Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Legends Podcast, an NFL podcast for
Speaker 1: the players, by the players. Here is your host, four
Speaker 1: team year NFL veteran and Hall of Famer Anius Williams.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Legends Podcast. I'm Chad Pennington, guest hosting
Speaker 1: for Nius Williams. We are recording this today in Indianapolis,
Speaker 1: where the NFL's Youth Football Advisory Committee just hosted the
Speaker 1: first Legends Coaching Clinic. Each of the thirty two NFL
Speaker 1: clubs have selected an NFL legend who has gone into
Speaker 1: coaching to participate in our clinic. We have had an
Speaker 1: absolute blast with all of these legends. Uh this week
Speaker 1: and today with me is Mike Koefer from a place
Speaker 1: kicker for the Saints, forty Niners and Colts. Mike, thanks
Speaker 1: so much for being here. I love to be here.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Chaff. We have talked about in our clinic, Mike,
Speaker 1: just how coaches have influenced us in our careers and
Speaker 1: even post career. Uh. Can you talk about who you
Speaker 1: try and emulate when you're out there coaching and some
Speaker 1: of the coaches that may have made an impact in
Speaker 1: your life. Yeah. Um, you know we talked to our
Speaker 1: kids a lot. And I'll preface you know what the
Speaker 1: general information you'd like. But we talked to our kids
Speaker 1: a lot about in football. You know, when we think
Speaker 1: back and we think in the high school and even
Speaker 1: some of the youth days. You know, I tell these kids,
Speaker 1: you know, I played baseball, I played basketball, I played football,
Speaker 1: I played soccer. We all get together twenty thirty years later,
Speaker 1: we talked about football. It's tremendous and I, you know,
Speaker 1: I want kids to understand that that that those ideals
Speaker 1: that you know, the things you learned playing football. And
Speaker 1: we talked a ton about it here over the past
Speaker 1: two days about those are the components, those are the personalities,
Speaker 1: Those are the behaviors you know that that you develop
Speaker 1: on and off the football field being around each other,
Speaker 1: that will last, you know, a lifetime. Um now to
Speaker 1: alter back to that, probably the biggest influence in my
Speaker 1: life coaching wise, other than my dad and my mom,
Speaker 1: um was my head baseball coach in high school. But
Speaker 1: he was also the assistant football coach. So so, but
Speaker 1: but he was that if there's anybody I try to emulate.
Speaker 1: Ed Walton at Charlotte County Day School just a tremendous man.
Speaker 1: If I could be half the man that he wasn't
Speaker 1: in teaching and coaching kids, um, I know I'll be
Speaker 1: a success. From your perspective. What made him tremendous, you know,
Speaker 1: I think I think one it was his passion for
Speaker 1: the game that he was able to translate to us
Speaker 1: in the proper way. It wasn't overbearing, you know, it
Speaker 1: wasn't screaming and yelling and cursing, you know which in
Speaker 1: the old day, you know, and we call it, we
Speaker 1: call those days, and we played the old days now.
Speaker 1: I guess you know that that people probably attributed a
Speaker 1: lot to football or or you know, competitive athletics in
Speaker 1: those days. You know, he had that a little bit
Speaker 1: of sarcastic to meaner about him. I can't pinpoint one
Speaker 1: thing other than you know, he he emphasized us that yeah,
Speaker 1: you can you can win and do it the wrong way,
Speaker 1: and we're not gonna do that. You know, We're gonna
Speaker 1: be about team. When we hit the field, we're gonna
Speaker 1: do it the right way. We're gonna put the work
Speaker 1: into perfecting our craft, you know, during the week or
Speaker 1: on off days, and then when it's time to play.
Speaker 1: He let you play and he let you make your
Speaker 1: mistakes and learn from them. You know, you see a
Speaker 1: lot I feel like today, I see a lot of
Speaker 1: you know, younger coaches who just trying, they want to
Speaker 1: manipulate every aspect of the game. And I'm like, listen,
Speaker 1: you know you've put in the work. You know, now
Speaker 1: you just got to let the kids go play, and
Speaker 1: the only way they're going to improve is letting them play,
Speaker 1: letting them make mistakes, but also letting them be successful
Speaker 1: and knowing that it was them on game day, not
Speaker 1: so much you. I totally agree with you. We we
Speaker 1: tried to keep our kids from failing, and you know,
Speaker 1: instead of not accepting failure but embracing failure and using
Speaker 1: it to learn what success looks like. I completely agree
Speaker 1: with you on that. Looking at the clinic, UH and
Speaker 1: taking part in our coaching clinic, UH, what was your
Speaker 1: experience like and what we're kind of your expectations and
Speaker 1: now coming out of it, how do you feel? Um?
Speaker 1: I mean, I I feel great. I feel energized, which
Speaker 1: I feel as always. You know, the ultimate goal of
Speaker 1: any clinic that we go to as coaches is to
Speaker 1: come out with a renewed motivation, you know, to go
Speaker 1: back and attack your passion. So, um, it was tremendous
Speaker 1: to see. You know, you don't realize because because every
Speaker 1: we we go back to where we are and we
Speaker 1: work in our little bubble. You know, we don't realize that.
Speaker 1: You know, there are others who have been through the
Speaker 1: same path that we have that are doing the same thing.
Speaker 1: So it's that it's that uh, you know, that synergy
Speaker 1: of commonality. You know that, hey, you know we are
Speaker 1: doing something good. You know, I'm not the only one
Speaker 1: out here who's spending you know, twelve sixteen hours a
Speaker 1: day at this and and and not get paid a
Speaker 1: whole lot. But um, you know, just seeing seeing meet
Speaker 1: meeting guys you know that that you know we watched
Speaker 1: but didn't really know and now getting to shake hands
Speaker 1: with him and seeing them you know, outside of the
Speaker 1: game and and seeing how they're giving back to the
Speaker 1: game is great. But then also you know, the way
Speaker 1: the way the legend community you know, um integrated, you
Speaker 1: know some some crucial aspects of of ways to play
Speaker 1: new ways, how the game has changed. You know, us
Speaker 1: us as guys who played back in the eighties and nineties,
Speaker 1: you know, a little more trusty, you know, and this
Speaker 1: is the way you do it in my way or
Speaker 1: the highway. But but the game has changed, and so
Speaker 1: you have to you know, you have to adapt to
Speaker 1: it too as a coach. And um, you know, I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm gonna ramble on a little bit here. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody, we talked a little bit about it
Speaker 1: today about how where the kids are different or kids
Speaker 1: are different kids. Well, no, the kids are the same.
Speaker 1: They want to be successful, you know, they want to
Speaker 1: work hard. It's just the the confines that they're doing
Speaker 1: it in are different what you did it in. We
Speaker 1: still love to play. They just played differently than we do.
Speaker 1: They play on machines. You know. We went out and
Speaker 1: played in the yard, you know, but they're still playing that.
Speaker 1: You know, the mind is still thinking the same way.
Speaker 1: So you know, I've kind of taken the attitude that
Speaker 1: it's up to us as coaches and older coaches and experienced, um,
Speaker 1: you know, mature individuals. We need to adapt back to them.
Speaker 1: You know, I don't. I don't want to make the
Speaker 1: kids adapt to me because it's not my game anymore.
Speaker 1: It's there. So, you know, I feel like there was
Speaker 1: some presentation on that too, which which is really good.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate you letting me ramble, absolutely, and I
Speaker 1: really enjoyed first of all, the brotherhood I saw in
Speaker 1: there with our legends. Are former players really getting together
Speaker 1: and filling that brotherhood, feeling that commonality, and then really
Speaker 1: taking a look at Okay, what do we need to
Speaker 1: do as legends in this space? What do we need
Speaker 1: to do as guys who have played at the highest
Speaker 1: level of all to make our game better? And so
Speaker 1: my question to you would be what unique perspective do
Speaker 1: you think we do have as legends that we can
Speaker 1: bring to the coaching space. I think the one thing
Speaker 1: I always I always revert back to is the respect
Speaker 1: that we as professionals. And I don't think this has
Speaker 1: shown enough on television. You know, when you're playing the
Speaker 1: game and we're competing, and we watched the guys compete
Speaker 1: on Sundays or Monday nights or whenever we see them compete,
Speaker 1: we see them. You know, they get confrontational every now
Speaker 1: and then with each other and things. Sometimes they even
Speaker 1: get a little bit out of hand. But I don't
Speaker 1: think what they're showing television enough is either before or
Speaker 1: after the game, those guys shaking hands, patting each other
Speaker 1: on the back, and you know, hey, how you're doing.
Speaker 1: How How you know how your kids doing? How has
Speaker 1: the How's how's the wife? How's the growl? How's your mom?
Speaker 1: You know, the true respect for the time and effort
Speaker 1: and energy that that each person who has made it
Speaker 1: to the top level of the sport is put in.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's trickled down and not into the
Speaker 1: high school game where you know, you get into that,
Speaker 1: you know, lack of respects that that is going to
Speaker 1: happen on the field in a in a contact sport,
Speaker 1: but then it carries off the field, you know at
Speaker 1: the lower levels and if people just begin to they
Speaker 1: build a hatred. You know, the rivalry needs to be
Speaker 1: a rivalry, but it needs to stay within the lines.
Speaker 1: Have to go outside those lines. And that's another sixteen
Speaker 1: year old young man, that's another seventeen year old yong Woma.
Speaker 1: You know, we need to build those relationships, cross boundary,
Speaker 1: cross team that you know, you went through the same
Speaker 1: thing I went through. We're fighting the same battle. We're
Speaker 1: playing the greatest game you know ever invented. You know,
Speaker 1: to to build what we want to build within ourselves.
Speaker 1: So I think they need to show that or or
Speaker 1: emphasize that a little bit more about how guys really
Speaker 1: do respect each other even though they get on the
Speaker 1: field of compete hard, they really do respect each other
Speaker 1: when it's all said and done. That is a great
Speaker 1: point because some people in our game that haven't played
Speaker 1: at the levels we have played, uh true, don't respect
Speaker 1: each other and use it as more of a transactional
Speaker 1: type of experience instead of a transformational where we I believe,
Speaker 1: really value what the game has done for us as men.
Speaker 1: And so that's a great point. What have you found
Speaker 1: um as a challenge or what are some unique challenges
Speaker 1: that we do face as legends in this space? Oh wow,
Speaker 1: I mean every day brings it brings a new hurdle.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think you realize that, you know, the
Speaker 1: divide sometimes can be so great, and it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: where you are. You could be at a high end school,
Speaker 1: you could be at a you know, a low end school.
Speaker 1: You're gonna have different cultures, different you know, different races,
Speaker 1: different philosophies, different religions. Okay, and I think you may
Speaker 1: even talked a little bit about this earlier today. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, nowhere in my opinion, and I was never
Speaker 1: in the military, but my dad was, and and some
Speaker 1: people in my family have been in the military. You know,
Speaker 1: I don't think anywhere else other than the military do
Speaker 1: you find trying to bring a diversified group of people together,
Speaker 1: a diversified group of young individuals together to try and
Speaker 1: generate a common goal that you do in the game
Speaker 1: of football. So that's probably the biggest hurdle is to
Speaker 1: get these kids to understand that, hey, not everybody thinks
Speaker 1: the way you do. Not everybody looks the way you do,
Speaker 1: Not everybody responds to situations the way you do. Not
Speaker 1: everybody came from the same you know, family life that
Speaker 1: you did, or has been through the same experience as
Speaker 1: you did. But somehow, some way, we've got to shed
Speaker 1: all that for at least, you know, forty eight minutes
Speaker 1: on a Friday night and come together to try and
Speaker 1: get something done, you know. So, so I think that's
Speaker 1: probably the biggest hurdle to overcome in that situation. Sure,
Speaker 1: and we've talked about just the changes that we have
Speaker 1: seen or haven't really seen in our kids. What about
Speaker 1: the game itself when you look at the aim today
Speaker 1: compared to when you played or when I played. Are
Speaker 1: there certain things about the games you've seen that have changed,
Speaker 1: whether it be rules, techniques things like that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean we all we all know that the game has
Speaker 1: has changed dramatically over the last eight to ten years
Speaker 1: and really accelerated that change really in the last four
Speaker 1: to five I think, um, and it's definitely for the better.
Speaker 1: I think we all agree with that. That's where we
Speaker 1: as coaches who played a different game have to be
Speaker 1: able to adapt. And it's hard because the game that
Speaker 1: that is being played on you know, Sundays now is
Speaker 1: really although we would like to try and make it
Speaker 1: the same game on Friday night, it's a completely different
Speaker 1: skill set. You know, you're you're looking at guys who
Speaker 1: who can throw the ball fifty sixty yards, seventy yards,
Speaker 1: eighty yard, I don't know, you're looking at guys that
Speaker 1: can go up and jump, you know, ten twelve feet
Speaker 1: in the air and high point of ball. You know,
Speaker 1: trying trying to get kids to work outside of their
Speaker 1: skills set on Friday night is not, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: is not gonna lead to success. So trying to adapt
Speaker 1: the new game you know to to a high schoolers
Speaker 1: skill set, you know, so we still have to figure
Speaker 1: out ways to run the ball more than they do
Speaker 1: on Sunday. You know, we still have to figure out
Speaker 1: how to kick you know, thirty yard field goals instead
Speaker 1: of fifty yard field goals. You know. So those adaptations
Speaker 1: with the way the game is played now, Um, but
Speaker 1: then you know some of the great stuff going over
Speaker 1: as far as you know, all the new ways to tackle.
Speaker 1: You know. We listened to the Charles Bentley today on
Speaker 1: getting the head out of the game and are ways
Speaker 1: to play and that incorporated getting the head out of
Speaker 1: game posture which he talked about and I had I
Speaker 1: had heard the Charles speaking at a Glazier clinic. So um,
Speaker 1: really impressed with with that type of work that he's doing.
Speaker 1: But breaking it down not so much to an XS
Speaker 1: and O standpoint, but how do we build these young
Speaker 1: men and women from a physical stature standpoint to be
Speaker 1: able to play the game proper? You know, I don't
Speaker 1: think that was anything that was ever taught to me
Speaker 1: or to you back in the day. We just said hey,
Speaker 1: go do it, you know. But now we've got we've
Speaker 1: got people who who have scientifically studied the way the
Speaker 1: body moves and how we can improve those kids, which
Speaker 1: in turn will make them play safer. And I thought
Speaker 1: it was interesting La Charles talking about our kids and
Speaker 1: their posture and how their lives have dictated the posture
Speaker 1: because of technology and the smart device and things like that,
Speaker 1: and so their posture challenges are different than our posture
Speaker 1: challenges were growing up because, like you said, we were
Speaker 1: more outside and active and things like that, we didn't
Speaker 1: have cell phones. So evolving the game around what's happening
Speaker 1: in their world too, I think is really something. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is a contact sport. We all know that we
Speaker 1: love that piece of our game, but we also want
Speaker 1: to be able to teach the correct technique that involves
Speaker 1: the contact, whether it be receiving the contact or giving
Speaker 1: the contact. What's that balance, like, you think, as far
Speaker 1: as teaching the physical aspect and in the correct technique
Speaker 1: at the same time. You know, it's tough because I
Speaker 1: always always tell my kids, Hey, you know we're outside,
Speaker 1: now use your outside voice. You know, you can be
Speaker 1: mean on the football field a little bit. Okay, It's okay.
Speaker 1: You know you're not gonna get you know, in detention
Speaker 1: or anything. You know, you can do stuff here that
Speaker 1: you can't do in the hallways. This is your time
Speaker 1: to get it out, you know. So we we have
Speaker 1: we have contests and games where we try to build
Speaker 1: um aggressiveness, you know, in Indore, our Indo, our our players.
Speaker 1: You know, it's stick wars or bag wars or something
Speaker 1: of that nature. And but but then you know, we
Speaker 1: make it, we make it exciting and we're loving them up.
Speaker 1: Whether whether they win or lose the contest, at the end,
Speaker 1: we're loving them up altogether. You know, could trying to
Speaker 1: build that competitive nature into them. And I think, you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know for sure because I
Speaker 1: don't play games on my phone. I don't play video
Speaker 1: games very much. But uh, you know, there there's there's
Speaker 1: no consequence you know, when you're playing, when you're playing
Speaker 1: it on the game, you can just reboot and start over.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm I'm I'm like, come on, guy, you
Speaker 1: know there's consequence when you actually transition it to the
Speaker 1: football field on on on Friday night, you're either gonna
Speaker 1: get the first down or you're not. You know, you
Speaker 1: can't just start the game over. There are no do overs.
Speaker 1: Um so, but yeah, um trying to trying to uh
Speaker 1: integrate that aggressive nature into the game, continually into the game,
Speaker 1: but still doing it the right way. It's to us sometimes,
Speaker 1: but us learning at you know, events like this are
Speaker 1: learning some new new techniques, new ideas, new terminology. Even
Speaker 1: the way you talk to the kids about it, you know,
Speaker 1: it was there's once one thing that uh you know
Speaker 1: we we we went over um earlier today, even the
Speaker 1: way you just talk about it, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: because kids, That's one thing that I don't think I
Speaker 1: realized until I got into education. I've been in education
Speaker 1: the last four years. You know, I can uh communicate
Speaker 1: something verbally to a young man or a young woman
Speaker 1: and I think they hear what I'm saying, but they
Speaker 1: hear something completely differently. So learning that that that, you know,
Speaker 1: different people internalized or even here things that you say differently,
Speaker 1: you know, being a little more explanatory on exactly what
Speaker 1: you meant, you know, so they can interpret so they
Speaker 1: can interpret it correct. Have you found any positive techniques
Speaker 1: you've used with your parents and talking about physical play
Speaker 1: and contact sport and anything like that. I don't know
Speaker 1: if there's any one point, I mean that was one
Speaker 1: of the one of the uh first or second things
Speaker 1: I did when we we actually just started our program
Speaker 1: from nothing. At the school that I met, we had
Speaker 1: no football program. And in the day and age and
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of a lot of schools
Speaker 1: are dumping their football programs. You know, we're starting one,
Speaker 1: and I think that's that seems to be able to
Speaker 1: past couple of years that are more coming back. One
Speaker 1: of the first things I did is is, you know,
Speaker 1: we set up what we call it the gridiron club.
Speaker 1: You know, where parents can have an active say you
Speaker 1: know and what we're doing. You know they have they
Speaker 1: have these are there, you know, their prize possessions. You know,
Speaker 1: they should have some type of say and how we
Speaker 1: may may go about things. Now, of course, you know,
Speaker 1: to a certain extent, you've gotta have a little bit
Speaker 1: of a dictatorship. But but you know so, I think
Speaker 1: instituting given the parents to say in some type of
Speaker 1: club or booster club format, you know that that that
Speaker 1: gives it. But making them understand, you know, where where
Speaker 1: their limits are. Of course, just instructing them on on
Speaker 1: stuff that you instructed yourself on as far as hey,
Speaker 1: new safety items in the game. Um, you know helmets
Speaker 1: that register you know, impact or stuff like that that
Speaker 1: they can be tracked so you can get a young
Speaker 1: man off the field before the next hit. You know.
Speaker 1: You know, new new innovations and equipment. You know, uh,
Speaker 1: heat related shoulder pads, heat related undergarments that that you
Speaker 1: know evaporate heat out, or technology that even tracks you know,
Speaker 1: are you getting overheated? You know that you can just
Speaker 1: track on a phone. So I think us stepping up
Speaker 1: to new technology and translating to the parents that hey,
Speaker 1: these are the things that we're doing, you know, to
Speaker 1: try to try and and um, you know, help the
Speaker 1: game improve and make sure that that you know, your
Speaker 1: price possession is doing it to the best of their
Speaker 1: ability and the best of our ability to make sure
Speaker 1: that they're going to be safe. Yeah. We talked about
Speaker 1: this today and that word for me is partnership, right,
Speaker 1: being able to partner with the families. Uh. What did
Speaker 1: you find most rewarding about the clinic? Um? I think
Speaker 1: from a personal standpoint, you know, I wanted a lot
Speaker 1: of questions answered from what the Legends community can do
Speaker 1: for our program and can do for youth football and
Speaker 1: getting answers on that you know is what what actions
Speaker 1: do I need to take, you know, as a program
Speaker 1: head to to to make sure that I'm utilizing all
Speaker 1: the previous you know, things that that that I've been
Speaker 1: able to accomplish in my life making sure that those
Speaker 1: I can push those forward through you know, giving back
Speaker 1: to the to to youth and kids and high school
Speaker 1: kids that I'm working with now. So so that's been
Speaker 1: very helpful in talking with you know yourself and and
Speaker 1: uh Tracy Pearlman and Alexeia Gallagher and all the people
Speaker 1: with the Legends community, UM as far as how can
Speaker 1: we value add to our program based on you know,
Speaker 1: the quality experience that I had through through playing in
Speaker 1: the NFL. So that's been probably you know key number one.
Speaker 1: Second part is just you know, being able to interact
Speaker 1: with with you know, the other coaches that are in
Speaker 1: the same situations that that you know I've been in, UM,
Speaker 1: you know, fairly new coach, you know most of you know.
Speaker 1: It's sometimes it's it's hard to transition out of playing
Speaker 1: into coaching. I mean, I work with I'll give you
Speaker 1: an example. I work with kickers a lot. I work
Speaker 1: with a gentleman out of Texas and doing kicking camps
Speaker 1: and of that nature, and you it just came easy
Speaker 1: for me, you know, so to try and go coach it.
Speaker 1: You know, he does a great job the organizer of
Speaker 1: the camps. He does a great job of breaking everything
Speaker 1: down analytically, and you know, hey, look you know this
Speaker 1: is he's a little more scientific about it, you know.
Speaker 1: And I try to help the kids just from a
Speaker 1: mental aspect and maybe given them a few pointers because
Speaker 1: it just came so naturally easy to me. I just
Speaker 1: go kick the ball. Okay, yeah, I go kick, you know,
Speaker 1: but you have other kids who they want to know well,
Speaker 1: you know, are my hips not getting through? Or is
Speaker 1: my plant foot too close to the ball, you know,
Speaker 1: and you know which part of the foot I'm I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, I never had to think about these things,
Speaker 1: you know, So how and how how can I? How
Speaker 1: can I coach that? You know? I can't coach that?
Speaker 1: So learning how to coach better, you know, and realizing that,
Speaker 1: you know, like we said earlier, you know, kids learned differently.
Speaker 1: Kids need to be coached a little bit differently, and
Speaker 1: um learning that hey, you know, there are things that
Speaker 1: you can pick up, whether it be a terminology aspect,
Speaker 1: whether it be a physical aspect of how to go
Speaker 1: about getting the kid in the right position. That that
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of us is just you know,
Speaker 1: athletes who just grew up being athletic. We just take
Speaker 1: for granted. Sure, you know well. And I think there's
Speaker 1: a great point here to be made is that there
Speaker 1: is a balance. There's a balance between the analytics of
Speaker 1: the game, the science of the game, and then just
Speaker 1: letting the human peace take over and letting the kid
Speaker 1: just use his own talent and ability. Like you said,
Speaker 1: I'll just line up and kick the football. And and
Speaker 1: there's there's a healthiness to that type of thinking to
Speaker 1: where you're not over analyzing. You're not overthinking because we're
Speaker 1: not robots, and sometimes we in essence freak ourselves out
Speaker 1: before we even give ourselves a chance to make the
Speaker 1: play or to kick the ball. Right, So, I think
Speaker 1: you bring a healthy balance to the other side because
Speaker 1: you've been there, you've done it, and sometimes we don't
Speaker 1: need to over analyze it. Put the ball down and
Speaker 1: I'm gonna kick him through the uprights. It's as simple
Speaker 1: as that, right, So that that thought process for current
Speaker 1: players are even legends now considering maybe looking at coaching,
Speaker 1: maybe looking at going into this at some point, what
Speaker 1: do you think they need to be thinking about. You know,
Speaker 1: if they have a desire to it, I would I
Speaker 1: would first probably do it on the volunteer basis, you know,
Speaker 1: and just dive in and see if the passion is
Speaker 1: still there, and then under you know, understand that that hey,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of levels to do it at.
Speaker 1: You know, there there's the the youth level, you know, ten, ten, eleven, twelve,
Speaker 1: thirty four, you know that area. There's the high there's
Speaker 1: the high school level, there's you know, then then there's
Speaker 1: a collegiate level and even the pro level. And you know,
Speaker 1: different people's personalities, you know, cater to different different time zones,
Speaker 1: you know, in a young person's life on how they're
Speaker 1: going to be able to interact and mentor and guide them.
Speaker 1: So um, you know, I would say, if you have,
Speaker 1: if you have a desire to do it, don't miss
Speaker 1: out given a shot. Because you know, you keep mentioning
Speaker 1: in the word transformational. I learned more from these kids
Speaker 1: every day than I can ever teach them. I'll be
Speaker 1: honest with you about that, and uh, it is it
Speaker 1: has taken me from being an old fuddy duddy, you know,
Speaker 1: to be in someone who can who can now you know,
Speaker 1: feel like they can live in the in the current world,
Speaker 1: you know, and not not not be a nerd per se.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think that's the biggest part of it
Speaker 1: is you know, how can we how can we pour
Speaker 1: into these these young lives because there's so much bad
Speaker 1: out there today. We realize that there's a lot of
Speaker 1: bad out there today, and you know, with the way
Speaker 1: technology has transformed the world and with all the um
Speaker 1: you know, access to two different things that these kids
Speaker 1: are that they're thrown at these kids is um you know,
Speaker 1: we've got to be able to guide them through it.
Speaker 1: They've got to experience it. I feel, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: you got experience, you got new both sides of the coin.
Speaker 1: But then trying to say, hey, you know this really
Speaker 1: in in the world and in dealing with humor and
Speaker 1: that this is the right way, well, and I would
Speaker 1: say that it's about that concept of pay it forward.
Speaker 1: And I would encourage any legend or current player that
Speaker 1: wants to take a look do exactly what you said,
Speaker 1: Start with a volunteer space and then see what area,
Speaker 1: what level you really enjoy and pay it forward because
Speaker 1: of what the game has done for each one of us,
Speaker 1: I think is so powerful, and we are the keepers
Speaker 1: of the game. We are as the men who have
Speaker 1: played at the highest level. The game will thrive or
Speaker 1: not thrive based upon our involvement, and so we need
Speaker 1: to control that narrative. And Mike, this has been fantastic.
Speaker 1: I've really enjoyed talking with you and thanks so much
Speaker 1: for being here. And you have been listening to our
Speaker 1: NFL Legends podcast. This has been the NFL Legends Podcast.
Speaker 1: To provide feedback or request a topic for discussion, email
Speaker 1: us at NFL Legends at nfl dot com. It can