Navy SEAL Hell Week VS NFL Tryouts

About this video

A former NFL player who transitioned to Navy SEAL training describes his experience at BUD/S as significantly tougher than professional football. He recounts coming from NFL training camp without distance running experience, being designated ’the goon’ by instructors, and struggling with cardio-centric activities while excelling at athletic/explosive tasks. The guest discusses what breaks people in BUD/S training, emphasizing the importance of wanting to do the work rather than just earn the title, and reflects on how his Midwestern upbringing and a pivotal conversation with his father about self-reliance shaped his mental toughness.

Key takeaways

• The guest argues BUD/S was ’light years tougher’ than NFL-level football, requiring sustained mental and endurance toughness across all domains rather than acute toughness in short moments
• The guest explains that people who quit BUD/S are often doing it for the wrong reasons (wanting to be a SEAL rather than do what SEALs do), can’t compartmentalize to focus on one evolution at a time, or succumb to constant cold exposure
• The guest credits his Iowa upbringing and a formative conversation with his father (who told him as a 14-year-old he must learn to face fear alone) as foundational to developing the self-reliance and toughness needed for BUD/S

Episode details: published June 20, 2026 · 6.1K views · 21:39 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Stories told by Mike Ritland’s podcast guests are the guests’ own accounts, attributed to them — not independently verified. Commentary is Ritland’s, presented as his analysis.

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