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Speaker 1: It's been good. The weather's you know, nice and cool.

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Speaker 1: Um know, everything's been Great's been good to see everybody's

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Speaker 1: face again. And um, it's kind of a little deja

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Speaker 1: vu moment, but getting back into it, learning what to

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Speaker 1: do again, and um, offense has changed so much, um

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Speaker 1: since I've been gone, So it really is a new experience.

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Speaker 1: Does it seem like old times? In any way? He

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Speaker 1: has been a decade, but there are all some familiar

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Speaker 1: faces that we're all old now, you know, Julian and

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Speaker 1: Slade and Gaskowski, Tom obviously, Um, you know, Mayo's back

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Speaker 1: and coaching and obviously the coaching staff has had some changes,

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Speaker 1: but a lot of guys are still here. So um,

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Speaker 1: there are some familiar faces, which makes it makes it good,

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Speaker 1: But it's also, as you mentioned, a different decade of football.

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Speaker 1: What made you decide to come back because it seemed

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Speaker 1: like you were going to retire. I was retiring. I

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Speaker 1: was done. Um, I was done for a few months

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Speaker 1: and around I would say late April, um, early may

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Speaker 1: probably started thinking about it and it made myself available.

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Speaker 1: And um, you know, they're really only about two places

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Speaker 1: that all consider playing coming back here and saying in

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Speaker 1: new Orleans was another um consideration, Um that I would

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Speaker 1: have considered. But once I made myself available, I got

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Speaker 1: a call. So I thought it'd be an interesting opportunity.

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Speaker 1: Did you ever think it might end up this way?

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Speaker 1: That I did not? I did not. You never know

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Speaker 1: in the league, I mean honestly, you never know, Um

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Speaker 1: if one practice is gonna be your last day playing football. Honestly, Um,

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Speaker 1: you know, to have played for this length of time

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Speaker 1: I considered a blessing. Um, I don't think it's me.

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Speaker 1: I think, um, you know, God just provided an opportunity

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Speaker 1: for me to keep going. But um, you never know

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Speaker 1: if you're gonna come back. But I'm glad that I am.

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Speaker 1: Why were those considering, Well, we we live in uh

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Speaker 1: in New Orleans now. I mean obviously I just played

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Speaker 1: there last year. We loved that community there, Um, kids

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Speaker 1: have a lot of friends in school, our church, you know,

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Speaker 1: just the city itself. UM. Really really loved the people there.

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Speaker 1: And then obviously here is a place where we started.

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is where our life started, my wife

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Speaker 1: and I. When we came here, I was rookie, I

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Speaker 1: wasn't married. Um. Now we have seven kids, married thirteen years. Um.

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Speaker 1: So this place is always a special to us as well.

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Speaker 1: Did grunks decision not to come back and retire at

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Speaker 1: all factor into your saying, oh, maybe there's one opportunity

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Speaker 1: year or no, Because, like I said before, I was

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Speaker 1: I was retired, like I said to myself, retired. Um,

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Speaker 1: I was processing as such, and I was moving forward

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Speaker 1: as such. Um, you know, until you know Laton late

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Speaker 1: in April, like I said before, I started thinking about it.

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Speaker 1: So no, that wasn't a factor for me. Um. And

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Speaker 1: And honestly, as we've seen before, guys feel like they

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Speaker 1: may be retired maybe and then maybe they come back.

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Speaker 1: So whatever happens, you know, with his situation, you know,

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Speaker 1: he's he's a fabulous player, a great player, I mean,

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Speaker 1: guy that I watched for a while. So his decision

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Speaker 1: didn't factor into mind. It was more of a family

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Speaker 1: decision and really more of my my wife not talking

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Speaker 1: about what that would look like for us if we

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Speaker 1: decided to do it, Um, what do we look like

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Speaker 1: for our family, and just kind of weighing the pros

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Speaker 1: and cons of trying to play again at this point

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Speaker 1: not being here though, does this give you sort of

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Speaker 1: you know, being back being for the older statesman of

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Speaker 1: that position. Do you feel like you sort of have

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Speaker 1: like a or is it too early to saale leadership roles? Now?

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Speaker 1: I think I have a leadership role period in a

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Speaker 1: locker room because I'm thirty eight years old, and so

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Speaker 1: I think that that that's just what comes when you're

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Speaker 1: an older player. Now, what happens in a locker room

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Speaker 1: HAPs on the field of two totally different things. On

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Speaker 1: the field, this is the ultimate meritocracy. And on the field,

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Speaker 1: it's about learning what to do. For me, it's about

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Speaker 1: being consistent making plays. It's about all the things that

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Speaker 1: I learned as a rookie. When you come in, it

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Speaker 1: doesn't matter what you've done somewhere else, doesn't matter what

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Speaker 1: you did last year, it doesn't matter what you've done

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Speaker 1: through your career. I'm aware you've been. It's all about

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Speaker 1: how you perform every day in practice, how you listen

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Speaker 1: to meetings and those sorts of things. So I do

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Speaker 1: consider myself to be a leader simply from a lifestandpoint

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Speaker 1: talking to younger guys. But as far as production on

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Speaker 1: the field, that's something that's earned. Considered yourself retired, what

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Speaker 1: was that thought process like and what made you want

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Speaker 1: to come down. UM. Yeah, that the well, the end

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Speaker 1: of last year. UM, you know, we played in an

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Speaker 1: NFC Championship, we lost a game short and and I

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Speaker 1: already kind of decided it was going to be a

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Speaker 1: last year for us. UM. Moved into that, started looking

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Speaker 1: at other opportunities, UM, broadcasting, player development. I mean I was,

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Speaker 1: I was actively looking for other options and had a

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Speaker 1: few options as well. UM. And then as as time passed,

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Speaker 1: you know, two months, three months, just started thinking, you know,

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Speaker 1: maybe maybe we could do it one more time, and

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Speaker 1: let's just let's just see what's out there. Let's just

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Speaker 1: see if there's an opportunity that would be uh worth

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Speaker 1: it for us, and and and if the Lord is

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Speaker 1: kind of leading us in that direction for whatever reason.

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Speaker 1: And uh and then when this opportunity again, I was,

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Speaker 1: I was really only thinking about a couple of teams, UM,

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Speaker 1: you know, a team that I played with before, uh,

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Speaker 1: namely Patriots in New England. And um and not having

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Speaker 1: to you know, uproot and go to a place that's

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Speaker 1: totally knew that would have been tough for us. So

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Speaker 1: have you talked to Tom. I've I've texted, you know,

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Speaker 1: we text every now and then sorry. We we text

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Speaker 1: every now and then, Um, every so often. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's usually congratulations you want another super Bowl something like that. Uh,

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Speaker 1: or for me it's congratulations you had another baby, you know,

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Speaker 1: something like that. Um. So we talked every now and then,

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Speaker 1: but I look forward to seeing them in a couple

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Speaker 1: of weeks. You mentioned the offense has changed a lot

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Speaker 1: of How have you changed in the last ten years?

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Speaker 1: It's both a blocker in or receiver? How are you better?

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Speaker 1: How are you? Yeah? I think, Um, you know, I've

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Speaker 1: been a part of a lot of different offenses and

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Speaker 1: so there's an adaptability there. Um. Look, I would have

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Speaker 1: loved to play at one team for my entire career,

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Speaker 1: but that wasn't my path. But with that, with moving

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Speaker 1: them place to place, you learn how to adapt. You learn, Um,

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Speaker 1: you know the importance of fundamentals, and there are things

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Speaker 1: that you take from each place, whether it be in Baltimore,

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Speaker 1: New Orleans, or when I was in Cleveland or here,

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Speaker 1: the things that you take that compile those together to

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Speaker 1: make you the player that you are. And so you know,

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Speaker 1: I would say one main thing is mentally, I would

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Speaker 1: say that you know, obviously more mature haven't been through

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Speaker 1: a lot of ups and downs, a lot of tough

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Speaker 1: times as well as times to celebrate, And I think

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Speaker 1: that that plays well for me, just just moving into

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Speaker 1: yet another situation. The offense has changed, has still changed

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Speaker 1: at all? You know? Um, I would say yes, I

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Speaker 1: would say everybody changes a little bit um as time

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Speaker 1: goes by. UM, But the things that that make him

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Speaker 1: a great coach um haven't changed. Uh. You know. And

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Speaker 1: again I've only been in one or two team meetings

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Speaker 1: with him right now. I haven't been in a lot

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Speaker 1: of them. But you know, I've kept in contact with

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Speaker 1: a lot of guys who've been here over the course

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Speaker 1: of the last ten years. And he still has a

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Speaker 1: very high, very high expectations. He still um demands excellence,

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Speaker 1: he still puts in the work. UM, he's always, you know,

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Speaker 1: trying to define a way to make guys better, trying

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Speaker 1: to provide whatever we need to be the best players

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Speaker 1: and people that we can be. So there are some

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Speaker 1: things that hasn't changed with him. But but there are

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Speaker 1: all sort of some things I think that have