Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in to another episode of the
Speaker 1: NFL Players Second Acts Podcast. I'm Peanut Tuman and as always,
Speaker 1: I got my guy, my uncle Roman Harper with us today.
Speaker 1: What's up? What up? Hump? I'm doing good man. Obviously,
Speaker 1: we are a Southern family because anytime the uncle is
Speaker 1: younger than the nephew, it's it's a little bit of
Speaker 1: unique situation. So I always think that of us when
Speaker 1: we see each other. And I feel good because our
Speaker 1: guest today shares a little bit of something with me
Speaker 1: in common. Not only did he play in the SEC,
Speaker 1: but he's also a silver Fox himself, So I'm kind
Speaker 1: of proud of that, and we both rocket proudly and
Speaker 1: uniquely and beautifully as well. So before we jump into
Speaker 1: it and you introduced our our guests today, I want
Speaker 1: to thank all the listeners for tuning in. I want
Speaker 1: to ask you to get to spread the word, tell
Speaker 1: a friend, to tell a friend, to tell a friend,
Speaker 1: give us a rating, a review, and to follow on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or wherever else you listen
Speaker 1: to your podcast. So, pe Nut, with all due respect,
Speaker 1: go ahead, my man, go ahead and kick us off
Speaker 1: with this one. So let me list these accolades of this,
Speaker 1: uh twenty of me. It's a lot, it's a lot.
Speaker 1: I don't know Roman numerals. But he won the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl when he was in LA. He's a two thousand
Speaker 1: and twenty one Walter Peyton Man of the year, four
Speaker 1: time pro bowler. Won the two thousand and three BCS
Speaker 1: Natural Championship with LSU drafted by the Bengals and O
Speaker 1: six in the second round. Retired from the Rams in
Speaker 1: two thousand and twenty one. Ken y'all, please show some
Speaker 1: love for Andrew with worm we sol fallas. Appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Appreciate that. Well, let's go ahead, let's talk about those
Speaker 1: accolades and then we'll ball. Okay, So you won three
Speaker 1: back to back, took of your off and then won
Speaker 1: it again. You won three national chair excuse me, three
Speaker 1: high school championships in football, right, yep? Do y'all get
Speaker 1: y'all got rings in Louisiana? Oh yeah, we got rings. Okay, Hey,
Speaker 1: Monroe's real, Doug like where he's at. They played some
Speaker 1: real ball. It's a lot of guys that they put out.
Speaker 1: Did you want a state championship in tennis? No, that
Speaker 1: is a great question. Though, so it's actually a fantastic story.
Speaker 1: I was at LSU and you know, you're going through
Speaker 1: the process of sports directors like hey, we need to
Speaker 1: like keep pubbing you up or how well you're playing.
Speaker 1: We're gonna try and get you on the All American team,
Speaker 1: get national attention. So let's name some things you've done,
Speaker 1: like you know, before you got here. So you know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, I want a high school sta attention. Football.
Speaker 1: I won the five A state championship in powerlifting in
Speaker 1: the heavyweight class, so like we're naming that. And then
Speaker 1: he's like any other things you want as a kid,
Speaker 1: like baseball and did you go the World Series or anything.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I did you know? We went
Speaker 1: to the state title game in baseball when I was
Speaker 1: twelve and I won like a tennis deal when I
Speaker 1: was eleven or ten, So that starts that year. This
Speaker 1: is like my sophomore year in college. By the time
Speaker 1: I got to the draft, like I'm going with scouts
Speaker 1: and they're like, man, so what year was it that
Speaker 1: you won the high school championship in tests? I'm like, what, Like,
Speaker 1: I won like the local like you get a little
Speaker 1: Caesar slice a pizza if you're the one that beats
Speaker 1: the other kid camp in tennis, Like I can't win
Speaker 1: anything that that care is a trophy. So it's carried
Speaker 1: on throughout my career. I always get asked about it,
Speaker 1: and it's hilarious because it literally came from like a
Speaker 1: two minute conversation of stuff you've done as a kid,
Speaker 1: and it has lived its own life throughout my career. Man,
Speaker 1: just go win it, Just go win it. Just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just like the white, three hundred pound
Speaker 1: male version of Serena and Venus combined, Like that's that
Speaker 1: is who I am. Like, I'm just I'm not real.
Speaker 1: We were literally talking before. I'm like, how's he running
Speaker 1: around dominating people at close to three hundred pounds. I
Speaker 1: couldn't imagine it. I'm like, how does this even possible?
Speaker 1: I can play tennis, but I ain't like that. I
Speaker 1: promise you that I'm a lefty. I grew up being
Speaker 1: an andre Agasy fan. I had me a wild thing
Speaker 1: racket when I was little. But you know, I was
Speaker 1: a big fan of the game. But no, I was
Speaker 1: never good enough to win in high school, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: Pickleballs my sport. There we go. See I'm a golfer,
Speaker 1: though you know he is a golfer. Now most people
Speaker 1: do not know this. I don't even know if if
Speaker 1: wit remembers this, but the first time I met Andrew
Speaker 1: Whitworth was at in Arizona. We were both selected to
Speaker 1: be Playboy All Americans going into our senior year in
Speaker 1: two thousand and five, and that was the first time
Speaker 1: I met this large human being. And I just randomly
Speaker 1: was walking around the whole place and he was out
Speaker 1: at the driving range, hitting bombs on the driving range.
Speaker 1: And he's the first one that really got me to like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I should maybe start to pick up
Speaker 1: golf a little bit. And I hung out with him
Speaker 1: and we actually got really cool at that point in time,
Speaker 1: talking way back when we both were seniors in college.
Speaker 1: And so I know he can golf, I know he
Speaker 1: can do all these other things. I just think it's
Speaker 1: awesome that you were able to accomplish that. So also
Speaker 1: you were also a Playball All American as well. So
Speaker 1: two thousand and five great classes. You know, just want
Speaker 1: to shout us all out out there. And sure, now
Speaker 1: I want to start off with this just a little
Speaker 1: bit because I'm sitting here with two of the guys
Speaker 1: that won one of the biggest accolades that I believe
Speaker 1: the NFL gives out, which is the Walter Paydon Man
Speaker 1: of the Year award. And you know, we see that
Speaker 1: you got a lot of recognition the longer you played.
Speaker 1: It was like, man, we really loved this guy, and
Speaker 1: we appreciate you more and more, and we were able
Speaker 1: to give you your flowers before you retired. And could
Speaker 1: you talk about how special that award is because I
Speaker 1: know Peanut was also a person that won the Walter
Speaker 1: Payd Man of the Year you also wanted. I did not,
Speaker 1: and I wanted many other accolades, but that one alone,
Speaker 1: it's such a special deal. Could you maybe just give
Speaker 1: us a little bit insight into that. Yeah, I just
Speaker 1: think when you when you think about that award and
Speaker 1: what it stands for, it was even tough to go
Speaker 1: through the process of being nominated for it and then
Speaker 1: be up for it, because it's kind of hard to
Speaker 1: be like, you know what, Like I mean, I'm getting
Speaker 1: acknowledged this and it's great and I think it's wonderful,
Speaker 1: But I'm looking across the league at the other thirty
Speaker 1: one nominees and I'm like, wow, like so much respect
Speaker 1: for everything they do, and it almost every year I
Speaker 1: got nominated, it was like man invigorated and be like, man,
Speaker 1: all right, I love I love the guys that I
Speaker 1: played a sport with man and their passion for people,
Speaker 1: because that's one thing I just to me, that's what
Speaker 1: life's all about. And so going through that really, for me,
Speaker 1: it was more of a reflection and a reminiscent of
Speaker 1: over my career just the impacts of people and communities
Speaker 1: and the special moments I've had of realizing not only
Speaker 1: just the impact that I was able to have on them,
Speaker 1: but more importantly to me, the impact they had on me,
Speaker 1: and that it gave me a you know, a passion
Speaker 1: and a purpose to play football, not just for sports,
Speaker 1: not just for you know, success i'd want to have
Speaker 1: on the field, but you know what, it created opportunities
Speaker 1: for me to go impact people off of it, and
Speaker 1: so I think that's one of the things I'm most
Speaker 1: grateful for the opportunity to play in the NFL for
Speaker 1: is I've had some really cool opportunities and a lot
Speaker 1: of growth as me as a person, and standing up
Speaker 1: there on that stage as y'all know, I mean offensive linement.
Speaker 1: You know. My my level of media experience leading up
Speaker 1: to that moment was like the local registry. You know,
Speaker 1: college kid who's got a tape recorder. You know. I
Speaker 1: don't get a lot of press conferences and podium so
Speaker 1: I was a pretty nervous when I walked up there.
Speaker 1: But I'll tell you what, after I watched the video
Speaker 1: and just thought about the moment and where I was,
Speaker 1: it was like, man, I'm just I'm just gonna tell
Speaker 1: a story about you know, what I think so impactful
Speaker 1: to me and what I think so important in life.
Speaker 1: And it was a really special moment for me and
Speaker 1: my family for sure. Okay, so it was very it
Speaker 1: was I think it was. It was very natural. You know,
Speaker 1: the story that you told. I think people could resonate
Speaker 1: with with that. And again, congratulations, It's it's one of my,
Speaker 1: if not my greatest accomplishment while playing, you know, winning
Speaker 1: that award it means it definitely means a lot, especially
Speaker 1: being in Chicago, being from Chicago. Yeah, at a little
Speaker 1: bit sweeter. Yeah, yeah, I think I think even looking
Speaker 1: at my situation and like I thought it was, what
Speaker 1: was really cool was in that little couple of minutes
Speaker 1: they give you, you're telling this story about Derek Barnes,
Speaker 1: and really how cool that interaction was. But I think
Speaker 1: what was hard to paint the picture of it is
Speaker 1: like I think people walked away from it like, oh man,
Speaker 1: this impact you had on Derek Barnes, And it was
Speaker 1: like I wanted to make sure people understood it was
Speaker 1: the impact he had on me as well. I was
Speaker 1: a rookie in the NFL. I was in the Midwest,
Speaker 1: somewhere I had never been. I was lonely, trying to
Speaker 1: figure out who the heck I'm going to be as
Speaker 1: a person. And this young six seven eight year old
Speaker 1: kid was my buddy that like we hung out and
Speaker 1: threw the football and shield as a person girls club
Speaker 1: and yeah, like he was as much there for me
Speaker 1: as anything I was there for him. So that happened
Speaker 1: in my last year before I retired. I thought it
Speaker 1: was just such a cool story to tell because it
Speaker 1: was a great moment in my career that it's like, Wow,
Speaker 1: think back to who you were sixteen years ago and
Speaker 1: where are you at and where you stand right now. No, yeah,
Speaker 1: but the people that you impact on the day to day. Basically,
Speaker 1: you never know. You just never know. You can influence
Speaker 1: who's watching you, and that's really the true definition of
Speaker 1: character is And so you got that award literally your
Speaker 1: last year playing. And so at what point in your
Speaker 1: NFL career did you ever begin flirting with the idea
Speaker 1: of retiring. I mean, you played sixteen years, so you
Speaker 1: had a long time to think about this. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know. You know, it's like, do you count the
Speaker 1: years that it seemed like every sports reporter is like
Speaker 1: trying to put it in your head that you probably
Speaker 1: should retire, or it's like you've entered the age just
Speaker 1: like I can remember at some point it's like I'm
Speaker 1: not bringing this up, y'all are bringing this up like
Speaker 1: you know, like you know, is this it? Is this
Speaker 1: the last years? You know, it's like they'd ask you
Speaker 1: those questions and you'd go through those seasons where you'd
Speaker 1: ponder it, and then a lot of the times I
Speaker 1: would think about, hey, you know what, like did I
Speaker 1: come up with this idea? Is this more like, hey,
Speaker 1: because you've reached a certain age or because you're at
Speaker 1: a certain experience level. That's just the narrative people want
Speaker 1: to talk about and so I think for me, it
Speaker 1: was just continuing to be like, you know what, do
Speaker 1: I feel good? Do I feel like I sell the
Speaker 1: passion to play this game? And then at some point
Speaker 1: it became at my age because I was an older
Speaker 1: player coming into the league, it was like, man, the mentorship,
Speaker 1: the brotherhood and my little brothers. You know, a lot
Speaker 1: of them called me uncle. A couple at the end
Speaker 1: called me grandpa, which is really offensive, but the gray,
Speaker 1: you know, it's like you guys have yeah, it just
Speaker 1: you know, it started to be like, hey, you know
Speaker 1: what the impact I get to have with these guys
Speaker 1: every years so much fun too, Like it was like
Speaker 1: I'm chasing playing because I just love the bond. I
Speaker 1: love the brotherhood. I love being able to be there
Speaker 1: for a guy when he has his first kid, or
Speaker 1: he's getting married, or he wants to know about you know,
Speaker 1: this next lifestep he's going through with his mom or
Speaker 1: his family or whatever, and so those kind of moments
Speaker 1: or things I remember almost as much as anything I
Speaker 1: did on the field. Yeah that's cool. So after retiring,
Speaker 1: you got into broadcasting run away, I was that was
Speaker 1: something that I did as well, you know, I retired
Speaker 1: I took like, I don't know, maybe the off season,
Speaker 1: a couple of months off, and then I started to
Speaker 1: I got into broadcasting right away. And Rome and I
Speaker 1: we talked about this often where when Roman hired, he
Speaker 1: took exactly three hundred and sixty five days off of
Speaker 1: doing nothing. I'm just hanging out, kids, fam just whatever.
Speaker 1: He wanted to do a lot of shopping, time with
Speaker 1: the wife, you during the day. Yeah, we did a
Speaker 1: lot of that. We did a lot of that. And
Speaker 1: I always say, if I could go back and do
Speaker 1: it again, I probably would have took a year off
Speaker 1: and just did nothing, because that's probably the one I
Speaker 1: probably said that was probably my big mistake. It is
Speaker 1: just taking a year off and not doing nothing, trying
Speaker 1: to get right back into just doing something right after retiring.
Speaker 1: So my question to you is, what have your experience
Speaker 1: has been like just getting right into football just I'm
Speaker 1: excuse me, getting right into broadcasting having no time off,
Speaker 1: you know, I think it was my first year was
Speaker 1: pretty crazy to have like now kind of sit here
Speaker 1: and enjoy a little bit of being retired. It's been
Speaker 1: nice out. The season's over and I'm kind of sitting still,
Speaker 1: but like I remember being at some point in like
Speaker 1: October November, like I'm having a blast doing this, like
Speaker 1: this is fun traveling. But I'm like, man, I don't
Speaker 1: even know what's happened the last six months, Like I
Speaker 1: have no idea where it's gone or what happened. I
Speaker 1: thought I was gonna have all this time, and I
Speaker 1: feel like I just go from one thing to the
Speaker 1: other every second. And I tell people this all the
Speaker 1: time too, And I'm sure you guys feel the same way.
Speaker 1: You forget too. Football was kind of your excuse to
Speaker 1: get out of things too, like hey, like why don't
Speaker 1: you come to this? Ah? You know what? Actually, like
Speaker 1: we gotta practice or I got OTAs or I got whatever.
Speaker 1: And now you have no excuse to say no. You
Speaker 1: better know the word no, because if you don't, you're
Speaker 1: gonna be busy all the time because they're like, now
Speaker 1: you're not playing no more, so you can come to
Speaker 1: this event or you can come to this thing. And
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, man, crap, I don't have an excuse.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think my year got pretty crazy. It did.
Speaker 1: I was agreeing to anything and everything is like I'm retired.
Speaker 1: I want to go play in you know, Larry Fitzgild's
Speaker 1: golf tournament or I want to go play in this
Speaker 1: And then before I knew it, I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm here Monday, they're Thursday, this place Sunday, Like, oh, like,
Speaker 1: what did I get myself into? But no, I mean
Speaker 1: getting into the broadcast part, I think is probably the
Speaker 1: most enjoyable part of everything. It's it's been a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. I would say that in coaching my kids'
Speaker 1: sports has been the two things that like have been
Speaker 1: an absolute blast. And my wife's enjoyed it too, just
Speaker 1: to get to have me around so much. And so
Speaker 1: it's that part's been really fun. All Right. Number one,
Speaker 1: what sports are you kids playing? And then number two,
Speaker 1: I want you to kind of take me through some
Speaker 1: of the challenges. You know, you talked about you you
Speaker 1: really didn't do any big media press conferences. You're old linons,
Speaker 1: You're not getting a whole bunch of cameras in your
Speaker 1: face week after and so now you're I mean you're
Speaker 1: a prime time You're right there on Thursday night football
Speaker 1: is you're right there with Amazon. It's a great path.
Speaker 1: It's a great crew too. I really enjoy you guys,
Speaker 1: And is it safe to say that you're kind of
Speaker 1: a trailblazer. You are. You're not the only one because
Speaker 1: Joe Thomas was up there too, So you two guys
Speaker 1: are leading the way for you big guys on the
Speaker 1: tit television screen right now. Yeah, I tell you all.
Speaker 1: For the kids. Uh, you know, we're a little bit everywhere.
Speaker 1: I mean, the boys probably play almost all the three majors.
Speaker 1: I'd say, basketball, football, baseball. They're doing all that. You know.
Speaker 1: I've had one to mess around a little bit wanting
Speaker 1: to play some golf, but he didn't want to do that.
Speaker 1: He likes suping too much, so you know, they play those.
Speaker 1: My daughter Sarah is a volleyball player. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get her on the basketball court. She's tall and lean
Speaker 1: and but she enjoys volleyball right now. And then my
Speaker 1: youngest daughter, Catherine, who's eight, uh, just started basketball, so
Speaker 1: I'm excited about her. She's having a blast. That's guy.
Speaker 1: That was always my favorite sport growing up and something
Speaker 1: I still did when I played. I kept the court.
Speaker 1: You know. I had a little half court at my
Speaker 1: house and had a little you know, your little old
Speaker 1: men leagues. You know. I had specific rules though at
Speaker 1: my size because the general guys didn't like me down
Speaker 1: the paint, so I had to I had to shoot
Speaker 1: from the outside, but uh, out in the paint. And
Speaker 1: see that's the guy that I don't like. I'm like,
Speaker 1: why the big guy always trying to bring the ball up?
Speaker 1: You take your shirt off the time, just dunking, dribbling.
Speaker 1: Come on, yeah, I'd have been just shirt off, sweat dripping,
Speaker 1: I've been get bagging it up, getting in Oh my,
Speaker 1: come on, y'all, I'd have been guy hated to play again.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they hated me there, you know, doubt about that,
Speaker 1: but you know, so that that part was fun. But yeah,
Speaker 1: as far as the you know, being on Thursday night
Speaker 1: football and really the challenges, I think it has been
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. And I think for me, I
Speaker 1: do think of it that way. Like it's an offensive lineman.
Speaker 1: You don't have a lot of voice in the league
Speaker 1: when it comes to like press conferences and media stuff.
Speaker 1: I think that's why it's so cool to see right now.
Speaker 1: Jason Kelsey, you know, Joe Thomas, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: you've had O'Hare, you had some guys that you know
Speaker 1: have been out there. But it's like get to see
Speaker 1: those guys really spreading out who they are. Taylor Lawan, like,
Speaker 1: you know, guys, it's like regardless of like their personalities
Speaker 1: and who you like and don't like actually having a
Speaker 1: personality and showing it. Because I think in the offensive
Speaker 1: line room especially and you guys know this, you've played
Speaker 1: long enough, like that was kind of always a room
Speaker 1: where it's like be quiet, do your job, and that's
Speaker 1: kind of how the they were taught, Like you brought
Speaker 1: in young Lineman, it's like don't say a word, don't speak,
Speaker 1: just block, you know, like that kind of thing. And
Speaker 1: just seeing now that there's a little bit of these
Speaker 1: guys showing who they really are and having a personality
Speaker 1: and talking about what they enjoy and they're passionate about.
Speaker 1: I love being on the side of not being the
Speaker 1: trail blazer but changing that narrative and for all those
Speaker 1: guys because you trouble. Yeah, so I enjoy that, man,
Speaker 1: you know. But it's funny, like even when you go
Speaker 1: through these meetings, like I met with agents to talk
Speaker 1: about media, right, they would say stuff that I just
Speaker 1: get so fired, Like they'd be like, well, somebody can
Speaker 1: hire you, and like you could talk about on an
Speaker 1: alignment and I'm like, bro, Like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: y'all understand when football, like offensive linemen have to know
Speaker 1: so much more than how to block somebody that to
Speaker 1: even be good at what they do. So like to
Speaker 1: think that that was even the what your own agent
Speaker 1: might think. It's like, oh, man, you could talk about
Speaker 1: alignment blocking people, and I'm like, bro, I can talk
Speaker 1: about anything in this game, you know, you know, So
Speaker 1: I think you have to be an intelligent guy to
Speaker 1: play that position and also have a great concept of
Speaker 1: the game and how it moves and motions and coverages
Speaker 1: and how they rotate, and like to understand how to
Speaker 1: pick all those things up. You better know how the
Speaker 1: defense dances. Yeah, And so I gotta know how the
Speaker 1: offense what our plan is, and I gotta know what
Speaker 1: the defense how they're gonna dance to it, and and
Speaker 1: so you know that you can watch tape and understand
Speaker 1: those things from a Figger complex in just your job.
Speaker 1: So it's been fun to have a chance to do
Speaker 1: that and get to do it with Sherman Fitz and
Speaker 1: Tony and Charissa, all people who are just such special
Speaker 1: personalities in their in their own right, it's been a blast.
Speaker 1: I tell you that the biggest surprise to me. I
Speaker 1: didn't know i'd love it and have so much fun.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've had an absolute blast doing it. That's
Speaker 1: the best thing about it. So I didn't really watch
Speaker 1: a ton of football when I played. I didn't watch
Speaker 1: Monday night football, Sunday night football because we sit in
Speaker 1: the meeting room all day in a dark room, and
Speaker 1: you just watched the wide angle of plays all day long.
Speaker 1: So when I retired, I watched more football than I
Speaker 1: ever have in my life. Wish I didn't think I
Speaker 1: would do. So being retired, do you do do you
Speaker 1: feel more connected to the game just because you're doing
Speaker 1: the analyst thing or do you just did you think
Speaker 1: you weren't going to be watching that much football after
Speaker 1: being retired? Peter, I gotta tell you, I'm in the
Speaker 1: same boat. I don't know if I watched a single
Speaker 1: game when I played, Like, I don't think I were
Speaker 1: you serious, I didn't have to do with my was
Speaker 1: more and who I was just playing? I do it
Speaker 1: too much. Yeah, I wasn't watching it, And now I
Speaker 1: feel like it's like a like I can't not watch
Speaker 1: every single guy like, bro, I gotta see every game
Speaker 1: every snap, Like leave me alone, like get out of
Speaker 1: the room, like I'm watching everything. It's crazy, like I
Speaker 1: even got to the point this past season and why
Speaker 1: I really like realized how much shit changed for me.
Speaker 1: It's like the rams of INI like hey, why don't
Speaker 1: you come to this game or be cool coming this
Speaker 1: game where I talked to Sean or Stafford or something,
Speaker 1: be like, hey, you're gonna come this weekend, And it's like,
Speaker 1: I don't think I might miss one of the games
Speaker 1: like on the East Coast or something, So I actually,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna sit at home, but I watch,
Speaker 1: Like but I'm gonna watch all the games. I couldn't
Speaker 1: go nowhere on Sunday because I was like, I gotta
Speaker 1: see every game, every snap. I want to watch it all.
Speaker 1: That's funny. So your first training camp that you didn't
Speaker 1: report to after you retired, I know mine was. It
Speaker 1: was for me. It was weird because I was like, Damn,
Speaker 1: I'm normally running, I'm in shape, I'm lifting, I'm running,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get everything right. You know, I packed
Speaker 1: my bag, I'm gone for two yeks. What was that like?
Speaker 1: Not going towards trening camp after sixteen season? Did it?
Speaker 1: Did you miss it? Was? It? Was? It? Like, damn,
Speaker 1: I just something was off. I was that I felt
Speaker 1: like I played up until the meter read empty. So
Speaker 1: when I when I when I got done and walked
Speaker 1: off that field after the Super Bowl, m I felt
Speaker 1: like that was everything I had left. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: and part of that may be because in my career
Speaker 1: I was really blessed with like being very very healthy
Speaker 1: for the most part. I mean things, but nothing that
Speaker 1: you'd say are and this is gonna hinder your career.
Speaker 1: And then the last really like two years of my career,
Speaker 1: I had the torn PCL at MCL, I had come
Speaker 1: back from. I had a presignificant need deal that went
Speaker 1: on a hip injury. So it was like, all right,
Speaker 1: it's kind of getting to be grueling to show up
Speaker 1: every day and go through this. And I was I
Speaker 1: really like from a body standpoint of feeling good enough
Speaker 1: to play, I felt fine, but it started to be
Speaker 1: frustrating to just get Sunday to Sunday. And I started
Speaker 1: losing the fun of that chase of like chasing my
Speaker 1: job all the time. And so that's I really kind
Speaker 1: of knew that was it at the conversation with Melissa,
Speaker 1: like we knew, you know what, this is the last ride,
Speaker 1: let's see how it ends. So for me, I was
Speaker 1: like in a pretty good spot, but I really knew it.
Speaker 1: Like the second week at training camp, I go out
Speaker 1: to the rams their practices down here in Cali, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, I'm gonna show up the first
Speaker 1: day of pads and I'm like, you know what, when
Speaker 1: once they do the acclimation stuff they're going in pads,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show up. And I really know when I
Speaker 1: go to this practice. I show up at practice, I
Speaker 1: bet I lasted twelve minutes. Like I was sitting out
Speaker 1: there and I was like, you know what, like I
Speaker 1: go hit some golf balls right now, like I'm good,
Speaker 1: Like I'm out of here. I literally like I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna say that lows to the
Speaker 1: people on your say hello too, and then I'm getting
Speaker 1: out of here, Like I don't even want to sit
Speaker 1: here and watch it like much less practice it. So
Speaker 1: I literally pieced out like twenty minutes into the practice,
Speaker 1: and I knew then, like that's it, Like you're done,
Speaker 1: You're ready to just talk about this game and how
Speaker 1: much has changed your life and the passion you always
Speaker 1: will have for it. But playing it is over with.
Speaker 1: Does your body feel now? How do your knees feel?
Speaker 1: I always ask big guys that question. I feel pretty good.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously there's things like I'm not sitting out
Speaker 1: here trying to go do a bunch of single legs
Speaker 1: squats or something for a bunch of reps and heavy weight.
Speaker 1: But I feel great, Like if you put a bar
Speaker 1: on my back, I'd be ready to go and squat
Speaker 1: and do everything else. I feel good. I work out consistently.
Speaker 1: One of the things that helped me play at that age.
Speaker 1: I mean, you don't play at forty if you're not
Speaker 1: pretty active, is that I had really adapted a lifestyle
Speaker 1: like That's who I was, like every day even to
Speaker 1: this day, Like this morning at five am, I'm in
Speaker 1: mym Fred Sauda. At six am, I did you know,
Speaker 1: the yoga with my instructor, you know. And then on Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
Speaker 1: I trained with my trainer and work out like I
Speaker 1: just go. That's kind of who I am. I'll always
Speaker 1: be that way, whether I'm playing or not. I mean,
Speaker 1: my schedule doesn't change much from that aspect because I
Speaker 1: just love training, not because I'm training for something. And
Speaker 1: so you know, for me, it's like I feel pretty
Speaker 1: good because I'm still really active. I try to be
Speaker 1: really cautious of conscious of like, hey, these are the
Speaker 1: things I need to do now to kind of unwind
Speaker 1: some of the things I did when I played. So
Speaker 1: I'm not lifting a bunch of weight, but I'm moving,
Speaker 1: you know, and trying to stay that way. So so
Speaker 1: with number one, I mean, that's the best way to
Speaker 1: do it is to just continue to take care of yourself.
Speaker 1: It's also going to help you initially too. It's gonna
Speaker 1: keep you mentally strong. I think that's what working out
Speaker 1: for me. That's what's kind of helped me prolongs. It
Speaker 1: just keeps me mentally all there. That's like the one
Speaker 1: thing when I get out of whack, it's like, dude,
Speaker 1: I need to go hit the gym and just release.
Speaker 1: The one thing I saw on your Twitter you talked
Speaker 1: about it about being in a dark place. You had
Speaker 1: seen all the tweet from Byron Jones, and you commented
Speaker 1: on it and you talked about how thanks for the
Speaker 1: great dialogue. How everybody's responding about how they're feeling, their
Speaker 1: feelings on how their bodies feel, and other people doing
Speaker 1: other jobs and how they say they're in pain and
Speaker 1: all these other things. You were just wondering, like was
Speaker 1: I normal? You know, I was playing at forty something
Speaker 1: years old. I got aches and pains. And is it
Speaker 1: from football strictly or is everybody at this age have
Speaker 1: certain aches and pains. We all hear about it from
Speaker 1: normal people as well. And I really enjoy your dialogue,
Speaker 1: and not only that, but your responses to some of
Speaker 1: the Twitter mentions and everybody else that responded to those
Speaker 1: things as well. I thought the open dialogue of communication
Speaker 1: was huge. That you know, so often in this world,
Speaker 1: especially football players, we're talking you gotta be tough, you
Speaker 1: gotta be this, and all of a sudden, when we're
Speaker 1: all of a sudden take that armor off and we
Speaker 1: actually open up about these things we don't feel. So,
Speaker 1: you know, strength is in the weakness. Right when you're
Speaker 1: at your weakest, sometimes that could be your strongest because
Speaker 1: you're not alone when you see other people going through
Speaker 1: a lot of those similar things. I would like to
Speaker 1: maybe you tell me, like what took you to that
Speaker 1: place where you started bringing that up, and also like,
Speaker 1: what did you learn from that experience of really just
Speaker 1: you know, leaving your emotions all out there on Twitter
Speaker 1: and getting it out there. Yeah, I think when you
Speaker 1: when you talk about the game and the passion it
Speaker 1: takes the player throughout my last probably I always call
Speaker 1: it my last five years, probably six years when I
Speaker 1: really when I was in my thirties, mid thirties, thirty
Speaker 1: four thirty five, I really did sit there and be like,
Speaker 1: all right, I mean, how many homeboys I got back
Speaker 1: that like are dealing with something or like you know,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I remember so on so head shoulders surgery
Speaker 1: and fell on a basketball court or whatever it was.
Speaker 1: And I'd be like, man, I'm not the only person
Speaker 1: out here that's like dealing with something where I'm in
Speaker 1: this dark place where I don't know if I can
Speaker 1: get my body back to Let's put some perspective on it.
Speaker 1: Playing the most elite game in the world, like like,
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that you can't like function as a
Speaker 1: person in society, right, but in your mind it's the
Speaker 1: only thing that matters, And so you go to these
Speaker 1: dark places because you're like, man, I can't dunk a
Speaker 1: basketball anymore, Like at some point that I became a reality,
Speaker 1: like I can't it hurts Stephen try to dunk a
Speaker 1: basketball right like, but like I could still live a
Speaker 1: normal life. It's just my perspective is I'm comparing it
Speaker 1: to playing NFL football, which is the highest or the
Speaker 1: highest level. And so I genuinely asked the question because
Speaker 1: that's literally what I thought about when I played, Like,
Speaker 1: is there other people out there that feel like this?
Speaker 1: That work jobs where you got a strain a lot?
Speaker 1: Obviously there's not a lot of people that work in
Speaker 1: a office every day that have significant injuries, but might
Speaker 1: have daily things if they're not taking care of their body.
Speaker 1: So to hear people's perspective on that, and part of
Speaker 1: it was like it wasn't about whether I agreed or
Speaker 1: disagreed with, you know how, Like the feeling is that
Speaker 1: maybe other players have about that and about their body
Speaker 1: and about their experience in the NFL. It's that there's
Speaker 1: different points of view from all of us in all
Speaker 1: walks of life. And I don't care what we're talking about.
Speaker 1: We can talk about, you know, religion, racism, we can
Speaker 1: talk about injuries. We took all these things like everyone's
Speaker 1: viewpoint is their viewpoint and just being okay with like
Speaker 1: some people are gonna come with a little steam when
Speaker 1: you bring up a subject, and some people are gonna
Speaker 1: hit you with kindness, like but everyone's like they're due
Speaker 1: there how they feel. But let's just talk through a
Speaker 1: little bit of how it is you feel, Like I
Speaker 1: want to know why you feel that way or what
Speaker 1: you actually are experiencing. And I feel like for me,
Speaker 1: it's like at first you have to do that, and
Speaker 1: like the first people think like, oh, you're mocking somebody,
Speaker 1: or you're trying to go after somebody, or this is
Speaker 1: a take, you know as they call it. And it's like,
Speaker 1: now I'm just trying to talk, Like y'all want to talk,
Speaker 1: you don't want to talk, you know, that's the people
Speaker 1: don't know how to do that though, more though, that's people.
Speaker 1: People don't know how to communicate. People don't know how
Speaker 1: to talk. It is this we we're on our phones, right,
Speaker 1: so this is this is what people know. This is
Speaker 1: like the new standard. Nobody knows how to communicate. Nobody.
Speaker 1: If I do communicate what you with, I'm going to
Speaker 1: text you and then the text message that you get
Speaker 1: you read it a certain kind of way and it's
Speaker 1: like you took a finish to it. And I'm like, wait, no,
Speaker 1: you're interpreting my texting as a drawn rather than just
Speaker 1: picking up the damn phone and just say, hey, this
Speaker 1: is what I meant to say, this is who I am.
Speaker 1: And then you can tell by the I don't know
Speaker 1: the way my voice carries it, like you know, if
Speaker 1: I'm mad, happy, sad, whatever. Yeah, I try to tell
Speaker 1: my kids that all man. Hey, look I tell this
Speaker 1: all the time. My wife and I had this conversation
Speaker 1: one time, just about open dialogue, and she's like we're
Speaker 1: talking about something we fought over and I'm like laughing
Speaker 1: and we're making fun of each other, and I'm like, hey, babe,
Speaker 1: I just said like we were down to like half
Speaker 1: a car in the milk. And she was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: but I heard you say you're a bad mother you
Speaker 1: didn't put milk in the fridge for the kids. And
Speaker 1: I was like, no, I just I just said we
Speaker 1: need to get a new carton, like I said, but
Speaker 1: how it is right? Yeah, all I said was when
Speaker 1: needs some fresh milk, that's it. Like you just no, no,
Speaker 1: you call me a bad mom, like, well, no, didn't
Speaker 1: you know. So it's like those things can happen that way,
Speaker 1: even sometimes when it's clear communication. And so I just
Speaker 1: from me, I've always taken the thing like I can't
Speaker 1: be on this this platform if I can't handle criticism
Speaker 1: and I can't handle compliments and I can't run with
Speaker 1: it one way or another, like you know. And so
Speaker 1: for me, it's like, if I can stay calm and
Speaker 1: just have dialogue, then I can be on here. If
Speaker 1: it can't be like that, then it's not worth my
Speaker 1: time because my emotions being controlled by something that can
Speaker 1: be misread and misunderstood is wild to me, Like that
Speaker 1: just doesn't make sense. So I just wanted to have
Speaker 1: a conversation about it and see how people feel. And
Speaker 1: also I just hope for him, like you know, I
Speaker 1: feel wherever he is and he's at with all of that, man,
Speaker 1: just make sure you reach out and keep some perspective
Speaker 1: of really the blessings you have had in the game,
Speaker 1: the toughness that is the reality that we sign up for.
Speaker 1: You know, there's parts of it that you know, what
Speaker 1: the NFL could always do better, and there's no doubt
Speaker 1: about that. I mean I think we all can agree
Speaker 1: on that there's policies that every at every level that
Speaker 1: they could be better with, but we also sign up
Speaker 1: for the job, and so I think for me, it's
Speaker 1: just making sure you keep a little perspective in life
Speaker 1: and what things are like and what everyone else goes through. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so just all that being said, Bro, I think
Speaker 1: the biggest thing I got out of especially you responded
Speaker 1: to all those comments, was that vulnerability is strength number
Speaker 1: one when you when you're able to open up and share.
Speaker 1: And I hope Byron Jones here's that as well, because
Speaker 1: his Vulnabi allows you to have the strength and courage
Speaker 1: to reach out as well and just like talk about it.
Speaker 1: And so that's huge for me. And then I got
Speaker 1: to get on my soapbox for a minute because I
Speaker 1: tell my wife all the time with I'm just like you, Bro,
Speaker 1: I'm like, look, you can't read them motions through text,
Speaker 1: so like I'm just asking the question here, Like I
Speaker 1: ain't saying nothing about you being a bad mom. I
Speaker 1: ain't said none of that, Like words matter, Like I
Speaker 1: didn't say none of that, like, and so I said this,
Speaker 1: and then you said what you heard, which is not
Speaker 1: what I said, So all right, I'm off my soapbox.
Speaker 1: That's why I say just pick up the phone or
Speaker 1: just physically talk to that person because you won't have
Speaker 1: the wrong interpretation. That's really what I was just don't
Speaker 1: even started with come talk to I started with now like, hey,
Speaker 1: let me tell you what I'm not saying, and then
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get to what I am saying. That's that's
Speaker 1: what I started with. Now, somebody need to use that one.
Speaker 1: That's funny. So I'm not in a dark place because
Speaker 1: I'm forty two and I can still dunk a basketball.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just gonna throw it out there, right,
Speaker 1: I'm I got down in forty two vertically, don't trying
Speaker 1: to dunk on my kids eight and a half of
Speaker 1: a gold just like yesterday and my daughter pushed me
Speaker 1: and I missed that joke. I felt so bad. I'm like, bro,
Speaker 1: I can't even get a half sprike commercial right? Commercial
Speaker 1: act was that it was bad? Yeah, so um for
Speaker 1: the most part, when nobody really retires when they want to,
Speaker 1: like football retires you. We talked to a Golik about
Speaker 1: this at Super Bowl and he said, I didn't retire
Speaker 1: football the NFL retired me. I didn't choose to retire.
Speaker 1: I kind of didn't really want to retire. When I retired,
Speaker 1: I turned at ACL at thirty thirty four. Room. You
Speaker 1: were still playing, you were still doing things, um but
Speaker 1: you you were a little bit different though. Like you
Speaker 1: you had this Hollywood storybook ending oldest man in the
Speaker 1: league or oldest lineman in the league, won Walter Payton
Speaker 1: Man of the Year. You win the Super Bowl, then
Speaker 1: you choose to retire. My question is, had you not
Speaker 1: won the Super Bowl, would you have retired? You know?
Speaker 1: In twenty eighteen, I kind of faced that similar situation
Speaker 1: when we lost to the Patriots, and in the sense
Speaker 1: that people kept asking me, will you retired, And that
Speaker 1: was really a moment where I was like, I don't.
Speaker 1: I mean, I never even thought about retiring. I mean,
Speaker 1: I've always wanted to chase it. I mean, I think Jared.
Speaker 1: I actually saw Jared Golf a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and we were telling that story when we landed from Atlanta,
Speaker 1: lost in the Super Bowl on Sunday, fly home the
Speaker 1: next day as a team landing from Atlanta, and just
Speaker 1: who I was and how I just love to push
Speaker 1: myself in the crazy ways. I put my headset on
Speaker 1: and put on my music, and as soon as we
Speaker 1: pulled up to the facility on our team bus, like
Speaker 1: I started walking doing a look a little walk jog
Speaker 1: around the field like because I was like day one
Speaker 1: starts right now. We already had a long season, Like
Speaker 1: if I'm gonna keep playing at my age, I gotta
Speaker 1: get moving. And so the guys are getting in their
Speaker 1: cars like ending the season, and I'm out there running
Speaker 1: on the field and it's like that's what my mentality was.
Speaker 1: But this one was totally different. When I walked into
Speaker 1: Week one against the Arizona Cardinals of the playoffs, I
Speaker 1: had already know this is it, this is the last ride.
Speaker 1: And you know what, you know, remember what a blessing
Speaker 1: has been to play this game. It's not a burden,
Speaker 1: because at times sometimes it can feel that way, but
Speaker 1: it's it's a blessing to play this game. And so
Speaker 1: I took that attitude and I'll never forget calling it
Speaker 1: up for that game and we were going to walk
Speaker 1: out the tunnel, and you know, there were things I
Speaker 1: wanted to say. There's things you want to talk about
Speaker 1: when it's football season. To be fired up. But there
Speaker 1: are things I want to make sure my guy's heard.
Speaker 1: And it was one that this game, you know what,
Speaker 1: has blessed and changed a lot of our lives. And
Speaker 1: remember that. And then also remember you are in the
Speaker 1: most elite percentile in the world. Man. So anybody that
Speaker 1: tells you anything you can't do, that's living. We broke
Speaker 1: it down to and we walked up that tunnel. Anybody
Speaker 1: tells you anything you can't do in life, and I
Speaker 1: don't care what it is on this field or off
Speaker 1: of it. Every single one of you or special men
Speaker 1: and special people, and that's why you're standing where you are.
Speaker 1: I'll never forget us breaking it down to that. And
Speaker 1: it was just a purpose, like this is the last run.
Speaker 1: I know how playoff gadens go. When you lose them,
Speaker 1: everybody scatters. I want you, guys to make sure you
Speaker 1: know I love you and that you are special. And
Speaker 1: don't you let anybody ever tell you anything different. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a man's live or what is false to make of it?
Speaker 1: I love it. Another great quote about Peter Huttilman man,
Speaker 1: I love no um wit man. Clearly you are a
Speaker 1: great leader and you grew into those leadership roles as
Speaker 1: you continue to play more, get more reps, and uh,
Speaker 1: clearly as the oldest lineman in the league at the end,
Speaker 1: you're definitely a great leader. And you told a story
Speaker 1: about about Derek Barnes about how you impacted this life.
Speaker 1: I read another story about when you were Joe Burrow
Speaker 1: were rehabbing in the offseason how you guys became great
Speaker 1: buddies as well. I mean, like hold on, they were
Speaker 1: hanging out on each other's birthdays. I mean, it's gotta
Speaker 1: be nice. And so at what point in your career
Speaker 1: did you begin to develop these leadership skills or qualities
Speaker 1: and when did you start to notice that, you know what,
Speaker 1: I think, I am becoming this leader because you don't. Actually,
Speaker 1: I'm sure most people don't try and aim to be
Speaker 1: the leader. It just kind of falls upon you. No,
Speaker 1: I think some people you don't. You do it naturally though.
Speaker 1: It's just it's natural point and you can hell yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I think for me, I realized at a younger age,
Speaker 1: probably when I got into college and then write my
Speaker 1: first couple of years in the league, that I had
Speaker 1: a special ability to pull people in one direction or
Speaker 1: the other. And I realized that just naturally who I was,
Speaker 1: I was a magnet, and so if I wanted to
Speaker 1: go the wrong way, I could take people that way,
Speaker 1: and if I want to go the right way, I could.
Speaker 1: And I needed to make a conscious decision of who
Speaker 1: it is I wanted to be. And so I think
Speaker 1: at some point, like after I met Melissa and we
Speaker 1: really kind of hit it off, or people who were
Speaker 1: wound in the same way mentally of what we want
Speaker 1: to do in life and what's important to us. I
Speaker 1: knew who I wanted to be in the sense of
Speaker 1: not becoming a leader, but I knew the man I
Speaker 1: wanted to be. And as I always have told every
Speaker 1: one of the guys that I've had a chance to
Speaker 1: be in the locker room with its, regardless of the
Speaker 1: title that football gives you or platform it gives you,
Speaker 1: you're a man before you're anything else, and you need
Speaker 1: to decide who that is. And so that's where we start.
Speaker 1: And so for me, it's always been about I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do one Like Peanut, you can teach what you know,
Speaker 1: but you'll only ever reproduce who you are. And so
Speaker 1: for me, it was like, I'm not gonna talk to
Speaker 1: guys about leadership or talk to them about why I'm
Speaker 1: a leader. I'm gonna show them who I am and
Speaker 1: the ones that want that in their life will follow.
Speaker 1: And you know what, if they see it and they
Speaker 1: believe it and they trust you, I think that, Like
Speaker 1: we just talked about vulnerability and trust, that happens at
Speaker 1: different times for everybody. Yeah, you know, and men and
Speaker 1: women you know are around you enough, they like eventually
Speaker 1: they put their guard down and say, you know what
Speaker 1: you're You're somebody showing me that you're trustable and that
Speaker 1: you'll truly like have good intentions. And so I think
Speaker 1: for me, it was just continuing to work on who
Speaker 1: I am and be the best version of who I
Speaker 1: can be, and if people want to follow that and
Speaker 1: they ask for help or they want my leadership, I'll
Speaker 1: be there for them. And I've always said, leadership to
Speaker 1: me is about the ability to want people to stand
Speaker 1: side by side with you and walk through a door
Speaker 1: like they like, I don't know what's on the other
Speaker 1: side of the door, but this is the dude, I
Speaker 1: want to walk through the door. And so I don't
Speaker 1: need them to command me. I don't need them to
Speaker 1: tell me how to do things. I want to stand
Speaker 1: right beside them, and I think to me that like
Speaker 1: the inagability to be able to do that is special
Speaker 1: and I'm never taking that for granted. Strengthens for service,
Speaker 1: not status, And I try to use my platform to
Speaker 1: help people, and considering what happened to my daughter back
Speaker 1: and oh wait, with a heart transplant, I'm always trying
Speaker 1: to help somebody out and just be kind, show true
Speaker 1: kindness to people. And it's helped me tremendously to help
Speaker 1: people that I don't know. That's probably like one of
Speaker 1: the greatest joys in life is helping someone you don't
Speaker 1: know and not really wanting anything in return. Now, you
Speaker 1: and your family are the true living testament of what
Speaker 1: that is. Helping out people and then loving yourself as
Speaker 1: your neighbor. What are you trying to convey and show
Speaker 1: your kids just with the kind of man and the
Speaker 1: kind of wife that you have. What's what's that message
Speaker 1: that you're trying to show your kids. I think for us,
Speaker 1: it's you know what, you know, you're gonna fail, you're
Speaker 1: gonna mess up, you're gonna have bad days. But I
Speaker 1: call it constant daily pursuit and the reason I say
Speaker 1: that is that it's one thing to pursue something daily,
Speaker 1: but to constantly choose to pursue it daily to me
Speaker 1: as a difference. So I call it every day. I'm
Speaker 1: on a constant, daily pursuit of a better version of myself.
Speaker 1: And then that accept my failures, accept my successes, and
Speaker 1: the next morning I wake up the same way, with
Speaker 1: the same process to find a better version. And I
Speaker 1: think for us, it's about everything starts at our dinner table.
Speaker 1: And my kids will know to love people regardless of
Speaker 1: where they come from, what they look like, what they
Speaker 1: expect from them. They'll love them because they love them,
Speaker 1: not because of anything else. And they're gonna want to
Speaker 1: make a difference because that's gonna be a passion of theirs.
Speaker 1: And so we try to make sure that anything we do,
Speaker 1: even if they can't participate, they come and they see
Speaker 1: it and they have a visualization of it. And you know,
Speaker 1: I've walked skid row with the kids, you know, and
Speaker 1: I've walked you know, many different places where it's like,
Speaker 1: I want you to see that people don't live the
Speaker 1: same way you live. And you've been very blessed, and
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to understand that at times that's gonna
Speaker 1: be a burden for you because you're not gonna have
Speaker 1: the grit and the toughness that other people have had
Speaker 1: to strive through. So you're gonna have to be aware
Speaker 1: of it, and you're gonna have to acknowledge it and
Speaker 1: be willing to accept it and come from a place
Speaker 1: of like, you know what, that is who I am
Speaker 1: and I did grow up this way. But how can
Speaker 1: I be a part of a solution? How can I
Speaker 1: be a part of helping people and always being willing
Speaker 1: to be in that mindset. I think that's the thing
Speaker 1: I've been most proud of. And people say, what's your
Speaker 1: proudest thing for me? Right now, it's my kid's hearts
Speaker 1: for other people. Some of the biggest things we've done
Speaker 1: in LA, whether it be with homelessness or different things,
Speaker 1: where actually ideas that my kids came up with and
Speaker 1: things they wanted to do, and I just trying to
Speaker 1: found a way to put them into action. And so
Speaker 1: that to me is where it's really important. Is I
Speaker 1: want my kids to understand we need to have those
Speaker 1: conversations at our dinner table, and you need to feel
Speaker 1: open and free to ask anything you want to ask,
Speaker 1: and if it's a tough combo, it'll be a tough combo.
Speaker 1: But I want you to have a full transparency on
Speaker 1: what life's all about. And um, you know what. To me,
Speaker 1: that'll be my proudest moment if they, you know, grow
Speaker 1: up to be the kind of people that they hope
Speaker 1: to be, and that obviously about you know, their mother
Speaker 1: and I hope they'll be. It's it gets better when
Speaker 1: they get older. I have a seventeen year old and
Speaker 1: we remember taking her on our college trip to Howard.
Speaker 1: Hopefully I want her to go to Howard, but it's
Speaker 1: wants that he wants that I do. It's like a
Speaker 1: different world, you know what I'm saying that That's what
Speaker 1: I feel like when I when I took her there.
Speaker 1: But seeing my daughter at seventeen and what her mom
Speaker 1: and I are teaching or have taught her, I only
Speaker 1: got another year with her before she's out, and she
Speaker 1: you know, she leaves the nest. So it's it's funny
Speaker 1: that you say that because Rome's got four kids. I
Speaker 1: have four kids. You got four kids too, right, yep? Yeah,
Speaker 1: and just and they're all so different. But you're trying
Speaker 1: to plant seeds in them to be open minded and
Speaker 1: to care for people, to love for people. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it gets it gets better the older that they're getting. Man,
Speaker 1: it's oh man, you're you're gonna have a blast at seventeen.
Speaker 1: I'm loving being a girl dad. It's it's one of
Speaker 1: it's like the best job ever being a being a
Speaker 1: girl dad. I love it. But we'll get back into that.
Speaker 1: We'll tell more stories about our kids. Right now, we
Speaker 1: got to pay some bills, so y'all hold on for
Speaker 1: about thirty seconds. We'll be right back. We're back, all right.
Speaker 1: We have my man, Andrew Whitworth right here. Tons of accolades.
Speaker 1: I mean, I still got one in my back pocket
Speaker 1: that I'm gonna wait till the end to throw out.
Speaker 1: I want to know if he knows this last nugget
Speaker 1: that I found out about this young man. Um. All right,
Speaker 1: So I love to ask this question because I have
Speaker 1: my own unique experience, and everybody on this podcast does
Speaker 1: and hopefully some listeners do is to do as well.
Speaker 1: But what was your first welcome to the NFL moment?
Speaker 1: You're like, WHOA, Okay, this is the league. I think
Speaker 1: I had multiple of them, and playing in Cincinnati in
Speaker 1: two thousand and six. Uh, we had an interesting team,
Speaker 1: let's put it that way. Uh, you know, there's some
Speaker 1: wild characters in that in that locker room. So I
Speaker 1: had a lot of them, everybody from Ojo and uh
Speaker 1: Whosh and Dexter Jackson and you know, I mean, lord,
Speaker 1: we we had guys from everywhere. But uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I met some really cool guys. Realized I was no
Speaker 1: longer in the SEC anymore, and it's a totally different world.
Speaker 1: But I think by like on the field moment was
Speaker 1: Carolina Panthers my rookie year as my first start as
Speaker 1: a left tackle in the NFL. I think it was
Speaker 1: Week five, played Peppers and Mike Rucker and Mike Rutger
Speaker 1: and Julius Peppers. At that time, I think, like, you know,
Speaker 1: the last four years had like eighty something sacks is
Speaker 1: the most by a duo, you know, in the league
Speaker 1: at that time. And I had a play like late
Speaker 1: in the game, we're beating them, and I know we'll
Speaker 1: call it lucky, just so I'm trying to be nice
Speaker 1: because Mike calls me out, so I pancake Mike Rucker
Speaker 1: and I stood up. I'm just like I'm feeling good.
Speaker 1: So I talked some smack. We call the next play
Speaker 1: the same play, and I rised real quick what it
Speaker 1: was like to be a veteran the NFL and they
Speaker 1: know exactly what's coming. And he literally just ejects me
Speaker 1: into the running back like tackles him in the backfield,
Speaker 1: super embarrassing. I'm literally just like, all right, man, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna learn just I'm gonna hold on a little bit, like,
Speaker 1: you know, I had one good play. I kind of
Speaker 1: lost my tongue a little bit, and Mike putting me
Speaker 1: on my place, and I realized that I was I
Speaker 1: was dealing with grown men. So you know what, I
Speaker 1: found that out real fast. So when you play sports
Speaker 1: typically I don't know, six to seven, three hundred plus pounds,
Speaker 1: you always to me, you look like you're always a
Speaker 1: big kid. So they automatically just like, oh whitworth, Yeah,
Speaker 1: big kid, put them off asive line, Yeah you get chow,
Speaker 1: or they just put you in a position. If you
Speaker 1: could have picked a position to play regardless of your size,
Speaker 1: what position would have been. I think growing up, I
Speaker 1: always thought I was going to be a tight end
Speaker 1: or defensive end. I mean, I told you I loved basketball.
Speaker 1: That's actually what I played up until my senior year
Speaker 1: in high school. Um. I always thought of myself as
Speaker 1: being a tight end. Um I thought I'd be that,
Speaker 1: and then I kind of you know, like Mike Zimmer
Speaker 1: would say, I always had like a defensive mentality for
Speaker 1: a lineman. Um. I love like effort and running and
Speaker 1: just chasing people down and stuff like, Um, you know
Speaker 1: it's bad because it's an interception, but I used to
Speaker 1: love what we threw an interception, Like I want to
Speaker 1: be the one to get over there and make a
Speaker 1: tackle and being to be in the mix right people. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, and I had I tried that one time,
Speaker 1: but uh, you know, that was like my mindset. But
Speaker 1: you know what's funny, it's like how I chose my college.
Speaker 1: I was an LSU. I was a Louisiana kid, but
Speaker 1: I never really wanted to go to LSU. I always
Speaker 1: wanted to go to Florida Ucas Spurrier had like a
Speaker 1: lot of big tight ends and you know, back Fred
Speaker 1: Taylor and all them cats. So that's why I want
Speaker 1: to go. And every college recruited me that way, Like,
Speaker 1: hey man, you know, Jason Peters was at Arkansas. You
Speaker 1: had a lot of being tight end college football, and
Speaker 1: then I Nick Saban gets hired by LSU my senior
Speaker 1: year in high school, and he walks in the door
Speaker 1: and it's like, you're not going to be a tight end.
Speaker 1: As soon as you give in to being a left tackle,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have an unbelievable career. And I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I respect the heck guy. This guy he just told
Speaker 1: me what I didn't want to hear and then at
Speaker 1: the same time told me what I was going to accomplish.
Speaker 1: And so I like, for me, that just flipped a switch.
Speaker 1: And then the next day I called Florida and told
Speaker 1: him I wasn't coming there and I was gonna become
Speaker 1: an LSU Tiger and the rest is history. But I
Speaker 1: was that you wore number eighty nine. I'm like, we're
Speaker 1: played was number eighty nine in high school? You were
Speaker 1: eighty nine eighty nine as a sophomore. That was my
Speaker 1: sophomore year, first time playing. Then ninety nine is ninety
Speaker 1: nine as a junior because I played defense too, And
Speaker 1: then I went to seven when they finally moved me
Speaker 1: to offensive line by senior year seventy four, So that
Speaker 1: was my That was my ending. But one for one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's another one. Come on now, yo, yeah yeah, play that?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, play that next one another we'll get on
Speaker 1: the board first. Oh yeah, come on here. You got
Speaker 1: to make sure you you notice who was supposed to
Speaker 1: be covering me on that play. That's my dog right there,
Speaker 1: Ryan Clark lsu brother. Uh. You know, I never let
Speaker 1: him live that down. I remind him, you know, at
Speaker 1: least every couple of years about me being open in
Speaker 1: the end zone right there. So that that was a
Speaker 1: cool moment actually though. Yeah, that was my That was
Speaker 1: my birthday and my wife was expecting our twins. That
Speaker 1: was our first kids. Um, we ended up having them
Speaker 1: in February, but that was actually all my birthday. First
Speaker 1: drive of the game, I think what's cool about that one.
Speaker 1: I haven't done the research yet. I'd love to know
Speaker 1: that was the only offensive touchdown scored in that game.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, So I'd love to know how many NFL
Speaker 1: games and offensive lineman has been the only offensive touchdown
Speaker 1: scored in the game. I probably would say none. I'm
Speaker 1: here we go, come home, baby, let's go. I'm goin.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get I'm just trying to get
Speaker 1: another plaque for my wall for podcast. You own that
Speaker 1: one all day, boss, That's that's that's so good. All right,
Speaker 1: here's another one. So we did a little bit deeper
Speaker 1: research too as well. You told us that. And this
Speaker 1: is on your Twitter again, all right, your top three
Speaker 1: old school hip hop artists. And when I saw this,
Speaker 1: I was literally like, tell them, tell show me you
Speaker 1: from Louisiana without telling you from Louisiana. And this is
Speaker 1: it right here. You have a screenshot of your top
Speaker 1: three old school rappers. Are Notorious Big, which everybody loved
Speaker 1: at the time, and you're more East Coast, which I
Speaker 1: get because you're in Louisiana. You weren't on two Pop.
Speaker 1: You're on the Biggie and then Mystical and Master Peak,
Speaker 1: which here I had many I have. I said all
Speaker 1: they needed was Silt the shocker bro and we were
Speaker 1: complaining that was it. That was it too? Yes, Hey,
Speaker 1: look you know what I ghetto d that was the first.
Speaker 1: I think I was the first CD. Like I actually
Speaker 1: went to the store and bought myself in high school.
Speaker 1: I remember as a freshman with my own money. Uh
Speaker 1: so you know what that was a freshman year. I
Speaker 1: believe eighth grade year. But yeah, I mean that was
Speaker 1: I grew up on master peaking those guys what everyone did?
Speaker 1: Break them off? Something that wasn't I wasn't left hit
Speaker 1: in what ninety ninety nine, two thousand? Yeah, when when
Speaker 1: when the hot boys was hot? You know, you really
Speaker 1: mess people up in Louisiana is my freshman year in
Speaker 1: college is screwed right, Like, so I started playing that stuff.
Speaker 1: Guys are like this, I'm like that bro, June June
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, Like, come on, you own. You go ten
Speaker 1: Westerton East and you're driving either way, you put you
Speaker 1: twenty seventh throwing and it will go for about twenty
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's about thirty five minutes of freestyle
Speaker 1: and roll. Right. I had a couple of Texas teammates,
Speaker 1: so I've never heard screw in Alabama. Until Texas guys
Speaker 1: came in. I was like, what is this. They're like, Oh,
Speaker 1: it's screwed like it's everything topped the screw. So I'm
Speaker 1: from Texas and that's literally from eighth grade whatever. Once
Speaker 1: I learned about it, you know what I'm saying to
Speaker 1: Ah Sound the North side of Houston, Man that was
Speaker 1: I could play it right now, but I know we
Speaker 1: don't have the license to play, so they're gonna blu
Speaker 1: bleep it out. But I think I like you that
Speaker 1: much more now because you just said you all about
Speaker 1: June twenty seven. Oh come on, man, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I got it. I got I got the slow jams.
Speaker 1: I got all the slow jams. They're called actions, I
Speaker 1: got them all, baby, Come on, they're called f actions
Speaker 1: as UC screwed up click big mode. You don't have
Speaker 1: you don't have a Howard? Yeah, Dina Howard T shirt,
Speaker 1: a shirt and my panties on. You really do yourself.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you that you're really this song these Oh
Speaker 1: my god, this is you. You're my new best friend.
Speaker 1: I think we just became best Did we just become
Speaker 1: best friends right now? We justcame best friends right now?
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this is like our step brothers moment.
Speaker 1: That is so dope. I don't even know what the
Speaker 1: next question I was gonna ask. We started talking about
Speaker 1: screw and I just got so excited. That's dope. So
Speaker 1: um oh yeah, yeah, Mount Rushmore, nol Rushmore. We asked
Speaker 1: a lot of the guests on this show, Um, if
Speaker 1: you could pick four, only four people to pick or
Speaker 1: put on your Mount Rushmore. Who would those people be?
Speaker 1: And don't have to be all athletics. It's just it's
Speaker 1: somebody who had some influence, someone that you love, somebody
Speaker 1: that was a mentor. That's tough, yow uh you know,
Speaker 1: I wanna stick. I wanna here's the thing, all right,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm gonna make it complicated because I'm complicated.
Speaker 1: So it's just like food, it's like music, it's like
Speaker 1: anything else. I don't like. I don't like to disrespect
Speaker 1: people when I talking about a certain genre of things.
Speaker 1: So I want to make my own genre of Mountain Rushmore.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cheat. So my Mount Rushmore of sports, all right,
Speaker 1: my Mount Rushmore Sports. I'm gonna put up Michael Jordan's
Speaker 1: Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky. This might as well be what
Speaker 1: was the little show when we were kids on the USA?
Speaker 1: Yeah right now? Uh So I'm gonna on Michael Jordan,
Speaker 1: Gretzky Tiger Woods. And I think for me, just because
Speaker 1: I grew up, like I said, where I did, I
Speaker 1: was a massive fans guy Nolan Ryan. Because I'm gonna
Speaker 1: tell you why, man, Nolan Ryan was only an awesome pitcher.
Speaker 1: But I was actually at the game when he woked
Speaker 1: Robin Ventura when he charged them out. My dad. I
Speaker 1: always wanted to see him play, Yeah, and I was
Speaker 1: actually in the stands uh you know he was. He was.
Speaker 1: He was a baseball player that was a tough guy
Speaker 1: too at the same time. So that's the only reason
Speaker 1: he's on there. That's it, just because for me my
Speaker 1: world as a little kid. I don't know how old
Speaker 1: I was then, but watching him, I thought he was
Speaker 1: man just unbelievable. So I put him on there just
Speaker 1: for that. For sports. That's my one, my by one guy.
Speaker 1: Plenty of guys probably deserve it more, but he's my guy. Okay,
Speaker 1: all right, before we get you out of here, I
Speaker 1: gotta have you. I'm gonna hit you at one one
Speaker 1: quick question, and you gotta maybe just tell me this
Speaker 1: because I don't know this. Peanut asked Peanut this earlier.
Speaker 1: Peanut and I have never been ejected out of the game.
Speaker 1: I must know with What did you do to get
Speaker 1: ejected out of the game versus the Oakland Raiders the
Speaker 1: one time it happened twice? You were too nice? You
Speaker 1: wouldn't give twice. I got h In two thousand and eight,
Speaker 1: we were oz and eight. Uh. We played the Jacksonville
Speaker 1: Jaguars and the Saturday, the Saturday before the game, I
Speaker 1: finally just reached that point in your career where you
Speaker 1: lost it. And I was like, lit lit our offense up,
Speaker 1: You're going to walk through on Saturday, because I was like, man,
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm done with it, Like I'm done with
Speaker 1: how like you guys are just okay with losing. We're okay,
Speaker 1: we're getting our face kicked in, Like yeah, I'm done
Speaker 1: with it. Like I've never in my life been somebody
Speaker 1: who was somebody's you know what. And I was like,
Speaker 1: I just it ain't gonna happen anymore. And so we
Speaker 1: go out in the game. We're up in the game,
Speaker 1: and Chad like being Chad and t J like they
Speaker 1: finally like we're having a good moment, they're having a
Speaker 1: good day, and they start chewing at the d line
Speaker 1: for the Jaguars and it turns into, you know, everybody's
Speaker 1: at each other's throats and I'm facing big bad John
Speaker 1: John Henderson nine six nine and three ninety pounds whatever
Speaker 1: the heck he was he's a monster. He made me
Speaker 1: look small, and we got after it, like we started
Speaker 1: getting into it, and the next thing you know, we
Speaker 1: snapped the play and me and him just started throwing
Speaker 1: and we ripped each other's helmets off. We fight all
Speaker 1: the way across the field. Both get ejected. But as
Speaker 1: I'm leaving the field, I guess Cincinnati have anything else
Speaker 1: to cheer about. They're chanting to my name. As I'm
Speaker 1: leaving it, I'm like, there's actually a picture. I'm like
Speaker 1: pointing at my jersey leaving the field, And I'll never
Speaker 1: forget after that moment, like I was in the tunnel,
Speaker 1: I waited for the guys and like I was the
Speaker 1: captain the Cincinnati Bengals from that moment on, like that
Speaker 1: was that was it. That was the moment, Like you
Speaker 1: t J. Husmin's Ada gave me a hug and he's like, man,
Speaker 1: you said stuff yesterday and you backed it up today
Speaker 1: and that's like the greatest respect I could give you.
Speaker 1: And so after that moment, that's what it was. And
Speaker 1: then the Oakland one was Lamar Houston I think sacked
Speaker 1: Andy on like a dead play, like one of those
Speaker 1: where you know they blew it dead and then he
Speaker 1: still went through it the sack and kind of like
Speaker 1: superplexed Andy, and so I ran over there to like
Speaker 1: shove him. And it's kind of was that one was
Speaker 1: really less of a fight and more of a I
Speaker 1: shoved him. They had a veteran D line, yeah, and
Speaker 1: their veteran D line attacked and it was like me
Speaker 1: and all their D line. The best part of that
Speaker 1: story is that we get kicked out if that's when
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Bengals young, because I had a young offensive
Speaker 1: line at that time. They found out who Melissa Witworth
Speaker 1: was because she stood in the tunnel and my wife
Speaker 1: ain't going on no Twitter. If she got a problem
Speaker 1: with somebody, she coming face to face. She stood in
Speaker 1: the tunnel and waited for everyone in. They'll tell you,
Speaker 1: every one of these young linemen like you like you,
Speaker 1: next time my husband and I fight, you better jump
Speaker 1: in that pile. Like then, she was lighting them up.
Speaker 1: It was hilarious and only the way she can. She
Speaker 1: loves some football and she's got some fire to her too,
Speaker 1: So she was letting them young guys know like that
Speaker 1: ain't how you do it? Like you always have you
Speaker 1: get in there, you know, they were nervous. They were
Speaker 1: all like standing like looking like yeah, apparently not like
Speaker 1: they were nervous guys, but uh, you know what it was.
Speaker 1: It was it was a fun day because it's a
Speaker 1: cool memory for her and those guys because they love
Speaker 1: her and grew to love her and they always appreciate
Speaker 1: that moment you checked them a little bit. You know what.
Speaker 1: That is a very teachable moment right there, and that's
Speaker 1: what we do on this podcast. Here, I'm gonna teach
Speaker 1: you one guy's one more thing and we're gonna let
Speaker 1: wit work. Get up out of here. So did you
Speaker 1: know that you are second in all time in the
Speaker 1: NC Double A as far in Division One in career starts.
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. Yes, you have fifty two career
Speaker 1: starts in your career in D one football. That is
Speaker 1: second all time to only Derek Straight who had fifty
Speaker 1: three cornerback at Oklahoma. So I'm glad I got to
Speaker 1: teach you something today as well. So there we go.
Speaker 1: They no doubt man, No doubt, man, Thank you for
Speaker 1: blessing us with your time coming on here. Man, you're
Speaker 1: just as cool as the other side of the pillow man.
Speaker 1: The same way it was the very first time I
Speaker 1: actually got to meet you, um back all the way
Speaker 1: back when when we were in So man, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you for being who you are. Continue to be that
Speaker 1: light man, and we all will shine as long as
Speaker 1: we're around people like you. So thank you for that. Hey,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Thanks, no doubt. Man. All right, well
Speaker 1: look let me let me let me get us up
Speaker 1: out of here. So all of our listeners, I want
Speaker 1: to make sure I think all of our listeners for
Speaker 1: always tuning in. Also, I want to ask you to
Speaker 1: hit review, give us a follow, continue to tell a friend,
Speaker 1: to tell a friend to tell a friend. Anywhere you
Speaker 1: pick up your or you listen to your podcast, whether
Speaker 1: it's iHeartRadio or the Apple podcast app, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Continue to listen to us, and we'll see you next time. Peace,