The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Unbreakable Episode 40 - Ryan Shazier

Episode Date: June 14, 2023

Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental health podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, former Steelers star linebacker Ryan Shazier shares the heartbreaking details about his spinal cord injury during a Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Find out how he stayed so positive after being told he may never walk again and how he's using his injury to help others. Follow, rate & review Unbreakable with Jay Glazer here!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unbreakable-with-jay-glazer/id1641935224#fsr #2pros #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win.

I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHard Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. This is Unbreakable with Jay Glaser, a mental health podcast, helping you out of the gray and into the blue. Now, here's Jay Glaser. Welcome into Unbreakable and Mental Health Podcast with Jay Glazer.

Jay Glazer, and our guest today is somebody who inspires me, will inspire you, but before we get to him real quick, if you're like many people, you may be surprised to learn that one in five adults in this country experienced mental illness last year. Yet far too many people to receive the support they need. Carolyn, behavioral health is doing something about it. They understand that behavioral health is a key part of whole health, delivering compassionate care that treats physical, mental, emotional, and social needs in tandem. Carolyn Behavioral Health, Raising the Quality of Life through Empathy and Action. With that, I want to welcome in somebody I'm proud to call a friend, somebody I've really bonded with in the last couple of years, somebody who, again, it's inspirational when you see people overcome things and not just take the cards that life hands us, we shuffle that deck on it and deal our own hand after that. With that, Ryan, she's here, former first round pick, 15 pick of the draft, I believe, for the Pittsburgh Steelers, from correct there, a couple times.

Pro Bowler as well, right? Yes, sir, yes, sir. How are you doing, ma'am? I'm doing good, Jay. I'm doing good. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Man, I'm so grateful to have you on here.

And the last time I saw you, you and I played golf together. Yeah, we did. Okay. Well, kind of, kind of. You played the whole round. I think I hit three goals. I didn't play the whole round. Oh, you did?

We both finished a little bit sooner than everybody else. For people who don't know you, I want you to explain why you and I playing golf at all is amazing. The reason that is amazing is just because of what we both been through, but what I went through. No, not me, you. What I went through, man, it was, you know, it was crazy. I got to play the game that I love, which is, you know, like you said, football. But unfortunately, while playing, I end up suffering the Sponikor Angie. And with that happening, I had to learn how to walk again.

I had to learn how to, you know, jog again. I literally had to learn how to, you know, pee on my own again. So to learn how to do all the things that everybody take for granted, that's why it's a blessing to be able to go out there and hit some golf balls and be out there with you. So I stop not because I'm not because I'm sorry, my son, right? It's okay. I stop not because my body couldn't take it.

And for people who are listening and aren't watching this, reason why we're laughing. We're not laughing at what happened to Ryan. His son is kind of making us way into the frame here. He was Randolph, sorry. He's not going to hit Juice Cup. So we're certainly not laughing at what happened to Ryan. But, hey, man, more we can't laugh, the better it is, right?

Yeah, you're right about that. You got to take every blessing for sure. So you get paralyzed in the game against the Bengals? Yeah, Cincinnati Bengals. In year four, correct? Yeah, it was my fourth year, going into my fifth year. It was probably, I tell people, people are telling me all the time, and I'll have a conversation with people all the time.

I was probably like four games away from, you know, me actually reaching a contract, you know, so. Really? Yeah. So it was reaching your incentives? No, not even my incentives. So I was a first rounder, so, you know, I had the fifth year option. So they put up my fifth year option. I was here a pro vote twice.

So the next thing was me getting a contract. But we have to start talking about it. Yeah, but it was just, you know, contract extension. They were talking about an extension about four weeks from that. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, you just, you kind of figured, it was just a, it was definitely a tough moment for me because I've been playing for 20 years.

Right. Then you feel like you're, hey, you've been working your whole life for a moment and then you're that close and then it doesn't happen. So, but I'm going to be completely honest with you. You know, God does things for a reason and he has a purpose for everything. And that's what I believe. And I wouldn't be able to talk about the adversity that I've overcome and having to help people over the, overcome what they've overcome if I didn't go through what I did. Did they tell you you would never walk again?

You didn't take no for an answer? Or did they say there's a chance if you'd go through something? So my daughter, the daughter told my wife, which later told me, they didn't tell me right away, but they said I had less than a 20% chance of law. And another doctor, he's a really good friend of mine, who spoke to a little good friend of mine. He was like, hey, Ryan, he told him, he was like, hey, I think you need to be the period that line they never walk again. So I had multiple people tell me what the doctors I told them.

The doctors don't really tell you, hey, you'll never walk again, or you have less than 30% chance of walking. Because, you know, if somebody hears that, that can kind of derail them. But also, you know, if you do learn how to walk again, doctors don't want people calling back and saying, I told yourself. All right. So you made that choice no matter what.

Yeah, I made that choice. When they told me I wasn't going to walk, I was like, hey, you said 20% chance. So making it to the NFL, you got less than a 1% chance. You know, so I've done some things in my life that allow me to know I can make you die. I want to go back to when it happened. So were you conscious and what's going through your mind when you're down there and you can't move? Yeah, so I was conscious in the moment.

So I just made it. I've made a regular tackle. It was a tackle probably made thousands of times in my life. And when I hit the receiver, my leg just dropped in a news me. It kind of felt weird. And I just rolled over, but I just couldn't feel anything from my weight down. So they kept trying to touch me. And I hate you pulling anything.

And I told them, unfortunately, I couldn't put anything. But I was still pretty positive-minded. I kind of tell myself all the time I was probably in denial a little bit because when I was talking to the doctor, I kept asking like, how soon you think I'll be back? I'm saying you think I'll be back because it was more of a, I thought it was going to be something very similar to a stinger. You know, like you, on your stinger,

if you hit somebody, your arm goes numb for a bit, and then it comes back. And that's kind of the idea that I had when I was going through what I was going through. When did you realize, okay, it's not a stinger? And how did you cope with it? So it took me about a week and some change, because then I, like, as I was in the hospital, I was still, I had a surgery.

And I was like, all right, yeah, man, this is, you know, it's pretty bad. I knew things aren't going to turn around fast when one moment I was in the hospital and my god brother was at the hospital with me and he was just sitting almost as close to my screen to like your screen is to you and I was in a hospital bed and you know how they have their rails on the bed so you don't fall out of the bed and I wasn't feeling good that day I don't know if I had some type of infection but I wasn't feeling well and I ended up throwing up but it hit the rail of the bed, but I was so close to the bed rail that it hit the rail and it hit me back in my face.

And when that happened, like, because if you throw it up, you're trying to at least move out of the way, I wasn't able to move myself out of the way. And I was like, yeah, Ryan, you're, like, you're not taking this as serious as you probably think it is. Like, you're hurt way worse than you're assuming you're hurt. And after that moment, like a light switch flipped on. And I was like, okay, Ryan, it's not like, you need to really get to work. You need to really change your mindset and get ready to get out there because if you don't attack this right now, you probably never going to walk again.

So that was the last time I've been told myself, hey, you probably never walk again. Because from that moment on, I was like, I don't care what nobody else is telling me, I'm going to walk, I'm going to play football. I'm going to be back on my feet. How are you able to process that in your own mind, say, hey, I'm just to make the decision go for it, instead of falling into a deep dark, depression or did you do both? So I don't think I really fell into a deep dark depression because I was just so laser focus on getting better. Right. So every day I would just get better, get better. And then I would do things to help me cope. So like I end up having like my Xbox in the hospital. Like I had books in the hospital. My wife actually slept in the room with me and which was crazy.

They actually allowed her to stay there with me. And she was my fiance at a time. And then I would always have people visit me. So when like my teammates were visiting me, my teammates were visiting me, Like they will have meetings, that the linebackers will have meetings sometime after the day in the hospital with me and keep me in a loop. So it was like I always had people around me that I was always really comfortable with, that I was always really close with. So it made me want to be able, it made it really easy for me to try to release stress and be able to talk to people. So I was just so focused and they always want, they always motivated me. So like I would do rehab and in rehab, I can barely walk, but they were able to. Like, they're here. Come on, Ryan. Come on, Ryan. Come on. You got it. You got it. So, just, like, having

people that did that for me, it made me feel really good. But I would do that for a while. Then every day, I would just start to get better and better. And then the days when I did feel a little down or a little sad, because I'm a very uplifted person, I'm a very positive person, my family would just do a really good job of just giving me that positivity for that day I needed. If I was down, like, today, if I'm having a bad day or day, my wife would come in and, you know, like play around or do something that would like lift me up a little bit, just to kind of get me back on my feet. But then every other day, I'm back the same.

Like my wife hates it because, like, me and her can yell at each other. And like, five minutes later, I'm like, hey, you're very, you're going to like, trying to joke around with her. She's like, no, I'm still mad at you. That's it. So, like, that's how I am every single day. So when I have bad days, they knew how to lift me back up to just help me push on. And like, hey, right, keep going, because this is the goals that you want to set.

This is what you want to be. And it really helped me kind of not get into that dark place in the first few years. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered, comedy. conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment,

and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream,

this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Cliverts Show on the Eye Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim?

Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick you here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack,

so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Then you're finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. And for me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think the most amazing thing, man, is that I guess it wasn't that much longer, a year and a half later. You tell me the timeline, but you actually danced at your own wedding with it. Yeah, so a year and a half later. So we, well, so what was crazy. Yeah, what was crazy was I got hurt in 2017. Me and Michelle was going to get married in 2018 in Miami. but then obviously I was going through so much stuff at that time.

I was like, hey, let's push the wedding back in the year. So we pushed it back in the year because I told myself, I don't want to be, I don't want to have a wheelchair and my wedding pictures. I don't want to be walking around in the cane in my wedding pictures. So I just made sure I told myself, I'm going to get better. I'm going to walk again. I'm going to be able to play with my kids outside. I'm going to be able to help my kids.

That's the things that I wanted to do. I also was trying to come back and play football again. So those are the things that I wanted to do. So I just, I pushed all the things that I felt were important, but not as important as the goal that I set for myself at that moment. And I was able to achieve them and able to do them. What can you teach the rest of us and how you're able to stay positive throughout all this? Besides your, look, you have your teammate, but it's, it still comes down to what's

between your ears and behind your rib cage. What did you learn through that process? I think the biggest thing about what I learned through that process is, that, you know, the mind is, you know, the strongest muscle. You know, your brain is the strongest muscle. And whatever you feed into it, that's what's going to happen. So to me, I always feel, if I'm thinking positive, I think a certain way is going to happen. I've never heard anybody that say, like, Jay, imagine the whole time you're trying to get into the media, the whole time you're telling yourself, oh, man, I suck, I can't do this. I can't do this. I'm never going to

make it. I can't do this. It's not going to happen. I don't know anybody that up telling themselves that they can't do something and end up being good at it. You know, so that's kind of my mindset is like, hey, if I feed myself and tell myself, hey, Ryan, you're going to get better, you're going to walk again, but actually put their work into doing it, actually set up a plan and a process to doing it, it's possible. And I think that's what a lot of people, they allow their minds to speak, they allow themselves to speak to negative talk to themselves, which will make it really difficult for you actually to get to where you want to go.

So I just always was really positive to my team. And then when I had days when I was down or sad or upset, and I was like, man, I can't do this today. My wife's like, yep, that's not Ryan today. I don't like that energy. And it's true, like, hey, you got this. You said you want to walk again. You said you want to make it to the NFL again?

Because everybody's going to have bad days. You're going to have down days. But I just felt like when I had those down days, I immediately told somebody and they helped me reset it to get back on track. And that's what a lot of us don't do. We fight ourselves. or we think, I don't want to be burdened to anybody or something like that.

But the more we can open up to our teammates or family, help us just one away. It's one step away. It's one inch away. It's one yard away. It's one phone call away. You're right about that. And I think a lot of people felt to realize that.

So many people are just so scared to, you know, call somebody, so scared to be a burden to somebody. At the end of the day, I remember I actually went to a friend of my house and his son ended up messing his leg up playing basketball, but he's in college. And his dad was like, hey, like, call some of your friends to take you to the hospital. He was like, man, I don't want to bother them there at dinner. And the dad said, if they're your friends, they're going to be happy that you call them

because they want to make sure you all right. He was like, they'll stop what they're doing to take you out to eat. I was like, man, you're right. Like, if somebody really cares about you, if he's important enough, you're not a burden. The first time I opened up to my friends, it was a couple years ago at the Super Bowl. I called Ronde-Barber and two of our little crew down in Tampa. where we're going down the Tampa Soup Bowl. And I say, hey, man, let's have dinner tonight.

And they all said, now we're busy. I said, no, no, I need to see you guys tonight. I'm struggling. And they said, oh, okay, well, all right, we're there. Every one of them, they were there. And then when I told them, two of them said, oh, man, I'm struggling too. I just didn't know how to talk about it. That's one of the things I'm trying to do with this podcast and with my book and

brinkles trying to give words. So we can have this conversation and get people to understand. Your people will be there for your same exact message. that you just had, Ryan. Yeah, that's what a lot of people thought to realize. They feel like they're a burden. They feel like they're a hassle on somebody. But if you tell somebody, hey, like, I really need you.

Right now, like, this is really important to me. Like, I need somebody I can lean on. If somebody's your friend, they're going to stop what they're doing and they're going to be there for me. I try and tell people all the time, don't try and figure your life out. It'll drive you crazy. I don't know why good things happen to bad people. People who are doing bad things.

I don't know why bad things happen. the good people, no idea why. And let's not try and figure it out. How much did you have to wrestle with yourself of YB? So I actually didn't wrestle with myself with that as much because I had read a book recently. And I think it was called like 17 successful people do, but it was, it's more of a story. And it just told me the things that happened throughout this success. And one of the things that was in the book, and I read this when I was injured, it said a lot of people ask why me. That means you're basically saying why, why me? So you're basically saying, why not J?

You don't say it. So it's, you know, and most people don't think about it like that. Yeah. So then I, but in the book it says, why not me? Why not be the person that makes a difference? Why not be the person that makes a change? And that's kind of how I started. I actually leaned into that.

So instead of actually, oh, why me? I was more, I was more why not me? Like, God put me here for a purpose. A lot of people say if they were in my position, they would have gave up. I didn't give up. Now I'm showing people that they can overcome. So actually when I was going through this whole process, I actually had a call, talk with my dad in the car one day. And I was actually, I cried a little bit about it because everyone was like, man, you're such an inspiration, man. You inspire me so much.

And I asked my dad, I'm like, man, what's the inspiration? Like, what's the, obviously I know the definition of inspiration there? But dad, what's the inspiration? Because people always tell me, Ryan, your inspiration to me. But I was like, I'm just out here trying to like get better every single day. I'm just trying to live my best life. I'm just trying to, every day I'm just trying to get back to where I want to be. And he was just like, Ryan, the fact that you're doing that and not giving up on yourself, that's what inspires people.

And then I was like, oh, man, you know, so it just, to me, yeah, it gives people hope. But I just felt like just having my family and people around me, like people like UJ and just my friends, when I feel like I have somebody I trust, I open up to them and let them know what's going on because if you don't have people around that you can't open up to, man, I feel it's a really tough life all here to live.

Right. We don't have to have the Pittsburgh Steelers be our team. They can be your team, right? Part of your teammates. But there's teammates everywhere for us. And we got to lean into them. That's one of the ways we can fight back. We've got to walk this walk together.

And your journey back, what's been the one thing that you've done where you're like, damn, Ryan, I can't believe you did that. Like, it inspired you. Oh, man. So some of the things that I've done was like when I was able to buy you. jump again, you know. I think the height of my recovery when I was, like, rehabbing every single day in the midst of trying to become, you know, play in the NFL again, I had box jump, and it was

like 30, 38 or 36 or something like that. Really? So, yeah, and I wasn't even all the way 100% healthy yet. Yeah, my therapist was like, he's like, man, Ryan, just even the fact that you can do this and you're not even 100%. He's like, this is crazy to me. Because this thing that's so funny is like my wife tried to do the same thing. and she couldn't even do it.

You know, so, like, just some of the things that when it came to working out and just showing what type of athlete I was before I got injured and how I was very close to being back to that same time, just some of the, like, workout things I would be, being able to get back to lifting some heavy weight, being able to do some box jumps, you know. And to me, it's just the fact of,

I remember to this day when I couldn't even move my leg. I remember I had, I have a video on my phone on the first day I moved my leg. and like now I just walked up and down and ran up and down my stairs really fast so I can get something out of the kitchen. It's crazy to me. Like, just getting back to the simple thing that a lot of people felt to realize

that's the thing that I'm just really appreciative of. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman. documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I put on 10 pounds.

I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes

of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space. for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me,

or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-taped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people.

I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do a little kill? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. so I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It also goes to show. And I want every athlete out there listen. I want everybody who've gone through professional sports because I've helped a lot of guys transition after they retired from NFL, obviously from mixed martial arts, Olympians, for all different sports, baseball, basketball, hockey, everything.

I always tell people like, you playing in the NFL is not who you are. What's behind your ribcage that got you to beat out millions and millions and millions to be on that level. That's who you are. That suddenly doesn't just leave when the uniform comes off. You have shown that, right? You still have that same thing behind your ribcage to get you to do incredible, incredible things and that's what's so important to have a team around you to remind you of what your

greatness is it's not that uniform man it's you it's what's behind your rib cage it's special no you're 100% right it's so crazy when guys leave the game they forget what it all took to get there yeah you know and if we just pour it back into that when it comes to rehabbing when it comes to you know a business when it comes to just living life outside of the game we just have to pour into it like we poured into trying to do it into the NFL again and those things will happen for us. And that's what I did. I just poured into everything that I had in me

to play in the NFL, and I just poured all that into trying to play again and try to walk again. And I was able to do so. You know, we just had the NFL draft recently. Or drafts, Super Bowls, training camps, things like that. Are they hard for you to see? The hardest moment for me, honestly, it's probably like a year and a half, two years

after I got hurt. when everybody that I got drafted with was starting to get paid. And I love, and I love football to death. Like, I wasn't playing for money. But it was just kind of seeing like, oh, guys that I was very similar to better or worse, then they were like, you know, starting to like, hey, I fulfilled a dream of making the NFL. Then now I can take care of my family forever type of thing.

So like that, I'm going to be honest. That was probably one of the toughest things for me because, like, oh, man, like, I was four games away, you know. But at the end of the day, life isn't about money. You know, so that's the one thing that it made it, like, as I continue to get older, it allowed me to mentally get in the right space and understand that, hey, Ryan, your family is good. Ryan, you have a wonderful kid, the wonderful wife, and how to transition into what I'm

doing now. But that was probably one of the toughest things for me, like, just because the draft, not as much. Sometimes I would watch a game here and there, and I would just watch somebody. play. Like, I remember, this was initially right when I got hurt, but I remember watching Raquin Smith when he was at Georgia before, and the way he was playing, it kind of made me cry because I was like, man, I was, you know, just watching him play. It was very similar to how I felt like I played. But to this day, not anymore, but those are, it was a lot closer to the

moment than a week now. What you're doing is way more, and I know people go, oh, I have easy for you say, Jay, you know, money is money in certain ways. You could pay your bills, but man, our wallets are not antidepressants. But what you're doing like, the people that you're helping, that's your equity forever. That makes you a wealthy man. Yeah. Right. And that's where you've got to remind yourself of all the time.

Yeah. And that's the one thing that I actually, I'm happy that I have the fund, the lives that were changing with my foundation. And just to be able to just support to people to understand and help them overcome. So like you were saying, like to be able to. pouring to people in the legacy that you lead to me, like you said, the equity that I'm growing compared to this, you know, having dollars in my pocket. I understand you all said you're starting a new business,

something that helped you get through a lot of the mental hurdles and struggles. Fill me in on that. Yeah, so I actually have a strand of medical marijuana here in Pennsylvania that we have. So Pennsylvania is a medical state. It's not a recreational state. So we have a medical strand here. One is called Shalid. One is called Walking Miracle.

One is called Speed. And then one is just called Brian Shiger with 50. And I wanted to be able to partner with a company here named Organic Remedies because it's just the quality of medical grade marijuana and they have, but also they also helped me when I was going through my injury. So when I was going through my injury, sometimes I would be depressed. Sometimes I'll have some pain that I'll deal with. And just through my family history, I have people that have been addicted to alcohol and, you know, different types of drugs and things like that.

So I never wanted to be someone that got really, that used opioids a lot. I never wanted to be something. I never wanted to use them a lot. So I leaned more into medical marijuana. And it helped me out a lot. It helped me in my back pain. It helped me when it came to sometimes when I was depressed or sad. It just allowed me.

to just get a little bit of relief. So I recently partnered with the company here, organic remedies, and throughout the whole state of Pennsylvania, we're helping and sell it. How did you originally, who, did the doctors originally give you or a friend originally give you? No, so the way it worked is I have a really good friend of my who's a pharmacist, and he's kind of in the medical space.

And I had a friend, he was my friend before I even got hurt. And I just talked to him. I was like, man, I don't have a medical car because you can't just have a card planning in the NFL. So I don't have a medical card. I kind of want to, you know, try, you know, medical marijuana instead of just, you know, using some opioids while I'm getting with my own. So he connected me with organic remedies. I end up getting a medical card while I was injured and then it kind of went off from there. I was using the product for a while and then we just, you know, talk together and it's like, hey, I think it might be a good idea so we can release a

strand here in Pennsylvania that can help our people. And then hopefully, you know, we can kind of growing across the country. But the one thing I really like about it is like we even had a pop-up on 420, and, you know, people actually came to me and thought, hey, Ryan, you don't understand how much your strength are changing my life, how much I'll benefit from it coming in. So it's been great, and I'm happy that I was able to release them. Before I let you go, two more questions.

Give me the one moment that someone's come to you and said, man, you saved me, you changed me by something I heard you say, There's something I've seen you do that it's really stuck with you. Man, it's so crazy because, like, sometimes people were coming to me and, you know, like I was in Dallas yesterday and somebody would come to me. It was like, hey, man, are you Ryan Shavely? And I was like, yeah. And it's like, man, you're such a great player.

So, like, I'll get that sometimes. And then sometimes people are just coming to me randomly. It was like, Ryan, you don't understand how much you are inspiration to me and my family. Like, one day I was actually committed, like, thinking about committed suicide and just, the way that you fought back and the way that you just kept pushing, I read your book and it made me want to keep pushing. I just want to say thank you. And so when people come to me with information like that sometimes,

to me, I'm like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe that I was able to change this person life and I don't even know who that person is. So to me, it's just so crazy how God works in mysterious ways. And that's probably one of the times when somebody came to me and said, what I've done is really helped change your life. And that person that you saved and the people you saved, you don't know what they've done. They may have helped others.

They may have cured disease one day. You have no idea the ripple effect of the good that you're doing, right? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. So last question here, and I ask all my guess this. And you may have already said it, but give me your unbreakable moment. It might have been during that process. Give me your unbreakable moment, something that really should have broken you during the process

or another part in your life. And as a result, you came through the other side of that tunnel stronger, and you've been able to use that for the rest of your life. So I would just say going through a spinal cord, Angie. I would say that would be my unbreakable moment because I actually have something every week, Jay, it's called Ryan Time. So Ryan Time, I was going to Zoom like we're on right now, and I was fearing about it depends on how long a person I want to talk.

I've had five-minute talks, and I've had an hour and 30-minute talk. And the reason I'm going to say that is because it's based off our zone. talking to the person. And I was talking to. Who are the people? People that have spinal cord injuries. Oh, wait. Really?

Yeah. How do they get in touch with you? You get in touch with them? So my fund has, we have something called Ryan Time. People can get set up through my website on the Ryan Shazzer Fund.org and set up for Ryan Times. Dude, that's the coolest thing I ever heard. Yeah.

Why do I not know this? Go ahead. And we'll do it. We'll do it every Thursday. And the one thing and the reason I said it appears on a person because I've talked to somebody before and they were just so shut down and I was trying to talk to them but it was just like I'm not having a good day and for some of my reason they didn't know they didn't believe that I was Ryan Xavier so it was like five minutes it was like five minutes and I was like all right

cool but but I've also been on other ones when you're AI Ryan Shazir all that's right there on Zoom you're literally like this on Zoom I don't know what I don't know what happened I had the jerseys in the background I don't know what I don't know what happened but uh but then I'll talk to other people and some people you can see how mentally having a spinal cord injury is breaking them. And I try to talk to them to try to motivate a lot of people to overcome or individuals that are very positive or people that are doing well just to keep them going. And to me, I think just having a spinal cord injury and be able to talk to people on how to overcome it, that's my unbreakable moment because I talked to a lot of people. And Jay, I remember talking to this one lady

and it's so sad. It makes me really sad. But I went to her hospital. Normally I would just do a Zoom call, but I went to a hospital. I was like, hey, man, you know, you have a family left for. Man, you got to keep pushing.

I know it's tough. Like, just trying to motivate her. And she was like, I just don't want to be here. I don't want to be here. Jay, I promise you she was around your age. She ended up killing herself. Because, like, because,

but she killed herself by just, like, by self-doubt. Like, she didn't, like, commit suicide. She just, like, it was just, like, her mental was so bad that it was like, I don't want to be here no more. And that's an end up happening. To me, it's just a really sad moment.

And I just think that, you know, people need to understand that, hey, your mind can, hey, do really good for you and allow you to reach these really high places. But also can tell you down. And I just want people to understand, like, we all have unburdenable moments. We just have a key pushing and just find a way through. That's what I think, I think having a spinal do with mom, that for sure.

man brother if there's anybody who is unbreakable it is you i am proud to walk this walk with you man i'm proud to call your brother proud to call your friend man i'm really proud of you man no thank you so much jay i'm sorry about you absolutely brother love you dude that is ryanchezeer he is as unbreakable as they come another podcast from some s nl late night comedy guy

not quite unhumored me with robert smigle and friends me and hilarious guests from bob odenkirk to david letterman help make you funnier this week my guest S&L's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

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On the Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick you here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of we survived it with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s.

It was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.