a lot of people they wish and they’re
not willing to work you see the thing
about chasing the product and what the
product is the product is money
the product is a house the product is a
car
the thing about chasing a product the
product can always change and if your
performance is always based upon the
product what happened when the product
changed and you don’t take pride in what
you do but nobody loves the process a
[Music]
champion me believe you never supposed
to wish for more than you willing to
work for expectations never supposed to
exceed but a lot of people they wish and
they’re not willing to work and the
great thing about right life has a funny
way of testing all of us and seeing how
bad we really want what it is that we
say we want because the thing I know
about people people can talk to talk and
people do it very well but life is going
to hit you with a certain level of
opposition like you won’t answer with a
certain level of that Percy and rice is
going to say to you you said you wanted
now let’s see how bad you really want
[Music]
the process when opposition in that
pussy hits you want to whip embracing it
and using it
not only for yourself will you will use
it to make everybody’s connected
did you struggle because your vision has
to be larger than yourself and
everything that you’re doing just about
[Music]
I’m 29 years old
my mother got pregnant with me at 15
years old I grew up on the east side of
Atlanta about five minutes away from the
weather Atlanta Braves play and the
neighborhood by the name of Kirkwood
drugs gangs violence you need 14 people
and start to get pretty quick to make a
decision of what I wanted to do with my
life because in that same house eight or
eight up what they’re still going
another prison till this day because
they sold drugs and they were engaged
and so I looked at and it’s kind of like
that coke let’s learn from the mistakes
of other people because you can’t make
them more yourself and so I saw coming
so I said I’m not selling drugs I’m not
joining a gang because I see what that
role leads to it he’s gonna end up
better in prison I said my best batch
may be to go to the inner and so I went
to my cousin by the name what you want I
said listen man I want to go to the NFL
our family deserves a better way of life
let’s work for you see most nights after
practice everybody will need to go home
and I always have to sit in the park
because my mother works at winning and
my mother then get off work till about
ten o’clock 10:30 motion right and I’ll
be sitting there in the park and I loved
it I just want anybody to take me home
because when I was home I was sleeping
on the floor with roaches and rats and
so any time I got in solitude the dream
any time I got in solitude to think
about what I wanted to do for my family
my community I took advantage of it and
so most nights I’ll be sitting there in
the park and I’ll be looking up at the
lights and I’ll be a vision of myself
doing things in the NFL envisioning
myself doing things in my community and
just after lights would always go out my
mother she would pull up and shoot on
some older creeper
hubcaps off the car seats throwing up
the colors all beat up and she was gonna
kiss I would say mommy be just fine can
you please sit back I have to do some
drills I have to go to the light and I
knew she sure and she was shit back in
that car those car like we hit that
feeling he got a seven-year-old kid
doing back felling drills running
sprints running laps
chasing his dream to go to the NFL and
just beyond those college I could always
connect with my mother’s eyes and so it
made me dig a little bit deeper it made
me push myself a little bit further made
me work a little bit harder I left by
this thing called the harder you work
the harder it is to surrender you see
the reason people quit they don’t take
pride in what they do the harder you
work so hard it is to surrender not just
talking about business I’m talking about
winning simultaneously and every aspect
of life I’m not concerned with a person
that does well in one aspect of that
right and they get him that dance a man
I’ve made a lot of money you made a lot
of money or public success but your
profits and one night my mother couldn’t
pick me up and she’s gonna throw
straight she said coach I can’t make it
tonight can you please take me home
and so he put me in about eight yards in
the back of his pickup truck and you say
ain’t gonna drop your flat and so when
he got to my house I got it on the side
walking I’m standing in front of 125
Warren Street and I look back that go
straight
and I said why why are you doing this
because why I came from people in just
help you know is i pat you on your back
you got a pat you on my back you got a
do this week I said why are you doing it
and you look back at me neither Sun Sun
I want to tell you something we said I
don’t want you to ever forget it he said
Sunday morning to make sure that
somebody else’s life is okay always make
sure that your life and immediately I
got the light bulb went on I stopped
being this little selfish kid I stopped
being like my four-year-old son and for
the first time in my life
I stopped thinking everything was just
about inky johnson and I realized my
existence on this earth is a lot bigger
than me I realized me my lineage and my
family when I step outside of my door in
the morning what I represent is a lot
bigger than men so the thing I have to
understand every day I woke up and
everything that I was a part of I first
had to understand I was representing a
lot more than my stroke I first had to
start living my two works on the red
light you see and what I mean by honor
and legacy you honor the ones that paid
the way for you and you leave the legacy
for the ones that’s coming behind you we
just have it right now while we’re
plotting something right now somebody
else came before us I’m fading away and
somebody will come after us and so while
we have it how can we do it in such a
way that we leave a legacy for the ones
that’s coming behind us and we honor the
ones that paid the weight Boston so
everything I did I took a certain level
of pride in it
people thought I just wanted to be a
great football player but they didn’t
understand about easy jobs was this
I could have watched cars I guarantee
you I would have been the best part
watch it it was in the world picked up
the thing that understood I wasn’t just
representing myself it wasn’t just about
me everything shifted my mindset for me
too weak now I was operating with a
spirit of collective character meaning
it didn’t matter what I did individually
if I didn’t represent my mother in the
right way it didn’t matter if I
represent my lineage in the right way if
I represent my team in the right way who
cares what I did individually I didn’t
care if we won a game and I scored 40
points individually who cared I shipped
it from either way and so everything
I’ve started to do I was thinking about
my family I was thinking about my
community and I was thinking about my
friends in a different way and I would
never forget I got to high school and
nobody in my family had ever been to
college they all dropped out ending up
in prison
[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
until the sea and they looked at me when
I first said Campus 135 pound kids
soaking wet in the SCC and the first
reporter he asked me he said inky
johnson do you even think you’re gonna
play at the University of Tennessee he
said your 135 pounds I said not only am
I gonna play I’m gonna start I say you
made a mistake I said see what you don’t
understand and this is what most people
do they base judgment off of what they
can see but what they don’t understand
the moments that make you who you are
the moments that they can’t see you see
anybody can be on their best behavior
when somebody is standing over their
shoulder watching them seeing if they’re
gonna do it that’s supposed to do he hit
the scene I came from cream height we
can see I’m 235 pounds you can see i was
5-9 he can see all of the stats you can
see all of that but what he never saw
was when I was in a funk of my mother
when I was seven years old she was
sitting that big regretted 10:30 at
night but he didn’t see with every
Saturday morning at 5:30 I was up
running two miles to a fire station and
two miles back home what he didn’t say
was every time I slept on that floor
mats with my cousin’s everyone went to
school and never made one excuse what he
didn’t say was all Christmas Eve
Winnicott when a guy came through me and
my cousin’s window he stuck the
nine-millimeter in a 45 M bonfire face
and took all of our Christmas gift and
we had to stand on the curb and I mother
told us y’all just be grateful he didn’t
see that
and those were the moments that made me
who I am and so now his opinion didn’t
matter that the opinion would never
become my reality and my freshman year
late special-teams
sophomore season game broke the starting
lineup finally made it to the point in
my life where I felt as if everything in
my life was lining up watching the
California bands him my defensive back
stroke slavishly came in the room he
said inky johnson I got some good news
for you and I dropped the clicker I said
coach what is it he said son you’re a
projected top 30 Drive face he said all
you have to do is play these next 10
football games your automatic no top
million I ran out of room I got on the
phone I called my mother my grandmother
I said listen I said after this season
we were never struck I said we would
never miss another middle said that this
season our lives are about to change man
and let her down our lives really
production to be a champion but nobody’s
willing to put in the work that it takes
to be a champion everybody wants to hold
up the trophy and say man I did it but
nobody’s willing to put in the work that
it takes they’re doing I love the
process I love the thought of working
for what I want
you you
not willing to work you see the thing
about chasing the product and what the
product is the product is money
the product is a house the product is a
car
the thing about chasing a product the
product can always change and if your
performance is always based upon the
product what happened when the product
changed and you don’t take pride in what
you do but nobody loves the process a
[Music]
champion me believe you never supposed
to wish for more than you willing to
work for expectations never supposed to
exceed but a lot of people they wish and
they’re not willing to work and the
great thing about right life has a funny
way of testing all of us and seeing how
bad we really want what it is that we
say we want because the thing I know
about people people can talk to talk and
people do it very well but life is going
to hit you with a certain level of
opposition like you won’t answer with a
certain level of that Percy and rice is
going to say to you you said you wanted
now let’s see how bad you really want
[Music]
the process when opposition in that
pussy hits you want to whip embracing it
and using it
not only for yourself will you will use
it to make everybody’s connected
did you struggle because your vision has
to be larger than yourself and
everything that you’re doing just about
[Music]
I’m 29 years old
my mother got pregnant with me at 15
years old I grew up on the east side of
Atlanta about five minutes away from the
weather Atlanta Braves play and the
neighborhood by the name of Kirkwood
drugs gangs violence you need 14 people
and start to get pretty quick to make a
decision of what I wanted to do with my
life because in that same house eight or
eight up what they’re still going
another prison till this day because
they sold drugs and they were engaged
and so I looked at and it’s kind of like
that coke let’s learn from the mistakes
of other people because you can’t make
them more yourself and so I saw coming
so I said I’m not selling drugs I’m not
joining a gang because I see what that
role leads to it he’s gonna end up
better in prison I said my best batch
may be to go to the inner and so I went
to my cousin by the name what you want I
said listen man I want to go to the NFL
our family deserves a better way of life
let’s work for you see most nights after
practice everybody will need to go home
and I always have to sit in the park
because my mother works at winning and
my mother then get off work till about
ten o’clock 10:30 motion right and I’ll
be sitting there in the park and I loved
it I just want anybody to take me home
because when I was home I was sleeping
on the floor with roaches and rats and
so any time I got in solitude the dream
any time I got in solitude to think
about what I wanted to do for my family
my community I took advantage of it and
so most nights I’ll be sitting there in
the park and I’ll be looking up at the
lights and I’ll be a vision of myself
doing things in the NFL envisioning
myself doing things in my community and
just after lights would always go out my
mother she would pull up and shoot on
some older creeper
hubcaps off the car seats throwing up
the colors all beat up and she was gonna
kiss I would say mommy be just fine can
you please sit back I have to do some
drills I have to go to the light and I
knew she sure and she was shit back in
that car those car like we hit that
feeling he got a seven-year-old kid
doing back felling drills running
sprints running laps
chasing his dream to go to the NFL and
just beyond those college I could always
connect with my mother’s eyes and so it
made me dig a little bit deeper it made
me push myself a little bit further made
me work a little bit harder I left by
this thing called the harder you work
the harder it is to surrender you see
the reason people quit they don’t take
pride in what they do the harder you
work so hard it is to surrender not just
talking about business I’m talking about
winning simultaneously and every aspect
of life I’m not concerned with a person
that does well in one aspect of that
right and they get him that dance a man
I’ve made a lot of money you made a lot
of money or public success but your
profits and one night my mother couldn’t
pick me up and she’s gonna throw
straight she said coach I can’t make it
tonight can you please take me home
and so he put me in about eight yards in
the back of his pickup truck and you say
ain’t gonna drop your flat and so when
he got to my house I got it on the side
walking I’m standing in front of 125
Warren Street and I look back that go
straight
and I said why why are you doing this
because why I came from people in just
help you know is i pat you on your back
you got a pat you on my back you got a
do this week I said why are you doing it
and you look back at me neither Sun Sun
I want to tell you something we said I
don’t want you to ever forget it he said
Sunday morning to make sure that
somebody else’s life is okay always make
sure that your life and immediately I
got the light bulb went on I stopped
being this little selfish kid I stopped
being like my four-year-old son and for
the first time in my life
I stopped thinking everything was just
about inky johnson and I realized my
existence on this earth is a lot bigger
than me I realized me my lineage and my
family when I step outside of my door in
the morning what I represent is a lot
bigger than men so the thing I have to
understand every day I woke up and
everything that I was a part of I first
had to understand I was representing a
lot more than my stroke I first had to
start living my two works on the red
light you see and what I mean by honor
and legacy you honor the ones that paid
the way for you and you leave the legacy
for the ones that’s coming behind you we
just have it right now while we’re
plotting something right now somebody
else came before us I’m fading away and
somebody will come after us and so while
we have it how can we do it in such a
way that we leave a legacy for the ones
that’s coming behind us and we honor the
ones that paid the weight Boston so
everything I did I took a certain level
of pride in it
people thought I just wanted to be a
great football player but they didn’t
understand about easy jobs was this
I could have watched cars I guarantee
you I would have been the best part
watch it it was in the world picked up
the thing that understood I wasn’t just
representing myself it wasn’t just about
me everything shifted my mindset for me
too weak now I was operating with a
spirit of collective character meaning
it didn’t matter what I did individually
if I didn’t represent my mother in the
right way it didn’t matter if I
represent my lineage in the right way if
I represent my team in the right way who
cares what I did individually I didn’t
care if we won a game and I scored 40
points individually who cared I shipped
it from either way and so everything
I’ve started to do I was thinking about
my family I was thinking about my
community and I was thinking about my
friends in a different way and I would
never forget I got to high school and
nobody in my family had ever been to
college they all dropped out ending up
in prison
[Music]
[Applause]
[Applause]
[Music]
until the sea and they looked at me when
I first said Campus 135 pound kids
soaking wet in the SCC and the first
reporter he asked me he said inky
johnson do you even think you’re gonna
play at the University of Tennessee he
said your 135 pounds I said not only am
I gonna play I’m gonna start I say you
made a mistake I said see what you don’t
understand and this is what most people
do they base judgment off of what they
can see but what they don’t understand
the moments that make you who you are
the moments that they can’t see you see
anybody can be on their best behavior
when somebody is standing over their
shoulder watching them seeing if they’re
gonna do it that’s supposed to do he hit
the scene I came from cream height we
can see I’m 235 pounds you can see i was
5-9 he can see all of the stats you can
see all of that but what he never saw
was when I was in a funk of my mother
when I was seven years old she was
sitting that big regretted 10:30 at
night but he didn’t see with every
Saturday morning at 5:30 I was up
running two miles to a fire station and
two miles back home what he didn’t say
was every time I slept on that floor
mats with my cousin’s everyone went to
school and never made one excuse what he
didn’t say was all Christmas Eve
Winnicott when a guy came through me and
my cousin’s window he stuck the
nine-millimeter in a 45 M bonfire face
and took all of our Christmas gift and
we had to stand on the curb and I mother
told us y’all just be grateful he didn’t
see that
and those were the moments that made me
who I am and so now his opinion didn’t
matter that the opinion would never
become my reality and my freshman year
late special-teams
sophomore season game broke the starting
lineup finally made it to the point in
my life where I felt as if everything in
my life was lining up watching the
California bands him my defensive back
stroke slavishly came in the room he
said inky johnson I got some good news
for you and I dropped the clicker I said
coach what is it he said son you’re a
projected top 30 Drive face he said all
you have to do is play these next 10
football games your automatic no top
million I ran out of room I got on the
phone I called my mother my grandmother
I said listen I said after this season
we were never struck I said we would
never miss another middle said that this
season our lives are about to change man
and let her down our lives really
production to be a champion but nobody’s
willing to put in the work that it takes
to be a champion everybody wants to hold
up the trophy and say man I did it but
nobody’s willing to put in the work that
it takes they’re doing I love the
process I love the thought of working
for what I want
you you
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