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Speaker 1: All right. Very happy to be joined here on the

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Speaker 1: Colts Official Podcast by Laura Rutledge. You know her as

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Speaker 1: the host of NFL Live on ESPN. You can follow

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Speaker 1: her on Twitter at Laura Rutledge. Thankfully, the bench press

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Speaker 1: has stopped as we were recording this here at the

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Speaker 1: NFL Combine. That's because Laura just did her twenty seven

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Speaker 1: reps and then came over here to sit down. Wow,

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Speaker 1: you know twenty seven. I don't know that I've done

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Speaker 1: twenty seven reps of anything, to be totally honest, it's

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Speaker 1: that is a whole scene over there. I didn't know

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Speaker 1: that was going on until I came over here, and

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Speaker 1: I'd like to thank you guys for letting me witness

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Speaker 1: it because it's wild and crazy. The best has been

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Speaker 1: the people who've dropped out, you know, like I've been

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Speaker 1: advised to not do this. The best was yesterday a

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Speaker 1: guy dropped out because he said he had an ankle injury.

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Speaker 1: It's like me. That's like me dropping out of running

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Speaker 1: because I like stubbed my pinkie. I'm laying down doing

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Speaker 1: a bench press, but I've hurt my ankles, so I'm

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Speaker 1: not gonna be able to do it. Yeah. I like

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Speaker 1: that reasoning. I'd be like, you know what, I'm going

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Speaker 1: to drop out because I ate a really large lunch

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Speaker 1: and I don't think this is really good. J me

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Speaker 1: to be just once. I want someone to be honest

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Speaker 1: and be like, look, I'm not going to do the

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Speaker 1: bench press because guys, I was at high velocity until

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Speaker 1: like two o'clock flash, but come on, don't ask me

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Speaker 1: to do this. I can't. Well, it is International Women's

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Speaker 1: Day and Laura is our featured guest in celebration of that.

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Speaker 1: In your journey to host of NFL Live, you started

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Speaker 1: in college football, graduated from University of Florida. That's where

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Speaker 1: you cut your teething covering the Gators, working on radio,

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Speaker 1: and then through SEC network working on the sidelines in

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Speaker 1: college football. When the opportunity arose to transition from college

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Speaker 1: football to the NFL, which is a natural path because

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Speaker 1: you did so much of the SEC already, so a

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Speaker 1: lot of those a lot of those guys carry over

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Speaker 1: into the NFL. What was it about the NFL those

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Speaker 1: nuances of the NFL where you felt like, Okay, the

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Speaker 1: game is the same, it's all football. But if I'm

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Speaker 1: going to host this show, in order to prepare myself

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Speaker 1: to be at this table with these very strong personalities.

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Speaker 1: This is what I need to develop, and this is

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Speaker 1: how I need to grow and those things that I

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Speaker 1: needed to learn and transition into. Yeah, you know, you

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Speaker 1: bring up a lot of greed points about some of

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Speaker 1: the similarity and some of the natural transition steps that

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Speaker 1: you would take from going from the college game to

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Speaker 1: the NFL game. And even so, I walked into hosting

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Speaker 1: NFL Live, and of course it was in the middle

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Speaker 1: of a pandemic. We're trying to revamp the show, and

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Speaker 1: all of a sudden we find out, well, you're not

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Speaker 1: going to be together. Everyone's going to be remote. Of course,

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Speaker 1: we've been very thankful this past season to be together

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Speaker 1: again and really get the thing rolling. But at that point,

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Speaker 1: I thought, wow, you know, just felt like one thing

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Speaker 1: after another was almost stacked against what we were trying

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Speaker 1: to do, and yet the opportunity was incredible, and I

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Speaker 1: think I think what ended up working out the best

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Speaker 1: for me is something that I've always sort of struggled

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Speaker 1: with at times is trusting myself and saying, wow, you know,

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Speaker 1: just rely on your skill set, rely on your knowledge,

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Speaker 1: rely on what's got you to this point instead of

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Speaker 1: the self doubt that creeps in where you say, maybe

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Speaker 1: I don't know enough for maybe I don't belong in

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Speaker 1: this space, and it we're also guilty of that no

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Speaker 1: matter what the role is, no matter where we are

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Speaker 1: in this business. And so I think for me that's

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Speaker 1: that's been something that's allowed for a lot of success

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Speaker 1: and just being really thankful for the people around me

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Speaker 1: because they are incredible and I would be nothing without them.

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Speaker 1: A number of those people around you. You have people

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Speaker 1: like Mina Kimes and Dan Orlovsky and Ryan Clark, and

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Speaker 1: as analysts, we know a lot of their preparation for

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Speaker 1: a show comes from watching film and those different things.

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Speaker 1: And you are one of the hardest working people period

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Speaker 1: at the network because you're still doing college football coverage.

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Speaker 1: You were doing SEC Nation, I think you were doing

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Speaker 1: the National Championship game. Yea here in addition to hosting.

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Speaker 1: I feel like I was just here. Yeah. Absolutely. What

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Speaker 1: is the preparation like for you behind the scenes, Because

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Speaker 1: all anyone sees is that time that you're on television,

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Speaker 1: They do not know all of the work that goes

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Speaker 1: in to preparing for each and every show and doing

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Speaker 1: multiple different jobs that you might be juggling simultaneously. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think for me, I've had to figure out how

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Speaker 1: to compartmentalize a little bit. And during the college football season,

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Speaker 1: you know, I hosted SEC Nations, so on Friday's host

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Speaker 1: NFL Live on the road and then transition to SEC

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Speaker 1: Nation on Saturdays, and that was probably the most abrupt

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Speaker 1: turnaround that I had. But really, what I would do

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Speaker 1: is say, all right, so on Saturday, I'm fully invested

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Speaker 1: in college football. On Friday, it's a little bit of

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Speaker 1: a half and half because I'm still hosting NFL Live

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Speaker 1: but preparing for SEC Nation, and then throughout the week

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Speaker 1: it's a working knowledge of both sports and of both leagues,

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Speaker 1: for lack of a better way to put it. And

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Speaker 1: I think for me, I my level of prior to

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Speaker 1: this season and even the season before was so intense,

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Speaker 1: and it was always constant research and constant I need

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Speaker 1: to read this article, and I need to call this person,

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Speaker 1: and I need to watch this and I need to

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Speaker 1: find this out and need to I mean, I watch

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Speaker 1: a lot of film too, just I watched in a

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Speaker 1: different way than obviously our analysts do, but just to

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Speaker 1: familiarize myself with things that they're talking about and make

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Speaker 1: it make sense for me. And so I felt like

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Speaker 1: I had to dial back on some of that and

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Speaker 1: that made me very uncomfortable. But what I think you

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Speaker 1: find is that a working knowledge allows you to go

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Speaker 1: out there and be prepared, and then in other times

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Speaker 1: you remember that this is an entertainment business and at

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Speaker 1: the end of the day, like taking myself too seriously

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Speaker 1: is the worst thing I could possibly do, and so,

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Speaker 1: you know, really leaning on the people around me I

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Speaker 1: think helps a lot and all of that, and and

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Speaker 1: if I'm being totally honest, not a lot of sleep

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Speaker 1: and a lot of coffee, so that helps. But um,

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Speaker 1: you know I I another thing too, I think is

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Speaker 1: important is just trying to always live in a space

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Speaker 1: of gratitude. And I'm not sitting here saying that there

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Speaker 1: aren't days where I'm like WHOA, yeah, girl is tired

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Speaker 1: and what am I doing? You know, But but I

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Speaker 1: think at the end of the day, I always remember

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Speaker 1: I wanted to be the radio sideline reporter at Florida

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Speaker 1: that that was my dream job in when I was

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Speaker 1: in college, and I couldn't believe I'd even have a

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Speaker 1: chance to do that, so I'm always like, Wow, Remember,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you couldn't even dreamt these jobs in this career.

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Speaker 1: And at some point I'm to be over and at

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Speaker 1: that point I can get plenty of rest, right, and

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Speaker 1: I'll look back and say, wow, you know that that

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Speaker 1: was something that I could have never imagined. How does

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Speaker 1: your you know, you mentioned juggling NFL Live a sec

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Speaker 1: nation and kind of dipping your toe back in college

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Speaker 1: for that. How does now that we're here at the

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Speaker 1: NFL Combine and you're seeing some of these players who

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Speaker 1: you've researched and talked about on that show now coming

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Speaker 1: here being evaluated by NFL teams that you will eventually

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Speaker 1: be talking about on NFL Live. How does that kind

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Speaker 1: of help you out in your coverage here? This is

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Speaker 1: my favorite part of the year because it is it's

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Speaker 1: like my two worlds converge, and if anything, I'm almost

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Speaker 1: excited for the world to learn about these guys because

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Speaker 1: I feel like in our college football world, it's certainly

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Speaker 1: national coverage. And you think about the Georgias and the

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Speaker 1: Alabamas of the world, the Florida's, the Ohio States, I mean,

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Speaker 1: USC those are the brand names that you hear about

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Speaker 1: a lot, but there are so many of these players

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Speaker 1: that are yet to be discovered in a lot of

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Speaker 1: ways that I've seen their stories where I've watched them grow,

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Speaker 1: I've watched them struggle at times. I mean, you think

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Speaker 1: about the story of Matt Corrall this year and one

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Speaker 1: of my favorite players that I've ever covered, the old

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Speaker 1: miss quarterback, and to see him, without a doubt play

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Speaker 1: in that Sugar Bowl and then the sickening moment of

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Speaker 1: getting injured in the game, and yet he still has

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Speaker 1: no regrets. I mean, that's who that guy is. And

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Speaker 1: and watching him get paired up with Lane Kiffin and

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Speaker 1: see his growth and the way that he's um, you know,

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Speaker 1: just become a great quarterback that I think has a

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Speaker 1: good chance to be a great guy at the next level.

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Speaker 1: It is really cool. So I love it. Um it

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Speaker 1: becomes a lot easier for me. I don't have to

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Speaker 1: do as much of the sort of familiarizing myself with

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Speaker 1: these names, and it becomes more about how can I

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Speaker 1: tell people something that they don't know about these these prospects.

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Speaker 1: And I think the personal side of the draft and

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Speaker 1: the combine is really important because if you're a fan

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Speaker 1: of whatever team you want to know, who are these guys?

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Speaker 1: Who am I getting? Who's who's gonna be a jersey

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Speaker 1: that I'm gonna want to buy or that I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: want to tell my kids about? And I'm alive is

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Speaker 1: year round at this point. This is not something that

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Speaker 1: is just over the course of this season, covering the postseason.

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Speaker 1: What will your role be leading up to the NFL

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Speaker 1: Draft coverage? And then also how indicative is it of

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Speaker 1: the monster that the NFL is When you can command

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Speaker 1: three sixty five type of conversations for this sport, It's

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Speaker 1: a good thing for job security for us. Right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it never ends, right, I Mean, this NFL news cycle

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Speaker 1: just goes on and on and on, and it's so funny.

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Speaker 1: Like after the regular season, after the Super Bowl, we

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Speaker 1: were getting a lot of tweets saying, Oh, we're gonna

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Speaker 1: miss you guys until next season. We're like, hey, we're

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Speaker 1: still here, like we're not going anywhere. So yeah, that

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Speaker 1: you know, the role continues to be every day, five

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Speaker 1: days a week, four pm, NFL Live, and we'll do

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Speaker 1: a lot of coverage that's more draft specific obviously leading

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Speaker 1: up to the draft. Will be at the Draft and

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Speaker 1: then you know, even following the draft, obviously we continue

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Speaker 1: on and by that point, you know, you sort of

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Speaker 1: make the transition. We end up in July and you're

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Speaker 1: talking about training camps and everybody getting back out there.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's just it is. The NFL is so

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Speaker 1: smart in this way. They are never out of the

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Speaker 1: news cycle, and I'm just honored to be able to

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Speaker 1: be a very small part of that. You mentioned sitting

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Speaker 1: at the table with the group of analysts that you do,

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Speaker 1: and even before you were sitting at the table when

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Speaker 1: everyone was virtual, you're all trying to come together and

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Speaker 1: do a show. One of the silver linings I found

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Speaker 1: of the pandemic was when we were doing a lot

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Speaker 1: of the road games. I wasn't down on the sideline

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Speaker 1: because we had to call the games remotely for some

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Speaker 1: of these. So I'm sitting next to our color analyst,

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Speaker 1: our color commentator, Rick Ventury, longtime coach in the NFL,

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Speaker 1: and I would just absorb by osmosis so much by

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Speaker 1: being next to him or having conversations in commercial breaks.

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Speaker 1: You have brilliant analysts around you, You're incredibly talented in

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Speaker 1: hosting everything. How much have you grown and learned by

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Speaker 1: being surrounded by the group that you have. What are

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Speaker 1: the different intricacies that the people who work on that

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Speaker 1: show have contributed to your career. I've learned so much.

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Speaker 1: They constantly amazed me. I mean, Dan Rolovsky is the

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Speaker 1: absolute best when it comes to the tape breakdowns on camera.

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Speaker 1: What you guys see is not rehearsed. It's that is

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Speaker 1: his natural talent, his natural ability. And this guy is

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Speaker 1: literally sending us these hate breakdowns on his phone at

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Speaker 1: five am every morning throughout the season, and I love it.

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Speaker 1: I'm like sitting in bed, like watching, and I'll get

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Speaker 1: our two year old out of her bed and bring

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Speaker 1: her into the bed, and you know, we're watching and

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Speaker 1: she's like, oh, it's football, and I'm like, yes, one

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Speaker 1: after the other, you know. But but I mean so

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Speaker 1: fascinating the things that he notices about the game that's

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Speaker 1: made me watch the game different. Mina Kimes, who has

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Speaker 1: such a unique perspective on football and is one of

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Speaker 1: the most talented and knowledgeable football analysts that I've ever

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Speaker 1: come in contact with the way that she sees things

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Speaker 1: and her overall perspective over the way that you know,

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Speaker 1: offenses in defenses, in general have changed and different trends

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Speaker 1: that we see. And you know, even just watching how

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Speaker 1: she processes things explaining real time, hey, this is why

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Speaker 1: you would go for two here, all of those things

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Speaker 1: that now I feel that I'm a smarter football fan

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Speaker 1: who's been a fan all my life, but you know,

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Speaker 1: have grown a lot. Marcus Spears, who is like my brother.

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Speaker 1: We've been family forever because we started at the SEC

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Speaker 1: Network together back in twenty fourteen. His joy for the

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Speaker 1: game is so contagious. Ryan Clark, who I've never seen

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Speaker 1: someone explain defensive schemes better. And it was funny because

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Speaker 1: even last night he was visiting with Lou and Rumo

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Speaker 1: at the Bengals defensive coordinator and you know, just nerding

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Speaker 1: out on nitty gritty scheme and talking about that, that

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Speaker 1: Bengals defense. And it's just so fun to be a

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Speaker 1: fly on the wall and in all of that. And

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Speaker 1: I really do feel like I've had the luxury of

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Speaker 1: growing leaps and bounds and in my football fandom and knowledge.

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Speaker 1: So NFL free agency is coming up in a couple

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Speaker 1: of weeks. What is it like hosting a live show

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Speaker 1: when there is just constantly breaking news, breaking news, breaking news,

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Speaker 1: and it's to me that seems like an incredibly fun challenge,

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Speaker 1: but definitely a challenge. What is that like? So it's

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Speaker 1: funny because I think, um, you and you guys know this.

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Speaker 1: You're very unscripted on your coverage. I think there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of hosts that would say, and I totally

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Speaker 1: respect this, it would say, wow, those shows kind of

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Speaker 1: make me uncomfortable. That type of show is my wheelhouse.

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Speaker 1: I love it to go in and say, all right,

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Speaker 1: so we think this is going to happen. We think

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Speaker 1: that's going to happen. We have a loose plan. We

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Speaker 1: know we're gonna be popping up Adam schefter tweets throughout

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Speaker 1: the show. We're going to be popping him on to

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Speaker 1: tell us what's happening. But really we have no idea.

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Speaker 1: And you know, my career really started in live event coverage,

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Speaker 1: and so there is nothing less scripted than a game

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Speaker 1: because you don't know what's going to happen and being

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Speaker 1: prepared but yet throwing out all of your notes because

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Speaker 1: something changes and you've got to roll with the punches.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it is very similar to that in a way.

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Speaker 1: But I think for me, you know, almost learning to

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Speaker 1: break down some of the barriers. We call it the

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Speaker 1: fourth wall sometimes right and being real about it. You know, hey,

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Speaker 1: I'm getting in my ear right now information the urgency

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Speaker 1: there of driving that to the fans at home, and

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Speaker 1: you know, calling their attention to things, almost noticing that

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Speaker 1: they should care about them, or that hey, we're going

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Speaker 1: to be doing this in this selling things as we

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Speaker 1: go along. I mean that those are the moments that

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Speaker 1: I really treasure and those have always been my favorite shows.

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Speaker 1: You mentioned your two year old, and she's prominently featured

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Speaker 1: those who follow you and hundreds of thousands or millions

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Speaker 1: follow you across your platforms, and she is like a savant.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if she's signed a deal with like

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Speaker 1: bet MGM or something. Should ye what was her record

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Speaker 1: in college football? Champion was fourteen and three And like

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Speaker 1: I people are always like, oh, well, you must be

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Speaker 1: telling her what to do. I'm like, if I told

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Speaker 1: her what to do, her record to be worse. You know,

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Speaker 1: there were so many times, I mean, we really two

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Speaker 1: year old, that definitely, Trea, And like, right, I'm like,

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Speaker 1: if you're telling me that I'm telling her what to do,

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Speaker 1: you don't have a two year old and we have

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Speaker 1: never had one because they do what they want. But um,

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Speaker 1: you know, it's it's so funny because it's been really

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Speaker 1: special for us. I mean, it was just a random

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Speaker 1: idea that we thought up in the pandemic when she

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Speaker 1: she couldn't even walk at that point, she was still

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Speaker 1: like eight months old, and she would crawl to the helmets,

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Speaker 1: you know, and somehow she's always known what to do.

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Speaker 1: We've never even really said anything but just put her

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Speaker 1: in a hallway or now we've gone outside and put

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Speaker 1: her outside. But yeah, So one of the weirdest ones

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Speaker 1: was my husband went to Alabama. So she picked Alabama

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Speaker 1: to win the SEC Championship games. She picked an upset there,

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Speaker 1: and of course he's like, I don't even care if

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Speaker 1: they lose, you know, this is great Reese, good job,

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Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. Then we get to the National

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Speaker 1: Championship and she picks Georgia and he said, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: we got to do it again. And I said, okay, well,

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Speaker 1: you know fine, I'll give you a mulligan here because

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Speaker 1: it's very important to you. But I feel like, to

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Speaker 1: the sanctity of her picks, it's not quite right. But

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Speaker 1: we'll do it anyway. She proceeds to pick Georgia three

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Speaker 1: straight times. He then locks himself in our living room,

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Speaker 1: has like a closed off door and we'll not talk

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Speaker 1: to her for an hour. And I finally went in

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Speaker 1: there and I said, do you realize that this is

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Speaker 1: a two year old and this is your child? And

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Speaker 1: he's like, I know, but now we're gonna lose. Sure enough,

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Speaker 1: she's right. Georgia wins the National Championship. So that's when

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Speaker 1: she really started to freak me out. She picked the

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Speaker 1: Super Bowl correctly, so so if you you know, add

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Speaker 1: that in, there's another correct pick. That was her only

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Speaker 1: NFL pick of the season. But she picked the Rams,

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Speaker 1: so fifteen and three, then maybe we should let her

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Speaker 1: in the draft room and absolutely, yeah, here's your three

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Speaker 1: three draft cards. Which one are you going to pick? Yeah? Absolutely?

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Speaker 1: All right, Well, Laura Rutledge, thank you so much for

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Speaker 1: joining us. Member. You can watch her on NFL Live

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Speaker 1: on ESPN every day. Because the NFL sleason season does

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Speaker 1: not sleep, There is no such things. Right, Hopefully, hopefully

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Speaker 1: you get some sleep, although the two year old. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I'm like, hey, four hours here and there, I'll

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Speaker 1: take it. I appreciate you guys, Thank you so much.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.