Speaker 1: You're listening to the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network.
Speaker 2: This is Drive Time with Travis Wingfield. Back to throw
Speaker 2: to a looking clips about.
Speaker 1: A wide Dolphen touchdown, trick call, uncrelievable, just blue by
Speaker 1: for a second time.
Speaker 2: Don knew where he was going right away. I want
Speaker 2: to hit that though, Man, I'm going to help you.
Speaker 2: Someone will step on your man.
Speaker 3: Away Wattle, Wattle to a shotgun, back to throw, looking
Speaker 3: at them.
Speaker 2: It's up Myers touchdown. It's Waddle his sixth touchdown, paradown
Speaker 2: the King. Drive Time with Travis Wingfield begins. Now, let
Speaker 2: me check your pulse if you're not far? What is up? Dolphins?
Speaker 3: And welcome to the Draft Time podcast, part of the
Speaker 3: Miami Dolphins Podcast Network, covering your team, your Miami Dolphins.
Speaker 3: How's it going to everybody? I am your host, Travis Wingfield.
Speaker 3: And on today's show, at long last, the long anticipated
Speaker 3: visit of Jordan rodrig to stop by and talk to
Speaker 3: us about her great podcast up on the Athletic Podcast Network,
Speaker 3: The play Callers.
Speaker 2: We'll talk to her about.
Speaker 3: Mike McDaniel, Vic Fangio and much much more from the
Speaker 3: Baptist Health Studios Inside the Baptist Health Training Complex. This
Speaker 3: is the Draft Time Podcast Maye Gaffy. Let's welcome in
Speaker 3: my guest today from the Athletic Jordan Rodrieg and as
Speaker 3: promised earlier this summer, joining me once again is the
Speaker 3: athletics Jordan rod Reig. You can find her on the
Speaker 3: RAMS beat, but this summer she authored up the play
Speaker 3: Callers podcast. If you haven't had a chance to hear
Speaker 3: that yet, pause this podcast, go back and binge that,
Speaker 3: and then come back and listen to us here because
Speaker 3: she detailed the Shanahan coaching tree, including some great insight
Speaker 3: on our very own Mike McDaniel. Jordan, thank you again
Speaker 3: so much for coming back on the podcast with us.
Speaker 1: Oh this was a must. We talked about this, I
Speaker 1: mean you were you kind of were the first one
Speaker 1: that had the news of that this was even happening
Speaker 1: way back when we were doing team previews because I
Speaker 1: kept it so under wraps for the last year. Really,
Speaker 1: so i appreciate you working with me on the logistics,
Speaker 1: and I'm really excited to talk to you about it today.
Speaker 3: Those long term projects are always so funny to me,
Speaker 3: and I'd love to hear your take on it because
Speaker 3: every time I do one. I love it in the beginning,
Speaker 3: I despise it in the middle, and then I get
Speaker 3: very excited by the end to push through. But then
Speaker 3: also keeping it under wraps. For someone that loves to
Speaker 3: kind of like, you know, tell people good news or
Speaker 3: fun things I'm working on, it's got to be tough
Speaker 3: to keep that in the chamber.
Speaker 1: No. Yeah, it was difficult a lot of times too.
Speaker 1: It was like I really wanted to explain you know,
Speaker 1: RAMS fans are very passionate and they're very dialed in
Speaker 1: to the happenings of their team, Like these are our
Speaker 1: fans that are as I'm sure Dolphins fans are too.
Speaker 1: You know, they know like the six string safety who's
Speaker 1: like a bubble guy, and they're tracking his every move
Speaker 1: and like all this stuff. And so I like to
Speaker 1: be very detailed in my reporting. And it's it's funny
Speaker 1: because I would be on the road for expanses of time,
Speaker 1: so I would be kind of dark on RAMS stuff
Speaker 1: and on other NFL stuff, and I always want to
Speaker 1: say like, no, it's for a good reason, like or
Speaker 1: explain what you know, but you but then you're like, nope,
Speaker 1: that would be totally beside the point. Of launching this,
Speaker 1: but yeah, over the last year it's it was quite
Speaker 1: the quite the endeavor, and you know, a lot went
Speaker 1: into it, So I'm glad it seems to be resonating
Speaker 1: with people.
Speaker 2: No, it definitely is.
Speaker 3: And like we've talked about some of the major you know,
Speaker 3: publication podcasts that you and I both listened to, and
Speaker 3: one that you go on frequently is the Around the
Speaker 3: NFL podcast, and they gave you a bunch of run
Speaker 3: on that talking about how great it was, and pretty
Speaker 3: much everyone that I've come across in this in this league,
Speaker 3: in this business, this industry has similar things to say.
Speaker 2: So it's the play callers on the Athletic Go.
Speaker 3: Check it out if you have not heard it already,
Speaker 3: and we're having you on here basically talk about Mike McDaniel,
Speaker 3: who is continues to fascinate me in so many ways
Speaker 3: for his football intellect, for his witty banter at press conferences,
Speaker 3: Like you know, I know that he's close friends with
Speaker 3: Dan Soder, the great comic. I feel like Mike must
Speaker 3: work with Dan on his crowd work because Mike is
Speaker 3: so damn good at the post even talking to our
Speaker 3: beat guys here and just kind of having some back
Speaker 3: and forth. He's the best, we love him, and I
Speaker 3: want to get your take on him in general. But first,
Speaker 3: just kind of the project as a whole when you
Speaker 3: kind of remove yourself from it. Now a couple of
Speaker 3: months after it published, what about the project Jordan really
Speaker 3: stood out to you? Was there like an overarching lesson
Speaker 3: or a takeaway that you took from this podcast after
Speaker 3: getting it all done?
Speaker 1: Well? What I hoped going into it, and it was
Speaker 1: my first time doing something of this scale and also
Speaker 1: within this medium. I chose this medium because I thought
Speaker 1: that it would be really important for people to hear
Speaker 1: these guys in their own voices talking about football and
Speaker 1: about how they innovate or try to and then also
Speaker 1: sort of the dark sides of what it is to
Speaker 1: compete at the highest level and what it can do
Speaker 1: to you mentally and emotionally, and what toll it takes
Speaker 1: on the coach and the players. I thought it was
Speaker 1: really important for people to hear that in their own voices,
Speaker 1: and from that, I wanted to tell a story that
Speaker 1: was very malle to how where you were or what
Speaker 1: perspective you came in listening to it with. So what
Speaker 1: I mean by that is it was sort of a
Speaker 1: roar shock test in many ways. If you were a coach,
Speaker 1: you interpreted it one way. If you were a fan
Speaker 1: of one of the teams that was of the coaches
Speaker 1: that were in it, a wide variety of head coaches
Speaker 1: from offensive and defensive trees across the league, and then
Speaker 1: you thought about it a different way. If you were
Speaker 1: new to the sport but wanted to learn more, you
Speaker 1: were welcomed into it and thought maybe thought about it
Speaker 1: in a different way. I heard from CEOs of companies
Speaker 1: of other sports, of different cross corporations, things like that,
Speaker 1: who also listened to it with an entirely different perspective.
Speaker 1: And that was really my goal coming into it, is like,
Speaker 1: this is a story for you, no matter where you're
Speaker 1: at in terms of your football knowledge or ability or passion,
Speaker 1: because it's a very human story at its heart. And
Speaker 1: I think what I learned from that is just how
Speaker 1: just how important it was for people to interpret it
Speaker 1: in the way that they wanted and in the way
Speaker 1: that they felt that they that they were seeing it
Speaker 1: and hearing it. And the various people I know, we'll
Speaker 1: talk about Mike McDaniel a lot, but it was really
Speaker 1: interesting because I heard such a wide variety of perspective,
Speaker 1: most of it positive about some of the things that
Speaker 1: he said, some of the things that resonated with people,
Speaker 1: some of the things that I've heard really kind of
Speaker 1: cool stories about, like coaches in other sports or even
Speaker 1: at the college level, like playing different clips for their
Speaker 1: teams and for their coaching staffs. Because there's so many
Speaker 1: things that people latch onto within the course of it,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to make that available to people without
Speaker 1: being too broad, because you can cannot possibly tell the
Speaker 1: full story, and a lot of people deserve credit that
Speaker 1: you just are not going to get to through the
Speaker 1: course of a five hour show. But also people were
Speaker 1: able to pull things and extrapolate different things that really
Speaker 1: resonated with them, and that's what I was really hopeful for,
Speaker 1: and it's something I learned and learned for the first time. No,
Speaker 1: but it was a really good, healthy reminder of why
Speaker 1: we are in this why we love this sport, why
Speaker 1: this sport fascinates us, and also sometimes some for some
Speaker 1: of us, it destroys some of the people in it
Speaker 1: as well. And all of this complicated mess is sort
Speaker 1: of highlighted in this series that I wanted people to
Speaker 1: attach to the things that moved them within it.
Speaker 3: Well, I can provide an additional testimony for you. My
Speaker 3: co host on the postgame show down here in South Florida.
Speaker 3: We are could not be more diametrically opposed, but we're
Speaker 3: like we have that opposite the tracks type of relationship
Speaker 3: where we just get along so well, but we don't
Speaker 3: see things the same way pretty much at all. But
Speaker 3: he doesn't want to hear like I lose him the
Speaker 3: minute I started talking about x's and o's or personnel
Speaker 3: packages or whatever it might be.
Speaker 2: Just he's like, nope, I'm out.
Speaker 3: But he loved the podcast, and he was saying that, like, man,
Speaker 3: some of the verbiage these guys kind of goes over
Speaker 3: my head, but I'm still still so fascinated by all
Speaker 3: of it. I think that was kind of you know,
Speaker 3: why you're able to take accord with so many different
Speaker 3: fans of you know, people that watch the game in
Speaker 3: different ways. And that's really cool to hear that you
Speaker 3: really crossed over, you know, outside of football and were
Speaker 3: able to connect with people that way too.
Speaker 2: The thing that obviously connects I'll go ahead, Jordan, not to.
Speaker 1: Cut you off. But you made such a good comment
Speaker 1: there too, where like one of the biggest things, and
Speaker 1: Mike McDaniel really illustrates this, I think through through the
Speaker 1: arc of the show and speaks on this, I think,
Speaker 1: very very passionately and certainly with great detail in this series.
Speaker 1: Is the importance of what it means and how it
Speaker 1: can alter your career forever to have access to certain
Speaker 1: ideas at a pivotal moment in your life's journey or
Speaker 1: in your works journey. And you know, in part of
Speaker 1: the series we do talk about what it also means
Speaker 1: through where we're at right now with some of the
Speaker 1: poor hiring practices in the league, when people don't have
Speaker 1: that access, when they don't start out that way. And
Speaker 1: I think Mike's story is really insightful in this regard
Speaker 1: because because he has a different background coming up, you know,
Speaker 1: socioeconomically and all that, a different background than a lot
Speaker 1: of these coaches who were born and raised in these
Speaker 1: football buildings, and he understood early on, by the way
Speaker 1: that he was trying to make himself valuable to Kyle Shanahan,
Speaker 1: he understood how important it would be for him in
Speaker 1: his broader career long term to fight for access to
Speaker 1: those ideas and to put himself in rooms where he
Speaker 1: would have access to those ideas. It wasn't it's not
Speaker 1: enough to just get in the door. It's now creating
Speaker 1: more doorways for yourself and then hopefully leaving those doors
Speaker 1: open behind you.
Speaker 3: We mentioned the press conferences, you know, on the top
Speaker 3: of the show here, and that's I think the comment
Speaker 3: I most frequently see when he gives one of his great,
Speaker 3: you know, long winded dancers at a press conference is like,
Speaker 3: this guy just does not look like anything we've seen
Speaker 3: before in terms of, you know, head coaching presence, but
Speaker 3: he connects with the guys in such a different way
Speaker 3: that we hear is unanimous across the entire locker room
Speaker 3: for how he feels for guys. He got emotion the
Speaker 3: other night talking about Daywood Davis, our rookie receiver who
Speaker 3: had to be taken off on a stretcher, and you
Speaker 3: just you can just feel that compassion every time that
Speaker 3: he approaches the microphone. And you know, for someone like me,
Speaker 3: that is really, you know, a pretty emotional guy, like
Speaker 3: it really strikes a chord with me, and I love
Speaker 3: him for that. And you know, he's a little bit
Speaker 3: different than the rest of the guys around him, and
Speaker 3: I thought one of the things that really stood out
Speaker 3: about him that said he was different and the best
Speaker 3: way possible was the first note that I wrote down here,
Speaker 3: I'll listen to the podcast about you know, he had
Speaker 3: this level of humility talking about I think he had
Speaker 3: discovered something, So forgive me, Jordan.
Speaker 2: It was a couple of months ago.
Speaker 3: I listened to this part, but he had mentioned a
Speaker 3: weakness they had discovered and the Cowboys front and that
Speaker 3: primetime game for the division or for the playoffs or
Speaker 3: division title late in that that's twenty twelve season, and
Speaker 3: he had kind of figured out something for how to access,
Speaker 3: you know, a part of the defense that they were
Speaker 3: not going to be strong in. And he kind of,
Speaker 3: you know, bookended that by saying that there's a humility
Speaker 3: about you know, the truth of play callers thinking that
Speaker 3: their play call is the reason that you know, this
Speaker 3: play worked or didn't is acid nine. But also like
Speaker 3: I have, you know, here's here's what I did do
Speaker 3: to put my team in the best position. I'm just
Speaker 3: curious how that humility of his but also confidence and
Speaker 3: those two things together came off. When you took when
Speaker 3: you spoke.
Speaker 1: To coach, Yeah, well it was. He was very authentic
Speaker 1: first and foremost. So that was I mean, and he
Speaker 1: he just he took. I think he took the amount
Speaker 1: of time, substantial amount of time. I think he took
Speaker 1: the amount of time to show that it wasn't a
Speaker 1: show sort of that he was putting on because I
Speaker 1: think when he's up at the podium or you see
Speaker 1: some of the sound bites that get extrapolated things like that,
Speaker 1: you think, like is this guy for real? Like is
Speaker 1: he always like this? And and but but in over
Speaker 1: the course of doing something like this, you understand that
Speaker 1: how genuine that that personality is. I think in that example,
Speaker 1: and then that what you're talking about with humility and
Speaker 1: what he talked about with like ego list play calling
Speaker 1: things like that, that was such a huge theme in
Speaker 1: the series that I think he embodies really well. And
Speaker 1: that's why I was so glad you spoke so openly
Speaker 1: about it. And I'll tell you. I'll tell you why.
Speaker 1: So that play was really smart and special to do
Speaker 1: in game at the NFL level, Like it's something that
Speaker 1: you know NFL play calling offensive or defensive. It's like
Speaker 1: sometimes this like monolith, right, and now where you go
Speaker 1: in and you think you know the things that you're
Speaker 1: going to call. It's why these call sheets are so detailed.
Speaker 1: It's why they spend so much time arguing debating over
Speaker 1: play calls. You go in with your A plus game plan,
Speaker 1: your B game plan, your C different adjustments, like you
Speaker 1: go in with all of those things, but there are
Speaker 1: going to be things that teams throw at you that
Speaker 1: you're not prepared for. And in this case, you know,
Speaker 1: we see a lot of times if a team sometimes
Speaker 1: has to throw out their plan adjusting in real time,
Speaker 1: especially in the NFL and especially back then. Now, I
Speaker 1: think there's a lot more coaches that do this very
Speaker 1: well as this younger generation and also the Andy Reids
Speaker 1: of the world and Phil Belichick's of the world and
Speaker 1: the Sean Payton's of the world are still holding it down.
Speaker 1: But like I think, you start seeing these monoliths sort
Speaker 1: of like avert courses before they hit the iceberg, basically
Speaker 1: in a much more obvious way. But when the part
Speaker 1: of the reason why it was so important that he
Speaker 1: was able to do that, just to change the way
Speaker 1: that they were trying to their front structure that they
Speaker 1: were trying to attack them. Was a simple adjustment, but
Speaker 1: it was an empowering one, not only because of how
Speaker 1: relatively low he was at that time on the coaching staff,
Speaker 1: but also because it worked and it was a it
Speaker 1: was a fix that somebody who again was not the
Speaker 1: OC that was not the quarterbacks coach. You know, he
Speaker 1: was a quality control guy who came up with that
Speaker 1: adjustment and that idea. And that's part of the reason
Speaker 1: why it was so important, because something's so small from
Speaker 1: somebody and I say this respectfully of that time relative
Speaker 1: sort of significance in the hierarchy of the staff was
Speaker 1: able to avert the course of the ship for that moment,
Speaker 1: right or divert it. And that was super significant. But
Speaker 1: it also explains how football is because you know, you hear, like,
Speaker 1: I heard from a lot of coaches from across the
Speaker 1: country about the show, and I heard from a bunch
Speaker 1: of high school coaches about that moment specifically, and they
Speaker 1: were talking to me about how like, that's something that's
Speaker 1: pretty prevalent at the high school level, including that specific adjustment. Now,
Speaker 1: because you have to work with whoever you have so
Speaker 1: often at the high school level, and you have to
Speaker 1: figure out how to be constantly pivoting because you're not
Speaker 1: picking and choosing million dollar athletes like you're got your teaching,
Speaker 1: You're also teaching these guys in like pe class right,
Speaker 1: there's no trademarket, right, Yeah, And like I thought that
Speaker 1: was such a cool Like Mike McDaniel when he told
Speaker 1: that story, embodied so much about the ecosystem that football
Speaker 1: is and the variety of perspectives that exist within scheme
Speaker 1: within that ecosystem. Because to them, they were like, well,
Speaker 1: why wouldn't he make that adjustment, you know, but to
Speaker 1: but to that within the structure and hierarchy of an
Speaker 1: NFL staff, you know, several levels above and the monolithic
Speaker 1: sort of qualities of those things, that was like an
Speaker 1: incredible moment. But it doesn't take away from how empowering
Speaker 1: it was for him and how life altering it was.
Speaker 1: But also at the same time, it totally displays and
Speaker 1: demonstrates what this series is about. It's how football works
Speaker 1: and how everything in it sort of interconnects and clashes
Speaker 1: with itself. And Mike McDaniel I thought in that story
Speaker 1: specifically and also carrying that with him and remembering how
Speaker 1: that felt, but not letting it overpower him, and in
Speaker 1: terms of that sort of that ego of the victory
Speaker 1: in that moment, like not letting that forever overpower him,
Speaker 1: Like I think all of it, all of it at once,
Speaker 1: it was, it was right there.
Speaker 3: It makes me very exp to see how he grows
Speaker 3: and adjusts, you know, his approach in year number two,
Speaker 3: because he was very forthright about the differences of going
Speaker 3: from you know, a run game cordior to offensive coordinator
Speaker 3: to head coach in a matter of two years or
Speaker 3: I guess three total total seasons, but two years on
Speaker 3: the calendar, and how he had to learn how to
Speaker 3: be more present because these you know, particular meetings with
Speaker 3: people are they hold more gravity when you're the head man,
Speaker 3: Like you are the guy that everyone's looking to for answers,
Speaker 3: whereas otherwise you might be the one, you know, looking
Speaker 3: up for answers from someone else.
Speaker 2: And so he talks about his growth and adjustments.
Speaker 3: And you you touching on you know, the value as
Speaker 3: a QC or when he was you know, lower on
Speaker 3: the coaching rung. It makes me think about the guys
Speaker 3: that he has on staff here that he would probably
Speaker 3: use as resources to you know, not think that, you know,
Speaker 3: talking about the delegation of putting different tasks to different
Speaker 3: people and just rounding out a coaching staff full of
Speaker 3: guys that can provide input and give him quality advice.
Speaker 3: I'm excited about that because I like a lot of
Speaker 3: the guys we have here in terms of just who
Speaker 3: he's cultivated from former players and guys that he's kept
Speaker 3: from previous regimes. It's a good staff that all kind
Speaker 3: of seems to be growing within the same direction. And
Speaker 3: then he also touched on Zach Seeler's contract extension as
Speaker 3: a good example for the rest of the roster and
Speaker 3: how here's a guy that was cut in December back
Speaker 3: in twenty nineteen, picked up on waivers, and all of
Speaker 3: a sudden, here he is having a flourishing career at
Speaker 3: the Miami Dolphins. I like that example probably sets itself
Speaker 3: pretty well for how those guys under him had worked.
Speaker 2: Don't you see that? Does that kind of make sense
Speaker 2: to you?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, I mean I think he gravitates toward people
Speaker 1: who show their work. I think all of these guys do.
Speaker 1: I mean, you kind of see it in the players
Speaker 1: that they are, you know, trying to bring in and
Speaker 1: core people on their teams. I think that Mike is
Speaker 1: alongside because that's this is how they were all shaped
Speaker 1: formatively in the most malleable points of their careers as
Speaker 1: young coaches, showing their people who show their work, show
Speaker 1: their process, gravitating toward players who do that as well.
Speaker 1: You can all see this, and how they've hired out
Speaker 1: their staffs, how they've sort of cross pollinated their staffs
Speaker 1: because it's a very specific personality type and it trickles
Speaker 1: into the roster too. You know. They they want to
Speaker 1: see how like every single step of how the sausage
Speaker 1: gets made, essentially, like not just because they're the ones
Speaker 1: making it, but also because they want to see and
Speaker 1: troubleshoot every piece of the of the process. And so
Speaker 1: like you, I think that he when you talk about
Speaker 1: you know, this contract extension and all that, like you
Speaker 1: see him gravitate toward people who are on a similar
Speaker 1: sort of journey in terms of that process and being
Speaker 1: very very immersed in that specifically less so the contract
Speaker 1: itself or the sort of results itself, but like very
Speaker 1: very immersed in the why of every step in a journey,
Speaker 1: whether it's a player or a coach.
Speaker 2: I was curious.
Speaker 3: There was a point in the podcast where he talked
Speaker 3: about how press conferences bored him to death previously, and
Speaker 3: I wrote that down in my notes and I was
Speaker 3: wondering if he'd come back to it, but he didn't.
Speaker 3: Did he follow up on that with you at all?
Speaker 3: About just press commerces before he was a head coach?
Speaker 3: Maybe after the fact you just talk about it at all.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting. That was an interesting moment to me
Speaker 1: because it was like he knew he was different and
Speaker 1: this was the only way. And like I said, these
Speaker 1: NFL buildings, they can be so monolithic, right, And there's
Speaker 1: also these parameters too, where like for me, I see
Speaker 1: a lot about coaches' personalities by the way that they
Speaker 1: build scheme and the way that they team build and
Speaker 1: the way that they put things together and design games
Speaker 1: and stuff. Through the course of the weeks, I learned
Speaker 1: the most about people watching them in training camp because
Speaker 1: we could see the whole practice every single day. Now,
Speaker 1: the parameters of the credentials are that you can't report
Speaker 1: any of that stuff. So it's like the way he
Speaker 1: knows that, and so the way that you learn about
Speaker 1: who someone is isn't you know from those things, but
Speaker 1: it's from when you're at the podium and you're talking
Speaker 1: to people and you're the cameras are on and there's
Speaker 1: a live stream going, and how are you going to
Speaker 1: be and how are you going to treat it? And
Speaker 1: so that was sort of like small window of opportunity.
Speaker 1: I think he saw it as that to show, not
Speaker 1: to prove necessarily that he was different, although he did.
Speaker 1: He does quite clearly come across as someone who had
Speaker 1: that sort of proverbial chip on his shoulder to prove himself.
Speaker 1: But I think just like genuinely this is who I
Speaker 1: am and testing it, I think testing to see whether
Speaker 1: the league would accept him for that, or or the
Speaker 1: space of those rising ascending coaches would accept him for that.
Speaker 1: So I think it was an experiment in a way
Speaker 1: on his end, but I also think that it was
Speaker 1: certainly something where that was going to be his window
Speaker 1: to detach from the monolith a little bit and to
Speaker 1: really show what he could be capable of and how
Speaker 1: his how his mind worked. I think most importantly like
Speaker 1: the why. Again, it all comes back to the why
Speaker 1: with all of these guys, and with Mike, that's very
Speaker 1: much the impression that I got from that. What's what's
Speaker 1: funny is that you know those are mandatory, so like
Speaker 1: the the the NFL requires that the coordinator speaks once
Speaker 1: a week. And it's interesting because that was sort of
Speaker 1: like that's how it is now. But it's interesting because
Speaker 1: it was sort of like, well, like why were that's mandatory?
Speaker 1: So why weren't you getting that opportunity before if you
Speaker 1: were the coordinator? And it was like midway through the
Speaker 1: season or something. He was talking about how he shifted
Speaker 1: into and it was like he kind of talks about
Speaker 1: in the series, it's like once once he saw that
Speaker 1: window and that opportunity to show, you know, not distance,
Speaker 1: but like differentiation from the monolith of where he was
Speaker 1: and where most built, what most buildings are. He was
Speaker 1: going to take that window and use it to really
Speaker 1: help people understand the way that his brain works.
Speaker 3: It reminds me of I don't want to use the
Speaker 3: word trope because it's not really a trope.
Speaker 2: It's totally factual.
Speaker 3: But in an NFL locker room, if you're not genuine
Speaker 3: to yourself, if you try to be someone you're not,
Speaker 3: they're going to find you out as a really quickly.
Speaker 3: And I don't think Mike would ever be charged as such.
Speaker 3: I think that's pretty much out of the lexicon of
Speaker 3: possibility for him.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to put this comment out there.
Speaker 3: Before my last question about Vic Fangio and his impact
Speaker 3: we could expect to see here in Miami, because Jordan
Speaker 3: rodriga our guest here today, was on the Jalen Ramsey
Speaker 3: podcast back in March talking about that defense and Jalen's
Speaker 3: impact within it.
Speaker 2: But uh, I forget the full sentence he used. But
Speaker 2: I think you were.
Speaker 3: You guys were micing him up and the weeping willow sentence.
Speaker 3: I'm sure sing a bell for you. My wife was
Speaker 3: in the car at the time and she was like,
Speaker 3: I just it doesn't sound like a football coach. I
Speaker 3: want to hear him talk, but he is, obviously, But
Speaker 3: that stuff just it engages everybody in a way that
Speaker 3: just makes him so endearing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my favorite one. It's actually my least favorite and
Speaker 1: my favorite at the same time. Because I was talking
Speaker 1: to my producers. I had two amazing producers on this
Speaker 1: who who really helped bring this all of these scripts,
Speaker 1: reviews and stuff in the puzzle pieces to life and
Speaker 1: gave them dimension and we made a bespoke soundtrack for everything,
Speaker 1: and based on what we thought, the coaches sounded like
Speaker 1: like they had me send them playlists for everybody, Like
Speaker 1: it was very cool. But we were talking and we
Speaker 1: were like kind of going through this with each other too.
Speaker 1: They're like, Okay, which is your favorite quotes and what
Speaker 1: are the ones that you're like, Wow, that's like tough
Speaker 1: or whatever. Actually, when Mike McDaniel, he says the word
Speaker 1: asinine when he talks about like, I think it's pretty
Speaker 1: asinine when you think that play callers win or lose games.
Speaker 1: So to me, that's my one of my favorite things
Speaker 1: because it's very honest and you never hear people who
Speaker 1: call plays say that. But also the way he says
Speaker 1: the word asinine, it's so dripping with derision and it's
Speaker 1: just like it just melts your face when you when
Speaker 1: you hear it. And I sat there and I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: So this is a goal of mine, like, never never
Speaker 1: be asinine as a human or a reporter or anything
Speaker 1: enough to where somebody, especially a person like Mike, uses
Speaker 1: that word that way to describe your work and describe you.
Speaker 1: Because it was so like it's God, there were so
Speaker 1: many layers to just that word. Like I said, it
Speaker 1: was just like face melting, like dripping with like this disgust.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh my god, like don't I
Speaker 1: never want to hear that ever again. But you have
Speaker 1: to hear it like six hundred times, and you went
Speaker 1: through at it, so it's like, oh man, every single
Speaker 1: time we were like we this is can't do this.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Editing is my least favorite part of the John. It
Speaker 3: so just has something to your own voice over and
Speaker 3: over again. But then to hear that, like you said,
Speaker 3: the jarring nature of it, and especially from someone that
Speaker 3: you know is so you know, well read and just
Speaker 3: so eloquent the way he uses his words, there's obviously intention.
Speaker 2: Buying each and every one of those. So it's that
Speaker 2: definitely hits home. Jordan. I know I've got you for
Speaker 2: a few more minutes here.
Speaker 3: I want to ask you this one last thing, because
Speaker 3: a prominent theme throughout the entire collection of podcasts was,
Speaker 3: or the series I should say, was the Vic Fangio
Speaker 3: impact in that massive game against the Bears back in
Speaker 3: twenty eighteen of the Rams and how it kind of
Speaker 3: derailed the offense at least for a little bit there
Speaker 3: and led to the blueprint in the Super Bowl. Just
Speaker 3: wanted to get your take on just expanding on that
Speaker 3: and how we can expect to hopefully see VIC fans
Speaker 3: you have a similar impact here in Miami.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I wrote this word down back in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: and I kept it on this little sheet of paper,
Speaker 1: like slip of paper in my wallet. And it was Mithridatism.
Speaker 1: And it's very ancient Greek like Greek times where people,
Speaker 1: you know, modern medicine had not evolved yet, and so people,
Speaker 1: kings especially or people in high positions of power, would
Speaker 1: ingest small amounts of poison, thinking that that would help
Speaker 1: them build up tolerance to poison in case someone ever
Speaker 1: tried to poison them, and then that way they would
Speaker 1: be immune to these specific types of poison. That was
Speaker 1: the thinking, right or wrong whatever. But the word is cool,
Speaker 1: so I kept it. But I wrote it down after
Speaker 1: I watched Brandon Staley and Sean McVay clash against each
Speaker 1: other and practice Branda Staley obviously being from out of
Speaker 1: the big Fangio system, Sean Fay being so wholly obsessed
Speaker 1: with that system to the point where he was willing
Speaker 1: to bring someone who would would actively remind him of
Speaker 1: his own failure every day into his building and collide
Speaker 1: with them as you know, mono imano like head coaching
Speaker 1: against each other every single day. I mean, they have
Speaker 1: a good relationship and good friendship, but like that's competitive
Speaker 1: stuff right there, and you have to be willing to
Speaker 1: ingest amounts of that in order to build up the
Speaker 1: tolerance to it in order to use it for himself.
Speaker 1: And that's what Sean McVay wanted to do. It was
Speaker 1: a huge impact moment for me. And then you kind
Speaker 1: of fast forward it and that's actually where the idea
Speaker 1: for the entire series came from back in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: And then you fast forward it today and you think
Speaker 1: about how these guys all think and how they all
Speaker 1: troubleshoot against each other, and then you think about someone
Speaker 1: like Vic Fangio, who is the godfather of this defense,
Speaker 1: and how he just spent time this last year thinking
Speaker 1: about new ways to put people in hell. And I
Speaker 1: think that, like, that's the next chapter of this I think,
Speaker 1: because it's not going to look the same as it
Speaker 1: always has because offenses have figured out different things to
Speaker 1: use against it, and so that's that's the series. That's
Speaker 1: that's football. That's how it works. It's collisions and clashes
Speaker 1: of ecosystems of people at the apex of their profession,
Speaker 1: of ideas, of players, and how what happens as a
Speaker 1: result of that, like nuclear and essentially that comes out
Speaker 1: of that. It's like football and the Big Bang and
Speaker 1: tree rings and like all this stuff. So I sound
Speaker 1: crazy now, but that's fine. I even have my hands
Speaker 1: in the air, but that's fine. But like, that's that's
Speaker 1: what I'm excited about because Vic Fangio is now going
Speaker 1: to push forward what comes next, and that's why Mike
Speaker 1: McDaniel hired him. We've talked about this before. Mike even
Speaker 1: talks about it in the course of play callers about
Speaker 1: you have to lack a certain ego to do that.
Speaker 1: And what we're going to see if people say, hell healthy, caveat, caveat, caveat,
Speaker 1: is we're going to start to see what comes next.
Speaker 1: And I think that's going to be so exciting. I might,
Speaker 1: you know, get a time share there in Miami just
Speaker 1: to just to check some of it out. But it's
Speaker 1: going to be really interesting. And I learned so much
Speaker 1: about the utmost like respect and sort of it's like this,
Speaker 1: you know, Vic, It is just this this like presence
Speaker 1: in a lot of these guys timelines, right, just like
Speaker 1: Bill Belichick is. And I think that that was really
Speaker 1: fascinating as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, come on down what will hop in the studio
Speaker 3: and do a live podcast when you get down here
Speaker 3: and wherever your time share may be in the South
Speaker 3: Florida area. Jordan, congratulations first of all, in all.
Speaker 2: The success of the podcast.
Speaker 3: If you guys have not heard it again the play
Speaker 3: callers part of the Athletic Podcast Network. Jordan did a
Speaker 3: great job with a bunch of people behind the scenes
Speaker 3: as well, putting that thing together.
Speaker 2: But really good stuff.
Speaker 3: Jordan, appreciate your time as always, Thank you so much,
Speaker 3: and a happy football season almost there.
Speaker 1: Happy football season, Travis, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: It's always a pleasure.
Speaker 3: And away she goes a big thank you as always
Speaker 3: to Jordan first time and by and making us smarter
Speaker 3: about football.
Speaker 2: All right, that's gonna be my time today.
Speaker 3: You all please be sure to subscribe to the podcast
Speaker 3: on Apple Podcasts, leave us a rating and leave us
Speaker 3: a review. You can follow me on social at Winkle NFL.
Speaker 3: Follow the team at Miami Dolphins. Check out the Fish
Speaker 3: Tank Podcast with Seth and OJ. Check out the YouTube
Speaker 3: channel for media availabilities, Dolphins Today, and so much more,
Speaker 3: and last.
Speaker 2: But not least, Miami Dolphins dot Com.
Speaker 3: Until next time, Fins Up, Carolyn Cameron, Daddy Play