kevin edwards 0:00 We will go live. Welcome everyone on crowdcast to the Real Leaders podcast and joining us on LinkedIn. today. We're going to have Devin Still right here sitting next to me. But before we begin, folks, I just wanna let you all know that our real leaders impact awards are coming up and boy is are we running out of time. August 31, is the deadline and it's a celebration of the world's top impact companies. So if your business is a business that makes a positive difference in the world just apply now for our special earlybird rate and join the ranks of companies big and small, being recognized for their social impact and nomination will attract new customers help retain talent and demonstrate your values to the world. Also, folks is that this is your first time listening to the real leaders podcast. I've got a little call to action button here. I'd like you to press I'm trying to get 50 reviews, Dev, I'm trying to get 50 reviews by the end of August. Devon Still 0:53 We can do that. kevin edwards 0:54 We can do that. We can. We're at 31 right now. We got 20 last week we're on a roll. Let's keep the momentum going. Folks, if you've listened to this podcast or this is your first time, go on Apple podcast, leave a review, and let other people know what to expect when they come to this awesome show. But that being said... Devon Still 1:12 I don't think that you can prepare for something like that. But understanding that life can change at any given moment and with those things showed me early on that I went through is that life rarely goes as we wanted to go. And I think that's why it's so crucial to continue to improve yourself mentally, physically and spiritually so that you can be prepared for whenever you face adversity. kevin edwards 1:35 You are listening to the real leaders podcast where leaders keep it real. I'm your host, Kevin Edwards, and that was the voice of former NFL defensive end, current Cancer Awareness advocate and proud father, Devin Still who joins the show to help us prepare for unexpected adversity. On today's episode Still discloses the obstacles he overcame. on his journey to the league, that playbook he used after his daughter was diagnosed with cancer. And his perspective on being a father and its impact on his new found purpose. With respect to all 500 or so leaders, I've had the privilege to interview over the years, folks, this may be my favorite podcast I have ever been a part of, and I hope you are as locked in as I was for this incredible story. So without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, put your game faces on and please welcome the real Devin Still. Enjoy. Let's do the countdown here and 5432 and one and welcome everyone to this episode of the real leaders podcast. I'm your host Kevin Edwards. Joining us today is former NFL defensive end current cancer advocate keynote speaker entrepreneur and proud father, Mr. Devon Still. Devin, thanks for being with us today. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to have you there. I'm a big football fan myself. I know your story. I hope our audience knows it as well and gets it down to a tee. So the first question I have for you today, that is, where has the game of football taken you? Devon Still 3:18 It's really taken me beyond my wildest dreams. I grew up in a place called Wilmington, Delaware as a very small city on the east coast. And to be honest with you, it's stricken with a lot of drugs and violence, and it's not a place that you see a lot of people make it out of. But once I started playing football, it really opened up those doors for me to make it out and see what the world had to offer because I didn't think the world had much to offer growing up in an environment I grew up in. But during high school, I started to get good at football. I started playing football when I was around 13 years old, and by the time I was a junior in high school, I had over 50 scholarships to The top D-1 schools in the country. And that was crazy to me It blew my mind because when I first started playing football I sucked, like I was really bad, but I think if you, you know, practice makes progress, you continue to get better as long as you're willing to put in the time and effort. And I was one of those people who was willing to put in the time and effort to perfect my craft. And like I said, by my junior year, I had over 50 scholarships, and I decided to go to know Penn State to play under the legendary Joe Paterno. And, you know, just everything I learned from being on that campus. Everything I learned from being coached by a legend and you know, being able to just see the world and travel as we went to different games, it really opened my eyes to the opportunity the world has to offer. kevin edwards 4:43 Now Dev let's let's take a step back really quick when you're starting out who got you into football and what were some of the lessons you learned at an early age. Devon Still 4:51 So so my dad, I grew up I wanted to be an NBA player. I love basketball. My dad played basketball when he was younger, but every Sunday He would sit down on a couch and he would watch football and I hated it because I couldn't watch what I wanted to watch on TV because we only had one TV in the house at that time. So Sunday's was all about football. I couldn't get my dad off the couch to go anywhere because he was so hooked on a game. So I hated football when I was a kid. But as I got older, um, I started to surround myself with people who like to play sports. And initially my dad wouldn't let me play sports because my grades were so bad and I was getting into a lot of trouble because my parents got divorced when I was in the third grade and it completely flipped my life upside down. And I was doing a lot of negative things just to get the attention of my parents because I was really hurting inside about, you know what we were going through. So I wanted to play sports at a young age when my dad wouldn't let me until I got my grades and my act right, and around sixth grade my dad took me out to trial for football. I remember it was for the Claymont Falcons and when I initially started playing I wasn't allowed to play because I was over the weight limit. You see back in those times, and literally you have to be a certain weight limit or else they won't let you out on the field because they think you might hurt other people. So my first year trying out organized football, I didn't get to play not one snap the whole entire time. In fact, my first practice, I remember they had me at linebacker, and I remember it was a play where they handed the ball off to the running back, and it was like the red seed party because like everybody disappeared, and he ran straight into my chest, put his helmet in my chest and knocked my breath out. And I remember in that moment, I wanted to give up playing. I'm like, well, this is not for me. I'm sitting here laying on the ground crying, I can't breathe. But my dad told me to go back out there not to quit just because things got hard, but go out there and learn the sport and continue to improve. So the first lesson I learned from playing football was no matter how hard things get, don't just give up, go out there and continue to get better. kevin edwards 6:57 Now Dev you touched on this a little bit over some of the information lenses that are out there that maybe drew you away from sports or things that you said you're trying to get attention what were some of these things and really break this down to give our audience a picture of where you grew up? Devon Still 7:13 Yeah, so like I said, Wilmington is a place that stricken with a lot of drugs and violence is actually been ranked as the number one murder capital A lot of times these past couple of years. So, um, like I said, it was a lot of drugs, I seen friends die, see friends go to jail. But for me, a lot of my troubles came from school, you know, not getting good grades, getting straight Ds getting kicked out of school fighting all the time. I felt like I was taking out a lot of my aggression towards my parents divorce, on people around me because as a kid, you feel like you can't say nothing to your parents. Nobody wants to hear what the kid has to say. Nobody wants to hear what the kid is going through. So I took out a lot of my aggression at school just for little stuff, just fighting people. Little stuff because I didn't know how to express what I was going through. So I was getting a lot of trouble in school. And just hanging around the wrong people or doing the wrong things. My life really changed around like fifth grade, because during in fifth grade, I ended up stealing a bike in front of my school. And I talked about this in my book I drove. I wrote the book back of the bike back to my house. And I ended up seeing this guy in a tank top shirt, and you know, jean shorts and long white socks walking up the street towards me. And I knew that was my dad's favorite outfit. So I knew it was him and somebody must have called him to let him know what I just did. So I remember taking off down the street trying to get away from my dad. I ended up having to go to the police department. And I was in a jail cell for like, I don't even know like five hours as a fifth grader. And I remember before they put me in a cell I went to Get fingerprinted by the officer. And he was like, do you know why I'm putting on gloves before I fingerprint you? And I was like, Yeah, because you don't want to get your fingerprints on a machine. He was like, No, I don't want to touch criminals. And it just hit me when he said that. I was like, fifth grade. First, I felt two different ways. First, I felt like he didn't see me for who I was, like, I fifth grade is no way you're a criminal. You're a little kid, instead of just asking me, you know, what's wrong with you? Why are you acting this way, then I was automatically just labeled as a criminal. Um, and I didn't want to be that just sitting in that jail cell and I've seen those words, replay my mind over and over again, I decided that when I got outta there, then I was going to change my life and try to do something better and not head down the path that I was on. kevin edwards 9:49 Now Dev it seems like you got you've reached a threshold like that numerous times throughout your career throughout your life. Let's dive in now to accept in that scholarship, go into Penn State. been under the tutelage of one of the best coaches, the college football has ever seen. Walk me through freshman year. What happened to you give us the breakdown. Devon Still 10:10 Yeah. So freshman year, I was excited just walking on that campus. And you know, seeing it, it was like a different world to me. Like I said, I grew up in an environment that was stricken with drugs and violence and Happy Valley was really happy valleys like everybody on campus was happy. But my football career got started up, we started off to a great start. I was having a great training camp, I had a chance to play as a true freshman. And if anybody are Penn State fans are know Joe Paterno. True freshmen don't really get to play as know the first year at Penn State. But I was having such a great breakout training camp that I had a chance to, but during one of the practices towards the end, I remember something in me I was standing on the sideline and something told me to say a prayer. for protection as I went in. So I remember, you know, just asking God to watch over me as I went to finish this practice law. So I, my coach told me to go into the practice. So I go in and it was the screenplay. And I remember the quarterback throwing the ball to a running back who was running down the sideline, and I went chasing after him. And one of the linemen grabbed me by my shoulder and my left knee, I stuck, my left foot got stuck in the turf. It twisted and I blew out my MTL, my ACL, and I was done for the first year I couldn't play I had to do about a year rehab in order to get back on a football field. And I was crushed. I was crushed for two reasons. One, I realized that all the hard work that I put in up to that point was wasted and I wasn't going to, you know, be one of those incoming freshmen who had a chance to go out there and live his dream playing in front of 110,000 you know, fans and Beaver Stadium, my dreams were old and too I struggled a lot with My my faith because there's that obviously happened to what I just prayed for I pray for protection, but yet I'm sitting here on the ground with a busted knee. Um, so I went through a lot mentally that first year, but I decided that, you know, I was going to do what I needed to do to get back on the football field that injuries come with this game and I just had to accept it and move forward. But that's exactly what I did. And after a year rehab I was able to make it back during the following years training camp, and all I had to do was make it through one more scrimmages training camp and I finally get to, you know, run out of that tunnel at Beaver Stadium and play in front of all those fans and watch my dreams come true. But during this scrimmage, one of my teammates got thrown into my leg and it snapped in half. And I ended up having to get rushed to the hospital where a doctor had to put a plate in 10 screws in my leg. And as you can imagine, I was completely crushed at this point because I had just accepted what I had to go through with the ACL, ACL injury. And I put in. I can't even tell you how much work I put. I put in a lot of work to get back out on the football field that ACL injury was one of the toughest injuries I've ever had. And to see my dream derailed and snatched away from me, for the second year in a row, it completely crushed me. kevin edwards 13:18 Now Dev I worked in college sports, I work for Rich Rod for a year in Arizona, and at the woman's basketball team after that, and we had players go through similar things this part of the sport, you're right. But I've seen players quit. I mean, I see we have Ray Smith, he tore his ACL three years in a row, we had Ken Griffey, his daughter, Taryn, who tore her ACL msbl, three times in a row as well. devastating. And you even when you come back, is that it's it's like, I don't want to hurt again. You know, I'm saying so, what was the motivation for you to get back there because a lot of people don't have that extra gear if that happens for a second or third time. Devon Still 13:56 Yeah, I mean, I think that every you know, champion, every successful leader has always felt the urge to give up when things get hard. But the the great leaders, the people who end up becoming successful are the people who have a reason to continue to move forward. I said after you know, getting hurt for the second time, there were times where I wanted to give up there were times where I, I literally sat in my room crying, wondering why, why me? Why did I have to continue to go to this? Why do I have to sit here and watch everybody that I came into college with go out there and live their dreams, and I'm stuck here with a cast on my leg. And it was one weekend where I was thinking about giving up and back to Delaware and just saying forget it because I wasn't, you know, a scholar. I didn't really care that much about school. During that time. I cared about playing football and if I couldn't play football, what was I doing here? But before I made that decision, I went back home just to you know, clear my mind about everything that was going on so that I can make a decision based off of logic and not just emotion. And when I went there, I went out to a party with some of my friends. And in Delaware, there's always a shooting. There's always something that happens after a party. And I don't even know why I used to go to these parties when I was a kid. But that's just not thinking, right? But I decided to go out with my friends this night. And I ended up watching somebody get shot in the head and they died. And in that moment, I realized that whatever pain or whatever suffering, I was going at Penn State, I had to be willing to fight through that pain so that my family didn't hurt anymore. And what I meant by that, what I mean by that is, I had to fight through my pain so that I can move my family out of the environment that I grew up in. Right, I had to be the one who was willing to go through whatever I had to go through to show my family, a different side of life. So that weekend, when I went back to Penn State, I just put strapped on my boots and I said, Look, I may have to go through these two years of suffering, but the moment With that, I get my chance to step out on that football field. I'ma go out there and be the best football player i can and try to catch up, if not surpass all the people I came into college with. And that's exactly what I did because by the time I was a senior in college, I was all American. I was the Defensive Player of the Year, I was the lineman of the year, and I ended up I became, you know, Penn State's captain. During the 2012 season. I got drafted 53rd overall in the NFL. kevin edwards 16:31 Now Dev, what do you think people were Why do you think people were drawn to you when you were a captain? Do you think leadership is something that is learned that is, it's out there? It's you kind of show people and lead people by example, or do you think it's something you're born with? Devon Still 16:47 No, I don't. I think that's the biggest misconception is that is is something that you're born with. I think that leadership is learned. My first two years at Penn State. Like I said, I wasn't I wasn't playing. I was I said A lot of the time because I was the one doing rehab where everybody else was lifting weights or they're out at practice getting better planning game. So for the first two years, it's like I wasn't really involved with the team. And then after, when I finally got back out on the football field, there was a learning curve, because I just took two years off from high school. I haven't played since high school. Now I'm playing at D one level and I missed two years. So there was a lot that I had to relearn. There was a lot I had to relearn about my body because now there were some big changes I had to go through as far as my knee and my ankle and where different braces and protective gear that made me more stiff. So it took me about two years to really turn that corner of, you know, getting in gearing and getting back to that player that I always knew I was. So I was quiet those two years. When I was I felt like I wasn't contributing to the team because I felt like it wasn't my place to step up and try to be that leader that there were people who you know, put in that work who earned it that responsibility before me, but I remember it was my junior year it was during our bowl game. And our seniors were graduating, our captains were graduating. And I was sitting in my hotel room the night before the game, and I was listening to a lot of motivation on YouTube. One in particular was like Ray Lewis, I kept playing his speeches over and over again. And I told myself, I was like, You know what, it's my time, like, these seniors are graduating, um, when we go into the locker room tomorrow, I'm gonna bring the team up, and I'm gonna give him a speech and I'm just gonna, you know, give everything that I have on my heart. And I went out there, and I did that. And I had one of the best games on my college career. And the following year, or the following season, we had a team meeting where we had to vote for captains and I was a unanimous pick by everybody. And what that showed me was that, you know, leaders don't really start out at the front of the lines. That leaders one day have the courage to get out from the back of the line and walk up to the front and lead their constituents and that's what I did during that moment. kevin edwards 19:09 That's incredible. Now you go from Penn State to the Cincinnati Bengals. So first question is, do you like skyline chili or gold star chili? Devon Still 19:20 I hate them both. kevin edwards 19:21 You hate them both? I'm about to ex you off this show right now. Devon Still 19:26 So I had when I got drafted, I got put on the show. Hey, rookie. And the first thing we learned about Cincinnati was the chili skyline and golden star chili and everybody was like, they loved it. So they took us out to the restaurants where they made us try the chili. And it was disgusting. It was like, I feel like you have to be born in that area in order to like the chili because it's a it's different. It's not like spicy. It's like a sweet taste to it, which is something different. I never tasted before. I hated it. kevin edwards 19:59 They put chocolate in it, that's right. Devon Still 20:01 Do they? kevin edwards 20:01 Oh, see look my dad just flew in right now he's like, Oh, no, oh no, we gotta get him off. Devon Still 20:05 I'm sorry, Scott. kevin edwards 20:07 Well, he needs a little three way. That's a good point though sometimes you have to get adjusted to that culture. How did you get adjusted to the NFL? What were you going through in your personal life, and also on your professional life as well? Devon Still 20:25 To be honest, that's one of the things that I look back and regret the most because I don't feel like I was able to get adjusted. I don't feel like I was able to get acclimated to the NFL because I was dealing with a lot of personal issues. Um, one thing that I didn't touch on is during my senior year at Penn State, I was battling a lot of injuries. I had tore my rotator cuff and my shoulder so I wasn't able to lift. I blew out my back in pregame warm up right before we played Ohio State, but I kept going The reason why I kept going was if those of you who are watching this remember in 2012 when I was the captain of the team, we went through the whole Sandusky scandal, which is one of the biggest scandals in college football. And as a leader, I didn't want to give up my all my team doing something that big, something that tough. A lot of times I've fought through the injuries and I remember when the news first broke about the Sandusky scandal. I believe we were right at and for our record was like 8 and 4, 8 and 3 during that time, and we got picked to go to the ticket city bowl and Houston. Was that not that great of a bowl, we should have been going to one of the top bowl games because everything that was going on a lot of the bowls didn't want us to be a part of it because it would bring a negative attention. So we got picked for the ticket city bowl and the team decided that they were going to boycott the bowl game because they felt like we were getting punished for something. We had nothing to do with it. This, this story didn't really make it out to the public during that time. And I remember my coaches got word that the team wanted to boycott. And my defensive line coach called me into a meeting, he was asking me if I could talk the team into going. And at first I was, I don't know, because I felt slighted just like the rest of my team. Like we're getting punished for something. We had nothing to do with the nobody sticking up for us. And I remember leaving that meeting, and I went home and I called, you know, the closest people to me, like my dad, my future agent that I was going to sign with once I graduated, and I was like, What should I do? Like the team wants to boycott and the coaches want me to talk the team into going and everybody around me was like, don't go to the bowl game that your projected first round pick. You have millions of dollars on the line. If you go out there and you get hurt, you can blow it all. So I hung up the phone and I slept on it. And when I woke up in the morning, I told myself, I was If I can't do that, I can't put myself first as a leader, like I have to put the team I have to put the university first before my own, you know, aspirations. So I went into I called a team meeting. And I talked to the team. And I was like, Look, I know, everybody's upset that we got sleighted when it came to this bowl game. But we have one more opportunity to go out there and play with each other. We have seniors, we have one more opportunity to wear the blue and white and, you know, go out there and fight for something together. And as somebody who's projected a first round pick, I'm willing to risk it all to go out there to play with y'all one more time. And I made because if we sit up here and we quit if we give up, we're sending a message to the whole university. We're sending a message to the whole Penn State family that it's okay to give up when things get tough, but I'm I'm not willing to do that and I'm hope you're not willing to do that either. So we decided to go out and play that bowl game and I got hurt. Like everybody was telling me, I ended up breaking my toe during one of the practices. So I was battling those injuries going into the senior bowl, I had to cancel my senior bowl invite, I wasn't able to properly train for the combine because I couldn't run. And my back was still messed up. So I was battling all those injuries, my first couple of years in the NFL, and then I ended up having my daughter diagnosed with cancer. So it was just like, I never got time to really get acclimated to the NFL, because I was dealing with so much. kevin edwards 24:30 And it's a different environment. It's a business versus the NCA and that we'll call it a monopoly for now. But it is a different environment and the leadership is different. Now you're putting others in front of yourself and from your own progress you listen to you didn't listen to the people told you don't go to the bowl game. Don't This is too risky. And you do that because you're a great person, great human being and you know, that's best for the team and you couldn't Live Without that now, when you go to the NFL, what type of leadership did you experience? How is it different than let's say, being led by collegiate coaches and that organization? Devon Still 25:13 I will say that when it comes to the NFL a lot of the leadership comes within the locker room, not necessarily the coach's. They may create the culture that they want the team to have, but it's up to the the team, the players on a team to live up to that coaching. So what was different about the NFL then it was from colleges, like you said, it was more business it was more in your face business like colleges as business but the NFL is more in your face, a business so when it comes to college football, you go to practice together, you eat together, you weight lift together, you do everything and then you go back home to your dorm rooms to your apartments. You spent a lot of time together, you're able to build a lot of chemistry together and you know, create that culture with the NFL is like, you go to work, you go home to your family, these are grown people with kids with, wives, who they go there to put in the work, and then they go home to their family. So you're not really building that, that that chemistry that you build in college and a lot of times people are out for themselves in the NFL trying to get their money and get out which was a big difference because now you don't have people willing to help you make that transition and aren't willing to share a lot of you know, the tips and tricks that they use in order to last in the NFL because everybody's focused on making their career last as long as possible. kevin edwards 26:42 So now you're in this environment. You just come from Penn State, you're team oriented. You've been the leader of the team, you're trying to make this transition. Leah Your daughter is diagnosed with stage four blastoma cancer. What is going through your mind at the time and what type of people did you rely on to get you through this? Devon Still 27:01 man that that was one of the toughest times in my life and the reason why is because I felt like obstacles just get kept getting piled on. Like I said, it was crazy cuz my first year I ended up getting benched after the eighth game. And the crazy thing is the eighth game we played against the Broncos and I had a breakout game I had like eight tackles, two tackles for a loss. I made the front page of the paper in Cincinnati and then, you know, one of our veterans came off of injury reserve, and they elected to play him the remainder of the year and put me on the bench until the following year, which was a mess up my head. It didn't make any sense to me because in sports is all about momentum. Like if you look at Odell Beckham, nobody heard about Odell until he made that catch and it was like he took off from there because sports is all about momentum, taking advantage of that momentum and to shut me down after having that type of game. It didn't make any sense to me, but I just accepted it. And I worked hard during the offseason to you know, play the following year, they ended up letting that veteran go and gave me his spot. And again, I was having a great game against the Detroit Lions. And I remember, I went to go tackle Reggie Bush and our linebacker came running full speed to put his helmet into the back of my elbow, and it popped out, I dislocated my elbow. And I was down for five weeks. So I fought that five weeks to get back out on the football field to experience what it was like to play in the NFL. And then a night game against the Steelers. I was playing a double team and I felt my back popping again, and I ended up having to get back surgery season in the back surgery just five weeks later. So I'm like, Man, what is going on? Like, what am I doing wrong? That causes me to continue to go through this type of stuff. But again, I sucked it up and I said, You know what, I'm gonna do what I need to do to get back on the football field. I flew home, I had back surgery in Cincinnati, I flew home to Delaware to be with my family. And this was a week later, and I ended up getting rushed to the hospital where I almost died from multiple blood clots in my lungs. And I was completely crushed at this point because I just really didn't understand what was going on just felt like everything was being piled on me, like life was literally trying to break me every time I I tried to find a way to get back up life found a way to not be back down. Um, but my wife made a suggestion that maybe we should get back into church, maybe there's something missing in our lives, where you know, negative things keep happening. So I listened to my wife, we ended up going back to church, um, I got baptized in two months later, I faced the biggest obstacle in my life when my daughter got diagnosed with cancer and I actually was doing all season training, I flew home to go to her dance recital because I put her into dancing that offseason. And when I was growing up at my games, although my parents got divorced, like I said earlier, every time I looked up in the stands, my parents were sitting right next to each other cheering me on cheering my brother on. And to me, that meant the world to me that they could put their differences to the side and come to my game to support me. Like we didn't have a lot growing up. We didn't have a lot like other people around us did. But we had our parents. And that meant way more to me than any materialistic thing they could have provided just knowing that my parents supported my dreams. And I think that made me fight to get to the NFL because I wanted to make them proud. I wanted them to be able to sit in the crowd and brag like look that's my son doing this, that and the third. So I carry that on into my adulthood when I became a parent and I wanted to be there for Leah, and the crowd cheering her on whenever she has something going on. So I flew home for her dance recital, but we never made it to that dance recital. Because that morning, I ended up taking her to the hospital because she Was lethargic and had a fever. And I ended up finding that she had stage four cancer. kevin edwards 31:05 That's an incredible story. Thanks for sharing that, Devin. So when you hear this news, your daughter, your five year old daughter has cancer. You've been through all these thresholds, these crucible moments we've talked about before, whether you were growing up and having the police officer touch you with the glove on going through injury after season, injury after season injury, then getting baptized and then this happens again. How does one prepare for news like that? What did you do? How did you prepare for that moment? Devon Still 31:35 I don't think that you can prepare for something like that. But understanding that life can change at any given moment. And what those things showed me early on that I went through is that life rarely goes as we want it to go. And I think that's why it's so crucial to continue to improve yourself, mentally, physically and spiritually so that you can be prepared for whenever you face adversity. A lot of people make the mistake of trying to prepare for adversity when it happens when the time is now anticipating that, you know obstacles may happen in your future allows you to accept it faster. But when Leah got diagnosed with cancer, it completely crushed me. It was like a knockout blow. And to be honest with you, I wasn't able to pick myself up right away. Like for the first two weeks, I was just in the hospital, just going through it like how could this? I didn't think it was real. Like it was just crazy walking down the hallway. And no, you look at the mirror and you see your reflection in the mirror or in the window and you're thinking like, what are you doing here? Like you was just living the American Dream playing in the NFL. And now you're here in the hospital and the doctors are telling you that, you know, your daughter only has a 50% chance of surviving so I was completely crushed. But I allowed myself to be crushed during those two weeks, right because I feel like a lot of times people make the mistake of adversity happens they get knocked down, they pop right back up, but my dad was a big fan of boxing. And we used to watch boxing with him a lot when I was a kid. And a lot of times when you seen boxers get knocked out, they Hurry up and try to get back up, and they fall right back down, they're dizzy falling into the rope. They don't really process what they go through. But you know, those good boxers, they take advantage of that 10 second rule where they can sit there lay on the canvas, realize what just happened to them. And when they get up, they have a plan in order to fight again to continue to make it through those rounds. So that's what I did. During those two weeks, I laid on a canvas, I took my 10 seconds and I really tried to think about what I can do in order to fight this this complete fight. And the first thing I decided to do was to give Leah's fight with concer a purpose, because I feel like when you give any goal or any fight that you're going through a purpose that's bigger than yourself, you're more likely to achieve that goal. But what I decided to do was to use My platform as an NFL player to really shed light on what it's like for families who are battling, you know, childhood cancer because I didn't feel like it was in the forefront. I didn't feel like the media was talking about it enough. And when I sat in the hospital, it was like, a lot of families who were going through things that nobody knew about. It was like a hospital full of the voiceless. And I had a chance to use my voice to give those voiceless families a voice to talk about what they were going through. kevin edwards 31:49 And sometimes I now had a family member when we were growing up my cousin who went to my high school, I grew up with stage four leukemia, cancer. It's almost more difficult on the parents than it is a child. So what was your message to the parents? What did you do to rally the community together and tell us what what Leah's reactions were? Devon Still 34:45 My biggest message to the families is not your fault to the parents. because like you said, is really hard on the parents because I remember when Leah was first born, it's like when you watch a kid come into this world, as parent You all take the same oath is that without even saying it to the kid, you all take the same oath, you all make the same promise where you're saying, You're holding on for the first time you're looking at your kid, saying that you're going to do everything you can to provide for them, you're going to do everything you can to protect them from harm. I tell everybody is like when you have a kid is like your heart is physically walking outside of your body. Um, so when Leah got diagnosed with cancer, I felt like I felt as a parent because I couldn't protect her, but what she was about to go through. And that was the biggest hurdle I had to go through. It was understanding It's not your fault, because I used to tell myself maybe it's the stuff that you was feeding her maybe it's the stuff that you introduced to her allowed her to be around that cause her to get cancer. Maybe it was something wrong with you and you pass it down to her genetically, but I had to get I had this thing called facts over feelings a lot of times where you know, we let our feelings consume us, instead of looking at the facts, and I had to look at the facts and tell myself It wasn't my fault. This is not something I could have prevented. But this is something I can do. I can't stop him from having cancer, I can be her biggest support system, I can be her biggest cheerleader, and let her know that she wasn't going to go through this fight by herself. So that was my biggest message to other families. Stop blaming yourself, but there's nothing that you can do to change the past. The only thing that we have is right now. And what steps are you going to take right now to help your child overcome this battle? kevin edwards 36:28 So what were the steps that you outlined? What was the playbook that you put together to get through this as a whole? Devon Still 36:37 Yeah, so I already talked about giving your battle a purpose. The next one was to fight for four quarters like we have something in, in football where you know, we're taught that no matter how tired you are, no matter how much pain you in, you go out there and give it everything you have for four quarters because you never know when the game can change and I asked my daughter The moment she got diagnosed with cancer to fight for four quarters. And I told her that every day is not gonna be easy. You're not gonna wake up every day feeling good, you're not gonna wake up every day feeling like going to treatment, like going to go get chemo. But no matter how bad things get, as long as you're alive, as long as I'm alive, that we're going to fight for four quarters, we're going to do everything that we can to make sure that you overcome this battle. And that's exactly what we did. Another thing was not being afraid to call audibles or pivot in business. I had something called like the Triple A, which I think can really help people, you know, be those those people who are able to overcome adversity, right. So triple A is not the towing company, but it's something that stands for anticipate, adjust and accelerate. You have to anticipate that things may go wrong, you have to plan for things to go wrong. And then once they do, you have to adjust. And that's what we had to do with Leah's battle with cancer. We put her into a clinical trial initially, that you know, the doctors thought was going to save her life that was going to eradicate the cancer because it was new. They had a lot of promise in it. But after four months of high doses, chemo and radiation, we ended up getting scans done. And we found out that the cancer spread all over her body, like it was initially was just in her hip, but now it went from her hip to being in her chest, her arms, her skull, her neck, it was all over the place. And if there was ever a moment where I thought my daughter was going to die, it was during that moment, but before we took on this battle, I anticipated that this may work although it had. This may not work, although it had a lot of promise, nothing is guaranteed. So I anticipated so the blow wasn't that hard when I found out that the chemo and the radiation, in fact didn't work. Instead, when the doctors told me that I went back on the computer, and I started researching other things that were out there that we can use or other clinical trials that we can put her in, that could help us get to our goal. Like sometimes your goal stays the same, but the strategy or the plan to get to goal, it changes. We found a new clinical trial, we put her in that clinical trial. And we just gave that when everything we had, that's when the accelerate comes in, when you make that adjustment, accelerate and make things happen. And a couple of weeks or a month or two after putting her in a new clinical trial, she ended up going into remission, she was completely the cancer was completely eradicated from her body. kevin edwards 39:38 Now, just for our audience right now, how is Leah doing? What is your status? Devon Still 39:42 She's going great. Um, this past March, march 25. She reached her five year mark. So she was finally declared cancer free. So we don't have to worry about that right now. We can just focus on you know, just living life and just enjoying every day a moment that we have with each other. kevin edwards 39:58 Now Devin, you've shared a lot adversity that you've overcome in your life on the show today, how has the How have these principles, your faith, your mindset, these pivots, these audibles? How do all these things translate to business? And what are you currently doing with your entrepreneurship gig? Devon Still 40:15 Yeah, so my struggles. And combined with the lessons that I learned from football, the structure I learned from football has really allowed me to excell in business. I use these strategies in everything I do. And I talk about a lot of strategies in my book, Still in the Game, finding the faith to tackle life's biggest challenges. But I've been able to you know, recycle all the pain that I've been through throughout my life and use it to push myself and help push other people to greatness. So I've started a foundation called the Still Strong foundation where we financially assist families who are battling cancer because of my daughter's battle with cancer. I don't want her to have to go through something like that for no reason I want to, I don't want to look I feel like you know, great leaders don't focus on the problems, but they focus on the opportunities. And although, you know, there was a problem with my daughter battling cancer, I realized that there was also an opportunity to create some change within the cancer community. And that's what I decided to do with our foundation because a lot of families lose 40% of the household income during the cancer treatment, work related disruption. So we wanted to make sure that those families were taking care of taking care of and just because my daughter's cancer free, and we're out of that fight, that doesn't mean that the fight against childhood cancer has stopped. I also travel a lot. I'm speaking at corporate events. Just teaching them about how to be more resilient. I think right now during this time is even more important to speak on resiliency as a company because a lot of people are going through a lot of things and it's going to be those companies who are able to tap in to employ become more resilient, who see this door able to maximize The opportunities that are out there, I just recently gave a talk to Procter and Gamble. And they were sharing how, you know, they're the home products really surge during this time, right, they put a lot of focus, they didn't focus on the things that they weren't excelling at anymore. They wasn't thinking, focus on the things that was losing money, but they looked at the opportunity in their business model for them to excel in their home products, they put a focus on, and it's been going through a roof because everybody's at home right now. And everybody needs these home products in order to take care of the household and you know, get rid of the germs and stuff that's going on. So just focusing on those opportunities and you know, taking the knowledge that I have, like I said, from football for my trials and really helping people in their life and companies triumph. And I also, one of the biggest challenges I had during Leah's battle with cancer was my relationship with my wife. Because a lot of times when you have a child who's battling cancer or going through any type of health issue It causes a lot of problems, especially within the relationships. A lot of times I see it because as two individuals, we all process things differently, right? We all grieve differently. And sometimes when we don't see our partner grieving the same way that we're grieving, then it causes friction, because we want them to grieve. We want them to feel the same pain that we're feeling. So there was a lot of things, a lot of challenges that we faced in our relationship and just being married. And I just felt like we needed to take that information and share it with people out there because a lot of times on social media, everybody especially influencers everybody makes the life seem perfect. Everybody makes their relationship seemed perfect. So that allows people to look up to other people's relationship and look down on theirs because they think that their relationship is so bad and everybody else is perfect. So me and my wife decided to start a podcast called the Realationship Podcast, where we go out there and we share our struggles with other couples who are just trying to Figure it out because, you know, we didn't grow up in a family like my parents were divorced when I was in third grade. My wife's parents was divorced a little bit after that. So we didn't get to see what real love what real marriage is. So we're navigating these waters by ourselves and we want to share that experience for other people out there. So we started this podcast which has shot up the charts and really made an impact for people and the last thing I have going on is my playmaker University, where I teach people how to become playmakers. In the game of life. I put together a curriculum and people can check it out at become a playmaker comm where I teach people the playbook on how to become basically unbreakable, how to overcome adversity when they face it and just really help them reach their highest potential in life. kevin edwards 44:51 Dev you're doing a lot of things. We got playmaker University, we've got the relationship podcast, we got the foundation, you're impacting a lot of people, especially these families who are dealing with young ones with cancer as well. But I guess the question is not how you're impacting them, how have they impacted you? Devon Still 45:08 It's given me a new purpose in life. Because a lot of times when football players we look at athletes, we pour so much of our lives into the sport, like you don't become one of the best you don't make it to the NFL. By giving 50% effort by giving 70% effort, you have to give it 100% in order to become one of the 1% of athletes who ever make it to professional sports. So a lot of my time and focus and energy went into becoming the best football player I could because the way I look at a lot of people look at is just playing sports. But well the way a lot of athletes look at it is running a fortune 500 company. You come out of college and you're automatically making millions of dollars like you're running a million dollar company and you're taking care of a lot of people, you're in charge of taking care of a lot of people when you're put in that position. So a lot of us look at, you know, sports as running a business. But when Leah was diagnosed with cancer, it caused me to really look outside of the field, see who I was as a man without the helmet, right without the jersey. And just seeing the impact that I've been able to make on people's lives, hearing their stories about how I've helped them, through some of the struggles. It's helped me grow as a person. It made me realize that life isn't always about the materialistic things, but it's about uplifting the people around you. kevin edwards 46:38 Do you think that's what's missing in today's business environment? Maybe it's the self centeredness. I mean, you talked about the bowl game, when you had to make a decision about whether it was yourself your career, your injuries or playable game for your teammates who you put in the work in the time with. Do you think that's something that's missing from today's business entrepreneurs? This idea of self centeredness or this, you know, take all mentality. And do you think there needs to be a little bit more service out there? Devon Still 47:08 I think the biggest thing that's wrong with the business world is a lot of companies or a lot of executives are goal driven, instead of value driven. And what I mean by that is, a lot of people put focused on the goals, and not necessarily the values. So the way I compare it is like, if you ever watched a football game, right, like, there's sidelines and there's endzone, right, there's the sidelines to keep players in bounds is sidelines, so to make sure they can step out of bounds in order to reach their goal. And I feel like a lot of times with businesses, when you put too much focus on your goals, your employees will do anything they can in order to get to the touchdown, right? They step out of bounds, they'll do whatever they need to do to get there and a lot of times that allows the company to crash. If you look at Enron down here in Houston, a lot was just focused on setting the goals reaching their financial goals and their employees are practicing the wrong things in order to reach those goals and they eventually crumble. So what I feel like is missing a lot from business is those sidelines, people focusing on the values that they want to have in their culture. Because if you put a lot of focus on that, then you're able to sustain your growth, you're able to sustain all the things that you're reaching. I feel like if people put more focus on building up the right culture, and not so much on just reaching the results, then I feel like you have a great chance of, you know, becoming a great business. kevin edwards 48:36 So these values, and I'm just going to tie this into your purpose, Devon purpose, it seems like it came from, like we said, these thresholds, these crucible moments these hard times, how does one identify a purpose? How did you discover yours? And what advice would you give to somebody who's just trying to figure it out theirs? Devon Still 48:54 Yes, I think that the values and purpose are two different things. So Give you an example from my life. Before I made it to the NFL. I remember where I was sitting in my living room. And I had watched a interview with Dave Chappelle and Oprah. And she told ya, I watch over sometimes. But she told him if you don't know who you are, this is when he was talking about walking away from the Chappelle show, who offered him $50 million. And she told him if you don't know who you are before the money and fame comes, then you'll never know who you are. And when I heard that, I realized I had an opportunity to make a lot of money. And if I allowed myself to go into the NFL without really knowing what I stood for what my values were, then I will allow myself to be I allow myself to get lost in it. So one day I sat down in my living room, I wrote down what I valued, and the top three things that I valued, was God, my family and impact. And so when Leah got diagnosed with cancer, a lot of people always asked me this and it's surprising that people ask me this and it just lets me know just how the there's a lot wrong with society this day when they always met. Ask me, man, how did you give up? Was it hard giving up, you know, the American dream to be there for your daughter? And I'm like, No, no, because that's my I value my family more than I do football. Like, if I lose football, if I lose the money that comes with football, there's always ways I can make money back. There's always ways I can try to get football back in my life. But if I miss out on time with my daughter, and something happens with my daughter, then, you know, I can't get that back time is not something that you can get back. So understanding what you value will lead you to your purpose. Like sometimes the Father, I didn't know what my purpose was. It's a fight. Like there's things that you have to go through in your life. That helps you you know, find your purpose and a lot of times people say your purpose is something tht you do every single day and you don't mind doing it, that is easy for you to do. But for me, purpose has been a struggle. It's been hard, like success is not easy. When I found my purpose, there was a lot of struggles that I had to go through in order to fulfill that that purpose, and I'm still going to do it right now. I'm constantly trying to grow. As a leader, I'm constantly trying to grow as a business owner, I'm constantly trying to grow as a husband, as a father as a cancer advocate. So finding your purpose is not easy. It takes a lot of time for you to be still, because though the world is on the go, everybody's trying to move so you don't really have a chance to really assess your life. So just being still and looking at how you can take everything you've been through all the knowledge and experience you've been through to really impact the world and you'll find your purpose. kevin edwards 51:48 Self discovery, continuous learning to impact the world. Devin, we're in the fourth quarter of this podcast. Let's wrap this up. What is your definition of a real leader? Devon Still 51:59 so For me is not a profound definition. But for me, real leaders are lifetime students who use their knowledge and their experiences really to help people unleash their full potential, whether it's a group of people, whether it's a business, you just take everything that you learn throughout your life throughout your triumphs, throughout your downfalls. And you use it to really help people maximize their life and reach their full potential. kevin edwards 52:30 Yeah it's been a pleasure having you on the show today. We're gonna have you stick around for some questions after this. But for Devin, still, I'm Kevin hours asking you to go out there help people unleash their full potential and always folks, keep it real. Thanks Devon. Devon Still 52:43 Thank you. kevin edwards 52:44 And thank you relators for listening to this episode with Devin Still, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and if you want to get involved folks, go online to Devin stills foundation. It's at still strong family. foundation.org again, folks still strong foundation.org and Devin hung around for the next 10 to 15 minutes actually on this episode because he knows all of these episodes are streamed live on our new crowd cast platform. That's right folks. Devin hung around for another 10 to 15 minutes, answered our fans, our followers, our listeners direct questions and made sure that he made their time well worth it. So if you want to be that follower next time you asked that question, go online, the relators comm go to the podcast tab and RSVP for the event with an upcoming real leader. You will not want to miss it. Lastly, folks want to give a quick shout out to Tamara g who on Monday, left a review she says fresh stories real people really respond to people who are truly inspiring and tells their stories to shine a path forward for anyone looking to be a more company As capitalists and consumer, that's what we're all about tomorrow. Thanks for leaving the review. And please both let's get the 50 by the end of August. That's it for me. Thanks for being a relator and stay tuned for the next episode. Transcribed by https://otter.ai