HOUSTON — Coaches and players might be the ones on the field, but it’d be hard to argue that anyone has a seat closer to an athlete’s career than a parent. And while we often hear about the athlete’s journey, we rarely hear it from a parent’s point of view.
That’s why Kimberly Stroud and Monica Daniels decided to launch “The Mom’s POV Podcast.”
“The Mom’s POV Show” stands for “The Mom’s Point Of View."
"One thing we noticed in our journey was that there were very few moms’ perspectives out there. And the journey is so windy and there’s so many things going on that sometimes you need a resource,” Stroud said.
Here in Houston, Texans fans have seen C.J. Stroud rise to stardom and the same thing is happening in Arizona with offensive tackle Paris Johnson Jr. His mom Monica, like Kimberly, has been there for everything.
“We want to just share our story, be fully transparent, share our viewpoint,” said Monica Daniels.
Daniels, like Kimberly, has seen and been a major part of her son’s rise through youth, high school and college sports and now reaching his NFL dream.
Kimberly and Monica met in 2020 at Ohio State where C.J. and Paris played college football and led the Buckeyes to a College Football Playoff appearance in their careers there.
“We were able to talk about our journeys a little bit and we just clicked from there,” said Stroud.
“Kim and I had to learn on the job {laughing}… as I said we were baptized by fire. We had each other, and I’m grateful that we had each other to go through that process so we want to be able to use our platform to be able to encourage other amazing moms,” Daniels said.
Their first episode dropped last week and gave an overview of their sons’ rookie (2023) seasons from their perspectives. But in future episodes, which they plan to release bi-weekly, Stroud and Daniels plan to not only talk about what’s current but also delve into subjects like recruiting, marketing and NIL (Name Image Likeness).
“We were just learning, on-the-job training. At the time you couldn’t even have an agent. You could have a licensed attorney, but for the most part… Ohio State was teaching Kim and I how we can advise our sons. So we were almost acting as amateur agents,” said Monica about experiencing the NIL process early on in college sports.
But their podcast also has a unique ability to talk about their sons as people, not just football players. From serving the community to becoming leaders on their teams, Stroud and Daniels know exactly who each of these NFL players are at heart.
“I always believe a good leader always knows how to follow. And I think for CJ, that is something that he definitely radiates, is a spirit of of just all the players in the locker room, learning different aspects of each player and appreciating who they are and what they bring to the team, and then following some of the ways that they have that make him a better quarterback,” said Stroud.
“They had to learn to be able to follow from the veterans and learn to gain the trust from the veterans and learn to follow them and get under them and learn from them. Then they can begin to walk into that leadership role. I’m very grateful that both of our boys took that to heart and knew exactly what to do and I’m going to selfishly say Kim and I raised them that way,” said Daniels with a smile.
Kimberly and Monica plan to have special guests throughout the season including their daughters Cieara and Sydney and they’re planning to drop new episodes every other Wednesday.
The full interview with Kimberly, Monica and KHOU 11’s Zack Tawatari can be found on KHOU 11+.