Bobby Okereke: The Mindset Behind NFL Success

**Bobby Okereke** (0:00)
My parents were very strict, growing up, education was number one, if you got a bad grade, which is probably a C or less, you're not going out on the weekend. I didn't tell my parents too much about really playing freshman, junior, sophomore, junior year.

**Sean Callagy** (0:12)
Bobby, you're an eagle now.

**Bobby Okereke** (0:14)
It'd be funny, my parents would be at the grocery store, my mom's like, people would come to my mom and be like, wow, your son had such a great game, and she's like, he had a game yesterday? When did he play? I think my parents got on board when I got my first scholarship, when I was a junior in high school, and I told my mom, I got an offer, and she was like, what's that? I said, it's a scholarship. She said, how much? I said, oh, it's a full ride. Oh, I think we like this football thing now.
And football was the first time that I was able to be as creative, as violent, as sporadic as I wanted to be, and I was really celebrated for it. So I leaned into that. I really had to get internal and kind of build like almost a little force field around me and just feed myself positivity, feed myself conviction and not listen to anybody. Sometimes you got to decide what's best for you and go across the grains. You know you're a good player, you do everything right, you've made a lot of plays, but to me right now, it looks like you have your foot in the door and the onus is on you. If you really want to reach your potential, you got to kick the door in. We all suffer one of two pains, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret and disappointment. I can't be my greatest self if you're not your greatest self, and you don't bring that every day and force me to compete. And if you're not trying to be better than me, then I'm not going to be my best self because iron sharpens iron. You got to keep the main thing the main thing. And we're here talking about off the field stuff, we're talking about finance, we're talking about business. But for me, football is my engine. Football is the engine that makes everything go. That brings me all the opportunities that I want, that brings me all the leverage and negotiation. So the better I play and the better player I am, the bigger the impact I can have.

**Sean Callagy** (1:55)
To our feet, please. And let's give a warm, unblinded welcome to Bobby Okereke of the NFL New York Giants captain. Welcome Pan Award nominee. Let's hear for Bobby.
How are you? Please. How are you? Let's hear for Bobby.
So first, we're going to start doing some tackling drills right here upfront. Yes. So Bobby, thank you so much for being here.

**Bobby Okereke** (2:25)
Thank you for having me.

**Sean Callagy** (2:26)
Yeah, really appreciate it. And one of the first things I said is like, wow, like coming from the state of New Jersey, you sound much more articulate than the average person from New Jersey. And he laughed and he's from Orange County, California. Why does everybody coming from California just speak so masterfully? This is something we'll try to figure out because I have, I think yet to meet anybody from California that isn't like a just net better communicator than anybody I find anywhere else. So see if you do not find the same with this incredible man. So Bobby, again, I thank you so much for being here for sure.

**Bobby Okereke** (3:00)
Yes, sir.

**Sean Callagy** (3:01)
And so if we could take it back in time, where were you born?

**Bobby Okereke** (3:08)
I was born in Orange County, California.

**Sean Callagy** (3:10)
And what part of Orange County?

**Bobby Okereke** (3:12)
Born in like Tustin, Irvine area.

**Sean Callagy** (3:14)
Cool. Awesome. And your folks are from?

**Bobby Okereke** (3:17)
My parents are from Nigeria.

**Sean Callagy** (3:19)
Nice. And so as we're chatting about it, you're sharing that education was foundational for them. I mean, tell me a little bit about please your grown up years.

**Bobby Okereke** (3:26)
Yeah. My parents were very strict growing up. Education was number one if you got a bad grade, which is probably a C or less, you're not going out on the weekend.
Had a curfew all through high school, wasn't allowed to hang out, sleepovers, the whole thing. So let's hear for that.

**Sean Callagy** (3:47)
Seriously, love it. That's awesome. And then what were you, what did you do before high school? So like up to like five, six, seventh, eighth grade academics is there. What you do for fun?