B Scar TV Podcast
Hi-Quality conversations with your favorite athletes, entertainers, thought leaders, and cultural tastemakers - hosted by NFL Linebacker Brennan Scarlett.
B Scar TV Podcast
STORYTIME: Navigating Injuries as an Undrafted Free-Agent | Hi-Quality Quickie
Every undrafted NFL hopeful knows the path is anything but conventional, and today, I lay bare my soul as I recount the tumultuous journey from Stanford's academic rigors to the unpredictable waters of professional football. As an undrafted free agent, the odds were stacked against me, but with mentors like Coach O'Brien and Coach Vrabel in my corner, I learned the true essence of grit and the power of seizing fleeting opportunities. My narrative unfolds - a testament to the resilience required to not only chase but to catch a dream that dangles just out of reach, reminding us all that the most profound victories often come after our hardest falls.
Amidst it all, witness how the B Scar TV Podcast became my haven, proving that even when life sidelines you, there's always a way to stay in the game.
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’Til next time... Peace ✌️
There was no chance I was gonna be able to go in the next day in practice, much less do the conditioning test as a young guy who's just coming in and feeling like I got something to prove and just have been unable to prove it. It was wearing on me, man, and it was a really stressful time. If you come back to training camp and you don't pass this conditioning test, if you're a rookie, you could kiss your dreams goodbye. It was a sickening feeling because I was this close to my dream. This is a high-high-quality quickie. Yeah, yeah, I Beescar TV and we are back with another episode of Beescar TV. In OO way, do we have a special one for you today? Beescar TV on your FM dial. Let me hear it from nose in the back, hey. Let me hear it from nose on the left, on the right. Let me get a, hey, let me get a hold. Appreciate y'all coming back and tuning in. Man, it is 2024. This is the first film sesh, high-quality content pursuit of the year, and I want to get started just by thanking all of you guys for tuning in. Whether you're a Beescar TV OG or you just started tuning in and you're a recent subscriber, you're a recent listener, downloader. Man, I appreciate all of you guys. 2023 was an incredible year for Beescar TV, a year of a lot of growth, of a lot of really just leaning into the craft, some high-quality conversations. You know what the deal is. 2024 will bring more of that. To get started, man, I got a story for y'all and it's actually a story of one of the toughest times of my life. I'm talking the rest of it, but first I got to bring it back. I got to take it back and you know what? Actually, because we have so many new subscribers, so many new high-quality content pursuers, I think maybe it makes sense just to give a brief introduction of who I am, where I come from.
Speaker 1:My name is Brennan Scarlett. I'm a creative entrepreneur, I'm a philanthropist, I'm an investor, an NFL football player, and I'm born and raised in Portland, oregon. Went to Berkeley for four years, played some football with the Golden Bears. I went to Stanford. I got my master's degree at Stanford, played a year of ball there, won a lot of football games, became a solid football player in that year with the Cardinal, won a Pac-12 championship RIP to the Pac-12, won a Rose Bowl Left. Stanford went to Houston. Played with the Texans for five seasons, then played with the Miami Dolphins for two seasons and this year this 2023-2024 season been a free agent the whole way through, haven't touched the football field and played real football. I haven't strapped on the pads all year, but I've trained, I've stayed in shape, so it's been a wild one.
Speaker 1:For this story that I got, for y'all, I'm gonna take it way back, way back to my rookie year in Houston and, to give you guys a backstory, I was an undrafted free agent. So coming out of Stanford, coming out of that Rose Bowl year, I wasn't the highest, most highly touted prospect coming out of college and coming into the draft. And so, if you don't know, there's seven rounds of the draft. Essentially, the teams all 32 teams line up for seven rounds and choose guys out of college that they want to bring in and have a part of their organization, a part of their squad, and so the first round guys are the most highly touted of the whole pool. And then, all the way down through the seventh round and the last pick of the draft is actually called Mr Irrelevant, which was actually Brock Purdy was been balling. To give you a to kind of paint the picture what the draft is. It's basically who you want the most to who you want the least, and then everybody after that is just kind of bodies, they're just, they're just filling in. They were the leftovers, you know what I mean. There's a guy stashed in the fridge for the next day when you maybe you need a snack or something, and so that's what I was, that's what I was coming out of, coming out of Stanford.
Speaker 1:So I didn't go to the combine. I didn't have agents reaching out to me competing for my, for my representation. I actually had to to reach out to agents and call them to get them to represent me. I didn't go to any all star games, but I had an opportunity. After the draft, the Houston Texans told me that you know, I'd have a chance to compete, that I could come in, I could come into Houston and and they had a principle, philosophy that the best players will play. Doesn't matter where guys were drafted, the best players will play. And they had a history. Coach, ob coach O'Brien had a history of playing undrafted guys and Mike Vrable was a lineback coach at the time Told me that I had a shot, had a real shot, and I just, you know if I balled. I had a, I had a chance, so that, okay bet, I showed up to rookie mini camp, which is the first kind of like touch point with teams. I did well at rookie mini camp.
Speaker 1:It was interesting because I was still in school. At Stanford I was still pursuing my master's degree and I was lucky enough that coach O'Brien he's a he's an Ivy League guy went to Brown, respects the Visuality of of players and and what I was trying to pursue. So he was like you know, you can go back and finish your degree, no harm, no foul, and I was. He was also supported by coach Rable who, when I went back to school, I was calling back and forth and hollering at ribs about the playbook and I was watching film and I was staying Brushed up while I was taking classes so I could finish and the whole plan was that I would come out After school. It basically finished up more or less. I'd come back to OTA's, which is the offseason practices, and I would finish the last two weeks of OTA's and I'd catch better a mini camp in early, early June. Yes, so plan you know, went all according to plan show back up to Houston for OTA's and Did my thing, man, I was doing my thing. I was.
Speaker 1:I wasn't getting many reps, I remember, because, like you know, when you're under after free agent, you're immediately your third string, four string type guy. So I was getting a Real competitive reps at practice was probably getting like six reps a day, basically like two blocks of three plays in the team Periods, and so my whole thing was, once I kind of caught the rhythm, I'm like, okay, I see how this is going. It was like One, make zero mistakes and then, number two, just make one play a day. One play a day, we'll keep the green reaper away, and Whether it was rushing the passer was a setting, a good edge. Well, let's get my hand on a ball getting a pick, whatever it was. It was like if I can make one play out of the six plays that I got On the deck, then I'll be solid. And I pretty much did that.
Speaker 1:And veteran mini camp came and went and everything went fine. So I left camp feeling good. I graduated from Stanford, everything worked out. It was a copa, static, copa, static, shangri-la, shangri-la. Everything was good. This work is messy.
Speaker 1:I went back home to Portland. We essentially we have six weeks between veteran mini camp and then training camp. And training camp is essentially you show up, you begin practices, real practices, you get padded up and then that bridges into the into the regular season and then so essentially, from training camp on, you're there. If you make the team, you're there for five, six months, whatever it is, but you have a little six week window, I, where you can do whatever you want. So for me I'm like shit man, I'm pursuing my dream, I'm this close. So I'm coming back to Portland with one thing on my mind let's get right, let's get, let's go, let's go. So I was training, I was training my ass off. I was running double days, I was running triple days. I was wake up in the morning, get a lift, come back home, chill, go get some field work, come back home, go out to Vancouver train with my guy Ryan Paul Out there was. I was all over the place. Man, I had no structure. I was just a kid that was just just chasing the dream.
Speaker 1:Before I left, veteran minicam, the strength coach, coach Fitts. Coach Fitts is a nut, funny deal, cool dude, but he's a nut, you know he was. He gave the whole team, gave us, a preview of what the conditioning test is I was going to be, we'd come back for training camp and he he gassed it. It's like you know, if you come back to training camp and you don't pass this conditioning test, if you're a rookie you could kiss your dreams goodbye. You have no shot If you're undrafted rookie, I don't know why you even here. If you came past conditioning test.
Speaker 1:So he gave it, laid it out for us, I think, for for my position group the test was 20, 50 yard sprints, each under six seconds. Then you had like a 40 second rest or something like that, and then in between you had basically blocks of 10 and then in between maybe have had a two minute, like half time, and so for me, like conditions, never been an issue. I've always been a pretty fit guy. My dad ran tracks, so I've always been running, I like running, I enjoy it. So it wasn't really it wasn't tripping off of it, but it was in the back of my mind. So if there's one thing I do over this break is get right for this condo test. You know I'm a past this.
Speaker 1:So as we're getting towards the end of my six weeks back home and I'm grinding whatever, I'm starting to do some dry runs of the conditioning test and I'll never forget it. It was a day we maybe had. We were like a week out from training camp, from report day. We're like a week out and me and my pops pull up to Roosevelt High School in North Portland my neighborhood school and I get all warmed up and you know, like I said, being grind recovery rest days, what is that? Not touching those, not touching those.
Speaker 1:We show up to Roosevelt, I get all warmed up, I start going through the conditioning test. You know, I got the stopwatch in my hand. I'm making sure I'm well under six, six seconds. So I'm busting through there. So for six seconds, 50 yards, like for a guy like me, that's. I'm just not a full sprint, but I'm probably 85, 90% going. So I'm going. We get to wrap 17, 18, something like that. I get off the line.
Speaker 1:I'm fatigued at this point, like I'm getting towards the end. Monkeys on the back a little bit. I'm, I'm trying to, just I'm strength, this straight willpower hamstring. Feel a little grab in my hand. If you've had a hand before, you know that feeling. It's unmistakable feeling of when that hand just grabs your ass, especially those right in the belly of it too. I know exactly what it was. I fell to the turf, but on my knees, and you know it wasn't like a pool where, like yeah, I couldn't walk but it was enough for I was like I sat down on the turf and I was filling it out. Pops came over and said what's going on? I got fell something on my hand. I think I fit my hand ago. I said dang, it was ugly. It was ugly. I was stressed, it was distraught.
Speaker 1:We got a week to report to training camp. I'm an undrafted rookie and potentially enough to show up to training camp With a hurt hamstring it was. It was a sickening feeling because I was this close to my dream of playing in NFL. It was this close. Everything leading up to this point Rose Bowl, undrafted rookie mini camp, ota's veteran mini camp everything's just been clicking. It's been clicking. Then this happens. So, man, for the rest of the week I'm icing up on heat pack and I'm contrasting. I'm giving everything I got. It's getting rubbed on on the daily everything I got.
Speaker 1:I show up to Houston flying in, get picked up, go to the hotel, check into the hotel, put my bags in my room and immediately find a public field. This is. You know, this is only my second time in Houston. So I'm, you know, I'm catching a Uber to I don't know where, wherever this public field is, I'm just hoping that a gate is unlocked because I had to get on the field and see if I could go. You know, it'd been a week since I really had moved around.
Speaker 1:So I show up to the field, you know I ease into things. Put on my cleats, ease into things I'm skipping, I'm kind of jogging them around, testing it out Because, again, I haven't moved really since I got injured. Do my first couple low, keep them low, the knees low. Then I start progressing into it and you know, I hit that back leg. Drive it through, huh, bring it over. My shit grabbed me bad. I said, ooh goodness, there was no chance I was gonna be able to go in the next day. In practice, much less do the conditioning test.
Speaker 1:So I get back to the hotel and one of the most stressful times of my life. And, just remembering, I called my agent and told him where I was at. It's like, hey, man, hamstrings, messed up. I don't think I can go tomorrow. There's no shot. He's like you sure, you sure? Nah, yeah, it's bad.
Speaker 1:He said all right, well, you gotta stay, we gotta get you healthy. You know we gotta stay healthy. So call your coach, let him know, be straight up. It's like all right, talk on my dad. Call pops. It's like hey, hamstrings is still hurting. And he's asking me too. So I get, let's see how it feels. It's nine. I tell him he's like all right, well, you know what is what it is. Give your coach a call, you know. Tell him what's going on. You know we're here now. It's like all right, and I call coach Vrable. Into him. Vrable's a coach. My hamstring is messing with me.
Speaker 1:And I remember it being a relieving conversation because immediately he shifts he's like OK, got it. Well, the number one priority is for you to get healthy and get on the field so you can perform. Let's get you healthy. And when he said that he was like you know, come into the training room tomorrow and give the trainer a call, send him to your number, give the trainer a call, we'll figure it out. And then I gave the trainer, gave Cap, a call. And yeah, we come in next morning 6 am and get started with my treatment. But what now is on my mind is like you got to get healthy so you can perform Like. We're looking forward now and I was, you know, that phone call kind of gave me the permission almost gave me permission to like let's look forward, man, forget the other stuff, let's get right, show up to treatment first. You know, really, three weeks training camp, it was all treatment.
Speaker 1:It's a tough place to be man. It's a tough place to be. For anybody who has played in the NFL, you know that being hurt is one of the worst things. To be in the locker room, in the meeting room, on a practice field, whatever they say, you can't make the club in the tub. Dependability is availability. There's all these phrases and taglines and they're written all around the building.
Speaker 1:Being an undrafted free agent and immediately coming into training camp, starting off in the tub, didn't even touch the field, didn't even put on pads before I'm hurt, it's a bad feeling, bad luck. I'm going through, you know, doing my treatment, and I'm out of practice. Just on the sideline. Maybe I'm doing a little bit of running or strength stuff, but I'm mostly just watching. No pads on. And Houston in July, August, crazy hot, you got pads on. It's a grind. It's an absolute grinding. We practice outside most of the time, and so I'm on the sideline.
Speaker 1:I'm a rookie, haven't, you know, have no pelts on the wall, done no work? And I'm watching veterans put in some hard work and I'm starting to feel like I felt like I was being perceived as being soft, you know. And a couple dudes were like yo bro, get back. You know what I mean. They were like I could tell, like guys sick of me watching. You know, they didn't know what I could do, they had no respect for you know who I was, what I did, I wasn't proving anything. And then also the coaches, too. It's like, you know, they walking through the training room and they see me laid up and just look like a kid that's taking advantage of the moment and just being there. And you know, and these are also just like things in my mind, these stressors that I'm thinking like I don't like how people are perceiving me, or I'm thinking that they're perceiving me a certain way, which some of that was probably true, but also some of that is like being hurt is part of the game and you know, these coaches have seen many players hurt, these players have seen many teammates hurt, et cetera, and it's just a part of it.
Speaker 1:But as a young guy who's just coming in and feeling like I got something to prove and just have been unable to prove it, it was wearing on me, man, and it was a really stressful time. It was really hard for me. I remember one ride in the elevator at the team hotel asked me like hey, how's your hamstring feeling, man? How are you feeling? Like you think you gonna be able to get back soon. I'm like yeah, you know there's a few people on there and I'm like yeah, man, I hope so. Like I'm feeling it's feeling good, like I think I'm gonna be able to get back soon, and like it's like, man, this shit sucks, like I hate it. And you know, I kind of just expressed like stress. So I was feeling and there was a cat on it on that elevator with me. I'll never forget it.
Speaker 1:His name was Lonnie Ballantyne. He's my guy, lonnie. He's a good dude. We got to know each other after a couple of years this is the first time I really spoken to him and he had dealt with some injuries himself through his career. He looked at me and he was like amen, like he's like, do what's best for you. He said fuck all this shit these coaches talking about. Fuck all these other guys talking about. Do what's best for you, you know, cause this is a business and you got to be able to perform. If you're hurt you can't perform, so get right, man. I remember it, put me at ease. It gave me this insight, cause what his point is is like if I were to come back and I re-injured my hamstring, done right there on the spot, probably would have settled give him an injury service three weeks and I'm done. If I were to come back and performed half ass not been my full self cut done, you know, career probably not over, but my time in Houston over. All that matters is when you come back and touch the field. If you ball, then people forget about this time.
Speaker 1:The next conversation that I had as I was getting closer, just to add a little bit of stress on top of it, I was going into the team meeting room and we're getting ready for a squad meeting. Before every squad meeting, coach O'Brien, head coach, you'd be sitting next to the front door to the entrance to the meeting room. He'd be leaning up on the garbage can. Coach OB is an intimidating guy, especially as a rookie After a bad game. You don't want to see his eyes walking in that team meeting room. So for me, you know a guy that's been hurt I ain't shown nothing walking in. You know I'm trying to put the hood on. You know, not make eye contact. But he catches me one day and he calls me up and he's like Scarlett, come here. So I walk over to him.
Speaker 1:How are you feeling you coming along? When do you think you're going to be back, coach? I'm feeling good. I think I'll be able to come back soon. Come back soon. He said well, good, the only reason that you're here kind of showed us something in OTAs and minicamp. You showed us something. We got to see it. I'm standing there shook. Yes, coach, I'll be back soon. Head coach, now it's discussion. Like I got to get back out there, you know, and I'm doing all I can right, but again, I'm waiting. I want to make sure my shit's good. So what happens is first preseason game comes and goes. I'm not even participating in that, wasn't quite ready.
Speaker 1:Going into the second week of the preseason games, I get out to practice. We got the Saints. They come to town practice against the Saints. Have some good practices. I'm getting my feet up underneath me. Minimal mental mistakes. Really no like crazy lapses. Get into the game against the Saints, have a decent game. You know it's okay Play a quarter or two. You know don't play a ton, but I get some. I get some snaps.
Speaker 1:Preseason game number three rolls around. We got the Cardinals coming to town and at that time I was starting to get my legs up underneath me. My timing was right, you know I had gotten through that week with the Saints and I felt it out. And then Cardinal week every practice a little better, a little better. Now I'm making I'm making, you know, very minimal mistakes out there. I'm physical, you know I got a little bit of fresh legs Cause I missed the first three weeks. So a little bit of fresh legs, legs a little bit fresher than other guys. Get out into that preseason game against the Arizona Cardinals and absolutely ball the fuck out. Go stupid, play out of my mind. Sack fumbles, got multiple sacks, special teams tackle, set in edges, tfls Arguably the best game I've played in my career. I solidified my spot on the team with that game. Just remember the emotions of how good I felt, man.
Speaker 1:Whether I made that team or not, it was just that performance for me, coming out of such an adverse year, an adverse training camp, with the injury and all the stress, and it was a bumpy road man. And then I played in that game and you don't got a ton of time to celebrate because you got practice in a couple of days, still in under after rookie, like there's nothing, there's not pre-season games, nothing to hang your hat on. That was really what set the stage for the rest of my career. That's what you know. That performance allowed me then to, you know, roll into the last pre-season game and I played well but played minimal snaps because it was like it was locked in at that point that I was gonna be on the team. And then you know I played my five years in Houston and that you know that game set the stage. Pre-season game number three.
Speaker 1:As I look at 2023, my own personal experience throughout this year I almost equated a little bit to my little hamstring strain of the 2016 training camp. 2023 has been a year filled with uncertainty, filled with ups and downs and the roller coaster of not knowing if somebody's gonna bring me in for a job, not knowing if my training is gonna pay off and be able to, you know, turn into the outcome, which was is to play on a team. This season, this Beast Guard TV podcast has really been a saving grace for me. This has been what I've poured the energy, my passion, the crafting, the dedication. You know, this is what I've poured myself into without having football.
Speaker 1:I've thought a lot about what Beast Guard TV is, what we exist for, what this space and these conversations actually do. What are we actually doing? What is our purpose? And for me, it's all about serving inspiration. Every conversation that I have selfishly, man, I have because with these folks that like, inspired a hell out of me and how I live my life and how I go out, go about my daily habits and chase my goals, and whether I'm talking to a starting quarterback, a film director, whether I'm talking to a venture capital investor, whether we're talking to an NFL, an NBA Point Guard, it doesn't matter, man, I pull inspiration from all of these folks that I'm having conversations with and that is what is the through line, right, it's the inspiration for lifestyle innovation through high quality conversation. And that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1:And I had a friend, my guy, my former teammate actually. We were in Houston together. He shared with me one time. His name's Brian Peters. We were talking about reading and books and I think I shared with him like sometimes I'm reading a boring book, I just wanna put it down and move on, or feel like sometimes I'm not getting a lot from the books that I'm reading If I don't really like it. His point to me was if a book ends up changing any pattern of your behavior, shifts your perspective or enhances your mindset even just a little bit it could just be the minutia of some daily habit, the minutia of some approach or philosophy of how you think about going through your life Then that book was worthwhile, the time that you spent reading that book was worthwhile. I take that the fundamental and kind of the sentiment and apply it to these conversations and also apply it to the audience too. Like if we can have a conversation and a listener or a viewer can pull something from it, something from the conversation that helps to inform the way that they go about their life moving forward, then BeastGuard TV podcast has done its job and that's what it's all about for me.
Speaker 1:I wanna thank you all, whether you're OG BeastGuard TV pod you've been here since the vlogs or the player reporter back in the day or if you're a new subscriber. We've got a lot of new subscribers over the last couple of months. It's been good for the squad. The squad's been doing well. Whichever bucket that you fall into, I gotta say thank you. Y'all are my Lonnie Ballantyne's BeastGuard TV. We're gonna continue to push through 2024. Season two is still going. We gonna keep pushing.
Speaker 1:I hope that you all continue to listen. I hope that you all subscribe and give us some constructive criticism. Let us know how can we get better. Who can we talk to? What can we talk about? I'll leave you all with that man. That's my little story time for this high quality cookie. And again, as always, talk to us, man. We're on the pursuit of high quality content. You know what it is. It's an endless pursuit. I'll talk to you all next time. Peace. This episode of BeastGuard TV has been brought to you by Scarlet Creative. For the full length video episode and more content, find us on Instagram, youtube and TikTok at BeastGuardTV, and please leave us a review. Drop a comment. What do you wanna see? What do you wanna hear? Who do you wanna hear from? We would love to hear from you. This is your host, with the most, brennan Scarlet signing off Peace. Oh, so what's you feel? And I".