August 2, 2023 • 35 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental health podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, Jay goes 1-on-1 with the first person he ever called and opened up to about his struggles, Ronde Barber. Ronde reflects on his incredible journey and shares how nothing stopped him on his path to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental health podcast
helping you out of the gray and into the blue.
Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome back to Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with Jay Glazier.
Before I get to my guests, who has a huge
week ahead of him. If you're like many people, you
may be surprised to learn that one in five adults
in this country experienced mental illness last year, Yet far
too many fellow receive the support they need. Charah Lom
behavior health is doing something about it. They understand the
(00:36):
behavior health is a key part of whole health, delivering
compassionate care that treats physical, mental, emotional, and social needs
in tandem. Tara Limb behavior health raising the quality of
life through empathy and action. So welcome into Unbreakable, a
mental health podcast. And the guests I have this week.
You think there's twins Rondae and Tiki Barber, there's actually.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Three of us.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Jay Lazier's part of the family. Well and man, what
a huge week it is for my brother ryde Barber
Hall of Famer ryde Barber going to Can't, Ohio this
week for that Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
How we doing buddy, uh'd be better at about uh
we'll say seven days. What all this is playing?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
You have nerves?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
You never have nerve, not nerves. It's just a lot,
you know how it is. You've been through some of
your boys before. Uh, there's a lot going on. Four
hundred plus people showing up for us, dude, that's Oh,
thank god. I have a loving and busybody wife that
has had no problems taken on all of this, because
(01:36):
I definitely would have been able to do what she's done,
uh to get us ready. But I'm excited for her.
I'm ready for you know.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
What he's talking about there, Claudia his wife. He has
four hundred people coming and several of his friends for
children like me. So I hit her up and I
was like, hey, Claudia, you know my tickets myself? Like
what do I do on it? She's like, oh, you
got everything since in email. I'm like, Claudia, I'm a child.
I don't know how to do things for myself. So
she helped my head and made sure everything was set.
(02:03):
You got four hundred friends.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Like that, You're like the guy that shows up for
the wedding and is like, oh, we were supposed to
RSVP for that. Sorry, I don't have to see it
for you.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
And I'm the gifts.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah, you are the Here's.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
What I want people to know. And I don't know
if Ronde knows this part, but listen. He has the
record for most consecutive starts ever by dB played sixteen years.
Three time All throw which means you're the best of
your position, two time second team All Pro, five time
Pro Bowler, All Decade Team for two thousands. Has Jersey
(02:38):
retired from college Super Bowl Champion Hall of Famer. But
I don't know if you know this. Rende Barber is
the first person I ever called. I had to get
joked up here that I ever called ever when I
was struggling and told them and tell people this man.
Lean into your friends and your teammates. This is the
(03:00):
champ of Super Bowl. A couple of years ago, myself
and him and my friend Brian and Ben asked them
to go to do dinner and they said, now we're
all busy, and I said, no, dude, I need to
have dinner. I'm struggling.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
And I d was there for me, always there for you, Jay,
I mean you were there for me back when I
was a nobody. People don't know that there was a
time when it was Tiki in New York and Ronnie
was a I don't know what I was back then,
but we became friends back then, and that was let's
put twenty five years on that. I think that at
(03:32):
least twenty five years ago. So one thing that I
can provide for you and for all my friends, but
especially you because we've been through so much. I know
what your life journey has been. I've been through a
lot of it from afar here recently, but I was
there at the beginning when you were trying to make it,
and then you make it. You have such this profound
(03:54):
influence on the world of sport, and at the end
of the day, people don't know you're struggling. So if
you ask me for that, I will absolutely be there.
And I know that I have a very positive outlook
on life. I feel like I haven't had many bad days.
I've had some. I feel like I haven't had many
bad days. But if I can lighten up your life
and let you know how much you're loved, rather, you
(04:14):
can call me anytime.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And here's the thing, folks, that was the first time
I ever like I never said anything straight in, I
ever said to anything that the rock. Really I never
you know, my best friends, I never said anything had
Ronde and them said no? And I were busy. Man,
I don't know if I would have opened up to
the world and had this, you know, God for everybody
else to be able to lean into your friends and
your teammates. But because you said, oh, first, oh I'm busy,
(04:38):
then oh you're struggling, I'm there, it allowed me to
teach everybody else this is what happens. When you lean
into your crew, they respond they're there for you. And
that just started the most incredible chain reaction for I
think a lot of us. Brother.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well, there's also the fact that you know, my friends
have always been there for me too. So when Brian
and Ben, nobody in the world knows that those guys
are but we do, right, those guys, Uh, there has
been as solid for me as I could possibly expect
from you know, two guys that I met as an adult.
And granted we met as an adult too, It's not like,
(05:13):
you know, not as not as if Jay was actually
born Joldine Barber, but the companionship and the uh, you know,
the love that has been fostered through all of our years.
I got that later with those guys and those guys
because they love me, love you, I swear. I think
(05:34):
back to that night sometimes and thankful for you. Know
that family extends itself because not a lot of people
have families, you know, close enough families that they can
go to, but everybody should have that extension of family
that you can always rely on. I've always had that
and I'll always be that for you. Man.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That's a hall of fame friend, because folks, I was
struggling right and you and I've always put on this
face and he's known they and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Oh yeah, your whole hell a lot of fun when
it's all good, dude.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
But but it's it's rarely good. But through my ears
and I go overboard for it's. I always created that
character and the first time I'd be like, hey, man,
that's just character. This is really what's going on. And
that was a huge moment for my life, man, really
really big. So yeah, I wanted people to understand the
mastery of Ronde Barber. And when I say this, there's
a couple of things. Hey and I always tell my
(06:25):
tell my fighters and I always tell players, manage your
honor to play hurt. And one of the guys I
learned that from is Ronde, And I always tell guys, hey,
you don't show it. You don't show it. Now in life,
I want everybody to show where our struggles are and
open up. But you didn't miss a game. You have
the record most consecutive games ever started as a defensive back.
But it's not that you weren't injured. Right, So first
(06:46):
of all, list list off the injuries you play through.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And I wrote about it in my book, right and Well,
it started in high school. I can go all the
way back to high school. And a lot of this
was to be honest with you, just in an effort
to keep up with the twin right, because in high
school I broke my collarbone second game of our senior season.
Senior season, right, it's last time I'm going to play
high school with all the friends you grew up with.
Broke my collar bone, and it was probably a month injury.
(07:14):
I missed like two weeks and came back and played.
And I think that was the start of the you know,
I'm gonna do this regardless type of thing. Give me
an opportunity to play, and I'm not ever gonna leave.
So from there, did they put play it or they
just they just said it, They didn't even they didn't.
You know, I don't know if you ever broke your collarbhone,
(07:34):
anybody out there broke that collar phone. They put that
thing on your back that pulls your shoulders, set your
collar phone, and two weeks later I said the hell
with it, I'm gonna I'm gonna, I'm gonna go play.
But yeah, the list here we go. So this is
a lot, see if I can remember them all sequentially.
So So in college, I had a stretch fracture on
(07:55):
my foot that ended up breaking, but I played through
it for like the last four or five game games
of my red shirt freshman year. Then before my third
season playing at Virginia, I dislocated my elbow compound dislocation
and they had to have surgery and offseason. I played
with that like three months later to start that next season.
(08:15):
But then we get to the NFL, and man, besides this,
I'm not gonna even mention the soft tissue injuries pulled
hamstrings and squads that those mean nothing. But I had
a highcle spray in ninety eight that I played.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And never missed a game. Folks, through all this during.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
High gol spray. The ninety eight that I played through
it may have been ninety nine. In two thousand and two,
I broke my thumb during the game, played through it,
and then had surgery. Played the next week. That same year,
I tore my PCL in the back of my right knee,
also Super Bowl year, so I was not going to
not play. So I played through that at surgery, and
(08:52):
that bothered me for probably the next four or five
years of my career. I shattered my form uh in
a in a game in two thousand and eleven. What
else was the other one? A tor moniscus in my
left knee the other knee for my PCL that I
played through probably in two thousand and six or seven,
(09:16):
and it just couldn't stop. I couldn't stop playing. If
I was able to walk, I was gonna play. And
if it was an upper body injury, I was gonna
definitely play. I think my foot would had to fall
off for me to actually not not play.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
That's whether you were taught or is it just because
you said, well, I wanted to keep up. I was
a twin and I didn't want to fall behind.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
T Well, a little bit of that, but I think
mostly to be real honest, I got on the field
in high school in the pros because somebody got hurt.
Somebody got hurt. It gave me an opportunity to play,
and I never stopped playing from from then on out.
And so it was this I've used it this term
(09:59):
like this fear failure, but really it was like a
fear of somebody else, you know, getting an opportunity that
I thought that I that I worked hard to get
and I didn't want I didn't want to give anybody
else that opportunity. And that's selfish to a degree, but
it's not, it's not selfish at all. But it also, Yeah,
it also helped drive a mentality that allowed me to
(10:23):
be great, you know, because if I'm not, if I'm
not one hundred percent and I'm still performing, then when
I am one hundred percent, I'm going to be really
really good. And I don't know, it just stuck with me,
and I don't know. I think people doubted me for
so long earlier in my career that I think there
was a sense that had I had to prove them wrong,
and it hurt. Didn't give me the opportunity to prove
(10:44):
them wrong, so I just chose not to be hurt.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
So I'll tell you a mastery of Randie Barber. He
and I are sitting in a bar in New York
were watching one in night football and Washington's play in Dallas,
and all of a sudden, Ronde says, oh, this will
be an eight yard into the Vertius calls. Still remember right? Sure, shit, folks,
who was an eight yard into la Verti's calls? And
(11:08):
I said, how'd you know that? He just said, well,
down in distance, it was, you know, seven yards and
thirty and seven. But you said, on film, I noticed
Laverni is when he's going to be the target, he's
let two inches taller or shorter than when he's not
the target, or so along those lines. And I'm like,
what the fuck do you see this on film? That
tiny little thing? Unreal when it comes to watching film,
(11:30):
seeing those tiny little things. But it's not just you're
on film. You're just wanted to watching on the game broadcast.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Right, It's just it's an obsession, is what it was.
You know, it was an obsession with detail and perfecting
the details. I mean, we can all go out like
you're a fire. You know, you can all go out
and perfect the technique and rep rep rep the technique
that's going to carry you through a competition. But the
middle prep was the same thing. For me. It was
(11:58):
that little tiny detail. I treated it just like practicing
my back pedal or practicing my step and kick and
man the man coverage or whatever and tackling form. My
prep was the exact same. It had to be detail oriented,
and it just stuck. It just sticks with you. So
if I've seen it on film and I noticed it
and I noted it, then uh, it's going to be
(12:19):
there forever. So when we were watching that game, just
sitting around having a more than a few cocktails as
we want to do, yeah, it was yeah, okay, this
is this is what's getting ready to happen. Let me,
let me, let me impress Jay with my with my people.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Hey, clearly you have because I'm still talking about it
and preaching the book. Did an art to watch in form.
You know, I sit there and you know, Strand filled
my social scene because he said there and watching film
Montreal and watch like oh look look at this, Look
at John running's foot, it's half an inch toild it in,
I'm like, what are you looking at?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Nobody else cares about that, right, But also a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Of guys can't recognize it. They can't see it. Did
somebody teach you how to watch them? Where it's just
the repertation over the years, because folks, I mean, I'm
not exaggerating. I'm not when I say, oh, it's two
inches or a half an inch and he notices something
like this in the camera that's way up at the
top of the stadium.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
It's unreal when you're looking at When you're looking at
so much film, like the hours of film that really
good players put into it, you notice the minute details
like Frank Gore back when he was playing for San Francisco,
and I didn't find this when someone else told me this,
But this is a good when we were studying him,
somebody else told me this. When he was looking to
(13:34):
be a pass protector. His head was always moving, he
was survey in the field when he was going to
get the ball. His eyes were dead straight, and you
could always tell and you know.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Not every way passed and run and every.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Play, not every play did that? You know, was I
able to see that playing corner. But the few times
where you're like, oh wait a minute, let me check
his head and he's like this, You're like, okay, this
is a run and it just gives you information to
get ready for that play. So you can call it cheating,
you can call it guessing. Whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
At all you're doing your work.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
You're taking advantage of its cheating, cheating preparation, right, it's
taking advantage of knowledge, is what it is. When and
knowledge and opportunity meet, preparation meet, Like you go make
plays and I did that pretty well for a long time,
and you know.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Give me another one that may stand out to me.
They're like, oh when this guy did that?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Like, let me think, well, I could always tell uh,
And this was this was a combination of things and
not that I ever covered this well, but uh it was.
There was a till between Steve Smith and Jake Delane
when because you know they they obviously they were running team.
They had this too great running back, but they also
had a damn good wide receiver, really damn good wide receiver,
(14:49):
Hall of Famer. In my mind, Uh, that was like
a running back and if the run play was going
to be covered up by the call we had on defense.
They would just pick up the ball and throw it
out there this little now screen. You know, everybody does
it now they call RPOs now, But back then it
was just he'd pick it up and throw it instead
of running into a brick wall in a run game.
And Jake Delom and Steve Smith had this. They had
(15:12):
this little I could tell because of the way that
Steve Smith was angling his shoulders towards the quarterbacks. He
had to get ready to catch it. You could tell
that the ball was coming, and Jake always had He
was like Jake would be, would look and if he
was like that and he came up and throw it.
I mean I missed the tackle a whole bunch of times.
I guarantee you that I knew every time that that
play was coming. And I be honest with you, I
(15:34):
don't even know if he knew that he did it,
but I knew that he did it because I needed
a little bit of advantage to get that little fucker
on the ground.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Would you tell your teammates offensive guys, how often did
you tell them, hey, man, you're you're chipping this?
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Not very often. I wasn't a share I never know
if that guy is going to get I don't know
if if Keenan McCardell or whoever, was going to leave
and go play for somebody else. I don't need them
to number what I know, not not, not really. And
I didn't study our guys like I studied other guys.
(16:07):
Everybody has, whether you know it or not, they're there
if you look hard enough.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Was it as you started getting older and it was fine,
you know around it you'd have this film room kind
of was named the Rendee Barber Film Room in there?
How much you know, work you did.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
The funny part about that, Shay, is that it was
an extra meeting room. It wasn't my room, it was
an extra meeting room. We went to this new building
because before I used to just go into the video room.
I'd sit down in the video room at one old
one buck the trailers, and they had this little setup
for me where I could just come in and sit
down practice, you know, with my pants, practice gear still on,
(16:40):
to just sit there and watch film. We'd shoot the
ship whatever. But then we moved into the new building
and they put an extra meeting room down there, and
it was unoccupied, and I commandeered it. I made it
my own and put all my shit in there, all
my like like it was like an extension of my locker.
I had everything that I needed in there to go
in there and watch film, and I'd spend hours in there, so.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
As guys were coming in and out. You know, I've
been with you where people ask you, hey, you know,
what did you do here? Would you do some preparation?
Did you always offer teach these young guys, hey, man,
come and watch film? Or did it also get to
the point at one point where like, hey, I didn't
want to do it something I can offer it anymore?
Did you always do it?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
No? I always did it, And I tell guys all
the time, Hey, I'm going to be in here. Do
you want to come in and watch it? Let's go
watch And the one guy that really embraced it, I
mean he didn't do it every day with me was
a key and I got a keep really early keep yeah,
early in my in his career. Uh. And I think
that if you ask him he'll he'll to this day
(17:39):
talk about the influence that I because he was physically
gifted man, and he's long, he's fast, very aggressive, perfect mentality,
for football. That's why he played along and so successful
on three or maybe four different teams. But at the
very beginning, he was the one guy that I most
remember saying, I'm going to go and just sit down
with Ronde and figure out what he's looking at, you know,
(18:01):
because I was a bad point. I've been in the
league for ten years, and he was inquisitive, and I
think some of what I did rubbed off on him.
But that was in there every day. I mean, the
guys would come in and out, and I always tell
them to come in, and what I really wanted to
do Jay was to get them to come in and
study themselves. Like it's easy to study your opponent, it's
(18:22):
easy to look at other people, but to look at
yourself critically. That's without a coach telling you, hey, you
need to do this. Hey, it would be if you
have you ever thought about doing this, I want you
to do it. I was good because I did it.
I went and looked at my footwork, and you know,
if I stepped wrong on a play in practice, I
wanted to know why I did it so I could
go out the very next day and correct it. And
(18:44):
that's I talk about all the time. Perfecting your craft.
That's that's what perfecting your craft is. It just doesn't
happen like you have to know what you're doing wrong
to understand what you're doing right. And there was a
lot of guys that actually fell in mind with that
and got better because of some of my influences. That
regards awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It also led to you to being the only member
player in NFL history out forty five interceptions in twenty
five sacks. Yeah, one of one, which gave you the
more more joy the picture of the.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Sacks definitely the interceptions, just because they're so hard to
come by. Interceptions are not easy, and if you're playing.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You're five to three, like me, satured way harder to
come back to you that picks.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Actually, I'll tell you this, early in my career, it
was definitely the sacks because that's where I was getting
my most opportunities because we were blitzing so much. You know,
that zoned doll mentality that Mini Kiffen and the Eagles
defensive coordinator Johnson, Yeah, had. Those type of decordinators were
just coming into vogue then, and so we did it
(19:47):
a lot. And at the time, people didn't really know
how to deal with it, and so I had a
lot of free runs. But then when they started to
pick them up, I had to figure out how to
beat the guy that they were signing to block with me.
So it to get the twenty eight sacks is what
I ended up with was a pretty special number. I
wish it would have got. I wish I wanted to
get the thirty, but Shiano made me a safety my
(20:09):
last year, didn't play me a nickel, so I didn't
get the thirty. That's a that's a different conversation. But
but but the interceptions, man like the feeling of taking
away a row or concept that they've worked so hard
(20:31):
on and that you overplayed and take took the ball away.
That was pretty awesome. The amount of prep to get
an interception was ten times what it was to get
a sack. Put it that way, so the interceptions always
felt like more rewarding. Plus you know, teams trying to
score and you get the ball back. I mean it changed.
Those are game change and tech plays to me. The
(20:53):
corners in the league in safeties too, But the corners
in the league to take the ball away, I don't
care how good you are technically. The ones that take
the ball away? Are the best places in football?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Would you have freedom to just go in blitz certain
times when you want to? Always called?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Most of them were called. There's a few times where
you know, I had a battle boy kind of sack.
I sacked Tony Romo and we played Dallas at home.
Whatever year that was. It was it was Raheem's years,
and uh, I'm sitting on the end of the line
of scrimmage. They had a formation set away for me,
some a corner on the end of the line of scrimmage,
and I thought it was a run play, and so
(21:29):
I was being aggressive playing supposed to be playing in
the flat or whatever, and I just went. I was like, well,
I guess I guess wrong.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I get this.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
See if I could make myself right, and uh and
I did. He had no idea I was coming. He
turned right round out of this bootleg and I he
had to just went to the ground, got an easy sack.
But yeah, like that, I was supposed to be encoveraged
and uh uh got a sack out of it. So
it happened every Now give.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Me equipped one line or a couple of lines for
the biggest life. Can you learn from these Naps. Tony.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Yeah, Tony taught me. He taught us all, but taught
me humility and patience. You know that you're not always
going to be the right away guy, because I obviously
told me it was my coach. My first year in
the NFL, and I didn't play. Only played in one game,
well two games that played in the playoff game, only
one regular season game. And it was humbling from a
(22:22):
guy who for me, came from college three times All ACC,
been All American, three times ACC Rookie of the Year.
All I had known was success coming into the league,
and the next thing you knew, I am like irrelevant
as a first year player, and that was humbling. But
he always was encouraging and the way that he handled
(22:45):
us as a team, but specifically everybody on the team,
not just the Warren SAPs and the Derrick Brooks and
the guys that were really challenging being the best players
on the team, but the guys that weren't. He helped
me understand that I needed to do more, and when
I did, I became a really good player.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Who actually taught me something He taught you also last
year at the Hall of fam or two years ago,
he told me he had taught you football is not
a career. It's an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was. That was. That was that.
Herm said that to me first. But yes, okay, that was.
That was one of the first things her told. You
told you got in and he's like, and Herm had
been there.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
All right, you did say her I've been hitting that
a lot too, so I'm sorry, but you did tell
me and Peyton Manning's Hall of Fame that part I know.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Good, Yes, it's exactly right. Yeah. First thing he said
is like, man, it's not this isn't this isn't a career.
This is an opportunity. There's a lot of men that
want to do what you're doing right now, and there
are a lot that aren't doing it. Are you going
to do what it takes to become the guy that
can make this, uh, this opportunity last long? And And
(23:54):
that was. Those weren't powerful words because you get in
the league you think that, man, this thing is gonna
last forever, and you start playing and you think this
thing's gonna last forever. But in the back of my
mind those words always stayed there. It's just an opportunity, man,
And it's not finite. It's gonna end, right, it's not infant.
I'm sorry, it's finite, it's gonna end. And just always
knowing that just helps. It helped me probably be the
(24:15):
guy that we were talking about earlier that take your opportunities,
do chances to play, don't give them up, you know,
because any one miss game is could be your last.
And I wasn't willing to let that happen.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
What's the best lesson you learned from Mike Tomlin, who,
by the way, folks and her members left. I got
calls from Ronde and a bunch of people in there going, man,
nobody replaced her.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Nobody.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
They got this new guy coming to Mike Tomlin. No shot,
no shot. They took them all about a day going
this dude's unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
That's a funny story. We got it. We get in
and it's the off season, right. But I got a
story about Mike that goes back and forth. He was
actually our coach. But I remember the first day of
off season work like the OTA's they were much longer
back then. Now they're like, it's like three weeks of
work in the freaking off season. Don't do anything But
back then, we're out first day doing new drills and
(25:05):
I remember Lynch came up to me and said, Roy,
what is up with this? Dude? Man, where do you
want all these drills that we probably didn't colle it
we needed to do this stuff. But after like a week,
literally everybody's like, Okay, I'm getting better. I'm getting better
by doing this these minute, detailed drills that seemed irrelevant
(25:26):
at the time, but it helped. It helped that perfection thing.
And he was really really good at like convincing you
that it was gonna make you a better player, and
then obviously it did. But yeah, Mike T. Mike T
was the first one. If you're asking for lessons from
these guys, Mike T was the first guy that offered
a mentality adjustment for me because I had been successful, right,
(25:48):
I was a starter at that point. I wasn't very
production wise, it wasn't very that wasn't great. But he
saw something in me that he said was going to
differentiate me from the crowd, and it was the way
that I played inside played Nickel. He's like, I've watched
all of your tape. Nobody's doing this and you're the
only person I've ever seen do these reps like this,
(26:11):
and he's like, how can we get better? And how
can we get you to twenty sacks? And I'm like,
I'm not thinking about sack. I only had six interceptions
at the time in my career. He was like four
years in. I had six interceptions, Like, how can I
get more interceptions? He's like, dude, We're going to make
you a twenty twenty guy. And I'm like, okay, And
we went about to do it, and twelve years later
I was forty five twenty five guy.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
And he got you to have confidence in yourself.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
He made me believe. He made me believe that I
was on a level that I didn't think that I
was on. It was refreshing because he was really the
first guy that gave me that. It empowered me to
be the guy that's now about to get a gold jacket.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
So many special things about Mike Tollman, and I think
one of the things that's great too. As you said, man,
you guys were all complaining that first week Mike Tomlin
could care less with anybody. Six of them. He does
not at all. Is such an art form and a gift.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
It's and he does it. It's not premeditated. No, it's
not like playing doesn't sit down and write it out
and plan it out Like, this is what I'm gonna
say to these guys today. You put him in any
situation and ask him a question that he has never
heard before. He's gonna give you the right answer. And
it's He's the most unbelievable guy I've ever seen it
(27:26):
being able to do that. Uh. And he obviously you
use my coach for five years. I got a lot
of it and I absorbed it all. I feel like
I gave him some too, but he gave me more.
He gave me much much more. And I appreciate the
hell out of the man he changed. He changed my career,
changed the trajectory of my career without a doubt.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
And obviously we're gonna see him in chatting with the
whole crew as well.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah, he'll be there.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
You've had a lot of huge plays obviously, it plays
in the super Bowl and plays in playoffs against Philly,
I mean huge plays. Is there one that stands out
more for you that you you lay your head on
your pillow at night and that just lifts you up
till today.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Yeah, And there's it's actually it was towards the latter
part of my career, be honest with you. Obviously, the
Philly could play in the NFC Championship game is the
one that everybody knows about. It was biggest. But I
was at my you know, I was at my peak.
It was coming off the year that I led the
league in interceptions. It was that next year, and you know,
I was in I was playing my best ball. Literally
(28:27):
I was at the peak. And I've stated that that
being a plateau for a lot more years. But there
was a time, I think it was eight when you
talk about mental health, when I was kind of down
in the dumps because I think I was thirty. How
old i've been in a thirty three years old. You know,
I'd had a long career already. We just drafted a
key who we were talking about earlier, and the team
(28:48):
wanted to replace me. They wanted to put a keyb
in in a game. And I was devastated. You know,
I'd had and it wasn't They talked thinking about starts,
consecutive starts, all this stuff. But I had had like
a long career and I was very well valued and
uh and viewed by a team and everybody else in
the middle of the season, they're thinking about starting this
rookie over me, and uh, it didn't end up happening. Uh,
(29:13):
that's a that's another very long story. But it didn't
end up happening. And that next game we played Detroit
and I had a two interception game, one for a touchdown,
and it was the second one that most stands out
in my mind as the play that sprungboard the latter
like the last four years of my career, because it
was like, ship, this dude still has it and I'm
(29:36):
not done right, not not even close to being right.
It was a comeback, which is a hard play to intercept,
came off the loop that we called that's a technique,
came off the loop, stuck my foot in the ground,
came came and undercut this this this receiver Dante Culpepper
kind of laid it out to the sideline. I picked
up a sweet pick too, had to reach up and
(29:57):
go get it, and then scored and it was like, Okay,
that mental health health crisis that I was having, that
crisis of confidence that I was starting to have again,
that shit's gone. And Uh. I played four more years
after that, and it was pretty powerful moment for me
still that I like to share with a lot with
people about you know, that perseverance and finding ways, you know,
(30:19):
to force your will on your opponent, right to force
your will on a situation. And it happened right for
me that day.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
It's also it's a gift chart yourself to not label
yourself what everybody else was labeling. You asked, which your
whole career has kind of been at right. Everybody is
always how do you? How are you able to do that?
Not let people define you? But you've been able to
define yourself despite how they describe you.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
That's exactly. It's actually kind of the message in my
Hall of Fame speech to be honest with Jay uh,
you know, because there's a lot of people out there,
whether they just didn't care to know how what I was,
or undervalued me or whatever. Those voices you realize aren't
your own, because it's easy to let them be your
own either. If they're doing they're so loud, and there's
(31:05):
so like, let's make a judgment on Jay Lazer, Jay Glazer,
no way, Jay Lader is going to be the most
prominent scoop Brenker. Now, I'm not calling it an insider.
That's not you. You're not an insider. All those other
fuckers are insiders. You're a scoopage king. Right, How am
I going to define myself Jay Lazer as being a
(31:27):
scoopage king? It was the same thing. How can I
let what other people's voices are saying define me? And
you just choose not. If you choose not to, you
open up yourself the possibility to be whatever you want
to be. I don't know where that came from, largely
because I knew that I wasn't going to be a failure.
I wasn't going to allow myself to be that. I
destined in my mind to be something better than that
(31:50):
than what they expected of me. And at the end
of the day, that was That was all I needed.
And it helps being good at your craft and you know,
having a mentality that allows you to get through it
where those opinions don't bear you. But over a course
of a sixteen year career, I proved a lot of
people wrong and that was at the end of the day. Now,
(32:12):
that's very rewarding, right.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
And this is the first time, but it's worth it's
one of the best talents or skills or everyon want
to say, one of the best qualities that you've had
over the years is just not ever let anybody tell
you who you are and you decide I'm gonna make
up who laugh.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
It's just been.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Incredible, and it's been incredible for me to have a
front row seat to it all. My last question I
asked all my guest, this, give me a moment in
your life that should have broken you but didn't, and
as a result, you came through the other side of
that tunnel much stronger, hence unbreakable, and you can use
that for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Yeah, that's a good one. I have to think about
that because there's probably been a couple. I know one
very early in life. I'm not even sure what age
I was now, probably about thirteen, and we were close
knit family. You know this, you know about my mom
and my aunts and and uh. I remember waking up
one morning my mom told me that her oldest sister,
(33:10):
the one just below my mom, my mom's the oldest,
was killed murder. And that moment was the first time
my life that I had had felt lost like that.
You know, old people die, You know, you around enough
old people, you know they're going to pass away. You
expect it. This was unexpected and I don't know that
(33:33):
it's so much changed me, but it jaded me, and
it gave me this realization that, you know, life is.
We were young, Tea and I were very young. I
want to say we were twelve, and I should know
this this year, but it's blanket on me right now.
But the reality was, it easily could have broke us,
It could have broke our family, but it didn't. We
(33:55):
persevered through it. We found a way to make ourselves
adjust to the grief and just the loss. And I
use that word jaded because nothing else could be more
important than losing a loved one. And at the end
of the day, whatever happened, we made it through that,
so we can make it me thin.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
That was your first real sign of grief.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Right and not knowing how to deal with it too.
I mean, I'll watched my mom deal with it, and
my grandmother deal with it, and my other two aunts
deal with it. And the struggle that that really is,
that is it's unmarkable. You can't say how it affects
any one person. A grief is real it's tough, man,
(34:38):
and if you can get through the other side of it,
there can be joy and revelations of that life is
precious and you just have to love it when you
have it.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Well, brother, I cannot wait to see you this week.
I'm so excited to see you this week, Ben, and listen.
I love when things happened to me that are really cool.
But life is amazing when it happened people you love,
and nobody deserves just more than you. Man. The hard
work you put in, the hours and hours and hours
and hours that I have witnessed, the injuries you've played
(35:09):
through just a grunt and man, the tiers that you've
built that no one else ever saw. I'm proud of you.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Thanks man, I love you, dude, you too. For me,
It's going to be a party, will be fun afterwards too.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Oh it'll be great man. Hey, and once again, thank
you for and for my call that day and clearing
your schedule telling me you'll be there for me, Because
I think that change the trajectory of a lot of
people's lives. I was able to talk about what happens
when you call a friend saying I'm struggling. You're the
first man, and definitely not the last.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Now.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I love you, man.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
I'll always be there for your brother. Always.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Ronde Barber Hall of Famer, Thank you, brother,
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental health podcast
helping you out of the gray and into the blue.
Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome back to Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with Jay Glazier.
Before I get to my guests, who has a huge
week ahead of him. If you're like many people, you
may be surprised to learn that one in five adults
in this country experienced mental illness last year, Yet far
too many fellow receive the support they need. Charah Lom
behavior health is doing something about it. They understand the
(00:36):
behavior health is a key part of whole health, delivering
compassionate care that treats physical, mental, emotional, and social needs
in tandem. Tara Limb behavior health raising the quality of
life through empathy and action. So welcome into Unbreakable, a
mental health podcast. And the guests I have this week.
You think there's twins Rondae and Tiki Barber, there's actually.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Three of us.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Jay Lazier's part of the family. Well and man, what
a huge week it is for my brother ryde Barber
Hall of Famer ryde Barber going to Can't, Ohio this
week for that Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
How we doing buddy, uh'd be better at about uh
we'll say seven days. What all this is playing?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
You have nerves?
Speaker 3 (01:16):
You never have nerve, not nerves. It's just a lot,
you know how it is. You've been through some of
your boys before. Uh, there's a lot going on. Four
hundred plus people showing up for us, dude, that's Oh,
thank god. I have a loving and busybody wife that
has had no problems taken on all of this, because
(01:36):
I definitely would have been able to do what she's done,
uh to get us ready. But I'm excited for her.
I'm ready for you know.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
What he's talking about there, Claudia his wife. He has
four hundred people coming and several of his friends for
children like me. So I hit her up and I
was like, hey, Claudia, you know my tickets myself? Like
what do I do on it? She's like, oh, you
got everything since in email. I'm like, Claudia, I'm a child.
I don't know how to do things for myself. So
she helped my head and made sure everything was set.
(02:03):
You got four hundred friends.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Like that, You're like the guy that shows up for
the wedding and is like, oh, we were supposed to
RSVP for that. Sorry, I don't have to see it
for you.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
And I'm the gifts.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Yeah, you are the Here's.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
What I want people to know. And I don't know
if Ronde knows this part, but listen. He has the
record for most consecutive starts ever by dB played sixteen years.
Three time All throw which means you're the best of
your position, two time second team All Pro, five time
Pro Bowler, All Decade Team for two thousands. Has Jersey
(02:38):
retired from college Super Bowl Champion Hall of Famer. But
I don't know if you know this. Rende Barber is
the first person I ever called. I had to get
joked up here that I ever called ever when I
was struggling and told them and tell people this man.
Lean into your friends and your teammates. This is the
(03:00):
champ of Super Bowl. A couple of years ago, myself
and him and my friend Brian and Ben asked them
to go to do dinner and they said, now we're
all busy, and I said, no, dude, I need to
have dinner. I'm struggling.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
And I d was there for me, always there for you, Jay,
I mean you were there for me back when I
was a nobody. People don't know that there was a
time when it was Tiki in New York and Ronnie
was a I don't know what I was back then,
but we became friends back then, and that was let's
put twenty five years on that. I think that at
(03:32):
least twenty five years ago. So one thing that I
can provide for you and for all my friends, but
especially you because we've been through so much. I know
what your life journey has been. I've been through a
lot of it from afar here recently, but I was
there at the beginning when you were trying to make it,
and then you make it. You have such this profound
(03:54):
influence on the world of sport, and at the end
of the day, people don't know you're struggling. So if
you ask me for that, I will absolutely be there.
And I know that I have a very positive outlook
on life. I feel like I haven't had many bad days.
I've had some. I feel like I haven't had many
bad days. But if I can lighten up your life
and let you know how much you're loved, rather, you
(04:14):
can call me anytime.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
And here's the thing, folks, that was the first time
I ever like I never said anything straight in, I
ever said to anything that the rock. Really I never
you know, my best friends, I never said anything had
Ronde and them said no? And I were busy. Man,
I don't know if I would have opened up to
the world and had this, you know, God for everybody
else to be able to lean into your friends and
your teammates. But because you said, oh, first, oh I'm busy,
(04:38):
then oh you're struggling, I'm there, it allowed me to
teach everybody else this is what happens. When you lean
into your crew, they respond they're there for you. And
that just started the most incredible chain reaction for I
think a lot of us. Brother.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Well, there's also the fact that you know, my friends
have always been there for me too. So when Brian
and Ben, nobody in the world knows that those guys
are but we do, right, those guys, Uh, there has
been as solid for me as I could possibly expect
from you know, two guys that I met as an adult.
And granted we met as an adult too, It's not like,
(05:13):
you know, not as not as if Jay was actually
born Joldine Barber, but the companionship and the uh, you know,
the love that has been fostered through all of our years.
I got that later with those guys and those guys
because they love me, love you, I swear. I think
(05:34):
back to that night sometimes and thankful for you. Know
that family extends itself because not a lot of people
have families, you know, close enough families that they can
go to, but everybody should have that extension of family
that you can always rely on. I've always had that
and I'll always be that for you. Man.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
That's a hall of fame friend, because folks, I was
struggling right and you and I've always put on this
face and he's known they and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Oh yeah, your whole hell a lot of fun when
it's all good, dude.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
But but it's it's rarely good. But through my ears
and I go overboard for it's. I always created that
character and the first time I'd be like, hey, man,
that's just character. This is really what's going on. And
that was a huge moment for my life, man, really
really big. So yeah, I wanted people to understand the
mastery of Ronde Barber. And when I say this, there's
a couple of things. Hey and I always tell my
(06:25):
tell my fighters and I always tell players, manage your
honor to play hurt. And one of the guys I
learned that from is Ronde, And I always tell guys, hey,
you don't show it. You don't show it. Now in life,
I want everybody to show where our struggles are and
open up. But you didn't miss a game. You have
the record most consecutive games ever started as a defensive back.
But it's not that you weren't injured. Right, So first
(06:46):
of all, list list off the injuries you play through.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
And I wrote about it in my book, right and Well,
it started in high school. I can go all the
way back to high school. And a lot of this
was to be honest with you, just in an effort
to keep up with the twin right, because in high
school I broke my collarbone second game of our senior season.
Senior season, right, it's last time I'm going to play
high school with all the friends you grew up with.
Broke my collar bone, and it was probably a month injury.
(07:14):
I missed like two weeks and came back and played.
And I think that was the start of the you know,
I'm gonna do this regardless type of thing. Give me
an opportunity to play, and I'm not ever gonna leave.
So from there, did they put play it or they
just they just said it, They didn't even they didn't.
You know, I don't know if you ever broke your collarbhone,
(07:34):
anybody out there broke that collar phone. They put that
thing on your back that pulls your shoulders, set your
collar phone, and two weeks later I said the hell
with it, I'm gonna I'm gonna, I'm gonna go play.
But yeah, the list here we go. So this is
a lot, see if I can remember them all sequentially.
So So in college, I had a stretch fracture on
(07:55):
my foot that ended up breaking, but I played through
it for like the last four or five game games
of my red shirt freshman year. Then before my third
season playing at Virginia, I dislocated my elbow compound dislocation
and they had to have surgery and offseason. I played
with that like three months later to start that next season.
(08:15):
But then we get to the NFL, and man, besides this,
I'm not gonna even mention the soft tissue injuries pulled
hamstrings and squads that those mean nothing. But I had
a highcle spray in ninety eight that I played.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
And never missed a game. Folks, through all this during.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
High gol spray. The ninety eight that I played through
it may have been ninety nine. In two thousand and two,
I broke my thumb during the game, played through it,
and then had surgery. Played the next week. That same year,
I tore my PCL in the back of my right knee,
also Super Bowl year, so I was not going to
not play. So I played through that at surgery, and
(08:52):
that bothered me for probably the next four or five
years of my career. I shattered my form uh in
a in a game in two thousand and eleven. What
else was the other one? A tor moniscus in my
left knee the other knee for my PCL that I
played through probably in two thousand and six or seven,
(09:16):
and it just couldn't stop. I couldn't stop playing. If
I was able to walk, I was gonna play. And
if it was an upper body injury, I was gonna
definitely play. I think my foot would had to fall
off for me to actually not not play.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
That's whether you were taught or is it just because
you said, well, I wanted to keep up. I was
a twin and I didn't want to fall behind.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
T Well, a little bit of that, but I think
mostly to be real honest, I got on the field
in high school in the pros because somebody got hurt.
Somebody got hurt. It gave me an opportunity to play,
and I never stopped playing from from then on out.
And so it was this I've used it this term
(09:59):
like this fear failure, but really it was like a
fear of somebody else, you know, getting an opportunity that
I thought that I that I worked hard to get
and I didn't want I didn't want to give anybody
else that opportunity. And that's selfish to a degree, but
it's not, it's not selfish at all. But it also, Yeah,
it also helped drive a mentality that allowed me to
(10:23):
be great, you know, because if I'm not, if I'm
not one hundred percent and I'm still performing, then when
I am one hundred percent, I'm going to be really
really good. And I don't know, it just stuck with me,
and I don't know. I think people doubted me for
so long earlier in my career that I think there
was a sense that had I had to prove them wrong,
and it hurt. Didn't give me the opportunity to prove
(10:44):
them wrong, so I just chose not to be hurt.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
So I'll tell you a mastery of Randie Barber. He
and I are sitting in a bar in New York
were watching one in night football and Washington's play in Dallas,
and all of a sudden, Ronde says, oh, this will
be an eight yard into the Vertius calls. Still remember right? Sure, shit, folks,
who was an eight yard into la Verti's calls? And
(11:08):
I said, how'd you know that? He just said, well,
down in distance, it was, you know, seven yards and
thirty and seven. But you said, on film, I noticed
Laverni is when he's going to be the target, he's
let two inches taller or shorter than when he's not
the target, or so along those lines. And I'm like,
what the fuck do you see this on film? That
tiny little thing? Unreal when it comes to watching film,
(11:30):
seeing those tiny little things. But it's not just you're
on film. You're just wanted to watching on the game broadcast.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
Right, It's just it's an obsession, is what it was.
You know, it was an obsession with detail and perfecting
the details. I mean, we can all go out like
you're a fire. You know, you can all go out
and perfect the technique and rep rep rep the technique
that's going to carry you through a competition. But the
middle prep was the same thing. For me. It was
(11:58):
that little tiny detail. I treated it just like practicing
my back pedal or practicing my step and kick and
man the man coverage or whatever and tackling form. My
prep was the exact same. It had to be detail oriented,
and it just stuck. It just sticks with you. So
if I've seen it on film and I noticed it
and I noted it, then uh, it's going to be
(12:19):
there forever. So when we were watching that game, just
sitting around having a more than a few cocktails as
we want to do, yeah, it was yeah, okay, this
is this is what's getting ready to happen. Let me,
let me, let me impress Jay with my with my people.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Hey, clearly you have because I'm still talking about it
and preaching the book. Did an art to watch in form.
You know, I sit there and you know, Strand filled
my social scene because he said there and watching film
Montreal and watch like oh look look at this, Look
at John running's foot, it's half an inch toild it in,
I'm like, what are you looking at?
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Nobody else cares about that, right, But also a lot.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Of guys can't recognize it. They can't see it. Did
somebody teach you how to watch them? Where it's just
the repertation over the years, because folks, I mean, I'm
not exaggerating. I'm not when I say, oh, it's two
inches or a half an inch and he notices something
like this in the camera that's way up at the
top of the stadium.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
It's unreal when you're looking at When you're looking at
so much film, like the hours of film that really
good players put into it, you notice the minute details
like Frank Gore back when he was playing for San Francisco,
and I didn't find this when someone else told me this,
But this is a good when we were studying him,
somebody else told me this. When he was looking to
(13:34):
be a pass protector. His head was always moving, he
was survey in the field when he was going to
get the ball. His eyes were dead straight, and you
could always tell and you know.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Not every way passed and run and every.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Play, not every play did that? You know, was I
able to see that playing corner. But the few times
where you're like, oh wait a minute, let me check
his head and he's like this, You're like, okay, this
is a run and it just gives you information to
get ready for that play. So you can call it cheating,
you can call it guessing. Whatever.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
At all you're doing your work.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
You're taking advantage of its cheating, cheating preparation, right, it's
taking advantage of knowledge, is what it is. When and
knowledge and opportunity meet, preparation meet, Like you go make
plays and I did that pretty well for a long time,
and you know.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Give me another one that may stand out to me.
They're like, oh when this guy did that?
Speaker 3 (14:27):
Like, let me think, well, I could always tell uh,
And this was this was a combination of things and
not that I ever covered this well, but uh it was.
There was a till between Steve Smith and Jake Delane
when because you know they they obviously they were running team.
They had this too great running back, but they also
had a damn good wide receiver, really damn good wide receiver,
(14:49):
Hall of Famer. In my mind, Uh, that was like
a running back and if the run play was going
to be covered up by the call we had on defense.
They would just pick up the ball and throw it
out there this little now screen. You know, everybody does
it now they call RPOs now, But back then it
was just he'd pick it up and throw it instead
of running into a brick wall in a run game.
And Jake Delom and Steve Smith had this. They had
(15:12):
this little I could tell because of the way that
Steve Smith was angling his shoulders towards the quarterbacks. He
had to get ready to catch it. You could tell
that the ball was coming, and Jake always had He
was like Jake would be, would look and if he
was like that and he came up and throw it.
I mean I missed the tackle a whole bunch of times.
I guarantee you that I knew every time that that
play was coming. And I be honest with you, I
(15:34):
don't even know if he knew that he did it,
but I knew that he did it because I needed
a little bit of advantage to get that little fucker
on the ground.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Would you tell your teammates offensive guys, how often did
you tell them, hey, man, you're you're chipping this?
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Not very often. I wasn't a share I never know
if that guy is going to get I don't know
if if Keenan McCardell or whoever, was going to leave
and go play for somebody else. I don't need them
to number what I know, not not, not really. And
I didn't study our guys like I studied other guys.
(16:07):
Everybody has, whether you know it or not, they're there
if you look hard enough.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Was it as you started getting older and it was fine,
you know around it you'd have this film room kind
of was named the Rendee Barber Film Room in there?
How much you know, work you did.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
The funny part about that, Shay, is that it was
an extra meeting room. It wasn't my room, it was
an extra meeting room. We went to this new building
because before I used to just go into the video room.
I'd sit down in the video room at one old
one buck the trailers, and they had this little setup
for me where I could just come in and sit
down practice, you know, with my pants, practice gear still on,
(16:40):
to just sit there and watch film. We'd shoot the
ship whatever. But then we moved into the new building
and they put an extra meeting room down there, and
it was unoccupied, and I commandeered it. I made it
my own and put all my shit in there, all
my like like it was like an extension of my locker.
I had everything that I needed in there to go
in there and watch film, and I'd spend hours in there, so.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
As guys were coming in and out. You know, I've
been with you where people ask you, hey, you know,
what did you do here? Would you do some preparation?
Did you always offer teach these young guys, hey, man,
come and watch film? Or did it also get to
the point at one point where like, hey, I didn't
want to do it something I can offer it anymore?
Did you always do it?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
No? I always did it, And I tell guys all
the time, Hey, I'm going to be in here. Do
you want to come in and watch it? Let's go
watch And the one guy that really embraced it, I
mean he didn't do it every day with me was
a key and I got a keep really early keep yeah,
early in my in his career. Uh. And I think
that if you ask him he'll he'll to this day
(17:39):
talk about the influence that I because he was physically
gifted man, and he's long, he's fast, very aggressive, perfect mentality,
for football. That's why he played along and so successful
on three or maybe four different teams. But at the
very beginning, he was the one guy that I most
remember saying, I'm going to go and just sit down
with Ronde and figure out what he's looking at, you know,
(18:01):
because I was a bad point. I've been in the
league for ten years, and he was inquisitive, and I
think some of what I did rubbed off on him.
But that was in there every day. I mean, the
guys would come in and out, and I always tell
them to come in, and what I really wanted to
do Jay was to get them to come in and
study themselves. Like it's easy to study your opponent, it's
(18:22):
easy to look at other people, but to look at
yourself critically. That's without a coach telling you, hey, you
need to do this. Hey, it would be if you
have you ever thought about doing this, I want you
to do it. I was good because I did it.
I went and looked at my footwork, and you know,
if I stepped wrong on a play in practice, I
wanted to know why I did it so I could
go out the very next day and correct it. And
(18:44):
that's I talk about all the time. Perfecting your craft.
That's that's what perfecting your craft is. It just doesn't
happen like you have to know what you're doing wrong
to understand what you're doing right. And there was a
lot of guys that actually fell in mind with that
and got better because of some of my influences. That
regards awesome.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
It also led to you to being the only member
player in NFL history out forty five interceptions in twenty
five sacks. Yeah, one of one, which gave you the
more more joy the picture of the.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
Sacks definitely the interceptions, just because they're so hard to
come by. Interceptions are not easy, and if you're playing.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
You're five to three, like me, satured way harder to
come back to you that picks.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Actually, I'll tell you this, early in my career, it
was definitely the sacks because that's where I was getting
my most opportunities because we were blitzing so much. You know,
that zoned doll mentality that Mini Kiffen and the Eagles
defensive coordinator Johnson, Yeah, had. Those type of decordinators were
just coming into vogue then, and so we did it
(19:47):
a lot. And at the time, people didn't really know
how to deal with it, and so I had a
lot of free runs. But then when they started to
pick them up, I had to figure out how to
beat the guy that they were signing to block with me.
So it to get the twenty eight sacks is what
I ended up with was a pretty special number. I
wish it would have got. I wish I wanted to
get the thirty, but Shiano made me a safety my
(20:09):
last year, didn't play me a nickel, so I didn't
get the thirty. That's a that's a different conversation. But
but but the interceptions, man like the feeling of taking
away a row or concept that they've worked so hard
(20:31):
on and that you overplayed and take took the ball away.
That was pretty awesome. The amount of prep to get
an interception was ten times what it was to get
a sack. Put it that way, so the interceptions always
felt like more rewarding. Plus you know, teams trying to
score and you get the ball back. I mean it changed.
Those are game change and tech plays to me. The
(20:53):
corners in the league in safeties too, But the corners
in the league to take the ball away, I don't
care how good you are technically. The ones that take
the ball away? Are the best places in football?
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Would you have freedom to just go in blitz certain
times when you want to? Always called?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Most of them were called. There's a few times where
you know, I had a battle boy kind of sack.
I sacked Tony Romo and we played Dallas at home.
Whatever year that was. It was it was Raheem's years,
and uh, I'm sitting on the end of the line
of scrimmage. They had a formation set away for me,
some a corner on the end of the line of scrimmage,
and I thought it was a run play, and so
(21:29):
I was being aggressive playing supposed to be playing in
the flat or whatever, and I just went. I was like, well,
I guess I guess wrong.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
I get this.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
See if I could make myself right, and uh and
I did. He had no idea I was coming. He
turned right round out of this bootleg and I he
had to just went to the ground, got an easy sack.
But yeah, like that, I was supposed to be encoveraged
and uh uh got a sack out of it. So
it happened every Now give.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Me equipped one line or a couple of lines for
the biggest life. Can you learn from these Naps. Tony.
Speaker 3 (22:02):
Yeah, Tony taught me. He taught us all, but taught
me humility and patience. You know that you're not always
going to be the right away guy, because I obviously
told me it was my coach. My first year in
the NFL, and I didn't play. Only played in one game,
well two games that played in the playoff game, only
one regular season game. And it was humbling from a
(22:22):
guy who for me, came from college three times All ACC,
been All American, three times ACC Rookie of the Year.
All I had known was success coming into the league,
and the next thing you knew, I am like irrelevant
as a first year player, and that was humbling. But
he always was encouraging and the way that he handled
(22:45):
us as a team, but specifically everybody on the team,
not just the Warren SAPs and the Derrick Brooks and
the guys that were really challenging being the best players
on the team, but the guys that weren't. He helped
me understand that I needed to do more, and when
I did, I became a really good player.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Who actually taught me something He taught you also last
year at the Hall of fam or two years ago,
he told me he had taught you football is not
a career. It's an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was. That was. That was that.
Herm said that to me first. But yes, okay, that was.
That was one of the first things her told. You
told you got in and he's like, and Herm had
been there.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
All right, you did say her I've been hitting that
a lot too, so I'm sorry, but you did tell
me and Peyton Manning's Hall of Fame that part I know.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Good, Yes, it's exactly right. Yeah. First thing he said
is like, man, it's not this isn't this isn't a career.
This is an opportunity. There's a lot of men that
want to do what you're doing right now, and there
are a lot that aren't doing it. Are you going
to do what it takes to become the guy that
can make this, uh, this opportunity last long? And And
(23:54):
that was. Those weren't powerful words because you get in
the league you think that, man, this thing is gonna
last forever, and you start playing and you think this
thing's gonna last forever. But in the back of my
mind those words always stayed there. It's just an opportunity, man,
And it's not finite. It's gonna end, right, it's not infant.
I'm sorry, it's finite, it's gonna end. And just always
knowing that just helps. It helped me probably be the
(24:15):
guy that we were talking about earlier that take your opportunities,
do chances to play, don't give them up, you know,
because any one miss game is could be your last.
And I wasn't willing to let that happen.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
What's the best lesson you learned from Mike Tomlin, who,
by the way, folks and her members left. I got
calls from Ronde and a bunch of people in there going, man,
nobody replaced her.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Nobody.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
They got this new guy coming to Mike Tomlin. No shot,
no shot. They took them all about a day going
this dude's unbelievable.
Speaker 3 (24:42):
That's a funny story. We got it. We get in
and it's the off season, right. But I got a
story about Mike that goes back and forth. He was
actually our coach. But I remember the first day of
off season work like the OTA's they were much longer
back then. Now they're like, it's like three weeks of
work in the freaking off season. Don't do anything But
back then, we're out first day doing new drills and
(25:05):
I remember Lynch came up to me and said, Roy,
what is up with this? Dude? Man, where do you
want all these drills that we probably didn't colle it
we needed to do this stuff. But after like a week,
literally everybody's like, Okay, I'm getting better. I'm getting better
by doing this these minute, detailed drills that seemed irrelevant
(25:26):
at the time, but it helped. It helped that perfection thing.
And he was really really good at like convincing you
that it was gonna make you a better player, and
then obviously it did. But yeah, Mike T. Mike T
was the first one. If you're asking for lessons from
these guys, Mike T was the first guy that offered
a mentality adjustment for me because I had been successful, right,
(25:48):
I was a starter at that point. I wasn't very
production wise, it wasn't very that wasn't great. But he
saw something in me that he said was going to
differentiate me from the crowd, and it was the way
that I played inside played Nickel. He's like, I've watched
all of your tape. Nobody's doing this and you're the
only person I've ever seen do these reps like this,
(26:11):
and he's like, how can we get better? And how
can we get you to twenty sacks? And I'm like,
I'm not thinking about sack. I only had six interceptions
at the time in my career. He was like four
years in. I had six interceptions, Like, how can I
get more interceptions? He's like, dude, We're going to make
you a twenty twenty guy. And I'm like, okay, And
we went about to do it, and twelve years later
I was forty five twenty five guy.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
And he got you to have confidence in yourself.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
He made me believe. He made me believe that I
was on a level that I didn't think that I
was on. It was refreshing because he was really the
first guy that gave me that. It empowered me to
be the guy that's now about to get a gold jacket.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
So many special things about Mike Tollman, and I think
one of the things that's great too. As you said, man,
you guys were all complaining that first week Mike Tomlin
could care less with anybody. Six of them. He does
not at all. Is such an art form and a gift.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
It's and he does it. It's not premeditated. No, it's
not like playing doesn't sit down and write it out
and plan it out Like, this is what I'm gonna
say to these guys today. You put him in any
situation and ask him a question that he has never
heard before. He's gonna give you the right answer. And
it's He's the most unbelievable guy I've ever seen it
(27:26):
being able to do that. Uh. And he obviously you
use my coach for five years. I got a lot
of it and I absorbed it all. I feel like
I gave him some too, but he gave me more.
He gave me much much more. And I appreciate the
hell out of the man he changed. He changed my career,
changed the trajectory of my career without a doubt.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
And obviously we're gonna see him in chatting with the
whole crew as well.
Speaker 3 (27:48):
Yeah, he'll be there.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
You've had a lot of huge plays obviously, it plays
in the super Bowl and plays in playoffs against Philly,
I mean huge plays. Is there one that stands out
more for you that you you lay your head on
your pillow at night and that just lifts you up
till today.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Yeah, And there's it's actually it was towards the latter
part of my career, be honest with you. Obviously, the
Philly could play in the NFC Championship game is the
one that everybody knows about. It was biggest. But I
was at my you know, I was at my peak.
It was coming off the year that I led the
league in interceptions. It was that next year, and you know,
I was in I was playing my best ball. Literally
(28:27):
I was at the peak. And I've stated that that
being a plateau for a lot more years. But there
was a time, I think it was eight when you
talk about mental health, when I was kind of down
in the dumps because I think I was thirty. How
old i've been in a thirty three years old. You know,
I'd had a long career already. We just drafted a
key who we were talking about earlier, and the team
(28:48):
wanted to replace me. They wanted to put a keyb
in in a game. And I was devastated. You know,
I'd had and it wasn't They talked thinking about starts,
consecutive starts, all this stuff. But I had had like
a long career and I was very well valued and
uh and viewed by a team and everybody else in
the middle of the season, they're thinking about starting this
rookie over me, and uh, it didn't end up happening. Uh,
(29:13):
that's a that's another very long story. But it didn't
end up happening. And that next game we played Detroit
and I had a two interception game, one for a touchdown,
and it was the second one that most stands out
in my mind as the play that sprungboard the latter
like the last four years of my career, because it
was like, ship, this dude still has it and I'm
(29:36):
not done right, not not even close to being right.
It was a comeback, which is a hard play to intercept,
came off the loop that we called that's a technique,
came off the loop, stuck my foot in the ground,
came came and undercut this this this receiver Dante Culpepper
kind of laid it out to the sideline. I picked
up a sweet pick too, had to reach up and
(29:57):
go get it, and then scored and it was like, Okay,
that mental health health crisis that I was having, that
crisis of confidence that I was starting to have again,
that shit's gone. And Uh. I played four more years
after that, and it was pretty powerful moment for me
still that I like to share with a lot with
people about you know, that perseverance and finding ways, you know,
(30:19):
to force your will on your opponent, right to force
your will on a situation. And it happened right for
me that day.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
It's also it's a gift chart yourself to not label
yourself what everybody else was labeling. You asked, which your
whole career has kind of been at right. Everybody is
always how do you? How are you able to do that?
Not let people define you? But you've been able to
define yourself despite how they describe you.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
That's exactly. It's actually kind of the message in my
Hall of Fame speech to be honest with Jay uh,
you know, because there's a lot of people out there,
whether they just didn't care to know how what I was,
or undervalued me or whatever. Those voices you realize aren't
your own, because it's easy to let them be your
own either. If they're doing they're so loud, and there's
(31:05):
so like, let's make a judgment on Jay Lazer, Jay Glazer,
no way, Jay Lader is going to be the most
prominent scoop Brenker. Now, I'm not calling it an insider.
That's not you. You're not an insider. All those other
fuckers are insiders. You're a scoopage king. Right, How am
I going to define myself Jay Lazer as being a
(31:27):
scoopage king? It was the same thing. How can I
let what other people's voices are saying define me? And
you just choose not. If you choose not to, you
open up yourself the possibility to be whatever you want
to be. I don't know where that came from, largely
because I knew that I wasn't going to be a failure.
I wasn't going to allow myself to be that. I
destined in my mind to be something better than that
(31:50):
than what they expected of me. And at the end
of the day, that was That was all I needed.
And it helps being good at your craft and you know,
having a mentality that allows you to get through it
where those opinions don't bear you. But over a course
of a sixteen year career, I proved a lot of
people wrong and that was at the end of the day. Now,
(32:12):
that's very rewarding, right.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
And this is the first time, but it's worth it's
one of the best talents or skills or everyon want
to say, one of the best qualities that you've had
over the years is just not ever let anybody tell
you who you are and you decide I'm gonna make
up who laugh.
Speaker 3 (32:28):
It's just been.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Incredible, and it's been incredible for me to have a
front row seat to it all. My last question I
asked all my guest, this, give me a moment in
your life that should have broken you but didn't, and
as a result, you came through the other side of
that tunnel much stronger, hence unbreakable, and you can use
that for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Yeah, that's a good one. I have to think about
that because there's probably been a couple. I know one
very early in life. I'm not even sure what age
I was now, probably about thirteen, and we were close
knit family. You know this, you know about my mom
and my aunts and and uh. I remember waking up
one morning my mom told me that her oldest sister,
(33:10):
the one just below my mom, my mom's the oldest,
was killed murder. And that moment was the first time
my life that I had had felt lost like that.
You know, old people die, You know, you around enough
old people, you know they're going to pass away. You
expect it. This was unexpected and I don't know that
(33:33):
it's so much changed me, but it jaded me, and
it gave me this realization that, you know, life is.
We were young, Tea and I were very young. I
want to say we were twelve, and I should know
this this year, but it's blanket on me right now.
But the reality was, it easily could have broke us,
It could have broke our family, but it didn't. We
(33:55):
persevered through it. We found a way to make ourselves
adjust to the grief and just the loss. And I
use that word jaded because nothing else could be more
important than losing a loved one. And at the end
of the day, whatever happened, we made it through that,
so we can make it me thin.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
That was your first real sign of grief.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
Right and not knowing how to deal with it too.
I mean, I'll watched my mom deal with it, and
my grandmother deal with it, and my other two aunts
deal with it. And the struggle that that really is,
that is it's unmarkable. You can't say how it affects
any one person. A grief is real it's tough, man,
(34:38):
and if you can get through the other side of it,
there can be joy and revelations of that life is
precious and you just have to love it when you
have it.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Well, brother, I cannot wait to see you this week.
I'm so excited to see you this week, Ben, and listen.
I love when things happened to me that are really cool.
But life is amazing when it happened people you love,
and nobody deserves just more than you. Man. The hard
work you put in, the hours and hours and hours
and hours that I have witnessed, the injuries you've played
(35:09):
through just a grunt and man, the tiers that you've
built that no one else ever saw. I'm proud of you.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
Thanks man, I love you, dude, you too. For me,
It's going to be a party, will be fun afterwards too.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Oh it'll be great man. Hey, and once again, thank
you for and for my call that day and clearing
your schedule telling me you'll be there for me, Because
I think that change the trajectory of a lot of
people's lives. I was able to talk about what happens
when you call a friend saying I'm struggling. You're the
first man, and definitely not the last.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Now.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I love you, man.
Speaker 3 (35:44):
I'll always be there for your brother. Always.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Ronde Barber Hall of Famer, Thank you, brother,
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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