Ray Lewis on Lack of Black Sports Owners

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1:59Brex is the intelligent finance platform that eliminates that work before it starts. AI agents that handle the manual stuff automatically, so your team can spend their time on what actually compounds. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at brex.com slash AF. stop with endorsements that's a check and if somebody's able to write you that check well then i don't want the check i'll give you example i signed my third contract i'm sitting in the room and the owner walks in and he says listen we're going to make him the highest paid player in the game so they give me 50 million dollars right they give me 20 up front and my agent looked at me and and I got up and walked out of the room.

2:49And he was like, what's wrong? Why are you walking out of the room? I said, because it finally clicked. Player money no longer impresses me. I wanna know what he does. Because if he can pay me this much, then I need to learn that business. Show some love, make some noise. Super Bowl, we gotta hit it. The sun is out.

3:20My mic working. There you go. Make some noise for the legend Ray Lewis, ladies and gentlemen.

3:28Best ever in this position. One of the best ever to play the game. But more importantly, a great man, a great humanitarian. So thank you for doing this, brother. Absolutely, brother. I appreciate what you guys are doing. Absolutely life-changing messages. And it's just beautiful to know. Absolutely, absolutely. So I think, you know, obviously people know the football career, they know from the athletic side, obviously the Hall of Fame, one of the best ever to do it. But you're doing a lot of stuff on the business side. So I kind of want to start there. Let's go back to 1996 when you're getting drafted.

4:04There's a gentleman by the name of Ozzie Newsom who played an intricate role, obviously bringing you to the team, but also mentoring you and guiding you off the field. So talk about the role and impact that Ozzie had on your life. Yeah, it was interesting because when Ozzie first drafted me to Baltimore, I'm sitting in the locker waiting on this phone call. And then he calls and says, we're going to draft you to Baltimore. And I said, Baltimore doesn't have a team. Like, how are you drafting me to Baltimore? You know? And he's like, nah, you know, we're coming from Cleveland. And I'm like, what?

4:36All of the teams I could have been drafted to, I'd go to freaking Baltimore. And from the first day, man, when he told me I was coming in, what he invested into me on the field was one thing. But the investment that he gave me off the field was everything. And it was everything about the front office and understanding how the entire machine actually runs. And at a very young age, I wanted to know that because I just didn't want to be a player on the field. I wanted to be a player off the field as well. And so Ozzy still to this day, he just called me a week ago. I'm talking about some stuff. So we had that relationship since I was 19 years old.

5:15And now I'm 47 years old with that same relationship with Ozzy. So I want to talk about some financial stuff that we was talking over there. You were saying how a lot of guys, you know, obviously make a lot of poor decisions when it comes to finances. But, you know, talking about taxes and what looks like a$40 million contract really isn't a$40 million contract. But can you kind of break that down a little bit? Yeah, look, it's really simple. I think a lot of us look at athletes' contracts, and the first thing you look at is the number, right? But the one thing you don't look at is how much of that number is gone before you even sign the check, right?

5:51That number does not really exist, right? So you say, oh, my gosh, this guy made$100 million. Absolutely not, right? 40 % is coming to Uncle Sam, whoever that is, that you're paying your money to immediately. And so what I started to do probably in year eight or nine is really started to understand why I was not counting my own money. Right. We hire people to count our money for us. We hire people to get to give us monthly updates. Right. On. Oh, well, you spent this this month. Well, I don't need you to tell me that if I see my statements myself, if I know what every penny of my money is going.

6:30then yeah I can do that myself and so interesting enough when I got done playing I partnered with a guy recently by the name of Julio Gonzalez probably one of the number one tax guys in the world and for him to take me through the entire tax bracket and how they don't pay taxes you know you think about rich being rich is great because you can buy a lot of things being wealthy you can pass that to the generation after generation after generation but you have to know it's not about making money it's how do you keep money like that's the number one rule of life right i can people can pay you see it all the time people pay athletes all the time pay actors all the time you never get an opportunity to sit in the rooms where they're talking about ownership or partnership why because the most important thing is a relationship and they don't have relationships with athletes.

7:26They have relationships with a number. A number is 52, a number is 80, a number is 32, a number is whatever your number is, that's what they relate to. Why? Because that's what makes their money, right? But one of the biggest disconnects that all players must understand, I stopped taking endorsements 2010. 2010, why? I bought my name back why because i don't need endorsements right like i want ownership right i want partnership right because partnership then dictates and shows me what a relationship is right every hand that i've shook in my in my professional career that hand remembered why i shook their hand and it was not because they wrote me a check it's because i told them i'll be seeing them again on the other the sound of football right that's that's the exciting part for me yeah yes sir yeah so when did that light bulb click was somebody educating you on that yeah and you have to you have to search for that education so one of the greatest educators ever and regardless of what anybody thinks if you don't have a relationship with god it's almost impossible to control your life right like like You have to have someone who's in the forefront of your life that you actually go to.

8:43So God has been in my life my entire life. My mom's a pastor. My dad was a pastor before he passed last year. So I've always been raised from that core. But that's the foundation of who you are. So when you start to look for information and you start to pray for God to surround you around the right people. I had the wrong people around me when I was in my 20s. but by the time I got in my mid-30s, God was surrounding me around people that can educate me, right? And once I started to grab that education, that's food, right? He says that you would know my people by the fruit that they bear. So I wanted to know the fruit that the people was around me.

9:22What fruit are you bearing? Don't tell me you can show me how to make money. I can make money myself, but show me how I can affect people, right? Show me how I can dictate my next part of my legacy, Making tackles is great. Right? Playing in the National Football League was one of the most amazing things ever. Why? Because it brought my mother out of the hood. Right? And so that's where I think guys have to take a deeper dive if you really want to change your life. Because if you really believe money is going to do it, it won't. Right? It'll give you ups and downs. The devil has the same power God has.

9:56The only power he doesn't have, he can't save your life. But he can give you everything that this world offers. And most of it is fast. Most of the shiny and most of his spins. Right. God gives you things that does the opposite. Yeah. And all those people said, amen. So you talked about in your 20s and, you know, being here this week, Super Bowl week, it's been kind of a common theme amongst some of the players is that, yeah, early on in their career, they didn't have the people around them. They didn't have the education. and a lot of it is because they didn't care to know because they were taking recommendations from people.

10:36It's the setup. It's what happens when you're 17 years old. When you're 17 years old, this agent walks up to you. He says, don't mention my name again, but I want to be your agent. And you, because you're broke and you have absolutely nothing, you say, wow, okay, I'll stay in touch with you. And while you're staying in touch with him, he then follows your career and waits until you get into your junior or senior year, my junior year you know and then there was there was times right there's an nil deal now out there so who cares about what i tell now right but statue of limitations they have inspired but when you take my you take what i was doing in 1994 bro 1994 was what they're letting kids do now i was saying why can't you be paid right that's you cannot tell me if somebody wants to help me out because of what I do why can't out you allow that so when that started to be an allowed in 1994 man listen bro bags bags being dropped off like double bad boy oh man you're not talking to me unless I have a bag drop off so then but it's a system right because a friend forget the friend the friend says hey Ray I got this person I got this person I got a lawyer I got an agent I got bro and you're like before you know it you done trusted somebody that you have not built a relationship with and you just give them your whole check I mean you write over the entire check and you've never sat with them or have dinner with them a day in your life and that's the system of how our kids are taught on how to go into the National Football League the NBA all these different things and trust people that have not put no sweat equity into who we are right it's criminal right to a certain person to a certain point and so I wanted to change that which I did so you mentioned in a in IL um how do you feel about an IL I think it's the NIL deal was supposed to be different right what does that mean these major colleges have endowment funds right the universe of miami has an endowment fund almost 40 billion dollars or more those kids are supposed to eat from that fund they're not supposed to eat from outside now once you let people from outside come in then that's where the divide the division of the locker room starts why because you pay a quarterback a million dollars but you pay the lineman nothing but the quarterback can't throw the ball unless the lineman blocking right so all of the way it was supposed to be distributed when i was arguing the issue i was saying listen if my number 52 makes a certain dollar amount then i should eat from that why shouldn't i eat from my money from my name that i make you you cannot make money off my name right there's no fortune 500 company in america that you can use their brand you cannot use the NFL logo by yourself.

13:40You wear a shirt and you advertise that, they're going to want a percentage of that. Well, then my name should represent the same thing. And every athlete should represent that exact same thing. Which it doesn't. Right? Because the NFL PA, we're up under this brand. Right? I made over Jesus, my jersey from 2005 to 2008. Bro, listen, hundreds of millions of dollars. I have it. You have it. And you, and think about a$250 jersey and I got a$5 ,000 check. Something's off with that math. Something's off with that math. But it's the same thing with the NIL, dealing colleges. Pay the kids from where they make the money.

14:21Don't let outside endorsers come in. Once again, the endorsement model because that takes the attention off of them. The endorsement model is not the way to go, man. And I'm telling you, it's going to continue to divide our children. Just like the portal. The portal is cool, but the portal takes the leash off what greatness really is. Man, greatness hurts. That's a lot of down days that you got to go through to find out what greatness is. And now kids are in the portal and they can run away from that so quickly. They disagree with the coach. I'm transferring this year. You know, I got four sons.

15:00I got four kings. I got two queens. and I went through that whole battle and I'm sitting there saying, son, earn a job. I was never given a job. I had to take the job, you know, and so a lot of these things that they're creating, I think it's taken the issue off what the real issue is. Like our kids should be paid, but they should be compensated from where the money sits. And that's in this endowment funds. That's an absolute fact. I never even thought about that, the endowments of the schools. But you said endorsements aren't the way. And so it makes me wonder at that point you're getting a salary from the NFL, but you're not doing endorsements.

15:35We all you know, we preach having one income is too close to none. What other type of alternatives did you seek to find a way to make money off the field? Partnerships. OK. Partnerships. Right. Everybody wants to shake your hand and they want to they want to make you the greatest thing ever. Right. Oh, my gosh. Come do this. Come speak. Come do that. I will if I own part of that because if I own part of that then I got ownership in that and if I got ownership in that then I speak about it a little more boldly a little more fast I have a little more energy of getting up every morning to come do what you want me to do no matter how much you own think about owning 100 % of nothing that's nothing but if you got your hands in enough things that I got my hands in I got percentage in this I got 28, 30 plus companies, man, that my hands is in that I own or partner, which means I have a relationship with them.

16:39If I can teach my kids, stop with endorsements, that's a check. And if somebody is able to write you that check, well, then I don't want the check. I'll give you an example. I signed my third contract. I'm sitting in the room and the owner walks in and he says listen we're gonna make him the highest paid player in the game so they give me 50 million dollars right they give me 20 up front and my agent looked at me and I got up and walked out of the room and he was like what's wrong why are you walking out of the room. I said, because it finally clicked. Player money no longer impresses me. I want to know what he does, because if he can pay me this much, then I need to learn that business, right?

17:36So athletes, think about this. Athletes are never introduced to the owner concept until you make enough money because they tell you i'll put you in the next slot right every athlete is slotted so whether you think an agent is relevant or not every athlete the number is already marked so when you come to that number you're like ah i want a few more million i want a few hundred thousand more maybe but you're slotted so they always make us think about the player and then I wanted to know what our owner thinks like so then I started sitting myself around owners and I started to say wow that's a different conversation than I have in a locker room full of players they don't even think about ownership they don't even think about owning their IP at all the only thing they think about is their next check when you become a boss you don't think about your next check you write the checks that's the difference absolutely that's a bar yeah so ownership staying on the ownership theme the nfl i think it's like made 65 percent of black players make up the nfl 73 73 okay no black ownership so there's the rooney rule to try to you know have more black head coaches which a lot of people think that that's flawed but least they have something in place what are your thoughts on having the majority of the league be black players have no black ownership and how can we get it to the point where there is representation in the owner's box we own we control sports right blacks dominate that from an nfl level but you're not changing that unless you're sitting in the ownership rooms so we can argue all we want to about not having black coaches but until we get a black owner in that office or two then that ain't changing no matter what rule you want to talk about this is what i'm saying like we only look for the check we only look for the position that's given in today's time it's time for us to take that that's what partnerships and ownership is right my goal is simple my goal has never changed i'm 47 years old the next five to seven years my goal is to put myself in the right position to possibly become the first black minority owner in the national football league why because i want to change the narrative right if we don't do that if we don't do that then no conversation changes why do you think that hasn't happened It's simple.

20:24I'm thinking about this 73 % of you, right? Control the league. We got some of the greatest players that's ever played this game. Multimillionaires. How come there's never been, or maybe there has been, a conversation to come together as a group to become more than a minority or become the investment group behind the ownership of a team? If the attraction from Little League to college, to from little league to high school to college to the national football league the attraction is to make a check the attraction is to get out the hood the attraction has never been how do you become owner nobody teaches that unless you're sitting in that room to listen what owners are discussing so luckily in my career i was able to start sitting in those rooms to sit there and listen what they're talking about and i said and i started to say it i said man they was like oh my gosh this must play a sign for this much money i said that does not impress me do you know the person who's writing the check that's what i'm chasing and so until that dynamic starts to really change and we have enough of us who understands our true power is what we can do together.

21:48But the individual, individual check is written and then so this person going to, I got to take my money, I got to take my money, I got to take my money, I got to take my money. And it's great. You can take your money but the generations after that, they're still the same model. I just think the model can only change if we're sitting in those owners' meetings. Yes, I'm saying there's a lot of investment. You asked me about coaching, right? There's a lot of investment that goes into coaching, right? There's a lot of investing to go from coaches to the GMs, right? GMs to the owner. Those are steps, and you have to be invested to do that.

22:24But you also have to have the education to understand all of the aspects of the game and not just playing the game. When you get in the front office, you're not only just counting people checks, right? You're talking about everything that walks in that building, right? tomorrow's game the only thing we see is a game man that's a zillion dollar business right with intricate parts that everybody has to be in control of and so that's why I'm telling you like until you start to sit down and study that world it's and that's one vertical go to the MLB go to the NBA NHL same model So a bunch of owners got together, put a pool together.

23:14Let's make this money. Let's build this. And that's what they do. Right? So we have the ability. But because of the checks being so current, it never crosses our minds to become owner. We're okay with being a player. Right? So I started to make a transition halfway through my career. So when you were fortunate enough to be in those owners meetings, What's some of the things that you learned from just sitting and listening to the conversations man? Nothing matters to them But what each one of them think Seriously, like and that's what I respect about that meeting. It's like That's why I go back to talking about partnership partnerships in life.

23:57It's only based off one thing relationships That's it bro. Who you do partner who you partner with that's a relationship and that's what I respect so much about the relationships that they have in that circle of power that they have that's why they signed deals together that's why they broke the TV deals together you know, it's like, it's a genius concept, right? but how many of us will really come together and break that concept? You said something that was very insightful you said that they only care about what each other think that's it that you don't you don't care about what somebody else show does you work your show you call your guy or you don't care about just what yourself thinks no you what the overall theme is we have a machine the machine must run right players careers three years three and a half years and the next one come in and the next one come in and the next one come in it's a revolving door in all the sports all the sports has ran exactly like this that's why the next thing the neck the only the most important person in an athlete's life in the onus perspective is the next one that's crazy that's crazy it's on the way they work nobody's bigger than the program it's the only way it's the only way that works bro there's nobody bigger than them bigger than the machine you you reference the fact that i asked you about coaching but the answer i got i think we should elaborate on it was the power of impact and it's something that i had to experience working in education and realize i could affect the school but i could affect the world doing something different talk about why you haven't chosen the coach because of the power of impact yeah i mean the the coaching side is it's attractive right because i've been into my entire life.

25:57I've been playing, I've been coaching, I've been mentoring. I've been doing a lot of those things. But with the impact that I'm trying to make, I just want to hear the Lord when I finally go home and say, well done, my good and faithful servant. I don't think that's just going to come from me being a great football player. I think that's going to come from me making an impact on people and being a light amongst people to show them the way. God says many are called, but few are chosen. So the question I got is, how do you become a part of the few? Right? That's the real question. That's the real question, right?

26:37And so coaching is great. And I'm 47, so maybe I coach at 55. But what I'm doing with each one of my companies, one of my ventures, being 52 Ventures, Prosperity Reimagined, is how do we go into these communities and how do we change the look of those communities? All this money, they keep saying, we're giving this much money to black communities. I have not seen one black community change. So sad. And I mean, real change. So that, for me, I've sat down, studied them 20 plus years. I've been in the hoods. I've been in the prisons. I'm walking around. I'm trying to figure it out. and every time I see a Martin Luther King Street, I'm saying, why is Martin Luther King Street in the most dysfunctional place in the city?

27:20That has to change. So that's why I think my focus and what I'm focusing on now is much bigger. So if I want to come back to coaching, I will. I just don't think right now is the time. So we always hear horror stories of athletes getting taken advantage of from financial advisors, from accountants, from lawyers, everybody. What is the process to actually be able to trust somebody and what should you never do to kind of safeguard yourself from being taken advantage of? Yeah, I think you should always have three layers, right? You should have your spiritual foundation, your family foundation, and then your business foundation.

28:00In all three of those layers, you must have somebody at every level, right? to spiritually guide you family is somebody you trust and then business is somebody who has to answer to your family and your spiritual guidance right because once they have the answer to them the problem is we do it opposite right our talent opens the door we go in and we sign a check as soon as we sign the check the first thing we do is sign it over to an agent that we just met two weeks ago who then passes to his financial team and then they start distributing your money and you never see your money ever again so so we have to check but it's the it's the model it's the model right and every almost every person goes down that same model if you don't change that model about one of the things i started doing with my financial advisor right i said every penny every penny that leaves or comes into my account i should be alerted every penny right and what does that mean i should have the same access you have you should not have to call me in two weeks to let to report on my money no i should be reporting to you what i want to do with my money but that's taking ownership right it's back to ownership and it's back to partnership i have a great partnership with my financial teams and i have ownership of all of my entire world and that's why I like to sit.

29:23I got spiritual guidance. I got family guidance with my mom and what she does and then I have business teams that actually oversee each other and making sure that I am not being hustled, which I have. I've been down that road, bro. Millions of dollars. Come on, man. You want to talk about it? Bro, talk about it. I'm still looking for the people without it. Easy, easy. Statue of limitations may not have expired. Easy. No, it's crazy because you trust people, man. And you trust people and you trust them to do what's best for you. And then you realize that that person ain't equally yoked. That person has no God in their life.

30:05And all the thing you trust is, well, I've been in financial for 15 years, 20 years. Okay, and? Now that I'm on this side of life, I'm able to say and? Right? Nah, you got to ask those questions. The easiest thing to do is give somebody a check. The hardest thing to do is ask questions that you don't know that they don't know how to tell you. It's the hardest thing to do. Earners, you know what separates a lot of companies today? Speed. Not just having a great idea, but how fast you can actually execute it. Because we've all seen it before. Marketing wants a new landing page, design already mocked it up, and engineering says, we'll get to it next week.

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34:07To learn more and find a local physical therapist, visit ChoosePT.com. Yeah, let's talk about the work, right? Because I can hear the passion in you. I can imagine you coming into a community. there's going to be a presence that you feel yeah so let's talk about 52 foundations and the work that y 'all are doing because it's incredible right giving economic assistance to to the youth you know talk about the the obviously the the goal of it uh the start of it and how everything has been functioning inside of it yeah one of them um one of my other companies started in 2015 um in baltimore after the unrest at freddie gray right um and at that time i started a solar company at the time and why because I started walking the streets and you know the streets of Baltimore was burning and everybody was just frustrated and you know Baltimore it's it's beautiful but it has a bad black eye content to it and uh so my company started in 2015 and now man Jesus I think we just had our 24th 25th graduation right to where now we took hundreds of gang members off the streets and we've given them options, right?