It was a dank October evening, and I was at work on a story about the Oregon Jesters women's rugby team. They invited me out to a practice, and at the coach's suggestion, I brought my soccer cleats . I soon found myself ordered to crouch to the scummy turf, then wedge my head between the legs of the two players in front of me. These women, a 'prop' and a 'hooker, applied a stubbly vice grip to my skull, pressing from each side in an apparent effort to reduce my ears to pulp. Then I reached up between my new friend's legs to grab the waistband
And I feel more comfortable now as a track athlete these last two years than I do walking onto a soccer field and putting those cleats on. So it's weird, but I'm excited.
Then he saw I was all serious. He saw my cleats . And he was like, I guess so.
What was that like for the first group that came over that, as you mentioned, played on dirt? A lot of them didn't have cleats . And coming into just this incredible facility, what was that transition like to just the day-to-day life and then also the ability to train at such a higher level?
on the show you are eating the entire time um I I'm increasingly more capping everything you see me eat on camera I'm eating that whole meal and I'm cleated generally speaking cleaning my plate I don't take one bite for the camera and then run off to my trailer even if I had a trailer um so I'm eating and I'm drinking everything you see me eating right but I'm not going home and sitting around
So what our task has been with that of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the UNDP-- the United Nations Development Program-- And their claws are used like cleats for traction in running.
the oval office floor and the carpenter had been making repairs to the floor and they sent me a little square of the floor and i still have it with the golf cleat marks so that was really at the age of 10 and a half that was the start of my collection but fast forward another five years and i was at a very famous party in new york city has anyone ever heard of truman
was a golfer he wished he had been a golfer but he was an amateur golfer and every time he wore his golf cleats in the house my mother would chastise him so the president was golf cleats in the to the oval office i said mr president i said you're scratching the floor you know when you're a little kid you say something cute so he said well change the subjects you want to say
because, in soccer, if this is the field, a midfield player plays here. In football, you just take the cleats and you play with your friends.
this was bad was sort of like putting the pieces together keeping the good bits getting rid of the bad bits I also over backwards it was just aw and I replaced that with a cleated ramp and
So he got up kind of reluctantly and opened the door. Instead he saw a 6 foot tall guy with a soccer ball with a uniform, and cleats , and shin guards, and all decked out. And he's asking, "Can I play soccer in your backyard?" And the guy's name is Scott.
chances so on the president's calendar i wrote barry's birthday well the president came in and my father was a golfer he wished he had been a golfer but he was an amateur golfer and every time he wore his golf cleats in the house my mother would chastise him so the president was golf cleats in the to the oval office i said mr president i said
And once I finished, I wanted to be able to seamlessly transition into the next phase of my life, where I could still have value to the community, I could still make a difference, and I could still be a leader now that I took off my helmet and retired my cleats . I love that I love that.
So, for example, let me see-- rejection six-- play soccer in someone's backyard. All right, so one day I held a soccer ball and knocked on a stranger's door with my cleats and shin guards all decked out. And I knock on the door and said, sir, can I play soccer in your backyard?
6:10 PM. Onslaught, onslaught, anyone? Onslaught? 6:15 PM. How long does it take for them to remove their cleats and eat some chicken fingers? 6:20 PM. Yeah, I'll have more wine, thank you.
No one gave him a chance. So he played in a couple of semi-pro games. And then he took his spikes and he knotted the laces together and he threw them up into the power lines. And that was his symbolic act that, 'I'm done with baseball. I'm throwing my, I'm throwing my cleats to the trade-winds here.' And then he was going to ask his dad if he had a lead on a job at the Westinghouse factory that his dad worked at for 12 hours a day.