Speaker 1: Joined now by Sean merriman Lights Out podcast with the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio podcast network and Sean I thought coming
Speaker 1: into this season, maybe Brady plays this year, maybe he
Speaker 1: plays another year. After watching this season with the Tampa
Speaker 1: Bay Buccaneers, I'm like, this dude's gonna play untill he's
Speaker 1: fifty years old. And I know he didn't have a
Speaker 1: spectacular game, but when you look at the whole aspect
Speaker 1: to go on the road, when three games out of
Speaker 1: the wild card now get to play at home in
Speaker 1: two weeks, It's an unbelievable accomplishment by Tom Brady, isn't it.
Speaker 1: You know what he said, Uh, a couple of years
Speaker 1: ago he wanted to play until he was you know what,
Speaker 1: he's six years old. You know, I just thought he
Speaker 1: was just talking crazy. I really did. It didn't sound possible, right,
Speaker 1: I Mean, we've seen some guys playing to their early forties,
Speaker 1: you know, Drew Brees and Brett Father some of these guys.
Speaker 1: But as you see how Drew Brees finished up the
Speaker 1: season didn't play well with it with injurial age. Um,
Speaker 1: I really believe he can play to the least forty
Speaker 1: six years old, and any problem that can play well
Speaker 1: because of how he's playing now, he's not getting hit
Speaker 1: as much. Uh, you know, he's learned how now to
Speaker 1: move around in the pocket heat. I mean, he's moving
Speaker 1: better right now that he did five or six years ago.
Speaker 1: And that's just kind of crazy to say. And as
Speaker 1: long as they keep those pieces around him in Tampa,
Speaker 1: why not? I just you know, why not? Why not?
Speaker 1: Played for forty years old? Is he the great We
Speaker 1: talked about this earlier in the show. In your mind,
Speaker 1: I think the greatest quarterback of all time? There's no
Speaker 1: argument anymore, right, I mean that that that ship has sailed.
Speaker 1: Maybe in ten years, if Patrick Mahomes continues to play
Speaker 1: like he is, maybe we can end up fifteen years
Speaker 1: having a debate between those two, or maybe somebody else
Speaker 1: is gonna come up and start to have, uh a
Speaker 1: level of success that we don't anticipate otherwise. But is
Speaker 1: there any doubt now about him being the great quarterback
Speaker 1: of all time? And I think he's ascended to the
Speaker 1: point now where you can argue he's the greatest American
Speaker 1: sports team athlete of all time. And you know, it
Speaker 1: was funny because I've planned against him, and obviously I've
Speaker 1: always had my thing against the Patriots, right, and they
Speaker 1: sent this home by the many playoffs to stop suvol
Speaker 1: things like that. So I've always had my grapes there.
Speaker 1: But I also always believe Tom Brady's greatness was partly
Speaker 1: due to Bill Belichick and you know, having an owner
Speaker 1: in the organization and how they just put all the
Speaker 1: pieces to the puzzle every single year. I was wrong,
Speaker 1: You know I was wrong. Man. I just now saying
Speaker 1: what he's doing in another organization, another team, another conference,
Speaker 1: another setting and older. Uh, there's not even a doubt,
Speaker 1: not even a one percent chance that he's the goal.
Speaker 1: But I'll take it a step further. I don't think
Speaker 1: there's anybody even close. Like you started naming your top
Speaker 1: three quarterbacks of all time, I don't even put anybody
Speaker 1: in a category with him, and how he's performing and
Speaker 1: how he's playing. Uh, you know, if he does go
Speaker 1: and win a ring, and he still has a chance
Speaker 1: to go into the next one or two years to
Speaker 1: win another one, we will never and you know I
Speaker 1: hate to say never, because never is the words had
Speaker 1: always come back and bite you in the ass a
Speaker 1: little bit, right, But we will never see another performance
Speaker 1: another quarterback like tom Brady again in this lifetime. I
Speaker 1: agree with you, And to kind of put into context
Speaker 1: how long he has been doing this. I saw stat
Speaker 1: and I was like, this is amazing. Josh Allen and
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes on the other side in the a f
Speaker 1: C Championship game, they were in kindergarten when Tom Brady
Speaker 1: played in his first Super Bowl. I mean, if that
Speaker 1: doesn't blow your mind out there for everybody who is
Speaker 1: listening to us right now, kindergarten. He's been in the Pros,
Speaker 1: he was in the Super Bowl since they were in kindergarten.
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. Well, you know a lot of these guys
Speaker 1: still got on diapers playing against him. I mean, you
Speaker 1: know that that's the way he's making people look. And
Speaker 1: you know, he also went against another quarterback who we
Speaker 1: also look at as great as one of the greatest.
Speaker 1: You know, he went against the guys who in ten
Speaker 1: years from now or fifteen years will be still calling
Speaker 1: him one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game,
Speaker 1: in Aaron Rodgers. So you know, with that being said,
Speaker 1: man in the way he's winning and his level, uh
Speaker 1: and in intensity, I mean at some point in time,
Speaker 1: right and you know I watched you watching the economic
Speaker 1: Gregor fight the other night. I always fell like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you gotta you gotta enough money, you got your family,
Speaker 1: Your attitude and your demeanor starts to change when you
Speaker 1: reach a plateau in your life. I mean, it happens
Speaker 1: to the best of everybody. Your mentality change is just
Speaker 1: a little bit. And nothing changed about Tom. You know,
Speaker 1: it's not the same. It's not the money, it's not
Speaker 1: the all the rings, the winning. Do you still see
Speaker 1: then entity and the passion to one out there go
Speaker 1: and dominate that you've seen ten of fifteen years ago?
Speaker 1: And that that to me, and you know, kind of
Speaker 1: being a former athlete, you know, playing ball in my
Speaker 1: whole entire life, you get to a point where like, okay,
Speaker 1: well you did this, you did that, you did that.
Speaker 1: Your attitude, mentality changes over the course of time. And
Speaker 1: to see him still now compete and want to win
Speaker 1: as bad as he did ten of fifteen years ago
Speaker 1: is amazing. Man. I don't think I don't think we've
Speaker 1: ever seen anything like that. All right, let's go to
Speaker 1: the other side. Aaron Rodgers in the postgame press conference,
Speaker 1: him talking about yesterday's loss. You could just hear it
Speaker 1: in his voice, how much this is gonna weigh on him,
Speaker 1: and how incredibly difficult it is going to be. When
Speaker 1: you think you're on a team that's good enough to
Speaker 1: win a championship and it doesn't happen. What does that
Speaker 1: feel like? Uh, in the NFL, what does that feeling like?
Speaker 1: Right after the game you're dressing or in the shower,
Speaker 1: you talk to the media. I mean, I imagine you
Speaker 1: feel a little bit like you're in a fog because
Speaker 1: to your point, yes, you can be successful, you can
Speaker 1: be making a lot of money, all those things, but
Speaker 1: the competitor in you is so desperate to win that
Speaker 1: I imagine it is just I mean, I think Aaron
Speaker 1: Rodgers described it as a gut punch to get to
Speaker 1: play at home. You know, he fully expected to win
Speaker 1: that game. He prepared to win that game. He was
Speaker 1: expecting to be getting ready to go down to Tampa
Speaker 1: and try to win a Super Bowl. And when you're younger,
Speaker 1: I imagine you lose a game, you think, oh, I'll
Speaker 1: be back there again. I'm sure for Aaron Rodgers, he's
Speaker 1: sitting around right now thinking this may never happen for
Speaker 1: me again. You know, I may never get to another
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, just like Brett Farve did. It's been a decade.
Speaker 1: He's had opportunities to get back, he hasn't done it.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that he'll have another one. What do
Speaker 1: you think he felt like, you know, a gun a
Speaker 1: gut punch is a good word to describe it. But
Speaker 1: you know, when you lose those type of games. He
Speaker 1: started to look back at the off season programs, training camps,
Speaker 1: the times that you had to go out there in
Speaker 1: practice and you just didn't feel like it because something
Speaker 1: was hurting, or your ankle was swollen, or you had
Speaker 1: a you know, a tight lower back, or your hand
Speaker 1: strings and knees were bugging you, and you forced yourself
Speaker 1: to go out there. You start looking at every single
Speaker 1: thing over the course of the year that took you
Speaker 1: to get there, and that failure is is right as
Speaker 1: his gut punch and his heart has to be in
Speaker 1: his socks right now, just and walking around knowing that,
Speaker 1: uh that they may not have a chance to get
Speaker 1: back there. That's one of the things that I always
Speaker 1: said about my career. And also, you know, playing with
Speaker 1: guys like the Danny and Thomas and the Philip Rivers,
Speaker 1: and we had an all star squad and we were
Speaker 1: so good at a young gamee that we always felt
Speaker 1: that we had an opportunity to get back there. And
Speaker 1: then you start to realize that you have this short
Speaker 1: run of two to four years or somewhere in between
Speaker 1: there where your team could be really good, and you
Speaker 1: don't know if that team is ever gonna be a
Speaker 1: them would like that again, and I think Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: alluded to that. He said exactly, he doesn't know who
Speaker 1: who's gonna be here. God's got contract disputes, Uh, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe get cut new coaching staffs or you know, just
Speaker 1: new personnel is gonna be there, and you don't know
Speaker 1: that those guys are still gonna be around. And I
Speaker 1: think also the second part of that is I and
Speaker 1: I go back to saying this that they brought in
Speaker 1: another quarterback and whether that's for love to get on
Speaker 1: the field right now or two years from now, whatever
Speaker 1: that situation being, that had to that had to bother
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers. It had to and for him to go
Speaker 1: out and have one of the best seasons ever and
Speaker 1: not make it, well, you started to look back at, well,
Speaker 1: maybe you could have got us a first round defensive back.
Speaker 1: I mean, kid Sting was getting mosted. They kept taking
Speaker 1: on him the whole entire time. So maybe you go
Speaker 1: out and draft a cornerback or or slot, you know,
Speaker 1: something that gives him some extra help. And they didn't
Speaker 1: do that because that's what they needed this game. They
Speaker 1: king single handedly, uh, you know, really killed these guys
Speaker 1: in multiple different ways. And if you look back at
Speaker 1: the opportunity to go get a big name defensive back
Speaker 1: or a big namesake is something that will go out
Speaker 1: and help you to go and win a championship. That's
Speaker 1: what really hurts That hurts you at the end of
Speaker 1: the day more than anything else when you see the uh,
Speaker 1: it's it's kind of fascinating the endgame scenario because a
Speaker 1: lot of people will get to this in a sect,
Speaker 1: the decision to kick the field goal instead of go
Speaker 1: forward on fourth down, but the end of the first
Speaker 1: half in that scenario, as a defensive player, I don't
Speaker 1: know what exactly the play call was, but you're a
Speaker 1: smart defensive player, and so much of any smart athlete
Speaker 1: is playing scenarios and situations. It seems to me, I mean,
Speaker 1: it looked almost like Greg Williams at the end of
Speaker 1: the game against against I guess it was the Raiders.
Speaker 1: And when he was got fired by the Jets, why
Speaker 1: in the world would you be in that deep And
Speaker 1: so I went back and watched it. They were playing. Man,
Speaker 1: it looked like on both of the wide sides of
Speaker 1: the field, right um, And I mean whether or not
Speaker 1: you should ever let that guy behind you, why would
Speaker 1: you ever be in that perspective? I believe there were
Speaker 1: six seconds left and the and the Bucks had no
Speaker 1: time outs. So if you do anything basically other than
Speaker 1: if you just tackle him on the field, any player
Speaker 1: the halfs out, you give up no more points. To me,
Speaker 1: that was where the game was lost for the Packers
Speaker 1: in many ways. Yeah, no doubt about it. And that's
Speaker 1: that starts from the top, the starting to coach, and
Speaker 1: you can't put your players in bad situations like that.
Speaker 1: But also, I'll go back to king uh anything And
Speaker 1: this is football one oh one. This is not you
Speaker 1: know just because I played the National Football League, you
Speaker 1: know this is this is high school level UH scenario situations.
Speaker 1: When when is that much time in the clock, you're
Speaker 1: going into the half, you keep everything in front of you, period,
Speaker 1: You don't you don't let anything behind you. Uh, you
Speaker 1: don't care if you get path, but you cannot let
Speaker 1: it go for Eardie. Plus you get a guy in
Speaker 1: the ground, push him by the bound live to find
Speaker 1: another day. So you go back and you're gonna sit there.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure Aaron Rodger's gonna watch the film tonight
Speaker 1: on the on the plane. I'm I'm sorrying on a
Speaker 1: wherever he how how over he's getting home. He's gonna
Speaker 1: watch that til to night. He's not gonna wait to tomorrow.
Speaker 1: And he's gonna play that single play over and over
Speaker 1: and over, those two or three mistakes that happened in
Speaker 1: that game that change the course of them winning that
Speaker 1: football game. And is when he's right, it's a real
Speaker 1: gut punch because they had that game. I don't think Tampa.
Speaker 1: You know, Tampa makes some key plays and and I
Speaker 1: think tom played extremely well, but it was really two
Speaker 1: or three plays in that whole game that decided the outcome.
Speaker 1: It really is And for the the Aaron Rodgers of
Speaker 1: the world, do you think that he will be sitting
Speaker 1: back eventually when he has time to contemplate everything, knowing
Speaker 1: that Jordan's loves there on the sideline that they drafted
Speaker 1: at first rounder. He said, all the right things is
Speaker 1: during the course of this season. But would it surprise
Speaker 1: you if he decided that he wants to go elsewhere
Speaker 1: and finish his career somewhere else because he can look
Speaker 1: at a guy like Tom Brady and say, hey, I
Speaker 1: think I've got three or four more years, Right, if
Speaker 1: I had the ability like Brady did. I know he's
Speaker 1: not a free agent, but to survey the field and
Speaker 1: see all of the possibilities. Matthew Stafford's gonna do it.
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson's gonna do it. I mean, there are some
Speaker 1: really big time, playmaking quarterbacks who could be interested in
Speaker 1: moving on. How do you see this playing out? Well,
Speaker 1: I think we're seeing more of this than we ever
Speaker 1: have in the National Football League, Right, Guys forcing their
Speaker 1: way out and letting it be known. Hey, I want
Speaker 1: to be on the move. It's it's the closest thing
Speaker 1: that the n f NBA has been for years, right. Uh.
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson was public about it. Um, it's you know,
Speaker 1: even though Aaron Rodgers didn't say it, it's short hells,
Speaker 1: sounded like he was. He was public about it. Um
Speaker 1: and whether or not he is uh you know, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, making a vocal or let it be known
Speaker 1: that uh be loved. Being drafted was a problem. It was,
Speaker 1: And I can tell you that being a former player
Speaker 1: got drafted in your position, it's a problem because that's
Speaker 1: the team that's not saying, hey, we need depth disposition.
Speaker 1: It's not a wide receiver of quarnerback in case somebody
Speaker 1: gets hurt. You drafted the guy early on. It means
Speaker 1: you want him to come and take your job. And
Speaker 1: now you got a coach that comes in and kick
Speaker 1: the field goal or uh when he shouldn't right and
Speaker 1: try to put both points on the board, and you
Speaker 1: haven't calling bad defenses in in different situations. You know,
Speaker 1: now you're just wasting one of the big greatest quarterbacks
Speaker 1: of all time. Now you're just wasting his years by
Speaker 1: not giving him just that answer push helped him out.
Speaker 1: This guy's had an amazing year. He's done so much
Speaker 1: for that organization, and you didn't do much for him
Speaker 1: and put him in situations to win. So, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm curious to see what's gonna happen. But as short
Speaker 1: as hells sounded to me that he wanted. He wanted
Speaker 1: his way out. What do you think about the decision
Speaker 1: to kick the field goal late in that Packers game
Speaker 1: against the Bucks? Uh fourth down from the eight yard line,
Speaker 1: kick the field goal your hope and to get the
Speaker 1: ball back? I always say, and I said earlier in
Speaker 1: this show, as a general rule, if the opposing team
Speaker 1: is excited about the choice that you have made, then
Speaker 1: you probably shouldn't do it. And I know there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people out there who are who are
Speaker 1: fans of the Tampa by Buccaneers probably listening to me
Speaker 1: right now. Like as soon as they took Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 1: off the field and said, yeah, we want to make
Speaker 1: it a five point game, they were ecstatic. What would
Speaker 1: you have thought from a player perspective? And I know
Speaker 1: you can talk about analytics and everything else, but one
Speaker 1: analytical thing I don't want to do is give Tom
Speaker 1: Brady the ball over the last twenty years with a
Speaker 1: chance to get a first down or two, and never
Speaker 1: give my guy a chance to get the ball back.
Speaker 1: What would you be thinking on the field and what
Speaker 1: would you have thought after the game when you had
Speaker 1: more time to think about it. You know, Clay, I've
Speaker 1: been on the old out today, right, give us tom
Speaker 1: Brady two minutes with the ball back in his hand
Speaker 1: and we're up, right, And so if we're down, we
Speaker 1: don't have we don't have a chance because you're not
Speaker 1: getting the ball back from Tom Brady with you two
Speaker 1: minutes left, you not um And you know, if you're
Speaker 1: in the team just kind of scratching your head trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what in the hell you're thinking. Then
Speaker 1: I understand that coaching is not easy, right. I mean,
Speaker 1: you got thirty seconds to make a play calls in
Speaker 1: certain situations scenario. But we're we're going back to football
Speaker 1: one on one. You got the greatest quarterback of all
Speaker 1: time on the opposed side of you. The chances are
Speaker 1: that he's gonna do something really good with the football.
Speaker 1: And the second part of it is and uh, I
Speaker 1: think we heard in the in the press conference with
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers saying that wasn't my decision, That wasn't my decision.
Speaker 1: He didn't he didn't defend the coach, He didn't defend
Speaker 1: that call. He said that I was not a part
Speaker 1: of that decision. And I think that you know Aaron Rodgers,
Speaker 1: he makes you know, he has like this dry comedy
Speaker 1: thing about him, Right, he has this thing where he
Speaker 1: talks and he kind of subliminally say certain things and
Speaker 1: it's funny and you can interpret it certain ways. But
Speaker 1: one thing that he is is he's in front, and
Speaker 1: he's honest. He speaks things when they comes when they
Speaker 1: come up. And when he said that that he wasn't
Speaker 1: a part of that decision, meaning that, hey, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have called this, I wouldn't have this, this was against
Speaker 1: my will and wouldn't have done this. I don't feel
Speaker 1: good about this. So that just you know, that just
Speaker 1: lets me know that there's some problems there. And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying of problem with him and the coach or
Speaker 1: the organization, but there's something going on there, and I
Speaker 1: really expect Aaron Rodgers to somehow, some way be on
Speaker 1: the move after this year. All right, So looking ahead, now,
Speaker 1: we've got two weeks to talk about it, thirteen days,
Speaker 1: whatever the heck it is. Kansas City Chiefs Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Speaker 1: How do you assess? And I'm sure we'll talk to
Speaker 1: you again before this matchup actually happens, but early read
Speaker 1: from you. First question, is it impactful to be able
Speaker 1: to play from home. How much of an advantage. We've
Speaker 1: never seen this happen in the Super Bowl before the
Speaker 1: Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They're already back down in Tampa. They
Speaker 1: know they have to go nowhere. They get to work
Speaker 1: out exact same routine as normal. They're literally next door
Speaker 1: practicing to the football field. How much can that actually
Speaker 1: be an advantage in your mind to be able to
Speaker 1: play the Super Bowl at home? Well, it's a great advantage.
Speaker 1: But you know, those guys are gonna have to be
Speaker 1: streamly discipline, right because when you're playing at home, Uh,
Speaker 1: that means you're gonna be there. You know, the week's
Speaker 1: leading up to it. Uh, you got family and friends
Speaker 1: and everybody trying to be a part of what you're doing,
Speaker 1: and so you really have to be disciplined. I think
Speaker 1: that with Tom Brady being there, uh, he's really gonna
Speaker 1: be the enforcer, right, I mean, you know, grabbing guys up.
Speaker 1: You can't go out too late, you know, you know, curfew.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's there's gonna have to be something in
Speaker 1: place because there's a ton of distractions, uh leading up
Speaker 1: to those weeks and everything. I mean, look a bit
Speaker 1: of this this is the busiest week of some of
Speaker 1: those guys lives and everybody's gonna be pulling that you interviews,
Speaker 1: I wanted you to come out to this place, you know,
Speaker 1: and and so much gonna be involved. So it's really
Speaker 1: how discipline those guys can be. And I'm not talking
Speaker 1: about the h I don't want to get to the
Speaker 1: fan aspect and playing in front of your home crowd,
Speaker 1: all those things are great, But I'm talking about leading
Speaker 1: up to the game. UH, playing in your city. I
Speaker 1: can only imagine the type of distractions that's gonna happen
Speaker 1: and things that they have to deal with leading up
Speaker 1: to the game. So whoever the leaders are, and I
Speaker 1: want to point to Tom Brady because I think that
Speaker 1: we heard a lot after after they won at the
Speaker 1: press conference when they won the field and UH coach
Speaker 1: Arean saying, look, Tom Brady came here with attitude and
Speaker 1: changed his culture. You know, he's been a leader and
Speaker 1: a vocal leader, and he's gonna have to beat that
Speaker 1: UH leading up to this game in order to keep
Speaker 1: those guys on track. You said it, I've said it.
Speaker 1: There are one of the great debates for sports for
Speaker 1: the last twenty years has been who's more responsible for
Speaker 1: the New England Patriot dynasty, Tom Brady or Bill Belichick.
Speaker 1: I didn't think there was any way that in this
Speaker 1: year we would find an answer to that question. I'm
Speaker 1: sure even for normal fans, this was a debate I
Speaker 1: bet among NFL players sometimes you guys would get together
Speaker 1: and debate that as well. It's kind of a foregone conclusion, now,
Speaker 1: isn't it. With Brady going to the Bucks winning three
Speaker 1: road games with them in year one, and it's not
Speaker 1: like he went to a team with some incredible culture
Speaker 1: of winning in the NFC, you know that had been
Speaker 1: there year after year after year. He almost feels like
Speaker 1: he's single handedly willed them there. You've never seen this
Speaker 1: in the NFL. You've never seen one guy go to
Speaker 1: an organization and slip the script as he did. We've
Speaker 1: never seen it. We've seen an NBA. You know, Lebron
Speaker 1: goes to a team you know they're gonna win a
Speaker 1: lot of games. You know you're gonna have James Hardens
Speaker 1: somewhere's gonna win. Oh, Katie, someone goes where they're gonna
Speaker 1: win a lot of games. We've never seen in the
Speaker 1: NFL one guy goes for organization and flip everything they've done.
Speaker 1: Uh And like I said, I I hate seeing and
Speaker 1: use the worst never because those are extreme words. Uh well,
Speaker 1: I just don't think we'll never see anything like it.
Speaker 1: We just won't. I mean Tom Brady for for years
Speaker 1: and playing against him, I've always worried about not only
Speaker 1: playing Tom Brady, but going they're playing and coaching from
Speaker 1: the mind of Bill Belichick and him, you know, being
Speaker 1: able to switch uh you know, autiboy games and and
Speaker 1: switch up. You know some of the things they're don't
Speaker 1: make an endgame adjustments, those all coming from Bill Belichick.
Speaker 1: What we're seeing now is that Tom he was the
Speaker 1: key to their success and because he was there for
Speaker 1: so long a winning Bill Belichick took a lot of
Speaker 1: their credit for. I mean, they didn't happen this year.
Speaker 1: Look what's happening to the team. Tom Brady's gone, He's
Speaker 1: gone to the organization. Look what he's done there. So
Speaker 1: if you look at it across the board, man, I
Speaker 1: just you know, they call him to go. It is
Speaker 1: really Ah, it's not enough, right because you know, we
Speaker 1: got a lot of the greatest of all times and thinks.
Speaker 1: But now you gotta you gotta make up I don't
Speaker 1: know what that word is for Tom at this point,
Speaker 1: going to you know, conference, going to another team, to
Speaker 1: the coach of the organization and winning just as he
Speaker 1: did for twenty years somewhere else. Uh. We gotta see
Speaker 1: you got a new word for Tom. I don't know
Speaker 1: what it is yet, but we could spit out. We're
Speaker 1: talking to Sean Merriman Lights Out podcast. Last question for you,
Speaker 1: and it's not football. I watched Connor McGregor fight on UH.
Speaker 1: And I know you're a big UFC guy as well,
Speaker 1: and I know a lot of our listeners are what
Speaker 1: did you see from the McGregor fight. How much, if
Speaker 1: anything does he have left in UFC in your mind? Well,
Speaker 1: you know what, Clay watching that um watching that fight? Uh,
Speaker 1: And and kind of being around Connor's camping and knowing
Speaker 1: where he trained and know his trainer and team and
Speaker 1: staff and everybody's around him. He trained hard to heal.
Speaker 1: He looked great walking into the fighter. Wasn't a lack
Speaker 1: of training. But I can tell you right now, when
Speaker 1: you get kicked that much in your leg, especially in
Speaker 1: your calf and your front leg, you can't put that
Speaker 1: thing down because it's when it's describe exactly what it
Speaker 1: feels like. It feels like your leg is swelling up
Speaker 1: with blood and you put it in the ground, but
Speaker 1: it's not giving you anything back, almost like you're a
Speaker 1: peg leg. And so once I've seen that, he got
Speaker 1: a couple of a nice calf kicks in there, and
Speaker 1: I've been there. I've got my ass kicks a few times.
Speaker 1: You got my legs kicked. You just cannot put that
Speaker 1: leg in the ground anymore. You're almost destined to sit
Speaker 1: down and eat punches. There's nothing you can really do.
Speaker 1: I thought that, you know, Dustin putting put together a
Speaker 1: hell of a game plan to fight playing against him. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, and you credit he got with the first
Speaker 1: time around. He came back with a different mentality. He
Speaker 1: got much better than a fighter. He had more time
Speaker 1: in the octagon, and he was ready to go. I've
Speaker 1: got no doubt on my mind that Connor will be
Speaker 1: back uh with a big splash, and he'll be back
Speaker 1: on top. And there might take him a year or
Speaker 1: so to do it, um, but he's not done by
Speaker 1: a long shot. Shawn Merriman, I appreciate you, my man.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you maybe next week. A little bit
Speaker 1: of Super Bowl preview, but in the meantime enjoy things
Speaker 1: you got it You too That Shawn Merriman Lights Out
Speaker 1: podcast with the I Heart Podcast Network