Welcome to Howl Leaders Lead, where every week you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I break down the key learnings of the by the end of the episode, you'll have something simple you can apply as you develop into a better leader. That's what this podcast is all about. Well, my guest today is Eric Wood, who is a former all-pro NFL center for the Buffalo Bills. Eric was in the prime of his career in 2017 when he was forced to retire due to a neck injury. Now, for a lot of people, that would have been an absolutely crushing blow. And it obviously was a crushing blow for Eric. But as you'll hear today, Eric has navigated this big life and career transition not by considering himself a victim, but instead he's chosen to have an incredible positive mindset. Now let's be honest, sometimes you talk to optimistic people and it's all just puppies and rainbows. But Eric doesn't ignore the tough stuff. He just has a different perspective on it. For him, things don't happen to us. They happen for us. We can develop that kind of mindset too, by creating positive habits of gratitude, learning and generosity. You're going to be so encouraged by this conversation, especially if you're going through any kind of transition right now. So here's my conversation with my good friend and soon to be yours, Eric Wood. I always like to start out at the beginning. Tell me about your upbringing. Yes, I grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, working class family. My dad was in the moving business. My mom dealt cards at a casino and I was a Catholic school kid, learned a lot of discipline there, a lot of lessons on hard work. Worked through high school, played multiple sports. What was your first job? Do you remember your first job? My first job was working in construction for my uncle. My second one was cutting grass at a cemetery near my high school, which some of the ball players at Elder did. So what was that like cutting grass at a cemetery? You had to have a lot of thought school in through your head. For sure. And it was a lot of hard work. I mean, we cut grass and did odd jobs 40 hours a week. But, you know, we had a lot of laughs. We have so many stories. My wife to this day says, when we get together with my old buddies, she'll say, not another cemetery story. I've heard these so many times. I'm like, what's your funniest cemetery story? Oh, it's terrible. But we're putting a casket down into the ground and it wasn't dug perfectly. So one of my buddies is kind of down there guiding it in and a piece of the machinery cracks off part of the vault. And he gets some of that, I guess it's formaldehyde or whatever in his mouth. He's frozen. He doesn't know what to do. And then he just looks at us and he gets says, I want to go home. I would too. And so he left work at our boss, let him leave that day. They probably paid him for the rest of the day too. I hope so. You know, speaking of stories, Eric, do you have a story from your early years that really shaped who you are today? Something that's given me perspective in my life is I grew up with a brother with severe cerebral palsy. So when I was very young, he was three years younger than me. When I was very young, I spent a lot of time at babysitter's houses. My dad would work. My mom would spend time at the hospital. When my brother did move back home, we had a nurse at our house 24/7. So, you know, I got to see how my parents kind of struggle with that. I gained a perspective on the little things in life that you can do in that are effort list that my brother struggled with. And ultimately he passed when he was 11 and I was 14, which eventually led me to start my foundation when I got in the NFL, helping families with sick children, helping them out financially, just trying to take some of that burden off because I saw what it looked like. So I think that shaped me a lot. It gave me a lot of perspective. It gave me a lot of inner drive to want to use my gifts that I had been given and stuff that just come so naturally to me. Yeah. I noticed that you were, you know, always nominated for the Peyton Manning Community Service Award by the Buffalo Bills. And so you're really famous in Buffalo and also in the Louisville area for giving back. Yeah. And one of my things is there's only so many things you can control in life and you can control how generous you are now. Certain people might be able to donate more than others, but a proverb that we try to live our life by in our family is a generous person will prosper and he who refreshes others will be refreshed. So for us, that's what we try to live by. We try and build people up and we try and be generous. And so that was one of our big things in Buffalo was given back to the community. When did you start playing football, Eric? I started when I was nine and then when I was 10, I was actually over the weight limit so I couldn't play. And then from then on after that, I played football and it's funny. Football wasn't always my best sport and I wasn't always a star. My mom recently she made a statement at our house when we were doing brunch. She said, you know, even when you were in high school, we didn't think that you were going to play in the NFL, Eric. And I said, well, that's not that bold of a statement, Mom. I didn't even start when I was a junior. So that wasn't that bold of a statement. But I did love the game. I've always been pretty aggressive, but I kind of grew into my body when I was 17, 18 and was really able to excel. Were you highly recruited in college? I didn't receive my first scholarship offer until after the football season, my senior year when most guys in high school nowadays commit when they're 16 or 17, their sophomore junior year, their commit in places, I hadn't even gotten a scholarship. Fortunately, Louisville's football coaches came up to watch me play a basketball game in Northern Kentucky. And I told my basketball coach before the game, do not take me out. I'm trying to earn a football scholarship tonight. I'm going to show them how hard you're going to earn a football scholarship playing basketball. Yeah, I'm going to show them how hard I work, how I run up and down the floor. And sure enough, after the game, they offered me a scholarship and my dad was standing right there. I looked at my dad, I said, I have to take this scholarship. You know, I don't have any other options. My dad said, you haven't even been to Louisville yet. How are you going to take a scholarship? I said, I don't want them to give it away. So we went on an official visit that weekend down to Louisville and I committed then. That's fantastic. Now, when you were in college where you focused on academics or was it just all sports? No, I was focused on academics. My grandpa, who I looked up to a lot, he was a judge and a county commissioner and a contract lawyer his whole life. And so he actually gave me the opportunity to go to elder and Cincinnati. He had paid for that. And so I became a political science major with the concentration in law and public policy, thinking, I'll go to law school if this football deal doesn't work out. I'll go to law school and kind of follow in his footsteps. And so I carried, I think I graduated with around a three five GPA, but my first semester was not the strongest. So I kind of had to rebound from that throughout college, but I think I graduated with around a three five. That's something you and I have in common. That first semester was not my strongest. Well, when did you know you were going to have a career as a professional player? You know, I got down to Louisville and I registered my first year and then I ended up starting at center my red shirt freshman year. So I had made the freshman All American team and they sent you a letter with a stat on it that said 80% of guys that make the freshman first team All American team get drafted to play in the NFL. Prior to that, me and my buddies in Cincinnati, we would always talk about, man , Eric, if you can make the Bengals practice squad one day, you can make $80,000 and you can work for the other six months, you can make over $100,000. And so when I saw that letter and knew what the chances were at that point, it kind of gave me a dream. It gave me something tangible to work towards that. I wanted to be drafted in the NFL. And then when I had seen a couple of centers, we're starting to go in the first round, I decided I want to be a first round draft pick. Did that accelerate your work ethic, Eric? It did. And it lit a fire under me. I was always hard working, but that really kind of took it to an ex level and that really led me to create some habits from a nutrition standpoint that isn't very popular in college. I developed a nutrition program to try and get to the next level working out. And we had a period in college called a discretionary period and a lot of kids would go home. I always joked that when I left my parents came my room away, so I didn't really have anywhere to go back to. But I would stay down here and I always said, I'm going to catch up or beat everybody else out during those six weeks. I'm going to catch an edge on everybody. So it led me to a lot of little decisions that I think gave me an edge. But those work ethic habits are part of the reason I believe I was able to have a leadership platform at the University of Louisville. Yeah, fantastic. Now, were you captain of the Louisville football team? Yeah, I was a captain there for my last two years. And I really enjoyed that. And to me, it meant a ton because I wasn't even a captain on my high school team. And what that showed me was a couple of things. One, I wasn't doing any leadership studies through college. So these are habits that kind of came naturally to me. Now we had great coaches and whatnot. But I developed some habits that people wanted to follow. But also I had some charisma and some other things that people also wanted to follow. But you can't have that when you're sitting on the bench. Now I was a captain in basketball, but football specifically, I wasn't. And what that showed me in something that I try and instill in young guys now is just because you weren't a captain always doesn't mean you can't develop habits that people want to follow because ultimately that's what's going to translate to them. Right. And you can eventually become a captain, which you definitely did. And the same is true in business. You don't always start out at the top in that leadership position. Tell us about draft day. I mean, you're a first round draft choice. And now they televised the draft on ESPN. And it's a big deal. Tell us your draft day story. Yeah, it was a special one. And at that time, they would invite five or six guys to New York. And nowadays they fight about 30, which I think part of the reason is so they can get that second day drama to see who's going to be at the tail end of that first round, which is just a sad sight. But I had some family and really close friends and my girlfriend at the time, who's now my wife over to my mom's condo up in Cincinnati. And we were all hanging out, watching the draft. And eventually I had got tired of watching. So I had kind of removed myself from the room. We had thought I was going to go 32 to the Steelers. They had told me all along, you won't get past 32. And I just thought, well, I probably won't get drafted any sooner than that. So I'm going to hang out back in my little brother's room until then. I got on the computer just reading some articles and whatnot. And all of a sudden, about maybe 40 minutes before I envisioned it happening, I get a call from a 716 number. And it was the Buffalo Bills calling and there was tears of joy and sadness for my family. They thought I was going so far away. It's this cold, frozen tundra up in western New York and they're never going to see me again. I don't think they realized how close Buffalo was to Cincinnati. But man, Buffalo became a very special place to us in really a 7 and a half hour drive from Louisville and about six from Cincinnati. So I was a lot closer than anybody realized at that time. Yeah, you did think it's Buffalo being way out there. That's a good point. How'd you prepare for the NFL? You know, knowing you're going into the big time, how'd you get ready for that? Yeah, so prior to the combine, I was training out in Orange County and then I had come back here after the combine. I was training at the University of Louisville and I always had this mantra that I wanted to do what got me to the NFL, the way I prepared in college. I wanted to keep doing that. So I would never have that rookie year slump, that sophomore slump. So I always wanted to go back to Louisville and train with the guys. So I was training with the college guys a lot of times in the off season, which kept me young. It was always fun and energetic. I thought it was good for them to see the way I worked and how I got there and kind of give them something to look at. And then mentally just picking guys brains. Hey, what can I expect this first year in the NFL? You know, you play four preseason games and 16 regular season games in college. 12 games felt like an eternity. Well now you're playing 20 games, including the preseason. It's just a lot. I had reached out to guys about different practices that they did during the season, whether it was taking care of their bodies, taking care of their minds. Stay on Tuesday, read a book, do something that's not football related to kind of get away from it. So I had some guys pour into me a little bit and that definitely helped with the transition. Now, Eric, how did you decide to be a center on the offensive line? Well, that was kind of chosen for me when I got to the university of Louisville because there was only one spot open going into my retro freshman year. So I decided I'll play center. Little did I know how perfect that was going to end up working out for me size wise. I read an article about prototype NFL centers. The prototype was six, four, three, ten, runs this 40 with this arm length. And I was 19 years old looking at that saying I might be a five pounds lighter, but that's literally me. I could be a prototype NFL center. And then from a leadership standpoint and a command of the offense, the center a lot of times gets everybody kind of going. Well, that's where I wanted to be. I never wanted to let somebody else have the opportunity to screw that up for us. I would rather do the prep work and own it myself. So it was something I really enjoyed. Why is the center such a critical position other than the obvious factor that the place starts with you? Yeah. So the place starts with you and you got to get the snap, but eventually that just becomes second nature to where it's not even something you ever think about. But generally your center will get kind of get the play started. He points out who the Mike linebacker is. And that kind of gets everything going from a schematic standpoint. I'll make different calls, how we want to block things throughout my career and Buffalo off and helped out quarterbacks with blitz pickups. And I always joke that if I played with Peyton Manning or Tom Brady, I would have had to take a much further back seat because I was so used to running the show. We had so many quarterbacks, so many young guys that I thought and I truly was helping them out. I allowed them to just keep their eyes down the field and not worry about the blitzes and whatnot. Well, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, that would have been a nightmare for them because they want to control everything. So I always said it would have been funny and I've actually talked to Tom about that before. Did you ever have any regrets that you didn't play with the Tom Brady or Peyton Manning or a superstar quarterback? You know, it's something I often thought about and after getting drafted in Buffalo, the Patriots reached out to my agent and said, "You told us 32. We were positioning to pick Eric just ahead of the Steelers. Why didn't you tell us?" And so throughout my career, I always had that kind of in the back of my mind. You know, I thought I was going to go to the Steelers. They win Super Bowls. You know, they're always in contention. The Patriots, all these different teams I played against the Patriots 18 times and we beat them two or three. So I often wondered that, but I truly felt deep down. God put me in Buffalo for a reason. Hey, maybe some of those bigger cities, God knew I couldn't handle those, you know, with a young guy with a family and a young wife. Maybe he thought I couldn't handle that. Maybe I was putting Buffalo to make an impact on the community, which led me to start my foundation. And there's a number of different things. Also, man, it's humbling, being up in Buffalo. You're losing. I had gotten hurt a bunch. I truly was humbled so many times that kind of led me on my path that I ended up on. That's great. You know, what's the most difficult thing, Eric, about playing center, that a person who's never played football wouldn't know? From the mental standpoint, sometimes that stuff on guys, different guys have different challenges. I'm not naturally a huge guy. So for me, when I got a guy that's 350 pounds lined up across for me, and I got to start to play with my hand between my legs because I'm snapping the ball and he gets a couple of yards head start on me, that's tough to do. And then the next day when you wake up, you truly feel like you've gotten a car accident about 30 times a day before, but you learn different techniques through your career. Towards the end of my career, I felt like I was rarely ever straining extremely hard. I had worked out enough techniques where I knew how to get a guy's momentum stopped before he started going and whatnot. But yeah, some of those guys were tough to block. I'm sure. You know, the quarterback, you look at a great game, you talk about the number of passes, they completed number of touchdowns, the quarterback rating. Tell us about the best game you ever played and how'd you gauge that? It's tough because your best game could have tons of highs, but with offensive line play, you give one sack, that game's out the window. You know, you can throw it away because you had one big mistake in that game. Early in my career, I played a season at guard and I played against an endomac ung sue when he was a rookie and I was a second year player and he was having this, you know, rookie of the year campaign and I played really well against him. It was a battle of over teams. We were 0 and 8 and so were the lines and we won. Thank God. They end up going 0 and 16 that year. I thought it could have been us, honestly, because we were pretty talented. You know, I think of back at that game, that game sticks out, but coaches may have a better grasp of what my best game was just because of, you know, different stuff sche matically or just a crystal clean game where I never gave up a tackle for loss or a sack or my guy never penetrated and messed up a play. So it's hard to say. But the sack is the offensive lineman's biggest nightmare. It is and I gave up one in our playoff game. This might not make a ton of sense to the audience, but I had, we had to read on their defense, one of our offensive coaches, previously coached defense in Jacksonville. I knew a lot of their calls. One of the ones they made was a blitz coming from my left side. I was going to have to kind of go to my right, but then I needed to help them left. Well, they didn't run the blitz. I don't know if they knew that I knew the terminology. So I kind of took a real lazy set. No, and I was going to have to go help the other way. My guy beats me right off the line and gets a sack in the first quarter, but there's nothing worse than giving up a sack in the first quarter because you know you can't give up too. And so that's stonking with it being my last game. It's something I'll always remember, but it's all good. Let's face it, your life is just too important to delegate to someone else. That's why I'm so passionate about self coaching. If you're new to this concept, I put together a free self coaching guide that will walk you through the principles of how to become a great self coach to really find fulfillment in your life and career. You can get it at takechargeofyou.com/guide. This free guide will give you a simple plan you can follow to kickstart your self coaching journey. It's a perfect time to invest your time into self coaching as we near the end of the year and think about what's to come in 2023. This guide will help you become the very best you you can be. Get it at takechargeofyou.com/guide. You know, you did mention that earlier about missing the role of being the leader. Explain your role as captain. You know, I always felt like my role and my personality compared to the other guys that were captains. I always tried to build relationships with young guys so that we didn't have four older guys on the team just barking at a bunch of young guys that would shut down on you. And that's one of my big principles in leadership with this current generation coming out of college and into the NFL is that, man, these guys have been a little more codd led than we were used to, especially high school and college. These guys need relationships with some of the older guys. So I always felt I would try and bring them in. We would do couples, Bible studies. I would try and get them there. So that was my kind of role. Now I did do a pregame speech on the field each game, which I feel a lot more comfortable in a setting like this than I did, you know, with 53 guys looking at you saying , get me fired up for this game. You know, so I would do some speaking roles within the team, but I always tried to have a positive attitude. And when my injury happened, the coach and the GM said, Eric, we're going to miss your attitude around here too. Because I always felt like I would come to the stadium each day with a positive attitude. And I always wanted to rub off on everybody else. Hey, it's a long season. We're in Buffalo. There's a lot of days where we don't see the sun. You know, we come in before the sun comes up and the sun sets up there about five. So we leave after that. So I would always try and be positive and rub off on guys. Tell me a story when you think you stepped up and you motivated your teammates. You have one of those new Rockne speeches that you gave or a time when you know that if you hadn't done what you'd done, you guys wouldn't have won or you know, we, we played a game down in Miami earlier in my career and I wasn't a captain yet. And our captains at the time, no offense to them were not very inspiring. And Chan Gailie was our head coach who wasn't his forte wasn't motivational speaking either. So we were eliminated from the playoffs. It's late in the season and we're playing the dolphins who have to beat us to go to the playoffs. And I gave a speech before the game talking about they have a lot to play for today. And that's obvious. But so do we. We have a lot of jobs on the line. This is the last time this group takes the field as a collective group. And then also we're trying to build momentum in the next year. We got to quit being the bottom feeder of the AFC East and letting everybody, all of our division foes beat us all the time. We went out and beat them. And I didn't think a whole lot of it after the game. I wasn't sitting in my locker saying way to go. Her great speech. But Chan Gailie came up to me on the flight home and he said, I really appreciate the words you said, you have a talent in leading. And like I said, at the time I wasn't a captain, I just felt the need to say something. And I'll always remember that in the words that Chan gave me after the game. I knew how that felt. So throughout my career, whenever I've had someone give a good speech or maybe step outside their comfort zone. I always try and compliment them just knowing how much Chan's compliment meant to me. Speaking of head coaches, the bills have had a number of head coaches during your career. And most of them failed. What was missing with these head coaches? Why did they fail? You know, it's funny you say that I had seven head coaches, including interim coaches, seven head coaches in nine years. I haven't done the research, but that has to at least tie a record. And I think part of the reason some of them failed was just a lack of time. In this day and age of sports, they're so quick to get a head coach out of town to switch up the environment, switch up the culture, because they got to sell tickets. And they can't give a guy like Chan Gailley five years. So what ends up happening is, and I actually spoke to Tom Brady about this at one point after a game, the Patriots are always drafting for the same scheme. Well, the bills are drafting for one scheme for two years. Then you bring in new coaches. Well now those guys don't fit. And now we're drafting for a new scheme. So I think part of it is just a lack of time that we maybe have given some of these coaches. But I will say this. Sean McDermott, who's in Buffalo now, is the best leader I've ever been around. He is so consistent on a day to day basis. He truly cares about the players, but also he's able to be demanding without demeaning, which is I think is really valuable in leadership roles. You know he cares about you, but he's not afraid to jump your case if need be. So I do think they have a good thing going up there now. I like that phrase demanding not the meaning. What does that mean to you? I always wanted to build people up before maybe I broke them down if I had to hold them accountable to something. But I would always try and relate to a guy. So if a guy was taking a really bad pass and he was an offense alignment, it would do me no good as a leader of the group to go up to the guy and be like, man, you need to put some extra work in because that stinks and you're getting beat like a dog. Well what I might say is, hey, early in my career, I was struggling with this. I found some guys around the league that I would try and pick up some different pieces of their game. Why don't you check out some film? I'll give you a few guys to check out. And if you need me to, I'll work with you after practice a little bit. Rarely are they going to take you up on the make you spend more time with them, but that's a way to be demanding. Hey, you need to get your stuff right because you're hurting us, but I'm not demeaning him to put him in a position where he's going to lose confidence because I want to empower him. You know, I want him to improve. I don't want him to take two steps back, especially if it's during the season. So I would try and be demanding without demeaning him to where I would put him in a little ball and make him feel smaller of a person. That's a great story. And you know, Rex Ryan is one of your more famous coaches that you have the bills that came with, big reputation. You know, he's known supposedly for being friends with the players and, but also having teams with no discipline. Can a head coach be a friend with his players or does there have to be an emotional distance or do I have it wrong about Rex Ryan? No, you have it right about Rex for a system like Rex is to be successful. You need very strong leadership from within and you need guys that are willing to be the disciplinarians. When he was in Baltimore under bill, they had Ray Lewis and Edry. Those guys were in their double digit years in the league. They had no issues correcting somebody when Rex was with the bills. I was in year six and seven. You know, it wasn't quite comfortable for some of us to truly be the disciplin arians of the team. But Rex's culture kind of required. I also think you need to draft higher character guys in that situation. But I will say Rex empowers players. He got players to play sometimes better than they were capable of because he treated them like a man. He said, Hey, I trust you. Hey, you guys don't have a curfew tonight, but I trust that you'll be in bed or a number of examples like that. So I do see a way of doing it, but it's a lot more rare of a situation than I know if you come in and put your thumb down on guys and you never want to motivate truly by fear. But you guys, you don't want guys to feel comfortable making mistakes and hurting the team either. It sounds like maybe the trust he provided wasn't earned. He gave it a little bit too early for sure. And I think to some of the young guys, it was too much for them to handle. And Rex met say, Hey, I need the leaders to step up more of the team because that's my coaching style. And I told you guys this, that's twofold. Partially was probably on us as captains to hold some of these young guys accountable. I just know that in, I believe it was 2013 or 2014, I decided, okay, now I got to be the discipline of the group, especially the offense and the old line. I had a lot of young guys shut down on me that year, especially late in the year when we were losing ball games, they completely shut down on me because I had just been a jerk to them over and over and over. Going into the next season is when I said, okay, I need to truly build relationships with these guys instead of having a bunch of rookie nights where we make them pay all the time, I'll start off paying for their meal. So they see that I care about them and then we'll move from there and it always worked better for me in that regard. It's true. Nobody's going to care about you until you show them that you care about them. Tell me about what it was like to be named all pro and go into the pro bowl for the first time. The pro bowl is incredible. And I had been an alternate for the pro bowl a few times and never made it in. And so when we got to go, we had 14 of us go to Hawaii, my parents, my wife's parents, they had never been. So it was truly a special experience. One of the most fun weeks of my life, me and my wife still talk about it. I'm constantly telling her about situations that I'm invited to that I have to go because it's a once in a lifetime opportunity. And she'll say, you don't know that. Well, the pro bowl now was a once in a lifetime opportunity. And some of the pictures and memories we have will never forget. That's great. You around all these great players. What do you see as the true intangibles of great players? You know, most of them come with a strong work ethic. They're highly intelligent. Generally, they look the part. But I would say, you know, pro bowl players, a lot of them look different. They talk different. They're from different areas, but they all get along. It's amazing how at the pro bowl, there would be a huge pool party and everybody from every team's hanging out because when you see greatness in somebody else, you want to learn from them, you want to talk to them. It was just a special week. Players and coach wise, trying to gather information from everybody, meeting with other people from my position group. And hey, how do you block this? How do you snap this? Whatever it may be, it was a truly cool experience. You know, after the first year and your tenure that you guys actually went to the playoff games, then you find out that you've got a career ending injury. Tell us about that injury and how you found out about it. Yeah, so I had got some stingers throughout the season, which is a pretty common football deal where you get hit in the head and your neck, pinches a certain way and you get some numbness down your arm. I had gotten those throughout the season and we did an X-ray during the season and everything looked fine. And so I played the entire year. And then after the season, we had exit physicals on January 8th and they said, Eric, let's get an MRI on your neck before you head out of town. I said, my wife's due with our baby any minute in Louisville. I have to drive home right now. And they said, just get the MRI. We'll clear you for the pro ball. You can do the MRI on the way home. I said, OK, that's fine. So I get the MRI, I drive back to Louisville on the 9th. I get a call, hey, you need to go get another MRI in Louisville. They have a special MRI machine. We need some further tests. And at this point, I'm thinking I just played the whole season. I definitely don't want a surgery. What are we looking at? And they said, well, it might require surgery. And I'm envisioning six months in a neck brace and whatever it may be. That's worst case scenario that I'm thinking. Well, it's January 11th. And we're sitting in the delivery room waiting for our baby to be born. And I get a phone call again. And my wife says, go take it, which kind of sums up our relationship. She understood how important football was to me. So I take the phone call and more or less given the news that my career is over . And this isn't one man's opinion. It's many, many doctors, neurologists throughout the NFL. So my son was born an hour later, which was just crazy timing. My career is taken away and I'm giving a son an emotional roller coaster, as you can imagine. But after that, we saw more opinions. All the opinions came back consistent. What was the strength that you drew on to pull you through that tough time? You know, early in my career, I had some pretty devastating injuries. I was used to dealing with some tough times between the death of my brother. My parents got divorced. I had crazy injuries. I had a number of disappointments that I eventually, through my NFL career, got baptized, became a Christian. So I could always fall back on my faith. And I wish I could say that that's the only way I've ever coped with things was through prayer. But there's definitely some mourning. There's some why me. There's some pity party, but I've always tried to be positive. And I knew my wife was really hurting with it, especially when my daughter would say, when are we going back to Buffalo? And we say, well, we just sold our house and we're not going back to Buffalo anymore baby. And I'm sure we'll be back, but not in the sense that we'll be living up there again. But I would lean on my faith, lead on my friends and family, lean on positivity , lead on my work ethic. You know, with all the injuries, Eric, especially concussions in football today , you know, how do you see football surviving and thriving in the future? You know, I think they're going to have to make some special modifications to the game. And I don't know if that's through tackling rules. I know these rules that they've implemented in the last few years. They're not going to take place in one year in the NFL. They're not going to just show up the next year. I'm hoping through by putting those in place now, the kids that are creating habits and youth and high school football, you'll see those start to translate on Saturdays when you see college teams playing and eventually on Sunday. But when you have a safety in the NFL and he's been leading with his head and taught, put your helmet on the ball because that's going to knock the ball loose when you tackle, it's really hard for him in a split second decision to say, Oh, I can't do that anymore. Now I have to wrap up a guy between his knees and his chest or else it's going to be a 15 yard penalty. I'm going to lose half my paycheck this week. So I don't know that those were one quick fixes. I'm hoping for the longevity of the game that they do pay off. I don't think glorified seven on sevens are going to sell out 90,000 seed stadiums like they are now. The violence is something that Americans like about the game. So you can't fully take that away. No one would you know now, would you want Garrett, your son to play football? You know, it's tough and I've been asked that a lot. And I would say yes for the fact that what football has taught me from a disco and standpoint of work ethic, camaraderie team, you know, the social issues that people face in a community, you would be amazed the comfort people have with race relations in a locker room. Those are the lessons that you just don't necessarily learn every day and football brought all that football was able to provide me generational wealth. Now in 15 years, if I'm struggling and I have issues because of head injuries, then absolutely not. But at this point, I still feel sharp. So that's a long way to answer of maybe. Well, that's a tough question. You know, you mentioned to me that players who are focused, who play one position in the NFL, end up making a lot of money, but a player who is sort of the guy who can play, let's say all the positions on the line, they don't make as much money. Why does that focus pay off? Yeah, that was something told me early in my career. If you can do one thing really well in the NFL, you'll make a ton of money. And if you can do a bunch of things, you'll play for a really long time and you 'll make no money. So, you know, I always wanted to focus solely on being the best center I could. I didn't take pass sets acting like I was a tackle and I didn't run routes acting like I was a tight end. I wanted to perfect the center position. And I think that translate to business. If you try and spread yourself too thin in business, if you're good at a bunch of stuff, it's never going to pay off like if you're great at one thing and you focus solely on it. And so I'm getting hit up for a lot to sit on a lot of boards to make all these small investments to take a little bit of equity in this company. Let us use your name. Well, all these require a few hours a month, an hour a week. Well, eventually I'm going to spread myself so thin and not make an impact anywhere, fully make an impact anywhere if I commit to everything. So I'm really working on saying no to things that I'm not fully passionate about and then eventually work myself into the right thing for me and my family. And I'll go all in on it and try and build that into whatever I can. Yeah. You know, one thing that you are and you've demonstrated as a person, you are unbelievably, you know, you're a winner. And what advice would you give people on how to win in their career, your career as football, you know, but you can transfer these things to other careers. What would be your three bits of advice you give people on how to win? I would say, first off, create winning habits. When I was playing in the NFL, I tried to always create habits that would set me up for success, whether it be, I had about a five minute drive to the stadium every morning. I drove in with the music completely off and I just had a drive of gratitude. And I would say, man, how cool is this that I'm playing in the NFL? I'm so lucky to be going to work right now. It might be 545 and I'm sore. But I'm so lucky. This is my dream at the time. You know, I have a healthy daughter that's just gorgeous. And my wife is gorgeous and so supportive and just like so, how lucky am I? And then by the time I walked in the door after I had, you know, seen the stadium lights in the morning and I pull in, I was ready to go. And people would be like, dude, how many hours you sleep last night? I'm like, it doesn't matter. I'm just training myself to be grateful. And it's hard to be stressed and it's hard to be anxious when you're extremely grateful. So that was one thing I would do. I would take a lot of decisions out of stuff that I didn't want to have to decide on throughout the day and I would just write it in. So a habit of mine was eating healthy through the season. I felt like that set me up. That allowed me to be more productive. Well, I would just let them prepare all my meals for me. So I was putting exactly what I needed into my body. And then, you know, I've gotten into a habit now of podcasting the car. I listen to a lot of sermons from around the country, just putting stuff into my brain that I want to spew out into my relationships, into my leadership, whatever it may be. So just little things and being intentional with your actions, not coasting through life. Maybe some people like to meditate. You can call it meditation or you can just say, spend five minutes of just stillness and kind of evaluate your actions. I had someone recently ask me, let's pretend like it's 15 years from now and your daughter's going to introduce you to her high school class. How would she introduce you? And I said, man, I've never thought about that. He said, well, let's paint two examples. One is this is my dad. He was a football player, successful businessman. He's going to give you so many great lessons on life today. I'm so proud of him or it could be. This is my dad. He was a football player, but he coached all my teams. He never missed anything I ever did. He's the most loving, forgiving dad of all time. I love him so much here he is. Those are two great scenarios. But they're different paths. One is probably building a company and doing that route and one is probably spending a little more time at home, carving out time to make sure I don't miss activities . Well, if I just go about life, I might miss some decisions just subconsciously. So really trying to be intentional about all my decisions I make in life. We'll be back with the rest of my conversation with Eric Wood in just a moment. After doing color commentary for the Buffalo Bills radio network, Eric has grown to appreciate the incredible artistry of play-by-play commentators. And he even mentions one of the greats, Jim Nance. When I had the pleasure of talking to Jim Nance, I was so impressed with the prep work he does before he goes on air. When you're in a pinch and you're on live television, you don't have time to load things up, David. You'll find something on your spotting board. But by and large, you're going to rely on your instincts and your memory. It's a great reminder that even the most talented people still need to show up prepared. Listen to my entire conversation with Jim. Episode 76 here on How Leaders Lead. Eric, you say you'll eventually work yourself into what's going to be right for you. In fact, you launched a podcast a few years ago called What's Next with Eric Wood. How has that podcast helped you navigate the world since leaving the NFL? Well, I'll say this. You were one of the first guests I had on there. And originally when I started the podcast, it was truly me trying to figure out this transition into a new chapter of life, a new chapter of career that I wasn't necessarily prepared for. And I believe that in life, confidence comes from preparation. And I was not prepared for that transition. And I had just signed that contract extension for the bill. So in my mind, I was going to continue to play pro football. So I sat down on a journey and essentially I was going to create some content. I was going to try and hone my broadcasting skills, assuming that's what I wanted to hop into. And I was going to learn from as many people as I could that have found success in some bucket of life. And many have success in all buckets of life. But I wanted to learn from these individuals. And I felt if I was learning, others would as well. And so it's been a very fun journey. It's been a very fun project that is almost a career for me. But I'll tell you this, David, almost first and foremost with the podcast as an athlete or even as a CEO, as you can imagine, generally you're the one being asked the question. So becoming the interviewer was a transition that I had to make. And it really helped me with that as well. Yeah, that's fantastic. And you know, I was so honored to be on your podcast and honored that you did reach out to me and wanted to learn from me. Where'd you get that innate desire to learn from others? You know, I just felt like as I grew in football, the best way you could do it. And even as I've talked to guys in the podcast, they've all said the same thing . Hall of Famers, coaches, guys that have played a really long time. One thing they'll always say is find someone that in the locker room is further along than you, someone that's at a spot that you want to be at and emulate what they do. Try to pick little pieces from their game, from their preparation, their daily routine. And so for me, I started that in football and then as I transitioned to a new career, I felt that's got to be the same approach I'm going to take to this. I'm going to go find out the people that are successful in the business world, guys that have successful families and marriages and faith life. And I'm going to try and learn from them as well. You not only have this really popular podcast, Eric, but you have a brand new book out called Tackle What's Next. I love how you're amplifying that. What's next idea? What advice would you give to others who are looking at their lives and their careers with a new perspective? Yeah, and I think this book is timely as we transition out of this pandemic. Most people in life are in a transition. No matter what that is, I also feel like each and every day you could put yourself into a transition to make your what's next in life your best yet. It doesn't have to be this big catastrophic life change. It doesn't have to be a career-ending injury like it was myself. You get simply be you saying, "I want my tomorrow to be better than my today." So in Tackle What's Next, it's fueled by many of the conversations I've had with mentors and podcast guests and people further along in life because I don't have all the answers. I have some past experience from my story, from my childhood, from my experiences in pro football, but a lot of it is taken for people that are much further along than me that helped me through that transition. And so essentially it becomes owning your story and figuring out, "Okay, what am I good at? Where does my passion lie? Where am I gifted in life? What was I passionate about when I was growing up?" Because oftentimes we see that what we were passionate about early in life shows up in later stages in life as far as a fulfilling career. And then it's stacking wins. I just feel like in anything in life, it's never this big home run grand slam moment. It's a continual process of getting 1% better every single day and when you can stack those daily wins, you kind of see that hockey stick effect where you see that upward trajectory in your life. And then it's about going out once you've hit that kind of hockey stick moment, "Okay, where do I want to be successful in life?" And truly identifying that and creating a vision for yourself. And so all these concepts were formed to me for a lot of my life. And I got the pleasure and all the experience from many podcast guests, many people like yourself, David, that helped me along my journey. And then I believe in life, it's all about what you can do for others and serving them. And so this book is a way for me to tell my story, but then also try and serve and impact others. I love the idea of owning your story. Talk a little bit more about that. What do you mean? Yeah, everybody's got a story and it's all about perspective too. A good friend of mine, Ed, my lead always says, "Things happen for you, not to you." So I believe that recounting your own story and understanding your story and understanding that everything in life happened for you. And it may have seemed like such a struggle at the time, having six lower body injuries when I was playing in the NFL and then ultimately your crutting neck injury. You could sit there and say, "Man, all this happened to me. God, why did all this happen?" Or you can say, "What did I learn from that? Where did that make me stronger?" And I believe that truly owning your story, like I said, finding your passion, finding your gifts and allowing that to set you up on an upward trajectory is extremely powerful. I agree. And after you retired from the NFL, you actually spent some time and you're doing it now as the color commentator for the Buffalo Bills Radio Network. And what does all this broadcast experience teaching you, Eric? Well, broadcasting is fun and I wasn't ready to be away from football. So it allowed me to stay around the game of football. And I've dabbled in many different areas. I've called games for Fox and CBS and ESPN and ACC Network. And all through that time, I was on the Bills Radio broadcast. And for me, having my podcast and be able to focus on that more and be able to do the Bills Radio broadcast has been the most fulfilling and the most fun for me. As you get further away from playing college ball or high school ball, sometimes going back to that moment of calling those games isn't quite as fulfilling. I'm not saying I'll never do that again, but at the stage of life I'm in with a three and a seven year old, just really focusing on the Bills has been great. But for me, one of the things I learned the most is you gain an appreciation for a broadcast and you're constantly listening and constantly trying to learn. So you can never watch a broadcast the same again. I truly appreciate a good play by play guy. A Jim Nance who's a podcast guest of yours, you know, Chris Fowler, I call games with a guy named John Murphy. Those guys that can set up the analyst in such a way, they're the point guard. They may not get all the credit at times. Tony Romo may get all the spotlight, but it's generally a Jim Nance who lays out at the perfect time to allow Tony Romo to make that prediction that gets him famous and gets him the millions of dollars each week. It's generally an excellent play by play guys. So maybe the thing I learned the most is how talented and almost how artistic those guys are. You know, knowing all that you know now and as you think about the next season in your life, what's something on the horizon that you're really excited about? Each stage of life with these kids has been more and more fun. My little boy starting flag football this year. My girls into dance and tennis and golf, little boys in the golf too, but we'll see if he's got the patience for my daughter seems to have a little bit more of the mindset for it. But it's been so much fun just each chapter of life. And me and my wife have said, you know, the NFL was great, but I feel like each and every year since every year is getting better than the last. And maybe that's some intentionality in thinking it, but you know, it's podcast guests. It's speaking opportunities and it's opportunities to serve others that honestly has me excited to wake up each day. And sometimes my wife thinks I'm nuts. If my alarm hasn't gone up and I get up at 3 30 and I'm excited about the day and I just roll right into it. She thinks I'm crazy. But sometimes when you're on fire for life, you just get excited. So excited about the day ahead that you get up and attack it. That contagious enthusiasm. Is that something you've always had or do you think it's accelerating? I think it's accelerating, but I play golf at the head coach of the University of Louisville Scott's battlefield a few years ago. And he said, man, you're like a Labrador. Every day is great to you. You're wide open. You're having fun. And I said, man, I've never been told that before. And I guess that's a compliment, but I will say this, you know, I intentionally try and bring a positive attitude each and every day. And I feel like that's a way that I can be a light to this world is by bringing a positivity about me. I also feel like I'm on a mission each day to try and serve others, trying to impact others and make a difference one at a time. And it's really hard to do that. If you're walking around in a pessimistic state. So I think there's a lot of things that have contributed to that over time. There's meditation practices and time spent in silence so that I can be present enough to find joint situations. One of the best ways, one of my favorite things to talk about and speak gig gigs. And it's so simple as something I got from a performance coach named Jason Self . And he talks about tracking your daily wins. And one of the ways that we can find contentment in life is but not by going to bed and letting our minds wander and picking on the one bad thing we did each and every day. He challenges people for 30 days to write down three wins from their day. And it could be as small as, you know, I went outside and played with the kids when I got home from work and I wanted to sit there and watch TV. I did the dishes for my wife, but it could be big time business wins and big time sales wins. But tracking three wins a day allows you to focus on the good you had each day, those positive momentum builders in your life. And I think for me, that's made a big difference as well. You've obviously just really converted the negative things that have happened in your life and turned it into a big time positive. But you know, frankly, you were NFL football player. Not many people get a chance to do that. And that's a great thing. But I want to take you back, you know, you have that dark moment when all of a sudden you're not going to play the sports you love anymore. You're all pro. You're, you're at the height of your game. What advice can you give to somebody when that moment hit you and it hits us all? We all have that moment we don't expect. How do you begin to dig yourself out of that hole? And it looks sounds all great right now, but it had to be tough back then. I'd be sitting here lying. If I said it was waking up each day with my hair on fire, it was trying to even figure out what this new routine is going to be. What am I going to do next? You know, I went for my whole life, essentially from being an athlete and everywhere I went, Hey, Eric, how are the bills going to be this year? How is Louisville going to be this year to? Hey, what are you going to do next? You got to do something. You're too young to be retired, Eric. And that sent me into a period of honestly some anxiety trying to figure out what my next move would be. I will say this, if you do not have a foundation of a strong community around you, luckily I was, I am extremely blessed with my wife and my family and the friends I'm surrounded with. I'm extremely blessed to have the faith foundation I have as well that I didn't truly hit rock bottom. I hit a foundation that this life was built on. But in those moments, you have to truly dig in and find the things that you're truly grateful for in life and then try and find some perspective around the moments and what you can learn from them. And in the moment, in that instance, it's impossible. It's impossible around the emotion. And that's where you have to take a step back, whether it's journaling or meeting with a friend. I worked with an executive coach for four years to get to the point now where I 'm comfortable talking about these things and I want to help people along their journey as well. You know, Eric, this has been so much fun and I'd like to have a little bit more fun with my lightning round of questions. So are you ready for this? I'm ready. Okay. What are three words that other people would use to describe you? I would say enthusiastic, generous and competitive. If you could be one person for a day beside yourself, who would it be and why? I'm very into golf. I'm trying to think of a golfer that I might strive to be. I might be a Scotty Scheffler in the Masters. What's your biggest pet peeve? Watching people waste talent. And unfortunately, I got to see a lot of that in sports throughout my career, whether it was college or the NFL, but watching people, whether intentionally or unintentionally waste an excellent opportunity. You happen to have a favorite quote? At the bottom of my stationery is a quote by Jackie Robinson that says, "A life is not important except for the impact that it has on others." If I were to get in your car right now, what would be coming out of the speakers? Well, I generally like to listen to podcasts. If the kids are in the car, we're probably listening to worship music, kids' b op or country music. Your favorite NFL stadium to play in? Some of the older stadiums like Lambo and Arrowhead, those are probably more enjoyable even though the locker rooms aren't nearly as comfortable. They have way less of a corporate feel to them than some of the newer stadiums. Who's your all time favorite NFL player? Growing up, I was a Bengals fan and even getting to know him now, I would say Anthony Munoz, just an incredible person, maybe the best left tackle of all time, right now. Everyone in our house is obsessed with Josh Allen. My son took his school picture in the Josh Allen jersey and the teacher said, " Well, why did you wear the Josh Allen jersey and not your dad's jersey?" He said, "Well, my dad's favorite player is Josh Allen too." So I was telling the teacher. What's the book you've bought and given away the most copies of? Likely The Carpenter by John Gordon. Great book. What's something about you a few people would know? Even though I'm an extreme extrovert, I love my quiet time, especially in the morning. Like I need that two hours, ideally in the morning of reading and spending some time or workout to myself in the morning. And then I love being around people all day long, but I do love that time in the morning myself. All right, we're out of the lightning round. And I got two more questions to ask you. I've heard Peyton Manning talk about how important his relationship is with his center. And he talks about Jeff Saturday, I believe that was his center. And yet, Peyton got most of the media attention. What would you say to leaders who are behind the scenes? How would you coach them up? And that's an excellent point. And oftentimes in leadership on a team in any organization, someone's going to get the spotlight and there's so many others working behind the scenes that may not get the spotlight. And that's okay. There is an offensive line room in every organization. And maybe it's just me saying this, but people often say that the offensive line is the most important position in football. Because if you don't have the offensive line protecting the quarterback, then the quarterback can't do his job. I will say, I do think the quarterback is the most important position in all of professional sports, but he cannot operate without an offensive line. So for all you leaders out there, people that are part of organizations, if you are not the one getting the spotlight, you can still be rewarded. You can still be appreciated. You just may not have the spotlight on you at this instance. But look, who's on ESPN now? Jeff Saturday and everyone's talking about how good looking he is. And he lost all the way and he's got those blue eyes and how well spoken he is. Your time will likely come. Your Jeff Saturday moment on ESPN will likely come, but it's okay to work in the shadows for a while. Well, I'll tell you something, Eric, you're a lot better looking now too. I mean, you know, there's no question about that. And you're much better shape. I mean, you used to be a really big, how much weight have you lost? I'm down about 60, 65 pounds. And yeah, I hope my wife appreciates it as well. You know, what's one piece of advice you'd give to anyone who wants to improve as a leader? I would say focus on improving every single day. And I think people often will underestimate what they can do in a year and overestimate what they can do in a day. You can so bog down if that immediate success does not come, but by stacking daily wins, by getting 1% better each and every day and just moving the needle a little bit forward. As I talked earlier about that hockey stick effect that often happens in business, it'll happen for you yourself as well. One of the craziest things to me as I learned it was by getting 1% better each and every day, you're not 365% better at the end of the year. You're actually 37 times better based upon compounding interest because you're getting 1% better of the 1% version of yourself yesterday. And so by doing that, I just believe that you can get so much done in the long run if you're focused on stacking those daily wins. I love that idea of stacking those daily wins and your book is terrific. And I hope everybody reads it. And I want to thank you so much for being on this show and tackling what's next . I mean, you are a live example of what happens when somebody tackles what's next. Well, I appreciate that, David. I appreciate everything you've done for me personally. I appreciate how you continue to pour into others and continue to make an impact. It would have been so easy with all your success to say, you know what? Now it's time for me to just enjoy me and the way, the way you just daily on social media and through your podcasts and all your leadership platforms, the impact you make does not go unnoticed by me. So thank you for that, David. All right. I appreciate you. Thank you. Oh, I got to tell you, Eric's enthusiasm is so infectious talking to him just gets me so fired up. And that optimism isn't just false positivity. It comes from deep within because Eric has taken the time to cultivate that mentality. During his commute to work, he's counting what he's grateful for. He spends time each morning staying spiritually grounded. He intentionally surrounds himself with positive people. And he's always looking to learn from those around him by developing these positive habits. Eric makes smarter decisions. He leads with more compassion. And because of it, he's already on his way to a second chapter of greatness after his NFL career. So let's take a moment here and apply this in your life as leader. Transitions are an inevitable part of leadership, both for your company and for you personally. Now is the time to develop the positive habits that will help you navigate those seasons of change. This week, try that habit of daily gratitude Eric used during his commute. Find something you're already doing each day. Maybe it's brushing your teeth or walking the dog and spend that time calculating a few things you appreciate about your life and work. Eric calls it training yourself to be grateful. And it's a fantastic way to start creating positive habits and a truly optimistic mindset. So do you want to know how leaders lead? What we learned today is the great leaders develop positive habits. Coming up next on How leaders lead, we're looking back at 2022 and showcasing some of the very best insights we've learned this year on the podcast and you're going to love it. So be sure to come back again next week to hear the entire show. Thanks again for tuning in to another episode of How leaders lead where every Thursday you get to listen in while I interview some of the very best leaders in the world. I make it a point to give you something simple on each episode that you can apply to your business so that you can become the best leader you can be. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]