Speaker 1: That was the most gratifying part was all of this
Speaker 1: stuff that I believed about myself year after year after year,
Speaker 1: that I wasn't just wasting time deceiving myself, going oh,
Speaker 1: you you're better than you think you are. That when
Speaker 1: you are able to have that success, you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: all this stuff I believed, all this stuff I've been
Speaker 1: working for, all this stuff I've been fighting for, you know,
Speaker 1: working through some of those tough moments. It was, you know,
Speaker 1: brought to fruition because what you really believed about yourself
Speaker 1: was true.
Speaker 2: Hi.
Speaker 1: I'm Kurt Warner and I went from a grocery store
Speaker 1: to the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: Hi everybody, and welcome back to Off the Beat. It's
Speaker 2: me your host, Brian Baumgartner, with a little bit of
Speaker 2: a summer cold. You can probably hear it in my voice,
Speaker 2: but I'm not cold. On today's Get Nailed It Transition,
Speaker 2: we got a legend on the podcast today. NFL Hall
Speaker 2: of Famer Kurt Warner is my guest, and we are
Speaker 2: talking football. Football is back, baby. If you know football,
Speaker 2: you know Kurt well. He has a Cinderella story. He
Speaker 2: played in college, only started for one year for the
Speaker 2: Northern Iowa Panthers before going to the draft. He wasn't drafted,
Speaker 2: He wasn't put on any roster really for four years. Instead,
Speaker 2: he played for the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena Football League.
Speaker 2: He played in Europe for NFL Europe and then finally
Speaker 2: back for the Rams, where he won a Super Bowl,
Speaker 2: appeared in three and is now an NFL Hall of Famer.
Speaker 2: He's now passing the great sport of football along to
Speaker 2: new generations. He's a high school coach in Arizona, but
Speaker 2: he's also on the NFL network every Sunday morning and
Speaker 2: throughout the week, giving his insight on the game to
Speaker 2: fans all around the world. I bet he has a
Speaker 2: few things to teach us too. Let's see, shall we.
Speaker 2: Here he is Kurt Warner. Bubble and squeak. I love it,
Speaker 2: Bubble and squeak, Bubble and squeak.
Speaker 3: I could get every mole lift over from the nine before.
Speaker 2: What's up, Kurt? Hey, Brian? How are you? I'm great?
Speaker 2: How are you? I'm doing really well?
Speaker 1: Gotta say, a lot of fans in the in the
Speaker 1: household of yours, so they were pumped when they saw
Speaker 1: this on the calendar.
Speaker 4: That I was jumping on with you.
Speaker 2: Oh that's just the Warners love you well, that is
Speaker 2: that's very nice. Unfortunately, I'm dealing with a little bit
Speaker 2: of a summer cold, so if you hear a little
Speaker 2: change in my voice. But I'm feeling fit as a
Speaker 2: fiddle and ready for NFL to start.
Speaker 5: Uh right?
Speaker 4: Who is who is your team?
Speaker 2: Who do you follow? You know, that's a complicated question, Kurt,
Speaker 2: But I I am a fan of the Green Bay
Speaker 2: Packers for sure, and I know you spent a little
Speaker 2: bit of time with them.
Speaker 4: A second a second, not long.
Speaker 2: A second, but I mean you were there. It's such
Speaker 2: an incredible time. Holgrom is the coach, Andy Reid is there,
Speaker 2: John Gruden is the wide receivers coach, got Edgar Bennett.
Speaker 2: Reggie Whitecci was the quarterback, Mary Ucci was. You were
Speaker 2: in a room with him and Farv and Brunell and
Speaker 2: Ty Detmer.
Speaker 4: Reggie White was there. Yeah, you know, I mean I'm
Speaker 4: in Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean for that period of time, did you do
Speaker 2: you feel like you you learned something from those guys?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I think I learned a little bit,
Speaker 1: but I think it was more about, you know, feeling
Speaker 1: like you belonged, you know, because a guy that played
Speaker 1: one year in college, but you, like you said, I'm
Speaker 1: up against Brett Favre and Mark and Tie, all these
Speaker 1: really good college and eventually pro quarterbacks, and you know,
Speaker 1: so you kind of stack yourself up every day. And
Speaker 1: you know, when I went there, it was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I can play. But then when you throw
Speaker 1: against Brett Favre every day and then you leave, you go, hey,
Speaker 1: I can do this. You know, I'm talented enough to
Speaker 1: do this. You know, so it left me with a
Speaker 1: little more confidence even though I got cut then maybe
Speaker 1: I had going in interesting.
Speaker 2: Well, your confidence is something that I really wanted to
Speaker 2: focus on today and then of course we'll talk about
Speaker 2: this year. But in preparing to talk to you today,
Speaker 2: and I saw a bunch of interviews that you did,
Speaker 2: and you talked multiple times about the this strong belief
Speaker 2: and confidence that you had in yourself from an early
Speaker 2: age and I mean early like seven, seven or eight
Speaker 2: years old, you felt like like you could do this.
Speaker 2: What do you think that was? Was that something in
Speaker 2: your in your upbringing, was it something in I don't know,
Speaker 2: your Iowa roots or or something. What do you think
Speaker 2: it was?
Speaker 4: You know, I think it was a couple of things.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think first and foremost, I was I
Speaker 1: was good athletically, and so it was easy for me
Speaker 1: to recognize that at an early stage, no matter what
Speaker 1: sport I was playing, like, hey, you know, I'm better
Speaker 1: than most of the kids. And then I think the
Speaker 1: second thing that that adds so much to your confidence
Speaker 1: is how people around you respond when you do something.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't really matter what you do. You know,
Speaker 1: you're performing in front of your family, you know, doing
Speaker 1: some dance routine, or you're you're out, you know, doing
Speaker 1: a sport, or you're in a play, whatever that may be.
Speaker 1: You're in an orchan so you're in a band. How
Speaker 1: people respond to you, I think does a lot for
Speaker 1: your confidence. And so the one thing that I realized
Speaker 1: very early on was I got a lot of people
Speaker 1: that responded to how I played athletically, So feeling like
Speaker 1: I was good anyways and then getting that response from people,
Speaker 1: I think those two things together made me very very
Speaker 1: confident whenever I stepped on a field of any sort.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's funny. I could share a story
Speaker 1: about school, so like I've got one brother, and my
Speaker 1: brother was you know, quote unquote the smart one, right,
Speaker 1: he was the one that did well in school, and
Speaker 1: he's the one that got the accolades for being smart
Speaker 1: in school. And so I was the athletic one, and
Speaker 1: nobody had ever really told me that I could be
Speaker 1: the smart one too, and so I gravitated to sports.
Speaker 1: And I do remember, like it was in eighth grade
Speaker 1: and I had a teacher, Missus Wagner, that actually told me, hey,
Speaker 1: you can be the smart one as well. But it
Speaker 1: never really crossed my mind because that was my brother's thing.
Speaker 4: This was my thing.
Speaker 1: Didn't really get the accolades for that or the attention
Speaker 1: for that, but it was, you know, so amazing. When
Speaker 1: she told me that that, I started to look at
Speaker 1: myself a little differently. And so I think, whether it
Speaker 1: was sports or anything else in life, so much of
Speaker 1: that confidence comes from what those people around you tell
Speaker 1: you about whatever it is that you're doing at a
Speaker 1: particular time.
Speaker 2: Was it always football for you?
Speaker 4: It wasn't always football. Actually basketball was my first love.
Speaker 4: Basketball was much more fun to practice.
Speaker 1: You know, football is a tough thing to practice because
Speaker 1: you need more guys and you know, as a quarterback,
Speaker 1: it's tiring. To just drop back over and over again,
Speaker 1: especially when you don't get a chance to compete. In basketball,
Speaker 1: you can get one other guy and compete. And so
Speaker 1: basketball was my first love. I played baseball, I played football,
Speaker 1: but football was kind of right behind that, you know.
Speaker 1: Ironically enough, I was a wide receiver until I went
Speaker 1: to high school, and so more athletic than I would
Speaker 1: be later in life, and really felt like that was
Speaker 1: my calling. So when I got changed to quarterback, it
Speaker 1: wasn't quite my thing early on, and so I think
Speaker 1: that's why basketball had kind of taken the forefront. But
Speaker 1: eventually you realize that you're six ' two, you can't
Speaker 1: jump very well, you're not the most athletic, probably a
Speaker 1: better chance playing quarterback than playing shooting guard, you know,
Speaker 1: in college or the NBA, and so naturally life took
Speaker 1: me in that direction.
Speaker 2: Well listen, I mean, you're setting up my questions perfectly
Speaker 2: here talking about practice not being fun. I'm sure that
Speaker 2: this would be canceled now I read. I can't believe this. Yeah,
Speaker 2: that there was a drill that you had called kill
Speaker 2: Kurt in football practice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So you know, so, as I mentioned, I started
Speaker 1: as a wide receiver. So when they moved me to
Speaker 1: quarterback as a freshman in high school. Yeah, I didn't
Speaker 1: want to play quarterback, but my natural instinct was to
Speaker 1: avoid being hit, Like nobody wants to stand back there
Speaker 1: and just wait for people to hit them and then
Speaker 1: throw the ball to somebody else to score. So my
Speaker 1: natural inkling, you know, having been you know, on the
Speaker 1: outside with the ball in my hands and trying to
Speaker 1: make people miss, was I just would look around and go, okay,
Speaker 1: where's the pass rush coming from. Okay, just take off
Speaker 1: and run. And the coach was like, no, no, that's
Speaker 1: that's not your job anymore. You got to stand in
Speaker 1: there and you throw us to throw it to the
Speaker 1: other guys. And so, you know, that was kind of
Speaker 1: the nature of how I started playing quarterback, was I
Speaker 1: just wanted to get outside and run and make plays
Speaker 1: and be athletic. And so my coach said, all right,
Speaker 1: we're going to create this drill, and you're right. They
Speaker 1: called it the kilk Kirk drill. So it was the
Speaker 1: drill that everybody volunteered to play. All my buddies were like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'll play defense, you know, even if I don't normally.
Speaker 1: If I get a chance to hit Kirk, because I
Speaker 1: was just a sitting duck. It was you could drop
Speaker 1: back in the pocket and you could negotiate the rush
Speaker 1: in the pocket, but you could not leave the pocket.
Speaker 1: So it was either negotiate the rush, get hit, or
Speaker 1: somehow deliver the ball down the field. And so I
Speaker 1: hated the drill, didn't want to do the drill. We
Speaker 1: did it over and over it again. But it's ironic
Speaker 1: that when I started playing, it was my greatest weakness.
Speaker 1: My greatest weakness was standing in and delivering and keeping
Speaker 1: my eyes down the field. And it's ironic that, you know,
Speaker 1: if you ask people that played with me or watched
Speaker 1: me play throughout my NFL career, they may say that
Speaker 1: my greatest strength became my ability to be oblivious to
Speaker 1: the rush, to stand in the pocket, to wait till
Speaker 1: the last second, and deliver down the field. And so
Speaker 1: that drill that I hated and didn't want any part
Speaker 1: of would ultimately become something that would define who I
Speaker 1: was as a football player throughout the rest of my
Speaker 1: life and through my Hall of Fame career. And so
Speaker 1: I'm grateful that I learned that skill early on. But
Speaker 1: I think you're one hundred percent right, bright. I don't
Speaker 1: think they would allow that now, you know, it would
Speaker 1: not allow one player to be out there just getting
Speaker 1: to hit over and over and over again. So luckily
Speaker 1: I didn't get hurt. Luckily it taught me some things
Speaker 1: that would be very useful for me.
Speaker 2: Well, it's very interesting that you say that too, because
Speaker 2: I think, you know, I think about you, I think
Speaker 2: about Aaron Rodgers, I think about Russell Wilson, and it
Speaker 2: feels like, well, and I guess this is a question too,
Speaker 2: the ability to feel the pressure. I mean you people
Speaker 2: talk about that all the time, right, like, feel the pressure,
Speaker 2: but you've got a helmet on. You can't see behind
Speaker 2: you or to the left or to the right of
Speaker 2: you at times, right like, so, do you it feels
Speaker 2: like it's an it's sort of an innate instinct. Do
Speaker 2: you do you feel like it's taught? Like, do you
Speaker 2: feel like you learned that? You know?
Speaker 1: I think that's one of those hard things to know
Speaker 1: for sure. You know, there's certain things that we have
Speaker 1: that you go, Okay, is that more innate or was
Speaker 1: it a combination of being anate and also learning? And
Speaker 1: so when I would work out in the off season,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I would do more often
Speaker 1: than anything else is I would play other sports, and
Speaker 1: I would play other sports because I always felt like
Speaker 1: it could teach me kind of spatial awareness. That's right,
Speaker 1: thing I'm looking here, but I can feel where bodies
Speaker 1: are in different places.
Speaker 2: Basketball was a great way to do this.
Speaker 1: You know, keep your eye on this guy, but you're
Speaker 1: you're feeling somebody coming with a pick, and you're feeling
Speaker 1: bodies around you.
Speaker 4: And and I think football is.
Speaker 1: Very similar is that you have that singular focus of hey,
Speaker 1: I got to read the defense.
Speaker 4: My eyes have to be down the field, but having.
Speaker 1: That spatial awareness to be able to you know, as
Speaker 1: we say, feel the pressure, kind of feel bodies you
Speaker 1: know that are around you, and then to be able
Speaker 1: to manipulate that or reset your feed or escape the pocket.
Speaker 1: I think it is, you know, definitely something that you
Speaker 1: know through all of that stuff that I learned to
Speaker 1: some degree. Maybe there was some innate parts of it.
Speaker 1: But it's funny that every year when the season was
Speaker 1: over and I would come into the next year, that
Speaker 1: was the one thing that I always worried about. I
Speaker 1: would all always worry, like, am I going to be
Speaker 1: able to feel the pressure this year like I did
Speaker 1: last year, because it it isn't something you can really practice.
Speaker 1: It isn't something that you work on in the off season,
Speaker 1: and so you always wonder, Okay, am I going to
Speaker 1: lose that skill because it's so important to be able
Speaker 1: to drop back and all of a sudden just feel
Speaker 1: that defensive end coming from behind you. Okay, I got
Speaker 1: to slide up in the pocket, right, you know, I
Speaker 1: got to slide to the right. But you're one hundred
Speaker 1: percent right. Some people seem to really have that sixth
Speaker 1: sense of Okay, here it comes. I'm just going to
Speaker 1: slide and you're like, how in the world could they
Speaker 1: even have seen that? And then other guys seem much
Speaker 1: more oblivious to it. So I think it's a great
Speaker 1: question on is it something that was learned. Is it
Speaker 1: something that through those things that I was doing that
Speaker 1: it helped me to learn that spatial awareness and that
Speaker 1: feel or was it just something that some athletes or
Speaker 1: some individuals have that others don't.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, as you're talking, it occurs to me
Speaker 2: that maybe I should have been a quarterback, Kurt, because
Speaker 2: now when I walk into a restaurant, I can i
Speaker 2: can feel the pressure. You can feel the eyes, can't
Speaker 2: You can see that. I can feel that there might
Speaker 2: be a bogey coming in from the right. That might
Speaker 2: be an uncomfortable situation. So let me pivot, turn, twist,
Speaker 2: move to the left. Maybe I haven't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I think that can be a thing because
Speaker 1: my wife has that too. Like we walk in and
Speaker 1: it's funny because I'm oblivious to it now and my
Speaker 1: wife's like, oh man, there's a camera.
Speaker 2: Over on the right.
Speaker 1: Oh this person, you know, like she sees everything. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, and I don't know if she had that before,
Speaker 1: but she's learned that trade for sure.
Speaker 2: So I think mine's learned too. By the way, Yeah,
Speaker 2: growing up in Iowa, the Hawkeyes are the thing. You
Speaker 2: had some success there your senior year, you play in
Speaker 2: the Shrine Bowl, you throw the touchdown pass that wins
Speaker 2: the game. Did you feel like you had a shot
Speaker 2: there to get a scholarship at Iowa?
Speaker 1: I know you went, Yeah, that that was my hope,
Speaker 1: you know, being raised in Iowa, you know at that time,
Speaker 1: the Hawks were, like you said, the thing. They were
Speaker 1: the team and they were thirty minutes away from me.
Speaker 1: So I grew up wanting to be a Hawk guy
Speaker 1: without a doubt.
Speaker 4: In Iowa.
Speaker 1: You know, I was one of, you know, the top
Speaker 1: quarterbacks in the state. You know, Paul Burmeister would be
Speaker 1: the one. He became a friend, he became a colleague
Speaker 1: at the NFL Network. So we have fun to this day,
Speaker 1: me telling him that he stole my my my scholarship.
Speaker 1: There they and they made the wrong decision, and we
Speaker 1: have a lot of fun with it.
Speaker 2: But when we were kind of yeah, we.
Speaker 1: Were kind of the two best quarterbacks in Iowa. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Paul was actually from Iowa City, so he was right
Speaker 1: down the street from the University of Iowa. But I
Speaker 1: did that senior year kind of feeling like, okay, I
Speaker 1: got a shot here, Like it's gonna probably between be
Speaker 1: between one of us if they choose a quarterback from Iowa,
Speaker 1: and I felt like, you know, I had just got
Speaker 1: a shot as Paul. But you know, unfortunately they went
Speaker 1: the other direction and Iowa wasn't wasn't the only one
Speaker 1: that that.
Speaker 4: That didn't choose me.
Speaker 1: I didn't get many opportus co unities to play beyond
Speaker 1: high school, but was fortunate that you know, smaller school
Speaker 1: in Iowa, University of Northern Iowa gave me a shot
Speaker 1: and you know, and was eventually able to play there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you bring that up, so you've got somebody
Speaker 2: starting ahead of you for their first three years. Did
Speaker 2: you ever consider trying to move? I did, you know,
Speaker 2: it's a different age now, right course. I mean if
Speaker 2: I was in this era, I probably would have transferred
Speaker 2: and gone somewhere else just because of how easy it was.
Speaker 4: But I did contemplate.
Speaker 1: I actually contemplated either quitting football, you know, completely, because
Speaker 1: like if I can't if I can't even get on
Speaker 1: the field here at a smaller school, you know, what
Speaker 1: are my chances of making the dream and playing in
Speaker 1: the NFL. And then you know, I thought about, hey,
Speaker 1: I just want to play, so sitting here on the
Speaker 1: bench or going somewhere else, even if it's a smaller school,
Speaker 1: just so I can play football, because this may be it,
Speaker 1: you know, these last few years, maybe the last time
Speaker 1: I played football, and I don't want this to be
Speaker 1: the experience or I don't want to be on the bench.
Speaker 1: And it was iron again, I share a story all
Speaker 1: the time that when I was sitting on the bench,
Speaker 1: I really felt like you know, and may have been naive,
Speaker 1: but really felt like I was the more talented guy.
Speaker 1: And I understood the guy in front of me was
Speaker 1: a year older, he had had success, he was a
Speaker 1: good leader. We won game, so I understood why he
Speaker 1: was slated in that spot. But I felt like I
Speaker 1: was the more talented guy, like we had a better
Speaker 1: chance to have this upside if I was playing, and
Speaker 1: I couldn't figure out, you know, what I was missing.
Speaker 1: You know, when I would get into games, or more importantly,
Speaker 1: like in the big scrimmages, the spring games and stuff,
Speaker 1: I would always shine and outperform him. So I kind
Speaker 1: of thought, well that should lead to an opportunity to
Speaker 1: really compete. But you know, I had an older friend
Speaker 1: on the team and he had a good relationship with
Speaker 1: the coaches. So I asked if he would go and
Speaker 1: ask the coaches on my behalf, like what am I missing?
Speaker 4: Because I couldn't see it.
Speaker 2: I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I thought I was as good and could throw the
Speaker 1: football and played well in those big moments that that
Speaker 1: I had earned that, you know, at least an opportunity
Speaker 1: to compete. And so he went up and asked him,
Speaker 1: and I'll never forget the conversation when he came back down.
Speaker 1: I was the only one in the locker room kind
Speaker 1: of waiting for him to come back down, and he
Speaker 1: came in, he goes all right. The coaches told me
Speaker 1: the reason that you're not starting is because you're not
Speaker 1: very good in practice, you know. And I remember thinking,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of like Alan Iverson, you know, in
Speaker 1: his little rant like practice, like we're talking about practice,
Speaker 1: you know, not the big games, not the big moments,
Speaker 1: not when the life. We're talking about practice. And I
Speaker 1: left kind of angry and disappointed, like that's just an
Speaker 1: ex like not very good in practice, Like what are
Speaker 1: we really talking about, because it's not really about practice.
Speaker 1: But the more I contemplated that, the more I got
Speaker 1: to thinking, Man, when you play football, like you play
Speaker 1: in high school, we play nine games a year in
Speaker 1: high school, you know, in college you play twelve.
Speaker 4: In the NFL you play sixteen.
Speaker 1: So when you really think about it, the majority of
Speaker 1: your life is spent in practice. And so being able to,
Speaker 1: you know, let people know what to expect from you,
Speaker 1: you know, what kind of leader you're going to be,
Speaker 1: who you're gonna be every how are you going to
Speaker 1: show up for practice every single day? That happens in practice.
Speaker 1: And so what they were really saying was you're not
Speaker 1: consistent enough every single day for us to know what
Speaker 1: we're gonna get when the lights come on, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you've shown us some good moments, but we need to
Speaker 1: see it every day. We need to know what we're
Speaker 1: going to get. If we're gonna put the ball in
Speaker 1: your hands because the guy in front of you, we
Speaker 1: know what we're going to get may not be as talented,
Speaker 1: he may not have as many wow moments, but we
Speaker 1: know exactly what we're going to get and.
Speaker 4: We can win with that.
Speaker 1: And so it was one of the most valuable lessons
Speaker 1: I learned you when I was going through that, you know,
Speaker 1: when I wanted to quit or I wanted to transfer,
Speaker 1: and I.
Speaker 4: Learned that, like how are you gonna show up every day?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: And Brian, I tell people all the time. And I've
Speaker 1: been with my wife for thirty years, we've been married
Speaker 1: for twenty six years, and you know, I remember when
Speaker 1: I got married, I thought, Okay, get the big moments right, yeah,
Speaker 1: like don't forget the anniversaries, good presence on your on
Speaker 1: her birthday, Like you do those things right, and you
Speaker 1: got this husband thing, you know, cleaned up. And what
Speaker 1: I've learned over those thirty years is that my wife
Speaker 1: wants to know how I practice. She wants to know
Speaker 1: how I show up every single day. And it really
Speaker 1: holds true everywhere. I've got seven kids and kind of
Speaker 1: thought the same thing. Father, daughter, dances, the big lectures,
Speaker 1: get those things right. And my kids just want to
Speaker 1: know if I'm going to love them every day, you know,
Speaker 1: whether they make a mistake or they do something great.
Speaker 1: They just want to know who I'm going to be
Speaker 1: and you know how I'm going to love them on
Speaker 1: a daily basis. So it was a valuable lesson that
Speaker 1: I learned at one of the most down times in
Speaker 1: my life that would help to shape how I live life,
Speaker 1: how I prepared, you know, moving forward, and I think
Speaker 1: ultimately would have a huge impact on what I was
Speaker 1: able to do on the football field.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's cool, and that's very true in relationships and
Speaker 2: in life. You do get an opportunity to start. You
Speaker 2: have a big final season there at Northern Iowa Gateway
Speaker 2: Conference's offensive place the year, first team All Conference, a
Speaker 2: ton of touchdowns, a ton of yards. You go seventeen
Speaker 2: and four did you think you were going to get
Speaker 2: a chance.
Speaker 1: I did, and and I kind of just hoped it
Speaker 1: would be a chance. I think we all, you know,
Speaker 1: when you've got the dream. Like even after that one year,
Speaker 1: I watched the draft from start to finish that next year,
Speaker 1: and even though I know I only played one year
Speaker 1: in college at a small school, I thought I could
Speaker 1: have been picked number one overall, Like right, I listened
Speaker 1: for every pick like maybe, like maybe something, you know,
Speaker 1: And I watched through the entire draft, and obviously my
Speaker 1: name was never picked, But but I believe that it
Speaker 1: could have been in any of those situations. Because even now,
Speaker 1: as I look back over my career, you talked about
Speaker 1: confidence early on, and a lot of people kind of
Speaker 1: sit back and go, Okay, how in the world were
Speaker 1: you so confident and you had such a belief when
Speaker 1: you sat on the bench for four years, or you know,
Speaker 1: you had the grocery store stand or your arena football
Speaker 1: like when it didn't really work out. Why how did
Speaker 1: you have so much confidence? And you know, I tell
Speaker 1: people that they always looked at the wrong things. You know,
Speaker 1: most people look at your journey and they look at
Speaker 1: the down moments and they try to define you by those.
Speaker 1: For me, I looked at the moments when I had
Speaker 1: a ball in my hands. I looked at the one
Speaker 1: moment when, you know, all through high school, I looked
Speaker 1: at the moment when I was you know, on the
Speaker 1: field in college, and it was like every time I played,
Speaker 1: I was successful. And so I just believe that give
Speaker 1: ball in my hands, and I'm going to be successful,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what level, doesn't matter where. And kind of
Speaker 1: the hope was that somebody else saw that as well
Speaker 1: and would give me an opportunity to play. But I
Speaker 1: felt like I did enough that senior year to at
Speaker 1: least warrant an opportunity to get into a training camp
Speaker 1: and compete for a shot. And you know, fortunately for me,
Speaker 1: there was a number of teams that were interested and
Speaker 1: then ultimately I would I would sign with the Packers
Speaker 1: and get my first shot there.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: You know, when I talked to a lot of my
Speaker 2: guests about, you know, you have something as a kid
Speaker 2: that you do, which I don't know if this is
Speaker 2: the right word or not, but I call it a hobby. Right, Like,
Speaker 2: at a certain point, I played sports, I was doing theater,
Speaker 2: but I was just doing I was a kid, this
Speaker 2: was up my hobby. I wasn't. There was never a
Speaker 2: thought for me that like, oh, this is what I'm
Speaker 2: going to do for the rest of my life. Was
Speaker 2: that always there for you or was there a moment
Speaker 2: where you were like, oh, no, this is it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean I don't remember a moment, because I think
Speaker 1: it happened much earlier for me. Okay, because of the
Speaker 1: stuff I talked about earlier, I gravitated to sports. I
Speaker 1: just I loved sports, you know, I enjoyed it. When
Speaker 1: I woke up in the morning. It was what I
Speaker 1: wanted to do. It was like do I have a
Speaker 1: game today? It was what I woke up thinking about.
Speaker 1: And so from that very early stage when that became
Speaker 1: who I was, it wasn't just like, oh, you got
Speaker 1: practice today, Okay, three o'clock, be ready for Like, I
Speaker 1: was playing all day.
Speaker 4: I couldn't wait for practice to show up. So, as
Speaker 4: long as I.
Speaker 1: Can remember, that was kind of the way that I
Speaker 1: pursued it. And although it may not have been, you know,
Speaker 1: I want to play in the pros right off the bat,
Speaker 1: I definitely knew that I wanted to play in college,
Speaker 1: you know, and I would watch every game of the Awchive.
Speaker 1: Whatever they were doing, football, basketball, whatever it was. I
Speaker 1: knew all the players, and so I think that's where
Speaker 1: it really started. More than it was, hey have a career,
Speaker 1: you know, playing super Bowls and do that. It was
Speaker 1: I am going to play and I'm going to play
Speaker 1: in college. I'm going to get a scholarship and I'm
Speaker 1: going to play in college was really where it started.
Speaker 1: I can't think of a time going back to my
Speaker 1: childhood where I didn't think that way or didn't believe
Speaker 1: that was going to be my career path.
Speaker 2: You know, you talked earlier about people defining people by
Speaker 2: their failures. I think that's true. I also think what
Speaker 2: is America likes a comeback story? I mean, you were
Speaker 2: stocking shells at the High V grocery store there at
Speaker 2: Cedar Falls when the Arena Football League came calling to you.
Speaker 2: The Arena Football League, for those of you who don't know,
Speaker 2: it's a very different game. It's eight on eight fifty yards.
Speaker 2: It's all smaller, there's walls, there's no out of bounds.
Speaker 2: My question is when you had the opportunity there, did
Speaker 2: you see it as a stepping point to the NFL.
Speaker 2: Because it's so different, or was it just lets get
Speaker 2: let's go throw the ball.
Speaker 4: Eventually I would have both emotions right that.
Speaker 1: I was called by the Arena League a number of
Speaker 1: times before I ended up signing with IOWA, and my
Speaker 1: initial thoughts were exactly what you were saying, is, Oh,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm so much better than arena football. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to reserve myself to this and get
Speaker 1: kind of lost in arena football and then never get
Speaker 1: my opportunity. But then on the flip side, Brian, I'm
Speaker 1: working for five fifty an hour stocking shelves at night
Speaker 1: in a grocery store, and at some point you're like,
Speaker 1: but a thousand dollars a week is way better than this,
Speaker 1: And I'm playing football, and I'm at least pursuing or
Speaker 1: have a chance to hone my skills, and at least
Speaker 1: him somewhere, like nobody walks into Aisle seven and says, okay,
Speaker 1: let's give this guy a shot. You know, at least
Speaker 1: in arena football, maybe the games were on at like
Speaker 1: three or four in the morning, but maybe somebody's watching
Speaker 1: TV at three in the morning and go, hey, this
Speaker 1: guy's pretty good. So at least you think maybe there's
Speaker 1: you know, something out there for me. But worst case scenario,
Speaker 1: I have a chance to take care of my family.
Speaker 1: I have a chance to make a little bit of money.
Speaker 1: And at that time, the Arena League was going pretty good,
Speaker 1: and so you know, you even say, man, even if
Speaker 1: I play ten years in arena football, you know, it's
Speaker 1: probably a pretty good situation compared to getting a job
Speaker 1: right out of college and trying to work my way up.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, I had both sides of the emotions,
Speaker 1: but eventually it was like, man, yeah, I just I
Speaker 1: just want to play football again. In my Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame speech, I used a line that sometimes you gotta
Speaker 1: do what you gotta do while you're waiting to do
Speaker 1: what you were born to do. Right we all have
Speaker 1: that supermarket moment where it's like, Okay, this is where
Speaker 1: I'm at right now, this is what I gotta do
Speaker 1: right now, but I know this isn't where I'm going
Speaker 1: to end up. And so that's kind of what I felt.
Speaker 1: The beautiful thing about arena football was, you know, we
Speaker 1: had all these guys that were playing arena football that
Speaker 1: we're probably never going to sniff the NFL. They were
Speaker 1: simply playing because they loved the game. They wanted to
Speaker 1: play as long as they could. They enjoyed every moment
Speaker 1: of being out there. And so when I was going
Speaker 1: through the pursuit of getting to the NFL with sitting
Speaker 1: on the bench or in the grocery store whatever, you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes you get so focused on success success. I gotta
Speaker 1: get you, I gotta do this, and it's and it's
Speaker 1: all about, you know, do I make it and do
Speaker 1: I prove people wrong or prove myself whatever. And then
Speaker 1: when I went and played arena football, all that kind
Speaker 1: of disappeared, and I remembered again why I started the
Speaker 1: pursuit of football is that I loved playing the game
Speaker 1: and I loved being around people that loved playing the game.
Speaker 1: It was not about anything else but get a ball
Speaker 1: in my hands, and let's go out and compete, and
Speaker 1: let's go do what we've always loved to do. And
Speaker 1: so it brought back that love for the game again,
Speaker 1: and I think it reshaped my mindset, which would be
Speaker 1: a great thing. I didn't know I was going to
Speaker 1: get an opportunity when I was playing, but would become
Speaker 1: a great thing when I got my opportunity because I
Speaker 1: saw life, and I saw the sport, and I saw
Speaker 1: my pursuit of my dreams and goals completely differently than
Speaker 1: what that path that I was on and what I
Speaker 1: had to accomplish and what were the most important things.
Speaker 1: I think I got lost and caught up in just
Speaker 1: a success part of it instead of remembering, Hey, you're
Speaker 1: doing this because you love it.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's what this is all about. You were
Speaker 4: born to do this because.
Speaker 1: When you have a ball in your hands, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure when you're on stage, you just feel alive. You
Speaker 1: just feel like there's just something in me that brings
Speaker 1: me to a different place when I'm there, and Arena
Speaker 1: football reminded me of that, and I think that would
Speaker 1: be a catapult to my mindset moving forward.
Speaker 2: You have tons of success there. You go to two
Speaker 2: Arena Bulls first team ninety six and ninety seven. You
Speaker 2: leave and go to NFL Europe and ninety eight. Is
Speaker 2: that or do you consider that at the time that's
Speaker 2: moving up because now there's NFL in the title of
Speaker 2: the league. How was that experience?
Speaker 4: It was twofold.
Speaker 1: The first part of it was, you know, I'd been
Speaker 1: called by this coach of the European League a couple times,
Speaker 1: and I had told him that I would love to
Speaker 1: go and play for him if he could get me
Speaker 1: signed with an NFL team.
Speaker 4: Like, what I didn't want to do is give up what.
Speaker 1: I had in Arena League go play in Europe without
Speaker 1: any opportunity to get back into the league. So that
Speaker 1: was the first parameter, and so ultimately they would help
Speaker 1: me get signed by the Rams, and so I knew
Speaker 1: a I was going to get a tryout with the
Speaker 1: Rams after that was over. And then the second thing
Speaker 1: is I kind of knew that, you know, Arena League,
Speaker 1: as you mentioned, is so different than the NFL, that
Speaker 1: if I was ever going to play in the NFL,
Speaker 1: that I would probably have to go to Europe and
Speaker 1: get back on the big field and show people that
Speaker 1: I could do what needed to be done on the
Speaker 1: big field. But it was really because the Rams had
Speaker 1: signed me that I was willing to kind of leave
Speaker 1: the Arena League and go, Okay, this is going to
Speaker 1: be my shot. Like I know I'm going to be
Speaker 1: in training camp. I don't know what this opportunity is
Speaker 1: going to look like, but I really that's all I
Speaker 1: was thinking about when I was playing Arena League for
Speaker 1: three years. Was I just want another opportunity. I'm a
Speaker 1: better player now, I'm in a better place. If I
Speaker 1: get a legitimate opportunity, I really believe I could make it.
Speaker 1: So that's all I was looking for. And so once
Speaker 1: I got that opportunity, I was willing and ready to
Speaker 1: go back on the big field and show people that
Speaker 1: I could do whatever it took to make the throws
Speaker 1: or play the game.
Speaker 2: You know, at that level, you get a chance with
Speaker 2: the rams you make the roster in ninety eight, Did
Speaker 2: you feel like you belonged? I did? Yeah, you feel
Speaker 2: like they thought you belonged. Did you feel the support?
Speaker 4: You know, it was up and down.
Speaker 1: There were were moments where you go out there and
Speaker 1: you make a throw and you'd like, yep, yeah, yep,
Speaker 1: yeah I can do this. You know, you compete against
Speaker 1: other guys, you show up every day where you really
Speaker 1: feel like you belong and then there's other moments where
Speaker 1: you know you're the arena guy and you're the guy
Speaker 1: that hasn't ever played on this level.
Speaker 2: And so they unprotected from the draft.
Speaker 1: Right they would, you know, they would kind of push
Speaker 1: your buttons a little bit to to really see what
Speaker 1: you were made of. And so there were those moments
Speaker 1: where you know, you kind of questioned, like, Okay, are
Speaker 1: they doing this to push me or to make me better?
Speaker 1: Do they really believe that I'm not good enough that
Speaker 1: I haven't shown them? But no, I was very confident
Speaker 1: when I got there, and specifically, you know that going
Speaker 1: into my second year, which would ultimately become the year
Speaker 1: that I started. Yeah, you know, the first year, I
Speaker 1: felt confident, but it was a little different because of
Speaker 1: where I was competing and I wasn't getting a lot
Speaker 1: of reps, so it was a little bit harder. When
Speaker 1: I came back the second year. You know, we had
Speaker 1: new offense coordinator and new offense, but the offense just
Speaker 1: really fit how I saw the game. And so when
Speaker 1: we went into that second year, I was so confident, like,
Speaker 1: I am definitely good enough. This is an offense that
Speaker 1: fits what I do, so I think I can excel
Speaker 1: in this offense. And so I walked way more confidently
Speaker 1: my second year than I did my first year. Now,
Speaker 1: let me let me just go back because I actually
Speaker 1: played in the very last game of.
Speaker 4: My rookie season ninety eight.
Speaker 1: Okay, in ninety eight, I got into one game against
Speaker 1: San Francisco late in the game, but I got to
Speaker 1: throw like eleven passes. And it's amazing how in mop
Speaker 1: up time, when a game doesn't mean anything, the kind
Speaker 1: of confidence that it can give you, like being out
Speaker 1: there and seeing the field and making the reads and
Speaker 1: making a few throws along like that kind of settles
Speaker 1: you into go, Okay, now I've played at this level.
Speaker 4: And I can do this.
Speaker 1: So those eleven passes at the end of ninety eight
Speaker 1: would be I think what really catapulted me into ninety
Speaker 1: nine with that level of confidence and belief that I
Speaker 1: could play. Had I not played at all in ninety eight,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know if I have quite
Speaker 1: the same confidence going into ninety nine when I would
Speaker 1: become the starter as I had. And so that that
Speaker 1: last little bit to me just kind of got my
Speaker 1: feet wet and just kind of said, in the back
Speaker 1: of your mind, okay, like the angel and the devil,
Speaker 1: you know, and the Angel lots tell me you got this,
Speaker 1: You're good enough, and then the Devil's going, now you've
Speaker 1: never played it level, you can't. And so that you know,
Speaker 1: Levin passes that whatever quarter that I played was enough
Speaker 1: to quiet the devil and quiet all those questions and say, okay,
Speaker 1: you you got this, you can do this. You you
Speaker 1: know you're comfortable. Now it's you know, project yourself forward
Speaker 1: and see if you can get an opportunity to play well.
Speaker 2: It occurred to me when I was sort of looking
Speaker 2: at what happened there. Steve Bono leaves in free agency,
Speaker 2: Tony Banks is traded, and you're backing up Trent Green.
Speaker 2: I mean, well, what that tells me is, now Trent
Speaker 2: gets hurt in preseason, you end up starting. But it
Speaker 2: feels to me like, at least looking on paper at
Speaker 2: what was happening, that they trusted you to be the
Speaker 2: number two guy, because otherwise it feels like those they
Speaker 2: would not have allowed those other moves to happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and I don't know if it was
Speaker 1: full confidence that I could be a starter, right, but
Speaker 1: I do believe they had seen something to go, all right,
Speaker 1: this guy has a chance. They weren't going to let
Speaker 1: those guys go and make me the starter like they
Speaker 1: hadn't seen that. But you know, all year long, the
Speaker 1: year before, I would become the Scout Team Player of
Speaker 1: the Year. So for obviously those that are listening. I
Speaker 1: was going up against our number one defense every day.
Speaker 1: I was running the opponent's offense every day, and I
Speaker 1: was a Scout Team Player of the Year because you know,
Speaker 1: I had a lot of success against our number one defense.
Speaker 1: You know, our defense that was really good and I
Speaker 1: had a lot of success against them, and so a
Speaker 1: that would build my confidence. But you know, there's really
Speaker 1: nothing better from a training ground for a young quarterback
Speaker 1: than to go against the best defense you have every
Speaker 1: single day. And you know, the coaches saw that, and
Speaker 1: and seeing that, I think that gave them confidence as well.
Speaker 4: Like, Okay, we've seen him for a year.
Speaker 1: You know, we've watched him practice every day, We've seen
Speaker 1: him have success. Not ready to hand the keys to
Speaker 1: the car over to him because we haven't seen him
Speaker 1: in game moments, we haven't seen him under pressure, but
Speaker 1: we've seen enough to say we think he can take
Speaker 1: the step from three to two and now we just
Speaker 1: need to go out and get us alidified starter. And
Speaker 1: now we feel pretty good about where our quarterback.
Speaker 2: Room is, you know.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think there was a level of confidence there,
Speaker 1: maybe not ultimate confidence, but a level of confidence there
Speaker 1: that they had seen enough to feel like they could
Speaker 1: make those other moves and elevate me to kind of
Speaker 1: a backup role.
Speaker 2: Well, soon enough, they would have plenty of confidence. I mean, Kurt,
Speaker 2: you've talked about it forever. You're in the Hall of
Speaker 2: Fame in large part because of it. But just to
Speaker 2: remind people or let people know what Kurt did, he
Speaker 2: sets an NFL record, throws three touchdown passes in his
Speaker 2: first three games. Then he opens up a can of
Speaker 2: whoop ass on the Niners, who the Rams hadn't beaten
Speaker 2: in This might be wrong, but I think forty seven years.
Speaker 4: I don't think it was forty seven years.
Speaker 2: It was a low.
Speaker 1: It's a long time, but we had lost to them
Speaker 1: seventeen straight times.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So however many years at forty three years in
Speaker 2: a row. Yeah, And he throws five tvts in his
Speaker 2: fourth game, they win forty two to twenty. He goes on,
Speaker 2: beats the Vikings in the playoffs, beats the Buccaneers in
Speaker 2: a good NFC Championship game, and ultimately wins the Super
Speaker 2: Bowl against the Titans in what many considered to be
Speaker 2: well the second greatest ending in Super Bowl history all
Speaker 2: of this time, which to me is so much more interesting.
Speaker 2: Leading up to that moment has prepared you for this.
Speaker 2: You had the confidence to do it. But how gratifying
Speaker 2: is it for you after all of those years, and
Speaker 2: after all of that time, and all of those different leagues,
Speaker 2: with all of those different rules, to be given an
Speaker 2: opportunity and to excel with a great team, no doubt,
Speaker 2: so quickly. I mean it was.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's extremely gratifying, you know. And it's funny
Speaker 1: because I've never been a guy that plays with a
Speaker 1: chip on my shoulder or was mad at people because
Speaker 1: they didn't believe in me. You know that the pundits
Speaker 1: when you became the starter and people are like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, this team's got no chance with this guy. Like,
Speaker 1: I didn't get mad at those people. I understood why
Speaker 1: they questioned it. I understood why they weren't sure if
Speaker 1: I was any good or they might think that I
Speaker 1: wasn't any good because of my journey. What was most
Speaker 1: gratifying was being able to live up to your own
Speaker 1: belief in what.
Speaker 4: You were capable of.
Speaker 1: Like for years, I truly believed that I was good enough.
Speaker 1: You know, my wife not a big football fan, but
Speaker 1: she would always say, like in the early stage, just
Speaker 1: when and when we met, I would be like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm going to play in the NFL, and you know,
Speaker 1: she would always joke, well, I'm going to be a model.
Speaker 4: Like just saying it doesn't make it true. Like, you know,
Speaker 4: like I don't know.
Speaker 2: If you're good enough.
Speaker 1: All I can tell you is that obviously nobody else
Speaker 1: thinks you're good enough, and so you know, in your mind,
Speaker 1: you're like, but I am. Like she would ask me that,
Speaker 1: like are you good enough? And I'd be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm good enough. I don't know if she fully believed
Speaker 1: it or not, but that was the most gratifying part
Speaker 1: was all of this stuff that I believed about myself
Speaker 1: year after year after year, that I wasn't just wasting
Speaker 1: time deceiving myself, going oh, you're you're better than.
Speaker 2: You think you are.
Speaker 1: That when you are able to have that success, you're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: all this stuff I believed, all this stuff I've been
Speaker 1: working for, all this stuff I've been fighting.
Speaker 4: For, you know, working through some of those tough moments.
Speaker 1: It was, you know, brought to fruition because what you
Speaker 1: really believed about yourself was true. And so that was
Speaker 1: the best part of that season for me. I worry
Speaker 1: about any of that other stuff. I mean, obviously it
Speaker 1: was great to win and win a super Bowl and
Speaker 1: those things that you dream of, but from a gratification standpoint,
Speaker 1: it was like, Okay, you always believe this and you
Speaker 1: were right, you know, like it wasn't this ten year
Speaker 1: path of just deceiving yourself thinking oh, you're good enough
Speaker 1: when you really aren't good enough. Because I always thought, Brian,
Speaker 1: that would be the hardest part, is right, we all
Speaker 1: see ourselves as being better, oh than we are, right,
Speaker 1: you know, does there come a point where you have
Speaker 1: to realize maybe I'm not good enough, Like maybe the
Speaker 1: reason I'm not getting an opportunity is because of me,
Speaker 1: not because of everybody else. And so that was the
Speaker 1: sweetest part for me, was like, oh my gosh, it
Speaker 1: was true, Like all this stuff that I truly believed
Speaker 1: about myself that was in there, and I was seeing
Speaker 1: this correctly, and I stuck with it to be able
Speaker 1: to see it, you know, come to pass.
Speaker 2: But you didn't use it to motivate you. You said
Speaker 2: you didn't have a chip on your shoulder, but you
Speaker 2: didn't you.
Speaker 1: I really didn't, because because again I understood, Like, and
Speaker 1: I'll even say this, like I was not nearly the
Speaker 1: same player coming out of college that I was when
Speaker 1: I got with the Rams in you know, ninety eight
Speaker 1: ninety Like, I was a completely different player.
Speaker 4: You know what we mentioned.
Speaker 1: I played one year in college, and so I didn't
Speaker 1: get the opportunity to do all of this stuff and
Speaker 1: play in all these games and be in all these moments.
Speaker 1: So you know, when I went to Green Bay, obviously
Speaker 1: nobody wants to get cut. But I got cut in
Speaker 1: Green Bay. And I make this joke all the time.
Speaker 1: So Brett Farv was a starter in Green Bay in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four. Okay, so that's when I was there,
Speaker 1: and I got cut. I retired in two thousand and nine.
Speaker 1: Brett Farr did not miss a start in the National
Speaker 1: Football League from nineteen ninety four to two thousand and nine.
Speaker 1: He didn't miss a single start in that entire time.
Speaker 1: And so had I made it with the Packer, I'd
Speaker 1: have never seen the light of day.
Speaker 2: Anyways.
Speaker 1: I'd have been a backup my entire life, unless, of course,
Speaker 1: I was traded somewhere and blah blah blah. Like a
Speaker 1: couple quarterbacks were, but I went and played arena football,
Speaker 1: and I played more football and was in more moments
Speaker 1: and had more pressure because in arena football it's all
Speaker 1: about throwing, it's all about the quarterback, it's about score
Speaker 1: and seventy points all that stuff.
Speaker 4: So I faced more.
Speaker 1: You know, live snaps in that three years and then
Speaker 1: you know, the season over in Europe than any backup
Speaker 1: quarterback in the history of the world got to experience.
Speaker 1: So here I am. Yeah, it's a lower level, but
Speaker 1: I'm playing and I'm getting better and I'm growing as
Speaker 1: a player, and so all of this stuff that I
Speaker 1: can look at and have a chip on my shoulder
Speaker 1: and be mad that I had to play arena football, like,
Speaker 1: I looked at it and said, you know what, this
Speaker 1: was the greatest thing for me over that period of time.
Speaker 1: So when I came back to the league, it was like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm ready, I have played. I have belief, I'm confident.
Speaker 1: You know, as you said, I played in some championships
Speaker 1: that was player, you know that the top quarterback. Like
Speaker 1: all this stuff that I didn't really have coming out
Speaker 1: of college, I had this now, and so you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't hold any animosity. You have to be able
Speaker 1: to step back and look at other people's perspective, and
Speaker 1: you know, if they're looking at me going okay, one
Speaker 1: year in college, small school, working in a grocery store,
Speaker 1: playing like I think I would be like most of them,
Speaker 1: going like, I don't know if this guy could play like.
Speaker 1: You know, if it took the guy this long and
Speaker 1: he had to do all of that, chances are he's
Speaker 1: probably not great. So I understood that. So I wasn't
Speaker 1: mad at anybody, and I wasn't trying to prove them wrong.
Speaker 1: I was more interested in proving myself right, proving that
Speaker 1: what I always believed in, what I always chased after,
Speaker 1: and the reason that I kept this thing going was
Speaker 1: because I truly was good enough.
Speaker 4: To play at that level.
Speaker 1: And that's what motivated me more than any of that
Speaker 1: other stuff that people had to say.
Speaker 2: You go back to the super Bowl a couple of
Speaker 2: years later with the Rams, Now, do you ever think
Speaker 2: if you'd won that game, we maybe never would hear
Speaker 2: about Tom Brady again? Do you ever think about that?
Speaker 2: Do you ever think about you birthed by not winning,
Speaker 2: you birthed the legend that is Tom Brady? Because maybe
Speaker 2: who knows Mabby Belichick tells him to sit down. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you never know.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, it's hard for me to believe
Speaker 1: that we would not have heard about Tom Brady, that
Speaker 1: he not won that game. But you do think about history.
Speaker 1: You know, had we won that game and won two
Speaker 1: Super Bowls in three years, does that keep me in
Speaker 1: Saint Louis? Do I have you know, another ten twelve
Speaker 1: years in Saint Louis where maybe we become the Patriots
Speaker 1: of that time period? So you know, I think about
Speaker 1: my history and what that meant for me. And then yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, you know, we kind of ushered in that dynasty,
Speaker 1: and we ushered in kind of that mentality of what
Speaker 1: the Patriots were and how they played. And of course
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, you know, we gave him number one. You know,
Speaker 1: it started everything and started building that confidence to be
Speaker 1: able to become the greatest to ever play. So yes,
Speaker 1: I definitely contemplate history when I think back to that game,
Speaker 1: you know, and missed opportunities on our part, while at
Speaker 1: the same time opportunities seized by by the Patriots, and
Speaker 1: and what that would you know, ultimately lead for that
Speaker 1: organization And of course we're talking.
Speaker 2: But for your story. I mean, I'm sure there's a
Speaker 2: part of you that, like I think, every athlete hopes
Speaker 2: for the ten to twenty year career at the same organization,
Speaker 2: and a lot of times it doesn't work out that way.
Speaker 2: It didn't work out that way for you. You go
Speaker 2: to the Giants for a little bit, then you go
Speaker 2: to the Cardinals. But like I said before, everybody likes
Speaker 2: the comeback story, and man, you had one. There such
Speaker 2: a fun teams to watch, and I gotta share something
Speaker 2: with you personally. I had the opportunity to share this
Speaker 2: in person with Santonio Holmes just a few months ago.
Speaker 2: But your Super Bowl with the Cardinals in Tampa against Pittsburgh,
Speaker 2: where unfortunately you lost, that was my first Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: I was there, okay for the first time, and the
Speaker 2: reason that I was there was I would say one
Speaker 2: of the most sort of significant personally things in my career,
Speaker 2: which was The Office. We were the show that premiered
Speaker 2: after the Super Bowl that year. NBC was airing the
Speaker 2: game and The Office was on after, so I had
Speaker 2: an opportunity to come and to watch that game. I've
Speaker 2: been lucky enough to go to many since then, but
Speaker 2: that was my first and yeah, I'll never forget it,
Speaker 2: and I just I've it's the only time I've sort
Speaker 2: of felt a part of that big event, and so
Speaker 2: I wanted to share that.
Speaker 4: You're right, I was busy and I did not know
Speaker 4: that you were busy. But that's cool, that's cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do want to talk a little bit before
Speaker 2: we talk about this year about your your next career
Speaker 2: with NFL Network. Obviously you love it. You can tell
Speaker 2: that you love it by watching you. Was this something
Speaker 2: that you wanted to do? Did they come to you
Speaker 2: or was this a part of you just wanting to
Speaker 2: stay in the game once you were retired.
Speaker 4: I think it was both.
Speaker 1: I think that the crazy thing about sports and professional
Speaker 1: sports is that it's a finite career that you don't
Speaker 1: get to play forever. And so, you know, when you're
Speaker 1: a professional ath lead, you don't really think about the
Speaker 1: next steps, or at least I didn't, Like I was
Speaker 1: so focused on being successful and getting there and having
Speaker 1: success that I never really considered, oh, shoot, you know,
Speaker 1: half your life is going to be lived after this career.
Speaker 2: What the heck are you going to do?
Speaker 4: And so, you know, as it got later in my career, I.
Speaker 1: Didn't know if I had any other skills, Like I'm
Speaker 1: not going into acting, right, I can't sing, Like I
Speaker 1: don't know what I'm.
Speaker 4: Going to do for the next forty years, you know.
Speaker 1: But one thing that that I always kind of took
Speaker 1: pride in when I was playing was media stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: talking to people, sharing my story, and so I think
Speaker 1: that communication part of it became something that I was very,
Speaker 1: very comfortable with. And then I just love the game,
Speaker 1: like I love the nuances of of football. I love
Speaker 1: the team sport. I love the cat and mouse and
Speaker 1: the X and o's of of football. And so to
Speaker 1: not only have twelve year NFL career, but then you know,
Speaker 1: see this game give me. I mean, now I've been
Speaker 1: out fifteen years, fifteen more years of a career, you know,
Speaker 1: in this business doing what I love to do. And
Speaker 1: you know, I love our studio show on NFL Network.
Speaker 4: It's so much fun. You know, it's a different thing.
Speaker 1: I love calling games because that's kind of the closest
Speaker 1: thing to playing because not only the atmosphere and being there,
Speaker 1: but you know the ability.
Speaker 4: To have to react.
Speaker 1: Now you're not reacting in four or five seconds, You're
Speaker 1: reacting over thirty seconds, but still to have to think
Speaker 1: fast and to process and be able to concisely share
Speaker 1: what just happened with a viewer so they understand it
Speaker 1: and you take them into the game. To me, it
Speaker 1: seemed like a very natural transition for me that I
Speaker 1: you know, I count myself so fortunate, especially nowadays. There's
Speaker 1: so many people that want to get into this business
Speaker 1: and have this job, and former players that would love
Speaker 1: to be in this place, and so I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I consider myself very blessed to have been asked to
Speaker 1: be a part of the NFL network right out of
Speaker 1: this thing, to be able to to hook up with
Speaker 1: Westwood One and then some of the other networks to
Speaker 1: do the TV and radio games. And I love it.
Speaker 1: You know, every year it sounds like you love football.
Speaker 1: But every year we get to this point and I
Speaker 1: can't wait. I can't wait to see what happens. I
Speaker 1: can't wait to watch Patrick Mahomes throw a football again.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to watch the best teams compete. I
Speaker 1: can't wait to break down the film and see, Okay,
Speaker 1: what are they doing? And you know, is there ways
Speaker 1: that I can help?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: And it's kind of ironic that, you know, so much
Speaker 1: of what I do is really you know, designed around
Speaker 1: the fans, right, you know, tell them what to expect
Speaker 1: in this game and show them what's happening, and you know,
Speaker 1: and do the color commentary. But my truest passion in
Speaker 1: doing this is I want to share something on Sunday
Speaker 1: mornings that one of these NFL quarterbacks or a college
Speaker 1: quarterback watches and goes, oh man, maybe I should be
Speaker 1: doing that or I can learn from that, you know,
Speaker 1: breaking it down on YouTube and hoping it get.
Speaker 4: Back gets back to one of these quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: So you know, there's some little nuance that I'm trying
Speaker 1: to to share with them that they can take and
Speaker 1: apply to their game to get better. That's my true pathage.
Speaker 1: I want to see all these guys that play quarterback
Speaker 1: be great, and I want to share all the knowledge
Speaker 1: I have with everybody that wants to play quarterback. And
Speaker 1: that's really what drives me on a daily basis. Even
Speaker 1: if I'm doing an XO on you know, game day
Speaker 1: morning on NFL Network for a fantasy, I'm really doing
Speaker 1: that to go, hey, Tom Brady, watch this. I know
Speaker 1: you're great, but maybe you haven't thought about this, or
Speaker 1: you know, a young guy CJ. Stroud, Hey watch this
Speaker 1: breakdown and maybe you can pull some where. You know,
Speaker 1: one of the offensive coordinators in the league seeing me
Speaker 1: break down a tape and going, oh, man, you know
Speaker 1: we've never done that before. Maybe I should think about
Speaker 1: adjusting that and challenge what I do. And so you know,
Speaker 1: that's that's part of my love is to be able
Speaker 1: to kind of share my expertise in hopes that it
Speaker 1: helps elevate the game of doesn't matter whether it's a
Speaker 1: great school quarterback, a high school quarterback, a college quarterback,
Speaker 1: an NFL quarterback, an NFL coach, whatever that is. I
Speaker 1: kind of look at my job and take that responsibility
Speaker 1: with it in hopes that through the airwaves, I can
Speaker 1: have some kind of impact on the game, you know,
Speaker 1: similar to it to an impact that I had on
Speaker 1: the game when I was playing.
Speaker 2: Well, it's here this week. We're back baby. The Ravens
Speaker 2: and the Chiefs kick it off. What is your hottest
Speaker 2: or boldest take from Kurt Warner for this season?
Speaker 1: Man, you go try to throw me into the mix
Speaker 1: with all these hot take people. I try I try
Speaker 1: to avoid that hot take.
Speaker 2: I'm not a hot take person either. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 2: how about this. Okay, give me two teams this year
Speaker 2: that are going to surprise.
Speaker 4: People that are going to surprise people.
Speaker 2: Or maybe that haven't been good for a while, but
Speaker 2: they may make a sneaky run.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good question. I don't want to say
Speaker 1: sneaky now because like the Bears. You know, everybody's talking
Speaker 1: about the Bears now. But I'm excited to watch the
Speaker 1: Bears now, like I think they do have a chance
Speaker 1: to compete for a playoff spot. Like, I really do
Speaker 1: think they've got a chance this year. Caleb plays decent,
Speaker 1: but I just liked their team in general. You know,
Speaker 1: I still live in Arizona too.
Speaker 2: I love that. I'm sorry, I love that, Kurt, because
Speaker 2: you want to why. I love that because that gives
Speaker 2: Bears hopes fans hope, right, and their hope is going
Speaker 2: to be trashed immediately, But that's okay. I like when
Speaker 2: serious guys who know what they're talking about give Bears
Speaker 2: fans hope. I love that. Right at Arizona, they have hope.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I live in Arizona, and so last year, you know,
Speaker 1: coach Gannon came in last year, and you know, Kyler
Speaker 1: Murray was heard. But you watch the team, and I
Speaker 1: love the way the team battled.
Speaker 2: They competed.
Speaker 4: Every game they competed.
Speaker 1: They were right there and they didn't find ways to
Speaker 1: win it, but they were right there.
Speaker 4: So I love what they're building here.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure their roster is good enough to to
Speaker 1: really make a run in the playoffs, but I do
Speaker 1: believe their team that is that you're not gonna want
Speaker 1: to play like nobody's gonna want. It's not going to
Speaker 1: be an easy out when you play against the Arizona Cardinals.
Speaker 1: I think they have a chance to kind of push
Speaker 1: for a playoff spot. But I just think they're a
Speaker 1: team that people are going to go I don't want
Speaker 1: to play these guys like they are going to compete.
Speaker 1: They're gonna hit us in the mouth. They've got attitude,
Speaker 1: They've got this talented young quarterback. I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: be really competitive this year. When most people are saying, ah,
Speaker 1: they're going to kick them to the curve, they're not
Speaker 1: going to be very good. I think they're gonna be
Speaker 1: sneaky competitive this year. And then another team, and again
Speaker 1: I don't want to say that they're off the radar.
Speaker 1: But another team that I'm really watching is the Houston
Speaker 1: Texans that I love CJ.
Speaker 2: Stroud.
Speaker 1: He was one of the first guys that I wanted
Speaker 1: to pop the tape on last year after every game
Speaker 1: because I fell in love with the way that he
Speaker 1: played the game and.
Speaker 4: How good he was as a rookie.
Speaker 1: Now they've improved their team and so I don't think
Speaker 1: they're gonna sneak up on anybody. And they want a
Speaker 1: playoff game last year, so I don't think they're going
Speaker 1: to sneak up on anybody.
Speaker 4: But that's a team that I like.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're talking about you know, the Lamar
Speaker 1: Jackson's and the Patrick Mahomes and the Joe Burrows and
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers and you know Josh Allen and the as,
Speaker 1: all these great teams led by these great quarterbacks in
Speaker 1: the AFC, don't be surprised if the Texans are right
Speaker 1: there in the mix when it's all said and done.
Speaker 1: It's another team I got my eye on that I'm
Speaker 1: kind of excited about. And then you know, maybe we
Speaker 1: throw in the Atlanta Falcons. I think they've they've made
Speaker 1: some improvements there. Division's not great, but Kirk Cousins. I'd
Speaker 1: like to say I want to see him with this team.
Speaker 1: B John Robinson, a couple of big receivers on the outside.
Speaker 1: It's just another team that I know everybody thinks they're
Speaker 1: going to be good. But I just like kind of
Speaker 1: throwing out those teams that you don't necessarily expect to.
Speaker 4: Compete for a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: But you know, I think Houston and Atlanta are are
Speaker 1: going to be in the mix. I think Chicago's got
Speaker 1: a chance to at least, like you said, give hope.
Speaker 1: You know, you know, you enter November and December and
Speaker 1: there's still a little hope there. And I think Arizona
Speaker 1: will surprise some people in terms of how competitive they are.
Speaker 1: I think they're gonna beat some They're gonna beat some
Speaker 1: good teams this year.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, you and I are not fully aligned here,
Speaker 2: but I like where you're going at with the young quarterbacks,
Speaker 2: kleb young team and Arizona obviously good young team in Texas.
Speaker 2: I'm looking at the old guys. I'm looking at the
Speaker 2: Kurt Warners this year, and I'm looking at the Rams, okay,
Speaker 2: and I'm looking at the Jets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I had a feeling those were the two teams
Speaker 1: that you were you were looking at when you when
Speaker 1: you said that, And I think I think all eyes
Speaker 1: are on the Jets, like I mean, that's an exciting one.
Speaker 1: And I don't think they're sneaking up on anybody. You know,
Speaker 1: because a it's Aaron Rodgers. B they've got one of
Speaker 1: the best defenses in the league. You know, we're all
Speaker 1: gonna hold our breath that that team stays healthy, not
Speaker 1: just Aaron, because I mean, obviously Aaron is the Lynch
Speaker 1: Pinda all of that. You know, he's got to stay healthy.
Speaker 1: But you know that can that team, that offensive line
Speaker 1: stay healthy, you know, can there receives stay healthy. But
Speaker 1: you know, I think you're right. I mean, if if
Speaker 1: they stay healthy, I truly believe they've got a chance
Speaker 1: to compete, to be in the Super Bowl without a doubt.
Speaker 1: And so you know, I'm hoping, you know, my fingers
Speaker 1: are crossed that they stay healthy. And man, it's gonna
Speaker 1: make the AFC wild and awesome. You know, their division
Speaker 1: with Josh Allen and two over there and you know,
Speaker 1: and Rogers and then you know the entire.
Speaker 4: AFC with like that would be awesome.
Speaker 1: You know, you know, I want the Jets to be good,
Speaker 1: not only because it's good for the league, but obviously
Speaker 1: you want Jets fans to have something like the Bears fans,
Speaker 1: like give us something like we had this hope last
Speaker 1: year and you stole it from us.
Speaker 4: And then I'm with you on the Rams.
Speaker 1: You know, the Rams, I think we're better than people
Speaker 1: expected last year with Matthew Stafford.
Speaker 4: You're exactly right. And an NFC that's not to me
Speaker 4: top heavy.
Speaker 1: Like Philadelphia on paper, you know, have a really good
Speaker 1: football team. You know, a lot of people are talking
Speaker 1: about Green Bay. Okay, you know, I think Green Bay
Speaker 1: is going to be good, but they're not a team
Speaker 1: that I look at like, oh my gosh, they're scary.
Speaker 1: San Francisco, of course is going to be good again,
Speaker 1: but you just don't have a bunch of them like
Speaker 1: that you have in the AFC, where I fully believe.
Speaker 1: You know, the Rams are going to be good this year.
Speaker 1: You know how good will be interesting because obviously win
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl a couple years ago, but playoff team
Speaker 1: again last year.
Speaker 4: So I'm excited to see where they go.
Speaker 1: And anytime you got a guy like that behind center,
Speaker 1: you always got a chance you know that you either
Speaker 1: have one or you don't.
Speaker 4: If you have one, you got a chance. If you don't,
Speaker 4: you don't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Kurt, thank you so much for coming on. I've
Speaker 2: done over the last few years some work with the
Speaker 2: folks at Good Morning Football. But I'm always in New
Speaker 2: York and you're in LA. Now, who knows, maybe we'll
Speaker 2: run into each other there you go. Now they're in LA.
Speaker 2: You're gonna have to come out our direction in the hallways. Yes,
Speaker 2: such a pleasure. I know you're excited. I'm excited football
Speaker 2: is back. Yes, and we won't be looking forward to
Speaker 2: hearing you and and you're not so high takes. As
Speaker 2: the season goes on.
Speaker 4: Who knows, But during the season I'd probably throw a
Speaker 4: couple of them out there. But hey, man, it was
Speaker 4: a pleasure to meet you. I hope we do cross
Speaker 4: pass and I appreciate you having me on.
Speaker 2: Man. Thanks Kurt, you got it, Kurt, it was so
Speaker 2: great to talk to you. Thank you. I know you're
Speaker 2: as excited as I am. Football is back. Listeners, enjoy
Speaker 2: football this week and enjoy us next week. We'll be
Speaker 2: back right here, same time, same place. Until then, have
Speaker 2: a great.
Speaker 3: One off the beat.
Speaker 2: Is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside
Speaker 2: our executive producer Ling Lee. Senior producer is Diego Tapia.
Speaker 2: Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary. Our theme song
Speaker 2: Bubble and Squeak, performed by the one and only Creed Brett,