Brave Men S3E38: The Tenacious Pursuit of a Dream: The NFL Demario Davis Story

I'm here with Chris Shields who's up the producer for Brave Men and we have DeMario Davis on today, Chris. Yeah. This guy's amazing. He is. Yeah. Now you're an NFL guy. I mean, yes. Well, NBA primarily. Yeah. Okay, you're NBA, but NFL, I mean, when I started talking about different things, you're like, oh, yeah, he played here, he played there on the three, four as a four three. I'm a millennial. I mean, I'm maddened. Come on now. Madden. That's right. Xbox. Yeah. And DeMario Davis, man, this guy's a linebacker, which means he has hit people extremely hard. Hard. Capital age. Capital age. Capital age. Because if you don't, you don't play for Rex Ryan. No, you don't. Definitely not for Rex Ryan. Rex should be bad. You got to be bad. One of the most brilliant defensive minds ever, really in a film. Yes. Really? Coach? Yes. Oh, yes. Okay. Yeah, but he's, but he's never been with the Cowboys. I'm a Cowboys fan. I'm going to. I'll be quiet on that. Okay. No cover. Dude, man. Seriously. No cover. All right. DeMario Davis is on today. It's going to be great. You know what? What really hit me in talking to him was what he was dreaming about in the streets, in the middle of Mississippi, in the middle of nowhere, and his cousin, Steve McNair was throwing him past. Yes. Isn't that something? That is amazing. Yeah. I really did it. I really did not. I mean, I was raised watching McNair. My dad really loved him, especially in his days for the Titans. But at the same time, no, I never knew that until I listened. And a tragic story. And really, if you will, the contrast between where DeMario is today and what happened tragically to Steve is death. Is the story of two men who had, if you will, two different devotions, right? Yes. Definitely. One led God, lead his story, and then one led, led himself, lead his story. Let himself lead his sort. Man, it's a good way to put it, Chris. I think everybody is going to enjoy this conversation today with DeMario Davis. Thanks for being here with us today on Brave Man. It's Brave Man with Paul Lewis Cole, wisdom and courage for the journey. Working with DeMario Davis, and he is a founder, devoted dreamers foundation. He is, he's a father with a brand new baby, four children. And but what you do for a living is knock people down with great passion and you're playing an NFL. How does it, how does a kid growing up in Collins, Mississippi end up in the NFL, man? Man. I mean, come on. I looked up, listen, DeMario, I looked up Collins because I got friends up in Jackson. Yeah. I thought, well, maybe it's, and Collins isn't near anything. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Oh, man. Oh, yeah, man. I mean, small, small city boy, man, it's been a journey, man. I know I only get a glory to God of the statistic would definitely stack against me. My mom had me at her early age. I stayed with my grandmother when my mom had finished high school in college. And then my mom came back and got me and we ended up moving to Brandon, Mississippi. And, you know, just me and her. And my grandmother was the first one to introduce me to God and the Bible. And so I always kind of knew right from wrong, but as a, as a young kid and standing in rough environment when my mom, though I was good at football, I struggled off the field, got me a lot of trouble. But my talent, you know, kind of kept me on the right track. You know, I set a dream when I was in fourth grade and said I was going to the NFL. Really? All I could see. I mean, no matter what trouble I got in, no matter, you know, I mean, I was a kid that got expelled from school. I was, I went to jail my first year of college. I was always getting comfortable stuff. But for some reason, I always felt like no matter what, I'm just going to stay on this path going to this goal and I'm going to get, and by the grace of God, I was able to make it out of Mississippi to get a scholarship to go to Arkansas State, had a good career there. You know, I'm getting drafted. Yeah. Okay. You got drafted, but you, wait a minute, you got arrested when you were a freshman? Yeah. My freshman year before I ever played a snap, man, before you played a snap. So actually, you were an Arkansas. So thank God for that. Yeah. I mean, Arkansas is just back, it wouldn't just as bad for me in Arkansas as a kid in Mississippi. So it's football country. So, you know, if you can play, we'll get you out and we'll put you back on the field son. All the way I got out. I mean, the coach paid the bill and he gave me a second chance. He didn't have to give me that. That's where you go. Yeah. If I ever ended it for that and shortly after that, I ended up getting introduced to the gospel. I team chaplain shared the gospel with me. How that happened? So you had a team chaplain, all right? So now here you are. You've been in and out in trouble and and your cousin. Did you know your cousin McNair, Steve? Yeah. Yeah. And Steve ended up with some of the same issues, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Steve used to be quarterbacking for us when we were kids in the road doing us the ball and stuff like that. No. Play football. Yeah. Nobody had an arm like that, man. Hey, man. But he was different. So our team chaplain started to spend some time with me, some one on one time with me. And you know, asking me harder questions, questions challenging me, me what I thought a Christian life looked like, what I thought seeing was, you know, what it meant to go to heaven and hell and did I feel like I would go just harder questions and then open up the Bible and started to show me what God has answered to a lot of those things and I ended up giving my life to Christ and getting disciples, getting disciples and doing evangelism training in college and literally my life took a 180. I mean, I was always good on the field, but off the field is where I would take steps back. And once I got those to a line, then, you know, it was a lightning rod. Yeah. You know, that's one of the things that we talk about a lot, Demario, is that your talent can take you beyond your character and what God gave you was some talent. But thank God that a chaplain came along, took an interest in you. What was his name? Chuck McElroy. Chuck McElroy, Arkansas State chaplain. Was he chaplain just for football? He was a campus, you know, a campus director at the time of the day and I've been a regional director for campus outreach, which is very similar to like campus crusades. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's fantastic. And he just took an interest in you. Yeah. Just started spending some time. Just started spending some time with me for whatever reason. I went to a bunch of study a couple of times when I was a freshman, but you know, for whatever reason, once I got out of jail, he just started spending some time with me and just invited me to lunch, you know, spending one-on-one time with me, you know, just asking me questions of life. And the question was so challenging that I would oftentimes avoid him trying to have those conversations, but I didn't realize that there was a means to an ear and that he would end up having the biggest impact of my life ever. You know, so when that chaplain got a hold of you and came alongside of you, it was got answering your grandmother's prayers. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Man, that's, you know, that's amazing. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that same story, Demario, where a man going through life trying to run from God, in fact, my dad put it this way, he said, he tried to run from God, but he couldn't outrun his mother's prayers. That's it. That's it. That's it. Wow. Yeah, that's it. So when, so here you are with this talent and then all of a sudden the character element, you know, comes together and you end up out of Arkansas, I mean, out of Collins and then out of brand in high school, you end up being drafted by the New York Chets. Yeah. And I'm just drafted. You're like third round linebacker. So, so now at this point now you hit the big city. What was that like? It was, it was different. You know, it was definitely a culture shock, you know, being in the South of my whole life. Yeah. And being a country boy going to the city. But I think what helped my wife and I sustain with it, I foundation was right, you know, because we both had these radical transformations in college. It helped us mature very quickly. And because we were rooted in the right things, you know, before we stepped into the league, you know, all of a sudden we found out all this, this new income, these new resources, these new opportunities, we were trying to say, okay, God, how do we best do it? Like this? Yeah. To you. And so no matter what we are, whether we in New York, whether we in Mississippi, in California, we in Africa, we in Europe, it don't matter. Our goal is to glorify you with all that we have and all that we do. And so that helped us exponentially to be able to balance and not get lost in the midst of the chaos. And, you know, they have the same, you make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. And so we, that's how I claim the fame. We survived. We survived New York. And it was, it was, it was a great time. It was a great season. But, you know, God put you with some good guys, Rex Ryan is a guy that seemed to be like a man who cared about his players, not just his pieces, but his people. Mm-hmm. Yeah, Rex was a great coach, a great defensive mind. He definitely helped me turn the corner or get the wheels turning. What all can be done as far as defles and flexibility and the range of it. And so he laid a great foundation for me to be able to come in with that type of defensive mind and the veteran guys that we had. We had the real Revis Antonio Cormardi, you know, Dave Harris. I got the chance to play with a lot of, a lot of really good players on defense. And that, that allowed me to have a great foundation, you know, as far as sitting in the pressure, that's what my career. And laying that foundation is what has allowed me to be able to be at the level that I am today. Where do you meet? Yeah, which is you went to the Browns back to the Jets and then free agent and then finally got back down South with the New World Unsense. Yeah, man. That journey was, it was something, man. I feel like, you know, Cleveland was my one year sabbatical, man. That was my moment of Jacob wrestling with God and having to get his hip broke. That was my, my moment of wrestling with God. And I didn't realize, I mean, I hear I am coming to the league, believe in Bible studies as a believer and God's, you know, met me in Cleveland and said, you still don't know what surrender means. And literally, like, he stripped my entire body. I mean, I didn't have any major injuries, but like, I was fatigued. My joints hurt. Everything hurt. I didn't have any injuries. But I was just hurt. He stripped my mind. My mind was all the way like, you know, I'm a guy that loves to practice. I love to train, always been that way, but I would hate going to practice. All my ambition was just sucked out of me. I would go in my prayer closet just at night and just be like, broke down. I didn't know. I didn't understand what was happening. What was happening there? And we're not going to, and we're not going to blame Cleveland for that. I got some good friends here. Yeah. We're not going to blame Cleveland. We're not blaming Cleveland, but God was doing a work in your life. Yes. Yes. God says work. We've got a lot of guys listening right now and they're, you know, when Solomon prayed and he asked for wisdom, God says, I'll give you wisdom. But in Kings it says he gave him wisdom and knowledge and largeness of heart and largeness of heart only happens by stretching. Yeah. Yeah. Basically, he told Solomon, hey, you're, I'll give you wisdom, but you're not big enough to contain the wisdom you need for tomorrow's battles. Yes. And to stretch you too often, we push back on that. Tomorrow. I do. I do engage in that process. I didn't know what was happening at the time, but, but all I know is I stay faithful. Like for a guy with it, right? My body's breaking down. My mind's breaking down. And, you know, I remember going into my wife, I think I'm going to have to retire because I just, my passion's gone. My body's hurting. I don't know what's going on. And, but my joy wasn't touched. My joy, like, I mean, we were losing as the Browns. I mean, I had a happy home. I could find joy. My wife, my kids. Right. I joined the Lord every morning. I was spending having great time with him. Um, and so I was able to just talk and I remember going in the closet and just breaking down and saying, God, I can't do it. I can't go any farther. I can't go any farther. But I feel like you want to do this great thing in me inside this game. So you want me to go on, but I can't go on. So if you want me to go on, here is where I have to stop. I have to stop right here. I wade the white flag. I surrender. You're going to have to take me to the finish line. You're going to have to rejuvenate my mind, rejuvenate my body if you want me to go. But I surrender here, right? And that's no, um, November of 2016, right? And I mean, and I, and I surrender. And it was almost as clear as days like God was like, thank you for getting out my way. Now I can operate. And it's not. So we want to have this vision of us walking beside God, like God needs us to put our feet on the ground. Yeah. Not God don't need. He don't need no help. He needs you in complete surrender. Yeah. So the more that you decrease, the more that he can increase. And so like I really felt that in my life and then fast boy, three months, uh, I'm training and all of a sudden I'm training. I'm getting in the bed. I would train three times in a day and I would get in bed at night and I tend my wife. I'm like, I'm not even tired. Wow. It made no sense, it made no sense. I would work out and I would try to tie myself out all in the working out like four hours at a time. My body wouldn't get tired. And all of a sudden I had this new passion and I could see clear day, um, not a, not a, not a, not in a boastful fact, but to this year to be the number one rated linebacker, I could see it way back then in the clear path of what I needed to do to get there. I never saw that before. It was like, I can see the road. How to get there. And so you talking about a guy who feels like he's flabbling his career and then all of a sudden he shoots to the top, only guy can do that. Oh my God. And it was done to reflect his glory. But like you said, it's for the battles up to tomorrow. God was ready to elevate me to a position of leadership to do bigger things, but I wasn't in a place of true surrendering and understanding true surrender where I would need to be where he was going to place me because God needs to do these really big things and people who are totally surrendered to him. He can only do those in people that he know ain't going to get in the way. You know, what you're talking about though, when we talk about, see, here's the thing, guys think about surrender in that sense as sort of a passive lay down thing. It actually took more courage to do that than to lay down in that sense. In other words, it took courage to say, I'm surrendering this thing and you had to have the courage to grab a hold of your own heart, you know, and say, hey, let's get out of the way. You know, so guys too often they think of Christianity. First of all, they think it is as magic, you know, it's like I pray and stuff happens where it doesn't or it's just a ticket to get out of hell. And then when we talk about surrender, they think of it as passive and somewhat feminine. But it takes a real man to say, I'm going to humble myself because victory is always on the other side of a fight. So your time in Cleveland in that sense spiritually was a fight, fighting for your own heart. It would encourage you had to have, you had to really trust God, let me tell you, man. So fast forward, we come back, we're in a mini camp, you know, right around where we are about this time now, where we'd be right about this time, I mean, we got a new defensive coordinator, I'm lighting it up, all of a sudden, I'm this nuclear, I'm going out there and I'm shocking myself, I've never seen this version of me. And I go out one day, my wife and I would go to a grocery store and my wife's in the target, doing her target run. We know how well owned wise could be in target. But I watched one of the guys, my former players who I used to mentor, he had signed with another team, I got a really large contract and I was kind of sitting there kind of bitter with my little bitter with being not because of the ambience of him, but just kind of wondering like, God, it's almost with me, like you always take me the long way around. It's always like I have to take all these back roads to get to ultimately like where I feel like you're trying to take me. And I, you know, just going back to high school and the journey of college and all that. And it was in that moment, like I heard an audible voice, another, another time just talking with guy, he said, I hear him clear today, he, he told me he said, if I didn't take you the long way around, you specific me, you would not give me the glory. Well, because of the route that I've taken you, you can't help but get me the glory. Because of the route that I'm taking you and help me get me the glory and I said, okay, God, I get it at every level what you're teaching me is how to give you glory more. So it's all about your glory. So I got that literally, literally listen to this. The next day I walk, I mean, I mean, I've been, I've been killing that practice. It's good you get it. The next day I walk into the facility that I'm traded to New York, like literally I had this moment where I have like, it's like, guys, like you got it. Your time in Cleveland is done. You did the next day back to the Jets, back to the Jets. And I was upset. I mean, I'm like, because I'm at this point, I'm excited. Like I got a new coordinator, he loves me. We, I'm ready to have my best year. And I'm like, I feel like I'm getting demoted. Because I mean, New York, they already have linebackers. Yeah. It's like, you know, God, I feel demoted. And I'm in a car getting it. And I'm getting ready leaving the facility to go home. And guys, like you think you're being demoted. You are being promoted. And I mean, the rest is history. Boom. Yeah. The rest is history that took off. And so tell me, then, then one of the first of all, where did you meet your wife? What's her name? Where did you meet her? Tamela. Tamela is like Pamela with a team. We met in college, a faith story. I remember setting my schedule to be. She moved. She was coming from Rose College to do her master's program at Arkansas State. We ended up in a class that she had already taken before. But they were forced to her to take again. And I ended up in the class that I specifically said I didn't want to take. But you know, the class I did select got me kicked. I got kicked out of that class somehow, booted from the system, and then put me in the class I didn't want to take. And so we met in that class. That's crazy. Came great friends. And that's just crazy. That's such a god setup right there. It is, man. It was something. God. Oh, man. That's crazy. So you end up in Arkansas State. Where's Tamela from? She's from Carthage. She's from Carthage, Miss. Okay. Yes. She's Southern. Yep, Southern girl. Okay. So you guys at least had that. Yeah. We did. We did. And then Arkansas. And then was she a follower of Christ at that point? Yeah. So no, she wasn't when I first met her. She was about the same. She was about the same as me. You know, had been in church her whole life. And pretty much was a person that was trying to do more, more right than wrong. And I introduced her to some girls that was part of the same organization that I was in. And she went off to this retreat that they do every thing, every march. And I mean, she came back changed. I can see it in eyes. I mean, we were great friends at times. So we used to talk. She came back changed. And all of a sudden it was an understanding. And I knew the understanding that she had had this new found understanding. Because it was the same with me. It's like we've been doing church in our community wrong. Like we don't understand their points of Jesus. And man. And so at that point, we both started to grow a rapidly. She went through a lot of the same evangelism training that I went through that I had gone through a couple of years prior. Then in May, we started to date. You know, and then in December, I proposed. And then we were married the next July. That's fantastic. Man, what a great story. And and and really to your faith journey has been a parallel. It started around the same time. And but man, you had everything pulling you the wrong direction when you were coming up through junior high and high school. And I think most young men are like that today. I don't care what part of the country they're in. Where they're at social economically. They can be in a nice area of battery. You know, however you want to define that. And man, the enemy's trying to pull them down. And you know, your your peer group. How many of those guys are actually still around? I mean, you know, it's amazing what the enemy does and taking people out. Oh, from from the high school and junior high and all that. Yeah, yeah. I only got only got two guys that I'm still associated with. Mostly associated with from high school. And for the most part is the ones I can afford to be associated with. Yeah. You know, and I mean, a lot of guys are still in the same place that they were in when they're still around. You know, so it's just it's unfortunate. You know, and it's just amazing. What can happen when when when when young men have mentors, strong mentors, and you know, when the gospel can impact and wrap the transform lives. Changes everything. There's a there's a book William Ferrell's a secular author. He's at Stanford University. He's the former head of the national organization for women legal department up in New York. And he began to look at why why are boys in such crisis? Why are men such voices? And of course, a national organization for women. It's one of the reasons. Hey, this is Chris. Let me take a moment right in the middle of this great conversation to remind you how to get in touch with Paul and Christian men's network and the Global Fatherhood Initiative. You can find all the resources for mentoring and fatherhood at cmn.men. That's cmn.men. Also, you can write to Paul at Paul at cmn.men. That's Paul at cmn.men. We have tremendous resources for churches with special discounts for groups on that website. Everything a church needs from A to Z to mentor and disciple men of all ages and backgrounds. Now let's get back to this awesome interview between Paul and Demariel Davis. So now you come out of that bad background. Tell me about your mom was a young mom. She was coming through high school when you were born, is that right? Yeah, yeah. That's it. She, um, my mom ended up finished the school and I mean, I applaud my mom. Once she had me, she turned all her energy towards me and make sure that I had it too. I mean, my mom always, um, in the time she came and got me mean, she only left me with my grandmother while she finished school. You know, she, she listed my grandmother like, just go finish school and then come get them. And that's what she did. And I mean, my mom always had two and a half jobs. My whole life, my whole life, my wife still working at the work at two hospitals. And then she went to cosmetology school. She would actually work two jobs and then do cosmetology school at night. And like, I walked through the door just like dog time and, um, you know, just to provide, just to provide for me, you know, and, uh, as a kid, you know, that's one of those, another one of those reasons why you push so hard as you're dreaming. Like, I just came. I don't want my mom living like this. This can't be like, what are you saying? It's like, I knew it. Like, I couldn't stop because of what I wanted to get to her. Right. Um, yeah, but she held on. You know, it took courage on her part, DiMario. It took courage on her part to say, here, mom, you know, to your grandmother to say, here, mom, take care of my boy. I'm going to finish school. Man, that took courage. That took, that took, um, you know, uh, more cojonies than most guys have. Yeah, man, that took, that took a lot, man. That's, that's that shows a lot of maturity to shows a lot of maturity. Yeah. And what's her name? Sue, Sue Davis. Sue Davis. Did you ever, did you ever meet your dad? Yeah, yeah, yeah. My dad has always been in the picture. He was always in the picture. My dad was in the military and, okay. And for whatever disagreements, you know, him and my mom had, he was, he was doing his thing and it was just, it was just me, her, uh, like my dad, I would see him, you know, he would pop in and out, um, you know, like around holidays, you know, college, check on me, you know, his voice was always there. Um, it was just his presence that was lacking. Uh, you know, that came, you know, most, uh, valuable in those, those teenage years, you know, in those adolescent years, that's, that's the most important years for a boy trying to become a man and process all these different things and, you know, you see what's in your environment. You know, the strong leaders, uh, in, in the, the black community a lot of times are, uh, you know, uh, drug dealers, um, guys that have athletic talent, you know, uh, in those type of things, you know, success, you know, success is measured by those things in the world in which we live. Yeah. And, and that's the issue, you know, that's really the issue because real success isn't 22s on your car. And half the time I need to come on tomorrow, let's get real. Half the time those are rendered by the week anyway. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's it. I mean, I know this stuff. So, yeah. So William Farrell, when he did this book, the boy crisis, he starts studying why, why boys are not coming out the way they should and why they're not strong and why they're, they're going the wrong direction and making bad choices. And here's what he came up with. This is amazing. It's a secular study. It's called the boy crisis. William Farrell, uh, Dr. William Farrell, he's a Stanford University. He said, the issue is he says they don't have a father in their lives. And he said the most powerful thing you can do for a young man is for that young man. And he goes gender specific. He says to have a father and a mother in their lives in a family. He said, that's the most the healthiest thing you can do for a young man. So in a sense, what we're seeing tomorrow is even secular culture, general market is all of a sudden I come into a revelation of, hey, you know, the only way to raise up young men is they need a father figure. And in a lot of communities, whether it's Anglo or or Latin or whatever is the coaches, man, you know, guys who have been willing to coach kids. And especially I think of youth programs like what you're sponsoring. I think that to me, if every church in America had a youth sports program, it would change the future of the nation. Yes, it would. It would. It would. It has now. I'm convinced, man. I'm convinced. In fact, we're going to start a thing and in studying what you do is going to help us. We're going to start part of Christian men's network. Okay. Because we're in hundreds of thousands of churches around the world and across the nation just in the United States. You know, my thinking is if we could start a program because most guys don't think they can coach because they don't, you know, know the plays or whatever. Yeah. And my thing is if you'll just love the kids and then recruit somebody who knows how to draw a diagram. Yeah. If you just start, just get it going. I mean, there are youth leagues across America. I was talking with Michael Phillips, my friend who passes downtown Baltimore. He says, man, youth leagues are drying up because they can't even get there's nobody to coach. Yeah. And so I look with what you're doing. Yeah. So, so what the thing, the myth around coaching and dealing with youth, the biggest thing, especially with youth programs, they already have coaches. They already have coaches that they play sports on on teams at school. They have a coach. If they play travel ball or select ball, they have coaches who can do X and O's. Youth program coaches need mentors. Yeah. You need to be more of a mentor than you do a coach. And you need to be trained up on how to mentor kids. How do I identify mentally and psychologically and emotionally what that child is dealing with based on location, based on home situation, based on different dynamics, based on trauma that they've experienced in other life and then how to identify and how to help them work through those situations. That's what they need. And to be a positive example for them, they're going to model what they see. Young boys are not just going to receive taught information. They're going to see taught information. What they see, they're going to replicate. And so if you can surround young boys and young men, who are ultimately going to go up to be the leaders and we work with young boys and young girls and teach them by example and we surround them with mentors. So all the people coming to show our program, we train them, we send them to coaches academy and the coaching academy that we send them to is coaching them on how to mentor. Okay, that's devoted dreamers dot org devoted dreamers dot org. And this thing's incredible. You've got the seven seven on seven football. You've got all these things, but you know, the main thing I see and hear your heart and passion is equipping the next generation of leaders for America. You know, most of these kids are, you know, they may have a dream of playing NFL, but they probably won't be there. But my thing is help the kid towards that dream. Yeah. And somewhere along in that journey, he'll find his place. But if you tell him when he's eight years old, you'll never make it. Yeah. Man, you've just, you've just, you know, rung that kid's neck. And the next time when he's ten and some kid says, you know, hey, let's go play. He's going to say, not, you know, I'm not going to do that. And he's, man, that is a, a prime recruit, you know, for whatever it may be gangs or whatever the issue may be to take some the wrong direction. You know, my thing is, is get behind that seven year old kid wants to play the NBA go, okay, what do we need to do right now? You need to learn to dribble with both hands. Okay. Yeah. Let's do this. Yeah. That's it. That's it. I mean, you think about it. What you just said, you know, one of the things that our coaches learned at coaches in training is think about it like this, especially when you did them in a city kids. If you have a problem with a kid and you kick that kid off your team, you know, what is the next team that he's going to join? He's going to join a team. What's going to be the next team he joins? You know, it's going to probably be gang related. It's going to be some type of mischief related. You know, and so like what you're saying, what we need to do around a kid, and that's why we call our program to vote at Dreamers because help the kid dream. You don't know where your dream is going to take you. You don't know. It may take you down the road that you see, but it may start you down the road and you may end up somewhere. It's like I give an example and I got to college. I won the major in music. I thought I had a passion. I wanted to be a music producer. By the time I left, I had a heart for film. But I wouldn't, if I never would have joined, you know, everybody came in with the undeclared majors. I came in with a vision. So I was already started on my way and inside the communication department, I ended up finding the role that I had the most passion for. So you think about like those little cards, you know, those old cards that you used to play, and you roll them and it gets the wheels going, and it's just the more you roll it, you know, the wheels going faster, you let it go, and it takes off. Yeah, get the energy going. Yeah. That's what we need to do with the kid. We point to these you, all you're doing is charging them up so that they can, so that you can lunch them off into the world. So by the time they leave high school and they go off to college, they're so confident themselves and they believe so much, and they require resources that make them feel whole because they're spiritually full, they're mentally full, they're physically full. So they believe whatever they go after they can achieve. And in that, as they start going, they'll find the niche that God is ultimately pulling them to. They'll find that place, man. But if they keep moving, so what happens is we quash those, so you went from being Wayman Tisdale to Tyler Perry. You know, I wanted to be in music and all that. And I don't know if you remember Wayman Tisdale. He played the NBA and he was a great jazz bass player. Wow, wow. And it was a number of guys like that. But and then, of course, Tyler Perry, what an amazing story. There he is on that living in his car for three months. But he wrote, but he wrote down his dream. You know, that, that vision didn't happen for seven years tomorrow. It didn't happen for seven years. And then finally his play, what is, I can be, I can be bad all by myself. Yeah, yeah. I think it was his first play. You know, the chairman of our board is a great close friend, Bishop Dale Bronner out of, out of Atlanta. And he's actually been in three of those Medea movies. Oh, wow. He was a judge in one of them. You recognize him. His dad, yeah, Nathaniel and his, in his uncle started a company called Bronner Brothers. And that's a hair, hair products and stuff. Your mom probably used them. Probably. Yeah. And then now, let me see, the six boys, three of them ended up being pastors. And two of them are still working in that business. Of course, Dale is. But as I know some of that stuff, but the fact is, is that giving a young man, you know, not just giving him a dream. I think we have Ephesians 2.10 says we're born with something inside of us. From the time we're born, there's something that pulls us forward. And the enemy, the snake, I just basically call it the snake always lies. And the snakes trying to rip you off the whole way. And so you take a mentor that comes along, DiMario. And that's why I love what you're doing with devoted dreamers and all the projects. And then God's put you, I mean, check this out. You know, again, I come back to the small school, Brandon high school, that kind of stuff. And I know guys have come out of small places and hit big and major sports or even in, you know, politics or whatever. And so God, you know, does that or that, that thing happens. But you know, the Lord puts you in a position to touch young people. We've got to grab a hold of that. And now the Lord's put you in. You're with New Orleans Saints. When we're doing this interview, we don't know about the coronavirus stuff and when the seasons start or whatever. Bottom line, they'll be football at some point. But the Lord's put you in an amazing position to speak into the lives of young men and women because of just what culture has done. And then gave you the ability to pull people together financially, investors, donors, you and your wife have given generously into this to make this happen. I just got to tell you, man, it's I just see a God thing all over this. Wow. You know, and and we're with you and we want to support you in any way we can. Tell them people about devoted dreamers. You know, raising the flag and just saying, hey, because you know, football is one thing. Oh, hey, I did. I was I was reading, you know, we're my family. We're sports family. I mean, we live in the Dallas area. So we were I moved here. I was L.A. Rams fan as a kid. Yep. And my dad was a 49ers fan of my sister was a raiders because we were California people. But I moved to Dallas and we had to be his state law. If you moved to Dallas, you got to be a cowboy's fan. So we had my kids grew up, you know, basically at the stadium every week for 20 years. We loved all this. But anyway, I'm looking up this stuff and because I'm always interested in little things, but fascinating thing to me, you're playing for New Orleans Saints now. Who was your first interception against? Drew Brees. It's fun, right? I thought about that when I when I first signed that I needed to get that ball sign signed by, you know, because you kept it. You sure you kept it. You gave it to me. Of course, of course. Of course. Yeah. That's great. Have you got it signed yet? No, man. I haven't got enough courage to go and take it over. I can't do that. So that was at some point at some point. That's got to have some point at some point. It'll be right. I'll tell you what's going to happen tomorrow. It'll happen when you got to have done something. We're like, he comes up and hey, thank you. Thanks, man. Thanks for that play or whatever. Yeah. And you go, yeah, no problem, man. Here's signed this. It's going to be kind of it's going to be kind of on the on the off side, you know, kind of a on a deflect sort of. Yeah, do it. Like after he's thrown a like after he's thrown a pick and then you do something to turn it around, you know, like you stopped on a worth and one at the five or some. Yeah. Say thanks for having back. Thanks for saving my savings. Thank you for picking me up, man. And no problem. Here's signed this. Yeah. And so football, you know, I mean, in that sense, put you on a platform, but I thank God for a number of friends who like yourself have done something about it. Not just, hey, look at me. I did this thing and you do a cool Instagram. But I mean, standing for it, you know, if you don't stand for something you fall for anything is the old proverb, man, from Arkansas straight to the NFL, man. And so we pray for you, you got four children now, new little baby. And it's awesome. I just want to tell people again, I will tell everybody, it's listening now devoted dreamers.org devoted dreamers.org. And we and we want to have your back tomorrow in this and we'll be praying for you because we know the enemy's going to try to hit you with stuff or accusations, you know, the stuff that happens. And we just pray for you and your wife, Tamla, that the Lord covers you and keeps you deep within the grip of his favor in the days ahead. And if there's anything we can do to help you with this and be a blessing to tell more people about it. How many how many places is devoted dreamers involved in how many, are you guys in ones where you're located as far as what you're doing with devoted dreamers? We just in Mississippi right now. The vision is ultimately to scale it, but we want to make sure that we get we get the formula fully right. We're doing research to make sure I mean visually is beautiful. When you have kids who come in, it's going to 13 on the ACT. And in one year, they go from a 13 to a 19 on the ACT. Wow. That kid is coming in with, you know, a 1.9 GPA and then by the time they get ready to graduate, they're in a 3.2, 3.3. Wow. Looking at kids who are coming from domestic violence household, they just have a heart for Jesus. All of a sudden, you know, I'd be important to they would look through the look past their situation and still see God and it's just like, you know what, you know, my mom, she just needs, she just needs to know the love of the Lord, you know, and so, you know, and so you see, you're seeing transformations happen all across the board with kids, kids who in our summer program have never had a desire to go outside and exercise, become leaders on volleyball teams, you know, and stuff. So we know that the output is there now, it's just getting that quantitative output. Yeah. So that we can go to other places and help them, you know, scale out, but we want to make sure we get it right. But it's been beautiful, man. It's been, it's been amazing just to see holistic change. Kids being impacted, spiritually, mentally and physically, you know, and it's really a God thing. It is a God thing. Yeah, but you know, here's the deal. Here's the deal. It's a God thing. You know, hope is a life. Hope is name is Jesus. But God gives us hope. But hope is always delivered by people. And so what you're doing is delivering hope. And it's kind of like a friend of mine had had a building, a church he built and the guy walked in and he's, they're walking around and they're looking at it. And the guy says, man, it's amazing. It's incredible what God's done here. My, my pastor Phil looked at him and said, yeah, but you should have seen it when God had it by himself. And in other words, it, this, this didn't just happen. This is hard work. And the other thing I love about this is you didn't just put your name on it. You actually show up. Yeah. I'm telling you, man, you know, because quarterbacks and whatever there's all these camps and the guys should put his name on it. Somebody else has run into business. He shows up for about a half hour. And then checks off the, the box with the guys in New York on his Walter Peyton stuff. You know, yeah, yeah, like check that thing off. So, but you show up. You're, you're passionate about I hear, I hear the change in your, even in the way you talk about when you start those places, when you go in, you did them with those kids, you almost like, you know, where else would you rather be? You know, you know, like, this is internal, this is eternal rewards that you're gaining. You know, it's like, okay, I mean, I love the game of football. I don't give me wrong. You know, and God's been doing it. But while I'm on that field, I'm not as collecting as many eternal rewards as I am when I'm pouring into, you know, 16, 7, Geo's who hanging on by a thread. Yeah. And just do a little something and that light bulb goes on for him. And those moments, I mean, you know, there's no place you rather be like, what else could I be doing? You know, like, you know, so it's, but they have to do that. Okay, Daniel gets captured. And this is in, in, in Jeremiah, then Jeremiah writes a letter to the guy's Jeremiah 29-11. Everybody loves that. God has a plan for you. But the first five or six scriptures of Jeremiah 29 is a letter to the captives, Daniel and his guys. And he tells them, don't try to escape. Yeah. He says, plant, plants and build buildings and get married. And then the word that jumps out of me tomorrow, it says multiply. And what that speaks to me is of what you've done in your athletics is be excellent where you're planted. Yeah. Yeah. You may be in Babylon, but be excellent. Dad, Daniel thrives in the middle of Babylon, never leaves there, serves four kings. By the time he's 80, he's 80 when he gets put in the lion's den. So all this stuff happens to him, but he thrives because he, he's got his focus, his true north, he stays with it. And that's a message for us, man, that you have, when you talk about working out, man, you know, Bobby Knight said this. He said, the will to win. Doesn't win games. He said, everybody has that. He said, it's the will to prepare to win the wins the game. Yeah. Amid Ali said, I don't win a fight in the ring. He said, I win it at four in the morning, out in us, out in a road running when nobody's around and there's no lights. So the fact is you've been excellent, Demaro, you've, you've paid the price to be where you are. And that's a message to all of us as men. You know, we want certain things to happen. We want to be see people's lives changed, but we haven't paid the price in the place where we're at. Wow. And we've actually got to pay the price. So man, you've done that. And so you're excellent in what you do. And then out of that comes the platform to be able to speak in the people's lives. Because you know, I mean, it's, it very easily could have been a Tony Manorage situation, even though he exonerated himself later and with the colds. But the fact is is that, you know, there's things you could have done, but you didn't. So I thank God for the chaplain. Thank God for your grandmother. Thank God for your mom and her courage. Thank God your dad did call you. You know what I mean? Like you said, he called you. And I thank God that you got four kids who have an awesome dad and an amazing mom because that's what changes the future of the world. So again, devoted dreamers.org. We're praying for you. I mean, you know, it's, uh, here's the deal. Here's how we pray when I, because I live in in Fort Worth. And we're kind of Cowboys fans. Here's the way we pray tomorrow, just so you know, your Lord, please, we'll ask tomorrow and everything he does, we'll let the Cowboys win. So that's it. I'll take it, man. I'll take it. Anyway, you know, that's life, man. That's that's the way it is. But and so thank you for everything to do. We pray every place you put your feet away, holy ground and everything your hands touch will prosper. And it's the Lord will keep you and your family deep within the grip of his grace and favor. Wow, Paul, what a great conversation. That was awesome. Yeah, what an amazing guy. Man, so amazing. But thing that jumped out at me was the fact that he plays for the New Orleans Saints and his first career interception. Oh, that's right. It was against Drew Breeze. Yes. Oh, that's right. So we talked about that. Yeah, that's right. That's that was funny, man. He's like, I don't know if I'm going to bring that up. That's the million dollar question. I need to know if he's going to be now with all this stuff that went on, man. Especially he stood up. See, we were playing basketball just the other day and we were talking about this interview. And we're the million dollar question on the court was now that he's defended Drew Breeze. Yeah. Has he have a right to ask? Yeah. That's funny, man. Yeah, well, you know, man, these are these are good guys and, you know, good men, men of good will, they find a way, right? Yes. That's part of our whole culture. I mean, DiMario, this is a role model. See, this is the kind of guy I would say. I want my grandkids to look at. Yeah. Okay. My grandson camera to go camera. That guy right there. I want you to just watch him. Yeah. Okay. Be like that. Yeah. I mean, that's that's why I so much appreciate him because, you know, you didn't even have to do an interview with us. No. I mean, frankly, it doesn't have to do anything. Hang out, play football, work out. For real. But he uses that platform to speak out for the things of God. Yeah. To speak out for righteousness and to pull young kids into their dreams. That devoted dream or thing. Oh, it's amazing. And I can't wait. I mean, I'm behind that thing. Yeah. If you want to get more information on that, where do they write us, Chris? They write us at you can find all the resources for mentoring at fatherhood at cmn.min. That's cmn. That's M as in men. Men. Yes. Men. Capital. I don't go to CNN. No, no, no. You don't want to see that. We got the good news. Oh, come on, man. So also you can write to Paul personally at Paul at cmn.min. That's Paul at cmn.min. Hey, Chris Shields. You're doing a great job producing the podcast. We've had some amazing guests and we've got some great ones coming up. Friend of yours and a friend of mine, Chris Broussards coming up on one of the episodes. What an amazing man. And then Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North. Yes. This is some great guys. And you know what? It's inspiring. Yes, it is. This thing is it's a kind of podcast where you can just plug it in. Go do your bike ride, jogging, workout, play round ball. Yes. Shoot some moves. Yes. You know, but do you have the big, you have the big thing? Oh, yes. The Beats headphones. You got the Beats headphones. Beats by Drey. Do you really? When you shoot when you do this? I'm in the zone. I get away. Is that that? That's my coin. I don't know anything else after I'm on that coin. Oh, that's great. I love it. That's Paul Cole text you. Yeah, that's I text you. Yeah. And it comes in on the headset. Yes. You've got text. Paul Cole. That's nice. But if you're in the zone, you don't want to stop for until it breaks. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know that shot. Yeah. Anyway, Chris, you're doing a great job producing and this has been a remarkable start to our season three. Yes. And looking forward to the great things that are coming up. Hey, thanks for being a part of this and being with us on the podcast on Brave Men today. You've just experienced Brave Men with Paul Lewis Cole. Paul is president of the Christian Men's Network. Connect with Paul at cmd.man or write to him at Paul at cmd.man.