TJ Houshmandzadeh never thought that he would find himself on a softball field coaching the Firecrackers. One day, the former NFL wide receiver came home after playoffs to find his two daughters, Karrington and Kennedi with a sudden interest in softball.

Kennedi Houshmandzadeh makes the Hot 100 2020 list. 


Their love for softball ignited a new passion he didn't know existed. 

(Brett Hansbauer-USA TODAY Sports)

How did Kennedi get involved in softball? That's a crazy story. I was playing and it was my 11th year and we just got done with playoffs. I'm flying home and my wife tells me like a week later that the girls want to play softball. I was like, softball? Where did that come from?

Well my oldest daughter had a friend who played and she would go watch her play. I guess this had been going on for like a year now. They would always ask her, "Do you want to play?" And she would say, "No no no."

Finally one day she said she wanted to play. So I know absolutely nothing about softball. I never paid attention to softball. Never cared about softball. So I come home and I'll never forget it. I go to Sports Authority and I get a bat and glove. And I just grab a bat. Come to find out it was baseball bat. A guy at the tryout told me, "Dude that's a baseball bat." He played at University of Tennessee and his daughter was playing. He ended drafting my daughter on his team. It was good because he actually played baseball. He played in the minors so right away she was able to get good coaching.

As you got more involved, did you find yourself enjoying the sport? What is your experience like getting involved in softball? Enjoying the sport is probably an understatement. I would probably would have used, "OBSESSED." I don't know what it is about softball. It's so weird.

My kid started playing it and I start watching it on TV now. My wife had a cousin who was playing on Oklahoma State. We're going to watch her play and it just became an obsession. So I learned as much as I could so I could teach my kid the right way to do things because me being a professional athlete. To me the athletes that have the technique to fall back on tend to last longer. And so I'm big on doing things the right way.

So I wanted to learn as much as I can so I became obsessed. They played two years of rec ball and I actually stopped playing football because I wanted to coach them. I wanted to be around them. I helped our rec ball coach and started coaching with the Firecrackers. What I know now and what I thought I knew then is just crazy.

I think that was the biggest adjustment for me. Understanding that failure is going to happen at a high rate.

You can't let one aspect of the game take away the other aspect. Where as other sports, that's different. You strike out. You probably got to wait another couple innings before you hit again. If you're not strong minded and you're still thinking about that. You have to be able to let that stuff go mentally.

How would you describe Kennedi? Athletic. She's just a good athlete. She's really fast, really strong. She's got natural strength and explosion.

She starts playing. What's it like watching her go through that process of development? You know what's crazy I never really paid attention to "going through the process." I wasn't worried about the process. I was more about, "We gotta be the best."

And so I was almost a maniac about it. We're hitting everyday. We're fielding everyday. I'm taking them to park. And I met Doug Myers, Jess Martinson, Jorge Araujo, and Steve McNee. Those are some of the first guys I met. I met some people within the softball world right away that I was able to latch onto and learn from.

I was just football minded. You gotta work everyday because you gotta be the best. That was just our goal. Work work work. Take a couple of weeks off then go at it again. That's all I knew.

It's funny because I have buddies of mine that have daughters. They either play softball or want to play softball just because my daughters play. They'll come watch games. I had a buddy that played (football) and they'll come out.

They'll say, "Can you believe my daughter wants to play softball now? She doesn't even want to cheerlead anymore."

It's addictive. It's fun.

I saw four or five guys I played with or against in Colorado. Their daughters are playing.

Who has daughters who play softball? Ty Warren, his daughter plays. Her name is Bre Warren. Lawyer Milloy his daughter is a 2019. She plays on Team Seattle with Heather Tarr.

(Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports)

Softball has made us come alive. We all say the same thing. It's addicting.

So you mentioned you taking that football mentality into softball? Can you explain what that means? When I played football, I was real passionate person. I'm super competitive and people that don't know I swear they think I'm mean. If we lose to a team, I think we should beat or if we make too many mental mistakes. I don't worry about the physical mistakes. I know they come. I've dropped balls.

I bring a lot a passion. I care about the girls. I'm one of the few coaches in softball that can say I don't do this for the money. I spend more of my money to help kids. I don't touch a dollar of the team account.

I had to learn how to not be so passionate. Meaning if a girl made a mental mistake. When I first started coaching, I would let her know immediately what she did wrong and try to figure out what she was thinking. That's the wrong way to go about it with girls.

Let the play die down. Give her about 10 minutes. She already feels bad. I would get on her right away because that's the thing we did in football.

That was learning experience for me and I'm still learning.

I'm big on scouting reports. If we play a team more than once then I try to get a scouting report on each player. How they pitched to you? Their batters. What pitches they like. Where they stand in the box?

So we make scouting reports because that's my background. That's what we do in football.

How does Kennedi respond to your style of coaching? Kennedi is fine. She's used to my style of coaching because I coached my oldest one. I was so hard on my oldest one.

Where are you guys in the recruiting process with Kennedi? The recruiting process picked up in Colorado. We're taking a trip to LSU and Auburn. We ask her where do you want to go to school Kennedi? I would like her to stay close but it's her journey. I'm going to support her.

**UPDATE: Since this story first published, Kennedi has verbally committed to LSU.**

What's been the biggest lesson you've learned through coaching softball? Don't panic. Don't lose your cool over one mistake whether it's myself or a player. I'm still learning that. The biggest thing that I've learned is to let it go.

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