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when you want a night to remember? Iron Smoke Distillery? Where is it
in Fairport, New York? Baby ol Connors and Parmis had two six'
two comp today. Well in this episode, I sit down for a one
on one with former Patriot quarterback Bob Blier, who is the president and founding
partner of the Platinum Wealth Group and very close with its four time Super Bowl
winning champion cousin Rocky BLib And I do remember that we went to a Pirates
game last year with his son, the three of us, and we walked
in the stadium and everybody stops and and he talks to everybody and his son
Adrian and I just said, we're gonna go watch the game. Let's go
sit day Bob talking about getting it one Division one offer from Richmond University and
going there as a freshman. I ran the meat squad. I don't know,
if you're familiar with what the meat squad is, you'll learn how things
turn around in that situation and what NFL team was putting a lot of pressure
on him to sign with them. They said, no, you got to
make a decision right now. I'm like, my agent told me, I
cannot do this. I cannot sign without talking to them. All that and
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Visit Myers RVs dot com Now when your old career gives you lemons throwing some
ice, mix in some vodka. Call it a podcast from the Mac of
All Trade studio in Fairport and driven by Dred Chrysler Dots Jee Brahm. It's
Billified, the Bill Moran Podcast. Well, hello and welcome. Thanks for
getting your pot on, Thanks for telling a friend. That's how we spread
the word. About the pirate ship. So excited today you get to do
a one on one. But the guy who spent some time in the NFL,
which at a time and a position that they were not very kind to
quarterbacks, that would be bob Bleier. How are you. I'm doing great
though. It's wonderful to join you today. Well, thank you for coming
in. Uh. I always think like you had to be the BMOC,
right because the quarterback was always the BMOC and no big man on campus a
little bit. I mean the quarterback of you know, first I would assume
Aquinas, which always had a strong football team. I had a son who
did go to McQuaid, so there was that battle for there was that battle
for so many years. And then then he went on to the Richmond Spiders
and eventually the New England Patriots, which I go, boy, that that
that's that's like living the dream, is it not? It really was,
But you know, a lot of things had to happen along the way.
I'm very blessed that the timing of things happened well for me. You know
at Aquinas, I didn't start until my junior year at quarterback. My senior
year we had an okay team but we had a great running game. So
we had one guy that went to Arizona State University on a full ride down
beyond. So all I did was hand the ball off my senior year and
and ironically I had one good game and it was at Old Hollanders Stadium.
I don't know if you remember stadium. Yeah, we played against Canisius.
I had one good game. And at the time, rich Paranello was my
quarterback coach, and he sent a real tour, real film to the University
of Richmond. Wow. And Richmond took notice of me, flew me down
for my one and only Division one trip, and offered me a full ride
right there on my first recruiting visit. How describe that feeling? Because I
had to think. For a lot of people, like life, I always
go the memory is a feeling. Right when we hear a song, we
go back in time. Why because it brings back a feeling. That feeling
had to be like you won the lottery. I don't, I can't even
I don't even know. I was actually did your feet touch the ground?
I was actually going to go to Hobart and play basketball. Basketball was my
real true love. Really, I was going to go play D three basketball.
So when I got offered, I was there alone. I didn't expect
anything. I didn't know what what what was going to happen was my parents
weren't with me. So after I met with the quarterbacks coach and the head
coach and they gave me that offer, I honestly didn't even know how to
respond. I was blown away. I took the offer right then in there
and called my folks and they're like, what, You're going to go to
a major college school for free? And my dad was a worker Yeah,
I mean there was a worker bee. So that was really helpful for Let
me let me go back a little bit here. Tell me about your parents,
what like? Who was the biggest inspiration probably in the home at that
time. Dad, No doubt, My daddy got up at four thirty every
day. He was a labor I don't think you're in more than forty or
forty five thousand dollars a year bringing up three kids in a really crazy small
household. My mom was a stay at home mom. In order to get
extra money for the family, she babysat, teachers children at the home.
Yep, so it was like a daycare. Big daycare at our house.
But my father, you know, it's like a work card. I always
called my my house because I had three boys at a frat house. Somebody
was always walking around without a shirt on, and someone just puke in someone's
you know, it was just a mess. But it was the water running
and stuff everywhere. Yeah, everything. And so my dad used to get
home, and I remember this distinctly. He used to get home at four
o'clock, sit at the table, start reading the newspaper. Four thirty.
Dinner was on the table, and everybody called it, especially my father.
He called it an early night and just kind of rinse and repeat. He
did that his entire life, really, and then he had a lot of
injuries from his career and retired at fifty five. And what did he He
was a laborer but doing what he was a tin knocker. He was in
the local forty six union. He worked for Leo j Roth Corporation for thirty
eight years, which is a long time doing that. Yeah, it is
long. And then unfortunately he succumbed to cancer roughly about ten years ago.
But he was definitely my inspiration. He knows to a grindstone at every game
he played every single game. He was fair to people, He loved everyone,
and I never met a person that didn't like my dad. So he's
definitely is my inspiration. Yeah, and your brothers all play sports as well.
I had one younger brother who didn't play sports, and I have an
older sister. I'm sorry, so what I did? You know? It
was kind of weird. You know, everybody said to my family, you
know, where did I come from? Because everybody was kind of short in
my family. Yeah, and I would the only one that was over six
foot at six two, and and my dad really was a He was a
tough, tough encourager. Yeah, and when I didn't do what even when
I did well, if I made mistakes, he'd let me know about it.
And I truly appreciated that because sometimes always think that's when you do let
people know they made a mistake when they're doing well. I completely agree.
And I've been that high right right, I've been that tough kind of father
to my kids, and I think they've all appreciated it. But but I'm
I firmly am an offspring of my dad. Okay, yeah, so just
that same toughness that knows to the grindstone kind of thing. Uh. I
just as a kid growing up, did you see your cousin? Often?
I did, because Rocky Blyer is your cousin. They played for the Steelers,
won a Super Bowl, He won four super bowl Yeah, yeah something
Yeah, so said, oh this is the year though, Bill. Yeah,
Well, I really hope, I really do hope. But for super
Bowls is really impressive. And I got to think, like that had to
be. Did it register to you even though you were basketball? What did
that mean to you? It really did? It did? Yeah? I
mean I knew that we were. Our lineage was close. My father was
contacted by his side of the family. He went to Notre Dame, won
a national championship with Notre Dame in sixty eight. But more importantly than being
a Steeler and winning Super Bowls, he is a wounded warrior from the US
Army from Vietnam, and roughly about ten years ago, maybe fifteen years ago,
he and I really connected and became very close, almost like a brother
relationship, he and I and we're now business partners in a family bourbon.
We've partnered with Iron Smoke and Rocky and I. We think the same,
we feel the same. We're all about life, liberty, America, the
human way, and he's just an incredible, incredible person and we are very
close. Was at this point, yeah, yeah, because the Boerman is
the purple Heart bourbon. Did he get the purple Heart? He did?
He received both a Bronze Star and purple Heart. Yeah. He was never
supposed to walk again, and he got injured before he made that Super Bowl
run with the Steelers, So that's even more impressive because I thought there was
a time where he was on the injured reserve. He had come back.
He was like one hundred and eighty pounds. It almost look sort of frail.
When I remember reading all this stuff about Rocky as as a kid because
he played in the early seventies. My dad not such a big sports fan.
I always was, so there wasn't that influence on me to go,
you know, hear about these guys. But I remember hearing about Rocky and
of course his time in nom and my uncle was in Nam. Right.
His story is just really incredible And if you speak to him, I mean,
he's in Rochester a lot. He hangs out with me and my buddies
a lot. Uh, and he just he's one of the guys you know,
he's so humble. And I do remember that we went to a Pirates
game last year with his son, the three of us, and we walked
in the stadium and everybody stops and one and he talks to everybody and his
son Adrian, and I just said, we're gonna go watch the game.
Let's go. Well, Rocky is got to be near eighty years old,
seventy eight seventy eight years old. Yeah, he looks like you can still
run the ball time probably, Yeah, isn't that great? He works out
every day. Yeah, that's a thing. Tell me about, like going
from Richmond and then getting recruited, I mean drafted to the NFL. This
this whole thing, like you wanted to be a basketball player, that the
one Division one offer, they fly you down, this whole thing. I
mean, have did you ever talk to the quarterbacks coach Paranlela? It was
a Paranlela, Richard Paranlel. He has passed since it was one of my
dearest friends and I owe so much to him. He's just been a big
family friend and a big, big cheerleader for me, my wife. Yeah,
rich has been a great guy. And his wife, Kathy's amazing too.
So when I when I got to Richmond, I really thought I didn't
belong. Honestly, yeah, I would say I didn't. I know I
could compete with the size and strength of the guys that were there. There
were already three or four veteran quarterbacks. I was a rookie coming in,
you know, a freshman, and I didn't think I was going to play
and I didn't, so I ran the meat squad. I don't know if
you're familiar with what the meat squad is. It's the quarterback that runs the
opposing office before us okay, and I used to get destroyed. I literally
would get blown up every practice. And after that freshman year, I went
home and I told my dad, I'm done. I'm going to the U
of R. I'll play Division III football. Go to U R and play
football. And my dad said, what are you stupid? There's no way
you're going to leave that Richmond degree behind. You're going to go to Richmond
and you're going to keep working harder. And literally what I did that entire
summers. I went up to Greece Olympia on my own. I ran the
track, I threw every day, I did wind sprints. I worked so
hard in that off season. When I got back to Richmond, I had
moved up to three on the depth chart. What year is this? This
is nineteen eighty three. Okay, So and you're doing that all on your
own, all on my own. I was the only one up at Olympia
every day. Why so where does that that come from? Because now we've
got YouTube and we've got everything, so kids can go see, hey,
here's what this guy did. Right, Not nineteen eighty two, not at
all. I mean I can remember the smell of the cut grass, the
dew and the heat off the grass of the track at Olympia, and I
used to look around and say, I know, there's a lot of athletes
in this community that are playing in college. Where is everybody? And I
actually was the only one. Yeah, And I was just going to anybody
when you were thrown or just trying to put it on into spots and then
chasing the ball. Yeah it's crazy, right, Yeah, you throw to
a spot and then go chase the ball and do it again. It was
not a lot of repetition, but but I was pretty committed to it.
And as I said, when I got back to Richmond, I moved up
to third on the depth chart, which I couldn't believe at that point in
time. I got a little bit of bigger and faster and stronger. And
at that point in time, Richmond was a major independent like Notre Dames.
We played SEC teams. We played Georgia and Louisville and South Carolina. It
was an incredible schedule. Virginia Tech, I played Bruce Smith for four years,
so we got When I got to Richmond my sophomore year, my red
shirt freshman year, we had the longest losing streak in the nation at I
think sixteen or eighteen games, and we were playing I think the University of
Central Florida, I believe it was at home at Richmond, and I wore
a baseball cap on the sidelines the whole game, every game, and charted
out place and the coach tapped me on the shoulder. We were down about
ten or fourteen. We weren't going to win. He tapped me on the
should he go, you're going in four minutes left in a game? Yeah,
I really, I mean I was. I crapped a brick, actually,
I mean I was so nervous. So I go in, We're backed
up to our goal line and this is how I remember it, and it's
quite close. Okay. So we started throwing the ball and at that point
in time, we were an option team. I don't know if you're familiar
with what the option. It's about running the ball and driving it down people's
throats in the eighties, right, So we did straight drop back. I
completed I think seven or eight passes in a row, the last one for
a touchdown. Yeah, and uh, they pushed me into the starting lineup
and changed the whole offense to just straight drop back and throw the ball.
For four years, I started forty four games in a row. This is
amazing. So just saw on that. Did you win? End up winning
that game? Did you come back and win? Yeah? I've been figuring
four minutes left? Goods. I possibly could under pressure okay in that moment.
So what here's the here's the big thing I believe, and this is
going to sound weird, that all of life has lived in our head.
Oh my god. Yes, And that there truly is no meaning other than
the meeting you apply to it. So when you go in and you're crapping
a brick, Yeah, how did what goes on? In your head that
all of a sudden, you go, Okay, what what do you do?
You remember? Yes, I do. I knew I had nothing to
lose, and I knew I had to complete that first most dangerous guys,
the guys nothing to lose, right, And I know I had to complete
that first pass. And as soon as I did, I was dialed in
the game. I had nothing to lose and I was just standing in the
pocket winging the ball and it all played out quite nicely for me. But
you know, I've always told myself as well. When I got to Richmond,
there was a sign above our locker room door that said, if the
opportunity comes, take it. If it doesn't come, make it, And
that was that's my life mantra. It's in everything I do, all my
youth speeches, everything I talk about is about that one phrase. And I
definitely and this is a great lesson for my children as well, and we
talk about it as I took advantage of the one opportunity I knew I was
never going to get again. If I would have crapped out and did terrible
and we couldn't move the ball, it would have been But think about how
many people do. That's why I'm saying the mindset is so important that you
because you we see people sometimes I don't know if we call it where you're
you're trying too hard, you're gripping right, you're great. You just want
to stay sort of relaxed and fluid in the moment. Not much easier said
than done. It is, And uh, I think that's amazing. How
old were you then, nineteen nineteen, nineteen years old? Years old?
Yeah, I mean, and I'm playing against the big boys, sure,
all the big right, Yeah, And it was it was an incredible experience.
And for the coach to have faith in me the way he did,
I think was a blessing to me. So I always believe too, because
I used to say with like with my kids, if we can just get
a win, right, we talk about You'll hear a lot about small successes,
right, got it? Self esteem? Self esteem? We got to
build self esteeming kids and this and that. You know, people always say,
how do you what do we do with social media? It's this.
It's that you got to build self esteem in the kid so that way they
feel good. And the only way to do that is to build on the
successes. Correct, right, you know, encourage and I would just ask
you after that moment, how much harder did you work? Yeah? Lights
out? Yeah, I'm telling you, I put on I think fifteen pounds.
I worked harder. I took it lifting or Yes. I took a
lot of pride in being the starting quarterback at a major Division I school.
I was never going to lose my job. They recruited every year and then
eventually, you know, by my sophomore junior year, quarterbacks wouldn't come.
They knew they weren't going to get a chance to play for a few years.
Because I did have a fifth year that I that I did play,
okay, because I had a red shirt year and graduated in four so it
was there was a lot. It was a lot of pressure, just as
I was very proud of what I was doing. As an aside, because
I don't know that people know when you take that redchert, did you have
to take any classes at all? Just that you did. I went to
graduate school for kay okay, yep, and Richmond took care of that as
well, which was really great. Wow. Yeah, So I mean I
I took it very seriously. I was very proud of our team, my
freshman year. My red shirt freshman year, we had thirty red shirt freshmen
that stayed and played after redshirt year, and then we ended up becoming number
We went to one double A my junior year and we were number one in
the country, but still had a one A schedule because they're made so far
in advance, so we're one double A program, which cut our scholarships by
I think twenty and we were still competing with the big boys. We played
at Virginia Tech. I remember my junior year opening day and we beat them
in Blacksburg under the lights their opening game. That's really crowds, I mean,
unbelievable. These schools in the South, yes, right, we're talking
one hundred thousands sometimes in same My sister went to the University of South Carolina
and I think I don't remember I about the stadium was like one hundred thousand.
It's crazy, it is. I think the most fun I've ever had
was playing at Georgia between the hedges when we played the Bulldogs in Georgia.
I think it was fourteen seven and half and you could hear pindrop at their
homecoming. So was this he might have been before you not herschel Walker time.
No, no, no, no, yeah, yeah he was.
He was a little bit before yeah, a little before you. Yeah.
Yeah. But Georgia, I mean the program history at Georgia is incredible.
Sure. So yeah, and again I'm blessed. I took advantage of the
chance that came to me, and I just I never let it go.
So but did you ever think because and again back to mindset, sometimes fear
comes in and you start to or did you always kind of push that out
and focus on, uh, just being the best you could be and keeping
that the negative out. You know what I'm saying, like exactly what you're
saying, and I know I'm not communicating well, but that resistant thinking in
a way. You know, I always watch like you know, Michael Jordan,
and one of my favorite things to show all my kids is the Last
Dance over and over just because there's that mindset of uh, there was never
any doubt that he was going to do this. There was just no doubt.
Right, he'd never let it in. I think you learned from failure.
Sure, you think in order to keep excelling at your craft, whether
it's your your career or your sport or even as a parent and father.
You need to learn from failure and build off of that. And if you
don't, then you're gonna be coasting. And you don't coast uphill, right,
you coast downhill, you do. So it was important to me to
learn from my failures. And I mean there were a number of articles at
times. You know, I didn't play a perfect game every time I was
at Richmond, and I remember some of the articles, you know, slammed
me if I had a bad game, and that was just part of the
deal. It didn't bother me. I knew I could build off it,
and I had a great career there. So again, you know, now,
I always say fans can get right to the pocket of players, right
with social media, right, And I think we saw years ago it was
the Sammy Watkins calling like Rochester Buffalo people were rock eaters or something, so
mad about all this stuff. But to see that negativity, did you you
actually read those articles? Oh yeah, yeah, you didn't try to avoid
it. It wasn't it was. It had to be there because we were
the team in Richmond. Yeah, so if I had a bad game,
you know, all the sports writers were very fond and friendly of our team
and myself. But you know, they called the spade a spade. You
know, if you did something wrong or you made an error that may have
may have hurt the team, they call you out on it. And it
didn't happen often, but when it did, I knew. I knew it.
You know, it didn't matter if they wrote about it or I had
to hear about it, but I knew that I made a mistake or made
a misread or a bad throw in a crucial time. But you can't be
perfect all the time. I think if you're you're perfect in your head,
you can get perfect most of the time. Sure. Yeah, well,
vision like seeing it, watching it. So then what is the leap to
the NFL? How does that go? Well? I think I got really
fortunate at Richmond, playing so many games, but it was a lot different
when I played. We didn't have overtime, we didn't throw the ball as
much in the eighties as they do now, and so I had a really
good career. When I graduated from Richmond, I think I had fourteen or
fifteen school records as a quarterback, and that got a lot of schools looking
at me. And the other reason was too because we played such a big
schedule. You know, when you're playing against the Outland Trophy winner at Virginia,
Bruce Smith, best lineman in the country. You're playing against Charles Haley,
who played with Dallas and has five Super Bowl rings. When you're playing
against all these great SEC teams and these players, you're gonna get noticed if
you play. Well, tell me about draft day. How did that all
work out? Because you know, I don't know if you can look at
that coaster that's under your bottle of water. Oh nice, yeah, is
that something? Yeah? A listener made these and we have a Patriot fan.
Oh wow, it comes on the podcast regularly. But that's a yeah.
But this guy makes makes these, but it's a Patriot. Want to
get myself one? Yeah? But then I mean getting drafted to the Patriots
again, Well, I didn't get drafted. I signed a free agent contract
and and and the thing, the thing that happened on draft day is,
you know, I went to the Combine, which I'm sure you're familiar with,
but the combine was a little bit quieter at that point in a show.
It's such a show, it really is, And thank god, I
don't know how I would have handled all of the stardom and starlight of what
NFL players are doing now. And I do believe they're bigger, faster,
and stronger than they were in the eighties. I truly believe that. But
when I went to the combine, I mean, if you hear the list
of quarterbacks that I was working out with, it was, uh, Steve
Berline, Rick Rick Miller, it was Vinny Testaverdie. It was. It
was unbelievable. I mean, there's list of quarterbacks that I was in line
with working out for these NFL scouts. It was. It was intimidating to
me. It was there weren't a lot of smaller Division I school quarterbacks there
one of the only ones. Yeah. So so then well I have to
think, like, did you learn anything from these guys? I didn't have
a good combine. You didn't have a good combo. Okay, I was
supposed to get drafted. I was one of the top five. I was
kind of like a sleeper quarterback. So I was expecting to get drafted.
I spoke with a number of teams. Dallas, Cleveland, New England wasn't
even on our radar. My my agent was actually Larry Zanka. I don't
know if that. Yeah. He and this gentleman named Nick Kish were my
my agents. So Draft day I just stayed home. I got a lot
of calls. We're going to take you next round, take you next round,
take you next round. It never happened. So Dallas called me right
after the draft and said, we want you to come to Dallas. We're
going to sign you as a free agent. So I flew down there and
I met with Tom Landry in his office by himself. Wow, it was
incredible, sure historical. Yeah, I's telling you about this. So they
said, Bobby, want you to put a gold star or silver star in
your homet want you to sign with us today. And I'm like, I
got to talk to my agent. And then Gil Brandt was there too,
who was I guess he was development or something at that time, and he
said, they said, no, you got to make a decision right now.
I'm like, my agent told me I cannot do this. I cannot
sign without talking to them. And there were a dozen, twelve kids,
twelve guys that were there that were gonna that all signed. I think I
was the only one that didn't sign with Dallas. So before I flew home,
I said the one thing I want to do is I want to go
and see the stadium where God watches his favorite team. So I got a
private tour of the stadium at Texas Stadium. I got got in the car,
flew home, and on my way home, my agent called me said,
you're going to New England. We're signing with New England. So I
went right there. Really, yeah, that is came out of the came
back. It's a crazy switch. Right. What did you have a favorite
team or a team you wanted to play for? I really didn't know.
I grew up loving the Vikings and the Steelers. Steelers, sure, because
your cousin. Why the Vikings. I loved Fran Tarkenton, Sure, okay,
got you know, he was just not the prototypical quarterback, but he
got a lot done. He was like good Jim Kelly. You know,
Minnesota never won a Super Bowl, but they were there were Yeah, wow,
that's that's amazing. So then you go to New England and what is
that experience? Like? I mean that now you're at the NFL. Because
I always say this, do you know how good you have to be to
suck at the NFL? I'm not saying that's what happened. But I watched
guys. I mean, there are guys from Rochester that I talked to who
were linebackers in college and bounced around and never really signed, and there looked
like amazing athletes and just that whatever that edge is. I mean, you
weren't in the top one percent. Blessed, completely blessed. But I think,
you know, there is a little bit of luck involved. But again
I think work, hard work was part of it, and mental toughness,
especially at my position. But you know, when I got there, I
looked around and I realized there were seven other guys that had my eight that
were my agent, and we're all looking at each other. We're like,
why are we here? You know the depth chart, there are five quarterbacks
here. Doug Flutie was one of them, and the running back was like,
there's five running backs here. We couldn't figure out if it was like
a package deal for a group of his players, because we all felt like
it was going to be really hard to make the roster because we didn't have
a spot. There was no slots, and typically as a rookie, you
get on on special teams or you slide into the depth chart and the top
three and you can kind of make the team. So I ended up being
the only rookie on the roster into preseason, and Steve Grogan and Tony Easton
were the starters and then obviously the third string quarterback. I'm not going to
mention who he is, but he didn't like me at all because his his
position. Was he in jeopardy. Yes, sure, and it's a you
know, it's a career for these guys. It's their job and their their
their income in the whole nine yards. So I was passed. I moved
up a little bit in the depth chart, became the only rookie on the
roster. I played in a couple of games. Uh. That was the
strike year two. Okay, yes, So Doug Flutie and I crossed the
line and ended up being the two quarterbacks during the strike season, and I
got to play against Buffalo and Cleveland. I scored a touchdown and threw a
touchdown. So I mean, I was there and did it, and I'm
very proud of it. But it wasn't a long stint. Yes, I
stayed on the roster for the year and then and then after that. I
don't know if you're familiar with the World League of Football. Is that what
that happened? I went and did a couple of camps there, but there
were players that were coming out of the woodwork that hadn't played in college in
ten and fifteen years that I was throwing passes too, And I'm like,
there's no way anybody's I can't get a good look at this and doesn't feel
right. So I came home and started what I'm doing. You're the president
and founding partner of the Platinum Wealth Group, correct, right in Pittsford,
and you've been doing that for I've been an investment advisor a wealth manager for
thirty five thirty six years now. So how much does the you know we
often hear in business, right, the sports analogies are used a lot,
yes, right, how much does that really play for you? I mean,
my position at quarterback was a leadership position, yes, So a lot
of people look to you for leadership and guidance and to do the right thing
and make the right decisions. So I learned that in my athletic career and
I definitely brought that over to my professional career in two I started the business
in eighty nine. In two thousand and I became a partner at the Bonadio
Group, Okay, and ran their financial services division, and then I carved
away in twenty sixteen and started expanding my own business and my own practice with
with like minded colleagues and investment professionals. And this is where I'm landed now
as I end my career through the Platinum Wealth Group. Yeah. And then
you're also involved in youth sports. I was, you were. Now that
my four boys are all on their twices, I'm no longer involved, but
I was active at Aquinas. We were the basketball boosters, my wife and
I when my youngest son went through there, and we improved and developed that
program. And coach La Fay's doing a great job there at Aquinas in high
school hoops. But I'm focusing more of my adult life on the charity that's
a passion of mine, which is Camp Good Days and Special Times. Chairman
of the board and president. I have been for I think twelve years maybe,
yeah, and that's kind of where I focus a lot. I'm very
familiar with that through both radio and Saint John Fisher right right right. They
did Teddy Dance. Yeah, we did the Teddy Dance when I was there
in the early nineties, we did the Teddy Dance. Yeah. I mean
they raised over one hundred thousand dollars a year for us through that event,
and we need that because we don't get any federal funding all year. Yeah,
we don't take any grants, federal aid, and we have a two
point three million dollars annual budget and we're very proud of the fact that over
ninety cents out of every dollar we collect goes to program and services. Because
their camp is down on Quka right, correct, Yes, I've driven down
there past beautiful. Yes, it is beautiful. Well, Qku is such
a nice part. Our campus is gorgeous. It is it really is really
really special. What motivates you then to stay involved in all these things?
I mean, is it the same thing that motivated you when you were young
that's motivating you today? It is? What is I mean? Again,
I've been a leader by example. I'm hopefully that's kind of the feedback I
got from people that have been around me and work with me and have grown
with me. But that's something that I've always felt passionate about as being a
very very good role model and a great leader. Yeah, and I take
that very seriously too. Yeah. Now playing at a high level sports at
a high level and then you have sons, How hard was it? I
probably wasn't the best dad early. I probably wasn't. Yeah, And my
wife and I thought about that a lot, and so she used to get
my grill all the time, like let it go or leave them alone kind
of thing. But you know, I knew how my dad was with me
and where it got me. Yes, and I didn't want my sons to
not not have that opportunity and just kind of continue to grind and fight for
themselves and be really good advocates for themselves. Whether they were good or not
was irrespective to me. But if they didn't work hard at their craft and
do well in school especially, I knew they had no future in any kind
of college sport because you have to be good athlete, right and in addition
to being a good uh in academics as well. So yes, I pushed
that hard. You push that hard. Yeah, Yeah, the academics in
the school, the two of them together, and you know, my oldest
son was rewarded. You know, he went, he went and got a
great college degree. He was my oldest son, Cash went to Mammat University.
He had a one offer. He had a few of them, and
he took Mamath and he's got an unbelievable degree and career. Now do you
want to offer in football? Football? Okay? What position was? He
played? A tight end? He's a big guy, six four ye two
fifty to sixty perfect, He's huge. He's still big boy. And I
know he's gonna give me crap on that because he's gonna hear this maybe.
But yeah, I mean, my kids worked as hard as they needed to
to get to where they wanted to. But I didn't want them to slack.
And if they gave up or they decided, you know, it wasn't
for them, then we were okay with that. Yeah, what I mean,
in what way would you motivate them then? Because I think a lot
of times, you know, the old school method of you know, come
in and kick the mattress, get out of bed, you lazy ass,
that kind of thing. I don't know if that's frowned upon today, I
don't know. I sometimes wonder if it goes on though I think it does
too, but I often wonder, like sometimes I'll hear has the backbone sort
of disappeared in parenting, which I have to get into all that, but
but I go, what what's the right way to do it? I mean,
you know, I think tough love. That's that's tough. That's the
answer. Tough love. You know, I'm so proud of all four of
my boys. They're good humans, They're they're great Americans. They work hard
at their jobs and their crafts. They love their mother, they love their
family. Yes, there's nothing more I could ask for from my four sons,
Cash, Luke, Clay and Jack. I love them to death and
I would do anything for them. But I think our tough my wife was
just as tough as I was, sure, and I think our tough love
is really paid off because you know, the kids are all really close with
us, all of them, and in spite of what I thought at the
time may have been too too much tough love. Really yeah, did you
ever have anybody like a coach or anything say like, because I I think
I even remember my dad was very tough on me, and I think my
fifth grade teacher goes, you got to give them a break a little bit,
But that was fifth grade, right, you cry, don't make it.
But did you ever have anybody, because I would think is I don't
know. I always wonder when you achieve at such a high level as you
did, right, And and I'll say, for you unexpectedly, so you
didn't expect no, But once you got there, you knew what it was
going to take to stay there, and you were going to keep working hard.
And so all your life you've you knew what it took, correct And
then when you see your kid not doing what it takes, it's hard because
I have a fourteen year old son and who are often say I want to
be a D one basketball player. Yep, And I'll go, great,
what are you doing to make that happen? It's one hundred percent right,
I mean right down to diet. Let's let's get rid of these candies.
Let's find a sleep schedule that's going to be a little more coherent with with
normal humans. And if he if he buys in it, then it's his
yes. Right. So we can't want it more than our children, but
we can give them the glide path, right, we can glide path?
Right? Yeah, Well, that that's the great thing. Is like I
was saying to you, you know, when you were going back to Olympia,
and throwing and doing all these things on your own. There was no
real glidepath there. Right now, the glidepath is go on and you know,
watch the old moment. You can see motivational speeches. You can find
everything to almost in a way fire you up. And the blueprint sort of
there, right, the blueprint sort of there and it wasn't then, right,
that's pretty impressive what you did well. I had a nice conversation with
my son Jack last night. He's playing in a summer league down in Massive
in college summer league, okay, And it was the first game I went
to. I wanted to go watch him play because I miss watching him play
in college. You know, season's over. And on the way back,
he started asking me, you know, dad, how do I do?
And I'm like, well, tell you the truth. I think you did
really, really well. But what I want you to start focusing on is,
I'm sure there's some things in your game that you think you need to
improve on. Yeah, don't let me be the one to say you need
to work on your ball handling skills, you need to work on running the
floor better. Don't let me say that. If you you are an athlete
at this level, you know, high D three, top ten in the
country athlete. You got to tell yourself if you want to improve those you
know, you don't want me telling you what you don't do right or what
you made mistakes. You know what you did wrong and what you need to
improve. I said, if you're motivated to do that. And he always
has been. That's why he's where he's at. He's much much like me.
And I told him, you just you figured it out, you take
care of it, and let let's improve on your terms. And he loved
that. He agreed with that. I said, I'm not going to tell
you anymore. You know what you did improve the skill sets you need to
do if you want to keep going at this. Yeah. Wow. Now
do you still go out and make speeches ever? Do you do as a
public speaker? I do. I speak to a lot of youth groups.
Sure. I'm very active again with Camp Good Days. I was on one
of the boards for good Will Industries and ABV I and I And I'm okay
with anybody and everybody that asks me to help for a cause because there are
so many great causes out there. Yeah, and you know, I'm passionate
about children, just really am and improving, improving lifestyle, improving family experience.
I'm just I'm you know, It's that's what I'm all about. What
is the ring that I'm looking at here? This ring? So again,
everybody, my my close buddies break my chops about wearing this thing, right,
But I'll tell you what. It reminds me every day of where I
came from and where I am. Yeah, because it looks like a championship
Hall of Famer. Yeah, for I made it all three of the Hall
of Fames I'm in. So you're the Fame Aquinas Hall of Fame, Section
five and the University of Richmond. Wow. So I'm proud of that internally,
and this is my reminder of the leadership and people look up to me
and are looking for a good role model. It's not to flash, I
forget. I have it on every day, Sure you would, but it's
a reminder to me. Did you make that ring? No? No,
I had a company make it, That's what I mean. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, But nobody gets a ring for getting into
these hall of Fames. No, you got a request and I paid for
it. Yeah, you know, it wasn't given to me, but I
did great to have buddies to bust your balls. Oh my god, like
it's the greatest. Oh my god. Jeff g from the UPS Store and
Gary Leonard my two closest friends. Oh my god, I cringe when they
come and pulling my driveway and pulled me out of bed. H that's very
funny. Yeah, what do you do for fun? Then? Do you?
I like the golf? I was gonna say, Okay, I own
a competitive I'm competitive in anything I do, but sometimes I suck. Okay,
golf's tough man, Yes, really it is. But maybe like six
or seven years ago, my father really gave me a love for the outdoors
and hunting okay, and conservation. Yeah, and I just love it all
and I put that into my children as well. So maybe like five ten
years ago I bought a piece of property down the Southern Tier and were it
Camplyar's one hundred acres and we restored the farmhouse, the sugar shack, and
the big barn and now it's our hunting camp. But I got to have
a nice house for my wife to come right. Yes, yes, running
waterle you got it. Some of these hunting caps are like it's a lean
to this is a house. So I did it. So what's the sugar
shack? Did they make maple syrup or do you do do it? Yeah?
You make it and sell it. Yeah, No, I don't sell.
It's just for our family, just for the family. I just you
know, I'm all about that space. I was there again last night cutting
my trails. It's an hour from here. Wow, just run out there
and I just my my heaven on earth. Yeah, it's a little bit
of yea. I'm just I'm just I'm sad that my dad can't share it
with me because he died before I got it. But he's the one that
gave me all this love for what I'm doing. Wow. What an interesting
life, right, what an exciting Yeah, you really are, and what
a great attitude with everything and even how you look at things. And uh,
if people are looking for what you do wealth management? But is it
is it wealth management or invest would I would come to you with a portfolio
as a family and say absolutely if you're just looking for a different perspective or
some different guidance. We're not out actively looking for new clients, but yes,
definitely take clients that want to work with us or refer to us.
So. Yes, it's the Platinum Wealth Group in Pittsford and be sure to
pick up the This came out Veterans Day in twenty twenty two, the Purple
Heart bourbon whiskey made locally by Iron Smoke, an award winning distillery with our
good friend Tommy Burnett. Those there, I do want to mention the first
batch sold out. They were the signed bottles by Rocky and I, so
they were the collector's edition. Number two is being bottled right now. You
can get it on my Iron Smokes website here their products tab. All right,
very good, Well, it has been a pleasure. Thank you very
much for coming in. It was nice to meet you. I feel more
motivated today. It was like it was almost like I needed that today to
come in here and figure all that out for Bob Bleyer. I am Bill
Moran. We'll see you tomorrow, Matail. Cobblestone on Maine is the perfect
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