Hotard Huddle

As per request from someone who enjoys my lifestyle posts, I am adhering to the call and I will fill you in on some things you may not know about me. Finding 10 of these was rather difficult because I am an open book for the most part.

• I am Agnostic

Although I grew up attending private Catholic / Christian schools, I never really bought in to religion so to speak. I was raised Catholic, but I was never confirmed. I never really had any desire to be confirmed. It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around the potential idea of dying and then that’s just it. I cling on to hope there is an afterlife. However, I never say there definitively is.

• If I sing, it sounds like rats dying.

In addition to a broke ass hairline, I was blessed with a broke ass singing voice. But damn it, that doesn’t mean I won’t sing my heart out for some karaoke.

• I Have a Filter

Contrary to popular belief to me not having a filter for what I say, I do and I use it regularly. When Chandler Bing said “I say more dumb things before 9am than most people say all day,” apply that to my thoughts. In addition to the dumb thoughts, I hold back on many things I want to say sometimes. However, that doesn’t mean I will always hold back. Because of my direct approach to people, it gets looked at as if a filter does not exist. Believe me when I tell you that it exists.

• I Live In My Grandparents Old House

I was fortunate enough to get a leg up on adult life being gifted with my grandparents old house. They were a massive part of my childhood and raising me. It was awesome to basically have two sets of parents. One told me the things I couldn’t do and the others gave me candy, icees and bought video games for me when I faked being sick. YOU THE REAL MVP!

In all seriousness, I enjoy living here because of subtle and constant reminders of my grandparents. If you watch any of my videos, you will see a picture behind me of them and me on grandparents day when I was younger. They meant a lot to me and I loved them very much. The feeling was mutual as they wanted me to have this house.

• I Own a Social Media Marketing Company

I run Do It All Marketing (visit site). We help businesses establish a social media presence. We handle day to day content plus advertising. I don’t pry myself off as the owner of it though. I hate using titles for clout so to speak. I try to shy away from the word owner for such reasons. On my social media pages, I simply have Digital Marketing Strategist as my title because that is what I do.

• I Was Mischievous as a Child

I turned out fine. When I was a kid, I had multiple parents of certain friends over the years who didn’t like me very much. I was well-mannered and respectful, but I was also mischievous. I was the friend who usually had the ideas of doing stupid shit. We used to throw doo-ey balls (wet paper towels) and water balloons at passing cars. It was always my idea. I remember we had empty Gatorade bottles at my friend’s sleepover for his birthday. We pelted a passing car with about 10 of them and then hid in his mom’s bus. Although that group of friends had others like me, I was always pushing for things that could get us into trouble. Nothing too insane or out of the norm. Just the typical prank calling, ding dong ditching, spit balls in class, making fart noise or actually farting, etc.

What made it so mischievous is I was never the one who took blame. I was good at deception and staying out of trouble.

Two stories come to mind. I got in trouble in 7th grade for shooting shit with a rubber band. It wasn’t me who was caught in the act though. Because I had a rubber band, I was guilty. For the record, I 100% took part in it, but I cried to get out of it knowing damn well I wasn’t the one who was caught in the act. I remember leaving the office, laughing as I walked down the hallway thinking, “fucking idiots.”

The second was ding dong ditching with my neighbor. It became our favorite pastime after Hurricane Katrina. There were open backyards because of broken fences. It wasn’t just ring the bell and run. It was ring the bell and hide (only did it at night). Then ring the bell again. We got real ballsy with it. He had a person that lived behind him and one house over. We used to use his neighbors yard to enter a hole in the fence, knock on the back door. Wait for them to come to the back and make our way to the front. Repeat cycle later. One day we got caught. They laughed about it saying it was clever, but chill out. We did. I crawled through a garden of an old friend’s house when we attempted to go for a 4th time one night. I will never forget the shock and awe I felt when I looked up from the garden and saw his dad staring at me through the window. I took off and then heard my name. Pretty much knew I was fucked. My friend took the blame. I let him because we knew he wouldn’t get in trouble and I would.

• I’d Rather Someone Hate Me Than Appease to Them

Because of my direct and honest personality (contrary to the last thing I mentioned), it gets taken as know-it-all or arrogant. I am ok with that. Arrogant, maybe at times. Know-it-all, hardly. If I don’t have the research, I don’t speak on it. I used to care so heavily about what people thought of me growing up. As I have gotten older, I just don’t. That doesn’t mean I act like a loose cannon, but I hold people accountable for certain things. I would expect the same in return.

I just don’t believe in the notion of not saying something for fear of what someone may think of me. If I am not spewing hate or false information, it is fair game to me. Act accordingly. I think because of the lack of needing to be liked and willingness to speak out, I understand it may rub people the wrong way and may even lead to someone not liking me. So be it.

• I Once Made Fun of Peyton Manning To His Face

When I was at Nicholls, we had the Manning Passing Academy every year. I covered it twice as part of the “media.” However, I worked for the football program so that came with special privileges. I just wore my football shirt and walked around like I belonged. No one told me anything. The first day of arrival, Peyton and Eli were throwing with some of the QBs and receivers who came to the camp. After they finished their workout, some of the guys from the team were taking pictures. A buddy of mine wanted me to get a picture of he and Peyton and asked me to take it. He fumbled for his phone and didn’t have the camera pulled up.

To be clear, Peyton is impatient. He is a stiff to say the least. The comedic guy you see on SNL and commercials is nothing more than an act, at least based on my experience around him those two years.

He gives this sour look and says “come on man, you don’t even have your phone out.” It wasn’t what he said, but how he said it. Honestly, he was being an asshole. I looked at my buddy as I stood literally right in front of Peyton and said “yEaH (buddy’s name), YoU’Re WaSTiNg HiS TiMe MaN.” He said nothing, but I am glad he didn’t know I was technically with the media. Otherwise, my press pass probably gets revoked.

• Long Distance Saved My Relationship

I love my wife. I am forever grateful for the life we are creating for ourselves. I was talking with a buddy recently about past relationships. One of those just shoot the shit type of talks. I had mentioned to him how rough our relationship was from the age of 17-21ish. It was constant fighting, on and off and not the healthiest of relationships. We of course go back and read some of the shit we said and laugh hysterically at how bad it was. We always ended up back together for the same reason many people do, comfort. We have been together since we were 15. So it was comfortable.

I had plans of proposing despite all of the issues. That being said, the night she left for her internship in Atlanta was a game changer. I saw her a handful of times over the course of a little under a year she was there. We talked every day of course, but we did our own thing with friends and enjoyed life without each other. I’d go out. She would go out. It was the “be safe, love you” vs “when are you going to be home” or “you’re out again.” There was a huge line of trust built on that. It didn’t take long to confirm my plans that it would be the right decision. It matured the relationship in a lot of ways.

Not to say we are perfect, far from it. But I wouldn’t want to do life with anyone else. I think about how different it would be without the year away.

• I have a Photographic Memory for Sports

For my sports fans, you know the clip where LeBron recites every single that happened in a series of possessions, I can do that to an extent. I can remember individual plays of my own to the point where I can track my own stats without a stat sheet when I play.

During one basketball season to prove a point to a buddy, I kept my own stats for all 12 games. When I say stats, I don’t just mean points. No…the whole shabang. I recorded my points, field goal attempts, three point attempts, assists, rebounds, steals, blocks just to prove a point.

In addition to the memory on the field of play, sports statistics have always found a way to stay lodged in my brain over time. Maybe it’s because I have been keeping my own stats since I was 15. The first season I had access to my stats was when I was 14 when my dad coached me. He was always a big stat head too. Definitely take that from his playbook. I would look at the team spreadsheet to see strengths and weaknesses of everyone including myself.

From that point on, I kept my own stats for self satisfaction. I still remember my stat lines from that season when I was 14, when I quarterbacked for intramurals at Nicholls, my basketball season, etc.

I guess it is because of self practice. Now when I read stats for NFL or NBA, they stay lodged. I can rattle off stupid analytics like DVOA on a whim. If only I could figure out how to put it to use for Fantasy Football.

• I Stalked People Before Social Media Made It Cool

My bathroom reading of choice as a child before phones were yearbooks. I used to look at those while I took shits.