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Speaker 1: What's up, everybody, and welcome to the latest edition of

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Speaker 1: the Falcons in Focus podcast. I'm Scott Bear. That's Tory mclaney,

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Speaker 1: the man of the hour New Falcons defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen. Now,

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Speaker 1: before we get to all the why did you want

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Speaker 1: to come here? Stuff, Tory has a very pressing question. Yea,

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Speaker 1: So for you and our research, which we prep, this

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Speaker 1: is what we could do. This is our jobs. I

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Speaker 1: ran across a quote from you. It may have been

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Speaker 1: when you were seventeen years old, but it said I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna live in SoCal my whole life and I'm going

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Speaker 1: to major in business. I never said that. No, No,

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Speaker 1: that wasn't me. That was some other guy. I was

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Speaker 1: about to say, you know, what would you tell that kid?

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Speaker 1: Now that you're sitting here today as the defensive coordinator,

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Speaker 1: there's a lot more out there. So yeah, and back

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Speaker 1: in high school, you were a three sport athlete, MVP

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Speaker 1: of your league in basketball, a pretty darn pitcher from

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Speaker 1: what I hear, and a football player. Why'd you ultimately

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Speaker 1: end up going the football route? So it was my

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Speaker 1: favorite sport out of all three. I grew up doing

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Speaker 1: all three, and so I just kind of stayed with

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Speaker 1: it through high school. My parents were really big onto

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Speaker 1: you know, don't put you know everything into football, you know,

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Speaker 1: do other things. And I think that helped in the

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Speaker 1: long run. You know, you know, you meet more people,

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Speaker 1: more teammates, and you know, you just experienced a whole

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Speaker 1: bunch of different things, playing different sports, and so I

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Speaker 1: think it helped in the in the end, definitely picked

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Speaker 1: the right sport. Yeah, things turned out well. Probably that

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Speaker 1: was the best at that one too, so it's probably

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Speaker 1: why I liked it the most. So that's fantastic. Now

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Speaker 1: going fast forwarding a little bit to like making the

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Speaker 1: decision to kind of put your eggs in the football basket.

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Speaker 1: I was reading about one of your recruiting visits with

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Speaker 1: um USC coach John Robinson and said that he came

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Speaker 1: to your house, I believe to watch the FSU Florida

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Speaker 1: National Championship. Is that correct? That is that story correct?

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Speaker 1: And what was that day like? Yeah, so a funny

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Speaker 1: story part of that side story that no one knows

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Speaker 1: is the defense line coach at the time and Coach

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Speaker 1: Robinson has actually stopped for dinner before they got to

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Speaker 1: my house and stopped in a place where I lived

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Speaker 1: and my mom had spent the majority part of the

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Speaker 1: day preparing this feast. Wow. So and at the time

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Speaker 1: I become hungry, well exactly so at the time, I

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Speaker 1: really didn't know. I found out that later. And so

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Speaker 1: I just remember sitting at the table and they're just

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Speaker 1: slowly eating, you know, trying to put it down, you know,

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Speaker 1: And sure enough they both cleared their plate. But I

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Speaker 1: look back at that, I'm like, man, if I only

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Speaker 1: knew the things you do for recreating types, you know,

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Speaker 1: you've been a college coach, Oh, you got it. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if they put a plate of food in front, you

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Speaker 1: have to eat, it's absolutely man. So what was that day?

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Speaker 1: Like though, they're slow eating? And then is that the

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Speaker 1: same time that y'all watched the National Championship. The game

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Speaker 1: was on and coach was talking just about future and everything.

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Speaker 1: And I really like Coach Robinson, like we just had

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Speaker 1: a good connection. And it was so close to my house,

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Speaker 1: campus was, and so I was going down there. You know,

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Speaker 1: they had basketball games and things like that, and I

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Speaker 1: went to the baseball a couple of baseball games, and

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Speaker 1: you know, in the recruiting process, and spent a lot

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Speaker 1: of time with them. And so you know, I felt

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Speaker 1: very comfortable with him, and it was just I mean,

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Speaker 1: it was really just, hey, coach, you know, I'd like

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Speaker 1: to come. And what he said to me is that,

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Speaker 1: he goes, we gave your scholarship away. Oh no, just

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Speaker 1: like that, and I'm looked at him he goes, no,

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Speaker 1: no, no no, I'm kidding. Absolutely not so from what I heard,

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Speaker 1: he also gave you some instructions, some homework, and that

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Speaker 1: was to have your mom pack a heavy lunch to

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Speaker 1: try to gain some weight. Yeah, that story gets embellished.

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Speaker 1: I mean, come on, I mean it's just it was lunch. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, whoever wrote that or whatever it was, it

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Speaker 1: wasn't accurate. Just like the solid cow uh comment that

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Speaker 1: apparently somebody made about me. That's funny guys bringing it up. Yeah, look,

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Speaker 1: I ate a lot of food. I mean that's part

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Speaker 1: of being a defensive lineman. I mean I was some

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Speaker 1: skinny kid that had to put some weight on, just

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Speaker 1: like everybody else, you know, to give him some food

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Speaker 1: and fatten him up a little bit, right, that's heck.

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Speaker 1: You see it now with these guys, yea, as old

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Speaker 1: as they are? What are ripe one old? Yeah? Exactly

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Speaker 1: I think I saw I think it was from Chris Richard.

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Speaker 1: There was a quote that like, what was college Ryan like?

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Speaker 1: And Chris said, he's exactly like New Orleans Saints slash

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Speaker 1: defensive coordinator coach Ryan Nielsen. Yeah. Um, so Chris and

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Speaker 1: I were in the same recruiting class, right, So it's

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Speaker 1: very unique. I've known him for a long time and

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Speaker 1: you know, talked about passion earlier, about football and about

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Speaker 1: the game. It's just this is how I feel. It's

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Speaker 1: it's you know, I think football without passion is not

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Speaker 1: worth playing. You know, you have to be passionate to

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Speaker 1: play the game, in my opinion, to be good at it,

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Speaker 1: you know, and you got to put it's a lot

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Speaker 1: of hard work. I mean, it really is. And if

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Speaker 1: you're more passionate, you have more energy, You're just going

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Speaker 1: to be better at it. You're more invested, you know.

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Speaker 1: And so that's how I was as a player, And

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Speaker 1: so it just kind of I went through you know,

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Speaker 1: some learning learning curve and the process of getting where

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Speaker 1: we are here today. But I think the the foundation,

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Speaker 1: you know, was the same when you know, when I

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Speaker 1: went to school, Um, you're really in high school to

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Speaker 1: where we are right Now that's really interesting because something

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Speaker 1: that you said is football is in me. And I

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Speaker 1: love that idea of you know, here you are as

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Speaker 1: a young kid going into college and you played multiple sports,

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Speaker 1: did multiple things. Was there a moment where you were like,

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Speaker 1: this is who I am. Football is who I am.

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Speaker 1: This is what I want to do with my life. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So it's my senior year and I'm walking off the

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Speaker 1: practice field and Ed Ozeron was the position my position

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Speaker 1: coaching right, and so we're walking off and Norm Chow

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Speaker 1: was the offensive coordinator at the time, and so between

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Speaker 1: Ed and Norm, you know, we're kind of going back

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Speaker 1: and forth, and all of a sudden, like you know,

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Speaker 1: because Ed had talked to me about coaching and getting

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Speaker 1: graduate assistant and that type of deal, and and I

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Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I's really not into it. At that particular,

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Speaker 1: I thought I was gonna play football in the National

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Speaker 1: Football League for fifteen years and then right off into

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Speaker 1: the sunset, you know, Like yeah. So so I remember

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Speaker 1: with Um, we're going in We're playing in the Vegas

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Speaker 1: Bowl against Utah, and before we went to Vegas, just

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Speaker 1: put his arm around me and he goes, you know,

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Speaker 1: you should try this coaching thing out and right then

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Speaker 1: and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna try

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Speaker 1: this coaching thing out. And so after that, I did

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Speaker 1: a couple other things, and I started playing arena football.

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Speaker 1: And one of the coaches on staff got the head

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Speaker 1: job at University Idaho, and Pete called me up. Coach

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Speaker 1: Carroll and Ed called me up and say, hey, you

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Speaker 1: really need to take this job. This will be a great,

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Speaker 1: you know, introduction to what coaching coaching is and everything.

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Speaker 1: And so about a month later, I packed up a

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Speaker 1: U haul draft drove from southern California to Moscow, Idaho,

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Speaker 1: and here we are. Man. Yeah, and uh, did they

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Speaker 1: happen to mention when they were selling you on this

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Speaker 1: job that it was going to be no sleep and

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Speaker 1: long hours and driving across the country and doing recruiting trips,

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Speaker 1: Like did they clue in on that part? Yeah, once

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Speaker 1: we get these headsets off and we can visit outside,

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you really what that first? So no, I mean, look,

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Speaker 1: the beginning of it was it was such a learning

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Speaker 1: experience and you go to a place like that and

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Speaker 1: you really learned. And this is my first time, you know.

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Speaker 1: I did some director football operations work and some flight work,

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Speaker 1: and you know, I was breaking tape down and I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's just great to see how the whole thing opera

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Speaker 1: and I had a little piece of everything, and it

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Speaker 1: really built the foundation of you know, how to how

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Speaker 1: to manage all of these different things and still you know,

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Speaker 1: get results of everything that you're doing. Um, it was

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Speaker 1: it was excellent. Um I would never changed it, changed

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Speaker 1: it for anything, Like it was such a great That

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Speaker 1: first eight years of was very similar to that, you know,

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Speaker 1: and we didn't have a lot of resources, really learn

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Speaker 1: how to do more with less, like that's where that

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Speaker 1: came from, and developing players in the relationships and we

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Speaker 1: just didn't have that much and so we spent a

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Speaker 1: lot of time together. And so I spent a lot

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Speaker 1: of time with the players and the coaches on the staff.

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Speaker 1: So it was really great. That first year was awesome.

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Speaker 1: To that end, when you kind of look back over

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Speaker 1: the course of your career, you've been at pretty much

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Speaker 1: every level. You coached it every level. Then there is

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Speaker 1: to coach essentially within this game. But is there something

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Speaker 1: that is consistent that you take with you every at

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Speaker 1: every level of the game. Something whether it's in coaching

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Speaker 1: and teaching what would that be. Relationships. Yeah, that's the

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Speaker 1: most important thing to me, Um, relationships with the players

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Speaker 1: and the and the assistant head coach and at this

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Speaker 1: you know level, the owner. I look forward to meeting

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Speaker 1: mister blank Um and the general manager Terry, which we

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Speaker 1: have a relationship already. But then you know, with all

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Speaker 1: the players. I mean, that's that's to me, that's where

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Speaker 1: it's at. And you know, we're we're gonna win a

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Speaker 1: lot of football games. We like to, you know, UM

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Speaker 1: put the relationships last, you know. And I've got guys

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Speaker 1: that um have coached with me now that I coached

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Speaker 1: back in two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine,

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Speaker 1: you know, And so that's you know a lot of

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Speaker 1: guys I still talk to and find out what they're doing.

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Speaker 1: And uh, that's I really like that part of the game.

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Speaker 1: You know, we spend so much, we spend so much

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Speaker 1: time together in the NFL season is so long. If

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Speaker 1: you don't like the people that you're work with, that

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Speaker 1: makes it hard. Yeah, you know. And so when you

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Speaker 1: get to know somebody and you get to know that

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Speaker 1: it's you know, and we're all working for a common goal.

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Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's where it becomes really fun. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's it seems like you and Uh and Cam Jordan

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Speaker 1: seemed to be tight. Now we normally don't talk about

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Speaker 1: Saints on this podcast, but it seems like such an

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Speaker 1: interesting dynamic. His tweet was fantastic. Wish him the semi

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Speaker 1: best as he willingly went to the Falcons. Happy ish

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Speaker 1: for him was what he said. So first and last

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Speaker 1: time I'll talk about this, right, So yeah, Um, my

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Speaker 1: relationship Cam is very strong now. Um. At first, when

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Speaker 1: I was coming from college and he would played six

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Speaker 1: years in the league, when I went into those meetings,

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Speaker 1: it was like Super Bowl Sunday every meeting because they

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Speaker 1: were challenging everything that we were doing in a good way,

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Speaker 1: like they wanted to know the why. And and look,

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Speaker 1: he played in the league for at that time six years,

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Speaker 1: and you know, they had a decent group of plays

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Speaker 1: in that room, and it was explaining and teaching and coaching,

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Speaker 1: and he just bought into what we were doing. And

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Speaker 1: then he had a little bit of success, and so

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Speaker 1: success sells, and so then he was in and we

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Speaker 1: just kept tweaking and working together and I'm appreciative Cam.

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Speaker 1: I really am. Like our relationship now is fantastic, And

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Speaker 1: I mean he called as soon as it came out.

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Speaker 1: You know, he was mad at me that I didn't

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Speaker 1: tell him before. Listen, I can't tell you that, but

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Speaker 1: I appreciate you calling me. So it was good man.

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Speaker 1: Someone else too. I'm interested about your relationship with is

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Speaker 1: ed or Dron. We are in sec country. A lot

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Speaker 1: of people know about ed Or Dron. What was he

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Speaker 1: to you in your early days of coaching, and even

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Speaker 1: you played for him too, Yeah, great mentor. He's a

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Speaker 1: phenomenal mentor. I owe him so much in my career.

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Speaker 1: I really am appreciative and thankful for all the things

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Speaker 1: that he's helped me with and taught me. And so

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Speaker 1: playing for him for four and a half years that

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Speaker 1: was an experience, all right, and then moving to coaching

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Speaker 1: for him that was another experience. And so I got

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Speaker 1: both sides of the spectrum. And when we were at

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Speaker 1: Old messed together for those three years. We didn't win

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Speaker 1: a lot of games, but the amount of teaching and

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Speaker 1: NFL coaches and coaches that had come through the building

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Speaker 1: to teach. You know, Alex Gibbs came down there and

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Speaker 1: he spent you know, really three springs with us, you know,

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Speaker 1: eight times, seven times, and I was fortunate enough as

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Speaker 1: a young coach. I'm twenty five or twenty six. I'm

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Speaker 1: sitting there and I'm listening to his run game and

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Speaker 1: I'm like, this is unbelievable. And Montie Kiffen and Norm

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Speaker 1: Chow came in. I mean, so all these coaches had

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Speaker 1: come through the building and you just try to learn

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Speaker 1: so much. I didn't really realize how good it was

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Speaker 1: until I left, Like the amount of information that was

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Speaker 1: in that building was so I mean, it was awesome.

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Speaker 1: And so then when I left, I look back on it,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I learned so much in those three years.

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Speaker 1: And so yeah, I mean, I'm very appreciative to him.

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Speaker 1: We have a good relationship, we really do. And you know,

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Speaker 1: when you know we were down there, I take my

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Speaker 1: family up to see him and that was pretty cool.

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Speaker 1: You know. Now I get kids and things. So he's

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Speaker 1: holding my baby, you know, which is like wait a minute,

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Speaker 1: hold on, wait, yeah, and you speak coacho's language like

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Speaker 1: you can understand when he absolutely yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now,

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Speaker 1: before we wrap up, I did want to this was

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Speaker 1: a quote that I that was from Larry Holder, which

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Speaker 1: Athletic it's the our podcast listeners have already heard it

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Speaker 1: because I said it the last time that we had

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Speaker 1: we were on our Falcons and uh Final Whistle podcast.

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Speaker 1: And it's kind of the crux of who you know.

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Speaker 1: This is our first time meeting, but it's kind of

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Speaker 1: the crux of who I believe you to be as

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Speaker 1: a coach. But it was Carl Granderson who's talking, and

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Speaker 1: he said, coach Nielsen coaches is pretty hard. He wants

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Speaker 1: us to be big, nasty d Liman so we can

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Speaker 1: play out there and destroy people. You have to have

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Speaker 1: tough skin to play d Lin for the New Orleans Saints.

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Speaker 1: Is that who you are? And is that what Falcons

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Speaker 1: fans can expect of you here in Atlanta? Yeah? Absolutely,

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Speaker 1: I think the first the first thing is the relationship part.

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Speaker 1: And so players don't care how much you know until

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Speaker 1: they know how much you care, right, So that's the

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Speaker 1: first part of that, right. And so um just even

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Speaker 1: you know, talking to our guys you know here in

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Speaker 1: Atlanta and just starting that process and hearing the energy

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Speaker 1: and just the tone of their voice that excites me,

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Speaker 1: all right, And so that's the beginning of it. And

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Speaker 1: then once they understand who we are, then we can

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Speaker 1: push them to be and it's very simple. We're pushing

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Speaker 1: you to be your absolute best, you know, and how

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Speaker 1: we play defensive line, how we play you know, in

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Speaker 1: the Falcons defense. You know, that's really important that the

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Speaker 1: players got to understand that we're it's not always going

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Speaker 1: to be you know, roses. You know, there's gonna be

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Speaker 1: some tough times and tough coaching, you know, because um, look,

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Speaker 1: they're human. You know, they're not going to feel their

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Speaker 1: best every day. But it's our job to help them

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Speaker 1: get to their best and then surpass that. And so

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Speaker 1: that's really the philosophy of just what I believe. And

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Speaker 1: I know you know Coach Smith is along the same

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Speaker 1: lines and and um but its terms of big and

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Speaker 1: physical and nasty. That's just a product of you know,

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Speaker 1: all of those other things that we just talked about.

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Speaker 1: All right, now we are on too rapid fire. Everybody

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Speaker 1: gets the same five questions except not really though, right.

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Speaker 1: We have tailored Yeah, we've tailored it a little bit

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Speaker 1: to fit you because normally we have played this is

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Speaker 1: a player focused podcast. So congratulations, Well you're a player

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Speaker 1: kind of a little bit yeah, in shape, ready to

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Speaker 1: go whatever, you need to look take it all right now,

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Speaker 1: Okay you're ready, yes, okay, what is your favorite play

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Speaker 1: of your playing career or your coaching career. So we're

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Speaker 1: playing at Philadelphia this year and they were fourth and

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Speaker 1: run running that sneak play. You know that they got

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Speaker 1: a sneak on everybody, and so we coached it. The

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Speaker 1: player's bought into it and or enough they ran it

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Speaker 1: and we stopped it. I mean in the sideline and

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Speaker 1: the players you go back, you look at it was unbelievable.

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Speaker 1: I told the guys it was my favorite play of

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Speaker 1: my career. Sneak, Yeah, sneak, because it was. It was

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Speaker 1: all eleven as all the guys. But it took everybody

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Speaker 1: on defense. There wasn't you know, like a corner could

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Speaker 1: make a play, you know, PBu or a d line

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Speaker 1: get a sack, or a linebacker couldn't run through a hole.

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Speaker 1: This took you know, all eleven, you know, and I

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Speaker 1: know it takes all eleven all the time, but really

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Speaker 1: watched the play. Everybody's straining and everybody's pushing it. It

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Speaker 1: was it was awesome. Sometimes the mundane is the most

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Speaker 1: fine and important thing. Yeah, you know, you know, yeah,

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Speaker 1: absolutely the sacks and the touchdowns and all that stuff.

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Speaker 1: But it's it's the little things, you know. That's that's

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Speaker 1: what wins, the little things, and that helped that play

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Speaker 1: helped us win because it was the ball was on

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Speaker 1: their side and so we got the ball back and

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Speaker 1: punting it down and played field position. So what is

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Speaker 1: your favorite TV show or a movie? I'm not a

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Speaker 1: TV guy. Um, that's why we changed it to movie

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Speaker 1: because maybe TV guy. So look, this is a long

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Speaker 1: like Last of Mohegans is a great movie. Yeah, and then, uh,

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Speaker 1: I mean, how do you not like Jerry McGuire. You know,

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Speaker 1: they're just classics, right, and so like, if you're forcing me,

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Speaker 1: you know one of those two? Yeah, okay, I like it.

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Speaker 1: Those are two classics. Now, who was your favorite player

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Speaker 1: growing up? Could be baseball Jackson? Okay, you know, multi sport.

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Speaker 1: I mean it's just right at the right time. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's too bad he got injured because man, what a talent.

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Speaker 1: What a football player and a baseball I mean you

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Speaker 1: really right? What is one word that you would use

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Speaker 1: to describe your defensive mindset? Aggressive? Aggressive? Yeah? Like it

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Speaker 1: all right? Last one, what is your biggest pet peeve?

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Speaker 1: I know, I'm older now, so those things aren't like,

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Speaker 1: aren't top of mind. We've had a lot of really

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Speaker 1: good ones. Yeah, you know what, I'm not really I'm

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Speaker 1: kind of stumped, like biggest pet peeve. Yeah, I don't know. See,

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Speaker 1: I have a problem with I'm I really Like you

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Speaker 1: talk about aggressive, I'm not an aggressive driver, but no

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Speaker 1: one wants to meet me out on the road. Like

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Speaker 1: it's not fun for anybody, myself included. Yeah, be honest

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Speaker 1: with like, I don't have like one one thing. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean I think when I was younger, it was

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Speaker 1: you know, um, if you weren't early, that kind of

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Speaker 1: was like, you know, man, I'm an early guy, so

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Speaker 1: you know I'm in the building early. And if you weren't,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, uh, you know why you bring it in

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Speaker 1: the afternoon paper and it's what I mean. So well,

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Speaker 1: thank you very much for stopping by. This is an

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Speaker 1: awesome episode of Falcon's in Focus. I'm Scott, that's Tory,

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Speaker 1: that's Ryan. So glad to meet you. Falcons fans are

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Speaker 1: so pumped for their new defensive coordinator. Can't wait to

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Speaker 1: see you on the field. And we will come back

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Speaker 1: to you next time with another great guest see Yea