Justin Smith

After more than a decade long career in the NFL, 5x Pro Bowler Justin Smith is living life off the grid and raising his children to be as hard working as he is. While he hasn’t yet gotten to the reminiscing phase for his NFL career, he’s confident his motivation was simple – to play ball. A no frills, no b.s. kind of guy, Smith shares his outlook on the NFL, his family, and simple living.

Show Highlights

Since his freshman year (and even earlier if we’re being honest), Justin Smith’s been all about the go, not the show. For him, football was pretty easy because he was always willing to train hard and put in the hours.  He’s appreciative of the preparation provided by his high school program’s old school mentality and the values with which they ran the program.

In retirement, Smith keeps those same values and hard work mentality in every day life with his family on their farm. Simple living is how he was raised and he wants to teach his kids those same ways.

In discussing the NFL when Smith was nearing retirement, he noticed the impending swing of the regulatory pendulum and weighed in on the extent of the changes. And now in retirement Smith discussed the reality of taking care of himself post-career, specifically what it feels like to eat like a normal human being.

We finished the episode with some talk of Xs and Os where we were able to see the inner thoughts and dialogue of Smith while he was on the field. Most of it can be boiled down to his advice to athletes: there are no shortcuts, work your ass off, and stay humble.