Speaker 1: You're listening to Comedy Central. Welcome to Beyond the Scenes,
Speaker 1: the Daily Show podcast that goes a little deeper into
Speaker 1: topics and segments that originally aired on the show. This
Speaker 1: is what you gotta think of this show as, all right,
Speaker 1: Like the Daily Show is like having your mama and
Speaker 1: your life, and this podcast is when your daddy come around.
Speaker 1: He'd be like, oh cool, my dad is back, and
Speaker 1: he loves me and he gives me a warm hug.
Speaker 1: But we not your mama. We ain't want to be
Speaker 1: as good as your mama, but you're still kind of neat.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's the worst analogy you've ever
Speaker 1: made to start this podcast.
Speaker 2: You may have.
Speaker 1: Saw or heard recently in the news that Buffalo Bill's
Speaker 1: safety Tomorrow Hamlin went into cardiac arrest during a Monday
Speaker 1: night football game earlier this month. He's made great strides
Speaker 1: towards recovery. He's been released from the hospital. He's back
Speaker 1: in Buffalo at this time, but the incident still sparked
Speaker 1: conversations on the issue shoot of the safety of players
Speaker 1: in the NFL. To help us take a deeper dive
Speaker 1: into NFL safety, we have with us again CBS morning's
Speaker 1: host Nate Burrows to Nate, how you doing, brother man.
Speaker 2: I'm good, I'm good. And that analogy makes perfect sense.
Speaker 2: You know that the dad comes around and he walks
Speaker 2: up to his child. He say, come here, let me,
Speaker 2: let me, let me bring it to the other room.
Speaker 2: I need to tell you about life. And when he
Speaker 2: places his hand on our shoulder and then he continues
Speaker 2: to keep it all the way real. And that's what
Speaker 2: we do on this podcast.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you see him once a week, just like
Speaker 1: this podcast. Listen, Nate, I feel like you're a friend
Speaker 1: of the pot, so we can kind of kick back
Speaker 1: a little bit. Thank you for working time with us
Speaker 1: again on a very important issue. First and foremost, let's
Speaker 1: just talk about demorrow. Hamlin, First, talk to me about
Speaker 1: your feelings watching this injury play out, because I was
Speaker 1: I was at an event in New York and I
Speaker 1: just saw Monday night football and then I saw CPR
Speaker 1: creeping up my Twitter trends and I saw football and CPR,
Speaker 1: What the hell is it? What the CPO damage?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Nor So, as that played out live on television, the
Speaker 1: debate was, of course, should they continue the game? Should
Speaker 1: they stop a game? And it's been criticism about how
Speaker 1: the NFL responded. How do you, as a former player,
Speaker 1: fill the league handled this situation.
Speaker 2: Well, first, let me talk about what happened. When I
Speaker 2: saw the injury, we'll call it, and that's probably a
Speaker 2: light way to describe it. It was jarring, shock and awe,
Speaker 2: but not all as in oh. It was like, oh damn,
Speaker 2: like what is happening in front of our eyes? And
Speaker 2: immediately I knew this was different than any other injury.
Speaker 2: And I've seen it all. I've seen bones crack and break,
Speaker 2: I've seen ligaments torn, I've seen concussions, guys knocked out.
Speaker 2: I've had those injuries myself. But seeing him go to
Speaker 2: the ground and then both teams surround him, other guys
Speaker 2: turn their head in the camera angle from a bird's
Speaker 2: eye view, not really getting into the interior of what
Speaker 2: was going on, all the while cutting back and forth
Speaker 2: to the studio, I immediately knew that this was an
Speaker 2: injury unlike we've ever seen. Now when the response from
Speaker 2: the NFL really started to unfold, one I will say,
Speaker 2: the response from the doctors in the immediate area, the trainers,
Speaker 2: the medics, everybody involved. They were as heroic and as
Speaker 2: brilliant as ever, and this isn't me putting on a cape.
Speaker 2: One thing I try not to do when we talk
Speaker 2: is is where this shield on my chest and say
Speaker 2: everything right, that is going to be right for the
Speaker 2: NFL because of my player and real work.
Speaker 1: I keep you talking about the NFL like you got
Speaker 1: cut in the preseason.
Speaker 2: You're with you. Well, I have to keep it real
Speaker 2: because really that's the only way that people will respect
Speaker 2: their honesty when talking about these subjects. Now, I say
Speaker 2: that they were brilliant, brilliant in their response because they
Speaker 2: absolutely were to talk into people that work in the
Speaker 2: medical field, talking to doctors that reached out to me voluntarily.
Speaker 2: They said the room for error was so minute that
Speaker 2: any misstep, any miscommunication amongst all those voices crowding over
Speaker 2: this body, and some might describe it as a lifeless body.
Speaker 2: At certain points, any type of miscommunication could have cost
Speaker 2: him his life or Ceville damaged him for the rest
Speaker 2: of his life. And they were able to perform what
Speaker 2: we know now as a miracle. And listen, we hope
Speaker 2: and pray that DeMar continues to heal up. But in
Speaker 2: that moment things could have went left all the way left,
Speaker 2: and we will be having a different discussion about why
Speaker 2: didn't they do more in time to save this man's life? Now,
Speaker 2: can they do more? I think that's a tougher question
Speaker 2: to ask in the grand scheme of things. I know
Speaker 2: that looking at what happened, they might be even quicker
Speaker 2: when I just told you that their quickness and their
Speaker 2: response time helped save this man. So that was the
Speaker 2: toughest thing. Now. As far as the NFL, the NFL
Speaker 2: moving forward, it's like this. As football players, we oftentimes
Speaker 2: say the league gets bigger and faster and stronger, and
Speaker 2: I know that to be true. When I came in
Speaker 2: two thousand and three, I thought my forty two in
Speaker 2: is vertical and my four to four was fast, and
Speaker 2: some of the guys that were at my combine running
Speaker 2: four threes were fast. But since then, you've seen guys
Speaker 2: jump forty five forty six inches. You've seen guys run
Speaker 2: four threes low four threes, four twos, low four twos,
Speaker 2: Which means that we as a league, as players, study
Speaker 2: what has happened before us, and then we trained to
Speaker 2: get faster when the time comes for us to perform.
Speaker 2: I bring all that up is because I think this
Speaker 2: moment in time is going to be studied. And when
Speaker 2: we have our league meetings and when these doctors get
Speaker 2: togethers and these trainers get together, they're going to talk
Speaker 2: about this moment in time and they're going to figure
Speaker 2: out how to respond even faster, even quicker. Now, as
Speaker 2: far as the ex's and os to keep it all
Speaker 2: the way around, I can care less about football. I
Speaker 2: can care less about that game. People are like, what
Speaker 2: about that game and the playoff implications? Who cares about that?
Speaker 2: When a man's life is on the line. And if
Speaker 2: you can break down strength to schedule, win percentage, how
Speaker 2: many games you won at home versus on the road,
Speaker 2: and then you've come up, Yeah, you come up with
Speaker 2: some type of system that allows you to see things correctly.
Speaker 2: I'm good with that. Now the fans might say, well, Nate,
Speaker 2: come on, man, what about home field advantage? I mean,
Speaker 2: this is the postseason. What are you talking about. Let
Speaker 2: me break it to you man, when it comes to
Speaker 2: the playoffs, the best teams are going to win. Rarely
Speaker 2: will a crowd And I know us fans, you feel
Speaker 2: like you have an impact on every game, which you do.
Speaker 2: I am not being dismissed to what you bring to
Speaker 2: the game. But in the postseason it's about the best
Speaker 2: players and the best coaches, which is why coaches that
Speaker 2: don't step up get exposed by coaches that know what
Speaker 2: they're doing, and players that choke in the moment, they
Speaker 2: are overshadowed by players that know what they're doing and
Speaker 2: rise to the occasion in the postseason. So this whole
Speaker 2: home field advantage in the league mess up. It's not
Speaker 2: that serious.
Speaker 1: I know that there isn't much of a comparison to
Speaker 1: what happened with with brother Hamlin, But talk to me
Speaker 1: a little bit about that psyche on the field when
Speaker 1: you see a beloved teammate go down and the plate
Speaker 1: clock is back on forty in countdown and you got
Speaker 1: to go get your ass back in the huddle. The
Speaker 1: card is taking this man off the field. Talk to
Speaker 1: me a little bit about what goes on in the
Speaker 1: mind of a player. You know, have you ever been
Speaker 1: on the field and have to struggle with continuing to play?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I'll give you a couple of stories. You know,
Speaker 2: one time, when I was in college, we were having
Speaker 2: a spring game, which is an intersquad scrimmage, and I
Speaker 2: dove for.
Speaker 1: The boosters and the diehards.
Speaker 2: Right right, Yeah, they're like, who we about to look
Speaker 2: at this season at hands some hundred dollars handshakes too.
Speaker 2: So so I dove for this ball, right and I
Speaker 2: caught it with my hands and parallel to the ground,
Speaker 2: and as I was trying to bring it in, my
Speaker 2: helmet hit the ground before my body did, and I
Speaker 2: was out. I didn't realize it, of course, so when
Speaker 2: I come to, which I found out was around twenty seconds,
Speaker 2: which is a long time to be laying on the
Speaker 2: ground motionless. So when I get up, the last thing
Speaker 2: you remember when the lights come back on is literally
Speaker 2: the last thing you remember. So I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 2: caught this ball. Let me go back to the huddle.
Speaker 2: And I go to run to the huddle and everybody's
Speaker 2: grabbing all these trains around like ny nay nay calmed down.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what are you doing? Where's everybody at? Where
Speaker 2: I thought the huddle in the practice would be. Nobody
Speaker 2: was there. They're like, Nate, calmed down, relaxed, breathe, you
Speaker 2: were out for a little bit. You might have a concussion.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, what, wait, what's going on? What happened
Speaker 2: to practice. Coach moved the practice to the other side
Speaker 2: of the field. The reason I bring that up is
Speaker 2: because coach moved the practice to the other side of
Speaker 2: the field. When I actually calmed down and took a breath,
Speaker 2: I looked to the other side of the field. Those
Speaker 2: guys weren't overly concerned with me. They were trying to
Speaker 2: finish practice. Now, things are a little bit different nowadays
Speaker 2: because there is some sensitivity, both from the outside perspective,
Speaker 2: being fans in the stands and watching at home, but
Speaker 2: also coaches and players. But I wanted to share that
Speaker 2: stories because the show must go on. And I remember
Speaker 2: I said that shortly after this incident happened, and I
Speaker 2: wanted to make sure I wasn't dismissive or insensitive, insensitive
Speaker 2: to DeMar Hamlin and his family and and me sitting
Speaker 2: here saying the show must go on, as if I
Speaker 2: can care less about him. That's not it.
Speaker 1: What it is is stepped in it too, And yeah,
Speaker 1: he really did.
Speaker 2: He stepped.
Speaker 1: He stepped squarely in it.
Speaker 2: He stepped squarely in it. And somebody, this is a segue,
Speaker 2: our side note, a tangent, if you will, Somebody said, well,
Speaker 2: Skip Betters needs to read THROUGHOM. I think he. I
Speaker 2: think he does READTHROUGHOM and he puts out tweets like
Speaker 2: that to get a reaction. And what he realized the
Speaker 2: reaction he got after that tweet wasn't the one that
Speaker 2: he wanted and he was out of pocket for it.
Speaker 2: And I'm not afraid to say that, Yeah, he backpedal.
Speaker 2: But but but I I wanted to make sure when
Speaker 2: I said that that I conveyed that, and I think
Speaker 2: people they were receptive to the fact I wasn't being dismissive.
Speaker 2: But I say the show must go on because we
Speaker 2: have to see injuries. We have to see guys get
Speaker 2: knocked out, we have to see torn acls, broken ribs.
Speaker 2: We have to deal with these things ourselfs. And what
Speaker 2: we do know is that if we're okay to play,
Speaker 2: if we could walk, we could run. If we could run,
Speaker 2: we could jog, and we don't have injuries. Being hurt
Speaker 2: is different. If we don't have injuries, that's going to
Speaker 2: restrict our play. We have to go back on the field.
Speaker 2: It have to except for that. See, that's up for debate.
Speaker 2: Like some would say, I don't have to do anything,
Speaker 2: but the way I think about it, I'm paid to
Speaker 2: do a job, and if I can't do it, I
Speaker 2: have to do it, even if mentally in the moment
Speaker 2: I might be a little unfit, and I have to
Speaker 2: take whatever it is, compartmentalize it, put it in the box,
Speaker 2: and wait until after the game to address these things.
Speaker 1: They say football as war and that's a soldier's mentality.
Speaker 1: But how did you feel when you came to and
Speaker 1: look up and like, damn, ain't nobody over here? Don't
Speaker 1: nobody care about me? Or does that type of compassion
Speaker 1: happen in the locker room after practice when they yeah,
Speaker 1: you was snowing you out?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Now, like the the the sensitivity is on the
Speaker 2: sideline in real time, Like if somebody has a concussion,
Speaker 2: this is what happened. We all wait, we're all like
Speaker 2: on pins and needles. Now we're playing in the game.
Speaker 2: We're focused, say, the field is in front of me,
Speaker 2: but in between plays, it's like, hey, yo, yo yo,
Speaker 2: what what happened? What happened to Craig? Craig All right,
Speaker 2: he good, right, right, you know we heard he's in
Speaker 2: the locker room, but you know he he gave a
Speaker 2: thumbs up on the way. Okay, cool, cool, cool, Oh
Speaker 2: what happened? What happened to Chris the a cl? Was
Speaker 2: it the a cl? Now they say it's just a sprain,
Speaker 2: but they're gonna does ask okay, cool cool, We'll talk
Speaker 2: to him on the plane like that does happen? Now?
Speaker 2: I have to keep it real. You know, grown in
Speaker 2: are like adult teenagers. So there are times when a
Speaker 2: guy has an injury and he's and he's doing okay,
Speaker 2: and that's where the jokes come. And I know we're
Speaker 2: not trying to be funny right now, but there has
Speaker 2: been some moments where a guy is slightly concussed where
Speaker 2: he might have got a little woozy, little lightheaded. He
Speaker 2: wasn't like knocked out completely. And then we get to
Speaker 2: the sideline and the trainers are doing the Okay, what
Speaker 2: month is it, when's your birthday? Who's your favorite superhero?
Speaker 2: Count backwards from twelve, and then they come back, who's
Speaker 2: your favorite superhero? When's your birthday? What month is it?
Speaker 2: So they do this whole test, and then you know
Speaker 2: what happens. Five of your closest friends on the team
Speaker 2: come over and be like, hey, bro, you good. How
Speaker 2: many fingers am I holding up? You straight?
Speaker 1: Your favorite stripper? What said he got the best chicken wings?
Speaker 2: And questions just making up questions and you're like, man,
Speaker 2: watch out, man, I'm good, I'm ready to play. So
Speaker 2: there is this fine balance where we know when it's serious.
Speaker 2: We have to, you know, have this approach that allows
Speaker 2: our teammate to know like we got his back, but
Speaker 2: it is it is something we have to come to
Speaker 2: grips to it. And that was one of the biggest
Speaker 2: things that I was concerned with when it came to
Speaker 2: the Buffalo Bills players and the Cincinnati Bengals players, Like
Speaker 2: it's one thing to have the physical freedom to go
Speaker 2: out and play football. I think players have all figured
Speaker 2: out a way to take whatever their worries, their anxieties,
Speaker 2: their fears, even depression, whether it's work related, finance related,
Speaker 2: relationships related, and put all those things in a box.
Speaker 2: Like that was literally my prayer. God, allow me to
Speaker 2: put these things that are on my weigh in on
Speaker 2: my spirit in a box and then after the game,
Speaker 2: allow me to get back to that box and deal
Speaker 2: with them after football. So we have a way of
Speaker 2: compartmentalizing physically. But I think the difficult thing especially in
Speaker 2: this situation is these players coming back on the field
Speaker 2: and being mentally free. But where the league is now,
Speaker 2: I do feel like the Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals
Speaker 2: organization they have offered therapy if guys so do choose nice.
Speaker 1: So much more to discuss on this, and we'll do
Speaker 1: that right after the break is just beyond the scenes. Now,
Speaker 1: do you think the magnitude of Hamlin's injury was eye
Speaker 1: opening to the fans. We know that the player probably already,
Speaker 1: as you've already stated, have some awareness of their mortality
Speaker 1: on the field, but you got to keep doing the job.
Speaker 2: It is what it is.
Speaker 1: And the OG's from the past. Well, at least y'all
Speaker 1: got pads. We didn't have no fights basking my day
Speaker 1: yet play with three fingers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, smoking a halftime literally literally facts facts.
Speaker 1: So I'll tell you the most gruesome NFL injury I
Speaker 1: remember witnessing as a fan. It was Monday night football
Speaker 1: Raiders Niners. Ken Norton tackled Napoleon Kaufman up the middle
Speaker 1: and he rolled his shin and broke it into places,
Speaker 1: and I distinctly remember, over the sound of whatever Mike's
Speaker 1: they had on the field hearing Napoleon Kaufman's scream. Like
Speaker 1: I was in college or something when this happened and
Speaker 1: we were in the dorm. We were in the TV
Speaker 1: room in the dorm. We was like, yo, that's not
Speaker 1: and before they like and TV showed the replay before
Speaker 1: realizing exactly how gruesome it was. And even Al Michaels
Speaker 1: was like, yo, don't show that. TV has the advantage
Speaker 1: of always popping to the w Let's go to a commercial, Like,
Speaker 1: it's not like a lot of other sports where the
Speaker 1: injury is right there and you can see. In basketball,
Speaker 1: you can clearly see when somebody's shirt does nothing. The
Speaker 1: stadium make big enough to cut to the super wide
Speaker 1: shots so you can see what happens to an ankle.
Speaker 1: But in football, you can't hide CPR. There's no way
Speaker 1: to even if you go wide. There's clearly something happening.
Speaker 1: The emotion on the players around it just said something different.
Speaker 1: How do you think this will change how fans view
Speaker 1: how violent football is? Did this make new I don't
Speaker 1: want to say opponent to the sport. Did it make
Speaker 1: more people aware of the real mortality, because, like you said,
Speaker 1: most of the gruesome stuff you see there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of people crowding around. We don't see the bone come
Speaker 1: out the leg. You see it, but TV's never going
Speaker 1: to show that. So how eye opening do you think
Speaker 1: the magnitude of this incident was for fans.
Speaker 2: I think it was very eye opening and it was sobering,
Speaker 2: you know, to the extent that fans who feel like
Speaker 2: we are these warriors, we are invincible, that we might
Speaker 2: get banged up, but eventually we'll be back. We might
Speaker 2: get knocked down, but eventually we'll dust ourselves off and
Speaker 2: get back up. Fans that think like that next play mentality,
Speaker 2: I think there is this connectivity that they have with
Speaker 2: the moment now when somebody gets injured versus like somebody
Speaker 2: going down and then it goes to commercial break and
Speaker 2: you're like, I want to go grab some chips and
Speaker 2: let me know when the game's back on. Now. I
Speaker 2: think fans understand, like how real it can get. Now.
Speaker 2: I don't think there will be more opposition to the
Speaker 2: game because there's certain sports where the physicality is just
Speaker 2: part of it. I mean, there's some aspects of soccer
Speaker 2: with the collisions and the headers. I know, rugby isn't
Speaker 2: necessarily a national sport here in the States, but it's
Speaker 2: a big sport all around the world. You have boxing
Speaker 2: and MMA. I mean, those sports speak for themselves, and
Speaker 2: then of course football. You know, these guys are been
Speaker 2: they're athletes who just cause these collisions that are unlike
Speaker 2: any other end. To be honest, it's part of the sport,
Speaker 2: and a lot of these collisions we love because it
Speaker 2: makes the game. I'll take you inside my kitchen when
Speaker 2: it happened, and I think this will answer your question
Speaker 2: as well. You know, I was sitting there and I'm
Speaker 2: just having this conversation with with what had just happened.
Speaker 2: And it's quiet. You know, it's so quiet in the
Speaker 2: house you could hear a pin drop. And I have
Speaker 2: a eighteen year old, sixty year old, twelve year old.
Speaker 2: So usually somebody's talking, somebody's cracking jokes, there's some type
Speaker 2: of music playing, but there wasn't in that moment. And
Speaker 2: my wife, she's talking out loud and she says, you know,
Speaker 2: this is why I just don't want our sons playing
Speaker 2: football now. Mind you, My sons have been playing football
Speaker 2: since they were young and still do in high school,
Speaker 2: and they both want to go off to college. And
Speaker 2: play football and then possibly playing the NFL, which is
Speaker 2: the ultimate goal. My sixteen year old is sitting there
Speaker 2: and he's just casually eating his food. He looks so
Speaker 2: over here is his mom. I'm to his right. He
Speaker 2: takes another bite and he's like, mom, I'm still gonna
Speaker 2: play football. And he was like, things like this don't
Speaker 2: happen often. And before I could come in and wear
Speaker 2: this cape for the NFL or just the sport of
Speaker 2: football and say, yeah, honey, you know this doesn't happen
Speaker 2: that often, I couldn't do that in that moment because
Speaker 2: I want the validateor feelings. I didn't want to ignore
Speaker 2: where she was at and how she was speaking and
Speaker 2: how she was feeling in that moment. But at the
Speaker 2: same time, I also understand what my son is saying
Speaker 2: because I've been playing football since I was eight years old.
Speaker 2: I retired when I was thirty three, played eleven years
Speaker 2: in the NFL. I've had some injuries, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2: I've had tackles and hits that were way worse than
Speaker 2: what DeMar Hamlin took. I just wasn't on the receiving
Speaker 2: end the super routine. So it's not to say, oh,
Speaker 2: we shouldn't be concerned about her demor Hamlin hit. It's
Speaker 2: to say that those type of hits happen often and
Speaker 2: the result isn't the same, especially in the way that
Speaker 2: DeMar Hamler went down. So you know, it's it's tough
Speaker 2: because I hear when people say I don't want my
Speaker 2: kids playing this sport and it's too violent. Who might
Speaker 2: have said that they're wrong after what they saw, But
Speaker 2: they also can speak from the other perspective saying, you know,
Speaker 2: I know plenty of people more people that made it
Speaker 2: through this sport on the other side and are able
Speaker 2: to walk away, run away and play ball with their
Speaker 2: kids in their forties, fifties and sixties. So that's why
Speaker 2: I can I can see it from both lenses.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I spoke with a former player. It wasn't a
Speaker 1: perfect one to one, and he agreed, but he said,
Speaker 1: it's like he said, it's like auto racing. There are
Speaker 1: deaths and people die, but the frequency of death and
Speaker 1: auto racing is not that high. Yeah, comparative to the
Speaker 1: risk that is taken week after week after week by
Speaker 1: all of these dash car drivers and all of the
Speaker 1: safety precautions that are put in been put in since
Speaker 1: Dale Earnhardt. So I understand that. So then off the
Speaker 1: point that you just said about players who are able
Speaker 1: to still walk and you know, have their mobility and
Speaker 1: cognitive skills on the other side of retirement. You know,
Speaker 1: Handler's recovering a little faster, you know than doctors expect.
Speaker 1: He's got a long way to go, but he's not
Speaker 1: fully covered, or at least wasn't going into that game.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: The way his contract will excuse me, the way the
Speaker 1: collective bargaining between the league and the players Association was
Speaker 1: set up was that traditionally a player like Damar wouldn't
Speaker 1: get his medical care guaranteed into for life. If I'm
Speaker 1: not mistaken, this's what the NFL said, Correct me if
Speaker 1: I'm wrong, I know it keeps they keep updating this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, you're right. There is.
Speaker 1: A way they's planning to protect him, right or take
Speaker 1: I would.
Speaker 2: Say, so, I would say, the Buffalo Bills and also
Speaker 2: the NFL will take care of him. See, the plan
Speaker 2: was to push for better benefits. And you know this
Speaker 2: isn't an isolated NFL is I feel like, you know,
Speaker 2: every person that works for any type of corporate infrastructure
Speaker 2: pushes for more benefits, and it's okay for NFL players
Speaker 2: to say, you know, we want a more extended version
Speaker 2: of our insurance or maybe even life time insurance. But
Speaker 2: you have to be vested. You have to be three years,
Speaker 2: three games. I believe it is somewhere around there before
Speaker 2: you can be covered for that. And then also a
Speaker 2: young guy on his first deal, you know, his money
Speaker 2: wasn't all guaranteed, so where does that leave him financially?
Speaker 2: I think there was divine intervention on both parts. One
Speaker 2: to save his life all the things that had to
Speaker 2: happen up until he was in a hospital still fighting
Speaker 2: for his life. But also I think it was there
Speaker 2: was divine intervention because he set up his foundation and
Speaker 2: are as charitable cause, and he had this gofund me
Speaker 2: and wanted to raise twenty five hundred bucks.
Speaker 1: Like that right there for kids Christmas.
Speaker 2: I think about it, if he didn't set that up,
Speaker 2: or if he wasn't a guy that wasn't wasn't giving
Speaker 2: to his community in the way that he did, that
Speaker 2: prompted all of this. So, you know, him having a
Speaker 2: little bit of a financial cushion through that go fund
Speaker 2: me is I know, mostly going to go to his
Speaker 2: charity charity, but also I think it's going to help
Speaker 2: him set up his life in the NFL in the
Speaker 2: Buffalo Bills will allow him to The bigger question is
Speaker 2: what about guys who don't have a charitable cause or
Speaker 2: have this outpoint.
Speaker 1: Of support Like the injury wasn't on television commercial free
Speaker 1: for forty.
Speaker 2: Minutes exactly exactly. We have to call it what it is.
Speaker 2: What is the NFL going to do moving forward? And
Speaker 2: I think as players, we look in the mirror and
Speaker 2: we figure out the best way we can be even
Speaker 2: better versions of the athlete we are on the field.
Speaker 2: In this moment, the NFL has to look in the
Speaker 2: mirror and figure out the best way to be the
Speaker 2: best sports professional sports organization out there and then special
Speaker 2: professional sports league out there, and be better when guys
Speaker 2: go down and they can't take another snap.
Speaker 1: Beyond the scenes, we are back and talking players safety
Speaker 1: in the NFL. So nate beyond finances, what are some
Speaker 1: other ways that the NFL can protect their players? You know,
Speaker 1: do you think, first off, do you think the league
Speaker 1: is doing all they can to protect the players' minds
Speaker 1: and bodies and bank accounts?
Speaker 2: All they can. I don't think the league is doing
Speaker 2: all that they can. I think they're doing the best
Speaker 2: job that they can. And that isn't a cop out me.
Speaker 2: That's me saying that until the league knows how much
Speaker 2: they really can do, then they're going to do the
Speaker 2: best version of what they think is taking care of
Speaker 2: the players physically immensely. What our job is the NFLPA
Speaker 2: and the people that are in charge of fighting for
Speaker 2: not only current players and newly retired players, but also
Speaker 2: we're still fighting for guys from the early two thousands, nineties, eighties, seventies,
Speaker 2: you know, sixties to fight for those guys as well.
Speaker 1: And I have the benefit the research.
Speaker 2: Who didn't have the benefits of research, who didn't have
Speaker 2: the benefits in general that we have. You know, we
Speaker 2: all oftentimes talk about when it comes from struggle to
Speaker 2: now finding any type of freedom in any space, we say, well, well,
Speaker 2: they walk till we could run, And it's true, but
Speaker 2: we have to run and then pass that that money
Speaker 2: back down to the ogs. I do think lifetime benefits,
Speaker 2: you know, whether it's some scale of insurance that we
Speaker 2: have to continue to push for that lifetime support when
Speaker 2: it comes to physical rehab for injuries that you're going
Speaker 2: to have. It's inevitable. I said this on TV and
Speaker 2: I'll keep repeating this when people really understand the injury
Speaker 2: right in the NFL is one hundred percent. You will
Speaker 2: get banged up. Now, of course, the degree is different.
Speaker 2: It's everything from a sprained ankle where you come back
Speaker 2: in a week or two to an aco that'll sit
Speaker 2: you out for six to nine months, all the way
Speaker 2: to concussions and something like something that happened to DeMar.
Speaker 2: The Damar example is extreme. But I'm all I'm saying is,
Speaker 2: if that is true the injury rate is one hundred percent,
Speaker 2: the NFL should offer something, some type of physical rehab
Speaker 2: that a guy can lean on post career until the
Speaker 2: day he dies. And then the availability it's just a
Speaker 2: fun of the kickers. Well, kick us of people too,
Speaker 2: kick us of people too. And then that and then
Speaker 2: mental health, having you know, the ability to reach out
Speaker 2: at any given time, whether it's individually, or it's couple's therapy,
Speaker 2: or it's just work related. And here's the thing I
Speaker 2: want people to know this, the NFL does offer these
Speaker 2: things right now for former players. You can reach out
Speaker 2: to them and say hey, I need therapy. They will
Speaker 2: find therapists in your area, give you five free sessions
Speaker 2: and then figure out if you want to move forward.
Speaker 2: Same thing with rehab, and there's a ton of benefits.
Speaker 2: Players do have to realize if they make a phone
Speaker 2: call to the NFL headquarters or the NFLPA, they will
Speaker 2: send them an email a long laundry list of things
Speaker 2: that you actually get the hookup on. And we all
Speaker 2: love a good hookup.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So then with the same thing goes for pinching
Speaker 1: them because I know that a lot of guys deal
Speaker 1: with with post retirement depression because football is the only
Speaker 1: thing you've done since you were eight or nine years old,
Speaker 1: and so now you're thirty five and what next?
Speaker 2: What do I do?
Speaker 1: And trying to find job placement, you know, in that
Speaker 1: capacity as well, how do you feel, you know, because
Speaker 1: when you when we talk about guarantee country to everything
Speaker 1: you're talking about are things that need to happen, right.
Speaker 1: Baseball is guaranteed money dollar for a dollar, even if
Speaker 1: you suck, even if you leave the league. Bobby Bania
Speaker 1: is still getting paid. He has not played baseball in
Speaker 1: fifteen years. NBA money is guaranteed dollar for in a
Speaker 1: jail dollar for dollar? How likely? And I know this
Speaker 1: is pie in the sky, but how likely? Just give
Speaker 1: me a percentage wise, we'll we'll, we'll wrap it up here.
Speaker 1: Percentage wise. What is the likelihood of the NFL ever
Speaker 1: offering guaranteed contracts which could help to give players the
Speaker 1: money they need to do all of that other stuff?
Speaker 1: I would say, in the next collective bargaining in the
Speaker 1: next collective bargaining. Now, with Hamlin's injury on television and
Speaker 1: the public sentiment changing against the league, yeah, does that
Speaker 1: swing the tide in the favor of the players association
Speaker 1: at the next collective bargaining situation? And could guarantee contracts?
Speaker 1: What is the percentages that guarantee contracts could happen?
Speaker 2: I would say ninety percent. And we've been trending in
Speaker 2: that direction for a while now, Like we see it
Speaker 2: every offseason. We'll see and mind you, it's the superstars, right,
Speaker 2: it's the quarterbacks, the big timeline backers, the big running backs, receivers,
Speaker 2: tight ends, et cetera. You know, but we've been seeing
Speaker 2: it though. I've been seeing some of these contracts. I'm like, yo,
Speaker 2: it looks like a baseball contract that quarterback just sign.
Speaker 1: You, see, but not to cut you off. But don't
Speaker 1: some of those bigger contracts, like say like a Russell Wilson,
Speaker 1: like I know Deshaun Watts's money in Cleveland is guaranteed
Speaker 1: dollar for dollar.
Speaker 2: That hasn't heard of.
Speaker 1: But it seems like a lot of the bigger star
Speaker 1: contracts they front loaded them with signing bonuses.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: True, to make the rest of the players in the
Speaker 1: league see one day you could get a nice bit lump,
Speaker 1: some bitch lump. Some ain't dollar for dollar, right, that's
Speaker 1: a fact. And in those big contracts pulled away from
Speaker 1: some of these younger guys. So the question is how
Speaker 1: do do we find the balance.
Speaker 2: Like it's great to congratulate these quarterbacks that just made
Speaker 2: a killing, Oh man, you got twohun a million guarantee.
Speaker 2: Oh man, that's all right, But what about the young
Speaker 2: dude who's fighting for his first big bag who got
Speaker 2: in and got handed a two hundred thousand dollars check.
Speaker 2: He's making seven hundred thousand, but none of us guarantee,
Speaker 2: and we don't know if he's going to make it
Speaker 2: to his next contract, let alone a second or third.
Speaker 2: So I think the bigger question is when will the
Speaker 2: league start to make the contracts for the second tier
Speaker 2: and third tier players on these teams fully guaranteed or
Speaker 2: at least as close as possible. And I believe we're
Speaker 2: heading in that direction one because for a long time
Speaker 2: it's been the NFL, I mean the NFL who's looking
Speaker 2: up at the NBA in Major League Baseball for a
Speaker 2: long time. And now that we're starting to see a
Speaker 2: little bit with the big superstars, it's going to trickle
Speaker 2: down at some point to the rest of the squad. Now,
Speaker 2: if we're looking at the NFL, of course, from their standpoint,
Speaker 2: they're like, man, we're paying everybody fully guaranteed money. Some
Speaker 2: of these guys aren't going to last, whether it's due
Speaker 2: to injury, getting cut, released, or traded. I don't want
Speaker 2: to pay everybody every single dollar. Oh well, the NFL
Speaker 2: is making so much money that they do have the
Speaker 2: ability to, and there's going to have to be some
Speaker 2: compromise when it comes to these owners.
Speaker 1: You just paid a billion dollars for Sunday ticket.
Speaker 2: Come on, man, come on, I want my dollar for dollar.
Speaker 2: I want my dollar for dollar. That's a fact. And
Speaker 2: I believe we are heading that direction. And here's the thing.
Speaker 2: The more we know about what goes on behind the curtain,
Speaker 2: which is stuff like that you're talking about how much
Speaker 2: money the league is making, that's when we become unapologetic
Speaker 2: in our demands. I remember when I first got in
Speaker 2: the league. I was thinking to myself, Man, I'd run
Speaker 2: through a brick wall for this team. Man, I bleed
Speaker 2: and die for these colors. This is everything that I love.
Speaker 2: And you're like, I don't care if they're paying me.
Speaker 2: You know, because you hear the whispers. Man, I'll give
Speaker 2: my right on to play in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Playing for free, your whole life and a couple hundred
Speaker 1: dollars handshakes ain't a real salary. That's cute, but that
Speaker 1: ain't a salary. So yeah, I do.
Speaker 2: I do it for free. But then there was one
Speaker 2: day I woke up and I just picked up a
Speaker 2: newspaper and I started doing some research, and I realized
Speaker 2: how much money the NFL is making, how much these
Speaker 2: teams are making individually, and how much money they're driving in,
Speaker 2: whether it's butts and seats, ticket sales, merchandise. Collectively, they
Speaker 2: are making so much bread that we have to get
Speaker 2: our slice. So I think now that we realize how
Speaker 2: how much money is out there on the table, it's
Speaker 2: easier for us to negotiate what we really want.
Speaker 1: I think that the Damar Hammelin incident on Monday Night
Speaker 1: football also turned a lot of the people who are
Speaker 1: quick to say, well, I would love to get a
Speaker 1: two hundred thousand dollars. You have to catch a ball.
Speaker 1: Like those people who have no sympathy for players and
Speaker 1: feel like the players already get enough and they're just
Speaker 1: rich crybabies. I think it's even turning them into understanding, No,
Speaker 1: we are taking real risks. This is not like your job.
Speaker 1: I need more money.
Speaker 2: There's a very human aspect of this that I think
Speaker 2: we all felt. You know, Jamar's uncle said for the game,
Speaker 2: he was my nephew. After the game, after the incident,
Speaker 2: he was America's nephew. And I thought that was a
Speaker 2: dope comment because it put it all in perspective. Now,
Speaker 2: you know, these fans who might be somewhat callous to
Speaker 2: what we go through as athletes, that just care about
Speaker 2: the end results wins, playoff wins and a super for
Speaker 2: their home team or fantasy football Championship, yawing at the screen,
Speaker 2: calling us garbage, telling us to hurry up and hill
Speaker 2: up from an injury, walking away from the TV as
Speaker 2: soon as the guy goes down because you want the
Speaker 2: game to resume. I think now you look at the game, Now,
Speaker 2: you look at the players. Now you look at the
Speaker 2: moments when guys go down a little bit differently, and
Speaker 2: and if we all can grow from that, I think
Speaker 2: we'll be better from that.
Speaker 1: Well, Nate Broson, I love your brother. I love you too,
Speaker 1: you brother giving us a little bit of your time.
Speaker 1: We look for you as always on CBS Mornings, and
Speaker 1: uh send my best to Gail in the Gang and
Speaker 1: Flat and everybody.
Speaker 2: No doubt, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thank you for going beyond the scenes with me, all right.
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