Speaker 1: All right, guys, Doug, you can sit over here. Safeties. Man,
Speaker 1: we've had some good ones, good ones, some great ones,
Speaker 1: impactful guys, and then we're not even including on this
Speaker 1: panel obviously some some other great ones that we'll get
Speaker 1: into throughout the day. But I would I would guess
Speaker 1: that you would agree, everybody, and you can let me
Speaker 1: hear it if it's true. Uh, this is a group
Speaker 1: of some vicious hitters, vicious competitors, and some of the
Speaker 1: most feared of the game. You guys collectively knew how
Speaker 1: to and do with Eddie Jackson here, you know how
Speaker 1: to to take the starch out of an offense a
Speaker 1: little bit. When you say Gary Fencing. Absolutely, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm sure that all of us will say that really
Speaker 1: good safeties are the product of a really good defensive line.
Speaker 1: You know, you got a good defensive line, and it
Speaker 1: allows you to do things that you can't do great hits.
Speaker 1: Of course, Edie can't do those anymore because he'd be
Speaker 1: fined out of the league. I mean, you know, Doug
Speaker 1: and I'd be down ten to seven, knowing that our
Speaker 1: offense probably wasn't going to score, and it would be
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter and we'd say time to have
Speaker 1: fun and time to be fun it means nailing people.
Speaker 1: Mike Brown, you made a lot of huge plays, and
Speaker 1: I think a lot of my favorite plays were you
Speaker 1: coming on the blitz. You were nasty on the blitz
Speaker 1: and you would get to the quarterback with a perfect
Speaker 1: form tackle. And one of my favorites of all times
Speaker 1: you're hitting on Brett Farve. There was a film. We're
Speaker 1: gonna show it to you, But I always walk by
Speaker 1: a lovely Smith's office and do the Coaches Show every
Speaker 1: Monday night, and there's this a picture of Mike Brown's
Speaker 1: hit on Brett Farve, and we could pull that up
Speaker 1: on the screen. That'd be great. Now, Mike be perfect
Speaker 1: form tackle ahead in the chest, just to the side
Speaker 1: of his chest, grimacing face balls out. But the part
Speaker 1: we don't see, Brett Farve is jacked up off the ground.
Speaker 1: His feet are dangling like this because of that guy
Speaker 1: right there. You remember that, Yeah, that's you know, that's
Speaker 1: one of the heads. I do remember. Um, But I
Speaker 1: like what uh what Gary said about sexy play. Um,
Speaker 1: the safeties are only as good as the people up front.
Speaker 1: So's he's talking about defensive line. I would say, what
Speaker 1: helped me was having Brian Urlacker in the middle of
Speaker 1: the field and cover two. So I've a lot of
Speaker 1: respect and admiration for that because he made me better.
Speaker 1: So I want to give respect to that man too,
Speaker 1: Eddie Jackson. The same act can be said for the
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen Bears last year. With that defense in front
Speaker 1: and all the big plays you guys were able to
Speaker 1: make back in the secondary. It turned right, it turned
Speaker 1: for the defense. It made you guys. You guys are
Speaker 1: already good, but thinks you guys are maturing as a
Speaker 1: unit and the benefactor back there. I always feel you
Speaker 1: gotta have a safety of significance to be a contender.
Speaker 1: Would you agree? Um, yeah, I almost definitely agree. And
Speaker 1: I have to double back on what these guys said. Man,
Speaker 1: when you have a great front seven in front of you,
Speaker 1: you know, guys like Clia mac A, Team Rokan, Danny,
Speaker 1: the guys that's flying to the ball, and that's true competitors.
Speaker 1: That's gonna make you get better and take your game
Speaker 1: toward another level. And right now, man, we just we
Speaker 1: just you know, we just reaching the peat. You know,
Speaker 1: we got more things to do, you know, fully bringing
Speaker 1: back the super Bowl this year, you know, back to Chicago.
Speaker 1: So Dalcan looks like you're watching this Phil, You're watching
Speaker 1: this screen like you're you're doing some coaching in your mind.
Speaker 1: Hey Plank, it looks like you're watching that screen like
Speaker 1: you're like, what are you doing? You gotta pay attention.
Speaker 1: Look at you're watching that like you're breaking down games.
Speaker 1: I didn't have that many interceptions in my life college,
Speaker 1: high school to your high. Um. You know, I love
Speaker 1: how football has changed. It's much more entertaining now. It
Speaker 1: was entertaining when Gary and I played, but there was
Speaker 1: so much more just running and tackling. I mean, who
Speaker 1: isn't energized by watching Eddie grabbed that ball or Mike
Speaker 1: and some of the incredible returns those guys had. Wow. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't realize it sometimes when you're a
Speaker 1: player that a lot of the players that had played
Speaker 1: before you are all watching this on television cheering for you.
Speaker 1: I mean, we are all fans. It's just like everybody else.
Speaker 1: So I just appreciate Eddie and the job that Mike
Speaker 1: did when he was here. It was amazing. But you know,
Speaker 1: you talk about the Tampa cover two, you talk about
Speaker 1: the forty six defense, the four to three, the thirty
Speaker 1: four that you play today, a version of it. It
Speaker 1: seems like those are just numbers now they use because
Speaker 1: the defenses are so different configured. The defenses that you
Speaker 1: guys all played in were they were the right defenses
Speaker 1: for your skill sets. Well, you know, we had different coaches,
Speaker 1: and I think that you have to fit into the system.
Speaker 1: I don't think that they were doing much to adjust
Speaker 1: to a whole how Doug and I played. But you know,
Speaker 1: if you have a really good front seven, and I
Speaker 1: don't want to get in trouble because I got Otis
Speaker 1: back there and I played Mike Singletary, Willard Marshall, Al
Speaker 1: Harris and great linebackers. But for me, Mike your point
Speaker 1: about I played behind Doug the phone, and Doug really
Speaker 1: taught me how to play. I mean, I didn't even
Speaker 1: need to know the coverage because I could just play
Speaker 1: off of Doug. So I think that you want to
Speaker 1: create a defense that takes the most advantage of the
Speaker 1: skills of your players. But you know, we were a
Speaker 1: four to three, you know, consistently through my twelve year career,
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, to me, when I look
Speaker 1: back at you know, we didn't have free agency. When
Speaker 1: you look back at that eighty five team or the
Speaker 1: eighty four eighty six and you look at the number
Speaker 1: of first and second round draft choices that were on
Speaker 1: that team, I mean, it's amazing. Great credit to the
Speaker 1: scouting group for the Bearers. Both offensively, Tom and defensively,
Speaker 1: you had a lot of talent. So Mike, you know,
Speaker 1: you talk about the defense you've played in, so you know,
Speaker 1: go back in history the forty six or go advanced
Speaker 1: forward to the new version of the thirty four. Are
Speaker 1: your skill sets need to be developed differently, your instincts differently,
Speaker 1: or are you set for any defense? I would say
Speaker 1: the converts to that love you and it was the system.
Speaker 1: So we practiced the system them. So we because there's
Speaker 1: only a certain amount of players that beat cover two,
Speaker 1: so we know the players that teams are gonna run
Speaker 1: to try to beat the cover too. So we would
Speaker 1: just practice those plays daily, daily, daily, daily, daily, And
Speaker 1: it was more about effort than anything. Um intensity, Um yeah,
Speaker 1: I think as far as so skill set, I don't
Speaker 1: have skills, man, I don't have the skill set as
Speaker 1: most TVs have. I'm not as fast as guys. I'm short. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not as heavy. Um, but I played
Speaker 1: with a lot of heart, and I think that's that's
Speaker 1: one thing. Um, that's one thing that I know help
Speaker 1: my career. And I know that, Um yeah, that we
Speaker 1: had players that would I mean, I want to take
Speaker 1: like Ollen Cruz to me, like he was the leader
Speaker 1: of the team. So his intensity and all that carried
Speaker 1: through the team. And then when Levy came, he brought
Speaker 1: us a belief in a system. So it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: who was playing, we believed in the system and that's
Speaker 1: what made us play at a high level. I think Eddie,
Speaker 1: you basically played for a pro team in college. You
Speaker 1: know that system, that that system that you played in,
Speaker 1: that and the supporting cast that you played with. Now
Speaker 1: you bring it up to today. Your skill sets is
Speaker 1: it is it built for this era? Could it transferred
Speaker 1: to other eras or is it your skill set that
Speaker 1: is allowing you to contribute so quickly? Um? Really, I
Speaker 1: feel like it starts with you know, how much of
Speaker 1: the work you put in. You know, because like he said,
Speaker 1: he felt like he wasn't as fast or wasn't as
Speaker 1: big as a normal safety. And I felt that way
Speaker 1: coming out. You know, I was a light safety. You know,
Speaker 1: they said a lot of things about me. But when
Speaker 1: you're going and you work hard, man, and you transition
Speaker 1: it too, you know the film, and you take that
Speaker 1: from the film to on the field and you put
Speaker 1: everything together with your teammates, and you know, Mike was
Speaker 1: a dog, you know, as simple as that. I'll watched
Speaker 1: his highlight take before every game, you know, Coach Ad
Speaker 1: putting that on there for a reason, just to show me, like,
Speaker 1: you know, the cred is gonna say it. This is
Speaker 1: what you can always prove them wrong. So I feel
Speaker 1: like it's just the hard works you put in, that's
Speaker 1: what you're gonna get out. Dog. Kind Of the same
Speaker 1: question for you though, But you got something. You're such
Speaker 1: a reputation of hitting everybody, whether it's your own guy
Speaker 1: in the back or an offensive rhyman coming to make
Speaker 1: a block down field. How does you know? And you're
Speaker 1: still heavily involved in football all around the landscape. Your
Speaker 1: skill sets as a young man, you know, and how
Speaker 1: do they fit into today? Tom? When I was very young,
Speaker 1: my mother used to drop me a lot as a baby,
Speaker 1: and I learned to like this feeling of hitting something
Speaker 1: very hard. And you know what, when I first got here,
Speaker 1: I don't say Dick Bukas had just left, but he
Speaker 1: was still a synonymous with a Chicago Bear, and anybody
Speaker 1: watching Dick Bukas play, I wanted to be Dick Bukes
Speaker 1: playing free safety. One of the funniest things that just
Speaker 1: h was Mike Brown watching you lower your helmet to hit.
Speaker 1: You can't do that. The rules certainly have changed, and
Speaker 1: it was last man standing when I played. But you know,
Speaker 1: I think of all the things that you were talking
Speaker 1: about Tom as far as players and coaches were concerned.
Speaker 1: And I've been a coach for ten years in the
Speaker 1: Arena League, in college and in the NFL, and I
Speaker 1: still believe. And if there's any coaches out there, I
Speaker 1: put it on your shoulders. These men up here know
Speaker 1: how to play safety, but you know what, you have
Speaker 1: to give them the ability to make plays and not
Speaker 1: be tentative when they're going on the going for the ball.
Speaker 1: Too many times in meeting rooms, I've seen coaches shame
Speaker 1: players in front of everyone else. And those coaches have
Speaker 1: a big part of the success of the Chicago Bears.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm all for coach Naggie, everybody else he
Speaker 1: has on his staff, because I know they believe, they
Speaker 1: believe in these players right now, and they're gonna let
Speaker 1: them go out and make plays. Doug, You're recorded at
Speaker 1: one time saying before games, I would think nasty thoughts
Speaker 1: about the players that I'd be going against. I was
Speaker 1: not a happy person. Did you really have to get
Speaker 1: to that place to play like the way you did?
Speaker 1: I'd be really interested to talk to you guys, how
Speaker 1: you ever got mentally prepared? But I had to create
Speaker 1: these scenarios in my mind that this guy on the
Speaker 1: other team just beat my mother, my wife, my father,
Speaker 1: And I know it sounds very childish, but we are
Speaker 1: all children. We are playing a game of football and
Speaker 1: getting paid for it. It's occupation. Come on, and so
Speaker 1: I would create these And it wasn't just on Sunday.
Speaker 1: I would do this Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. In practice,
Speaker 1: I would I would pretend Brian Baschnagel was had done
Speaker 1: something to me, And so when it came on Sunday,
Speaker 1: I didn't even have to think about it. I would
Speaker 1: just step on the field and this feeling would come
Speaker 1: across me, like somebody's going down a blocker, a running back.
Speaker 1: I don't care, and I know it sounds stupid, but
Speaker 1: you know what I enjoyed. I had so much fun.
Speaker 1: I can tell the mc caskeys I would have played
Speaker 1: for nothing, really, and we did almost play for nothing, Gary,
Speaker 1: But I just I have so much fun watching the
Speaker 1: Bears last year. It was so fun watching the players
Speaker 1: like Eddie and also the fans get a chance to
Speaker 1: enjoy the game. Hey, hey, Jeff, I think that probably
Speaker 1: plains why sometimes as you were going into the pile
Speaker 1: you would hear this and recognize the voice and it
Speaker 1: was actually one of our players. They'd be in a
Speaker 1: huddle going, hey, Doug, keep your eyes open, your mind.
Speaker 1: The Doug make you get into your mind about the
Speaker 1: way that you mentally prepared for the game. I don't
Speaker 1: think I prepared that way. I know I didn't I
Speaker 1: but but you know, certainly Doug taught me how to play.
Speaker 1: And you know, I was from a tough school, Yale,
Speaker 1: and coming in and you know, to be able to
Speaker 1: play with Doug Plank and a leader by example was
Speaker 1: just fun. It was just a lot of fun. And
Speaker 1: you know, I was talking about Doug the phone, and
Speaker 1: you know, all the people that you're with. You want
Speaker 1: to really feel as though you're on a team that
Speaker 1: you trust and that there's a lot of transparency, especially
Speaker 1: on the film room on Monday morning. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: love playing with Doug and we had a lot of
Speaker 1: fun together. Did you have to learn to hit like
Speaker 1: you did? Nope. My our defensive back coach my first
Speaker 1: year of playing, which second year, I said, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm concerned about the way you're leading with your head
Speaker 1: and I said, hey, I need some coaching. He goes,
Speaker 1: that's really not my style. I don't really teach technique.
Speaker 1: You just got to learn. So I learned from Doug
Speaker 1: and from some other people. But you know, there's a
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting that in the NFL, and I'd
Speaker 1: love to hear you guys thoughts because we couldn't come
Speaker 1: out as early as you could when you guys played.
Speaker 1: But you know, I wonder if there shouldn't be more
Speaker 1: concentration on developing skills as you get into the pros
Speaker 1: because it's you know, it's not like you stopped learning
Speaker 1: the moment you come into the NFL. I see in
Speaker 1: the early highlights you're not wearing a neck roll, and
Speaker 1: then the later years. And also, I see you with
Speaker 1: the neck roll. Is that out of necessity? Yeah? It was,
Speaker 1: and I saw. You know, I get a lot of
Speaker 1: grief about that, but I was getting And we had
Speaker 1: I had two players. One of them is here Jerry Muckinstern,
Speaker 1: who lost their deltoid as a result of whiplash. And
Speaker 1: so they said, look, I lost feeling in my shoulder.
Speaker 1: He said, if you don't wear something, you might also
Speaker 1: have that same problem. And you know those horse callers
Speaker 1: are just too big to be able to really get
Speaker 1: up and go for an interception. And Matt Suey, I
Speaker 1: was wearing this thin little padding with some surgical tubing,
Speaker 1: and I said, yeah, I'm going to give that a shot,
Speaker 1: and I wore it the rest of my career. Did
Speaker 1: you guys embrace so Eddie and Mike you know they
Speaker 1: were called the hitman, these two. Did you embrace it?
Speaker 1: Did you run with it? Did you like it? Did
Speaker 1: you care about that moniker that was placed on you guys?
Speaker 1: For me, either one of you, wait, Doug or Gary.
Speaker 1: I you know, I have so many other problems with
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl shuffle. And you know I can't sing,
Speaker 1: I can't dance, I'll take the hitman anytime. Well that's
Speaker 1: your interception leader in the Bear's history, by the way.
Speaker 1: With thirty eight, well he was a former college wide receiver.
Speaker 1: That was the one thing he came in here. He
Speaker 1: couldn't tack, but he could catch. And you are a
Speaker 1: heck of a running back at a time in high school,
Speaker 1: right school, Yeah, you were a killer. You were a beast.
Speaker 1: You were a wide receiver. You were a beast. And
Speaker 1: do what you play in high school? You know, I
Speaker 1: played quarterback on offense. I loved offense and on defense.
Speaker 1: I guess I just started learning to run ten yards
Speaker 1: into people. And uh, you know, I told Gary. You know,
Speaker 1: Gary's background in college is more offense too with regarding
Speaker 1: being a receiver. And Eddie just I really admire. People
Speaker 1: don't realize how difficult it is to locate the ball
Speaker 1: when you're a safety because many times you're not in
Speaker 1: the middle of the field. You may be on one
Speaker 1: side or the other. And every quarterback is different also
Speaker 1: as far as the trajectory of their pass. So you know,
Speaker 1: plus you have the receiver to try to account for.
Speaker 1: So I always wanted to say one thing in my life,
Speaker 1: I was never going to go for an interception and
Speaker 1: miss it, and how the guy catch it and go
Speaker 1: for a touchdown if he was coming into my zone
Speaker 1: or area the receiver was going down, I'll worry about
Speaker 1: the ball later on. I don't care. But that's the
Speaker 1: way it was. Ed Eddie and Brownie is at the
Speaker 1: philosophy of today. I mean, you know, because both of
Speaker 1: you guys have some great reactionary interceptions, and it's almost
Speaker 1: the knowledge of the defense that allows you to anticipate that.
Speaker 1: What is the coach thinking of today in those terms
Speaker 1: when it passes in your area and you see the receiver, Well,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't know about today, I would I would say
Speaker 1: the ball. I think that's that's a great point. That's
Speaker 1: always I think missed is that safety's eyes are always transferring,
Speaker 1: so where your eyes are always moving from places like
Speaker 1: keys and stuff. So once you realize, like we used to,
Speaker 1: in the right spot or the receivers is run the route,
Speaker 1: then your eyes transfer so the all is coming. So
Speaker 1: sometimes it's on you before you can see it. That's
Speaker 1: why I like this dude right here, like he's it's
Speaker 1: special skill that he has, Like I don't have that skill,
Speaker 1: So I was more like Doug. I was like, I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna miss the interception and have someone go for
Speaker 1: a touchdown. I'm just gonna hit this dude. So my
Speaker 1: philosophy was more at the fourth quarter mark, the receiver
Speaker 1: is gonna be tired of me hitting him, and that's
Speaker 1: when you will see bass tipped up in the air.
Speaker 1: You will see them not finishing the routes, and that's
Speaker 1: when the big players would happen. In my situation, Weddy
Speaker 1: Jackson of five touchdowns in just thirty games, he was
Speaker 1: in where I started calling your quick six, quick six Jackson,
Speaker 1: and we saw some of your highlights. But in two
Speaker 1: thousand and one, a young Mike Brown had quite the
Speaker 1: back to back week. We all remember it, right, here's
Speaker 1: one of them right here, Terrell Owens to Mike Brown
Speaker 1: to the house. First time that's happened. It's not happened
Speaker 1: since back to back weeks. Then the Cleveland Browns and
Speaker 1: San Francisco forty nine ers back to back pick sixes.
Speaker 1: In no way to is that define your career, but
Speaker 1: it's certainly one of your highlights, Big Mike. Those are memorable. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Those those obviously are players that are gonna are my partment,
Speaker 1: my career. I guess you could say those are two
Speaker 1: players that um are always brought up. Um, those are
Speaker 1: two players that I remember vividly. Um. Yeah, it was
Speaker 1: just it was a special time. I was a young player.
Speaker 1: I was in my second year. UM, so like it
Speaker 1: gave me more confidence. I mean just that year was
Speaker 1: a special two thousand and one was a real special year.
Speaker 1: Thirteen and three. Um, those types of things, like this
Speaker 1: game is hard, and winning winning these football games it's hard.
Speaker 1: So once you started getting ten wins thirteen, I mean
Speaker 1: that's hard to do. So it's so my fault. My
Speaker 1: problem is like I just don't want to be remembered
Speaker 1: for those two players. I want I want people to
Speaker 1: I want to be remembered as someone who played for
Speaker 1: the people. So so you're talking about like preparation, my preparation,
Speaker 1: like to get mentally prepared. I was always joyful. It
Speaker 1: was like the game to me was it was party time.
Speaker 1: It's like all the work and practice and all that,
Speaker 1: that's when I was like, that's the work. But when
Speaker 1: it's time to go out there on Sunday, that's when
Speaker 1: all the fun happened. So what Eddie is talking about.
Speaker 1: I think what he's talking about it is like you
Speaker 1: put in all this work through the week and then
Speaker 1: Sunday it's like it's time to let loose. All right,
Speaker 1: Greg Miller, he's your guy back there. Run of these tapes.
Speaker 1: Here's how Mike Brown got ready for games with his
Speaker 1: guys coming out of the locker room every week. I
Speaker 1: hope you gotta cute up. Take a listen. We we
Speaker 1: on the play the one, then make play the one.
Speaker 1: The man passion. We the one that makes the plays.
Speaker 1: Where'd that come? How'd you come up with that? Why
Speaker 1: did you start saying that? I don't know what was
Speaker 1: the um? You know they call us the specialty positions
Speaker 1: for a reason, where the usually the ones that get
Speaker 1: the glory of the play. The play make is the
Speaker 1: game is won in the trenches. I think we all
Speaker 1: understand that. That's how we talk about the front seven.
Speaker 1: We know that football is a game with the offensive
Speaker 1: line and defensive line. Whoever wins that battle usually is
Speaker 1: gonna win the game. Now you gotta see all the
Speaker 1: plays being made, But so that that was the thing.
Speaker 1: It's just letting the playmakers know that we are the
Speaker 1: ones that got to make them, So when there's the
Speaker 1: opportunity to make them, we have to make them because
Speaker 1: the people that are doing the dirty work need us
Speaker 1: to make those plays. So we use the ones that
Speaker 1: make the plays. You know, he talked about making plays,
Speaker 1: and I know that this is a safety panel, but
Speaker 1: in the last panel, Charles Tillman was up here with
Speaker 1: us as defensive backs. Because you guys have all seen
Speaker 1: you work with cornerbacks. You've seen receiver routes. Do you
Speaker 1: find it amazing the plays that he was able to
Speaker 1: make on his instincts and his craft? Start with you, Gary, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean he was a great cornerback, and yes, he
Speaker 1: didn't have blazing speed. And I think most of the
Speaker 1: times when you think about the difference maybe between a
Speaker 1: cornerback and the safety is they've got speed and they
Speaker 1: have unbelievable swivel hips unso smooth. When you see a
Speaker 1: really good cornerback just backpedaling, you try to do it
Speaker 1: on your own and you go, wow, it looks so effortless,
Speaker 1: and but it's really really important. But with Charles Tillman,
Speaker 1: my gosh, that Tomah, you know, stealing the ball and
Speaker 1: the whole NFL started doing it. You know, I think
Speaker 1: sometimes people forget that should be the second person, not
Speaker 1: the first person stripping. The first person should kind of
Speaker 1: slow the guy down or get the tackle. Then somebody
Speaker 1: comes in for the strip. But you know he had,
Speaker 1: you know, both skills, the ability to cover and really
Speaker 1: to rip that ball out of the receiver. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would say Peanut. The thing that stands out to me
Speaker 1: is like his hips were amazing, Like the way he
Speaker 1: could turn his hips like those see Eddie. Eddie has
Speaker 1: the hips. He's his lower bodies like a corner. But
Speaker 1: he played anybody's a safety, So that's to make some
Speaker 1: special his his skill set his corner. But he's safety,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying. But you know he does
Speaker 1: all the good things. That's why he's like this dude
Speaker 1: right here, I'm telling you, I'm telling me. But but
Speaker 1: with Peanuts. But with Peanut though, he was also physical,
Speaker 1: like a really physical corner. He tackled um and like
Speaker 1: he was the Randy Moss killer. That's where we really
Speaker 1: got him for to kill Randy Moss. So he'd get
Speaker 1: up Randy Moss on the line of scrimmage. He's take
Speaker 1: Randy Moss out of the game. So his his skill
Speaker 1: set is one where he's real physical at the line.
Speaker 1: His he's really super strong. His hands are strong. Um,
Speaker 1: he's faster than most people think. But he's just and
Speaker 1: he's super smart. And uh, me and him had a
Speaker 1: great um connection, Like we could communicate to each other
Speaker 1: with eyes, so we could basically switch coverages like with
Speaker 1: me and him, like where he's gonna line up, so like,
Speaker 1: you know, I could protect him over the top if
Speaker 1: I felt a certain route was gonna come, I can
Speaker 1: look at him and say hey, and he'll right on
Speaker 1: time with me. So I think as a secondary, that's
Speaker 1: the most important thing for me as a secondary was
Speaker 1: that we were all on the same page even if
Speaker 1: we were wrong, but we were all playing the wrong coverage.
Speaker 1: But that, I mean, you want to have all four
Speaker 1: locked in, Eddie. I know they can't turn that into
Speaker 1: an instructional video because that's not that's not something you're
Speaker 1: teaching everybody does. But do you guys watch a highlight
Speaker 1: type of that as young players, just to get yourself
Speaker 1: in the mindset of what can be accomplished in an
Speaker 1: anticipation or tackling ability. I mean, Peanut, I mean what
Speaker 1: he did was it was very rare. You know, we
Speaker 1: do drills on him to trying to do it. Man,
Speaker 1: it's it's it's hard, you know. It's not nothing that
Speaker 1: you can just go out there one day. You work
Speaker 1: on a week and go out there and perfect it
Speaker 1: on Sunday. That was something that he worked on twenty
Speaker 1: four seven, like seven days he worked on a twenty
Speaker 1: four Evan. He was a big body, like you said,
Speaker 1: for him to be a corner. He was a big body,
Speaker 1: so he was physical. So for that it was easier
Speaker 1: for him to do it as a corner. You know.
Speaker 1: He basically was a ball hall safety playing corner that
Speaker 1: can cover very good, you know, And like I said, man,
Speaker 1: they try to teach us. Man, it's it's difficult. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not easy as to look. So I salute him
Speaker 1: for that. Dog. What amazes you about that when you
Speaker 1: see his ability to anticipate the conclusion of a round
Speaker 1: for Charles Tellman, to be able to dislodge a football
Speaker 1: like that. You know, one thing I didn't realize at first.
Speaker 1: I never really paid much attention to where ball were
Speaker 1: receivers or running backs held there held the ball. But
Speaker 1: I understand he did, and he would think about plays
Speaker 1: because this is what happens in a game. You try
Speaker 1: to imagine what's going to happen during the game Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
Speaker 1: and then the game comes and it feels like you're
Speaker 1: having a dream, like you you've already done this because
Speaker 1: you've dreamed about it all week. And I think, but
Speaker 1: he did such a masterful job of identifying each and
Speaker 1: every receiver and ball carrier and how they held the ball,
Speaker 1: and he knew how to attack it. I mean, he
Speaker 1: did it in some incredible fashion. You know, he just
Speaker 1: knew right where the ball was going to be. He knew,
Speaker 1: he knew the changes the runners and receivers were gonna
Speaker 1: make in the open field, and he totally anticipated it.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's been never anybody like him or after,
Speaker 1: So I give him all the credit of the world. Doug,
Speaker 1: your your story is unique really in NFL circles because
Speaker 1: people you'd have to go back and research and think
Speaker 1: about it if you're not familiar with this story. But
Speaker 1: you know, you didn't start at Ohio State, you're not
Speaker 1: a college football starter, late round pick for the Bears,
Speaker 1: and didn't ever play free safety. But July to the
Speaker 1: coaches and told him you did That's how you got
Speaker 1: on the field, and look at what happened. You know what.
Speaker 1: In life, sometimes we could all say this, there's only
Speaker 1: one chance, one opportunity to do something. When I got
Speaker 1: drafted by the Bears, I'm sitting on the bench at
Speaker 1: Ohio State for three years. I got hurt the very
Speaker 1: first day I was there, toward two ligaments. Had surgery
Speaker 1: my freshman year, and I was behind a first round
Speaker 1: draft pick. I didn't know it Tim Fox, who played
Speaker 1: twelve years in the NFL, and I couldn't do things
Speaker 1: he could do. He could he could get an interception
Speaker 1: and jump up in flight and do a complete flip
Speaker 1: and land on his feet. I'm sorry. I never could
Speaker 1: do that. I never was going to be able to
Speaker 1: do that. So I waited for my day. I waited
Speaker 1: for my day. And our coach always said, be ready
Speaker 1: for your opportunity. Don't wait for your opportunity. And it
Speaker 1: came against Northwestern in Evanston, and Tim got hurt the
Speaker 1: first play of the game, and I had the game
Speaker 1: of my life against Northwestern. I had two interceptions, three
Speaker 1: force fumbles, and I made every kickoff tackle. So Vince Tobin,
Speaker 1: a scout for the Bears, said, who in the heck
Speaker 1: is this guy? And I was lucky. I had my
Speaker 1: one flash game. I was back on the bench the
Speaker 1: next week and I get drafted in the twelfth round
Speaker 1: by the Chicago Bears. And there you're right, Jeff. There
Speaker 1: their free safety Gary Lowe was injured in preseason and
Speaker 1: Jack Pardi, ar coach, asked us, do any of you
Speaker 1: guys know how to play free safety? I put my
Speaker 1: hand up. I had never played free safety in my life.
Speaker 1: I'm in between practices, I'm watching film. What does the
Speaker 1: free safety do? And I couldn't figure it out? So
Speaker 1: I just figured it out for myself. I'm gonna line
Speaker 1: up at twelve yards. I'm gonna watch the guard and
Speaker 1: the two centers, and if they come across the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage, all hell is going to break loose. I
Speaker 1: am going to tag somebody. That was it. That was
Speaker 1: That's a summation of my eight year career. And Gary,
Speaker 1: the men's beloved in this town, beloved. Everybody asks about
Speaker 1: Doug Plank, and you know, Doug and I we we kid,
Speaker 1: but it actually does happen. People come up to me
Speaker 1: frequently and go, hey, Doug, I love the way you
Speaker 1: and fence it played and the same thing have as
Speaker 1: a Doug, and we're both so used to it. It's like, oh,
Speaker 1: thanks a lot, no problem. But I mean it was great.
Speaker 1: Maybe we were pretty you know, inseparable and had a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. And I knew that if I was
Speaker 1: playing strong safety when Doug was playing free, that if
Speaker 1: I was going out wide and they had the sideline,
Speaker 1: that that running back was never going to cut back
Speaker 1: because they knew Doug Plank was coming. They knew it,
Speaker 1: and they knew that he didn't always hear the whistle either.
Speaker 1: Mike and Eddie, did you you know, we talk a
Speaker 1: lot about the reputation in the middle linebacker in the
Speaker 1: history of Chicago Bears defense. Did you know anything about
Speaker 1: the history of the safety position within the Chicago Bears franchise?
Speaker 1: And you know, because when you're young kids, you're not
Speaker 1: always following the Bears. I mean, you become a part
Speaker 1: of the Bears and then you start learning a little
Speaker 1: bit about the history. Was it all new to you, No,
Speaker 1: it wasn't. Sorry, it wasn't new to me. My stepfather
Speaker 1: like lived in the area, so I mean I have
Speaker 1: a poster a year on it. I believe it's like
Speaker 1: all the offensive line. Like I have that poster. I mean,
Speaker 1: I have a picture when I was ten years old.
Speaker 1: That's a really old That's what I'm saying. I mean
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl shuffle. I mean I had all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So I've known about the Bears history. I mean, like
Speaker 1: Walter Payton, Like I have a picture jersey that's the
Speaker 1: only jersey I used to wear it. So like I
Speaker 1: was familiar with Chicago and the Bears. So when I
Speaker 1: got here, I knew, like the legacy. I knew like
Speaker 1: what the franchise meant to the city. So like that
Speaker 1: helped me understand like the passion. I think that helped
Speaker 1: me with the passion too, is that I knew how
Speaker 1: important the Bears aren't to the city. So Eddie, you
Speaker 1: know you're sitting up here with history and you're a
Speaker 1: young guy and the best is yet to come for you.
Speaker 1: What did you was there are other safeties you follow?
Speaker 1: Or did you know about the history of the Bears,
Speaker 1: Because I know Coach Nagy, he's it's an important part
Speaker 1: of him. For you guys to know the history of
Speaker 1: this organization. How important it is to the landscape of
Speaker 1: the NFL. We we're sitting up here with this one
Speaker 1: position specifically, and man, you're a young guy sitting in
Speaker 1: the seat, and you know it's there's a lot of
Speaker 1: importance for you that's yet to come. For me, I
Speaker 1: knew about you know, the Bears tradition. You know, I
Speaker 1: went to Alabama, so when I got here, you know,
Speaker 1: you feel the family. You know the family's culture. You know,
Speaker 1: they big on tradition, the legacy. And for me, you know,
Speaker 1: you know, Doug and Gary was you know, I'm monitated,
Speaker 1: you know, was more you know, my my guy that
Speaker 1: you know in my not my age group, but more
Speaker 1: of my error. So I kind of knew about him.
Speaker 1: Like I said, when I first got a head, that
Speaker 1: was the first highlight take they put on the iPad
Speaker 1: for me. Is you know about Mike Brown. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I heard of him before. Like all right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: put this cut up with Mike Brown. I want you
Speaker 1: to watch it before every game. You know, Coachy did
Speaker 1: that and I watched him. I've seen the type of
Speaker 1: plays he was making, and that's what he was just
Speaker 1: telling me, Man, we need to bring this back at
Speaker 1: this safety position. A guy that's gonna go out there,
Speaker 1: be aggressive getting the ball and create turnovers and you know,
Speaker 1: help lift the secondary up. So you know, I just
Speaker 1: took it around with it, man, And like I said,
Speaker 1: I went to Alabama. So when I got here and
Speaker 1: you fell out of love from the fans, how big
Speaker 1: it is on tradition and in family, you just fall
Speaker 1: in love with him. There's no place I'd rather be
Speaker 1: all four of these gentlemen. I have a question for editing,
Speaker 1: since it keeps bringing up Alabama's Nick saying like it's Nick.
Speaker 1: Does he joke at all? Or what? Yeah? He jokes,
Speaker 1: he jokes, man, But you have to get into that level.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're a freshman, he's not gonna joke with.
Speaker 1: I got sure, all right? Will you get in there?
Speaker 1: You start making plays, he become more comfortable in zoke with.
Speaker 1: You know, yeah, like you heard, you know things like that,
Speaker 1: all right? All four of these gentlemen in the top
Speaker 1: one hundred is selected by Don Don Pearson and Dan
Speaker 1: POMPEII for the Franchises Strap Book. You can buy it
Speaker 1: here at the event. Check it out. You gotta have
Speaker 1: it if you're a Bears fan and others on that
Speaker 1: one hundred list that played the safety position. Richie Pettibone,
Speaker 1: a member of the nineteen sixty three championship team, second
Speaker 1: behind Gary in career interceptions with thirty seven in his
Speaker 1: Bears career. Your old roommate Dave Deerson on that list,
Speaker 1: the late Dave Dorson. You know they were saying, Richie
Speaker 1: Pettibone was six three six is sixty three almost six
Speaker 1: four two h six. I mean, you talk about the
Speaker 1: history Chicago Bears football going back to the sixties and
Speaker 1: Richie Pettibone being that big for a safety. That's a
Speaker 1: big guy. And Mark Carrier Mark Carrier us on that list.
Speaker 1: Three time Pro Bowler and ten interceptions as a rookie,
Speaker 1: So a lot of good safety play here in Chicago
Speaker 1: Bears history. Anybody you will go across the board and
Speaker 1: you're still playing. So maybe you don't want to answer
Speaker 1: this one, but anybody you'd like to get a crack
Speaker 1: at again that you would like to get a crack
Speaker 1: at again, Anybody you'd like to hit again one more time.
Speaker 1: Let's go with Earl Campbell. How about that? Huh? Really?
Speaker 1: I mean that guy Gary remembered part of the game
Speaker 1: because he got hit in the thigh. But Earl Campbell
Speaker 1: was a load and he was one of those It
Speaker 1: was back in the running day, and he was a
Speaker 1: bulldozer and he he was not he was not going
Speaker 1: to try to fake you out. He wanted to smash
Speaker 1: you and run over top of you. So I guess
Speaker 1: I wish I could get another crack at Earl Campbell.
Speaker 1: You know, I was gonna say Earl Campbell, but I
Speaker 1: definitely I got the only time I got knocked out.
Speaker 1: It was Earl Campbell, not under particularly good tackle, but
Speaker 1: I had a thirty three inch waist and Earl Campbell
Speaker 1: had a thirty four inch thought, and uh I did
Speaker 1: and I but I finished the game. And uh but
Speaker 1: I think that you know, there's so many great running
Speaker 1: backs that you'd like to, you know, maybe have a
Speaker 1: second chance at, even wide receivers. Uh So I can't
Speaker 1: think of any one in particular. I guess I'd like
Speaker 1: to get another shot at Earl Campbell, but if I did,
Speaker 1: it would be very low and the and the types
Speaker 1: of practices and we went through. Did either of you
Speaker 1: guys ever hit Walter? Because I saw Todd Bell hit
Speaker 1: Walter Payton won so hard in practice. Walter popped to
Speaker 1: his feet, says, let's run it again. And we ran
Speaker 1: the same play again and it was an isolation and
Speaker 1: Walter he redeemed himself. I did that. I did that.
Speaker 1: It was an accident. We were, you know, just kind
Speaker 1: of a popping drill and I hit him way too
Speaker 1: hard and I knew it, but it was I went
Speaker 1: into the hole. I didn't even see him, and then
Speaker 1: it just hit him too hard, and I knew right
Speaker 1: away that he was coming after me, and he did.
Speaker 1: He did dog. It might be um, I guess the
Speaker 1: most fun I had planned. It is definitely against the Packers.
Speaker 1: So love me, love me. Uh, let me try to
Speaker 1: hit Brett Farve one more time back and you know,
Speaker 1: and that still shot, he said, look at the expression
Speaker 1: on his face. That wasn't an expression, that was the
Speaker 1: air leaving his body. And it really rapped. It was
Speaker 1: pretty It was pretty good. The next game. The next
Speaker 1: game where we saw them, you know, he was out
Speaker 1: there and he's like, you got me pretty good. He's like,
Speaker 1: you broke my rib and I was like, you're welcome.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, look that picture. Well what so I never
Speaker 1: heard that part of the story. I like it all right,
Speaker 1: I've heard the story. He's told it on a radio.
Speaker 1: But if you haven't heard this story, this is a
Speaker 1: beauty from Doug Plank. Doug, correct me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 1: But your bride said, Doug, why are you so mean
Speaker 1: out there? Why do you have they hit so hard?
Speaker 1: Maybe you shouldn't hit so hard. So you took that
Speaker 1: advice in a game. You pick it up from there.
Speaker 1: Tell us who it was and what happened. This is
Speaker 1: a beauty, you know what. I'm trying to think of
Speaker 1: how what my answer is going to be on this
Speaker 1: because I pledged to my wife not to sound like
Speaker 1: some ogre up here today too late running around Jeff,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to think about that one for a while.
Speaker 1: You know, I do whatever I can. I tell you,
Speaker 1: there was a contest on CBS where you could make
Speaker 1: a wish and someone want a wish to get tackled
Speaker 1: by Doug Plank. And so this woman she came up
Speaker 1: and Doug goes, yeah, I'm just gonna, you know, give
Speaker 1: her a little tap. And during practice, everybody's going, Doug,
Speaker 1: she wants to be hit, she wants to feel what
Speaker 1: it's like to get hit by Doug Plank. And so
Speaker 1: we didn't really think he would do it. But you
Speaker 1: crushed her. You crushed you didn't She got it. She
Speaker 1: got the real Doug Plank hit at practice. Really that
Speaker 1: was a one week contest, by the way. You know
Speaker 1: what you guys talked about hearing air leaves somebody's lungs.
Speaker 1: That's all I remember. That girl hit the ground. I mean,
Speaker 1: think about today. Think about an NFL today player hitting
Speaker 1: a girl. Driving her into the ground, was in full
Speaker 1: pass time. That dressed her up. Yeah, she's coming back
Speaker 1: to protect her. We a game in Buffalo. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the game. We had a game in Buffalo. We're
Speaker 1: Doug cheap shot at Joe Jaalamalure Hall of Fame guard
Speaker 1: and Joe wasn't sure if it was me or Doug,
Speaker 1: so he chased us into the backfield. Into the backfield,
Speaker 1: you know, right after playing and you want to have
Speaker 1: like thirty seconds. So we go back in and now
Speaker 1: he is he doesn't know, but it's me or him,
Speaker 1: and he beats the hell out of Jim Osborne. The
Speaker 1: rest of the game. Who's yelling at Doug going hit
Speaker 1: your own friends? Hit your own people. You know, all right, Gary,
Speaker 1: you want a Super Bowl. We had you guys out
Speaker 1: here earlier, so to you know, mark the history of
Speaker 1: this here event. Just climbing that mountain after being an
Speaker 1: undrafted player, injured in Miami, converted receiver from college, coming
Speaker 1: to the Bears and reinventing yourself and then getting there
Speaker 1: and winning the championship. What's it? What's it all meant
Speaker 1: for you? Your life professionally and personally? Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know it makes your life. You know that was
Speaker 1: really a progression. And Doug and I you know, at
Speaker 1: seventy seven we were a wild card and the next
Speaker 1: year you don't make it, and then we get backed
Speaker 1: as a wild card, we don't get back the next year,
Speaker 1: and you're you're just not making the progress. And you
Speaker 1: know it's an hourglass. You don't know how many years
Speaker 1: you're gonna have, but you certainly don't think you're gonna
Speaker 1: play a decade. And so when you start to get
Speaker 1: to that moment where you start, you know, when we
Speaker 1: wanted the first playoff game in Washington in eighty four,
Speaker 1: we lost the NFC championship game against Montana in the
Speaker 1: forty nine, ers I had two first picks in the
Speaker 1: first half. I'm like, I owned Joe Montana. We got
Speaker 1: crushed and we were crying in the locker room. And
Speaker 1: I think that that game, you know, the next season,
Speaker 1: was an important one because Mike Ditka said, look, we
Speaker 1: had a good but not great year. Second best is
Speaker 1: not good enough and it locked us in. So yeah, Jeff,
Speaker 1: I mean from Chicago, grew up in Zion and Barrington,
Speaker 1: and to win a hometown the super Bowl, it was
Speaker 1: a great thing. And it's the one team thing that
Speaker 1: nobody can ever take away from you that you know,
Speaker 1: no matter what you do, it's all about getting the ring.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you can be all pro, you can be
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl, all of that, it's all about getting the ring.
Speaker 1: And I'm just glad that it was with a great
Speaker 1: group top to bottom and Buddy and Buddy Ryan and
Speaker 1: you know, I wrote, we wrote the defense. The team
Speaker 1: signed a letter to keep Buddy's job, knowing that the
Speaker 1: coaching staff was probably getting fired, and we didn't have
Speaker 1: an indoor facility like they do today. We were practicing
Speaker 1: at Northwestern. We practiced twice in a barn on Route
Speaker 1: one seventy six in Libertyville. The forest preserved where it
Speaker 1: was dusty. It was so dirty that we had to
Speaker 1: put a handkerchief over our noses with our helmets, and
Speaker 1: we're going, this is it, baby, The NFL doesn't getting
Speaker 1: better than this. And then we would practice a Great
Speaker 1: Lakes enabled training center, which is great. It's up in
Speaker 1: North Chicago. You can punch, you can kick only one
Speaker 1: problem cement floors, and if you have any knee problems,
Speaker 1: you're just blowing up your knees doing on that. But
Speaker 1: George Hollis came to that practice and he said I
Speaker 1: and we'd already broken up offensively and defensively, and he said,
Speaker 1: I have never gotten a letter like that. Your coaches
Speaker 1: will be back next year. So we knew Buddy was
Speaker 1: going to be rehired and that the rest of the
Speaker 1: coaching staff wasn't. And that's what happened. So, you know,
Speaker 1: the players stood up for Buddy. We really believed in them.
Speaker 1: We had a great offense to compliment it, and you know,
Speaker 1: I know you, as one of the offensive players, kind
Speaker 1: of tired sometimes of hearing about the defense. But we
Speaker 1: couldn't win unless we had a really great offense as well.
Speaker 1: We always had Jim we always had Walter, but we
Speaker 1: needed a passing game and once we got all that
Speaker 1: together to finally do it, unbelievable And Mike, Yeah, Doug.
Speaker 1: You look at that picture there and you see in
Speaker 1: the background you see Clyde Elmer. He's been involved in
Speaker 1: the strength program with the Bears for since Stan Jones
Speaker 1: and the sixty three team. You take that in consideration.
Speaker 1: He calls you the strongest player he's ever coached in
Speaker 1: the history of his coaching career. Now, this is a
Speaker 1: man that has set world records. He's the first man
Speaker 1: in the world to accomplish a weightlifting feast that nobody
Speaker 1: else has. I think we all he's important to all
Speaker 1: of our backgrounds, but for you to stand out to him,
Speaker 1: that's got to be as impressive as any coach could
Speaker 1: say a compliment about you. I really in that man,
Speaker 1: Clyde Emrick. I owe so much to him because he
Speaker 1: totally changed who I was. I was two inches taller,
Speaker 1: I've replaced some joints in my body. But to take
Speaker 1: a six foot person and turn him into a road grader,
Speaker 1: you can't do that. How many times can you run
Speaker 1: into a cement wall going twelve yards? Sooner? Or later,
Speaker 1: something's gonna break. And Clyde Emrick helped me become a
Speaker 1: strong person, strong enough to sustain punishment every single down
Speaker 1: and play and game. And I give him so much
Speaker 1: credit because he allowed me. I became somebody else. I
Speaker 1: became a weightlifter, but not just a weightlifter. The topics
Speaker 1: and conversations we had over the years. He taught me
Speaker 1: to have great mental discipline. And when it comes time
Speaker 1: to walk across that field and you're out there on
Speaker 1: that hundred yards, you're somebody else. Tom and I really
Speaker 1: enjoy talking and meeting every one of you out there.
Speaker 1: But if you would have been on that field and
Speaker 1: we had uniforms on, it would not have been a
Speaker 1: fun day for either one of us. YEA, how much
Speaker 1: contact have you had with Clyde and have you learned
Speaker 1: anything from him? And drawing on his expertise? You see
Speaker 1: him in that weight room. Yeah, I talked to him
Speaker 1: and he came to me, what I think it was
Speaker 1: out to my Buffalo Bills game and he told me
Speaker 1: you need to stop playing. What he said he said,
Speaker 1: you need to stop playing? And what was it? You
Speaker 1: need to stop playing just to play? You need to
Speaker 1: play to become a Hall of Famer. And then I
Speaker 1: just I took it and rend with it. You know,
Speaker 1: I just kept letting back in my mind said, Brownie,
Speaker 1: you've been around Clyde in the weight room, like the
Speaker 1: influence that he has in every one of us. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's like you said, he's respected in the building. Um.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing, the stories. That's the first thing
Speaker 1: I said, was learned the stories about Clyde, and then
Speaker 1: right away you're like, man, this dude is special. And
Speaker 1: then you hear like all the stories you know, collected
Speaker 1: from the decades, so it's like okay, and just him
Speaker 1: being in the building and just he gave us. He
Speaker 1: gave us the checks too though it was pay day.
Speaker 1: You know, he over the history of being around him
Speaker 1: and still great friends. He's got some great sayings like
Speaker 1: knowledge earned is greater than knowledge learned. You can't shoot
Speaker 1: a cannon from a canoe. And they're all specifically body
Speaker 1: related to how they fit into your craft of football.
Speaker 1: And you think about the generations of football players that
Speaker 1: have come through the hallways of Hollis Hall. Everybody wasn't
Speaker 1: equal to him. There was nobody more important that nobody
Speaker 1: didn't deserve his attention. So when you see these pictures
Speaker 1: in the history of the Chicago Bears, there are guys
Speaker 1: like Clyde that they deserve the exposure and they deserve
Speaker 1: the credit they get they've earned and the Bears mean
Speaker 1: as much to him as it means to every one
Speaker 1: of us. And I I just you know guys like that.
Speaker 1: But when you have a complimentary the strongest player he's
Speaker 1: ever coached, I tell you, I I envy that when
Speaker 1: I heard it come out of Clyde's mouth. You know,
Speaker 1: you know what it does tell him When you know
Speaker 1: you're you're, you're you've worked hard, and you're you're ready
Speaker 1: for this collision, when you're running full speed at somebody
Speaker 1: and they're running at you, I'm telling you, it's hard
Speaker 1: not to have a fear factor. We are all human beings.
Speaker 1: We all have a right of survival, an instinct to survive.
Speaker 1: And what does that mean? Avoid contact, avoid concussions and
Speaker 1: bleeding and pain and suffering. But Kleine put it in
Speaker 1: such a way that it was okay. It was okay
Speaker 1: to run full speed into people because you had gone
Speaker 1: ahead and prepared yourself for this event by lifting weights,
Speaker 1: by conditioning, by mental discipline, all the things that are
Speaker 1: necessary to be a football player. On top of all
Speaker 1: the things that you know, Mike and Lair and Eddie,
Speaker 1: you're doing, you know, on a weekly basis. It's just
Speaker 1: another part of I think the safety is the hardest
Speaker 1: position to play on defense, because you gotta be everything.
Speaker 1: You gotta be the guy that goes up on the
Speaker 1: line of scrimmage and battles lineman. You gotta be taking
Speaker 1: on sweeps. Now you got to get on field and
Speaker 1: you gotta cover wide receivers. Come on, what other position
Speaker 1: on the field you have so many responsibilities forty six defense,
Speaker 1: I was two yards from the line of scrimmage. Come on,
Speaker 1: taking guards on and tackles and huge fullbacks. I mean,
Speaker 1: I just think the responsibility and the roles that we have.
Speaker 1: Of course, I'm favored towards the safeties, but I think
Speaker 1: these men up here have done a hell of a
Speaker 1: job in their career, and Eddie obviously great things to come.
Speaker 1: Mike b he said, two thousand and one was special.
Speaker 1: Two thousand and five was pretty darn good too, But
Speaker 1: two thousand and six, you guys made it. I know.
Speaker 1: It's one of the hardest things you've ever you had
Speaker 1: to go through not being on that field that day.
Speaker 1: And I'll share this story. Night before the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: We're in a team hotel. I'm coming back from dinner.
Speaker 1: Mike Brown says, go grab your tape recorder. Right, Okay,
Speaker 1: Mike Brown speaks. You listen. We go by the pull
Speaker 1: and he spills it. He spills his passion, his emotion
Speaker 1: about it. I'll never forget it. We played it on
Speaker 1: our broadcast to start our twenty hour coverage of the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl that day in Miami. It wasn't a dry
Speaker 1: eye in a booth and we were ready to play.
Speaker 1: After listening to that, how have you come to grips
Speaker 1: with that? Even all these years later, I still struggle
Speaker 1: with it. See passion, Like you said, you play for
Speaker 1: the chip Man, you play for the Ring. You played
Speaker 1: for the Ring, and our team made it and I
Speaker 1: couldn't be out there. It's the game, it's the one sport.
Speaker 1: It's the one game. It's one game for a championship.
Speaker 1: It's not a series, it's a game, and it's the
Speaker 1: biggest game in the world, I mean in America. But
Speaker 1: it's a big game. So yeah, I mean I still
Speaker 1: struggle with it, especially when you get around all youth
Speaker 1: folks because it's all bears. But yeah, so but like
Speaker 1: I said, um, now that I have children and makes
Speaker 1: it a lot different. It's like, uh, you know, the
Speaker 1: past is the past, and now I'm looking forward to
Speaker 1: watching my children grow and be uh solid citizens. You know.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to teach them the right way to do things.
Speaker 1: Um and just you know, just I guess just being
Speaker 1: a bear and just um because they really didn't believe
Speaker 1: I was any good, so so being here and just
Speaker 1: they're they're just like they're amazed. They're like excited and
Speaker 1: it's cool to um see their faces. And that's to me,
Speaker 1: that's what it's all about. If you have children, you know,
Speaker 1: that's what it's all about. So that that's making that
Speaker 1: made it a lot easier. But yeah, like if I could,
Speaker 1: if I could get it back, I wish I could.
Speaker 1: There's big Mike Brown right there, take it down. Is
Speaker 1: that Ricky Williams? Is that Ricky Williams? Ironically, Yeah, Ricky Williams.
Speaker 1: Game from the USA mold as an earl Campbell. If
Speaker 1: you could put it into a concise way, what oh
Speaker 1: six the team those guys meant to you because I
Speaker 1: know what you meant to them. I mean, if you're
Speaker 1: just ever around us, when we get back together, you
Speaker 1: just see like, um, it's different, it's um it's hard
Speaker 1: to explain if you're not a part of it. So
Speaker 1: it's hard to when you have when you're part of
Speaker 1: a special team, especially in football, because the roster has
Speaker 1: changed so much. So from year to year, your best
Speaker 1: friend in the world could be shipped across you know,
Speaker 1: the nation and then you have to go play against
Speaker 1: them and stuff like that. So once you get locked
Speaker 1: into a team, um like that that really cared about
Speaker 1: each other. That was the coolest thing though. The teams
Speaker 1: that were really good, those were the teams that, like
Speaker 1: we would go to barbecues together. I mean, Brian Arlacker
Speaker 1: would have the whole team played paintball at his house.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. It's amazing, Like that's you
Speaker 1: don't like everyone everybody's out here in the paintball, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. So just that is the thing
Speaker 1: that I remember the most, is like we just loved
Speaker 1: on each other, man, Like we really did love each other.
Speaker 1: So that's the thing I missed the most about it
Speaker 1: is because we don't get to do that anymore, Like
Speaker 1: that locker room stuff. That that stuff is life changing
Speaker 1: and you meet friends for life, you know, brothers from
Speaker 1: other mothers, that type of stuff. So that's that's the
Speaker 1: thing that's uh special coming back to these things, Eddie.
Speaker 1: So we've heard Matt Maggie say a lot about this
Speaker 1: year chasing great. You know, you've had a chance to
Speaker 1: meet a lot of superstars end up coming gone with
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears. You hear the passion of Mike Brown
Speaker 1: is is this is it relatable now to what chasing
Speaker 1: grade is all about? When it's it's more than a phrase,
Speaker 1: But you guys are on the cusp and the opportunity
Speaker 1: to chase what grade is all about? Most definitely, most definitely,
Speaker 1: Like like I said, especially you know when you learn
Speaker 1: about the tradition and the legacy that the Chicago Bears
Speaker 1: and the whole city of Chicago has behind you know,
Speaker 1: the football team and the passion and of everything. And
Speaker 1: like he said, man, it starts with us in the
Speaker 1: locker room. We do the same thing. You know, barbecues,
Speaker 1: will eat every Thursday, have a deep dinner at the
Speaker 1: teams house, or macn invite everybody over his house, or
Speaker 1: like last night everybody went out. You know, we took
Speaker 1: the Rikids out, and I feel like that's where it starts.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're willing to go to war with
Speaker 1: one another man and you know, fight for the man
Speaker 1: next to you, it's hard. It's hard to lose. And
Speaker 1: right now, what Coach Naga has created in our locker
Speaker 1: room is it's something special. You know, you really don't
Speaker 1: see it in many NFL locker rooms. Even when guys
Speaker 1: come back from come to Chicago from different teams, they said, like, man, listen,
Speaker 1: y'all having fun over there. It's different. Even with OTAs.
Speaker 1: Everyone's showing up OTAs. Even guys say seventy percent of
Speaker 1: the team they was at, guys was there. So for us,
Speaker 1: it's just we're chasing it right now. You know, we're
Speaker 1: really chasing it and we're not just saying that, we're
Speaker 1: really doing it. Look come much fun you're having right there.
Speaker 1: That's a part of it, right Oh yeah, most definitely
Speaker 1: most that's a part of it right there. Definitely, That's
Speaker 1: exactly what Mike Brown's talking about. You guys are living
Speaker 1: it right now and it's fun to watch for everybody. Doug,
Speaker 1: you didn't have as much success as a team during
Speaker 1: that time, but did you have that camaraderie? You know what,
Speaker 1: I can't remember us doing that dance ever. No, and
Speaker 1: you guys got it. I'm serious. We couldn't even think
Speaker 1: about trying to put on a presentation like this. I mean,
Speaker 1: Dad's dancing wasn't that cool back in the seventies. And
Speaker 1: I love this stuff, and you know everybody's talked about
Speaker 1: it here about that little bit of extra energy and camaraderie.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, as a player and as a coach,
Speaker 1: it goes so far. And I don't want to keep
Speaker 1: getting back to complaining about the coaches and then they
Speaker 1: might not be here. But man, they got a huge
Speaker 1: responsibility in this deal. The players can't do it by themselves.
Speaker 1: It has to come from up above to say. You
Speaker 1: know what I talked before about coaches allowing players to
Speaker 1: go make plays, and it's the same thing true off
Speaker 1: the field. You gotta let players be who they are,
Speaker 1: have the camaraderie. I don't know if any championship team
Speaker 1: I've ever been on, Eddie, maybe you might different in Alabama,
Speaker 1: but you know what. Everybody loves each other, they care
Speaker 1: for each other. I never cried so much in my
Speaker 1: life is when I came to the Chicago Bears. I
Speaker 1: mean just being around winning games and players and not
Speaker 1: just you being happy for yourself, being happy for somebody
Speaker 1: else to the point where you're absolutely crying at the
Speaker 1: end of the game because somebody else made an interception,
Speaker 1: went for a touchdown, or Walter Payton made some incredible run.
Speaker 1: That's what it takes. That's what camaraderie is. And I
Speaker 1: truly believe this organization is very close to that. Gary
Speaker 1: So were you know, Alabama, Ohio State, Nebraska, Yale? I mean,
Speaker 1: but that Dame. How did that message transfer from them?
Speaker 1: The difference of Yale to the NFL and you'd learned
Speaker 1: about the camaraderie, the commitment, the teamwork, how long did
Speaker 1: that message take to set into you? Well, you know, Tom,
Speaker 1: I had a great experience at Yale, and uh, you
Speaker 1: know there's it wasn't D one d one a, but
Speaker 1: it was still great football. But I think, you know,
Speaker 1: getting into Miami, I loved the Miami Dolphins organization. I
Speaker 1: just ruptured my lung the first month and made it
Speaker 1: to the final cut and got cut on Labor Day
Speaker 1: and and got picked up by the Bears. But that's
Speaker 1: my hometown team. And so my first year, I mean
Speaker 1: I was I was in the kickoff team. I mean, hey,
Speaker 1: I don't think any of these guys. Doug was a
Speaker 1: backup in college, but everybody has been a star in
Speaker 1: high school, pet whatever you did. And all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: I'm on the nut squad. Right there are three and
Speaker 1: they're going, Okay, watch all this film. You go, I
Speaker 1: think I got it. I just got a run like hell,
Speaker 1: and I know someone's going to try to pick me off.
Speaker 1: But you know, as you kind of earn your way,
Speaker 1: and this is the big difference between you know, it
Speaker 1: is the age difference. Is that you've got guys who
Speaker 1: are like thirty years old or have been in the
Speaker 1: league for twelve years, and and so you get acclimated
Speaker 1: in something that's very different than you've ever experienced before.
Speaker 1: And and so for me, I was really lucky that
Speaker 1: Doug Baphone took me under his wing, and A learned
Speaker 1: an awful lot from Doug. But also even with Jack
Speaker 1: Pardie and the different coaches we had, you know, you
Speaker 1: learn that you have to become a professional, that you
Speaker 1: have to take this job seriously, that people are losing
Speaker 1: their jobs, you know. I mean when I came in,
Speaker 1: a guy lost his job and had a family with
Speaker 1: two kids, and so it is a very very different
Speaker 1: orientation from you know, Yale, and I think probably for
Speaker 1: most college programs. All right, a couple questions from fans.
Speaker 1: Eric from Albuquerque, we've got about three and a half minutes.
Speaker 1: Your most memorable game in a Bears uniform. Try to
Speaker 1: do one real quick, duck, I have to I have
Speaker 1: to agree with Gary. There was a game in seventy
Speaker 1: seven against the Giants, you know, the last game of
Speaker 1: the year. So I had never been that cold in
Speaker 1: my life. I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and we
Speaker 1: never had much clothing in the winter, so I was
Speaker 1: cold as crap, you know, growing up as a kid.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that was that was because you know why,
Speaker 1: it wasn't just cold at the beginning, It was wet snow,
Speaker 1: so you became soaked. Then the temperatures dropped, and that
Speaker 1: was my most annoying game. Plus you you know you
Speaker 1: I had to try to tackle Larry Zonka on top
Speaker 1: of that, so Eddie. For me, it would be my
Speaker 1: my rookie year, the two touchdown game against Carolina. Two
Speaker 1: seventy five yard plus touchdowns. Yep, I really because it
Speaker 1: was Yes, that's one year to the day from busting
Speaker 1: up that like that's that's that's unbelievable, is what that is. Mike,
Speaker 1: it would be uh the first Yeah, that Dame was
Speaker 1: c That was a crazy game. Jeff Garcia, Jeff, there's
Speaker 1: no way I'm not gonna say the Super Bowl. But
Speaker 1: you know, other than the Super Bowl, it was the
Speaker 1: NFC Championship game against the Rams at home and when
Speaker 1: Wilbur picked up that fumble and it started snowing, I'm
Speaker 1: chasing you, but you're going We're going to the Super Bowl, Tom,
Speaker 1: how about you. It's kind of a memory that's always
Speaker 1: haunted me. The first game I got to start for
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears was the fourth game in my first
Speaker 1: year at the Bears. We were beaten the Washington Redskins
Speaker 1: by forty points. I got a holding call in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter and Dicka pulled me, and I just it
Speaker 1: kind of made me understand the seriousness of what we
Speaker 1: are all trying to accomplish. You couldn't take one playoff
Speaker 1: or be relaxed. And the guy that I was playing against,
Speaker 1: Dave Butts, didn't have any tackles in the game. But
Speaker 1: it was more of what Dicka coach. Dicka wanted us
Speaker 1: to realize the importance of what we are doing. And
Speaker 1: it's haunted me, but it's rewarded me in my whole
Speaker 1: life because I went on to have no holding calls
Speaker 1: for the next three years, so it helped me. And
Speaker 1: then lastly, Ashley from Des Moines wants to know what
Speaker 1: it's like when that soldier fields rocking on third down,
Speaker 1: game on the line, memories what's it feel like from
Speaker 1: the fans. Well, I'll tell you I like it nice
Speaker 1: and chilly. The breeze is coming, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Off that lake, you feel the chill. It's a close game, right,
Speaker 1: it's third What are we gonna do, fellas? Crowd let's
Speaker 1: go right, crowd gets into it and it does um
Speaker 1: give you like it said, it's weird. It gives you
Speaker 1: a little extra energy, man, like, I don't care how
Speaker 1: tired you are. It reminds you like what it's about.
Speaker 1: Because the people are they want it too, So you
Speaker 1: got the whole building wanting it and adds to the
Speaker 1: wanting factor. So I enjoyed getting it up. Man, Let's
Speaker 1: go get that place rocking. It does help the team,
Speaker 1: it does, really. Yeah. I had the groom Mike Man
Speaker 1: out there third down, especially this year, it was the
Speaker 1: it was the craziest we ever seen it, and we
Speaker 1: love it. It's like for the defense, especially when we
Speaker 1: got there. Just keep that energy coming, you know, we
Speaker 1: don't lose that. We need that every week, especially week
Speaker 1: one against Green Bathy. You know we need it that,
Speaker 1: we need it and with that, we'll wrap it up
Speaker 1: because that's the way to ended. That's a mic drop
Speaker 1: priority Jackson right there. Thank you, fellas. Four of the
Speaker 1: greatest safeties in Bears history here today. Thank you.