The Richard Sherman Podcast - Sherm at Seahawks camp with Darnold, Kupp, Woolen & Macdonald: "This team is different" - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Richard Sherman Podcast. We got another
great guest to starting quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks, Sam Darnold.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Appreciate you joining me, brother, Thanks man, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Man. You have had such an incredible journey from San
Clemente High School to the Seattle Seahawks. You know you've
had your up say, you've had your your downs. Just
take me through. I mean how it's kind of helped
mold you as a person a player because a lot
of those moments, I mean I could, I could be
an old guy, but like kids these days, don't know
how to get through adversity. But you've been through so

(00:32):
much and shown perseverance, ran grit, all those good things.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Yeah, No, for sure. I think at the end of
the day, you know, it really starts with how I
was raised, how I grew up, my family, my older
sister showing me the way when she was you know,
playing volleyball, the sports that she played growing up, and
how she got through things mentally, physically, all that. You know,
those are the people who kind of helped me get

(00:57):
to that mindset of just you know, never stop, you know,
no matter what happens on the field. Off the field,
life goes on, and as long as you have you know,
it's an old cliche, but as long as you have
great effort and a great attitude, that can take you
a long way. And that's kind of been my mindset
throughout my life really not just my career. But and then,
you know, along with family, I would say friends, having

(01:19):
a really tight circle of really good friends that I
can lean on in tough times, and friends that also
bring me down, you know, they kind of keep me
level headed when I, you know, have.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Success as well. So you know, I got great friends.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
And then you know, obviously you know you know this,
you know as much as anybody, but just playing this
great game, you get to know and you get to
be around so many great people. Coaches, players, the people
in the building, you know, eat guys like e K
in the equipment room, and you know, there's just so
many people, so many great people in this in this industry,

(01:56):
in this business, and you know, I'm just so so
you know, grateful, I think at the end of the
day to just be a part of it. So I
think that mindset also helps kind of whenever you're going
through tough times to be able to like, dang man, like,
I'm so grateful to be in this position that I'm in,
so why not just give them my all every single day?

Speaker 1 (02:14):
Oh my god, that's can't wait. Do we clip that?
We make sure we have that, because that's that should
be everywhere and be said to everybody, because that's a
lost part of it. You know, people don't appreciate just
the ability that the blessing to get a chance to
go out there and compete and be healthy and have
a shot at it. I could say I would have
dreamed of your scenario, going to sc hometown kid, getting

(02:38):
be the quarterback, going being a top pick in the draft.
Walk me through your draft day. I know you've probably
told the story a million times, but they just make
one million and one for me.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
The draft day.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yeah. Yeah, because I had to be cool man.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
It was sweet.

Speaker 5 (02:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
Yeah, it was a once in a lifetime experience that again,
like I just mentioned, I got to experience that with
my family and my friends, and guys that I did
draft training with were also able to be in that
same room, guys like Josh Allen Well in our draft,
not not at USC, but that's what I mean.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Were you training, Yeah, Josh.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Allen and Kyle Allen they were able to be there,
and Josh obviously got drafted by the Bills in the
same draft, and so it was just a big celebration
that night and it was great.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
And then I was on.

Speaker 3 (03:18):
A freaking early flight at like, you know, I had
to get up at four thirty in the morning. I
don't know how much sleep I got, probably you know,
an hour or two of sleep. And uh, I was
able to get out to New York and do that
that first press conference there, and that was for sure
a blur to do that. But just that that draft
night and that experience, you know, with my family, grandparents,

(03:40):
you know, high school in college coaches.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
There, that was an experience I'll ever forget.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
We're gonna we're gonna just borr through the whole New
York experience. You know, that's a chaotic environment in itself.
But we get to Carolina now and the what's it's
hindsight is twenty twenty and it looks so hilarious now
that you're starting here. Baker's starting doing great in Tampa Bay.
But you guys both go to Carolina and it's like crazy,

(04:11):
it's crazy for what was that twenty Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:13):
So we played y'all.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Right, you're in Tampa and that division was not good
that year, and so we had a chance to go
to the playoffs. I remember because Baker started that year.
I had actually gotten hurt in the preseason. I was
out for eight to ten weeks with a highinkel spring.
I end up coming back. The Baker thing happens the
year that he goes to LA and I believe you're

(04:38):
on that team right in twenty two, and so Baker
goes to LA. PJ.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Walker gets a couple of starts.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
I go in and I think we end up going
you know, five and two or something like that the
last seven games, and we actually have a chance to
be in the playoffs if we just beat y'all in Tampa.
And I think we were up like twenty four to
ten going into the fourth quarter and then bang bang
bang Tom Brady and Mike Evans, you know, I think
two or three times, and all of a sudden we

(05:05):
were down ten with like four minutes, like if.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
We needed it to get into yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, So if we if we beat y'all in Tampa,
that you know, second to last week, we just had
to go to New Orleans that next week and beat them,
and we were in And so that was a huge
game for us for me, Like, who knows what happens
if I win that game and win the next one,
we go to the playoffs. Like, you know, life is
just crazy that way, because you know, I'm not sure
if I would even be here if that if that

(05:31):
were the case. But but those years in Carolina, Man
to your point what you said before, Like I'm so
grateful for just being there and and learning that system
with coach McAdoo that year, getting to meet Baker, who
I'm still really close with to this day, PJ Watt,
like all these guys that I met in Carolina, Like,
I just had such a great experience there in terms of,

(05:53):
you know, getting to meet so many great people, play
really good football the last half of the year, and
then I'm sure you're going to get into it. But
going to San Francisco that next year, learning a ton
of great football. So it all just, you know, it
all snowballs into into a great thing.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
But it's a beautiful story. It's a beautiful like when
you when you're writing stories, there's there's cool if it
would have if it went one way. That's a cool story.
You stay in New York, have an illustrious career, play
for ten fifteen years, and retire, that's a that's a
cool story too. But I think it's always a better
story when you know. There's rarely a story or a

(06:27):
movie you watch where you're like, something has to go bad.
You know it's not gonna just be Oh, this is great, great,
everything's great. It's fun. And then at the end, happily
ever after, you're like, something bad is gonna happen. I
wonder what it's gonna happen. Like he's gonna lose, he's
gonna get injured, he's gonna do something. And then the
beautiful part of it, the part people love, is to
come back and talking about your time in San Francisco.

(06:49):
You go there, you back up rock party. That that
seemed like the end of Carolina, seemed like you're a
start of your ascension. You get to San Francisco. It's
a it's Kyle's scheme. It's a great it seems like
it's quarterback friendly scheme. I tell you what you are
one of the players he was most in love with
during his time. I promise you there was nobody else
he talked about more that didn't play for our team.

Speaker 3 (07:10):
Yeah, yeah, No, Kyle's a man again. Just you know,
happy that they were able to bring me in, and
you know, we were unsure about Brock's elbow at the time.
You know, I thought I could potentially maybe go there
and and start you know, for you know, two or
three games, you know, depending on Brock's situation. Obviously very
thankful that he was able to come back the way

(07:32):
that he did, super strong, lead us to a super Bowl.
Obviously didn't get the job done, but no, just that
year was incredible to be able to learn, you know,
football from Kyle, from that entire staff that was there,
Brian Greasie, the Koubias, Clint.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Who obviously were with now.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
But you know, that was just a great experience and
being around those players too, like some of those dogs
that are on that team, like getting to experience what
they do every single day. Like Nick Bosa, I think
lifts five days a week during the season, which is insane,
and to witness that, and he lifts like he gets

(08:08):
after it.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
He's squatting like three fifteen the front squatting.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
They think his legs just accidentally like, oh yeah, that's natural.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
No, So like Saturday, I you know, always remember you know,
Saturday after the walkthrough. Then he starts his workout after
the Saturday walk through where you're supposed to go chill
before we go to the hotel for meetings. Bosa's in
there working out. It's just it was really cool to
be able to see all those guys in the work
and everyone does it different, you know, like Bosa's working out.
You know, you have Christian Fred, like all these guys

(08:38):
resting and doing their thing getting there, all their fancy
treatments that they did, and no, it's just really cool
to see these guys work.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
And that was another cool part about being in use.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
It's just interesting how Kyle run's meetings and things like that.
He's like totally teaching the whole team the whole time
he's doing it. He's explaining outside zone while the drift
route is back to side, it's wide, like yeah, the
whole team's in here, like yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, you've sat in all these meetings.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
We have to He used to do it in team meeting.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty incredible the way that he
can talk about run game right for sure.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
He's an incredible Then you go to Kevin O'Connell, who's
another branch of this tree. There's an injury to the
rookie because it was it was supposed to be rumored
that there's a battle going on. He goes out, it's
your team, it's your helm, and you have an unbelievable
fourteen win season and incredible run. Walk me through that,
because again, coming from off a super Bowl team to

(09:31):
go on another dream run, it had to be like, man,
I'm floating.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
It was really you know, obviously the thing with JJ
was unfortunate, but to be to be with that team
and you know, for literally was just us that believed
in ourselves, you know, as a classic like no one's
believing in us. We're just gonna go out there all
alone and do it ourselves. And you know, we started
off that year five and oh and everyone's like let's

(09:57):
go you know what I mean, Like why not us
kind of thing, And so it was really cool just
to to be a part of that last year with
again I keep reiterating it, but like great people, you know,
like great players, great coaches, great people in the building.
It was just amazing to be able to work every
single day with those people, getting the routine and and yeah,

(10:18):
just I think the the football that we played was
incredible as well, like being with Kevin and in that system,
getting to see a different side of it, because at
the end of the day, like Kyle's system and Kevin system,
you know, it's it's pretty similar, like the McVeigh tree
and Kyle's like it's similar, but it's a little bit different.
And so just to to see kind of the past

(10:40):
game come together the way that it did last year.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
It was very eye opening to me.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
And you know, it allowed me and again this is
credit to Josh McCown, who is my quarterback coach, but
it allowed me to play really fast and on time,
which is you know, it really changed my career.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
It seems like you're still playing fast and on time.
You've got here talk about the decision to come. I
know you've spoken about it because you've been interviewed a
thousand times about it, but it seemed like it worked
out so perfectly. You know, with with Geno and DK
and all this, it's kind of seemed like the cover
was bare and I didn't know what direction they were going. Obviously,
you had you had conversations with Minnesota, so it seemed

(11:16):
like there might be a chance you stay. And you know,
obviously they got McCarthy coming back, so nobody knew how
that would go. Talk about coming here in the relationship
with Kobiak and how that that kind of went into it.

Speaker 3 (11:27):
Yeah, you know, I won't go into too much detail
about you know, free agency and stuff like that, because again,
like you said, people have heard about that, but just
you know, I knew there was an opportunity when I heard,
you know, talks about the Geno trade and my agent's
you know, telling me certain things and you know, just hey,
Seattle could be a potential spot now And I was like, okay, cool,

(11:49):
And you know the more that you know, time kind
of ticked.

Speaker 2 (11:51):
You know how free agency is? It just kind of
do you know how free agency is?

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (11:55):
Once, I okay, one time, Uh yeah, that's that's very
awesome that you got it. One time was Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
I've been dealing with it the last like three or
four years, so it's been great.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Yeah you won't you won't. You won't probably deal with
it again and it will be for a lot of us.

Speaker 3 (12:09):
Yeah, yeah, no, but it was, uh, it was crazy, man,
Just like everything happened so fast, and uh yeah, just
I think that was it, you know, the the Geno
trade happened, and I could, you know, kind of see
the riding on the wall a little bit. And then
especially with Clint being here, obviously I knew how great

(12:30):
Mike and his defense was last year going against them,
just the multiple looks. I can go on for days
about his defense, their scheme, the way that those guys play,
the great players we have over there on defense. But
I was very excited to be able to work with
Clint and get back in the system that we had
in twenty three with the you know a few few

(12:51):
wrinkles in it and our skill guys. You know, I'm
very excited about the skill guys that we have receiver,
tight ends, running backs, got a couple fullbacks as well
that have been playing really well.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
And our offensive line.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
I feel like the way that our offensive line has
been able to play, you know, obviously in OTAs, but
now in training camp, the way that they've you know,
put together a solid like three weeks in a row
of like communicating on certain run games and uh, you know,
pass protection, Like you know, if if I can hear
them making calls and like it's it's awesome when you

(13:25):
hear one guy make a call and everyone goes quiet,
like no one's talking after that, Like the center makes
his call and everyone's like, all right, we're on the
same page. And it's, uh, it's very comforting as a
quarterback when you when you see all those things going on,
you see it on tape, it's confirmed on tape, and
I feel like I've I can feel pretty good about,
you know, going into this season.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
That's that's music to my ears, music to the fans ears,
because that was the biggest concern coming into the season.
It was the issue last year, especially interior pressure on
the quarterback and you know, Gina was under the rest
quite a bit and you know it led to some
some some tough plays and he dried his best, but
it seemed like they solidified that. Then you talk about Abe,

(14:07):
Abe getting healthy, Abe getting healthy. He's a freaking beast.
You saw he played last week against Max Crosby and
Max Rosby was really going. You know, Max Crosby never
not going. Yeah, So it just looks like they've got
the right pieces in place. Guys want to play for
each other, obviously Charles Cross, you got the rookie in
there at left guard and he's doing well. He had
a he had a solid game. But that's music to

(14:28):
our ears because now you can open up that run
game and the run game has an identity, and you
got two really good running backs in Charbonnay and K nine.
Talk about them and and how cool it is for them.

Speaker 3 (14:39):
Yeah, I think you just said it though, like the
run game, when when you have a good run game
and you know this playing defense, like when you have
a good run game that opens so many so much up.
I mean you you can keep her off of it,
you can play action all of a sudden, then you
can start dropping back and letting it fly over the top.
Because now these teams are forced to play in single high,
they need to you know, drop a safety down and
helping the run game maybe pressure and you get some

(15:03):
you know three deep, you know three under kind of looks,
and you know that's really advantageous for an offense. And
so I think for us, it's just like, you know,
having that run game has an identity, and then just
building off of it every single week, just stacking those weeks,
stacking those days. Really of really good practice and prep.

(15:24):
But to actually answer your question, Canine and Sharbonne have
been amazing.

Speaker 2 (15:30):
They are I knew there.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
Are great backs, but to see what they can do
outside of, you know, running between the tackles has been amazing.
I feel like they've been such weapons so far in camp,
just catching the rock outside of the outside of the
outside of the tackles, and I'm excited about what they
can do.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
You know, this year it was it was a cool
quote you said, and I want to get to my
last question, but you were like you had a check
down that went for like thirteen yards and you were like,
earlier in my career, I'm not sure I would have
gone for that, right, you know what I mean? And
just talk about your growth and your maturity. But now
you've got Cooper Cup, you got JS and Arroyo looks good.
There's been a lot of guys showing up in this

(16:07):
training camp. Horton has run some with the ones, and
you've been dropping downs and talking about processing. I've been
out there the last couple of practices and it just
looks like you know where you're going, You're moving guys.
You're in such a great command. Is that just the
off season work with the guys. Is that just an
understanding of a system and having answers and just being
any experienced quarterback.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Yeah, I think it comes with experience for sure.

Speaker 3 (16:29):
I think the system really allows you know, me as
a quarterback to be able to play on time and
like I can okay, like I know certain coverages, like
I'm not going to get my number one progression, but
I don't want to move off of number one.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
I don't want to go to number two, you know,
on the plant.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
You know, if I'm like, okay, three, plant to number one,
hitch to number two, second hitch number three. If I
plant to number two, like that's you know, we're we're
out of sync then and the receiver is not going
to be ready for the ball. And so I think
just the way the system's built, what and the entire
staff have been working so hard to do, is make
it seamless for us to to be able to, you know,

(17:08):
have that timing without having you know, necessarily a ton
of reps to be able to because we're going up
against guys like you know, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelcey
who have thousands and thousands of reps together and so
you've got to somehow have that timing in a system
to where you can just go out there and expect
a guy to be, you know, over the ball and

(17:28):
I can get to him on my second hitch and
it's like second nature.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
He's catching it.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
He's knifing up the field and getting eight yards on
a first down play.

Speaker 2 (17:35):
So yeah, it's I think it's it's system based.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
But we have we spend a lot of time in
the off season together just throwing and catching, and you know,
that's always great when you can spend time, you know,
outside of the building with your guys.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
It's it's cool for you to get to see you
shine and get to see your talent flourish and the
way the expectation has always been for you. It's really cool.
And I'm I'm consider me a fan and very impressed
and very happy before you, thank you for joining me
to appreciate you. Appreciate you. Welcome back to the Richard
Sherman Podcast. We have an incredible guest, Yakama's very own

(18:09):
Cooper cup Brother. How does it feel to be back home?

Speaker 4 (18:12):
It feels good, man.

Speaker 5 (18:13):
I mean it's crazy going from you know where you
grow up here obviously playing football here all stuff, but
there's like a seasons of life.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
Seasons of life.

Speaker 5 (18:23):
You know, you I met my wife here, we got
married here, but then we go to la and that's
where we you know, that's where our kids were going.
That's where we create our family, our community and all that.
So it's just such a it's such a weird balance
of those two things. But man, really excited for this,
for this next season in our lives.

Speaker 1 (18:39):
I bet, I bet. Just walk me through coming from
where you came from from Yakima, was weren't highly recruited
to being a triple crown winner, Like, talk me through
that season and how incredibly rewarding it felt just to
see all the hard work, all the hours of study
and everything just coming for worship.

Speaker 5 (18:59):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's kind of It's interesting because like
you you don't, like you go into every season expecting
to succeed, expecting to win, right, you know, these goals
for yourself, Like you wouldn't be doing all the work
that you do in the off season if you didn't.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
Have those expectations.

Speaker 5 (19:15):
But it wasn't like that off season I went to
that like oh this is like the one or like
this is going to be the like what it ended
up being, but just the process of like I've just
consistently done this, this is just what like is what
I do. And it started back like you said, like
touching on like it started back in high school, started

(19:36):
back in middle school. Even in terms of that mentality
and like daily the daily process, it's like man, just
stacking ricks over and over again and like very small
gains over a long time. And and then I guess
just built into time with this place where like I
was just ready to step into a moment when it

(19:57):
was presented. And obviously what that year wasn't you know
how it is for football. You are your your success
is going to be a product of the people around you,
the coaches, the certainly the players, and.

Speaker 4 (20:11):
Was all that stuff.

Speaker 5 (20:13):
I just felt like it prepared me for that moment
to say, hey, we've got you know, Matthew comes in,
how he joels with Sean, what that offense ended up being,
what that defense ended up being, what we were.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
Able to do collectively as a team.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
It just kind of was like, uh, you know, just
being ready to read for the moment, be ready to
be ready for your guys, be ready for Uh, when
your guys need you to step up and make a play,
go up and be prepared to step into that moment.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
I hate to pivot and make the interview disconnected, but
I have to go here because it's the question I have.
We're going to talk about your wife, Annah and the
three boys, Cooper, Cyrus, and Solas.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
Yes, Cooper, Cyperus and Solas Yes.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
Okay, and they're all what two three years apart. Yeah,
that's pretty perfect, by the way, that's idea.

Speaker 4 (20:57):
I know what you did.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
I see what you're doing. How awesome is it for
her to be able to come back and you know,
probably spend more time with family, the boys get to
get to get to know you guys's family more. How
important was that in your decision? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (21:11):
And you know it is, it was. It was definitely
part of this whole thing as we were kind of
figuring out what life was going to look like, because
it is like you're coming up and everyone wants to
post on football, but we're moving our lives. You know,
there's there's people's lives and like that. That is that
that's the tough part, you know, And there's also like

(21:31):
there's a balance, there's there's like figuring out, well, hey, look,
we are now around family more. We are around like
there's people that you know, might not have had the
ability to come to games all the time.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
Now we're wanting to come to games. And so it's like, well,
how do you deal with tickets?

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Right?

Speaker 5 (21:45):
How you how are you going to deal with like
your house where it's like, hey, we we offerate a
certain way. We do we do family like we don't
get a lot of time during the season. How do
we prioritize our time together? But also knowing that, like you,
we do have the ability to see family more for
now and how is that gonna look?

Speaker 4 (22:02):
And so it was a conversation.

Speaker 5 (22:03):
It was an important conversation because we obviously here as
as much as I love football, as much as my
process and all the things that we do, even my wife,
how we operate together to make sure that I can
go and be the best football player I can be.
That all takes place in the midst of being the
best husband and the best father I can be first.
And so those are the conversations that happened before anything else.

(22:25):
But we are so excited about that and getting up
here in that transition and all the challenges that that
presented was a whole another animal, but we able to
walk through it together. And and man, I'm excited about it.
And the weather's been great.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
No, it's been honest, like it is welcoming your home
in the right way. Your wife and you guys met
when you were in high school, like you said, at
a tract, met apparently, and you told your mom you
knew then that she would be the wife. Your wife.
That's that's been incredible. And then to read about how
you know she helped support you through college and she
left Arkansas. That has that helped you know obviously time

(23:02):
and all that, but it just seems like you guys
have been on the same page from the get go.

Speaker 5 (23:06):
Yeah, and there was definitely a there was an understanding
I think from the beginning, like, man, this is just
from the first time I met her. So many things
they're like, hey, this is like like the boulders are
in common, right, It's not like, oh you like you
like Chinese I love Chinese Foo. No, it's like the bowlders,

(23:27):
the pillars of how you live your life. It's like, man,
that's that's important to me. And the first forty five
minute conversation we for whatever reason touched on like the
pillars of our lives and like, man, this is just
this is.

Speaker 4 (23:39):
Like it just led this way to this place, like
this is.

Speaker 5 (23:42):
Someone like that I vibe with on all like my soul,
you know, and so like that was what led to
this place of like, man, this is who like this
is what I'm looking for.

Speaker 4 (23:52):
This is who I want to marry.

Speaker 5 (23:55):
But that's not to say that there weren't, man, incredible
challenges for us as we think fure out, what does
life look like as a married couple. What does life
look like now that we're you know, moving into a
new city and moving into a new profession, having kids.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
Now our roles changes.

Speaker 5 (24:12):
As you know, husbands and wives, and now we're also
mothers and fathers. We were sons and dars and still
are sons and dars, but we're first husband and wife,
and so there's all these things that change, and we're
like figuring.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
All that out together.

Speaker 5 (24:25):
And even though the pillars were the same, which is
what helped getus through it, ultimately there's so many things
around that of expectations and the ways that she was raised,
ways that I was raised, Like, man, we had to
have some hard conversations. And that was one of the
things that her dad actually told me very early on
when we were kind of preparing to get married, was

(24:46):
not to be afraid of having hard conversations. And we've
had plenty of those, and they're not always fun, but
they're so important.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
And there's nothing in life worth having that is in.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
It isn't like that.

Speaker 5 (24:59):
All the growth is ha and through the very difficult things,
and and the reconvening, the coming together at the individual.
That's what we've tried to prioritize. Like we are at odds,
but we are going to were odds at each other,
and we're having this conversations because we want to get
back on track, you know. And so like that was
that's been awesome for us and and it has just
been such an incredible blessing to me what she's done

(25:21):
for me personally, but she who she is for our boys,
she's uh, yeah, she's just she's changed my life.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
It's incredible to see women turn into mothers. It's one
of the most incredible things I've ever seen in my life.
It's like they have a switch soon as they get
pregnant and they're in their stomach and You're like, why did.

Speaker 6 (25:38):
You learn to do that in any class? And already
have it? And I'm over here reading books. Well, swipe
on board, he said, Now, okay, I got I got
figured it out.

Speaker 4 (25:50):
It is crazy, man.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
One of the things, speaking of fatherhood, one of the
things I'm really curious and that they's question, even the fans.
You got Cooper Jamison, Cooper Douglas. You didn't want to
go junior, but you still went Cooper. What what are
we doing here?

Speaker 4 (26:05):
I know, so I was. I actually was against naming
him after me.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Tough.

Speaker 5 (26:14):
It's tough. I was actually against this. So we have
some other names we really liked, but I really liked.

Speaker 4 (26:20):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (26:20):
We just liked we liked the name Jameson and so
uh we were kind of going that route. We had
a first name picked out and then it wasn't It
was Dan year a month before he was born, and
it just came to approach me. It's like it was
meaningful to her, like she was she wanted to name
our first child after me, and so we we went

(26:43):
with that, and I had I love the idea of
even though he's not technically a full junior. I love
the idea of going to call him June. And so
that's where that kind of whole thinking is, like, I
don't want to call my son Cooper.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
I need to have a name for him.

Speaker 5 (26:58):
I'm a big nickname guy too, so I was the
entire time in the back then, I'm like, what's the
nickname going to be any for any first name it's
put out there, Well, it was the nick name. But
you know, once it was like, hey, I can call
we call our son June. I was like, oh, I'm
I love that board and incredibly honored. I mean, just
for our first son. For my wife to approached me
and have been so meaningful for her, that is cool.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
That's awesome. My brother named his son of Junior and
he just calls him Jr. Jr. It's pretty cool. It
works out that the one of the challenges for me
when when naming our son, he ended up being raidingstead
are rich. We kept the same initials that me and
my wife have the same initials as my daughter and
my son. But it was just the unfair expectations of
the world more than more than me, you know, more

(27:40):
than how hard I'm going to be on him. It's
just such a social media and and very public facing
world that it's tough to really navigate the space or
even be there to help them navigate the space that
we never really had to navigate, you know when when
when I was a kid, we didn't have social media,
didn't have all this. My dad was famous. I probably
wouldn't have known it, you know, because I we had newspapers. Yes, yeah,

(28:02):
but but to have a dad who's done what you've
done and and you know it's is going to continue
to do great things both on and off the field,
how do you how do you navigate that space of
being a father and trying to make sure that the
kid understands, hey, there's no pressure on you to be
who I am and be who you are.

Speaker 4 (28:20):
Yeah. Yeah, I mean so you know June seven now, and.

Speaker 5 (28:28):
Yeah, it's a good question and answer of the and
I've talked about certainly, But so much of that I
think comes down to how we operate as parents and
what are we making important? And I think you know
as much as you can't her kids are in your
household and we homeschool because a big part of that
is because we want more time, We want more time

(28:50):
to be impactful to our kids, and if they see
what's important to us, you know, we can also pass along,
well this is what's this. I want to show you, like,
this is what is important. And we try to make
sure that's clear that the things that happen in football,
whatever the accolades, are all different. Stuff is the success
of work and the things that the things that the

(29:12):
earth and the world say is important is a lot
of times not the important thing. And so that's been
if we just be that and allow him to just
be ultimately just be a kid, like go go play,
go do be outside imagination, go do it.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
You want you want to rock climb, let's go.

Speaker 5 (29:28):
You want to go learn, you go swim, you want
to go whatever it is, Like, let's find some passions
that you love and let's go do it because you
love to do it. And so trying to temper the
idea of there being expectation of like you need to
do football, you need to do this thing or be
or you even that like you need to be really
good at this thing is like, no, I want you
to find something you love and go for it and go.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
For it yep, and I support you every step of
the way.

Speaker 4 (29:53):
Whatever you need.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Man, I'm all in, all right, let's get to the
heavy hitting Seahaws here. You know they really want to
be that all these things. Yeah, the decision to come here,
we touched on that. But what about the relationship between Kobyak.
You know, you've run this offense some would call your
master of this offense, and even Sam Darnold, he's coming in,

(30:16):
coming from Kevin O'Connell. Every bit of it is like cousins.
They're cousins of the offense, but they're not all universally
the same. Yeah, talk about how that adjustment has been
since you've gotten here. All I hear about is that
you spend endless time in this building, studying film and
doing all that, being a great teammate, being a great leader,
doing everything you're supposed to be. How does it look

(30:37):
from your.

Speaker 5 (30:37):
Own Yeah, it's really cool. It's I touched on this
a little bit. I was talking to someone just recently.
But like the if you look back at the Washington
coaching staff from twenty fourteen to twenty sixteen, right, like,
look at the names, look at the people that are
on that staff. Oh right, so that's the Shanahan tree
comes off of there. Twenty seventeen, and Kyle goes one way,

(31:01):
Sean goes the other way. They draft George Kittle, rams
draft you know me and uh uh Gerald Everett. Right,
So like from there, from there, right, they're they're they're
at that point this very similar, same offense by the end,
by the beginning of twenty seventeen, really week three four,

(31:22):
it's like we're eleven personnel, right, you see where Shan
goes like, hey, you got George Kittle going, you're running
your twelve person that you run your twenty one personnel.
And then then eight years go by, right, and like
you have this like it's divergence of of people. That's like, hey,
you make the most of the people that are in
your building, You make most of the players that you have,

(31:44):
and that like sets this track of these two that
go so different directions, and I come here and it's like, man,
it's so cool because I get to like hop over
and see, well this is kind of off are we off?

Speaker 4 (31:55):
Off of the you know that line that went this way?

Speaker 5 (31:58):
But then there's a mix of the stuff that was
going on in Minnesota. There's a little bit of a
mix of the stuff that had gone on with eleven personnel,
and so it's like, man, it's awesome to see how
all these things like have grown and changed through the years,
and I get to be a little bit part of it,
all of it, but also know at the core where
things were, and I remember all this stuff, so I

(32:19):
can see where it all you're off to.

Speaker 4 (32:21):
It's it's been really cool to be a part of.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
And I saw an interview with You're talking about just
how defenses have adapted, because anytime you're good at anything,
the whole NFL is studying you year after year after year.
They're studying ways to defend it, ways to adjust, ways
to manipulate coverage as you motion. Hey, it's one picture,
one way you motion it, just like you're changing our picture.
We're going to change your picture now. Talk about how

(32:45):
your experience has helped you navigate that space and even
helped this coaching staff, you know, who's trying to implement
this offense to a to a new batch of players.

Speaker 5 (32:56):
Yeah, and that's I think that's that's the coolest. It's
the coolesting of football is the way it changes and
grows and moves, and like you know, man, the offenses
are up one year, the defenses are up the other end,
it's like it's always changing and the emphasis is changing.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
We're passing, receivers are.

Speaker 5 (33:10):
Going off the boom boom boom boom boom defense like
hey no, we're taking that away, running backs coming back now.
Like there's all this stuff that's like moving and changing
on so many different levels, with players, with personnel, with schemes.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
I love it.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
But then you have guys like you know, you come
in here and you've got coaches that are so open
to being able to hear ideas and like, hey, this
is they have a conviction to how things are done,
but also being open and open to say like hey,
we're not going to be afraid of the of asking why,
you know, and then I'm not afraid of us going
and asking why and we're gonna they're gonna provide an

(33:46):
answer for it.

Speaker 4 (33:47):
And that's what it's been.

Speaker 5 (33:48):
It's been awesome being in there with with Koopak and
with you know, Rico, who's been in this offense for
a long long time, and you've got guys that have
just been a part of it for so long. It's like, man,
I can I can go in and ask why and
have conversation, have a discussion and here exactly what the
genesis of this was, why we do it and why
it makes sense or maybe why it doesn't make sense anymore,

(34:10):
based on what defense is doing and how defenses are
matching us, and how defenses are you know, personneling different ways.

Speaker 4 (34:17):
And so you know, I've really enjoyed it and they've made.

Speaker 5 (34:21):
A joy to come in here and be able to
have those conversations.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
That's great to hear. Last question, what can the fans
expect from this season from you, Sam JS and K
nine Charbernay in this this incredible offense?

Speaker 5 (34:36):
Yeah, well, I mean I don't love to talk about
expectations in terms of like the you know, like I'm
not making any predictions, you know what I mean. But
I will say this, like in my time here, the
respect I have for the way that guys go about
their business, for the preparation they have, the conversations that
are being had, and what is the most pivotal thing

(34:58):
is the time between every NFL team has, whoever it is,
ten hours in a day, eleven hours in a day
to do whatever they.

Speaker 4 (35:06):
Need to do. Right.

Speaker 5 (35:07):
You schedule your meetings and your schedule your walkthroughs. You
schedule your practices, your lifts and all this sort of stuff.
There's always five minutes to get from one meeting to
the next. What are the conversations happening in those five minutes? Right,
it's like the small edges you come out of this conversation,
come out of this, out of this meeting.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
What are you get?

Speaker 5 (35:23):
What's that five minutes? How are you spending that five minutes?
What focus do you have getting from one place to another?
And the like those little conversations that can give you
an edge, they stack.

Speaker 4 (35:31):
Up over time.

Speaker 5 (35:32):
Right, it's five minutes, you know, three or four times
a day for six weeks, and that builds into some
really good, like you know, progress in terms of you know,
getting to the point where when you get on the field,
we're gonna be dialed in. We know we got and
now it's just what going out there and executing.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
Brother, that was a great That was a great interview.
I feel like I feel better for it. I appreciate
you joining us.

Speaker 4 (35:52):
Of course, thank you.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
We got to get you later in the season. We
that's you comfortable and you're on your way to another
triple crown. See that sounds great, man. Appreciate Yeah, of course,
Welcome back to the Richard Sherman Podcast. We got a guest.
I've been waiting on a long time to have this
conversation to Reek Wooling. Whatever. Brother, what's bro? How you
doing another day in paradise?

Speaker 7 (36:12):
Yes, sir, yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Now, we had many conversations your first year about adjusting
to the league, about you know, the expectations and how
to see the world. You have come a long way
since then, tell me how you've grown from year one
to now.

Speaker 7 (36:26):
Honestly, just for one, my mental state for real, just
being a young guy coming from UTSA and to now
you know you you really don't know what you're getting
into until you actually get your feet in there. And
just is my mentality just from e season ours is
getting better from hearing different things and way to counsel

(36:49):
stuff out, just because like and this game we play
and it's a lot of people trying to pull you
wish away. It's a lot of distractions and stuff like that.
So really just my mental state for real, Just make
sure I protect it and make sure that I'm the
best version of myself.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
That's all you can be. That's all you can be.
They never made another one of you they won't make
another for this off season you talked about you know,
I want to ask you how you spent your off
seasons before this off season, But what have you done
this off season specifically? You know, you're a veteran, you
know how things go, you know the expectations to get

(37:25):
yourself prepared for the season.

Speaker 7 (37:28):
Honestly, one thing, I got a new trainer. I was
just like, I still trained at the same spot in Florida,
but I went to Houston and guy us in my
agent agency, Kareem Jackson, you know, the safety. He told
me to come to Houston and try out the gym
he was at. What I did with there was a
lot of you know, body specific things, you know, to

(37:49):
prolong your career, but also to make sure you stay
healthy throughout the season, and doing different body movements that
I haven't done before, and then putting my body in
different positions that I didn't like just feel comfortable. So
like if I overstepped on the cut, it wouldn't feel
second nature, It'd just feel like I've been there before
instead of being uncomfortable. And there's different things like that.
And then also like to back to the mental part,

(38:12):
I spent a lot of time with my family. You know,
I feel like guys forget that those really the people
that helped you get here. And I know in my situation,
it is so just spending more time with my family
as well, you know, just being able to like find
my peace with them and understand where I'm from and
my ground and for real and I can't forget where
I'm from. So those are like two big things I

(38:33):
did this all season, you know, just to make sure
I was just being a better version of myself.

Speaker 1 (38:37):
Speaking of where you're from, growing up in Texas football
and from what I hear, you know, more you get
they say football is everything. It's different. How was your
experience growing up and for wark?

Speaker 7 (38:48):
Uh, honestly, it was a lot of fun, man. I
uh sure I enjoyed it. You know, I made a
lot of friends and you know, full worth, it has
its ups and downs and a lot of people hear
different things about it, but I loved it.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
You know.

Speaker 7 (39:00):
I feel like my friends and stuff that I grew
up with they also help shape to the person I am,
just because like you know, you will have friends, You'll
have guys around you for different seasons and reasons. You
know what I'm saying. And as you get older, you
start to see that because your circle kind of gets
a little bit smaller for real. And you know, those
guys I made friends with growing up, you know, I

(39:22):
still talk to them now and it is pretty cool
because you know, some people think you will change up
and switch up, you know, coming from Forworth, but I'm
really just the same person that some people don't have
the same access that they did before, so they think
I'm making new But in.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
Certain parts you gotta change, Yeah, I mean, you gotta
grow mature. It's like people get upset that they're in
the same spot and they not growing and you growing.
When you come back to see them and they're like, man,
you don't don't think you better than us. I'm not better.
I'm just different because I can go through different experiences.
So that's cool that you get to get back. But
you also continue to grow. As Immerson, You're still hooping.

(39:57):
They say you used to be somebody.

Speaker 7 (40:00):
So I used to I had. I started hooping a
good minute ago. Man, I like to shoot the ball,
but other than it going and pick up game, n
I gotta set my legs. You know that court have
you needs her?

Speaker 1 (40:09):
You need her question about it, no question about it.
So we both spent the journey from going playing receiver,
you know, at a high level, to playing corner. You
got to talk to me about that transition, why it happened,
when it happened, what went into it.

Speaker 7 (40:25):
Uh So I was in college and I'll get a
little PC at receiver. But it wasn't like my Like
for me, it was my theme, but for the coaches,
I guess it wasn't you know, And I'll get less
playing time. And we had a young guy come in
and he was a baller, you know what I'm saying,
and you got you gotta put your best players out there.
And that was just like a mental moment for me.

(40:47):
And one day the coach for me and he was like,
you're athletic, You're told we can use you on the team,
just might not be receiver. How you played corner And
I was like nah. I was like no, I never
played defense in my life. And he was like, would
you like to try to help out the team And
I was like, nah, I'm a receiver. You know what
I'm saying. I went offense my whole life and he
was like, just try one time at pricice today and

(41:09):
you will see that to help the team, and if
you like it, you can keep doing it some more.
And so I'll go to practice and I'll go to
the receiver drills and he'll pull me down to the
dB drills and I just be in dB, just like nah,
I'm a receiver. So I after the dB, I keep
trying to go to receiver in Indian, He'll put me
back to dB. And it was a practice where I
was actually doing real good and all I was doing

(41:29):
is running with guys, and the coach was like, are
you sure you don't want to play this? And I'm like,
I mean I could try. And I want to say
that was before COVID had happened, because it was twenty nineteen,
and then COVID was that March of twenty twenty when
stuff starts to really happen for real.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
Make me feel like an old man there, bro.

Speaker 7 (41:47):
I'm telling COVID is crazy. And I played that last
game between nineteen season as a corner, and then we
got new coaches and they asked me that I want
to play a receiver or corner for the twenty twenty season.
I just chose to play corner. And then and from
there I just start to buy in and shoot, I'm
here now, you're.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Here now and on your wait to getting what you
need to get. Just keep keeping on the path. Was
there any inspirations anybody you you tried to marry the game?
I remember when I first moved the corner, I was
just watching Dion videos and Charles Woodson videos NonStop. I
was just like, well, look, I think I can figure
that figure out how to play like this. Was there
anybody that you looked for? I mean they said you
was watching Mad, playing Mad and learning the coverage. Just

(42:25):
I say, I know this boy wasn't no mad.

Speaker 7 (42:27):
Trying to learn it. It kind of went in both ways,
like as a receiver, you know how it is like
a receiver I have a corner back that they go
against a lot of times, or it'll just receiver that
I like to get will end up getting shut down.
And also wasn't to me tall coints at the time,
So I would look at you, you know what I'm saying.
Then I'll look at Jalen Ramsey just because he was

(42:48):
a taller guy and his press work was real good
and shoot up those like y'all. Two was like really
the first two guys, I was really watching a lot.
I didn't know who to watch or what to watch.
I just knew that y'all are taller, y'all played football
real well, and those like the like y'all two people
was I want them out of my game at.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
I wish I could have caught you and told you
to look at Brandon Browner. He's the only sixty four corner.
After seen just manhandle people. You came into your rookie year,
you know you weren't sure how it would go. You
gotta a great opportunity. Started off the bat started hot,
maybe you know, I mean six interceptions off the bat.
Walk me through that season in your mindset, because we
used to have conversations, but I didn't want to oversaturate

(43:29):
you with information. I knew once you get out there,
you get a feel forty You had four picks in
a row at one point.

Speaker 7 (43:34):
That was a smooth man.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
Run right there. Talk about how that season helped grow
your confidence.

Speaker 7 (43:41):
Honestly, I started to grow just between each game. Like
I tell people every time, my favorite play and my
biggest play I'll never forget. We played the forty nine
ers and I blocked the field go No. One for
a touchdown, and I was like, my first play in
the league. And it wasn't even on the defense side
of the ball. It's just the fact that I actually
did something, and I'm like, damn, I did something. We

(44:02):
scored on it too. I was like, damn, it was nice.
And then that following we play the Falcons and I
got my first interception and it was like boom. Three
weeks in a row after that, and just being able
to you know, get better each week and you know,
just have a feel for the game and it started
to really slow down for me for real.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
Now let's talk about your coach, because you got a
defensive coach. You had a defensive coach when Pete was here,
but Mike's a little bit different of a coach runs
a different scheme. You're in year two of this scheme.
Do you feel more comfortable? Do you feel like you
have a downpacked and like, yeah, man, this could be
a real breakout season for you and just the defense
as a whole.

Speaker 7 (44:35):
Oh yeah, I feel like you it will be a great
breakout season. To be honest. You know, we already have
a great defense, and we already have the pieces and
we added new ones. We just got a buy in
and like you said, our second year of defense, so
a guy is a little more comfortable with it and
stuff like that. And as we still learn new things
into the defense as well, you know, it still feels good.

(44:56):
And uh, it's just crazy. Took just the most out
of impressed before ever. And I mean that's my skill
set for real. So I like it. And as we
continue to grow as a team, as it continue to
go through camp and stuff like that and come to
an end of installing everything, and I'm pretty sure that
what we have put together, we're gonna execute it real well,
and I know our defense will be real fun.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
Look. Look, I was always told press until you can't,
and from what I'm with the conversations i've had with
coach McDonald, that's what he wants from y'all. And that's
a great way to play. You ever in doubt, go
pressing and have him tell you to get off of
But how different is it playing in this I can't
even say two because it's just too high safety. Look
versus what you ran you know early on in your career,

(45:40):
the one hide, the single high three one coverages. How
has that adjustment been for you.

Speaker 7 (45:47):
It's been small just because since you got two safety's there,
it's easier to trust that they're gonna have you on
a posts or like kind of deeper inbreaking routes and
stuff like that. And then also it's just you can
be more tighter to ross as well. I feel like,
just because you kind of have that that safety net
back there and you can play routs a little differently.

(46:08):
I know that most of our stuff is a little
bit more matchy as well, compared to what it what
it was more clue, I said, clue, but loose the
thirds and more like.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
Of a truth on. You know, we played it more matchy, man, Like.

Speaker 7 (46:23):
I remember just the forty nine ers game in the
playoffs my rookie year, and like the key running these
deep digs are deep overs, and I'm like what I'm saying, Yeah,
But it was just the fact that like, oh, the
hookers and stuff like that, they can get it and
stuff like that. So it was just that. But honestly,
shoot this defense, I love it, and I like the

(46:43):
way that we played things around here, especially the mixing
matches of different coverages and then the different fronts to
make the D line eat because D line and secondary
go hand in hand. And if you have a great
D line, make sure secondary look even better.

Speaker 1 (46:56):
Look remember that around Christmas time is what the D
line always told us.

Speaker 5 (47:00):
Man.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
You know, look, they help you eat. They say, hey,
you know, a nice little gift here and there, don't
hurt nobody. But y'all ain't paid. Yeah, so you know,
taking time with that. But but that was something that
people don't really understands, just how you know, what's on
paper about a coverage can look different than once being
executed out on the field because people we were running
the same things y'all were running, but we just played

(47:21):
it so different and people are like, oh man, you guys,
you guys are running running some complicated coverage Like no,
it's covered three. But the reason it looks like this
because we know the place. It's like, the reason I'm
running this dig for him is because I knew it
was dig. He knew it was deep. I know he's
not gonna drop because he gonna sit for the checkdown
because we're not giving him a checkdown either. I'm gonna
drive dig and we're gonna get this play squashed all together.
But that just comes from you know, years and years

(47:43):
of playing in the scheme. But that's similar to what
y'all doing right now in Mike's scheme and what you're
you're making the scheme your own, you know, and so
this season, contract year, all that, it's no different for you.
Don't try to put more pressure on yourself. I think
it's time for you to go out there and have fun.
Trust your teammates, y'all got it incredible secondary. You might
have one of the best most talented defenses in the
National Football League, and they you know, they might. You

(48:06):
might be getting guys more guys back as you're getting healthy.
So what I would say is just have fun, man,
go out there and and and enjoy yourself. The ships
are going to fall where they're supposed to fall, and
owners these days is getting paid. So just do your
job healthy as you can. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (48:21):
Sure, no, for sure man, that's my goal.

Speaker 8 (48:23):
Man.

Speaker 7 (48:23):
So mean, it's human nature. You see all the you know,
the corners and stuff like that, but all it is
playing ball, for real. I know, I put myself in
a great position. I just got to keep playing ball,
man for real.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
On that note, because early on it was it was,
you know, the big conversation between you and Sauce you
and saw who's better you and Saul? You know where
I stand that the books is important to me. You know,
you got more books than you know. It's harder, hard
conversation to have. But does that ever get into your mind?
I mean, as a competitor, it would get in. It
wouldn't get into my mind like in a negative way,
but it just be like I keep tabs like how

(48:56):
they do it all right, I'm strapping all in boys
for sure. Do you ever do you ever find yourself
doing that a little bit?

Speaker 7 (49:04):
You know, just because, like I said, my class, I've
seen a lot of corners go before me. Even I
remember just being there my family and just watching all
these people get drafted. I knew I wasn't gonna be
like the first round pick out the UTSA, you know
what I'm saying. I had to really just go crazy
just to do that. But I knew that I was
able to be able to play, and I knew that

(49:25):
some people wouldn't be able to shouldn't be getting drafted
before me, you know. But once we got here, all
that eRASS and you got to play ball and whenever
all that stuff was happening, and I just will see it.
I knew what type of world I'll be living in
from there, but I knew that it was my race,
and I knew that I just had to beat Tarika Wiland.
And if I'm the best version of myself, I don't

(49:47):
think anybody can beat me. So you know what I'm saying,
And my stats actually show it, and my takeaways and
my past defense, you know, just everything statistical it shows.
So I mean, you just got to keep it most definitely.

Speaker 4 (50:00):
So I just beat myself for real.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
Speaking of racist, this is my last question. You're the
fastest player ever over six foot in the combine, you
know all that. Do you ever get any of these
young guys coming in trying to try you?

Speaker 7 (50:13):
Oh no, not really, just because like some of the
young guys, they just be amazed that that dang were
on the same team for real, and it'd be crazy
because like when I was a younger guy, that's how
I was. And I remember I first got in. I've
seen DK and c lock and like I knew I
can v DK and running, but it wasn't even that fact.
It was just the fact, like, damn, on the same team. Man,
It's pretty cool. So I'm like, that's how it just

(50:33):
kind of the rookies nowadays, like we all on the
same team, and nobody just really said they can just
come and challenge me and beat me.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
For real if they had one I'm sorry, one more,
if you had one of them races, would you participate
because it was a while Tarik was talking about.

Speaker 7 (50:45):
We're gonna have to trust me most definitely, I'm telling you,
hands down, you put me out there, I'm going crazy.
I for real, I've been I've been wanting the NFL.
Somebody had set that up on selling the fastest man
competition for real much I'm like on the fastest Hey.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
You heard here, first fastest man competition. Y'all need to
organize it. Reek is in it, no question about it.

Speaker 7 (51:05):
Definitely.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
I appreciate you joining me, brother. It's been a long
time and and we're gonna have you during the season
and continue these conversations. I can't wait. Good luck this year.

Speaker 7 (51:13):
No, I appreciate you for having me.

Speaker 1 (51:14):
Appreciate you. Welcome back to the Richard Sherman Podcast. Today
I have an incredible guest, a head coach of the
Seattle Seahawks, Mike McDonald. Appreciate you joining me honored, be
honored man started to see it great to see you.
So I want to start at the beginning of your journey.
You you you had a fork in the road. You
could have went into finance, you with some of cum laude,
and you decided to go intern for Baltimore. Out did that?

Speaker 4 (51:38):
Well, I didn't.

Speaker 8 (51:39):
I didn't decide for to go, like, I didn't just
pick Baltimore. They fortunately reach out to me. I think
I think it's a I think it's a like a
calling thing from God. Frankly, it's just how could you not?
You know, like that was a dream of mine to
do it, and I had taken a job, you know, in.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
The business world.

Speaker 8 (51:57):
I wasn't fired up about it, but it kind of
felt like it was time to move on. And you know,
the Ravens they reached out and they had this whole
process that Jay Harbough actually helped run define and so
I had an opportunity to go up there and talk
with them and meet with everybody, and and uh, they
chose me. And so that was just like a major blessing.
And you're sitting there, I'm you know, I'm gonna go
work for the Ravens and so I'm gonna go try

(52:18):
to take advantace of the opportunity on.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
The practice field. You shared a story with me about it.
It's almost a full circle moment ten years to the
day since you came in here and had a conversation
with Dan Quinn and and got to see him and
how he coached and and try to learn from him.
Now you're the head coach of that same team. I mean,
just talk take me through that journey of how how
we got here.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
Yeah, it was that was a.

Speaker 8 (52:40):
It's funny that we're talking today. Is just that was
on my heart the other day going through the locker
room and seeing the guys.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
But uh yeah.

Speaker 8 (52:48):
So the guy that I was working for at the time, Art,
he was the coordinator, Todd Grantham, set up a visit.
My sister was living in Kirklan at the time, so
I was gonna come up and here and visit her
in the spring. And so they had a relationship TQ
and TO, so they set up time for me to
come in here and and hang out with DQ for
the day. And I think it was like it was
a low period not and everybody was in But I'll
tell you what like just walking through the door of

(53:09):
the first time, it just felt so much different than
anything than I was used to. Like positive, mean, we
all know the culture that was here at the positivity,
the energy, the connection that everybody had. And for DQ
to take his time to just hang out with a
dumb ga like me, you know, he's I forget what
he was talking about. He was whatever he drew on
the shoot at paper, I would have thought it was gold.
And uh, but then we walked around. This is what

(53:31):
I what I w I shared with scharm was he
goes in the locker room and and like I'm in
there with him, and you were right there, maybe finishing
a workout or something, and like you guys dat each
other up.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
It was like you're laughing, there's you know, he's like
shadow boxing you.

Speaker 8 (53:44):
Like, and I'm just like, man, this guy is so
cool and this place is so awesome, you know. And
uh so that's one of those like core memories that
you have as a coach of Oh, this is what
it could feel like, you know, And and this is
why this is probably one of the reasons why these
guys are so good and and uh and then yeah,
I mean you look at the calendar. Again, I think
it's a it's a calling thing. You look at almost

(54:04):
ten years of the day from walking into the building.
You know, we're walking in there as a head coach.
So it's a pretty incredible story.

Speaker 1 (54:10):
And you talk about a rapid assent. I mean, you're
you're still one of the youngest head coaches in the
National Football League. How how incredibly blessed do you feel?
And just privilege you get to do this for a job,
You get to lead these incredible men. You came in
in your first season win ten ball games. I mean,
there are coaches that that have coached a long time
that probably still haven't seen ten win season. But that's

(54:30):
a story for a different day.

Speaker 8 (54:33):
Uh yeah, I think you put it the right way.
Incredibly blessed. There's there's like a sense of responsibility of
you when you're around Like today, we were having not
the best morning of all time. Some of the game
plan beings we hadn't weren't really going the way that
we wanted it to go, and it was a little frustrating.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
We got you know, we're stuck in the mud a
little bit.

Speaker 8 (54:51):
But you get to the team meeting, you see the
guys you're in the defensive team meeting and you come
to life and so anytime you're around the guys, you're
just like, man, I love these guys, you know, and
uh and there's a responsibility there because they they're putting
on the line. They have so much at stake, and
it's our football team, it's our Cities football team, and
that's huge. But these are the guys that are reacting,

(55:12):
that we're interacting with on a daily basis, and that's
what gets you going. I mean, that's that's what that's
the sense of responsibility you have. And I think, you know,
I know, I'm on. I've had a lot of great opportunities,
been really lucky. I used to joke with Harbs and
in Baltimore. You know, we'd had with some great coaches
that move on to great, great opportunities, like Spags is
our dB coach. In twenty fourteen, he became a defensive

(55:34):
coordinator and so then I got to be promoted. Ted
Monachino got a defense coordinator job, so you know, opportunity
was available and then uh DMPs retired. I mean, Leslie
Fraser was our dB coach at one point he got promoted.
He went he went to Buffalo, So I was always
the young, cheap option to uh, you know, to kind
of take the you know, the next step responsibility wise,

(55:55):
but just been around like awesome people. Man.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
Like if you were to tell me when one when
I came into.

Speaker 8 (56:00):
The hang out with Q, I was gonna hang out
with Dan Quinn, Jim Harbaugh, John Harbaugh, Ouzzie knew Some,
Steve Spagnolo, Dan p s Wing, Martin. I mean, the
list goes on and on. And then the guys we
have here. I mean, we have some great coaches in
the building. John Schneider, It's it's it's pretty incredible.

Speaker 1 (56:16):
It's really incredible. And you at least from you know,
thirty thousand foot view, I can see elements of all
those coaches, even how you ran your off season program,
certain elements. I can see Jim Harball and how he
does things and how you know, how he knows that
callous built great football team, sure, and he only built
them by getting the reps. And he had this great

(56:37):
simple saying that he would say more and more, that's right,
that's never been less.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
That's hilarious. That's so funny. That's right. I was there.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
It's who would you say is your biggest like inspiration
to your coaching style.

Speaker 8 (56:52):
Oh man, I think I think you said it best.
Is just when you're around these people you realize all.
I think that the common threadfrin on these guys is
just it's, uh, it's true to them. You know, there's
no phoning. There's no phoniness there. God, that drives you
crazy if someone's trying to act like somebody else. And
I mean I've been around John Harbaugh for a long time.

(57:14):
I mean he's a huge influence on me. Uh but yeah,
you're just taking bits and pieces Oh okay that I'm
inspired by that. Well, maybe I would tweak it like this.
I think that's kind of more my stuff. You're always
kind of making those assessments as you go. Yeah, you
talk about just our programming. I think the blend that
I've found it is work that's like true to us
is Hey, we like we say, old school principles, new

(57:35):
school methods. So the callous is real, Like, hey, we're
gonna get after it. We're gonna respect each other. You know,
we're gonna have integrity. You know, like there's I think
I think that you have to have that to have
a solid foundation, but you know new school methods, like, hey,
we're gonna have fun, Like we're gonna we're gonna do
cool stuff. We're gonna Chase edges On like on on

(57:55):
how we do stuff and methods, and we're gonna use
science and rings analytics, and we're gonna stay the heck
out of what schemes and try to be it on
the forefront of that and how we acquire players. Like
all that stuff is hopefully like it has like a youthful,
innovative feel to it.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
I think the coolest thing about you and about a
lot of the great coaches now is your ability to
pivot and be flexible. You know, you're not rigid in
your philosophy. You have your foundational pillars, but you also
understand that each year is a new challenge. You have
a new team and you have new individuals. Walk me
through your your changes or your evolution from year one

(58:31):
to year two.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
Man, it's it's it's pretty it's pretty significant.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
You know.

Speaker 8 (58:38):
Frankly, I think we finished last year and I know
you take that ten win Ten wins is awesome, it's great,
but you know, we have bigger goals here, and frankly,
we should have higher expectations for ourselves and so we
fell short and we have to be critical of what
we're doing. You know, it's the same It goes back
to the same same philosophy. Hey, we're still going to

(58:59):
be built on the right stuff, but how we're doing it,
let's let's evaluate that. So as a head coach, you
know where where do our fall short? Well, I can
be better in these areas, you know, like streamlining the message,
taking more ownership of the team, being better in the
team meetings, connecting the building better, having more better relationship
with our players. All those things was a was a priority. Hey,

(59:20):
we can improve our off season program. It was a
great program last year, but we can take it to
another level and that could give us an edge going
into the season. So those were all in the forefront,
and then we got great people around, like working with
Ivan and Danny down there. Building our off season program
was so much fun. They took it by the reins,
made it come to life.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
It was awesome.

Speaker 8 (59:39):
All of our coaches have they just they just like
they make it come to life, man, And you really
appreciate that because they're you know, they're going to bat
for you.

Speaker 1 (59:47):
I think It's really cool that offensively you guys have
evolved and it seems like you guys are adopting some
semblance of the and I hate to use other coaches
to name it, but that's the only way I know
to name these systems. The McVeigh, Shanahan and O'Connell Laflor's
West Coast Bill Wall system, which is which is the
top of the top at the league right now, every

(01:00:09):
every great team is running some version of it. And defensively,
I think you guys are at the forefront of you know,
your combinations, your your exotic fronts, your disguise packages. Tell
me about that evolution and what went into that, because
when you lost Gino and you lost DK, and obviously
that's a huge shift. You lose Tyler, you know that's

(01:00:31):
that's two of your top three receivers, you lose your quarterback,
and it seemed like the pivot you guys made was
so seamless. You go out to practice, you would never
know that you really lost anybody. It's been smooth. On offense,
you guys look like a well oiled machine. You got
young guys stepping up. The offensive line looks as good
as it's ever been take me through that well.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
As I'm listening to you, I'm thinking interview.

Speaker 8 (01:00:52):
When we were interviewing Clint, he asked about personnel, like
he goes something along lines of, hey, now like are
these guys, you know, are we expecting any changes or
these this is like this we're gonna have because you know,
I like you guys or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
And I'm like, yeah, like you know of.

Speaker 8 (01:01:07):
Course going in so I didn't know it happened fast
and uh, you know, he gets here and all of
a sudden we have a completely new offense. John, I
are like, hey us, everything to me, right, I promise,
you know. And but Clint's been awesome man. He's just
he's first of all, he's a team guy. He's and
we talk about all time greats. I mean, just you know,
I know, I know he's kind of like with Kyle

(01:01:29):
and his dad, building his own vision of his offense.
But Gary's such a big influence on him. I think
what's cool about our shared experience of like how we've
built our systems is you know you think about I mean,
Clint's even been around your raid and so you know
he's and he's worked for his dad and he's worked
for Kyle and then he's done it on his own.
So same idea of hey, I'm on these like awesome

(01:01:51):
these awesome systems, and I'm learning the nuts and bolts
of what makes it come to life. But hey, I'm
I'm there's different ways to do it. And so I
think his experience, like next year, he really created started
creating a vision for how he wants his offense to run.
And it's adaptable and personnel. But I think I'm proud
to say we have our own are are of It
is the Seahawk offense now. Now we're on We're based

(01:02:12):
on West Coast wide zone principles all that. But you know,
this is Clint's offense. This is our offense now, which
is cool. The same thing with us on defense. And
we were talking before we walked in here. I mean,
it's we're influenced by so many great systems and coordinators
in the past. But I think I think, you know,
as a coach, it's your responsibility kind of read the
tea leaves and understand where the game's go in the
game is so much different than it was you know

(01:02:34):
in six and eight, even five years ago, you know,
and so you have to kind of have a system
that's adaptable and flexible enough that and light enough where
you can move and shake and keep it simple for
the guys so they can go have success.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
Yeah, I think you're doing that and I and I
love that, and I love your football mind, and we
can We're gonna pivot a little bit because this is
the important stuff. You had a sun a little less
than a year. Yeah, how how has that journey ben?
Because you you're you're having all this massive impact on
all these other young men, but now you've got your blood,
sweat and tears. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:03:07):
Well he's here right now. He's Uh, I saw him.
He's here before practice.

Speaker 2 (01:03:10):
My wife. The only time I can see him now
is that practice. My wife brings him all the time.
It's been. It's been. It's pretty it's just been incredible.

Speaker 8 (01:03:19):
Like I don't know if I had actual expectations about
how it was going but or how I was going
to going to go.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
But when you have a kid in the middle of
the season, it's kind of wild.

Speaker 8 (01:03:29):
And your first year, I mean, there's a lot of
stuff going on last year, but uh, I think I
think there was a light that went off in my mind,
Like in the off season, like, oh, you've been You've
missed a significant portion of your kid's life, Like you
got to kick it into a gear as a dad.

Speaker 1 (01:03:45):
You know that's not true, but.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
But I like I felt it a little bit, you know.

Speaker 8 (01:03:49):
And and and my and my wife's been so awesome
with the whole process, and but we're not like our
family's not here and we don't have a lot of
I have like a lot of people as a help
and stuff. So but it's been awesome. Now he's he's
almost walking and like he's interested in stuff, and he's
banging on the table and we're trying to get him
to say I'm we're racing to say dad or mom first. Yeah,
you know that goes So, I mean we're in that

(01:04:11):
stage right now, which is awesome. And uh yeah, yeah,
I still can't believe he's like ours. You look at
him and you're like, what are you going to look like?
You know, like, what's your personality going to be? What
are you going to say? You know, what are you
gonna be interested in? And so, uh that's really cool.
Can't wait for me. I love this phase. Can't wait,
just can't wait for the other phases. But don't want
this phase to leave, and so it's a great time.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
You're going to experience a lot of phases of that.
What I will say as as a as another dad
is it's it feels that way. It feels like every
second true way. You're like, man, I missed this, and
thank God for our wives and how superhuman they are
and how incredible they are. Because I tried to explain
this to other people, but you don't really understand it
until you see it for yourself. It's like when they

(01:04:52):
become mothers. It's like something clicks and you're like, God,
oh my god, how do you know how to do?
How did you? How did you know to do that?
Like I never saw you. I've known you for a
long time now and I've never seen it.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
That's right, it's really well.

Speaker 8 (01:05:04):
And the fee I mean, they create the they've created,
they actually created the kid, which is insane. And you
stay birth and you're like, wow, that's that's incredible. And
then they're like, okay, I'm just going to make his
food now right, just naturally, and you're like, like.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
The body actually knows what to do and they turn it.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Yeah, You're like, can I have incredible? Like what do
I do?

Speaker 8 (01:05:22):
Yeah, And I'm like nope, I can't. Are you old
him for a second? And he loses his mind? Right,
You're like, all right, I go try to calm him down.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
That's what That's what I would say you. You you
appreciate the moments when they get old enough to know
and you can sit them in the office and they're
just sitting here on your arm and you're like, hey,
I got to watch this tape right here and yeah,
and you just appreciate the moments that hey, I'm working
hard for something. I said this to them a loone
time ago when I had my first time, we had
just lost the Super Bowl. We had lost, and he

(01:05:51):
was born three days My wife was like getting contraction.

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
That I forgot about that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:54):
Oh my god. It was. It was. It was chaos,
and it hits you in a different way. Losing it
is hard hard enough, but losing and then having your
son at the game, you're like, oh my god. So
I was like, one of my biggest goals was to say, hey,
I want my son to see me playing the super Bowl.
Like and so it'd be so many moments where you're like, hey,
You've got all these all pros. You got all these accolades,
like you could feel good about your career. But when

(01:06:15):
you have something like that and you see him every
day and you're like, hey, you're you're pushing me to
another level that I appreciate you helping me get to
because about you, I don't know if I'm getting there.

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:06:25):
Yeah, it's special.

Speaker 8 (01:06:27):
And it's like, I mean, there's a lot of like
existential questions that you ask yourself, especially when you're become
a dad. But you're like, what are we really doing?
Why are we why are we doing what we're really doing?
It kind of tests you, you know, like it. You know,
you're gonna put your money where your mouth is on
what you're about. And now now it's like, okay, well,

(01:06:48):
your son's going to see this at some point however
this whatever way it goes, he's going to see how
how you did what you did And that's always in
the back here, you know, But it would be I mean,
I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
I couldn't.

Speaker 8 (01:07:04):
I'm like praying that he is old enough and to
be able to experience this. You know, meet the guys,
hang out, have a relationship with the guys, you know,
be interested in the game, you know, all that type
of stuff. He didn't have to be a coach. Hopefully
he's not. Hopefully he's a you know, astronomer or something.

Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
I'm gonna let you know something. It's a reason all
these these great coaches and you look up and their
sons are like right behind talking with Kubiak right now,
you go McVeigh, Lafleor's like all these guys. And because
it's what you've grown into. You know, if you're a
great coach, you coach for a long time, and it's
not like you're taking something away from your son. Because

(01:07:40):
everybody's dad goes to work. I mean not everybody, but
for the most part. You see that my dad was
a trash truck driver. I didn't want to be a
trash truck driver. But the lessons that it taught me
about being consistent, being on time, being dedicated to your craft,
being where you're supposed to be, and understanding that you
have to there's eighty five percent of life. It's doing
what you have to do to get to do the

(01:08:01):
fifteen percent.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
And then you want to do that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
And if you understand that and you you're at peace
with it, then you have no problem working your butt
off to get to that fifteen percent. It's like, I'm look,
I know, I got a grind and I appreciate the lessons.
I'm sure your son will appreciate the lessons that you're
teaching and how hard you're working in the hours you're
putting in because you also have a great wife who's
let her letting him know. Hey, your dad's out there
making it happen for you.

Speaker 4 (01:08:21):
That's right.

Speaker 8 (01:08:22):
It's funny listen to it reminded me of you know,
today we're talking about our style to the team and
one of the words we use is relentless and so
but Ad had a heck of a team meeting today
and I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this, but
we talked about relentless, like what it means is a
football player and a team, you know, all that type
of stuff. And Ad was like, you know what he
told the defenses. You know, I was thinking when I

(01:08:43):
heard when I heard, when I was listening to Mike talk,
was my mom, you know, like, you know, he grew
up without a dad for the majority of his of
his childhood and she just worked away to make that
opportunity for a kids and you're just like, man, it
just it's true. Relentless is one of those old school things,
is that like it comes to life and you can
have she probably in those moments growing up and there's

(01:09:05):
a lot of hard times, but the impact she's making
is just really great.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
I mean. And then on the other side, like, well
we're able to do I.

Speaker 8 (01:09:11):
Mean, she worked were coaching the NFL, man, like, we
got it pretty This is pretty awesome. You know, like
people are have like real stuff going on right there,
and I mean, you know there's there's challenges in our job,
but you have to mind yourself that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:24):
I mean, we've got a pretty dang good.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
We've got a pretty dang good and you're doing a
great job at it. Anything you want to tell the
fans because they're so excited and they got all these
questions about all the prognosticators got your ranked at the
bottom of the NFC West. Is there anything you you
feel about that? Or is that bulletin board material? And
it's like I kind of know the answer, but I'll
let you speak it.

Speaker 8 (01:09:46):
You know, we don't use it as bulletin border material.
I think one of those things we talked about going
from year one year or two is let's just focus
on us and becoming the team that we say that
we want to become, and then the result will take
care of itself. If we do we say we want
or what we want to become, it's gonna like the
results are going to happen some form or another, and

(01:10:08):
so let's.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
Focus on that.

Speaker 8 (01:10:11):
My my response would be like, does I don't what
were the odds last year going at this time of
the year, or who had I don't remember?

Speaker 2 (01:10:18):
Nobody remembers, Nobody remembers.

Speaker 8 (01:10:20):
It's it's like I always say, it's like, uh, it's
like fairy dust, right, you know, it's just like Wolf of.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
Wall Street, Like it's a wazie. It's a woozy.

Speaker 8 (01:10:29):
It's just it's stuff out there that people are interesting,
which is cool, but it doesn't mean anything.

Speaker 1 (01:10:34):
That doesn't mean anything. You still got to line it up,
put the pads on, and see how it goes.

Speaker 2 (01:10:38):
They play the game.

Speaker 1 (01:10:40):
That's the That's the beautiful thing about football any given Sunday.
I know it's a cliche thing, but really that's how
it goes. People are like, oh man, you got the
hardest schedule or you got the easiest schedule, like none
of that matters. Last year really doesn't matter. We're going
to strap it up this year. And there's going to
be some team that that you expect to win every day.

Speaker 4 (01:10:58):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:59):
It has struggles, and there's gonna be some team that
worked their tail off this offseason that you're not expecting
to be great, that's going to just be there at
the end and you're gonna be like, WHOA, how did
they end up here? Because these are grown men with
ambitions and drive, and they work their butt off, and
I think you guys have put together a great OTAs offseason,
a great training camp, and I'm looking forward to seeing
the product.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
Yeah, thanks man, I love it. I appreciate your brother,
I appreciate your time. Thank you

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The Richard Sherman Podcast - Sherm at Seahawks camp with Darnold, Kupp, Woolen & Macdonald: "This team is different"

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Richard Sherman Podcast - Sherm at Seahawks camp with Darnold, Kupp, Woolen & Macdonald: "This team is different"