- My name is Derrex, I have four boys.
My sons will tell you, I'm always like,
clean up, do your chores, get it clean.
You know, you're investing, you're talking,
you're teaching, you're training.
As a dad, sometimes you can forget you're just training.
You're planting the seed now and you're gonna see it
eight years later.
I want to make sure that I'm the father to them
that I never had.
So I was pretty serious about being a dad.
It's interesting, fear drove me in the beginning.
So I was overly on everything.
No candy, only drink water.
You're gonna have those challenging moments,
those accountability moments, you know,
I'm raising babies to boys to men.
Early on showing them what support looks like, feels like,
things go not so great.
Helping you recover quickly.
[Director] If you could now say something to yourself back then
What would you say?
Even though it may not seem like it, they hear you.
A lot of times they'll act like they don't even
know I'm there.
Julian, he's a senior, and I went to his football game
and I was trying to get there right before half time
so we could walk out, it was senior night.
And I missed it.
The traffic hit and I couldn't get there.
Later we talked to him and I apologized, he was like
"it's okay," he's like yeah.
He's like, "I kept looking up but I didn't know
where you were, I didn't see you."
and just that let me know.
Even though they don't say thanks for coming,
or you know I'm glad you're there, they're not
gonna ever say that, but you know hearing that
let's me know like man things are off if I'm not there.
Oh!
What are you doing?
[Older son] I want to say thank you for showing me like
how to be a man, through like, my teenage years.
Because I know it's been hard, but thank you.
Thank you for supporting me at my football games
and through all my life.
It means a lot.
[Younger son] I'd like to thank you for bringing me
into this world as your son.
As I was getting older, you're building me into a man.
I'd like to thank you for that.
- You guys are becoming good men.
You're more than welcome.
Man.
[Director] Do you hear that a lot?
No.
There are a lot of things that I want to accomplish.
I lot of things that I want to do but
I've always known that my biggest contribution
to this world would be you.
And it means so much that you said that to me.