Alejandro Villanueva: Growing up in Europe, Joining the Army Rangers, and Becoming a Farmer

NFL: Good Morning Football

iHeartPodcasts and NFL

Football, Sports

4.3 • 655 Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2025

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alejandro Villanueva sits down Peanut Tillman and Roman Harper to share his unique journey: growing up as an army brat moving around the U.S. and Europe; to an Army Ranger deployed in Afghanistan; then becoming a Pro Bowl offensive lineman with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Alejandro explains why he decided to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, why he decided to retire as an Army Ranger, and how he was able to tryout and make it to an NFL roster. He also discusses his third act as a farmer growing fruit and how that connects to his Spanish roots.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is an IHeart podcast.
0:21.1	Every parent in the United States would dream to have the lottery of having a kid like this. Thousand percent. Every dad wants to have a, you know, oh my God, I can't wait for my son to be 6'10. That opens up the playbook. I can play basketball. I can do football. I can do any sport. But what happens if you're from a small town in the middle of nowhere in southern Spain, three miles away from Africa? Like, you know, what do you do? What kind of
0:27.1	sports do you do? So I never had a chance, basically.
0:35.3	What's up, everybody? I'm Peanut Toolman, and this is the NFL players second acts podcast.
0:41.8	With me as always, that's my trusty co-host.
0:44.8	Roman, I don't have my pineapple t-shirt on Harper.
0:48.4	Yes.
0:50.2	You know, I'm just, I'm so used to you just shooting shots that everybody in the room.
0:54.3	And I'm really looking forward to our next guest.
0:56.7	He's the biggest man in the room, probably in every room he's been in.
0:59.6	He's a graduate at West Point, served in the U.S. Army.
1:03.9	He did multiple tours in Afghanistan.
1:06.2	He's got several wars.
1:07.9	He's a combat veteran.
1:09.4	He's received a bronze star for
1:11.0	valor and his second act he he played left tackle played seven seasons for the
1:16.2	Pittsburgh Steelers and the Ravens in his third act he is a farmer and he is
1:23.1	killing it in the homestead ladies and gentlemen ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the pod.
1:31.1	Mr. Alejandro Villanueva.
1:32.6	Did I say that right?
1:37.8	Bro, I tried so hard not to butcher the last part, Villanueva.
2:17.5	Outside of Miami, that's, uh, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's an A. In Miami, now we can place you exactly where you're in the city now. Yeah, I will take what I can get. I was like, damn, I really ain't trying to butcher this man's last name. So Alejandro, I can mock that all day. You know what? When I first came to the United States, there's a lot of people from the South that are in the Army. Yeah. So when they read my name, they said, Alejandro, Alejandro, and it got stuck as Ali. So I'm a Catholic kid from Spain, and his new name is Ali. So my name was Ali for people in the army still call me Ali. Really? Everybody in the army calls me Ali. And then when I went to the NFL, I tried to introduce myself as Alejandro. Alejandro,
	...

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