On this episode of This Liberation Thursday, host Ryan Henderson Blanchflower is joined by Brett Favre to discuss his battle with Parkinson's and why it's so important to have a long term vision for the country. Plus, we sit down with NFL Hall of Fame Legend, Brett "Brett" Favre, to discuss football, faith, and his struggle with Parkinson s.
00:06:52.000We've based our entire system on making stupid short-term decisions so a politician can get elected in three weeks, even if it screws us 30 years down the road.
00:07:02.000It's about a fundamental departure from the decades of open borders, globalization, multi-trillion dollar peacetime deficits, and taking this country in a different direction that puts American workers and American companies first.
00:07:19.000So, we're going to get into all of that.
00:07:21.000Plus, we're going to sit down with NFL Hall of Fame legend Brett Favre to discuss football, faith, and his battle with Parkinson's.
00:07:31.000So make sure you guys are liking, sharing, subscribing, so you never miss one of these episodes.
00:08:07.000And for all of the latest headlines that we cover here on the show, go over to my news app, MXM News, like minute by minute, MXM.
00:08:14.000Where you can get the mainstream news without the mainstream bias.
00:08:18.000And of course, it's all of you who make this show possible, along with our incredible sponsors.
00:08:26.000Now, you've heard how hard it can be to get access to medications like ivermectin, all of these things that were so critical and so critically important, and to have on hand in an emergency, to be prepared in a time of crisis.
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00:09:03.000Head over to allfamilypharma.com slash donjr for 10% off your first order.
00:09:39.000And they also share your values by giving back to our military, veterans, first responders, sick kids, and organizations that support our Second Amendment rights.
00:09:50.000I personally own their rifles and shotguns like their big boy revolvers and.357 Magnum, and they're some of my favorite guns to shoot.
00:09:58.000The kids definitely love the lever action.22s.
00:11:17.000We got to start making long-term decisions, not short-term rapid ones to get some whatever person to donate to a politician while they sell our future down the river 50 years from now.
00:11:34.000Forty years, we've had an economy that rewards people who ship American jobs overseas and raises taxes on American workers, and we're flipping that on its head.
00:11:43.000We're going to cut taxes for American workers and for American companies that build here.
00:11:47.000We're going to make it harder to ship American jobs overseas.
00:11:51.000It's a total shift in the way that we've done economic policy in the United States of America, but it was necessary.
00:11:57.000So, yeah, we're going to cut your taxes.
00:11:59.000You're going to have more money in your pocket, and that's, of course, going to help you deal with the cost of inflation.
00:12:03.000But that's not about offsetting the tariffs.
00:16:34.000is also an example of national security.
00:16:38.000For our energy sector, for our agriculture sector, and for our manufacturing sector, for too long we've given other nations, even hostile ones, frankly many hostile ones, unfettered access to the American marketplace.
00:16:54.000Are Americans really benefiting from any of that?
00:16:57.000For example, we've covered repeatedly the dangers of letting CCP link, that's the Chinese Communist Party, Linked entities buy up our farmland and infiltrate our food supply chains.
00:17:10.000And according to a new report, the Trump administration is now ramping up its investigations and scrutiny of this nefarious behavior with companies that are linked to China.
00:17:21.000HHS, the FBI, the Treasury Department, and many others are making it clear that business as usual is over.
00:17:29.000We're not ceding our sovereignty and our critical supply chains and our infrastructure to the CCP or any third-party countries who are doing their bidding.
00:17:41.000But, of course, Democrats are doing everything they can to stand in the way of all this.
00:17:50.000The good news is, this week, Wisconsin voters did overwhelmingly vote to make voter ID the law in their state, which, of course, everyone knows is common sense.
00:18:01.000The Supreme Court seat didn't go our way, but the voter ID law is massive.
00:18:07.000By the way, for the future, guys, we all have to get in the game.
00:18:23.000Because if Donald Trump's not in the ticket in the future, we still have to win, or our country will be in just as much jeopardy as it was In 20, in 16, in 2024.
00:18:34.000So we have to start playing that same game.
00:18:40.000As Senator Mike Lee pointed out, the DNC, along with Democrat leadership in Congress, have filed a lawsuit to allow non-citizens to vote in American elections.
00:18:52.000Just so we're clear, they want illegals and non-citizens to vote.
00:18:58.000The further away from America that you can be, they probably want you voting in their elections.
00:19:03.000They would love our enemies to vote in those elections, too, because they would all vote Democrat, because that would lead to the destruction of American hegemony, sovereignty, and everything else that we stand for.
00:19:16.000And as Doge revealed, there are 5 million non-citizens who have Social Security numbers.
00:19:36.000Well, it made my jaw drop, too, when I saw it.
00:19:39.000You know, we were in Social Security looking for fraud, waste, and abuse.
00:19:42.000And to do that, we actually looked at the enumeration system, the system by which people get numbers in America.
00:19:48.000And we found that there were just about five-plus million of them that came to the country as illegals, were giving various forms of parole around the country, and they got through an automatic system, social security numbers, to get into our benefit systems.
00:20:02.000And we tracked that through and found that they were on the benefit programs.
00:20:05.000And just because we were curious, we then looked to see if they were on the voter rolls.
00:20:11.000And we found in a handful of cooperative states that there were thousands of them on the voter rolls and that many of them had voted.
00:20:18.000And as we close out the news rundown, we'll play this video.
00:20:22.000The White House put out today laying out the $5 trillion in American investment secured under this administration.
00:21:07.000It's a joint venture between SoftBank, Oracle, and OpenAI, and they're going to create a data center that will eventually be expanded to other states.
00:21:15.000Shows people are listening to Mr. Trump's pitch to bring new industry to America.
00:21:20.000This is the latest pledge from a foreign business leader promising to spend big in the U.S. as a result of Trump's election victory.
00:21:27.000Founder of the property development company, Demac Properties, is pledging the money.
00:21:31.000President Trump announcing $100 billion investment NVIDIA says it will invest hundreds of billions of dollars over the next four years,
00:22:01.000Part of the manufacturing renaissance under President Donald J. Trump.
00:22:04.000Furniture maker Pre-Pack are shifting their operations from Canada to North Carolina.
00:22:09.000Johnson & Johnson says it will invest more than $55 billion in the U.S.
00:23:09.000Foreign leaders from around the world, investors from Silicon Valley, to Wall Street, to Main Street, have confidence again in our economy, in our markets, and in President Trump.
00:23:18.000The Trump effect this morning, a string of massive wins for American manufacturing.
00:24:01.000Whatever hysterionics you hear on TV, whatever you see in a short-term blip in the stock market, this is going to make up for it immensely, okay?
00:24:11.000And with multiples, you just have to let it take its effect.
00:24:18.000Remember, it was like January 20th My father gets sworn in and about seven seconds later, the Democrats are saying, egg prices haven't gone down yet.
00:25:08.000Instead, let the experts at Tax Network USA handle it for you.
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00:25:38.000Talk with one of their strategists today.
00:26:37.000As someone that's competed at the most elite levels in professional sports, What do you see what's going on here?
00:26:43.000Because it's almost hard for me to believe that we're even having these conversations.
00:26:47.000No, I'm totally in agreement with you.
00:26:51.000To have to even discuss this is beyond me.
00:26:55.000But, you know, it's the state of our country right now.
00:27:02.000And if we don't stand up and voice our opinion and get out and vote and do the things that we have to do, Then we're going to see more of this.
00:27:12.000And so that's why I really got involved.
00:27:16.000And I don't want to say too deep in politics, but enough.
00:27:21.000You know, I'm not the smartest guy out there, but I know that men should not be dressing in girls' locker rooms or competing against girls.
00:27:36.000And you know, they're older now, but I would certainly not want a man going into the girl's restroom or locker room or competing against them.
00:27:46.000It's totally unfair to the girls and absolutely absurd to even have to talk about it.
00:28:38.000You know, the mothers that go to these soccer matches and they watch, you know, a triple header of T-ball can just watch their daughter's scholarship get stripped away or whatever it may be, or just, you know, lose a state championship every day.
00:28:51.000And even they're not willing to speak up.
00:28:54.000So I want to applaud you for having the guts to speak up against this stuff because you were one of the original guys to actually start talking about it.
00:29:02.000And then you saw the wave of guys doing the, you know, Touchdown celebration, Trump dance thing.
00:29:07.000I mean, you know, there does seem to be a pretty big switch in professional sports from from the competitors themselves that they're not just accepting the nonsense anymore as well.
00:29:17.000Well, you know this better than anyone, Don.
00:29:31.000I mean, if there was ever an example of.
00:29:36.000Ridiculousness for a guy who and the same goes for your dad.
00:29:42.000You know, you're taking a pay cut to help this country.
00:29:46.000You know, Elon Musk is sleeping on a couch in the White House or in a Tesla outside to make this country better.
00:29:54.000And the backlash that he has gotten now, I know it's a small minority in the big picture, but nonetheless, I think that in itself Is what scared a lot of people away.
00:30:06.000Like I'm, you know, I'm with you, but I'm not going to say anything.
00:30:10.000And that's part of, I was a big part of the problem.
00:30:13.000I think now we're starting to see the wave, as you said, of people who are voicing their opinion for the good guys.
00:30:22.000Yeah. And that's what it's going to take.
00:30:26.000I mean, Elon was a darling of the left until like, Two years ago when he decided to be like pro free speech and then he said, hey, I can make the government more efficient.
00:32:04.000But I'm sure if I went to some of these rogue cities, I would catch some friendly banter from some of these people.
00:32:14.000You know, I think the key is, again, you know this, your dad knows it, your family knows it, because you've dealt with it.
00:32:23.000You have to be steadfast and not waver, because some of these people are evil, pure evil, and will stop at nothing to justify their cause or whatever you want to call it.
00:32:39.000And so we have to be steadfast in our beliefs.
00:32:43.000And stand by, you know, because a small minority, you know, what I do, I see, you know, someone sends a nasty comment to me.
00:33:01.000Yeah. That's actually my superpower is that, you know, what people say about me doesn't bother me at all, which allows me to actually function in this world.
00:33:09.000If you're affected by all of that, you know, the hate, Uh, you know, that can change your whole outlook.
00:33:15.000But, you know, I've been to some of those cities lately that you're talking about.
00:33:18.000And honestly, you'd be surprised how much more willing they are to acknowledge that what's going on is actually really good.
00:33:24.000So I think I think we've made a big shift.
00:33:26.000And a lot of that has to do with, you know, again, guys like you stepping up and just being willing to open the door for others to be vocal.
00:34:06.000Because so much of what we can do to help our kids is actually preventative, right?
00:34:11.000I don't want to give them, you know, drugs to fix a problem afterwards, but like, being healthy can actually stop you from ever doing these things.
00:34:18.000And we're just making sure, you know, they're active, exercising, you know, what can you tell us about all that that you're doing?
00:34:24.000Well, to be real simple, Abe, we have a mutual friend, Arthur Schwartz, great guy, great friend.
00:34:33.000And Abe reached out to him about me getting involved.
00:34:39.000But I do know about exercise and staying fit.
00:34:44.000As you know, I was diagnosed with Parkinson's about a year ago, and I've met with five different specialists, and all five have said the same thing.
00:34:57.000We found that the best remedy for controlling Parkinson's, it doesn't stop the progression, but it seems to Maybe slow the effects, is exercise.
00:35:10.000When you throw in the towel, get on the couch and say, my life's over.
00:37:00.000A couple of the big tech billionaires and everything like that, they discover, whether it's testosterone or lifting or maybe a little combination of both, a little testosterone boost and all of a sudden their entire worldview changes.
00:37:17.000So maybe not only we're starting a movement towards being You know, in better shape and taking care of yourself, but we're also adding to the movement of.
00:38:25.000Well, first and foremost, your dad, when I spoke in Green Bay at the rally, I had a chance to visit with him backstage.
00:38:33.000You know, I've known your dad for quite a while.
00:38:36.000I wouldn't consider us great friends, even though I think the world of him.
00:38:41.000But he said to me in private, me and my wife, Deanna, we were We were sitting there talking with him and he said, Brett, if it's out there, we're going to find the treatments, the solutions, not only for you, but for everyone.
00:38:57.000If at all possible, we're going to provide our country with what they need, not just medications.
00:39:08.000There is no cure for Parkinson's right now, but I would say since I retired in 2011, I was kind of on this passionate crusade to solve the concussion puzzle, come up with a solution.
00:39:25.000Better helmets help to a certain degree, but look, concussions are going to keep happening.
00:39:31.000I bring up concussions because every specialist I talked to, I said, where do you think I got Parkinson's?
00:39:38.000And they, each one said, If it's not in the family, then I would say head trauma and or environmental chemicals, exposure to things you eat, you know, cellular waves, whatever.
00:39:53.000But they all said, based on what you've done for so long, and the amount of head trauma is monumental, you know, whether it be small or big, would be the root cause of Parkinson's.
00:40:07.000And so, Would I change things if I could go back?
00:40:14.000But as I'm trying to, you know, control the progression, if you will, I'm also trying to find a cure or something that would at least stop it in its tracks or the progression.
00:40:31.000And so that's, you know, I'm trying to take a negative and make it into a positive.
00:40:36.000I have to take medicine every four hours.
00:40:39.000And, you know, if I'm slow to take my next dose, the rigidity and the shaking and stuff, you know, constantly remind me, hey, it's time for your medicine.
00:40:51.000And, you know, it sucks, but it is what it is.
00:40:55.000And I'm going to make something positive out of it.
00:40:58.000Yeah. I mean, I know we've spoken offline.
00:40:59.000You know, I lost my best friend to suicide, but, you know, it was, you know, Pro football player, played high-level college, he was an incredible athlete, but I think what he said to me, I didn't even know anything was going on, and then one day he shot himself.
00:41:15.000We spoke eight minutes before it happened, and he was breaking my balls.
00:41:19.000It was a regular day, and then someone else was in the driver's seat for that short instance.
00:41:24.000He sort of said, Hey, listen, I was, I was fast, but there were guys that were better than me.
00:41:29.000So I used what I had as a weapon to make a tackle.
00:41:31.000And if I tackled someone and I didn't, wasn't seeing stars, I wasn't hitting hard enough.
00:41:35.000And I was like that, you know, you know, they, they sort of blamed that one on CTE.
00:41:41.000Uh, but what, what do you see, you know, with football, uh, with that, you know, obviously, you know, there's people complaining about some of the rules changes and it's, you know, and, you know, maybe, maybe rightfully so.
00:41:51.000And then there's that intersection of like, Hey, If my kid wanted to play tackle football, I'd say maybe, hey, play soccer or something else that doesn't have the head trauma.
00:41:59.000You know, how do you see how all of that relates to football?
00:42:03.000Would you let your kids play the same way that you did?
00:42:07.000How do you sort of take this cultural phenomenon that is football, like the most American thing there is, but also stop these things from happening?
00:42:15.000Because there are a lot of those stories.
00:42:17.000Like I said, one's really personal to me.
00:42:19.000Obviously, yours Uh, you know, that's probably what it is.
00:42:24.000Uh, you know, how do you see that whole combination of things going on right now?
00:42:28.000Well, as you know, Don, football's not going away.
00:42:30.000It's a multi-billion dollar industry and it's the American way.
00:42:37.000Um, that being said, um, knowing that it's not going to go away, what I would like to see the NFL to do, and let me back up.
00:42:47.000I got three grandsons, 14, 11, They have never, first of all, they've never played football.
00:42:55.000They have never asked me would I help them or teach them how to play.
00:42:59.000If they did ask, by all means I would help them.
00:43:03.000But I don't think that a 14 or 15 year old kid, definitely younger than that, should play tackle football.
00:43:09.000They should play flag football at least until high school.
00:43:13.000And that should be across the country.
00:43:15.000And that would eliminate some head trauma.
00:43:18.000Not all, but you're protecting the kids.
00:43:22.000Because an eight-year-old should not be playing tackle football when their head and their skull is not even close to being completely formed.
00:43:33.000So that's one way that we can help with this whole concussion deal.
00:43:40.000But I would like to see the league commit more to treatments, a solution.
00:43:48.000Rule changes granted some of them help some of them are kind of head scratchers.
00:43:53.000Yeah but at some point we got it we got to find a you know, you you have a Concussion or the trainer thinks you had a concussion you go to the sideline You know you take something you you Put something through the nose or whatever to stop the inflammation in the brain because that's basically Lack of a better term concussion is inflammation of the brain And so,
00:44:19.000much like a sprained ankle, or where you put ice on it, or you take anti-inflammatories, there is nothing for concussions like that.
00:44:29.000You know, sit out is the best solution.
00:44:32.000So we need something, and there's a lot of money obviously going through the NFL, put some of that money into a treatment that can stop the inflammation in his traps.
00:44:46.000Have you been involved in watching those sort of treatments manifest or mature, what those treatments could be, what's working or what could work?
00:44:57.000Because I'd love to see some of this waste, fraud and abuse that they're discovering.
00:45:01.000You know, instead of funding circumcision procedures in Mozambique, maybe put it towards, hey, some of the biggest ailments, you know, that are happening in America.
00:45:19.000I think a lot of the money that has been wasted could be better served for concussion or things in this country that matter.
00:45:30.000I think there's a concussion drug that is in clinical trials in Australia that is in like 2B.
00:45:39.000Phase 2B, and it's shown a lot of promise.
00:45:43.000And, you know, where that goes, who knows?
00:45:47.000You know, the process in which that all goes through is pretty detailed, as it should be.
00:45:55.000So there's a chance that there'll be something in the near future.
00:46:00.000At least, you know, there's hope that it will be.
00:46:05.000Other than that, I really don't know of any You know, I'm sure there's people out there trying to, you know, much smarter than me are trying to come up with something, but I don't know of anything that's going to be readily available in the near future.
00:47:04.000I was in and I shared a bedroom with my two brothers.
00:47:08.000And as you can see, if you look at that photo, the posters and sports memorabilia was all over the walls, the ceiling and our dad was a baseball and football coach.
00:47:24.000Um, and so everybody came over, you know, I didn't go to New York.
00:47:28.000I wasn't invited to New York for the draft, not that I would have went anyway.
00:47:33.000Uh, and we just had a, you know, a big party and, uh, uh, you know, later down the road, I never thought that an NFL player, of course it's Baker Mayfield would do a, a, you know, I thought he did a hell of a job of recreating that draft day photo.
00:47:53.000To go through the trouble he went through.
00:47:55.000It actually, I thought it was pretty cool.
00:48:00.000Not knowing that jorks and the old cordless phone, which our kids have no clue about any of that.
00:49:22.000We had a mini camp the next morning in Atlanta, so I I was I was living at my mom and dad's house down on the Gulf Coast, Mississippi, and there was two flights out of Gulfport, Mississippi to Atlanta, one in the morning, one in the evening.
00:49:36.000The morning when I was scheduled to be on, it was delayed a couple hours.
00:51:04.000So needless to say, at the end of that year, I got traded to Green Bay who, um, Had hired or fired their head coach and GM prior to the end of that season.
00:51:16.000And I didn't know this, but Ron Wolf, we played the Jets that year.
00:51:21.000I was with Atlanta late in the year in Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta.
00:51:25.000And Ron Wolf came down in pregame to watch me throw.
00:51:29.000I didn't know I was on, you know, on alert that that someone was potentially looking to trade for me.
00:51:37.000Yeah. He gets the GM job at Green Bay and he said his first order of business after hiring Mike Holmgren as the head coach was to trade for me.
00:51:47.000And I was, you know, what's so cool about the whole thing is I'm drafted in the second round.
00:52:31.000How are you able to read defenses so well?
00:52:36.000I started all four years at Southern Miss, and I don't say that braggingly.
00:52:40.000I say that because we were not really a throwing team.
00:52:45.000We threw at some, but I was never taught because our offense was not a complicated system.
00:52:51.000Most of the time, we ran toss, sweep, option, and if we threw it, it was like a sprint out, you know, something that you didn't have to read.
00:52:59.000So no one ever taught me The various defenses, you know, I knew what cover 2 was, I knew what cover 3 was, I knew what man coverage was, but it really, in the offense at Southern Miss, it didn't really matter because you called a play and you ran it, you didn't check out, very rarely did you have audibles and things of that nature.
00:53:21.000So when I got to Green Bay in the West Coast offense and Mike Holmgren, who had coached Joe Montana and Steve Young before coaching me, It was what I considered very complicated.
00:53:33.000The playbook was like this thick and formations, motions, check with me, audibles.
00:55:47.000By the way, I think that's like anything else, whether it's, you know, banking or otherwise.
00:55:50.000I mean, these guys talk and they talk in the acronyms, you know, ABC.
00:55:54.000And like, if you just say the words, it's like, oh, I know exactly what you're talking about.
00:55:57.000But, you know, they sort of make you feel foolish by not necessarily, you know, articulating what the actual stuff is and just, you know, talking in the, you know, banking speak.
00:56:05.000So, yeah, I think that's probably pretty common.
00:56:26.000Now, this kind of tells you what kind of offense, you know, our system.
00:56:30.000So we're watching the film of Memphis State and they're blitzing like crazy.
00:56:35.000And I'm like, I'm 18 years old, you know, I'm bulletproof, but I'm looking at this and I'm thinking, I mean, this is jailbreak every time they're playing someone.
00:56:46.000And so I say, Coach White, what do I do if they blitz, if I see blitz?
00:56:51.000And he said, I'll tell you what you do.
00:57:53.000I can't, I can't speak for Scott or Jeff because I was not there, but I don't think he, maybe he saw something in me that he didn't and the other two, and the other two both got scholarships and played in college.
00:59:37.000It's kind of hard to skip when your mom and dad are driving you to school every day.
00:59:40.000Exactly. But, you know, along with that and the discipline that my dad, you know, I can't tell you many times, Don, I would say, Dad, let's throw the ball.
00:59:49.000And he says, look, you let me worry about running the plays and calling plays and running this team.
01:00:12.000Speaking of fathers, my father was at the NCAA Wrestling Championships recently in Philadelphia.
01:00:18.000Uh, and so much of the greatness of America, I think, can be found in sports like wrestling or football or just something, you know, these, you know, contact aggressive, uh, sports.
01:00:30.000Uh, what sort of lessons have you learned from sort of each chapter of your career from high school to then, you know, Southern Miss to, to playing professionally?
01:00:41.000Yeah. You know, the, the, the different phases or times from high school To college is a, is a big leap socially, um, fitting in, but I, you know, I think with, with football, it really, you go onto a team.
01:01:02.000If you walk into the locker room, first time I'm 17 years old and you were the big dog where you just left and you're just the guy you got tape on your helmet says far, they don't even spell it right.
01:01:14.000Your name is not the easiest one they just come up with.
01:01:51.000And all of a sudden I was one of the guys.
01:01:54.000Yeah. And the same can be said as I went on to the next level.
01:01:58.000And then to play 20 years, I really had a chance, Don.
01:02:04.000Most guys It's over before they want it to be.
01:02:09.000And they never had a chance or much time.
01:02:16.000You know, the latter part of my career, I was actually, I'd be in a TV timeout, and people sometimes would say, Brett, what are y'all talking about in the huddle when they come back from a commercial break?
01:03:04.000You know, it wasn't like when it was over, like, why didn't I enjoy it?
01:03:08.000I had a chance to really, because of those 20 years, you think about grade school, first through 12th, how much first grade to senior year?
01:03:19.000Now you go 20 years of National Football League as a rookie and a first year guy to, you know, all of a sudden you got kids.
01:03:27.000I had a grandson at 40 and it's totally, it looks totally different.
01:03:33.000But I was able to really soak it in, and when I look back, I don't go, I wish I would have done this, or I wish I would have done that, or I regret this.
01:03:44.000Fortunately for me, I don't have those regrets because of the longevity.
01:03:50.000So what helped you with that longevity?
01:03:53.000I mean, 20 years in the NFL, I mean, that's almost unheard of.
01:04:29.000And of course he and my mom didn't come out there.
01:04:32.000But after the game, my dad said, if you ever do that again, you'll sit out there until you rot.
01:04:38.000Cause I will never come out there and get your ass off the field.
01:04:41.000Now, if you're really hurt, that's a different thing.
01:04:44.000But I, you know, and I can't tell you how many times after that, I, you know, that moment that them tell me that resonates just as if he just told me.
01:04:54.000And I can't tell you how many times on the field, I was, you know, high school, college pros, where I was, yeah, I was dinged up.
01:05:03.000And I really, that moment would be right there.
01:05:59.000So I would get up off the turf every single time.
01:06:02.000That's really, I mean, by the way, it's sort of what happened with, you know, another great, like Tom Brady.
01:06:06.000I mean, I was watching, you know, that game when the Patriots were playing, when Drew Bledsoe was taken out.
01:06:13.000And I was watching it with a bunch of guys, we were in like hunting camp, and I was watching it with a bunch of guys from Massachusetts, who I'll affectionately refer to as Mass Holes.
01:06:21.000And, you know, for them, it was like the end of the world.
01:06:24.000I'm like, well, I didn't really watch Patriots football, so it didn't matter.
01:06:27.000I didn't think of Drew Bledsoe as this thing.
01:06:29.000And this, you know, young kid quarterback comes in, Tom Brady, and, you know, who would have known that what was the most devastating things for these, like, diehard fans was actually, you know, the start of a dynasty.
01:06:43.000Yeah. Well, you know, Kurt Warner's another one who's a friend of mine.
01:06:47.000He was with me in Green Bay for a year.
01:07:00.000Yeah, I mean, that story about your dad is great.
01:07:16.000I have some similar ones with mine like that, that they just You know, you don't know why, but it resonates and it's a driving force that makes you keep going.
01:08:25.000The people, and I think for me, it was a perfect fit because they're blue collar, I'm blue collar.
01:08:31.000And, you know, I didn't play the game for them necessarily.
01:08:36.000But I played it like they would have played it had they got a chance to play.
01:08:40.000And I can't tell you how many times, more so today than any other time in my life, even though I'm 15 years removed from playing, I get this probably more than anything.
01:08:52.000The game is missing the enthusiasm and the excitement that you brought.
01:09:13.000You know, when I first heard that, I was like, you know, I never thought about it, but I was just excited about the last one as I was the first one.
01:09:21.000And there doesn't seem to be that joy and excitement much in the league anymore.
01:09:29.000But I think fans in general, whether you like me or not, could relate to that.
01:10:09.000Yeah. Do you think that, you know, sort of the money in the game?
01:10:11.000Obviously, you did very well for yourself in the game, but it seems like, you know, every five years out, it's like an exponential shift, you know, towards, you know, more money when you look at some of these contracts being signed.
01:10:23.000You know, do you think that has a role in sort of the change in the game to you?
01:11:11.000Yeah, you know, so I do think it's drastically, drastically affected the game today.
01:11:16.000Yeah, you know, my daughter is a great athlete.
01:11:18.000She's, you know, ranked, I think, in the top 75 in the NIL overall already.
01:11:23.000So, you know, as a, you know, she's treating it sort of like a business as a way to monetize that for her future.
01:11:28.000I like, I love that for her in a team sport.
01:11:31.000It does seem like it's problematic, right?
01:11:33.000You draft a great quarterback, you bring him to a college, he learns the game, someone offers him 10x the more money, you leave, you break up that entire dichotomy that the team was formed around this one player, and it does feel like it'll create a lot of chaos.
01:11:48.000I think the NCAA was definitely taking advantage of the name, image, and likeness of all of these people for a long period of time, but I don't know that what they came up with doesn't create Yeah,
01:12:13.000absolutely. And I don't know Nick Saban personally, but his retiring press conference, he said it so clearly.
01:12:26.000It used to be about Mentoring and seeing the maturation of, you know, a kid as he goes from a freshman to graduation and on to the pros.
01:12:37.000And he said, you know, I would go into these homes and I would talk about what I would do with your son and how I would build him up over the years.
01:12:48.000And he said, then it became, how much are you going to pay me coach?
01:12:52.000It had nothing to do with all the stuff that led him to be a coach.
01:12:58.000It was all about, what am I going to be paid?
01:13:03.000You know, just what kind of car are you going to give me?
01:13:06.000And I just don't see any good in that.
01:13:09.000Well, it also feels like it would, it's going to aggregate in, you know, you've forgotten more about this than I'll ever know, but it's also going to aggregate, you know, the top talent exclusively, you know, to the top, you know, five, 10 schools that can actually pay that.
01:13:21.000And some of those other schools that could be great football schools, just, you know, Aren't going to even get a shot at that talent to be able to, so you're just going to have this sort of like three dominant teams that have all the, you know, best players.
01:13:32.000And again, maybe it doesn't matter if they're not working as a team.
01:13:35.000Uh, maybe, maybe that overrules, but you know, that talent per se.
01:13:39.000Uh, but yeah, it feels like it's going to cause a lot of problems there as well for some of these smaller programs that have produced incredible players, uh, over the years, but it may not be, you know, it may not be Michigan.
01:13:50.000Uh, you know, it may not be, you know, XYZ school.
01:13:57.000I started as a true freshman at Southern Miss and it had the NIL been around and I got one off.
01:14:03.000That one offer was Southern Miss, so it was an easy choice for me.
01:14:06.000And I often think about or I get asked, what do you think you would have done had the NIL been in play then?
01:14:15.000Let's just assume we were back in 1987 and I ended up starting and at the end of that year.
01:14:22.000My body of work was good enough that Alabama or LSU or Ole Miss, Mississippi State, all the all the regional close teams said we're going to go for this kid.
01:14:39.000My mom taught special education in Mississippi for 35 years.
01:14:42.000My dad was a driver's head and coach for 35 years.
01:14:46.000And as you know, Mississippi's bottom tier and teacher.
01:14:51.000Salaries. So that would have been a hard thing to not take.
01:14:56.000Correct. But I may not be talking to you today because I may have gone there and just slipped through the cracks, wasting $500,000 like in three years or balling it maybe in a year, because that very easily could happen.
01:15:09.000And then I'm scrambling around trying to find a job somewhere, teaching school and coaching high school football.
01:15:16.000And what would have been is just a former dream.
01:15:22.000Well, there's something to be said about, like, not letting 19-year-olds have unlimited sums of money, because, like, I remember when I was 19, it was like, I think the best thing my parents did, and I'm not saying I wasn't blessed, I'm not saying I wasn't spoiled, but, like, it wasn't like, here's whatever you want, because, like, kids are going to make really bad decisions more often than not.
01:15:42.000Yeah, you know, you're absolutely 100% correct.
01:16:13.000What role, if any, does faith play in all of this for you when you reflect on your successes and how you're fighting this battle now with Parkinson's and working nonstop for better treatments and a cure?
01:20:55.000Well, Brett, thank you so much for the time, your incredible story.
01:20:59.000Look forward to seeing what you continue to do with the administration as it relates to the health and well-being of our children and physical fitness and everything else that you're doing on Parkinson's Research.
01:21:10.000So thank you so much for just staying involved, never giving up, never quitting, and fighting.
01:21:16.000That takes a lot of guts and you're doing an awesome job with it.
01:21:20.000My family loves your family and we think the world of all of you and where your dad is leading this country and what you're doing.