Speaker 1: The Season with Peter Scheger is a production of the
Speaker 1: NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's Up, everybody, This is
Speaker 1: Peter Schreger and you're listening to the Season with Peter Schreger.
Speaker 1: We are in the middle of July right now, which
Speaker 1: is the NFL's quote unquote slow season. But if you
Speaker 1: follow the league and you love the game like I do,
Speaker 1: you know there is no days off when it comes
Speaker 1: to an NFL season. This podcast has been a blast
Speaker 1: this summer because we're getting coaches and gms in their
Speaker 1: homes and we're getting them at their vacation houses that
Speaker 1: we're getting them maybe a little bit off the clock,
Speaker 1: which means they can be a little looser than they
Speaker 1: might usually be. I say this with great confidence. I
Speaker 1: don't think I've enjoyed a podcast more than the conversation
Speaker 1: you're about to listen to since we've begun doing this
Speaker 1: thing back last September. This is Brad Holmes, the general
Speaker 1: manager of the Detroit Lions, with no further ado, really
Speaker 1: excited about this guest and trying to get him on
Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks and we got him, and
Speaker 1: I'm excited and it's right before the start of training camp,
Speaker 1: so I'm sure he's fresh as a daisy. This is
Speaker 1: the Detroit Lions general manager, mister Brad Holmes. Brad, what's
Speaker 1: up man, How you doing man?
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. Glad we'll be able to finally
Speaker 2: get this together. I hope you to think I.
Speaker 1: Waste No, you know what, it's funny because this is
Speaker 1: like the off season, but it's also the only time
Speaker 1: that people can get away. So it's yes, I'd love
Speaker 1: to do your podcast, but I also have a family.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's and you know, really like during the season.
Speaker 2: I know we started talking about during the season, and
Speaker 2: the season is probably the most like normal, lies regimented
Speaker 2: part of the whole year because you kind of know
Speaker 2: what's gonna happen. But when the season ends, that's when
Speaker 2: it gets like crazy crazy and then we have actually
Speaker 2: we do quite a bit after the draft preparing for
Speaker 2: the upcoming year. So but you know, fresh off vacation, Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, got a good little week at home and uh,
Speaker 2: it's a great time. Man.
Speaker 1: I think that's a good segue. So take us through,
Speaker 1: and you are a general manager, what is the schedule
Speaker 1: because I think most people think, all right, draft and
Speaker 1: then kick your feet up and then free agency, you know,
Speaker 1: but it's really year round.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really is. Man. You know, you have a
Speaker 2: training camp and you go through that and you you
Speaker 2: know a lot of rods reduction stuff. But after training camp,
Speaker 2: you know, I say, the season. Everybody thinks like the
Speaker 2: season is like that's the basest part, because it's the
Speaker 2: football season. But from a GM standpoint, it's actually probably
Speaker 2: the most regiment a part because you pretty much know, okay,
Speaker 2: you got game day. Game day is going to bring
Speaker 2: all your stress and emotions. And but after game day,
Speaker 2: Mondays you're dealing with you know, injuries and medical stuff.
Speaker 2: And then Tuesdays you're dealing with you know, roster management
Speaker 2: and getting all your moves done. And then the week
Speaker 2: starts and actually we actually kind of devote a lot
Speaker 2: of that time for draft prep actually, so because you
Speaker 2: kind of have the time, yeah, and then you kind
Speaker 2: of just operate normally. But then after the season ends,
Speaker 2: and that's when you're like full throttle, like you know,
Speaker 2: you're head straight into you're balancing free agency and draft
Speaker 2: at the same time, and then you're going all the
Speaker 2: way up to free agency, So that's probably the most
Speaker 2: hectic time. It's pre free agency because you're kind of
Speaker 2: doing both. And then once free agency kind of like
Speaker 2: that second or third wave kind of hits, you can
Speaker 2: start downing more so towards straight draft, and then you know,
Speaker 2: it's kind of just full throttle through the draft.
Speaker 1: Because we're heading into the twenty twenty three season and
Speaker 1: we're still just a couple of months removed. I want
Speaker 1: to go back to that first round for you guys
Speaker 1: in the Detroit Lions. We're going to get into your
Speaker 1: story in a second, but I feel like just the
Speaker 1: excitement about the Lions is real, and you've read all
Speaker 1: the headlines. I'm sure you've blocked as many headline you
Speaker 1: can't out about how this is like the hot team
Speaker 1: in the NFC. But the draft, you know, right in
Speaker 1: the days leading up to the draft, I had a
Speaker 1: couple of birdies in my ear man, like I think
Speaker 1: Jamiir Gibbs might go earlier than the mock drafts are saying,
Speaker 1: and another one saying he might go before be Jon Robinson.
Speaker 1: Sure enough, you guys, you get him early top fifteen,
Speaker 1: and everyone around like, oh, I want a shot, But
Speaker 1: like people that I was taught to say, that's not
Speaker 1: such a shock. That's about where he was slated. When
Speaker 1: did you fall in love with Jamir Gives and what
Speaker 1: did you love about him?
Speaker 2: Man, it's funny that she said you heard that about
Speaker 2: him going that early, because I was sitting here thinking, uh,
Speaker 2: I was like, nobody's going to do this. And then
Speaker 2: and then after we picked them, and I heard all
Speaker 2: these other gentlemen.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, that's what we wanted.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, right, I'm glad you picked them. He wasn't
Speaker 2: gonna make it, But no, I first fell in love
Speaker 2: with them. Obviously. I didn't know about him that much,
Speaker 2: like its at Georgia Tech year before. So I went
Speaker 2: to Texas Alabama game earlier in the year and I
Speaker 2: kind of got tipped off about him, like right before
Speaker 2: the start of the game. Man, I was like okay,
Speaker 2: and I saw his body type and like this I
Speaker 2: was intriguing. And then I kind of saw what he
Speaker 2: was doing in both phases. Yeah, I mean he can
Speaker 2: run it, but what he was doing as a receiver
Speaker 2: and the explosiveness and everything about him, And we just
Speaker 2: kept doing work on him and like I said, kind
Speaker 2: of do some draft prep during the season and kept
Speaker 2: doing work on him, and that was just kind of
Speaker 2: it for me. I was like, this guy's uh and
Speaker 2: he's he's a weapon. He's a weapon. And you know,
Speaker 2: we talked about all the running backs going in the
Speaker 2: first round and all that kind of stuff. You know,
Speaker 2: I always say like, if he's a weapon, then forget
Speaker 2: the RBS, Like that's how that's that's what he is. Like,
Speaker 2: that's like he we thought he was a multi phase,
Speaker 2: elite explosive, positionless weapon, and you know he was a
Speaker 2: special player. You know, you have you have to combine
Speaker 2: to confirm some things, you know, but he ran what
Speaker 2: I thought he was gonna run. And you know, all
Speaker 2: the testing and his workouts and we're just really excited
Speaker 2: about him. I think you're gonna he's gonna bring another
Speaker 2: dimension to our offense. That's as good as we were
Speaker 2: offensively last year. You know, I think something even better
Speaker 2: this year. But bottom line this is you just got
Speaker 2: to get the guys that you want. And I kind
Speaker 2: of look at especially this past draft. You know, everybody
Speaker 2: was saying like this is a different draft, is a
Speaker 2: different draft. Well, let's call it what it is. It
Speaker 2: just wasn't as strong of a draft as it normally
Speaker 2: has been.
Speaker 1: And by that you mean blue chip guys top twenty yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like you know, in a normal year you had
Speaker 2: like true first round talent players, you might have about
Speaker 2: seventeen or eighteen guys. I really haven't seen any higher
Speaker 2: than twenty in all the years that I've been doing it.
Speaker 2: This is we ended up with fourteen guys, and that
Speaker 2: was at the very end. It was less than that
Speaker 2: at one point, Like at one point we had like
Speaker 2: nine or ten, but Jamiro was always one of those guys.
Speaker 2: So I just looked at it as like, damn, look,
Speaker 2: let's just get the who the hell we want and
Speaker 2: let's get the hell out of there and let's see
Speaker 2: you know, like like like one of my favorite movies
Speaker 2: is Training Yeah, like me and my dad someone me
Speaker 2: and my dad's favorite movie. And uh, there was a
Speaker 2: scene in Training Day where have yeah, so like it
Speaker 2: was one of the scenes where you know, he goes
Speaker 2: into this you know, the rough area, and he goes
Speaker 2: to his lady's house and takes his money and then
Speaker 2: he goes out and him and even Hawker trying to
Speaker 2: get out of the neighborhood and the girl comes out
Speaker 2: there and rats him out and says, hey, this guy
Speaker 2: just took our money. And then Ze just send his
Speaker 2: shootout and he's just shooting out, trying to get out
Speaker 2: of the neighborhood, and he's basically shooting his way out
Speaker 2: of there. And I was like that rafts kind.
Speaker 1: Of get me out of.
Speaker 2: Get get who we want, and just shoot our way
Speaker 2: out of here and get on out of there. And uh,
Speaker 2: we were just ecstatic about how the whole thing went.
Speaker 1: Would you say that you and Dan Campbell are Jay
Speaker 1: Quoy and Alonso Harris in that film? Would you put.
Speaker 2: You know? I don't, I don't want to have that,
Speaker 2: but I will say we we work as a pair
Speaker 2: very very well. We partner very very well. You know again,
Speaker 2: I know a lot of people know now that we
Speaker 2: didn't really know each other that much before we got hired.
Speaker 2: But always give so much credit to Sheila and Rod
Speaker 2: Wood and Chris Bilman and Mike Disne and everybody was
Speaker 2: involved in that interview process of that. I guess that
Speaker 2: they just knew that, you know, we would pair so
Speaker 2: so well. And he's a joy to work with and
Speaker 2: he's a hell of a coach.
Speaker 1: He's cool and he's got a great personality, and those
Speaker 1: players really rallied around him, especially in the second half
Speaker 1: of the season. You look at that running backs room,
Speaker 1: obviously it's it's Gibbs and now it's Montgomery. Last year
Speaker 1: you had something fun with Williams and Swift. You know,
Speaker 1: everyone might say the value of the positions devalued and
Speaker 1: whatever you want to say about it. That's a pretty
Speaker 1: big change for the running backs room. Considering you guys
Speaker 1: were so red hot at the end of the season.
Speaker 1: You feel good about where you guys are at with
Speaker 1: that position group.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean overall, when you look at it just systematically,
Speaker 2: I do think that we'll be better offensively. And that's
Speaker 2: no knock on the contributions that that those other two
Speaker 2: guys gave us, because Swift is a dynamic player and Jamal,
Speaker 2: you know, he was a great leader for us and
Speaker 2: he did he did so much for us. He had
Speaker 2: a great season, awesome touchdowns. You know. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: but what we do think that Montgomery, You know, I
Speaker 2: think we make Montgomery and Jamal are different backs. You know,
Speaker 2: Montgomery does a little bit more in the passing game, uh,
Speaker 2: and you know, adding being able to add Gibbs. You know,
Speaker 2: I think he just he's so dynamic as a receiver.
Speaker 2: And look, he's a home run hitter as a running back.
Speaker 2: I mean that's the easy part. But what he does
Speaker 2: as a receiver, I mean he runs routes like I
Speaker 2: mean like a receiver. Is that right?
Speaker 1: Because I you know, you get all this Alabama talent
Speaker 1: and then here's another one and it's like, no, this
Speaker 1: one's special and has his own skill set that maybe
Speaker 1: because he's only there one year, didn't get the same
Speaker 1: hype as the other guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he was just different. He was just different. And
Speaker 2: you know, going through that process, I was like, man,
Speaker 2: how many guys have I seen that was like equally
Speaker 2: as effective? You know, Like when I first got with
Speaker 2: the Rams in two thousand and three, Marshall Fulk was
Speaker 2: still there and I was a huge Marshall Faulk guy
Speaker 2: just coming in and so just kind of seeing what
Speaker 2: he does in both phases, and then just from a
Speaker 2: scouting standpoint, when Christian McCaffrey came out, he was like
Speaker 2: the last guy. I was like, Holy cow, like this
Speaker 2: guy I can run routes like a slot receiver but
Speaker 2: also run it and so you start getting reminders of
Speaker 2: you know, some of those players. I'm not sitting here
Speaker 2: those players, but you know, just a special weapon like that,
Speaker 2: just you know, we have a lot of excitement otism.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think the offensive coordinator story is pretty
Speaker 1: cool too. Had opportunities to interview for other head coaching
Speaker 1: jobs and kind of withdrew his name and said, I'm
Speaker 1: good here in Detroit with this group. Take us through
Speaker 1: that decision from Ben Johnson and what that meant in
Speaker 1: the organization as a whole man.
Speaker 2: That was huge, And you know, look at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, Look, it's it's hard to keep the
Speaker 2: good ones, you know, I mean, eventually the cat gets
Speaker 2: out the bag and you know there's there's just no hiding.
Speaker 2: But you know then, you know, you saw it right
Speaker 2: out the gate. You know, even when he was a
Speaker 2: tight ends coach, and you know obviously Dan, you know,
Speaker 2: had had prior experience with him, but you know, when
Speaker 2: things got rough in that twenty one season and we
Speaker 2: had to make that change from Anthony Lynn and you know,
Speaker 2: Ben basically became the passing game coordinator basically, but Dan
Speaker 2: was called in plays and Dan's plays before and and
Speaker 2: Dan was just doing a great job and just having
Speaker 2: fun with but Ben just added this other element was
Speaker 2: just like, Wow, this dude's crazy. But you know that
Speaker 2: that's another component of when I when you asked you
Speaker 2: the question about the running backs about and I said,
Speaker 2: I think will be better offensively this year as good
Speaker 2: as the world last year. It is just that you know,
Speaker 2: Ben going into his second year as THEOC, like I
Speaker 2: think last year he showed everybody like I can do this,
Speaker 2: like I'm legit, but going you know, having the experience
Speaker 2: under his belt going into year two, having shared with
Speaker 2: him going in year two, and then all the other
Speaker 2: components that we had been creating in the draft. That's
Speaker 2: why I feel better about William to be better.
Speaker 1: Real quick, a couple more things Lions related, then we're
Speaker 1: going to get more into your story. The Jack Campbell
Speaker 1: picked that was one where if Gibbs was like okay Campbell,
Speaker 1: that left people slack jawed and just being like, wait,
Speaker 1: what not not a first round mock draft guy, whatsoever?
Speaker 1: And yet I saw Jack Campbell, I turned to my
Speaker 1: co host on nfn R like, well, that's Chris Spielman
Speaker 1: just walking through the door again. That's what I who
Speaker 1: of course works in your organization and has a great role.
Speaker 1: But a linebacker another position not considered necessarily the same
Speaker 1: as pass rusher, offensive tackle or quarterback in this league.
Speaker 1: And you guys, you liked them, you took them, and
Speaker 1: away we go.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, you know, I think with these I
Speaker 2: think sometimes it's almost like the draft's not that easy,
Speaker 2: Like the draft is not Oh, you take these positions
Speaker 2: and these players have played these positions, put them up
Speaker 2: top because they got stats and they've been on the internet,
Speaker 2: and put them up top. And then these players have
Speaker 2: played these positions, put them at the bottom, and that's it.
Speaker 2: And just working for a couple of months.
Speaker 1: And Daniel Jeremiah says, Kiper says, take him there.
Speaker 2: Like, come on, I give it a little bit more credit.
Speaker 2: The drafts not that easy, and and he's going to
Speaker 2: look me talking about building a defense, and me and
Speaker 2: Aaron went to have very similar philosophies in terms of
Speaker 2: like what does it take to really elevate you? And
Speaker 2: you ever to have guys up front, you better have
Speaker 2: guys that can cover, so you know, often the inside
Speaker 2: linebacker or the off fall linebacker, like we took Malcolm
Speaker 2: Rodriguez year before sixth round, and he had a great year.
Speaker 2: You know he's gonna be He's going to be something
Speaker 2: that's going to be contributed for us going forward. But
Speaker 2: it was just that you got to look at the
Speaker 2: player like, not not the position. We don't draft positions,
Speaker 2: we draft players. And so when you looked at the
Speaker 2: player of Jack Campbell and we saw it as like, no,
Speaker 2: we're not drafting this linebacker. We actually went into after
Speaker 2: we signed three, signed Alex Angeloni, and we feel really
Speaker 2: good about, you know, the direction that Derek Barnes and
Speaker 2: knocking Rod Driguez was heading. It's not like inside linebackers
Speaker 2: like oh, you better get like it's not just like no,
Speaker 2: but Jack Campbell was just a hell of a football player.
Speaker 2: And I just think that like we're looking at it
Speaker 2: as he's going to be an anchor in our defense,
Speaker 2: not we're drafting an inside linebacker, Like no, we're just
Speaker 2: taking an anchor that our defense. And we tell about guys,
Speaker 2: we look at free agency, you look at inside linebackers.
Speaker 2: You know, you might have this whole list, But then
Speaker 2: when you're looking at guys I can actually wear that
Speaker 2: green dot and really run the show. That list shrinks
Speaker 2: down like this, like it goes from this and it
Speaker 2: goes to this. And so then when you have a
Speaker 2: guy like Jack Campbell that's six five, two fifty, that's
Speaker 2: extremely instinctive. He's he's heavy in the run game, he's
Speaker 2: extremely smart, and I just love how the kid is wired.
Speaker 2: I mean, he's wired to fake what we're all about.
Speaker 2: We're all about grit, doing it the right way, like
Speaker 2: the truly earning it. And this guy just loves football.
Speaker 2: He's he he's all business. And so it's about the player.
Speaker 2: It's not about not about oh it's gone place. It's
Speaker 2: notline it's got a place running back, No, like go
Speaker 2: to Jamiri Gibbs's like, oh it got No, he's a weapon.
Speaker 2: But Jamira Gibbs is really smart. It's not like you know,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, he can align all these different places. You
Speaker 2: got to be smart to lining all these different places.
Speaker 2: You don't just align all these different places, No, Like
Speaker 2: you got to be really smart. You got to be
Speaker 2: really heady and instinctive. And so I thought Jack Campbell,
Speaker 2: you know, had all the trades that we look for
Speaker 2: in a football player. And so that's how we felt
Speaker 2: really good about it. Again going back to what I
Speaker 2: was saying about in one but a certain amount of
Speaker 2: players that we had in that first round bucket, and
Speaker 2: he was one of them. And but I say it
Speaker 2: was only fourteen guys. Jack Campbell wasn't fourteen, you know
Speaker 2: what I mean? So like it's that's that's why I
Speaker 2: just it was it was easy.
Speaker 1: I love it. You guys have your board, you have
Speaker 1: your guys, and hey, if we can get this guy
Speaker 1: at eighteen, and he was a top fourteen player of
Speaker 1: ours and may even higher top ten, we're taking them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, mock drafts be damned. Yeah, that's kind of what
Speaker 2: that's that's our stance. We're just we do a lot
Speaker 2: of work. We're very thorough, and I know I think
Speaker 2: every team is going to say that, but we just
Speaker 2: have a lot of conviction in our process in what
Speaker 2: we believe, and we just stick by it. And that
Speaker 2: that's what we did.
Speaker 1: I love it. And last year not only had Hutchinson
Speaker 1: step up, but you had so many rookies playing big roles,
Speaker 1: especially on that defense, that it's hard not to say, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's give him the benefit of the doubt. Let's see
Speaker 1: before everyone starts giving them. You know b's and c's
Speaker 1: on their draft grades based on what the mont Draft said.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I mean that's always say like it's such
Speaker 2: a psychological component of like the mock drafts and look
Speaker 2: it's no, I'm not looking at it. Look I know you, like, I.
Speaker 1: Know you do much, yes, but take a lot of
Speaker 1: pride in it.
Speaker 2: But like, but I'll say this, I mean, stray you
Speaker 2: you do football every seample day, Like that's what you
Speaker 2: do all the time. You know a lot of people
Speaker 2: you I mean, like, I like, I look at like
Speaker 2: So I'm not gonna say like I don't look at
Speaker 2: mock drafts. Yeah I look at him because people talking,
Speaker 2: people do the research and all that. But you can't.
Speaker 2: You just still have to have ultimate belief and openate
Speaker 2: conviction in your own process. But but no, there's plenty
Speaker 2: of guys that are doing that. I respect, And I'm like, man,
Speaker 2: I know this guy knows people. You know, he's done
Speaker 2: a lot of work, you know, and I think he
Speaker 2: puts a lot of pride. But when it doesn't go
Speaker 2: down the way you projected it, your your brain doesn't
Speaker 2: really like that. And it's kind of want to right,
Speaker 2: everybody wants to be right, and so then now you're mad,
Speaker 2: and now you're like, damn it, no one said he
Speaker 2: was gonna go that high. And then now you got
Speaker 2: to sign a grade while you're still mad. So now
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, no one said you're gonna go there. No,
Speaker 2: And I'm just like and I was like, at the
Speaker 2: end of the day.
Speaker 1: I'm like, march, you know, because really the.
Speaker 2: Only ranks that really matter is the thirty one other
Speaker 2: general finishers and uh and and those are the rankings
Speaker 2: that nobody has. And that's what makes the draft so fun.
Speaker 2: And so when when when when I see people get
Speaker 2: mad about uh, it didn't go the way, I'm like, look,
Speaker 2: you should embrace the excitement of that, Like that's that's
Speaker 2: the part. You don't know how it's gonna fall. And
Speaker 2: you see a name that goes out and be like, whoa,
Speaker 2: I didn't know that. It's like embracing it.
Speaker 1: Is ultimate, the ultimate reality show. It's more than the
Speaker 1: season even because it's so rapid fire. And I say
Speaker 1: it before the draft, I beg my colleagues on Twitter
Speaker 1: on ESPN, I don't tip the picks. It is such
Speaker 1: a fun experience as a viewer. If you don't and
Speaker 1: you guys in the war rooms and then trying to
Speaker 1: manipulate the chessboard. It's it's war games and it's fun
Speaker 1: to watch from outside, but I'm sure it's stressful as
Speaker 1: hell in your chair, but it is.
Speaker 2: You're right, it's fun. And and what I was I
Speaker 2: was selling a lot of people out in the draft,
Speaker 2: you know, I was like, Okay, this was the draft,
Speaker 2: this was the draft season. This was you know, the
Speaker 2: build up, and then when it's over, then it's over.
Speaker 2: And then now now the ota start and guys start
Speaker 2: get on the field, and now that's the thing. And
Speaker 2: then now training camp is about to start, so that'll
Speaker 2: be a thing. So it's like it goes in phases
Speaker 2: where it's just like I was telling you about the movie,
Speaker 2: you know, with Ethan Hawkins Denzel A. Wasshington. It's like
Speaker 2: you do the shootout and the back windows shot out,
Speaker 2: and you know, the cars kind of shot up a
Speaker 2: little bit, but they got out. You gotta so you
Speaker 2: gotta take the you know, the the D's and ALFs
Speaker 2: of the mock Drafters and all that. Okay, all right,
Speaker 2: you know it'll be it'll be back from home.
Speaker 1: I love your story. I think it's a story of perseverance,
Speaker 1: but also you've had a great career. Can can we
Speaker 1: go back to your high school days. You're a star
Speaker 1: player in Tampa, Florida. You were I want to say,
Speaker 1: Homecoming King, Is that true? I did my research. Homecoming King,
Speaker 1: captain of the football team. You go to North Carolina
Speaker 1: A and T, and you're having a great freshman sophomore
Speaker 1: here and then a major life moment occurred. I'm going
Speaker 1: to say something and then you take us back and
Speaker 1: explain what happened. But I'm just gonna say the Music
Speaker 1: City Miracle game and then take us backwards and lead
Speaker 1: up to what that game means in your life.
Speaker 2: Oh man, So yeah, you know, I'm at home visiting,
Speaker 2: you know, my my parents, Ampa, and you know, have
Speaker 2: a you know, near fatal car accident, just get get sidelined,
Speaker 2: and you know, I mean, I mean, I see you
Speaker 2: for a week and it was it was I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm just I'm I'm very blessed and lucky to pull
Speaker 2: through that. But yeah, I was. I was in I
Speaker 2: see you in Saint Joseph Hospital in Tampa, Florida, watching
Speaker 2: the Music City Miracle and I never forget I was.
Speaker 2: And then when I got released from the hospital, watching
Speaker 2: the ninety nine Rams, you know, uh go their Super
Speaker 2: Bowl when they played the Bucks, you know, and then
Speaker 2: NSC Championship game, and uh it was. I mean I
Speaker 2: was watching that just just kind of couch written when
Speaker 2: I got released. But those moments kind of really resonate
Speaker 2: with me because you don't you don't take anything for
Speaker 2: for for granted. And you know what what that taught
Speaker 2: me is that, you know, look, if you have something
Speaker 2: that you believe, oh believe it, and don't let anybody
Speaker 2: take your dreams away. Because I never forget that. My
Speaker 2: college coach phil As visits in the hospital and you know,
Speaker 2: he's he sees one of his players in ICU bed
Speaker 2: mangled up, and I'm sitting there telling him that I'm
Speaker 2: gonna play again, and he's like, all right, yeah right,
Speaker 2: I mean, like you're lucky if you will walk around
Speaker 2: like no, I'm gonna play again. And sure enough, it
Speaker 2: just gave me time to get as healthy as I
Speaker 2: could rehab. It was able to you know, join the team.
Speaker 2: I had missed that whole spring, and I joined the
Speaker 2: team during summer workouts, and a big part of my
Speaker 2: rehab process was my grandfather coming down and my grandfather
Speaker 2: played golf twice today and just driving his car really
Speaker 2: kind of just or yeah, like just getting used to
Speaker 2: even driving again. Stuff like that. And you know, you
Speaker 2: go through all this occupational therapy and all that. But
Speaker 2: but be able to join my teammates that summer and
Speaker 2: felt actually stronger than ever was. I felt even better
Speaker 2: in shape, and you know, and we we went on
Speaker 2: and you know, I was able to finish my career
Speaker 2: at North Carolina A and T. But that's definitely the
Speaker 2: biggest adversity that I've ever overcome in my life and
Speaker 2: and something that I'll never forget. And it sticks with you.
Speaker 1: You went into a coma, you had a stroke, and
Speaker 1: then what was it? How many how many weeks or
Speaker 1: months in the hospital were you?
Speaker 2: And yeah, so I was in I was in ICU
Speaker 2: for almost two weeks. You know, it was like ten
Speaker 2: days in ICU, and then I had almost close to
Speaker 2: another week when I got released and moved from ICU.
Speaker 2: But yeah, had a had a coma stroke, was paralyzed
Speaker 2: all the way on my right side. And you know,
Speaker 2: I still to this day, I still have like I
Speaker 2: still don't feel like I have the exact same amount
Speaker 2: of strength, you know, like in my right arm as
Speaker 2: my left or you know, it's just it's things that
Speaker 2: kind of just give you some reminders of that moment.
Speaker 2: But having kids now, being a parent, I just can't
Speaker 2: even think of you know, uh, my, my my parents.
Speaker 2: Getting that call from one of my closest friends Gape Galagos,
Speaker 2: who I just saw back when I was on vacation
Speaker 2: that you know, he's the one that had to make
Speaker 2: that call to my parents of what happened, and it
Speaker 2: was I just can't even fathom me get in that
Speaker 2: call when day just out of the blue, and you know,
Speaker 2: I just I just have so much respect for my family, uh,
Speaker 2: my closest friends. Uh and you know, I just I
Speaker 2: just kind of it's just one of those moments that
Speaker 2: lives with you in really a good way.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, is it almost in a weird way?
Speaker 1: And they say this about survivors of traumatic events, but
Speaker 1: also survivors of illnesses. It's almost liberating where you're like, wait,
Speaker 1: I've been through that, I can do anything now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, Like it's yeah, it's it's not a good
Speaker 2: moment because it's life threatening, but at the same time,
Speaker 2: It's one of those moments that shape for sure, and
Speaker 2: those are one of those things that I think kind
Speaker 2: of started my journey. Like I felt like I was
Speaker 2: always a hard worker. I always felt like I always
Speaker 2: had that mindset that was kind of overcoming the odds.
Speaker 2: My father had taught me that a long time ago,
Speaker 2: you know, he had he played in the NFL for
Speaker 2: a short a while, and I never forget he bought
Speaker 2: me a weight set, you know, when I was in
Speaker 2: Lateth the seventh grade, and and he was like it
Speaker 2: was no, it was in the eighth grade. I think
Speaker 2: it was in eighth or ninth grade, but he bought
Speaker 2: me a weight set, and I never forget he told me.
Speaker 2: He was like, Brad, it's it's not about what other
Speaker 2: people are seeing you do, and it's about what you're doing,
Speaker 2: and about what you're doing when other people aren't watching,
Speaker 2: about how hard you're working. And so I always felt
Speaker 2: like I was a hard worker. But going through that
Speaker 2: car accident and going through that process getting back on
Speaker 2: my feet and not only having a chanced play football,
Speaker 2: but having a chance to that life again, I'm just
Speaker 2: forever grateful and fortunate. But I do think that that
Speaker 2: did kind of spark that fuel of getting to where
Speaker 2: I got to now because I had to take a
Speaker 2: really long road. It was a very unconventional path in
Speaker 2: terms of getting started and just you know, being told
Speaker 2: no when I first shot to get into business and
Speaker 2: just keep fighting at it. And I think it both will.
Speaker 1: It's an amazing story. And I think what you're alluding
Speaker 1: to with your career, I was looking in your bio.
Speaker 1: You were in Atlanta Hawks public relations, you know, entry
Speaker 1: level guy doing PR for the Atlanta Hawks coming out
Speaker 1: of school for you, and then you were at the
Speaker 1: Saint Louis Rams doing p R, which is yeah, setting
Speaker 1: up interviews, which is working on messaging for the team,
Speaker 1: which is helping the players you know, talk to the
Speaker 1: media and arrange that kind of How do you make
Speaker 1: that jump from PR to being an NFL GM twenty
Speaker 1: years later?
Speaker 2: Yeah? So my degree was in PR, and in credit
Speaker 2: to my mother's been in the education field forever, and
Speaker 2: like halfway through college, I started off as a business
Speaker 2: and marketing major. I didn't even know why. I just
Speaker 2: thought that was the cool major to be in. And
Speaker 2: then my mom was like, right, you might want to
Speaker 2: change that, dude. Like, you're more of a verbal writing person,
Speaker 2: You're not a man. I was like, all right, So
Speaker 2: I changed my degree to PR and uh, and it
Speaker 2: was it was the best thing for me. And I
Speaker 2: really like my grade to start to change. But anyways,
Speaker 2: when I got done playing, you know, I knew I
Speaker 2: wanted to get in the NFL and you know, try
Speaker 2: to get into Scout again. I sent my resume to
Speaker 2: all the teams like everybody else does. My dad had
Speaker 2: a complics, but none of that fell through. So my
Speaker 2: mom was basically like, dude, you got to come back home.
Speaker 2: You know, You've got to come home and just figure
Speaker 2: it out. And so I moved back home, and I
Speaker 2: was ringing cars for Enterprise Rental Cars, and yeah, I
Speaker 2: was rinting cars for Enterprise Rental Car. And you know,
Speaker 2: I'm wearing the shirt and tie washing cars and rinting
Speaker 2: cars and all I'm doing is I'm thinking about sports.
Speaker 2: And that was a very psychological and emotional period of
Speaker 2: my life because that was the first time that I
Speaker 2: was not getting ready to play football. I wasn't like
Speaker 2: I'm going through It's like in.
Speaker 1: July, you don't have a training I don't have.
Speaker 2: A training camp, awaiting for me, I'm not involved in football.
Speaker 2: So I'm in that little branch that Enterprise rental car
Speaker 2: just thinking about football all day and saying about sports.
Speaker 2: And so finally an opportunity came about with the Atlanta
Speaker 2: Hawks for a media relations trainee, and so I talked
Speaker 2: to my mom about it and I'm like and my
Speaker 2: mom was like, look, at least you'll be back to sports.
Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, you're You're right. And so
Speaker 2: I got that opportunity with the Atlanta Hawks. And because
Speaker 2: like I only could only work forty hours a week
Speaker 2: with the Atlanta Hawks, it was a meat relations trainee position,
Speaker 2: but because of my experience with Enterprise, Enterprise allowed me
Speaker 2: to work part time at the Atlanta Airpe. So one
Speaker 2: of the one of the greatest perks that the Atlanta
Speaker 2: Hawks gave me was a free Marty card. Because I
Speaker 2: didn't have the money to I lived way up in
Speaker 2: Norcross and had this little one bedroom apartment and so
Speaker 2: I would take the you know.
Speaker 1: You're taking ups arena.
Speaker 2: So I had to start up top at the Furthest
Speaker 2: Normal station.
Speaker 1: In the early two thousand. Yeah, you know about that's
Speaker 1: not a yeah, all respect to the marks that ain't
Speaker 1: the New York City subway system.
Speaker 2: So you literally added take the door into the northernmost
Speaker 2: stop and go down and then drop me off downtown
Speaker 2: at to see an Inventor Center of building. And that's
Speaker 2: when I would do my meat relations trainee job. And
Speaker 2: then when I got off, then that's when I would
Speaker 2: go down to UH. I get off and I take
Speaker 2: the Marta down to the Atlanta Airport and then I
Speaker 2: go to the Atlanta Airport and I would just work cars,
Speaker 2: so probably about about eleven o'clock at night, and then
Speaker 2: you know, the Atlanta air Force is the last time,
Speaker 2: so I'd have to take that that Atlanta Airport Marta
Speaker 2: all the way back up to that door bill station
Speaker 2: up north and UH. And that's really what's the lesson?
Speaker 2: What's lesson from Atlanta?
Speaker 1: What's a lesson for kids?
Speaker 2: Right now?
Speaker 1: Who are I say? Kids? College graduate? I want to
Speaker 1: get in sports, I want to be a GM. You
Speaker 1: hear that story that that could be discouraging, but it
Speaker 1: should also encourage.
Speaker 2: It should encourage you. And again, like I said at
Speaker 2: the beginning, man, look if you're confised on what you
Speaker 2: want to do, don't let anybody ever tell you know
Speaker 2: and people will tell you no, and you got to
Speaker 2: use the those a's fuel to just keep going. And
Speaker 2: you just gotta have you just got to be convicted,
Speaker 2: and you just got to know that you're not going
Speaker 2: to have the easiest path. Yeah. I had plenty of
Speaker 2: friends from college that got these high paying jobs and
Speaker 2: all this stuff, and it was it was, it was great.
Speaker 2: But I was struggling. You know, I wasn't making I
Speaker 2: think I was want to make like eight bucks an
Speaker 2: hour as a relations trainee, and then maybe I was
Speaker 2: making like nine dollars an hour renting cars. But I
Speaker 2: had enough to survive, as you know, to pay for
Speaker 2: my apartment and pay for my bills. But the great
Speaker 2: thing about that year, though, in two thousand and three,
Speaker 2: was at the NBA All Star Game.
Speaker 1: I remember yet the contest that year. Just as a fan,
Speaker 1: I actually.
Speaker 2: Thought it was a cool job because one of my
Speaker 2: main duties was I had to get the postgame quotes
Speaker 2: for the opposing teams. So, like Jordan and everybody, they
Speaker 2: would be coming in and I'm like in the locker
Speaker 2: room and I'm like, holy cal, Like this is Tracy McGray, Like,
Speaker 2: holy cal, this is like I'm saying like, this is
Speaker 2: Shaquille O'Neil, Like what Like, I thought it was awesome. So,
Speaker 2: but the NBA All Star Game comes and then my
Speaker 2: boss at the time, Arthur Trish, he was a he
Speaker 2: was a president communication for basketball for the House at
Speaker 2: the time. He knew I wanted to get in the NFL,
Speaker 2: and he said, hey, look, man, a lot of these
Speaker 2: PR directors from the NFL come to the All Star Game.
Speaker 2: You know, I can introduce you to some of them.
Speaker 2: And so I met Dwayne Lewis and we just kind
Speaker 2: of did a little kind of lunch interview and he
Speaker 2: had offered me a PR internship and I was like great,
Speaker 2: And so then I just did the PR internship for
Speaker 2: the year and during that year, so I was starting
Speaker 2: the two thousand and three season.
Speaker 1: So you make the shift from Sharif abdur Rahim and
Speaker 1: Dan Dickau and Dion Glover and my man Alan Henderson,
Speaker 1: and now you're at where you're going, you go, do
Speaker 1: you move everything? Go to Saint Louis for an internship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I just kind of packed the U haul.
Speaker 2: I just I just packed the U haul and drove
Speaker 2: the Saint Louis and and I just started there.
Speaker 1: Had you ever been there before.
Speaker 2: I've never been the same. I've never been This.
Speaker 1: Is the lesson. How many of these people that we
Speaker 1: talked to are like, yeah, the opportunity, but I'm from
Speaker 1: New York. I'm not moving to you know.
Speaker 2: Like, no, I think it's easier when it's when you're
Speaker 2: single with no kids a little bit. But but you know,
Speaker 2: I'm now. I was twenty three years old, twenty two
Speaker 2: years old at the time, so but yeah, I just
Speaker 2: packed the U haul and just kind of drove drove
Speaker 2: the Saint Louis. Uh it's about eight nine hour drive,
Speaker 2: I think or something like that. You know. Then I
Speaker 2: started my PR internship and back then the RAMS would
Speaker 2: have training camp in Macomb, Illinois, Illinois. So uh, it's
Speaker 2: like assume I get there and I'm there for like
Speaker 2: maybe a week. And then I got to go to Macomb,
Speaker 2: Illinois and start my PR internship, and uh it was
Speaker 2: it was it was cool again. I was doing interviews
Speaker 2: and with Marshall Faulk and stuff like that, and I
Speaker 2: was like, this is great. But during that time, you know,
Speaker 2: during that training camp, I see these guys that weren't players,
Speaker 2: they were just regular guys. And they had their helping
Speaker 2: out in practice and I'm like, what are those and
Speaker 2: they're like, oh, there was a scouting assistance and I
Speaker 2: was like scouting assistance and I'm like, they can like
Speaker 2: help out in practice and walk through and stuff. And
Speaker 2: it's like yeah, I'm like wow. So I'm like I
Speaker 2: gotta get So, you know, I struck up a good
Speaker 2: relationship with our running bass coach at the time, Wilbert Montgomery,
Speaker 2: former Eagles.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, and I think Wilburt just saw that, you know,
Speaker 2: I was just a young kid fresh out of college
Speaker 2: that I love football, and we would just taught football
Speaker 2: and uh. Then as our relationship developed, I would start
Speaker 2: helping him out with stuff. I would help him. I
Speaker 2: would help him do his running back risk band things,
Speaker 2: you know, I do that kind of stuff. And one
Speaker 2: day he just asked me, He's like, man, why are
Speaker 2: you in pr Like why are you not? I said, Wilburt, Man,
Speaker 2: I don't know anybody. I don't. I try to get in,
Speaker 2: but I couldn't. And so he was like, hey, look man,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna talk to Charlie. Charlie Armers our GM at
Speaker 2: the time, and he said, I'm gonna talk to Charlie.
Speaker 2: And at the time, all the Scotting assistants kind of
Speaker 2: had this It's called it like a nepotism kind of
Speaker 2: everyone knew one yeah, like one uncle was the president,
Speaker 2: another one, you know, his dad played quarterback for the
Speaker 2: g another one is like his his grandfather used to
Speaker 2: be the owner's park like all. And I'm just like,
Speaker 2: I don't have any of that. And he was like, look,
Speaker 2: I never this is Wilburt talking. Wilver's like, look, Brad,
Speaker 2: I never go to Charlotte or anything. So he knows
Speaker 2: it's real. It's real. So he talks to Charlie and
Speaker 2: he comes back. And one thing that I had to
Speaker 2: do as a PR internship is I had to print
Speaker 2: out the daily clips. And I had to print out
Speaker 2: the daily clips and pass them out to all the
Speaker 2: coaches offices in the gym's office.
Speaker 1: And so here's what Bernie milk Lass wrote about the
Speaker 1: team this week.
Speaker 2: Right is Thomas Bernie mclass like all of them and
Speaker 2: so and so, and you know, now we get them
Speaker 2: all and PDF and all that. I let I tell
Speaker 2: these interns now, I'm like, we used to have to
Speaker 2: print these things out.
Speaker 1: You print out, You cut out the newspaper article, you
Speaker 1: put it on a piece of white paper, you paste it.
Speaker 1: Then you got to go to the copy machine, make
Speaker 1: forty copies, and you gotta staple it. And this is
Speaker 1: every day.
Speaker 2: Sta it every single day. And so now on that again,
Speaker 2: I can look at it as grunt work or but
Speaker 2: I was looking as an opportunity. Like I had to
Speaker 2: hand out some clips to Lovely Smith's office deep into Coordinate,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, holy cows, love Smith, like you know
Speaker 2: what I mean, Like I was able to meet So
Speaker 2: after Wilfrid told me about that, he talked to Charlie.
Speaker 2: I had to pass them out to the general manager's
Speaker 2: office and I passed it. I gave the clips to
Speaker 2: Charlie and Charlie said, hey, uh. I talked to Wilburt
Speaker 2: and he said, you know you're interested, and so come
Speaker 2: come come meet me on Friday in my office. And
Speaker 2: so I'm like, holy count like this is it, Like
Speaker 2: it's coming. So I didn't know, and this is being
Speaker 2: a young kid and not knowing really how to communicate
Speaker 2: a actively and handle business, right. So I didn't tell
Speaker 2: Dwayne Lewis or PR director because I'm.
Speaker 1: I'm not giving that job, am I supposed to?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I'm like, what am I supposed to do? Like
Speaker 2: tell him I'm about to leave, you know what I mean? So, so,
Speaker 2: you know, and Fridays were like a dress down day.
Speaker 2: So Friday, T shirt Friday, I'm sure going. So people
Speaker 2: are looking at me like I just got dressed up.
Speaker 2: And so I go up there, I meet Charlie Army
Speaker 2: and it was him and his assistant Debbie Pollam in there,
Speaker 2: and I just had a bunch of writing samples from
Speaker 2: my time with you know, everything that I and I
Speaker 2: wanted to show Charlie like I can write, Like I
Speaker 2: can write. I have a passion for writing. I love
Speaker 2: like I'm a grammar snob to this day. All my
Speaker 2: staff kind of jokes on me all the time because
Speaker 2: I'm like, man, why is he not a comment something
Speaker 2: like that? But anyways, I want to show him that
Speaker 2: I can write, you know. And so I'm in there
Speaker 2: and I'm sitting at this table with Charlie and his
Speaker 2: assistant Debbie, and then next thing, you know, my PR
Speaker 2: director Dwayne Lewis walks into Charlie's office and I'm like,
Speaker 2: and Dwayne's looking at me, and he's like, what the
Speaker 2: hell did you just do? Like he's like, why is
Speaker 2: why is my PR intern in the general manager's office.
Speaker 2: And and so Charlie was on the phone and Debbie
Speaker 2: tells Dwayne that was like, no, he's fine, he's fine,
Speaker 2: he's fine. And so then Charlie gets off the phone
Speaker 2: and he just tells Dwayne. He goes, hey, look, I
Speaker 2: was talking to Brad here, and you know, he's interested
Speaker 2: in getting the scouting So after he's done with your internship,
Speaker 2: he's going to be by intern starting the draft prep process.
Speaker 2: He hadn't even told me that.
Speaker 1: That's how you found out.
Speaker 2: I'm just like, I'm like, whoa, okay, right, and so
Speaker 2: so then you know, I had a you know, I
Speaker 2: had a sorry, yeah.
Speaker 1: A quick lesson on what this guy takes president.
Speaker 2: So so yeah, so that's that's that's how it got started.
Speaker 2: And I got a shot to be, uh a scouting intern.
Speaker 2: So when the season ended, you know, basically like January
Speaker 2: through the draft and I was a scouting intern and
Speaker 2: I was just you know, labeling beta tapes and you know,
Speaker 2: entering reports and you know, you have to make profile
Speaker 2: tapes we call profile profile tapes and you got to
Speaker 2: write the time codes from the beta tapes and all that,
Speaker 2: and every now and then they should watch these tapes
Speaker 2: during the draft meetings. And so every now and then
Speaker 2: Charlie would ask one of the scout assistants, you know,
Speaker 2: to come in and talk about the player. And so
Speaker 2: I never forget the first guy he could. They called
Speaker 2: me in.
Speaker 1: Oh, come on, give it to me.
Speaker 2: I want to hear. God, I can't remember who it was.
Speaker 2: I don't want to make some but but I probably
Speaker 2: should remember it. But I never forget he called me in.
Speaker 2: And it's like the room is like dimly lit and
Speaker 2: projector screamed on and they're watching my profile tape and
Speaker 2: it's a room full of scouts in the GM and
Speaker 2: Lawrence mccut player personnel director, and I'm like, smokes, and
Speaker 2: he's like, what did you think? And I just told him,
Speaker 2: I said, I think he's this, I think he's that.
Speaker 2: I think he's boomom boom, bom boom. And he was like,
Speaker 2: all right, thanks, and I stopped out the room and
Speaker 2: I'm like, I have no idea like anybody thought what
Speaker 2: I said. But but you know, there was a scout
Speaker 2: Big Daniels who's been been one of my mentors for
Speaker 2: a long time. And I remember he came out and
Speaker 2: he told me, he said, grad, you did a really
Speaker 2: good job. And he was the one that really taught
Speaker 2: me how to construct the scouting report and how to
Speaker 2: kind of write a play.
Speaker 1: Or a young kid come in like give me your
Speaker 1: thoughts on Roscoe Parish.
Speaker 2: Go and you're like, no, it was it was. It
Speaker 2: was intimidating, man, and you just had to be right.
Speaker 1: But guess what, it was just me and those PR skills,
Speaker 1: the enterprise front facing salesman skills, all of it comes
Speaker 1: into play because guess what you're presenting.
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, It's almost like another one of my favorite
Speaker 2: movies is The Karate. You know, the scene of when
Speaker 2: he's complaining about you're not teaching meaning karate, you know,
Speaker 2: like I thought I was supposed to be doing karate
Speaker 2: and he's like, no, wax on, wax off paint the
Speaker 2: house like he's doing. And he's like no, Like do
Speaker 2: you get it now? Like you've been learning it this
Speaker 2: whole time, you just now it's showing. So but yeah,
Speaker 2: you're right, like all those skills just bode well. But
Speaker 2: as a young kid, you don't realize that at the time.
Speaker 2: So after I got done with that draft, I believe
Speaker 2: that's when we drafted Steven Jackson in the first round.
Speaker 2: And I'll never forget that. And then Charlie he hired
Speaker 2: me on as a full time scouting assistant, and you know,
Speaker 2: I did that for like three years and we're just
Speaker 2: picking players up from the airport. Just a lot of
Speaker 2: just you know, going to the combine, not watching players,
Speaker 2: just grabbing lunch for the GM, you know, between workouts
Speaker 2: and stuff like like that, and keep doing profile tapes
Speaker 2: and you know, just enormous scouting assistant duties and did
Speaker 2: that for three years and then that's when I became
Speaker 2: a combined scout in NFS Combine scout and that, to me,
Speaker 2: that's the best training that you can get from a
Speaker 2: scout because you're always wrooking on the next year's draft
Speaker 2: class and so like so, say it's the H five
Speaker 2: draft and that March in April or February, March April,
Speaker 2: whatever like that, will you're working on the six guest
Speaker 2: raft And so what I think is the best training
Speaker 2: is I'll never forget my first junior day. I just
Speaker 2: had to go to University Missouri, and you know, I
Speaker 2: met the pro liaison and he just gives me a
Speaker 2: list and he was like, here's a list. He walks
Speaker 2: me into the film room. I don't know anything about him,
Speaker 2: and I just had to sort out that whole roster,
Speaker 2: like I don't know what anybody is, I don't know
Speaker 2: how good anybody is. And I remember I just grinded
Speaker 2: like and some of.
Speaker 1: That justin Smith first round pick, or it could be
Speaker 1: a guy that has no chance of being drafted, but
Speaker 1: you've got to do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you just do. You don't know, and you don't
Speaker 2: know until you watch him. And that's why I tell
Speaker 2: my Scott's all the time, like You're like all these
Speaker 2: free agents and all these guys that are undrafted guys,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, well, you don't know if they're free
Speaker 2: agents or guys you look at them. So but that
Speaker 2: that moment right there kind of showed me like, look
Speaker 2: and going through the whole spring, it's like it kind
Speaker 2: of gave me the whole thing of don't worry about
Speaker 2: what anybody else thinks, like just trust with your IOC
Speaker 2: and and and that's all. I mean that that's kind
Speaker 2: of a hard thing to kind of especially as a
Speaker 2: young scout, because you got a lot of noise that
Speaker 2: affects you, and you got group think and all this
Speaker 2: stuff that affects you. And just like we were talking
Speaker 2: about earlier about the mont dress up, you want to
Speaker 2: be right. And so it actually takes a very special
Speaker 2: skill to be able to say, look, I don't care
Speaker 2: what anybody else thinks, this is what my But being
Speaker 2: a combine scout forces you to be in that moment
Speaker 2: of like you're riding all these players for the up
Speaker 2: for the next year's draft class. And there is no
Speaker 2: mock drafts out, there is no nobody's talking.
Speaker 1: About change from the combine to the draft, and yet
Speaker 1: you hear this guy's rising up aboard. But it's like
Speaker 1: that's the group thing where it's like, well, maybe we
Speaker 1: have taken another look at.
Speaker 2: This guy exactly exactly, And so that's I've always been
Speaker 2: big on the psychological part of the draft process and
Speaker 2: still am. And so but those are the one of
Speaker 2: the things of the group think. The it's a very
Speaker 2: or just the whole conformity. Always look at the Solomon
Speaker 2: Ash conformity experiment that you look at on YouTube, and
Speaker 2: you know, it's all those guys in the room and
Speaker 2: they're looking at these lines on this paper and it's
Speaker 2: this guy. They say all the wrong lines, and then
Speaker 2: the guy knows that he has the right answer, but
Speaker 2: he keeps sharing something else and he's like, oh, shoot,
Speaker 2: it's gotta be three, but everybody's saying two. So I
Speaker 2: guess I'm gonna say two. But in your heart you
Speaker 2: know that no, it was three. It's not it's not two.
Speaker 2: And so those are the things that you know that
Speaker 2: I'm always big one and try to eliminate that group thinking,
Speaker 2: try to cut out that outside noise. But I think
Speaker 2: that being a combine scout really really helped me out
Speaker 2: with that. And you just kind of get training in
Speaker 2: all aspects of scouting, of running a pro day and
Speaker 2: having your own conviction and all that stuff. So doing that,
Speaker 2: you know, or I did the Midwest and cross checked
Speaker 2: the Southeast, and after that I finally got an area
Speaker 2: job doing the Northeast, and you know, we had a
Speaker 2: new regime come in, you know, fit Billy Devaney became
Speaker 2: my general manager and began the Northeast area scout job
Speaker 2: and then the rest of his history.
Speaker 1: Fast forwarding to the you're rising up the chart with
Speaker 1: the Rams go twenty thirteen rolls around. This kid out
Speaker 1: of Pittsburgh is a defensive tackle. What was your initial
Speaker 1: thoughts and feelings on Aaron Donald the prospect?
Speaker 2: So, Aaron Donald, he's another great, great study in terms
Speaker 2: of blocking out the outside noise. And because at the
Speaker 2: time we had I think we had Michael Brockers and
Speaker 2: Kendall Langford and you know, we had already drafted Chris Long,
Speaker 2: So we had these big defensive linemen at the time,
Speaker 2: and I'm going to pitt and I'm like, this guy's amazing,
Speaker 2: but I'm like, the coaches are going to hate him
Speaker 2: because he's not big. And I'm like, and then, so
Speaker 2: now you're.
Speaker 1: Battling sure, you know, going in, how high.
Speaker 2: Of a grade do I give him? Because I get
Speaker 2: this guy this high of a grade, But the coach
Speaker 2: is gonna be like, what are you talking about? This
Speaker 2: guy's only six foot and twenty five. So, but I'll
Speaker 2: never forget. And this is why always say to this day,
Speaker 2: be in tangibles are the separators of success. Is that
Speaker 2: I knew the defensive coordinator at Hit the time, Matt Howise,
Speaker 2: because he was working with Stagnola in that previous staff
Speaker 2: under spags. And so I go in the pit and
Speaker 2: I see Matt and Matt tells me, hey, Brad, are
Speaker 2: you staying for practice? And I said, yeah, yeah. He
Speaker 2: said come out about a half hour early. And he
Speaker 2: didn't tell me why. He just told me to come
Speaker 2: out of half. So I'm thinking as a scout, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: he's gonna give me some more background information, some more intel.
Speaker 2: He'll be out of practice earlier. So he didn't tell
Speaker 2: me that. He just told me to come out of practice early.
Speaker 2: So I come out to practice early. You know, they
Speaker 2: practiced in that bubble at the Steelers, the Steelers, and
Speaker 2: so I go out there and I walk out to
Speaker 2: the bubble and it's the ball boys, the equipment managers,
Speaker 2: the specialists, the kickers, the punter of the long snapper,
Speaker 2: and Aaron Donald. Those are the only people in the bubble.
Speaker 2: And Aaron Donald is sitting on this bag fully taped
Speaker 2: up with this twis in his knee as if like, man,
Speaker 2: I've been waiting all day, like where's everybody at because
Speaker 2: I've been waiting on this all day? And so then
Speaker 2: I see Matt House. He comes out with all the
Speaker 2: coaches and Matt goes, Brad, you come out early. I
Speaker 2: was like, yep, and he goes, did you see it said?
Speaker 2: I was like nothing else needed to be said. I
Speaker 2: was like, that's that's it. That's it. So yeah, Aaron Donald,
Speaker 2: I mean, a very talented player for an explosive, very strong,
Speaker 2: I mean all that, very athletic. I mean, he had
Speaker 2: this rare combine. But it's his work in indangibles and
Speaker 2: his passion for football that a lot of people just don't.
Speaker 2: I mean they know now, but at the time, like
Speaker 2: and that was my story that I told, you know,
Speaker 2: less need and Jeff Fisher like, I'm like that said
Speaker 2: it all to me, is that when Matt House told
Speaker 2: me to come out there early, and and sure enough
Speaker 2: he's always been that way.
Speaker 1: When he starts slipping in the draft, are you in
Speaker 1: the war room like, hey guys, Scott or is it understood, Like, hey,
Speaker 1: if he's there, we're taking them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was pretty understood. You know, we had two
Speaker 2: picks that year, so you know we had we we
Speaker 2: we took Greg Robinson and then and then you know
Speaker 2: that's the that was the premium position, that was the
Speaker 2: talented you know, what I mean, like, that's that's that's
Speaker 2: what it was.
Speaker 1: So and guess what, every mock draft had Robinson going
Speaker 1: first or second.
Speaker 2: There's no doubt it was himboy Sammy Watkins that I
Speaker 2: think we were targeting, and then finally we just kind
Speaker 2: of severed in on Greg Robinson. But that that was
Speaker 2: a great draft. But I mean that was after that.
Speaker 2: It was so then after that when we when we
Speaker 2: when we got to that next pick, it's like, now, yeah,
Speaker 2: Aaron Donald, you got you know, Mike Evans, you got
Speaker 2: Zach Martin. It's just yeah, so many that was a
Speaker 2: great Odell Beckham, I mean, c J. Bos like, you
Speaker 2: got all these great players and so but you know,
Speaker 2: the sites were said on on Aaron Donald. I never forget.
Speaker 2: We got to that pick and a team called and
Speaker 2: uh they offered a pretty tyson trade offer, and I'm
Speaker 2: never Jeff thetheless was like, absolutely not, We're pitching this guy.
Speaker 2: And that's just it. And uh, I'll never forget in
Speaker 2: that draft meeting of our assistant gentle manager Ray Agne,
Speaker 2: he was the one that really like in that draft
Speaker 2: meeting leading up to that draft because a lot of
Speaker 2: people are saying because of the size you know he
Speaker 2: was going to be a sub rush you know, specialized
Speaker 2: nickel sub rush guy. And I never forget. Rad was
Speaker 2: like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no no,
Speaker 2: he's every day like it is. No, it's no specialized nothing,
Speaker 2: And like he said it with the most passion. And
Speaker 2: you know Ray Agnew, you know Tompson Page like he's
Speaker 2: like when you hear Ray Agnew and Radnews, very salt
Speaker 2: smoke guy. But when he hit said, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: this is real.
Speaker 1: They played you guys played Tampa and it was a
Speaker 1: thunderstorm and I remember I don't know who the decordinator
Speaker 1: was at the time, as probably Greg Williams. They were
Speaker 1: lining airing up and outside linebacker in a three four yeah,
Speaker 1: And I was like, I've never seen this before and
Speaker 1: it was in a rainstorm and he was just out
Speaker 1: there sacking quarterbacks from the OLB position.
Speaker 2: He is he has rare I mean, if you look
Speaker 2: back at his combine, he had Shuttle times like he
Speaker 2: had dB Shuttle times, but he just had like thirty
Speaker 2: reps in two twenty five and ran a four to six.
Speaker 2: And because of the way he's built and he's still
Speaker 2: got long arms and he's so explosive, but again, like
Speaker 2: he's talented. I tell the story all the time about
Speaker 2: Aaron Donald and I say it about Cooper Cup as well,
Speaker 2: and I was like, yeah, man, like this guy loves
Speaker 2: football and he was hard like because that time where
Speaker 2: he was the first one in that bubble in practice,
Speaker 2: He's been that way a freaking old day. He's the
Speaker 2: first one out at practice every day. And I'll never forget,
Speaker 2: even his rookie year, before he was even starting, I
Speaker 2: never forget. I had to run to the facility real quick.
Speaker 2: It was. It was a Saturday Saturday night and I
Speaker 2: think I was heading out on the road somewhere the
Speaker 2: next day, and so I run the facility grab stuff,
Speaker 2: and it was Aaron Donald and he was in the
Speaker 2: world because I was like, there's no players here. It's
Speaker 2: like it's like eight nine o'clock at night, Aaron Donald
Speaker 2: in the whirlpool watching his iPad like he's not even
Speaker 2: a starter. He's not even the starter, but he's preparing
Speaker 2: like he's the starter as a rookie. And and it
Speaker 2: was it was the same way with with with Cooper
Speaker 2: Cup when you know he drafted him, and that's when
Speaker 2: it really it hit me. I'm like, look, man, if
Speaker 2: these players don't have the tangibles, in the passion, in
Speaker 2: the work ethic, in the football character, it's not gonna work.
Speaker 2: It's just bottom line.
Speaker 1: I love this stuff. We're gonna we're gonna do rapid
Speaker 1: fire and then we're gonna wrap this up. We'ven't been gotten
Speaker 1: into some of the Lions stuff I want to talk about. Jered,
Speaker 1: I thought it'll be another time. Yeah, I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: rapid fire and you just give me some answers and
Speaker 1: we go from there. Your greatest mentor as a football
Speaker 1: professional non life, but it's a football person in your career.
Speaker 1: Who is the person that kind of you look to
Speaker 1: and say, this guy showed me the ropes?
Speaker 2: And I have to say, Dick Daniels. I have to
Speaker 2: say Daniels.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know that name. So tell
Speaker 1: me who he is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so so Dick Daniels. He was a Northeast scout
Speaker 2: at the time when I first joined the scouting apartment
Speaker 2: as a scouting intern. And he's the one that kind
Speaker 2: of took the time out. That's the that's the guy
Speaker 2: that told me good job after I winning that yark
Speaker 2: Rooman stilled my gut about this player on this profile
Speaker 2: tape I made, and and he just kind of told
Speaker 2: me like, hey, look man, like this is this is
Speaker 2: what you got to do. This is how you do it.
Speaker 2: And we went to this college All Star game called
Speaker 2: the Cactus Boll It was like this small school college
Speaker 2: all star game down in Texas. This is back when
Speaker 2: they saw like one forty yard dash and stuff at
Speaker 2: All Star games. And I remember it was just me
Speaker 2: and him and every morning before he went out to practice,
Speaker 2: we would sit in that lobby and he would just
Speaker 2: tell me just all the ins and outs of Rochster
Speaker 2: building team building. I mean like he was he was
Speaker 2: that guy, and you know he had been in the
Speaker 2: league for thirty years you know then there and he
Speaker 2: just would just give me so much knowledge and intel.
Speaker 2: So if I there's a lot of guys, That's why
Speaker 2: I kind of like that, because a lot of guys
Speaker 2: I can name. I can name Lawrensman, Cunson, I could,
Speaker 2: I can name less need but uh, from from the
Speaker 2: very gig go, I'd have to say the game.
Speaker 1: Who is the player that you remember being most convicted
Speaker 1: about and using your voice the loudest and maybe if
Speaker 1: you want to say, pounding the table to be selected
Speaker 1: in any any draft, any team you've been a part of.
Speaker 2: Hm hmm.
Speaker 1: Could be a late round guy who you're like, hey,
Speaker 1: let's take a shot on it. Could be a first
Speaker 1: round pick, someone that you were like, this is my dude.
Speaker 1: And I remember asking Jason Light about this and he
Speaker 1: was like, in Philly, Trent Cole was my guy. You know,
Speaker 1: like you just have this random guy like, that's my guy.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: For me, it was John Johnson the BC.
Speaker 1: Talk about it. I love this.
Speaker 2: So it was funny that draft. I remember it was
Speaker 2: like that's when we first hired Sean McVay, and you know,
Speaker 2: we had a lot of new coaches and Less, you know,
Speaker 2: Less was in that whole hiring process, so you know,
Speaker 2: he usually is like deep diving and everything all the time.
Speaker 2: He didn't have that kind of time because we're doing this.
Speaker 1: No, he's interviewing Doug Maroon and guy.
Speaker 2: Regime makeover and so I'll never forget. We get into
Speaker 2: the third round and you get to those points in
Speaker 2: the draft where the board just looks kind of foggy,
Speaker 2: like no one's really standing out. No, one's really it's
Speaker 2: just kind of just static and staying and everyone's kind
Speaker 2: of staring at it, and you know, everybody started names
Speaker 2: and I just said, I was just like John Johnson.
Speaker 2: I said, just let's just pick John Johnson. And I
Speaker 2: never forget Wade Phillips. He looks over at me and
Speaker 2: he's like John Johnson. I said, I'm telling you, this
Speaker 2: guy's a starter, Like he's a starter. So Wade Phillips.
Speaker 2: I love Way Phillips. He just like, oh, he's a
Speaker 2: starter man. And so I just so I just kept
Speaker 2: on the table for John Johnson. I that I'm telling
Speaker 2: you John Johnson like, because I remember I went out
Speaker 2: the BC Yukon game saw him live, Like I just
Speaker 2: love what I saw out of him, like another guy
Speaker 2: just high and tangible is how working. I actually thought
Speaker 2: he was going to be more of a coverage player
Speaker 2: and then he actually transformed himself into more of a
Speaker 2: box kind of player. But I'll never forget. I just
Speaker 2: that that was the moment I think that I felt like,
Speaker 2: you know, I had just like a voice, and I
Speaker 2: think it was a needed voice because everybody was new,
Speaker 2: Like you know, he had a whole new coaching staff,
Speaker 2: you know, we did just a lot of change and
Speaker 2: you know, make over there and I'll never forget, you know,
Speaker 2: I just had a lot of.
Speaker 1: You're in New Orleans NFC Championship game a few years later,
Speaker 1: who makes the biggest play of the game.
Speaker 2: Oh well, you can say a lot of guys did,
Speaker 2: but I actually think Jared Golf played one of his
Speaker 2: best games there. Johnson made the big pig at the end.
Speaker 1: Yes, that Golf was awesome in that game, you know everyone,
Speaker 1: And I've worked with Sean Payton this past year and
Speaker 1: he's still sensitive about it because obviously the non call
Speaker 1: on the Nicole Roby Coleman thing. But I always said,
Speaker 1: you're up thirteen to nothing at home, you got you
Speaker 1: got the ball first in overtime, you got to close
Speaker 1: the door. But Jared Golf that day would not quit it.
Speaker 2: Like what people don't realize about the game. It was.
Speaker 2: It was the loudest thing ever. And it's like he
Speaker 2: literally he couldn't hear his headset win all these He's
Speaker 2: busting enough to try to run to the receiver before
Speaker 2: the PLAYFOD game to tell him to sit like that.
Speaker 2: It wasn't just about his stats, about him throwing. It
Speaker 2: was about the adversity came through. But it's funny saying
Speaker 2: that about Sean Payton because I talked about I talked
Speaker 2: to Dan about that game and this is sure. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And and you know Dan, like me and Dan are
Speaker 2: just we're so much like the same in person. Dan
Speaker 2: he never said anything about all that call was. You know, No,
Speaker 2: he was like, no, we shouldn't have put ourselves in
Speaker 2: position to actually get it up, you know what I mean, Like,
Speaker 2: you know, he like, we're all about accountability, Like that's
Speaker 2: just weighing so much in our building. And Dan was like, no, no, man,
Speaker 2: we shouldn't have put ourselves in the position to actually
Speaker 2: give y'all an opportunity to do that, you know what
Speaker 2: I mean. So you know, you gotta love Dan's response
Speaker 2: on that. This is like, that's such a Dan Campbell.
Speaker 1: Were you were you at Jared Goff's pro day at Cow?
Speaker 1: Were you there that day?
Speaker 2: No? I wasn't at the pro day.
Speaker 1: They speak, they speaking legendary. I mean, I think Mike
Speaker 1: Silver wrote a beautiful piece on it when it happened.
Speaker 1: But like the Rams, whatever its private workout or a private.
Speaker 2: It was a problem. Range. Yeah, we actually purposely didn't
Speaker 2: really send people out to his pro daye because we
Speaker 2: kind of, yeah, we kind of wanted to keep it
Speaker 2: close to the best. But no, I remember the private
Speaker 2: workout and I wasn't there, but I know less you know, Jeff,
Speaker 2: all those guys were there and you just heard it
Speaker 2: was just like man like because I think they did
Speaker 2: him and Carson Wentz like back to back, and I
Speaker 2: guess you know, it was all good for Carson Wentz
Speaker 2: in terms of the weather and the conditions, but Jared
Speaker 2: and I never I think we kind of gave Jared
Speaker 2: a choice to move the location.
Speaker 1: And he's like, no.
Speaker 2: Let's go, and and he was out there just whipping it, man,
Speaker 2: and he's extremely talented, and I'm so happy for him.
Speaker 2: Just kind of too.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've been covering Jared since he got in,
Speaker 1: but like for you, it's a personal connection where you know,
Speaker 1: you draft him in La then you yourself get this
Speaker 1: job in Detroit in the first big movie you make,
Speaker 1: because you trade their franchise quarterback. And it almost felt
Speaker 1: like it was a throw in, like yeah, we'll give
Speaker 1: you golf, but here's Jared Gofflinlast year as one of
Speaker 1: the best quarterbacks in the NFC.
Speaker 2: Well, I remember when we were hammering out the details
Speaker 2: of the trade. I mean, because you know, it was
Speaker 2: kind of that carousel of available quarterbacks that year in
Speaker 2: terms of like who was going to be available. So
Speaker 2: obviously you know Stafford was getting traded to the Rams,
Speaker 2: but I never, forget less asked me. He was like,
Speaker 2: do you want Jared in this trade? And I was like,
Speaker 2: hell yeah, like absolutely, Like it wasn't like, just give
Speaker 2: me any quarterback and I was like, no, I want
Speaker 2: Jared in this trade. And the reason why I'm so
Speaker 2: proud of him and I'm so happy for him is
Speaker 2: because that first year, man, like you know, look, it
Speaker 2: was almost like the guy as a starter in LA,
Speaker 2: Like we're out of five years, he's in the postseason,
Speaker 2: if not super Bowl, and so it's like the one
Speaker 2: year that he did. But yeah, so like we make
Speaker 2: the trade, and the way that the narrative was of
Speaker 2: how the trade went, it kind of went like up
Speaker 2: when Jared Goff came play, and I'm like, dude, this
Speaker 2: guy was just in the divisional playing with a broken hand,
Speaker 2: completing seven percent of its passes, Like why can't he
Speaker 2: play anymore? So then we start the season and me
Speaker 2: and Dan we tear the roster down to the stunt.
Speaker 2: I mean literally, the only thing we really had was
Speaker 2: an offensive line, and even all of those guys got hurt.
Speaker 2: I mean, besides Finny Sewell, all those guys are beat up.
Speaker 2: So we really didn't have much in the skill player department.
Speaker 2: We didn't really, I mean, we had a beat up
Speaker 2: offensive line. We didn't really have any weapons around him
Speaker 2: to throw to, Like we thought that we didn't have
Speaker 2: any money to play with in free agency really, so
Speaker 2: we kind of had to play the cow formula. And
Speaker 2: then we got Tyroll Williams number Shan Paarriman as like
Speaker 2: the y oh we have those guys, and then Tyler
Speaker 2: Williams kind of gets hurt. He's there. We cut with
Speaker 2: Sean Pairman. So now we have like this rookie Moners
Speaker 2: Brown and that like that's it and so and then
Speaker 2: we kind of claim but you know, everything that he
Speaker 2: went through that year. I mean, you know, you gotta
Speaker 2: think Detroit, you're talking about a football town, like this
Speaker 2: is a fan base that is unlike anything I've ever experienced.
Speaker 2: Like this fan base, they care about their football. I
Speaker 2: mean it's legit. I absolutely love them, but they're mad
Speaker 2: at Jared. I mean, he was getting the booze and
Speaker 2: all that, and I'm like, all right, we don't have
Speaker 2: any weapons for this guy. Offensive line is beat up.
Speaker 2: We had to make a mid season offensive coordinator change
Speaker 2: plays for the first time. Actually did a really good
Speaker 2: job at it. But and I'm like, what quarterback would
Speaker 2: be successful going through that kind of situation? Way Like,
Speaker 2: I don't I don't know what quarterback would be six
Speaker 2: I like, I.
Speaker 1: Tell you something also doesn't.
Speaker 2: Happen, doesn't have an offensive line, didn't have.
Speaker 1: A no c Like, do you know where I got
Speaker 1: my respect for him? The toughness and all that's great,
Speaker 1: and that's quarterbacks. And Yeah, didn't say a peep, didn't
Speaker 1: speak negatively about McVeigh once, even though there was rumors
Speaker 1: out there that like, oh yeah, McVeigh couldn't win within
Speaker 1: him just kind of put his head down, went to work. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm a quarterback, let's go. And I know he's a
Speaker 1: number one pick and he makes a lot of money.
Speaker 1: And everyone says, well, that's what It's a lot easier
Speaker 1: said than done.
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, And that's I've always said about Yeah, like
Speaker 2: you said, like the toughness, Yeah, the quarter you gotta
Speaker 2: have that, but the mental and I've always respected Jared's
Speaker 2: mental toughness, Like he that's one trait of him that
Speaker 2: I think kind of goes under the radar a little bit,
Speaker 2: But he has like top level, elite mental toughness because
Speaker 2: I've seen a lot of things that he's been to,
Speaker 2: Like if something off that NFC Championship game first New Orleans,
Speaker 2: like people want to talk about, like the noise that
Speaker 2: he had to deal with and all that stuff, But
Speaker 2: he goes to that twenty one season and he does
Speaker 2: not complain. He just goes through it and it starts
Speaker 2: coming together late in the season and then you know,
Speaker 2: he has a year that he had last year, and
Speaker 2: now it's like, oh, Jared Golf's good, And I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: he's actually always been good. But everybody, like I talk
Speaker 2: about the psychology of the process, it's the recency box,
Speaker 2: and it's like, oh, well, the last thing we saw
Speaker 2: is Jared Golf got cast it off, so he can't
Speaker 2: play anymore. It the last thing we saw is him
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty one, so he can't play anymore. Right,
Speaker 2: Like I'm like no, he can't play. So when he
Speaker 2: had the season he had last year, I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people were like, oh, Jared Golf, and I'm like, no,
Speaker 2: he's He's always been a good quarterback. He's always been
Speaker 2: uber talented, you know, he's always had those traits to
Speaker 2: excel the football team. And so again I'm just super happy.
Speaker 2: But like what you're saying about him, not complaining him,
Speaker 2: not you know, saying this and that, Like that's what
Speaker 2: makes him pretty cool. He's a Detroit line like he's
Speaker 2: he's he's that, Like he's embodied what the city's about.
Speaker 2: And I think the toughness and everything that he's endured
Speaker 2: and I think everybody just has a lot more appreciation
Speaker 2: about him. Man. Again, i think we'll be even better
Speaker 2: offensively this year coming up, and I'm just I'm excited
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: All Right, we've been on for over now, we're going
Speaker 1: to wrap it here one last Yeah, it's been amazing.
Speaker 1: I could do I could honestly do an audiobook with
Speaker 1: you for six hours. I'm loving this. I want to
Speaker 1: talk about Tavon Austin. I want to talk about Steedman Bailey.
Speaker 1: I want to go I want to go deep I
Speaker 1: want to go deep, dude, I want to talk about
Speaker 1: what that was Another.
Speaker 2: One of those drafts though, man like that twenty thirteen drafts.
Speaker 1: Man, I know I want to talk Toby Dress for
Speaker 1: the next hour with you. Let's wrap it with this.
Speaker 1: Lions fans listening, this is the first time in two
Speaker 1: decades I'd say that they actually have a little pep
Speaker 1: in their step and there's actual some national media attention. Saint,
Speaker 1: the Lions could be the team. I know you're excited
Speaker 1: with what you've built. What would be your message to
Speaker 1: Lions fans as we head towards the start.
Speaker 2: A training camp, you know, just continue to stick with
Speaker 2: us and just continue to know that we're not done yet,
Speaker 2: and just know that we're always gonna work hard, keep
Speaker 2: our pedal to the metal, is going to stay aggressive.
Speaker 2: You know. I love the fact that it's a lot
Speaker 2: of this what they call buzz and hope, and I
Speaker 2: think this fan base and our city deserves that just
Speaker 2: through all that they've been through. But at the end
Speaker 2: of the day, me and Dan know that, you know,
Speaker 2: we hadn't made the playoffs yet, and so that's that
Speaker 2: that's what has to be. We got to get in
Speaker 2: the dance and uh, you know we we we have
Speaker 2: full faith and optimism that I think we have the
Speaker 2: right structure place, uh that that we can we can
Speaker 2: get that done. But uh, we got to go out
Speaker 2: and improve it. And that's that's how we're wired. We're
Speaker 2: We're all about accountability and earning it and do it
Speaker 2: the right way. And that's what the city of Detroit is.
Speaker 2: It's roll up to sleeves, get it done, no excuses,
Speaker 2: and just know that you know that your your your
Speaker 2: football team is doing the exact same thing. And I
Speaker 2: think it's a lot of reasons for the optimism and excitement,
Speaker 2: but I do think that you know, all the very
Speaker 2: healthy and all that. I do think that the fans
Speaker 2: would be really excited.
Speaker 1: And first game Thursday night kickoff.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Brad Holmes.
Speaker 1: This was awesome. Honestly, I feel like we should do
Speaker 1: a weekly hour long show.
Speaker 2: Oh this is awesome. I didn't even know it's an hour.
Speaker 2: I'm like, you've been a good conversation.
Speaker 1: Out the clocks. I love talking to you. I think
Speaker 1: you're great at what you do. But I really honestly
Speaker 1: think you've got great perspective, not only on football, but
Speaker 1: on life. And it's cool your path.
Speaker 2: Man.
Speaker 1: I didn't know the enterprise running car stuff, but it
Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense to me. As well rounded
Speaker 1: a guy as you'll meet in the NFL. I love
Speaker 1: you coming on, Thanks so much for joining.
Speaker 2: Thanks a lot. You do it the right way man.
Speaker 2: I got a lot of respect for what you do. Man,
Speaker 2: And you know you.
Speaker 1: Hey, I had I had Jack Campbell in my top
Speaker 1: ten just so you know. In Brad Holmes, everybody thanks Brad.
Speaker 1: All right, all right, So if you're listening to that,
Speaker 1: you're like, all right, this is the guy. That's the guy.
Speaker 1: The Lions are in great hands.
Speaker 2: Aaron.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you had a great familiarity with
Speaker 1: with Brad Holmes, Aaron Kaufman, my producer. Your thoughts.
Speaker 3: I mean, I love hearing his like his stories from
Speaker 3: the draft room and and you know, it's such a
Speaker 3: real story. Everyone is talking about every pick and the
Speaker 3: Lions in particular had so many comments that you know,
Speaker 3: every draft pundit is talking about they took the wrong people.
Speaker 1: At each spot.
Speaker 3: And I love hearing him just being like, no, this
Speaker 3: guy was was like you.
Speaker 1: Said, yeah, who we want Amble as a top fourteen guy.
Speaker 1: So screw it, We're taking him Enterprise rental car to
Speaker 1: working as a as an assistant to the media coordinator
Speaker 1: with the Atlanta Hawks in a different sport, to working
Speaker 1: at the airport. Like I hear that stuff and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's there's it takes hard.
Speaker 3: Work, yeah, yeah, and his resilience and like sticking with
Speaker 3: it and just I also loved I was out in
Speaker 3: the field and I saw these guys that were over
Speaker 3: there helping with practice.
Speaker 1: I was like, what are they?
Speaker 3: Oh, I want to be that Yeah.
Speaker 1: Brad Holmes was awesome. If you're listening and you're an Alliance fan,
Speaker 1: I think you got to feel pretty good. If you're
Speaker 1: not a Lions fan, you gotta at least respect the
Speaker 1: hell of the guy who's calling the shots in the
Speaker 1: front office. This is the season with Peter Schrieger. Is
Speaker 1: what we do. We talk to men and women around
Speaker 1: the league and we try to get them in a
Speaker 1: different light than you usually see in front of a
Speaker 1: press conference or at a podium. It's produced by the
Speaker 1: great Aaron Wan Kaufman. I want to thank Chason English.
Speaker 1: I want to thank Kurt our editor who's going to
Speaker 1: do a bang up job on this, I want to
Speaker 1: thank Jack Rudd, our music maestro. I also want to
Speaker 1: thank over on the NFL side, the great Chason Kleinman
Speaker 1: and Matt Schneider and Meredith Batt and David Jurenka and
Speaker 1: their team at NFL Media having a blast. Gu season
Speaker 1: is rapidly approaching, but these off season episodes are some
Speaker 1: of my favorite. Hope you listen to next week's Got
Speaker 1: Another Good Guest Up Ahead the season with Peter Schrager
Speaker 1: is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you get your podcasts.