Lots to Say: Super Bowl Matchup, Surviving the Storm and Rodrigo Blankenship

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is
a production of the NFL and iHeart podcasts.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
We Got Lots just.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
We got lost?

Speaker 4 (00:17):
Just say.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
What a backer here?

Speaker 5 (00:21):
And we hope you say because we got lost?

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Just say, yeah, we got lost.

Speaker 6 (00:28):
Just say.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Here's Bobby That all right, Welcome to the show. I
want to start off because we have two Patriots fans
here and not say congratulations on the super Bowl, but
congratulations on the super Bowl. But how about Belichick not
getting in the Hall of Fame? Yeah, how does that
even happen?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
It's the most ridiculous thing in the entire world. How
do you sit there as a voter? Hall of Famous?

Speaker 5 (00:51):
Got it?

Speaker 1 (00:51):
We're going to have a I mean, the Hall.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
Of Fame is for greatness. He's the greatest coach of
all time. He's won the Super Bowl eight times, two
as the defensive coordinator for the Giants, six as a
head coach, has been to numerous other Super Bowls. I mean,
his record speaks for itself. And how you can sit
there and say this guy is not a first ballot

(01:14):
Hall of Famer, Shame on those people.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
I mean, it is absurd. Can I play a little
role that I'm familiar with. I know Devil's advocate. Devil's advocate,
let me start.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Let me think there's two probably different situations you'll bring up.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Go ahead, and now, I think he should be in
for the record, right, I think he's the greatest coach
of all time NFL. That being said, if we're not
letting Barry Bonds in, who is the greatest hitter in
baseball history, then I can understand the reasoning that you
wouldn't let Belichick in. Now, I think Bonds should be
in the Baseball Hall of Fame, no doubt about it.

(01:48):
He's the greatest hitter ever. His body of work before
he cheated, yeah, was good enough. And I think there
are seasons that Belichick won where there was no cheating
that probably would have got him in. But he's got
two big, old fat scandals that hang over his head. Yes,
and I was there for spy Gate, Dude, Spygate is

(02:08):
crazy jooting. Like, by the way, I want to say
all more time. So nobody thinks I'm literally fighting because
the Belichick should be in. All I'm doing is playing
Devil's You're in the middle of us right now. But
I know, I know, But and Barry Bonds should be
the first one in the Hall of Fame because everybody
was doing it. But spy Yate was dirty dog man.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
It had some dirtiness to it for sure, and as
a player you didn't even realize what was going on
until we got it.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
You didn't realize that you were in it. No, I
was there.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I know there when it came out, when and the
Jets filed the complaint and then they all the research
started or all the facts started to come out. I
was like, wow, I didn't even know this was even occurring.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
So you were shocked, even though that was week.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
One of two thousand and seven. Okay, it was week one,
so that comes out. We get to fine it was
like five hundred thousand dollars. It took around a first
round draft pick the following year.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
All that stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Well, we go on to run the table, right, and
we go to Super Bowl. We eventually lost to the Giants,
So everybody makes the argument. I remember listening to everybody saying, oh, well,
you know the plays, and you know what defensive structure,
and you know that they're going to run a tt up.
I was like, how much time do you have him
between a play? I mean, you're getting in and out
of a huddle. You break the huddle, you get the
line of scrimmage.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
You Okay.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
So at the end of the day, even after all
the different facts came out about the case, which it
did look dirty for sure.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Look was it was. If they're pulling a first round
draft pick, Yeah, that's big time. I don't think that
makes him worse of a coach. It's a it's a strike.
I'm just playing devil's advocate because if you're going to
And also Bill Poutleian's probably the reason even though he
said he voted for Belichick, he said he voted for Belichick.

(03:44):
I don't have to check that.

Speaker 5 (03:45):
He did say that, and then he said I think
I did. I'm like ninety five percent sure I did.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
Like, how do you not know? Know?

Speaker 2 (03:51):
You either do or you don't vote for Bill Belichick
as a first ballot Hall of Famer.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
But also, if there are fifty people in the room,
and I believe that's what it is, right voting ten
of them, if ten vote no, you're not going to
make it it. So you got to whip those votes.
You got to whip the ten to go ten more
because that'll be eleven, because I think if eighty percent
you're in correct. Yeah, so you need eleven total votes

(04:17):
Pollion plus ten. We're just assuming that it was Pollion
who was because look, they hated each other. Of course,
Uh so he's got to get ten other people. Yeah,
so ten other people go, you know what, he cheated?
I bet you. Though not a single person thinks he
shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame. This was probably
just another punishment for Spygate and to flate flate gate,

(04:38):
which Jordan Putson Gate.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, they deflated the balls and all of a sudden,
Brady goes out and throws for more yards. Made a difference,
make a difference, I know, but people look at it
that way.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
It's another.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
It's one of those other other things that come up
that when you talk about their dynasty, you bring up
those two things, even though the one year we didn't
win the super Bowl and that your year.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Yeah, of course, one of those things.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
I mean, the guy's been to nine Super Bowls, and
of course I go to the one that he he
doesn't decide to win.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
But yeah, he's been to six Super Bowls. That's first
in coaching trees.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
This is the head coach like, yeah, won six okay,
been to six super Bowl appearances. That's first playoff wins,
thirty one, that's first regular season wins three oh two,
that's third.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
I think everybody thinks he will for sure get in.
I think if Pollion is the person that is responsible
for him not getting in, he could not do it
by himself. So there had to be ten other people
that said we can't let him in first ballot because
there was some cheating. I think you should have got in.
I think he will get in. But also now he's
the victim, and that's crazy. It's just that's crazy. Belichick's

(05:49):
now getting to be the victim. Yeah, that's third.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
Yeah, and everybody's rallying around this is the voting process
messed up?

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Do we have to rethink how we do this? Who's
voting for? What? I mean?

Speaker 2 (06:01):
It is crazy when you look at the articles now
that are coming out in the media, in social media
and everything else actually backing Bill Belichick.

Speaker 6 (06:10):
I know.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
So I'll say this about you two. You're just winning
too quickly. You needed to be bad for longer. It
is unfair. It is unfair that US Patriots players and
fans and lovers of the organization, get to experience wins
again this quickly. I'm on a lifetime of losing. Yeah,
and you guys, you know, you have successful seasons. You know,

(06:34):
the Patriots win championships, Kevin has a fan. You got
to experience all of that. I can't believe it. And
now you're back in the super Bowl.

Speaker 5 (06:41):
Yeah, I really can't believe it. On Sunday night, I
was like, I feel like we're living in a twilight
zone where it's twenty eighteen, fifteen sixteen all over.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
It just Boston fans in general. Oh, they're so spoiled, No, spoiled,
so spoiled.

Speaker 5 (06:54):
Now if I say I recognize that and I fully
agree with that, does that help it all or no?

Speaker 1 (07:00):
I don't hate you as much.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
But were you the same Were you the same fan
that was booing the last few years and they're down.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Not never left, never left as a fan? You know?
I carried Brady the Tampa. That was about it.

Speaker 5 (07:11):
But I stayed with him, and I there is obviously
some moves I hated, Yeah, but I was always like, well,
we're still only like three years, that's cool, four years,
that's cool.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
And then now it's I can't believe it.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Now you're gonna have to get through the matching tattoo,
because Kevin has a Brady faced tattoo on his back,
and now he's gonna have to get Drake May.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
Yeah, I'm gonna get the step Brothers. Yeah, it'll be awesome. Ahead, Yes,
tattooed on my whole back. So Vrabel hasn't coached in
a super Bowl, but obviously he's played in Super bowls.
Well do you think that matters?

Speaker 2 (07:43):
I think he understands the environment and can lay out
the picture for the team very vividly about what to
expect because the Super Bowl is unlike any event that
or a game that you play in. There's a longer halftime.
It's thirty minutes because of the entertainment at a halftime,
the spectacle that goes on before the national anthem. It's
this build and you feel it. You'll go out for

(08:03):
warm ups and you can feel the energy is just
erupting around you. The fans are into it. So you
know what the stage is, and a lot of these
guys have played on big stages before, but this is
a unique experience when you come out because you know
you're the only football game left everybody's watching, millions of people,
and this is for all the marbles. This is what
our goal is as athletes, is to go to that.

Speaker 1 (08:25):
Pinnacle and win that game. And so there's a lot
of pressure.

Speaker 2 (08:28):
So I think that he can give a unique perspective
playing in the game and understanding the pressures that come
along with being one of the players that are going
to go out and have to perform at a high
level and blocking out the noise.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Probably to the week in between, since again he's played
in that, he knows kind of how to pace yourself
for the week off, right.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
I mean, that's another big goal is leading up to
the super Bowl, is getting healthy, knowing that you've got
to get the work in because you know the opponent
two weeks ahead of time, so putting in that work
more mentally probably than physically, but making sure your team's
right by the time you get on that plane and
head out and start that weekly preparation leading to the

(09:05):
super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
So I'm going to take a step back here only
because it's reminded me of talking about it. Obviously, everybody's
watching the Super Bowl, biggest television event in America every
single year, So taking about three steps back. Let's say
Monday night football when not everybody's watching, but it's the
only game on, right, Because when you said that everybody's watching,
it's a different energy when you guys would play like

(09:27):
a Monday night football game or a Sunday night game,
did it feel a little more elevated for that same
reason that you knew you were the only game on.
Was there a different energy?

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yes, there's always a different energy for night games because
you know you're probably the only game on, whether it's
a Sunday night football game, which is a really big deal,
or a Monday night football game. Even those Thursday night
football games is difficult as.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
They are to prepare.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
You know that you're the only game going, and when
the lights come on, there's something about that energy that
comes along with it. And it's not the same grandio
so spectacle like I said about the Super Bowl, but
you feel that energy in the stadium. So there are
those instances throughout the season, especially those night games, that
you feel. And then as you go on in the
season and you have like we played a lot of

(10:10):
twelve o'clock games.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
I was gonna ask games like twelve o'clock, you can
hide a little bit. You got to get yourself going right.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
You're waking up having your cereal and your drive over
and it's Sonny out and it's you know, it's like
the the fans are there. But I mean, i'd say
division opponents you feel that a lot because you know
if you win your division, you're gonna go to the playoffs.
So there's a lot that goes into it and how
a player motivates himself.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
There's like seven games going on at one stuff, right,
there's seven games, so you're just one of one of
the pack. All right, what do you got over there,
mister Mackcastle? All right, well.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Did you see that Shador Sanders has made the Pro
Bowl in his rookie season. Here are his stats. The
Browns went under his starts. He started seven games, was
three and four. Hey, not back to the Browns, so
let's be honest. He completed fifty six point six percent
of his passes through for fourteen hundred yards with seven

(11:01):
touchdown passes and ten interceptions. Sanders also ran for one
hundred and sixty nine yards one touchdown in twenty one carries.
I'm not by any means on Shador Sanders here, and
I'm not saying it, But there's got to be some
guidelines to who gets to put a title on their
name as a Pro bowler and from an overall performance

(11:23):
in the scale of what you had to perform at
first season in order to be considered.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
A pro bowler. In my opinion, I agree, this is
what I think probably happened. First of all, the Pro Bowl.
It's not what it used to be, and what it
used to be wasn't much true. You know, it's not
like they'd get up for the game to Hawaii. I'll
tell you one person that did, Adrian Peterson. He's running
through people's faces. He's like Pete Rose and the All Star.

(11:51):
I swear. He's taking the catch up everybody.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
He's like trying to like, you know, wrap up stop. Well,
usually try to keep these guys up. Some guys would
go like you got to go a little bit, especially
when it was tackle. But Adrian was searching people out
to run through them, and everybody's like, what is going
on right now? He knew one mode?

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Well now it's like a flag football game. Yeah, I
don't know. Tiddley winks he played POGs. Did you play
Poggs as a kid? No, But he slapped the things. Yeah,
so it's not a real thing, but you have to
keep it going because a lot of guys are being
incentivized by it, and it's a television show that they
you know, will feature some of these events. So my
what my understanding is they go to these players, can

(12:30):
you do it? Nope? Can you do it? Nope? Can
you do it? You're in? Yeah, but I'm in the playoffs?
Can you do it? So there's only a few people left,
and you need three quarterbacks. So like Trevor Lawrence probably
got him, probably turned it down. You got Herbert that
turned it down. C D. Stroud that turned it down.
It's all these guys probably turning it down. But where
does he lie on that list? You think, who did

(12:54):
he get asked over? Probably I mean go to Oakland
in Vegas. Yeah, yeah, I think, uh, I mean he
probably there's only sixteen quarterbacks in the AFC. Yeah, I
think that's probably one guy that it didn't get to. Yeah,
and he's having a bad run, didn't get Pro Bowl

(13:14):
and then also was playing for Seattle last year and
then went to the Raiders. Gino, Yeah, Gino like goes
from a team during the Super Bowl, the year he's out,
and tough, tough.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
Year for Gino, especially with the splash that he made
going back to Seattle and then just resurrecting his career
and everything, and then going with Pete Carrolzon to head coach,
thinking he's going to do it again in Oakland, and
things just went awry.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
I think that when Huntley made it, we at least
understood that Baltimore was a pretty good team, right, and
he played pretty good, but it was always wow, can
you believe Snoop Huntley made the Pro Bowl? This supersedes
that by far, by far. Well, if you have more
played seven games. It's almost like in the NCAA tournament,

(13:58):
you got to be five hundred in conference to make
it pretty much right, this is almost if you don't
have more touchdown interceptions, you can't make the Pro Bowl.
Like that should just be the rule. That's what I'm saying,
And I like, sugar, Yeah, it is bizarre. It is
pretty bizarre. Let's go over here to where we live,

(14:31):
and I've spent many, many a day talking about how
dysfunctionable Titans organization is. And this is definitely not a
Homer show because I'm not a Titans fan and they've
lost it a lot. But I think they may be
building a nice little coaching staff. I think they're doing
a really good job. I mean Sawa with so I

(14:52):
think Sala is a good coach. You can't go to
the Jets and lose and make me think you're back
and then your boy Dable's coming here. I know.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Offensive coordinator, Yeah, we were talking about him and possibly
well last week I was promoting him to the Buffalo
Bill's head coaching him.

Speaker 1 (15:04):
You didn't prom Harden, promote them.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
They weren't listening to. I mean they won't Joe Brady, Okay,
in house higher, I get it. But at the end
of the day, I mean, just with those two guys
and their expertise and how long they've been in the league.
They both obviously had head coaching I mean head coaching
jobs in the past. That's a good start for this organization.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
And I feel like Solid doesn't have to bring in
some massive defensive coordinator name because that's what he does, right.
He can bring somebody up and up and coming and
new because he defenses his thing. You got a great
defensive guy, you got a great offensive guy. You got
a good quarterback, You've got a great Jeffrey Simmons, So
you've got both sides of the ball with somebody to
build around. Do you have pieces here?

Speaker 2 (15:43):
Is?

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Is it crazy that the Titans might not be digging
themselves an even deeper hole.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
I mean, it's not crazy to believe because you look
at their Division two. I mean, Jacksonville obviously outperformed any expectation.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
They're going to be good.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Indianapolis, you don't know what they're going to do with
the quarterback position right now. It could go either way
for that team, even though they've got pie is there.
Jonathan Taylor obviously is probably one of the best backs.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
If not what David Jones going to do miss the
first part of the season next year after it, I
would think injury, Yeah, yeah, I would think so. So
they don't know.

Speaker 2 (16:15):
They're in flux right there with the quarterback position. The
Texans are good. They've got a great defense, but there's
a lot of question marks around that offensive unit and
c J. Stroud, especially after the how he played in
the playoffs with the turnover issues.

Speaker 1 (16:27):
So could the Titans. Could the Titans be pushed to
maybe get a division title here? I mean, I'm not
going to jump five hundred, my mind will be blown
because I'm so used to them losing. Do you have
like an affinity, like a personal affinity for the Titans
that you played there.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
No, I think just being here and my kids growing
up here, that they definitely have more of an affinity.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
They don't win. If you're a kid, it no matter
how local a team is.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
I just think you get caught up in the But
their dad played for him, dad played for him, and
all that. But still I don't. I think it's more
of their friend groups, right, the jerseys and all that.
I do believe that they're a ways off from being
a legitimate contender just because you named two players. Cam
Ward's a great start because he's a franchise potential quarterback

(17:14):
and then Jeffrey Simmons on the other side.

Speaker 1 (17:16):
But they've got a lot of.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Holes that they've got to fill in order to become
a team that competes successfully year in and year out.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
If they just don't get worse, that's that's a positive.
That's massive for us. It's been downhill for the last
four or five years. Just competitive, right, and it not
competing for the number one draft spot every year. Yeah,
and I.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
Think the other part for a lot of Titans fans
that really hurts is the guy that you fired a
few years ago. He's in the super Bowl, by the way,
and that stings that always fired him.

Speaker 1 (17:50):
You fired, and everybody knew it was a bad firing
when it happened. It wasn't that people were supportive and going, yeah,
that's a good move. Everybody went, what you did? What
you did that because you had an argument or you didn't.
Guys didn't get along a little bit. Let's let's make
this work. No, okay, we're going to fire you. And
then what is it? Two years removed? This is the
second year in the first year is ahead frest year

(18:12):
head first year as a head coach.

Speaker 2 (18:13):
You're taking a team that won four games last year
and now you're in the super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (18:17):
It's crazy something else? All right, we got the rematch
Super Bowl forty nine.

Speaker 2 (18:23):
Okay, so this is obviously they didn't hand it to
Marshawn lyn Seattle. Who you got Malcolm Butler steps in
front interception, Big deal, right, But where does that rank
among the most memorable single plays in Super Bowl history?
I'm going to give you a few. David Tyree catch
I was there for that. I was there that one too,
is it?

Speaker 1 (18:42):
Is it Indianapolis, Miami? No, that was the one in Arizona.
Remember I wasn't there the Giants. Yeah, that one year.
I just feel like I was there because you've talked
about it and you've hurt so much that I felt that.
I still I can't believe he caught that ball. Yeah,
you're right, but there were multiple plays after that. Plexico
Buris was on the slug of the slant.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
Go, yeah, that's the play. But that was the play
one handed over Rodney Harrison.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
I'm like, there were plays after Bartman jumped in and
hit the ball in Chicago, but that happened, but that
was the play. Yeah, yeah, give me some Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
San Antonio Holmes toe tap versus the Cardinals. I mean
to throw itself by Big Ben on that play to
get it and thread it over that defender right there,
there was no other room and to just.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
Catch it solid double toe tap. That's a game winner, Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
Philly Special is always a memorable play against the Patriots,
the double reverse throw to fold in the end zone.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
No, you're not feeling that one. That one. I can't
remember exactly where I was sitting the other ones. I
can visualize exactly where I was sitting when the place happened.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, it's probably because No, I couldn't say that is
because you had too many pops at that point in
the game.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yeah. None. No, I've had had no pops. No, I
literally had pops. Had too many.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
You're to to cafeing death, all right, John Elway, helicopter
spin was pretty bad.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
I think at the time. I've seen that as a clip.
Was that against the Packers? Against the Packers goes Jesseevia, Arkansas.
Listen to the story someone had put. There was like
fourteen of us there in Jessville, Arkansas, and we were
having a Super Bowl party. Wasn't at my house, but
someone had put whether it was something poop oh xlax
or something like that, they put it in the cheese

(20:20):
dip as a joke. Why would they do that? And
I never ate the cheese. I never ate it. Luckily,
I love kso and for some reason I didn't touch it.
But during the game, everybody kept going to the bathroom
and nobody knew. And still the person hasn't admitted who
did it. But that was the game. That's what I
remember from that game, what a good friend, what like,
we're having a Super Bowl party. We're gonna and the

(20:42):
funniest part about it is we're gonna make everybody pants
and have diarrhea throughout the game and won't be able
to watch it. Man, I would if I found out,
I would probably beat the hell up. I think that's
why eventually that person whomever did it never said anything
about it, because I went from people thinking it was
funny to once it was real, someone has messed with
some of the food. People were so mad they were

(21:03):
going to beat up who never did it. Oh yeah,
that was brutal. So I know where I was that night,
all right.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Last one Julian Edelman the catch against Atlanta where it's
got bubbled up, boom, one handed brings it in. It
was the comeback.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
He gave me some good options there. I'm going to
go still the Tyree catch because not only do I
remember it, that's you could show me a still shot
of that exact moment, and I think everyone would know
exact man, and you were there.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
Well. The lead up to that too was Eli has
the ball and it's I think it's third or fourth
and ten, something like that, and he's in the grass
of Richard Seymour and somebody else, and I thought they
were going to blow the whistle dead for a sack.
He somehow gets out of it. He's back pedaling, throws
up a prayer. It's a Hail Mary, is what it is.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
It's a better version of the Caleb Williams throw in
Chicago in the corner. Yeah, you know, when he just
chunks it running backward. This was just heavier because of
the Super Bowl. Yeah. It was the Super Bowl in
the biggest moment, in the biggest part of the crazier catch.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
Crazier catch, I mean, and he didn't even have crazy
stats that year. He wasn't even a featured wide receiver
on that team. So that's what makes it more special.
So I guess you go.

Speaker 1 (22:16):
With that one, even though you had to watch it
with your own eyeballs.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Yes, I mean, I think all of these are amazing
moments in Super Bowl history, but that one goes down
for me, especially because it's so near and dear to
my heart.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
It's funny that I feel like I was at the game,
but only because we've talked about it, and you've talked
about being there. I think I felt it through you. Yeah,
I mean it's one of those things. Can you feel
me now? I went to Chick fil A before we
came to do this, and we had an eye storm
where we live in Nashville, and it's it's unlike any
storm I've ever seen. I've been through big snowstorms, I've

(22:49):
been through snow with ice. I've been in New York
for like two feet a snow. I've had enough weather
experiences in my life to not just be like, oh
my god, it's crazy. Just because I live in the South.
This ice storm with half an inch of ice, ripped trees,
rooted them in my yard. Yes, me too, massage trees
fell in streets on top of power lines. Power was

(23:11):
out for days and days and days here. So all
that to say, Chick fil A was closed for two days,
and Chick fil A never closes unless it's Sunday. So
today they finally reopened, and I was coming to work
over here. So I go by and I pull in
and by the way, this Chick fil A is is
bumping so hard around twelve o'clock. The cars are in
the street all the time. It's wrapped into so you
got to even get in the other lanes to get by.
If you're on the right lane where you pull in

(23:32):
a Chick fil A, you're just sitting there. So I
go through, and this one you have to wrap around
the entire Chick fil A to even get in the
lane to go around. And so it's fine because Chick
fil A. I will say, I must say some good things,
some bad things, and this is not a commercial, but
the good thing is and I think you could probably
speak to this as well. It's efficient. It doesn't matter
how long the line is. They move people through. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
I don't know who's cooking the chicken back there, but
they get that chicken cook. They get the chicken ready
on your sandwich. The cars are zippering in and out
perfectly like you're in two lines.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
They merge, merge. Yeah, yeah, the zippers just grab each side. Yeah,
they merge you. And they're like, Bobby, yes, sir, can
me the food. I'm out now. I want to shout
out because extremely efficient. Where I was lawyertated one. I
just wish the well the person needs to wear, you know,

(24:23):
back in like the twenties that'd wear those big sandwich
board signs. I'm not asking for that, but around their
neck that should have a little menu.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
Well they also have like the actual menu that with
the thing that they're dialing in to you. They walk
up to the car and go no, oh, they make
you put your card on it. No, what's a beat?

Speaker 1 (24:41):
Now? You just do that? No, it wasn't. It was
a little handheld pad. So he's like, what would you like?
And I kind of know my way around a Chick
fil A, but i'd like to see just in case
I have new thoughts. Do you want the chicken or
the chicken? You should be that's a fair question. Yeah,
And I said I'll take the I'll take the five
strips and he's like, oh, we can't do that. You
had the strips, No, we only have four four sex probably.

(25:05):
I was like, i'll take the most one. I'll take
the most one. And he's like, okay, we'll put you down.
I think it was four, that's what they had here,
the most. And I said, I need honey mustard. I
can't eat it with a honey mustard. I canna eat
dry chicken. So please give me two packs of honey mustard,
No problem. Do you have the meal with that? I do?
I got the waffle fries. You got the drink, and
my new drink at Chick fil A is sweet tea
with strawberry. Then you need to try that. It's great,

(25:29):
you'll love it. Drive around, get it? No honey, no
honey mustard. Did you park? No? Because I got hot
up in it being so busy. I thought, this is
the one time I'm not gonna look at my bag
and I'm gonna just drive out. And I got here
to eat. There was no honey mustard. Minor breakdown. I
had a minor breakdown. It's so pretty juicy's chicken, though
I had to dip it in ketchup. Oh dude, that

(25:51):
no way. I'm not doing Chick fil A and ketchup.
You have to or you eat it dry. It's not
that dry. You just got it. It doesn't matter. It's
just dry. Without wet, it's dry, all right. Fine, A
wise man once said, without wet, it's dry. And you weren't.
You weren't going for that. No, So that was my
Chick fil A experience coming in over here. What's your
favorite fast food?

Speaker 2 (26:12):
You think if you had to go fast food, what
would be your fast food?

Speaker 1 (26:16):
I'm going to answer something that some people are going
to say that's not fair, but it's going to be
Chipotle because fast food. It's fast enough. But I hate
to put it in that category of fast food because
Chipotle is quality like Chick fil a. Chiole's quality food.
They just can move it pretty fast. So I think
it's Chipotle Chick fil A. And if you're going traditional,

(26:38):
I love Sonic. My kids love I love Sonic, but
they all like scratch that itch. Yeah, I need to
be itching for the specific thing. But I can eat
Chipotle five times, five nights a week and still I.

Speaker 2 (26:52):
Went to Chipotle today and they were out of chicken
and steak because everybody story, I'm trying to get a storm.
So they had barbicoa or carnitas, and I got the barbicoa.
But sometimes when you're at the tail end of that
pot and they just grab that one chunk that was
not shreaded yet, it's just a chunk of meat, and
I was like, hmm, yeah, not my best experience there.

(27:14):
But all in all, I'd say Chick fil A is
a pretty solid one.

Speaker 1 (27:17):
I got over Heroes, washing my hands as I often
do before I eat. For the record, do you all
the time bighnd washing. No, not all. There's a different
kind of bac carey. Yet, don't put that in people's minds.
The should just be touchinglicking their fingers, lick your fingers.
So I the building that we shoot podcast stuff and
we shoot video stuff. I do a Netflix show from here,

(27:38):
and so own the building. You own the studio, thank you.
And during the storm we lost power, so for one
of the nights we had to come sleep here because
it was the only place with heat. And it was
the first time that I'd like lived up here. And
I learned how to fix a hot water heater. Now,
now did you google it? No, But I'm going to
tell you the best thing to do. Now, chetch, take
a picture of it, of anything, if you take a

(27:58):
picture of anything in the world. I fixed like three things.
I fixed the garage. The other day, I fixed a
hot water heater. I fixed something in my car. So
I took a pure of it and I said, hey,
is this working? And it goes well. That light is
not green, it's red. You need to turn it on,
reset it, open the box. I did the whole thing.
Shut it again. That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah, right before break, you had to go to the restroom.
He said, I got to get my water. So did
you go up and take a picture and be like.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
Well, I knew how to do it from the picture
last time because it's new, so I reset it. But
here's the question I have for you in your mind,
and you can close your eyes if you want to.
But there's a sink. Okay, there's two handles. There's the
sink that puts the water out, like the curvy the
head what do you call that, the spout the neck? Yeah,
go with that. You with me. There's a left and
a right handle. Which one's hot if you're looking at it,

(28:46):
if you're looking at it, which one's supposed to be hot,
which one's cold? The one on the left is hot hot,
the one on the right is cold. That's why I thought, too,
I think the person who plumbed this place, you're right, right,
they did right, it's hot in this bathroom. Really, Yeah,
that's off, I thought.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
I always have my left if you're facing it, the
left is the right is cold?

Speaker 1 (29:07):
Like you said, so, I thought so too. You could
chat GPT that now and switch those wires right up?
Did underneath? I didn't take a picture of the sink
I've taken a picture of everything else and put on
my phone. I did not take a picture of my sink.
So yeah, that's what we did the last couple of days.
You guys lost power. We lost power.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
We lost power on Sunday morning, probably around eight o'clock
or so. So then that was the day that it
kind of was like that sleet early on. So then
things were Then it got real cold and it was
icing up. So the house was getting cold. It was
like in the forties, and so I was like, I
called down the street. There was a hotel in Franklin,
so I was able to call down there.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Get a room.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Bad Power, Bad Power was able to go down there,
took the dog with me. The pig and the chickens
had to survive the cold. Sorry, guys, but.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
They have warm They have like a chicken house.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yes, they got a house, but I mean, and then
the pig has this massive doghouse because it's a big
fat pig man, so it's gonna be fine. It's got
plenty of fat to survive these circumstances. But we went
down there, stayed and then I was just going home
to make sure the pipes weren't busted. Anything like that,
and check on the chickens and the pig, and all
of a sudden our lights came on.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
We got super lucky while you were there.

Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yeah, around eleven o'clock on Monday or so. So we
were able to come back just with one night in
the hotel where I've still got plenty of friends that
have no power too.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
Yeah, it's the ice storm is crazy. Like I said,
i've been, I haven't either. And when I say that
from the north, we all Southern boys just get some weather.
Shut up. This is this is crazy. This is hardcore eyes.
It doesn't even look like as bad as like a crazy.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
It looks like the movie Frozen. I mean like everything,
every tree it's beautiful. Yeah, but most of those branches
and massive trees are on the ground. Can I show
you a picture?

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Yes? Please? So this is a picture of my shoes
last night. Those are some of my Air Force one
Louis bittants that I like to have. I have a
few different bear you don't have snow, but so I'm
guessing no I do. But you know, what do you
see there a lot of snow on top of that's
not snow? What is that mud? That's straight mud. You

(31:08):
have mud?

Speaker 2 (31:09):
Oh, yes, you do. Your laces used to be white. Yeah,
the whole thing. Those are those shoes are white?

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yes, those MUDs. No, that's brown mud. So those are
these And obviously so you already bought two new pairs.
I did not. A guy was stuck and and he
was by himself in an suv, and so I said, hey,
we got to pull over and help this guy. My
wife and she's like, well, just wait, and I get out,
and I'm like, I knew he was stuck, but I
was like, dude, you stuck. And he said, no, man,

(31:36):
do you mere struggling for nothing? He goes, yeah, I'm stuck.
So I get beside and try to push while he
hits the gas and he's not able to go right.
And so you're pushing a car and sweats and Louis
Bitton shoes and shoes and so not only that, my
wife was pregnant. Said hey, I'm gonna need you. Yeah.

(31:58):
I had to get in the truck, and she had
to get in the truck and drive. She got in
his truck and drove, and we're both on the back
side and I couldn't get beside anymore because it was
a tree, and if I were to get smashed by
that tree, I'll be dead. And so look at this,
this is mine. This is how you go out being
a good Samaritan. Oh my gosh, that is I'm covered
in mud because the will kept you're throwing all. That's

(32:19):
how you know he's on social media. I haven't checked today. Okay,
I've got five kids home from now. I hear you
rough night.

Speaker 2 (32:26):
That's a rough night? Was it because you thought you
could fix his car? Because you've been doing all the handiwork.
We got it out of there, though, did congratulations? That's
a manly covered in a manly week for you.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
It is. It's been a cold week. There were times
I probably wasn't that manly. Was like, hey, i'm cold,
you have a blanket? It was I mean, you stayed
in your house though, we did, yeah, almost the whole time.
What'd you do that for? Because we had dogs? And
she was like, I think we can just sit by
a fireplace and that didn't work very well. She's pregnant,
She's like, this sucks. She's probably radiating heat anyway a

(32:59):
little more. She's living warmer. Yeah, so she kind of
liked it. I don't know if i'd say that, because
she was wildly uncomfortable. But did you guys stock up
on food beforehand or no? Yes, we definitely had enough food,
like cooked, and then we brought a bunch over here.
But the thing is if you didn't bring food or
if you didn't o refrigerator went out, so a lot
of it spoiled, right, But we just put it outside.

(33:20):
We had well, we did that too, but we ate
all that. It was like in the movies when you
go in with stuff, if you buy stuff earlier, you
sneak in with stuff. You eat it all before the
movie starts. So like ice Storm coming tomorrow, I'm eating
all the everything we had bought.

Speaker 2 (33:31):
You know, we have rations for like another two weeks.
I'm like, honey, the storm said it was only in
the last like three days. I went to five different
stores and stocked up on this side and the other.
We had so much food it's absurd.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
We're going to come back. Rodrigo blanket ship kicker that
you will know because he would mostly wear the colt's
helmet and have the dark room glasses underneath. We're going
to talk with him. He is still kicking, but he's
got a really interching story about him being a walk
on at Georgia, him being an undrafted free agent into
the NFL, and then where he is now and he's
trying to get back in the league. But really interesting guy.

(34:04):
We'll talk damn next. All right, let's bring on Rodrigo.
Blanket Ship Rodrigo. I gotta say love the glasses. Coming

(34:25):
from a fellow dart specked guy, this has been a
part of my identity for a long time. When did
you decide to commit to the glasses, because that means
everybody's going to know you, especially in a helmet.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (34:38):
I think that I first started to wear glasses in
middle school. It's probably around seventh grade. Started to notice
that my eyesight wasn't great, especially trying to play soccer
and football. You need to see stuff from you know,
pretty good distance, and so that's when I started to
wear the glasses. Started to wear the Rex specs specifically
for high school basketball, switching over from you know, the
just the traditional glasses. I wore the rexspecs for basketball

(34:59):
in high school, and then when I got to University
of Georgia, it was just part of the look, and
so I just continued with it.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
And now it's come part of the image.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Yeah, Rodrigo, So you just said you played soccer in
high school, right, was that something that influenced you to
go and be a placekicker when you when it came
to football season.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
It definitely was a big help.

Speaker 6 (35:20):
I started off playing soccer probably as soon as I
could walk, maybe I don't know, three years old, four
years old. There was a soccer ball on my feed,
and soccer was my first love. I played it through
my senior year of high school. But I think I realized,
you know, early on, once I started to kick, that
you know, football was probably going to be the way
to go. There was going to be, you know, more
opportunities for me on the football side. But coming from

(35:41):
a soccer background that was very helpful. Just allows you
to really hit the ground running and helps you to
pick up the mechanics of kicking very quickly. So, you know,
I started to watch football with my dad. I think
two thousand and six was the first year that I
watched football, was watching the Florida Gators. Unfortunately, I know
the dog fans are going to hate to hear that,
but I started watching Florida football and that's kind of
what made me fall in love with football, and you

(36:02):
know that really kind of expedited the kicking process to
get me where I am now.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
So going from soccer to football, did you pick it
up pretty quickly? And then also, did you play any
other positions when you played football, because obviously you were
an athlete. You talked about paying basketball in soccer, so yeah,
talk me through that.

Speaker 6 (36:20):
Yeah, I did play a couple of other positions.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
In my time in high school.

Speaker 6 (36:25):
I messed around with a little bit of wide receiver
one offseason. I was actually one of our backup quarterbacks
my senior year. Thankfully, we were never in a position
where they needed my services my senior year. You know,
otherwise we would have been in big trouble. But I
did do a little bit of receiver, did a little
bit of quarterback in high school. And yes, I did
pick up kicking very quickly, you know, from playing soccer

(36:47):
for such a long time. I think that I first
tried to kick a football the summer after fourth grade,
So somewhere between fourth and fifth grade, my dad took
me out to the practice field at my local high
school and he said, you know, hey, try and kick
this football like you kick your free kicks in soccer
and we'll see what happens. And the first one sailed
through the uprights with no instruction prior to that day,

(37:07):
and you know, I think we both really saw that
there was some potential there. And so the following summer,
I went to my first camp to start getting instruction
and I really took off from there. But yeah, the
soccer definitely helps you to have an expedited process when
you're trying to learn a kick.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
So talk to me about why you chose Georgia because
you're a walk on at Georgia originally and earned a
scholarship obviously your second season, But just what went into
that and were you being recruited by anybody else?

Speaker 6 (37:32):
Yes, I was being recruited by a few other schools,
mostly mid major programs. My first scholarship offer actually came
from University of Alabama, Birmingham, funny enough, and you know,
it was very fortunate to receive that offer, and that
really kind of allowed some other dominoes to fall where
some other programs started to offer me scholarships after that.
They were all, you know, kind of a similar tier
or you know, similar point in the college football hierarchy.

(37:55):
I guess you could say so. I had some scholarship
offers to some smaller programs, but ultimately the thing that
led me to University of Georgia outside of you know,
what I felt like was a good opportunity to play
was education. And I know that with the current state
of college football with NIL and with the transfer portal,
and with coaches moving all over the place, and you know,
money being thrown in kids' faces, I know that education

(38:16):
has become pretty low on the list of priorities that
guys are considering, but that was still my top priority.
I've always wanted to get into sports journalism and sports
broadcast whenever I get done with my playing career, and
University of Georgia has one of the best journalism schools
in the country in Grady College, and so that was
something that was always at the top of my list.
Outside of the University of Georgia, my next choice would
have been Mercer. I did have a full scholarship offer

(38:37):
from Mercer, but they also have a very renowned journalism
program and broadcast program, So you know, that was really
the reason that ended up going to University of Georgia.
Education was always at the top of my list. I
know that football is not going to last forever, and
I wanted to set myself up for success as best
as possible, and so ultimately it became University of Georgia.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
Looking in hindsight, it looked like it was all pretty
easy because just looking at some of your awards, first
Team All SEC in twenty nineteen, you won the Guards Award,
but you said you went on as a walk on.
So how long until you got the starting job? And
what was that process like? The competition?

Speaker 6 (39:12):
Yeah, So my first year was twenty fifteen, and that
was coach Mark Rick's last year as the head coach
at University of Georgia. And I knew from some of
the conversations that I had had with Coach Rick and
his staff as a high school recruit that that twenty
fifteen season, I was in all likelihood not going to play.
The incumbent kicker, Marshall Morgan, was a very good kicker,

(39:32):
very solid, you know, had done very well in his career,
and he was still there when I got there as
a red shirt freshman in twenty fifteen, and so I
knew that season I probably was not going to play
because Marshall was going to finish up his senior year,
and he did a tremendous job for us in his
last year, and so really going into that twenty sixteen
season was when I felt like I would have the
first opportunity to potentially have the starting job. Now Coach

(39:55):
Rick ended up leaving for Miami at the end of
that first year, Coach Mark comes in and you know,
everyone is kind of starting from the ground zero with
the new coaching staff. You're learning names, and you're learning,
you know, whatever one is about and all that stuff. So,
you know, we kind of start from ground zero. Was
in I was in a kicking competition over the course
of the summer with another kicker named William Ham, and
he actually ended up winning the starting field goal job

(40:18):
coming out of you know, summer training and preseason camp,
and so he started the season as our field goal
kicker and I was the kickoff only kicker for the
first three to four games of the season and then
I think it was around week four, We're going to
a road game against Ole Miss. That was my first
time as the starting field goal kicker. I had, you know,
I had won the job. At that point, Ham was
not doing so well and in the first few games

(40:39):
of the season. I was practicing really well, kicking really
well at a high level during practice, and so ultimately
he got the starting job around Week four. Didn't have
the best start. Actually, I missed my first ever career
field goal attempt against Ole Miss and ended up getting
flamed on the internet the next week because all all
of the headlines were, you know, new Georgia kicker wears
glasses and still can't see the uprights. You know, that

(41:01):
headline was was that headline was all over the place.
My first week that myss so got off to a
rough start, but after that, I think I went on
a streak making about ten kicks in a row, and
you know, so the narrative kind of started to change
a little bit and people started to think, oh, maybe
this guy is the right guy for the job. So
really it was you know, about a third of the
way through that twenty sixteen season when I took over
as the starter, and then from there we never looked back.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
I read something that said, after the Notre Dame game,
you earned the scholarship and they presented you that scholarship.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
What was that like? Because these stories are ones that
we're all endeared too.

Speaker 2 (41:48):
Because it's somebody that's worked hard, walked on, paid your dues,
made your kicks, and now you're rewarded with the ultimate
goal when you go to college, which is a scholarship.
But talk about that moment, what it was like the
locker room and how it was presented to you.

Speaker 6 (42:01):
Yeah, so really that actually came about a couple days
before we left for the Notre Dame trip. I think
it was a Thursday, our last day of practice for
that week getting ready for Notre Dame, and I had
had my last class of the day I think had
been canceled because I was back in my dorm room
and normally I would just head straight from class over
to the facility to get ready for meetings and then practice.

(42:21):
And so I think that my last class had been
canceled because I had some downtime in my dorm room
and I got a text from our one of our
special teams coaches at the time, Coach Fountain, and he said,
Coach mart wants to see you. You need to head
to the facility immediately. You know, as long as you're
not in class, head to the facility and he wants
to see you in his office, and you know, At first,
I thought, oh, man, what did I do?

Speaker 3 (42:41):
Did I get in trouble.

Speaker 6 (42:42):
It's like when your name gets called on the PA
system in school and the it's like the principal needs
to see you, you know. And so at first I
was a little scared. I didn't know what to expect,
and so I wanted to see coach mart in his
office and he said, raw, you've been kicking really well
for us. You know, he did really well last year.
You've made a lot of improvements over the off season
and I can see you know how much you've improved,
and you're kicking at a high level. And so I

(43:02):
want to put you on scholarship. And he said, can't
tell anybody yet because I've got something planned for you.
He said, you can tell your your parents if you like,
as long as you trust them not to tell anybody else.
I don't want the secret getting out yet. You can
tell your parents if you like, your girlfriend, whatever, but
that's it because I have something planned for you. And
I said, okay, that sounds good. So I told my parents,
told my girlfriend, and then we went up to Notre Dame.

(43:24):
I kicked a go ahead field goal with about three
minutes left. In the game, and then we got a
stripsack fumble on the ensuing possession and we're able to
close out the game in that fashion. And then we
got into the locker room and coach mart You brought
everybody up in the locker room and he said, hey, Rod,
you want to tell the team what we talked about
a couple of days ago. And I got to tell
the whole team that, you know, I've been put on scholarship,
and then it was just a party in the locker room.
So it was it was a really incredible moment, really

(43:46):
excited that I got to share that with my team,
and I know that the video went, you know, went
viral and everyone you know, got to see that moment
and just sharing it with us, and it was just
a really incredible experience to have.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Do you think you would have still got that moment
had you missed the kick and lost the game?

Speaker 3 (44:02):
That is a very good question.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
I'm glad.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
I'm glad that's not how it turned out. It might
have taken another week. I honestly would have been interesting
to think about.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Uh huh.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
So from from Georgia, obviously you had all the accolades,
everything like that, and then you went undrafted, but you
do get an opportunity to go play for the Indianapolis
Colts and you're on the NFL All rookie team. Talk
about that first year coming to the league and the
different trials tribulations you had getting going.

Speaker 6 (44:29):
Yeah, I mean that first year as an undrafted free agent.
I think that everybody knows, you know, all the guys
that are in that position, they know that, you know,
you're kind of on a short lease.

Speaker 3 (44:38):
You really have to prove your worth.

Speaker 6 (44:40):
You have to prove that you're going to provide value
to the team immediately, otherwise they're probably going to be
moving on and looking in a new direction. And so
every day that I was there, I felt like, this
is another you know, this is another day of my
job interview. You know, even though we go through tons
of preparation before that, with interviews at the Senior ball
and the Combine and you know, and and calls with
the coaches leading up to draft day, you know, those

(45:01):
are all part of it. And then you get onto
the field for the first time with the team, in
front of your teammates and in front of the coaches,
and it's like, Okay, now this is this is the
bulk of the.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
Interview right here.

Speaker 6 (45:10):
I have to prove that I'm capable of being on
this field, that I deserve to be here every day,
and you know, if I'm not doing it, They're going
to be looking for another solution somewhere else. And so,
you know, it was just a constant battle, a very
heated competition with Chase McLaughlin, who's the current starting kicker
for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He's done very well since
he's arrived in Tampa. That he was my competition as
a rookie, and it was a back and forth battle.

(45:32):
You know, one day I'd win, one day he'd win.
One day I'd win, one day he win. And so,
you know, it kind of came down to the wire
on on cut day as to who was going to
be the starting kicker. Ultimately, I guess I had made
a few more kicks than he did. I had, you know,
just I had barely edged him out in our preseason
competition and ended up being the guy. But you know,
even in the regular season, it's a constant struggle and
a constant battle because you have to consistently prove yourself

(45:54):
on you know, on a weekly basis, week in and
week out, you have to prove that you're adding value
to the team and that you're going to help the
team win. There were some really special moments that rookie year.
I think I think a special the end of our
rookie training camp when all of the veterans first reported.
I'm sitting in my locker playing on my phone and
a shoe kicks me on the foot and I look
up and it's Philip Rivers and he walks up to

(46:16):
shake my hand and he's like, hey, man, how you doing.
And I said, hey, hey, nice to meet you. I'm
I'm run Regal blaken Ship. Then he goes, I know
who you are, man, And I'm like, what are.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
You talking about?

Speaker 3 (46:25):
How do you know who I am?

Speaker 6 (46:26):
He said, oh, man, you know, I'm a Southern boy.
I've grown up watching SEC football my whole life. I've
kept up with it all my time in the pros.
And you know, you made waves of Georgia. It's great
to see you, you know, in this locker room and
hopefully you know you'll be a part of the team
this year. And so that was a really cool moment
getting to meet Philip. I remember playing with the Chargers
and madd in two thousand and nine when I was younger,
and I love to play with Chargers with Philip and

(46:47):
La Danian Tomlinson.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
So you know, that was a really special moment.

Speaker 6 (46:50):
Getting to kick the game winning field goal against Aaron
Rodgers and the Packers in over time about halfway through
the season to take over first place in our division
was another really special moment. So there were definitely some
highlights of that rookie year. But you know, like I said,
it's it's a constant battle to prove yourself week in
and week out.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
Yea, it feels like a kicker can have a really
bad game and be cut. Not so much with other positions,
like there needs to be more than a bad game.
But if you go out and you miss four kicks
a lot of times, if you're not like the guy
guy that is submitted in place, they'll just go, let's
pull up a new kicker. I think that's the only
position where they do that. Do you feel like that's true.

Speaker 6 (47:29):
I do think that the expectations for performance four kickers
are at an all time high. You know, it feels like,
for the most part, as you said, unless you are
a very established guy. You know, you've been in the
league for five, six, seven years, whatever the case may be,
and you have shown over the course of your career
that you are rock steady, and there may be just
in a bit of a slump unless you're in that situation.
There is a very short leash for kickers, especially punters

(47:53):
a little bit, snappers a little bit as well, but
especially for kickers. If you're not seeing that ball go
through the uprights, usually coachers are looking in a new direction.
And so you know, I experienced that as well. The
first game of the regular season with the Cold in
twenty twenty two, I had made two field goals in regulation,
but then in overtime I hit two kickoffs set of bounds,
gave the other team short field position. And then I

(48:14):
also missed the potential game winner in overtime in that
same game. And so you know, as you said, it
really just takes one bad game. I hadn't been super established.
I had a really good rookie season, but my second
year with the Colts, I got injured and missed most
of the season, so I hadn't really cemented my place
at that point in time, and so, you know, one
bad game was all that it took at the beginning

(48:34):
of that twenty twenty two season for me to hit
the road, and so you definitely see that. You know,
it happened quite a bit throughout the course of this
NFL season as well, where you have some guys that
have kind of been on the fringe where they haven't
really cemented themselves with the team yet, and so we
saw a lot of turnover at the kicking position this season.
You know, for that exact reason. The expectations are super high,
and if you're not super well established and you're not

(48:56):
meeting that bar, then you're probably going to be on
your way out the door.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
How do you do with the mental aspect of being
in that type of position because the pressure mounts right
even when you're making kicks, you know that you can
go into a slump, And how did you deal with
that type of mental adversity week in and week out
to continue to put yourself in the right mind frame.

Speaker 6 (49:15):
I think that, you know, the biggest thing that I
can do is just have trust in my process and
have trust in my preparation.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
I know that it's you know.

Speaker 6 (49:21):
Very cliche, and Joel indeed has always been you know,
trust the process and Philly and eventually they're going to
get their championship. But you know, really that's I think
how it has to be, especially for specialists with you know,
how how precise our performance is, and you know everyone's
eyes are going to be on you.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
You really don't want anyone.

Speaker 6 (49:39):
Saying your name, especially if you're a you know, a
snapper or a punter. You really don't want anyone saying
your name because that probably means you did something wrong.
If you're you know, going out and doing your job
every time that your your number is called, you know,
then people aren't going to have a reason to be
looking at you. And so that's kind of how you
want it to be. And so the best way that
I think that I found to be able to do
that is to just trust in my process. Just trust that,

(49:59):
you know, I've put in all of this work over
so many years. I've been kicking for I think eighteen
or nineteen years at this point, away longer than you know,
I haven't been kicking. And so I've just found that,
you know, if I have these habits and I have
these routines, and I'm consistent with my preparation on a
weekly basis and that's going to lead to consistent performance
in the game. So just being able to trust that

(50:19):
the work that you're putting in is with the purpose
and that it's going to lead to the results that
you want. That's been the biggest thing that I found
to help me prepare mentally to just have confidence and
know that, hey, you've put in the work you deserve
to be here, and you know if the work that
you have put in is going to allow you to succeed.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
I know you're supposed to visualize the kick going in,
and I'm not sure what your process was and if
you were visualizing it going in, but if you were
ever off, did you ever visualize it not going in
and you just couldn't get it to go in and
your visualization, You're like, come on, get out of my head. Yeah,
then you got it kick, Like, did you ever battle
those demons?

Speaker 6 (51:06):
Not necessarily from a mental standpoint, but definitely from a
from a physical standpoint. You know, I could think back
to a couple of kicks that I you know, that
I missed earlier in my career, where when I was
going through my warm up kicks in the net, It's
something wasn't quite feeling right. And you know, that's usually,
you know, part of every kicker's process. Usually when the

(51:27):
offense crosses a fifty yard line, the punter usually puts
his ball down. The kicker goes over to the net
and starts to get a couple of kicks off into
the net as the offense is getting into field goal range.
And so there have been a couple of times where
I would go out and I had missed a kick,
you know, in the game, but the couple of kicks
that I had hit into the net just before that
didn't quite feel right. And so, you know, sometimes there

(51:47):
is a little bit of a tell, at least for
me specifically from a physical standpoint, to be like, okay,
I really need to make sure that the ball is
coming off my foot really clean in the net, and
that's usually going to translate well to me being able
to hit that next ball on the field and put
it through the post.

Speaker 1 (52:01):
So I have.

Speaker 6 (52:01):
Struggled with that a little bit. You know, nine times
out of ten, it's not an issue. I'm going to
go out there, I'm going to knock it down. I
made about ninety five percent of my field goals in
the UFL last year and pretty much every time I
walked out onto the field, I hit a great ball
into the net right before that. So it's not as
much of an issue now, but definitely earlier in my career,
like in my high school career, that was definitely something
that I noticed.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
You know, Now with the kickers having the ability to
make alterations to the ball and you see all these
field goals, they're going in at sixty five, seventy yards,
but they're making them at a high clip. What is
your thoughts and the impact that it's had on the
game and for kickers in general.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
With the ball alteration now, for the kickers.

Speaker 6 (52:40):
I definitely think it's made the field goal kicking portion
of kicking, you know, and of a regular NFL game
a lot more exciting to see all of these bombs,
you know, just on a weekly basis. I think that
it's been really exciting. I mean, seeing Cam Little hit
the seventy yarder in the preseason and then he made
a sixty seven and a sixty eight yarder during the
course of the regular season. You know, McLoughlin with the Bugs,

(53:01):
as I mentioned earlier, he made a sixty five yarder
at one point in season and so to see all
these long kickicks made, I think it's really exciting and
you know, adds a little bit more excitement to the
game that we know that we previously hadn't seen, at
least not to this extent, you know, and you know,
a lot of people had asked me about it over
the course of the season. You know, all of these
NFL kickers, I think have been capable of making these kicks,

(53:24):
you know, even before the ball breaking in rules that
we have had for this season. But now they're able
to make it on a more consistent basis. You know,
guys have been able to make sixty five to seventy
yard field goals, but definitely not with the regularity that
we saw this season. But when you have the footballs
that you can break in a little bit longer, it's
not just you know, you get to break them in

(53:45):
for forty five minutes two hours before kickoff, which is
what it used to be. You know, Now you get
them at the beginning of the season, and you can
break them in leading up to week one of the
regular season, and then you can use any one ball
for up to three weeks. You know, you really get
a ball broken into that perfect level, and then you're
just able to more consistently get the distance you need
for these long range kicks. And so when you got

(54:05):
guys that are making them more consistently in practice, it
gives the coaches a lot more confidence to be like, hey,
if I need this, I can send him out in
a game because I just saw him make sixty five
three or four times in practice this week with it,
you know, within our team period. And so it just
gives the coaches more confidence to send these guys out
there and then they'll be able to execute that in
a game. There's an Instagram account that I follow called

(54:26):
kicker Central that posted all of the field goal kicking
results from the NFL regular season, you know, the total
conversion percentage, the number of attempts, and this year there
were more sixty plus yard field goals attempted and made
than any season in NFL history. And you know, definitely
a part of that is because of these footballs allowing
guys to more consistently knock down these long range kicks.

(54:47):
So it's been really exciting to see.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
I know you're going to start in the UFL with
the Birmingham Stallions, but as the goal to get back
in the league.

Speaker 6 (54:53):
Absolutely, that is definitely the goal. I was very close,
you know, after this last UFL season. I did really
well with the Saint Louis BattleHawks team last year, and
I had a tryout with the Jets as soon as
the UFLS season was over. I also had to try
out with the Los Angeles Rams during the NFL regular season.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
So I feel like I'm very close.

Speaker 6 (55:11):
I feel like I'm back on a lot of teams
radars to say, hey, this is a guy that we
need to start taking a look at again. You know,
because I'm healthy, I'm kicking well, kicking as well as
I ever have at any point in my career. So
you know, I feel like I'm putting myself back on
a lot of teams radars, and so that is absolutely
the goal is to end up back on an NFL
roster as soon as possible.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Now, look, I'm not the most savvy social media guy,
Bobby can contest to that. But you're big on social media.
You got a lot of great content. How do you
come up with putting out the content? Is a feel thing?
Is it something that you do weekly? Like, Hey, I
knew we need to put this out. This out talk
to me a little bit of how I grow my followers.

Speaker 6 (55:48):
Well as far as the football content goes that I've
posted over the last couple of years. You know, I
had a weekly series where last year I would recreate
whatever I thought was the best kicking performance in the
NFL on that weekend. And so usually I would try
to pick one guy, you know, that I thought had
to best game. And you know, for example, last year,
in Week one to start the twenty twenty four regular season,

(56:12):
Chris Boswell week one made six field goals with I
think two from fifty plus and one of them was
a fifty seven or a sixty yarder or something of
the sort. So that was, you know, definitely the best
performance that any single kicker had in that week. And
so I would go out and I would try and
match all of those kicks. When I would go out
and practice and say, Okay, he made a sixty yarder
from the right, hash, I got to make sixty right hash.
He had a fifty five left hash, I got to

(56:34):
make that left hash. And I would try and do
them all consecutively, you know, and when I put it
out there, then people can see, hey, I'm making all
of these kicks and it's not taking me, you know,
fifty thousand tries like I'm making these all back to
back to back to back. As a kicker would do
that in a game, he would be making all these
kicks consecutively. And so that series kind of came about

(56:55):
a little bit as an inspiration from some other free
agent kickers that I had seen in previous years, where
they would go out and try and make all of
the kicks that were missed on a weekly basis, and
me being someone that was in that position already, I
know how much pressure and how much stress goes into
being an NFL kicker. And you know, for a guy
that's just on the streets to say, look at me,

(57:16):
I'm making all these kicks.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
I'm better than you.

Speaker 6 (57:18):
You know, your team should sign me, that didn't really
sit well with me, especially because when you're out on
your own, you don't have a rush, you don't have
a snap in a hole, you don't have fifty sixty
seventy thousand fans trying to distract you and prevent you
from doing your job. And so I wanted to try
and put a little bit more of a positive spin
on that idea and so instead of doing all of
the myskicks, I wanted to try and pick out guys
who were making all their kicks, and so that's how

(57:40):
that series started last year. This year, I tweaked it
a little bit because I felt like I kind of
showed during the UFL season, Yes I can make kicks
at a high percentage. Now, the biggest question mark, at
least with me specifically, that some NFL teams still had
was the leg strength, Like is he going to be
capable of keeping up as guys are being able to
try fifty five and sixty plus yard field goals with

(58:00):
more regularity, Am I capable of doing that? And so
this year I modified it a little bit to just
I'm going to do the three longest kicks that are
made in the NFL every year or every week. That way,
I'm showing like, hey, these are the kicks that coaches
are willing to send their kickers out and try on
a weekly basis, and yes, I do have the leg
strength to make them. I made every kick this year.

(58:22):
All of the sixty plus yarders were attempted at some
point or another during my weekly series. Made them all,
including Cam Little's sixty seven and sixty eight yard field
goals that he made during the regular season. So it
was definitely a challenge. You know, for sure, I was like,
this challenge, this series, the way that I'm doing it
this year is going to push me, you know, in
a way that I haven't pushed myself before, because I

(58:42):
have never consistently tried to make sixty two, sixty four,
sixty five yard field goals on a weekly basis. Usually
it's not really part of your training to do that
because you're not going to try them as much. You know,
a bulk of your field goal attempts are going to
come from thirty to forty, forty to fifty and so
that's where a bulk of my training usually is in practice.
But with these new ball conditions, those sixty plus yards

(59:04):
are definitely going to become more common. And so you know,
I wanted to try and challenge myself and push myself
in that way, and you know, thankfully was able to
make all of these kicks. They're all documented on my TikTok,
my Instagram, Facebook, all of those platforms, you know, if
anyone wants to go see them. So that that was
a really fun challenge and a really good way to
kind of market myself and say, hey, I'm still capable
of making these long kicks. If that was a question

(59:25):
mark for you, hopefully it's not going to be, you know,
from this point on, because I'm putting out on a
weekly basis that I'm making all these sixty plus yard kicks.
So you know, as far as the football goes, that's
you know, really been a bulk of the football content
that I've posted the last couple of years.

Speaker 2 (59:38):
Now.

Speaker 6 (59:38):
I obviously have, you know, another side to me where
I'm a you know, professional kicker by day and you know,
nerd collector at night, you know where I'm a big
fan of Lego and Transformers and Star Wars and Marvel
and a lot of those you know, kind of nerdy things,
and so there was a lot of that content as well,
where you know, if I'm if today isn't a day,
then I'm kicking, you know, If I get done working out,

(59:59):
I'm going to stop by my my local Lego store
here in Birmingham and I'm going to see what kind
of cool stuff they have, and you know, maybe I'll
bring in some of my stuff and trade in and
get some new stuff for the collection or whether it
was you know, Christmas getting you know, my family and
friends would get me some new stuff for Christmas, whatever
the case may be, so that all goes into it
as well, you know, to try and just diversify and
just show people that there is another side to me

(01:00:20):
outside of being Rod the Kicker, you know, not just
being a you know, a football player. There is another
more human, more normal side to me, which is Rod
the collector. And so I've had a lot of fun
doing that over the last few years as well.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
One final question and everybody follow him Rod the Kicker. Three.
That's in case you're wondering how to go follow him
at Rod the Kicker. Three. Final question? What is your
greatest What is your favorite kick of all time? It
doesn't matter where.

Speaker 3 (01:00:46):
My favorite kick of all time?

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
Yeah, making be high school, college or pros. When you
look back at the kick where you are so proud
of that kick, pressure's on. What is it?

Speaker 6 (01:00:55):
I would say it's probably the kick that I made
at the end of the first half of the Rose
Bowl in twenty seventeen against Oklahoma in the playoff semi finals.
So Oklahoma had really come out guns in the first half.
This was Baker Mayfield's Heisman season. He had actually caught
a touchdown pass, you know, on a trick play that
day had run and that put Oklahoma ahead, i believe,
thirty one to fourteen at the end of the first half,

(01:01:18):
and we were reeling. You know, our defense had given
up more points just in that first half than we'd
given up to basically any opponent throughout the course of
the entire season leading up to that point, and so,
you know, we were kind of on our heels. But
thankfully at the end of that half, they decided to
go the squid kick instead of you know, a traditional kickoff.
For whatever reason. Our frontline player, take Crowder, recovered the
ball immediately, so only one second came off the clock,

(01:01:40):
and then our offense ran a play, got us a
few extra yards, and I lined up for a fifty
five yarder and knocked it down right at the end
of the half as time expired. And still to this day,
that is the longest field goal made in Rose Bowl history.
I believe it's the longest field goal made in Georgia
postseason history as well. And that kick, you know, got
us back to fourteen points and we received the ball
to start the second half, so we're like, hey, we're

(01:02:01):
only down fourteen. If we can come out and score
a touchdown to start the second half, we're only going
to be down seven points.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
We are right back in it.

Speaker 6 (01:02:06):
So you know, that moment, especially with the pressure of
going down as much as we did, needing any kind
of spark and any kind of momentum to give ourselves
a reason to be optimistic in the second half. I
think that kick for sure, you know, is my biggest kick,
my most proud kick of my career so far.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
Rodrigo really appreciate the time. Yeah you should do this.
Yeah seriously, Yeah, you talk better than we do, I know. Yeah,
content through them like he got this. We're more importing
to get back in the league. So hopefully you land
back in the league. And then after that, Yeah you
should do this. Really great talking with you. I've I've

(01:02:43):
consumed a lot of your content as well. I really
enjoy it. So I have a great rest of the day,
stay healthy. Uh, you know, I don't know much about
the collecting thing. What do you say, they're build builds,
the Legos, Legos shoes. What else do you collect? He
does Star Wars.

Speaker 6 (01:02:58):
Yeah, it's a it's Lego, Lego, Transformers, Star Wars, Marvel
and Sneakers.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
Oh buy so I got very nice thank you. These
are the Louis Air Force ones, the Reds, I got
the Reds, I got the Blacks I got. I'm big
show guy. Castle's really stepped up his game. But today
comes in boots. Well it's been a little cold here, Bobby.

(01:03:27):
It's showtime. It's showtime, is right? You could do it
in anything, Rodrigo, really appreciate it. Hope you have a
great day. Man.

Speaker 3 (01:03:34):
Thank you guys so much for having me on today.
I really appreciated it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
Okay, that's gonna do it for us. Good show, my Castle,
great show. I'm gonna text my father in law on
the show because he's gonna it's gonna drivehim crazy. You're
gonna texture follow in the law right now. Yeah, you
want audio message him. Hey was talking to Rodrigo Blanco
Ship the Kicker on our NFL show, and I asked

(01:04:04):
him what his favorite kick of all time was and
the kick that the kick that he gave us right
off the top was rose Ball against Oklahoma. I think
you were there for that one. That's a tough one,
all right. I just want to rub that in a
little bit, all right, see later.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
Thirty one fourteen, by the way, and cut the cut
the deficit. Yeah, he's only did he cut the deficit
and the rest is history.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
He's a massive Ou fan. That was fun though talking
to him. Yeah, he was bright, articulate. Not that we
expected different, but yeah, you never know, you never know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
But very interesting guy too in terms of some of
the hobbies and the collections that he has and all
that stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
Wonder what those are worth. Those are big money. Miles
Turner played basketball for the Pacers and I plays for
the Bucks. He's a big lego guy, built, crazy lego jam.
Who's the dumbest player you ever played with? I'm just kidding.
Don't answer that, well, I don't answer that. There's a
few out there play it that have made my list.
Thank you everybody for listening. That's Matt Castle, that's Kickoff Kevin,

(01:05:07):
That's Brandon Ray. We will we'll be at the super
Bowl for the show next week. Yeah, two days radio
row let's go. So so I don't I don't. I
don't know what the deal has well be. We will
be at the super Bowl next week. Yeah, I'm not
sure what episode's coming up when but we'll see you
next week. We'll be back on normal time. Thank you

(01:05:28):
guys for listening, Thanks to Rodrigo and I think that's it.
Instead of worrying about it, we'll go see what happens. Yeah,
all right, there you go. We've had lots to say
by everybody, Lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle.
Is a production of the NFL and iHeart Podcasts. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

(01:05:51):
or wherever you get your podcasts.

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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;}Lots to Say: Super Bowl Matchup, Surviving the Storm and Rodrigo Blankenship