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Speaker 1: Hey, faithful, Welcome back to You've Got Mail, presented by

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Speaker 1: Delta Dental. I'm your forty nine Ers team reporter Brionna Janelle,

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Speaker 1: and in today's episode, we have a very special guest,

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Speaker 1: linebacker Luke Gifford. Luke and I talk all about what

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Speaker 1: it's like growing up in Nebraska, his early love for football,

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Speaker 1: what it's like now playing for the forty nine Ers

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Speaker 1: in the Bay, and we also answer some fans submitted questions.

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Speaker 1: If you'd like your question featured in a future episode,

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Speaker 1: be sure to follow the forty nine Ers on social media.

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Speaker 1: That's where we'll post an Instagram story asking for your questions.

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Speaker 1: So make sure to follow the forty nine Ers on

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Speaker 1: social media to get your question answered. Now here's my

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Speaker 1: conversation with Luke. Joining me now on You've Got Mail

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Speaker 1: is linebacker Luke Gifford. Luke, thanks for.

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Speaker 2: Joining me today, of course, thanks for having me.

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Speaker 1: How are you? How is practice? How are you feeling

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Speaker 1: leading into a Sunday's game in Tampa.

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Speaker 2: I'm good, I'm excited. Practice was good today. We've had

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Speaker 2: a good week so far, so looking forward to Sunday

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Speaker 2: for sure.

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Speaker 1: See Yeah. Now, on this podcast, we want to get

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Speaker 1: to know more about the players their lives off the field.

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Speaker 1: So let's start from the beginning. Luke, where are you from?

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Speaker 1: What was your family like growing up? Tell us a

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Speaker 1: little bit about who Luke was as a child.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm from Lincoln, Nebraska. Grew up a diehard Nebraska fan,

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Speaker 2: big family, have three other siblings, two little brothers and

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Speaker 2: a younger sister, and then my parents. I grew up

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Speaker 2: about fifteen minutes from the stadium, so Nebraska football was

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Speaker 2: kind of what we're all about in my house. And yeah,

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Speaker 2: I actually have a little brother who also plays. He's

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Speaker 2: a rookie this year, so it's been fun, a lot

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Speaker 2: of fun. But yeah, a lot of Nebraska pride. That's

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Speaker 2: what it's all about in our house. So I lived

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Speaker 2: my dream for sure going to Nebraska.

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Speaker 1: That's awesome. So I'm pretty sure like every Saturday it

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Speaker 1: was just Nebraska football.

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Speaker 2: And I think that I probably went to every home

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Speaker 2: game since the time I was like nine. So I

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Speaker 2: grew up a die hard for sure.

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Speaker 1: That's awesome. What's something people get wrong about Nebraska?

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Speaker 2: I think that people tend to think it's smaller than

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Speaker 2: what it is. I mean, I grew up in Lincoln,

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Speaker 2: and Lincoln's over three hundred thousand people, and I think

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Speaker 2: when I tell people that, they're usually pretty surprise. There's

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Speaker 2: a little more to it than what people think. I'm

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Speaker 2: not saying there's a ton to do, but there's more

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Speaker 2: to it than what people think for sure.

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Speaker 1: So then when you're not watching Nebraska football, what are

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Speaker 1: you doing? How would you like sell Nebraska to people

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Speaker 1: who are interested?

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Speaker 2: Well, I love to hunt. Growing up. That was something

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Speaker 2: that my dad and my brothers did, so we'd fill

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Speaker 2: our time with that. Obviously that's hard with sports, but yeah,

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Speaker 2: that was kind of our go to My family lives

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Speaker 2: on a lake back home, so now it's like when

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Speaker 2: we go back, we fish and we're on the boat,

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Speaker 2: and uh yeah, that's kind of That's kind of how

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Speaker 2: I feel my time.

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Speaker 1: That's awesome. Who introduced you to Nebraska football? Because you know,

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Speaker 1: growing up in a football family myself, like, honestly, it

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Speaker 1: was my mom who had a huge love for the

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Speaker 1: San Francisco forty nine ers. So that's what I watched

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Speaker 1: every single weekend growing up, and so my mom her

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Speaker 1: influence on me was huge. Now that ended up here

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Speaker 1: at San Francisco forty nine ers, like who really introduced

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Speaker 1: you to football?

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Speaker 2: It was definitely my dad, you know. And when I

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Speaker 2: was born in ninety five, which was when Nebraska was

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Speaker 2: kind of in their prime. Won a national championship in

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Speaker 2: ninety five and then again in ninety seven, So the

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Speaker 2: whole state was just just in love with Nebraska football,

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Speaker 2: you know. So I had a ball in my hand

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Speaker 2: from the time I was young, and and that's just

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Speaker 2: kind of what our family was about. So I that

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Speaker 2: was my dream from as from for as long as

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Speaker 2: I can remember, it was to play there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, what's something you miss about your hometown

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Speaker 1: Now that you're you know, quite a well away out

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Speaker 1: here in California, when's the last time you were there

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Speaker 1: and what do you miss about it?

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Speaker 2: I was, I think right before the season was the

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Speaker 2: last time I've been home. But to be honest, this

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Speaker 2: sounds kind of crazy, but I was telling my mom

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Speaker 2: the other day that I love the sunshine and the

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Speaker 2: weather's great, but every once in a while the cloud

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Speaker 2: and like maybe a little chilling there.

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Speaker 1: It would be nice with the fall.

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Speaker 2: I need some seasons. I want to be able to

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Speaker 2: put a hoodie on and some shorts. So I've been

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Speaker 2: hearing that that's possible here, maybe in the next couple

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Speaker 2: of weeks. Yeah, so I'm kind of looking forward to that.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting. California sort of has late some because

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Speaker 1: you were here doing training camp and all at the beginning,

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Speaker 1: and it wasn't super hot, like I feel like training camp.

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Speaker 1: You know, you try to gear up, like put your

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Speaker 1: sunscreen on and everything, but it wasn't bad. Honestly, the

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Speaker 1: heat starts coming in like September October, so it's probably

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Speaker 1: a little odd. But I think once we get towards

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Speaker 1: like December November, you'll start to feel that breeze that

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Speaker 1: you're good.

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Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. Now you talked about how really football was

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Speaker 1: just the beginning growing up, and how Nebraska was your

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Speaker 1: shining star as a kid. Tell me what it was

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Speaker 1: like to, you know, hear from Nebraska play college football

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Speaker 1: there get accepted into the college. Was that like very

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Speaker 1: full circle for you?

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Speaker 2: No, for sure, you know, I like I all throughout recruitment,

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Speaker 2: I never wanted to go anywhere else, and so it's

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Speaker 2: hard for me to even entertain anything else. Yeah, I

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Speaker 2: recruited or I committed really fast when they offered me

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Speaker 2: and so then to go there and honestly, like my

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Speaker 2: time in Nebraska wasn't wasn't all that great, Like from

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Speaker 2: a from a winning standpoint, we you know, we had

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Speaker 2: three different head coaches while I was there, and a

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Speaker 2: lot of different defensive coordinators. So, like the turnover was

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Speaker 2: tough and honestly probably one of the toughest stretches in

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Speaker 2: Nebraska football history. But there was so much that I

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Speaker 2: learned in that time, and like, I wouldn't trade it

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Speaker 2: for anything. Being able to play at home and be

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Speaker 2: in front of my family and friends, that was that

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Speaker 2: was something that I always wanted to do, and it

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Speaker 2: was I loved it, Like I wouldn't take anything back

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Speaker 2: at all.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, when you were in high school and you were

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Speaker 1: playing football, studying making sure that you looked great for

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Speaker 1: Nebraska when it was time for them to call, did

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Speaker 1: any mentors, maybe coaches or teachers ever ask you what's

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Speaker 1: your plan B?

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Speaker 2: You know, it's funny because I, to be honest, I

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Speaker 2: really never had a plan B. You know, my dad

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Speaker 2: is actually he's an insurance guy. So I was always like,

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Speaker 2: I guess if I have to, I can, I'll go

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Speaker 2: work for my dad. But like from the time that

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Speaker 2: I was. I remember in middle school, I think I

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Speaker 2: was in like sixth grade. I told my health teacher

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Speaker 2: that I was gonna play in the NFL. And you know,

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Speaker 2: it's cliche like people, you know, people always have these

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Speaker 2: stories about someone telling that that's not gonna happen or

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Speaker 2: the chances aren't very high. But I vividly remember my

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Speaker 2: health teacher telling me that nobody had ever done that

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Speaker 2: from our middle school and that the chances weren't high,

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Speaker 2: and I was like, well, it's gonna be me, you know,

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Speaker 2: so so yeah, I really didn't have a Plan B.

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Speaker 2: That was always my Plan A, and that was it.

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Speaker 1: I love hearing those stories. How you know, in school

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Speaker 1: they always talk about those plan b's and being ready

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Speaker 1: for everything, especially for kids who are transitioning into college

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Speaker 1: and having that roadmap set up for them. But having

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Speaker 1: a Plan A and sticking with it and having that

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Speaker 1: determination is really really cool. Do you feel like you

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Speaker 1: were born with that or did did you look up

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Speaker 1: to someone to have that sort of distermination and inspired you.

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Speaker 2: I think my dad again, yeah, and my mom too,

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Speaker 2: but my dad, I think just seeing the way that

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Speaker 2: he handled his business and raised our family and was

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Speaker 2: a role model for all of us. I think that's

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Speaker 2: you know, I think I got it from him. And

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Speaker 2: I think too, like when you have a plan A

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Speaker 2: like that and you stick to it if it doesn't

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Speaker 2: work out, I think you learned so many things along

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Speaker 2: the way that Plan B becomes easier, you know. I

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Speaker 2: think when you put everything you have towards something, then

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Speaker 2: you know, you build a lot of other things and

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Speaker 2: character and tools. So yeah, I think I think that

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Speaker 2: was the best way to do it.

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Speaker 1: Okay, cool, Now teach me about Nebraska. I know there's

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Speaker 1: some fun traditions, like I've heard about balloons after touchdowns

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Speaker 1: or I've also heard of Valentino's pizza.

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Speaker 2: Is that you know tradition that's the go.

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Speaker 1: To What tell me a little bit more about that?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so the balloon tradition, for sure, that's a

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Speaker 2: cool one that we have. The tunnel walk, I don't

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Speaker 2: know if you know much about that. I think we

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Speaker 2: have one of the coolest entrances in college football.

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Speaker 1: What did you like? For those who haven't seen.

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Speaker 2: It, they they they they've been playing the same song forever.

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Speaker 2: I don't even know the name of it. This is

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Speaker 2: terrible of me. But they get the chance going before

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Speaker 2: kickoff and they do Husker Power. So one side of

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Speaker 2: the stadium says Husker, the other says power and it's

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Speaker 2: just rocking. So it's a pretty cool experience. So you

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Speaker 2: got that, and then you also have I don't know

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Speaker 2: if you've heard of runs Of So Runsa is like

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Speaker 2: Nebraska's fast food chain that everybody loves. It's kind of

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Speaker 2: like a runs Is itself are like it's it's adobe

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Speaker 2: bread with meat and cabbage, like hamburger meat and cabbage

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Speaker 2: and cheese, and there's a bunch of different kinds of them.

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Speaker 1: Is it a sandwich? Is it?

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Speaker 2: It's not a sandwich. This this is a big debate,

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Speaker 2: Like this is an ongoing thing. I don't even really

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Speaker 2: know how.

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Speaker 1: Entering, like really sticky.

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Speaker 2: This could get interesting. But yeah, So I honestly am

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Speaker 2: not a huge This is sacrilegious Nebraska. I'm not a

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Speaker 2: huge runs of fan. I love the burgers and I'll

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Speaker 2: have a Runza every once in a while. But that's

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Speaker 2: kind of between Valentino's and Runzo's. That's our kind of

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Speaker 2: claim to fame in Nebraska.

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Speaker 1: What makes Valentinos so specially, it's just really good pizza.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really good pizza. And I think that, you know,

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Speaker 2: it's been served at the stadium forever, so it's kind

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Speaker 2: of like iconic to me. When I went to a

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Speaker 2: Nebraska game, I'd always have either a runza or i'd

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Speaker 2: have a slice of hamburger pece. So yeah, I think

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Speaker 2: that's what everybody thinks of when they think Nebraska football

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Speaker 2: and the food. That's that's it.

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Speaker 1: Okay nice. Another tradition I learned about is being a

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Speaker 1: black shirt or a black jersey player. You were a

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Speaker 1: black shirt? I yes, tell me more about that. What

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Speaker 1: makes a player a black shirt player at Nebraska?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so the tradition started. I'm not sure the exact

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Speaker 2: year that it started, but basically all the starters on

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Speaker 2: defense earn a black shirt and it just signifies the starters.

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Speaker 2: And I think that, you know, when you think of Nebraska,

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Speaker 2: you think about all the great defenses they had in

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Speaker 2: their prime, and so it meant a lot for me.

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Speaker 2: Like when I growing up, all I ever wanted to

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Speaker 2: do was have a black shirt. Like the first time

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Speaker 2: I had a black shirt my jersey, I think I

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Speaker 2: shed some tears, you know. So it's like it's just

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Speaker 2: something that's really near and deer to Nebraska, and there

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Speaker 2: were a few years where the defense was a little tough,

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Speaker 2: to be honest with you, but the last few years

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Speaker 2: that tradition has really started to come back and it's

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Speaker 2: something that is really important to Nebraska fans.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I was watching a lot of your content all

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Speaker 1: the way from Nebraska through your NFL journey up until now,

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Speaker 1: and it seems like you take a lot of pride

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Speaker 1: in being a leader. It's a huge part of your game.

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Speaker 1: It seems like that's when you're at your best. Tell

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Speaker 1: me more about those leadership qualities you have and why

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Speaker 1: you want to, you know, step into those.

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Speaker 2: I appreciate that. I think that, you know, I think

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Speaker 2: that God had just kind of blessed me with the

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Speaker 2: ability to lead. I think it relates to people well.

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Speaker 2: And honestly, I've been through a lot and football wise,

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Speaker 2: in high school and college, so I think I've just

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Speaker 2: learned a lot. And you know, I tried to be

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Speaker 2: a servant leader, and I think that those are usually

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Speaker 2: the best kinds of leaders. And when you care about

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Speaker 2: others more than you care about yourself, I think that's

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Speaker 2: the most important thing.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, now you're stepping into a San Francisco Special teams

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Speaker 1: unit defense where you know you're a veteran player and

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Speaker 1: there's a lot of young guys. Have you been able

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Speaker 1: to flex your leadership skills here in the Bay.

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Speaker 2: For sure. It's been a process. I think anytime you're

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Speaker 2: new to a team, first you got to prove yourself. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: and that's something I learned about the NFL right away,

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Speaker 2: Like after I left Dallas, it was you know, it's

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Speaker 2: all about what you're doing for the team now, not

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Speaker 2: about what you've done in the past. So just proven

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Speaker 2: myself again and earning the guy's trust I think is

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Speaker 2: the biggest thing. And now I kind of feel like,

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Speaker 2: you know, we're at a point in the season where

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Speaker 2: that's starting to happen and I can be a little

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Speaker 2: bit more vocal. And we got a really good relationship.

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Speaker 2: Whether it's with the linebackers, the defense, or the special

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Speaker 2: teams unit. We all we know, we anything, everything comes

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Speaker 2: from a place of love and caring about each other.

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Speaker 2: So people are pretty receptive to that kind of stuff

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Speaker 2: for sure.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's sweet. And while we're talking about the Niners

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Speaker 1: locker room, you have a Nebraska teammate in there. With

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Speaker 1: you with Adrian Martinez. What's it like, you know, reuniting

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Speaker 1: with him and connecting with him.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's awesome. Adriam was my quarterback my senior year

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Speaker 2: and he's my guy. I love him. He's he's a

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Speaker 2: great player. When I found out he just come when

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Speaker 2: I was pumped. He sent me a message right away.

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Speaker 2: So it's been really cool to reunite and be with

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Speaker 2: him again.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was so funny. As I was talking about

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Speaker 1: I was like watching all the content. I knew you

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Speaker 1: were coming into the podcast studio, so I was like,

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Speaker 1: all right, let me learn about Luke. Let me get

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Speaker 1: some insider information. But you actually had a podcast episode

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Speaker 1: with him, like about three years ago or something. Did

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Speaker 1: you guys ever like talk about that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we have a little bit. It's it's crazy to

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Speaker 2: think about how different our lives were at that time,

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Speaker 2: you know, to where we are now. So it's pretty cool. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I was like, it's funny because Adrian started the podcast

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Speaker 2: and I was like, he better asked me to be on,

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Speaker 2: and sure enough he did, you know, So it was

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Speaker 2: pretty cool. It was a fun experience for you guys.

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Speaker 1: Think you'd ever get back into the podcast game. Or

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Speaker 1: in football season. It's hard to think about anything else.

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Speaker 2: I've thought about it. I think it's it's a good

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Speaker 2: skill to have to be able to talk and have

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Speaker 2: conversation like that. So I think it'd be something that

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Speaker 2: would push me. And I'm not saying I'm going to

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Speaker 2: turn into some big podcaster at all, but I've thought

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Speaker 2: about it for sure. I think it'd be fun.

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Speaker 1: Maybe we should have got Adrian in here with us

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Speaker 1: so we can chat here. That'd be awesome with it,

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Speaker 1: like just having him with you here in the Bay Area.

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Speaker 1: Do you guys ever like link up to I don't know,

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Speaker 1: go grab dinner or hang out.

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Speaker 2: It's I think we haven't as much yet. Hopefully now

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Speaker 2: that he's all settled in and the season gets going,

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Speaker 2: we can a little bit. But yeah, I'm looking forward.

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Speaker 2: It's nice to just have another familiar face around, especially

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Speaker 2: in a new place, you know. So I know I

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Speaker 2: was hoping to be that for him coming to a

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Speaker 2: new place, and it's I know, it's nice to have

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Speaker 2: him around for me as well.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, sweet Well, I was watching her as his

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Speaker 1: podcast and a funny story came up that you were

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Speaker 1: sharing about how your rookie season with the cowboys. How

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Speaker 1: in front of the meeting room they have everyone seeing

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Speaker 1: all the rookies coming a little song. Yes, that's pretty funny.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I like to think that I have I have

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Speaker 2: a really good voice. I don't at all, but I

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Speaker 2: but I try, so I gave it everything. I think

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Speaker 2: I made the mistake of like trying too hard the

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Speaker 2: first time around, and nobody else tried, so then when

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Speaker 2: it went wrong for everybody else, I was the one

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Speaker 2: that had to come back up and singing to finish

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Speaker 2: the night. So I sang way too many times during camp.

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Speaker 2: But it was fun.

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Speaker 1: Have you seen any episodes of this podcast?

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Speaker 2: I have not?

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Speaker 1: Okay, well, first time guests.

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Speaker 2: Oh no, absolutely not.

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Speaker 1: They have to stay.

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Speaker 2: I'm out here. Don't ask me yours. Oh yeah, I'm done.

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Speaker 2: I retired.

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Speaker 1: I was trying to see maybe we could get some

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Speaker 1: singing from you, but that was me putting you on

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Speaker 1: the spot. Now, speaking of just the transition we talked about,

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Speaker 1: you know, singing with sort of like a story, just

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Speaker 1: to paint the picture of what it's like entering the

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Speaker 1: NFL Eurokie season. Now you again, come over to the bay.

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Speaker 1: You posted on Instagram with the caption saying back in Red,

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Speaker 1: I feel like myself again. Is that just because you've

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Speaker 1: got the red on or how is the transition for

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Speaker 1: you here?

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think it's a lot more than that,

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Speaker 2: to be honest. I could tell in the first twenty

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Speaker 2: four hours of being here and signing that this was

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Speaker 2: a special place. And I've heard a lot about it

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Speaker 2: through guys that have been here, and and so when

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Speaker 2: I got here, like you know, it brought me a

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Speaker 2: little more joy to football game, you know, not that

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Speaker 2: I lost it, but I had had a couple of

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Speaker 2: tough years and so it was good to be in

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Speaker 2: an organization where things were done the right way and

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Speaker 2: and there's a lot of great people around. I think that,

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Speaker 2: you know, it's not about the place, it's about the people.

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Speaker 2: The people are what makes the place. And so it

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Speaker 2: was pretty evident when I got here that there's a

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Speaker 2: lot of special people here.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the people culture that sparked that join in

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Speaker 1: you sure, Yeah, I love. What are some of the

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Speaker 1: first conversations you had with some Niners personnel or players

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Speaker 1: when you're making your way over.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, first off is Cole Anderson. He's the assistant

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Speaker 2: Special Teams coach, and I was with him in Tennessee,

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Speaker 2: so obviously him and then Coach Boyer, those two were

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Speaker 2: the biggest reason that I was here, honestly, and Cole

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Speaker 2: had always told me how great of a coach Coach

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Speaker 2: Boyer was, so to be able to meet with him

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Speaker 2: and talk to him and just he's just a great guy,

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Speaker 2: you know, And I knew there would be a great fit.

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Speaker 2: And then obviously Johnny and Coach Sala and Kyle. It

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Speaker 2: just you know, it took like ten minutes to sit

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Speaker 2: down and talk to everybody to know how how great

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Speaker 2: this place was, and I just, yeah, I was pumped

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Speaker 2: about it right away.

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Speaker 1: All right, Now, we're going to transition into a fun

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Speaker 1: segment called first and Favorites. I'm going to name off

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Speaker 1: a couple of questions to you. We'll talk through your

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Speaker 1: first your favorites. So, first one, your first jersey you've

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Speaker 1: ever owned.

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Speaker 2: I think I had a Priest Holmes jersey I was.

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Speaker 2: I was kind of a chief fan when I was younger,

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Speaker 2: so Preest Homes I think was my first.

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Speaker 1: Okay, very cool. And then now transitioning over to your favorite,

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Speaker 1: we're talking Niners jerseys. So out of the away Classic

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Speaker 1: and the whites, the Home Classic and the Red