(upbeat music) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."

My name is Rob Sharkey, and I'm a fifth generation farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

It's not America's sport, but it should be.

Football, the grid iron.

Men being men.

But what happens when one of those grid iron warriors is now farming?

Well, we're sure gonna invite him on this show.

Today, we're gonna be talking with Cody White.

- How you doing, Cody?

- Doing well.

How are you guys doing?

- I'm doing fine.

You're Maroa, Morora, Illinois.

- Maroa.

- Moroa.

ú- Hard A.

- Okay, Maro- (Cody laughing) I was hearing what you were saying there for a second.

(both laughing) Where is that?

- We are just about 30 minute directly north of Decatur, Illinois.

Where the Farm Progress Show is.

Every other year, so.

- Is that where you're from originally?

- Originally from Bloomington, Illinois, which is just a little bit further north of that.

- Okay.

You were big into playing chess at what?

ISU?

- Yeah, chess team, top- (both chuckling) No, no chess for me.

- So you play football professionally.

We'll kind of go chronologically.

Growing up, did you just?

Were you always good at sports?

- Yeah, yeah, I mean, the good Lord blessed me with some abilities, and some size, and different things.

So I was always drawn to sports.

And just was usually one of their players, and tried to carry that on.

- [Rob] You moved around quite a bit as a kid, right?

- Yes, yes.

Let's see here.

Born in Ohio, moved to Indiana, over to Pennsylvania, first stop in Illinois, out to Colorado, out to Arizona, then ended up in Illinois by the time I was in fourth grade.

So all those were about two years, we'd up and leave.

- Okay.

Playing sports I assumed, help make friends.

I mean, that's how you kind of make friends, right?

Especially if you're good, everybody's gonna like 'ya.

- Yeah, it makes the transition really easy.

Especially as a young kid.

You know, those first time, you're trying to figure out how to introduce yourself.

And you get friends, and then you leave 'em.

And as you're coming along as a kid.

So playing sports opened a lot of doors, made the transition easy.

If you're good a something, people start to pay attention, kind of wanna be your friend a little bit.

So that helped me maybe get some friends (laughing).

- Has it always been football?

- It wasn't always football.

It was pretty heavy basketball.

- [Rob] Yeah, you're tall.

How tall are you?

- So, I'm 6'4"".

And honestly, basketball was my first love.

I played football, I started at seven.

And then, once I quit growing and not too many 6'3"-6'4" white guys are playing in the NBA, I decided to focus heavily on football, probably about my sophomore year of high school.

That's when I made the decision I wanted to go play at a higher level in that sport.

- Do you have a good high school program?

- We did.

We actually had it, when I came in as a freshman, we had a coaching change.

The program actually had not been doing very well.

And we had some good coaches come in, guys I still stay in touch with.

And I was helped, kind of re-write the shift of that program.

So that was a lot of fun, we how, can seem to have success, perennially playoff team, stuff like that.

- Well a lot of people may have not realized, you take somebody, and look like your talent, and you put them in a program that doesn't have a good weight program, doesn't have good trainers, and that, and it's probably not gonna go anywhere.

- Yeah, that's the thing.

If you ever get a chance, if you have a good high school program in your area, or really go see what the coach is doing behind the scenes.

Because, that's really what drives a program.

You get, you can get some talent put on the field.

But, a lot of these top-tier programs, their weights, they got guys showing up for weights.

Guys are doing well in school, they're punctual on time.

There's a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that actually can bring you to that next level.

- So the decision to play for Illinois State.

What was a driving factor in that?

- I took a couple of visits, I had some options, some scholarship offers.

So I took my visits.

And went and saw the towns, met the coaches.

Really for me it was just the school, I enjoyed the school, it was a bigger school, but still had a smaller field.

The coaches, I enjoyed the coaches when I took my visit.

They were coming off pretty successful, a couple of successful seasons in a row.

And it just felt, that just kind of a gut feeling.

And we've talked about this before.

But I mean, as an 18-year-old, it's kind of a hard decision.

- [Rob] Oh, yeah.

- Because it's dictating your future.

And it's kind of a heavy decision.

But, I'm really happy.

I can look back at it and say I chose, I made a good choice.

- Well I mean, I'm pretty experienced with it, because I watched to program back in the 90s.

(Cory chuckling) A great football move.

(Cory chuckling) So I mean, it looks like they take you out to Kappa.

They take you to the nudie bars.

- You weren't supposed to bring that one up.

- They buy you a tractor and all that stuff.

Is any of that true?

- Oh man, some of those movies get, they get a little out there.

But there is your official visits.

You go out, the coaches turn you over, you have a host player.

And that can try and to lead you wherever your little heart desires.

(both laughing) - Okay, so you play there.

That went well.

- Yes.

- You guys, you did very well.

- Yeah, yeah.

I was fortunate to have really good coaches, really good strength coaches.

I bought in, and made a choice of my level of play, what I wanted it to be.

And ended up having a good, pretty healthy career.

- What position?

- So I came in actually as a tight end.

So I played tight end my first two years.

And then, actually my red shirt year, red shirt freshman and sophomore year.

So, three.

And then, moved to left tackle, my junior year of my college career.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- That's a significant change.

- It was.

Yeah I mean, I just kept in the weight room.

They're feeding us.

- [Rob] Offensive tackle?

- Just kept getting bigger.

Offensive tackle, left tackle.

- So it was your job- - I was putting on size.

- You didn't want people to get to the quarterback?

- Yes, that became my job.

It was a little bit of blocking, a little bit of pass catching.

And then, it became protecting the quarterback.

- When was this?

What year were you, did you switch to offense of tackle?

- This would of been 2010.

- When did that movie come out with Sandra Bullock?

- Oh, I think it was close to that time.

That "Blindside?"

- That was a great movie.

- It was a good movie, good story right there.

That was a good movie.

- Because all of a sudden, nobody ever pays attention to offensive tackle.

- Only until you make a mistake.

- Exactly.

(Cory laughing) - But every great team, their offensive line, it never fails, but like, they get no credit.

- Yeah, and if you don't hear about the offensive line, it means that things are usually going pretty good for you.

(both laughing) - Okay, so did you play it four years, then?

- Yeah, so four years.

I red shirt freshman years, they red shirt you, you don't play on the field, as kind of an improvement year.

- So then what happens?

Because I mean, everybody knows about the draft and how that works.

What was your story?

- Yeah, so teams were visiting.

I was coming out, teams were coming out, talking to me.

- [Rob] Like pro teams?

- Yeah, yeah.

They send out scouts.

They got scouts that go all over the nation, and have certain regions and stuff.

- Okay, not to interrupt you, but- - Yeah?

- I didn't think that really happened, right?

I mean I thought they were these specific high-end players, at these big-name schools.

But they're sending pro scouts out to ISU?

- Yeah.

Yes, so they're sending out guys.

They're always, the NFL, they're always kind of looking for those diamond in the rough guys, 'cause they're out there.

You might not be at a school that's playing on national television every week, or playing in high-level games, but there's a lot of really good players out there that just maybe developed later.

You know, didn't go to Ohio State, or a Big 10 School.

And just developed later.

And become good pros in the long run.

So they have, NFL teams have whole scouting departments broken up into regions, and they're going, I mean, they're going to all sorts of schools, every level.

- Okay, that had to be exciting.

- Yeah, yeah, it was exciting.

Obviously, it was something I was working towards, and once those guys came, started sniffing around, asking about me, it kind of made things set in a little bit.

Okay, this could be a reality for me.

And just try to keep doing what I was doing.

- You are a massive individual.

But I look at the tackles in the pros, - Oh, yeah.

- They kind of dwarf you.

- So I played, my playing weight, so I was like we said earlier, I was 6'4".

My playing weight was about 310.

And I was on the smaller end of that scale.

- That's something.

- Yes.

- Oof.

- You're talking about big athletic guys.

- Yeah.

(both chuckling) - Okay, so you weren't in the draft.

But, tell me how you got to the NFL?

- Yeah, so I was what you called an un-drafted free agent.

Once the draft ends, there's seven rounds of the NFL draft.

And once that draft ends, there's kind of a whole another scramble afterwards.

So teams are kind of talking to you throughout the draft.

And they're asking, you're picking up possible deals.

Hey, we'll sign you after this.

So really, after the draft ends, your agent is talking to teams, you've been talking to teams.

And there's whole another wave of contracts signed and agreements made.

- Huh.

- So, there's a lot that goes on after that draft for a day, or two, honestly.

- So, ended up in Texas.

- Yep.

- Was that the only option?

- It wasn't the only option.

But one of the good things about being an un-drafted guy, was I kind of got to pick my destination.

So I was able to see how they drafted that year.

Where their holes were going into the draft, on the offensive align, how they drafted, and how I'd fit in the scheme, or fit into who was coming in brand new.

- I never thought about that.

- It actually, it could make a world of difference in how long you can hang around.

- You didn't wanna go to a team that was like stacked with pro bowl tackles.

- Right?

So you, everybody, I always said I want to be drafted.

But when it comes to the seventh round, you might go somewhere where it doesn't set you up for the most success that you can have.

So it kind of puts you in a tough spot.

So, it was kind of a blessing to be un-drafted guy.

Be able to choose my destination, and get in where I fit in.

- Okay, so they signed you, you made it.

- Yep.

- You were in the NFL.

Was this like your dream?

This is what you were striving for?

- Yeah, I mean ever since I could remember, I said basketball was one of my loves.

But I loved football, and dreamed about playing it also.

And it was, it was really surreal to be there.

And you got, I mean, all of a sudden you're walking in the locker room and you're teammates with Andre Johnson, who's gonna be a hall-of-famer.

I mean, you got J.J. Watt in there.

I mean, you got these dudes, right?

That you've been watching on TV, that you looked up to, and now, you're teammates.

So, I was trying to figure out how to bring that back down, because really the work was just starting.

But how to handle yourself like a professional.

- Injury happened.

- Yes.

- Early on.

- Yep.

- Tell me about that.

- Yeah so, we were going into my third year.

I was going into training camp.

I kind of had a three year plan here.

By my third year, I wanted to be, trying to work myself into the starting lineup, or into some rotation, playing time.

And I finally had that opportunity.

Opened up camp, running with the ones, on the offensive on right guard.

And a couple of plays in, a couple of days into camp, and we were in a team period, ended up blowing out my achilles tendon.

Just kind of a, it was a play action pass, and I blocked down, and I thought the tackle, threw his tackle guy on me.

And to come to find out, my achilles just tore off, and I feel down, and once I got up, and kind of walked, hobbled off, I knew- - I was gonna say, could you even get up?

- I couldn't.

I tried to get up, and I was like "Why?"

Because obviously you have a lot of adrenaline going.

I mean, your adrenaline's going.

- Yeah but, you don't have an achilles anymore.

- But I didn't realize, because all I could hear in my head was my old college coach saying, ""Get up, get up, "don't like on the ground."

- "Are you dead?"

- So, I'm trying to get up.

And my foot is not working.

And finally, my teammates help me up.

And then, I had another teammate that had actually done that the year before during the season.

And once things kind of slowed down, and settled in, and I didn't even have to get my tape off and my cleat off, I knew the foot wasn't working.

So yeah, torn achilles, ended my season there.

And kind of, kind of ended everything.

- Did you know that was it?

- No, in my mind, I'm never out of it.

I just felt sorry for myself for a little bit there.

And then, had surgery.

And then just, I was gonna rehab the best I could.

And make sure I didn't leave anything on the table.

So if it did come to an end, I could live with myself.

So it was really never over in my mind until it really was.

Where I had to make a choice.

And it wasn't necessarily over, but I had to make a choice for me and my family, and where to go from that time.

- It's gotta be heartbreaking.

- It was.

It was a really hard time, very lonely.

'Cause one of the best things about football is locker room, the comradery with the guys.

Being a team, one goal.

And all of a sudden, you're on the outside looking in.

You're in the training room alone, you're not at practice, you're not in all the meetings.

- [Rob] Oh yeah.

- It's a little bit different in NFL, because once you go on IR, you're kind of separated.

You're not in everything.

It was a lonely time.

Mentally draining, fatiguing.

So it took a lot.

I had end up actually, met up with the, the team offered a good, kind of sport psychiatrist guy.

And that made a world of difference for me, being able to talk to him, and talk things out.

And but it definitely increased my mental toughness.

- When I first started at farming, it did not go well.

And immediately, my life-dream of being a farmer, I thought was over.

And it takes away your identity.

I know there's some, for me, there was a lot of humorous in that, but it was like my identity was gone.

And I struggled with that so bad.

Was that anything like?

- That's a really good point you bring up right there, because yes, as much as I tried not to be, my identity to be "I'm a football player."

It was.

And it was, I had to eat, breathe, and sleep being a football player.

And all my training, my whole life revolved around that.

To be able to be at the highest level I could be.

So once that came to an end, that was really hard to deal with internally.

'Cause I didn't really know who I was at first for a little bit of stretch there.

- You worked so hard for it.

- And there's just, all of a sudden, your life is completely changed, and you have, just have to figure out different goals, objectives, and yeah, you kind of lose your identity a little bit, and you have to figure out how to create a new one, or move on and get better, so.

- I could literally talk about this all day, but we're gonna move on.

You studied ag in college, is that right?

- Yes, yep.

- And what did you do?

Well first of all, where did you meet the wife?

- I met my wife at Illinois State University, where I went to school.

She actually played volleyball there, also.

- [Rob] She tall?

- She is 6'1".

- [Rob] Your kids.

(both laughing) Yeah, Mallory is her name.

So when you were going through all this with football, you were married to her?

- Yeah, so yeah.

We got married in 2014, in June.

And then there was actually going into camp, a month later that I tore my achilles and she had to put up me, and take care of me at the house.

(Cory chuckling) - Unfortunately, I've done a horrible job with this interview, so I'm gonna jump ahead.

You're now farming- - Yeah.

- On her family's farm.

Correct?

- Yeah so, I came back and started working with her father-in-law, Vernon Liggett.

- And you had, I mean you had some ag experience, but you never farmed, is that right?

- No, I didn't grow up, obviously grew up in somewhat in a farming community, was always interested by it.

Never really got involved due to always being busy with sports, so.

- So, okay.

Sometimes it goes well to work with family, sometimes it's not so well.

I mean, was there some hurdles?

- Yeah, I think there's always, there's been hurdles, and there always is.

But we figured out how to work with each other.

And he's been patient with me.

And then, gotten on me when he needs to get on me.

As I learned how to manage at a high level, how to navigate, and how to take on more and more stuff, within the operation, so there's been growing pains, absolutely, but- - Oh, not just farming.

Anybody that works with family.

- And if you have heart- - Even if you have no arguments, yeah it's some price.

- It's hard when you're around somebody that much, at work, plus outside of work.

There's bound to be some heads butting.

- [Rob] Plus, you're gonna have bad days.

- Oh yeah, bad days, yeah.

(Rob chuckling) - Yeah, yeah.

When everyone is tired in the middle of harvest, and just, yeah.

- All right, so you also, you're a dealer for Whyffels?

- Yeah, I have, I'm a cedar rep, I have a dealership there with Whyffels Hybrids.

- Okay, not everybody knows what that means.

Like the people that are watching.

So, what do you do.

- So basically for me, at the farm level, I just, I go around and sell seed, that's what I do.

But Wyffels Hybrids is, we're just a seed corn company, that's all we sell.

We don't do chemicals, we don't do beans.

They're based up in Atkinson, Illinois.

We just broke ground on a new production facility in Iowa.

And it is a third-generation family-owned, farm-family company.

So a lot of their morals and everything aligns with me.

And I get to, I have no problem knocking on someone's door and selling them some seed.

- I bet not.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) - You don't knock like this, it's more of the... Yeah.

Wyffels didn't sponsor us, so we'll probably just cut all that out.

- Yeah, that's probably, that's gonna have to be.

(Rob laughing) - Tell me how that goes.

When you show up to a farmer, and you try to sell him seed, they probably know who you are.

- Yeah.

- And you probably talk football and all that.

Are you able to close that sale at the end?

- I try my hardest.

And football is a great conversation starter.

And most of them do now.

I don't go around talking about it a ton.

But obviously small towns talk, and a lot of the guys know.

And it is a great way to have a conversation with somebody, at least start opening some doors.

But you still gotta kind of put your salesman hat on.

- Tell me about moving into being like a coach, and a speaker, and those type of roles.

- Yeah, so I've kind of taken on some youth coaching roles.

It's been a lot of fun.

- [Rob] Do you yell?

- I try not to.

- [Rob] C'mon.

- But I did have my first flag football practice with kindergarten, first grade boys.

So, there might be, we know how those little boys are.

So there might be some hollering that goes on.

But no, it's such a fun time, just pure form of the sport.

And trying to get the help, mold them with some skills, and life-lessons.

And then yeah, a couple of speaking engagements I've been asked to do.

And I enjoy telling my story, and telling tribulations I went through, what worked for me, what didn't.

How did I get through them, and just try to share that with people, and give them something to maybe, a crutch to lean on, or think about when something's tough.

- Well you walk down the streets, Cory, and you say "Hey, how many professional footballs players have you met?"

They're either gonna say "Zero," or they're gonna tell you the names of everybody.

So, you're in a small, small club of people that have been able to make it to the NFL.

So wanting to hear that story, and wanting to be inspired you, because I mean, everybody wants you, like they don't want to grow up to be, I don't know?

A lawyer, they wanna be a football player, and that.

So that's gotta feel cool.

- It does feel cool.

Yeah, I try not to, I did something exceptional.

But I don't ever try to put myself above anybody.

I mean, I just- - [Rob] But you're hyped as that.

(both laughing) - And the good Lord blessed me with some abilities.

But in features.

But I had to put a lot of things together.

And I try to reiterate that to people.

That there's a lot of ways to overcome many things.

And it's a lot of work to do.

- Illinois Soybean Association awarded you their 20 under 40 Award.

Okay so I mean, you've had a ton of success on the field.

Now that you've moved into this agriculture career of farming, it's gotta be cool to be recognized for that.

- Yeah, it was.

I knew I got nominated.

And I mean I was like "Okay."

The knock on the door came, or the phone call came, and said "Hey, you have been, "you're a 20 under 40 this year."

And it was actually a really enjoyable moment for me.

I don't do what I do for recognition.

But I'm trying to do things at a high level, trying to set a standard.

And to be a, there's been a lot of hard work behind the scenes to get to where I'm at.

And to be, for someone to take notice of that, and to kind of show me that I am on the right track.

'Cause I mean, I think, you're always questioning yourself, right?

Am I doing things right?

Am I doing things well enough?

- [Rob] Never.

- To...yeah.

(Cory laughing) And to have something come through and say, "Hey, you've been nominated and awarded this."

It kind of, it was a very good feeling.

- You know, farmers, we're probably under one percent of the population.

It's hard to get, people to understand what we do, right?

Because they fear being dangerous, because we're producing their food.

And we have a hard time explaining how safe everything is, and how nutritious and affordable everything is.

The one percent, you're so small.

The, utilizing someone like yourself, that has already a platform.

It already is gonna give people attention, I think is invaluable.

So as a farmer, you really don't have a choice, you have to speak up.

- Yeah, and that's what I've come to find out.

'Cause honestly, I've never been much of a talker.

But I've figured out that I do have somewhat of a platform, and I want to advocate in a positive way, and try to do a lot of these things for the ag community.

- Are you onto social media?

- I am.

- Where can people find you?

- I'm on Instagram, codywhite56 Twitter handle- - [Rob] five six?

- That was my number, 56.

- [Rob] I was gonna say.

- In college, yeah, number 56.

- [Rob] I thought it was- - Twitter is Hank, underscore it, 56.

- [Rob] Okay.

- Like "Hank It", you know that Justin Moore song?

You gotta hank it?

- Oh!

That's what you named your Twitter?

- Kind of like a country turn up.

You know, what do they say?

"Turn up" these days?

- There's a lot going in it.

- The country version.

- Thank hank of yours said that.

- This was like 2007!

(both laughing) I was in college, I didn't know Twitter was gonna be what it was.

(both laughing) - Well cool, like I said, to me someone like yourself, that can talk to people that I can't.

Because I can rattle off top of my head, people aren't going to listen.

You, knowing that you're a professional football player, and the story, and getting people into that, you're able to communicate what I do as a farmer, to other people better than most.

So, I wanna thank you for that.

Because it helps, what you are doing, helps my farm.

And I really appreciate that.

I know others appreciate that.

Obviously the Illinois Soybean Association appreciates that, so thank you.

- Your welcome, thank you.

- All right.

(closing music begins) I think now is the time where we arm wrestle.

- Okay.

(music continues) (Cody laughing) - How about we just end the show.

Cody White.

Thank you for being on the show, really, really appreciate it.

Everyone else, we'll catch you next week.

(upbeat music)