|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 16, 2015Jared AllenRod GormanSTATELINE, NEVADA THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Sergeant Major Rod Gorman and also Jared Allen. Q. It says you have a foundation you're very proud of. Tell us more about it and the genesis about it. JARED ALLEN: My foundation is Jared Allen's Homeless for Wounded Warriors. What we do is we build and remodel homes and make them handicap accessible for our wounded vets coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. And back in 2009 I went on the USO tour. When I came home, I had a buddy who actually served in the Army and he told me about the gap in adaptive housing from when our men and women come home and actually the living conditions that they get given, whether through the VA or whatever the case may be. So after doing some research on it and understanding that there was a huge need, that's why me and my buddies got together and we decided to start this foundation. So even step back further, I come from a long line of military family. My grandfather is 23 in the United States Marine Corps. My little brother currently serves in the Marine Corps. My uncles were in Nam, all that good stuff. So generations and generations of military. Always been a huge military fan. Understand from a young age that they're true heroes. And the reason I get to do what I get to do is because of the men and women in uniform and what they sacrificed. It's always been instilled in me. When I came home I knew how could I serve my country. When I came home from Iraq and Kuwait, I knew I wanted to do something to give back and to serve my country. I sat down with my buddy and decided, kind of went through what's my American dream, right? For me it's a functional home for me and my family. And then what does home mean to me. Home is my most secure place at my most vulnerable time, where I can just be myself and let everything go. For me it's, you know, football, whatever your means of providing is, if you can't provide a fundamentally sound home for your wife, your kids and have a solid place to raise your family in this great country, that's kind of what it's about. So we looked at it, realized if our men and women are coming home, if they don't have what I consider the beginning of my American dream, then they deserve it more than anybody. So that's when we came together and decided we wanted to build homes‑‑ I didn't want to just write checks and didn't want to do that. We really focused on the word "home." We didn't just want to give them a house or do something like that. We wanted to give them a sense of community and sense of independence. And the more we got to learn about our recipients, their daily struggles to walk, think, talk, write, function again, you know, their rehabbing stress every day at the VA, when they come home, they need some down time and need to decompress. Some of them, for example, I use Ken Champlin as one of our recipients as an example. He was living in an upstairs apartment in a bad part of Phoenix with no elevator. He had one bathroom widened. But he couldn't even use his chair. He was on his prosthetics all the time. Double amputee. And he just‑‑ his whole mindset, he'd be at the VA rehabbing and come home and his stress of the personal life trying to take groceries upstairs, take him 45 minutes. So we came in. That's when we decided to make homes specifically functional for their individual needs. We've had great partners come along. And we've completed, I think, six. We have three more going. And we just got another recipient out of Chicago. And we're actually in the process where I think we're going to amend some of our bylaws so we can actually expand our brand and help those that aren't necessarily always hurt directly. Right now, you have to be hurt directly in combat. We know there's some lingering things that can actually indirectly cause injuries from combat. So we're in the middle of doing that to just try to help our men and women that deserve their American dream. Sorry for the long‑winded answer. (Applause) THE MODERATOR: For those who don't know, Jared Allen is the All‑Pro defensive end of the Chicago Bears; dubbed the "sack machine" for his passionate pursuit of quarterbacks. He leads the NFL in sacks with 134 since joining the league in 2004. He's also known for his durability. He started 166 of 172 games during his career. And you just heard why he's in this room. I'd like to introduce the special guest next to him. The American Century Championship has added another United States Army veteran to the 2015 competition: Retired U.S. Army Sergeant Major Rodney Gorman has joined the field this year by virtue of his victory in the 2014 George W. Bush Presidential Centers Warrior Open. A Gulf War veteran who has experienced multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. Sergeant Major Gorman is a highly decorated soldier who now trains Special Operation Forces for the Department of Defense. We're almost there, Rod, don't worry. He was deployed‑‑ you've got a lot of good stuff going on here. He was deployed to the Gulf War in 1991 and in April1992. And in addition to his service in the Gulf War, he has been deployed to the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Bosnia, and completed numerous deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. Now 49, he's received multiple injuries, most significantly his right forearm and hand where he took enemy fire. It's an absolute pleasure and honor to have you here, sir. Thank you. (Applause) We also have a couple of special guests here in uniform from the Nevada National Guard, Eric Studnicka and Michael Orton. Thank you for your service. (Applause) Rod, we know that Chad Pfeiffer has become a friend of yours now, or you've talked to him quite a bit about this event. Tell us what you're thinking about what the experience has been so far the first few days and what you're looking forward to over the next few. RODNEY GORMAN: It's been really surreal for me because like I tell everybody else, I spent 20 years trying to be the gray man, being in the corner, not having attention drawn to me. So this is a whole new facet of attention that I'm really not used to. But the people here have been awesome. The weather has been awesome. The golf course is awesome. And I can't say‑‑ I'm having the time of my life. And it's great to be here. I've been blessed with a heck of a privilege. THE MODERATOR: Great to have you here. Chad did pretty well last year. In the opening round, he was the leader. He ended up finish fifth. Any prognostications for your game? RODNEY GORMAN: All I can say is I can let my golf clubs do the talking. (Laughter). JARED ALLEN: Oh, I'm just trying to finish in the red numbers. Goodness. RODNEY GORMAN: Like I told, Chad earlier: I told him, for a guy with one leg he knows how to kick down a lot of doors. If it wasn't for Chad I probably wouldn't be sitting in this chair right now. THE MODERATOR: This year you beat Chad by, what was it, two strokes? RODNEY GORMAN: Two strokes. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. Sergeant Major, what incentive do you have to beat Chad again this weekend, and do you have any side bet with him? RODNEY GORMAN: I just think it's the competitive nature of the sport. I'm sure‑‑ I know for a fact he's pretty competitive. And he don't like to get beat and I don't like to get beat. So we'll give it our best out there. Q. I want to applaud both of you for what you do. Right now I'm communications chair of San Francisco for the NAACP. This is really high on our list. My family's home was bought in San Francisco on the GI Bill for my dad serving in World War II. So housing in San Francisco is acute anyway and it's really, really right now difficult for veterans. And you see a lot of veterans just out. So we would love to pollinate, work with your foundation and really would appreciate your help there, because really, really something that's going on? JARED ALLEN: Absolutely. Being back in Chicago now, you learn there's a whole bunch of different veteran organizations. My wife and I personally try to support as many as we can. But that's what we're learning. As this process is going on. And it's a cool‑‑ it's obviously sad because there are so many veterans either homeless or struggle from so many different generations. And especially I'm a California kid. So Bay Area, I understand that, trust me, you can't buy a start‑up home in California for under a million dollars. Jiminy Crickets. It's something that's opened my eyes to a lot of different things. That's why actually literally, before I came over here, I was responding to e‑mails back to our board members that we're going to redo some of our bylaws to open up and expand what we can do for veterans. Because right now we only help those‑‑ the IRS, you have to set what your parameters are. So we chose Iraq and Afghanistan. But as we go, we hear so many great stories about our men and women that serve our country, that‑‑ for example, I just heard about a guy who was hit on his motorcycle, hit‑and‑run. This guy served our country proudly for 20 years. Now him and his wife are out. He's paralyzed. Now they're trying to fend for themselves, support their family and kids. And you hear stories, there's a gentleman out in North Carolina, we wanted to help. Again, he had TBI, Purple Heart. But now he's paralyzed from a skiing accident because he had a seizure while he was skiing. So there's so many different things that your bylaws get in the way sometimes. We'll take a strong look at that to amend those so we can open our gates and our resources to help as many people as we can. Again, being a Bay Area guy, we've always wanted to help people. One thing we try to do is keep our money where we get it. We get a lot of money from Midwest and Arizona because that's where we live. We're a cool organization. Right now we're at 90 percent spend back to our recipients. So the cool thing is I can show you what your money will buy, what window you put in, what nail you put in, the tangible difference you make in a guy's life. Being a Bay Area guy, back to what you're saying, that's definitely something we want to expand on and get partners in the Bay Area. It's hard for us to even find recipients. That's our biggest thing is finding recipients. HIPAA laws restrict us from knowing about their injuries, and the VA, they don't really allow them to know directly about us either. So we have a lot of grassroots organizations we work with to find our recipients. But that is a problem: Trying to get a home in the state of California for‑‑ I mean really, you're looking at‑‑ you don't want to put somebody injured in a safety risk. You don't want to put them in a bad neighborhood where you might get some affordable housing. Those are all the issues we struggle with. So I'd love to get your card, and we try to work with as many organizations that we can to circumvent everything so we can help as many people as possible. Q. How is your golf swing limited by your injuries? And I heard you mention in your earlier interview that that might not necessarily be a bad thing. RODNEY GORMAN: Well, I can't feel part of my right hand. If you know about golf the right hand is what's going to get you in trouble. And because my right hand is no longer a factor, I can eliminate one side of the golf course. And therefore I can narrow what misses‑‑ I'll know where my misses go, is probably what I'm trying to say. It's kind of helped me out, but just getting all shot up on my right side I'm not as long as I used to be. Gotta be more accurate. Q. How have your clubs been talking or what have they been saying to you in the practice rounds here? RODNEY GORMAN: It says I need to quit pulling the golf ball to the left. I'm playing well. Like I said, I'm having a blast. And I'm just trying to enjoy every moment I can. I get to meet great guys like Jared, and I feel blessed just to be out here. JARED ALLEN: I gotta get all my time with him I can We've been talking like at the pairing party and stuff, because we're obviously not going to be playing together. His golf score is going to be a lot better than mine. Q. With this weekend's free military admission, are you guys anticipating and hoping for lots of military support in your contingents as they follow you around the course this weekend? RODNEY GORMAN: Personally, I think it would be great to have the military guys. I've met quite a few out here already. I've taken pictures with them. And like I said, it's a whole new difference if somebody wants to take a picture with me. It's good to see the guys. And you know if I see people in uniform, I like to go up shake their hand because I know what they do and what they give up to do what they do. JARED ALLEN: The more the merrier. Again, like he said, I think it's cool to see our men and women come out and get recognized. I think ‑‑ one thing I tell people all the time, from being my USO experience, the basic thing I took away was humility, the daily sacrifices our men and women make, just being away from their families for an entire year plus, whatever their deployment is. So for me it's just an opportunity to say thank you. And I think I try to tell people all the time no matter what your political views are, these are free Americans, men and women, who volunteer to go abroad always so we can sit at home, gripe, do whatever we want. The least we can do is say thank you and recognize their sacrifice. And when they get to come out to events like this, it's free admission, I think there's no better way to say thank you and really get to know someone on a personal level. For me that's the greatest thing is to get the hear the stories of our men and women who serve. And that's what humbles me the most. MODERATOR: So we have about 2,000 military applied for those credentials. We are hoping to see a couple more thousand over the weekend. Q. I forgot to ask Rodney, how long have you been playing golf? And Jared, what are your odds to win this event? RODNEY GORMAN: I started playing golf, I guess I was a junior in high school. And I guess I was 15. And then I joined the Army at 17. I really didn't play that much. And I didn't start really playing again until basically 2009, when I got taken out of from where, being with the guys and getting put in desk jobs. So you find more ways to do it. And then of course when I retired in 2011, hey, I'm retired, I'm supposed to be golfing. JARED ALLEN: My odds probably, I don't know what they would be, they're probably 30‑to‑1 probably. Q. Higher? JARED ALLEN: What? Higher, yeah. I was giving‑‑ I was trying to give myself a little credit, right? No, I was actually a better golfer when I was younger. I golf more‑‑ when you get married and have kids you can't spend four hours on the golf course every day like you want to. And then I gotta work still. So, we'll see. You know what? The Lord can do some cool stuff, and I tell you what, if I get on a streak watch out, I might come in 15th, top 25, we'll see. Q. Jared, do you feel our government does enough for our disabled soldiers when they come home? I was in the Paralympics I've been around a lot of disabled athletes and soldiers competing worldwide. So just on the aspect I hear their stories. What's your feeling? JARED ALLEN: You know what, our government does some really good things for them. And like I said there's some gaps unfortunately. That's what there is, and that's what we try to come in and fill the gaps. As far as, you know, we see some really cool stuff with, like, the prosthetics of what the VA is doing for our guys. And most of our guys have nothing but great things to say about the treatment they get at the VA, and we work directly with the VA, obviously trying to help them get their SAH grants and SHA grants. But again, there is an issue. There's no doubt about that. Will it ever be enough? I don't know. I understand what it is. Government is government. But I mean it's sad. I always look at it in terms if my little brother came home and he was injured and foundations like myself and others aren't around, how would he support his family, how would he support his kids and that kind of stuff. So do you wish they could always do more? Yeah, I do. I think when our men and women come home and have laid it down and now their life is forever changed, do I think they should be taken care of? Absolutely. It's not the case right now. We'll keep working at it. And again it's just gaps. In some instances it's phenomenal. And some it's not. Like I said we happen to fit in that niche where there is a need and that's adaptive housing. And again there's that process that's a Catch‑22, right? There's money available for them to rehab their houses and stuff like that, but you have to have a house to get it. So we're trying to bridge those gaps. That's where we come in. One cool thing we do with our foundation, when we give a house away it's free and clear. We don't put a mortgage on it for our recipients. And we do three types of builds‑‑ whether it's a remodel that they already own, whether we acquire a house from a bank and remodel it; or we do a ground‑up build. So, it would be great that if you got hurt, you came, you had a certain type of house you're going to live in to certain standards, that would be phenomenal. But again that takes money. So we're just blessed to be in a position to where we do know about it and we're in a position to try to change it. It's not me, honestly. It's all our donors. I'm just a face, I'm just a guy with a soap box that some people tend to listen to. I couldn't do it without our great support and donors and our guys that work. Q. One note I did want to make is American Century Investments decided to invite the winner of the Warrior Open on an annual basis to this event in tribute to America's Armed Forces. While Jared is 100‑to‑1 odds, you are 12‑to‑1 odds. (Applause) JARED ALLEN: There's got to be somebody that has worse odds than me. Q. Barkley is 5,000‑to‑1. JARED ALLEN: Nice! THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|