(upbeat music)

♪ I'm always ready when it's game time ♪

♪ Hustle in my blood I'ma make minds ♪

♪ Where I'm trying to goit's gonna take time ♪

♪ You can earn yourrespect I'ma take mine ♪

♪ Hit 'em later my own I'm in the zone ♪

- Hello and welcome to Going the Distance

where we talk faith, sports,and everything in between.

And look, I know it's been a week

but I've got to give another shoutout

to the Women's National Soccer Team

that won their secondconsecutive World Cup,

making it their fourth.

And they did it with flare.

(laughs)

But here's what I don't understand.

Why aren't they paid more?

I mean, when compared tothe Men's National Team,

the women are paid far less

and there isn't a more dominantwomen's team on the planet.

So the federation needsto find a way to pay them.

I mean, they deserve it.

These women truly deserve it.

Now, for a lot of the NFLplayers, the NFL stands for

Not For Long

because the average player doesn't last

more than four to five years.

And that's why it is always wise to have

other interests outside of the game

so that when your career is over,

you don't retire broke andcan move into something else.

Like 12 year NFL veteran, Israel Idonije

Izzy was conducting business long before

his career was over.

Now he's in retirement

and he's still busy anddone quite well for himself.

Take a look.

(upbeat music)

Former Chicago Bearsdefensive end Israel Idonije

Spent 12 seasons in the NFL.

After retiring in 2014,

he has become a successful businessman

and I got a chance to catch up with him

at his new restaurant in Chicago.

Ah, there he is.

(laughter)

What's up, what's going on, man?

What's going on, brother?- Welcome, welcome.

- This is Eleven Eleven.- Chi city.

- This is your spot.- Yeah, this is our spot.

Come on in, man.

- [Shawn] All right, brother.

- [Israel] Come check it out.- Let's go.

- So welcome.

1111 West Lake Street.

This is our restaurant Eleven Eleven.

- Eleven Eleven?

- Eleven Eleven.- Why did you choose that?

- Well it was the addressand then 11 11 is actually,

just a really powerful number.

You know, they say whenyou see 11 11, you know,

make a wish, you know?

What do you want?

What are your heart'sdesires at that time?

Make a wish so this isreally a place, it's,

you know, for my kind of the concept it's,

you know, wishing.

It's not about wishingto be with the people

that you wanna be with, it'slike come to Eleven Eleven

with the people you loveand don't wish about it.

You know, come spend that time.

And the location, this isin the West Loop of Chicago,

which is an area that's on fire and

just the building, as you'll see upstairs,

I mean, it's a beautiful space.

- That's good stuff.

Well you ready to goupstairs and talk, man?

- Yeah, absolutely.- Let's get into it, brother.

I'll follow you.

(laughs)

In 2009, Israel, also called Izzy,

started his first business, Blessed,

a company that creates and distributes

pre-filled communion cupsto church organizations

across the country and around the world.

You started with one business,

(Israel laughs)

now you have several, soI'm gonna transition into--

- Some of my mentors wouldsay I should've stayed

on one business.

(laughter)

Like you are doing--

what else are you doing?

You know, as I look back,what really happened was

earlier on in my career,

I had a mentor tell me,

it was critical to figureout life after football

before I retired from the game.

Because once you're done,it's just different.

You know, even MichaelJordan said when he retired,

you know, people, theycalled him back still

'cause he's Michael Jordanbut they called him back

a day later.

While he was playing, beforehe could hang up the phone,

people were already calling him back.

It's different when your time has moved on

and this person in particular said,

"Izzy, when you retire, there's gonna be

"a new number 71 and that's the guy

"that we're gonna giveour sponsorship checks to,

"that's the guy we're gonna pay to like,

"come out to appearances, and

"it's just gonna be differenceso before you retire,

"figure out life after football."

And just being there, justthe impact that was like

I really have got to figure it out

before I retire.

So I just dove in and some tough lessons

in that journey, even withBlessed it was not easy.

- [Shawn] With the success of Blessed,

Izzy wanted to start another business

so he launched ATHLiTACOMiCS,

a comic book company thattakes animation and sports

to a whole new level.

- So comics were alwaysjust a passion, you know?

And I think to this day, the ability

or the power of narrative

is so important.

What you do is narrative, you tell stories

that people connectwith and that connection

allows them to like, in some capacity

transform their lives or

drive whatever they'retrying to break through

in their life.

That's narrative, that's story.

Comics are one of those thingsthat are just phenomenal

for connecting with kids, obviously,

but also adults.

It's just, it's whatever your message is,

comics as a tool allowsyou to tell that story.

I always felt that sports

and superhero, you know, characters,

that they really livedin the same universe

but no one had really toldthat story the right way.

So this year inparticular, 2007, I'm like,

"I'm gonna tell the origin story

"of athletes."

Their ability in sportis actually a byproduct

of this greater gift that'slatent, hidden in their genes.

And throughout the story, the characters,

once unlocked, they have adecision to make that, you know,

you're not just an athlete.

Your gift that you havewithin you is not just to

entertain on the field or on the court,

you have this greater giftthat was given to you to help

change lives andultimately, save the world.

- [Shawn] And on that premise,"The Protectors" was born.

Then in 2010, Izzy hadan unprecedented idea

with "Monsters of Midway."

(bear roar)

(mellow hip hop music)

- 2010, I pitched theBears on bridging the

comic superheroes to the real world

in this concept that I'vecalled sports heroes.

And the timing wasn't right then.

2017,

Scott Hagel reached out, I was actually

at practice and he said,

"Hey, I think it's time for us to

"do that new "Monsters ofthe Midway" comic concept."

So we started working on it and we built

all of the players for the Chicago Bears

as superheroes.

We built this narrative aroundthe city of Chicago, wherein

the new Monsters of the Midway

rise up every week todefend and protect Chicago

against their opponents.

And we created all the opponents

as these menacing charactersand it's been ridiculous.

- First of all, I gotta interject here.

(laughter)

Because what you didwas you brought the fans

a lot closer

to the players.

You brought--

you've made them a part of the story.

Let's protect the cityof Chicago together,

that kinda thing.

And I don't...

No one's done that before.

- Yeah, it's...

It was one of those things when we,

we knew the schedule release was gonna be

the first time the world saw it.

And we knew the releasewas coming, I mean,

we were all on pins andneedles 'cause no one,

like you said, no one's really done,

done it like we did.

Just committing tonarrative around a story,

a season, a team, a city, and

I mean, it won top fiveschedule release NFL...

I mean, everybody went nuts,my phone exploded like,

"Hey, that comic thing is off the charts."

(laughs)

The Chicago Bears, they'relike traditional, historic,

this is out of somethingthat they would usually do.

Again,

glory to God, I'm thankful,

I believed in it.

I'm thankful that the team believed in it

and gave me that approval, you know?

And I'm just really honored and thankful

that we have been able torepresent the team and the players

in a way that the city'sbeen able to enjoy.

- [Shawn] After the successof "Monsters of Midway"

and "The Protectors," Izzy tookhis entrepreneurial swagger

a bit further when he began writing

a children's book series.

- It was ultimately

I had done "The Protectors," and you know,

in sequence, my sister had at the time,

two little girls.

And "The Protectors," it's just,

you know, this epic kindof cosmic hero story but

for one, you know, one and a half to

a little too advanced.

So when I sat down, I was like you know,

I wanna create a universe for my nieces

and just for early readers.

And when I thought about whatI wanted the message to be,

you know, I truly believe that love

as just a core belief is asolution for a lot of the things

that our world are go--

you know, the issues that our world,

that we go through.

- So okay, so I have your books here.

"God Made Me" and

"God Made Football."- "God Made Football," yeah.

- You also have one for boys.

It's not just for girls,you have one for boys.

Now this character here...

- That's Little Izzy, yeah.

- Little Izzy, okay, okay.

All right, so if I go through here,

what part--

I want you to read.

Little Izzy, what part do you wanna read?

- Oh just, you know, Godmade me a special kid

with lots of gifts forall the world to see.

You know, from head totoe, my light will glow

bright and beautifully.

Just you know, again,

we created the book so it was sensory

focused for kids as well.

Bright colors, they cansee the butterflies, and

they again, when I read itto kids, like all right,

count the butterflies,count the bees, you know,

what color is this?

You know, just as many other

academic layers that wecould add to it is really

where we wanted to be.

We wanted this yeah, to be a great book

but to also give the parent or the reader

the opportunity to layerin other opportunities

for the kids.

You know?- That's great, man.

- God made my nose, it helpsme breathe the fresh, clean air

and summer breeze.

God made my hands, my fingers hold

the hands of those I love the most.

God made my mouth, I shout and say,

"I'm thankful for another day!"

(laughter)

God made my ears, they help me hear

my friends talking far and near.

- You cannot tell me that wasn't awesome.

And I'm not just talking aboutthe comic book style schedule

but also the children's books.

"God Made Me," "I Love Me."

Well look, I love that.

I once heard someonesay that you have to be

your own star player.

You can't love someone elseuntil you first love yourself.

So well done, Israel.

(claps)

Round of applause.

Well look, all of Israel'sbooks are on Amazon

so be sure to check them out.

Your kids will love them, I promise.

We'll be right back after this.

(mellow hip hop music)

(mellow hip hop music)

Well welcome back.

This next story confirms what it says

in 1st Corinthians 1:27

that God can use anyone.

After the loss of his mother,Sean Clayton's journey

from hate and drug addictionto redemption and forgiveness

is nothing short of a miracle from God.

But it's one that hasliterally put him on the road

towards a finish linewith multiple victories.

- It's just amazing like, howfar God can really take you,

you know, from being

a crack addict on the streetsto running ultra marathons

and sitting in Senators'houses having dinner with 'em.

We grew up in a trailer.

My dad, he decided he wasgonna send missionaries

and start a painting business.

- [Shawn] When Sean was12, his parents also made

the decision to adopt threechildren from Guatemala.

- Two sisters and a brother.

There was the difference in languages

but they started homeschooling with us.

They seemed happy, they werehappy to be in the family.

Me and my older brother,Ugo had started to work

with my dad.

Ugo has trouble 'cause he wasn't

waking up to go to worklike he's supposed to.

- [Shawn] A quiet dayof work was interrupted

by a phone call from the police.

Something was wrong at home.

Ugo was asking neighbors for help

and their mother was bleedingon the kitchen floor.

- Me and my dad were drivinghome trying to figure out

what was going on and wewere flying down the highway,

I was crying.

They had already taken mybrother, Ugo, back down

to the house to start getting his story.

He said that he walked in the house,

somebody was in the house with a bandana,

they ran past him out the back door,

he saw my mom layingon the ground bleeding,

and ran up the street.

Then all these things weren't lining up.

- [Shawn] By that night,police had pieced together

the real events.

- Around like, threeo'clock in the afternoon,

he was playing the Nintendo,playing video games.

My mom told him that heneeded to go do his school.

He ended up bringing the math book in,

had the knife under themath book and she grabbed it

and saw the knife and screamed

and that's when he killed her.

He was 14.

He ended up getting charged as a juvenile

and he got sentencedto 11 years in prison.

I thought my mom's life was worth

more than 11 years inprison and so basically,

from that point on I decidedI was gonna kill him.

I would get a premeditated murder charge,

I would either go to prisonfor the rest of my life

or I would receive thedeath penalty so like I,

I never even pictured reallyliving past 27, you know?

I was pretty angry at God,

like I didn't understand, you know?

My mom loved people so muchthat she was gonna adopt them

and take them out of ahorrible situation, basically,

and then he just lets my brother kill her.

Like that, I just couldn't deal with it.

I was mad at the world.

I ran away from home,

I spent my 15th birthdayin the children's home,

I started fighting, I started using drugs.

- [Shawn] Hoping to puthim on a different path,

Shawn was sent to military school.

- I got kicked out when I was 16,

came back to South Carolina,and my dad was like,

"You need to do something,

"try and join the military or something,"

so I was like well, ifI join the military,

I have extra money and

I can sell drugs.

Dad signed off on it, I turned 17 in June,

and I went into the military in September.

I was always fighting, Iwas still getting arrested

in the military for fighting.

And so I was drinking a lot,smoking crack quite a bit

right before I went to Afghanistan.

- [Shawn] While deployed to Afghanistan,

Sean continued hisself-destructive behavior.

But one night he went too far.

- I started drinking andI ended up blacking out

and I was just laying on the ground

and so they took me to the medical tent

to try and get me awake.

And they finally got me awakeand I wanted to walk out

and one of 'em grabbed me.

And grabbed me, I hit him andanother guy tried to grab me

and I hit them and

ended up with about five assault charges.

- [Shawn] Facing 13 chargestotaling 36 years in prison,

Sean began to reflect and pray.

- I remember just thinking about life

and how it was just gonna go on and that

I really didn't matter like,

my whole life had beenso self-centered on me

being this bad dude and

killing my brother andit was like somebody--

it was just all me.

I remember just sitting there being like,

I'm gonna be like 50 years old,

the entire world is gonna go on without me

and it's not gonna make any difference.

I started praying, Istarted reading my Bible.

I remember praying and

just hearing God say like,

"This is the last time I'mgonna get you out of something."

And shortly after that,

I had a meeting with my lawyer over there

and they said if I would take

the Other Than Honorable discharge

that I would leave the military,

I would end up spending30 days in jail, and

I would like, lose my pay for two months

and then I would have theOther Than Honorable discharge

and I would leave the military.

- [Shawn] Sean served histime and was immediately

discharged from the military.

- [Sean] I came back,I was definitely like,

dealing with the PTSD stuff.

I stopped sleeping at night.

I didn't have a job and Idid start drinking again

and smoking weed.

- [Shawn] Feeling trapped,Sean eventually accepted

his father's invitation to attend church.

- Yeah, I think I was justsearching for answers.

The pastor was preaching on

1st John chapter fourwhere he's talking about

how can you

say you love God whom you have not seen

and hate your brother whom you have seen.

I was just thinking about like,

my brother that he killed my mom and

you know, I know it'stalking about your neighbor

but for me, I was like howcould I love my brother after

he killed my mom?

And so I started to wrestle with that for

a couple weeks.

I remember just--

it was almost like everyday or so, I'd be like,

"You know, God, how could I love him

"after he killed my mother?

"How could I forgive himafter he killed my mother?"

Just one day I was asking that question,

it was like almost--

it wasn't audible but it waslike the answer that I got back

was how could I love youwhen you killed my son?

And I just understoodthe weight of my sin and

you know, that Jesus had died for me

and I understood what lovewas from that point on.

I have to forgive him.

Like, who am I not to forgive somebody

if this is what I've been forgiven of?

I've been forgiven of the death of Jesus.

So I knew I had to forgivehim and that was a big point,

that was a big changing point in my life.

Stop doing, stop smoking weed altogether.

I wasn't getting drunk, you know?

Like, I wasn't out looking for fights

or anything like that,like that was all gone.

I got married at 18right before I deployed.

It was so changing that my wife was like,

"What is happening to you?"

Like she just didn't understand it.

We started going to church regularly.

And I was growing a lot,I was starting to do

evangelism stuff, outreach stuff, and

trying to get my lifeback together, really.

- [Shawn] Sean was stillsearching for a challenge

and larger purpose when a manager at work

suggested an idea.

- He said that he wasgonna go run a marathon

and I was like,

"Well that sounds pretty cool."

And I found a half marathon

with Spartan Beast and they were like,

"This is the hardest event ever.

"It's gonna kill you,you're not gonna finish,

"blah blah blah."

So I started doing the obstacle races

and loved the challenge.

And I started getting better.

So the Ninja Warrior, my family told me

that I needed to do that.

They told me it was justa bunch of obstacles

and I was good at obstacles.

Put a video together, sentit in, and they were like,

"We want you to come on the show."

It was definitely coolto see like what God did

with all that.

I was meeting police chiefs,I was meeting mayors,

they were giving mecertificates, you know, for

being an outstanding citizenand being a role model.

Here I am, you know,this ex like gang member,

crack addict, and like

I'm sitting in a Senator'shouse having dinner with him,

I'm like only God can do that stuff.

- [Shawn] A few years later, God restored

Sean's military standing.

- I ended up getting mymilitary discharge upgraded

and they upgraded it to Honorable.

So I didn't even know butI got all my benefits back.

I have a successful marriageand I've been married 11 years,

I have kids that are happy.

I'm still very busy,full time with school,

working, and training, but Ihave more opportunities now.

It really is a God thing,

I never could've imaginedthose are the things

that I would be doing afterthe life that I did live.

You know, the people thatare out there like I was,

well you know, what are you waiting on?

Stop running from God, give him a chance,

and your life can be completely changed.

- Wow.

1 Corinthians 1:27 says,

"But God chose the foolishthings of the world

"to shame the wise.

"And God chose the weakthings of the world

"to shame the strong."

See, God can use anything or anybody.

So like Sean said, stop running from God

because he can use you.

And look, you don't haveto brush yourself off

to make yourself look better.

Come as you are.

Ephesians 2:10 says,

"For we are his workmanship,created in Jesus Christ

"for good works, whichGod prepared beforehand

"that we should walk in them."

So see?

You are original, wonderfully made.

The Lord can use you just the way you are.

Look, we'll be right back after this.

(mellow hip hop music)

Well I'd like to thank you for joining us

and be sure to tune in next week for more

faith, sports, and everything in between.

And remember, life is short,

go the distance.

See you next time.

(mellow hip hop music)