On The Pegs January 2018 - Volume 3 - Issue 1 | Page 74
On The Pegs
ends, but we’re definitely grinding hard this year. It’s
a short-lived life in this series. I want to do everything
I can in the short amount of time that I have.
Can you do as well or better financially doing
your own deal, compared to riding for a factory
team?
The thing is, obviously everybody has kind of paid
attention to the model that I’ve left over the last few
years. In no shape or form do I want to sound cocky
or arrogant, but it’s a card that I can play and not
many people can really play this card. I come off as
the real guy. I’ve been injured for the last few years.
Until this year, I haven’t done anything. For the last
five years, since Instagram, Facebook was around, I’ve
still got a larger following than everybody but Kailub
in our sport. I think that the reason for that is the way
that people see me. They see me as a real guy. A guy
that they can drink a beer with. A guy that their kids
can come up and get their poster signed. For me,
by doing my own deal I can keep that image, where
under the factory team it’s a little bit different. Obvi-
ously they have to be very politically correct. For me
personally it’s one of the things that I see that just
doesn’t necessarily sit the same with me, because
I’ve built this image. Everything in sports, everything
realistically in anything is based upon image. It’s
what people see. I want people to see me as a real
person. Yes, I cuss. I’ll drink a beer with you. It’s stuff
that real people do. I want to be seen and known and
associated as a real guy. I’ve been able to play that
card. By doing my own deals it allows me to have the
freedom of speech, I guess you could say, to where
I can. If the time comes to where I’ve got to join one
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