An Army of Normal Folks - Melvin Cole: Saving Kids Just Like Me (Pt 1)

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

In Melvin’s family, you were either a drug dealer or a junkie. At 8 years old, he remembers choosing between these two options and joined his family’s cocaine ring that was arguably the largest in West Tennessee history. It led him to one of the most desperate situations you could imagine and making a deal with God to get out of it. He promised to save other inner-city Memphis kids just like him and that’s exactly what PURE Academy has done. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It could have been an 18 bedroom house. If I know love being passed out, that don't mean sh**. You going man, them kids looking for love. When I hit the streets, I was looking for love. When I joined my gang, I was looking for love. I was looking for acceptance. I was looking for people that wanted me to be around. Give a f**k if it meant selling weed or blowing your ass off.

I just wanted to praise. I wanted to feel good about myself. I wanted to belong. That's how these kids want. That's what anybody wants. That's why we join fraternity. That's why we get these good jobs. That's why we get all of these social groups.

Cause what? In the end of the day, everybody wanna belong. That's our biggest thing at period. Man, before we do anything, we're gonna love on it. ["The Last Song of the Year"] Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy.

I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm an entrepreneur. And I've been a football coach in inner city Memphis in the last part, it unintentionally led to an Oscar for the film about our team that's called Undefeated. Guys, I believe our country's problems

will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits talking big words that nobody understands on CNN and Fox, but rather an army of normal folks, us, just you and me deciding, hey, I can help. That's what Melvin Cole, the voice we just heard is done. Melvin is straight from the hood in Memphis and he has a truly wild story of drug dealing and gangbanging but thankfully he has an even wilder redemption story. To get out of the one of most desperate situations

you can imagine, he made a deal with God that he'd pour healthy love into kids who grew up just like he did. Today, his inner city boarding school, Pure Academy, has graduated around 50 kids and 20 of them have received full athletic scholarships to play college football. I cannot wait for you to meet Melvin right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors.

Hi, I'm Susie Esmond and I am Jeff Gerlund. Yes, you are. And we are the hosts of the history of Curb Your Enthusiasm podcast. We're going to watch every single episode. It's a hundred and twenty-two, including the pilot, and we're going to break them down. And by the way, most of these episodes I have not seen for twenty years. Yeah, me too. We're going to have guest stars and people that are very important to the show,

like Larry David. I did once try and stop a woman who was about to get hit by a car. I screamed out, watch out. And she said, don't you tell me what to do. And Cheryl Hines. Why can't you just lighten up and have a good time? And Richard Lewis. How am I going to tell him I'm going to leave now?

Can you do it on the phone? Do you have to do it in person? What's the deal? Actually in cable, you have to go in and you see human beings helped you. And then we're going to have behind the scenes information. It's been yes to get to the great work anyway we're both a wealth of knowledge about this show because we've been doing it for 23 years so subscribe now and you could listen to the

history of cover enthusiasm on I heart radio at Apple podcast or wherever you happen to get your podcasts. Perot is on the other side and he goes, hello Joe, how can I help you? I said, Mr. Perot, what we need is $5 million to get back to Moon Rock. Another week, we'll unravel a 90s Hollywood mystery. It sounds like it should be the next season of True Detective or something. These Canadian cops trying to solve this 25-year-old mystery of who spiked the Chowder on the Titanic set.

A very special episode is Stranger Than Fiction. It's normal people plop down in extraordinary circumstances. can accept. A very special episode is stranger than fiction. It's normal people plop down in extraordinary circumstances. It's a story where you say, this should be a movie. Listen to very special episodes on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jason Flom and you're Maggie Freeling. Hey Jason.

Every day we learn about another person who shouldn't be in prison. 58 years in prison for trying to commit, so glad you're home. If you want to be part of this work, listen to Wrongful Conviction, the podcast where we hand the mic to innocent people to hear their stories. How do you send someone innocent to prison?

Listen to new episodes of Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling and Jason Flom on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, everybody, before we go any further, I felt compelled to share a warning about this particular episode. As you know, we've covered a lot of really heavy topics on the podcast, and I'm going to tell you something. I think this one may be the heaviest.

As you know, if you've listened a lot, we usually try to edit out occasional swear words out of respect for families that may be listening and those of you who may be put off by that kind of language but frankly in Melvin story there is so much detail and There are so many swear words. It would sound really really weird to edit it that way so

Fair warning This is an unbelievable deep topic. It's explicit really weird to edit it that way. So fair warning. This is an unbelievable deep topic. It's explicit gangs drug dealing prison in very explicit detail with very raw language. And if that is going to bother you, I'd recommend listening to a past episode of the podcast. You, you may have missed or just skipping this one altogether. But if you can make it through all of that, the story of redemption in this episode is

worth telling. And it's why we're putting it out there. Melvin's an amazing guy who's been through more than most and has come out on the other side to give so much of himself because of a deal he made with God. But to get there, it's a bumpy road with a lot of rough language. And I just want to warn you, that's what this podcast, if you listen to it, that's what you're in for. So, if you're okay with it, roll with us.

If you're not, we'll see you next week. So let's begin with Melvin on what his upbringing was like in South Memphis. The biggest thing for me is I like to tell people at a time that I think it was typical. I mean, because that's where I grew up and that's why I was around. So for me, my grandma was a heron addict and my other grandma was an angry drunk. So all my uncles and cousins were drug dealers. So from there, that became my reality from day one. You know, I mean, watching my grandma get fucked for hair-run,

guys going in and out the house. My grandma, I used to tell people all the time, when I first got to school, when they called my name, I didn't respond. Cause I was used to motherfucker, nigga sit your ass down and all of that. So that became the norm to me on, listen, that's how you talk a lot of people say,

why you a customer? That's how I grew up. I didn't see anything different. That was our norm, the drugs, the violence, the gangs. That's what we saw. I mean, that's what we saw. That's what we lived. I remember my grandma was telling me,

make sure you wash your hands so the rats won't nibble on your fingers when we stay there. I mean, so that was my reality. That was my, like I like to tell people, that was my first introduction to the world. I mean. I read that your mother and father could not handle the death of your sister

when you were very young? Yeah, that was a, I'll be honest with you, that drew a wedge between everybody. And when I say everybody from my mom, my dad, my brother, nobody knew how to cope with it. And me- How old were you and how old was your sister?

So I was two and my sister was four. And so, but I think more importantly where it kind of got me that I learned at an early age, later on in life that my parents couldn't coat with it because so my mom was a teenage parent. She was kicked out of her house at the age of 16 with my brother. She worked three jobs. And my father had a daughter before my sister who was

killed by the baby mama put her next to a window in Boston and she got caught pneumonia and died because they wasn't seeing eye to eye. My father didn't choose her so with him with his second, it drew a wedge between everybody. Father came drunk and just kind of sorrowed in his own thing. My mom, she really couldn't, she couldn't process life. So that left me kind of creating my own image of life. That kind of helped me shape my own feelings and different things like that because Growing up I didn't understand why I was left out. You know, I mean that was the biggest thing That frankly piss me off I mean it was times where my father get drunk and he'd be like why the fuck God didn't take you instead of the girls

I was like, I don't fucking know. Won't you die and ask him? So growing up I I didn't I don't fucking know, why don't you die and ask them? So growing up, I didn't understand, dude, I don't fucking know. I don't know why they died, you know what I mean? So, and my mom, she couldn't process it. I mean, my sister actually died in the bed with her. So she was unable to process it. And now when we talk about it that was kind of why

She pushed me into a teenage father Because my daughter in her mind was the replacement of her daughter not realizing I fucked me up so The grandmother you got one angry drunk and one heroin addict your words, right? One of those was your mother's mother. Correct. So your mother grew up the same trauma you did? Absolutely.

So the angry drunk was my grandma, my mother's mother. So when my mom began pregnant at 15, my grandma gave her an ultimatum, have abortion or get the fuck out. And my mom chose to get the fuck out. She worked three jobs and my brother's dad left her and went to the army and never looked back. I mean, so she grew up with her own chip on her shoulder.

Which you inherited? Yeah, so the thing about it is, shit, fucking inherited. I mean, it was passed down to me. It was basically shoved down my throat. So, you told me this when we first met, and you won't remember this, but when we first met, I'm skipping ahead to Pure, which we'll get to down the road.

And we were talking about all that you're doing and I was walking around looking at this place going, what am I seeing here? I remember you saying that you knew at a very early age, preteen, that you had a choice. There were two tracks. You either be an addict and a junkie, or you'd be a dealer.

Clear, it was simple. That's what you saw. That's what I saw, that's what I lived, that was the talk. So when did you decide you were gonna be a dealer or not a junkie? I think I was like eight or nine. Eight or nine, you know at eight or nine, you're supposed to be eating Curious George

and going to incredible pizza and driving go-karts. No, not in poverty. That may be your life. That may be the life of your kids, but in poverty. It wasn't my life, but it is the life of my kids. But you ain't no fucking incredible pizza. You just hoping to get pizza.

But I never forget. I was walking, I walked in on my grandma fucking and the guy says, get the fuck out of here or you next. The guy said that to you? Yeah, and I knew right then, no way. Meaning I ain't gonna be the junkie. I ain't gonna be the junkie. I'm not gonna be the victim.

If anything, I'm gonna be the guy in power. I'm gonna be controlling this. That's not gonna happen to me. So I don't know if you know a guy named Arshay Cooper. He was a guest some months ago. He's from West Side Chicago. He is from the same, you put what you're from in Memphis and put in Chicago or Chicago here, same, same world. same work. And he describes his environment like this. In his apartment, they had a fan because they aired in Blow Very Cold in their project. And the fan had a blade a little out of balance. And so every time it rolled around, it clicked. So it was like just this

fan, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click, click when it ran. Well, it did that all the time. So when you lived there, you didn't even hear the clicking. You got used to it, right? But if you walked in their apartments, first thing you'd hear is that air taken click. But it was so common to them that the clicking of that fan was, you know, no big deal. They didn't hear it, it was just common. And he said, drugs, junkies, drug dealers, murder, gunshots, blood on the street, the wells of yet another mother losing a son to gunfire, crime, beatings, jail, all of that was so common in his environment that it was like the clicking

of that fan in his apartment, you just didn't even hear it anymore. Absolutely. I mean, you gotta think in terms of, you only think something foreign if you go to a foreign place. You mean, so when you start looking up, man, your auntie getting that ass kicked by a boyfriend, so she called you and your brothers and your cousins to come over. I mean, it's all part of it. It's all intertwined.

I mean, from every part of the family, you're going to get this dysfunctional. It's hard for our listeners to understand or even, maybe even believe it, but I'm going to ask you a question and I want you to just, did you not know all that was wrong? No. So here's the thing, here's the thing. The one with the biggest gun determines what is right and what is wrong. If somebody walks into this building right now and and said get the fuck down and he got a draco Guess what everybody gonna get their ass down because that's what's right

You do right and wrong is what determines the savior life not a law So what perceives to be wrong to somebody else is right to somebody else that's fighting for their life So is right to somebody else that's fighting for their life. So there is no respect for the law, the police, what society norms are, because none of those are about your survival. How you gonna respect something that don't respect you? Ain't nobody coming to the hood chicken on you. Ain't nobody coming to the hood checking on you. Ain't nobody trying to help you out. So I mean, that's a learned behavior. If it's

fuck me, it's fuck you. Like it's a learned behavior. It's not the law. So look at the law like this. I'm selling coke to provide for my family and the law is coming to stop me. The fuck? Like how can I respect that? You're not coming in with an application from, from Metronic. You come in, what you saying?

Get the fuck down. So where's the respect there? I'm gonna play devil's advocate. Free school, you can get breakfast in the morning, you get lunch in the afternoon, you can get an education. Society is trying to provide for your basic needs. You can get government assisted housing. You can apply for, if you're a mother with children,

you can apply for WIC or whatever they call it now and get all of that's cool but tell me what a kid can do. I said devil's advocate bro. Yeah if your mom if she go and get that then yeah cool but what if she's a fucking junkie and she's selling the food stamps well then you ain't got that in me, yo. You see what I'm saying? Like, so, yeah, that's cool for the adults. But I always try to tell people, what about the kids? Like, the kids can't sign up for WIC. You know what I mean? The kid can't stop the mama boyfriend from molesting them.

Can't stop that shit. Like, I mean, so when you look at it, the kids are powerless. Like, yeah, we can put in all these government assistance, but that's still based on what the adults that grew up in a bunch of bullshit. So they don't even know how to take advantage of the opportunity in front of them. So that opportunity never meets the kid. And now a few messages from our generous sponsors, but first, I hope you'll consider becoming a premium member of the Army at normalfolks.us.

By becoming one for $10 a month or $1,000 a year, you can get access to cool benefits like bonus episodes, a yearly group call, and even a one-on-one call with me. Frankly guys, premium memberships also help us to grow this army that our country desperately needs right now. So I hope you'll think about it. We'll be right back. Hi, I'm Suzy Esmond. And I am Jeff Gerlind. Yes, you are.

And we are the hosts of the history of Curb Your Enthusiasm podcast. We're going to watch every single episode. It's 122, including the pilot, and we're going to break them down. And by the way, most of these episodes I have not seen for 20 years. Yeah, me too. We're going to have guest stars and people that are very important to the show, like Larry David. I did once try and stop a woman who was about to get hit by a car, I screamed out, watch out!

And she said, don't you tell me what to do! And Cheryl Hines. Why can't you just lighten up and have a good time? And Richard Lewis. How am I gonna tell him I'm gonna leave now? Can you do it on the phone? Do you have to do it in person? What's the deal?

Actually, in cable, you have to go in and you see human beings help you. And then we're gonna have behind the scenes information. Tidbits. Yes, tidbits is a great word. Anyway, we're both a wealth of knowledge about this show cause we've been doing it for 23 years. So subscribe now and you could listen

to the history of cover enthusiasm on iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you happen to get your podcasts. H. Ross Perot is on the other side and he goes, Hello, Joe, how can I help you? I said, Mr. Perot, what we need is $5 million to get back a moon rock. Another week, we'll unravel a 90s Hollywood mystery. It sounds like it should be the next season of True Detective or something. These Canadian cops trying to solve this 25-year-old mystery of who spiked the Chowder on the Titanic set. A very special episode is stranger than fiction.

It's normal people plop down in extraordinary circumstances. It's a story where you say, this should be a movie. Listen to very special episodes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jason Flom and you're Maggie Freeling. Hey, Jason. Every day we learn about another person who shouldn't be in prison.

58 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. So glad you're home. If you want to be part of this work, listen to Wrongful Conviction. The podcast where we hand the mic to innocent people to hear their stories. How do you send someone innocent to prison? Listen to new episodes of Wrongful Conv conviction with Maggie Freeling and Jason Flamm on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Five Times Divorced Woman One thing I learned of a NASA's that floored me, I am the son of a five times divorced woman. My struggles throughout my 40s stemmed around fatherlessness for me. I dealt with, truth is I still deal with some of it at 55 years old man. Never goes away. Never go the way. Not that level. You start to ask yourself, you know, why do I lack so much value that not a single grown ass man will invest in me?

And you start to think of yourself as broken. And then self-fulfilling prophecy takes over and you do broken shit. And that was my reality. Having said that, I'm a big father-stay-in-kids-life guy. I think it's paramount for our society and our civilization. I think a lot of what ails our children today is filiallessness. It's a multitude of problems, but I think it's a big one,

especially since it's very personal to me. I got straightened out one day by a mom who had three kids and the father of those three kids was same man and they lived in the apartment together. And I was like, why don't you show your kids what marriage looks like? Why don't you actually go down the courthouse, get a marriage license, be married, and start to do the things to break that proverbial chain? And she looked at me like I was half out of my mind and she said, you don't know nothing.

I'm like, she's like, don't you know that if I get married, I lose all my government support? that if I get married, I lose all my government support. So what I learned was on the one hand, our national narrative is we've got to do things to support the organic family and keep families together and that'll help. And then on the other hand, we incentivize women with children

to not get married because if they do, they lose their assistance. And that's all over the inner city. Seems to me like that makes government a little paternalistic. It depends on how you look at it. Help me. So in terms, that's how she grew up.

So that's how she knows. Right. That's how her mom grew up. Right. So that's how she knows. So in like your mom. Right. So in terms, government assistant is the way to go.

So we'll, all right, we can go down here and we can get married. This motherfucker still make $12 an hour though. So we're gonna get married to be in a fucked up situation. Cause you gotta think about that shit with him starting when he was six, seven years old. So all he doing is the best he can now. So in turn, she's looking at it from a strategic self preservation mode.

Yeah, we love him, man. He's down with what's the realization of he can't take care of us? I can't take care of us. So that's been passed down generation of generation of generation. So now that woman and many women and my mom and the same rest of them, they look at it as a survival tool. I get it I didn't. I get it now I've gotten it for a while, but I wanted our

I wanted our I wanted our audience to hear it and understand it because most people don't really get that Melvin but here's the thing about it because the reason most people don't get it., Melvin. But here's the thing about it, because the reason most people don't get it, is two reasons. The shoot always fit different when it's on your foot. That's first and foremost. And what people fail to understand is the same knowledge

that you have access to, that I have access to, it's not guaranteed that person in North Memphis, South Memphis, Orange Mound, or Stony Island in Chicago, they don't have access to that same information. So it's like, why you can't get up and get a fucking job? Okay, how? Well, then we, well, we got this program across town.

All right, but the mentality has been embedded. So this is what a lot of people didn't understand about women. Women carry their kids when they're born. So their kids are going through trauma as those moms are growing up. They don't just automatically at 30, oh, I got a fucking egg now I'm about to spit something out.

Those eggs was born with them. So through those years of trauma, what do you think those eggs are doing? They ingesting it too. It's the same thing if you smoke weed, the whole pregnancy, what do you mean you gonna come out with a fucking pie head? You gonna come out with a crack head?

What's the same thing? That trauma is embedded inside of them. I mean because the baby is a part of them. The trauma is a part of them. The trauma is a part of them. Trauma is shapes your decision making. How the fuck would he do that? Look what he was up against. I mean, like I said, it's easy to say,

oh man, I wouldn't have done that. How you know? How you know? That's what I tell people all the time. How you know what you do if your family will starve? You don't know. Shit, you'll stick Bill ass do if your family will starve? You don't know. You'll stick Bill ass up if your family will starve. Give it here.

I mean, that's the reality of it. What's the first thing a baby does when they're hungry? They cry. So it's self-preservation. It's the same way. It's nothing different. It was just that these are the things that's been put into the hood to call it survival mode.

And then let's be honest, yeah, okay, you got people living off the government and this, this, and this, but those budgets are so big, somebody's getting a kick back. Cause you know, just like I know wherever there's poverty, there's fucking profit. Property equals profit. I don't know, wherever there's poverty, it's fucking profit.

Property equals profit. So that's what you grow up in. And now you're eight and you decide, I ain't gonna be no junkie, I'm gonna be a dealer. And you've got a built in training model how to do that, cause all your cousins and uncles are dealers. I got the manual right there. The instruction manual and the trainer.

What to do, what not to do. So tell me what you do. You know what I mean, hey, hey, listen, I don't wanna do that. I wanna do what y'all do. Then for you know, what's the best way you learn? Look and listen. You ain't got to teach me nothing.

Just put me around and I'ma look and listen. Okay, that's how he cook it. Okay, so he get the money first then. Where'd that go? No different than a kid growing up in suburbia watches their dad be an accountant. No different. Hey, dad, where you going? Work? See you later, Johnny. Or doctor. Doctor. What are you doing? I saved three lives today. I deliver four babies today. So when I'm sitting around the house talking with a couple of my old fraternity brothers from Ole Miss and my 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 year old sons are here.

He's not just in all of it. He's thinking, oh, you go to college, you join an attorney, you make good friends, you graduate, you get a job, you get a nice house and a car because that's what I see. That's what he see. That's what he see. Or me. You grow up in the hood, your uncle's dealing dealing crack and weed your grandmothers are junky You make a choice to be a drug dealer and that's what you do

It's natural so you think about like this You can pick the best person in the world He said hey What the fuck you want to be you won't be a junkie or you gonna be a dealer? Pick what I pick I'm gonna go pick what I picked. Who want to get fucked for drugs? You want to be a doctor or a drug dealer? Doctor, sign me up.

That's what Eric came to the hood. But how? How? What's the resources? Who's gonna show me? But more importantly, who asked that question? Alright, you can easily say, alright. Bill, you want to be a doctor? Yeah, all right. Bill, you wanna be a doctor?

Yeah, yeah, of course I wanna be a doctor. But if you don't provide me with the resources, if you don't put me around the people, if you don't give me access to the knowledge, if you don't give me access to these things, well, all you did was waste my time. That's all you did. All you did was, if we talked for 60 minutes,

if we talked for 45 minutes, all you did was blow smoke, made yourself feel good. Cause the reality of it is, until you turn me on to a doctor or show me the pathway, there's no way I'm gonna be a fucking doctor. It's not rocking. It's not rocking science. I didn't, I was born in March 4th, 1985

And I can assure you when I came out and say hey god Turn me into a killer and drug dealer. That's what I choose to be I want to dodge the feds and niggas and bullets all day long. No, that ain't what I said That ain't what no kids. Are you saying the zip code at the time of your birth doesn't necessarily persuade you toward drug dealing? It absolutely does, because you don't have a choice. But it shouldn't. Tell me why.

Let me tell you, you're gonna tell me about 1%. Because if my children were born into the same zip code that you were born into in that same environment, it is highly unlikely they'd be where they are today. Correct, they'd be just like me. But it doesn't mean that genetically those children are predisposed toward drug dealing or whatever because of the zip code at the time of their birth. It's not a genetic thing, it is an environment thing.

I think it's both. Do you? I think it's both. Tell me how. In terms of, you know how you breed a horse or you breed a dog? Yeah. You breed gang members the same way.

I know guys, my granddaddy was a vice lord, my daddy was a vice lord, I'm gonna be a vice lord, my son gonna be a vice lord. That's generation. So you gotta think about some of those kids that's born into gang families from, from get up. This is what we do, so this is what you do. We'll be right back. Hey, this is Dana Schwartz. We'll be right back. agents from NASA as they crack down on black market moon rocks. H. Ross prose on the other side goes, Hello Joe, how can I help you? I said, Mr. Perot, what we need is $5 million to get back a moon rock.

Another week, we'll unravel a 90s Hollywood mystery. It sounds like it should be the next season of True Detective or something. These Canadian cops trying to solve this 25-year-old mystery of who who spike the Chowder on the Titanic set. A very special episode is stranger than fiction. It's normal people plop down in extraordinary circumstances. It's a story where you say this should be a movie. Listen to very special episodes on the I heart radio app

apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And by the way, most of these episodes I have not seen for 20 years. Yeah, me too. We're gonna have guest stars and people that are very important to the show, like Larry David. I did once try and stop a woman who was about to get hit by a car. I screamed out, watch out! And she said, don't you tell me what to do! And Cheryl Hines. Why can't you just lighten up and have a good time?

And Richard Lewis. How am I gonna tell him I'm gonna leave now? Can you do it on the phone? Do you have to do it in person? What's the deal? Not just on cable. You have to go in and he's a human being. He's helped you. And then we're gonna have behind the scenes information.

Tidbits. Yes, tidbits is a great word. Anyway, we're both a wealth of knowledge about this show because we've been doing it for 23 years. So subscribe now and you could listen to the history of Kerber enthusiasm on iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you happen to get their stories.

How do you send someone innocent to prison? Listen to new episodes of wrongful conviction with Maggie Freeling and Jason Flamm on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, you're honing your skills at drug dealing at eight, nine years old, following around your uncles, learning the trade, and you find out that you might like football too. How'd that happen? You know, the crazy part about it is football always got everybody around the TV. Yeah. No matter where you go,

the drug dealers, the common people, everybody, everybody loves football. So, you know, back then. Even the junkies. Everybody. Yeah. Everybody want to be a cowboy thing. Yeah, no.

All that. You don't even bring that cowboy stuff over here, but go ahead. So, back then, you know know Notre Dame was always on five. So when people would cry around the TV, I thought, like, fuck. I want to be celebrated. Like, anybody you find that say they don't want to celebrate, there'd be a damn line.

So I said, OK, well, football make people happy and celebrate you. And people celebrate drug dealers as well. Well, shit, there you go. And I knew it from there. So even with my parents, they like football. Everybody likein' football. So I said, that's the coming around.

I said, well, I can make people like me and I can provide for me and my daughter. That's why I wanted to do well at the time of family so I was like what this is we're going to do you skip to your daughter how would we so I was 14 so that was that was that was kind of. My staying of it all but growing up it was just like this we're going to like how was your daughter's mother?

So she was 15. You were 14, she was 15 pregnant. Yeah. And now you're a 14 year old father. And now my hustling done turned up. Now I got an even bigger reason to hustle. Because you do feel a responsibility to provide for your daughter.

So the thing about me was I had grown up, I had so much resentment for my father, I wanted to be shit like him. So I wanted to pull all my efforts into being a father. Cause I didn't understand at the time why he couldn't give me what I needed, what I wanted. You know what I mean? Why I couldn't get that love,

why I couldn't get that support. needed, what I wanted. You know what I mean? Why I couldn't get that love, why I couldn't get that support. Well, so, well, I figured, I said, well, I'm gonna be the father that I wish I could be. And at the time, my child mom, she was poor. She couldn't afford clothes as she was going through the pregnancy. And at the time, my best friend, he was already hustling.

And so it was a simple way. Like I had the best friend that was hustling. I had my uncles and cousins that was hustling. And so it was a simple way. Like I had the best friend that was hustling. I had my uncles and cousins that was hustling. And the decision was across the board. Hey, you got a kid, you got to step up. This is the way you step up. No matter, you can't go. What about school?

School. School ain't paying bills. I mean, we're gonna show up so they won't call. But school ain't paying no. I mean, we gonna show up so they won't call, but school ain't paying no bills. Yeah, man, for me. How did you get promoted from one grade to the next? Shit, you ever been to a Memphis public school? I'm not, yeah.

I'm just letting you tell the story. All you gotta do is show up and say, here, baby. That's it. No child left behind, I'm here. One of my biggest surprises, my first year as Manassas, when I walked in there was a class that had five periods of history. And each class had about 30 kids in it. And there were 30 textbooks. Now, 30 times 5 is 150 kids, meaning there should be 150 textbooks so kids can take their books home, do their homework, bring them back. Those books sat on the desk. Kid came in, book was on the desk, teacher did whatever teaching they called themselves doing.

Book shut, kid left. No way to do homework, no way to study outside of the hour in the classroom. And as long as the kid showed up, shut up, didn't cause too many problems, and was able to kind of pass a rudimentary test. They're promoted. What's the first letter in attendance? First letter in a sentence in attendance a Show up we give you a

That's how you do show up which perpetuates the poverty, perpetuates the helplessness, perpetuates the hopelessness, and perpetuates the feeling that I gotta do something. I ain't got an education now to go get a job. Nobody cares. So I got a hustle.

You just, by giving me an A by showing up, you just showed me the value of an education. That's a great point. Say that again. That's really good. You show the school system itself gives you an aid for showing up. You just showed me the value of an education. Nothing. You just show me. Be present. And so, I have employed people who show up every day for six months and do a pretty average job. They just get through the day, take two or three bathroom breaks. Now I got a break, a lunch break, and a break during an eight hour shift. And in addition to those, three or four more lunch breaks or breaks during the day, go

to the bathroom, whatever. And after six months, say I want to race. Yeah. And at first I'm like, why? You haven't earned anything. And they're like, I'm here. I'm here, I showed up. So where does that mentality come from? Well, it's learned. It's learned.

Everything is learned. All behavior is learned. But somewhere along the lines, you decided you want to play football I did and And it just came from wanting to be accepted So I knew If I can be a football player people will cry around the TV and watch me Do you realize Do you realize that fewer than one 100th of 1%

of the people playing high school football today will ever make a living playing the game? You realize- That is one in 10,000. You realize only 1% of kids in Memphis that lives in poverty are gonna be successful. So I still got a better chance of going to the fucking NFL. Ha ha ha ha. So I'm taking them odds all day long and twice on Saturday.

Okay, so you wanted to play football. Did you love the game or did you love what the game might give you? In the beginning, I love what the game might give me. And then you fell in love with the game. Then I fell in love with the game. But the game was hard. Game is hard.

There's a difference of being hurt and injured and you're hurt every play. Yeah. I mean, and just- Unless you played, you don't know what I just said. Right, and then you're sitting there and you're trying to figure out like, man, I'm being held accountable for all these things.

You know what I mean? And you're sitting there and like, and then on top of it, football is a business. No matter if you're in middle school, you're in high school, you're in college, you're in the national football, still a business. So when I started to understand that, it was like, okay. Like, so this is what the world looks like no matter what.

So in my mind, football world looks like no matter what. So in my mind football was just like we didn't cocaine it was only a vehicle to get me what I was trying to go. Period if the month of that been sitting around watching soccer I would have dreamed of being a soccer player. I was only trying to get out of my situation. That's the biggest that was the biggest thing of me growing up. I just wanted to have my situation. Let's talk about that.

When your three top options are dealing drugs, playing a professional sport or becoming a musician, which is the same. See, I didn't even have that option. But that's in the same world that we're talking about. Correct. Once again, Hollywood is not called the city of broken dreams because everybody that goes out there to be a musician succeeds.

It's because most fail. Most will never have the requisite talent, character, commitment, and ability to make a living playing a sport. Absolutely. And dealing drugs is gonna lead you to jail or death. Absolutely. So if you aren't the one in 10,000 that make it in music, the arts, or football,

where do you go? Well, you mean you're one of these guys that keep the private prisons filled? Because that's what, so you gotta think in terms of, that's what everybody glorifies. Ain't nobody glorifying the black doctor. Ain't nobody glorifying Johnny Cockner. You talking about on the hood.

Yeah, well we talking about LeBron, we talking about Jordan and Kobe, we talking about LeBron. We talking about Jordan and Kobe. We talking about Gotti. So in kids' mind, that's reality. Because what? They're able to see them through social media. It's able to glorify when they're not able to see these other messages being glorified.

Do kids on the hood know who Ben Carson is? No. And the only reason? W W Du Bois? And the only reason I know Ben Carson, cause they say he was the first black man to do surgery, but he was only standing in the room and never really did it. What about W Du Bois?

Shit, I think he got a few schools. But most kids? Yeah, I don't even know who he is. I just know he got some schools. So. Anybody teaching that? But most kids, I don't even know who is I just know you got some schools so Anybody teaching that Nobody teaching that I might come in here Courtney here got him

Make sure all the kids come in so we can get they they count for the state funding. I chuckle behind a broken heart. Because I mean that's what it is. So all the the principals and all those people want to make sure that their head count is up so that school can get the money that comes out of Nashville. Nobody give a fuck about the kid. What you just said is really important to understand that the vast majority of large urban school districts based off attendance. Right, so at a graduation most every graduation I've been through from an urban school district the guidance council the principal get on stage and they brag about all the scholarship money that the graduating class is getting. Bush it.

And what you find out is, it's accumulation of a bunch of Pell Grant money. If you left handed, we'll give you scholarship for $5,000. If your mama was in World War II, we'll give you $10,000. And then many of these kids go off to what I call Pell Grant processing centers Which is some school that you've never heard of. Yep the kid enrolls the state sends the Institution the Pell Grant money the kid can never pass any work because he's not educated because he's never been taught anything

pass any work because he's not educated because he's never been taught anything. He fails out. The school keeps Pell Grant money and then here comes another crop every year and it is year after year after year and it starts in the high school level and permits through the college level and it is a money grab. Yeah or you got those guys that go off to school and then let's say you want to one or two percent you do graduate then that go off to school and then let's say you one of those one or two percent you do graduate, then you look up four years and then college's them lost their accreditation. So now you're looking like, ah, ah, ah.

What now? What now, you know what I mean? Down there you turn in the resume and you're getting Googled. His college got shut down five years ago. So they'll let you know what's coming out of there. Then it turns, we're back in the hood. So you get pretty good at football.

Yeah. And I think you end up at White Station. And for our listeners, it's a national show. White Station is a city school, part of the city school district in East Memphis, which is a nicer part of the city. It is actually considered still a pretty good public school that has nice facilities and is usually pretty competitive in all of the sports.

And they actually have a baccalaureate program where a lot of kids go to school there and get great grades, and then they have the normal population, but in large part, it's a good school. Correct. And you end up there, I think, as a junior in high school. Sophomore. Sophomore.

How's that experience? How did it? Why? I was already into my life. Which was? Man, I had already had a daughter. She had already turned one. I mean, I was already heavily into the drugs, the gangs. I mean, my life, I didn't even play my name for grade year.

And after my eighth grade year, I was kicked out of school for gang fighting. So I spent the latter part of my eighth grade year, I was kicked out of school for gang fighting. So I spent the latter part of my eighth grade year expels. And in my ninth grade year, all I did was sell drugs to kind of go through the pregnancy with my baby mom. So it's like that time had passed me. You know what I mean? It's like... So by your sophomore year, you're grown.

Yeah. I'm doing the shit you do. And that was the argument that I had with my high school coach. At White Station? At White Station, I said, dog, me and your daughter at the same age, what you gonna tell me? Like he was telling me all this good shit

and I appreciate him from, we still staying in contact to this day, but the advice he was giving me, it didn't match the situation that I was going home to. It wasn't any good. I couldn't use it. So did you play that year? So I did.

I played that year. I battled. I went back and forth and I was eventually board suspended, kicked out of the white station. Then what? back and forth and I was eventually boy suspended, kicked out of White Station. Then what? So the coach, I, he says, he takes another job out of culture.

And he says, I got his friend. I'm saying, he said, Mel, I'm telling you, this football thing can change your life. Like you got talent where it can change your life. And I kept telling him, I was like, coach, I agree. But what about the now like my daughter needs food now like what about now and so he orchestrated where I go to this private school the private school it was it was great what was it called

Bruckress and the. Hang on for our listeners Broward Crest is a very nice private school out in the suburbs large private school and candidly It's famous because it is where Michael Orr went to school the story of Michael Orr in the two E's and It's called Broward Crest Christian High I think. And if you've ever seen the blind side this is the high school talking about. And were you there before after Michael?

I was before Michael. I'm the one who told Mike it was cool. So you go to Briar Crest and the craziest part of this story, this football part of the story is Hugh Fries, who is now the head coach at Auburn, was the head coach at Liberty, was the head coach at Ole Miss, was the head coach at Arkansas State, and before that the head coach at Lambeth

actually got his start as an assistant coach at Ole Miss under coach Ed Orseron because Michael Orr and Hugh Freese went to Ole Miss together and that's how Hugh Freese broke into college football coaching but back then he was your head coach of our Crest High School. He was my head coach at Koolmaway Interstate Championship. He had lost four years in a row. ECS used to beat that booty. He couldn't get over the hump. And?

He called in reinforcements, we got him over that hump. Ha ha ha. And that, my friends, concludes part one of my conversation with Melvin Cole. And if you thought that was compelling, you do not want to miss part two, the snarl available, as we dive deeper into Melvin's excelling at football and drug dealing empire until he didn't. And what he's doing now to serve inner-city kids. But if for some strange reason you do miss part two, make sure to join the Army of

Normal folks at normalfolks.us and sign up to become a member of the movement. By signing up, you'll also receive a weekly email with short episode summaries in case you happen to miss an episode or if you prefer reading about our incredible guests. Together, guys, we can change this country, and it starts with you. I'll see you in part two. Hello, this is Susie Esmond and Jeff Garland. I'm here. And we are the hosts of the history of Curb Your Enthusiasm podcast.

Now, we're going to be rewatching and talking about every single episode, and we're going to break it down and give behind-the-scenes knowledge that a lot of people don't know when we're going to be joined by special guests, including Larry David and Cheryl Hines, Richard Lewis, Bob Oatenkirk and so many more and we're going to have clips and it's just going to be a lot of fun. So listen to the history of curfew enthusiasm on I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you happen to get your podcasts. podcast or wherever you happen to get your podcasts. next season of True Detective, these Canadian cops trying to solve this mystery of who spiked the Chowder on the Titanic set. Listen to very special episodes on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. For the last 30 years, I've worked with some of your favorite artists, like Outkast, Killamite, GZ, ACOT, Jermaine Dupree, and so many, many more. Storytime with Legendary Jerry is an ode to the South.

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