JTH: Did you grow up in the church? Were you raised into it?
JP: I grew up in the church. You heard of Tony Evans? Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship. That’s the church I grew up in. I have a real strong relationship with Pastor Evans. Basically, I grew up going to church with my parents. Now that I’m older, I understand what it’s like having parents who teach you how to live through biblical principles. My faith grew as I got older. I got baptized. I think it was ’96. It just kind of grew from there. I’ve been constantly walking in the faith with my family. But now, the thing I can see now is that my faith is starting to become my own now. I’m starting to learn things on my own. I’m starting to interpret things on my own. I remember one of the struggles that I had is how do you seek wise council without listening to wise council. Basically, making decisions without people making decisions for you. Kind of coming into your own. As I’ve matured, I’ve understood that more and more.
JTH: Now you talk about your family, and I noticed on your website you have the 50-Yard Line Mom®. Can you talk a little bit about that?
JP: My mom has a huge passion for mothers, of course, and athletes. I partnered with her on that. She has a passion because she doesn’t want to see guys waste their opportunity. She doesn’t want to see guys waste opportunity with the platform that they’ve been given. If that’s through whatever talent they have. Her biggest thing is affecting the moms because you know the mom is basically the center of the child. Mom is there taking you to practice. It can be football practice. It can be dance. It can be whatever. Mom’s there. Mom’s there for support, to clean up the cuts. They’re there for encouragement. She wants to help moms raise their child to be whatever they want to be but also be grounded in the faith that she raised me on.
JTH: And your mom is your business manager too, right?
JP: Yeah, she is.
JTH: How does that work out? Do you all ever have any disagreements on things?
JP: Aww man, all the time! You know how it is, you got a mom, and then you got a son. Hey, I want to do things this way and she wants to do things that way. But it’s been good, man. My mom is a businesswoman. She always has been. She’s been in corporate America as long as I can remember. I’m really learning more from her than anything. And I know that she has my best interests at heart. We share the same vision on where we see Jordan Pugh Enterprises going so it’s been good.
JTH: Just expand a little bit on that vision. Where do you see it going?
JP: The reason why I started Jordan Pugh Enterprises, first off, my mom has always told me I’m a public speaker. I used to say, “Yeah, whatever, man. I’m not trying to go out and talk in front of all these people.” And then opportunities just started coming. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to FCA groups, youth groups, and different corporations and people just started to resonate with the message, and I started to develop a passion for it. I just wanted to be able to share my passion with people and help people identify their passions in order to understand their purpose and be able to perform in any aspect of life that they choose. If I can do that through the gift that I’ve been given of speaking, that’s what I’ll do and that’s why I formed that (Jordan Pugh Enterprises). I give a scholarship back to my school (Plano West Sr. High) every year, the Jordan Pugh Pushing Upward. Going Higher.® Award. We made the tagline as an acronym for my last name. Just to honor the student-athlete that is the integral part of the team but they don’t get the press, they don’t get the hype that everybody else gets. You get to honor them and give a scholarship; we added a scholarship two years ago to that. Honor them that way. It’s kind of like my story, man. You work hard and you feel like nobody’s watching. You feel like everything you do is for nothing some times. I want to honor those guys who are working hard to let them know that, hey, it’s not going unnoticed. Sharing it that way, sharing it through speaking, through youth groups, corporations, whatever it may be.
JTH: In just listening to you, and we’re not going to say your football career is over by any stretch, but I’m almost picturing you when you’re doing being some kind of leader in a church or some kind of leader in the community.
JP: Man, don’t say that! You sound just like my mom.
JTH: Hearing you talking and hearing your vision and your passion…
JP: Man, my mom used to drive me crazy with that. My mom was like, “I’m telling you right now, I can see you doing some ministry thing.” Hold on now! That’s a lot of responsibility. I don’t know about that (laughs)! I’ve had my friends tell me that and if that happens, I’ll take it, but you know, let that come to light!
JTH: Right now you’re a free agent, so what’s next with you football wise?
JP: I’ve taken trips to Denver, Chicago. I’ve been talking with Dallas. Actually, I’ve gone to Indianapolis twice. Something’s coming, you just have to wait it out. It’s hard sometimes, but you know, there’s a plan, and I’m just trying to follow the plan.
JTH: If you had a choice, if you could go anywhere you wanted to go, where would you go?
JP: Honestly, anywhere that would take me. The best opportunity. The thing I’ve learned being in this league going on five years now, it’s all about opportunity and getting a chance to prove yourself. I just want to go somewhere that I genuinely get a chance to prove myself.
