Speaker 1: What's going on everybody. I'm Peanut Tillmans. This is my guy,
Speaker 1: Roman Harfer, and this is the NFL Players Second Acts Podcast.
Speaker 1: We're in Phoenix, Arizona, at the NFL Annual Meetings. We've
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Speaker 1: check us out. This is what we do. We bring
Speaker 1: you top tier guests, former players that are now all
Speaker 1: in their second acts doing great things. And we got
Speaker 1: two good ones to day. We got two former players
Speaker 1: that are now head coaches. We have the Jacksonville Jaguars
Speaker 1: head coach Doug Peterson and the new head coach of
Speaker 1: the Carolina Panthers, Frank Reich, check it out. Today, we
Speaker 1: got a special guest with us. This gentleman is the
Speaker 1: head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He previously played for
Speaker 1: the Packers. He won a super Bowl when he played
Speaker 1: with the Packers, and he won a super Bowl when
Speaker 1: he was a head coach with the Philadelphia Eagles. Welcome
Speaker 1: to the show, Doug Peterson. You know what, let's just
Speaker 1: get the awkwardness out of the way. Coach with the
Speaker 1: Eagles could how what was it like to be in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia to win a championship? Playing in Philadelphia under Shan
Speaker 1: Well Sean Payton on the Saints we go to Philly.
Speaker 1: He was like, look, the game. The game plan is
Speaker 1: to get the crowd to boo by halftime because it
Speaker 1: is so rough. And the fans they are so special
Speaker 1: and they are so unique. What do you mean you
Speaker 1: mean they're like they helped bring the Teagle? What was
Speaker 1: that like? It was, Um, it's very special. I played
Speaker 1: in that city. I worked with Coach Reid on his
Speaker 1: staff in that city, and obviously I was a head
Speaker 1: coach in that city. And it's um, you just said
Speaker 1: something right there. When you were with the Saints and
Speaker 1: and coach Peyton said, Hey, if we can jump up
Speaker 1: and the crowd's gonna turn. Well. I took a Jacksonville
Speaker 1: Jaguar team in there in Week four, Week three or
Speaker 1: four this past year and I said the exact same thing.
Speaker 1: I said, guys, if we get up on this, on
Speaker 1: this guy, on these guys, the crowd is gonna turn.
Speaker 1: And it was four, we were up, fourteen, nothing about
Speaker 1: to go in twenty one, nothing and the crowd was
Speaker 1: turning on him. It was turning on him. But but
Speaker 1: that's their that's their passion. And then for for us
Speaker 1: to win a championship that year, um, the way we
Speaker 1: want it with the guys that we want it with. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, as you guys know, it's a special it's
Speaker 1: a special bond. We've all been in the locker room.
Speaker 1: We all understand what that means. And and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: we lost some guys that year. But for the city
Speaker 1: of phil Delphia to wait fifty two years and that
Speaker 1: organization to win a championship, you know, Coach Reid took
Speaker 1: him to a Super Bowl, and I have a lot
Speaker 1: of respect for Coach Read they lost. He's been to
Speaker 1: like five or six NFC championship games with the Eagles,
Speaker 1: you know, and and so for us that year, um,
Speaker 1: it's it's very special. And um, you know, I hate
Speaker 1: to say, but there's a lot of Eagle fans around
Speaker 1: this country. Yeah, I run into all the time. I
Speaker 1: just couldn't get down with the grease selling them. The
Speaker 1: poles didn't they like, oh, they didn't want him to
Speaker 1: climb up them and to tear him down. But they
Speaker 1: were still climbing up the boy were trees and they
Speaker 1: just yea, yeah, they're just different. They got that little
Speaker 1: jail selling and they had like a holding room in
Speaker 1: there in the stadium. I mean, it's just Philly's Philly, man.
Speaker 1: I mean I think that's I think that's what makes
Speaker 1: Philly so unique. And a lot of respect for those fans,
Speaker 1: and and I'll tell you they're they're passionate, but they're loyal.
Speaker 1: I mean we I hate to say, we could be
Speaker 1: four and ten and they're still gonna show out there's
Speaker 1: they're gonna pack that you know, that stadium, and you
Speaker 1: know they're gonna hang with you all season long. So
Speaker 1: how would you compare Eagles fans to Packer fans? Now,
Speaker 1: Packer fans are like, oh you know that that real
Speaker 1: deep Wisconsin on all. You know, all they got that
Speaker 1: that thing there. Oh, I've been there a few times.
Speaker 1: I feel like they're like the nicest fans though, Like
Speaker 1: they are extremely nice and loyal in the cold, and
Speaker 1: they get so much snow. They don't throw snowballs out there.
Speaker 1: Hold on, hold on bread far Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, they've
Speaker 1: had two quarterbacks for like fifty years and you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. So they've had it well, they've had
Speaker 1: it good. They've been to they've had a lot of success.
Speaker 1: They've been to a lot of playoff games, a couple
Speaker 1: of Super Bowls. So it's a different crowd. But you're right,
Speaker 1: they it's a it's a um. You know, in the
Speaker 1: in the in the winter time, you're gonna see nothing
Speaker 1: but blaze orange, you know, because they just caught got
Speaker 1: out of the hunt Huntever and then they came to
Speaker 1: a game at twelve noon. Um. But again, they're they're
Speaker 1: they're very loyal, they're very supportive, they're passionate about the Packers.
Speaker 1: I loved playing there for the eight years that I did. UM.
Speaker 1: And again, there's a lot of Packer fans around this
Speaker 1: country and I still run into a lot of them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they travel well, they do. They travel well. So when
Speaker 1: you so when you were in Green Bay, um, I
Speaker 1: was back on our Brett farm, Like, what was that
Speaker 1: experience like for you? And how did you make it
Speaker 1: last so long? Being his not just the back back
Speaker 1: up to him, but that quarterback room what we had,
Speaker 1: like because you had a lot of great coaches there too,
Speaker 1: and all those Uh I had Steve Mariucci and ninety
Speaker 1: five when I went there, and then and then it
Speaker 1: transitioned to to Marty Morton Wagg and the ultimately we
Speaker 1: had Andy Reid. Yeah, you know, Andy Reid was our
Speaker 1: position coach there. Um. And you know Daryl Bevil who's
Speaker 1: still coaching, he's in Miami right now. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: he was one of our position coaches at the times.
Speaker 1: We've had a lot of a lot of great coaches,
Speaker 1: you know, coaches. Tom Rossley was the offensive coordinator at
Speaker 1: the time, you know, and and then you know in
Speaker 1: our room, there was there was Brett, There was Jim McMahon,
Speaker 1: There was Matt Hasselback Jim, Yeah, Matt Hasselbeck was in there. Man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, we've we've had you know, Henry Burrus, who
Speaker 1: oh my good from Canada? From Yeah you know why? Yes?
Speaker 1: In Chicago app a great cup? Yeah, I want a
Speaker 1: great cup. So we've had we've had really really good
Speaker 1: uh quarterback rooms. Um. Obviously they were very lighthearted rooms.
Speaker 1: There was football being taught, but we we enjoyed each
Speaker 1: other and had had had a great time. So Doug
Speaker 1: following up that question, so after you finish your career
Speaker 1: playing wise, when did you know you wanted to get
Speaker 1: in coaches? You just routed off seven different great head
Speaker 1: coaches that were all around you at your different times
Speaker 1: in Green Bay. We weren't even talking about with Derek.
Speaker 1: Coach Rhodes was coaching defense too. I wasn't with him
Speaker 1: though we missed. I missed I missed coach ros That's fine,
Speaker 1: but you still had an influence of yeah, when did
Speaker 1: you know that you want to get in that professor?
Speaker 1: So my my last my last two years in Green Bay. Um,
Speaker 1: I really started thinking, you know, I was the backup
Speaker 1: quarterback and it really started getting me. Um thinking about
Speaker 1: what I wanted to do after football, how I wanted
Speaker 1: to transition. I wanted to stay in football somehow, someway
Speaker 1: and so the wheel started turning. And it was not
Speaker 1: untill that last year in two thousand and four that
Speaker 1: I really felt like coaching was going to be in
Speaker 1: my future. I just didn't know at what level, whether
Speaker 1: it's gonna be high school, college, pro. You know, I
Speaker 1: spent a lot of time with coaches picking their brains,
Speaker 1: you know, to see just as you guys know, the
Speaker 1: grind of a season, to grind a lot of year.
Speaker 1: It's a lot a lot of time what these coaches
Speaker 1: go through them like, I really really want to do
Speaker 1: I really want to do that. You know, maybe if
Speaker 1: you college. You know, if you're a college coach, you're
Speaker 1: on the road recruiting, biting two cell phones. You know,
Speaker 1: it's a recruiting phone, and you're I don't know if
Speaker 1: I want to do that. And so I settled on
Speaker 1: high school football. Uh. Mike Sherman, who was my head
Speaker 1: coach in Green Bay when I when I stepped away,
Speaker 1: um gave me some great advice because he was a
Speaker 1: high school football coach, you know, in his time. And
Speaker 1: he said, he said, Doug, he said, just you got
Speaker 1: to find a place where you enjoy teaching the game
Speaker 1: of football. Yeah, wherever you can go and just teach
Speaker 1: the game, figure out where that is for you and
Speaker 1: then and then plug in. And so for me it
Speaker 1: was it was high school. So I as soon as
Speaker 1: I retired, I got into high school football down in Shreeport, Louisiana. OK. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did that for four years. It was Calvary Calvary Academy.
Speaker 1: I was in there with evangel Christians. It was pretty good.
Speaker 1: They beat the Brakes office a couple of times. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I did high school coaching for four years.
Speaker 1: But in my was that immediately after you right after
Speaker 1: five I got no time head. Yeah, I went right
Speaker 1: it as a head coach, um and did that for
Speaker 1: four years. But there was still something inside of me
Speaker 1: that there was more. Right, there was more. And having
Speaker 1: been in the league for a combined total about fourteen
Speaker 1: years on and off, you know, when you're around the game,
Speaker 1: you want to get to that next level. And so,
Speaker 1: uh Andy Reid had a had a quality control job
Speaker 1: open and hired me in two thousand and nine to
Speaker 1: come back to Philadelphia as a quality control guys. So
Speaker 1: I dumped from high school back into the NFL. So
Speaker 1: did you have any other plans or career plans or
Speaker 1: goals aspirations, I would say outside of coaching when you
Speaker 1: were done. No, this is what it was like, Man,
Speaker 1: I'm going on chips are like here we go. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I you know, I'm a business major, got a degree
Speaker 1: in business. But I was like, I don't think I
Speaker 1: really want to sit behind a desk or you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not the type that's gonna go sell something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I was a football guy, and so I
Speaker 1: mean you could be a head coach, so like, yeah
Speaker 1: you could. I'm feeling it now, like you you could
Speaker 1: sell me with it. You can sell me with that.
Speaker 1: I like your I like your confidence. How was what
Speaker 1: are those conversations like though? When you you know you
Speaker 1: typically it's the oc DC and then you have a
Speaker 1: successful season or two and then your name kind of
Speaker 1: gets floated around becoming a head coach, Like what are
Speaker 1: those conversations like? Is it just are you on the
Speaker 1: phone talking to other teams? Is that you're your agent? Like, Hey,
Speaker 1: I got some news, m Philadelphia Eagles want to possibly
Speaker 1: your your name's been trounation And a good question because
Speaker 1: you as sean something very similar to this yesterday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like how does how does that even? Like occur or
Speaker 1: how does it arise about you coming head? So for me,
Speaker 1: for me, I was the offensive coordinator in Kansas City
Speaker 1: with with Andy Reid, you know, because we when Andy
Speaker 1: got fired in Philly in twenty twelve, got hired in
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen. He brought me as an offensive coordinator. I
Speaker 1: was just a quarterback coach and Philly left to go
Speaker 1: be AZOC and then you know, we had we had
Speaker 1: early success in Kansas City. Alex Smith is our quarterback,
Speaker 1: and we had early success for those first two three years. Well,
Speaker 1: as you guys know in this in this business, ocs
Speaker 1: and DC's, when you have success, their names start to
Speaker 1: pop up around the different circles for for head coaches
Speaker 1: and and so for me, my agent, you know, had
Speaker 1: been been kind of talking to, um, you know, some
Speaker 1: of these different circles, the guys that you know, the
Speaker 1: powers to be around the NFL, and and um you know,
Speaker 1: actually it was in twenty fourteen my name had come
Speaker 1: up the first time and I told my agent said,
Speaker 1: I'm not ready. I'm not ready to be head coach.
Speaker 1: I need I need another year. I'm just I'm just
Speaker 1: not there yet. Um. So I played or coach the
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen season, and that's when what's from Philadelphia And
Speaker 1: there was a lot of familiarity with going back to
Speaker 1: Philadelphia for me. Uh, it was a good transition, good
Speaker 1: fit and um got hired in twenty sixteen. So in
Speaker 1: that that little time where you were like, I'm not ready,
Speaker 1: did you start to prepare in another way? Did you
Speaker 1: start to say, Okay, I might need to think about
Speaker 1: you do app you need to? You do you have to?
Speaker 1: You have to really transition your mind from you know,
Speaker 1: you're you're an offensive coordinator coaching one side of the
Speaker 1: ball right now, you gotta think big picture. Yeah, you
Speaker 1: gotta think organizationally. Yeah, not just the football side, but
Speaker 1: you're also dealing with the business side, right businessman? Yeah yeah,
Speaker 1: So for me it was about okay, learning learning more
Speaker 1: of the business side too, and and you know, um,
Speaker 1: but do you do that as like so when you're
Speaker 1: the OC in you're under like I think Andy Read
Speaker 1: we can say he can be a Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: coach one day, like he's an amazing coach, But you're
Speaker 1: you're doing a job calling all the plays and getting
Speaker 1: the offensive side of the ball or offensive players ready.
Speaker 1: Do you get coached as the OC. Are you actually
Speaker 1: like taking notes on how coach Read is running the team,
Speaker 1: how co Tread is running the business, how co Tread
Speaker 1: is interacting with the team, how co Tread is doing
Speaker 1: everything with the GM and the pro personnel in college, Like,
Speaker 1: did you start taking notes of like, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: what he this is what he does. Okay, he does this,
Speaker 1: he does that? Like are you still getting coached herself?
Speaker 1: You know. It's it's interesting because the three years I
Speaker 1: was in Kansas City being the offensive coordinator, I got
Speaker 1: to spend a lot of time with Coach Read because
Speaker 1: he's an offensive mind and all, and so we did
Speaker 1: game plans together and the whole thing. So those three
Speaker 1: years he really started pouring into me what it was
Speaker 1: like to be a head coach. Okay, and so for
Speaker 1: three years I was just like a sponge just absorbing
Speaker 1: everything that he all his knowledge and wisdom and everything,
Speaker 1: because you know, he's been fourteen seasons as a head
Speaker 1: coach in Philadelphia before he went to Kansas City, and
Speaker 1: so this is the first time sort of behind the
Speaker 1: scenes look for me of what a head coach looks like.
Speaker 1: And so he but he does that with all of
Speaker 1: his guys. You look at the Sean mcdermotts and the
Speaker 1: Ron Rivers and the guys that have you know, Matt
Speaker 1: Naggie's and the Eric the enemies of the world and
Speaker 1: those guys that are going to go on to have
Speaker 1: been head coaches and will be head coaches. You know,
Speaker 1: you just named like six head coaches that came off
Speaker 1: of him. I guess I didn't realize that, you know,
Speaker 1: But but that's what he does. Yeah, and he he's
Speaker 1: more about coaching his coaches than he is coaching the players. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know. And um, and that's what he did for
Speaker 1: the three years. And that's Uh. You just got to
Speaker 1: be a sponge and take it all in. So when
Speaker 1: you're when your coaching career ended with the Eagles, all right,
Speaker 1: you you really took You took a whole year off.
Speaker 1: I did. And how important was that for you to
Speaker 1: take a full year off to kind of decompress. I
Speaker 1: did that after my career playing Gears. P Nut did not.
Speaker 1: I did not, so foolish. What would you say was
Speaker 1: the reasoning behind that and would you suggest it for others?
Speaker 1: The reasoning for me um coming off of the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty seasons right after the twenty twenty seasons. That's the
Speaker 1: pandemic season. It was rough on all all clubs, and
Speaker 1: it was obviously rough on us in Philadelphia. We didn't
Speaker 1: play well. Quarterback issues and things like that, and I
Speaker 1: was not in a good place mentally physically. I just
Speaker 1: was not in a good place. And and and um, looking
Speaker 1: back on it, it was probably a blessing to be
Speaker 1: released because I did take I did. I need I
Speaker 1: needed time. I needed time, you know, for me, I
Speaker 1: needed to get away from the game. I needed to
Speaker 1: get away from from football and just separate myself just
Speaker 1: a little bit and really kind of clear your head
Speaker 1: and really think about what life is going to look like.
Speaker 1: Either either you're going to step away from the game
Speaker 1: and retire, or do I want to continue and coach.
Speaker 1: And so as the twenty one season went, and I did,
Speaker 1: you know, I had some issues with my brother and
Speaker 1: and um, you know, he passed away to pancreatic cancer
Speaker 1: that year. So I got to spend a lot of
Speaker 1: time with our brother. I appreciate it and spend a
Speaker 1: lot of time with him and his wife. And so
Speaker 1: there were life things. We had a wedding, our oldest
Speaker 1: son got married that year. So there's things in life
Speaker 1: that come up. And sometimes, as you guys know, and
Speaker 1: football you miss, right, you miss sometimes the job proceeds
Speaker 1: family and that's you know, you don't you don't like that, right,
Speaker 1: So this gave me a chance to really dig into
Speaker 1: the family a little bit and be around family and
Speaker 1: and um, also give me a perspective to how, if
Speaker 1: given an opportunity again, how to how to coach again,
Speaker 1: and how to be a better coach, and how to
Speaker 1: really influence players right, and how to how to lead
Speaker 1: an organization, lead a team. Um, because I knew it
Speaker 1: didn't take long. It took a couple of months, but
Speaker 1: I knew I wanted to get back into coaching. It
Speaker 1: wasn't I wasn't done. I was young. I'm young. I'm
Speaker 1: in you know, mid fifties, but I'm relatively young something. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It was same, the same, same hair, y'all like. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so that year was really good. So I you know,
Speaker 1: but you look at Frank Reich. Frank Reich got let
Speaker 1: go during the middle of the season and he got
Speaker 1: right back into it this year, which for its different, right,
Speaker 1: it's just but for me, it was what I needed
Speaker 1: at the time to get back in because that window
Speaker 1: of opportunity closes so fast in this league that I
Speaker 1: didn't want that to pass by either. Um you know,
Speaker 1: and I had opportunities to be a coordinator again in
Speaker 1: twenty one. I just the teams were not going to
Speaker 1: get the best version of me right right because I
Speaker 1: wasn't a I wasn't a bad place mentally and physically.
Speaker 1: Kudos for you for like realizing that and kind of
Speaker 1: stepping away, and thanks for sharing that. I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people need to do more of the you
Speaker 1: know what, I just need take my time off, take
Speaker 1: my three sixty five. You got great advice. Who told
Speaker 1: you to take your time off? You your GM my GM. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Mickey Lumis told Mickey Lemis said, you know, if you
Speaker 1: want to be involved with football in any shape, form
Speaker 1: or fashion, he said, I was a just you take
Speaker 1: take some time, take a year off, like you've been
Speaker 1: able good, you played a long career, you made plenty
Speaker 1: of money, Take some time really decompressed, and then figure
Speaker 1: out like self reflecting, like really get away from the
Speaker 1: game and then say you might start sing it again
Speaker 1: kind of like maybe what you did well and you start,
Speaker 1: you start, you start feeling better, and you feel like
Speaker 1: you can be a better version of yourself the next
Speaker 1: time around. Right, because of the experiences that you went through. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: you know leading up to that decision, this, that was
Speaker 1: your first break because you stopped playing, stop playing, high
Speaker 1: school coaching, NFL coaching. So yeah, it was your first break,
Speaker 1: my first break in a long time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, good. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: good for both of y'all for doing I don't I
Speaker 1: don't think I ever took time off. I just kind
Speaker 1: of kept going. So I'm envious to both of y'all
Speaker 1: for for doing that. But yeah, that's another another topic
Speaker 1: another day. So when you were in Philly, Uh, Jalen
Speaker 1: hurts you guys drafted him and it probably wasn't received
Speaker 1: well around the league. Now I know you're not with
Speaker 1: We talked about these Philly fans booing, so that natural,
Speaker 1: It is natural, but it wasn't very well received in
Speaker 1: the beginning, right, I know you're no longer there, but uh,
Speaker 1: he's gone out played well, you know, had an MVP
Speaker 1: MVP caliber season. What was it about Jalen that drew
Speaker 1: you to like lacking him and drafting him? So I
Speaker 1: was there obviously when we drafted him in twenty twenty UM,
Speaker 1: and we're we're sitting there on day two of the
Speaker 1: draft on Friday, and you know, um, Howie Roseman, Um,
Speaker 1: Jeffrey Lurie, myself, I can remember having a conversation saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: if if Jalen is sitting there at our pick, we
Speaker 1: should pick him. We should take him. And I was
Speaker 1: like yeah, all of us were like yes, yes, And
Speaker 1: it wasn't. It wasn't to draft him to replace Carson
Speaker 1: Wentz at the time. In this league, you need two quarterbacks,
Speaker 1: you need you need a solid backup quarterback. And so
Speaker 1: we felt like that this was our This is a
Speaker 1: great option. He's a tremendous athlete, good quarterbacks, smart kid.
Speaker 1: But before all of that, I've had a chance to
Speaker 1: talk to Brian Dabele who coached me in Alabama, right
Speaker 1: Lincoln Riley at Oklahoma. You know, I talked to a
Speaker 1: lot of people and just watching his film and knowing
Speaker 1: his story. This guy's this guy's wired the right way.
Speaker 1: This guy is a football player. And I just felt
Speaker 1: that if this kid gets an opportunity wherever, whether it's
Speaker 1: in Philly or maybe somewhere else, down the road, this
Speaker 1: kid is gonna shine. I just I just felt that
Speaker 1: my heart of heart's just understanding who he is. And
Speaker 1: so for the short you know, one year that I
Speaker 1: was with him, I saw that I saw his work ethic,
Speaker 1: the way he prepared, and he was he was the backup.
Speaker 1: He was he started the season like the third quarterback,
Speaker 1: and then he made him made his way to the
Speaker 1: second and then ultimately played and started the last four
Speaker 1: games of the season that year. But I just knew
Speaker 1: that if this kid, if this kid gets an opportunity,
Speaker 1: he's he's gonna do some really good special things. And
Speaker 1: you know we've seen it here now, not only last year,
Speaker 1: but this past season, or I should say two seasons
Speaker 1: ago and then this last year. Um, just what what
Speaker 1: he's capable of doing. And and I had a chance
Speaker 1: to see him back in February and just, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: just tell him how proud I was of him and
Speaker 1: how he's he's battled through. Owe you like they owe
Speaker 1: you a ton well for bringing them in. I think
Speaker 1: his former player, as a former player, it really does
Speaker 1: mean the most. When you have your former colleagues, your
Speaker 1: coaches that you passed through times and they really still
Speaker 1: all keep up with you and ye there and when
Speaker 1: they you hear those words like hey, I'm watching, I'm
Speaker 1: proud of you, we do take that for granted. So well,
Speaker 1: we don't take it for granted. And it does mean
Speaker 1: a lot. And I'm sure you had that when you
Speaker 1: we're a former player and went run to other coaches,
Speaker 1: other coaches and stuff like that. Yeah, tell you, tell
Speaker 1: you those kinds of things, yes, yeah, and means a lot.
Speaker 1: Chris Ballard was my guy. Chris Ballard's after me, so
Speaker 1: I could I could talk to Chris and I could
Speaker 1: text Chris right now, And I tell everyone to this day, man,
Speaker 1: I came to Chicago because Chris Ballard he saw something
Speaker 1: in me, the hard heart, and it was just like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you. Get this kid from Louise and Lafayette.
Speaker 1: I know, no one knows the school, nobody knows where
Speaker 1: it's at, but draft this kid, he's well the Louisanna connects.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, no doubt so so Doug Um in
Speaker 1: your current situation, we all heard the stories about how
Speaker 1: toxic this situation was in Jacksonville before you arrived. And
Speaker 1: what could you say was the biggest thing, um, and
Speaker 1: how important Sorry not the biggest thing, but how important
Speaker 1: was it for you to change that culture? You know?
Speaker 1: The biggest thing for me? And again this was all
Speaker 1: part of twenty one being out of football. How was
Speaker 1: I going to be the better version of myself? And
Speaker 1: then when when the Jacksonville thing started gaining a little
Speaker 1: more traction, and then that might be the landing spot
Speaker 1: for me. I had to kind of research the situation
Speaker 1: a little bit and see just kind of went on
Speaker 1: that what went on down there? And um, it wasn't good.
Speaker 1: It wasn't good. Um the players, the players were really
Speaker 1: in a bad in a bad place, you know, mentally
Speaker 1: coming out of that season. And and for me, for me,
Speaker 1: it was about, Okay, I'm the next head coach standing
Speaker 1: in front of these guys. How are they going to
Speaker 1: trust me? Because they lost faith and trust in the
Speaker 1: in the head coach before, So how are they going
Speaker 1: to trust me? I'm just I'm a head coach figure, right,
Speaker 1: So I didn't even know if I was gonna have
Speaker 1: players at the off season program, right, volunteer program. Everybody's
Speaker 1: out and they're like, I ain't going you know, we
Speaker 1: got we got drove into ground our practices were hard.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is the off season. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: so I put together a message, um to the guys
Speaker 1: that first day, and and I actually did it over
Speaker 1: the course of a couple of weeks. But we I
Speaker 1: talked a lot about communication. I talked a lot about that.
Speaker 1: I talked a lot about trust, you know, and in
Speaker 1: me trusting you, you trusting me. Um. I talked a
Speaker 1: lot about the people that we surround ourselves with, right,
Speaker 1: the right people in our building, outside of our building.
Speaker 1: And so I just kept kept formulating these ideas with
Speaker 1: the players, and slowly, over time, I think I was
Speaker 1: able to gain their trust, right and and and then
Speaker 1: you know, we just kind of worked through, you know,
Speaker 1: because there were questions like, coach, how are these OTA
Speaker 1: practices gonna go? So, what do you mean, We're gonna
Speaker 1: be out there an hour and twenty minutes, We're gonna
Speaker 1: get our work done. We're gonna be done. What what
Speaker 1: are you talking about? It was gonna be easy, you know,
Speaker 1: We're gonna meet you and lift some weights and you
Speaker 1: can go home this our day. Wow, you go get
Speaker 1: paid whatever. Um. But But I think too, I think
Speaker 1: they had respect for me because I sat in their chair,
Speaker 1: you know, as a former player, and and I could
Speaker 1: relate to them and and so there's a there's a
Speaker 1: lot of that that goes back and forth. Um that
Speaker 1: that really sort of impacted our football football team really
Speaker 1: heading into training camp that year and still really not
Speaker 1: knowing how we were gonna do. You know, I felt
Speaker 1: like we could be a five hundred ball club that
Speaker 1: first year. Yea. Um, but uh, you know, we exceeded
Speaker 1: probably everybody else's expectations but our own. As you guys know,
Speaker 1: you only leaving yourself and your team, and you felt
Speaker 1: like you're a good football team. And we did some
Speaker 1: good things last year. So one of the things we
Speaker 1: all have our welcome to the NFL moment, right, I
Speaker 1: know we all have them as players, But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: switch it up and I'm gonna ask you what was
Speaker 1: your welcome to the NFO moment as a head coach? Like,
Speaker 1: what what was that moment where He's like, damn, so
Speaker 1: this is what it's like to be a head coach?
Speaker 1: Like I didn't. I didn't. I didn't see that coming.
Speaker 1: And it just like really like holy you know what.
Speaker 1: It It kind of shook me. What what was that moment.
Speaker 1: It was actually my first my first regular season game
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia in twenty and sixteen, played the Cleveland Browns
Speaker 1: at home at Lincoln Financial, and you know, I coached
Speaker 1: the preseason games and it was like, oh, these are
Speaker 1: great preseason games, but this is the regular season. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And that ball teed up and it kicked off, and
Speaker 1: I went, oh boy. In my mind, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: this just got real because now you're you're you're you're
Speaker 1: managing the game. Yeah, I got a red flag in
Speaker 1: my pocket that I may have. Yeah, you know, I've
Speaker 1: gotta I'm gonna call time outs and you know I've
Speaker 1: gotta oh wait, I gotta I gotta flip to the
Speaker 1: defensive side, and I gotta listen to what coach Schwartz
Speaker 1: is talking about, you know. And so it just it
Speaker 1: just became for me. It just became kind of that aha,
Speaker 1: like this is real, this is now. Okay. I kind
Speaker 1: of like it, but at the same time, you're kind
Speaker 1: of paranoid a little bit. That's the first time I've
Speaker 1: heard a coach saying that, It's like, man, this has
Speaker 1: got real. I heard players say it all the time,
Speaker 1: but I say something it gets real because you're you're
Speaker 1: you know. And then at the end of the we
Speaker 1: won the game. Um, plus we're playing a rookie quarterback,
Speaker 1: Carson Wentz a rookie first game. Yeah, he's a rookie,
Speaker 1: you know. So there's a lot of things kind of
Speaker 1: going against you a little bit in that in that
Speaker 1: first uh, that first deal we ended up seven to
Speaker 1: nine that season. But um, you learn, right, you learn.
Speaker 1: You learn from the good, the bad, the ugly, as
Speaker 1: we say, and um, each week we got a little
Speaker 1: bit better and and uh end up winning a championship
Speaker 1: in year two. Now pick one real quick, because I
Speaker 1: got to know this. I know they want us to
Speaker 1: hurry up. I know we've got a couple of minutes.
Speaker 1: But who are you rooting for in this past Super Bowl?
Speaker 1: The Eagles are the Chiefs? I plead the fifth alight.
Speaker 1: I don't accept that answer. I would like that answer.
Speaker 1: It was very close. But I had to know. I
Speaker 1: had to know that here's a good duck who is
Speaker 1: on your personal Mount Rushmore of influence, not just football
Speaker 1: but in life for you. Well, you got four. I
Speaker 1: get four because some people might not know how many
Speaker 1: of the Mount Rushmore. I get it. I didn't understand.
Speaker 1: But one of them, one of them is my Lord
Speaker 1: and Savior, Jesus Christ's love. Yeah, he's number one. UM,
Speaker 1: number two. I would definitely have to put Andy Reid
Speaker 1: up there. Um the impact he had not only as
Speaker 1: my playing career, but but as my coaching career, professional career.
Speaker 1: Um Andy, Andy would be one of those. Uh, my dad,
Speaker 1: My dad's on that list. My dad passed away. He
Speaker 1: never got to see me coach of head football as
Speaker 1: a head coach. He never got to see me coach
Speaker 1: a game. He passed away actually the last preseason weekend
Speaker 1: right before the first regular right before that Cleveland Browns game.
Speaker 1: So he passed away that week before. So he never
Speaker 1: got to see me head coach. So, but he's on there.
Speaker 1: The impact he had, uh in my life as a
Speaker 1: you know, he coached me, coached me hard, probably shaped
Speaker 1: a lot of my beliefs and the way where I
Speaker 1: am um um today. And then the fourth one, Um,
Speaker 1: the fourth one for me I could name. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of guys that have influenced or shaped shaped my career.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this. Mike Holmgren was another head coach
Speaker 1: had in Green Bay. He pulled me aside. I was
Speaker 1: I was playing. He pulled me aside during during training camp,
Speaker 1: and um, we were actually passing each other in the
Speaker 1: building and he told me, he says, he said, Doug
Speaker 1: your you're a good quarterback. You can be so much better.
Speaker 1: He says, you need it. You need to really focus
Speaker 1: on taking your game to another to another level. You know,
Speaker 1: the offense, you know what to do. You can manage
Speaker 1: the whole thing. But it's now it's kind of like
Speaker 1: just cut it loose. Yeah, right, don't hold back. Just
Speaker 1: go cut it loose, take it to another to another notch.
Speaker 1: And and that really challenged me from a player's perspective.
Speaker 1: But it also challenged me now a little bit, you
Speaker 1: know because back in seventeen we were you know, I
Speaker 1: was thinking about, you know, do all these fourth down
Speaker 1: decisions and two point conversion decisions, and you know, it's
Speaker 1: like taking your team to another level. It's like cutting
Speaker 1: the guy's loose, don't hold the guy's back. Um. And
Speaker 1: and so for me, those would be the four guys
Speaker 1: I would put up there. Um that that really shaped
Speaker 1: and influenced, uh, you know my career now was that
Speaker 1: Uh is that baby Jesus or is that the old Jesus?
Speaker 1: Is it thirty thirty two year old Jesus was the
Speaker 1: baby Jesus? Jesus? This is a full grown Okay. My
Speaker 1: last question though, is Um, we retire every year and
Speaker 1: you when you were retiring, you were trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what should I do next? What would your advice
Speaker 1: be on a player that is retiring after this season
Speaker 1: going into retirement? What what would your advice be to him? Wow? Um,
Speaker 1: First of all, if if if somebody, if somebody is
Speaker 1: either if they're contemplating retirement or thinking about retirement, UM,
Speaker 1: just just make sure that it's it's it's the right decision,
Speaker 1: because you know, I feel like that when when when
Speaker 1: guys get in that in that situation one, there's probably
Speaker 1: something waiting for him right post post you know, career, right,
Speaker 1: whether it's still in the business or somewhere else. You know,
Speaker 1: so that that usually pulls guys, guys into different in
Speaker 1: different directions. UM that way, but you know, the advice
Speaker 1: is just to enjoy, reconnect with your families, right, reconnect
Speaker 1: with your your friends, reconnect some of the relationships that
Speaker 1: sometimes football UM can can tug one just a little bit.
Speaker 1: I you think about our our spouses, I mean they
Speaker 1: you know, they're the ones that probably sacrifice the most
Speaker 1: in this in this especially on the coaching side, you know,
Speaker 1: because the time away, and they're the ones that are, um,
Speaker 1: you know, running the kids to schools and grocery shop
Speaker 1: and keeping the house together and all that kind of
Speaker 1: stuff and so reconnecting, reconnecting right there. But just enjoy it,
Speaker 1: Enjoy enjoy the memories, Enjoy your teammates. Um. As you
Speaker 1: head into retirement, look back on your career, you know,
Speaker 1: enjoy those moments that um, the bonds that you had
Speaker 1: in the locker room, I think those are the ones
Speaker 1: you carry for a lifetime. Rite those those friendships, whether
Speaker 1: it's you've been on you know, multiple teams or one team. UM.
Speaker 1: But but just enjoy it, enjoy life. UM back and
Speaker 1: you know, um, just think about the next chapter in
Speaker 1: the direction you want to go? Cool? Does that's a rap?
Speaker 1: Appreciate it, man, thanks, you really appreciate it. How can
Speaker 1: you not root for the Jacksonville Jaguars after listening to
Speaker 1: the dug or coach Peterson, UM, I'm really excited. I
Speaker 1: didn't really know a ton about him, but I'm really
Speaker 1: rooting for him now moving forward and in the decisions
Speaker 1: and where this organization is going. Like I'm really excited
Speaker 1: about where they're going and what he's doing. I think
Speaker 1: you should be, Doug. He really showed himself. He was
Speaker 1: very natural, very candid with us, and really opened up
Speaker 1: about his own experiences as being a head coach and
Speaker 1: also a former player. This next coach you're going to
Speaker 1: be listening to Frank Wright really excited about what everything
Speaker 1: he's doing for the Carolina Panthers and going forward. Let's
Speaker 1: listen in on his experiences, what brought him to this
Speaker 1: place and where he's leading this organization. Our next guest,
Speaker 1: and I'm getting to do the honors of introducing this man,
Speaker 1: this young man right here. He's currently the head coach
Speaker 1: for the Carolina Panther. He's a two time Super Bowl champion,
Speaker 1: winning a ring with the Colts and the Eagles. He
Speaker 1: also played quarterback in the NFL for thirteen years. Mister
Speaker 1: Frank will coach, head coach Frank right now. But I
Speaker 1: wasn't all the way done here because I want to
Speaker 1: talk about the press conference when you got introduced to
Speaker 1: the Carolina as the Carolina Panthers latest head coach. I
Speaker 1: thought your family you were good, but the family overall
Speaker 1: was excellent. You guys had the Carolina Blues nailed down.
Speaker 1: The lighting was excellent, your speech was great. They showed
Speaker 1: the highlight tape of you throwing the first touchdown pass
Speaker 1: and Carolina Panthers history. It was to Pete Meslar's the
Speaker 1: tight end. As a matter of fact, they had white
Speaker 1: jersey's on. He had Pete Meslars there. He had a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of his former teammates there. The Carolina Panthers
Speaker 1: really went all out. David Tepper, everybody, Missus Wright, the daughter,
Speaker 1: everybody looked great that day. It was beautiful. I must
Speaker 1: say I was amazed. I was wild and now I'm
Speaker 1: in the presence of greatness. So thank you. Hey, I
Speaker 1: love love that intro, and yeah, it was a great day.
Speaker 1: And when you have three daughters, you got to get
Speaker 1: the fashion right right right. It was on, hold are
Speaker 1: your daughters. The daughters are all married, so they're thirty three,
Speaker 1: thirty one, and twenty seven. Yea. The husbands look good too.
Speaker 1: Everybody was in the colors. Grandkids, you know, the whole best.
Speaker 1: But the grandkids were kind of not in the shot
Speaker 1: in the spotlight. But we had a great day. That's
Speaker 1: that's pretty cool. So okay, here we go, So let's
Speaker 1: just get the awkwardness out the way. So I didn't
Speaker 1: even notice until I read a little bio earlier, was
Speaker 1: that you were the quarterbacks coach in the Indian app
Speaker 1: with the Indian App his colts in Super Bowl forty
Speaker 1: four where your team was fourteen and two in the
Speaker 1: regular season and you eventually to the Super Bowl to
Speaker 1: a thirteen and three New Orleans Saints team. Yeah, how
Speaker 1: was that possible? You guys are favored by most of
Speaker 1: the experts all week long. What what went wrong that day?
Speaker 1: I love the fact that you're just hitting me right
Speaker 1: in the face with us to start. That's the way
Speaker 1: to go, and that's the way to bring it strong.
Speaker 1: Um you know we did. We had we had a lead,
Speaker 1: I believe at halftime, and they came out of the
Speaker 1: fake on you know, surprising on sidekick you know called
Speaker 1: by coach Payton start the second half. Really turned the tide,
Speaker 1: you know, really turned the tide. But um, we were
Speaker 1: I was just talking about that with a couple of
Speaker 1: guys last night, that that game. But a couple of
Speaker 1: the Eagles guys about the difficulty of losing the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: It's rough, you know, it's a rough feeling. It's a
Speaker 1: bad game to lose. Yeah, I've I've lost two. Um
Speaker 1: flipping it. I'll give you. This is a layup though, Like,
Speaker 1: how was it you know, your first coaching gig two
Speaker 1: thousand and six, two thousand and seven, you were one
Speaker 1: of the I think quarterbacks are quite just an I
Speaker 1: had kind of been an offseason intern was not actually
Speaker 1: there during the season, but had been there in the
Speaker 1: off season. So the real first experience of it on
Speaker 1: field as far as the victory was in Philadelphia in seventeen. Um.
Speaker 1: I did do that internship when they won it in
Speaker 1: in seven, but the true experience was in seventeen with
Speaker 1: the Eagles. Yeah, because you were on staff, not on
Speaker 1: staff with the Bears Colts, and I was on the
Speaker 1: field with the Bears at the time. And to answer
Speaker 1: the question to follow with it, yeah, it sucks. I
Speaker 1: still haven't gotten over my two Super Bowl losses. I'm
Speaker 1: like owing two with Peyton Manning. I don't even like
Speaker 1: Peyton Manning because just like destroyed us in Super bowls,
Speaker 1: man I just, uh, why did you bring that up?
Speaker 1: And he never lets me live that down. No, because
Speaker 1: I because you won my one. And you know, the
Speaker 1: on side kicked like you talked about. We had practiced
Speaker 1: that so many times and I was supposed to recover it,
Speaker 1: but your guys, I'm not gonna bring his name up,
Speaker 1: but kind of touched it and then it kind of
Speaker 1: went awry. But that's why you on side kick it
Speaker 1: to the same sideline, because we knew if anything goes wrong,
Speaker 1: we wanted to be on our sidelines so we could
Speaker 1: get the refs and be arguing like it was us.
Speaker 1: And that was back in the day when you couldn't
Speaker 1: pull guys out of the podt Was that one of
Speaker 1: those one where just the kickoff team knew it was coming?
Speaker 1: Did you guys tell anybody else? Or like, did everyone
Speaker 1: knows a pre game? Like you never even heard the backstory? Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, right here we go. So we get in
Speaker 1: a halftime, you know, it's an extended period at in halftime,
Speaker 1: Sean comes over to the defense because most of the
Speaker 1: defense is on the kickoff team. He said, I'm running
Speaker 1: the surprise on site and we're like, yeah, okay, whatever,
Speaker 1: just like like, and we thought he would change by
Speaker 1: the time we actually went out there and he was like,
Speaker 1: I'm still calling it like it's still up running ambush
Speaker 1: and we were like, all right, let's go. So my
Speaker 1: I don't think I even got nervous because I'd recovered
Speaker 1: it so many times and practiced it. And then when
Speaker 1: the play went awry, like we had never practiced that,
Speaker 1: we didn't know what was going to happen, if it unbelievable,
Speaker 1: if it went wrong, and it went wrong, and we
Speaker 1: just happened to follow on it, so it kind of
Speaker 1: went crazy. But yes, that is a whole backstory. Sean
Speaker 1: came in the beginning, he said he was going to
Speaker 1: do it at halftime. As soon as we went in there,
Speaker 1: he was so confident with it, and we were like,
Speaker 1: all right, let's do it, and we knew we needed
Speaker 1: to do something because we literally had not stopped the
Speaker 1: Colts all day. You guys. Yeah, I also think in
Speaker 1: that game, if you remember, you know, we got a
Speaker 1: little you know, at the end of the first half,
Speaker 1: if I remember correctly, we got a little conservative. Did
Speaker 1: you went with a fullback dive? You should have just
Speaker 1: stayed pedal on the medal because we hadn't slowed you
Speaker 1: down at all. I know, I know, I still we
Speaker 1: still got that one a little bit. But those are
Speaker 1: the only things that really changed that whole game. That's awesome. Um,
Speaker 1: all right, well here we go. Let's go to currently.
Speaker 1: So what drew you to Carolina? Besides your former you know,
Speaker 1: playing there all those other things, What really drew you
Speaker 1: to this opportunity? Because I know when David Tepper talked
Speaker 1: about it, he mentioned, you know, the other candidates, and
Speaker 1: he said, look, when Frank Wright came in, he had
Speaker 1: it nailed down of a future plan. Yeah. His vision
Speaker 1: was something that everybody could just get behind immediately. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And really, what I felt when I walked into that
Speaker 1: room in the interview was like I felt like we
Speaker 1: were working. I mean like there was an instant connection,
Speaker 1: you know, with the Teppers, with David Nicole Tepper, with
Speaker 1: Scott Fitter, you know, the GM, with the whole crew
Speaker 1: that was there, and you know, just felt like a conversation.
Speaker 1: It didn't feel like an interview. And that in both
Speaker 1: the first interview and the second interview. So obviously I'd
Speaker 1: played there and lived there for thirteen years, so I
Speaker 1: already felt like home. My children are living in North Carolina.
Speaker 1: But the commitment and just hearing you know, mister Tapper
Speaker 1: talk about okay, you know, he and Nicole had been
Speaker 1: owners now for a number of years, but hey, they're
Speaker 1: ready to put the pedal to the metal. Let's go.
Speaker 1: The commitment from them, that's a big deal. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1: And so this is your second opportunity as a head coach. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and maybe you could give us a little bit insight
Speaker 1: of some things that you learned from your first experience
Speaker 1: that you will be different and how and how will
Speaker 1: you treat this from different overall as well? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it's it's unbelievable. How I don't want to say
Speaker 1: it's it's easy. It's not easy. But like when you
Speaker 1: first become a head coach the first times, it is
Speaker 1: a little bit like drinking you know, water from a
Speaker 1: fire hose, right, I mean, it's it can be overwhelming,
Speaker 1: you know, so much stuff going on. Uh, this time around,
Speaker 1: it just felt like, okay, let's go season. I know
Speaker 1: what we're doing. This is version two point Oh. You
Speaker 1: know you get to debug things, right, It's like an app,
Speaker 1: you know, you get version two Um, it's updated it's improved.
Speaker 1: You got out the bad program. You know. For me,
Speaker 1: you know, that was just a question of understanding the
Speaker 1: chemistry of the staff, you know, understanding you know, the
Speaker 1: team we're trying to build, and that's what we were
Speaker 1: able to go in and paint that vision for mister Tepper.
Speaker 1: So what's what's been the toughest thing being a head coach? Like, say,
Speaker 1: you your first time, like I was, we just asked
Speaker 1: a bug that you know, everyone has that welcome to
Speaker 1: the NFL moment as a player, What was your welcome
Speaker 1: to the NFL moment as a coach? As a head coach? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think it's you know, you're no longer
Speaker 1: just calling the plays. You know, you're over every aspect
Speaker 1: of the of the football operations. So that's both the
Speaker 1: you know, welcome to the excuse me, welcome to the NFL.
Speaker 1: But honestly, for me, that was like what I wanted,
Speaker 1: Like that was like I couldn't wait for that. I
Speaker 1: felt like I was made for that. So you know,
Speaker 1: to learn to go in to dive in with the defense,
Speaker 1: you know, you get to know the defensive players, get
Speaker 1: you know, get in defensive meetings with the coaches. You know, understand,
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to micromanage what the defense is doing,
Speaker 1: but you really got to put your hand in touch
Speaker 1: on every part of the team. Yeah, Doug talked about that.
Speaker 1: He said, like, you know, he remembered like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I'm not just calling him offense play, i gotta switch
Speaker 1: over to the defense. R It's like listen in and
Speaker 1: it really is different. Was your main goal always to
Speaker 1: be a head coach or like when did that decision
Speaker 1: come into factor? Like, you know what I'm gonna coach.
Speaker 1: I want to be a head coach. Well, naturally, you
Speaker 1: want to be probably the best, which is the head coach.
Speaker 1: You want to be the league guy, especially playing a quarterback.
Speaker 1: When did that happen for you? Like when I was
Speaker 1: like six, you know, I mean, I'm not kidding. I
Speaker 1: mean I came from a family of coaches, you know,
Speaker 1: so you know, I wanted to be a player first,
Speaker 1: you know, like all of us, right, we wanted to play.
Speaker 1: But when I was in nineteen eighty five my rookie season,
Speaker 1: Bill Pollyan came up to me after the season was over,
Speaker 1: who was the general manager at the time. He said,
Speaker 1: you're going to play a long time as a as
Speaker 1: a player, and then when you finished, you're gonna be
Speaker 1: a head coach in this You're gonna be a head
Speaker 1: coach in this league. That was in nineteen eighty five,
Speaker 1: after my rookie season, So you know, having a guy
Speaker 1: like that come up to you. M. I come from
Speaker 1: a family of coaches. My dad was a head high
Speaker 1: school coach. My mom was a coach. She coached everything.
Speaker 1: She coached field, hockey, cheerleading, track and field. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, she was the the ultimate high school teacher.
Speaker 1: I can coach anything. So my brother's a head coach.
Speaker 1: You know, I just think I've wired that way, but
Speaker 1: I brought up that way, so M. But the thing is,
Speaker 1: you guys know this, you know, seeing it from the
Speaker 1: player's side that you know, as a coach, you don't
Speaker 1: want to be that guy who's coming in just trying
Speaker 1: to climb the ladder. So I never took it like that.
Speaker 1: I honestly did. I knew, hey because I played fourteen
Speaker 1: years so and then I took seven years where I
Speaker 1: was out of football before I got so I didn't
Speaker 1: get back into coaching until I was really in my
Speaker 1: mid forties. So could I ever think I'd make it.
Speaker 1: I didn't know. I was just gonna take it year
Speaker 1: by year, do the best I could and hope that
Speaker 1: it worked out. So when you got away from football,
Speaker 1: you set for seven years, right, Yeah, what were you
Speaker 1: doing in that time? We all didn't ask players. Doug
Speaker 1: said he never took time off. He went straight went
Speaker 1: right into coaching. You took a year off. I didn't
Speaker 1: take a year off. I wish I would have took
Speaker 1: a year off. Like, what did you do and what
Speaker 1: made you just decide to stay away from the game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I had opportunities to go into coaching right away,
Speaker 1: but as we talked about earlier, at the onset of
Speaker 1: the program of three young daughters, you know, I think
Speaker 1: when I finished, they were like nine, seven and four.
Speaker 1: So I knew once you get into coaching, man, it's
Speaker 1: one hundred plus hours a week. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I know, I want to coach, but I want to
Speaker 1: help raise my children first, you know. So I wanted
Speaker 1: to help them with homework, go to swim meets, you
Speaker 1: know all that stuff. So I said, I'm going to
Speaker 1: take a couple of years really invest into my family,
Speaker 1: my children, you know, my wife and I could do
Speaker 1: some things together because once you get into coaching things commitment,
Speaker 1: and then we also you know, I also you know,
Speaker 1: I went into full time ministry and so I was
Speaker 1: able to kind of keep my own schedule, did a
Speaker 1: lot of traveling and speaking. So that was the combination
Speaker 1: of things that I did for those few years. So
Speaker 1: now that you are head coach, every coach has their philosophy,
Speaker 1: Every coach has their saying of what they think the
Speaker 1: team should be. We obviously know when Carolina is to
Speaker 1: keep pounding. I played in carol. We both played in
Speaker 1: Carolina for a year where you played two, I played one.
Speaker 1: What has been your philosophy or what is your philosophy
Speaker 1: late going into the season. Yeah, No, the keep pounding
Speaker 1: thing is a way to talk about what we've always
Speaker 1: talked about for me, and that's that that keep pounding
Speaker 1: is a relentless pursuit for sustained excellence. Right, So we
Speaker 1: talked about that as an organization already with the Panthers. Right,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna clearly define what keep pounding and that's
Speaker 1: a relentless pursuit for sustained excellence. Um. Yeah, we all
Speaker 1: want the goal, we all want the Super Bowl that
Speaker 1: we're talking about. But we think the best way to
Speaker 1: get there is is to create that sustained excellence, like
Speaker 1: create a high floor so that when the opportunities present
Speaker 1: itself to reach for those championships were in striking distance.
Speaker 1: So you're with the Panthers. Now, you guys have made
Speaker 1: the trade of the off season. Let's let's go ahead
Speaker 1: to call it what it is. Extremely busy. I like
Speaker 1: the moves you're making those. I like it. I like
Speaker 1: it with this opportunity to draft a franchise quarterback, like
Speaker 1: all the pressure that comes with that, all the decision making,
Speaker 1: all of the thought process, the mindset that so many hours,
Speaker 1: the manpower to create all these things, this opportunity. Could
Speaker 1: you just give us a little bit of insight. I'm
Speaker 1: not telling us to give us the pick, even though
Speaker 1: I think I know. But yeah, as anything, that's great. Um,
Speaker 1: you know with Scott Fitter, the GM, Dann Morgan and
Speaker 1: assistant GM, the whole whole crew. Uh, mister missus Tepper,
Speaker 1: they've been great. So the processes, you know, dive in right.
Speaker 1: Scott and his crew they already have the event. They've
Speaker 1: been evaluating these quarterbacks for you know, forever. So I
Speaker 1: just get here. So I sit down. I listened to
Speaker 1: where where are our scouts at? Where's Scott at? On
Speaker 1: his view of all these quarterbacks as we as a
Speaker 1: coaching step begin to dive in. Now, Hi, let's get
Speaker 1: out and meet these guys. Let's you know, let's go
Speaker 1: to the pro days. Let's sit down, have dinner with him.
Speaker 1: We've seen you. Yeah, let's bring them into our building.
Speaker 1: You know, Let's let's dig down deep and take every second,
Speaker 1: every hour, every day to finish and confirm what we
Speaker 1: believe from the very start of this process. And that's
Speaker 1: what we're doing. It's a lot of fun. These guys
Speaker 1: are all these guys are fun to hang out with.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's yeah, I didn't well and that and
Speaker 1: then and then and then on top of that, right,
Speaker 1: so you get that trade as as we're talking about
Speaker 1: and when you said about the moves, the big one
Speaker 1: was going to number one. But now this free agency thing,
Speaker 1: you know, mister Tepper has just said, Okay, let's go.
Speaker 1: Let's surround this guy with some playmakers. Miles Sanders, right,
Speaker 1: DJ Chark, Adam Feeling, you know, Hayden Hurst. Right, Let's
Speaker 1: get some playmakers. So he is, so is the is
Speaker 1: the owner? Is he like super involved and like, hey
Speaker 1: I want this guy, want that guy. No, he's uh,
Speaker 1: he's has his you know, he's looking and hearing everything. Okay,
Speaker 1: he's you know, he's obviously brilliant guy and brilliant enough
Speaker 1: to know, hey, let's Scott and I handle that. But
Speaker 1: he's involved in it, you know, he wants to know
Speaker 1: um and in particular, I think he's involved in all
Speaker 1: the numbers and the cap and the contracts and how
Speaker 1: everything's set up. I think he has his hands on
Speaker 1: all that. So you you know, we're talking earlier about
Speaker 1: your your your coaching staff. You got it. You got
Speaker 1: a lot of ex players. You got Josh, you got dudes,
Speaker 1: got dan'elow on, Josh mccolln. Let's put a name on it.
Speaker 1: Oh not everybody just knows John you right, he played
Speaker 1: eighteen years. We should he was. He was one of
Speaker 1: my teammates. I was with him, he was with me
Speaker 1: in Chicago. I was with his brother Luke in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: So I know Josh very well. But you're your coaching staff.
Speaker 1: It has a lot of former players in it, Like,
Speaker 1: tell me what that process was like to hire those
Speaker 1: specific guys. Yeah, I mean, Deuce was the first guy
Speaker 1: I called, because you know, the first one on staff. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was. You know, we were together in Philadelphia, and
Speaker 1: I just know, you know, I'm mister even kill Listen,
Speaker 1: I'm not a yeller and screamer. Everybody knows that I'm
Speaker 1: kind of even killed. Keep you know, poised, you know
Speaker 1: their intensity and all that, But I need Deuce's fire
Speaker 1: and brimstone. He brings the fire and brimstone, you know,
Speaker 1: so um and then brilliant offensive. You know, he's a
Speaker 1: brilliant offensive mind. But really has helped me when we
Speaker 1: were in Philadelphia in the run game. His perspective on
Speaker 1: some of the stuffs in the run game was really good.
Speaker 1: And in the protection world, which you know you have
Speaker 1: to be great at um. But overall, I just wanted
Speaker 1: to blend right. I liked the former player thing. Obviously.
Speaker 1: I think there's advantages to being a former player, but
Speaker 1: I also think there's advantages to the coaches who have
Speaker 1: been coaching since they've been twenty you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: They bring a certain football acumen that former player who
Speaker 1: played for these guys been coaching ball all those years
Speaker 1: that we were playing, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: there's a certain advantage that so get the blend of
Speaker 1: that old young get the whole thing. I just liked
Speaker 1: it when he yelled so much, like he gonna yell
Speaker 1: and give you everything to him. Well, it was funny
Speaker 1: because when you saw NFL Hard Knocks, it really put
Speaker 1: like I really shine the light on that whole Detroit
Speaker 1: staff and the staff with the stars and so we
Speaker 1: could talk about the players, but nobody cared that we
Speaker 1: were rooted. Everybody was rooting for that staff, and Deuce
Speaker 1: really came out the bucks. I didn't realize how fire
Speaker 1: he was until that whole deal. Him and Aaron. I
Speaker 1: was like, they was my two favorite people on the show.
Speaker 1: It was really good. Man ag Okay, Frank, so we
Speaker 1: well coach, right, sorry, no, you're good, Thank you please.
Speaker 1: It's hard for me. Yeah, it's still coach, even though
Speaker 1: you're older and we're kind. Yeah, I still say coach too.
Speaker 1: All right. Uh. They want me to ask you about
Speaker 1: your Mount Rushmore and I want to get to that.
Speaker 1: But I got to know this because you burst on
Speaker 1: my scene and I became a fan of yours when
Speaker 1: I was a young man, when you led the Buffalo
Speaker 1: Bills back with this big comeback in the playoffs, like
Speaker 1: that is the greatest comeback. That is who Frank Wright
Speaker 1: was known for for the longest time. And now you're
Speaker 1: the head coach. How has that been this transition of like,
Speaker 1: all right, this is what I'm known for, this backup
Speaker 1: that was the Macklin comeback forever, and now the head
Speaker 1: coach that's going to go and lead this program in
Speaker 1: this organization to hopefully win in Super Bowls. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think it's a great Uh. I think it's a
Speaker 1: great background to step into this position. You know, because
Speaker 1: I knew, right I was a part of that team.
Speaker 1: I was a backup quarterback, right, you know, I was
Speaker 1: just a back. I was a backup guy, right. So um,
Speaker 1: and I know that when you have a comeback like that,
Speaker 1: it ain't one guy, it's whole team. Right. So now
Speaker 1: as the head coach, that's really what I want to accentuate, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, listen, we know we talk about the
Speaker 1: coaching staffs and how good our coaching staff is in
Speaker 1: the Detroit, but you guys know, more than anything, this
Speaker 1: is a players game. It's a players game. I always
Speaker 1: tell the coaches. I mean, I always tell the coaches
Speaker 1: it's it's like ten to twenty percent coaching and it's
Speaker 1: eighty or ninety percent players making plays. But we got
Speaker 1: to put those guys in the best position. And so
Speaker 1: you know, I just think that background for me. But
Speaker 1: you got to put all these guys together, coaches and players,
Speaker 1: and it's got to be a team. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: it's got to be all about the team. And I
Speaker 1: think I've witnessed that and experienced that with some of
Speaker 1: the teams I've been with. All Right, now your mount
Speaker 1: rushmore of influence on your life? Get four? All right?
Speaker 1: Who are those? Who are those four that are up
Speaker 1: there on that hill? Okay, well you know obviously you
Speaker 1: know have to start, uh you know with my mom
Speaker 1: and dad. I'm putting those together. I'm cheating, so okay
Speaker 1: we can you know. Um, but you know, in particular,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming this is football related. Um, and so you're coaching. No,
Speaker 1: it didn't have to be. It's just what made you
Speaker 1: you today. These four people made me me perfect. Okay,
Speaker 1: So it starts there up one and um and I
Speaker 1: and I do think I do think, uh, the influence
Speaker 1: a had of me that I'm a blend to the
Speaker 1: two of them. As a coach man, I just idolized
Speaker 1: my dad. You know, he was a stud man. He
Speaker 1: was he was a stud player. He was a stud coach. Um.
Speaker 1: He was a winner, and you know he was the
Speaker 1: he's a man's man. He'd like played with no face mask,
Speaker 1: broke is. You know, he's just a tough love dude.
Speaker 1: Like I don't cuss very much or almost not at all,
Speaker 1: but like I want to say, when he was a
Speaker 1: tough man, he was tough dude. He was a tough
Speaker 1: Yes he was. And this game is about toughness, right,
Speaker 1: So I just feel like that he put that in
Speaker 1: my soul, right, he put out of my soul. Um.
Speaker 1: As far as coaches, the two coaches, uh, you know
Speaker 1: it's got to be the two other people would be
Speaker 1: uh Marv Levy, right, so played for Marvel, you know
Speaker 1: head coach. Um. You know, just an incredible person, like
Speaker 1: he knew how to push every button. He was cerebral,
Speaker 1: but he was just connected with players. He was an
Speaker 1: older man, but yet he had a way to connect
Speaker 1: with everybody. Of great highlight films, just the NFL films,
Speaker 1: It was just watching him talking, watching him, just watching
Speaker 1: him talking say things on the sidelines, great highlights. I've
Speaker 1: had a chance to meet him twice. I've never met him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like, man, well he's from from from scott
Speaker 1: you know, it was in Chicago for a long time.
Speaker 1: So um. But him and then kind of his partner
Speaker 1: in crime, you know, Bill Paulian who was the GM, um.
Speaker 1: And then you know, he was the guy drafted me.
Speaker 1: He was the guy when we went to Caroline, when
Speaker 1: when he went to Carolina as the GM. You know,
Speaker 1: he signed me as a free agent to be the
Speaker 1: first quarterback in Panthers history. I mean just for a
Speaker 1: couple of games until Carry Collins would take over. He
Speaker 1: was a fifth pick in the draft. You didn't even
Speaker 1: have to say that, but we'll take that on. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But Bill, everywhere I've been in my football career, Bill
Speaker 1: Pauline's stamp is on it. Right. He's been like a
Speaker 1: football father to me in many respects. So that's three.
Speaker 1: And then of course you made me today as my wife.
Speaker 1: You know, um, you know my wife, we been married
Speaker 1: thirty six years. Um. You know, you go this journey
Speaker 1: of the NFL, it's crazy journey right, there's high highs,
Speaker 1: there's low loads. You got to have a center, you know,
Speaker 1: you got to be centered in on things. So you know,
Speaker 1: our relationship has been a real foundation for me of
Speaker 1: strength and peace. That's a that's awesome and only that
Speaker 1: the woman can dress like I tell you. For those
Speaker 1: that didn't see it, go back out and watch the
Speaker 1: press conference. It was beautiful. The family was beautiful. Thank you.
Speaker 1: So here's my last question for you, Frank, what was
Speaker 1: your co coach? Sorry and Peanut kind of already talked
Speaker 1: about this as the head coach, but I want to
Speaker 1: know you're welcome to the NFL moment as a player
Speaker 1: as well. Like mine was my rookie year in training
Speaker 1: camp where I looked up one of the injured guys.
Speaker 1: He had shades on his underneath his helmet. While riding
Speaker 1: in my bicycle, I was like, man, this is like
Speaker 1: this is the league, Like this guy's big time. I
Speaker 1: want you to tell me what it was like in
Speaker 1: the in the eighties, Like in the eighties, okay, okay,
Speaker 1: when football was real and I'm gonna this is really
Speaker 1: you guys know this when you see the old film,
Speaker 1: but like when football was real, when we came into
Speaker 1: a halftime. We came in a halftime of our very
Speaker 1: first game in the NFL, and uh, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to mention any names because not that it matters, but
Speaker 1: I came in. One of my teammates they just lit
Speaker 1: up a cigarettette. It's smoking a cigarette at halftime, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, welcome to the NFL. You know. But
Speaker 1: one other quick one if I could just you know,
Speaker 1: for me, the real first moment, like welcome to the NFL.
Speaker 1: My very first preseason game was against Chicago and Walter Payton,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm on the field warming up and
Speaker 1: nervous Walter Payton and this is a guy that I idolized.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just I couldn't believe it. I was
Speaker 1: on the same field as Walter Payton. I was incredible.
Speaker 1: That's that's awesome. Yeah, we always have that man. That's
Speaker 1: that's beautiful. Thank you so much. Frank's all right. Exciting
Speaker 1: times ahead for Carolina Panthers, obviously with Frank fright at
Speaker 1: the hell and really exciting news. Just you know, now
Speaker 1: that they have the first overall pick, I think I
Speaker 1: know what They're gonna pick that quarterback but that's up
Speaker 1: to them. What do you think, you know, I think
Speaker 1: they're gonna do something good. We already know what they're
Speaker 1: gonna do. They're gonna pick a quarterback, so let's let's
Speaker 1: let's just lay it out for him to play it out.
Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in. I'm Peanut Tillman. That's my guy,
Speaker 1: Roman Harper. We appreciate y'all. Thanks for listening.