First, can you let me know what you’ve been up to since your time playing football and how the adjustment was for you?
The adjustment wasn’t too bad. I got into the nightlife space after football – I played some in the Arena League too. I wanted to get a license for a cannabis dispensary and move into that when I heard Nevada was opening things up. I played with a lot of guys that smoked – let’s get real. It has been stigmatized as negative but a lot of players did that versus taking pain pills.
The General Contractor at Jardin was a neighbor of mine. Me and a friend of mine were going to put some money into the lottery they had for licenses, but a lot of that was political. It was tricky – you had to put up a lot of capital with no guarantees. Some people were getting multiple licenses and some got none. I didn’t want to take that chance.
So what did you do?
I stepped back and focused again on the nightlife work when my neighbor introduced me to what’s now my partner at Jardin. He was a lawyer from Miami who bought his license on the secondary market. We started the Jardin dispensary in 2016 and have had our foot on the gas since and have well-known athletes, musicians – lots of people coming through every week.
Is it frustrating that cannabis isn’t allowed still and tested for by the NFL despite proven benefits for players?
It’s not just for the NFL. It’s political. It’s crazy that cannabis is still classified as a schedule one drug like heroin or cocaine. It’s ridiculous. I think it’s because big pharma hasn’t been able to tap into this space yet. There are so many proven medical benefits. You see a lot of players deal with concussion issues and depression – suicides and weird behaviors attributed to concussions and other injuries. CBD and THC can reset the receptors in the brain. I’m not saying it’s a cure for everyone, but it helps some people calm down and takes the anxiety away.
It does more too. It’s been proven to help lower blood pressure and rebuild cells – and to kill dormant cancer cells before they become active. My mother passed away from cancer and I actually take it for that too.
There are a lot of options and types of cannabis too – a lot of people don’t understand that. There are different terpene profiles that help in different ways – stress, pain, anxiety – even the swelling that comes with diabetes. There’s so much more R&D in this space.
Are you seeing players use this instead of medication?
Yes – we see players when they come to Vegas come to us instead of drinking alcohol. We take them through a tour and show them all of the products and their benefits. They don’t want to take pain medication that can be addictive and attack the liver and kidneys if they don’t have to.
So what do you think is stopping the NFL from accepting cannabis usage?
I think it’s because of big pharma. The NFL is a business too and big pharma wants athletes taking pills. I do think it’s loosening up more – its inevitable. You can’t have legal cannabis dispensaries in the cities players play in and tell them cannabis is not ok. How is alcohol ok but cannabis isn’t? And players are telling them it helps them perform better versus taking pills.
The issue is there’s no cannabis lobby to handle the red tape. Do you know just in January alone cannabis in Nevada paid 10-times more taxes than alcohol and tobacco – combined? I guarantee you if casinos can prove that people stay longer at the tables if they took cannabis versus alcohol it’d be legal tomorrow.
Talking football – how did you end up in Pittsburgh after college?
It’s crazy. I didn’t start playing football until I was a Sophomore in high school. My family is Jamaican – I played soccer and basketball. I played football on the street for fun but that was it.
My mom – she passed away eight years ago now – she is the one that got me into football. She didn’t know anything about it, but the coach would come up to her after she dropped me off at school and asked her to tell me to play football. Well, one day I tried it and had fun.
The school I went to was a small prep school – Brunswick Prep in Connecticut. We had a decent record as a basketball team but we were undefeated in our conference for football – we were dominant.
After that I was recruited – a lot. Syracuse recruited me big time, as did Boston College, Michigan, Nebraska Florida State, Penn State….I got letters from everyone. I had a box filled with recruiting letters. I played running back in high school but got recruited as a receiver. I played a little bit at receiver too in high school.
My quarterback in high school was Todd Pollock, who ended up at Boston College and was moved to tight end. He was later drafted by the Giants. He was recruited a lot so a lot of teams saw me too I guess.
So what was your next step?
Todd wanted me to go to Boston College but I wanted for some reason to go to Chapel Hill. I guess I thought I could go walk on and play basketball or something, I don’t know why! I had offers from so many other big schools and even went to Penn State’s Summer camp when Sandusky was there – though I didn’t get caught up in any of that craziness! I was there with Curtis Enis – we went to see Paterno together in his office.
Well, my parents didn’t really understand the whole recruiting process. And my school was very small – only 50 kids in my graduating class. My high school coach told me that I should avoid the big schools – that I’d get lost there. I even considered Columbia University then because Brunswick Prep was heavy on the education side, but I didn’t want to go to New York.
I told my coach I wanted to go to Chapel Hill even though North Carolina wasn’t really even recruiting me. He told me there was another school there I should look at – keeping in mind it was very late in the recruiting cycle at this point. He told me I should go check it out and that I could go there and put up some good numbers then transfer out. So that’s what I ended up doing – going after all that to this small Division III school – Guilford!
How did that work out?
My head coach was country as hell – I was a Yankee kid and he was from Greensboro, North Carolina. The plan was always to transfer. The team was like 2-8 the years before I got there, but we had a good team and went 8-2 and won the conference. It was almost too easy. After that first year I got a call from Todd asking me to come to Boston College – Tom Coughlin was there and he told me he asked my coach to send film to them so they could look at my play.
Well, my coach called me into his office and asked me if I wanted to transfer – I told him that was always the plan. He said “Ok”, but he never sent the film to Coughlin. A while later I got a call from Coughlin and he asked me if I wanted to go there or not – I didn’t know what he meant at first. He told me my coach never sent the film. I asked my coach again to send it and he said he did, but Coughlin never got it. I think my coach was BS’ing me and didn’t want me to transfer, but I didn’t realize it at the time. I wish I had taken more ownership of that.
Well, I ended up staying there for four years – I was just frustrated with the whole transfer process and didn’t want to deal with it any more. I was also with a bunch of other guys and got into a little trouble. We were all smoking pot on campus but I was the only one out of 10 guys that got in trouble. I was putting up some big numbers there and I don’t think the coach wanted me to leave – I felt like I was set up!
So how did your NFL career begin?
My Senior year at Guilford the Redskins called – they wanted to come to campus and work me out. They were going to Chapel Hill to look at some players and were going to stop at Guilford to see me.
It was raining so I worked out in the gym and ran a 4.48 40 and caught passes. It was a good workout. They went to Chapel Hill to work out guys there, then came back to talk to me. They told me my numbers were better than those guys and that I should get an agent. They told me that on draft day I should pay attention. I figured I wasn’t going to get drafted as a Division III player. But they, the Colts and Saints all called me after the draft to sign me as a free agent. I chose the Redskins since I knew them from the workout.
I played some special teams but was mostly on the practice squad that season, learning the offense. They drafted a receiver from a bigger school in the sixth round – Patrick Palmer – who didn’t pan out. That frustrated me a little – I wanted that draft spot.
What happened in Washington?
The first year went ok – I was on track to play. Then Daniel Snyder came in and it was a nightmare. My wide receiver coach told me in camp that it was my year. I was beating the veteran secondary guys in camp – I should be prepared to get into the rotation. But Snyder wanted names.
I’ll never forget in the middle of mini-camp Snyder’s helicopter lands in the middle of the field and he walks out with two women. He introduced himself to everyone as the new owner, talked about how much he was worth and just came off as super arrogant. We were all looking at him and shaking our heads. He was that typical guy that got his ass beat in high school and now wanted to show everyone who he was.
So what happens after Snyder is there?
Well, he brought in veteran guys like Irving Fryar. I had a great first preseason game – caught a few passes and scored a touchdown versus Pittsburgh. The receivers coach pulled me out of the game then – he said I was done for the day, which is a good sign. That meant I had proven myself.
It’s funny because one of the Steelers’ personnel guys came up to me after the game and told me that if it didn’t work out in Washington that they’d love to have me there. The receivers coach stepped in and told them I wasn’t going anywhere! But of course I was let go – and the Steelers picked me up the next day.
How did your arrival in Steelers camp go?
Jerome Bettis was such a nice guy – he took me under his wing right away. I didn’t know the Steelers offense – it was totally different than the Redskins’ offense.
I was placed on the practice squad – lining up against the vets, I tried to make a statement every day. Coach Haslett would tell me to calm down – I was pushing the vets too hard – that I made the team already! We had some injuries and they wanted to try me on the scout team as a defensive back, but Coach Bratkowski – the receivers coach – he said no to that! He was a great guy. There was a lot of back and forth after that.
How so?
Well they had me line up on defense at times and it helped me to learn the routes. I’d go jump against Hines Ward and that was fun. Dick LeBeau would come around sometimes and he told me I should play defense too.
I played like there was nothing that was guaranteed to me. I knew I always had to prove myself. Tomczak and I would go crazy at times in practice against the defense. Tim Lewis was the Defensive Backs coach and one day he pulled me aside and told me to calm down and take it easy. Coach Bratkowski came over and asked me what he said to me. When I told him that Coach Lewis asked me to take it easy, he got angry and went over to Lewis and they got into it!
Who were some of the guys that really helped mentor you there?
Bettis was one of the best guys I met. I stayed at the Pennsylvanian downtown. He welcomed me to the team – he didn’t have to do that. He used to go to the Doubletree to get their fresh cookies! I remember that!
Hines Ward – he was the complete opposite. I’m not sure what his deal was. Troy Edwards – I know he had some issues with the coaches but he was super cool to me. And Malcolm Johnson and I hit it off – we’re still buddies today.
Other guys I liked a lot include Kirkland and Zereoue – and Porter. They were super cool.
Mike Tomczak and I hit it off. I was doing well – my locker was right next to his. He was pushing the coaches to get me on the field. One day he turned to me and told me that I needed to get rid of my agent – he heard that the Steelers organization didn’t like my agent. I ended up signing on with his agent at Prostar.
What did the coaches do next?
Coach Cowher called me into his office around week 11. He told me on Thursday he was activating me the following week against the Browns. That was music to my ears! I called my girlfriend and told her to come out to Pittsburgh to see the game that weekend. In the game Chad Scott tore his ACL. I don’t seen how that affects my place on the team though. But after the game I got a call – the Steelers said they had to release me. I didn’t know what was going on. They just told me they were going to activate me, now I’m being released!
Well, my agent said the team told me to stick around – that they wanted to bring me back, This was the business side of the game. The Steelers needed to bring in another corner to replace Scott, and because they weren’t sure if the corner was going to work out or not, they decided to bring in two corners – so that meant they needed to make an extra roster spot and had to release me.
They paid for my housing and told me to stay – that they’d figure it out and bring me back. But that never happened.
So what did you do?
The next season they reached out to bring me back but after that the agent said “No way.” I wanted to stay – I liked most of the guys on the team. But my agent said I should go to NFL Europe and get more teams to see me play. I went to Orlando where they all were trying out. Kansas City actually tried to sign me before I went – they didn’t want me to go to NFL Europe. I looked at the roster and they didn’t have many guys there at receiver. But my agent said it’d be better to go to NFL Europe – it wasn’t like Kansas City was offering me a signing bonus. He thought I’d just be a camp body there.
What did you do afterwards?
I signed with Green Bay the next season and was doing well. We played Denver in the preseason and I had four catches. After I got a call from my mother saying she read in the newspaper that I was traded to Denver. I asked my coach what was going on and he told me that Denver tried to trade for me but they said no. It turns out Gus Frerotte was in Denver at the time – he was with me in Green Bay for a bit. He and the Denver coaches liked me and wanted to trade for me but Green Bay said no.
Later on in the season of course I was cut. That was another setback – that was frustrating since it was so late in the season and I could have gone to Denver. After that I turned down other offers. Camp was no joke and I realized it was often just a numbers game for a free agent like me. It was too tricky. I was a business and econ major in college – I just went back to focusing on that and played some Arena Football too.
I always wondered what it would have been like at times. If Chad Scott wasn’t injured. If I decided to play for a bigger school instead and was drafted. But I’m happy with my life – my wife and two kids, work …I’m a big believer in that things in life happen for a reason.
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