2023-09-15 03:35:08
Mario Badillo
Mexico City / 09/14/2023 19:28:39
Jorge León, also known as the Kicking Lawyer, a media figure who combined his passion for sports and law to fulfill his dreams. It should be noted that in March of this year he became the only Latin American athlete to compete in two professional leagues in the United States.
Mediotiempo had the opportunity to chat with Jorge León, who shared what his process has been like to become a professional athlete at 43 years of age. In addition to expressing the difficulties that he has faced, the sacrifices that he has had to make and finally, that he plans to continue playing as long as his body lasts.
How did the idea of the Kicking Lawyer come about?
“It arose approximately 13 or 14 years ago because I started trying this crazy thing of playing American football, I had always played soccer, which is my favorite sport and the one I always practiced as a child. But I had that ‘little bug’ that my father told me I had ‘touch’ and he was in American football all his life as a head coach and player, so I started kicking the oval ball doing challenges. I uploaded one to YouTube and started sharing it, then I decided to create and separate my work, because as a lawyer I uploaded copyright and entertainment content and I felt the need to separate both things, although today it’s all together.”
“I decided to create this character because I said, ‘if I’m going to kick balls and I’m a lawyer, then a kicking lawyer’ and then I also created my networks. It was a trial and error strategy with myself, I really like making content and I have fun doing my challenges.”
What was your first approach to both sports and law?
“I had an approach to sports practically since I was a baby, through my father who has always been involved in sports and from there I had this sports education. I started practicing different sports: gymnastics, swimming, basketball, soccer, baseball and from there my passion for sports arose. I became interested in being a professional athlete in different teams, first soccer and then American football.”
“I decided to write to several NFL teams and coaches, and when Mike (Hollis) answered me, who today is my trainer, my coach, my sensei, Mike Hollis who kicked for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills and New York Giants. “After 13 or 14 years of going to Jacksonville to kick with him and prepare, these situations could arise of being able to play both in Mexico and in the United States.”
How has Mike Hollis impacted your career?
“I had a very interesting evolution because I had to strengthen a very particular technique that Mike has, so he kicked the ball in different ways and hit the football as if it were a round one. It took me a little bit to get used to because it’s like the golf swing, where you can’t turn as much and you have to follow a ‘follow through’ (path). The relationship has evolved in an incredible way, from being my coach to now being a friend, training all day and sacrificing some moments of fun to making him try some tequilas and mezcals.”
What is the main challenge you have had to face both in law and in sports?
“I worked in different offices and places, but I decided to start both in business, in an office and also in sports, so the biggest challenge has been knocking on millions of doors. It is difficult for people to help you and many have helped me. Today, at 43 years of age, you have reached maturity and understand that this is how it is, but at first it is frustrating and exhausting, in a way it makes you sad because the doors close. That is the biggest challenge, even though there are injuries and illnesses, but I think maintaining that motivation is the most complicated challenge.”
How has your experience with athletes been and which has been the best?
“For me, a mere mortal, having Rafa Márquez on my YouTube channel or coinciding with (Fernando) Valenzuela, with (Julio César) Chávez, with Hugo (Sánchez) or with Martín Gramática now that I went to play in Tampa and to be my coach, because it is actually a dream. Because it is a dream that the door has finally opened, plus you meet your idol and you can practice with him and kick some balls. In the end you learn, I really like talking to them and asking them, because you learn many things. “It has been an incredible experience, I don’t know if it was luck or if life took me there.”
“The truth is that I have looked for it a lot and suddenly you are talking to Pibe Valderrama and you do the challenge, you end up eating with him and talking, it is something amazing.”
What was the initial approach with the athletes like?
“I have sought out some interviews, from writing to them on their social networks or to their manager, or seeing who knows them. Others have arisen through collaborations with a brand or I agree with them either through some media. I think it has been wonderful, but in addition to searching and finding, there are times when it has not been possible. Like Maradona’s time, when he came at the end, the challenge that we were going to do could no longer be met and he died in the following months.
What has the general consensus of your loved ones been regarding the kick-ass lawyer?
“We live in a country where it is difficult to try to do things and then when you do they criticize you. So in my case I have been very lucky that my parents, my brother, and my wife mainly, who is the one with whom I have been together for more than 20 years and who knows me in these crazy things, she knows that I am brave and a warrior until she achieve, my wife has been a main piece in achieving this. Also some of my friends because as they say, unfortunately you can count the real ones on the fingers of one hand. Many see you in the spot and are there, but suddenly you no longer have a team or an injury and they are no longer there. It hasn’t been easy because by being ‘disruptive’ people see you as crazy, but in the end I want to fulfill the child that I was 30 years ago and send the message to all those children that if I am 43 years old and I am doing it “They can do it too.”
What was it like to make history by becoming the first Mexican athlete to play in two professional leagues?
“It’s something incredible because since I was a child I dreamed of it and with my friends I played that I was Michael Jordan or Bo Jackson. I dressed as a basketball player, soccer player or baseball player and I told them ‘I’m going to play two different sports in the United States.’ I had to start with one and it took me a while because I achieved the first one when I was 40 years old in the United States, I was also able to achieve it here in Mexico. I would have liked it to be at Real Madrid or Necaxa or something like that. Then they criticize me for being a ‘multitask’ because if I don’t wither, I had my band and I was a Warner artist, but for me it was important to finish my career as a lawyer and a master’s degree. So by doing so many things, that caused this objective to be delayed.”
“Now that I was able to return from Tampa and play with the Tampa Bay Strikers to achieve that second sport in the United States professionally, then they criticize me because I am not playing for the LA Galaxy or with Carlos Vela (LAFC), but I know what They have experienced my shoes and what it has cost me to get there. In the end it is something incredible because I was able to fulfill that child who played and dressed. It is also sending a message to my children of effort and dedication.”
What do you consider to be the worst and best moment of your career so far?
“Without a doubt, I think the best moment was the one I had in Columbus, kicking with the Orlando Predators, I have even tattooed all the dates, because that kick took me 10 years (to kick in the United States), that’s why it is in the video as celebration and shout. The worst was during the pandemic, because I left my family for six months to go to Jacksonville to train with Mike. I was physically very good, that March I managed to stay in the Sharks, it was very complicated returning to Mexico because the league was canceled. I had to turn it around and talk to these figures like Luis García, Jorge Campos, Alberto García Aspe, also with Mike and my dad so as not to reach a sadness that gives you disappointment. “All of them agreed to go to what is coming.”
What are the similarities between sports and law?
“I think it’s practically the same because they both have rules and are based on them. In any sport you have rules that are like laws. The law is full of rules and laws that must be followed, so for me it is very similar. Fortunately, I was able to find my passion in sports, music, entertainment and channel it into law by being a different lawyer, without a suit, without a tie. “So I was able to combine my two passions into one.”
“At first when I was studying law and doing litigation, I would go see my wife who was studying design or my friends who were in the creative part of communications and I would say: ‘What am I doing here in a suit and everyone is serious?’ Fortunately, by the sixth semester I learned about copyright and at that time I was a Warner artist, so I wanted to combine everything and it could be achieved.”
What are the differences between sports and law?
“The differences are that law is a very concrete, specific branch, even a little ‘square’ and I feel that sport is not so much because I think there are many edges, both in the way of practicing it and in the way of interpreting it. The law is a little more rigid.”
What’s next for the kick-ass lawyer in the future?
“I don’t know and I have never known. That’s what’s interesting and sometimes a little frustrating because you don’t know what’s coming and as you grow up, I’m already 43 years old, the sports industry sees you as an old man, so having a position is more complicated. I am looking to continue in both sports because I still feel that it works for me, I could see it now in Tampa, I am still looking in the United States in both balls, but also if something happens here in Mexico it would be something incredible to return to Morelia or Atlante, where I was able play but not debut, I would love to be the Adam Vinatieri here and retire in a Mexican team. But I am focused on continuing in the United States and getting a place there.”
#years #professional #children #tooHalftime