This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S. and can become harder to treat if left undetected.
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And we continue with our American stories. Jeremiah Castile played college football for the Alabama Crimson Tide and was on the last team coached by the legendary Bear Bryant. Castile was a pallbearer at Bryant's funeral on January 28, 1983. Let's take a listen to his story. I was born in 1961, Columbus, Georgia.
My father was a World War II vet. Number eight of nine children. They had about a fourth grade education. I was born into projects Government housing there at Elizabeth County Apartments. Then we moved to Phoenix City, Alabama.
I was probably three years old.
So around 1964 we moved and none of my siblings graduated from high school. The drugs, the alcohol, the what I saw at home, domestic violence was in my house. My mom and dad fought.
So At school, that's how I solve my problems with any of my classmates. I'm not talking, we're just going to get right at it. And in my middle school, during uh my seventh grade year, I got in a Uh fight again. I had already been suspended from school for fighting. And um I had to take the note home to my mom.
my mom for my parents to sign. And it was a day my mother was sober.
So she signed it and she was handing it back to me. She said, Boy, I'm so disappointed in you. The Lord used that to grip my heart as a thirteen yo It just gripped my heart. I took her back to school, finished the year out. and really realized I needed To change.
Okay. Their little church, it was Pleasant Road Baptist Church, a little church down the street. They would do revival every summer.
So I have no interest in you. Going to church, any of that hadn't, you know, before that, but God drew me based on, I had a. I realized I needed to change. And I went. And so when you came in, the mothers and fathers of that church asked you, Were you saved?
And I really didn't know what that meant. They said, You must not be. Go sit on the front row.
So they escorted me to the front row and they called that the Mourner's Bench. And the mothers and fathers of that church, the elders, they just prayed for those people that was on that front row. And I would say about the third day of that. revival, the Lord saved me. And what it was is I heard the gospel.
The good news that God loved me, and He demonstrated that love through Jesus Christ on the cross. The first time in my life. It was communicated to Jeremiah that he was loved. I would say my parents showed me that by providing a place to live. Fool.
pretty much those basic things. but never communicated verbally that I was loved. And all the way up to that time, my mom would get intoxicated and Just get violent.
So One day, I probably was 10. My mom had a knife in her hand, kitchen knife, and I wanted to go play basketball. She was intoxicated. We got army. Anyway, I ended up with a two-inch scar on my right arm.
and had me take to the hospital stitches to put in my arm.
So I was dealing with a lot of rejection.
So That third day I heard the gospel. And for the first time, hey, somebody loved Jeremiah. I tell people I walked in that church or center, walked out a saint. That was a radical Moment in my life. There wasn't a lightning and flash.
There was a powerful transformation in my heart, in my inner man. And the reason I can say that is because the first person God gave me a love for was my mother.
Now, when God saved me, He gave me a vision for my life. that in the Castile house things could be different, and that he could use me. And so God gave me a vision to play football. Football really came to be what I wanted to do in the University of Alabama, probably my eighth grade year. And so.
Through athletics, I could get a scholarship. Go to school. get an education, get a job. Make enough money. To be able to help my mother get sober and change the living conditions of my parents.
And that vision disciplined me. I grew up at home where drugs and alcohol were sold. but I've never smoked a marijuana cigarette. I've never drank beer I've never been intoxicated. That's the power of a dream.
and the dream mattered more than recreational Fun that I could have with teenagers. And so When the Lord saved me, I just became focused on that and I became an Alabama fan, also started watching the Coach Bryant show. And the vision was, I'm going to Alabama. I'm going to go play football at Alabama. I was 5'9, 155 pounds.
There weren't a bunch of people knocking on the door. I had a breakout year my senior year. I played both ways. I played. running back, slot receiver, and corner.
And Our team actually made it to the playoffs. We got beat. But it gave schools a chance to look at me. And I was just small, but I was very athletic. I could run and jump.
And it was strong.
So I can remember where I got my first letter from the University of Alabama, my coach, Wayne Traver, high school. He came in one morning in the cafeteria and he dropped a letter on the table and it had University of Alabama and I opened it up. And it said that I was being recruited. And man, I start yelling, screaming. I ran out the doors.
To the schoolyard, yelling, I told you all, you know, because I would tell people I was going to Alabama.
So I came over in the fall of 1978. Met Coach Bryant. Coach Jeff Rousey was the coach that recruited me. And he and I would talk 30 years later. And so he would, he told me, he said, you know, when you first met Coach Bryant, and And he looked at you and you'd walked off.
He said, Jeff, you sure about him? He's mighty little. And Coach Rousey said, trust me, Coach. He can play.
Well, I uh I'm a freshman in 1979. And that team is the returning national champions. And that team is loaded. It's got a lot of guys that's going to go on to play in the NFL.
So I come in as a freshman in August. And uh That first week, Coach Brad made us scrimmage the varsity. Uh He sick the dogs on us, man. I mean, that's best with me.
So that first week, you scrimmage. the returning national champions. I can remember like yesterday and they ran this little belly play. And Steve Whitman was the fullback at that time. He hit it.
It was just one of these quick hitting plays and I was backside tiny. And next thing I know, it's just me and Steve. And Steve's about 245, 50 pound fullback. And I'm like, man, what am I going to do? And um I was one of those guys.
I wasn't afraid of anything.
So I just come up and laid all 155 pounds on it, pow. And uh It didn't bring him down, but I started riding him to the posse got there. A couple of weeks later, I'm coming in after practice and I got a pink sticky note on my locker. And it said, Coach Bryant wants to see you. Man, I am scared as all get out.
I'm like, what have I done? You know, what have I done wrong? Anyway, um I go up third floor to Coleman Coliseum in his office. And Linda Knows was secretary. She said, Coach will be with you in a minute.
Man, it was a long minute. Door opens up. She says, You can go on in. And when I walked in, Coach Bryant was sitting behind his desk and he was smoking those Chesterfield cigarettes that he smoked. And it didn't have a filter on it.
He was just And he Put it in the ashtray and he just murmured some words. He had that old southern drawl. And I interpreted to go sit on the couch. He had a black and white checkered couch in his office. when you sat down on it.
your bottom hit the floor because it didn't have any legs on it. To you looking up at him. And you've been listening to Jeremiah Castile tell one heck of a story about his life. And by the way, that scene of him being called into Bear Bryant's office. And Bear is a big old man, like 6'4.
And I can imagine this short guy sitting in a short couch. And wondering what the heck is going to happen next when we come back. You'll find out what does happen next here on Our American Stories. The best time to recommit to your gut health goals? Right now.
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So many reasons to join T-Mobile. Find yours at T-Mobile.com. Uh FAST is based on an analysis by Ooglo Speed Test Intelligence data of national speed score results incorporating 5G download and upload speeds for the first half of 2026. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S.
and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter. Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at let's get real about skincancer.com. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans.
It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only.
This historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. You're grinding, putting tracks on Spotify, making TikToks, and watching fractions of a cent roll in. Exposure doesn't pay rent.
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That's racevir.com. Mm-hmm. And we continue with Our American Stories and Jeremiah Castile's story. Let's pick up. where he last left off in Coach Bear Bryant's office.
So I sit down, and the first words Coach Bryant said to me was. You could play here at the University of Alabama. I'm thinking. Yeah, when my turn come. I was behind Don McNeil.
He was a great one, 6'1, 200-pound prototype NFL cornerback. going to go in the first round. to the Miami Dolphins and play 10 years.
Well, that's who I'm behind.
So I'm thinking. Yeah, I'm a I'll play with my turn, come coach. His next words were You could play this year. And I'm like, wow. Coach Bryant believes I could play this year.
There hasn't been Probably the greatest words ever been spoken to me was that God loved me. Those were the next greatest words. I tell people I walked in 5'9, walked out 6'9. When he said you could play this year, so what he was telling me was you're not going to play freshman football. You go play on the varsity.
And Boy, did I play? Yeah. I had some confidence, but When Coach Bryant said that, It took me to an entire another level of confidence. It amazes me to this day how Because of that first initial meeting, and then from there on, what Coach Bryant said, I took it as the gospel. Every word.
I hung on to every word he said. and it made me a great player. I look back and I look at how I... You know, the numbers I put up. as a corner.
How I dominated the position, you know, averaging five interceptions and. That's phenomenal. Especially as a corner. You could see it as safety. 21 interceptions as a corner.
Oh, back when it was three yards in a cloud of dust, per se, they just ran the ball majority of the time. And I look at that and I think, what was it about me?
Well, it was my mindset. Coach Bryant told me I could play. And the way we were taught to play. was with a spirit of excellence. You don't give up anything, man.
I mean, you don't give up any points. You know, that year, probably one of the greatest defenses that Alabama ever fielded. In all the years they've had a football program because that team gave up. less than a touchdown a game. That 1979 year they had five shutouts.
So I was just taught and coached to play the game. with the spirit of excellence. Really, the word is dominate.
So I'm upset if a guy catches an out route on me.
So that's how I was coached and I played. in that manner. I took that on, that philosophy and After four years, I was an All-American and had tied the record in interceptions. Regular season was 16. We wanted my freshman year.
That was Coach Bryan's last national championship. 1980, we had a great team. Should have won it again. And uh We came up short just for like some of the leadership. The guys, we had talent, but guys just really didn't have the character that the 79 team had.
That's the best way for me to put it. We had the ability, but we just didn't have the character. I did a blog back in 2012. A friend of mine that played with me, he was younger than me. He said, hey, I think 2012, Coach Bryant would have been 100 years old.
So he said, hey, why don't you think about some of the things Coach Bryant did for you? Write down and I'll talk about it. And so when I look at it, I go all the way back to that first meeting, Jeremiah, you can play here. Coach Bryant took 10 minutes. And he invested in me.
From there He influenced me.
so when he said something, I believed it. That changed me. That impacted me. I saw that in my academics. My athletics.
spiritually, all those areas, I was involved and so that influence Was there in all three areas? Coach Bryant, come in.
Some meetings, some men, y'all need to go to church tomorrow. He'd tell you where to go. Until you go.
So he influenced me. From there, inspiration came, how to live life. Coach Bryant lived you knew he was passionate about what he was doing. My senior year, 82, this time of the year, we had spring ball.
So one day we Go down, we get our baskets, go change clothes, look at our itinerary. Anytime the itinerary had S and S on it. You start praying. Because S and S meant stretch and scrimmage. That's all on the itinerary.
You praying because you knew, oh my goodness. There's no time limit on this thing. And Coach Bryant was going to have your body and your soul that day.
So. Anyway, that day, so we changed. and buses pull up. Everybody, like, what are we getting on these buses for? We don't, we scrimmage right here at the complex.
And, We start asking assistant coaches dumb they don't know.
Well, you mean you don't know? You and his sister coach? No. Nobody knew but Coach Bryan and the bus drivers. No, the citizen coaches didn't know.
He took us over to Tuscaloosa County High School. We get off the bus as Coach Bryant walks up, circle, calls everybody up, and he says, first thing you say. He said, all you coaches, go sit up in the stands. He put all the coaches in the stands. Coach Bryant coached the offense, the defense, and the special teams.
By himself. Made all substitutions. You didn't come out of the scrimmage. Unless he called your name. We started at four o'clock.
The first group didn't get through to ten that night. Lights came on.
So what that six hours later? Literally, we got, I got. Seven, eight games of scrimmage plays in in that one scrimmage. Yeah. With that, I'm talking about Some guys got that minute before they ever got a break out of the scrimmage.
And the next group got through about 11 that night.
So for me, I call I'm in the fourth quarter of life now, in my 60s, I saw a man at 68, 69 years of age. Yeah. tell his staff go sit up in the stands. I still have a passion. And a drive and an enthusiasm for what God called me to do.
And so That is imprinted in me. Not just in my mind. And so If you have known me as a player back then, as a person, I was. Known as a quiet leader. I just didn't talk.
Much. And so right before the captains get ready to go out, this game. I've got a strong prompting in my gut to get up. And say something, but I'm scared because I got to ask Coach Bryant.
So. I'm struggling with this thing. But the longer I waited. It got to where I'm like, man, I'm going to throw up. I don't Get this out.
I don't even know what it is. It's totally impromptu.
So I Put my hand up real slow. Coach Bryant. I said, Coach, can I say something? He had on his big old Parker hat, come up over that. on that jacket.
He just nodded. and when he said ye you know, nodded, and gave me permission, It just flowed. I started with thanking Coach Bryant.
So, Coach, I just want to thank you for everything you've done for me.
So you know I came here four years ago as an 18-year-old boy. But to night I'm going to leave as a twenty one year old man. I want to personally thank you for everything you've done for me. Coach, ain't no way we're going to lose this game tonight.
So, if I got to play this sucker by myself, man, we're going to win. And that thing was like, it was a match. It lit more. It got our guys fired up. What I love about that when I look back is, you know, 20-some days later.
Coach Bryant passes away. And I just believe the Lord prompted me that in front of my peers, I would tell my coach, thank you. For what he'd done for me. Probably every. player in there should have stood up that night.
I said, Thank you, coach. God just prompted me. And um After the game, I was only... Standing up there on the stage where he was getting the trophy, Liberty Bowl trophy. I was standing next to him, I was getting the MVP trophy and.
The announcer was just congratulating him on his career, and I was standing next to him, and he said, Oh, I. My career was and he put his arm around me. It was great because Men like this. And That's how I'll always remember. My last in Encounter with Coach Bryant.
And we'd like to thank 1819 News for this story. 1819 is a multimedia company. For the state of Alabama. Jeremiah Castile doing what almost anybody who played for Bear Bryant did. which is talk about how Bear turned him from a boy into a man.
with high standards primarily, a spirit of excellence, and as he put it, He wanted to dominate the other team, dominance. And that's how I was coached, he said. And I played that way. And those words of encouragement, because that's what great coaches will do, they'll hold you to standards. They'll take you to the mats.
But there are those moments where they build you up. They're those moments where they get a vision for you that even you don't have. And this was perhaps Bear Bryant's greatest talent. You can tell that without Bear Bryant, without Jesus Christ, these were the two most important beings in his life. And Christ first, Bear Bryant a close second.
The story of Jeremiah Castile. and in the end stories about Bear Bryant too and the Lord here. on Our American Stories. Spending time outdoors, then let's talk about skin cancer. Non-melanoma skin cancers, or NMSCs, including basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, are the most common cancers in the U.S.
and can become harder to treat if left undetected. That's why sun protection and timely detection matter. Our sponsor, Regeneron, is raising awareness about advanced NMSCs. Learn more and take the pledge to see a dermatologist annually at let's get real about skincancer.com. Liberty has never been just a word to we Americans.
It has guided every one of our endeavors for the past 250 years. And now it takes form in a new way. The 2026 Semi-Quincentennial Coin and Metal Program from the United States Mint. It celebrates the founding ideals that have long shaped our coinage. Available one year only.
This historic collection features new coin designs, limited edition releases, and reissues. Shop new official coins at usmint.gov forward slash semi-q. That's usmint.gov/slash S-E-M-I-Q. Love discovering new music before anyone else? Stop being just a listener.
Start making the rules and work with your new favorite artist before they even break. The Beam is a free music competition app where real emerging artists compete, you vote, and massive brands step in to fund the next big name. Your votes change careers. Find them first. Download the Beam at TheBeam.com or on the App Store.
Vote for an artist you love or discover your next obsession. It's the first music chart that pays artists. Professional wrestling fans, the action continues every week. Watch CNA Thursday Night Impact every week on AMC. My- Electricity flowing through your veins.
Don't miss the adrenaline, the drama, and the total non-stop action. No one can ever be as good as this right here! Don't miss the action of TNA Thursday Night Impact every week on AM Sing. For show types and more information, visit TNAWrestling.com. Uh You've watched racing.
Now get behind the wheel. At Kaizen Autosport Racing School at VIR, professional race drivers teach you how to drive faster, safer, and with more confidence on one of America's legendary racetracks. Never driven on track? We'll get you started. Already experienced, we'll take you to the next level.
Ready to race? Earn your competition license and learn real wheel-to-wheel racecraft. Stop watching, start driving. Go to racevir.com. That's racevir.com.
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Now just 248 and 358. This is the Dan Lebatar Show. This is Dan Lebatar, and I've been doing this for more than two decades. Our show is contagious. It's a little bit addictive.
It's uh. How is it? In the most positive of ways. It has a good amount of range from smart to silly, and it's got a journalistic backbone. Monday through Friday, I show up and talk about sports, listen to the Dan Lebetard show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts.
Okay.
