WEBVTT - Kurt Warner 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.280 That was the most gratifying part was all of this 0:00:03.360 --> 0:00:07.000 stuff that I believed about myself year after year after year, 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:10.920 that I wasn't just wasting time deceiving myself, going oh, 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:13.240 you you're better than you think you are. That when 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.520 you are able to have that success, you're like, Okay, 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:19.239 all this stuff I believed, all this stuff I've been 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:21.279 working for, all this stuff I've been fighting for, you know, 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.959 working through some of those tough moments. It was, you know, 0:00:25.040 --> 0:00:28.400 brought to fruition because what you really believed about yourself 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:31.080 was true. 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:34.559 Hi. 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:36.880 I'm Kurt Warner and I went from a grocery store 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:37.920 to the Hall of Fame. 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:48.120 Hi everybody, and welcome back to Off the Beat. It's 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:52.040 me your host, Brian Baumgartner, with a little bit of 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:56.720 a summer cold. You can probably hear it in my voice, 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:02.200 but I'm not cold. On today's Get Nailed It Transition, 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:07.759 we got a legend on the podcast today. NFL Hall 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:11.400 of Famer Kurt Warner is my guest, and we are 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:17.080 talking football. Football is back, baby. If you know football, 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:21.280 you know Kurt well. He has a Cinderella story. He 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:25.319 played in college, only started for one year for the 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:30.640 Northern Iowa Panthers before going to the draft. He wasn't drafted, 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:34.680 He wasn't put on any roster really for four years. Instead, 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:39.640 he played for the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena Football League. 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:44.240 He played in Europe for NFL Europe and then finally 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:48.000 back for the Rams, where he won a Super Bowl, 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:53.840 appeared in three and is now an NFL Hall of Famer. 0:01:54.600 --> 0:01:57.640 He's now passing the great sport of football along to 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:01.640 new generations. He's a high school coach in Arizona, but 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:07.560 he's also on the NFL network every Sunday morning and 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:11.120 throughout the week, giving his insight on the game to 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:14.880 fans all around the world. I bet he has a 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:19.200 few things to teach us too. Let's see, shall we. 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:28.880 Here he is Kurt Warner. Bubble and squeak. I love it, 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:33.920 Bubble and squeak, Bubble and squeak. 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:38.400 I could get every mole lift over from the nine before. 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.360 What's up, Kurt? Hey, Brian? How are you? I'm great? 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:53.280 How are you? I'm doing really well? 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:55.600 Gotta say, a lot of fans in the in the 0:02:55.600 --> 0:02:58.959 household of yours, so they were pumped when they saw 0:02:59.000 --> 0:03:00.240 this on the calendar. 0:02:59.880 --> 0:03:01.040 That I was jumping on with you. 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:05.440 Oh that's just the Warners love you well, that is 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:09.480 that's very nice. Unfortunately, I'm dealing with a little bit 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.320 of a summer cold, so if you hear a little 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:14.920 change in my voice. But I'm feeling fit as a 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:17.480 fiddle and ready for NFL to start. 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:18.200 Uh right? 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:19.520 Who is who is your team? 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:24.440 Who do you follow? You know, that's a complicated question, Kurt, 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:27.280 But I I am a fan of the Green Bay 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:30.080 Packers for sure, and I know you spent a little 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.040 bit of time with them. 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:34.040 A second a second, not long. 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.120 A second, but I mean you were there. It's such 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:42.600 an incredible time. Holgrom is the coach, Andy Reid is there, 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:46.280 John Gruden is the wide receivers coach, got Edgar Bennett. 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:51.560 Reggie Whitecci was the quarterback, Mary Ucci was. You were 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.000 in a room with him and Farv and Brunell and 0:03:55.120 --> 0:03:55.880 Ty Detmer. 0:03:56.640 --> 0:04:00.280 Reggie White was there. Yeah, you know, I mean I'm 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:01.160 in Yeah. 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:03.480 I mean for that period of time, did you do 0:04:03.520 --> 0:04:05.920 you feel like you you learned something from those guys? 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:08.640 Yeah, I mean I think I learned a little bit, 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.400 but I think it was more about, you know, feeling 0:04:11.520 --> 0:04:14.080 like you belonged, you know, because a guy that played 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:16.240 one year in college, but you, like you said, I'm 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:18.960 up against Brett Favre and Mark and Tie, all these 0:04:19.000 --> 0:04:23.479 really good college and eventually pro quarterbacks, and you know, 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:25.600 so you kind of stack yourself up every day. And 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:27.800 you know, when I went there, it was like, yeah, 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:30.479 I think I can play. But then when you throw 0:04:30.520 --> 0:04:33.280 against Brett Favre every day and then you leave, you go, hey, 0:04:33.320 --> 0:04:35.680 I can do this. You know, I'm talented enough to 0:04:35.800 --> 0:04:37.960 do this. You know, so it left me with a 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.560 little more confidence even though I got cut then maybe 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:42.840 I had going in interesting. 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.359 Well, your confidence is something that I really wanted to 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:48.200 focus on today and then of course we'll talk about 0:04:48.200 --> 0:04:53.120 this year. But in preparing to talk to you today, 0:04:53.440 --> 0:04:56.440 and I saw a bunch of interviews that you did, 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:01.520 and you talked multiple times about the this strong belief 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:04.760 and confidence that you had in yourself from an early 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:08.599 age and I mean early like seven, seven or eight 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:13.320 years old, you felt like like you could do this. 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.359 What do you think that was? Was that something in 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:20.160 your in your upbringing, was it something in I don't know, 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:24.600 your Iowa roots or or something. What do you think 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:25.040 it was? 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:27.200 You know, I think it was a couple of things. 0:05:27.200 --> 0:05:29.320 I mean, I think first and foremost, I was I 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.159 was good athletically, and so it was easy for me 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:34.880 to recognize that at an early stage, no matter what 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:37.799 sport I was playing, like, hey, you know, I'm better 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.839 than most of the kids. And then I think the 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:43.359 second thing that that adds so much to your confidence 0:05:43.440 --> 0:05:47.880 is how people around you respond when you do something. 0:05:47.960 --> 0:05:50.440 So it doesn't really matter what you do. You know, 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:53.480 you're performing in front of your family, you know, doing 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:56.680 some dance routine, or you're you're out, you know, doing 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.359 a sport, or you're in a play, whatever that may be. 0:05:59.400 --> 0:06:01.680 You're in an orchan so you're in a band. How 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:04.720 people respond to you, I think does a lot for 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:07.880 your confidence. And so the one thing that I realized 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:11.000 very early on was I got a lot of people 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:15.400 that responded to how I played athletically, So feeling like 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.880 I was good anyways and then getting that response from people, 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:22.560 I think those two things together made me very very 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.440 confident whenever I stepped on a field of any sort. 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.000 And you know, it's funny. I could share a story 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:31.240 about school, so like I've got one brother, and my 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:33.680 brother was you know, quote unquote the smart one, right, 0:06:33.720 --> 0:06:35.520 he was the one that did well in school, and 0:06:35.560 --> 0:06:38.599 he's the one that got the accolades for being smart 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.200 in school. And so I was the athletic one, and 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:45.080 nobody had ever really told me that I could be 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:48.400 the smart one too, and so I gravitated to sports. 0:06:48.480 --> 0:06:51.320 And I do remember, like it was in eighth grade 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.880 and I had a teacher, Missus Wagner, that actually told me, hey, 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:57.520 you can be the smart one as well. But it 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.800 never really crossed my mind because that was my brother's thing. 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:02.360 This was my thing. 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.480 Didn't really get the accolades for that or the attention 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:08.279 for that, but it was, you know, so amazing. When 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.080 she told me that that, I started to look at 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:13.680 myself a little differently. And so I think, whether it 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:15.840 was sports or anything else in life, so much of 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.880 that confidence comes from what those people around you tell 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:22.120 you about whatever it is that you're doing at a 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:22.920 particular time. 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:24.600 Was it always football for you? 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:27.760 It wasn't always football. Actually basketball was my first love. 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.120 Basketball was much more fun to practice. 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:33.160 You know, football is a tough thing to practice because 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:36.240 you need more guys and you know, as a quarterback, 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:38.800 it's tiring. To just drop back over and over again, 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:41.840 especially when you don't get a chance to compete. In basketball, 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.760 you can get one other guy and compete. And so 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:47.960 basketball was my first love. I played baseball, I played football, 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.120 but football was kind of right behind that, you know. 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:53.400 Ironically enough, I was a wide receiver until I went 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.000 to high school, and so more athletic than I would 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.680 be later in life, and really felt like that was 0:07:58.760 --> 0:08:02.160 my calling. So when I got changed to quarterback, it 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:05.640 wasn't quite my thing early on, and so I think 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:08.680 that's why basketball had kind of taken the forefront. But 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.320 eventually you realize that you're six ' two, you can't 0:08:11.400 --> 0:08:14.600 jump very well, you're not the most athletic, probably a 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:18.680 better chance playing quarterback than playing shooting guard, you know, 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.200 in college or the NBA, and so naturally life took 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:23.000 me in that direction. 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:27.320 Well listen, I mean, you're setting up my questions perfectly 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:32.120 here talking about practice not being fun. I'm sure that 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:36.320 this would be canceled now I read. I can't believe this. Yeah, 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:40.200 that there was a drill that you had called kill 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:42.719 Kurt in football practice. 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:45.840 Yeah, So you know, so, as I mentioned, I started 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:48.200 as a wide receiver. So when they moved me to 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.000 quarterback as a freshman in high school. Yeah, I didn't 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:54.400 want to play quarterback, but my natural instinct was to 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:57.440 avoid being hit, Like nobody wants to stand back there 0:08:57.440 --> 0:08:59.000 and just wait for people to hit them and then 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.720 throw the ball to somebody else to score. So my 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:04.920 natural inkling, you know, having been you know, on the 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:06.839 outside with the ball in my hands and trying to 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:09.720 make people miss, was I just would look around and go, okay, 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.600 where's the pass rush coming from. Okay, just take off 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:14.920 and run. And the coach was like, no, no, that's 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:17.720 that's not your job anymore. You got to stand in 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:18.920 there and you throw us to throw it to the 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.880 other guys. And so, you know, that was kind of 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.200 the nature of how I started playing quarterback, was I 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:26.560 just wanted to get outside and run and make plays 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.520 and be athletic. And so my coach said, all right, 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.079 we're going to create this drill, and you're right. They 0:09:32.080 --> 0:09:34.080 called it the kilk Kirk drill. So it was the 0:09:34.160 --> 0:09:37.760 drill that everybody volunteered to play. All my buddies were like, oh, 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:40.559 I'll play defense, you know, even if I don't normally. 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:42.480 If I get a chance to hit Kirk, because I 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:44.640 was just a sitting duck. It was you could drop 0:09:44.679 --> 0:09:47.400 back in the pocket and you could negotiate the rush 0:09:47.400 --> 0:09:49.880 in the pocket, but you could not leave the pocket. 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.520 So it was either negotiate the rush, get hit, or 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:57.280 somehow deliver the ball down the field. And so I 0:09:57.320 --> 0:09:59.440 hated the drill, didn't want to do the drill. We 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.320 did it over and over it again. But it's ironic 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.120 that when I started playing, it was my greatest weakness. 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.520 My greatest weakness was standing in and delivering and keeping 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:11.240 my eyes down the field. And it's ironic that, you know, 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:13.679 if you ask people that played with me or watched 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:16.840 me play throughout my NFL career, they may say that 0:10:16.920 --> 0:10:21.480 my greatest strength became my ability to be oblivious to 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:23.960 the rush, to stand in the pocket, to wait till 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:27.000 the last second, and deliver down the field. And so 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:29.880 that drill that I hated and didn't want any part 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.920 of would ultimately become something that would define who I 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.400 was as a football player throughout the rest of my 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:38.920 life and through my Hall of Fame career. And so 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:42.480 I'm grateful that I learned that skill early on. But 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:44.680 I think you're one hundred percent right, bright. I don't 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:46.400 think they would allow that now, you know, it would 0:10:46.400 --> 0:10:49.839 not allow one player to be out there just getting 0:10:49.840 --> 0:10:53.880 to hit over and over and over again. So luckily 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:57.320 I didn't get hurt. Luckily it taught me some things 0:10:57.320 --> 0:10:58.600 that would be very useful for me. 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.200 Well, it's very interesting that you say that too, because 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.920 I think, you know, I think about you, I think 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:11.240 about Aaron Rodgers, I think about Russell Wilson, and it 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.840 feels like, well, and I guess this is a question too, 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:19.640 the ability to feel the pressure. I mean you people 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:22.200 talk about that all the time, right, like, feel the pressure, 0:11:22.240 --> 0:11:25.920 but you've got a helmet on. You can't see behind 0:11:26.040 --> 0:11:28.520 you or to the left or to the right of 0:11:28.559 --> 0:11:33.160 you at times, right like, so, do you it feels 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:37.200 like it's an it's sort of an innate instinct. Do 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:40.240 you do you feel like it's taught? Like, do you 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:42.320 feel like you learned that? You know? 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:44.320 I think that's one of those hard things to know 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:46.440 for sure. You know, there's certain things that we have 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.360 that you go, Okay, is that more innate or was 0:11:49.360 --> 0:11:52.959 it a combination of being anate and also learning? And 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:55.960 so when I would work out in the off season, 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:58.680 one of the things that I would do more often 0:11:58.720 --> 0:12:01.520 than anything else is I would play other sports, and 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:03.800 I would play other sports because I always felt like 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.040 it could teach me kind of spatial awareness. That's right, 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.880 thing I'm looking here, but I can feel where bodies 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:11.880 are in different places. 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:13.560 Basketball was a great way to do this. 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:15.880 You know, keep your eye on this guy, but you're 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:18.640 you're feeling somebody coming with a pick, and you're feeling 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:19.600 bodies around you. 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:21.280 And and I think football is. 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:24.199 Very similar is that you have that singular focus of hey, 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:25.199 I got to read the defense. 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.199 My eyes have to be down the field, but having. 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.160 That spatial awareness to be able to you know, as 0:12:31.160 --> 0:12:34.720 we say, feel the pressure, kind of feel bodies you 0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:36.960 know that are around you, and then to be able 0:12:37.000 --> 0:12:40.760 to manipulate that or reset your feed or escape the pocket. 0:12:41.840 --> 0:12:45.160 I think it is, you know, definitely something that you 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:47.720 know through all of that stuff that I learned to 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.000 some degree. Maybe there was some innate parts of it. 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:54.320 But it's funny that every year when the season was 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:56.320 over and I would come into the next year, that 0:12:56.480 --> 0:12:59.640 was the one thing that I always worried about. I 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:01.480 would all always worry, like, am I going to be 0:13:01.480 --> 0:13:04.240 able to feel the pressure this year like I did 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.440 last year, because it it isn't something you can really practice. 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:10.240 It isn't something that you work on in the off season, 0:13:10.640 --> 0:13:12.679 and so you always wonder, Okay, am I going to 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.640 lose that skill because it's so important to be able 0:13:15.679 --> 0:13:17.760 to drop back and all of a sudden just feel 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:20.240 that defensive end coming from behind you. Okay, I got 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:21.760 to slide up in the pocket, right, you know, I 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:23.520 got to slide to the right. But you're one hundred 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:26.560 percent right. Some people seem to really have that sixth 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:28.920 sense of Okay, here it comes. I'm just going to 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:30.720 slide and you're like, how in the world could they 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.400 even have seen that? And then other guys seem much 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.440 more oblivious to it. So I think it's a great 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:38.560 question on is it something that was learned. Is it 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.480 something that through those things that I was doing that 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:43.840 it helped me to learn that spatial awareness and that 0:13:43.880 --> 0:13:47.280 feel or was it just something that some athletes or 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:49.760 some individuals have that others don't. 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:53.720 Well, you know, as you're talking, it occurs to me 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.400 that maybe I should have been a quarterback, Kurt, because 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:03.480 now when I walk into a restaurant, I can i 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:07.800 can feel the pressure. You can feel the eyes, can't 0:14:07.520 --> 0:14:09.679 You can see that. I can feel that there might 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:12.000 be a bogey coming in from the right. That might 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:15.840 be an uncomfortable situation. So let me pivot, turn, twist, 0:14:16.559 --> 0:14:18.400 move to the left. Maybe I haven't. 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.080 Yeah, well I think that can be a thing because 0:14:21.080 --> 0:14:23.800 my wife has that too. Like we walk in and 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.320 it's funny because I'm oblivious to it now and my 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:28.520 wife's like, oh man, there's a camera. 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:28.920 Over on the right. 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:33.000 Oh this person, you know, like she sees everything. So yeah, 0:14:33.040 --> 0:14:35.200 I mean, and I don't know if she had that before, 0:14:35.320 --> 0:14:37.880 but she's learned that trade for sure. 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:40.840 So I think mine's learned too. By the way, Yeah, 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:45.160 growing up in Iowa, the Hawkeyes are the thing. You 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:50.240 had some success there your senior year, you play in 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:53.000 the Shrine Bowl, you throw the touchdown pass that wins 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:56.200 the game. Did you feel like you had a shot 0:14:56.280 --> 0:14:57.960 there to get a scholarship at Iowa? 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:01.400 I know you went, Yeah, that that was my hope, 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.160 you know, being raised in Iowa, you know at that time, 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:06.280 the Hawks were, like you said, the thing. They were 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:08.720 the team and they were thirty minutes away from me. 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:11.560 So I grew up wanting to be a Hawk guy 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:12.720 without a doubt. 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:13.600 In Iowa. 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:15.480 You know, I was one of, you know, the top 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:17.920 quarterbacks in the state. You know, Paul Burmeister would be 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.120 the one. He became a friend, he became a colleague 0:15:20.120 --> 0:15:22.680 at the NFL Network. So we have fun to this day, 0:15:22.800 --> 0:15:25.400 me telling him that he stole my my my scholarship. 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:27.600 There they and they made the wrong decision, and we 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:28.920 have a lot of fun with it. 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:32.480 But when we were kind of yeah, we. 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:35.960 Were kind of the two best quarterbacks in Iowa. Yeah, 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:38.920 Paul was actually from Iowa City, so he was right 0:15:38.960 --> 0:15:41.560 down the street from the University of Iowa. But I 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.520 did that senior year kind of feeling like, okay, I 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.400 got a shot here, Like it's gonna probably between be 0:15:47.400 --> 0:15:50.080 between one of us if they choose a quarterback from Iowa, 0:15:50.480 --> 0:15:51.960 and I felt like, you know, I had just got 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:54.560 a shot as Paul. But you know, unfortunately they went 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.800 the other direction and Iowa wasn't wasn't the only one 0:15:57.840 --> 0:15:58.360 that that. 0:15:58.200 --> 0:15:59.000 That didn't choose me. 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:01.640 I didn't get many opportus co unities to play beyond 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.160 high school, but was fortunate that you know, smaller school 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:06.880 in Iowa, University of Northern Iowa gave me a shot 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:10.160 and you know, and was eventually able to play there. 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.600 Yeah, and you bring that up, so you've got somebody 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.440 starting ahead of you for their first three years. Did 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.640 you ever consider trying to move? I did, you know, 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:24.160 it's a different age now, right course. I mean if 0:16:24.200 --> 0:16:27.680 I was in this era, I probably would have transferred 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.520 and gone somewhere else just because of how easy it was. 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:32.320 But I did contemplate. 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:36.000 I actually contemplated either quitting football, you know, completely, because 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:37.840 like if I can't if I can't even get on 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:40.640 the field here at a smaller school, you know, what 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.160 are my chances of making the dream and playing in 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.400 the NFL. And then you know, I thought about, hey, 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.080 I just want to play, so sitting here on the 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:51.000 bench or going somewhere else, even if it's a smaller school, 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:52.960 just so I can play football, because this may be it, 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.000 you know, these last few years, maybe the last time 0:16:55.040 --> 0:16:57.040 I played football, and I don't want this to be 0:16:57.120 --> 0:16:59.800 the experience or I don't want to be on the bench. 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:02.720 And it was iron again, I share a story all 0:17:02.760 --> 0:17:04.760 the time that when I was sitting on the bench, 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.040 I really felt like you know, and may have been naive, 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:10.160 but really felt like I was the more talented guy. 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:12.200 And I understood the guy in front of me was 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:14.960 a year older, he had had success, he was a 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.280 good leader. We won game, so I understood why he 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:20.199 was slated in that spot. But I felt like I 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:22.320 was the more talented guy, like we had a better 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:26.359 chance to have this upside if I was playing, and 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:28.600 I couldn't figure out, you know, what I was missing. 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:31.200 You know, when I would get into games, or more importantly, 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:33.440 like in the big scrimmages, the spring games and stuff, 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:36.160 I would always shine and outperform him. So I kind 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:38.520 of thought, well that should lead to an opportunity to 0:17:38.760 --> 0:17:41.840 really compete. But you know, I had an older friend 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.080 on the team and he had a good relationship with 0:17:44.080 --> 0:17:46.040 the coaches. So I asked if he would go and 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:48.680 ask the coaches on my behalf, like what am I missing? 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:49.960 Because I couldn't see it. 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:50.520 I didn't know. 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.200 I thought I was as good and could throw the 0:17:53.240 --> 0:17:56.240 football and played well in those big moments that that 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.119 I had earned that, you know, at least an opportunity 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:01.719 to compete. And so he went up and asked him, 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.960 and I'll never forget the conversation when he came back down. 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:06.439 I was the only one in the locker room kind 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:08.359 of waiting for him to come back down, and he 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:10.560 came in, he goes all right. The coaches told me 0:18:10.600 --> 0:18:12.840 the reason that you're not starting is because you're not 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:15.960 very good in practice, you know. And I remember thinking, 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.159 you know, kind of like Alan Iverson, you know, in 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:21.240 his little rant like practice, like we're talking about practice, 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:23.560 you know, not the big games, not the big moments, 0:18:23.600 --> 0:18:26.399 not when the life. We're talking about practice. And I 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:29.640 left kind of angry and disappointed, like that's just an 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:31.879 ex like not very good in practice, Like what are 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.040 we really talking about, because it's not really about practice. 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.600 But the more I contemplated that, the more I got 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.800 to thinking, Man, when you play football, like you play 0:18:41.800 --> 0:18:43.800 in high school, we play nine games a year in 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.040 high school, you know, in college you play twelve. 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:47.480 In the NFL you play sixteen. 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:50.359 So when you really think about it, the majority of 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:54.240 your life is spent in practice. And so being able to, 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:57.280 you know, let people know what to expect from you, 0:18:57.280 --> 0:18:58.680 you know, what kind of leader you're going to be, 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:00.960 who you're gonna be every how are you going to 0:19:01.000 --> 0:19:04.840 show up for practice every single day? That happens in practice. 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.720 And so what they were really saying was you're not 0:19:07.840 --> 0:19:11.160 consistent enough every single day for us to know what 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:13.920 we're gonna get when the lights come on, Like, yeah, 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.240 you've shown us some good moments, but we need to 0:19:16.280 --> 0:19:18.480 see it every day. We need to know what we're 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:19.960 going to get. If we're gonna put the ball in 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:22.600 your hands because the guy in front of you, we 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.280 know what we're going to get may not be as talented, 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:27.439 he may not have as many wow moments, but we 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:29.720 know exactly what we're going to get and. 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:30.520 We can win with that. 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.080 And so it was one of the most valuable lessons 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:35.720 I learned you when I was going through that, you know, 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:37.520