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Speaker 1: Everybody, Welcome to the Monday, January twenty eighth edition of

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Speaker 1: Between the Horns Miles Simmons coming at you from Atlanta, Georgia,

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Speaker 1: the site of Super Bowl fifty three between the AFC

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Speaker 1: champion New England Patriots and your NFC champion Los Angeles Rams,

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Speaker 1: and the real media frenzy will begin on Monday with

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Speaker 1: Super Bowl Opening Night. But the Rams goun maybe a

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Speaker 1: bit of a taste of what's to come on Sunday.

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Speaker 1: So before hopping on a big seven eighty seven American

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Speaker 1: Airlines jet to Atlanta, the Rams stopped at the side

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Speaker 1: of their future stadium in Inglewood, California, where thousands of

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Speaker 1: fans had gathered for a send off rally. Now you

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Speaker 1: can hear them right there, all the fans cheering for

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Speaker 1: Greg Zarline. And I wasn't there personally, but just seeing

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Speaker 1: the sights and sounds on social media, it really looked

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Speaker 1: awesome out there at the lad site, so definitely kudos

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Speaker 1: to you fans. But then once the Rams arrived in Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: they were greeted by some reporters and cameras at the

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Speaker 1: airline hanger where the team d played. But maybe the

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Speaker 1: coolest thing was Hall of Fame defensive and former Ram

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Speaker 1: Jack Youngblood. He was standing out there and he was

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Speaker 1: handing out Super Bowl hats for the players and coaches

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Speaker 1: as they stepped on the ground. So we're going to

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Speaker 1: get to a couple of things to wrap up the

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Speaker 1: Super Bowl by week, but first let's kind of give

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Speaker 1: you an idea of what the rest of this week

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Speaker 1: is going to look like. The players will go through

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Speaker 1: Opening Night tomorrow, which is the event that used to

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Speaker 1: be known as Media Day, so you'll see players on

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Speaker 1: podiums answering questions that we'll go from football related to

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Speaker 1: pretty wacky. So you can tune into that event starting

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Speaker 1: at four Pacific on NFL Network and the Rams will

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Speaker 1: also then have media availability for more football related questions

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Speaker 1: on Tuesday morning. However, they will not practice that day,

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Speaker 1: so the practices are going to be held at the

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Speaker 1: Falcons facility in Flowery Branch, which is a bit of

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Speaker 1: a ways away the team hotel. Those will be on Wednesday, Thursday,

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Speaker 1: and Friday. The team will then have a walkthrough at

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Speaker 1: Mercedes been Stadium on Saturday before the big game itself

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Speaker 1: on Sunday just after six o'clock Local and three o'clock Eastern.

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Speaker 1: So if you got all that, or even if you don't,

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Speaker 1: we will definitely have you covered all week at the

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Speaker 1: rams dot com. So the Rams did have practices on

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Speaker 1: both Friday and Saturday, and on Saturday we heard from

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Speaker 1: kicker Greg Zerline, who apparently battled through an injured plant

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Speaker 1: foot in the second half of that NFC Championship game.

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Speaker 1: Head coach Sean McVay said earlier in the week the

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Speaker 1: Zerline should be fine for Super Bowl fifty three, and

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Speaker 1: the kicker reiterated that himself on Saturday when explaining what

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Speaker 1: happened to him last Sunday. Well, Mount at halftime landed

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Speaker 1: on something that didn't give as much as turf, and

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Speaker 1: then that's when I started earning. But hopefully a few

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Speaker 1: more days of treatment and be good to go. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure you guys are all still talking about that fifty

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Speaker 1: seven yard game winning field goal in from the NFC

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Speaker 1: title game, But you know, Zeroline has really been instrumental

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Speaker 1: in the Rams success over the past couple of years

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Speaker 1: as a whole. Sean McVay detailed that in a response

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Speaker 1: to the question about the kicker on Saturday. Well, I

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Speaker 1: mean what he brings to the team is you know,

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Speaker 1: he's he's a great guy, but as soon as you

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Speaker 1: crossed the fifty, I mean, you legitimately feel like you're

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Speaker 1: in a position to come away with points. So what

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Speaker 1: he did his first year that we were here as

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Speaker 1: a staff, I mean Special Teams Player of the Year

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Speaker 1: and even though he ended up missing a couple of

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Speaker 1: games at the end, he still end up leading the

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Speaker 1: league in scoring and he was outstanding. But I just

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Speaker 1: think his resolved his mental toughness. Watching the way that

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Speaker 1: he handled being out earlier in the year and how

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Speaker 1: he was so supportive of the guys that were in

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Speaker 1: his role, I think demonstrated a security that exists on

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Speaker 1: his part. But he's a really good, productive player and

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Speaker 1: you know, he's been outstanding, so I think just his

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Speaker 1: you know, how clutch he was last week too, I

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Speaker 1: mean in that atmosphere to be able to kick two

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Speaker 1: of those field goals with the you know, the distance,

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Speaker 1: but then also the crowd, noise, the different things, and

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Speaker 1: he was unphased by it. And you know, we wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be here if it wasn't for him. But if you

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Speaker 1: have been reliving that game winning kick that Zeroline had

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Speaker 1: just over a week ago. Well, you're not the only one. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I'd lydie if I said I don't think about it.

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Speaker 1: I do think about it. It was a cool occurrence,

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Speaker 1: something that you dream about from the time you're little.

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Speaker 1: To be able to accomplish something like that was very cool.

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Speaker 1: But obviously that's in the past, and so now it's addition,

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Speaker 1: it's a Super Bowl week. We got to prepare to

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Speaker 1: play the Patriots and hopefully hit'll win it. Next, let's

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit about Todd Gurley because he's been

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Speaker 1: kind of the subject of some questions as to what

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Speaker 1: happened to his touches in that NFC title game. Obviously,

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Speaker 1: the Rams won it anyway, but I think what's interesting

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Speaker 1: about Gurley is he's such a team oriented guy, and

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Speaker 1: you really, I think got to hear that from his

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Speaker 1: responses when he was talking on Friday. I don't I

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Speaker 1: don't ask no questions, bro, I just do my job.

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Speaker 1: We got to win, That's all that matters. I cannot

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Speaker 1: play once now. I don't care if Jake McQuaid that's

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Speaker 1: who about emmy. I got one more game left. I

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Speaker 1: don't care what nobody talking about. Y'all can call me hurt.

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Speaker 1: Y'all can come me whatever, But we're going to the

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Speaker 1: super Bowl. Where do y'all not understand it's not about me.

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Speaker 1: This sport never been about me, has never been about

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Speaker 1: one player. I only gonna be with around so much longer.

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Speaker 1: It's gonna be another dude that come in just like me.

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Speaker 1: So this whole game bigger than me. It's not just

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Speaker 1: about me. Why he's talking I getting the ball? Why

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Speaker 1: is that? Because it's only one football and it's eleven guys.

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Speaker 1: You can only get only one guy in custom ball

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Speaker 1: each time, so you know it's way bigger than me.

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Speaker 1: Gruly also talked about just what it means to him

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Speaker 1: to be in the Super Bowl, especially given the context

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Speaker 1: of what the rest of not only his career, but

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Speaker 1: honestly his life has been like, but that's what I'm saying,

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Speaker 1: Like it goes back to what we were just asking,

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Speaker 1: Like you're saying about a game or something. It's like,

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Speaker 1: that's why I'm so happy. I've been four and twelve,

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Speaker 1: you know, saying like I've been broke, I got money,

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Speaker 1: like I've been had, i'd have done, had terrible seasons.

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Speaker 1: I'm in a super Bowl. So it's like it's a blessing.

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Speaker 1: It's a blessing on guy. And it's like no better

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Speaker 1: feeling to be able to be at the bottom and

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Speaker 1: you're at the top. You know so because you always

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Speaker 1: wanted to be in that position, and to be in

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Speaker 1: that position is a great feeling. So you don't it's

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Speaker 1: a motivator. You don't want to go back, and it's

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Speaker 1: just it's just a stepping stone and where where we're

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Speaker 1: where we're heading. Two Also because I so enjoyed it.

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Speaker 1: Here's Todd Gurley referencing Allen iverson talk about practice. Finally,

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Speaker 1: let's also talk about Wade Phillips, the ramp seventy one

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Speaker 1: year old defensive coordinator. There are a couple of interesting

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Speaker 1: nuggets from Friday and Saturday about him. First from Sean mcfath.

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Speaker 1: So we know that the head coach has often leaned

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Speaker 1: on his defensive coordinator because of the decades and decades

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Speaker 1: of al experience, and that's something that Sean McVay just

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Speaker 1: doesn't have. So but that's coming even more handy now

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Speaker 1: as McVeagh prepares for his first Super Bowl. So Sean

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Speaker 1: mcvagh had this to say about what he's learned from

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Speaker 1: Phillips on Friday, you know, I think just to be consistent,

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Speaker 1: and then he was able to draw on some of

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Speaker 1: the experiences that he had, whether it be in Denver

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Speaker 1: with how they handled kind of having that two week

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Speaker 1: build up where a lot of times, you know, especially

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Speaker 1: for somebody like me, you can have a little bit

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Speaker 1: too much time where you overthink things. So I think

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Speaker 1: being able to kind of give that perspective of how

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Speaker 1: do we want to set up the first week of preparation,

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Speaker 1: what are some of the things that we can expect

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Speaker 1: in that second week with regards to the distractions, but

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Speaker 1: also making sure you keep the main thing the main

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Speaker 1: thing with getting ready for the football game. So there's

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Speaker 1: so many different things. And then just the way that

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Speaker 1: he goes about, you know, his daily business, how much

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Speaker 1: he enjoys this, And you know, sometimes I can have

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Speaker 1: a tendency to forget how much fun and what a

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Speaker 1: blessing it is to be doing this. Seeing the way

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Speaker 1: that Wade handles himself is a great representation of what

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Speaker 1: it looks like to enjoy what a blessing it is

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Speaker 1: to be coaching in this league and make sure you

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Speaker 1: maximize every day. I found this pretty interesting from Phillips too,

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Speaker 1: about you know, preparing versus over preparing and what that

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Speaker 1: can look like and how he has tried to help

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Speaker 1: Sean McVeigh in general. Well, he knows, I don't think

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Speaker 1: a whole lot. So that's why I think anytime you

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Speaker 1: have two weeks off, you sometimes want to do so

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Speaker 1: many things that the players. It's whatever the players can

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Speaker 1: do and whatever you can teach them to do in

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Speaker 1: a certain amount of time. Now, what we've done is

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Speaker 1: and he's done offensively. Heast taught these things all the

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Speaker 1: way through the season and so forth, and he's able

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Speaker 1: to just dial up plays and the same thing defense

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Speaker 1: that we've taught these things throughout the season. We repeat

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Speaker 1: things that we've played during the season. Now, which things

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Speaker 1: we play this game will be a lot of some

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Speaker 1: of the things we did, But we've done a whole

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Speaker 1: lot of things throughout the year. So it's up to

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Speaker 1: us to hone in on what we need done and

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Speaker 1: how we want the players to do it. Also, if

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Speaker 1: you ever noticed anything about Wade Phillips and a keb

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Speaker 1: to leave, it's pretty clear that those two guys have

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Speaker 1: a special relationship. Phillips and McVeigh both address that on Friday.

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Speaker 1: You know, you're close to a lot of your players,

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Speaker 1: but I'm really close to a Keeb. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: he certainly helped me get a ring, which was what's important,

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Speaker 1: but the friendship part has been really special to me.

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Speaker 1: And that he you know, I think maybe and that's

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Speaker 1: not all money, but I think he came partly because

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Speaker 1: I was here and that you know that that really

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Speaker 1: means a lot to you as a coach that somebody

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Speaker 1: liked to play for you, So at least as to me,

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Speaker 1: I just think there's a mutual respect that exists. I mean,

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Speaker 1: those are two guys where Keeb's been playing at a

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Speaker 1: high level for a long time, Wade has been coaching

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Speaker 1: at a high level for a long time, and I

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Speaker 1: think there's a mutual respect and an appreciation for one

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Speaker 1: another skill set that enables them to be really good

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Speaker 1: at their job. And they're also pretty easy to get

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Speaker 1: along with. So I think it starts with the mutual respect.

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Speaker 1: Wade's got such a good way about being able to

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Speaker 1: connect with players, give them some ownership, you know. I

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Speaker 1: think about a situation before Keeb was even here with us,

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Speaker 1: where Wade told Wade told me about a situation where

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Speaker 1: it was a two minute end of the half type

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Speaker 1: deal Kansas City. At the ball, Keeb suggested a certain

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Speaker 1: play call because of some of the things that he

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Speaker 1: had anticipated situationally, and he was able to jump in

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Speaker 1: and end up getting an interception. So I think when

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Speaker 1: you got that rapport with your players and coaches, it's

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Speaker 1: pretty special, and those two have that. If Taled can

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Speaker 1: have a big impact against one of his former teams

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Speaker 1: in the New England Patriots, and that could go a

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Speaker 1: real long way to put in the Rams in position

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Speaker 1: for a victory in Super Bowl fifty three. So that

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Speaker 1: will do it. For this Monday, January twenty eighth edition

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Speaker 1: of Between the Horns, Mile Simon saying thanks so much

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Speaker 1: for listening. We will have a special Wednesday edition of

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Speaker 1: the podcast for you before a Friday edition with DeMarco

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Speaker 1: far to breakdown all the matchups in Sunday's game with

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Speaker 1: the Patriots. I'm great on everybody seven