Wins & Losses- Clay chats with former Titans RB Eddie George

This week on Wins & Losses, Clay Travis is joined by Heisman Trophy winner and Titans legend Eddie George. The two talk about his upbringing just outside of Philadelphia, and his journey that led him to Fork Union Academy to attend high school. Clay asks Eddie about his decision and process to attend Ohio State, and some of his big moments he had as a Buckeye, including winning the Heisman Trophy. Eddie talks about his first time meeting Steve McNair and also about the day that Steve McNair passed away and what a difficult day that was. Clay also asks Eddie George about his fascination with Shakespeare and his future endeavors of performing Shakespeare acts. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Wins and Losses with Clay Trevis. Clay talks
with the most entertaining people in sports, entertainment and business.
Now here's Clay Trevis walcome in Wins and lost his podcast.
We had a little bit of a break on the
podcast because it got so crazy with college football in
the NFL season, uh in twenty nineteen, as we ran
into we're gonna have a lot more of these coming

(00:23):
for you now that we're officially into huge backlog of
these that I think you guys will enjoy as well.
And I know you're gonna like the guy who's joining
us now. He is Eddie George. He has obviously been
incredibly successful Ohio State running back, won the Heisman Trophy there,
had a tremendous career with the Tennessee Titans and uh
and more so, we bring him in. First of all, Eddie,

(00:44):
thanks for being with us. Man. Always a pleasure. Clay Man,
You've been uh a good friend of mine through the years.
Although you gave me some really bad picks last week. Uh,
My gambling picks have always not been ideal. All right,
So so let's dive into uh your backgrounds. We worked
together on television quite a bit at Fox over the years,

(01:05):
But I don't really I occur to me. I always
like to interview people and ask I don't really know
a ton about your background other than I remember we
had high school photos and you were at military school,
and I'm gonna ask you about that because I imagine
that was an interesting experience. But before that, did you
grow up in Philadelphia? Is that right? Yeah? I grew

(01:26):
up mainly in Philadelphia, just outside of Philadelphia, UM called Adamton,
born to Abington Hospital. Uh. Grew up at North Hills
and my grandmother's south between there and Mount Airy, in
different parts of Philadelphia. UM, and uh, to say the least.
You know, I wasn't a bad kid, so to speak,
but I had the potential to be really bad or

(01:48):
really great, and I was veering down the path that
wasn't wasn't going to be very great in society. UM.
You know, the product of my my my environment, uh,
not conducive um for a great deal of success so
to speak. You know, my grandmother did the best she could.
My mom worked um for different jobs just to keep

(02:10):
everything going in our household. She provided the best force. UM.
But you know, without that a strong um, strong enough
male figure. Uh my life for a fifteen year old,
six year old kid at the time. Um, it wasn't.
It was just wasn't there. You know. My grandfather was older,

(02:31):
but he wasn't um necessarily uh my father. So it
was really difficult for me to be a geared in
the right direction in terms of going to school and
um knowing what to do in terms of working out,
and and just really ticking on a more proactive role
in rumps in my development and both as an athlete,

(02:54):
as a student, and really as a human being. So um,
you know, my mom made a hard decision to send
me the four Military Academy. Alright, So before we get
to fork Union, were you always a good athlete? You're
obviously a big guy. Now, were you always a big kid?
Do you remember any kind of yeah, like when you
were young, did you play sports? Like? What? How? How
would you just sort of characterize yourself as a kid

(03:16):
from an athletic perspective. Athletic perspective, I was. I was
a good football player, not not exceptionally great. Wasn't really
necessarily big. I don't my gross spurt until I was
like in the temp grade. I grew like like six
inches overnight. It seemed like I was. I was like
five into in the ninth grade, I was like five
six hundred and forty pounds. Did you did you have

(03:40):
any indication that you were gonna be like a big
guy or there are other people in your family or
did it kind of just hit you and you were
like wow, I guess I'm yeah. You know, like my
father was five nine five ten. My uncle's on my
father's side were like six two six four, But mainly
my mom's side was going to case now was going

(04:00):
to grow to be tall or big or anything. Um
in fact, you know, I was looking at They used
to try to watch Joe Morris for the Giants of
the Day, and I mimic my style after him because
I was so I was like short, and I was like, man,
how I don't know how I'm gonna do that a's
five four or five six in five six. It wasn't

(04:20):
until um uh, like again I got in six seventh grade.
But I will say this, my feet were always normally big,
and at eleven, I was wearing a size thirteen in
size four team and I could never find cleats my
size that I had to uh, wear baseball cleats for football.

(04:41):
The in they banned me from the league because of that.
It was crazy, but I guess that was the clear
physical indication that I would grow into my foot my
foot side. So did you? And I asked that question
because sometimes guys are great athletes from a young age
and they think to themselves, every kid, everybody who's listening
to us right now, at some point wanted to be
a pro athlete. But some people kind of become almost

(05:04):
accidental pro athletes where it's like, oh wow, I just
kind of grew into my body, or other people are
like they're dominant from the time they're five or six
years old. Did you think you had a realistic chance
to be a college level athlete? Uh, you know, looking
back on your career now, well probably inside out I
believe that, Um, But people looking at me from their perspective,

(05:25):
I would say absolutely not. Yeah, Um, I was. I
was a solid player. I was at best. UM. Growing up.
You know, people thought that, you know, I had had ability,
I could have potential to do some good things. Trophy
one is certainly not maybe playing at a college like
or a temple. UM along those lines that can probably

(05:48):
see that. But nothing to the degree of of what
I've accomplished. So um yeah, I would say, in my
heart of hearts, I believed it, um, because you have
to think that way in order to get to that level.
You have to believe it yourself. It's for this this
from my own experience, I've never once doubted the fact

(06:09):
that I couldn't play at Ohio State. You know. Um,
although other people looked at me differently, I I could
not look at myself that way. I had to work
to get there, but I had to have I had
to see in my mind first that makes sense. Take
me into Fork Union Military Academy. When your parents, your mom,
your grandmother, whoever took you there, or however you got there,

(06:31):
you find yourself sitting in that dorm room for the
first time looking out the window, and you're like, oh, man,
this is my life now. Well, you know it's funny
you say that. Man. I'm in the process of writing
about that experience for me as we speak, and I
remember I fought against it. Um My, my mom told
me about going taking me to Fort Union, and she

(06:53):
she packed up her night orange Mustang T Bird Mustang
and it was a seven hour drive from Philadelphia down
hit in the back roads of Virginia, and I didn't
see a word other than I have to use the bathroom.
The entire time, I was just so upset because I
thought that my football dream was destroyed, um by taking

(07:18):
me to this unknown place in the middle of nowhere. Uh.
But when I got there, I quickly realized that, man,
this might be the spot for me. Because every major
college in America, every recruiter, every coach from Bobby Bowden
to Joe Paterno, John Cooper, uh, Lavelle Edwards, um, you

(07:41):
name it, they all knew about this place, this little
place between Richmond and Charlottesville called Fort Union, and they
recruited and sent some of the best kids in America there.
And I wasn't there for athletics at all, was there
for my academics. But my first night in the dorms
was it was just an eye open experience. It was

(08:02):
like anything anything I've ever experienced in my life. There
were no stalls in the bathroom, so that you're sitting
there commode or literally right next to each other with
no privacy, So you're literally watching another guy take a
dump and having a conversation doing so. Uh. The showers
weren't the best. Um. We had to clean everything with
our truth brush, and we had chores to do. So

(08:24):
it was a It was an eye open experience. And
for my first month or so, I was homesick and
I cried to night. I cried every night, um for
a month straight, and listening to my my walk man,
listening to songs and reminded me of home. And all
I kept thinking about was the the violent sunset to
my grandmother's house and how that p peace to me

(08:45):
every time I went to our house, and how that
was home for me and I missed that. So it
was very, very difficult in the beginning. But something in me,
another voice in me, was saying, just see it through
and just continue to put your best foot forward here
and things are going to pay off, because I felt
like that was the right place for me, both academically

(09:06):
and discipline wise and athletically speaking. What were the kids
alike there? Oh yeah, they're kids from all over the world.
Man from Egypt to Venezuela, UH, South America, China, UM,
the South Africa, Ethiopia, Russia, UM, kids from UH, the

(09:30):
inner cities of New York City and and and Richmond,
Virginia and Washington, d C. To the sticks of Kentucky
and South Carolina and Georgia. So it was a multi
product culture. Guys from different backgrounds, different religious beliefs, different customs,
and different musical tastes and it was it was, it

(09:51):
was wonderful to be around these guys because it became
my brothers after a while, and you met guys. Kevin
Plank was a uh was was there when I was there? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
so he was there the same exact time who went
to Maryland that you had like fourteen or fifteen guys
that all got drafted in the first round during my

(10:14):
time at Fourth Union. So with the different the different
guys from all over, and that's really where the learning
experience came from, was in the barracks because you had
to learn how to get along. And I had to, uh,
really humble myself to my superiors, guys that were much
younger than me, smaller than me, and a different hue

(10:37):
with my color skill on my skin. So I had
to take orders from different guys and it really told
me discipline and humility, um, and to adhere to to
my superiors and really challenge myself to be a better
leader in terms of leadership. So, UM, the guys were great.
I've had long last relationships UM at Fourth Union until

(10:58):
this very day because went through something that only the
strong can survive. That you know, anybody that around the
world to say hey, I was the Fourth Union, I
immediately stand up, give him a hugs. I understand what
it takes to make it through that school. Whether you're
there for six months or six years, it is an

(11:19):
experience like the other. But I wouldn't change it for
the world. What do you think would have happened if
your mom hadn't taken you there? Mm hmm. That's a
great question. Collect It's something I think about often, man, honestly,
because I certainly wouldn't be where I'm at now in
brent Within Tennessee. I wouldn't have won the Heisman Trophy.
I wouldn't have met my wife, I wouldn't have had

(11:41):
my my two beautiful sons. Um. I was on the
track of of being like anybody else in my neighborhood.
My friends. Most of my friends are dead in jail
or drug addicts or UM really never stepped outside their
comfort zone in terms of wanted to be more than
just um going to get a not regular nine to

(12:04):
five and working in the still mill or working at
some company in Pennsylvania and getting your pension and living
off of that, and and and just trying to take
a train ride down to Baltimore occasionally. You know. So
I certainly wouldn't have been where I am today or

(12:24):
thinking the way that I'm thinking, because that changing culture
is so important, that change the environment. You know. I
went from being around kids that we're just focused on.
The majority were focused on just being satisfied with c INDs.
The minority, we're wanting to be a's and be and
be students and and to be more in life. Whereas

(12:46):
I went to Fort Union, if you got poor grades,
it was because you tried really hard, and it was
cool to have great grades and to be involved in
different programs and to uh expound your mind into learn
about Shakespeare, to uh to American politics, taking trips to Washington,

(13:06):
d C. To the see the White House. That was
cool at that school. If you weren't doing that, then
you were the exact opposite. So it really opened my mind,
expanded my mind to be more think, more stressed myself
outside of my comfort zones. You know, it's interesting you
say that because I ended up at Martin Luther King
Magnet School, which is in downtown Nashville, for seven through twelve,

(13:28):
and I felt the same exact away. And I sometimes wonder,
you know, my mom and dad said, you have to
go here. It's a public school, it's a magnet school,
but it's an academic and it was the best decision
I ever made in my life to stay there and go.
But I often wonder what would my life be if
I hadn't gone there. I don't I certainly wouldn't have
gone away and gotten a scholarship in d C for college,

(13:49):
and I wouldn't I don't know that I would have
gone to law school at Vanderbilt. Like that decision in
that time in your life is so incredibly important. Uh.
And and and having somebody who give you that direction, right,
because you never would have picked You never would have
been like, Hey, I'm gonna go to the the middle of
nowhere Virginia and go to military school. Your mom knew
that was the best thing for you. And you, I mean,

(14:10):
you were so mad at her. I can I can
you know, kind of visualize that on that drive or
you said, you didn't talk to her at all. You
never would have made that choice, you know what, Clay.
And now that i'm of that age, my mom's age
kind of when she sent me there, I can only
imagine how difficult it was fifteen year old son to
a military school. She saved my life. She saved my

(14:34):
life because she saw some things in me that would
be potentially bad or potentially great. She had she had
no money, you know, she didn't have the money to
do it. In fact, she didn't finish paying for my
school until I was my my second or third year
in the NFL, and she never asked before a dome
to pay for She drove back down the forking and

(14:58):
and handed the minister creation the final check my third
year in the NFL, still paying that off and I
was that's after four years of college. Man. So it
was a huge sacrifice that she made the world did
it well? My uncle, that's a great question, man. My

(15:18):
uncle Derek um who who's from Philadelphia. Um, he went
to Admington. He was an exceptional baseball player, a great athlete.
Uh he need another year of development from athletic standpoint.
Very smart, bright guy. He went to Fort Union and
my mom and my grandmother and myself, my sister all

(15:39):
drove down to like at Annapolis when he played against
the Naval Academy UH for the postgraduate program for Fort Union.
They played against each other, and that's time my mom
initially found out about four Union. It was ten years
prior to me. So one summer, the summer that I
got in trouble, I went to military, I went to UH.
I was supposed to the summers school for geometry, and

(16:01):
I told my mom. I lied to our said mom
might want to get a better grade geometry. I want
to go voluntarily to the summer school. He just signed
on the bottom line and signed the sheets so I
can go and and just be a better student. And
my mom was really impressed. He was like, oh my god,
you really embracing becoming a student and academically taking control
of it. Well, a long story short, I wind up

(16:22):
cutting class the entire summer. I was enticed by my
friends to go to the pool and hang out with
the girls, to go to La Mall and play basketball.
And I was flunking or failing UM geometry. So my
my guidance counsel called my mother's just miss George Eddies
in danger of not making not passing the seventh grade.

(16:43):
He's gonna be held back because he's not passed the geometry.
My mom said, that's impossible. He wanted to go to
geometry to get a better grace, you know, Miss George.
He had to go. And that was the straw that
broke the camel's back, the deception, the uh, the games
I was playing. I always told her, thinks you wanted
to hear make a you know, make things sound good,
and and she just she just had no other choice

(17:06):
to do it. And um that she made a strong
decision to send me away out of Philadelphia. Now keep
in mind, in the same area as Valley Forge Military
Academy in Philadelphia, very prominent school on this par with
Fort Union, a stellar reputation, um a strong background, strong pedigree.
But she wanted me out of the city of Philadelphia,

(17:29):
out of the area so she wouldn't be tempted to
come get me, and I wouldn't be tempted to run
away home. And um glass she did it. So when
do you realize that, so you're you've gotten a lot bigger,
you're stronger, you're faster. When do you realize at Fork Union. Hey,
I'm pretty good at football. Do you remember the first
time that you started to get some attention from college
coaches there? Well, my junior year when I went down there, Clay, Um,

(17:54):
I was in hopes of starting my first time. Um,
and I'm you know, I'm very arrogant, and you know,
I'm thinking I'm a city kid, and I'm sure these
guys boys up ball and all this stuff. So I'll
get it out here. And I asked the coach, coach
Mickey Sullivan. I said, okay, Um, I want a single
digit number. You know what numbers do you have available?

(18:15):
And uh, he says, well, you know, if you can
prove that you can play, then you know you can
have any number you want. I said, okay, great. I said, well,
who was who was the competition? Who's to start running back?
Because no nobody big you know that they're these guys
aren't or anything special. And he says they're Lee Green
and Keith Burton. They said. Lee is about six three,
two twenty five pounds. He was the state champion a

(18:38):
hundred meters runs of four or five. He's getting recruited
by every country school in the country. So you shouldn't
have any problems beating him out. And there's Keith Burton
who was six to two twenty pounds. UH, plays linebacker
and and running back. He runs probably about a four
or six four or five. He might have a better
chance of beating him out. He's getting in cruded something

(19:00):
some of the same schools. But you should be okay.
And I'm six ft, you know, a hundred sixty pounds,
so can wet. So I didn't start that year my
junior year. Might start my senior year. Um, and uh,
if things are going great, mind of being all print.
UM scored twenty two touchdowns, had well over fifteen hundred
yards rushing UM. But I had zero scholarship offers at

(19:23):
the end of the year. I had a partial scholarship
offer to Edinburgh in Pennsylvania, and I was approaching graduation.
There was my senior year, and I'm like, do I
take this opportunity to get out of here or do
I come back for a postgraduate year and really put
it at all on the table. There's no guarantee if anything.

(19:46):
So I elected to come back with post graduate years.
And uh, I got back and I came back bigger, stronger, faster,
and the first six games of the year, I rushed
for over fifteen hundred yards and fifteen touch downs. And
that's when I started to guard to the attention of
schools nationally. So you if you had left you would

(20:08):
have gone to play football where and Edinburgh, I don't
even know where that what would have happened? Is it? Like?
What do you think? What do you think would have
had you think you would have been good enough there
in a year that you would have transferred somewhere else?
Or what? How do you think your your career would
have got? Honestly, Travis, I didn't give it really a
second thought. I mean, the only reason I had left

(20:29):
Good Edinburgh was to just get away from poor king
In And I honestly asked myself that can I see
myself here for the next four years? You know, I'm
going to school being a good student and this. I
didn't want to just be a good student, and I
didn't want to just play football just to play football.
I wanted to be the best. And um I went

(20:51):
back for that that following year, and I never gave
it a second thought. I said, by by swinging miss
this this next go around, I just swinging miss but
I'm betting all the chips, putting all the chips on
the table. I'm all in. And I really dedicated myself
to my craft. And every day, every single day that summer,
I was doing something, whether it's ballet classes, whether it

(21:15):
was working out with the the the the University of
Penn football team. You know something that's going to make
stretching better. I was. I was all in that summer,
and and and there was no other option, there was
no plan B. Be sure to catch live editions of
Out Kicked the coverage with Clay Travis week days at

(21:36):
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(21:57):
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(22:19):
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(22:40):
What grows in the forest trees? Sure no? What else
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The forest is else the thing you think. Find a

(23:01):
forest near you and start exploring. I Discover the Forest
dot org, brought to you by the United States Forest
Service and the AD Council. We're talking to Eddie George
is the Winds of Losses podcast. I'm Clay Travis. How
did you pick Ohio State? Why the Buckeyes? Man? You
know this? This is this one story after another. Man, Um,

(23:23):
I don't think I did leave out now give to
that to that in second? Was uh that that year
prior to my post graduate year, Um, I put it
upon myself to sneak in my coach's office and there
was a book about you know about I want to say,
five pages stick of every school in the country and

(23:46):
every athletic director and there. And over a course of
four months, I ran up a telephone bill into the thousands,
calling every single school in that book and just giving
my name out. They're trying to gardner attention. And I
got zero response until I got to Georgia Tech. And
that was the same year they won the national championship.

(24:09):
Long story short. You would just call him up and say, Hey,
I'm Eddie George. I play running back at for Union,
like you know, like I'm interested in all seriesness, like
I'm interested in couple playing football for you lifted dude.
I got over there and I called, let's say, my
name is Eddie George. I'm a running back at forty
Military Academy. I'm six ft three, you know, a hundred

(24:30):
and ninety two hundred fifteen pounds something like that. I
want a four six forty. I can shoot you my film.
I got the film out to him. I got it
all out and everything. You were addressing the envelopes yourself
and like putting in the mail and everything yeah, I was.
I was an old VHS tape. I guess of like
your highlights, yep, of all my highlights, and just waited

(24:52):
four responses called him from Accurant to Xavier, and Xavier
didn't have a football team. But but I did that
over the course of four months, and my coach was like,
somebody's been sneaking in my office and running up my
telephone bill. And I'm thinking, you know, if someone's gonna
do this for me, I gotta do it for myself

(25:13):
because I had nowhere to go, you know, And you know,
he was just telling me, well, you've got some other
opportunities coming down the pipeline, and you've got to get
better in certain areas as a person, as a player,
and this and that tell me everything I needed to
do to get to that level. So it's a long
story short, I wind up making that decision to come
back to fourth Junion and I only had one I

(25:34):
wanted to say, I got one um offer from the offer,
but attention from Georgia Tech. But when they looked at
my my g P A and my s A T scores,
there was like, there's no way in hell you're coming
here and walking on here you come close to the
academic requirements. So that shut that door down. So that's
when I just went back to the four King. So

(25:56):
long story short, go back to fourth Union, post graduate year, bigger, stronger, faster,
and I'm getting the attention of Louisville and b y
U early in the recruiting process, and I'm excited, like,
oh my god, this dream is really starting to happen.
I really wanted to go to Penn State. That was
my dream. But there was a gentleman who I hated
at Poork Union. He was my cartoon sargeant. He was

(26:17):
his name was Danny Osmond, who wore glasses and he
was short. He was just this arrogant white kid, and
he stayed on my ask the whole time. He just
stayed up like drilling me, making sure that my shoes
were shigned coming as a student or this is an adult,
this is a student that was a stargeant. So they

(26:38):
give the students, you know, rank and leadership positions. The
would come to my room up since the hospital corner
is tight enough, or you know, there's not enough spaces
in between your in between your your clothes, your closet,
the hangers or so the story, I mean, the dude
got on my nerves and he gave me extra work.
He stayed on top of me. Well a long story

(26:59):
where he went to Ohio State as an athletic trainer. Okay,
he's taping ankles at Ohio States. He's a bluck guy.
He's doing this thing. And this is the same time
Robert Smith is there. So he kept tabs on me
from time to time and you see how he's doing,
and kept calling me. And at that time he left
a message on a on a piece of paper and uh,

(27:21):
you call him back on the pay phone and through
the calling card number and all of that. So he
calls me and I'm like, why are you calling me?
I'm like, dude, I even like you. Why you were here? Why? What?
What do you with the deal? What's the entry? He's like, man,
I understand that, you know, keeping up with you, and
I hear you doing great things and fourth Union and

(27:41):
you know, how would you feel about coming to Ohio State?
I said, wow, I said you don't want that? That
sounds like a good idea. I would love that. And
then he said, well, Robert Smith is is probably gonna
come back. They have a ton of running backs here
Robert Smith, Raymond Harris Butler, but noted Jeff Cothran, Will
Houston and probably going to recruit the top two running

(28:04):
backs in the country. But I believe that you can
really play here. I was like, Oh, I said, well,
I like, I love tense State, That's my first choice.
But let's say, you know what, what the hell see
what you can do? And I'm thinking, you're an athletic
trainer who's going to really listen to this kid? He

(28:24):
called me back two weeks later. Go to the whole
process and get the note calling a calling, he said, Eddie,
I finally got in touch with the elite that the
national recruiting recruiting coordinator go calmly, and he's interested in
seeing your tape with his mind putting some tape together.
I said, absolutely I would, so I got the tape together,
but coach sent up the tape. Two weeks later. It

(28:46):
calls me back. He says, um, oh my god, they
absolutely love you. Then you don't believe that they were
talking about the all day in the meeting. They want
to see another tape. So I got another tape together
and granted only played six games, so I sent all
my tape, all the highlights, everything. Calls me back another
two weeks later. Oh my god, they absolutely love you.

(29:08):
They want one more tape. I said everything I had,
I have nothing else to the same, and I don't
know what to say. So he called me about two
weeks later. He says, Ron Hudson, my house state who
recrused Virginia areas when it comes to four game and
visit with you. This is a big deal because if

(29:30):
they come to visit with you, that means they're either
going to have you come for a visit or they're not.
And I'm like, oh my god, this is the moment
of truth. So Ron Hudson's about six four and a
half tall, linky guy with the big old head. He
comes in the fourth gaen and he needs me. I
stand up and we're almost hide of eyes. So I

(29:51):
checked box from the six ft three deal and he's
looking at me. He's looking at my tape. He saw
that I ran track of the state champion and this,
and that it was besides the mention we said at
the end of our meeting, he said, well, how would
you feel about particular to Ohio State? And when I
heard those those those words that means they're very serious

(30:13):
for me. So I sit here, that's perfect, I'll do it.
And uh mine had taken my visit and um, I
just I remember being in Ohio Stadium on the cold
days of my last day and my visit. My visit
was okay, um, but it was something in the stadium
where it was the last. The stadiums to me is

(30:34):
when no one's in there, especially you can appreciate the architecture.
You can sense the greatness of the great players, the
great games that were played in the stadium from Michigan
to Michigan State, and Archie Griffin and uh uh uh
Bruce or Earl Bruce and Woodie Hayes and all these

(30:55):
great coaches you know, walk to pace it down the
sidelines and so forth. And I was taken and visualizing
that this was it, regardless of who was there at
that particular time, who they were bringing in Robert Smith, Smith, Jones,
it didn't matter who it was, ranked one, two, three,
four in the country, it didn't matter. I was coming

(31:17):
here to make my mark and I committed right there
on the spot and in the rest of history. When
you got to Ohio State, where were you on the
depth chart. I was number five. I was number five,
but I made enough noise to get on the field
and as a goal line specialist and as a fullback

(31:38):
and played sparingly in the first couple of games played
against Louisville. We squeaked out with a win against Bove
when our opener UM played against My had my first
touchdown against Poland Green. And then finally we had to
go on the road game. He had a big time
national televised road game against Syracuse. I think they were
ranked top fifteen or top ten of the country at

(32:00):
the time. UM. Most people were picking them to win
the national championship this year. And the and the rhetoric
was the speed from the east from the nomadic football team,
slow guys from the west, from the from the Midwest.
And that was Ohio, Ohio state. And I remember Kurk
Kirksky was our quarterback and he got the idea of

(32:22):
holding hands too. By two into the carrier dome UM
where it was super loud and it was just us
against the world. And it worked. You know, the first drive,
you know, Kurt drives down Mathoxy down the field. Of
course he can't make the fourth pass that's why he's
on ESPN. And you wind up getting all the way

(32:42):
down to the two yard line and I'm not expecting
to go in. Coach Cooper yells out, George, go in there,
and I'm like, oh shit, really, just go in there, go, go,
go go. I sprint out there, man, and I am
wide eyed, and I'm like, oh my god, I'm actually
in this game on national television, and I'm thinking to myself,

(33:04):
I wondered if my boys are four games watching this
because he used to watch all the games on the
ESPN back in the day. Is the same for pet fashion.
So he called the play cost twelve ye over fourteen nights.
So ready breaks. I get down on my stands. Man,
I'm nervous as hell, and all I'm thinking about is
whatever it gets in your way, just run it over.

(33:25):
I don't give a ship. If it's the rest, I
don't care. If it's Kurt, I don't care. Just run
it over. I take my drops to and I can't
hear thing. Bro it is extremely loud. All things to
rely on this movement? Did it? I run score my touchdown,
and all hell breaks lose. I was so pumped. Long
story short, I wanted scoring three touchdowns and become touchdown

(33:45):
Eddy and my first game on national television. What's it
like to go back to campus after you score three
touchdowns in a big game? Oh my god? I was
the man. I go to McDonald's and get free cheeseburger,
apple pies and uh, you know, free fries. I went
from being a funny looking kid being extremely fine by

(34:08):
the girls. I mean, it was it was love. When
the camping and we had a bye week to following
the week. It was great. So then no, no, I
was gonna say, so, did you feel like the college
seemed extremely easy? After having been in a military school
to suddenly have all this freedom and like all this stuff,

(34:28):
I mean, and and to be in Columbus, which is
a decent sized town. Uh did it feel easy to
you compared to having been through the military school. Yeah.
I wasn't homesick, where most freshmen, I wasn't home six sick.
Those guys had to make an adjustment from being home
away from home and having some time. But I had
an idea, Like I knew how to structure my time.

(34:50):
I knew how I had to get on my work,
get my workouts in, and find squeezing time to find fun.
So it wasn't far to me to be away from
from from from Philadelphia or or for Union I had
I hadn't already gone through that. I had three years
of the under my under my belt, because that definitely
prepared me for college. What do you think it would

(35:13):
have been like to go from nobody really knowing you
you scored three touchdowns in a game like that in
a social media age like so you're saying, like, I
can go out to McDonald's and people get me free hamburgers,
and some people on campus might know who I am,
but you're still kind of anonymous. Can you imagine for
some of these kids who go, you know, at seventeen
eighteen years old, nobody knows them, boom, they have a
big game on national television, and then suddenly everybody goes

(35:36):
through every tweet they've ever sent ever, you know, every
message on Instagram. It's why you think about right into
celebrity nationwise. Yeah, I mean you might be you might
be known, you know, regionally speaking, but but nowadays with
social media, it takes you from um being from the
back to the front immediately to everybody knowing who you are.

(35:56):
You know literally over now you can go from two
followers two over two hundred thousand followers just by by
one one one playing or took a couple of plays,
one great game. I mean, it's it's amazing. What so
after that debut, and by the way, you had an
incredible collection of people I believe on that team. If
I'm not mistaken, Herb Street, who obviously works at ESPN, now, uh,

(36:21):
you'll know obviously better than I am. Robert Smith who
has done a lot of things in the media, yourself,
who has had a lot of success doing a lot
of variety of different media related projects as well. Um,
also a couple of others, right, I'm trying to remember,
like that team that you were on, Yeah, Joey Galloway,
like an incredibly influential future media star team. In addition

(36:42):
to the talent on the field, no doubt, I mean
we are there are guys are pretty savvy and we
you know they know football inside. Now, we're all big
fans of the game. Um, we all worked put each other,
uh like no other our toughest our toughest games or
practice and relatively speaking, unless you play you pinch Date

(37:04):
or Michigan because the talent was so thick, and you know,
the guy rested sold Terry Glenn was just a an
incredible athlete that we all just saw great things from.
I mean his best highlights were in practice and going
up against our first teams. He would a walk on
UM running back way back, you know, So it was

(37:25):
it was pretty impressive. With Chris Sanders is another one.
It was probably the the best after you've ever seen.
He was jumping over guy's heads. You know, he was
the big ten UH long jump champion. So it was
just a plethora of guys talent wise athletically speaking, but
then also was able to transition that into um a

(37:51):
better situation after the game of football, in terms of media, business, uh, entrepreneurship,
you know, you name it. We've been able to transition
that into something else. Your first two years at Ohio State,
you carried the ball at this at the stats that
I'm looking at right now, seventy nine total times and
you had eight touchdowns. So I mean, obviously that was

(38:11):
a lot of success. But what happened by the time
you got to be a junior where suddenly you exploded
on the scene. UM the opportunity, Yeah, I had an
opportunity to uh to the play, UM, and it really
was I was the next guy up. Um. There was
still there was still kind of on the fence with

(38:33):
me in terms of my fumbles and whether I can
pick the big run, if I can be every down
back in terms of all of that, and I struggled
at the first two to three weeks with that. UM,
it wasn't until after we played Washington, A man, you
talk about intimity. That we had to go to Washington

(38:54):
and UM my junior year without Joey Galloway, so we
didn't had a threat to stretch the field and they
just loaded the box up the lawyer Malloyd, the safety position. Uh,
the linebackers are big, and I mean it was just
bringing the house and U. I remember we lost that
game and the coaches are like men, you know, have

(39:15):
to look at the film. You should have had well
over you know, a two hundred and fifty yards Russian
had Corey Stringer and Orlando Paced on the same offensive line,
and uh, they were just too really disappointed with my
performance and then lost. I wanted to getting over a
hundred and twenty five yards and a couple of touchdowns,
but that wasn't good enough. So it wasn't until a

(39:37):
Michigan State when I rushed for two hundred yards against
the Spartans at their place, and that's when things began
to slow down and I began to feel like I
could be a dominant player. Fox Sports Radio has the
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(41:26):
Us Kids, brought to you by the U. S Department
of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families,
and the ACT Council. We're talking to Eddie George's wins
and Losses. I'm Clay Travis. I want to go back
three touchdowns against Syracuse, but I cut you off because
I think you were about to talk about this. You
played against Illinois um and you had two fumbles in

(41:46):
that game, one at the Illinois four yard line and
another one at the Illinois one yard line. What happened there?
And what did that feel like? That? What is probably
the worst feeling I've ever had as a player. UM
To have those opportunities, to feel the extreme high of

(42:08):
scoring three touchdowns, so then fumbling twice, one that went
ninety nine yards for a touchdown the other one skilled
the game was a huge blow to my to my confidence,
and I felt like my career was over after that
because of oil State. You can't afford to get hurt.
You can't afford that at a bad game or his

(42:30):
next man up. And that's kind of how I felt.
And I didn't see the field a lot after that. UM.
I played the following week against Northwestern. I wind up
three yards, shove a hundred yards, But that was just
like a bone that they threw to me to say, Okay,
you know we're gonna shut you down for the rest
of the year. Any meaningful game from this point on

(42:53):
is going to be one of the guys that we
know and trust. And uh cous Cooper got credit size
for allowing me to play for as much as he did,
and I felt like I let him down. I felt
like I let the seniors down because there was a
chance to get to a roll's bull and that's all
they talked about. I'll be Michigan when the Big Tin
Championship and that, and that really hurt me. So I

(43:16):
went in the tank and I was in the tank
for a while and I had to had to bounce
back get out of that. How do you go about
curing an issue with fumbles? Like that's such a psychological
thing I would think of where it's almost like the
more you think of it, the more it could become
an issue. Yeah, and then exactly that, you have to
be conscious of it, but you can't worry about it. Yeah,

(43:38):
and at all times, you know, when you've had fumbles,
you have to at all times hold onto the ball,
no matter if you're um finishing the play, welcome back
to the huddle. You know, the defense would all every
time anytime I had a ball in my hand, I
was being challenged. So therefore I was always thinking about it.

(43:58):
And it never became in a situation where I can
just relax, because there's no time chance to relax. Anytime
you're going down, you begin to relax, and that's when
you're more prone to have bumbles. Is when the guy
or the runners were going on the way down thinking
that he's he's giving himself up, but you're still alive

(44:19):
and that ball will come out, So you gotta you
gotta be constant of all time. So that's kind of
how I got over it. Uh, you win the Heisman
Trophy your senior year, you obviously got over it in
a big way. When did you start thinking, hey, I
could win the Heisman trophy? Uh? Burt after we played
Mortre Dame had a big game against Nortre Dame where
I rushed for two hundred and six yards. I think

(44:41):
I had a couple of touchdowns, three touchdowns with two touchdowns.
It was a national televised game. It was I will
anticipate the game for that year was a circle of
such because Hio State Michigan s High State in Order
Dame had not played UH opposite that time until for
like it was like a forty year acts in between

(45:01):
the last time those two programs played each other. So
it was a highlight. And uh, and I just recall
this us having a day we score forty five points
against Luholtz team and that put us from the map.
And I think that was the day that people and
I thought that, man, I have a shot at one
of the highman because it open to that point. We

(45:23):
played some really good football teams and you can look
at our schedule and say, man, he's played against the
good competition. Um, he's on the number two team in
the country. And with that you have to pick somebody
say why are they doing so well? And I felt
like if I was doing my job, I had an
opportunity to do that. Did you enjoy walking up to

(45:44):
get the Heisman trophy more or or getting drafted in
the first round. I don't know if you were there
present to walk up on the stage. I can't remember
of those two experiences, which one seemed more surreal. Ah man, um, wow,
that's a great question. The Heisman for sure, because I've

(46:06):
dreamt of winning the Heisman. I Uh. I used to
practice my speeches in the mirror and I was a
kid at the Barry Sanders one. So to win that
and to um shot a look at my mother's face
and realized that while you know, my life has just changed,

(46:29):
my life just changed forever was everything because I think
my entire family knew what it meant to me, my
coach knew what it meant to me, everyone in the
house state and what it meant for me to win,
to have that moment my teammates on but I had
to go through personally. It was it was that was
a surreal moment looking back on it now? Does it

(46:52):
even seem bigger? You know? Sometimes when and I always
think about this, like when you're a kid and you're young,
sometimes you can achieve things and you don't realize how
big they are until you reckon It might take you
twenty years to look back and be like, man, that
was really a big thing. Does it even seem bigger
now than it did then? Or in that moment? Was
it like overwhelming? It's it's still overwhelming. Like me and

(47:17):
you tell I want by the trophy in my house,
you know, I'm always looking like, wow, I really one
hys and trophy in my lifetime. And because you only
have a small window to do it in and sometimes
you know, even the predicted leader of prior to going
in doesn't win it, and gosh, man, I've been very fortunate.

(47:41):
So it's very surreal when I think about it. And
and now that I'm removed from the game, um, so
like twenty years you move from it, you look at
that And every time I go to New York and
I see new Hysman winners like wow, if you just
have a chance to we live at moment every time
and it gets better each and every year. Be sure

(48:03):
to catch live editions about kick the coverage with Clay
Travis week days at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
And we're live here outside the Perez family home, just
waiting for the and there they go, almost on time.
This morning. Mom is coming out the front door strong
with a double arm kid carry. Looks like Dad has
the bags. Daughter is bringing up the rear. Oh but

(48:26):
the diaper bag wasn't closed. Diapers and toys are everywhere.
Oh but Mom has just nailed the perfect car seat
buckle for the toddler. And now the eldest daughter, who
looks to be about nine or ten, has secured herself
in the booster seat. Dad zips the bag clothes and
they're off. But looks like Mom doesn't realize her coffee

(48:47):
cup is still on the roof of the car and
there it goes. Oh, that's a shame that mug was
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(49:07):
Right Seat brought to you by NITZA and the ad Council.
We're talking to Eddie, George Wins and Losses, Clay Travis.
You get drafted. When's the first time you ever met
Steve McNair oh Man on the in the locker room
in the Houston. So he walks, he walks up, You
meet him and you think, what that's Steve air McNair

(49:28):
because I was a fan prior to being his teammate
the year before remember watching him on my couch um
where it was when it was cold is all get
out in Ohio and they were playing against Youngstown State
in a playoff game. And it's the first time that
I hadn't actually had a chance to see him play.
I heard about him prior to that year. He had

(49:50):
the Sports Illustrated handed them Heisman. We saw highlights on
ESPN and on all the other networks, but never did
I have a chance to sit and really watch and play.
And when I watched and play, and I saw that
he was playing with the pools hamstring in the cold
and his team was getting throttled. Youngest put it on it,

(50:11):
but he was still in there playing. And this this
guy had everything in the world to lose. He didn't
be he didn't build out on his teammates. And at
that time, you know, if you were a high of state,
he knew were going pro guys will be sitting out.
There wasn't no question about it. But this guy was
in the in the cold in Youngstown of the torn
hamstring and still playing for his guys because he loved

(50:34):
the game. He loved his teammates. That always stood out
to me. And I said, mend this guy's and he's
a warrior. And little did I know that I would
a year later be his teammates. So when I met Steve,
you know, I always in the locker room and the
other rookies and all we could talking about, man, we
can't wait to see Steve mcmair. I mean we were
this teams as fans of them. And and he incomes

(50:57):
Steve and he has two cell phones on the clipped
to his hip, He has his shirt tucked in, he
has some sunglasses on, some Air Force ones, and he
wasn't starting at the time, was real quiet. He says, hey, man,
what's up. Very nice to meet you, man, Um, welcome aboard.
We're gonna have fun doing this. Was a pleasure to

(51:18):
meet you. If there's anything you need, here's my number,
get me a call anything you need it all man,
you know you're gonna love Houston. And that was it,
you know, And I was like, oh man, that was back.
And I remember going back to my room and uh,
sitting down with my boy and I was talking to
him on the Fox match met Stephen May. He's real
cool and all this other stuff, and he said this

(51:40):
to me, and I was just wide eyed. Man. It
was just it was a real was a real honor
to meet that dude. So when did you realize how
good he was in the NFL? You know, and you
were that you were the engine of that offense for
the first couple of years when you guys were on
the all together, right, and then they just gradually gave

(52:02):
him more and more opportunity and obligation in that offense.
But did you could you see it before, way before
it actually took place on the field. Did you see
that he had that ability? Yeah, his arm talent. This
really stood out of practice. Um. He had to fight
through a lot of different injuries. Um during those years,

(52:25):
I think, how to how tough was he? Uh? Well,
do you know what we know? All about his on
the field stuff, okay, and all the stories of the
Bruce sternhum to the toe injury, he had infection in
his shoulder. But the one thing that stood out to
me is when I was getting my teeth clean, I

(52:45):
was getting the root canal I think done on my
tooth by Dr macop. That's the sould. He and I'm
scared of needles. It took them thirty minutes to give no,
the gentman NovaKing. I can't stand needles in my mouth
or ignor with my body. So it took in thirty minutes.
And I thought he was lying about this. He says, well,
you know, Steve didn't take Nobkane and he just got

(53:09):
his tooth pulled out. Wait, but he said he didn't
put to Novercaine. Your dear lives, asked Brad asked, asked
the trainers, and he don't tell you themselves. And so
I went in the training room, I said, Brad, I
heard this ridiculous story of Steve didn't take no becaine
and his mouth said, no, he didn't. He's you know,

(53:29):
it was something else. He was num from something else.
But the bottom line is he didn't take no vcane
to do getting tooth pulled out and the pain on
that is ridiculous. So that to me, when I heard
that story, I said, this guy, this guy is the
real deal. Uh So you're in Houston and you said,
Steve said, Oh, you're gonna love Houston, you know, like

(53:50):
it's an awesome town, big city. Where were you when
you heard for the first time that the team was
moving to Nashville And what did you think? Well, there
always rumors um swirling around the facility that we were moving,
but it was two years. It was like from ninety

(54:10):
we were supposed to move it to like ninety nine,
eight or ninety nine. So that's kind of the was
the rumors, but the attempt was. The attendance was so
bad my first year in Houston that I think our
largest crowd may have been for Pittsburgh, and it was
fifty thousand, but it was the majority of Pittsburgh fans,

(54:34):
So on average it was maybe sixteen thousand fans, and
for a twelve o'clock kicked in the kickoff and in
as far as the the pregame warmups, there were maybe
five people in the stands. You know, it was completely dead.

(54:57):
It was bad. Um. So, I think I was in
Ohio when I heard that we were definitely moving to
Tennessee and not returning to UH to Houston for our
final year. And that's when then, that's when we went
on our noble journey. And did you think though at
the time, I can't believe I'm gonna be living like
you didn't have any clue had you spent any time

(55:17):
in Nashville, never spent not not one second in Nashville.
I told you, if I told you back at ninety six, hey,
you're gonna make it your home even after you finished playing,
you would have probably told me I was crazy. Yeah,
more than likely. Yes, I would have definitely thought that
because I was thinking of going back to Philly or
moving to Atlanta, going to the place else than staying

(55:41):
here in Nashville. All they had that was a highlight
with Hooters and a couple of other spots. I mean,
who was the spot to go to? You know, and
and you know maybe another spot called something live. But
outside of that, it was Downtown was the ghost town. Yeah,
and it was. It was had character and no life

(56:01):
and those signs of it at all. And it was
just like, well, any sect and we get a chance
to go to Atlanta or Shooting, New York or or Miami,
want to do this that. And now it sounds crazy
because Nashville has become a huge destination. So there's people
who are listening to you right now and they're like, oh,
I'm going on vacation to Nashville. But when you're king
like like you're right. There was a Hooters on Second

(56:24):
Avenue downtown and like you know, a couple of dance
clubs or whatever. But it wasn't what you would didn't
really want to go down there and hang out, have
a nice nice gram gram Central station. Like there's an
old school for Nashville people. Right. It was the worst
night life you can ever imagine. And here we are

(56:46):
NFL team and we couldn't get into clubs here. You
couldn't even you know, give away tickets to our games.
We want to treat it with any type of respect.
The Nashville Cats got more love than you know. It
was like, what are we doing here? What is this?
And ye, well I was gonna say, you make the

(57:08):
run to the super Bowl the year they build the
new stadium, and it's like a light switch suddenly goes on.
And I think people got spoiled because they had you
and Frank why Chick and McNair and Derek Mason and
Blame Bishop and all these guys who were good dudes,
Al del Greco, who fit really well in the community.
And if I forgot somebody's name, inevitably people blow me

(57:28):
up on Twitter about it. But you but all of
a sudden, you make a run to the super Bowl,
And I think people kind of took it for granted
because they're like, oh, yeah, you get an NFL team,
they go to the super Bowl. And now twenty years later,
if you could ever get back to the super Bowl,
it's like, oh my god, to be the greatest thing ever.
But it's like it happened so quickly. Yeah, And I
think that that was the key. You know, we had
a great product or a mediocre product, and we were

(57:51):
two or two pieces away, two or two pieces away
from really being great. And that was the freak was
just unbelievable. As a rookie He really solidified us as
legitimate contended because now we had hell coming off the
edge and there's nothing there was nothing anybody could do
about it. Um. So with myself, Steve frank As the

(58:14):
offense at the heart and soul the offense, and really
the team, Bruce S. Matthews had no mind. We had
a great nucleus of players, um to a man, because
all we had was us, I mean that that was it.
We had to entertain ourselves. We had spent time with
the with our teammates and really get to know them

(58:34):
in the community because we were foreign to everything too.
That really made us tighter because of their experience. So
you have this incredible run and we've you know, talked
a lot about over the years, the Titans success and
everything else. Um. You you did the your your the
number for Steve McNair at I believe it was the
Colts game this this past year in September. You did

(58:57):
a great job up there. Steve's brother I think spoke
to where were you when you heard the McNair news
and and could you believe it? No? I couldn't. Um.
I was actually in Atlanta with my wife. She had
performed that night. So We were driving back to um
Nashville that day, uh to celebrate the Fourth of July

(59:21):
to watch the fireworks. You know. It was a clear,
crystal clear, hot summer day. And I kept getting the
phone call some friends about Steve getting into a fight
at a club, and I said, that's some possible with
Steve doesn't go to clubs, and then more likely would
have somebody around him that she's not going to fight,
and then the gym from a fight, so he got shot.

(59:42):
And I said, that's ridiculous now, and I know he
didn't get shot at a club. And then I get
a call from the police officer fend of mine, who said, well, um,
we're not totally positive, but we think Steve um Man
got getting man died last night, um because he was

(01:00:02):
found inside apartment. And then I began to worry, so
I called Jeff Fisher said, Okay, if this is at
all a story of any sort, he's going to lose
something along those lines. So I called Jeff. Jeff was
I think in Iraq at the time, and he said Steve, Steve,
and he had a a strong sense of panic behind

(01:00:25):
his voice. That's not Eddie. And I said, what's going on.
He said, I heard something into the effect that Steve
passed away of something, and um, it was his wife
was involved in His wife was there and I was like, oh, ship,
this might be real. And then uh, maybe thirty minutes later,
I got the confirmation that he had passed away. Um,

(01:00:50):
and the particulars around it, all the details came out,
and we just made a beeline streight from Atlanta to
Michelle's house kind of comfort her and the kids. And
as you got close to town, that's when it's just
the fourth of July, Clay was just like just like

(01:01:11):
a heavy emotional blanket, you know. It started off the clear,
beautiful day. It rained the entire weekend. Um the fourth
of July and the fourth of julysn is going on.
They're really meant the same. Do you think and I
know this is like there are people have different opinions,

(01:01:32):
but do you believe that the girl killed him? Like
there's been all these different reports. I know you talked
to police officers and there's a lot of people who
have different theories. Do you think about that ever, wonder
if that story is accurate or do you just not
even think about it at all? Well? I used to
think about it. I used to think about how she

(01:01:54):
could must up the strength to kill him the way
that she did, almost execution style, having I never shot
a gun before, and then taking our own life, and
I just found that really really hard to fathom, Like
it were things that bad for a twenty two year
old that she'll do that and then but now, you know,

(01:02:15):
I'm at the point of what difference does it make?
You know, it's not going to bring him back. All
it's gonna do is just trystantly bring up bad memories
of of for Michelle and the boys and who are
definitely trying to bring closure to it. And I'm a
firm believer in karma. I'm a firm believer that that

(01:02:37):
God will take care of that, you know, it's a
form of fashion um and and they'll be repaid and
the way they're going to be repaid, and not worry
about that, you know. But I have to choose to
focus on the man Steve was, who he is, um,
who he was as a person, what he did for
our community, what he did for me as a brother,

(01:02:58):
as a teammates and friends, And that's how I have
to look at it, and that's how I cheeves to
look at it. How often do you think about the
Super Bowl? Only when you mentioned it? Now I think
about it every year. You know, this is the time
of the year, Clay, where I really, uh, this is
where I missed the game. This is where I missed playing.

(01:03:19):
This is where I missed the competition and the games
really matters. And you're are good buying for for one
one trophy. You have one game to get it done.
There's no seven game series, There's none, no, no, no,
no do overs. And this is where I missed the
game the most, um, and every time this time of

(01:03:43):
year when I have a chance to look at a run,
I mean, man, that was a special time in my
life and that can never be duplicated again. You know,
that feeling of winning an AFC championship and the things
we have to go through, and the Music City Miracle,
the runner Indianapolis us um that we're looking up at
the jumbo tron as you're that was the time of

(01:04:06):
my life and there's nothing that can replace those moments.
And you know, I've done a lot of different things
to my life at this point. You know, I've been
on Broadway, acted on this and that, and that's great,
but nothing, nothing compares to the feeling of running out
of that tunnel and knowing that you're playing for a championship,

(01:04:27):
or knowing that you're playing in Baltimore and it's going
to take your entire being to uh conquer the Baltimore
Ravens along with the guy named Ray Lewis, or come
out of the tunnel and face a Paton Manning or
or Kirk warn or some Hall of famers. I mean,
that's that's the competition at his heightst Man and that's

(01:04:50):
something that that I always missed. Was it tougher to
lose the Super Bowl or lose the next year against
the Ravens. Raven was done a doubt. The Ravens. We
didn't know how good we were, not until the end
of the season. We really didn't know that year. We

(01:05:12):
knew we were good, and we knew that Baltimore was
the splitting the splitting image of who we were and
whoever won that game wasn't just going to win the
game in advance to the next round. They were going
to win the Super Bowl. Kerry, we knew what they
knew it. I think the rest of the league knows it.

(01:05:33):
So all the stakes that were were built up on
lines with that game, with the hatred, the pure hate
between both organizations, the arrival between me and Ray, what
was said about me from McAllister, all of that played
a part in that. And it was very personal. So

(01:05:54):
if it was it meant that you lost your life
that day, then God willing you know, you live the
great life and on on you go. It was okay,
you know, it was that. It was that type of
the game. And I know most people don't understand if
there was only a game, it's not I mean, it's
it's it's your legacy, is the things that you work

(01:06:15):
hard for. It's the reasons why you you You get
up and you ran at five and six in the morning.
It ran twice two times a day during the summers,
and you work, you get to that point. You believe
in it, you grind for it, you cried for it,
and um, it's very much like any human being because
you build you be at best. So much energy into

(01:06:37):
that and when that when named, when we lost a Raven,
just felt like someone died. That was the toughest loss
I've ever had in my entire career because of what
was at stake. And knowing that it wasn't just another
playoff game. It wasn't like, okay, it was there's next year.
We had a great team, great players, and great momentum.

(01:06:58):
We had the home field advantage with a number and
see and then comes to Baltimore and it took that
from us. So that that was that was a tough
That was a tough pill the swallow. How long did
it take to get over that loss? You never really
get over it. I think you you you extract the
blessings in it, you extract the lessons learned in it,

(01:07:21):
um you realize that, uh not everything is based on
one game. I think you accepted a lot easier. It's
easy and more powerate and palatable to to accept. But
you never get over the lass. I mean, I'm not
walking around saying, oh, I've got to get back in Baltimore,
you know, but I look at it from a place

(01:07:44):
now of wow, that was a great experience. What that
I learned from it. It hurts that that I lost,
but I can now take that energy and to transform
that to something else. You used it towards something else.
But you never get over something like that. You just
learned from it, and you grow from it and you
use that to your benefit versus just to to two.

(01:08:09):
You're having the back of your mind to break you down,
distract you from what you have to do. How hard
was it to have your career end in general? Yeah,
like to have your football career come to an end.
You're putting all this effort. When you're talking about getting
up at five am, putting all this effort into being
as good of a player as you possibly can. You're

(01:08:30):
going full speed and then boom, it's suddenly over. That
has to feel hit you almost like a void, right
because suddenly that purpose. I guess I don't know. I've
never been there, but I can't forget you know it
as hard as you can. We'll just imagine if tomorrow
you woke up and your podcast is gone. You're not

(01:08:51):
with fop um. There's no other outlets that are one
of they are willing to take you on. You're at
a play a stuff now like, okay, your voice, your
opinion really mattered, and people that followed you, that's all gone.
Your purpose, that what you thought was the purpose is gone.
Then what's next? And and granted I had a chance

(01:09:15):
to go to other teams, but it wasn't the same.
It just I saw the side of the business and
it was it was I knew from my heart that
I was over. So it was very difficult to say, wow,
you know, where do I go from here? In fact,
who am I? And divorced myself from being or or

(01:09:38):
thinking I was just a football player, but realizing that
there was a bigger purpose in my life and that
I had to use the platform that I created in football,
but it was less to have into something else and
just what that was I didn't know, but I had
to um go down that path during to find out

(01:10:01):
what it was. And now I have the other courage
to do that. So it was very difficult but exciting
at the same time. You know, it's scary but exciting.
Something new, something fresh, and something in the Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f

(01:10:23):
s R to listen live. I got a just a
couple more questions for you, and I appreciate all the time.
This is wins and losses. Clay, Travis, Eddie, George been
fantastic with us. What's your Twitter handle? By the way,
or where can people reach out to you? Because I
guarantee you there loving this, Eddie George, There you go,
Eddie George. I'll obviously be tweeting it out. You can

(01:10:44):
let him know how much you've enjoyed and thinking for
the time on this. Uh. How does walking out onto
a stage on Broadway compare? You talked about walking into
the Ohio Stadium when it was empty, which I agree
with if you're able to go into a football stadium,
and sometimes it's more powerful than it is when it's full.
But what does it feel like to walk into a

(01:11:05):
stadium and walk out into a theater? How is the
similar feeling similar? How is it different? How would you
characterize it? It's it's similar on all fronts because it's
the energy of the audience. UM. Either way, they want
to be entertained. They came to see a story unfold.
It's much like the game has to unfold before you. UM.

(01:11:27):
Theater is a bit more intimidating because you're communicating with
your mouth and your your voice and uh. And stage
fright is very real if you it becomes a distraction
and you have your teammates, which are the other actors
but you have to be at a certain place certain times,
delivered with with with vulnerability and confidence and and realness

(01:11:53):
and not just spout out words. So there, there's just
so many different factors when you walk into a theater
and and that's the beautiful thing about life here that
the stakes are high, just like the football game, and
there any football game. So um, I don't see any
any really, I don't see any um anything that where

(01:12:17):
it's it's not different, you know what I'm saying. It's
it really is similar in all um on all fronts,
from the audience to the energy of the crowd, uh,
to the lights. Um. You can get you can against age, fright,
and much like you can get it in a football field.
You can freeze up, you can get um, you can

(01:12:40):
get distracted by what's going on and and fold easily.
So um. But the theater is just so intimate and
so precious and um it's a it's a given take
with the audience once you really engage and you capture
them within the story. So that that's that's what the
similarities are. What is it about Shakespeare that speaks to you?

(01:13:04):
And when did it start speaking to you the first time? Shakespeare. Um,
when I got into acting, I was just really immerged
into storytelling and from all different artists, from different writers,
play rights and so forth, and like anything else where,

(01:13:24):
I find challenging, and Shakespeare, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm
drawn to that. I'm I gravitate towards things. And I
told I'm told that I can't do or it's tough
to do a most active shyly from that, and I went,
I went towards that. And I remember going to early
my early days. I think it was in two thousand seven,

(01:13:46):
I went to Broadway and I wanted to see Shakespearean
played my first experience play, and it was it was Hamlet,
and it was Jude Law and Broadway, and I'm expecting
just to go in there and just fall asleep. Immediately.
I was tired as wine. My wife and I my

(01:14:08):
girlfriend of time. My wife was with me, and we're
we're like, really not expecting much other than to have
some nap time. But did you just say, hey, we
just want to go see Hamling on Broadway. So um,
I'm sitting in the audience and the life finally go
down and getting comfortable, feeling good, thinking Okay, I'm just
gonna watch the first actor too, and then then for

(01:14:30):
those all. But immediately I was transfixed into this environment
that they created. The smoke comes out, shoe law comes out,
and immediately I don't understand what they're saying, but this
the heightened language, the sense of urgency, became clear to
me what was happening. So I was able to follow
along quickly until my ear was able to catch up

(01:14:52):
to the words and so forth, and just how athletic
he was and how he um used the text to
tech me, of of communication, of turning that poetry into conversation,
and I felt every beat that he was going through
in his soliloquies and so forth. I was like, God,

(01:15:13):
and this is fascinating. And at the end of the show,
I'm doing a standing ovation. I told my wife I'm
gonna do that, and she was like, please, you can
barely speak the English language. So I made it a
goal of mine to perform in Shakespeare. And I still
want to do some more Shakespeare. When it comes down

(01:15:35):
to a rich the third I would love to do
one day and to building my jobs for that. So uh,
that's what, that's what, That's why I gravitated towards Shakespeare
because it's tough to do, but it's so once you
really understand the language and you really dove into the story,
and it's so beautifully written. You follow the amic pentameter,

(01:15:56):
the rhythm of it, and you express it in a real, honest,
truthful way. Uh, to the point where people are engaged.
That's there's nothing better, not no better feeling than that.
Be sure to catch live editions about kicked the coverage
with Clay Travis weekdays at six am Eastern three am Pacific.
Speaking of no better feeling, you started off talking with

(01:16:18):
me and this is Eddie George. I'm Clay Travis Wins
and Losses, talking about the fact that you didn't really
have a strong male role model in your house when
you were growing up. You also said you have two sons.
I've met those sons used to bring him out to
Fox a decent amount. They've grown up a lot. It's
amazing how much kids change in five or six years.
What did it feel like for your son to graduate

(01:16:39):
from Vanderbilt University and for you to be there for him,
maybe in a way that when you were growing up
you didn't have that same Uh, that same experience. How
gratifying was it? What did that feel like? It felt
amazing man, um too, to my son walk across the

(01:16:59):
stage age and get his degree at Vanderbilt, uh, and
to see him across the street stage and in high school.
My father unfortunately wasn't there um for either one of mine.
And I don't hold that as a grudge against him.
I know that he had his struggles in his life,
um with drug abuse, and he's been through a lot

(01:17:21):
in his life. There's no excuse for that, but um,
he Uh, he just wasn't there, and I wanted him
to be there. So it was important for me to
be there and to see and to support my son
in that. Because to go to Vanderbilt and to get
any type of degree his success that is one of
the top schools in the country, and to come from

(01:17:44):
the math of high school and to get a scholarship um,
to to play football there, uh, and to to get
his degree. I was one of the proudest moments of
my life to say, Man, you know, I'm really proud
this dude. He really did a great in his life.
Although he may not see it now per se, but

(01:18:05):
later on down the line, he's gonna realize that going
to Vanderbilt was probably one of the greatest decisions he
could ever meet. Eddie George awesome dude. Follow him on
Twitter at Eddie George. Not a bad guy for a Buckeye.
I look forward, by the way to seeing you. I
still haven't seen you in theater. I want to come
by sometime and uh and see your perform. All right, well,

(01:18:26):
I appreciate it. Man. That's Eddie George. I'm Clay Travis.
This has been Wins and Losses. Thanks for hanging with us.
Be back next week. Make sure you listen to the catalog.
I'm Clay Travis. Once more, Wins and Losses.