Ep. 5: Zach Sieler - Advocating for the Outdoors, Playing in the NFL, and the Underdog Mentality - In Pursuit

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're football. It's there's so many different aspects to it.
It's like, hey, if that scheme doesn't work for you,
that might not be your scheme, and like you might
never get a shot. So it was the patience and
the Okay, I'm gaining the weight, I'm doing the right thing,
I'm doing the reps, I'm getting better at my technique,
and I just got wait my opportunity. That's why I
tell kids we go around like we just did our
first youth football camp back home.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
They look listen to your coaches, I.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Know, like at least for where I'm from, Like I
know they got good coach that just came in there now,
and the guys that were there when I was there
were great. It's just listening to them do what they say.
Like and also part of that is do your own ways. Yeah,
like don't just follow a blind eye. Like you can
challenge in a very respectful way where it's like, hey,
why are we doing this or what's this going to help?

(00:42):
Or hey, maybe my style of play is not like
his and I need I have the length or he
has the explosion. That's how can I tailor this to
make it better for me? So it's having the knowledge
from them and from yourself, and then the willpower the
discipline to what Jocko say, discipline for freedom. Yeah, that
to me is like that rings home with everything and
that right there is just and that's what my career
has been. It's just every day working getting better, so

(01:05):
when that opportunity does come, you're ready. That was it,
and that's hunting right.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Out here.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
The stakes are real. Effective preparation starts with fitness, but
it requires so much more. This show explores the tools, knowledge, resilience,
and skills needed to be ready when it matters the most.
Join me Rich Browning as we apply the decades of
wisdom I've gained through training and competition to hunting in

(01:35):
the back country. This is in Pursuit, brought to you
by Mount Knocks in collaboration with Mayhem Hunt. We've got
Zach seeler On in Pursuit Podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
We got Josh.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
Are we gonna just call you bird Bird's Fine, Bird's
Fine Zach d two. Yep, college football state, Zach. You
were at Ferris when Scott was there. Yep, you guys
became friends. Scott's been singing your praises for a long time.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Should. Yeah, now that we.

Speaker 4 (02:10):
Know you, Yeah, I get's his second claim the fame.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Second claim the fame? What's the first? Ah? Yeah, he's
made me who I am.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Zach, you played it fair, you went So we kind
of talked about your whole backstory. We'll get into all that.
I'm supposed to interest intro you better. So, Zach D
two football from Michigan, fellow Michigander. Yep, we got three
Michiganders on here. I mean, I've lived in Tennessee for
thirty plus years, so Tennessee is home for me.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
All my sports teams are in Michigan D.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Two and then NFL H and so now you've been
with the Dolphins for.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Going on my sixth years, sixth year in Baltimore. It's
the end of that second year I was cut and
that's when I got down to Miami. And down to
the Miami and been there ever since. Had some pretty
good years the last couple of years.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
Yeah, pretty awesome lifetime outdoorsmen. Pretty much grew up in
the outdoors as.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Much as we could. I mean, you know, sports takes
a lot from it. I mean, I laugh, and this
is obviously like nothing that could happen now, but like
we used to have the farm behind our high school Becau.
Our high schools is surround at Cornfields, middle of nowhere, yep,
And we take your shotgun to school.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
It was just normal.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
I couldn't do it now drive to school with it
and right after school I'd drive around like twenty feet
away from the entrance and takeing hiked back to the
woods to our little hunt and sponge. Yeah. So yeah,
we've always done it and loved outdoors and hunting, fishing
and everything like that. I had a little cabin up
by where I went to school and at Big Rapids, yeah,
just south of it, in the little White Cloud.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Area, Okay, famous of Scott Scott Manerschleet's home right there,
I'm sure. Yeah, Yeah, there's a sign around the exit.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Right at the subway. I think there it is.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
There's always a subway. But I've worked there actually, oh
did you know? Oh yeah, that was my first job
either way, we can tell yeah, big Sandwich, Yeah, but
yeah it was.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
So it's always been a big passion of mine. I
love being outdoors and that's just kind of always been
my thing. And thankfully football has worked out so well
that it's been such an amazing blessing, but it's tough
to get outdoors.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yeah, heck ya.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
I listened to a podcast with you bird sent it
to me. What was the name of that, and you
were talking about your upbringing. It sounds almost identical to
like how I grew up out here. When my parents
were like, no video games, you're going outside. We played
paintball half the time. I'm pretty sure my parents didn't
know where we were at in the woods. I grew
up in a hunting ish family, but like you said,

(04:30):
sports kind of took priority over that, and so, you know,
I got into hunting. Hunting later in life. I dabbled
in it as a kid, but not like I wish
now that my kids are old enough that they can.
But so it sounds like we had similar upbringings and
so you know, kind of walk us through. You know,

(04:51):
you go to Faris and you just basically were doing
it to get a mechanical engineering degree.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
I liked playing football, well, I wasn't gonna put so
I was out of high school. I got a couple
of coach from Western kind of had some interest whatever
and did some stuff you do one day camps, like
when you're in high school junior year, you do these
one day camps to basically get your name out there.
And I'm sure it's similar to baseball, the same thing,
okay back then. Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it's different now
with all the technology and everything. And I had no

(05:19):
idea you're supposed to make highlight reels and stuff. I
didn't know what I was doing.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
I didn't have cell phone videos when I was a kid.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Uh But yeah, So then I was doing those camps
and one guy got interested in one of the coaches.
Then they kind of they got let go, and then
I just kind of died off, and I'm like, well,
what am I gonna do now? So no other schools
were interested in me.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Little know where I was underweight. I wrestled a lot
growing up in Michigan, right, so my dad, my dad
was Olympic backup in wrestling, so that was his true passion.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
That's what he knew. Yep.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
So, I mean I cut thirty pounds my junior year,
so I was down to one. I was rustling one
day to nine my junior year, and I got back
up to two twenty for a football season in my
senior year.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
That killed my status for sure, because you know it's
bench forty vertical all that stuff. Shot can't lose thirty
pounds in two weeks three weeks and expect to keep
muscle mass like he just doesn't work. Nope, we didn't
know there was no whatever. So either way, UH went
to Ferris because we had a cabin up there by
Scott's hometown and so I half Wayne the area, small

(06:17):
town kid. I didn't want to go to some big school,
especially if I didn't know anyone going into it. So
I walked down at Ferris went for my degree. But
then they offered me a walk on offered yeah, they
call it, and I wouldn't even got that except my
dad basically lied and said he was me and sent
an email and then he showed me a response to humile.
They said like, oh, yeah, we'd love to have you,

(06:38):
like he'll probably never play here, but your size will
be good to like.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Beat up on the practice exactly right.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
It's like because other teams will have long, lanky guys
on defense and that you could simulate them. Basically. Yeah,
Matthew Junam was a guy played at Grand Valley. He's
a big, huge, great player. I'm actually playing with them
in Baltimore. But that was one of the guys is like,
hey play like he does, yeah, practice and stuff like that.
So yeah, I walked on up there. Third year is

(07:06):
when I finally saw the field and uh kind of
history from there. Yeah, did you were you drafted? Did
you seventh round? Seventh first my school draft one hundred
years some one hundred some years of football, Yeah, seventh
round pick the Baltimore and just kind of it took
me probably honestly three full years in the league to

(07:27):
kind of figure it out. Yeah, from a D two.
A lot of coaches it was all they cared the
effort and they I mean, I love I love those guys. Yeah,
but like when it came to the schematics and things,
it was a step back. Yeah, not taking a shot.
It is funny.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
I mean we were talking about the weight room. You
were talking about the weight room you guys had. Scott
said is probably the size of this room right here,
which is a decent sized room. But when you got
probably eighty eighty guys coming through. I mean I was
a college strength coach for a while and it was
even in a really good facility that Tennessee Tech has now.

(08:04):
It was hard, yeah, and I can't imagine doing it
in a small, little stong.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
We were making things up, but then we didn't have
a strength coach, so like we never were really doing
full team workout. Yes, so we had to we call
ourselves like the misfits. We had a little group chat
and there was probably fifteen or twenty of us. We're
all like walk ons or some guy was a scholarship player.
I got a scholarship pulled and like just guys that
just we just loved it and we just loved football.
We loved like just competing. Yeah, we made a little workout.

(08:29):
We do four am workouts and I ended up putting
on sixty pounds wondering against some weight right h yeah.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
So my second year I was doing construction in the
summer to pay for school. And then going to that
second year, I was two fifteen and I had a
new d line coach come in and uh, he goes, look,
unless you get in a size forty pound, you're never
playing here. And he not in the mean way, He's
just straight up saying like you. So that going into
my third year, I end up getting like sixty pounds.
I came in at like two eighty two seventy five

(08:57):
and then at two eighty five, and then I left
it to ninety five. So what do you know, I
am too eighty eight two ninety ish. I kind of
float around there in the off seasons and I'll get
around mid two nineties during football. Now, yeah, I like
that's where I like to play. But yeah, it's just
just just uh know, saying But either way, it's been
it's been a ride and it's been awesome. But that

(09:18):
weight room, man, we just struggled in there, and yeah,
that was that was the best part of it. Yeah,
you get my closest guys.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Somebody write something for you you haven't. Yeah, well muscle
farm okay, yeah, muscle farm. Yeah, we used to do that.
Look at that.

Speaker 1 (09:33):
They would make these PDF. Yeah, they'd make these like
little screenshot little workout plans.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Like that's where German volume came from.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
By ten times volume. Yeah, we do. We warm up
or warm up with that shows you for the whole
rest to work out and like.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
That's a great way to put on size though, and
we did. We got we got big.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
We were putting like we had a slot one of
our slot receiver guys worked out with us and we
would put them on top of the weight rack and
we're doing lapoles and stuff cause it didn't go heavy enough.
It was commercial equipment. Yeah, it was look at gym equipment,
Yeah it was. It was we found a way. But
and that was we talked about it. When you go
throw all that suck and all that kind of stacks,
I think Steve Ranella is to embrace third. Yeah, the

(10:11):
suckiest times or like the most memorable.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
Times for sure. Man, secondary true, yeah, secondary fun. It's
awful in the time, but it's great when you're done.
You're like, man, we did that, right, I mean, yeah,
we were talking about early days of CrossFit. You know,
the first time we did one of the workouts is
called Grace. It's thirty clean and jerks for time. We
had this crappy old barbell. Yeah one thirty five, but
you every eight or ten reps, you had to have
somebody on the side with an Allen wrench and they'd

(10:33):
have to tighten the screw because the screw would back
itself out. And so you know, that was early on,
but it makes everything else now that you're like, oh
this is you know, but it it also makes you
a little soft now because you're like, man, I don't
know if I could go back to that, you know.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
I go in to a c yeah bar, Yeah, because
exactly you're gonna have rust on the bar and your
hands getting all shot, you know, And it makes you
appreciate it more. And that's a big thing that I
try to be my wife and I every day just
be grateful and like having those moments are what's uh,
what makes it that much easier to be grateful now
for all we have and all were able to do.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
I And and that's kind of the connection with me
with outdoors is it's awesome, it's peaceful at times, it
also sucks. It's also the most frustrating, can be some
of the harshest, you know, environments we've been in.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
We've been in some like situations where you're like, the
hell did we get in this situation? Exactly?

Speaker 3 (11:25):
And it's miserable in the moment, But then you know,
like life now can be so soft, right, you can
be so cush that you're like, you've got to put
yourself in those situations, which granted you put yourself in
those situations still regularly obviously stepping on the football field
or you know, you're in Miami. I can't imagine practicing
in Miami.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
It took.

Speaker 1 (11:45):
It was an adjustment. Yeah, bet honestly been Baltimore. Man
it's a swamp out.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Oh yeah, that's superhuman too. Yeah about that.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
Like Baltimore, they had ice tubs, like the big uh
rubber made.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, like a horse trough type to play ones.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
You have ice and water in there. You dunk your
head in their middle of practice to stick.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
Miami doesn't have that thick Oh really Yeah, no, it's
kind of weird. It's kind of shocked to me. But
thankfully I had like a ball for the stepping stone.
I didn't go right from northern Michigan.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Northern Michigan to South Florida's just in Michigan this summer
or this last week, and man, it was two days
we were kind of humid, but still nothing compared to here.
And then the third and fourth day, man, it was
like sixty percent humidity. And I'm like, man, I could
buy a cabin up here and just retire up here
in the summer for sure.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Yeah you do. Two three months up there be awesome.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Perfect the flies, but yeah, flies in Florida, like the
community is just Yeah, it's a stroke.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
You see that early on in the season.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Anybody that goes down to Miami, you're at an extreme
disc I mean, was it Brady could never win in Miami?
The Patriots even when they were on that run, didn't
they It was like it was some crazy stat I thought,
where they'd come down to Miami and they just really like, yeah,
teams just come down there.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Old, I know, there's a Miami miracle. Yeah, so hot.
So yeah, I mean, you gotta put yourself in those situations.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
You gotta, like, you know, I always say, we always
do these twenty four hour challenges and stuff because just
let you know where you're at mentally, and I think
that outdoors is.

Speaker 2 (13:12):
A great way to do that.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
And and being you know, out West specifically. You know,
you've kind of said that right now out West it's
kind of hard for you to get out west because
it's the middle of your season. But you talked about
going to New Zealand to Africa, and then she got
back from Hawaii. Yeah yeah, so would you would you
hunt New Zealand?

Speaker 1 (13:30):
We did stag Okay, got we both got a stag
and then she got a Russa and I got a
Sicca as well.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
That was super cool. Rifle archery, archery archy.

Speaker 1 (13:41):
With our bows. You can't take guns there, oh okay.
And also we prefer bow hunting.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, me too.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
We had a great setup where we were able to
get it out there, a great outfit, got us on
some deer. Yeah, they had it was It was a
good It was a good setup. But we this Hawaii
hunt was more our thing where what you said, just
wide open, you don't know what's happening when they're coming
from and it was cool and you're waking up at tooth.
I feel bad because her and I, my wife and
I didn't hunt that. We did three mornings. Yeah, two

(14:08):
thirty am. You get there by four o'clock because it's
summer and it's sunny and it's getting it's early, so
getting out there, and that peak time was at six
to seven thirty. Really the first two mornings weren't hunting together.
She was because it's three mornings. We both want to
shoot deer. It's like, hey, let's get we're going there
for control, but we're trying to access the best, the
cleanest y. We came back like two hundred pounds of me.
It's awesome because it's just that's I'd rather eat that

(14:30):
than eating some whatever. But either way, we did that,
and man, it was it was tough, and like because
they're always moving, they're skittish, they're small, jumpy, and they're jumpy. Yeah,
so like your window to actually hit is smaller. And
then where they're gonna duck off to where they're gonna
run to, It's like there's so many options. Yeah, so
it was. It was a cool thing and one of
us may or may not have thrown our bows and

(14:51):
someone's got to fix it.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Happens, it happens.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
Yeah. Maybe tripped, Yeah, tripped, Yeah, I've tripped several times.
H It's we always say it's more frustrated than golf
because I'm like golf, you can't just go to the
next hole. You might not get an opportunity again for
weeks or never.

Speaker 3 (15:07):
We were Was it Colorado, Yeah, it was Colorado. It
was the year we actually killed that bull on public Scott.
Remember when my I'd fallen a couple of times, I
had like a left shoulder that was ad and I
just wouldn't put my shoulder out to catch me.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
So I just fall, just take it, and so I
just take it right.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
At one point I looked down in my I had
a single pin spot hog and it was the the pin.
It was on this kind of like half or like
a quarter circle piece of metal and it was twisted
and turned so my site was completely off, and luckily
I caught it and I just bent it back the
best that I could kind of see killing something really Yeah,
So but it's yeah, I mean that stuff happens, and

(15:46):
that's you know, something you don't think about in archery
that it could happen. Rightfle too, is you know, carrying
your equipment fall some of those times you set something
down or knock something off.

Speaker 1 (15:56):
You put in a slinger, just carry it by hand.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
You usually carry it by hand.

Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah, I just like having it just in case.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
We've had a couple opportunities that were like if I hadn't,
it's when you're not expecting.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
When you're not expecting it fly brutal with it. Flying
is brutal. Wait, a couple they broke his.

Speaker 4 (16:12):
Tore site off my boat, like literally.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
We were going to attack. But still yeah, and why
they even get Yeah, like I know they opened it.
I've always opened oursel up. I don't know, but do
you pack stuff around it?

Speaker 4 (16:24):
It was just a pelican case.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
Yeah, a pelican and UH was early on by one
of our guys. Yeah, back everything around it to try
to keep it like perfectly isolated. But yeah, before they
open it up and it's just like things.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Physically broke his off. I don't know how they did it,
but I've heard stories. I never actually met. That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
So you had you had a lease of hunting in
UH in Florida. Gators and ags and all kinds of stuff.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, gators and ostilo were our biggest. Obviously, it's an
amazing it's tough hunt.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
Oscilos are tough birds to hit grand slam, that's the
big thing. And they're highly targeted. It's the only spot
in America you can get them. So it's it's they're
very jumpy, almost like access. That's why we convert to
access hunt to it because when those deer flea, they're gone.
There's no there's no looking, there's nothing saying those birds.
You do one wrong call there. We Access and deer

(17:21):
were our biggest two and we loved it and we
had a five year lease and went great. All through
five years and we just we didn't re up the lease.
We didn't we didn't feel like that was gonna be
our calling. Yeah, and uh, we actually had a couple
of people come out and hunt and that were it
was a quadriplegic kid that came from Michigan and there
was someone else. It kind of touched us, like to

(17:41):
our core where it was just like seeing that getting
be able to give that opportunity, it was like, holy cow,
yeah that's cool. So we actually did. We just opened
a five O one see three Seeler Safe Event Foundation,
my wife and I did to give that opportunity to
kids and to be able to get them not just
hunt but outdoors, do cattle days, do farm days, because,

(18:02):
like you said, getting out doors. Like I want to
say we're soft, but like if you want, you can
live a very comfortable life nowadays. If you don't ever
push yourself, you never know what you're gonna be able
to do. You get stuck in this complacency cycle if
you don't ever do things like that. So we we
got a piece of Missouri now that we're running the
foundation out of, and we're gonna be able to well
and Florida so Florida's a lot of we're gonna do

(18:23):
some fishing stuff nice, some kids or families and as
we do kids, families, veterans, that kind of thing. And
as well as Missouri, we're gonna do some hunting, some
cattle days, some like gues tree identification him we're standing
from heard of landing legacy. No, it's a guy out
there in Missouri. But he's all over and what he

(18:44):
does is they walk the land. And he taught me
because I didn't know about how. We're still we're learning
a bunch. We tried to burn here and then we
had that forestry come out.

Speaker 2 (18:53):
It was awesome.

Speaker 3 (18:54):
But the guy at four Streets like, basically, you did
it on the wrong side of the hill. He's like,
this is the north side of the hill. He's like,
that doesn't really matter. Great, it was still fun, but
it's still fun. Yeah, absolutely, But so that that that
was for me. It was trying to accelerate that process
to really get people out, to get the animals in.
You're you're trying to create groceries. That's the best way

(19:15):
he put it for me. Doing food plots, you're burning
stuff that creates that natural feed bank. Again, because like
with anything, God had this earth perfect screw And if
he says the guy from Landing Legacy and Matt, he goes, hey,
like if you read these old books, and he studied
these old books from like Lewis and Clark days. And
when he came over, like it was open savannah, Like

(19:36):
it wasn't these packed dense forests, and there was so
much more food sources back then. We packed it full
of cedars and all this other stuff. He's like, So
he walked out there, He's like, all right, I got
their crew. They're chopping. They chopped everything out there for
a week. They went in there and they cut through everything. Yeah, dude,
I'm telling you it's the knowledge that's there on how
to all plant this here, plant this here, cut do

(19:58):
the same thing I'd have done.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
Nor Oh that ridge looks like I should burn over there,
Sure let's do that. It looks thick. But it's like, no,
it's a strategic plan. Yeah X, and it's perfectly pieced out,
like this is your betting thicket from August till March.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
Really, he's like.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
A big no no go zone and stuff like that.
So we're gonna run. That's our plan. Is able to
get people out there in families, and it's it's been
a cool thing.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Well, you know, you talked about the farm days, but
then also the hunting and harvesting. But it's just a
connection to where our food came from. You know, like obviously,
you know we think that eating game meat is awesome,
but also knowing where your food came from. If you're
raising the cattle, you know, we're gonna buy some farm
out here, and then with island highland cows that will
never be meat. Those are just golden doodles.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
With horns, that's all they are.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
Like that's my wife, Those are my wife' That was
so she would leave us alone about this side of
the because she started to like that.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
One was born. We have to keep that one blah blah.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
But there's one named out there that we cast rated
because he was the first one born here. The story
is kind of cool. He was the first one born here,
and then we named him after a good friend of ours.
He was a Vietnam Vet. Well he ended up passing,
so now we're like, no, I can't kill this damning
So his name's Wilson.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
But you know, it's like he's a you know, part
of the part of the landscape now.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
But yeah, you look out you see bison rome in
the front yard, which you know, they say they were
native to hear not this subspecies. You know, these are
actually planes bison, which they say the eastern Easterns were killed.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
Obviously.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
Is there any non modified bison?

Speaker 2 (21:31):
They say there is pure What did I man?

Speaker 3 (21:34):
I just read an article the other day they said, uh,
there is a pure herd left, but most herds have
like point percent or whatever because we we bred him
with cols, because we killed him down into less than
the thousand. Again, we messed with We messed it up,
which you know, luckily, I think this will come out
too late. But the the Mike Lee land bill got

(21:55):
shot down, which is awesome, you know.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
And we were talking to Angela and angel was like,
I don't really mind it, and I'm.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
Like, dude, don't you take one one acre?

Speaker 2 (22:03):
That's a lot of things. Yep, yep, And so I
you know, I think it was a win for us.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
And absolutely for that's your kids. Yeah, see that land,
and that we might not be affected from it. And
because it's not gonna dis if you started doing it
now right, it's fifty sixty years. So it's them, it's
the grandkids that wouldn't be able to have that land
to go enjoy and see and explore.

Speaker 3 (22:25):
I think that's why it's so important to teach our
kids how awesome it is to go out and use
the land. I think, you know, once again, it we've
created that disconnect with the phone or with technology, which
technology is great, you know, that's the hard part. But
you know, if they lose that connection, and you know,
I'm trying to get the kids into hunting, and you know,

(22:46):
I take yours is too young still, but like having
my girls go out this year and Trice, we killed
a couple of dos when Trice was out there lake.
I still I got to kill something with her in
the stand or she's gonna kill me. But it's you know,
it's it's awesome that they want to go out and
be a part of that. Anytime we harvest anything, like
I had the realization was it two years ago where

(23:06):
I'd actually cleaned something by myself? Yeah, And I'm like,
oh man, I'm thirty six years old and that's the
first time I've ever done this by I've always you know,
been a part of it. When we've killed anything. But
so now anytime we kill anything, I'm like, kids, let's go. Yeah,
they come out and man, they're you know, they're not
afraid of it, they're you know, in there and grabbing
on it. And so man, it's, uh, it's something cool

(23:27):
to to share and just show them that, hey, like
this is something that we a lot of people don't
have access to, right, you know, like we're spoiled, and
it's it's just so cool to be able to connect
that to the younger generation.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Yeah, well you said it's access. Yeah, and that goes
back to land stuff. Like if you start selling, like
then you give that much more limited access and it
becomes this cycle.

Speaker 3 (23:51):
And it's already hard in the West, you know if
you don't know anybody, like you know, the first what
six years or five years, we went you know, unguided
by ourselves, and it was Colorado over the countertag. You know,
we had no idea what we were doing. And you know,
there's something special about that though. Like once we kind

(24:12):
of did that and then we started getting invited to
places and I'm like, all right, cool, I'm in you know,
I keep's let's keep doing this.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
Uh. It was.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
It was eye opening, you know, because you always just
see social media people and they're like killing the moment, right,
killing left and right, and you're like, man, that looks
so easy, and then you get out there and you
realize that, you know, it is way different being even
on private land, you know, even without an outfitter. Now
that we've learned a lot, but like having access to land,
and that's what you were gonna lose is access to

(24:40):
those those places.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yep. So man, it's it's uh, it's.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
Tough, and you know, you know, you think, oh, you know,
maybe I don't need to need to get in this fight.
But then you're like, all right, if I'm gonna actually
stand for something, then we gotta we gotta jump into So.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
For your foundation, do people apply, how do they get involved?

Speaker 1 (24:59):
So we we just got this property back and we
closed in December January of this year, and we have
had enough connections there, my wife being from there where
in Florida, we were able to find a couple of
different homes and stuff like that that we're able to
get kids out there. And then in Miami it's through
the Dolphins and through Big Brothers, brig sisters and other

(25:21):
programs like that. We've been able to do some outdoor
events or for me, a big passion minds now flying.
That's a new thing for Yeah, it's which is its
own addiction in itself. But we do a we did
a trip with United twice now fly to the North
Pole Kids from the Joe Demagio Hospital there in Miami. Yeah,
it was so cool, Like they take off from the

(25:42):
for Ladderdale Airport and they come back and it's this
own little hangar off to the side and then we
have it decked out with Christmas stuff, Santa Claus. They
come down the ramp and stuff like that. It's really
it was really special. I we look forward to that
every year. But yeah, so we've Miam, We've had a
few connections and we're hoping to get to that point
where we can have applications and really start to be
able to branch out and help. And my thing is, like,

(26:03):
the cool thing I would love to be able to
do is get a kid a Grand Slam. Yeah, some
of that something like that. I think it'd be really cool.
We have some connections in Texas through some family friends
who are also on the board of the foundation that
help out as well, and that's our big thing is
we just hired our first full time guy for the
foundation this year, so to be able to have him
take people on hunts. Like we said, I can't take
him the fall, so like, I'm not gonna I don't

(26:25):
want to send someone somewhere that I don't have someone
I know or me there that's gonna able to help
guide them and work them through that and it's probably
be totally fine.

Speaker 2 (26:34):
Hand.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
I want to make sure that it's you're gonna get
the best experience possible. So we're gonna be able to
do that now. So I'm really excited to be able
to do that and do it like not a draw system,
but something like that. We were able to help out
applications and get like a full on flights and trips
down and our new thing which we're working on now
is getting our site revamped. But we got a we
actually honeymoon in Africa. Oh well yeah we did. And

(26:57):
then that outfitter was gracious enough that we're going to
gift us a trip for two every year. That's cool
to do a seven day planes game hunt in Africa.
There you go, So we're going to do that hopefully
this falls will be able to do that application or whatever,
how we ever decide to do that for a couple,
for a kid and the parents or whoever, which is
really exciting. So yeah, we can't wait.

Speaker 2 (27:19):
Yeah, I think it's a cool way to share it.

Speaker 3 (27:21):
And you know, some of these kids that we were saying,
I've got a buddy that does some of that in
West ten c And you know, he was talking about
just the moments that I think Luke helped guide a
hunt out there, Yeah, which I bet was interesting buddy
of ours, And uh man, it's just there's just something
special about it, right. You can't until people have kind
of experienced it's hard to kind of show that off,

(27:43):
and then especially to do that with kids, and then
kids that obviously are you know, going through it is
pretty awesome. So ye, hey, hey, we have to figure
out a way to a WEE can help out with
some of that. We got a spot turkey hunt, but
come on, I don't know if the guides are very good, but.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Some are overcall a little excited, a little excited.

Speaker 3 (28:05):
Yeah, so you talked to so where what did you
hunt in Africa when you were out there?

Speaker 1 (28:11):
We did We went for planes, game ended up doing
a buffalo as well. Uh she got a kudo, I
got the buffalo and then just Game's buck uh spring
Buck and Paula.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Yeah, super awesome outfit, great people. Now we actually cool
because they come back. And what's really cool is Nashal
is doing sc I know. Yeah, they just signed the
least and they're doing it for.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
The last two or three years.

Speaker 1 (28:36):
And about the next ten more, I think. But they
come back. They come to that Scish every year. So
we did a thing at our house and yeah, everyone,
it's been awesome.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
That's that.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
Africa is just something I've never really looked into. I'm
kind of like I've got weird tendencies where i get
obsessive about something, so like was all in on Turkey
and now I'm like one hundred percent in on Elk.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
So it's hard for me. You know.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
I've Matt's got our buddy Matt that owns form with us.
He's got a guy that's spend in contact with him
trying to get us to Africa, and like one day
I'll get there. And I wasn't like hating on it,
but this guy like takes offense that I won't come
out there right now. Actually, I just saw that Renault's
out there. I'm trying it out. So I've just never
you know, so kind of walked through that style of
hunt because I've never even so.

Speaker 1 (29:18):
That was our first big hunt as a couple or myself. Yeah,
everything was. We were auto industry, mittle class whitetail, some
geese from the January. We never even turkey on Michigan. Rearly,
I didn't turkey it until I came to Florida.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
It's not big, you know.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
I've got my uncles are huge whitetail hunters, and I'm like,
you ever hunt turkey? Like now, They're out in our
yard all the time, and I'm like, yeah, blast them.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Absolutely. We were like I don't really care and I'm
like every day. That's what got me hooked though, was
turkey hunting.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
That's what we got my wife looked on hunting. Was
turkey hunting. Yeah. It's so frustrating, but either way, So
Africa was our first big trip. We did our honeymoon
over there and we did ten days hunting down there
in South Africa. Yep, and uh, it was it was
it was, dude, It's it's a grind. You're you're out there, like,
it's not like you just show up and here you go. Yeah,

(30:06):
it's it was. It was work and there. It was
ten days straight, probably twelve hours a day, sleeping on
the ground out there in africats, these massive ranches.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
It's not like we didn't know would that be wild?
Yeah we did. Uh.

Speaker 1 (30:21):
We were stalking on the buffalo. Actually it's our kodu hunt.
We were stalking on. We're trying to pick up trails
and seven yards away we kicked up three rhinos. Sketchy,
ground was shaken. Oh yeah, I might have gotten pushed
for my wife. Yeah, uh rightly, so yeah, sacrifice exactly right.
It was without a paddle. I don't have that, but

(30:44):
it was. It was really cools all. And it's what
makes her break. Is the outfit you're with. Yeah, and
it's it's the and it's but that's all of hunt
we're with. Like, it's not it's about the chase. It's
about harvesting a beautiful animal that hopefully can take all
that meat home and you can use it for war,
and you know where.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
It came from. Africa.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
It's hard to bring the meat back. So a lot
of times all that most every time the meat goes
to local tribes and stuff, and it's a lot of
their bets, like their only source of protein.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
And that's the amazing part of hunting over there is
all that the income from the hunting industry goes to
preservation and then the meat goes to local tribes and
people to give them their source of protein basically, so
it works out great. And anyways, yeah, it was an
amazing hunt.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
It's just different.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
It's like because we did then we did my buffalo
a spot in stock a lot, it's spot in stock
from a truck. Typically you're covering one hundred thousand acres
spots like it's it's like West but like it's everything. Yeah,
so there's so much land to cover and it's thick
and everything's got thorns and everything like that. So we
did a lot of time on there. Those land cruiser
was a big deck up top.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
You're sitting up.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
There just driving around for hours and then there's some
spots where's okay, they've we saw when he worked into here,
give an hour or two. We'll try to work in
pick up tracks something like that. And it's so different
than over here. Is your spot and you're like, you're
walking around hiking, I'm looking down and you know whatever, Hey, wait,
don't move. I'm like, we see something looking around. He's
like no, like forty years away is a giraffe and

(32:11):
he can see over the trees. So then like a
lot of the other animals, hang your giraffes because basically
a watchtower.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
Yeah, I think about that. That's just stuff. You just
stuff you don't think about.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
Yo, who thinks, hey, there's an animal looking down on you. Yeah,
that's gonna let you know. But that was seeing a
giraffe fight a person. Yes, yeah, they're crazy, and then
watching them run. It's like slow motion. It's just it's
just different. It's a whole in the world.

Speaker 4 (32:33):
Yeah, something you keep talking about is just like the
grind of honey. Yeah, what are like some takeaways or
things you've learned because obviously your career has been a
grind as well, right, Like there's had to be up
and downs. Just how what are some things that you've
learned from your career are from Honting that was like, okay,
this is the same thing.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yeah. Discipline and patience it's the biggest two. Yeah, patients, Well,
for me, it was patients to get on the field.
It took me three years at Faris, it took me
three four years in Miami Baltimore slash Miami. But then
having the discipline to be like, all right, I know
I'm doing the right thing. I know I'm on the
right track. I as long as you have a good guidance.

(33:15):
I was very fortunate to have great coaches throughout the
entire process, and it's just like, just keep working, like
you'll get your shot. Like that came from nowhere. No,
none of my family members ever knew kind of what
it was like to even begin doing that kind of
stuff competitively my dead Russell, but rustling's totally different, like

(33:35):
amazing sport. It is a team sport, popular contrary belief,
but it's when it's that when you're out there, it's
just it's just you. Football's there's so many different aspects
to it. It's like, hey, if that scheme doesn't work for you,
that might not be your scheme, and like you might
never get a shot. So it was the patience and
the disc Okay, I'm gaining the weight, I'm doing the
right thing, I'm doing the reps, I'm getting better at
my technique. Nice got wait for my opportunity. That's why

(33:58):
I tell kids we go around we just did our
first youth football camp back home and say, hey, look
like listen to your coaches, like I know, like at
least for where I'm from, Like I know, they got
good coach that just came in there now, and the
guys that were there when I was there were great.
It's just listening to them do what they say. Like
and also part of that is do your own research,
like don't just follow a blind eye, like you can

(34:18):
challenge in a very respectful way where it's like, hey,
why are we doing this, or what's this going to help?
Or hey maybe my style of play is not like
his and I need I have the length or he
has the explosion. That's how can I tailor this to
make it better for me? So it's having the knowledge
from them and from yourself, and then the willpower, the
discipline to what JOCKO say, disipline equal freedom. Yeah, that

(34:41):
to me is like that ranks home with everything and
that right there is just and that's what my career
has been. It's just every day working getting better. So
when that opportunity does come, you're ready. Yeah, that was
it that hunting right something you just said, learn too.
Like when we go with other people that are better
than us, we ask a lot of questions. It's probably
like annoyingly yeah, you know, I'm like, hey, why are

(35:02):
we doing this? Not not like challenging, I'm like, I
want to know what the heck we're trying to do
because I want to be able to do it on
my own.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
Absolutely, and so yeah, there's a ton of parallels with
your kids. Yeah, that's that's why I'm trying to learn
as much as I can right now.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
I haven't cleaned a deer. Even when I was young,
I really didn't cclude.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
My dad did it.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
I was ten, twelve, thirteen years old watching him do
and I tried here and there then Hawaii. I'm like, hey,
let me let me do it, be in there a
little bit and try it, and of course it took
three times as long forever.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yeah, like for sure, but it's.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Like that's my thing is I want to learn so
one day I'll be able to do it again or do
it with my son. So that's our big thing is
trying to learn. That's what we're trying to do is
learn as much as we can. We've been on a
couple of l constant you know, you get to share
that with other people. I've I enjoy it from the
team sport aspect as well, Like I don't think.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
These guys that go on solo hunts more power to them.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
But I would rather like have a bunch of us
go out there, three or four of us go out there.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
And try as a team to get one. Actually I
enjoy that way back.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
Probably just as happy if you come home with a
deer instead.

Speaker 4 (35:56):
Yeah, he's usually the only one that shoots.

Speaker 2 (35:58):
I'm on the things.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Oh yeah, you're right, yeah, off the side if it
veers off.

Speaker 2 (36:04):
Backed me up. What happened in Colorado? What do you mean?

Speaker 3 (36:09):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (36:10):
You let him shoot?

Speaker 3 (36:10):
Yeah, I got to it. I could have taken the
shot easily, but I let Matt take the shot. So
it's fine, family friendly. No, not a competition, Not a
competition at all. Well, the one, the one that we
killed public Land, I just happened to be the only
one with a bow and in my hand when the

(36:32):
thing walked up. Like there was four other guys that
were sitting there and they all had bows. But I
just happen to have an arrow knocked and sitting there
and then the rest have been. Our TV episodes are
not even TV YouTube episodes, which is part of it.
But yeah, these guys always give me crap because I'm
the one that takes a shot.

Speaker 4 (36:48):
It's like going Talladega Knights and it's like, hey, he
just one time, I could you could sling shot me?

Speaker 2 (36:53):
Never He's like why why? Why? Then you would win?
Then you would win and you're deer out of here.
Yeah that's right, Oh thank you, No, No, we love it.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
It's been and that's what part of it too, is
like it's that that family atmosphere. It's the fun and
it's the connecting with everybody. And what's cool you get
you've done it with your wife a couple of times,
which is super cool, pretty awesome. That's that's rare and
that's something that we love is like doing it together. Yeah,
And like like I said in Hawaii, like the first
two days we were separate, and that third day we
hunted together. And what's funny is that third day we
both came home with the deer.

Speaker 2 (37:24):
That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (37:24):
And I don't know what it is, but it's it's
it's it's almost a team sport. When you're doing those
spotting stocks and you're bow hunting, somebody spot Yeah, it's
like deer is not going to stop moving. It's not
like like white tail, you can do solo and a
blind gets you a few trees. I try to do
this access hunt too. All right, this tree, this is twenty,
that's thirty, middle.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Of the night and they come out and it's like
what tree was that?

Speaker 3 (37:45):
What?

Speaker 2 (37:46):
Right?

Speaker 1 (37:46):
And then in your full dry oh is that twenty?
Was that thirty?

Speaker 2 (37:49):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
I'm shooting and shooting and right over the back. So
either way doing it together, like it was pretty cool
where it's like hey, she's she's full draw on her knee.
I'm like, hey, stand up because they were getting behind
the ridge. She pops up like shoot thirty yeap, because
you because if you're you're doing there's so many things
to lock in on bowt hunting dude, and they're moving
and everything they are sit still. It's like you got
to have a spotter.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
You got it.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
Yeah, And it's what's so fun about it, And it's
for me, it's just as fun sitting there helping her
and vice versa, and it is shooting yep.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
So it's awesome hard when your spotters your cameraman and
it's trying to get a shot of the kill shot
and you have him range for you and don't give
him a chance to get the camera up at it's
more important.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
What I said, One thing you talked about earlier is
the chess match in football, so that I think that
probably has many correlations with hunting as well. That was right, yep,
if you want to touch for one, why do you
love the chess piece of football so much? And then
what that's talked too as well.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, No, I like, as I've grown in my career,
and then last year we had Klays Campbell and with
us on the D line and just learning from him too,
because that's my thing. I don't care how long I
do something like you can always learn something. Plays has
been playing D line and for eighteen years sane. Yeah, yeah,
he's oh yeah, and like and he's seen. I don't

(39:08):
always joke about it to him, like, dude, you were
around before the style of defense was around. Yeah, like
what happened? Like how did you?

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Yeah, man, how did you survive that long? I know?

Speaker 1 (39:18):
Dude, he's another freaking nature. Yeah, genetically gifted and he
works at it too, which that's his thing. He takes
care of his body and all that kind of stuff.
But it's that chess match of like, all right, you
got your first down, your tendencies, and then you get
your second down, and then third down gets broken up
into like almost like first third and one and two,
three and four, five and five to seven, seven to ten,

(39:40):
And it's like it's that chess match. Okay, where are
they at the clock running?

Speaker 2 (39:44):
What?

Speaker 1 (39:44):
What? What time's on the clock? How many time mouse
they have?

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (39:48):
What hash they on? What arm thrower? Which most all are
right handed quarterbacks now and all that all that piece
goes into it for every single play and like kind
of knowing how that develops, and okay, hey, what's behind you?
What are the safeties doing? Where's the corners at?

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Okay? We have movements? Is it a pressure? Okay?

Speaker 1 (40:05):
The offense? What's their backfield set? You're trying to get
a snapshot of all this stuff before you can get
in your stance, and it can give you so many
different details. Hunting is the same way. It's like, okay,
I can sit here, Okay, there's a game trail here
but the winds hitting this, So where do I want
to sit? Okay, the sun's coming up. I'm on this hill.
I just burned my Norse slope, so I can't go
over there.

Speaker 2 (40:24):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Yeah, but you're saying everywhere, Yeah, exactly right, So either way,
And that's part of That's what I love about the
hunting side of thing is it still gets that uh,
it that competitive, that it's being on the best, the
best of your game possible because like in football, you
never know what play is going to be your best play,
what's gonna be your worst play, or what's gonna be
your last play?

Speaker 1 (40:47):
You don't And that's that's that Every single down is
like that. And like for me when huntings, when I'm
not playing football and it's in the off season, it's
like huntings like all right, you never know what Like
you just said, I mean, guys had bows, you're the
one that a bowl with an Aaron. You never know
what moments your opportunity, What morning's gonna be the best morning,
what mornings gonna be the worst morning, What morning's gonna
be Like you just don't like obviously you hopefully can

(41:10):
keep hunting for a long.

Speaker 3 (41:11):
Time, don't use hunt wise because anytime it's ninety percent
that the deer are going to be moving, they're never moving.

Speaker 1 (41:17):
Yeah right, the atmosphere, pressure, right, the moving calendar, everything, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
Man, there's so much of that stuff that goes into it.
I've kind of said, you know, that was I think
the why I enjoyed that transition from competing in CrossFit
to hunting was the ultimate competition.

Speaker 3 (41:34):
It's kind of the first competition there probably ever was.
I didn't think about that, And so you're it's you
versus that animal, and for me, you're probably the same
way as I get to screw it up and nobody
else really has to know about it, where like if
you screw up, there's film of it, everybody's gonna critique.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
Everybody's gonna tell you what you did wrong.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
And you know, I don't mind, like if it's just us,
but you know, it's it's kind of nice to not
for it not to be a public failure. Except for Scott.
He's got a couple of video files. Oh, there's probably
a lot of burn files.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (42:08):
I guess I've got what a couple of misses on camera,
one pure miss I ranged it incorrectly or set my
pin in correctly.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
I actually have a great shot of that one.

Speaker 3 (42:18):
And then the one in Oklahoma that it just ducked
my arrow clean, passed through a bunch of blood.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Couldn't find it. I mean we looked and looked and looked.
But yeah, there's man, it's just it's the first competition,
especially bow hunting. Bow hunting. Yeah, that's a whole other
piece to it.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
Oh yeah, it's And I mean it's like because growing
up and like she, my wife, did a lot of
gun hunting early on with us, and it's like she
doesn't want to do anymore, and we don't. If we don't,
if we can prefer to, let's be honest, you're trying to.

Speaker 3 (42:43):
Bring meat home, then an equal opportunity hunter, Yeah it is,
but I prefer I prefer bow. And then you know,
when the kids get old enough that they can go
and I'm not gone, or if I'm gone, they can
go with me. And all of September minus the seventeenth,
that's my wife's birthday, I'll be gone all of September.
I enjoy bow hunting the most, but I can't leave

(43:04):
my kids the whole month of September.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
You know they're going with you exactly, exactly and like
and that's part of bow hunting is like you can
physically like you're smelling them.

Speaker 2 (43:11):
You're you can hear them, like it's so intimate.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yeah, it is, and it's it's just crazy. And that
competition with them is just it's it's a match. It's
chess match, just like football. Like all right, hey, and
that was our big hunting or our hunt in Hawaii.
The one I shot was it was like thirty or
four to them coming down this hill in front of us,
about sixty yards out, a big buck in the back.
I'm like, all right, I want to that's obviously that'
where you're gonna am. But he's falling dough. It's the rut.

(43:35):
So there's these two does flingering. Guess what he's lingering.
All the rest are pushing down. That wind's coming. I'm like,
I like, I look at him. I'm like that there's
a smaller buck coming up. I'm like, if they get
to that corner piece behind them, we're getting winded. It's
and then they're gonna blow him out of there too.
Is they're gonna start barking at you I'm like, I'm
taking a shot yep, and like you're weighing all that stuff,
You're weighing those battles.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
Yeah, yep.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
So we did it worked out great, It was awesome
and that's what's and have that team Camarder where it's like,
all right, what do you think? Like, am I am
I over psyching this? Am I overthinking? Is it gonna
be fine? Or is it going to be No?

Speaker 3 (44:07):
You probably should do yes, yeah, or you've got somebody
to bounce strategy off of.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Hey, do we think this is a good idea? Do
we think it's a bad idea? Do we agree? Do
we disagree? Can be dead wrong? Yeah, yeah most of
the time.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
Most of the time, are you going to stop two
feet past where somebody else wants to stop? Uh?

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (44:25):
When you talk about your preparation, obviously there's all kinds
of training styles you today which you can talk through. Said,
most of how you guys train, it's just thirty second bursts, yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Six second burst, six to sixteen thirty second break, okay,
because you're trying to simulate football.

Speaker 4 (44:44):
So then in that and then you say you hit
the mountains later the woods.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
Yeah, does that correlate at all.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
It's so funny because like like she's basketball is constantly
moving and all that stuff. Like we'll be doing these
hikes and like we're like in Hawaii, we're just doing
these You're also like mountain, yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:05):
Which is a lot to move.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
It is plus the bag and yeah, yeah, my bow
is huge, akle, the axle, it's not the compressed. I
can't get smaller bows and everything. So it's just funny
because we'll be hiking like she's that steady, just go
go go, like just keeps going, and I'll literally be
catching myself on hikes. I'm like, all right, go and
then I stop and I go fast again, then I
stop and it's just it's just funny how like that's

(45:27):
how that's how my body works. And when I'm done,
I'll have to train differently, but for now it works great.
I'm gonna keep doing it because like that's how we
that's how we play.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
This is what it is. Yep, it's funny.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
We always joke as like if you ever have an
extended play an interception or fumble, and you turn like
I could you could do eight to ten plays in
a row and come off the field. A offense out there.
Something happen. You gotta get back out there. Sudden change.
You can make that work. You do an extended play
where it's like a fumble or interception. You start running
and you have to turn and fifteen thirty second play

(45:58):
done it. Whereas oxygen ass or is everything, it's like
holy cow, which is hit me?

Speaker 2 (46:02):
Yeah, it's just different.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
Yeah, I got an interception last year. I made it
two yards. I was still because it's just that extra
little burst, wasn't adrenaline probably dumped on you.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
So your heart rate's a million. You're actually gonna h
wide eyed and everything.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
Yeah, yeah, I mean we get you know we we
just did a meat Eater kind of collab post and
you know, this guy.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
Was like, you don't need to lift sandbank? When are
you ever gonna lift a sand bank? You know, blah
blah blah.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
But there's different body types, there's different you know obviously
you know somebody's tall, skinny, whatever. Yeah, they can do
like we're all just like, there's all different muscle fibers,
all these different things. So what we really want to
look at is is obviously balance between all of that.
So yeah, we do some long, slow days, but man,

(46:50):
I think there's a huge benefit to those high intensity
being able to move heavy weight when.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
You need to.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
You know, this guy was like, oh, there's no need
to lift one hundred and fifty pounds ham bag, blah
blah blah.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
And I'm like, you.

Speaker 4 (47:00):
Also said you was on steroids.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
He's also said I was on steroids. So it is
what it is, you know.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
So it's like, we want to train those short bursts
because you might have to have a short burst and
go after something, move quick and do whatever and be
able to like calm down, bring your heart rate down
during an interval, take a shot, whatever it is. But yeah,
you need to be able to do long and slow.
But why would we just train one piece. You're training
one piece because that's what you need to do, and

(47:26):
that's specialization if you know kind of the demands of what.

Speaker 2 (47:30):
You're going to do.

Speaker 3 (47:31):
But when you get on the mountain, you don't know
the demands of what you're gonna do. So why not
be as physically prepared as possible, be as strong as
you can without you know, limiting being able to move
up and now can bet yeah, oh for sure, fact,
but you can also be pretty dang strong and still
be able to move your body weight just slow and steady,
and so like I just you know, there's obviously different

(47:53):
schools of thought, but man, I've noticed the years that
I had the most and even you know, we came
into it, you know, I coming into like we showed
up with a guide on my first hunt and I
was probably a month out of the CrossFit games. Yeah,
and the guide at first had no clue who I was,
and then was you know, my other buddy who was
hunting with us.

Speaker 2 (48:13):
The Guid's like, who the hell is this guy and
what does he do?

Speaker 3 (48:16):
Because that's I mean, I'd literally just coming out of
like the hardest training block I've ever had. And so
CrossFit does lend you pretty you know, well for the mountains.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
Same I mean, football is the same thing.

Speaker 2 (48:28):
Like you're on your feet.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
You're on your feet, and that's the thing is that
you're not used to being on your house. Like you're
gonna get it, You're gonna get tanked, and like that's
the thing, like you can you find a way to
make it work. And it's not even like he had
the cardio on the right conditioning and all like to prepare,
but like it's the mindset, mindset. A lot of it's like, hey,
look I'm just I'm a competitive that's I'm gonna go
up this mountain. It might be slower, but I'm gonna
make it and it's gonna be whatever it is. I'm

(48:52):
gonna be ready. I was like, that's that's just that's
it is done.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
And one way to prepare yourself for that is to
do hard things. And usually it's high intensity stuff are
hard things because long, slow, Yeah, I mean it it
does suck, but it's not like it's not miserable if
you can keep doing it forever.

Speaker 4 (49:07):
So even today we did the thirty minutes, I mean
you moved the whole time. It's not like it.

Speaker 2 (49:11):
Was I think I did. I hope you did. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:14):
Oh, I mean that was a perfect example though of
like somehow you obviously thirty minutes somebody who's an ultra
endurance athlete, it's gonna be like, not thirty minutes, that's
not real cardio. But you know, we're picking up a
hunred pounds sand bag, carrying it one hundred feet benching,
which h you know, you're moving, moving, you're moving, you
know on the mountain. It's not a huge thing. That

(49:34):
you need to be able to bench, but hey, doesn't
want to be doesn't want to bench, and then you're
gonna carry. You want to have some fun, right, so
then you're gonna carry again. And then during that time,
we were getting thirty to thirty five calories and so
I mean, your heart rate's high for thirty minutes, but
you're also moving heavy weight, and so I would rather
be that prepared versus just being able to walk or.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Like, did you feel like you've adapted more of that
mountain train in your schedule?

Speaker 3 (50:02):
Starting probably end of this month, I've got a CrossFit
competition we're doing next week that I've been trying to
get a buddy. We're doing a three man masters competition.
And our our buddy that's he's a pe teacher and
I'm trying to like whip him into shape a little bit.
He's he's crushing it. And so we've got that competition
coming up. You know, even even as old as I am,

(50:24):
still gett hyper competitive at those things, even local competition.
And so after that, I'll probably you know, I'll start
shooting my bow hour a day and I'll start you know,
like training longer, slower type stuff. But I still think.
You know, last couple of years, I've done the Leadville
one hundred mountain bike race, and man, I just the
the years that I felt the best though, were when

(50:45):
I was doing pure CrossFit type stuff and then adding
in some slow stuff. I'm just not a slow athlete,
Like I'm not wired that way, I'm not built that way,
And so I just enjoy kind of what we did.
Like thirty minutes is long enough, I think on a
mountain even too, Like as long as you're on your
feet and used to being on your feet most of
the time, we're twenty to thirty minutes yep of a

(51:07):
high intense climb and then you're chilling out for a minute.

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Class can move too much? Yeah, you blow most of hunts.
Oh yeah, nothing's coming, I'm gonna start moving.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
The second you pick everything up, you take a step,
it's like right there walking right by you.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Gotta be kidding me.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
So yeah, I think I think we've kind of found
a happy medium. We've taken a little bit of the
CrossFit methodology and adapted it to kind of.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Mountain sports or mountain hunting.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
So yeah, man, I just I enjoy It's it's a
type athlete I am as well too, Like you know,
I can, I can kind of just keep doing, but
I like to have some intensity in there, like like
a little methadict.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
A reason for doing it too though, Like that's my
thing is like I want to have a reason.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
What am I preparing? Yeah, exactly, need a target yep, exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
So it's either a competition or twenty four hour event
we just did, we did twenty four hour mountain bike race,
or it's those hunts, like I like to have that
target of like all right, ye you know that push
that's what I'm training for.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
Yep, absolutely right.

Speaker 4 (52:03):
Doesn't necessarily pertain the hunting, but I'd think a part
of your story that's so awesome is just how you
worked up to be seeing captain yep. Just for whoever's listening,
I think that part of your story is just great.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
Yeah, And I'll just I can give a quick like
I've talked about on like we did a Land of
Legacy podcast and there guy and he's a farming at
athletic with the farming and I kind of meshed that
world and it's as true as that, Like that patience,
that discipline is what got me to where I'm at,
Like I was impatiently, I need to get in a
field now. When it was early on, I pushed everyone,
let's go, and I get out there and I just

(52:36):
blow up and it's like, hey, what are you doing? Yeah,
You're never gonna get in there shot. So yeah, so,
I mean I started. So when I walked on at Ferris,
I graduated high school in twenty thirteen, so that had
been the fall of thirteen. Then when I walked on
at Ferris, took me three years to see the field.
That third year, I played like the last three games
of the year, a couple of playoffs games. I had

(52:58):
a good some good snaps, also some bad ones early on, yep,
And then my fourth year I ended up getting I
had nineteen and a half sacks in a single season.
Fifth year I had fifteen fourteen whatever some scheme change, whatever,
or just getting targeted more right, this is what it is.
And I put on eighty pounds by the time I

(53:20):
was done playing at seventy pounds. Kind of left Ferris
and it was definitely the camaraderie with the guys, the
team aspect, and the almost stubbornness. Yeah to be like, no,
I'm not gonna quit. This is I'm gonna do this.
Everyone's told me no, my whole life on this, like
you won't be this. And I had. I had a
job lined up with Chrysler well Tech Engineering right there downtown, Yeah,

(53:44):
right there, downtown Detroit. They had a job lined up
when I graduated, which I did graduate. And when I graduated,
I technically had one more year left of college ball,
even though I was there for five and a half years.
There's COVID year before COVID. I got some ways to
work things, and uh, it's a ten semester rules drop

(54:05):
out in the spring and you come back in the
next fall to only get four seasons on the field.
But I sucked so bad my first two I never
saw the field.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Okay, so you could have.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
I technically had three seasons on the field, but I
didn't do that. I'm like, hey, look, this is my
time if I'm not going to gain anything else from
staying here, which sorry, actually national change there. It was
before me, I was after me. I was before that.
But yeah, so I did Ferris and then when I
was done, when I graduated, I'm like, you know what,
I'm gonna put my hat in the ring try the NFL.

(54:34):
I went down to Atlanta to train, did my pro DA.
I didn't get invited the combine. I ended up doing
my pro day at Michigan U of M and H
had a great combine. I did a bunch of thirty visits,
which are like one day visits basically to all these
different teams. It's basically like an eight hour interview. You
walk around the buildings, You're talking to staff and coaches

(54:55):
and gms and all these different people just kind of
get beat on you. And H did eight teams in
like nine days. Yeah, it was like Arizona, La, New York, Baltimore.
Of course, they're never going to line up, so it
was back and forth all the time. I'm living out
of a backpack basically, but you're trying to stay in
shape because as soon as the drafts over, we got
working mini camp, so we I ended up I was fortunate.

(55:16):
I got drafted Baltimore seventh round. UH did my first
year there, going to my second year. Was cut after
camp never I didn't get claimed, so it's technically my
contract was done that rookie that drafted contract was done
and UH got picked back up on the practice squad
there in Baltimore. Three or four weeks later, some injuries whatever,

(55:37):
I got bumped back up to the fifty three, had
some bad games. I was up to three ten at
that point. I feel like I just couldn't move. I
was in a bad place. And then I got cut
again at the end of the season, like two to
three weeks left, and then Miami claimed me.

Speaker 3 (55:53):
How does that process work? Sorry, this is like total Yeah,
you get a list. I didn't know because D two.
It's not like you have guys I can call up.
But hey man, what happens now or what's next. It's
kind of like they just kind of tell you where
to go. So when I got cut, it was waivers
are for and I think it's different. It is different

(56:14):
now we have a new CBA. When I got cut
back then it was four pm to four pm. It
was teams could pick you up the worst team that week,
it's first, got first every time. So it was one
through thirty two. But they don't know who. And this
is my understanding, I might be a couple of things
might be off, but they don't know what who other
teams claimed so.

Speaker 1 (56:32):
Every four potball, Okay, there you go. Yeah, so four
pm on Tuesday someone got cut and then four pm
at Wednesday they let you know if you got the claim.
So that if five teams put in for the same guy,
they don't know who he got put in for. If
they get know, if a team before they're the worst one,

(56:52):
that team gets that pack and there are guys just
lose it. No, it's no, it's because waivers. It's just
you're just yeah, it's sets. Uh, it's typically no, but
they do carry that contract. You were pasted your presently
say they take it.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
And if you clear waivers, your contract's done. You're technically
out of a job. Got so I clear waivers my
first time. The second time, it was Wednesday, Wednesday night,
it was four pm. We ended at five that day,
so it was four pm. I did meetings in the
morning lyft. I did practice meetings again in the afternoon.
It was in between all our breaks. Someone goes, hey,
exactly need you upstairs and uh, And that's the thing

(57:25):
with the NFL, if you ever had to go upstairs,
it's usually a good thing. I went up to, Hey,
give us your playbook. Sorry, but we got a guy
on waivers that we weren't expecting and get because Baltimore
was making a playoff run at that point, and that
guy no other teams claimed them that were better than them,
so they got them. So then they have they have
like ten minutes or a half hour to clear a
spot on their roster for that guy that got claimed.

(57:48):
So that I got cut. So now that goes into
the waivers of Wednesday to Thursday. So Wednesday night at
four I got cut, and then Thursday during the day,
you're not You're out of a job. So I didn't
go to the facility. I was actually I lived in
RV at the point, and I'm like, well, I'm going somewhere,
and my my shackles broke on my least spring hangers,
so I was just the tires off replace and those

(58:09):
I'm gonna be going somewhere, so I thought, I was
my brain. I'm like, okay, I'll back up, I'll drive
out of here, and wherever I go, I go and
there'll be a campground somewhere. I didn't know this, and
then so then I called my agent. It was like
midday Thursday. He's like, yeah, you're probably not gonna I
haven't got any calls. I don't think anyone's gonna claim you. Okay, Okay,
so I'm kind of like, what are we gonna do?
He's like Baltimore watching back on practice Squad and all
this stuff, and okay, so I was kind of thinking

(58:31):
that was gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
Four o'clock.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Come, my agent goes, hey, you got claim. I'm like
to where? He goes, I don't know, Like, what do
you mean?

Speaker 2 (58:37):
You don't know?

Speaker 1 (58:37):
He goes, well, Cleveland called me all hot because they
put a claiming for you, but they didn't get you.
And I told him like, if they put a claim
in for you that they were probably gonna get you
because no one else was getting claimed. I'm like really,
I'm like yeah, he's like, some where am I going?
So then she was in Florida at the time, and uh,
I called her my han, I'm going somewhere to say where.
I'm like someone worse than Cleveland at the time, and uh,

(58:59):
Miami put a claiming for me. So then Miami was
the one that got me on waivers. Around four thirty
four to forty five that night, they got a call
from Miami's scheduling department saying, hey, where you there's an
eight o'clock and is a nine o'clock flight, which would
you want to be on? I'm driving, Well I thought
it was like I'm not now, so I'm all right,
nine o'clock. It's like perfect. So I got there at

(59:19):
like ten thirty, eleven o'clock. I was at the camp
round and stayed there and then actually, because there's only
three weeks left the season, Oh my god, so we
actually flew back to Baltimore the season was over, got
it and got it and drove it home. Then but
we went down to Miami and so I got there
eleven o'clock at night on Thursday night. Friday morning, six am.

Speaker 3 (59:39):
Was Gruden at the time, right, said no, no, it
was Flores Flores.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
Oh yeah, it was close. First year he had Gruden.
It gotchah, yeah, well Harbor, Harball, I'll jump around, right,
but it was Harbor. It was Flora's first year. And
Friday morning, went down to Miami. See the doctors. They
check you clear of you as in saying, okay, yeah,
this guy's not hurt. They didn't cut someone that was injured,

(01:00:04):
and like basically saying you're good to go. And so
then Friday I was at practice field in Miami doing
meetings and everything, practice squad or fifty you're on the
fifty three, but something else I didn't know. Uh, only
forty five dress. So there's a gap of eight players
essentially that are on the fifty three. They're active or

(01:00:24):
they're on the active roster, but they're not activated. So
then I was one of those eight that didn't dress,
and they were going up to They're playing the Giants
that week, so I didn't travel that week. Flow was like, hey, look,
get your brain right, get things organized. So the team
leaves Saturday afternoon. I stayed in Miami and found a
place to stay whatever, just think extended stay basically for
three or four weeks. And then that next week was

(01:00:45):
my first week playing. We went back to New York
to play Jets Giants. They actually was met life back
to back weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
Yeah, and then Cincinnati, I had a pretty good game.
Then first second remember the season and stuff like that,
and okay, and then they I did enough those tree
for them to sign me on a futures dealer or
a one year deal basically, and then from there it
was history just kind of slowly up, slowly kind of way.

Speaker 3 (01:01:09):
Yeah, that's what it sounds like that's the one word
that comes and comes to mind there.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
Keep getting extended and it's just been amazing. Blessing made
a home down there, and now it's just been awesome
to kind of coming the other side of things that's
kind of weird or it's like I got it's like
we got guys coming in. It's like they're asking your questions.
Like that was just me. I feel like a week ago.
Now it's like that was actually six years ago.

Speaker 2 (01:01:28):
It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
That's so cool, and they got some great guys down there.
It's been awesome. I'm excited. It'll be good year.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
That's cool.

Speaker 3 (01:01:35):
Is that the one that's probably the one thing you'd
tell people persevere just kind of like keep keep trucking.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Keep truck and keep just man. It's just sometimes it's
shut up and just keep working and other times it's
like you do need to challenge, but like understanding, and
my whole thing is understanding. Like if I'm doing something
I have no reason why, I'll be like, Okay, why
are we doing that? But if it's like I have
a reason for it or a goal, Okay, I'm carrying
these sandbags because I'm like carry Deer out of the
Woods or something like that. I'll I just feel like

(01:02:00):
I can go hot much and yeah, people down, do
what you gotta do.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
That's all truth.

Speaker 1 (01:02:07):
Yeah, but it's been awesome and it's just we love
it and it's been such a it's been it's been
a journey, yeah, and it's been really cool. And it's
for me. I love to be able to connect with
some of the guys that are kind of in the
same spot with me and just tell him, like, dude,
just you gotta be ready, because so many guys you
just think, oh, I'm not playing this week, and all
of a sudden, it's like, oh, hey, someone got hurt.
You're dressing. Like my first time playing in Miami. That
next year, someone was a coach, Hey, you're ready, You're ready.

Speaker 2 (01:02:31):
Ready.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
I'm like, yeah, I'm ready, I'm gonna play. And then
Friday is like, yea, you're probably not gonna dress this week.
I'm like, Okay, that sucks, but okay, at least I'm
on the fifty three.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
I'm here.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
And then Saturday and Friday, one of the guys is
lifting and then popped his back or something got hurt.
Not a defender, he was in special teams and some
other stuff like that, and then they go, hey, you're
dressing this week. I'm like, I'm dressing this week. I'm like,
no one in the D line got hurt, and oh
well someone else did, and then we have an extra
spot and we want you up. I'm like, okay, cool.
So I got like five or six reps on short

(01:03:00):
yardist and goal line. And that's the other part would
be being d lion when you're not you're not the guy,
like your only reps in when you're like that. Yeah,
and because when they're the jumbo and the heavy packages
when you want five dlaman out there. So you're going cold,
you know, because you warm up before the game and
it could be an hour or till the second yeah,
second quarter whatever. To short artist comes in, it's like, hey,
you're in the most crucial moment where that's third and one.

(01:03:21):
We stopped them. We get a chance before that guy. Yeah,
exacstlutely right. So I was just being ready. That's that's awesome.
You ready persevere.

Speaker 2 (01:03:28):
I mean, that's hunting, you know, it's all everything that
you just said is literally yeah, you know that's I
love it so much too.

Speaker 1 (01:03:34):
It's that goal, that's the challenge of always being ready,
always being set.

Speaker 2 (01:03:38):
So yeah, yeah, sweet, that's awesome, dude.

Speaker 3 (01:03:41):
Well now we'll watch Lions first and then you're watching
some Dolphins football.

Speaker 2 (01:03:46):
Yeah that's right, for sure. Love it, yeah, Zach, I
appreciate you coming on. Thank you, guys. I appreciate it all.
Thanks for having us. It's awesome. Spot you got your
d dude. Yeah, we love it.

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Ep. 5: Zach Sieler - Advocating for the Outdoors, Playing in the NFL, and the Underdog Mentality

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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;}Ep. 5: Zach Sieler - Advocating for the Outdoors, Playing in the NFL, and the Underdog Mentality