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Speaker 1: Soon.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to the Ozone Podcast with Jaguars senior writer Sean Osher.

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Speaker 2: All right, welcome into this week's ozone podcast. I'm joined

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Speaker 2: by player. I'm excited about talking to a little intimidated

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Speaker 2: because my question is probably won't be good enough to

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Speaker 2: Yale graduate and Jaguars linebacker Foy a little time. Thank

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Speaker 2: you first of all for doing this, No, thank you

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Speaker 2: for having me and tell me before we get in,

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Speaker 2: I want to get into some of your background. But

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Speaker 2: as you prepare to play the Texans one and one

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Speaker 2: right now, what's your read on the team right now

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Speaker 2: going in? Where do you feel like you guys.

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Speaker 3: Stand our team? Yeah, you know, the season just started.

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Speaker 3: We got to win under our belt. Obviously you have

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Speaker 3: a loss in under our belt. But season is what

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Speaker 3: we make it. You have all the opportunities ahead of us,

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Speaker 3: you know. Just get back on that wing column and

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Speaker 3: continue to do that to work to build a win

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Speaker 3: streak and see how we go going forward the rest

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Speaker 3: of the season.

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Speaker 2: As a defense, I think people who listen to preseason

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Speaker 2: talk or maybe surprised at hell, well, you guys are playing.

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Speaker 2: You guys don't care about preseason talk. Surprised, pleased, how

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Speaker 2: would you feel about how the defense playing right now.

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Speaker 1: I couldn't say surprised.

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Speaker 3: I think we could definitely be playing better though, But

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Speaker 3: I couldn't say surprised. Everybody coming back or we all

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Speaker 3: play with each other, so we kind of know what

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Speaker 3: it looks like when we're doing things right. We've definitely

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Speaker 3: grown as a whole unit and have a lot of

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Speaker 3: trust in our brothers, you know, being able to play

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Speaker 3: off of them. That kind of helps you fly around

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Speaker 3: a little bit more. So I can't say I'm surprised.

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Speaker 3: We all know the talent we have in our rooms.

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Speaker 3: Just going out there and executing.

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Speaker 2: How much of a factor you mentioned right at the top,

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Speaker 2: and you know, in trying to analyze this bunch, I

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Speaker 2: sort of missed it for a long time, having everybody

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Speaker 2: coming back, being in the second year of a scheme.

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Speaker 2: You and Josh Allen, really you're talking about a lot

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Speaker 2: during camp and all of a sudden struck me, Hey,

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Speaker 2: this could be real. How important is it? Just everybody

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Speaker 2: knowing what they're doing and being confident in that.

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Speaker 1: I think that's the first part of defense.

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Speaker 3: Everybody knows what they're doing, then you make the place

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Speaker 3: when you're putting those one on one positions. But if

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Speaker 3: you're not in the right place, like it don't matter

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Speaker 3: if you win a pass rush if somebody is opening

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Speaker 3: the flat, or don't matter when you're inside rush if

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Speaker 3: now there's nobody containing so keeping them in the pocket.

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Speaker 3: So everybody being in the right spots is going to

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Speaker 3: help you win on your one on one battle. And

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Speaker 3: when you have talents, you're able to exploit that you've.

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Speaker 2: Been in the league for a while. What's interesting about

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Speaker 2: this team and even this defense, it seems like you

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Speaker 2: guys really like each other and I like playing together.

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Speaker 2: Is that a real thing? And how much I guess

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Speaker 2: how true is that?

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Speaker 3: It looks I like everybody I play with on the team.

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Speaker 1: I feel like pretty close unit.

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Speaker 3: And even when we bring in guys, we kind of

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Speaker 3: u showed them along to make sure all we're all

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Speaker 3: friends first. At the end of the day, we ain't

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Speaker 3: got no you know, bickering and stuff. Well, we bicker sometimes,

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Speaker 3: but it's all fun and games like it's all part

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Speaker 3: of just being friends and stuff. So I think our

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Speaker 3: friendship comes first. And then obviously when you're good friends,

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Speaker 3: we all know we got a job to do. We're

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Speaker 3: going to help each other do it.

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Speaker 2: Now, I'm not being too repetitive. I know you've talked

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Speaker 2: about things like this before, but what is Team Ugly

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Speaker 2: For people who don't know it?

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Speaker 1: Ugly game?

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Speaker 2: And tell me why that sort of started.

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Speaker 1: Why it's team ugly Ugly? You know got the my brand? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it is me. I am Ugly. Ugly is me.

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Speaker 3: It stands for you got to love yourself. Just kind

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Speaker 3: of growing up, I've always been put in positions where

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Speaker 3: I might not, you know, fit into a lot of places,

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Speaker 3: regardless of what it is. By learning that just to

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Speaker 3: be me, and that's what it stands for. You gotta

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Speaker 3: love yourself. Kind of like the story of the Ugly duckling.

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Speaker 3: It wasn't like the other ducks around town, but at

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Speaker 3: the end of the day.

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Speaker 1: It was a beautiful swan.

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Speaker 3: So just because you're different than me, that you're not

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Speaker 3: you know that who you are as a person can't shine.

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Speaker 3: And really that's just kind of how it go about

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Speaker 3: my life.

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Speaker 1: No matter what.

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Speaker 3: Setting I'm put in, I'm always going to be myself.

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Speaker 3: I'm always gonna acclect myself. You can take it to

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Speaker 3: you know, when I was not really being looked at

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Speaker 3: to be drafted or just did what I needed to do,

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Speaker 3: kind of embrace my kind of hybrid role train focused

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Speaker 3: on myself and then eventually, you know, doing what I do,

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Speaker 3: I was able to shine a lot of times.

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Speaker 1: It's going to be counted out.

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Speaker 3: You just keep trusting yourself, keep loving what you put

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Speaker 3: out there on film or whatever wherever.

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Speaker 1: It is in life. That's what's gonna shine.

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Speaker 3: So you know, have that confidence in yourself rather than

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Speaker 3: other people having confidence in you.

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Speaker 1: Eventually it's gonna you know, pull through. Now.

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Speaker 2: Fascinating story, and I'll probably get some of it wrong

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Speaker 2: because I didn't write it down. Multi sport athlete. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: parents from Nigeria. Correct, you come here and soccer one

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Speaker 2: of your sports, but maybe not that you know, many

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Speaker 2: good sports coming up? Uh? When did football become the thing?

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Speaker 2: I guess I'll leave it there because I have follow ups.

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Speaker 1: When did it come in college? Really?

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Speaker 3: College? I thought I was gonna play basketball in college.

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Speaker 3: If you ask anybody in high school, probably majority of

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Speaker 3: people thought I went to you Ole to play basketball.

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Speaker 3: To be honest with you, that was my thing. We

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Speaker 3: had Jeeke he was the football guy. I was a

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Speaker 3: basketball guy. But yeah, I grew up. Soccer was my

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Speaker 3: first sport. Pretty good at that. Kind of just got tired.

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Speaker 3: We traveled all around the country, ranked in the country, uh,

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Speaker 3: camps and stuff, all this, Like I was a pretty

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Speaker 3: good soccer player.

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Speaker 1: Kind of got tired of it.

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Speaker 2: You're underplaying it a little bit. Suppose you're a really

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Speaker 2: good soccer player.

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Speaker 1: I was good. We was going to nationals and stuff.

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Speaker 2: I was.

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Speaker 1: I was. I was good that. Yeah, that was pretty good.

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Speaker 3: Obviously, I haven't played in a long time, so I'm

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Speaker 3: not going to be out there like Beckham.

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Speaker 1: Anymore, like you know what I'm saying. But we were.

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Speaker 3: We were really good, yeah, very good. And I love basketball.

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Speaker 3: I played baseball. That was just in the springs, you know,

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Speaker 3: keep me active. But really soccer was a year round thing.

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Speaker 3: Basketball was in the winters. It became a year round thing.

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Speaker 3: Baseball was in the spring. So I was always playing

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Speaker 3: a sport. And my basketball coach at started up this

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Speaker 3: basketball team. He said he wanted to start up a

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Speaker 3: football team. He went to my dad in like fifth grade,

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Speaker 3: fourth grade. So I'm trying to start this team for

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Speaker 3: He's a good athlete. We wanted to play. I ain't

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Speaker 3: got no time for that. He said, no, I'll make

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Speaker 3: the time, like I would drop him off for practices

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Speaker 3: and that, like it was just come and you know

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Speaker 3: see how it turns out. So I ended up playing

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Speaker 3: football for two years because my that my basketball coach

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Speaker 3: told me, you know America or foot, Americans played football,

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Speaker 3: not soccer.

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Speaker 1: So I played for two years. Ended up being pretty good.

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Speaker 3: Stopped because it was very time consuming with middle schools,

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Speaker 3: pretty rigorous academically for me, so it just didn't make

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Speaker 3: We had football and pe two. It didn't really make

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Speaker 3: sense to me keep playing while I was playing every

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Speaker 3: other sport. And then in high school I had to

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Speaker 3: make a decision about playing football or soccer. And I

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Speaker 3: got into some trouble with some soccer kids, like not

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Speaker 3: real trouble, just like I'm.

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Speaker 1: Tired of these kids.

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Speaker 2: Got tired of it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I said, you know, all my best friends

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Speaker 3: played football this school.

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Speaker 1: My brother went played football.

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Speaker 3: You know, the whole bonfire centered around football, Like, let

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Speaker 3: me just play football, Like it's just my kind of

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Speaker 3: guys over there playing football, So I just throw.

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Speaker 1: Football over soccer.

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Speaker 3: Also, the soccer team I played for that club team

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Speaker 3: didn't want me to play in any other sports, and

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Speaker 3: I grew up playing every sports. I'm like, I'm done,

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Speaker 3: I'm done with this. I want to play football. So

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Speaker 3: I ended up doing that all the way through high school.

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Speaker 3: I thought I was going to play basketball in college.

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Speaker 3: I was just playing football for fun. My high school

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Speaker 3: coach told me I should take it more seriously. People

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Speaker 3: are trying to recruit me. I did not even know

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Speaker 3: like they would. I send letters and stuff. My dad

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Speaker 3: would throw him out because he thought there were college ads.

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Speaker 3: So I'm out here with way and so you're getting offers. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: I actually did get some offer putting them in the trash.

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Speaker 3: That's that's that's correct. Yes, So my gus Faradi knows that,

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Speaker 3: like all the.

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Speaker 2: Offers that I had, Washington quarterback right.

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Speaker 3: And I said. He asked me what school I wanted

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Speaker 3: to go to. I said, I want to go to

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Speaker 3: Ivy School. So we sent my tape up to them.

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Speaker 3: I think I went to like a couple of camps,

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Speaker 3: and some guys around my high school had kind of

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Speaker 3: funded for me to go up to and then the

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Speaker 3: rest of his history, they kind of all offered me

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Speaker 3: after that, and I said, I'm going to Yale because

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Speaker 3: I went up there for a basketball camp. First loved

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Speaker 3: the camp, is loved the kind of just the feel

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Speaker 3: of New Haven, kind of inner city field because I'm

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Speaker 3: from Saint Louis, right, And then committed after I went

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Speaker 3: to a football camp. Two weeks later they gave me

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Speaker 3: an offer. Then later that summer, I was I think

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Speaker 3: I missed a flight going to a basketball tournament.

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Speaker 1: Committed in the airport, said this is the right to do.

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Speaker 3: Like, I don't know what I'm waiting. They only got

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Speaker 3: so many slots open. Just take that slots. So I

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Speaker 3: want to go to school, going to be successful with

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Speaker 3: whatever I do.

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Speaker 2: Now, parents, being from Nigeria, I assume they understand. But

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Speaker 2: did they get it when you first started playing?

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Speaker 1: My dad loved football.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so I got you.

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Speaker 1: He likes the sport. Did you think I was going pro? No?

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Speaker 3: Like even at Yale my coach after sophomore year said,

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Speaker 3: and you know I keep improving, you know people are

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Speaker 3: going to start looking at me. I was talking with

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Speaker 3: my brother back home. You know, my dad he just

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Speaker 3: wanted me to, you know, be successful. Sure, so we

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Speaker 3: did all this schooling stuff. We did all this education.

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Speaker 3: He didn't want me to throw it away just to

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Speaker 3: be one of those football guys, you know, and the

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Speaker 3: chances of making that.

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Speaker 1: Are already small. Right, So he's like, you heard us talk,

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Speaker 1: and he shut it down.

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Speaker 3: He I don't think we have any you know, professional

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Speaker 3: sports players in his house. That's all I wanted to

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Speaker 3: do when I was little. I want to be a

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Speaker 3: whatever sport it was. I want to be a sports player.

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Speaker 3: So obviously soccer, basketball, baseball, like it didn't work out.

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Speaker 3: And now here I'm talking about football. He's like, come on, now,

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Speaker 3: keep your head where it's supposed to be. You made

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Speaker 3: it this far. I got mad at that.

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Speaker 1: Obviously.

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Speaker 3: I was like, ain't no way you can tell me

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Speaker 3: what I want to do or not do. So I

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Speaker 3: think what you're saying, when the football become real. By

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Speaker 3: senior year, I got hurt. Junior year has a red shirt.

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Speaker 3: So now I'm like a fifth year senior technically, and

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Speaker 3: it's you know, all the his scouts are looking at

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Speaker 3: our games. Justin Watson's going to Penn and he, you know,

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Speaker 3: with the guy Kansas City. We had a big game.

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Speaker 3: I do well against him. We won the game, but

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Speaker 3: there is scouts everywhere at that game. I don't know

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Speaker 3: what they saw because they clearly went high on me,

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Speaker 3: but they were there right, And I just know that

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Speaker 3: I'm looking around school. I'm doing a econ major, I'm

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Speaker 3: doing well in school, like yes, you know, but I'm

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Speaker 3: looking at the guys in my classes. I'm like, these

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Speaker 3: guys are just better than me at this stuff like

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Speaker 3: beyond I work my tail off to get a B

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Speaker 3: plus and stuff I'm sure they get, you know, they

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Speaker 3: just sleep on it. Obviously have more time, but they

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Speaker 3: get age and stuff. That's very cool for them. But

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Speaker 3: what am I What can I do that they can't do?

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Speaker 3: Is play sports? You know what I'm saying?

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Speaker 1: Like, what am I the best at this school at

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Speaker 1: is playing sports?

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Speaker 3: So if somebody comes to me with an opportunity to

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Speaker 3: make this a profession, what do you best at us?

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Speaker 3: I always say, chase your genius at this school.

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Speaker 1: My genius is sport.

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Speaker 3: Like whatever sport it was, I find a way to

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Speaker 3: make it work for me. So I ended up, you know,

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Speaker 3: trying out to go to this combine. Not trying out,

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Speaker 3: but coach for Rot told me to go to this

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Speaker 3: combine training in Colorado.

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Speaker 1: I wasn't going to go to a combine, but.

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Speaker 3: Pro Day training with Lauren Landau. He said, if you

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Speaker 3: want to make it in the NFL, one thing, I know.

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Speaker 3: He said, you got to put everything into it. I

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Speaker 3: was trying to stay around New Haven in turn, you know,

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Speaker 3: keep me up with the job opportunity, and he was like, nah,

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Speaker 3: you can't do that. Like these guys have been doing

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Speaker 3: this football only for four years. You're doing football only

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Speaker 3: for a spring, you know. So I do football only

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Speaker 3: for a spring. Numbers shoot up, you know what I'm saying,

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Speaker 3: and then Pro Day kill it now. Scouts are, oh, yeah,

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Speaker 3: actually you've been pretty good. Your tape has been good.

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Speaker 3: We just didn't know if you're the athlete. So I'm

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Speaker 3: mad at everybody, right, you guys have been sleeping on

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Speaker 3: me for X amount of years. Zek got drafted two

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Speaker 3: years before. I know the type of athlete I am

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Speaker 3: compared to him. He's a great athlete, but if he's

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Speaker 3: able to be a superstar, I'm going to have an

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Speaker 3: opportunity to be something.

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Speaker 1: I can play something, you know what I'm saying.

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Speaker 3: So it just gave me the chance or the mindset,

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Speaker 3: like I want to create my own path doing what

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Speaker 3: I want to do in life, and if I do

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Speaker 3: this football thing, it's the first time that like, I'm

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Speaker 3: out of my own saying this is what I want

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Speaker 3: to do and I'm going to do it.

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Speaker 2: And it's a pretty unique I mean, it's obviously a

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Speaker 2: very unique path. One thing, while you were talking then,

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Speaker 2: I didn't I didn't even have written down. What does

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Speaker 2: Dad think now? I mean, cause it's it's quite a path,

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Speaker 2: and it's got to be cool. Considering where they came from,

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Speaker 2: they would have never imagined this, right, but it's got

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Speaker 2: to be really cool and a source of pride, right.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, he's very happy of my successes.

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Speaker 3: He always said We're gonna be one of the most

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Speaker 3: hard working kids, one of the most smart, smartest kids,

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Speaker 3: well trained kids that we always said that on our

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Speaker 3: you know, family meetings. That's the first thing we started

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Speaker 3: off talking about. So this whole football thing is, you know,

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Speaker 3: it's obviously some god given talent, some you know, genetic talent.

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Speaker 1: But if you look at me at high school.

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Speaker 3: Where I was one eighty five defensive back, even through

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Speaker 3: college playing defensive back, and now here I am at

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Speaker 3: to to whatever it is, two hundred some pounds I

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Speaker 3: never disclosed, but it's a lot of work put into it.

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Speaker 3: You know, I come in the lead, never playing linebacker.

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Speaker 3: Now here, I am pretty trusted linebacker. Like it's a

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Speaker 3: lot of work that I put into it that to

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Speaker 3: make myself grow to the person I am you know today,

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Speaker 3: got you. So he's very proud of that whole journey,

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Speaker 3: you know, because I found something, I put my work

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Speaker 3: into it, and now here I am trying to be

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Speaker 3: you know, the top of the top.

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Speaker 2: You know, he made yourself into it wasn't given to you, right.

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Speaker 1: So he loved he loved that whole aspect of it.

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Speaker 2: Got you. A couple of final things in before I

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Speaker 2: wrap Economics major. I assume there are plans after football. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: are you into that plan yet or is it just

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Speaker 2: sort of a vague dream or Yeah.

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Speaker 3: The more I play sports, the more I want to

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Speaker 3: stay in sports. Just I love sports too much. As

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Speaker 3: I said, Chase your genius. So you know, even I

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Speaker 3: just wanted to be in business and money and stuff.

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Speaker 3: I do like the number side of the game, talking

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Speaker 3: about contracts, talking about.

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Speaker 2: And that was always your thing math math.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I just I'm fascinated by it no matter

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Speaker 3: how either it's even it's like kind of analytics stuff,

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Speaker 3: but I always want to work with players, trying to

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Speaker 3: configuring a team, you know, moving numbers around, moving money around.

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Speaker 3: I love basketball, though, so if I could segue this

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Speaker 3: into a you know, doing this in the front office

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Speaker 3: of a basketball job, I would love it. If I

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Speaker 3: have to stay football, I love it. But I'll do

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Speaker 3: whatever you know opens up for you. But I know

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Speaker 3: when if I get my head into that window, if

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Speaker 3: I get my foot in that door, I'll be able

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Speaker 3: to make some shake. So that that's probably what I've

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Speaker 3: tried to do after this.

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Speaker 2: Now, I know you're a guy who loves obviously challenges

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Speaker 2: and loves thinking and loves math. Tell me why what

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Speaker 2: is it about football that fascinates you? If you follow me.

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Speaker 3: I think it's a It's a moving chess game. You

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Speaker 3: have to understand how everything fits on the board, and

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Speaker 3: then when you figure that out, then it's you know,

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Speaker 3: winning your one on one. So there's talent, there's skills

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Speaker 3: in that, but you have to understand where you fit

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Speaker 3: in in order to use your skills and stuff.

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Speaker 2: So it's in different every play right challenge, it's.

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Speaker 3: Always a moving, moving puzzle, always a moving puzzle. So

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Speaker 3: it's kind of like I always said, it was like math,

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Speaker 3: because where you learn patterns and all that. That was

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Speaker 3: math class for me, you know, so it kind of

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Speaker 3: feels like an ongoing math equation.

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Speaker 1: I got you the whole game.

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Speaker 2: I got you thing we do. I call it the

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Speaker 2: zone five if you have one. What was your last binge?

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Speaker 1: Wash?

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Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, HBO Max the Winning Time Show, Showtime,

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Speaker 3: Lakers Winning.

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Speaker 1: I feel like they just can't. It was so good.

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Speaker 2: I went up a strange end. They sort of did

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Speaker 2: the final way. Yeah, but and then they all of

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Speaker 2: a sudden had this montage at the end of ZEA.

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Speaker 1: You got discontinued. But it was it was great and

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Speaker 1: it was cool. I acted a lot.

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Speaker 3: If you're a basketball basketball and kind of dealing with

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Speaker 3: players making a team, all that stuff.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, how every.

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Speaker 2: Team learned anything? Were you familiar with those Lakers.

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Speaker 3: Or I was familiar with the general stuff. Yeah, I'm

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Speaker 3: a basketball best.

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Speaker 2: Fortunate for me, I'm old enough to have watched it.

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Speaker 2: Last book read.

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Speaker 1: The Captain's Class. I don't know the author.

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Speaker 3: It's called The Captain's Class, and I just finished that

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00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:28,760
Speaker 3: before this season. It's going through a lot of sports,

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Speaker 3: not even the sports teams you would think of, but

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Speaker 3: like sports teams that could be considered dynasties and his

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00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:37,400
Speaker 3: criteria and seeing how they were led and seeing how

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Speaker 3: they kind of functioned as a team, and what made

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Speaker 3: teams either fit this criteria, not fit this criteria, or

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Speaker 3: made them successful versus other teams.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, just kind of cohesively going as a unit.

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Speaker 2: I don't know if you'll have an answer for this.

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Speaker 2: Your best sport.

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Speaker 1: Growing up it was? It was probably soccer growing up.

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Speaker 2: Your song act right now, your go to musical acts.

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Speaker 1: Or so that I listened to music is copiers. I

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Speaker 1: feel like I'm getting older now, so.

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Speaker 3: Like I still like all my like I used to

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Speaker 3: love Meet Mill the old little UZI. But I'll just

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Speaker 3: say country grammar by Nelly. You gotta put Nelly up there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, gotcha.

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Speaker 2: Who's the person most responsible for you being here, being

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Speaker 2: in the NFL.

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Speaker 1: It's a stable. It's a stable.

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Speaker 3: I gotta thank my parents, My mom my dad got me,

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Speaker 3: you know, that's where I needed to be. There's a

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Speaker 3: guy behind the scenes named Manny Palin who I always

400
00:17:32,840 --> 00:17:34,960
Speaker 3: got a shout out. My football coach. You convinced me

401
00:17:35,040 --> 00:17:38,200
Speaker 3: to play football, you know, took me under his wing.

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Speaker 3: Even through college. Always paid attention, always kept up, came

403
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Speaker 3: to the big Yale Harvard games as my financial advisor.

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Speaker 1: Now. Definitely just a guy.

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Speaker 3: Who kind of I wouldn't say mentored exactly, but took

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Speaker 3: me under his wing when I needed to. You had

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Speaker 3: a son in my class, Griff Paling, all the way

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Speaker 3: through high school.

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Speaker 1: He's a big inspiration for me in football boy.

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Speaker 2: Unsurprisingly, great job. I took more time of yours than

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Speaker 2: I wanted to, but I appreciate you giving that time,

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Speaker 2: and I appreciate you joining the ozone podcast.

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Speaker 1: Appreciate you having me