From Setbacks to Success: Zay Jones' Inspiring NFL Journey | Digital Social Hour #15

All right, welcome back to the Digital Social Hour.

I'm your host, Sean Kelly, along with my co-host, Ari Gold.

Yo, yo.

And our guest today, Zay Jones.

Yo, what's up?

How's it going?

It's good, man.

You just had a great year, man.

Yeah, thank you.

Appreciate it.

I love the energy you walked in with.

I'm telling you right now.

I don't know.

I just walked in with a chef.

Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know what regiment this man's on.

We're going to about to find out because when he walked in, it was just

vibes.

Oh, dude, I'm happy, bro.

I'm happy.

I watched y'all stuff a little bit on Instagram.

Oh, yeah.

It's cool to be here.

So I really appreciate the opportunity.

Yeah, I want to dive into your story, man.

So we'll start from

like high school, college.

Sure, yeah.

So you went to college.

You're the division one leading receiver ever, right?

Where you from?

You did your homework.

Yeah, I did.

I did.

Yeah, you did.

So he leads all of college in receptions.

Where are you from?

Where are you from?

I'm from Austin, Texas.

Okay, oh, all right.

See, that's why.

That's why.

He built tough.

That's why.

Texas football.

Yeah, I grew up in Austin, man.

Born in Dallas.

My pops played in the league for 10 years.

So I was around the Texas scene of football.

My brother was in it.

Top recruit.

I was kind of like the run out of the group, though.

I didn't really get offered till my senior year of high school.

I got offered by East Carolina, and I remember getting that offer and going there in my freshman year.

I was like, I want to be the best player to ever come through this university.

And

yeah, I would be lying to you if I said my freshman year.

I was like, I'm going to break all these records and do all this stuff.

But glory to God, man, I came through that university.

NCAA record holding all-time receptions for a season ending a career.

Glitter call finalists.

The goal was to be great.

Come on, man.

You understood the entirety.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, the goal was to be great.

You got to do it.

So, I mean, that's kind of how it panned out.

And then

I got

drafted to the Bills in 2017.

What was it like on draft day?

Did you know you were going to get drafted?

Yeah, I mean, I was certain I was going to.

There's a certain amount.

Don't break all those records again.

But did you know the team, though?

No, no, no.

I didn't.

I actually didn't know the Bills were going to draft me.

Who'd you think it was?

I'm curious.

Los Angeles, Rams.

Yeah.

And what was your number two thought?

Cardinals.

Okay.

So at the time, I had worked out for the LA Rams staff at ECU, and they worked me out for an hour.

So it was like the GM, head coach, quarterbacks, coach, wide receivers, coach.

Everyone was there to work me out individually for like an hour and 30 minutes.

Yeah, they didn't have a first-round pick at the time.

They had a second-round pick at number 37.

That's what they were slated at.

And when it came closer to that time, when I fell, I guess, from the first round to the second round, I was waiting by the phone and I was expecting a call from them.

And the Bills had actually traded up to the Rams pick at 37.

And so I was expecting to go to, shout out Coach Yarbs, who was a great coach,

wide receiver coach for the Rams at the time.

I was expecting to go there, and then the Bills, I got a call from Rochester, New York, and

they were selecting me.

Wow.

Get a jacket, motherfucker.

We're ready.

How different is playing in the NFL versus college?

Is it a lot harder?

I mean, at the foundation of it, it's the same as far as like you play ball and you got to carry that confidence.

Like, no matter where I play ball, it's the same.

But as far as like the ins and outs, the business side of it.

It's more tedious and more detail-oriented.

Oh my gosh, the time you spend to it, it's your craft now, it's your job now.

So, like, every day is more geared towards how I can become a better professional.

Right.

And so, from that aspect of it, of like not going to class and doing all these extracurriculars, my time is spent and focused on football alone right

I believe that's what makes it the separation and then obviously the talent level because now you're playing against the best of the best right and not a lot of guys make it seven years in the NFL and you just had one of your best years yeah do you see yourself continuing to just develop your game and be one of the top receivers I would like to I'm um I'm not really looking left or right or who's doing what, but more so focused on my process and my growth has come later in my career and I cherish that.

I think that's really special.

It's what made me who I am.

That's a testament to your character, brother.

Yeah, you haven't stopped the hustle and the grind,

and that's what's important to you.

Yeah, I'm excited about it, man.

It's and I'm with a fantastic team, fantastic coaching staff.

Like, listen to how he's talking about it.

That's that's the difference between playing a sport because you're getting paid, paid to play, and playing something that you love to play.

Right.

And the smile that he keeps showing, and every time he talks, look, he can't stop.

I'm telling you right now, that's that's someone who loves the game.

And when you, you know, get to encounter that and you truly are blessed enough to be special and chosen to do what you do every day and love what you do and get paid to do it, I feel like that, man.

He's got the love and appreciation and the respect for the game as far as far as he does.

I do.

It wasn't always like that in the beginning.

I came through my rookie season.

It was really, really hard on me.

Talk us through that.

Talk us through the challenges.

Don't

hold back.

I'll tell you.

Listen, you don't have to sugarcoat.

No, I won't.

I won't.

I won't.

I'll be honest with you.

Because listen, there are hundreds, if not thousands, thousands, of people that when they hear stories like this, you know, they try to relate it to their own.

So, you know, if there's even one or two people that you can tell the story to that are either on the same path or in different journeys, but understand that this can help their process.

you know, why not explain to them the difficulties that you went through and how you overcame it?

I believe a true success story is the journey and the process, not the end result.

It's not the accolades that come along with it, although they are a testament to what you've gone through.

I really believe the process is the most beautiful part.

And I didn't truly understand that in the beginning.

I wanted things to be done quickly and how I thought I was supposed to have them.

I mean, coming off of being an NCAA record holder, and then when you face challenges and obstacles and setbacks, and you tear your labrum seventh week of the season as a rookie, and you're going up against the best, it's like

I was starting, yeah.

It's like, where's the hope?

This is not what I thought the NFL was supposed to be.

And then when I could take a step back and kind of reevaluate and game plan, okay, I understand now what it's supposed to look like, the outlook of it.

I understand the longevity of a season and how it's supposed to go is when I really got my bearings and really could enjoy football again.

It took a, it took a while.

And

now I'm in a space in my life where I'm enjoying playing the game.

I love the ins and outs of it again.

I love watching film.

I love seeing how I can get better.

And this is one thing as I've grown that I've realized about myself is like, I am comfortable with failing and getting back up to try again.

Sure.

You know, I'm no longer.

Thank God you have the ability to do that.

Some people get knocked down and don't even have the strength to get up.

I feel like if you want to be successful in anything in your life, whatever it is, football, whatever the path is, is like

if you can be comfortable and not be afraid of failure and you can get back up and go out there again, then, I mean, hats off to you.

That's the person who really does it.

That's awesome.

Was the NFL always a goal of yours, even when you were a little kid?

It was, honestly to be to be honest on it was it was like a way of life for me i always kind of had that confidence that i would be in it um obviously knowing that there's a chance that it wouldn't happen but i remember even being in high school as a young kid um i'll never forget him history teacher mr duarte we had to go talk him out no for real we had to go to a um a lab one day and we had to fill out like college applications in a sense and we had to sit there and type why we want to go to this school extra extracurriculars that we did.

And I looked at him, I was like,

I want to get a scholarship to play football.

And I appreciate him for doing this.

He's one of my favorite teachers.

I don't even know if you ever hear this, or,

but he was like, okay, so teach me what that process is like.

And I was like, well, I'm going to fill out these questionnaires.

So basically, what it is, is like you go on the school's websites, you put your height, your weight, your 40 time, things that you like, your position.

And he was like, okay, instead of doing college applications,

I will allow you to do these questionnaires for these universities, but you got to promise me that you're going to be diligent about it.

You're going to be thorough, that you're going to write them all out.

And I was like, yes, sir, I will.

I promise.

At the time, I didn't have any offers.

And so my mindset was still focused on I'm getting a scholarship to play football.

That's just who I was.

My dad had played in the league.

My older brother had offers from everyone, and that was the path that I wanted for myself as well.

And he allowed me to do that.

And I held out like 50 to 70 of them from lsu to baylor to texas oklahoma oregon alabama you name it and um yeah that was just at a young age and i ended up getting my offer and i mean to be here is purely by the grace of god man and hard work and dedication because everything is paid off for myself so i didn't really go the route of like

your typical college application and and go intern or go get a job my first job was actually in the nfl i want to know what it was like going from the Raiders to the Jags because when I met you, you were on the Raiders and you seem really happy there.

So what happened in between there?

Okay, so I came to the Raiders in 2019.

Yeah, 2019.

Kind of had to get my feet back under me, play with a great team there.

I was really excited for the future there.

I did some amazing things with that group under Gruden and Basatia.

For those who know the coaches that were there.

And I wanted to be back with the Raiders this past season.

A new regime had came in under Josh McDaniels and

that group.

And I guess I just wasn't really a part of the plans that they had moving forward, which is perfectly fine because when you get new regimes, they want their players.

It's a system fit.

A lot of politics.

I got to ask, did you ever get a script?

I know.

That's a popular question.

Everybody really wants to know.

No, I didn't get a script, man.

I don't know if other guys did.

I guess I'm not that high on the payroll

in order to get a script.

Ain't nobody saying all that.

I'm just asking if you got a script.

No, I didn't get a script.

I didn't get a script.

Blink, blink twice.

Oh,

no, man.

But

the transition was cool.

It was my first time going through free agency.

Was it a nerve-wracking process?

It wasn't nerve-wracking because I knew that I did everything possible in my ability to which I was given in order to prove that I should be there.

Sure.

You knew you were going to go somewhere else.

It was just a question of where.

Of where.

You know,

on that point,

you're good enough of an or you're more of an established player that people, regardless of if they need you or not, you can be put somewhere and be a role player instantaneously.

So that's kind of the obviously that that's going to have a play in your, you know, your confidence in the role.

But sure.

I feel like if it was me, I'd be more, I wouldn't say scared, but intimidated at being traded to a team where I just either don't know anybody or, you know, don't have any vibes or just don't even know.

So, Ari,

that was my first

true impression of the league because I was traded from Buffalo to Oakland.

Okay.

And I didn't know the dynamic of what I was really walking into.

Like,

I didn't have any control over it.

Right.

And I wanted to be in Buffalo, but I was traded to the Raiders.

So when I went into the Raiders, I went to the furthest East Coast team, literally to the furthest West Coast team.

Talk us through the first day transition.

I'm curious about that.

They just give you like a lunch pill and like, get in the locker room, bud.

No, I'll tell you.

Dude, I'll honestly tell you.

So it was, I was actually coming up off an off day.

The Bills had just played the Tennessee Titans in Tennessee, and I flew back with the team, and I was in the locker room, and we did all that stuff.

I flew back with the team, and I was at my house, and we were coming up on an off off day actually a bye week and i was going to plan to go to toronto for the for the weekend or for the week and so i'm packing i'm packing my bags i'm getting everything settled the gm calls me is like hey how are you doing um because i actually didn't play that much in that game and i texted my agent was like yo um i just want to know what's going on like where do i fit am i is there something i'm not doing right right and you know my agent is super great zeke sandu shout out elite management he was like brother i got you don't worry about it like we're going to talk through these discussions or whatever.

The GM calls me, tries to put my mind at ease and was like, hey, you know, you're doing a great job.

We're going to work things out.

So I'm like, okay, cool.

Like, they're going to work it out.

And so we hang up the phone.

I'm packing my bags.

I'm about to get in the car.

I drive down.

I'm like, because Buffalo to Toronto is not that far.

It's like an hour and 30 minutes.

So I crossed the border.

I'm actually in Toronto.

I'm about to get to my hotel.

I'm about to go to a place called Marble in Toronto.

It's really good.

Shout out Peter.

I get a call from my GM.

He's like, Jesay,

I'm with Sean McDermott, which is the head coach.

Yeah.

He's still the head coach.

Fuck.

And he was like,

hey, just want to let you know we're going to trade you to the Oakland Raiders.

So I'm like.

What the fuck have I been working it out?

So I'm like, is that working it out?

So I'm like, what's what's really, what's going on?

Like, my first instinct was,

is this a joke?

No, I was like, is this a joke?

Not in like a demeaning way.

I just, I've never been in that position before.

I didn't really know how it happens.

And so he's like, yeah, we're going to trade you to the Oakland Raiders.

So I was getting like really, really emotional, just like a lot of things going through my head.

So I'm like, okay, explain this.

I'm like, hold on, explain this.

So they start explaining.

And then they start calming me down.

And it was like, hey, we think this is going to be best for your future.

We think this is what's going to be best for us.

And

they start talking about John Gruden and Mike Mayock, who are great people with the Raiders at the time.

But I'm like, hold on, I'm not talking about them.

Like,

this is still my team.

But here's the catch.

It wasn't, you know, because the deal was already done.

And so as I'm talking to them, I'm in Toronto and they're like, hey, why don't you turn back around?

Where are you?

You got to get on a flight to fly out to go to Oakland.

And I was like, wait, I'm on my bye week, though.

You know, because my mind, I still haven't processed it.

And so they're like, yeah.

Yeah, they're like, they're excited about you, they can't wait to meet you, and so

they're like, Can you come back?

And I'm like, So, I make this this hour and 30-minute trek.

I mean, I just went, so I had to turn around, go across the border, and had to go through customs and like explain why I'm coming back.

You know, I'm like, You gotta tell them the dude at the dude at the customs is like, Aren't you Zay Jones?

And I'm like, Yeah, he's like, You play for the Bills, and I'm like, Not anymore, I don't think so, not anymore.

You're the first person to find out, buddy.

As I'm driving, like my phone is blowing up.

Sports Center or the ball.

Yeah, they're like Chefty.

Was it Shefty?

No, the Shefty.

It wasn't Shefty.

Shout out, Adam.

Shout out to Adam Shefter.

Still one of the flyest in the game, bro.

Adam's cool, man.

But I'm pretty.

He's got swag.

Let me just pause right there.

The guy has swag.

I'm actually going to send this to him when he gets it.

Please do.

Please do.

Tell him I'm a big fan.

I'd love to shake his hand.

Yeah, of course.

Of course.

The guy's got swag.

I've only been in the room around him and just seen how he

he knows how to work a room.

No, he knows he knows how to work around and everybody knows and get you know, they pay the respects.

It's like watching an OG, you know, like mob boss kind of mob around.

He's smooth like that.

All right, I'm gonna come back to this story, but I got another story for you.

So I'm in Super Bowl and I'm trying to get into one of these parties and it's like super security.

They're like, we don't really know who you are, but like it's cool, whatever.

I'm not

cool.

Whatever.

I don't need to try to exude any power power or whatever.

Like, okay, if I can't go to this party, I'll go to another one.

I go to another one.

Not a Pakistan.

Adam Scheffner walks up behind me.

I've never met Adam before in my life.

Really, really good dude.

Adam's going in.

I guess he didn't have his credential pass or whatever, his family.

And he's about to walk in the door.

The guy stops and kind of puts his hand out in front of him.

And I was like, I said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

And this is the Super Bowl party.

So, you know, Adam has a lot of prestige.

He carries a lot of weight, man.

Like, what he does is really big.

It's really profound across the league.

It's like saying no to Oprah.

So I tell the guy.

I tell the bouncer, I was like, hey, look,

listen to me, look at me.

If you don't want to let me in, that's fine.

If you don't let this man in, I promise you, you'll lose your job by tomorrow, maybe tonight.

Yeah.

Whoa.

Easy.

And so.

Easy.

The guy's like, okay, who is this?

I'm like, look, let me tell you, like, this is kingpin when it comes to the NFL.

I would just Google Adam chapter.

What's wrong with you?

He lets Adam go in the party, and then Adam goes in, he thanks me, he shakes my hand.

He's like, you know what, like, I'll never forget what you did.

And he's really, really cool, like, super cordial, like a great guy.

Hits me up the next day, and it was like, you know, if you ever need anything.

So, like, I have a lot of respect for Adam.

I would consider him to be a friend.

I've been on his podcast as well, and I think he does it a phenomenal job.

That's awesome.

Yeah, dude.

I feel like there's...

There are far and few between when it comes to legitimate reporters and people who actually have the scoop.

And I feel like if I've ever heard something come out and it says chefty reports

and when i see that i'm like it's legit you know you can't he's not about to you know the guy is is too

meticulous to make a mistake like that yeah yeah yeah so and you have to appreciate somebody and again it comes back to being great at your craft for sure you don't you don't end up doing this for 10 15 20 years if you're not the fucking best you got to be the best absolutely all right i got to ask oh go ahead go ahead okay i was just going to come back to your point i know i can drag things out but um so i get that call i fly out uh to oakland so i got that call at like 10 p.m i fly out at six so i pack like a little duffel toothbrush whatever i need like kind of smaller things oh you left all your dude my whole life was there like oh friends teammates home everything so so you got the whole house yes all right baby here just leave the keys so that's like my introduction to truly like um i guess the side that most people don't i'm not even gonna say the bad where did you hold the hold up

where the did you stay

did they give you like a

I'm so sorry.

I'm going to tell you.

Did they give you a crib?

I'm going to tell you.

I'm going to tell you.

You're going to be in a hotel?

Yeah, yeah.

So I get on this flight.

It's like five, six hours, whatever it is.

I land.

They pick me up immediately.

They take me to the hospital because they got to do their checks.

They got to make sure.

They got to make sure that the player that they're getting, everything is

in order.

You got it.

You're physical.

So I'm in this hospital for about like two and a half hours.

Not their fault.

It's just the process, bro.

You can't really rush it.

They got to check head to toe what time is it right now so now it's about let's say if i flew out at six that puts that at three and then it's like a six hour flight so seven o'clock like maybe like eight oh okay eight nine so like now i'm like now you're like i'm ready to eat yeah like 9 a.m i'm like 9 a.m west coast time or whatever right okay

and so I go through all these checks, you know, ankles, knee, because it's a separate entity when it comes as far as like their doctors, what they've discovered

with the bills.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I'm in there.

I'm doing all that stuff i'll never forget his name his name is joe great beard nice guy

the the you had the raiders physical team inside the hospital doing these checks yeah so it's it's like their team oh yeah you have to

it's because like if we if we traded for sean and you know we're the we're the lakers they're the yeah we have to know you're telling us one thing but that's bullshit right but we have to know right okay you know

so I go through like my entire checks with them.

I do all that stuff.

And then they take me to the facility.

So now I I go to the facility.

They're kind of showing me around.

I'm like, oh, this is really cool.

This is nice.

It was a little different from what I was used to, but like, this is where you're going to be, you know, the locker room.

This is where you're going to be eating, these things like that.

They're like, okay, let's take you upstairs.

Let's meet the coaching staff.

So I'm like, okay, cool.

I go upstairs and meet Edgar Bennett, great wide receivers coach, Packer's legend, really cool guy.

We start going over the playbook immediately.

So like he's introducing me to like formations.

He's like, hey, this is what this means.

This is about 10 a.m.

right now.

This is what this means.

This is what this means.

And like we get through an hour and a half, maybe like two hours of like install.

And he looks at me and he's like, are you okay, man?

And I said,

Coach Bennett,

I haven't eaten since last night.

And he was like,

man, let's go get you some food.

I'm so sorry.

Like, let's go get you.

So I'm like, I'm like, yeah.

Let's get you a bag of peanuts.

No, because

it wasn't his fault.

Like,

he didn't know.

It was just like he runs up to the hospital hospital all morning.

Can I get a chicken or something, bro?

Like, what's up?

So he takes me downstairs.

I go eat.

I come back upstairs.

I'm like, you're at the Raiders facility this time.

Yeah, I'm at the Raiders facility at this point.

I come back upstairs.

I'm ready to continue learning.

And then I hear, is that Zay Jones?

And it was John Gruden.

Yeah.

So John Gruden bends the corner.

He comes in the room, bloodshot eyes, like bright red.

I'm like, I'm like, hey, coach, how are you?

He's like, up all night, waiting for you.

Fired up to meet you, man.

How the hell are you?

You know, so like a lot of energy from him.

And I was like, are you good, coach?

Like, how you been?

He's like, I'm so excited.

Like, he's like, I've been watching film since 3 a.m.

this morning.

I promise you, it's going to be amazing.

We've got a great system here for you.

You learn these plays.

You're going to meet me out on the grass.

And we're going to go through some calls.

So I'm like, all right, cool.

So I go through

my rest of my studies with my receivers coach.

We hit the grass.

We go outside.

Now it's our offensive coordinator.

It's Gruden.

I think the assistant receivers coach at the time.

We start going through.

None of the team is there.

No, none of the team is there.

All right.

This This is on an off day.

So we go outside and Gruden starts quizzing me with plays.

Bunch, right, rotate, da, da, da, da, da.

Oh, man.

Listing plays.

But I'm killing it because I know it.

You know, I'm pretty good at retaining information and soaking in plays.

I've been around.

I think you have to memorize.

Dude, these were,

I kid you not, like, this was maybe 100 plays that we went.

What?

Yeah.

I believe that.

Holy crap.

You just got to see the books that they get.

I mean, they're fucking textbooks.

And you got to memorize all of them.

So some, just one play could have a lot of variations of a play.

okay that would take me another 20 minute conversation but for the sake of the podcast like just just know that like a b and c can also connect to a b c d e f g like there's just a lot of moving parts to it and someone in my position who's been um rated as a person who has a lot of versatility versatility playing x you have to learn those routes because basically basically when when the concept throws yeah

he doesn't know that you're running he just knows that that at that point there's going to be one person right there and that's where you got to be.

Yeah, it's concepts.

It's basically be where you're supposed to be, and you're supposed to be there, and how you're supposed to get there.

You break left instead of break right, interception.

So, Gruden, Gruden was really, really impressed.

He was like, He was like, Basically, bro, if I did 100 plays, I got like a 97.

He was stunned, and he was like, You're one of the smartest guys I met.

He's like, I don't know why Buffalo let you go, but like, we got a game against Green Bay and Lambo this week.

We want you to play.

So, I'm like, okay, like

I really gotta,

I really gotta get on my stuff.

I did not,

I did not end up playing that week, but I played the following week against Houston.

And like that transition was so much because I saw the business aspect of it.

I saw like personally what you have to do as a as a human.

I say this all the time to guys coming from college.

I'm like, they help you transition from college to the NFL as a football player, but you got to have that transition as a person as business as well.

And so there's just that gap.

Some guys guys have it better than others, and some guys learn.

And I've always learned.

It's definitely one of those things where you have to build

a good team around you as well.

And guys like

some of the guys that I know and that I've grown up with, and it's funny to see the transition because you play football with these guys, Pop Warner, since high school, and then all of a sudden, now they're getting multi-million dollar contracts.

Nobody's really telling them what to do with any of this money except for everybody around them that's coming out with a handout.

And at the end of the day, it's tough to really decipher decipher who has your best interest for you and can really

help you grow in the business.

A lot of athletes go broke, right?

Dude, I think it's like 80%.

What?

80% after.

Whoa.

I think it's 80% after three years of play or something like that.

That's crazy.

Go broke.

Some crazy statistic.

Again, we have to look it up, but

I do know that is astronomically high, especially for the amount of money these people are going through.

What are the rookie contracts like in the NFL?

It just depends on where you're drafted.

We'll ask an easier one.

How about this?

We'll wrap up on this one.

In your opinion, what has been one of the best ways that you've learned how to progress, not just yourself as a person, but as a personal brand, and how to really,

I guess, block out the,

we'll say, we'll block out the bullshit and kind of focus on like what you said, the gameplay, you.

and how to really progress in life yeah it's a really good question um i could attack this from multiple facets I would say this first and foremost.

The best way to brand yourself on the field is to simply play well.

Right.

And things come to you.

There are some guys who I consider to be, they have natural personas of

what media might like and gravitate towards, and they're also great players.

So it goes hand in hand and it helps them.

Awesome.

There's a lot of guys in this league, though, that are phenomenal players, but maybe are not as marketable because of where they're at or because because of a situation.

Shout out, Marshawn.

And so

when people ask me, like, who's the best receivers in the league, it's very hard to say, like, who's actually top this and top that, because I think across the board, to be even 1,696, which is how many players are in the NFL, to be a part of that group in the elite category of receivers,

to have a starting job, it's very impressive if you think about it.

And so marketing yourself is like, yeah, bro, if you can dance and you can do all the whole TikTok thing, all right, cool, whatever.

It's not personally me.

If you're a guy who is well connected and you know people and they can put your face on something, if you make a spectacular play during the right time in front of the right people, they might come at you with something.

Oh, dope.

If your agency is just a freaking powerhouse and they are so well connected, they might move you into it.

And so like.

What I've noticed for myself is

I'd rather spend my time in my craft trying to be as best as I can, enjoying what I love to do because I know my window of time is short.

Exactly.

Becoming famous to me is not the most prominent thing.

I'd be lying if I said that it's not cool.

Like, sure, yeah, people knowing you, but that's not.

That's a great point.

It's not the goal.

The goal is not to be famous.

Being famous doesn't pay the fucking bill.

It's not.

It's to be successful and be wealthy and have a great life and have a great quality of life.

Yeah.

Quality of life is great.

I don't hate on people or like if you're popping in the league and your face is everywhere, good for you.

Because like, hopefully you have great great people around you that you trust and are helping you manage that so it helps your longevity

after football.

For me, like I simply enjoy playing the game.

The money is great.

I'm not going to be one of those people who is like, I don't enjoy getting paid.

Yes, I do.

But I want to win and I want to be like

looking back at my career.

I gave it all I had and this is what I did.

And you had fucking fun doing it.

And I enjoyed it.

And I blast.

I mean, I could talk about different guys and stuff, but like, that's kind of just, you know, my perspective on like marketing in the game and playing the best, the best way to market yourself, play well.

I love that.

That's great, man.

I think that's a great spot to end it on.

Zay, tell people where they can find you.

What's the best route for people to follow up on what you got going on?

Yeah, I mean, it would be my Instagram at ZayZay.

It's a fire handle.

Yeah.

Z-A-Y.

Three letters.

Yo, no, I'm just saying, listen, if you ever do retire from the league and you need a little paycheck, I'm pretty sure Sean can help you.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

We're going to be talking more.

We're going to be be talking more.

But, you know, my guy, Eric, Eric Fawn, actually is here with me.

He's outside.

I'm wearing his hoodie right now.

Ephon 9, I believe, is his standout.

I like him.

He does a lot of really cool stuff.

Shout out to Chef Jones.

My chef is here somewhere.

Chef?

Can you hear me?

Yeah, yeah, he's back there.

Them Jones is.

I love Chef.

He walked in with a whole team.

I'm telling you.

The guy's got an entourage like Floyd.

Dude, let me tell you something.

I'll tell you this.

I'll tell you this.

the best thing I could have did for myself was to find genuine people um who I love and care about and put them around me and we all try to build together and beautiful and if for like god forbid whatever if I go go broke with these people at least I know I have people that have my back and love me instead of giving my money to someone who who generally just doesn't care for me.

So I got my brother.

Shout out Levi.

Shout out Caleb.

My parents love them.

My three sisters.

My team of people here.

And shout out the Jags, man.

We're gonna do big things.

I'm excited for the show.

Shout out to all the humble guys I think we've had on the show, man.

Today, I appreciate the time.

Sean, tell them where they can find you.

Sean, Mike Kelly, and I'm Ari Gold.

Guys, thanks again for joining us.

Enjoy.

Peace.

Appreciate it.