Andrew Whitworth

Former NFL tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals and the LA Rams, Andrew Whitworth chats with Brian about his near-perfect game attendance record, helping develop the team culture at the Rams, and the most beautiful full circle moments of his career.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I never lowed anybody get me off the graham, so
I was like super just obsessive, ain'tal about that, Like
I know, if I was gonna work out or I'm
on the field, I get up myself, like, don't put
your hand out there, because you're gonna think I'm an asshole.
Like I'm not gonna take it. But I just don't.
I don't. Nobody gets me off the ground with me.
If I'm gonna beat thirty something years old playing football,
I gotta get my own butt off the ground. And

(00:23):
I realize I signed up for this time. My name
is Andrew Whitworth, and I'm hoping to one day finish
in the top twenty in American century.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hi, folks, it's that time again for what you might
ask for another episode of Off the Beat. This is
Brian BOMGARTNERI the season, my friends, ho ho ho, or
well just about the season, and yes I do mean
the most wonderful time of the year. That's right, it's

(01:06):
football season. Dun dun, dun, dun. You could call me Santa,
because today I have a present for you, A giant present,
by the way, six foot seven inch three thirty Andrew
Whitworth joins the program today. Former offensive lineman Andrew retired

(01:26):
last year after sixteen seasons battling in the trenches in
the NFL, first with the Cincinnati Bengals, last with the
LA Rams. And well, when I tell you his exit
from the game was like a movie, Well it was
picture this Andrew. He's in his sixteenth year in the game.

(01:47):
He's forty years old, the oldest tackle in NFL history.
His team, the Rams, make it to the Super Bowl,
which just so happens to be hosted in their very
own hometown of Los Angeles. The opponent is none other
than his former team, the Cincinnati Bengals. It's a close game,

(02:07):
both teams leading, falling behind. Anyone could win until the
last two minutes. The Rams score one more touchdown and
Andrew wins his first Super Bowl in the very last
game of his career. Okay, I need to write the screenplay. Nowadays,

(02:29):
you can catch Andrew Fantastic pregame, halftime and postgame show
on Thursday Night Football Amazon Prime. The crew is fantastic.
Andrew is fantastic, or sometimes you can find him on
the golf course with me, more at home with his
family and actually don't catch him at home with his family.

(02:52):
That's creepy. But you can listen to him with me
right now here. He is my old pal Andrew Whitworth.
Bubble and Squeak.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Bubble and squeak, gonna.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Bubble and squeak, I cook get every moleft over from
the nine before.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
What what's up? But I'm in. How's it going?

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Oh, it's going just chaos as usual.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
How are you enjoying retirement?

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Uh, you know what, It's been great. I actually had
this conversation yesterday with Ryan Clark. I feel like I'm
insanely busier now than when I played. I think you
think of being busy because you have the structure and
you're there all day. But this is just organized chaos
every day. It's like, you know, a kid needs this,
so they got to be at that. You know, I'm
an uber driver who doesn't get paid. And then on

(04:01):
top of that kind of getting into the media world
and doing stuff with you know, Thursday Football, and then
also still kind of doing some stuff here in LA
with the rams and things like that. It's been a
lot of fun. But it feels like I start weeks
with like, oh man, it's gonna be a pretty slow week.
And then the next thing I know, it's like I
don't have a free minute this week.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
I don't know how this happen right right, Well, I
should have said retirement from football. We are going to
talk about your media standing for Thursday Night Football, which
is absolutely blown up with you guys last year, thanks
in large part to your edition. But this time of year,
I have to ask you. You know we're here in August.

(04:40):
Do you miss hitting guys on the field. Do you
have any like feeling of, oh, this is what I
should be doing right now, or I miss it or
I'm really glad I'm not. Is there any of those
feelings happening now that training camps are in full swing.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
I'll tell you what. Last year I went to the
I just retired in March. I go to like the
third fourth day in training camp for the Rams. Kevin
Demoff and Shane kind of reached out, you need to
come down, just be around and hang out, be around
the guys. I go. I made a big mistake. I
decided I would go down you know the Rams practice
at U See Irvine. I'm like, you know what, I'm

(05:17):
gonna go down there and get a nice hotel. I'm
gonna go buy rams practice, just enjoy two days to
myself down there. Give me nice can I get away?
I stay at the Montage Laguna, I check in, I
go over to practice, probably fifteen to twenty minute ride.
I probably see them warm up in full pads. Maybe
five minutes into this practice. I'm standing there and I'm like,

(05:39):
I'm gonna go back to the Mintage. I literally watched
them like break individual. I've been there ten minutes. I
shake Kevin dem Off's hand. I'm like, it was great, man.
I hope you guys every great year. I'm going back
to the hotel. Literally like took off, never came back,
and it was I just had that feeling like, you
know what, I don't miss this at all. I wanted

(06:00):
to sit by the pool like hang out. And then
this year I went to three days of camp and
kind of a similar feeling. I was able to actually
stay there because I've been you know, out long enough
that it didn't just make me completely grossed out to
watch everybody sweating in pads and just think, oh man,
what it would feel like to hit somebody right now.
I'd be miserable but I actually stayed a couple of days.
Was great. But I don't miss that part of the

(06:21):
game at all. I mean obviously for alive, and it's different,
like you know, we we kind of we weren't scoring
touchdowns or throwing passes or getting applauded for you know,
a sack or interception. We were kind of in the trenches,
just digging it out every day. And the only time
you're gonna hear about us is if we messed up.
So I don't miss that that part at all.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
Right, you mentioned doing some work with the ramp. Are
you're actively working with the Rams currently?

Speaker 1 (06:49):
I wouldn't say that. I think it's more of you know,
I have such a great relationship with Sean. Him and
I are best friends, and uh, you know, really spent
a lot of time together in the off seasons throughout
my times as Los Angeles RAM, and then still now
talk a couple of times a week every week, and
so we just philosophy a lot and talk about culture
and team in the NFL and where it's headed that.

(07:10):
You know, he's a great resource for me now and
what I'm doing. And then also I thank me for
him just kind of things out here and feelings we
both have about the game. We've always been that way
since he was the coach of the Rams. We've spent
a lot of time together around that stuff. So I
just kind of I call it a friend of the program.
But it's one of those things, like, you know, I
still have a real lot of really close friends there
and all that staff you know in the building, from

(07:33):
the trainers and equipment guys and coaches in front office.
So I spent a lot of time with them and
just help where I can. If they got a question,
I'll go up there and do my best to help
out anyway I can spread some knowledge. Like this year
at camp I did, they had a scouting deal where
I went and talked to all the scouts at their
little summit about offensive line play and d line play

(07:53):
and kind of what I see.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
So it makes that makes a lot of sense. I.
You know, it is surprising to me always that organizations
and coaches don't that they don't take advantage as much
as they should. It feels like everybody kind of stays
in their lane a little bit. And having a resource

(08:14):
like you as an offensive lineman, it seems to me
that you would be an incredible resource for the defense
and for the defensive line play because nobody sees and
understands what those guys are doing across from you in
some ways better than you.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Right, Yeah, I always explained that I actually talked about
it the scouting deal. I mean, for me as an
offensive lineman, you know, you got to think like I'm
studying the best rushers. I'm studying the best players in
the NFL each and every week and breaking down how
I could stop them. So I can tell you from
my perspective, like, yeah, maybe maybe I didn't play the position,

(08:52):
but I can tell you, well, I know what move
works and I know what doesn't for this guy, and
then based off his body type, what rushes really seen
to work for those body types, And those guys gave
me the most trouble because they were able to do X,
Y and Z, and the guys who tried to do
this or that it didn't work, and that never was
something that I really feared or thought was useful. So

(09:13):
I could give you a lot of feedback on all
the different body types they're looking at, tall, smaller, faster, twitchier, power,
all that, and then kind of who I thought was
really the best and who did it the best. And hey,
even from a coaching perspective of if you're teaching a
guy that has a very similar body to an Elvis
Duomerville or a James Harrison or a Dwight Freeney, I
can tell you the things that those guys who play

(09:34):
with the shorter lever, what they did that was effective
and maybe some ways they should watch tape to study
some of those things. Or if it's Chandler Jones or
Miles Garrett or somebody you'd see as like a longer,
taller player, what they did that was effective. And I
think that feedback's very useful. But I think to your point,
the crazy part is is, I don't know. I talked
to so many guys that just would love to share

(09:55):
that information, but it's just not used as much as
you would think.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
You know, I wonder why that. I mean, I had
not planned to have this discussion, But there is a
lot of parallels I think, you know, in my business,
particularly when you get to the network level, where there
seems to be this like ownership or this like taking
credit for even if it's not even if it's not
forefront in their mind, Like you know, I want to

(10:21):
put my stamp on things as opposed to this sort
of overall team culture of let's just let's just make
it the best, Like you know, and if you got
Andrew Whitworth on the offensive line and you've got some
questions as a defensive line coach or defensive lineman, yet
it just it makes so much sense to me.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yeah, I think that's one of the things that's in
every business, I think a little bit, especially you know,
like you're parallel and it's it's kind of like, is
it an ego decision, like, hey, I don't want to
ask somebody who may know more than me about it,
or is it kind of a I don't want to
owe you something if I ask you a favor to
kind of share, you know. It's just funny. It's like, man,
I think sometimes it's like why not just have this

(11:05):
conversation and find out? And I think that's what most
guys that I've talked to. It's not really whether you'd
use it or not. It's like, dude, stop treating it
like it's unapproachable to discuss, Like, let's talk about it.
There's a way I can help you. I'd love to
I'd love to come back to the team I played
for and help them in some way find the next
good player, a great player for them.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Right. All right, let's go back in time for you
a little bit. You grew up there in Monroe, Louisiana.
What was your life like as a kid down on
the Bayou Funrow Monroe.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
You know, you know, it's quiet in Monroe, Louisiana. Not
not the big, big city that I live in now
in LA that's for sure. I you know, for me, honestly,
it was great. You know, I had, you know, a
great family, great great life living there with a small
town very different than what I've experienced as an adult
to an athlete. But I really got the blessing of

(12:02):
being around some great football I mean I played against,
I played with some really special players there in Monroe,
and you know, I got to be part of a
really cool high school program. We were fifty eight and
two when I was in high school and football and played.
We played people in Mississippi and Texas and you know,
the five A state champion in Mississippi and Texas my
senior year and went undefeated. And you know, we played

(12:24):
against Midland Lee and Cedric Benson and Eric Winston when
they were at Middle of Lee Texas and played John
Tyler Texas. We played Moss Pointe, Mississippi, and Demarius Bilbo
and some of those great players that were in that program.
So I got to experience some really cool things. Kyle
Williams who played forever for the Buffalo Bills and was
an amazing golfer. Him and I were high school rivals

(12:45):
our two high schools, so we grew up playing each
other forever, became college roommates. Hated each other's scuts in
high school though, you know, so I had a lot
of great sports memories living in that town. It was,
It was amazing for me. My parents were always a
part of that, and my older sister Emily, and so
I can't complain at all about my childhood.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Were was your family into football like when you were
growing up? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (13:08):
I think my family has always kind of been into
sports in general. I mean, you know, I can remember
my grandfather and my grandmother's probably my grandmother Kathleen and
Baste of Louisiana probably had the biggest influence on me.
And I could remember from when I was really tiny
either watching golf or football or baseball. I think probably
when I was younger. They all thought I'd be a
baseball player, and so that was kind of what everyone

(13:30):
was their biggest passion. And then obviously I was, you
know in that area in North Louisiana, you're you were
a Dallas Cowboy at that time. That was long before
the Saints were the Aints with trash bags on their
heads back home.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
I was, I was going to ask you that. So
you were a Cowboys fan?

Speaker 1 (13:44):
Yeah, okay, time I mean North Louisiana where I'm from.
I mean, you're only three hours from Dallas. You know,
it's probably five hours to New Orleans. So, uh, most
people up in that area that was when the Saints
were pretty bad and growing up, so everybody were Dallas
Cowboys fans. Eigman Jersey and the Went Smith Jersey, Michael Irvan, Uh,
you know that was that was my squad.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Now you you say your family thought you were going
to play baseball, When did you grow So I was.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
More of a you gotta imagine high school, like, I
was a tight end for the majority of my time
until until my senior year. So I was probably six
seven to twenty or something. My freshman or sophomore year
in high school. I mean I was tall and lean and.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
It just six seven. Yeah, I was. I was.

Speaker 1 (14:30):
I was probably six four in eighth grade, and then
my freshman year in high school, I grew like three
inches and then that kind of topped out my height
and then I just kind of put it on the
way from there and became alignment. But you know, I
was a basketball player. I loved hoops. That was my
favorite sport. And I was a baseball I was left
I'm left handed, so I was a left handed pitcher.
I played it all growing up. I mean I played tennis, soccer, baseball, football,

(14:53):
you name it. So baseball and football were probably the
two things that I got the most, Like, man, you're
really gonna have a chance at this. Basketball is something
I just love to do. I've always had a passion
for it, even when I played in the league. In
the off seasons, I played little men's pick up leagues
and stuff like that, just because it was something I
always loved to do.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
It's surprising you were highly recruited coming out of high
school at being at the program that you were. It's
surprising to me that you didn't go to a real
school like the University of Georgia. You settled for LSU.
Talk to me a little bit about that decision to
go to LSU.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
Well, what's wilder and even better is that I actually
originally committed to the University of Florida and I was
going to be a Florida Gator, which I know, it
really fires.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
Me up now, that would be worse.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yeah, And so I was going to be a Florida Gator.
Steve Spurrier was there. You know, they were really good.
Fred Taylor and Danny Wirfel and those guys. And yeah,
this guy, a little old dude from the north named
Nick Saban took the LSU head coaching job and came
to my living room with my family and convinced me
that I needed to be an LSU Tiger because it

(16:01):
wasn't going to be a four year decision. He was
going to be a forty year decision. It was going
to change my life for the rest of my time
in the state of Louisiana and lo and behold, I
mean he was right. I mean, he was probably the
only coach to always go back to this when I
was when I was coming up, I really wanted to
be a tight end. So Houston up was at Arkansas,
Steve Spurry was in Florida. Both played really big tight ends,

(16:24):
like Sean Andrews played the umevers of Arkansas big right
tackle there. Well, the guy who played beside him was
Jason Peters, who's one of the best left tackles ever
played in the NFL. He was a tight end at Arkansas.
So I wanted to go be a big tight end there.
That was kind of this tween yer tackle tight end guy,
and so I was trying to kind of choose in
schools that played with bigger tight ends. Nick Saban sat

(16:45):
me down in my living room and he's like, listen,
the sooner you give up your dream to play tight end,
you're going to head towards your future of having an
amazing football career. And I was just like, wow, this
dude just walked in my living room and told me
that I'm not gonna to be my dream, like I'm
not reaching my dream. But really he was started telling
what my dream should be, right, and sure enough he

(17:07):
was right. I mean, I moved to tackle my senior
year because of him. I decided I'd move inside and
play tackle at my senior year at West Monroe and
then the rest is history. I went on to go
to LSU and break the all time start record NCAA history,
and win a national championship.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Yeah, did he mention that left tackles make more money
than tight ends.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
I'm just curious he could have got He could have
easily just started with that, but you know, he decided
to kind of come in strong and like, hey man,
I'm just gonna be really upfront with you, like you're
gonna play left tackle for the LSU Tigers if you
come here and you're gonna have an amazing career.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
You were red shirted your freshman year. There was that
frustrating for you.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
It was there was a number of us in my
class that you know, we had, I guess five all
Americans that I played with that I signed with, Marcus Spears,
Michael Clayton, Marquise Hill, and Ben Wilkerson and we all
signed the same class. Some of us read shirt or
some ups didn't, and it was, you know, kind of
one of those things that they knew they weren't going
to be. Probably, you know, you got to think when

(18:09):
you take over a guy like Nick who's got kind
of a plan for the future, you don't know who's
gonna really help them that year and whether they'd actually
be that good. But we knew in the coming years
we had a chance to be really special, so he
tried his best to keep most of us. I unfortunately
has always say had the worst Red shirt experience you
can have, because he always thought like, you're one play

(18:30):
for me, putting you in there and being the left tackle.
So I had to dress out preparing to start every
single week. Never once touched the field like taped up
ready to roll, you know, all my freshman buddies or
in tiger Land upside down, you know, taking shots at everclear.
You're sending me text messages and calls and everything else,

(18:50):
and believe it or not, there I don't think you
could photo message at that time, so I wasn't getting
any photos. But they were, you know, filling me in
on what their antics were, and I'm just sitting there, like, man,
I got to go to the game and I'm gonna
stand there. I wasn't that happy, I'll say it that way.
My freshman fall was a frustrating fall.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah, you were ranked six and perspective offensive lineman going
into college, you you go there, you get red shirted.
But obviously you believe King Saban that you have a
long future ahead of you. Are you at this point
are you all in on what your future is going
to be. Do you have a plan B there at

(19:30):
LSU or you just we're going to do this and
we're going to go to the NFL. No.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
I don't think I was somebody that dreamed that big.
I mean, I you know, I grew up with My
mom was a school teacher for thirty seven years. My
dad's a computer programmer, like back in the day if
like you know, the black screen with a little dots
on it, and he sat in an office with no windows.
And my mom was a you know, school teacher and
ended up being like the school librarian at the end

(19:57):
of her career. We were very simple, and you know,
it's not like I never liked, man, I didn't have
stuff on the table or anything. But I lived a
very simple life and you know, never really dreamed of
anything bigger than that. So when I was in school, honestly,
it was like, man, I'm just trying to be really,
I was real competitive, Like I wanted to start. I

(20:18):
wanted to play on the football team, and I wanted
to be really good, and I love to like get
after it. I wanted to always like punish myself and
work some hard and fight and tussle with people like
I love that. But I never really had a dream
of like what does that mean after this? And so
for me, it was always like, man if I fail
at this, I'll go coach or teach or do something

(20:39):
like that, just because I love people and I love
pouring into people and I've always been relational that way,
and so I really didn't have any dreams bigger than
just trying to make it, you know, out on the
football field and be a starter for LSU Tigers. That
was that was it?

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Well I did I did read here that to your
point in your LSU career, you missed one practice, which
was to attend your own graduation. So I would say
that's that's pretty committed. You stayed out of the well
the ever clear dens. There you go from red shirting

(21:18):
your freshman year, you end up being a second round
draft pick going into the NFL. At what point do
you realize that's going to happen? You don't have dreams
of it, You're being simple, but like, at what point
do you go oh, okay, we're gonna do this thing.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
After we won the national championship, my red shirt sophomore year,
there's my second year starting. Nick Saban brings me in
his office, and I'll never forget this because it's it's
kind of those things you always go back to, like,
you know, I'm sure you did it, like a decision
where you're like, you take a job or you don't,
or you make a decision you don't. You're like, man,
I wonder where I would have ended up had I
decided to do that, or maybe said no or yes,

(21:56):
you know, And so that for me, that's that moment
he brings me in his office. Never even thought really
about the NFL. I thought of the NFL as like wow,
that's insane level of football and not like, oh man,
I'm going to get there, right And I go into
his office and he's like, hey, man, you've played two years,
you red shirted. You know you could explore the draft
if you wanted, you know, you know, I think you

(22:17):
should submit your papers and get like, you know, people
that don't know that you can submit to the league
and the scouts give you a score where they think
you'll be drafted and that's what helps kids make their decision.
And so I got mine back and it was like
a second or third round rating, and he's like, you
do what you want to do, but I wanted you
to get this. And I've always thought it was like

(22:38):
I couldn't understand if he like didn't like me or
like what's going on, because it's like it seemed like
we loved each other, you know, he loved me in
the player, I was just like, are you trying to
push me out the door? And I think he like
honestly wanted me to explore, like, hey man, you need
to realize how good you are at this, and like
it needs to become something you're thinking about. And I
appreciate that, but I decided I wanted to stay, and

(23:03):
I stay, and we don't have as good a year.
We have a solid year Nick kind of playing. You know,
we kind of know the writings on the wall. He's
gonna leave and go to the Dolphins after that year.
So I don't have a great experience that year, and
I had a couple of games that kind of I
didn't think I played as well as I should have
unless Miles comes in and I'm like, you know, what.
I've always had this feeling in me that I'm like,

(23:26):
you know, for whatever reason, I always feel like I'm
responsible for people, and so I felt like in that moment,
a change, a head coach, a program that didn't perform
as good as it did, we just want an actual championship.
I got a lot of senior buddies that are coming back.
I don't even want to talk about leaving. So I
didn't even explore leaving the next year as a rich
Ard junior because I'm like, I had to come back.
I remember giving a speech Nick Saban that kind of

(23:48):
tells the guys formerly after our Iowa game and we
lose my junior year, he's gone, and I remember standing
up being like, I'm going to be back here. You know,
we're gonna get after it and do what we're supposed
to dolah blah blah. And I just felt compelled to
do it in the moment, with no real reasoning for
the decision. And I came back and played in another year.
So I ended up playing all five years at LSU

(24:10):
and becoming a second round pick. So it's crazy how
it worked out, and I still go back sometimes to
that day in his office and think like what if
I just decided to leave because my rating didn't really
change it those two years, how different would my career
look or where would've ended up. But I've been mature
enough to handle the league all those questions.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
That's so interesting. I've never heard that before of a
coach pulling you in and actually encouraging you to go
because it seems you know, you know, I mean, let's
just be real, like you're a good player, You're obviously
going to help him do what he wants to do,
which is when that's a that's a great story, that's

(24:50):
really really important.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
I think if you think about it, it's a little
bit you look at what he does in Alabama. Now,
how fast those kids get in and out. I think
it's a little bit of a vision of the more
kids I graduate come here to play, are successful and
end up in the NFL, the easier it is for
me to tell the next kid that's what his future
looks like. And so I think that's why he kind of,
you know, plays that line a little bit of like, hey,

(25:14):
when I got really special ones that I may need
to get into the league and be able to show
this example, I'll recruit the next one based off of
this guy, and I think that's kind of the vision
he's always had for its to keep those guys coming
in and out.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Two thousand and six NFL Draft. After five years at LSU,
you get drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals. Talk to me
a little bit about the experience for you of the draft.
Is this like my dream has come true?

Speaker 1 (25:58):
It was? The problem was I was going through a
lot of tourmal personally, so you know, I end up
senior year at LSU kind of you know, been in
a relationship the majority of the back half of my
college career with a girl and we get married. End
up not a good idea for either one of us,

(26:18):
not going well. I think it lasted all of maybe
I don't know, five months of actually being married. Maybe
that that might be a stretch, and so things are
not good. There, go through the draft experience together or whatever,
but still not that great. I'm two weeks after I
get drafted the Cincinnati Bengals, excited as heck to be there.

(26:39):
I still love the story that the secretary and there
called me like the day after I got drafted and
she's like, hey, next Friday, we got to have you
here whatever. And I'm like, well, I get it on Thursday.
She's like, what do you mean you get on Thursday.
I'm like, well I already. I just booked my own
personal flight, like I'm coming in on Thursday. And she's like, okay,
you're excited to get to work. You didn't even wait
for us to tell you when you can come. I

(26:59):
love it. But that was like my eagerness to get
there and get going. And so two weeks after I
get drafted, I met Marvin Lewis's event. He had a
found he has a great foundation in Cincinnati. My phone's
blowing up and I'm like, man, I don't know who's
calling me so much tonight. So I finally walk out
of the event, get on my phone and it's one
of my best friends of life, Michael Peterson, and he says, hey, man,

(27:20):
And as you go somewhere and he talked to me
and said what's up, He's like it's Lee, and I'm like, okay,
what's going on. He's like he was killed. And so
my close friend in college, roommate, Lee Deal, was serving
the Navy, was a met doc for a special recon team.
He was killed in action two weeks to the day

(27:42):
after I was drafted, almost and crazy experience in life.
I always say it's been one of those things is
horrific and never want to go through again. But it's
also been something I think that saved my entire career
because where I was at in life, I think I
took a lot of things for granted in general, and
so I spent my entire NFL career from that moment on.
I've always said, if you find a national anthem that

(28:03):
I'm on the video, there's tears in my eyes and
most of the time my tear dropping down my face.
And it's not really something to do as much about
the anthem as much as there was always this moment
I'd see the flag, I'd hear the anthem, and able
to remind me, boy, there's a lot of things through
the week that I stress out about and think about,
and man, I get to stand here today because of

(28:25):
one of my best friends in life sacrifice, the ultimate
sacrifice for me to get to have this freedom to
do what I'm doing right now. So it gave me
a constant reminder for sixteen years how special what it
is I get to do each and every Sunday.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
That's incredible. God, what a crazy story, and what a
gift for you. That's great. It is, man, Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (28:47):
I had the unique honor one of the coolest things
I have for my NFL playing career, and that includes everything,
the trophy, you name it. I have actually a framed
picture of that led to Michael Dangoons to come Seals.
Years down the road, the Seals are training in Kentucky
and I find out about it and invite them to

(29:09):
a Steelers Bengals game, get them a suite at the
stadium to work through the Bengals, get them a sweet
just happens to be Jim Bayner's. There a lot of
like political folks are in town. They go visit them,
kind of make this awesome experience for them. Well, these
guys take this Bengals flag they gave them and flew
it on their next deployment and took pictures with all

(29:31):
their machinery and everything and their guns and name it.
Pulled the flag up and got it framed and gave
me their American flag that went with them and the
Bengal flag that we gave them, and framed it up
for me, and I kept it. I took the frame
and I actually put it as the back of my
locker in Cincinnati. That was the back side of my locker,
so every day I could look at it. But it's
still one of the coolest things that I've ever received

(29:54):
playing NFL football.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
Yeah, there's a lot of talk around the league about
a lack of support given from the Bengals organization to
their players in terms of facilities support in that way.
Is that fair or is that not fair criticism?

Speaker 1 (30:20):
You know, I think what's tough about it is obviously
I think it's a lot harder for your smaller families
that kind of that's their only business in the NFL
to operate financially in the NFL model, because a lot
of people you know who don't realize it, but you know,
you're Jerry Jones or Crownkeys, you know, some of these
guys in the world to have these other massive businesses
that have really led to their worth and really how

(30:42):
they're able to operate so freely in the world of
using the NFL's money to make the team as good
as possible. I think it is a lot harder, but
it's not that it couldn't be done and so I
think at times, really the critique when I got to Cincinnati, obviously,
you know, that's one of the things I think people
don't get marvel Lewis enough credit for us when he
took over that team. I mean, you know, zero real

(31:03):
scouting department, structure, not many facility things that anybody would
want to play there for other than moving into the
stadium they were in. But I mean, my entire career there,
we never had an indoor. We never had any of
those things. So our indoor was to go inside the stadium,
which is open air, and practicing the snow on the turf,
which I don't know why we did that because it

(31:24):
only the turf's only harder when it's cold, so it
didn't make a lot of sense, but it sounded good,
we're going inside today. But yeah, I mean, when I
first got there, we ate our meals out of what
used to be like a closet. They literally just rolled
in trays of food and you'd walk through there, and
then you'd sit in the basketball gym and that's literally

(31:45):
where you ate, and it was just way different than
what they experience now. But I think it is a
fair criticism to say you wish they were more aggressive.
I know, I've always been critical in the sense of
I think they did a wonderful job of putting together
teams and stuff. When I was there, were really successful.
We didn't find a way to win a playoff game.
But I mean, shoot, we went to the playoffs six

(32:05):
times while I was there, won a bunch of division championships.
But I always thought in twenty eleven to fifteen, when
we really had our run with Andy Dawton and AJ Green,
the Geno Atkins and those guys, I was always critical
of here you are with all this self. You know,
you drafted them talent and not bringing in guys from
other places. You drafted all these guys, so they're all

(32:26):
draft picks and they're all slotted in the draft. You've
had all success, You're this could like, why is there
no investment to like one free agent or one trade
to just like, all right, we keep getting there, like
almost winning, Like we're that good, then why not just
some kind of like investment to say, let's be even better.
I think that's one of the things that Joe Burrow

(32:48):
really changed.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
You know.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
I think his attitude going there in the draft and
who he is you can see that their mindset's changed
in the last three years. I mean, they've probably signed
more free agents than they signed entire eleven years I
was there. So it's interesting to see that it really
looks like they've completely changed under this new era with
Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow and T Higgins and those guys.

(33:11):
But they never would have gone and gotten to Trey Hendrickson,
you know, or a DJ Reader or any of those
guys when I when I was there, that just wasn't
something they did. And so that was always my point.
It's like, man, I understand y'all need to be tight
with things, but why isn't there like a buy in
we are successful to say, what if we just took
that next leap? I think you'd all benefit financially and

(33:35):
everything else.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Right, talk to me about a little bit about stepping
on the field for the first time in the NFL.
Was this like my dream has come true?

Speaker 1 (33:47):
You know? I think it would have been except for
for me my first time, you know, I played left
tackle at LSU, and my first real experience starting I
played against the Cleveland Browns as a guard, which is
a little easier from the sense of you're in a
little box and you don't feel as exposed as you
are as a tackle. So that part wasn't is bad.

(34:09):
But I remember my first left tackle snap, which is
what I really call living on that island like a corner.
And notice in the made to man corner. We're playing
in Tampa, Levi Jones is our left tackle, and I'm
at the game. You know, I'm not starting anything that week,
and I'd only started against Cleveland because somebody was injured.
And so this is like week four or five, and

(34:31):
Levi goes down in the first quarter and so it's
a it's a TV time out for his injury. My
coach yells at me, you know, get get out there,
and so I run out there, and I get in
the huddle at left guard and I moved to left
guard to left tackle because that's how we played against Cleveland.
And I'm like, no way, He's putting me on the edge,
like that's Simmey and Rice over there. And so he's

(34:53):
like I can see my coach is like frantically making
all these arm gestures like he's like pissed off, and
I'm like, what is going on? And kind of see
him on this iseline. I'm trying to like halp ignore
him and like lock in. I'm starting now. I'm playing
in this game to meet something. And then finally Carson
Palmer or quarterback over the headset like somebody's telling him

(35:14):
some of the headset. He's like with like move like
you're playing left tackle, and I'm like, what, huh? Like me.
So I literally look over there at Paul Alexander, my
line coach. I like point at my chest, like me,
move over to left tackle, and He's like, yes, move over,
and so I move over there, and I'm like, oh boy,
let's go me and Rice is going to be a blast.

(35:35):
And I have no idea how bad I couldn't go.
Look at that one. It probably was really ugly. I
didn't give up a sack, and I did a pretty
good job, so I was very content. But the next
week it didn't get any easier. I faced Julius Peppers
and Mike Rutger, who at that time I think led
the NFL and sacks, and from then on I was
playing left tackle, and the challenge each and every week
could be at A rookie left tackle in the league

(35:56):
ended up starting ten games that year, and he was insane, man,
crazy experience. I can remember in my mind like being
on the field with Brett Farr and Ray Lewis and guys.
So I'm like, man, highlyze this guy, Like how am
I standing on the field with treil Owen's and all
these guys. It was like every week you get over
the bench and kind of look over at the offense.
It's on the field and you're like, man, wait, oh

(36:17):
my god, I'm on the same field as that guy.
Like this is crazy, Like we're in the same place,
we had the same job. It's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (36:25):
Well, I know in twenty fourteen you're still facing a
lot of those guys and others. You allowed zero sacks
and only one quarterback hit on Andy Dalton name second
team ap NFL All Pro. Is that is that your
greatest accomplishment? I mean, zero sacks and one hit from

(36:49):
the left hack the position.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
Good year. It was a really good year. I'll say that.
You know what's wild is that kind of led to
me becoming a Los Angeles ram It's insane to think
like that's how it all worked out. But yeah, it
was a great year, and it was a year that
I was so committed to I think I finally hit

(37:11):
this point, you know when people say, hey, you know,
years down the road, I placed be the first ever
aligneman to start a game at forty years old, as
I start and left tackle. It started from that moment
because I'd really committed that offseason, like, you know what,
I feel really good and I think I could do
this for a long time if I just keep this
exact regimen, And that kind of started it off. That year.

(37:34):
I was fired up to make a difference and do
something different. Hugh Jackson I was coming in as our
offensive coordinator, and Hugh and I always hit it off,
and we were both firing guys, and so we kind
of got each other going every week. And man, I
had a lot of fun playing football all year, much
less of success, and it really kind of, I think,
you know, shot me on the direction to what would

(37:56):
lead to an insane finish.

Speaker 2 (37:57):
To my career. We talked about your near perfect attendance
record in college. You played one hundred and sixty eight
out of one hundred and seventy six games. In your
eleventh seasons with the Bengals, you don't take tailand all.
Is that is that true?

Speaker 1 (38:17):
Yeah? You know what, happened is like you're five or six,
you know, you're sitting there, Brian, and you're like bored
in the offseason, and I'm watching Roadhouse for like the
one hundred and seventy eighth time, and not just for
the scene of Angelis when he picks her up in
the room, but also because you know, I love Roadhouse

(38:39):
and I love like the mentality that you know he
took on in that. And so the scene where she's
stapling him in the hospital and he's like like, pain
is just pain, Like you gotta get used to it, right,
and just kind of unflinching. So I was in my
fifth six year in the league and I was like, man,
I'm watching guys line up in for toward All shots,

(39:02):
ordering toward All online and taking it throughout the week
and just crushing every anti inflammatory and pain pill and
you name it. And I was like, man, I just
I feel like I see all these guys develop a
need like they have to to be able to function
every day, they have to have all this stuff. Why
can't it work the other way?

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Right?

Speaker 1 (39:22):
And I was like, I was watching that show and
I got done watching it, and I was like, you
know what, Like what if I just took a year
and said, no, I'm not taking anything, no medicine, nothing,
just like Patrick Swayzey says it, like no meds, no pills, nothing,
And I'm like, let's do it. And so I did it,
and I saw a drastic difference and just how I

(39:44):
was able to kind of understand my body and feel
things I needed to work on and feel things that
I needed to get worked on per se. And so
it just became a thing. And so after that, it
was like everywhere I went, no matter what the entry was,
I'd be like, look, man, unless you're telling me that,
like I can't get on the field next week, I'm out.
And so like, yeah, was there an occasion like you know,

(40:05):
they give you the pregnic zone or something like that
if you've got some significant injury and they don't know
if you're to recover in time. I mean, yeah, I've
done that before. But no weekly, daily stuff. Actually, until
my last two years in LA, I basically took nothing
for about seven years and my last two years in
LA just because at my age it was a lot

(40:25):
harder to do that. On actual game day, I would
take like two tile and all just to kind of
take the edge off a little bit in the morning,
you know, because the thing was when you're thirty nine
and forty showing up on the field, Like I always say,
it's like a box of chocolates. Every Sunday, I have
no idea what I'm gonna wake up and feel like
that morning it's like, oh rap, it's one of those days.

(40:47):
You know, Daddy's not in the mood today. I got
to find it somehow, so he takes some talle on
and get going.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
I took torn off for the first time this year.
Can I tell you in Tahoe? I yeah, And I'll
tell you I'd never heard of it. I didn't know
what I mean. I heard it and really not ever
understood what it was. It's for those of you who
don't know, and you were like me until like two
months ago. It's basically an anti inflammatory. I'd be profen

(41:19):
like on steroids, which is yeah, it's a weird Actually
you shouldn't say steroids, I guess, but it's a very big,
powerful anti inflammatory. And I'll tell you what. My back
didn't hurt playing golf six d six rounds in six days.
I felt pretty good. Yeah, yeah, that's.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
How that's kind of really part of it for me
is that I wanted to get to a point where
if I ever actually needed it, or I actually needed
some time at all, I wanted to have a drastic
effect on me.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
Oh right, that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
And so that's really where it was. It's like, man,
you get injured one week and it's whether or not
you play the next week. I want to be able
to feel like man, that as a drastic effect. And
and so you know, that's really where it started. And
then it became just kind of stubborn, like you know,
and then obviously also you know, I was also as
o line and guys would tell you like I never
lied aybout getting off the ground. So I was like

(42:12):
super just obsessive, ain't aal about that. Like I know,
if I was gonna workout or I'm on the field,
I get up myself, like don't put your hand out there,
because you're gonna think I'm an asshole. Like I'm not
gonna take it, but I just don't. I don't nobody
gets me off the ground with me. If I'm gonna
be thirty something years old playing football, I gotta get
my own butt off the ground. And I realized I

(42:33):
signed up for this. That's a great transition to being
a RAM. That's part of what it was.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
About twenty seventeen. You signed with the Rams and your
buddy Sean McVay, You move out west. Was it difficult
for you to leave Cincy?

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Crazy? You know, I don't know how much we've really
even talked about it, but that, you know, Melissa and
I over the time, but it's we signed. I guess
it was like March tenth, not somewhere in there. April second,
my family had sold the house, moved out of Cincinnati.
We lived in a house that we were renting in California.
In one month and basically three and a half weeks

(43:09):
something like that, my wife she flew home. The crazy
part of that story is I signed the contract, we
flew out of my wife and three kids. And when
you're an offensive lineman, Brian, I don't get like they
don't send the g for or to pick you up. Okay,
you know I was. Actually that was me. Yeah, me
and Melissa's favorite moment ever. I think I think it's
Sean mcvay's favorite story ever. But since we won the

(43:30):
Super Bowl. But I'm on the flight in the very
back row, my wife and my three kids. The toilets
just you know, I'm getting all the fumes the whole flight.
We connect through Salt Lake City to to La and
I am it's one of those bumpy winter flights where
you know, the flight tents can't even get up and
I'm just sitting on here in this back round. My
kids are crying. I'm like, what are we do we

(43:52):
this is the dumbest thing ever. Let's go back to
fourth Thomas, right, you know, get these kids on a
play set, like you know, we're fine, And I tell
my wife, I'm like, listen, you need to buckle up
and understand, we've given up super Bowl hopes. Like it's over.
We're leaving Cincinnati where we'd gone on the playoffs a
bunch of times. This team hasn't had a winning season

(44:14):
in fifteen years, Like super Bowl's over. This is about
us going there and changing a culture, you know, being
willing to help the wives, help the players, like this
is all this is about, and us going there and
being servants to this organization. And that's what they're really
paying me to do. Come play good football and teach
these guys how to play good football and change the

(44:35):
culture of what's going on there. And Melissa told Sean
that story when we first got to LA and so
he has never let me live it down since we
went to two Super Bowls in one one. But it's
the truth of how I signed there. It was very like, Man,
I'm going here. This isn't about me, this is about
this place. And I never left. So I signed the contract.

(44:57):
I said, Melissa, this is one of those moments where
you go, just forgive me on this. I can't leave.
I can't go back. Cincinnati means too much to me.
It would hurt my heart too much to fly back
there now. I just I need you this month. If
we could just do this, like let's go all in together.
If you can go back to Cincinnati, I'll get your
parents up there, whoever you need to help you move
us oute of the house and take care of the kids.

(45:19):
I'm gonna stay here. So I never left LA after
a hour. And last year I called the Bengals Rams
game in the preseason as a retired Super Bowl champion.
It was the first time I stepped back in Cincinnati,
Ohio since I signed my contract. Really, yeah, pretty well,

(45:39):
it was a pretty emotional game. I played it off,
but if it's a pretty emotional day to be there
last year, it's just crazy for me. Man, I invested
everything I had in that place. You know, I just
couldn't go back.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Are you a Bengal or a Ram?

Speaker 1 (46:10):
I'm both. I mean, I'm too invested in both places
to not be.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
But what a what a weeny answer? God?

Speaker 1 (46:18):
No, right, I've been around longer than You're not gonna
get that.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
You said it too. Super Bowls with the Rams, including
your very last game. I mean you're playing, you're playing
against twenty somethings, you're in your in your late thirties,
forty before you retired. Are you feeling that age difference?

(46:46):
And do you consider it an advantage at all for you?

Speaker 1 (46:51):
I do think from a preparation and experience standpoint, it's
definitely advantage. But body wise no, I mean, you know, right,
my last five was literally about finding ways to recreate myself,
to recreate being. I know what I needed to do
to get the job done. But you know, you start
to lose the ability. And I think that's what people
don't understand when we say I make guys falling off,

(47:12):
is it's not necessarily that like if you tested me
in the forty your pinch press or whatever, that the
numbers would be that different. It's that you start to
lose the ability for your brain to make your body
do exactly what you feel in the moment. And so
I started to lose the explosion to get off the
line as a left tackling in my set and like,
oh man, I want to put my hand here, but
like for whatever reason, I just seemed to have lost

(47:34):
the ability to put it exactly where I want to,
and I'm just slow and I can see, like when
I watch a fight or I watch MMA or anything
like older fighters when they're struggling, like I know exactly
what's going on because I know the feeling of like
what becomes the challenge And so it's that your body
doesn't listen to you as well as it used to.
You might know what you need to do, but you
can't get it to do it, and so that started

(47:57):
to become a challenge. And so for me, it was
like I got lighter. I tried to play the really
likely way less weight than I played earlier in my career,
so I can move a little better and more efficiently.
But I'll never forget.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
You know.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
Part of my get up store on your own is
I signed my deal two months later. I'm an OTA.
Is the very first OTA practice. Aaron Kromer is my
online coach, a hilarious guy, passionate dude about football and
a great coach. And I get the tight end beside
me goes the wrong way on our first play and
just completely rolls me up, and I mean it, freaking

(48:30):
it hurts so bad. I'm rolling around on the dirt
like on my knee, and all I hear from the
back where all the coaches and players stand is you
signed the damn contract. Get up off the ground. And
I knew it was Aaron Kromer, and I was like this,
you know, you just with him, know enough, like a
new producer or something, you know, Like I know how
he is. He's kind of a guy, likes to push buttons.

(48:53):
So I'm like half pissed off and laughing at the
same time. All right, all right, dude, like shut up,
and I'm I want to get up, you know. So
I got a dusting myself off in him and I
laughed about this day. But that's how it started. He
was like, you know what I'm here. I did sign
that contract, and so I got to give my time
and energy to it. And I love hearing these stories

(49:13):
right now currently about Aaron Rogers being in New York
and sitting at a different table every day and what
he's doing, because that was the big thing I always said.
I always thought the biggest difference for me is that
when I got there, that was my moo. I was
every day I'm sitting with a different position group. I'm
walking in this place, not as the eleven year vet
has been to Pro Bowls and all pro blah blah blah.

(49:35):
I'm walking in as I'm here to help this team win.
And so every day I try to spend time with
those groups. And that's why I still have some really
crazy cool bonds from that time. And I'll never forget
Sean holding the meeting and letting the guys vote and
being voted a captain that year, and thinking to myself, like,
what a cool moment you know, to to thirty six
years old to change teams become a leader of a

(49:58):
place that fast. But more importantly, like just developed this
culture of all of us being on the same page
from what wasn't that way before? We got there and
it was really special and it led to really you know,
where my career would go from then.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
All after eleven seasons, obviously, your first year with the Rams,
you go to the super Bowl. Should you have won?

Speaker 1 (50:21):
You know, that was my actually my second season. So
the first season, oh second eleven, Yes, first season, we
win the division, go eleven and five, and then lose
to the Falcons in the playoffs, and at that time,
I became the uh, the NFL player with the worst
record in the playoffs in NFL history. I was I

(50:42):
think it was oh and eight or oh and seven
in the playoffs at that time, and that was the
record for a player, so really awesome, uh, great thing
to be known for. But the next year, we have
a great year, Kyt Gurley goes crazy again and we
end up in the playoffs, win my first ever playoff

(51:03):
game against the Dallas Cowboys. I'll never forget it, which
is also kind of crazy just think about it now,
my team growing up first every time to win the
playoff game, but end up in the super Bowl and
lose to the New England Patriots. And probably the worst
game we played all season long, just a bad performance
for who we were offensively and everything else. Defense played

(51:24):
great and we just let them down. It was a
tough thing to swallow because at that point, I'm thirty
eight going on thirty nine, and every single person, you know,
super Bowl Week's insane with media and everything else. Every
question is like what do you think about to spend
your last game? Everter like, everyone just was like assumed
like this was it. So when I walked off that field,
I was, Okay, if it is it, you know what,

(51:48):
it's been an insane run. I don't feel like it's it,
but maybe the rams make that decision for me. And
what leads to one of the coolest sports moments when
people say, what's your sports moment? You know, walking off
that field and looking up at my at that time,
I guess he was seven eight years old, Michael, my
middle son, and he's crying in his mama's lap because

(52:12):
he didn't think we'd lose either. And I never knew
NFL Films had the audio and a video camera on
me because I wasn't miked up. I don't remember being
miked up, but maybe I was. And I literally looked
up and find where they're sitting, and he's sitting in
her lap and he's crying. The only way I knew
how to make an eight year old like try to
put a smile on that moment he can't hear me
was to flex my muscles at him and make him

(52:33):
flex his back. And still gives me chills to think
about it. So he like bawl and crying, like trying
to like half get a smile out, you know, And
he smile comes out, and he's crying, he's flexing his muscles,
and I just told him, like, we're gonna be okay, buddy,
like this ain't the end of the world for us.
And I go off and I have the quote of
the year, which is still idiot. I've been around media

(52:56):
long enough to know not to talk emotionally because they're
going to dissect it. But at the end of the day,
we're all gonna die, and I'll never forget that literally
went everywhere, and I'm like, you know what, that's not
what I said, but it is what I said. I
asked me how you go forward from this moment, you know,
having lost the Super Bowl and ending your career basically,

(53:16):
and I'm kind of like one insulted, like this ain't
the end of my career. Who said the end of
my career two, I'm like, bro, listen, I care a
lot about football, love it. It's a passion of mine.
This ain't the end all be all of life parts.
So let me explain to you who I am. So
I said the actual whole quote was, I don't care

(53:37):
if you've won twenty Super Bowls, been to one hundred
Pro Bowls, whatever it was, you know the exact numbers.
But at the end of the day, we're all gonna die.
And what's gonna matter to me ain't gonna be some
trophy sitting on a wall or some Pro Bowl that
I've been to. What's gonna matter is if Sarah Leice,
Drew Andrew James Junior, Michael Lee Whitworth, and Katherine Whitworth

(53:59):
love people, care about people, and treat people the same
way they'd want to be treated, regardless of where they
come from, their economic status, or skin color or anything else.
If they are quality human beings who love and treat
people the way they should and get the fulfillment of
life through that, I don't give a crap about a
Super Bowl, right, Like that's going to matter to me.

(54:20):
And so that's what I said, but of course the
only thing I quoted it is saying is the end
of the day, we're all going to die, which is
way more entertaining. I agree. I mean it's a lot funnier.
So anyways, have that great moment, and I'll still never
live that way. I think my wife quotes me that
Dumpty's mad at me, like, hey, you want to drop
another quote, end of the day, we're all going to die?

Speaker 2 (54:43):
Well, you don't retire spoiler alert and twenty twenty two. Yeah,
I mean it's like this perfect symbolic I don't even
I can't even say the words, but basically, you play
the Bengals, and you beat the Bengals in the Super Bowl,
you win your or Super Bowl, and then you right
off into the sunset talk to me about it.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
Yeah, and I And the close of that is you
know that week, you know, life comes full circle at you.
I shared the lead deals story about Lee Dyne and
the thankfuls half of that. Well, that led and then
also getting divorced, and that led to me being really lonely.
When I was in Cincinnati as a rookie, and I
started going to the local Boys and Girls club and
developing a relationship with a kid named Derek Barnes, and

(55:28):
I that week, I'm playing in the Super Bowl against
the Cincinnati Bengals, which is just insane. I mean, I
don't claim to have a movie there, but there is
kind of a movie there. I'm playing against the Cincinnati Bengals,
and I win Walter Payton Mann of the Year, and
I decided when they asked me what I wanted to say,
that I wanted to talk about Derek Barnes. And that season,

(55:51):
Derek Barnes played middle linebacker for the Detroit Lions. Unbeknounced
to me and after the game runs up me and
he's like, big wit, Like it's me. You're not going
to remember me. I'm Derek Barnes. You and I used
to hang out when I was a little kid, like six, seven,
eight years old at the Boys and Girls Club in Cincinnati.

(56:11):
You throw the football and hang out and talk about life.
And like, I've been waiting this entire season for this game,
and I hope you'd be healthy and like playing because
I just couldn't wait to tell you I made it.
And I remember just what I blacked out. It was
such an insane moment, like that I was like, wow.
And then fast forward that game that season to the

(56:33):
Super Bowl a week and win wat's Patman of the
Year and they find out I'm going to talk about
this because you have to send in what you're going
to talk about, and they fly to Derek Barnes there
and he's in the crowd for the watch Pagman of
the Year and I win it and I get to
get this speech and talk about it and what a
just insane moment, crazy, crazy emotional moment. And then three

(56:55):
days later, you play in the Super Bowl against the
team that you gave your heart and soul to you
win it. And to close that story, I ran and
gave Joe Burrow a hug, Zach Taylor, and I ran
to look up at my family just to make eye
contact with him until I love them. And Michael Lee Whitworth,
who was crying at his mama's lap in twenty eighteen,

(57:16):
is standing at the front of the Raptors, both arms up,
biceps flexed up, you know, ten years old, and thinks
he runs the world now with a massive smile. And
it's still one of the coolest moments for me. I'll
never forget the image of one him crying in the
first one and two him standing there making eye contact
with me. And the second one that it hit home.

(57:38):
He couldn't wait, you know, for redemption and what a
special moment.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
That's awesome. God, that's just so I mean, yeah, it
is like a movie because it's crazy. Yeah, it's yeah,
you can't you can't imagine it. And I know how
much the being I mean, clearly, it's so clear here
how much the Bengals organization means to you. And you know,
hopefully they are on a path now that brings them success.

(58:05):
It certainly looks like they will over the next few years.
I got to talk about your foundation, Big Wit seventy
seven foundation, not only the winner of the twenty twenty
one Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, which many
consider to be the most prestigious award given to an
NFL player every year. Also in twenty nineteen you win

(58:28):
the Allen Page Community Award winner because you leave Fort Thomas, Kentucky,
and you come to LA and immediately make an impact
here giving money and helping and made an impression here.
You're still in Los Angeles now, I know you're working
for Thursday Night Football tell people how they can become

(58:48):
involved or what Big Wit seventy seven Foundation is doing.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
Now. Yeah, you know, I think for us, when we
lived in Louisiana and played in Cincinnati, we kind of
created a foundation to help us do stuff when the
Louisiana and then much less I do here in LA.
We just kind of personally served in Cincinnati, whether it
be different foundations to the Boys and Girls Club and
Big Brothers, Big Sisters, you name it, really all kinds

(59:11):
of foundations in Cincinnati that we got to be a
part of. It was great and an amazing experience being
part of that community. And then we created some of
our own little things that we would do Christmas time
and things like that. But then I got to be
a part of our and Lewis's Foundation, which did a
lot of stuff in schools and helping develop education for
kids and those things. So I had a lot of
things that I could take with me when I came

(59:32):
to LA and I was like, man, I want to
do some stuff. The Rams, you know, had just moved
there a year before I got there, so they'd only
been there one year moving back from Saint Louis, so
they didn't really have a lot of things in the
ground doing that kind of stuff yet and then trying
and getting it going. So it was a great timing
for me to get involved and already have a background
things that have worked for me and things that had

(59:54):
so in LA it's been insane. I mean, one of
the coolest moments of that year winning Waltz Payton was
when I actually got told I was nominated again, I think,
which was my fifth time being nominated. They had created
a board that you could literally press the buttons like
an app and it'd show you whatever area that was

(01:00:14):
and whatever I had done, whatever I'd done in that community.
They'd have somebody who was speaking and they'd kind of
tell you what, you know, their appreciation was for what
you've done, and maybe tell the story. And so there
was like I forget the number. It was like forty
something spots all over Los Angeles and it literally like
was so cool because it mapped like all over the city.

(01:00:34):
It was so wide range. It was just insane to
look at it and go back and think of the
five years that there's been that many places You've had
an impact and got to do something be a part
of whether it was through social justice stuff, like I'd
created a fund with the Rams myself that I matched
every dollar that the players and coaches gave. You know,
I had created two STEM labs. I built two STEM

(01:00:54):
labs in schools, done a lot of school visits and
things like that, and so it was an I experience,
you know, really being a part of all that. So
I think the best thing to me that people can
do is it's really not about me, just finding ways
man to make people's day. As I've always said, like
I don't care if you're in college and you're struggling,
Like open the door for somebody, see somebody drop their backpack,

(01:01:17):
like help them pick it up. You know, like those
little things matter a lot more than people think. So
to me, like it's not about a dollar amount somebody
can give me or do for me, But man, look
for ways that you can make life about more than
just you, and I bet you'll find out you'll be
a whole lot happier. So I think for me, that's
really what it's all been about. There's no one mission,

(01:01:38):
there's no one foundation. It's like, man, tell me somewhere
that I can like put my hand out and help
somebody up.

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
I'm all in it takes just as much energy to
be nice as it does to be an asshole.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
That's the truth.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
That's my philosophy. You're at on Thursday night football. You
guys got a ton of press, really really entertaining, a
new I would say, fun kind of pre and post
and a halftime show. There you having fun doing it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
It's been a blast. I never thought I would do it.
I mean, throughout my entire career, I avoided all media stuff,
never really wanted to have a social presence, like social media,
any of that type stuff really for the most part.
I mean, but I got into it because I just
got I was like, man, how can it? When I retired,
it was like all these things were thrown at me.
There was a lot of insanely cool offers to like

(01:02:36):
stay involved in the game of football, whether it be
in the front office somewhere or anything, just because people
kind of knew my passion for that kind of stuff.
But I just felt like that wasn't what I wanted
to do to still have all the family time I wanted.
So I kept trying to explore what's another option to
stay involved in this game? Talk about this game, talk
about something I love that's changed my life, and that
became like, hey, well you could always do this. And

(01:02:58):
at that point, as you know, in tea and everything else,
like I am so like we're talking about six months
from now, like you're so behind eight ball, like buddy,
they've given those jobs out a long time ago, and
so I literally like just start bugging the crap out
of people like I'm like, you give me. I've always
been that kind of person, like I got to tell
people like, hey, I'll never forget, like sitting down with

(01:03:19):
Josh Pye at the first time and he's just like, well, man,
that's these decisions are like kind of made pretty good
while back, like I don't know what we do from here,
and I'm like, man, listen, Josh, put me in the room.
I'll do the rest, Like that's all I want. You
give me in that room, I'll handle the rest. Or
give me a chance to speak to somebody on the phone,
like that's how much I care. Like and if people
care and they like me, then ready to work. If

(01:03:40):
it doesn't, oh well, And so you know, we went
through that process and it was crazy and I had
no idea where I'd end up. And Thursday nights sounded
really cool to be able to like coach my kids
throughout the week, go somewhere and do a game and
talk about a game, and then be back Saturdays for
their games. I was like, man, this this would be awesome.

(01:04:01):
And sure enough I got an opportunity to be a contributor.
One thing led to another and you get an opt
to sit on the desk one week and they're like,
we liked it, come back, and then you know, you
go from being a contributor to like, you know, hey,
we're gonna have you sit up there every week and
you'll be part of this team. And so it was

(01:04:22):
an insane, crazy, so much fun, such a humbling experience
to get to be up there every week. I mean,
Richard Shearon, Ron Kitzpatrick, Carrissa, Tony Gonzalez, I mean insane.
It'stead at that desk with some awesome iconic people. Really
and then you add Michael Smith and Taylor Rooks and man,
I mean what a cool I mean, what a insane crew.

(01:04:42):
And then by the way, it's Al Michael's and Kirk
Kirk Street calling the game and Kaylee Hardcom is an
LSU Tiger, you know, a lover and I've known Kayley forever. Honestly,
it couldn't have been more of a family from the jump.
And I always tell people to me, that's what sticks
out for folks. I mean, I don't really go back
and watch our stuff. I can't do that well, but
I do know what we're like the way I can't.

(01:05:04):
So that's that's the weirdest thing ever. Yeah, but it
sticks out when we go somewhere on the road, everyone
meets up, everyone's at dinner, everyone's together in the hotel
and the lobby. You know, it's like you can hardly
work out or function or do anything because it's like
we all have to be together every five seconds. And
so you can just tell that they put a really

(01:05:24):
unique group of just we're a family from the jump,
and it's it's been a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (01:05:29):
That's awesome. Best team in the AFC this year is.

Speaker 1 (01:05:34):
Oh man. I mean, I don't know that you ever
go against what passion my homes pulled off last year.
I mean, I learned my lesson. I was the person
right there with everybody else. Tyreek Hill's gone, you know,
they're not going to be as good. I'm just I'm
biting the hole cheese. You know, look, I love Patrick.
I think he's amazing on so much he can do.

(01:05:56):
I was an idiot right there with everybody else at
the end of the day. So you know, I'll never
pick against Patrick and until somebody else proves me different.
So I'm going Kansaity Chiefs again. I will say this,
I think there's some really intriguing teams, like I got
this sneaky like I just feel like Baltimore or Pittsburgh. No,
I feel like people aren't respecting those two teams and

(01:06:17):
how talented they really are. Pittsburgh, you know what, Mike
Tomlin's a dog man. I mean that dude every year
finds a way to win. And this year. You go
look at Mike Tomlind's history. When they're good on D
line and O line, they're pretty special. They have pretty
good years because it's just the way that dude coaches football.
And so I think they're gonna be pretty good up

(01:06:37):
front on most sides, and I think it's gonna be
interesting to see where that team ends up. And then
I think Baltimore is like that team nobody's talking about.
It really has the roster to end up in pre
dag I'm good at the end of the year. So
I think there's some sneaky teams that are gonna be
interesting to see. The Jets, obviously, with Aaron Rodgers, are
going to be insanely good. I think to me, it's

(01:06:59):
really right now as I sit here, it's New York
Jets or Kansas City Chiefs. Is the two best teams.
Just because you look at the Jets last year when
they had half decent quarterback play, they won with Aaron
and how special he is man, that team should be
really really good. I think the Jets is gonna be
an interesting that way. You kind of see that as

(01:07:20):
they start to gel all of a sudden become really
really special.

Speaker 2 (01:07:24):
NFC. Who's the best team in the NFC? The I mean, the.

Speaker 1 (01:07:28):
Eagles are are right there and the Niners is just
can Brock party back it up? I mean the Niners roster,
I mean Javon Hargrave moving over there from the Eagles.
I mean, I don't think people understand how good he
was last year. I think to me, that's the eagles
biggest question mark is losing somebody like him at the
production that he had. It's one of those things that

(01:07:49):
you know it's gonna be tougher for those Eagles guys
to win on the edge without somebody's specials. He was
an interior rusher. And when he goes to San Francisco,
Nick Bos is gonna be the happiest dude on the
play because now when teams say we're gonna double him
or we're gonna take extra attention, he's got a guy
who's gonna win beside him, and they can't always do that.
So I think San Francisco is going to be crazy special.

(01:08:12):
I just don't know. Can Rock Party take the next
step as he continued to be that guy or was
that just a crazy good streak he had. We'll find out.
It's much like what we didn't know about Jalen Hurts
last year.

Speaker 2 (01:08:25):
Good luck with the season, always entertaining. Always good to
see you have so much fun on Thursday nights. Know this,
I'll be watching for sure. And thanks for coming and
talking to.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
Me, man. I appreciate the owner. Man. It was a
lot of fun, and I can't wait for the year. Man,
it's gonna be excited year two in the new career.
The next year, go go, Let's go.

Speaker 2 (01:08:58):
Thanks so much, my friend. That was a great time.
You are awesome. Thanks for your perspective. I know if
no one else here is. I am excited for the
football season to begin. Thanks for coming on here. Listeners,
Thank you for what you do listen in the case
of this podcast. But you know what, you can also

(01:09:20):
be so much more than a listener. You could be
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Beat on Instagram. Whatever you want to be, you be,
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here every Tuesday. So have a great week and enjoy

(01:09:44):
the NFL opening week. Off the Beat is hosted and
executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer
Lang Lee. Our senior producer is Diego Tapia. Our producers

(01:10:04):
are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and Emily Carr. Our talent
producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and our intern is Ali
Amir Sahied. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak, performed by
the one and only Creed Bratton