Hello, elegant listeners and welcome to Go My Favorite Sports Team, the greatest
sports podcast to ever grace your eyeballs and your ears. I'm Tyler Shide, your elegant host,
along with my co-host, Markiplier. Hello. How are you, Mark? Oh, I'm good, stressed.
Usually, yes. What? Why? You ever think about retiring? No. You ever think about retirement at all?
Not really. I figured that I'll be dead by the time I retire. You're just, you just work
until death, create until you're dead. I mean, what else would I do if I get to a point where I
can't make things? What's even the point? So, do you think it's become a part of your identity?
Yeah. Do you think you'd be empty without it?
Maybe, I don't know. Unless I find something else, I like isn't that what life's all about. You
just find your, what is it? What are you getting at here? Well, today we're going to be talking about
athlete retirement. Oh, okay. And how it's kind of different from usual retirement. And these are
some of the conversations that are interesting to have with with athletes that I've seen and
read articles about about how difficult it is with retirement because retirement as an athlete
doesn't mean you're actually retired because you usually go on to do something else. You find
another job, whereas traditionally retirement meant that, you know, you no longer work. You live off
of what you have done and basically enjoy the rest of life has to offer with vacations and
different things. Like, when other people would retire, I don't, I'm not saying that in today's
day and age, that's very much a common thing. But historically, that's what retirement was.
Okay. All right. Well, you know, in all honesty, I think the concept of retirement as a whole is
kind of depressing. You know, you do this thing that you don't like doing all your life. And then
finally, when you're old, you don't have to do it anymore. And then when you're, when you don't
have the same kind of strength and vitality that you did when you were younger, now you can enjoy
the world is like, oh, man, that's kind of depressing. It's just depressing, right? But it's like
so ingrained in our heads, like save for retirement, put money away for this so that you can do this
when you retire. Like, I mean, it's a smart thing to do. And it's an important thing to do. But like,
I agree with you that the sentiment of how retirement is with regard to work, work, work, work,
and then you can relax when you can't hike the mountain or see this beautiful place or travel
as much or things like that. So I agree with you on that front. But athlete retirement is significantly
different. And that's what I wanted to talk about today because recently we've seen some major
players in sports retire some of the top names like Serena Williams, Tom Brady, JJ Wat for football,
Roger Federer, even Lionel Messi, although he technically hasn't officially retired entirely from
soccer or football, talked about retirement. But a lot of these athletes have suddenly retired and
it's brought to my attention the whole aspect of how athletes retiring is different than what normal
retirement is because as an athlete, you get out of your prime usually in your 30s or you get injured
and you get forced out or there's a lot of different factors that can result in retirement. That is
outside your choice and sometimes it becomes your choice. But much like that conversation with you,
they've been doing that their whole life. That's been their identity. That's what everybody knows
them as like Serena Williams, the tennis player. What else do you don't hear much aligned with Serena?
Charity work? Yeah. But it's kind of becomes identity. But is that more just like people's public
perception of this person as opposed to who they are because who they are to themselves is very
different from who they are to people, right? Correct, correct. But at the same time, like
the amount of time they have to dedicate to continually be at the top of their game is
arguably more than a full-time job. And any more now with the social media aspect of everything
and the media attention and everything else that's there, you have to be at the top of your game.
And so it kind of is and does take over your life. I mean, baseball players are way from their
families for insane lengths of time because the season is so long. Football players are the same
thing. They're with their team. They're traveling. They're training all of that stuff. The time away
from family and those that you're close with gets increasingly less and less as you get higher in
the ranks of professional sports. Oh, yeah. Well, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about like
literally people's public perception. If you go Serena Williams, you can't think of anything
besides a tennis player, right? Well, that's that's everyone's public perception of that person,
who they are individually, whether or not their life is consumed by it is different. Of course,
because of course they have a varied understanding of their own life versus what other people see.
So it's not the individual athletes responsibility to convince people that there are others,
or at least that's my philosophy. And that's why I've kind of lasted so long because it's not my
responsibility for people to understand me outside of the idea that ever me understand that
everything I put out there changes people's perception of me. But at the end of the day, it's not
my it's not my responsibility. I don't put that upon myself. But I know that many athletes can
separate that either and many YouTubers cannot. Yeah, it kind of becomes your personality and your
identity. And so like getting into the retirement thing, especially if it's outside of your choice,
because a lot of times with athletes, more often than not, it occurs because of an injury or
because they're forced out like a team just doesn't want to sign them or things like that. And
they feel like they have a lot left to give. And so like think of it this way, Mark, for your
perspective, it's like all of a sudden, you can no longer create something gets taken from you and
you can just no longer create. How would that feel? I'd be dead. Literally, like I would have
I would have no arms, no feet, no eyes, no ears, no mouth. If that was the case, because I'd
get what you're saying. Like I totally understand that because this is less a conversation about
just like retirement alone. It's more of a conversation about what happens when the passion dies
or what happens when you're prevented from pursuing your passion, right? And that's that's like
that is an interesting conversation. Because for me, if I suddenly wasn't able to create,
I would have to be dead because there's other ways. I've always said this. If YouTube dies,
I'm fine because I'll find something else. And I feel like that's a healthier way of looking at
it. But with athletes, yeah, it is different. They wanted to do that thing for so long and then
suddenly they can't. It's equivalent to never making it in the first place, right? Or it's even
worse because they had a taste of it and then it's gone. That's right. Yeah. And to get into the
like logistics of it, what retirement means is simply the action or fact of leaving one's job and
seizing to work, which is really interesting because when we think of athletes retirement, more
often than not, they don't really cease to work. They cease to work in the same capacity, but they
go on to work on other things. And so there's like three different types. There's the traditional
retirement, which is what most people think of, which is what we discussed where people just stop
working. There's semi retirement, which is where you retire and then continue working. A lot of
teachers do this so that they can take care of like get their pension on top of and then work
less hours and get salary. I've heard a lot of teachers kind of do the semi retirement thing
because it has the benefits to it. And then there's a temporary retirement, which is what most
athletes fall into is which they retire from the sport and then continue to do something else.
Or come back like Tom Brady. The ultimate athlete who never retires because they never stop being
the best. Fair. Yeah. Fair. He said fair. He said fair, everybody. I don't agree with that. No, he's
the best and always will be the best. That's what he said. But we also had that interesting
conversation with Tony when he left water polo, right? He basically said you either leave it all
together. You kind of come back and become a coach. Yeah. Right. And that seems to be a good amount
of cases for athletes because even getting into professional athletes that's that's college athletes
that we see this with a lot. They don't make it to the professional ranks. And so there's a whole
commercial density AA did was like they go pro in something other than sports. The majority of
athletes go pro in something other than sports, which is basically showing the emphasis of
education, which in a way is propaganda because it was fighting pay for play and different
stuff that was being talked about back then. But at the same time, it's it's the reality.
Some athletes get into college and get a scholarship because of sport, but then get injured and
can't play. My friend Michael got a full ride to Purdue and hurt his shoulder and he could no
longer play football. Yeah. There's so many different things that can force you out. Whereas most
people's normal retirement and this is a major generality because sometimes health gets in the
way and other stuff and forces you retire early. But more often than not, it's a choice. And usually
by that time they've saved enough or they're they they have enough to take care of themselves and
they can just keep going. And that's not saying professional athletes don't they get paid a lot of
money. But it can be so psychologically taxing because it's like now what do you do? You lose
direction. Use the like for me, I struggled in school when I wasn't in a sports season.
Even though I had more time to do my schoolwork and study, I just wasn't as focused because I
didn't have that set time or that set schedule and everything where I was forced to do stuff in a
regimented manner. Like your dad was in the military and he had was really about regiment. Was
that something that you noticed like impactful with you going through stuff? Going through school.
Like cool. Oh, man, it was detrimental to my existence him being like, you get up at six o'clock,
you get the shower. You get out of the shirt. It's very militaristic in that aspect and it's like
it did not work because we were just so sleep deprived anyway. So it's just like it was just a nightmare.
But yeah, there were some lessons that did attribute that. But how does that apply to retirement?
Just the regiment of like sports being it's the force structure. Yeah. Oh, I see. I see.
Because then you have less structure in your life. You're not forced to train. You're not forced
to do different things and how much of that suddenly changes your day to day. And all of a sudden,
you have more time where you're just like, if you have a lack of direction, yeah, anxiety and
depression and stuff. Is that like retirement in a way? Yeah. I mean, I've seen it kind of in my
dad a little bit that when you have so much time, you think, oh, and put stuff off more and things
happen. And there's a lot to go through in sense of like finding what's next or what to do. And
some people struggle with that when they don't have the force structure of a work. That's why I say,
like, I'll be working till I die and it's because I can't imagine not having something on the horizon.
Like I can't imagine they're not being a situation where I would want to do something. And when
people get to retirement, they just kind of flounder because it's like, yeah, what do you do? Where
is the purpose? What are you working towards? Are you just working towards your death? And that's
a depressing thought. Yeah. Not fun. Well, the other thing that's interesting too is like athletes are
retiring more often than not. They're under 30 years old. And so they have a whole lot of life ahead
of them in that way, but they have to figure out what they're going to do with their time. And
oftentimes like in different sports, like the body changes because you're regimented. You're trying
to be a peak athlete, especially with like offensive linemen, the amount of weight that they lose.
I just saw a picture recently of Russell Akun. And he was a 340 plus like offensive linemen.
And now I think he's down to like under 200 pounds. Talk about a complete body transformation.
That's got to be easier on the body, though. I mean, I know it probably was all a lot of muscle,
but at the same time, anytime you're over 300 pounds in a human, I don't think it's going to get for
the body. So I was thinking that you were going to say something like people kind of get tubby
after they retire. But no, that's the opposite. Well, in that particular case, it is. But in
other cases, with different athletes, it is the opposite because they no longer have the forced
regimen and thus end up eating and not getting the exercise. Right. But it's like, could you imagine
and this, this is the hardest part for me. It's like, it's really easy with the various ways to
create, right? So it's hard to relate to this. But you're a tennis player and everything is
about tennis and all of a sudden you break your arm or your knees fall apart and you can literally
no longer play tennis. Finding something else to do and fighting that psychological battle,
just for normal injuries and basically being forced to retire from something that you were
at peak performance of, I can't imagine what that would do to me mentally. Yeah. I mean,
I've never been in that situation, but I think there are probably stories out there of people
that have suffered from that. Do you have any of those? I mean, my kidney transplant took me away
from being able to pursue sports in a lot of ways, but oh, I meant like other of athletes.
Oh, of athletes? Yeah. I mean, there's few, a few, but usually the ones that I know of are the
ones that like change sports because they suddenly couldn't do something or they overcame it and
fought through and then made it in the sport. Those are the majority of the stories we hear, but I
think of one, it was a running back for South Carolina. I'm trying to think of his name. He was
a phenomenal athlete and he ended up getting drafted the NFL, but he never was able to recover.
He had his knee basically completely destroyed. Tore absolutely every ligament, every tendon,
everything in his knee during a punt return. I'm trying to think of his name. Was it Marcus Latimore?
That sounds right, but he had like one of the most promising careers, like probably would have
been a star in the NFL. Great change of direction and credibly fast and credibly strong. Everything
you want in a running back and one play completely changed the course of his life. And I want to see
what he's doing now. He's an assistant coach. He's a director of player development and running backs
at Lewis and Clark College. It does kind of gel with what we were talking about before with where
you retire and then you just keep doing. So it's not so bad. I mean, you're still involved with it
in some way. In many ways, I imagine it's easier just because the pressure's lower. Pay might not be
as good. But at the same time, like thinking about it is is a whole different other ballgame because
it's not what you thought you were going to be doing. And so you shift to then being able to
teach others about it. I mean, technically, that's what you're doing. That's you're not wrong.
You know what? You're not wrong. Yeah. That's what happened with water pool. I did end up coaching
water pooler for a number of years, too. So even when I had my kidney transplant, I was coaching
the team that I originally was on. But that was also like I always thought I'd end up being a coach
because my dad coached me growing up, right? And baseball and stuff. And I've always like that
mentality of being able to pass on wisdom or pass on knowledge and, you know, make have somebody
find a passion and something. And I feel like that's something that you also instill in a lot of
people. I know that you instill that in me. You tell me things that you thought I would like. That's
why I started streaming at one point and stuff like that. Just being able to push people to pursue
the things that they're passionate about and see them succeed and put a smile on somebody's face
is something that I strive to do every day. It's kind of like what Alex Arnold was talking about.
It's not so much that I want to see people do what they love. I want to see people excel. I want
to see people be great at what they do. And it's weird because I get really disappointed when they
don't. And that's on me. And this isn't about you or anything like that. It's like I do get really
disappointed when I see people not achieving what I perceive to be their best. That makes me really
disappointed myself as well as like this should be held to a higher standard. And I observe
things around me in my life. And I just like this is where I can be an asshole. It's just like I'll
observe like, yeah, no, I see shortcomings. And I get really, really upset about more upset than
I should. It's like I'm watching like dramas or something like that. And I see it around me. I'm
just like, man, that's that that reflects poorly on me. But I can't help it. Like I can't help it.
I have a good vibe of like there's a possibility for something to be great. And it's just hard for
me to accept it being anything but that. And that's why I get upset. That's why I'm pissed off
right now at this other situation. I'm not telling us talk about at all because it's just like
Jesus Christmas. This should be easy. Shouldn't it?
Anyway, that's a whole another story. This whole different story.
Well, the interesting thing, even though we talked about like players going from coaches,
like Tony talked about and then obviously what you were talking about with the Alex Hanley
interview of where people you want to see people succeed and excel, where do you think most
athletes end up going after they retire? Because it's not going. That's not number one.
The bar drinking. No, hard drugs, hard drugs. So the number one place they go is sales
professional. Actually, 27% sales weird sales. So you think about it like Shaq, Shaq,
and he owns like Papa John's now or they work with brands and different stuff like that. So it kind
of fits. A lot of professional athletes do work on selling products or will think of a product
that people haven't thought of. The George Foreman grill, for example, when George Foreman
was still boxing and then he created the grill, like for whatever reason they get into sales. And
maybe it's because they have the name behind it and they feel like they can succeed at it.
Or is it because the skills that they develop as a team because it's like being able to talk
and converse with people and get them to understand a passion or get them to understand
a perspective, especially leaders on teams, captains on teams, especially team sports because
you're able to convey that message. I wonder if that like different skills that come across
branch into the different careers. Number two ends up being the coach and instructor.
Number five is becoming a teacher, which is at 5%, which is also very similar to being a coach.
But like financial advisor is up there and I think a lot of people get into that because of
different professional athletes that struggle with finances and they want to help them understand
how to handle their money when they get a large sum to then be able to use it properly.
But it's really interesting seeing all of these different percentages of careers that they end
into recruiter I guess is one. I don't know if that's like at the college level of like recruiting
athletes or what, but they go into other jobs because they retire early and they and stuff like
that, which is like I said, the majority of people that retire don't end up doing another job.
They come back into the same thing like you said, the same sport or they just live off of whatever
their investments are, especially with the insane amount of money athletes get. So I mean,
that was that was the most interesting thing for me was the fact that they go into sales.
Yeah, I mean, it's just a job at the end of the day, right? I mean, a lot of those people
are probably just settling and they're just like, hey sales, I suppose I can use my identity to
encourage some transactions to occur. Glorious capitalism, the machine must turn.
Yeah, besides like YouTube. So this is an interesting discussion because I think we've talked
about this a few before. What other things have you gotten like passionate about that if YouTube
died like this beyond moviemaking because obviously you're passionate about that and that's
really cool. But like, what else do you think you would create? Like, there was a stint where you were
really into to like doing carpentry and building stuff, which we did for the corridor crew.
What else do you think you'd branch into like hobby wise that you might turn into something else?
I don't know man. Cause it's like, there's a difference between doing something for a job and
doing something because it's fun. So even if YouTube was gone, that's why the concept of
retirement is silly to me because even if I wasn't able to do it as a job, like why wouldn't I
still make videos because it is fun to do it. And with woodworking and stuff like that,
it's fun to do temporarily, but there's never been a moment where I'm like, I want to wake up
every day and make a table. So I doubt that that would be that. It's just impossible to say. There's
moments in my life where yeah, I've wanted to do something creatively as opposed to just having
like a straight up J.O.B. job. But also there's been days when I've been like, I don't want to just
get a job at the local whatever store just because it's like, it's kind of fun to have the routine
as opposed to anything. Yeah, it's just about finding, finding what is that thing. It might become
where my hobby is just that forever. And it's just a series of hobbies of trying something
new. I think that's more what I like than anything. It's trying new things. Yeah.
What's the next new thing? You're going to finally face the ocean and hop in the pool with me
when you do something with Tony. Not at all. There's no way that you would ever get me in the ocean.
How about in just in a pool? Yeah, pool's fun. It's not going to be my passion, man.
Yeah, I know you talked, I talked to you about like paragliding in skydiving and that was something
you were not not about at one point. So yeah, I'm pretty I don't need that. You like your
feet on the ground? It's not even so much that I like my feet on the ground. It's like I just don't
feel the desire to take such a such a risk for no reward. There's just really nothing to gain
for me from doing that other than like an I did it experience, which to some is good enough,
but for me is just like whatever. Yeah. So the other thing when I was doing some research for
this particular episode was trying to figure out what different things athletes deal with with
retirement and they boil down to the three basic things and we've touched on some of them briefly,
but one is the body changes the mind and the spirit. And so it's like the spirit has to do with
the idea of identity and being driven to pursue one thing and one thing only and being so set in
that schedule. It is very true. Even I myself when I tore my knee up and I couldn't make it into
baseball or when I had my kidney transplant, I couldn't really do football. And the fact even
recently when we're talking about boxing, it was it was hard for me. The realization that I
literally cannot step in the ring and box because I could die. It's the the thing where it's like
I want to do this, but I know that I can't and that I or even that I shouldn't because I could
literally put myself in major risk and how that impacts you and can literally break a person
because it's like I suddenly can't do something. Yeah. I suppose, but I mean, in that case,
it's like isn't that you more just putting that upon yourself? Like you you never need to box.
So I'm curious why you would have that desire to do in the first place. Like what is it about
boxing that is interesting enough that you would want? You wish you could, right? What is that?
I feel like it's the the competitive nature and wanting to be able to showcase that I can
like to prove myself and it's not necessarily to other people. It's just to myself
because I was doing boxing training for fitness anyway and still am. And so it was one of those
things, especially after seeing Ethan in the ring and him work and succeed and everything around
that in the energy of that event. It's it's addictive. I'm not going to lie. It's it's addictive
having a crowd having that adrenaline rush, having that competitive spirit where it's just you
versus another person where you can showcase what you are capable of. It's a distinguishing factor
in a lot of ways of like I was better that day. And it was like in the the straggable episode,
which I will call you out for is when you're a judge. Just say it. Just say it. We're talking
about Tyler and the the hyper competitive thing that Wade brought up. I want I listened to that
episode. I got caught out numerous ways. And you got really competitive about it. No.
I don't in reality. I was like, no, that used to be me. I'm a little less competitive now,
but yeah, sure. I also wanted to accuse Wade and set the record straight that that is not
fully correct story of how I got the apocalypse and nickname. First of all, he was right. It was
a poker game. It was red chips. I was having a bad day. We were emo teenagers. I think it was
freshman year of high school. The reality was it had been a few hands. And I already didn't want to play
poker because I was like, if you're playing for nothing, there's no stakes, right? So to me,
that makes poor poker boring. I'd rather play a different card game that requires you to use
your mind instead of like luck. Oh, right. Right. Like there's a little bit in it. It would bluffing.
So it's like, this is I even before we start, I said this was stupid, but I obliged and everybody
else was like, yeah, okay. And then I was like, it went around at least three times. And I was like,
what is the point? There's no stakes. Nobody's been anything but the smallest amount. This is just
a waste of time. And I overreacted. I would admit it. I'll admit it. But I was not called a
Pakalipto on that day. Okay. I got grim reaper death on legs. A whole bunch of other nicknames
of just like, oh, look at you being a sourpuss ruining everything. Death on legs. I
all of these in the same time. This is like a story out of a like a really cliche western movie
where it's like, no, they did not. I'm calling bullshit. Yes, they did. And then in hushed whispers,
after I devastated that table and sent ships flying everywhere, they whispered like like an echo
on the wind. Death on legs. It's he, it's his he, death on legs. And then everyone clutched their
pearl and fainted. No, it's true. Death on legs. I don't believe it. I don't know if I should
channel name death on legs because all right. And it was my gamer tag that came out of this.
The next day, the next morning, our friend Jared texts me and says, oh, I got it because they
were trying to figure out a name. All right. And he said, a Pakalipto because you exploded like
the Apocalypse. And this was before the Apocalypse movie. This was freshman year of high school. So
it was like 2003. And so that became my thing. And I got a PlayStation after that. And when I was
thinking of my name for my gamer tag, a Pakalipto was what came to mind. And that became my
gamer tag. Hence, and then because you were doing YouTube and gaming, all of the stuff that
followed after that, I was like, oh, just use my gamer tag too. That's how it came about for
social media. And I started making everything that well, all right. We cleared that up. I'm so glad
now that Tyler can retire the name death on legs. Listen, that came from Laura.
She will remember. But yeah, there were a lot of people there. And like grim reaper death on legs
were two of the names that I recently recalled throwing out. But Wade didn't give that story
justice and didn't tell it in the perspective. And he lied about me getting that name initially
on that day. So I wanted to set the records straight. But I did over react. And he was record has
been said everyone out there who was just all betting like fighting their nails in anticipation
of the truth and the red chips. Yeah, exactly. All right. Yeah. But I mean, going through retirement
also has the mental challenge is getting back into the actual topic. A lot of athletes end up going
through a lot of anxiety and depression because the lack of sense of direction, feeling like they've
been abandoned. They're no longer around the team. They're no longer on the sport. And a lot of
times they get forgotten. If they weren't the big name who had major brand deals or
you know, financial security, your agents tend to slip away. It's like all of these things that
have been a part of your life for years and years disappear and you're alone and you're isolated
and you don't know what to do. And so you get in your own head and oftentimes retired athletes
have to fight depression. They fight their body changes. They're they're all of that. It's something
that's that does happen in other like retirements. But it's I feel like it's just a little bit
different. The realization of like I can't do this anymore. Or a lot of times it's I'm not good
enough. No team wants to sign me. And that's a way that people get forced into retirement. They
got to find a different direction and they find other jobs and other careers and other paths. And
I mean, CTE is also a thing with football, the way the mind changes. And you know, a lot of times
with athletes too, people mooch off of them and they're right there for the success and then
they're gone as soon as something bad happens. Retirement's tough, which honestly is why it
terrifies me. Terrifies you? Why is it terrify you? I don't know. I so when I'm not busy,
I get in my worst mental state. I get anxious about everything. I start overthinking and worrying
about stuff. I start getting down on myself because it's like I feel like I'm not wanted or
needed. This is an interesting thing. The perspective that I always talked about is like I don't want
to be needed. I know I'm capable. I know I can help people. I'm happy to help people. I love doing
that. But I want to be wanted. I want to be invited to the things where it's not what I can offer.
It's just that they want me around. Which is why in a lot of ways, like I'm very loyal to the
people that have been like that, like you, like Wade, like Bob and the various friends that I'm
around when it's like, Hey, I just want to be close by so we can hang out or talk about stuff
or even if it's just talking about whatever's going on in their lives. The idea of being wanted
is so much more meaningful to me than being needed. Yeah, but isn't that a separate thing though
from the work though? It's hard for me to separate it because when it comes to work, it's almost like
I know I'm capable and I'm needed. But when it comes to like the social aspect of things,
there's a level of team unity where it's like, no, I want you as a part of my team, right?
I get you. And it's not always about like I'm capable, but it's about what like atmosphere I
bring. It's actually one of the greatest compliments I had and it was why you why are you
are filming was multiple members of the people that were working on your recent movie texted me
asking me where I was. They just wanted me there. It was like they missed me and that that was very
meaningful to me just hearing from them. I don't know. It's just like different. It is very different from
like my perspective on things is because like for me and it's not like I'm disagreeing with
any of you saying you say because I can definitely see the appeal in that, but how I have always
operated is less about wanting to be wanted. And I think that that is like a very common mindset
of especially among people in in this field of like entertainment in general, like you kind of
some people think you need that. But I think that's what people don't understand about me is that I
don't operate with that mentality. I am indifferent towards people wanting me and in many cases,
there are times when I hear about like someone wanting me to be at a thing or like be involved in
my life and I actively act against that. I'm like I instantly am opposed to it because I'm a very
solitary person. And I think that like is the difference. Like you're extroverted and I'm introverted.
I want to be proud of myself above all things. And it's like I think that it's an unhealthy
mentality that I have. I'm not saying it's healthy in any way. I know it's unhealthy and a lot of
things. But at the same time, it's just like this is my perspective about it. And I think when
you athlete to probably a similar breed is like they want to excel. And I agree with that. I want
to excel. I want to be great at what I do. And that's above everything else. Whether or not people
care about what I do as secondary, I like it is not like I ignore it. But I'm like, do you think
that you above all else want to excel more than you want to be approved? I think it varies per
the area I'm within. So like when I work with you, when I've done production and stuff like that,
everything for me is more of wanting to put my best foot forward for the project for everything
to make it the best that it can be because that's the goal, right? It's not about me. It's not
about me being wanted or in any aspect. It's about the project and what the greater overall picture
is. And I get great passion and drive about that. And that's the same thing with athletics.
But in general, life things, one of the hardest things I deal with is I know what I can offer.
I know the skills that I bring. I know what I can do when somebody needs me.
It's the times when and it might be the perspective more of the fact like when I went through my
kidney stuff and when I went through all these other things where I couldn't do the things that
I felt like I could do is where I started to realize like sometimes I want to be wanted
over being needed. And that's only in certain aspects of my life. So it's like
I wasn't needed to be a coach. They could have found somebody else. But I was wanted
by this, this group because of my experience being a goalie and being a field player and water
below. And that I knew knew the people that were there. But like there's a level of like,
oh, he has this and can do this. So I need I need you to come put together the shelf, right?
I've had people that have like to me, it makes me feel used. I've been invited to something
because I know how to run an event. And it's not initially created like, hey, I want you to do
this. I need somebody who can help with this. It's I'm inviting you. And then they suddenly thrust
this responsibility upon me. And that that's where it kind of feels like, do you turn it down though?
Well, usually when I'm invited, I don't know. And I try to turn it down sometimes. But sometimes
I don't because maybe there is that need to please in there. I mean, yeah, that's what I'm
thinking is like because they know that you might say yes, because you don't want to let them down,
right? And that's that's like, think about it this way. Half and do I ask you to something
only to work on something because I know you can do it. That's also part of the thing is like,
I'm not different. But you are because you're very straightforward about it. You don't trick me
into it. Oh, right, right. You know that every time I'm calling you up, it's pretty much every
time. I'm very purpose oriented in my social interactions. And that's a fault of mine. And I know
that very true. But it's like, also like, it's also like, I've, yeah, I've known you for years. It's
versus like people that are it's like, name names, cloud, name names, cloud chasing, name names,
name, it's God names. I'm not name. Expose them. Expose them. I want to know.
I want to know God, I want to know. Well, you know of one, I talked to you, you talked to you
about it when I first moved out here. That was one of my bad X. Oh, what's that that? No, recent,
recent. Yeah, I've been a lot, I've been a lot better and a lot more guarded about it. But
this, uh, there's been one, there's been one person recently that it's like hard to tell. But it
was like, you know, I'm, I like to be helpful. And so I met this person. They're like, Oh, yeah,
I need, I need to move this couch to the next day. And I was like, Oh, okay. And so I was like,
I mean, I guess I could help with that. And so running into that. And then afterwards, it just
felt awkward because I got there. And then I wasn't moving a couch. They asked me to put up a shelf.
Ah, interesting. And so I put up a shelf. And I was like, this is really weird. Were they helping
you put up the shelf? Or was it just you? It was just me. Oh, that's weird. Yeah. Were they watching you?
Yes. Smoking your cigarette. Not smoking a cigarette. No. Oh, yeah. Like that. Like that.
How do you get yourself in that situation? See, that's what I don't know. I never would even be
in that situation in the first place. I don't know how you took the steps to get there. I don't
know either. But this isn't the only time that it's happened. It's a girl. So we're talking
about athlete retirement. Oh, sure. No, I like this conversation more. No. No, but getting back
into the athletes, not about me anymore. But yeah, athletes, when it comes to retirement,
they just end up going into a different venture. They end up falling back into the same sport,
whether it's coaching, whether it's being a trainer, whether it's building something that the
sport already didn't have working in the governing body, buying a team or investing in a team,
it's like they gravitate back towards the things they're passionate about. Or they move on and
get a regular job, a normal, not athlete job. But it's very interesting looking at careers and
athletes because they get out of it at a young age. And next thing you know, you could see them,
you know, being a manager at a Walmart or walking around at a Papa John's or stuff. And
it's a recognition to more than anything that they're just like regular people. Which they are, of
course. Yeah, exactly. And so it's if we retired or if we got away from content creation, I know
plenty of people who stepped away from content creation and went back to working a nine to five jobs.
Weak. We couldn't handle it. I think more I feel like there were other circumstances involved. But
you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna leave you with that. Just like those athletes couldn't cut the
mustard pathetic quitterers couldn't hurt all the last hurdle. Yeah. Just like you.
Your kidneys couldn't take it. No, they couldn't. I was born weak. No, no, no, no, you let them fail
through your own lack of effort. Should I drink more water? How do you fix it?
How do you fix it? Yes, entirely. That's how you fix your kidneys. Just chug water.
Just chug water, five head. I just wanted to discuss how athletes what athletes go through when
they retire in the different different parts of it because athlete retirement is different than
it all. Yeah, it all boils down to self identity. Just like many things in human condition.
Like it is all down to who you feel you are. If you are your entire sport and that's all you'll
ever be, then you can't move on and see what you could be. And so each person like has a different
way through that. That is part of their journey. And for those of you who are not sport people
like thinking about this, like I would put it like, yeah, it is just a very human thing. And it's
a very weird world to be in. It is a very outside of the norm to live in a life that is just purely
about, you know, athleticism being the best in that case. And it is different. But we all have this
set. We all poop. We all poop. That's the thing that binds us.
The way I relate it to is like if you focus on one thing and that's the one thing and you wrap
your identity around it, you everything is focused on it. It's your dream. It's your goal. It's
your passion. You get to the point and you get to the point. And suddenly the journey's over.
And all of it was that one thing. Sometimes it's really hard to find the next thing. And that's
what the majority of high tier athletes do because they started a young age. In order to be that
successful, they start into sports at a young age, especially at the Olympic level because that's
what it takes. You really do shape your body around the sport. In a lot of ways that shapes your
mindset and shapes your identity and finding things outside of that when you've been so driven
and so pursuant on that one thing becomes extremely difficult because the last time you did it
was when you were so young. Oh, wait, why? Wait, what did I miss when you were so young?
Yeah, because you your focus point started at a young age. Oh, right. So it's been so long since
you last are the true. Yeah, like it's actually a tragedy because so many of those Olympic babies
are not going to make it. Not that they're going to die. They're just not going to make it into
the Olympics. I was like, Mark, what are you doing to the Olympic babies? I'm not doing anything to
the Olympic babies. They failed. They were weak. Pathetic. They couldn't cut the mustard. Pathetic.
I've really the phrase cut the mustard always just where does it come from? I don't even know what it
is. But the mustard origin. First accorded phrase is by O Henry in 1907 in a story called The Heart
to the West. I looked around and found a proposition that exactly cut the mustard. Well,
I didn't explain anything. The definition merely showed me an example and it said he couldn't
cut the mustard as a hockey player. That was that was the phrase in there. So it was already a
sports reference. Oh, possibly derived from the idiom to pass mustard, which is military troops
they muster the troops. I would understand that more that it was a misunderstanding of what it
actually was because I'd like to think that a lot of the phrases aren't like some clever thing.
It is literally someone was dumb and that dumbness was contagious. That makes so much more sense.
That's pretty accurate. I mean, I feel like that's a lot of memes really. Yeah. Cut the mustard
doesn't make any sense. It's just like when people say anyways, that's not grammatically correct,
but it is common. Yeah, you know, those kind of things. They're just like bastardizations of
the language. It's weak, pathetic. Couldn't cut the mustard. It doesn't sound right, but that is.
Yeah. I do it all the time. You know, my mispronunciations and everything else. I use words the
wrong way, but you say it confidently. They believe you. What about our tribe?
Anyway, that's going to do it for this episode. Thanks so much for listening. Go to store.gmfsd.com,
get some sports memorabilia and merch. You finger sports. Yes. You doing that will help keep us
from retiring. It's honestly kind of true, but also, yeah, support the podcast however you like,
and make sure and watch video exclusively on Spotify. Go check out Mark wherever you can find
Markiplier. He's everywhere. And then me and the small section of the internet that I
like. If you have an eye finger sports hat or foam finger or both, post a picture of it.
I want to see it. I want to see people with the eye finger sports stuff.
Mark, I actually have I have I have stuff here for you. Actually, I'm going to go get it right
now so some people can see. Oh, okay. If you have time, there's your.
All right. I'm here. I got you a matching shirt for your hat. Yay.
And a foam finger. Whoa. Thank you. I can't wait for people to post pictures on the subreddit.
Reddit dot com slash r slash gmfsd. Join us in the community to help dequeous Tyler and hold
him accountable for all his crimes. I have many crimes. Yes. He has a crime. All right. Bye.