- What's up y'all?
This is Darren Waller.
This is how I made, saved,
and spent my first million dollars.
[upbeat music]
I grew up about 30 minutes north of Atlanta.
Nobody knows where Acworth, Georgia is,
so I say Atlanta, Georgia.
Well half of Acworth was like meth labs and sticks
and the other half was suburb, nice area.
I was in the nicer part of Acworth, so it was good schools,
both parents in the home.
Like I didn't have no issues growing up.
Football was very early.
I started playing football when I was four.
[camera shutters]
I came across NFL films, tapes, and [beep] like that,
and I became like a junkie for it.
So I was in football really early,
my first year I played offensive line
and then from there on I played
like quarterback and linebacker on defense
until like high school
but very early on I loved football.
Tight end wasn't until my second year in the NFL,
I changed positions numerous times.
[camera shutters]
But yeah, it wasn't until five or six years ago.
I went to Georgia Tech for college,
my first job was the NFL,
But my first real job I got the year
I got suspended from the league for a year.
I got a job at Sprouts Farmer's Market
after I went to rehab.
- [Interviewer] What did you buy during that time period?
What were you into?
- Drugs and alcohol.
I was drinking almost every day.
I was getting high every day.
So it was my only focus.
I don't know how I was even maintaining, to be real.
Like you know, I'd be up till one, two in the morning
and you have 6:00 AM morning workouts,
you just showing up to that shit hungover
or you know, fucked up.
These dudes coming in making like $8 million.
I remember when I was at Tech,
they would give us $15 when we got on the bus for the game
and that was gonna last you till Monday.
I figured I'd go undrafted.
But then like I ran a good 40 at the combine
and I snuck in, like, I was six round.
I mean I was able to do some nice things
for people that were close to me but,
but most of it was just
kind of fueling my habits at the time.
The Ravens were like expecting me to be
like a starting tight end.
This was 2017.
[camera shutters]
but they had no idea that I was about to be gone.
But in the OTAs and stuff leading up until then
I had like a really good spring
and it was starting to be like, oh okay,
like I could like,
really make some shit shake out here.
And I was in the Ravens practice squad
the entire season up to that point
and then we'd always run routes
on the field before the game.
RG3 would throw.
It was me and this receiver named Jordan Lasley.
We just ran hella routes,
just trying to get work in.
The Raiders coaches were just out there, just like,
I don't know what they was doing,
I don't think they was getting ready for the game,
which they should have been doing
but it actually worked out in my favor.
The next morning my agent calls me, he is like,
"Pack your shit, you going to Oakland."
And I was like all right.
Here are the details of my rookie contract.
[upbeat music]
Money will really expose you if you're a people pleaser.
So I feel like you need to have self-awareness
because if you out there trying to run with people
and spend all this money to look a certain way
and be perceived a certain way,
you gonna run through your paper in no time.
You see that happen with, what is it it,
like 78% of professional athletes in five years go broke.
So it's like you gotta know like,
your purpose, and what your values are,
and when you have values
it kind of gives you direction and parameters
as to how you wanna live on a day-to-day basis.
Cause if not, you know,
it's a million things you could just blow your money on.
So I would say it starts there.
But yeah, you gotta have a team of people around you.
You gotta be able to let them do their job
and tell, and give you their opinion of like,
"Nah I don't think you should invest in this,"
or like to get you to stick to a budget
because, you know, sticking to a budget may not be sexy
and it may not be what's popping,
but it's not gonna be about what's popping forever.
It's gonna be about what you saved
and what you're able to do
and set up, you know, future generations with.
So you heard about how I made my first million
so let's talk about how I spent it.
[upbeat music]
So I spent about 8,000 on cigars.
Like I said, I did a lot, drink a lot, smoked a lot.
I don't really, I'm sober now.
I've been sober for like five years and change.
Cigars is really my only thing.
Smoke a couple a week probably.
Padrons, favorite Placencia, League of Bravada.
I'm always generous, people were generous with me.
You know I went to the Las Vegas ACEs,
they won the WNBA championship.
I brought a whole humongous bag of cigars
for the buses, for the parade.
So like I'm,
I'm always show of love.
[upbeat music]
I probably spent like $10,000 on vacations.
I'm not really somebody that's been a lot,
been on a lot of vacations.
The way my career's been,
Like I kind of got back to where I wanted to be
by just working hard, like almost too hard continuously
and not really taking trips.
But I was able
to take my family to Dominican Republic last year.
You know, I really just like going to places
like National Parks now.
Like a lot of places where you can just be silent,
where there's mountains, water.
I went to Lake Tahoe by myself last summer.
I'm really starting to get into that wave
and get that itch to wanna travel and see the world more.
I'd love to go somewhere like the Maldives.
It looks really dope.
[camera shutters]
I don't know how I'd do it, a 24 hour flight,
but just like the secluded,
like you have your own little hut
with little, that shit looks fire.
[camera shutters]
[upbeat music]
Spend probably 10,000 on music, going to the studio,
getting projects mixed.
It's my favorite hobby man.
Been making music for like seven years,
been making beats for like five years.
So it's been a journey.
It's been a lot of fun.
Very fulfilling.
[camera shutters]
Feel like it's provided a lot of balance to my life,
just from the demand of sports,
like that's something I can just go do and it just,
you know, it just lights my spirit on fire.
So yeah, I'ma keep,
I'm keep spending money on that.
[camera shutters]
[upbeat music]
So if you can't tell,
[money hits the table]
spend a decent amount of money on tattoos.
My head is itching like fuck right now,
I just got my head done like five days ago.
It's healing right now.
Yeah, it's a like a hawk and then angel playing a horn.
My first tattoos in like 2012.
Shout to Cali.
Only person that's touched my body, outside of one word.
But yeah, tattoos are dope man.
Something I've really fallen in love with,
just like with my temple I want to, you know,
decorate it in the way I want to decorate it
but also to have things that have meaning.
And I feel like tattoo is a,
honestly like a great meditation practice.
It keeps you present, like,
that pain keeps you right there in the moment.
You know, kind of teaches you a lesson, like,
if you want something you gotta sit through
whatever pain that comes with it to get what you want.
So I've really enjoyed this tattoo journey.
I keep coming back.
My first tattoo was a Bible scripture
on my left peck, 2nd Chronicles 15:7,
"But as for you be strong and do not give up
for your work will be rewarded."
That's something I got in 2012 and now I like,
probably like 10 years later
is where I really see it like come into fruition kind of.
[camera shutters]
[upbeat music]
I spent a hundred thousand dollars
for the Darren Waller Foundation.
My foundation's been in existence for two years.
The third year will be coming up
and each year I've like,
I'm gonna donate $50,000 each year
toward the programs that we do to really, you know,
let people know like, this ain't just like a image thing,
like I'm really trying to put boots on the ground,
you know what I'm saying?
So it's really gone towards
helping people go through treatment.
Like my foundation's put almost 50 people
through like a 30 day rehab,
staying on scholarships.
So really just trying to allow people
an opportunity to change their lives.
Like I went to rehab for free, the league paid for it.
So I just want to be able to continue
to pass that gift onto them.
So you know, I throw money at it myself
cause I wanna see it change people's lives.
I go to 12 step meetings every week,
so I'll see a dude in a meeting in Vegas
and he'll come and be like,
"Yeah bro, like I'm on one of your scholarships
and like I really appreciate it.
It means a lot.
Like it's really given me
the opportunity to change my life."
and I'm just like, "Whoa."
Like, cause you know, I just think about
how my life was like, you know, in college
and coming up and shit like that.
[camera shutters]
[upbeat music]
Spend like 25K on chefs and dinners.
One thing I do like to do is go eat somewhere nice
probably at least like once a month, probably.
Hella good restaurants in Vegas.
I'm gonna have chefs, you know, prepare meals for me.
Shout out to Travis Kelsey,
his chef put me on to like chefs in different areas,
like when I'm in Atlanta or when I'm in Vegas,
to make sure I'm getting some good quality meals.
Cause it's tough.
It's tough for me to eat healthy.
I'm not gonna lie to you,
but if I have somebody that prepares it for me,
and it's structured,
like I can stick with it.
Try to make sure like the fuel
that I'm putting into my body is solid
cause I'm 30,
I'm getting old for dudes in the league.
There's no food out there that I don't like,
like I love all kinds of food.
So I just tell the chefs like whatever you feel like doing.
Like I'll eat it.
I'll have them drop off meals on Monday,
for Monday, Tuesday
and then Wednesday for Wednesday, Thursday.
And then it's like, you know, after the game on Sunday,
like I'll go pig out somewhere
and just go to a steakhouse or something.
[camera shutters]
I wanna make sure I eat good food, you know,
I don't spend a lot of money everywhere else.
[upbeat music]
$250,000 on private investments.
Something I've really gotten into recently,
over the last year and a half probably.
Something I knew very little about,
but shout out to my guy Mitch.
He's really gotten me into some pretty cool things.
I invested in this company called De Soi.
It's like a non-alcoholic beverage
that's really booming right now.
I really love Crumbl cookies,
invested in some new Crumbls that'll be opening,
a sports recovery device called Firefly.
So it's like I'm really trying to expand
and see how I can plant seeds
for something that can pay off down the road.
I'm going into year eight.
I'm already approaching,
like three times what the average career is.
You know, at some point it'll end
and you don't want to just,
it to just end and then not have anything in place,
or any plans, or any interests
when you come out.
Try to set those things up.
Make sure that I have opportunity
to continue to provide
and I wanna be able to be strategic
about how I go about my future in these next few decades.
[camera shutters]
[upbeat music]
35K on the old 2014 Jeep man.
Been seeing some good times
and really bad times in that Jeep.
I'm more of like a point A to point B car kind of guy.
You know, I don't really need too much out of it.
That's the only car I've ever bought.
[camera shutters]
I'm cool with it.
I don't need too much.
[upbeat music]
- $575,000 on land.
It's been a few year process
but it's been really cool to design it,
shout to Blue Heron Homes.
To build that from the ground up,
it's really becoming a beautiful thing
that I'll get to move into soon.
[camera shutters]
By far the biggest purchase I've ever made.
I got like speakers in the wall so they can like go,
you can play music and it can go kind of everywhere.
Infinity Pool, excited about that.
Zen area upstairs, that has like a plant wall.
Places to like meditate and read.
Probably get a piano in there.
Shout to Fats Waller.
[upbeat music]
This has been fun.
Shout to GQ,
since I've been shouting everybody in the world out.
Appreciate you guys, it's been fun.
I'm out of here.
[upbeat music]