Speaker 1: NFL Explained is a production of the NFL in partnership
Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio. I was watching one of your
Speaker 1: I G stories. Hey, beautiful people. Yes, that's not bad, right,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to I'm trying to bring I'm trying to
Speaker 1: bring it like m Rob Yeah with you. It's NFL Explained.
Speaker 1: It is a brand new edition of the show. You
Speaker 1: know the feedback that we've been getting on our mail
Speaker 1: bag episode and it's been pretty good, pretty positive. So
Speaker 1: my d ms have been I keep getting more and
Speaker 1: more questions and that's what And I had someone and
Speaker 1: this is my badge for anyone who sent me a message,
Speaker 1: and I was like, hey, we're gonna work it in.
Speaker 1: And we didn't work it in because someone hit me
Speaker 1: up and was like, yeah, I didn't hear my question.
Speaker 1: And I was like, all right, my bad. So we
Speaker 1: got so many of them that we're actually going and
Speaker 1: I promise we're going to get to all the questions.
Speaker 1: So if you did submit one to me and I respond,
Speaker 1: because I do respond to everyone, trust me, we'll get
Speaker 1: to those. But what we're trying to do is actually
Speaker 1: take some of the questions and get a full episode,
Speaker 1: which is exactly what this episode is all about. A
Speaker 1: deep dive into equipment in the NFL, and for me,
Speaker 1: I'm robbed. I guess I would start because like you
Speaker 1: and I, I'll still say we're kind of young. We're
Speaker 1: still kind of young man. So we we had you had.
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say we like you had the benefit of
Speaker 1: having a lot of modern technology. But anything that comes
Speaker 1: to mind that either you wish you did have or
Speaker 1: dudes when you were playing that we're older, said, man,
Speaker 1: you like back in my day we had to walk
Speaker 1: like one of those types of moments. Anything resonate. Um.
Speaker 1: I guess everybody remembers, you know, Brian Cox, the big
Speaker 1: neck roll or whatever. I played fullback, right, and so
Speaker 1: I used to get a lot of stingers in my day,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, neck roll. I had the little little nub.
Speaker 1: It's like a little nub that kind of goes over
Speaker 1: your name plate. It doesn't go outside of your jersey.
Speaker 1: So I didn't look like a super big guy, but
Speaker 1: I still looked strong and dominant. You still wanted to
Speaker 1: look of a fullback and I was. I was. I
Speaker 1: could have worn the vicest helmet. It's one of the
Speaker 1: safest helmets on the market right now. It's expensive. But
Speaker 1: just the technology of the glancing blow. I mean I
Speaker 1: had an air helmet, and a lot of our football
Speaker 1: enthusiasts know exactly with that is the only thing it
Speaker 1: had was you just had a couple of holes, one
Speaker 1: at the top, one in the back, and you just
Speaker 1: had to pump air in it when you needed some air,
Speaker 1: and you went on about your business. I've talked to
Speaker 1: it a couple of guys that played well before you too,
Speaker 1: and they would tell me that the shift in helmets
Speaker 1: actually was something that they felt was in some ways
Speaker 1: more safe, in other ways like not as comfortable either,
Speaker 1: which surprised me because some of these dudes were like
Speaker 1: to throw back, like you know, the really really thick
Speaker 1: padding on the inside, and I'll say, you're a secret
Speaker 1: Yeah all right, look man, alright, this is between me
Speaker 1: and you, no one, all right. So that was two
Speaker 1: thousand to two thousand three, maybe two thousand four. I
Speaker 1: was at Penn State. We all had the air helmets.
Speaker 1: It was nice and cool. Um I got knocked State.
Speaker 1: You didn't know that. Um I got knocked out. We
Speaker 1: were playing the Wisconsin Badger's Erasmus James unblocked first round
Speaker 1: pick hit me boom knocked out right. I was out
Speaker 1: for a few weeks, and I remember coach Paterno saying, hey,
Speaker 1: rapits and you want to ride most explosive players, but
Speaker 1: you can't wear that air helmet anymore. And I'm like, Joe,
Speaker 1: what the hell you made? I can't wear my air helmet.
Speaker 1: This is all I've known. I've won an air helmet
Speaker 1: since I was probably eleven years old, not the same one,
Speaker 1: but I've worned that brand of a helmet. He and he,
Speaker 1: he made a mandate for me to go back in
Speaker 1: the game. I had to wear the newer At that time,
Speaker 1: it was a short helmet, it was big. It looked
Speaker 1: like I had an extra played on top. And I
Speaker 1: had the biggest helmet in all of college football. I
Speaker 1: mean literally, I was the laughing stock. I just looked
Speaker 1: like a bobblehead. But that was the only way I
Speaker 1: could in Yams. I have a big hit. I can
Speaker 1: say that because I do have a big head, right,
Speaker 1: And so my helmet was already a large, extra large.
Speaker 1: I had big pads, large if I had smaller pads.
Speaker 1: And now I had this extra, this extra piece on
Speaker 1: my helmet, and yeah, I was laughing stock in my
Speaker 1: locker room for a little bit, but um I was
Speaker 1: safe and uh yeah, man Bobblehead at quarterback got it done. Though,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm envisioning like the shaking little bobble head running around.
Speaker 1: It was so big. I hated it, but it did
Speaker 1: protect me. I can't lie. It was lighter, it felt better,
Speaker 1: and it took me a while to get used to it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, alright, So I think it's probably a pretty
Speaker 1: good place to start, because I think when you talk
Speaker 1: about NFL football, one of the first things in equipment,
Speaker 1: one of the first things you think about is certainly
Speaker 1: the helmet, because it has definitely evolved throughout the years,
Speaker 1: and a lot of that has to do with what
Speaker 1: Emrod was just talking about, which is player health and safety.
Speaker 1: But we gotta go all the way back, all the
Speaker 1: way back to the beginning nineteen seventeen, seventy one, seven
Speaker 1: one seven, So that's the ways to years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: very different. University of Illinois head coach Bob Zupkey. He
Speaker 1: designed the first leather helmets that the NFL used when
Speaker 1: the league first started. A couple of years later in
Speaker 1: nine team twenty. Really very protective leather helmets. Joe Paterno
Speaker 1: used to tell me after his high school games, they
Speaker 1: used to fold up their helmet and put it in
Speaker 1: their back pocket. I'm to tell you, man, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: I had to say that. Can you imagine knowing someone
Speaker 1: who like actually went and did that, You know what
Speaker 1: I mean? I mean, I can't. I mean he used
Speaker 1: to tell a story about Vince Lombardi playing against him
Speaker 1: in high school and he used to fold up their helmet, like, dude.
Speaker 1: The stories were crazy, especially when he has some jim
Speaker 1: to mount Rushmore. You start thinking about those dude with
Speaker 1: the leather helmet, the mount Rushmore of some of these
Speaker 1: players um nineteen thirties actually brought the first iterations of
Speaker 1: the face mask and plastic helmets. Although those face masks
Speaker 1: weren't actually all that popular, the NFL mandated the use
Speaker 1: of helmets rams running back Fred Gurkey. He would subsequently
Speaker 1: give the NFL it's first logo when he paid in
Speaker 1: horns on his own helmet for game in nineteen seven.
Speaker 1: By the way, can you imagine a dude right now,
Speaker 1: like we're getting into like uniform rules, like you can't
Speaker 1: do stuff like that. You can't do anything. You're kidding me, man,
Speaker 1: Hell with this, I don't got nothing on my helmet.
Speaker 1: Let me just paint something on it, like, which is
Speaker 1: kind of cool, by the way, really cool side hustle
Speaker 1: for Gurky. He ended up painting seventy five rams helmets.
Speaker 1: He was paid a dollar each. World couldn't have work today.
Speaker 1: Seven bucks would have gone. Yeah, to tell me stories
Speaker 1: about like, you know, the forties, like with like a
Speaker 1: buck for a helmet, man, Like that's not that bad.
Speaker 1: None cost a dollar now, No, nothing in the dollar
Speaker 1: store still cost a dollar. Nineteen fifties, A single bar
Speaker 1: face mask invented by Cleveland's coach Paul Brown, who had
Speaker 1: an equipment manager actually fashion one to a helmet order
Speaker 1: to keep his quarterback autogram in the game after he
Speaker 1: took a shot to the face. We'll hear more about
Speaker 1: what Paul Brown also did, really a savvy invent a
Speaker 1: little bit later here on this episode. But the single
Speaker 1: bar eventually became a little bit of a fashion ful
Speaker 1: pod in the league. Not you wouldn't be caught. You
Speaker 1: don't want just the one bar, man, I mean I
Speaker 1: don't know. I mean I've seen some kickers get away
Speaker 1: with it. But you don't want the one Barlbo with
Speaker 1: the one bar Mike like that would always for me.
Speaker 1: But like somebody get just punched you in your face, man,
Speaker 1: Like this just happened. It's right there. So last dude
Speaker 1: to actually go with the single Joe Timan and that
Speaker 1: crazy by the way, we did a thing on NFL
Speaker 1: network was like a football life and I guess that
Speaker 1: he they changed the pronunciation. He recognizes it, but he
Speaker 1: used to be feasman that I didn't even know that
Speaker 1: because I'm like, damn, why they're saying his name wrong?
Speaker 1: Because I caught it like halfway into the episode. What
Speaker 1: is going on? So he told me that story at
Speaker 1: his restaurant one time we had a scheduled release show
Speaker 1: there that he made me pay for the dinner. I
Speaker 1: gotta get at you, Joe. So yeah, by the and
Speaker 1: keep in mind, I mean for for thim, a quarterback,
Speaker 1: to be doing that kind of unique here, because he
Speaker 1: was the last non kicker to wear these single bar
Speaker 1: across the face mask nineteen sixty two. Though all players
Speaker 1: were face masks in the latter part of that decade,
Speaker 1: crossbar actually adopted better protection around the face and the
Speaker 1: nose By the nineteen seventies, the full mask really began
Speaker 1: to catch on, and then we get to the nineteen nineties.
Speaker 1: By the way, we talk about the nineties like it
Speaker 1: was a long time ago, Like I feel like the
Speaker 1: nineties was a few years ago, But it was. It
Speaker 1: was just a little bit, yeah, a little tread on
Speaker 1: my tires, I'll tell you. Nineties come around, the helmet
Speaker 1: started to become more complex, little different pieces of equipment.
Speaker 1: It weighed about three pounds and had more state of
Speaker 1: the art padding. The newest helmet technology has added things
Speaker 1: like helmet inserts that are actually molded to each individual head,
Speaker 1: and also better ways to absorb and redirect energy from contact.
Speaker 1: You tell me, because I've actually I mean I've put
Speaker 1: it on for fun, but I've never worn one in
Speaker 1: the game, and the ones that I've thrown on or
Speaker 1: not specific for me comfortable generally speaking, Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: you gotta redefine what your definition of comfort is. You
Speaker 1: know what I'm saying, Uh, yeah, you want it comfortable,
Speaker 1: you want it. So that's not a lot of moving
Speaker 1: a lot not a lot of movement in the helmet.
Speaker 1: I know for me, any time I put a new
Speaker 1: helmet on a helmet on for the first time in
Speaker 1: a while. Yeah, it's like you notice all the things
Speaker 1: that's in your vision, like if you have bars up,
Speaker 1: if you have bars kind of on the side. You know,
Speaker 1: you just notice the stuff. And for me, it did
Speaker 1: take a little time just to kind of get yourself
Speaker 1: oriented in the helmet. And I mean again, it's like
Speaker 1: riding a bike. Once you've done it before, you get
Speaker 1: used to it. But for me, I always needed to
Speaker 1: have the top part of the eyes, part of the
Speaker 1: face masks unencombered. I didn't I couldn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of bars in front of it because I always stood
Speaker 1: up at the fullback position so that I can see
Speaker 1: just like the runner can see, so I can be
Speaker 1: his eyes. And sometimes if it was a bar right there,
Speaker 1: it would trick me into thinking it was an actual person,
Speaker 1: and it would it would mess me. It would mess
Speaker 1: me up in my spatial awareness. How many how much
Speaker 1: do you go through during the course of the season.
Speaker 1: It depends. So when I played quarterback, only one, you know,
Speaker 1: when I played tailback, maybe two fullback, especially my last
Speaker 1: year we when we won our Super Bowl, I went
Speaker 1: through five helmets, face masks, breaking just all the collisions,
Speaker 1: um and then special teams that that's when kickoff was
Speaker 1: really running down there kickoff. So yeah, I went through
Speaker 1: five helmets that last year. I still have them all
Speaker 1: to So do you like, I mean, it's that's your helmet,
Speaker 1: Like is that the one thing? Because we were talking
Speaker 1: about cleats right in our Mailbag episode last week, and
Speaker 1: like some dudes like Russell Wilson, yo where once. So
Speaker 1: that's it. It's a rap for him, the helmet, like
Speaker 1: I would imagine because you're telling me, hey, when you're
Speaker 1: playing quarterback, it was one like you it's like your
Speaker 1: piece of equipment. It's yours, man. And like even when
Speaker 1: I played for San Francisco and then I went over
Speaker 1: to Seattle, you know, I brought my helmet with me.
Speaker 1: You know, they repaying it, They red they redid it up,
Speaker 1: because again, it is a personal thing, and a lot
Speaker 1: of times, especially the older helmets, they would you know
Speaker 1: kind of like get worn kind of and mold it
Speaker 1: kind of to your head, and you just get used
Speaker 1: to those times. So you took them like I took
Speaker 1: him with me. I took my shoulder pass with me. Everything. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I know, I mean I think Leonard four still
Speaker 1: has his LSU should pass. Many of these guys are
Speaker 1: some of his superstitions. Some of it is just being
Speaker 1: comfortable with the equipment, and some guys just like, oh no, man,
Speaker 1: I've won this many games and this I ain't changed
Speaker 1: and this is what it is. I had no idea
Speaker 1: about that. I did mention Paul Brown a little earlier
Speaker 1: about the helmets and the whole thing. Another huge contribution
Speaker 1: to helmet technology, not knowing people have realized this. But
Speaker 1: let's go back thinkteen fifty six. Brown was actually approached
Speaker 1: by two Cleveland fans who happened to be inventors and
Speaker 1: thought they could help the coach find a new way
Speaker 1: to communicate with his quarterback via radio signal. Here's what
Speaker 1: the legend here, here's how it goes. You got two dudes,
Speaker 1: John Campbell and George Claris. They began testing the equipment
Speaker 1: in the woods near one of their homes. Which what
Speaker 1: good happens in the woods? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Watched a whole lot of Dateline recently after it interviewed
Speaker 1: the radio signal with the police officer driving by. The
Speaker 1: cop was like, yo, what's going on? Questioned the two
Speaker 1: dudes like they found him and was like, yo, like
Speaker 1: what's going on here? Here's the deal. Though the cop
Speaker 1: was a Browns fan and said, oh, you know what
Speaker 1: you know, you keep rolling in the woods. You do
Speaker 1: whatever you want to do in the woods, and then
Speaker 1: here we go. So uh. Cleveland quarterback George Ratterman was
Speaker 1: the first to wear the radio helmet, but the opponents
Speaker 1: at the time where the Lions. They got a little
Speaker 1: suspicious when they saw a transmitter on the sideline. Then
Speaker 1: NFL Commissioner Bell banned the new system, which didn't return
Speaker 1: until when the technology obviously dramatically improved. Was that seventy
Speaker 1: when they finally started using it. That is crazy, man.
Speaker 1: What's the craziest part that the fact that there was
Speaker 1: that much of a gap or the cop was like, yo,
Speaker 1: you do whatever you want in the woods. Oh man,
Speaker 1: I already know man, fans, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: We're here, man, I get it. But that long, I
Speaker 1: would have just all the great minds of the National
Speaker 1: Football and you just would have thought that this idea
Speaker 1: would have came up a little bit faster, you would think.
Speaker 1: But like I also, it's a product of your environment
Speaker 1: and there's no disrespect. We do a segment on total disrespect,
Speaker 1: and so I go here. It is no disrespect. But
Speaker 1: I wouldn't think Cleveland the technology hub. I mean, dude,
Speaker 1: I was in the Bay Area for like almost a decade,
Speaker 1: so I think because the ways, you know, but in
Speaker 1: the phase right, like I know what, that's just still
Speaker 1: that's me being young on this episode. Okay, but it
Speaker 1: is wild and it took a really long time for
Speaker 1: the communication and the technology to improve, and this is
Speaker 1: what has made for some interesting developments on the football field. Now.
Speaker 1: In fact, you are rules around these communications systems. In fact,
Speaker 1: only two players on the field can hear the sideline.
Speaker 1: That's the quarterback and the defensive captain, who's generally a linebacker.
Speaker 1: Those players are given the green dots sticker on their
Speaker 1: helmet to destinate which helmet has the communications system in it.
Speaker 1: Only the sideline can talk to the players with the headset.
Speaker 1: No one from the booth actually didn't realize that. I
Speaker 1: thought you could get some of that communication from and
Speaker 1: it would be wired that way, but that's not actually
Speaker 1: accurate to me. That would be an unfair advantage because
Speaker 1: you can see the field, Yeah, you can see the field.
Speaker 1: The vantage point is is a little bit different. But
Speaker 1: you know it's crazy, right Like all this technology to
Speaker 1: me is a gift and occurs. We all remember Jared
Speaker 1: Golf Sean McVeigh and the stories that, Yeah, he would
Speaker 1: kind of feed him the plays and talk to him,
Speaker 1: and that's why they will run that hurry up offense
Speaker 1: because with fifteen seconds left on the play clock, that
Speaker 1: system cuts off and the quarterback can't talk to the
Speaker 1: sideline anymore. And so Sean McVeigh kind of figured out
Speaker 1: a loophole. Then you go hurry up off and snap
Speaker 1: the ball before we get the fifteen seconds. I can
Speaker 1: coach my quarterback through the entire play and that's what
Speaker 1: was happening. I think again, I think it's a gift
Speaker 1: and a curse man, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: you want your quarterback to be able to see the
Speaker 1: information and be able to process the information and be
Speaker 1: able to come up and develop his own answers to
Speaker 1: the problem right there on the spot. Sometimes that that
Speaker 1: that system can you can develop a crutch when you're
Speaker 1: just waiting on the play caller to feed you the information.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I think you can get a little bit money
Speaker 1: so I'm actually glad you brought that up. And and
Speaker 1: just to be clear here, what I'm Robs talking about
Speaker 1: is the sideline actually cuts out with fifteen seconds remaining
Speaker 1: on the play clock. When that happens, is it chaotic
Speaker 1: on the field because you don't necessarily know is it
Speaker 1: hand signals like how do you transition that? The few
Speaker 1: times that it has happened to me? Um, one time
Speaker 1: I had a backup quarterback doing it, and yeah, it
Speaker 1: was chaos. It was like, dude, guys, I'm not hearing
Speaker 1: I'm not hearing the sideline, you know, and then you know,
Speaker 1: commer heads kind of you know happened. I think we
Speaker 1: had our Nez battle. He was one of our slot receivers.
Speaker 1: It was a third down. He kind of had one
Speaker 1: of his favorite lads. He was able to kind of
Speaker 1: help the quarterback out. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: everybody knows the game plan, and the quarterback should be
Speaker 1: prepared enough so that let's say it's a third down
Speaker 1: or let's say it's a second down and six or whatever,
Speaker 1: they know the game plans. They should know the game
Speaker 1: plans so well that the it should be a play
Speaker 1: that they should have in the back of their mind
Speaker 1: to go to. You know, we did an episode on
Speaker 1: instant replay. People always talk about lengthening the game, the
Speaker 1: fact that things are more streamlined, Like we don't see
Speaker 1: teams huddle a whole lot, right, Like it almost feel
Speaker 1: like it's almost a good thing that there's a little
Speaker 1: bit more efficiency now in terms of the communication, the
Speaker 1: play calling, and what we're seeing in today's game. It's
Speaker 1: a great thing because again, a quarterback can kind of
Speaker 1: be at the line of scrimmage. The whole offensive line
Speaker 1: can be at the line of scrimmage. Just think guys
Speaker 1: are playing let me call it play double wing right,
Speaker 1: quick as right to twelve flat. I mean, in that
Speaker 1: entire play, the offensive line, all they need to hear
Speaker 1: is quick as right. They don't care about everything else.
Speaker 1: And that play, all the wide receivers need to hear
Speaker 1: is to twelve a flat. They don't need to hear
Speaker 1: the other part. You see what I'm saying. And so
Speaker 1: the fact that we're able to streamline the communication, it
Speaker 1: helps everybody play a little bit faster. Was that your
Speaker 1: favorite play? It was one of so it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was one of those flats, and it was actually
Speaker 1: I was always cool. Another cool, smart, cool little story.
Speaker 1: I was always the emergency quarterback, so on during walkthroughs
Speaker 1: on Saturdays, I would always take the walkthroughs and I
Speaker 1: would always you know, call my plays and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: So I was pretty dope with that. That was a
Speaker 1: three step game. And then on game day I always
Speaker 1: had a backup helmet that had the radio system just
Speaker 1: in case the first two quarterbacks went downright, did you
Speaker 1: be honest when you kind of hope not that you
Speaker 1: didn't ever want to see someone at her? And that's
Speaker 1: how I needed to go down right. I wanted to
Speaker 1: throw some passes. Okay. Oh man. It was in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: One year Alex was hurt, Sean Hill was hurt. We
Speaker 1: brought in Chris Winky Like Wednesday, Chris was gray hair
Speaker 1: and every day was old and Chris Early could take
Speaker 1: a snap. I remember on that Wednesday office according to
Speaker 1: looking at me like, Mike, dude, you're probably gonna play
Speaker 1: this week. I'll pumped for you. I was like, let's
Speaker 1: just go. Bro. I when waiting for this, I was
Speaker 1: a housman final as I was trying to put to
Speaker 1: my own horn. He got himself straight and whatever, but
Speaker 1: that wee can practice you. I called some plays, I
Speaker 1: ran my two minute drill. I was a little pumped up.
Speaker 1: All right, Uh, still more to come here. When we
Speaker 1: come back, we'll talk about exactly how much smaller shoulder
Speaker 1: pads have become and look at some other important trends
Speaker 1: for equipment that have come and gone. You don't want
Speaker 1: to miss it. Welcome back to NFL. Explain Super Bowl Champ,
Speaker 1: m Rob Mike cam with you. Uh, big pad, small
Speaker 1: pad guy? So again it was I was like in
Speaker 1: between because I played a big guy position. But yet
Speaker 1: I was cool though because I used to play quarterback too,
Speaker 1: so I wanted the small pads. But I did have
Speaker 1: a baby neck. Roll was a baby one man. So
Speaker 1: it didn't go out my pets. It was still inside
Speaker 1: my jersey. But you still saw it. But it didn't
Speaker 1: look like crazy what I'm saying. No, I'm with you,
Speaker 1: you know, stylistically, I'm we're gonna bring this back to broadcasters.
Speaker 1: You know, back in the day, the suits had the
Speaker 1: shoulder pads dealing. Yeah, man, you can't that. They don't
Speaker 1: look good anymore. I can see you in shoulders. What
Speaker 1: are you talking? You know how much I work out
Speaker 1: on the traps here, Like, I don't need shoulders pads?
Speaker 1: What are you talking about? That was actually my first suits,
Speaker 1: Like when I got into broadcast, had the shoulder pads.
Speaker 1: It looks so much more Jack, Now, I don't even
Speaker 1: need the damn pads. You can. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: want any of that stuff. Um. Shoulder pads, though, obviously,
Speaker 1: are really significant and in sort of iconic, just like
Speaker 1: the helmets. It's a big differentiator in our sport compared
Speaker 1: to the other ones. But let's take a trip back
Speaker 1: to the nineteen twenties where we're all about like these
Speaker 1: flashbacks here players actually first started wearing shoulder pads, but
Speaker 1: they were actually made out of felt full and leather,
Speaker 1: wool and leather. Yeah, but think about that, right, Like
Speaker 1: had the helmets that were leather, so they were probably
Speaker 1: like I'm thinking, like cow, I don't wanna tell you
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking, but like it's funny. Yeah, turn Off
Speaker 1: was my coach, right, you do know that, right, great
Speaker 1: coach of all time. Um Joe used to always say
Speaker 1: football got dangerous when you took the leather helmets off.
Speaker 1: We had less so to pass. Guys, trust me, you're
Speaker 1: not gonna run into another human being knowing you're gonna
Speaker 1: feel all of that. You know what I'm saying. He
Speaker 1: was like, you want to take the head out of football,
Speaker 1: put leather helmets on. That was always his vote. No wonder,
Speaker 1: you're such a big proponent for flag football. So come
Speaker 1: on full circle here. So once again, this is what
Speaker 1: we're talking about. Like cloth and leather in the nineteen
Speaker 1: twenties for pads, by the nineteen sixties we actually moved
Speaker 1: from the hardened leather to fiber shell to plastic. The
Speaker 1: plastic shoulder pads were actually expanded in size so much
Speaker 1: in the eighties and nineties guys probably even had problems
Speaker 1: right like walking through like doors you kind of to
Speaker 1: give too damn bit they were way too big. I
Speaker 1: just remember Levon Kirkland, the middle linebacker back in the day.
Speaker 1: I remember saying, dude, that's the National Football League. Those
Speaker 1: are the linebackers that are coming to hit me. Oh man, yeah,
Speaker 1: show the pass with you. How much do you think
Speaker 1: the slimmer pads actually helps some of the more athletic
Speaker 1: players that we see now. Oh man, they're they're everything.
Speaker 1: I play with A guy Michael Bennett It's like Michael
Speaker 1: Bennett didn't even have pads. Mike b would tell you, Mike,
Speaker 1: I wish I just didn't have pads. Just put me
Speaker 1: into jersey in a helmet and I'll be fine. But
Speaker 1: I just think what's happening now is the rules of
Speaker 1: the game. I'm making the game safer. We're starting to
Speaker 1: not eliminate, but we're limiting the high impact collisions, and
Speaker 1: so smaller pads help guys move better, move faster, a
Speaker 1: little bit more limber, have a little bit more flexibility.
Speaker 1: And to me, it's making the game safer because guys
Speaker 1: don't have to be so big and and and the
Speaker 1: pads of smallest, so they don't think mentally they could
Speaker 1: just running the guy's full speed. You have to think
Speaker 1: before you make tackles and blocks. Uh. You're probably right
Speaker 1: about that. And I'm hearing Joe Paterno giving you that advice,
Speaker 1: telling you when the game got more dangerous because of
Speaker 1: the pads. But I think what you're describing to me
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense. Another piece of equipment that's
Speaker 1: actually decreased in size, and in some cases you don't
Speaker 1: even see it. That's the thigh and the knee pads.
Speaker 1: That's always wild to me. Ever, get when you were
Speaker 1: in elementary school that like your boy would come up
Speaker 1: to you and give you the dead leg, you know,
Speaker 1: like knee and the side by the way. Now now
Speaker 1: I actually pay someone basically to do that. Every week
Speaker 1: I go to the chiropractice. I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this hurts so bad. It's crazy. But that's kind of
Speaker 1: a thing now. Um, they were actually originally the knee
Speaker 1: and the thigh pads originally plastic, but they've transformed softer,
Speaker 1: more flexible material. Prior to players had the option of
Speaker 1: not wearing them, but then they became mandatory. Nevertheless, the
Speaker 1: slimming of the pads has made the overall profile the
Speaker 1: players a whole lot sleeker. All right. So another thing
Speaker 1: that's sort of changed time is jerseys. And you and
Speaker 1: I both know jerseys is how we identify dudes. There
Speaker 1: is extremely popular. You go to any NFL stadium and
Speaker 1: you just see a sea of jerseys, you know, people
Speaker 1: just rocking them for their favorite players. Um, back in
Speaker 1: the day, wool and cotton jerseys, Man, you might as
Speaker 1: well do like, what's the what's the fabric with the
Speaker 1: potato sack deal? You know, like the real you know
Speaker 1: what I'm talking about, and then you go and go, whoa,
Speaker 1: You might as well just burlap. Is that what it is? Um?
Speaker 1: Now fans know it's it's polyester, it's mesh. They're a
Speaker 1: little bit more fitted, harder to grab on. I've heard
Speaker 1: some stories over the years, like you grease yourself up
Speaker 1: a little bit vassaline, whatever the case may be. You
Speaker 1: like you were so fat, you don't really worry about
Speaker 1: that stuff. But any any sort of tricks that you
Speaker 1: have come across in your time, Guys just trying to
Speaker 1: get away with things. Now you're can I not call out?
Speaker 1: Who can I not call out? I know? UM and
Speaker 1: cold weather games, you know, guys putting the vassoline and
Speaker 1: stuff all over their arms and stuff like that. You
Speaker 1: put the handwarmers and the toes and the feet of
Speaker 1: your cleats and stuff like that. I know for me,
Speaker 1: I used Michael Vick when I was coming out of college.
Speaker 1: Was the guy, you know what I'm saying. I was
Speaker 1: a quarterback in Virginia. He was from Virginia. I wanted
Speaker 1: my jersey when I played quarterback to look exactly like
Speaker 1: how Michael Vick's jersey was cut, but biologically my arms
Speaker 1: wasn't as long as here, so it restricted me from
Speaker 1: throwing the football. So I would always get my jerseys
Speaker 1: really really tight, even when I played full back. But
Speaker 1: they were so tight I would have to cut them
Speaker 1: underneath the arms because it would literally cut my armpit.
Speaker 1: I would have scars from the jersey cutting and digging
Speaker 1: into my I wasn't wasn't who it was just so tight. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, man, that's kind of my things I did
Speaker 1: with my jersey. All right, Welcome back to the NFL
Speaker 1: Explained podcasts. Mike Yam and Rob with you. All right, So,
Speaker 1: anyone who please or played football knows when you're wearing gloves,
Speaker 1: they have changed dramatically. I've worked with enough wide receivers
Speaker 1: in my career and they'll tell you they watched some
Speaker 1: catches like yo, man, stick them. That's that's all I
Speaker 1: have that back in my day, No more stick on.
Speaker 1: We got gloves, which basically here's where I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: with this. So justin Jefferson, a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: you told me on Total Acts the greatest it was.
Speaker 1: It was really remarkable. Um, I don't know if he
Speaker 1: does he does he grab that. I think so, Okay,
Speaker 1: I look at the O'Dell catches more of a glove
Speaker 1: thing because of the way the ball was coming down.
Speaker 1: I'm not I think O'Dell was one of the most
Speaker 1: adamic receivers ever played this game. I just look at
Speaker 1: the way justin Jefferson's catch was it. His was more
Speaker 1: of the ball in the palm of his hand, the
Speaker 1: defender helping him to catch the football a little bit.
Speaker 1: That's why I think it was less gloves. Okay, So
Speaker 1: I throw this your way because players, like I said,
Speaker 1: back in the day, used to use like stickum, let's
Speaker 1: put some paste, a little air sault, anything to get
Speaker 1: a little bit of like friction on the gloves to
Speaker 1: make it easier. All that stuff. By the way, band in,
Speaker 1: But how about this, Jerry Rice is like, I'll take
Speaker 1: your band and you can put it where you're not
Speaker 1: supposed to put things. So you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Jerry Rice used to say like he would use stick
Speaker 1: hum like He's like, so the coat, actually, seriously do
Speaker 1: what you need to do. So I don't know if
Speaker 1: anyone was actually checking the goats gloves, but what I
Speaker 1: do know is there is a team that checks every
Speaker 1: single game your uniforms. In fact, I'm very well aware
Speaker 1: of this here at NFL Network. Steve Mariuchi and I
Speaker 1: are lockermates mooch. Every time I see him on a Monday,
Speaker 1: he will show me pictures that he takes of guys
Speaker 1: and uniforms. He is so he is like a stickler
Speaker 1: for this ugly they gotta do it right. He gets
Speaker 1: really upset about I used to know. I know in
Speaker 1: in Seattle, I used to know who our guy was.
Speaker 1: It is the same guy because he lives in the
Speaker 1: area and every game coming out he knew, but he
Speaker 1: had it was part of his job. He had to
Speaker 1: remind me. Mike got a change of cleats because cleats
Speaker 1: have to have I think a certain percentage of the
Speaker 1: home colors of who. I don't know. It's a bunch
Speaker 1: of different rules. And I would always say, Bro, you
Speaker 1: already know I'm gonna change, but I gotta look fresh
Speaker 1: for the warm ups. Man, I'll change. But if you
Speaker 1: come back out there with those cleats, he's sitting there
Speaker 1: looking at you. He's gonna he's gonna write you up.
Speaker 1: He'll find you. So there are actually sixty four NFL
Speaker 1: employees that monitor uniforms and equipment each game. You've gotta
Speaker 1: be up to code here. League Operations manual states all
Speaker 1: players must tuck in their jerseys. They cannot wear bandannas.
Speaker 1: Stockings must be white from the top of the shoot
Speaker 1: to midcalf, and an approved team color from midcalf to
Speaker 1: the bottom of the pant leg, which must be pulled
Speaker 1: down below the knees. That's actually the below the needst thing.
Speaker 1: That's what gets mood like on another level. And well
Speaker 1: he gets so mad at that. It's ridiculous. The white
Speaker 1: never goes up halfway A lot of times, guys for
Speaker 1: black socks up there. I mean it's players cannot wear
Speaker 1: headgear or any other equipment or apparel that, in the
Speaker 1: opinion of the uniform inspector or the referee, may confuse
Speaker 1: an opponent because its color is similar to a football.
Speaker 1: Only logos or brands from the league's official partners can
Speaker 1: be displayed. Players may wear other brands as long as
Speaker 1: they remove or cover the name on the logo. Hello.
Speaker 1: I remember when under Armour was first coming out. I
Speaker 1: was coming into the league at the time, and the
Speaker 1: founders went to the University of Maryland, and they were
Speaker 1: trying to get guys to be a part of their
Speaker 1: group and they weren't league. They weren't approved yet. And
Speaker 1: I'm in Vernon Davis on my team with the San
Speaker 1: Francesco before and now is every single game he had
Speaker 1: to cover the logo up, he had to take the
Speaker 1: cleats up. He didn't want tape the cleats. He wanted
Speaker 1: to show the cleats off, but they weren't approved yet. Wow,
Speaker 1: did you get any paper from those dudes? Dudes? I
Speaker 1: want some paper from him all day right now, exactly,
Speaker 1: don't matter if or not I'm ready to get paid. UH.
Speaker 1: Fines for equipment violations can actually add up for foreign
Speaker 1: substances on the body of your uniform five k for
Speaker 1: the first offense. The same goes for an unapproved visor tent,
Speaker 1: and over ten thou dollars for writing personal messages or
Speaker 1: wearing unauthorized logos, branding or intellectual property. It's a ton
Speaker 1: to keep track of um any and he finds any
Speaker 1: of your former teammates or friends that you can think
Speaker 1: of that just said, screw it. I'll pay the fine
Speaker 1: every single weekend. It keeps going up. Didn't care, you
Speaker 1: know best? Moo wear gold cleats. He wear Beastmo brand stuff.
Speaker 1: None of that stuff was approved. He said, here's a check.
Speaker 1: When the years over, whatever the fines were, just write
Speaker 1: the number right there, I'm gonna pay. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: the way it is. But again, his beast More brand
Speaker 1: made in the back end. It's a good point. I
Speaker 1: feel like the equipment manager has a lot of pressure
Speaker 1: on them. Oh. First of all, the equipment manager in
Speaker 1: every football building, all thirty two buildings around this country,
Speaker 1: are the most popular people in the building. They help
Speaker 1: us get our cleats. They helped us connect with the
Speaker 1: brand reps, with the Nike reps to reb I mean
Speaker 1: they do everything. Oftentimes. Oftentimes team meetings, unofficial team player
Speaker 1: meetings are in the equipment manager's office. That's just where
Speaker 1: guys hang out. That's where guys have a coffee, that's
Speaker 1: where guys have their lunch. I mean, the equipment manager
Speaker 1: is the guy man I love e k shout out
Speaker 1: the e k Um. You mentioned neck rolls a little
Speaker 1: bit earlier in this edition for you. Was it just
Speaker 1: like straight intimidation factor, No, it wasn't. I had a
Speaker 1: stinger issue. I used always get stingers and when I
Speaker 1: went to my Cairo practor and up telling me like,
Speaker 1: you're nex supposed to have like a curve, like a
Speaker 1: question mark. So my neck. The reason why I was
Speaker 1: getting a lot of stingers is because I was absorbing
Speaker 1: my neck with a little bit more straight and then
Speaker 1: have the spring. Well. I used to have to wear
Speaker 1: this brace twenty minutes a day just to correct the
Speaker 1: curve in my neck. And actually I advise a lot
Speaker 1: of fullbacks currently in the National Football League. A lot
Speaker 1: of guys call me hit me up in box. He Mike,
Speaker 1: I'm getting stingers. I'm getting this from my neck or whatever.
Speaker 1: I showed them the device I have, and a lot
Speaker 1: of them get it in the stingers go away. So
Speaker 1: it's interesting. Recently I've seen this happened. Actually, tell a
Speaker 1: rap I got to know a little bit of place
Speaker 1: for the rams now he went to Washington. I used
Speaker 1: to cover them, and I saw him post this on
Speaker 1: social media, and then I realized, like, this is becoming
Speaker 1: a thing. And it's not a neck roll of sorts.
Speaker 1: It's actually called the Q collar. It's a lot smaller,
Speaker 1: but it applies light pressure to the neck and the
Speaker 1: collar increases blood volume in the head, providing extra cushion
Speaker 1: for the brain during impacts. And I'm thinking to myself,
Speaker 1: I'm like looking at some of the descriptions, is that
Speaker 1: really say, well, the FDA actually approved this thing in
Speaker 1: a ton of players use it. Tony Pollard certainly comes
Speaker 1: to mind. Shaq Thompson. I mentioned Taylor app already. In addition,
Speaker 1: four NFL teams, along with eight D one teams, actually
Speaker 1: have mouth guards featuring sensors that gather data for analysis
Speaker 1: of the frequency and severity of a lot of the
Speaker 1: impacts not only during the games, but also during practices.
Speaker 1: That's actually part of the NFL sixty million dollar commitment
Speaker 1: to try to help promote health and safety for a
Speaker 1: lot of the players. Like I know, you're not surprised
Speaker 1: hearing about something that's ingenious. I was part of a
Speaker 1: group that was trying to develop a mouthpiece like that
Speaker 1: about five or six years ago. Just think about if
Speaker 1: a player knew exactly the content of his lava or
Speaker 1: whatever when he's healthy and he's fully hydrated, and then
Speaker 1: going through practice and knowing exactly how much water you
Speaker 1: need to drink, how many electrolights you need. I mean,
Speaker 1: what an advantage for an athlete. So Yeah, kudos for
Speaker 1: the National Football League into those college programs using the program.
Speaker 1: Anything else that you want to see it wise that
Speaker 1: might be helpful for you. Anything else I want to
Speaker 1: see equipment wise, because now it's like GPS, monitors at
Speaker 1: practice tracking, you know, sleep, all of that. Like I
Speaker 1: feel like heart rate, a lot of this stuff is
Speaker 1: already available. I don't know if you want to see
Speaker 1: anything taken to another level or not. It's tough. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you know the people in our sport, they've
Speaker 1: thought of everything. I think now it's just about improving
Speaker 1: the technology that we already have and making the technology
Speaker 1: so that it's not an all encompassing thing. Meaning you
Speaker 1: and are different. Yes you can have the same test
Speaker 1: on both of us, but understanding that we're different people
Speaker 1: than maybe you know, an answer for you may not
Speaker 1: always be the same answer for myself. Really fascinating to
Speaker 1: hear about a lot of this stuff with equipment. Really
Speaker 1: appreciate that guy that shot me a d M sparked
Speaker 1: this entire episode. I know, I promise because we keep
Speaker 1: getting some of these dms. You can hit me up
Speaker 1: at Mike Underscore m You can follow Mike rob and
Speaker 1: a real mic Rob because he's not gonna answer you
Speaker 1: at DMS. I will, I promise, UM, but we're going
Speaker 1: to continue. I'm telling you, guys, I get the d
Speaker 1: m S, screenshot it, I send it to our entire
Speaker 1: team and Robs on there. I usually fire off the emoji.
Speaker 1: If we don't get to it in our next mail
Speaker 1: bag edition, we're going to do exactly what we just did,
Speaker 1: which is take your question and make it a whole episode.
Speaker 1: Really appreciate you guys listening. Tell your friends about NFL
Speaker 1: explained