From the Inner City to the Super Bowl with NFL Star Jahri Evans
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TRANSCRIPT From the Inner City to the Super Bowl 2 How to Take Your Influence and Turn It Into Change That Works 9 How Jahri Went from Pro Football to Running Successful Businesses 12 Sports Injuries, Prescribed Medicine and Heroin Overdose That Sweeps America Today 18 How You Can Contribute to Jahri Evans’ Work 21 Jahri Evans’ Advice to the Upcoming Generation 22 Powerful Moments in Ed Talks Episode 6: From the Inner City to the Super Bowl with NFL Star Jahri Evans 0:15 - From the Inner City to the Super Bowl - How to Go From Where You Are to Where You Want to Be 8:50 - Multiplying Influence - How to Take Your Influence and Turn It Into Change That Works 12:00 - Smashing Guys in the Face - How Jahri Went from Pro Football to Running Successful Businesses 19:40 - Jahri Evans’ Insight on Sports Injuries, Prescribed Medicine and Heroin Overdose that Sweeps America Today 25:45 - Jahri Evans’ Advice to the Upcoming Generation ED TALKS | Episode 6: From the Inner City to the Super Bowl with NFL Star Jahri Evans | www.EdRush.com | Page 1 From the Inner City to the Super Bowl Ed Rush: I'm here with Jahri Evans. I want to talk a little about football, a bit about business, and a little about life, but before I do that, you're a guy that was always underestimated. In a little bio, Jahri, unlike most NFL players, didn't play before high school. Your senior year in high school you broke your leg. You didn't play at all. You were on a recruiting trip to Bloomsburg University, but it wasn't even YOUR recruiting trip. Wasn't it somebody else's, then you ended up meeting the coach? How did that work out? Jahri Evans: Right before my senior year in high school, I broke my knee playing basketball at the Y on Broad Street. I was out of commission all season. Two surgeries and a cast, then a mobilizer. We still wind up going to the championship that year, and we lost to George Washington twice in the regular season and championship. We had a lot of championship guys on the team, and one of my really close friends was being recruited by Bloomsburg. Coach Darragh came in. He saw me. I passed the eye test, as he says, and we went out for a visit. Ed Rush: Passed the eye test means you looked like you could play ball? Jahri Evans: Yeah. Exactly. Play ball. ED TALKS | Episode 6: From the Inner City to the Super Bowl with NFL Star Jahri Evans | www.EdRush.com | Page 2 Ed Rush: You end up playing at Bloomsburg University, a Division II school. Redshirt your first year. You ended up playing and becoming arguably one of the best Division II linemen of all time, but you're still Division II. You get drafted by the Saints fourth round. You show up on the team. You're the second-string guard. Jahri Evans: Third string. Ed Rush: By what, the first game of the season, you're on the field? Is that what it was? Jahri Evans: That was the first preseason game. Ed Rush: Yeah? Jahri Evans: Yeah, they moved the guard that started last year to left. Obviously, I played tackle at Bloom the previous three years, so they moved to me guard, right guard. Ironically, Jermane Mayberry, who was an Eagle Eye, grew up watching them. He was there. He was going to get 14, and he got injured. Shoulder injury. He was out. They brought in Chad Setterstrom. He got hurt, and then I was the next man up. Ed Rush: You never left the field after that? Jahri Evans: It was a wrap after that. I think about a story back in high school. Tenth-grade year in high school, we lost to Penn Charter. ED TALKS | Episode 6: From the Inner City to the Super Bowl with NFL Star Jahri Evans | www.EdRush.com | Page 3 Ed Rush: I used to play with Penn Charter back in the day. Jahri Evans: Yeah, we lost to Penn Charter. I don't know if Matt Ryan was on that team at that time or not, but we lost 20 to nothing. The next day, the coach came in, and I was in the starting lineup in 10th grade. I was like, "Man." I was a little bit too tentative, not aggressive enough, and I wind up, not starting. I told myself if I ever had that opportunity again, and here we are in the big leagues. It came about. It was on after that. Ed Rush: To finish this story, Jahri goes on to play in the Pro Bowl six times. One of the highest-paid ... in fact, at the time, the highest-paid offensive linemen and then won a Super Bowl. All from a guy who didn't play senior year in high school, and redshirted onto a Division II school. Jahri Evans: Yeah. That's right, man. Ed Rush: You were always underestimated everywhere you went, but you always exceeded everybody's expectations. What's the deal with that? Jahri Evans: Just hard work. I think the way I approach the game, the way I approach my training, the way that I approach my studying off the field, it just worked well for me. I think everybody's different. Also, the guys that were around me early on in my career. My coach, Coach Doug Marrone, he's the head coach now. He's been the head coach on a few teams now. Coach Aaron Kromer, his team ... he used to be with the Rams, and you see how good those guys have been over the years. A lot has to do with coaching. My college coach, Coach McBryan - he's put three guys in the NFL. ED TALKS | Episode 6: From the Inner City to the Super Bowl with NFL Star Jahri Evans | www.EdRush.com | Page 4 Ed Rush: I'm going to stop and talk about Bryan McBryan. I know him really well. Obviously, you do. You coached under him, and it turns out that you show up at Bloomsburg. You fall under probably one of the best offensive line coaches like of all time. Jahri Evans: That nobody knows about him. Ed Rush: That nobody knows about him. A good hunter too, but how important was coaching for you? Jahri Evans: It was huge. Coming from the inner city, a public league where we had two coaches, Coach Clawson, and Coach Molnar, and a couple other coaches, Coach Rasheed and stuff like that, but we didn't have all the headsets, all the position coaches and stuff like that. We basically had two or three coaches full-time. Then, going to college and having those coaches where Coach McBryan still wasn't full-time. He was in the school district. Ed Rush: Yeah. That's right. Jahri Evans: He got there a little late, but just being around the guys that knew what hard work was, knew how to get it done, knew how to respond to different situations. Yeah, Coach McBryan, man, he's put three offensive linemen from Bloom under his regime is playing in the NFL. We've had about 10-11 years where guys have gone to Division I football. He's very knowledgeable about the game. Coach Devin has worked at our camp also. It shows, man. It just shows what the success of others that he's been in contact with. ED TALKS | Episode 6: From the Inner City to the Super Bowl with NFL Star Jahri Evans | www.EdRush.com | Page 5 Ed Rush: A little back story, my dad, former NBA referee actually coached when Jahri was playing up at Bloomsburg. He was the special team’s coach. He was up there at the same time, and this is a school up in the middle of Pennsylvania that was in the top 20 every single year. They went to the tournament almost every single year, and they produced some really great players. Danny Hale was a good friend of ours, and a lot of it had to do with just the heart and soul of the team that you guys ... I mean most college teams now are throwing the ball at you. You just smashed people in the face, and just ran the ball. Jahri Evans: No. You're right. Jamar Brittingham had what? 32 touchdowns. Ed Rush: Behind you. Yeah. Jahri Evans: 2000+ yards. We were one of those teams that always averaged under, a little bit under 300 yards a game rushing. Ed Rush: Yeah. Jahri Evans: We always had a gunslinger or QB running the ball. Ed Rush: Yep. ED TALKS | Episode 6: From the Inner City to the Super Bowl with NFL Star Jahri Evans | www.EdRush.com | Page 6 Jahri Evans: Always had a gunslinger that could throw it when we needed to, but when you're playing in the Poconos, in the mountains, in those cold games, you got to be able to run the ball. Ed Rush: Take me to ... I want to jump into your pro career just a little bit. February 7th, 2010, you walk onto the field down in Florida to play the Super Bowl. Only a handful of people in the world have ever experienced that. Take us into that moment when you walk on to that field in Miami Gardens and play your first Super Bowl game.