Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 387: Justin vs. Hollywood Producer Wali Razaqi- An Epic Football Rivalry
Episode Date: October 20, 2016Twenty years ago, in 1996, Justin played a champion football game that ended in a tie. Fast forward to 2016, they played a rematch against their long-time rivals. In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin ta...lk to the opposing team's quarterback, Wali Razaqi who tells the cliffhanging tale of the epic rematch. Have Sal, Adam & Justin personally train you with a new video on our new YouTube channel, Mind Pump TV. Be sure to Subscribe for updates. Get MAPS Anabolic, MAPS Performance, MAPS Aesthetic, the Butt Builder Blueprint AND the Sexy Athlete Mod (The RGB Super Bundle) packaged together at a substantial DISCOUNT at www.mindpumpmedia.com. Get your Kimera Koffee, Mind Pump's first official sponsor, at www.kimerakoffee.com, code "mindpump" for 10% off! Please subscribe, rate and review this show! Each week our favorite reviewers are announced on the show and sent Mind Pump T-shirts!
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If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go.
Mind, hop, mind, hop with your hosts.
Salda Stefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews.
All right, my name is Pumplishners.
You're going to hear us talking to a compelling fucking story.
Justin, one of Justin's rivals from high school, Wally Rizaki.
This story, I didn't understand,
I didn't believe.
I didn't realize the, the, listen, I'm not very good at selling it.
The bullying, the fucking sock.
He comes in, I know, damn it.
He comes in and tells the story.
That's why I want to have him on the show.
I suck at it.
It made it better that way.
It made it much better that Justin is a terrible storyteller.
And, but you guys know that.
Because, you know, we, we, we sound like, you know,
fuck dude, we're so busy right now. We can't be doing a new section of you. What's telling me, you, you didn because you know, we sound like you know, fuck dude, we're
so busy right now. We can't be doing it in this extra interview. What's telling you?
You didn't, what's the story all about? Like it sounds cool, whatever, you know, but man,
getting a chance of telling. Yeah, getting the chance to listen to somebody who actually
knows how to tell a story was just like, it's kind of a bitch to a whole another lesson.
I'll get better. So basically they had a high school football game championship. They tied.
That was it.
20 years later rematch, a bunch of dudes in their late 30s.
But there's a lot more to the story.
Prepare yourself for one of the more exciting, compelling interviews
that I think Mind Pump has had.
So without any further ado, here's Wally Rizaki talking about.
You can find him too, or you can find him on his Instagram.
That's right. Well, let's give him some followers. He you can find him on his Instagram. That's right.
Well, this game some followers.
He needs them.
Yeah.
Justin Liggan.
Yeah.
S.O.V. football rules.
Yeah.
At tap out Wally.
So you can find at tap out Wally on Instagram.
So here we are interviewing Wally Rizaki.
There you go.
I never thought I'd be sitting in a room with this guy, Justin Andrews.
Huh?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what I thought the first time I sat in a room with him. Yeah. Yeah. Who's this guy, Justin Andrews. Huh? Huh? Yeah.
That's what I thought the first time I sat in a room with him.
Yeah.
I was like, who's this guy?
I've sat in too many rooms with him.
Yeah.
You know what I'm all about.
I'm getting tired of seeing his face, actually.
We're still in the honeymoon phase, though.
So I don't mind him yet.
Oh, yeah.
You haven't seen any of his bad habits yet?
Nope.
He hasn't seen me naked.
None of that stuff.
Oh, yeah.
Wow. I fucking first day I met you
Sorry naked and I haven't felt distraught yet either I don't know how strong it's because he couldn't tackle me all game
Because I didn't have to because you guys got nowhere
You never made it to me bro
I never made it fast-light. It's good. That's a good point
bro. I never made it fast the light is good. That's a good point. Yeah. Very true. Well, you're a tough stuff that right. That's a fucking running. Dude, I want to hear all about,
first of all, the little background. So how do you guys know each other? What's the deal?
Because Justin, we talked about this on an episode about the game that you played. Yeah, I brought Wally on because, you know, he basically started this whole rivalry game.
So go away, go back.
Like, what was this?
Yeah, what are you talking about, bro?
Well, I was involved in like, when I thought was initially like an alumni game and it was,
it was a lot more than that.
A couple of my friends kind of texted me like, hey, this is what's going on.
You know, we've been talking back and forth with the sky from Harbor, our rival, Wally.
We played back in the day.
There was basically, we tied for a coach championship.
I kind of want Wally to describe the drama and how this all led up to this point.
What year is this?
This is 1996, 1996.
And then what are the two schools?
San Lorenzo Valley, we just in went to, which was the sort of powerhouse of Santa Cruz
for years. And then Harbor High, which is sort of the, I can't believe they're
undefeated this year.
Also, you were the Cinderella team.
Yeah, we were the bunch of surfers kids that had 25 guys in the team that kind of went
to workouts once a week.
And they were, you know, what was known as the 6am workout, the committed hard working
program.
The baddest.
Yeah.
And, uh, so Justin, just a little bit of talk.
Sorry.
Go ahead.
If I may, I'll do a little more, a little more justice to that original game, but it
was a dark and
cloudy rainy day.
Okay.
I wanted him to go into the drama because, you know, I know that's what Harbors all about.
Get into the drama, everybody.
This is hilarious.
So, 1996, it's a championship game.
It's a big deal for us, because, you know, even though it's not a huge football city,
the game was on television.
Oh, sure. And it was a big deal for us because even though it's not a huge football city, the game was on television. It was a big deal for us.
We both came into the game undefeated and it was on our home field.
We were the passing offense, the sort of spread offense.
I was number one quarterback in the league.
They were the pound them, hit them in the mouth kind of run run them over kind of offense
And it was a great matchup and so it just it was a great game to start it was back and forth and
The game comes to the dramatic end and it's a 14-14 tie and now it's raining and
I'm gonna give you these details because it matters in this kind of do it man
I'm gonna give you these details because it matters in this kind of do it man's good moment. Yeah, keep going Yeah, no, it was fantastic
So we came out kind of surprised them. I passed for about 170 yards in the first half. Oh shit a lot of fakes a lot of
A lot of bootlegs they were so frustrated and the second half it starts to rain and they really start pounding us
And I passed for about 20 yards in the second half and now it's tied and
There's a bunch of confusion. And by the way,
San Lorenzo Valley, their school, they brought more fans than we had this community,
this whole city, they really give a shit, right? So the fans are up in arms.
They're not leaving. No one wants to go home. But in 1996, there was no overtime,
no sanction over time in high school. So the coaches go into the middle of field to talk to the
referees and people are waiting and so the referees basically said, look, it's officially tying the
books, it's over. But if you guys want to stay and settle the score, we'll officiate one more quarter.
Oh shit. No way. And we're gonna hurt that. But I've never even heard of that.
No way to get better. Keep going.
Yeah.
In mind you, this is all on television,
so the cameras are on, the microphones are on,
the referees and people are listening.
Fuck me.
And so my coach looks over at me,
and mind you, I'm about 150 pounds in high school,
so it can wet same height.
And I'm beat up, and I'm surprised that we're tied
at this point.
They had missed a field goal to win it.
They dropped a pass in the end zone to win it. I mean, we were barely hanging on. So I just looked
to my coach and I just said, Coach, I'm done. Let's just take the tie and I walked away.
And so that feels unfinished. Well, to me, it felt very finished. We were coachamp. We just beat
the, you know, the powerhouse in my mind mind like no one thought we'd even Chants right and so of course they were throwing helmets and
foul and this kind of thing and
So in my mind it's sort of like look this way we both win you know and and no one has the pressure feeling like they lost
but really the truth was that
I just didn't want to lose the game. I didn't think
we could beat them at that point. I thought the momentum was all going their way. And the last
score they had was me throwing a pick six, not to just and don't get excited.
We won't. But so it was over and it was done. And you know, so you know, the papers were like
they were in tears. We all oh, well, we were in cheers
and it just kinda went on and on
and it became this kind of legendary thing of like,
Harbor quit and SLB didn't, but it never bothered us.
It never, cause we were just like, look,
if we had won by a point, who would care?
Who would be talking about it right now?
Who won the next year?
We don't know, who won the year after that?
Well, probably a SLB did every year.
This has all the makings of a fucking movie.
So, what happens is about two years ago,
you know, I've gone on to, you know,
just like all of us, we've all, you know, built lives.
So I moved to LA, started making movies,
I made about a dozen films,
won Sundance, made a couple of shows, we're on TV.
We'll go into that later.
Yeah, I really wanna go.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like I'm happy.
Yeah.
I'm happy with my life.
And I still have all the records on my school for playing football for quarterback, right?
So I kind of feel like I've left my mark.
But every time it comes up on social media, which is often because we're all connected,
there's like this asterisk, this like dark cloud.
But they quit.
And then finally, talk about the antagonists, the people that really prodded you about the
quitting element there.
So then, so then this little innocent Facebook post two years ago, it turns into this,
oh this guy is the worst kind of example. We teach our kids not to be like him,
he quits. They went dark. They went dark. They went like, we've
into a Facebook troll. Yeah, it's hilarious. And for the first time in almost 20 years, it bothered me because then you start, you
know, this is where it gets deep.
You start thinking about, well, you know, I had a really happy marriage for years and I
ended.
Oh, shit.
And it's like, I didn't ruin it, but I didn't fight for it either.
So maybe I kind of took the easy way out.
Oh, man.
All these things are compiled.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. compiled. Yeah, yeah, when your movie falls apart, you're like, well, I didn't, I didn't ruin the movie, but I didn't try to fix it either.
And then you're like, is that me?
Is that who I was in high school?
Oh, man.
I didn't lose the game, but I didn't want to keep playing.
Right.
And so I had one of the Jerry McGuire moments.
You know, it was like, you know, stay up all night, right?
Like a, all right, a mission statement.
And I challenged these dudes to a rematch.
And I wake up to about 250 comments of parents and alumni
and people who weren't even at the game
like me and like this is, this is, you know,
like what life is all about.
You guys proved who you are and I'm like, holy shit.
People still care.
And everyone's like, you can't do this.
Come on, you guys are 37, 38 years old.
You guys can't, you know, this is impossible.
You can't get everyone together to play rematch
because I'm like, I don't wanna play an alumni game. Same player, same coaches.
Full game. Like, let's, like, let's do this.
And then, you know, I talked to my teammates and I did this whole
like apology. I'm like, guys, the biggest mistake was I didn't
even ask them. I didn't even look to them to see what they wanted
to do. I just said, I'm going to decide, no, and that was my
biggest regret. So it took about a year and a half
But we finally got both teams as many players we could but all original players and our coaches and
We played the game July 30th at their home field full-game full-pads and it was we didn't know what to expect
We didn't know what it was gonna be, you know, I mean like we were like
You know like our ten people are gonna show up like we were like, you know, like 10 people are going to
show up or we're going to be good or we're going to, you know, so where people are actually
going to put forth the effort like they did back then because that's what I was worried
about. A bunch of fat sloths, you know, moving around. Yeah. Yeah. Out of shape and huffing
and it was just going to be a sad site, right? Well, also there's all these logistics that
people don't realize where to get the helmets. That's true. Insurance. Yeah. You know,. Insurance. Who's going to fly the people in from Colorado and Texas and the seas?
Some people have jobs, some people can afford it, some people are broke, some people are
rehabbed, but that's what it became.
It wasn't about the game.
It was about the guys, but where we were.
Doing something that had never been done, which is reuniting with a team that really
mattered to you and having the same goal again
just because you want to. And we did the research. This has never been done
before. You know, people have written about it. There's even a movie in 1986,
Robin Williams, Kurt Russell, exact same storyline. Robin Williams drops to
touchdown in high school, ruins his whole city and his whole town. Kurt Russell
becomes a mechanic. 20 years later, he can't take the pain of being
like the guy who dropped the ball.
He reunites the teams and they play a rematch.
And we were like, holy shit.
That's our story.
Did you know that before going into the set?
No, I actually wanted your players.
Yeah, one of your players was like,
this is like, oh, it's called the best of times.
Uh-huh.
So when we, when game time comes,
plus we got a week of practice at our, at our home fields
with our teammates and our coaches and and I must have been fun.
How did you organize all this?
I know.
I give you a lot of credit for organizing this by the way.
Thanks, man.
I mean, that's impressive.
It's pulled off.
It was, yeah, dude, it was epic.
Everybody like left there changed.
Like no, no joke.
No, they're, I I mean really he's right
I didn't know it was gonna be that powerful and I don't know it's gonna be that hard
There were times where I'm at home. I mean really like in tears being like
Am I doing this for the wrong reasons? There are people there are people in a team that had fights about doing this
Got uninvited to each other's weddings because of this holy shit
I mean like friendships were tested. I've had wives still calling me being like, you have no idea what you've done.
Like, I see my husband in a different light.
You know, like, I'm so proud of him or like other people are like, he was depressed.
You know, one of his teammates over came alcoholism, got his daughters back.
You know, there's a guy today I'm going to see him today after the show.
I one of his team's Greg Forbes on the verge of suicide literally six months ago,
openly, and he's got a lot of problems.
And he just messaged me last night, by the way, and said, you gave me a reason to die
happy.
Damn, it's heavy, man.
Wow.
Heavy, dude.
Really heavy.
And when you were going into this, did you even fathom any of that?
I mean, really, what was the desired outcome when you first hit?
Hey, I just want to settle the score or did you really see all this kind of happening?
The first desired outcome for me was I wanted to be in a huddle again with my teammates
and have it matter.
It's just, I mean, I don't, you know, I'm a play football my whole life.
It's one of those things you can't replicate.
You can't do it again.
And that's what I miss because I quit football to make my first movie in college and I never went back.
So it was one of those, I just want to play when it matters again. And then it turned into,
I want to prove to these assholes that I'm not a quitter.
Yeah. And then it turned into, I want to get my teammates to feel as excited as I feel.
And then it became bigger and bigger. Like with each
goal, my own got smaller, you know, because you realize that I, I mean, I couldn't do this
by myself. You know, they had to step up. They had to like, you know, you know, put their
jobs on hold. I mean, they're guys on their team that I just, I just find out that came
out from Colorado and brought their kids and like made a vacation out of it when they
really couldn't even afford to do all that stuff, but they made it happen.
And so the game, let me tell you about the game.
Okay.
First of all, standing room only, I couldn't believe it, right?
So it's like a giant high school game again.
Yeah.
Wow.
Friday night lights.
Yeah.
That many people came to see it.
That many people came to see it.
That is mainly on our side.
But only on their side to be honest, let's be honest. But I had a lot of good resources from Hollywood
that I implemented, which was like a great film crew.
And so we had like six big cameras.
We had two drones.
We have all this great sound.
So the game's gonna be very accurate, properly.
Yeah.
But the game itself, I mean, we step on to the field.
We got 13 guys, okay?
So 13 dude show up and
Three of our guys canceled that morning. They got intimidated like they couldn't do this. This is to do intense
We go up there and just like high school. They're twice as many of us. I mean, they're about 24 and
Suited up looking great and we're just like holy shit. These dudes are every day in there 6, 3,
2, 90 and there's a bunch of like... There's some big boys. Yeah, some big boys and we
get out in the field, we shake hands, do the coin toss, Justin was a captain, I was a captain,
we look at each other and shake hands and that first hit, I think I mean, I went flying
on the sideline, probably six or seven feet, like really, like you guys will see the video.
I'm not even exaggerating.
And I get up and I've never been hit that hard ever.
And I go, dude, we're playing some real football.
Oh, shit.
It's not.
Yeah, it's on.
Yeah, we came to bring it.
Oh, we came to bring it.
And we played and we played and we played and we banged it out.
And they knock out two of our guys in the first quarter.
Now we got 11.
Hmm.
I know.
Yeah.
I feel, yeah. Talk about dramatics. And nobody I know. Okay. I feel, talk about dramatics.
And nobody wanted to get injured.
I mean, we have a one again.
This whole thing going into this,
that was the big goal.
It was like, let's all stay healthy.
You know, let's bang it out.
Let's play hard.
Yeah, we're all old men now.
Yeah, we got kids, family, and everything.
We got all this stuff going on.
Yeah, you know, nobody wants you
by getting injured.
So, and look, I want to make you know here,
because people are like, oh, you guys are old.
You know, all this and that.
And I go, I was getting so tired of people telling me,
like, oh, how many wheelchairs you can be there?
I mean, ambulance, yes.
And it became this immediate response.
And I'm hyper-observant, and I'm a big social experiment
kind of guy.
And I noticed when people say things automatically,
no matter where they are, no matter who they are,
and I realized, this is something people say,
oh, how many wheelchairs, how many ambulances
is this gonna be the bone breaking game, whatever it is?
And I realized, it's just a reflection of themselves
on us because I can't play that so you can't.
I can't play a full football game there
for nobody this age should be able to.
Well, I told everybody going into this,
everybody told me, don't do it, you're stupid.
Don't do this, you're gonna get hurt.
Don't do this, this is sad, this is a dumb idea.
I heard so many people tell me not to do it
that I fucking did it.
Because I'm like, fuck all you people, I'm doing this.
That's logical.
Yeah, it is.
Well, the truth is, you can get hurt skiing,
you can get hurt, man, you can get hurt skateboarding,
whatever it is.
But I realized the guys that were there
are the ones that could play and wanted to play.
Right?
I mean, the guys that didn't show up probably didn't have it in them.
You know, the thing is especially, and I, you know,
especially for men, there are points in our life
where we were challenged and call it, you know, what you will, society or whatever,
but as a man, you feel like, okay, here's a moment,
I'm gonna prove to myself that I can do this,
that I'm a man, I don't, okay, I just have to be physical,
it can be anything.
But there's times when you, you know, you get older
or, you know, different challenges,
and you feel like, I don't know, can I still do what I used to do?
Am I the same person?
Am I an old lion now or am I a young lion?
Like I used to be or doesn't even matter.
And when, it's scary, it's scary,
but when you rise to the occasion
and you go for it and you accomplish it,
it doesn't matter what happened at the end.
The fact that you got up and you did it,
that's what's important.
And I think as men, the more of those tests you can overcome, the better a person you
end up becoming.
And it's what it is.
I mean, we're always told that, right?
As guys, you know, in high school, you're a high school kid, you're playing football, now
you're 30 something years old and everybody's, you know, and you yourself.
I'm saying it like, oh man, I don't know if I could do something like that.
But, you know, you rose to the occasion, you guys did it, so that's freaking awesome.
It's, it's something you'll never know unless you try it. And this is one of those few things.
You don't get the opportunity to try it. And it's like, just like you said, you don't know until you have to do it.
And so we just got motivated by all the naysayers.
And the game was just, I mean, we didn't know how good
the game was until afterwards, really.
I mean, because we're thinking like, are we good?
Are we, you know, we know we're playing hard,
but the crowd was sort of, was telling us like,
we are playing hard and they're enjoying it.
And so, so get ready for this.
The game comes to an end after long heart fought battle and it's tied again. Son of a bitch.
Stupid irony. I swear to God, I feel like you could have you could have written this
shit this time. This time it's zero to zero. Yeah. Yeah. But it was one of those controversial plays like we thought,
yeah, we thought there was a couple touchdowns, you know, reviewing the plays. They're, you know,
I don't know. It's from Maddox. Yeah, it's very dramatically leading up to that. So in just
the best possible fashion, because it was like, just like high school, we kind of barely hung on.
Like they had, they had me for a safety twice, but they had a penalty on it, you know.
We snapped the ball over my head, I was also punting,
you know, they snapped the ball over my head,
another penalty.
So they called the safety back, you know,
they dove in on the pile on, called them out of bounds.
I literally thought you paid the refs, by the way.
Yeah.
I was fully aware of these things. So I made sure that their team picked
the refs by the way. So Johnny, I know on your team picked the referee. So relax on that.
Glad you had to clarify that. We made two goal line stands that I don't know how we did it.
Again, these guys, in mind you, remember, we had 11 players. So I'm playing free safety every
down quarterback, every down. All of our of our guys every single down and this was
played hard for sure like you said it so I didn't know I had it in me to play defense and offense
until you have to do it and because I was thinking I was practicing for months that's crazy in
your teens and 20 to play both ways to play both this is what this is what fucking life is all
about right here experiences.
It's not about sitting down and taking the fucking safe road, man.
It's about taking the hard road and making shit happen and challenging yourself.
And this is why people were so changed afterwards because a lot of people went in without
did it anyway and came out of it.
And you're different when you challenge yourself like that scared because it's scary.
Yeah, I'm it's beyond us.
Nobody want anything to do is,
our coaches didn't want anything to do with us.
We didn't have any coaches.
We were like the night before, literally,
we just put plays together.
And we only practiced like that week.
Like I mean, I maybe made like two practices
leading up to this and like, I was like,
oh my God, I had no idea what was gonna happen.
Wow, you know, it was just, it was crazy, I had no idea what was going to happen. Wow.
It was just, it was crazy.
So tied.
It's tied.
It's tied.
And so do they look at you now again and say, hey, do you want to do it?
No way.
Well, the funny thing is, you know, about that moment.
Well, yes, the funny thing is so we, we stopped them.
I mean, they had, they, they blew it so bad.
By the way, I just want, I just want to make it very clear how bad they blew it.
They were on the go line again with like a minute to go and they couldn't punch it in. So now we get the
ball back on like the 10 and like 50 seconds. So my coach comes out with call time out.
He's like, look, Wally just take a knee. We'll take this thing into overtime. And I go coach,
first of all, anything but a knee, the crowd is going to fucking this. I'm not going to
hear the end of this for 20 years. Yeah, this is your moment. Yeah, I was like, I was like,
a bunch of, can I just, can I just do a quarterback sneak,
can we just hand it off?
And he's like, look, we don't want to risk a fumble.
We rather go 10 yards, you know,
trying to win the game instead of 90.
And I'm arguing, and my team just yells at me.
So one of my linemen, he was like,
well, he take a fucking knee, we just decided.
And I swear, I just went back to high school.
I was like, dude, I didn't even listen to them back then,
but I'm gonna listen to you now, whatever you say.
I'll take the knee.
And I did.
And of course, their crowd starts brewing roast for the first time.
Well, they thought that we were gonna walk away.
That we're gonna take a knee and like we're done.
We're out.
And of course, we couldn't.
I mean, can you imagine if we were to play a version of it?
I don't know.
I'm gonna see you later.
Especially all that build up.
And then finally do it, and then when it was all about it,
then they take a knee and take a turn.
I just called this a tie.
We'll do a rematch 20 years from now.
Yeah.
To be continued, 2036.
Yeah.
So, yeah, so of course, we agreed.
And at that point, so many of us were so tired,
we were just kind of like on autopilot.
It's war.
It's war.
And I would be going over time and they get the ball first
and they score.
And it was, I mean, when you see their crowd
and their team, nobody could hide how excited they were.
It was like these grown men who were kind of like,
you know, whatever you all played.
And all of a sudden, they just act like they just wanted
to fucking Super Bowl, right?
So then we get the ball and now it's our turn.
And you know, you would have got even crazier than that.
Oh, for sure, man, for sure.
Yeah, absolutely.
Like what I'm saying is that's what you want to happen.
That's what you want to happen.
That just shows you how much everybody was punished.
Everybody was 100% botched.
Yeah, and so, you know, it comes down to what every kid dreams about.
What I've been playing in my head for years, literally no time left.
Fourth and goal.
I'm in shotgun.
We score.
We're going to win because they missed the field goal.
Uh, uh, they must have extra point.
So we knew if we score, we're going to win this thing.
I mean, final play of the game, I drop back and it's just like, it's all I can slow motion. And they have a six, seven. And then there's Ben right coming
in. A defensive end who has fresh legs hasn't played any offense. So six, seven just blows
by my right tackle. And I try to run away from my, my eyes are still up. Both my receivers
are on the ground. no one and he just goes
horizontal hats off to him because he just gave all out when horizontal and just knocks a ball out
of my hand I get decapitated by the other dude balls loose I'm on the ground all I hear is cheering
and screaming and and it's over and all that hype and all that build up and we lose in over time
Fuck on the last play on the last play. And goal. So on air.
Go ahead and tell us who's champion.
Oh my God.
What an amazing.
Yeah.
Well, I was great.
I mean, you think he's kidding.
Like I haven't even like, like, realized I probably have a concussion at that point.
Their teammates pick me up.
So when are you going to take the co off our chain?
It's like right away.
Right away.
They're just like, so when you know what are you going to get the tattoo? When are you
going to do that? And I'm just like, what just happened? We just lose. Yeah.
And they're all it's over, buddy. Yeah, it's over. And but immediately,
immediately, I mean, I'm talking like I'm not exaggerating. These guys, I
didn't know Justin at all. They really didn't like me over all these years.
Like they genuinely, we make part inside of people though. You got to realize.
Yeah. You know what I mean? Like like our our flavor is like we pick people out
If you're decent right if you're a good player on your team. Yeah, you know, you're a target
And so you know you you just fit that profile somebody who we need to destroy you know, I realized I realized
Like as adults we have so many like misunderstandings of these people, we grew up really thinking,
oh, these are the hicks from the mountains.
No, for real.
It's like, you know, you have to surf a trash,
that kind of thing.
Oh, the reason they were so mad
is because they got nothing going on in life.
And that's why they're so mad about the game,
about the overtime.
That's how we think.
That was a bit of a role.
I mean, even though I didn't mean to, but that's really kind of how I felt. I'm like, well, of course they Like, that was the role of that. I mean, like, even though, like, I didn't mean to,
but that's really kind of how I felt.
I'm like, well, of course they're pissed
because they got nothing else going on in life, right?
And then when the game was over,
there was this respect that we felt from them.
I mean, a lot of those guys were in tears too,
you know, like happy tears and joy.
And all of a sudden, it was just like,
like this big weight off our shoulders.
Yeah.
And everyone was just like, dude, fuck, we did it.
We hugged it out.
Oh, we hugged it out so much.
And, uh,
well, I mean, Justin had, uh, when he came back, he, he's not, you know,
he doesn't express himself, uh, quite, uh, like, like you do.
You're telling us all details of like, he comes back.
You can storyteller.
You can tell, uh, you know, that there was definitely, you know,
life changing, you know, moment for him.
Yeah.
But he had nothing but respect for your team, for what you guys did,
said, spoke very highly of you, of the entire experience.
And you know, Justin, he doesn't say something unless he means it.
And so right, I mean, me and Adam knew, you know, like this was a big deal.
But I was actually when he went into, though, I knew when he started talking about the way it just the way it was filmed.
I was so impressed with the setup that he was like, he was to know, bro, listen, they had this.
I'm like, damn, you guys do, you guys went all out.
So you literally captured this like emotion picture, right? It sounds like.
Yeah. I mean, because the filmmakers that I was lucky enough to get, they're not football,
guys. They're not a film guys. In fact, his name is Michael Abbott, great executive producer,
but he created, he does all the content for, for like Coachella. And like he's great,
you know, like dramatic documentaries all around the world. He's doing like Olympic boxing movie right now.
And so he's a storyteller.
So they were like, yeah, yeah, the game's cool.
It's about you guys, it's about the reactions.
It's about the intensity.
It looks like an NFL films sort of game
because there's all these close ups and slow motion
and film cameras.
You know, stuff that you just miss when you're watching the game.
But it was really interesting because USA Today covered it and NBC Sports covered it.
They came out film to some stuff and I wasn't planning on doing any publicity on this until
it was over and maybe like a few months down the road when we packaged a project.
But USA Today did something really special in my opinion.
They didn't mock it number one.
They didn't go like, oh, these old guys,
Al Bundese or Uncle Rico's trying to relive their dream.
I know, right?
You heard that.
I don't know how many times I've been called Uncle Rico.
Right.
Can't really blame people because I really was like,
Uncle Rico, I carried it for a while.
But what they said was really special.
They said it was sloppy at times,
but the way they played, how hard they played, it showed
this was really different.
And they said, we hope this inspires other people to call your teammates, call your classmates.
Even if you don't play a game, get together and do something because you can't replicate
that camaraderie.
And, you know, for USA Today and these national people to like, to recognize that from just
that one high school game, it game, it was kind of special.
Well, also, I mean, I kind of wanted to talk to about it
because of what's going on today with sports
and this bubbled society of how they're demonizing
all these contact sports and all these different things.
And just looking at this film
and what you've already captured, it shows
like what this does to people,
how it impacts their life, what kind of relationships you build from it. It's so much deeper than that,
and people just dismiss all that because they're so afraid and cautious of their child having
some kind of traumatic experience where it's actually the opposite, especially in my experience.
I wouldn't change it for the world going through contact sports.
So well football is very unique too.
When you think about that sport of all sports, it's close to war.
Exactly.
Definitely.
There's I mean, and I was a basketball player.
So there's that there's that team sense too, but there's something to be said about football
where you know, another man's job
You rely on him to do his job at his best to protect you or to make sure that you can complete your job and
There's such this. I mean, you have so much trust on the
Responsibility and trust and the the connection that you have to make is I don't know if you can compare that to any other sport
I mean football does share that.
I think it's unique and special on itself. Well, I tell you what, we live in a very safe
bubble wrapped society. We walk around for the most part if you're lucky and you live in a
modern society without fear of being assaulted and without fear of major violence, food is plentiful.
But we forget that we're evolved from, you know,
were animals and there are certain things you get out
of experiencing that and sports,
especially very physical sports like football
or even fighting, boxing, wrestling,
where you get to feel that.
And people always add primal instinct.
Well, that primal instinct, but also there's, you know, look,
it's pretty, it's not debatable.
You know, men evolved for the sole, I mean,
we all start the same as a fetus,
and there's a burst of testosterone
that turns the fetus into a male,
or it stays female if it doesn't get that.
But we evolved to hunt, go to war and protect, and those things
are largely gone. And so I think as men, we evolved bonding over those types of things.
You know, you don't, the kind of bonds you create with other men that you compete with and
fight with and go to war with is it's unbreakable. And people always, I hear people making fun of
fighters, for example, after the end of the always, I hear people making fun of fighters,
for example, after the end of the fight,
these two guys who hate each other,
who've been talking shit this entire time,
just tried to kill each other,
and now they're hugging each other,
and they show each other respect.
There's very few moments in life where you can do that,
where you can actually experience that.
And you guys got to experience,
you got to relive it again,, you know, men who are, you
know, now we're older and we can't do that anymore, but you did.
Yeah, but most importantly, when probably why it was so powerful, which I love for you to
touch on is being older now, you have a different probably look at it, right?
Like you experienced that as a teenager, but the appreciation for it and the understanding
of what we're talking about right now probably didn't resonate the same way as it did as a 35 year old man, right?
I mean, 100% right?
That's got to be like that.
You guys know, a lot of people are a lot of men probably at this age are a little bit
more self aware than what they were when they were that age and then probably be on the
pool yourself away from it and look at the big picture of it, right?
You drive a Ferrari as a teenager, then again, when you're 38,
you're going to really appreciate it more.
You're going to go same Ferrari, same acceleration,
but you're going to be so grateful.
And you're going to know how unique it is and how rare it is
that you get to do that.
And as adults, that's what it was.
And the game, like I said, was great, but it was the practice.
It was a lacing up.
I mean, I've seen footage of Justin.
He hasn't seen yet of their practices afterwards.
They all hang out for 30 minutes to shoot in the shit,
just talking and laughing and just, you know,
they're in a half pads and sitting on the field
and you just go, that's the stuff we used to do
that we didn't understand how special it was.
And...
But the comparison to war, I mean, obviously, it's not war, but it is the closest
thing.
It is that metaphor because your goal is to dominate that other team, to inflict pain
on them.
And you all agree that, that you have the same goal.
When else in life are you going to have that kind of goal with, with strangers that you're
completely different than, right?
So it's like the only reason we're there is because we have one goal, one shared goal together,
and that's to beat these guys,
like literally dominate them physically and beat them.
And, you know, as an adult, when you get to do it
at that level, you're just like happy about your physical,
you know, like it just makes you, it just makes you like,
like you said, he got laid that night, the best he has in years, you know his his wife. I bet everybody guy. Yeah, his wife finally let him touch her, you know
Listen
I will admit that I told you that out of privacy
It was epic sex. Okay, it stays between us
Tell any I'm not alone with that.
I bet you everybody asked any of those guys. I bet everybody got laid. You know why?
Because she never saw me playing kind of sport. Like neither did obviously my kids didn't. So,
that was what was so impactful for me. It was just like this. Seeing my wife in the stands,
you know, and seeing my oldest was out in the sidelines, actually.
And he was just sitting there watching,
and he grabs a football, and he's just watching,
and I could just tell he's just absorbing.
You're his hero, man.
Yeah, you're his hero.
And yeah, and it's not a lot.
No greater feeling.
Exactly, and I don't think I'll ever have that moment again.
I won't ever be able to share that, you know.
I'm a father.
I got two kids and there's no greater feeling to feel like your child's hero.
Yeah.
As a man, it's just, when you know, when you feel like you're their hero, it's just,
I'll tell my son stories and he'll just look at me like, tell me more stories about.
Yeah, like he started telling, telling all his friends at school and, you know,
he'll bring it up randomly to random people.
My dad played in this football game.
He just brings it up at the coffee shop.
So it was rad.
It was something that was really cool.
And just the footage that it just captured everything.
That's like, I didn't have any of my,
I don't have really good footage of when I played college
or when I played during my high school career.
It was just special because now I can have all this really cool footage that captures
what it was all about.
What's the plans with this film?
What are you planning on doing with it?
You had a lot of interest.
Yeah. Yeah. And plus we were rolling cameras for about six months
before the game, following different guys and, you know, going into, you know, in our lives and
our backgrounds and, and also like not knowing if this was going to happen. We really like that
Thursday before the game, we were short on helmets. And the guys from shut, you know, came through
and, you know, all very dramatic stuff, you know, so they sent like last minute helmets,
they made our decals for us. And, um, and, uh, you know, the reason we played at their field,
because I didn't want to play there, we were going to play at the local college in
neutral territory. Yeah. In the last minute, their athletic director gets fired and we get,
we get booted out for soccer tournament
and so no there's no place to play and they're like you we could play here if you want
our fields available come to our town again just like a plot twist in a movie right it's like now
we got to play there um but the the idea with the project now is that there's so much good content
I didn't know what it was going to be until the game happened, right? And we had already gotten an offer from Spike TV because I had created a show that was
on Spike a while back.
It's called Fourth and Long with Michael Irving and the Cowboys.
But there was no guarantee to go to series.
And then I also created a show called Michael Vic Project, those on BET.
And that's when you learn like, oh, 10 episodes means 10 pay jacks.
All right, that's pretty cool.
And you learn about how the TV industry works, how cable companies, which you think are
kind of low level like BET and stuff.
They pay a lot of money for this content.
And that was never the goal in the first place to make a show.
That came later.
But it's justified with these stories.
Cause the game, like I said, would be like episode eight or nine and everything else is the lead up.
You know, what we're going through to get there.
So what we're doing now is we've had some initial meetings with some big agencies down there.
And, you know, um, C a and I ICM and those guys. And they just love it.
They absolutely love it because just like you guys,
like everything you're saying,
the guys and the suits are saying, you know,
oh, when they hear about this,
I took, we were filming during the Super Bowl last year
and I took a couple of their players
to the Super Bowl with me and that was, you know,
it was on camera.
So I wanted to kind of have this moment
like kind of like fish out of water for them because, you know, again, in my mind, they're like, you know, it was on camera. So I wanted to kind of have this moment of like, kind of like fish out of water for them.
Because, you know, again, in my mind,
they're like, you know, like the hillbillies,
who never do anything fun.
So we wanted to, so I wanted to...
The bad ass really strong hillbillies.
Yeah.
You know, who's wearing a flannel and a flat short
to work, yeah.
Cause we're not bitches.
Yeah.
He's a... We're winners. He He's all he's sporty on the bottom and awesome on the top and top and
wood on top. Yeah. Yeah. And wearing a baseball hat that what's going on over there?
What is happening? I'm not going to pick you apart. It's going to get ugly. It already is ugly.
Sorry, sorry.
But when we were at the Super Bowl party,
we're seeing Troy Ackman, and we're seeing all these big famous agents,
and celebrities, and Chuck Lidell.
And I know a lot of these guys, just from the work that I do.
And so to see these guys, they're kind of like jaws on the floor.
But everyone, including the governor of North Carolina, for example, was so excited about
this rematch. And he's telling Nate Beck, who's his teammate.
Wow. Oh my God. Between you two, like, it's hilarious. Like Nate Beck and Wally both,
like, this dynamic between the two of them is hilarious. Like, yeah. So he was one of
the main instigators, right? as far as the social media warfare stuff.
Yeah, they definitely had their own Wally
and their team that made it possible, you know,
because if you put us all together.
Yeah, so I took their sort of like, you know,
captain figure and, you know, we don't have to fake it,
but we're totally ying and ying and opposite, you know.
But here's the governor of North Carolina shaking his hand,
taking like a picture with Nate,
talking about this rematch.
Oh, I've heard of this rematch.
Oh yeah, general sown, so general aunt thinks he'd,
from the army general auntie Tate was mentioning it.
Wow.
And I whisper to Nate, I go, hey, I'm glad you're here
because you wouldn't have believed me.
You know, if I told you this,
and he goes, right, I wouldn't have believed you.
And that's when it dawned on him, I
think, wow, this people think this is fascinating. And then the, the producer of, uh, remember
the Titans and, uh, varsity blues and radio, all those great movies. He was there. Mike
Tolin. He's now the CEO of Mandalay Sports. And I'm that guy that'll walk up to someone
during dinner, but excuse me, sorry to bother you, but I got a question, you know.
You crashed a wedding.
Yeah, totally.
Yeah, you know that guy.
But I'm that guy, that's how I found my success
is you just ask and usually the answer
is something that you want to hear, you know?
But so I go to my toll and I give them like the 32nd pitch.
You know, we haven't played yet,
but I told him the premise.
And he was like, do you have original game footage?
And I said, yeah, I was on TV with everything.
He said, well, come into my office.
And I want to see that.
That sounds interesting.
And so we knew early on, there's something really special
about this.
And so I think personally, I think this is going to be
like a six to eight part series about rivalries
and rematches and our story will be season one.
Oh, I see.
And then I think season two will be-
You want to build this into-
Another great story.
Somewhere else.
That deserves a rematch, or deserves-
Brilliant.
A second chance.
And on and on and on.
So, you know, because at first I was like,
maybe ours is the first hour,
like the first episode,
but there's just too much there.
There's a lot in it.
For season.
Brilliant.
Well, that's actually brilliant business.
Well, have you ever heard of a company called Flow Sports?
No.
They reached out to me about a year.
It was a machine. It's been almost two years ago.
And I started to dive into them a little bit.
But this is kind of what they do.
They go around and they find these stories that, you know,
or just reminds me to have kind of like, you know,
ESPN's 30 for 30. Right. You know, they find these great stories that, you know, it just reminds me to have kind of kind of like, you know, ESPN's 30 for
30 or like, you know, they find these great stories that no one would ever hear of because
that person never became super famous or they never won the main title, you know, or they'll
fall.
We're not pro athletes.
They'll follow the story of the person who like almost made it or whatever and like
their whole story, they know it was like just epic, man.
And you get, you find yourself. I like I think that
these type of stories are even more powerful than some of the ones that we experience on like
30 for 30 on like a Michael Irvin or somebody who's super famous already because we can relate
more to it right yeah if you see those people you're like sh** that's me I felt that way a lot of
characters there you could really like you could identify with and you can see yeah, that's why some of the 30 for 30s are so good.
It's because even though they're about these big name guys,
it's never about their big name life.
It's about the things they did that we didn't know about.
Yeah, we can relate to.
Yeah.
But that's interesting, the flow of sports,
because the question has been, everyone feels like,
oh, their story's good. people don't know the time,
oh, you should do a reality show about me,
you should make my movie into a life.
I mean, my life into a movie, but the truth is that,
I always go, why would I wanna watch your life,
give me the truth, like what's different about yours?
And if I said, hey, let's make a movie about sales life,
would you invest in that?
No, because it's not you, right?
So it's like find that thing that's different
than everyone else.
And the thing for us that's different
is that we actually ended in a tie 20 years ago
that could have been played out and wasn't.
So that is our saving grace, really.
Otherwise, we're just too high schools
that have a rivalry that really wants to play each other.
Because that same year in
1996 they tied another school and never finished it
But no one gives a shit about that right because it was you know the story wasn't there. Yeah
But to find those stories I think are so important
I
Think we need more that these days. You know,. We need those things where we go,
where we inspire people that are normal.
Coach V said, ordinary people do extraordinary things
every day, right?
And that's kind of how I feel like I want this show to be.
I want this show to feel like everyone's like,
dude, we should call them
because my brother should have been the, like, he should have been the Olympic boxing,
but they didn't give him a shot or whatever it is.
This is what flow support, you're going to look into the company and tell me what you
think.
I used to, I followed them for a while because they actually reached out and interest
to doing something they wanted me to be like an announcer.
They found mine pump when we had just started.
I was so excited about what was going here.
Plus they were they're based that have text, I believe you remember what was.
I've told you that we would have to consider moving that way.
And I was just like, uh, yeah.
And I just kind of let it pass.
And I was in contact for a little while with one of the main guys.
And, you know, I followed some of their stuff.
They have a cool little website.
Now you have, you can watch some of their teasers,
but it'd be, and it's like random sports too.
Like, a lot of sports that people have even unfamiliar with,
but just these great stories of these people
that have done things that no one would normally find.
And they find, and it's all done, like,
kind of, you tubish style, I guess you would say.
I guess sports are great because it condenses stories
into these packages of, you packages of periods of time that
you can understand and it's clear when lose, struggle, victory.
It's really a metaphor for life, for lots of different things.
That's why sports are so compelling when there's a story.
You're telling this story.
I haven't watched the video.
I haven't seen any of this.
It's compelling to listen to.
I feel moved by what you're telling me.
It makes me feel emotion.
And just imagine watching.
Yeah, imagine when there's the moments that you capture.
You know, like you said, zooming in on the two guys,
hugging each other out afterwards or the camaraderie.
I mean, just if you were looking at that wall.
There's also a very, very interesting contrast
you're going on, Adam.
I mean,
let's just look at Wally and Justin. Yeah. You couldn't be more opposite looking, right?
They couldn't be two different people. And the way you're painting the picture, talking
about the two teams, it almost feels like that's probably, you can probably just multiply
that with your team. And he's got his team. And they're just very probably, you can probably just multiply that with your team and he's got his team and they're just very different.
It's not, it just makes for, you couldn't have ridden it better.
You can have made this shit up.
Yeah, they have a lot of flannel over there.
He's a chopping wood all day.
That's why we're so bad ass.
The reason that all cars haven't gone electric is because they buy all the trucks still.
There's just too much business coming out of there. How far is the, how far is the, how far is the, how far is the, how far is the, The reason that all cars haven't gone electric is because they buy all the trucks still, you know? Yeah.
There's just too much business coming out of there.
How far is the, how far are the schools from each other?
It's for like 12 miles or something.
Yeah, four miles.
It's for the first.
Yeah, it is though.
It's culture.
Because you got what one school?
That's what I find in fact.
You guys wind schools up in the mountains
and the other ones up in the beach.
Yeah, kind of closer to the beach.
We have to be prepared to be flexible
when it comes to this TV business, right?
So all the things that we're talking about,
this is what's hard about our industries.
Like it all makes sense, right?
Let's do seasons, find inspirational stories,
and then all of a sudden they'd be like,
that's great, but we want Michael Strahan to be the host.
And we want, it actually happened in the meeting.
He's like, hey, let's talk to Strahan. We'll do this and that. We need celebrity driven.
How about the guy who is in magic mic from True Blood? I'm doing his next show. You know,
he's really in the sports. Maybe he could be the host and I'm just like, what, what,
hold on. What the guy from True Blood is going to what? Like, he's going to tell my story.
He's going to have sexified. He's very handsome guy, but I don't understand what he's gonna do.
We're gonna get the ladies involved, right?
I want to be the most handsome brown guy.
I see you in this show.
I don't eat him there.
That's the truth.
I got it.
But, you know, you just have to be ready for it to change.
But, but Steven Michaels, who's actually Al Michaels son,
you know, from Monday Night Football, the legend.
Yeah, Al Michaels.
His son is an awesome producer, has produced like five or six of my favorite 30 for 30s.
Oh, shit, really?
Yeah, like all the good ones, like the Buffalo bills won and I mean all those awesome ones.
And he's got a huge company called a Silum and we're going to be going in to meet with
them.
And that meeting might turn into like, hey, let's make this a 90 minute feature film
documentary.
Let's go the awards circuit.
Let's try to win Sundance.
Let's try to win some big things.
It could, dude.
It totally could be a movie.
And that's interesting because I mean,
we were talking about this a little bit.
Like the other night, we're kind of looking at all the film
and all this and like trying to pick out,
like there's a lot of actual characters.
And now like going in that direction though,
now it's like, you're gonna replace this with actors.
And so that would be a totally different dynamic.
Oh yeah, well there's like the movie version
which I could play the movie version.
Well how the fuck, yeah.
That was out of the movie, yeah.
How the, how the, how the,
really tight Jersey.
Yeah.
I'm like, Chris Pratt, bro.
Yeah, you gotta get him for me.
So,
I'm gonna write you a new,
Jersey number one, by the way.
Oh yeah,
I'm gonna go.
Yeah.
But what are you like, 30,
just like non-descript, not a 36. Who remembers right, bro? It's the magic number. Name of fame is 36. Listen, I are you like 30 like this like non-descript not 36 who remember the right
bro? It's the man famous 36 listen, I'm 36 right now. I'm the famous one. That's really
Yeah, you're right, Jason. You're very famous
Oh, I'm sorry
This could be a this could be a very good movie. You know how the know how the fuck do you cut and edit this if you don't know if it's going to be a series
of 90 minutes and epic.
I mean, how do you do that?
You got to have your own vision.
You, you cut it to where it's sort of like it could be longer or this is a taste of it.
So that's where we are right now.
So I have a 15 minute trailer right now and I'm a, I, I have to cut one down to five minutes
also. And they just have to let go down to five minutes also.
And they just have to let go.
This is where it's hard for like a lot of filmmakers
are annoying to people because they're like,
this is my vision, this is my dream.
And they don't realize that like, look,
your dream vision only works if you let go
and let this other end of the business,
which is nothing to do with filmmaking,
it has to do with distribution, you know.
So it can, let me ask you this,
this 15 minute clip or edited version
or whatever you have, can anybody see that?
Or is that under wraps?
No, that's under wraps.
That's just for these guys and.
What do we get to see?
Can we see?
Yeah, I want to see this.
Now let me ask you, I'm not gonna release this episode
to let us see it.
Now can we hold a hostage bro until you let us see it?
Can is there anything that our audience can do to help?
Anywhere they can go to promote to build up because I would I believe you know if there's
enough enough people behind it really wanting to see it even through power through social
media or whatever I can imagine that'll give you more power to to to have your own creative
expression out what this,
you know what I mean?
That's a good point.
I haven't even gotten to that point yet to think about, you know, what kind of push we
might need.
But thanks for mentioning that.
That's a good thing.
Yeah.
If there's anything like a Facebook page or anything like that, because I'll tell you
what, we'll flood it.
I mean, our people are crazy.
Yeah, because I'm not bullshit, you know, hearing that story got me really, I mean, I
fucking really excited to and emotional and we have an audience that is
I mean they we have a very loyal
Fanatical audience they love the things that we love and I guarantee them listening right now
We're thinking the same thing they're like I want to fucking see this film. Well, how far are you from that 15 minute clip?
How far where are you from that? Well clip? How far are you from that?
Well, I mean, I could go sell the show like tomorrow.
The problem is that we don't know
what they're gonna turn it into.
So the nice thing is after working
as much as I have in the industry,
like I have a little bit of power to say,
hey, look, I want to dictate a little bit
of where this goes.
So in order to do that, you have to deliver more content.
And to deliver more content, it takes a lot of editing and a manpower and money.
So I'm using sort of my social capital, my Hollywood capital to get it to that point.
But I think a feature film version is sort of the worst case scenario, which is a pretty
good scenario.
And at the end of the day, it's like, like Justin said, it will live forever, right?
Like that story that you heard in here for a few minutes can be told in a very dramatic,
awesome way to make it exciting and interesting.
But I really do think there's a show.
I really think that this is an ongoing series.
I think like it would be awesome to inspire other stories, other people people other guys To get up and go do it and if it's done in a format like that I think that will do the trick
But again, I've been wrong on every other project that I've done like what I
I mean
Just be honest, so I've been wrong every time
Because that's been us too. I mean, we start with something that turns into this.
Yeah, absolutely.
You said to be flexible.
Yeah, you just know that you don't know.
But you do know you got something special.
And you do know that every guy in Hollywood wants to believe that they're still athletic,
wants to believe that they could still do it.
That's why I get so much love because I'm with the UFC.
Like I've been working with Dana White and Lorenzo
for Tito for over 10 years.
I'm doing the UFC movie with those guys, the film film.
And I've been with tap out for over five years.
And so I'm like the movie guy in that world
and every dude in a tie thinks they can fight.
Of course, every guy in his suit
was like, I've done Taekwondo for 12 years.
And I did this and that.
Come on in.
Oh yeah, so how long you been doing
just so you know, like you're just like,
dude, and then every fighter, every athlete
likes idea of being an actor.
Like to be in movies, you know,
Justin was telling me that he really,
really wants to, I wanna express myself.
Yeah, I want to mean something.
Yeah, absolutely.
I told him he has a face for radios.
So, you know, I think with this single face, yeah. Yeah, radio bro. Take it in, absolutely. I told him he has a face for radios. So, I think that's a good idea. Let's take a look at this.
Take a look at this.
Take a look at this.
Take a look at this.
Take it in, buddy.
Take it in.
I can't look past the athletic shorts in flannel.
I can't get to the face.
You might see something else in there.
Yeah.
But yeah, so it's, I think we're in a good place.
In fact, after this,
in a later today, I'm meeting with the DeBartelos,
who have been huge fans of the story of the game.
And they've said to me, like,
hey, you know, what do you need?
What do you need to get to the next step?
And it's just kind of like, you know,
they don't need us, you know,
they're building malls and they're worried about the 49ers
and got all the stuff going on.
And here they are excited about our game. In fact, I got to tell you a little fun fact. So we're in our walkroom getting ready
for the game and in walks in Jerry Goldstein and Jerry Goldstein is the guy who discovered Jimmy
Hendrix. He wrote those old songs. I want candy. My boyfriend's back hang on slupy. These like
iconic songs that that our parents grew up with,
right?
He also owns war, low rider, he wrote that,
produced all that stuff.
And he walks in our locker room, he's 75 years old,
and all the guys like, who's that guy?
And I'm like, Jerry, what are you doing here?
He goes, I wouldn't miss this for the world.
You've been talking about it for a year.
Wow.
Fluent from LA, and I'm like, wow, okay, great.
Jerry Goldstein's here.
And I'm talking to Anthony de Bartolo, Jr. after the game, I'm like, wow, okay, great. Jerry Goldstein's here. And I'm talking to Anthony DeBartolo Jr. after the game.
I'm like, yeah, you missed it.
It was epic.
He goes, no, no, I was getting to play by play, man.
I was at an Ask Car event.
We were getting ready for the Hall of Fame thing.
But Jerry had me on FaceTime.
And I was watching him.
And I was watching you guys play.
Yeah.
It was like, oh, that was some big hits there, man.
And I'm like, wow.
That is like, so it went beyond our communities to people that didn't
even know us that well.
So we're really going to capitalize on that.
It shows that, shows the viability for sure.
Absolutely, you know, I mean, there's a million sports athletes that have great stories.
And not to take away from them, but I, you know, is hanging out with some of the giants
with the, with Andreas Torres and those guys.
And, and athletes will always be like, oh, you should do my story, you know, I was hanging out with some of the giants with Andre's Torres and those guys. And athletes will always be like, oh, you should do my story.
I was so poor, we were living in the streets, we were eating garbage, and we were doing this
and that, and we were wearing flannels and shorts.
And we overcame it.
Yeah, we overcame it.
And we were so much in the, we're killing it.
Now you're on our show.
Yeah.
I mean, look at this progression.
Yeah.
And the fame is crazy.
You know what I mean?
And you realize, and say what the fight is. I mean, look at this progression. The fame is crazy. You know what I mean?
And you realize,
and say what the fight is.
The fight is name dropping,
you know, I'm just doing things.
So it's crazy.
And you're catching all the names.
I like it.
Yeah, it's good.
But you realize like,
yeah, those are all dramatic stories
and it's awesome to overcame them.
But it's sort of like,
we've seen that.
You know, people've seen the Rockies,
they've seen the Eight Miles, they've seen this stuff.
So you've got to come in with something
a little fresh, a little twist, you know?
It's like you have a better chance to make in a movie
if you were gay and rich and became an athlete now
instead of just pouring struggling.
Sure, right.
You know,
cast funny.
Well, it's changed a lot.
This is a, this is captivating. But by the way, I just teed that up for Justin, he didn't take that joke. No, I's changed a lot. This is, uh, this is captivating.
For sure. By the way, I just teed that up for Justin.
He didn't take that joke.
No, I mean, I'm like trying to help you out.
So you see my funny to your audience.
And he should have said, Oh, the walli-ruzaki story.
Oh, he can edit it now.
Damn it.
You do it to yourself.
Just try to help them out.
Well, a, uh, super exciting. You're trying to be nice.
Captivating story, man.
Thank you.
And I wish you all the luck, but you don't need it.
I'm talking about this.
Of course not.
If I had enough money, I would give it to you
and be like, here, let me invest somehow.
Well, I know.
What we will do since we've now kind of forged this relationship,
I mean, Justin have been telling you,
telling us about you for quite some time. And so we've been meaning of forged this relationship, I mean Justin have been telling you, telling us about you for quite some time.
And so we've been meaning to get this together.
So we'll have to follow this story.
I'm really interested in hearing the steps as you go through.
So I hope you keep him in the loop
and keep us in the loop.
So I would love to, I find this sort of,
this part of the business very fascinating too.
A lot of, you know, no one talks about this side of it.
No one talks about everything you have to go through. And I was a small part of something that we tried to get off the ground. I was telling
Sharon it was just in the boys. I was part of some of the first cannabis clubs that ever started
the Bay Area. We actually documented that. And we paid all this money to have it all shot,
super professional cut. We had this great little teaser that we had that we released and we were
trying to pitch it to all these places. And we had some great meetings that were lined up, almost went through and negotiating money and then there was fear of,
oh my God, we're gonna put all this stuff out there and where the laws are going, we're not sure.
Like, so, you know, I was really intrigued to hear all this stuff because I got the chance to kind of
go through it a little bit and, you know, mine failed. I never went anywhere, I spent a lot of
fucking money and nobody's ever heard of it and knows what it is. And, you know, mine failed. I never went anywhere, I spent a lot of fucking money, nobody's ever heard of it, it knows what it is.
And, you know, I like to hear how this pans out for you
and how you play your cards.
And it sounds like this is not your first rodeo, so.
Yeah, well, the mindset for me has always been that,
I do something where I can't fail,
meaning that in a worst case scenario,
this will be a movie that's in 100 theaters
because I can get that done by myself with my own resources.
I mean, even though it won't be exactly what we want, it might make no money, but it's
never going to just die on the shelf.
That's cool.
That's where we, that's how you have to think about it.
So like I go into every meeting like that, you know, it's like where they can't say
no to you.
You don't ask them, you just say, hey, here's what I'm gonna do.
You know, when I snuck into Dana White's office
12 years ago and pretending like I had a meeting
and he got really upset and trying to kick me out,
I was like, look, how are you gonna say no
if I don't want a contract?
I don't want money.
I'm gonna go hit the ground.
I'm gonna go get feelers out and see what's going on
out there in Hollywood for you.
Like, you can't say no to that.
You can't say I can't do it.
Yeah, let me try. Well, I'm gonna do it.
Yeah.
So it's sort of like,
You can get on board right now with me.
Yeah, or later, you know, but I mean, it's sort of like,
that idea that, you know, someone else is not gonna dictate
your future and the outcome of your project.
Because it's just too scary, you know, to just put so much,
you know, energy and effort into something that just kind of falls flat because it happens to way too often
And you know like your story like the canvas thing is sounds so good, right? I mean just like
Like on paper that should be interesting. That should be a cell and all of a sudden it might be like well
Or is there an amostoty between you guys is someone getting married? Is there like it becomes about things you didn't even think about exactly
Like the Michael Vick show. I thought it was gonna be no brainer.
Like, here's the highest paid NFL player ever
to go to prison and come out and it's gonna be epic.
And BET wouldn't even call me back.
Spike wouldn't even take a meeting.
And I'm just like, hold on, I put all, you know,
I spent like 50 grand on my own money on that.
I convinced Mike to let me have the rights.
He passed on ESPN, which would have paid him 700 grand.
And he put all of his faith in me.
And I can't even get a meeting in this thing.
And VH1 calls, VH1, okay, for the Michael Viches.
That's what I go, oh, okay, we got to take this meeting.
So we go in there and they're like, we were interested in maybe his girlfriend wanting
to get married and he doesn't want to, so we can make it like a wedding thing and
I'm like you did hear me say Michael dick right right football player dog fighting social topic here and it was just like
It's kind of disappointing, but at the same time you just have to accept it sure and you just got to go
I got to be okay being on VH1
Because because my because we'll make it great. We'll make the best wedding almost wedding story
ever almost wedding
You know, I mean you'll be crying like it like it the wedding it'll be awesome
Yeah, just a man. I don't know what all the stuff you said about this guy. I love him
You can love this guy. I just brought him in. God damn it. Shit.
Hey, thanks for coming in, man.
I guess he's likable.
It's a real pleasure.
And I got to say for you guys, it was so cool.
It was so awesome to find out that Justin was a part of Mind Pumping.
I've been on the Rich Roll podcast.
I've been on some things.
I thought it was kind of a big deal to be on these guys.
And I see what you guys are doing.
I'm like, oh my God, that's so vetoed.
Yeah.
Big things, man.
Doing big things.
It's exciting, man.
And has ambition and all that.
And it just made me, you know, real proud
to have competed with someone, you know, doing things,
you know, like this.
So it was awesome.
Excellent, man.
I appreciate it again.
Glad to have you on for sure.
We'll have to do a follow up. I was versus a man.
So yeah, I'm stoked that you put this together.
All right, I'm glad to be a part of it.
All right, listeners, if you like Mind Pump,
believe us a five star rating review on iTunes,
if we like your review and we pick it,
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You can also check us out on Instagram.
At Mind Pump radio, you can find me at Mind Pump Sal,
Justin at Mind Pump Justin, and Adam at Mind Pump Adam.
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