DJ Reed Full Documentary | Against All Odds, the Rise to Becoming a Top NFL CB | Origins

Intro yeah so we're at uh the juvenile H Detention Center Bakersfield it was just like dang like you know I was having flashbacks and thinking about everything when I seen like the basketball courts I'm just a kid like from Bakersfield that just you know went a certain route just from this experience DJ Reed if you don't know um who he is he's the starting corner for the New York Jets right now you see the enry Z on Sundays you didn't get to see his Monday through Saturday I really remember the struggle like the living situation that I was in I really remember that vividly just knowing like man like once I get the opportunity to get out like I'm going to make the most of it if I was able to leave SOS if I was to get a scholarship I knew I would be in the NFL 8 to 10 years old my dad got diagnosed with Ms that's when things started getting a little shaky my dad wasn't a perfect man you know he made a lot of mistakes and I understand you know why like why he made mistakes like nobody's perfect I was diagnosed with breast cancer when DJ was in eighth grade you go through these different trials and tribulations to make you have a testimony well first of all his competitiveness is off the chart there's not a scale that exists for GJ's competitiveness and it's picked off by DJ Reed he's going to take it to the house 3540 4550 DJ Reed to the 40 what a return from DJ Reed just like that DJ Reed and it is picked off by DJ Reed Jack Jackson looking deep down the sideline intercepted great catch by DJ Reed [Music] Childhood you see your daddy you see daddy look at your papa look at Daddy come on bri come right here how cute right K look how you sming oh my goodness look at DJ Tyson right there oh they look your Mickey mama you guys are like twins that's what everybody used to say oh look DJ was incredible very kind very determined very focused he always was one to uh make sure everything was done correctly uh he wasn't perfect but he really thrived to be his very best no I don't think I've ever seen this picture of flow yeah and then this is their grandmother Shirley mhm shley their dad's mom right mm and then this is your dad oh my goodness yeah you need that in your game room motivated you can take that you want it w look at cheek BS that's hilarious I would say my childhood there was definitely high and lows you know my mom and dad were married my dad was a PE teacher my mom she worked at career services and everything was good my house was like the house that everybody you know came to whatever the case scenario was if you had a bad living situation you were always welcome to come into our our house so like I had a lot of like brothers and sisters and yeah it was just like full of like a full of laughter and love up until like I was 9 years old when my dad you know was diagnosed with MS and that's when things started to alter news like this is always sort of shocking and it definitely makes an impact on the family so when we were told that he was actually he was diagnosed with Ms he was actually in the later stages because he was in the stage where the doctor basically said in 6 months to a year you'll probably be in a wheelchair and you know my dad did you know like I said he's made mistakes I won't go into the details but you know he did some things to my mom that me and my brother seen that obviously weren't good and um You Know It ultimately led to the their divorce and when you're a diagnosed with a u debilitating dis uh disability such as that uh your whole world is shaken up um when they got a divorce I had a lot of uh anger towards my dad to be honest and he moved to Iowa so when he got a divorced he moved to Iowa and his parents so my grandparents um took care of him at the time and so I didn't see my dad from Junior High all the way out through high school so you know I felt some type of way about it even though he was sick I was just like how can you not be there for your kids with our faith we always believe that we're always healed you know and we stood on the word of God and so um that was our stance well we going to work through this we're going to get through this as a family um it just sort of damaged a lot of things but as I got older I started to understand like man how would I like how would I react if I was an active person and all of a sudden like I couldn't walk like how would I be mentally if that happened so I started thinking like that when I got older and I I just gave my dad Grace and yeah my mom we moved into an apartment with uh my little brother and that's when I really started to see her just working like she worked um at Career Services Center she also you know sold cars uh she worked at like Ross or one of those stores you know at the time you appreciate like I appreciated my mom but now that I'm and I have a kid is just like what she was doing was just crazy she's caring she's giving she's always putting other people before her which you know I tell her like that's a good thing and bad thing cuz you got to make sure you take care of yourself as well like there was times where she would cook and not eat like she literally cook a whole meal and just not eat I don't know if it was because there wasn't enough food or whatever the situation was but we always be like Mom why you not eating she just didn't really eat when she cooked like she would just cook the food for us I remember when she got breast cancer and like literally literally like she acted like everything was good like she went through chemo um she had like stage three breast cancer too it wasn't like it was like early on it was like aggressive breast cancer and I remember her telling me and my brother and obviously we were just crying and we were just like oh my gosh like what's going to happen if something like God forbid something happened to you like what's going to happen so like I remember just praying to God at that time and I was a kid I'm just like God please don't let my mom die like please don't if she dies and I don't know what me and my brother going to do it was very challenging it was very difficult but every day I would get up as they go off to school and when they returned I would sit up I would get back into the living room so they know that I'm okay but I hadn't been up all day maybe and they'll come in and said Mom you up and I was like yeah they you don't look so good I said won don't you go back to bed okay I think I will you know so it was very challenging you know but we got through it I remember one time like she never tried to show her emotions and what she was going through to us I remember one time I opened her door like she didn't know I just kind of cracked it open and she was just crying like you could tell like she was just in so much pain and then like when she seen that opening door she tried to straighten up but it was too late so that just kind of tells you like the type of woman she is and I mean she she was a rock like she literally provided for us and did did it with Grace like it wasn't like we were burdens to her like we were her kids and this is something that she felt she was supposed to be doing so like I'm forever locked in with my mom like like our relationship is still strong today Cancer is a disease that changed your whole entire life you'll never be the same you know doctors telling you one thing you know you may not live but they don't have that power life and death in their hands but they do tell you that they tell you the different the chemo may may make this happen or that happen then you got to do radiation all kind of things come about so I was just preparing myself for everything but I know I had to live I had to live for my children I had to live and so I asked God to please let me let me live and here I am so Youth Detention Center was just like dang like you know I was having flashbacks and thinking about everything when I seen like the basketball courts um when I seen over there by where the school was at now it's just like a fresh memory cuz I was just here last year but um no it's still pretty cool still a surreal feeling though what sport is it right now um during like what type of season is this right now um softball baseball softball baseball track okay yeah so basketball season just ended just ended got you I was trying to catch a game or something bro I would love for you bro thank you I appreciate you put God's word out there oh yeah of course show got to yeah so we're at uh the Juvenile Hall Detention Center Bakersfield uh this is where I did just 30 days in juvenile hall my junior year when I was 16 I ended up getting arrested so pretty much what happened was we got in a fight we took the people that we got in a fight with we took their bike and then the police pulled us over cuz they called the cops so pretty much what happened was like we tried to drive off or whatever and the police cars like kind of like boxed Us in so like the first thing I did was I called my mom like like hey Mom like we about to I try to say it calm and like not scared I was like hey Mom we about to get arrested like we're on Lane and had to hang up the phone put the car on like the headboard I just wanted her to to let her know before someone else called her and that was just the feeling of like bro why are you putting your mom through this and it wasn't just me my little brother was with me too so it's like your little brother's riding the car with you he's getting arrested as well like imagine like as a mom like she was just like both of my kids are arrested there's nothing I can do like that's probably a crazy feeling so I that's what I obviously I felt bad about the situation but I felt bad about how it made my mom feel that was very for me was very painful hurtful as a mom you know I I love my children so you want the best for them and to see them having to go through the process of those the court system and things like that I wasn't wasn't um satisfied with with that this was something that I needed to go through I felt like if I didn't go through this experience I'll definitely not be um at this point in my life this was something that really just snapped me out of the path that I was going because it wasn't just this one mistake that I was doing it was a series of mistakes so quite honestly the situation and everything that happened could have been much worse and I thank God that it wasn't much worse but you know this was like God really just giv me that warning sign and you know I took advantage of what he was trying to tell me and just went the route that I felt like he wanted me to go coming here you know we we like to give the kids structure that they've not really had in the past um and so just having that structure um you know probably really just made him realize that man I I this is not what I want for my life right and so just changed his mindset a little bit and it's obviously paid off for it see a lot of people go through things they want to blame others but no DJ owned that he owned it and he made the best of it as a matter of fact he was one of the spokes people when I would go visit you know on Sundays cuz you can only go on Sundays they would say oh son don't long here but he's he has become a leader he's helping other kids understand and I remember DJ said one of the kids said to him DJ is that you and DJ said yeah man that's me he I made a mistake you know and when you make mistakes you got to pay consequences I really felt the peace that was just like everything's going to be okay like I wasn't in there stressing I just knew like hey you already made this mistake you got to learn from it like you either go this way or this way so you could literally choose which way but like you know great things are to come if you you know follow God no it's a blessing bro I just felt like God used me like my testimony like I literally give him all the glory just like with my story literally like I'm just a kid like from Bakersfield that just you know went a certain route just from this experience and you know he gave me the tools and the gifts and the athleticism and all that but it takes so much more than that to get to like where I'm at today and I'm just grateful to just be able to share my testimony and hopefully just motivate or give somebody hope a lot of these kids have the mentality of you know I was born into something and and I don't really have a chance to be successful right and then you have a guy like that who was here for a small amount of time and now look at all the success he's having at a on a national level right and so just let him know that you know yes you've made a mistake yes you're here but at the same time it doesn't have to Define you and you can change your mindset and you can change what you want to be growing up and going Fresno State & Choosing Cerritos College forward so like fast forward to like my senior year like I was locked in I was Focus after that happened my senior year like I I went crazy like in football and basketball I was MVP in both Sports the same year which I don't think anybody ever did at Independence now next DJ Reed with the steel and he'll go Coast to Coast for the uncontested layup I don't know what my stats were but I had about probably five picks and on offense you know I played running back slot receiver receiver I had about probably like 13 14 touchdowns so like yeah I just knew I was really confident I knew that I could play at the division one level when DJ went to Fresno St actually there were several different colleges that had pursued him they weren't D1 schools though they were just regular schools d3s d2s whatever I think I was undiz on top of the situation that happened that didn't help so and also I went to a smaller school I didn't go to any football camp so I I didn't have any stars from like going to camps so it was like strictly off of like you watching my high school tape and wanting to offer me which that's not more than likely going to happen and when uh he said I'm just going to go to Fresno State academically he was strong so he he got into Fresno State academically and then he walked on he made the team once I got to Fresno State you know obiously I was working red shirt year and when we got our evaluations to come back the next year they the coaches pretty much tell you how they feel about you and what they told me obviously I didn't agree with they were just like you know we see you as a special teams guy we can't offer you a scholarship this year you're going to have to stay here another year and you know depending on how you play this year then that will you know determine if we want to offer you a scholarship the next year and you know I see myself as a starting corner and I just told myself like this isn't it that's their perception of me you know I just got to I have to leave like I got to go somewhere else so that's how Jo came about yeah I had a friend of mine that um that's very very connected here at school send me a a name and said hey take a look at this guy and um you know I watched his film and um it was good it was good he did some things that were that were interesting so was probably about 2 months later he said hey I've got some more film to show you and I said uh he updated his highlight film and he said no it's some basketball stuff and I said okay and that's probably where he really caught my eye was was on the basketball court and and I know he thinks he's a basketball player but he's not he's just an incredible athlete and when I watched him jump and do some of the change Direction stuff on the field on the court that I saw him do um at that point in my mind he was a no-brainer he was somebody that we we went from willing to accept to actively recruiting we literally went to a few campuses we went to mount sack and we went I think we just went here we went to mount saac and we went here and when I came here you know I honestly was choosing I was thinking about going to mount sack just with like the talent of the team I actually like Mount sack a lot like when we when we went there there was a lot of Scouts there I remember Arizona being there Arizona State but when we're talking to the guys a lot of them couldn't get out cuz grave and when we went to ceritos you know we met coach kanes who was a phenomenal coach he was the DC at the time he literally showed us like the math Center the Student Center first I don't know if that was like a strategic plan but he literally showed that to my mom and myself and then the platform like the layout was nice the weight room the feel was nice and you know it felt right so like talking to my mom we ended up making that decision to go to citos you know when you get a chance to meet him I mean his personality and that dynamic smile and his Charisma that he has you just can't help but fall in love with them so whether he was going to be a great player or an average player for us uh we knew that DJ would help SOS College be a better Cerritos College place this is DJ rece are the little nice to meet you nice you too what's good buddy e what's up bro I SED off our motto at citos has earn it he's definitely earned everything he's gotten um so take some time to listen get some wisdom from somebody that's been there um and you're following in some of those shoes does that make sense okay so um welcome DJ Reed um back home okay it looks a lot different for him okay than what it did originally [Music] this is it bro I really remember the struggle like the living situation that I was in I really remember that vividly that's hard to do it's All Odds stacked against you you know people don't know people don't understand what y'all go through as far as y'all living situations like I was living with 8 to 10 guys um in a two-bedroom I didn't pay any rent so I would sleep on a fruit time yeah it was tough bro uh just the living conditions the shower all that it just wasn't clean just was rough living conditions roaches and all type of stuff but man had to do [Music] it that struggle that you go through man it's a struggle bro that only if you go through it that you could really like know what that struggle feels [Music] like when I went to seros they were stacked it wasn't like oh you're coming from a D1 you're going to start it was like we got two corners coming back on their second year one already has offers he just has to get his AA degree but 6'2 we have another Corner over there that's 63 we got a backup guy that's you know he's short but he's a dog so like you're going to have to come here and you know earn your spot and our goal was if he could take care of his business on the field and get his academic work done thatth we would do our best to get him out after one season you got to separate yourself bro and that's a everyday thing that's like you got to have a growth mindset like it's not about who's the most athletic it's about who wants it the most it's about writing down your goals it's about having a deliberate process and attacking that each and every day you know when I went to Jo it was more so just like it was just like I had to lick myself in the mirror like bro are you really like doing everything you can to be the best player you can be like it was something I had to really ask myself and the answer was no and I was always a hard worker but it's not just it's not just about working hard it's about like being deliberate and developing good habits every day and I just told myself like let's just like really do this stuff every day and see how good you can be and I think that's where the discipline just went up another notch just for him was consistency and uh almost to the point where there were times and games that we knew people weren't throwing his way and so for me defensively um there were times that I would roll our coverage and and I would flood our coverage away from him knowing that that's where they were going because they didn't want to throw out anymore and I know the the Jo being in Jo is so uncertain know it's times where yall think like damn is this worth it damn am I going to get out you just got to keep believing keep grinding and when you get on that field bro you got to make that obvious that you that guy straight up you in that field bro you got to make it obvious that you that guy you know to hear after his freshman year there that other coaches from other programs were coming in here to recruit the the saying was for a while how would you compare him to DJ Reed I always found that to be a great compliment for our players in the past is when people come through and say well do you have another uh DJ Reed do you have another rre Stevenson you know and uh those guys are special guys and uh yeah we'd be a lot better coaches if we had more of them but uh yeah he's just as competitiveness is is off [Music] sh I'm just letting y'all know that it's possible cuz I'm I did it so it's possible but is it easy absolutely not it's hard it's hard so that's it man I'm I'm grateful to be here anybody got any questions I'm here you guys could let me know what's up I'm a open book appreciate y'all boys [Applause] good well the thing about you that's a little bit like he is a dog I mean for sure just like you were and I told him I said Zed what's our deal and he goes you always keep it real you know what I mean he goes you always tell us the truth and I said d DJ is faster than you he is faster but I said everything else is there we can work on speed I said we can get you faster we can do those things but he deserves not I mean he's an All-American kick returner Corner if you're all American you should have a D1 scholarship and in Joo there's literally two and he's one of them it's everybody's told him he's too small everybody so it's that chip so when I was walking back from him we're doing the hand measurement right now on him um and I'm walking him back and he's like that's really DJ re cuz I used to tell him all the time you're our DJ you're the you know what I mean that's cuz he was just like no one's going to give me a shot we when I'm watching you bro like like I got a twin brother too like we both short so you know we've been criticized you know but like watching you bro like gives us hope and you know we study you and lie and I try to monetize my game off you and stuff like I co I told Coach KES before last year in the season I want to be like I want to you know like do what you do and stuff and you know I did it so that's love no that's love bro I'm glad I was able to motivate you to do that but you did it though it's all all your little guys no I got you bro I got you that's love bro that fall he passed 19 units while playing college football and uh he did his part and so we just uh got on the phone started calling people and saying hey take a look at this guy you know he's got some he's got some special things and and um of course K State gets back to us right away and that whole thing happened probably within from the first phone call to him flying out there was probably like 48 Hours yeah out of Berto down the burrito Kansas State spot and I got the call from coach side from K State he told me they was going offer me he was eating right there I think I was with my best friend that was crazy and I literally get a call from a Kansas a Kansas like what's it called area code or whatever and you know he was just like hey is this DJ Reed and I was like yes and he was just like this is coach Tyler with Kansas State we want to offer you a forri scholarship and man my head just started spinning I just started thinking about all type of things and I was like Kansas State I'm like dang my cousins went there like James Mill went there Darren spros went there and I was just like okay and I was like coach Snider is a legendary coach like he's a Hall of Fame coach then I started thinking even more I was like the big 12 is a pass happy conference so I was like I'm going to get a lot of targets which is good a lot of opportunities to make plays on the ball so I was just like that's that's a bet so like once I took that visit I already knew I was going to commit and DJ call me when he went to that visit he called me and he said Mom I think I'm going to go to K State and I said okay I said what made you make that choice cuz you had other visits he said because coach Snider never spoke about football he talked about character he talked about being a man he talked about being a leader he talked about being uh involved in the community giving back and that was what DJ was that's DJ that's packaged all together and so that's why he went to K State and from there here we are today a test for a wildcat team that has a special season in sight something that would been unimaginable without the architect savior Bill Snider it's a tremendous challenge here and I think this has the the opportunity for the greatest turnaround in college football I've said this before and I really believe it I think Bill Snider is the best college coach of all time coach Snider 7 and0 for the first time since 1999 you're playing efficiently one penalty a for eight in the Red Zone pleased with your team's performance coach Snider anybody knows that played for Coach Snider is like if you don't work he doesn't care how talented you are like you got to prove it every day that you going to work all these guys that are going on right now they built the foundation you guys have to carry it on because coach Snider um his background and the way he meant their children and young men they come there as young men and they leave as a man and that's what they told when I went to Kate they didn't promise me that I was going to start that corner they said hey you're going to compete for the starting quarterback spot we got a guy that's transferring um he was a grad transfer and he's coming in you're going to compete with him for the spot and that's exactly what I did and I ended up beating him out during camp and man once I once I started playing it just it just clicked bro play fake and it's picked off by DJ Reed he's going to take it to the house touchdown Kansas State yeah I think Reed got me in college for like a pick six so I so I know I know he's he's good at reading and recognizing [Applause] RS that's why I came here playing in the Big 12 the ball's going to be passed a lot so you know it's a challenge but um I look forward to it like to be honest I was like dedicated to making it to the league like I knew that I wanted to play in NFL it wasn't like my major was history so it was just like I love history but it was like bro like let's be real like you're here to go to the NFL fake to the back throw to the near sideline and it's caught and hit and driven back at the 21 yd line by DJ Reed there's the snap re fakes to the back throws high it's picked off DJ got at the 25 to the 20 15 to the 10 to the five and a tremendous play by here's DJ Reed near side at the goal line he's at the five numbers 10 152 2530 3540 4550 DJ Le to the 40 to the 30 angles to the middle 20 10 one day I hope I'll reach him got it off he goes 40 45 left side Midfield 40 353 20 to the 10 five he did it touchdown DJ Reed he steps up fires steep it's intercepted at the 18 yd line by DJ Reed my goal was to leave my juniors and I knew I was leaving after the first game I'm going to keep it real after the NFL Draft & Early Career first game I was like yeah I'm going go ahead and like I'm already going I'm going to lead this year he said one year at citos he was going to be at kstate for 2 years I believe and then he was going to be gone and so that's what he did he said it and he did it and that's one thing about DJ he doesn't waver he don't straddle defense it's either this way or we pivot and go a different way I told my mom like I said look I don't care I didn't even care where I got drafted I was just like I'm going to the league like not saying I'm going to be able to you know take care of you full like fully but like I'm going to Le to be able to help provide something financially like that's what I always wanted to do and I just told her like you know as far as school like I could go back and get my degree but like this opportunity I got to take advantage of it welcome football fans to the 2018 NFL draft Texas sty he was sitting there and we were all there um family members were all there and he was sitting on the couch on like a little love bench and he got the call all I heard was like it's John Lynch with the San Francisco 49ers and everything else blacked out like he was talking everything it just blacked out I just broke down I just all the emotions I literally just broke down like I looked I was like he's he got he got a call he had a call and I said sh you get be quiet be quiet and so DJ was trying to hear and then all he did he was so emotional he just dropped his head and he and I was like oh my God who call call he said San Francisco 49ers and I was like yes it's right down the street that's awesome so we were very very happy for him he was happy in the moment it was beautiful moments yeah man that was something that I would never forget that day like it was very emotional I had all my family there so it was really cool I remember that as if it happened yesterday I will always have that memory because it was it was life changing for everybody yeah with the 142nd pick and the 2018 NFL draft the San Francisco 49ers select DJ Reed defensive back Kansas State coming in you know I didn't really know what to expect didn't know what to expect especially like they wanted me to play safety they wanted me to play nickel as were like the two positions that they wanted me to play which I never played either of those positions after my second year in the league I went crazy as far as the offseason cuz I wanted to start so like I literally worked my ass off 2 weeks before training camp I was probably in the in the best shape in my life I'm bench pressing we're bench pressing heavy we're probably lifting I was probably lifting like 275 and I remember doing the first one I knocked it out and the second one it was just like a pop Po and like I the first thing I did was grab my chest and I literally looked at him and then I said did you hear that cuz I heard like a pop pop he said yeah I heard it and I just knew like damn you tore something so they had their people look at it like the um the sports medicine and they were just like this looks like a torn Peck and I was just pissed I was more so I wasn't even tripping about the pain it was just more so like damn you put in so much work this off season and now you going to have to sit out a whole season and then I started thinking like the Niners can cut you like you're not a starter like you're not really important so I was just like dang I could get released too so yeah so I go back to uh training camp like training cam about to start and I seen a dude I never seen before we call him the Reapers he was just like Hey DJ like John Lynch speak to you so he was just like you know unfortunately like you know with your Tor PE you know we we can't have you on the inj reserve cuz like you know this takes time to heal and he was just like you know we got to you know we got to release you the s San Francisco didn't see me as a starter so and they didn't see me as a corner so like when I tore my pack Seattle picked me up John Snider like I spoke to him on the phone he was just like do you want to play this year and I was like yeah I do he was like okay well we're going to make it far and you know do your job like we like what we see on tape just be ready and I literally came back in three and a half months and played against my former team and got my first career interception had a great game against them well protected and intercepted at the 12 easy money for DJ Reed to go get that football the next year I played a whole year corner and played really good and then free agency happened and that's when to Jet Simon DJ Reed the quarterback from Seattle comes in he's 25 years old so we are making New York Jets very smart signings and I give Joe Douglas a huge pat on the back for this D how you doing man GRE nice meet welcome congrats man you here the way I was describing Greg was like me and Greg are basically talking about you casually for the last like two months wow okay every time we spoke no M we talk about all our guys boy you Etc he's always like hey on DJ like nothing's happening without us talking right nothing's happening without us talking that's no doubt man now you put yourself in this position too I like the green accents too touched that up the New York Jets have signed cornerback DJ Reed away from the Seattle Seahawks Reed comes in and can fill that spot he plays like a number one corner the only knock on him is that he's 5 foot n Scouts predictably say that he plays bigger than that DJ how excited are you to you know make this official pen and paper and become a New York J man I feel blessed I mean this is really a dream come true it's surreal um definition of never giving up staying true to myself um believing in God putting him first and man just sticking to the script and it just feels fake it feels surreal but man I'm a New York Jet that was the first thing I did the first thing I did was I tell my mom like choose the house that you want you know after all the time you spent as a mother like taking care of him raising him to be a great man and a great athlete and a great person when he told you he wanted to like pay it all back he wanted to buy you a house he wanted to take take care of you what was that like that was good I feel like I have the best mom like like my mom man she's everything to me what DJ he called he said M go find a house it don't matter about the cost find your a house and and so that's what we did we looked and he said Mom stop worrying about the price it doesn't matter it's I'll give it all you know and when you have somebody that that love you that [Music] much there's no price tag there's no there's nothing but love and peace and and and gratitude and so yeah I very grateful it's just I'm in a very fortunate situation and I'm so grateful that I was able to buy her a home and just able to help do that like that was like one of my goals when I got into the league and to be able to do that and to be able to support her financially and you know she's retired now it just it feels really good and I'm I'm just grateful that I was able to do that what do you think C's going to be like oh it's going to be intense we going we going to get to it it's going to be fun though like I'm looking forward to it like I'm excited to be R we had a joint practice against the Giants and we're playing I'm in cover two and they literally throw like a ball to the flat and I literally like just try to just thud him up and my foot got caught on his foot and I hyperextended my knee and at the time like I thought I tore my knee like I never did that so I was just like oh my gosh I tore my my knee I was just like tripping get the MRI back I just strained everything in it so this was probably two weeks before the season and I wasn't walking so I wasn't even supposed to play week one that was the crazy part so I wasn't even supposed to play it was like highly doubtful like I told sa Sal was asking like how you feel I was just like it's not good bro like I might have to just I could probably play week two with that week three so like I get a phone call during the Ravens week early in the week like hey your dad's in the hospital he's really sick and I've heard this conversation before like you know I didn't think nothing of it I'm like okay that's happened before he's going to be [Music] fine literally like right before we're about to walk walk out to the uh the field to play like literally like before like the national anthem and all that my uncle texts me and says like rest in peace to your pops and I was just like damn like he passed away and then my phone started getting flooded like my sister my mom everybody just hitting me up like condolences like man dad dad is watching [Music] you I just had a lot of emotions to be honest and I remember like during the national anthem my coach knew cuz I told my coach earli in the week and he knew what happened like he seen me I was crying he just put his arm around [Music] me it sounds crazy to say but like under like trauma and under like sad in bad circumstances is like when you play your best because you just feel like you have nothing to lose down the sideline intercepted great catch by DJ Reed and he goes to Midfield down on one knee and celebrates I was in a whole different state of mind I didn't care about I didn't even care about the game itself I was in a whole another I was in a whole another place like I was thinking about my dad I wasn't worried about what the coaches were calling it was all like this person in front of me is not catching the ball like Point Blank period so like when I got the pick obviously were down by a lot I didn't care about that it was just like I was honoring my dad that game so like I got like a lot of ridicule for it but people didn't know the context of like what I did that for [Music] End give her a wed she love potatoes too that's that's her go-to me too you said me too yeah she love potatoes but yeah you want to get the prayer yeah get prayer God thank you for allowing us to together this morning thank you for allowing us to have this nous food I hope that is nous to our body and it digest to our body properly in Jesus name we pray amen amen let girl is good yours is coming say m I'm sorry I'm eating without you say m what's it like watch getting a watch him play on Sunday for oh it's exciting well most time I'm like nervous honestly it's just so exciting seeing him in his element doing the thing that he loves and just all the excitement like I see all the preparation for the week prior coming to the game so seeing him actually put it on the field it's just like wow it's amazing like literally he inspires me every day even in the offseason he just doesn't stop the grind more [Music] more okay here you go do you like the turkey okay okay here mama here you say thank you thank you thank you she likes the peas that's good that's true you know I think about my dad all the time to be honest and sometimes like it hits home like dang like he didn't get to see my daughter that kind of bothers me a little bit I'm not going to lie just because I wanted him to see my daughter cuz um he has a grandson my brother has a son but he he didn't have a granddaughter so that's something that I wanted him to see but you know I feel like God you know I really believe in God and I really have a strong faith um in God and I know that everything happens for a reason so I know he lives like he's still here in spirit um so you know that's what I tell myself and that's what I believe wholeheartedly and makes me grateful like you know my dad wasn't a perfect man you know he made a lot of mistakes but you know as I get older as a man I understood I understand you know why like why he made mistakes like nobody's perfect and you know I just want to you know be a great father be a great family man like that's one of my goals that's something that I really take seriously and I want to you know be a great man for my wife for my daughter and for my whole entire family jumping over barricades juggling with a grenades nothing can touch [Music] me jump from The Dizzy Heights falling from the city lights nothing can break me I'm bking on the road not delay the recovery by Reed standing on [Music] the isight I'm him that's a and blown up immediately stand [Music] AF [Applause] [Music] fight I think DJ's journey and his story can let others know it's possible and when you believe you do all things through Christ that strengthens you is possible I'm walking on the road without a safety net A Thousand Miles High playing hard to get standing on the edge not afraid to look down life is a fight oh Pi yourself up and dust yourself down open up your eyes and take a look around I'm standing on the Ed and I'm afraid to look down life is a fight [Music] oh for