Bear Bryant Changed His Life. God Transformed It | Rich Wingo | Ep 62

[Music] welcome to rick and bubba university the podcast uh you know we we love doing this uh most every week bubba you know remember you and i used to make fun of podcasts yeah oh yeah i still do and one day it got us and so the the podcast got bit by the podcast so we our guest today has been a friend of ours for many many years uh we reference him often on the show but uh as you know we have different pitches that we we throw and one of them is getting into the people that you hear about on the show sometimes it's family sometimes it's friends and today uh we are excited to have friend of the show rich wingo on rick and bubba university the podcast rich here it is rich what an honor i mean rich do this check these things off off the list did the rickenback university podcast done it done this is awesome yeah well thanks for being here um we have a lot to talk about today and i know some of it um you try to sidestep you know you're you're one of these people that you know the whole football thing with you you may you know hey we don't talk about that but i mean it there's some very funny stories but there's also some very very moving stories where we're going to take some of the things in your life and we're unpacking it all today we're i mean we're we're going to by the way we're going to start with your little league team all right let's let's let's go to indiana and elkhart the junior league team no no so a couple of you are from indiana and we've worked through that yeah and uh and you've uh decided to many years ago to live in alabama which which is good uh we met you through tommy wilcox correct yeah gator you've been gators yeah don't i have that right uh because i don't make sense i remember the phone call i could not understand what tommy was saying yeah uh said something about a different yeah hey once you get down to rich he says rich let's go down to rich wingos and she was selling india's and i said what are we gonna do at wingos uh go out and get some of the india's and i said rich i did i said tommy i don't know what you're saying he's a character yeah and so i love him he's a character yeah and uh and always fun and we met each other and we all went down to your place and hunted i can't imagine how tommy talked you into that looking back but i think maybe those are great times yeah maybe your wife helped because she's actually been a listener of the show long before you yeah and so maybe she told you she maybe she told you it's okay let them come or i don't know how it worked but but anyway so we we became friends then and have been friends ever since so but you played uh for the university of alabama for legendary football coach paul bear bryant i did and then you went to play in the nfl for the green bay packers wow the pack this year uh looking really good i was a childhood packer fan uh because and one of the reasons was this if you lived in the state of alabama it was bizarre to see how many packer fans you saw but and i didn't know as a kid i just knew that on christmas morning i woke up and had a packers uniform so i became a packers fan you know the plastic helmet yeah yeah and and to come to find out alabamians so weird they would pull for a team from green bay wisconsin because so many former alabama players you know your smart star the most famous uh went to play for the packers well don hudson yeah they named their practice facility yeah big huge don hudson sign i mean there's a ton of i had five or six guys every year from alabama when i played there yeah so there was a real pipeline it seemed like to green bay and to the jets yeah exactly so you uh we'll we'll get into that and we'll talk about that that because uh uh it's a big moment in your life not not from just from a football standpoint but from a spiritual standpoint um and so but but take us there's there's a there's a really really famous story in your life your testimony uh about you playing for paul bear bryant and a lot of football fans out there if you are a football fan the famous goal line stand against penn state rich was on that defense and uh you have to really look close to find him in the portrait but he was trying to get out of the way yeah i still my dad you know because i know i know my dad loves you and you love my dad my dad being a football coach has the only person that will ever bring up and i don't see if he has this right and it may not be god love him he may not have it right but i remember he used to always say this when you and i first met he said the goal line stan is everybody remembers but what they don't forget is there's no goal line stand if there's no stop on third down there you go and he said rich winger i love you now rich wingo made the tackle i learned that man on third down and that's why i love 36 because he made the tackle on the third down let me let me back it up one more second rick to start this tell us about how you got recruited how did you end up at alabama how did how did that happen oh alabama and how many stars do you have yeah yeah they didn't have that system back then coach bryant thought a lot of my high school coach now all the way from elkhart indiana northern indiana right on the michigan line there was a player a guy named mike stock a tremendous athlete from elkhart that came to alabama three years prior so they had that pipe they had that relationship and and so alabama had recruited me i just thought it was too far from home but everybody just anticipated i go to notre dame because it's 20 minutes from my back door and i had committed to notre dame and i told my dad on a sunday afternoon i came home from my official visit and i sat on the piano bench in our living room we lived in a farmhouse and i said dad i'm going to go to alabama and he said rich it's a great school he said and you'll get a great education but i don't want to see you come through that back door until christmas and because when he left high school he went and fought in the south south pacific yeah and so he wanted me to grow up he really didn't want me to go to notre dame he never said that he's too close to home for him yeah i mean he wanted me to move on to so how was that calling notre dame to say no thanks well who was who was the coach then era aaron percy yeah yeah and and they were they were our big nemesis during the 70s we lost a couple of national championships to those guys but uh anyways so i called i told my high school coach i'd like to visit alabama who had recruited me and one thing led to another that's how i got here so you go to alabama and we joke about this all the time and and we're not going to be a bunch of old guys that are saying hey the young guys today but there's some truth to that now are they better athletes than than like my dad would say when he played when you played and when i played yes but there was they could if these coaches were coaching today well they couldn't they couldn't i mean it would be an outcry so you get to alabama yeah and coach brian and his staff were not exactly easy guys that they could care less about me they had ten other guys that could do exactly what i did you know yeah yeah but you you ended up uh you know working your way into the starting lineup which is an accomplishment in and of itself and and we we talk about this a lot in in our own lives there's certain people that are placed in your life that want to make sure that you're you've talked about it today on the show of being satisfied with where you are yeah hey i made it i'm here i'm good and uh and and you and you want to have those people in your life so when we come back we're going to talk about this story that when you hear it and i can only imagine being in your position and trying to figure out what this coach is doing you know and of course eventually we come to that realization so we'll come back we'll continue to unpack the life of rich wingo on this edition of rick and bubba university the podcast all right so you're at alabama you worked your way into starting lineup and you know i mean it's not like i mean we know you it's not you don't seem like the kind of guy that would throw it out of gear yeah but but see the the problem with me only seeing myself if i'm the judge of how i'm doing we're always delusional right i mean even those of us that have the greatest work ethic yeah we still don't see ourselves exactly the way someone else can which is why you need to allow people to to speak into your life so so so tell us what happened so it was my junior year and it was a week before our first game and we were rated number one in the country 1977 had a great team and i was a starting inside linebacker and it's warm ups and both of you guys have done it in every high school college or pro team they still do it where the coach bryant would stand right in the middle of stretching and then as soon as stretching was over with he would then blow the whistle and the first offense would get on the 20-yard line they'd take a snap and they'd sprint 20 yards through immediately the first defense gets out there coach takes a snap he drops back defensive lines raise their hands and the db's linebackers drop in their hook that's what we did so it was just like every other day so the first offense goes we first defense goes and we drop they throw the ball to somebody we sprint through and coach bryant unlike any other time and my years there he stopped practice and he said wingo do it again and uh that was awkward and so so i got out there by myself bill oliver brother oliver was the co i'll never forget it and he's wondering what's going on too he says hut and i dropped my hook by myself the whole team's looking at me i throw the football to me i sprint through coach bryan says do it again he was he was intense so i went out there and did it again and dropped in my hook coach oliver threw me the ball i sprinted through and he says now get off my field and you're the starting linebacker now for how many seasons as a well my sophomore and this was going to be myself this was your junior year yeah yeah year but so you know i i mean every day he just froze and i turned and i started to run off the field and this is in warm-ups now and so i look behind me and i see all the guys and coaches and they're just frozen they're just looking at me like what what just happened i go in the locker room um sit down think what you know i'd even get a sweat going and i'll never forget tg a trainer a friend of mine came in snuck in from practice and he said he said hey rich he goes man do you know you've been kicked off the team and i said yes he goes do you do you know that no one's ever come back from being kicked off this team except for joe namath he said dude you ain't no joe namath so anyways anyway so i took a shower went upstairs waited for coach bryant he came down the hall i heard they had a great practice uh one of the best ever i bet yeah and uh he gets right in my face i'll never forget it and he just says what do you want i mean immediately put me on my heels and i just remember saying what my dad said when i left home he said that no one's going to fight for rich wingo anymore except for rich wingo and i told him that i said i'm here to fight and so he invited me in his office he was cordial pulled a chair up next to him and he pulled out one of those chesterfield non-filtered cigarettes you know mm-hmm uh gee manish those are unbelievable he'd get it on his tongue you know he spit on you and he said he said listen rich he goes i think you're a good football player i think i'm a good football coach he goes i'm just not sure i want you on my team man he gutted me i mean he did and i'm sitting there and he said rich he said you see you're satisfied and you're content with where you're at and you're just trying to get through and he goes and i i want people around me that are sold out 100 committed every day trying to get a little better he goes i can take someone less of an athlete that wants to get a little better every day so i can take that guy and win championships put his hand on the telephone and this is where he just crushed me he said he said rich tell me where you want to go to school he goes one phone call you'll be there tomorrow he goes you want to go home to notre dame michigan ohio state schools that requested just tell me and you'll be there tomorrow i mean i couldn't believe wow that he's i was a listen i was a fourth year red shirt junior so i mean and i looked i just remember saying coach if i can't play here i'm not going to play for somebody else this is my family we've it's back in the day when we all lived together in the in the athletic dorm brian hall and i mean it was family d was you slacking off did you think you were slacking up no i didn't think i was but when i look back on it i was he was exactly right but i was just trying to get through he spotted something though that you didn't know about yourself yeah right yeah oh yeah i mean he was he was a master at that and he was willing for me to leave and i guess he had the attitude well if he would at least we didn't want him anyways right right and so uh he's he spoke to me for an hour and five minutes and freaked me out and uh told me that he was going to go home and pray about it strike one told me that he was going to go home and talk to mary harmon big strike too mary herman used to look for me like when we'd get off the team buses she would travel on the first bus i would never travel in the first place because mary harmon would always try to give me those spiritual tracks you know with the devil and the fire right you know you're going to hell you know and she seriously it's a true story she she would wait and i would bend down looking out the window of those buses and see where she she'd be looking for me and she but i'd have to walk by her because she'd stand right there at the gate going into the locker room and she'd get that she wouldn't give them to anybody else but she'd give them to me she was looking for you she found yeah oh man and so when he said he's going to talk to mary harman i'm thinking i am gone so anyways long story short i went back to the dorm someone suggested be at his parking spot at 5am so i was the next morning what time were you supposed to be he told me be back here at nine o'clock and so i was waiting for him with his headlights hit me in the face at coleman coliseum and you know he got out of the car mad and told me you know he said come on follow me so i thought this is it so i followed him up those stairs closed the door behind me and he said mister if you want to be on this team we'll pretend like nothing ever happened he said it's your choice if you're at practice i'll know your answer if you're not a practice i'll know your answer he said now get out of my office i got work to do yes sir so i went to practice thinking i'd be below the the freshman and uh starting middle linebacker just like just like he said nothing ever happened but you know you guys know as well who was the first guy on the field right yeah yeah it worked every drill every rep because i knew that old man wanted to fire me and he was watching me and so i gave it everything i had first guy in the weight room last guy to leave first guy in the film room not just that day but the next day the next day the next day and and uh he was right and over a period of time i went from being satisfied and content where i was to being sold out committed and i have him to thank for it so tell us the story about the letter years later so i mean this is crazy yeah this is crazy um sherry and i are moving my parents a couple years excuse me probably 10 years ago yeah i want to clarify this because i noticed this the last men's conference we did together we're both married to women named sherry so i was referencing sherry and you were referencing sherry and i get to see these men going i know they're good friends but this is over the line so so we both of our wives have the same name yeah they're two different people yeah your wife sherry exactly yeah and so uh we were cleaning help mom and dad pack our home uh lifelong home and mom when i was in a room mom i remember came in and she had a stack of letters with a rubber band around them and she says rich these are yours i've had these for forever 40 years and and they they were letters that were addressed to mom and dad at our home but with my name on him and so mom never opened him long story uh went back to tuscaloosa put him in a desk in my study and forgot about him for a handful of years and one sunday morning a couple years ago i was looking for something and i found these letters and i pulled them out sat on the edge of the couch i'll never forget it and just took the rubber band off started looking through them and i saw this letter from the university of alabama listen july 22nd 1977 like bubba it was four weeks before he kicked me off the table so i opened this up and i'm thinking this is awesome and it's a letter i still got it i showed rick and and it's it's it's you know it's a form letter but it's got all the alabama stuff coach bryant had you know they had somebody type it and you know they talked about the the greatest little word if you know if you're willing to sacrifice well i never you know it's good stuff just choice stuff and i'm thinking i've got to give this to like the museum or something this is priceless i can't wait to tell my sons you know and then i flipped the second page and at the bottom of the second page is magic marker and um it says uh rich it is late but you can still be the player predicted hoping and praying you do and then it just had a pb and magic marker and paul bryant and so i'm sitting there so whoa whoa you know all that excitement you know just kind of went and i read it again and said it is late but you can still be the player predicted meaning you're not right it's not that funny well i keep thinking yeah i wish you'd have seen the letter before you got to the workouts that you know that's not going to happen well exactly but all this i mean 40 years later so he thought you got the letter and didn't change he thought yeah and and and i'm sitting while he was gunning yeah i'm sitting on the edge of the couch and i'm thinking 40 years later this old man is still kicking my butt he's killing me and it was tough so anyways great we'll come back we'll we'll jump into the next phase of this you go into the green bay packers which which led to the most important decision that you ever made in your life yeah and we'll talk about that when we come back on rick and bubba university the podcast all right so keeps.com let me look over at wingo well uh look a lot of times people are losing their hair and it's genetic i mean and and so and there's i mean it and it's just a genetic this is cruel pick on people that they can't do anything about that well it's just that's just cruel but but listen he's got the answer so so let's think about let's do these imaginary people kyle and josh okay they're both losing their hair uh and and they are not shocked by that because they have that male pattern baldness gene that ran in their family and and you know let's call them tommy ty tommy and rich okay so but the way they decided to deal with it two different things okay you know we may both have the same problem but if we if we do two different things what y'all want to do whichever one worked yeah everything so here's what happened now kyle kept putting off getting hair loss treatment not good you don't do that losing more hair day by day now josh he went to keeps k-e-e-p-s dot com to learn how to keep his hair keeps offers the generic version of the only two fda approved hair loss products they're the real deal the generic version saved josh a fortune and all it took was a quick online consultation you know and then with the doctor worked it out he answered a few questions he snapped a few pics of his hair the doctor evaluated everything recommended the right fda approved hair loss treatment for josh that's important they shipped it directly and discreetly to his door keeps that lets you save your hair without ever leaving the couch and also that we're going to get you started right here on the rick and bubba podcast we're going to get you half off the first order that's right stop putting this off go to keeps.com rickbubba keeps.com rickbubba that's keeps.com rickbubba do the right thing not the wrong thing and address it today all right we're back on wrecking ball university of the podcast talking to rich wingo rich wingo of course his husband to sherry wingo his sons jake and luke grandsons yeah sage and walker and uh and of course we talked about his times at the university of alabama as a player uh his interaction with paul bear bryant so now you probably get ready to go take on something easier the nfl after playing for paul bear bryant and his crew at the university of alabama uh so you were drafted by the green bay packers uh how huge was that how'd that feel well that was a weird thing so not that you asked this but i'm gonna tell it is that uh i didn't anticipate ever playing pro football really you know back in that day you didn't go to alabama to to prepare you to play pro football coach bryan we all thought life ended after alabama football right and and never did i mean ozzie newsome one of the greats he was in my class never even thought about ozzie playing pro football became a hall of famer i mean we just never talked about it it was interesting oh yeah different we had enough in front of you to deal with it yeah yeah so i was hurt most of my senior year i got hit in the back at homecoming herniated a disc and so i didn't play much and so i didn't when i took the pads off in new orleans in that sugar bowl i thought that was it for me and uh i got worked out a couple times by the packers and cowboys and but never ever thought i'd get a chance to play and uh seven o'clock on the second day after marty lyons and barry krauss and tony nathan you know we were all celebrating the night before happy for them i'm sound asleep seven o'clock phone rings and i answer it and they say on the other end hold for bart starr for green bay i said yeah right you mean you didn't have your agent taken care of thank you mother yeah that's true i hung up did you oh you're you're being serious as a joke i thought it was i thought i thought this is as bad as it gets man the guy is that crush no this was not above them doing that well you've met some of the guys that i've hung with they would do it in a second and in a second i thought that's about as cruel as you get and i roll and the phone rang again and i picked up and it was uh coach john myers and he said this is coach john myers and i'm there for and he said do not hang up he said coach starr is coming to the phone and then and they drafted me in the seventh round and and it's because of coach bryant i found out years later on a plane ride back from plains 49ers coach starr sat next to him he said i ever tell you how we found out about you and i said now and he said if it wasn't for coach bryant he said i've got this guy that's been hurt most of senior year but he can play for you and he gave me my chance how about that how many people do you think he did that for tons yeah what so i want to ask you about this we're going to get to the serious thing but i want to talk about some of the light-hearted stuff that i know so you played in the era of and of course the bears and the packers were huge rivals you had the well i'm not going to say joy of trying to tackle walter payton that's right which i'm sure was a thriller how was that was he like was he fast he looks just very shifty strength is what i think nobody ever gave him credit for he the way he would hit you yeah trying to hit him walter walter was amazing and i remember one time on the third and one i remember this that i hit him it was a man it was one of my best hits and it was a blitz i hit him about two or three yards in the backfield and i thought he's down he was such an athlete that he took the hit and he kicked his legs out from behind him and he landed on his hand like a deer like it like yeah and listen he drugged me and he almost got that first down he was like four or five yards i mean it was embarrassing so yeah and you had this and and but but you we were laughing about this just recently there's no man in my opinion if you play on defense that was more feared than john hanna and please tell bubba about what it was like the first time you had to face john hannah so i played with charlie hannah and david hannah and all's i heard and john had left the year before so all i heard was these john hannah stories right and how his legs were as big as this room trees yes and he you know this and that and he what he did to people in practice and i mean just i mean i would sit there with my mouth open i mean you know it's intimidating and his brothers would talk about how he treated you know so i was like man this guy's sick man so my rookie year at green bay we're playing the new england patriots the first game on monday night tv in green bay wisconsin 1979 and uh of course we're playing the new england patriots but i'm in a 4-3 so i'm in the middle over the center lined up thinking i'm good i don't have to deal with john that much you know we've got a guy and a three technique planner you know one technique you know all yeah people like rick you know you know get it get them off me and you know so i wasn't hey the week before we played the patriots our defensive end got hurt so we instead of uh they felt better about bringing a linebacker in so we went from a 4-3 to like over and under like a so you end up lining up four four you're in like a four four directly over the guard and of all games i'm lined up and of course which guard am i lined up over john hannah and so i'm thinking man this is oh this is going to be oh i don't know monday night tv howard cosell remember him yeah oh yeah yeah i'm dandy don they're just going to i'm just going to be an embarrassment to my family you know keep showing these colors oh yeah yeah and uh so the first play of the game i called the signal and i remember getting out and i remember john hanna breaks the huddle guys you can't embellish this he his helmet came down to like half of his eyeballs and he'd come out and he'd be looking down so you couldn't see his eyeballs and then he just to add to that he's making i'm thinking oh my god this is all true you know the guy he's he's like an animal you didn't think he might catch a little slack being an alabama guy you know my name you know oh my goodness making noises i was making noises snorting and so i get five yards deep and i don't have a clue what defense was called but man i just when the ball was hiked i mean i just took off as hard as fast as i could and i drilled him and i was like a flea you know he's he didn't even he was blocking down on her nose he wasn't even blocking he wasn't even blocking me but i had to like get it off me you had to know i did i had to did you even impact him at all no and then i remember looking at my uh coordinator on the sideline he's got his hands up like what are you doing he's like man i just keep going call the next play so we got through it but we won that game okay so you're there at green bay and so we met him one time and uh in tuscaloosa he's a very big man he was in a suit that day though he'd already moved into financial advisement no i i mean he still was scary i'll never forget that sports illustrated cover because you know offensive linemen were never on the cover illustrator and it was just his face in that helmet that terrorizing face and the helmet like it was made onto his skin exactly there was no space exactly and it's no light the helmet and his head were one there was no difference between the element and the head you remember that look and i think it put the greatest offensive lineman of all time or whatever the title was and by the way i will agree with that because you know nothing against the guys at zone block now but i have people say hey is this person a pretty good offensive lineman i go i don't know yeah because that's not i'm not downing it it just i there was a time you said was this guy any good i'd say yes because i just saw him drive a guy exactly you know and take over the neutral zone and destroy the opponent and so i would say that's a fantastic offensive lineman but now with everybody just kind of doing that little step back and catching people i don't know really who's good who's not now the outside tackles you can tell who are protecting the quarterback those edge guys you know their feet and everything you can look at but nobody drive blocks anymore so you can't really tell all right we'll come back and we'll talk about uh what happened uh in rich wingo's life while at green bay and a record he holds today yeah and a record he holds we'll start with that when wrecking bubble university the podcast continues all right so let's talk about ladder when i talk about ladder you're like what in the world's going on ladder here's what ladder does um now if you're out there right now and you think about the rising cost of living and if it wasn't it's about to you know we've had a change and things are going to change and you think about student debt and you think about buying a house and you know you do you don't want to leave your kids um or you know or your spouse with huge financial burdens uh it makes sense why people get life insurance especially term which is uh it is surprisingly affordable uh but but you know why not pay a bit each month to protect the ones you love right so if you're asking yourself this question uh you need to 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history scoring history scoring history to retire with one point yeah credited to your play that's amazing did you even know that no do you know how it happened you remember excuse me bubba i knew how i knew that but i didn't know how it happened see today we finally told you how that's right because you say people keep bringing up this this is what you're talking about yeah well so tell the story and then i think we can put the pieces together to figure out where you got one point you're on the extra point field goal team that's right i'm on the wing uh fire call bad snap playing the bears in chicago and uh i roll out into the end zone bad snap or something bad snap fire fire you see oops and uh sorry fire that's what we call fire and radio see he went back you single back in time fire all right so what happened uh they threw me the ball caught it and uh and it said what you thought because you forgot the rules in the nfl the nfl during the time you played see today that would be two points but not when you played the nfl it was just one there it was just one point you just got the point you were trying and i adopted the college rule later yeah and we learned that just today today so you have you been going around saying people are wrong about this i didn't ever score i don't know how to score one now what i remember i don't know i don't go that far i just i remember that play because i thought that's the first time i got in the end zone in the pros and i thought i'm going to spike this ball did you no because it was i was probably on tv and i thought if coach bryant just were happened to be watching this he'd be ashamed of me so he just you can't get him off of you hand it to the referees act like you've been there before and like you're coming back and go to the bench and you did that even in the nfl yeah yeah and but i really i wanted to spike it because that's also you know i thought like man i'm never going to be back here right yeah so dancing like elmo rock for the chiefs was out right let me just give you billy white shoes from somebody else who played defense with a coach that coached me just like bear bryant in high school my dad i decided the attitude was i would never be back and i decided not to do what you did and you went for it to this day because of what happened to me i still don't dance and it's not because i'm baptized okay my dad broke me but anyway so let's talk testimony so you like a lot of us uh let's give credit to your family you were raised in a christian home yeah uh and and we you know many times and i was too bubb you were and we're thankful for that but sometimes the you start feeling like almost you become a christian through osmosis or maybe you know you followed along with something that happens it's tradition at church but as you get out as a man you start realizing pretty quick your your behavior begins to to show a different story yeah and we don't have to get into all the details of that just like i always say look trust me all i'm saying if god can forgive me of all the things i've done for giving you won't be any problem i tell me in that all the time but so you know you like a lot of us lived a life that we're not proud of uh and any any semblance of a man of god had left your house left your life and you're in the nfl now and and uh and tell tell us what happened so from the world standpoint i i had the greatest life you could have i mean married to sherry my colleague sweetheart and we've been married 41 years [Music] but it's my fourth year in green bay and uh starting middle linebacker and and should be living the dream and came to a place about halfway through the season where i just said there's got to be more to life than this and i thought everything would be pro football and football was my god and you know i walked the aisle when i was 12 years old and got baptized and a baptist church and checked the box and but i had no relationship with jesus christ there was no evidence of myself i was a fake i was you know exactly who i was i was a liar and living a lie and uh god stationed rick i think this is why i i know you guys have such a heart for men's ministry because uh men made the difference in my life they never gave up on me and god stationed two guys in my life that had a real big impact in my life that i treated like crap before a guy named steve newman team chaplain steve loved me despite myself and john anderson was my roommate andy was an all-american outside linebacker from michigan and andy was my roommate for seven years when we would go on the road and and he would always invite me to chapel service never gave up on me and i would encourage all these men out there they're listening that they would never give up on that guy because that's who i was and andy would always invite me and i'd always say no and the reason i'd say no and not show up for chapel when we'd be out of town was simply because i knew i was a fake i knew i was a liar why would i go because you know i didn't want to hear about it i knew what was right and what was wrong as most do and we were playing new york in new york and i mean i wasn't doing drugs and i wasn't cheating on my wife but i probably would have um because i i was searching right there's tons of men that when you search and uh and so i i and he says rich come to chapel with me we're playing the jets in new york and and he said there's a famous baseball player new york yankee just going to give his testimony so i thought i'd go and so i went and like i said i was searching and i remember what this gentleman said he talked about judgment day and he talked about standing in a long line and it's his turn he steps through this turnstile and to his right is jesus christ seated and then in the middle is god sitting on this huge throne and just the majesty and just the presence of god the awe of god and then he said to his left as satan seated and he said when it was his turn unlike other people's turns he said this huge semi truck backed up and a tractor trailer and i'm thinking where's this guy going you know and satan stands up and he opens the doors and and it's packed full of computer printout paper and it's all connected and it's the smallest print you can imagine he said satan pulls the end of it he starts reading and he's reading every single sin that he said he has ever committed he's reading in front of almighty god and he's reading in front of jesus christ who gave his life on the cross for his shed blood for this sin he said and and he said the shame and he said satan's loving this man he's going on and on and on and and uh talking just the sins of the eyes the the mouth the the flesh the mind is just endless and he said finally he just before god just interrupted satan and he said what about it and he said before he could even speak and say father just cast me to hell because that's what i deserve he said jesus stood up put his hand to the father and he put his hand to him and he said father it's okay he's with me i remember sitting there in that new york meeting room in that hotel thinking jesus christ would never stand up for me i was a fake i mean look we know what we are we're either real or we're not and and i just i can remember sitting there sort of bent over you know so nobody could see how red my face was you know how you sometimes you just don't feel like you can breathe that's where i was the holy spirit coming down on you just like man hurry up and end this because i got to get out of here and i'd like to say i gave my life to the lord right then but i did pride ego man and for three weeks i ran i ran as hard as i could run and i was miserable god took the love of the game of football away from me he took everything that was an idol or a god in my life including myself away and so i mean i i came to a place of all places it's just so ironic that i'm in i'm alone empty in an empty green bay packer locker room of all places and i gave my life i just said lord god if you're real i beg you to come into my life and i mean i was one of those people that was radically changed um radically changed my filthy mouth my my filthy mind i mean i'm still being sanctified and i'm still progress and but you know i went from you know and rick i use it in my testimony that i went from being satisfied and content to being sold out committed and and so i gave my life to the lord ironically you know sherry and i were baptized uh six months later and like one of the only baptist churches in green bay wisconsin together and it was awesome well and there's a lot of people that are listening and watching this now that have a similar story and and uh you know the what you've done with your life since then has impacted us it's impacted me greatly i'm so thankful that god has placed you in our lives and in my life specifically so we we're doing some work together with themanchurch.com and we just finished the last 40-day devotional we have a how to be a man series the different things to help you and not the question we're asking how am i supposed to be a man yeah so the first one was the pursuit of christ-centered masculinity the second one was comparing you went with a perfect example then the second we go to very flawed examples of of men who god used to had all kinds of issues and then the question you know jesus said to go to make disciples he didn't say just go make converts he said go make disciples and and so this last one that we just finished and it's out now at the manchurians.com rich wingo is part of uh discovering what it means to be a disciple and this time we went out and said let's gather eight different men and everybody take a topic and uh rich wingo uh was assigned the topic of surrender and so there's five days that rich laid out and i want to tell you that i knew that you could speak and i knew had a great story um you know i i don't i'm always terrified when somebody tells me to write something because my wife has that gift i don't uh and you know and i i will tell you did an incredible job because i thought you know you and i are kind of similar in that way i know what i want to say but it's hard to write down what i want to say but it really came off very powerful and so what you did and added to this uh is powerful and i would encourage every man to and all these guys did a good job don't misunderstand me but uh it was special to have you part of this thank you and uh and the stuff that we continue to do um so you we don't have a lot of time left but if if there was one thing you wanted to tell people watching this right now uh that we haven't talked about um i know that you spent time in politics we don't really have time to do much on that uh in in alabama but but that too has been something that you have been fighting the fight for the unborn yeah well i never i politics is something that i don't ever talk about and um i believe that it gave me an opportunity to serve my country is the way i look at it i never got a chance to put the uniform on but uh and so i believe in a two-term limit and so i'm this will be my last two years and and trying to make as big a difference as you po and i encourage rick and bob i encourage and i know you guys do too i encourage hey put your name on the ballot put it in god's hands and if it's meant to be it'll be and you can make a difference i promise you we desperately need good people um in all levels of government and so i just encourage people um we got like two minutes could you tell bubba what happened with you and eric dickerson and and and how god took away the this is a hilarious story that we'll end with this one so uh i became i'm i'm saying it's one of the weirdest examples of sanctification yeah i'm saved i'm saved i just got saved right and we're playing the los angeles rams you remember when they were oh yeah so and eric dickerson 29 and on a wheel route um he i'll never i can see it and i bite i bite hard i mean they fake the fullback dive you know boom i step up he's not your guy is he listen and and then all of a sudden i see dickerson break outside the outside of the tackle and i have got the first back out of the backfield um and wherever and whoever it is well it's eric dickerson and he's on a wheel route and i bite so hard on the run that i turn and as i turn he's like 10 yards already ahead of me and all he they had to do was just throw the ball because the it was completely open and vince ferragamo was the quarterback and vince never saw him and as i'm turning i uh say a curse word true story and as i'm running god said to me as clear as clear could be you'll never curse again as you're chasing as i'm chasing number 29 down the field i'm surprised you had wind to say anything and i did and and that's what i re and that they never threw him the ball thank goodness but uh they should have but uh that's what i remember but people who talk about god you know saying things to you at different times it's crazy what it was you're running inside your uniform for green bay after eric dickerson and god's saying and he's digging right yeah you may remember he was pretty good he was about 20 yards by the time i got yeah and god says we're not going to talk like that anymore that's right wow what a weird moment but but effective well thank you for how you live yeah the life thanks for all you do yeah and thanks you guys are great yeah well thanks for being with us too and thanks for all of you that have joined us uh for this edition of rick and bubba university the podcast you

Channel: Rick & Bubba

Views: 7,359

Rating: 4.9718308 out of 5

Keywords: rick, bubba, rick and bubba, rick & bubba, rick bubba live, rick and bubba live, rick & bubba live, rick and bubba show, rick & bubba show, rick bubba show, burgess, bussey, radio, alabama, rich wingo, goal line stand, alabama football, alabama penn state, penn state alabama, sugar bowl 1979, sugar bowl, sugar bowl 79, alabama goal line stand, penn state, penn state goal line, alabama goal line, the goal line stand

Id: sHqC-cquxcY

Length: 45min 16sec (2716 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 23 2021