly
(05:22):
how you are. Didn't think about it, just rolled up
like a hot chick at the bar, and I just said, dude,
when was the last time you worked out. He's like,
I don't want to make you feel like an asshole. Bro,
I don't have arms and legs. What do you mean?
And I'm like, look, I understand, but I'm going to
train you like an athlete. So he took a chance
and all of a sudden, I mean, dude, Merging vets
and players is the perfect example of this too. When
you get a good bunch of guys that have served
our country and literally hooked in jab with bad guys
(05:45):
and they're putting out. There's a guy crawling without legs
and the NFL player's pinky toad no longer is sore.
And it's weird how that perspective uplifts everybody.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
But you know, it's funny because when I put that
foundation together, my whole thing was, like, the.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Common loss is the same, like football players look up
and fighters look up to come vets comment vets look
up to football players and fighters, and yeah, I think
the struggle was the same. But if you put them together,
it's matter because losing your locker room, I mean, look, dude,
I'm fifty five. I've aout twelve ruptures on my back,
five or adiations of my neck, tore them by some
(06:19):
ten and broke my nose seven times, difflucated my elbow,
tore my calf, tore my bicep, and Thursday're gonna spar
a Chuckledell because I can't lose the locker room, like
I'm afraid for myself. That's when I don't have that
locker room anymore, you know. But the fact that you've
taken it to a different level. And I think you
know when I started empty peers more of an emotional
thing yours is emotional, but also teaching them again how
(06:41):
they could do it physically.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Where like, it's not like you and I went to
school for this shit.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Right, where did you decide, Hey, I could I could
really coach a quadruple amputee.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
I could make this happen.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Man, it was guinea Piggy, you guy that jumped out
of perfectly good airplanes, the perfect got a guinea pig, Like,
we're going to figure this stuff out. A lot of
it was just like, all right, don't tell me what
you can't do. Let's focus on what you can do.
And through that momentum we can get some wind at
our sales and then all of a sudden there's this
cascading effect. And the kick ass part now is eighty
percent of my trainers at the gym are adaptive athletes,
(07:14):
you know, vets and warriors that have been hurt spinal
cord injuries, amputees like you said, and now they're getting
certified as personal trainers and they're able to train others
like them, and we pay them to do that. So
it's not just like, oh man, this is great, but
like they have a vocation, they have a role to play.
And I think that's the same thing that gave me
a lot of you know, intrigue or passion. Was like, man,
watching empowering somebody to run again that hasn't ran in years,
(07:36):
and those tears are streaming on their faces, like bro
super Bowl rings. Okay, I mean, dude, I had Rex Perkhad.
We just Rex and I just recorded a pod and
you know, he was mentioned about like kind of winning
the championship and being like a feeling a little bit empty.
I know a lot of guys can feel like that,
you know, And that's the thing about these life alters.
One of the athletes that I have on in the
first five episodes is Nastia Lucan, who was the two
(07:59):
thousand and eight around gold medal gymnasts and like she
had no other vision for herself aside from being the
gold medalist at the age of eighteen, and she did
that and then it was like, wait a second, where
do I go from here?
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:10):
You know, so it's not always tragedy. Sometimes it's these
moments that are still watershed moments for how we need
to become some new, greater version of ourselves.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
Yeah, you know what I do with a lot of
our athletes that I work with them, trade with them
past and I forgot. I was in the car with
one after one of the Super Bowl. He had his
hands like his face is and his hands and he's
in a tank. I'm like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
And he's like what now? Like I did it? Like
where do I go from here? And I've seen that
in the fight world too totally.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
As have won titles and you know, besides the you know,
you have your post fight victory party after, but there's
this emptiness of like I have this goal to win it,
Now where does it go? And But I think that
look was saying that I've said to you. I've said
he all our vets and football players like I'm fucked up,
but I'm good with my fucked upness.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Are fucked up this? Let us that's true.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Let mister relevant to start for the Rams. And I
believe you're the first guy to start in fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Who was mister irrelevant?
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, Marty Moore, you know there's this guy brock Berdy.
Now he's done all right for the brand. Actually, hey,
I'm gonna say this. I'm gonna speak this into the universes.
I've had this thought, Jay, you might be the guy
for it. You know, you got the Heisman House commercials. Yeah,
well to the audience when you when you win the
honorable title of mister Irrelevant, the last pick drafted, you
get the Loewsman Trophy and instead of this one the
guy's fumbling the football. Here's what's crazy. I want to
(09:33):
do a Heisman House commercial. But it's the Low's house
like we have, Like we're in the backyard with like
an above ground cool and we're like mowing the Heisman's
yard and they're like, who are those guys? And then
brock Party rolls up and we're like hey buddy, and
he's just a peace I'm out dude and rolls out.
So if anybody wants to green light that with Nissan,
hit me and Jay up. There.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Used to be also, I remember hosting Southern for Mister
Irrelevant because there was a.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Big thing in We did that in Pepsi in New York.
That's right, we did right, Yeah, dude, I was Murky.
You were the host for Fox.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Yeah, that's right, And how long? So that was what
year was that for you? Like, oh, wait for you right?
Speaker 1 (10:06):
That was probably eight oh nine. That might have been
even before we started hooking a jabbing with the ram.
He was yeah, no.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Doubt, Yeah, how wild is that?
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Just like but that's the thing. You get good people
who just vib at each other. They're always going to
come back around each other's lives.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Like I mean, DC talks about trying to get back
to the day before the accident and then realizing like
God always wanted him to be the person that had
to endure that. So Life After Pod every Wednesday we
drop a new episode. This Wednesday is a young cheerleader
who's a world champion backyard accident before homecoming, breaks her
neck becomes a quadriplegic. Well on her pod, I actually
have Dak Prescott show up at her house and surprise
(10:41):
her with a sign jersey. But her story is insane. Bro,
I watched this talk about grit you and I know
some really gritty cats man like the grittiest in the
world in my opinion, But this girl, it was our
goal to army crawl. Remember she could only use her elbows, right,
and she crawled forty yards on our turf to ring
this bell and you go. It took her over twenty
(11:01):
five minutes, and all the vets and all my gym
against she's Oh my god, and dude, we'll share this
video with you too. I'm just bawling right watching this
thing because to me, again, that's the indomitable human spirit.
There's the undefeated, unbreakable human spirit, man, and it's in
all of us. I just want to be there when
it shows up.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
No doubt. That's you know.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
I was trying to tell people also, like you play
in the NFL, it's not for you are. Her being
a cheerleader or gymnast is not who either one of
them are. Well, you just talk about her and the gymnast,
it's not who they are. What's behind your ribcage? She
got you to beat out. I don't care if you're
mister relevant or not. You beat out millions and millions
and millions to get to this level.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
That's who the fuck you are, and that's not there
or not, whether you have a uniform or not. Same
with that. That's why I love about what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Also, finding that you know the what's behind your ribcage
and between your years, that's the most powerful weapon on
the planet.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Well, you're you're so unique day because like you have
this confidence and swaggered to the point you just made
and yet you're a guy that comes in a room
and it's there. You are a type of person, not
a here I am type of person. You know, you
realize that your gifts. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, you know
you know what you got, but at the same time,
you recognize how it can benefit others. And that's when
you're living and living well. And I think that's the
(12:15):
thing for me that I was scared. I was scared, man,
I didn't know Frankly bro like a lot of the
things that built my own ego to make it in
the NFL. I was scared that if I lost those,
I wouldn't know who I was.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Dude, I know that feeling. I call it the beast
in the box.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
And I've done a lot of work over the last
several years, especially as I've talked about my mental health stuff,
because I created this character the Glaze, you know, so
nobody really know what I'm suffering from.
Speaker 3 (12:40):
But along with.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
That, when I have depression anxiety that really would come out,
I would take a bunch of Viking and I would
take a bunch of adderall again. But I'd rather go
out and get a fight and have my job put
on the line than anybody know.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
But so one of the things that's helped me, and
this is again align with you, also is being of
service and that means all across you know. I started
two different charities already with Touchdown Dreams and m VP,
and how we're about.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
To start a different one where we're helping. We already
started it. We were for veterans to.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Get stem cells and Panama, and I'm working on another one,
Unbreakable Foundation, where we scholarship people to get free therapy,
mental health therapy. There's but it's exactly what you're saying.
It's like my drug I thought was liking in or
at all, and it turns out my drug is being
of service, as is yours and us being it.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
Guess what come down to come down is a lot better, better, better.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
But we I think.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
I think you and I have gotten addicted to that,
realizing how much it helps us building us up for
the inside out where we used to tear ourselves down
for the inside out.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
I think there's probably you know again, if anyone that's
listening to this, it's like, man, I'm not Jay Glazer,
I'm not Dave for Bor. I didn't play in the NFL.
I didn't this Like that's the cop out because you know,
you and me, we weren't the most gifted people like
we have grinded and probably part of that little boy
in us that always felt like he'd unworthy is what
(14:11):
drove us. And that works to get you here, but
it can't get you there. You know, you can't get
and whether it's therapy, whether it's finding a you mentioned
the locker room right, it's finding a tribe, it's finding
it out how to your team. Yeah, because that team,
man is again they let you get out what you
don't know how to say. And that's why I think
that moving your body to the expression to release a
lot of that energy like anxiety, I've realized is really
(14:33):
helpful when I can aim at properly right, and that's
being able to use it. You know, there's days in
the morning where I get up, I do my meditation, breathwork.
There's sometimes where I'm like I gotta go run or
lift now, or else I'm gonna be and I'm not
going to be good for me and my family, and
so I think that ability of emotional intelligence and being
honest to your same point, you saying I don't want
(14:54):
anybody to really know. That's that's the fallacy, that's the trap.
The real strength comes from yo, Dude, I'm not right.
And dude, you know I've lost. There's ten ten strikes
on my arm right here. It says until Valhalla. And
these are ten guys that I've lost since I started
this almost eleven years ago. Suicide, drug overdose, reckless car crash.
(15:17):
I mean, ultimately, guys that were punching ticket. And you
know it's so hard because when I played football, I
didn't care how many tackles I made. I had cared
if we won the game. But I had a Navy seal,
Clint Bruce, a guy that you know as well. And
Clint said to me, this is the opposite. He said, Look,
the time isn't up to you, but the days that
you had I eed the tackles in this, you know,
(15:38):
relevance to sport. He's like that time that you invested
and looked those men in their eyes and treated them whole.
That's that's all that matters, and those guys are no
longer in pain, and so again, tomorrow's not promise. Man.
I'm trying to do my best to make sure that
I hit the pillow at night. And these conversations on
this podcast are very much in the same vein.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
So we touched on it earlier in Breakable Moment about
you know, crap it out on paying boy you didn't
tell me?
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Is what got you to get yourself cleaned?
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, so I'll say it kind have been a rock
bottom there. Yeah, And in fact, I'll go a little
further the I like came to night three when I
was in the worst state, and I like, there's a
food tray next to me, in classic hospital food, you know.
I lifted up it was it was tunic casserole, like
nobody likes hospital thank you. So I'm like, all right,
(16:26):
if I can maybe feed myself, I can maybe find
some relief. And I could barely even open my hands.
I had like the tremors, and I tried to get
up to go to the microwave and I fell and
when I did, I shout. The plate shattered on the
ground and I'm.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
In are you talking about when you're in hospital for
you or when you're in rehab.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
When I'm in rehab.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Oh no, but I want you to go back to this.
What got you to put yourself in rehab?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Yeah, that's a good question. Man. So, uh, Moe Kelly,
our player development director is Seahawks man. This is the truth.
This is a bad about you asked this. So my
linebacker coach, So, Jeff Olbrich is oursbacker. So we had
so yeah, Ken Norton Junior is my linebacker coach. Robert
Sala and Jeff Ulbrick are my freaking assistants. Like the room,
(17:08):
it was insane, and Brick had gone through a similar
deal with opiates getting out of the league. Was in
a gnarly one. So he'd walked past me in stretch
lines and he just he knew and he'd look at
me and go, hey, man, when you're ready to talk?
And I'd be like, I don't we talk about what?
And Dude, I opened up to him in his office.
I just broke down, dude, Just and Moe Kelly and
(17:30):
we found a place up at Everett, Washington, and you know,
I'm like, oh, they might find out I'm a Seahawks player.
You know, like, bro, there's a bunch of addicts in
there coming on. They could care less.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Who you are. Y, yeah, fight their own demons.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Yep. But that was the genesis, man. Was was people
like mo, people like Jeff that that that saw it
in me and then helped save me from me. You know.
I was on a flight to Hawaii just before going
to Detox and my girlfriend at the time now wife,
three kids, married thirteen years, Sarah.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Still by the way, folks, she's a stud.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
She's a spartan. But I turned to her on the airplane.
She's never done a drug in her life, and I said, hey,
when we get back, you got to take me straight
to the hospital. I'm not right. I'm addicted to these pills.
And you know you're an addict, so you take more
on the trip and gladze. This is a true story, man,
and it's one I haven't told much, but I'll tell
it here because I love you and I trust this.
This is the right thing to say. I went into
(18:25):
detah or went into withdrawal, and uh, she found me.
I barely remember this, but I had climbed up on
the balcony of our twenty four hotel to throw myself off,
and she one that grabbed my legs and pulled me down.
When we got back, I took her to my dealer's house,
which is terrible because I needed to get some right
like you just you're not you. And then from that point,
you know, I went in and I thought like, oh man,
(18:46):
I got this, and dude, I didn't. I didn't have
it at all. It shook my tree. But I'm so
grateful for it, like I said, because it was that
that catapult being pulled back to the more significant work
of my life.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
And also look at like we're talking about find your team,
like talk about like.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
That woman God love man, just insane, which what I
put her through, And that's that's.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
One of the things.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I just talked to my wife about this the early day,
I said, and I just did ready to row with
the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
I'mitt at this, I said, Man, all.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
My crazy antics and my you know, my the depression
and anxiety maybe push away a lot of good people,
a lot of people in my life. I'd say, I
would say some of it. I regret some of it.
I'm kind of like disappointed that they would go the
other way. And that's my point because there are people
out there like your wife will embrace you, say no, no,
come here, I got you. And that's anybody out there
(19:36):
who's listened. That's the high former currency you can have
in this world.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Well said bro, Yeah, I've got to get honest. That's
the key piece is taking inventory. Be really where you are, man,
and if you're mad, be mad, you know, like it'd
be that, but then express that and find you know,
constructive habits, because again, coping with drugs and alcohol is
the quickest way. I mean, you know you've seen it,
Like all these guys that we lost, alcohol was present, man,
and it just it pulls you down into that funnel.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
So I stopped you in the miliar story when you're
saying you're trying to hope the big of the student castle.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
So yeah, So the plate I fall, I can't even stand.
It shatters, and you know, I'm embarrassed. I'm ashamed of
the nurses Russian and I'm apologizing, and quickly I realized
they're not even worried about the mess. But they were
grabbing me because they thought I was going to use
the broken plate to try to slit my wrists. So
now bro, I'm on suicide watch. I get moved to
a floor that you don't want to be on. Wow.
(20:28):
And I'm sitting there essentially cuffed. I mean, it's it's
it's tied to the side of the bed and I'm
just sobbing. Bro. I remember praying for an angel. You know,
grew up with faith, you know, definitely. I think I
love the quote that religion is for people that don't
want to go to Hell's spiritualities for those that have
been there. I haven't heard that, dude, religion is for
(20:49):
people that don't want to go to hell spiritualities for
those that have been there.
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
And if you've dealt with what I'm talking about, man,
you've been there. And it's crazy. There was this nurse team.
I'll never forget it. Man. She must have gave all
the other nurses her arounds. She sat with me all night,
she held my hands, she prayed with me. She got
I get emotional, man, because the angel that I needed.
And she was calling Sarah in between and letting her
know that I was okay. That dude, to me was
(21:17):
It just gave me the feeling like, man, God's got this. Man,
I don't have to keep trying to do this on
my own. Like I can rely on people and and
and be so much better.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
You know, when I wrote my book, I talk about
finding your teammates and I'm like, hey, God's your teammate.
And I'm like, I don't I don't ask God. Can
you get me this job? Or can you make this apple?
Can I get this amount of money? I was like,
I got this. I'm a fighter. Just don't let me
do it alone. Just pick me up, brush me off,
Let's keep walking this walk together. And that's why you
really should ask. And by the way, like God's supposed
to be your best friend parent, You're not gonna constantly
(21:49):
ask your friend and get mad at your friend if
they don't get your car, if they don't get your job, if.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
This doesn't happen, that doesn't happen. You don't do that.
You're not gonna be friends with them, you know. But
I love that you.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
We have to kind of that similar view of it also,
and you never know when that atal was going to
step up.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
But it does show you that the universe is there
to help us.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Well, it's cool what you said earlier about you know,
you know fighters that I mean, so I mentioned dak
coming into this, I mean after Dak lost his brother.
Just think about how again, Like how for him, everybody
in the world sees him as the star quarterback and
yet like he is as human as any of us.
And we've had some private talks that again, it's like,
you know, whether it's a good game or a bad game, whatever,
(22:26):
Like you still got to look yourself in the mirror
and know that you're loved and that you're worthy. I
think I've lived a lot of my life where I'm
trying to achieve to make myself worthy. But man's that's
a trap, dude. Then you end up trumping from place
to place looking for, you know, the destination to be
the arrival. And life's not like that. It's non linear. Man.
You're you know, bouncing from X to X on the map,
hopefully making a difference and doing some things that you
(22:49):
felt like you were called to do.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
So again, I talked about I was fighting You're mister irrelevant,
So you had to fight, fight, fight, fight for every
little thing you got. I you know, I just kind
of we just aid Jimmy Johnson. One of the coolest
moments I ever had with him was earlier in our
earlier this season in Our Green Room, and Jimmy and
I got really close.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
These last couple of years.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
We sitting next to the other in the green room,
and I was like, Coach, being this close to you
and getting your approval is like the coolest thing I
ever had in my career. And he said, Jay, I
got you. You know, I took me a long time.
Then I got you, and I realized you always had
to fight for everything in your life, like you don't
know anything else but to fight. Once I appreciated that,
(23:32):
and I realized that we got great and I was like, Coach,
I'm so glad you got to see that. My question
to you, I guess is I don't think I'm not
fighting fighting fighting anymore for the most part, Like I'm
established some good I'm still fighting.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
The demons pre in my ears. But do you still
feel like, hey, I gotta fight for everything.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
I'm mister irrelevant or are you in a position now
like I don't have to go to the same way.
I guess I'm goin to ask them for advice.
Speaker 1 (24:01):
Yeah, I'd say this. I think, like this computer that
I'm talking through, you need to upgrade to the programming, right,
And I think that my view of fighting today is
much more in lockstep with doing it for intrinsic reasons,
not extrinsic right, Like, and I'll tell you, brother, this
(24:23):
is a scar that was dealt when I was ten
neighbor seventeen year old ended up raping me. It is
a wound that I promise I don't make it to
the NFL unless this happens because I put them the armor,
so nobody, right, I was going to date the hottest chick.
I was going to bang all right, I was going
to be the captain of the football teach I back
(24:43):
to the glaze, right, the persona you wear that and
then all of a sudden you realize, like you can
take that only so far until those walls start to
come in and that death, that the ego death that
I endured, and the process to rediscover, right, who's David
without this and who's David with this? And if there's
(25:03):
a difference, then there's a trap involved. And so I
think for me, there's still a fight. You know, I
still do stupid stuff all the time, Like I'm running
these hundred mile races. I learn well from pain. Like
guys like you and me, we don't do normal well.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Yeah, we pain and us have good relationships.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
We're masochistic in some ways. There's a pleasure piece of
that paradigm. But but I know that life will provide
the curriculum. So rather than going out and creating the chaos,
because that's what makes me feel like I'm in the fight,
I can recognize that there's times between that I just
need to be present in fact all the time. The
only thing that's happened is now. And with my kids,
(25:41):
especially those kids, man, they don't need David daddy the
football player. I was driving past Mile High Stadium and
my daughter oldest, who's eleven now, but she was three,
and I'm like, hey Ley, her name's of lee Ola.
I said, Babe, that stadium Daddy used to play football
in there. Out missing a bja, she said, pass me
my sippy cup. But you go, you know, that's that's
(26:03):
our kids. That's beautiful, supid. They just need dad, man.
They don't need dad to play in the NFL enough
that Blazer like, they just need dad.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Yeah, we're good enough. It's funny to you you talk
about that the chaos. One of the things I talk
about now.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
To people is I've figured out where I've weaponized my
mental health issues. So if you weaponize them, you're not
seeing right, and then we can live in the present
like you're saying, so like my my anxiety, I'm fucking
great and chaos I suck and come, so I will
cause chaos in the business deals because then people just
want they wanted to, they want to tap out, they
want to make up sex.
Speaker 3 (26:39):
That's I'll do it on purpose. It's just it's kind
of this relentlessness.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
If I didn't have that anxiety, I wouldn't be I
wouldn't have a drive that I have.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
And same thing for you and that man, that's so brave.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
You and open up and talk about what you just
talk about here and you know too very fun and
that's always talk about. People are like they say, I'm
so courageous you to open up and talk about your
mental health. I'm like, not courageous. I'm just bad motherfucker.
No one's questioned my manhood, and say with you, right,
he ain't nobody questioned our.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Manhood yep, yep. And I think that the strength that
comes from giving others the permission slip to be vulnerable.
Chair two. I mean that's the magic of the huddle.
MVP is, dude. We've moved our bodies. We've kind of connected.
You know. It's like when dudes go golfing at the front,
they're like shaking hands. By the end they're like, yeah,
you know, a few more beers and their chest bumping.
Once we can break down those walls, it's like, man,
(27:26):
there's more similarities than differences. And to the point that
you made, it's like, I'm a badass man, I've proven it,
So why do I need more validation from y'all. I
I just need to recognize that I'm exactly where I'm
supposed to be and I'm chasing this new Ridge line
and that's okay.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, man, I love it, dude, I love connecting with you.
We gotta do this more man like again. Our lives
keep bringing us back. Then we's got we got to
be better.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
We got it. We'll throw it out a life after
pot on my side of the street and I'll see
if I can't get it there and dig out.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
I'm in, Dude, didn't time you want me in? I'm
I'm on bro, and then I I can't dude. I
love you, you know, dude, And let's make sure we
check out on each other.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
A lot more deal. Love you Jay, You're the man.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Love you brother again. Tell people what the pod is
where they can.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Get Yeah, check out the Life After podcast. It's on
all the platforms. Every Wednesday we release a new episode. Again.
Shout out to my man Chris Long, green Light, Yolk
Media House. They're the ones that push me in this direction.
And I hope you guys enjoy this content because it's
just really meaningful. Man. At the end of the day,
I know that it'll provide hope and inspiration.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Awesome, dude, Hey, let's keep walking, us walk together. Love
you brother,
Host
Jay Glazer
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