Speaker 1: NFL Explained is a production of the NFL in partnership
Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio. Here we go. We've been waiting
Speaker 1: all season long for this, the biggest game of the year.
Speaker 1: It is the Super Bowl, and that the subject of
Speaker 1: today's NFL Explained podcast. I'm not gonna be talking about
Speaker 1: the game and the excesses. You can watch NFL Network
Speaker 1: for some of that stuff. We're all about the preparation
Speaker 1: to two weeks leading up to it and all the
Speaker 1: little intricacies that you're not even familiar with. But I
Speaker 1: always introduced my guy, Michael Robinson is a Super Bowl champ.
Speaker 1: Last week I also included Pro Bowler into the mix
Speaker 1: as well. But Emrod super Bowl forty eight, You've got
Speaker 1: some good memories. I have great memories. It involves all
Speaker 1: of my teammates, Rick Ross, New York City and a
Speaker 1: lot of different fun things. Absolutely super Bowl champions. Give
Speaker 1: me the Rick Ross. You've got a cool story around
Speaker 1: Rick Ross. Well, it's not super cool. It's almost one
Speaker 1: of those things that almost got me and my brother,
Speaker 1: who is one of my best friends in the whole world.
Speaker 1: He helped raised me. He's eight years older than me.
Speaker 1: It almost got us at odds and almost had us fighting. Uh.
Speaker 1: They threw a super Bowl party for us where Rick
Speaker 1: Ross was the guy in the club and I got
Speaker 1: in the club, but all I could think about was
Speaker 1: my brother, who was stuck outside and it was raining
Speaker 1: because snow was getting ready to come the next morning.
Speaker 1: If anybody remembers that Super Bowl, a lot of travelers
Speaker 1: to that Super Bowl got stuck in the snow. But yeah,
Speaker 1: Rick Ross putting on his show almost came between me
Speaker 1: and my brother. Yes, okay, I remember that Super Bowl
Speaker 1: really well because I was living in the area at
Speaker 1: that time. I'm from the Northeast, so I remember a
Speaker 1: lot of this stuff. And just keep in mind your brother,
Speaker 1: and I learned this in the last episode. Helped you
Speaker 1: move in at Penn State. Carried some of the boxes
Speaker 1: and the clothing. So there's a lot of love for
Speaker 1: your brother. We can't let anything bad get in between you, guys,
Speaker 1: Rick Ross or not. Sean cal Polock, Commas, baby, Let's
Speaker 1: go Yes State. All right, Let's start with New York
Speaker 1: City because as most people realize, like the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: is not in the same venue every single year years,
Speaker 1: happened to be a place where I call home. So
Speaker 1: I'm a little bias here, but we know just facts,
Speaker 1: it's the number one media market. Did that change anything
Speaker 1: for you and your team? Just know when it was
Speaker 1: the Big Apple a little bit, you know, it put
Speaker 1: a little bit of perspective on the game. Obviously, we
Speaker 1: were going up against Peyton Manning, and we know they
Speaker 1: had broke every offensive record that there was in the
Speaker 1: National Football League that year, and so we knew that
Speaker 1: with the game being in New York, there was gonna
Speaker 1: be a lot more added attention, not only because of
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, but it's because it's in New York
Speaker 1: City and it was featuring a guy like Peyton Manning,
Speaker 1: who some considered on the back end of his career,
Speaker 1: who had just had a record setting season. So we
Speaker 1: were like, I ain't gonna lie man Like. We were
Speaker 1: using the words like goons in our locker room. We
Speaker 1: wanted to be like the dooms Day, Like we wanted
Speaker 1: to kind of like rain on Peyton Manning's parade and
Speaker 1: kind of own New York City. We were calling a
Speaker 1: Gotham and it was gonna be Gothil because the big
Speaker 1: bad boys from the Pacific Northwest was in town. You
Speaker 1: guys were the big bad boys in the Pacific Northwest
Speaker 1: with a super Bowl whim. You know, we've done other
Speaker 1: episodes rob where we go through the week for a coach,
Speaker 1: the week for a player, the preparation, like all the
Speaker 1: things that you don't know about unless you experience, and
Speaker 1: that's where your expertise comes into play. Super Bowl week.
Speaker 1: Not everyone is in that fraternity of being able to
Speaker 1: play in that type of game. What's that schedule like?
Speaker 1: Because the short week, we know it can be a
Speaker 1: little frustrating. The late games can be frustrating sometimes for
Speaker 1: players you just want to get out there and play.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, we got two weeks to think
Speaker 1: about the biggest game of your entire life. Well, Yeams,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. Like the minute we won the
Speaker 1: NFC championship game, we beat the San Francisco for the Niners,
Speaker 1: and for anybody who remembers that year, was that great
Speaker 1: tip play from Richard Sherman. Malcolm Smith ended up intercepting
Speaker 1: the football and from the moment we got into the
Speaker 1: locker room and we celebrate a we're hype we're going
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl, and I remember Pete saying, okay, guys,
Speaker 1: we got two weeks before this game. We're gonna have
Speaker 1: a team meeting early tomorrow morning, and we're gonna literally
Speaker 1: give you guys help on how to structure your week,
Speaker 1: how to structure the week here, how to structure the
Speaker 1: week in New York City, because it's unlike any other
Speaker 1: game week oftentimes, and Yams, you know, this football industry
Speaker 1: is a small fraternity, man, And during normal NFL weeks, right,
Speaker 1: all your homies are your guys, they're playing too, you know,
Speaker 1: they have games that they're preparing for, and yeah, they
Speaker 1: don't necessary not necessarily available all the time. You text
Speaker 1: this that in the third and you share some notes
Speaker 1: or whatever. But when it's the Super Bowl, there's no
Speaker 1: other NFL game going on. Everybody you text, everybody in
Speaker 1: the National Football League you text oftentimes they're sitting at
Speaker 1: home watching or getting ready for the game, getting ready
Speaker 1: to watch you play. And so it's it's it's it's
Speaker 1: a very unique thing. And I remember that Monday, we
Speaker 1: came into the team meeting and Pete like literally he
Speaker 1: put together a slide presentation and he told us we're
Speaker 1: gonna attack this week, this this, this, this week before
Speaker 1: we go to New York, Like it's a normal game week.
Speaker 1: And so he said, when we step on the on
Speaker 1: the bus to get on the plane to go to
Speaker 1: New York City next Saturday, the game plan is gonna
Speaker 1: be tight. We're gonna be ready to play a game
Speaker 1: the next day. Now, the trick is taking all of
Speaker 1: that nervous energy and um and kind of bottling it
Speaker 1: up and not kind of over exerting yourself in that
Speaker 1: short week going forward. So that week when we were
Speaker 1: in Seattle, it was a normal week. We met on Monday,
Speaker 1: we went over the NFC Championship game, we went over
Speaker 1: all of our mistakes. Tuesday was the normal player day off.
Speaker 1: And it's funny, Yams that that usually Tuesday's me and
Speaker 1: be small. We always had a film session, whether it
Speaker 1: was at my house, at the team meeting room or whatever,
Speaker 1: just him and I because as a fullback, I was
Speaker 1: his eyes. I had to know what he was thinking.
Speaker 1: So I knew what cut he would make when he
Speaker 1: got to the whole right after I got to the whole.
Speaker 1: So you know what I mean, We had to watch
Speaker 1: take together, you know what I'm saying. And so that
Speaker 1: Tuesday before we left, when we were still in Seattle,
Speaker 1: I remember us watching and we watched one quarter of
Speaker 1: the Denver Broncos defense and be Smoke stood up and
Speaker 1: was like, Dude, what are we doing? And I said,
Speaker 1: I know, Bro, I said, I think we're gonna beat
Speaker 1: the hell out of this group. Like I don't think
Speaker 1: it's gonna be close. And he said, Bro, like why
Speaker 1: Super Bowl has gotta be close? And I remember we
Speaker 1: walked out of that meeting when we went down to
Speaker 1: the coach's offices and we're like, Pete, Bro, like, this
Speaker 1: game doesn't have to be close. You know that, right?
Speaker 1: And I guess Pete liked it because the next day,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, that Wednesday, when we came
Speaker 1: into practice, that was kind of the mottel, this game
Speaker 1: ain't gotta be close, guys. Just because we're playing paid man,
Speaker 1: and just because it's in New York City doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that the game has to be close. So we went
Speaker 1: on with our base personnel stuff on Wednesday, or Nicol personnel,
Speaker 1: and our third down sub package and our goal line
Speaker 1: packages on Thursday. We had the final speed practice on Friday,
Speaker 1: would have walked through before we got on the plane
Speaker 1: to go over to New York City, and Pete told
Speaker 1: us when we got on the plane. Now it's all
Speaker 1: about managing your emotions. Now, it's all about going like
Speaker 1: guy's we don't know if we're gonna ever go back
Speaker 1: to a super Bowl, and it's crazy Yams. Like oftentimes
Speaker 1: you hear leaders say, hey, you know, no distractions, you know,
Speaker 1: like stay focused. Pace said no, man, I don't know
Speaker 1: if we're ever gonna go back to a super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Enjoy it. Have as much fun as possible. Man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have curfew and stuff for you guys, but
Speaker 1: when you're out, enjoy it, because the hay is in
Speaker 1: the barn. The x is an old standpoint. You guys
Speaker 1: have already won the game on paper. You has already
Speaker 1: run the game from an x is and no standpoint.
Speaker 1: You just got to make sure that your mind is write,
Speaker 1: your energy is right, and that you're happy going into
Speaker 1: the game. And Yams eight, I think that was a score. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we was right going into that game. So from the
Speaker 1: sort of fascinating to me, how much do you think
Speaker 1: there's like that college experience that Pete had about having fun,
Speaker 1: Like something tells me from the people that I've talked
Speaker 1: to that played for him, including you, just sort of
Speaker 1: this idea of competition and fun and making it a
Speaker 1: fun atmosphere. You know, some guys might flip that switch
Speaker 1: when it's a huge game, and I think it's important
Speaker 1: to be sort of consistent there. But how much of
Speaker 1: the routine was the same, whether it's how you watch film,
Speaker 1: the amount of time you watch film, the types of
Speaker 1: practices you had compared those two weeks versus what you
Speaker 1: were doing previously that season. Well, the crazy part yams,
Speaker 1: Like I said, that week against two weeks after the
Speaker 1: NFC championship game or after the championship games, before the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, and that first week we were at home
Speaker 1: in Seattle. Again, that was a normal week, but that
Speaker 1: was also a week when you're outside of the facility.
Speaker 1: That's also the week that you're handling tickets, you're handling
Speaker 1: travel for your family. You're thinking about, Okay, who's gonna
Speaker 1: actually come to this game? If I win, who am
Speaker 1: I going to have on the field. You only get
Speaker 1: two or three passes for family to be on the
Speaker 1: field After the game. You gotta think about all of
Speaker 1: this stuff while the game plan is going in. And
Speaker 1: the crazy part about the peak thing that you know
Speaker 1: you were just talking about Pete and how he makes
Speaker 1: it fun coming into work and stuff like that. Uh,
Speaker 1: it was one day we were at practice and Pete
Speaker 1: likes to play music at practice. Pete likes to make
Speaker 1: practice a big thing. Pete may have Will Ferrell come
Speaker 1: by practice. He may have Snoop come by practice. He
Speaker 1: had Bill Russell come by practice in the wild car
Speaker 1: around that year that we won our Super Bowl. I mean,
Speaker 1: he'll have celebrities. He'll have people that practice to hit
Speaker 1: to see you watch. Because this whole philosophy was if
Speaker 1: people are watching you, if there's a superstar watching you,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be the best version of yourself because you
Speaker 1: don't want to look stupid, you don't want to look bad, right,
Speaker 1: And so mam, he always would say this to us.
Speaker 1: Every practice is a championship rep. Every practice is a
Speaker 1: championship practice. That way, when you're truly in the championship moments,
Speaker 1: it'll just be second nature to you. And yeahs, I
Speaker 1: know people say things just to go along with the conversation,
Speaker 1: but man, I'm telling you, Man, I'm being real with you.
Speaker 1: That Super Bowl, it was almost surreal because of how
Speaker 1: normal it felt. It felt like a game when we
Speaker 1: got to plan, you know what I'm saying, And I
Speaker 1: just wentn't anticipating that feeling. I was kind of anticipating
Speaker 1: high but you know, you know, obviously you get excited
Speaker 1: at the beginning to kickoff, but um, I just was
Speaker 1: anticipating a lot. And I attribute that to Pete Carroll
Speaker 1: always keeping us in the mindset of always having a
Speaker 1: championship mindset and being ready for those championship moments. So
Speaker 1: it's really fascinating about this is when Pete was at USC,
Speaker 1: I had heard this story before, and you're gonna go like, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, because it's kind of what you just said.
Speaker 1: Curtis Conway and I worked together. Curtis's former wide receiver. Obviously,
Speaker 1: um you know, played whatever it was eleven twelve years
Speaker 1: in the league. Sea Way went to USC and Curtis
Speaker 1: told me he would go to practice when Reggie Bush,
Speaker 1: win Liner and those guys were there. Pete would make
Speaker 1: it a point to have all those dudes come back
Speaker 1: and the Will Ferrells of the world and like kind
Speaker 1: of lean into that l a vibe. And Curtis told
Speaker 1: me that he goes, Man, I've been playing football my
Speaker 1: whole life. I had never seen this before. He goes
Speaker 1: Reggie would come out of a rap right off a
Speaker 1: practice field, be dancing on the sideline, like having fun,
Speaker 1: like just literally not like kind of paying attention to
Speaker 1: the game or what was happening in practice, but really
Speaker 1: just having fun with his boys on the sideline. Then
Speaker 1: they'd go, Okay, you're in. He'd go in, and it's
Speaker 1: like this the switch that gets flipped where you're expected
Speaker 1: to be so invested in that moment. And I'm just
Speaker 1: connecting the dots here because you said if you're playing
Speaker 1: in front of dudes like well Ferrell, like not for nothing,
Speaker 1: like I get it's not a football guy, but like
Speaker 1: you don't want to look bad, like you're gonna go
Speaker 1: out there and ball out. So I think there's something
Speaker 1: to like the psychological aspect of all this that you're
Speaker 1: making reference to, which then leads me to this. There's
Speaker 1: this old adage of hey, do you how how helpful
Speaker 1: is it because it's not your first Super Bowl? If
Speaker 1: you got other dudes who've played in this game, it
Speaker 1: sounds like for your Seahawks in particular, maybe it didn't
Speaker 1: matter as much, or am I reading too much into it?
Speaker 1: It didn't matter at all. And I think it would
Speaker 1: have mattered if we had a different type of coach,
Speaker 1: if we had a different type of coach who coach
Speaker 1: different in these elevated games, who did some different things
Speaker 1: in these elevated situations. Pete was consistent. He was constant.
Speaker 1: We practice every single facet of that game, Yams. We
Speaker 1: practiced halftime. We spent a whole two hours in our
Speaker 1: facility in Seattle training and practicing the halftime, which is
Speaker 1: double the amount of halftime is in normal games. And
Speaker 1: so yeah, when we got on that plane to go
Speaker 1: to New York, Man, we knew we were gonna win
Speaker 1: that game. I mean, there's nothing wrong with having m
Speaker 1: rob a little Rihanna going on. Um as you're practicing
Speaker 1: some of that halftime stuff. I know, I'm excited for that.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the fact that halftimes extended here, like take
Speaker 1: me through like you practicing halftime. You know it's longer.
Speaker 1: Can you hear the music? Do you want to not
Speaker 1: listen to coach? You rather just go watch the concert
Speaker 1: that's happening. First of all, a normal NFL halftime is
Speaker 1: approximately fifteen minutes, right. The Super Bowl halftime is approximately
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. So usually when you're going to a normal
Speaker 1: NFL game, right, the coaches are kind of getting their
Speaker 1: selves together. Right. You got the training staff and the
Speaker 1: equipment staff and all of those guys kind of handing
Speaker 1: out fruit and drinks and and things like that. You're
Speaker 1: getting your equipment stuff dealt with, you, getting your jersey's
Speaker 1: fixed and stuff like that. That's like the first five
Speaker 1: minutes right then the coaches come in. Then the coaches
Speaker 1: are telling you all your adjustments and things like that,
Speaker 1: and then like the last two minutes, everybody kind of
Speaker 1: gets together. The coach says something, Man, we go out
Speaker 1: to go take on the second half in the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: it's so long, Like I had an opportunity to take
Speaker 1: a shower, I changed my pads, I changed everything. You
Speaker 1: just have that time. And so we broke it down.
Speaker 1: It was thirty minutes. We broke it down into three
Speaker 1: ten minutes segments. The first ten minutes was us getting
Speaker 1: ourselves together. You know what I'm saying. If you wanted
Speaker 1: to go shower, if you wanted to eat whatever, whatever.
Speaker 1: Then the next ten minutes was our coaches that came
Speaker 1: back in. We made adjustments and now you've got ten
Speaker 1: minutes so you can actually wo mean, we got on
Speaker 1: the white board. I mean it felt like meetings, you
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. And then the last ten minutes
Speaker 1: we cranked the music up, we got our equipment, you've
Speaker 1: got our trainers on, and we started warming up like
Speaker 1: it was the beginning of the game in Yams. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you there's a lot. Our minds are some powerful things.
Speaker 1: Our brains are very powerful. Because when I went back
Speaker 1: off for the second half, I kept on having to
Speaker 1: look at the scoreboard because I wasn't sure whether this
Speaker 1: was the first half or second half, because it felt
Speaker 1: like the beginning of the game all over again. It
Speaker 1: did not feel like we paid the first half. And
Speaker 1: so the second half kickoff happens and they're trying to
Speaker 1: kick it away from Percy and it bounces and it
Speaker 1: and he scores like it was nothing. Because we had
Speaker 1: the beginning of the game energy. They had second half energy.
Speaker 1: And to me that I mean that energy changed everything. Man.
Speaker 1: And um you mentioned can we hear the base and
Speaker 1: stuff in the locker room. Absolutely, But we had cranked
Speaker 1: our music so much, and we had had our locker
Speaker 1: rooms so much. Kind of like what people have seen
Speaker 1: throughout this past year with the San Francisco for the
Speaker 1: nine is we were kind of in that mold where
Speaker 1: we were just cranking the music up and it was
Speaker 1: all about getting us because if we were right, it
Speaker 1: didn't matter what was going on on the other side
Speaker 1: of the field. I'm gonna make an old school reference
Speaker 1: that I know you'll appreciate. The old U c l
Speaker 1: A Legends basketball coach John Wooden. He used to teach
Speaker 1: his guys how to tie their shoes properly, right, like
Speaker 1: little things like that, which seemed ridiculous. And I still
Speaker 1: don't really know the premise behind why you would do that.
Speaker 1: You know, do you double not it? You just don't
Speaker 1: want it to you know, the shoelaces again untied during
Speaker 1: the game, whatever the reason. But the point is it's
Speaker 1: all about the details. When Pete says we're gonna practice halftime,
Speaker 1: do you say what the or what? Or are you okay? Cool?
Speaker 1: That makes sense? Well for me, you already know I
Speaker 1: think a little bit differently. I've always wanted to kind
Speaker 1: of lead, be coaching, general manager, that type of deal.
Speaker 1: So when when I first heard that we were literally
Speaker 1: having an entire two hour period or hour and half
Speaker 1: devoted to the halftime. My first reaction was, please, are
Speaker 1: for real, Pete. I got some better things to do
Speaker 1: this morning. I got my kids. I gotta pick my
Speaker 1: kids up. You know, I got lost lot of stuff
Speaker 1: going on. And then as I thought about it, and
Speaker 1: that always compete thing that goes on that Pete always
Speaker 1: talks about, I'm thinking, oh, man, Pete Carroll is competing
Speaker 1: right now. He's saying, We're not gonna lose any aspect
Speaker 1: of this game. We're gonna win the week before, We're
Speaker 1: gonna win the week leading up. We're gonna win on
Speaker 1: the football field. We're gonna win special teams. We're gonna
Speaker 1: win the halftime, we're gonna win the press conferences. We're
Speaker 1: gonna win it all. And once I really thought about it, yeah,
Speaker 1: I knew while we were practicing it because we were
Speaker 1: going in to beat the hell out of a really
Speaker 1: good team. All right, Welcome back to the NFL Explained Podcasts.
Speaker 1: Mike Yam and Rob with you. Um. I do think
Speaker 1: it's important to sort of set up a little bit
Speaker 1: of the media history around the Super Bowl. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: the fans want to get to the game. The players
Speaker 1: obviously want to play in this game, but it really
Speaker 1: is this I don't want to say party like atmosphere
Speaker 1: because I think that's not the best way to describe it,
Speaker 1: but it's a little bit of chaos. It's like a circus, right.
Speaker 1: Media Day has been around since actually the very first
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. You got reporters going to players hotels, asking questions,
Speaker 1: maybe even having dinner. Back in the day. Media Day
Speaker 1: actually started being held on the field at the stadium
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl was being held out, which is kind
Speaker 1: of a cool different spin to all of this stuff.
Speaker 1: In fact, it happens a lot of times on the
Speaker 1: college side for the college football playoffs stuff. I was
Speaker 1: actually covering a game a couple of years ago when
Speaker 1: Washington was playing Alabama down in Atlanta, and we did
Speaker 1: the media day on the field. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: a cool piece to this puzzle. Media Day was moved
Speaker 1: away from the game stadium to a nearby indoor stadium,
Speaker 1: which opened up the event for fans. You've got media members,
Speaker 1: they're on the floor, you can do some cool things
Speaker 1: around that. For the first year, it was held at
Speaker 1: the Prudential Center in Newark instead of MetLife stadium. For
Speaker 1: those who aren't aware of the geography of New Jersey,
Speaker 1: it's not mark uh. Since then aside actually from those
Speaker 1: COVID years, it's been held at a basketball or inside
Speaker 1: a baseball arena. In the super Bowl City. Super Bowl fifty,
Speaker 1: NFL moved Media Day from Tuesday to prime time, a
Speaker 1: Monday event, Monday night event here em rob. This actually
Speaker 1: opened it up for Super Bowl Week and it really
Speaker 1: put it in a better time slot for TV coverage.
Speaker 1: Media Day right now broadcast by ESPN and of course
Speaker 1: NFL network, and it's watched by over seven hundred thousand
Speaker 1: people on TV every single year. That's just like the
Speaker 1: Media Day stuff. And check this out. For Super Bowl one,
Speaker 1: the NFL credentialed about a thousand media members to cover
Speaker 1: the game. Nowadays it's over five thousand media members. By
Speaker 1: the way, off air, you and I went back forth
Speaker 1: on this with our team, like almost don't even believe
Speaker 1: super Bowl one, but our research says it's true, so
Speaker 1: it's got to be. Well, you gotta think about it, man,
Speaker 1: I mean, super Bowl one the first time the NFL
Speaker 1: and the NFL, those guys all came together World championship.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I can think about a thousand
Speaker 1: media members being there a lot newspapers. Yeah, well you
Speaker 1: know my rebuttal well, my rebuttal to that. When we
Speaker 1: had this conversation off air, was like, dude, there was
Speaker 1: like two or three TV networks, Um, we always know
Speaker 1: about And I said circus because I do think about
Speaker 1: the crazy questions you guys are asked. Anything that stands
Speaker 1: out to you? Oh man, well, I'm you know, I'm
Speaker 1: a full back, right, and so people look at full
Speaker 1: backs is pretty serious. What if I got personality? But
Speaker 1: they looked at us as pretty serious. So I didn't
Speaker 1: get any super crazy questions. I think I gotta ask,
Speaker 1: do I believe unicorns are real? Um like stuff like that?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I've never seen once, So it's not
Speaker 1: real to me. You know what I'm saying. I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it's not biologically real, but it's not real to me.
Speaker 1: Do you remember? And I'm sure you guys talked about
Speaker 1: it inside the locker room. But when Marshawn said, I'm
Speaker 1: just here so I don't get fined. Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta understand, right, My homie beast more, that's my
Speaker 1: dog man, that's one of my good friends, one of
Speaker 1: my best friends in the whole world, and my brother
Speaker 1: from another mother. Um So when he did that, I
Speaker 1: don't you know, Um, I'm just here so I don't
Speaker 1: get fine thing. That was the year after I retired,
Speaker 1: That was after we won the Super Bowl. Was the
Speaker 1: next year when they went back. But the crazy part
Speaker 1: about that media day was everybody involved, the NFL, PA,
Speaker 1: the NFL, you know, Beast Mode, Seahawks, everybody was like, dude,
Speaker 1: what is best more gonna do during media day? Like
Speaker 1: he during the playoffs, he runs out of the locker room,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, so he doesn't have to
Speaker 1: always get at So this is a set media time.
Speaker 1: What is gonna happen? And I remember having some calls
Speaker 1: the night before Media Day with the PA, the NFL,
Speaker 1: Beast Mode were all calling back and forth and um,
Speaker 1: BES was like, bro, I'll be there, but um, I
Speaker 1: don't know what you want me to say, though nothing
Speaker 1: in my contracts say I gotta answer these questions coherently
Speaker 1: or anything. And then you know, we got off the
Speaker 1: phone and meet him and out were just on the phone,
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of chopping it up. His homeboys
Speaker 1: and I'm like, bro, you just need to have a
Speaker 1: saying or something, and it came out, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: just here, so I don't get fine and it he
Speaker 1: went on to, you know, make some money off of
Speaker 1: just that saying. And it wasn't that Beast Mode didn't
Speaker 1: want to do media because for all of everybody listening,
Speaker 1: I was with him that Super Bowl. I got in
Speaker 1: his own personal sprinter van that super Bowl when I
Speaker 1: rolled around with him. After that media day, he did
Speaker 1: about the thirty individual interviews like sat down with networks
Speaker 1: and everything. It wasn't that he didn't want to do it.
Speaker 1: He just wanted to do it on his terms. And
Speaker 1: that's what made beast Modes special. So yeah, man, that
Speaker 1: was that was one of those things. And then the
Speaker 1: year before, we had media day just at a hotel
Speaker 1: and we were at the table, myself, Beast Mode and
Speaker 1: Robert Turbin and they were talking to the backs and
Speaker 1: they were they kept on asking beast Molde stuff right yams,
Speaker 1: And I was sitting to his left and I started
Speaker 1: seeing his left leg shake because it was they were
Speaker 1: asking questions, and he was like, man, you know, he
Speaker 1: was answering him, but they kept asking the same question,
Speaker 1: and I can tell he was getting frustrated, right, and
Speaker 1: then he started shaking his leg and I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, he's gonna flip the table. Like in my head,
Speaker 1: I'm thinking he's gonna flip the table and this is
Speaker 1: not gonna be good for us as our first of
Speaker 1: the bowl we got we you know, So I just said, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: you know, and I kind of took over the interview,
Speaker 1: you know, went there to help my boy out. We
Speaker 1: end up having a big laugh about it and all
Speaker 1: of that. Man. But uh, yeah, the things we do
Speaker 1: for our teammates on media day, that's what we do.
Speaker 1: We stick together, yams. Did he tell you after, like
Speaker 1: when you were done, that he was gonna flip the table? No,
Speaker 1: he didn't, but he did say he was getting frustrated.
Speaker 1: He said, Bro, you know, I'm gonna talk like beast Molde.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not gonna curse, but I'm gonna talk
Speaker 1: like blood blood, thank you blood like me for real, bro. Man,
Speaker 1: he had me messed up. Bro. He used some other words,
Speaker 1: but yeah, that was beast Molde. At the time. He
Speaker 1: was happy I was there for him. I know, you
Speaker 1: you're thinking, all right, how do I diffuse this? Is it?
Speaker 1: Where's the closest bag of Skittles that I can go on? Fine?
Speaker 1: And just trying to make this this okay. Um. You know.
Speaker 1: One of the other interesting elements about this two weeks
Speaker 1: for the Super Bowl, and it popped up this year
Speaker 1: during the season because of what happened with Tomorrow Hamlin.
Speaker 1: We weren't sure how the NFL was going to respond
Speaker 1: logistically with the games, and I think it all worked
Speaker 1: out great from a league perspective, but there was this
Speaker 1: idea of floating the season and extra week, which would
Speaker 1: have cut out a two week window between the a
Speaker 1: f C NFC Championship game and then the Super Bowl week.
Speaker 1: Generally it's always been two weeks, but there's been seven
Speaker 1: times when there's only been one week of a break
Speaker 1: in between those two moments. The last time it happened
Speaker 1: not too long ago. Actually I say that because I
Speaker 1: graduated in two thousand three, but the reality is it's
Speaker 1: like almost twenty years ago at this point. But Raider's
Speaker 1: Box and that Super Bowl, trust me, I still feel young.
Speaker 1: Depending on the day, Um, snap, crackle pop. When I
Speaker 1: get out of bed, every single morning on those joints.
Speaker 1: But the point is there there are some benefits of
Speaker 1: having that two weeks spam for guys to get healthy.
Speaker 1: The rest is really important, and there's some instances that
Speaker 1: come to mind notable players getting healthy because of that
Speaker 1: extra week. T O with the Eagles and Super Bowl
Speaker 1: thirty nine played seven weeks after suffering a broken leg
Speaker 1: and the torn ligament in his right ankle. Nine catchers
Speaker 1: a buck twenty two. That's pretty damn good. And he
Speaker 1: didn't start running until two weeks before this Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Uh my guy, Plexico Burst. I say my guy because
Speaker 1: I'm a Giants fan. Super Bowl forty two, there was
Speaker 1: a little bit of an issue suffered at a spring
Speaker 1: medial collateral ligament in his left nee. Thank you research
Speaker 1: one seeing and I wouldn't have been able to tell
Speaker 1: you what that injury was. He um, um, how do
Speaker 1: I how do I put this? Um? He had a
Speaker 1: fall out of the hotel shower just a couple of
Speaker 1: days before the Super Bowl. I mean, it happens. It's slipper.
Speaker 1: You gotta get one of those mats man, you know,
Speaker 1: like the suction cut deal. Do they still do that?
Speaker 1: By the way, is that still what you gotta be
Speaker 1: a senior citizens we get one of those, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think ye, I think you gotta be a little
Speaker 1: older for that games. Come on, We're not there yet.
Speaker 1: But I'm telling you right now that year Plexico, she
Speaker 1: had one of those. So I'm saying, uh, Jode Freeney
Speaker 1: super Bowl forty four, torn ligament in his ankle in
Speaker 1: the a f C Championship game. Kind of crazy. Still
Speaker 1: he was able to play. One of our colleagues are good.
Speaker 1: Bud Thomas Davis super Bowl fifty broken forearm in the
Speaker 1: NFC Championship, got surgery the next morning, two weeks by
Speaker 1: the way, good enough to get healed up to play
Speaker 1: in the game. We gotta bring that up to him. Man,
Speaker 1: I forgot about Yeah I am, because I'm gonna say, dude,
Speaker 1: you're crazy. I love you. I think that's awesome, but
Speaker 1: you're crazy. How do you gonna do? I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't understand how you even get your body ready for
Speaker 1: something like the trauma that goes through on a surgery,
Speaker 1: then the trauma that it goes through playing football. That's
Speaker 1: a tough one. That's some iron man stuff right there. Man. Okay,
Speaker 1: So there's a couple of college coaches that I can
Speaker 1: think of, and they'll tell you they hate playing later
Speaker 1: on the day on a Saturday because they just want
Speaker 1: to play as early as possible get the game out
Speaker 1: of the way. I use that analogy, and because I
Speaker 1: think it's fair in the NFL. Do you do you
Speaker 1: wish is would it be better from a player's perspective
Speaker 1: to have it one week after the championship game so
Speaker 1: it's a normal cadence, or do you like the two weeks?
Speaker 1: All right? So my NFL players might not like me
Speaker 1: for this, but I'm gonna say I like the two
Speaker 1: weeks man. I do, maybe because I played a physical
Speaker 1: position and so anytime my body can go through a
Speaker 1: full week of really not hitting and fully feel good
Speaker 1: before the next game, that's always a positive. But it's
Speaker 1: interesting you mentioned college coaches, and it triggered something in
Speaker 1: my mind that I remember when I played for Penn State,
Speaker 1: Joe paternal always used the week's leading up to the
Speaker 1: Bowl to get the younger players extra reps that maybe
Speaker 1: we're red shirt and maybe didn't get the reps during
Speaker 1: the regular season. And I look at when we won
Speaker 1: our Super Bowl afterteen season, I mean it was tough defense,
Speaker 1: which that showed up in that Super Bowl. I mean
Speaker 1: the diver Broncos a high scoring offensive all times. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, broke all offensive records that year, only scored
Speaker 1: eight points um. And we were led by Beast Molde
Speaker 1: are running game right. You look in the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: Beast more half fifteen carriages for thirty nine yards for
Speaker 1: a two point six average. He was really not that
Speaker 1: effective in the Super Bowl. We used that extra week
Speaker 1: for Russell Wilson to develop. Russell Wilson saw soul many
Speaker 1: different looks during that week in Seattle going up against that,
Speaker 1: you know, one of our top ranked defenses. That it
Speaker 1: got him better. And I believe that Super Bowl was
Speaker 1: Russell Wilson, along with Doug Ball, went along with um
Speaker 1: Jermaine Curse, I call him Chop Chop, but along with
Speaker 1: Jermaine Curse. To me, that was the Seattle's passing game
Speaker 1: coming out party, so to speak. Because again we ran
Speaker 1: the ball, play tough defense to get us to the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. But I believe Russell in his right arm
Speaker 1: and that defense won the game for us. Now again
Speaker 1: Besmo was in the backfield fifteen carries every time he
Speaker 1: play action fake. The defense had to respect it. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I think that extra
Speaker 1: week helped the development of Russell Wills. All Right, em Rod,
Speaker 1: we're just scratching the surface of the Super Bowl conversation
Speaker 1: coming up. Let's go here the advice. You've done it,
Speaker 1: you've played, you know what it takes to win this game.
Speaker 1: What's the advice that m Rod would give to some
Speaker 1: of the players playing this weekend. That's coming up next
Speaker 1: to the NFL Explained podcast. All right, welcome back to
Speaker 1: the NFL Explained podcasts. Mike Yam and Rob with you.
Speaker 1: All right, I'm gonna throw another pass your way, and
Speaker 1: I want to get your take on it. Some people
Speaker 1: will tell you momentum as a thing as an athlete.
Speaker 1: Others say it there's no such thing. I think when
Speaker 1: it comes to football, it's a little different. Maybe there's
Speaker 1: something to it in basketball because of the repetitive nature.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's something to it in baseball because of the
Speaker 1: frequency of games when you're out there. NFL football is
Speaker 1: obviously not like that. There's days in between. There's the
Speaker 1: physical nature, how demanding it is when you're out there.
Speaker 1: If you're hot, right, you run through the playoffs. You
Speaker 1: maybe it's a bunch of road games, like you feel invincible?
Speaker 1: Does that does the two weeks does that kill momentum? No?
Speaker 1: And I get what you're saying. There is something to
Speaker 1: that teams playing well going into the playoffs, right, do
Speaker 1: you really want that number one seed to get the
Speaker 1: buy to kind of stop the training from rolling this
Speaker 1: then the third or what I'll answer that question about
Speaker 1: saying this. I don't care how much we change the
Speaker 1: rules to our game. I don't care how much we
Speaker 1: talk about players safety. This game will always be about
Speaker 1: pain in pain management, can you dish it? And how
Speaker 1: much can you take? And because this game is such
Speaker 1: a physical sport, two weeks off will always be better
Speaker 1: than just in my opinion, will always be better than
Speaker 1: just playing straight through it. Because again, I'm not a
Speaker 1: basketball player baseball player, and I'm not saying that those
Speaker 1: guys don't get sore. But after a football game, oh man,
Speaker 1: like sometimes I don't feel good to play the next game.
Speaker 1: Guess what yams and tell Sunday morning of the next week,
Speaker 1: think about what I'm saying Right now, I'm not fully
Speaker 1: over the previous game and feel really good about myself
Speaker 1: and how my body is feeling until the morning of
Speaker 1: the next game. How do you get through practice, how
Speaker 1: do you get through the week feeling? You see what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So it's a lot of different factors to that.
Speaker 1: So I will always vote for two weeks. Just like
Speaker 1: going into the playoffs, I always tell teams you want
Speaker 1: the number one. See, I don't care how good you play,
Speaker 1: you want the next week. Drest okay, one of the
Speaker 1: other major major major topics. When it comes to the
Speaker 1: super Bowl. It's not a player's thing, although it is
Speaker 1: in some regard, and I'll make it a player's thing here.
Speaker 1: It's a fan thing. It's a thing inside NFL network.
Speaker 1: H Q okay. Getting a super Bowl ticket like that
Speaker 1: is a real conversation. I can't tell you. Last year
Speaker 1: was my first year here in southern California. In the
Speaker 1: l A studios, people were talking about it. How do
Speaker 1: I get a ticket? How do I get to this game?
Speaker 1: Each player, by the way, only only gets two free
Speaker 1: Super Bowl tickets. Then they got to pay face value
Speaker 1: if you're even get the opportunity to get more tickets.
Speaker 1: So players in the Broncos versus Panthers Super Bowl in,
Speaker 1: for example, allowed to get up to fifteen tickets, but
Speaker 1: any ticket on top of the two free ones. Y'all
Speaker 1: check this out, eighteen hundred bucks a piece. That's that's
Speaker 1: no joke. Top players on the roster don't usually have
Speaker 1: an issue affording some of that stuff. Man, you're making
Speaker 1: a league minimum, and I know that's like still sizeable.
Speaker 1: Eight hundred hours a pop though, that's still meaningful. The Panthers,
Speaker 1: by the way, only gay players twenty four hours to
Speaker 1: put those requests in, which obviously is a little chaotic. Um.
Speaker 1: Just take me through that from your perspective, because I
Speaker 1: don't even know how many tickets you needed to get.
Speaker 1: And maybe for you, you already have the life rule,
Speaker 1: which you told us in our Pro Bowl conversation in
Speaker 1: our last episode. If you help me move into Penn State,
Speaker 1: then you're like, you're good. If you didn't, you're on
Speaker 1: the outside looking in. So maybe that streamline the process
Speaker 1: for you. Yeah, you already know. I already have a
Speaker 1: kind of way of how I figure out who gets
Speaker 1: the special privileges um, kind of in my and my entourage.
Speaker 1: If you helped me move into Sean called polit Commas
Speaker 1: freshman year Penn State. You get an opportunity to come
Speaker 1: roll with me in my special events, man um. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, man like oh man,
Speaker 1: oh man, the the ticket situation, James, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: real with you, there's still family members to this day
Speaker 1: that I don't talk to because of that. Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 1: It's that crazy. I'm serious. I have cousins who I
Speaker 1: think that I wronged them because I didn't buy them
Speaker 1: a super Bowl ticket, and we still have issues to
Speaker 1: this day. So I want our listeners to understand that
Speaker 1: is how big these tickets are two families. It's how
Speaker 1: big these tickets are to these players. But again, I
Speaker 1: made a rule for myself. I told myself, when I
Speaker 1: leave to go to New York, my ticket situation will
Speaker 1: be straight okay, And I'm only paying for five of them.
Speaker 1: My mom, my stepfather, my wife, my cousin, Bills God
Speaker 1: Rest his soul, and my brother them the only five
Speaker 1: that got their tickets comped, so to speak. I did
Speaker 1: for the next part of my family. I said, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I got ten tickets I can buy. Okay, this is
Speaker 1: how much they cost. Tell me how many of you
Speaker 1: guys want and I'll send you the in voice for
Speaker 1: you to pay for it. I got custed out, man,
Speaker 1: I got people ust to me. I'll sending me text.
Speaker 1: But man, who you think you are? We changed the diaper?
Speaker 1: Help do this? I helped do yeah. Man. So I
Speaker 1: say all that to say, man, there's a lot that
Speaker 1: goes into when you see, you know, families going into
Speaker 1: the field after the Super Bowl. There's a lot that
Speaker 1: goes into the people that are picked to be on
Speaker 1: that field. Okay, Um, you set us all straight here,
Speaker 1: Which leaves me to maybe the most important question. What's
Speaker 1: the advice that you're giving to players, not just in
Speaker 1: this year's Super Bowl, just in general. Like, if you're
Speaker 1: gonna talk to a kid that's going to be playing
Speaker 1: in their first game or something that you just learned,
Speaker 1: what do you tell them about that your experience that
Speaker 1: you think might help them. Um man, that's a good question.
Speaker 1: Am I remember before our Super Bowl I spoke to
Speaker 1: Ray Lewis, a good friend man, and um, him and
Speaker 1: I've had a lot of battles in the b gap
Speaker 1: on the football field. Let's just let's just get that straight. Um,
Speaker 1: he said, m rob the team that can make this
Speaker 1: a game first and not expect the cool we'll win.
Speaker 1: And I didn't really understand it when he first said
Speaker 1: it to me, and then I went back to my
Speaker 1: hotel room and kind of thought about it and kind
Speaker 1: of was like, yeah, man, what does he mean he's
Speaker 1: really saying? And my psyching myself up to make this
Speaker 1: game bigger than what it is. It's still gonna be
Speaker 1: twenty two guys on the field at the same time,
Speaker 1: we're still gonna go base. Nickel was They're gonna have
Speaker 1: kickoff and you're still gonna have a punt. We're gonna
Speaker 1: have every aspect of this game that you've been doing
Speaker 1: since you were six years old, and it hit me like, oh,
Speaker 1: then all the dots connected. Oh this is what kind
Speaker 1: of what Pete's talking about, right. You know, if you
Speaker 1: make everything a championship opportunity and championship moment, when you
Speaker 1: get in these championship moments, it'll feel normal. And literally,
Speaker 1: after the first kickoff and then we got the safety,
Speaker 1: everything calmed down. It was like, well, we knew this
Speaker 1: game wouldn't be close, and now we're just about to
Speaker 1: show the rest of the world what we already knew
Speaker 1: that we're gonna be Super Bowl champions and you were
Speaker 1: hot tip, here we go, let's go. I honestly I
Speaker 1: can't wait for the game coming up this week, Like
Speaker 1: it is going to be truly awesome to see these
Speaker 1: two squads going head to head. I mean, these are Look,
Speaker 1: there's a reason why we're playing in this game. I mean,
Speaker 1: the path for these squads to get here, it really
Speaker 1: is pretty awesome, um Emrad awesome to have you kind
Speaker 1: of relive some of those moments that you had during
Speaker 1: your Super Bowl time. Hopefully as people watch the game
Speaker 1: this week, they have a different perspective on what it
Speaker 1: takes to actually get here. But all of the preparation
Speaker 1: over the last two weeks for both of these teams,
Speaker 1: the stabbs, the coaching stabbs, the player personnel people, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be awesome. Hope everyone enjoys the game. Hope everyone
Speaker 1: enjoyed this episode of NFL explained