Mark Sanchez: Jets “Hard Knocks” life, the White House dinner fiasco, broadcast stardom

Hosts Peanut Tillman and Roman Harper are back with the Season 2 premiere of the NFL Players: Second Acts podcast. They’re joined by former Jets franchise quarterback and current FOX Sports broadcaster Mark Sanchez. In a wide-ranging interview, Mark reminisces on his time in the Hard Knocks spotlight with the Jets, how he’s navigated the spotlight since he’s been in high school, and how the Men’s Wearhouse saved his White House state dinner experience. This is just the beginning of what’s to come on this season of the NFL Players: Second Acts podcast. 

 

Listen/watch here: 

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0:00 - Show starts
2:13 - Mark Sanchez’s thoughts on the Jets being on “Hard Knocks” this year and recalls his experience being on the show in 2010
9:14 - Mark Sanchez discusses his experience and tells stories about his time at the White House state dinner
15:00 - Mark Sanchez gives his greatest NFL accomplishment
17:04 - Mark Sanchez on being a rookie quarterback with the Jets on a heavily veteran team
20:47v- Mark Sanchez explains what it was like being in the spotlight all the way from high school and on
27:33 - Mark Sanchez talks about when he knew it was time to retire and then how he transitioned straight to TV
29:35 - Mark Sanchez discusses doing the broadcast bootcamp
30:31 - Mark Sanchez hits on a penalty he got for cut blocking Jonathan Vilma
37:01 - Mark Sanchez talks about the other skills he’s gained in his growth as a broadcaster
38:25 - Mark Sanchez gives calls that he’s messed up on-air
42:44 - Mark Sanchez talks about his long-term goals as a broadcaster
45:04 - Mark Sanchez expand on his podcast with Nick Mangold and how it’s helped him as a broadcaster
48:32 - Mark Sanchez talks about the most outrageous purchases he had when he got to the league
51:19 - Mark Sanchez on his welcome to the NFL moment
53:36 - Mark Sanchez on his welcome to marriage moment
56:34 - Mark Sanchez gives who’s on his personal Mount Rushmore
1:00:45- End of podcast 

**NOTE: Time codes are approximate 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
I'm tearing told and I'm Tory Hopes and you're listening
to the NFL Players Second Acts podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Pieces.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Thank y'all for tuning in. I'm Peanut tuning and this
is my guy, Roman Dalmatian. You got these spots, Harper,
this is the NFL player Second Acts Podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
And uh yeah, you like that intro? Right, that was
a good one I did.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
It's more of a blend. It's not really a dalmation.
My hair's not spotted, but it definitely blends well.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
But thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
First of all, give me give a shout out to
all of our our listeners and followers out there.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Give us a rating five stars.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Please, wherever you listen to your podcast, where it's Apple
Podcast or iHeartRadio, wherever you listen, please continue to tune in, watch,
click follow, do all those special things. Tell a friend,
to tell a friend, to tell a friend, now, Peanut, Yes, sir,
who is our guests this morning in this beautiful studio.
We got a good one today. We got a good
one today. Fred's he's local, you know, he's out of California.

(01:02):
He was the number five overall draft pick in a
two thousand and nine draft taken by the j E
t X Jets, Jets, Jets. All right, yes, played ten season,
four different teams. He's one of only two quarterbacks in
their first two years to go to the AFC Championship Game.
He worked for Fox Sports. He calls games now. He's

(01:24):
a USC m F and legend. Y'all please welcome in
Mark Sanchez, ladies showman, thank you, thank you. I promise
she will never get another intro like that ever again.
I know you do TV, but that is like one
of the you know that is that is a big
time energy.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
I feel good now you feel that energy. I didn't
know when I walked in. I was a little worried
watching the whole setup. Yeah no, we just and then
the intro scared me before the you know, the Dalmatian
and then but we're good now I'm on.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
This is my uncle though, man, like he this is
my uncle.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
This the deacon. You gotta think when you first saw
this guy, he didn't not look so I'm actually yeah,
like he looks like he's like one of those deep
southern families. Were like, yeah, I'm the uncle that's younger
than you know what I'm saying, like, this is where
we're at, right, now, so it's all good, it's all acceptable.

(02:19):
But Mark, this is my my first question. It's very current.
All right, you were on Hard Knocks at one point
in time. Have you watched the Hard Knocks this year
and have you been keeping up with it? Knowing that
it's the Jets. A lot of people didn't want the Jets.
Aaron Rodgers didn't want to be on there, and we
all kind of have our ways about Hard Knocks until
all of a sudden you're on there.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
So it's give me your opinion on it.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
So it is interesting, and there is a shift I
think from the lead up to it and then once
you're on it. I think the lead up is a
little scarier and bigger, and you know these big, bad
cameras are going to be in there. But then when
you're actually on it, you're so laser focused. And you
guys know this as former players. You're just trying to
you know, you guys are trying to get the ball back,
we're trying to score points like that. Yeah, you don't

(03:01):
even think about it, and you say the same silly
stuff that you normally would. I think, are you miked up?
So it's most of the time like everybody who's kind
of mic or do you know, but in the game,
certain players, right like specifically generally the quarterback, you know,
for this one, it's Scarett Wilson, it's Sauce Gardner, it's
Quinn Williams. They want, you know, the superstars, and then

(03:24):
they'll throw the mics on some of the guys competing
for jobs, and that'll be the you know, kind of
feel good story of the guy trying to make the
team and he could be a special teamer and injuries
could happen, you know, all the same drama that they
love to unfold. It inevitably unfolds in thirty two locker
rooms around the league. They just capture one of them.
But yes, I have been watching only because we were
on it before. They do such a great job of,

(03:48):
most importantly just making the players and the stories more
of who they are, right right. Like you know, people
think like, Okay, money changes you. No, I think it
just makes you more of who you are. If you're
charitable with one hundred doll you're gonna be charitable with
a million dollars, you know what I mean. So this
show should make you more of who you are. Well,
if you're the raw, raw guy. If you're the breakdown

(04:09):
the team guy, you know what I mean, If that's
your role on the team, it's going to be even
sexier on this show. Well if you're not that guy
and you try to be that guy, oh dude, it's
like the worst. You know, like when somebody just tries
to break it down and you're just like, ooh, that
guy couldn't even motivate me to eat a sandwich, you
know what I mean, Like this is a free sandwich
at that So it's I'm happy for Aaron because I've

(04:32):
known him for a while. It's been a polarizing character
in the NFL soap opera that is every season, right,
and now people are starting to get a chance to
see him the way he is as a teammate behind
closed doors without you know, when you check all of
your own personal political agenda, baggage, all the stuff at
the door and you can just focus on football and

(04:53):
being a good teammate and working hard and trying to
win games. I mean, what else do you want? The
dude's unbelievable to camp last week, they yes, Decker was there.
I got a dude. The kid makes a cameo in
Hard Knocks and Braylan Edwards is just blocking my visual
the whole time. Dude, I'm you know this was this

(05:16):
was about me? It was it was funny. They were
doing the targets right yeah, yeah? Was this after or
doing this was during practice and they're walking over to
start scrimmaging with the Buccaneers and they're doing all these
targets and Zach Wilson might have hit one in like
all thirty of the throws from three quarterbacks, but in
the episode the night before, I'm like, dude, you guys

(05:38):
couldn't miss. So what's going on with the editing here?

Speaker 1 (05:40):
What are we doing?

Speaker 3 (05:42):
So I gave him a hard time and then Braylan
blocked my visual on that.

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Was there ever a moment that caught you off guard
when you did the hard Yes? So I did it
with Rex right one, yes, and he was already He's
like for the camera. Oh he was bill for it,
you know what I mean. I think that's so important
to talk about. It was like Phil wants to get
a team. That's they want to show.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
Yes, they want Yes, you want to let's go get
some and ice cream exactly. And that was that was
very Rex just off the cuff and like, you know,
as defensive guys, you'll appreciate this. As offensive guys, it
kind of freaked me out. But Rex was like, I
don't care if we play the game. I don't care
if we just fight in the parking lot, like, we'll
just figure it out. And I'm like, well, offense doesn't

(06:24):
work like that. Okay, that worked for half the team.
We'll go study a little bit. You guys go kick
everyone's ass. We'll be there to try and score.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
But Rex was perfect for it, and I think the
guys on it are are shining the way they're supposed to,
and it just gives it really is for the fans,
and it gives them such insight on on what the
players are like. When you, you know, make fun of
other guys. The rookies have to do their rookie show.
Their rookie show was terrible this year. It was terrible.
Yes twice. I mean one of the guys went up

(06:53):
and did the the eight mile b Rabbit thing and
that was fine, but I just I was, you know, unimpressed.
You gotta do the coaches meeting. Yeah, that's like the
standard rookie show is right. You make fun of all
the coaches and maybe throw one or two players in there.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
So they didn't do what we did. I did a
whole physio ball.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Under my shirt for Rex because this was before he
had the surgery, right right, and he was real big.
He was always snacking, so I had all these snacks
in the top of the phisio ball under my thing.
I put baby powder in my hair because he was
all great at you know, Oh dude, we had a
great team meeting.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
People understand like that how much that brings teams together
when you have a good rookie show.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
If you're not in the ladder, you don't understand that.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
I tried to tell that it does matter. Teams they
have great locker room.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
There is something. Okay, you have a great locker room,
you have a great rookie show, and you generally have
a good chaplain and a good chapel service. Yes, right, yeah,
am I right? The best teams?

Speaker 2 (07:53):
I bet?

Speaker 3 (07:53):
Yes, Yes, he does talk about your first those teams matter.
Those solid Our rookie show is legit. The rookies from
the year before would help the guys when they and
then here's kind of what we did. Check this out
might want to think about this. Here's some idea. You know,
you give them a little material just to make it good,

(08:13):
because you know you want everybody to enjoy it. The
tightest locker rooms are the best teams. When it becomes
different than just a job, when you're not clocking in
and clocking out, you transcend football and become a family.
You guys know. That's when it's like, okay, we have
an opportunity at least to make a run at this thing.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
I just love that at the rookie show, and I
hate to beat a dead horse, but like, you got
to give effort. Oh and the veterans are going to
sign off with your terrible singer. It's all about the
effort did you put in?

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Did you try? It's the older brother, yeah, yeah, right,
a passage.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah, you know we all had to do it, and
so what kind of effort did you There's always that
one rookie that was like, I went to school to cool.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
I'm not jumping up the I'm not gonna.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Sing like just like, come on, man, that's how you
gain the respect.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Nobody pick on me. You're gonna get the worst.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
You're gonna get it. You're definitely gonna get it. We
had we had a couple of guys like that. But yeah,
that that locker room, that foundation is what I think
is what brings you together. Me and you, Carolina. Obviously
we had a great year, our good run. We're good teammates.
I'm sure you had some good teammates. I want to
kind of switch it. So two thousand, what was that?

(09:27):
I think twenty twelve I was I was able to
go to the White House, did an internship with FEMA,
and uh my, I guess my boss for the day
or for the for the week, got me in, went
to the White House, mass saw some some really cool stuff.
Situation room. Now I know you went back in twenty ten. Yeah,
so I got a T shirt on and you thought

(09:49):
it was just a dang you thought it was a steak.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
You gotta.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
So deep break like talk to me about what he's
your plus one?

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Right? How many buttons you got on that yeat?

Speaker 1 (10:00):
Yeah, that's that's the Steve Hart.

Speaker 3 (10:03):
So there's a different time. We didn't have the euro
cut back then. Yeah, okay, so this is you guys
at this we get invited, This is at the State st.

Speaker 1 (10:13):
A t Yes, Hillary Clinton State dinner, right, No, it
was Obamama, Okay, yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:17):
And the Mexican president was going to be there.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
He's trying This is a totally different side story. Don't
even worry. Totally different side story. He's trying to reach.
He's reached, don't worry about it. That's an inside joke over.
Thomas is laughing back there because he knows this is
a reach.

Speaker 3 (10:32):
I'm gonna let that.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
Yeah, he owes us. He's gonna lose a bet too.
He's lose a bit off that.

Speaker 1 (10:37):
I tried to see it in there.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Invited to the state dinner. Barack Obama, the President of Mexico,
is going to be there, and they're in the receiving line.
The whole deal. Well, I remember getting this invitation and
the Jets telling me about it in the PR office
and like there's a big deal. It's in the off season.
Worse you can make it. You know, they got a
private plane and all this stuff. I was like, whoa,
this is legit. So I called my brother and I

(10:59):
said my oldest brother Nick, who's an attorney, and I
was like, dude, we have a steak dinner at the
White House. And he goes what I said a steak dinner.
I get to go eat and like hang out at
the White House and he goes, did you just say
steak dinner? And I said yeah, they invited me to
a steak dinner and said, you idiot. I was like what.
He goes, state like United States like State of the

(11:20):
Union stat. I was like, oh, okay, well either way,
I'm sure they have food.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Cool.

Speaker 3 (11:26):
He goes, steak dinner. What are you gonna bring a
knife in a one sauce? God, You're done? You know.
He just give me a hard time. So he informs
me on exactly what it is we take. I invited
Brick because I knew he'd be all over that. He's
been on the podcast, right, Yes, yeah, he's awesome, so
and and so, you know, diplomatic. He was just so
well put together. And I was like, this is the
prolific like kind of hang out for me and my

(11:48):
man Brick. So we go. Dude, we're on the plane
and I left my shirt and I left my shirt
in the in the terminal to leave on this private
plane in the FBO right, how like an idiot? And
I have a T shirt on, I have everything else.

(12:08):
And I was like, well, I don't want to wrinkle it.
I'll put it up. Boom, I'll take the jacket. I
just left it in the stall. So we're in the
air and I tell the airplane pilot, hey, we have
a problem. The wrong thing to tell the guy because
it was just about clothing, not like there's a problem
with the plane. He like went into freak out mode
for a second. We had to calm him down. Boom,
I said, hey, I'm missing a shirt. Whatever he calls

(12:29):
like ground control. They start calling around to men's warehouses
or like other places I could go. So we go
find a place I can get a shirt. I walked
into the store. It's a men's warehouse in DC close
to the White House, packed with people because it's freaking
prom for high school. So I'm like, I got like
two hundred bucks in my pocket. Hauller at the manager.
I'm like, yo, dude, my name's Mark Sanchez. I'm with

(12:50):
the Jazz. I gotta go to the White House right now.
It is like an emergency. I left a suit, blah
blah blah. He's like, you're gonna have to get the
whole getting kaboodle deal with.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
That's all we got.

Speaker 3 (12:59):
So I'm like, all right, I'm trying on this stuff.
I ripped one of the jackets. It was horrible. It
was horrible. Just to get to those pictures was such
an adventure, and Brick was just like, dude, this is
my chance to meet Barack Obama. You're gonna blow it.
So uh, it was an adventure to say the least.

(13:19):
But we had a ball. And you know, he loves
the Bears. Man, Barrocco loves the Bears. He does get
him to I try to look. He is Aago guy.
He didn't mess around. He said, no, I can't be
rooting for the jetson I'm a Bears guy.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
I was like, all right, so who I heard Beyonce performed?
He had to stay dinner this. I don't know she
was married to jay Z at the time, either, was she.

Speaker 3 (13:41):
I don't know in ten eleven she was married.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
I apologize so, but I don't know if they became
like the couple at the time.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
No, not, they are now. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
The fact that that concert just happened in like this
outdoor ten I mean, dude, the whole night was surreal.
You know, I'm like thinking, like, oh, can I take
the silver we're with me, I'm like, oh my god,
then I'm gonna be on like the FBI's wanted. You
don't know what to do there, You just try and
act natural. And I felt like such a square.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
But was this like the top of the like the
food chain at this point time in your life, Like
had you done anything even close to this? And then
how do you ever like measure up to this again?

Speaker 3 (14:17):
Yeah, I'm still trying, man, and it's been a failing effort.
So thanks for reminding me that it was. It was
pretty I mean that whole time with the Jets, especially
the first couple of years, were this incredible blur of
some failures but mostly successes, and like that, like almost

(14:41):
top of the mountaintop, trying to get to a super Bowl,
meeting people like that, meeting people out in public after
games with my family that we've been fans of. Yea,
you know freaking Leonardo DiCaprio. You see anybody else or
people when they start to know your name, yes, or
you're you see somebody and they're like, yo, see Shack
at like a pool party in Vegas. He's like such
a on the mike. I'm like, dude, are you kidding me,

(15:03):
shock Doug, like we made it, you know, like it's
just uh, it was a it was a really cool feeling.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
And that was no different so being the overall you know,
the fifth overall pick in the in the draft was
a two thousand and nine, being the fifth overall pick,
and then going to those two AFC championships your first
two years. Like, what do you think your greatest NFL
accomplishment pofs.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
It's a great question. God, I think I think those
couple of those playoff games on the road were some
of my favorite. I remember I remember Thomas Jones almost
beating me up.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
T Jones, Yes, Thomas q C.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
He threatened to kick my ass because I tried to
throw like a little one step slam on the goal
line against the Bengals in the first round of the
playoffs in the wild card.

Speaker 1 (15:50):
I was like a lookie run call and you want
to do your own thing, and it was just.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
A walk in touchdown for we scored on the next play.
But he grabbed me by the face mask and he said,
you know, with much stronger language, but if you ever
do that again, I'm gonna kick your ass in front
of everybody. Yeah, it's like, yes, sir. I was like,
let's just hand this off. The San Diego game we
played against the Chargers. Gosh, I think I'm pretty sure

(16:16):
I played for free that game because I bought like
two hundred plus tickets. Oh and then after the game,
Thomas Jones got mad at me again because I got
to say hi to all my family members. Thomas. You know,
I mean, he's he can act. He's like and he's
really funny, but he's just quiet and doesn't like he's
not as outgoing, you know, he's not as I don't know,

(16:37):
he's not as bubbly as love people. You always got
this tough exterior. Well, when he wants to joke with you,
he's funny and so I'm holding up the bus and
so he cause people are like honking the horn, like dude,
let's go. We got to fly back home. We got
a game next with like all right onto the next
you know, and I'm still like, wow, this is crazy.
Thank you Aunt Linda, you know, saying hello to everybody,

(17:00):
and he goes, man, get your rookie ass on the bus.
I don't care about all your skater friends for.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
The sick game, bro, just.

Speaker 3 (17:11):
The whole bus is just laughing at me. So it was,
it was those are great times with those playoffs.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
It's got to be really cool being a rookie quarterback
on that type of team, big veteran presence, great defensively,
all these big personalities, including your coach, and you're kind
of the the cog that's kind of making it go.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Uh what was it like being a rookie in that moment?

Speaker 1 (17:34):
Also, I listened to a couple of your other podcasts,
things you were talking about, and you got vets like
Alfanka didn't even talk to.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
You, right, dude until the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, you like, he didn't even talk to me.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
I don't even He just didn't talk to rookies.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
And he would talk to somebody else to talk to him.

Speaker 3 (17:50):
Yeah, hey, let's switch up the stats down Al wants this. Okay,
we did.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
He knows I'm here right ted Washington to this second.

Speaker 3 (18:00):
I do something. Yeah, that's I mean, it's a vet thing.
You gotta you gotta earn the respect whatever that means.
That's old school vet though it is very you won't
see that today, like you lose over time.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
Rubin Ruben did that? He tell ay, go tell that rookie.
I want so one exact Hey, rook So, yeah, like
you don't you don't see that. That's I'm not gonna
say that's when the NFL was fun. But that was
just a different time, a different times. It's a different time,
a different a different hazing. Well, I think it's so
different also because uh and you covered college. We'll probably
we're gonna dive into that a little bit too. But

(18:32):
it's you know, a lot of more players nowadays. We
didn't grow up knowing each other, right, we didn't know
each other and so when you played a different color jersey,
you were just the enemy. That's the only way I
knew you was just an enemy versus now everybody's recruited
the same. Everybody's sure social media, so like the season
to reach out to they kind of know each other.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
So it's a little bit different, you know.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
Interesting maybe you had a maybe it's kind of like
that with all the Southern California quarterbacks that all play
find their wayl at some point.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
I mean, you see each other growing up. You see
the lineage when it started with really like I mean
Marinovitch way back, but like Carson, Carson Palmer, Matt Liner,
and then John David Booty ended up coming in from
Louisiana played two years and then I got to play.
But then Barkley, Cody Kestler, like that Southern California group

(19:23):
of guys, and so you look up to all those guys,
darnold all of them, and it's important. It means something
that in your community, in your region, that you know
you're the guy and they're comparing you to the guys
who've come before you. Yeah, warned that Cardinal and Gold, Like,
that's a big deal running down in the coliseum. That's
a historic spot with you know, popes and the best

(19:45):
in rock and roll, in music, Olympics, USC football, like
there's some Super Bowls, Like there's some serious heritage and
tradition with the coliseum. So that there was always something like, Wow,
you're just proud to be a part of it, and
I don't want to let anybody down, you know, there
was there was that feeling like I got a responsibility here,

(20:05):
all right.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
Fact, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (20:07):
My wife Jackie, her grandfather was a usc UH student
body president when he went there.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Let's go back in. I don't know what year. I
don't know what year it was, but it was he was.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
He's a big time of lump, like goes to every game.
When y'all play Notre Dame, y'all got a game, he
is there, Like when I tell you, spends millions of
dollars on USC over the years. He loves USC so
much he named his son. His grandson's name is Troy.
That's how much he loves you. As I'm not even

(20:43):
the way to liven Hey. I mean you guys all
in yea all that's the only way.

Speaker 3 (20:48):
That's what it is.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
So I'm a guy from small country town, was never
really in the spotlight until really I got to like
the league.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
I don't know about you in Alabama, but you're.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
A guy high school spotlight, college spotlight, NFL spotlight, rookie spotlight.
Even now you're kind of somewhat stolen it in a way.
What is what has that taught you over the years.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
Yeah, I think it's a white hot spotlight, especially when
you get somewhere like the Jets. I think your unique
upbringing is not exploited but brought to the forefront, like
being a Mexican American, Hispanic American. That's been huge for
me and that kind of support from a very loyal

(21:32):
fan base that I mean, they don't care whether you well, you.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
Look great different, right, Like that's the thing, right, that's
another selling point.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Mark was going to New York.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
But I'm trying. Yeah, So you know, it's it just
becomes what you sign up for and you always remember that, right.
And I think one of the biggest lessons is, you know,
you can't don't ever complain about the spotlight when that
same spotlight has given you or afforded you opportunities that
you otherwise wouldn't have, whether it's you know, eating at

(22:05):
specific restaurants or doing these cool experiences, or being able
to go to the White House or whatever that is.
If I was playing for some other team, maybe that
doesn't happen if it's not New York, you know, and
if you're not the quarterback, maybe that doesn't happen to
you in that specific you know example. So you know,
you can't complain about it if you get something from
it and do your best to you know, try and

(22:28):
remain humble. And the thing I've found that brought me
a lot of joy when you're in those scenarios of
being the guy or in the spotlight, is when you
bring your teammates or your family, right, like you get
you get hooked up for Broadway tickets and you get
to go to the premieres, or you get to go
to the premiers of all these cool movies that you
know in New York City. Well, yeah, I'd love to go,

(22:50):
and I understand you only have two tickets, but I
got to bring at least two or three of the
old linemen and their wives. So yeah, if we're coming,
we're coming as a group, but you know whatever, And
they'd always come back and say, yeah, okay, you're all coming.
So the guys would walk the red carpet with their
wives and then you know, on the other end, it
gives you a free night out with the boys later on. Yeah,
the wife they were happy they got to see a
Bronx show, you know, and then the guys can hang

(23:12):
one night. So but I think it's I think it's
important to bring the people either that helped you get
there along with you, or you know, the people you're
sharing that spotlight with, to make sure you deflect some
of it and make sure they get some love to.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
I think you've always come off. Marc is one of
those guys, is like like you said, you are in
the spotlight. You every You've been in every large market
that's possible, like you've grown up in it.

Speaker 3 (23:33):
Yeah. This is like when I started bouncing around.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Yeah, Chicago, yeah, d C. All huge market and I
just built it like like where's all the people? Where
the people at? And I played and I'm the only
one up here that played in small markets like you
played in Chicago, huge market.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
That's huge.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
But I didn't have the spotlight like that.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
I know you're pretty big.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
With all that being said, though, yeah, because you can
kind did a lot for the game people.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah yeah, and every time I might punch the ball out,
they mentioned your name very much.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
They mentioned your name all the time. So, uh, the
way you handled all that though, your humility, the ability
to be able to you know, take the spotlight and
then push it out on everybody else. I think that's
a talent and a lot of quarterbacks maybe they don't
understand that, or just people in general, what it's like
to be, you know, with all the pressure that comes
with being the quarterback, the responsibility as well.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
Oh it's uh, it's a lot of pressure. But that's
once again, like you sign up from that or for
that from the jump, the good, the bad, the ugly,
everything in between, and looking back, it's like, you know,
what would I change? What would I try and do different?
How have I grown from all this stuff? I think
one of the biggest things is I just didn't really
face true adversity publicly like that until I got to

(24:55):
the NFL. Right because I'm I'm getting good grades in school,
I'm homecoming king, you know, I got a scholarship to USC.
I'm going to be the quarterback at SC. I play
at SC, we win the Rose Bowl, I'm an MVP.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Boom.

Speaker 3 (25:05):
Now you're in the NFL, and it's just like, oh man,
this is just awesome. Yeah, well, you know, go win
win eight games and missed the playoffs in New York
and then you're like, whoa, this isn't the real world. Wow, yeah,
what happened whereever he go? How did what happened to
all the fun stuff? Nobody's smiling anymore. People are pissed,
you know, and you learn a lot about life and

(25:30):
people and a little bit of adversity, and then you
have to adjust. Okay, well now what you know? And
so those are now that I'm a dad, I got
a boy who's going to be seven, Those are like
valuable lessons And I'm trying to import on him about dude,
you're gonna have so many advantages growing up, you know.
And we used to say this in travel basketball. But
my dad's like, ah, we're thinking about adding this kid

(25:52):
to the team. But he's a three car garage kid,
meaning like, is he really gonna grind? Yeah, a scrap
for a loose ball? Is he gonna dive? Is he
like you know, does he get a cramp and come
out like and it was a thing, and so that
is you know, now that I know some of the
drawbacks of all those things going your way from the

(26:14):
jump and becoming this star in New York or whatever. Well, okay,
what are my fears for the next one coming up?

Speaker 2 (26:22):
Right?

Speaker 3 (26:22):
Like for my son, I'm like, oh, shoot, dude, we
wake up and we're looking at the ocean. Come on, dog,
this is bad. We need to go get an apartment
like somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
How's he going grind?

Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (26:30):
Like, how do I teach him? Like this stuff doesn't
just happen? Like me and Grandpa and your uncles were
outside all the time throwing the football fielding ground balls,
shooting layups. I mean we went to Chargers camp the
other day. I almost had this crazy flashback because I
remember at Coasta Mesa High school where they practice, they
did their joint practice or whatever. At Jack Hammett whatever,

(26:53):
well that gym there, Dude. I almost had like a
full on flashback because I remember my dad was gone.
He was doing something as a firefighter. My brother took
me to that basketball tournament in that gym in the
parking lot next to where they're practicing, so I see
the mustangs on the wall whatever, and I was like,
oh my god, I remember this place, dude. My brother
kept me after the game because I missed two breakaway

(27:14):
layups in our game and we lost by like a
point or something. Dude. We went up and down the
court and he would just launch the ball all the
way down so I could run by myself. After the
gym had cleared out for like two hours, I must
have shot three hundred freaking breakaway layups and I was gassed.
But it was like just a reminder of like, dang, grin,
that's where it is. That's that's where it really starts.

(27:35):
That's where that's who you really are. If you commit
to it and then the rest you know, you do
your best.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
We're going to take a short break and we'll be
back in a minute. All right, tell me about this.
All right?

Speaker 1 (27:46):
So number one, when did you know it was time
to retire? And number two, let's talk about that transition afterwards.
You know you really didn't take any time off. Yeah,
you went straight into doing TV and now you're doing
the broadcasting And let's let's kind of dive it out
because we worked with some of the same people.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah, on the broadcasting side.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
So I think after Washington it was pretty hectic. Things
were getting hectic at home my son and you know,
my son's mom and I co parent him. So if
I'm going to be gone, uh, you know most of
the year, like when am I going to see him?
What does this next chapter of life look like? And
it was It was just the right time. So, yeah,

(28:28):
am I going to try and grind this out one
more year with all this other stuff on my mind?
Like I'm doing a disservice to the team I'm trying
to make and maybe to myself. Let's roll, let's let's
pack up and figure this thing out. This next chapter.
I got a lot of stuff too, so you were ready.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
I was.

Speaker 1 (28:44):
I was ready.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
I knew I was really going to miss it, but
I was ready, and I think at any point I
was really going to miss it, so I don't think
anything would have changed there. And then it was like, okay,
now what I can't just be in my opinion, I
didn't feel comble with nothing to do for my son
to see, you know what I mean, like I didn't

(29:07):
want him to see it at that time, he was
like three years old, but I didn't want him to see.
You know, my dad used to play football. He made
a bunch of money. And now we just kind of
hang out like I don't know, and there's nothing wrong
with that. Is that is totally fine. It just was like,
I mean, maybe I don't have to put on a
suit and tie every day, but i'd like to be
doing something. I'd like him see me going to work,

(29:28):
whether it was consulting or real estate or something. And
I couldn't really be coaching, although I'd love to coach.
I was like, that's just going to go way too far,
and I know, like I'll go full send on coaching
and then yeah, exactly, so I'm like I might as
well try and play again. Those are two of the
same things. So I was like, all right, let's try

(29:48):
this broadcasting boot camp. Tracy Peerlman, Jerry Maddalon, a lot
of people help get that set up, and that was
really eye opening for me on what some opportunities could be.
And so we go through the broadcasting boot camp, which
I highly encourage players. I wish I had done it
my third year in the league, you know, like that
really breaks my heart that I didn't do that, and

(30:10):
I hope the players if you have any interest in
any of those boot camps, like public Service Announcement, I
highly recommend going to one of those. It's free, they
hook up your travel, You learn so much, you meet
all the people you're gonna meet anyway that are important
to know for your next endeavor if you choose that forum.
So important, but they basically tape everything that you do there.

(30:32):
They send out all your essentially like your demos. And
and then we got calls from ESPN. I had to
go audition for them, and ABC jumped in that role
with Jonathan Vilma. The last time I had talked to
Jonathan Vilma was my rookie year. We played you Guys
Game four in New Orleans.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
I get picked off by House. It gets better because
he got the pedal, dude.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
And finally so Sharp's too far ahead or he's behind me,
and I'm trying to like create a pile. You're taught
just create a pile, right, So I kind of just
dive near Vilma.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
He chopped.

Speaker 3 (31:12):
In hindsight, it's a little bit too violent. It should
have been more of like a tuck and roll, and
it was a little more like direct at Vilma. You know,
he's horizontal, he's pissed whatever. And then I get fined.
And then the next time I talked to him was
to call him and tell him, Hey, I got the job.
I'm sitting next to you on the desk at College
Football ABC. So I was like, bro, I'm sorry, should

(31:35):
we just talk about this now? He's like, hell, yeah,
we're gonna talk about it. So Vilma, I thought he
was gonna whoop my ass the first day in the studio.
He didn't, thankfully, and he's been a great dude to
me and just helped me a ton with just like
in football, like you you look at the older guys
on the team, if that's on the team, they're like
your big brothers. It's the same thing in television media whatever.

(31:56):
Like Kevin M. Gandhi and Jonathan Vilma were so by
the end of my time there at sc or at
at Sports Center or ESPN for two years, I was
staying in the Gandhi's house in the basement. And his
kids are like crazy Philly fans just like him. So

(32:19):
all they wanted to talk about is, uh, Brent seleck
zach Ertz, Leashan McCoy, you know, tell me about playing
with this guy, tell me about playing this guy. So
we'd be playing like knee football and knee basketball in
the basement with his little kids. And that's how close
we became. Same thing we mentioned with football, when a
broadcast or a crew becomes more than just a job
and it's like your family. We had some great shows

(32:40):
with the IT.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Shows on TV because I I leaned on Vilma so
much when I was first starting to get into it.
He's just he's honest. He's brutally honest. Sometimes he's not
that nice of a person. He's a great guy, but
he's but you want his opinion. Yeah, you respect people
say yeah, hey, you're doing great, You're doing great, and
you don't get honest feet that difference between but that's

(33:03):
the difference between you or us as athletes and professionals.
When you make it to the highest level.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
You're extracting critique.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
One criticism, and I think that's what makes us who
we are as people. Right when you go to the
real world and a regular I guess, a regular job,
you want people just to tell you how good you are,
like a yes man or yes woman or whatever.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
Like it just doesn't make.

Speaker 3 (33:25):
Dude, you can't say that, yes, we got to get better.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
I'm going to grow. I'm a plus minus guy. I'm
everything in my life and I can move on everything
I want just plus minu. So I guess I am.
I try to do the boot camp. I tried it
twice and they like was like, no, we're not We're
not taking your application. I don't know if my my home's.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Answer.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
I was just like I did the broadcast boot camp.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
I thought it was a big thumbs up, two thumbs twice,
and they were like, no, maybe I didn't beg enough
because you said that I did. I did, application was
late and then I just wrote like a really nice
little personal thing at the end.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
They let me in last one in and they let me.
They said it was full.

Speaker 1 (34:10):
Then I wrote another followback email and it worked out anyways,
and then next you know, I'm doing what I'm doing now.
And uh, it's it's funny though, Mark, Cuz because you
went right into it. Yeah, Peanut went right into it.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
Me, I took a whole year off.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
I took three hundred and sixty five days and said
I'm not going to do anything, just really decompress and
then I figure out, trust me, what I want to do.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
My situation was different.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
Yeah, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
And you got your job pretty quick though, right They
offered you like right away.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
Well I did have to go interview or audition, yes,
at ESPN. But that's kind of why it happened so fast,
right because of the demos that went out from boot camp.
It was like, okay, you have a couple of different
options here. You can do USC radio, you can do
blah blah blah. So I was like, oh, shoot, okay,
we're starting like this fall then this.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
Is this is real, okay, And I don't think everybody
understand it's not just like, oh you're good, you get
to get hired like you can be good and not
get a hired.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
It's all about hiring cycles.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
It's timing. It's it's just like playing Tom Brady. Oh
we're signing him.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
And that and those names, those on field accolades will
get you in the door. But if you don't study,
you're not keeping current with the game, if you're not
talking to coaches and players and all that and you know,
fine tuning your skills, you get passed by, right like
the next new sexy guy. Who's hey, man, this guy.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
You know, when I retired, I literally did the same.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
Literally, it happened just like you had a had a
media agent with CIA and well, I'm thinking about it maybe,
and then I retired and then I was here interviewing
for Fox Sports, and I did the interview and was like.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
Oh, okay, I guess I'm doing this.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
And then two weeks later it's like, yeah, they want you,
they want you to do and I was a choice,
damn okay, this is And that was how I got
into doing that.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
You know, at that point, you can't be like, all right,
give me one year.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
No you can't.

Speaker 1 (36:05):
Yeah. Mine was just kind of he's totally different than
everybody else out there. It was the six seven six rings.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
They got him out here in the walls at the
NFL studios. Have you seen Tom Brady on the wall.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
He looks like a Game of Thrones, like a yes,
iron man see it.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
I'm just I mean, he was in Tampa Bay though,
That's my only thing. I mean that he wanted to see.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
The most. It's recency biased. You know what have you
done for me lately?

Speaker 2 (36:33):
I'm with that. I can I can respect that. I
can respect that. I just I just was thrown off.

Speaker 1 (36:38):
I was listening to you talking about Kevin Na Gandhi too,
and maybe you give everybody else some advice that want
to get into the broadcasting or the analysts work. And
you said, the thing that really helped you with the Gandhi,
how he just took you on his wing, was that,
you know, He's like, look, don't focus on anything else.
You just deliver what you know, the knowledge that you
know being a quarterback, the eyes in which you see

(36:58):
the football game, the game through is what we want
to see and be able to break that down for
people's like I'm just going to ask you football questions.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
Exactly, and you just give me a football answers that's it, yeah,
and like just stay in that lane, funny, and you
will shine in this business. And it's so true. And
then along the way you're gonna learn different skills and
they seem kind of silly, but like, how long is
a thirty second answer?

Speaker 2 (37:22):
I agree?

Speaker 3 (37:23):
How long is a minute? How long is a minute
and a half? How long is a five minute debate
with four panelists three panelists, Like, so until you're in
those situations, you're not going to know. But the biggest
thing to try and understand early is like this economy
of words. How can you say you know without talking
over people? And if you drop a little terminology, be

(37:43):
ready to explain it quickly, like how can you get
your message across and articulate your point? And Kevin was
so good with that because during the breaks sometimes we'd
be doing rap shows, so basically we're talking over highlights yep,
and you know, oh, I could see like whoa, the
left tackles way or bam that that running back has

(38:04):
to block that guy or whatever. He goes great, I'm
coming to you. You go with this film, good with
this one, bam. And so he would set us up
like a point guard all the time with like just
a nasty pass boom we're.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
In exactly, yeah, and could not miss.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Your brother helped you out, mother helped you out exactly.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
So he was he was great. But I mean the
sooner you get those reps and that's really what it
comes down to.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
We that's what you learn at the local Well, that's
what you learned at broadcast boots, dude, Like, that's what
you learn. It's so I want to hear. Just give
me a quick thirty second story on something you did
at the broadcast bout camp where you just trash or
no or not. Have you ever just fill flat on
your face live TV? Yeah, I mean give me give

(38:54):
me one of them stories as a player.

Speaker 2 (38:55):
Second that as a player, as a as an analyst.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
Be in there. Let's see as an analyst.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Golly, it is something you were just like, man, that's
live TV. I totally messed that up. I've been there,
oh a million, I mean, oh my god, a million
times where you just kind of blank. I've watched my
prior broadcast before and you're kind of like your point
just kind of it's like dangling thing and you're I'm like,
who are you talking? And sometimes I find myself saying

(39:25):
stuff like that. I hear my dad saying to me,
you know, like like we're watching in warm ups or
something like that, and I'm glad it didn't make the broadcast.
But like you see guys throwing the ball and it's
like routes on air. They're basically playing catch, and you
see him like drop three in a row or miss
three in a row. You're just like, what do we
call this game? Catch or chase? What are we doing here? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (39:47):
You know, so I'll say stuff like that or you know,
my dad.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
You didn't even know you were listening to.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yeah, I know, and it was so weird. But he
would say, you know, he dropped him like a bad habit,
or he dropped him like a that transmission, or you know,
he just have these weird sayings. And I've set him
on air before and I immediately like hit the talkback
button to mute myself and I'm like, you idiot, and
my producers like, I love it. I love it. You

(40:12):
sound like you're seventy years old. I'm like, great, thanks,
I'm trying to remember. I talked about Kirk Cousins one time,
and similar to Aaron Rodgers I think this Quarterback show
that he's been on has really helped his BRANDI.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Yeah, because everybody thinks he's beyond boring, yes, and he's not.

Speaker 3 (40:30):
He's like pretty funny and interesting dude, but he's he's
super nerdy owns. Yeah, but it's him, But it's him,
it's him. And then on the field, he's like a
stone cold killer dog, like he wants to win just
like everybody else, if not more. Well, I made a
comment because he got all out pressure. They had a
little tight end, shallow cross and he flips it across

(40:51):
his body all the way to the opposite sideline, gets
his completion, first down, crucial first down, and they end
up kicking a field goal to win against Seattle. A
couple of years ago in Minnesota. One of my games
for for Minnesota on Fox, Well, I said, listen, say
what you want about Kirk Cousins. He might call his
pants trousers. He might wear those said trousers up to

(41:13):
his navel. I don't care. He's a stone cold killer.
And those are the kind of third down plays against
pressure in the red zone you have to execute if
you're going to fill at a defense. And that's what
he just did and that was like one of my
favorite things that you gotta be cool with Kirk, Like
you can't pay him out to be a nerd. I'm like, guy,

(41:33):
he is, he is a nerd.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
He is like that.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
It's funny like that because like players recognize it, right,
we know. And it's the same way with like Russell Wilson.
You never had anybody say how great or how cool
he is.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
He's a great player, great player. He's so cool.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
He's he comes across to every other player. We're like, dude,
I mean that guy, he's that guy he is.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
It's okay, you like everybody.

Speaker 1 (42:01):
That's the best thing about the locker room is like
nobody really wants you to be anybody but yourself, but
be yourself.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
And it's open game.

Speaker 1 (42:09):
Everything's fair. Yeah, it's like everything fair.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
Every there's yeah everything.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:15):
I was going to tell some stories, but I think
we'll do that off family.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:21):
I won't stop crying, you know. I cried as soon
as I laught having a good podcast. Every every time,
every time I cry, like crist.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
It's the thing.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
So this is what this is our second year doing
the show. I think we're heading like we're rolling.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
In, ascending into our second years, and our goal is
to get this thing be national. We're trying to kill
it right now. We're trying to you know, wear our
trousers up to our navels or whatever. They focus and
we're just super laser focused. You've been in the broadcast business.
What are some of your goals as a broadcaster? How
far are you trying to go? Where are you trying

(42:58):
to take this?

Speaker 2 (42:59):
You're trying to.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Emmy's Tony's listen. I think that stuff would happen on
its own. I think these first two years have been
a great foundation for me. This is a third year,
contract year, you know, so contract year. Yeah, yeah, we go, so,
you know, I feel like I'm really coming into my own.

(43:20):
I feel like I was my first year. I felt
like I was treading water a little bit, like any
rookie at anything.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
Right.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
And the next year, which was this past year, once
Kevin Coogler and I my partner, and Laura Oakman, who
both of them I love to death. They we were
in London and we call this awesome game the first round,
and we get to stay for like sixteen days in
London and do the second game because Fox took those
games last year, both really good games. One of them

(43:49):
was a Saints and it was we finally like clicked,
me and keV. At least I felt it totally click.
And keV was a little tight before because this was
to be the biggest broadcast he'd ever been on. I
was definitely nervous, but I've also walked out on the
field in the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl and Anti
Championship game. I'm like, dude, spotlight, Yeah, I'm scared, but
this is gonna be awesome because somebody's getting their ask

(44:11):
kicked in it amy. You know, let's roll, you know,
you just get into that mode of whatever, right, And
so I start massaging Kevin's shoulders like I'm his cut
man in boxing. I'm like, let's go champ. We read
a champ. We don't feed it to him today, you know.
And I'm just messing with him and trying to loosen
him up. And he has this awesome call and after
the game, I just gave him a huge hug. I'm like, dude,

(44:32):
you freaking nailed it. You freaking nailed it. I knew
you were super nervous, but you nail this dog. We
got this like, let's roll. We're not looking back anymore.
We've kind of hit our stride here, let's go. And
so ever since then, which was about October of the
last season, I felt like we're on this great trajectory together.
Now after this year, who knows what's gonna happen, but
it just feels like, hey, let's just keep stacking them,

(44:53):
just keep adding another one to the can. As soon
as we put in the can after the game, I
want a fist bump. We do our quick rap up,
and then like boom, let's get onto the next week.
Let's do it again. I want to be, you know,
get better each time. Tell me when I'm off, I'll
tell you when you're off. And so we have such
a good rapport now it's like, let's see how far
we can take it. You know, I'll go as long
as they do, you know, as long as they'll let

(45:15):
me hang around. I'm ready.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
I love that.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
I love that attitude. The podcast that you do with
Nick Mangle, I love it. First of all, the name
I'm sold in exchange.

Speaker 3 (45:25):
The name is important. Who came up with the name, Yeah,
I think it was me. That was somebody at the Jets.
I think it was Matt Sikoff beautiful doun.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
It's the most important thing element of the game that
nobody talks about.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
Yeah, the Centaert to quarterback extreme.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
I mean it starts the whole play. Nothing happens till
the quarterback says go and the center's got to give
a great sound.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
You know, doesn't his sister play center? No, No, she's
a weightlifter, she's Olympian.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
She was like sports.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
I knew, I knew she played sports strong as hell. Yeah, sorry, man,
just throw it out.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
There, bro. So it may be the stick.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
It's over the same thing with the Hillary, the same
thing with the Hillary comment earlier.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
It's just like.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
Now starting.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Pen tillman, throw it out there.

Speaker 1 (46:10):
Just whatever, let's try it has has that element up
your game and other parts? Yeah, I think of your
game like, what is a podcast? How does that help
elevate your game?

Speaker 3 (46:21):
It's interesting. So you have so much time to really
expand and tell these stories on podcasts, and that's one
of the things you learn at broadcasting boot camp. But
story sell people want to hear the stories. You know,
we're going up to do Gino Smith his first game.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
Well, that's gonna be awesome.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
Yeah, how about his rams at Gino? But it's like, Okay,
Geno was the comeback player of the Okay, why tell
me why. Everybody's going to say he's the comeback player
of the year, but why So that's been like my
off season project a little bit. As soon as we
got this game is okay, I need to go find
some specific plays of why and where I've seen him
improve whatever well with with Nick on that show. That's

(46:59):
what it becomes. You try and like fine tune your
skills for that forum and one of the other you know, uh,
we're giving away all the broadcasting boot camp secrets, but
understanding the forum, who's the audience, where are you, what's
the setting, like who are you, who are you with?
And then who's watching, who's listening? Are they watching it all?
You know what I mean? And so those kind of

(47:20):
things help me stay sharp for when I do studio
with Fox or call a game, because that's very, very different.
When you go do speak for yourself or speak now
at Fox with Emmanuel Otto, that's different than sitting down
with Colin Coward and just a totally different show, a
totally different audience, and so you got to be ready
to go, Like, I've never been as nervous as I

(47:41):
am walking up to the speak set because Marcella's you know,
joy Ocho. I need a couple extra like on my
belt loop, you know what I mean, Like I need
a couple extra points just in case I get into
back and forth.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
Well, for Colin Coward, it's okay, tell me a great
story about this, tell me your experience about this. How
can you relate to that player that I'm asking you
about whatever? With Mangold, we're just hanging talking to these
people that love the Jets, and so okay, this is
a little more softball than a lot of stuff. We're
not breaking new you know, we're not trying to get
gotcha on the podcast like ha, you said it on

(48:17):
ours and we got all the news. Now, that's not
really our vibe there, you know. So I think a
lot of it's being able to be versatile once again.
Na Gandhi. He does Little League World Series, he does
Sports Center, he does Saturday College Football, He you know,
hosts different shows for them, award shows, all that. He
can do it all, Like I want to be able
to do it all a lot for you know, whatever

(48:38):
company wants to hire me, and it just gives you
more opportunities, the more you can do.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
No, I love that, and all right, so now to
the funny stuff.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
All right, Oh boy, number one, what was the most
outrageous purchase you had when you got to the league,
And don't tell me about no abought my mama house.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
I don't want to hear about it.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
Give me, give me somebody, Okay. Remember this is why
my wife now hates when I buy stuff on Instagram
because I'm a complete sucker for those stupid ads that
come up on it.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
They pop up a lot more now too, Coach in
the moment, Oh.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
Dude, I'm all over them. So before that, for this
younger generation, there was a thing called sky Mall. Remember
sky Mall on the planes when you Yeah, I had
stuff crapped from the sharper, stuff from you name it.
They had it all right. So I finally had a

(49:32):
little bit of money, and I had seen these damn
magazines forever since I was a little kid and stuff,
and I was just like, that would be so cool
to one day, just like if I ever made money,
just go through Skymall and just start circling everything I
wanted to get coud. I got Harry Potter wands I
got I put I lived on a golf course. I
got like a six foot Bigfoot statue.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
I remember the Bigfoot statue.

Speaker 3 (49:57):
I bought one and put it out on the golf
It was just a mess with the golfers, like kind
of hiding me on a tree. Never picked it up,
just left it left if anybody got scared. There was
remember Gallum from Lord of the Rings. Yeah, there's one
of him crawling out of the ground that looked like
it was a statue. It was like this big got that.

(50:17):
Remember the cryptex oh from the Angels and Demons or whatever. Yeah,
Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Tom Hanks, Yeah that thing got
one of those I saw.

Speaker 1 (50:26):
I remember that, dude. Yeah, I mean it's so lost
right now. Yeah, clearly you are reading.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
I'm clearly.

Speaker 3 (50:33):
I got a clear Potter wand and it was like
eight hundred and fifty dollars. The worst thing I've ever
bought was a stick that said like Harry Potter on it.
I'm like, I could have made this, but regardless, I
just was so excited. Big kid, Yeah, like a big kid.
He just bought some really dumb.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
Well, I'm excited about that you paid eight hundred dollars
because I bought my kids those same wanes at like
Universal Studios last summer for like eighty five, and I
was mad.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
Then this was mine doesn't work?

Speaker 2 (51:01):
Yeah, and this was like, well, there's at least makes noise?

Speaker 1 (51:06):
Did you have? And if you're in the.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
This was in two thousand and nine, this is my
rookie year.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:11):
Just I'm like, oh, this is just living. I need
one of those. Yeah. Dumb, just dumbstuck.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
So my rookie I had my NFL repraisement.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
You know where Ted Washington put me in this card,
made me drive around, pushed me, made me make all
these sounds, and at the end he finally picks it
up and he throws it with me in it. Welcome
to the NFL, rookie, give me your welcome to the NFL.

Speaker 2 (51:35):
Welcome to the NFL moment.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
So well, my first practice with Bart Scott, I mean
he like he was leaning over the center, like over Nick,
and so immediately I was like, is there no outside?
And so he's just screaming you Richie Valens bleabamba looking nacho,

(51:57):
I'm gonna call you nao. And I can't even say
the snap because and everybody was just like crying, laughing.
I'm trying to get just get the first snap, you know,
hand off like lead zone week, you know, day one
install type stuff, and we could barely get that off
the ground. The very first time I gone the stadium

(52:19):
against the Rams at the Old Giant Stadium, we played
our preseason game and I come in and as soon
as I said said hut, my mouthpiece falls out of
my mouth. Freaking defensive guys are like, what an idiot?
So that was embarrassing. And then I think one of
the worst ones was it was my second year I
got these for Mike, Petton and Rex in the defensive room.

(52:42):
I put a bunch of stink bombs everywhere and crushed
them in their room right before meeting. And dude, they
were pissed, so pissed that they got the keys to
my car when we were out of practice, undid the
sun roof and had this guy show up at the
facility and then flooded my entire car. They fill the
entire car with pats and then closed it so when

(53:04):
I opened the doors, just flooded peanuts. So yeah, that
was that was a good little welcome to the NFL
and don't mess at the defensive room kind of deal.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
So I just love the creativity of the hazing and
the get backs.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
Yeah, and the unlimited amount of money we're willing to
spend to get you back, Like there is no end,
but that will spend thousands of dollars, yes, to prove
a point.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Remember the alligator.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
Yeah, you cut an alligator.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
He got reviewing with the alligator.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
That's a whole in his personal hour, like peanuts up
at like five am.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
That's pull off.

Speaker 3 (53:39):
It's so worth it.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
It is so worth it. Fake big old fake alligator,
like a five foot alligator just looks very real too.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
He scared everybody for a whole day in the house. Also,
it's great.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
All right, you talked about your welcome to the NFL.
How about your your welcome to marriage?

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Oh moment?

Speaker 3 (53:57):
Yeah, what was like?

Speaker 2 (53:59):
And do you have any advice because we all stink at.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
It over here, so like I'm an expert, I'm like
three months.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
And yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
That nothing You're not gonna get any better than where
you're at right now.

Speaker 3 (54:08):
I think Ry Perry plant an incredible an incredible wedding,
and my thing was like I was just happy she
invited me.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
You know, like video looked great, she uh colors, she
nailed all that.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
And she picked out like ninety nine percent of it.
Every occasionally I'd get to input a little bit, give
a little input, but she dialed it all in. And
I'm so lucky to have somebody who balances me out right,
because I can go like hard charger, no feelings, just
like I got to get this done, like let's go.
We want to be the best broadcast team, you know.
And she's just such a good balance of like, hey,

(54:45):
let's take a step back, relax minute, the world's not
over today, Like let's just hang in there and just
give a little time to the fam. Let's, you know,
do some other stuff. Get your mind off of that
for a second, and then you'll be refreshed ready to roll.
So she's perfect balance for me. And we had so
much fun, so much fun at the wedding. Honeymoon we
went to Safari in Africa, which was incredible. Dude, I

(55:06):
highly recommend if you guys haven't gone, but I've never
seen like nature like that. It's like watching in Africa.
We went Kenya, and Tanzania. Okay, and so it's we
saw the great migration of the wilde beest. Two million
wildebeest in every direction that you can see through binoculars
and in front of your face, like it's like twenty

(55:27):
five feet they're right next to you and they just
go NonStop and they're moving through the camp. And it
was incredible, man, watching these lions hunt. And it was
you see giraffes nursing baby lion cubs nursing like it
was beautiful, man, it was. It was really cool. And
that was once again her, she planned it all with
this incredible travel planner. So now time, what were the

(55:49):
mosquitos like, No mosquito.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
They were bad, not as bad as that was a
question I never would have thought about.

Speaker 3 (56:00):
Are they on you like that? Because they're usually on
her too. They attack certain people. I think it's the thing.
It's either a blood type or like your temperature. It's
something they like black people. I guess I don't know, dude,
I get ate up. See I'm not terrible. My wife is.
She gets it so bad. But they have all the
plays out there. Nobody has off or like any of
the stuff we sell here in the us. You know

(56:21):
what they have, like the regular stuff that's in plants,
you know, and they like strip down some plans and
rub it on you. They got the peppermint, like natural
vanilla this or whatever. And it was like, oh, you
don't need all that other stuff.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
We don't even need it.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
Yeah, so waste money, dude. And it was it was
it was really cool to see that.

Speaker 3 (56:40):
You know, you literally see the mosquitos come near and
it's like the natural stuff and there's you making you
turn gone. It was really cool.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
That's cool. So Mount Rushmore four people?

Speaker 1 (56:51):
Okay, what is your personal Mount Rushmore of people that
have had success in childhood, high school, college, NFL just out.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
Your entire life?

Speaker 3 (57:01):
Good lord, I mean, sheesh, Pop's got to be on there.
I mean there's four places, which is perfect because I
have two brothers, my dad and my mom. That's that's
a no brainer. I think man like mentors and stuff.
Coach Carrol's got to be on there. I think Bob Johnson,

(57:23):
my high school coach, has got to be on there.
Oh man, this is a hard one. Yeah. When it
comes to just straight up football, I mean whether it's
Aaron or Tom Brady, a man, I think ability throwing
the ball. Wise, it's got to be Aaron. If it's

(57:45):
accomplishments and super Bowls and winning and all the records,
he said, it's got to be Tom.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Man.

Speaker 3 (57:53):
I'm trying to think. Yeah, because all the time, all time,
all time favorite athlete ever was Kobe Bryant. Probably second
would be Carson Palmer. And I was Carson's ball boy
and water boy when he was in high school. Really yeah,
like I Carson was like my dog. So Coach Carroll
had to make this tape, this highlight tape of plays
that Carson ran and plays that I ran when I

(58:14):
filled in for John David Boody for three games moving
into the next year. Because I would only go in
the office and watch Carson tape. I would watch all
old film of him, Norm Chow and all these guys,
Big Tom West, Coast, Kelly Freaking Mike Williams, like all
these guys. Right. So Pete had to make this like
fifteen play clip and it went, Carson play my play,

(58:37):
Carson played my play, And they're almost identical plays because
we're running the same offense. So it's like, you know,
play action to left, boot out to the right, throw
the deep comeback on the run, boom, Carson does it.
I do it. And so after the the matchup or
after the mashup of the tape, Coach Carrol's like, what
did you see? And I said, Carson's awesome. He goes,
all right, every play we put in there like look,

(58:59):
and he showed me the description of all the place.
He's like, you did exactly what Carson did. I need
you to be our quarterback. I need you to be
Mark Sanchez, not Mark Sanchez trying to be Carson Palmer.
Take Carson off the pedestel, and I need you to
be yourself and be our starter because you're gonna be
our starter this year. And that's kind of how he
told me, like that was and I was like, damn,
so like that is how I resonate with or how

(59:22):
Coach Carrol resonates with.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
Yah.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
Sure, ever, forget that of him making me me and go.
You know, I had to get through something to get
where I wanted to go, and he knew part of
that was taking Carson down well, respecting him of course,
but so yeah, that that kind of encompasses two of
those guys that I love.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
I think it's really cool how sometimes not all people
have like this over this confidence to where we still
need to be told we.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
Do it, that we can achieve.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
It's okay, believe in yourself and that you got it all.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
We just need you to go do it. So that's
that's really special. Man.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
Appreciate you showing sharing all your stories. Mark Man, it's
been a it's been a blessing man. Thank you, Bro,
Thank you guys. We're gonna hang out more. You guys
are in something. Yeah, I'm winning. We ain't doing nothing
to that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
I need to go to Dana Point I used to
live on. So yeah, that's what's up. That's what's up.

Speaker 1 (01:00:12):
Hey man, I'm just trying to go appreciate it. I'm
just trying to go, who am I kid? We're gonna
get three holes for you? Yeah, for sure, we're gonna
get We're gonna get three or four holes for you.
We're gonna get around and golf at the hotel.

Speaker 2 (01:00:21):
Thanks man. Hey, I'm Peanut Tubman.

Speaker 1 (01:00:23):
This Roman, that's Mark and this is the NFL players
Second Ass Podcasts and we out and uh also I
know we're out, but I want to thank our listeners
as always because they're the ones that make all this
thing go, and so thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
Guys.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
Continue to tell a friend, to tell a friend, to
tell a friend. Wherever you listen or pick up your
podcast that was Apple Podcast or iHeartRadio, please continue to
tune in and follow us.

Speaker 2 (01:00:47):
Hit click follow, give us a review. Let's do this thing.
Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
We're out one hundred damations. We out