Speaker 1: Are you ready for this? Jean Merriman A one of
Speaker 1: hand affack. Boom boom boom, out go the lights. This
Speaker 1: is Lights Out with Sean Merriman. What's up, guys. We're
Speaker 1: back again with another Lights Out podcast with me Shawn Merriman.
Speaker 1: And UH, today is cool for me because it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of a blast from my past and my
Speaker 1: current too, because it's still someone who I who was
Speaker 1: a brother to me and I look at his family.
Speaker 1: UH went the University of Maryland when me play linebacker.
Speaker 1: One of the best linebackers to play then came through
Speaker 1: there and had a long, great eleven year career. UH.
Speaker 1: Talking about the Quel Jackson man UM. We give some
Speaker 1: great stories because we both came in as freshman. He
Speaker 1: coming up from Florida. UM, he had an opportunity to
Speaker 1: go to a lot of schools as I did. But
Speaker 1: one of the things we get into he was he
Speaker 1: wasn't offered by Florida State. You know, you're talking about
Speaker 1: one of the best linebackers to come out of state
Speaker 1: of Florida wasn't offered. UM. And then we talked about
Speaker 1: a little bit of of of our college UH college
Speaker 1: time at the University of Maryland and some some really
Speaker 1: funny stories and just all around great deal. One of
Speaker 1: the smartest linebackers I got a chance to play with
Speaker 1: in my in my lifetime of playing sports as I
Speaker 1: was leven years old. So here we go, Man, this
Speaker 1: was gonna be good. To quote Jackson, But what what's
Speaker 1: going on? Man? Everything good? Yeah, every everything is good man,
Speaker 1: just uh, you know, trying to settle down with the
Speaker 1: pandemic and do the family thing. And we just got
Speaker 1: back for the holidays from skin and I called myself
Speaker 1: being a little snowboarder. Snowboarder now you see that snowboard
Speaker 1: back there. But yeah, things have been good, man, you
Speaker 1: know what. I've been very blessed and you know, making
Speaker 1: the best out of this pandemic situation. You know, it's crazy.
Speaker 1: So I didn't snowboard. Um, I snowboard at one time
Speaker 1: when I was playing, you know, during during a career,
Speaker 1: and I always had this thing in the back of
Speaker 1: my head like to not snowboard because you can get hurt.
Speaker 1: So I had no idea you can get like a
Speaker 1: serious injury or none of that snowboarding until somebody told me.
Speaker 1: I just had my knee surgery and uh, I think
Speaker 1: it was. Oh wait, so in oh nine, I was
Speaker 1: out there and I had a brace on and somebody
Speaker 1: told me and said, yo, listen, you can you can
Speaker 1: really get hurt a c LS stuff. Yeah, it's no joke.
Speaker 1: The first time, the first time I trying snowboard was
Speaker 1: about three years ago, and bro, it was an epic.
Speaker 1: I bruised my tailbone. I couldn't sit down for a
Speaker 1: month and a half. It was awful. But it's definitely
Speaker 1: something that you know, it's challenging, but once you figured out,
Speaker 1: it's fun, man, very fun. Yeah. No, And so you
Speaker 1: said during the pandemic, right, so you're you're back at
Speaker 1: You're back at home in uh in d C. And
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's kind of I was just back
Speaker 1: there with the family to like probably about two but
Speaker 1: you know, two months I got to go back and
Speaker 1: see my grandmother. She was gonna with me if I
Speaker 1: came in town. Yeah. Yeah, So I came back there
Speaker 1: and I wanted to go and buy and see and
Speaker 1: see locks and see everybody. But I think at the
Speaker 1: time they were, you know, kind of shut down to
Speaker 1: the school too. So for those of you guys that
Speaker 1: don't and I want to go take it all the
Speaker 1: way back. Man. We we came in to the University
Speaker 1: of Maryland and look, and I'm gonna throw it out there.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it. So our first day what happened
Speaker 1: was at the University of Maryland. We end up going there. Uh,
Speaker 1: the quail was supposed to be my roommate. And the
Speaker 1: quail didn't want to roommate with me because he was like,
Speaker 1: he wasn't gonna get nothing done because I was. I
Speaker 1: was out. I was I was out. Yeah, and I was,
Speaker 1: you know, from from the city, and I grew up
Speaker 1: twenty minutes from the campus. So I'm off campus and
Speaker 1: I'm in d C clubs. I mean this. I mean that,
Speaker 1: I'm always moved around. So the quail told me, he
Speaker 1: was like, man, I gotta get up. So the quail, actually,
Speaker 1: I think, went to the coaches like, man, I'm not
Speaker 1: staying in the road with him. I couldn't. I couldn't.
Speaker 1: There's no indictment on you. It was like, listen, let
Speaker 1: me let me lay it out for you. So here
Speaker 1: I am this, this, this, this, this quiet you know,
Speaker 1: competent only in football, type of kid from a small
Speaker 1: old town. Don't really, I'm very orderly, I do what
Speaker 1: everyone says I should do, and here I am lights out.
Speaker 1: This guy. The first time we had a chance to
Speaker 1: speak in front of the whole team as freshman, he
Speaker 1: tells everybody he's gonna be a top fifteen pick. I'm like,
Speaker 1: who is this man? Who is this guy? And behold
Speaker 1: it was the truth. But back to that point, well,
Speaker 1: here was the thing. I was like, man, you what
Speaker 1: you had is what I wanted. I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this guy had confidence, he he was he knew what
Speaker 1: he wanted. He would tell the coaches what he would
Speaker 1: and would not do. You knew your ability before they
Speaker 1: even had a clue. So but I knew I couldn't
Speaker 1: get anything done. If I was gonna be roommates, I
Speaker 1: was gonna do exactly what you were doing because I
Speaker 1: wanted to be the cool kid man. I wanted to
Speaker 1: follow everything you wanted to do. And I knew I
Speaker 1: just that wasn't my land. That wasn't my land at
Speaker 1: the time. But no indictment on you that that was
Speaker 1: a smart decision that you made. You're the things in
Speaker 1: my life that I was like, you can either go
Speaker 1: to this way or the right way. And that was
Speaker 1: one of them. That was one of them. You may
Speaker 1: got hunting grand but I was like, I couldn't do that.
Speaker 1: And you know what because you know from from the city, right,
Speaker 1: I grew up twenty minutes from the campus, so I'm
Speaker 1: used to the fast pace. I was already in you know,
Speaker 1: d C. And I was you know, so I was
Speaker 1: kind of so now that was that was good man.
Speaker 1: But yeah, for me, that pace was I was homesick.
Speaker 1: That was I was not used to the pick. That's
Speaker 1: what loud for me to go to uh University of
Speaker 1: Maryland because it was a different pace. It was you know,
Speaker 1: everything was moving a hundred miles an hour, and if
Speaker 1: you can survive in this area, man, you can manage
Speaker 1: anywhere else close to New York. What have you? And
Speaker 1: you had it all. You were grown man before a
Speaker 1: lot of us. Man, you were on a different level.
Speaker 1: So you know, it's crazy because you were one of
Speaker 1: the best best players coming out of Florida. And I remember,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if it was during that Florida
Speaker 1: State game that we played, what they talked about your
Speaker 1: story and that in Florida State not offering you so
Speaker 1: at the time, right, because you know, normally your best
Speaker 1: players aren't supposed to leave to state. So I took
Speaker 1: a lot of flak for that because where I grew up, well,
Speaker 1: let me go back a little bit my high school.
Speaker 1: If you graduated high school, um, from the particular high
Speaker 1: school that I graduated from, you were either going to
Speaker 1: the University of Florida or Florida State. And so for
Speaker 1: me playing football, that was like the pinnacle to say,
Speaker 1: hey man, Florida State offered me, and I'm going there
Speaker 1: to play football, so that in my mind I was
Speaker 1: only good enough Florida State offered me. And when they
Speaker 1: didn't offer me, and you know, Maryland was there, and
Speaker 1: c State was there, LSU was there, I trust me.
Speaker 1: I had enough places to go to to to play
Speaker 1: ball to feel confia. In my mind, Florida State was
Speaker 1: the was the pinnacle. But when I left, when I
Speaker 1: decided to go to Maryland, first of all, I want
Speaker 1: the football school. It was on the hills, as you
Speaker 1: know of the Orange Bowl Freegan's first year. UM, so
Speaker 1: I wanted to go to a place where it was
Speaker 1: up and so I canna be part of that legacy.
Speaker 1: I just didn't want to be a fly on the
Speaker 1: wall sort of same, but uh yeah, man, it was.
Speaker 1: It was definitely one of those you know, you mark
Speaker 1: the calendar type games because they looked over me and
Speaker 1: I always took, always kept that with me, whether I
Speaker 1: played Florida State or Nolan, Illinois or what happened and
Speaker 1: and that's and so to that. So you you walk
Speaker 1: in and I'll never forget, you know, our freshman orientation
Speaker 1: that we had, and we were stacked like they you
Speaker 1: know it was we were had, We had so much,
Speaker 1: We had so many guys to come in and they
Speaker 1: already I mean they went to the Orange Ball, they
Speaker 1: got they got blown out by I think with Florida
Speaker 1: right the year before. But people don't understand and when't
Speaker 1: when I talk about Maryland now and our defense and
Speaker 1: the people that played there, that we we had probably
Speaker 1: top five or top ten defense in the nation, but
Speaker 1: we was never talked about like that. And so you know,
Speaker 1: I go down the lines of all the guys that
Speaker 1: we played with, uh that end up going pro and
Speaker 1: you got you know, you me, Dominique Foxworth, Brandy Starks,
Speaker 1: kershaw E, j yep E, j Henderson, Joe played Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: we had Josh Wilson. Yeah, Josh Wilson, there's a long
Speaker 1: list of guys and uh that defensive we would have first,
Speaker 1: we would have cream of the crop. Like you knew
Speaker 1: that right, Like we would have first um um the
Speaker 1: first way. The next recruiting class after they had that success,
Speaker 1: so they got like the best of the best and
Speaker 1: we started the winning tradition in Maryland. Again, I don't
Speaker 1: take anything away from the guys that were there before,
Speaker 1: but freed and found a way to to to maximize
Speaker 1: those guys potential. But we would have first, you know,
Speaker 1: recruiting class to put Maryland on the map. And like
Speaker 1: you mentioned, there was a ton of guys not only
Speaker 1: to play in the league, but have careers in the league. Listen,
Speaker 1: you would when when when you had to hi of
Speaker 1: your career, you were up in m d P m
Speaker 1: VP of the league and you had him a school
Speaker 1: with Maryland which the last two years only won five games.
Speaker 1: Yet we have seven, eight nine guys go off and
Speaker 1: play and have a career in the National Football League.
Speaker 1: So I always say, listen, we had a quarterback situation
Speaker 1: that was much better. We would compete with the best
Speaker 1: of the best, no doubt about it. And it's and
Speaker 1: it's funny. So I end up. You know, I ended up.
Speaker 1: We came together, but I left earlier, Like I knew
Speaker 1: you said before, Like I knew that I wasn't gonna
Speaker 1: be there long. I just had this thing and and
Speaker 1: I was probably a little cocky, little ass, you know,
Speaker 1: back then, but it was more like um to me.
Speaker 1: And I look at it now and it was it
Speaker 1: was like manifesting that that's what I was gonna be.
Speaker 1: I had that in my head. But I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: I came up the first card that I bought. Remember
Speaker 1: that when I came back to campus, and so I
Speaker 1: bought a G five hundred. Yes, the G five hundred
Speaker 1: I just got. I declared, I knew I was coming
Speaker 1: out of school, and I remember driving the G five
Speaker 1: hunted back up on campus and you and Will and
Speaker 1: everybody was dead man. And it was cool for me
Speaker 1: because I knew, I knew y'all were coming. I knew
Speaker 1: y'all were coming right after, and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this is dope, man. Everybody out my boys I played with,
Speaker 1: and I'm driving back up on campus with a brand
Speaker 1: new five Hunter. Have no idea the impression you left
Speaker 1: on all of us. Man, when you told us you
Speaker 1: was coming uh driving around. Man, just the like the
Speaker 1: fact that I didn't know anybody being from Florida small
Speaker 1: town to stand the other I didn't know anybody that
Speaker 1: I was close with that was doing it the right
Speaker 1: way and living like I wanted to live. You were
Speaker 1: that when you picked me up and let me sit
Speaker 1: in that pass to see I'm like, man, this dude
Speaker 1: made it. Man like you got it. But man, that
Speaker 1: was that was just a That was a good time. Man.
Speaker 1: That was that was when things were were pure and
Speaker 1: and we worked hard. We worked hard at Maryland. We
Speaker 1: worked and most people, man, and that I tell people
Speaker 1: all the time. So the reason why I started off
Speaker 1: like I did the NFL is because you know, we
Speaker 1: practice this for us at Maryland. You know, because you
Speaker 1: have arning on offense. You know at tight end you
Speaker 1: had Stefon Hire your left tackles and running back Bruce
Speaker 1: Perry and then Josh Allen right after Josh. Right after
Speaker 1: that show, we are practice where C. J. Brooks offensive
Speaker 1: line and all these guys. Our practices were to me
Speaker 1: were hard and sometimes in the games because we would clash,
Speaker 1: we would do full goal we were hitting, we were
Speaker 1: you know, just all the time. And so when I
Speaker 1: got to the NFL, I remember that our defensicordinator the
Speaker 1: way you phillips at the time way Phillips like, hey,
Speaker 1: by the way, go make a play. And I was like,
Speaker 1: hold on what because I remember I played in the
Speaker 1: system where everything you did had to be fitting in
Speaker 1: the system, and our practices was hard as hell. When
Speaker 1: I got to the NFL, it was easy. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I had that similar experience because on the physical standpoint,
Speaker 1: physical side of things, I was, I was groomed, and
Speaker 1: I was ready. It was the go make a players
Speaker 1: Like wait a minute, that coaching me not to play
Speaker 1: like a robot, Go make the play. You're paid now
Speaker 1: to go make a play. So that really I had
Speaker 1: to really retool my way of thinking and playing the game,
Speaker 1: which I wanted to do in college. But I really
Speaker 1: didn't know how to tow that line. But somehow you
Speaker 1: figured it out. I remember, I remember, uh was it
Speaker 1: coach seems? I mean they would go they you would
Speaker 1: dry and crazy bro dumping out of gaps, going to
Speaker 1: make plays and ship. I love it because I played similar.
Speaker 1: I was like, if you go make a play that's
Speaker 1: gonna mess up the map. So now I can freeball it,
Speaker 1: I can get in on the on the play. You know,
Speaker 1: it's funny what you learned in a year or two
Speaker 1: in the league as opposed to being in college and
Speaker 1: being coached a specific way. And once you realize you're
Speaker 1: getting paid for something, it's about production period, hard saying.
Speaker 1: And so so you you get drafted, um, you second
Speaker 1: in a second round and and you get drafted by Cleveland.
Speaker 1: So when you're sitting back watching them, now like Cleveland.
Speaker 1: And so when y'all there, I think it was oh
Speaker 1: either oh six, oh seven. Y'all had had a pretty
Speaker 1: good year oh seven, And I always that was my
Speaker 1: biggest fear of man getting drafted by somebody that was
Speaker 1: gonna play well overall, because it's like, you can you
Speaker 1: can be out there killing me. I mean, you were
Speaker 1: leading leading the league in time. I was remember looking
Speaker 1: up and I was like, god, Dad, I was walking everybody,
Speaker 1: tell everybody in the locker room and said, yo, look
Speaker 1: at Quail, look at this. Crazy. So the numbers were off.
Speaker 1: The charting is crazy, but because you know you're in
Speaker 1: Cleveland and it's not winning a lot of games, do
Speaker 1: you look at the Browns now the winning How how
Speaker 1: that team would have been if y'all got that same exposure.
Speaker 1: You know what? Yeah? I do because later in my career,
Speaker 1: when I was released from the Browns after eight years,
Speaker 1: I go to the Colds and it was, you know,
Speaker 1: every time you walk around the building as banners of this,
Speaker 1: you know, conference championship, this Super Bowl doesn't rememorabilia that
Speaker 1: subconsciously have you thinking like, you know what I need
Speaker 1: to prepare to win here? That they only do one thing,
Speaker 1: they win here. So absolutely, and the success I had,
Speaker 1: I made the Pro Bowl the first year there, and
Speaker 1: it was because of my play didn't change. It was
Speaker 1: we had more exposure. We were playing more meaningful games,
Speaker 1: and we were winning meaningful games. And you know how
Speaker 1: it goes if you're on a if you're a better player,
Speaker 1: a great player, a good player on a really good team,
Speaker 1: you don't get the notoriety. So I do think about that.
Speaker 1: And there was a lot of guys, you know, Joe Hayden,
Speaker 1: t J. War you know, uh, just a slew guy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who was the beast in your opinion that people were
Speaker 1: not like Sean Rogers, Sean Roy, John Rogers, the d tackle.
Speaker 1: The most athletic guy I've ever been around. I played,
Speaker 1: I hoot with him one day. This guy was three
Speaker 1: hundred thirty pounds, could do a three sixty wind mill dunk.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying that he was freakish. He
Speaker 1: played maybe fourteen fifteen years, but he went from Detroit
Speaker 1: to clean up. And he's one of the those guys
Speaker 1: that if he was with New England or one of
Speaker 1: these winning teams, he would have been a household name,
Speaker 1: if not shooing Hall of Famer. So you know, you
Speaker 1: play that game here and there. But you know, Cleveland,
Speaker 1: I love what they're doing now. I think they figured
Speaker 1: out what Baker Mayfield, what his what his strength saw. Uh.
Speaker 1: They run the football, they set up the pass through
Speaker 1: running the football. They played great defense, and you know what,
Speaker 1: they got a bunch of first round draft picks, a
Speaker 1: bunch of young guys who were just scratching the surface
Speaker 1: and just learning how to win. What was what was
Speaker 1: the two differences between the organizations? Like you know, for
Speaker 1: me when I from leaving the Charges, and the difference
Speaker 1: was that we won a lot of games, right, and
Speaker 1: so people came to the we were just hot. We
Speaker 1: had lt and Philip Rivers, so people came to the
Speaker 1: game to see stars, and we were kicking everybody's ask.
Speaker 1: But when I went to Buffalo, they wasn't you know,
Speaker 1: when I first got there, they wasn't winning. They were
Speaker 1: like oh and six, oh and seven. But you still
Speaker 1: had sixty five thousand or how many people at the
Speaker 1: games and wanted twelve degrees outside and no shirts. They
Speaker 1: were still going crazy and in the city was like
Speaker 1: showing you crazy love, like you felt like a second
Speaker 1: or third cousin. In Buffalo, it was just a different atmosphere.
Speaker 1: What was it difference like when you left Cleveland and
Speaker 1: Cleveland hands down, no offense to the Coats fans, but
Speaker 1: Cleveland hands down has the best fan base ever. There
Speaker 1: was no reason for that that fan base to be
Speaker 1: optimistic about the upcoming year because there was nothing looking
Speaker 1: forward to here. They hadn't made the playoffs in eighteen years.
Speaker 1: So what I can tell you about that experience every
Speaker 1: opening day, every eight games that we would play, it
Speaker 1: was sold out for probably the first two quarters. When
Speaker 1: they realized we were getting my ass kicked, they would
Speaker 1: start to boo and leave and all that. But they
Speaker 1: always showed up. Man. They were they were passionate, hard
Speaker 1: working people and they deserve a winner. Now you go
Speaker 1: to the Coats, where it's a given that you're winning, right,
Speaker 1: It's like you're walking into a situation that's foreign. And
Speaker 1: this is the one thing. This is when I really
Speaker 1: really I was with a different organization. Choke with Gonald.
Speaker 1: That's my guy. He was my head coach at the
Speaker 1: time I played. I played for his brother John as
Speaker 1: a fan. That's my guy. He approaches me one week.
Speaker 1: This is probably like the maybe fifth six weeks of
Speaker 1: the season I'm playing. Well. He was like, hey, this
Speaker 1: is what I want you to do. We were winning
Speaker 1: trackers at the time. They would track us how the
Speaker 1: distance that we would run and the velocity to be
Speaker 1: and all that good stuff. He was like, listen, on Wednesdays,
Speaker 1: I want you to take a day off. I was
Speaker 1: like what me being me, I don't know any better.
Speaker 1: I'm from Cleveland. I didn't get days. I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: I bro. It took them three weeks for them to
Speaker 1: force me not to practice, and when I started doing that,
Speaker 1: they gave me two days off Wednesdays and Fridays with
Speaker 1: my days. Well, I'm sorry Wednesday and Wednesday and Fridays
Speaker 1: with my days off, and it was just like bro
Speaker 1: I was rolling and I understood the benefit of it.
Speaker 1: So if I can compare to two they experience from
Speaker 1: a fan standpoint, Cleveland gets to not but in terms
Speaker 1: of overall, you know, um, you know, longevity on your career,
Speaker 1: definitely the Coats man and I love both experiences because
Speaker 1: I had a chance to play my first I know
Speaker 1: I'm running on, but it was my first to to
Speaker 1: playing the postseason. Uh, you know, we get to then
Speaker 1: FC Championship game, I end up sept Tom Brady, which
Speaker 1: is the goal. So that so so that I want
Speaker 1: to talk about that, man, seriously, I wanted because that
Speaker 1: was a big deal that and you were part of
Speaker 1: that whole, that whole thing that that went down. Now
Speaker 1: it was it was crazy how it happened. I mean
Speaker 1: they won the game, Frances Square, Listen. You know when
Speaker 1: I intercepted that ball, I did not think in a
Speaker 1: million years it would it would just evolve intil this
Speaker 1: deflate gate scandal that what what was going on with
Speaker 1: Brady deflating balls and this, that and the other. I
Speaker 1: had no idea. So did you what what did you
Speaker 1: did that feel? Because I wish make you know, I
Speaker 1: always try to bash the bash tom Brady of Bash
Speaker 1: Patriots because it's fun. It's fun for me. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie. It's just fun for me. I love it.
Speaker 1: But what did you Could you feel a difference in
Speaker 1: the ball as soon as you touch it or try
Speaker 1: to throw it back to the ref. So what what happened?
Speaker 1: The only thing I remember is the plate. How it happened.
Speaker 1: I knew in the red zone Grunt was a big target.
Speaker 1: He goes in motion. We had a cover set up
Speaker 1: to where if he's in my zone, I had the
Speaker 1: man turn with him. He runs the scene route and
Speaker 1: I knew tom Brady being the goal. If my back
Speaker 1: is turned to Grunt, that ball is coming. This is
Speaker 1: what's going through my head. I'm running with Grunt, my
Speaker 1: back is turned to you know, Tom Brady. He throws it.
Speaker 1: I turned around and I catch it. I catch it.
Speaker 1: I realized the intercepted. I'm on cloud nine. I handed
Speaker 1: to the equipment guys. They write my my my initials
Speaker 1: d Q five two on it. That was it right?
Speaker 1: So what I had done? I set up a driver
Speaker 1: because we played like obviously, you know AFC Championship game
Speaker 1: is late. So I set up a driver once we
Speaker 1: got back to Indy because it was gonna be late
Speaker 1: if we want it was gonna be a party on
Speaker 1: the plane whatever whatever. I was trying to do the
Speaker 1: smart thing. So the driver picks me up. I use
Speaker 1: them all year. So I'm sitting there, I'm I'm pissed
Speaker 1: and you know, we lost and just sad or whatever.
Speaker 1: And the guy mentioned he was like, hey, did you know,
Speaker 1: Like what what you're talking about? He's like, did you know?
Speaker 1: I was like, what are you talking about? Turns on
Speaker 1: the radio. I hear all the spill about you know,
Speaker 1: the ball was under deflated. This that I had no idea, bro.
Speaker 1: So this was above my pay grade. So the coats
Speaker 1: let me be the skategoat for all this talk about.
Speaker 1: I was the one to to say the ball was underinflated,
Speaker 1: like you know as well as I do. I'm a linebacker.
Speaker 1: I don't touch the football like that. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I wanted to put that ball. If
Speaker 1: you can see this fire pit over here, I wanted
Speaker 1: to put that ball on my mantel over here. Say
Speaker 1: I intercepted Tom Brady. But it just the story just
Speaker 1: kept running and running and running. And the one thing
Speaker 1: that I talked to Chuck about after the fact, I
Speaker 1: was like, listen, y'all put me, y'all let me. You know,
Speaker 1: y'all didn't take take the fall. Ye take the fall
Speaker 1: for this one last thing I said about that. So
Speaker 1: one of my ages, younger guys around our age, he
Speaker 1: got married um in Boston. After that, I was the
Speaker 1: only client that was invited to the wedding. He didn't
Speaker 1: tell anyone of my name. I'm there, kind of you know, incognito. Uh.
Speaker 1: The the wife's um, his wife's uncles or whatever. Starts drinking.
Speaker 1: We started talking. They was like, you look familiar. I'm like, nah, nah,
Speaker 1: I don't you know, I'm making up stuff. He was like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: did you play for the Coats? They figured out who
Speaker 1: I was? Dude? Do you know I had to leave
Speaker 1: because they were they were threatening to jump me at
Speaker 1: the wedding. Bro no way leave, no way, Bright it was.
Speaker 1: It was no job. I couldn't go back to Boston, Bro,
Speaker 1: I could not go anywhere in Boston. And and that wedding,
Speaker 1: bro it was it became it became a situation I
Speaker 1: had to leave. I had to leave, Brot. I know
Speaker 1: I feel you, but you know it's crazy with that.
Speaker 1: It's because of the story the way it was. And
Speaker 1: I never I thought about hitting you up and asking
Speaker 1: you about it. But I'm like, at the same time,
Speaker 1: you know, I wasn't in the media, you know, I
Speaker 1: wasn't trying to find out an inside inside school. So
Speaker 1: it was more like, I mean, I know everybody hitting
Speaker 1: them up, and it was it was I want to
Speaker 1: hit you up as a joke. Like you know, Tom
Speaker 1: Brady's balls always always inflated, right, Like I wanted. I
Speaker 1: was like, Yo, how's tom Brady's balls? You know, I
Speaker 1: wanted to like play around, But I always thought that
Speaker 1: you were the one, like they took it to them
Speaker 1: and said, hey, this ball is inflated. No, so I
Speaker 1: learned through the years or what have you talking to,
Speaker 1: you know, equipment guys here and there. Apparently, and I
Speaker 1: had no idea before this story, bro Apparently, when it's cold,
Speaker 1: it's better too for the receivers to catch a ball.
Speaker 1: If the ball is inflated, it feels like a brick.
Speaker 1: But when you deflated a bit, you can actually squeeze
Speaker 1: it and puncture it so you can grip it and
Speaker 1: throw it better and all like, I had no idea,
Speaker 1: and they let the coach let me kind of just
Speaker 1: hang out there on my own. They knew I could
Speaker 1: deal with it. When I got to the Pro Bowl.
Speaker 1: That's the only thing anyone wanted to talk about. Hey, listen,
Speaker 1: I was. I was. I had some cloud for about
Speaker 1: a couple of months there, and I enjoyed it. I played.
Speaker 1: I had fun with it. You know, I have fun
Speaker 1: with it, no, no doubt about it. But one thing
Speaker 1: I've been trying to get get to is that football.
Speaker 1: I have not received that football. They collected it for
Speaker 1: the investigation. It's got my name and number on it,
Speaker 1: and you know that ball is in the sphere somewhere. Man. Man,
Speaker 1: That's that's just kind of crazy to me, man, because um,
Speaker 1: for one, you know, and I always and I always
Speaker 1: say that too out and that's why I played against
Speaker 1: the best and I had my best games against Tom Brady,
Speaker 1: against Peyton Manning all these guys, because you want that
Speaker 1: memory of Hey, I did that to the best. So
Speaker 1: surprised it. After all, have you tried to reach out
Speaker 1: to anybody and get the football or yeah, I had
Speaker 1: when it when it um probably the next year after man,
Speaker 1: I had my agents on it. I was looking at
Speaker 1: attorneys here in d C. That I was using every
Speaker 1: resource I could possibly use to try to find this ball.
Speaker 1: And what was given to me was the NFL has it.
Speaker 1: It was an investigation, that was it. No one said
Speaker 1: anything to me about how I can retrieve the ball.
Speaker 1: But I tell you this, if that ball ever comes up,
Speaker 1: it's in permanent market d Q five two on it.
Speaker 1: So that's that's how you can verify because I guarantee
Speaker 1: you when Tom Brady goes in retirement, that ball is
Speaker 1: going to resurface. Somebody's gonna try to sell it and
Speaker 1: make a ton of money off of it. We'll see.
Speaker 1: To be honest, man, you know, I think that's something
Speaker 1: you should maybe reach out to Roger Godell or somebody
Speaker 1: to get that ball. Because I the investigation over, they
Speaker 1: already made a decision and everything's already happened, and then
Speaker 1: old so and you know they got it a evidence
Speaker 1: five six. You know it's it's somewhere and evidence, So
Speaker 1: why why not you know, giving back to you. That's
Speaker 1: kind of crazy to me, you see the footballs I
Speaker 1: have back here, so I could all my interception turnover balls.
Speaker 1: I collected them over my eleven years. So you know,
Speaker 1: I got a two year old son. Now when he
Speaker 1: comes into you know, the weight room, I got my
Speaker 1: ball scattered around. He gets to play with him, and
Speaker 1: one day we'll be able to have that conversation. I
Speaker 1: want to be able to tell him your dad was
Speaker 1: pretty good. He actually intercepted one of the greatest quarterbacks
Speaker 1: that ever play the game. So you know, we'll see that,
Speaker 1: we'll say that's and he always donna look at you
Speaker 1: like dad, right, so he's not looking at you know,
Speaker 1: like the Quail Jackson, one of the best. You know,
Speaker 1: you always gonna be dad to him. And then by
Speaker 1: the time that he gets old enough to start playing ball,
Speaker 1: he's gonna be looking back and like they're gonna have
Speaker 1: some new streaming service something else, and they're gonna look
Speaker 1: at They're gonna look at us like we're all like
Speaker 1: we look at VHS, like how we look at VHS.
Speaker 1: Then they're gonna be looking at us. Yeah, man, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. How times U a passing of buying. Man,
Speaker 1: the things that we enjoyed growing up, you know, as
Speaker 1: as an after thought. You know, my wife got on me,
Speaker 1: uh some months ago when I decided to buy a
Speaker 1: DVD player because you know, we got all that, you know,
Speaker 1: during the pandemic, we got all this time. I got
Speaker 1: all these boxes around here. So I'm going through boxes.
Speaker 1: I'm finding you know, Dave Chappelle, you know DVDs, the
Speaker 1: Dave Chappelle skids we used to watch in college. We
Speaker 1: want to talk about that. But like all the little,
Speaker 1: you know, little DVDs and all, I was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, let me go ahead and buy you know,
Speaker 1: DVD player. And she thought I was crazy. And then
Speaker 1: two days later we lose power. Guess what we're doing
Speaker 1: watching that DVD player? You know what I mean? So
Speaker 1: I always, I always keep a DVD player because every
Speaker 1: time I moved to a new spot and the cable
Speaker 1: and everything that I sit up, yet that's the only
Speaker 1: thing I go back to. I got my Martins. I
Speaker 1: got my Martin's DVD. So if if if the cable
Speaker 1: take a couple of days, get cut on, always for
Speaker 1: a day or two, I always go watching Martin. They're
Speaker 1: old school man, your old Can you understand what you know?
Speaker 1: Now that you know, everything is is internet base and
Speaker 1: you know that, which is good. We all we all
Speaker 1: subscribed to that. But sometimes you just need something that
Speaker 1: you know that's going to be consistently in work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know it was talking about you, talking about your
Speaker 1: some man. But I was always tell people that the
Speaker 1: two smartest players that I played with is you and Steven.
Speaker 1: I played with Stephen Cooper out there in San Diego.
Speaker 1: You know, smart have you have you? Because yeah, you
Speaker 1: had to correct me. All. I had to listen out
Speaker 1: that because you know I wasn't listening to you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta get me, you gotta get me right. I
Speaker 1: was gonna go make a play. But have you have
Speaker 1: you have you thought about getting into coaching or or
Speaker 1: doing something back in that in that field? Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: it's what I know. It's my comfort zone, man. And
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a giver, I'm a helper. You know.
Speaker 1: It's funny. You know, I tried to reach out to
Speaker 1: i MG Academy today and it's a place that when
Speaker 1: I had my two pet tears, it was a place
Speaker 1: that basically I was at my lower. It's a lower
Speaker 1: and they built me back up man. And and if
Speaker 1: I can help another individual. I have thought about getting
Speaker 1: into coaching, um, whether it be mentorship or something in that.
Speaker 1: In that regard that the problem is I like my time,
Speaker 1: I like my flexibility, and that's the that's the that's
Speaker 1: the sacrifice you gotta make at the pro level and
Speaker 1: at the collegiate level. We decided to go that route.
Speaker 1: You gotta move your family, you know, you gotta be
Speaker 1: fully committed. So I'm trying to finest that little scratch
Speaker 1: your mind, but also have my flexibility. So it's definitely
Speaker 1: not off the table by any mean. Yeah. I always thought, man,
Speaker 1: that you, at some point in time was gonna make
Speaker 1: a great coach. And I'm I was surprised that locks
Speaker 1: And called, because you know you're back at the cribs.
Speaker 1: Is like, hey, man, you know I need you up
Speaker 1: here because I know what you'll be able to do
Speaker 1: for the rest of the players. Right, So lats and
Speaker 1: night we listen, we talked all the time, Man, and
Speaker 1: I told him I was blunt, I was straightforward. Well,
Speaker 1: I was like, listen, I don't want to travel, you know,
Speaker 1: so I wanna, you know, uh have a space where
Speaker 1: let me come up like this year. If it wasn't
Speaker 1: a pandemic or you would have saw a lot of
Speaker 1: myself at Universe in Maryland. It's fifteen minutes from here,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So I wasn't asking for
Speaker 1: him to hire me to do that. I was like,
Speaker 1: give me an opportunity to be around a program. Let
Speaker 1: me show my work, Let me show how I can
Speaker 1: help guys, show guys how to how to watch film,
Speaker 1: how to be a pro and and have fun, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. And I think I couldn't finess,
Speaker 1: you know, being in this In this game, you need
Speaker 1: a lot of different characters. Then you figure out how
Speaker 1: to be a problem solver and and and all these
Speaker 1: good things. So I think that's a real asset of mind,
Speaker 1: and I can help young young men, especially because you
Speaker 1: and I we had that mentorship. That's someone that we respected,
Speaker 1: that was fresh out of the game. I would have
Speaker 1: listened to everything they had to say, and it wouldn't
Speaker 1: only it only benefits the program. So it's definitely not
Speaker 1: off the table. Lotses is doing a heck of a job,
Speaker 1: you know, trying to recruit and build this program back.
Speaker 1: I would tell people all the time now, and we
Speaker 1: talked about it, and I think that people are starting
Speaker 1: to see it more because he's a head coach. There
Speaker 1: is his recruiting power. Oh, I'll argue with anybody in
Speaker 1: the country likes to me, Mike Lotsley is the is
Speaker 1: the best recruiter, best recruiting in the country, in the country. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when when I was he was the first person to
Speaker 1: to to offer me a scholarship. When he offered me
Speaker 1: a scholarship, it was like a domino effect. Everybody else
Speaker 1: came along. And the difference I tell everyone, the difference
Speaker 1: between lots and every other recruiter that was dealing with me.
Speaker 1: Lock is a good judgment. He's a good reader of people, right,
Speaker 1: and he read that I needed some attachment. You know,
Speaker 1: I needed to know if I go, if I leave
Speaker 1: my nest, say where I've never been on the plane before.
Speaker 1: I need to be comfortable with at least one person
Speaker 1: that I've been talking to throughout this recruiting process. And
Speaker 1: even when he left. You remember the first year we
Speaker 1: got there, he left and went to Florida. The year
Speaker 1: after I was ready to transfer and follow him, he talked.
Speaker 1: He talked me like, you know what, you made the decision,
Speaker 1: stick with your decision and all work out. You're a
Speaker 1: heck of a player, and we've always been close ever since.
Speaker 1: Not everyone's doing that, man, yep, I was the same
Speaker 1: one because I was. I was behind my freshman year
Speaker 1: and my sophomore year behind Jamal Cockran, and I was like,
Speaker 1: not against them all. It's a perfect position for him
Speaker 1: and that Leo position. You five ten, five eleven, two
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty pounds and cocks strong. I said, that's
Speaker 1: the perfect ready for lights out. Merriman, man, you wouldn't
Speaker 1: even You were a play maker. You were not going
Speaker 1: to play and be stagnant. You told everybody was gonna
Speaker 1: be a top ten, top fifteen pick of the draft,
Speaker 1: and this ship came true. You know what I looked.
Speaker 1: I looked back at that ship and I'm like, man, what,
Speaker 1: what the hell was my problem? I don't know what
Speaker 1: I was on, dog, I have to be honest. I
Speaker 1: was like, man, I don't even I don't at the
Speaker 1: time because it's it's one thing to have confidence in yourself.
Speaker 1: But I because I really did think that in my hand, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I felt that way. But I look back on it, like,
Speaker 1: who the hell actually comes out their mouth and say it?
Speaker 1: You might think it but nobody saying. I'll get chills
Speaker 1: thinking about it. Because my rom my first week or
Speaker 1: two a camp I called my own, I'm like, um,
Speaker 1: you know he was so bi exciting. Hey man, how
Speaker 1: are you doing? You're killing ship? You're doing I'm like, nah,
Speaker 1: I can't get off a block. This ship is hard, man,
Speaker 1: and somehow, Bro, for you to say what you did
Speaker 1: and have a bulls out on your chest and then
Speaker 1: stand up to it and then have instant respect and
Speaker 1: be a top what what what'd you going? Twelve in
Speaker 1: the draft and then your first two years you were
Speaker 1: behind a diesel strong you know, jamal cocked like that.
Speaker 1: You can write a book about that, bro, I'm telling
Speaker 1: you you can write a book about it, because that
Speaker 1: ship doesn't happen unless you you you you're strong up here, bro,
Speaker 1: Like I don't listen. I don't know if I've ever
Speaker 1: told you, but that takes a strong individual to do that.
Speaker 1: People would have just shut it down. I appreciate it, man,
Speaker 1: But I tell people that was that was some good times.
Speaker 1: And you know it's funny. We all we all got
Speaker 1: kids now and everybody's older. But you know, any time
Speaker 1: like we you know, came back to the to the crib,
Speaker 1: and I see you. We went out and we still
Speaker 1: talked to old big head will curse yalladline back, and
Speaker 1: we also played with and everything good man. I gotta
Speaker 1: get out there when his whole pandemic. Uh slow down,
Speaker 1: get out there and see y'all man, and then uh, well,
Speaker 1: you know we should do at some point maybe you know,
Speaker 1: and talk the locks that maybe on the off season
Speaker 1: or have a summer camp up there. We're just working
Speaker 1: with guys man for like a whole week or a a
Speaker 1: few days and have a long So I'm completely down
Speaker 1: with that. That would be cool. And if you come
Speaker 1: back in town, Broke, I got enough space here at
Speaker 1: the house, will be stay at the crib, man. Like
Speaker 1: I said, I'm fifty twenty minutes away from the university.
Speaker 1: You don't you ain't got about no hotel. Man. You
Speaker 1: stay at the crib and you stay down in the
Speaker 1: in the basement. I got the pool table over here,
Speaker 1: I got the drinks over here. I got the gym.
Speaker 1: I knew you like the gym. I got I got everything, man,
Speaker 1: My dude, my dude, Hey, I appreciate you coming on man,
Speaker 1: and all love over here. Dude, and I can't wait
Speaker 1: to see the fan absolutely hit me up with your
Speaker 1: town brother. I will man, I will appreciate you. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Thanks guys for tuning in to another podcast, another lights
Speaker 1: Out podcast with me Sean Merriman. And that was cool. Man.
Speaker 1: We we probably, honestly, and I'm not joking, we probably
Speaker 1: could have talked another hour. Uh some great stories someone
Speaker 1: we kept off the air. Maybe maybe we'll maybe we'll
Speaker 1: come back on to really get into it. But it
Speaker 1: was just cool here for the first time about the
Speaker 1: whole um the fleet gate with uh with the Patriots.
Speaker 1: You know, he was the one that caught the interception
Speaker 1: and it was the ball that uh that he caught
Speaker 1: the interception interception if they found out that that was
Speaker 1: the exact ball that was deflated. And also get my
Speaker 1: man to quote Jackson back his uh the football the
Speaker 1: investigations over in the NFL, You guys done everything he
Speaker 1: needed to do. Uh, he got he got his kid
Speaker 1: one day. You want to show his son that he
Speaker 1: caught an interception from from Tom Brady. So well, let's
Speaker 1: try to get the quote Jackson's ball. But anyway, thanks
Speaker 1: guys again, that was fun, man, It was it was
Speaker 1: good talking, um, you know, to an old teammate, but
Speaker 1: more importantly a friend. Uh that we're still talking close
Speaker 1: to the day and talking about our times at the
Speaker 1: University of Maryland. So don't forget to subscribe. You guys
Speaker 1: really leaving some great reviews. I think we just went
Speaker 1: over uh you know, a few hundred thousand downloads, all
Speaker 1: thanks to you guys. Man, So I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1: We'll keep it going. We'll come back next week, keep
Speaker 1: dropping some bombs on you guys, So thanks for your
Speaker 1: support and keep leaving those reviews and makes you downloaders