00:00Our hometown hero. I mean you're a man with a lot of accolades from what you've
00:04done on the field. What is a hometown hero award mean for you now? Well I mean
00:09it's really cool. I think a lot of these awards and stuff it's always a byproduct
00:13of what you're doing. You never set out and say hey I hope to be nominated for
00:16an award like this or I was fortunate to be nominated for Walter Payton Man of
00:19the Year a few times in my career and that's never the motivating factor but
00:23you know I have a heart for the Lord and feel very compelled in my life to try
00:28to serve others the way that I've seen and learned from from Jesus and it's
00:33cool that there is some recognition that I can hopefully shine to some of the
00:36organizations that I work with. I read something about you about growing up in
00:40Nebraska your grandma had like an all purple house and the same thing the
00:44purple lady the same thing you grew up and like with your parents gave you like
00:49purple pots and pans at your wedding. I want to make sure I got that right. You're
00:53a hundred percent right my mother's here tonight it's actually a shame she's not
00:57wearing purple tonight believe it she's probably got some earring or shoe or
01:01something that's purple but when my grandmother passed away yeah my mom
01:04became the purple lady too and my house every wall every couch all pots pans cups
01:09forks knives everything's purple. So you grew up in a home and now you get a
01:14chance to raise money to bring awareness to the housing crisis or affordability
01:21crisis and housing in New York that's got to kind of hit home for you as well.
01:26Absolutely you know my upbringing wasn't like this the whole time we had some
01:31some up-and-down years and we were forced to sell our home the home that we
01:34had like my parents grew their family in and that was really hard on them and I
01:37saw what that did to my parents and my father and how tough it was and then we
01:41were in a different house and it was just even though it wasn't what we wanted and
01:45there wasn't like a bedroom for me to be in and stuff because we were all
01:47together it was you make the house into a home and wherever your family is that
01:51becomes your home and a goal for me and my career and one of my motivators for me to
01:55play this game is to win championships but it's also to create enough wealth
01:59that I can have a home of my own that I can grow my family in and the Lord has
02:03blessed me in some amazing ways that I that I have a home now and I'm growing my
02:07family. You've been able to use our on the field gift to help others off the
02:11field let's talk a little football now man you guys are back into the building
02:15year two under Aaron Glenn like does it feel different do you feel something
02:20special bro I know it's early but you feel something special you know if you
02:24can remember I was I was traded to the Jets late in the end of training camp
02:28right at the beginning of the season so this is actually my first offseason as
02:31well and so I don't really have anything to compare it to but I will say that
02:34we've been working really hard and there's been a huge emphasis on getting
02:37bigger faster and stronger and learning and I'm happy that our rookies are now
02:42there we're still in phase two but it compared to other you know nine or so
02:46offseasons I've had in the league it's going really well. What was your
02:49initial reaction when you saw David Bailey walk through the building? That's a big
02:53dude that's a big man and I felt a little slighted he didn't know I went to
02:57Stanford as we are you know he's a Cardinal guy too I know he ended up
03:01transferring out and has great success there but I'm proud to claim it was a
03:04Stanford. You're gonna run that bill up on that rookie dinner he's got to know
03:08Stanford royalty there. I wouldn't say a Stanford royalty by any means but with the
03:13NIL and getting drafted pretty early I hope we can go to dinner somewhere nice.
03:16Any recommendations here in the city? Let's see there's Seville there's
03:20Pergola a lot of a lot of places. I haven't been here long enough to try all
03:24these places out but. I know a guy I got you I know a guy well congratulations on
03:28tonight. I appreciate you very much man God bless.
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