35. Mike Golic Jr. on college memories, dealing with Notre Dame haters, and his post football career.

Former Irish guard stops by the Garage to discuss his 5 years at Notre Dame and what has changed in the decade since he left. The guys and Golic discuss dealing with Notre Dame haters, the future of NIL and Golic's career in sports media.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. Welcome back to the Inside of Garage podcast.
I'm Kyle Hamilton along with k J. Wallace, Conradigan and
Cam Hart. Today we're a very special guest with us,
Mike Golick, Jr. Um Son of Senior, and we appreciate
you coming on to how you doing, Mike, Thank you
for coming on. I'm good man. I think that's the

(00:23):
first time that I like that, like Nordic Intro Junior
Son of Seniors. That's a definite first. So I appreciate
you guys having me though, man definitely, yeah, for sure.
And uh, where are you at right now? I'm back
in Connecticut right now, So I've I grew up out here,
but I was living out here when I moved back
in to start working at ESPN. So I live like

(00:45):
twenty minutes from the ESPN headquarters in Bristol, right, And
so did you grow up there because your dad was
working for ESPN when you were growing up. Yeah, we
got here. I mean I was in the third grade,
so my dad had started doing stuff for ESPN, and
like was when we got out to Connecticut full time.
So my family, you know, home base was here for

(01:06):
that whole time when I was in college all that stuff.
My folks and everyone really just left in the last year.
So I'm technically the last man standing out here right now.
But yeah, that was all because of dad. Did you
go to high school in New Jersey or what was
the connection from New Jersey? So I was I was
born in New Jersey. I was born in South Jersey.
My dad played nine years in the league, six of

(01:29):
which were with the h with the Eagles, so that
was where I was born. I was nine, So I
was born there. Like I always say that to people,
and like the people from Jersey start to raise up
because that place is like, you know, everyone's super loyal
when they're from Jersey. But I always got to like
very quickly, like I was there till I was like

(01:50):
in kindergarten. So I don't really get to rep Jersey
like that. But I was technically born in Vorhese, New Jersey. Yeah. Um,
so the last podcast you probably didn't see it, but
we did like a new thing we did started off
with the icebeaker, and I just asked you the question
that we asked each other, Um, who's your childhood crush?
Oh my childhood crushed? So this one's got levels to

(02:12):
it because so like, well because when so for a
lot of people, like people now recognize, you know, my name,
like you said, the son of senior, like my dad
and what he did with Mike and Mike and all
that stuff. But growing up, the number one thing when
people heard my last name was people said, oh, your

(02:32):
uncle Bob was the guy on Say by the Bell
the College Years, which I don't even know if any
of you guys know what, but say Say by the
Bell was super popular, like pretty popular when I was
really young. But my uncle Bob played like fourteen years
in the NFL, was a two sport All American and
Notre Dame, and somehow is more known for his role

(02:55):
of being Mike the r a on Saved by the
Bell College Years. So I always that Kelly Kapowski from
Saved by the Bell was my childhood crush. And then
I was pissed that my uncle never introduced us because
he had maybe one day. But uh so, obviously you
grew up in Connecticut. Um do you call Connecticut home? Yeah,

(03:17):
Connecticut's home for for better or worse. At this point,
it's all got you. So I grew up in Connecticut. Um,
what's notre Dame and played football and Notre Dame. Who's
do you had? Do You played for Kelly one year?
So I had I had Kelly for three years actually,
So I was there two thousand and eight to two
thousand and twelve. So I got there. Charlie Weis recruited

(03:37):
me in two thousand. In two thousand and eight, I
got there. I had the first two seasons with him,
and then I was there for Brian's first season and
my last year was the twelve season where we played
Bamma in the BCS game. So got what was your
decision to go there? Like and once you got that offer,
there's no other option pretty much from your family. Yeah,

(03:59):
I was said my parents did a really effective job
of brainwashing because it wasn't like they had to force us.
Like my dad did the right thing at the beginning
where he sat down because me and my brother was
a year younger than me. He was a tight end
of Notre Dame as well, and so we were starting
to go through the recruiting stuff at the same time
and my dad sat us down. It's like, listen, you
guys don't got to go to Notre Dame just because

(04:19):
I went there and just because both of your uncles
went there and just because your mom went to St. Mary's. Like,
you know, you guys can make whatever decision you want,
Like if you would walked into my house as a kid, though,
like an embarrassing amount of blue and gold all over
the place, big gass, Notre Dame carpet in the basement,
so it was all there. And yeah, when I got
that offer, I was the first commitment in my class.

(04:41):
My brother was the first commitment in his class the
next year, so we knew what we wanted. And it's
just you know, I was a three star offensive lineman
out of Central Connecticut, so it wasn't like I was
necessarily going to be high on everybody's list. So you
play the game, you go and do all the camps
because you never know when that offer is gonna come.
And I was fortunate that they were an offer pretty

(05:02):
early in the process, and I got that decision on
the way my junior year and never really looked back.
All Right, I speak about that um, that team that
played Alabama two done twelve, UM, talk about some of
the like your teammates and the leadership on that team. Yeah,
it was a pretty fortunate class and that was my
fifth year, senior year, and you guys know how quick

(05:25):
this all goes by, where all of a sudden, I
was looking around and it was I think there were
six of us from my class that had originally come
in and now all of a sudden, like I just remember,
first off, the culture shock of realizing I was now
that old on the team because it was my sisters.
My sister swam at Notre Dame. She was five years
younger than me, so her first summer on campus was

(05:47):
my last summer, and like, I'm the one that's getting
called to like come pick her up from CJ's and
all that stuff. So the ride as opposed to someone
actually going to like chill with anyone out there and
pick someone up from like a house party. So that
that part aged me quick. But now, I always said
the cool part about that team was despite you know,
we had been a five ball club basically my entire

(06:09):
time at Notre Dame. We had played in like the
champ Sports Bowl and the Sun Bowl and stuff like that,
so we we had never really been like a team
that deserved to be thought of in any sort of
real way. But uh, I remember rocket Ishmael came and
talked to us once when I was at Notre Dame,
and he always talked about the difference between the good
teams he was on college or Pro pro and the
bad teams he was on. Was like that general belief

(06:31):
where he's like the bad teams I was on. They
looked down the schedule and go, man, you know, I
don't know about that game right there, That's gonna be
a tough one. I don't know if we got this,
and the good team saw all of them as winnable,
and I just remember, like very naturally, we're looking down
that schedule and Michigan State was preseason top ten that year.
We were going on the road, uh at Oklahoma, who

(06:51):
at that point Bob Stoops had lost like five times
in his entire Sooner's tenure, And we were all just
looking at the schedule and like Zack Martin's are left
tack cool here? You know, we had Tommy was at
that point kind of playing that relief pitching role with
Evert Golson, who was our starter at that point, which
ship you don't you guys don't know how weird it
is for me to watch everything that's gone on with

(07:12):
Tommy since then Q Center exchange with him back in
the day. But there was just like that that belief,
like we had so much trust in Tommy, who had
been a you know, on again off against starter because
of injury for a couple of years. We had Zack
and Chris Watt on the left side of that offensive line,
like we had a bunch of dudes come back, you know,
our our defense, I think in the front seven alone

(07:35):
had like five guys that we're gonna go on and
play pretty significant NFL football. And the draft picks that
was man Tis, you know Heisman runner up here where
he's playing mike linebacker with seven interceptions, and so it
just kind of we had all these parts that had
come back together that gave us a ton of confidence
and the vet guys, and then when we had dudes
like Everett that we're stepping up as a redshirt freshman,

(07:56):
when Matthias Farley has to step in because our starting
safety gets injured and ends up starting for us the
majority of that season, it was just the right blend
to where we had that confidence even walking into training camp,
like we felt we could really do something, and then
you got all those moments along the way that gave
you that evidence that your belief was founded in something

(08:17):
and you would put in the work necessary to go
out there and earn that. Definitely, So obviously sorry obviously
twelve team. It's quite famous from the Notre Dame like
fan base. We were kind of wondering, like, is there
a on or off field story that like you still
remember or like still resid acious to you that was
like fun, maybe not so fun, but like that's still

(08:38):
sticks with you today. Yeah, I mean for me it was.
It was funny because like we had that season's success
simultaneously going on, and I don't know if any of
you guys had gotten to Notre Dame when dudes were
still doing trick shot Monday, that ping pong ball stuff
in the locker room and meetings on Monday. It was like, yeah, explained.

(09:01):
We were early Internet at my time at Notre Dame.
Like me and my buddy Brandon Newman, who was a
d tackle for us, we were doing all like the
Notre Dame behind the scenes stuff on YouTube when that
was really just started to become a thing, like fighting.
Irish digital media was a baby at that point, and
we were really kind of a kind of at the
beginning of all that, but we literally would get bored

(09:22):
on those meetings on Monday, where I don't know how
you guys did it did it this year and now,
but our meetings on Monday, we would come in, we
would watch the tape from the game before in the
early afternoon, and then we would have a break, we
would go to training table, and then we would come
back and start to look at the tape of the
opponent for the next week and start to kind of
get into the early game plan stuff. And so for

(09:43):
like an hour in between, we were in no man's
land of the week where we had put you know,
shut the door on the game before, and we hadn't
yet gotten started in the other one, and we had
one day just gotten bored and literally put a bottle
of wall in there like you play a bottle bottle,
a gatorade cup full of water in there like you
play a beer pong with and we just started throwing
like a ping pong ball off the wall and stuff,

(10:04):
just trying to figure out who made it, and it
ended up becoming We're like, all right, for the group
of us that we're playing, you couldn't go upstairs to
dinner until somebody made it, and then at some point
someone decided to film it like on their phone or
on like a flip cam, and we posted it to
YouTube and it took off. And the one that really
hit for us was my brother made it and it

(10:24):
ended up at number three on the Sports Center Top ten,
that one, And so now all of a sudden, like
we're doing some numbers. Notre Dame fans are kind of
getting into this, and so that season that really took
off so much to where when we got to National
Championship Media Day, Sam Ponder, who is now the host
of Sunday NFL Countdown, was at that time on College

(10:46):
Game Day and she came and we played trick Shop Monday,
bouncing the ping pong ball off of the BCS title
trophy that was at media Day with us there. So
just kind of watching how the on and off the
field stuff kind of came to other like that was
wild that it might have to bring that back. You
might have to because it on TikTok or something. Yeah,

(11:09):
that's it'd be. It'd be perfect for that. Now. Man,
it's it's amazing. Like Joe Schmidt and those guys kept
it going for some years after but that was it
feels like a long time ago, probably because it is
so um. You talked about how you you had Kelly
for three years. Do you have any like favorite memories
going back to him being a coach? I know, who's
a new coach kind of took over the reigns, similar

(11:29):
to how Freeman's doing his thing right now, Like, do
you have any memories from Kelly's era? So I just
remember my Like, the one that always sticks out to
me was his very first introductory press conference for two reasons.
One is because you know, the family thing was not
Brian's first interest. Instance of mispronouncing something came in and

(11:52):
he was like, you know, there's a difference between being
a football coach and the football coach at No. Tre
Dame and we're like, coach, it's just it's just not
or you don't got to do the thing here. And
so that was the first thing. But he came in
in his real emphasis at the beginning, because Brian used
to be a lot more about you know, running tempo
on offense, and so his thing was, you know, we're

(12:13):
gonna lean guys out. His strength and conditioning coach. They
had their whole thing about really trying to get body
fat down for the entire team. And he's like, we're
not gonna be out, you know, eating cheesy pizzas at
three am and all that stuff. And we're sitting there
on Friday morning, and you guys got here after Club
Fever was already no longer a part of the South

(12:35):
Bend nightlife formally Michigania's hottest nightclub that used to be
our Thursday spot. So it was wild, but I had
been out, like we had had a month without a coach.
It was wild around, wild, like we had to come
in for workouts, but we were rolling into rough shape

(12:56):
into those things. And so I remember we had been
out at five the night before b k's first press conference,
and I had been at I think it's closed now.
Vesuvio's was the late night pizza place the night before,
and so we're all sitting there in the presser and
he's like, yeah, we're not gonna be out eating cheesy pizza.
Was like, damn, did he have someone that one? I

(13:20):
was like, Okay, he's serious about this, Like he might
already know some stuff. Would I always hear stories about
like former players they always talk about how like no
day was like such as wild school back then. If
you could expand on that, um, like, what what does
that mean? Like I don't I don't really know what
that really you know what. I wouldn't say it was

(13:43):
like wild by anyone's standards because man, like I don't
know if any of you guys had visited other schools.
I went after my last uh my last spring ball,
I went up to Wisconsin for their party weekend, Nifflin,
and it was like, you you have no pig tossil.
They threw it out, still do that on campus, so
it was pig tossedel. So the biggest party notre name

(14:05):
does every year Mifflin was that party at every house
on both sides of the street for the entire block,
for six blocks. And I was just like, okay, these
schools so like, don't feel bad. We were not wild
by like normal standards, but uh now, like honestly it
was one of those things too where And I'd be

(14:26):
curious for this from your guy's standpoint, because when I
talk about the team now and what Marcus is inheriting,
I'm like, listen, when we got there in twelve, like
we were still figuring out what the winning culture looked
like like Charlie had done a lot of winning before
I got there, and we had started doing some winning
my last year when Brian got there, but it wasn't

(14:46):
to the point where it was like, all right, we
knew exactly how to do things in order to get
those results. We were still kind of learning what it
took to get to that point. And maybe part of
it was we had a fair amount of guys going
out on some Thursday nights even during the season, tight thing,
and I don't know if fans got down like that anymore,
but it's one of those things where I'd be curious

(15:06):
now for you guys, because you guys have been a
part of the some of the winning is Notre Dame
classes in my lifetime, and I always said that people like,
it's different now for what Marcus is taking over, because
this is an outfit that already knows how to win
because of what you guys have done. Mm hmm. It's
actually I think we actually hit on this um a
few podcasts back, like we're like kind of spoiled in

(15:27):
it that we haven't experienced a season that we haven't
wanting games. Yeah, right, So I think that's just something
that's inherently in us and we don't even know what
it feels like to be less than that, if that
makes sense. Well, And so for you guys like coming in,
was that something that it was just all right, you

(15:48):
watched exactly what the older guys did and got in
line with that, like, because that's something people always say
that culture stuff on the outside, but I think the
vast majority of people don't really know what that entails,
like as is the example that's said or the standard
or whatever that is. I would definitely say when we
first came here, it was more of a hierarchy as
far as these are the older guys and you gotta

(16:08):
follo out what they do. This is what's going on
in Fallowing type of type type deal, especially, you know,
saying being a freshman, you just you're coming in not
really understanding what to do. Is college you Like, I
just left high school. I don't really know what's going on.
So I see these guys doing something, so I'm just
gonna follow it. That was kind of I definitely agree
on a culture thing as far as I freshman year. Honestly,
I've kind of seen that and like, I definitely agree

(16:30):
with that where like you come in freshman year and
you've I feel like it's Notre Dame, Like dudes here
are exceptional, like in many facets of life, and you're
just trying to your best to tag along and like
do your best throughout camping, throughout the summer and stuff
like that. But I've honestly seen that affects some coaches too,
in terms of the way they're coaching, because a lot
I think some people get to Notre Dame and and

(16:51):
like whether you're a player or coach, it's like there's
a standard to uphold, and like you get caught in
caught up in that little a little much like you
start to act a different way, like maybe some a
different way that you were coaching when before you got
to Nere Dame, or you just feel like there's more
pressure and stuff, and I feel like that people can
get caught caught up in that easily. But at the
end of the day, like after we settled down a
freshman year and after coaches get more accilimated and stuff

(17:14):
like that, you you start to develop them better and
like more real relationship. And I feel like it's it's
it's the truth, yea. And I feel like when we
came in, there was so much emphasis on that four
and eight year that they have prior that they were like,
that's never happening again. There was so much like that
that I wasn't even a part of. I don't even
know what the seventeen or something. I don't even know

(17:36):
what year it was, but there was. It was talked
about so much that like brainwashed us to like understand like, Okay,
that is never gonna happen again, so no matter what
it was. And then going three years and now like
not winning less than ten games, that also went um
handing hand with that. Yeah, you don't want to be
the one that drops the ball on that, because it

(17:58):
is interesting here in you talk about the four and
eight year because the year before I got to Notre
Dame in two thousand seven was like the lowest point,
you know, in my lifetime. Basically they had gone three
and nine. They lost the Navy for the first time
in like forty years, and so that was sort of
the thing because you know it back then, like we
had a nice high ranked recruiting class and we were

(18:21):
all like all right, like we're gonna make sure this
doesn't happen anymore, we're going to be a part of
turning this all around. And so you take that feeling
more recently and then you combine it with you know,
all the talent and what you guys already had in
place there. It's interesting how that kind of is the
bouncing off point for some of this. Wait. So you
guys had a the year before you came in, and
Notre Dame they had a three and nine season, and

(18:43):
then your recruiting class was high class, Like what was
the pitch for for so for us by I think
it was rivals or one of those like I forget
what the dominant recruiting service was at the time. We
were the number one right recruiting class, like we had
and five star quarterback Michael Floyd was a five star receiver.

(19:04):
Kyle Rudolpho was still playing in the NFL, was the
number one tight end in that class. My buddy Trevor
was the number one ranked guard in that class. And
it was one of those things where part of the
pitch was you're coming here to make sure this doesn't
happen anymore. We had a lot of guys who valued
that stuff off the football field. What notre name can
offer you the network and all that stuff, and so

(19:24):
it's a lot of the same ingredients. And you know,
we got lucky too. We were a class that was
super close, so in the way everyone kind of does,
where the best recruiting pitch is always gonna be in
the locker room. Like we went down and played in
the U. S. Army all American. We were thirteen deep
and we basically just chilled with each other the whole time,
and you know, we had guys that we were trying
to holler at and come over our way, but we

(19:45):
just you know, at that time for us, like recruiting,
so my so like timeline wise, my tenure reunion for
Notre Dame is coming up in June. So for us
recruiting wise, like you know, the cell phone stuff was
really just starting to become I'm part of the stuff
they hadn't regulated yet, and so all of that made
it a lot easier for us to get close as
a class and then kind of build that momentum up.

(20:08):
All right, we're gonna come here, and you know, we
all think we got the answers. We're gonna come here
and change stuff and be a part of what helps
make this place turn around and get better. But I
think that had a lot to do with it. Was
just the camaraderie and the guys. I mean, I've stood
in of the guys I was in that class with,
I got a group chat. I talked to nine of
them every day. I've student like eight weddings. I'm a
godfather to children. Like they ended up becoming like forever relationships,

(20:33):
And I think that had a lot to do with it.
So like we like as we said, we came in
after we made it the playoff, right, so we had
like a little bit of a different mentality coming in
and like the standard was a ten win season or
like a failure or like playoffpearance and then or as
a failure, right, how like you guys the number one
recruiting class, how was the how did the team except

(20:55):
that after a three and nine season? Was there like
we're the veterans and the team like willing to like
work with the young guys coming in since it was
a very exalented class. Was there a bit of like
a like a clash between like the new five stars
and like the team that just went three at nine? No,
I think we got real fortunate. Is while the teams.

(21:15):
Like overall we didn't accomplish a lot, we had great
leadership by those teams. Like Kyle McCarthy, who works in
athletes first now, was a coach at Notre Dame for
a while, was one of one of my captains when
I first got to campus there. Actually my agent, oh
all right, oh man, it's so so you know firsthand,

(21:37):
but like for me to come in and for Kyle
so his younger brother Danny was big time recruiting my class,
a safety prospect who ended up breaking his neck. Is
senior in high school, but like Kyle, came in and
was like a big brother to all of us Between
Kyle uh Maurice Crumb was a senior linebacker on the team,
pound for pound, the best leader I've ever been around.

(21:59):
Like you want to talk about a dude our star rankings,
Like we all kind of knew that didn't matter what
you got there, and you had to go make it happen.
But when a guy like Moe Crumb stood in front
of the huddle, everybody stopped. It was quiet as a
church in there because that guy had that kind of
respect based on what he had done. Even though the
wins and losses hadn't been there, so we had a

(22:19):
class that for the most part kind of understood you
still had to come in and earn it. But we
also had really good leaders on that squad, like came
back David Bruton, some of the senior offensive lineman, guy
named Eric Olson who played that played in the league
for a while. Like, we got lucky that we still
had quality leadership even if we didn't yet really put
it together on the field the way we wanted to.

(22:40):
I think it's kind of funny how and this is
kind of backchecking a little bit, but like how we
refer to the four and Night Year as the four
Night Year, like it's referring to like the play. It's like,
oh my got the four Night Year. You'd be afraid
to even mentioned it. But we kind of wanted to
transitioned into your career now and post football. Um, obviously

(23:05):
you were working on ESPN, and if I'm correct, you're
no longer working there, right, Yeah, yeah, no longer working there.
Havn't got something lined up, haven't announced it yet, all
that fun stuff, but just finished up six and a
half years at ESPN on that um, But yeah, the
best is yet to come. But uh, I kinda want
to know, like what dorm were you in, what major,
what did you major in, and how did you transition

(23:27):
into sports media. Obviously it probably was an easy one
with your dad, but how did you decide to take
that route? Yeah, so I was. I was a sick
free rambler during my time at Notre Dame. We were,
I mean, we were winning those Inner Hall championships like
it was going out of style back then. A lot
of a lot of dorm pride still built up in
all this. But no, I was. I was a film

(23:48):
and television major at Notre Dame. Like obviously, you guys
know we don't have you know, colms or journalism necessarily there,
but growing up it was something I always knew I
was interested in outside of football. So my year summer there,
I had already graduated, was just gonna be doing like
non degree seeking GRAG classes. That fall I started, you know,
like I said, doing the behind the scenes stuff with

(24:09):
the team, where me and my buddy Brandon were, you know,
doing a tour of the tours of the Goog tours,
a training table, you know, reaction after game type stuff,
all of that. And then my last year did an
internship with Notre Dame camps where I was doing content
for all their you know, YouTube pages for the different
camps around campus, basically for the parents that were sending

(24:30):
their kids there. So you want trial by fire where
you learn if you really want to do this or not.
Go interview a bunch of fifth graders who have no idea,
Like you know, with you guys, like you know, you
deal with the media every day as a player, your
media train and all that, Like these fifth graders don't
give a ship when I'm asking. I'm there, like, I
gotta have seven eight questions to try and get something

(24:50):
out of these guys. So I started doing that, and
then for me, I graduated. I was an undrafted free
agent with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I went to camp with them,
got cut in the last round of cuts, and basically
spent the next two years still trying to get back
onto a roster. You know. I ended up in the
off season program with the Saints. I went to CFL
training camp in Montreal. I played in a minor league

(25:12):
that briefly started UM where I was in Staten Island,
New York, and then I finished up. I went to
camp with the Saints again. Was basically, you know, just
a warm camp body at that point, and got to
the end of that one, and along the way, I
had kind of been doing stuff as I went, you know,
because of my dad and how long the morning show

(25:32):
had been going. It meant I already knew people that
were in some other places. So I'm in Staten Island
playing minor league football and I'm going into ESPN's radio
affiliate on the weekends there because my dad's old producer
is the programming director now, and he's like, Hey, let's
get you some reps on air here, come and do
two hours with one of our hosts out there. So

(25:53):
I started to kind of do some of that, and
then once it got time and I got cut that
last time, I was like, ship, I need a job
that kind of wants me back, because it appeared Pro
football didn't didn't really love me like I loved it.
And so from there, I basically you know, went to
my dad, went to the people I knew at ESPN
and was like, do you guys have anything that I

(26:14):
can do here? Like, I don't care what it is.
I'm just looking to get my foot in the door.
And for me, it ended up being a Sunday morning
fantasy football radio show, the Fantasy Focus. It was nine
to one Eastern on Sundays. They asked me if I
was into fantasy football. I lied and told them yes,
I had not played fantasy football a day in my life.
But I was like, ship, I'll get every magazine, I'll

(26:35):
learn as I go along here, and I'll just figure
it out on the fly. And then that that was
really it. You know, I got lucky again because my
connection happened to be a blood relative and all that.
But it was taking that first opportunity and making sure
I did well enough with it to try and beget
other opportunities, and then stuff just kind of started to
snowball from there, and you know, you go and do

(26:58):
well enough in one place to kind of start to
earn those spots in the other, and then that that
kind of ended up being the starting point. And like
I said, you know, six and a half years later
and a bunch of different things that I got to
do a long way, we're kind of the end result
of that. So we always talk about like like the
Nerre Dame like network and alumni based and stuff like that. Obviously,

(27:20):
you had your dad that was in a position that
was able to help you. Did you utilize the Notre
Dame network? What did that mean to you at that
time when you're like, yeah, at that time, it was different.
And I think one of the things, and one of
the best things I can say about coach Kelly and
his tenure is Notre Dame football has come leaps and

(27:41):
bounds in putting current players in front of alumni to
do some of those things, Like we didn't do as
much of that when I was in college and my
roommate at Notre Dame was a lacrosse player, and that
team has been doing it for years where they're taking
their guys to the New York Stock Exchange, they're putting
them in front of the alumni that are working on
Wall Street, building those connections. And so I knew other

(28:03):
Notre Dame guys that were in sports media, but it
wasn't yet to the point where and you know, again,
I was fortunate. My path is going to be kind
of unique in all this because of who my dad was.
But I think now it's in a place where, like
I know, for me, even if it's not football players,
I've had Notre Dame students reach out to me. Then
I've been able to put in touch with certain people

(28:24):
to try and help them out to be someone who
will watch a reel and give feedback like what I've
seen now and I mentioned it before we got on here,
but like what Hunter Biven is doing in that role
now at Notre Dame, former offensive lineman who's in that
like player personnel development role in facilitating a lot of
that has now made it to where I feel like

(28:45):
I can go back and maybe have a chance to
help someone get their foot in the door, help give
someone feedback that might help. And that's been cool to
see the way that that's developed. I was fortunate to
not necessarily need it as much then now as I've
gone through media and you guys have probably already seen this,
Like shit, I know it's different. Like we always say
that Dome doesn't recruit itself anymore, but if you still

(29:07):
tell someone in public you went to Notre Dame, the
response is kind of like that stopping people acknowledge all
of a sudden, because that name still means a whole lot.
And so as you go out to places I think
that certainly registered a lot is all right. That's helped me,
you know, if I need to get access to something
where I'm going to cover a game, if I am,
you know, looking to try and get someone for an interview.

(29:30):
At this point, whether it's through the Notre Name network
or otherwise, you start to kind of have those six
degrees of separation that have helped out in that regard.
Would you say it's kind of like a a I
would say obligation, but definitely like a like a something
that Notre Dame alumni like Field the need to do
it as far as give back in and reach back

(29:50):
out to the students, especially the ones that are graduating.
I think so. I think, especially like you know, in
sports media, selfishly, like there's some of us, but we're
grossly outnumbered, like by the Syracuse Journalism school and Northwestern
and Missouri, like all these places that are powerhouse journalism schools.
And so I'm always happy to like try and get

(30:11):
someone from the Notre Dame family in on all that,
because hell, their strength and numbers, and I never mind
seeing a little more blue and gold around the office.
But I think in general, the kind of person that
ends up to Notre at Notre Dame is service oriented
in that way, and whether that's service in the way
that we traditionally think of it or just in the
way of where all right, I understand, like you know,

(30:32):
this is the first time I'm meeting most of you guys,
but I understand we've been through a similar enough experience
to where if you guys need something, and I mean this,
like any of you guys could reach out to me,
and I'm gonna try like hell to make that happen,
because to me, that brotherhood means something because we've all
been through that place. We all, for one reason or another,

(30:52):
shows that place and wound up there, and so I
think there is kind of that duty, especially you know,
for me as I dealt with the you know, the
net autism tag and Dad being in the building, I'm like,
all right, I know the help I got to getting
where I was, and so my job is to go
out there and earn that opportunity now every day with
the way that I approach work, but also if I

(31:13):
got opportunities to help somebody out and try and bring
somebody else into this, I feel, yeah, obligated to try
and make that happen as much as I can. That's
definitely respectable, for sure. I kind of want to get
you guys opinion on this, but uh, Mike's just kind
of talking about the Notre Dame brandon itself and how
you say you want to Notre Dame people kind of
perk up or whatever. I feel like inside of football

(31:33):
it's kind of the opposite, like you go to other
schools or like during my training when I meet other kids,
they're like, you went to Notre Dame, right, I'm like yeah,
and they're like soft, rich, spoiled, couldn't make it in
the SEC or anywhere else, And like, I feel like
there's kind of a negative kind of connotation within like
the Notre Dame name in itself when you get outside

(31:54):
of Notre Dame in terms of football. Do you guys
agree with that? Mike? Do you agree with that? Have
you experienced that and then haters out there? Bro? Yeah,
Yeah for sure, yeah out there. Yeah. I definitely agree
with that, definitely, And even with like um like sports
media honestly, like there's this whole like, uh, there's this
whole like around around nording not making an SEC. They

(32:16):
can't win the big game, they can't do this, they
can't do that, and it doesn't go hand in hand
with what Ord Dame is outside of football. So I
definitely agree with that. I definitely agree with that. I
feel like agree with what part like it's just it's
just hating. I just I just think it's I think
it's a lot of hating. And I feel like for
a lot of people, I think they see like the
requirements and what it takes to like graduate from here.

(32:40):
I let alone just get get here, but like graduated
from here and stay here and go through the process
of I'm saying living in the dorms and I guess
not our class, but living in the door and you know,
and doing things like that and still have doing a class,
but still also being a student, that being a top athlete,
things like that. I feel like people were just people

(33:01):
are just mad they couldn't do it. Yeah, I would
say it's a little bit of this might be like
a very Notre Dame response, but a little bit of
jealousy in the fact that Notre Dame is such a
good school, but our academic stross like outstanding, like football
team is good, basketball team is good, lacrosse teams good
girls across girls. It's offball like baseball, like hockey, like

(33:23):
everything's good, and I feel like people kind of hate that,
like like damn like a good school too, like they
kind of got they don't have it all obviously, but
like I think a little bit of jealousy, but I
keep finding myself having it to defend Netre Dame like
man to like to that end, Kyle My. So this
was like the height of that for me after my life,

(33:45):
after that telve year I went and played it was
like the Blue Gray All Star Game. It was like,
you know, the one below the Senior Bowl in the
nflp A Bowl type thing, And I was out there
the week that the Man Tai Tao news broke perfect. Yeah,
it's like, so I was out there that week. So
you want to talk about getting shipped from a bunch

(34:05):
of duds about stuff like we got every bit of
what you guys don't have real girls on. It was
freaking brutal, man. But it's like it's the product that
being different, right for all the reason that you mentioned,
like we got a fan base that likes to remind
people that we have the academic standards and stuff, but
it's also the independent thing, like everybody thinks that you

(34:28):
guys got special treatment. In getting to the playoff, but
you just said it. I'm like, listen, guys, like everyone
thinks Notre Dame fans are living in the past the
way they approach all this stuff, and they're like, why
do you think you deserve your own TV network or
why don't you join a conference? And my response is
always if your team could, they would, but they can't,

(34:50):
so they don't, and that's fine. Not everyone can do that.
Notre Dame was able to do that because of a
rich history and all that, and that's fine. It's not
saying that we're the best program current in the country
right now. But the other part of all that is like, yeah,
when you are like that, I always tell people, you,
guys haven't won less than ten games in the last

(35:11):
five six years, Like, that's not an accident. We're not
living in the past. I'm living in the now. When
I brag on Notre Dame as a fan in the along,
I'm like, we haven't had to cheer about a season
with less than ten wins and we've got to watch
you guys go to two CFPS during that time. So no,
Notre Dame fans are living in the past. Everyone else
just wants to talk ship with us like that. But yeah,

(35:34):
just like as as you get around other college football players,
it just always feels like you have to defend Notre
Dame and like guys are making fun of coach Kelly
leaving there, like your coach doesn't even love you, like
and stuff like that. Yeah, they're like, your coach doesn't
love you. Got lost to Cincinnati, like a bunch of
like I'm having to I know, but everybody's saying, like everybody,
like do from Alabama was talking like we snack Cincinnati,

(35:56):
we would smack Shall we beat you all playoff beach
on the national I'm sure, but I'm like, y'all are
saying like you're acting like we're a mid major program,
like we have the most draft picks ever, we have
more championships and you know, we have like more wins
than y'all, like everything that quantifies a good team. We
have more than that than you guys. Realistically, out of
all the schools in the country, realistically, I would say

(36:17):
there's probably less than let's say ten, there's probably ten
programs that can even have that conversation with us. Rest
of schools maybe not even ten. So the rest of
the schools can't even partake in that. So was it
just Alabama Cincinnati? Who else? Like, well, other schools was
saying Alabama, Cincinnati, l s U, Ohio State. But like

(36:39):
this guy, I'm not naming names, um talking to kid
from Cincinnati and just going back to the game. I
was kind of talking about this earlier, but like he
was so stuck on that game, and I'm like, in
my mind, I'm thinking like this was his super Bowl,
like like playing Notre Dame. And I'm not trying to
say that it wasn't that We're not going to the
game like on the same love as they are trying

(37:00):
to win the game, but like in the back of
their mind, this is like we got to the national
like Notre Dame get into national championship, playing for national
championship right now on the road against Notre Dame. Coach left,
DC left, head coach left, a bunch of other staff
members left, and it's like I feel like a lot
of teams and maybe a lot of big name teams,
Like that's how l s U feels playing Notre Dame

(37:21):
because it's like everybody wants to take her head off
because they feel like we're entitled the last time, Alice,
you noor Dame played nore Dame one, by the way,
last two times. Yes, I don't know, no, but like
that's right. I had a buddy of mine who played
at Oklahoma who we played down there my year, so
that it was the part of the home and home
and they came up. I forget if it was the
next year of the year after, but he said their

(37:42):
staff had told them when you come up here, you
can't get beat by the ghosts before we even walk
on the field, because everyone understands coming up there, you're
walking into college football history. You're walking into a place
that's been a part of all this, and so it
is different coming up even for a lot of these
big time teams that don't always make that trip. So
did I think I read something that jyr brother played Cincinnati.

(38:06):
So my brother, my brother did his last year at Cincinnati,
so he did undergrad Notre Dame on the team he was.
I mean, I was fortunate I walked out of you know, college.
I started seventeen games, so it wasn't like I started
forty fifty games and had that where but I never
had to go on to the knife or anything like that.
But my brother caught all that, so he was banged up,

(38:26):
had to take a year off because of back surgery,
and then came back and did a sixth year at
Cincinnati when um, now the set, I think he's a senator.
Tommy Tubberville was the head coach there. So how is
the how the trash talk after that game? Yeah, you
know what, I like my brother, my brother and my

(38:48):
whole family root for Notre Dame. That was like a
great one. That was a great one year thing. And
you know it was awesome. You know, Jake got to
go there and play a bunch more than he had
Notre Dame up until that point. And it was cool.
But there wasn't There was no both sides for that game.
We were firmly that one. I feel like we get
so much hate that we don't realize like what we're
actually in right now football wise. Like I was talking

(39:11):
to dude at the combin with the Georgia Tech and
like they came up here and got their heads beat
in by fifty Like like we beat them by a lot.
But he was like, bro, honestly, I was just having
a great time, like in the stadium like that. He
was just like he was like, I'm just taking in
the stadium, like I've never seen anything like this before,
Like it was one of the best experiences of my life,
just being on campus the Notre Dame or like in
a game. No, but he's like, we take that for

(39:36):
granted so often. He's like there's a packed house against
a how two and nine Georgia Tech team, like and
like he's like, this is what it's about. And he
was just honestly like appreciative, not trying to belittle him
or anything, but he was just appreciative to be in
Notre Dame stadium. And I was like, when you take
a step back, like it's kind of like we get

(39:56):
to we get take advantage of it, like practicing and
they're playing in there. I feel like we don't really
understand what it's like doing so much right exactly, it's
kind of become diluted. But I feel like once we
all aren't here, it'll feel it differently for sure. And
my kid, you touched on it a little bit because
we all four of us, we feel like there's like
begin to this mundane routine, whereas though we start to

(40:18):
like take for granted the Notre Dame experience and take
for granted and being a notordained football player, which is
a wonderful blessing as we all know. And now that
you're out of it and you're what ten years are
moved in June, how do you feel comparing being in
this mundane routine compared to ten years out of it
and looking from the outside perspective, Yeah, it's impossible not

(40:40):
to kind of get caught up in that at some
point there because like, as you know, like we always say,
blast fortunate all the right words, you worked your ass
off to get there, and you worked your ass off
when you were there. Like it wasn't no free ride.
You went out there and you earned that every day
with the way you had to do all that and
just getting caught up and like all right, I got
morning workouts, I got to go to class after that,

(41:01):
I'm getting back at four am from a road night game.
Like all those things start to snow up, snowball, and
it can get kind of like, alright, some of this
I'm just trying to survive. But I think after you know,
it's so cliche, but like after the fact, you really
do just remember, like the guys and the dumb stuff
that went on the locker room. Like perfect example, yesterday

(41:25):
news got made. You guys probably don't even know, do
you guys know who Mari Povich is? Yeah? Yeah, so
you are not the father? Yeah yeah, yeah. So he
announced he was retiring after like thirty one years on air,
and I immediately went back to in the middle of
two days in training camp, we used to roll up towels,

(41:46):
lay down on the floor in the locker room and
every TV would be on. More Cod had the entire school.
We watched Jerry Spinger and More for sure. Yeah, so,
like you you remember all the stuff like that, and
I think you you know, you go back and we
all like to get nostalgic, you know, I'll go back
and walk around campus and hit a lot of old spots.
I mean, I was just with two of my teammates

(42:09):
and my buddy's wife, who is a St. Mary's grad
this past weekend, and we, you know, we're all telling
the old stories and going back through all that, and
we got a ton of shared life together after the fact.
But there's just something special about that whole time, because
you know, we're all figuring out how to be adults
on our own. For the first time and all that stuff,
and you look back at some of the parts of

(42:30):
Notre Dame, you don't get. The hardest part for for
you guys, whether it's you know, going to the NFL
or going into life in the real world after that,
is it's gonna be hard to find an experience where
you learn as much about the people that you're around
as you do going through being a player together, like

(42:51):
going through all the offseason stuff and the matt drills
you go through. Like I told my co workers, now,
I can't get to know them the way I got
to know my teammates because we don't have that time
where it's like, all right, it's got to be blunt,
direct feedback. I gotta know I can count on you
when the ship hits, because it's not. I always said
football is the most accountable sport in the world. I

(43:13):
missed the three technique by two inches and THEO Riddic,
my buddy plan running back, gets his head sawed off
because I made that mistake. So I gotta know you
better than I know a lot of my coworkers now.
And I think that's the thing that you miss and
you look back on more than anything, is we all
just come from playing sports in high school to plan
sports in college. You don't realize how much deeper those

(43:37):
relationships are because of all like the shared really tough
experience you got together, um, shifting gears. And we don't
have to touch on this for too long because um,
we're kind of near in the end, um, and we
have something fun playing for you at the end, but
we'll get to that later. But and I l which
is allowing us opportunity to do this right here. Um,

(44:00):
what are you what were your initial thoughts on it?
What are your thoughts on it now that it's kind
of settled in a little bit, and then where do
you think it's going for and better whereas? And also
how would you take advantage of it if you were
still in college. Shoot, I'd have been with Rocco and
the rest of those dudes trying to get Thursday night
dinners page. I saw that was like we used to

(44:20):
we used to go and like do the Thursday night
dinner as an old line or someone's parents who look
for us. I'm like, that is the right way to
go on all this stuff, like those dudes. But yeah,
so it would have been stuff like that because like
I you know, I didn't have the name value. I
had a last name that was familiar around campus. But
you know, I was back up until my last two
years at Notre Dame, and so it would have been

(44:41):
a lot like I think the media experience, where I
could put some good money in pocket while I'm on campus.
I could use it kind of like you guys are
using it now to which is great, Like get ahead,
start on other things that you're interested in. People are
never going to be more interested in you than they
are when you're still a player, especially at a place
like Notre Dame, so leveraging it to way you guys
already have is awesome. I was just excited when at

(45:03):
first announced, like I am always going to skew pro
player in the way that I approach things now in
the media. I'm always gonna think the players deserve more
because they do so much more and there's so much
money around you guys in college football, especially right now.
So I think it's great and where it's going, I mean,
has become pretty clear. I was super happy. I think
everyone should have the right to earn based on what

(45:25):
they do. I think we'll get close to pay for
play at some point with the schools actually involved, because
right now it's basically just pay for play with the
schools kind of not having to flip the bill for it.
At this point, because you're starting to see it those collectives,
I think they're called popping up around different schools. Miami
was the first one to really do a big time.
But you're just basically getting shell corporations for alumni and

(45:48):
donors to funnel money into the program that goes back
to the kids, which a lot of people are starting
to skew as a negative. And all these people that
want to make it sound like the world's ending. I'm like,
all right, if I'm an alumni with a bunch of money,
I can invest in getting my name on a building
that goes next to the Google or some part of
the facility or what you used to have to do
to recruit kids, or I can start putting money towards

(46:11):
the players on all of that. And that's just the
new way of doing all that. So to me, I
think it's just all of the wealth around college football
finally being redistributed to the people that have been earning
it for a long time. Do you think over split
revenue with players I think that is going to be
a long, hard fight. I think we're getting close though,

(46:32):
because like b n C Double A is already on
life support. They're scrambling and playing catch up on all this,
like Mark Emmerton Company have no idea how to wrap
their arms around this. And the thing that's gonna be
the biggest help is when we saw them stand in
front of Congress and you had all of those folks
and Supreme Court folks looking at them going, Uh, what
exactly do you guys do here? And why do you

(46:53):
think you get to operate this way? Once I saw that,
I was like, all right, everyone involved is basically saying,
like college football players, college athletes have a lot of
important people on their side now and the media to
use as an ally, and so as stuff like this
continues to come up, I think we're gonna see the
power of the n C Double A, the power of

(47:14):
the schools continue to come under the gun with people
in Washington who see this, as you know, for them
selfishly an opportunity to get votes based on people who
love watching their college football team. Very there's a lot
of deeper levels to it that I feel like we
don't understand but we just were like money, give us up,

(47:37):
and and and like, honestly, it doesn't have to go
much deeper than that, right, Like for you guys, you're
still trying to also play like you're trying to do
the thing we came there to do. So that's the
other part of it I worry about is young guys
getting taken advantage of on the way in by adults
who know what they're doing. So that, to me is
the biggest thing that's gonna have to get monitored going forward,
is making sure guys are getting taken care of by

(48:00):
the people that actually care and not the people that
are trying to make a buck off. The next Kyle
Hamilton's coming into Notre Dame before maybe that player knows
better and all of a sudden signs onto something that
might end up negatively impacting people start signing contracts. It's
like I've signed a three year fourth year option with
Notre Dame fifth year extension it possibly a six year.

(48:27):
Uh what if you could trade players in college? That
would be Imagine they just stole one of us at
the house and set us to arkansasitye for like, uh,
there's thirty thirty two football thieves in the NFL. But

(48:47):
there's so good. Everything's out of camser his bed's gone,
all the ships off the wall. What am I going
to major in now? I honestly, it's hilarious. They can
just upreach you whoever they want. Um, do you want
to get it to the questions? Uh? The questions though? Yeah,

(49:10):
CA can't want to do it today. Yeah you want
to be done all right? So um, wait what did
you say you want to do it? Nah? I mean
I thought I just wanted to make sure we do
it with ges. You gotta go ahead, all right? Um? Alright,
So I don't know if you I don't know if
you've seen, but we've been doing it a little thing
with our guests, um since we started this podcast. It's
called rapid Questions Under a Minute, and we'd just like

(49:32):
to get your your input. Really it's uh so really it's,
um how many questions we have today? Like, yeah, we
us need to take out the under a minute name
questions questions. It's gonna be either or questions and you
just kind of give your first first thought, you first answer,

(49:52):
and we're just gonna go as fast as we can.
But you can also answer it a little bit, a
little bit more death if you need to under one.
We're not gonna fully adhere to the shot block on this. No,
it's not. It's not repressure. All right, So we're gonna
start you ready, Yeah, let's do it. First question. The
first question. First question is blonds or brunettes. Uh. I

(50:17):
always lie and say I don't have a tight, but
it's been blonde alright. Beer whiskey, Uh, whiskey. At this point,
I get to I like, starting my junior year, I
was getting too full because it took too many beers
to get the job done. Sick brag. Where do you
want to raise a family? I'd like to raise a family.

(50:40):
I think I could see myself ended up back in
the Midwest to raise a family somewhere around there. I
enjoyed my time out there. Not a personality in the Midwest.
Uh across a gulf. Oh, I'm a lacrosse guy. I
got to play growing up, starting in fifth grade because
I did travel baseball. In fourth grade, I made the
all Star team and then had a zero adding average.

(51:03):
I was like, oh, ship, they got this new sport
where they give my fad ass a stick and I
get to hit people within the off season game next
Connecticut or New York. Uh, New York. I listen, I'm
from Connecticut. I've lived here a while. They're in a
damn thing to do here. So it's it's nice if

(51:25):
any of you guys ever end up in New York
and end up raising a family. Greenwich, Connecticut's a great
place that's close to the city where you can do that,
and it's nice neighborhoods and all that stuff. If you
don't want to live in Manhattan, Uh, keep it for
phone calls and FaceTime. FaceTime. I wish we could leave
FaceTime voicemails. That would make nights out a lot more.
That would be and to home or away games. I

(51:52):
always liked away games, man. There was something about that
camaraderie of going into an environment like I'll never forget.
We played at Michigan State not long after the movie
three came out, so you know, Lee and iis and
all the Spartans and I don't know if they're student
section still does it now, but on the video board
they would play the clip from the movie and they
would say in the movie Spartans, what is your profession?

(52:14):
And the whole student section would do the response and
hit him with the oh we always it's like it was.
It was so sick. But I have this image in
my mind of one of our linebackers, Brian Smith, in
warmups in front of their student section twel tying tied
around his head, just waving his arms talking to get
to their whole crowd, and I was like, that's that's

(52:35):
the fun part, man, feeling like you're going into somebody
else's place, and then getting to shift them on the
way out, like beating Southern cal to go twelve and
oh and getting to toss down the sc sign walking
out of that stadium was the best feeling on earth.
All right, Um, next question, country or city? A city?
I like. I like to be around busy stuff. I

(52:56):
don't need to be all about every Every horror movie
takes place in the country side where there's no house
for miles around, and then all of a sudden, some
random group of murderers roles fact hunting or fishing fishing.
I've never been hunting, which, like I always say, like,
I'm a bald, bearded, tattooed white guy, so I looked
like someone who should have been hunting. A lot of

(53:17):
my life, and it never did it. So I went
fishing a lot. You know, I used to go fishing
around the lakes of Notre Dame. So I'll go that round. Okay,
bar or club? Since you talk about partner love me,
this is a great answer, I believe it or not.
I was more of a club guy for a long time.
Like I get a little bit in me and that's

(53:40):
the only time my rhythm even remotely manifest and so
that will that always play better in the clubs again,
rest in peace to Club Fever in South Bend. But
that was my favorite spot that This isn't either or,
But what's your favorite tattoo? My favorite tattoo um I

(54:00):
have on my right forearm. I got a big portrait.
It's no woman in particular, I always get asked, but
it's a big woman looking on a woman's portrait, looking
off into the distance. She's holding a watch and uh.
I read a lot of the author Kurt Vonneguet my
early twenties when I got that tattoo, and the quote
that inspired it was I asked myself about the present,

(54:23):
how wide it is, how deep it is? How much
is mine to keep? Meaning? You know, how much of
this moment, am I gonna remember and actually take with me?
You know how much of this is really gonna stick
with me in the long run. So I had a
little bit of meaning and it looks cool as fun.
It's the most expensive tattoo I've gotten, the best of one. Okay,
the last couple of last couple of questions. Do you
think aliens exist? Oh? Hell yeah, that's that's that's math man.

(54:50):
The universe is way too damn big. All right, um,
what's your favorite movie? Who my favorite movie? The last question,
by the way, think about it, think about it. You
know what, I'd say one of my favorite movies, because
it's hard to pick just one. I really like Gladiator

(55:11):
with Russell Crowe. It was like the first R rated
movie I ever saw. When I was a kid. My
dad took me and my brother. It was like our
you know, father's son bonding experience. I was like thirteen
when it came out, and it's just, you know, there
are a few more badass characters are badass you know
movie quotes that have come from Maximus in that movie.
So you made it under a minute, by the way.

(55:35):
All right, So we're gonna do outside of the garage now,
which is like a segment where we take somebody else's question, um,
a fan that's been listening they d M S or whatever,
and then ask a question for our guests. And this
comes from at Alex Spiegel. Um, he wants to know
how easy was it and how relieving was it to
lose weight from playing football? Um that being an old lineman,

(55:59):
because we've seen a lot of alignment like are unrecognizable
like a year later after they're dumb playing football. So
how is that for you? And how how better I
assume is it now? Well, yeah, I said, because you
guys got to think, like for your guys roles on
the team, you had to be like skinny and in shape,
Like it's not fun being fat even when you're fat,

(56:20):
Like the amount of times I was like taking the
elevator to the second floor a deep art just because
I didn't want to hit the stairs after practice, Like yeah, yeah,
you see, they've heard of three pounders walking right from
that front area up in the elevator to get that
because it's just hard, Like I would sweat looking at

(56:41):
stairs back then. So I was lucky though because I
was one of the dudes. It was hard for me
to put on weight. I came to Notre Dame like
to seventy and had to work my ass off to
get to like and so I finished up in follow
I was three ten after I left New Orleans and
that was like, that was New Orleans weight by the
end to yeah, like what what have Zion? Gained all

(57:11):
that weight? But wasn't an elite athlete underneath? It is
essentially what I was. My doctors are like, dude, your
blood work, yeah, but but no, I got done with
that fall and literally I was already like you know,
when you're gaining weight, it's eating every two hours when
the clock says it's you know, calories a day. And

(57:35):
so I just took that same formula that I was
already on and I cut all the numbers in half.
I just ate normal person portions, and I was I
had a wedding in February that year. I was to
seventy five by the time I got to that wedding,
and I probably walk around most days like between two
fifty and two fifty five, like the last the last,

(57:56):
you know, And I'm thirty two now, so now my
metabolism started to slow down a bit, So you got
to kind of work for it at some point, but
it fell off pretty easily to be got. Uh yeah,
and it rocks. Man, Like I said, being fat sucks
being being able to buy clothes off the rack. I'll
never forget. In South Bend, I walked into the mall
um into Um Urban Outfitters, and you know, they're like,

(58:20):
it's like there's a two like maybe one two ex
shirt and at any time. And I walked in there
and I made eye contact with one of the workers
at the store, like trying to give them the message
I was looking around for something, and I'll never forget this.
Buddy just looks up at me, shakes his head and
looks back down like he's like, we don't have a
damn thing for you. All right, Maybe I'll buy like

(58:43):
a record players. You know I was working out these days.
Do you still work out like like a lot? Uh?
It changes now Like when I got back and started
at ESPN, like I was in my mid to late twenties.
I still have meet head friends around here. I went
to high school and play ball with, so i'd go,
you know, I was still like dead lifting and squatting

(59:04):
and stuff. Then like I go like I'm I'm in
pilates classes now. My brother and his wife own a
couple of Orange Theory fitnesses, those like Boots Jim, so
I do. I do Orange Theory A couple of times
I go to pilates. I'll, you know, hit the peloton
and stuff like that. But uh, it'll probably be a
cold day in hell if I ever put a bar
on my back. I think we're gonna wrap it up there, Paul,

(59:27):
can we can we hit the ap plus? Thank you,
Thank you for coming out. Appreciate, appreciate you had some
great insight and get to get to hear from a
netre Dame mog all the time, so appreciate you. Appreciate,
appreciate you guys. Happy man, I've been cool watching you
guys do your thing. So best of luck with all this, Kyle,
best of luck with all the training and everything. Man,
fun to watch you guys. Thank you, appreciate, appreciate, Thank

(59:49):
you guys for listening and we'll see you next week.
Appreciate the volume.