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HBCU Grad Shannon Sharpe's Keys To Survival & Financial Security | KNEADING DOUGH - YouTube
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- I said, I believe everybody
should have to experience it,
[2]
at least a semester,
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of going to a historically
Black institution
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and having an opportunity
to go to Homecoming,
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to have an opportunity to
go to a Greek step show
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or sorority step show.
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And to absorb the ambience
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of what it's like at a
historically Black institution.
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And be in the presence of greatness
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of some of the greatest minds.
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Not just black minds,
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some of the greatest minds.
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(percussion music)
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♪ High school graduates ♪
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♪ Straight to the league ♪
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♪ I ain't waitin' for my knee to blow ♪
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♪ Yesterday I was needin' this dough ♪
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♪ Get it? ♪
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- Today, joining us we have
a GOAT in his own right.
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Not just because he's a
three times Superbowl champ,
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not just because he's a Hall of Famer,
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and arguably one of the best tight ends
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to ever play the game.
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But also he's become a
master of transition,
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a voice of Black culture
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and the media icon you know of today.
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It is everybody's uncle,
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Mr. Shannon Sharpe, Uncle Shay Shay.
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I appreciate you joining
us on Kneading Dough, man.
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- Thank you for having me on,
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how are you?
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- I'm good, man.
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Now let's take it back
to you going to school.
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Now you went to Savannah State.
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Were you aware of what it
means to go to an HBCU?
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Or were you aware specifically
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of Savannah State growing up,
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or was this all,
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come about just in this
process where you're like,
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hey, I'm not able to go
to these major schools
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and I just gotta find somewhere to go?
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- So for me, it was a springboard.
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My job was to get to the NFL
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and Savannah State was going
to give me that opportunity
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to play football,
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have people come scout me,
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and give me the opportunity
to go to the NFL.
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So it was not my destination,
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it was just a journey
along with the destination.
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And it wasn't until I got there
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and got an opportunity
to talk to the professors
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and the doctors that
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I realized what a special
opportunity that I had.
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I realized that everybody
doesn't get this opportunity.
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And so for me, that was the greatest thing
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because they were co-signing.
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Because when I left Savannah State
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and went out into the
world people always ask,
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well where did you go to school?
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I went to Savannah State.
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Well, when you carry on a
conversation with a person
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you like to think, okay,
that person is well-educated.
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They did their homework.
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When you go to an HBCU, they understand
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that the eyes are really
gonna be focused on you.
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And I had professors, Norman Elmore,
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Hanes Walton, Joyce McLemore, Joann Green.
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I had so many, Gay Hewitt,
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that put their name
next to Shannon Sharpe.
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So I am a representation,
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not only of Savannah State University,
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but of all the professors and doctors
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that taught Shannon Sharpe.
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- So Shannon, tell us about
your finances in college.
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How did you manage your money
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and where did you get your money from?
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- There was not a whole lot
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of finances to concern yourself about.
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And I think that was the biggest thing
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because we never talked about money
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cause we didn't have anything.
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I didn't get a credit card until like
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my junior year in college,
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I didn't know what a credit card was.
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I didn't even know anybody
that had a credit card
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when I was going to school.
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Even my high school coaches,
when we went on bus trip
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they paid with everything in cash,
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but then something happened.
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They got my information
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and they started sending
me these credit cards.
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And I didn't think anything,
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I like, they're not gonna
give me no credit card.
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I've never had a credit card before.
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If they know anything about me
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they know I ain't got no money,
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ain't got no chance of paying them back.
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All of a sudden you got
five or six credit card
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and $25 on this one and $25 on
that one and $50 on this one.
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And all of a sudden you
looking around like,
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well, how bout if I close it out?
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If I close it out and,
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tear it up, don't use it anymore,
ain't tell them anything.
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I don't think about closing it out,
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I just cut the credit card up,
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like okay, I'm done.
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No, you're not.
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And so that thing, that was
the biggest mistake I made.
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The mistake that I made
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wasn't getting the credit card,
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the mistake that I made
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was how I managed having the credit cards.
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So I go to the NFL and
I'm going, I need a car.
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See this four-door blazer, like, okay
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I like this one.
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I'm gonna get that one.
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Mr. Sharp.
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You're not gonna be able to get it.
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I'm like, what do you mean?
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I was like, I play in the NFL
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I can pay for this.
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Credit awful.
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I gotta call my brother again.
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Bro, I need you to co-sign.
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He's like, why you're in
the league you make money
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See my credit man, he said man I told you
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about them credit card didn't I?
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I said, yeah, you did.
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I said, well, you should
have told me before
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they sell them to me.
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That's what you should have
told me not after I got them.
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And so it wasn't having the credit cards.
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It was how I handled the credit card.
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- So, going from NFL or going
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from college to the NFL,
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I mean we both know that's
a, that's a big adjustment
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it changes things.
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And now in the job market,
there are students who will also
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go into their jobs and
it's competitive that way
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when they have jobs lined
up prior to them graduating.
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So for those students
who are about to graduate
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and may already have their
job lined up, do you have
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any financial advice
for them based on some
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of the experiences you had
and your quests from college
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to the NFL and learning how to
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use the money that, that
you were blessed with
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- Work hard, extremely hard.
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And at the end of the day
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come home and be okay with
what you've accomplished.
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I would look around and
like, I don't have enough.
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I'm good.
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I made some mistakes, financial mistakes.
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I did some things.
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I think a lot of young people do
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because you don't think
it can happen to you.
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You learn, I might make a mistake once.
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Not gonna make that same
mistake twice, but for survival
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it's like with anything. The greatest key
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to survival is not
speed, size or strength.
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It's adaptability.
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How well can you adapt?
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I adapted my way of thinking.
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I adapted my way of spending,
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and I was able to become financial secure.
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It's not hard.
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It takes discipline.
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That's what it takes.
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It takes only trying to please you
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people run into the mistake
when they try to please others.
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When they judge themselves
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by what others have
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or what others don't.
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I judge me by me because
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if I get something that I can't afford
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while they're resting
comfortably, I'm up at night
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worrying about how I'm
going to pay for it.
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I lived like that.
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I've had things that I
had no business buying.
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When I wanted to move to
Atlanta, they gave me a budget.
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Hawk, they said, okay,
Shannon, this is what you make.
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This is how much the house
you should buy costs.
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What I do, what I do, Hawk?
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What'd you think I did?
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I go a quarter of a million over budget.
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And all I got in the house
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I got a bed and a TV
that's it no furniture.
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Eating off paper plates.
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People ask me to this day
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I still eat off paper plates
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- So for the HBCU students
who also come from, you know
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tough means or have never had
access or never been exposed
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to some of these things,
what is the first step
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for them in learning that adaptability.
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That again, you have been
through and tried and true in
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throughout the course of your life
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- I remember calling
my grandmother in 1987
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my grandma picked up the phone.
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The lady says, I have a collect call
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to Mary Porter from Shannon Sharp.
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Will you accept this call?
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My grandmother said, no.
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She said, I can't pay this $50 phone bill
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I got now and hung the phone up.
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The operator said, Ms. Porter
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says she will not accept the call.
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Thank you.
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Hung the phone up.
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I go back to my room I'm
crying, tears run down.
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But I got to, cause my roommates in there.
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So I remember getting back I wipe my eyes
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I'm laying on the bed.
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My roommate asked me, he
said, how your grandma?
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I said, she's doing good.
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We had a great conversation.
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I said, man, I don't ever want to be
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in a situation where I can't
talk to my kids or I can't talk
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to somebody because of a, I
got to worry about a bill, man.
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It made me more determined to get to the
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NFL no question.
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It made me more devout in my pursuit.
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It drove me even more.
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I lifted more.
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I read harder.
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I ran longer, but it still
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didn't make me financially responsible.
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I had to do the pitfalls.
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You need to take the necessary steps.
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Now to put you on a path
that you will be responsible
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that you will be well off.
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You will be comfortable
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that you don't have to worry about, man,
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How am I going to pay this bill?
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That's a bad way to live.
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See yourself, not today.
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Because if you see yourself as today
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if only today is important to you.
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You can't see yourself 5, 10 years
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15 years from now because
these are the steps today
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that's going to help you
get to where you need to be.
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You got one of two choices
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you can be stable or
you could be struggling.
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And trust me, having struggled.
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That's not something you want to be doing
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because if you're struggling, now at 18
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you don't want to be struggling at 30.
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You don't want to be
struggling at 40 and 50.
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- It's the building of your
own financial security.
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(mumbles)
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If 18 year old, Shannon
sharp was on the other end
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of the screen.
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And he was sitting where
I'm sitting right now.
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And you had a chance to give him one piece
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of financial advice.
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What would you tell him?
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- When you're growing up
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to understand financial responsibility.
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When you don't have growing up the first
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your first instinct is to
get all the things that you
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didn't have or all the
things that you wanted.
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That would be the one thing
that I would tell myself.
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Shannon, think big picture.
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You're thinking mighty small.
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You're thinking very myopic.
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- After you got drafted, you went back
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to Savannah State to finish your degree.
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- Yes.
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- Why was it important for
you to finish your degree
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at Savannah State and finish
your degree in general?
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Because you're making
tons of money in the NFL
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- Because I felt Mary Porter
sent me for two reasons.
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She sent me to Savannah
State for two reasons
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to go play in the NFL and to get a degree.
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Now I didn't know which one
was going to happen first
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but I knew they were going to happen
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because people didn't think I could do it.
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No, I hadn't done it yet,
but I'm gonna show you.
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I'm gonna do it.
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I mean Shannon, man.
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Yeah, he good at Glennville.
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But when he go there
there'll be other people
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you see them brains,
he got, he ain't gonna
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he ain't gonna graduate no Savannah State
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Okay?
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I can show you better than I can tell you
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Cause I remember when
I first got to Denver
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there was a lot of guys that
have already had their degrees
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and they were like, man,
you ain't going back
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to school and said, we'll get my degree.
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And then I realized I'm special.
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I go to an HBCU
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and they taught me my worth.
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They taught me my history
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that I didn't really know
existed. That, Hey, Shannon, you
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and people that look like you
did a lot for this country.
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A lot more than you previously read.
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I felt a sense of pride.
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I feel a sense of honor.
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- That's deep.
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So this, this is, this
is my last question.
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And you touched on it briefly
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but I want to get your
overall answer here.
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Can you speak to the big picture impact
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that you feel HBCU's have on our society?
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- I see the impact
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that so many black
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HPCU alums have
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and the role they play in
society today gives me a sense
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of pride because I went to
one of those institutions.
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There's nothing like that experience.
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And I tell people all the
time, I don't do it justice
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by explaining to you
what it was like I said
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I believe everybody
should have the experience
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at at least a semester
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of going to a historically
black institution
[722]
and having an opportunity
to go to homecoming
[725]
to have an opportunity to
go to a Greek step show
[726]
or sorority step show and
to absorb the ambience
[730]
of what it's like at a historically
black institution and be
[734]
in the presence of greatness
of some of the greatest minds
[737]
not just black minds, some
of the greatest minds.
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And once you go there, it's in you.
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It's not on you it's in you.
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And you understand there's a huge
[747]
huge responsibility
that you're undertaking.
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There's not one time that I went
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out into the world that I didn't think
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about what I represented
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who I represented.
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Not only would I represent
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my family very poor to my brother
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and my sister.
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I represent Savannah State.
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Because I know they gave me
their best and anything less
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than me giving them their
best as being the best person.
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The best representation
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of that institution
would have been cheated
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of the gift I've been given.
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- Well, Shannon, to say
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that your story is inspiring
is an understatement
[793]
to say that you have
been completely candid
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and transparent is another understatement.
[798]
So I will end just by saying, I thank you
[800]
for all the wisdom that you have given
[802]
in this interview and living up to being
[806]
the people's uncle and spreading the love
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and knowledge to your
community and family.
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Thank you for joining us
here on Kneading Dough, man
[814]
- Hawk, thank you bro.
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