Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Andrew Luck was the number one draft pick in the
Speaker 1: National Football League. Last year, he was hired to replace
Speaker 1: one of his heroes, Peyton Manning, as quarterback of the
Speaker 1: Indianapolis Colts. The hype about Luck was enormous, and many
Speaker 1: doubted that the Stanford graduate could live up to it,
Speaker 1: but Luck delivered, setting a new NFL record for the
Speaker 1: most passing yards by any rookie. Luck also led his
Speaker 1: team to eleven victories and a spot in the playoffs.
Speaker 1: This was a team that won just two games the
Speaker 1: year before Luck arrived. Andrew Luck, a self described nerd,
Speaker 1: is nothing if not level headed when he talks about
Speaker 1: the transitions from high school to college to pro football.
Speaker 1: They're definitely large differences along the way. But but I
Speaker 1: also know a lot of the challenges are the same.
Speaker 1: I think fresh on my mind still. You know, first
Speaker 1: singer key year, you know what what what what was
Speaker 1: similar about rookie year to being a sophomore in high
Speaker 1: school and starting on varsity you know wants to to
Speaker 1: being in college and starting as a sophomore as well.
Speaker 1: I think you know the same things presents of how
Speaker 1: as a young kid, you know, how is a fifteen
Speaker 1: year old kid do you play with? Eighteen year olds?
Speaker 1: How is it? How is the nineteen year o kid
Speaker 1: do you play with twenty two years? That? What you did?
Speaker 1: And yeah? And how is the how? How was it?
Speaker 1: And it it's weird? You know, you want to remember
Speaker 1: what what do you remember about high school ball? So
Speaker 1: I just wanted to keep my mouth shut you in Houston,
Speaker 1: In Houston, which they do have like a somewhat of
Speaker 1: a religious cult following, you know of high school football
Speaker 1: and touch it truly is and you know it's sensationalized
Speaker 1: a bit with the movies in the in the books,
Speaker 1: but people get into I mean, we had we had
Speaker 1: fifteen thousand people watching games for for for a bunch
Speaker 1: of high school kids. Yeah, but but I do remember,
Speaker 1: you know, being a rookie, thinking back to you know,
Speaker 1: being a sophomore, how how do you how do you
Speaker 1: earn the respect to the guys older than you? You know,
Speaker 1: how do you how do you go there? And so
Speaker 1: would you say that's seen each step by the way,
Speaker 1: if he was proving yourself to people who when you
Speaker 1: show up, the vets are there or the guys who
Speaker 1: have a few more seasons under their belt and you
Speaker 1: want to show them you belong there. No, absolutely, I
Speaker 1: think describe it was like when you went from Houston
Speaker 1: to Stanford the same thing, you know, one it's it's
Speaker 1: it was. It was fun for me to be out
Speaker 1: in California and you were a scholar. You did very
Speaker 1: well in school. I did all right. I managed to
Speaker 1: get by. I studied architecture, which was fun for me
Speaker 1: and which I enjoyed, which you know, I don't much
Speaker 1: better I think on projects than writing papers, you know. So,
Speaker 1: so I'm glad I studied something I enjoyed. But do
Speaker 1: you think that that kind of pursued academically, like something
Speaker 1: that involves geometry and math and so forth, and measurements
Speaker 1: helped you at a quarterback? I don't know. People have
Speaker 1: asked me to compare the too it I you know,
Speaker 1: it can't hurt, But you know, realistically, how much could
Speaker 1: could solid a bath problem help at a football game?
Speaker 1: It might be just intrinsic. How you just see things,
Speaker 1: you know, when that guy's going deep over the middle,
Speaker 1: maybe you're saying this looks like the Louve to me,
Speaker 1: and then when you went to Stanford, what was that
Speaker 1: like you should have then when you talk about that
Speaker 1: idea of showing up and proving yourself, what was it
Speaker 1: like for you? It was great? Uh, you know a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of great people at Stanford. Everybody
Speaker 1: has got such an amazing story. You know, you're you're
Speaker 1: meeting princes and princesses of royal families from midd the
Speaker 1: Middle East. You you know, you get classmates that are
Speaker 1: inventing you know, apps and and and and doing all
Speaker 1: these great enemating environment there it is and it really
Speaker 1: they cultivate the environment of creating great things and people.
Speaker 1: I think, and so I think, you know, as a
Speaker 1: as a football team, we wanted to be out there
Speaker 1: as well. And then in the athletic world, you showed
Speaker 1: up your freshman year and what was your first year like?
Speaker 1: The first year was great? Didn't play red shirt? And
Speaker 1: which was which was? Which was difficult describe for people
Speaker 1: exactly how red shirting works. So red shirting is a
Speaker 1: process where you know, you go to school and everybody
Speaker 1: has four years of eligibility to apply. Uh, but you
Speaker 1: can red shirt a year which doesn't take away your
Speaker 1: eligibility uh, one of those years. And but but you
Speaker 1: still practice with the team, you still do everything with
Speaker 1: the team. You're just not allowed to play in a game.
Speaker 1: So it's theoretically year. Yeah, and then you go to
Speaker 1: school for you know, be in school for five years,
Speaker 1: so it gives you a year too, and you read
Speaker 1: shirted your first year. I red scruted my first year.
Speaker 1: I wasn't ready to play h and I needed to
Speaker 1: get bigger, faster, stronger, you know, physically wise and also
Speaker 1: mentally just catch up today. So when you come to
Speaker 1: a school like that, when they take you there and
Speaker 1: they and they recruited you, correct, and when they recruit
Speaker 1: you to come, they recruit you. The red shirt thing
Speaker 1: was something they had in mind. So at that level,
Speaker 1: at the Stanford level, they have you come and they
Speaker 1: say we're gonna bring you here and we're going to
Speaker 1: develop you for the first year. Yeah, you know, and
Speaker 1: some guys in my class, we're we're good enough to play,
Speaker 1: you know, as freshman. But but I know in my
Speaker 1: recruiting process that that was a thought that came up.
Speaker 1: The muscle up and get stronger, and and and mentally too,
Speaker 1: I think mentally catch up to the playbook having to
Speaker 1: learn that, and you know, the game is faster in
Speaker 1: college than it is that it is in high school.
Speaker 1: So it definitely helped, and I enjoyed it. And what
Speaker 1: was that experience like because someone said that to me once,
Speaker 1: They said that, you know, you go from high school
Speaker 1: and you're a dominant player in high school. Then you
Speaker 1: go to college and you're in a room full of
Speaker 1: high school dominant players. It's uh. Was it really kind
Speaker 1: of inspiring to you to see that everybody was faster
Speaker 1: and stronger. It's humbling. Let's say that you get knocked
Speaker 1: off your high horse very very quickly to everybody's in all.
Speaker 1: So you go from being in you know, the top dogs,
Speaker 1: probably starting on every everything. Yeah, and everything you've ever
Speaker 1: played in the cheerleaders one a date, you know everybody.
Speaker 1: You go to college and you're just exactly so you
Speaker 1: read shirt that year and then you come back the
Speaker 1: second year and I'm assuming you were stronger and you
Speaker 1: had development and did you and you felt better? You
Speaker 1: felt strong? No, I think I put on like pounds.
Speaker 1: You know, my mind was working much quicker. When you're
Speaker 1: on the football side. I think we're getting ready, getting ready,
Speaker 1: And what happens in that second year coach Harbaugh, Who's
Speaker 1: who's whose coach? Game? Jim, he gave me a shot,
Speaker 1: managed to to roll with it, got got to play
Speaker 1: in all their games. I got hurt the last game
Speaker 1: of the season and miss miss down on a ball game.
Speaker 1: We had a We had a great running back to
Speaker 1: that year. Toby Gerhardt, who's backing Adrian Peterson up in
Speaker 1: Minnesota right now, did you get smacked around a lot?
Speaker 1: I mean you're playing football at Stanford. What was that
Speaker 1: like for you? That that threat every day and it's
Speaker 1: a pure adrenaline when you say to yourself, I can't
Speaker 1: think about that, I can't afford to think about that
Speaker 1: where every minute you're out there. Do you think these guys, man,
Speaker 1: they really if they hit me, it's really gonna hurt.
Speaker 1: Like no, I think that. You can't. You can't let
Speaker 1: yourself think about gun it. You have to. I think
Speaker 1: as soon as you start getting skittish about about being hit,
Speaker 1: then then your play is gonna plummet. Yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: little bit of pride involved in it too. I think
Speaker 1: it's a football player at least at least in my mind,
Speaker 1: I sort of enjoy getting hit every now and then
Speaker 1: and being able to stand back up and say, okay,
Speaker 1: you hit me whatever. Man, you know, yeah, I'm getting
Speaker 1: back off down right. You didn't get me down right.
Speaker 1: So so that I think, I think for a lot
Speaker 1: of players there's a bit of that. What did Hardball
Speaker 1: give you was a coach? What would you say distinguished
Speaker 1: him as a coach? I think, yeah, he built great
Speaker 1: relationships with players, everybody on the staff. And and he's
Speaker 1: he's an unbelievable motivator, you know, uh, And I think
Speaker 1: he doesn't and he feels guys you feel, you know, senses,
Speaker 1: you know what's going to motivate them. I think he
Speaker 1: was a great job of of of using different ways
Speaker 1: to motivate different guys. H You always on game day,
Speaker 1: you always felt like, you know, the guy was gonna,
Speaker 1: you know, run through hell and back with you if
Speaker 1: you had to. You felt like you had your back,
Speaker 1: if you wanted to be in a brawl in an
Speaker 1: alley you wanted, you want to coach hardball with you.
Speaker 1: And when you went into the pros, because I want
Speaker 1: to come back to when when you finished Stanford in
Speaker 1: in a minute, but when you were in the Pros,
Speaker 1: Pagana was very sick, and that was a big thing
Speaker 1: in the NFL. That's a big story this year. You
Speaker 1: know what was that like for you with you when
Speaker 1: you found out your coach was seriously, seriously ill. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. It was a little bit of an unprecedented situation.
Speaker 1: I think when coach Pagano went down, Uh in week
Speaker 1: three maybe had you seen it coming? No, no clue,
Speaker 1: So everybody kept it quiet. Yeah, we didn't know. We
Speaker 1: didn't know. We you know, we we had we had
Speaker 1: o we played a game, We had a bye weekend
Speaker 1: or an early week so you know, we were off
Speaker 1: for the weekend. Uh, we came back, you know, expecting
Speaker 1: to see coach Pagano. They find out, you know, there's
Speaker 1: a there's a doctor from from IU Health and and
Speaker 1: and our offensive coordinator we called the place sitting up
Speaker 1: there telling us, you know, coach Bagana sick, you know,
Speaker 1: seriously sick, you know, with lukemia, and uh, well you
Speaker 1: know see how it goes, and it was this is
Speaker 1: an odd It was tough too, you know, tough, but
Speaker 1: we were lucky. We had a lot of good coaches
Speaker 1: rally you know, rally us. We managed to win a
Speaker 1: couple of games, you know when when he was out
Speaker 1: and uh, I know, I know as as players, we
Speaker 1: felt like, you know, if we can just win, win
Speaker 1: this game, maybe it'll give coach bagan On something to
Speaker 1: be happy about this. So there was yeah, yeah, there is,
Speaker 1: I think and we didn't say that at the time
Speaker 1: because I don't think we wanted to admit you wanted
Speaker 1: to be exactly. I don't think we wanted to sensationalize,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't want to make it something it's not.
Speaker 1: But well, speaking of sensationalizing, so you get to to
Speaker 1: you finish out Stanford, how does what's it like when
Speaker 1: you leave standard? Because you you you you read shirted
Speaker 1: your first year, then played and you finished the Stanford
Speaker 1: We didn't leave three years. So I so I graduated.
Speaker 1: I had one year of eligibility left, but and you
Speaker 1: didn't and it was time to go. It was time
Speaker 1: to How did you know it was time to go? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know my degree? I got my degree exactly really
Speaker 1: didn't make any sense to stay? Yeah, it didn't. I
Speaker 1: had I had enough fun and then what happened? And
Speaker 1: then tell me where you're sitting when that when you
Speaker 1: find out what's going on for NFL. Was, how does
Speaker 1: that develop? Yeah, it's it's a it's it's actually sort
Speaker 1: of long process. And I was drafted before I graduated school,
Speaker 1: so you finish your college season. I took a We
Speaker 1: were on the quarter system at Stanford, so I took
Speaker 1: the winter quarter off to go train and prepare that
Speaker 1: they have a calm buying. Uh where in Indianapolis, which
Speaker 1: you know it was funny enough, was where I ended up.
Speaker 1: It's not the manning passing, that's not that's a camp
Speaker 1: and in Louisiana and Thibodeaux, but the combine it is.
Speaker 1: It a really interesting, weird sort of dynamic where they
Speaker 1: fly all these players and they have all the coaches,
Speaker 1: they have all the team doctors, and it's three days
Speaker 1: and you're there pick and you know this is before
Speaker 1: so this is a chance for all the teams to
Speaker 1: meet the players that to see NFL. It's not just Indie,
Speaker 1: It's it's it's it's league wise. It's all the teams
Speaker 1: flying in with all their personnel and I'll stay and
Speaker 1: then the players sort of cycle through. It's were like
Speaker 1: cattle in a meat market. Yeah, I remember, you know,
Speaker 1: walking up on stage with nothing but my little Skimpy's
Speaker 1: on and they announced, you know, Anthon's Secret runway exactly.
Speaker 1: You're you're you're gonna stage with strength coaches, head coaches
Speaker 1: and all these coaches sitting and bleachers around you that
Speaker 1: that you walk up in middle and it's you know
Speaker 1: Andrew Luck Stanford University, you know, six four, two thirty five,
Speaker 1: and guys are there with ads going, I don't like
Speaker 1: the ratio to his rib cage, that they don't let
Speaker 1: that rib ratio. God knows what they're saying. And then
Speaker 1: you turn around, you and you walk off. That's just
Speaker 1: one of the you know guys where you're getting a
Speaker 1: hundred X rays on every part of your body. They
Speaker 1: move your your knee this way. They have all your
Speaker 1: medical records. You know, they're going back to Hey and
Speaker 1: you know it says here in two thousand, six oh,
Speaker 1: sixteen years old, two thousands, you know, yeah, you sprained
Speaker 1: your right ankle. How did you find that you stole
Speaker 1: that candy bar from the drug store when you were
Speaker 1: a fourteen? We got that down here too. They do
Speaker 1: I I a lot of private detectives, but which which
Speaker 1: makes sense because there's so much money invested this teams
Speaker 1: and the model. Yeah, so way, what's you're there and
Speaker 1: you you take your clothes off and except your underwear,
Speaker 1: they size you up, You turn on, you leave. What
Speaker 1: happens next to the combine? Then you then you go
Speaker 1: do a bunch of physical you know, running a forty
Speaker 1: throwing about a bunch of physical tests, you know, a
Speaker 1: bunch of psychological tests, i Q tests, mental health tests.
Speaker 1: What's like, what's the what's the quiz they give you? Now?
Speaker 1: The test? Oh, what's it called the wonderlick? The wonderlick?
Speaker 1: The wonderlick? To do that because because because because it's
Speaker 1: presumed that the playbooks now were so complicated, they need
Speaker 1: people that can literally together. But I think some put
Speaker 1: it together better than others. Some do and then and
Speaker 1: then you know, some take stock in the wonder like
Speaker 1: some don't. You know. I think different teams have different
Speaker 1: ways of evaluating guys. So so that was an interesting experience. Uh,
Speaker 1: then you sort of then you leave the comment. And
Speaker 1: I had I had a fairly good sense that I
Speaker 1: would be drafted number one by Indianapolis just from the
Speaker 1: signals I was getting from the team and other things,
Speaker 1: and managed to you know, and then school started again
Speaker 1: for me. So if you go and going back to
Speaker 1: school and flying and you know, visiting teams and draft
Speaker 1: happens in New York, which is which is a which
Speaker 1: is a pretty neat experience. Describe what happened for you.
Speaker 1: I remember walking out on stage and some people applauding
Speaker 1: and some people booing. I don't know, you just NFL
Speaker 1: fans boo. How did you feel? I mean, you knew
Speaker 1: it was gonna happen kind of when everybody let you
Speaker 1: know that in advance, everybody put the cats out of
Speaker 1: the bag. But when it happens, at the moment happened,
Speaker 1: did you just feel great? You would number one in
Speaker 1: the draft that year? Man? Yeah, I felt on top
Speaker 1: of the world. I'm not gonna lie a little nervous.
Speaker 1: I didn't want a trip. Walking out on stage, she
Speaker 1: hugged the commissioners. He's into he's into these hugs. When
Speaker 1: you walk on, glad you're there. It's gonna make a
Speaker 1: lot of money. Yeah, So so that was fun. I
Speaker 1: remember I remember having a little a little pin that
Speaker 1: my mom was trying to you know, little pen and
Speaker 1: just trying to pin on my suit and she was
Speaker 1: really nervous because he took about two minutes to get
Speaker 1: you know, I don't go How did your dad feel?
Speaker 1: Your dad was a high school quarterback, he played for
Speaker 1: West Virginia, he played for the Oilers. How did he
Speaker 1: feel to see you do this? That's a great thing
Speaker 1: for a dad who's a scholar athlete as well to
Speaker 1: see his son. What did he say to you? I
Speaker 1: think he was very proud. He just said congratulations. I
Speaker 1: don't remember specifics, but he didn't. She just he just
Speaker 1: kept smiling. Yeah, he felt good. He did, and we
Speaker 1: have a great relationship. It's easier for me having a
Speaker 1: dad who played in the NFL and and and did
Speaker 1: a lot of couple of seasons where he played, and
Speaker 1: then he backed up Warren Moon for we did back
Speaker 1: up Warren. He also backed up Archie Manning his roop
Speaker 1: few years. So we have sort of a connection with
Speaker 1: the man and family. Now, as soon as you you
Speaker 1: the draft is over, I would assume there's a euphoria,
Speaker 1: But you snapped right out of it because like it's
Speaker 1: down to business now. Yeah, there wasn't for and then
Speaker 1: I wish you would would have been down to business.
Speaker 1: Had to go back to school. And finish up, and
Speaker 1: you try sitting in a lecture. You know, after you've
Speaker 1: been you've been drafted by a team, you have a job,
Speaker 1: you know where you're going. Honestly, I honestly don't feel
Speaker 1: sorry for you because I can't think of anything I'd
Speaker 1: like more than to go back to Stanford having been
Speaker 1: the number one draft again. So you go back. How
Speaker 1: long are you back there? Back for maybe a couple
Speaker 1: more months to finish that last finished Q? What time
Speaker 1: of year is then you got the draft? Is win?
Speaker 1: The draft is like April, right, and you gotta go back.
Speaker 1: Where's the summer quarter? It was the spring quarter and
Speaker 1: we finished up in mid June. So so you were
Speaker 1: in the quarter and you went to the draft and
Speaker 1: came back. So in the first it's draft, come back,
Speaker 1: and then you finish and you're dub with Stanford. You
Speaker 1: get your degree in architectic somehow right, they went me,
Speaker 1: they went me past. You were good for Stanford. And
Speaker 1: so now when do your report? Uh so we report
Speaker 1: late July was when training camp starts. When you know
Speaker 1: the actual that's the formal training, formal training. You show
Speaker 1: up for your first pro training camp. Now you are
Speaker 1: in the center ring in ain't high school? In eight
Speaker 1: college and ain't big ten and ain't it's professional football?
Speaker 1: What's that like? I mean, did you're asked tighten just
Speaker 1: a little bit? These guys are huge, they are They
Speaker 1: are the apex of physical freaks. You know. There are
Speaker 1: some guys that that are three hundred pounds that are
Speaker 1: running faster than you know, running than your high school
Speaker 1: running back, that are just that are just absolutely physical.
Speaker 1: And you know, some of the guys you're walking along
Speaker 1: a room, you're you're playing with thirty five year olds,
Speaker 1: thirty six year old with with you know, with three
Speaker 1: kids in it in the house, and you know a
Speaker 1: bunch of rookies are three years old that you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know right from left. So so it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a different dynamic than college, where you're sort of, well,
Speaker 1: everybody's with your yeah, with you, with your your buddies,
Speaker 1: you're going back to the dorm, you know, you're hanging out.
Speaker 1: In the NFL, it's different, which makes it fun when
Speaker 1: you win and come together as a team, you know,
Speaker 1: because you really do have so many different types of guys.
Speaker 1: And I would imagine that your teammates, I mean, on
Speaker 1: one hand, people in the pro like if you go
Speaker 1: to college, it's just assumed under ordinary circumstances, certainly things
Speaker 1: can change, but under ordinary circumstances, you're going to be
Speaker 1: there for the four years. This is your team, this
Speaker 1: is your this is your family. But in the pros
Speaker 1: where people move on, where the teams have only their
Speaker 1: loyalty to the players only extends so far. Do you
Speaker 1: walk in there and people feel you out and you
Speaker 1: earn your way into that family or do they treat
Speaker 1: you like family and everybody coheses right away. No, it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen in the first day.
Speaker 1: I will say that people gotta get to know you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta get you know, I think you have personalities
Speaker 1: come out and you know, see what meshes that, especially
Speaker 1: during training camp where you're gonna have you know, a
Speaker 1: hundred guys that are in training camp and then one
Speaker 1: day you wake up and look and there's only fifty
Speaker 1: three guys left, you know, just under half gone, half
Speaker 1: or gone. And then that's when there there there is
Speaker 1: a little bit. But but once the final cuts are made,
Speaker 1: which is a those cut days are very sad days
Speaker 1: because you see buddies go. You see guys you built relationships,
Speaker 1: you know, guys you admired. Maybe, yeah, absolutely, guys you
Speaker 1: looked up to, guys that helped you out, you know
Speaker 1: when you first walked in the door, and then they're gone,
Speaker 1: and that fifty three players, that's when everything starts to cohes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I think that's when that's when you come
Speaker 1: together a little more. But but still, you know, even
Speaker 1: guys are traded in the middle of the season. You know,
Speaker 1: guys are cut. Still guys are picked up. So it's
Speaker 1: it is it's a lot different, you know, just to
Speaker 1: what you said at that than than the you know,
Speaker 1: you know you're gonna be in college for four years.
Speaker 1: You know who's in your class, you know who's you know,
Speaker 1: you know guys on the lot of familiarity. Now, one
Speaker 1: thing I think about when I think about the NFL
Speaker 1: is this idea of the biggest, strongest, fastest men hitting
Speaker 1: each other in this very violent game. And the rules
Speaker 1: have been changed in order to protect players, the equipment
Speaker 1: has evolved. Obviously, there's a lot of discussion about concussions
Speaker 1: and so forth, over a lot of brain injury research
Speaker 1: and issues, and people donating the brains of their deceased
Speaker 1: suicide victims, a little lot of heavy duty stuff. But
Speaker 1: I want to ask you when you go out there.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a competitive game and people want to win.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, guys don't necessarily want to
Speaker 1: hurt each other the way they wouldn't want to get
Speaker 1: hurt either. Do you find it's a weird balance of
Speaker 1: those two because football is as violent now on one
Speaker 1: hand as it was before, but because equipment changes and
Speaker 1: rule changes, it seemed more violent back then. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I I don't think guys are any less aggressive when
Speaker 1: it when it comes to hitting. I no, no, it doesn't.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, maybe there's a thought too
Speaker 1: that all these these equipment changes and and and you
Speaker 1: feel safer in it, so so you feel like you
Speaker 1: can hit harder. But there's also I think you know,
Speaker 1: guys are are being taught, especially at a young age
Speaker 1: now too. You know how to tackle correctly, to how
Speaker 1: to how to and I think there is a mutual
Speaker 1: respect between players where you know you're not going to
Speaker 1: try and take out someone's achilles or a cl you know,
Speaker 1: some guys maybe, do you know, I don't I don't know.
Speaker 1: Some guys play very aggressive and things happen. We understand,
Speaker 1: you know, we know what we sign up for. I
Speaker 1: think when you when you play football, and I like
Speaker 1: it and I of it. And as a quarterback, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm on the wrong side of the hit. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't ever get to dish it out per se.
Speaker 1: But you know that's fine with me. Right. Let's let's
Speaker 1: talk about quarterbacking. Let's talk about what it's like to
Speaker 1: have that job where I played touch football with my
Speaker 1: friends until I was forty years old. Be played every
Speaker 1: weekend during a season in the fall in New York
Speaker 1: in Central Park, and then that game moved to Los
Speaker 1: Angeles because almost all those guys I played with were
Speaker 1: my UH colleagues and the entertainment business. And of course,
Speaker 1: the difference between a sandlot game, the difference between a
Speaker 1: flag game and a bunch of geezers playing football, the
Speaker 1: difference between high school and cause is the speed and
Speaker 1: the velocity of the game. And you dropped back to pass,
Speaker 1: and on average, how much time do you have to
Speaker 1: throw the ball. I think a little between three and
Speaker 1: four seconds. You have that much time in a perfect world,
Speaker 1: So you have three to four seconds to read the defense.
Speaker 1: You know from the past play and you are this
Speaker 1: architecture student. We're not you know, you know, you know
Speaker 1: the trapezoids out there where, who's going where? And you
Speaker 1: have a couple of seconds to drop back and ascertain
Speaker 1: who you're going to throw the ball to, who's open,
Speaker 1: who's more likely going to be open, because sometimes you're
Speaker 1: throwing the ball to someone anticipating they're gonna be open.
Speaker 1: Once the ball gets there, you throw the ball to
Speaker 1: a spot very often, unless it's a broken play and
Speaker 1: they come back to you to come back, and then
Speaker 1: someone's improvising. What percentage of plays would you say, do
Speaker 1: you throw the ball at a spot that's a preordained route?
Speaker 1: And how many plays is it more improvised? What's the ratio? Well,
Speaker 1: every place is called you know, hopefully it's not taft
Speaker 1: him for ries. You know you're gonna the defense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it breaks down probably a third of the time. Who
Speaker 1: drove you nuts this season? And the defensive backfeld? What
Speaker 1: team drove you insane? Read on the Baltimore Ravens, Because
Speaker 1: you know there's a you're you're taught there's a structure
Speaker 1: to defense. You know, if one guy's blitz in that
Speaker 1: someone else should be covering his spot. If if you're playing,
Speaker 1: you know, cover three three guys consequence for everything they do,
Speaker 1: then then you should have, you know, a corner on
Speaker 1: the right, a safety in the middle of the field,
Speaker 1: and another corner on the left. Everything. He's everywhere. You know,
Speaker 1: he's down on the box, he's on the line of scrimmage,
Speaker 1: he's running, he's responsible for the middle zone, and he's
Speaker 1: all the way over and he's a war lot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's he's he's he's a renegade. But but but he
Speaker 1: does it. I think because he understands football so well
Speaker 1: and studies the offense. You know, he says, okay, I
Speaker 1: know when they're in this formation, there's these these and
Speaker 1: that's innate skill people have. This is good God given skill.
Speaker 1: They have it. I think it is. But I also
Speaker 1: think he works at it and watches film and knows,
Speaker 1: you know, and and studies and and it's played for
Speaker 1: so long. But that's what I want to ask you.
Speaker 1: How much do you think that people it's innate? Like
Speaker 1: when you watch football, you see people do things that
Speaker 1: other people don't do. You see magic happen when you watch.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm gonna talk. I'm gonna date myself obviously,
Speaker 1: because I'm talking about guys from from you know, the
Speaker 1: glory days. And when I was watching NFL, you know constantly,
Speaker 1: I got a lot of you know, a little less
Speaker 1: time to watch every Sunday now, but I catch a
Speaker 1: game every weekend or or or the highlights. But like
Speaker 1: if you watch Sanders and you watch someone moved the
Speaker 1: way sand where you say, nobody does that. When you
Speaker 1: watch Nameth what made name of the name of in
Speaker 1: spite of all of his notoriety, you never saw somebody
Speaker 1: throw the ball on the dead run to their receiver.
Speaker 1: Maynard never had to break stride and he and and
Speaker 1: that ball would hit him in the tips of his
Speaker 1: fingers on the dead run and he would take it
Speaker 1: into the ends, of which a lot of guys have
Speaker 1: to come back to the ball or whatever. They got
Speaker 1: to jump up and do the ballet move for the ball.
Speaker 1: You see people and it's work. But do you look
Speaker 1: at them sometimes and say, it's just God given, it's
Speaker 1: genetic with some of these people. They just have gifts
Speaker 1: the mental as well as physical. Yes, I think, and
Speaker 1: at least once a week it seems like you're watching
Speaker 1: film of and you stop and say, how did that
Speaker 1: person do that? You know, there's no hope for me
Speaker 1: in this guys, QBS. You grew up admiring Peyton, Manning
Speaker 1: love Peyton. Still a big fan of Peyton. Um Steve McNair,
Speaker 1: you know who whose since passed away. But but he
Speaker 1: was a tough guy who could sling the ball, oh
Speaker 1: all over the field. So those two. What do you
Speaker 1: admire most about Peyton? You you had the tough job
Speaker 1: obviously replacing Peyton. Yeah, you know, I always admired how
Speaker 1: how Payton commanded everything that Yeah. Never Quitton was like
Speaker 1: a general out there three minutes left down by Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it was fun to watch and he seemed like
Speaker 1: he knew where everybody was going all the time. There's
Speaker 1: no surprises for him. And you know it was like
Speaker 1: everything was so well rehearsed that that it happened and
Speaker 1: whatever the defense put out there, there's no there's no
Speaker 1: very young year. How old Now, I'm not supposed to
Speaker 1: laugh at that. You're I'm old enough to be your father.
Speaker 1: He's only twenty three. But Andrew Luck has been working
Speaker 1: towards this moment for more than a decade. In a minute,
Speaker 1: we'll hear about what kind of football Luck prefers and
Speaker 1: the strength training he thinks is most important. I think
Speaker 1: your core and your asses cannon out of a canoe
Speaker 1: were so much powers generated. This is Alec Baldwin and
Speaker 1: you're listening to. Here's the thing. Growing up, Andrew Luck
Speaker 1: went to school in Europe. His father, a former quarterback himself,
Speaker 1: led the World League of American Football, the NFL's experiment
Speaker 1: with starting a league abroad. When his father changed jobs
Speaker 1: in the family landed in Houston, Andrew was ready to
Speaker 1: play ball himself. At age four, team Andrew attended the
Speaker 1: Manning Passing Academy in Louisiana. So you know that the
Speaker 1: Manning family obviously sort of the first family of quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: you know, in the in this league. You know. So
Speaker 1: I was in eighth grade in Houston, and uh, I
Speaker 1: went to the camp as a as a camper, and
Speaker 1: it's this was this was it's in Louisiana. It used
Speaker 1: to be Hammond, Louisiana is where I went as a camper,
Speaker 1: and you stayed stayed in these dorms looked like a
Speaker 1: Soviet era, like old Gray, you know, like like the summertime.
Speaker 1: It was so summer in Louisiana and you're in the yeah,
Speaker 1: the cinder blocks exactly. But we had a blast. And
Speaker 1: I think I was on cloud nine when Archie Manning
Speaker 1: came up and said, how you doing sign I played
Speaker 1: with your dad. You know, I'm in heaven. Shoot me
Speaker 1: now I've lived. And then then you go to you
Speaker 1: go to college whatever, and they invite all these college
Speaker 1: quarterbacks come down and be counselors, and I think it's
Speaker 1: a great thing. It's like, it's a great way to meet,
Speaker 1: you know, thirty other quarterbacks around around you know, the
Speaker 1: n C A A and then get to know him.
Speaker 1: So I went down to the past and my last
Speaker 1: two years of college, and you know, I got to
Speaker 1: know the Manning family obviously a little better through that,
Speaker 1: and a bunch of bunch of quarterbacks from from from college.
Speaker 1: So it's Kapernick was at that camp. I got to
Speaker 1: I got to know call in there, a little bit,
Speaker 1: a lot of guys, a lot a lot of guys,
Speaker 1: and it's fun. It really is fun, and it's it's
Speaker 1: it's a unique opportunity because it's not often around your
Speaker 1: peers and in a relaxed setting like that when you
Speaker 1: want to work on your passing skills and but I
Speaker 1: don't mean the timing and reading offenses, the mechanics of
Speaker 1: you throw. What's your primary set of exercises and work.
Speaker 1: Did you have a coach when you got to the pros?
Speaker 1: Did they come in as they often do and dissect
Speaker 1: your throwing motion and get into the mechanics if you're
Speaker 1: throwing again? Not? Not in the pros. I think I
Speaker 1: think there's a thought that if you've made it this far,
Speaker 1: don't don't change your throw on motion. You They didn't,
Speaker 1: but not like Tebow where they're coming to you but
Speaker 1: you're not Tebow. But I'm saying people have the assumption
Speaker 1: that on the pros they want to strip you down
Speaker 1: and say okay, let's start all over again. That they
Speaker 1: didn't need to They didn't feel they needed to re
Speaker 1: teach you how to throw the football. No, absolutely not.
Speaker 1: What's I'm very thankful for because I I don't think
Speaker 1: I would have handled it very well. I think that
Speaker 1: I think quarterbacks are are very particular about their own
Speaker 1: motion and in a little bit anal you know, is
Speaker 1: this is the way? Because what do you think you
Speaker 1: had to develop and if you wanted to improve when
Speaker 1: you were younger, when you added pounds, when you wanted
Speaker 1: to muscle up and strengthen up. Because I said that
Speaker 1: Joe Montana once what I was doing a film and
Speaker 1: Montana came to visit the director on the set and
Speaker 1: I had the quickest, most fleeting conversation. It wasn't very real.
Speaker 1: Iz said to him, I go, what was your strength training?
Speaker 1: He said, I avoided weights as much as possible. I
Speaker 1: didn't want to get muscled up. He said. I took
Speaker 1: medical tubing like hose and I put a strap in
Speaker 1: a doorway and I just did the throwing motion over
Speaker 1: and over, you know, like a thousand times with this
Speaker 1: tension thing. Just to strength than the rotation. What exercises
Speaker 1: do you think it to strengthen your legs in your
Speaker 1: back as much as your upper body. I think I
Speaker 1: think your core and your asses is so much cannon
Speaker 1: out of a canoe. There where so much powers generated,
Speaker 1: and I think that's that's a lot of leg training,
Speaker 1: a lot of leg training, a lot of weight training,
Speaker 1: run training. I hate running, but yeah, you have to do.
Speaker 1: But I think it's more weight and just rotation it's
Speaker 1: almost like golfers. You know, you're very one boxing and
Speaker 1: boxing you're very one sided. It's almost like throwing a
Speaker 1: right cross, you know, could you throw that punch? You
Speaker 1: gotta punch absolutely and and you become very one sided.
Speaker 1: You're always torking in the same direction, so making sure
Speaker 1: your left, making sure you're evening out, you know, your
Speaker 1: right side of the body per se. But but I
Speaker 1: I and that's something that I that I learned more,
Speaker 1: you know of in college. And then the legs. You
Speaker 1: know how important your lower body is to throwing. I
Speaker 1: would play in sand a lot of pickup games with
Speaker 1: my friends. And of course when you play for fun
Speaker 1: with guys when you're you know, when I'm in my
Speaker 1: thirties and forties, just for fun. Half the guys bring
Speaker 1: their own favorite ball, and the ball is deflated or
Speaker 1: inflated to the level they prefer. The ball is scuffed
Speaker 1: to the level they prefer. And when you pick up
Speaker 1: a ball in the NFL, forget about weather conditions. Is
Speaker 1: the ball always a crisp, waxy, brand new ball or
Speaker 1: do they allow you to treat the ball the way
Speaker 1: you want to for your preference. I hate the crisp waxy.
Speaker 1: You can't stand it. There's a our our equipment managers
Speaker 1: for their colts, Frog Tea and Danny, the three great
Speaker 1: guys that work with their quarterbacks. They have it. They
Speaker 1: have a top secret protocol for for for them to
Speaker 1: treat the ball. Treating the balls, it's secret. They won't
Speaker 1: tell me. I don't think they tell Peyton when I
Speaker 1: know what it is by the women to tell you,
Speaker 1: it's they pee on it. It's their own urine. They
Speaker 1: use their own urine to strip the waxy film off.
Speaker 1: Who is the baseball player that used to pee on
Speaker 1: his hands to avoid Callus's There was a Cubbs player
Speaker 1: Like yeah, but I know I soon they have a
Speaker 1: patented top secret Theca cola and then the football is treated.
Speaker 1: But you do treat the ball. You do, and it's
Speaker 1: sat out of the box. It's not out of the box.
Speaker 1: And I've seen different stages of it, Like I know,
Speaker 1: I know they put the balls in the the sauna
Speaker 1: for like a couple of minutes that they're allowed to
Speaker 1: do something that allows them to treat the ball. They do.
Speaker 1: Did every team get to use their own ball? Like
Speaker 1: when when you come out on offense. We go get
Speaker 1: the box, we go open the crate of your opponents balls.
Speaker 1: Everyone brings their own ball on the field as long
Speaker 1: as it's the approved ball. Yes, and and for what
Speaker 1: I understand, it used to not be that way. It
Speaker 1: used to be like there's a certain you know, all
Speaker 1: the balls for game day were open an hour before
Speaker 1: and each team used the same ball. But I think, uh,
Speaker 1: I think Peyton and and Tom Brady sort of this
Speaker 1: was before my time. Let it. Let a coalition against
Speaker 1: that and got it change where teams can use you know,
Speaker 1: what about the inflation level of the ball. Does the
Speaker 1: ball have to be inflated to a certain Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think it does, and referees check it and they mark
Speaker 1: the balls off before the ball that we approved in
Speaker 1: one way. But you're allowed to treat the exterior of
Speaker 1: the ball. Yeah, that's amazing. So when you're there and
Speaker 1: you're throwing the ball, is it completely unconscious When you
Speaker 1: throw the ball and you think you're ineffective? Do you
Speaker 1: sometimes say to yourself, even at the pro level, that
Speaker 1: you've got to go back to a basic You got
Speaker 1: to remember, you're bringing the ball in behind your ear.
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do? What's the firing sequence in
Speaker 1: your mind of throwing a pass? I think you don't
Speaker 1: want to think about. No, you don't, And that's what
Speaker 1: I shouldn't say. Ever, when you if you if you're
Speaker 1: going on a string and balls are dying on you,
Speaker 1: and you say why what if you're having a shitty
Speaker 1: day and you're not throwing the ball? But yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that that's when you, when you, when you maybe
Speaker 1: not during the dead you have fresh button, you look
Speaker 1: at the film and you say, what am I doing
Speaker 1: different than than than you see sometimes you did? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think, what did you do differently? I think, I look,
Speaker 1: you know, you're dropping the ball too low, and it's
Speaker 1: elong dating your whole wind up. You know, it's almost
Speaker 1: like a picture now instead of a quarterback, you know,
Speaker 1: instead of throwing a football. And that's what's causing you
Speaker 1: to be late on all your routes. You know, makes
Speaker 1: you know, so so that that we can practice. You're
Speaker 1: gonna work on keeping that ball, you know, higher and
Speaker 1: and and maybe shortening that that motion. Uh So, I
Speaker 1: think it's you're still tweak it every now and then
Speaker 1: if if it's not working out, if you feel like it,
Speaker 1: you know, it's inhibiting you from from doing, you know,
Speaker 1: from being better. Um for fans like myself, when we
Speaker 1: watch you play pro football and you're doing your job
Speaker 1: and you're just humming that ball out there, you're you're you're,
Speaker 1: you're hitting that ball, first downs, whatever, and the other
Speaker 1: guy drops the ball. Did he come back and apologize
Speaker 1: to you? Every now and then? Different guys are different. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, I I probably apologize too much for throwing
Speaker 1: interceptions to the guys on the line because I know
Speaker 1: they get fed up when they're blocking their butts off
Speaker 1: against some werewolf of the defensive end and they're doing
Speaker 1: a great job. I know, Yeah, their quarterback throws an interception.
Speaker 1: Good job, QB. But you know, some guys apologize, some
Speaker 1: guys don't. It's just the nature of the game that
Speaker 1: we're humans, you know, human errors occur. Let's talk about
Speaker 1: the season, and I'll talk about it the season beginning,
Speaker 1: actually when the season ends. So your season ended and
Speaker 1: you I did not go to the Super Bowl, yes,
Speaker 1: and you were eliminated by the Super from playing in
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. How we were limited in the first
Speaker 1: round of the playoffs by the Ravens, which is no fun.
Speaker 1: And you don't prepare for you know, the end of
Speaker 1: the season is there in the player. You want to
Speaker 1: go to the Super Bowl, so you think there's more
Speaker 1: to go. Yeah, so you show up. So you show
Speaker 1: up Monday and you have a few more blank pages
Speaker 1: on your schedule. Yeah you do, you really do. And
Speaker 1: you show up Monday and it's guys are cleaning their
Speaker 1: lockers out. He's very similar to the film business. Trash bags.
Speaker 1: You're saying, well, you know, all right, see you man.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe maybe you're back next year. Maybe you're not.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't know, so so it's odd. And
Speaker 1: then I remember sitting around for a couple of days
Speaker 1: and you know, all right, I gotta get out of town.
Speaker 1: I gotta you know, I can't sit around. And I
Speaker 1: apartment and and leave. So I went to Sundance Film Festival.
Speaker 1: It was awesome. It no, I can't see actually that's
Speaker 1: no motorcyclists, but but had a great time. They're a
Speaker 1: nice way to sort of get away. It's not not
Speaker 1: not the crowd that wreck noises football players too much.
Speaker 1: So it's a nice way to get away. Which now
Speaker 1: I'm blowing my cover. I'm sure for next year be
Speaker 1: careful out of here, but hopefully next year we're in
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl. Uh, I'll travel a little bit overseas somewhere.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say, do you still have a bug for Europe?
Speaker 1: I think I've lived in London too. I lived in London, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf,
Speaker 1: some suburbs outside. Go over there, what do you like
Speaker 1: to do? I see the sites like any other tourists.
Speaker 1: I think I'm gonna go back and look at all.
Speaker 1: You know what you're trying to see? Friend over there?
Speaker 1: Is that what you're trying to know? The girlfriend's coming with.
Speaker 1: There's a couple of gondolas with your girl. We understand
Speaker 1: what you're saying. A couple of drinks here, it's very romantic.
Speaker 1: Covering a little shopping, Yeah, but no shopping. I can't
Speaker 1: stand for your girlfriend, so girl, maybe maybe. Andrew Luck
Speaker 1: has other things on his mind besides shopping. He wants
Speaker 1: to relearn German in the off season, and of course
Speaker 1: he's hoping to bring a championship back to Indianapolis. I'm
Speaker 1: still young, hopefully got some time and it gives you
Speaker 1: a little motivation for next seasons. A party that really
Speaker 1: is looking forward to getting back. Yeah, there is, and
Speaker 1: that will continue to grow as the off season sort of,
Speaker 1: after a few more gone to the trips with that girl,
Speaker 1: they will be sick with each other and ready to
Speaker 1: He'll work out again. This is Alec Baldwin and you're
Speaker 1: listening to here's the thing.