On Tuesday, February 20 in the O’Brien Center, former NFL player and producer of “All American” (2018) talked to students, faculty and staff about his life experiences. His talk focused on how he grew up in South Central Los Angeles, made it to the NFL, and then retired from the NFL to enter the film industry.
Dru Alvez, the Director of Intercultural Affairs, and Union Football player #6 Jaden Duncan ‘24 introduced Paysinger to the audience. Paysinger then walked the audience through his life story. In his hometown of south central Los Angeles, he grew up surrounded by violence, including drive by shootings, drugs, and dead bodies. However, he also went to the park and rode bikes around his neighborhood, and he described the combination of experiences as an “all american upbringing.”
Paysinger talked to the audience about how he feels like young people have to make major life decisions. When he was 13, he had to make the decision on whether or not to attend Beverly Hills High School or stay at his home school. He chose to attend Beverly Hills because he could have a brighter future out of the school. Once he got there, he had to decide whether to play basketball or football. He wanted to become a Division 1 athlete in college, and the school’s football program sent far more people to Division 1 schools than the basketball program did. So he made the choice to focus on football in high school, where he played as a wide receiver, an offensive player who catches footballs. He said that choosing to attend Beverly Hills and play football were two of the biggest decisions of his life, and he had to make them at 13 years old.
When he was a senior in high school, he initially committed to the University of Colorado to play football as a wide receiver. However, the University of Oregon gave him an offer to play football, but on their defensive side. After visiting the school, he knew that he wanted to go there for college and he could go to the NFL as a linebacker, a defensive position. So he committed to the University of Oregon and played there as a linebacker from 2007 to 2010.
Paysinger advised the athletes of the Union community to take time to get involved in the community around them. For him, this is how he found a life outside of sports. When he played at the University of Oregon, he found a mentor in the team’s nutritionist, who encouraged him to get involved in the surrounding community of Eugene, Oregon. When he had time off from football, he would do a variety of internships and community service work in the community, such as doing accounting work for a local restaurant. Him doing work like this allowed him to learn about the local economy.
During his football career, Paysinger also considered quitting the sport. During the 2009 season (his third season), his team lost to Ohio State University on the way to the playoffs, and he told his teammates he considered quitting. He thought he couldn’t make it to the NFL, and he even had another job lined up. However, his teammates encouraged him to stay with the sport and go to the national championship, which he decided to do. His team then narrowly lost the national championship in 2010 to Auburn University.
Paysinger then declared for the 2011 NFL draft, but this occurred during the 2011 NFL lockout. For a period of 4.5 months, teams could not contact players or host training camps. When the lockout ended, he was ultimately contacted by three NFL teams to join their training camps, including by the New York Giants on the side of the road in Los Angeles. 48 hours after he accepted that call, he was practicing with the team.
During his first 3 to 4 years in the NFL, he felt like it was a job and felt like there was something else out there. When he was in the NFL, “you couldn’t really show your full self within the walls of your facility, but that has changed.” Paysinger remarked. “Now, there’s a lot of players that have been able to diversify themselves and their brand off the field, but when I came to it in 2011, you had to keep that side of you kind of quiet, because it was sort of a detriment to who you were as an athlete. A lot of the older coaches thought that you wouldn’t be serious about the sport of football, or whatever sport that you were playing, if you weren’t all in on the sport.”
When he joined the Giants, he got involved in the local community during every off season by doing something new, such as being a marketing intern at Quest Diagnostics, a healthcare company. He remarked that coaches told him he would never have lights as bright on him as they would on the field, but he liked working in the local community.
On an off day from the NFL, he went to a local movie theater and saw “Friends With Benefits” (2011) and realized he didn’t think about football once in the theater, and instead focused on the plot. After this experience, he decided to go watch movies during his days off in the NFL. Throughout his time in the NFL, his teammates would ask him for movie critiques in the locker room.
Around his 5th year in the NFL, he began to wonder what he would do once he retired from football. This was when he began to develop his hobby as a writer. Then, in 2016, a Hollywood producer became interested in his life story, and Paysinger submitted his ideas to the producer. They then met in early 2017 to develop the story, and 2 weeks later, they were doing negotiations for what would become “All American.”
In 2017, he was debating whether to retire from the NFL at 30 years old. What drove his decision to retire was that in December 2017, he knew his current team wasn’t going to the playoffs and he was submitting “All American” to the CW network for approval. On one occasion, when he was supposed to be preparing for a game in an NFL office, he was instead writing a short film. He then felt like he was in an NFL room but his mind was somewhere else. On December 27, 2017, he retired from the NFL, and 4 months later, he began shooting scenes for “All American.” The show premiered on October 10, 2018, and the show’s 6th season will premiere on April 1, 2024.
Now, “Some things in the film industry that I’m trying to further explore/break down is just understanding who the decision makers are, and also not waiting for yeses and noes,” Paysinger remarked about his current journey in the industry. “Getting a no is not the end of the world for me. But when people can hold your projects up for months on end, that to me is the antithesis of creativity. So, I’m actively working on things now so that if I have a project, I don’t need to wait for a yes or no from some bigger entity.”
Paysinger finished the talk by advising Union students to continue to demand and go after what they want. He suggested students ask themselves: why do you want to do something? Who are you doing it for? How do you want your life to feel? For him, he does everything for his wife, kids, and inner child.
Paysinger’s show, “All American” seasons 1-5 are currently available to stream on Netflix, the CW, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, and other streaming platforms. Students can also look forward to many other guest lectures to come throughout the upcoming academic year.
Note: This article has been significantly changed from the print edition.
