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Ryan Reynolds here for, I guess, my 100th Mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, honestly, when I started this, I thought I'd only have to do like four of these. I mean, it's unlimited premium wireless for $15 a month. How are there still people paying two or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming here. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash save whenever you're ready.
$45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes. See details. Welcome to the Jason in the House podcast. I'm Jason Chaffetz. Thanks so much for joining us. You are going to love this. It's just, I mean, inspirational. Inspirational. I saw this guy speak. Then I met him and spent a little time with him. And then I went and watched his movie.
And then we're doing this podcast. It's Coach Courtney. The movie is Undefeated. Now, I'm telling you, it is a documentary film.
You will love this. You will be inspired by it. And back like 10 plus years ago, we won an Academy Award. I didn't know. I mean, I'm like last to know. But if you haven't heard this story about this coach who goes into kind of the inner cities and makes a fundamental difference in young people's lives, I mean, really makes a difference.
then you're going to love this. He is inspirational in every step of the way. I encourage you to actually go watch the show. I think I saw it on Amazon Prime. You may have to rent it. It's like $3. Come on.
But you will also want to hear this interview because he tells the story, goes in depth and talks about how he did this. So I'm really excited about that. Going to highlight a couple things in the news and obviously highlight the stupid because there's somebody doing something stupid somewhere all the time.
But then we'll get on the horn and we'll talk to Coach Courtney. And I really, really think you're going to love this. So let's start with a few things in the news. I was really taken aback by this discussion last week in Congress. You know, one of the great things about the United States of America is
is we do things differently. And representatives that are elected by you get to sit on committees, and those committees call members of the president's cabinet and other witnesses to...
addressed the most pressing issues of our day. And the Secretary of Treasury, Janet Yellen, was called before the committee. And I got to tell you, there were some key questions that she was asked that she could not answer. And it's embarrassing because she was given advance notice. Now, I can tell you as a former member of Congress, one of the ways you get cabinet secretaries and others who are professionals at testifying, by the way,
to actually answer questions and not be able to dodge it is to send him a note in advance saying, "I'm going to ask you about this. "That's what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask you "a question about this and then you are not going "to be able to come up with an excuse to be able to say, "'Oh, okay, I didn't know that was coming.'" So Ann Wagner, the Congresswoman from Missouri, did a fabulous job in sending this note
to Janet Yellen asking about January 6th. Now, it wasn't just about January 6th. It was about the instructions that within the Department of Treasury
They are both the regulator and everything else as it relates to banks and financial institutions. And the last thing, if you're a bank or a financial institution, credit card companies, those types of things, last thing you want to do is get Treasury on the bad side of you. So when they make a request, it's a little bit more than a request. It's not just, hey, why don't you think about and get us back? It's pretty much a demand because they're also your regulator. They can shut you down. They can fine you. They can do all kinds of things.
And one of the things that was exposed in this is the surveillance by these financial institutions. They requested information about credit card purchases that Americans had been making.
And they tried to categorize so-called extremists as people who might shop at places like Cabela's or Bass Pro Shops or other types of stores. Now, I shop at Cabela's. I go to Bass Pro Shops. I may buy a shirt or a hat.
They got really good clothing there, maybe some fishing equipment. I've gotten my hunting license at Cabela's and used a credit card to get my hunting license. All lawful experiences in lawful transactions. And yet, as a suspicionless American, why is it that the Treasury Department can go in and get this? And suffice it to say, Janet Yellen said she didn't deny it.
that they were snooping on suspicionless Americans and they were snooping on people's credit cards. That's just not the role. I mean, that is so fundamentally wrong at its core. Now, some people may say, oh, well, what does that matter? You know, I haven't done anything wrong. They're building a database. And I'll expand further on this as we in future podcasts. But I'm telling you, they're snooping and gathering that information. Important to say that the Secretary of Treasury did not deny it.
She was not prepared to answer that question, which she should have been because Ann Wagner said, I'm going to ask you about this. But she promised a thorough investigation. Now we'll see if that really comes to fruition. But that is really an important one. And really, we ought to be paying attention to it. The other thing that happened last week that flew under the radar with all the crazy news going on, and it probably was more newsy, obviously, in the state of Florida, Fort Myers, Florida.
There was a bank robbery, allegedly, that was going on. And there was a suspect that was allegedly at knife point holding two hostages. Now, this happens during the week at like 11 a.m. People going into the bank just to cash a check or something or who knows what. Or maybe work at the bank. And suddenly, law enforcement, who wakes up in the morning...
Maybe they kiss their spouse goodbye, or maybe they just get ready and go to work. You never know what's going to happen. Next thing you know, there's the hostage situation. And what's absolutely amazing, we may never know this person's name, but I can't thank them enough. They got in position. There was a sniper who was in position, man with a knife, two hostages,
And they decide to take the shot and took him down. And I could not be more proud that they did that and that those hostages are okay and that they were released. I mean, it's something right out of the movies, but it happened in real life. It happened in Florida. And you know what? I'm glad, you know, for all the things, the silver lining is that Florida will actually take the shot and that makes the world a safer place. And I'm proud of them for doing that.
And I wish he never came to that. You don't want to see anybody die, but you also don't want to see any hostages. And when bad things happen, you have good people who step up and make things and take care of business. And that sniper, I hope they know the rest of their life how proud we are of them and what they did because it really, really is amazing. All right, time to bring on the stupid because you know what? There's somebody doing something stupid somewhere always. ♪
All right, now we're going to this California. California has this rampage of problems, petty theft, retail theft, and it just starts escalating up from there. One of the things people are dealing with are carjackings and then also people breaking their cars, just smash and grab and grab whatever.
This poor people, this guy had his car smashed in. Well, evidently in the center console, whatever, was his wife's grandmother's ashes. She had recently passed away. They had the ashes in the car, thought it was secure. Car was locked, evidently. And the allegation is somebody smashed the window, saw a picture of the smashed window. They went in there and grabbed what looked like a really nice thing.
I'm sure it was. But the ashes of this gentleman's wife's grandmother. How sick is that? How low is that? It doesn't get any lower than that. It's downright stupid. It's sad.
but it just shows, it's just another example of how out of control it is in California. By choice, by choice. They don't prosecute these people to the degree they should. Maybe they will in this case because it's high profile. But I'm just saying overall, if you don't prosecute, you don't have the right law enforcement, there aren't consequences, then you're going to continue to have these types of problems. And I feel for that guy and
This woman's grandmother's ashes are now, they don't have them. And it's fundamentally wrong. And it's sad that that happened. All right, time to come up with something a little bit more inspirational. And that's why I'm so excited to bring on Coach Courtney. And let's dial him up and have a conversation because you're going to love this. All right, so we've got Bill Courtney on the line with us. Bill, thanks so much for joining us.
Man, I'm honored to do so. How are you? Well, I'm doing a little better than you. You were out shoveling some snow. We got a little delay on the start of this recording, but that's why you live in Memphis, isn't it? To deal with the snow on a daily basis? Yeah. People in Memphis don't even have snow shovels. I'm out there using whatever I can to rake snow away from my car. You're using a rake? That's a good call. Yeah. Yeah.
You know, I live in Utah. That's snow country. And we laugh and giggle whenever like Washington, D.C. or these other places, they have snow days. And it hasn't even snowed yet. And they like the federal government like shuts down. They can't even come into work. And we just kind of think it's cute and fun when people say, oh, my gosh, we have four inches of snow.
We got eight inches of snow and it was four degrees last night. I mean, that's just not Memphis weather. So it's been an ordeal. Well, in Utah, we don't even know what humidity is like. It's one of the driest states. That's right. We make fun of y'all during the summer, so you can make fun of us during the winter. Fair enough. Hey, listen, you've got an amazing story. And I...
Happened to see you at a heritage event in Georgia. And you spoke about this documentary that was made about you and what had gone on with your football program. But then you talked about the army of normal folks. So I want to talk about all of that and this movie, Undefeated. I've subsequently watched it, and I was just amazed at what you did there.
the effect that you had on real people's lives that probably weren't going to get some help otherwise. Well, I mean, I appreciate that, but, um, to be handed, um,
I'm not sure that I didn't grow and learn as much out of the process as the kids I coached did. These are kids from an area where a 18-year-old male is – a 21-year-old male was three times more likely to be dead or in jail by his 21st birthday than is to be in college or have a job. That's amazing. And it's abject poverty and loss. And –
The seven years I spent there, certainly some of the work we did helped some of those kids to choose for themselves and engage for themselves in a better way to lead a life. But I got to tell you, Jason, the seven years, the growth and the experience and the wisdom involved,
And the understanding of the human condition that I gained is probably a bigger payoff for me in my own life than what the work we did were for the kids and theirs. Well, it's a phenomenal story all around, because I think when you speak from your heart and you do things in a –
not just an altruistic, but like a real ideal way, there's benefits to pay off. And sometimes the hardest things we go through are the best things that we go through because that's where we learn and grow. But
Bill, let's go back or coach. I should probably call you coach. That's fine. Everybody does. All right, coach. Let's go back to, I was born in, I want to hear a little bit more about your life story and then get into the heart of what you went through as the coach there. But let's go back. Like I was born in, I had brothers, sisters, whatever. And what was life like growing up for you? I had a mom who loved me a lot. Um,
My dad left home when I was four. He died a few months ago and I got a phone call about it after he was dead. And that was my total relationship with him. Mom was buried and divorced five times. My mom's fourth husband shot at me down a hallway when he was after finishing a handle full of usher scotch. I had to dive out a window that night to save myself. I didn't come up with much.
And I got married, had four kids, started a business with $17,000. And now we do about $80 million a year in sales. I've got offices in Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh. I've got manufacturing facility in the best sales offices in Memphis. And I've been very, very fortunate and blessed. And I will tell you, all the things that have led to whatever success I've had in my life
were the things that i learned from my coaches uh growing up because they were my circuits um i had a lot of dysfunction and and unhappy times and not much male role models and if i weren't for my coaches i don't know where i'd be and so i also have this alternate life uh this businessman life yes but the alternate life which is my passion is coaching and so when i started my business
There's a school called Manassas, not far from where I started my business, that needed help. And they asked me to come over because I had a lot of history coaching. And I got there and I found 17 kids on a varsity football team whose previous 10 years record was
four wins and 95 losses. And we went to work. And seven years later, we had 75 kids on the team. We were 18 wins and two losses. And my last two years out of 32 kids that graduated high school, 31 went to college. And that last season, some guys who'd never really made much of a film who were 31 years old showed up on a wing and a prayer budget.
And they followed us around and captured 550 hours of film and went back to L.A. and said they were going to make a movie, which, of course, two borrowed cameras and three guys who'd never really done much. You thought you may see it on Channel 452 at 3 in the morning on one Wednesday. And Jason, two years later, my wife Lisa and I are walking down the red carpet at the Academy Awards. It's a crazy story.
But winning the Academy Award somehow gave me this weird platform that now I've written a book. I speak all over the country. I'm an executive producer on two movies. My book is being cast into a feature film. And I started a podcast. And so I know that's an elevator pitch of about 40 years of life, but
That's what happened. And it was all really, I didn't pursue it. It kind of happened. And the blessing of all of it is it gives me this platform to go around and say things.
Jason, I think it's high time we start talking about politics and creed and race and not worried about being canceled or worried about what it might say to somebody, as long as we just say it in a civil, non-threatening way. Because the inability to have conversations because of council culture and the inability to talk like normal folks amongst normal folks about important stuff, I think it's
is a real threat to our Republic. And, um, and so the blessing of all of this is a platform I have that you can cancel me all you want. I'll go back to my lumber company and do what I'm doing anyway. And so I think it's time that, uh, an army of normal folks step up and cancel the narratives that are coming out of a lot of the national politics and frankly, a lot of the national media and, uh, and fix what's broken. Yeah, I think that's right. I think that, uh,
I've always believed that, you know, no one party, no one person probably has all the answers to all the things. But if we're not able to talk them through...
You know, I was a big admirer of Margaret Thatcher and she really did believe. And she said she spoke from her heart. She would say, you know, first you got to win the argument. Then you can go win the votes. And oftentimes, you know, they kind of skip over that part and just start arguing. And but, you know, have an actual dialogue with with people and break bread with people.
And once they learn that you're sincere in your heart and that you really, truly care, then they'll let you in. And then you can actually make progress and communicate and learn from each other, right? It's true. And you evoked now a little bit of national politics with Margaret Thatcher. And she was a phenomenal leader. But I think people need to stop and really understand that
The success of American democracy and frankly, the role America plays as the world leader, in my opinion, is also under threat. And here's why. We are not the leader of the free world because we say we are. We're the leader of the free world as Americans because other democracies across the world yield to us because they believe so deeply in our democracy.
And when they start seeing the bitter partisan divides that are tearing us apart at the threads, they start having doubts about the strength of our democracy and therefore start having doubts about the strength of our republic. And when that happens, they're going to look elsewhere for leadership in the world. And that is a really dangerous place for our world. It's a really dangerous place for our country.
And wouldn't it be a shame if no other country in the world could bring us down, but yet we do it to ourselves by our vitriol that we have for one another about the way we speak?
Yeah. No, I like Abraham Lincoln talked about that. Some other notable political leaders have talked about that. Let's go back, Bill. I really want to get to the heart of this is what's great about a podcast, right? You can dive a little bit deeper because your story is amazing. The movie Undefeated was just so inspirational because then not only do you get to hear it, you actually get to see it, right? And
Those guys putting together this movie with 500 plus hours of footage, they did a great job because it's hard to probably synthesize that all down into a cogent narrative and story that you can see and feel and not having all the people just looking in the camera. They kind of forget that the camera's there after a while, right? But when you were a little kid and you have a fatherless home and
sports was an outlet. Is that where you occupied your time? Were you playing? I mean, a lot of kids don't play football till they get older. You're, you're a good size guy. Were you, were you playing? You didn't strike me as the guy that was on the diving team. I mean, what were you doing sports wise? What was life like when you were growing up? I lettered in six sports in high school. Really? Yeah. Um, and this is in 10, this is in Tennessee, Tennessee.
Yeah. Grew up in Memphis, born and raised. Still here in Memphis. My business is Memphis family, Memphis. I, yeah, I mean, I love sports. And so the, the, the beauty behind all of that is I was, because I was playing everything all the time, there were so many opportunities for great mentors and role models come in my life in the form of coaches. And, and it started in third grade with a guy named Ray Condor in fifth grade with a guy named Zach Street, all the way along to,
And my approach to coaching, my approach to managing my business, my approach to fatherhood is not 100% like any one of those men. But it is 100% of me is little pieces of the best parts of what I've learned from those guys. And I even find myself at 55 years old saying something and I'll think back, huh.
You know, that's funny. That's what Dale Flickinger said to me when I was a junior in high school, you know? And so I was just really blessed that despite all of the dysfunction I had at home, that just some really great men God put in my life along the way. And yeah. And so what I was doing as a kid, I was playing sports or believe it or not, playing chess. One of my, one of my,
One of the greatest mentors I had in my life was my math teacher and chess coach, who happened to be a concert pianist, played drums for a rock and roll band, and started at center for a high school football team that lost one game in four years and won three state championships. And I love that guy because he could show me you could be smart and interesting and do stuff other than sports and play.
Yeah, it's just... That's what I do. And so... Well, what do you think... I mean, I've hired a lot of people along the way, and I've always...
Pretty much always have found that people who had participated in sports along the way, they knew how to win. They knew how to lose. They knew how to work hard. They knew how to show up on time. They knew a lot of things that maybe they weren't learning at home or just need it reinforced by having somebody else. You know, I think of some of my coaches along the way, Coach Moon and those types of things. You know, you just...
you just coach Thompson. I just, I learned a lot from them, even though maybe I didn't recognize it at the time. No doubt. You really don't know what's being programmed into you until you get old enough and wise enough to realize, Oh, that was it. One of my favorite mantras is football doesn't build character. It reveals it. And, and that is a lot. There's,
You can substitute the word football for tough times or for difficulties, you know,
Difficulties, people often say, oh, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And maybe, but I just don't believe that football or tough times or difficulties build character. I think difficulties or tough times reveal character. I think what builds character is all of the preparation you do
in committing to a foundation of basic fundamentals and tenets of character and commitment and dignity and the value of hard work and forgiveness and grace and teamwork and all of those core values that should define you. And then when the difficult times come, the work you've done building that foundation reveals your character. So tough times don't build character, they reveal it. And I believe that that mantra and that belief set
It comes from all of the lessons you learn playing team sports. So you're going through, you go through high school, then you go to Ole Miss, right? Right. I go to Ole Miss, graduate with a degree in psychology and a degree in English.
And I want to be a child psychologist and save the world. And I bump into this unbelievably beautiful, remarkable, smart young woman named Lisa, who I chase around and finally get to marry me.
And now I'm thinking, all right, I'm this redheaded, dumpy dude who doesn't have a window to I mean, I have nothing. And how am I going to hang on to her? So in the South, you just start having kids. So we had four kids in four years. And and now I'm broke, broke with four kids on a coach's salary and I start my business.
but football remained my passion. And so I grew my family quickly as a 22-year-old guy and started in business really out of the need to pay bills and then kept coaching as I was growing my business because, again, that's what I was passionate about. So the move to Manassas, was that a coincidence? Did you just bump into it? How did you end up there because...
I mean, you told this story about, you know, sometimes you drive down a street and you look down there and you think, eh, that may be not the safest street I should go down to, but maybe that's the street we should think about, you know, and.
Does that all tie into that together? Well, yes, but not the way you maybe think is that, yeah, look, I started a manufacturing business. We manufacture a hardwood lumber and that, that takes a lot of big industrial property and everything else. And, and I didn't have any money again. So I bought the cheapest, most dilapidated piece of property you could find around Memphis. And I,
started my business. Well, it happened to be a half a mile from Manassas. I'd never even heard of the place or seen it. And a guy that knew me from coaching happened to be connected. And he said, hey, you interested in maybe coming over and coaching Manassas? And I'm like, where's Manassas? I'm starting this business. I said, well, it's only a half mile from you. So
The way I got to Manassas was just geography. It was luck. I didn't go there to save anybody. I didn't go there because it was such a poor area. I went there to coach football. But once I got there, I learned so much about
the inaccuracies and the wrong preconceived notions we have about kids from areas like this. The zip code at the time of your birth should not determine your success. And kids are kids regardless if they're born into poverty or born into wealth. They just want to be part of something positive and exciting. And my interaction with those kids broke down so many stereotypical things that I held true in my life that were false. And so
after that experience, Jason, is when I started saying to people, you know,
We have these neighborhoods all over every country in our country where we drive by them and we look down the street and we're thinking, oh my God, don't have a flat tire here because I might get mugged while I'm changing my flat tire. And then as we safely pass by it, our humanity returns to us and we think, man, somebody had to do something about that one day. And I think that sentiment is garbage and doesn't matter. Maybe we need to kick that rear view mirror 15 degrees to the left and look ourselves in the face and say, man,
Maybe I had to do something about that one day. Government's proven woefully inadequate. We know we're on second and third generational poverty in these areas. So whatever programs are out there, however well-intentioned they were at their genesis, haven't worked. So maybe it's just going to take us, you know, average guys like you and me,
normal people seeing areas of need in their communities and filling it, just like happened to happen when I went to Manassas. And then
What if we had an army of normal folks, literally hundreds of thousands of people across our country, not the government, not the A-listers, not the wealthy, wealthy people, just average guys like you and me, seeing areas of need in our particular corner of the community and filling those areas. If we had an army of normal folks, I genuinely believe we could change this world if we just had the temerity, the curiosity, and the courage to stop
in those places and employ our passion and our discipline and our talents rather than drive-by and hoping somebody else will fix it one day. You're listening to Jason in the House. We'll be back with more of my conversation with Coach Courtney right after this.
No, well said. And I think that's part of the inspirational part of your story. It really, really is. When
When you showed up on the scene, so they give you the head football coach, give you the whistle, so to speak. What was it like when you showed up? I mean, were they just glad to have somebody there? And it seemed particularly from the movie, they just expected to lose. That was the tradition. It was just losing and very few players to feel the football team. That's for sure. Halfway through my first season, Jason, we were three and three.
I think three and three is pretty average, but when you've won five games in 10 years, they thought three and three was pretty great. They thought I was maybe a fat red-headed version of Pete Carroll or somebody. We started coaching things besides football. We were coaching character, commitment, all those tenets I talked about. Halfway through the season, the whole team is yes or no, sir, and buying into the football, but only half the team was buying into the important stuff.
And it was frustrating me. And every coach has a guy. And this is my first year. So I went to the one guy I felt like I had a pretty open relationship with. And I said, hey, man, what do I got to do to get that half the team to buy in the important stuff like you're half the team? Everybody's good with football, but half the team didn't buy in like I want them to to all the other stuff. And he said dismissively, just keep doing what you're doing, coach. And I'm like, no, man, real talk. He said, I don't want to hurt your feelings.
I said, you're not going to hurt my feelings. He said, all right. They're trying to figure out if you're a turkey person or not. And I said, what are you talking about? And he said, coach, every Thanksgiving and Christmas, people roll into our neighborhood from where you live and they drop off hams and gifts and turkeys. And we take them because we ain't got none, but then they leave and we never see them again. So it makes you wonder if they're doing that because they care about us or they're doing that to make themselves feel good. And let me deadenize. He said, what are you doing here, coach?
And so you asked me, you know, how I was accepted because I was offering an opportunity to do something positive. And we were buying new equipment, new uniforms. You know, they brought me in and they listened. But did they buy in? Not yet. And here's why.
All of the programs, all of the people, all of the things that happen in our inner cities oftentimes lack the most important, valuable component, which is a long-term commitment. People in that area are so used to seeing people come in and drop off stuff and leave, come in and drop off stuff. Well, if that goes on for 30, 40, 50 years, I mean, you'll take what's given, but you
You don't feel like anybody's got buy-in. So how was I accepted? I was accepted fine because I was offering something. But was I believed in? Was I trusted in? Or was I just like every other thing or program or person in areas like that that comes and goes? So, you know, it took some time. But when one year turned into two and two years turned into three,
And people saw that I was as committed to them as I was asking them to commit to the program. Then they started buying in. And that's when we went from 20 kids to 30 kids to 75 kids. And we went from five or six ones a year to 18. And it is an enormously valuable lesson that...
If you're going to commit, commit. Don't be a turkey person. Do it for the right reasons and do it for the long haul. And if you do that, amazing things can happen in your life and the lives of those around you. I think it's a great message. And it's, I mean, you just see it really come alive in that movie. And when you spoke about it, when you're talking about it here on this podcast, it's just amazing.
It makes so much sense. And it's hard, though. I mean, it takes a toll. You got a young family, you know, this beautiful wife had a chance to meet. You're right. She's gorgeous. And I see why, you know, she's fun. She's got a big smile on her face. And, you know, and your kids, too. I mean, there comes a point, though, I think near the end of the movie you made that I really, really struck a chord with me is, you know, you got to take care of your own kids, too.
And the time that you take away, I mean, that's one of the fundamental problems and challenges I had serving in Congress. My family was young. I go, I spend eight years in Congress and, you know, sometimes I'd be home for 12 hours, get back on a plane and have to, you know, go back to work. And I missed so much of their life. But I think you, it dawned on you, didn't it? It hit you that, hey, I got to coach my own kids as well.
Yeah, and you know what? I tried, but I was 10 years younger then than I am now. You have to have balance and you have to have buy-in from your family that this is something we're going to do together and this is a commitment we're going to make corporately. It does take that kind of work.
you don't have to coach a football team to serve and be there every day. There are other less, you know, or run for Congress or whatever. I mean, you know, it's,
On my podcast, we feature different people every single week, but there are photographers that donate a couple hours of time a week to people in need. I guess what I'm saying is there's all kinds of things you do that you can be consistent and you can do for the right reasons, but only take two or three hours a week.
It doesn't take a deep dive 30 hour week buy in to serve. And again, we do what we can with what we have and what we're passionate about. And if we had an army of those people, regardless of if it was a 20 hour a week commitment or three hour a week commitment,
you have the chance to change our culture and lives and perception and grow in your own humanity when you get out of your car and go across the street and
And immerse yourself in an area that you really don't know and understand, but you only think you know and understand from the clips you see on social media and the news. And when you find out the truth that people are people regardless of where they come from and the value of service, it changes your life.
Yeah, I think that, you know, part of the lesson I've learned in my life is you can't just make stereotypical assumptions, you know, because you live on this side of the tracks versus that side of the tracks. You know, what I find is everybody's going through something, right? Everybody has a challenge. Sometimes I think in traffic or at the grocery store where pumping gas, you know, a person looked at me weird, you know, I'm what a jerk, you know, they think I did something wrong. Like,
No, maybe they just found out that their mom's cancer treatment's not going so well. You know, you just never know what they're really thinking. And I think anybody who goes through life has challenges. Some are financial. Maybe there's an addiction. Maybe, you know, it can be an accident that's happened. Maybe they're just, you know, stress in a personal relationship. You never know what it is, but everybody goes through something.
And I do believe that, you know, for young people and older people as well, but young people, they need mentors. They need people, um,
that they can look to and learn from and see and have other experiences. Again, I gravitate back to that's why sports I thought was so important. And, you know, some people find that in, you know, a dance class or chemistry class or not everybody has to play sports or can play sports, right? So there's other ways to have that manifest, but those that get kind of through the cracks and don't have these types of opportunities, right?
or don't have somebody to lean on or express that, you know, those are the people I worry about. And they don't have to be from the absolute poorest zip codes, but I love your message about the zip code at your birth shouldn't determine, you know, your optimism in your life and your opportunities. And I have a unique perspective on that because of where my life is now.
but where I came from. Right. And, and, you know, if you saw me walking down the street today or met me, you would see a guy's been buried 32 years with four children,
in a great business and has experienced some semblance of success in life. If you saw me and my wife, we'd be in a nice car, staying in a nice place. I'd have on a nice watch. My wife would have on nice jewelry. We'd be dressed in nice clothing. And you would sum up who I am. But that's not how I identify. I identify as a guy who grew up
understanding that on the 26th, you probably had to tighten up a little so you had enough food in the pantry to make it to the first of the month. I grew up as a guy who never had nice clothes. I had adequate clothing. Mom did the best she could and worked hard, but we didn't have any money. I identify as a guy who
who had five fathers, none of which who saw enough value in me to stick around in my life. I grew up a guy, I identify as a guy that had all kinds of insecurities as a result of that trauma and as a result of that dysfunction. And candidly, in the teens, I lettered in six sports, right? I was a strapping, kind of tough, fast, strong guy. And I was angry.
And the way that anger and aggressiveness manifests itself in, I got in a lot of fights, got in a lot of trouble. And so who you see today and where I came from are two really polar opposite worlds, but I'm the same human. I'm the same person.
And to me, what that says is I don't give a crap if you're married into if you're born into wealth or if you're born into the projects, the humanity inside that human being has all kinds of.
potential and has all kinds of wants and desires and love and smarts and all of this and what if we worked as a society in the community to bring that out of every human being that we could regardless of where they're from what would this world look like 20 years from now yeah no amen to that I
One other question before I ask you some rapid questions that we ask everybody who comes on this show. But I want to ask you, what's your concern for today's young people? I mean, you still have a young family, but younger kids, they're growing up with technology, a phone in their hand, instant gratification, a concern about work ethic, all that. When you look at the generation that's up and coming now, what's your concern about them?
All of what you just said is absolutely a big one for me, but my biggest concern is their parents. This helicopter parenting thing
Our children got to learn to fail, but have a soft landing. Our children got to learn to skin their knees. And instead of throwing a console control or keyboard in front of our children, we need to be throwing them out the front door and tell them to go out in the backyard and build a mud castle or something. Or throw dirt clods. Exactly. Yeah, throw dirt clods, do something. I really worry about...
what parents are doing now with children because of the way they grew up. We're only a generation removed from kick the can until eight o'clock at night. And yet I see such a different approach to life out of our children that, look, the technology and everything's great. I'm not one of those fuddy-duddy guys, but I do think children...
need to need to have a life outside of the four walls of a, of a house and a computer screen. Um, and much of what I see is that, and, and that's incumbent upon our parents to actually serve their children in ways that, uh, don't look like helicopters and, uh, video game consoles. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a time and a place and technology can be good, but it's gotta be in balance and there's gotta be a perspective and it can't be all consuming. And the, the,
Anyway, we could go on and on. Interestingly, Jason, my own children tell me
that they will not get their children cell phones until they're 16. Interesting. That them having cell phones, they realize now was too early in their life. And that is so hopeful for me that my own children are saying, my kids won't have cell phones till they're 16. So maybe there's hope. Yeah, no, my own son, he's getting older now. You know, he and his wife have a baby and another one on their way. And yeah.
years ago, years ago, like five, six, seven years ago, he got off social media. He's like, it's a waste of time. It's not real. And I, you know, and anyway, I hope more people do that naturally. I think it'd be healthy for the nation. All right. I want to make sure everybody knows how to find you and what you're doing. So you got the army of normal folks podcast, right?
Yeah. So the real quick on that, that was just an interview, much like this one. And the producers called me back after I talked about this army of normal folks and said, we want to start a podcast and you host it and we'll go around the country and find normal folks doing great things in their communities. You interview them and tell their stories. And I thought,
Well, the greatest thing about podcasts is there's no barrier to entry. And the worst thing about podcasts is there's no barrier to entry. So I'll try it. So we've been out about nine months, Jason, and we've been as high as number 10 in the country on Apple. Lots of downloads and everything else. It's been amazing. And it's growing exponentially. And yeah, I hope people come in so you can find that at
uh, normal folks.us. And you can find me at bill at normal folks.us and tune in. It's a weekly download of a show about our normal, just the people we're talking about normal folks doing extraordinary things. And yeah,
It's definitely well produced and meant to be entertaining and interesting and make you laugh and make you cry. But hopefully, most importantly, it's meant to make you think about your own station in life and inspire you to maybe think about what your talents are and what your passion is and where you can get involved and join this army of normal folks celebrating one another across our country doing things in their communities. Other than that,
I've got a website, coachbillcourtney.com. You can find me there and find out about speeches and other stuff. Yeah. And then the movie Undefeated. I think I found it on Prime. I had to rent it, but it's like $3. Yeah, it was on Netflix for many, many years. And Prime, it switched over to Prime about four months ago. But yeah, order it up. Listen, I don't make a dollar of royalties on the movie, so I can unabashedly plug the
Prime and the documentary because I'm not doing it for any reason except I do think I'm humbled by all the things people said about it. I'm humbled by winning the Academy Award and all the other awards and all that, but
I'm not an actor. I was the subject. The real talent were the directors and the guys who did the film work and took 550 hours of film and crafted it into a two hour movie that was inspiring enough. It won the Academy. But, you know, I don't want to take any credit there. I'm a subject.
No, well, it was very real. And I think that's what sold it. I mean, it was. And it is. Obviously. I was never once asked to say anything, repeat anything or any of that. In the truest sense of the form, it's not like this overly produced reality TV stuff. It is a real documentary and everything you see is authentic as it can be.
Yeah, no, I loved it. Again, undefeated. All right, Coach, we had a couple quick rapid questions for you, okay? We ask everybody these. First concert you attended. I'm sorry? First concert you ever attended.
Easy. And they're my friends now. Cheap trick. Oh, really? You got to know them a little bit. Oh, that's cool. Actually, the son of Rick Nielsen, who plays the five-arm guitar, one of his sons did some of the music in Undefeated. Oh, how cool is that? Yeah, that's good. That's very cool. But they were. They were my very first concert. What was your high school mascot? Eagle. Eagle.
No, well, that's good. What was your very first job? First job like, hey, I got a paycheck from somebody else.
Believe it or not, a thing called sports care, which my junior year was a daycare thing. And the big deal was every group went and did a different sport a different day. And I taught the basketball group for sports care. No, that's good. Because, I mean, you're probably a teenager, right? How old were you? Yeah, I was 16. Yeah, cool. Yeah.
I think that's one of the things we're really missing. Hiring 14, 15, 16-year-olds and letting them earn, I don't care how much the check is, to actually learn the value of a dollar. And I think it's just so great. We're missing that opportunity. If you could meet one person, if you could call your wife and say, hey, honey, guess what? Good news. We got somebody coming over tonight. Anybody in history, dead or alive, coming over to break bread with the Courtney family, who would you invite? Christ.
Nice. That would be good. Okay. Outside of religious figures, who would you invite? Oh, there's three or four, but I'm kind of a history freak, so it's a tough one to really answer, but I think probably Caesar. Wow. That's interesting. Very interesting. Yeah. You know, that guy has some of the very same challenges that our next president will have, and I would like to hear...
I would like to hear his innermost thoughts about that. Oh, that's great. Pineapple on pizza, yes or no? I'm sorry? Pineapple on pizza. This is a big one for me. I want you to know you can't get this one wrong, Coach. No! Have you seen me? I'm a no.
Good answer. Yes, that is the only acceptable answer. Judges love that answer, by the way. So thank you. And favorite childhood toy? My yellow metal, old cast metal yellow Tonka dump truck. Oh, I love that. I liked my I like that. I like my army men and I really loved my Stretch Armstrong.
I love, I love shut-shut. I also, a close second and probably was with the dump truck very often was my GI Joe with the beard. Yeah, he was great. He was great. Yeah. All right, last question, Coach. You've been very generous with your time. Best advice you ever got? You can either...
be a victim of your circumstance or choose to be a rock that dysfunction breaks itself against. But you come to a place in life where you have to make that choice. That's great. You've done some very inspirational things. And I don't think these types of things are just purely coincidence and spontaneous combustion. Somehow, some way you've been able to
not only have those experiences and affect the lives of countless people, but to be able to hear that as an inspiration to other people, it really warms the heart and it's good. And it's a reminder that it's not just somebody else's job to do that. We should all do our part and we can. And for that, I thank you. And I appreciate getting to know you and spending time on this Jason in the House podcast. I do appreciate it.
You're far too kind. And thanks so much for having me. And it was great to meet you down in Georgia. Coach Bill Courtney, Army of Normal folks. Look it up in the movie Undefeated. Coach Courtney, isn't he amazing? Like I'm inspired by this guy. He's just awesome. And these stories are out there in the world. People who step up, do the right thing for all the right reasons, make impact on young people's lives.
Gosh, I just love it. Love those stories. Can't get enough of them. Want to hear more of them. But hats off to Coach Courtney and whatever he does, an army of normal people. Don't you love that? I just think that makes total, complete sense. It certainly does to me. All right. Again, thank you for joining us. I need you to rate this podcast. Rate it. That would be good. Subscribe to it so you don't miss any. We have really good.
inspirational, interesting people and how they got there and what their in-depth story is. We can go deeper in a podcast, and I think you've seen that, but I'm really glad you heard this one. Hope you subscribe to it so you can get more down the road. I want to remind people you can listen ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music Network.
app. Also encourage you to go over to foxnewspodcast.com. Lots of cool podcasts like Trey Gowdy's and some others. I'm just telling you, the good stuff that's being produced out of Fox, and I think you'll really like it. Again, rate it, review it, subscribe to it. Come back to us next week. I'm Jason Chaffetz. This has been Jason in the House.
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