AdamKontras.com - Five Double-Squared

6:08 PM, Saturday, May 10th, 2025:

5-10-25

Seems fated really. 5, double, squared. This won’t be a well written entry. But I get to write it. I cannot believe I get to write it.

I have to start with last night. After the video I got in the bath with a little whiskey and called the family. Nice to hear them being crazy when you’re alone. When we hung up I just sipped and teared up. So, fucking, tired of the struggle. It’s over 30 years of this. I’m about to turn 50 and I’m trying to bum rides off local friends to save $20 on an uber. The efficiency part of my brain is just ANGRY.

I mean I showed my friend Patrick the reel with LeBron and Ohtani and he was also just angry. He’s been following all of this and it’s just such a unique problem to have: sitting on a literal goldmine but you can’t get the right people to see it. It doesn’t work like this with any other type of media because you can email it, you can text it. Hell I’ve even posted it but because no one sees my stuff - and you have to be in headset - nothing matters. It’s awful. Time is ticking and eventually a bigger company is gonna bury me.

And thinking about the next day with Pete - it’s like, what the fuck? He’s seen it. He loves it, but it doesn’t have a real application for him as a coach, they have every video angle of practice COVERED. And it’s instantly synced up to every coach’s TV: it’s crazy. So I’m gonna show Pete - then I have to meet with a marketing lady - flying back and forth to Vegas on my own dime until we get to the next person, all summer… just like I’ve done with every team, but now I’m out $200 per visit. I can’t afford this - I haven’t had a paycheck since October of ‘23 and fucking ***** is still the only person on the planet who has ever made money from Virtual Presence. It gnaws at me and has for 17 months.

So I go to bed, get up early to piece together the shots for Pete and I get kind of excited because some of it is amazing. I got a shot of him walking out of a huddle with a smile on his face… and he says “wow” to himself while looking around at his team. It’s one of those super personal moments you almost don’t feel like you should see. This is a guy who probably thought he was never going to coach again. He’s 73. But he has a bounce in his step and he’s just, so, happy. I felt privileged to witness that. As someone who knows that feeling when you’re in the right place? To see him “home” for the first time since the Seahawks was really cool. And everyone could eventually see it. Maybe. Someday.

I get the reel done and I head to the facility. (Thank you Nick Sherrill and his wife Jenny for giving me a ride! Facebook friends who happened to be in town that I got to meet and show the reel to).

I walk up to Pete and he’s excited to see me and says meet him in his office in 10 minutes. And here we go…

As expected, he loved it. He’s talking to the players in the headset and asking me questions and commenting on how weird it is to be this close to himself in VR. I’m just taking it in and talking him through the shots…

He takes it off and goes: “let’s go show the president.”

<gulp>

So we run upstairs, she’s not in (because it’s Saturday - which we both forgot). Then he walks me to the freaking owners office (Mark Davis) he’s also not there - and finally to the GM (John Spytek) who’s threre! He sits him down, makes him watch it and then says: we have to do this. We have to figure this out.

<gulp>

John agrees and we shake hands and he tells me to email him. Then Pete tells me to show Chip Kelly and stay until Mark shows up.

So I charge the headset and call Hef. We’re both exuberant. It feels pretty clear this is going to happen. I mean when the head coach says that to the GM, what on earth could stop it, right? Fuck, everything. It’s the journey man - nothing is ever official.

Then I see the owner pull up and I go to find Pete and he’s nowhere to be found. I can’t just walk into the owner’s office without an intro. I wait an hour, the GM isn’t there either…. Fuck. I have to leave for my plane soon and suddenly Pete appears, I tell him Mark is in and he says “let’s go!”.

As we approach his office Pete says “not many people get to see this room” and he then proceeds to talk me up like I’m a goddamned wizard. And then leaves! Just ya know, one-on-one time with a billionaire. Weirdly though? I’m not nervous. Because I’ve already done the work. I get him in the headset to show him the raiders stuff and within seconds he yells: “SON OF A BITCH!”

He’s gobsmacked. He has no idea what’s happening and of course because it’s his team he’s losing it. More expletives, he takes it off and looks at me like that one dude at Bally last year: like I’m Harry Potter and I just showed him the year 2050. He immediately starts talking about exclusivity. He wants to be the only team doing this. We start brainstorming. The part in the reel where Pete is teaching the cornerbacks a technique really gets him. He wants to do a whole bunch of teaching videos and facility videos and pregame stuff and stadium stuff and he just starts riffing. I finally ask him: ok, who do I need to talk to to go over logistics and he said: “ME!”

I mean duh, we both own a company right? We’re just two owners talking. Right?

He gives me his personal email and wants me to come back and meet with the CFO and his lawyers and figure out a way for them to own this for a season so they can establish being the first to do it. I then show him the LeBron and Ohtani reel which also has the Rams. He REALLY loses it when he sees the Rams. His “SON OF A BITCH” is way more pronounced. And I get it, the colors - everyone in uniform - it just, looks, amazing. He’s freaking out - honestly? More than anyone has ever freaked out. Ever. This is the point where when there was a lull in the conversation (which went for 45 minutes mind you) I said “I’m gonna leave now while I’m ahead” and he just laughed. He walks me out and he sees John the GM in his office and believe it or not? This is where it gets SURREAL.

He’s so adamant to John that I think John was a little taken aback. He’s soft spoken but I can imagine from his perspective it’s gotta be tough dealing with numbers and budgets and the draft and the minicamp and then the owner comes in and suddenly it’s this whole new thing. Like Pete and Mark can just be excited, John has to actually make this all work. THEN PETE COMES IN.

So the 4 of us are sitting there and Pete and Mark are just going back and forth. Thinking of alllll of this content they want to do and how to do it. John and I are just taking it all in and when Mark brings up the LeBron shot and he makes me show THAT reel to John.

He takes it off and just says: “I cannot believe how real that was, it feels like I just zapped back from a different location.” Pete has to go to another meeting and I say to Mark: “Once again, sir I’m gonna leave…” to which he replies “…while you’re ahead” laughing.

I see Pete at the end of the hall with a thumbs up smiling and I run to him, shake his hand and say “Brother, I’m holding back tears.”

“Congratulations, Adam. Great Job.”

“I cannot thank you enough. I just don’t know what to say.”

“I don’t need thanks man, your stuff sells itself. I’m just really happy for you.”

The Super Bowl winning coach of the fucking Raiders just went to bat for me like… like few people have ever done? I mean it occurred to me sitting with the 4 of them that Pete was also excited… because THAT’S HIS BOSS. We forget that, right? Like showing your boss something that he loves? That’s good. That’s gotta feel good. I mean as we were walking out of his office earlier Mark said: “Pete man, he has great ideas” and it was the first time I was really proud of myself. Like - EVERYONE WINS HERE. Ya know? Everyone. No one gets hurt, there’s no hard feelings. We just get to make great content for fans and the owner is just so excited for Raider Nation. It’s like the purest day of my life next to having children, you know? I just want people to feel present. I want to help them be places they can’t be.

AND ITS GONNA HAPPEN NOW.

Here’s what I posted on Facebook:
New bucket list item checked off:

***

Sitting one on one with a billionaire NFL owner while he screams expletives because he’s so impressed with my product and asks how he can have exclusivity this season and put out more VR180 content than the world has ever seen.

***

I mean it was never ON my list but it’s off of it now.

What. The. Fuck. Just. Happened.

Pete Carroll giggling and saying congratulations because he knew he made that happen was also the most surreal moment of my life.

Folks, hold on tight… and welcome to The Journey.

This could set off a VR180 boom like we’ve never seen before. It’s going to shift the entire industry and I’ve believed that in my soul for nearly 3 years and have been trying to prove it in a vacuum this entire time.

HOLY SHIT.

So I gather my things and call Hef and he’s just beside himself. Now let’s look at this from HIS perspective: this absolute badass has spent well over a year just helping me. Getting every meeting, using every contact using every bit of leverage simply because he thinks he can help. There’s obviously a place for him with the company, duh, but he didn’t know if it would ever pay off: he just did it. He just helped. He’s fucking dumbfounded - like it worked! We immediately start strategizing and I eventually get off the phone cause I’m gonna start weeping in the fucking lobby waiting for my ride.

I’d been texting Talya throughout and I start crying and tell her I can’t even text her in the lobby - gimme a few minutes - and then Patrick shows up.

As I mentioned in the last entry, he’s lived the journey like no one else. He ends up picking me up on double-squared day which will be the LITERAL MOMENT of Volume 3 and has no idea ??. I tell him and he just looks at me gobsmacked. We grab a beer on our way to the airport and just try and wrap our heads around it. My phone keeps blowing up, there’s not enough time to talk to everyone.

I get to the airport and TSA just takes APART my gear. So I figure I’ll put it back together and make a VR180 video (guess I’ll post that here).



Man as you saw at the end, I broke down and when I actually heard Talya’s voice I straight, up, lost it. We couldn’t even get words out for a minute or so. I finally catch her up and then realize more shit so I have to call Hef. Then I call Dave (USC professor who helped me show Pete the first reel) and he’s ecstatic. Then I get on the plane and call Paddy and now I’m writing this. And believe it or not the plane is landing because this entry is how long it takes to fly from Vegas to LA.

The double-squared day. Way to go Journey Gods… I mean you waited until I was crying into my whiskey alone in a bathtub to throw me a bone, but the size of the bone makes up for it.

What, happens, next…

Adam