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Speaker 1: All right, guys, welcome into a new episode of Chargers Weekly.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't be more pleased to have my next guest on,

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Speaker 1: linebacker Drew Tranquil, second year livebacker Drew. I can't thank

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Speaker 1: you enough for your time, man. I want to talk football,

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Speaker 1: but more importantly, I want to talk about this new

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Speaker 1: interview series that you launched, Cure Me Out, and its

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Speaker 1: core focus is on racial reconciliation, unveiling the heart and

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Speaker 1: mind of people within the black community. I think it's

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Speaker 1: such an important thing what you're doing. How did this

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Speaker 1: idea come to bedro.

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Speaker 2: Well, Chris, thanks for having me on first off, But

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Speaker 2: I think, honestly, it was just a seed that was

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Speaker 2: kind of planted. My wife and I missed everything going

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Speaker 2: on with the civil unrest and just really being frankly,

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Speaker 2: just to really hard year. It felt like it was

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Speaker 2: important to get on to encourage people at the community

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Speaker 2: level to just have these relevant and meaningful conversations. And obviously,

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Speaker 2: racial injustice is at the forefront right now, and there's

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Speaker 2: a community of people, our black brothers and sisters, who

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Speaker 2: have expressed a lot of grief, a lot of pain,

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Speaker 2: and a lot of sorrow, and you know, I'd be

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Speaker 2: remiss and feel really ashamed if we let this moment

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Speaker 2: in history pass us. A very sad and tragic few moments. Really,

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Speaker 2: when you look at the lives that have been lost

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Speaker 2: this year, specifically to police brutality and other things, it's

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Speaker 2: it's a sad thing. But you know, I think there's

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Speaker 2: times in history where, you know, certain problems and certain

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Speaker 2: and certain issues come to the forefront, and it's a

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Speaker 2: unique time where we kind of have all eyes and

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Speaker 2: ears on this issue and we can kind of address it.

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Speaker 2: And so it just kind of was the seed of, Hey,

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Speaker 2: let's let's have these conversations, let's hear the testimonies, and

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Speaker 2: let's stop looking to give our opinion or give statistics

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Speaker 2: on why we believe what we believe, and let's just

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Speaker 2: hear each other out. And so that's kind of where

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Speaker 2: we're going with it, and it's been great so far.

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Speaker 1: You just kind of alluded to it. I wrote down

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Speaker 1: a quote that I heard during your conversation with Jalen Smith,

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Speaker 1: linebacker of the Cowboys, obviously a Golden domer himself. You said,

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Speaker 1: is there a place where we can get to where

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Speaker 1: we're slower to give our point of view and quicker

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Speaker 1: to hear the pain of someone else. If we just

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Speaker 1: had a little bit more of that drew in our society,

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Speaker 1: how much better will we be off?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think really what that's talking about is the

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Speaker 2: idea of empathy, and I think really empathy can be

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Speaker 2: the engine to a lot of change if we were

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Speaker 2: just willing to try and put ourselves in other people's shoes.

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Speaker 2: I think a lot of the issues and the tension

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Speaker 2: you see, whether it's political or whether it's just within

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Speaker 2: organizations or communities of people, has to do with the

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Speaker 2: fact that we just can't understand each other and understand

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Speaker 2: where we're coming from. And so I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: there's a reason, you know the cliche we have two

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Speaker 2: years one mouth, Like, I think it really is important

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Speaker 2: to listen a little bit more than we speak, And

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Speaker 2: certainly a time as we're in right now is a

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Speaker 2: time for the black community to express some of the

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Speaker 2: pain and hurt. I mean, when you look at this stuff,

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Speaker 2: you know, people have family members that you know, grew

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Speaker 2: up where they couldn't go to the same school or

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Speaker 2: drink out of the same water fountain. Like, we're not

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Speaker 2: that far removed, and there's still a lot of healing

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Speaker 2: and reconciliations that needs to take place, and you know,

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Speaker 2: I know my wife and I were just trying to

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Speaker 2: do our part. And you know, we have a unique

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Speaker 2: experience in football where I have a lot of peers

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Speaker 2: and friends that are from the black community. A lot

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Speaker 2: of my peers and kids I grew up with, you know,

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Speaker 2: in my hometown maybe don't have that opportunity. And so

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Speaker 2: if I can have those conversations and be an example

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Speaker 2: and illustrate that, I think it's a cool thing to

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Speaker 2: do for people who might not have, you know, the

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Speaker 2: opportunity to be around and hear from, you know, people

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Speaker 2: within the black community on a daily basis.

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Speaker 1: Drew, what have you learned most over the last couple

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Speaker 1: of months, Whether it's these conversations that you're having through

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Speaker 1: here and be out, or just teammates in the locker

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Speaker 1: room about things that they've gone through.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think for me, it's been a transformational few

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Speaker 2: years for me specifically lately. I think a lot of

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Speaker 2: that is boiled to the surface and just the idea

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Speaker 2: that you know, I think a lot of our expectations

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Speaker 2: and in the reality we shape for ourselves comes from

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Speaker 2: a lot of our experiences growing up, and I've realized that,

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Speaker 2: you know, my experience growing up wasn't necessarily like some

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Speaker 2: of my brothers in the locker room, and you know,

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Speaker 2: they struggled with things that I didn't necessarily have to

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Speaker 2: struggle with, like such as, you know, when I'm going

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Speaker 2: to drivers' education, I'm learning to parallel park. When they

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Speaker 2: go to driver's ed, you know, their parents are educating

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Speaker 2: them on how to deal with police officers when they

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Speaker 2: get pulled over, a simple thing like that. You know,

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Speaker 2: I don't think twice about it. When I get pulled over,

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Speaker 2: I think, you know, I'm gonna talk to this guy

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Speaker 2: explain what happened. And that might not be the same experience.

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Speaker 2: And so though that thing might seem little, it's difference

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Speaker 2: in how we grew up. It's you know, difference is

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Speaker 2: the resources in the communities we grew up. I can't

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Speaker 2: tell you how many times I've heard from teammates, whether

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Speaker 2: at Notre Dame, are on the chargers that you know,

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Speaker 2: I didn't go to a school, a great high school

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Speaker 2: that had a ton of resources, where you know, we

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Speaker 2: had quality teachers and quality food for lunch and great

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Speaker 2: opportunities our fields we played on were horrible, and the

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Speaker 2: stadiums were bad, and you know, our uniforms weren't great,

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Speaker 2: and we were under resource And the amount of times

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Speaker 2: I've heard that story is kind of sad, and for

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Speaker 2: it to be so concentrated in a single community, I

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Speaker 2: think it's something we all need to have awareness about.

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Speaker 1: What are the things that you talked about with both

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Speaker 1: Michael Ledo and Jalen Smith was entrepreneurship and minority entrepreneurship.

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Speaker 1: And I recently did a story on this academy in

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Speaker 1: the Ventura County area. They're bringing in kids from the

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Speaker 1: inner city and they are trying to make sure that

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Speaker 1: they know the ins and outs of what it is

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Speaker 1: to run a business, how to run a business, counting

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Speaker 1: things before or they even hit their freshman year of

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Speaker 1: high school, just to be equipped with those things for

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Speaker 1: either before they go to the pros, or after they

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Speaker 1: go to the pros, or after they get out of college,

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Speaker 1: they're equipped for the opportunity to own a business. And

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Speaker 1: the conversation you had with Jalen just it really struck

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Speaker 1: me and reminded me of that and of how important

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Speaker 1: it is to make sure that all communities have an

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Speaker 1: equal playing field when it comes to their future in

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Speaker 1: building their future in a positive way.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think when you talk about just entrepreneurship in general,

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Speaker 2: you know, people kind of have this idea of, well,

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Speaker 2: I don't have the money to start my own business

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Speaker 2: or I don't have the money to do that. When

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Speaker 2: you look at it, you know, people's mindset typically is

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Speaker 2: in regards to how do you finance it? And if

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Speaker 2: you go you look at our history, like certain communities

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Speaker 2: specifically right now we're talking about the black community has

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Speaker 2: been under resourced in that area, and you can just

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Speaker 2: look at the general income statistics of a black family

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Speaker 2: versus you know, a white family or another counterpart, and uh,

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Speaker 2: it's you know, there's drastic difference in those income and equalities.

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Speaker 2: And so when you look at you know, strictly from

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Speaker 2: a financial and financing standpoint, you know there's unequal opportunity

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Speaker 2: in terms of you know, maybe I could go to

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Speaker 2: people within my community that my dad knows or my

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Speaker 2: mom knows, or you know, I'm speaking generally here, but

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Speaker 2: there's financing opportunities, and so to educate people on how

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Speaker 2: to you know, how to go about entrepreneurship, how you

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Speaker 2: go to a bank and you know, apply for a loan,

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Speaker 2: what your credit score means. All these different things that

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Speaker 2: you know aren't necessarily at the forefront of people's minds

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Speaker 2: when you know issues such as how am I going

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Speaker 2: to survive living in this neighborhood? Or how am I

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Speaker 2: gonna you know, where's my next meal coming from? Or

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Speaker 2: you know, how am I going to get earn a

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Speaker 2: scholarship because we can't afford for me to go to college.

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Speaker 2: All these conversations that I've heard from my peers for

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Speaker 2: years are more important, And so you end up in

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Speaker 2: a situation where those conversations about entrepreneurship and how I'm

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Speaker 2: going to provide down the road aren't had, and you

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Speaker 2: end up in a situation where you know there's an

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Speaker 2: unequal distribution in terms of white business owners to black

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Speaker 2: business owners, and the cycle will continue to perpetuate itself

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Speaker 2: unless we educate ourselves and help and resource those different communities.

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Speaker 1: I think, for me, I'm proud to be a part

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Speaker 1: of the Chargers organization when I see guys like yourself

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Speaker 1: using your platform for interview series like this, or Isaac

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Speaker 1: with Local Human and going out there and protesting and

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Speaker 1: his teammates showing up like Justin Jackson and Trey Pipkins

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Speaker 1: and Forrest Lamp and this goes on and on to

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Speaker 1: see head coach Anthony Lynn really start this conversation with

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Speaker 1: key leaders in the community in Los Angeles. What does

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Speaker 1: it mean to you to be a part of all this,

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Speaker 1: starting with your head coach, Frankly, who's done so much

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Speaker 1: over the last sixty to ninety days.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think one of the things I noticed when

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Speaker 2: I walked into the Chargers lock room was it was

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Speaker 2: full of guys. You can you can tell right away

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Speaker 2: when you walk into an organization, whether it's a football

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Speaker 2: organization or a business, if it has people that actually

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Speaker 2: care about others, or if you have people in the

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Speaker 2: organization that just really have their own self interest in mind.

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Speaker 2: And when I walked into the locker room as a

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Speaker 2: rookie last year, I really got the sense that the Chargers,

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Speaker 2: starting with you know, our general manager, our ownership, and

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Speaker 2: then our head coach primarily who sets the culture, was

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Speaker 2: just a group of guys and women that you know,

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Speaker 2: cared about each other and cared about, you know, building

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Speaker 2: a team, building a culture. And it seems like there

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Speaker 2: wasn't a ton of ego involved, and I think ego

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Speaker 2: is really important. And you see, you know, when our

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Speaker 2: head coach is getting involved and doing things like he

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Speaker 2: does overseas, that here's a guy who just really cares

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Speaker 2: about other people. And you know, I'm happy to work

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Speaker 2: for a guy like that, who cares about my self interest,

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Speaker 2: who cares about my family, and who's going to do

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Speaker 2: the hard work and the things necessary to make sure

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Speaker 2: that we're taken care of. And so, you know, I

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Speaker 2: think the character of the Chargers organization is showing itself.

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Speaker 2: Whenever you go through tough times, the character of people's show,

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Speaker 2: and it's certainly showing with my teammates doing initiatives like

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Speaker 2: they're doing. You spoke about Isaac and local human I

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Speaker 2: think that's awesome. And then obviously Coach Lynn and how

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Speaker 2: he's being involved on the national level, but more importantly

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Speaker 2: at the local level here in the La County in

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Speaker 2: Orange County and what he's doing with the officials and

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Speaker 2: just being a voice and using the platform as head

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Speaker 2: coach for the Chargers. I think it's fantastic.

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Speaker 1: I had an opportunity because of the Chargers, they draft

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Speaker 1: nothing but guys from Notre Dame. So I got to

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Speaker 1: talk to the coach, Brian Kelly a couple of months

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Speaker 1: ago when a low he was drafted, and we talked

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Speaker 1: about you, and he talked about your determination, what you've

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Speaker 1: had to go through throughout your career at Notre Dame,

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Speaker 1: and your core belief system. And I kind of draw

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Speaker 1: some parallels with what he was saying about your core

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Speaker 1: belief system and what you're doing beyond football and trying

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Speaker 1: to help others, trying to bring awareness to important topics.

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Speaker 1: Where does that come from? True, that that determination to

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Speaker 1: really want to be excellent in all fastest, whether it's

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Speaker 1: on the football field or just in life in general.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think at its roots, at its foundation. You know,

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Speaker 2: everything for me goes back to my faith, my faith

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Speaker 2: in Christ, and I tried to draw all my principles

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Speaker 2: and values off how Jesus lived his life, and you

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Speaker 2: know what the Bible has to say about that, and

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Speaker 2: I think there's a lot of great core principles there

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Speaker 2: that I've just drawn from my experiences. And you know,

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Speaker 2: I have to credit, you know, some of that to

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Speaker 2: my dad and the way he taught me growing up.

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Speaker 2: My mother as well, and just the resilience component the

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Speaker 2: thing the idea of you know, one of my core

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Speaker 2: beliefs is leaving things better than you found it. And

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Speaker 2: you know, I don't know how long I'll be in

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Speaker 2: the Charges organization, but my hope would be that people

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Speaker 2: that could testify on my behalf when I'm gone, could say, hey,

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Speaker 2: you know, we're a better organization than when he walked

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Speaker 2: in here. And I think that's just one of the

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Speaker 2: small ways I try to live my life and and

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Speaker 2: it all kind of goes back to how Christ lived

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Speaker 2: his life. But you know, whether it's trying to overcome

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Speaker 2: two acl tairs at Notre Dame or you know, moving

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Speaker 2: across the country with my wife who was thirty eight

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Speaker 2: weeks pregnant and trying to make an impact as a rookie,

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Speaker 2: I think, you know, just try to carry those those

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Speaker 2: same basic principles and not make it over complex or

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Speaker 2: over you know, sophisticate things, and try to just keep

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Speaker 2: it simple and keep my head down to work.

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Speaker 1: I think it's a podcast for another time, but revisiting

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Speaker 1: your first week on the job with the Chargers, that

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Speaker 1: could be like a mini thirty for thirty.

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Speaker 2: Right, no doubt, Man crez Hey.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk football. Just a few questions, because entering your

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Speaker 1: second season, what has this off season been like? Everything's

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Speaker 1: been virtual and I know, accountability. I think with everybody

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Speaker 1: it's going to be really the most important thing in

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Speaker 1: terms of just workouts and working on things that you

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Speaker 1: want to bring into the twenty twenty season.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been challenging, Chris. We just look at a

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Speaker 2: training perspective, it's been nice having the zoom and being

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Speaker 2: able to keep our minds sharp in terms of the playbook.

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Speaker 2: But when you look at from a physical perspective of

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Speaker 2: trying to train and compete, you know, most guys haven't

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Speaker 2: had haven't had contact in regards to, you know, engaging

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Speaker 2: with another player you know, for six or seven months now,

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Speaker 2: and so it'll be it'll be tough in terms of

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Speaker 2: transitioning and talk about that. But you even talk about

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Speaker 2: knowing when to peak and how you're supposed to go

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Speaker 2: about your training and you know when to accelerate that

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Speaker 2: to be ready for camp, and there's a lot of

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Speaker 2: just unknowns. But we're all on the same boat and

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Speaker 2: so there's really no complaining to be had in my opinion,

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Speaker 2: from any one person. We're all kind of in the

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Speaker 2: same boat and going through it together. And so it's

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Speaker 2: a challenging time, but you know, it's something you know,

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Speaker 2: I totally believe we'll get through and and some people

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Speaker 2: will find solutions. The people that are in charge of

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Speaker 2: making the decisions, they'll find solutions and we'll figure it out.

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Speaker 1: I go back to last year, and right from the beginning,

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Speaker 1: you made your presence felt on special teams. You had

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Speaker 1: a couple of block points throughout the season, and you

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Speaker 1: had three starts towards the back half of the year

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Speaker 1: of fourteen tackle performance in Oakland. You had three tackles

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Speaker 1: for lost in a game against Denver. Did you feel

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Speaker 1: like the game slowed down a little bit for you

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Speaker 1: drew as the season went along the pro game and

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Speaker 1: how much more ready do you feel in year two? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: I mean, I consider myself fortunate to be able to

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Speaker 2: play with guys like Thomas Davis and Denzel, guys who

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Speaker 2: you know, I think combined had a total of like

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Speaker 2: twenty two or twenty three years of experience, and so

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Speaker 2: it was nice to be in in a locker room

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Speaker 2: and specifically a room of linebackers who had that experience,

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Speaker 2: and I was able to draw from and learn from,

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Speaker 2: you know. And in year one, I was just coming

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Speaker 2: in trying to take the same mindset I took into

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Speaker 2: Notre Dame in terms of you know, I knew probably

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Speaker 2: early on i'd have an opportunity on special teams and

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Speaker 2: an opportunity to compete and make my presence known and

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Speaker 2: just try to take, you know, advantage of those opportunities.

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Speaker 2: And I think certainly as the year went on, you know,

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Speaker 2: I got more reps on defense, and like you said,

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Speaker 2: the started to slow down a little bit. But you know,

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Speaker 2: I'll be honest too. You've got in college, you know,

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Speaker 2: some teams trying to run eighty ninety one hundred plays

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Speaker 2: a game, and it can get, you know, exhausting. And

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Speaker 2: so the speed of the game, you know, actually like

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Speaker 2: the pace of the game is actually slower in the

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Speaker 2: NFL in my opinion. Uh, but the time between the

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Speaker 2: ball is snapped and when the play is dead is

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Speaker 2: a lot faster. And so you've got to be on

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Speaker 2: your alignments. You've got to be you know, where is

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Speaker 2: this receiver aligned at? Can you get on me quickly?

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Speaker 2: You know, where's the split of the back? All these

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Speaker 2: different nuances and the quarterbacks are outstanding at recognizing, you know,

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Speaker 2: the defenses you're in, so trying to stem two different

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Speaker 2: positions in order to disguise. There's all the nuances of

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Speaker 2: the NFL game that are that are different than maybe college,

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Speaker 2: where you just align and and you know, maybe out

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Speaker 2: talent someone or out out work someone with techniques. So it's, uh,

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Speaker 2: it's definitely a learning curve. And I feel like we're

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Speaker 2: on we're on pace, you know, in our room, and

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Speaker 2: I like, you know, where the offseason has been for me.

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Speaker 1: Hey, get if Murray comes in a first rounder, what

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Speaker 1: was your actually when the Chargers selected Kenneth someone that

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Speaker 1: you're gonna be able to play alongside for a long time.

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Speaker 1: And I'm sure the perfect person to talk to for

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Speaker 1: Kenneth as you being that you just lived your first

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Speaker 1: year in the NFL.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a little bit, you know, disappointed we didn't

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Speaker 2: have meetings and stuff in person this year because I

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Speaker 2: was really looking forward to getting to know him and

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Speaker 2: spend some more time with him. But hopefully here in

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Speaker 2: the next few weeks we can kind of connect a

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Speaker 2: little bit more. It was as tough via zoom when

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Speaker 2: you just have a limited amount of time to get

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Speaker 2: to know him. But the way our head coach and

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Speaker 2: I you know, I trust our head coach, and he

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Speaker 2: speaks very, very highly of him. And you can just

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Speaker 2: watch the highlight clips the guys you know, a beast

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Speaker 2: and so I'm excited to see him get on the

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Speaker 2: field and make plays for us for sure.

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Speaker 1: Final thing for you, Drew, I know that you took

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Speaker 1: the cast of Seal Team on CBS to Sofi Stadium

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Speaker 1: and give him a little tour. This thing is almost ready. Man,

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Speaker 1: what's your excitement level to be able to play in

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Speaker 1: this place? It looks like a palace. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: It may be the most beautiful stadium we've ever seen.

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Speaker 2: It's I'll tell you what when I when I toured

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Speaker 2: at Chris it was it was it's an engineering phenomena,

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Speaker 2: and studying engineering in school, it was just super interesting

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Speaker 2: to me. The different mechanics of just how the audio

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Speaker 2: is going to work, how you know, the stadiums like

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Speaker 2: deeper underground than any other stadium that's that's been built.

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Speaker 2: And so it's a super unique design where it's kind

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Speaker 2: of open to airflow. It's got this unique you know

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Speaker 2: covering over it, a retracting roof, just all these different

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Speaker 2: unique components, a massive just jumbo tron. So it's it's

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Speaker 2: going to be super cool to play with. Hopefully we'll

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Speaker 2: have some fans in there and it'll be rocking. But

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Speaker 2: even even without fans, in the circumstances with with everything happening,

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Speaker 2: I'm sure it's still gonna be awesome to get out

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Speaker 2: there and actually have a place to call home, you know.

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Speaker 1: No doubt, no doubt. Well, we're we're looking forward to

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Speaker 1: seeing you on the field here shortly. If you want

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Speaker 1: to let our listeners and viewers know where you can

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Speaker 1: see hear me out. I know a lot of different platforms,

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Speaker 1: I GTV. What's the best way.

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Speaker 2: Drew, Yeah, So you can any social platform, whether it's Instagram, Twitter,

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Speaker 2: they'll all be posted there. YouTube, we're posting there as well,

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Speaker 2: and we're working on getting stuff in place where you

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Speaker 2: can just listen to the audio on Spotify and podcasts

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Speaker 2: and iTunes music. So right now available on all streaming platforms, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook,

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Speaker 2: you name it, it's there. It's great man.

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Speaker 1: Well, hey, thank you so much for your time and

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Speaker 1: wish you and your family all the best. Look forward

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Speaker 1: to seeing you soon.

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Speaker 2: All right, Chris, thanks so much for your time. We'll

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Speaker 2: see you all right, guys.

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Speaker 1: That's going to do it for us. A big thanks

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Speaker 1: to Drew for joining me, and of course thanks to

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Speaker 1: you all for listening. Remember be sure to download and

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Speaker 1: subscribe to the Chargers Podcast Network wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Speaker 1: Have a great weekend and until next time, I'm Chris.

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Speaker 1: Heyrey