17 July 2016, Palm Beach, Florida, USA
What is a legacy without a journey? What is a journey without a destination? What is a destination without a plan? Every last one of you must be (inaudible), but without a plan there is no journey. Without a plan there is no vision. Without proper (inaudible) there is no vision. Without reading not reading my bible every day there is no vision. Without praying every day there is no journey, there is no destination. It’s only one way you make it to the next level. You’ve got to put it all together. Everybody that’s sitting in this crowd with orange and black jerseys right now on I’m going to tell you the truth. You are at a disadvantage because now everything is distracting you.
When we grinded the only grind we wanted to feel was pure competition. Beat me and it aint in no video games brother. Y’all don’t need to be the most popular person on Twitter. I’ll tell you what, when you step in between those lines that’s what we’re letting go. That’s what we’re letting go. We’re letting go the essence of what the University of Miami was built by. It’s built by pure competition. One on one battles. Then I’ve got to share something with you.
No matter what level you ever go to in life forget how big the cameras. Forget how much the league makes. Every day of your life will be a one on one battle. And you know the scary part about it? It aint even about the next man. The one on one battle is with yourself. How much time are you really going to waste man? This program here taught me something that I will never forget in my life--that my identity is greater than my brand and it will never change because of my foundation of why I wanted to do what I did. Because I wanted to turn my mother’s tears into smiles. That’s why I aint never stopped. The game may stop, but who I am lives forever.
“I think the challenge that I’m asking you guys right now is let talent be what talent is, but man you’ve got to take talent to a whole ‘nother level. You know how many camps in the country that’s going on right now? So what makes you different? What makes someone point you out in the crowd? What makes your legacy live forever?
Do yourself a favor when you get home. Look up the definition of trailblazer and look up the definition of pathfinder because in today’s times we’ve got a lot of pathfinders. We’ve got a lot of followers. Everybody wants to follow, follow, follow, follow, follow. It’s amazing that social media can tell us something and we want to follow something before we respect you. Understand how valuable your brand is man. Everything that you put out there can now come back. That’s a fact. That’s where we are in life. Aint no more secrets. Aint no more getting away with nothin’ and so the only thing you can ever invest in is yourself. If I was going to bet on anything in my life I’m going to always bet on me.
But when I look into these kids’ eyes, when I look down I’m looking for something different. I don’t care how fast you run. I’ve never been the biggest, the fastest, the strongest, but I promise you aint a man flat out out-work me in my life because I made up my mind and it was bigger than just sports. I made up my mind to be in bible study every Wednesday night. I made up my mind to be in choir rehearsal every Saturday. I made up mind to lead Sunday school every Sunday. I made up my mind to go to the 4 o’clock service on Sundays. I made up my mind that I wanted my protection to be always over me and I wanted me to always be covered.
Then I went to the league and played 17 years and watched this revolving door of younger athletes and faster athletes and stronger athletes and I watched them walk right out the door. Simply because I figured out one thing. You may out-run me once, you may out-run me twice, you may even be stronger than me, but effort—the only reason I stayed around was because of effort. Every time the coach turned on the film there was something about 52 that started right here.
I’m only telling you about this program because this program is the foundation (inaudible). You can do whatever you want to do in life, but if the next level is the key, man we breed them. We breed them. That’s what we do. If you want a brotherhood then you come down here. It aint no sales pitch. One thing about is we don’t sell people to come to the ‘U.’ Either you’re for us or you’re not. This aint a one-time thing. This isn’t a if-I-want-to-go or I’m-not-sure-I-want-to-go. If you don’t, it’s alright. But if you do your life will change forever. Doors will open for you that you aint never seen in your life open.
I’m asking a different fight now. I’m asking a fight that men take back who we are. I’m asking young men to go back and understand what say ‘yes ma’am’ and ‘no ma’am’ and what ‘yes sir’ and ‘no sir’ still mean. I’m telling men to pull up your pants. Pull them up and put them around your waist. I’m telling you to walk with integrity. Keep your chin high. That’s what a man does and a young man follows in a man’s path. It’s time to switch it now.
All of the fast running out here, what happens when you go home? I promise you my greatest ability was not in front of a coach. It’s what I did on my own. That’s what my greatest gift was. When nobody was watching you that’s what I believe true discipline is. I believe discipline, true discipline, is when nobody is watching that you can make yourself. Challenge yourself. Do it for yourselves. Don’t look for somebody to praise you. Don’t look for videos to be the top ones. You know who you want to praise you? Every time they look up they will say something about you, something about you, and then they’ve go to tell the truth about you.
My second year in the league I made my decision on one thing, I said I wanted to be the greatest ever to do it. I said I wanted to be talked about at Thanksgiving dinner when people are sitting around the table and they talked about the greatest who ever came through--I wanted to be that guy. I started push-ups at 10 years old to make sure no man would put his hands on my mom again. I just got through with 2,500 this morning. It don’t stop. Just because the game stops, it don’t stop.
Let me talk these leaders real quick. Let’s be men. Let’s lead young men that respects women, that respects their mothers, that respects the order. That’s what we breed. What coach (Mark) Richt has brought to this program and what he’s trying to bring back to this program is what we’re built on and that’s family. If I spread my fingers out individually (inaudible), but if I close my fist that’s a hell of a punch because they’re all working together. Make your decision. Figure out where you want to be. But if you’re wanting to do something really. If you really trying to go to the next level this is it. This is where you buckle down. This is where I started from. This is what I’ll never forget.
Take this for the rest of your life. It’s never what you do that will haunt you. It’s what you don’t do that will haunt you. It’s never what you do. It’s never how many catches you catch. It’s how many times you fall on your face, but I still find my way back. It aint about the fall. It’s about the get up, and again, and again, and again, and again. And keep getting up. Because when you’re really destined to be great there’s a lot of people that don’t want to see that. That’s why my haters became my greatest motivators. I love my haters because they kept getting me up every day. What you did today was just a start. You guys have to go back and finish something.
Some of you guys have made up your mind that you’re going to do whatever you’re going to do, but I’m trying to explain to you is if you come here, we’re built to build men, that we’re built to build character. It was a built to build integrity. That’s what we breed. Hurricanes are for life. That’s why we say, ‘It’s all about the ‘U,’ because realistically it’s really all about you and what you want to do. Don’t waste no more. Write down everything even if you don’t think you need to write it down. I’m 41 years old and I still write down everything I eat to this day. In 23 years I haven’t eaten pork or beef, 23 years because I said I wanted to be the greatest. I don’t drink soda. I don’t eat after 8 o’clock. I drink two gallons of water every day. You think I like it? No I hated every day of training, but if it meant to lift my life as a champion the rest of my life I’d do it all over again.
Every man here has an opportunity. Every parent here did one thing. They brought you because they believe in you. Now it’s up to you to believe in yourself. That’s where the ‘U’ comes in. It’s all about the ‘U’. Thank you.