Speaker 1: Are we starting yet.
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Oh, I'm sorry, my bat, but we got a
Speaker 3: bunch of young guys that are fired up running around
Speaker 3: you know. Today obviously had to get modified a little
Speaker 3: bit going indoors.
Speaker 1: But I am excited. I'm really excited. Man.
Speaker 3: A young team, a young, fun team, young coaches, a
Speaker 3: bunch of guys.
Speaker 4: Just you gotta get that staff. Oh.
Speaker 3: You know, putting that staff together was a lot of fun,
Speaker 3: you know. I we delayed the press conference a little
Speaker 3: bit and I was out in LA and I was
Speaker 3: able to do that and get that done before my
Speaker 3: opening press conference. But that was really beneficial for all
Speaker 3: of us, getting the time together working with Terry. So
Speaker 3: by the time I talked to the masses coming back
Speaker 3: here in Atlanta, I had already established this really cool
Speaker 3: relationship with Terry.
Speaker 1: I had already established who was going to.
Speaker 3: Be coaching where, who's gonna be doing what, Getting back
Speaker 3: Jimmy Lake, having a chance to get Zach with Zack
Speaker 3: Robinson and get that secured, and do some interviews with
Speaker 3: some guys on Zoom, some of the guys that would
Speaker 3: hear some of the guys I was able to keep,
Speaker 3: you know, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a good. It was helping you to keep.
Speaker 4: These guys like in like in your phone or something
Speaker 4: on a staff you want to.
Speaker 2: Hire rolodex when you kind of just hold that you
Speaker 2: got business cards of theirs.
Speaker 1: So you never you never like keep them as just
Speaker 1: like rollerdecks, you know.
Speaker 3: Like what happens is when you get the opportunities to
Speaker 3: interview for some of these jobs, you keep that list,
Speaker 3: and as you work with people over the years, you
Speaker 3: start to add people to that list and also take
Speaker 3: people off, you know, like and most of the time
Speaker 3: you add those guys, it's this this great wishless and
Speaker 3: the opportunity to get them, and then you got to
Speaker 3: try to fit those guys into the best scenario where
Speaker 3: you're going or wherever you're going, you know, like and
Speaker 3: I was lucky enough to be able to bring a
Speaker 3: few people from LA being able to communicate that with
Speaker 3: Lesson Sean, I thought was great. Being able to communicate
Speaker 3: that with all the guys Steve and you met my
Speaker 3: chief of staff today, Steve Scarneki, and me to communicate
Speaker 3: that with him, put those lists, give off with my agent,
Speaker 3: Brian Levy, and really coming back here talking to all
Speaker 3: my Atlanta people and it was fun to bring people back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, your back.
Speaker 2: When you when you get the call and you're going
Speaker 2: to be the head coach of the Atlanta Falcons. Who
Speaker 2: was your first call to assemble this coaching staff of yours?
Speaker 2: Like most excited to call, Like, oh, I gotta like hey,
Speaker 2: we're going yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you give.
Speaker 1: Them, you give them.
Speaker 2: Hey, remember that thing we talked about that bar, that
Speaker 2: time when we were hammered, So now now is the time.
Speaker 1: You know. You know what's funny is.
Speaker 3: It probably was Zach Robinson because they were all out
Speaker 3: playing golf, I believe, and he was so sought after,
Speaker 3: like people were all calling him and he had a
Speaker 3: couple of coordinator interviews and I'm like, bro, hold on,
Speaker 3: you know, I think this is gonna happen. And once
Speaker 3: I got the job, I kind of called him to
Speaker 3: let him know his wife was pregnant and I wanted
Speaker 3: to catch him before anything happened.
Speaker 1: He gonna have a baby and me has a baby,
Speaker 1: And I'm.
Speaker 3: Like, so I probably called him first, and I don't
Speaker 3: know if it was more of excitement or to put
Speaker 3: some ease in his mind. And then I was able
Speaker 3: to call a few other people and let them know.
Speaker 3: You know, Jimmy Lake was one of those people. And
Speaker 3: to get those guys ready to go so like that
Speaker 3: was that was a great time.
Speaker 4: You know, who's someone that might have felt surprised or
Speaker 4: most excited thinking like, okay, they might be they might
Speaker 4: be in the wing waiting.
Speaker 1: Uh, probably Lance Shelters, Probably Barrett Rude. Yeah, Barrett was in,
Speaker 1: Barrett was out.
Speaker 3: I didn't know what I was going to be at a
Speaker 3: high Barrett ass right, because they had some really good
Speaker 3: coaches here and I had put some thoughts in it
Speaker 3: about potentially being able to keep a guy like Frank Bush.
Speaker 3: And you got to know how great Frank Bush is.
Speaker 3: He got a chance to go to Tennessee be one
Speaker 3: of his better friends. But and then I was able
Speaker 3: to make Barret Ruth the linebacker coach. So being able
Speaker 3: to get him to come in was another call that
Speaker 3: was outstanding. And to be able to let him know, Hey,
Speaker 3: I want an interview to be my linebacker coach, and
Speaker 3: then a coach a coach, I said, And then he interviewed.
Speaker 3: And when Frank got the job or took the job,
Speaker 3: because I was waiting for him a couple of days,
Speaker 3: the excitement of calling Barret Rude was outstanding?
Speaker 1: The best man?
Speaker 2: Is he?
Speaker 1: Here?
Speaker 4: Is your favorite white linebacker you've ever coached?
Speaker 1: It's hard to say, Man, I've got a plethorugh of him. Now.
Speaker 1: I got four guys here right now, or maybe three.
Speaker 4: And a half. I don't know.
Speaker 1: You know, but uh, coaching.
Speaker 4: Year and a half when you said half would the
Speaker 4: half be on the all white team or the all
Speaker 4: black kid, you.
Speaker 1: Know we're going to going ls. They'll let him make
Speaker 1: that decision.
Speaker 2: The freedom of choose, freedom shoose. When so you're making
Speaker 2: all these exciting phone calls, you obviously make so many
Speaker 2: relationships as you're like coming up the ranks.
Speaker 3: Hey, total on, I want to discredit Troy Reader. Man,
Speaker 3: I don't want to miss all my my white line.
Speaker 3: There'll be a bunch of people calling me after this.
Speaker 3: Be a little upset. I don't say that's sorry with your.
Speaker 2: Question, No, no worries. I'm glad we got that out of
Speaker 2: the way. We just dodged a huge bullet. Yeah, if
Speaker 2: you're like making all these phone calls, you're excited about
Speaker 2: these phone calls, it's a huge opportunity. What about when
Speaker 2: those phone calls come in that you know, like hey man, this,
Speaker 2: hey brother, hey, are you gonna let me get a job?
Speaker 2: I'm I gonna be able to do this or that.
Speaker 2: Don't kind of have to navigate those situations.
Speaker 3: So those are always tough, But I think you just
Speaker 3: kind of attack it with brutal honesty when you can,
Speaker 3: because you don't always know right away if you can
Speaker 3: make it work. And a lot of the people that
Speaker 3: you hope you can give jobs, so you can't always
Speaker 3: give it to them at those times. So like those
Speaker 3: are always tough, you just how to navigate it with
Speaker 3: brutal honesty. And it's never gonna go the right way.
Speaker 3: It's never gonna be a good time to tell somebody
Speaker 3: you can't have them on your staff right now. But
Speaker 3: you know, I've been doing this long enough where it
Speaker 3: comes full circle and some of the people that you
Speaker 3: weren't able to hire right now you better get at
Speaker 3: another time or there'll be another placement or another situation
Speaker 3: for you to get them, because ultimately they fit your ethos.
Speaker 3: And all those guys that will call you with enough
Speaker 3: moxie to say that no, they fit your ethos and
Speaker 3: you have a chance to work with some of those guys.
Speaker 3: There is a bunch of good coaches that I could
Speaker 3: have brought in, or if I had the opportunity of
Speaker 3: more people or more spots and things of that nature,
Speaker 3: or it was a better fit at that perfect world
Speaker 3: you can bring in. But those are always hard ones
Speaker 3: as well, because there's always a million people that you
Speaker 3: want to get the coach with you. I tried to
Speaker 3: get this guy to coach before he came to the Superstar.
Speaker 3: But now he's a big tam you want him to coach.
Speaker 3: I wanted him to, you know when when he was
Speaker 3: when he was playing man, I looked at him. You
Speaker 3: always look at those guys on their plane and say,
Speaker 3: that guy's going to be a coach one day.
Speaker 1: You know who knew he's gonna be the Superstar.
Speaker 4: I still because he never know. I still talk about it.
Speaker 4: I'm like, you never know what. I just want to
Speaker 4: get the old itch. But everybody who does coach, you're like, hey, Colm,
Speaker 4: don't fucking do it. Keep your keep the gig you
Speaker 4: got going on.
Speaker 3: You got a great gig you do and you got
Speaker 3: you got you gotta you gotta face. Now you're beautiful,
Speaker 3: brand new chicklets.
Speaker 1: I mean you look good man. I'm proud of you.
Speaker 4: I appreciate that you were mentioning ethos. What is yours
Speaker 4: or what do you look for.
Speaker 3: When you know I eat those man, It's really about
Speaker 3: our falcon fit, our culture, and when we get those guys,
Speaker 3: the characterations of the guys that being teachers, being confidence.
Speaker 3: We talk about bringing those people into our building. That's
Speaker 3: the kind of coaches I want to have. I want
Speaker 3: guys that that are there for the total experience. You know,
Speaker 3: we buy good coaches, We've had bad coaches.
Speaker 1: Don't say any names.
Speaker 3: I don't want to hear your opinions, but I do
Speaker 3: think like it is a part of having re establishing
Speaker 3: relationship with you guys in order to get those guys
Speaker 3: give you max effort, Like you played harder for me
Speaker 3: because of our relationship on and off the fields, in
Speaker 3: the lunch room, walking through, the vibe, the energy, all
Speaker 3: the things that we created. I think was really specially
Speaker 3: when we spent our time at Washington. You know, commanders
Speaker 3: and we were not commanders, but it was definitely in
Speaker 3: Washington we had a we had a good experience, a
Speaker 3: great experience in DC.
Speaker 4: You come from a I mean that staff we were
Speaker 4: kind of Yeah, it feels like it's you know, you
Speaker 4: talk about like the Kiff fans, the you know, John
Speaker 4: Grude and the guys before your wave, and I do
Speaker 4: feel like Washington in those couple of years where you know,
Speaker 4: when Shannan was the head coach and there were the
Speaker 4: younger coaches and then even coach Jay grew when he
Speaker 4: came in and had the younger coaches. Still like, it
Speaker 4: feels like those are that's been the foundation of all
Speaker 4: the branching out with all the new head coaches and everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it really hasn't.
Speaker 3: And John Gruden doesn't get enough credit for some stuff
Speaker 3: they were ready to do, Like him and Mike Shanahan
Speaker 3: had the systems you know, well I shouldn't say started it,
Speaker 3: but John Grumen was running the West Coast offtin and
Speaker 3: having a lot of success, and he was in Oakland,
Speaker 3: and he had Mike Shanahan running his own scheme West
Speaker 3: Coast offense type of stuff, and everybody we were we
Speaker 3: were intertwined in this whole world of trying to learn
Speaker 3: everybody's stuff. And I remember Kyle Shanahan it came to
Speaker 3: Tampa and when he got there as a young quality
Speaker 3: ConTroll coach coming from UCLA, I think at the time,
Speaker 3: and he taught us the Denver system, the zone scheme.
Speaker 3: He taught us to keep her game, and he taught
Speaker 3: us I was things we taught him Tampa too, and
Speaker 3: he learned that from us and Mike Tomlin and myself
Speaker 3: sitting down in meeting rooms talking about it, and we
Speaker 3: would sit with legendary coaches like Richard Mayn and we
Speaker 3: would go into room and listened to him, coach Keishawn
Speaker 3: Johnson and some of those guys in the back of room,
Speaker 3: Keeny McCargo. We're able to sit in the back and
Speaker 3: listen to those type of things with those people, and
Speaker 3: being around that type of coaching family and tree and
Speaker 3: the comfort of sharing information was different. And it went
Speaker 3: from Tampa to d C with the same type of
Speaker 3: same type of role, same type of thing.
Speaker 1: And then he picked up Sean McVay, and he picked up.
Speaker 3: The energy of Mike McDaniel's and the energy of all
Speaker 3: those guys, Chris Forster, and there were so many people
Speaker 3: willing to share, and there were so many people willing
Speaker 3: to steal it, you know, both offense and defense. Because
Speaker 3: I learned the Pittsburgh scheme from Jim Haslett. You know,
Speaker 3: let's not kid ourselves and going there and learn that
Speaker 3: system and being to put my spin on the back
Speaker 3: end and try to make us the best version of ourself.
Speaker 3: I thought was awesome and I thought it gave us
Speaker 3: a routine and the rhythm. I bought that discipline of
Speaker 3: the Tampa two system to the Pittsburgh system with Jim
Speaker 3: Haslet had installed and been a part of along with Slowick. Right,
Speaker 3: we were with Slow It's daddy. Everybody knows the sun
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 4: He was the I'll tell the boys all the time
Speaker 4: like he was the assistant linebacker coach at all Room.
Speaker 4: That was my rookie year when his dad was our
Speaker 4: position exactly our position coach. And he's coaching Kerrigan and
Speaker 4: a rack po on setting the edge two yards deep.
Speaker 4: And you know, it's not like a disrespect thing to him,
Speaker 4: but it wasn't like he's seen the way he is now.
Speaker 3: Don't think we all look at this disrespect. I think
Speaker 3: everybody know the younger coaches, No, nobody wants to be
Speaker 3: called the quality control coach.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 3: I was a proud quality control coach and Slok was too,
Speaker 3: and Slowik was the outside linebacker coach, quality control coach,
Speaker 3: and he was breaking it down and showed his ability
Speaker 3: to be smart and versatile. Back then, he started as
Speaker 3: a video guy right right, and then he rose up
Speaker 3: and he did that stuff with us, got fired a
Speaker 3: couple of years and ended up going back to offense.
Speaker 3: So like he's had a lot of the similar experience
Speaker 3: that I had being on offense, being on defense, being
Speaker 3: on different parts of the organization, and you can't you
Speaker 3: can't miss those ops and you can't miss those opportunities
Speaker 3: to be great.
Speaker 1: And that's what he's done. I think he's taking full
Speaker 1: advantage of it.
Speaker 2: When do you look at that that coaching tree and
Speaker 2: how everybody's had so much success when back then looking
Speaker 2: at did you guys know, hey, we're the next generation?
Speaker 2: You know, it's truly insane. Or you look at that Redskins,
Speaker 2: that Redskins coaching staff. It's here, everybody's at now.
Speaker 3: Till I said, I would say Mike Tomlin phrased it
Speaker 3: the best around us all. When we get a chance
Speaker 3: to get together, whether it's owners meetings, whether it's been
Speaker 3: the combine, whatevers been, we're all sitting in the same room,
Speaker 3: he goes he recognized the unapologetic swagger and unapologetic arrogance
Speaker 3: that we all had, you know when it came to football,
Speaker 3: and he loved it and he fell off it because
Speaker 3: he said he recognized from what we had in Tampa,
Speaker 3: and that was with a great staff with Joe Barry,
Speaker 3: Mike Tomlin, Rod Mary Nelly, Minnie Kiffin, right myself, Joe Woods,
Speaker 3: and you can go on and on even before us
Speaker 3: with Hern Edwards and Lovey Smith and things of that nature.
Speaker 3: But when we got to d C, it was a
Speaker 3: bunch of young guys at the time. There were some
Speaker 3: older veterans in place that just kind of looked at
Speaker 3: us and shook their heads.
Speaker 1: But I was like in the middle ground. I was
Speaker 1: like the middle child.
Speaker 3: I'm like Jay Cole, right and I was like right
Speaker 3: in between the older guys becoming this vet. Yeah and
Speaker 3: right right right right, just got right finished up with
Speaker 3: jaying the young guy, you know, so London Fletcher, you know,
Speaker 3: like his how about his presence in our room and
Speaker 3: going to see him, especially after coming from like Derek Brooks, right,
Speaker 3: just yeah, being a b a a Brown, those those
Speaker 3: those type of linebackers at the time.
Speaker 4: Remember the meeting when it was the it was the
Speaker 4: twenty thirteen year. I think we went what like three
Speaker 4: and thirteen or something like that, and they were kind
Speaker 4: of upset with Fletch, like hey, we need not upset
Speaker 4: with Fletch, but like, hey, we.
Speaker 1: Need you to say something. And he had he had
Speaker 1: a team meeting.
Speaker 4: He's like, I don't care if you got to draw
Speaker 4: that motherfucker's face if you're not taking notes, like do something,
Speaker 4: and he just went, you know, he went off on
Speaker 4: the score.
Speaker 1: So he was the ultimate pro.
Speaker 3: And I don't know if you're ever upset at Fletch,
Speaker 3: but I'm sure he took it that way right. And
Speaker 3: it was like trying to get everything out of that
Speaker 3: team that year because you know, you weren't there. But
Speaker 3: the year before we didn't start off so great. And
Speaker 3: I remember Mike Sanahan got up in the room and
Speaker 3: he called that a couple of people and Kirk Cousin
Speaker 3: was just talking about this recently and he had he
Speaker 3: didn't have any these words. It was different colors and
Speaker 3: it was the haves, the have nots, the roles of
Speaker 3: different people and what you want to do and what
Speaker 3: he knew about people. He knew you were going to
Speaker 3: be great, and he expected you to be great. Sorry
Speaker 3: the microphone thing, and then he had people that he
Speaker 3: that he thought, you know, you're in the cuss people
Speaker 3: he didn't know. And right if he came and did
Speaker 3: that team meeting, I really believe that termed that team around.
Speaker 3: And that was the playoff run. We had Robert Griffin
Speaker 3: and we went to play the Seattle and lost that game.
Speaker 3: But that three and thirteen season, I think they were
Speaker 3: trying to get that same type of energy, that same type.
Speaker 1: Of feel out of London.
Speaker 3: And when London got up in that team meeting, I
Speaker 3: never forget how special that was with him talking and
Speaker 3: how quiet that room was, and how much attention he
Speaker 3: brought in the presence that he brought when he told
Speaker 3: you don't got to you don't care what's going on,
Speaker 3: what you got to do, how much detail he put
Speaker 3: into his work, he tried to pour it out into
Speaker 3: us in the crowd.
Speaker 4: Yeah, man, it was special. How in the hell did
Speaker 4: you get into coaching? I was doing a little research
Speaker 4: with pe degree from allstra How do you get a
Speaker 4: strong degree?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Strong man, listen man, you don't know how hard pottery
Speaker 3: was so don't don't.
Speaker 2: Give me ceramics.
Speaker 1: It is tough.
Speaker 3: You got to sit there. You gotta hold the gentle wheel.
Speaker 3: You gotta hold the wheel. You gotta spin it with
Speaker 3: the right foot. Certain you have no idea, bro.
Speaker 2: I'm taken a class. You know I have an I don't.
Speaker 2: I was a general studies major everything.
Speaker 3: So taking getting that that degree from Hostra I was.
Speaker 3: I was fortunate enough to be around Joe Guardy and
Speaker 3: his son. He's rest in peace, but his son was
Speaker 3: was Dave Guardi at law school and now just got
Speaker 3: finish with the League office and now with the Washington Commanders.
Speaker 3: But he was the guy that really drove me to coaching,
Speaker 3: along with Greg Gigantino, you know Sarah's dad, who used
Speaker 3: to work here, into coaching because they recognized something me.
Speaker 3: They recognize a potential to First of all, I wasn't
Speaker 3: good enough to play in the league like you guys.
Speaker 3: And next that I was a really good communicator with
Speaker 3: the guys in our room and had the ability to
Speaker 3: do those things. So they sent me away to Cornell
Speaker 3: for a year and I went with Gigantino up there
Speaker 3: and really got to what it was called restricted earners
Speaker 3: because I was definitely not smart enough to go to
Speaker 3: school at Cornell University and it was like clorified GA
Speaker 3: and being up there for a year, I was around
Speaker 3: Pete Mangearion, who doesn't get enough credit for my career either,
Speaker 3: probably because I had to fire him as an old
Speaker 3: line coach at one point. But he was really great
Speaker 3: to me because he had come from the league, he
Speaker 3: had done so many good things and as far as
Speaker 3: bringing the league like mentality to the IVY League as
Speaker 3: much you can, as far as breakdown and working with
Speaker 3: this guy named Randy who was his computer genius that
Speaker 3: taught me how to break down games and do different
Speaker 3: things that way. So that gave me a real piqued
Speaker 3: my interest in a whole nother light of being a
Speaker 3: quality control coach and being a guy that can break
Speaker 3: it down because we all got a little bit of
Speaker 3: natural on the field coaching to us, but when you
Speaker 3: get the behind the scenes stuff, that's what separates you.
Speaker 3: And that helped me go back to Hostra and really
Speaker 3: coach the DB's there, and then after that that opened
Speaker 3: up some airways to internship with the Jets because we
Speaker 3: were on the same campus that opened up internships moving
Speaker 3: forward and then going down to Tampa open ultimately get
Speaker 3: me in a National Football League and.
Speaker 1: Stand there winning the Super Bowl the first year, won
Speaker 1: a super Bowl a first year, which is a blur.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we have two of them boys.
Speaker 1: One another one in LA and that was a great feeling.
Speaker 3: And that's also what intrigues you about coming back to Atlanta,
Speaker 3: you know, going out and get Kirk Cousins set you
Speaker 3: up to go try to win one another one.
Speaker 2: But talk about talk about you being in Atlanta and
Speaker 2: then being the intern head coach, and then they're like,
Speaker 2: all right, we're gonna go with Arthur Smith. And you
Speaker 2: ended up going to LA and then getting the call
Speaker 2: and coming back here.
Speaker 3: You know, I think it's like it's it's It's really
Speaker 3: funny because you can to take it two ways. You
Speaker 3: can get to get bitter and you can go away
Speaker 3: and be angry at people that you just worked with
Speaker 3: for the last six years and not use it as
Speaker 3: a tool of advancement. I think when I went away,
Speaker 3: I had it as a learning experience. I had as
Speaker 3: another like a check mark on the block of Okay,
Speaker 3: you you you've grown a lot since the last time
Speaker 3: you were head coach, You've had to deal You had
Speaker 3: to go through some adversity that we took from that
Speaker 3: point that was right during COVID, and you had to
Speaker 3: come up with these rules right on the spot, calling
Speaker 3: Mike Grave but Tennessee, because you guys had had the
Speaker 3: first breakout, and Mike was one of the few guys
Speaker 3: nice enough to give me a call and drop me
Speaker 3: a note and asked if I need any help, And
Speaker 3: I definitely called him and he didn't call me back, but.
Speaker 1: He did reach out.
Speaker 3: And you had to come up with some thoughts and
Speaker 3: some ideas on different ways to practice and different ways
Speaker 3: to do things during that time. And I was really
Speaker 3: proud of those moments how we navigated through that stuff
Speaker 3: with Rich McKay and Rust and Webster, along with our
Speaker 3: coaching staff at the time that we all had. Jeff
Speaker 3: Albrick was here and like I hasked some real strong
Speaker 3: people that was able to hold that thing together and
Speaker 3: get us a couple wins down the stretch, right, obviously
Speaker 3: not enough to win it.
Speaker 1: So I didn't leave bitter.
Speaker 3: I left with another experience, and I left with it
Speaker 3: a dip that helped me really when I went out
Speaker 3: to La with Sean, because then that was that enabled
Speaker 3: me to be able to be more helpful for him
Speaker 3: as just as hopefully just as helpful as he was
Speaker 3: to me.
Speaker 2: I don't know if Vrabel would have told you in
Speaker 2: the conversation, since you guys didn't talk, but we ended
Speaker 2: up playing the Bills without practicing for like eleven days
Speaker 2: and beat the shit out of them, you know, so
Speaker 2: you don't have to practice.
Speaker 4: You don't have practice.
Speaker 1: I knew about that, and that's why I called back.
Speaker 3: So like we actually had some of the similar experiences
Speaker 3: of off on the Wednesday, put it combined the Thursday Friday,
Speaker 3: and then go play a game and win. And then
Speaker 3: it got to the point we had won two games
Speaker 3: and everybody's like, every time we take a day off,
Speaker 3: we win.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, but and it.
Speaker 3: Was started generating the loss of the healthiest team wins.
Speaker 2: You were so nut us. We're on zoom, We're talking
Speaker 2: about the Steelers, and then like a day later they're like,
Speaker 2: all right, we're going Bills. We're going to go the
Speaker 2: Bills now. And then showed up for a walk through
Speaker 2: on a Saturday and then played a night Tuesday game.
Speaker 4: And Bridge just gives it any time any plays does.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you literally you're walking onto the game and
Speaker 2: the mind frame is we're either going to get the
Speaker 2: shit kicked out of us or somehow we're to keep
Speaker 2: it close. We had we got nothing to lose, You
Speaker 2: got nothing to lose. The boys are flying around.
Speaker 3: I don't know, we might be. I don't know what
Speaker 3: day you played on, but we might. I think we
Speaker 3: played on a Wednesday in LA, and we played Arizona
Speaker 3: when they delayed, and and we had people clearing protocol.
Speaker 2: The morning of the game, and craziest that's when we're
Speaker 2: in La.
Speaker 1: That that was it was. It was some crazy stuff
Speaker 1: going on in La.
Speaker 2: Had a little extra. Yeah, they were keeping they were
Speaker 2: making sure everything was you.
Speaker 3: Know, by the time I got to l A, you know,
Speaker 3: towards the Endico was it was starting to be. It
Speaker 3: was right upped. It was the best time you can
Speaker 3: go to LA because they had just opened up outdoor eating.
Speaker 3: And if you ever go to LA and you gettle
Speaker 3: out there eating, whether you're at Mastros and you're eating
Speaker 3: in that parking lot and you're look into those waves
Speaker 3: crashing the wall.
Speaker 1: All right, Actually like Mastros better with COVID, you.
Speaker 2: Know it was it was I like that, that's a
Speaker 2: good dish.
Speaker 3: And we had we had a bunch of different restaurants
Speaker 3: with the outdoor eating, so it was pretty cool going
Speaker 3: to a little Jacket gets the outdoor food.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I kind of enjoyed that part of la being there
Speaker 1: when it was COVID.
Speaker 2: When you were at the Rams and you get the
Speaker 2: call and I don't know who called you, Maybe it
Speaker 2: was Arthur, whoever it was, and you're like, you're gonna
Speaker 2: have the job for the Atlanta Falcons. Was it kind
Speaker 2: of wild? Were you surprised at that phone call coming
Speaker 2: in after literally four years prior being there.
Speaker 1: I wasn't surprised.
Speaker 3: I was more surprised when they when they asked me
Speaker 3: to do the interview, I'm like, man, you know this this,
Speaker 3: this is this is really interesting, you know, like I'm
Speaker 3: fired up. So I was really intrigued about doing the ZOOM.
Speaker 3: I was really intrigued about meeting Terry, you know. And
Speaker 3: then when I got on, I see Kyle Smith and
Speaker 3: and some of those guys and we had a you know,
Speaker 3: Atlanta tried to intimidate me. You know, they didn't put
Speaker 3: Arthur blank on the screen, you know, probably one of
Speaker 3: the only ones he won on was in the background.
Speaker 3: The first time I came, I met with Arthur. The
Speaker 3: second time I came Man, but it was Rich McKay,
Speaker 3: it was Kyle Smith, it was Terry Fonto. Who else
Speaker 3: was on the scaid at the time, I can't think of,
Speaker 3: maybe Dean Stimulos, but a couple of people that I knew,
Speaker 3: And I thought it was cool because it was really formal.
Speaker 3: It was it was information gathering, and I did a
Speaker 3: good enough job in that to get me to the
Speaker 3: second interview until I came back coming here to finally
Speaker 3: go to Arthur's house and sit down to be able
Speaker 3: to talk to him about some of our common beliefs,
Speaker 3: some of our theories, what I've learned, how far I've grown,
Speaker 3: what I want to see next. And the boys were
Speaker 3: there and Max and Josh. No Josh wasn't there, but
Speaker 3: it was Max. And then I met with another group
Speaker 3: that had some people here, Tamika Risch and Fernando who
Speaker 3: I didn't know at the time, and Dean stim Mils
Speaker 3: was a productor so well, and Brett Jukes and some
Speaker 3: of the guys that I had new from when I
Speaker 3: was here before across the building. Because what Arthur does
Speaker 3: best is he gets opinions from different people and he
Speaker 3: has a way of hiring people in the process, and
Speaker 3: he went through that whole process with me, and I
Speaker 3: was really appreciative of style in the way did it.
Speaker 4: You were talking a little bit when we were on
Speaker 4: the hallway by your relationship with Arthur and how long,
Speaker 4: like how much history you guys do have. Taylor was
Speaker 4: asking about it a little bit before we started, but
Speaker 4: can you talk about can you talk about how that's
Speaker 4: developed and when it started?
Speaker 3: It's so funny. I start right from the beginning. It
Speaker 3: was a Ronde barber who asked me to go out
Speaker 3: to a ranch in Montana with him. And I'm thinking,
Speaker 3: what do I want to go to ranch in Montana for?
Speaker 3: But it was Ronde right, and took the family out
Speaker 3: a beautiful place, beautiful place, beautiful place, and we had
Speaker 3: a ball and where I learned to ride a horse,
Speaker 3: and where I was able to let my kids run
Speaker 3: around this ranch in Montana and have a bunch of fun.
Speaker 1: And they provided this five star.
Speaker 3: Meal at the end of the night with your family
Speaker 3: and then at the end of the night, your kids
Speaker 3: all came and it was this family fun environment and
Speaker 3: it was different in any place that I had been
Speaker 3: or taking my kids, and I thought, this is really
Speaker 3: well done. And it just so happened that Arthur Blank
Speaker 3: was the owner of the ranch and he would pick
Speaker 3: a spots and he eat different with different groups every
Speaker 3: single night. And I didn't work for him, so I
Speaker 3: had no care in the world. I just was myself,
Speaker 3: good time, having a great time.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, you're to Lanta owner.
Speaker 3: I worked with Dampa, who cares right, yes, and we
Speaker 3: got a chance to know each other in those first
Speaker 3: couple of years. And then I got lucky enough, fortunate
Speaker 3: enough to come down here with dan Quinn and worked
Speaker 3: for him, and I was still going to the ranch,
Speaker 3: so it didn't change our dynamic that way.
Speaker 1: It just helped us grow a little bit e bit more.
Speaker 3: Get a chance to know you on the personal level.
Speaker 3: Then he got a chance to know me as a worker.
Speaker 3: Then I got a chance to do a trial run
Speaker 3: as the interim head coach, and then I can a
Speaker 3: chance to go away and then come back. And really
Speaker 3: he's almost a father figure at this point because he's
Speaker 3: seen full development and full growth, you know, and having
Speaker 3: a chance to come back and them and knowing the
Speaker 3: core values, how to be innovative, how to be people first,
Speaker 3: how to do some of those things that we talk
Speaker 3: about all the time when it comes to our culture.
Speaker 3: That it was a really cool environment to come back
Speaker 3: to and really cool to see how he had even
Speaker 3: grown even further and how he'd done some different things.
Speaker 3: When I left it was amb and come back as
Speaker 3: amb se right, the whole sports entertainment and is everything
Speaker 3: about of that. And it's like it's become even more
Speaker 3: family or intended come even more that way, and that's
Speaker 3: what he wants and that's what we all want. And
Speaker 3: I think that's become bigger part of his buildings. So
Speaker 3: like our relationship is different. That doesn't mean he's not
Speaker 3: gonna fire me the same way. We don't have the
Speaker 3: results right, right, but.
Speaker 1: It definitely makes you want to work harder for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he does have that like kind of mob boss
Speaker 2: kind of vibe. Well, you said, I said I was
Speaker 2: able to sit down with him during a like one
Speaker 2: of those Top thirty visits.
Speaker 1: I didn't I say that, Arthur, that was Taylor.
Speaker 2: You You got like he's got a vibe about it
Speaker 2: I saw went to I was in, uh, what's that
Speaker 2: nice area?
Speaker 1: Buckheat, Buckhead?
Speaker 2: I was in Buckhead. There's like this really nice house
Speaker 2: and I went and there end up being his office
Speaker 2: and there's like really nice woods and a nice painting
Speaker 2: and he sits down, his hair, sleep back, mustache out,
Speaker 2: and we're just kind of the whole time. I'm fearing
Speaker 2: for my.
Speaker 1: Life a little bit. He always looks great.
Speaker 3: He looks yeah, he's gonna air, and if he's not,
Speaker 3: he's gonna get somebody to make sure he's The next time.
Speaker 4: You might say otherwise, though, I mean, yeah, you could be.
Speaker 2: Behind right now.
Speaker 3: He treats you when he when he's treated the way
Speaker 3: he looks, he looks like a mob boss, and he
Speaker 3: treated that way.
Speaker 1: When he walks in the room, things are are tightening up.
Speaker 1: You're tightied up. When he's not around. I can tell
Speaker 1: him that they're tidied up.
Speaker 3: It's just it's more people moving when he's in the presence,
Speaker 3: when he's ready to get there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: How do you feel like you've developed? And obviously it's
Speaker 4: been you know, quite a bit since your head coaching
Speaker 4: run in Tampa, Sure, but what do you feel like
Speaker 4: you've learned the most, or the learning curve when you
Speaker 4: look back think of the things that you might have
Speaker 4: done wrong.
Speaker 3: It was a it was a bunch you can talk
Speaker 3: about wrong. We don't have enough time in this segment
Speaker 3: to talk about what you've done wrong. But the things
Speaker 3: that you learned the most was the collaboration of the
Speaker 3: general manager and the head coach, because that just goes
Speaker 3: throughout the building like no of it. And the best
Speaker 3: example that I saw was was Lesson and Sean McVay.
Speaker 3: And then you start think about some of your outside
Speaker 3: sources and what it was with Mike Tomlin and his
Speaker 3: general manager at the time, you know, the yes general
Speaker 3: manager not new one, but watching those guys work together
Speaker 3: because I was able to be close enough to that
Speaker 3: Pittsburgh system and watch them win and work together for
Speaker 3: a long time. But it was really good to see
Speaker 3: that and be around it every single day, how they
Speaker 3: went about their business to be able to bring that back.
Speaker 3: So like that collaboration was great, and me and Mark
Speaker 3: Dominic we had a great relationship, but I don't know
Speaker 3: if that the all out trust and collaboration was there
Speaker 3: like it needs to be in order to win at
Speaker 3: the highest level, Like we still had things that we
Speaker 3: hit from each other. And I'm not going to sit
Speaker 3: here and blame him for anything, but it was some
Speaker 3: parts that we can learn, like we talked about and
Speaker 3: do better that we want to do better together. And
Speaker 3: I still keep it with market and we're great friends.
Speaker 3: But we could have done a better job of formul
Speaker 3: our relationship first before trying to coach our football team.
Speaker 4: You're known as such like a a player's coach, which
Speaker 4: is like I feel like loosely said these days, and
Speaker 4: you are known as like an A plus relationships guy
Speaker 4: being a young coach coming up understanding that you can,
Speaker 4: like I've you're like, you're one of my favorite coaches
Speaker 4: that I never that never coached me because you see
Speaker 4: how good you are with everybody in the room and
Speaker 4: everything else. How does that? How do you balance that
Speaker 4: shift sitting in the head coaching chair versus being like
Speaker 4: a position coach.
Speaker 3: You know, I pride myself even because as you know,
Speaker 3: as having a relationship with trying to have a relationship
Speaker 3: with everybody in the room. You know, whatever that relationship was, right,
Speaker 3: whatever it is, whatever you can make it. Like for us,
Speaker 3: it was technique, it was some of the things that
Speaker 3: can help with your drop. It was individual things I
Speaker 3: send on your movement, things of that nature. So I
Speaker 3: was able to communicate that to you at hopefully a
Speaker 3: high level. And I try to form a different set
Speaker 3: of relationship with everybody within the defense, and then if
Speaker 3: you really dive deep, it was really starting to settle
Speaker 3: in with people on the offense, and it was other
Speaker 3: coaches and being able to invite people into your home
Speaker 3: and do different things with different people. And I think
Speaker 3: I pride myself on creating these relationships that help you
Speaker 3: just grow and develop to a person that sussed that
Speaker 3: out in the people.
Speaker 1: You hire and like foster that culture and then you.
Speaker 3: Make that culture just kind of develop into everyone where
Speaker 3: you want to be grown that way, And like right
Speaker 3: now with Terry, I pride myself on giving them more information.
Speaker 3: I pride myself on our communication. I pride myself on
Speaker 3: being authentic listener. Listening is a skill and it's hard
Speaker 3: to do, particularly when you're young and you got all
Speaker 3: the answers.
Speaker 1: And you're like, I'm aout thirty to your head coach,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna tell me?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: But now you know, fast forward to these years and
Speaker 3: it's like, you know, I love being able to listen
Speaker 3: to Terry talk about his experiences in New Orleans and
Speaker 3: how he grew throughout the system and the people that
Speaker 3: he were with, and what he's seeing with Drew Brees
Speaker 3: and how he's going about this movement and the people
Speaker 3: that he listened to. And I love sitting around listening
Speaker 3: before I actually talk. And that's a battle I still
Speaker 3: fight clearly, right but I'd love to keep developing that skill.
Speaker 3: And that's how I kind of do it right now,
Speaker 3: pride yourself and listening to more people in your staff,
Speaker 3: Hi to people that can build those relationships and phone
Speaker 3: those relationships. But then once you get them, find a
Speaker 3: way to listen to them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when are you having that open line of communication?
Speaker 2: How do you not get to a point where like
Speaker 2: there's too many chefs in the kitchen, where like you
Speaker 2: have so many opinions coming your way you might lose
Speaker 2: what your first opinion was. And kind of there's so
Speaker 2: many roads you can take in any given decision, finding
Speaker 2: that way of making the best one.
Speaker 3: I think the last one ultimately the decision makes kick in.
Speaker 3: You know, there's a reason there's a coordinated title on
Speaker 3: people's name. There's a reason you have assistant general managers.
Speaker 3: There's a reason you have a director of personnel and
Speaker 3: a director of college. You know, ultimately the decision maker's
Speaker 3: got to collaborate at the end of the day and
Speaker 3: come up with that result what you want and then
Speaker 3: come out that room what we're doing. You know, you
Speaker 3: appreciate you listen. You're able to gather information from all
Speaker 3: their personnels and all of the so to speak, ideas,
Speaker 3: but at the end of the day is our job
Speaker 3: to put them together and go get what we need
Speaker 3: to get done.
Speaker 4: You obviously, you've rattled off so many coaches that you've
Speaker 4: been around with the Grudens and Shanahan's and mcveigh's and
Speaker 4: coach Quinn and I know that they've all had a
Speaker 4: hand in your career, But is there a coach that
Speaker 4: you feel like has influenced you more than the others?
Speaker 3: Ah Man, You know, Mike Tomlin would obviously get the
Speaker 3: most credit in the professional level. Watching them right now
Speaker 3: two thousand and two Super Bowl team room him do
Speaker 3: those things and control that defensive back room and watching
Speaker 3: him navigate himself to being this great defensive coach, and
Speaker 3: he also played offensive ball when he was at William
Speaker 3: and Mary, So he was one of the first people
Speaker 3: to spike my interest of offense and really intrigued me
Speaker 3: about how he taught through an offensive lens. So I
Speaker 3: wanted to be more like that. And he would take
Speaker 3: definitely the professional developing the career movements of that. And
Speaker 3: then the other one with the relationship was definitely Joe Gardy.
Speaker 3: You know it was it was nobody at like my
Speaker 3: college coach that taught me what nepotism was and building
Speaker 3: relationship with people.
Speaker 1: I remember he would come down the hall and say, hey, Raheem,
Speaker 1: I'm going to Connecticut to get a slice of pizza.
Speaker 1: You want to come? You know, I'm like, sure, pal
Speaker 1: off the Connecticut. We went. Off the Connecticut we went.
Speaker 3: And then, like you know, any even think back, you
Speaker 3: go back to even your high school coaches with Donnie
Speaker 3: Somo and I will never forget. And I thought about
Speaker 3: it last week when we draft Panics and everybody went
Speaker 3: crazy in the world, and I remember the first I
Speaker 3: remember the first thing he said to talk about that,
Speaker 3: I mean the first thing he said to me. Shock
Speaker 3: him got T shirts that my dad still hath Yeah,
Speaker 3: they said, shock him and and and that was Donnie Somma.
Speaker 3: And I was seventeen years old right when he told
Speaker 3: me that Chet Parlavecchia before that as a junior, and
Speaker 3: the toughness that he displayed within practice. When you had
Speaker 3: this Italian coach with his nose bleeding through his face
Speaker 3: mask telling you what to do, it was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: this dude is different.
Speaker 1: He looks at you different. So I got it.
Speaker 3: Throughout the walks of life, you've stolen different things from people,
Speaker 3: and it's like you formulate your own identity.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that. We're getting shout outs back all
Speaker 1: the way to the high school day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you brought up Pennix. Yes, you guys are sitting
Speaker 2: there at eight. Everyone's saying Atlanta since Jonathan Abraham, they've
Speaker 2: needed a rush guy for the longest time since him.
Speaker 2: They're going to take get this guy, thether Hick Dallas
Speaker 2: Turner out of Alabama, no question about it. Kirk, Yeah,
Speaker 2: another web not a weapon for Kirk. He's edge rusher, but.
Speaker 1: Kirk Cousins another weapon. He was giving me. You are
Speaker 1: right there, follow along your fault.
Speaker 2: I was like, that guy is yeah, or a weapon
Speaker 2: for Kirks no question, and then obviously that's turned in
Speaker 2: in the whole place, all of the National Football League
Speaker 2: goes crazy in the situation. What what was the thought
Speaker 2: process there?
Speaker 3: So you know, we talked about decision makers, right, and
Speaker 3: you're exactly right. Nobody's wrong in their thinking, you know,
Speaker 3: like nobody's wrong and what they're saying, like, you know,
Speaker 3: whether you needed a pass rusher, you needed a cover guy,
Speaker 3: potentially getting another weapon for Kirk, like we talked about,
Speaker 3: you know, but you address these things as you go
Speaker 3: without the process and free agency with just Kirt right
Speaker 3: out a number one need for the right now quarterback
Speaker 3: position to play what we wanted to do, went out
Speaker 3: and got Mooney, went and got Ray Ray McLeod. You know,
Speaker 3: we traded and went and got a guy from Purdue
Speaker 3: and what he's able to do in Ron Dell right
Speaker 3: and do some of those differences you already had, you know,
Speaker 3: Pits on the team. You got you know, b John
Speaker 3: Robinson with Tyler Agier. You have these different weapons around
Speaker 3: people all across but Drake London at the other side
Speaker 3: of the wide out and on defense. When we got
Speaker 3: here and washed the tape, Jimmy Lake and I you
Speaker 3: see some really impressive players. We just talked about Ellis,
Speaker 3: We talked about Nate Lamon right, so many people up
Speaker 3: fronting the Grady Jarretts and talking about having do O
Speaker 3: here from New Llan, some of those type of things
Speaker 3: and all these weapons across the board.
Speaker 1: A J.
Speaker 3: Terrell's an uprising star in my opinion. And then you
Speaker 3: went last year and you got Jesse Base and you
Speaker 3: put that to the roster and our jobs. You could
Speaker 3: say whatever you want to say is to have short
Speaker 3: term and long term thoughts. And we went through a
Speaker 3: hard time without Matt Ryan. This organization I'm talking about,
Speaker 3: and personally, you know, I love Matt Ryan and what
Speaker 3: he brought to the city. And if we were sitting
Speaker 3: there and we had drafted Curtain twenty twelve and he
Speaker 3: came here and he just finished his career and he
Speaker 3: was thirty six years old, we'd be in positioned to
Speaker 3: look for a quarterback. Luckily enough, we have an owner
Speaker 3: of that season the same way as us. You know,
Speaker 3: you just play a guy one hundred million dollars guaranteed,
Speaker 3: a hundred and eighty million dollars contract, and he says,
Speaker 3: let's finish. We got an answer for a short term.
Speaker 3: No matter what that short term is, right, it could
Speaker 3: be the extent of his contract, it's still short term.
Speaker 3: But if you believe in the guy and he's high
Speaker 3: enough for that point when you get to him and
Speaker 3: you can get a long term asked that quarterback and
Speaker 3: Michael Pennisul's we do why not take that shot?
Speaker 1: Right? Why not take the shot?
Speaker 3: And you know it's gonna be criticized, And it's fine
Speaker 3: because I do love people's vani I do, and I
Speaker 3: don't think anybody's wrong for happenings.
Speaker 4: The communication that night when it does go down, and
Speaker 4: you guys, the relationship with Kirk, Like, how is that
Speaker 4: unfolding and going down? Because I'm sure if Kirk it
Speaker 4: goes down as a surprise as well.
Speaker 1: Heck yeah.
Speaker 3: The hardest part is keeping an information and being as
Speaker 3: transparent as you possibly can without having the uproar that
Speaker 3: you get from those things. Right, So you can't potentially
Speaker 3: tell Kurt that the night before or while the draft's
Speaker 3: going on. You have to tell them when you're on
Speaker 3: a clock when the decision is made, because what if
Speaker 3: it doesn't happen.
Speaker 4: Right, and if it doesn't happen you're still thinking of
Speaker 4: the conversation. They just said, like, man, are they going
Speaker 4: to be thinking?
Speaker 3: Or if you do it beforehand and now that those
Speaker 3: a monkey rich in the planet, someone jumps you and
Speaker 3: they take potentially a guy that you want. So because
Speaker 3: something gets out from whatever source right at it's a
Speaker 3: lot of moving parts and it's no right way of
Speaker 3: doing it, zero control until your so whatever lens you
Speaker 3: look through, you can find some fault. So the first
Speaker 3: thing I'd say with Kurt was, I apologize for not
Speaker 3: being able to communicate how you want to. You know,
Speaker 3: I don't apologize for the pickup I can. I apologize
Speaker 3: for not being to communicate how you would like to.
Speaker 3: But this changes nothing within your situation because Kirk comes
Speaker 3: out and we went the next two Super Bowls.
Speaker 1: Guy Kurt is the quarterback. He's the he's the guy. Yeah.
Speaker 4: And even even in kirk situation when he came to Washington,
Speaker 4: he was drafting the same classes is large.
Speaker 1: What are you laughing at?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Oh yeah, I know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then well knows, he's like, I gotta say something.
Speaker 2: I know he's staring through me the soul. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, Appix is a stud. He is one of
Speaker 2: those guys that I think Will was sitting there saying
Speaker 2: you wanted the Raiders to get him.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah, I'm sitting there like everybody else.
Speaker 1: Oh ship, that's us.
Speaker 3: And you know you always try to compare things to
Speaker 3: different years, you know, like you know, why not at
Speaker 3: why not later? I don't predict that, you know, like
Speaker 3: these we had six quarterbacks going the top twelve picks, you.
Speaker 2: Know, like hotcakes. They were going like over and over.
Speaker 2: You have no idea when Penis was there.
Speaker 1: Every every year is different.
Speaker 3: You know, you compared to Jordan Love because they took
Speaker 3: a quarterback, not because they went number they took him back.
Speaker 3: You know where Aaron Rodgers was in this career. That's
Speaker 3: not what you're doing. You talking about the young guy
Speaker 3: with the older guy.
Speaker 2: Right, But it's worked out for the Packers for last
Speaker 2: like it seems like thirty years. I say, Brett Favre,
Speaker 2: Aaron Rodgers and then Jordan Love. What you say about.
Speaker 1: Matt Lafor is pretty happy?
Speaker 2: He gotta be happy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, he's pretty happy. It's cool, he says. And
Speaker 1: he's cool.
Speaker 2: So you you pick Panix, and then after you pick Panics,
Speaker 2: you call Kirk and you're like, hey, listen, we couldn't
Speaker 2: control when we called you.
Speaker 1: I had to call Kirk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's just that, this is how this game goes.
Speaker 2: What Kirk's knows. He's been in the game for a
Speaker 2: long time.
Speaker 3: And as you guys know, your competitors right right, and
Speaker 3: the quarterback is always different. It's always different. And you know,
Speaker 3: I'm not expecting him to be happy, go lucky, but
Speaker 3: I did expect him to be a man, and he
Speaker 3: was more than you know. He called Penix, he texted me,
Speaker 3: asked for the number, he called and me reached out.
Speaker 3: And you know that the beauty of it was two
Speaker 3: men it called him. He talked to the media the
Speaker 3: next day. He didn't extant it. He didn't he didn't
Speaker 3: talk about what they spoke about. I still don't know
Speaker 3: what they talked about. But you know what, the grown
Speaker 3: men goes all the way back to what we talked
Speaker 3: about the beginning to show what to eat those means
Speaker 3: when you talking about being the falcon and both of
Speaker 3: those guys character.
Speaker 4: Fitted how excit level, how excited were you and Terry
Speaker 4: to go out for the for the press conference. Uh,
Speaker 4: it was funny because knowing they are.
Speaker 1: About going out there. That sounds like a David Bacity problem.
Speaker 3: Uh, And you know, like I'm not really shy when
Speaker 3: it comes to media.
Speaker 1: But it was like it was more of this.
Speaker 3: It was more of we were so busy the rest
Speaker 3: of that time, I can tell you now trying to
Speaker 3: trade back in that it didn't really come up until
Speaker 3: it was time to go downstairs and talk when we
Speaker 3: couldn't get back in up.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you.
Speaker 4: That, but it's already happened.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to tell you a snipe in.
Speaker 2: How about where at what?
Speaker 4: Like?
Speaker 2: At what number were you guys.
Speaker 1: Trying to trade into everywhere? I mean, it was all
Speaker 1: over place that we liked, all across the board. Ye wasn't.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like a particular person at one spot. There
Speaker 3: was different spots of people that you wanted in different layers.
Speaker 3: So you know that that staff does a great job.
Speaker 3: So it was like, you know, wasn't able to get done.
Speaker 3: You go downstairs, you talk about the press conference, and
Speaker 3: you understand that there are people involved in this business
Speaker 3: and you got to have an excitement general excitement to
Speaker 3: get Michael Pennix. And then there's also a empathy for
Speaker 3: Kirk Cousins and and that's our job.
Speaker 1: Deliver hard news.
Speaker 2: Deliver hard news.
Speaker 1: Keep it.
Speaker 2: We have two minutes left, right okay, oh two minutes.
Speaker 2: Two minutes, so we got to rattle a couple off
Speaker 2: I have. I'm gonna give you two questions in a row.
Speaker 2: First one is this team needs a locker room guy.
Speaker 2: They need a guy that's gonna come in and band
Speaker 2: boys together and make sure to give you the next
Speaker 2: step to make the playoffs and win the NFC South.
Speaker 2: What are the chances that William Earl Compton the third
Speaker 2: can get a work out with the Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker 1: Uh None?
Speaker 4: Right now, that's crazy.
Speaker 2: That is You gotta appreciate him being directed. Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: He is transmitter. He's so deliver hard information. Right now.
Speaker 1: Will has not been training for what we do. What
Speaker 1: are you talking?
Speaker 2: He looks great.
Speaker 3: It's not about the look. Will can go in to
Speaker 3: beach right now and we're going to a beach and
Speaker 3: I got to take a guy because Will he's gonna
Speaker 3: look good.
Speaker 4: No, the way this guy's dropped. You know we're talking.
Speaker 2: You guys have a better relationship, a chemistry here, both
Speaker 2: of us with our shirts on to get over Will.
Speaker 3: He'll make me look better. I'm taking him for that,
Speaker 3: but I the football team.
Speaker 4: Just give me eight weeks, eight weeks, eight weeks.
Speaker 2: Team.
Speaker 1: You didn't say, you didn't say trained, you said.
Speaker 2: Now right, eight weeks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, you're you're eight weeks from now.
Speaker 3: I would take Will at any level if he thought
Speaker 3: he can still do it, y'all.
Speaker 4: Love rob Man back we are, We're back. No, ro
Speaker 4: we were talking about before, and I'll sudden you this
Speaker 4: before he came in. He's a guy that you were
Speaker 4: telling the story. But a core memory of mine, like
Speaker 4: one of my like I guess, like welcome to the
Speaker 4: NFL type because coming from polining staff, if you like
Speaker 4: missed the tackle or missed the play, you basically want
Speaker 4: to you know, you want to kill yourself. And so
Speaker 4: I had missed a tackle in the preseason game, I
Speaker 4: think our first preseason game in Tennessee, and I remember
Speaker 4: just being on the bench just like that's it. I'm
Speaker 4: gonna get cut, uh, Kimbra A couple guys on that.
Speaker 4: Keen Robinson goes down Day one, I go from like
Speaker 4: the last spot. Now I'm working with the three. So
Speaker 4: you get a few rips Jeremy Kimbro tears his hamstring.
Speaker 4: He's out, So now I get to play with the
Speaker 4: twos in preseasons, somethinking this is my shot and I
Speaker 4: miss his tackle and I just remember thinking like it's over.
Speaker 4: It's over. And Row comes over and he's not my
Speaker 4: position coach at the time. He's like, cop, why are
Speaker 4: you hang.
Speaker 1: Your Why are you hanging your head? Like, who gives
Speaker 1: a shit?
Speaker 4: You miss a tackle. You're in cover three. If you're
Speaker 4: gonna miss miss on the inside and make them go
Speaker 4: outside of your play, you're good. Who cares? And I'm
Speaker 4: thinking in my head like not that, Oh, you can
Speaker 4: miss tackles in the league. But I'm thinking that that
Speaker 4: is exactly what I needed to hear that, Like get
Speaker 4: out of my own head because I'm thinking, like, man,
Speaker 4: this is this is gonna go bad. Because if a player,
Speaker 4: you remember that, if.
Speaker 2: A player tells you that, you're like whatever, You're like,
Speaker 2: oh my god.
Speaker 4: I have a player say you're like okay, yeah, good
Speaker 4: for you, Bro, you're a start.
Speaker 1: It was the I don't know which game. I don't
Speaker 1: know the game.
Speaker 3: I don't know who we're playing, because you know preseasons,
Speaker 3: it's I'm out there really watching us and evaluating and
Speaker 3: just looking at players.
Speaker 4: You're trying to get Philip Thomas in the car rambow
Speaker 4: ready to go.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm trying to get us already. Yeah. I was
Speaker 1: always been greedy. I've always wanted.
Speaker 3: Us to play well right, and you missed a tack
Speaker 3: on I believe my safety made the tack. I'm not
Speaker 3: sure which one it was. And I thought, what a
Speaker 3: great miss. You shot your gun. You play fast, physical
Speaker 3: and free Jimmy Lake, and you turned it over to us.
Speaker 3: We got him on the ground, we got off the grass,
Speaker 3: and I'm looking at a kid who just came from Nebraska,
Speaker 3: who just fought us way up. This free agent that
Speaker 3: is going up to our twos that I know that
Speaker 3: I were going to counter at one point, And I say, love, bro,
Speaker 3: that was a good job. You know, I like you
Speaker 3: to make it too, But like that was part of
Speaker 3: me building relationships with you because I knew you had
Speaker 3: a chance.
Speaker 2: Hey, that was so beautiful. Was the cool thing about
Speaker 2: that story is is when we first got here, Will
Speaker 2: told me that story, which I've heard before, and then well,
Speaker 2: you we were grabbing coffee, you started telling that you
Speaker 2: guys both had the same recall that story, which is
Speaker 2: really cool, which means it meant a lot to both
Speaker 2: of you a moment and.
Speaker 3: I got so many memories of him because he was
Speaker 3: the linebacker, right, so he probably didn't even know, but
Speaker 3: like he had this crazy recall and we would talk
Speaker 3: about things and looks to own and things that you
Speaker 3: would say and I would always say it to com
Speaker 3: mm hmm. And con was the backup. But when you
Speaker 3: tell the backup, he reinforces it to the starters, right.
Speaker 3: And he was that type of guy. That's why I
Speaker 3: thought he would be a coach. But he's a reinforcer, man,
Speaker 3: He's a sounding board. And when he got a chance
Speaker 3: to play, there was not a bigger fan from wherever
Speaker 3: I was at watching them play back in DC and
Speaker 3: watching them play throughout his career after that point.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that man. That was awesome.
Speaker 2: I know, we gotta let you go. I'm and ask
Speaker 2: you one more question. And this is a very important
Speaker 2: question because I have one too, So okay, we're gonna
Speaker 2: ask you two more questions are both very important questions.
Speaker 1: Hey, you are my guys bass right now. It is
Speaker 1: cringing back days on when you like, yeah, yeah, he.
Speaker 4: Can come on in. And when you when you gave
Speaker 4: him my number and we got on the phone and
Speaker 4: chopped it up, He's like, oh, playoff, Willie.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh yeah, hell yah that fires me up.
Speaker 4: And he was like, we got on the phone. He goes,
Speaker 4: we'll get raw right off the top, right out of practice,
Speaker 4: and he starts naming a couple of players. He's like,
Speaker 4: you know, we'll get a couple of players for you guys,
Speaker 4: and he names a couple of them. None of them
Speaker 4: were Kirk. So I'm thinking in my head like, okay,
Speaker 4: I know how this is gonna go. I'm just gonna
Speaker 4: need I'm gonna need a text Kirk on my own
Speaker 4: and lock it in before they can be like no,
Speaker 4: no Kirk.
Speaker 2: No Kirk.
Speaker 1: So anyway, that was my story.
Speaker 2: Is that the question too?
Speaker 4: No? My question is this have you been seeing have
Speaker 4: you been seeing Austin Rivers the Austin Rivers clip about
Speaker 4: the NFL players and NBA players?
Speaker 1: I have not.
Speaker 4: Okay, so my first question is who has the better
Speaker 4: athletes NFL or the NBA soccer That's not the question.
Speaker 2: Sorry, we can move on from that. That was a
Speaker 2: tough try.
Speaker 1: No, I want to hear athletes.
Speaker 3: I mean, the NBA game changed so much, Like okay,
Speaker 3: we're talking about the nineties basketball with Kobe and Iverson
Speaker 3: and then Michael Jordan. They'd have a fight right now.
Speaker 3: Is changed to a skill game. The the top four
Speaker 3: m vps don't have any athletes.
Speaker 1: The MVP.
Speaker 3: It's the worst athlete in the world, can't jump off
Speaker 3: a curve, but its a baller because of a skill set.
Speaker 3: Like his skill set is unbelievable. Touch around the basket.
Speaker 3: He's able to play Luka doncs like. I can't see
Speaker 3: him tackling Bijeon right now. So when you're talking about
Speaker 3: just those two sports and athleticism, I'm giving us the
Speaker 3: skill set.
Speaker 1: We got no chance against those dudes.
Speaker 4: I agree with you wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: We got They had a better argument back in the nineties.
Speaker 2: Feel good to get a nice little compliment.
Speaker 4: But their white guys run around the court.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say white guys.
Speaker 4: That was his words again, Yeah, those are my words.
Speaker 4: I definitely speak from the international game.
Speaker 1: The international game has changed basketball a little bit. Who
Speaker 1: comes to that.
Speaker 3: It's more of a skill Steph Curry, you know, like
Speaker 3: he's changed basketball, Like you better be able to shoot
Speaker 3: or you can't play.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's what we needed.
Speaker 2: Ye my last question, Okay, I mean are you running
Speaker 2: a segment?
Speaker 3: Look, Lebron is is just a dog. Like he's one
Speaker 3: of the best athletes in the world. And I'm not
Speaker 3: like this like crazy Lebron fan because I'm in then
Speaker 3: argument and I'm on the other side. But I got
Speaker 3: so much respectfulim. He's the most dominant player we've probably
Speaker 3: ever seen him in shack. You know when you talk
Speaker 3: about the most dominant players, that that's the category of
Speaker 3: Lebron's in in my opinion, and then also the category
Speaker 3: of Lebron's in is like created the most hype in
Speaker 3: the world and like surpassed it. You know, like we
Speaker 3: knew about Lebron like way before we should have known,
Speaker 3: and he surpassed that. So like, I don't ever want
Speaker 3: to dispect his greatness on camera. Now we get to
Speaker 3: those when we get to our arguments of the goat,
Speaker 3: you know, I may go the other way a little bit,
Speaker 3: but little animated. Yeah, I gotta give a couple you
Speaker 3: gotta get a couple of negative points to that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, got to there's always gotta be a devil's advocate.
Speaker 2: So this is my last question and I will land
Speaker 2: this plane. You gotta stick with me. In the spring
Speaker 2: of twenty nineteen, a head coach for the Tennessee Titan
Speaker 2: sat on the bus and we asked him if he
Speaker 2: would cut his dick off for a Super Bowl, to
Speaker 2: which he answered the question saying yes, I would been
Speaker 2: married for thirty years why not? But I don't use
Speaker 2: it anyway. Now. That team started out two and four
Speaker 2: and ended up going to the AFC Championship to play
Speaker 2: the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. Before that game,
Speaker 2: the press asked them, you said you cut your dig
Speaker 2: off for a Super Bowl? Would you still do that,
Speaker 2: to which Mike Rabel replied, Nah, No, I wouldn't do that.
Speaker 4: I was just joking with them.
Speaker 2: I was just joking around with them. We're up ten
Speaker 2: zero in the first quarter against the Patton Mahomes Sity
Speaker 2: Chiefs ends up losing and the Chiefs go to the
Speaker 2: Super Bowl. So Mike Rabel lost the Tennessee Titans the
Speaker 2: Super Bowl, is what I'm saying. My question to you
Speaker 2: is what are you willing to do for the Atlanta
Speaker 2: Falcons to win a Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: I mean, you gotta do some drastic.
Speaker 2: Would cut it off, You've got to do some drastic
Speaker 2: but like to get a Super Bowl ring.
Speaker 1: Here's what I'll say.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, King, do your thing.
Speaker 3: Two thousand and two, twenty twenty one. The people, the
Speaker 3: relationships that you build, there's nothing in the world like it.
Speaker 3: And you would do almost anything the windows in a
Speaker 3: fair and equitable state. So there might be a few
Speaker 3: limbs lost in order to get that feeling with these
Speaker 3: group of guys.
Speaker 4: You take a limb off for the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3: I mean to win that thing, and think about this,
Speaker 3: to bring a super Bowl championship to this city with
Speaker 3: this owner Arthur Blank, with these guys that have established
Speaker 3: this relationships and this bonding and this building and being
Speaker 3: around Pitts and and Bejeon for just such a short
Speaker 3: time in Draft London.
Speaker 1: It is like, you know, like.
Speaker 3: That's that's that's tough, bro, Like the twenty eight three thing,
Speaker 3: you know, like that that is hard.
Speaker 1: That's Brady. But I'm that's football. But that's Brady. That's football. Like,
Speaker 1: think about doing that with these cats. That is like
Speaker 1: worth it.
Speaker 2: That's why I run it in a half.
Speaker 1: Look at that guy of course I'm running.
Speaker 2: Look at his traps, Lily Pop classic T shirt.
Speaker 1: I'm out of here. You guys are going graphics.
Speaker 4: You take a limb off, I'm taking it off.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get with the limb, but I take
Speaker 1: a limb.
Speaker 4: Off the Hey, coach Roth, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Appreciate you awesome. Appreciate