Will Healy Interview (6-8-20)

I was thinking about our next guest over the weekend, not just because I was hanging out with a mutual friend of ours, Trav Haney, shouts to Trav if he's listening right now, but also because I was in the city of Charlotte and I saw that Will Healy was the latest coach to join his players in a peaceful protest in the Queen City. The head coach of the Charlotte football program is kind enough to join us now. And another reason I was thinking about you, coach, was because you're somebody who doesn't mind speaking his mind and talking about things he's convicted about, speaking about things he believes in. And also, you strike me as somebody who doesn't mind acting as well. Your action showed that over the weekend. And as we're talking about the city, coupled with the coronavirus pandemic, we're still learning a lot about it. How difficult was it to act beyond a statement, which we've seen a lot of teams just producing at Will all across the board?

That is a great question to start off the show. A couple things. I guess my biggest prayer over the last three weeks has been that it doesn't ever become about me, that you are doing something that you feel like your players understand. And look, we may have the same dorky white head coach that we've always had, but this dude's got our back and he's willing to listen. And he may not come from the same experiences or the same background, but that he's interested in true change and not just, you know, hey, I went and marched on Saturday.

We marched four miles. I took my wife and my five-year-old and now I can mark it off the list to move on to the next thing. I mean, that's, it's not it. And I guess that that is, I'm always a positive person about things, but I guess that the one thing that I've been the most skeptical of is acting like there's one thing that can be done right now that can alleviate this problem. And, you know, I am passionate about it. I'm passionate about the guys that we have in our locker room. I inherited a great group of people and I think we've added to that. And then obviously the guys that I get a chance to work with on a regular basis who become my best friends that, you know, don't look like me, talk like me, aren't from the same area of the United States and, you know, haven't had the same background or the same experiences.

And it's, I just, I am more convinced now than I have ever been that, number one, I think we have a group of people in our building who are capable of creating change. And number two, why I've got the greatest profession on the face of the earth because you get a chance to have relationships with a lot of different types of people. I have an opportunity where my five-year-old can grow up in a different world than I did. You know, again, you just keep praying that it's not about me, it's about our players and it's about injustice.

And I thought what happened on Saturday was very dynamic for a lot of reasons, but my wife and Eli and I were very glad to be a part of it. As the kids grow up, Will, you always hear parents say they learn so much about themselves through the prism of their children. They learn a lot about their kids and football coaches, they're in a unique position where they deal so much with younger people, where you almost serve as a pseudo parent and keeping an eye on the kids.

You promise parents that you're going to take care of them. You also have heard a lot of people, a lot of players of color, people of color saying that they just want people to be, to listen to them. They just want to feel like they've been heard. Coupling those two things together, Will, what have you learned in the last 10 days in conversations you've had with your players? I do think a lot of it is about being heard.

I think the other thing is appreciating differences. Look, I have told these guys since the beginning, and I guess George Floyd was murdered, really is what it was, on Wednesday. Then Friday we had our team meeting the first time after that event happened. It was on my heart to bring it up. It wasn't close to home, it wasn't somebody we knew, but still I knew our players were feeling it.

I knew that our guys, it may be bothering some of them. So I brought it up, and my first conversation was, listen guys, I don't understand. I don't claim to understand when I walk into a place that I'm the minority and people look at me different, or I get pulled over for this, or I went through this.

None of that. I was blessed beyond belief with how I grew up, and went to a private school, and went to a private university. Very few opportunities in my life before I got into coaching was I the minority.

But it doesn't mean that I don't care enough and love you enough to want to help you, and to want to, look, let's educate each other. I saw a tweet the other day that was perfect, like we need to all go back and watch Remember the Titans again. There's some truth to that now. Getting to know somebody from a different background, appreciating the differences, judging people based on character, not based on tone of skin, but appreciating the experience that we've all had that got us to this point. We were just on a team meeting today, and Inky Johnson spoke to us. I mean, unbelievable, but some of our guys were talking about experiences in black history before, and I didn't know what they were. So you got two questions. The question is, do you sit there and you act like you know what the heck they're talking about, or do you say, I am ignorant.

Please tell me what this event was, and educate yourself, and read more books, and do more research. It shouldn't have taken me this long, but it did. I've screwed it up before, and I'm passionate about not screwing it up again. I think that the real conversations with your guys, the opportunity to create an open forum, the opportunity to educate your guys, and to...

I am tangent, and you know me well enough by now to know I have ADD like no other. I really believe it's so like racism is based on extremes and experiences, right? So the problem that people have and the thing that this brings back are experiences that people may have had where they feel like there was injustice involved. And unfortunately, a lot of our black athletes are Hispanic athletes and are the ones who see it the most. And so there's an experience with a cop that may not have been a positive thing. There's an experience with a white person that may not have been a positive thing. There's an experience with a white coach who's in a profession of making money, and in some cases, large amounts of money, based on the athletic ability of a black athlete, right?

And especially in the college game when a black athlete can't get paid right now, right? And so I understand those perceptions. I'm not ignorant to those.

But what I am passionate about is, look, I know what the stereotypes and the stigmatisms may have been. I'm going to show you through time and through consistency and through relationships and through love that this place is going to be different. And do I fail at it? Every single day. Do I fail at being a dad? Every single day.

Do I fail at being a husband? Every single day. I'm not going to just take, man, this is too big of a topic to tackle. I'm just going to be quiet and just stay ignorant.

It's Charlotte head football coach Will Healy with us here. And this next one is going to require some thought. A lot of thought. What brings what gives you optimism as you move forward? And as you think about it, something you were saying there resonated with me in terms of what gives me optimism. And it goes back to the youth and that racism is not something that's taught, that this generation seems like a big part of their agenda, if we're going to use that word, is that self that identifying people based on race and prejudice is not going to fly with them.

Billie Eilish, a popular musician, she wears baggy clothes because her argument is, hey, I want to be judged by my music, not what's underneath my clothes here. And you hear players time and time again, they're talking about not using race as something that either qualifies or disqualifies you for something. But then spending time in Charlotte this weekend, I realize how adaptive America is as well. And I think that's going to get us through this difficult time.

The rigid, they tend to fall behind. When I look at restaurants finding ways to use takeout options in order to get a flow of revenue coming in and getting creative, it makes me optimistic that America is going to push through because of adaptiveness. And also when it comes to this problem we're dealing with, when it comes to race relations, the youth, it matters to them that prejudice, self-identifying prejudice, not be something that is a disqualifier. So I only say that to give you time to think. What makes you optimistic about where we're headed?

Another great question. I'm optimistic because of the people that I interact with on a daily basis, because of the experiences I get to have, because of my relationship with Marcus West, Alex Atkins, Brandon Cooper, Charles Behnken, Montario Hardesty, Shawn Dawkins, who were some of my best friends that I get a chance to coach with, and because of the relationships I have with Alex Highsmith, Cam Clark, Benny LeMay, Tyree Carus, and so on and so on with the guys that are in our locker room. And they're special people. And again, I go back to the experience piece of this, one of the reasons why it's so important for me to have the most successful program in the United States of America is so that people have a different experience that they may not be used to. When I step outside of our football office, I live in a very predominantly white world. When I grew up, I lived in a very predominantly white world. And my experience with those type of people, with the Marcus West, with Charles Behnken, with Harry Wilson in college, I remember the first all-black church I went to. You want to talk about something good for you as a white guy?

Go to an all-black church. I mean, you're the minority, right? So you understand now for a split second, not for a lifetime, but for a split second, some of the thoughts that may be going through some of those guys' heads in different situations where they're the minority. Obviously, you have a different church experience, which is one of the most dynamic experiences my entire life.

But those are really good for me to be put in. And I've got hope because I know the type of people that we have in our organization. I know the type of people that I've run into while playing football and while being involved in athletics.

And I think that, again, I tell our team this all the time. One of the guys on Charlotte football team gets arrested. The headline of the Charlotte Observer is going to be, Charlotte Football Player Gets Arrested.

So what does everybody automatically say? Charlotte football has got a bunch of fugitives, right? That's one guy out of 120 that are in our roster. Why in the heck would you judge our entire football team based on the actions of one person?

So why in the world would we do it from a race perspective as well? And that's what I have so much hope about is because I get to live the fantasy world of the best of the best. Coaches, people, trainers, administrations, whatever it is. And I see how great they are and I feel they're hurt and I'm pissed off at the fact that they're going through this. But I'm so confident in what the future looks like because I know the experiences that I've had. Hard left turn.

Will Healy with us here, Charlotte head football coach. I saw the video of you on the streets of Charlotte over the weekend and I was impressed. It seems you've remained in shape.

You saw a terrible picture because I've gained at least 20 pounds during this last three months. Is that true? Yes. How?

What was the weapon of choice? There's a dad bod that I had in the season at about 180 something pounds and that thing's about to touch 200. So I'm flattered that you would say that. But as as our guys on our team said and as Eli, my five year old says that there has not been a whole lot of working out going on during this covid process. So it's less about diet and more about lack of or just a bunch of inactivity. It's a combination of a lot of different things. Some of them can't be talked about on air. I mean, it may have been an alcoholic beverage involved at some point in time, but it's food choice.

It's lack of exercise and and maybe one beer. How's that going to affect your willingness to participate in Club Lit? I am who I am. You know, I mean, I've I've always I've always been the underdog and I'll continue to feel very confident in that role. You're the best coach, Healy. I was inspired by what you did over the weekend, the same way I was inspired by what Sean Clark did at App State and many other great coaches across the country. Appreciate you spending time and being open as always. And I hope the next time we catch up, we're going to be talking about packing some fans in the stands at Neyland Stadium and your team facing the volunteers. Thanks for doing this. Let's do it, man. Thanks for having me. Have a great day. You got it. That is Will Healy.

He's on Twitter at Coach Underscore Heals, head coach of the Charlotte football program. And Robert, I mean, you see why that guy is such a delightful person. He doesn't mind going anywhere we want to go. And honest, all of that.