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Speaker 1: dot com With Amy Wells, I'm Mike Keith. We're gonna
Speaker 1: hear from a couple of new coaches on this edition.
Speaker 2: Of the APA we are and I'm very excited about that.
Speaker 1: We begin with Anthony Levine and you're saying, wait a minute,
Speaker 1: I'm one of the ot people. I know that name,
Speaker 1: and you're right, you do. He played at Tennessee State
Speaker 1: and then he spent ten years with the Ravens as
Speaker 1: a backup defensive back. He would play situationally for the
Speaker 1: most part, but he was an outstanding specialty teams player.
Speaker 1: Retired last spring and then spent the twenty twenty two
Speaker 1: season still with the Ravens organization. He is now on
Speaker 1: the Titans staff as an assistant special teams coach. So
Speaker 1: Anthony Levine, Tennessee State, Baltimore Ravens, and now Tennessee Titans.
Speaker 2: Look at that.
Speaker 1: Did you know him when you were with the Ravens.
Speaker 1: I did not.
Speaker 3: I was just thinking about it right now, and I
Speaker 3: don't think I think you've mismissed each other by a year.
Speaker 3: I think so we were not there at the same time.
Speaker 3: But I still like him. I like his energy.
Speaker 1: Man, his energy is really good. He didn't have any
Speaker 1: experience in terms of the specific on field coaching, but
Speaker 1: he was such a good special teams player, and because
Speaker 1: of the enthusiasm and the energy you will hear and
Speaker 1: the professionalism, Craig Ackerman was interested in him, and when
Speaker 1: they talked to him, they said, you know, we think
Speaker 1: you've got really something, and so we're going to bring
Speaker 1: you in and give you a chance to be part
Speaker 1: of this staff because we think you add an element.
Speaker 1: As they went through this offseason, and I don't know
Speaker 1: that retooling the staff totally. They retold the offensive staff
Speaker 1: for sure, but they were trying to add some elements.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's a really good way to put it.
Speaker 3: I don't know that they were necessarily intentionally looking to say,
Speaker 3: we need a person to coach this, we need someone
Speaker 3: to do this. But what they were looking for were traits, right, characteristics.
Speaker 3: They were looking for an energy, something to infuse in
Speaker 3: the group of coaches that they have but also within
Speaker 3: the team as.
Speaker 1: A whole verybel liked you. Yep, and he said we
Speaker 1: want you here, and so he hired him and you
Speaker 1: will hear. Wise, I got a chance to talk with Anthony,
Speaker 1: who used to be the enemy and now he's part
Speaker 1: of the Tennessee Titans as an assistant special teams coach,
Speaker 1: Anthony E. Bean talking with me on the OT Anthony
Speaker 1: Levian Senior, what are you doing at Ascension same time
Speaker 1: as sports Park because all of us associate you with
Speaker 1: the Baltimore Ravens. You're number forty one for the Ravens.
Speaker 1: What are you doing here?
Speaker 4: Well? Now, now I'm a tighter. I'm assistance mus Saints
Speaker 4: coach for the Tennessee Titans. Now i'ma tighten though.
Speaker 1: But I mean I'm a little skeptical because you tortured
Speaker 1: us for years. You played great against us every time
Speaker 1: you made big plays on special teams, those heated Ravens
Speaker 1: Titans games between twenty twelve and twenty twenty one playoff game.
Speaker 1: Even is it a little weird for you maybe like
Speaker 1: it is for us?
Speaker 4: Yes, we'd okay, I mean it started off, it started
Speaker 4: off weird, you know, just being and being back being
Speaker 4: back in Nashville though, I mean, you know, I went
Speaker 4: to school here, but being a ben a Titan, being
Speaker 4: a Titan has been it's been some getting used to,
Speaker 4: you know, but but being here, being around Coach Raves
Speaker 4: and ben Awan Awkin has been around everybody, that's kind
Speaker 4: of kind of made me more comfortable. But yeah, but
Speaker 4: to your point, it was like sometimes when I'm walking,
Speaker 4: when I'm walking in the hallways and I see some
Speaker 4: of the guys who I payed against, is kind of like,
Speaker 4: I wonder, I wonder do they like, how they feel,
Speaker 4: like what they think, you know what I'm saying. So
Speaker 4: sometimes you know, I've thought that, but nobody never really said.
Speaker 4: It's been nothing but respect for from both sides.
Speaker 1: Well, I think there's respect for you because I mean,
Speaker 1: all those years I built, all those rosters and all
Speaker 1: those charts, and the quarterbacks changed, and the running backs changed,
Speaker 1: ray Lewis changed, and had Red changed. I mean, and
Speaker 1: there's forty one from Tennessee State University, Anthony Levine Senior
Speaker 1: right there, coming down on special teams gonna make something happen.
Speaker 1: It's gotta be a special feeling that you know, you
Speaker 1: put in that time that people respect what you did
Speaker 1: so much, even if you were on the other side
Speaker 1: that people respect what you did so much.
Speaker 4: You know what, Man, to be honest with you, man,
Speaker 4: I've been blessed. I've been blessed I have. I have
Speaker 4: great people around me when it comes for just everything
Speaker 4: that I've had. I've always had a good close net
Speaker 4: of people around me that I always made sure that
Speaker 4: no matter what I needed, you know that I had it.
Speaker 4: You know, so I can just focus on football and
Speaker 4: I can focus on whatever I need to focus on.
Speaker 4: But I didn't realize, like I knew, my teammates respected me.
Speaker 4: I knew that like I knew, because that's one thing
Speaker 4: that I've always wanted. I always wanted to respect for
Speaker 4: my teammates. And once I earned the respect for my teammates,
Speaker 4: then I wanted to respect for my coaches. But number one,
Speaker 4: it was always I gotta earn a respect for my teammates.
Speaker 4: But when I realized the respect that I had amongst
Speaker 4: the league, like when I when you meet people out,
Speaker 4: you may go different places, you'll meet people right and
Speaker 4: you're like you'll talk and oh you funny one, I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 4: you know. But when I retired when I retired, and
Speaker 4: then all the messages that I got from on Twitter,
Speaker 4: on social media, and even like coaches and ex players
Speaker 4: who I played against their retired like five six years
Speaker 4: before I retired, they calling me sending me messages. That's
Speaker 4: when I was like, dang, like I ain't know that.
Speaker 4: I didn't know that people really knew who I was.
Speaker 4: To be honest with you.
Speaker 1: Whether you're a carpenter or you're in insurance sales or
Speaker 1: you're in business, if people respect how you do your job,
Speaker 1: that's a great feeling. That's that's kind of the ultimate.
Speaker 4: Isn't it right. That's but again that that's that's one
Speaker 4: thing I've always wanted. All I wanted was the respect
Speaker 4: of my peers, you know. And it's been like that
Speaker 4: since I was little, even when I played in high school.
Speaker 4: I've always wanted to respected my teammates. And then when
Speaker 4: I played against other teams, I just wanted them to
Speaker 4: respect me, Like whether we won or lost, at the
Speaker 4: end of the game, I always wanted to earn the respect,
Speaker 4: you know, because if you earn anybody respect, I feel
Speaker 4: like that's the ultimate. That's the ultimate thing. Because a
Speaker 4: lot of guys he gon his lead. A lot of
Speaker 4: guys make a lot of money, a lot of guys
Speaker 4: might have a lot of playing time, but then when
Speaker 4: they leaves, like they might not have the respect that
Speaker 4: they piers or they teammates or anybody like that. So
Speaker 4: for me, man, I just I shop on respect. So
Speaker 4: I've always wanted respect.
Speaker 1: I want a backup. So you're originally from Louisiana, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: and spent high school in North Carolina. What'ston Salem? Salem?
Speaker 1: How'd you get to TSU? How'd you come to Nashville?
Speaker 4: So I was being recruited by North Carolina Tory Hills
Speaker 4: James Western. Here's a special teams coordinator there, and I
Speaker 4: ain't know going to a camp in North North Carolina
Speaker 4: camp and I had a great I'm doing pretty good
Speaker 4: at this camp. So this coach, coach mitches, he pulls
Speaker 4: me out the drills, right, he pushed me out the drifts.
Speaker 4: He's like, hey, you want need to see no more.
Speaker 4: He's like You're gonna be fine, Like you don't need
Speaker 4: to see no more? Right, So he pulled me out
Speaker 4: the drill. So, make a long story short, Coach Web
Speaker 4: comes up to me and he's like, why are you
Speaker 4: not in the drills? I was like, well, that coach
Speaker 4: pulled me out the drills. He told me I was good,
Speaker 4: But that coach was at Townson University, so I guess
Speaker 4: he wanted to recruit me to go to Townsend. So
Speaker 4: Coach Webb put me back into drills, and you know,
Speaker 4: I ended up doing pretty good in those drells. Got
Speaker 4: MVP at the camp, me and another guy from Weston
Speaker 4: Salem named Antonio o' wallow. But so they still recruited
Speaker 4: me to go North Carolina and then Coach Webb end
Speaker 4: up getting a head coaching job at Tennessee State. So
Speaker 4: when he got a coach job at Tennessee State, I
Speaker 4: never cleared like clearing house and n C double A
Speaker 4: and all that. I never cleared and that's why I
Speaker 4: ended up at Tennessee State.
Speaker 1: What's the best part of your Tennessee State memory?
Speaker 4: Man, this gonna sound this is gonna sound wild, but
Speaker 4: my my best memory that I have of Tennessee State
Speaker 4: comes from Dominique Rogers Commarti and we used to have
Speaker 4: like five am workouts, and I remember walking into five
Speaker 4: am workouts and it's a big hill onside Tennessee State.
Speaker 4: And I'm walking into Gentry because that's where we worked
Speaker 4: out at in the mornings. As a talking to Gentry,
Speaker 4: you hear somebody like running or like grunting, you know
Speaker 4: what I'm saying, Like they're running. So we hear this
Speaker 4: noise and we go to the side of the building
Speaker 4: and it's Dominique Rogers Commande. He's running heels, running hills
Speaker 4: before we have this five allion workout. So I'm like, dang,
Speaker 4: what you doing? And he's just going and going. He's
Speaker 4: just like and you watching them, and that's the thing.
Speaker 4: We gotta get inside. We gotta go workout. So we
Speaker 4: get inside. Dominique is drenched. I'm talking about dead tired.
Speaker 4: He gets into the workout and still wins every single
Speaker 4: workout and he's still going hard, still doing that, and
Speaker 4: that right there told me, like, right there was like, oh,
Speaker 4: this is different. But that's why he ended up going
Speaker 4: first round like top sixteen or fifteen whatever he went.
Speaker 4: But that right there was probably one of the moments
Speaker 4: that kind of changed the way I looked at just
Speaker 4: hard work.
Speaker 1: And you didn't get drafted, No, you ended up signing
Speaker 1: with the Green Bay Packers, played there two years and
Speaker 1: you were one of Aaron Rodgers' favorite players that he
Speaker 1: practiced against. Why were you one of Aaron Rodgers's favorite
Speaker 1: players to practice against?
Speaker 4: Man, this guy's good. Thank you. I ain't know people
Speaker 4: knew that. I don't know if I ever said that,
Speaker 4: but yeah, all right, so Mike McCarthy. So Mike again,
Speaker 4: I come from Tennessee State. I'm an undrafted guy. I
Speaker 4: have no idea about. I have no idea about A
Speaker 4: head coach is an officive guy, defensive guy, specially these guys.
Speaker 4: I have no idea about none of this. So anyway,
Speaker 4: we in practice, and I used to discuise a lot.
Speaker 4: So I'm if I'm supposed to be in the post,
Speaker 4: I'm down to the right side acting like I'm blessing
Speaker 4: or whatever. Then I'll run to the post Lake, but
Speaker 4: I'm messing up practice. So Mike McCarthy, he's like pissed.
Speaker 4: So he's like, Lavin, you gotta stop doing that. The
Speaker 4: court says not I've been a post. You not been
Speaker 4: a post. And I'm like, all right, yes, sir. So
Speaker 4: then ay Rod come to me, and ay Rod like, nah,
Speaker 4: doing what you're doing? And I'm like, because I was,
Speaker 4: I kept disguising. I was kind of like, I'll mess
Speaker 4: him up in practice sometimes so that they know they
Speaker 4: know what type of defense you run it right, so
Speaker 4: they'll know if you run the coup of three or
Speaker 4: you running zero, because like it's courted, the practice is
Speaker 4: caughted or whatever, so he knows that. But I'm not
Speaker 4: doing what the court says, like i know I'm pus
Speaker 4: to be in the post, but I'm not giving him
Speaker 4: that pre look. So I'm showing him like I'm down,
Speaker 4: or I'm showing something else. I have somebody else doing
Speaker 4: something else. And I just did that, like I don't
Speaker 4: I'm just messing around like I'm playing, but I'm having
Speaker 4: fun in practice like at a time on practice squad.
Speaker 4: So it's like you gotta do something, you know what
Speaker 4: I'm saying. They keep game. Yeah I'm trying. I'm trying
Speaker 4: to and I'm trying to have fun. So I just
Speaker 4: kept doing that, kept doing that, and I mean, every
Speaker 4: day I'm a cart thatll be hissed. But Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 4: kept telling me to keep doing it, so I kept
Speaker 4: doing it, kept doing it, and that's when he was
Speaker 4: just called me like he used to call me a
Speaker 4: master master disaster. So uh so every time you see me,
Speaker 4: call me like master, master, hey, master like that. But yeah,
Speaker 4: that's what I did in practice. So I just kind
Speaker 4: of I've always did that and you know, just kind
Speaker 4: of create a habit.
Speaker 1: Anthony, what are you gonna do in one of your
Speaker 1: players now doesn't follow the cards? What are you gonna do?
Speaker 1: Paybacks for?
Speaker 4: Hell? But you know what, though, you want you want
Speaker 4: to know what's crazy?
Speaker 1: What's that?
Speaker 4: What's crazy is? And I'm not saying I have anything
Speaker 4: to do with this. I'm not. Okay, I shouldn't even
Speaker 4: say this, but right in the Super Bowl, ay Rod
Speaker 4: makes a throw right with Polo Malo is disguising right,
Speaker 4: and he throws. I mean he's but I mean he's
Speaker 4: always been a great pastor, got great precision and stuff
Speaker 4: like that. But I feel like, you know, the things
Speaker 4: that I did in practice, Like at the end of
Speaker 4: the day, the look team gotta give the offense or
Speaker 4: the defense a great look. If you just go out
Speaker 4: there and just go through the just go through the
Speaker 4: motions and and you're not you're not making them better.
Speaker 4: So when they get out there on Sunday, they thinking
Speaker 4: that they just gonna run, they just gonna run past
Speaker 4: the corner or run past the safety. That's not real life,
Speaker 4: you know. So it's like, you got to get out
Speaker 4: there at the end of the day. If the car
Speaker 4: says you got to be in the A gap and
Speaker 4: if you start in the sea gap but you end
Speaker 4: up in the A gap. As a coach, I'm like,
Speaker 4: you know what, that may happen in the game, right,
Speaker 4: that may happen in the game, and stuff like that
Speaker 4: does happen in the game, you know, But I tell
Speaker 4: him at the end of the day, the final look,
Speaker 4: you got to be here, you know, but you can't.
Speaker 4: But I did, like I did that type of stuff
Speaker 4: in practice, and I kind of sometimes, you know, we'll
Speaker 4: work practice and coach would be mad he didn't get
Speaker 4: the look that he wanted to get. But then you
Speaker 4: get in the game and they doing that in the game.
Speaker 1: So it's what did in the Super Bowl.
Speaker 4: I shouldn't even said that's ok because now people.
Speaker 1: Because there was no car, but there was no I mean,
Speaker 1: he did crazy stuff that made no sense, but it
Speaker 1: often worked and then sometimes you could catch him where
Speaker 1: just occasionally.
Speaker 4: I'm not saying, okay, make this because I'm not saying
Speaker 4: I got anything to do with that. All I'm saying
Speaker 4: is that, you know, I practiced that way, and I
Speaker 4: tried to give the a ride at that time. I
Speaker 4: try to give him a good look for practice, you know.
Speaker 4: And I feel like that's what kept me around also
Speaker 4: in the league, because the way I practiced.
Speaker 1: So two years in Green Bay, you go to Baltimore,
Speaker 1: you finally make the roster, and then twenty twelve twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, everybody called you co cap because you're that
Speaker 1: guy who leads the special teams and you played a
Speaker 1: lot on defense. You played multiple positions on defense. At
Speaker 1: the end of twenty twenty one, you decide you're done.
Speaker 1: And at that point, what's going to be next for you?
Speaker 1: What did you do last season as a non player?
Speaker 4: Well, last season I went into scouting. So I did
Speaker 4: scouting and coaching. But I wanted to do scouting because
Speaker 4: I wanted to get the whole experience of learning how
Speaker 4: to build a team, how to build a roster. You know,
Speaker 4: what you're looking for into guys, Like what makes scouts
Speaker 4: look at certain guys and like why do certain guys
Speaker 4: fit certain coaches or certain teams? Like you know, so
Speaker 4: I really wanted to start from inside out. You know.
Speaker 4: So I feel like me being a scout, cause I mean,
Speaker 4: been a coach and being a player, I feel like,
Speaker 4: you know certain things that comes with that. But being
Speaker 4: a scout, you gotta be able to actually like scout players.
Speaker 4: You gotta be able to know or you not really know,
Speaker 4: but you're you're kind of predicting, right, like, oh, this guy,
Speaker 4: he's good at this, he'll be able to do this,
Speaker 4: and you know, so I feel like if I learned that,
Speaker 4: and I learned the lingo, and I'll be able to talk,
Speaker 4: you know, to players, coaches and scouts. So that's why
Speaker 4: I want to do it.
Speaker 1: How did you get here? How did you get to
Speaker 1: the Titans?
Speaker 4: Man? Craig Craig Arkerm. Craig called my phone and when
Speaker 4: when draft meetings? So I'm in Baltimore, I'm in draft
Speaker 4: meetings and Craig calling my phone. So I answer the phone.
Speaker 1: How do you know each other?
Speaker 4: I don't don't. Now, I've never I don't think I
Speaker 4: ever met I met Craig, but yeah, so he called
Speaker 4: my phone and and so I answered and he's like, hey,
Speaker 4: you know this crad document from Titans. I'm just like
Speaker 4: from the Titans. It's calling me for right and he's like, wow,
Speaker 4: you know, I talked to a couple of guys and
Speaker 4: I want to interview for the Special Team's assistant job.
Speaker 4: So I'm like, man, you playing like who told you?
Speaker 4: Call my phone and playing you know? But nah, man,
Speaker 4: he was serious and he wouldn't he Craig is very persistent.
Speaker 4: He wouldn't take no financial He would be a good
Speaker 4: college man, Craig. Craig will be whatever. Whatever Craig want
Speaker 4: to do. I'm pretty sure he'll be good at it
Speaker 4: because he he don't stop, like you can't tell him no,
Speaker 4: like he just if he if that's what he want
Speaker 4: to do, or that's if it's somebody that he likes
Speaker 4: or something that he's going to go after it. Just
Speaker 4: those phone calls from him and Coach Rabel, you can
Speaker 4: tell like when they want someone like they're gonna do
Speaker 4: whatever they gotta do to get it.
Speaker 1: You connected with Rabel right away.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir. Why I just felt like I don't know,
Speaker 4: like we just when he called me, like the first
Speaker 4: time when he like when he called me, it was like, oh, man,
Speaker 4: Coach Rabel calling me like again, like I don't look
Speaker 4: at myself how other people may look at me. I'm like,
Speaker 4: why why would Coach Rabel call me? You know? And
Speaker 4: but he calls me, and me and him talking on
Speaker 4: the phone, and I'm telling them what's going on with
Speaker 4: what I have going on, and he's just like, man,
Speaker 4: look this is my story. And he kind of gave
Speaker 4: me a quick recap of his story, and I was
Speaker 4: just like, oh man. And then just right away it
Speaker 4: was just like man like Coach Rabel.
Speaker 1: Like he made a spot for you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's man, He's.
Speaker 1: That's that's pretty strong. What do you like best about
Speaker 1: coaching so far?
Speaker 4: Just being out there with the guys, like, you know,
Speaker 4: I feel like and I tell the guys all the time,
Speaker 4: you know, I'm I'm a front line I'm a front
Speaker 4: line soldier, Like I'm a front line guy. Like being
Speaker 4: a scout was good. It was cool, Like being behind
Speaker 4: the desk like that was. But when you when you're
Speaker 4: out there and you going with the guys, and you know,
Speaker 4: I still get that adrenaline rush, Like when I'm out
Speaker 4: there with those guys, you running around, you pushing them,
Speaker 4: y'all having those conversations and y'alls making each other better
Speaker 4: cause they're making me better and I'm making them better.
Speaker 4: So we're at the same time, we growing together, you know.
Speaker 4: And it's like when we got down to that practice
Speaker 4: field in that meeting room, it's just like we want
Speaker 4: and that's what I That's what I've been used to
Speaker 4: my whole life, Like, always a group of guys together
Speaker 4: fighting for fighting for one thing.
Speaker 1: Even though it's only been a short time, have you
Speaker 1: figured out this is what you wanna do, this is
Speaker 1: where you wanna go forward?
Speaker 4: Coaching, Yes, sir, Like I've always even like my last
Speaker 4: my last few years, that's what I was doing anyway
Speaker 4: as a player, Like I'll be coaching. I'll be helping
Speaker 4: guys out like and sead of me. I'm still doing
Speaker 4: my relse. I'm still doing things, but I'm pulling guys
Speaker 4: to the guy side and I'm talking to them, I'm
Speaker 4: helping them, and I'm showing this. I'm showing them that,
Speaker 4: you know. So I've always had that coaching mindset or ability.
Speaker 4: It's just certain things. And now I'm still learning how
Speaker 4: to be a coach. I'm still learning. I have a
Speaker 4: lot to learn. But but yeah, man, I enjoy it
Speaker 4: all right.
Speaker 1: So let me wrap up with this one. Who's the
Speaker 1: first player comes into your mind when I say to
Speaker 1: number forty one, Anthony Levine Senior, when I say Tennessee Titans,
Speaker 1: who's the first player that comes into your mind? Like
Speaker 1: just boom.
Speaker 4: I feel like that's a trick question.
Speaker 1: It's not off. I'm interested to know from somebody who
Speaker 1: was successful on the outside, was a rival understood with
Speaker 1: the physicality of the series has always I mean, this
Speaker 1: goes back twenty five years. I mean it's been like
Speaker 1: this since the Ravens moved to.
Speaker 4: Baltimore, right, Okay? Is I can't say one guy? Okay,
Speaker 4: I can't like, I can't say, oh, just the guy
Speaker 4: that pops in my head because it's like, again, I'm
Speaker 4: a I know, I know why I was in the league.
Speaker 4: I know what you know. So when I think about
Speaker 4: the Tennessee Titans, is of course is you know, yes,
Speaker 4: said Derek Herry, you Jeffer Simmons, you got buyer, you know.
Speaker 4: But then you have Darren Bates. You know, you gotta
Speaker 4: go against Darren Bates, you know. So it's like it's
Speaker 4: guys like like Darren Bates, who who I had battles
Speaker 4: with for years who I'm over here, I'm making calls,
Speaker 4: and Darren Bates he over there, you know, because that's
Speaker 4: why I gotta go against. I gotta go against Darren Bates,
Speaker 4: you know. I gotta go against guys like that. So
Speaker 4: when I'm making a call as the personal Protector and
Speaker 4: Darren Bates there on the side and he calling my
Speaker 4: calls out, he telling me what I'm about to do,
Speaker 4: and I'm just like, He's like, yeah, I know, I
Speaker 4: know what you're about to do, Lavigne, And it's just like,
Speaker 4: you know, So it's like, again, I can't just name
Speaker 4: one guy, but you know, just coming up from me
Speaker 4: going to Tennessee State, I mean, you think about a
Speaker 4: lot of guys like Javin Curse, you know, Steve mcnow,
Speaker 4: Eddie George, you know, guys like that. It's just like
Speaker 4: those are guys who I've watched when I was in
Speaker 4: when I was at Tennessee State. You know, I'm watching
Speaker 4: those guys.
Speaker 1: Say, I can't just name hurst one guy like you.
Speaker 1: Anthony Levine visiting with me on the Official Titans Podcast,
Speaker 1: better known as the OTP. Seat Geek, is now the
Speaker 1: official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans. That's right. The
Speaker 1: deal is finalized, and Seat Geek is the newest member
Speaker 1: of the Titans family. If you haven't heard the name yet,
Speaker 1: get used to it, because you'll be hearing it a
Speaker 1: lot more this season. Whether you're buying or selling tickets
Speaker 1: to Titans games or any other live event in Nashville,
Speaker 1: Seat Geek is the place to do it. Seat Geek
Speaker 1: the new official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans, So
Speaker 1: Titans fans can fan. I visited with Anthony Levine. You
Speaker 1: got a chance to visit with Lori Locus, better known
Speaker 1: as low Locus, who is the assistant outside linebackers coach.
Speaker 3: I did, and I was so excited to have a
Speaker 3: chance to talk to her because she is a name
Speaker 3: that I have known within the National Football League and
Speaker 3: within the football space for a couple of years. Was
Speaker 3: so excited and she was added to the Titan staff,
Speaker 3: and I was interested to be able to pick her brain,
Speaker 3: not only because of what she has been able to
Speaker 3: accomplish in her career, but just to talk about the
Speaker 3: journey that she has had and the people that she
Speaker 3: has been able to work with. We talk a lot
Speaker 3: about coaching trees, which is just kind of the people
Speaker 3: that you have been connected with and how you have
Speaker 3: kind of grown into who you are as a coach.
Speaker 3: And the low Locust coaching tree has about a gabillion branches.
Speaker 1: But here's the conundrum she has. I mean, she's a
Speaker 1: role model, she's a hero, she's a trailblazer, whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call her, because she's the first female defensive
Speaker 1: coach in the NFL, right, and yet that's not what
Speaker 1: she really wants to talk about. And yet she understands
Speaker 1: the responsibility of what she's done to other women or
Speaker 1: what she's done for other women, but she doesn't want
Speaker 1: to dwell on.
Speaker 3: And that is what made me so excited to talk
Speaker 3: to her, because she is as coach Mack would say.
Speaker 1: She is all ball.
Speaker 2: She is a ball coach through and through, and so
Speaker 2: I was excited to talk to her about that aspect
Speaker 2: of her, the ball coach part, because you hear a
Speaker 2: lot about the other stuff. Sure, so Lo Locus and
Speaker 2: I got to sit down and just talk about being
Speaker 2: a ball coach, and it was awesome. Laura Locus, you
Speaker 2: are the defensive quality defel coach here for the Tennessee Titans,
Speaker 2: and your experience just in the game of football is
Speaker 2: so diverse. You've been a part of so many different things.
Speaker 2: I've got to know how your path ultimately ended up
Speaker 2: crossing with Mike Rabels.
Speaker 3: How did you end up with the Titans?
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: So, one of the things that has propelled women, or
Speaker 5: at least given them exposure to it, has been the
Speaker 5: NFL Women's Forum with Sam Rappaport and a couple of
Speaker 5: years ago coach Frabel had come in and was one
Speaker 5: of the speakers to the organization of women that were
Speaker 5: there that day, and just very engaging, very open, as
Speaker 5: you know, very straightforward, which I appreciate, and we had
Speaker 5: connected at that point, and he made himself available to
Speaker 5: all of the women that were at the conference that day.
Speaker 5: So over the last couple of years had kind of
Speaker 5: stayed in touch with him and checked in every once
Speaker 5: in a while and given him a little bit of
Speaker 5: I don't want to say a bad word, given him
Speaker 5: a little bit of business when we had joint practices together.
Speaker 5: But he just has always been sort of in that
Speaker 5: framework of connection of coaches. So when I was part
Speaker 5: of the firing in Tampa Bay, he was one of
Speaker 5: the main coaches I had reached out to to see
Speaker 5: if there'd be a possibility of talking to him about
Speaker 5: an opportunity.
Speaker 3: And here I am having that network and being able
Speaker 3: to make those connections. It's really one of the undervalued
Speaker 3: parts of breaking into this industry, no matter what role
Speaker 3: you're trying to.
Speaker 5: Get to correct absolutely, And you know, I had twenty
Speaker 5: five years in corporate before I decided to go into
Speaker 5: coaching full time, so I do understand the networking aspect.
Speaker 6: I do understand the connections.
Speaker 5: But you're right, I think that that's something that gets
Speaker 5: glossed over.
Speaker 6: And I think that.
Speaker 5: And you know this too, when you see people and
Speaker 5: they're pushed to the forefront, as some of the women
Speaker 5: have been working at this level, it's the end result
Speaker 5: and they don't really get a chance to focus on
Speaker 5: the fact that you do have to make those ground
Speaker 5: rout connections. You do have to stay in touch. I mean,
Speaker 5: I knew Bruce Arians from college forty one years ago
Speaker 5: and at the.
Speaker 6: Time it was thirty six.
Speaker 5: But it gave me that opening to be able to
Speaker 5: ask him for an opportunity, and that's how it really
Speaker 5: kind of propelled me into Tampa Bay at that time.
Speaker 5: So connections are very valuable.
Speaker 3: You have worked in so many different aspects of just
Speaker 3: the of football, and that has to provide you with
Speaker 3: such a diverse background in terms of understanding not only
Speaker 3: the game, but different ways to teach it and different
Speaker 3: ways to educate. Is that something that you've found has
Speaker 3: been really helpful to you, that you've had so many
Speaker 3: different touch points along the way.
Speaker 5: Yes, And because there's been so many coaches that I've
Speaker 5: had an opportunity and a blessing to work with. So
Speaker 5: for the majority of them, I will tell you that
Speaker 5: I learned so much from them, and there was, you know,
Speaker 5: a couple times when I learned what I didn't want
Speaker 5: to do right. So it's a positive and sometimes a negative,
Speaker 5: but it taught me. So you have to take lessons
Speaker 5: from like any level, and I've had some amazing mentors.
Speaker 5: I've had people that have really taken a vested interest
Speaker 5: in teaching me the game, showing me things, and really
Speaker 5: sort of taking me under their wing, and it has
Speaker 5: helped to mold not just my style, but I think
Speaker 5: the availability of, like you said, being able to pull
Speaker 5: from different aspects because each player is so different and
Speaker 5: the connection points with them are so different. You have
Speaker 5: to have multiple tools to reach them.
Speaker 3: We talked so much about coaching trees, and yours has
Speaker 3: a bajillion branches. Just being in this building and talking
Speaker 3: to people, everybody's got a connection to you and vice versa.
Speaker 3: A lot of that, I'm sure is attributed to networking,
Speaker 3: but a lot of it is also just staying power
Speaker 3: within this league, within this game, right correct.
Speaker 5: Yes, And I think that that's like a long term
Speaker 5: play for any coach. You want to be able to
Speaker 5: have a far reaching connection so that if someone mentions
Speaker 5: your name, if there is an opportunity, you want them
Speaker 5: to be able to at least know of you enough
Speaker 5: to be able to have a conversation or bring you
Speaker 5: in or consider you for an opportunity. And that's what
Speaker 5: all of our male colleagues sort of have built in
Speaker 5: because maybe they went to college with somebody, maybe they
Speaker 5: played with somebody, maybe they coach somebody's son.
Speaker 6: I think sometimes for the women in the league, it's.
Speaker 5: A little bit more of a stretch for us to
Speaker 5: build that framework, but I think as we go on
Speaker 5: it's becoming a little bit more common.
Speaker 6: And I think that's going to help us overall.
Speaker 3: Working with a lot of great coaches is one thing,
Speaker 3: but you've also been able to work with a lot
Speaker 3: of great players in Tampa Bay alone, You're working with
Speaker 3: Vida Vea and Domakansu. The list goes on and on.
Speaker 3: Being able to coach talents like that. How much does
Speaker 3: that help you improve as a coach.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and so that was like a big lesson I
Speaker 5: think from when I came in the door is that
Speaker 5: everybody wants to be coached, but you do have to
Speaker 5: respect the work that's gone in. I mean, Sue and
Speaker 5: I had a great relationship and he was very open
Speaker 5: to coaching, but it's something where you have to look
Speaker 5: at what they've done, respect the success they've had, and
Speaker 5: not trying to over coach them. So it was just
Speaker 5: we were very focused on fundamentals there, just like it
Speaker 5: is here. And that was sort of my fit, reminding
Speaker 5: them of you know, pad level, reminding them.
Speaker 6: Of, you know, their first step.
Speaker 5: So it was a good compliment to their experience fitting
Speaker 5: in the scheme, and I'm hoping to be able to
Speaker 5: continue that here.
Speaker 3: You've been on a Super Bowl winning team, working with
Speaker 3: those players, working with those coaches. What have you learned
Speaker 3: in that experience that you're bringing here to the types.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's an all in mentality. I think that,
Speaker 5: you know, considering the fact that this program and this
Speaker 5: organization has had success, I think that that's such a
Speaker 5: win because the guys understand what it takes to get
Speaker 5: to that level.
Speaker 6: Now we all have.
Speaker 5: To be so much more in if you want to
Speaker 5: do something you've never done before, and that's, you know,
Speaker 5: kind of the mentality we had in Tampa, and I'm
Speaker 5: hoping to be able to emulate that here. But the
Speaker 5: coaching staff already knows that. The players that I've met
Speaker 5: are already so locked in. You know, it's just a
Speaker 5: matter of a collective effort, and I think it's here.
Speaker 3: You've been able to work with great guys in other places,
Speaker 3: but we've got some pretty great guys in Tennessee, guys
Speaker 3: like Jefferyson and Harold Landry, Denigoatri.
Speaker 1: You can go on and on.
Speaker 3: Having the opportunity to get to know them their styles,
Speaker 3: it's got to be a lot of fun for you.
Speaker 4: Correct.
Speaker 6: Oh, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean, any I'm a defensive person at heart, so
Speaker 5: anytime I see an aggressive, violent defense, I mean, you know,
Speaker 5: I'm like.
Speaker 6: A kid in the candy shop.
Speaker 5: But yeah, they they've been very accepting, very welcoming, and
Speaker 5: you know, without equipment, it's nice to see the moving
Speaker 5: parts right now. I'm more excited for when we can
Speaker 5: actually get the pads on and really get to work
Speaker 5: and get after the offense a little bit more. But yeah,
Speaker 5: it's been a great environment. I really look forward to
Speaker 5: the share.
Speaker 3: That violent, aggressive kind of defense style and mentality. Is
Speaker 3: that what drew you to Mike Rabel Is that one
Speaker 3: of the things you kind of connected on.
Speaker 6: Could you not take that in from Braves?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: I think that that's a great fit and I feel
Speaker 5: a lot more comfortable here because of it, because it's
Speaker 5: a mentality that you know, we've always tried to keep
Speaker 5: and you know, in word, I have that a lot.
Speaker 5: It'll come out, I'm sure at some points. And being
Speaker 5: able to work with Coach Crow, you know, and learn
Speaker 5: from him and you know, get the technical part of
Speaker 5: now a newer position in the OLB room. But yeah,
Speaker 5: the violence, you know, the effort to finish the violence.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's it's a great fit.
Speaker 3: Your whole career is about grind and hustle and determination.
Speaker 3: Is that something that you're able to translate from yourself
Speaker 3: to your players, I would hope.
Speaker 6: So, I mean, I think that you know, a good
Speaker 6: coach sets the example.
Speaker 5: I think that you know, you lead by that example,
Speaker 5: and it's not something that you know, you hammer over
Speaker 5: their heads, but you know, they see us working really hard,
Speaker 5: they see us grinding and out. You know, they're doing
Speaker 5: the same thing in their capacity. So I think it's
Speaker 5: a good fit. But yeah, I mean, you don't ask
Speaker 5: anybody to do anything you wouldn't do yourself. So yeah,
Speaker 5: hopefully that'll set an example.
Speaker 3: Your name is one that we've known for a long time.
Speaker 3: A lot of people talked about low locus and what
Speaker 3: you've been able to achieve woman to woman. Are you
Speaker 3: tired of making history?
Speaker 4: Yes?
Speaker 6: Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 5: I think you know, this is the first time, you know,
Speaker 5: we've sat down together, and you know, it's been almost
Speaker 5: a blessing to have this be my first interview because
Speaker 5: it's allowed me to just work. It's allowed me to
Speaker 5: just learn and do what I'm supposed to do and
Speaker 5: task out to do. And it's not that you don't
Speaker 5: want to have time to inspire and do those other things.
Speaker 5: But I think what people fail to see is that
Speaker 5: I'm not here for that. I'm here to be a coach,
Speaker 5: and I happen to be a woman. I'm not a
Speaker 5: woman who happens to coach, and I think that that
Speaker 5: fine line sometimes gets bent.
Speaker 4: A little bit.
Speaker 5: So I do appreciate being able to have these kind
Speaker 5: of talks, but it isn't the driving factor, and it's
Speaker 5: something that, yes, I would love to have just conversations
Speaker 5: about ball and about scheme and.
Speaker 6: Go from there. At the end of the day, it's
Speaker 6: all about ball, absolutely all.
Speaker 1: Ball, all the time. Amy Wells and Lo Locus, who
Speaker 1: is working with Ryan Crowe with the Tennessee Titans outside
Speaker 1: linebackers for the twenty twenty three season. I'm introducing you
Speaker 1: right now to the new Duncan Rewards program. Download the
Speaker 1: app today and start saving them and stacking them to
Speaker 1: get the free Duncan. You love Duncan Rewards, Save them,
Speaker 1: stack them, use them however you want. America runs on
Speaker 1: Duncan terms apply. So Anthony Levine and Low Locus on
Speaker 1: this edition of the OTP. I love it.
Speaker 3: I love when we have a chance to talk to
Speaker 3: some coaches that we won't hear from very often. We
Speaker 3: have a lot of good people around this this training
Speaker 3: facility here to Sension St.
Speaker 2: Thomas Sports Park.
Speaker 1: On the next edition of the OTP, Charles London, who
Speaker 1: is the quarterback coach and the passing game coordinator, and
Speaker 1: Tony Dues, the former running back coach who's now the
Speaker 1: tight ends coach, will join us on the OTP, so
Speaker 1: stay tuned for the next one. Thanking you so much
Speaker 1: for subscribing to the OTP, and we'd love for you
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