Speaker 1: We welcome to you to the Officials Titans podcast, better
Speaker 1: known as the OTP Amy Wells Welcome, How are you?
Speaker 1: My name is Mike Keith. Our third for today's podcast
Speaker 1: is the three time Pro bowler Brett Kerr, Titans punter.
Speaker 1: Honored to be here. When you hear three time pro bowler,
Speaker 1: considering you did not go to your first Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: until you were almost thirty two, does it actually mean more?
Speaker 1: I think it does. You know, for it to take
Speaker 1: ten years and you know, obviously put together some really
Speaker 1: good seasons that probably had the resume to go just
Speaker 1: came up short. You kind of understand how hard it
Speaker 1: is what put you over the top to go from
Speaker 1: being viewed as a good punter, a really good punter,
Speaker 1: to being what is now viewed as the premier punter
Speaker 1: in the AFC. UM. Honestly, when I when I decided
Speaker 1: to give up worrying about stats, UM, you know, I
Speaker 1: had a conversation with Craig Hendrick, and you know he
Speaker 1: told me, He's like, you can play in this league
Speaker 1: as long as you want, UM, if you just go
Speaker 1: out there and have the mindset each game that you
Speaker 1: just need to do what you need to do. Each
Speaker 1: game to be your best so not really get get
Speaker 1: caught up in you know, if if I'm on the
Speaker 1: forty five yard line and it's like, man, I, you know,
Speaker 1: I need to try to squeak out a fifty yard
Speaker 1: punt here to net this, to average this and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, and just go out there and
Speaker 1: really just hit your best punt in each situation. The
Speaker 1: stats are going to take care of themselves. And you know,
Speaker 1: Coach Rabel's happy, Coach Ackerman's happy with how I'm with
Speaker 1: how I'm punting it. Um. You know, then I'll be
Speaker 1: able to play here as long as I want. So
Speaker 1: once when I kind of change my mindset um to
Speaker 1: just take in a game by game, punt by punt
Speaker 1: and trying to execute each punt the best that I can, honestly,
Speaker 1: I just I just you know, I stopped looking at stats,
Speaker 1: really didn't care about stats, And the next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm going to a Pro Bowl. So and I
Speaker 1: think once you get one, you obviously have the confidence
Speaker 1: to you know, to go out there and do it again.
Speaker 1: And you know, it really worked. That formula work for
Speaker 1: me in twenty seventeen to just you know, not even
Speaker 1: look at stats, not even worry about it and just
Speaker 1: go out there and have fun and do my job.
Speaker 1: And so I've been doing that and just kind of
Speaker 1: keep rattling these things off. I know you're obviously not
Speaker 1: pursuing those stats for the accolades, But as far as
Speaker 1: accolades go, where does the Pro Bowl length? Like? Is
Speaker 1: that the dream? Is that what you're trying to achieve
Speaker 1: is the Pro Bowl or their new goals that you
Speaker 1: try to reach after that? Yeah, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: All Pro is probably the one you want the most
Speaker 1: because that means you're, you know, you're considered the best
Speaker 1: punter in the league that year. Pro Bowl, you know,
Speaker 1: you're obviously viewed as the best in the AFC, and
Speaker 1: obviously the NFC has somebody. But I think Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: is probably my goal just from a standpoint of being
Speaker 1: able to do it with my family, you know, with
Speaker 1: my wife and three kids, and you know, to be
Speaker 1: able to do three in a row in Orlando. Uh,
Speaker 1: It's it's pretty fun. The NFL does a great job
Speaker 1: all week making it a very family friendly event and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, so my son to come down and each
Speaker 1: year you could tell he kind of understands you know,
Speaker 1: what to do, what not to do, and uh, he
Speaker 1: has a blast with me. I take him everywhere on
Speaker 1: the bus. Team Bush practices all that kind of stuff. So, um,
Speaker 1: you know, on the Disney Day, the Universal Studio Day
Speaker 1: is a lot of fun. So that's probably, you know,
Speaker 1: a really cool accomplishment just where I could celebrate it
Speaker 1: with my family. Um, but you know, all pro is
Speaker 1: probably the big daddy and the one that you want
Speaker 1: the most. We've talked about the Pro Bowl a lot
Speaker 1: on the OTP, just about what's good about it, what's
Speaker 1: bad about it, and when we talk about it being
Speaker 1: in Orlando, the Kern family is exactly what's in my
Speaker 1: brain as the perfect target person for the Pro Bowl.
Speaker 1: You guys, bring your whole family down. The kids are there,
Speaker 1: They're able to run around, They're able to experience kind
Speaker 1: of the Orlando theme park magic of it all. Obviously
Speaker 1: you're able to be celebrated and recognized for what you do.
Speaker 1: If the Pro Bowl were in a different city, which
Speaker 1: obviously there's a talk all the time, do you think
Speaker 1: it would have the same effect. Given how cool it's
Speaker 1: been for your family to be able to have the
Speaker 1: full experience yeah. I mean it's funny because you know,
Speaker 1: at the end of the Pro Bowl they shoot us
Speaker 1: out an email with the survey on it, and one
Speaker 1: of the questions on the survey was if the Pro
Speaker 1: Bowl was an Orlando, where what other cities could you rank?
Speaker 1: I think it gave us like Dallas, New Orleans, Vegas, Hawaii,
Speaker 1: and I think there's one more on there. I can't
Speaker 1: remember where, but just rank from one to five, you know,
Speaker 1: one being the one that you want to go to
Speaker 1: the most if you couldn't go to Orlando. And I
Speaker 1: was just thinking in my head, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: you know, I absolutely love Orlando, just just from a
Speaker 1: family perspective and be able to hang out at Disney
Speaker 1: and Universal Studios and just you know, when you're down there,
Speaker 1: you kind of feel the uh the magical. I don't
Speaker 1: you know what you people talk about all the time
Speaker 1: that that Disney. I don't even know what it is
Speaker 1: something about it, but yeah, and uh, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: Darrell I was talking to Drew when we were down
Speaker 1: there about how awesome Hawaii was, um, very laid back, chill.
Speaker 1: So I think if if I had to choose, i'd
Speaker 1: probably I think going to Hawaii would be would be
Speaker 1: pretty cool because I'd probably try to incorporate golf when
Speaker 1: you get out there. So stunning. Yeah, well, I heard
Speaker 1: a lot of guys stay. They go out there for
Speaker 1: the week and then they stay another week and just
Speaker 1: kind of experience. Those are the guys with that kids
Speaker 1: though all some with kids. They just they take the
Speaker 1: hit with the school. All right, So can we do
Speaker 1: the Brett current career review very quickly? Oh boy, okay,
Speaker 1: career numbers. Let's not talk about rushing yards now. Hang
Speaker 1: on forty six yards per punt gross. That's how far
Speaker 1: you hit it, right, forty point four net. That's after
Speaker 1: touchbacks and returns are extrapolated, which is crazy because when
Speaker 1: I first got in the league in Denver and O eight,
Speaker 1: not one guy had averaged over forty net in a season. Well,
Speaker 1: and what's interesting about that too, is when I started
Speaker 1: playing football and got involved in football and following football,
Speaker 1: if you averaged forty yards per punt grows right, you
Speaker 1: were a good punter. If you averaged forty two or
Speaker 1: forty three, you were an All American, an all pro whatever.
Speaker 1: I mean. Gray guy is in the Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: and I think his career averages forty three yards per punt.
Speaker 1: He might I think he might be a forty one
Speaker 1: forty one thirty five guy. Yeah, you averaged forty seven
Speaker 1: yards per punt this year. You averaged forty six yards
Speaker 1: per punt for your career. That's over nine hundred and
Speaker 1: twelve regular season punts. How many of the nine hundred
Speaker 1: twelve regular season punts can you probably remember, like, right
Speaker 1: off the top of your head, less than ten out
Speaker 1: of nine hundred and twelve. I probably can remember eight hundred.
Speaker 1: Can you really? Wow? Does your mind work that way?
Speaker 1: Or okay, it does? I think. I think just because
Speaker 1: I'm a very detailed person. Um. You know, we've talked
Speaker 1: about this before, you know, other stuff that we've done. Um,
Speaker 1: you know at the end of the year. Uh. It's funny.
Speaker 1: The guys kind of joke around with me that I
Speaker 1: put everything on an Excel spreadsheet. So whether it's you know,
Speaker 1: my wife and I buying Christmas presents for the kids,
Speaker 1: I have it all on Excel spreadsheet. Oh yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just away from my brain to organize, you know, how
Speaker 1: things are going. So you don't have one of those
Speaker 1: minds like um trying to think of the actress, who's name,
Speaker 1: who's on taxi? Who can remember specific days thirty years ago,
Speaker 1: You're not um remembers it for him. If I log,
Speaker 1: if I log every punt, and you know, I go
Speaker 1: over direction distanced hang time, you know, I I have
Speaker 1: a plus minus chart its first directional kicking and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. And so if I have it
Speaker 1: labeled and I you know, it's five punts against Buffalo
Speaker 1: in twenty and twelve, I can go back and I'm like, okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I remember those five like it helps trigger what happened. So,
Speaker 1: you know, at the end of the year, I chart everything,
Speaker 1: and then I like to go through and see, okay, hey,
Speaker 1: we were on the right hash punting right, you know,
Speaker 1: ninety percent of the time it was outside the numbers. Okay,
Speaker 1: but when we were on the left HASH and we
Speaker 1: were punting right across the field, it was only fifty percent. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So I try to go through figure out whether it's
Speaker 1: going left, I left from the left, half left, going
Speaker 1: across the field, looking at the inside the twenties. As
Speaker 1: far as hitting that end over end ball, you know,
Speaker 1: I like to look at you know, all right, I
Speaker 1: chart from Hey, it was a snap from the forty,
Speaker 1: it took a bounce at the five, it either checked up,
Speaker 1: went in the end zone, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: So I, you know, I log everything and it helps me,
Speaker 1: you know, for next year when I come in and
Speaker 1: let's say we open up at Let's say we open
Speaker 1: up at Baltimore. So then I can go through Mike
Speaker 1: Cell and I look at Okay, we've played I've played
Speaker 1: there personally twice in my career. I have a nine
Speaker 1: punt game and the playoff game, and then I look
Speaker 1: through and I'll go through and watch that film, and
Speaker 1: then I'll understand, okay, hey, this is what the wind
Speaker 1: was doing both these days. You know, I noticed that
Speaker 1: I was punting to their bench the whole time. So
Speaker 1: then when I go out for practice, I'll understand. Looking
Speaker 1: at the weather for the week, I'll understand, Okay, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, I'll talk to coach Ackerman and say, hey, look,
Speaker 1: you know the past two times we played there, I
Speaker 1: was punting to their bench. So when we go out there,
Speaker 1: I'll simulate, Okay, this is gonna be their bench, And
Speaker 1: in practice, I'll just simulate, hey, you know, if I
Speaker 1: had fifteen punts again in Baltimore fourteen even were going left.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna work on going left this week. So
Speaker 1: that's what helps me, you know, with all the stuff
Speaker 1: that I log as far as on the Excel spreadsheet,
Speaker 1: it helps me go back when I'm preparing for this
Speaker 1: coming year where I've played, Like you know Jacksonville, I
Speaker 1: might you're an analytics guy. Yeah, if you were in baseball,
Speaker 1: you would be very much considered on the cutting edge
Speaker 1: of the analytics thing. The thing I was thinking of
Speaker 1: with Mary Lou Henner, the actress from Taxi. She has
Speaker 1: an autobiographical memory. Oh she can remember like forty years ago.
Speaker 1: That's why I was wondering if you were one of
Speaker 1: those people she can remember specific days. I can't either.
Speaker 1: I do what you do right. I have everything on
Speaker 1: Church like I have your whole career right here in
Speaker 1: front of me. Yeah, that's pretty crazy. I know that
Speaker 1: you've had three hundred and fifty five punts down inside
Speaker 1: the twenty and fifty four touchbacks in your career and
Speaker 1: those and I mean I church your games too. So
Speaker 1: I do the same thing right, but in a in
Speaker 1: a different way. I am stalking you on my own computer.
Speaker 1: That's well. I mean, if there's somebody to stalk me
Speaker 1: the voice of the time, that's that's my job. Now,
Speaker 1: you wanted to ask something, Aby will Well, I am
Speaker 1: intrigued by the mathematics of your position, specifically, of all
Speaker 1: the positions on a football field on Sunday, is the
Speaker 1: punch or the most mathematic of them all, just because
Speaker 1: there's so many angles and percentages and I don't I'm
Speaker 1: not a math person, so right, I'm intrigued by it.
Speaker 1: There's probably some guys that, you know, I know, there's
Speaker 1: some guys in the league that go out there, they
Speaker 1: catch it and punt it and is what it is,
Speaker 1: and they you know, won't watch game film or anything
Speaker 1: along those lines. I think it just depends on kind
Speaker 1: of who you are. I know Thomas Morstead in New Orleans,
Speaker 1: he's very analytical. He I mean, he's he's a guy
Speaker 1: that prescribes or subscribes to U Pro Football Focus because
Speaker 1: he doesn't have an agent, so he uses Pro Football
Speaker 1: Focus and all the analytical data for that to help
Speaker 1: him negotiate. So wow. I think there's just probably different
Speaker 1: types of guys all across the league that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: some guys just go out there and boot It and
Speaker 1: other guys like myself and Thomas are you know, pretty
Speaker 1: analytical to understand, you know, I mean you've been in
Speaker 1: the league for twelve years, he's been in the league
Speaker 1: for eleven. Um, you know you obviously have your tendencies
Speaker 1: over those over those years. So um, you know, these
Speaker 1: returners are so good nowadays that you know, there's there's
Speaker 1: some guys that will play me. I know, I know
Speaker 1: in Houston and Mike you might have seen this on
Speaker 1: the broadcast, but from up in the booth, but the
Speaker 1: guy was playing me five to six yards from the
Speaker 1: sideline and not just playing me straight down the middle
Speaker 1: of the field like he knew. Okay, hey he's indoors,
Speaker 1: he's on the right hash, he's gonna he's gonna punt
Speaker 1: it right. So you know, when you're back there and
Speaker 1: you're seeing that, you're thinking, man, you know, I gotta
Speaker 1: come up with something to offset that. And that's why
Speaker 1: you start coming up with, you know, the different types
Speaker 1: of punts, with the boomerang punt, missile punt. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's tons of things you can come up with, um,
Speaker 1: whether you're figuring out on your own or you're watching
Speaker 1: other guys try to do it. So, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I guess I'm just definitely one of the more you know,
Speaker 1: analytical guys that, um, this is how I operate and
Speaker 1: try to get better every year. All right, let's do
Speaker 1: the more of this is your life punter, Brett Kern,
Speaker 1: Are you ready for more? Yes? Okay, where's this gonna go? Well,
Speaker 1: I mean we'll see it's fine. So at this point
Speaker 1: in your career, you have kicked off five times, four
Speaker 1: times with the Titans. You had a free kick against
Speaker 1: Cleveland in twenty fourteen, which was last time. You've had
Speaker 1: five punts blocked total, remember all of them the last year.
Speaker 1: The last one was against the Jets in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: Kevin Pierre Lewis is the is the guy who blocked it.
Speaker 1: I don't care who blocks it. I just I understand.
Speaker 1: But we're reviewing your career. Okay, four of your punts
Speaker 1: have been returned for touchdowns, three with Tennessee Travis Benjamin
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen at Cleveland. Yep, I got pancaked on.
Speaker 1: It will fuller bring up some bad memories. Well, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, we're going through all of it. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're the three time pro bowler. We're going through all
Speaker 1: of Okay, ye Will Fuller at Houston in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: seventeen no sixteen, yep, ye Jachem Grant at Miami that
Speaker 1: actually weeks back to back weeks. That's exactly right, but
Speaker 1: hasn't happened since then, right, which is really good. You
Speaker 1: have two career special teams tackles for which you have
Speaker 1: been credited. I think one was against even Hester. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you claim more than two or do you think
Speaker 1: two is actually? And I think was it against Philly?
Speaker 1: Did they give me a tackle there? I could have been.
Speaker 1: I just kind of stood there and got ran for
Speaker 1: yourself out this this year, you moved into new territory
Speaker 1: with passing two of three passing for thirty nine yards. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And the best ball is incomplete one. Yeah. He completed
Speaker 1: a twelve yard pass to Kevin Byard for a first
Speaker 1: down against the LA Chargers, missed on a pass against
Speaker 1: Houston on a deep ball. Yep, it was a good throw. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I felt good. Yeah, Yeah, I mean you look good
Speaker 1: throwing the ball. And then the twenty eight yard passed
Speaker 1: to a Mony Hooker in the AFC Championship game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you are confident throwing the football. You look
Speaker 1: athletic throwing the football. Yes, throwing, not running. Okay, now
Speaker 1: to the running part. You had a twenty one yard
Speaker 1: run on a fake punt against Denver. There was that
Speaker 1: it really wasn't a fake punt. No, it's a bad snap.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it was a snap that kind of brought
Speaker 1: me to the right and the guy that was coming
Speaker 1: off the edge on the right side was I think
Speaker 1: he did it up and under. And I mean when
Speaker 1: I caught that thing and I put it out there,
Speaker 1: all I saw was him. So I just showed some moves.
Speaker 1: Four other rushes in your career, totaling no yards, you
Speaker 1: have only carried. Of those five carries, only one has
Speaker 1: been intentionally planned. Correct, Okay, because I dropped two snaps. Okay,
Speaker 1: So he has four carries where things have happened and
Speaker 1: he's had to run the ball. One carry planned against
Speaker 1: Tampa this year on the fake field goal, still getting
Speaker 1: adjusted from it. Okay. So you go around left end
Speaker 1: and it looked it's like you're gonna have a chance
Speaker 1: to make the first down and make it to the sidelines,
Speaker 1: and then yeah, it's really not good. Something goes wrong.
Speaker 1: How bad was that? Can we can talk about it now.
Speaker 1: I mean, you saw how often we've practiced it in practice,
Speaker 1: and it looked great. We had discussed it beforehand because
Speaker 1: I had asked you had you ever carried intentionally. I
Speaker 1: knew at some point it was coming because it looked
Speaker 1: really really great in practice always does well, but it
Speaker 1: looked great when you first went around the end. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean I think that the what I can't remember
Speaker 1: the linebacker for for Tampa, but he's a KI from LA. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a study. He was supposed to cover Mike Coal
Speaker 1: go into the opposite flat, and I think, um, you know,
Speaker 1: I just shot up got out, and I think he
Speaker 1: realized he just made a football play. Like, if I'm
Speaker 1: going to the left and the other guy's going the right,
Speaker 1: there's no way he's gonna stop and throw that ball. Now.
Speaker 1: Could we have maybe, I don't know. It would have
Speaker 1: been a pretty crazy call, but he just he just
Speaker 1: decided to make a football play and go after the ball.
Speaker 1: And so honestly, that was the last thing I was
Speaker 1: expecting when I came around, because Taylor did a great
Speaker 1: job of forcing this guy to the outside, and I
Speaker 1: tried to follow him as long as possible, and then
Speaker 1: I'm either going to cut outside of him and really
Speaker 1: just get the first down or I cut inside and
Speaker 1: it's wide open and it's a touchdown. And so when
Speaker 1: I cut inside and I looked at the right and
Speaker 1: I saw that guy Baryln, I thought this is this
Speaker 1: isn't gonna hurt. So, you know, I'm not used to
Speaker 1: getting hit like that. So and he pretty much clotheslined me.
Speaker 1: And yeah, thankfully the refs blew the whistle dead because
Speaker 1: I fumbled it. And uh, that's that. Was there a
Speaker 1: moment that you thought, I don't want to do this,
Speaker 1: like I don't want to be in this. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: literally thought this is the last thing Tampa was gonna
Speaker 1: expect this this play. We've been practicing this play over
Speaker 1: and over. It's not like, um, you know, hey, we
Speaker 1: threw this fake in on Saturday without practicing it. I mean,
Speaker 1: the one that we ran against Kansas City, we'd practice
Speaker 1: for a while. The one you know we ran against
Speaker 1: LA we'd practiced for a while. So when you start
Speaker 1: doing that, I'm not used to throwing the ball at
Speaker 1: running the ball. So the more reps I get in practice,
Speaker 1: the more comfortable I feel when I go out to
Speaker 1: the game. So h but I mean I felt if
Speaker 1: you were to ask me, out of all the fakes
Speaker 1: that we ran, I would have said the Tampa one
Speaker 1: was the one I'd be most confident. And so it
Speaker 1: just like I said, that guy made a great football play,
Speaker 1: and Devin White, Devin White and um, you know, probably
Speaker 1: had a good laugh out of light me up. So
Speaker 1: oh man, you saw it real very close. I saw
Speaker 1: it very closely. And my not favorite part, because you
Speaker 1: never want to see someone get hit like that, is
Speaker 1: the reaction from the bench, which genuine concern for your
Speaker 1: well being because I probably a lot of guys probably
Speaker 1: didn't think that was gonna happen either. I think Bow
Speaker 1: Brinkley gave you an actual bear hug. He probably did well.
Speaker 1: Bow was worried about. Yeah, we exchanged a lot of
Speaker 1: bear hugs on the sideline. It's very nice. He's like
Speaker 1: my little brother, so we've been together for a long
Speaker 1: time and blessed to have him as my long snapper. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought it was working when I saw it. When
Speaker 1: I saw you break went after having seen that, I mean,
Speaker 1: I know everybody after the fact that, oh, how could
Speaker 1: you call that and you know about Vybell, and there
Speaker 1: was a lot of consternation about it at that point.
Speaker 1: But I mean it really looked like and I watched
Speaker 1: it again three or four times, it looked like it
Speaker 1: was there. Yeah. The worst part is I you know,
Speaker 1: I usually tell me my what throughout the week when
Speaker 1: we're having a fake, especially for home games. Uh, and
Speaker 1: I forgot to tell her about that one. And uh
Speaker 1: so imagine her reaction when she sees me running and
Speaker 1: that's right in front of where she sits, I mean
Speaker 1: literally in front of the family section. Yeah, it's where
Speaker 1: you ran that play. Yeah, I mean she couldn't get
Speaker 1: any closer to my two kids, you know, we're with her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: two out of the the three came to the game. And
Speaker 1: how ol does Bryce Now's okay, so he really knows
Speaker 1: all this? Oh he oh he does. And so when
Speaker 1: he sees Dad get lit up like that, what what
Speaker 1: does he say to you after the game? I think
Speaker 1: it was I'm trying to remember. I think it was
Speaker 1: a slight chuckle and then a hug, and he said,
Speaker 1: are you okay? Yeah, good buddy. Your children impressed with
Speaker 1: you and what you do. They are, Yeah, they understand it.
Speaker 1: And they like that dad is a Titan and that
Speaker 1: dad's a pro Bowl. They think this is cool. Well
Speaker 1: that's really nice. Yeah, that's a I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: gonna change. But I'll tell you as they get older,
Speaker 1: it's been a huge blessing just to um, to have
Speaker 1: our kids younger. You know, when when my wife and
Speaker 1: i've been married for you know, we're celebrating twelve years
Speaker 1: and got married before my rookie year, and um, you know,
Speaker 1: to start our family early. Uh, now that I've been
Speaker 1: able to play this long for all three of them. Really,
Speaker 1: my three year old you know, and understands it too.
Speaker 1: I mean we're watching the Super Bowl and she was saying,
Speaker 1: go Titans, I don't like the Chiefs, Go Titans. I
Speaker 1: don't like this show. She understands her and I have
Speaker 1: that in common. Yeah, she understands who to root for,
Speaker 1: and obviously Bryce understands it completely. In My seven year
Speaker 1: old is just she understands it, and you know, she, uh,
Speaker 1: she was pretty concerned. After She's a lot like my wife.
Speaker 1: She's got a really good heart, loves to to serve
Speaker 1: and kind of make people happy, and so she was
Speaker 1: she was really concerned. You know, in the parking lot
Speaker 1: after the game, and yeah it was I mean I
Speaker 1: laugh about it now obviously, but it wasn't fun at
Speaker 1: the time. What a blessing that your kids get to
Speaker 1: enjoy this and experience this and this one. I mean
Speaker 1: that that is so exciting. And I mean your ride
Speaker 1: is really incredible because you are the only Titan that
Speaker 1: really spans both generations of Titans fans and what I
Speaker 1: mean by that. And Keith Bullock pointed this out to
Speaker 1: Amy and Me on the Tuesday night radio show that
Speaker 1: We do. He said, Brett Current is my last teammate
Speaker 1: who who was on the team. And I got to
Speaker 1: thinking about it. I mean, you game in October of
Speaker 1: two thousand and nine after departing Denver, and so some
Speaker 1: of the early Titans were winding down, right. That fan
Speaker 1: base that was the first generation getting to experience it
Speaker 1: was still there. And now as we've fully moved into
Speaker 1: the second generation, Brett Kern has unavailability and an opportunity
Speaker 1: to sort of see both. It's a unique perspective. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, um, you know, really it's been Craig Hendrick
Speaker 1: and I and Craig was a huge blessing when I
Speaker 1: got cut because I was off to a good start
Speaker 1: in that oh nine season, you know, six games in
Speaker 1: we were six and oh in Denver, and you know,
Speaker 1: to get that that call up to coach McDaniel's office
Speaker 1: to say that they're going in a different direction was
Speaker 1: it was a big shock and surprise. So to be
Speaker 1: able to come here with my confidence kind of rattled
Speaker 1: after a pretty good start. You know, Craig was on
Speaker 1: IR because I think you towards calf, so he was
Speaker 1: in here every day getting treatment and just the conversations
Speaker 1: that we had, um, you know, definitely really really helped out.
Speaker 1: And I'd probably say, you know, when my career is done,
Speaker 1: whenever that is, you know, I don't know. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: probably my my biggest accomplishment, I would say up to
Speaker 1: this point is that I've I've played here in one
Speaker 1: city through five coaches and three GMS. That's, um, that's
Speaker 1: pretty hard to do. And I think that's probably to
Speaker 1: be able to go through each coaching change, to go
Speaker 1: through all all five of those changes and kind of different.
Speaker 1: You know, how does this coach operate? What are his expectations?
Speaker 1: What does he think of me? What? You know, what
Speaker 1: does he expect? Of me. Um to go through that. Um,
Speaker 1: it's some of the years it was a grind trying
Speaker 1: to figure that out. So when you down the punt
Speaker 1: at the one yard line in the New England game, yeah,
Speaker 1: to put it away. Do you get a look at
Speaker 1: Josh McDaniels on the New England sideline? No, not at all.
Speaker 1: I've actually, honestly, you know, we've we've we've chatted every
Speaker 1: time we've played. UM, even when they came here to
Speaker 1: practice last year. Um, you know, he came up to
Speaker 1: me and apologize, and I said, did he really? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I said, I said, you don't have to apologize. Like,
Speaker 1: what I believe with my faith is that God, you know,
Speaker 1: opens doors and closes doors. And he shut the door
Speaker 1: in Denver, and he opened one up here in Tennessee.
Speaker 1: And to be able to raise my family here in Nashville,
Speaker 1: to be a part of the Middle Tennessee community. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, when you get cut, you might think this
Speaker 1: is the end of the world, like what's going on?
Speaker 1: But really God just had something better for for my family. Nine.
Speaker 1: What does he apologize about how he handled it or
Speaker 1: the decision that he made that he made a rash?
Speaker 1: I I don't know, like I don't, I don't know.
Speaker 1: You know, I know he had full control of the roster.
Speaker 1: So when I got cut, Um, I was walking out
Speaker 1: to my car and I had a big trash bag
Speaker 1: and the GM was walking in and he said, where
Speaker 1: are you going? I said, I just got cut. He
Speaker 1: had no idea, So, you know, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't and it honestly, it doesn't really
Speaker 1: he didn't have to apologize. You know. It's just as
Speaker 1: pro football, as coach freewill pro football. That's just a
Speaker 1: part of the business. You make teams, you get cut
Speaker 1: from teams, you signed new contracts, you retire. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's all It's all just part of the game. So
Speaker 1: I think for me it was a big wake up
Speaker 1: call knowing that, hey, I was playing pretty good and
Speaker 1: I still got cut. So I need to like this.
Speaker 1: This is a start of me not just trying to
Speaker 1: survive in the league. This is a start of me like,
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to do my best and thrive
Speaker 1: and see how long, see how long I can play.
Speaker 1: For having been a part of this Titans organization for
Speaker 1: so long, obviously you've seen a lot of things you've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of changes. As you referenced earlier, the
Speaker 1: fan base tends to see things kind of cyclical. So,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, this year reminds me of the ninety
Speaker 1: nine year. This year reminds me of two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1: This from Have you seen some of those similarities and
Speaker 1: throughout seasons like, oh, this kind of feels like something
Speaker 1: or is that not necessarily real? Is that more of
Speaker 1: a fan perceived. Yeah, I think it's probably more fan
Speaker 1: just because you know, with with NFL, there's always gonna
Speaker 1: be roster turnover, it's one hundred percent. You're never like
Speaker 1: you know, and when we start the year in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: we're not going to have the exact same team as
Speaker 1: what we had this past year. So you kind of
Speaker 1: just you can kind of get lost in that, I
Speaker 1: guess a little bit. Um just just from the standpoint
Speaker 1: of you know, your you might have a really good buddy,
Speaker 1: a good friend that you've been teammates with, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden they go to another team, and
Speaker 1: it's just there's so much change and so much turnover
Speaker 1: that you sometimes you forget what certain seasons were like
Speaker 1: as a player. But um, you know this year was
Speaker 1: was obviously something really really special. I will say that
Speaker 1: the team that we had in this locker room was
Speaker 1: probably the closest bonded team that I've ever been a
Speaker 1: part of, um, you know, in my career in the NFL.
Speaker 1: It was just a tight knit group that Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't even know how to describe it. I mean, you
Speaker 1: you walk into the locker room and guys from you know,
Speaker 1: we're our lockers are all set up by position, but
Speaker 1: you would have guys from all different kinds of positions
Speaker 1: going over to other guys lockers, talking and having conversation,
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff. Um, just just a bond
Speaker 1: that we had as a team, and I think we
Speaker 1: knew we had something really special, and uh, it was
Speaker 1: just a fun It was a fun ride. You are
Speaker 1: not treated like a specialist. You are not treated by
Speaker 1: your teammates like a kicker. Guys like Jarell Casey very
Speaker 1: much think Brett Kerrn is an important part of the
Speaker 1: football team. You're treated that way. Is that what you're
Speaker 1: most proud of? For sure? Yeah? I think you know
Speaker 1: what it's all said and done. You know, you're on
Speaker 1: the field stuff, your accomplishments, that's that's great. I mean,
Speaker 1: records are made to be broken, um, which is totally
Speaker 1: fine with me. That's um. That's how I've made a
Speaker 1: living by what you do on the field. But I
Speaker 1: think off the field, the impact that you have with
Speaker 1: your teammates. You know, what do they remember, you know,
Speaker 1: Brett kerrn As, Like, yeah he was he was a
Speaker 1: great punter. That's that's great. But what kind of guy
Speaker 1: was he in the locker room? Um? You know. So
Speaker 1: I just want to be I just want to be
Speaker 1: remembered as a as a great guy in the locker room,
Speaker 1: a family man, a man of faith that loves Jesus
Speaker 1: and um you know that, Uh you could always come
Speaker 1: to my locker and have a conversation about whatever you
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about. So um, and I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a great teammate, a guy that encourages guys. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm never I'm never going to be the
Speaker 1: guy that's gonna call out somebody, um, you know, for
Speaker 1: for making a mistake or something like that, because you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not a dB. I'm not athletic enough. I don't
Speaker 1: you know, I just can't do it. So I'm not
Speaker 1: going to criticize somebody for something that I can't do. Um.
Speaker 1: So it's just kind of how I work. And I
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, if you if you're an encouraging
Speaker 1: guy and you know, kind of a blessing to other people, Um,
Speaker 1: it'll it'll pay off. So um, you know that's that's
Speaker 1: really important to me. And I think, you know, it's
Speaker 1: funny a lot of when I first got here, probably
Speaker 1: the first six or seven years, and it still happens,
Speaker 1: except it's not just kind of transition. When I first
Speaker 1: got here, I was thought I was an equipment manager,
Speaker 1: so I actually got to I got to know how
Speaker 1: um Joey and Matten Hoss, how they kind of operate
Speaker 1: back there where they keep all the stuff. Just because guys,
Speaker 1: the guys they thought I was an equipment manager, so
Speaker 1: they would ask me for stuff and I would go
Speaker 1: get it for him, like who ask you for stuff?
Speaker 1: Just some of the rookies when they would come in,
Speaker 1: you know in April, May, June, they would Yeah, they
Speaker 1: would walk up to you and say, Kendall Wright asked
Speaker 1: me three times for get your pair of shorts? Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So and now it's kind of transitioned to you like
Speaker 1: a coach, are you still equipment man? No? But but
Speaker 1: the truth is, I mean maybe that happened early on.
Speaker 1: But and I go back to what I just ask
Speaker 1: you about being respected. I mean, you are very much
Speaker 1: seen as a part of the football team and a
Speaker 1: part of the fabric. And you know, an important weapon.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you talk about weapons that this team has,
Speaker 1: having a punter who is a weapon is a big deal. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean when you when you rely on fuel position, um,
Speaker 1: you know in the defense that we have have, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean it's I love it. I love being able
Speaker 1: to be a part of of helping the defense out
Speaker 1: with field position. And you know, coach Fray Bowl and
Speaker 1: coach Uckerman, I think it was in April or May,
Speaker 1: they went through like a statistical percentage, like, hey, if
Speaker 1: a team starts on the ten, this is the percentage
Speaker 1: that they have to make it to midfield. This is
Speaker 1: a percentage that they have to get a field goal,
Speaker 1: This is a percentage that they have to score a touchdown.
Speaker 1: So they started from the ten and then they started,
Speaker 1: you know, from the twenty five if it was a
Speaker 1: touchback or you know, hey, if we were backed up
Speaker 1: and they started at midfield, this is the percentage of
Speaker 1: them scoring a touchdown or a field goal. So they
Speaker 1: went through all these different scenarios and you really understand, like, hey, look,
Speaker 1: if I can, if I can control help control field
Speaker 1: position as far as trying to pin teams deep as
Speaker 1: far as possible. You know, the defense that we have,
Speaker 1: like the percentages are going to work out to our favor.
Speaker 1: So you know, I've learned. I've tried to get it
Speaker 1: as close as possible as I can to the goal line.
Speaker 1: I've tried that in some years, and you know, your
Speaker 1: touchback percentage gets a little higher. And this year have
Speaker 1: kind of more or less said, hey, let's aim between
Speaker 1: the ten and the five, and um, you know, if
Speaker 1: you hit one at the eleven or the twelve, like,
Speaker 1: you still gain you know, if it was a touchback,
Speaker 1: you still gain almost the first down. So um, you know,
Speaker 1: there's just kind of understanding where you can pick and
Speaker 1: choose your spots to to to really kind of put
Speaker 1: them deep. We've referenced faith, You've referenced faith in this
Speaker 1: and your faith, and then in our conversation we've talked
Speaker 1: about good plays and bad plays, and good things and
Speaker 1: bad things being cut, losing a friend like Rob baronas
Speaker 1: I mean, you've you've seen so much. A football career
Speaker 1: is really sort of a metaphor for an entire life
Speaker 1: if you're a man of faith, isn't it. Yeah? For sure,
Speaker 1: because you because you you see it all and having
Speaker 1: that faith. I mean football players that have faith, Um,
Speaker 1: you see a difference in the way they're able to
Speaker 1: handle things. Yeah, yeah, I think you know, Um, you
Speaker 1: know the day that you know, I found out two
Speaker 1: hours before we played the Bengals that Rob passed away,
Speaker 1: and that was you know, that was probably that was
Speaker 1: probably one game I actually don't really remember, honestly. I
Speaker 1: just remember slamming my helmet on the sidelines and you know,
Speaker 1: busting it up because I was just so so frustrated.
Speaker 1: But you know, God doesn't, you know, he doesn't promise
Speaker 1: us that life's gonna be great every day. You know,
Speaker 1: like you're gonna have your ups, you're gonna have your downs. Um,
Speaker 1: but He's always consistent and always constant and so understanding
Speaker 1: that that he's always the rock, the pillar in my life. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, bad times, bad times, you know, aren't gonna
Speaker 1: shake me, you know, just because that that is life. Um,
Speaker 1: it's not promised that life's gonna be great every day, so, um,
Speaker 1: you know, when you have your ups and your downs,
Speaker 1: it's just, um, understand that there's a one focal point
Speaker 1: in my life that you know, I can always trust on.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, God is somebody I can always
Speaker 1: trust in every day and his word and uh you
Speaker 1: know my wife is darn right up there. So um,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's understanding that he already knows what's
Speaker 1: going to happen in my life, and he already knows,
Speaker 1: you know, how long I'm gonna play. He already, I mean,
Speaker 1: he's all knowing, so he knows all this stuff, and
Speaker 1: you trust all of yep. But now he's a pro
Speaker 1: bowler three times three times, I mean. And and Titans fans,
Speaker 1: I mean, you're you're not mistaken for the equipment guy
Speaker 1: in the eyes of Titans fans. That's pretty good at it. Though,
Speaker 1: you must say, well something, that's a good group of
Speaker 1: guys to hang out with. That's a good group of people,
Speaker 1: and they they have a lot of know how and
Speaker 1: they make this building run a lot more than what
Speaker 1: people know. I'm sure other teams have great equipment guys,
Speaker 1: but there's nobody that has better equipment, folks than the
Speaker 1: Titans do because they they make the between them and
Speaker 1: the operations people we have, they make this thing run.
Speaker 1: And um, it's great that you have such respect for
Speaker 1: them in that way in the job that they do
Speaker 1: in the importance. Yeah, I mean you need to size
Speaker 1: ten and a half in vapors. I know exactly where
Speaker 1: to get them. Yeah, I mean there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people around this building that I mean, you know, without them,
Speaker 1: this this operation doesn't doesn't move the way that it moves.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, from its with it's equipment guys
Speaker 1: that clean up after us, to to to the janitors
Speaker 1: that come in uh and clean up you know, the
Speaker 1: showers and um, you know, the people that are making
Speaker 1: us food every day. I mean, there's so many people
Speaker 1: you can go on and on throughout this whole building
Speaker 1: of people that put their sweat into making this place
Speaker 1: the best that they can make it and allowing us
Speaker 1: to go out there and not having to worry about
Speaker 1: some of the little things and they just they're great
Speaker 1: at it. And it's um, you know, it's always nice
Speaker 1: to be able to talk to some of them, have
Speaker 1: conversations with them understanding their lives, what they're going through,
Speaker 1: and um, it's just uh, it's got a lot of
Speaker 1: great people around this build. And he's a real dude,
Speaker 1: Brett Kurn try to be yep, well this is your life,
Speaker 1: Brett Kern on the OTP. I think it turned out
Speaker 1: pretty well. Thank you for football's football is just a
Speaker 1: side job. And you know, now the golf season it started,
Speaker 1: so so he's leaving, so he's ending it. He's actually
Speaker 1: getting up out of the chair right now. I mean
Speaker 1: we've had enough rain in February to um, you know,
Speaker 1: Noah might his arc might float. That's true, save us all.
Speaker 1: That's true. You're a good man, And thank you for
Speaker 1: taking time to share all of your thoughts and memories
Speaker 1: and stories. And yeah, it's fun. It's fun to kind
Speaker 1: of go back the memory bank. And you know it's
Speaker 1: always good to remember, you know, from from high school
Speaker 1: when I first started, you know, go from soccer to
Speaker 1: football and not even sure I wanted to make the change,
Speaker 1: and you know, to college. Didn't get in by to
Speaker 1: the combine. You know, I got one work out with
Speaker 1: the Cleveland Browns and we had to scrape off snow
Speaker 1: off the field. And Toledo and to my wife. We
Speaker 1: went to a snow or a golf dome at nine
Speaker 1: o'clock at night when it closed, and she would come
Speaker 1: and help shag footballs and had no heating in it,
Speaker 1: so it was, you know, thirty degrees in they are
Speaker 1: trying to kick football to get ready for any type
Speaker 1: of workout or whatnot. And it's just it's just, um,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. How you know. Now I'm sitting out with
Speaker 1: you guys and two of your career and and uh,
Speaker 1: it's just just a huge bussing. Keep going, Brett Kern.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna try love for Amy Wells. I'm Mike Keith
Speaker 1: thanking Brett Kern. And you've been listening to the OTP