How To Win On and Off The Field

Summary

Podcast Summary: "How To Win On and Off The Field"

The Bobby Bones Show hosted by Premiere Networks features an insightful and candid conversation between Granger Smith and former NFL player Heath Evans. Released on February 10, 2025, this episode delves deep into themes of team loyalty, the evolving landscape of sports, personal faith journeys, overcoming adversity, and the importance of discipline both on and off the field. Below is a comprehensive summary capturing the key discussions, insights, and memorable quotes from the episode.

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1. Team Loyalty and Modern Sports Culture

Heath Evans and Granger Smith kick off the conversation by addressing the shifting dynamics in sports, particularly the decline of team loyalty among younger fans. They express concern over the current trend where fans idolize individual players rather than supporting their teams as a whole.

• Key Points:

  • Transition from team-focused fandom to player-centric admiration.
  • Impact of social media and individual branding on team sports.
  • Personal anecdotes about their children’s sports affiliations, reflecting broader cultural shifts.

• Notable Quotes:

  • Granger Smith [00:18]: "Kids these days don't have teams anymore. They have players."
  • Heath Evans [02:03]: "The selflessness is the most beautiful thing in the world."

2. The Impact of NIL and Transfer Portals

The duo explores how Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals and transfer portals have altered the traditional college football experience. They lament the erosion of the cohesive team environment that once defined successful programs.

• Key Points:

  • NIL’s role in fostering a more transactional relationship between players and teams.
  • The difficulty in maintaining team unity amid increased player movement.
  • Comparison between past team dynamics and current challenges in college football.

• Notable Quotes:

  • Heath Evans [02:38]: "It's about perseverance. It's about selflessness. It's about working hard."
  • Granger Smith [05:03]: "It's only about transactions now."

3. Heath Evans' Personal Journey and Faith

Heath shares his profound personal journey, detailing his upbringing in a Christian household, his initial perception of faith, and the eventual realization of his need for a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.

• Key Points:

  • Raised in a disciplined, faith-oriented environment.
  • Struggles with personal sin and maintaining authentic faith.
  • The pivotal moment of recognizing his lack of true salvation despite outward religious practices.

• Notable Quotes:

  • Heath Evans [04:49]: "The selflessness is the most beautiful thing in the world."
  • Heath Evans [14:36]: "I just had a radical encounter with the living God who saved my soul."

4. Facing Accusations and Legal Struggles

A significant portion of the episode focuses on Heath's experience with false sexual harassment accusations, the ensuing legal battles, and how these challenges led him to introspect and seek genuine salvation.

• Key Points:

  • Accusations faced alongside other NFL figures like Marshall Faulk and Donovan McNabb.
  • The impact of the accusations on his career and personal life.
  • The emotional and spiritual toll leading to his eventual transformation.

• Notable Quotes:

  • Heath Evans [17:26]: "I'm the one loyal to the team. I never did anything that was sexual harassment."
  • Heath Evans [26:14]: "I was living like any unregenerate single person with all the fame and all the stuff."

5. The Role of Discipline and Obedience in Life

Heath emphasizes the importance of discipline, not just in sports but in all aspects of life. He draws parallels between the disciplined approach required in football and the discipline needed to live a faithful Christian life.

• Key Points:

  • The significance of selflessness and putting the team (or community) first.
  • Overcoming personal struggles through disciplined living and faith.
  • The transformative power of obedience to divine principles.

• Notable Quotes:

  • Heath Evans [08:03]: "That's the story of the fullback, really."
  • Heath Evans [10:34]: "It has nothing to do with me. And that's the freedom I need."

6. Health, Nutrition, and Vicera Nutrition

Transitioning from personal struggles, Heath discusses his venture into the nutrition industry with his company, Vicera Nutrition. He highlights the importance of proper nutrition and supplements in maintaining physical and mental health.

• Key Points:

  • Introduction of Vicera Nutrition and its mission to promote clean, effective supplements.
  • The benefits of creatine, protein, and collagen for overall health.
  • Integrating faith with health practices to honor God.

• Notable Quotes:

  • Heath Evans [47:16]: "We want to help the church get healthy. The healthier we are, the more energy we have to serve Christ."
  • Heath Evans [55:09]: "It is really, really hard to make much of Christ and make much of the body."

7. Morning Devotions and Spiritual Practices

The conversation concludes with Heath and Granger sharing their morning routines, emphasizing the importance of daily devotionals, Bible study, and prayer in maintaining spiritual vitality.

• Key Points:

  • Heath’s disciplined morning routine starting at 4 AM with scripture reading and supplements.
  • The role of prayer and Bible study in personal transformation and resilience.
  • Encouragement to integrate faith practices into daily life for spiritual growth.

• Notable Quotes:

  • Heath Evans [62:31]: "All the first few hours of every morning are just the Lord's."
  • Granger Smith [69:08]: "These guys took this seriously. And when you hear about a moral failure, it's often because they lost their daily devotional."

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Conclusion

In "How To Win On and Off The Field," Heath Evans provides a deeply personal narrative intertwined with reflections on modern sports culture and faith. His candid discussion about overcoming false accusations, rekindling his relationship with God, and promoting health through Vicera Nutrition offers listeners valuable insights into achieving success both professionally and personally. The episode serves as a testament to resilience, the transformative power of faith, and the importance of discipline in every facet of life.

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Memorable Moments:

• Heath’s Realization of Faith: At [20:33], Heath shares a pivotal moment where reading the Book of John led him to understand his true need for Jesus Christ.

• Discussion on Creatine Supplements: Between [42:18] and [60:33], Heath passionately discusses the benefits of creatine and other supplements offered by Vicera Nutrition, linking physical health to spiritual well-being.

• Morning Routine Insights: From [61:32] onwards, both Heath and Granger delve into their morning routines, highlighting the significance of early devotionals and disciplined living.

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Key Takeaways:

• Team Loyalty Matters: Emphasizing the decline of team loyalty, the conversation urges a return to collective support in sports.

• Faith Over Fame: Heath’s journey underscores that true victory transcends professional achievements, rooting success in spiritual fulfillment.

• Health is Wealth: Proper nutrition and disciplined health practices are portrayed as essential for sustaining both physical and spiritual well-being.

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This episode of The Bobby Bones Show offers a rich blend of personal anecdotes, theological reflections, and practical advice, making it a valuable listen for anyone seeking guidance on winning in life beyond the sports arena.

Transcript

[Heath Evans]

Amen, bro.

[Granger Smith]

Thank you for being here.

[Heath Evans]

Thanks for having me.

[Granger Smith]

Making the drive.

[Heath Evans]

Oh, the long, the long 2 hours and 15 minutes. It's supposed to be 2:45, but God hasn't sanctified my speed limit driving yet.

[Granger Smith]

Okay.

[Heath Evans]

He's still working on me.

[Granger Smith]

Okay.

[Heath Evans]

Obeying all the laws and ordinances of man.

[Granger Smith]

I understand that's one of the last things to be sanctified in. So I was telling my son Lincoln, who's 11, and I was like, you know my buddy Heath Evans. Yes, sir. You know he's coming for the podcast today. He is? Yeah. You know he's super bowl winner, right? He goes, who did he play for? I was like, well, Patriots for one. And he goes, daddy, you think he has Tom Brady's cell phone number? I was like, that's what, that's where your mind's going like that.

[Heath Evans]

Listen, I'm just glad he's, he's, he's affectionate towards Tom Brady and not some YouTuber or something. You know what I mean? You know, he's got a real hero.

[Granger Smith]

I mean, it's, it's. This is part of my bigger frustration. And maybe, you know, this. Kids these days don't have teams anymore. They have players.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

Have you seen that trend?

[Heath Evans]

Well, you know, so our four adopted Littles, right, I got, I got two loyal boys to dad, and then I've got the oldest loyal boy to mom. So he's a suffering Cowboys fan just because mom is born here in Texas. So she of course got a root for the Cowboys.

[Granger Smith]

I understand.

[Heath Evans]

And the little Noelle, she just, she's just mama's girl. So it just is what it is. So, yeah, those boys, they love daddy's teams or they love mama's team. And all, all of our teams collectively, Cowboys, Patriots, Saints, we're just, we're, we're on struggle street these days.

[Granger Smith]

Oh, I know, I know. And so that's. I can't make a better argument with Lincoln because I'm like, look at the Cowboys. Nevermind, don't look at the Cowboys. You know, don't do that. But it is frustrating that, that he's like, he knows every player on every team and every number, but there's no team loyalty. This is something. I think it goes back to like, nil stuff because they. Look at those guys. Those guys don't have loyalty either.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. And we see it really across the landscape of sports, but when you look at SEC football and the NIL and this transfer portal, it's kind of crippled what made the SEC So beautiful. It's also what made my Patriots team so beautiful that it was just. You got 53 alpha dogs that all just laid it down for each other. There wasn't like, we're not trying to get out of here and go here. But no, no. How do we sacrifice for each other? How do we put the team first? How do we work hard? How do we do our stinking jobs so that everyone gets glory? And that's why we won so much. And that is gone.

[Granger Smith]

It's like that in Auburn, too, you.

[Heath Evans]

Know, Auburn, you're trapped there for three or four years, right? Because if you transfer, then when I was playing, you had to sit out a year. Nobody wanted to sit out from playing football for a year, right? But Auburn, we just had a bunch of just tough old dudes, right? And we were good my junior year. But, you know, Auburn is somewhat of a football program now. We're a basketball program. Bruce Pearl's got us turned around.

[Granger Smith]

Our football team number one right now in basketball.

[Heath Evans]

You know what I mean? I love it. You know, I just, it's. Listen, I love Auburn through and through, but we'll leave that football discussion for another day.

[Granger Smith]

It's hard. Yeah, we will. And hopefully you'll be back many times.

[Heath Evans]

If you come to Austin, if you ask and.

[Granger Smith]

But yeah, the college football climate has changed so much that me, I'm such a huge fan of Texas A and M, but it's very difficult to remain a good fan in this climate.

[Heath Evans]

Well, you used to recruit a young man and you would speak to his parents and you'd try to figure out what were the priorities of this young man. Did he want to grow in manhood? Did he want to grow in discipline and integrity and character? And the good college coaches were really trying to pinpoint, okay, hey, is this dude a stud athlete? Great, because we need those. But is this kid going to lay it on the line, you know, for me and the staff and the players around him, you know, and now, like, you listen to Nick Saban talk about how recruiting, how hard it got, right? I was so surprised to see Belichick jump in this UNC pool, you know, in the college ranks now, having to recruit on a kind of a one year term and try to build a college program around it. So be interesting to see. But the selflessness is the most beautiful thing in the world. And it's really how a soul is satisfied being like Christ. And yet everything that's being sold now is about selfishness. And these kids, you can't make them Happy. They never find satisfaction if they get the first little lick of adversity. Oh, I'm not starting as a freshman. I'm out of here. We're raising a bunch of losers and a bunch of quitters. And it's the. The opposite of what college football used to be.

[Granger Smith]

Did you hear that Nick Saban bit about transactional versus transformational? He did it on college game day several months ago.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. I've probably heard something about, you know, him and Bill Belichick stories. They're all the same.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah. Yeah, totally.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

And. But. But really, this is kind of when he. He's spoken out a lot about why he's not in coaching anymore.

[Heath Evans]

Oh, I know. Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

But he also talked about his success happened when he realized the difference between transactional coaching, which is input, output. I need this. I need a win. And transformational, like, regardless of the outcome of the game.

[Heath Evans]

We're.

[Granger Smith]

We're making life transformations here together.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

And I want you to leave this school being a better man than you. You started.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

And in the process of that, they started winning games.

[Heath Evans]

Right.

[Granger Smith]

And that's exactly what you're saying, transformational coaching, it's out.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

It's only about transactions now.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. Well, how you win at life and even how we win in the Christian faith is about perseverance. It's about selflessness. It's about working hard. It's about not seeking your personal glory, but a greater glory. And football is not that difficult. It's just really, really hard and painful, and life is often that way. Right. But the simplicity of the truth that a Nick Saban teaches or that a Bill Belichick taught us, you know, we think about you. Our kind of four commands when we came in every single day was do your job. Right. Well, it seems pretty easy, but then when you start breaking that down into what that cost a person, that's really, really hard. And then you start talking about working hard. Sure, let's work hard. Well, what is working hard mean? It's going to cost you everything during the course of the season to truly work hard. Put the team first. Yeah. Yeah. Hoorah selflessness. It's really, really hard to be selfless, especially when selflessness cost you playing time, because that's what's better. Team. You know, when Tom Brady went down in 2008, my playing time kind of went out the window. You know, with Tommy, we could do a little bit of everything. Well, Matt Castle comes in, who had never played really in the league before, never even really played at usc, and Bill's like, all right, hey, listen, I'm putting you on all four special teams can't really use a fullback because I got to spread everything out. I got to let Matt Castle kind of see the field. So, you know, you got to be ready to play. I'm not going to give you any reps at practice. I trust you. I love you. But, hey, you got to be ready for this, this, and this. But, you know, your fullback reps, your 30, 40 fullback reps. You might see the field 10 or 12 snaps a game now. And that was kind of the story for me in 2008. Happy to do it. One, because I've been raised by a Marine dad who had taught me that before I got to Bill. But everyone in New England lived by that motto, what's best for the team. And learning to put yourself aside and to sacrifice for the benefit of others is really one of the great joys of the Christian faith. But for those that would deny our Christians, it's still the only way to find somewhat of satisfaction and pleasure in this life is building something around people so that at least when you get to the mountaintop, you're not all alone, because most people get there and they're miserable. Well, we know the story. We need Jesus. But for even those that would deny the faith better together, that's sweet. You know, just building something for me, me, me. Those are the loneliest, most selfish, miserable people in the world.

[Granger Smith]

You know, that's the story of the fullback, really. I mean, the big number 44 fullback is. Is not something someone strives to be now.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

It's like, yeah, I gotta. I gotta, like, do the grunt work. I gotta get the small yardage.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

I don't get to get the big play.

[Heath Evans]

No.

[Granger Smith]

I don't know if I want that.

[Heath Evans]

And so many of the teams don't even have them anymore. Yeah. You know, and the game is, you.

[Granger Smith]

Might be the last generation of the. Of the great fullbacks.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. What's funny is most of the time we get to this playoff season and like, the final eight teams, I've said six of them are going to have a fullback. You know, and we're really starting to get to the point where that's just not. Not the truth anymore. And so I can't keep up with this game. You know, the high school is kind of overtaken the, the college and NFL ranks. It used to be the opposite. Right. The. The high schooler coaches used to kind of look to the NFL, hey, what are they doing? And you learn this pedigree of football that made you smart and mentally and physically and emotionally disciplined. Now it's like, hey, where's the best athlete? Let's throw them at quarterback and then let's pay the play this chaotic brand of football and just run around. And that's really what it is.

[Granger Smith]

And, Jason, that's what's happening in high school.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. And it's. It's what's kind of we see in college, and it's what we see in the NFL. Brady talks about it all the time. The lack of mental and emotional growth really cripples these guys by the time they get to the pro game. I don't ever want to be one of those old school guys. Oh, it's tougher when we did it right. We talk about rules and all stuff. I'm not sure much of that really matters, but we could trust Tommy at any point in time because he was so mentally astute and so mentally prepared because he had worked hard and he had put the team first and he did do his job. That if we were in a bad play that Josh McDaniels called or Bill called, Tommy was going to get us in a good call. And the way that team worked most of the time, we'd all be walking up to that line of scrimmage together saying, oh, this is a bad call. And we'd all be kind of thinking the same thing. Tommy would get us into that good play. Well, now you got players there that, you know, they've just been the best athletes. They've never been taught to shift protections. They've never been taught to look at a defense and be like, oh, well, they're in some nickel package. They can't possibly defend what we have coming. So I know my first read is going to be blocked because of this. Second, 2 and 3 are going to be wide open. People aren't taught the. The hard disciplines of the game. And it starts with, oh, I didn't get my way. And so, peace. I'm out of here. I'm like, I don't listen. I'm not raising my three boys that way. I haven't raised my three girls that way. And it's just, yeah, I don' Taking a lot of the sweetness out of. Out of football in a lot of ways.

[Granger Smith]

For me, I can't imagine, man, because I see it and I'm not in the game. I saw Tyreek Hill talking about something about, you know, they didn't make the playoffs, and he was talking about something along the lines of, man, I think I'm. I think I'm out of here.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

This is not me. I'm not a guy that doesn't make the playoffs. It was me, me, me.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

Like, oh man, it's bad.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. Especially for a team. Many people have been affected by cancer and so I don't ever want to be. Lack consideration.

[Granger Smith]

Say it, I get it.

[Heath Evans]

But cancer has to be killed. Right. And it has to be killed radically or it's going to grow radically. Right. And there's really, there's no neutral ground. It's the same way with bad teammates. And Bill knew that in New England. We knew that in New Orleans. And so no matter how talented a player may be, that whining, that grumbling, that complaining, it's a cancer. Right. And it eventually it spreads. And so you can take a good dude and if you surround him with too many cancers, that good dude is going to become a cancer in your locker room. And Bill was cutthroat. First round draft pick or seventh round draft pick, if you weren't abiding by the law, you were gone no matter what it cost the team. Because Bill knew it might cost us 50 million now, but if I let this $50 million cancer stay, it's going to be $100 million cancer like that. And so it was cutthroat about, hey, we would call it dealing with sin. We're going to be radical with it and move on. And there were so many things as I kind of like after the Lord saved me. And I look back on so much of Bill's teaching in the, in the way he built his teams. It's so biblical in nature now. He would never, he would never say that. Right. His is more militaristic given from his dad and just his background, but it is, it's built on selflessness. And the law of the Lord was evident throughout the preaching and the dynamics of that team. We were just doing it for, for team glory and self glory and not the glory of God.

[Granger Smith]

So you're not a Christian when you played football?

[Heath Evans]

I thought I was. I mean, I was team chapel and I was leading chapels and I wasn't living hypocritically, really. Right.

[Granger Smith]

You're the team chaplain.

[Heath Evans]

I was just. Yeah, in New England. So when I got to New England, my buddy Don Davis, faithful man of God, Bill was. He guarded the locker room and he guarded the property. And so just getting a chaplain on site was hard. And so they had always just kind of done it in house. So a faithful brother would just kind of Step up and they would lead it. So as Don kind of went about his way, I kind of filled the void, me and my buddy Ben Watson. And then when I went to New Orleans, I kind of brought that same type of concept. I'm like, hey, let's, we're a team. Let's, let's build this in house. And so of course I had sin in my life, and of course I knew that. But I was raised by godly parents, but I was raised to believe that we choose Jesus. And for the first, you know, I was saved and baptized at 8 years old, said a sinner's prayer. And from 8 to 38, I was convinced that I was a boarding in believer. My life at that point probably had one season that people would have been like, ah, he just walked away from the Lord and season of sin, Call it lukewarm, whatever, but there was no ever intentional, like hypocrisy in my life. My dad just raised me to be disciplined. And this is what godly looks like and this is what repentance is. And so we would confess in and we would do those things. And I truly believe my mom and dad do them from a regenerated heart. I did it because it was just what I was raised to do. And I knew that this was true. At 38, I just had a radical encounter with the living God who saved my soul.

[Granger Smith]

You can't leave it like that.

[Heath Evans]

You can't leave it like that. I've had such a blessed life, you know, from parents to pastors to the NFL. God's graciousness to me.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

His common just grace to me, I mean, I had it all. I had everything that a young man needed to love God and walk faithfully and to fear him. And in so many ways, buddy, from generosity with the financial blessings and the. The mouthpiece to boast about Christ, I did all those things, right? And I knew it. Right? And I knew that this was the way to eternal life, right? But the Lord, there's some really painful times at. I don't even know where to start. Long story short, at 38 years old, myself, Marshall Falk, Warren Sapp, Donovan McNabb, a whole group of us, some of our executives, were accused by one woman of sexual harassment.

[Granger Smith]

So you worked for the NFL Network?

[Heath Evans]

NFL Network, for those of you all listening, 10 years in the NFL. I was the chubby white boy that everyone said would never play in the NFL. I was like, screw you. Watch this. I got this. You know, arrogant as can be, and of course, praise God, all The way that's his doing. Yada, yada, yada.

[Granger Smith]

Of course.

[Heath Evans]

Of course, right? Always said I wanted to play 10 years and then reevaluate and then go into TV by God's common grace. To me, it's exactly what I did. I played 10 years, jumped off the train physically healthy, had offers from ESPN and NFL Network. So I'm like, oh, my gosh, you make a lot of money. You're just running your mouth about this game. Way better than taking a fullback beating. So I do that for eight years at NFL Network and was building a very strong brand for a former fullback. Fullbacks don't get these gigs. It's quarter quarterbacks and superstars that worked with Deion Sanders and Kurt Warner and all those guys. And I was divorced from my first wife, and it ended in 2015, but it had ended years previously. Just kind of that long, arduous years of process, of kind of finishing. But after my ex wife left, it took about eight months before I just. I looked like the world, and I loved my sin, and I practiced my sin, and I was really good at practicing my sin. And because I didn't really, truly know the word of the Lord, right? And because I didn't have keen theologically sound eyes bringing me the proper rebukes in scripture, I just thought I was a Christian. Strang. A Christian that is wandering. I was not being disciplined by the lord. And in 2018, this lady had accused myself and those other names I mentioned of sexual harassment. And I hit rock bottom really, really quick. The way it went down was I was innocent. The league knew it. I'd given them my phone, my email. They knew it all. They paid me a lot, a lot of money for nine months to keep my mouth shut. I'm like, hey, do I need to hire a lawyer?

[Granger Smith]

Keep your mouth shut about what?

[Heath Evans]

Well, this was the thing, right? And so I'm the fullback. I'm the Bill Belichick guy. I'm the one loyal to team. The NFL has fed my family and blessed me severely for 18 years at this point. And so HR calls me in and they're like, hey, so and so has accused you of sexual harassment. I'm like, what, Granger? I whip out my phone and I'm like, look at all these texts from this lady telling me she loves me, she misses Ava Naomi. My daughter's asking me to train her physically, all this stuff. And they're like, oh, would you give us those? I'm like, sure. You have whatever. They're like, do you have Any other pictures of her shoulder? All these pictures of us together, her babysitting, my children, all this stuff, Right. And then gave them all access to my email. Like, hey, what about, how can I help you guys? Right? So they're like, basically, okay, we see what's going on. We're so sorry this is happening. You know, please, you know, we can't ask you not to make any statements, but we'd ask you, just let us. What's good for you is best for us and what's best for us is good for you. And I'm like, do I need to hire a lawyer? And like, well, we can't tell you not to, but you know, our team is on it and we appreciate your cooperation and whatever. And so for nine months, they pay me almost a half a million dollars just so I was never suspended without pay. They knew clearly I had not sexually harassed anyone. I don't know about everyone else. I'm not going to speak about everyone else.

[Granger Smith]

Sure.

[Heath Evans]

I know this woman dearly. She was a hurting, sweet, kind lady in certain ways. And I don't know why she would do that to me this side of eternity. And what God has taught me, I have no ill will towards her. I have no ill will to the people that have on network. But at the end of the day, they strung me along for nine months and then tried to get me to sign some paperwork that I would never sue them or sue her. And then try to get me to just pay me to go away. And I wasn't saved at that time. But I was like, you're not taking my voice because I'm not going to sign this paperwork. Because to the whole world, if I sign this non disparagement agreement makes me look like I'm guilty of something I didn't do. Yeah, I was not walking in sexual purity and I hadn't been pure with that lady, but I had not done anything that was illegal and I had not done anything that was of the sexual harassment nature even close to it. Sure. And I just said, screw you, you'll fire me, do whatever you want. Well, they spent about a month trying to negotiate with my lawyer to get me to sign something and take some payout here. We'll pay out your contract if you sign this, yada, yada, yada. And I just said, y'all fire me, whatever. So they ended up firing me for a fitness picture that I had on their NFL network phone that said if this ever got out, this would embarrass the NFL. So they fired me. For just cause. Because I had some check in fitness pictures of myself on my phone, front and back that were I was naked or fitness picks. There was nothing sexual of them whatsoever. And so that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Long story short, fast forward. I know enough at that point, I'm, I'm like, I've been through a divorce, lost half of everything I had. I'm living in la, can't move, funds ran out real real quick. All these different things kind of hit rock bottom. I'm reading in First John, I get to the end of First John and I'm like, holy moly. I'm. I'm not a Christian, I don't love God, I don't love others.

[Granger Smith]

Remember what, what it was.

[Heath Evans]

And well, in first, in First John, there's this I tell our built ready guys. It's like a test.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

It lays out love God, love others. In this obedience to your supposed king will not be a burden. It's going to be a battle. We're going to struggle with sin. We're constantly have to run to the rock of Christ to ask for forgiveness. But it isn't going to be a burden that weighs your soul down to follow your king. And I'm like, man, I've just loved God for what he's given me. And it was never Jesus that I loved because I never truly saw my need for Jesus because I didn't see myself as the dude in the ditch that the Good Samaritan had to rescue his life. I could do nothing for myself. I needed Jesus to drag me out of the pit, mend me, put me back together, pay for me to be made well and then, and then I can go out being that Good Samaritan by God's grace. I never saw myself the one. I didn't see myself as helpless. I didn't see myself as dead. I didn't see myself as hater of God, enemy of God, me running from God and Jesus and chasing down me like he did Adam and Eve. And so my eyes started to be open to the true gospel, not the American gospel, not the gospel I even really fully grew up around. But then I got to Mike and yeah, I've looked like I've loved a lot of people, charity work and because I knew this is what you do. But the whole time it was Heath Evans discipline, just kind of pull myself up on my bootstraps getting to work. Love God, love people. Right? Obey.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah, yeah.

[Heath Evans]

And so it was, it was the fullback mindset. Yeah, I'm just gonna go do the work and I'm gonna find a way to get it done. But when I got to the kicker, I'm like, yeah, I've obeyed, but it's always been a burden. It's always been a burden to obey him. And I started to, by God's grace, piece this thing together. It's like, oh my gosh, I'm not even saved.

[Granger Smith]

And you put this together yourself?

[Heath Evans]

Yeah, well, I mean, heck no. It was all.

[Granger Smith]

I understand that no one's discipling you.

[Heath Evans]

No, no, I wish, because at this point I'm going to a false church. Like I. It's been about. Maybe I can't remember the all the exact dates, but it's probably been somewhere between four to six weeks post being fired, right? I've run back to the Lord because I know this is my refuge in time of help, my ever present help in time of need. Like I knew these things, right? So I went back to reading my Bible every day. But this time the Lord opened my eyes to it for real. And so as I'm, I'm like striking these things and I'm like, whoa. And when I kind of came to this realization that I just never been saved, the Holy Spirit was like, yeah, but these last few weeks, have you not loved me? Have you not loved loving others in a pure way that is like Christ? And in these last few weeks, has it been a burden to serve me? And I was like, graciously. I'm like, no. Like my heart for the first time had been drawn to Christ. And then as I keep reading, I'm like, the Lord opens my eyes more to these doctrines of grace, right? And listen, I saw your beautiful library. Like people have asked me since I was 4. I don't read Sports Illustrated. I don't read anything but my Bible. It's kind of been my line my whole life. Yeah, well, that was just where I was at at the time. And so all that being said, the Lord brought me through some really hard times. I was suing the NFL for what they did to me. Felt like through scripture, the Lord was like, hey, are you going to do it your way? Are you going to trust me to rebuild whatever it is that I want to rebuild? Are you going to be Heath's still or are you going to be mine? And so in God's kindness, I just felt like it was the right thing to do to drop the lawsuit. Sent the NFL somewhat of an apology. Hey, I'm sorry for smearing. Smearing Yalls names. The last few weeks. I tried to word it very Strategically, where it wasn't a fake apology, but I just tried to be obedient to what I felt like the Holy Spirit was guiding me to do about. They were the authority that God put over me at that time, and they were an evil authority. But I still needed to submit to what God had rightly placed me under, and I wasn't doing that by suing them.

[Granger Smith]

Did anybody reply from the NFL to that?

[Heath Evans]

Yes, one lady. And it was much appreciated.

[Granger Smith]

What did she say? I mean, that's so weird.

[Heath Evans]

It's funny. The lady who replied would have been the one that I would have expected not to because she was one that I had maybe the least relationship with. In those moments, I started to slightly see how my life had betrayed Christ in so many ways. And I started to see what you and I would now call our depravity. But I started to see that I was just evil and I was wicked and I just used people. And I was so blind to the reality of like, how disgusting I am as a human and as a created being of God. And yet everything, all of life had been about me, and yet I was so evil and so wicked, I didn't even know it. And those around me didn't know it. You would have find people been, yeah, he's a little cocky, a little arrogant, very confident what he's going to do or not going to do, but very normal for my field of influence and sports, right?

[Granger Smith]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

But the people that knew me be like me, gracious and kind, and he's going to bend over backwards to help people. And he's got a real heart for anyone who's ever been sexually abused and all these. Right. So. But it. But the Lord through their betrayal of me, which was hurtful. Right. I had given 18 years of my life to serve these people. And then I felt like I'd been set up and trapped to kind of keep my mouth shut because from day one, I wanted to scream from the rooftops, hey, I've done a lot of sinful things, but I've never done this.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

And anyone that knows me. And the crazy part was I had so many of the women in the NFL Network that went to my. Went to my defense, right. And so they knew. Everyone in that building knew. Right. He ain't perfect, but this ain't heath. And. But as I got past that and the Lord started to open my eyes to His Word, I just saw more and more of how I'd betrayed Christ. And yet he loved me. And from eternity past, he had a plan to save me. And that his plan included me being massively betrayed with international embarrassing news, my name being splattered everywhere. Because people don't ever look at the content of a charge or the context.

[Granger Smith]

No.

[Heath Evans]

Right.

[Granger Smith]

They don't care.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah, right. It's just juicy gossip, right? And so then it's Marshall Falk and he defins. And listen, I was the. I was the. I was the nobody name of the group of all the people that were charged, right? And then after nine months, Marshall Falk calls me and he said, hey, they're getting ready to try to make us kind of take a plea deal. They just drove all the way from L. A to San Diego to meet me, and they're not bringing us back. I'm like, what? So.

[Granger Smith]

So you skated over the. The rock bottom part. Yeah, but it was probably really bad.

[Heath Evans]

Well, it's, you know, it's funny, you ever, like when you play in the NFL, right? Everyone thinks everyone's millionaires, right? Well, when I played, you had a few guys on the team that were making really, really good money. And these are the hard parts because, like, I was making really good money compared to the normal people. Right. And then, you know, you go through a divorce, living in la, and so then you kind of. The way I structured that I thought was wise. I'm like, hey, I'm going to keep all my retirement and we'll just kind of give all this, you know, to the ex wife and is how we'll divide the line. And then I'm working on NFL Network. So I had this great job, and so I'll kind of rebuild this wealth over the next 10 or 15 years working for FOX and NFL Network. Well, you know, two years after the divorce, all that plan got shot to oblivion.

[Granger Smith]

Where's Jesus in the divorce? Where's your face?

[Heath Evans]

Yeah, in the divorce. Well, and so.

[Granger Smith]

I wildly relate to your story. That's, you know, it's part of my questioning is because I wildly relate to what you're saying in a lot of ways.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. I married my first wife at 22. From day one, it was a really hard marriage. And I thought I loved her. Well, I didn't because I was incapable of love. I thought I served her well. I didn't because I was incapable. I thought I dealt with her heart wounds that were way before me. Well, I wasn't capable. You know, we hid everything in house and so we had a lot of secrecy that was just hers and ours or hers and ours together. And we didn't seek wise counsel Because I thought I need to cover her and I don't want to embarrass her or I don't want to embarrass us. And so we were ill equipped to deal with those things well. And so wounds just festered. It was just really hard. And so for 10 years, everyone would have looked at us like, oh man, he's just loving his wife really, really well through a tough marriage and hard stuff. I wasn't because I was incapable of it. But after about 10 years, that bitterness and a knee injury right in the middle of our super bowl year with the Saints, after that knee injury, I got really bitter at God and didn't know it. 2009, we went our ring with the New Orleans Saints. I'm having the best year of my career, mid season all pro, and I blow my knee out in Miami again, kind of like I'd always done. No one would have known I was bitter at God. Right?

[Granger Smith]

A God that you didn't know. That's the only reason you were bitter.

[Heath Evans]

Amen.

[Granger Smith]

You just didn't know.

[Heath Evans]

Amen. Yeah, Amen.

[Granger Smith]

Hey, it's Granger. Wanted to pipe in here and leave a message because Heath Evans, after he left the podcast, texted me and said, hey, if anyone wants to try Vicera, his company, use the code Yi Yee to get 20% off. And then he said 30% off. If you subscribe, his website is viceranutrition.com that's v I c e r a nutrition.com and you could use the code Yee Yee to get 20% off. That's pretty cool. If you want to get a hold of me, an easy way to do it is cameo.com grangersmith cameo.com grangersmith you could order a video message from me saying whatever customizable message you want me to say. Happy birthday, happy anniversary, maybe a word of encouragement, whatever it might be, I think it's a pretty good gift, especially for people you just don't know how to buy for. Get him a cameo from [e-mail] grangersmith.

[Heath Evans]

And it took about another year and a half, but that bitterness with God and then kind of probably 10 years of bitterness with my ex ended up me being unfaithful in my marriage. And then because I knew this is what repentance looks like, I then confessed all of that. And then we try to start working through it and then eventually it was just too much and she left. You know, a couple years later though, those years between confession and ex wife leaving, everyone would have said man to God be the glory. Look what God's doing in his life. You know, he's right. He's returned to the fold. He's following the shepherd, all those things, right. In a lot of ways it was right. There was nothing outwardly hypocritical. Right. I wasn't hiding any sins again, I wasn't. There was nothing that I was turning to other than Jesus. I was in my Bible every day, all those things.

[Granger Smith]

It's in some. Some old theologians would say it's like when an animal dies, sometimes it still kicks a little bit.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

There's still life that mimics life, but the animals.

[Heath Evans]

Dead, dead, dead. Yeah, right. And so after ex wife left, six, seven months before, I was living like any unregenerate single person with all the fame and all the stuff that comes with being on TV every day in la. And so my heart was. I didn't know it at the time, but what I loved was being revealed. And it took a couple of years. And then, because before the beginning of time, God loved me, having nothing to do with me. He disciplined me. And it was hard, but I'm so thankful. I'm thankful he still disciplines me. And, you know, I lost everything except for my health and my two beautiful daughters. God was so gracious to me in that. And, you know, since July of 2018, he's just been building the story that I asked him. I started to ask him that, lord, I want you to rebuild or build something that no man can take credit for. I want you to have your way in my life. We're not. Even the outside world can look and say, look what he's done. They have to say, look what the righteous creator God of the world has done in heath. And I believe that's what he's doing, you know, so, yeah, the.

[Granger Smith]

You know, I was. I was radically saved out of cultural Christianity through John 14. The disciple asked Jesus, lord, why is it that you manifest yourself to us but not to the world? And as I'm listening to this sermon and I'm thinking, that's a good question. I was at rock bottom searching for answers, searching for who was Jesus? Because I didn't have any fruits of the spirit that you're supposed to have as a Christian. And my rock bottom, this I didn't have. It's like I didn't have that. So, yeah, disciple, that's a good question. How will Jesus answer? Because maybe that's. Maybe I need to know this. And Jesus says something. It blew me away, changed everything for me and it stops. Said what I thought he was going to say. He says, if anyone loves me, he'll keep my word and my father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. And suddenly. And suddenly I knew in this reverse psychology that I was loved. Not because of anything I did, but I was loved and he was with me. And they had come to me, they'd made. Made a home in me. And yet he says, you'll know the people that I've made a home with. You'll know them, because those are the people. Keep my word.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

And I thought, so I'm loved, and yet I don't keep his word. I don't even really know all of his word.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

And so he. It hit me from reverse. And that's. That's what you're saying, the realization that you were loved. Because you said something really interesting earlier. You said, I used to think that I choose Jesus.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

Isn't that American? That's the American gospel.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

Choose Jesus.

[Heath Evans]

One thing about it, it's the opposite of the gospel.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

It's this people like He. It's, we receive. I'm like, yes, I'm a dummy, but even I can read and study what these words mean. And this receiving of God's grace is passive. It's like he's drawing. He's literally. He is taking us and bringing us back to the fold. We're the sheep running away. And the more that the Lord just opens my eyes to Christ, the more I just see, oh, my gosh, he loves me because I'm a disastrous train wreck. And yet, oh, my gosh, he loves me in seeing the disastrous train wreck that I am, in my own power, in my own. My own being. It's what spurs me on. To be holy like he's holy in that we talk about the American gospel, Right. And even the way the Lord saved you. Right. You'll obey. And so we look at this believe word in John 3:16 in America. We look at it like. Like the demons. Yeah. Right.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

But that belief means to love and to obey. And it's very easy to see when the Lord gives you eyes to read John, right? That word believe close to 100 times or so. Don't check my math, because I'm full back to too many concussions. Right?

[Granger Smith]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

But believe, believe, believe. Then we get to John 20, and he's like, this is why I wrote this. So you believe that Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah. Right. And then upon believing, you have eternal life. Right. That we would just love him because he first loved us, you know?

[Granger Smith]

And so, yeah, John 3:36. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey.

[Heath Evans]

Yes.

[Granger Smith]

That word all of a sudden is interchanged. Does not have life.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

But the wrath of God remains upon him. So he, John, just casually interchanges believe and obey.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

As if we would know that believing always equals obeying. But obeying always equals believing.

[Heath Evans]

Amen. Amen. And then the start of John 3. Like, we get so enamored with 3:16. And rightfully so. We could, we could, we could. I literally think we're going to be in the heavenlies for, for, for eternity after eternity, just wrapping our minds around that one verse. But when you look at 3, 5 and 6 and 7 and 8, he literally tells us it's the wind, and he blows where he will. You had nothing to do with your first birth. Why would you think you have anything to do with your second birth? It is the Holy Spirit that comes and gives you grace, gives you eyes to see the ears that truly want to believe the word of Christ that sets us free. And free indeed. Right. And you mentioned 36. Right. You know, it's like when the Lord does His great work and literally removed the scales from our eyes. It's like you can't help but see I've had nothing to do with this. And I've had everything to do with why God should abandon me, why he shouldn't be faithful. Right. And he tells us, he humbles us from the jump because he knows in his kindness that, that it's humility is the only place that we ever find freedom when we can get past ourselves and rest and trust in Him. That's where assurance of faith comes from. As you and I know. I don't want to be judged on how I love my wife. I don't want to be judged on how I faithfully, patiently discipline my children. I don't want to be judged on how I love my brothers and sisters at Trinity River Baptist Church. I don't want to be judged on how I faithfully serve even our built ready community. No, I just. I need the merits of Christ, otherwise I am damned and I know it. But praise be to God. He looks at me and sees Jesus and it was his plan from eternity. And so it has nothing to do with me. And that's the freedom I need to love and obey and worship and be in awe.

[Granger Smith]

It's good, man. I heard a pastor say one time that Jesus, I think he's maybe, maybe he said God in this context, God is, is waiting at the door and he will not come in because he's a gentleman and he won't come in unless you invite him in like a true gentleman. And I thought that sounds like an insecure boyfriend. Yeah, he just needs acceptance or something.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

But that's not the way I experienced it. And that's not the way any kind of language the Bible uses.

[Heath Evans]

It sounds like a man who doesn't understand the first few chapters of Revelation. Those are church doors that Jesus is knocking on. And we can, I mean, I'm in the middle of Isaiah right now and I'm just enamored about how many times the Lord of hosts, the sovereign Lord of heavenly armies, full command of everything. And everyone says, I will, I will, I will. You and me straying and disobedience. I will. I'm going to open your eyes, I'm going to bring you home. I'm going to give you a heart that wants repentance once repentance and draws near to me. Right. To think about this, you know, it's like the Jesus comes, he's throwing out a life buoy and all you got to do is grab it. I have so many men in my life that I love so dearly that still to the day use that.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah. And yet I'm like, tell the real analogy.

[Heath Evans]

Where do you see it in Scripture?

[Granger Smith]

Tell the real analogy of that.

[Heath Evans]

We're dead men.

[Granger Smith]

We're at the bottom of the ocean.

[Heath Evans]

Right. We're just dead.

[Granger Smith]

We can't grab a life.

[Heath Evans]

But yeah, but for me it's like it's another ocean. I'm flooded in my sin. I loved my sexual immorality. I loved my arrogance. I loved only thinking about me. I loved lying. And I was great at it. I loved all these things. They were my idols and yet they were crushing me. And God said, that's my boy. I'm a go rescue him. And here's how I'm going to do it. And it's going to look like utter chaos and catastrophe. But you know what? He's going to know that I am God. And then I saved his soul and that I love him and it has nothing to do with him. So that Heath Evans will never boast in himself ever, ever again.

[Granger Smith]

I think I just got saved again, man.

[Heath Evans]

No, it's not true. He said he saved us before he made all this, man.

[Granger Smith]

I, I, I didn't know it to that, to that full extent. I didn't know your story. In fact, we were talking earlier before we recorded. And I was like, no, don't. Don't tell me, because I want to. I want to hear it on the microphone. I already feel like anytime you come to this area, you could just keep coming back in because there are so many things I want to ask and say that I think will be nuggets for people to grab onto. And so hopefully we could. This will be the relationship. We. We continue to have it back. And people are listening to comment below. Bring back Heath.

[Heath Evans]

You know, don't lie, though.

[Granger Smith]

Let me slightly shift gears and. Which is hard to do because I feel like I have more questions about what happened after you were saved.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

When I was in high school playing football, I remember. I remember the day that one. One of our coaches, our defensive coordinator came in and he introduced this thing called creatine monohydrate.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

And he said, we're all going to start taking this. And it was like this in a jar. And it was like white and. And like a sandy consistency. Yeah, yeah. And we would just take it. We would just put the scoop without. Yeah. You know, we wouldn't mix it in. You just throw it on the tongue and then get a, you know, some water and throw it down.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

And my parents are like, what are you guys doing? All the parents were scared of this new thing. Like, it's got to. There's no long term testing on this.

[Heath Evans]

Right.

[Granger Smith]

I gained 10 pounds immediately.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

But it was a good 10 pounds. And. And it worked. In every sense. It worked. Fast forward, you know, several decades.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

I'm on Instagram, flipping through one time, and here's Heath Evans, who. Who I use his advice many times on this podcast. Heath Evans is talking, and he goes, men, you need creatine, and women, you do, too. And I'm like, really? I haven't. I haven't thought about that since the 90s. So I went right then to Vicera, your supplement company.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

Pretty new company, right?

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. A few months old.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah, a few months old. And I'm like, if he thought, man, I trust this guy. This. Not only is this. Does this guy know fitness? And he was on the NFL Network. Did you see him doing the. The 45 bench press? 225. Okay, hang on. Before we do anything else, this is. We got to do this before we. Yeah, man. You just kind of look over my shoulder here. This is crazy.

[Heath Evans]

Fullbacks. When it comes to the bench press.

[Granger Smith]

Who is atop the list?

[Heath Evans]

Tommy Bohannon and Nafahu Tahi. Neither one of them still in the.

[Granger Smith]

Lead, 36 reps, it says on the screen.

[Heath Evans]

I. I'm thinking that he might be able to set a new record.

[Granger Smith]

I like this.

[Heath Evans]

You want to get after it? Let's do it.

[Granger Smith]

All right. This is on live television, right? Live.

[Heath Evans]

It was live. I wish I would have gotten a warm up. I wish I would have gotten a warm up. I might have gotten 50. I'm going to be quiet this year, cuz. He says I talk too much trash to him.

[Granger Smith]

Last year in a suit. Man with a tie.

[Heath Evans]

Crushing.

[Granger Smith]

It's not even slowing down. 9, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 43, 45. That's unreal.

[Heath Evans]

How much weight? 225.

[Granger Smith]

So that's like the combine. That's what you use. 225. So can you get 46? I know you can. I know you can. You can't.

[Heath Evans]

No way. Like, you can't get 46. Heck no. The, the, the training that was going, listen, I was smack dab in the middle of wickedness and idolatry. My God was my body. I understand. My. Most of my effort was going into how I looked, you know, from my Botox face to my biceps, you know.

[Granger Smith]

So is that the first time you got 45?

[Heath Evans]

No. Yes. Because you don't. The training, there's all when you train for those different things, right? Yeah, I trained very different than those. Max reference. So, yeah, I just went out, I had like one warm up set with 135 for a couple reps and then. But normally, like on a test like that, I'd work up to like 405 for like double. Just like. So my central nervous system can like stress. And then 225 feels like it's five pounds.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

So your first 20 reps, it's like your body's like, oh, it's just easy. Right. So those are fun days. Good group. I worked with an NFL network.

[Granger Smith]

So my point is, I see this and I'm like, if this guy's telling me I should take creatine, then I should do it. And not only is he telling me to do it, but he says he's got, he's got a company that's cleaner than any other.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

And so I went and buy it. I bought it. And. And then you quickly called me and said, why did you just buy something from your own friend?

[Heath Evans]

Basically you call me.

[Granger Smith]

So anyway, then Amber got on it because. So this is just something I didn't really understand. And this could be an entire episode. Yeah, but you, you now have with your wife a supplement company. Is that how you say it?

[Heath Evans]

Yeah, we are, there's clean supplements.

[Granger Smith]

Clean supplements. And then you start talking, you have whey protein, you, you start talking about Australia cattle and all kinds of stuff.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah, listen, we want to help the church get healthy. The healthier we are, the more energy we have to serve Christ. And listen, we have little kids and it's, it's, it's all gas, no brakes around our home. Right. And so you know, our company Vicera is a nutrition company because we, yes, we'd love to sell people supplements and we can supplement a good healthy living diet, lifestyle. Right. But any supplement in and of itself is not going to rescue anyone. So we want to teach people how to eat and how to think better about food. We've been lied to. You know, you know, I don't know RFK personally, but he's opening people's eyes to the lies and deception that our country has been under around nutrition. And so we just want to help people. Creatine is the most tested supplement on the planet. Right. And if it's American made, it's going to be very good. Right. A lot of people buy cheaper stuff from China. I would advise everyone not to. You don't have to buy our as advicera, but just make sure yours is an American made company. Women, if you're hearing my voice, this is the best thing in the world that we can do for our women. The number one marker. I know, I know, right? Because it's always been, oh, this is the meathead supplement to help you get stronger. Which it is. But what is the number one marker for longevity? God is sovereign over all our days. Our days are written in his book. Right? But we have enough science and true knowledge now to know that the stronger someone is, the longer they live. We look at Covid in 2021, 22, who are the people that were least affected? The strongest people. Not the people with the best body mass index. Not the people that were the most cardiovascular sound. Those are important. But the number one one marker was how strong is someone physically? Right. Male and female. And they were basically unfazed in a lot of ways by Covid. And so creatine has so many biomarkers just for women's mental health, helping them battle just anxiousness and depression. We're seeing high dosage of creatine now used in women 70 plus that are Alzheimer's patients or dementia patients. And they're actually reversing the Effects, the memory loss effects from this wicked disease. And so, so yes, it will help you sustain and build muscle. Who wouldn't want to do that, right? But then more importantly, the cognitive effects. I've had multiple concussions. You know, I take 20 plus grams a day of creatine because I'm just trying to take care of my brain. And what we know, what does that.

[Granger Smith]

Compare to what I'm taking? I'm taking the three capsules.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. For, for you, you're, you're having one serving a day. I have four. Right. But I'm also 270 pounds.

[Granger Smith]

And you do 12 of those capsules.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. And I use our powder because I, I'm always trying to hydrate. I want to get more and more water in my system with the right salts and the right minerals and right vitamins. And so I kind of take our collection. But we're just, we want to help people to think, right. About what are the right supplements we need. Right. And then how do we get healthy for the glory of God. And so we do that with our built ready coaching and we do that through Vicera, our supplement company.

[Granger Smith]

Where did you learn all this stuff about first of all, creatine?

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. Well, creatine kind of like me in high school. It started, hey, you want to put on some clean natural strength? There was all kinds of crazy stuff. When I got in high school. There was this stuff called Ultimate Orange. I don't know what was in it. It was like premium gas. Right. Like your bench is going to go up 20 pounds in like one shot of this thing. Right, right. My dad's always like, I'm not sure what's in that. I don't know. We'll be taking that stuff. Right? But creatine, you know, people knew, hey, this is what it is. It's already in good steak, right. It's in some of our food. Our body needs it. We have creatine. We need it for our brains, we need it for all kinds of things. Right. And so, so it's always kind of been one of those more acceptable things. But just recently in the last few years, we've started to see the scientific data about brain health and cognitive function as well as cognitive repair. The epidemic of mental health, especially against our females. Right. Chrissy and I want so badly to teach people the benefits of spirit filled self control around eating and what we put in our bodies because for the glory of God, God loves to heal people. Right. We have not, because we ask not. There is no rhyme or reason to how Jesus chooses to bless some with healing and others and not. But what we know is that when godly men and women will just kind of follow Paul's outline about disciplining their bodies and not just beating the air aimlessly, but having a rhythm and some thought out structure to how do we eat, how do we sleep, how do we hydrate this some value that we can get out of bodily training. Bodily training about in righteousness and all these things.

[Granger Smith]

First Timothy.

[Heath Evans]

But, but, but also like, hey, if this is the temple, right? And I don't ever want this to be a message of condemnation to anyone that's overweight or underweight. We just want to love people well, right. I don't know what it's like to be overweight. Kind of just always been in shape. I joked that I was a little fat, chubby kid from Palm Beach, Florida. I kind of was. I was a little slow. And then that motivated me to get faster and then God made an NFL career out of it. Right? But my wife used to weigh almost 300 pounds. And so she's felt the burden of being unsaved. Yeah, Chrissy. Yeah. Your face is right. And so doesn't make any sense, Right? You know what I mean? And so, and before the Lord saved her, you know, she had built this massive business called weight loss hero, helping people for all the wrong reasons. God does his great miraculous work in her life and she's like, I just can't coach women like this. I got to coach them to get healthy for the glory of God. And now we just kind of do this stuff together. But the freedom around discipline, right? It's a good thing. And God has commanded us to be of sober mind, right? And that's not just, oh, let me be sober minded in just these areas of righteousness this, right? But look at this practical wisdom that God's given us, right? And then, oh, it's amazing how much more rich my quiet time is in the morning when I'm hydrated from the day before. It's amazing how much more I remember right when I'm eating more clean. It's amazing how much more energy I have to love and serve my husband. It's amazing how much more stamina I have as a father to get out and wrestle around with the boys and throw them around in the pool and work out and love my wife and go to work. Work for nine hours a day with food and proper nutrition and hydration and proper rest. Prioritizing the right thing based on the sound word of the Lord gives us so much freedom. And so we want to help people with teaching them how to eat and with these supplements that we think are necessary for everyone to be taking. Protein, creatine, and collagen. Right? We want to help people burn the right fat. We have a visceral fat is the fat around your organs that kills you. There's very few clinical studies on supplementation that will actually burn visceral fat. We have one of them. It's called ignite, and it's awesome. It's great for your brain. It's like a nice little nootropic punch to your. To your head in the morning when you want to study God's word on an empty stomach. It's just there's so many good benefits to it. And then we want to help people get hydrated. Any good doctor is going to probably tell you about 90% of chronic disease is caused by chronic dehydration. God meant our bodies to be fueled with vitamins and minerals and nutrients and protein that we just don't get. But if we do, it's amazing how fast our bodies will heal themselves. When God said we are fearfully and wonderfully made, he didn't stutter. And so we pollute this system, and our food is either, you know, it's poison to us or it's medicine to us. We want to point people to, hey, this is how we eat, eat. This is how we kind of heal our body. By God's grace, strengthen ourselves for the war that is walking in righteousness and walking in the love of Christ.

[Granger Smith]

That is the best biblical argument for healthy living that I've ever heard.

[Heath Evans]

When it's time.

[Granger Smith]

That's why I bought from you.

[Heath Evans]

Praise the Lord. And I tell our men all the time, it is really, really hard to make much of Christ and make much of the body.

[Granger Smith]

It is.

[Heath Evans]

And so, yes, so we have to. We have to so look at Jesus to know why we're. Why we're going to discipline this body, right? Spurgeon stays were numbered. He lived in a day where there wasn't a lot of medicine. He got, what, 56, 54 years God miraculously used him. Now, by God's grace, we live much longer. And I'm not saying that we're ever going to live longer than what God has determined. But I am saying that if we eat well, my days on this earth will be more energized for the kingdom of Christ than they would be if I'm not disciplining myself in that way. Is it salvific? No. I don't want anyone to feel condemned. I. People are just running to more and more weak sheep that are just burdened by just these sins. It's like they struggle with insurance. And I don't ever want to go down that route. But I do think that even some of our brothers and sisters in Christ that do wrestle with assurance, if by God's grace they could discipline themselves to eat better, they will think more clearly about the word of truth. And that word of truth will be revealed to them in a new, refreshing way where they can think more clearly and their brain is not so foggy and their body is not so beat down by constantly what they're shoving into it.

[Granger Smith]

You talked about it's good for your gut, too. And by the way, this. By no means is this a infomercial for Vicera. I didn't want it to be that way. I don't want it to appear that way. And that's not why you came. So I don't want anyone, anyone to think that. So let me say this without sounding like an infomercial. I've had creatine that has really messed up my stomach before. Yeah, yours doesn't. Your protein doesn't. And it tastes good. You're like sourcing cattle from all over the world.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

You're really serious about it being healthy for you?

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. I was taught by Bill Belichick, there's always someone that's better. There's always someone that knows more. There's always someone, someone that's going to kick your butt. Right. So you need to prepare to meet that person. Right. So when building Vicera, we wanted the best. And by God's grace, through the years in the NFL and just other relationships he's given me, I know some of the best people in the organic supplement space in the world. My buddy, that makes sense. Who has basically sold two massive companies, you know, one Nestle now owns. So we won't go into price it's sold for, but he has done it as the king in that space. And so I went directly to him and said, how do we do this where it tastes good, but we can look people in the eye and say, hey, our sourcing is better than anyone. And, you know, our bovine glandulars. Right. So it's like this idea that like heals like. Right. So we have so many thyroid issues, we have so many digestive tract issues, we have so many heart issues, we have so many issues that are health related because of food. And yet from the beginning of time, God created these These animals to be under our dominion and for us to eat them, to be healthy and strong for his glory and to magnify his name. And so if you look on the side of all of our bottles, you're going to see these little glandulars, you're going to see heart, you're going to see kidney, you'll see thyroid. It's amazing when we eat God's food and we supplement God's food, how the body will just kind of heal itself. And so we've given people the purest A2 protein. You talk about our creatine not up upsetting your stomach. Well, it's well sourced. Right. And there's not some crap from China. I'm not knocking anybody from China. But our system is set up to make money and give people as little amount as we can to kind of pass this bar or metric that makes it legal. Right, right. We haven't done that. Right. And so our third party, testing everything that we have kind of spent money on is to say, hey, listen, we want to represent God with integrity. These are supplements that will help your body heal, but you got to eat good too. Right. And so even when you get on Viceroy Nutrition.com, you can download the free PDF to just help you think better about eating. But every, all of our products have either digestive enzymes, something that's going to prebiotics, excuse me, probiotics that are going to help people digest food. Because if I can feed you more protein and then I can help heal your gut, where it digest all that protein, where you're actually absorbing it, not only does Granger think better, but you sleep better, you perform better, you feel stronger, there's more energy, Everything about you improves. This is really brain number one. Brain number one guides brain number two. God has fiercely and wonderfully, wonderfully made us. So brain number two is always going.

[Granger Smith]

To be working your head depends on your gut.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah. So what? Yeah, yeah, it makes sense fuels, right? And so listen, I know it. I love donuts. I'm the donut king.

[Granger Smith]

Right?

[Heath Evans]

But when I eat too many donuts, this brain is bad. And I can't afford this brain to be bad. I got too many kids and I got a big King Jesus to love and serve of will. So I needed to be sharp and accurate and on point. And so all these things have an effect. And we just want to gently teach people that, hey, we can feel good and we can have all of God's energy and everything that God's intended for us. And this isn't no Health, wealth and prosperity nonsense either because I don't know, God might have for you to get hit by a train tomorrow. Right. But at the end of the day, if God has gifted us with breath and we have the ability to eat better food and to move our bodies, we need to be doing so for the glory of God.

[Granger Smith]

I think that's a great. I think it's a great humble argument and it's practical. If I. If I get up for an early flight and I. And I went to bed at midnight and I have to be at the airport at 4 and I've learned it took a long time to finally realize. Don't make any decisions on this day. Don't make any moral decisions, don't make any financial decisions, don't. Don't make any judgments on people.

[Heath Evans]

That's good because you were. You're drunk.

[Granger Smith]

Really?

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

I want to go one more place with you because you mentioned earlier you're in Isaiah. Is that what you said?

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

So if we put all. Maybe put everything together on a. On a good. I know that you're a busy guy and so that things change and you have to adjust wisely in, in when it changes. But on a good normal day. What does your reading look like? When is it? How are you?

[Heath Evans]

You know Mark Dever? So I'm gonna throw Mark Deborah under the bus. Okay.

[Granger Smith]

Do it. Yeah, Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

A for clarity. Mark Dever is the godliest, most faithful man I know. And other than Christ and my wife and children, he has been God's greatest gift to me. And he has so guided and guarded me in all of my strengths and weaknesses. Mainly weaknesses.

[Granger Smith]

He introduced us, by the way.

[Heath Evans]

That's right. He sure did.

[Granger Smith]

Introduced us.

[Heath Evans]

So since the Lord saved me, most mornings I've been up at 4am and if you walk into wherever I'm reading most of the time it's my wife's office. All the lights are going to be off except for one lamp, one like spotlight that we use for filming content. And it's just fixed on my Bible. I'm the Add King. I really struggle. I struggle to read and comprehend.

[Granger Smith]

I dyslexia too.

[Heath Evans]

I understand things backwards.

[Granger Smith]

Okay, gotcha.

[Heath Evans]

I read at a very high rate, but I understand very little. And so it takes me a long time and it's often frustrating. But God has worked wonders and sanctifying me through having to sacrifice a lot of hours of sleep to draw near to him. And not everyone needs to do that. Most people for what I would read in three hour time, they might Be able to get it in in 45 minutes. Right. And they might retain a lot more, I don't know. But that's been my habit, that those first two and a half, three hours of every morning are just the Lord's. And he has poured his word into my heart. Sometimes I remember it better than others, but he faithfully pours it out of me when he gives me an opportunity to boast in him. And I said I was going to throw Mark under the bus because in the last few weeks, I've just gone through some. Just testing and different things. Certain things mentally or I don't know if they're starting to slip or if we're just too busy, but we have all these concussion testing for the NFL and all that stuff. So I told Mark about it, and he literally just put Chrissy on the phone because he knows I won't listen. So, Chrissy, this is what he's going to do. Whatever amount of time Heath reads his Bible, he's going to do half of it, right? He's not going to cut his prayer time down, but whatever time he's reading his Bible, you're going to make him cut it in half and you're going to make him sleep, you know, that much more. Well, Mark knows. So I've been the last, I think three weeks now, been sleeping until five. I get up, I go in there and I just. I hit my knees. I always start. I need help positioning my mind in humility. And so I pick up this book called Valley of Vision. I'm sure you've heard of it.

[Granger Smith]

Got it. Yeah. It's always in somewhere. It's always in the next room over. Yeah, for me.

[Heath Evans]

And most days, it stirs my heart with affections for Christ because I see my sin more clearly. And then that'll lead me into praying for Chrissy. I have a list that I pray for her every day and then praying for the children, praying for myself. These last few weeks, I have not been praying as faithfully for our church, through our church membership, because Mark Dever took an hour away from my holy sanctification. But, yeah, those morning hours have been sweet, you know, since 2018. And you just. All the godly dead dudes that we love, they didn't even have. Half of them, didn't have electricity to run, lights to read, but they were still up in the wee hours of morning under candlelight. Yeah, reading and meditating on God's word. God was faithful to them and he helped them finish strong. And their lives just oozed Jesus Christ. And I believe it was because of their prayer time and their Bible study time.

[Granger Smith]

I. I've never talked to you about that, and I never heard you say that before, but I already was positive that that would be your answer.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

And you're right. You know George Mueller, one of the dead dudes?

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

For a long time, he would. He would get up and pray and read, and he realized his prayer life was dead until he switched the two.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

That. The Bible. The scripture softened his cold, dead heart every morning and supercharged it so that then his prayer life came alive.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

Are you brushing your teeth before you do this? You got coffee? What's going on?

[Heath Evans]

I take our ignite.

[Granger Smith]

Okay.

[Heath Evans]

And our creatine, collagen, caffeine.

[Granger Smith]

Okay.

[Heath Evans]

So I'm putting good, good stuff in my system. I've never been a coffee guy.

[Granger Smith]

This is before you open the Bible.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah, it's hydrate. Yeah. So when that alarm goes off, I wear these stupid retainers to keep my teeth straight.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

You know what I mean? So then I got to go there and put them in this little water, this little fizzy, fizzy thing. Whatever. Yeah, right. And then I go straight in. Man, this is embarrassing. I don't brush my teeth first, but I ain't gonna lie to y'all. And then I get our ignite, our creatine collagen, and our electrolytes, and so I hydrate immediately. The ignite, which is our kind of visceral fat burner, just really kind of gives me a nice, clean caffeine stem for my mind. It really helps me focus in.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

And then I wouldn't like that. Yeah. And then I lock in. I lock in for a few hours and worship the Lord.

[Granger Smith]

I was in a. At a men's conference one time in Montana, and I did a poll on that question. You're in the majority. People typically will brush their teeth after their quiet time.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

I'm. For some reason, I'm in the minority of. I wake up, brush my teeth.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

And then.

[Heath Evans]

That's why your teeth are pretty. What's what? I sleep with this mouth tape, and I don't ever really have morning breath. So, like, I brush my teeth too hard. Chrissy's on me all the time. We'll get Chrissy in here, you know, so. I don't know. She'll tell you. She didn't have morning breath either. It's like, listen, God's been so kind.

[Granger Smith]

Wow, that is a grace.

[Heath Evans]

Wow. We don't cuddle much because I'm too heavy to make her hot. You know, it's, it's about, it's about four minutes each night, hand on her. Half the time I like, fall asleep praying for her. She tells the funniest stories because I get, I'm so exhausted at the end of night. So I'm like, I just put my hand on her chest. Yeah. You know, and she laughs because I'll fall asleep like a narcoleptic.

[Granger Smith]

Yeah.

[Heath Evans]

And then I'll wake up, like, literally two minutes later. Sometimes, like right where I, Right where I was left off in the prayer, she's like, I don't know how you do this.

[Granger Smith]

I meant the same.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

I, I, As Amber and I, as our marriage gets older, she gets temperature wise. Oh, hey, it looks wise too. She gets hotter, I get colder.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

Like she, she's like, I turned this ac, you know, I got to get these blankets off. And I'm like, really? I'm kind of chilly in here. Like, we're going opposite directions, but, but yeah, yeah. She needs to co. Plunge.

[Heath Evans]

Does Amber sleep with a waiting blanket like Chrissy does?

[Granger Smith]

I do, actually. She doesn't because she can't, she can't take that. She, she, she can't take the heat.

[Heath Evans]

Chrissy will wake up. I'm so hot. I'm like, she's got a 15 pound blanket on your chest. I'm like, what are you doing?

[Granger Smith]

That's a different episode. Yeah, but, but dude, that, that, that routine is. I've said this before. I thought about this before. When you seek first the kingdom of heaven.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah, yeah.

[Granger Smith]

It, it means way more than that.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

But it, it doesn't mean any less amen than actually physically starting the day with him first.

[Heath Evans]

The first fruits. Yeah, the first fruits.

[Granger Smith]

Bonhoeffer used to say, don't talk until you've gone through your quiet time. Don't listen or talk to anyone until God speaks. Let God have the first word.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah, that's.

[Granger Smith]

These guys took this seriously.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

And, and when you, when you hear about a moral failure, a big public moral failure, almost always at the root of it, you find they lost their daily devotional, their morning devotional. Time was gone.

[Heath Evans]

Yeah.

[Granger Smith]

It gone away.

[Heath Evans]

And the pastor's burden of studying to feed and studying to be fed, you know, and how often those blur, and I find those blurring for me just to minister to our men and our women. But it's such a dangerous temptation. Right. That somehow I think I don't need to be fed, that I only need to gather, to feed. Yeah. It's a. It's a dangerous road.

[Granger Smith]

And bro, what an honor that you're here. Thank you for passing through. Hope to have you back, and you name it. You're a brother and a mentor. And I promise I've been doing a lot better on my seven hours of sleep.

[Heath Evans]

Atta boy.

[Granger Smith]

Thank you, bro.

[Heath Evans]

Always.

[Granger Smith]

Thanks for joining me on the Granger Smith podcast. I appreciate, appreciate all of you guys. You could help me out by rating this podcast on itunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel. Hit that little, like, button and notifications bell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video.