Speaker 1: Welcome to the OTP, presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans.
Speaker 1: Go to FBHP dot com to learn more about Farm
Speaker 1: Bureau Health plans seventy seven year history in Tennessee and
Speaker 1: to get a quote today. That's FBHP dot com for
Speaker 1: Farm Bureau Health Plans. Happy New Year everyone. Glad to
Speaker 1: have you with us on the OTP and going to
Speaker 1: share a really special conversation that I had with one
Speaker 1: of the Titans greats in recent years. That's punter Brett Kern.
Speaker 1: He was something else during his time with this football
Speaker 1: team and means a lot to the people in the community.
Speaker 1: And I got to take him as part of our
Speaker 1: follow Me through Tennessee series to Manchester, Tennessee and Jiffy
Speaker 1: Berger where I had the Bonneruberger. That's another story. If
Speaker 1: you've never been to Jeffy Berger, you must go. And
Speaker 1: if you like something crazy, the bonn U Burger outstanding,
Speaker 1: the fry's outstanding. Everything they do at Jiffy Berger is phenomenal.
Speaker 1: Tell them we sent you when you go by, and
Speaker 1: I have a feeling they'll take extra good care of you.
Speaker 1: But as we rode down in my truck, I got
Speaker 1: a chance to talk with Brett Kern at length about
Speaker 1: his career. He told some funny stories, and we wanted
Speaker 1: to share that entire conversation with you on the OTP.
Speaker 1: So here's Titan's Great Brett Kern on the road, following
Speaker 1: me through Tennessee to Jiffy Berger in Manchester on the OTP.
Speaker 1: I know you're just starting it, But how's retirement going.
Speaker 2: It's going great? You know.
Speaker 3: I kind of had in my mind, you know, up
Speaker 3: in Philly, just experiencing being away from family, and yeah,
Speaker 3: I'm a man of rhythm and routine, and you know,
Speaker 3: you could probably call my wife on a Wednesday at
Speaker 3: eleven o'clock and say, hey, what's Brett doing right now?
Speaker 3: What she'd be able to tell you.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: So, going up to Philly, great spot, great, great organization,
Speaker 3: but everything was just it was different. You had a
Speaker 3: new rhythm, new routine, things that I've been used to
Speaker 3: for so long, for you know, thirteen years at Tennessee. Right,
Speaker 3: it was just totally kind of flipped upside down. And
Speaker 3: so I knew that if I wanted to keep playing football,
Speaker 3: you know, I'd be in a different city. It wasn't
Speaker 3: going to be at home in Nashville. And and so
Speaker 3: that's when you know, I kind of started thinking about,
Speaker 3: you know, being done, and you know, I'm also I
Speaker 3: always told myself and you were to ask other guys
Speaker 3: you know that I play with that the day that
Speaker 3: I don't feel like I'm punting at the elite level
Speaker 3: that I know I can punt, you know, it's kind
Speaker 3: of the day that I need to be done because
Speaker 3: I don't want to be out there just punting and
Speaker 3: kind of surviving.
Speaker 2: And if people know me for the.
Speaker 3: Type of punts that I had and you know, the consistency,
Speaker 3: if I'm not there, then you know it's time. It's
Speaker 3: time to move on. So I think another big decision
Speaker 3: for that was, you know, family. My kids are older,
Speaker 3: you know, thirteen eleven seven, right, so they're the sports
Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff, right, and I want to
Speaker 3: be there for all of it. I want to start,
Speaker 3: you know, coaching and helping out and you know, as
Speaker 3: you know football, your weekends are kind of tied up
Speaker 3: for half the year or so.
Speaker 1: It's funny because people always said to me, they say,
Speaker 1: do you do you hunt or fish? And I tell them, no,
Speaker 1: I don't do either, and oh, you don't like that
Speaker 1: or you against that, It's like, no, no, no, it
Speaker 1: doesn't have anything to do with that. It's right at
Speaker 1: work weekends, right, I mean, you don't generally go out
Speaker 1: Tuesday afternoon, you know, right, And so that's yeah, it
Speaker 1: it is a life change because the commitment to anything
Speaker 1: related to sports. And I tell college kids this too,
Speaker 1: if you want to work in anything in sports, it's
Speaker 1: gonna be nights and weekends, that's right. Yeah, And that's
Speaker 1: the hardest part of it, really, right, because it's hard
Speaker 1: on a family, it is.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, you get to the point where it's
Speaker 3: just I mean, if you were to ask me in college, hey,
Speaker 3: you're going to play in the NFL for fifteen years,
Speaker 3: I would have I mean I would have laughed and
Speaker 3: I said, I mean, that will be unbelievable what that happens.
Speaker 3: But you know, I mean the chances, the percentages of
Speaker 3: that happening is so slim, right, unbelievable. And so I've
Speaker 3: been blessed for fifteen years and it's just just felt
Speaker 3: like it was time to to hang him up and
Speaker 3: just kind of see what the next chapter of life brings,
Speaker 3: and more importantly, you know, just spending more time with
Speaker 3: family and uh, you know, get the uh the coaching
Speaker 3: hat on for for the kids.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: So your son Bryce is thirteen, what sports is he
Speaker 1: involved with?
Speaker 2: H he's he's doing flag football.
Speaker 3: I got him into golf and so we're we're trying
Speaker 3: to play golf a little bit more.
Speaker 2: And honestly, you.
Speaker 3: Know, we go we go over to the little course
Speaker 3: there in Franklin, right right there by Legends, and I
Speaker 3: love it because it's not a difficult course like it's
Speaker 3: It always keeps him engaged, right and it's working on,
Speaker 3: you know, parts of his game that he you know,
Speaker 3: needs to work on, but just to be able to
Speaker 3: walk and talk, you know, from hole to hole. It's
Speaker 3: a lot of fun. And it's time that I just
Speaker 3: want to cherish right now, you know, because when he's
Speaker 3: got five years left, which seems like a lot, but
Speaker 3: I mean, you know how fast things go, right and like,
Speaker 3: and I just want to be able to to make
Speaker 3: the most of those those years that I have left
Speaker 3: with him before he goes off to college.
Speaker 1: Any interest in punting or kicking.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we fool around in the front yard. So he's
Speaker 3: he's he's natural. He's got longer legs, so I think
Speaker 3: that'll cater more towards punning. And I think he's a
Speaker 3: little bit more interested in punning. But his thing is
Speaker 3: he's growing so fast that his foot his foot size
Speaker 3: is growing as well, and for the size football that
Speaker 3: they would kick, it's just kind of it's it's difficult
Speaker 3: for him, but but it works out well for punting.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean I give him.
Speaker 3: I give him pointers here and there, and sometimes they're
Speaker 3: taking well and other times it's the dad, come on,
Speaker 3: like I got a dad.
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, welcome to being a dead right. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I just hope I don't have to send him to
Speaker 3: a camp to learn punting when you know, you know,
Speaker 3: he's got a pretty good resource in his home. So
Speaker 3: but we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 1: So my neighborhood, I had my son out one day
Speaker 1: and we were working on punting and at the time,
Speaker 1: Craig hentricklifted in the back of my neighborhood.
Speaker 2: That's good, that's good.
Speaker 1: It was well, it was it was really great. So
Speaker 1: so Craig comes by one day. Matthew's probably ten or eleven,
Speaker 1: and Craig just pulls over. He says, show me one
Speaker 1: and so he hits one. He's like, Okay, try this,
Speaker 1: and it was something that I had just shown Matthew
Speaker 1: not five minutes before, which he of course had not
Speaker 1: listened to at all. And Matthew did exactly what Craig
Speaker 1: told him and then hit a spyroll that went you know,
Speaker 1: twenty five or thirty yards, which was a really good kick.
Speaker 1: And Craig gets back in the truck and says, okay,
Speaker 1: see layer. Thanks, And so it was so Craig, it
Speaker 1: was so underwhelming. He's like, hey, try I mean he
Speaker 1: said like six words, right, but it was Craig Hentrick.
Speaker 1: And so my son was like, that's Greg Hendrick. And
Speaker 1: that was one of the neat things for my kids
Speaker 1: growing up around the team is they have all these
Speaker 1: pictures where Javon Kurse palmed their heads, you know, with
Speaker 1: his massive hands. Albert Hainsworth had him in bear hugs,
Speaker 1: and you know, Carrie Collins was doing stuff with him.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's just what a what a blessed way
Speaker 1: for them to to grow up so fun. I think
Speaker 1: they thought everybody was.
Speaker 3: Like that, right, Yeah, well, I mean that's you know,
Speaker 3: when you know, for Bryce to be able to go
Speaker 3: on the field after games or in the locker room.
Speaker 2: Pro Bowl.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean he's you know in the Pro Bowl,
Speaker 3: you know, playing catch with Lamar Jackson and it's you know,
Speaker 3: mark Ingram's trying to trying to teach him a dance,
Speaker 3: and you know, it's you know, being being able to
Speaker 3: hang out with Mahomes and some of those guys and
Speaker 3: just play catch with.
Speaker 2: Them, and uh yeah, I mean it's it's been. It's
Speaker 2: been a huge blessing.
Speaker 3: I mean, you got, you know, kids that obviously look
Speaker 3: up to Derrick Henry and you know, Kevin Buyer, some
Speaker 3: of the you know, Jeffrey, the guys on the team
Speaker 3: that are just phenomenal role models.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: And I always tell people, you know, don't buy a
Speaker 3: jersey unless of somebody, unless you know they're somebody that
Speaker 3: you want to you know, have their last name that
Speaker 3: you're representing. And uh, you know, thankfully the Titians have
Speaker 3: a lot of those guys, right. But you know, but
Speaker 3: Bryce and Derek are you know, buddies rights and so
Speaker 3: it's sometimes sometimes you got.
Speaker 2: To pinch yourself, you know.
Speaker 3: Sometimes even through my whole career, I've just been you know,
Speaker 3: to go in when I was in Denver and John
Speaker 3: Lynch was the locker across her mind, right, And I
Speaker 3: just remember thinking, this is this is John Lynch, right,
Speaker 3: and Brian Dawkins was, you know, two lockers down to.
Speaker 2: The left Kriton.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's all throughout the years that the guys have
Speaker 3: been able to play with and you know, to be
Speaker 3: in a locker room with Randy Moss and you know,
Speaker 3: that's it's been a huge blessing.
Speaker 1: Who was the most excited guy? Who was the guy
Speaker 1: you were most excited to me? Excited to me or
Speaker 1: that floored you the most?
Speaker 3: Well, probably Randy, Yeah, because I had a Randy Moss
Speaker 3: Vikings Jersey growing up, right and so and and I
Speaker 3: remember I was on the verge of my agent and
Speaker 3: the Titans were talking about an extension because I was
Speaker 3: right on that that cusp of hey, we can get
Speaker 3: him locked up.
Speaker 1: For four years, three four years, maybe five whatever.
Speaker 3: It was that that that my agent the Titans were
Speaker 3: talking to and uh, you know, it didn't happen for
Speaker 3: two three weeks, and which is not the easiest thing
Speaker 3: to do during the season. I definitely wouldn't recommend that
Speaker 3: to any youngster out there, but uh, but the Titans
Speaker 3: called my agent and said, hey, we're gonna have to
Speaker 3: put this this deal on hold till after the season
Speaker 3: because we're we're signing Randy Moss. And my agent calls
Speaker 3: me and he tells me, and I remember being frustrated
Speaker 3: for about five right, and then I thought, well, wait
Speaker 3: a second, We're signing Randy Moss. This is somebody that
Speaker 3: I've looked up to, you know, since I was in
Speaker 3: high school when he came to the league and seeing
Speaker 3: how he played.
Speaker 2: And now I'm gonna be a teammate with Randy Moss.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: And so I was okay with that, and it ended
Speaker 3: up being as advertised and.
Speaker 2: Heck of a teammate. And there's always always like story.
Speaker 3: Time by Randy's locker, you know, before practice, after practice,
Speaker 3: you just tell stories. So it's uh, Randy Moss is
Speaker 3: definitely that's definitely a tough one.
Speaker 1: I got a call during a funeral that we were
Speaker 1: signing in. I'm sitting in a funeral. Wow. And I
Speaker 1: don't usually bring my phone into things like that, Right,
Speaker 1: You're always afraid your.
Speaker 3: Phone as much as you try to how many times
Speaker 3: you check too, right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, I don't bring it into church, and I
Speaker 1: try not to bring it into like weddings or funerals
Speaker 1: or anything, right, cool performance or anything important. Right, So
Speaker 1: I had it in my coat and I didn't realize it,
Speaker 1: and then it was just like buzzing. And this was
Speaker 1: twenty ten, right, and so the buzz wasn't terribly subtle
Speaker 1: at that time. It's like, you know, and so it
Speaker 1: wasn't ringing, but it just kept going off. And so
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there and and of course I'm not answering it,
Speaker 1: but it just keeps going off. And then we're in
Speaker 1: like the receiving line to give condolences and get up
Speaker 1: to the folks, and it's umb like, oh gosh, this
Speaker 1: is so embarrassing. It's so I get outside and you
Speaker 1: know they've you know, I could have gotten a text
Speaker 1: message at the time, but everybody at that point still called.
Speaker 1: It's like nobody calls on the phone anymore.
Speaker 2: Now was that still?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 3: That wasn't When did it switch? Where your text messaging?
Speaker 3: Because I remember you had to pay like five.
Speaker 1: To you did you did?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 1: This is twenty ten, So but we're in that spot
Speaker 1: where later we're so I walk outside, I tell my wife,
Speaker 1: I said, I got to go outside and to see
Speaker 1: what this is. And so I listened to the voicemail
Speaker 1: We're signing Randy Moss, and we had to do a
Speaker 1: live hit. I'm standing in the parking lot under an underhang,
Speaker 1: it's pouring rain, and I'm doing an interview because this
Speaker 1: is a huge deal. It's Randy Moss. And you know,
Speaker 1: at that point in the twenty ten season, we're still
Speaker 1: in it. Yeah, you know, because that was the year
Speaker 1: we started five and two and then ended up six
Speaker 1: and ten and everything kind of went crazy down the stretch.
Speaker 1: But we added him and you're thinking, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: going to be great. And he was so different than
Speaker 1: when he was being recruited. He's one of the most
Speaker 1: bizarre recruits recovered. And I didn't have the primary role
Speaker 1: for my for the radio station. Another friend of mine,
Speaker 1: Brent Hubbs, dealt with him more. But he was bizarre,
Speaker 1: just completely baffling, and I think, now, maybe he was
Speaker 1: just messing with people, Yeah, I think so, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: But then he ends up being almost positively delightful what
Speaker 1: he was here. And then you know, he's great on TV.
Speaker 2: He's great on TV.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we still I mean, you know, I took
Speaker 3: Bryce down to the Super Bowl when Ryan Sucker was
Speaker 3: playing in it, and we drove out you know because
Speaker 3: Matt hasseback is on that the countdown as well. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so we I was texting Matt he said, hey, come
Speaker 3: out to the to the beach, that's where we're at.
Speaker 3: And so we drove out there and got to see
Speaker 3: the set and uh, you know, anytime I see Randy
Speaker 3: he's always been uh so nice and friendly and smart man.
Speaker 3: Smart guy, Yeah, very smart and yeah, he's it was
Speaker 3: fun to be around it. I wish it was for longer.
Speaker 3: But yeah, what a what a teammate.
Speaker 1: You ever counted up how many different teammates you had?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 3: My wife thought, uh, you know, playing with with FITZI
Speaker 3: you know what he did, Remember how he listed every
Speaker 3: teammate that he played with, and and I thought about
Speaker 3: doing that.
Speaker 2: I just didn't. I just didn't know where to start.
Speaker 2: I didn't know where to start.
Speaker 3: But it's a lot, it's a lot of really good
Speaker 3: guys that I've been able to play with, a lot
Speaker 3: of guys I've been able to get close with.
Speaker 1: Where does Ryan Fitzpatrick rank on your list of characters that.
Speaker 3: You Yeah, he's in that. Uh, Matt Castle Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Speaker 3: It's like this this category of guys that are just
Speaker 3: they're smart, uh, very witty and.
Speaker 2: Extremely funny and quick like Ryan was. His humor is
Speaker 2: it's quick. Uh.
Speaker 3: And so you felt like if you got into some
Speaker 3: type of I don't want to say argument, but you
Speaker 3: know the jabs right that happened in the locker room,
Speaker 3: you were gonna win because he was so quick and
Speaker 3: witty with it. That had just left you kind of
Speaker 3: and I don't I really don't know.
Speaker 2: How to respond to that.
Speaker 3: I don't know what to say while you're while you're
Speaker 3: laughing hysterically as he made fun of you.
Speaker 2: Right, But you rank Matt Castle in there too, Yeah,
Speaker 2: Matt's up there.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have thought of that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1: Well he's certainly a bright guy who had a really
Speaker 1: good career too.
Speaker 2: He played for a really long time too. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I've I've been I've been really fortunate, blessed with that row,
Speaker 3: you know, that kind of that quarterback row that I've
Speaker 3: been a part of, uh, you know, with with Marcus
Speaker 3: and uh, you know, Marcus is.
Speaker 2: You know, one of my favorite teammates I've ever played with.
Speaker 3: But that some of those quarterbacks that have come through
Speaker 3: have been I shoot, I remember being next to Carrie
Speaker 3: Collins and how awesome he was to be around. And
Speaker 3: you know, I had Craig on one side and Carrie
Speaker 3: on the other side. And and you know, after I
Speaker 3: got cut in Denver, to be able to come here
Speaker 3: and to have those two guys Craig to your left
Speaker 3: and and Carrie on your right, was I mean that
Speaker 3: alone right there helped me kind of recover and bounce
Speaker 3: back from you know, from getting cut and those two guys.
Speaker 3: To be around those two guys for as young as
Speaker 3: I was, and to be able to pick their brain
Speaker 3: and talk and what's like what you said earlier, Craig,
Speaker 3: it was just he would come out to practice and
Speaker 3: you know, I'd hit three or four balls in a
Speaker 3: row that I didn't like, and he would just say, hey,
Speaker 3: why don't you, hey, move your drop inside an itch.
Speaker 3: You know he's back there, and I'm thinking, I didn't
Speaker 3: even know he was really paying attention that much. And okay, yeah,
Speaker 3: you got it. Craig and I do it man four
Speaker 3: in a row, five in a row, and I would
Speaker 3: look back at Craig would be gone, he'd be headed
Speaker 3: back to the training room just you know, he didn't
Speaker 3: say much, but you know his advice was.
Speaker 2: It was just so on the point.
Speaker 1: But he never wanted anything, No, he didn't.
Speaker 3: He just wanted to give his opinion and what he
Speaker 3: thought and he.
Speaker 2: Was right and off he went.
Speaker 3: He you know, he didn't need the attention, he didn't
Speaker 3: need they thank you so much.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 3: I mean he would he would stop you before he
Speaker 3: even got started to compliment him.
Speaker 1: How lucky was Rob Baroni's that he had Craig Hendrick
Speaker 1: when he made the Titans, when he became an NFL kicker.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I you know, I've had a lot of conversations
Speaker 3: with guys over over the years that I played, and
Speaker 3: you know, with kickers, and just how important holding is
Speaker 3: and how important you know your your holder is as
Speaker 3: a person because the things, the things that you say,
Speaker 3: you're kind of like, you know, suck up. And I
Speaker 3: always used to talk about like, I mean, he's the golfer,
Speaker 3: right and right, and the holder is the caddy.
Speaker 2: Right, the golfer is the one that's going to get
Speaker 2: all the attention. Look at that.
Speaker 3: Shot, Look what you did, But the work kind of
Speaker 3: leading up to it you know the caddy is just
Speaker 3: as important, right, sure, So.
Speaker 1: It's great in golf. Now they are giving us those
Speaker 1: conversations more on TV. Yeah, it's fascinating.
Speaker 3: It is fascinating and just to see really how much
Speaker 3: detail goes into every shot.
Speaker 1: More of our conversation with Brett Kern coming up. But
Speaker 1: we remind you that Titans fans, it's always game on
Speaker 1: with Duncan, so grab a coffee kick off the action.
Speaker 1: Whether that's drinking a cup of coffee on your way
Speaker 1: to the game or grabbing one to go before watching
Speaker 1: the game at home. Duncan is always there to help
Speaker 1: you get your game on. Just like the pros. We
Speaker 1: need to be at our best come game time, which
Speaker 1: is why Duncan is the most important part of your
Speaker 1: pregame ritual because it's always the best call for football
Speaker 1: America runs on Duncan. Now here's more of my conversation
Speaker 1: on the way to Manchester and Jiffy Berger with Brett
Speaker 1: Kerr on the OTP.
Speaker 3: Because there's I mean, there's so much. It's such a finite,
Speaker 3: you know, a shot here or there. I mean it's
Speaker 3: just like a football game, right to play here and
Speaker 3: play there. Can cast you a ballgame, well, you know,
Speaker 3: a shot here, shot there, throughout a.
Speaker 2: Tournament, and you know, you go from.
Speaker 3: Winning a tournament to you know, now you're now you're
Speaker 3: not even top ten and and all that kind of
Speaker 3: stuff that goes along with it. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 3: for for Rob to have Craig not only as a person,
Speaker 3: right for Rob coming in the league. Anytime you can
Speaker 3: get just a veteran leader, and I know there's a
Speaker 3: couple of times here, you know in Tennessee where we
Speaker 3: had some young guys in that would you know, they're
Speaker 3: gonna battle it out. They're gonna let them, you know,
Speaker 3: battle out to see who can do it right. And
Speaker 3: you know, I just felt like it was part of
Speaker 3: my responsibility to help them out mentally and really take
Speaker 3: a lot of the pressure off of them, you know,
Speaker 3: as far as holding, like, hey, I'm going to be
Speaker 3: as consistent as I can be, and I'm going to
Speaker 3: help you out as much as I can so that
Speaker 3: you don't even have to think about all that, because
Speaker 3: there are there are times where you know the holding
Speaker 3: is not great, and sometimes you get a veteran kicker
Speaker 3: that gets a young punter in there and they don't
Speaker 3: understand the finite details.
Speaker 2: Well, then that's something else that the kicker now has
Speaker 2: to think about, right on top of everything else that's
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 3: And if you can just go out there and just
Speaker 3: know just hey, all I have to worry about is
Speaker 3: just kicking it through these yellow things, right and getting
Speaker 3: three points or an extra point, it makes their job
Speaker 3: a lot easier.
Speaker 1: So when you were suck ups Caddy at Kansas City
Speaker 1: at twenty sixteen, when he hit the kick at the
Speaker 1: end of the ball game, So what are you telling
Speaker 1: him leading up to that? I've always wanted to know that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's the hard part. Was is that
Speaker 2: in warm ups, I don't know if Ryan got past
Speaker 2: forty two?
Speaker 1: He did, right, Yeah, So I thought I had him
Speaker 1: because I watch to get engage. I thought I had
Speaker 1: him at like forty seven, maybe barely kind of sort of.
Speaker 1: I mean he went anywhere near.
Speaker 3: Fifty, right, because Dustin and I I remember Dustin Colquitt
Speaker 3: and I talked to warm ups and punting that I
Speaker 3: don't think I got a ball over forty five rude, right,
Speaker 3: And he hit one that was fifty, but it was
Speaker 3: I mean, nothing looked like an Aaron Rodgers Kilbarry. It
Speaker 3: didn't even you know, barely got off the ground. And
Speaker 3: so so I remember Ryan and the warm ups and
Speaker 3: he was just he's like he's like, Bret, I think
Speaker 3: an extra points even gonna be, you know, a call.
Speaker 2: Task in this game. And because the ball, I mean
Speaker 2: it was so cold and that ball was so hard
Speaker 2: that the sweet spot just shrunk and you had to
Speaker 2: hit it perfectly on top of your body.
Speaker 3: Just you know, you can only be by the heater
Speaker 3: so much because if you're by the heater then all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, your muscles are staying really really lose,
Speaker 3: and then when you go to the cold, it's.
Speaker 2: Just it's not it's not great.
Speaker 3: But I just remember us talking, and you know the
Speaker 3: thing is is, you know, you get that far back,
Speaker 3: you know, to get a little extra distance, sometimes you
Speaker 3: can lean the ball forward, right, but in doing that,
Speaker 3: it lowers your trajectory, and so there's kind of a
Speaker 3: finite the detail of what's too much, what's not enough.
Speaker 3: I mean, if you want to hold it straight up
Speaker 3: and down, you know, So we kind of had that
Speaker 3: conversation and you know, if anything, we just we just
Speaker 3: kind of kept it a little bit straighter than normal
Speaker 3: for him, just so he can maybe get a little
Speaker 3: bit more of a draw to maybe try to get
Speaker 3: an extra rd or two. And I just remember jogging
Speaker 3: out there thinking, how I cannot believe we're attempting this thing,
Speaker 3: but we have no other option, no, right, So he
Speaker 3: got that first crack at it, and it was short,
Speaker 3: barely I don't you know. From my view, it looked
Speaker 3: like he barely missed it. I'm not sure what your
Speaker 3: view was, but.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you this. It was apparent when he hit
Speaker 1: it wasn't gonna.
Speaker 2: Have enough, Okay.
Speaker 1: I mean you could sometimes you can see from where
Speaker 1: we are right and where our booth was a great angle.
Speaker 1: We were closer to that yard line than the other
Speaker 1: side of the field, right. And so when it came
Speaker 1: off his foot and Andy Reid had called the time out,
Speaker 1: You're like, well, did he not hit it as hard
Speaker 1: as he could because of the time out? Or I
Speaker 1: think he took a full swing though, didn't he?
Speaker 3: I think he did too. But I also know I
Speaker 3: know with Ryan that he really really goes after it.
Speaker 3: He tends to hook it and he'll miss it left.
Speaker 3: And so I think there was in his mind, Okay,
Speaker 3: I know, I have to go after this really hard.
Speaker 2: But if I do, you know what, I at least
Speaker 2: want to.
Speaker 3: Give it a chance, right, And so I mean he
Speaker 3: he gave it all he had and it was straight
Speaker 3: as an arrow, and then they called the time out
Speaker 3: and I just remember him bending over and retying his
Speaker 3: kicking chew and he's like, well, he's well, I better
Speaker 3: get this all I got. I said, Ryan, you better,
Speaker 3: you better get this all you got, buddy. And then
Speaker 3: the next one he just he smoked it and it
Speaker 3: went in and he went right to the chief's bench
Speaker 3: to celebrate.
Speaker 2: And I'm not sure if that was kind of a hey,
Speaker 2: you know, I played here for a long time. This
Speaker 2: is you know, he's had some.
Speaker 3: Game winners before in chief uniforms, right, But or if
Speaker 3: it was more or less like you know, we called
Speaker 3: him the Chief Killer.
Speaker 2: He did it because that's what he that's what he does.
Speaker 3: I remember his first game as a Titan, opened up
Speaker 3: an arrowhead and he went like four four, five for five, right,
Speaker 3: and you know we won the game.
Speaker 2: The rest of that season is something not to talk about.
Speaker 3: But you know when he started one, started one and
Speaker 3: oh he's Chief Killer and he did it in the
Speaker 3: Super Bowl. He did it in twenty sixteen, and that's
Speaker 3: that's something I'll never.
Speaker 2: Never, ever forget.
Speaker 1: One of my favorite guys I ever covered, Bryan Suckham. Yeah,
Speaker 1: quality human being, one of the nicest guys you'll meet,
Speaker 1: I mean, but a true professional. Talk to you after
Speaker 1: he hit him, talk to you after he missed him.
Speaker 1: Understood everybody had a job to do. One of my
Speaker 1: big thrills was getting to see him when we practiced
Speaker 1: against Tampa in twenty twenty one down there and to
Speaker 1: just congratulate him on being a Super Bowl champion. You
Speaker 1: know those guys who go other places. I mean, we
Speaker 1: certainly want to win one desperately, right, but you're happy
Speaker 1: for those people who do it the right way.
Speaker 2: And that's h.
Speaker 3: I think that's why you know, Bryce and I drove
Speaker 3: down there is I just didn't want to miss that.
Speaker 2: You know, he's.
Speaker 3: We were brought together through football, but obviously we're brothers,
Speaker 3: you know, for life outside of that. That's something that
Speaker 3: you want to be there for.
Speaker 1: So I was.
Speaker 2: Excited for him to win a super Bowl.
Speaker 3: And I remember the conversation that we had his training
Speaker 3: camp and he was like he was down in Tampa.
Speaker 2: He's like, man, I got this workout down here.
Speaker 3: I just don't know. I just don't know if I
Speaker 3: should do it. I don't know if you should sign here.
Speaker 3: And it's like, dude, you're with Tom Brady, Like you
Speaker 3: got a chance. I mean, what do you what do
Speaker 3: you have to lose?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: So, and so that's worked out worked.
Speaker 2: Out well for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah he did Okay, Yeah, he.
Speaker 3: Did heck of her career because one of the most
Speaker 3: accurate guys that I've seen. He'd be one of those
Speaker 3: guys where you tell him forty yards you know, I
Speaker 3: want you to aim and hit this crossbar or this
Speaker 3: field goal post.
Speaker 2: Every time.
Speaker 3: He's gonna he's gonna hit it. So sometimes it almost
Speaker 3: became boring. It was just so straight and just down
Speaker 3: the middle. And he's like, why why are we even
Speaker 3: ran Like you're gonna put it right down the middle
Speaker 3: every time?
Speaker 2: Can we just can we just move on and do
Speaker 2: something else?
Speaker 1: But were you surprised he came to your retirement announcement?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, we're I was just thankful that he
Speaker 3: was able to come. I knew he was I knew
Speaker 3: if he could come that he was gonna be there,
Speaker 3: you know, for Bo to fly in obviously Morgan to come.
Speaker 3: You know, they've met a lot because those those three
Speaker 3: guys right there are you know, my my favorite teammates
Speaker 3: really have altership and guys that I've gotten they're they're
Speaker 3: guys that are they're just more than teammates, you know,
Speaker 3: hang out his families and we're just we're just close.
Speaker 3: And so for the three of them to be there,
Speaker 3: you know, it meant a lot.
Speaker 1: What you probably by the way that they couldn't have
Speaker 1: gone any better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you I see, you're not the sling anymore either,
Speaker 3: which is healthy. You're healthy, healthy, training staff got you,
Speaker 3: got it going, got.
Speaker 1: You through, good rehair, gotta be ready for Hey. Availability, availability,
Speaker 1: that's what they say. That's that's what the you know,
Speaker 1: you walk into the training room and that's the best
Speaker 1: the best availability is Hey, we we lived that too.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you get the opportunity to work for
Speaker 1: an NFL team, you know, there aren't a lot of
Speaker 1: people that are lucky enough to get to do that,
Speaker 1: So yeah, you don't miss stuff.
Speaker 2: Availability is the best, the ability, I.
Speaker 1: Think that's what it says.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of scenes up
Speaker 2: in the building.
Speaker 3: I haven't written down in a notebook I do because
Speaker 3: you never you never know, or you never knew when
Speaker 3: Frabel was gonna either show a teammate on the board
Speaker 3: and ask, hey, who's who's this teammate?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: And of course it was great because it was like
Speaker 3: a high school throwback or a college throwback, and it
Speaker 3: was it was pretty use. Yeah, you know, Stretch would
Speaker 3: find these pictures that were just gold. Right, But you
Speaker 3: never knew when he was gonna ask a question of
Speaker 3: what does it say in the training room or what
Speaker 3: does it say outside the locker room? Line for right?
Speaker 3: And there might be five lines, and you have what's
Speaker 3: line for well. I think I had one, two and
Speaker 3: three memorized, but four and five were a little sketching.
Speaker 2: Yes, So I just remember.
Speaker 1: When he came.
Speaker 3: When he came in twenty eighteen, he started doing that
Speaker 3: and I just thought to myself, I better go around
Speaker 3: the building and write this stuff. Now.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he'll ever call me right. I
Speaker 2: went through Rotadel down and I think I still have
Speaker 2: the notebook in my office at the house.
Speaker 1: And that's so Greaty.
Speaker 3: Nerves, you got nervous during team meetings. Yeah, Like I
Speaker 3: started special teams meetings totally fine.
Speaker 2: I was obviously.
Speaker 3: I knew all the calls, I knew all the returns,
Speaker 3: all that kind of stuff, right, But you know team
Speaker 3: meetings is when you started, you know, hands got a
Speaker 3: little cold, started to sweat a little bit because I
Speaker 3: mean you just did not know what he was gonna ask.
Speaker 1: So, I mean you played for all of the Titans
Speaker 1: head coaches. Fisher, I did, mind check, yeah, to wizen Hunt,
Speaker 1: to Malarkey and out.
Speaker 3: Of right, yeah I did. And it was each one
Speaker 3: was you know, I kind of learned from from each
Speaker 3: one kind of you know, the how they're how they taught,
Speaker 3: how they their expectations, you know, kind of for each
Speaker 3: coach you played for, you knew like when the next
Speaker 3: one came up, kind of what to expect and different
Speaker 3: situations styles that they liked. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it was hard.
Speaker 3: I mean every time you got a new coach, you know,
Speaker 3: you feel you have to you have to prove yourself
Speaker 3: to somebody that you don't know.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: My check was was a little bit easier because he
Speaker 3: was under coach phisial staff, right, and so he'd seen you,
Speaker 3: you know, he'd seen a lot of the guys that
Speaker 3: were there. He saw me play before all that. But
Speaker 3: you still have to still have to prove yourself, right,
Speaker 3: You have to prove yourself every year, regardless if you
Speaker 3: make a Pro Bowl or you know, obviously you maybe
Speaker 3: maybe you don't have a great year.
Speaker 2: And so.
Speaker 3: Because I remember twenty sixteen year was I mean, I
Speaker 3: didn't have a great year. It wasn't wasn't hit the
Speaker 3: ball great, wasn't as consistent as consistent as I wanted to.
Speaker 3: And I knew twenty seventeen had to be a really,
Speaker 3: really good year, and thankfully it was, you know, the
Speaker 3: first Pro Bowl.
Speaker 2: I went to.
Speaker 1: But wut it's good.
Speaker 2: It was a good bounce back.
Speaker 3: Yere right, But yeah, every time you get a new coach,
Speaker 3: new GM, there's just that extra pressure to perform for
Speaker 3: somebody that you don't I don't I don't know who
Speaker 3: Ken Wizen it was.
Speaker 2: I knew that he'd coached, but you know, he doesn't
Speaker 2: know me. I don't know him.
Speaker 3: You have to go out there and improve yourself and
Speaker 3: that could take that could take a lot out of
Speaker 3: you mentally and physically. And uh, you know, I remember
Speaker 3: us chatting on the on the podcast you know, kind
Speaker 3: of about the biggest accomplishment, and I think to be
Speaker 3: able to play for all the gms, all the coaches
Speaker 3: that the types have had, Yeah, that's probably been my
Speaker 3: biggest Yeah, that's probably the thing I'm probably most proud of.
Speaker 1: Get that. What do you remember about when they let
Speaker 1: wizend Hunt go at Malarkey but he came the head coach.
Speaker 1: What do you remember about that week?
Speaker 3: I'm trying to remember what game he got? Was it
Speaker 3: after the Texans?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Because I give it set up on that So Jimmy
Speaker 1: Stanton is our director of mediate res or is over
Speaker 1: all of our communications at the time, right, and we
Speaker 1: had wondered if if we lose this game, do they
Speaker 1: make a change because it was in Houston's.
Speaker 3: It's there's something about, well, well something about going to
Speaker 3: Houston though, Like I remember Coach Fisher and Coach Munch
Speaker 3: really preaching about and we're going to Houston.
Speaker 2: Do you know what this means?
Speaker 1: Yeah, dark, I don't know. Every player needs to understand that.
Speaker 1: To our ownership, the Houston game is significant. We played
Speaker 1: particularly poorly in that game. Marcus took a beating.
Speaker 2: YEP.
Speaker 1: So Jimmy gets on the plane and since his seat
Speaker 1: is next to mine, and I said, so, what do
Speaker 1: you think He goes, he gayes, I don't think any
Speaker 1: decisions been made. So normally, if you're going to fire
Speaker 1: a coach in season, you fire the coach on Monday,
Speaker 1: right and they you know, we get to Monday and
Speaker 1: I walked by Jimmy's office Monday morning. He goes, I'm
Speaker 1: not hearing anything. And the reason we're talking about it
Speaker 1: is we have TV shows to do.
Speaker 2: It's the radio show.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, you got a lot, but the Monday
Speaker 1: night radio shows one thing. But we have to put
Speaker 1: out TV shows for later in the week, and we
Speaker 1: have to shoot them early in the week because if
Speaker 1: we're in a situation where somebody's going to get fired,
Speaker 1: you don't want to send out a show with somebody
Speaker 1: in the show who's not there by the time the
Speaker 1: show airs. So we're going to film Titans All Access
Speaker 1: Monday afternoon. And I looked at Jimmy again. He goes,
Speaker 1: he said, I think there's some talk, but he goes,
Speaker 1: I don't know. And so we go film the show. Well,
Speaker 1: Rustin Webster is our general manager, and we do this
Speaker 1: late Monday afternoon, five o'clock and we film his segment
Speaker 1: and he says, walk outside with me here for a
Speaker 1: second week. Okay, the segment was great. I was hoping
Speaker 1: I didn't ask a question that he didn't like, right,
Speaker 1: He said, I just got the call before I walked
Speaker 1: in here. We're making a change first thing in the morning,
Speaker 1: and ownership. Amy Adamstrong wanted to take the day to
Speaker 1: not be emotional because of the Houston game and to
Speaker 1: take but it says a lot about who she is,
Speaker 1: you know, because she knew she she knew she wasn't
Speaker 1: making the decision for the New Orleans game that Sunday,
Speaker 1: she was making a decision for the whole franchise, right,
Speaker 1: And he said, we are. We're making a change first
Speaker 1: thing in the morning. He said, I just wanted you
Speaker 1: to know that. So I have to walk back in
Speaker 1: and film the rest of this show that I know
Speaker 1: is not gonna air, that we're gonna have to go
Speaker 1: back and reshoot it. And I can't tell anybody, because
Speaker 1: you know, that's that's one of the areas, right. I
Speaker 1: very rarely know things because honestly, Brett, I don't ask.
Speaker 1: It's easier not to know because when somebody asks you
Speaker 1: you can say truthfully, right, I don't know because I'm
Speaker 1: not interested in lying to anybody.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: And so Tuesday morning comes down and they call wizen
Speaker 1: Hunt in at eight o'clock and he's fired then, and
Speaker 1: we think it's gonna be malarkey as the interim coach,
Speaker 1: but quite frankly, if you don't know if he's gonna
Speaker 1: take it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 1: So then you pick up the story from there from
Speaker 1: the players perspective.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just.
Speaker 3: You know, like I said earlier about the Houston, like,
Speaker 3: you know, obviously, you know you have to perform every
Speaker 3: Sunday that that's just part of your job.
Speaker 2: But there's something extra when you go down to Houston.
Speaker 3: This and I really didn't understand it the first year
Speaker 3: or two, and then it finally you know, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 3: this is this is a very very important game. It's
Speaker 3: a thing regardless of what your record is, like, this
Speaker 3: is important. And so and we lost bad, really bad,
Speaker 3: and so guys were kind of talking like.
Speaker 2: Do is there gonna be a change? Do we need
Speaker 2: to make a change?
Speaker 1: Oh? You thought that was possible at that point?
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, yeah, Because I mean I remember coach Fisher
Speaker 3: and Coach Munchek. They would always talk about, hey, if
Speaker 3: we don't if we don't perform down here in Houston,
Speaker 3: there's gonna be a change made in some way, shape
Speaker 3: or form, right right, So you didn't know, probably not
Speaker 3: coaching maybe, but whoever maybe didn't play well, whoever to
Speaker 3: perform like, you're probably gonna get cut, right, And so
Speaker 3: the guys that have been there, that had been through
Speaker 3: the transition, they understood that.
Speaker 2: And so guys thought, well, it could be some play.
Speaker 3: You know, things with with coach Whiz aren't really going
Speaker 3: how we thought they would or how how they probably should.
Speaker 3: That's pretty crazy to make a change right now. There's
Speaker 3: just all kinds of thoughts. And then nothing happened Monday,
Speaker 3: and then we just.
Speaker 2: Okay, well let's let's just keep plugging along.
Speaker 3: Because you're in the building Monday, you're working out, you're
Speaker 3: doing all kinds of things for post game recovery and
Speaker 3: all that, and you don't really hear anything. And so
Speaker 3: for it to go down Tuesday, it was it's like, wow, okay,
Speaker 3: so who on the staff can take over? And I
Speaker 3: remember texting some guys and they were like, man.
Speaker 2: I hope it's coach Blarkie. Who's coach ble ARKI I
Speaker 2: think he would.
Speaker 3: He's got experience, you know, I like I kind of
Speaker 3: like the way he conducts things, and you know, talk
Speaker 3: to the tight ends and they were all likely.
Speaker 2: I really hope it's him, right, So, uh found out
Speaker 2: it was him, and.
Speaker 3: You know, to come back the following week, you know,
Speaker 3: and win how we did in overtime in New Orleans?
Speaker 2: Right? Uh was it Fasano anthy? That was that?
Speaker 3: I remember celebrating and uh, I remember going down to
Speaker 3: the end zone celebrating and it got a little too
Speaker 3: crowded for me because I remember thinking, if someone steps
Speaker 3: on my foot, I'm in trouble. So I did a
Speaker 3: couple of helmet taps and I remember just getting.
Speaker 2: Out of there quickly.
Speaker 3: So, but yeah, that's that's not an easy thing to
Speaker 3: go through coaching changes like that.
Speaker 2: So, uh, it just.
Speaker 3: Puts there's already enough pressure to perform and to do
Speaker 3: your job. Uh, you know every Sunday and when you
Speaker 3: throw on a coaching change, and you know that there's
Speaker 3: a little instab instability kind of going on, and and
Speaker 3: if you're willing to make a change with a head coach, right,
Speaker 3: you know, what does that tell you for the players,
Speaker 3: And so yeah, that was that. That was a tough here.
Speaker 3: That was that was a tough, tough season.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much to Brett Kerr for taking time with
Speaker 1: me to go to Jiffy Berger in Manchester and to
Speaker 1: share some good stories in the truck as he followed
Speaker 1: me through Tennessee. Remind you that seat geek is now
Speaker 1: the official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans. Whether you're
Speaker 1: buying or selling tickets to Titans games or any other
Speaker 1: live event in Nashville, seat geek is the place to
Speaker 1: do it. Seat Geek the new official ticketing partner of
Speaker 1: the Tennessee Titans. So Titans fans, Ken Fan again, thanking
Speaker 1: Brett Kern and our entire staff, and thanking you the
Speaker 1: OT people, while wishing you happy New Year. I'm Mike Keith.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us for the O T Pete