In today’s highly digital and fast-paced world, kids have to deal with a ton of unnecessary distractions and pressure. Former NFL player Damian Gregory has been providing support to the underserved youth through his non-profit organization Gridiron G.A.N.G., helping them navigate the chaotic society and achieve profound success. In this conversation with Marc Lehman, he talks about his mission to guide the youth on overcoming the adversities of life, the pressures of social media, and the challenges of becoming an athlete. He also emphasizes the importance of taking care of your mental health, cultivating a resilient mindset, and finding stability in uncomfortable situations.
—
Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Providing Support To Underserved Youth With Damian Gregory
I’m super excited to welcome Damian Gregory. Damian, welcome to the show. How are you?
I’m pretty good. Glad to be on here.
Thanks for being here. I appreciate it. Damian is a former NFL defensive tackle who played for a variety of teams, including the Dolphins, the Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After retiring from professional football, he became a motivational speaker and advocate for mental health awareness. Drawing from his personal experiences, Damian emphasized the importance of resilience, mental well-being, and personal growth.
He’s been featured in various platform sharing his insights and overcoming adversity and the significance of mental health in achieving success. In 2019, Damion founded Gridiron G.A.N.G. or Giving Adolescents New Goals, a non-profit organization and advocating Athletics as a mechanism to inspire achievement in all aspects of life for the underserved youth.
The goal for each participant is to lay the pathway to success by instilling the mindset of accomplishment in spite of adversity. Over the past thirteen years, the Gridiron G.A.N.G. a successfully administered volunteer football camps and lectures with the support of community advocate partners. Welcome to the show. Damian, how are you?
I’m great. I’m excited dive into the conversation.
Damian Gregory And The Gridiron G.A.N.G.
Maybe that’s a great place for us to start. Tell us some more about the Gridiron G.A.N.G..
It’s an organization that I started in my last few years in the NFL and was able to implement programming after I got done. It was something to try to give back to my community. I grew up in Lansing, Michigan. My mom is 1 of 12. My grandma was instrumental in my upbringing and so is my grandfather. He did a lot of community service work. He worked at the plant, but he also was a janitor/program director at the local Lets. I believe it’s a community center in my hometown
Therefore, the different programs that my family put me in, they would put me in different programs at the Kingsley Center in Lansing, Michigan at the Black Family and Child Institute, which was called the BCFI. I went to YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club. I was a program baby. Seeing the effect that those programs and those leaders had on me at early age, made me want to give it forward. I started to get on Gridiron G.A.N.G., which is giving out adolescent goals.
We just started off with going to visit in small hospitals at first and seeing kids that were in need. We saw that there was a greater need for some sports training as well, so we added some sports element to that, where that’s how we were able to bring the kids in to be able to talk about leadership qualities, stabilization of mental health, dealing with your situation and how to better yourself in bad situations.
It’s fantastic. I feel like you’ve combined several areas of your childhood as well as recognizing that you have a platform as an athlete to be able to give back to the community and have kids recognize and respect your professional situation and understanding. That’s admirable, Damian, for you to do that with young kids and to give kids that message of how important they are and where youth sports could anchor kids. I’m curious, what role would you say sports play for you?
Starting off, the things that worked for me were just being stable and trying to find a happy place in a chaotic situation. Football is a chaotic situation being things are moving at you rapidly, especially the defensive tackle position which I played. I got Lyman here. I got running back, so I got where I receive. Things are just very chaotic during that. Trying to find peace within my own situation was how I was able to find out what I would be good at after getting done with football to be able to apply that and help other kids.
Trying to find a way to help them through the chaos. They’re dealing with moms and dads both working, or sometimes not working or being disabled. I know kids that have parents with cerebral palsy and they’re not just going to school. They’re taking care of their families. They’re trying to earn a living. We’re trying to give them a place of comfort in the chaotic situation.
Wellness In An Athlete’s World
Well said. It’s such a need. I’m curious, too. You were an athlete for many years and imagine you went through all the levels and saw lots of different things, some positive, and some negative. I’m curious for you when you think back, how would you categorize your define wellness within an athlete’s world?
Again, just trying to find that stable situation in the chaotic situation. As an athlete, things are coming at you so much, especially as early athlete. In high school, there’s the females, the grades, and your parents being able to be a part of your situation, either in a supportive role or they can’t be because there are working. Trying to find what small things that you can concentrate on to get you through the day.
I was always told by a coach early on, “You never get better. You don’t stay the same. You’re going to get worse or you’re going to get better every day. You never going to stay the same. You have to figure out a way to just notching those days and over and over trying to find a way to keep it going. Keep taking those strong steps.” The wellness part of it is mental.
You will get better every day. You will never stay the same. You have to figure out a way to keep taking strong steps. Share on XAs you know, just because of the social media aspect of the kids these days, we didn’t have that we were coming up and that’s a blessing because the pressure that social media puts on these kids on a daily basis is astounding. I can see it every day with my own children, with kids that I’ve coached, and kids that I mentored. They feel like they’re in a rush. They have to do this. They have to get here. They have to get to these points, and every kid’s story is different. Everybody’s situation is its own situation.
Letting them know that you don’t have to compete with time Tom, Bob or Samantha and Christy. You have to compete with yourself first and understand who you are, what you’re able to bring to the table and your strengths, your weaknesses, what you can work on to make your weaknesses, your strengths and try to move yourself ahead. That’s the wellness part. A lot of kids these days aren’t concentrating on what they can do to better than themselves from within.
That’s a great point. Many has changed in the last 15 to 20 years. Certainly, social media and NIL. The money that comes through now is just equated to a ton of pressure. I see and hear kids in 8th, 9th or 10th grade and they’re getting mandated with coaches and inquiries. In 8th grade, I was learning how my shoes. These kids are making life decisions. It’s stressful. I like what you said, though. Figuring out a way, whether it’s within your sport like a workout or some other way to feel stable or to feel comfortable within yourself.
I have some kids that rely on journaling or meditation. I have certainly kids that work out and enjoy exercise. I have other kids that join a club or an activity and that gives them some sanity. Certainly, athletes now more than ever need something to rely on to create less stress and anxiety. It’s a tough world. It’s a tough world for young adults. You make a great point about social media.
Unfortunately, anxiety and depressive levels are up. They’re higher than they’ve ever been. It does put some pressure on young adults to find ways to make themselves feel less stressed and less overdone each day. I like what you said, though, how do you do that and get through the day. It’s a good way of looking at it. Are there certain views over time that seems to help you and assist you with wellness?
Things that I’ve done over the years, I’ve tried the meditation. I’ve tried to digging and sleeping the 9 to 10 hours and say, “Sleep about 10 hours is bad.” I’m not asleep like that. Overall, reading is something that has always been something that helps me stabilize and get back into a place of comfort. I try to tell kids, “The flipping of the screens on social media and the quick viewing of TV gives us a short attention span. It makes you Jump from different levels of emotions.”
Flipping screens on social media leads to a shorter attention span. It makes you jump from different levels of emotions. Share on XYou might be there for five minutes and you’ve seen something from politics all the way to sexual type stuff. You have to find, as I said something that works for you and cut off some of those extra-curricular activities like the phones, the social media, and the TVs. Get back and find a way to read. It doesn’t even have to be a book. It can be read a poem or a comic book or concentrated on a lesson that you have already in school that you just double back on. Something to just stabilize yourself.
Also, music as well. I like to play some music. A lot of different kinds of music to just assume the mind. I’m R&B guy. I like listening to some old Jazz and some R&B. It brings me down a level. You can’t just be bopping to Jeezy and 50 Cent all day. You have to find a way to decompress and be able to use those different tools that are available to us on a daily basis to calm us down and be a little bit more mentally focused.
I like how you said that. I’m up in Connecticut. It’s husky country. When they won the championship in 2024, it was interesting. One of their players who since graduated mentioned early on in the year that he doesn’t have any social media. Being a 23-year-old young man with no social media. Every time this kid was interviewed, they him asked him about it. No one could believe it that he had no social media. I thought it was great. He had focused, understood, and the impact.
For young people reading, your words are important. You’ve achieved professional status at your career. You know a thing or two when it comes to athletics. One of the reasons why I love having various people on my show is that, everybody’s got an opinion. It’s important to embrace everybody’s viewpoint because if people are reading and they take a nugget or two here and there, that’s the point. That’s the whole point of normalizing photos.
Open Dialogue With Your Kids
I appreciate you putting that out there, Damian. I’m curious, you are also a dad. Another hat that you wear. You have three kids, I believe. They’re just coming into the teenage world now. As a dad, as kids are growing up, we start to think about what was life like for us when we were their age and because of some of the things we talked about. It’s changed dramatically. I’m wondering, what are some of your observations in terms of your own kids? What are you noticing? What are some of the things that kids are facing nowadays that seem difficult?
A lot of things that are kids are feeling these days are things that we felt as well but just on a magnify level. They’re competing with each other in sports. Not just in sports but in school. There’s competing in a different kind of way because as I said with the social media stuff. It becomes a different competition. I have young daughters as well. I have a daughter that’s ten and some of her friends have started to get skin care stuff, so then they’re sharing their skin care stuff. It’s not harmful stuff. It’s not stuff that they’re doing where it’s a bad thing, but it can become something else. Unless you let her know what she needs to be doing with that or how she needs to be obtaining it.
She’s like, “I want to go to Sephora, dad. I want to go here.” I’m like, “There are certain items I would allow you to have and that are good for your age group but there’s some things that I don’t agree with and this is why I don’t.” You explain to them why you don’t want them wearing these certain things or going in these certain areas at this age because it’s a lot of pitfalls out for young ladies that are dressing a certain way or seen a little older when they’re not just because of the skin care stuff that they’re choosing.
That has been an obstacle being that I never faced before that I had to try to align with the proper judgment with me and my wife. My son as well going off to high school. He’s a younger kid for his age. He’s a little younger than mostly kids in his grade and he plays football as well. I didn’t have the pressure of my dad playing in the NFL or being coached by guys that played with my dad. It becomes a different hurdle for him. He’s like, “I feel like guys are always on me.” It’s probably they are always on you because I go half way with the couple of those guys there. They know what I would be expecting from you and they would be expecting from you as well.
Being able to limit their expectations and their exposure but not limited in a capping way. Only in a defining way. Defining what these different feelings that they’re having maybe the anxiety of being coached by someone that I know or the anxiety of, “Dad. I want to get this product for my face.” Those are totally different things but, at the end, they all come back to the same home and the same message, which is, let’s try to find the good in these products. Let’s try to find the good in this situation.
What can we do to concentrate on being better at understanding why this is not a good product for me or why I shouldn’t be going to lift weights right after I left wrestling practice?” I’m like, “Son, you can’t be in a rush.” As you know, there’s no speed limit in life. There’s a speed limit on the road but not in life. Once you get cooking, it can go like that. Trying to make sure they’re stable and they have a good base.
You hit on a number of things. One important word, understand. As parents, we wear a hat. We wear a lot of hats, but one of the hats we wear is teaching. I always say to parents like when your kid is fifteen, a lot of times your oldest when they turn fifteen is like, “I got this down.” They turned sixteen and you’re like, “Now I got to figure out sixteen,” then your daughter’s.
It’s different when they’re fifteen. In many cases, parenting is on the job learning. Guess who’s our best teachers? Those kids. They teach us and they teach us well, but we got to work together. You strike me as someone who’s got a open dialogue with not only your kids, but maybe also the kids from Gridiron.
I admire that, Damian, because it’s interesting. I meet parents of all types and I don’t know how parents encounter the next stressor and parenting and not talk. I don’t know how they do that, but I imagine the kid figures that out or doesn’t themselves and things get challenging as a result. Open dialogue is huge. It sounds like you’re a person who encourages that with kids.
I do, and I still get a lot of open dialogue from former campers, mentees, and guys that I’ve worked with from Naples. I used to have a program a few years there, and still gets a heads up from those kids that are there. Some of them are grown, in college, and in careers. I see them on social media. I always liked their stuff. I’m always sending nice little message just a to let them know coach is still there coaching. Don’t think I’m not watching or I don’t know where you’re not making the right decisions.
That’s why I try to walk the way. I walk on my social media and Pages, just to show it’s okay to be a father. It’s okay to do things outside of the norm. You don’t have to do it like the Joneses and everyone else is doing. You can do what you’re supposed to be doing, which is aligning with God or whoever seeing fit to move forward with your life. Having that open dialogue and somewhere kids are able to come back to.
I get hit from guys that are, as I said, still playing guys, aren’t playing, and guys that gave the game up right after camp. They always knew coach Carrie. I can bounce a couple of teams with him. I can bounce this off of him like, “Coach, what do you think about this school? What do you think about me thinking about this career?” I’d be like, “That’s where you should go. As a matter of fact, check this out, too. This concentrates on that as well.” I’ll send more information because I want to see them successful. Not that it’s any sweat off me but if I have been around, you or if I’ve touched you, I want to see you have a success.
I hear you. Your helper, Damian. You like helping. I’ve coached myself. I certainly have done lots of counseling over the years. I always say to my patients, “Stay in touch. Drop me a card here. Drop me a line. Drop me a message.” Sometimes I hear and sometimes I don’t. Someone said to me a long time ago and it meant a lot. I’ll say it back to you because it’s applicable here. You have no idea just when you say to someone, “You mean a lot. You’re important. Your actions are important.” Those statements from a grown adult to a kid have this ripple effect and oftentimes, create for that young person a positivity that we don’t necessarily get to see.
Get In Touch With Damian
Years later, you may hear from that person. I admire what you’re doing. I do and your positivity, openness, and your ability to communicate with people in general. You connect with them where they’re at. Again, you’re a person in the athletic industry. You’ve touched all the levels. You’re credibility is there, and yet you work with young people. Again, you find out how you can help and you’re there. You got a big heart, Damian. I appreciate what you do. I do. Can I just ask for my readers, how can they find you if they’re in in the southern Florida vicinity?
We’re at @Gridiron_GANG on Instagram and we’re @GridironGangInc on X. I don’t use X as much no more as I used to but you can still get with me. You can also send me an email at Info@GridironGroup.org and I’m always available. We do a lot of stuff at Holiday Park, which is our local park in Fort Lauderdale. We partner with the City of Fort Lauderdale on the couple small projects. We’re working hand in hand with Mount Olive Church in Fort Lauderdale very close with the deacon and Tom over there.
We’re trying to do more in the community. We’ve only been here for a few years, but we did a lot of Jersey and Naples as well. I used to have a camp in Naples with the Bayshore Educational Center, which is an educational center that’s tailored for the Lely area of Naples, which is a highly populated area of people from Haiti that came over. We’ve done a lot of camps for transitioning them into America and things that they would love to do in the states.
You do not have to do what everyone else is doing. You can do what you are supposed to be doing: aligning with God and moving forward with your life according to your plans. Share on XThat’s been a great program we did. We did a lot of stuff with the Calais Foundation, which was in New Jersey, which is a special needs school that is dear to my heart. We’re probably going to be doing a little bit more of that going forward. Not in that Aventura but we got still in the works with some of the stuff for 2025, but we have a 5K walk with an organization called Ellie’s Army, which we’re pushing for. I was close with Ellie. She had cystic fibrosis. She died about 10 years ago. That’s my agent’s daughter.
We were just two of a kind. As soon as we got with each other, we were full of energy and full of balls of joy. She touched my life early on and she helped me get through some obstacles that I had early on and just being able to keep her legacy going. We have a 5K that we do every year. This is about the 17th year of it. It’s at Aventura Library on February 23rd. Anyone that wants to know about it, you can go to DirtySocks.org. You can sign up to be a participant and/or sponsor. It’s a great event. You got former players, coaches and people from the community. Everyone that wants to give back and put on honor on Ellie’s name.
That’s fantastic. I got to connect you with my buddy Dr. Joe. Do you know Joe Oravecz. He’s the CEO of NAMI Broward County in that area. He does a lot of work down there. Him and I have done some work together as well. I got to connect you, but you’re doing some great work down there, Damian. I appreciate and admire all of what you do with your community.
Damian’s Nominee For Next Guest
Let me ask you, part of Normalize it Forward, to continue the conversation around wellness. Talking about not only mental health but from all of the different hats that we wear, whether it’s athlete or parent or individual in the community. Part of what we do with Normalize it Forward is to try to continue to have the conversation. I usually ask, if you have a friend, a co-worker, or a relative, someone who you think would be helpful for me to connect with next. I’ll put you on the spot and ask, any thoughts? Anyone individual that you thought might be good?
A great guy to look at is a guy that I see on a daily basis, Brandon Marshall that played the NFL for a long time. Brandon played for numerous teams. He has a show called I Am Athlete and he also has a facility called House of Athlete. He’s been a champion for mental health and awareness over the years. I just shared something on my social media about a lady that came up to him on the street over the last couple of days and just said, “His openness to talk about his mental health situation helped her of her life and helped her serve to the next steps.”
Him as well as AJ Brown that has just showed a lot of initiative with the reading of the book on the sidelines. A lot of people looked at it as a weird situation, but we all have things that we need to calm us like we talked about earlier, to center us, to bring us back to a place of comfort. If reading on the sidelines was that thing that kept him calm during those tense times, then that’s a great opportunity. Leaning into that same realm of football players, AJ Brown would love it and a former player Brandon Marshall. Both of those guys are leaders in the mental health space, and enlighten a crowd, too.
We all have things that bring us back to a place of comfort. Share on XThat’d be great, Damian. I’ll get their contact info offline for you, but I appreciate the names and would love to connect with those gentlemen. I, too, agree with what you’re saying. It’s interesting when you hear about the stats of mental health and they say 1 and 5 or 2 and 5, but I think it’s 5 and 5. I have a good friend of mine who talks about that as their mission statement, 5 and 5 constantly. It’s like we are all susceptible. We all have good days, bad days, and our struggles. The more we talk about him, the more we’re able to glean information that can be helpful and continue to move forward. One last question for you on the brink of the Super Bowl. Do you have any predictions for us, Damian? What do you think?
It’s kind of tough. I went to the Super Bowl to see the first time they played against each other and I was going for Kansas City. I’m going to state here, I’m going for Philly. I’m a State Farm Barkley fan. We live in Rutherford, New Jersey, before we moved down to Florida. Say Quan was right there in our backyard. He was a great kid. He did a lot in our community of brotherhood at the time and seeing him flourished into the player he’s become.
My son got to go to a couple of his camps and meet him early on in his career and just seeing his impact on the game and being the Ambassador for the game that he is an ambassador for being such a great young. He’s such a well-rounded great young man that you want to see a person like that representing the lead. Having him there on that podium, holding that award as MVP of the Super Bowl would be great. Not just for the game of football, but for the game of life.
You heard it here, Damian’s predicting Philly. I’m with him. I think Philly going to take it as well. I appreciate your sentiments. I’m also a big Say Quan fans, so I would love to see that happen. I appreciate you taking the time to be here. I’m sure my readers do as well. Your thoughts around mental health and wellness are spot on. I agree with so much of what you had to say, but I want to thank you. Thank you for your time and your energy. Enjoy yourself. Have fun.
Thank you, Dr. Marc. Go Eagles.
You take care. See you, Damian.
Important Links
- Damian Gregory on LinkedIn
- @Gridiron_GANG on Instagram
- @GridironGangInc on X
- Info@GridironGroup.org
- Calais Foundation
- DirtySocks.org
About Damian Gregory
Damian Gregory, a Michigan native, born in Ann Arbor and spent his youth in Lansing, where he attended Sexton High School. He received a football scholarship to attend Indiana University in Bloomington Indiana and graduated in the class of 2000. At Indiana University he was a three-year starter, voted “All-Big Ten”, appeared in 31 games with 22 starts and registered 125 tackles. He spent his last year of his college career with Illinois State University, where he was voted team MVP, 1st Team All-American and served as Team Captain voted by players and staff.
In May of 2000 Damian signed as a free agent with the Miami Dolphins where he played Nose Guard and Tackle. After two years with the Dolphins in 2002, Damian signed with the Cleveland Browns where he played Defensive Tackle and Nose Guard. In 2003 Damian moved to Oakland where he played with the Oakland Raiders as Nose Guard. In 2004 Damian played a year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as Defensive Tackle. He also played in the NFL Europe League with the Scottish Claymores in 2004, where he was voted Team MVP, “All Europe First Team” and “Lineman Of The Year”. In 2006 Damian spent his last playing year with the with Michigan’s own Detroit Lions, where he played Nose Guard and Defensive Tackle.
After a six-year career in the NFL, Damian founded Gridiron Marketing Group LLC in April 2005. Gridiron Marketing Group specializes in investment property, foreclosures, short sales, buying and selling commercial and residential property, and remodeling. Gridiron Marketing Group also provides commercial and residential development planning, marketing and funding of housing initiatives, which include rental housing projects affording low-income families with quality affordable housing.
Damian has spent every year since the end of his college career serving as a coach to several youth football camps, and various weekly football clinics in the United States and Scotland, such as the Gridiron Institute Football Camp , the NFL Youth Activities, Fuel Up To Play 60, and a host of others.
In July of 2008 Damian was selected by the NFL Retired Players Association to receive an internship as Defensive Line and Defensive Scout Team Coach with Saginaw Valley State University in Saginaw, Michigan. After 2 Seasons with the SVSU Cardinals Coach Gregory decided to concentrate fully on his Real estate entrepreneurial endeavors primarily in the Lansing, Michigan area. Damian continues to serve as president of Gridiron Marketing Group LLC, as well as coaching with various youth football camps / Teams (Ft lauderdale Falcons) and professional representation Goalline football sport agency training future NFL hopefuls.
In 2009 Damian founded Gridiron G.A.N.G. (Giving Adolescents New Goals) a 501c (3) non-profit organization, advocating athletics as a mechanism to inspire achievement in all aspect of life for underserved youth. The goal for each participant is to lay the pathway to success by instilling the mindset of accomplishment in spite of adversity. Over the past thirteen years Gridiron G.A.N.G. has successfully administered volunteer football camps and lectures with the support of community advocate partners (Y.M.C.A., Gateway Services, Rutgers University, Troop 21, NFLAA, NFLPA, etc.) in Michigan, New Jersey, Florida and New York reaching over 20,000 children.
Damian Gregory currently serves on the executive committee of the NFL Alumni Detroit Chapter, and President emeritus of the Board of Trustees for the Calais Foundation. Damian is married to Mrs. Shayla Gregory and they have three beautiful children Damian “DJ” Gregory 14 years old and Genevieve Gregory 10 years old and Vivienne Gregory 6 years old . The Gregory family resides in Fort Lauderdale Florida But Lansing Michigan will always be home.