This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. We've been duped, hoodwinked, conned for 50 years. The lawn care industry sold us toxins in a bag and made our yards more toxic than a bad relationship. Sunday helps you ditch the chemicals and feed your lawn the good stuff: soybean proteins, iron, seaweed, molasses, ingredients that get your soil giggling like an overserved mom at the block party.
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To test the new Pathfinder, Nissan turned to the boldest creators of all. Kids. Their drawings sparked a wild idea, brought to life by a Hollywood director, a stunt team, and the SUV that makes the unthinkable unforgettable. No tricks, just V6 power, practical effects, and the rugged new Pathfinder. Watch how it all came together and discover why JD Power ranks Nissan number one in new vehicle quality among mainstream brands.
For JD Power 2025 U.S. Initial Quality Study Award information, visit jdpower.com slash awards. Awards based on 2025 model year, newer models may be shown. Should it stay or should it go? What if I mess it up?
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Any and all support is appreciated. Go to ouramericanstories.com. Every little bit helps. Up next, a story from former NFL linebacker for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tom McManus. Tom's journey to getting into the NFL was far from linear.
Tom walks us through his football career failures and how his dad's time fighting for our country impacted that and every aspect of his family. life. We grew up about 30 miles northwest suburbs of Chicago. Typical Irish Catholic American family, I guess, you know, mod of love. a lot of action, a lot of tough love.
And to me, that was a very good thing. But my parents were older. My dad, let's see, he was 49, almost 50 when I was born. I'm the youngest, six with his children, and four with my mother. She says that she wanted more, and he begged her, please, no more.
Six is enough. But I was a kid, you know, out of shit, like I said, youngest. I was a tough kid. You know, my brothers beat the crap out of me, their friends. They loved, you know, knocking the crap out of the big young kid that...
Always try to hang. It was funny enough, there was a one friend of mine, Brennan Kelly, who's still my really good friend. It would be him and I basically. My other friends couldn't take the pounding. They said my brother's friends would just love to light us up on football or basketball or whatever we were playing.
And you had to be tough. You really, really had to be a tough kid to keep going. Or they wouldn't let you play either. You know, there was no crying or anything like that. But, you know, I was a good athlete.
I wasn't super duper, you know, couldn't jump to the moon. I didn't run a great 40-yard dash or anything like that. But I was fast enough, quick enough. Always physical. I always played linebacker, and I loved that position.
It was always a chance for me to. Run into people as fast and as hard as I could, which I enjoyed. I don't know if I enjoy it as much today. put back in those days, yeah. Eugene E.
McManus, Edward for E. My dad, you know, he was born in 1920.
So he lived, you know, through the Great Depression. Always a great athlete since he was young. You know, his dad was a tire salesman prior to the Depression. Then went in went into the the labor force working. The hard labor.
My father. At age 12, he had overheard his parents talking that his dad lost his job and. It's got to be really tight and things are good, I don't know how things are going to go, et cetera. My dad got on his bike the next morning and Pleaded with the manager of a local hotel if he could just, you know, help out bus and tables or whatever. He started working early at the hotel.
It grew into high school, where he was a football star at Orange High School in New Jersey. Was getting recruited. He wanted to go to college. That was his dream to play football in college. His parents didn't want him to go to college because, uh, right before he graduated high school, he got a A job is like a Kind of like a clerk at a local bank.
And learning finance, my dad was very smart, had great acumen. But he's getting recruited. They, you know, they said, hey, you've got a decent job. We need you at home. neat you know i think he was making hardly anything five bucks a week or something like that And uh You know, he would stay home and he helped doc.
His years 17, 18, and 19, he was working at the bank, playing semi-pro football with the Orange Trojans. Who were a group of just ragtag guys that loved to, you know, beat each other up on the football field. And, you know, there was no stands, no money, no anything, I don't think. And You know, I don't even know if they had a locker room, but they played ball and And my dad kept up his game and stayed in shape. He got into boxing.
Is actually in the golden gloves and used to train at this. It's a great story, right? And I learned a lot of this for the record after his death at age 75. My dad used to train at this gym in Orange, New Jersey, where Tuton Tony Galento trained. And Tuton Tony Galento, he had just come off a championship fight in 1939 with Joe Lewis, the brown bomber.
Joe ended up beating him up pretty good. You know, Joe Lewis called one of the toughest guys you ever face. Anyway, he's 10 years older than my dad. One day, my dad's in there training for the Golden Clubs. And two ton tony goes through, you know, these.
These training, you know, sparring partners manager yells out to the crowd who wants to come in here. I think it was like 25 cents around, then it grew. My dad got in there. He trained with them for about a year and a half, in between some big fights, Max Baer being one of them. For two-ton Tony.
Anyway, he uh He finally gets a chance to go to college.
So he's fighting, you know, training. He's playing semi-pro, and he's working at the bank. And uh His high school coach had called Rutgers University, asked the recruiting coordinator to come down and watch Gene McMahon.
So they'd seen him before, but he stayed home. They offered him a scholarship, but my parents didn't want him to. They're like, you don't need college or you're at the bank, you're fine. And he was like, look, I need my education. I'm never going to play pro football.
but I know I can play college and it'll get me to my degree. And so he does go in. He's having the time of his life. You know, it took him a while to get there. It was a lot of hard work, a lot of dreaming, and played his freshman year, 1940.
Boxed. Latest sophomore year 1941. And then of course Pearl Harbor happened. on December 7th. I did some research.
He's one of the earliest to... enlist from Rodgers into the Army Air Corps. He walked in there, knew nothing about planes, I knew nothing about flying, but again, his acumen was pretty high.
So he goes into the Army Air Corps and learns to fly the B-24 bomber. He was a pilot. And they trained for a long time, like a year and a half, two years. Quite quite the journey. Uh June 9th, 1944, three days after D-Day.
They were shot down on their 23rd mission. And you've been listening to former NFL linebacker for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Tom McManus. tell the story of his father, Gene McManus. and what a life he led. And by the way, I can just see two ton Tony Galento and what it must have been like to train this guy who fought people like Joe Lewis and Max Baer back when boxing was really brutal.
He goes to college and ultimately it gets disrupted by Pearl Harbor and he takes one of the toughest assignments possible, volunteering to fly B-24s. Only to be shot down a few days after the day. When we come back, more of the story of Gene McManus as told by his son Tom. Here. on our American stories.
Lee Habib here, the host of Our American Stories. Every day on this show, we're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country. Stories from our big cities and small towns. But we truly can't do this show without you. Our stories are free to listen to, but they're not free to make.
If you love what you hear, go to ouramericanstories.com and click the donate button. Give a little, give a lot. Go to ouramericanstories.com and give. All right, quick quiz for the hiring managers out there. What's worse, being understaffed or being poorly staffed?
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This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. People don't listen to radio ads. While you're driving or making a sandwich, your subconscious pays full attention.
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Get the fastest local alerts and comprehensive 10-day forecasts wherever you are. It's hyper-local, real-time, customizable alerts. Make sure the weather never takes you by surprise so you can plan every day with confidence. Download the free weather bug app from the App Store today and start getting accurate weather forecasts 24-7. To test the new Pathfinder, Nissan turned to the boldest creators of all.
Kids. Their drawings sparked a wild idea. Brought to life by a Hollywood director, a stunt team, and the SUV that makes the unthinkable unforgettable. No tricks, just V6 power, practical effects, and the rugged new Pathfinder. Watch how it all came together and discover why JD Power ranks Nissan number one in new vehicle quality among mainstream brands.
For JD Power 2025 U.S. Initial Quality Study Award information, visit jdpower.com slash awards. Awards based on 2025 model year. Newer models may be shown. Hello, hello, I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Smart Talks with IBM.
I recently sat down with IBM's chairman and CEO, Arvind Krishna. And I asked him, how can companies use AI to its fullest potential to create smarter business? My one advice to them. Pick areas you can scale. Don't pick the shiny little toys on the side.
For example, If anybody has more than Ten percent of what they had for customer service Ten years ago? They're already five years behind. If anybody is not using AI to make their developers who write software, 30% more productive today. with the goal of being 70% more productive. Yeah.
Wow.
So we are not asking our clients to be the first experiment on it. We say, you can leverage what we did. We're happy to bring out all our learnings, including what needs to change. In the process, because the biggest change is not technology. is getting people to accept.
that there's a different way to do things. To listen to the full conversation, visit ibm.com/slash smart talks. And we're back with Our American Stories and former NFL linebacker Tom McManus sharing the story of his father, Gene. When we last left off, Tom was recalling his dad's time fighting for our country in war and being shot down three days after D-Day. Let's pick up where we last left off.
There were times when, you know, my dad probably drank a little bit too much at night. As I look back and talk to him later in life, you know, those Those haunting memories of the war probably uh You know, how that the drink can help soothe it a little bit. I will tell you, he was up at the crack of dawn every morning lifting weights. Didn't matter what went on the night before, what time he went to bed. He was he worked out his whole life.
He had these old iron weights. I can remember him as kids just watching them, and then we had our own weight room. I remember doing pull-ups once we made this pull-up bar in our where our laundry room was and I was I was using my knees to like, you know, give me a little momentum and I didn't know he was behind me and he's like, you keep you keep those legs down, don't Don't cheat, do it just with your upper body. Just old school. You know, it was tough love.
It was a lot of praise, a lot of adulation, a lot of hugs, a lot of I love yous. And then it was also. You know, accountability. If you didn't make the honor or if you talked back. You know, my dad was of the thinking that, you know, if you know, in school, if you.
If he's like, I don't know a teacher that doesn't like a kid that sits still and pays attention and doesn't cause any trouble and does his homework on time and studies and does well. There's not a teacher in the world that wouldn't like a kid like that, so it's not the teacher. It was always you. I remember trying to transfer out of Boston College after my sophomore year. I wasn't getting enough playing time.
I thought I deserved more. He said, it's not them, it's you. Show them, prove to them that you're the best. Late at night Just Tim and I knew Smarta Beach, Florida, at his kitchen table. My dad told me that story of being shot down.
For me, it was it was I was always afraid to bring him up. Like, to me, it was like... I didn't want to bring them up. But I believe in faith where it interjects and the Holy Spirit and all that. You know, it was two weeks before I'm going to my training camp tryout with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995.
First year of the team, and I'd been out for two seasons, you know, so I was like. I was lower than a rookie. I was like, they call this street free agents. And I was only there because Tom Coughlin knew me from Boston College. But it was before going to that camp.
And this was my last try. I was. This was it. I failed twice before with the Saints and the Redskins. I just, you know, we're sitting at the table and.
You know, just talking about things and, you know, going away to camp. And he's really proud of me and the way I've worked and all this stuff. And in between my tryouts with the NFL team, I was bartending in Chicago and then eventually in Boston.
So when I came home, he thought that was great and that. You know, I was his professional bartender when I came home. I'd be doing sprints out at nighttime, and he'd be like, Hey, can you come in and fix me? Come in and Fix it for him. I'd do anything for him, though.
I'd do anything for him, but So I get up to make the drink and I. I just got up the nerve. And I said, Dad. How come he never talked to me about the ward? He sat back in his chair.
I daddy, these big. Forearms, big arms. He was still working out. He sat back and. His whole demeanor changed, and he's like, What do you want to know?
And I asked him about what, tell me about the time he got shot down. He's like, sit down. And he went into it, and I felt like I was watching a movie the whole time. It was quite the moment in my life. And he told me the story of being shot down and I was just blown away.
We are the same age. I was 24 at the time. And he was 24 at the time. They went down and it shaped my life because every time that camp was really hard, every time I felt sorry for myself, I'm like, toughen up. Let's think what.
Your dad was doing at the same age. You're just trying to make a football team for crying out loud. He just lived this incredible, like large life, kind of life. And then he comes back. He comes back just like everybody else.
Like, he came back 120 pounds. Gained the weight, went back to Rutgers, played two years of football, and got his degree. His last game was the Eastern College All-Stars. They played the New York Giants in 1947 at the Polo Grounds, his last game ever. And off I often think about like What that must have felt like standing there on the sidelines during the national anthem.
After all the stuff they had been through, I mean, that just had to be. Just so glorious, just so incredible. Oh. You know, I found this article. when I decided I wanted to write my father's story.
My mom says, gives me all this information. I see this. Article and it's yellow, it's like from 1947. This newspaper, I think it was the Newark Ledger, maybe. And uh it says Blanchard and McManus Headline the Eastern College All-Star tonight.
I looked at my mom, I'm like, mom, like... This is Doc Blanchie. She's like, I know. I'm like, from Orbit, like the Heisman Trophy one of the Hall of Fame, or the. Yeah, no, I know.
I'm like, what? He never said anything. And she's like, well, he didn't, he didn't brag. I was like, well that'd have been a good one to brag about, but he he didn't. I witches the humility of them all.
They win. They did what they had to do to fight for our country, fight for our freedom, and then they just came home. And they just went back to their lives. I'm sure a lot struggled, don't get me wrong. I know they did, but.
They did what they had to do and they they came home and got back to their life. Quite amazing. Uh I actually got a job, verbally committed to a job, and then I got a phone call from my old linebacker who was from Boston College. She was Tom Coffin's new. Linebacker coach.
At uh Jacksonville, and all they asked me was. would I be willing to work out for you? I never knew Jacksonville existed. And I immediately again Holy Spirit comes in, and I said yes, knowing that the chances of me even be inside are ridiculously low. They had two months to get in shape.
Got the best shape of my life. My dad, Gino, he was there for every run workout. He'd time me. We had to have a good 40. They ended up giving me a one-year contract, $5,000 sign-up bonus.
I thought it was like the jackpot. I went and bought a CJ7 Jeep, old beat-up Jeep, so I could get back and forth, see my parents, and stay up there, and ended up making the team the first year. and I was playing in the NFL and he was proud and I was proud to do it. When I told him when we made the team, I said, We made it, Dad. He's like, No, you made it.
I said, No, no, no, we. We made it. We made it. You were right there with me, every every step of the way. I actually started four games, one game against Chicago.
Coach Kauf on my old team down here in Jackson. We made me a captain, and my dad did get to see that, so that was really cool. He got to see most of the year in 1995. We weren't very good, but. I was living a dream.
You know, we had so much fun. See, I always had to go see, not always, I didn't always have to like he was a drill sergeant, but I would always go talk to my father after every game, high school. College Pro. And just be like, what'd you think? And he'd give it to me straight, give me a grade.
And he'd be like, well, you made some great tackles. You hit that one dude, really, your guy, really hard. That was great, great stop. You know, but you missed here, you might have missed, you know, that type of thing. Always keeping me level, level-headed, which I appreciate it.
The year after my father passed in 1996, I ended up starting for the rest of the year and had a pretty good year overall. We went all the way to the AFC Championship game, one game away from the Super Bowl. uh so much emotion that year you know just thinking about him and Wanted to play good for him. My dad was never like It was never like, gotta be the best, gotta be the best. Never, never.
It's all about effort. and attitude. And I'll tell you when you do great. And I'll tell you when you do okay, and I'll tell you when you didn't do very good. It was always honest, you know, it was always fair.
It was always black and white, and it was like, you got to earn it. And I just always gravitated. Towards that. because the reward is always great. You know, the hug or the great job, Tommy, or the pat on the back, or, you know, I'm really proud of you.
I mean, that, it's all worth it. That's what makes it worth it. It's just Look, I loved him. I loved him so deeply. And my mother, too, and just my family in general.
But I just, my dad was. He was just He was just so good to me. And that's how I raise my family. You know, it's all love. It's all honesty.
It's all there's no sugar coating. He taught me a lot. And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Madison Derricott. And a special thanks to Tom McManus for sharing the story of his father, and in the end. of his own life because he ended up parenting a lot like his dad did.
And by the way, Tom's book about his dad will always be pals is available wherever you get your books. And what a moment that must have been sitting down and asking his dad at the age of 24, finally getting up the nerve to ask his dad about his war experience, and the dad saying, Let's take a seat. And my goodness, lessons learned about fatherhood, about honesty, accountability, discipline, tough love, and real love. The story of Tom McManus' father. Every father wishes he had a story like this told by his son here on Our American Stories.
We've been duped, hoodwinked, conned for 50 years. The lawn care industry sold us toxins in a bag and made our yards more toxic than a bad relationship. Sunday helps you ditch the chemicals and feed your lawn the good stuff: soybean proteins, iron, seaweed, molasses, ingredients that get your soil giggling like an overserved mom at the block party. Sunday uses clean ingredients in real science for thicker, greener grass. Order today and get your custom Sunday yard plan for the season ahead.
Sunday, for a smarter, healthier yard. GetSunday.com. No one knows what the future holds, but you deserve a weather app that can help. Weatherbug is easy to use and provides forecasts for your every need, from storm warnings to pollen levels, right at your fingertips. Get the fastest local alerts and comprehensive 10-day forecasts wherever you are.
It's hyper-local, real-time, customizable alerts. Make sure the weather never takes you by surprise so you can plan every day with confidence. Download the free weather bug app from the App Store today and start getting accurate weather forecasts 24-7. This is Julian Edelman from Games with Names. I want to take a second to talk about something that's personal to me.
I've had the privilege of working closely with Robert Kraft for a long time. And one thing I've always respected is how seriously he takes up standing up to hate. As a Jewish athlete my identity is something I am proud of. But I also know what it feels like to be singled out for it. That's why this new commercial for the Blue Square Alliance Against Hate that aired during the big game really hit home.
It's about showing up for someone when they're targeted, even if you don't have the perfect words. And sometimes standing next to someone is enough. And you can show support by sharing the blue square. To test the new Pathfinder, Nissan turned to the boldest creators of all. Kids.
Their drawings sparked a wild idea, brought to life by a Hollywood director, a stunt team, and the SUV that makes the unthinkable unforgettable. No tricks, just V6 power, practical effects, and the rugged new Pathfinder. Watch how it all came together and discover why JD Power ranks Nissan number one in new vehicle quality among mainstream brands. For JD Power 2025 U.S. Initial Quality Study Award information, visit jdpower.com slash awards.
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