The School of Greatness - 6 David Anderson: From NFL to the Business World

Episode Date: February 18, 2013

Welcome to episode 6 of The School of Greatness. This episode features someone who I instantly connected with, David Anderson. I had an instant connection with David because we both played most fun position in football (wide receiver), wore the jersey #4 at some point during our career, played professionally, and have a passion for relationships […]

Hello everyone and welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes. I'm an author, lifestyle entrepreneur, former pro athlete, and world record holder in football. My goal with the School of Greatness is to share with you stories from the most inspiring business minds, world-class athletes, and influential celebrities on the planet to find out what makes great people great. So please leave us a review on iTunes and join us on the web at schoolofgreatness.com to be notified of each episode when it comes out. Now let's get after it. School of Greatness. I just want to say a big thank you to everyone out there who's been listening,

downloading, commenting. You guys have been leaving me some amazing messages online about this show and it's extremely inspiring and motivating me to continue bringing on great guests for you and covering this topic on the School of Greatness. Now, I wanted to say something really quick. I've had a lot of five-star reviews on iTunes. I just want to say thanks to a few of the people out there who've left some reviews, and I'll mention a few at the end. But Julia Price, I saw, left a great message. Canal Girl, Chicago Crazy, Chris G10. I see Daniel Coleman, The Motivated Creative, Todd Bowen, Ram427, Johnny King, Nicola James. Lots and lots of great people.

I'll mention some more at the very end again. But you guys are a part of the reason what's driving me to continue doing this. And that's extremely positive. Had well over 20,000 downloads in the first couple of weeks of the podcast. Had well over 20,000 downloads in the first couple of weeks of the podcast. It's been on the top of the new and noteworthy section on iTunes pretty much in the first few spots every day. So I couldn't do it without you guys. I appreciate you.

Thank you so much. And our next guest that I'm bringing on is a cool guy that I've recently met. And his name is David Anderson. Now, he played in the NFL for about six years. and he'll actually share his story here in just a second, but this is a guy that does not really look like an amazing athlete. When you meet him, when you talk to him, you know, he's a smaller guy, but he played at the top level of one of the most athletic leagues in the world, the NFL, and he played at a high level for a long time. Now we're going to talk about his whole story, what he really did while he was there,

some interesting stuff he did with Peyton Manning and some of the best quarterbacks in the world, what he learned from them, the mindset of a champion, and some other great things. He'll get into that in a second, but I just want to take a quick minute to let you know that we have a new sponsor for the show, and the sponsor is OnIt.com. Now, with that, let's get into the interview with my man, David Anderson. What's up, everyone? Hope you're having a great day today i'm with a new friend of mine who we've hit it off pretty well we just had lunch here in hollywood area and now we're back at my place in west hollywood thought we'd get together and do a little recording for the school of greatness his name is david anderson and he is a six-year NFL vet,

wide receiver for the Houston Texans most of your time. And then tell me a little bit more about what were the other places. Well, Houston Texans, I had the privilege of getting cut five times. So if chasing your dream is something, I definitely was doing that. But I played a little training camp with the Denver Broncos, went back to the Texans, and then finished up my career with the Washington Redskins. Washington Redskins. And then you got – so you didn't get injured.

You just got cut at the end, right? I didn't get injured. I actually finished my career. I was just fine. I just didn't sign back with Washington. I was planning on finishing out a great season and getting a big $10 million deal like Wes Welker, but they didn't – we weren't on the same page. So instead, I just kind of waited throughout free agency,

and like probably 99% of the NFL, the NFL retires you instead of you retiring from the NFL. Not even Brett Favre got to decide when he wanted to quit. So I walked away healthy and happy and now ready to go on to something new. Right. So tell the listeners what type of player you resembled or what type of player. Well, unfortunately, the NFL is rather a label type of business. I'm white and I'm 5'10", so immediately I came in the NFL and Wes Welker was still unknown.

So they didn't compare me to Wes Welker. They would say Steve Tasker or Tim Dwight. Oh, sure. Basically, they're 5'10 white people is what it is. When I always thought my game kind of resembled a little more of like a Santana Moss or Steve Smith who actually went to Utah and was a punt returner. Granted, they actually were a little more athletic, but our numbers weren't that different. And I was planning on playing receiver.

There wasn't a position called slot receiver when I was first in the NFL. You were going to be a wide out. I was going to be a wide out, yeah, just like what you think you're going to do. And not until you leave college do you realize that, A, you're not as good as you think, and you can't be a craft of everything. You have to learn what you do and do that well. The best, right. Yeah, there's only probably two receivers, probably not even.

You wouldn't put Calvin Johnson in the middle of the field to run five yard outs because he's just not good at that. Right. His strides are too long or something like that. So you put him outside where he does best and his matchups are, you know, you can exploit them a little better. So you got to realize what you do well. And that happened to be in the middle of the field where some guys aren't willing to go. And a lot of guys, they grow alligator arms in the middle of the field where some guys aren't willing to go and a lot of guys they grow alligator arms in the middle of the field and i was willing to throw my body around there and i understood the position of defense so i was able to exploit them a little better right exactly so you went to colorado state and you had four successful years there did you play all four years yeah didn't red shirt went there right away really yeah got out i graduated three

and a half actually you'd be proud of me did Did you start as a freshman? I did not. I started two games as a freshman. I didn't play. My first game, my freshman year at CSU, we beat Virginia at Virginia. And then we beat CU at Mile High Stadium. Virginia was ranked, I think, 15. CU was number four. And we weren't ranked.

CSU was not ranked. And then we came to the Rose Bowl and played UCLA, and we lost by a two-point conversion. We were supposed to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated, but that was when Fresno State had David Carr, and they won, and they got on the cover of Sports Illustrated. So we just missed the bus there. But, yeah, played my freshman year and then started sophomore, junior, senior. What was the most exciting game you ever played in college? Against Colorado at their place. junior senior what was the most exciting game you ever played in college uh against colorado

at their place it was a back and forth football game we were down four um with like a minute 30 left we drive down the field i catch the ball in if there was a review it would be a touchdown but it was before there was the review so they can spot the ball on the one-yard line, and we don't have any timeouts, and there's like 28 seconds left. We have a run play. We get stuffed at the one again. We run off the field, try to run jumbo on. We snap the ball.

A field goal. No, it comes down four. Jumbo, the big package. Gotcha. They hype the ball. The running back goes the wrong way. Quarterback peels back around, gets tackled. We lose the game. Oh, man. They storm the field. I running back goes the wrong way, quarterback peels back around, gets tackled, we lose the game.

They storm the field. I'm throwing punches at students, and that was the last game against Colorado. My friend Adam Bornstein is a huge Colorado guy, graduated there. Would love to hear that story from your side. He was probably storming the field that game. I can say Mason Crosby, the kicker for the Packers, ruined my college career. I think he made four field goals over 50 yards my junior and senior years. It was crazy.

And I mean, even that Colorado altitude. I'd see him warming up kicking like 75 yards. Jeez, man. That's insane. You kicked field goals in college? I kicked a 42-yarder in high school, actually. With the old toe punt? No, man.

Soccer stops. I used to play soccer. I was a varsity soccer player my freshman year. I didn't play football until my sophomore year in high school. I played my freshman year as my first year in football. Yeah. I was basketball, otherwise. Yeah.

I played basketball, too. So, interesting. So, you guys are learning a lot about David, just like like I am because we just met a few hours ago. We've been talking online, the Twitter and email, back and forth, kind of talking about stuff. Because David is now retired from the NFL. His last season was in 2011. Last year. Yeah, so not this year, but last year.

2011. It's a 12 season, but yeah. 2011, 2012, whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so this year he was in shape, hopefully going to play, but then for whatever reason it didn't happen, and you feel pretty okay with that, right? Yeah.

You know, it's tough. You obviously stay in shape. You hope someone calls. You're considered a free agent, and there's a lot of good players out there just waiting to get picked up. But you can blame a lot of things, you know, the CBA structure, that guys had to pay you a certain amount to bring you in, that there was younger players, you know,

that the practice squad can only be filled by certain players, that they had these vets, that a player of my size or caliber can only play these certain positions. There's a lot of factors in which you can use excuses. A lot of excuses. But that's all they are is excuses. But really, if you're a playmaker are they like you

enough? If they really liked you and you're in the right system and you fit

and then you make plays and then they pay you and they keep you. That goes

for a lot of things in life. You could very well still be on a couch in Ohio

for all your listeners. I learned that today. You just hope that you meet the right

people, that you get put in the right situations. That happens in the NFL just like the right people, that you get put in the right situations. And, you know, that happens in the NFL just like the business world. You know, you could go work for NBC, but if you were on CBS, you'd have your own show.

Right. And instead you're watching television. So it's humbling, but, I mean, I still got to play six years. You got to taste, man. It was fun. Now, was the dream as a kid to be in the NBA or to be a pro athlete. I think in fifth grade, my mom showed me this book report. I wrote that I wanted to play either football for Notre Dame and in the NFL

or play basketball for UCLA and work for Fox. I don't know how this – Fifth grade is what I said this. So I didn't do any of them in college, but I played in the NFL. But yeah, I had aspirations to always be the best in athletics. I think that's just the way I looked at it. I was good. Growing up, I was always the best player on the team.

In eighth grade, I was probably not the best player on the team. I played on an inner-city basketball team here in California. Studs. not the best player on the team i played on an inner city basketball team here in california studs four four of those guys play in the nba and so they're probably grown-ass men they were grown and gilbert rainis was on our team uh brandon heath who plays over in europe is a great basketball player poo richardson the place for the trailblazers there's a lot of great players around that team and i end up playing football on any day so it's just it just shows that athletically to all you guys to all you great players that are on that team. And I end up playing football in the NBA. So it just shows that athletically, to all you guys, to all you people listening that are parents, your children will decide what sport to play and they will get found.

You don't have to put your kid in third grade and, you know, the school, the Peyton Manning school and learn how to be a quarterback already. If they're a good athlete and they learn how to play. Because you get found when you're 14, not when you're 5. Yeah, and just like you, you played all sports growing up, and I think that's a healthy way to do it because you get a taste. You find out what you like, and you don't get burnt out. You kind of go about it at your own pace.

And as a parent, you wouldn't decide a career on your kid. So if you're trying to decide a sport, that might be a career, so you've got to be careful in what you're picking. You wouldn't tell your kid you've trying to decide a sport that's that might be a career so you got to be careful what you're picking you wouldn't tell your kid you know you got to be a photographer and yeah you don't ever put this camera down so it's the same thing for uh you know say oh you're gonna play basketball your career or tennis or whatever it is right now why did you want to be why did you want to be the best at what you were doing why did you want to be a pro athlete why did you want to be like what was it mentally? Or was there something that happened when you were growing up?

When I was, I had older brothers that are 10 years and 20 years older. And so I was always challenged. You're the youngest? I'm the youngest, youngest of three. And my brother was 10 years older. So when I was eight, he was 18. And I remember him coming back from his freshman year of college and asking if I wanted to play basketball.

And that was my sport. And I beat him in one-on-one of college and asking if I wanted to play basketball. And that was my sport. And I beat him in one-on-one. When you were eight. When I was eight and he was 18. Shut up. He pushed me in the back and I slammed my head through the garage. Wow. My dad comes out and asks what happened.

And he said that I got mad and I punted the ball into the garage. And right then I knew that I had won because my brother not only lost, but he had to make an excuse for his loss and lie about him losing. So I was like, okay, this is the way it's going to go. I'm fine with this. And, and, and I just kept, you know, I use that type of motivation and I never, you know, people meet me, they're like, Oh, you're small or you're this or that. I never, I never, I've never had a different body. So I don't know how that works. I just know the gifts that I was provided with athletically, I used them to the best I knew how. I just always kind of found a way to get open playing football in high school.

I wasn't that much smaller in high school. I was kind of full grown almost. Speed-wise, I was just fine. In college, I went to Colorado State where I probably had an earlier opportunity to play as opposed to if I went to an SE school or Pac-10 school. I'm confident that I would have played at those schools. Way to junior or senior. But I would have probably been like, yeah, junior or senior.

Right. So I got on the field earlier. I got exposed to the talent. I got exposed to the speed, and I learned. And my sophomore year, one of our receivers got drafted, and I was better than he was. Really? So my sophomore year, I knew. He was a senior.

He was a senior. My sophomore year, I knew I was going to play. I'm like, all right, my new goal NFL, wow, get drafted. And so basically that's what I set, set my sights on. And that was as high as you can go. Right. So at that point, you know, you're, you're, you're in and I was in it to win it. And so, you know, I just, I trained every day, sophomore, junior year, like I was in it to win it. And so I trained every day, sophomore, junior year, like I was trying to play in the NFL. If they said run once, I'd ran twice. If they say 6 a.m. run and 3 afternoon run, I ran 6 a.m. and 3 in the afternoon. Wow.

I was never a huge lifter because that really didn't matter. I felt like with my size, there's not a big difference between 195 and 205. You're still a smaller receiver. It's more about speed and good hands. It's more about what do you feel comfortable in your body doing and what is your weight to play best at, not what do they think your weight is to play best at. And so I understood that at an early age,

and I kind of just went about sports like that. And to better ask you a question, why I wanted to be great is I didn't know anything else, to be honest. It was just the way I was going to do it. Now, interesting. What's been the hardest thing mentally for you through college and the NFL to learn how to adapt? Because when you go from high school to college, I remember my freshman year was like a smack in the face, just trying to learn system, the offense, and new team and everything.

like a smack in the face just trying to learn like system the offense and new team and everything what do you do or how did you deal with the mental challenges of college football big time college football and then the immense stress in the nfl yeah uh i always say going when people ask about the speed and and everything i'd say when you play high school football everyone everyone's ran on ran on a treadmill so high school football was everyone's ran on a treadmill. So high school football was like walking on a treadmill and talking to the person next to you. That's what high school football was like. College football was like you hit it up

five miles per hour faster and now they're asking you questions and you have to answer questions. Just normal questions. It'd be like if we were doing this on a treadmill. We're running now. Sometimes you think of two things. NFL is you turn it all the way up and they ask you, factor out the X in this equation. Give me the slope of this line.

I remember that, but how do I do this? You're running 15 miles an hour. And you're running as fast as you can. The routes aren't any different and stuff like that, but you're already running full speed and you know you have to catch up and stuff. And so you have to fight that mental. Some way you have to slow the game down. Either you have to be fast enough to where the game's slow or you have to think fast enough to where the game is in front of you. Wow.

So that would be the way I would say how to adapt. Now, it's about putting in hours. If you go back to my phone, I was doing it the other day, I have voice recordings of me saying the plays to myself and then thinking about the play because I didn't learn. Looking at a playbook is fine. I learn the plays, but the quarterback doesn't come out with a book. He says them to you, so you do have to be able to visualize it.

It's not about reading it and being able to do it. It's about hearing it and being able to do it. So I would read myself the plays. It's about finding a way to learn, finding a way to prepare yourself for when the opportunity comes. And I think that's the way I showed up. And I was constantly present, and I was never hurt. I was always on the field. And if someone needed a rep or was tired, I would go get a rep.

And I would be open backside. Yeah, I didn't get the ball, but they can never say he was covered backside. Like, hey, maybe we should throw this guy the ball. It's about just finding what you do well, finding your approach, and setting yourself apart however you have to do that.

Some guys, we had guys with the white tape on their wrist. If you look on the inside, they have the 10 routes that they have throughout the day, and they're all written down left side of the formation. You don't want to be the guy that's getting wrong. And some guys, they gave them $10 million so they can make more mistakes, and some guys are giving them $10,000, and you have to be perfect on every play.

So you just got to know your role, as they say. Know your role. It's interesting because in business or in sports, I always talk about you've got to put a lot of the time and energy and get the experience first. And then just so you're ready when your number is called. Because just like you said, you've got to be ready. You've got to be open when they throw you the ball. If you're not open, then they can't throw you the ball. You've got to have the chance to be open.

Absolutely. And it's about setting that groundwork, that experience. It's why would they give you this opportunity? You have to prove that you've earned that opportunity. That's something we talked about at lunch and we'll probably touch on here is getting that experience to prepare yourself and then finding what you want to do to do that. You know what I mean? Like a lot of people are like, oh, I can do this, I can do that. But no one's going to hire someone for six months.

Someone wants someone who's going to grind for two years, and then they'll give you an opportunity. And so, you know, it's got to be – NFL will expose you. And if you think you're going to go in there and get a job in six months, you're wrong. Right. Because they don't pay seventh-rounders until you're three. So you have to hang around for at least three years. What's the minimum salary for a seventh-rounder?

Minimum salary for a seventh rounder? When I was there, it was $265,000. Now I think it's $365,000. So it goes up like $25,000 a year, which is nice money. But say you only play one season. You've made $365,000. You probably take home $120,000 because you've got to pay your agent. You've got to pay some bills.

You probably owe student loans or some credit card bills or your car or whatever. So now you have $120,000. Hopefully you graduated from Mississippi State. If you didn't, you've got to go back to school. Where are you?

That's the problem with a lot of guys. And you have zero experience and you're just sent out there in the world, and hopefully you didn't make too many mistakes personally where you have mouths to feed or anything like this, but that's just too common amongst players. They think that they've had so many coaches and people helping them their entire lives. They feel indebted to like when someone asks, you want to give back.

Yeah, so now it's… Well, I think the stat from Sports Illustrated was 78% of NFL athletes go bankrupt two years after they retire. Yeah. The NFL and basketball is pretty bad. And it's not the exact reason because the career is not over three years. All right. So those guys are almost most definitely going bankrupt because they don't have any money to begin with. And so, I mean, bankrupt, if you had 15 and you have zero, I guess that's considered bankrupt too.

But you always hear about the guy who had – 20 million. You know, 20 mean, bankrupt, if you had 15, you have zero. I guess that's considered bankrupt too. But you always hear about the guy who had 20 million is bankrupt. Well, it wasn't really 20 million. He spent a lot of it having fun, living the lifestyle. He was kind of risky in some business investments. And then he just didn't understand how it really works. The day he retires, it's over. That paycheck isn't coming. There's nothing coming.

People are like, oh, you have an NFL pension. Well, a lot of guys don't officially retire for two, three years because they still want to be able to go back in the NFL. So that hasn't even showed up yet. That's only about $35,000. If you're used to living off $1.5 million, $2 million, $35 grand you can waste in a weekend. Yeah. And so they're just trying to figure out a way to stay afloat. And so they're hoping this new risky business is going to come in.

Oh, I gave $3 million to this sports facility in Florida that's supposed to turn athletes 40s and drop three-tenths. And all of a sudden, oh, wait, the trainer dipped out and and now we have no money, and he's living in the Bahamas. Fifty grand a month. Yeah, you're gone. And your name's on the lease, and you still owe $9 million. Now your $3 million turned into a $6 million investment, and you get none of it back. So that happens. I mean, I think that happened to Mark Brunel.

That's happened to a lot of guys that played 14, 15 years. Wow. So, I mean, they do a better job of educating you now, but you're just not prepared. The difference is you work your whole life as a normal business person, and you're 40 years old, and you're prepared to get money. You've worked your way up. You've steadily stayed afloat. You know how to get money. Well, these kids, myself included, you're 23 years old.

They've been pushed through school in order to just be eligible. And now they hand you $10 million. You don't have any idea how to really turn that $10 million into something that's sustainable for life, how to manage it, who not to give it to, where to put it, how to save it, what to spend it on, what not to spend it on. And so it's just gone in an instant. And the NFL tries to do some education programs, but really there's a disconnect between the people talking and the athletes. They're not listening to them. They don't really care.

They just want to make money. Knowing things that can happen to them. Yeah. And yes, they do. You get the huge checks coming in every week. A friend of mine, Jared Nicholas, who played for a couple seasons for the Rams back in the day and another team, I think the Patriots.

I remember he said that the first week after he signed with them, after training camp, he got like a $25,000 check or something the first week. And he was just blown away by this check. It was like $20,000 or $25,000. And he said next to him was, shoot, who's the old, who was the quarterback before, that's for the Patriots, before Brady. Bledsoe, right? Yeah, Drew Bledsoe.

He got a head injury or whatever? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he was a quarterback then, and he said he was his locker mate or whatever, and he threw down his check because he didn't really care. He was like, oh, whatever. He threw his check down. It was a quarter of a million dollars. Yeah.

So every week he's getting a quarter million dollar check. There's a great story about that. Mike Flanagan used to play center for the Houston Texans. He said he was helping Brett Favre clean out his lockers. Brett Favre had two lockers in Green Bay. He found a check in the back for $425,000

that he had yet to cash. It was like a year and a half old. He didn't even know it was in the back. Nor did he care. He's like, oh, I'll take that. He's like, yeah, by the way, there's just almost a half a million dollars sitting in the back of the locker. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

And now they do direct deposit. Otherwise, these guys would have a serious problem. Imagine how awkward it is. Some guys walk in with a $100,000 check to Wells Fargo in your student account that you had last year and they're like, you should probably invest this. I mean, they don't know any better. It happened to me. They're going to buy a bunch of cars and stuff. Hopefully not.

What did you do with your first check? I drove a Toyota SR5 all through high school and college. That's the year before they came out with the Tacoma, 89. I was six years younger than I was, the car. And so seventh round, I got a signing bonus. Well, what's your claim to fame about the seventh round pick? Seventh round, 251, Marcus Colston was one pick behind me. Still playing.

What's his contract like? I don't know what it is now. I think he's on his third deal. He must be because we signed three-year deals or four-year. He might be on the tail end of his second deal, but anyway, he's got a lot of money. And so I bought a Ford F-150 out of Houston. That's the first thing I bought. Then I got my mom a new washer and dryer.

There you go. I was a good son. You've got to get your mom something, right? You've got to get your mom something. I told her I was going to get her a car, but I just didn't have the means yet. This never happened, but she's doing just fine nice so tell me about i want to know more about the mindset of some of the greatest athletes who played with the nfl and what really separated the guys like uh like you said peyton manning at lunch was just like the most unbelievable

quarterback you've played with or caught with. What really separates these guys' minds over maybe a great athlete but that doesn't perform as well? You know they're not bullshitting. They speak in very simple terms. They can break down the game or their process just the same way that they play the game or the process. Athletically, they look like it's not difficult. The game does not look that hard for Peyton Manning.

It looks like he has plenty of time. It looks like his players are wide open or every now and then he'll make a great pass. But he knows what he's doing before the ball is snapped. He's done all the preparation throughout the week, and he speaks the same way. So when you're standing there and he's explaining to you why you need to come out the route downhill, why you should bleed up field on this certain route, you understand why

because he's using terms that you understand. He's relating it to the way you usually run the route. He's explaining the defense and their leverage and how you can use that against them. And then you watch guys like Andre Johnson and Aaron Foster that I played with in Houston, and they do the same thing, but without words. You know what I mean? You don't have to use a lot of words to get your point across. And that's something I see in the business world that translates is some of the smartest men just listen and they let you make the, and then they know where to capitalize or things like that.

And if you understand, you know how to ask the right questions, you pay attention to the right pieces of information, you can do wonders. And those guys can do that. They understood blitz pickup. They understood when they can run the route a little different. They understand athletically what they can get away with. And they did that. And they exposed people. And, you know, you have to know what you just, like I said earlier, you have to know what you do well. And fortunately for those guys, they're such talented football players and athletes, they do a lot of stuff better than

anyone else. So they just do that. And they say, you know, come get catch me if you can, basically. So that's a fun way to look at it. And I think it's easy for people to understand because it looks so easy to them. And it's not. It's not easy to them. They just have – they understand themselves. They understand the game. They understand how to tell people.

They understand, you know, their awareness is, like, heightened. I don't know why you knew how to spin. The guy was behind you. How did you know, their awareness is like heightened. I don't know why you knew how to spin. The guy was behind you. How did you know the spin? They're like, I don't know. I just felt it. You know, things like that. Why did you invest in this?

I don't know. It just, it sounded like a great idea. You know what I mean? Like everyone, everyone, why would you do that? It's the same thing. And so it's interesting to see those people and you just hope that they have success off the field like they did on. Now, how do people like that, how do you think a person like Peyton Manning will learn how to be that way? How does he transform his mind from just a kid playing football in the backyard,

probably going through stress and struggle with high school to football and college with girls and relationships? How does someone mold their mind to think like a champion? Reps. He's probably never – everything done on the field, he's probably repped out 10 times in person practice, and he's probably repped 100 times mentally already. Every situation. Every situation.

I'm willing to bet he's probably been caught by surprise two times in his NFL career. You never see that guy just get laid out, meleed from behind. Unless something breaks down protection like you see a left tackle just get bulldozed or something. And it's their fault. So I'd say reps. And then that's what creates his confidence. His comfortable. And then he's confident because he's comfortable.

And then when you're confident and you're comfortable and you're prepared, it's up to you. And however successful you are, it's like a matrix all of a sudden. And that happens to every great athlete you see. And I remember it happened to me in college. In the NFL, I think it happened one season. I had the game slow down. And then other seasons, after you don't get a rep, it speeds back up again.

But I specifically remember in college against Fresno State my freshman year, all of a sudden it's like everyone was a step slower than I thought they were. The game just went on slow-mo on pause. And that's what it must be like for Peyton Manning. Even amongst the fastest humans on the planet, it just looks to him like the game is just a game of chess, that he's sitting back there, he's toying with you with his language. He's pointing at people that it doesn't matter. He's doing mic calls, and that's not even the mic, but he's sending – they're doing opposite calls.

And so he's definitely a step ahead of people. My favorite is when you listen to like those NFL audibles or those sound effects, and they're like, I know what he's saying. When he says this, they're doing this. And then you see him all run to the left, and he goes to the right. And like he knows you think you know. He's the old double reverse psychology.

That's hilarious. Now you said you got to catch with him a couple times or one time? One time I caught a couple of painting passes. A lot,

you know, I caught a lot of, I caught a couple from Tom Brady. Majority of Southern California can catch a lot of SC quarterbacks. So I caught a lot from Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart and Matt Castle.

Your boy Brandon Hance. Yeah. But, I mean, you get to that level, it's hard to tell. They're all amazing. I think Peyton puts the ball in a certain place, which is nice. Carson Palmer looks like robo quarterback. I mean, he just, the ball is so certain place, which is nice. Carson Palmer looks like robo-quarterback. I mean, the ball is so sharp. It comes out fast.

Sometimes it's a little behind you or whatnot, but he definitely looks a part in his deliveries. I mean, you look at Peyton's balls. They're all wobbly. But they're exactly where they're supposed to be. So it's tough to say. But those quarterbacks, I always wish I played quarterback. But then when I got to the NFL, I'm like, no thanks.

Oh, right. No. No. It's a beating, man. Yeah, no. Drew Brees is doing pretty well. He's about your height. You say that.

Maybe he's your height. He's like 6'4". How tall are you? 6'4". You're 6'4"? Yeah. You got to look up your profile. I'm 6'4".

I was 6'4", flat foot at the Ohio State Columbine. Oh, nice. Yeah. Never creeped over 6'. That's all right. the Ohio State Combine. Oh, nice. Yeah. Never creeped over six. That's all right. You played in the NFL. I did it. All right, Smith.

Tell me some other stories about, we were talking about Tebow. Now, this is a guy that people either love or hate. Yes. And you don't have to tell me if you love him or hate him, but you told me you had some interesting conversations with them, and you have to catch with them when you were playing with the Broncos for a little bit. But you actually didn't play a game with the Broncos.

I played a preseason game with Tebow. I was running with the twos, and so I would go in there with Tebow. And actually, I preferred to go in with Quinn at the time. Right. Because as a veteran receiver, and you go in with Tim Tebow, a lot of times you weren't sure. He's going to put the ball on the mark. Well, not only that, was he going to put the ball on the mark or not,

but a lot of times you're like, I'm not supposed to get the ball on this coverage. I'm not supposed to get the ball. Why is he looking at me? Why is he looking at me? He should not be looking at me. On the third option. Do not throw the ball over here. There's a guy standing right in front.

And then you would throw it. And you look bad because you're like, you run the other direction. You don't want to get melee'd or something like that. And say what you want about guys getting alligator arms. But when you know you're not supposed to get the ball and they throw the ball your way, you're like, this is going to end in disaster. So that would happen a couple times. I had never seen anything like it when Tebow was in Denver. He was beyond a fan favorite.

He would scramble in 7-on-7 drills. For all of you listening, 7-on-7 is no alignment. It's not even 7-on-7. It's actually a quarterback and four receivers. A quarterback, four receivers, and a running back. So we actually have five against their seven. Three linebackers and four DBs. And you're supposed to get rid of the ball in like two, three seconds,

like if there was a rush. Well, Tebow would start scrambling during seven-on-seven drills if no one was open. And I would stop running because when I was with the Texans, you don't scramble. You just throw the ball to the back if no one's open or bury it and go to the next play. He would start scrambling, and all these guys would run around and stuff, and I wasn't used to it. And then he would throw this bomb, and someone would catch it, and the crowd would go crazy.

I'm like, this isn't real. There's no one chasing him. And then every now and then he would do it in real life, so he'd be like, well, I guess it's kind of real. But it was interesting. And I have – my perspective is that he's pretty guarded because, just like you said said you either hate him beyond belief or you absolutely love him more than anything and uh he does a great job with

with all his charities he gives a lot of his time away to people i know he's very generous to a lot of uh you know underprivileged people you know all throughout denver and you know pretty much i think he's got charity in philipp and Cuba or whatever, all over the world. But he also has this edge about him that he always wants to compete and things like that. And some people take that the wrong way, especially within a locker room. Like if you're a backup quarterback, a lot of times you're supposed to be a support system for the starter.

Not trying to get the starter. Not trying to get it or pushing the media towards you or anything like that. And he wouldn't back away. And so there's nothing wrong with that, the way he did it. But he also didn't deflect the attention and stuff. So I could see how that rubbed people the wrong way. But, I mean, he won a Heisman Trophy. He got drafted in the first round.

Won, I think, two national titles. So you can't mock him as an athlete. As far as where he's going to go from now on and whatnot, you just wish him the best of luck. He'll be just fine. I think he just signed a couple million dollars to say he likes TiVo. Doesn't he? I think he's back with TiVo.

TiVo, TiVo, TiVo. Oh, my gosh. I don't know. They signed him as a brand ambassador. I was like, I'll be a brand ambassador for anything. The old flip cameras, I'll be a brand ambassador. Exactly. The old flip cameras, I'll be a brand ambassador. The wind-up cameras, I'll bring those back. You want a brand ambassador?

Exactly. Now, greatest athlete you were talking about before. Who do you think is the greatest athlete you've ever seen? The two greatest athletes that I've seen are Reggie Bush and Andre Johnson. That I've seen in person once is LeBron James. I saw him play against the Lakers. He's a freak. And so I like to put those guys kind of all in the same category

because I think not only are they athletically superior, obviously great mindsets when it comes to sports, but they're great athletes too. They could probably play any professional sport just so happen they played the one they could play. Right. I mean, if you said LeBron wanted to go play goalie for the U.S. national team, you'd be like, he's going to be the greatest goalie I've ever seen.

No one's going to get by this guy. Or receiver. Or you could play tight end receiver. Or if you were to say, hey, he picked up a tennis racket. Wait until you see him play. None of us would be surprised if all of a sudden he was smashing 100-mile-per-hour serves on people. I mean, even with a tennis racket, his reach would be sideline to sideline. And the same goes for, like, Reggie Bush.

I bet, you know, feet-wise, it would be tougher to give him a soccer ball or something like that. And so that's what I always tell people when they're like, who do you think the greatest athlete is? I was like, not only do you have to think athletically, you have to think, can they play another sport? Because of course, you're going to think like, can a basketball player play football or a football player

play basketball? But I would always say like, you know, call it, is it Charles Rogers? No, Sean Rogers, the D-tackle that used to play

for your Browns and a couple other, and the Lions, was one of the freakiest athletes I've ever seen. He was like 360 pounds to get 360 dunks. But he could never play an NBA game. He wouldn't make it up and've ever seen. He was like 360 pounds. He could 360 dunk. But he could never play in an NBA game.

He wouldn't make it up and down the court. But you put 360 pounds on anyone, and for them to dunk a basketball, you'd be like, you have so much power. It's impressive. It would be ridiculous. That's impressive. Now, I once heard this somewhere. some ESPN analyst or someone said that the best champions in the world have one of two things. They have a belief in themselves, a huge belief in themselves, or a huge belief in their faith or God. And when you look at it, when you look at interviews of guys after they win a game or something,

you either see a guy who's super cocky, who's like, yeah, I did this, I did this, me, me, me. But they so believe that they're like a god themselves, that they're so athletic and it's like all on them. It's that belief that allows them to be so successful and dominate on everyone. Or you got the Tebow who's like, God first, put my faith in God. He's like, all God, God, God, faith, faith, faith, belief in something else, that he gets his strength from something else. Now, do you think that that's a true – I could get behind that. You could get behind that?

Yeah, I could get behind that. Because if you don't have the confidence and belief in yourself, either way, you can't be successful. I was kind of raised to be open-minded to all religions. And so I think they all come from the same thing, the belief that you're not here alone, that you're not – you all share something, whether – where you disagree about what you call that god or who is the messenger, the main messenger, that's fine.

Everyone believes that you should be good to other people, that you feel this spirit inside you, that this world was not created for something. So I can get behind that because I believe that. And I believe that I'm put here for a reason, that there's a plan, that things happen to me and I'm supposed to go forward and make people around me better. And whether it's part of a team, whether individually I do that and people rally behind me, however that works, I believe in that.

But you ultimately have to have a belief in yourself too. I don't – because my only argument would be like, well, there's plenty of guys who – those old school documentaries where he says, oh, I used to drive around this neighborhood and I told my mom I'd buy her a car. I'm betting there's tons of athletes who didn't make it that also so that there's moms as well as i bet there's a ton of heavy christians or catholics that didn't make it in the nfl as well so you have to have a combination you have to have yeah i think would is what would really happen uh or what's the the truth but yeah i could get behind that yeah i mean it's about i don't know it is about an inner self. You don't expect to lose.

Right. You find ways to win. You change, you're not scared of change. You change your plans. You can adapt. You separate yourself somehow. You understand things better. You communicate.

You do something that separates you constantly. And those are the people that I find that are great, whether it's in business or in sports. I've dabbled in broadcasting. And there's these people that make mistakes and they just run right over them and they don't even think of them. Those people, I'm just like, wow. I'm like, I used the wrong word there. And I really like – I was even scared to say that word again. They're like, oh, don't even worry about it blah it's the same that goes for the guy in business

that made one mistake in the stock market he's like ah happens we're going on the next investment this is going to do well same in sports oh you ran around route once uh don't worry about it they're going to throw it to me next time and they can do that it's just it's amazing and it's resilient they're resilient you know and uh you have to be because as you get higher and higher there's more people poking and prodding you, and there's more haters. No one boos the mailman is what Reggie Jackson used to say. You can hide and do nothing, and you'll be fine. But if you start climbing the rakes and anything, you're more exposed.

Exactly. why do you think these great athletes, super successful champions in football, any type of sport, why do you think when they retire, when they stop the game, that some of them can translate that mindset and that attitude into the business or life, and others can't? You've got guys who are committing suicide a lot recently. You've got guys who go bankrupt and then who never get back on their feet. But they're once this amazing champion and really great. Why can't guys – or why can guys and then why can't they translate?

I think there's a bigger emphasis now on creating a network while you're playing and getting a team behind you and getting a team to join, getting people in your corner now when you're playing. Because too often when guys are playing, everyone wants something from them. Hey, I got this investment. Hey, can you, a t-shirt company. Hey, you know, this record label I'm starting.

Hey, can you do this? Can you do this for me? And everyone's trying to take from them, take, take, take. So they become really guarded and they shut down. And then your career's over and those people disappear because the fame and what you can give them is over and now no one is in your corner. So you're at it all alone and you're probably in your mid-30s. You're depressed because you're not playing ball anymore.

You're depressed and you have your own thing and no one is in your corner but maybe your wife who's nagging you about this and you're always at the house now and your whole life basically gets flipped upside down. Time, your time spent different, your money spent different. Everything changes. Media is not a – You're no longer relevant. And so some guys understand that before they retire.

And I would say those are the guys that transcend careers pretty well. They go and go into business. They become a solid investor and things like that. There's few guys that have dominated in a couple of industries, and I couldn't even name them off the top of my head. But a lot of times it's golfers. They're very individual, and they do a good job of creating their network and a worth, and then they can do something golf-oriented.

Like whether it's clubs or they learn how to design golf courses and they make money this way. When you play a team sport, it's really hard to do that unless you start a camp. But even then, how many kids are going to pay $20 million to design a golf course? No one's going to pay me $20 million to design a football field. Let me guess. It's 120 yards long and it's 53.5 yards wide. Dang it. I don't get no money out of that.

So there's just not a lot of opportunities. And guys don't realize that. And they think that they have, you know, and I fell victim to it a little bit too, is you retire and you assume that you have this aura of invincibility, that no one can do this and stuff like that. And you do have it, but only in playing football. Then once you're done. But once you're done playing football, that's gone. You're human just like everyone else. You're exactly right. You're exposed for a lot of different reasons that you don't have

a credibility in anything. Oh, you want to be in the media? You look at a guy like Tiki Barber, right? Immediately thrown into Good Day LA. He should have been on air in the middle of nowhere, practice getting reps on how to speak in front of people and what to say because that's not natural for anyone to go do stuff like that. So a lot of guys just get exposed really fast and they lose confidence in themselves. That's when they're most vulnerable.

That's when you're done. So you've got to learn how to what you just, you know, and just how you did it in the NFL you've got to learn that you've got to be willing to start small again and build up your career. Unfortunately for some guys, it's when they're 35 and they're not humble enough to start over. Their ego is too big. They think, why isn't anyone hiring me as a CEO?

Because you have no experience. You have no experience. The thing is you have that mentality. I know I would be a good manager of people. I know I could be a good motivator, a good coach. But I don't have the experience to deserve that opportunity. Those days are gone. Back in the day,

they used to hire the baseball players to immediately be the manager or you'd be a player manager. Bill Russell, now, no way. There's no way you're going to walk right off and get that opportunity. You have to start over at something and you really have to find something you're passionate about. And if you spend your whole life being passionate about football,

you never have time to be passionate about anything else. Right, right. So you just hope that you hit the ground running with something else. Otherwise, hopefully you gave yourself enough of a bankroll to buy time in order to find that passion. Some guys did it, and some guys spend the money too fast. Now you're just like we were talking about. You're in the hole hoping that one of your investments hits.

The Lewis Howes t-shirt company is not doing too well. We're living out of the basement. Man, so what's one thing about you, one of your passions that a lot of your fans and maybe some of your friends don't know about? I really enjoyed making people laugh. I got asked to do a stand-up comedy set for the Houston Dynamo, the soccer team. The Dynamo is a soccer team out there. And they had their major league soccer all-star thing.

And one of the players came up and he's like, hey, we heard you're willing to get out there and say some funny stuff. We've seen some things you do. Would you be willing to get on stage and entertain the crowd for five minutes? I was like, so what is everyone doing? And he's like, well, some guys are going to tell some jokes. Some guys are just going to tell some stories. I was like, oh, OK. And so I remember one night I had a couple drinks, and I sat my buddy down,

and I grabbed the rock band mic stand, and I told him some jokes. And I thought, if I can make one of my best friends laugh with a set, I'll do all right. And I remember at the end, he's like, you had two funny jokes. He didn't laugh. He just told me those two jokes might do well out of ten. Because I had no idea. Tell a joke? You were an expert at it.

And so I didn't know if that's what they were going to do or not. So we got up there. I got to the event. He said there was going to be like 500 people there. 2,500 people there. Jeez. You're going to go on stage. Guy Torrey, the little comedian, was the emcee.

I'm like, oh, good. Someone get me a cocktail. I need to lose some weight. So I had a glass of, I think I had a Red Bull vodka. And I was like all amped up, liquid courage. emcee i'm like oh good someone get me a cocktail i need to lose some time so i had like you know a glass of i think i had a red bull vodka and i was like all amped up liquid courage and so i went up there and i told jokes and i just killed what i thought i killed it now if you was your first time ever telling jokes on stage i i would you could go youtube and i would be impressed if you didn't think it was decent at works like you're're like, okay. I mean, I played off the role of being, you know, football.

I used some of those jokes about how, you know, football players get a lot more tail than soccer players and stuff like that. And so it went over well and stuff. And I really enjoyed it. And it really got me going. And so I enjoyed entertaining people in that area. Not necessarily like I want to be a stand-up comedian or anything like that, but I enjoy making people laugh. Having fun.

Enjoying a situation. Being able to relate to people and stuff like that because that transcends through everyone. Everyone wants to have a good time. Everyone wants to smile and if you're not, that's your own fault. You should be having some fun in what you're doing, otherwise you shouldn't be doing it. I don't know where that works, but I know in the business world, whether it's giving a presentation, I won't be scared. I'm comfortable doing that.

I'm comfortable, you know, making people come, you know, making other people comfortable, whether it's asking them, you know, the good questions or, or relating to their business and things like that. So I'm hoping that stuff kind of, you know, it can use that works well and I can use that. And I don't know if that means that, you know, I start asking you questions here, but that's, you know, that's what, uh, that's what I'm hoping. Right. Cool. So what do you think we'll start to wrap up here? What do you think makes in one sentence, what makes great people great? Not the easiest question because you have to do it in one sentence. What makes great people great?

Give me a couple sentences. They separate themselves, I would say. That's a good football analogy. As a receiver, yeah, especially. You separate yourself. But whether that's taking a chance, whether that's working harder, whether that's never giving up, I think ultimately you separate yourself from the pack that way.

Not like lone wolves do well because you need to be part of the team and stuff like that, but you separate yourself through your performance. And I think the greatest, that's what they do. There might have been 10 CEOs, but when they get their opportunity to be in charge, they take the business to another level. There might have been two scouts, but he went out there and scouted these 10 players and found four great draft picks. You might be asked to type up 10 pages, and he did 15 pages consistently, and so over the course of a year, he quadrupled everyone else's performance.

Whatever you do to separate yourself, how you can separate yourself, I would encourage you to do that because I know that's what I did. When I was on practice squad and I was asked to be on scout team, I would scout the other team's corners and the teams were playing receivers. So I would give the corners on my team because I wanted to know why those receivers were starting and I wasn't. I would give them a book on the players they were going to play as well as I would have stuff for our receivers to look at. And so we were prepared to play.

So I was preparing both sides of the ball. I understood why people were making it as a receiver and what defenses were doing to try to take away receivers. So I learned double, and I got the exposure, and I turned a time on practice squad scout team into a time where I could really learn the craft, just like you said, putting in the groundwork, and I separated myself. There was other scout team receivers, and they got cut, and I played week eight, and

I did pretty well. So I would say the greatest people separate themselves. Interesting. So what's next for you? Where can we find you online first, and what's next for you? Twitter handle, DavidAnderson89. I currently have a digital media job with Package Sports and Entertainment helping out with EA Sports and their NFL films.

I'm going to continue my search for education. There's a couple programs through the NFL about a coaching academy that I'm going to go to as well as there's a program in Stanford and an advanced broadcast boot camp thing I'm going to do. So I'm continually just searching for my, I don't want to say next passion because I'm passionate about all these things, but about something I really want to get behind for the next five years. In the meantime, I'm always out there trying to connect with people like you. I really admire the things that you've done on LinkedIn

and hearing about your story and your transition. It's impressive and it's honestly inspiring to all athletes. And on air, I want to offer my ability to connect with some other guys, to you and everyone listening, that I think this is great. And we talked about how Facebook, everyone just bashes you or says bad things. And LinkedIn and getting together with people and just offering a conversation, get a cut together and get a cup of coffee and see if there's any way everyone can help each other.

That's the way everyone moves forward. You do great stuff online. Thanks, man. For sure. I think everyone's got a great following. I'll be getting more involved in this side of business and the internet landscape and media and social media. And so I'm hoping to follow kind of in your footsteps in that landscape and it'll be fun. And so hopefully within the next couple of years, you'll see me doing something where you can interview me again in another aspect.

Sooner than that, hopefully. Sooner than that. So make sure to check David out at DavidAnderson89 on Twitter. And if you're listening to this right now, go ahead and send him a quick tweet. Let him know you enjoyed this interview. And other than that, man, appreciate you, brother. Absolutely. Let's make it happen.

And there you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this interview with my man, David Anderson. Awesome story, and I'm really excited to see what this guy has got coming up with next after retirement. Now, again, thanks so much, everyone, for leaving all the five-star reviews. Some more people I saw who were leaving reviews is Todd Bowen, King Large. We've got Austin Henry. I saw Vegan Mafia left me a cool review. The Shadow Boxer, Sean Malarkey, Kara Singleton.

So again, lots of people leaving five-star reviews on iTunes. If you haven't done so yet, please share the love with me over there on iTunes and leave a quick five-star review. Other than that, guys, looking forward to sharing with you guys some amazing interviews coming up soon. Stay tuned. Leave us a comment over on the blog at schoolofgreatness.com if you enjoyed this, and I'll catch you guys next time. Thank you.