From NFL Stardom to Business Success: My Journey | Kenyan Drake DSH #1118

I just, I love the game.

I don't love the business.

That's why I personally retired.

I actually just had a daughter recently.

So that was another decision

in me kind of stepping away.

I didn't necessarily need to go and chase that check.

To get a season accredited, you have to have at least three games like active.

You're on practice squad all year and you don't get active check.

That's that season doesn't count.

And then if you don't get at least three active games, you don't get that season.

All right, guys, we got Kenyon here today.

Just announced his retirement a few months ago, right?

Yes, sir.

Congrats on an eight-year career.

Appreciate you.

You were just talking about what the NFL stands for.

Not for long, dog.

Crazy.

Did you know that going into it?

Yeah, it's something that's kind of thrown around with players, coaches.

Of course, you're in the league.

You got to take advantage of the opportunity that you afford it.

But I obviously understand that the majority of the people don't really make it that long.

And a common misconception that it's a lot of money to be made, obviously, but

two, three years, man.

And, you know, it's not really a lot of capital to have a family can sustain especially when you have to go and get another job so did that pressure ever get you mentally like damn i might if i get injured or something i might be on all the time man it's a dog eat dog world and honestly uh

the mantra is younger and cheaper so they're always gonna try to replace you in any you know form or fashion and uh you got to go out there and perform or don't get paid you know what i mean you get replaced yeah so i mean every day you got to show up to work crazy yeah they were trying to cheap out on running backs recently right yeah man i mean look i'm really happy about what the league looks like now.

Obviously, Saquon's doing his thing, Labor Derek doing his thing, and everybody else kind of that's like chasing them in like that top back type of conversation right now, really bringing a lot of love, a lot of like accolades back to that position.

I feel like, you know, make backs paid again.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, because they took a fat pay cut.

Yeah, you know what I mean?

That's just, that's the market, you know what I mean?

So

how the market goes is, you know, dictates what somebody may get paid.

That's any business.

You know, the market was just looking real shady for a minute, but hopefully, the performance of these guys going out there, you know, doing their thing could help get back up.

Was it shady because of injuries, mainly?

Um, yeah, man, backs do we do it all, man.

We run, obviously, catch the ball the backfield, got to protect as well.

Uh, so that's a lot of wear and tear, you know what I mean.

And honestly, if I'm from the other side looking at it, I probably would do the same exact thing.

You know, it's a lot of wear and tear on backs a year in a year out.

Um, the

statistics is that backs after they get a big contract, their production go down.

I mean, it just is what it is.

So, you know, like I said, I can't honestly be mad at it because it's business.

And if I was in that same scenario, I probably would move in the same way, you know, get production for as least as possible.

That's cool.

You look at it objectively.

Yeah, I mean, you have to.

I mean, at the end of the day, it's business.

I'm in the business of making money.

They're in the business of making money.

So you have to kind of find a middle ground in terms of you going out there handling your business, but understand that the older you get, especially in my position, they're looking to kind of phase you out.

And you got to go out there and improve it, which I'm glad that Derek, you know, went from Tennessee and now is in Baltimore and is leading the back or leading backs in general through all these different accolades and stuff like that.

So,

you know, just hopefully everything can continue to trend up in that direction because I want to see backs, obviously.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Not a lot of them make it past age 30, I heard, right?

Nah, and it's, you know, and honestly, if you think about sports in general, football is a contact sport, very contact-driven, year in and year out, week in and week out.

And I mean, just look at any position, like you said, two to three years for any, you know, the average mean,

you know, year in terms of how long you stay in the league.

So

I just, I love the game.

I don't love the business.

That's why I personally retired.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

You could have kept playing.

Yeah, I could have, you know, went and probably got picked up by practice squad teams.

You know, I actually just had a daughter recently, probably a year and a half ago now.

She's like 16, 17 months now.

So that was another decision

in me kind of stepping away because I didn't necessarily need to go and chase that check going to practice squads, you know what I mean?

Trying to, you know, get, because what happens is that to get a season accredited, you have to have at least three games like active.

So if you're on practice squad all year, you don't get active check, that's that season doesn't count.

Damn.

Yeah, exactly.

You work all that and you're working, you're getting paid.

You're still getting paid, you know, practice quad minimum, but you know, that's not active game check, which is, you know, substantial little bit more.

And then if you don't get at least three active games, you don't get that season.

Damn.

You know what I mean?

So all that went into it, I knew I could probably go and help a team, but in that capacity, I was just kind of over it.

You know what I mean?

I love the game, just don't love the business behind it.

Because there's a lot not in your control at that point.

Exactly.

A coach can choose not to play you.

He can play you two games.

Practice squad is a chopping block.

You know what I mean?

So once you get in that scenario, and it could not even be your position.

It could be a quarterback goes down or a defensive lineman go down.

They're starting at the practice squad.

But, you know, me being a 29 at the time last year and 30-year-old back now this year.

year.

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Sure.

You know, you're first on the chopping block.

It is what it is.

So I respect it.

Absolutely.

Two titles, At Bama, which one felt more fulfilling for you?

Oh, man, definitely probably the second one, my senior year.

To be able to kind of live up to the legacy that was set before us when I was a freshman, that was the first one I won.

And then obviously years prior to that,

you know, with the motivation for me going there because they were sending the standard.

So they won in like 09, I think they backed up with repeated 11 and 12 my freshman year.

So we kind of came like close.

Had to kick six against Auburn.

Ran into a boss all with Oklahoma after that and then lost to Ohio State that first playoff season.

So we were always a game out, never could get to it.

And that's, you know, college football is what it is.

But my senior year, just having the ability to be like, hey, this is the platform we're setting, the standard we're setting.

You see guys like Tua show up after that, Devontae Smith, all the guys on defense that kind of came, you know, after, you know, all the great guys that we had beforehand.

And, you know, I love seeing that success kind of play out out year after year.

Did you like when they implemented that playoff system?

I did.

And I like how it where it is now gives teams more of a chance.

Now, it's, you know, we always want more, right?

You, you give a, you know, give it into people, take a mile.

So now it's what, 12 teams?

It's 12 teams now.

Is it 12 or?

I haven't been keeping up.

I thought it was four.

Oh, so what happened is that after this year is the first year they brought it to 12.

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So initially it was four.

Teams were kind of like on that friends like, hey, we are, you know, a mid-major team or like a not a, not a power forward team.

We have a great team.

We want, we deserve to be in, which I respect it like a Boise State this year or, you know, even Colorado is a Big 12 championship contender going against TCU eventually.

So

all I can say is I think it's a great thing for college football.

A lot of money's coming in.

The players are getting paid now, which I love.

It's a wild, wild west, though.

Like

it's crazy just how it can be a one year for agency nowadays.

Yeah, it's

players literally going from, from, and it didn't have to even be a scenario where you could be honestly telling the truth.

You could kind of just tell them, hey, I'm a five-star.

I didn't get really to get to play this year.

I'm, you know, Florida's offering me this.

It could be a complete lie, but that team could be like, well, we don't want to lose this guy.

Let's, you know, give him what he want.

But then at the same time, it could be the opposite.

in a sense to where what happened with the UNOV quarterback this year.

And, you know, you don't make a non-binding agreement, put something in writing.

So somebody can actually honor that.

And now, guess what happened?

Now he's, you know, talking about he's, you know, going to take the red shirt this year and not play anymore because of a agreement that he thought he had, but didn't put in that writing.

Damn.

You know what I mean?

I didn't know about that.

Yeah, it was.

UNLV's decent this year.

Yeah, exactly.

So they had a quarterback initially that was leading the charge.

I think had him like undefeated.

Yeah.

And he kind of had a situation where he was like, man,

you know, I have this NIO money that was promised to me.

Like, where is it?

And the school was like, well, we can't honor that.

Like, we didn't say that.

Like, he was promised by, you know, some culture or whatever the situation is.

So in that regard, you know, he decided to, you know,

stop playing?

Yeah, just restart this year.

Damn.

And then another quarterback came in and still continued to success.

So I'm glad the program didn't really falter from that.

But that's the inverse of those two scenarios where you can benefit from a player, but also not benefit.

The players have more power now, right?

Yeah, they'll definitely compare to what it was back then.

But like I said, there's no regulation in it.

So like anything can kind of really happen.

You know, promise can be made and not fulfilled or whatever the case may be.

It's just what it is.

I mean, NIL money, I mean, University of Colorado, those kids are making crazy money, right?

Yeah, shoot, really all over.

I mean, shoot, I know I could have made some crazy money.

I was playing, you know what I mean?

Ibama, yeah, those guys are probably killing it.

Yeah, I mean, I love it for them, though, dudes, man.

Like

the fact that, you know, NCAA in general could make money off of a product that they weren't.

paying.

I mean, they made billions, you know what I mean?

And so I think it's honestly right that the players are now getting paid because it's only right.

It's fair business.

Absolutely.

What are your NFL predictions this season?

Who do you think is going to win it all?

Man,

I honestly really like Kansas City still because Mahomes is, you know, the wild card, obviously.

And in terms of, you know, he can do anything in terms of, you know, being a great quarterback.

So you always have a chance, a punch's chance with Mahomes at quarterback.

But their defense is the best in the league.

And, you know, old saying, defense wins championships.

So I honestly expect them to, if they don't, you know, injuries aside, to continue to, you know, be in close games, win closed games, have great coaching to make it eventually again.

And I also think that if, as long as the Lions

don't sustain any more injuries, I already had an injury to Aiden Hutchinson, as long as he doesn't or anybody else sustain a big injury, they have the best team top down.

So I think it'll eventually be the Chiefs versus the Lions.

You think the Lions will win the NFC?

Yeah, I think so, honestly.

Like they have a good defense.

their offense clicks on all cylinders, and I feel like their defense makes timely plays.

Yeah, um, I really do think that division, really, both North divisions, the AFC North and the NFC North, are the best divisions in football.

So, um, I honestly think it's a toss-up of who could eventually come out of that.

And that's one thing I love about football compared to like basketball or baseball from a playoff standpoint, because you can

the better team most likely always wins in a series of seven, like baseball, basketball, those type of series.

But with football, anything could happen on any given Sunday or any given Saturday.

The best team doesn't always win because, in the scenario of, you know, the quarterback got hurt, you know what I mean?

Now they got to fight to kind of get a backup quarterback to come in, or people are just making plays.

You know, it's just, you never know in a football game.

You know what I mean?

So it's a season within every week.

Every week, you're just preparing for another opponent.

You got to scrap this opponent and go to the next.

It's not like you play every day.

So you never know in the playoffs, but the better teams that have the best defense usually wins and any

support.

Do you think the NFL should change to series in the playoffs?

Like that's two out of people.

Nah, that's a lot.

Like they're already trying to freaking bring the games up to like 20 games or some, some shit like that.

Oh, they're trying to raise it?

Yeah, like they've been discussing it.

And whenever like the public gets wind of it, I mean, it's probably already been in the works.

You know what I mean?

So the more games that they have, the more money the NFL makes.

And why would they not make the most money they can, even to the detriment of the, the, you know, what's paying them the money?

Because, I mean, playing 18 games in a season, plus playoffs, plus preseason, that's a lot of games.

That is, you know, a lot of wear and tear.

Dude, what are you working on next?

I know you got a gym out here.

Yeah, man.

Me and Taylor Berry, I have like a partnership with him

and got a lot of guys coming there offseason, man.

You know, so if you're looking for a gym to kind of come into, don't know, you know, your target audience, but, you know, shameless plug, got a gym out here, pro athletes that can come and do the off-season training, things of that sort, really on the up and up.

Got real estate stuff out here as well.

So just really trying to make as much passive money as possible.

Oh, yeah.

That's the name of the game.

Yeah, come on, man.

I love that.

Where can people find you?

So social media, Twitter and Instagram, both KDX32.

And yeah, I have a LinkedIn as well.

You can type my name in.

LinkedIn.

LinkedIn.

yeah.

I try to get a shout out, LinkedIn.

LinkedIn, you feel me?

No, business savvy, you know what I mean?

So,

you know, all love, any type of platform, however, you, you know, do it, you know, give me a shout.

Let's go.

I use LinkedIn, so I'm just surprised.

All right, check them out on LinkedIn, guys.

Peace.