It could be said Bear Pascoe is on his second act, although, the Super Bowl champion always had it in mind he would be doing what he's doing now.
Pascoe made that clear during his appearance as a keynote speaker at the Porterville Unified School District's 11th annual Pathways Mentors Conference on Friday at Porterville Nazarene Church. Pascoe spoke to nearly 800 sophomores who are PUSD Pathways students.
Pascoe has followed up his NFL football career by competing in steer wrestling in rodeo. He talked about his experiences along with his guest, former NFL quarterback David Carr, who participated with Pascoe during his presentation virtually on the video screen.
Pascoe, a 2004 Granite Hills High School graduate, and Carr both played football at Fresno State and were teammates on the 2011 New York Giants team that beat Tom Brady and the New England Patriots 21-17 in the Super Bowl.
Pascoe was a tight end on that team and caught four passes in the Super Bowl. Carr was the backup quarterback on that team behind Eli Manning.
Pascoe talked about he has caught passes from a number of elite NFL quarterbacks, including Manning. But about Carr, Pascoe said, “He's the only quarterback when he throws the ball it whistles. It comes that fast. You can literally her it when it comes to you.”
Carr was also asked by one of the students how he felt about his younger brother, Derek, being released by the Las Vegas Raiders and signed by the New Orleans Saints.
“You can tell by my shirt color I feel pretty good about it,” said Carr about wearing a gold shirt, one of the team colors of the Saints.
Carr noted Las Vegas is hosting next year's Super Bowl so it would obviously be sweet if his younger brother could lead the Saints to that game.
Arguably the most important catch Pascoe made in his career was a touchdown reception from Manning in the NFC Championship Game against the San Francisco 49ers that helped propel the Giants to a 20-17 win and the Super Bowl.
There's no question it was a sweet moment for Pascoe to beat the team who drafted him — but cut him.
“I was cut from my first team,” Pascoe told the students, talking about his experience with the 49ers. “I had a little trouble adjusting to the speed of the game.”
“It hit me hard. I felt like I let my family down,” added Pascoe, saying he also felt like he let down Granite Hills and the community.
But both Pascoe and Carr talked about it's how one handles negative experiences like the one Pascoe had with the 49ers.
“Start developing your plan now,” Pascoe told the students. “Find out what you want to do. It doesn't matter what plan you have as long as you have one.”
As far as how to accomplish the plan, Pascoe said, “attack that goal with all the hard work and love you have.”
Pascoe also talked about the people who helped him along the way including Jeff Brown, who was the head football coach at Granite Hills when he played there and Cynthia Brown, who was Pascoe's counselor at Granite Hills.
Jeff Brown is now Harmony Magnet Academy's principal and Cynthia Brown is the PUSD Pathways Director. “I love those two people,” Pascoe said. “They were a big part of my life.”
Pascoe also talked about his father, Sean Pascoe. “My father was a big motivation for myself,” he said.
In addition among the players he faced who Pascoe talked about was one of the greatest linebackers in NFL history Ray Lewis, referring to a quote he heard from Lewis.
“If you want to fly with the eagles but are still flying with the pigeons you're not going to go anywhere,” stated Pascoe about what Lewis said.
Pascoe is now in the area for his steer wrestling as he's preparing to compete in two rodeos this week. The first is in Clovis Monday through Wednesday.
Then it's on to his hometown rodeo, the Springville Sierra Rodeo next Saturday, a week from today. Pascoe said he's the first one scheduled to compete. “First one out,” Pascoe said. “Get to set the tone.”
“It's going good,” said Pascoe about his steer wrestling. “It's challenging. I'm really enjoying it.”
It's something I planned on doing since I was these kids age,” said Pascoe about thinking of a rodeo career at the same age of the students at the conference.
Pascoe said among the highlights is competing at “historic rodeos and doing well at them.”
As far as how long he'll compete in rodeo Pascoe said, “I'm 37. I don't see myself steer wrestling much past 40, 45. I've got a good four to five years left.”
But even when he retires from steer wrestling that won't be it for Pascoe as he continue to compete in Jackpot Team Roping.
And rodeo isn't all Pascoe, who lives in Morro Bay, does. He also began his own business, Full Speed Decision, FSD Performance, in which he trains young football players.
Pascoe wanted to begin the business as a result of working as an assistant coach for the San Luis Obispo High School football team. Pascoe coached a couple of years at San Luis Obispo and plans to return to the school as an assistant coach this season.
“I really enjoyed coaching high school football,” Pascoe said. “It's one of the things that prompted me to start my business.”
Pascoe's experiences after football led him to be 20 ex-NFL players to be featured in the series “Life After” which can be seen on Amazon. While each episode features two players, Pascoe's life after football was so unique an entire episode was devoted just to him,
“They did a really good job with it,” said Pascoe about the episode.