Ep 312 - Eben Britton | The Man Beneath the Armor

Eben Britton spent six seasons as an NFL offensive lineman, a body built for collision, before a ruptured disc, a dislocated shoulder, and a cabinet of painkillers left him shattered at twenty-seven. We meet the man underneath the armor, and ask what remains when the identity you built your life around is stripped away injury by injury. Eben reads his injuries as psyche made physical, the weight of a family he carried on his back with no foundation to hold it. He traces the road out through a men's twelve-step room, cannabis, yoga, and the years he and Mike Tyson spent shepherding each other through the reckoning. What emerges is a study in death and rebirth, and the reframe that freed him: stop trying to find your purpose, and make your life purposeful. One more breath, one more step, and the other side is closer than it looks.

(00:00) NFL Career Ends in Crisis

(00:44) Opening Conversation

(01:55) Show Start

(10:42) Eben’s Chaotic NFL Draft Day Story

(19:48) NFL Rookie Experience

(28:22) Back Injury and Painkiller Spiral

(42:19) Money Pressure and Bad Advisors

(48:44) Final Stage of Career (Cuts, Chicago Comeback, Failed Drug Test)

(01:01:30) Retirement and Rock Bottom Inner Work

(01:10:04) Mike Tyson (Meeting, Starting Podcast, Doing DMT)

(01:30:52) COVID Reset Yoga Coaching