Oh, these effin clowns. These effing clowns. I've been in units and service where when I told someone to do something, it was just done. I didn't have to worry about that. But that's not in this house. No respect for me. This is Big Dink Energy, the Pickleball Podcast that's half insight, half nonsense, and all entertainment. If you love pickleball, don't take your stuff too seriously and think a little trash talk makes the game better. Welcome home. This is the place where life and pickleball intersect. We celebrate the chaos, call out the nonsense, and put the fun back in dysfunction. You're either in or you're out. And if you're still listening, you're in. So let's go. Big dink energy starts now. I wanna know what love is. You know what love is? Love is the big dink energy podcast. From fall do the sound effects for us.

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Kitchen Talk - Hot takes, weird news, and what’s on our minds this week

the I guess get into the Burr months.

We're getting into the Burr months. Yes.

Yes, thank goodness.

The best months in Texas.

Uh my Uggs are already polished. I I have my Starbucks card, my Starbees card ready for my PSLs. I got my DSL surrounding me here.

Oh my gosh. Too far once again.

You got your kids in the car. You're gonna want to.

Nobody that's such an old like term, is it? Kids probably, yeah.

Kids probably don't say that.

Yeah. No, sir.

Well, before we really get into anything, I do just want to say this. Um, at the time of this recording, we did just find out about Dolly Parton's passing. And that like definitely affected me more than I thought that a celebrity's passing would affect me. But I've my whole life I've spent listening to Dolly, watching her shows, watching the Christmas special, like just everything. It's she's always been a very big figure in my life and her generosity and her kindness towards children. So just wanted to kind of mention that on the pod. Like that.

Yeah, for sure. And and uh if you miss it or you don't pay attention, we're not political over here, but Mr. DJT, uh Donald Trump, our president of the United States, ordered the flags to be flown at half-staff for a week in honor of Dolly Parton. That is a high honor, not usually given to celebrities like that. So that tells you how uh how much effect she had on the overall world. Jolene, Jolene, Jolene. Yes. Okay, so we wanted to talk about the Vermonts. Yes and all the things going on, and maybe just give some, I don't know, just kind of hodgepod I'd call this a hodgepodge. Hodge pods. Maybe this is the the the crock pot episode with all this.

I love crock pods. Yes, yeah.

This is where we just went, we went into the fridge uh and we found whatever we had left over and we put it in. And so we're just gonna pounce around and talk about a lot of different things.

I love the Bermont's because I do love me's crock pot soups and meals. Yes. That's like one of my favorites. Do you love a good soup? I do.

I was promised chili tonight, but it was 107 here today. Yeah, so I decided to make lasagna instead. Yeah, another hot meal.

What did you want?

Gazpacho? No.

Okay. That's too far. Disgusting.

Yeah, no.

Do you like gazpacho? I don't know that I've actually ever had that. What?

You just eat just eat salsa out of a carton.

Yeah, it's gross.

I mean, I've seen it, but I've I don't think it'd be not bad.

No, it's you haven't had it the way I do it.

Oh, please.

No, that is definitely not gross. Anyways, what's annoying us lately? Everything. Oh gosh.

This podcast.

The heat. Year phase. The fires.

My kids.

Our town not having water. Oh, yeah. The electricity going in and out.

My daughter last night. Oh yeah.

Vehicles breaking down. Yeah. Just there's so much. There is a lot. I feel like I have zero patience at this stage of my life that everything just annoys me.

So, I mean, let me know out there. Maybe I'm way off base, but my teenage daughter, she wanted a shelf in her room because of all her fugglers couldn't breathe.

Yeah.

Uh, these are stuffed weird animals. Uh, you can look that up. But so she got a bookcase and it came into our house through the small mom and pop store of Walmart. And I saw immediately, okay, this is something that needs to be assembled, and that's me. I'm a dad. I am an assembler. Yes. I put things together that I that that's what I'm on the earth for. That and taking out trash. And so I thought I'm gonna get involved in this assembly. She goes, No, dad, I've got it. And I thought, oh, well, she's outgrowing me. And I shed a little tear and didn't think anything of it after that. Until Crash and Burn, I find out that it broke somehow. And then, you know, I try to go in and help. And that was uh apparently uh the wrong thing to do, was try to come in and help.

There was no right thing. No, granted, she was pissed, and so no matter what we did, she was just angry. Yeah, she's a wolverine in a child's body, and it was just like nothing we could do could make it right or better or or anything.

So yeah, I mean that's probably a one-off, right, parents? I mean, that teenage daughters.

Oh, yeah, that never happens.

Probably won't happen again, is that right? Or should I just move out now until like 30? She's 30. You let me know.

I mean, that could be an option as well.

Yeah, yeah.

That was not a bad option as far as I'm concerned.

That was a little it's just frustrating and annoying. It's like you don't really know what to do because you just want to rip their head off and cuss at them and slam doors at them, but they also want to do the same thing.

Right. Yeah. So no one died, no one ended up in the hospital. So that's got no.

No, we just went our separate ways and then and I'm learning, I'm learning, you know, I'm I'm harder than woodpecker lips. And I've been in in units and and service where when I told someone to do something, it was just done. You know what I mean? There's an expectation of the sergeant said this or he said that, so it's gonna be done. I didn't have to worry about that. But that's not not in this house. No respect for me. I'm Rodney Dangerfield over here.

Yeah, it's tough. There's so many things that our kids do. Like I would be like, I would have never said that.

These effing these Evan kids.

These effing clowns. They are in a way, I love it because I, you know, I'm all about like questioning, fighting the fighting the man, fighting the system. Yes. Um, but not when I'm the system. Yeah, I don't want them to fight back, so it is a little annoying. And it was like, we're just gonna go our separate way.

I don't need to be part of the White Panther party over here trying to fight me every step of the way.

Yeah, best for everything. Yeah, they she just you know, just teen angst, just aggravating myself. Very good, yeah.

Look at you. Wow, look that way.

I like it, but I am I am getting excited about I think because the the weather here has just been so freaking hot, like you can't go outside and do anything.

Don't touch bare metal, I'll tell you that in the middle of the day.

And so I think everybody's just like on edge tired of being hot, you know. No matter what, like no matter how like you put your air conditioner on, it doesn't matter. It I mean, you have to come back in within like 13 seconds. Yeah, so I think everybody's just wanting to be outside and have that cooler weather, and I think it helps. I know when it's cold, everyone's like, everybody needs the sun and is missing their vitamin D, but not this much vitamin D.

This is I just miss like a crisp breeze.

Crisp morning.

Yes, a crisp, lovely. Six o'clock in the morning, it's uh it's a hundred degrees. Yeah, it's it's ridiculous, and it's so humid outside that like you're walking out to just like you walk into a sweaty cloud.

You can't when we play pickleball, we do play outside and it is under a little bubble thing. Oh, but it is still excruciating, yeah.

And I that humbles me really quickly, though.

Because September's coming up next week, and I um next time we play, I'm gonna wear flannel no matter what.

So I hope you're gonna be hot as hell. Yeah.

Extra deodorant for me.

Are y'all looking forward to football season? Yes.

Yes. I am so excited.

I'm not.

But that's the problem, right? So last year I I bought the NFL package because I had a college ID that I could use and get a discount. But what did I watch? Like three games and the Super Bowl?

I don't even know. I mean, I don't think I watched any.

No. It's uh, I mean, uh, whatever we can get over the air is fine with me.

I'm just not a sports, I'm ready. I'm just not a sports person. I mean, I'll watch it because if other people are watching, like just for the community, like people hanging out. But I'm definitely not like setting my TiVo if that's a thing. Oh TiVo.

Okay, let's age. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know.

No, I am definitely excited for football season. I miss college game day in the mornings on Saturdays. I miss just Sunday fun. You know, we always will cook a big meal or different themed meals to go along with the game. So it's a it's a lot of family fun that we have together, and uh I I'm ready for it to come back.

I'm honestly looking more forward to like our shows that are coming back in the morning. Yes, so um like I never used to be a TV person, but I'm becoming a TV person. But I only have specific things that I like to watch, so it it's kind of like But like I I notice myself like looking forward to TV. Yeah, that's weird.

Yeah, but we'll we'll re-watch uh whole seasons of stuff that we watched before because some of the stuff we're doing right now. Some of the stuff coming out is crap.

Yeah, but are the the the new seasons of stuff that we like to watch are are coming. So I'm very excited about that. Which one which one are you most excited about?

I I have several. I have several. Um my main ones are gonna be Matlock. Oh yeah, okay. Matlock High Potential, Watson. Matlock, high potential, Watson, and Elsbeth.

Okay.

Those are like my top that I love.

Oh Sherlock Holmes style. Uh we we are very much into that as well. Yes. Yeah. Suspense. Suspense. Reacher.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, he's he's been in the news a little bit lately with some of his political stuff. I I just wish actors would just be actors, you know. Yeah. I get that you're people and you have a platform, so you think you need to speak up, but it it, you know, there are certain people you're gonna turn off from it.

Yeah, that's true.

And it did take him three episodes to take a shirt off uh this season, just so you just for you ladies out there if you're waiting for it. It's episode three.

But you know, we started watching Ted Lasso. I haven't watched that yet. I actually really enjoyed it. Yeah, good, really good. Really, I really I didn't think I was gonna like it, but I actually do because I'm not a soccer fan. I didn't even know FIFA, fofa, fofam. I don't I didn't even know what that was, hadn't watched anything, but we started watching this show, and all of a sudden I'm Googling, like, whoa, what is that? What is that? Oh, that was cool. Like, yeah, I mean, not that I didn't think soccer was athletic and a sport, it just wasn't you know something I enjoyed watching, but they're pretty, they're pretty cool. They do some pretty cool things. Yeah, so it was a good show. Good.

Yeah, let us know what you binging out there as well in case we missed something, something we definitely have to see. You know what our humor is, so hit us up on the bdepodc.com. Yeah, we need new shows.

Yeah, I need a new show right now. We're re-watching Brooklyn 99 and I watch Body Cam when I can, but it's hard because my husband doesn't like to watch it because he's like it's too real life for him and he likes to detach when he gets home. Yeah, so I watch that when he's not home, but other than that, I really don't have anything. And I think that the reason why I've been liking to watch TV so much is because it I don't have my phone in front of my face. Like I will intentionally not have my phone on me when I'm watching TV. So I'm not scrolling, I'm not working, I'm not checking messages, I'm just completely detached from the stress of my phone. That's good.

Any recent purchases or anything like that for you ladies?

Oh, I don't know. I don't think I've purchased anything besides two shelves in the last two days. Nice.

I have to purchase an ambulance ride for my daughter.

I have pretty much pinked out my car. That's true. So I got a bunch of car accessories. I got a big pink bow for the back of it, too. So I saw that. I haven't seen it.

Okay. Oh, we have a little something we need to put we have for her to put we do. We'll have to give it to you when we're done. That's exciting. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. So I don't really I haven't made any purchases lately.

It's about high time. Oh, something that I just bought, and I've got it on TikTok shop and I got it in the mail yesterday. It's like this square waterproof lamp, and you can put it in your shower and change the different colors, and then it's like kind of marbled, so it puts like these like wavy lights around your shower. Great ambient lighting, so you don't have the overhead direct light, calms you down a little bit. It's not as like awakening when you get in the shower. So yeah, I really like that. That's cool. Yeah.

Uh cigar. I purchased some cigars, but that's just an shocker. Yeah, that's an normal weekly purchase. Oh, yeah. That's right.

Love that.

That nothing else really stands out to me.

Oh, you guys watched the dink movie.

Oh, we did. Oh, yes.

I think we watched it last night. Well, we it took us three days to watch it. Yeah. Um, as much as I like TV, we don't get around to it that much. So it did take us three days to watch. I'm not gonna lie, it it wasn't bad. No. No, it wasn't bad. I thought it was funny, it was cute. Uh there's two things that I really liked. Okay. One, I did like that they didn't it's a spoiler if you haven't, you know, so know that ahead of time. Spoiler.

Turn the radio down.

I did like that they didn't have them make have a romantic relationship. Yeah. That that part I was like, good for you. And then the part that I didn't kind of like was a little bit of the doctor scene. I think it kind of went to it was raunchy. And it I just feel like I wanted my kids to watch it, and now I'm kind of like, well, no, I kind of don't. And I think it could have been opened up to broader audiences if that wasn't in there. And I I think they were trying to be funny, but I I don't think it that hit.

Yeah, I don't that part did not hit for me either. It felt just extremely raunchy, and I was just like, ew, gross.

And kind of out of place. Yeah, like I was like, it didn't go with the rest of the thing. I agree. I agree. I was like, why did we even put this in there? Like it made no sense. Yeah.

Then they're both funny actors. I feel like they could have done something different.

Absolutely. They're both they both can stand alone on their humor. So I think it could have gone like several different ways. I agree. And so I didn't like that. But other than that, the storyline, the actors, I thought it was fine. I think it was funny and cute.

Yeah, I think that people are way too opinionated on this movie. Yeah, I think it is what it is.

I like it. It really seemed like they had actually played some pickleball. Yeah. They weren't fumbling around with the gear and and trying to hit a ball. It looked like they knew what they were doing. Yeah. So they, you know, it's you could say what you want. It was a it was a decent movie because there are terrible pickleball movies out there. Oh my gosh, y'all, not gonna know.

There's this one on Netflix. I cannot even remember the name of it. But it I got like three and a half minutes in, and it literally looked like somebody went to an iHop and started filming it. That's like the first opening scene. Yeah, it is so bad. I don't even remember the name, but so yeah, there are worse out there.

Yep, that's right. Let us know. Did you watch the dink? What you got going on in your life? What's the what's the crock pot of your life? Uh let us know.

Crockpot.

Get all up in our comment section, uh, all of our socials, bdepodcast.com.

Fan Mail (Shout Outs, Comments, Love)

Somebody's fan mail.

All the way from the bottom of the BDE podcast mailbag, we have this special delivered to us from the U.S. Postal Service. This comes from the Fit Pickleballer over on the Instagram. She said, How am I just now finding you? I don't know. I'm loving your content. I work with beginners. That's not us anymore. And this is the fun that often gets lost along the way. Looking forward to following and smiling with your good stuff. Well, thank you so much, Fit Pickleballer. We love you too. Keep sending us all your fan mail on all of our socials. You can even do it 24 hours a day on the email. That's the electronic mail, and it will come right to us.

Okay, boomer.

Just the tip. Just the tip. Quick pickleball wisdom, in and out before you know it. So this one

Just The Tip - Pickleball Wisdom

is Don't Feed the Bear. So this comes from Sean Paul Pickleball. He says, Don't feed the bear. Stop popping the ball up and serving your opponent dinner. So every pop-up is basically DoorDash for your opponent. Ballad.

Yeah, absolutely. That way they're not over there saying, let them eat.

Keep it low and keep the bear hungry.

It's time for people. Well, a treat

Pickle Pals - Deep Dive with a Pickleball Court, Club or Influencer

for us today. Today's guest played 10 years in the NFL, took the Broncos to the doorstep of a Super Bowl, and then walked away, partly in his own words, so he could stop swallowing anti-inflammatories. We'll definitely talk about that. What comes next was harder than football, the silence, the headaches uh behind his eyes, the question, was it worth it? Uh, we'll get into all that as well. And what he found on what he found on the other side. It was mushrooms, a farm, and a mission to be 110 and still active. I am so pleased to announce that we have Jake, the snake plumber with us of Denver Broncos Fame. Thanks, Jake, for being on Big Dink Energy Podcast.

Yeah, guys, good to see you, man. Thanks for the invite. Always fun to share stories and uh hopefully infect somebody in a positive way.

Yeah, you've got a man, you've got a ton going on, a ton, a ton. Uh, but man, here's so here's what I've got to do right away. Um, I've got to officially announce to you that I am a diehard, born and bred, uh, lived in New England most of my life, Patriots fan. So I've got to say you're the only person to ever go 3-0 against Brady. Knocked him out of the playoffs in 05, uh, ended the pro season streak. Okay, so can we officially announce that that you and Brady will play each other in pickleball?

I would love to. I've I would love to play him and actually see if I could beat 3-0 against him in something for real, just me and him. People say 3-0 versus Brady, and uh, yeah, it was our teams, you know. But uh either way, you know, it was those were good wins. We we rose up to the challenge and beat, you know, what what at the time was a a very good organization, but then became quite a dynasty there. And uh people don't know I retired for many reasons, but one of them was that Tom said, please retire. I can't have you beat me to beat me in the playoffs. You're the only one that knows how to do it.

Yeah, that's yeah, just keep that sauce to yourself too. Don't please don't ever share that.

I would love to have a 10 10, you know, sport, pick whatever sports we want, challenge with Brady and see where we roll out. I mean, he's uh he's also into longevity and wellness and he's taking good care of himself, had a hell of a career, and I'm sure he's a great athlete, but uh I would love to challenge him into the ball.

That'd be awesome. That would be I would be there for that for sure. Yeah, you can't grow up in New England and and not be a Patriots fan. I mean, you just you get beaten to you are, I think. You know, even if you try to like look at the bills or something.

Funny thing, I had a uh number 14 jersey with red and blue and white stripes, and I thought it was Steve Grogan's back when I was just a little guy. So I love Steve Grogan. I mean, it gives guys you can't not love a quarterback who wears a neck roll, you know. I mean, come on. Uh back in the day, the dude was uh an underrated gunslinger, and you know, so I was a little bit of a Patriots fan when I grew up because of because of I wore what I thought was Steve Grogan's jersey. Yeah. At the time it was just a 14 jersey, red, white, and blue, but kind of grew up a little bit of a Patriots fan. I loved their uniforms, and then yeah, as time goes on, you know, you you find other teams to like, and I'm not a diehard of anybody really. That's good.

Well, I mean, and you in and even in this, even in your comments here, you were real quick to to just hand that off to the team doing it, right? You know, beating the Brady's and all that kind of stuff. Is is that something that's ingrained in you? You know, I I I would guess there's some media relations people who who kind of you know feed into that when you're when you're live and actionable on the court. But I mean, it just sounds genuine coming from you that yeah, I'm only one person on that roster, right?

Yeah, I've always been like that throughout my journey, all the way from you know, Pop Warner up through junior high, high school, into college and and whatever sport, you know, whatever team I was playing on. Uh I I knew I was uh one piece of a sum of a team. And usually I was pretty important. You know, I played, you know, a lot of the key positions and was the glue of of some teams I was on, kind of like the guy that kept it together on the basketball court and did a lot of a little bit of everything, wasn't great at one thing, but did a lot of everything, mainly hustle and just play hard and set an example like that. As a leader, I really wasn't a super vocal guy unless I had to be, but more or less I realized if I could set that tone myself that others have to live up to, then you know, that tone is is it resonates through a team if your leaders and especially your quarterback is is busting his ass, doing it hard every day, no matter what it is, you know, putting in the work, staying focused, being committed, showing passion, then the rest will follow. And as a as a quarterback, you get a lot out of focus, a lot of eyeballs, a lot of blame, a lot of praise. But really, I mean, I was I was one part of many. I mean, my linemen, they should be the ones uh that that got into the College Football Hall of Fame or they're getting all these things for beating Brady. I mean, they're the ones that allow me to do, you know, what I was able to do. To do back there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I I love that. I love that you share the credit around like that. And I think it is. It does take a team. It takes a village, you know, to to win things and and be successful. Uh especially at that time.

Even in life, man. You gotta have a team around you. And you gotta have a good, good core group of people that call you out and push you, and at the same time you set that example. And when time's right, you you you know, you call them out and say, Hey, what's up? When you do it, you living right.

Yeah. I I love, you know, the longevity talk because, you know, I I I follow Brady on that side of things and see, you know, it's so great to see. I mean, he even recently said, I could come back, I can do another season, you know. It but it is because what you put in your body, and we're gonna talk about the mushroom side of things and your health here in a minute, but I want to talk about what got you out, which was the anti-inflammatories. Um I'm a uh disabled veteran, and I remember, you know, that was the thing, right? Here's 800 milligram ibuprofen, take two of those and and you know, don't come back. And so I can imagine at that elite level for you, it was it was the same thing. You know, docs are saying, hey, take this so you can get back in the game, but the long-term effects on the body are terrible.

Yeah, you know, for thank you for your service. Uh, you know, appreciate that. Very appreciative of our military those guys that sacrificed their time. I was close with Pat Tillman, so I realized there were a lot of there are a lot of Pat Tillmans out there, or not necessarily him individually, but people that sacrifice their families, their time uh here in their homes or whatever to go and serve our country. So thank you for that. Yeah, the game was was a violent game, you know. Uh I I wasn't built for it. I wasn't a huge, big, prototypical guy. So my style of play too was a little more reckless. I got out of the pocket a lot, scrambled. And back in the day, those guys would really hit you. They were allowed to hit you hard. Yeah. Even after you threw, they had a two-step rule, you know, they could take a couple steps. And, you know, Ray Lewis maybe took three steps once in a while. And some of those guys got away with a little more than they they should have. And you get you get pummeled, you get hit. And being smaller, you know, they like to try to break me and hurt me and talk shit, and I would just talk it right back. So they'd come even harder. So when they did get me, it hurt. And for 10 years uh in the league, four years, you know, right before that at ASU, playing 14 years of high-level ball, my body took definitely a lot, uh, a lot of toll taken on my body. Yeah, for sure. One form or another. Played through a lot of injuries that I I probably should have taken a break, but I felt like I was better than the guy behind me at at the percentage I was at. So uh had to fight through some injuries and and and possibly, you know, you when you're doing it, you're not thinking about the possible long-term effects. You're not thinking about, oh man, am I gonna have arthritis in my big left toe if I keep jamming it and it gets stepped on anymore? Like, yeah. No, I wasn't thinking about that now, but now I'm thinking about it because there it is, and it's knocking on the door every day, reminding me of the damage I did. And yeah, when I retired, it was just time to do it in more ways than just you know, from from taking the anti-inflammatories, but it was definitely that played a part of it. Uh, you know, living on those for, you know, the five months of the season, five plus months, whatever it was. Uh, I realized putting those in your body uh it helps. And one week I took them, sure, I got off of them for a bi week and and went out to practice and I could hardly walk. And I'm like, holy smokes, my body is like, my real body without this stuff feels like this. I take these pills, it's masking this pain that I have that's res that's constant in my body. And I realized that, you know, hey, I'd been paid, made a good couple contracts, made a lot of money playing a game I loved and didn't think I'd ever make that kind of money. And so I never played for that. Uh, what I played for was for my guys, and and when the time came to be done, it was I knew it was ready in my heart and soul to walk away from the game or run away, really, to be able to still be active enough, feel good enough to not just keep chasing glory, but to move on with other plans in my mind to go and face this long transition and long continuing transition as we age and get older from the game. You know, bodies keep talking to us and more research comes out and more guys pass away, and you realize, like, man, it's important to take care of my body. And I think back to the decision I made, and I'm grateful for it to have the ability to do that and step away from something I love so much. Uh, it took a lot of of you know, deep thought and also a lot of courage to get to to walk away and turn down money, even give money back for sure. Because I was just done. And uh mentally, physically, and then also spiritually, you know, a lot of people don't talk about the that when they when they're in the game. You lose a little bit of who you are per inside. You lose a lose a little bit about yourself and who you were, you know, pre-NFL or even pre-college. You get you become this big entity, this big name, this persona that sometimes you're happy about, and other times you're like, man, I don't really like this dude. I'd rather just go back to being little Jake, uh playing, playing handball or throwing rocks back on Hill Road in Boise, Idaho. And uh you can't. But I did that, I did walk away in time to to not have, you know, uh hopefully nothing long term that's gonna affect me too long or down the road. But uh it's it's constantly changing my body. I gotta I gotta take good care of it. And that's what's been a fun journey to be on and uh help others also down that road.

Man, that's that's awesome. Well, yeah, because you when you're the man in the arena, you want to be the man in the arena every single day. You want to be the hero you want. I mean, uh hero maybe is the wrong word, you know, especially with your humility, but just wanting to be the guy that leads the team to victory. And then you s and then you say, well, like when you the thing that stuck out to me is when you stepped away from it, you know, you had the experience that a lot of veterans have, especially if you're at the upper echelons of military in in the special operations community, you're cut off. That's it. Yeah, you know, no more schedule, no camaraderie, no achievement. You're just right back in the flow of life and trying to now you've got to figure that out after your after 10 years, you know, at the peak of where you were.

Yeah, that's it's a big adjustment. It's a lot, a lot of people struggle with that. You know, we're raised, uh, have rules of they follow with the family. You get into school, you're immediately put into who, you know, this is when you have to be here, this is when your classes are, this is when you're done, and you gotta follow in line and really whatever that place in in society is for you, you get in that line and you can just go through it. But as as athletes, as veterans, we're we're doing that at to such a higher level. Obviously, football is not risking our lives like you are as a military, uh, when they go and and maybe fight a war that we shouldn't be doing, or they go to another country, they're putting themselves really at risk where we just risk bodily damage and uh long-term, you know, body, you know, pain aches and pains, and the stories they're telling, the cut the narrative they want to tell us about concussions and and the body, the body, the brain that we, you know, damage and the body damage. Like it's not always real positive, and there's really no solution set forth by the NFL or the NFL PA. They give us a lot of things we can utilize, but a lot of guys they don't go to it. And so it takes effort, just as much effort as it as it took to to be a well-trained personnel in the military or be on the football field doing what we did. We're very rare, few, you know, small percentage of the population. It takes dis a lot of discipline, a lot of you know sacrifice. And then when you're done, it's like, wait, what's going on? I got all this time, what do I do? And we're not really we're not really allowed to pursue something post-career because it's almost sacrilegious to talk about what are you gonna do outside or after the game. Like you gotta be dialed into the game now and the game and here so 100% into it. That then it's over and it's done, and you may not be ready for it, and all of a sudden, whoa, life hits you. And that's why a lot of guys struggle. Not only veterans, but also NFL veterans that struggle. Um and that's where you need, you know, your con you know, that's where you need your community. That's where you need your teammates and your your buddies, and you need people around you that to hold you accountable. Just keep trying to, you know, live to a different standard.

Yeah, I and and I try to turn veterans on the pickleball as much as possible. Nice. Uh low impact, right? And but you get the community right away. You get the community aspect of it right away. People who who you never met before putting their arms around you and saying, hey, things are gonna be okay. We're gonna have fun, we're gonna joke, we're gonna laugh. But but you you you said it right, you know, you um a lot of guys, especially military and on your side too, you know, you you they reach for a bottle and just disappear, you know, into something else, opioids or opioids or something like that. But not you. You went you went looking for answers instead, right? You went from suffering to searching, and and I kind of want to look at that journey for you as well. What how how what kind of drove you to that side?

Yeah, I mean, I I after retirement, spent many years just traveling and and started a family and moved back to Colorado, had some surgeries, and I I I'll admit I was smoking a lot of marijuana. It helped numb the pain. It helped, you know, helped me when I'd go be active to act as an anti-inflammatory, and there's a lot of medicinal value there. Then I found myself using it all the time, socially, going to bed, all the all the time. And I was just kind of a shell of myself. And so I didn't mind it, but I didn't like that feeling of necessarily being high all the time. Once in a while, yeah, it was fun, it was good, it'd be great to go play handball or go play pickleball or do something active, but just sitting around doing that didn't really fit float with me. So uh it came down to good friends. My best friend, one of my best buds, Nate Jackson, was a friend, had a friend who was working for Charlotte's Webb, and uh they they showed us some videos of these kids that had seizures, and they take this hemp oil, uh, a very potent extraction of hemp, the non-psychotropic cousin or relative of marijuana. And these kids were not having seizures. And so I thought, man, that's amazing. Uh, it's doing something inside of these kids. It's gotta help us if we're if it's helping them this much, we've got to benefit also. And so I tried it out and I felt great that winter. I felt a different level of inflammation leaving my body where I could get down on the floor and get up without pain. Um, wasn't walking around kind of curled in a ball when it was cold, you know, because pain can can work with psychosomatically to where you're almost ready for it. I would get up out of the chair and be ready for the pain and like instead of like, yeah, oh wait, I don't have to groan when I get up. I could take a big deep breath and just stand up pain-free. What am I? I'm letting pain dominate me. And yeah. So I I I took some steps and some definitely got involved there as an advocate for you know, hemp, not marijuana necessarily. I was never really a proponent of like, hey, you should smoke marijuana. It's like, if you want to, go ahead. There's a lot of medicinal value. There's a lot of people that need it. But as a party drug or smoking it all the time, you know, that's that's your choice. But hemp, on the other hand, was very powerful, did a lot for me. And through that, through meeting or through working with Shark's Web, I met Del Jolly, one of my best buds, if not my best bud, like a long-lost brother, who introduced me to functional mushrooms right before the pandemic. And there again, I started taking these. And after some time, it didn't happen with the first dose. It wasn't like Charlotte's Webb, I felt an immediate feeling of like, wow, I don't feel the pain right now. Where the mushrooms, it took a little more time, and I started noticing things throughout the you know, summer and then into the winter, and all of a sudden, like next spring, no allergies, my rest was better, I didn't get sick during the pandemic. If I was sick, it you know, it was a small headache and then go away the next day. And so I'm like, man, these are these are doing well. And then as I started researching and reading about the history of that beautiful queendom fungi, I realized these have been used for centuries in China. For sure. Chinese medicine. They've been revered as a as a healing modality uh from nature. Nature's one of nature's finest pharmacies. In fact, a lot of pharmaceuticals have a lot of, you know, 30, 40% of the pharmaceuticals have fungi in them. Yeah. You know, penicillin was an airborne fungi. One of the greatest medicines ever invented was an accident. That's right. And I started just diving down this rabbit hole and realizing that they're everywhere. They're in this air we breathe, they're spores. And as I started feeling better and feeling the benefits and realizing the immediate benefits, but also the possibility of long-term benefits, which we will never, we won't know until, like you mentioned, 110 years old. If I'm 110 and I'm doing good and my life, I'm I'm 110 and my health span is the same and meeting there, you know, there may be proof there that these work.

Guys, Jake was so awesome. He stayed with me for a little while longer. So come back for part two next week.

It's time for pick six.

That part

Pick 6 ( 1 question and 6 answers)

of the show where we take one question and we each bring two answers and immediately regret to this segment. Pick six tonight is things you immediately regret volunteering for. Things you immediately regret volunteering for.

Picking up anybody from the airport really early.

Oh, at all.

Or taking them.

Or anything really early. Anything really early, yeah. Yeah. I would immediately regret volunteering for hosting something at my house. I get way too in-depth with the cleaning.

Yeah. And there's charcuterie boards that you're just a lot of work. Yeah. For me, uh, the first one is keeping score impeccable.

That happened at that tournament where we pretty much volunteered for that. Yeah. You were the scoreboard. I would say anything that has to do with a government entity. I'm not volunteering to do a meeting. I'm not volunteering to go to a meeting. I'm not volunteering to work anything for anything run by the cities or anything like that. Gotcha.

I would say helping someone move.

That's just a lot of work.

Oh, that's a good one.

And they're like, Oh, I'll give you pizza and beer. And you're like, thanks. I got my own money.

Yeah, I can buy my own pizza and beer. Thank you very much. No, I'm gonna hire somebody to move your stuff for you. Right.

My other one would be coaching your kids' team of any of any team.

Oh, yeah. Done our fair share.

Oh, yeah. It's soccer of all things. If you've seen me, you know I'm obviously a big runner. Just big. Oh, okay. The podcast was named after you. News you can use. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, we're covering

News You Can Use

all the news that matters to you.

Yeah. So millions of students and educators have been heading back to the classrooms. Yes, that's true. Across the country this month. So an estimated 54 million K through 12 students and nearly six million teachers are kicking off the new academic year. Wow. But the biggest headline this season is happening at the cash register. According to the National Retail Federation, back to school spending is hitting historic highs. K through 12 families are spending an average of $864 per household.

Oh my gosh.

Pushing total K through 12 spending past $43 billion.

Or in the wrong business.

Meanwhile, college spending is crossing the hundred billion dollar mark for the first time ever, driven by rising costs for electronics and dorm gear. I can go out for this is the moment in time that I am so grateful for homeschooling. Yes.

And stupid kids who aren't going to college.

Right. Does this include clothing or just that school supply? No, this is going back to school. Clothing. Okay, I can see that. $864 per household. I can see that.

Pencils and trapper keepers.

That's a lot of Lisa Frank folders. Well, um a pair of tennis shoes costs you $150. Not my tennis shoes.

Oh gosh. You get zips at Walmart.

Yeah, like if my kids were going back to school $100? No.

My son has work boots because he works.

Well, I mean, granted, he did ask for new converts and he went and got them. And I guess you're right. They were $70. Yeah.

Oh my God. Really? Are they that much now? I know.

Chuck Taylor's, they used to be like the cheap shoes.

Oh, like $10. And then they were in a bin. You had to match them. And sometimes he got a new one. Sometimes you wore a 12 and an 11.

Oh Lord. He got a pair of new tinnies and they were like 150. Then he had to get football cleats. They were 100. I mean, so there's 250 right there. And then you spend a couple hundred on clothes. Oh gosh.

And that sports season when the boys just their foot grows. Like I remember when our son was in football and at the beginning of the season, he got new cleats and two months in had to get new cleats.

Oh yeah.

He was gonna get the mouth guard and he had to get a new backpack this year. And those are 50 bucks a pop.

What are like okay, where are kids shopping for clothes nowadays? Because like when I was in school, it was like Charlotte Roos, Wet Seal, Forever 21. Forever 21.

Love Trevor.

Now it's like Torrid and So that you know that brings up a good point because we when I was in school, you had to have the brand. If you were noticed if you didn't have the brands, if you didn't have the Jenkos, if you didn't have the Z Cavaricis, like I wasn't a brand kid though.

I was. I wore a lot of like Abercrombie, Air Postel. I never, I never had Calvin Klein.

But now the kids nowadays, I don't think they they're like Is it? I don't know. Our kids don't go to school.

Is it like that? Like, what is the brand like? My son is not, so I don't really know. Like I know with my daughter, uh her one of her favorite brands is Lululemon, but with my son, he really doesn't care. He does like Nike. So are kids wearing Lululemon?

Yeah, for sure.

Like high school kids. What what are they doing? Yoga all day? Like what are what are they wearing? I don't know.

Hmm. Tell us out there what you're kidding.

I don't know.

I uh this is no, don't tell us what your kids are wearing.

This is I just it just crossed my mind because I'm thinking that's a lot of money to spend. Like, where are you buying your stuff?

Not only that, but think about it, they need 30 pencils. That's that's so they can put them in a community pencil area. Oh yeah.

Well, then you're getting crazy art. You're getting crazy art if it's community.

Yeah, you're getting Sam's choice pencils, that's what you're getting.

Yeah, because you don't get to keep all your stuff, right?

You're getting well you're getting old Roy pencils.

You do when you get into my son's age. Okay, so junior high and high school, you can keep your own stuff. Yeah. I just remember when our kids did go to like the private little school thing, like we would buy everything and then they'd put it in community.

So like elementary school does that, like middle school will do that. Some supplies for like the junior high are community, but for the most part, what my son has is his.

Yeah, because it's like I bought mechanical pencils because I like that. Like, and then you gotta like take them away. That's weird. Yeah, anyways, I just thought that spending was that's ridiculous, incredible.

I mean, I can see it though, especially like it says per household, not per kid. So if you have two kids going back to school, yeah, I guess that's you know, $4.50 a piece. That's it's actually it's not bad.

Not bad. Like if you're thinking $70, $80 for shoes, yeah. And who just gets one pair of shoes nowadays? Right.

You know, and then you know, a nice outfit. You spend a couple hundred dollars with you buy a couple of different outfits. It is just it's the price of how much things are right now.

That's why I just keep buying pickleball shirts.

Yeah, yeah. I uh I got leather goods when I was growing up. Stop.

You're a mess. There you go.

Yeah, let us know. That's a lot of money. Are you that is a lot of money? Have you taken out a personal loan for school supplies? Let us know. That's it for this episode, unless you've got something to say. Think we got it wrong, have a better take, we want to hear it. Find us at bdepodcast.com or at bdepodcast on the store. Drop us a message. We might just speak to you in the next episode. If you had a good time, well, it's the eighteen. If not, maybe five years.