Coinciding with the Seahawks visit to Levi’s stadium this Sunday in Week 2, we have a repeat HPP veteran guest in Nate Boyer. If you recall, Nate was our guest a year ago before the Niners played the Seahawks up in Seattle. Nate is a former Army Green Beret, who after his military career ended, came back to the states and decided to walk on with the University of Texas Football program. 

Despite never having played football before, he eventually earned the starting deep snapper’s job.   After Texas he thought the NFL was calling his name, and as an undrafted free agent earned a stint with the Seahawks. Following his football career, he went to Hollywood to get into acting and through that effort developed a relationship with Jay Glazer (of FOX NFL), and the two of them later founded what is now Merging Vets & Players.   

This story of the creation of MVP has now been brought to the big screen, and guess who is in the middle of all of that? Right!!  Our friend Nater Boyer. Not only was Nate a co-founder of MVP, he went on to write, direct, and star in this newly released full length motion picture - “MVP – The Movie”. The premier for the movie took place this past week and simultaneously appeared in over 30 venues across the US, with one in each of the cities that are home to an NFL team.   

The Hollywood premier was held at the AMC Grove Theater, and I had the great pleasure of being able to attend that event in person. Our veteran focus portion of this week’s show is a compilation of my interview on scene with Nate just before the premier showing of the movie, and then me working the Red Carpet with MVP Clinical Director Suzi Landolphi (who also has a brief role in the movie!!).   This episode also includes interviews before and after the Premier, with special guests and MVP members in attendance. One special and very exclusive interview is with Nate’s father Steven who shares some insights on his son’s career. I know you will enjoy getting a feel of the vibe that night which was indeed electric. But even more than that, you hear from folks about what MVP means to them, how it has impacted them, and what they thought of the movie.   

As for the movie itself, it was amazing and very well done. I strongly encourage you to see it as it does a marvelous job capturing the difficulties, struggles, and obstacles veterans and former professional athletes face on giving up “the uniform” and trying to transition back into “normal” life. It has some feel good moments, but it is also a hard and honest look at these struggles, along with the reality of the loss of so many veterans by suicide and the effort to make sure no one is left behind, no one feels alone, and working to move the number of suicides to ZERO.   

George and I also sit down and look at the Niners’ last game as well as upcoming opponents. We tackle some issues around recovery, diet/nutrition, and name the wine of the week. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did in putting it together!! 

Have a great week grounded in breath, mindfulness, kindness, and grace. All the best.   Bruce & Emma