Every Tuesday afternoon, What’s the Fuss with … will feature a unique off-the-field side of an Arizona Cardinal in a Q&A format. If you have an idea for a What’s the Fuss with … tweet Josh Weinfuss at @joshweinfuss using the hashtag #WTFwith.
This week, What’s the Fuss with … caught up with defensive end Frostee Rucker, who joined the Cardinals as a defensive end during the offseason. It might be pretty obvious what we talked about, so let’s get started.
How did you get the name Frostee?
“My pop [Len] was a DJ while he was in the military and they called him DJ Frost because they said he was cold on the spins. [They called him] Frost, Frostee all that. No matter what he named me they were going to call me Little Frost anyway, so they named me Frostee.”
So Frostee is your given name?
“Yup, that’s my given name.”
What was it like growing up named Frostee?
“It sucked growing up really because kids at Christmas time and teachers, and me being African American, it just didn’t all come together but about [the] time I came to high school it became a household name in Orange County (Calif.).
“It’s just benefitted [me] from then. It’s always caught peoples’ eye in the paper and they wanted to know more. So I don’t know if I’ll name my kid that if I ever have one but at the same time being unique isn’t bad either.”
What kind of music did your father spin?
“Everything. I’m sure back then it was Marvin Gaye and all that stuff from the '70s and '80s but he said he had it all.
“I’m real big on music, too. My financial advisor told me I had to stop buying stuff on iTunes. I don’t want to illegally download so if I like a song I’m buying it. That’s probably one of my worst vices.”
How many songs do you have?
“Thousands. I have thousands of songs and that all adds up if each song is a dollar. Yeah, I had to chill out on music for a little while.
What’s your favorite type of music?
“Obviously, I like hip-hop. I like all genres of music, really. I really like how a lot of artists have switched over and they found a new avenue in dance music, from Chris Brown and Ne-Yo and all these other guys. They don’t just sing love songs. They’re doing dance music and it’s another genre and opened up the expansion of music a little bit more. It used to be just Techno, that’s what the word was, Techno. Now it’s dance and house and trance, I like that too. Good vibe music.”
How’d you get into the frozen yogurt business? (Editor’s note: Rucker invested in two Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt franchises while he played in Cincinnati.)
“It was actually during the lockout and I was sitting in my agent’s [James Gould] office downtown Cincinnati. And there was a new development in the city of Cincinnati called The Banks. It was a huge project and we’re looking outside of his office, and what I really wanted to do was I wanted to do a fast McDonald’s -- just sell breakfast all the time. Obviously you couldn’t do it. The franchise of McDonald’s is so strict on their laws and the guidelines of what you can do. The franchise fee is like $600,000 and I wasn’t going to do that either.
“And so we tried to do a Wendy’s deal actually in Cincinnati, a regional thing, and I think it fits and actually Wendy’s said, ‘No, you’re not a full-time starter. So after the meeting, when we went to a frozen yogurt play, we went in there and saw how many people are coming in and people really liked it. I said, ‘Remember what Wendy’s said? We’ll open up our own stuff.
“I’m really happy I got into business that way. I didn’t go to school for business. I went to school for sociology. It’s learning a new language, business talk, and stuff like that, being in meetings and I really like it. It just doesn’t limit me to being a football player. I can do other things. And along the way, hopefully I’ll be able to open more, and get some of my teammates or friends that I know into business. From my experience I know how to do it and know how to construct a contract. I like it.”
What’s your favorite frozen yogurt flavor?
“Red velvet.”