Speaker 1: All right, hello, once again, I gotta tell you, and
Speaker 1: you sit back and do your work and your research.
Speaker 1: And Tom and I lived it with these guys. This
Speaker 1: was one heck of a football team. Right here in
Speaker 1: the final analysis, you're gonna realize just how good this
Speaker 1: football team was. A lot of great players. One of
Speaker 1: the most memorable seasons obviously embarrass history in recent vintage.
Speaker 1: And it's started with that shutout win at Lambeau. Start
Speaker 1: the season a rookie button, dam but Devin Hester came
Speaker 1: through in that game. I mean, there's your rookie year,
Speaker 1: first game, Devin coming into the stadium at Lambeau with
Speaker 1: Lovey Smith and the crew getting ready for after a
Speaker 1: playoff season in two thousand and five. A lot of
Speaker 1: good things happened, Rex going deep, a couple of big catches, Mussin, Muhammad,
Speaker 1: Bernard Baron, A lot of good stuff happened in Lambeaux.
Speaker 1: So I started out out, Roberto Garza, did that game
Speaker 1: set the tone for the season, no question about it.
Speaker 1: When you step on the field against the Green Bay Packers,
Speaker 1: And I said the temple like Devin did, and with
Speaker 1: that offensive line and obviously that great defense man that
Speaker 1: that's that's a bar pretty high and go out there
Speaker 1: and try to win football games from the beginning of
Speaker 1: the season, and we're able to do that all year. Devin,
Speaker 1: first game, really you're taking it to the house. I mean,
Speaker 1: that was something that puts you on the map right away.
Speaker 1: The teams started changing the way they looked at you.
Speaker 1: Then as a return man, I would say, so, you know,
Speaker 1: coming into from college, you know and things I didn
Speaker 1: return game. They pretty much said it with applausible O
Speaker 1: Mama to come in to the league and to come
Speaker 1: into the league the first my first game and make
Speaker 1: a statement to say, hey, this is a guy that
Speaker 1: did all of the turn of the callege. I want
Speaker 1: to do the same thing when once I got to
Speaker 1: the NFL, and I knew the only way to do
Speaker 1: that was to set it out the first lay the game,
Speaker 1: the first game, Hey all on the the walk down
Speaker 1: that ramp, when you go to that lambeau Field at
Speaker 1: the start of the open the first game of an
Speaker 1: NFL season, how nerve racking? How special is that feeling
Speaker 1: to start that whole trip, well, especially at Green Bay
Speaker 1: with your rival or you want to go out there
Speaker 1: put on a show. And we had a special feeling
Speaker 1: going into that season, right we knew we were gonna
Speaker 1: be pretty good and we wanted to prove that to everybody.
Speaker 1: And I think the score was twenty six zero or
Speaker 1: something like that, and we put on him and a
Speaker 1: lot of it was how good that defense was a
Speaker 1: run game and then this guy was electric. So it
Speaker 1: was so fun to be a part of that team
Speaker 1: and to go out there put it on Green Bay
Speaker 1: like that. We made a statement early that that we
Speaker 1: knew we were gonna be pretty good. Patrick, same theme,
Speaker 1: same theme, you know, like Oland, I'm gonna piggyback on
Speaker 1: one old and said two thousand and five, we were
Speaker 1: pretty good, but we were young, and we knew we
Speaker 1: had talent coming up, and we knew everybody was getting
Speaker 1: a year older and getting a year better, and going
Speaker 1: through that training camp, like you said, we were pretty
Speaker 1: confident we were gonna be pretty good. We felt like
Speaker 1: we could be pretty good, and to go into that
Speaker 1: game and do what we did, I think we proved
Speaker 1: it to ourselves and that started that run of what
Speaker 1: seven wins in a row, and that's that's what started it.
Speaker 1: Right there. Charles loves defense and everybody in it thrived
Speaker 1: you guys like today's Bears if twenty eighteen number one
Speaker 1: in the league, and takeaways number one and three and
Speaker 1: outs number four, and scoring defense thirty four interceptions, defensive
Speaker 1: touchdowns galore. Nine defensive Pro Bowlers from that era of
Speaker 1: Bears football. What made that defense so unique and special?
Speaker 1: I think it was just the mindset that Coach Smith
Speaker 1: set for us. Like Coach Nagi says he has a
Speaker 1: good culture, I think Coach Smith said, uh, he said
Speaker 1: the tone. He had a really good culture for US.
Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. Brian Urlacher, what a great leader. And
Speaker 1: you know, when you're in that huddel and you make
Speaker 1: a mistake, Brian has no problem cursing you out. And
Speaker 1: I don't like to get cursed out, so I just
Speaker 1: try to do my job. I think after you you
Speaker 1: have a fast start, does the pressure build for that season?
Speaker 1: You know, because I don't know if what was love
Speaker 1: you a guy that put pressure on you, or did
Speaker 1: you guys put pressure on yourself? I know because I
Speaker 1: always hear you guys talk about how close that locker
Speaker 1: room was. So was it putting pressure on yourselves or
Speaker 1: was it something that just came with the season. It
Speaker 1: was a little bit of both. I think coach Smith
Speaker 1: was he was a defensive head coach, so he expected
Speaker 1: the defense to do more. Um. I remember one game
Speaker 1: he goes, hey, defense, if we don't score, we don't win.
Speaker 1: If we don't score defensive touchdowns, and we're not winning
Speaker 1: this game. So y'all need to we need to score,
Speaker 1: you know, we need to score some points. The offensive
Speaker 1: players in that room, there were not It was a
Speaker 1: defensive meeting. It was a defensive meeting. But that's just
Speaker 1: kind of that was a guy love he was. He
Speaker 1: was defense wins games. You know, he was old school.
Speaker 1: You know, there's that saying offensives take his defense wins games.
Speaker 1: But that that's just kind of the that's just that's
Speaker 1: where all the money was, Tom, I mean, all the
Speaker 1: salary cap was on the defense side of the ball.
Speaker 1: They better score and Roberto and old you know, it
Speaker 1: became almost a medium mock that Love. He would say, hey,
Speaker 1: we get off the bus run of the ball. But
Speaker 1: was that a message to you guys, it's not your shoulders?
Speaker 1: And did you embrace that? Did you love when he
Speaker 1: said that? No question about it. You know, obviously Harry
Speaker 1: Heaston was a coach who was not here, um, and
Speaker 1: we have Thomas Jones, Ruben Brown, Fred Miller, John Tate.
Speaker 1: I mean the offensive line. All we wanted to do
Speaker 1: was double team people, and that was the mindset from
Speaker 1: Ron Turner, from coach Lovey. You know, we had that defense,
Speaker 1: So go out there and move the football, double team people,
Speaker 1: move off the line of scrimmage, and let Thomas Jones
Speaker 1: go out and do what he does. Obviously, when you
Speaker 1: run the football, you control the game and all the
Speaker 1: defenses fresh. We have more first downs and able to
Speaker 1: keep the ball away from the other team and then
Speaker 1: keep those guys fresh, and I guess anybody, they're gonna
Speaker 1: create turnovers and get to the quarterback. So when you
Speaker 1: they tell you, hey, running the football, that's what we
Speaker 1: wanted to do in a way. Yeah, you know, Jeff,
Speaker 1: we just had all the components, right. So we did
Speaker 1: have a good offensive line, Ruben Brown and like guards
Speaker 1: just said, but we also had des Clark and then
Speaker 1: Moose Muhammad who would control the middle of the field.
Speaker 1: But nar Burying would take the top off of any defense, right,
Speaker 1: so as soon as the guys started crowding us, we
Speaker 1: had a guy who could go deep and you know,
Speaker 1: and laid in that playoff run. But nar Burying had
Speaker 1: a lot of big games there and he was, you know,
Speaker 1: whenever they would come down and with Cedric, Bens and
Speaker 1: Thomas running the ball and Rex would hit Bernard and
Speaker 1: that would give us more room to run the ball.
Speaker 1: So we had all the components that year to be
Speaker 1: a strong running team. You know, Patrick, you probably you
Speaker 1: lose special teams as well as anybody when you got
Speaker 1: to play alongside a guy like Devin Hester. When you
Speaker 1: guys were sitting in the meetings and devising a scheme
Speaker 1: for Devon, did you understand the greatness that you were
Speaker 1: witnessing and to be a part of and developing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's no doubt about it. And you know, having Dave Toby,
Speaker 1: our special teams coordinator, knowing that we had a special talent,
Speaker 1: he was able to cultivate that room to understand that, hey,
Speaker 1: we got to make the most of this. And guys
Speaker 1: loved blocking for Devon. The funny thing is Tom that
Speaker 1: guys were begging to get on the punt return team. Peanut,
Speaker 1: you were on the punt return team. You know, guys
Speaker 1: wanted to be on the kickoff retern team. They wanted
Speaker 1: to be out there when he had the ball, and
Speaker 1: we understood that we got the special one, you know,
Speaker 1: and guys were fighting to get out there, and you know,
Speaker 1: you were part of a two starting cornerback wanting to
Speaker 1: be on the punt return team. Yeah, I mean I
Speaker 1: don't think I was. I don't think I knew I
Speaker 1: was witnessing greatness because I was always blocking for him,
Speaker 1: just running down the field. And then a lot of
Speaker 1: the I guess touchdowns you have, I don't even celebrate
Speaker 1: with you because I'm so damn tired. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: catch my breath. You like, roll the one you rolled
Speaker 1: like eight nine times. I was like, yeah, okay, I'm tired.
Speaker 1: I gotta go back out to those defense Devin. You know,
Speaker 1: and all the returns, there's an obvious point of attack
Speaker 1: that you try to pay attention to and they try
Speaker 1: to develop for you. But I asked you last night,
Speaker 1: how how far of recognition did you say, okay, I'm gone,
Speaker 1: Even when you saw the blocks unfold in front of you,
Speaker 1: or you saw that one crease that you needed as
Speaker 1: a returner, it was always like the first ten yards
Speaker 1: and my mentally, if I can get the first ten
Speaker 1: yards to get the head of a fourhead of thing running.
Speaker 1: That is, that's where all the grinding the grid is
Speaker 1: when the first ten yards of returning, and if I
Speaker 1: can break free through the the rest of the work
Speaker 1: is easy. You know. So I was built around but
Speaker 1: coach Dave with a great group of guys, and like
Speaker 1: these guys, say Man and special team co day with
Speaker 1: the Jeans. When it came to returns, he spend day
Speaker 1: out and day in and day out to prepare my
Speaker 1: opponents instead of them. And so when I got to
Speaker 1: the meetings on moneys and toolsdays and Wednesday, he pretty
Speaker 1: much broke down every single thing front and longest now
Speaker 1: but to the direction of the punt. And it made
Speaker 1: it so much easier for me, tom Um. What made
Speaker 1: it so special too, It was a funny story is
Speaker 1: that when the defense would come off the field, you
Speaker 1: could see it during the special team's sideline copy. They
Speaker 1: wouldn't go and get the sideline adjustments. They would turn
Speaker 1: around them and wait for the punts. And you could
Speaker 1: hear Bob Babbitts, the linebacker coach or whoever, yelling get
Speaker 1: over here, and they're like they're like, no first stand
Speaker 1: right here. We gotta watch this and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden they you know, and then they go back
Speaker 1: and get the adjustments. But that's how special that is
Speaker 1: one of the greatest compliments of people you pay attention
Speaker 1: to on the field. Well, maybe you should be sitting
Speaker 1: on the bench, but if you're playing against the Barry
Speaker 1: Sanders or something, you always wanted to watch him. And
Speaker 1: I think Devin contributed that type of greatness to the
Speaker 1: Chicago Bears that if he if he was gonna get
Speaker 1: turn the kick returning, gonna return a punt, You're not
Speaker 1: going to the the concession stand, You're not going to the bathroom.
Speaker 1: You're waiting to see what Devin does it. Man, you
Speaker 1: take your time. And like I said, I gotta give
Speaker 1: a lot of credit to our defense because our defense
Speaker 1: put us in so much good field position to be
Speaker 1: able to call to return, you know, and we had
Speaker 1: offensive pinning back to their ten fifteen yard line, so
Speaker 1: when there was time to play the ball, you didn't
Speaker 1: have no choice but to kick it. You know. We
Speaker 1: didn't allow you know, a lot of offenses across that
Speaker 1: fifth yard line, so that for as a returner, it
Speaker 1: was like the green light for me back to the
Speaker 1: old line from it the game, and then we got
Speaker 1: a couple of photos about you guys. You did everything together.
Speaker 1: How critical is that? Well, when you play offensive line,
Speaker 1: the line is usually better than the sum of its parts, right,
Speaker 1: So you gotta like you gotta be working as one unit.
Speaker 1: Everybody's got to see everything through Harry heastand always said
Speaker 1: through one set of eyes. So we all got to
Speaker 1: see everything the same way. And so that's why we
Speaker 1: would eat eat, we'd eat breakfast together, eat lunch together,
Speaker 1: hang out, walk to the meeting room together, and just
Speaker 1: kind of build that culture of always always seeing everything together,
Speaker 1: always doing everything together. That way, we were always on
Speaker 1: the same page. But you know, being an outsider looking in,
Speaker 1: I admired that so much because I used to We
Speaker 1: sit on the bus waiting to travel and then you
Speaker 1: see the offensive line filter out and everybody waiting for
Speaker 1: each other, kind of reconnecting in between each snap. You know, Roberto,
Speaker 1: you guys all he meant so much to each other.
Speaker 1: But it spills on because then it's the same challenge.
Speaker 1: You bring it to the practice field. If one guy's
Speaker 1: gonna show up, we all better show up. And I
Speaker 1: think it's important to show that aspect of the offense,
Speaker 1: no question, because we have to work together as a unit,
Speaker 1: and that chemistry is built day in and day out,
Speaker 1: and the expectation that the line set together. You weren't
Speaker 1: You didn't want to be the guy that didn't do
Speaker 1: it right. So when we walked in together, it was
Speaker 1: we're doing everything together. We're making all the right adjustments,
Speaker 1: everything that Olden is telling us to do, okay on
Speaker 1: this play. We gotta do this okay, so let's do
Speaker 1: it together. And that doesn't come just on the football field.
Speaker 1: It starts in the locker room. It starts walking in
Speaker 1: the plane together, walking through practice together. You know, everything
Speaker 1: that we did helped us be better football players because
Speaker 1: we built that friendship, but also that expectation that this
Speaker 1: is the way it's going to be done and you
Speaker 1: have to do it at this level day in and
Speaker 1: day out, and that tempo and that culture was set
Speaker 1: by Olden, by Ruben Brown, by Harry heastand by the
Speaker 1: guys that been around and been doing it year in
Speaker 1: and year out. We step on that football field, you know,
Speaker 1: I was the youngest guy there and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I gotta keep up with these guys. You know, and
Speaker 1: I got to do my job to the best of
Speaker 1: my ability, and that was set by spending all that
Speaker 1: time together because you wanted to go out on the
Speaker 1: football field and perform for your teammates. Guards. One story
Speaker 1: I love telling about you guys and what you're talking about.
Speaker 1: You know how you guys always together that if any
Speaker 1: of any of the offensive line route was gonna be
Speaker 1: late to a meeting, nobody would go in. So everybody
Speaker 1: was late because we didn't find everybody right, whole team.
Speaker 1: So wait on everybody. Wait who came up with that idea.
Speaker 1: I'm guessing him there was there anybody that was ever late.
Speaker 1: There were a few guys we had to go get
Speaker 1: out of their house a couple of times after a
Speaker 1: late night. We had to go get him. So so
Speaker 1: we get there all time. But I don't want to
Speaker 1: say any names and put them out there, but there
Speaker 1: we had a few guys who were, you know, repeat offenders.
Speaker 1: We had to always go get them. We're looking out
Speaker 1: for them. Oh, and what did you appreciate about this
Speaker 1: man in the weight room? Guards in the weight room, Well, well,
Speaker 1: guards are in the weight room. You know, he's legendary.
Speaker 1: Now at hallis Hall and that's that's just the truth.
Speaker 1: That's how strong this man is. But that's just who
Speaker 1: he is. Like what I appreciate about him was is
Speaker 1: he's the same guy every day. He works hard in
Speaker 1: the weight room, he works hard in the meeting room.
Speaker 1: He shows up every day. He's ready to compete, and like, like,
Speaker 1: I know, you might walk into the way room with Garza,
Speaker 1: are you better be ready to get it on because
Speaker 1: he but he does everything like that and that's what
Speaker 1: you appreciate about him. Hey, Charles, I think I read
Speaker 1: where you went to eleven different schools as a youth,
Speaker 1: but you played twelve years for the Bears, which one
Speaker 1: shape who you are today more. I think the eleven
Speaker 1: different schools just being in different environments, different situations, moving
Speaker 1: all over the world, living overseas, living in Europe as
Speaker 1: a young kid. It allowed me to get out of
Speaker 1: my shell. No pun attended, but it is just it's
Speaker 1: just it allowed me to get out of my shell
Speaker 1: and really, um, open up, talk to people, ask questions,
Speaker 1: you know, just be a little bit more open asking
Speaker 1: questions and stuff. A Devin. So your freshman year, you
Speaker 1: return a kickoff opening kickoff against Florida for a touchdown.
Speaker 1: You return the opening kickoff in the Super Bowl for
Speaker 1: a touchdown? That a super impressive Like which one did?
Speaker 1: Did one shape you more than the other? Did you
Speaker 1: like you learned that you had the ability that early
Speaker 1: in life, and then that transferred all the way up
Speaker 1: into the NFL level. I think it pretty much started
Speaker 1: um in my youth days playing just backyard football. UM
Speaker 1: we would play, UM we did. We couldn't play anything
Speaker 1: like Brad, so we we would call it throw off
Speaker 1: and so we would throw the ball off and well
Speaker 1: played two hand in touch. And it was like every
Speaker 1: time I got back there, I were running back on
Speaker 1: two hand in touch. So I think from that point
Speaker 1: on it I grew a passion and I love for that,
Speaker 1: the return game, and it just really just a sale
Speaker 1: the old I got. All I know is all these
Speaker 1: years after that, every single time I go to the
Speaker 1: scouting combine and you say you're with the Bears, Where
Speaker 1: were you when when Devin returned the opening That's how
Speaker 1: significant of a play never happened before since the opening kickoff.
Speaker 1: For me calling the game, I never even anticipated It's
Speaker 1: bad on me made that one cut and I started
Speaker 1: thinking oh boy, well, how am I gonna capture this
Speaker 1: moment at the Super Bowl? But wow? Was that not
Speaker 1: the moment one of the biggest memories in our lives.
Speaker 1: But in order to get there, in order to get
Speaker 1: there Bears going undefeated to Arizona, things didn't go that well.
Speaker 1: Matt Leinert started that game, and it was having a
Speaker 1: field day for a time, and then we go to halftime,
Speaker 1: come back, that's got the most physical half you've ever
Speaker 1: played it. We will win this game if you hit
Speaker 1: somebody in the mouth. And that starts with Keygoff to
Speaker 1: hit us in the monk ke goof return to hit
Speaker 1: us in the mouth. Keygoff hit me mout and I
Speaker 1: didn't do nothing about it. This happened to change physical.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get physical. We're gonna get up with him.
Speaker 1: We'll get no personal follows. Give me between the whistle,
Speaker 1: get up. Who will win this game? I promise? Yes. Hey,
Speaker 1: I like to tell I like to tell everybody, Jeff,
Speaker 1: Only the defense was listening when I was talking. The
Speaker 1: offense wasn't listening to me. But one the performers that
Speaker 1: that game, we remember standing on the sideline and as
Speaker 1: an offensive lineman, you guys are talking about hess and
Speaker 1: this is honest, and guards will tell you this. With
Speaker 1: offensive line, we'd stand there about where he would catch
Speaker 1: the ball. So we got to witness him because on
Speaker 1: kickoff return we're standing close to him, and on punt
Speaker 1: we're watching him. And if he caught the ball in
Speaker 1: the middle field, honestly, I'd walked to the bench because
Speaker 1: he was gone. He would see it on the special
Speaker 1: team's film. It was I'd walk away. I'd walk away
Speaker 1: and be like field goal, it's an extra point, like
Speaker 1: it was over. But that game was. It was amazing,
Speaker 1: and we as an offense witnessed it right because we
Speaker 1: weren't doing much. And you know, it was Mike Brown
Speaker 1: taking the ball back. It was her lacker pulling it
Speaker 1: out to these twenty two tackles and Peanut and and
Speaker 1: then and then we're on the field and I look
Speaker 1: at Ruben Brown and I'm like, it's he's gonna take
Speaker 1: this back, like that's insane if he takes and sure enough,
Speaker 1: and we're just laughing on the sign like this is insane, man,
Speaker 1: And and it was, you know, it was. It was
Speaker 1: an amazing game to be a part of the Oh
Speaker 1: did you so first of all, it does give you
Speaker 1: a little goosebump. Yeah, yeah, how could it not? Right?
Speaker 1: Did that movie? Right there? Her to see yourself in
Speaker 1: the end result, all these years later, it's just fun
Speaker 1: to see being a room with these guys, you know,
Speaker 1: like being back here and just you know, I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: what the hell am I talking about? But no, it
Speaker 1: were It was cool, it was, but that was like
Speaker 1: that was just a special team, Like that's really what
Speaker 1: everybody believed. Like we just we never thought we were
Speaker 1: gonna lose a game. We never thought there could beat us.
Speaker 1: You know, we had a couple of key injuries that
Speaker 1: everybody knows about who were really key players for us.
Speaker 1: But when we were our full fifty three and that
Speaker 1: full fifty three squad was there, Jeff, we felt like
Speaker 1: we were unbeatable. Like we literally felt like that. And
Speaker 1: that's you know, and then like we didn't even know
Speaker 1: what we had in this guy, and when he showed
Speaker 1: up and on as an offense, we're getting a ball
Speaker 1: on the other side of the fifty every time because
Speaker 1: nobody wanted to kick to him anymore, right, so they
Speaker 1: just squim it and we get good field position every play. Yeah,
Speaker 1: affected all three phases, every every blade of grass on
Speaker 1: the field because of Devin and your defense taking the
Speaker 1: ball away and setting you guys up. Tom, I just
Speaker 1: you know, it's neat to see h because you don't
Speaker 1: really get inside a locker room to see people address
Speaker 1: their team. And we are always lucky enough to be
Speaker 1: addressed by Walter Payton, and everybody understood the message and
Speaker 1: he was trying to say when I was reading about you,
Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty two starts for the Bear, second
Speaker 1: only to the great Walter Payton. That's pretty amazing to
Speaker 1: have your name in the same sentence is Walter Payton
Speaker 1: after what he's accomplished and what you are, and then
Speaker 1: still the message you get to deliver to your teammates.
Speaker 1: It's got to be important to you. Being a spina
Speaker 1: Chicago Bear obviously means the world to me. Obviously, when
Speaker 1: your name is mentioned with Walter Payton, I mean we
Speaker 1: you know you play for the Bears. Tom, Jeff been
Speaker 1: part of organization for years. The Chicago Bears organization is
Speaker 1: a charter franchise. It's just different, right, It's a it's
Speaker 1: a different place, it's a different history. It's what the
Speaker 1: NFL really is about so to be a part through
Speaker 1: love football, be a part of this organization. And then
Speaker 1: like they say Walter Payton and then they say your name,
Speaker 1: and you know half the nature you say, well, who
Speaker 1: the hell is that? But that's okay. You know that
Speaker 1: you're still You're still after I'm still getting mentioned, right,
Speaker 1: So that's pretty cool. Really, you know, Patricks, A lot
Speaker 1: of numbers we've been spewing up here ideas are reading
Speaker 1: a by you two thousand, two hundred and eighty two
Speaker 1: snaps without a botch. That's pretty impressive because when you
Speaker 1: talk about long snappers over the history the NFL, there
Speaker 1: are guys even I mean, right, but you know, only
Speaker 1: a Chicago does a long snapper get love like this.
Speaker 1: So we're up here a couple of segments ago and
Speaker 1: Dick Buckus is talking about how he snapped extra points
Speaker 1: and field goals and during his career. But then you
Speaker 1: kind of turned it into a perfected technology of science.
Speaker 1: And I think you know, you had the same obligations
Speaker 1: to what your job was and the kickers and punters
Speaker 1: that you developed throughout your career. That's time I kind
Speaker 1: of got lucky in nineteen ninety eight when I got
Speaker 1: drafted that the NFL was transitioning to the long snapper
Speaker 1: being one of the fifty three positions or one of
Speaker 1: the fifty three voster spots. So I came in as
Speaker 1: an officive lineman had great You know, I wanted to
Speaker 1: play on line, but it's not gonna happen when you
Speaker 1: line up next to these guys. But I had the
Speaker 1: skill of long snapping. Unfortunately, that became a job in
Speaker 1: the NFL when it did, and I just took a
Speaker 1: lot of pride in it, like my mom and dad
Speaker 1: for the natural ability, and just followed these guys work
Speaker 1: ethic and it turned into a long career here. You know,
Speaker 1: you think about that team when we were talking about
Speaker 1: how good they were, right, and that theena doesn't get
Speaker 1: mentioned is like Pat won't say it, but most of
Speaker 1: us on his teammates know he's the best long snapper
Speaker 1: ever to play the game. We know that, Okay, And
Speaker 1: then you got then you got Robbie Gold, Right, Robbie
Speaker 1: go I mean you can argue he's the best kicker
Speaker 1: embarrassed history. He was on that team. Brad Maynard, who
Speaker 1: was an ultimate professional. He was a punter. Right, you
Speaker 1: got a guy who created a peanut punch. I mean
Speaker 1: everybody does that. He changed the whole game, Like, that's
Speaker 1: the kind of guys that were on that team and
Speaker 1: it was amazing. And oh, by the way, patrolling the
Speaker 1: middle of the defense number fifty four, Ryan or Lacker also.
Speaker 1: I mean we can go on and on, but but
Speaker 1: that's right. You know, the peanut punch has become significant,
Speaker 1: teaching it everywhere here we go. It still amazes me
Speaker 1: to this day. In one game you had you knocked
Speaker 1: out what four? Oh yeah, yeah yeah four? Uh what
Speaker 1: was that, Tennessee? How did you? How? I mean, how
Speaker 1: does this happen? How's this happened? They don't hold on
Speaker 1: to the football. That's not what happened. They don't hold
Speaker 1: on to it. They don't. I just I don't know, man,
Speaker 1: I just Gil Bird used to always say this football
Speaker 1: is worth millions, Go get it, go bring it back.
Speaker 1: So I just yeah, I'm gonna go get it. Yo.
Speaker 1: Bird was one of the bed It's pretty easy. Hey, Charles,
Speaker 1: if we took those fumbles and he took a still
Speaker 1: shot before it happened, could you explain to us like
Speaker 1: what you were thinking or was it completely ad libbed
Speaker 1: when you approached the offensive ball carrier. As I'm running
Speaker 1: up to the ball carrier, I'm assessing how he is
Speaker 1: holding the football. If it's here, okay, I'm gonna punch
Speaker 1: it from the side. If he's here, well then I
Speaker 1: can punch from coming from up top. And it's constantly
Speaker 1: moving like this, so you kind of have to time
Speaker 1: it up to when you have to, you know, make
Speaker 1: your make your punch. Well we're talking about that thinking
Speaker 1: process is a half a second? Oh yes, second, I
Speaker 1: mean it's super quick. I'm just waiting. I think the
Speaker 1: best one of the best punches I've ever did was
Speaker 1: I think it was two thousand and seven. It was
Speaker 1: against the Detroit Lions. As Soldier Field tell back, he
Speaker 1: came to the Bears, Kevin Kevin Jones. Yeah, he's running running,
Speaker 1: and it was a toss and there was an offensive lineman.
Speaker 1: I jump out of a way and I wait, I wait,
Speaker 1: and then I punch and then the ball came out.
Speaker 1: And it's just I had a knack for knowing when
Speaker 1: to win to shoot my punch, you know. And I
Speaker 1: got lucky forty four times, all right, I mean it's
Speaker 1: an incredible number. But It's an incredible number, you guys.
Speaker 1: You know, Oh and and roverto you guys got a
Speaker 1: lot of extra possessions, and he got possessions taken away
Speaker 1: from you. You got Devin's return for touchdowns that you
Speaker 1: go back to the bench or else you got Charles
Speaker 1: out there after you're come off at ten, play drive
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden he gets you another return
Speaker 1: from you guys. So you know, you had some possessions
Speaker 1: taken away by Devon, but you got a lot of
Speaker 1: extra ones from Peanut. Absolutely. Man, that's when you have
Speaker 1: guys like that, you want to get back on that
Speaker 1: football field and can and try to score, you know,
Speaker 1: And then we have an offensive line that can double
Speaker 1: team people. You have Thomas Jones, Cedric Benson, and then
Speaker 1: you have those guys. It's just like, man, let's go
Speaker 1: out and run power. Let's go out and run a
Speaker 1: week ice and go out there and try to work
Speaker 1: with that defensive line. Yeah, I love you. Obviously preached takeaways.
Speaker 1: I mean I mean running to the ball, taking the
Speaker 1: ball away. You guys delivered. It's one thing to say
Speaker 1: it and okay, this is what I want you to do,
Speaker 1: But you guys did it and you were great at it?
Speaker 1: Why and did Devin's return ability maybe give all you
Speaker 1: guys this desire to take it and score because Vash you,
Speaker 1: Mike Brown, defensive lineman, erlak or Briggs, guys all score.
Speaker 1: I think when you're a head coach, the greatest compliment
Speaker 1: your players can give you is they want to play
Speaker 1: for you. And I think collectively, defensively obviously whold all
Speaker 1: fifty three guys, we really wanted to play for Coach
Speaker 1: Smith and whatever he was preaching, we were buying. Whatever
Speaker 1: he was selling, we were buying. We believed it. We
Speaker 1: believed in him. He was a great man, great Christian man.
Speaker 1: He believed in us. He treated us like men. I
Speaker 1: learned a lot from him and I love him just
Speaker 1: I mean just he was he was. He was a
Speaker 1: great guy. Still is a great guy. I think for
Speaker 1: me Um coming in my rookie year, Um, Coach leg
Speaker 1: the first impression I got from him was he treated
Speaker 1: everybody like a man. He wasn't the coach that gonna
Speaker 1: say I'm checking curfew, I'm checking to see what he
Speaker 1: left it up to the captains, which is old and
Speaker 1: lack and those guys say you guys here, you take
Speaker 1: the total of this team. And that's what I love
Speaker 1: about love it like he he wasn't the dominant free
Speaker 1: he allowed everybody to do their job. And when you
Speaker 1: have a coach like that, you don't you don't want
Speaker 1: to do nothing wrong. For he did micro manage us.
Speaker 1: He let us be men, He let us do our job,
Speaker 1: and he trusted us. The other thing about him was
Speaker 1: he was the same every day, so we knew what
Speaker 1: we were getting every day. And you know people said,
Speaker 1: show more emotion. Well if he showed this emotion up
Speaker 1: or down, we felt it. You know, we felt it
Speaker 1: in holl Us all but going into that workspace every
Speaker 1: day and you knew what the expectations were because he
Speaker 1: was the consistent man every day and it made it
Speaker 1: easy for us. The most ever heard him yell, I
Speaker 1: don't know what game. It might have been, like the
Speaker 1: Arizona game, and he said, freaking that was we're freaking
Speaker 1: we're getting We're freaking getting our butt. That was it.
Speaker 1: But you know he had that was it. He had
Speaker 1: a lot of good enforces in the locker room between
Speaker 1: the role in between her locker lance and the rest
Speaker 1: of the crew. I mean he had guys that he
Speaker 1: knew that there was you know, there was jack and
Speaker 1: around going on. Right, you guys had the crew that
Speaker 1: would take care of it. Great enforces for baseball. So
Speaker 1: Lovey screams at me one time I did something that practice.
Speaker 1: I can't share it here, but he says, old and
Speaker 1: Jimminy Christmas. Right. So, I mean, I'm eating dinner at
Speaker 1: the at camp and the wife comes up and she's like,
Speaker 1: I heard you got a Jimmy Christmas out of love
Speaker 1: you and I go yeah, she goes, you know, that's
Speaker 1: as far as he goes. Right. Oh, how how critical
Speaker 1: was it in terms of aiding your head coach to
Speaker 1: have There was no leadership void in that locker room.
Speaker 1: It was Olden Crutz, it was Brian Erlacker, and you
Speaker 1: guys played off each other beautifully. How important was that
Speaker 1: to that team? Well, that guy right there, Brian Urlacker,
Speaker 1: Now he was a superstar, but he was the most
Speaker 1: humble superstar you've ever met. And he everybody was the
Speaker 1: same to him. So when he acted like that, when
Speaker 1: he worked hard every day, when he treated hibody respect,
Speaker 1: when he demanded out of himself, what a rookie should
Speaker 1: be doing you had you just fell in line, Like,
Speaker 1: how how could someone act like they were a superstar
Speaker 1: if Brian Rlacker wasn't acting like that in a locker room.
Speaker 1: So we we all followed that man's lead and he
Speaker 1: led us. But our locker room now we a team
Speaker 1: that that we had like fifteen to twenty leaders on
Speaker 1: that team where all these guys are leaders now like Latina,
Speaker 1: And if one guy fell out a line, he was
Speaker 1: gonna hear from like thirty different guys. It was gonna
Speaker 1: be a problem, Like that's not the way we do
Speaker 1: things around here, you know. So, uh, leadership in that
Speaker 1: locker room, especially that year was very you know, I
Speaker 1: really appreciate Brian because I was reading about how he
Speaker 1: talked about how important your offensive line was to his development.
Speaker 1: And if you guys would have went out there and
Speaker 1: pussy foot around in the in training camp when one's
Speaker 1: against ones and stuff, it would be different for him.
Speaker 1: But he got to appreciate your you guys, because you
Speaker 1: were helping him develop into the player that he ultimately became,
Speaker 1: No question about it. When you're facing that defense, how
Speaker 1: can you not get better? Right you're facing Peanut or
Speaker 1: Lacker that defensive line, Tommy Harris Tank like, you're getting better,
Speaker 1: You're getting each other better. So when we get step
Speaker 1: on the football field, like, how can you not go
Speaker 1: out there and perform at that level because you're going
Speaker 1: against the top rated defense, You're going against the best
Speaker 1: linebacker in football and doing it the right way, performing
Speaker 1: like Olden said defense or like who was saying it
Speaker 1: Olden on the offensive side. And there's guys out there
Speaker 1: doing their job each and every day, and that's what
Speaker 1: made that team special. And you talk about the way
Speaker 1: we were in the locker room, it made it fun
Speaker 1: because you go out there and everybody did the same
Speaker 1: thing every single day and go out to put the
Speaker 1: work in to go out there and be great on Sundays.
Speaker 1: One of the things you quickly learn covering sports for
Speaker 1: as long as I have and following teams, the personality
Speaker 1: that develops really in the off season, whether it's in
Speaker 1: the weight room, you hear about it or you see
Speaker 1: it yourself. Is a great team of characters. So we
Speaker 1: could talk all we want about the sixty three team
Speaker 1: we just heard with, you know, and we're gonna beet
Speaker 1: more of those guys here in the coming hours. The
Speaker 1: eighty five team. There is a team of characters too.
Speaker 1: There's a team of great personalities, the highjinks, the good times.
Speaker 1: You know, this is that's the part that really pushes
Speaker 1: a team into a different dimension. You gotta win, of course,
Speaker 1: but it is important, like welcome to jam Rock, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna stils some flipping fingers, all right, tell us
Speaker 1: about this Damian Marley classic. Internally, take this because we
Speaker 1: just talked about this like an hour ago. It was like,
Speaker 1: you know, back when we actually had two days, camp
Speaker 1: was long, so you had to get somewhere to get
Speaker 1: everybody going, and forget about how brutal it actually was
Speaker 1: to go out for the twenty fifth practice role. And
Speaker 1: like guardians said, it was hell going against this defense
Speaker 1: every day. We you know, we couldn't do much against him,
Speaker 1: that's how good they were. But so we played jam
Speaker 1: rock in the locker room and there was a lot
Speaker 1: of weird dancing that would go on a lot of
Speaker 1: locker rooms, slamming, h maybe some coffee tossing, une baskets
Speaker 1: flying all over the place. There's videos of it, and
Speaker 1: it might come out nowadays that there's on social media.
Speaker 1: It'll be very embarrassing, but it was just a way
Speaker 1: that we would just go crazy, have fun and it
Speaker 1: gets back on that field and we go get it.
Speaker 1: And Porte Medlin are equipment manager. He had to clean
Speaker 1: all this stuff up and he hated it. He would
Speaker 1: have an idea when it was gonna come and he
Speaker 1: would start cleaning up the locker room, taking out the
Speaker 1: baby powder, take up the coffee machines, you know, so
Speaker 1: we wouldn't wreck at all. But we'd always surprised them
Speaker 1: on the right day for room crash. It was beating
Speaker 1: on the locker room their head. We went on and
Speaker 1: had a great day. It's hard to like, we wish
Speaker 1: they had a video of it because it's hard to
Speaker 1: explain what we were doing. But we were basically being
Speaker 1: a bunch of ten year olds in the room going crazy,
Speaker 1: but really just trying to have fun within it again, right,
Speaker 1: because football can be a tough sport. Sometimes hitting each
Speaker 1: other can be tough. You can get tired. So just
Speaker 1: trying to inject energy into the room, I enjoy each
Speaker 1: other and go and have fun. A precursor to clubbed
Speaker 1: up right, Yeah yeah, yeah, you guys could have done it,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, we Jeremyrod first, then clubbed up. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: there you go. All right, let's enjoy the conversation about
Speaker 1: the NFC title game. Let's roll those highlights. I believe
Speaker 1: that every time you guys moved down and you're retired
Speaker 1: and we talked to Hey, what was your your most
Speaker 1: memorable moments, it's this game. Tell us why start, Rubbertum?
Speaker 1: I mean to have the opportunity as Soldier Field to
Speaker 1: go out there and play to win the NFC Championship
Speaker 1: and to go to the Super Bowl. I mean, what
Speaker 1: other feeling do you want? Um? And the way we
Speaker 1: did at that game, you know, running the football up
Speaker 1: and down that field, double team. We talked about that
Speaker 1: offensive line, We talked about that running game and defense
Speaker 1: giving us a football. When you think about that year,
Speaker 1: how special that was to get that feeling at Soldier
Speaker 1: Field in front of our fans. I mean, there's no
Speaker 1: greater moment in my career that I was able to
Speaker 1: live in that day at home, the snow started coming down.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just a special, special day. Charles. I
Speaker 1: remember it a little differently. I was so amed, so geek,
Speaker 1: my gym was pumping, and I was gassed by the
Speaker 1: second play of the game, I think I gave up
Speaker 1: like a thirty forty yard pass and I was tired,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my god, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: make it. I'm so tired. I'm so tired. And the
Speaker 1: other thing I remember is Reggie Bush waving bye bye
Speaker 1: to Lack as he was trying to run them down.
Speaker 1: Huge mistake, and I think that pissed everybody off. And
Speaker 1: then next thing I remember, the snow was falling down.
Speaker 1: I'm hugging Brian, I'm hugging everybody, missus McCaskey. Brian. You know,
Speaker 1: he's holding up the NFC championship trophy. I mean that
Speaker 1: that was That was great, and that was early in
Speaker 1: my career. It was. It was awesome. Pat Um In
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, I grew up Mary at a Georgia
Speaker 1: I became a Bears fan, and you know, that's kind
Speaker 1: of the first time I understood what the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: meant and to be able to be a Chicago Bear
Speaker 1: and know we're going to go back in that fourth
Speaker 1: quarter day and then that fourth quarter we kind of
Speaker 1: knew we were going back. You know, you still got
Speaker 1: to finish the game, but you just got to truly
Speaker 1: that's Hey, you're killing guards over here. I've never seen that. Hey,
Speaker 1: my kids are here. I don't want to seem act.
Speaker 1: You guys can't act like that at home. You've lost him.
Speaker 1: You've lost him right now? All right? That right there?
Speaker 1: Is that not a shining moment. Oh my gosh, Devin
Speaker 1: that day, tell us about it. It was for me,
Speaker 1: it was a humble experience, you know because just going
Speaker 1: into that game, you know, I kind of listened to
Speaker 1: some of the older guys and it was like, man,
Speaker 1: d has you know charit to this moment, you know,
Speaker 1: because you know, we have guys that played ten, twelve
Speaker 1: years and never experienced this moment. And for you to
Speaker 1: be here, your rookie year and to charity, you know,
Speaker 1: see everything that's going on right now, and to be
Speaker 1: able to make it to the super Bowl. And we
Speaker 1: knew when we played Seattle that if we beat them,
Speaker 1: the Saints, we knew it was gonna win that game.
Speaker 1: And that's the mentality we had going into this game
Speaker 1: that we knew once we got past Seattle, they weren't
Speaker 1: gonna stop. But we was automatic going to the super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Hold yeah, like like you know what has said, Seattle's game.
Speaker 1: I think I forget sometimes too how hard of a
Speaker 1: game that was to win. It was over time. They
Speaker 1: were beating us lay right, and the defense like holds on.
Speaker 1: It comes up with stops and Hess, you know, returning
Speaker 1: kicks and Grossman hits Rashid Davis laid in overtime on
Speaker 1: a third and ten. It was a tough game to win.
Speaker 1: And then we had Drew Brees, you know, Marquise coasting
Speaker 1: Reggie Bush to do some McAllister Sean Payton, and a
Speaker 1: lot of people didn't think, you know, we could beat them.
Speaker 1: And I remember trying to find a game of them
Speaker 1: on grass because most of their games the last part
Speaker 1: of the year were all on turf, and I watched
Speaker 1: him on grass, and I remember coming upstairs and I
Speaker 1: told my wife, I said, get ready to go to
Speaker 1: the super Bowl. They can't beat us in Soldier Field.
Speaker 1: They just can't, right, And luckily it came true. But
Speaker 1: you know, that was two thousand and six. I think
Speaker 1: it was me and Pat's ninth year already with a
Speaker 1: ninth year in the league right around there, and you know,
Speaker 1: we were a big part of Chicago, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden we're winning, and the snow starts coming down, right,
Speaker 1: and now I'm like, this is a movie, right, And
Speaker 1: then missus mccassie's holding her dad's trophy in her hands,
Speaker 1: and it was just unbelievable. It was. It was a
Speaker 1: surreal scene to be a part of at Soldier Field.
Speaker 1: I know it was the same thing that happened in
Speaker 1: the sixty three Championship Games. Snow started falling. Well, you
Speaker 1: know what it's it's it's neat for us to see
Speaker 1: because to be able to have that celebration at home,
Speaker 1: in front of a stoled out stadium and everybody staying
Speaker 1: in their seats to take part of the celebration. Because
Speaker 1: earlier in the eighties, you just went into the locker
Speaker 1: room after the Super Bowl, both teams just escort left
Speaker 1: the field and went in the locker room. There wasn't
Speaker 1: that celebrate, that lingering celebration that you could share with
Speaker 1: your teammates and share with all the people that have
Speaker 1: played an important role in you getting there, and then
Speaker 1: have him a chance to see you. And then as
Speaker 1: you saw all and wearing the hat, I mean, what
Speaker 1: better is that they'll go into the locker room with
Speaker 1: fifty year closest work at work, you know, your coharts
Speaker 1: at work, and be able to celebrate that moment. I
Speaker 1: remember being in the locker room after that game, and
Speaker 1: I was sitting with Thomas Jones, this guy, one of
Speaker 1: my favorite players on the football team, Thomas Jones a
Speaker 1: man now and we're trying to figure out, you know,
Speaker 1: how this is gonna work, and you know, who are
Speaker 1: you playing? Who's gonna be It's gonna be the Colts,
Speaker 1: And just seeing the awe on his face and how
Speaker 1: happy he was to be a part of this organization
Speaker 1: because his career was star crossed until that time, and
Speaker 1: he was like an offensive lineman to you guys. Really, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, Thomas was a huge part. A guy who
Speaker 1: doesn't people knew how good he was. I don't know
Speaker 1: what people know. How big of a part of our
Speaker 1: locker room he was, How big of a leader he
Speaker 1: was in a huddle, how he demanded he demanded professionalism
Speaker 1: from everybody, and he wanted to play hard, he wanted
Speaker 1: to win, and he always injected energy to everybody. His
Speaker 1: personality and who he was was a real big part
Speaker 1: of our team and our offense. You know, I remember
Speaker 1: telling Thomas Jones wants them. A few times. I talked
Speaker 1: him walking down the hall after one of his games.
Speaker 1: I said, you know, Walter Payton would be proud of you.
Speaker 1: And you think about his contribution of that team, his
Speaker 1: dedication to be and prepared to be able to take
Speaker 1: and deliver the abuse of the game, and it's the
Speaker 1: same thing with Walter, and I find there's a lot
Speaker 1: of incommon with those two guys. That Walter would have
Speaker 1: been proud of Thomas Jones and his efforts. Let's talk
Speaker 1: about some other guys, because again there's great names on
Speaker 1: this team. So we'll try and take him off as
Speaker 1: quickly as we can. Here, Ottawa Agilia, Uh, what about him?
Speaker 1: He's important on your defense? Sorry, sorry, Doza, No, no,
Speaker 1: I think away he was great. I wish he was serious.
Speaker 1: Saw him last night. His ability to take the double
Speaker 1: teams and he played that six and non technique Friller well.
Speaker 1: During that time, during that season, we had got him
Speaker 1: from Miami and oh five of my mistaken and he
Speaker 1: fell in love with this team. It was like he
Speaker 1: had been drafted there and he blended in with us
Speaker 1: and he was again another another character, another big kid
Speaker 1: with us and just a dominant player. Rex Grossman, you know,
Speaker 1: Rex Rex was He wanted to win so bad and
Speaker 1: he wanted to be really good, and he had a
Speaker 1: lot of guts. Man. He'd sling it like he wanted
Speaker 1: to sling it. He wanted to go to Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: He led our huddle a lot of times if you
Speaker 1: really go back and look at those playoffs, and that
Speaker 1: year he made a lot of big throws that got
Speaker 1: us into that super Bowl. And I had had a
Speaker 1: tremendous amount of respect for Rex. I thought that he
Speaker 1: had a great year from two thousand and five going
Speaker 1: all the way through two thousand and six. He was
Speaker 1: actually that year. In two thousand and six, he was
Speaker 1: the first time in my career with the Bears we
Speaker 1: had a guy start all sixteen games, and it was
Speaker 1: just good. They have the same quarterback for the whole season.
Speaker 1: Get comfortable with one guy, and he played at a
Speaker 1: pretty damn high level that year. You touched down him,
Speaker 1: but I think he was another ideal fit for the
Speaker 1: personality and we all loved him. Rube Ruben Brown. He
Speaker 1: was a special character and no doubt about that. But
Speaker 1: you know, before he got here, he hadn't gone to
Speaker 1: eight straight Pro Bowls in Buffalo. One of the greatest
Speaker 1: left guards to ever play the game. And the character side,
Speaker 1: he's just one of those guys that came to work
Speaker 1: every single day. Man, it didn't matter what Rubin did
Speaker 1: the night before. He was going to step on that
Speaker 1: football field and somebody was gonn getting double team day
Speaker 1: in and day out. And when you have leaders like that,
Speaker 1: they've been doing it for ten years, day in and
Speaker 1: day out. Man, it's hard not to sit there and
Speaker 1: sit there and on and follow that guy. But when
Speaker 1: he stepped on that football field and he started yelling,
Speaker 1: somebody's about to go down. I think the thing I
Speaker 1: remember most about Rube was we used to always break
Speaker 1: it down on Space Mountain, Space Mountain, because after you
Speaker 1: win a Super Bowl, what do you do? You go
Speaker 1: to Disneyland? Right, So week one, Game one, we're going
Speaker 1: to the ship this the year Space Mountain on three
Speaker 1: one two, three Space Mountain. Like for me, Game one,
Speaker 1: Week one, I knew we were going to the super Bowl.
Speaker 1: And that's rue. He would always say it. He would
Speaker 1: always just say it in the back of bus two.
Speaker 1: We're going to the super Bowl. We're going to the
Speaker 1: super Bowl, and the more you say it, you start
Speaker 1: believing it. And it started happening, and he was going
Speaker 1: to the ship. Yeah he was. He was a big
Speaker 1: part of it. I mean he was a He would
Speaker 1: just say it every day, We're going to the Super Bowl. Man.
Speaker 1: As we kept winning and when we were doing obviously
Speaker 1: we did. Hey, Devin, you were kind of your own
Speaker 1: leader because it's kind of unique. You're not playing with
Speaker 1: five offensive lineman, you're not playing with four dbs. And
Speaker 1: what you were able to accomplish. Who was your influence,
Speaker 1: either on the team or it could have been somebody
Speaker 1: outside the doors of the Chicago Bearers. I would say
Speaker 1: for me, like my locker was across from Oland though,
Speaker 1: and so you know me as a rookie, I just
Speaker 1: I paid attention to those guys and I was trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how do I become a pro, Like
Speaker 1: how do I fit in on the team, what's my part?
Speaker 1: What do I need to do to be on these
Speaker 1: guys level? And I would sit and I would watch
Speaker 1: the old lineman and how old was just that leader
Speaker 1: where he didn't speak a lot. It was times where
Speaker 1: they would watch, don't get mad at me, the offensive line,
Speaker 1: but they would sit there and watch oldand and see
Speaker 1: what he put on for practice, and put on exact
Speaker 1: same thing. Oland would go get spattered. They all will
Speaker 1: be right behind Old again spattered. It was just that
Speaker 1: type of leader, like where he didn't say much but
Speaker 1: his present speak for a seven. So I would I
Speaker 1: would bust my tail to try to live up to
Speaker 1: my my position that I played. I would want to
Speaker 1: make sure that when it was my time to be
Speaker 1: called that I would step up and may play. It
Speaker 1: was times where like we would win a game and
Speaker 1: you know, it would be like one or two balls,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't feel comfortably. So the next morning, like on
Speaker 1: Mondays when we had a day off, I would be
Speaker 1: out there catching for the four hundred five hundred balls
Speaker 1: and I would see Old and would come and say, Hess,
Speaker 1: what the hell are you doing out here? Like it
Speaker 1: was been time where he said that way. I'm like, man,
Speaker 1: listen you just in my mind, I just I want
Speaker 1: to be like you guys. I want to fit in well.
Speaker 1: I Tony Medlin might have told me story, did you
Speaker 1: m You know, when you're an offensive lineman, you like
Speaker 1: old gear. You like gear that's fitted to you that
Speaker 1: you put a lot of time and break in. Now
Speaker 1: I hear that you needed everything new every game? Is
Speaker 1: that true? Yeah? Most definitely. Team man can tell you
Speaker 1: that I had to have new please every game, and
Speaker 1: I had to win them on fast Friday. If they
Speaker 1: wasn't broken in, I wouldn't putting them all. So you know,
Speaker 1: I was everything was. I always felt you look good,
Speaker 1: you played good, you feel good. Everything had to fit right,
Speaker 1: you know. And that uh and that went over the Saints.
Speaker 1: Roun Turner called eight straight runs the Thomas Jones. He
Speaker 1: got uh sixty nine yards and a first touchdown of
Speaker 1: the game in a sixteen nothing lead. If that could
Speaker 1: have happened in the Super Bowl and more of a
Speaker 1: dedication to the run, I think many of us believed
Speaker 1: it could have been a different outcome. Very possibly. The
Speaker 1: running game was cooking, was it not? Is everybody leaving
Speaker 1: before we answered this question, I'll answer it. Yes, Yes,
Speaker 1: we wanted to run the ball more, but you know,
Speaker 1: uh so I was all at this, although that's only
Speaker 1: as far as I'm going with that stage. I don't
Speaker 1: want to run the ball more, that's fair. But two
Speaker 1: guys we didn't say much about yet either that had
Speaker 1: a major impact obviously Tommy Harris, Big Mike Brown, I know,
Speaker 1: I crushed him both. They couldn't play in that game.
Speaker 1: Tell us about their impact on that team, and certainly
Speaker 1: we all love both of those guys. I can't say
Speaker 1: enough about Mike b Uh. He was like that that
Speaker 1: that captain or that that second lieutenant you know Brin
Speaker 1: was you know, bron was a captain and he called
Speaker 1: the defense closed left, close left. And Mike Brown, you know,
Speaker 1: he'd being at back big time, big time and look,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, sorry, clothes right, clothes right. You know, Mike
Speaker 1: Mike Brown was that like he was that good assistant
Speaker 1: who saw everything. He knew his place, he knew his role.
Speaker 1: You know, whenever Brian would make a mistake, Mike b
Speaker 1: was always right there to correct him, you know. And
Speaker 1: Tommy Harris, I mean the way he came out, the
Speaker 1: way he hit the league. Being a three technique, he
Speaker 1: was so fast, and that Tampa two defense that we had,
Speaker 1: it's built around the three technique, and in my opinion,
Speaker 1: I think that year before Tommy was hurt, he was,
Speaker 1: if not the best three technique in the league. He
Speaker 1: was so dominant and he was fast and he could
Speaker 1: run you know, and I think it we took a
Speaker 1: big blow on defense not having two of our Pro
Speaker 1: bowlers not play in the Super Bowl, and I think
Speaker 1: I think Mike be. I don't think it's a stretch
Speaker 1: to say that if Mike b stays healthy his whole career,
Speaker 1: he's at the Hall of Fame. Severyone to putt in
Speaker 1: the jacket on with Brian Urlicker, that's how good Mike
Speaker 1: Be was. And I'll argue with anybody. I honestly feel
Speaker 1: if those two guys are healthy, Tommy Harris, like Peanut says,
Speaker 1: is the best three techniquely, I think he had nine
Speaker 1: sacks before he gets hurt in that game. I think
Speaker 1: against the Vikings, if we have those two guys, we
Speaker 1: are wearing rings today those that's how good those two
Speaker 1: guys are. And I want I wanted to pick it
Speaker 1: back a little bit off the Mike Brown and Um
Speaker 1: telling me because I my rookie, I had the chance
Speaker 1: of sparons been in the meeting room with Mike Um.
Speaker 1: I was a DV and I talked to Mike last
Speaker 1: night about this and I told him, like, the passion
Speaker 1: that you had for this game was incredible, you know,
Speaker 1: Mike Brown passion for the game, Like I believe he
Speaker 1: got hurt early in this mid season and we were
Speaker 1: in the meeting and we was joking around a little
Speaker 1: bit and he stood up and tears just went to flooring,
Speaker 1: and he went to talking about how we playing and
Speaker 1: we're not living up to our expectation. We can be
Speaker 1: so much better, and the way he is playing it
Speaker 1: and looking at his face and looking at the tears
Speaker 1: running out of her face. From that moment on, I said,
Speaker 1: this guy here loves the game football so smart that
Speaker 1: the game intelligent when it comes to football, and a
Speaker 1: great athlete. All Right, we have remember that we got
Speaker 1: questions from the fans. It can bring those guys out
Speaker 1: and before we do the sting of that loss. Does
Speaker 1: it still live with the other day, that Super Bowl loss?
Speaker 1: I still have it. That's the whole game. I've only
Speaker 1: seen my highlight of Mews stripping the ball and Devin
Speaker 1: running it back. That's about all I know about that game.
Speaker 1: I have still not watched the game to this day.
Speaker 1: I think that's what stings you the most, is like
Speaker 1: these guys deserve rings. You know that hurts that the
Speaker 1: city deserved the championship with that team. That's how good
Speaker 1: that team was. Brian Herlocker deserves a damn ring. Lovey
Speaker 1: Smith deserves a damn ring. I think that's you lose
Speaker 1: that game. And what really pisces me off is when
Speaker 1: Peter Tilman walks in the room without a ring like that.
Speaker 1: That's what bugs me because he deserves and Berto guards
Speaker 1: and deserves a ring. Ruben Brown deserves a damn ring.
Speaker 1: That's how good a football players. That's how good that
Speaker 1: team was. But h in a word, and I won't
Speaker 1: use the word before, it sucks. It really sucks not
Speaker 1: to lose that game. It stings all the time. I'll
Speaker 1: never forget holand you may have forgotten this, but I
Speaker 1: was on the team playing with you. Flying back. You
Speaker 1: came up to me. I was just out of the
Speaker 1: window and you said, don't worry, Joniac will be back.
Speaker 1: And that's it seems to be the time. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, professional sports if you don't get it, but boy,
Speaker 1: you gotta taste of it. You think you're gonna be back,
Speaker 1: and it's it's hard. You enjoy the work getting there,
Speaker 1: and then once you get there, yeah, you think that
Speaker 1: it's gonna be attainable again. But it's the most difficult
Speaker 1: league in the world to try to repeat or get
Speaker 1: back to it. And because there's so many interchangeable bodies,
Speaker 1: like you mentioned the guys that you had injured at
Speaker 1: the time, if you have those guys healthy, there is
Speaker 1: no doubt that this is Everybody up here is wearing
Speaker 1: rings from that game. And it's a sad event, but
Speaker 1: it also kind of molds your character. That's why every
Speaker 1: one of you guys are up here. You're not up
Speaker 1: here because you're losers. You're up here because you're leaders.
Speaker 1: And that's the great thing about the effects it has
Speaker 1: on you. I got a lot better for you. That
Speaker 1: was the same thing, Wall, That was the same thing
Speaker 1: that Brian said. Though. You know, as they're you know,
Speaker 1: kneeling the ball. You know we're in the hold of
Speaker 1: when Brian goes he take this thing. You know that
Speaker 1: pain that it sucks at eight, remember that because we're
Speaker 1: gonna be back. Like it was just the character the
Speaker 1: leadership of us trying. He was trying to hold us,
Speaker 1: bring us together. You know, it was just terrible. They
Speaker 1: are leaders, but more importantly there bears. They're bears, all right,
Speaker 1: Questions up this ought to be good. This sot to
Speaker 1: be good. Jog your memories quickfellas. Javier from Chicago wants
Speaker 1: to know your favorite locker room story. So step up.
Speaker 1: We got about six and a half minutes. All right,
Speaker 1: I'll just go with our We used to play dodgeball
Speaker 1: in the locker room. And it started with Brian or
Speaker 1: Locker of course, being our leader, who went to Dick
Speaker 1: Sporting Goods or whatever and brought in six to eight
Speaker 1: you know, those little rubber dodgeballs, and he lined up
Speaker 1: the launder bends across the the locker room and he said,
Speaker 1: all right, defense on this side, offense on this side.
Speaker 1: We're playing dodgeball. And this is on a Saturday. After
Speaker 1: I walk through, when you're finally putting the you know,
Speaker 1: crossing the tes dot in the eye, everybody's gotta get focused.
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, we're playing dodgeball. And we
Speaker 1: were right next to the coach's locker room and it is,
Speaker 1: like Olan said, ten year olds playing around and we're
Speaker 1: having a good time. I think we got a Jimminy
Speaker 1: Christmas out of Lovey Smith. When he came in there,
Speaker 1: it wasn't happening. So he calls us in or calls
Speaker 1: a couple of guys in and says, guys, we can't
Speaker 1: do that. You know, it's time to focus for the game.
Speaker 1: So we go out and win I think forty one
Speaker 1: or whatever game it was. But we go out and
Speaker 1: have a big win. So that next Saturday, we walk
Speaker 1: in the locker room. Everybody looks at Brian, like, what
Speaker 1: are we doing. He's like, we're playing dodgeball. So we
Speaker 1: played dodgeball in the rest of the year every Saturday.
Speaker 1: Remember the soccer game we used to play. Someone bought
Speaker 1: us soccer ball. We all thought we were soccer players, right,
Speaker 1: and somebody about the soccer ball, and we used to
Speaker 1: try to see how many kicks we could volleys or whatever.
Speaker 1: And we would count one, two, and we go in
Speaker 1: a big circle. I think we got up to like
Speaker 1: sixty or something like that, the entire locker room from
Speaker 1: one end to the other, and we got sixty and
Speaker 1: we eat once again. Little kids destroyed the locker room.
Speaker 1: I think only got mad at me because I ran
Speaker 1: up to Clyde and he had to checks and I
Speaker 1: was like, we did it. He threw the checks with
Speaker 1: flying in the air. I was like, oh, my bad,
Speaker 1: My bad. Yeah, that's a good one. Anybody else that
Speaker 1: that takes the cake? All right? Which bears? Alum? Were
Speaker 1: you looking forward to meeting this weekend? The most Jessica
Speaker 1: and Elmhurst would like to know. You guys have met
Speaker 1: a lot of these guys before. So mine was Dick Buckets.
Speaker 1: I've never met him before, and I last night, I
Speaker 1: went total fanboy, went over there and introduced myself and
Speaker 1: just wanted to shake his hand. You know, he's wearing
Speaker 1: his gold jacket and that's one of the most iconic
Speaker 1: bears and we've got a lot of them and that
Speaker 1: that's that's that's why I wouldn't get a picture with
Speaker 1: Dick Buckets. But I didn't. I was I was like,
Speaker 1: I was like, Ah, should I get a picture? Should
Speaker 1: I not get a picture? Can I get a picture?
Speaker 1: Is he gonna think it's weird? Should I be a fan?
Speaker 1: I don't, So I didn't. I got scared. Well, Tim
Speaker 1: and Tire interviewing with U with Dick Buckets. He referred
Speaker 1: to him as mister Buttkiss the entire interview. The first
Speaker 1: question I asked him was did you meet Sylvester Stallone
Speaker 1: before he made Rocky because in you look in that
Speaker 1: movie when the dog was named but kiss. I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean, what spells out great And it's better than being,
Speaker 1: you know, having a bulldog named after that movie. And
Speaker 1: he says, yeah, he ran into him and asked him
Speaker 1: where his residuals were. Well, how flattering is it when
Speaker 1: young guys come up to you? I mean, Devin, you
Speaker 1: get it all the time, Peanut Oland, I'm certain you
Speaker 1: guys do. Young guys coming up to you and admiring
Speaker 1: you your abilities and your accomplishments. Oh, it's it's an honor,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, Like you say, we at one one
Speaker 1: point of time within their shoes, you knowing to see
Speaker 1: guys you know that come up to me and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I was playing with you when you on a video
Speaker 1: game where you played for the NCAA. You know, it
Speaker 1: makes you feel old, you know. But at the same time, yeah,
Speaker 1: guess and I was a fan of yours when I
Speaker 1: was in the fifth grade and they in the NFL,
Speaker 1: and not like you're thinking about fifth day, it was
Speaker 1: in the fifth grade. So how like, you know, it
Speaker 1: makes feel old, but at the same time, it's it's
Speaker 1: a humbling spirit, you know. They have guys to look
Speaker 1: up to, you like my my guy that I wanted
Speaker 1: to look for was Jimmy Man, and I just wanted
Speaker 1: because I only seen the wild side of him, you know.
Speaker 1: So when I seen him with his wife, I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, let me see do he had that that
Speaker 1: that husband life? Because I always seen him as a
Speaker 1: party guy, you know. So when I seen him with
Speaker 1: his wife, hug and the kids, and I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: he has a sense of side of life, you know.
Speaker 1: So I mean for me, my guy with Jimmy Man,
Speaker 1: but for the kids, younger guys growing up, you know,
Speaker 1: it's an honor, you know, Devin, I remember being in
Speaker 1: the film room once and you were making a copy
Speaker 1: of your high school All Star game you played in.
Speaker 1: You've always been surrounded by greatness and All Star players
Speaker 1: and players that live up to but you've always been
Speaker 1: one of the best. And it was interesting to see
Speaker 1: some of the names that you were pointing out that
Speaker 1: had great football accomplishments. Most definitely, you know, it's um
Speaker 1: you know, growing up in Florida, it's night like Chicago.
Speaker 1: We we have football year round, so you know, you
Speaker 1: get a lot of talent in that area. You know,
Speaker 1: and guys, I played with a h in high school
Speaker 1: All Star game. You know, thirty four percent of the
Speaker 1: guys made it to the NFL, you know, so and
Speaker 1: and became great players and NFL Pro Bowlers and Super
Speaker 1: Bowlers and stuff like that. So you know, for me
Speaker 1: to grow up in that type of environment, it's just
Speaker 1: like playing for the Bearls in two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: like you had to carry your weight, you get left behind,
Speaker 1: all right, you're we got about a minute to go here.
Speaker 1: So the twenty nineteen Bears off of their playoffs season,
Speaker 1: as guys who were in summer position oh five, you
Speaker 1: got to oh six, you go to the Super Bowl?
Speaker 1: What advice do you have for the twenty nineteen Bears?
Speaker 1: And how do you feel about the direction under man Nagge?
Speaker 1: Many of you guys your analysts in the media now
Speaker 1: and you've done it. You're a part of it. Do
Speaker 1: you think we'll start with on there? They're they're on
Speaker 1: the verge right up being very very good. They're close
Speaker 1: and their defense is really really good. And I guess
Speaker 1: the only advice you'd give a team like that is
Speaker 1: pay attention to the details, because that's what wins and loses.
Speaker 1: Pay attention to the little things, pay attention to your
Speaker 1: locker room culture, make sure everybody's always moving in the
Speaker 1: right direction, and everything's always about winning and nothing else.
Speaker 1: We just want to be here, We want to win,
Speaker 1: and make sure you're doing all the little things it
Speaker 1: takes to win, because that's really what gets you to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. Roberto, I think no question. I mean
Speaker 1: when you look at what they're doing, showing up for
Speaker 1: work every single day, and Mannage is saying that culture
Speaker 1: of the right way is the only way, and I
Speaker 1: think that's what Ollen is talking about, is showing up
Speaker 1: and doing the little things, the little details. You gotta
Speaker 1: taste of it now to get them to get that
Speaker 1: big chunk. You gotta go out there and do it
Speaker 1: and pay and pay the price. Hit the reset button.
Speaker 1: Last year was last year. Don't think you're gonna go
Speaker 1: back just because what you did last year. You gotta
Speaker 1: redo that. You gotta target on your back and everyone's
Speaker 1: gonna be coming for you. You gotta remember how hard
Speaker 1: it is to win twelve games. You know, it seems
Speaker 1: like it's easy because you got some big wins in there,
Speaker 1: but remember how hard that was, and then try it
Speaker 1: out working, Devin, I would say, Man, let the leaders
Speaker 1: be leaders. You have one or two, two or three
Speaker 1: leaders on the team. Clear Mac the quarterback, continue lead
Speaker 1: the team. You know you you sold yourself how good
Speaker 1: you can be. You know. Now, let's let's put it
Speaker 1: all together. Let's come together the team, and let's work hard.
Speaker 1: Let's work even harder during the all seasons so when
Speaker 1: the season comes we can roll it in and they're fast.
Speaker 1: It's hard for teams to lose two or three games
Speaker 1: in the early season because then you get down on yourself.
Speaker 1: Start off fast, start off, start punt points on the board,
Speaker 1: start setting teams out early. And it only comes a
Speaker 1: habit later on in the season. I say, and that's
Speaker 1: my biggest goal, to let those guys know to start fast.
Speaker 1: That way, it becomes creative habit, create a good vibe
Speaker 1: in that locked room. Later on in the season. It
Speaker 1: had become second nature. Tom great advice across the board.
Speaker 1: All right, we're out of time from ntle Garza, Charles P.
Speaker 1: N Tilman, Pat Mantale, Devin Esther and Olden Crows. Thank
Speaker 1: you guys,