Speaker 1: I never lowed anybody get me off the graham, so
Speaker 1: I was like super just obsessive, ain'tal about that, Like
Speaker 1: I know, if I was gonna work out or I'm
Speaker 1: on the field, I get up myself, like, don't put
Speaker 1: your hand out there, because you're gonna think I'm an asshole.
Speaker 1: Like I'm not gonna take it. But I just don't.
Speaker 1: I don't. Nobody gets me off the ground with me.
Speaker 1: If I'm gonna beat thirty something years old playing football,
Speaker 1: I gotta get my own butt off the ground. And
Speaker 1: I realize I signed up for this time. My name
Speaker 1: is Andrew Whitworth, and I'm hoping to one day finish
Speaker 1: in the top twenty in American century.
Speaker 2: Hi, folks, it's that time again for what you might
Speaker 2: ask for another episode of Off the Beat. This is
Speaker 2: Brian BOMGARTNERI the season, my friends, ho ho ho, or
Speaker 2: well just about the season, and yes I do mean
Speaker 2: the most wonderful time of the year. That's right, it's
Speaker 2: football season. Dun dun, dun, dun. You could call me Santa,
Speaker 2: because today I have a present for you, A giant present,
Speaker 2: by the way, six foot seven inch three thirty Andrew
Speaker 2: Whitworth joins the program today. Former offensive lineman Andrew retired
Speaker 2: last year after sixteen seasons battling in the trenches in
Speaker 2: the NFL, first with the Cincinnati Bengals, last with the
Speaker 2: LA Rams. And well, when I tell you his exit
Speaker 2: from the game was like a movie, Well it was
Speaker 2: picture this Andrew. He's in his sixteenth year in the game.
Speaker 2: He's forty years old, the oldest tackle in NFL history.
Speaker 2: His team, the Rams, make it to the Super Bowl,
Speaker 2: which just so happens to be hosted in their very
Speaker 2: own hometown of Los Angeles. The opponent is none other
Speaker 2: than his former team, the Cincinnati Bengals. It's a close game,
Speaker 2: both teams leading, falling behind. Anyone could win until the
Speaker 2: last two minutes. The Rams score one more touchdown and
Speaker 2: Andrew wins his first Super Bowl in the very last
Speaker 2: game of his career. Okay, I need to write the screenplay. Nowadays,
Speaker 2: you can catch Andrew Fantastic pregame, halftime and postgame show
Speaker 2: on Thursday Night Football Amazon Prime. The crew is fantastic.
Speaker 2: Andrew is fantastic, or sometimes you can find him on
Speaker 2: the golf course with me, more at home with his
Speaker 2: family and actually don't catch him at home with his family.
Speaker 2: That's creepy. But you can listen to him with me
Speaker 2: right now here. He is my old pal Andrew Whitworth.
Speaker 2: Bubble and Squeak.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: Bubble and squeak, gonna.
Speaker 1: Bubble and squeak, I cook get every moleft over from
Speaker 1: the nine before.
Speaker 2: What what's up? But I'm in. How's it going?
Speaker 1: Oh, it's going just chaos as usual.
Speaker 2: How are you enjoying retirement?
Speaker 1: Uh, you know what, It's been great. I actually had
Speaker 1: this conversation yesterday with Ryan Clark. I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: insanely busier now than when I played. I think you
Speaker 1: think of being busy because you have the structure and
Speaker 1: you're there all day. But this is just organized chaos
Speaker 1: every day. It's like, you know, a kid needs this,
Speaker 1: so they got to be at that. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: an uber driver who doesn't get paid. And then on
Speaker 1: top of that kind of getting into the media world
Speaker 1: and doing stuff with you know, Thursday Football, and then
Speaker 1: also still kind of doing some stuff here in LA
Speaker 1: with the rams and things like that. It's been a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. But it feels like I start weeks
Speaker 1: with like, oh man, it's gonna be a pretty slow week.
Speaker 1: And then the next thing I know, it's like I
Speaker 1: don't have a free minute this week.
Speaker 2: I don't know how this happen right right, Well, I
Speaker 2: should have said retirement from football. We are going to
Speaker 2: talk about your media standing for Thursday Night Football, which
Speaker 2: is absolutely blown up with you guys last year, thanks
Speaker 2: in large part to your edition. But this time of year,
Speaker 2: I have to ask you. You know we're here in August.
Speaker 2: Do you miss hitting guys on the field. Do you
Speaker 2: have any like feeling of, oh, this is what I
Speaker 2: should be doing right now, or I miss it or
Speaker 2: I'm really glad I'm not. Is there any of those
Speaker 2: feelings happening now that training camps are in full swing.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. Last year I went to the
Speaker 1: I just retired in March. I go to like the
Speaker 1: third fourth day in training camp for the Rams. Kevin
Speaker 1: Demoff and Shane kind of reached out, you need to
Speaker 1: come down, just be around and hang out, be around
Speaker 1: the guys. I go. I made a big mistake. I
Speaker 1: decided I would go down you know the Rams practice
Speaker 1: at U See Irvine. I'm like, you know what, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go down there and get a nice hotel. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go buy rams practice, just enjoy two days to
Speaker 1: myself down there. Give me nice can I get away?
Speaker 1: I stay at the Montage Laguna, I check in, I
Speaker 1: go over to practice, probably fifteen to twenty minute ride.
Speaker 1: I probably see them warm up in full pads. Maybe
Speaker 1: five minutes into this practice. I'm standing there and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go back to the Mintage. I literally watched
Speaker 1: them like break individual. I've been there ten minutes. I
Speaker 1: shake Kevin dem Off's hand. I'm like, it was great, man.
Speaker 1: I hope you guys every great year. I'm going back
Speaker 1: to the hotel. Literally like took off, never came back,
Speaker 1: and it was I just had that feeling like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I don't miss this at all. I wanted
Speaker 1: to sit by the pool like hang out. And then
Speaker 1: this year I went to three days of camp and
Speaker 1: kind of a similar feeling. I was able to actually
Speaker 1: stay there because I've been you know, out long enough
Speaker 1: that it didn't just make me completely grossed out to
Speaker 1: watch everybody sweating in pads and just think, oh man,
Speaker 1: what it would feel like to hit somebody right now.
Speaker 1: I'd be miserable but I actually stayed a couple of days.
Speaker 1: Was great. But I don't miss that part of the
Speaker 1: game at all. I mean obviously for alive, and it's different,
Speaker 1: like you know, we we kind of we weren't scoring
Speaker 1: touchdowns or throwing passes or getting applauded for you know,
Speaker 1: a sack or interception. We were kind of in the trenches,
Speaker 1: just digging it out every day. And the only time
Speaker 1: you're gonna hear about us is if we messed up.
Speaker 1: So I don't miss that that part at all.
Speaker 2: Right, you mentioned doing some work with the ramp. Are
Speaker 2: you're actively working with the Rams currently?
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say that. I think it's more of you know,
Speaker 1: I have such a great relationship with Sean. Him and
Speaker 1: I are best friends, and uh, you know, really spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time together in the off seasons throughout
Speaker 1: my times as Los Angeles RAM, and then still now
Speaker 1: talk a couple of times a week every week, and
Speaker 1: so we just philosophy a lot and talk about culture
Speaker 1: and team in the NFL and where it's headed that.
Speaker 1: You know, he's a great resource for me now and
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. And then also I thank me for
Speaker 1: him just kind of things out here and feelings we
Speaker 1: both have about the game. We've always been that way
Speaker 1: since he was the coach of the Rams. We've spent
Speaker 1: a lot of time together around that stuff. So I
Speaker 1: just kind of I call it a friend of the program.
Speaker 1: But it's one of those things, like, you know, I
Speaker 1: still have a real lot of really close friends there
Speaker 1: and all that staff you know in the building, from
Speaker 1: the trainers and equipment guys and coaches in front office.
Speaker 1: So I spent a lot of time with them and
Speaker 1: just help where I can. If they got a question,
Speaker 1: I'll go up there and do my best to help
Speaker 1: out anyway I can spread some knowledge. Like this year
Speaker 1: at camp I did, they had a scouting deal where
Speaker 1: I went and talked to all the scouts at their
Speaker 1: little summit about offensive line play and d line play
Speaker 1: and kind of what I see.
Speaker 2: So it makes that makes a lot of sense. I.
Speaker 2: You know, it is surprising to me always that organizations
Speaker 2: and coaches don't that they don't take advantage as much
Speaker 2: as they should. It feels like everybody kind of stays
Speaker 2: in their lane a little bit. And having a resource
Speaker 2: like you as an offensive lineman, it seems to me
Speaker 2: that you would be an incredible resource for the defense
Speaker 2: and for the defensive line play because nobody sees and
Speaker 2: understands what those guys are doing across from you in
Speaker 2: some ways better than you.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I always explained that I actually talked about
Speaker 1: it the scouting deal. I mean, for me as an
Speaker 1: offensive lineman, you know, you got to think like I'm
Speaker 1: studying the best rushers. I'm studying the best players in
Speaker 1: the NFL each and every week and breaking down how
Speaker 1: I could stop them. So I can tell you from
Speaker 1: my perspective, like, yeah, maybe maybe I didn't play the position,
Speaker 1: but I can tell you, well, I know what move
Speaker 1: works and I know what doesn't for this guy, and
Speaker 1: then based off his body type, what rushes really seen
Speaker 1: to work for those body types, And those guys gave
Speaker 1: me the most trouble because they were able to do X,
Speaker 1: Y and Z, and the guys who tried to do
Speaker 1: this or that it didn't work, and that never was
Speaker 1: something that I really feared or thought was useful. So
Speaker 1: I could give you a lot of feedback on all
Speaker 1: the different body types they're looking at, tall, smaller, faster, twitchier, power,
Speaker 1: all that, and then kind of who I thought was
Speaker 1: really the best and who did it the best. And hey,
Speaker 1: even from a coaching perspective of if you're teaching a
Speaker 1: guy that has a very similar body to an Elvis
Speaker 1: Duomerville or a James Harrison or a Dwight Freeney, I
Speaker 1: can tell you the things that those guys who play
Speaker 1: with the shorter lever, what they did that was effective
Speaker 1: and maybe some ways they should watch tape to study
Speaker 1: some of those things. Or if it's Chandler Jones or
Speaker 1: Miles Garrett or somebody you'd see as like a longer,
Speaker 1: taller player, what they did that was effective. And I
Speaker 1: think that feedback's very useful. But I think to your point,
Speaker 1: the crazy part is is, I don't know. I talked
Speaker 1: to so many guys that just would love to share
Speaker 1: that information, but it's just not used as much as
Speaker 1: you would think.
Speaker 2: You know, I wonder why that. I mean, I had
Speaker 2: not planned to have this discussion, But there is a
Speaker 2: lot of parallels I think, you know, in my business,
Speaker 2: particularly when you get to the network level, where there
Speaker 2: seems to be this like ownership or this like taking
Speaker 2: credit for even if it's not even if it's not
Speaker 2: forefront in their mind, Like you know, I want to
Speaker 2: put my stamp on things as opposed to this sort
Speaker 2: of overall team culture of let's just let's just make
Speaker 2: it the best, Like you know, and if you got
Speaker 2: Andrew Whitworth on the offensive line and you've got some
Speaker 2: questions as a defensive line coach or defensive lineman, yet
Speaker 2: it just it makes so much sense to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's one of the things that's in
Speaker 1: every business, I think a little bit, especially you know,
Speaker 1: like you're parallel and it's it's kind of like, is
Speaker 1: it an ego decision, like, hey, I don't want to
Speaker 1: ask somebody who may know more than me about it,
Speaker 1: or is it kind of a I don't want to
Speaker 1: owe you something if I ask you a favor to
Speaker 1: kind of share, you know. It's just funny. It's like, man,
Speaker 1: I think sometimes it's like why not just have this
Speaker 1: conversation and find out? And I think that's what most
Speaker 1: guys that I've talked to. It's not really whether you'd
Speaker 1: use it or not. It's like, dude, stop treating it
Speaker 1: like it's unapproachable to discuss, Like, let's talk about it.
Speaker 1: There's a way I can help you. I'd love to
Speaker 1: I'd love to come back to the team I played
Speaker 1: for and help them in some way find the next
Speaker 1: good player, a great player for them.
Speaker 2: Right. All right, let's go back in time for you
Speaker 2: a little bit. You grew up there in Monroe, Louisiana.
Speaker 2: What was your life like as a kid down on
Speaker 2: the Bayou Funrow Monroe.
Speaker 1: You know, you know, it's quiet in Monroe, Louisiana. Not
Speaker 1: not the big, big city that I live in now
Speaker 1: in LA that's for sure. I you know, for me, honestly,
Speaker 1: it was great. You know, I had, you know, a
Speaker 1: great family, great great life living there with a small
Speaker 1: town very different than what I've experienced as an adult
Speaker 1: to an athlete. But I really got the blessing of
Speaker 1: being around some great football I mean I played against,
Speaker 1: I played with some really special players there in Monroe,
Speaker 1: and you know, I got to be part of a
Speaker 1: really cool high school program. We were fifty eight and
Speaker 1: two when I was in high school and football and played.
Speaker 1: We played people in Mississippi and Texas and you know,
Speaker 1: the five A state champion in Mississippi and Texas my
Speaker 1: senior year and went undefeated. And you know, we played
Speaker 1: against Midland Lee and Cedric Benson and Eric Winston when
Speaker 1: they were at Middle of Lee Texas and played John
Speaker 1: Tyler Texas. We played Moss Pointe, Mississippi, and Demarius Bilbo
Speaker 1: and some of those great players that were in that program.
Speaker 1: So I got to experience some really cool things. Kyle
Speaker 1: Williams who played forever for the Buffalo Bills and was
Speaker 1: an amazing golfer. Him and I were high school rivals
Speaker 1: our two high schools, so we grew up playing each
Speaker 1: other forever, became college roommates. Hated each other's scuts in
Speaker 1: high school though, you know, so I had a lot
Speaker 1: of great sports memories living in that town. It was,
Speaker 1: It was amazing for me. My parents were always a
Speaker 1: part of that, and my older sister Emily, and so
Speaker 1: I can't complain at all about my childhood.
Speaker 2: Were was your family into football like when you were
Speaker 2: growing up? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think my family has always kind of been into
Speaker 1: sports in general. I mean, you know, I can remember
Speaker 1: my grandfather and my grandmother's probably my grandmother Kathleen and
Speaker 1: Baste of Louisiana probably had the biggest influence on me.
Speaker 1: And I could remember from when I was really tiny
Speaker 1: either watching golf or football or baseball. I think probably
Speaker 1: when I was younger. They all thought I'd be a
Speaker 1: baseball player, and so that was kind of what everyone
Speaker 1: was their biggest passion. And then obviously I was, you
Speaker 1: know in that area in North Louisiana, you're you were
Speaker 1: a Dallas Cowboy at that time. That was long before
Speaker 1: the Saints were the Aints with trash bags on their
Speaker 1: heads back home.
Speaker 2: I was, I was going to ask you that. So
Speaker 2: you were a Cowboys fan?
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, time I mean North Louisiana where I'm from.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're only three hours from Dallas. You know,
Speaker 1: it's probably five hours to New Orleans. So, uh, most
Speaker 1: people up in that area that was when the Saints
Speaker 1: were pretty bad and growing up, so everybody were Dallas
Speaker 1: Cowboys fans. Eigman Jersey and the Went Smith Jersey, Michael Irvan, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know that was that was my squad.
Speaker 2: Now you you say your family thought you were going
Speaker 2: to play baseball, When did you grow So I was.
Speaker 1: More of a you gotta imagine high school, like, I
Speaker 1: was a tight end for the majority of my time
Speaker 1: until until my senior year. So I was probably six
Speaker 1: seven to twenty or something. My freshman or sophomore year
Speaker 1: in high school. I mean I was tall and lean and.
Speaker 2: It just six seven. Yeah, I was. I was.
Speaker 1: I was probably six four in eighth grade, and then
Speaker 1: my freshman year in high school, I grew like three
Speaker 1: inches and then that kind of topped out my height
Speaker 1: and then I just kind of put it on the
Speaker 1: way from there and became alignment. But you know, I
Speaker 1: was a basketball player. I loved hoops. That was my
Speaker 1: favorite sport. And I was a baseball I was left
Speaker 1: I'm left handed, so I was a left handed pitcher.
Speaker 1: I played it all growing up. I mean I played tennis, soccer, baseball, football,
Speaker 1: you name it. So baseball and football were probably the
Speaker 1: two things that I got the most, Like, man, you're
Speaker 1: really gonna have a chance at this. Basketball is something
Speaker 1: I just love to do. I've always had a passion
Speaker 1: for it, even when I played in the league. In
Speaker 1: the off seasons, I played little men's pick up leagues
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, just because it was something I
Speaker 1: always loved to do.
Speaker 2: It's surprising you were highly recruited coming out of high
Speaker 2: school at being at the program that you were. It's
Speaker 2: surprising to me that you didn't go to a real
Speaker 2: school like the University of Georgia. You settled for LSU.
Speaker 2: Talk to me a little bit about that decision to
Speaker 2: go to LSU.
Speaker 1: Well, what's wilder and even better is that I actually
Speaker 1: originally committed to the University of Florida and I was
Speaker 1: going to be a Florida Gator, which I know, it
Speaker 1: really fires.
Speaker 2: Me up now, that would be worse.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so I was going to be a Florida Gator.
Speaker 1: Steve Spurrier was there. You know, they were really good.
Speaker 1: Fred Taylor and Danny Wirfel and those guys. And yeah,
Speaker 1: this guy, a little old dude from the north named
Speaker 1: Nick Saban took the LSU head coaching job and came
Speaker 1: to my living room with my family and convinced me
Speaker 1: that I needed to be an LSU Tiger because it
Speaker 1: wasn't going to be a four year decision. He was
Speaker 1: going to be a forty year decision. It was going
Speaker 1: to change my life for the rest of my time
Speaker 1: in the state of Louisiana and lo and behold, I
Speaker 1: mean he was right. I mean, he was probably the
Speaker 1: only coach to always go back to this when I
Speaker 1: was when I was coming up, I really wanted to
Speaker 1: be a tight end. So Houston up was at Arkansas,
Speaker 1: Steve Spurry was in Florida. Both played really big tight ends,
Speaker 1: like Sean Andrews played the umevers of Arkansas big right
Speaker 1: tackle there. Well, the guy who played beside him was
Speaker 1: Jason Peters, who's one of the best left tackles ever
Speaker 1: played in the NFL. He was a tight end at Arkansas.
Speaker 1: So I wanted to go be a big tight end there.
Speaker 1: That was kind of this tween yer tackle tight end guy,
Speaker 1: and so I was trying to kind of choose in
Speaker 1: schools that played with bigger tight ends. Nick Saban sat
Speaker 1: me down in my living room and he's like, listen,
Speaker 1: the sooner you give up your dream to play tight end,
Speaker 1: you're going to head towards your future of having an
Speaker 1: amazing football career. And I was just like, wow, this
Speaker 1: dude just walked in my living room and told me
Speaker 1: that I'm not gonna to be my dream, like I'm
Speaker 1: not reaching my dream. But really he was started telling
Speaker 1: what my dream should be, right, and sure enough he
Speaker 1: was right. I mean, I moved to tackle my senior
Speaker 1: year because of him. I decided I'd move inside and
Speaker 1: play tackle at my senior year at West Monroe and
Speaker 1: then the rest is history. I went on to go
Speaker 1: to LSU and break the all time start record NCAA history,
Speaker 1: and win a national championship.
Speaker 2: Yeah, did he mention that left tackles make more money
Speaker 2: than tight ends.
Speaker 1: I'm just curious he could have got He could have
Speaker 1: easily just started with that, but you know, he decided
Speaker 1: to kind of come in strong and like, hey man,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna be really upfront with you, like you're
Speaker 1: gonna play left tackle for the LSU Tigers if you
Speaker 1: come here and you're gonna have an amazing career.
Speaker 2: You were red shirted your freshman year. There was that
Speaker 2: frustrating for you.
Speaker 1: It was there was a number of us in my
Speaker 1: class that you know, we had, I guess five all
Speaker 1: Americans that I played with that I signed with, Marcus Spears,
Speaker 1: Michael Clayton, Marquise Hill, and Ben Wilkerson and we all
Speaker 1: signed the same class. Some of us read shirt or
Speaker 1: some ups didn't, and it was, you know, kind of
Speaker 1: one of those things that they knew they weren't going
Speaker 1: to be. Probably, you know, you got to think when
Speaker 1: you take over a guy like Nick who's got kind
Speaker 1: of a plan for the future, you don't know who's
Speaker 1: gonna really help them that year and whether they'd actually
Speaker 1: be that good. But we knew in the coming years
Speaker 1: we had a chance to be really special, so he
Speaker 1: tried his best to keep most of us. I unfortunately
Speaker 1: has always say had the worst Red shirt experience you
Speaker 1: can have, because he always thought like, you're one play
Speaker 1: for me, putting you in there and being the left tackle.
Speaker 1: So I had to dress out preparing to start every
Speaker 1: single week. Never once touched the field like taped up
Speaker 1: ready to roll, you know, all my freshman buddies or
Speaker 1: in tiger Land upside down, you know, taking shots at everclear.
Speaker 1: You're sending me text messages and calls and everything else,
Speaker 1: and believe it or not, there I don't think you
Speaker 1: could photo message at that time, so I wasn't getting
Speaker 1: any photos. But they were, you know, filling me in
Speaker 1: on what their antics were, and I'm just sitting there, like, man,
Speaker 1: I got to go to the game and I'm gonna
Speaker 1: stand there. I wasn't that happy, I'll say it that way.
Speaker 1: My freshman fall was a frustrating fall.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you were ranked six and perspective offensive lineman going
Speaker 2: into college, you you go there, you get red shirted.
Speaker 2: But obviously you believe King Saban that you have a
Speaker 2: long future ahead of you. Are you at this point
Speaker 2: are you all in on what your future is going
Speaker 2: to be. Do you have a plan B there at
Speaker 2: LSU or you just we're going to do this and
Speaker 2: we're going to go to the NFL. No.
Speaker 1: I don't think I was somebody that dreamed that big.
Speaker 1: I mean, I you know, I grew up with My
Speaker 1: mom was a school teacher for thirty seven years. My
Speaker 1: dad's a computer programmer, like back in the day if
Speaker 1: like you know, the black screen with a little dots
Speaker 1: on it, and he sat in an office with no windows.
Speaker 1: And my mom was a you know, school teacher and
Speaker 1: ended up being like the school librarian at the end
Speaker 1: of her career. We were very simple, and you know,
Speaker 1: it's not like I never liked, man, I didn't have
Speaker 1: stuff on the table or anything. But I lived a
Speaker 1: very simple life and you know, never really dreamed of
Speaker 1: anything bigger than that. So when I was in school, honestly,
Speaker 1: it was like, man, I'm just trying to be really,
Speaker 1: I was real competitive, Like I wanted to start. I
Speaker 1: wanted to play on the football team, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to be really good, and I love to like get
Speaker 1: after it. I wanted to always like punish myself and
Speaker 1: work some hard and fight and tussle with people like
Speaker 1: I love that. But I never really had a dream
Speaker 1: of like what does that mean after this? And so
Speaker 1: for me, it was always like, man if I fail
Speaker 1: at this, I'll go coach or teach or do something
Speaker 1: like that, just because I love people and I love
Speaker 1: pouring into people and I've always been relational that way,
Speaker 1: and so I really didn't have any dreams bigger than
Speaker 1: just trying to make it, you know, out on the
Speaker 1: football field and be a starter for LSU Tigers. That
Speaker 1: was that was it?
Speaker 2: Well I did I did read here that to your
Speaker 2: point in your LSU career, you missed one practice, which
Speaker 2: was to attend your own graduation. So I would say
Speaker 2: that's that's pretty committed. You stayed out of the well
Speaker 2: the ever clear dens. There you go from red shirting
Speaker 2: your freshman year, you end up being a second round
Speaker 2: draft pick going into the NFL. At what point do
Speaker 2: you realize that's going to happen? You don't have dreams
Speaker 2: of it, You're being simple, but like, at what point
Speaker 2: do you go oh, okay, we're gonna do this thing.
Speaker 1: After we won the national championship, my red shirt sophomore year,
Speaker 1: there's my second year starting. Nick Saban brings me in
Speaker 1: his office, and I'll never forget this because it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of those things you always go back to, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm sure you did it, like a decision
Speaker 1: where you're like, you take a job or you don't,
Speaker 1: or you make a decision you don't. You're like, man,
Speaker 1: I wonder where I would have ended up had I
Speaker 1: decided to do that, or maybe said no or yes,
Speaker 1: you know, And so that for me, that's that moment
Speaker 1: he brings me in his office. Never even thought really
Speaker 1: about the NFL. I thought of the NFL as like wow,
Speaker 1: that's insane level of football and not like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I'm going to get there, right And I go into
Speaker 1: his office and he's like, hey, man, you've played two years,
Speaker 1: you red shirted. You know you could explore the draft
Speaker 1: if you wanted, you know, you know, I think you
Speaker 1: should submit your papers and get like, you know, people
Speaker 1: that don't know that you can submit to the league
Speaker 1: and the scouts give you a score where they think
Speaker 1: you'll be drafted and that's what helps kids make their decision.
Speaker 1: And so I got mine back and it was like
Speaker 1: a second or third round rating, and he's like, you
Speaker 1: do what you want to do, but I wanted you
Speaker 1: to get this. And I've always thought it was like
Speaker 1: I couldn't understand if he like didn't like me or
Speaker 1: like what's going on, because it's like it seemed like
Speaker 1: we loved each other, you know, he loved me in
Speaker 1: the player, I was just like, are you trying to
Speaker 1: push me out the door? And I think he like
Speaker 1: honestly wanted me to explore, like, hey man, you need
Speaker 1: to realize how good you are at this, and like
Speaker 1: it needs to become something you're thinking about. And I
Speaker 1: appreciate that, but I decided I wanted to stay, and
Speaker 1: I stay, and we don't have as good a year.
Speaker 1: We have a solid year Nick kind of playing. You know,
Speaker 1: we kind of know the writings on the wall. He's
Speaker 1: gonna leave and go to the Dolphins after that year.
Speaker 1: So I don't have a great experience that year, and
Speaker 1: I had a couple of games that kind of I
Speaker 1: didn't think I played as well as I should have
Speaker 1: unless Miles comes in and I'm like, you know, what.
Speaker 1: I've always had this feeling in me that I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, for whatever reason, I always feel like I'm
Speaker 1: responsible for people, and so I felt like in that moment,
Speaker 1: a change, a head coach, a program that didn't perform
Speaker 1: as good as it did, we just want an actual championship.
Speaker 1: I got a lot of senior buddies that are coming back.
Speaker 1: I don't even want to talk about leaving. So I
Speaker 1: didn't even explore leaving the next year as a rich
Speaker 1: Ard junior because I'm like, I had to come back.
Speaker 1: I remember giving a speech Nick Saban that kind of
Speaker 1: tells the guys formerly after our Iowa game and we
Speaker 1: lose my junior year, he's gone, and I remember standing
Speaker 1: up being like, I'm going to be back here. You know,
Speaker 1: we're gonna get after it and do what we're supposed
Speaker 1: to dolah blah blah. And I just felt compelled to
Speaker 1: do it in the moment, with no real reasoning for
Speaker 1: the decision. And I came back and played in another year.
Speaker 1: So I ended up playing all five years at LSU
Speaker 1: and becoming a second round pick. So it's crazy how
Speaker 1: it worked out, and I still go back sometimes to
Speaker 1: that day in his office and think like what if
Speaker 1: I just decided to leave because my rating didn't really
Speaker 1: change it those two years, how different would my career
Speaker 1: look or where would've ended up. But I've been mature
Speaker 1: enough to handle the league all those questions.
Speaker 2: That's so interesting. I've never heard that before of a
Speaker 2: coach pulling you in and actually encouraging you to go
Speaker 2: because it seems you know, you know, I mean, let's
Speaker 2: just be real, like you're a good player, You're obviously
Speaker 2: going to help him do what he wants to do,
Speaker 2: which is when that's a that's a great story, that's
Speaker 2: really really important.
Speaker 1: I think if you think about it, it's a little
Speaker 1: bit you look at what he does in Alabama. Now,
Speaker 1: how fast those kids get in and out. I think
Speaker 1: it's a little bit of a vision of the more
Speaker 1: kids I graduate come here to play, are successful and
Speaker 1: end up in the NFL, the easier it is for
Speaker 1: me to tell the next kid that's what his future
Speaker 1: looks like. And so I think that's why he kind of,
Speaker 1: you know, plays that line a little bit of like, hey,
Speaker 1: when I got really special ones that I may need
Speaker 1: to get into the league and be able to show
Speaker 1: this example, I'll recruit the next one based off of
Speaker 1: this guy, and I think that's kind of the vision
Speaker 1: he's always had for its to keep those guys coming
Speaker 1: in and out.
Speaker 2: Two thousand and six NFL Draft. After five years at LSU,
Speaker 2: you get drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals. Talk to me
Speaker 2: a little bit about the experience for you of the draft.
Speaker 2: Is this like my dream has come true?
Speaker 1: It was? The problem was I was going through a
Speaker 1: lot of tourmal personally, so you know, I end up
Speaker 1: senior year at LSU kind of you know, been in
Speaker 1: a relationship the majority of the back half of my
Speaker 1: college career with a girl and we get married. End
Speaker 1: up not a good idea for either one of us,
Speaker 1: not going well. I think it lasted all of maybe
Speaker 1: I don't know, five months of actually being married. Maybe
Speaker 1: that that might be a stretch, and so things are
Speaker 1: not good. There, go through the draft experience together or whatever,
Speaker 1: but still not that great. I'm two weeks after I
Speaker 1: get drafted the Cincinnati Bengals, excited as heck to be there.
Speaker 1: I still love the story that the secretary and there
Speaker 1: called me like the day after I got drafted and
Speaker 1: she's like, hey, next Friday, we got to have you
Speaker 1: here whatever. And I'm like, well, I get it on Thursday.
Speaker 1: She's like, what do you mean you get on Thursday.
Speaker 1: I'm like, well I already. I just booked my own
Speaker 1: personal flight, like I'm coming in on Thursday. And she's like, okay,
Speaker 1: you're excited to get to work. You didn't even wait
Speaker 1: for us to tell you when you can come. I
Speaker 1: love it. But that was like my eagerness to get
Speaker 1: there and get going. And so two weeks after I
Speaker 1: get drafted, I met Marvin Lewis's event. He had a
Speaker 1: found he has a great foundation in Cincinnati. My phone's
Speaker 1: blowing up and I'm like, man, I don't know who's
Speaker 1: calling me so much tonight. So I finally walk out
Speaker 1: of the event, get on my phone and it's one
Speaker 1: of my best friends of life, Michael Peterson, and he says, hey, man,
Speaker 1: And as you go somewhere and he talked to me
Speaker 1: and said what's up, He's like it's Lee, and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: what's going on. He's like he was killed. And so
Speaker 1: my close friend in college, roommate, Lee Deal, was serving
Speaker 1: the Navy, was a met doc for a special recon team.
Speaker 1: He was killed in action two weeks to the day
Speaker 1: after I was drafted, almost and crazy experience in life.
Speaker 1: I always say it's been one of those things is
Speaker 1: horrific and never want to go through again. But it's
Speaker 1: also been something I think that saved my entire career
Speaker 1: because where I was at in life, I think I
Speaker 1: took a lot of things for granted in general, and
Speaker 1: so I spent my entire NFL career from that moment on.
Speaker 1: I've always said, if you find a national anthem that
Speaker 1: I'm on the video, there's tears in my eyes and
Speaker 1: most of the time my tear dropping down my face.
Speaker 1: And it's not really something to do as much about
Speaker 1: the anthem as much as there was always this moment
Speaker 1: I'd see the flag, I'd hear the anthem, and able
Speaker 1: to remind me, boy, there's a lot of things through
Speaker 1: the week that I stress out about and think about,
Speaker 1: and man, I get to stand here today because of
Speaker 1: one of my best friends in life sacrifice, the ultimate
Speaker 1: sacrifice for me to get to have this freedom to
Speaker 1: do what I'm doing right now. So it gave me
Speaker 1: a constant reminder for sixteen years how special what it
Speaker 1: is I get to do each and every Sunday.
Speaker 2: That's incredible. God, what a crazy story, and what a
Speaker 2: gift for you. That's great. It is, man, Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: I had the unique honor one of the coolest things
Speaker 1: I have for my NFL playing career, and that includes everything,
Speaker 1: the trophy, you name it. I have actually a framed
Speaker 1: picture of that led to Michael Dangoons to come Seals.
Speaker 1: Years down the road, the Seals are training in Kentucky
Speaker 1: and I find out about it and invite them to
Speaker 1: a Steelers Bengals game, get them a suite at the
Speaker 1: stadium to work through the Bengals, get them a sweet
Speaker 1: just happens to be Jim Bayner's. There a lot of
Speaker 1: like political folks are in town. They go visit them,
Speaker 1: kind of make this awesome experience for them. Well, these
Speaker 1: guys take this Bengals flag they gave them and flew
Speaker 1: it on their next deployment and took pictures with all
Speaker 1: their machinery and everything and their guns and name it.
Speaker 1: Pulled the flag up and got it framed and gave
Speaker 1: me their American flag that went with them and the
Speaker 1: Bengal flag that we gave them, and framed it up
Speaker 1: for me, and I kept it. I took the frame
Speaker 1: and I actually put it as the back of my
Speaker 1: locker in Cincinnati. That was the back side of my locker,
Speaker 1: so every day I could look at it. But it's
Speaker 1: still one of the coolest things that I've ever received
Speaker 1: playing NFL football.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of talk around the league about
Speaker 2: a lack of support given from the Bengals organization to
Speaker 2: their players in terms of facilities support in that way.
Speaker 2: Is that fair or is that not fair criticism?
Speaker 1: You know, I think what's tough about it is obviously
Speaker 1: I think it's a lot harder for your smaller families
Speaker 1: that kind of that's their only business in the NFL
Speaker 1: to operate financially in the NFL model, because a lot
Speaker 1: of people you know who don't realize it, but you know,
Speaker 1: you're Jerry Jones or Crownkeys, you know, some of these
Speaker 1: guys in the world to have these other massive businesses
Speaker 1: that have really led to their worth and really how
Speaker 1: they're able to operate so freely in the world of
Speaker 1: using the NFL's money to make the team as good
Speaker 1: as possible. I think it is a lot harder, but
Speaker 1: it's not that it couldn't be done and so I
Speaker 1: think at times, really the critique when I got to Cincinnati, obviously,
Speaker 1: you know, that's one of the things I think people
Speaker 1: don't get marvel Lewis enough credit for us when he
Speaker 1: took over that team. I mean, you know, zero real
Speaker 1: scouting department, structure, not many facility things that anybody would
Speaker 1: want to play there for other than moving into the
Speaker 1: stadium they were in. But I mean, my entire career there,
Speaker 1: we never had an indoor. We never had any of
Speaker 1: those things. So our indoor was to go inside the stadium,
Speaker 1: which is open air, and practicing the snow on the turf,
Speaker 1: which I don't know why we did that because it
Speaker 1: only the turf's only harder when it's cold, so it
Speaker 1: didn't make a lot of sense, but it sounded good,
Speaker 1: we're going inside today. But yeah, I mean, when I
Speaker 1: first got there, we ate our meals out of what
Speaker 1: used to be like a closet. They literally just rolled
Speaker 1: in trays of food and you'd walk through there, and
Speaker 1: then you'd sit in the basketball gym and that's literally
Speaker 1: where you ate, and it was just way different than
Speaker 1: what they experience now. But I think it is a
Speaker 1: fair criticism to say you wish they were more aggressive.
Speaker 1: I know, I've always been critical in the sense of
Speaker 1: I think they did a wonderful job of putting together
Speaker 1: teams and stuff. When I was there, were really successful.
Speaker 1: We didn't find a way to win a playoff game.
Speaker 1: But I mean, shoot, we went to the playoffs six
Speaker 1: times while I was there, won a bunch of division championships.
Speaker 1: But I always thought in twenty eleven to fifteen, when
Speaker 1: we really had our run with Andy Dawton and AJ Green,
Speaker 1: the Geno Atkins and those guys, I was always critical
Speaker 1: of here you are with all this self. You know,
Speaker 1: you drafted them talent and not bringing in guys from
Speaker 1: other places. You drafted all these guys, so they're all
Speaker 1: draft picks and they're all slotted in the draft. You've
Speaker 1: had all success, You're this could like, why is there
Speaker 1: no investment to like one free agent or one trade
Speaker 1: to just like, all right, we keep getting there, like
Speaker 1: almost winning, Like we're that good, then why not just
Speaker 1: some kind of like investment to say, let's be even better.
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the things that Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: really changed.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I think his attitude going there in the draft and
Speaker 1: who he is you can see that their mindset's changed
Speaker 1: in the last three years. I mean, they've probably signed
Speaker 1: more free agents than they signed entire eleven years I
Speaker 1: was there. So it's interesting to see that it really
Speaker 1: looks like they've completely changed under this new era with
Speaker 1: Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow and T Higgins and those guys.
Speaker 1: But they never would have gone and gotten to Trey Hendrickson,
Speaker 1: you know, or a DJ Reader or any of those
Speaker 1: guys when I when I was there, that just wasn't
Speaker 1: something they did. And so that was always my point.
Speaker 1: It's like, man, I understand y'all need to be tight
Speaker 1: with things, but why isn't there like a buy in
Speaker 1: we are successful to say, what if we just took
Speaker 1: that next leap? I think you'd all benefit financially and
Speaker 1: everything else.
Speaker 2: Right, talk to me about a little bit about stepping
Speaker 2: on the field for the first time in the NFL.
Speaker 2: Was this like my dream has come true?
Speaker 1: You know? I think it would have been except for
Speaker 1: for me my first time, you know, I played left
Speaker 1: tackle at LSU, and my first real experience starting I
Speaker 1: played against the Cleveland Browns as a guard, which is
Speaker 1: a little easier from the sense of you're in a
Speaker 1: little box and you don't feel as exposed as you
Speaker 1: are as a tackle. So that part wasn't is bad.
Speaker 1: But I remember my first left tackle snap, which is
Speaker 1: what I really call living on that island like a corner.
Speaker 1: And notice in the made to man corner. We're playing
Speaker 1: in Tampa, Levi Jones is our left tackle, and I'm
Speaker 1: at the game. You know, I'm not starting anything that week,
Speaker 1: and I'd only started against Cleveland because somebody was injured.
Speaker 1: And so this is like week four or five, and
Speaker 1: Levi goes down in the first quarter and so it's
Speaker 1: a it's a TV time out for his injury. My
Speaker 1: coach yells at me, you know, get get out there,
Speaker 1: and so I run out there, and I get in
Speaker 1: the huddle at left guard and I moved to left
Speaker 1: guard to left tackle because that's how we played against Cleveland.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, no way, He's putting me on the edge,
Speaker 1: like that's Simmey and Rice over there. And so he's
Speaker 1: like I can see my coach is like frantically making
Speaker 1: all these arm gestures like he's like pissed off, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, what is going on? And kind of see
Speaker 1: him on this iseline. I'm trying to like halp ignore
Speaker 1: him and like lock in. I'm starting now. I'm playing
Speaker 1: in this game to meet something. And then finally Carson
Speaker 1: Palmer or quarterback over the headset like somebody's telling him
Speaker 1: some of the headset. He's like with like move like
Speaker 1: you're playing left tackle, and I'm like, what, huh? Like me.
Speaker 1: So I literally look over there at Paul Alexander, my
Speaker 1: line coach. I like point at my chest, like me,
Speaker 1: move over to left tackle, and He's like, yes, move over,
Speaker 1: and so I move over there, and I'm like, oh boy,
Speaker 1: let's go me and Rice is going to be a blast.
Speaker 1: And I have no idea how bad I couldn't go.
Speaker 1: Look at that one. It probably was really ugly. I
Speaker 1: didn't give up a sack, and I did a pretty
Speaker 1: good job, so I was very content. But the next
Speaker 1: week it didn't get any easier. I faced Julius Peppers
Speaker 1: and Mike Rutger, who at that time I think led
Speaker 1: the NFL and sacks, and from then on I was
Speaker 1: playing left tackle, and the challenge each and every week
Speaker 1: could be at A rookie left tackle in the league
Speaker 1: ended up starting ten games that year, and he was insane, man,
Speaker 1: crazy experience. I can remember in my mind like being
Speaker 1: on the field with Brett Farr and Ray Lewis and guys.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, man, highlyze this guy, Like how am
Speaker 1: I standing on the field with treil Owen's and all
Speaker 1: these guys. It was like every week you get over
Speaker 1: the bench and kind of look over at the offense.
Speaker 1: It's on the field and you're like, man, wait, oh
Speaker 1: my god, I'm on the same field as that guy.
Speaker 1: Like this is crazy, Like we're in the same place,
Speaker 1: we had the same job. It's unbelievable.
Speaker 2: Well, I know in twenty fourteen you're still facing a
Speaker 2: lot of those guys and others. You allowed zero sacks
Speaker 2: and only one quarterback hit on Andy Dalton name second
Speaker 2: team ap NFL All Pro. Is that is that your
Speaker 2: greatest accomplishment? I mean, zero sacks and one hit from
Speaker 2: the left hack the position.
Speaker 1: Good year. It was a really good year. I'll say that.
Speaker 1: You know what's wild is that kind of led to
Speaker 1: me becoming a Los Angeles ram It's insane to think
Speaker 1: like that's how it all worked out. But yeah, it
Speaker 1: was a great year, and it was a year that
Speaker 1: I was so committed to I think I finally hit
Speaker 1: this point, you know when people say, hey, you know,
Speaker 1: years down the road, I placed be the first ever
Speaker 1: aligneman to start a game at forty years old, as
Speaker 1: I start and left tackle. It started from that moment
Speaker 1: because I'd really committed that offseason, like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I feel really good and I think I could do
Speaker 1: this for a long time if I just keep this
Speaker 1: exact regimen, And that kind of started it off. That year.
Speaker 1: I was fired up to make a difference and do
Speaker 1: something different. Hugh Jackson I was coming in as our
Speaker 1: offensive coordinator, and Hugh and I always hit it off,
Speaker 1: and we were both firing guys, and so we kind
Speaker 1: of got each other going every week. And man, I
Speaker 1: had a lot of fun playing football all year, much
Speaker 1: less of success, and it really kind of, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, shot me on the direction to what would
Speaker 1: lead to an insane finish.
Speaker 2: To my career. We talked about your near perfect attendance
Speaker 2: record in college. You played one hundred and sixty eight
Speaker 2: out of one hundred and seventy six games. In your
Speaker 2: eleventh seasons with the Bengals, you don't take tailand all.
Speaker 2: Is that is that true?
Speaker 1: Yeah? You know what, happened is like you're five or six,
Speaker 1: you know, you're sitting there, Brian, and you're like bored
Speaker 1: in the offseason, and I'm watching Roadhouse for like the
Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy eighth time, and not just for
Speaker 1: the scene of Angelis when he picks her up in
Speaker 1: the room, but also because you know, I love Roadhouse
Speaker 1: and I love like the mentality that you know he
Speaker 1: took on in that. And so the scene where she's
Speaker 1: stapling him in the hospital and he's like like, pain
Speaker 1: is just pain, Like you gotta get used to it, right,
Speaker 1: and just kind of unflinching. So I was in my
Speaker 1: fifth six year in the league and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm watching guys line up in for toward All shots,
Speaker 1: ordering toward All online and taking it throughout the week
Speaker 1: and just crushing every anti inflammatory and pain pill and
Speaker 1: you name it. And I was like, man, I just
Speaker 1: I feel like I see all these guys develop a
Speaker 1: need like they have to to be able to function
Speaker 1: every day, they have to have all this stuff. Why
Speaker 1: can't it work the other way?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: And I was like, I was watching that show and
Speaker 1: I got done watching it, and I was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, Like what if I just took a year
Speaker 1: and said, no, I'm not taking anything, no medicine, nothing,
Speaker 1: just like Patrick Swayzey says it, like no meds, no pills, nothing,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, let's do it. And so I did it,
Speaker 1: and I saw a drastic difference and just how I
Speaker 1: was able to kind of understand my body and feel
Speaker 1: things I needed to work on and feel things that
Speaker 1: I needed to get worked on per se. And so
Speaker 1: it just became a thing. And so after that, it
Speaker 1: was like everywhere I went, no matter what the entry was,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, look, man, unless you're telling me that,
Speaker 1: like I can't get on the field next week, I'm out.
Speaker 1: And so like, yeah, was there an occasion like you know,
Speaker 1: they give you the pregnic zone or something like that
Speaker 1: if you've got some significant injury and they don't know
Speaker 1: if you're to recover in time. I mean, yeah, I've
Speaker 1: done that before. But no weekly, daily stuff. Actually, until
Speaker 1: my last two years in LA, I basically took nothing
Speaker 1: for about seven years and my last two years in
Speaker 1: LA just because at my age it was a lot
Speaker 1: harder to do that. On actual game day, I would
Speaker 1: take like two tile and all just to kind of
Speaker 1: take the edge off a little bit in the morning,
Speaker 1: you know, because the thing was when you're thirty nine
Speaker 1: and forty showing up on the field, Like I always say,
Speaker 1: it's like a box of chocolates. Every Sunday, I have
Speaker 1: no idea what I'm gonna wake up and feel like
Speaker 1: that morning it's like, oh rap, it's one of those days.
Speaker 1: You know, Daddy's not in the mood today. I got
Speaker 1: to find it somehow, so he takes some talle on
Speaker 1: and get going.
Speaker 2: I took torn off for the first time this year.
Speaker 2: Can I tell you in Tahoe? I yeah, And I'll
Speaker 2: tell you I'd never heard of it. I didn't know
Speaker 2: what I mean. I heard it and really not ever
Speaker 2: understood what it was. It's for those of you who
Speaker 2: don't know, and you were like me until like two
Speaker 2: months ago. It's basically an anti inflammatory. I'd be profen
Speaker 2: like on steroids, which is yeah, it's a weird Actually
Speaker 2: you shouldn't say steroids, I guess, but it's a very big,
Speaker 2: powerful anti inflammatory. And I'll tell you what. My back
Speaker 2: didn't hurt playing golf six d six rounds in six days.
Speaker 2: I felt pretty good. Yeah, yeah, that's.
Speaker 1: How that's kind of really part of it for me
Speaker 1: is that I wanted to get to a point where
Speaker 1: if I ever actually needed it, or I actually needed
Speaker 1: some time at all, I wanted to have a drastic
Speaker 1: effect on me.
Speaker 2: Oh right, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: And so that's really where it was. It's like, man,
Speaker 1: you get injured one week and it's whether or not
Speaker 1: you play the next week. I want to be able
Speaker 1: to feel like man, that as a drastic effect. And
Speaker 1: and so you know, that's really where it started. And
Speaker 1: then it became just kind of stubborn, like you know,
Speaker 1: and then obviously also you know, I was also as
Speaker 1: o line and guys would tell you like I never
Speaker 1: lied aybout getting off the ground. So I was like
Speaker 1: super just obsessive, ain't aal about that. Like I know,
Speaker 1: if I was gonna workout or I'm on the field,
Speaker 1: I get up myself, like don't put your hand out there,
Speaker 1: because you're gonna think I'm an asshole. Like I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna take it, but I just don't. I don't nobody
Speaker 1: gets me off the ground with me. If I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be thirty something years old playing football, I gotta get
Speaker 1: my own butt off the ground. And I realized I
Speaker 1: signed up for this. That's a great transition to being
Speaker 1: a RAM. That's part of what it was.
Speaker 2: About twenty seventeen. You signed with the Rams and your
Speaker 2: buddy Sean McVay, You move out west. Was it difficult
Speaker 2: for you to leave Cincy?
Speaker 1: Crazy? You know, I don't know how much we've really
Speaker 1: even talked about it, but that, you know, Melissa and
Speaker 1: I over the time, but it's we signed. I guess
Speaker 1: it was like March tenth, not somewhere in there. April second,
Speaker 1: my family had sold the house, moved out of Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: We lived in a house that we were renting in California.
Speaker 1: In one month and basically three and a half weeks
Speaker 1: something like that, my wife she flew home. The crazy
Speaker 1: part of that story is I signed the contract, we
Speaker 1: flew out of my wife and three kids. And when
Speaker 1: you're an offensive lineman, Brian, I don't get like they
Speaker 1: don't send the g for or to pick you up. Okay,
Speaker 1: you know I was. Actually that was me. Yeah, me
Speaker 1: and Melissa's favorite moment ever. I think I think it's
Speaker 1: Sean mcvay's favorite story ever. But since we won the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. But I'm on the flight in the very
Speaker 1: back row, my wife and my three kids. The toilets
Speaker 1: just you know, I'm getting all the fumes the whole flight.
Speaker 1: We connect through Salt Lake City to to La and
Speaker 1: I am it's one of those bumpy winter flights where
Speaker 1: you know, the flight tents can't even get up and
Speaker 1: I'm just sitting on here in this back round. My
Speaker 1: kids are crying. I'm like, what are we do we
Speaker 1: this is the dumbest thing ever. Let's go back to
Speaker 1: fourth Thomas, right, you know, get these kids on a
Speaker 1: play set, like you know, we're fine, And I tell
Speaker 1: my wife, I'm like, listen, you need to buckle up
Speaker 1: and understand, we've given up super Bowl hopes. Like it's over.
Speaker 1: We're leaving Cincinnati where we'd gone on the playoffs a
Speaker 1: bunch of times. This team hasn't had a winning season
Speaker 1: in fifteen years, Like super Bowl's over. This is about
Speaker 1: us going there and changing a culture, you know, being
Speaker 1: willing to help the wives, help the players, like this
Speaker 1: is all this is about, and us going there and
Speaker 1: being servants to this organization. And that's what they're really
Speaker 1: paying me to do. Come play good football and teach
Speaker 1: these guys how to play good football and change the
Speaker 1: culture of what's going on there. And Melissa told Sean
Speaker 1: that story when we first got to LA and so
Speaker 1: he has never let me live it down since we
Speaker 1: went to two Super Bowls in one one. But it's
Speaker 1: the truth of how I signed there. It was very like, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm going here. This isn't about me, this is about
Speaker 1: this place. And I never left. So I signed the contract.
Speaker 1: I said, Melissa, this is one of those moments where
Speaker 1: you go, just forgive me on this. I can't leave.
Speaker 1: I can't go back. Cincinnati means too much to me.
Speaker 1: It would hurt my heart too much to fly back
Speaker 1: there now. I just I need you this month. If
Speaker 1: we could just do this, like let's go all in together.
Speaker 1: If you can go back to Cincinnati, I'll get your
Speaker 1: parents up there, whoever you need to help you move
Speaker 1: us oute of the house and take care of the kids.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stay here. So I never left LA after
Speaker 1: a hour. And last year I called the Bengals Rams
Speaker 1: game in the preseason as a retired Super Bowl champion.
Speaker 1: It was the first time I stepped back in Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: Ohio since I signed my contract. Really, yeah, pretty well,
Speaker 1: it was a pretty emotional game. I played it off,
Speaker 1: but if it's a pretty emotional day to be there
Speaker 1: last year, it's just crazy for me. Man, I invested
Speaker 1: everything I had in that place. You know, I just
Speaker 1: couldn't go back.
Speaker 2: Are you a Bengal or a Ram?
Speaker 1: I'm both. I mean, I'm too invested in both places
Speaker 1: to not be.
Speaker 2: But what a what a weeny answer? God?
Speaker 1: No, right, I've been around longer than You're not gonna
Speaker 1: get that.
Speaker 2: You said it too. Super Bowls with the Rams, including
Speaker 2: your very last game. I mean you're playing, you're playing
Speaker 2: against twenty somethings, you're in your in your late thirties,
Speaker 2: forty before you retired. Are you feeling that age difference?
Speaker 2: And do you consider it an advantage at all for you?
Speaker 1: I do think from a preparation and experience standpoint, it's
Speaker 1: definitely advantage. But body wise no, I mean, you know, right,
Speaker 1: my last five was literally about finding ways to recreate myself,
Speaker 1: to recreate being. I know what I needed to do
Speaker 1: to get the job done. But you know, you start
Speaker 1: to lose the ability. And I think that's what people
Speaker 1: don't understand when we say I make guys falling off,
Speaker 1: is it's not necessarily that like if you tested me
Speaker 1: in the forty your pinch press or whatever, that the
Speaker 1: numbers would be that different. It's that you start to
Speaker 1: lose the ability for your brain to make your body
Speaker 1: do exactly what you feel in the moment. And so
Speaker 1: I started to lose the explosion to get off the
Speaker 1: line as a left tackling in my set and like,
Speaker 1: oh man, I want to put my hand here, but
Speaker 1: like for whatever reason, I just seemed to have lost
Speaker 1: the ability to put it exactly where I want to,
Speaker 1: and I'm just slow and I can see, like when
Speaker 1: I watch a fight or I watch MMA or anything
Speaker 1: like older fighters when they're struggling, like I know exactly
Speaker 1: what's going on because I know the feeling of like
Speaker 1: what becomes the challenge And so it's that your body
Speaker 1: doesn't listen to you as well as it used to.
Speaker 1: You might know what you need to do, but you
Speaker 1: can't get it to do it, and so that started
Speaker 1: to become a challenge. And so for me, it was
Speaker 1: like I got lighter. I tried to play the really
Speaker 1: likely way less weight than I played earlier in my career,
Speaker 1: so I can move a little better and more efficiently.
Speaker 1: But I'll never forget.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Part of my get up store on your own is
Speaker 1: I signed my deal two months later. I'm an OTA.
Speaker 1: Is the very first OTA practice. Aaron Kromer is my
Speaker 1: online coach, a hilarious guy, passionate dude about football and
Speaker 1: a great coach. And I get the tight end beside
Speaker 1: me goes the wrong way on our first play and
Speaker 1: just completely rolls me up, and I mean it, freaking
Speaker 1: it hurts so bad. I'm rolling around on the dirt
Speaker 1: like on my knee, and all I hear from the
Speaker 1: back where all the coaches and players stand is you
Speaker 1: signed the damn contract. Get up off the ground. And
Speaker 1: I knew it was Aaron Kromer, and I was like this,
Speaker 1: you know, you just with him, know enough, like a
Speaker 1: new producer or something, you know, Like I know how
Speaker 1: he is. He's kind of a guy, likes to push buttons.
Speaker 1: So I'm like half pissed off and laughing at the
Speaker 1: same time. All right, all right, dude, like shut up,
Speaker 1: and I'm I want to get up, you know. So
Speaker 1: I got a dusting myself off in him and I
Speaker 1: laughed about this day. But that's how it started. He
Speaker 1: was like, you know what I'm here. I did sign
Speaker 1: that contract, and so I got to give my time
Speaker 1: and energy to it. And I love hearing these stories
Speaker 1: right now currently about Aaron Rogers being in New York
Speaker 1: and sitting at a different table every day and what
Speaker 1: he's doing, because that was the big thing I always said.
Speaker 1: I always thought the biggest difference for me is that
Speaker 1: when I got there, that was my moo. I was
Speaker 1: every day I'm sitting with a different position group. I'm
Speaker 1: walking in this place, not as the eleven year vet
Speaker 1: has been to Pro Bowls and all pro blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: I'm walking in as I'm here to help this team win.
Speaker 1: And so every day I try to spend time with
Speaker 1: those groups. And that's why I still have some really
Speaker 1: crazy cool bonds from that time. And I'll never forget
Speaker 1: Sean holding the meeting and letting the guys vote and
Speaker 1: being voted a captain that year, and thinking to myself, like,
Speaker 1: what a cool moment you know, to to thirty six
Speaker 1: years old to change teams become a leader of a
Speaker 1: place that fast. But more importantly, like just developed this
Speaker 1: culture of all of us being on the same page
Speaker 1: from what wasn't that way before? We got there and
Speaker 1: it was really special and it led to really you know,
Speaker 1: where my career would go from then.
Speaker 2: All after eleven seasons, obviously, your first year with the Rams,
Speaker 2: you go to the super Bowl. Should you have won?
Speaker 1: You know, that was my actually my second season. So
Speaker 1: the first season, oh second eleven, Yes, first season, we
Speaker 1: win the division, go eleven and five, and then lose
Speaker 1: to the Falcons in the playoffs, and at that time,
Speaker 1: I became the uh, the NFL player with the worst
Speaker 1: record in the playoffs in NFL history. I was I
Speaker 1: think it was oh and eight or oh and seven
Speaker 1: in the playoffs at that time, and that was the
Speaker 1: record for a player, so really awesome, uh, great thing
Speaker 1: to be known for. But the next year, we have
Speaker 1: a great year, Kyt Gurley goes crazy again and we
Speaker 1: end up in the playoffs, win my first ever playoff
Speaker 1: game against the Dallas Cowboys. I'll never forget it, which
Speaker 1: is also kind of crazy just think about it now,
Speaker 1: my team growing up first every time to win the
Speaker 1: playoff game, but end up in the super Bowl and
Speaker 1: lose to the New England Patriots. And probably the worst
Speaker 1: game we played all season long, just a bad performance
Speaker 1: for who we were offensively and everything else. Defense played
Speaker 1: great and we just let them down. It was a
Speaker 1: tough thing to swallow because at that point, I'm thirty
Speaker 1: eight going on thirty nine, and every single person, you know,
Speaker 1: super Bowl Week's insane with media and everything else. Every
Speaker 1: question is like what do you think about to spend
Speaker 1: your last game? Everter like, everyone just was like assumed
Speaker 1: like this was it. So when I walked off that field,
Speaker 1: I was, Okay, if it is it, you know what,
Speaker 1: it's been an insane run. I don't feel like it's it,
Speaker 1: but maybe the rams make that decision for me. And
Speaker 1: what leads to one of the coolest sports moments when
Speaker 1: people say, what's your sports moment? You know, walking off
Speaker 1: that field and looking up at my at that time,
Speaker 1: I guess he was seven eight years old, Michael, my
Speaker 1: middle son, and he's crying in his mama's lap because
Speaker 1: he didn't think we'd lose either. And I never knew
Speaker 1: NFL Films had the audio and a video camera on
Speaker 1: me because I wasn't miked up. I don't remember being
Speaker 1: miked up, but maybe I was. And I literally looked
Speaker 1: up and find where they're sitting, and he's sitting in
Speaker 1: her lap and he's crying. The only way I knew
Speaker 1: how to make an eight year old like try to
Speaker 1: put a smile on that moment he can't hear me
Speaker 1: was to flex my muscles at him and make him
Speaker 1: flex his back. And still gives me chills to think
Speaker 1: about it. So he like bawl and crying, like trying
Speaker 1: to like half get a smile out, you know, And
Speaker 1: he smile comes out, and he's crying, he's flexing his muscles,
Speaker 1: and I just told him, like, we're gonna be okay, buddy,
Speaker 1: like this ain't the end of the world for us.
Speaker 1: And I go off and I have the quote of
Speaker 1: the year, which is still idiot. I've been around media
Speaker 1: long enough to know not to talk emotionally because they're
Speaker 1: going to dissect it. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: we're all gonna die, and I'll never forget that literally
Speaker 1: went everywhere, and I'm like, you know what, that's not
Speaker 1: what I said, but it is what I said. I
Speaker 1: asked me how you go forward from this moment, you know,
Speaker 1: having lost the Super Bowl and ending your career basically,
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of like one insulted, like this ain't
Speaker 1: the end of my career. Who said the end of
Speaker 1: my career two, I'm like, bro, listen, I care a
Speaker 1: lot about football, love it. It's a passion of mine.
Speaker 1: This ain't the end all be all of life parts.
Speaker 1: So let me explain to you who I am. So
Speaker 1: I said the actual whole quote was, I don't care
Speaker 1: if you've won twenty Super Bowls, been to one hundred
Speaker 1: Pro Bowls, whatever it was, you know the exact numbers.
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, we're all gonna die.
Speaker 1: And what's gonna matter to me ain't gonna be some
Speaker 1: trophy sitting on a wall or some Pro Bowl that
Speaker 1: I've been to. What's gonna matter is if Sarah Leice,
Speaker 1: Drew Andrew James Junior, Michael Lee Whitworth, and Katherine Whitworth
Speaker 1: love people, care about people, and treat people the same
Speaker 1: way they'd want to be treated, regardless of where they
Speaker 1: come from, their economic status, or skin color or anything else.
Speaker 1: If they are quality human beings who love and treat
Speaker 1: people the way they should and get the fulfillment of
Speaker 1: life through that, I don't give a crap about a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl, right, Like that's going to matter to me.
Speaker 1: And so that's what I said, but of course the
Speaker 1: only thing I quoted it is saying is the end
Speaker 1: of the day, we're all going to die, which is
Speaker 1: way more entertaining. I agree. I mean it's a lot funnier.
Speaker 1: So anyways, have that great moment, and I'll still never
Speaker 1: live that way. I think my wife quotes me that
Speaker 1: Dumpty's mad at me, like, hey, you want to drop
Speaker 1: another quote, end of the day, we're all going to die?
Speaker 2: Well, you don't retire spoiler alert and twenty twenty two. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean it's like this perfect symbolic I don't even
Speaker 2: I can't even say the words, but basically, you play
Speaker 2: the Bengals, and you beat the Bengals in the Super Bowl,
Speaker 2: you win your or Super Bowl, and then you right
Speaker 2: off into the sunset talk to me about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I And the close of that is you
Speaker 1: know that week, you know, life comes full circle at you.
Speaker 1: I shared the lead deals story about Lee Dyne and
Speaker 1: the thankfuls half of that. Well, that led and then
Speaker 1: also getting divorced, and that led to me being really lonely.
Speaker 1: When I was in Cincinnati as a rookie, and I
Speaker 1: started going to the local Boys and Girls club and
Speaker 1: developing a relationship with a kid named Derek Barnes, and
Speaker 1: I that week, I'm playing in the Super Bowl against
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Bengals, which is just insane. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't claim to have a movie there, but there is
Speaker 1: kind of a movie there. I'm playing against the Cincinnati Bengals,
Speaker 1: and I win Walter Payton Mann of the Year, and
Speaker 1: I decided when they asked me what I wanted to say,
Speaker 1: that I wanted to talk about Derek Barnes. And that season,
Speaker 1: Derek Barnes played middle linebacker for the Detroit Lions. Unbeknounced
Speaker 1: to me and after the game runs up me and
Speaker 1: he's like, big wit, Like it's me. You're not going
Speaker 1: to remember me. I'm Derek Barnes. You and I used
Speaker 1: to hang out when I was a little kid, like six, seven,
Speaker 1: eight years old at the Boys and Girls Club in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: You throw the football and hang out and talk about life.
Speaker 1: And like, I've been waiting this entire season for this game,
Speaker 1: and I hope you'd be healthy and like playing because
Speaker 1: I just couldn't wait to tell you I made it.
Speaker 1: And I remember just what I blacked out. It was
Speaker 1: such an insane moment, like that I was like, wow.
Speaker 1: And then fast forward that game that season to the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl a week and win wat's Patman of the
Speaker 1: Year and they find out I'm going to talk about
Speaker 1: this because you have to send in what you're going
Speaker 1: to talk about, and they fly to Derek Barnes there
Speaker 1: and he's in the crowd for the watch Pagman of
Speaker 1: the Year and I win it and I get to
Speaker 1: get this speech and talk about it and what a
Speaker 1: just insane moment, crazy, crazy emotional moment. And then three
Speaker 1: days later, you play in the Super Bowl against the
Speaker 1: team that you gave your heart and soul to you
Speaker 1: win it. And to close that story, I ran and
Speaker 1: gave Joe Burrow a hug, Zach Taylor, and I ran
Speaker 1: to look up at my family just to make eye
Speaker 1: contact with him until I love them. And Michael Lee Whitworth,
Speaker 1: who was crying at his mama's lap in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: is standing at the front of the Raptors, both arms up,
Speaker 1: biceps flexed up, you know, ten years old, and thinks
Speaker 1: he runs the world now with a massive smile. And
Speaker 1: it's still one of the coolest moments for me. I'll
Speaker 1: never forget the image of one him crying in the
Speaker 1: first one and two him standing there making eye contact
Speaker 1: with me. And the second one that it hit home.
Speaker 1: He couldn't wait, you know, for redemption and what a
Speaker 1: special moment.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. God, that's just so I mean, yeah, it
Speaker 2: is like a movie because it's crazy. Yeah, it's yeah,
Speaker 2: you can't you can't imagine it. And I know how
Speaker 2: much the being I mean, clearly, it's so clear here
Speaker 2: how much the Bengals organization means to you. And you know,
Speaker 2: hopefully they are on a path now that brings them success.
Speaker 2: It certainly looks like they will over the next few years.
Speaker 2: I got to talk about your foundation, Big Wit seventy
Speaker 2: seven foundation, not only the winner of the twenty twenty
Speaker 2: one Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, which many
Speaker 2: consider to be the most prestigious award given to an
Speaker 2: NFL player every year. Also in twenty nineteen you win
Speaker 2: the Allen Page Community Award winner because you leave Fort Thomas, Kentucky,
Speaker 2: and you come to LA and immediately make an impact
Speaker 2: here giving money and helping and made an impression here.
Speaker 2: You're still in Los Angeles now, I know you're working
Speaker 2: for Thursday Night Football tell people how they can become
Speaker 2: involved or what Big Wit seventy seven Foundation is doing.
Speaker 1: Now. Yeah, you know, I think for us, when we
Speaker 1: lived in Louisiana and played in Cincinnati, we kind of
Speaker 1: created a foundation to help us do stuff when the
Speaker 1: Louisiana and then much less I do here in LA.
Speaker 1: We just kind of personally served in Cincinnati, whether it
Speaker 1: be different foundations to the Boys and Girls Club and
Speaker 1: Big Brothers, Big Sisters, you name it, really all kinds
Speaker 1: of foundations in Cincinnati that we got to be a
Speaker 1: part of. It was great and an amazing experience being
Speaker 1: part of that community. And then we created some of
Speaker 1: our own little things that we would do Christmas time
Speaker 1: and things like that. But then I got to be
Speaker 1: a part of our and Lewis's Foundation, which did a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff in schools and helping develop education for
Speaker 1: kids and those things. So I had a lot of
Speaker 1: things that I could take with me when I came
Speaker 1: to LA and I was like, man, I want to
Speaker 1: do some stuff. The Rams, you know, had just moved
Speaker 1: there a year before I got there, so they'd only
Speaker 1: been there one year moving back from Saint Louis, so
Speaker 1: they didn't really have a lot of things in the
Speaker 1: ground doing that kind of stuff yet and then trying
Speaker 1: and getting it going. So it was a great timing
Speaker 1: for me to get involved and already have a background
Speaker 1: things that have worked for me and things that had
Speaker 1: so in LA it's been insane. I mean, one of
Speaker 1: the coolest moments of that year winning Waltz Payton was
Speaker 1: when I actually got told I was nominated again, I think,
Speaker 1: which was my fifth time being nominated. They had created
Speaker 1: a board that you could literally press the buttons like
Speaker 1: an app and it'd show you whatever area that was
Speaker 1: and whatever I had done, whatever I'd done in that community.
Speaker 1: They'd have somebody who was speaking and they'd kind of
Speaker 1: tell you what, you know, their appreciation was for what
Speaker 1: you've done, and maybe tell the story. And so there
Speaker 1: was like I forget the number. It was like forty
Speaker 1: something spots all over Los Angeles and it literally like
Speaker 1: was so cool because it mapped like all over the city.
Speaker 1: It was so wide range. It was just insane to
Speaker 1: look at it and go back and think of the
Speaker 1: five years that there's been that many places You've had
Speaker 1: an impact and got to do something be a part
Speaker 1: of whether it was through social justice stuff, like I'd
Speaker 1: created a fund with the Rams myself that I matched
Speaker 1: every dollar that the players and coaches gave. You know,
Speaker 1: I had created two STEM labs. I built two STEM
Speaker 1: labs in schools, done a lot of school visits and
Speaker 1: things like that, and so it was an I experience,
Speaker 1: you know, really being a part of all that. So
Speaker 1: I think the best thing to me that people can
Speaker 1: do is it's really not about me, just finding ways
Speaker 1: man to make people's day. As I've always said, like
Speaker 1: I don't care if you're in college and you're struggling,
Speaker 1: Like open the door for somebody, see somebody drop their backpack,
Speaker 1: like help them pick it up. You know, like those
Speaker 1: little things matter a lot more than people think. So
Speaker 1: to me, like it's not about a dollar amount somebody
Speaker 1: can give me or do for me, But man, look
Speaker 1: for ways that you can make life about more than
Speaker 1: just you, and I bet you'll find out you'll be
Speaker 1: a whole lot happier. So I think for me, that's
Speaker 1: really what it's all been about. There's no one mission,
Speaker 1: there's no one foundation. It's like, man, tell me somewhere
Speaker 1: that I can like put my hand out and help
Speaker 1: somebody up.
Speaker 2: I'm all in it takes just as much energy to
Speaker 2: be nice as it does to be an asshole.
Speaker 1: That's the truth.
Speaker 2: That's my philosophy. You're at on Thursday night football. You
Speaker 2: guys got a ton of press, really really entertaining, a
Speaker 2: new I would say, fun kind of pre and post
Speaker 2: and a halftime show. There you having fun doing it.
Speaker 1: It's been a blast. I never thought I would do it.
Speaker 1: I mean, throughout my entire career, I avoided all media stuff,
Speaker 1: never really wanted to have a social presence, like social media,
Speaker 1: any of that type stuff really for the most part.
Speaker 1: I mean, but I got into it because I just
Speaker 1: got I was like, man, how can it? When I retired,
Speaker 1: it was like all these things were thrown at me.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of insanely cool offers to like
Speaker 1: stay involved in the game of football, whether it be
Speaker 1: in the front office somewhere or anything, just because people
Speaker 1: kind of knew my passion for that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: But I just felt like that wasn't what I wanted
Speaker 1: to do to still have all the family time I wanted.
Speaker 1: So I kept trying to explore what's another option to
Speaker 1: stay involved in this game? Talk about this game, talk
Speaker 1: about something I love that's changed my life, and that
Speaker 1: became like, hey, well you could always do this. And
Speaker 1: at that point, as you know, in tea and everything else,
Speaker 1: like I am so like we're talking about six months
Speaker 1: from now, like you're so behind eight ball, like buddy,
Speaker 1: they've given those jobs out a long time ago, and
Speaker 1: so I literally like just start bugging the crap out
Speaker 1: of people like I'm like, you give me. I've always
Speaker 1: been that kind of person, like I got to tell
Speaker 1: people like, hey, I'll never forget, like sitting down with
Speaker 1: Josh Pye at the first time and he's just like, well, man,
Speaker 1: that's these decisions are like kind of made pretty good
Speaker 1: while back, like I don't know what we do from here,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, man, listen, Josh, put me in the room.
Speaker 1: I'll do the rest, Like that's all I want. You
Speaker 1: give me in that room, I'll handle the rest. Or
Speaker 1: give me a chance to speak to somebody on the phone,
Speaker 1: like that's how much I care. Like and if people
Speaker 1: care and they like me, then ready to work. If
Speaker 1: it doesn't, oh well, And so you know, we went
Speaker 1: through that process and it was crazy and I had
Speaker 1: no idea where I'd end up. And Thursday nights sounded
Speaker 1: really cool to be able to like coach my kids
Speaker 1: throughout the week, go somewhere and do a game and
Speaker 1: talk about a game, and then be back Saturdays for
Speaker 1: their games. I was like, man, this this would be awesome.
Speaker 1: And sure enough I got an opportunity to be a contributor.
Speaker 1: One thing led to another and you get an opt
Speaker 1: to sit on the desk one week and they're like,
Speaker 1: we liked it, come back, and then you know, you
Speaker 1: go from being a contributor to like, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have you sit up there every week and
Speaker 1: you'll be part of this team. And so it was
Speaker 1: an insane, crazy, so much fun, such a humbling experience
Speaker 1: to get to be up there every week. I mean,
Speaker 1: Richard Shearon, Ron Kitzpatrick, Carrissa, Tony Gonzalez, I mean insane.
Speaker 1: It'stead at that desk with some awesome iconic people. Really
Speaker 1: and then you add Michael Smith and Taylor Rooks and man,
Speaker 1: I mean what a cool I mean, what a insane crew.
Speaker 1: And then by the way, it's Al Michael's and Kirk
Speaker 1: Kirk Street calling the game and Kaylee Hardcom is an
Speaker 1: LSU Tiger, you know, a lover and I've known Kayley forever. Honestly,
Speaker 1: it couldn't have been more of a family from the jump.
Speaker 1: And I always tell people to me, that's what sticks
Speaker 1: out for folks. I mean, I don't really go back
Speaker 1: and watch our stuff. I can't do that well, but
Speaker 1: I do know what we're like the way I can't.
Speaker 1: So that's that's the weirdest thing ever. Yeah, but it
Speaker 1: sticks out when we go somewhere on the road, everyone
Speaker 1: meets up, everyone's at dinner, everyone's together in the hotel
Speaker 1: and the lobby. You know, it's like you can hardly
Speaker 1: work out or function or do anything because it's like
Speaker 1: we all have to be together every five seconds. And
Speaker 1: so you can just tell that they put a really
Speaker 1: unique group of just we're a family from the jump,
Speaker 1: and it's it's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: That's awesome. Best team in the AFC this year is.
Speaker 1: Oh man. I mean, I don't know that you ever
Speaker 1: go against what passion my homes pulled off last year.
Speaker 1: I mean, I learned my lesson. I was the person
Speaker 1: right there with everybody else. Tyreek Hill's gone, you know,
Speaker 1: they're not going to be as good. I'm just I'm
Speaker 1: biting the hole cheese. You know, look, I love Patrick.
Speaker 1: I think he's amazing on so much he can do.
Speaker 1: I was an idiot right there with everybody else at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. So you know, I'll never
Speaker 1: pick against Patrick and until somebody else proves me different.
Speaker 1: So I'm going Kansaity Chiefs again. I will say this,
Speaker 1: I think there's some really intriguing teams, like I got
Speaker 1: this sneaky like I just feel like Baltimore or Pittsburgh. No,
Speaker 1: I feel like people aren't respecting those two teams and
Speaker 1: how talented they really are. Pittsburgh, you know what, Mike
Speaker 1: Tomlin's a dog man. I mean that dude every year
Speaker 1: finds a way to win. And this year. You go
Speaker 1: look at Mike Tomlind's history. When they're good on D
Speaker 1: line and O line, they're pretty special. They have pretty
Speaker 1: good years because it's just the way that dude coaches football.
Speaker 1: And so I think they're gonna be pretty good up
Speaker 1: front on most sides, and I think it's gonna be
Speaker 1: interesting to see where that team ends up. And then
Speaker 1: I think Baltimore is like that team nobody's talking about.
Speaker 1: It really has the roster to end up in pre
Speaker 1: dag I'm good at the end of the year. So
Speaker 1: I think there's some sneaky teams that are gonna be
Speaker 1: interesting to see. The Jets, obviously, with Aaron Rodgers, are
Speaker 1: going to be insanely good. I think to me, it's
Speaker 1: really right now as I sit here, it's New York
Speaker 1: Jets or Kansas City Chiefs. Is the two best teams.
Speaker 1: Just because you look at the Jets last year when
Speaker 1: they had half decent quarterback play, they won with Aaron
Speaker 1: and how special he is man, that team should be
Speaker 1: really really good. I think the Jets is gonna be
Speaker 1: an interesting that way. You kind of see that as
Speaker 1: they start to gel all of a sudden become really
Speaker 1: really special.
Speaker 2: NFC. Who's the best team in the NFC? The I mean, the.
Speaker 1: Eagles are are right there and the Niners is just
Speaker 1: can Brock party back it up? I mean the Niners roster,
Speaker 1: I mean Javon Hargrave moving over there from the Eagles.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think people understand how good he
Speaker 1: was last year. I think to me, that's the eagles
Speaker 1: biggest question mark is losing somebody like him at the
Speaker 1: production that he had. It's one of those things that
Speaker 1: you know it's gonna be tougher for those Eagles guys
Speaker 1: to win on the edge without somebody's specials. He was
Speaker 1: an interior rusher. And when he goes to San Francisco,
Speaker 1: Nick Bos is gonna be the happiest dude on the
Speaker 1: play because now when teams say we're gonna double him
Speaker 1: or we're gonna take extra attention, he's got a guy
Speaker 1: who's gonna win beside him, and they can't always do that.
Speaker 1: So I think San Francisco is going to be crazy special.
Speaker 1: I just don't know. Can Rock Party take the next
Speaker 1: step as he continued to be that guy or was
Speaker 1: that just a crazy good streak he had. We'll find out.
Speaker 1: It's much like what we didn't know about Jalen Hurts
Speaker 1: last year.
Speaker 2: Good luck with the season, always entertaining. Always good to
Speaker 2: see you have so much fun on Thursday nights. Know this,
Speaker 2: I'll be watching for sure. And thanks for coming and
Speaker 2: talking to.
Speaker 1: Me, man. I appreciate the owner. Man. It was a
Speaker 1: lot of fun, and I can't wait for the year. Man,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be excited year two in the new career.
Speaker 1: The next year, go go, Let's go.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much, my friend. That was a great time.
Speaker 2: You are awesome. Thanks for your perspective. I know if
Speaker 2: no one else here is. I am excited for the
Speaker 2: football season to begin. Thanks for coming on here. Listeners,
Speaker 2: Thank you for what you do listen in the case
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Speaker 2: the NFL opening week. Off the Beat is hosted and
Speaker 2: executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer
Speaker 2: Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers
Speaker 2: are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent
Speaker 2: producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is Ali
Speaker 2: Amir Sahied. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by
Speaker 2: the one and only Creed Bratton