Daryn Colledge: [00:00:00] that's, that's that 30 seconds that we just talked about, right? The play did not go my way. It wasn't the way I thought it was gonna go, right?
I'm a former professional athlete. I've been to war. I've been back. I've done all these things. I've lived a healthy life. I, I roll, I eat right, I run. I'm as healthy as a horse. I don't get colds. And all of a sudden, um, he says the word cancer, and I'm like, "Hey, that's not what I thought you were gonna say, and not what I expected."
I was expecting a pulled glute and a little bit of liquid, and you're telling me that I have a cancerous tumor. So it was definitely one of those moments that, like, everything kind of changed, um, kind of put in perspective.
[00:01:00]
Riley: Today, I got my friend Daryn College on here. Daryn and I met on the jujitsu mats and, I, I invited him on here today 'cause he's got a fascinating life story. He, he played for the NFL. He was, uh, just a world-class level NFL player, and he, uh, also has some really interesting life after that, that I wanna talk about.
So Daryn, my friend, welcome to the show.
Daryn Colledge: Well, thanks, Riley. I, uh, I feel like I've got, like, a lot to live up to now. It's like I'll-- people are gonna be like, "Well, that was interesting," or they're gonna be like, "That wasn't that interesting. Uh, next."
Riley: Oh, I love it, man. I love it. You've done some things in life that most people only dream of, and I, I, uh, yeah, I'm excited to talk about it here. But
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, sure.
Riley: are, where you grew up, what life was like as a kid.
Daryn Colledge: Oh, man, you've already covered the basics. I'm Darren College, but, uh, I'm, uh, originally from Alaska. Uh, grew up in, uh... Born in Fairbanks, um, [00:02:00] raised kind of in North Pole, but also raised up and down the West Coast. Father's work took us to California, mom's work took us to Washington. Mom's work took us back to Alaska, and was there for middle school and high school, and most of the, the formative years.
Uh, was fortunate enough to, to depart from there. Moved to Idaho, uh, to play football at Boise State. They were kind enough to pay for my school, the one way I was gonna get, uh, actual school paid for that wasn't the military route. Um, didn't have a, you know, there was no trust fund waiting for me. There was no college fund.
You know, blue-collar family all the way. Um, first man in my family to actually, uh, leave and go get a college degree. Um, and then was again fortunate enough after that to have about a nine-year NFL career. Followed by that, did the military thing for about eight years. Um, after that, did a short stint with BSU.
After that, now I'm a, I'm a restaurateur, uh, and hospitality guy, so working in the, uh, in that space as we go. So, and it's just the next chapter, I guess.
Riley: Shoot, man, that's a, that's a summary of a lot of stuff going on there. So tell me [00:03:00] this, so I confess to you beforehand
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: I do not know football,
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: I, I played for one month in seventh grade, and stuck me out on the line and he said- hit the guy in front of you. And that was all the instruction and coaching I ever got.
And so
there was no point
Daryn Colledge: same with me.
Riley: I quit. So I just never... After that point, I just kinda was like, "I'm gonna go play something I know, know what is going on," you know? And
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: um, so as you're growing up, did you, did you play football a kid?
Daryn Colledge: No, not really.
Riley: you start?
Daryn Colledge: so I, you know, I'm, I'm, again, I'm from a small town. I grew up like most kids playing soccer and, and baseball and doing all those kind of things through my youth. Um, and, and funny enough, I'm actually, I was a much better baseball player than I was a football player. Um, but when you go to a small town school and you're a sports kid, you kind of end up playing every sport, you know?
It wasn't, you know, you know, back when you and I were kids, you know, the, the, the club sports scene didn't really exist like it does now. Kids weren't as specialized. You know, we played
Riley: [00:04:00] Right.
Daryn Colledge: around, you played basketball. You know, football was around. It was that, and it was track and field and wrestling and, and as such.
As, and I got into high school, I started to play more and more sports. Found out, like it was, you know, my parents kind of had the rule, um, if I wasn't playing, I was working, and I found out if I just played more, I didn't have to work as much, and I got, you know, things were a little more taken care of. And I loved sports, and I loved my buddies, and I loved hanging out.
Um, oddly enough, I played football as a freshman. Same as you, I kind of got into camp and then, uh, I had a little bit of a knee injury. Nothing, nothing too serious, but it was gonna threaten kind of, uh, baseball, and the doc was like, "Hey, man, like, you know, you do this and something goes wrong, it's gonna be baseball."
And, you know, baseball, like I said, was my primary sport, so I dropped out of it my freshman year and only came back into football my senior year, um, because I was dating one of the cheerleaders and found out that, you know, we got to, you know, do some road trips together, and I had a couple buddies playing.
They're like, you know, and it's high school, and it's North Pole, Alaska. There's, you know, there's 15 people live in the whole town. So it's one of those things where it's like, you know, you go out and you play. And loved it, and had a coach that believed in me, [00:05:00] um, saw an opportunity for me and was like, "Hey, man, I think we can get school paid for."
Because at that point I had a couple baseball scholarship offers, but they weren't 100%. I was looking across the street at the military base on what it would look like to go to the military and, and, you know, go that route and go get my education 'cause I knew I wanted to go get a college degree and was looking for pathways to, uh, to do that, not because I wanted to leave North Pole as much as I just wanted that opportunity to go out and, you know, succeed and, and, uh, get a degree.
My mom had kind of instilled that, uh, that value in me. And football ended up being that route, and it ended up just being a thing that the reason I chose football over all of them was because, you know, Boise State was kind enough to, to give me a full scholarship, and that's what I needed. I needed somebody who could pay for it all.
And I was like, "Well, this is my newest sport. It'll be the most exciting. It's the most fun. Don't embarrass the family, don't embarrass the state, and go out and try hard."
Riley: It's interesting, man, 'cause that's kind of a late start for most people, I imagine. If you
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: your teammates, they probably would've said different, right?
Daryn Colledge: I think that you can make the argument it's, it's [00:06:00] not a late start when it comes to athleticism, right? Like, I played lots of sports. I played basketball, I wrestled, I was on the track and field team. You know, I had hand-eye coordination. I knew how to box people out in, in basketball. You know, what college athletics is and what all athletics are, and you know this from being on the mats, is a lot of it comes down to athleticism Is what the guys need.
And then after that, it comes down to technique, right? And you can overcome some athleticism with technique. Guys that are really, really good that are technicians can overcome the athleticism. But most guys, especially in sports like, you know, e- e- even more football than y- I would say jujitsu, it's one of those things where, like, athleticism can't ever be taught, but the technique of the game can be.
And what they saw in me was they saw a, you know, arguably a piece of clay that they could work with and say, "Hey, he had the athleticism that we need. We can train him to do the other things." And actually talking to my coaches about it a later date, 'cause I, you know, I've obviously talked about it, and like I say, "You guys really took a chance."
You know, they saw somebody that didn't have all the bad habits of maybe somebody that had played for a long time, that had learned from different coaches. They felt like they had [00:07:00] something really, really raw that they could use to learn. And the position I was coming into as a defensive end when I got to college, I was really, really talented at and was an athletic position.
You know, it was just be powerful, be strong, be faster than the other guy across from you. Learning to be a technician as an offensive lineman was a much different thing, but they saw that after I got there. They were like, "Oh, hey, we can actually do something even different than we had planned for him."
And I tell most people and I tell most parents, you know, when they ask me about their kids playing sports, like, you know, "Should we be specializing?" I really, really don't think kids should be specializing at this point. I think kids should be learning a little bit of everything, trying to do everything, and athletes will rise to the top.
College coaches will find the athletes, whatever sport they're playing, and your kid may not be the best on their team at what they're doing, but they may show the signs of what is to come and how they develop. I feel like right now we're putting kids in a real, real tough position with the amount of club sports we play, and I've got one.
I've got a daughter who plays volleyball year-round. You know, she's a specialist at her sport, and it's one of those things where it's like I feel like some [00:08:00] of that is getting, uh, some of that's getting cheated. I feel like some of these parents are also getting cheated along the way because the amount of money they're spending to put these kids through club sports.
But it's a tough, it's a tough market out there right now. I think sports is really, really evolving. That's a, that's a, that's a vein we could go down probably a long way.
Riley: that is an interesting thing, Matt, 'cause you talk about the amount of time, the amount of money that
parents spend on this thing, and a lot of times I feel like it's in a, it's in a place where it's almost like there's some false hopes. There's so much competition going on there that it's... N-not all kids are cut out for that life of sports, you know?
And I think one of the things that you of alluded to that I think is overlooked is that the resentment a kid that's pushed too hard early on can start to feel.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, I think there can be a real, real burnout, right? Like, I made a lot of choices based on my sports on what I had time for, what I wanted to do, and what my family could afford, you know? And back when [00:09:00] I played- You know, through high school and, and stuff like that, it was one of those things where like it was like, you know, forty bucks for a set of cleats or glove and, you know, or a hundred dollars to play on the, the high school team for pads or whatever it might be.
And now, you know, you, you look at youth sports, you look at club sports, and people are spending five, ten, fifteen, twenty thousand dollars a year. Kids are traveling, you know, to Florida on twelve U soccer teams or, or they're every weekend they're in Salt Lake. And, and I'm trying to explain to parents that, um, there's no more NFL teams, uh, than there was when I started playing football.
Uh, most universities are cutting back on some athletics and other athletics are growing. Um, most kids can be scouted within, uh, middle school and the beginning of high school to tell you if they're gonna be, you know, at the level to play. And we're selling these parents on thousand-dollar camps, multi, you know, multi-thousand dollar travel trips, um, specialized gear and training all for the idea that they're gonna get a college scholarship that's gonna be paid for that you've already paid for twice [00:10:00] over anyways.
And I think that that's a really, really hard thing. I think there's a lot of pressure on parents. I think there's a lot of pressure on kids. I think that parents feel like they need to do that to support their kids or give their kids opportunity, but also then the kids feel like they've got a certain commitment.
And then I think there's an embitterment between the two of them too when it comes to like, "Am I literally watching the same team I just watched last year play? We haven't gotten any better, but I'm, I'm now fifteen thousand dollars more in the hole than I was before." And I read a really interesting book called, um, Taking Back the Game that's really talked about the evolution of, uh, youth sports over the last decade and how it's turned into a multi-billion dollar, uh, money-making apparatus.
You know, we're talking about these club collections, these, these, these coaching empires, these, these club teams that have, you know, twelve different teams under the same age group and all this kind of stuff. And we feel like if our kids aren't involved in that, then we're somehow cheating them, um, or they're not-- or they're gonna miss their opportunity when, I mean, the idea behind team sports originally was just the idea of learning to win and lose as a [00:11:00] group of people, how to handle that, how to, how to deal with those emotions, and it keeps growing.
I get it, man. Money's changing all that. NIL's changing all that. NIL in the high school level is, is changing that. And, uh, I don't think always for the, uh, as somebody who's been through it, I don't think it's probably for the better.
Riley: When you say NIL, man, define that. I only became familiar with that after I
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: electrolyte company
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, exactly. So obviously name, image, likeness, um, was a huge, a huge thing, uh, in college. You know, really, really became something in college. And when I played college athletics, you owned none of your name, image, and likeness. You, you signed with a team. You were lucky enough to have a scholarship.
They could sell your jersey, your name, your likeness, your picture. I used to have bobblehead dolls of me. If anybody's been around town long enough, we were the original bobblehead dolls here in town that were at the Jackson's gas stations. And I walked in there one day, and they were selling them for like, you know, you bought a Coke, and you got one of those for five bucks, and people collected them.
I think there was like six of them in the first run. And I remember walking across the [00:12:00] Jackson's because I just got done with a practice or a workout, didn't really matter. And I think I had about eight dollars to my name, and I was heading over there to get a soda or something with my little bit of spending money.
And I walked in the door, and I saw my actual picture, this brief down-- this brief bio of me, and all this kind of stuff. And I'm like, "Okay, this is a lot different than just selling a jersey with no name on the back, and like everybody knows it's for you, or like a Kellen Moore or something like that." But like to have my actual name, image, and likeness on something, and to have profitability on that, and I get none of that.
So the system started obviously in one of those places where it felt like players were marginalized. And over enough time, uh, the NCAA, uh, sort of like the banks, thought they were too big to fail, um, told everybody just be happy with what they got. Eventually, the legal system, somebody finally fought the fight that was big enough, and courts overturned, and now it's a cascading effect.
Um, the pendulum has definitely swung to the complete opposite side, which I think is n-not right either. Obviously, the-- we want to be somewhere in the middle where... And now you see it starting to push down [00:13:00] into the high school sports, and you're starting to see kids sign, you know, multi-million dollar deals in high school, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars in high school, free cars, um, to get these kids to go to bigger schools.
Um, and what effect that's gonna have on smaller tier sports, what effect that's gonna have on Title IX and women's athletics, um, university athletics in general, the ability for college football to step away from the NCAA, which will absolutely decimate college sports and Title IX in general. Um, I think that we are at the, uh-- It's gonna be a really, really interesting next five years, and I think it could get really, really bad, um, especially on the women's, uh, women's sports side, and especially on the smaller men's sports sides.
You look at wrestling programs, you look at, you know, even track and field and swimming, the Olympic sports sides. I think that we've got, um, we've got some unnavigatable terrain in front of us. Uh, so there's a lot of people sitting in a corner rah-rah-ing it and being like, yep, they're, they're really excited about their team and, you know, like Tennessee [00:14:00] and, and Texas spending a hundred million dollars on NIL, and they're like, "That's my squad.
I get it." Um, but when they look over at their daughter who will never, ever have a chance to play college sports now because, uh, those football teams are gonna leave and take their eighty-five scholarships with them, it's going to be a, a reckoning that I think will come down the, will come down the road.
Riley: Ooh, so it's kind of an overcorrection in that world, huh?
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, for sure. But, you know, I think we, you know, uh, anybody that's been around for more than, uh, five years I think realizes that that's how the world works, right? I don't care if it's NIL, religion, politics or, uh, you know, the, the, uh, you know, my protein diet. You know, it's one of those things where we go from, you know, we go from one opposite to the other, and then we swing, and then hopefully, eventually we, we settle in the middle, and we find some real, real balance.
But it'll be interesting to see how this one goes because ... And I made this statement about five years ago when this first happened, that if the decisions-- if we're not invested, if we're not involved, and we're not speaking our mind, we don't come together as fans and as parents to, uh, actually speak to this, if we allow ourselves to be [00:15:00] part of the grinder, this is gonna get decided by 10 guys in suits all around a table, and that's what we're seeing right now.
It's being decided by TV, it's being decided by corporate, and it's being decided by hedge fund money. And, uh, it's just one of those things that that's what's gonna, that's what's gonna happen. And, uh, until we decide to either with our money, our pockets, our feet or our eyes decide to do something about it, it's gonna just keep going that direction.
And I got a feeling, sadly, I think it's gonna ruin some of it. Um, but again, it'll probably just become an amateur league, and it'll probably become a semi-pro football situation and, and the NFL's not getting any smaller. So it's one of those things where it's like, "Well, okay." It just may change the way we look at it, but some people will get ran over for it for sure.
Riley: It's an interesting perspective, the thing you brought up about swinging f- uh, from one extreme to the
other, right? And then
Daryn Colledge: yeah.
Riley: hopefully, you come back to that kind of center space where there's some balance and some, you know, some real [00:16:00] meat to it. That's a, that's an interesting life man, 'cause I think we do that. You mentioned protein diet, right?
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: you maybe go, "Oh, I'm going full vegetarian," now it's like a full, full keto weight.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, exactly. I'm going carnivore.
Riley: that, yeah, yeah, now I'm-- I, I realize I actually need more of everything.
So,
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: yeah, I, I love that, dude. I, I love it. Do you... I wanna back up a little bit because we're... You and I both talked about coaches, right? growing up, and we had these coaches and, and in my experience, football seemed interesting to me. Part of it was because of cheerleaders, part of it.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: part of it was there was this kind of world I had never really paid attention to other than me and my buddies in the park, right? And but I got in there, and I was so discouraged 'cause, uh, it literally was the coach stuck me there and he says, "You're, you're a, you're bigger guy compared to the other students, so let's-- stick you in here on the line." [00:17:00] no more instruction than
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: front of you." And it was almost like I couldn't pry more information out of him.
Like, what am I
supposed to do here?
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: I s- keeping him from something? I, I d- I'd never really figured it out. And so it was discouraging and, and what... It probably kept me from pursuing that more
Daryn Colledge: Absolutely.
Riley: I was like, I, I don't n- have any direction to run on here. So can you talk about that a little bit and what, what, what
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, I think one of the great things about sports is, is the, the idea of leadership and the idea of being guided and, and coached, especially in our youth. And I tell everybody, you know, I don't care if it's, uh, you know, for my sports programs, my military service, or, you know, in the jobs and the things I do today, like leadership, leadership matters and coaching matters, and the ability to take care of...
You know, we'll just speak to us because we're men. Like, the, the ability to, to coach young men into, to, to being men and, and obviously that happens on the women's side too and, and, and, you know, [00:18:00] girls becoming women and, and those kind of things where it's like the direct effect that those coaches can have on your life that's much beyond winning and losing the game is what they can help you with in winning and losing in life.
And, and you may find that you never become an NFL player. Um, ninety-nine point nine percent of people that, that play the, play football never, ever play at that level. But the, the things that they've gained from great coaches and great men to become great men themselves and great fathers and husbands and brothers or whatever it might be, all of that is a direct reflection of that person that, that taught them or helped them, you know?
And then you look at anybody from, like, you know, the, the, the quiet coaches that, that people talk about that are very much like, you know, you know, very, um, a monk style. You know, it's like, it's a really, it's a thinking man's game to the, the Bobby Knights who throw chairs, right? There's those--
Riley: Sure.
Daryn Colledge: And I, I tell everybody the, the greatest thing I ever got was the fact that I got to have amazing coaches in my life, and I got to have horrible coaches in my [00:19:00] life. I've had great leaders in my life and terrible leaders in my life, and each one has a direct impact on the way I wanna be and the things that I wanna take from them.
But the great thing about every single one of them is I've learned something from every single one of them, and I've gained from every one of them. I try not to look back on my terrible coaches and be like, "Man, that was really a crappy experience," and, and they've ruined something for me. I really try to take those experiences and say, "Hey, there's something I can take from there."
They may have one or two things that they did really, really well that they were extremely focused on that, you know, whether it's their willingness to want to win or, or to do whatever it takes or whatever it might be, but also showing me the person or leader I don't wanna be. And each one of those things, uh, can be why you stay in something or why you find a passion for something and, and why you don't.
And I think you and I were in the same experience because we both had-- like, we both were instructed under Keith Amazing man. Had a great opportunity. And when Keith passed, um, I loved everybody that was still there, still enjoyed all those guys there, but there was, and there was [00:20:00] nobody there that couldn't say something changed, right?
A new guy had to come in and lead no matter who that was going to be, and whether they did a great job or they did a bad job, it didn't matter. The, the leader of that room had changed, and everybody was waiting for that change, and that's what great leaders do. They set a standard. They set a tempo. They make you want to be in their presence.
They make you want to get better. They make you wanna do the things at, at a high level. And when that leadership changes, whether it be through trag-tragedy or transition, they leave a hole that somebody else has to fill. And sometimes when bad leaders, that hole you're excited to see filled. Um, when a great leader leaves, there's some trepidation in that.
And I think that that's what great coaching is, and I think that's what sports bring out in a lot of people. Um, also, I think it's one of those things where once you've been through that kind of situation, it helps you out in life and the fact that, like, I've, I've been yelled at. You know, I've, I've known what it's like to have everything on the line, [00:21:00] and I know what it's like to fail.
And I think that those things, you know, coaches and, again, sports help us with, um, the regular things in life
Riley: Yeah. Do you have any standout moments where that, that great coach that gave you hard advice or told you something you really didn't wanna hear at the time, but you had to contend with that and...
Daryn Colledge: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Uh, I mean, it happened as early as my freshman year here. Like, I came from, you know... I, I left my, my family, um, had a terrible divorce when I was going through my junior and through my senior year. Um, I had to grow up real, real fast. You know, a, a, a whole thing-- a bunch of stuff we don't need to dive into, but I didn't leave a great family situation.
Left my small town, North Pole, went to Boise and, you know, this is, this is no metropolis, especially not in two thousand. This isn't LA, but it-- to me, this was a big city compared to North Pole, Alaska. And I'd gotten in that college life, and I was partying, and I was having a good time, and, and my grades were plummeting, and I was hiding from things at home.
[00:22:00] Um, and I was using, you know, alcohol and partying and whatever to, to, to, to stay away from that life. And I had a coach that stepped up and, um, no different than a father figure and said like, "Hey, here's what I see. Here's what I believe you can be, and here's the path you're going down. And you either have a choice that you can come out here and be a leader, and you can take the next step to become one of the guys and, and come out and do some great things, or you can wash out now because that's the path that you're absolutely headed down."
And from that moment on, um, my life changed in athletics, my life changed at the university and, um, for my football team, my dedication to the program changed completely. I hid myself in the film room, in the weight room instead of the, uh, the bar. Uh, I was still in college. I'm not gonna say I never drank again.
It wasn't anything like that. But I turned that life to a ninety percent over there and a ten percent over here instead of a ninety and a ten. And it was one of the first times somebody gave me a real reality check on what that took because I had spent a lifetime being in a [00:23:00] small town and being bigger, stronger, and faster than a lot of people, had a lot of success that was, um, not easy.
I think that's the wrong word, but it's one of those things where I had an advantage over most people that my athleticism allowed me to play at a certain level without the kind of effort that a lot of people had to put in just to meet that spot. And I was now in a place where that wasn't gonna be good enough.
It was gonna take effort and work to get there, and then that was what drove me through a nine-year NFL career. Those-- That, that moment changed-- built the man over the next three years that was able to take on the NFL for nine years and, and continue to be that person. And without that one coach, again, that one man who cared enough to say, "Hey, here's what I see.
Here's what you're showing me. Which one do you wanna be?" I wouldn't be, uh, I probably wouldn't be who I am today.
Riley: So in that moment when he came to you for that, was there... What was your reaction, man? 'Cause I, I know I can think of a few [00:24:00] times in my life where somebody's come to me and just gave me that, like,
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: advice, and at the time I would kind of bucked it, just like, "No, dude, you don't know what you're talking about."
But
Daryn Colledge: Yeah
Riley: experience?
Daryn Colledge: I think that there's always a natural, you know, there's always a natural, uh, you know, bristling of, you know, we all have our egos, we all have our, you know, you don't, you don't see it the way I see it. But there was part of me that honestly knew that I wasn't doing what I needed to do. And the great thing is that when you get graded, uh, in college, your transcripts are sitting right there
And when he lays out your transcripts and says, "Hey, this is what eligibility looks like, and this is what eligibility doesn't look like," that's pretty concrete. You can't run away from that. There's no excuses, can't hide from that number. So I, um, yeah, I, I think I was, I was obviously embarrassed and, um, disappointed with myself and knew how and why I'd gotten there.
Um, but I needed somebody [00:25:00] to be the adult in the room and call it out because I didn't have that in my life at that time. I didn't have an adult, and I definitely wasn't an adult. I wasn't making, uh, a- as much as we-- I wanna pretend that I was a, you know, a man at that time in my life, I was making, um, un-adult decisions as a nineteen-year-old, eighteen-year-old, as an eighteen-year-old adult, uh, as they say.
Riley: Do you have a soft spot in your heart today for that guy?
Daryn Colledge: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, Coach Stross, uh, I would tell him in a, I would tell him in a heartbeat. You know, he's, uh, if he ever need anything, he can always call me. We stay in touch to this day. Um, he's actually back, uh, coaching men again. He, you know, he did a stint through some other schools and then went in the NFL for a while, and now he's back helping guys at Boise State again.
And, uh, hopefully having an effect on their lives like he had on mine. But he was, you know... Guys like him and guys like my high school coaches, there's certain men in your life that show you, you know, and women in your life too, but me, obviously, I've been around sports for so long, but this might be, you know, somebody's grandmother or aunt or whoever that show you the [00:26:00] people that you, that you want to be and the, the person you want to be, um, to other people out there in the world.
And they remind you that, um, sometimes it doesn't take that much. Sometimes it's a short conversation to, uh, really change somebody's life. And he, uh, he had that impact on me, and I've never been great with it. I, I tell most people as much as I like to talk, I'm not really a talker. I'm not really a speech giver.
Um, I like to lead by example. Um, but he showed me that sometimes it, it takes sitting somebody down, looking them in the eye and being like, "Hey, here's, here's the reality." And then they get to do what they want with that, right? They get to make the decision on whether they're gonna take that information in or they're gonna buck that like you talked about and, uh, really, really listen to it.
But if you care about the opinion of the person that's talking to you and, and they believe in you, then I think that's a much different conversation. It, you know, it comes down to those I don't, I don't listen to people that, that aren't on the same journey as me. But if they are on that same journey as me and they have my, my best interests at heart and I trust their opinion, then, you know, I hope I can hear what they have to say.[00:27:00]
Riley: Yeah, I think that takes, it takes a level of humility for one, but it-- there are those people, man, that give it to you straight. And I, I said it multiple times on this podcast that we don't have enough people in our lives that'll just give it to us straight.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: it's refreshing when we get it, you know?
It's like, "Oh, man, it hurts at the
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: but I love it."
Daryn Colledge: Well, I think, you know, we live in a world of, you know, we, we fear outcomes, right? We fear what, what honesty takes. We fear what criticism looks like. We're f- We're... Our egos, our, um, our, ourself, ourself, as in, you know, what, what we see ourselves as, I think that stuff's, um, extremely fragile, created by the society that we live in today.
When we... We're, we're afraid to embarrass ourselves in front of people, and we feel like if we say something, and they don't take it that way, that's gonna look bad on us, and then we feel like if we have to receive something from somebody, that also looks bad on us, and we have this back and [00:28:00] forth. Well, then again, 90% of the things don't get said, and I don't care if that's your coach, your, your child, or, or your, your wife or your sister.
Like, it's one of those things where we have to have this line of communication where we care enough about each other to have those conversations. If I'm not willing to have that conversation with you or we're not in a place to have that conversation, then our relationship isn't at that place yet, right?
Like, if I can't hand you down, you know, it's no different than when you and I roll on the mat, and I'm a blue, and you're a purple, and you give me a suggestion. Well, I either have to be in a humility to say like, "Oh, I'm doing something wrong. Hey, thank you for the guidance," and you being willing to hand that down, and sometimes that's extremely hard, right?
I've been in the place where I've rolled with somebody below me and been like, "Do I really say something?" But some people want to hear that things, and again, I'm gonna put that stuff out there. I'm gonna try to speak to the things that I think can help and to make people around me better. I can rise the tide and try to pick up every boat, and you get to choose what you want to do with that.
And then, based on that reaction, will tell me, is this a relationship we'll continue, that I [00:29:00] wanna try to continue to help you grow? Or is it one that you're like, "Hey, no, this is just a, this is just a one-time back and forth." Okay. Well, that's, that's fine. Cool. But if I just assume that every relationship is just a one-time transaction, then none of us get a chance to grow, and the community doesn't grow.
Riley: Yeah, that's beautiful. That's well said, man. Darren, you talked about up in a small town and being
Daryn Colledge: Mm-hmm.
Riley: in a small pond there, but then you get to this college level ball, and you figure out that that, tide is raised, if you will. You know, the, the
standard has raised, and now there's a bunch of big,
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: uh, in that pond, right?
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: that a little bit and what, what you did to adjust 'cause now you have to work, right?
[00:30:00]
Daryn Colledge: Now, now the workload changes, right? Like, some of us are gifted enough in, in, in whatever it be business, life, physical, whatever- That you're above the average in, in your circle, right? And I was. In North Pole, Alaska, based on the size of the population and talent, there was people that were better at me at some things, but my ability to play most every sport and do those things allowed me to do certain things based on size, athletic ability, and [00:31:00] natural, uh, talent, genetics, uh, whatever you wanna call it, gift of God for some people.
Um,
Riley: Hey, throw
Daryn Colledge: and then...
Riley: real quick. You are... You're six f- six foot five?
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, six foot five.
Riley: Six foot five, and I think at the time we were grappling together a few years back, you were weighing two seventy-five-ish, in that
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: But you had come down from... So we're gonna talk about that as, as it goes on, but
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. Yeah, I've been as high as three hundred and twenty-five.
Riley: days, right?
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, I've been as, I've been as heavy as three hundred twenty-five pounds, so, you know, it's one of those things where, yeah, you're bigger, stronger, faster, and all of a sudden you get into a place where, okay, everybody's bigger, stronger, faster, right?
So then you have to start separating yourself by, okay, I need to get... continue to get bigger, stronger, faster, right? Continue that physical growth. But then it starts coming down to technical knowledge, right? My ability to play at a better angle with better levers, with better leverage, play faster because I take [00:32:00] better angles.
All that stuff starts to matter more and more, right? You can't just out-athletic everybody. You're still gonna find people that you out-athletic, right? And as I got bigger and stronger and faster in the gym, I could, I could cut back on some things because I could physically start manhandling somebody or, or I could out-talent the kid across from me, especially when you're at the college level, right?
'Cause sometimes, you know, playing a freshman and you're a senior or a junior, you know, but sometimes you're the freshman and they're the senior, you know. So there's always this physical combination that's changing, but you're learning to become a more precise weapon, you know, at that level. You're learning how to take better angles in your film study, and all those things is what you grow really at the college level.
You know, high school level, depending on what kind of school you play and what kind of offense you played and defense you played and whatever, could be extremely simple or could be more complex. You know, some of these colleges, some of these high school now are running college level, you know, offenses when we're talking about these run and shoots or whatever you might...
you know, whatever system you might be in. And now everything's getting more complicated and college teams are running pro, but whatever. But [00:33:00] all it is is it's a continual sharpening of your athletic ability and your, um, technique in the system. And then when you leave that, you go again to like, you know, it's just, it's, it's being sifted, right?
It's just the sand's getting sifted. Each time it's getting finer and finer and finer until you reach the NFL, and then you start playing against people where they're the best of the best and everybody's the best of the best, and everything is separated by... It's not true. Eighty percent of us are sifted as the physical best Talented, and we're all working our butts off every single day and trying to have the best technique we can.
And then you've got a small portion here at the very bottom that they're there just because they are extremely physical talent, and their job is to be the guy on the wedge or the guy that covers punts that just runs down there and outruns everybody and hits things with his face as hard as he can, right?
And then you have this weird upper echelon of 10% that are [00:34:00] more physically talented than you could have ever imagined, and you just know you'll never be that, right? Like, like I-- there was people that I played with that I realized it didn't matter how long I worked in the gym or how much film study, I could never physically match the talent or their physical prow that, that they had, and that's, that's your Hall of Famers.
That's your guys that, that separate themselves from the, the pack, right? Um, they're the untouchables. And, you know, that-- those things happen in life too. But there's a bunch of us that live in the middle that go up and down that scale every day based on how much work we put in and how good our technique is and, and, you know, and how hard we're willing to work.
So... And that's just, that's how it works. And, and you just make the adjustments to that, and then you make a decision every single day. Are you willing to continue that process, to continue to get better? And some guys end their career in injury. Um, some guys end it because they're-- they, they realize they don't have it anymore, and some guys re-- end their [00:35:00] career because they realize they don't want it anymore.
And that's, you know, that's life, right? That's, you know, how much work are you willing to put in for the things you want? And have you succeeded enough, accomplished enough, and done what you wanted in whatever your business is? And, uh, the NFL in that aspect is no different.
Riley: So you just said something there some guys decide they don't want it.
Okay. Right. Describe that because that's hard to picture for, for us mere mortals, right? We,
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: at it and go, "Wait a minute. How could you not want that?"
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: I think we underestimate the amount of work that you guys had to put in.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. No, I think-- I, you know, I, I don't think it's a mere mortal situation, right? Like, everybody picks their, everybody picks their thing, and sometimes your thing gets picked for you, right? And sometimes you're put into paths and, and avenues that, um, get you going. But almost everybody makes that decision every single day when they're not in the NFL or they are.
My decision was based in the [00:36:00] NFL, right? I got to play nine years. I was a starter my entire career except for my very first game in the NFL. I became a starter game two, never relinquished a start for the rest of my career except for two games I missed an injury in my ninth year. And I was staring at a tenth season, and I had an offer on the table to continue to play I was still starting.
The money was significant. Um, I had just come off another back injury. I had just come off another, uh, major concussion, and I was-- my daughters were four and two, and I was a three hundred and fifteen pound offensive lineman in the NFL, and I was laying on my couch one day recovering from a back injury, and I realized I couldn't roll over and pick up my kid and put him on me.
Like, I was too hurt to roll over. My four-year-old was crawling, or my four-year-old was walking over to me, and my daughter, um, was getting ready to turn two, was kind of crawling over and hanging out in the living room with me. And I realized, I was like, "I can't pick my kid up." And all of a sudden, this big reality check came of like, you know, I [00:37:00] was thinking of all my buddies that were messed up, you know, s- just offensive linemen in general, k- you know, friends I was close to that, you know, major back surgeries, knees, elbows, concussions, you know, light sensitivity, couldn't sleep, night terrors, um, neck injuries, couldn't rotate, you know, all this kind of stuff that they were playing through, and I was going, you know, "Is this really, really what I want?
Or am I doing this because I have no other options, or am I doing this because I need the money, or am I doing this because I just haven't really thought about what else I want to do, and I'm afraid to walk away from it because it is what I do?" And at that moment, I realized I didn't want it enough anymore for what it was gonna take to be great.
I knew I could limp through another year. I know I could theoretically steal money. Like, I could have showed up and took a paycheck from these guys knowing that I wouldn't be a hundred percent, knowing that my heart wouldn't fully be in it, and I'm sure that there's people that do it. I'm sure that there's people that watch this podcast that, that go in some days and, and put a half-ass, you know, [00:38:00] job in for the day.
Like, that happens. That's life, right? Um, there's plenty of people out there that are like, "Hey, man, I'm, I'm gonna get as much money from this company as I possibly can," right?
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Daryn Colledge: just decided that I didn't want to be that, and I also decided that I didn't want to go out there and take another injury and be one of my buddies that was out there, um, that couldn't get up a staircase at forty years old because he decided to play this game for so long.
And, and plenty of guys do it. Plenty of guys, they, they come from places, they come from poverty, or they, they, they know nothing else other than football, and they'll do it until the day they roll 'em out in a wheelchair, and I get that, and I, and I respect that. I'm fine with that. Like, you-- we all make our own decisions.
Um, but I knew I wasn't willing to put in what it took anymore or roll the dice anymore to, to play at that level, and it was time to get on, um, to something else. And I think that some people think that that's hard to fathom, but every single person does that every single day. You know, everybody's got the opportunity to [00:39:00] walk away from what they're doing right now to chase some dream of making more or working less or starting a company or I'm gonna drive for Uber until I launch my dot com company or whatever it might be But they're held back by a fear of failure.
They're held by a fear of maybe I'm not willing to put in as much work as that's possibly gonna take or the challenges. I'm not-- I'm afraid to live in my car, um, or go without or whatever it might be. They're in a comfort with where they're at. So I don't think what we do is, is so much different. It's a physical difference based on the job, and people look at it, and the money's huge, and it's only gotten bigger, uh, since I left.
Um, but it's one of those things where, you know, we're making the same decisions every single day that everybody else is, which is, "Do I have enough? Can I give more? Can I get more? Do I want more?" And that's where, um, to each their own.[00:40:00]
Riley: You know, you, you talk about in there that trap that kind of happens where
Daryn Colledge: Mm-hmm.
Riley: "Am I doing this because I love it or I'm doing this because I don't have any other options," right?
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: I see that not just in athletics, but I see that in a lot of places where someone gets to a certain, a certain lifestyle level in the thing they're
doing, and then to start over at the bottom of something else and come up is-- it's too much of a dip. You know, they can't...
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: there's that sacrifice sometimes when we're starting a new thing that when you're young you're-- you don't have anything anyways and you're just moving out of mom and dad's house, you know, a little stint living in your car is not a big deal.
But when you're 40 years old and you've got kids
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: some of those things aren't even an option anymore, right?
Daryn Colledge: Absolutely, right? Everybody's life situation's totally different, you know, and, and everybody's life, you know, gets [00:41:00] into a place where they reach a comfort level that they wanna be at, right? And, and I think, uh, almost everybody struggles with uncomfortable, and that's the hard thing. And then that's-- whe-whether that's physical or financial or whatever it might be, like, each person struggles with that in their, in their own way.
But like, like you say, it, it, it's sports, it's business, it's, it's your marriage, right? Like, there's plenty-- I've got plenty of buddies that have a marriage that they, they're like, they're not trying to make it better, they're not trying to make it worse. They've just kind of hit this place where they're like, "Hey, this is what we do, and this is what we've done for the last fifteen years, so we're just gonna keep going with that."
And it's like, well, I mean, have you thought about working on it, maybe making it better? You wanna try to-- do you wanna try a little harder or, or, or it's going down and you, you're not worried about it going up? Like, there's all those things that people fear or asking questions or, or making those changes.
And I don't... You know, that's a broad spectrum, but yeah. Like, it's definitely one of those things where you get into a comfort zone, and most people realize that they're just kind of going through their day. And for [00:42:00] them, it's not a next chapter. It's they're gonna live in that chapter for as long as they possibly can.
And again I understand that's, that's not everybody. You know, that's, that's, you know, s- for some people that's exactly what they want and exactly what they look for. But I think that there's a whole population out there, and even some people who aren't willing to admit it to themselves quite yet, that want that change, that need that change, that are looking for that change.
I mean, I'm very much you got a one shot at this thing, and if you're not continuing to grow, if you're not continuing to evolve or change, then, then you are wasting some time and opportunity because I, I'm not gonna lie to you, bill's gonna come due. Like you're-- it's gonna end. So you might as well make a run and, and have some passion in this life and, and, and have some change and have some challenge and see where it, where it really, really takes you.
Riley: Oh, man. We could go on with that, on that subject matter for a while for sure. So, um, talk about this, man. Did you ever, [00:43:00] did you ever go to a Super Bowl?
Daryn Colledge: I did. I actually won Super Bowl XLV. We beat the Steelers in Dallas.
Riley: Well, wonderful. So
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: about that experience.
Daryn Colledge: Awesome. Awesome experience. Um, the Super Bowl's pretty much a week long for all the guys who do it. You, uh, you travel out there for, for pretty much six days. You do a bunch of practices in there. You have a bunch of media time. But the idea is obviously settle you into that idea, not have a bunch of travel right before it.
Um, do all the things, kiss the, uh, kiss the babies, shake the hands, um, have a good time, unload. Um, it was surreal at first, I can't lie. Um, I thought I was gonna go to my first Super Bowl my second year. We lost to the, uh, Giants in the, uh, NFC playoffs, uh, in the NFC Championship game, and then they went on to beat the Patriots.
Um, and we felt like we were the better team, kinda let that game slip away. So the chance to go back in my fifth year and actually win it. You know, I came from Boise State, which, you know, we won championships every single [00:44:00] year. Um, so I was used to winning games, expected to win games. Didn't realize how hard it was in the NFL, um, in the very beginning.
Um, realized at a m- much later age that the, the chance to win and the chance to be in Super Bowls and chance to do that is, uh, extremely rare. Um, the guys like the Patriots and, you know, those guys that have done repeat stuff, uh, it's, uh, it's such an anomaly. The talent level, the, the, the luck of the bounce that you need is crazy.
So to, to go in the-- to go into Dallas and play those guys, uh, it was absolutely surreal. I, I tell everybody when I came out for my first, um, play, um, it was a little overwhelming. Like, you're in the crowd. Um, it was, it was in Jerry's world. He had just built that brand new stadium. The place is absolutely rocking.
It's, it's just sold out. And I remember being in the huddle for the first call. Can't remember what the first play is. I'm ninety-nine percent sure it was a run play 'cause it was like one of those ones, "Hey, we're just gonna get the first ball off and, you know, don't, don't mess it up. It's on one." Um, and I was like, "Oh my God, I'm, I'm in the Super Bowl.
I'm in the Super Bowl." And I'm like, I, I literally [00:45:00] was like, I'm putting my hand down in the, the turf for, for, for the Super Bowl and all this kind of stuff. And then I remember I hit the guy across from me, and it was all over. Like it was one of those things where it's like it was just a football game.
At that point, all of a sudden it was just a battle, and it was a back and forth, and it was gonna be this challenge, and the guy I was playing across from was really, really good. And obviously the Steelers were extremely talented. They had just come off a Super Bowl two years before that, I believe. And it didn't feel like anything special until the fourth quarter.
And then all of a sudden we were in those last like twelve minutes and realized that like we're either gonna win or lose the Super Bowl. It was a tight game. I actually had a huge, uh, false start at a crucial, uh, on a crucial play. And I was like thinking, I'm like, "Did I just lose us the Super Bowl?" Right?
Like we-- all of a sudden we're gonna be in a, you know, second and long, and, uh, like I just blew it. Like we needed this, we needed this drive, we need this touchdown, we need to run the clock out, all these kind of things. And Aaron, Aaron dropped back [00:46:00] on the next play and threw like a twenty-two yard dime for a first down, and I think I was the first one.
Like usually I was always down the field, always picking up the, the receiver or the running back or whoever caught it or ran it, and I turned around and I like grabbed him and hugged him, and I was like, "Oh my God, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you," 'cause I'm like, I'm pretty sure like there's a bunch of people like in North Pole, Alaska, who are like, "Darren just ruined the Super Bowl for the, the, the Packers."
And he, uh, he pulled me out of that, and we won it all. And when the final whistle went off and the confetti dropped and all that kind of stuff, it was really, really surreal. My dad was sitting really close. Um, I was able to find him in the stands immediately. My wife, uh, who was pregnant with our second, uh, second daughter, um, somehow snuck past security and was down on the field like out of nowhere.
Um, I found her on the-- she found me on the field, and then, you know, the Lombardi Trophy and the whole nine yards. And then it was like I just wanted to hold the trophy, and I wanted to get on a plane, and I wanted to sleep for like two days. Like that's all I wanted to do. And then crazy enough, it was all over, and I was like, [00:47:00] it was right back to work.
And as surreal as it is, as, as awesome as it was, I think it's like most things in life you find the top wasn't everything you thought it was going to be. It was, it was in its moment. The work and the, and the memories of what it took to get there and all the things it took along the way to get to that success was what the real, what the real gem was of that entire season and the things we did to fight through the wild card, um, to come up from nowhere, and the moments I got to share with those guys and with my teammates, that was the real thing.
The ring and the Lombardi Trophy have really kind of fallen to the wayside. I tell most people I don't know where the ring is usually. Um, the wife knows it's in the safe. I always forget to take it places. Um, I hate to show it off, and I always love to tell the stories. That's about, uh, that's about the way that thing goes.
Riley: That's a-- sort of read my mind, man, 'cause I was, I was gonna go down that... I was gonna ask you a question about that letdown maybe that
happens afterwards, 'cause [00:48:00] every time in my life when I've a
goal, there's that moment where it's just like, "Oh, I just did it." But man, that fades
so fast, and then the next thing you know, you wake up the next morning, it's like, "Now what?
It's back to the grind." You said back to
Daryn Colledge: Back to the grind. Yeah, we all find that. I think most people find out the top of the mountain isn't everything they thought it would be. It's not that there's not greatness in that, whether it's the, you know, it's whether it's the person who wants to make a million dollars or the person who wants to, to run a, you know, a, you know, four, four-minute mile or whatever they're doing nowadays or that, you know, that, that, that new record marathon time that was ridiculous.
You know, it's one of those things where all of the greatness in that is in the work, right? Like, I think one of the greatest things in the world I ever heard was like, "Just please make me useful," right? That's all I wanna be. I wanna be useful. I wanna have a purpose. I wanna have a drive. I wanna have something I'm doing that's pushing me and moving me forward.
I do very, very good, uh, when I have goals and I have things to achieve. The problem is when I'm, I'm the dog when I catch the car, like, what do I do now that I've caught it? And, um, I think a lot of people are like [00:49:00] that, right? Like, they want to be in that grind. They want to have that greatness. They want to, to go out and try to succeed those things.
So that's why I tell most people, like, enjoy that goal, but be ready for what the, the next thing looks, because if you don't believe you're gonna get to that goal, then that's, you know, then, then there's no reason to set the next goal. But if you firmly are putting a goal out there in mind, then you should believe that you're gonna reach that goal and, and, you know, be ready for that.
But also be ready for what the other side looks like, 'cause it's gonna be a, uh, it's gonna be a fast letdown, and hopefully you're able to go, "Okay, what's next? Cool. Got that one. Let me go out and, uh, let me go out and find the next one." And that's always been, um, kind of my philosophy. What's the, uh, next? I, I tell everybody I never thought I was gonna make it past five minutes in the NFL.
I was always working on a career that was gonna take me... You know, what was I gonna do if I wasn't in the NFL? The year was gonna end. Um, I was always kind of looking at that, what that next goal was gonna be, and then I just kinda got to hang around the NFL for longer than I thought I would.
Riley: Yeah. Man, you mentioned one thing, um, that I don't wanna go past, but [00:50:00] you talked about this. You thought you lost the Super Bowl because you made a mistake, and you had a-- You said false start, right?
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: there's that thing that happens when we've all done it w- in our business, in our life, and whether it be sports, whatever it happens to be, where, man, we, we blew it.
feel like we could have blown it. But you still have to go, right? There's still that...
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: had to show up the next play. So what's going on in your head there? Like, you know, how do you, how do you handle those moments where it's just like, "I'm embarrassed, I'm humiliated, I-- everyone just saw it, I still have to do the thing that, that's coming up next"? S-
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: Can you
talk
Daryn Colledge: interesting because I talked to my, I talked to my daughter about this, right? My daughter's, you know, my daughter's 14 years old, plays competitive volleyball, like I told you, and I, I, I try to explain to her a lot that, you know, a lot of her friends, a lot of her teammates, and, and her included, um, they'll do something bad on the court.
You know, [00:51:00] they'll make a mistake, right? And it becomes this over-exaggeration, it becomes this down, it becomes this energy, it becomes this whole change. And if you've played any sports, I don't care if it's, you know, pickup basketball at the YMCA or you've played in the Super Bowl, anybody that's been in a sporting event, whether it's a solo sport or a, or a team sport, uh, knows what momentum feels like, knows that, and knows that it's more than an idea, that it's like, it's a physical thing.
You can taste it, you can smell it, you can feel it in the air. And we have to be able to, as, as athletes and as, as human beings, as people, to recognize when something doesn't go the way we expect it. We have to anticipate that things aren't ever gonna go the way we expect it. We're always gonna be reacting to that, right?
Like, it's the idea that coaches, coaches have 20 plays, right? They write out 20 plays before every single football game. This is my ideal, and usually that lasts about three plays, and then you're always adjusting. But that idea is just to lay out, "Hey, here's my goal, here's my plan, here's what's gonna happen.
I know things are gonna go wrong, but [00:52:00] here's what I, I've got my idea." And you have to be able to be like, that moment, take that moment for what it is. Is there something I got to learn between that false start and what happened in the 30 seconds I've got to get back to the, the huddle? And then the 30 more seconds I've got to get back to that play and start it over.
I've got that minute to figure out what I did wrong, why I did wrong, and to let that moment pass, because you can c- only can control what you can control. There's nothing else. I can't live in the past. I can't live in the future. But I can live right there in that moment. So I tell her, "Take that moment, breathe it out, let it go, realize that that moment has passed, try to learn something from that moment, and move on to the next one, because the next one's coming.
And guess what? The next one's coming after that, and the next one's coming after that, and you get to decide whether you're gonna start stacking successes after that or you're gonna start stacking failures. You can use that and say, 'Hey, this is my new trend,' or, 'That was my anomaly.'" Right? Those are the things that you have to make a decision at.
And, and, and that doesn't just take sports. That's ju- that's just life in general, [00:53:00] right? We control the things that we control. That's all I can control. I can't always control everything that happens in my business. I can't control what my wife does all the time, or my kids do, or what the bank decides to do, or what the guy in the car next to me when I'm trying to get down Eagle Road is doing.
I can't control those things, but I can control how I react to those things, what I decide to do with myself, how I decide to work, how I decide to act, all those things. And all of that happens in that 30 seconds, and you get to make the decision on what you're gonna do in that reaction. And that's exactly what I did.
I got in there and I said, "I just, I screwed up." The play was over, and I'm like, I got, I got to mope about it. I got to feel bad about it for about 30 seconds. I had to be back in the huddle. It was eyes up. It was next play. And I realized the guy across from me is a Pro Bowler, and I had to go back out there and do my job the next play.
And that job was gonna be harder than the job it just was, because now it's second and 15, and I got a lot longer play to block than I had before, right? But I had to make a decision. But I knew that I was gonna go back and do my [00:54:00] job. I was gonna do what I was trained. I had made my mistake, and I was just gonna move on and move on to the next thing, and I was gonna continue to control the things I can control.
And that's all I've got. That's all I've got. That's all anybody's got. As long as I'm working on the things I can control, the rest of it is completely out of my hands. And as long as you're okay with that, as long as you can separate that thing and realize that you don't dictate when the sun comes up or the sun goes down, the world's gonna happen around you.
You just do you, then you're gonna probably be all right.
Riley: Just do you, man. That's, uh, that's something I've said so many times
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: this podcast, right? I come into it brand new, not knowing what I'm doing, feeling like, "How do I put content out there?" And, and, you know, was unwilling to put on a character, and so I've, I've used that term so many times.
Just gonna do me. Just gonna do me.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. Well, and that's, that's-
Riley: If it's not, that's okay too.
Daryn Colledge: That's authenticity, right? That's right. That's... And, and that's what we miss in the world, right? I could be a certain character. I mean, there's [00:55:00] plenty of people, and I'll speak in the third person. There's plenty of people that can look at Darren College and be like, "They expect me to be some way," or there's some picture of what they expect an NFL player to be or, or whatever, or there's some role I could be, or I could act to make sure that I fit in with the things people want, or they want to hear from me, or they're expecting to hear from me and, and whatever it might be.
And, um, there's plenty of people that are gonna do that. There's plenty of people putting fake content out there every single day, whether it be on a podcast or just in life, you
Riley: Right.
Daryn Colledge: be. And I think most of us want some authenticity in our life. We wanna know who the people are around us, and those are the people that we want to interact the most we possibly can with because genuine, genuine people, genuine humility, genuine humanity, all those kind of things are, um, what feels like the rarity in the world today.
But in all reality, it's probably the majority of us, we're just not getting it.
Riley: That's it, man. That's so it, so. Darren, life [00:56:00] after the NFL, right?
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: this, um, kind of glory career, right? And then now you're, now you're back in the normal life.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: You know, there's, there's residue from that, right? There's, there's still relationships, and there's still, um, I, I, I can only imagine that there's still a, a of financial success you've had there. But there's... But now you're back to real life, and you're going, "Man, do I get a job? Do I... What do I do?" You know? "What, do I start a business?" And what's that, that little transition look like?
Daryn Colledge: Uh, I think it's actually super hard. You know, these are one of those, um... It's, you know, it's, it's funny because it'll always be one of those, "Oh, man, I wish I had those problems," right? Like, you know, you always joke about, you know, "Oh, man, the privilege," the p- privilege problems. But when you're in a, when you're in a position, um, in your mid-30s, you know, lower 30s even, that I had just left a career that I'd been in for nine years.
I'm financially stable and successful, but knowing that I'm not retiring, like it's not gonna be one of those things. But now the world is an [00:57:00] oyster, right? I can, I can do whatever I want. I can go out and, and try to become something. I could try to get into radio or TV. I could get into coaching. I could go out and try to start a business.
I could do all these things. That, that in itself actually becomes, um, paralyzing for a lot of people. When you have the choice to do whatever you want, then you, uh, you can kind of struggle with it. Um, luckily for me, I only had two avenues I really, really wanted to take, and I knew what they were right away.
Um, I disappeared with my family. Um, we had sold our house in Arizona, and we were coming back, back to Idaho, and we hadn't bought a home yet. And my daughters were four and two, hadn't really started school yet. So we wanted to go, um, travel and go see Europe with them before they had to go back to school.
So we left to Europe for about three months with some friends, um, for two reasons. One, I wanted to be completely away from the United States and away from football, and 'cause I knew what was gonna happen, that if I was here, that I would get a call to come play, and I would have nothing going on, and I would come back, right?
Like I would've [00:58:00] had enough time that I would've gotten healthy. I would've felt good. Somebody would offer me enough money or been like, "Hey, we need you." Like an old coach would've, you know, pulled the old, "Hey, we need your card," and I would've been like, "Yeah." But I knew if I was out of the country and I wasn't training, that I was never gonna come back and, and, and accept a contract that I knew I couldn't, that I couldn't physically, physically be ready for.
And so I did. So we left to Europe, and we traveled for about three months. We rented a little apartment in Italy and lived out of it with our daughters with one AC unit, like, and just traveled by train and bus, um, around Italy and around Europe and, and had an amazing time. I lost, you know, 25 pounds pretty much right away.
So when I-- And sure enough, I got the call in, you know, June, um, that one of my coaches needed me back. You know, "Here's a really nice offer to come play for another year. A couple more bucks in the bank, and we really, really need you." And I just was, "Hey, Coach, I'd love to. I'd love to be there for you, but I, uh, um, I'm not in shape."
And he said, "Hey, totally understand," and appreciated it and, and let [00:59:00] us go. And it was one of those things where I was like, I knew I made the right decision. But while I was there I had a buddy, um, Taylor Tharp, who played here at, at, at, um, Boise State also, that was playing in the Italian football leagues.
Uh, before that he had, he had already finished up the Italian football leagues, and I was like, "Oh, that sounds like a lot of fun." And it was one of those things where you got a visa for one year to live in the country, and Italy's one of my favorite places in the world. Um, so I was like, "Well, honey, we get a visa, we can stay for a whole year, and I'm gonna make like, you know, minimum wage, but it's like an eight-game season, and even at two hundred and eighty pounds, I'm gonna, you know...
I, I can put on ten more pounds, and I'm, I'm gonna be probably pretty physically pretty good in this league." And we thought about it for about five minutes. I thought about it for about five weeks, but you know, she thought it for about five minutes, and it was like, no, we wanted to go home. We knew we wanted to get our girls back to Idaho.
We knew we wanted to start our life there, so we didn't do that. But what had been tickling the back of my mind for a long, long time and really, really since h- since high school when I almost joined the military, but definitely after the Super Bowl. I spent a lot of time after [01:00:00] the Super Bowl traveling the USO tours.
Everybody hears about Navy entertainment tours. We traveled around with the Lombardi Trophy and got to spend a lot of time in the Middle East, um, on ships, uh, with Navy and Marines and, uh, army bases and, and stuff like that, and Air Force bases, um, spending time with veterans. And I knew that I would spend the rest of my life supporting that group in any way I could.
Had-- My brother was a, my brother was a Green Beret, um, a lot of military service in my family, so obviously an organization and an idea that I knew was going to, uh, be a catalyst in my life for that time, and I would use my B-level celebrity to support. Um, but then it dawned on me that I wanted to do more than that, and I've never been a great Monday morning quarterback.
I tell most people I don't talk football. I only talk football because I played it. Um, I don't talk politics because I n- I've never done it, and I never talked, um, military decision-wise, you know, about, about the war or whatever it was because I've never been there. I've never tried to do that. But I wanted to serve my country, and I wanted to serve the [01:01:00] state of Idaho for, um, for a million things, for all the support it gave me when I played here, for my scholarship, for all the fans that came out.
So I came back and went through the process. Um, I had two jobs in mind. One was working for the military. One was flying airplanes professionally. I was a, you know, I'm a, I'm a, a pilot in my, in my own personal life. And, uh, the Army got back to me way faster than the, uh, airlines did. So, um, I went down and saw a recruiter, and I was signed up within two weeks.
I, uh, I got signed up, went through MEPS, and then was off to boot camp probably a, a month and a half after that or a month after that and, uh, joined the Idaho Army National Guard. Served as a helicopter crew chief, um, served in Afghanistan, worked as medevac, uh, crew chief. I was a flying crew chief, got to do all that kind of stuff and got to do search and rescue in the state of Idaho, got to fight fires in California and Idaho, got to You know, do all the kind of cool things that, uh, that that job entails and absolutely [01:02:00] loved it.
And so that was really my-- That was really the next chapter of my life, was, was going back and becoming an enlisted member. I didn't go the officer route. I wanted to come up through the bottom ranks. So I started out as a specialist and, uh, uh, went up and became a flying sergeant and, and the whole nine yards and, uh, you know, did the blue collar, you know, the blue collar side of the job and absolutely, absolutely loved it.
Riley: Oh, that's amazing, man. And you have, uh... Are you still in? You're, you're not still in now, right? You're not
Daryn Colledge: No, I, I, uh, separated from the Guard two years ago, so did six years of active duty of flying and then did two years of my reserve status. Um, stepped away from the military after I got diagnosed with cancer. So when I got diagnosed with cancer, I lost my flight status and oddly enough, that was in my sixth year, and I was in a situation where I was getting ready to re-sign my contract to, to get ready 'cause we were actually talking about deploying again, all these things that I wanted to do.
Um, got diagnosed with cancer and when I lost my flight status, they couldn't guarantee I was gonna [01:03:00] get it back. We knew-- no idea what the treatment was gonna be. We knew no, no ending of what it was gonna look like. Um, but there was no way the Army could be like, "Hey, I guarantee you'll be flying again," or my doctors or anything like that.
Um, and I was dead honest with them. I said, "I can't re-sign for another eight years and then find out that I'm gonna be a guy who's gonna be behind a desk after getting to be a guy who bends wrenches on helicopters and flies all over the sawtooth." Like, it just wasn't gonna fit my, uh, my lifestyle. And, uh, part, you know, and, and part of that's hugely selfish, right?
There was still service that could have been done. There was still service that needed to be needed. Um, but selfishly, I knew that I couldn't be one of those guys that was just gonna push papers. It wasn't gonna work for me. And so I didn't re-sign. And it was really, really tough, and it was really, really hard because it was something I really, really loved doing.
Loved the guys I flew with, um, loved my mission, um, all those kind of things. Um, but I couldn't be fair to them, to myself, or to my family, uh, with it, so I had to step away. So got my, uh, got my eight years and enjoyed it.
Riley: Cancer, man. [01:04:00] You just kind of blew
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: Like, um, talk about this 'cause I didn't know that. I didn't know you had a bout with, the big
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. I, uh... No, it was, uh, it was actually while I was with Team RINO. So I was-- The, the, the most interesting thing was I had actually just got done doing a roll, a morning roll, and I had, I had, um... I was working a triangle with somebody or whatever, and I, I had something like I kind of pulled my glute like a little bit.
Nothing big, just one of those things where it's
Riley: Okay.
Daryn Colledge: got a little snag.
Riley: that. I
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. So a little, little snag and I was like, "Ah, no big deal, but I'm gonna stop for today." I wasn't really injured, you know, but I was like, you know, it was one of the last rolls of the day, so I'm like, "I'm gonna go home." And I was going to get in the shower, and I walked by, and my glute on my right side was like a little higher than my left and, or, than my left side.
And, you know, at that time I'm, you know, I'm thirty You know, I'm thirty-eight years old, thirty whatever. I don't even know anymore. Um, and I'm like, you know, my butt looks like I'm about twenty-five years old. So, you know, and through jujitsu, I, I was losing weight, I was [01:05:00] getting back down, I was getting leaner and all that kind of stuff.
And I was like, "Dude," I'm like, "That's-- I think I just pulled a muscle." So, and, and most people that... You know, that was all COVID time, right? Like, things were super weird at that time. So I finally-- I go see my chiropractor, and I go see my massage therapist, and they're both like, "Yeah, man, this looks like it's a pull.
Looks like it's, you know, whatever. It's kind of riding high," the whole nine yards. And but, you know, my chiropractor was like, "You should probably go see your general just to make sure." And, you know, to get-- to go see my general at that time was like, it's like three weeks out, right? Like, gotta get the masks, the whole nine yards.
You're not getting in. So I finally got in to see my general, and she's like, "Yep, it looks like it's a pull," the whole nine yards, "but we should probably get an MRI on it, make sure there's no fluid on it and that we need to drain. But, you know, it's been this long. Because of all the waiting, like, if there's no pain there," which there wasn't, "um, you're probably just gonna wanna leave it."
You know, so my wife and I are joking around about it for weeks. Like, "Oh, I'm gonna have to get a Brazilian butt lift on their left side to match it, and all of a sudden my, you know, my ass looks like I'm twenty-five again, but the rest of me looks like I'm forty." Um, the whole nine yards. And [01:06:00] I finally got my MRI scheduled, and it's probably another two or three weeks later.
And I go on my MRI, I get my scans. I'm joking with them about the same jokes. We're all having a good laugh. We're all talking about, like, COVID and what real life looks like right now and the weirdness and all that stuff. And I go out to go to the grocery store, and I'm walking down the grocery store aisles, and they've got the arrows, and we can only go down one aisle and the whole nine yards.
And I get a phone call that I don't recognize on my, my hip, and I'm like, "I'll answer it when I get back out there." You know, it's a number I don't recognize. So I get out in my car, I load all my groceries, and I pull up my message, and I'm pulling the car out, and it's playing over the speaker. And it goes, "Hey, this is St.
Luke's with your results. Um, we need you to call our, um, our, uh, cancer docs." Like, "We need you to call our, um, uh..." Oh, why am I forgetting the word all of a sudden? My,
uh...
Riley: losing it too. I'm not, I'm not gonna be any help here.
Daryn Colledge: I know. Well, and that's the funny, that's the funny part about it. Like, like, they're like, "Hey, you need to call the, you need to call the cancer docs," and the, and the whole nine yards.
And I'm sitting there going like, you know. But they use the technical t- oncologist. There you go. I wanted [01:07:00] to say they, they told me to call the gynecologist, but no, it's the oncologist. And, uh, so th-they tell me to call the oncologist, and I'm like, I'm a, I'm a fairly smart person, which this podcast is showing I'm not, but I'm a fairly smart person.
I'm like, "I'm ninety-nine percent sure I know what an oncologist is," but I'm like, "I'm gonna Google that really quick." So I've now pulled the car over in the parking lot, and I think I'm taking up, like, five parking spots, and I'm like, "Oncology." I'm like, "Just wanna double-check that I know what that means."
And yeah, so I called them back immediately. I called the oncologist, and the oncologist is like, "Hey, um-" Usually I would do this face to face. Uh, we'd be having a different conversation. He's like, "I don't..." He's like, "I can't tell you what this is 100%." He's like, "That's not fair." He's like, "We need a biopsy," and all this kind of stuff.
But he's like, "I'm 99% sure what it is. Like, you know, I'm one of the few specialists in the state who works in this kind of whatever." And he's like, "I'm pretty sure, but we need to get you in for a biopsy." And that's, that's that 30 seconds that we just talked about, right? The play did not go my [01:08:00] way. It wasn't the way I thought it was gonna go, right?
I'm a former professional athlete. I've been to war. I've been back. I've done all these things. I've lived a healthy life. I, I roll, I eat right, I run. I'm as healthy as a horse. I don't get colds. And all of a sudden, um, he says the word cancer, and I'm like, "Hey, that's not what I thought you were gonna say, and not what I expected."
I was expecting a pulled glute and a little bit of liquid, and you're telling me that I have a cancerous tumor. So it was definitely one of those moments that, like, everything kind of changed, um, kind of put in perspective. I still had a positive attitude about it. I still had to get my biopsy. I still wanted to wait to hear what it was and all those kind of things.
And yeah, it was a trial. It was a tribulation. It was, it was radiation for weeks on weeks on weeks. I went through cancer treatment, uh, all by myself. I went to my cancer surgery all by myself. My wife and kids weren't allowed to be there. It was COVID. The hospitals were closed to them. They could only support me at home.
So it was like, it was really, really, really surreal to go through it. And the-- I tell the people the most surreal thing of all was I donated a [01:09:00] jersey to St. Luke's when I first got in the NFL for a buddy whose kid went through the cancer treatment facility there. He asked me to for his foundation, and it was super easy ask.
And, um, it used to be framed up in what was the old children's wing of the, uh, of St. Luke's. Anybody who's been in the downtown Boise one that's been down in the surgery center, if you go in, you'll see my jersey there. And I, I walked into the h- St. Luke's all by myself, and my wife dropped me off at the front door, kissed me, and, uh, I got-- I had to go in all by myself and got down, got prepped for surgery, did all that stuff, sat in that room by myself.
And I looked up, and all of a sudden I was looking at my jersey, and I was like, "Well, this has really, really gone full circle. Like, the last time I was here, I was donating this as a, uh, NFL football player, and today I am a, a patient at the, uh, at the hospital." So yeah, again, um, just another chapter for sure, a different chapter.
And taught me a lot, learned a lot. You know, was it one of those, you know, everybody's got their cancer story, everybody [01:10:00] that's fortunate enough to survive it or not survive it. Uh, cancer, um- Treats each one of us in a different way. Um, we all react to it differently. We all handle it a different way. Um, but all of us come out of it different and, and, and learn from it.
And I don't wanna say that I, like, "I'm gonna go out and live my life completely different." I think I was living a good life at that point. I think I was taking advantage of life. I was doing all those things. But it definitely does put a reminder on you that you don't know when the ticket's gonna get punched.
You don't know when you're gonna take your last bow. Um, so you better go out and, uh, keep doing those things. And I think it just reinforced that feeling in my life of I'm gonna be useful until the day I can't be useful anymore, whether it's to my family, my friends, or to myself, like it's gonna continually, like, continually grow.
'Cause you can do everything absolutely right, and I thought I had been doing everything absolutely right, and still you can come up, you can come up, you know, snake eyes.
Riley: Did you-- this, you know, coming back to the, the, the [01:11:00] hard, the hard thing, right? You, you thought you pulled
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: that pulled muscle, I imagine there was probably some of that was true, right? It, it was... You did
Daryn Colledge: Oh, yeah, no, it, it... Yeah, it was bound up and, and I mean, the good thing is when they cut out my tumor, they cut off half my right butt cheek, so I tell most people, like, "I can't really triangle you from my right side, so you should probably work that side." Um, but I also get to half, I get to half-ass everything for the rest of my life.
Um, so that, uh, yeah, that top part of my butt cheek is, uh, it's missing. I went down a whole pant size, uh, without even trying, which was, which was great. Um, so yeah. But it definitely, uh, yeah, it definitely... It was something the, the injury is what caused the notice, and the notice is what caused it to probably be better than it was going to be.
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. So being thankful for that injury, right? There's that.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, exactly.
Riley: that, injury
Daryn Colledge: that positive turn, that positive turned into a negative, but ended up turning into a positive.
Riley: Yeah. Yeah, man, for real. [01:12:00] That's, I guess that lesson to, you know, sometimes we gotta appreciate those, those things, right? That, that setback was started out as an injury that eventually led to diagnosis
Daryn Colledge: you gotta appreciate, yeah, you gotta appreciate the troughs in life. Everybody always wants the highs, but you need the opposite side of that coin. You need the bads to show you what the, the, what the, what the goods really, really can be. And, um, you don't really know what the bottom looks like.
You know, the, I think the one folly in life is that every man believes the man walking next to him isn't in the same place they are, and it's one of those things where you believe that your, your pains and your woes are worse, that there's not people doing the exact same thing you are. And whether that's financial, emotional, or cancer, um, you know, you feel like, "Woe is me.
Why me?" And it's like, you know, person right next to you is going through the exact same thing. So it's one of those things where you're gonna be all right. Keep going.
Riley: Yeah. Oh my gosh, man. Oh, there's some good, good stuff there, Darren. So what's, what's happening these days right now? So you're, you've, you've [01:13:00] really pivoted now.
Daryn Colledge: So I did this-- Yeah, so while I was transitioning out of the, the military, I ended up working for Boise State for a couple of [01:14:00] years, worked for my alumni association, which was awesome. Loved working for the university. You know, Jeremiah Dickey had just gotten there and all that kind of stuff. Had a great time doing that, but ended up diving more and more into my businesses.
Um, got in a situation where I was, um, a small, uh, a small, quiet investor in a, in a restaurant in town, The James Kitchen and Bar. Um, took a bigger share of that, uh, when the time came and became, you know, one of the managing partners of it. And then, um, through that time, started another small little restaurant called The, The Sandwich Bar, which we, you know, do caterings and, you know, I tell everybody it's an upscale Jimmy John's.
We use like local Acme bread and, you know, better products. I just tell e- everybody you deserve a better sandwich. So, you know, The Sandwich Bar does that. And, uh, then we, um, started a restaurant called Corso Italian Steak, also on Broadway. Uh, we took over the old Murphy's building down there. A lot of people know where that is, like down towards the-- about a quarter mile down from the university.
And we started that last year. Uh, we're-- really, it's one year old now, but we started it two years ago. It was about a year-long build to get it, um, built out, and we, we just passed our [01:15:00] year mark, um, uh, last month. So that's kind of the-- that's the new gig right now. And I tell most people, uh, if I knew what restauranting was gonna be like, I probably would've gone back to war with cancer.
But I love what, I love what I, uh, I love what I do. I love the hospitality business. I love providing people experiences. Um, I think hospitality is extremely, extremely, um, important business and one of the few businesses we ask people for the two most important things in our life, their, their time and their money.
And I think it's a, uh, it's a rare thing to get to, to serve people that way and, uh, they deserve the best of it. And I don't care if you're, you know, talking about a cheap college bar or you're talking about the nicest steakhouse in town. It's one of those things where hospitality definitely matters.
Riley: Yeah. We, we all have our favorite places, right? And we,
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: them because of the hospitality we receive. Right.
Daryn Colledge: they're welcome, that's warm, that they're served [01:16:00] right, great service, good food. Um, most people can get away with C-level food if they can have A-level service. It's just one of those things where people just wanna be taken care of, and I think we learned a lot of that during COVID.
The things we missed most were our community getting together, gathering over food, gathering over a table, over a beer, whatever it might be. Um, the ability to come together and, and have those experiences. And all the best experiences in my life are friends and family around tables, you know, whether that's a meal or a beer.
And, uh, so the, the, the opportunity to get to continue to work in that business and provide those new experiences to people every single day, plus the opportunity to give a bunch of people in this city jobs that allow them to, you know, feed their kids or try to put, you know, try to have a home or help pay for their college, whatever it might be, is a, uh, is an awesome opportunity also.
Riley: And I love that you keep coming back to that, um, you know, gratitude for your community, 'cause you've mentioned that on
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: uh, occasions about how you wanted to serve, uh, militarily, uh, in, in Idaho because of what
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: you as a, [01:17:00] a college student, as an athlete, as, you know... You're pouring back in.
I-- Kudos to you, man. I, I love that just attitude of gratitude there.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. You know, I'm, I'm very much a high tide rises all boats. And, you know, I'm-- I came up, I came up in a world, you know, supported by parents that, that, that believed in, you know, serving their community and making something better than the way they found it. And this community made me better than the way it found me.
It's given me everything. It gave me a college degree. It gave me, you know, the opportunity to meet my wife, uh, which obviously gave me my kids. It gave me the chance to serve. It paid for my college. It's, it's given me a life and a purpose, um, that I could never have hoped for. And, you know, a lot of that is hard work, a lot of that's being involved.
But this is just a good town, and this is a good community, and it's continuing to grow. It's continuing to evolve and change, but it's still a great place, and I think that it's gonna continue to evolve, it's gonna continue to change, and there's gotta be a group of people that, that believe in what it was and believe what it can continue to be and that want [01:18:00] to hold onto that.
And my small portion of that is the hospitality business. Like, I believe in, I believe in local vendors. I believe in local, you know, pr- uh, you know, I lo- I love, I love, you know, privately owned restaurants. I love the idea of, you know, people that live in this community, that work in this community. I think that we'll all be eventually repla- replaced by chains if we allow it to happen.
So these independent operating restaurants, everything from the Chandler Steakhouses downtown to the taverns to, you know, to, to, to your local, you know, burger joint that's down the street from your pizza joint. You know, supporting these people, giving people jobs in this industry, I think that that's the, uh, that's the culture and that's the, that's the sense of your community.
And, and I think that they're really, really important things, and we're just happy to be a part of that. And hopefully we can continue to, to do that and, and do it better.
Riley: Well said, man. Hey, can we switch gears a little bit here? I wanna,
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: I wanna... We're gonna bring this thing to a close. Gonna take a little bit here, but we, um, we're an hour and 20 in [01:19:00] already, man, and just fascinating conversation. It's going fast. So, um, there's a whole bunch more I'd, I would love to talk about, but maybe a different time.
Daryn Colledge: Okay.
Riley: I've got some lighter questions for you and, and, uh, one of them is, this is, this podcast is called the Go Earn Your Salt podcast.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: for our electrolyte supplement. But when you hear that phrase, "Go earn your salt," what does it mean to you?
Daryn Colledge: Man, if I-- if you just told me what that was, I would say, like, I think of SALT as in working out. Like, I think of it as SALT as in putting in the work and going out there and, like, earning, earning that effort, right? Challenging myself every single day. So if-- That's, that's what it would be to me. Like, how do I go out?
How do I, how do I earn- The work. And I think that, that the work in itself is obviously what I love the most. I tell most people it's the grind that I enjoy the most, right? And I don't care if it's, you know, trying to get through a Sudoku puzzle or, or trying to [01:20:00] go out and, and run up a mountain, like whatever it might be.
Like, I think we all get gratification from the work that we put in to whatever it is. You know, like I just got done laying a bunch of flagstones in, in my front yard with my wife just 'cause she wanted to improve how it looked. And, you know, it's a, it was a ton of work, and it was a ton of sweat to be out there, and it was hot and, and all that kind of stuff.
But the gratification of, of getting to complete that job and, and getting to see the, uh, the outcome of that, I think is what, uh, what that would mean to me.
Riley: Oh, beautiful, man. Darren, what's your favorite pastime these days?
Daryn Colledge: Um, anything that involves the river. So right now I, I love to fly-fish. It's one of the hobbies I picked up after I got back from the NFL. One of my buddies introduced me to, and I, I love it. I love being on the river fishing, and I love being on the water rafting. I love being in the water, you know, with my kids and the wife, or in a boat, whether it be little kayaks or, you know, our big rubber round boat or whatever it is.
So the river right now is my favorite pastime. Uh, second to that would be [01:21:00] working out.
Riley: Dude, I don't know if you know this, but I've, I've been a fly fisherman for 30 years, man.
Daryn Colledge: Nah? Yeah, I tell people I've been fishing for like, uh, probably eight to 10, and that makes me probably, uh, two years into this thing. I don't fish enough. I've always got something to learn. I'm humbled, um, every time I'm on the water, so...
Riley: Oh, that's beautiful, man. There, there is something about that, huh? Standing out there in that river with that fly rod swinging
Daryn Colledge: I think it's hard to explain to some people, but like my wife will... You know, I'll come back, I won't have caught a thing, and she'll be like, "Oh, so it wasn't that great." And I'm like, "No, I still had an amazing time." There's something about the quiet, there's something about the cast and the rhythm and the, and, and the battle within yourself and the water and the fish to try to make it work and, and sometimes I just accept that I'm not gonna win that day.
And, uh, again, I get my 30 seconds and I try to figure out how I can, uh, go out there and, and do a little bit better.
Riley: Yeah, and you hook that one fish and you're good for 10 more trips, right?
Daryn Colledge: have one day where I got everything right and I'm like, "I'm a super, super [01:22:00] good fisherman." And then the next day I'll catch nothing.
Riley: I love it, man. I love it so much. What, uh, what's your favorite band of all time?
Daryn Colledge: My favorite band of all time? I listen to, I listen to a lot of, uh, divorced dad rock. Like, I listen to a lot of Hate music. I listen to a lot of, uh, like Five Finger Death Punch. That's all my military background. Football got me into rap and all that kind of stuff. I grew up on '80s music and '70s, listening to, you know, all that kind of stuff.
But oddly, I will never change the channel if Journey's on.
Riley: Oh, yeah. Heck yeah, man. Every time. I love it. I
Daryn Colledge: Every time.
Riley: Darren, what's something that's, uh, a little quirky about you that people don't know?
Daryn Colledge: What's something quirky about me? Um I'ma do... My life's an open book. I don't know if I actually have anything that's quirky. Oh, I hate odd numbers.
I don't like chewing gum. I don't like chewing one piece of gum, I chew two. I don't [01:23:00] like eating three Skittles, I eat four. Like, I hate odd numbers. I have no idea why. I have two kids. Yeah, I could never have three. I would have to have four, so.
Riley: you'd go for twins a second time, huh?
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, exactly. I tell my wife she's the only single thing I've ever had.
Riley: Oh my goodness. I love it. That's a perfect example. All right.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: in the restaurant business. What is your favorite food?
Daryn Colledge: God, I love a good steak. Like, uh, you know, Corso's an Italian steakhouse, and it's built around the things that I love. I love big pastas and I love steaks. Um, I think the hardest thing about being a 300-pound offensive lineman and now somebody who's trying to be somewhat in shape and, and a better person, uh, health-wise in life, is to turn off that restaurant, like, valve, 'cause I eat o- You know, it's hard for me to tell you what my favorite food is 'cause I eat everything and all things.
I love sample. I'm a real foodie. Like, I wanna try new kitchens. I wanna s- I, you know, I'll eat anything from Thai food, to Vietnamese, to Italian, to, to classics, to, you [01:24:00] know, Greek or whatever. Like, I'll try anything and eat anything. I love it all. But it's hard to beat a good lasagna, it's hard to beat a good steak.
Riley: Mm-hmm. Mm, I hear you. hear you. Darren, scariest moment of your life?
Daryn Colledge: The first time I met my daughter when she was born. Like, realizing that you were in charge of another human being for the rest of its life, to make sure that you cared about something more than you, that's a, that's a big one. I'll take, I'll take cancer twice over being in, being in charge of, uh, human beings again.
Like, my kids are amazing, and they've been the biggest challenge and the biggest success, and the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me. But definitely the biggest challenge, and definitely the scariest moment.
Riley: Yeah. I hear you, man. There is that moment of realization where you realize life is different now, right?
Daryn Colledge: Oh, yeah, for sure. Well, y- you know, the funny thing is, you know, you're a single... Well, not single, you're, you know, married NFL player, you're making a ton of money, you're traveling the world, and you're doing all these cool things, and you think you're, you think you've got the world licked, and you think you've got...
You're playing at the big boy table, and you're [01:25:00] doing all this kind of stuff, and then you have kids, and you realize you were at the kids table the entire time. That life's much bigger and much, much different on this side of the, uh, the realm, and I would never go back. It's a, uh, it's an amazing, amazing experience, but...
Riley: Oh, that's beautiful, man. Darren, what is the, the best advice you've ever received?
Daryn Colledge: Be useful. That's still the one that I use every single day, to yourself, to your neighbors, to your friends, to your family. Keep being useful.
Riley: Hmm. Yep, you've said that multiple times on the podcast here, man, and I, I-- it resonates with me when, when you say it, so, um. something else on your bucket list?
Daryn Colledge: My bucket list
I want to go back to Italy and live for one year. I think I just want to, to disconnect for one year and live in like one of those small villages and eat way too much pasta and drink way too much wine and, uh, disconnect for one year. That's still, [01:26:00] uh, that's still on my bucket list. I don't think I can play f- uh, football anymore for 'em, so it's gonna have to just be eating and drinking too much.
Riley: That's awesome. So you m- you mentioned to me when we were off air that you're getting ready to do an ultramarathon,
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: this weekend if I, if I heard you right.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, Saturday. Yeah.
Riley: Yeah.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, the Boise, uh, the, the... I think it's called the Boise Greenbelt Relay, and you can either run it as a relay team or you can run it as a fifty-mile stretch. So m- my friend and I, a good buddy of mine, uh, we, we kinda have a relationship where we, you... it's kinda like, "Hey, you wanna try this?"
Like, you know, we-- it's kind of a back and forth, and we usually do what's called a Misogi most years. And, uh, you know, a real Misogi you don't promote, a real Misogi you don't train for. But this one we were like, you know, he-- we kinda talked to each other, and we were about fifty days out from this fifty-mile race, and neither one of us had ever ran over a half marathon.
And we were like, "Hey, man, we got fifty days, you know, let's train. You wanna, do you wanna try to do this fifty-mile race?" And, um, I think there's a below fifty percent chance we even finish it or do it or [01:27:00] whatever, but it's been a, it's been a lot of fun to, to, to get ready for, and we're super excited for the challenge to just see what's doing.
And it's just... it's frankly to go out and do something hard. It's to do something that I don't expect to be successful at, that I know is gonna be a, a huge pain. I tell, you know, the-- my ultimate goal is don't get hurt. My second goal is to just finish. Like, that's it. I don't care if it takes me twenty-four hours, and the race only has-- you only get twelve hours to finish the race.
Um, or, or I think you only have ten hours to finish the race. But frankly, I'm gonna start, and when I'm done, I'm done. And, and if that's at ten PM that night, that's when, that's when my race, that my-- when my race ends. So I just wanna go out and do hard things. I wanna see what I'm capable of, of doing. I wanna put myself in uncomfortable places 'cause I think that's when you learn something about yourself, and that's when the, the world quiets down just long enough to get some of the answers that you're looking for.
Riley: You know, I, on that, the guy in interviewed prior to, to you, um,
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: I interviewed a gentleman named Josh Sprague, and Josh is an ultra runner.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: he talked about-- He's very [01:28:00] encouraging 'cause he, he said, "You know, 50 miles is a long ways, but it's something most people can do it
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. Yeah.
Riley: it may be a pace that's too slow for that 10-hour finish time, but you can do it, you know?"
So it's-- And
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: man. You got all this stuff's gonna come back to you. You're, you're, you'll be
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, I think that that's where it is, right? Like you reach, you reach a place in your life, and you reach a place in these races, and you, you, you find all these places in life where you decide is it something you want, right? Are-- am I willing to go through the pain? Am I willing to put in the effort?
Am I willing to try To do this thing, you know, we stop short of so many things because we've, we decide that it's not worth it or we don't realize how close we are actually to success. And it's one of those things where people probably don't put themselves into a place of physical challenge enough. You know, we all feel like we have so much going on emotionally and that's absolutely true or, you know, financially or whatever it be relationship-wise.
But there's [01:29:00] something about challenging ourselves, uh, fundamentally at a physical level. I tell everybody the, the hardest thing about leaving football and joining the real world is that football is easy to measure yourself every single day. You get to wake up, win or lose, you look in the mirror and you know whether you did it.
You had enough physically, you had enough, you put enough of the work in, you put enough the effort in, you know why you won and lost something. And I think in this world of, of computers and, and all that kind of stuff and the, and the, the white-collar jobs and all the stuff that we deal with in society today, we don't have that measure as much anymore in our day-to-day operations, in our relationships or in our jobs.
That, that physical thing is something that's innate inside of us. That's, you know, caveman-esque where it's like to physically go out and be like, "I was enough today," or, "I wasn't enough today." You're gonna win on either side of that, but you're gonna know more about yourself than you knew about going into it.
And that's all this is. I'm gonna know something about myself in five miles and I'm gonna know something about myself in fifty miles and we'll, uh, we'll see what that is.
Riley: Yeah. [01:30:00] That's awesome, dude. Darren, what's your, uh, book of all time? Something you recommend everyone read.
Daryn Colledge: My favorite book of all time that I read at least twice a year is The Count of Monte Cristo.
Riley: Nice.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. I've got a couple, I've got a couple books that are in my regular rotation. I'm always changing. I've always got one or two hard books going. I've always got one or two audiobooks going. But The Count of Monte Cristo I read or listen to at least twice a year.
Riley: What is it about that that, you love?
Daryn Colledge: Um, it's just one of the great stories of all time to me. It's just a, a story of overcoming something. It's a story of relationships. It's a story of vengeance. It's a story. It's just-- it's one of the most well-written stories I believe around and just one that's been around f- in my life for a long, long time.
So it's something that takes me back to a place. So whenever I'm in between a book, I'm always doing a couple chapters of that if I'm not onto my next one. And, um, it's one of the really, really [01:31:00] good audiobooks out there. So it's always going in my car too. So it's one of those things where it's like I'll get a couple chapters and I believe it's about a forty-three hour listen.
So it's also one of those ones where it's like I just kinda chisel away at it, um, a couple times a year. But I, I love that, uh, I love that book. It's one of the, uh, it's one of the few that it's in my constant, constant rotation. Um, probably the only book that gets close to that for me is Atlas Shrugged, which is another one
Riley: Dude, yeah, that's one I have to respect. It's right
Daryn Colledge: Yeah. And probably one that hits a little-- Yeah, probably one of the ones that, yep, hits a little closer to home right now in the time that we live in. So...
Riley: it's funny 'cause that, that book is both comforting and, and uncomforting, right? It, it--
Daryn Colledge: Uh-huh.
Riley: they were dealing with so much of the same stuff clear back then when she wrote that book.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: we feel like it's all brand new now, and
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: those same
Daryn Colledge: History teaches us that we're just going through the same thing, just at a different time.
Riley: Yep. [01:32:00] Yep. Um, listen, man, what's, uh, what's next for you? Where are you going from here?
Daryn Colledge: Trying to run restaurants as best I can. This is the goal I'm at right now. You know, uh, Corso's brand new. It's still a baby. It's one year old. It's still extremely vulnerable, and it will be for another year. So we're always looking for more customers. We're always looking to spread the word. We're always looking to try to become that community place, and that's a dangerous-- that's always a dangerous time.
So I'm doing that right now. The thing in my life is that, that over the last year, that's been a huge stress in my life, on my family, on me, and all that kind of stuff. And like I told you before, you have to control the things you can control. So I've been on a fitness journey for the last, you know, five months to, to get myself back to, to, to being back in shape, to running, to lifting, to doing the things that make me really, really happy and really, really dialing in and controlling things I can control.
And right now, that's the things I-- that things I eat and the way I treat myself and the way I treat my family. So my journey right now is two, two very, very, uh, distinct things, but they're very much, uh, separated. [01:33:00] I'm, you know, taking care of myself, taking care of my family, and I'm trying to put my business over here, and I'm trying to help it grow and, uh, be the best leader I can right there, while also going out there and being also its biggest cheerleader and going out and being like, "Hey, have you tried it?
Have you tried it? Have you tried it? Come on in." You know? And, uh, so I can, again, continue to support the, you know, fifty, the fifty employees that I have that I wanna make sure they're getting their rent paid and all those kind of things and, and keep, uh, keep trying to offer things to this community.
Riley: Oh, that's beautiful. quick question, you, uh, you go into there. What, what are you weighing in at these days?
Daryn Colledge: Two fifty-five.
Riley: Two fifty-five. That's a big ultra runner, dude.
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, I got a feeling, um, for weight class, uh, I don't know how many people will be in my weight class today. So I, I-- It was funny. I ran Robie Creek a couple weeks ago and ended up finishing, like, mid-field because I was running my, uh, I'm running my same race pace that I plan on running my ultra at. So it was really just a training run for me to be out there and be like, "Hey, I'm gonna run with people.
I'm not gonna be pressured to run faster," because I knew that that was gonna happen. I [01:34:00] was like, "Hey, I'm gonna run my eights. I'm gonna walk my twos. I'm gonna hold my pace the entire time." But I wanted to do it around the run and, and be tempted. And so I ended up finishing up, like, mid, mid-pack and then, you know, whatever for my age group and the whole nine yards.
But I was like, "Can they-- Can we get a weight class here?" 'Cause I wanna see how many How many 255-pound guys finished at this time? Because that's, that's all I have to hold on to right now because I'm not fast. I'm not a, I'm not a runner by any means. Like the farthest I've ever ran is a half marathon.
Like, you know, I ran, I ran one 20-miler before, but I've never done a marathon. I've only raced a half marathon. So it's one of those things where it's like I'm operating in a whole new sphere. I'm not running quick. You know, it's not like I'm like, "Oh man, I'm clicking on... I'm seeing these cool marathon times."
These guys are like, "Oh, you know, I average a seven for the whole thing." I'm like, "That's not my life." Like I'm a double digits guy. Like it's like
Riley: Yeah.
Daryn Colledge: That was a downhill. So it's one of those things where I'm a, I'm a diesel man. I got, I got a low, I got low in torque, and I'm just gonna keep, I'm gonna keep rolling the miles.
But the retread for 50 miles, it may come off. So I'm gonna have an extra pair of shorts, an extra pair of shoes. [01:35:00] I don't know what's gonna happen, what, uh, what 50 miles looks like, but I'm super, I'm super excited to find out.
Riley: That's funny, man, 'cause they, they always say if you're over 190 pounds, they, they put you in. They, they the term is Clydesdale. Have you heard that?
Daryn Colledge: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Riley: Yep,
Daryn Colledge: but that, that wasn't ranked on the damn time sheet they gave me. I'm like, "I wanna know where all the Clydesdales are." But I, I think it's funny that 190 pounds is Clydesdale. I'm like, "Dude,
Riley: Yeah.
Daryn Colledge: pounds, that's the lightest guy on the football field. What are you talking about 190 pounds?"
Riley: my gosh. Yeah,
Daryn Colledge: that's not like... I-- 190 pounds, I've lost 80 pounds. Like what are you talking about?
Riley: That's right. That's right. That's awesome, man. dude, where, where can you be found? Are you on the social medias, or you
Daryn Colledge: Yeah, man, I'm on, I'm on Instagram. Uh, I'm on Twitter. I'm on LinkedIn like every other business owner. You can most of the time find me at The James and find me at Corso, man. That's where, that's where I live. I work at Corso a couple days. I'm always at The James. I'm in my businesses, man. I'm, I'm, I'm trying to be with the community.
I'm trying to support my, uh, support my employees, and [01:36:00] I tell, I tell most people, like if, if you take away the fact that I'm in the NFL, I'm actually probably just a normal dude having a beer with you down the, uh, down the bar, so...
Riley: Well, listen, dude, I ... That, that's something that I always noticed about you. Like, you, you're on the mats with us, and we're all grappling, and we're all from different stages of life, and some guys in there are young kids just coming out of high school. Some guys, you know, work in landscaping. Some guys, you know, you're a NFL guy.
And, and yet you were just one of the gang, and then that was always cool,
Daryn Colledge: Yeah.
Riley: always appreciated that about you.
Daryn Colledge: I, I've been super, super fortunate and super, super blessed to, to have the opportunity I had to do what I did, but I am absolutely, um, a, a normal guy who got to be put in a unique situation who's gotten to do the best things. You know, it's always funny. I always tell everybody the richest guy I ever met, I met in overalls, and it's one of those things like you don't know who's around you.
You don't know what they're doing. You don't know what their story is. But you do know the way they act and the way they're treated, and I hope most people can, will understand and, and will see me as that's a nice guy, that's a [01:37:00] humble guy, that's a guy that wants to help, the guy that wants to be a part of, uh, his community and do those things.
And I've never, ever tried to put myself above anybody, even though frankly I know I'm better than a couple people.
Riley: I love it. I love it, dude. thanks for taking the time with me today, dude. I'm, I'm truly honored by the,
Daryn Colledge: Oh, Riley, my pleasure, man. Absolutely.
Riley: me.
Daryn Colledge: No, it was great seeing you, man.
Riley: you'll get on the mats and kick my butt with that, uh, right-handed triangle
Daryn Colledge: Unlike riding a bike, I- it's, it's gonna be start over, man. They're gonna take all my tape, they're gonna take all my belts. I'm gonna have to start over completely.
Riley: Oh, man, that'd be awesome, dude. Well, Darren, go earn your salt, my
Daryn Colledge: All right, buddy. Appreciate you.
[01:38:00]