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Craig Mattick: Welcome to another edition of In Play. I'm Craig Mattick. Today's guest, a multi-sport athlete in high school and college, he had stints with four National football league teams, a reality TV star, a model, an actor, even has been an ambassador for Special Olympics. In fact, recently, he was at the White House in Washington DC. The Brandon Valley Lynx, Dale Moss. Dale, welcome to In Play.
Dale Moss: Hey, I appreciate you having me on, and you're naming some of those things off and it's like, I feel like I've lived so many lives, but I'm very fortunate and grateful to be able to have some of these cool experiences and for us to catch up today.
Craig Mattick: Dale, you've got a lot of hats you're wearing, a lot of stuff going on with you, you live in New York, but what keeps you the busiest right now?
Dale Moss: I mean, so what keeps me the busiest? So I recently, the last few years I've been developing sports documentaries, so I have three sports docs currently in development. Those were taking up a ton of my time. Obviously, dual-sport athlete at South Dakota State, had a short stint in the NFL, but sports has always been a major thing for me, not only for the competition, but for how people can connect to it, and it breaks down a lot of barriers. So when I had the opportunity to start my first documentary project with Special Olympics tracking athletes leading up to the World games, it snowball effect and we've got a fantasy football one that we're really excited about. I've got just a great production team behind me, who's won Academy Awards and things like that. So it's a tough industry right now, but I'm well-supported, and I know that we're going to be able to get hopefully one, maybe two of these things greenlit in the coming year or so.
Craig Mattick: I saw you recently, a video that you were at a New York Jets game. It was the Jets in Buffalo, you were on the sideline. Are you doing some work for the Jets, or how are you staying a little active with the NFL?
Dale Moss: I've got a great relationship with, not only the Jets, but numerous teams throughout the NFL, and that's one where they invited me to the game. They knew that I played in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers, I also have some good friends who play for the Bills. Dion Dawkins or Mack Hollins are both really close friends of mine. Anytime I can stay connected, check out a game, get a great experience, I'm all for it. So yeah, it's just always special, and it never gets old.
Craig Mattick: Rodgers probably could have used you against that Bill's game.
Dale Moss: I think he had all the weapons he needed. The name of the game is turnovers no matter what, right?
Craig Mattick: Yeah.
Dale Moss: Injuries and turnovers and penalties. So I really hope, come the end of the season, the Jets will have a chance at the playoffs. I'd just love to see Aaron perform well, especially after tearing his Achilles last season. But it's a mental game too, so they've got to clean it up a little bit. But anything can happen by the end of the season.
Craig Mattick: Dale, you've made quite the move from Brandon, South Dakota to New York, a multi-sport athlete at Brandon. You grew up with four sisters. What was it like growing up with four sisters and your passion for playing sports?
Dale Moss: Oh man, I learned patience at a young age, we'll say that. But my family has held me down and been a rock for me my entire life. My siblings, I've been very close with them throughout my life. And growing up in Brandon, we were scraping the bottom of the barrel just to keep a roof over our head at times. But my mom and my sisters and pops, we just stuck together and worked through tough times, and that really shaped me for the rest of my life. I believe that no matter what you go through, there's always a way out of it. There's always a light at the end of the tunnel. And what has helped me so much is just surrounding myself with great people who genuinely love and care about you. And I've been able to do that in large part just because I experienced genuine love and genuine support from my family without wanting anything in return.
I still have my South Dakota ID to this day, too. I've never gotten rid of it. I don't know if that's going to get me in trouble or not, but it's always going to be home. It's just a keepsake. I'll fly back wherever I'm at in the country just to get that when the time is right, specifically just because it means so much to me just growing up in Brandon and what that community did for me, and also just throughout my years in college and even now.
Craig Mattick: You were involved with football, basketball and track at Brandon. Which one was your favorite?
Dale Moss: I was a basketball lover. I loved football because I could compete and just go out there and play, but basketball was my first love. My mom played on the US National team that traveled the globe back when she was in college, and I always wanted to play basketball. Track was really fun for me just because after my junior year, I went through a growth spurt. In seventh grade, I never lost a race, ever. I never lost a race, I was running right under the five minute of the mile, and then I started growing and got a little awkward growing into my body. But then junior year, it snapped back, so I loved track because we could just get out after it. And I think we were a 4x2 conference champs or runner up. So I mean, we had a solid track team that year.
Craig Mattick: Well, you're pretty good at basketball. You were Gatorade Player of the Year as a senior, 18 points a game. I know the Lynx had made it to the AA Boys Championship in '03, losing to Sioux Falls Washington. You were you a freshman, I think, that year.
Dale Moss: Yeah.
Craig Mattick: But then those next years you had, O'Gorman and Mitchell, Huron, Aberdeen Central, they were pretty good. I think Pierre was pretty good those last years you were at Brandon. You made it to state, but you couldn't get into the finals. So who was getting in your way?
Dale Moss: I mean, so we lost one year to Pierre, and then our senior season, we lost to O'Gorman. I always say to this day, I would trade a championship of any level for that state title for Decker and everything that he did for me and just for our team. You talk about the evolution of the game though, and shot clock, we were always begging for a shot clock.
Craig Mattick: That's right.
Dale Moss: I think Minnesota had it at the time, because we were, I don't know. Needless to say, teams would hold the ball for three quarters of a quarter on us. We had a great squad. But again, that's sports, right? Anything can happen, it's like any given day. You still got to show up. But yeah, that's one that I wish we had. But one of the greatest gifts for me was, even though it was later, was seeing Deckert in Brandon Valley win a state title in basketball. And obviously, Coach Garrow and the entire staff did such an amazing job with the program on the football side, so it was just great to be at the early stages of helping shape that foundation for the future kids.
Craig Mattick: Well then in football, you're top five in receiving yards and receptions for Brandon, and you had Jack Van Leur and Andrew Bauer throwing you passes all those years. But Chad Garrow was your football coach at Brandon, he started your junior year, and of course we lost Chad recently. What was it like having Chad Garrow as your football coach?
Dale Moss: Definitely always recruiting me, if you will. Because I didn't play football my freshman yeah. And I had a really great relationship with Chad. And not only Chad, but his family. And he really, really took the time to teach me the game in a way that I don't think most high school coaches even had the capacity to for their kids at that time. I was athletic, I was raw, but he really trusted me. Honestly, when I came out my junior year, I was like, "Oh, I want to play quarterback." Because I wanted to do the option thing and everything. And then we're going through the first few weeks, or the first few practices, testing it out, and then I was like, "You know what? I don't think this quarterback thing is for me. Let's put me back every receiver."
But I think the number one thing was how much he loved the game, how much time he took, and he genuinely cared. And when you're a player, especially dealing with so many things and finding yourself and navigating so many things in life, that's great to have, someone you can trust in like a father figure. So I'm very, very grateful for that. I would've never gotten as far as I did without his guidance and the other coaches on our team.
Craig Mattick: So you got basketball and football skills in high school, so you have to make a choice between which sport, which school to go to, the school's trying to get you to come play for them. You decided to play basketball at SDSU. So what convinced you that basketball was the deal and the Jacks in your next step?
Dale Moss: Yeah. I mean, I had some options outside of the state. I think there were a lot of people knocking on the door of football recruiting wise, but I had even told Coach Garrow at the time, I was like, "Hey, I'm playing basketball in college." So South Dakota State, I met Nagy, I knew they were in a transition phase that I thought the opportunity to stay closer to home. My family definitely played a role in that. But I was recruited very heavily by South Dakota State football at the same time, so in my mind, I thought SDSU was great because of Coach Nagy, the team we had coming in. And even though I knew it would be a struggle right away, I thought that we were coming into the Division 1 era and had a chance to rewrite the image and the program a little bit, because it was some rough years. And early on it was tough, but I mean, you've seen all the success that South Dakota State has had.
Craig Mattick: Ever since. Yep.
Dale Moss: And again, right at the early stages of that. And I told the football coaches, "Hey, hold the scholarship for me, because if I have the opportunity, I will come back for an additional year and play my last year of eligibility for football." And they talked to me every year about it and said, "We still got your scholarship." So they actually, they held it. So it was a cool, unique experience.
Craig Mattick: In basketball, it was probably your sophomore year when the Jacks officially became eligible for postseason play in Division 1. Jacks had sub-500 records your freshman, sophomore, and junior years in basketball, but that senior year, you guys went 19 and 12 postseason tournament in Summit League. You get 21 points in that win versus IPFW. What do you remember about that game?
Dale Moss: I mean, honestly, as far as college goes, I just remember the energy. Obviously the relationships, but Frost Arena and the Jacks fans were amazing. And it's funny, because you get to your final season, and you think about all the tough times that happened before, but I kind of forgot them, because the goal was for us to get to the highest level possible, and knowing it was going to be a tough spin. But that last season was great. I feel like we all understood our roles very heavily on the team, had some great players around me. I loved locking up the best player on the other team, defensively going, making the highlight play.
And it's just the people's SDSU and a great fan base. But also, it was like family. At that time, my mom was going through a pretty difficult time because she was having liver failure and waiting for a transplant. And I had people from South Dakota State University driving to Omaha, who had never met her, just sitting in Clarkston Medical Center with her. So she had some company, and just to let them know that they were praying for her, they were stopping through Omaha. And that's something that's very, very rare. And those are the types of things I'll never forget. And I'm still close with so many of the guys I played with today.
Craig Mattick: Your basketball career is done at SDSU, and sure enough they had one of those spots open for you on the football team, and you took it. It's 2011, and you caught 61 passes, you had six touchdowns, almost 1,000 yards receiving that year and how cool was it though that most of those catches came from the quarterback, the former Brandon Valley Lynx, Austin Sumner. You had the Brandon connection.
Dale Moss: I know. The BB pipeline. It was pretty special, because even when I was a senior, we wanted Sumner to start as a freshman. No knock to Bauer, but just to play with him. And he definitely ripped it up, but it was really, really cool. And I think about the progression of Austin, we always joke around about, if he had one more year, because I was like, "Why do you keep underthrowing balls to me, man, I got someone beat. I'd have 10, 12 touchdowns right now." But no, he stepped in in a tough situation. He's such a talented player, and just still a great friend. And honestly, to be able to just have success like that, I never try to step into a situation if I don't believe I'll have success in it, and by success if I think I want to accelerate and be at a very high level with it.
So I watched football games, I watched guys who were getting opportunities, I knew my capabilities from high school, but I also knew how hard, if I fully commit to something, I would work in order to get to a level. I knew I didn't drop balls, I knew I was way faster than people thought I was, and I was just going to put in the work. So the first two games, I didn't even really play and I didn't start a third game, just being someone new on the roster. So in three less games than everyone, I still put up good enough numbers that gave me a shot. And that was a really cool experience. And I think at that time, I was still out there just raw and just playing and learning the game. There's still so much more to learn on the mental side. And that's where I got real coaching. I don't want to knock any coaching, but I got a different level of coaching once I got to play at Green Bay and in my time with Tampa under PJ Fleck, who did an amazing job.
Craig Mattick: When did you decide that you still wanted to play football while you were in that final year of playing football for the Jacks, hopefully to get drafted? When were some of those thoughts coming in?
Dale Moss: I mean, I always had in the back of my mind if I didn't get a good contract in basketball or one that I'd like to play in some capacity, I was going to play football. So I knew when I first was there, I was like, "I'm going to explore the option." So it wasn't something that was a tough decision, and maybe sometimes I'm impulsive a little bit, but I had thought about it for a very, very long time. And I think the biggest thing was, when people heard rumblings that I was debating going out and they were like, "Oh, he thinks he can transition from basketball to football. He thinks it's so easy. He's in for a rude awakening." And I was like-
Craig Mattick: You showed them.
Dale Moss: "Let me just do this real quick."
Craig Mattick: Yeah, it's 2012. You didn't get drafted, but you signed as a free agent with the Green Bay Packers, but oh, how frustrating. Getting cut with the final roster cuts before the regular season? How close was it in joining the Packers for the season?
Dale Moss: Yeah, I mean I think it was really, really close. I had an opportunity to sign back with them because then they bring people back on, but I thought Tampa Bay was going to be a great position for me, and they wanted to take me, scoot me up right away. I will say that, and I said this before, the Green Bay situation was, when I went into that, I knew it was, we had Driver, we had Jordan Nelson, we had Greg Jennings, we had Randall Cobb, and definitely thought it was going to be something where I could just learn. And I definitely did, but I just thought... It was tough, because I would've loved to... I mean, Aaron Rodgers was our quarterback, they were just coming off Super Bowl, and it was a great team, I loved Green Bay. But I thought Tampa was going to be the best situation. Ended up signing with them.
And the best gift I got from Tampa was working with PJ Fleck. He came from Rutgers, Sciano was our head coach. That's a different convo, but PJ Fleck was, from a position standpoint and as a receiver coach, he was so hard on you, but he was so good, and he actually cared. And I grew so much as a player during that stint, and I wish I would've had that before, because it would've made such a difference. Because again, even my senior season, or my one season of football in college, I understood the routes and everything, and I worked really hard on them, but I was still out there just playing. A lot on athletic ability and just understanding body movements and being physical.
Craig Mattick: And PJ Fleck course, the coach of the Minnesota Gophers, he's been there a while. Unfortunately, the Tampa Bay stint didn't last long, but there was the Bears, Chicago came right after you, and stayed on their practice squad for the rest of the season. What was that transition like? Green Bay then to Tampa and now it's the Chicago Bears in a very short period of time.
Dale Moss: Yeah. So I knew that was going to happen. I knew there was conversation, because, that Chicago wanted to sign me while I still with Tampa, and I honestly was looking forward to it. I loved my time with Coach Fleck. Tampa is a time where I really understood the difference between organizations and how they're run, and how they're coached, and how much the environment affects your team. We started off the season really, really well, but I think a lot of people were waiting just for it to fold, because guys were getting pushed so hard. The NFL is a lot different than other leagues. So it's a business, and I welcomed the transition to Chicago. I was there with Levy Smith, who people respected so much. I saw some of the greatest players to ever play the game on that Bears team. And I had a great relationship with my players.
Fast-forward, we went through Marc Trestman era as well, which was great to learn from Marc Trestman. But I think after a certain point, I loved competing, but in order to keep going in a sport, especially at that level, you got to really, really love the game. And I love my teammates, I love competing, but I always say, in the back of my mind, I was still like a basketball guy just playing football, you know?
Craig Mattick: Sure, sure. I have this to remember, I think it was 2012, it's at the Metrodome, of course the Bears were there playing the Minnesota Vikings. May have been a Sunday night or a Monday night game. I'm trying to remember. But I was at that game, and I thought you were there with the Bears. Did they activate you?
Dale Moss: Yeah. Adrian Peterson ran all over us.
Craig Mattick: Yeah.
Dale Moss: And then we went and played Detroit, and they had Calvin Johnson at the time, and we beat Detroit, so we thought we're going to the playoffs. But then Green Bay lost to Minnesota and it knocked us out of the playoffs, and that's when they cleaned house.
Craig Mattick: But that particular game at the Metrodome against the Vikings, I thought I heard that they maybe were thinking of activating you, or did they activate you for that game? I'm trying to remember.
Dale Moss: Had we gone to the playoffs, I think I would've been active during the playoffs with Chicago, after we beat the Detroit Lions. But I mean, just how those things go.
Craig Mattick: Yeah.
Dale Moss: And I don't really focus too much on the past now, I feel like I've got so many things going on nowadays. And again, like I said, I love competing. I do miss parts of the game, but thankfully, I've still been able to be really involved with the NFL and the NFLPA.
Craig Mattick: That following NFL season, of course, you signed with Carolina, and then eventually, you played for the Los Angeles Kiss of the Arena Football League, you had another chance with Chicago in 2014, but... What was going on in your life during those two years? You're with this team and that team, and then you get another opportunity. A lot of guys would've been really frustrated, could have easily said you were done, but you kept at it. But what was going on with you in those couple of years in the NFL?
Dale Moss: I mean, I don't know. I knew I was getting better. I think that's the biggest thing, and... I don't know, I think the LA thing, I was there for a quick minute, but the only reason I did that is just so I could get some more film. And then I ended up getting signed back with the Bears and having an opportunity. And that's really the only reason I even considered doing that, it wasn't... I think my first game, I had six touchdowns with a Kiss in our preseason or something like that, and I was like, "All right."
Craig Mattick: Made it look easy there, Dale.
Dale Moss: It was not even that. It's just a game. I think it's also, I got to a point of, I felt strong... When I got released from Chicago, that was unexpected. I thought I played really well, I thought I earned a position there. But all things considered, I knew I was getting better. And I think it was, in my mind, I was like, "All right, I'm going to give it to this point, and if it doesn't pan out then, then I'll start having the conversations." Also, I went through three coaching changes.
Craig Mattick: Oh, that's tough.
Dale Moss: They got fired. They were going to let go of Marc Trestman. In the situation in the business side of the game, you just see how many factors play into it. I was like, you know what? I want to have a little bit more control of my decisions and the outcome. And I wound up in New York, and it sprung a whole new life in the media and entertainment side.
Craig Mattick: You're the nephew of 1972 Heisman Trophy winner, Johnny Rogers of Nebraska. Did you have any conversations with Johnny regarding trying to get into the NFL, or any life measures with Johnny?
Dale Moss: I talked with Johnny pre-draft, even during my college season. I think sometimes I get so tunnel vision on things, and I'm a really good communicator for the most part, but I get so locked in on my stuff that I probably don't utilize some of the resources as much as I should. But with him, he was always there, gave me some guidance. And I think that's one of the good things between family and my uncles are sociologists, anthropologists, superintendents, they're all educators and stuff, and my dad's a history buff. So I know that I always have people I can fall back on, especially to handle tough times.
And you talk about bouncing around early and how I kind of stay focused and motivated. I mean, by the time I was in high school, I had experienced enough hardships to last a lifetime, and I never felt sorry or guilty or like the world was against me, or why me at that time. So I think as life just went forward, even though some situations would get me down, it would never completely destroy me or anything like that.
Craig Mattick: When did living in New York come to be? When did you get that interest in acting and modeling? When did that come around?
Dale Moss: I had signed with my agency while I was still playing. I was the first active pro athlete on the roster in New York City. And they just asked me to come out for a meeting to New York when I had some time. So I flew out there, I had never been to New York before, had no family, didn't really know... Actually, I didn't know anybody out here. Went out, met with the agency, they're like, "Hey, we want you to go meet some of our clients." So I went to GQ, Men's Health, and then I went to see the Nike team in New York City. And I ended up booking like four campaigns in six or seven days, and my agent's like, "Hey, you should consider staying out here." And I was like, "All right." I had my place in LA because that's where I trained in the off seasons, but I shot a national Nike campaign, did some stuff with Men's Health and a couple other brands, and I ended up just never leaving.
So you hear those crazy stories about New York, that New York story, someone comes, they don't plan to be here, and they just stay, it's exactly what I did. I got an Airbnb, then I got an apartment downtown Brooklyn, and I love the city. I think, just for so long in my life, I was on go, or marching to the beat of my own drum, and I like to say I'm really curious, I like to learn. And in this city I was learning every single day. I was seeing things I never saw.
And surprisingly, despite what people say, people in New York are real. They are not, I'm not going to swear on this, but a-holes, there we go. But I found out that they were real. And I entered into the city in a really unique way because I was with one of the top agencies in the world, I was booking, I had a great network of people who were in the fitness, fashion and wellness industry, so I was kind of protected. I say ignorance is bliss sometimes, because I didn't know any better, I just was meeting people, really focused, and I just treated people with respect.
And I think, if there's anyone listening to this, especially some of the younger generation, being a good person, having gratitude, and showing people respect, is the ultimate. Integrity, my dad said since the time I was a kid, "Your name is all that you have." Integrity is everything. And if you show that, no matter where you're at, people will look out for you, they'll open up opportunities for you, and they'll really go that extra mile. And that's what happened in New York. And I've been here like nine years now, experienced more than I could imagine.
Craig Mattick: Well, 2020, you become a reality TV star. You're on the Bachelorette. My goodness. How did that come about, and how were you surprised how that all went?
Dale Moss: Never watched the show before, didn't even watch my full season, haven't watched it since. I was nominated by someone who's like a little sister to me out here in New York, and she's like, "You're traveling all the time," and at that time I was on the road 200 days out of the year, almost, or close to it. She's like, "I never see you dating anyone. I'm going to nominate you for this." And I was like, "I'm not doing that." And then she's like, "If they call you, please just take the interview. Just do it, do it, do it." So I went through the process, I was like, Hey, I'll go through the process, that's fine. And then they came to making final selections. I think it was early January. I just stopped responding to casting for a little while, because I was like, "I'm not going to do this." And then ultimately, like four days before, towards the end of February, I was like, "You know what? I'll test it out. What do I have to lose?"
Craig Mattick: Give it a go, right.
Dale Moss: I was like, "Everything I built, if I built it right, it's still going to be there." And for me, the number one thing was, like I said, I don't have family out here, I was always gone. I was experiencing stuff with people, but I was experiencing the coolest things in my life, but I was always experiencing it alone or in a business setting. So I think I was getting just numb to so many things because it was like rinse and repeat. And that's an experience that was unique. I felt like I maintained my integrity throughout. And it's just a chapter, so, since I've been done, it comes up in conversations and media, and stuff like that, but I don't ever lean into it. My focus, I always say, I have a little bit more notoriety, but the same stuff I was doing before the show, I've been doing after. I was producing podcasts, hosting during super Bowls, working on documentary projects, I was in great circles. So a little shift. And I didn't know the pandemic was going to happen, but the timing, it was just like, it kind of worked.
Craig Mattick: Well, a number of doors, I'm sure, opened up for you because of that. You stayed involved with modeling and here all of a sudden, just a couple of years later, 2022, you started a movie, Putting Love to the Test. So how did that one come about?
Dale Moss: Honestly, I never took an acting class, I never intended on acting. I always said I don't want to act because I don't want to be anyone but myself. And that's why I gravitated towards hosting. I also just loved interacting and storytelling with people. My agent sent me an audition and she's like, "Hey, I think you should audition for this." And I was like, "I've never acted before." And she's like, just try it out and-
Craig Mattick: No plays at Brandon Valley that you were involved in?
Dale Moss: No, none. Zero. But I've been on set so much over the years, but I was like, all right, let me look at this script, let me try it out. And I auditioned and they called me, and they're like, "We want you for the lead role in this movie." I was like, "Okay, cool." And it wasn't until they're like, "Oh yeah, so you got to fly out in two weeks," and then I was like, "Oh crap." And it wasn't until I was on the flight to New Orleans, because we filmed in New Orleans for a month, where it hit me and I was like, "Oh my God, this whole production crew of this multi-million-dollar production is relying on me to do a good job." And I was freaking out.
But Christine Conrad, and Christine, who was also the lead, someone else, they were really patient with me, and I fell in love with it. It was the coolest thing being on set, and they were long, long hours. But with someone each and every day just prepping, and you're really just interpreting and doing your best so your true self shows through in the idea and the concepts of someone else, and after that, I loved it. I didn't really audition much after that intentionally.
Craig Mattick: No more movies coming up right now?
Dale Moss: So I just finished filming a movie in December. We just had our premiere in New York in August, that's called 31 Candles, Jonah Feingold, who's a rising director in the space. And I've been auditioning for some great projects, so I definitely know something will happen, even in light of the strikes, and the industry's a lot slower than I think a 70% reduction in greenlit shows. It's the slowest it's been at almost 50 years, but it's not a deterrent. I feel like, if anything, if you're passionate about it, and I didn't step into that space wanting to be famous or anything like that. I just loved being on set, and after my first film, I just loved the form of expression. So I work with a coach constantly, almost just like I was in a sport. And it's also helped me tremendously in all other areas of my life. In my hosting, I understand people better. It's helped me in the documentary space. So that's one area I'm not deterred by, and I've gotten so much better. And it's like when the right thing happens, it'll happen, and we'll see where it goes.
Craig Mattick: You were at the White House recently. What were you doing there?
Dale Moss: So I was at the White House for a mental health summit. It was the first one that they've ever done, so I was really honored to be able to be one of, I think 15 people that they brought out to the White House, to meet with the administration, understand some of the depressing issues and the goals that they have. And with my work with Special Olympics over the years, which is more focused on intellectual disabilities, but also carries a lot of mental health issues, it was just humbling. My parents, they went through the civil rights movement together. I didn't know a lot of my family, just because of a biracial marriage.
And even growing up in South Dakota, I talk about sports breaking down a lot of racial barriers. It really helped acceptance for me and our family. And just to be able to be invited and have your name on a tag as a guest of the White House and see all the stuff behind the scenes that nobody gets to see, was extremely humbling. And I think more so than anything, it meant the world to me because I know it meant the world to my family, my dad, my siblings. And to see it like that was really, really cool, and hopefully I'll be able to do some more with them in the future, obviously with a focus on continuing to advocate and speak on mental health issues.
Craig Mattick: Special Olympics has been important to you for a long time, Dale. You've been an ambassador for them, you've traveled all over the world for them, and was it because of your older sister Amber? She participated in Special Olympics. That's got to be a really special bond in what you've done, Dale, for your sister and for Special Olympics.
Dale Moss: Yeah. I mean, it really is. The attention to detail and the opportunities and the medical care, the physical therapy, everything that organization provided for my sister gave her a chance. And in a time where we could have never provided all of those things for my sister in the way that she deserved. So 2015, they had the World Games in LA, I just saw a billboard and reached out, said, "Hey, how can I volunteer? How can I help?" And then I was hooked. Since then, I've traveled the world with them. I'm working on a documentary to bring awareness to the ID community and tell it in a real truthful and honest way. And that's family.
So that's lifelong. The people that I've met through their organization. Dikembe Mutombo recently passed away. Someone like that who's a Iconic sports figure, but has an even bigger and greater heart, and just really, really cool things like that. So I definitely encourage anyone to get involved in an initiative, a Nonprofit or organization that matters to them, and really dive in and get, I say get your hands dirty, but just experience it firsthand, because the greatest gift for me is being able to advocate and impact other people's lives. And I get to do that multiple times a year working on some other cool things with that.
Craig Mattick: That's great.
Dale Moss: And that's a lifelong thing,
Craig Mattick: By the way, Dale, you know that the Brandon Valley football field is now field turf?
Dale Moss: Yep, yep, yep.
Craig Mattick: The Lynx had the best manicured football field in the region. That field was always well-watered, it looked great, but you got to help me out in this one. I always heard that if there was a fast running back coming to play against the Lynx, they wouldn't mow the field until the game was done, to slow down that running game. Is that true or not?
Dale Moss: Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Like when Quincy Christie came and they'd let the grass grow a little bit longer, but-
Craig Mattick: But I didn't think that was true because they needed a fast field for Dale Moss.
Dale Moss: I mean, I'm just the... Bauer was just throwing fades, so I'd just go up over everybody and get them. So I think we could get away with it a little bit more that year. But the field definitely felt a little different when we were coming up against a top tier athlete on the other side of the ball.
Craig Mattick: You're in the Brandon Valley Athletics Hall of Fame. What does that mean to you?
Dale Moss: I mean, I love my community and it means a lot. I think at the time, I was the quickest person to be inducted in the Hall of Fame at Brandon. We went through a lot growing up, and it was not always easy, but as time went on, the community really supported myself, my family, and I'm forever, like I said, that's going to be my home. The last few years has been tough with the loss of the Coach Garrow and Coach Deckert, who was a father figure to me, and stepped in when my dad was going through a lot of difficult times and couldn't always be there. So it means a lot.
And I think, honestly, I would relate this almost to my White House experience. I know it means more to... It means a lot to me, but it means so much to me because I know how much it means to my parents and how much it meant to my mother and my sibling. And that they raised their son right, and they could see that their children experienced things in a way that they never had. So yeah, it means a world to me.
Craig Mattick: All right. Last one for you, Dale, what is still on your bucket list?
Dale Moss: Oh, I want to get one of these documentaries greenlit. That's a bucket list. On the acting side, I want to book a prominent role in a major motion picture. That's something that I definitely see happening. I don't know. I mean-
Craig Mattick: You could open up a big studio in Brandon, make a Midwestern film.
Dale Moss: Yeah. I mean, I do want to give back to the South Dakota community. So much of my stuff is focused here in New York City. I just opened up a restaurant in New York City last year, which for me was really that was one of my biggest bucket list things for a long time because-
Craig Mattick: Is that the Carriage House?
Dale Moss: Carriage House, yeah. And we're doing well, so I think we've got some staying power, but growing up, my mom worked for a catering company for 20 years, and as a kid I was like, "Someday we're going to have our own restaurant, we're going to eat as much as we want whenever we want." So when I had the opportunity to invest and be a part of this, it was really, really special. And more so I could just bring people into a space and make them feel at home. I've got a lot of projects that I'm working on, anda lot of ideas, but it's all in... I'm right in the space I'm meant to be, the film, entertainment space. I'm going to continue to have success in those areas, working on a couple of product launches in the next probably eight to 12 months, once I get the funding and the partners right.
So I don't know, bucket list, it's hard. I feel like I just turned 36, and the amount I've experienced throughout my life at this age, I feel like I've lived so many lives. But I just want to be able to live on my own terms, have success in business, and just keep making a difference in people's lives. And that'll show up, hopefully, till my last breath in some capacity.
Craig Mattick: In Play with Craig Mattick is made possible by Horton in Britton, where smiling at work happens all the time. Apply now at hortonww.com. If you like what you're hearing, please give us a five-star review wherever you get your podcast. It helps us gain new listeners. This has been In Play with me, Craig Mattick. This is a production of South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
