(audience clapping) - Welcome back, everybody.
I'm here with Jaren Lewison and Sterling K. Brown.
Give it up.
(audience clapping) (audience cheering)
My next guest is one of the best high school athletes
in the country.
The actual country.
Standing 6'5" and still growing, y'all.
Malachi Coleman was recruited
by more than 40 schools to play football.
He chose his hometown,
signing with the University of Nebraska in Lincoln.
Even more incredible is his journey to get here
after a rough start in the foster system.
He says kindness and love
are the only reasons he's come so far.
Now he's giving back, which makes him a Rad Human.
(upbeat music) (audience clapping)
Alright, everybody, here to share his extraordinary story,
please welcome Malachi and his parents, Miranda and Craig.
(audience clapping) (audience cheering)
So, meet everybody.
Everybody say hi.
- Hey. - How y'all doing?
- So, Malachi, it was an extremely tough road
to get to this moment, right?
- Yeah.
So my mom was an alcoholic and a drug addict,
so she wasn't really in the picture.
And my father died when we were young,
so he wasn't in the picture either.
So we were homeless,
and it was kind of just me taking care of my sister,
doing whatever I could.
And eventually my mom, she picked us up,
took us to a stranger's house and said, "I'll be back."
And that was the last time I ever saw her.
- Wow.
- We were in the foster system for about four years,
and it kind of continued to be another dark part of my life
'cause you've got people looking you in the eyes saying,
"We don't want you.
You're not good enough for our home.
We're moving you on."
And even when I got to the family I'm with now,
I didn't try and build a relationship with anybody
'cause I was scared, I got passed on a lot.
- Well, why would you at that point
when you've been shown nothing like that before?
So, Miranda and Craig,
you never expected to adopt, right?
- No. - No.
- [Kelly] Yeah, how'd that happen?
- Yeah, Craig and I had been married
for about a year-and-a-half
and knew we didn't wanna have children of our own.
Thought we could temporarily help
one kid in the foster system.
Started taking the licensing classes,
and our last day of class, they handed me two profiles
and said, "We want you to adopt these two kids."
And I about fell on the floor.
Started doing some weekend visits
with Malachi and Nevaeh,
and pretty soon they were with us full-time.
- [Kelly] Wow.
- Yeah, he showed up at our house
with just a garbage bag full of clothes and a football,
and a dream to play football.
He had never really played organized sports,
but when we got to talking about it
we went outside and were throwing the ball around.
He could throw the ball harder than I could.
So he would really, as the visits came along,
he would really start to kind of burn hot
if we had to tell him some bad news.
So we used that to our advantage.
And actually right before football practice
we would go ahead and give him the bad news
and tell him, "Go burn it off."
(audience laughing)
- Yeah, you learned.
I imagine a lot of that had to do with fear though.
Fear of like, you know,
the same thing that had been happening your whole life
was gonna happen again.
You know? - [Craig] Absolutely.
- When it came to stuff like that.
Sterling, this is kind of incredible because, I mean,
this is a similar story to, you know, "This Is Us".
- Yeah, it is.
- Do you ever have families stop you, by the way?
Because it seems like such a particular story,
but I think a lot more families can relate to that message
and what the family went through.
- All the time.
In airports blended families will say,
"You gave us the courage to open up our hearts
to bring this young person into our lives."
I just want to take my hat off real quick
and just say like,
to not think that you were gonna have a family,
to open your heart up, to know that you were in a position
to give love and an environment to a young man to foster,
and to the best version of themselves.
God bless you all.
- That's gorgeous. (audience clapping)
- You're welcome.
- Did y'all ever see "This Is Us"?
Have you ever seen it?
Because it's kind of nuts.
(all laughing)
- We did watch it.
We actually sat down and watched it as a family,
and it was really kind of interesting
the conversations that came up from watching.
- That's what I mean, that's nuts.
Yeah, the similarities.
- It stirred some pretty deep conversations.
- Which is actually really great.
What a powerful vessel that show was
for probably so many families.
It's hard for people to have conversations in any family.
It's those hard conversations that progress us as a family.
But it's for somebody to make that first step
and to be open to take it is a big deal.
Malachi, you say sports weren't enough though,
so that you were still struggling.
How so?
- Yeah, so I was still empty, like an emotionless person.
I was always running hot
with pretty much everything. - Feeling a little vacant.
- And my mom noticed that.
So she sat me down to the table
and she had a conversation with me,
and she wanted me to find a way to help one person.
This super simple task, something you can do every day.
And I was being very naive.
I said no to everything
for about 30, 40 minutes at that table.
(Kelly laughing)
And eventually, kind of in despair, she said,
"Can you hold a door for one person?"
And I thought about it, thought about it for a second.
I said, "Yeah, I can do that."
So I did it the next day.
And the appreciation that person just showed me,
just that little quick thank you,
was something that I never had up to that point in my life.
I never had the feeling of being wanted.
I never had that.
And it just made me want to do it more and more,
and made me want to open my heart up
to everybody that I possibly could.
So, that's kinda made me who I am today.
(audience clapping)
- Okay, all from opening a door.
I'm like, what an incredible idea,
after the 40 turned down ones. (laughs)
So, Miranda, you were shocked by the turnaround, right?
- Absolutely.
So I really kind of thought it was over after that day,
I wasn't bringing it up again.
That was a long conversation.
(all laughing)
But over time to watch it unfold, really seeing him,
you know, randomly holding a door for a stranger,
or for Craig and I, or for his sister,
and then the whole congregation at church.
And just to start seeing that unfold turns into, you know,
he's playing high school basketball
and there was a gentleman struggling to get to his seat,
and he, during warmups, leaves the court
to go help this gentleman to his seat,
and then goes back like nothing had happened.
And just seeing it unfold, what his heart really was,
right before our eyes, was great.
- And you're honestly probably seeing
who you really have been the whole time,
but have never been given the chance to show.
- [Miranda] 100%.
- Right, so that's the most beautiful part.
So, Craig, Miranda,
Malachi did something that surprised both of you though.
What was it?
- Alright, so Nebraska recently passed an opportunity
for high schoolers to profit off of their name,
image, and likeness.
(audience clapping) - Which is incredible.
- Absolutely.
And it still allows 'em to keep their amateur status.
And so, unbeknownst to us,
he would actually go out and do the research,
contact the governing body there in Nebraska
and figure out what he could and couldn't do
to really be able to make money off of his NIL.
- So he came home and said, - [Kelly] He's smart.
- "I'm gonna reach out to Nick at Muchachos.",
a local burrito shop in Lincoln.
"And I'm gonna ask him if he's willing
to do the first high school NIL deal."
So we went down and met with Nick,
and he has his own burrito called The Giverito.
- [Malachi] Yeah!
- Oh my God, that's incredible!
(audience clapping)
I think this is what I love too.
So, Malachi, how do you wanna use the money?
- I'm making sure that it's given to foster care kids
that didn't have the same opportunities that I had.
So recently I started a foundation called Fly Like Chi,
Chi being my nickname to all my family and close friends,
where I'm able to do that so they can do
any activity they want, whether it's arts,
whether it's music, dance, sports.
I want them to have the opportunity to kind of
take care of themselves in a way that I couldn't
when I was in the foster system.
- And find themselves, I found myself through art.
You know what I'm saying?
I feel like once you find something you're passionate about,
you feel like people are recognizing that you're good at,
like sports for you, especially.
There's a level of confidence that comes from that
and changes your personality,
and who you become in the future.
It's so important.
And the fact that you're so young,
you've been through so much,
and your first idea is to give back
to the kid that you were?
That's an incredible heart you have in there.
Just letting you know.
You're being a good example for your sister as well.
That's a cool thing,
always looking out for your little sister.
So, Jaren and Sterling,
have your personal experiences inspired you to give back
since you made it?
You know, we made it in what we wanted to do.
- Absolutely, I mean,
nobody gets to where they are by themselves.
And if you think that you do, (audience clapping)
then you got another thing to think about.
So whether it's through mentoring,
whether it's through charity, or through altruism
or what have you, like, Brown love the kids.
So anytime there's young people involved,
I try to be involved.
- That's incredible.
- Yeah, I think that it's exactly that.
And I think giving back and investing in local communities
and things that you're passionate about
are always ways that you can inspire positivity.
It's something that I definitely want to do.
I'm really passionate about mental health.
I would love to follow in your footsteps
and do some kind of a charity
working with kids through sports.
I also played football in high school.
I was not as good as you,
but I did play. (audience laughing)
- Pretty good.
- And I think that it's a really great way to help,
and again, invest in a community and make a difference.
So, it's amazing what you're doing.
- I think it's the opportunity, right?
'Cause I grew up without any money,
and it was the opportunity, 'cause people forget arts
and even, you know, athleticism,
all that stuff in school.
I realize it isn't the straight up academics part of school,
but it's just as important for mental health,
(audience clapping) for finding your circle
and your friends, for figuring out who you are.
It's so important.
And that really saved me, and I think a lot of people.
So, how do you feel about how far you've come?
Because you're so young, you have so much to do.
But, how do you feel about how far you've come?
- Without these two people right here,
I don't even think I'd be alive today.
I'm not gonna lie.
(audience clapping)
- Okay, you already made me cry once, now I'm crying.
We reached out to our friends at Dude Wipes
who love supporting great causes, young entrepreneurs,
and keeping dudes fresher, y'all.
So they also love what Malachi is doing,
and they wanna help his not-for-profit get off the ground.
So, they're donating $15,000 to help out.
(audience clapping) (audience cheering)
Get it, Dude Wipes!
I was like, "Alright!"
Yes, giving a great opportunity for other kiddos.
It's so great.
Thank y'all so much for joining us, I enjoyed your family.
Let's do a short break, everybody,
and we'll be right back with What I'm Liking.