Barbell Shrugged - Legacy Beyond Labels: Leonard Marshall on Wealth, Purpose, and Life Post-Competition with Leonard Marshall. Anders Varner, Doug Larson, and Travis Mash #805

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Leonard Marshall is the oldest of seven children from the rural town of Franklin, Louisiana. Hegraduated from Franklin High School in 1979 and attended Louisiana State University (LSU). Heattended LSU from 1979 until he was drafted from LSU in the spring of 1983.  Leonard Marshall was coached by legendary LSU coaches Jerry Stovall and Pete Jenkins. Leonard Marshall played in the NFL for 12 seasons. He was drafted in the Second Round of the1983 NFL Draft as a rising Junior at LSU by the New York Giants and played for most of his career in New York. After being drafted in 1983, he initially resided in Secaucus, New Jersey before residing in Jersey City, New Jersey. Leonard Marshall was coached by Hall of Fame Coach Bill Parcells and former NY Giants Defensive Coordinator and future Hall of Fame Coach Bill Belichick. During his tenure with the Giants, he was part of the “Big Blue Wrecking Crew”, won two Super Bowl rings (1986 & 1990) and was twice Named second-team All-Pro (1985 & 1986) and twice named to the Pro Bowl team (1985 & 1986). In September 2022, he was inducted into the New York Giants Ring of Honor and recognized for his work bringing awareness to CTE in professional football players. After football, Mr. Marshall attended Seton Hall University towards an MBA in Finance. He previously held his Series 7 and 63 licenses and worked for a number of years as a Registered Investment Advisor. In 2007, Leonard returned to Seton Hall, as a Professor of Finance and Sports Management. Leonard Marshall also accepted a seat on the Board of Directors for Louisiana State University’s Diversity Board; and serves as a Board member for Carver Bank, Piketx.com, and the Concussion Legacy Foundation. He currently serves in the capacity of Outside Advisor for Moldaver Lee CohenRockefeller Global Family Office. He is currently mentoring an Autistic child in NJ. He has a daughter named Arianna and a stepson named Victor and a grandson. He often visits his home state of Louisiana. He is a fan of LSU and loves to visit LSU and its football program. He previously lived in Hudson, Bergen and Passaic Counties of New Jersey and Boca Raton, Florida. He currently resides with his wife, Lisa Marshall in Ocean County in New Jersey. Enjoy. Work With Us: Arétē by RAPID Health Optimization Links Visit [www.leonardmarshall.com] Explore the Concussion Legacy Foundation at https://concussionfoundation.org Learn more about Bag the Violence at https://www.bagtheviolence.com   Anders Varner on Instagram Doug Larson on Instagram Coach Travis Mash on Instagram

Shrug Family, this week on Barbell Shrug, Leonard Marshall is coming into the podcast. For you New York Giants fans out there, there's a good chance you recognize his name because he won two Super Bowls with the New York Giants. We're gonna be talking to him about high performing locker rooms, his rise to becoming an NFL player winning Super Bowls,

and all of the foundations, businesses, and things that he is a part of, kind of post-NFL, post-prof he is a part of, kind of post NFL, post professional athlete days. I'm always drawn to these stories where people are at the top of their game in one industry, him being a professional athlete, and have to kind of rebuild everything that is in a completely separate domain,

and a very cool subject about all the things that he's working on, not just professionally, but within his community. And I think you're gonna enjoy this one. As always friends, make sure you get over to rapidhealthreport.com. That is where Dan Garner, Dr. Andy Galpin are doing a free lab lifestyle and performance analysis.

Let's get into the show. Welcome to Barbell Shrugged, I'm Anders Warner, Doug Larson. Today on Barbell Shrugged, Leonard Marshall. If you are a San Francisco 49ers fan, it is time to turn the podcast off. Usually we want you to stay for the whole show, but today the man that ended Joe Montana's career.

Is that like a fun thing to be known for? Well, it's not really a fun thing to be known for, but you know, giant fans, you know, it's a fun thing for them. Yeah. A lot of our audience might be not quite old enough to even do and get all this and my name know who who you and or Joe Montana are like you tell that story as a as like one of the first things to kick this thing off. That's so true. Yeah.

Yeah, I want you to. of your name because one of the hometown heroes when I was growing up was Bruce Smith. He went to Kimsville High School in Virginia Beach. And he was like the most famous guy for a very long time. And then all of a sudden that area went, like Allen Iverson just like exploded Hampton Roads as like an athlete Mecca for a good decade plus. But Bruce Smith was like the only guy that made it to the big show of any sport for a very long time.

So everybody had their eyes growing when I was a kid, growing up watching watching the Giants. Yeah, Bruce was Bruce, a great guy, good friend. Just saw him at an autograph signing in Long Island. Got a chance to chop it up with him. We used to hang out quite a bit back in the day when he was playing, I was playing. We'd meet up on Monday nights at a nightclub in Manhattan called the China Club.

And he'd come down from Buffalo with Jim Kelly and we'd hang out a little bit and often grab a dinner or two and he'd go on back up to Buffalo and we'd go on our merry ways together. But, you know, the beauty of the game is, is you meet guys like Bruce, that you come to know and love and respect. And that's the one thing that your takeaway that's the greatest takeaway from pro sports is the minute you meet and you're gone respect

for Yeah, I'd actually love to start kind of at the beginning. One of my favorite things about pro athletes is that they at some point were born and realized I'm different. Where did this thing start with you? Were you all I would imagine you were born and then by the time you were two, you were like four foot three, like bench pressing 135, probably right out of the womb. But where where did where did this where did the career start for you? When I was seven, eight, nine years old, I took a liking to athletics. And I took a liking to athletics

because I saw it as a way and a means to get out of Louisiana. I saw it as a way to advance myself. And I knew I wanted a better life than what I had as a child. It wasn't so much that I didn't have the things I wanted. Let's just say this. For all of my adolescent life, I never knew we were poor.

Okay? I had to get my dad on two vehicles. We owned a house. My father owned a nightclub and he had a normal job. I'm a man of my word. Okay. We own the house. My father owned the nightclub and he had a normal job and he go to normal job from seven in the morning till five in the afternoon. come home. Take a

shower. eat dinner and then go to his nightclub till midnight and then do it all over again. And I say to myself, you know, damn, do I want that life or do I want something better? So, you know, I guess playing bitty basketball and pop Warner football and things of that nature early on in my life, seven, eight, nine, 10 years old. Yeah. I knew this was going to be my career path. Yeah. And where in the LSU colors, that was kind of the next phase of this. When did when you when you say that that was you knew that was going to be the career path.

That's like a that's I would say that's like a young age where you you go, I'm better than people at this. Was there like a realization that you were, you know, at 10 years old, just significantly better, bigger, stronger? Like you were just, there was nobody that was on the same playing field with you and like kind of as a 10 year old, what does that feel like where you just go, the sky's the limit here? Yeah. Well, I, you, you hit it on the head. I think 10, 11 years old, I, I made the bitty basketball also basketball was my sport fellas. I was awesome. Basketball was my sport, fellas. Yeah, I was going to say that.

Basketball was my sport. I mean, if my mother was still alive, my mom and dad were still alive, they'd tell you the same thing. I had over 150 trophies for playing basketball. You know, I take my team to a tournament and we win the tournament. Yeah. And I'd end up the MVP of the tournament. You know, I'd block six shots, score 30 points, have eight to 10 assists, you know, in the course of the game. You know, that's what I did from probably nine to like 12,

maybe 12 1 1⁄2 years old. It wasn't until I got to middle school and you'll block shots, you'll do everything else. He said, but you found out the game. No, no, you're the fourth quarter of the game. He said, so you maybe should go out for spring football. I went out for football man and I loved it because I got a chance to hit somebody, to be physical.

And that's what I liked about sports, the competition. Wait, was that it? Like you got your first taste of hitting somebody and you're like, oh, that felt fantastic. I'm going to keep doing this. That was it. I just fell in love with the contact. The contact made it work for me.

And I said, you know what? Man, I'm going to run with this. As far as as far as positions that are that early in your career, were you were you just like all over the place? You play all the positions or were you like super, super focused in on one single position from day one? Well, I was a linebacker tight end and then I was the best player on my team. So then they put me at old tackle and then they put tackled and they put me in linebacker

and they put me in post tackle. So I was kind of like what you just suggested. I was everywhere. And in my area, there were like five or six guys that all end up going to the NFL. You know, there was, there was, you know, and I'll name the players Johnny Hector from the, uh, who played for the New York Jets, Dalton Hilliard who played for the New Orleans Saints, you know, um, and some other guys like that, you know, all those guys, we all grew up around each other. Wait, those guys were all older than you? They were they were off to the NFL first so you

realized it was possible? Well Johnny is my age and Johnny still lives in Lafayette let me see who else Dalton had an older brother named Curtis who's my age Dalton's a couple years younger than me and And then there were other guys throughout the state that we just when we see each other we competed a couple of them went to hell with me. You know, we ended up being college teammates, you know, a couple of them went on to go and and do something else somewhere else. You know, I will tell you that growing up in Louisiana, when you grow up like that, you don't have much going on.

So sports kind of becomes a way of life. And then, you know, look at it this way. Louisiana is a sportsman's paradise. I mean, you're always outside, you're hunting, you're shooting, you're fishing. You're always doing something that involves athletics. Dr. Andy Galpin here. As a listener of the show, you've probably heard us talking about the Arte program, which we're all incredibly proud of. It's a

culmination of everything Dan Garner and I have learned over more than two decades of working with some of the world's most elite performers, award-winning athletes, billionaires, musicians, executives, and frankly, anyone who just wanted to be at their absolute best. Arate is not a normal coaching program. It's not just macros and a workout plan. It's not physique transformation and pre and post pictures. Arate is something completely different. Arate is incredibly comprehensive and designed to uncover your unique molecular signature, find your performance anchors, and solve them permanently.

You'll be working with not one person, but rather a full team of elite professionals, each with their own special expertise to maximize precision, accuracy, and effectiveness of your analysis and optimization plan. Arte isn't about treating symptoms or quick fixes. It's about unlocking your full potential and looking, feeling, and performing at your absolute best, physically and mentally, when the stakes are the highest.

To learn more, visit aureteelab.com. That's a-r-e-t-e lab dot com. Now back to the show. When you were that young and you say you grew up in kind of a poor working class neighborhood, find sports. Did you have kind of the mentorship or I look back on so many of the coaches that I had when I was a kid and like I still hold them in such high esteem. Did you have people that kind of took your hand and said, hey, this is the path that you're going to go down and I'm going to show you how to do it. Like it's so easy for kids to get distracted, especially when you're good at things.

Like you've got opportunities in any direction you want to go and only like a half-formed brain to tell you what to do. Did you have any coaches and people that just like took your hand and said, let's do this the right way. And, and, and we're great mentors. How I had so many, you know, one of them that I'm really honored, um, um, to mention is, uh, Richard Dick McCloskey. Uh, he was a state championship football coach at a private high school, uh, called Hanson Memorial High School. And, uh, he took a liking to me as a kid. He and I are the only two people from my hometown in Franklin, Louisiana that are in the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame. He has a coach and me as a professional athlete. And as a mentor, this man coddled, he guided, he advised, he watched, he catered to anything I wanted to do with sports. And Anders, I'm telling you, dude, he would take me places, you know, he taught me how to read as a boy,

you know, he took me, he was partly responsible for me going to my first LSU football game when I was 13 years old. Yeah. I went to the game with two doctors, two of his best friends, Carlos Snellgrove and Dr. Shakesnider, C.J. Shakesnider, you know, the man who delivered me when I was born. You know, these are the kind of men that for most of my life I've been connected to, you know, one of them is deceased and the other still alive. So I'm very happy to have had that type of leadership in my life at an early stage in my life. It was very impactful guys. I mean, and it's important for young people to really understand what a mentor really is. That person doesn't want anything from you, but to be your best and live your best life.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm speaking for Doug here, but he still talks about his first strength coach that he had. And 30 years later, we're still sitting here lifting weights and talking about it. A bunch of my hockey coaches, obviously like our parents are kind of part of that and getting introduced to barbells and like you don't realize all those like all those conversations you have when you're 13 years old still show up in your life when you're 42. Oh they show up they show up I mean we just honor my we just honor my middle school coach William Coit. I bought him a thousand dollar gold. You never forget these people man. Yeah yeah. Later in your career I know you were you're under

Bill Parcells and Bill Belichick. To what degree did you consider them to be mentors versus just coaches? What was the relationship like with them and yourself? The two bills as different as they were, they were really the same. The only difference is one of the Bills, and I mean, Bill Belichick, every time I think of Bill Belichick, I think of integrity in football. I think of what the word trust means

when it comes to playing a sport. The value that you must develop and consistently have for players around you. So Belichick was good for that. Parcells was strictly toughness. Parcells demanded it, he expected it, he pushed you for it, and he got it out of you. And that guy, you know,

I am the living testimony of a Bill Parcells because I am the true grit and the fire and the compassion for the game that he had as a coach I was one of Bill Parcells' guys. So I know you will talk about how do you know you're a Bill Parcells' guy, a Bill Parcells' type of guy, is the **** that he allowed you to get away with because you were one of his guys. Yeah. What, do you have any examples there? What do you mean?

Well, you know, I was a coach, I was a coach, I was a coach, I was a coach, I was a coach, I was a coach, I was a coach, I was a coach, I was a coach, I was a coach, I was a coach, the guy is the **** that he I'd out worked Jim Burt, you know, I never came off the field in the course of a game. For 10 seasons, you know, I start and finish the whole game. I never took a playoff in any game. I never took a playoff. And if the ball's thrown, I'm that guy running to the ball. I'm that guy. 70 show up in the film either either as the play ends or right before it ends But I'm not gonna be counted out of a play in the course of a game Especially if I'm on the field on defense Was that workout that can still do you from kind of you one of your early mentors that you mentioned earlier?

well, Pete Jenkins was a Pete Jenkins was a Probably the best and the brightest mind I ever met in football. Pete Jenkins was my college defensive line coach. And every time I go back, every time I see him, the first thing that comes out of his mouth are tears because he can't speak. He can't believe I'm actually standing in front of him. And I am the pillar and epitome of what he wanted his life to look like from coaching football. And I took every bit of knowledge that man gave me, man.

And I turned it into success for myself, my family, everyone involved in my life. You won two Super Bowls. How cool is that? That's very, I mean, guys play the game, man. You get a chance to play a kids game for King's Ransom for as long as you want, or as long as God bless you with health. And then you come out of it with what I came out with. I couldn't be happier. I think anytime you get to call yourself the best in the world, that's pretty cool. And like you have a thing that says it. Two of them champ. Two of them. Two of them. I do want to spend a bunch of time kind of talking about the post career,

but I'd love to add in the athlete mindset, understand what it is like being a part of a Super Bowl winning locker room. Like that's one of the pieces of sports that I would say myself included in the very not impressive athletic career, but every time people, you, you ask people kind of like what they miss about the sports, always the, like the locker room, always being around the guys. Oh, you think of the, yeah. The piece about it that, uh, kind of interests me from the athlete side, it's like, it's so hard to find a locker room where everybody in there is united around

winning a Super Bowl or being the best in the world and what it takes to actually go and do something like that. I have one of my best friends was a Blue Angel for three years and I used to just sit there and think like there's a lot of people that fly for like Southwest and then there's a lot of people that fly for like FedEx or whatever Like all the flying jobs that you could have But if you want to be like one of the six best pilots in the world, you got to go be a blue angel It's really hard to get there. But once you get there everybody that's in that room is also the absolute best pilot in the world and I Think that that if I were to guess,

that's probably one of the things that people most, like miss most, being around people that are committed to that same like vision and purpose. Dude, you have no idea. I mean, it was so much fun to be in an all season weightlifting program and see 42 guys in the weight room with you at the same time committed to being the healthiest and best version of themselves that they could be for not only themselves but for each other. You know so you know I think as if you're watching a bunch of

geese fly in the air. You ever watch a bunch of geese and you notice how powerful it is when you see 20 or 30 of them all moving in the same direction at the same time to the same type of tune? Yeah. That's the way I equate building a championship team or building a championship locker room. You got 48 guys or 49 guys committed to the same thing day in day out, you know, work in work out and and to watch that and fruition and then watch it in perpetuity for 18 to 20 weeks and to culminate it with a championship trophy's mind-boggling, man. Yeah.

I mean, because you think about the intensity, the egos, the sweat, the blood, the restless nights, the reading of a playbook, the practice, the hand placement, the technique, everything that goes into that, you know, chemistry-wise, everything has to be perfect in order for you to come out a champion. And when I hear other guys talk about it

from other teams and other sports, I equate it all the same, that there's a total commitment, there's an awesome power amongst the groups of men that are totally committed to each other. And that's what I take away from watching a big group of geese fly or a big group of animals move at the same time, the same direction with the same purpose, you know, because that's what sports is. Yeah. Was it challenging? And I'd love to actually

hear kind of like the storyline of the retirement and then finding that same feeling as a professional. When you've never, I know being a football player is like a real job. It's probably from the physical, the mental, like all, but like it's way different than going and sitting at a desk and having to like build a career post football that you probably didn't spend a ton of time thinking about when you were in the middle of your career thinking, oh, I'm gonna get into the finance world. Like that's where I need to be.

One, how challenging was kind of the decision to retire and then kind of the path to being able to figure out how to play business the same way that you played sports at that high of a level? Well, the greatest challenge is to be able to get up one more time you could be knocked down, but then have the motivation. What's your motivation? My motivation was I became a father at the end of my career. And becoming a father meant that I had to now figure out, how am I going to feed that child,

get that child the best education possible, help her grow up in a mature environment and then make sure she becomes highly successful as I? So that was the challenge. And every day I lost sleep over it, just like I did in my career. And I took pen to pad and said, every day, write something down about yourself that you didn't like. You know the things you like, but write something down that you didn't like.

And then improve on it the next day, just as you did as a player playing football. Dude, that helped me from 1995 to 98 tremendously. And it was a change of life moment for me. Yeah. Change of life. Mom. Oh, wait for the, for those years, like, was that, was that like a low period in

your life, like you're done with the NFL, you kind of move on next thing? Like, were you, were you, were you sad and, and, um, just kind of, I don't know if the press is the right term here, but like, was it a hard time or were you like ready to move on at that point? You had good prospects for where you wanted to go Where was the transition like the transition was weird because I had no idea what I wanted to do I had no idea what I wanted to do. I just knew out whatever I did I was gonna throw my heart and soul into doing it

But I no idea what I wanted to do because you know for the most part every off season I trained I mean I granted I went back to college while I was playing I was one of the players on the Giants to get to get cap and gown from Fairleigh Dickinson University while I was playing so I actually got cap and gown after my second championship and then I started to enroll and go back to school some more. And then finally, finally after my child was born, I started to go back to school up north at Seton Hall University, because I was residing in Florida. So I decided to go back to Seton Hall. Then while I'm going to Seton Hall, I get requested to serve as an executive in residence as I'm building my career after

football. Now, I'm manufacturing NFL licensed merchandise, which I'm doing stuff in the area of finance, running my own mortgage company, and I'm investing my money well and being smart about it, while also being a father. So, you know, big challenge, fellas. Big challenge, especially, you know, coming out of football and then now coming into the real world of this is what I need to do to survive

and then be the best that I can be at doing this. So it's a major challenge for guys. But I'll tell you, along the way way I learned an awful lot. I learned who was with me and who wasn't. I learned who I could trust and who I couldn't. I learned the discipline that it takes to be the best version of yourself on a daily basis. I learned that everything in sports that I could grasp would help me in my pursuit for happiness in life. And I grabbed that, fellas.

And that's been my mantra since retiring from professional football. I mean, to be able to reinvent myself and to be able to get up one more time and I could be knocked down, or be able to get up one more time and I could be knocked down or be able to get up one more time after being told no. Failure to me was another opportunity. Failure to me wasn't, you know, the quitter in me. Failure in me was just another opportunity around the corner. So those that helped me fail, thank you. Those that worship me to fail, thank you. Those that now see that I didn't fail, thank you too. So, you know, that's the haters of the world. So, there's a big lesson in that fellas.

Yeah, so it's a phenomenal mindset. You know, now you're in the world of finance. Was any part of the motivation to move into the world of finance? Watching guys who were ahead of you, who retired before you, got out into the real world and maybe they didn't manage their money so intelligently and they had a lot of money and then all sudden poof it's all gone because they were being irresponsible or you know kind of kind of thought the gravy train was never going to end and then it did and Then they were in a bad spot pretty quick

What was it like watching other athletes you watch that documentary broke didn't you? Yeah? I wasn't part of it, but I watched it Was a part of it. You know I mean it's yeah become you know I Sorry about Keith McCants that hurt me because he's a first round draft pick. You know? And so that's the reason why I'm in this area today. You know, I want to be able to help young people navigate their way through NIL

and understand the responsibilities of money. You know, especially those that come from urban areas or that get afforded an opportunity to do it, but we ultimately did, you know, to become successful athletes. So you know, there's a responsibility, money bears a responsibility and somebody has to talk to them about what's real about it. I'm one of those guys that's willing to do that.

You know, he is willing to respect the process and respect me in the process. I want to do that to help him create that life-changing moment for him and his family. Yeah, especially with what is going on in college football right now. Like there's 19 year olds signing contracts that 19 year olds don't understand the contracts that they're signing. That is so much money for running a football. It's insane. And it's only getting crazier from what I can, like the future of the NIL and the money that is coming into the big conferences is wild. It's wild.

Do you talk to many of those players that are like coming through the portal and are hitting essentially the football lottery at 19 years old, 20 years old? I don't talk to a bunch of them. I would love to talk to a bunch of them. Part of the team that I'm with, with M Financial and TKO Financial Group, that's part of my mentorship. That's part of my gift back to the game of football or any other sport or any other athlete that is aspiring to be a professional or become an entertainer who may need some guidance

and would like some help and assistance with understanding the platform that they're building and then why there are men like me that are willing to do this. Yeah, it's, I mean, nobody gave me multiple million dollars when I was 20 years old, but I know that it would not have gone well. I would have needed somebody like you very quickly

in my life to not have to go, hey, maybe we should think a little bit further past tonight. Because that's as far as my brain would allow me to go at that stage. I also want to dig into a little bit, you know, there's obviously the great parts of football and growing as a man and going from where you were to where you are and the big career and all those pieces, Super Bowls. I would say that on the other side of that though, the news headlines over the past call it five years have been seriously pushing to the overall health of the athletes. Um, CTE being kind of like one of the,

one of the biggest stories I feel like, uh, that has shown up. Have you worked with any of those people? I think you're, there's, uh, you're, you're part of a foundation that's working through that. And just what is the status of, uh, one, your work, I'd love to hear about it. And then two, just how much research is going into that to really protect the players? Well, CLF is the organization that I'm an advisory board member of. And it's the concussion legacy foundation was founded by the WWE star, Christopher Nowinski. And it's run out

nation myself publicly some five to seven years ago along with Matt Hasselbeck and a few other guys. And what we're trying to do is level the playing field when it comes to information and knowledge about chronic traumatic encephalopathy and how can you avoid or help your family avoid the trials and tribulations associated with long-term care for athletes that have these problems, that have cognitive impairment, and that aren't diagnosed, and that should go get diagnosed or should be part of a study of some sort to help them obtain knowledge about their brain experience from the sport that they play, whether it's football, basketball, baseball, hockey, field hockey, what do you want to call it, lacrosse, or any other sport where head injuries are common. So I think it's something that young people should get behind.

Young people should get behind. Young people should become interested versus disinterested. And they should understand that there's a reason why we're doing this. And it's not for money. Okay? I mean, there's no money involved. But what is involved is to help you not have to succumb to the trials and tribulations of a bunch of families that are of the likes of National Football League players, NBA players or Major League Baseball

players or NHL players that have issues. Yeah. When do say even parents start starting to look into this stuff? Like I feel like whether it's led by the NFL or if it's more local. But I think I've noticed a trend or and seen more information about kids doing less hitting, like more flag football, more learning positional skills, running, playing more as like, uh, I don't want to say exercise because it's still very competitive, but getting away from having like six year old head on head contact, um, and, and trying to protect younger athletes. Do you, do you have any opinion on kind of like what youth athletes, youth football players specifically since you're more from that space? Like what that path should look like when you,

when is it okay to kind of like start doing more physical contact as you sports? I think seven to 12 is early yet for a young person. I know it looks cute for moms and dads to have their son in their helmet and shoulder pads. I looked at a seven-year-old hitting another seven-year-old on Instagram, and I feel like I'm watching Baby UFC. Correct. I'm like, how is that happening? Correct. That brain is not formed at all. Please stop.

And plus they don't know their body. Yeah. The most terrifying thing is when you see like the kid that is bigger than everybody and he's clearly has a family that is like, you're going to be the best football player ever. And then some poor kid that like doesn't want to be on the football field at all. And they just line them up and that poor kid just gets steamrolled. And I'm like, Mom, you just that's that's forever. Please get your kid off the field like that. I get I joke with Doug anytime I watch UFC fight,

like my face is like cringe and I'm like pulling away from the TV as they happen. Every time I see one of those videos, it's like the same thing. I'm like, oh no, please. I hope that kid's okay. It's bad. It's so painful. It's bad. It's bad to watch tough to watch.

Yeah, but you can't get away from it when you get into and I don't know how much better it is when you get to middle school, high school, but that's that's away from it when you get into, and I don't know how much better it is when you get to middle school, high school, but that's like where the sport takes you. Oh yeah. You can't really shake it by the time you get there because that's what coaches are looking at winning and losing and their jobs depend upon it.

I had brothers that used to come up to my mom and when she'd take me to a game and she'd say, I'm not letting my son play today. I was never like my kid playing. I'm not letting my son play against him. I told your son, oh, he's 511 and how old is he? Oh, he's 11 years old. Oh, no, I'm not letting my son play today.

No, I was never allowed to play football. I had to play up. Yeah, sure. My dad didn't want me to blow my head off. I was never allowed to play football. I was never allowed to play football, but I was allowed to play Park Warner. I could play Park Warner.

I had to play up. Yeah. Sure. My dad didn't want me to blow my knees out. Little did he know that I also would have lost my brain because I was not winning any of those battles. Correct. Yo, should football, just brainstorming here,

should be organized rather than by age, should be organized by size? Like, just like weight class sports work? That's a good question, man. You You know I don't know how to you know I don't know how they would attack that. That's a good question. You know that'd be tough logistically but it seems to make more sense in some ways. Yeah I mean it does versus age but then again you got a guy that's older a little bit more mature and he wasn't developed

and now he's out there playing with kids. Yeah. What happens then? Oh, sure, sure. Yeah, it's not a perfect answer at all. Right, so it's like, you know, what's your best solution? Maybe the best solution is just take the helmet and the pads off as they make it flat.

You know, make it flat. Like what I'm seeing a lot of, and I gotta be honest with you, these flag leagues that are coming up, these NFL flag leagues, both men and women, or girls and boys, they look pretty organized. Yeah. So you think until about 12 years old,

that's a better solution for the long-term health of the athletes? Yeah, take the helmet out of it early on. Take the head? Yeah, take the helmet out of it early on. Take the head. Yeah. If you go back and watch some of the videos from your day playing football, it looks so much more aggressive than it does now. They do a lot to protect athletes and it still looks like they're out there and like the Coliseum in Roman days, like it's still is completely terrifying. I don't watch a ton of football and every time I turn on a game, like on a Sunday, just to like sit down for an hour, I seriously feel like the speed and the power and the level of collision,

my brain isn't able to comprehend it. It's too fast. They're too athletic. They need more space. They need a bigger container to be able to get away from each other because they close on each other so fast now. It's so wild. I'm gonna hit the head on quarterbacks. I mean, I watched the game. I watched the I watched the 86 championship game between the Giants and the Redskins the other night and at least it wasn't home in the room with me because I was cursing at the TV in the whole nine yards and there's a play where I separate Jay Schrader from the ball and I got to be honest with you I karate chopped him I have some martial arts training I karate chopped him upside his head uh, upside his head and, uh, you know, I said to myself, Oh man,

I can't believe I did that. I was like, you know, I chopped the guy. Like I could have did something really bad. Let's just say that. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Right before this call, one guy on our team heard that we were talking with you and he was, he was, started, he was sending us videos of you taking out Joe Montana in 1980 and I was talking about games that he was at where he watched you play back in the day. He was so excited that we were going to be speaking with you today. Some of the stuff I did was crazy. Yeah. I know you have tons of things going on right now. I'd

love to just dig into what on the professional side are you most excited about these days? I know you have your own trust foundations. What kind of gets gets the most excited. So what's really got me excited. I'm doing a campaign to help bag and curb gun violence. I think teen gun violence right now has gotten completely out of hand. So I'm doing a project right now with Wake Furn and ShopRite where I'm selling a bag throughout their grocery store chain. And what I love about it is Wake Furn has embraced it wholeheartedly.

My dear friend, Mr. Joseph Colalillo, who's the former chairman of Wake Fern. Love the idea, saw what I was doing. Said, Leonard, I'm gonna help you and bring this to fruition. I think it will help young people understand, you know, what the Second Amendment is all about and the use of guns and their reason and purpose in life.

And that we need to be as parents and everything else of children, we need to be more responsible in terms of our teaching when it comes to kids handling weapons, okay? And handling guns. So this bag campaign, we intend to sell anywhere between two and seven million bags through ShopRite. That money is going to an organization called

Tunnel of the Towers or the bulk of the money. And it was a charity that was set up by Stephen Siller or the family of Stephen Siller. And you know, we think we're going to make a difference. We think we're going to make an impact in communities throughout not only the state of New Jersey, but across the country, but it first starts at home and shop right is New Jersey and Wakefront is New Jersey and You know Leonard Marshall is all about New Jersey because this is where my career was built This is where everything that I've become Was built so I'm really excited about what I'm doing with Wakefront and shop right on the other hand

I launched a product with the National Football League and Major League Baseball. I'm manufacturing leather goods for Major League Baseball and the NFL. And I'm selling a bunch of the retail stores throughout the country. And it's a line of leather products. It's a toiletry bag, it's a duffel bag,

it's a wallet, it's a belt, it's a backpack, and it's a toiletry bag. It's a duffel bag. It's a wallet. It's a belt. It's a backpack and it's a sling bag. All licensed. I plan to have it in an NFL shop online as well as other retail venues throughout the country. So those two projects right now have me really excited. So by the way, what is in the bag that you're selling? It's related to gun violence? It's a bag. It's a reusable bag that you use

to carry your groceries when you check out at ShopRite. So you purchase the bag at the register, you put your groceries in leave, and it's basically a campaign to support bagging gun violence across the country. So if you go to www.bagtheviolence.org, you can actually buy the bag online for me direct or you can buy it when you go in the stores this fall. Yeah, gotcha.

Wait, did you have a personal story related to that? Do you have any experience with that growing up, gun violence and or anyone close to you that encountered gun violence that really made you want to target that, uh, as, as the thing that you want to support and, you know, rid the world of my niece in Louisiana, where I grew up in Louisiana, there's a big problem right now with guns and the ability to handle guns and those that are handling guns. And if you know the gun laws in Louisiana, they're very loose. Let's just say it that way. In the town of Franklin, Louisiana, I think if you were to poll it, you'd probably see

that there's been an inordinate amount of deaths in the last seven to 12 years from gun violence. I know several young people who have died of gun violence. I know several young people who have died of gun violence. Families of those that have lost a child to gun violence. In particular, my niece was involved in something with a young man she was dating who died because of an act with a gun. Okay. So it doesn't make me happy to see when young people are utilizing weapons in an unwillful way or not understanding the Second Amendment right to carry a weapon or own a weapon. I think it's due to irresponsibility and ignorance. And there needs to be better ways to teach, advise,

and help young people understand the use and the purpose of harrying a gun. We need to have as parents and as communities, we need to have a more collaborative effort when it comes to teaching young kids about that stuff. So this, if you go, like I said, if you go to my website, there's a whole bunch of information on there where young people can learn as well as adults

about the campaign and then support it. I feel like that was the best answer I've heard on how to help with that problem. Most people, it's like a, end them forever. And you're like, I don't think that's gonna work. It's not a yes or no binary thing. And a lot of it really does come down to education and culture and just knowing how to have a better

conversation at an earlier age. I'm very new to all of it myself. And having kids around it or like there's there's no like class to go to it say like here's the best way to introduce it to your kids. Right. And here's how to like properly show this to your 10 year old nine year old. Obviously not my four year old. But like But like the education system is kind of just like, whatever you're comfortable with versus how do we kind of put a structure to this so that we're able to have

a conversation and like build an education around these things. It's crazy. Yeah, you would think it'd be more common, like as prominent and prevalent as guns are. Like I went through a hunter safety course when I was a kid and I was around guns my entire life. My grandpa was on the board of directors for the NRA. Like we had lots of weapons around my entire life. I had like diligent gun safety from the time that I could walk. I remember shooting 12 gauge

shotguns before I could barely hold them. But the emphasis that was put on safety was large. Like it was a big, big deal in our house. And so that's like all ingrained into me. And I think it's very normal to be around weapons and to use them in a safe manner. But as far as like just like an obvious nationwide course or class that everybody does that emphasizes gun safety for children. It doesn't seem it seems like there would

be something that everyone would know like, Oh, yeah, you just take your kids to this place. And like, they'll they have like a predefined curriculum that everybody knows that you get when you're eight years old, 10 years old, that that ingrains gun safety into you. But I can't believe it's not available now that I'm hearing you say all this. Yeah, but it's fine. And I'll tell you something else that's crazy. You know, if you look at the PAL and you look at all these organizations that are out there, how many of them have literature that supports the training, the teaching, the knowledge of weaponry for young people.

But yet we have people at 15, 16, 17 years old signing up to go into the military without that type of knowledge. So granted, the Boy Scouts used to be big back in the day, right? Big. I wanted to be a Boy Scout. I know you did. I know both of you did. If you did not, become

a Boy Scout. I mean it was a big deal to me as a kid because you got a chance to be around that type of an education. You thought quote unquote that that's what men do, right? They carry a bow and arrow. They go out and hunt. If you grew up in the country like I did, and I'm assuming, I'm thinking you guys did too, that becomes the way of life. Well, along the way,

most of the time your grandpa taught you how to carry a weapon. Or your grandpa taught you how to shoot your first BB gun, or your grandpa taught you how to shoot your first bow and arrow, you know, those type of things. That doesn't exist, man. Now I'm picking up, you know, I'm turning on the news in the morning and I'm seeing a 15-year-old kid shot in Long Branch, New Jersey, you know, gun violence, an act of gun violence, an act of gun violence. They don't say it just comes up that he was shot due to gun violence, that, you know, somebody didn't like him. And they

shot him, you know, back when you and I when we were young, you didn't like a guy, you knuckled up, you say, man, I'll see you after school at three o'clock. Meet me by the bus. That's what you did. That's gone, fellas. That doesn't exist no more. So now these kids are going to school with.38s, with.380s in their pockets and everything else. No license to carry it.

No knowledge of how to use the weapon. What if I took that gun from them at school and then turn around and use it on them? What would the parent feel like then? Yeah, so I'm like, you know Somewhere along the way There's something missing here whether it's at home Or whether it's the street

Or what it is and then the other piece of it is here's the real crazy piece When we were growing up guys, they didn't have these video games With all this violence You know gang aim at the people up on the TV right now. I mean, brother, like I'm like, you know, and you want a kid to respect the process. So fantastic, man. This has been great. I appreciate you having you on here. One. Where can people find more? Where's website all the places? Well, bag theviolence.org. You want to hit me up? Hit me up at LeonardMarshall.com. And you want to learn more about what we do at R&R Leather? R&R Leather Collections of New York. You'll certainly see our stuff this fall on HSN, QVC, NFL Shop. You'll be able to buy it at MetLife Stadium and other stadiums around the country.

And you'll be able to see our stuff this fall on HSN, QVC, NFL Shop. You'll be able to buy it at MetLife Stadium and other stadiums around the country. And you'll be able to see our stuff this fall on HSN, QVC, NFL Shop. And you'll be able to see our stuff this fall on HSN, QVC, NFL Shop. And you'll be able to see our stuff this fall on HSN, QVC, NFL Shop. And you'll be able to see our stuff this fall on HSN, QVC, NFL shop. You'll be able to buy it at MetLife Stadium and other stadiums around the country. We make some really cool stuff.

I love it. Fantastic. Doug Larson. You bet. I'm on Instagram at Douglas C. Larson. Leonard, yo man, I was totally stoked to talk to you today. I got a lot of respect for what you're doing you doing good things in the world So I just appreciate you being here and coming on the show to share it all with us. So thank you very much

Thank you very much. You know what Doug? I'm gonna connect to you. My Instagram is Leonard Marshall 70 I'm gonna connect to you when I hang up. Yeah. Oh, yeah, man. Looking forward to it Oh man, watch all your hiking adventures the solo. F R E S O L O. Is it on Netflix? Netflix? I would imagine. I don't know if it still is, but it's not that it's it. It's very, very good. Send me the link. Send me the link. This crazy dude climbs the giant rock that Doug hiked to the top. It's called Half Dome and he does it. So he did. He did so he did El Cap, which is slightly different, but they're both at USM, but yeah. I got to the top of Half Dome.

What he did is way more impressive than what I did for the record, but I can Half Dome's pretty rad. If you don't know what it is, you absolutely should go Google it. It's a phenomenal experience for a non-elite professional climber like Alex Honnold, which is a totally different category.

Ducky, I'm glad to turn you on. Doug, I'm gonna turn you on to my friend, John E. Bonetti, who's my personal financial advisor at Wells Fargo in Arizona. Okay. He climbed Kilimanjaro. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, I'm talking with my buddy Ryan about that, actually. Yeah, he hiked that, so I'm glad to turn you on to him. Hell yeah, absolutely. Let's do it.

Awesome. I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner, and we are Barbell Shrugged, at barbell underscore shrugged, to make sure you get over to rapidhealthreport. Awesome. I'm Anders Varner at Anders Varner and we are Barbell Shrugged, barbell underscore shrugged, to make sure you get over to rapidhealthreport.com. That is where Dr. Andy Galpin and Dan Garner doing a free lab lifestyle and performance analysis. And you can access that at rapidhealthreport.com. Friends, we'll see you guys next week.