And so I got that scholarship. And then but well, before I got the scholarship, I also had to get the grades. And so my senior year, I think I might have made all of 2 or 3 B’s my entire senior year because I had to get my grade point average up. So that drove me to get to college. And once I got to college, I wasn’t really thinking about pro football until after my junior year.
I had led the ACC in catches that year, and I petitioned the NFL to see if I was to leave early, which I was not thinking about. Would I get drafted? And they came back and said, hey, you’re probably getting drafted in the fifth round at the highest to being a free agent, rookie free agent. It was at that point when I started to put my focus on the NFL and college, just like it was in high school. It was all about, how good can I be this year right now?
And I think that was the recipe for success for me, is that I didn’t look too far down the road, I was focused on right now and okay, where am I at on the depth chart right now? Where am I at as far as my speed, my agility, looking at, you know, comparing myself to the tops in whatever league or whatever position that I was in. I believe that’s why every year I continue to climb that ladder until the NFL comes calling.
John Corcoran: 09:46
Yeah.
John Corcoran: 09:47
What was the adjustment like going from college to the NFL? You know, they say, you know, high school to college is just a magnitude better. And you know, I talk to my son. I have two sons who are crazy about sports. Talk about this all the time about, you know, they want to go play professionally. And I say it’s just magnitudes better.
You just have to be all obsessed with it. So what was it like? What was the adjustment like for you going to the pros?
Desmond Clark: 10:11
It was so it was totally different. It was more than what I really expected. The speed of the game. When you go from high school to college, some of your guys are good in high school, right? Then you go to college.
Yeah. You got all the good guys from high school. And then once you go to the pros, you get all the good guys. All the best of the best. That’s competing.
So everybody’s big, strong, fast. Everybody is the best person at their position. And so now you gotta compete against all of that. And so it was night and day. Going from high school to college is one thing.
But college to pro is an entirely different level.
John Corcoran: 11:01
So you end up in the pros and you start with the Broncos. And I was reading about your background. You were playing behind Shannon Sharpe. I was just watching Shannon Sharpe. Sterling Sharpe was just involved in the Hall of Fame ceremony.
They were getting emotional. He’s one of the greats ever. What was it like playing behind playing with someone who’s of that caliber?
Desmond Clark: 11:28
Yeah. So for people who know who Shannon Sharpe is and just what he looks like as a human being coming into a building and saying, okay, I have to compete with that, like a human chisel specimen. Yeah, that was my first like, okay, welcome to the NFL moment.
John Corcoran: 11:52
Yeah.
Desmond Clark: 11:52
But a great guy. You know, he taught me a lot in that one year that I played with him. He was a smaller tight end. I was the smallest tight end. And there were a lot of techniques and just a lot of mindset stuff that he was able to say, all right, this is how you go about getting the job done in certain situations.
And then he was a receiver in college. I was a receiver in college. So we had some things in common that I could relate to. And then watching him how he worked as a decent blocker, you know, he never really got credit for his blocking ability, but he blocked the way he had to because he was smaller. Those are some of the things that I took with me throughout my 12-year career, and it helped me to Go 12 years as a smaller tight end.
John Corcoran: 12:42
Yeah.
John Corcoran: 12:43
Talk a little bit about some of the coaching and the leadership that you experienced. I played football in high school and experienced a range of different coaches. You always do when you play sports. What sticks out for you like any, any particular coaches that you know had leadership qualities that you think about to, to to this day?
Desmond Clark: 13:05
Yeah, I had some of the best coaches of all time. I talk about my coach days a lot, my middle school and high school football and basketball coaches, Coach John and Coach Jones, Coach Jackson and Coach Joe, all of them coached Jay’s. But they were very instrumental to my growth as a young man. And it was right at that time when I was 14 years old, when I, you know, I told my mom that I was going to be successful, that, you know, those coaches started playing that huge role in my life and then getting to college and playing for a coach. Like Coach Caldwell.
In college, I couldn’t have gotten a better mentor leader to play for in college. And then you go to the pros, and then I get to play. Play for who I feel like should be in the Hall of Fame. Coach Shanahan, you know, just a great coach. And with Coach Kubiak as my offensive coordinator, then I get to Chicago and I get to play with Lovie Smith.
Just guys that not only I learned football from, but learned life lessons from, learned things that still stick with me to this day just approaches about not, like I said, not just sports, but life in general, because I see sports as something that can help you if you learn the lessons the right way empirically, like they should be taught. Then it also helps you live a better life.
John Corcoran: 14:30
Yeah.
John Corcoran: 14:31
You’re in 2006, your team went to the NFL championship and to Super Bowl 41. What are your memories from that experience? You’ve got the jersey over your shoulder right here.
John Corcoran: 14:43
Yeah, yeah.
Desmond Clark: 14:45
So that’s the actual one that I wore in the game. Wow. The first thing that sticks out is just the opening kickoff right? Devin Hester taking that thing back to the house. And the second thing is just coming out of that huddle.
We played in Miami. And I grew up in Florida.
John Corcoran: 15:01
Yeah yeah.
Desmond Clark: 15:02
Yeah. So I had a lot of family down there. And just coming out of that huddle realizing you finally made it to to this point where this is the most watched TV event ever.
John Corcoran: 15:20
I read that it was, at the time, the fifth-largest TV viewing event of all time.
Desmond Clark: 15:27
Of all time. Yeah. Right.
John Corcoran: 15:29
Yeah.
Desmond Clark: 15:29
And you don’t know how big it is. But I don’t think anybody can really wrap their head around how big it is. But you do have that feeling of everybody watching. So just coming out of that huddle, just knowing that, hey man, I’ve been playing football since I was six years old, and I believe that time I was 29, and I’m in this position to be playing in the Super Bowl. And I have like my family in the stands watching.
That’s an amazing feeling. And to do it with the guys that, you know, you’ve got blood, sweat and tears from training camp, right? There’s only two teams that get to get there. Only one can say that they want it, which was not us. But looking back on it just to say that, hey, I’m, I’m one of the few people on this earth that played in a Super Bowl.
Like, that’s something that I look back on and I cherish.
John Corcoran: 16:22
How does one settle down their nerves in that kind of situation? Like, how do you, you know, is it maybe the first hit sometimes. Then you’re like okay, all right. You know, like jostles.
John Corcoran: 16:34
You.
John Corcoran: 16:34
Into it. But how do you go into that without just being a total bundle of nerves?
Desmond Clark: 16:39
You breathe.
John Corcoran: 16:40
That’s what I did. Okay. Okay.
Desmond Clark: 16:43
I think one of the best things that happened for me is that Devin took the first kickoff back. I didn’t have to go out on the field first as an offense. So I got to see our defense go out and you know, so so especially after a big play like that. So I got to settle down on the sidelines a little bit just by taking deep breaths like, yes, this we got to go and we got to play this game. We got to treat it like just any other game and go out and just execute, run the plays, and block tackle, catch the ball.
John Corcoran: 17:15
Yeah. Yeah.
John Corcoran: 17:17
Let’s talk about this transition from being a professional player to the post-football life. And I’ve interviewed other professional athletes before. And sometimes that can be a really rough adjustment. Did you have an idea of what you would do after your playing days were through? Or did you?
Was that something you had to figure out when you were done?
Desmond Clark: 17:37
No, I definitely had to figure it out when I was done. My thought process was I was going to be a stay at home dad. That didn’t happen. A couple I’m not even going to say. Yeah, I guess you got to say bad investments, but it was crooks on the other side of that bad investment.
Right? And then you go through a divorce. And then right at the end, right at the end of my playing career, I had tons of money in real estate, real estate development. And so we were developing a lot of real estate when all of that.
John Corcoran: 18:14
Stuff came.
Desmond Clark: 18:15
Crashing down. So that was like the Triple Crown for me. Invested with some bad people, divorce. And then the crash of the real estate market.
John Corcoran: 18:27
Did all those things happen around the time you were leaving the NFL?
Desmond Clark: 18:32
All those things happened in my last two years in the NFL.
John Corcoran: 18:37
How do you focus on your, you know, your job when all that stuff is going crawl, you know, coming down all around you?
Desmond Clark: 18:48
You have no other choice. That’s just like anybody else that’s going to a corporate job. You go to work, you get the job done, and then you deal with that stuff. Once you, you know, you’re done with your job. Yes, you’re thinking about it.
I have 2010 when I was going through my divorce. I have notebooks of me journaling, writing. I was also going through a tough time at the end of my career because in 2010, I was relegated to the fourth tight end, which to this day I would argue I was still the first or second best tight end on the team. I would concede to Greg Olsen because at that point he started making those strides. But other than him, I was the best tight end on the team.
It comes down to, you know, well, they paid a guy a big-time signing bonus, so they gotta justify that with playing him, right?
John Corcoran: 19:42
Yeah.
Desmond Clark: 19:42
And then they then spent a third-round draft pick on someone. So they got to justify that draft pick right. But if you go and ask any of those offensive coaches that were on the staff at that time, they’ll all tell you because all of them went back to the head coach and said, Desmond needs to be playing, but the offensive coordinator had to justify, you know, his move. So I was dealing with that all at.
John Corcoran: 20:10
The.
Desmond Clark: 20:10
Same time. And sometimes I went back and looked at some of those writings. Yeah. If I wasn’t writing in that notebook, I don’t know if I would have made it through that. But me just being very conscious of where my head was at, knowing that I was going through stuff at home and stuff at work.
I remember writing in one of those in the notebook saying, you know what? Let this be something that you can always look back at, and your kids know that you handled things the right way because it was hard going to practice every day knowing that, hey, I should be playing and I’m not playing.
John Corcoran: 20:54
Yeah, especially.
Desmond Clark: 20:55
When I sit right next to the guy that they’re playing over me and he’s sleeping in the meeting.
John Corcoran: 21:02
Yeah. Yeah.
Desmond Clark: 21:03
And he’s overweight every single week. So that was really, really hard. And then he gets in the game and doesn’t perform and doesn’t grade out well damn near every other week.
John Corcoran: 21:20
Yeah.
Desmond Clark: 21:21
So but that’s why they call him professionals, right?
John Corcoran: 21:26
Yeah.
Desmond Clark: 21:27
To be a professional, you still have to go out and you still gotta practice. So I was practicing hard every day, but mainly on the scout team against our defense. And I’m just going to say I made our defense really good in 2010 because they had to guard. They had to guard a really good tight end. Week in and week out.
So that was my saving grace during those periods. But yeah, going through those times. Now coming out of that knowing okay, stay-at-home dad is not in the books. The thing that really helped me to make that transition, although I didn’t know where what I was going to do and where I was going was that I just never identified myself as just an athlete. I always thought that, hey, I’m a fairly decent guy, right?
I’m a fairly smart guy. Whatever it is that I want to do, I can do it. But I never put my identity on just being an athlete. And I think that’s where most athletes struggle, because after they take the athlete away from you and now you can’t participate in sports . If that was your whole identity, who are you now? And I don’t think I ever struggle with who I am now.
It was just all right, what am I? What is this person going to do now? Because what I did was never my identity.
John Corcoran: 22:54
And so often for professional athletes, you know, you it comes from like the glory of playing in the Super Bowl. And oftentimes the end is like a whimper. It doesn’t come when you expect it to. You know, it might be caught at the end of training camp, or it might be in the middle of the season or something like that. But it’s not.
It’s not like you can plan for it. You know, it’s so rare that we hear of, like, these super heroes that sometimes walk off after winning a Super Bowl and retire. That rarely is this situation right? Usually it’s like, oh shit, I didn’t know it was going to be now or or or. Do you see this often too?
Like Kaepernick, right? Like for years was like preparing for his next opportunity with another team for years. You heard about this, right? You know, and it’s like you’re in this kind of state of suspended animation. Did you experience something like that?
Desmond Clark: 23:45
A little bit? I got cut and it was unexpected. I had a good camp in 2011. They brought me back, and I just assumed that I was going to make the team because I was having a hell of a camp. But I got hurt in the third game of the preseason.
And so also that third round draft pick from the year before he got hurt. And what I was told is that, hey, both of you guys are hurt. We don’t know how long both of you are going to be out. Both of us had minor injuries. My contract is guaranteed.
He is not. My contract is three times more than his, so they stuck with the younger guy. Yeah. They said, hey, you know, we can bring you back after week ten if something was to happen, right? So just stay in shape.
Stay in contact. Week nine, the third tight end got hurt and I called him. I was like, I’m here, I’m in, I’m in shape. I’m healthy, ready to go. They called me back the next day and said, hey, we’re going to save that third tight end position for a younger developmental tight end.
When I hung up the phone that day, I told myself I was done.
John Corcoran: 24:51
Like that’s.
Desmond Clark: 24:52
It. Let’s start. Let’s start moving on.
John Corcoran: 24:55
Yeah.
Desmond Clark: 24:55
So, you know, it wasn’t me. Hey, year after year after year, trying to train. I was 34 years old also. I had a good 12 year run.
John Corcoran: 25:04
Yeah.
John Corcoran: 25:04
I mean, that’s very old for the NFL. 12 years is unusual in the NFL.
John Corcoran: 25:09
Yeah.
Desmond Clark: 25:09
My nickname was Uncle Dez. So after that, you know I was prepared to move on. After I got there the following day.
John Corcoran: 25:20
And you, you went through a couple different careers. How did you figure out what you would do next after you had made that mental decision to move on?
Desmond Clark: 25:28
Yeah. So that was a difficult part because I didn’t prepare right to do something after football. So I went through this process where, you know, I got into real estate and then as soon as I started doing well in that, I was like, I don’t know if I love this. And then I got into medical device sales and started a company there. But then my partner, he was having trouble with his wife, and that became something that it shouldn’t have been.
And then I went into financial advising, which I stayed in that arena for a long time, from 2014 all the way to 2020. And in insurance, MassMutual. I actually had a small percentage of a small independent insurance company. But I bought it in 2019, I said, hey, I want to be done with this. I want to be done with corporate America, and I’m just going to go out and do my passion, which is motivational speaking.
And I wrote my book, Principles of Winning. At the end of 2019, I launched it and I was planning to launch it in 2020.
John Corcoran: 26:35
Oh, jeez.
Desmond Clark: 26:36
We all know what happened.
John Corcoran: 26:37
Oh. Horrible timing. Jeez. So I still am.
Desmond Clark: 26:41
Launched the book, but there were no speaking engagements.
John Corcoran: 26:44
Yeah.
Desmond Clark: 26:45
So I kind of just kept my eyes open, my ears open. And that’s when I was introduced to logistics in 2021 by a good friend. And over the course of 2 or 3 months, you know, I got educated, sat in his office, learned some of the basics, and I just at that point I was like, I don’t know if I want to come and work for someone, but I love this industry. And I actually asked him to help me to build my company, give me the foundation. and he did.
And that was the start of Barrett and Logistics. And just by, you know, posting on LinkedIn and him finding me on LinkedIn, I’m doing something that I absolutely love is my brainchild, my company, and I’m at home now with this now even have the identity of of of the company now, which we didn’t have in those first two and a half years. Now we are known for being one of the best heavy haul, oversized dimensional hauling companies in the United States.
John Corcoran: 27:51
What was it about the industry that drew you to process?
Desmond Clark: 27:55
It’s process driven, right? It’s a lot of upfront work to get the customer. And that’s the grind, right? But once you get the customer and now they are sending you loads on a daily basis, it’s process-oriented. And when I learned that, I said, you know what?
I can build that process. I can execute that process. I can teach that process. And I had the vision of, hey, let’s go out and get a handful of customers, be sustainable, and now go out and hire other people and bring them in and just, hey, it’s a process. It’s training, and it’s doing the same thing over and over and over and over again.
So if we can get good at these, these individual processes and bring them together, then, you know, we could build a really, really good company. I was very, very nearsighted with my thought process. But of course, when you get into something, you don’t know everything that’s going to come with it. But every step that I took, you know, I saw another door that could open up and took a step, kept taking more steps and more steps. I’m not even four years into it now.
I’m gonna learn a whole lot more. But from where I came from to where I’m at now is like light years.
John Corcoran: 29:12
Yeah.
John Corcoran: 29:13
It’s funny because the way you describe it, you know, is similar to what made you great as a professional athlete is you break it down to certain steps and you follow the process. And whether it’s pursuing professional football or whether it’s a logistics company, it’s very similar. You know, if you can do one well, you can do the other well. I could see the similarities between the two.
Desmond Clark: 29:37
Right. It’s one of my principles that I talk about the process of greatness. Right. I believe that everybody has some sort of greatness in them. You know, we just got to find it.
Yeah. It’s not always talent. You have to have a little bit of talent to be great at something. But you don’t need to be Uber talented, right? I ran a four, eight, 840.
I’m not even six three. I’m barely. I’m six two and 7/8. That’s what they told me at the combine.
John Corcoran: 30:02
When he gave.
Desmond Clark: 30:03
Me six three. It was £252. My planned career. We know that tight ends are six, six, six, seven, two.
John Corcoran: 30:10
62.
Desmond Clark: 30:10
65, to 70.
John Corcoran: 30:12
Right around.
Desmond Clark: 30:13
4 or 5 and four sixes. But over the course of my time, and I’m speaking about Chicago specifically, after I got done, at some point, they said, hey, you’re one of the greatest tight ends in Chicago Bears history. So if I can do that without having the measurables right. This is the process. The process of greatness is executing the details in excellence consistently over time.
And those are choices that you make. That’s not God given. And it’s not only God given ability executing. Finish it from the beginning to the end. The details.
Study and understand the details. Work on the details and know how to execute those details at a high level. Right? And now this is where most people get the good from the people who are considered great at what they do. They do it consistently, consistently.
It’s not one day anybody can do it, you know, good or great, every now and again.
John Corcoran: 31:22
Right, right.
Desmond Clark: 31:23
I feel really good today. I’m going to go out and give it my. All right. But then the next day I’m tired.
John Corcoran: 31:29
Well.
Desmond Clark: 31:30
The people who are considered great at what they do, they do it consistently.
John Corcoran: 31:36
Yeah.
Desmond Clark: 31:36
And they do it over a long period of time. And then over somewhere in that continuum of time, people start to recognize, oh, John, he’s great at podcasting. Oh, Desmond is great at coaching or whatever it may be, but you never hear of people. You’re great, right? When you come out of the blocks, you have the potential, but nobody’s calling you great then.
So that process of greatness is executing the details and excellence consistently over time. I believe anybody can find something that they can be great in if they focus on those five different elements.
John Corcoran: 32:14
That’s a great lesson. Desmond, this has been such a pleasure. I’m so glad we made this happen. Where can people go to learn more about you and learn more about Bear Down Logistics?
Desmond Clark: 32:23
They can. I just got back on Instagram. Dez Clark 88. Dez Clark 88. But I have a lot of my stuff on LinkedIn.
They can go to the website. Put the dash in there because if you don’t put the dash in there, the hyphen, then you have to go to another website. And that’s the difference between good and great at Dash.
John Corcoran: 32:48
Yeah.
John Corcoran: 32:49
Sounds good. All right, Desmond, thanks so much.
Desmond Clark: 32:51
Yes, sir.
Outro: 32:55
Thanks for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.