Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser and I'm
Speaker 1: Jason Kelly. We're here every day bringing you the latest
Speaker 1: news from the world's of business and finance, plus technology, politics, economics,
Speaker 1: all harnessing the power of Bloomberg Business Week reporters and editors,
Speaker 1: not to mention our journalists and analysts more than a
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty countries. You can download Bloomberg Business Week
Speaker 1: on iTunes, SoundCloud, or Bloomberg dot Com. You can also
Speaker 1: listen to our radio show weekdays at two pm Eastern
Speaker 1: only on Bloomberg Radio. So earlier, Jason I caught up
Speaker 1: with a fan favorite of the Pittsburgh Steelers, a member
Speaker 1: of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Super Bowl champion.
Speaker 1: We're talking about Jerome Bettis the bus. He joined us
Speaker 1: and we talked about a lot of things, but we
Speaker 1: began by talking about a partnership that he's got with Hurts.
Speaker 1: So great to have you here on Bloomberg. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't like coming back to an event like this. It's
Speaker 1: always great because you know, this is the pinnacle of
Speaker 1: our sport, uh and this is the moment where you
Speaker 1: get an opportunity to crown the champion of a season
Speaker 1: so long and and so this is that that moment
Speaker 1: with the build up you know, to UH to a
Speaker 1: special moment for the players, for the coaches, for the organization.
Speaker 1: So it's just a great time and it's a time
Speaker 1: for us to kind of celebrate the game. You see
Speaker 1: some of our our contemporaries and to hang out a
Speaker 1: little bit with some of the guys, have a great time.
Speaker 1: So it just brings a good finish to a great season.
Speaker 1: And so would you show up an event like this, Jerome,
Speaker 1: in your current uh stage of life? How different does
Speaker 1: it feel? You know, what are the conversations you're having
Speaker 1: that that was different? It's different. It's different conversations because
Speaker 1: you know, I'm one of the old guys now. You know,
Speaker 1: It's like when when I first started coming over, I
Speaker 1: was I think you I was one of the young guys,
Speaker 1: right and I'm you know, young, second third year in
Speaker 1: the NFL and you're running around, you're doing interviews. And
Speaker 1: now as an elder statesman, I come out and I
Speaker 1: get a chance to see guys, you know, some of
Speaker 1: the younger quarterbacks and say, hey, gratulations, great job, keep
Speaker 1: up the great work. You know, just just acknowledging a
Speaker 1: lot of guys and letting them know how um, you know,
Speaker 1: how great they're doing. Uh and or you know, cheering
Speaker 1: guys up or whatever you need to do. Um being
Speaker 1: in a position I mean, now, it's about lending that support.
Speaker 1: You've got a great nickname the bus and you gotta
Speaker 1: you gotta part. We're gonna get into that nickname. And
Speaker 1: but you've got a great partnership, rightfully, So with Hurts,
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit about it. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a great partnership. What we're doing is I'm helping launch
Speaker 1: this program and it's called the Extra Mile Program. And
Speaker 1: the idea is to really celebrate uh and say thank
Speaker 1: you to the Gold Club Reward members that have really
Speaker 1: made Hurts number one in class. And so uh, it's
Speaker 1: and it's about creating the experiences, uh for those members.
Speaker 1: And and one of the experiences, UH is fifty people
Speaker 1: will have an opportunity to go to the big game
Speaker 1: in style, right and and you know my nickname, So
Speaker 1: what would you think would be in style? In style
Speaker 1: is a decked out bus where these people and their
Speaker 1: friends will have an opportunity to go to the game. Uh.
Speaker 1: And and celebrate the big game on either side. But
Speaker 1: if you're not going to the game, then there's an
Speaker 1: opportunity as well for people to go to Instagram and
Speaker 1: and post a picture on their story and tag it
Speaker 1: with uh at Hurts and they'll have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: win three hundred dollars in the future. UH rentals uh
Speaker 1: from Hurts. All right, I gotta ask you about your coach,
Speaker 1: Bill Coward going into the Hall of Fame. I mean,
Speaker 1: what a moment for him. You know, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of emotion around that. What did you feel when when
Speaker 1: you heard obviously not unexpected in a lot of ways exactly,
Speaker 1: but still but but uncertain not unexpected, but uncertain, right,
Speaker 1: because you never know as much as you say. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I'll use myself as an example. You know, people
Speaker 1: you should always say, oh I didn't get in this year.
Speaker 1: They said, oh, you're a Hall of Famer in my book,
Speaker 1: And I just couldn't help with saying to myself, your
Speaker 1: book doesn't count. Nobody reads your book, right, I want
Speaker 1: to be in And so I'm sure coach was. He
Speaker 1: was in that same kind of feeling that, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: this opportunity, it's not promised, and so he's kind of
Speaker 1: missed a couple of opportunities, and so now it happened,
Speaker 1: and it happened in such a way that did where
Speaker 1: he had he was surprised on air. It was just
Speaker 1: it was it was just a beautiful moment. And I
Speaker 1: was so happy that he was able to get into
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame because he is deserving and really the
Speaker 1: reason that I was able to get into Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame is because of him believing in me, uh to
Speaker 1: the point where he gave me so many opportunities to
Speaker 1: be successful. Well that's what I was reading about that
Speaker 1: he really was a game changer for you, right, he was.
Speaker 1: He was so so when I came to Pittsburgh, I
Speaker 1: needed to go to a team that the mindset was
Speaker 1: running the foot ball, because so many times you can
Speaker 1: go to an organization and if it doesn't really fit,
Speaker 1: you're stuck, right and you maybe have you may be
Speaker 1: a Hall of Fame caliber talent, but it never's realized.
Speaker 1: And he was able to realize my talent by saying,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna run your own We're gonna
Speaker 1: pound the football, we're gonna play great defense, and we're
Speaker 1: gonna win a lot of football games. And because of that,
Speaker 1: I became the focus, the central focus of the offense,
Speaker 1: and I don't have success after success after success. The
Speaker 1: hard part though, was we weren't able to win a
Speaker 1: championship early on, and so that was the the goal,
Speaker 1: the drive, and ultimately we we finally got there. And
Speaker 1: and that was just the kind of the cherry on
Speaker 1: on on the ice, on top of the cake for me.
Speaker 1: All Right, did you know why he's called the bus?
Speaker 1: But go ahead? Do you? All right? Why are you
Speaker 1: called the bus? They're calling the us? It happen, Well,
Speaker 1: it happened at this maybe, Okay, well I don't know
Speaker 1: what story. Well, let me tell you the story. When
Speaker 1: I was at the University of Notre Dame, there was
Speaker 1: a writer in a student body newspaper that wrote that
Speaker 1: I kind of looked like the look like a bus, right,
Speaker 1: And so the student body and there Dame would whenever
Speaker 1: I would run, they would say, nobody stops the bus, right,
Speaker 1: the little chape. And then what happened when I got
Speaker 1: to it disappeared when I went to the rams, because
Speaker 1: they started started calling me the battery Ram when I
Speaker 1: was in in l a. And then when I came
Speaker 1: to Pittsburgh. Western Pennsylvania is a huge Notre Dame area, right,
Speaker 1: So I was We were playing a preseason game against
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers, and one of the former coaches from
Speaker 1: Notre Dame who was now coaching that he was at
Speaker 1: that point coaching at Wisconsin. He brought his family up
Speaker 1: to see his brother, who was a tight end on
Speaker 1: on my team, and we're in the lobby. He's ease me.
Speaker 1: He says, hey, Bussy, what's up. And and the announcers,
Speaker 1: Bill hill Grove and Myron Cope, legendary Myron Cope were
Speaker 1: in the loby heard him say it. And in the
Speaker 1: game the next day, Billy hill grow says, oh, yes,
Speaker 1: he had a deep voice. And then his snick name
Speaker 1: is the Bus. And then Myron Cope he has a
Speaker 1: very unique voice. He said, he kind of looks like
Speaker 1: a bus. And that was it, and and that was it.
Speaker 1: I was the Bus from forever more after that. That's amazing.
Speaker 1: I do want to go back to the coaching piece
Speaker 1: for just a minute, because we're at such an interesting
Speaker 1: moment in the league, new coaches getting hired, um and
Speaker 1: the Rooney will exists, and yet and yet, Uh, there's
Speaker 1: no diversity. I mean there's there's there's a shocking lot
Speaker 1: adversity the tough league. What does the league need to do?
Speaker 1: That's that's the hard part, because ultimately you want the
Speaker 1: right person for the right job, right and and so
Speaker 1: I believe the NFL has to find a way to
Speaker 1: promote more candidates because if there's more candidates, then there's
Speaker 1: more opportunity for you to like one of the other candidates.
Speaker 1: If there's only one candidate, and if I don't necessary
Speaker 1: care for his his coaching style, then I'm limited in
Speaker 1: terms of me uh going and picking a certain minority. Right.
Speaker 1: So now you create an opportunity where you have more
Speaker 1: minority coaches available. Now it gives the owners and the
Speaker 1: decision makers more of an opportunity to say, you know what,
Speaker 1: I like his style compared to his style, And when
Speaker 1: you don't, when you compare apples to oranges, you don't
Speaker 1: get a very very fair assessment of what you have available.
Speaker 1: And you do have to wonder, and you know this
Speaker 1: world much better than I do, whether it has to
Speaker 1: start at the college, you know what, whether they're just
Speaker 1: you know, it just needs to sort of like bubble
Speaker 1: up I don't you know, And I'll say the NFL
Speaker 1: has largely been independent of the college ranks in terms
Speaker 1: of hiring. Uh sometimes every now and then they'll hire
Speaker 1: a Kingsbury from from college ranks, but predominantly most of
Speaker 1: your NFL coaches come from the ranks. So what you
Speaker 1: have to do is find a way to promote internally
Speaker 1: some of those minority coaches that are up and comers
Speaker 1: and they need opportunities to be offensive coordinators defensive coordinators, right,
Speaker 1: so that now that opportunity presents itself. And then we
Speaker 1: had these certain situations, Uh, Baltimore Ravens they hire a
Speaker 1: special teams coach, the New York Giants they hire a
Speaker 1: special teams coach. Well, there there hasn't been an opportunity
Speaker 1: where and in minority coach outside of offensive defensive corder
Speaker 1: has even been interviewed. So maybe that needs to be
Speaker 1: looked at a little bit more So. I think there's
Speaker 1: some some some places where they can create opportunities for
Speaker 1: more minorities. So does it just increase a weirdness droom
Speaker 1: because it sounds like the awareness is there or is
Speaker 1: it like let's do quotas or something. I don't think
Speaker 1: you can do quotas because you can't hire somebody who's
Speaker 1: not ready, who's not qualified. You want to you can,
Speaker 1: but but here's here's what I say. What I say
Speaker 1: is you you need to make sure that these coaches
Speaker 1: are getting the opportunities. So maybe you are providing them
Speaker 1: to toolach so that they can go from a wide
Speaker 1: receivers coach and know how to become an offers a coordinator. Right.
Speaker 1: And if you can do that, now you've created an
Speaker 1: opportunity for a person who at a year ago may
Speaker 1: have not been ready, but now he's ready. And so
Speaker 1: they have a ton of or her absolutely former coaches
Speaker 1: that would be available to mentor some of these coaches. Right.
Speaker 1: You you get some some retired UH coaches, Bill Coward
Speaker 1: as example, tutor tutoring on some of these younger guys
Speaker 1: on how to be a head coach. And I think
Speaker 1: that's not being taken advantage of. We have all these
Speaker 1: great coaches that have since retired and they have a
Speaker 1: wealth of knowledge, and so we need to find a
Speaker 1: way to get that knowledge and get that into the
Speaker 1: younger people's hands. Just like we as running backs. Um
Speaker 1: we do I have I have young guys that I
Speaker 1: talked to all time, and I'm telling them about certain
Speaker 1: things that they need to look for and watch, and
Speaker 1: I think that needs to happen as well from a
Speaker 1: head coaching perspectively. Do it in journalism all the time. Yeah, absolutely, mentorship.
Speaker 1: All right, Bettist, what a treat for us. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much, good luck and look forward to Actually we
Speaker 1: didn't get your call for Sunday. What do you think
Speaker 1: the call? I think the phone hung up. I am
Speaker 1: rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs. I want to see
Speaker 1: Andy Reid win a championship, but I will say the
Speaker 1: forty Niners are more than formidable. I think this is
Speaker 1: gonna be a tough, tough ask uh. So I'm expecting
Speaker 1: to see a great game. Hopefully Can City wins, but
Speaker 1: if San Francisco wins, I will be equally as happy
Speaker 1: because it's two great teams that's playing for championships. It's
Speaker 1: going to be a heck of a game, I believe.
Speaker 1: So it is lining up to be all right, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much, great, thank you, Thank you. Guys. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly on Bloomberg Radio earlier today, we got a chance
Speaker 1: to catch up with Justin Tuck, well known to our
Speaker 1: New York audience as a giant. UH. He had some
Speaker 1: things to say about the game about Eli Manning. Take
Speaker 1: a listen. I was blessed to have a safety in
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, and Volvo thought that it would be
Speaker 1: unique and fun to partner with something they've known for
Speaker 1: safety or something I've known for football. So basically what
Speaker 1: we're doing is they were created with creating the triple
Speaker 1: point safety belt system that has been created with saving
Speaker 1: over a million lives in car accidents. So this year
Speaker 1: they're they're donating over a million dollars worth of cars
Speaker 1: if there's a safety takes place in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: So if a safety takes place in the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: UM they will be giving away a million dollars for cars,
Speaker 1: and the way you can register for that is going
Speaker 1: to UM Volvo Safety Sunday dot com. Once you go
Speaker 1: to that website, you have the opportunity to pick the
Speaker 1: car of your choice created in the in the color,
Speaker 1: the wheels, the interior that you like, and that will
Speaker 1: automatically register you into this poll. If a safety occurs,
Speaker 1: they will pick randomly. UH. Cars up until a million
Speaker 1: bucks UH to donate out to UH to winners. I
Speaker 1: gotta ask you grew up being going to the Giant
Speaker 1: Games season tickets. My brothers still going. Um, Eli Manning,
Speaker 1: Manning era over? What do you think? It also feels
Speaker 1: like there's an era maybe in terms of you know,
Speaker 1: quarterbacks that have been in the league for a while,
Speaker 1: but it's Tom Brady out in Boston. Um is there
Speaker 1: kind of a new era? Are we seeing that in
Speaker 1: terms of a change, Yeah, I mean you're starting to
Speaker 1: I think you know, if you look at the early
Speaker 1: two thousand's quarterback play, the likes of the Tom brady Is,
Speaker 1: the Eli Manning and the Walthics Breakers, the Rivers, the Breezes,
Speaker 1: you know, those guys are getting a little older in
Speaker 1: the in the saddle and and they're starting to kind
Speaker 1: of that wave of kind of fourteen to eighteen year
Speaker 1: quarterbacks and starting to obviously retire. But you're also seeing
Speaker 1: a young Cramper guys coming through now with the Mahomes
Speaker 1: and the Watson's and the Jackson's and so on and
Speaker 1: so forth of quarterbacks that looks like he's going to
Speaker 1: continue to move this league in a positive light. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean obviously elives my guye and in some way
Speaker 1: he's sad to see him go, but I think it's
Speaker 1: a good time. And uh so, yeah, I'm excited for
Speaker 1: what he to see what he does next. Any good
Speaker 1: stories with Eli Ah plenty too many, Listen, I mean,
Speaker 1: like the thing that he's going to be known for
Speaker 1: more than anything, right, it's just how he made people
Speaker 1: around him feel he was a superstar in the and
Speaker 1: and then you know the more the biggest city in
Speaker 1: the world, right, but he always kept his his root.
Speaker 1: He was rooted, he was grounded, and who he was
Speaker 1: and what he believed in. They never changed him as
Speaker 1: a success, built and built the built, he never changed
Speaker 1: and he made it very you know easy for the
Speaker 1: new guys are come in and just you know, pick
Speaker 1: his brain and just he never was a guy that
Speaker 1: that that he never felt like he was the superstar,
Speaker 1: even though he just obviously was. So how do you
Speaker 1: feel about the Giants right now? New coach coming in?
Speaker 1: By the way, I have the same shirt you have.
Speaker 1: That's that's wrong And I love the at I can't
Speaker 1: talk about them right now. I'm here with Volvo, but
Speaker 1: I love Shout But now. Um, So, as you think
Speaker 1: about the Giants coming forward, a lot of room to grow,
Speaker 1: to say, at least, what do they need to do
Speaker 1: from your perspective, because they need to focus on what
Speaker 1: you were doing obviously right to me and simple and
Speaker 1: to get there is not simple, but the focus is simple.
Speaker 1: Right in this league, if you don't show up your line,
Speaker 1: it's just not gonna have success. You can have the
Speaker 1: greatest quarterback, great vide receivers, if you can't protect the
Speaker 1: quarterback and give him time to get the ball to
Speaker 1: those those great athletes on the ages, that don't matter.
Speaker 1: So I think you have to focus on our old line,
Speaker 1: our D lines, show that up and then bill from there.
Speaker 1: And if you look at our Super Bowl runs, we
Speaker 1: had one of the more pronounced UM old line d
Speaker 1: D lines, I mean from Kareem McKenzie, Chrisnie O'Hara, Rich
Speaker 1: Serbert David Deal that old line when they played together.
Speaker 1: I remember, I remember we set a record one year.
Speaker 1: I forget what the year was. They Elie was only
Speaker 1: sat thirteen times in the season. That's unbelievable because Eline
Speaker 1: is not moving as a D line and I know
Speaker 1: where he's going to be, so it makes him easier
Speaker 1: to pass rush against. So let's just let you know
Speaker 1: how good that old line was. And obviously our D
Speaker 1: line has gotten so many accolades, so what we was
Speaker 1: able to do in our Super Bowl runs there. So
Speaker 1: if you part those two together, I think you have
Speaker 1: a you have a really good shot of turning think
Speaker 1: around with That's what all the teams that are playing
Speaker 1: the judges look at all the time. Again, right different,
Speaker 1: all right, So last question, playing on the biggest stage.
Speaker 1: What was it like to play in New York? I mean,
Speaker 1: we live in New York. We know, you know, you
Speaker 1: make it there, you can make it anywhere. How different
Speaker 1: is it in your estimation? For me? And everything was
Speaker 1: so much more amped up. It was so much more
Speaker 1: um just pressure on you. And I liked it, though
Speaker 1: some people didn't. Some people weren't able to kind of
Speaker 1: thrive there. And that's why you see some guys we
Speaker 1: had this autist pub and autist this uh kind of
Speaker 1: you know fair and fan fair leading into them coming
Speaker 1: to New York and didn't do well. I just loved it.
Speaker 1: I was I was a country boy from Alabama, didn't
Speaker 1: really care for all of it, so I found it intriguing.
Speaker 1: So but I think it made me a better player,
Speaker 1: It made me, it made me keep Yeah, I just
Speaker 1: I think I think it made you make sure you
Speaker 1: had all your teeth, didn't I mean all your teeths
Speaker 1: crossing your eyes got it just because that's the type
Speaker 1: of place where you could win one day and they
Speaker 1: loved you to the next day. They booed you, and
Speaker 1: it's like, so I kept you humble. I think New
Speaker 1: York kept you so humble and kept us focused and
Speaker 1: working because we always knew that it didn't matter. We
Speaker 1: went on a five game winning stream and the next
Speaker 1: next home game we were down, you know, fourteen and
Speaker 1: a half. Time. We're walking in that tunnel. You're gonna
Speaker 1: hear booze. I mean we could have been eighteen. We
Speaker 1: could have been seventeen and old going into the well,
Speaker 1: that's not possible. We could have been fifteen and old
Speaker 1: going into halftime, fifteen and old, or the sixteen for
Speaker 1: the sixteenth game. And they didn't bleeve. They didn't think
Speaker 1: we were doing we should be doing. They were gonna
Speaker 1: buy you. Just so, I actually loved that about New Yorker. Man.
Speaker 1: They just they kept you humble, They kept you, they
Speaker 1: kept you hungry to destrive for more. That's the hardest
Speaker 1: question you can give a guy like me. We just
Speaker 1: talked about old line, D line, right. I think when
Speaker 1: it comes to that matchup alone, I think I think, um,
Speaker 1: the forty Nins have an edge there. Obviously ken See
Speaker 1: has a lot of edges on other things. I think
Speaker 1: the quarterback edge goes to him. I think the wide
Speaker 1: receiver age go to him. But when I think about
Speaker 1: teams like games like this, where you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: settle in and really play football, it all starts up front.
Speaker 1: And so I give a nod a little bit to
Speaker 1: I mean to thet my heart says that is Andy
Speaker 1: Ree's time. Yeah, but saying just working with the mental
Speaker 1: right now. If I'm just calling it all things even,
Speaker 1: I give give San Francisco just a tad bit of
Speaker 1: a age, all right. And that of course is justin Tuck.
Speaker 1: Our New York Giants fans really loved watching him, and
Speaker 1: I really had to say about playing in New York.
Speaker 1: Also Eli Manning and and sort of the legacy that
Speaker 1: Eli had. And you know, I think this year, you know,
Speaker 1: as someone who watches the game relatively closely, you know,
Speaker 1: this year was a tough one because I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, it was a it was a tough goodbye
Speaker 1: in many ways, but I think history in many ways
Speaker 1: because of the sorts of things that Justin Tuch said,
Speaker 1: will be very kind to Eli Man. You want a
Speaker 1: couple of Super Bowls and more to the point, by
Speaker 1: all accounts, good human. That's what I love to hear that,
Speaker 1: he said, you know, when new players came in Eli
Speaker 1: Man and kind of took him to to, you know,
Speaker 1: his side and kind of help them out and stuff,
Speaker 1: and you kind of love to hear that somebody is
Speaker 1: not only good at what they do, but you know,
Speaker 1: helping outthers uh and really a team player. You're listening
Speaker 1: to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. We're here at the Miami Beach Convention Center,
Speaker 1: just a couple of days ahead of the Big Game.
Speaker 1: But on Saturday, there's gonna be something else. And now
Speaker 1: it's something that is really important to a lot of
Speaker 1: the players and former players and a lot of fans
Speaker 1: as well. It's the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.
Speaker 1: We've got a nominee here with us. That is Devon Kinnard.
Speaker 1: He plays linebacker for the Detroit Lions. For those of
Speaker 1: our New York listeners might remember him during his tour
Speaker 1: in our fair city with the Giants. Devon, great to
Speaker 1: have you, Thanks for having all right, So let's talk
Speaker 1: about the Man of the Year award. Uh that I mean,
Speaker 1: Walter Payton embodied so many things and I think is
Speaker 1: one of just the those figures in the NFL that
Speaker 1: will live forever in many ways. What does it mean
Speaker 1: to be nominated for this? Uh? You know, it's truly
Speaker 1: an honor for me. You know, I think of um,
Speaker 1: Walter Payton and just to have my name mentioned alongside his,
Speaker 1: And then I look at a lot of the guys
Speaker 1: who have been nominated and who won this award in
Speaker 1: the past, and it's just truly an honor and I
Speaker 1: feel humbled to be in this position. And UM, you know,
Speaker 1: I just want to shed light on the things that
Speaker 1: the organizations that I work with, um you know, off
Speaker 1: the field and and um you know, bring awareness to that.
Speaker 1: So tell us about some of those, UM you know,
Speaker 1: big organization I work with in Detroit is um the
Speaker 1: Midnight Golf Program and it's after school program for UM
Speaker 1: high school seniors and it helps them with the transition
Speaker 1: to college. So you're talking about inner city kids who
Speaker 1: you know are working hard in school and they're trying
Speaker 1: to put themselves in position. But you know, it might
Speaker 1: be first generation college students. Students so parents didn't didn't
Speaker 1: go to college, so they don't know about s A
Speaker 1: T S A C A T a C T s,
Speaker 1: applying for loans, applying for college, you know, and UM
Speaker 1: it's a mentorship program that walks them through every step
Speaker 1: of the way, UM when it comes to those things,
Speaker 1: and you know, they take tours and they visit colleges
Speaker 1: all around Detroit, but also UM they take a trip
Speaker 1: you know, out of the state as well, so they
Speaker 1: can see a school out of the state. And it
Speaker 1: just really provides, UH, these kids an opportunity to to
Speaker 1: realize that they can accomplish their dreams. Right. You can't
Speaker 1: go after something if you don't even know what you're
Speaker 1: supposed to go after, Right, tell me about some of
Speaker 1: the stories, I mean, and some of the things that
Speaker 1: you've seen happen as a result of that, you know,
Speaker 1: for me, UM, I created a scholarship fund where I
Speaker 1: started offering scholarship. Scholarship, and I asked the kids to
Speaker 1: to choose a book that they read, because I really
Speaker 1: enjoy reading, and I try to promote that, Um with
Speaker 1: kids to choose a book book that they've read recently
Speaker 1: and tell me the impact that it had on their
Speaker 1: lives and um, you know what they took from it
Speaker 1: and some of the responses and hearing some of these
Speaker 1: kids stories and what they've gone through or what they're
Speaker 1: going through, and um, you know, their perseverance to get
Speaker 1: to this point in their life, and UM, you know,
Speaker 1: it's just really been been motivating. And I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: those kids opportunity oftentime. Kids like that just need more opportunities,
Speaker 1: and uh, that's what I want to help remind them.
Speaker 1: All Right, I gotta ask you about the game on Sunday.
Speaker 1: You know, you know all about a lot of quarterbacks
Speaker 1: and trying to get to them. How do you get
Speaker 1: to my homes? What's his weakness? I mean, you definitely
Speaker 1: got to make him uncomfortable. You want him to stay
Speaker 1: in the pocket. Actually he's not a guy. He's a
Speaker 1: guy you want if you start letting him extend plays
Speaker 1: and running all over the field. Uh. That's where guys
Speaker 1: like Kelsey or some of their explosive receivers, you know,
Speaker 1: get deep and he could he could hail it. So
Speaker 1: I mean, I think it starts with trying to keep
Speaker 1: him in the pocket. Um. And uh, that's a big
Speaker 1: thing San fran Is gonna have to do. They have
Speaker 1: great pass rushers all over the field, but it's gonna
Speaker 1: have to be a good balance of going and hunting them,
Speaker 1: but also you know, keeping your rush lanes and not
Speaker 1: not letting him extend plays and get those explosives. What's
Speaker 1: harder going against a passing team like Kansas City or
Speaker 1: a running team like San Francisco. Um, I think that
Speaker 1: it can both be challenging. You know, I'd say you
Speaker 1: gotta make a team one dimensional. Um, because if when
Speaker 1: you're playing good quarterbacks with vote, which uh you know
Speaker 1: both of these teams have, then if they can run
Speaker 1: the ball and throw the ball, then you're in trouble,
Speaker 1: you know. So I think every game plan starts with
Speaker 1: stopping the run and making the team one dimensional. But
Speaker 1: you know, when you do that against the Kansas City
Speaker 1: for instance, you know, um, you gotta stop the run.
Speaker 1: And then once you stop the run. Now it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, you gotta whole another beast on your hands,
Speaker 1: because now he's gonna be you know, trying to sling
Speaker 1: that thing around. All right? For our New York fans,
Speaker 1: what's it like playing in Detroit versus New York? And
Speaker 1: I should point out you had a good moment I
Speaker 1: believe this year where you had a big play against
Speaker 1: your forward team, right yeah, yeah, absolutely, um you know
Speaker 1: playing it playing in New York. I enjoyed my time.
Speaker 1: Now I'll never never speaking um ill on it. You know,
Speaker 1: that's the team that drafted me, gave me an opportunity.
Speaker 1: But you know I'm going to Detroit. They put me
Speaker 1: in a position and gave me an opportunity, uh to
Speaker 1: do when I'm best at. And you know, I feel
Speaker 1: like I've excelled and have been improving these last two seasons,
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, I'm ready to work hard and
Speaker 1: get ready to take the next step. So you're not
Speaker 1: gonna which is your favorite? No, Actually, I gotta I
Speaker 1: gotta Detroit. Now that's an easy answer. Go ahead. But
Speaker 1: I can say we had a conversation earlier and we
Speaker 1: were talking about diversity. Uh, certainly among the coaching staff. Um,
Speaker 1: how do we improve that? I think just giving more
Speaker 1: guys opportunities and um, you know, like I think that
Speaker 1: we're gonna start seeing that more and more. I think
Speaker 1: we have a woman coach in the second Bowl. That's
Speaker 1: that's pretty often. UM. And I think I think it's
Speaker 1: um happening slowly but um, slowly but surely. But I
Speaker 1: think it's we're gonna start seeing more and more of
Speaker 1: of you know, diversity in multiple ways in professional It
Speaker 1: sounds like and we were talking with Jerome Bettis earlier
Speaker 1: and this was a long conversation we had with him,
Speaker 1: it sounds like more and more players are sort of
Speaker 1: agitating for for this. The players feel sort of emboldened
Speaker 1: and empowered to to speak up about this issue. Do
Speaker 1: you think that's fair? I think so. I mean, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you want you want coaches with different experiences,
Speaker 1: of different backgrounds and things like that, and and who
Speaker 1: can connect or relate with players in a different way.
Speaker 1: So I think I think that's healthy. The City forty
Speaker 1: Niners just got five seconds. Make the call. I'm gonna go.
Speaker 1: I like defense, I like san fran alright, good job,
Speaker 1: all right, Devon, Thank you so much. Good Luck. On Saturday,
Speaker 1: he has a nominee for the Walter Payton Man of
Speaker 1: the Year Award. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. Jason
Speaker 1: Kelly and Carol Master here with you in Miami Beach.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Bloomberg Business Week. You can subscribe
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