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 P 74