Speaker 1: I'm Peanut Timan. This is my guy, Roman Harper, and
Speaker 1: this is the NFL Player Second Acts podcast. We're here
Speaker 1: in Phoenix, Arizona at the NFL Annual Meetings and it's
Speaker 1: been a great time. We've had tons of interviews, tons
Speaker 1: of coaches, former players, head coaches, gms, got some golf,
Speaker 1: we got sunshine. I mean, keep going with the list man,
Speaker 1: you name it, we got it, and we kind of
Speaker 1: did it all here today. Also, before we get started
Speaker 1: and going too far, I want to make sure we
Speaker 1: tell all of our listeners to continue to tell a friend,
Speaker 1: to tell a friend, to tell a friend to go
Speaker 1: out there, give us a life, give us a review.
Speaker 1: Anywhere you listen to your podcast, whether it's Apple podcast
Speaker 1: or iHeartRadio podcasts, make sure you can find us on
Speaker 1: any one of those place platforms, and make sure you
Speaker 1: give us a like, a review in a comment. This
Speaker 1: next guy we had coming up, I mean, I can't
Speaker 1: say enough about them, Um, one of my favorite people
Speaker 1: in the world. Yes, Um has poured a lot into
Speaker 1: my life, a lot in your life personally. An amazing man.
Speaker 1: This is the head coach of the Washington Commanders, Ron Rivera.
Speaker 1: Take a listen I appreciate. It's good to be here.
Speaker 1: Good to see two of some of my favorite players
Speaker 1: too as well. You know, very fortunate to have coach
Speaker 1: guys like you. I mean, guys that epitomized what football
Speaker 1: is really about. I mean they play the game the
Speaker 1: right way, do things the right way. But really it's
Speaker 1: about team and family. Yeah, it really isn't uh you
Speaker 1: know a coach. I'll just tell a personal story. Um,
Speaker 1: I remember it my first year coming to you guys.
Speaker 1: I would have been with the Saints for eight years,
Speaker 1: so I was a rivalry and I kind of heated
Speaker 1: up that whole thing with some of the plays and
Speaker 1: things that we did back then. But I remember being
Speaker 1: in that room on that team and we lost eight
Speaker 1: straight games at one point in time in twenty fourteen,
Speaker 1: and you were the most consistent. You never batted an eye.
Speaker 1: You continue to push forward, continue to have this this
Speaker 1: self belief that I had. I had major doubt, but you,
Speaker 1: there was no wavering in you. And that is what
Speaker 1: a true leader does. Is when it's start outside and
Speaker 1: when it's cold and nobody else wants to come to work,
Speaker 1: I'm the first one there and I'm the first one
Speaker 1: leading the charge and being in front of that room
Speaker 1: and telling us to why. And so you came up
Speaker 1: to me after we played the Saints and you said
Speaker 1: you would talk to my former staff. And I had
Speaker 1: not had a great relationship at that time and that point,
Speaker 1: and you said, Roman, you're one of those guys that
Speaker 1: you should have retired with that team. They know that
Speaker 1: they miss you, but I couldn't be more happy to
Speaker 1: have you in my locker room now. And that special
Speaker 1: relationship of bond with players, I know you share that
Speaker 1: with so many of your players. How do you get
Speaker 1: to that point and being that open and honest with them?
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing is is if you're upfront
Speaker 1: with the guys, you tell them the truth about why
Speaker 1: you do the things you do, I think it makes
Speaker 1: sense to them. And I learned that because when I
Speaker 1: played for Mike Dick. I'll never forget it was it
Speaker 1: was nineteen eighty it was it was training camp of
Speaker 1: eighty eighty eight, and we had gotten beat in the
Speaker 1: first round of the playoffs a couple of times, and
Speaker 1: so we go into training camp that year and he
Speaker 1: is just killing us. I mean, he is writing us.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't back down one ounce and the players are
Speaker 1: getting frustrated. And I was one of the one of
Speaker 1: the captains, and so a couple of guys came to
Speaker 1: me said, Chico, man, you got to go talk to Iron.
Speaker 1: There's something up with him. Man, he's gotta he's got
Speaker 1: he's got to calm down. So I said, all right.
Speaker 1: So we had practice that day. We finished practice and
Speaker 1: we're walking off the field and I put myself close
Speaker 1: to him. And we were in Plattville, Wisconsin at training camp.
Speaker 1: So I put myself close to him, and so he says, hey, Cheek,
Speaker 1: what's going on? And said, well, you know, I'm glad
Speaker 1: you asked. And I said, look, I got to talk
Speaker 1: to you. And he says, what's wrong? I said, coach,
Speaker 1: why are you kicking and you know, kicking the shit
Speaker 1: out of us? I mean, you're on us, You're pushed something.
Speaker 1: We've had two days, we haven't had a break. The
Speaker 1: guys are getting frustrated, getting angry with you. What's going on?
Speaker 1: He said, Ronnie, He said, you know, I would never
Speaker 1: ask you guys there's anything I didn't do. You know,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't do anything make you guys do something that
Speaker 1: I think that I thought was impossible. I know you
Speaker 1: guys can push through. I know you guys can get
Speaker 1: through it. I said, but why, He said, Ronnie, We've
Speaker 1: been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round
Speaker 1: two years in a row. That shouldn't have happened, not
Speaker 1: with the teams that we've had. In eighty six, we
Speaker 1: were a better defense than we were when we went
Speaker 1: to the Super Bowl, which choose statistically we're better. So
Speaker 1: I said, wow, I said, all right, it makes sense.
Speaker 1: It really made sense to me. So I went back
Speaker 1: to old the guys said, guys, all's he doing is
Speaker 1: he's trying to push us to reach our potential. He
Speaker 1: said to me, said we've been We've been knocked out
Speaker 1: of playoffs two years in a row in the first round.
Speaker 1: He said, that shouldn't have happened, not with this team.
Speaker 1: I said, that's all he's doing. But it made sense
Speaker 1: to me, and I think it made sense to a
Speaker 1: lot of the guys. And that year we went to
Speaker 1: the NFC Championship unfortunately lost well, we lost to the
Speaker 1: great Joe Montana and the forty nine ers that year
Speaker 1: and then eventually on the Super Bowl, and it was
Speaker 1: just one of those things that you learned by his example.
Speaker 1: And that's so That's kind of what I've always thought,
Speaker 1: is if the players understand the why, Okay, the why
Speaker 1: that I think is very important to guy. So I
Speaker 1: don't think I've ever truly thanked you for this. Um.
Speaker 1: Obviously we have a relationship. When we were in Chicago,
Speaker 1: Chicago together and amazing career. When you were there, we
Speaker 1: went to a Super Bowl unfortunately lost. But in twenty thirteen,
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, I was miserable in Chicago. I hated football.
Speaker 1: I thought about retiring. It just was like a bad time.
Speaker 1: And I get a call after that twenty fourteen season.
Speaker 1: I thought about retirement, and then you gave me a call.
Speaker 1: I come down do like the recruiting trip thing whatever,
Speaker 1: and you bring me into Carolina and you literally saved
Speaker 1: my life from the sense of or my football life
Speaker 1: because I was just so down and out about being
Speaker 1: in Chicago. It wasn't fun anymore like when you were there.
Speaker 1: And I get to Carolina being a I don't know,
Speaker 1: a thirteen year VET guy in the locker room, the chemistry,
Speaker 1: thieves Alley, I'm sorry, thieves Avenue, like just everything that
Speaker 1: everything that that the culture that keep pounding. It was
Speaker 1: just like, I don't know, I felt like rejuvenated. And
Speaker 1: we had, you know, the Christmas that that Ryan would do,
Speaker 1: the Christmas stories, Christmas stories. I just love that legend. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he just he gave He gave great Christmas stories. I'm
Speaker 1: believe it at that. He gave great Christmas stories. And
Speaker 1: we just had a We laughed so much. We never
Speaker 1: got tight or tense. And like, what are some of
Speaker 1: the funny memories or stories that you remember about that
Speaker 1: that twenty fifteen Carolina Panthers season. First foremost to your
Speaker 1: point about about your last few what we were looking for,
Speaker 1: it was we were looking for some veteran leadership in
Speaker 1: the secondary. That's the one thing we never had. And
Speaker 1: in my entire time in Carolina as the head coach,
Speaker 1: you know, we never had the same starting five dbs,
Speaker 1: you know, for Bass or Nickel. We never did. We
Speaker 1: were always trained changing for whatever reason, we just couldn't
Speaker 1: keep everybody, and so finding some veteran guys I thought
Speaker 1: would be real important, just because I thought we were
Speaker 1: real close. I really did, in spite of the fact
Speaker 1: that the year we wanted seven to eight and one
Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen Roman. I just felt like we were
Speaker 1: closer than people thought. So finding guys like you and
Speaker 1: you made the big difference. It really did. And my
Speaker 1: biggest regret as far as that team was concerned, is
Speaker 1: that we played the best game of the year in
Speaker 1: the championship game when we beat Arizona the way we did,
Speaker 1: and we didn't maintain that. And it's one of those
Speaker 1: things that I wish we'd saved it for the right time.
Speaker 1: But anyways, but some of those hilarious things, and I
Speaker 1: got the fricking proof right here, and I'm looking at
Speaker 1: it all right. It's this fricking alligator you put in
Speaker 1: my in my bathroom, and it's it is something you
Speaker 1: need to tell the story and I'll jump in on it.
Speaker 1: But here's the picture. Here's the alligator. Oh you got it?
Speaker 1: Oh the camera here look look, look closing nice and tight.
Speaker 1: I imagine it's in the morning, walk in all right,
Speaker 1: the first thing you always do it in the morning,
Speaker 1: you're taking shower. That's where I was headed. I think
Speaker 1: Charles knew that that's why you put in fer. So
Speaker 1: I stripped down, wrapped the towel around myself, walk into
Speaker 1: the bathroom, turned the light on and there's this vicious
Speaker 1: three and a half four foot alligator looking right at me.
Speaker 1: I throw the towel at him, jump back into my
Speaker 1: office area. Unfortunately was naked and thank god. Oh and
Speaker 1: I heard he wanted to put a GoPro in there.
Speaker 1: He did almost try to recorded That is true too.
Speaker 1: That would have been bad, I trust me, that would
Speaker 1: have been one thing you would not have wanted to see. UM.
Speaker 1: And so I'm standing on and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: it hits me that's can't be real. It cannot be real.
Speaker 1: So I look back in there and I realize it's
Speaker 1: not real. So grabbed the towel wrapping around. I run
Speaker 1: back to the locker room on the far side near
Speaker 1: the meeting rooms. And who do I see But I
Speaker 1: see Charles and he's talking to a couple of players,
Speaker 1: and I scream at him. I'm screaming, I got my
Speaker 1: eyes on you, Charles, I owe you. And I walked
Speaker 1: back in my shower and um and put some clothes on,
Speaker 1: and then Charles came in and everybody started laughing, which
Speaker 1: I didn't think it was, but it was. I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna lie. I was like really scared, like you you
Speaker 1: signed like my dad when you you had you had
Speaker 1: like shorts on and his shirt. Your shirts always sucked in,
Speaker 1: always a professional. And I remember I was talking or you.
Speaker 1: I was talking to Rome and I was talking to Kurt.
Speaker 1: Yeah it was Kurt. That's right. That's right. I was
Speaker 1: talking to Kurt and I went up and I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: I just get the coach very y'all. I'll put this
Speaker 1: alligator in his shower. And I think he and I
Speaker 1: was like, oh snap, and I was like, oh damn,
Speaker 1: I'm in trouble. I might get fine conduct detrimental to
Speaker 1: the team. I'm cut, I'm fired. I think I damn
Speaker 1: I went too far with this joke. And he walks
Speaker 1: over with that mean aggressive wall and then I was like,
Speaker 1: he was like, did you put this damn alligator in
Speaker 1: my shower? And then for for like a split second,
Speaker 1: I was gone, I gotta lie because I was like none.
Speaker 1: I was like, I can't. I gotta be a man.
Speaker 1: It's not good. Uh uh yes, And I said it
Speaker 1: like in such a coward voice, like I was so scared.
Speaker 1: I was like, uh yeah, yes, sir, And he was like, well,
Speaker 1: god damn minute thing scared to hail it, mate. It's
Speaker 1: funny as hell he does. This was the funny he
Speaker 1: really did. But you guys, remember where'd you get the idea?
Speaker 1: So uh, the coach told a story then maybe the
Speaker 1: night before, the week before, week before, about to send
Speaker 1: me two dolphins. He got in front of the team,
Speaker 1: he told a story in front of us. He told
Speaker 1: a story about one of the players, and send me
Speaker 1: two dolphins. Something was going wrong or they needed a
Speaker 1: good laugh. So one of the players or a few
Speaker 1: of the players, they took a real alligator, taped the
Speaker 1: mouth shut. They taped the mouth shut with this real
Speaker 1: out of alligator, and they threw it in Don Shula's
Speaker 1: shower and he's flipping out or whatever. So he tells
Speaker 1: us that story the reason I put the alligator in
Speaker 1: your shower. We had just lost our first game. I
Speaker 1: think we had just lost to Atlanta in Atlanta, tough game, whatever,
Speaker 1: it was. Finally our first game, we were what fourteen
Speaker 1: and one and one, and I felt like everyone just
Speaker 1: got like real tight, and the building got tight. And
Speaker 1: the only thing that that proved was we weren't gonna
Speaker 1: be perfect. We weren't going to have the season like
Speaker 1: the Sydney two Dolphins. We weren't gonna be undefeated. So
Speaker 1: I was like, I need to lighten up the mood.
Speaker 1: I need to get everyone just to laugh and just
Speaker 1: need anybody else. Yet I just got everybody for everybody,
Speaker 1: see everybody to Woosa one time, and then I put
Speaker 1: that alligator in and then it just hey man, we
Speaker 1: just had a couple of laughs, and you know, we
Speaker 1: were good. But that's what what made that season so
Speaker 1: great that I remember we were on the bus going
Speaker 1: somewhere at one time and you didn't like the attitude
Speaker 1: of the team, and you called everybody off the bus
Speaker 1: before we headed to the airport. You called an emergency
Speaker 1: team meeting. And then it was like what are y'all doing?
Speaker 1: And then I mean the message was super clear, like look,
Speaker 1: we're on a mission. We gotta play games, you gotta win,
Speaker 1: we gotta pack it. And it was just like whoa okay,
Speaker 1: because I think we started to fill ourselves, like our
Speaker 1: stuff didn't stink, and you checked us and we received
Speaker 1: it and we received it well. Because we were getting
Speaker 1: off the bus, I was like, damn, what do we do?
Speaker 1: Did someone did someone say something? And maybe someone forgot
Speaker 1: a suit? And it just was a bunch of little things,
Speaker 1: but before it could have a snowball effect for the
Speaker 1: whole team, you checked us real quick. And that was
Speaker 1: kind of my way of checking us, was like, look,
Speaker 1: we just need to have a quick laugh for real quick.
Speaker 1: I think one of my favorite moments too, was the
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving game when we played Dallas and Dallas. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: had the night before Stephanie had to arrange for Thanksgiving
Speaker 1: dinner and we put it out to the players. But
Speaker 1: the whole topic, if you remember, remember that was the
Speaker 1: game Tony Romo was returning, yep. And the whole thing
Speaker 1: was they were undefeated and David favored. Yes, they were favorite.
Speaker 1: We were the only thing. We were ten and oh
Speaker 1: or eleven oh at the time, and they were favored.
Speaker 1: Were the only undefeated team to be to be an
Speaker 1: underdog to what were they They were six and six
Speaker 1: or five something like that. Yeah, oh, and that was it,
Speaker 1: and and and and I brought that to your attension
Speaker 1: and then turned it loose and you guys fell off.
Speaker 1: I mean it was amazing, you know. I think some
Speaker 1: of the things coach one thing in particular that I
Speaker 1: still lived my life by every day now, I tried
Speaker 1: to and uh, it was a it's a thing that
Speaker 1: you talked about all the time that team, and uh,
Speaker 1: I appreciate. I would like to know where you got
Speaker 1: it from. But it's be where your feed are at. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well you know when you're when you're at home, be
Speaker 1: with at home, when you're with the team, be with
Speaker 1: the team. Um, I don't know where you got that from,
Speaker 1: but it's so genuine and true. There's a actually a
Speaker 1: sports psychologist guy that I had to work with when
Speaker 1: I first started coaching in the NFL. While we started,
Speaker 1: we started to get on a roll and I started
Speaker 1: noticing that we were drifting a little bit. Kevin Elko,
Speaker 1: That's who it was, doctor Elko and I so I
Speaker 1: called doctor Olka. I said, look, my guys are a
Speaker 1: little kind of drifting off here and there. He said,
Speaker 1: I said, what what? What kind of you to keep
Speaker 1: the focus? He said, ron simple, just telling them to
Speaker 1: be where their feet are. Ye, be where your feet are.
Speaker 1: And it's it's the most simplest thing because what happens
Speaker 1: is it's really about wherever you are being that moment.
Speaker 1: If you're with your family, be with your family, If
Speaker 1: your work be at work, if you're on the on
Speaker 1: the field playing the game, play the game, but wherever
Speaker 1: you are, just be there. And so I've I've lived
Speaker 1: with that, and that's something I share with you know,
Speaker 1: all the players or people that ask me about stuff
Speaker 1: like that. I share that. And I give doctor Elko
Speaker 1: the credit because I learned it was such a simple lesson,
Speaker 1: but it makes it makes so much sense. And you know,
Speaker 1: and and it's to me, if you if you can
Speaker 1: keep your focus just for that moment, you give yourself
Speaker 1: the best chance to be successful. So being a military brat,
Speaker 1: I moved around a lot, and I know we have
Speaker 1: that that one thing in common is a your dad
Speaker 1: was he was the Air Force, Army, he was arm Okay,
Speaker 1: your your dad was in the Army and military, Bret.
Speaker 1: You move around a lot, and I think my Mount Rushmore,
Speaker 1: my dad is my dad is like I thought my
Speaker 1: dad was g I Joe. I thought my dad was
Speaker 1: like roll Block, you know, he was rolled Block on
Speaker 1: Gijo as a kid, like, I loved everything about my
Speaker 1: dad and what he did in the in the military
Speaker 1: and it was awesome. And with that there was a
Speaker 1: lot of leadership qualities that my dad learned about when
Speaker 1: he was in the military, and he would bringing those
Speaker 1: things home. Wordy, I applaud you for your leadership skills
Speaker 1: and how you lead your coaches. One of the things
Speaker 1: that I noticed about you in twenty fifteen that I
Speaker 1: still haven't really seen another coach do is you would
Speaker 1: let a quality a quality control coach get up and
Speaker 1: stand in front of the team the night before a game,
Speaker 1: and you would give that, uh, that coach was a
Speaker 1: Cameron Turner, you would give him the lowest man on
Speaker 1: the total pole at the time, quality control. You would
Speaker 1: give him ten minutes in front of the whole team
Speaker 1: and kind of preparing him, grooming him into a better position,
Speaker 1: you know, as he progresses with his NFL career, Like,
Speaker 1: where does that leadership come from? It comes from my father.
Speaker 1: You know a couple of things he did for me
Speaker 1: when I first got the head coaching job in Carolina. Okay,
Speaker 1: he brought me into our garage, our family garage. I'd
Speaker 1: come home to visit him, and he said to me,
Speaker 1: he says that, he said, you know, Ronnie, sometimes when
Speaker 1: things are going bad, it's going crazy, and it's kind
Speaker 1: of like in combat, everybody turns and looks at THEE
Speaker 1: the commanding officer for direction, and he says, if you're
Speaker 1: out of control, if you're not in control, if you're
Speaker 1: not calm and confident, your team won't be He said,
Speaker 1: in Vietnam, we were being attacked one time and everybody
Speaker 1: looked to the CEO and he was unbelievable. It's Ronnie,
Speaker 1: You've got to be like that. And he said, I
Speaker 1: want you to stay in the garage for a second.
Speaker 1: He walked out, close the door and he paused for
Speaker 1: a second and he came back in. He says, just
Speaker 1: remember sometimes you're gonna be all alone making that decision.
Speaker 1: You got to make it. So he gave me those
Speaker 1: little life lessons stuff like that just before I took over,
Speaker 1: and Caroline, I mean I literally just gotten the job.
Speaker 1: I'd come home to see mom and dad, and you know,
Speaker 1: Dad always had these messages, and that was one of
Speaker 1: the messages he gave me. Um. The other thing that
Speaker 1: I learned from from from military personnelis everybody has to
Speaker 1: be ready to lead, and you, as a leader, have
Speaker 1: to make sure they're ready, find opportunities for them. And again,
Speaker 1: it's just little things that I've I've gotten from, you know,
Speaker 1: having grown up military, been in that in that household,
Speaker 1: been around you know, colonels and generals for that matter,
Speaker 1: and just listen to them talk. So I try to
Speaker 1: take those those messages I've learned and instill them in
Speaker 1: everyday life. Tell me this, coach, Uh, it's another thing
Speaker 1: that you did for me that I think is special. Um,
Speaker 1: I've never been had a coach do that before, and
Speaker 1: that is you wrote me a hand and letter thanking
Speaker 1: me for being a part of the team in the organization.
Speaker 1: How often do you do that with certain players? And
Speaker 1: where did you pick up that? Because that is a
Speaker 1: skilled debt or something that I've never seen. Um. It's
Speaker 1: interesting because when I was a kid and we were
Speaker 1: playing I was playing basketball and I played on a team.
Speaker 1: And on this team, we had some some younger guys
Speaker 1: that had never played. I was fifteen at the time
Speaker 1: and these kids were eleven and twelve. And you know,
Speaker 1: I was playing, you know, in ford order at the
Speaker 1: at the at the base gym, at this youth league,
Speaker 1: and there were these two little kids that were actually
Speaker 1: pretty good, and so they moved him up to UM
Speaker 1: I was playing. I was think was thirteen to fifteen,
Speaker 1: and I think they were twelve year old, so they
Speaker 1: moved him up to play for more competition. Yes, well,
Speaker 1: because they were younger, they didn't get a lot of opportunities.
Speaker 1: And so, you know, I was one of the bigger kids,
Speaker 1: one of the older kids, and so we were winning
Speaker 1: this game and they put these these this one young
Speaker 1: kid in and he looked a little awkward and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. So I want to to him. I said, hey,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be fine. Just throw me the ball and
Speaker 1: we'll play. So he throws me the ball right and
Speaker 1: then he goes like gets out of the way. I
Speaker 1: throw it back to him and he catches it, and
Speaker 1: I look at me, said shoot and he shot made it.
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden he's like he's got
Speaker 1: this confidence. Yeah. Well, his dad was a colonel and
Speaker 1: they literally lived two houses from us. Colonel Jababbi, that's
Speaker 1: I'll never for his last name. And so a couple
Speaker 1: of days later, there's this note for me, a little
Speaker 1: you know, not cardinal. You know, I opened up Colonel
Speaker 1: Jabobby at the top, I said, Ron, thank you for
Speaker 1: instilling the confidence in my son to play, and he
Speaker 1: signed it. So a couple of days later, I run
Speaker 1: into the colonel and I said, wow, thank you for
Speaker 1: the note. He says, no, No No, thank you for the
Speaker 1: confidence you gave my son. And I never forgot. So
Speaker 1: whenever I get certain special moments, I'll send somebody a note.
Speaker 1: I'll give somebody a note and just tell them, Hey,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate what you've done for us. Because the
Speaker 1: other thing I've learned too is is leaders ship. It's
Speaker 1: not about me. It's not about whoever the lead. It's
Speaker 1: not about that person, but it'll start with that person.
Speaker 1: So if you're a leader, just know it. It's not
Speaker 1: about you, but it's going to start with you. And
Speaker 1: so I've kept that in mind, and so I've tried
Speaker 1: to find the right moments to do the right things.
Speaker 1: So in twenty nineteen, when when things ended in UM
Speaker 1: Carolina and you're no longer the head coach and you
Speaker 1: got to move on and go to another team, do
Speaker 1: you do you have any doubts within yourself as far
Speaker 1: as like up didn't work out? Well, maybe I did
Speaker 1: something wrong where I wish I would have did this right,
Speaker 1: I wish I would have did that. Well. I hope
Speaker 1: I get another opportunity to coach again, Like, do you
Speaker 1: ever have a doubt in the sense of like why
Speaker 1: that team lets you go? And then I hope I
Speaker 1: get another opportunity to coach again. Absolutely, I mean the
Speaker 1: only doubt I had is is is what did I
Speaker 1: miss right? What didn't I what didn't I do right?
Speaker 1: And then try to correct that. Um. I knew I
Speaker 1: would coach again. And and I love coaching. Um It's
Speaker 1: one of the things that that when when I left
Speaker 1: my only honestly, and I reflect on it because I
Speaker 1: think it's one of the things that Mike Dicka did,
Speaker 1: and it was one of the things that he and
Speaker 1: I talked about. One of the things I asked coach
Speaker 1: Dicka one time, you know, after he had got let
Speaker 1: go in Chicago. We were talking, is when he had
Speaker 1: been coaching in New Orleans and I just started my
Speaker 1: coaching career. And he says to me, I said, so, coach,
Speaker 1: what do you think? He said, Well, Ronnie, I gotta
Speaker 1: be honest, you know, he said, you know, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, I might have been too loyal.
Speaker 1: I said, I'm not sure I get I followed a coach.
Speaker 1: He said, Look, he said, the hardest thing sometimes you'll
Speaker 1: face it is when to move on. When to move on?
Speaker 1: You never there's never really the right time to move on,
Speaker 1: or at least in your mind you think it. But
Speaker 1: but there really is. But you have to find it.
Speaker 1: You have to determine that as a coach, he said,
Speaker 1: it's it's sometimes people look at it as a cold decision,
Speaker 1: but sometimes just the right decision. He said. You bring
Speaker 1: people in for a specific reason. It's like when I
Speaker 1: was in when we were in UM in my first
Speaker 1: year in Washington, and I had brought Thomas Davison. And
Speaker 1: you know, Thomas and I both knew he wasn't the
Speaker 1: player he was at one point, but the reason I
Speaker 1: brought him in was so that he could share with
Speaker 1: the guys to trust in me, to believe in me.
Speaker 1: And we got in the same situation. The division was
Speaker 1: down UM, but we had a chance. And that's and
Speaker 1: I one think that I I always said, if you have
Speaker 1: a chance, that's all you need. And we had a chance,
Speaker 1: and and and Thomas said a few things to these
Speaker 1: guys about trusting it and believing it because this is
Speaker 1: a team, remember, had been down for a few years
Speaker 1: and needed to find something to believe in. And we
Speaker 1: got them to rally and we end up winning the division.
Speaker 1: Then we got the playoffs and we were the only
Speaker 1: team that almost beat Tampa Bay. You know, if you
Speaker 1: go back and look at we lost by a score
Speaker 1: and technically we had a chance all the way to
Speaker 1: the end. And so that's the thing. That's why you
Speaker 1: have guys sometimes that are past their time, but you
Speaker 1: know they can bring something special. They can bring them
Speaker 1: the experience. I mean, I know you had gone through
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl and want a super Bowl, and so
Speaker 1: you could sit there and tell the guy, hey, this
Speaker 1: is what it's supposed to look like. Yeah, those things
Speaker 1: are missed. I've always believed this, and I've said this
Speaker 1: to the league. Our greatest natural resources and we don't
Speaker 1: tap into enough are our former coaches and our former players.
Speaker 1: I mean, the wisdom you guys bring, the practicality you
Speaker 1: guys haven't understand, needs to be shared with today's players.
Speaker 1: These guys got to understand just what it means to
Speaker 1: be an NFL player. One of the things that I
Speaker 1: always talk about is, you know, I want guys that
Speaker 1: love playing I don't want guys that love being NFL players.
Speaker 1: I want guys that love playing NFL football. You want
Speaker 1: guys that are out there doing their jobs, playing the
Speaker 1: game the way they should play it, and then representing.
Speaker 1: You know, you only have one name, and it's right
Speaker 1: in the back of your jersey. Yeah, you got to
Speaker 1: do honor to that name. Whoever I can speak to
Speaker 1: that you when in twenty fifteen, I was on my
Speaker 1: way home and I was pulling in the driveway and
Speaker 1: he was like, Hey, what are you doing. I was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I just left the building. I'm gonna wait home. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: come back to the stay right now. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: got scared. I was like, damn, they gonna cut me on.
Speaker 1: I thought I was. I thought I was doing something good.
Speaker 1: And then he was like, yeah, when you get here,
Speaker 1: just come right to my office. And you didn't say
Speaker 1: nothing else. I was just like, we're having this great season.
Speaker 1: I fit to get cut during the season, Like what
Speaker 1: in the hell did I do? And I get there
Speaker 1: and you close the door and you just say, Hey,
Speaker 1: what kind of guy is Jared Allen? You know, how
Speaker 1: would he mess with our locker room? Is he a
Speaker 1: good guy? And I was like, oh my god, absolutely,
Speaker 1: he is gonna fit right in. And then I really
Speaker 1: appreciated the fact that you tapped into me as a
Speaker 1: resource of having or having played with him a year
Speaker 1: ago in Chicago, and when we brought him in, oh,
Speaker 1: he fit right in. He was immediately amazing locker room guy.
Speaker 1: But the think everybody understand players know players. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know what I've gone through recently in Washington is
Speaker 1: I've been trying to fin find out about the guys
Speaker 1: we have. And it's one of those things that players
Speaker 1: when when things are right, players will tell you what
Speaker 1: you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Right, Okay.
Speaker 1: And that's another thing that you know. I try to
Speaker 1: get across to peoples that tell me the truth. If
Speaker 1: you don't tell me what's happening, I can't fix it,
Speaker 1: I can't correct it. I can't make the right decisions
Speaker 1: because I'm trying to gather information. And the more information
Speaker 1: I get that makes the most sense. And so that's
Speaker 1: what you look for is, Hey, what kind of guy
Speaker 1: is he? Does he does he fit? How about a player?
Speaker 1: Can he be a player? Does he have that ability?
Speaker 1: And so I think, like I said, that's a resource.
Speaker 1: That's that's that's why I did it, because I knew
Speaker 1: you would know I know you would, and I knew
Speaker 1: you would be honest too, and that's what you look for,
Speaker 1: you know, Coach, yesterday you saw us Panut and I.
Speaker 1: We're sneaking out, we're playing some golf. You're just put
Speaker 1: the stup and literally after a thirty seconds, he literally
Speaker 1: looked at us and was like, nothing has changed with
Speaker 1: you too, Nothing has changed. Just want to let everybody
Speaker 1: know nothing has changed with you too. So I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Number One. I remember you would always tell us in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen you said, guys, you're a great team. You're good.
Speaker 1: That said another, the best thing you have going for
Speaker 1: you is who you are. Don't ever stop being who
Speaker 1: you are. And I think that's so unique because everybody
Speaker 1: tries to mold you, they don't want you to be this.
Speaker 1: That team was so unique for me because I really
Speaker 1: thought that you encouraged everybody to be whoever or whatever
Speaker 1: they wanted to be. And I also want to say,
Speaker 1: did you have that connection because of your experience with
Speaker 1: the Chicago Bears and that team was so full of
Speaker 1: all these charismatic, these different characters, and you a lot
Speaker 1: of personality and it works. Yes, you would always say
Speaker 1: I love you for who you are to me in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen, we had a lot of personalities, yes, and
Speaker 1: I really appreciated that. You know, that was one of
Speaker 1: the things I think that people miss because for all
Speaker 1: the way you guys celebrate it. Okay, you guys did it,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, for the most part in a respectful manner.
Speaker 1: You guys were doing things on our bench. Yeah, not
Speaker 1: directed at the opponent. You guys were handing footballs after
Speaker 1: you score to the kids. Did you guys ever see
Speaker 1: the article they wrote about all the kids they got,
Speaker 1: all the touchdowns that were handed to I mean as
Speaker 1: an unbelievable article. I mean, it really is, and it's
Speaker 1: one of those things that we did do things the
Speaker 1: right way. And I got a credit Coach Shula with that.
Speaker 1: Mike was the one who had at one time told Cam, hey,
Speaker 1: don't do it, just give it to one of the kids.
Speaker 1: So he started doing it, and then everybody feed off
Speaker 1: at everybody, and it was an amazing thing. But then
Speaker 1: you look at some of the celebrating we did, but
Speaker 1: most of it was on the sideline, on our bench.
Speaker 1: And now look at us today in the league. Okay,
Speaker 1: I don't understand it. Because we were getting killed for
Speaker 1: doing it, and now today they want more of it.
Speaker 1: And it's like, come on, let's be we were doing
Speaker 1: in twenty fifteen. We get no credit, you know. And
Speaker 1: it's it's one of those things that not not it's
Speaker 1: about the credit, but just the recognition. And I've always
Speaker 1: felt this too, and I don't know if you noticed it,
Speaker 1: but I've always thought it was about you guys. It
Speaker 1: was never about me. I mean, you know, we would
Speaker 1: go out and they would introduce you guys. I would
Speaker 1: walk around the side and go to the bench because
Speaker 1: to me, it was about you guys. You guys are
Speaker 1: the one that playing. You guys are the ones that
Speaker 1: people wanted to see. So keep your personalities, be who
Speaker 1: you are, but live within a certain standard, right, Okay,
Speaker 1: live within those those five core values that were put
Speaker 1: up of hard work, harmony, teamwork, listening, respect, and if
Speaker 1: you live your lives that way, you can play for us.
Speaker 1: And it's a lesson. I learned twofold, one from mister
Speaker 1: Richardson who just recently passed away, and the second one
Speaker 1: was from Cam Newton. What had happened was and and
Speaker 1: and I know, you know, the story is about the
Speaker 1: rivalry that we had for those years. But um, it happened.
Speaker 1: I think it was during the twenty fourteen season and
Speaker 1: something happened. I was mad at him, and so he
Speaker 1: and I were talking. I said, you know, and I
Speaker 1: I don't wanna call it a mistake, but I said, Tom,
Speaker 1: I said, why why just can't you? Why why can't
Speaker 1: you just be like like? And he looks at me,
Speaker 1: goes like Tom Brady, like Drew Brees, like Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: He's a coach. I can't. I gotta be who I
Speaker 1: am for one reason, that's it coach, because because if
Speaker 1: I do it my way, okay, the way that represents
Speaker 1: who I am, then others behind me will know. And
Speaker 1: that's when it made me realize, Man, he understands. It
Speaker 1: feels that burden. And so it also made me realize
Speaker 1: that I can't take away from who he is. I can't.
Speaker 1: And it really was because it hit me pretty good.
Speaker 1: And you know, I mean, I'm I'd like to believe
Speaker 1: I'm a practical guy, but that was something I really
Speaker 1: truly learned. And so other than doing something physically violent
Speaker 1: against somebody else, I wanted the guys to be who
Speaker 1: they are play to their ability so people know who
Speaker 1: they are. And and it was something that I think
Speaker 1: that as I reflected on it, we did that in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five with Mike Dicka. He wanted us to
Speaker 1: have that personality, want us to play free and loose
Speaker 1: and have a good time and enjoy it and appreciate it.
Speaker 1: And and I really, I said I as I go
Speaker 1: look back, that you know, other than than than than
Speaker 1: not winning that game, you know, that's super Bowl fifty.
Speaker 1: Everything was what I thought it should have been. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately we want we played the best game two
Speaker 1: weeks before. Yeah, that's that's that's my biggest regret. A
Speaker 1: few years ago, my dad gives me a phone call.
Speaker 1: And my dad and I were super close, and he
Speaker 1: calls me and he's like, yeah, you know, uh, I
Speaker 1: just wanted to let you know. Um, I wanted a
Speaker 1: doctor and I got prostate cancer and I'm getting the surgery.
Speaker 1: Everything will be good, and I love you. I talked
Speaker 1: to letter By and he got and I was just like, wait,
Speaker 1: what what just happened? Like he didn't really want to
Speaker 1: he was vulnerable, but he was vulnerable for like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe sixty seconds and he wanted to hurry
Speaker 1: and get off the phone because I think he had
Speaker 1: a really hard time telling me. And I was just
Speaker 1: like more shocked than anything. And he had already had
Speaker 1: it for maybe a month, and he just waited for
Speaker 1: a while to call me and tell me. And you
Speaker 1: know the process he went through. He's grade, he's healthy now.
Speaker 1: And I know you had it recently and a few
Speaker 1: years ago. And one, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad
Speaker 1: you're healthy. You only miss like three practices, like you
Speaker 1: are a freaking iron man, and I just won again.
Speaker 1: I'm happy here. But you why only mystery practices? Why
Speaker 1: not maybe take time off for like what was that process?
Speaker 1: Like it was an accident. So this true story. So
Speaker 1: we go, we're going through the process. We're meeting with
Speaker 1: the doctors, to meet with the oncologists, meet with my radiologists,
Speaker 1: and we're talking about what I should do and how
Speaker 1: I should do things. And they kept saying, you've just
Speaker 1: got to manage your treatments. You just got to manage
Speaker 1: your treatments. You just got to manage the treatment. And
Speaker 1: I mean every time we talked, that's what they're telling
Speaker 1: Nobut that's part of the advice, but that's one of
Speaker 1: the things. But the thing that stuck in my mind
Speaker 1: was they kept saying, you have to manage the process.
Speaker 1: You have to manage it. And so finally, when we're
Speaker 1: getting ready to start, Stephanie and I were sitting there
Speaker 1: and look at the docs and Stephanie gelo, should he work?
Speaker 1: It was absolutely? I mean, the majority of the patients
Speaker 1: end up in the hospital. You gotta you know. So
Speaker 1: I'm thinking to myself, I have to must, I got,
Speaker 1: I got no, I have no choice in the matter, right,
Speaker 1: So I constantly would try to just try to just
Speaker 1: keep going through just you know. So what happens is,
Speaker 1: it's the It's the Tuesday after my second cycle of chemo.
Speaker 1: I just went in had to check up radiation and
Speaker 1: all that stuff. I just got in radiation that morning,
Speaker 1: and so they take me to see my my my oncologists.
Speaker 1: And as I finished my treatments, you know, I had
Speaker 1: to I had to wear one of these masks that
Speaker 1: they bultch you into the into the table so you
Speaker 1: can't move, and then the machine gets The machine is
Speaker 1: literally about nine inches from your face and it makes
Speaker 1: all this noise and then you know, as I finished,
Speaker 1: they get him out. I go to get up and
Speaker 1: I can't move, I mean just and I was really weak,
Speaker 1: and I really literally had to roll myself off and
Speaker 1: the and the technicians catch me, and so they get
Speaker 1: a wheelchair and it's the only time I got into
Speaker 1: wheelchair during that whole process. And they wheel me up.
Speaker 1: You know. I do my check up with the doctor
Speaker 1: and he said, well, you know what, you should get
Speaker 1: some IV fluids. So we I call we call r V.
Speaker 1: Stephanie calls RV, the head trainer at the time with
Speaker 1: with with Washington, and tells him. So they say, all right,
Speaker 1: well bring him to the facility. This was Tuesday, it
Speaker 1: was it was so the players were off. Um. So
Speaker 1: she drives me there and so we get to the
Speaker 1: front door and I gets Stephanie, I can't There's no
Speaker 1: way I can get So she says, well, let's I said,
Speaker 1: let's go to the back door. So the back doors
Speaker 1: on the other side and it is down the level.
Speaker 1: So she drives it all the way around. He comes
Speaker 1: out and the two of them carry me into the
Speaker 1: room and the players are there. They're working out. We
Speaker 1: had about twenty five thirty guys. They're working out, are
Speaker 1: getting treatment and they see me and it went, I mean,
Speaker 1: it went from all this noise to dead silence yea.
Speaker 1: And so they walked me in really slowly, get me
Speaker 1: into their I get treatment and then I looked at
Speaker 1: I says, I can't work today. You gotta take me home.
Speaker 1: So she takes me home, and it was it was
Speaker 1: one of those things where they tell you you have
Speaker 1: to eat, you got to eat and um, and it was.
Speaker 1: It was one of those things that that you know,
Speaker 1: Jonathan Stewart and his wife sent me this bone broth
Speaker 1: and Stephanie had made this soup for me, and I
Speaker 1: couldn't get up to eat at lunch and so I
Speaker 1: hadn't eaten all day. And Stephanie says, the one job
Speaker 1: she had was I was she was to make sure
Speaker 1: I ate. And I wouldn't eat. I wouldn't get up
Speaker 1: to eat. So she calls our doctor team doctor. He
Speaker 1: starts yelling at me over the phone. You gotta get up,
Speaker 1: your must you gotta eat. So I get up and
Speaker 1: I eat. And as I'm getting up, and you know,
Speaker 1: Courtney was living with us at the time because of
Speaker 1: the pandemic, and she sees me she's really upset, and
Speaker 1: you know, so she leaves me. Stephanie gets she leaves me.
Speaker 1: Then our dog he looks at me and he's you know,
Speaker 1: he leaves me. And the only one left is our
Speaker 1: other dog. And she's sitting there staring at me, and
Speaker 1: I figured, oh, at least I got one friend. And
Speaker 1: I realized she just wanted the toast. Give her the toast.
Speaker 1: She leaves. So I'm there by myself and I begin
Speaker 1: to eat, and the more I started eating, more started
Speaker 1: thinking I gotta do this. I can't do this just
Speaker 1: for me. This is my family. Yeah, And so that's
Speaker 1: what pushed me on. So then there were a couple
Speaker 1: of practices where I had that moment where I started
Speaker 1: to feel that way. So I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna stay in. And so the team went
Speaker 1: out and practice on their own a couple times. That
Speaker 1: me just because of that fact that I just knew
Speaker 1: that I needed to rest, so I did, but I
Speaker 1: was able to get through it. So I finished a
Speaker 1: long story. So I finished, I finished treatments, and I
Speaker 1: ring the bell and the docs come in and we're
Speaker 1: sitting there talking and they sit there and and they said, well,
Speaker 1: you got you know, you know, what you did was
Speaker 1: an amazing thing. And I said, well, what do you mean.
Speaker 1: He said, well, you got through all the treatments. You know,
Speaker 1: right now everything's fine or you're healthy and all this
Speaker 1: stuff said, and yet you didn't miss a game. You barely,
Speaker 1: you only miss a couple of practices. I said, well,
Speaker 1: I thought, I that's what you guys told me. He said, no,
Speaker 1: you could have gone to the hospital for a week
Speaker 1: if you needed to. And I had no idea that
Speaker 1: that was an option. When he said you got a
Speaker 1: work or you know, I took that as I had
Speaker 1: no choice. And the matter, yes, that's exactly what it was.
Speaker 1: It was. It was mind over matter, you know. And
Speaker 1: and again a lot of you guys, I appreciate the
Speaker 1: text message you guys sent stuff like that. It was great.
Speaker 1: It really was because I you know, I tell people
Speaker 1: that now, because it's crazy. I have people reach out
Speaker 1: to me from all walks of life about hey, would
Speaker 1: you mind sending a text message to my brother he's
Speaker 1: he's he's getting treatments right now, or you want to
Speaker 1: you mind you know, giving a call to somebody I have.
Speaker 1: And the reason I do that is because I'm telling
Speaker 1: you when you go through it. Every morning, my youngest
Speaker 1: brother who was in California, Courtney or Stephanie would get
Speaker 1: up with me at five thirty the morning, get me
Speaker 1: ready to take me to the hospital. And my youngest
Speaker 1: brother at seven o'clock would send me a text message
Speaker 1: because he was getting ready to go to work in California.
Speaker 1: It was just four o'clock in the morning. But and
Speaker 1: it was all right, Ronnie, we got this, let's go.
Speaker 1: Or my brother Steve, when he would wake up, you
Speaker 1: know he's retired now, and he would he would get
Speaker 1: up as soon as he got to send me a text, Hey,
Speaker 1: how to go. Everything good, I mean every day, and
Speaker 1: it meant something to me. So when people ask, I
Speaker 1: just try to pay it forward. But you know, the
Speaker 1: long story shortest, I didn't realize it, and so you're
Speaker 1: absolutely right. It was mind over matter. And the one
Speaker 1: thing that got me too is several you guys sent
Speaker 1: me messages about, hey, you got control it now, Coach,
Speaker 1: you gotta control your ape. You got yeah. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: that was that was it. You know that that that
Speaker 1: was one of the things I also helped me get
Speaker 1: through that. That's got to feel great. Though, because the
Speaker 1: bond that you've had with your players and then they
Speaker 1: come back and they reach out to you, like, that's
Speaker 1: just to me, that's a testament of who you are
Speaker 1: as a as a person. Forget coach, that's just a
Speaker 1: testament to who you are as a person. And I
Speaker 1: don't think enough people know that about a lot of coaches.
Speaker 1: You know, like you were your men first, and you're
Speaker 1: trying to instill in us. Yeah, I want to be
Speaker 1: better players, be Hall of Fame players, win a championship,
Speaker 1: but you're also teaching us how to be men. Yes,
Speaker 1: you know, Um, I grew up in Chicago at the
Speaker 1: age of twenty two, and I grew up in front
Speaker 1: of like cameras and interviews, and I retire when I
Speaker 1: was thirty four, and I learned a lot from coaches
Speaker 1: like yourself, Lovey Smith, uh, Steve Wooks, By Babbage, John Holk.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like, you guys instilled a
Speaker 1: lot of men quality, leadership, character skills within us. I
Speaker 1: don't I don't think people really realize the impact that
Speaker 1: you guys have on on young men. During this league,
Speaker 1: people ask me about you know, my my my best
Speaker 1: coaches and I always tell everybody my first coaches were
Speaker 1: my parents. My next coach obviously, and a lot of
Speaker 1: us bond with him is our high school football coach. Yes,
Speaker 1: a lot of us do. Um Mine was was an
Speaker 1: amazing man. He was from Texas, from southern Texas, um
Speaker 1: African American, I mean just and he didn't see color.
Speaker 1: And it was one of the most great lessons to
Speaker 1: learn because it didn't matter who you are, or who
Speaker 1: you were, where you came from, or what rank your
Speaker 1: dad was. He was going to treat you the same way.
Speaker 1: And I learned so many messages. In fact, he came
Speaker 1: to the to the Dallas game. You guys remember that, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I introduced to you guys coach Stevenson and a
Speaker 1: tremendous man, and I learned so much from him. But
Speaker 1: the biggest thing less I learned was you treat everybody
Speaker 1: the same. So what happened was we played a game
Speaker 1: in high school and you know, I played both ways.
Speaker 1: I was a quarterback, I was a linebacker, so I
Speaker 1: mean just and it was one of those games that
Speaker 1: I was really sore the next day at practice and
Speaker 1: so I was kind of, you know, run, you need
Speaker 1: to what's wrong. I said, well, I'm really sore. We'll
Speaker 1: beat up today. Said okay, start running. I said, what
Speaker 1: you should? Start running? So I start jogging around the
Speaker 1: practice field and I kept going and just kept going
Speaker 1: and kept going. I jogged around a practical for an
Speaker 1: hour and a half and you know, and didn't say anything.
Speaker 1: He didn't say anything to me. And we got done
Speaker 1: and he said, how'd you do? I said, what do
Speaker 1: you mean? How do you do? So? We got to
Speaker 1: work out, didn't you? I said, yeah, I said, okay, good.
Speaker 1: That's what was that all about. He says, well, hey,
Speaker 1: if you weren't going to do this for work, you
Speaker 1: had to do something for work. So I had you run.
Speaker 1: And it was just showing everybody didn't matter who who
Speaker 1: I am. Yeah, I'm gonna treat you the same way.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna be out here, but he's gonna be work.
Speaker 1: He's gonna be workd You need to see it. That's
Speaker 1: exactly what it was all about. That it really is.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you to make us do that, because talking
Speaker 1: about treating everybody the same, um one one coach or
Speaker 1: one person that has come up the last few coaching cycles,
Speaker 1: and everybody's always asking what's it? What Eric B Enemy?
Speaker 1: Why isn't I getting a job? He's a oc here,
Speaker 1: you know for under Andy reading everybody else to be
Speaker 1: able to move up in this That another what made
Speaker 1: Eric b Enemy the right fit for the Washington commanders
Speaker 1: and for your offense going forward. What I what I
Speaker 1: kept noticing about Eric was as I watched and I
Speaker 1: called Andy Reid coach ree and I talked to he
Speaker 1: was he was tremendous, gracious. But then what I did
Speaker 1: too is I talked to a couple of coaches that
Speaker 1: I had worked with U and on Andy Reid's original staff. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: Steve Spagnolan Dave tub were two guys that I played with.
Speaker 1: We grew up in the league, we started together, so
Speaker 1: I knew I could trust those guys. And they said
Speaker 1: same things, Ron, You're gonna love this guy. The way
Speaker 1: he works with people, the way he connects with players,
Speaker 1: his his his imagination, his play calling. He's learned so
Speaker 1: much from coach. And it's funny because because when I
Speaker 1: first would do the interviews, when I first got an
Speaker 1: interviewed for head coaching jobs, and I had done seven
Speaker 1: of them prior to getting my job, I finally asked
Speaker 1: the folks at Detroit and the folks at Pittsburgh, what
Speaker 1: was it that I could do better? And they said
Speaker 1: your problem coaches you come in and they both said
Speaker 1: it independently. Was you talk about Andy Reid, what you
Speaker 1: learned from him? You talk about Lovey Smith what you
Speaker 1: got from him, You talk about North Turner, you talk
Speaker 1: about you talk about what everybody else, tell us what
Speaker 1: you're gonna do, talk about you, why you? And all
Speaker 1: of a sudden at Dawn's on me. So I've never
Speaker 1: been in Eric's and I wonder if everybody thinks, okay,
Speaker 1: you know, does that what he talks about instead of saying, hey,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm gonna do. Yeah. So when Eric
Speaker 1: came in and we sat down and we talked, I said,
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do for us? He says, look, coach,
Speaker 1: I like your personnel. I mean he knew our personal
Speaker 1: We talked about the offense line, we talked about tight ends,
Speaker 1: running backs, quarterbacks, why. And he had a plan for
Speaker 1: everybody and how he wanted to use them, how he
Speaker 1: wanted to do it. And what it happened was is
Speaker 1: I was going through the process and I was looking
Speaker 1: at all the different candidates, and I got some wonderful candidates,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to treat everybody to saying. So I
Speaker 1: brought everybody in, We flew them in, we sat them down,
Speaker 1: they met with everybody. They got to interview him. You know,
Speaker 1: only one candidate I couldn't. And and what happened was
Speaker 1: I actually was out in California. So I went up
Speaker 1: and saw him in San Francisco and we met in person.
Speaker 1: But I wanted to make sure everybody understood that this
Speaker 1: was what I really wanted to do and do it
Speaker 1: the right way. So when I sat down with Eric
Speaker 1: and just listened to him, and I kept thinking to myself, Okay,
Speaker 1: so I really wondered and he and I haven't talked
Speaker 1: about this, and I should talk with him about it,
Speaker 1: just so we understand. Is that I wanted to know
Speaker 1: what he wanted to do and I wanted to do it.
Speaker 1: And I heard that. And what it did was it
Speaker 1: matched up to the way they were using their talent
Speaker 1: in Kansas City. Yeah, it was unbelievable because it's the
Speaker 1: ball was spread around, I mean, to the receivers, to
Speaker 1: the tight ends, to the backs that they were utilizing
Speaker 1: these guys quick throws, making explosive play, stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But listening to him tell me what his plan was
Speaker 1: for everybody and what he thought we needed to do
Speaker 1: and how we needed to do it was great. It
Speaker 1: was a lot of good information that just told me
Speaker 1: he's right. He and one of the things that Andy
Speaker 1: felt and he did the same thing with coach McDermott,
Speaker 1: was he felt coach McDermott had to get out from
Speaker 1: under the shadow of Jim of Jim Johnson. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so when he came, he came to me and I
Speaker 1: hired him. One of the things I said to Shaun Sean,
Speaker 1: let's build this, okay, you build it, okay, so we
Speaker 1: can say at the end of the day, you did this. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1: And that's what I wanted to make sure everybody and
Speaker 1: look at him today, Look what Shawn's done. Well, it's
Speaker 1: the same thing with Eric. He felt and he called
Speaker 1: me and we talked and he gave me a lot
Speaker 1: of you know, insight into Eric and I talked to
Speaker 1: the coaches, got great insight and he's right. Eric needs
Speaker 1: this opportunity just so everybody knows he's his own man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he's capable so I'm excited for him, I really am,
Speaker 1: and I think this is this is what Eric needs
Speaker 1: and this is what we need. I'm excited, coach Man.
Speaker 1: I'm super excited me too. And I love that, you know,
Speaker 1: continue to provide opportunity, continue to, you know, help build
Speaker 1: upon others careers. You know, Peanut really talked about how
Speaker 1: you do that in other different ways. And I want
Speaker 1: to know a good story, like what's your best Peanut
Speaker 1: Tilman's story, because I know you have a lot you
Speaker 1: already shared with us. The crocodile, I mean the alligator,
Speaker 1: croc alligator saying, well, crocodile's a lot bigger clear would
Speaker 1: have been an alligator, all right, So what is your
Speaker 1: best Peanut Tilman story that you could actually share with us?
Speaker 1: This will be good now I'm trying. Man. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of them, but one of my favorites one he
Speaker 1: tells a story about his rookie year in Chicago. I
Speaker 1: wasn't there yet, so he's telling me his rookie year.
Speaker 1: They had a big defensive linement that that liked to
Speaker 1: pick on the young guys a little bit, and Peanut
Speaker 1: talks about how he had to get into the dirty
Speaker 1: clothes hamper and pretend he was a car driving through
Speaker 1: the streets of Chicago. He had to make car noises.
Speaker 1: He had he had to pretend he was making turns,
Speaker 1: using a blinker and just basically driving it. And when
Speaker 1: you hear it, tell the story. I mean, that's that's
Speaker 1: who he is. It's a great story to hear it
Speaker 1: really is. Yeah. So this big defensive lineman is Ted
Speaker 1: Ted Washington. Oh. Ted Washington was huge. He was he
Speaker 1: was massive. This is really my welcome to the NFL moment. Okay, um,
Speaker 1: I just did the cold tub. They all the vests
Speaker 1: just dunked me in the cold tub. I got taped up.
Speaker 1: They dumped me in the cold tub. Whatever. And the
Speaker 1: next day or two days later, Ted comes in there
Speaker 1: and we were supposed to go the long way around.
Speaker 1: I went through trying to take a short cutch hon
Speaker 1: be sneaky. I get caught and Ted says, hey, listen up,
Speaker 1: I need you to get into the dirty clothes hamper.
Speaker 1: He says, any he tells you. He was like, hey,
Speaker 1: get in there, and I'm gonna push you around and
Speaker 1: I need you to make all the noises. And my
Speaker 1: pride kick stepped up right, I'm just like aait man. Man,
Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a grown ass man. You're not. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make me getting this dirty, dirty clothes hamper. Like
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm, I'm, I'm a tin woman, I'm I'm,
Speaker 1: I'm peanut, I'm you know. So then I look at
Speaker 1: all the other vets start to stup up and I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, all right, and I'm trying to like
Speaker 1: be pulled. I'm like, big tang, you just got me
Speaker 1: the other day. Man, Like, I'm I apologize, I'm sorry
Speaker 1: if I'm being disrespectful, I'll go the long way. Apologies
Speaker 1: to all you veterans. Like, hey, I apologies, brother, my
Speaker 1: my bad. Get your ass in there. I was like,
Speaker 1: so I get I get in this this hamper, right,
Speaker 1: it is dirty clothes stuff. Oh my god, why am
Speaker 1: I doing this? So I swallowed my pride. I get
Speaker 1: in there, and all the vets they're take off their
Speaker 1: paths and whatnot. So they all come around and he's
Speaker 1: pushing it around. I'm like, and then he starts s
Speaker 1: ramming it into the locker in the wall and I'm
Speaker 1: just hearing boom and he's like pushing it into the wall.
Speaker 1: Then he bags it up and I'm making I'm making
Speaker 1: all these sounds and everybody is just laughing. Right, I'm
Speaker 1: just like, man, this is a bad day. So after
Speaker 1: about I don't know, fifteen thirty seconds of pushing me around,
Speaker 1: he clearly doesn't have stamming or cardio. He's about three thirty,
Speaker 1: so he's all cardioed out from pushing me in this
Speaker 1: damn laundry basket. And then he picks up the laundry
Speaker 1: basket with the laundry and me in it. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: he picks it up and then he just threw it
Speaker 1: and I fall out of the thing and I was like,
Speaker 1: appreciate your big tit. And then I walk out the
Speaker 1: locker room was like, man, I hate this dude. And
Speaker 1: then they traded him like three days later to New
Speaker 1: England and he goes and went to the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: with Belichick when they played Carolina in Super Bowl whatever.
Speaker 1: But I was so I was so happy they traded
Speaker 1: Big Dead. Oh my god, that was Oh yeah, that's
Speaker 1: definitely my Walkers. I've never heard of this thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's my that's my welcome to the NFL moment. Speaking
Speaker 1: of NFL moments, as a head coach. I know we
Speaker 1: all have them as players. What was your welcome to
Speaker 1: the NFL moment as a head coach. We've heard some
Speaker 1: interesting story from other Yeah, today I think it's been
Speaker 1: welcome interest. Yeah, to like something was like, damn, I
Speaker 1: did not see that happening, Like you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of things that you guys been
Speaker 1: a while, but I know, well, I'll never forget my
Speaker 1: first NFL season. What happens is there as a coach
Speaker 1: a player as a coach. Okay, there's a lockout. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lockout. I don't get to meet my team
Speaker 1: until we get to training camp. So I had no OTAs,
Speaker 1: no mini camp, no first team meeting. First team meeting
Speaker 1: I have is my my first day. So so bring
Speaker 1: the team in. They do the conditioning test, which we're
Speaker 1: not you're not allowed to watch anyway, so that at
Speaker 1: the time you weren't. So they did all that stuff.
Speaker 1: So I really don't get speak to the guys as
Speaker 1: a group until that first meeting. So speak to him.
Speaker 1: Come down to practice the next day, first practice in
Speaker 1: the morning, full pads. Okay, Steve Smith's on the team,
Speaker 1: one of the all time, and I really know, I
Speaker 1: really believe he is a Hall of Famer, but one
Speaker 1: of the one of the really great wide wide receivers
Speaker 1: in this league. And so we start practice and and
Speaker 1: Steve is just goes at it one hundred percent. Well,
Speaker 1: I've never been around Steve, and so start his team drilling.
Speaker 1: I'm watching the team drilling. Also here's this ruckass over
Speaker 1: to the wide receivers and I look out, so this
Speaker 1: one on ones And okay, so now we finished one
Speaker 1: on the drills. We start team pass. We're doing the
Speaker 1: team pass drill and he's out there in the corners
Speaker 1: on them and they start back and forth. I think
Speaker 1: I said, okay, this is getting ready. This is gonna
Speaker 1: be on. So I start walking over there and the
Speaker 1: ball gets snapped and within a second of the ball
Speaker 1: being snapped, there's an all out fight and it's the
Speaker 1: team he's fighting with the dB and the defensive guys
Speaker 1: come over, the offensive guys come over, and I mean,
Speaker 1: this is the I mean, it's been less than a
Speaker 1: full day and I'm with this team and they're fighting
Speaker 1: and beating each other up, and I'm blowing the whistle
Speaker 1: trying to get him calmed down. I'm blowing the whistle.
Speaker 1: I'm you know, and I'm one of those coaches that
Speaker 1: realized I'm flying in the middle of that. I'm not
Speaker 1: because I had a fellow coach get knocked out one
Speaker 1: time when I was coaching on Andy Reid Staff. We
Speaker 1: were in training camp and the offensive line coach, his
Speaker 1: offensive lines got they're fighting with my linebackers. So he
Speaker 1: comes out and get in the middle. Yeah, and he
Speaker 1: and one of the offensive linement throws a haymaker which
Speaker 1: catches him and he goes and you see it. He
Speaker 1: gets hit, pops up and falls over. So I stay
Speaker 1: out of the middle of it. So this thing starts
Speaker 1: and I'm blowing the whist, so I'm trying to get
Speaker 1: guys back. I'm kind of you know, and then it
Speaker 1: just it just goes. And I'm telling you what I'm
Speaker 1: saying myself, Oh boy, this is something else. And I
Speaker 1: can't remember, just sitting there looking. I just got to
Speaker 1: some believes what if I got myself into day one,
Speaker 1: that's a good story. That's not what I was expecting.
Speaker 1: Was a player fighting day one. And the situation, being
Speaker 1: in the lockout season, where very very unique situation for
Speaker 1: those that had to go through it and play through it. Um. So, coach,
Speaker 1: we always like to ask everybody, m just one question,
Speaker 1: and so it's about your mount rushmore so who would
Speaker 1: be on your mount rushmore of life influencers, not just
Speaker 1: football but overall in life. You get four mm hm,
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna count my parents was one first and foremost.
Speaker 1: What was that person to do that doubt? In my mind?
Speaker 1: Mom and Dad had had the most unbelievable impact on
Speaker 1: me and my three brothers. Um, they'd be at the
Speaker 1: front of it, just like you said about your dad.
Speaker 1: My parents would be at the front of it. Um.
Speaker 1: Carl Stevenson my high school football coach, because again you
Speaker 1: know you make that connection. Um. You know my dad
Speaker 1: was sent to Korea. Uh. It was my junior year
Speaker 1: in high school, and coach stepped in. He checked in
Speaker 1: on my younger brother. And now my two older brothers
Speaker 1: were out, you know, they were they were living on
Speaker 1: their own, and so it was just my younger brother
Speaker 1: and I am a mom and mom was a nurse's age,
Speaker 1: so she was at the hospital, you know, working a lot.
Speaker 1: So coach I always checked in. He checked in my mom,
Speaker 1: Hey everything, how the boys? You know that I mean
Speaker 1: and and just just he was there for us while
Speaker 1: my dad was gone. So that's why he made such
Speaker 1: an impact on me. And and I never forget Coach
Speaker 1: he recently passed away at the age of seventy eight.
Speaker 1: Just a tremendous man. I mean, just somebody that I'll
Speaker 1: never forget the impact that he made on my life. Man,
Speaker 1: there when I when I now, when I think about it,
Speaker 1: there's so many other people that had that impact on
Speaker 1: me that now I try to figure out what point
Speaker 1: did they impact me? How did they impact me? And
Speaker 1: it's just it's hard to say at that it really
Speaker 1: is gosh. I had an uncle, Larry, who was my godfather,
Speaker 1: and he played football, and he was one of those
Speaker 1: guys that you know he got he got hurt in
Speaker 1: college and back then, you got hurt in college, done,
Speaker 1: you were pretty much done. He was a knee injury too.
Speaker 1: But growing up he was a guy that everybody talked
Speaker 1: about it in the community because he was a great
Speaker 1: an athlete. Goes into college and gets hurt and the
Speaker 1: career ends, but his legacy carried on. And he had
Speaker 1: this way of saying things to me like if I
Speaker 1: ever got myself in trouble, you know, he was there.
Speaker 1: He always tell me up because see your mom faced
Speaker 1: the music, get it over with, trust me, you'll be okay.
Speaker 1: I mean, he was that kind of voice for me.
Speaker 1: So I would put my uncle Larry up there just
Speaker 1: because throughout throughout this whole time he made that kind
Speaker 1: of impact on me as well. And then my mom's dead.
Speaker 1: My grandfather he was a he was never a naturalized citizen.
Speaker 1: He had his green card throughout his life, and he
Speaker 1: worked the fields as fleeing as valley as as a
Speaker 1: farm worker. And he used to always show up at
Speaker 1: all of our sporting events that he could get to,
Speaker 1: and sometimes he would he would literally come out of
Speaker 1: the fields wearing those big rubber boots, just caked in mud, overalls, gloves,
Speaker 1: you know, everything dirty, and he'd watched it. He'd sit
Speaker 1: off to the side and he'd watched the games. And
Speaker 1: you always wanted to see if Grandpa was there. And
Speaker 1: and it was one of those things because you knew
Speaker 1: that in his mind it was about the American dream.
Speaker 1: And the one thing I never forget was that he
Speaker 1: had bought his house. Okay, he came. He actually came
Speaker 1: from the Philippines, worked in the fields and his whole
Speaker 1: goal was to buy his own house. And I'll never
Speaker 1: forget when he had bought his own house and we
Speaker 1: were over visiting and I was I just turned fifteen,
Speaker 1: and he said I was just turned. He said, Ronnie,
Speaker 1: I want to show you something and he pulls it out.
Speaker 1: It's a deed to his house. He said, I owned this.
Speaker 1: And that made an impression, just thinking, man as wow,
Speaker 1: I mean, and I really didn't understand it till I
Speaker 1: got to college and he got sick and passed away,
Speaker 1: But just thinking about what he had done, you know,
Speaker 1: raising the family he raised, making the impact he had
Speaker 1: on us. I mean, mine's you know, my Mount restaurant
Speaker 1: is really family oriented. And I think that's what you
Speaker 1: know for me, that that that was important, It really was.
Speaker 1: I mean I got to go to Puerto Rico see
Speaker 1: my dad's family, not as much just because you know,
Speaker 1: getting to Puerto Ricos isn't as easy as you like to.
Speaker 1: And I can remember going to the family farm and
Speaker 1: seeing it, and I can remember the original farmhouse is
Speaker 1: in the middle of this forty something anchors that they
Speaker 1: had and it's still there and they keep it there
Speaker 1: and they keep it up. Some of the cousins keep
Speaker 1: it up because they think it's important for the whole
Speaker 1: family to know where we all came from. Yes, so
Speaker 1: when you see this, it started off as this originally
Speaker 1: was just one room hut, and then it became two rooms.
Speaker 1: And the second room really was was the bedroom from
Speaker 1: my grandparents and everybody else. You know, they had this
Speaker 1: little area where they slept, this kitchen that they had
Speaker 1: and just like this family room and that was it.
Speaker 1: That was the size of it. And it's there. And
Speaker 1: when you when you get up on the hill and
Speaker 1: you look down and you see that, and you see
Speaker 1: all the stuff that they had, you said, and they go,
Speaker 1: that's all they had. Then you realize that's all they needed. Yea,
Speaker 1: And so you know, so that's why I think for me,
Speaker 1: you know, that would be more of a family thing.
Speaker 1: We're living our second acts via you know, our our
Speaker 1: our next job. Since playing football, What advice would you
Speaker 1: give a player going into retirement or their next act
Speaker 1: of life? Oh, have a plan, have a plan. I
Speaker 1: didn't have a plan for the most part really because
Speaker 1: I kind of wanted to find out what I wanted
Speaker 1: to do, and I started working in the real world,
Speaker 1: and I hated what do you consider the real world? Coach? Oh,
Speaker 1: it was it was a real estate job. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: And when you have to work on somebody else's schedule
Speaker 1: that doesn't impact you the way it should, it's bothersome.
Speaker 1: You know. I hated having people dictate to me, and
Speaker 1: I thought, you know what, this isn't for me. And
Speaker 1: I was struggling. I really was. I mean, things were
Speaker 1: going well, I was making money, but it wasn't. I
Speaker 1: wasn't happy. And more importantly, my wife knew that. And
Speaker 1: I know, you guys know Stephanie. The first thing she said,
Speaker 1: she said, you gotta get back into football. I said, wow.
Speaker 1: She said, I don't care what you do, but you
Speaker 1: got to get back into football. Yeah. And so it
Speaker 1: drove me to a situation where I was talking with
Speaker 1: Walter Payton. I was actually doing some radio and TV
Speaker 1: like a lot of guys do when you get out,
Speaker 1: and I got to do the pregame, sideline, halftime and
Speaker 1: postgame show for the Bears opener and I believe it
Speaker 1: was twenty nineteen ninety six, I believe it was, and
Speaker 1: they were opening up against Dallas and I'm watching it
Speaker 1: and you know, I'm talking about the game with Walter
Speaker 1: and Walter looks at me, goes, how come you're not coaching?
Speaker 1: I said, Walter, I don't know how to get in.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do to get in. And
Speaker 1: he looks at me, says, come see me tomorrow. Come
Speaker 1: by me, Come by my office, let's talk. So the
Speaker 1: next day I show up at his office and we're
Speaker 1: sitting around and we're talking and just having a great time,
Speaker 1: and Walter looks, He goes, you should be coaching. He said,
Speaker 1: I listen to you talk about the game, and I
Speaker 1: remember when you were a player. He said, Ron, you
Speaker 1: need or he said, cheek or you need to you
Speaker 1: need to get into it. And I said, well, I
Speaker 1: gotta figure out how. He goes, I'll talk to Ed.
Speaker 1: He was talking about Ed McCaskey. I said, I'll really
Speaker 1: you see. Yeah, So he talks to Ed McCaskey the
Speaker 1: next day. Because Walter at the time was on the
Speaker 1: board of directors for the Chicago Bears. So he talks
Speaker 1: to mister McCaskey. He calls me up. He says, hey, Cheeks,
Speaker 1: Ed wants to see you tomorrow. It's okay, So I
Speaker 1: think by then it was either Wednesday or Thursday. So
Speaker 1: I drive to the Bears facility. I sit down with
Speaker 1: mister McCaskey. He says, Look, Ron, he says, we already
Speaker 1: started the season. So next year, I'll make sure you
Speaker 1: connect with Dave, you know, coach Wanstead, and we'll go
Speaker 1: from there and we'll see what happens. I said, okay,
Speaker 1: so lo and behold true to his word. February comes,
Speaker 1: I get a phone call from Dave. Hey, Ron, why
Speaker 1: don't you come down and see me? Okay, So I
Speaker 1: come down, We sit down and we start talking. I said, look,
Speaker 1: I think I want to do this. In fact, I
Speaker 1: don't think I know I want to do this. It
Speaker 1: really he said. Okay. Well, he says, you know we
Speaker 1: have we have mini camp coming up pretty soon and
Speaker 1: then otis and I'd love for you to be part
Speaker 1: of it. And so sure, Well, while they were doing that,
Speaker 1: they had just started the Bill Walsh Pro Coaching Internship
Speaker 1: program Minority Internships, and so he said, we'll get you
Speaker 1: in on that program. So they get me in on that.
Speaker 1: So my whole goal in doing this was to make
Speaker 1: myself so needed that they were going to hire me
Speaker 1: for real, okay. So I started showing up five thirty
Speaker 1: in the morning. I'm making copies and I'm making coffee.
Speaker 1: I'm taking coaches cars and getting washed and get gas
Speaker 1: for him. I mean everything, I mean nothing. Nothing was
Speaker 1: beyond me. And then I learned to do all the
Speaker 1: computer work, okay, and back then it was the Avid
Speaker 1: system UH, inputting games, doing the analytics back then where
Speaker 1: you would get the readouts from all the statistics, and
Speaker 1: I was breaking them down. I was trying to find
Speaker 1: the stuff that was important in writing little reports on
Speaker 1: him and getting ready for Bob Slowik, who was the
Speaker 1: defensive coordinator at the time his son. His son's now
Speaker 1: the offensive coordinator at Houston. So I started learning all
Speaker 1: this stuff and I started putting us all together. And
Speaker 1: then halfway through training camp, I wrote a job proposal.
Speaker 1: It was a two year internship. And one of the
Speaker 1: things that I did was I wrote, one of the
Speaker 1: greatest natural resources you have are the former players, and
Speaker 1: yet there's nothing to help them get into football. And
Speaker 1: that was one of the lines that mister McCaskey thought
Speaker 1: was important, and so he said, We're going to give
Speaker 1: you an opportunity. And so that's how they hired me,
Speaker 1: and from that point on I got started. So I
Speaker 1: have a plan, know what you want to do? You know,
Speaker 1: I've talked to several your guys former teammates. Um. Remember Benum,
Speaker 1: I'm drawing brank on Ben's last night. Yeah, yeah, last name.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I know I should because he works with me.
Speaker 1: But I told him, I said, look, that's something you
Speaker 1: should think about. I mean, you're a smart guy. You
Speaker 1: played the game. You played it, you know with him
Speaker 1: with motion Ben Jacobs, And I said to Ben, what's
Speaker 1: your plan? Afterwards he's I really haven't thought about it.
Speaker 1: I said, well, I there's something you want to do,
Speaker 1: let me know and we'll find a way to do
Speaker 1: an internship. Well, sure enough, lo and behold he calls me.
Speaker 1: I said, yeah, absolutely, came in, did an internship for
Speaker 1: a couple of years, and then when I got this job,
Speaker 1: I called him and says, you want to keep coaches absolutely,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna have to move from Carolina now. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, see that was one of the things that
Speaker 1: when I first started coaching, I wasn't sure how Stephanie
Speaker 1: was going to react to coach. The first thing she said,
Speaker 1: let's go there's another chapter. Let's go. I love it.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, she was. She was all in. I love
Speaker 1: she's been all in. She really has. I love it.
Speaker 1: So last question. You know, this is an uncle head
Speaker 1: for a while. I've known him a while. He's older
Speaker 1: than me, where he looks older than me. Give me,
Speaker 1: give me, give me a good Roman story, give me,
Speaker 1: give me a good a funny. I would love to
Speaker 1: do this myself. Yeah, give me a good Roman Harper
Speaker 1: Deacon story. But Deacon, well, you know, the biggest thing
Speaker 1: I could always say is that that every now in
Speaker 1: the Roman, I would have this conversation about Carolina versus
Speaker 1: New Orleans, and even even you know, what I was
Speaker 1: trying to do is get him a completely buy in,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent in US. And he did for the
Speaker 1: most part, except for I knew he still had that
Speaker 1: that that love and respect for what he did in
Speaker 1: New Orleans. And I don't blame because they want a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl and you have those teams that are special.
Speaker 1: And we would talk about stuff, and there were certainly
Speaker 1: some things he would refuse to talk about, and he knew.
Speaker 1: I knew that he knew, okay, and he would just
Speaker 1: give me that glance and I said, Okay, that's all
Speaker 1: I need to know that I didn't say anything. I
Speaker 1: did say a word. I know he did, but I
Speaker 1: know I know. But we had some great robber we
Speaker 1: really did. And and Rome was one of those guys
Speaker 1: that you loved to hate because he wasn't on your team, right,
Speaker 1: but you loved him because the way he played. And
Speaker 1: I told him a story. I said, when we were
Speaker 1: we were watching you and um Demiko coming out, that's
Speaker 1: and we saw Mark Anderson. Yeah, because we were writing
Speaker 1: these guys up, you know they were gonna be first
Speaker 1: round picks. We knew these guys were for real. Um,
Speaker 1: but we saw Mark Anderson the defensive end, and we
Speaker 1: just kept saying, who's this guy. I mean, he's playing
Speaker 1: left in they run the ball to the right side
Speaker 1: and he goes thirty yards and makes attack on the
Speaker 1: sideline and you sit there. So that's how you know.
Speaker 1: But but we knew who I knew who he was.
Speaker 1: And just knowing that, you know he was in New Orleans.
Speaker 1: You know, like I said, you love to hate him
Speaker 1: just because of who he was. But you know, he
Speaker 1: was one of those the thing I respect more anything else.
Speaker 1: So was the way he handled himself right. You know
Speaker 1: a lot of guys come from different teams and they
Speaker 1: won't buy in at all. He bought in, but I
Speaker 1: knew he had he had this passion for what they
Speaker 1: had done in New Orleansons. That's what you want because
Speaker 1: when you're part of something that was special, you don't
Speaker 1: forget it. You really don't, no matter what you can
Speaker 1: say all you want, but deep down you have that
Speaker 1: and I knew he did. We still talk about twenty was. Oh,
Speaker 1: it was special, even though we didn't win. I think
Speaker 1: that that's one of those teams that you sit there
Speaker 1: and you have to respect, you know. Our biggest mistake was,
Speaker 1: like I said, you know, we couldn't get past the
Speaker 1: way we played the championship game were you know, and
Speaker 1: it's probably my fault and trying to find a way
Speaker 1: to get past that. That was the one thing we
Speaker 1: didn't do. Yeah, it's crazy because I played against Peyton
Speaker 1: Manning and two Bow forty four and he was electrifying,
Speaker 1: he was so good and we beat him, yes, and
Speaker 1: then we played him six years later and Super Bow
Speaker 1: fifty and he was a shell of himself and we lost.
Speaker 1: And it's just like you just never know, and the
Speaker 1: best team doesn't always win, and like you say, the
Speaker 1: team that plays the best that day is the one
Speaker 1: that wins the game. And we were not that team.
Speaker 1: And if we played that team ten times, we'd win eight.
Speaker 1: And there's no we were that good. We were that
Speaker 1: dominating all year long and literally played our worst game
Speaker 1: in the biggest game in season. I still think too,
Speaker 1: if men in term I could, I gotta I just
Speaker 1: would Oh. I mean, I'm I'm I'm not pointing to
Speaker 1: finger out myself, but I think I could have been
Speaker 1: more of an asse set well. I think I could
Speaker 1: have helped us out. Well. I won't call you a lawyer.
Speaker 1: I'm just you know, you say love to hate, I hate,
Speaker 1: I love to hate, I hate you your whole journey.
Speaker 1: I just think it's amazing to hear because listening and
Speaker 1: talking with some other coaches, like we spoke with Doug
Speaker 1: Peterson earlier, and talking about his journey and now he
Speaker 1: never took a break, He didn't do the real estate
Speaker 1: thing like you. Literally went from playing to high school
Speaker 1: coaching to coaching and moving up in the ranks and
Speaker 1: all of a sudden getting fired at Philly and then
Speaker 1: it was bitter was angry at what football, this whole player,
Speaker 1: he said, taking all this long journey and now he's
Speaker 1: mad at it, hates it, gets away, does real life things.
Speaker 1: People lose lives, son gets married, Like you actually get
Speaker 1: joy from other things, and you see, like, man, like
Speaker 1: I get out of this this darkness, I get out
Speaker 1: of my own way, and now I'm back happy again.
Speaker 1: I'm able to actually be a better version of myself
Speaker 1: in the reset button. Yeah. But but for me, you know,
Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine taking a break from it because I
Speaker 1: love it so much, but also the realization of what
Speaker 1: it's done for me and the platform it's put me on.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel that there is a lot of
Speaker 1: things I have left to do, and that's why I
Speaker 1: do it because of the platform, but also because I
Speaker 1: want to win. I mean, I don't care about losing.
Speaker 1: I don't think about it. I don't sit there and
Speaker 1: get in front of guy as well. You know, if
Speaker 1: we lose this game, we gotta play this game win. No,
Speaker 1: I get to say, we gotta This is about winning.
Speaker 1: And so that's what dry, that's where the passion is
Speaker 1: is because it really is and and my big disappointment
Speaker 1: is when we do lose and then get a chance
Speaker 1: to watch it realize that we shouldn't have lost this.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, And so coach Man, I'd be so honest
Speaker 1: and just canding with you, like I love your coaching style.
Speaker 1: I had two coaches in the league at Sean Payton
Speaker 1: and Ron River, and they couldn't be so far different, right.
Speaker 1: Sean's this fiery, kind of crazy one game date. Ron
Speaker 1: is just like this even killed and I loved it.
Speaker 1: I appreciated it. And you know, to see you get
Speaker 1: up there in front of the room empower other people
Speaker 1: around you, and you learn that it really is more
Speaker 1: than one way to skin a cat. And it's been
Speaker 1: an honor to get to know you. It's been an
Speaker 1: honor to see you grow. It's been an honor to
Speaker 1: say all the other successes that you've had from being
Speaker 1: a coordinator to all of a sudden now moving up,
Speaker 1: and you understand what it's like to be to look
Speaker 1: at the way you do, to come from the background
Speaker 1: that you've come from and be at this this platform
Speaker 1: that you have. I tell anybody that said, look, man,
Speaker 1: my first training captain Carolina, we had a team meeting
Speaker 1: and we talked about like kind of nullified and using
Speaker 1: the N word because what it did for our locker room.
Speaker 1: I had never heard anybody have this conversation. I thought
Speaker 1: of was amazing that grown men are in this room.
Speaker 1: And when we most coaches are only so focused on
Speaker 1: building what play we're running, what we're doing. Coach's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: We're gonna build from within on each individual player, and
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about experiences. We got a couple of
Speaker 1: white guys up there. Ryan Khalil was awesome, you know,
Speaker 1: being from California's like, dude, I don't even really know.
Speaker 1: And then you know, we got some African American players,
Speaker 1: one user for terms of endearment, others are like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I actually need to be better about this.
Speaker 1: And then I was sitting back and this is my
Speaker 1: first training came with this team. I'm like, this is
Speaker 1: the most interesting team and dynamic I've ever been a
Speaker 1: part of. And I've only been here for like six days.
Speaker 1: And so when I saw that, I really bought in
Speaker 1: more so those other things that you did that lets
Speaker 1: people like me that were an outsider who kind of
Speaker 1: kind of struck up even more of this rivalry thing
Speaker 1: between the teams and like makes me buy him because
Speaker 1: I see you guys are doing it differently than anybody else.
Speaker 1: But I want a piece of that in my life
Speaker 1: because I'd never had that. Yeah, well, I'll tell you
Speaker 1: it was. It was a good group of people that
Speaker 1: we had there. Um, I can't take all the credit
Speaker 1: for that. That was Mark Carrier. Yeah, and and Tony Porter.
Speaker 1: Tony Porter is an activist who works with the league,
Speaker 1: and they came to me with that idea, and I thought,
Speaker 1: you know what, there's some social issues out there that were,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of lingering and we need to talk
Speaker 1: about it. So that's why I felt compelled. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's beautiful. I thought it was amazing. It was changing
Speaker 1: for me. I'd never been in a dynamic like that
Speaker 1: where we could all just openly talk and discuss about
Speaker 1: our emotions, upbrings about different things. And you're right, social
Speaker 1: things we're going on in the world that uh, that
Speaker 1: can kind of rip at people in I know, inside
Speaker 1: of a locker room, we act like you know, once
Speaker 1: we're in here, nothing else matters, but sometimes it does.
Speaker 1: It does. Yeah, well, coach, we appreciate you blessing us
Speaker 1: with your time and and and just stuff. And we said, Hi, yeah,
Speaker 1: I know she's whooped you in golf. Yes, yeah, she did,
Speaker 1: believe me. I BlimE me. I I can knowne up
Speaker 1: to that though. She's she's really as a good ladies
Speaker 1: player and she enjoys it. But I appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: having me on Roman and Peanuts Pie cast talking about
Speaker 1: your second act. I appreciate thank very much. And I
Speaker 1: was dope, like I love I love me some Chico.
Speaker 1: I love Chico, Riverboat coach, rivera, he got it. He
Speaker 1: got so many names like, I love that dude. He's amazing.
Speaker 1: I love him for his leadership, his character, just the
Speaker 1: man is off the field like he is just he's
Speaker 1: an amazing man. I love that dude. He gave us
Speaker 1: a lot of different nuggets in that interview and his
Speaker 1: life aspects, some of his mantras that he lives by
Speaker 1: every day, that he walks by some of the most
Speaker 1: influential people, and his wife, that he's really been that
Speaker 1: it's poured in him that now he's able to pour
Speaker 1: into so many others. And he really helped change my
Speaker 1: whole life and outlook on a lot of different things.
Speaker 1: I mean, I live in Charlotte, North Carolina now because
Speaker 1: he brought me in. So I'm very thankful of him
Speaker 1: and his wife, his family and everybody at that organization.
Speaker 1: And Ron, he's he's a plus with me and really
Speaker 1: hope on my board a plus individual. I'm Peanut. That's
Speaker 1: my guy Rome And this is the NFL Players Second
Speaker 1: Acts Podcast. Thank y'all for tuning in.