September 16, 2022 • 36 mins
New Orleans Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan joins Mike Silver to discuss the Falcons not taking Jordan in the 2011 Draft, plus Atlanta's recent tendency to allow big comebacks, his love for quarterback Jameis Winston, how team culture has changed under head coach Dennis Allen, why Drew Brees changed his stance towards kneeling during the National Anthem, and the Denver Broncos' questionable decision to attempt a potential game-winning 64-yard field goal last week against the Seattle Seahawks. #volume #Herd
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Well, we're back at open mic and this is a
treat and I want to go back to the spring
of twenty eleven, A long time ago. I had one
of my coolest journalistic experiences. There was a young defensive
lineman coming out of cal named Cam Jordan's. Uh. He
was getting some pre draft hype, and somehow I got
(00:26):
myself invited to what was basically a job interview. It
was Cab Jordan's, his agent Doug Hendrickson, yours truly, and
then Falcons general manager Thomas de Bittrof at a restaurant
in San Francisco having a great dinner and uh, talking
about you know, all things Cam. The Falcons had the
(00:48):
twenty seven pick in that draft, so it looked like
they might not be able to get them unless they
made a move. They did make a move, but they
didn't get him, and here you are, Cab still a
member of the New Orleans Saints. I'll say they might
not have had to make a move. I mean, I
think about you know, where Atlantic overall pick. You know,
(01:10):
I thought I was going top fifteen and and it
didn't go that way that I thought. Um Atlanta was
talking and I was like, you know, Atlanta is not
a bad division being and we knew that NFC Salad
was gonna be a great division for me. I just
didn't know where I was gonna end up. Luckily, I
ended up with the Saints and we started never looked back.
I mean, they went Julio Jones. They just said twenty seven.
They jumped up, they grabbed Julio. Um, you know, I
(01:31):
couldn't blame him at that San Francisco they went out
of Smith, So you know, I thought Tampa and Tampa
they went um, you know, they went for a defensive
end named Agent Claiborne, not Cam Jordans. So I just
may have overestimated myself. Well, it is funny how the
football gods did this because the Falcons they went up
and got Julio. Okay, we you know, we get that
(01:53):
he's he was a game changer, but you ended up
on the Saints. And I feel like there's some thing
going on with the Saints and Falcons, like maybe some
sort of animosity back and forth. Do you do you
use any of that to fuel you or you're like, man,
the Falcons took me out to dinner. It didn't take me. No,
(02:14):
I can't again I can't blame him. They went, WHOA Jones,
that's gonna be you know, he's gonna be a Hall
of Famer the moment he decides to wrap it up. Um,
you can't argue that. You know, you think about all
the D line that went out in eleven. Draft class
is probably just gonna go down as the greatest draft
class ever in my mind, and you can't really argue.
You can argue with tell me, you know two thousand
(02:35):
fourteen or whatever it is Aaron Donald's class win, and
I'm sure they've got some great ones, but in my mind,
there's no higher class in two GLOUSD eleven. Think about
the D linement alone that went. You know you had
von Miller, who is the current sack sack leader. Um,
what you got a hundred seventeen sacks currently you've got
you know, uh, number three overall. Marcella Darius was a
nose tap of like tin sacks, multiple Pro Bowls at
(02:57):
that position. Um, I think you know I went to also.
I wanted to be in the Bay. I thought San
Francisco at seven, but they went Altin Smith out of Missouri. Um,
and you couldn't argue that first ever, the forty like
fastest ever the forty five sacks, which I think was
only beat out by Daniel Hunter. But I mean just
super talented. Um. Then of course you go from there J. J. Watt,
(03:17):
you know three three times d p o y. Uh,
You've got Ryan Carrigan. A problem between the two was
Robert Um. I'm gonna say, yeah, so so you had
you Robert quinn Um. Then you've got you know, but
another two or three got Corey legit Um, who was
he out of Corey was out of the University of Illinois.
(03:39):
Then you know, you got Angel Claybourne out of Iowa.
Then you had uh myself or then they had Phil
Taylor from Baylor. Then you had myself, Then you had
Mohammed Workerson, and then you had Cam Hayward. I mean
not alone. I'm just saying that the amount of Pro
Bowls just between d. Lineman doesn't even add in guys
like A. J. Green and Pat p and you know
(04:01):
Cam Newton. It was it was uh yeah, So I
want to stay on the Falcons for a second. Um,
you opened your season against the Atlanta Falcons. Wasn't looking
wasn't looking good. In the fourth quarter, you were down
sixteen points to the Atlanta Falcons. Right, is there any
team you'd rather be down a lot of points to
(04:23):
in the fourth quarter that the Atlanta Falcons, I mean,
history would say no. Um, if you if you look
at their last Super Bowl appearance and now last game,
you'd say, if you're down by more than two times
of downs, it's okay. You can find you can scrap
your way out there. You know you can out tough
them and outlast them. But because it happened to Hims
so earlier this year, they still have a chance to
(04:45):
still piece some things together and figure it out so
that by the time we play them, we're gonna catch
their best shot. Again. We always just catch the team's
best shots. Like whatever you know we think we're gonna
break down on film, they always do something that deviates
from that plan. You feel like it just is what
it is. We're the saying we're the big brothers of
the NFC South, And whether you're going to admit it
or not, yere in year out since I've been here Carolina,
(05:07):
even when they took took the division about three years,
their their target was US Atlanta wants to beat us
at Atlantis wants to win the division. Even Atlanta bunch
to Super Bowl, their target was to beat us and
and our minds. You know, Pampa Bay is another team
that we got coming up, and they're the same thing.
I feel like in my mind, we're the ones that
are targeted. I don't know if there's a rivalry between
anybody except us in Atlanta, but in the NFC South,
(05:29):
we get everybody's best shot for whatever you so Atlanta,
I looked this up since five times in the NFL
team has been up by fifteen or more and lost
three of those five are I think the model which
they're they're they're like, they're like team model. Slogan anthem
(05:51):
that they pump out there is rise Up. I think
they have to live up to their expectations. Do you
let them know as it's happening in that last week,
in that moment, are you like, guys, that's happening again,
you're choking? This is what you do? Or not? Oh?
Not at all. We're focused on about what the Saints
are doing. Now. Granted we have a little bit of
(06:12):
animosity that was going on. Sure, you know, they even
had a chance where the refs, you know, called Jarvis
Landry out of bounds even though he was inbounds, and
then they hit us with an intentional grounding from Jameis
Winston when it should have just been a regular clock
because he was clearly inbound. But the rough caussette. Otherwise,
you know, they're just you know, they're always giving up
second chances, and that may cause a little bit more
(06:34):
animosity necessary. You know, you had number eighty nine push
up my guy Marshawn, and Marshawn would shove him back,
and then he did a whole I don't know what
acting classes he took, but he did like a whole
front flip like he was some sort of stunt double.
It was impressive the amount of rotation he got. Um,
but you know they got him. They gave him another
set of downs and is able to do this cake
and then we blocked that too. So either, no matter
(06:57):
what happens, we know that we can trust our guys
in building fight and play all sixty minutes. So I'm
sensing a little animosity toward the Falcons for you, which
I would expect having been in New Orleans for so long.
You know, you've been there more than a decade. But um,
you know, let's go to Tampa because you played them
week two. I saw that Todd Bowles apparently told his
(07:19):
players this week, hey, guys, it's not a rivalry if
if both teams don't win. And he's referring to the
fact that you've beaten him in the regular season during
the Brady era, you know, very resoundingly. But I also
know that that playoff game, in which is the most
important of all, they were able to take that from
you guys to win the Super Bowl. So does that
(07:41):
alone make it a rivalry. I'm gonna let you figure
that one out. If you win one out of five times.
I don't even know what my record is in the
last less let's call it eleven years because the twenty
third time I played him, But a lot like other teams,
I feel like, again they're they're targeting us for a reason,
and we have to rise to this challenge each every Sunday.
(08:02):
You know, we have to be able to play our
best ball because they have a phenomenal, you know, a
phenomenal set of weapons on the offensive side, with Julio Jones,
now with Kyle Rudolph, with you know, the mainstay of
of Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, you know letter and four
Nett and then you know Jamis Leaves and they bring
in the what I can't even say, the winning is quarterback,
(08:23):
but quarterback with six rings at the time getting his
seventh ring with Temple. So you replace the number one
overall pick with the greatest quarterback, the most accomplished quarterback
of our era and tom Blee. So what else? What
else can you do? At this point, we know we
have to we have to put up our best game.
We have no room for her. By the way that
(08:45):
Leonard Fournette kind of got Michael Parsons on that block
when he wasn't looking. I know you've seen the video.
It's a chip. Yeah, it's a chip. It's there's been
clear times where are running back and slip out and
give you a chip. It's a part of the game,
you know. Um if anything I've seen, I've seen some
up here about you know, we should take the chip
(09:06):
blocks away. I'm like, get me back being able to
just hit the quarterback and not have to worry about
where my hand is placed or if I slapped his ankle,
or god forbid, I hit him going full speed and
I didn't turn and rotate out of my own way
to land on a quarterback, like, let's just let's just
make the game what it used to be fun. You know.
We had Von Miller on this program and he told
(09:28):
a story about their playoff game this last January. Uh,
they were killing him and he started trash talking Tom
Brady a little bit, and then as soon as he
did that, the comeback started and Vaughan was like, what
did I do? I will never do this again. Um,
have have you trash talk Tom Brady? Ever? Can you
(09:50):
trash Tom tell Brady? Like point, you know, maybe Von
can't because he's a Super Bowl m v P himself,
But I don't have the accolades to be like, hey Tom,
this is what we're gonna do. And he was like, yeah,
I'm on seven Super Bowl rings. Touchet Like, there's no
there's no one aspect you could be like, yeah, Tom,
you're soft your quarterback, You're gonna be soft Like you
(10:11):
can't ever be like, yeah, you're not making all the throws.
I've shown you. I can make every throw. We're going
to disguise of defense. I've seen every defense. You have
been this league for twenty three years now. I'm proud
of your dozen he's been for twenty three Could I
could I, you know, talk a little trash with him?
Sure about maybe some gray hairs, maybe, I don't know,
Like what else? You don't talk to him Like you're
(10:33):
not You're not that fast. We knew this already, Like,
what are you gonna say? You could be like, you're
only gonna make thirty seven point five million a year
when you retire off TV. Yeah, you're only going to
eclipse your entire career salary in the first eight years
of your analysts deal or whatever you sign, or you're
you're gonna eclipse that with your crypto deal that you signed.
(10:55):
Who knows, you know? Like at this point, Um, quarterback
money has always been different, and we never really cared.
You know, that's not gonna help you win this game.
What's gonna help you win this game is is us
playing our best ball and we're getting the Saints de Wie.
That's all we really care about. Let's talk about your quarterback.
You've been a big Jamis Winston fans since he arrived.
(11:16):
You publicly campaigned during free agency to get him back. Um,
what is it that has made you so excited about Jamis?
Come on? I was. I was excited with James. I
remember probably his second or third year in the league.
I saw him an offseason. I was talked to him.
I was like, eventually going to have to just come
and join this black and gold. Man. He's like, now
(11:37):
you could come joint tample. Oh, man, like we got
something you don't over there. You know we've got an
oc that it gets you right now. Um, And you
know he came over here, he took a year behind
h Drew, and then he took some time behind Taystom,
and then when it was his time, he stepped up
and shine even brighter than he was when he was
in in that red. Um. You know, it was a
(11:59):
quarterback who for five tho yards and everybody was all,
you know, negative about it, like, oh you thret interceptions.
Let's say, do you know how how quarterbacks are able
to throw for five thousand yards? There's plenty quarterbacks get
hundred forty five hundred, but to break that five thousand barriers,
the man stop. So that being said, you learned from
Drew Brees for a year, you clean up some of
(12:20):
those mistakes you learned from Sean Payton. You you get
get with our o c Um. There's so many things
that that can happen that can be great. Um, and
I think that he's capitalized on those, you know, when
he's playing his former team, does that you know you
think that gets the juices flowing a little bit extra
in this coming game, I think so, I mean for him,
(12:43):
it probably will for us. Again at the defense, we've
got to we've got to control what we can control.
We've gotta handle what we're able to handle. Um, we're
trying to get back to playing our football, you know,
stopping the run first, because I think this last game
with our running back, Mariotta running back, you know, Cordourel
Patterson also, you know, the we didn't know what Drink
(13:06):
London was capable of, and we knew Kyle Pitts was
a wide receiver. That has created mismatches. I think that
they've done great things over there. Uh, and they ended
up running for you know, a hundred twenty yards on
the ground from Cordorea Patterson. That can't happen in our defense.
We know better than that. You know, We've we've got
to be able to tune back into what we're great at,
and that's top of the run first. And then getting
after the pass. You've had Dennis Allen as your defensive coordinator.
(13:29):
You had him in one he was coming off a
rough first time stand as a head coach with the Raiders. Um,
how has he been as head coach? And has it
been what you expected? He's been exactly what we expected. Um,
that's somebody that you know was gonna be aggressive in
terms of our defense, and then from there you knew
(13:50):
that you were going to be able to attack. Uh,
you know, I guess the biggest change would be, like,
I've never had a defensive minded head coach, So I'm
just like actually getting the love that I feel like
defense is always deserved. You know, like in practice, if
we don't run our stuff right now, it's hey, let's
run this beat. Previously it's just like, hey, you know,
(14:11):
we'll watch that on film. Or you know, now now
we count I try to make the biggest joke is
now we finally count sacks on on two minute drills.
You know, like if you got an offer of my
head coach and they're never gonna call them, there's two
minutes or know that he would have invaded that. Stop it.
Let's stop the madness, you know, like, let's just counting
for what they are and let's go from there. That's
how we're gonna get better. So you were denied tons
(14:32):
of practice sax in the Sean Payton era. It sounds like, oh,
plenty plenty, But that made me better as a pastors
because you know, like if you get a clean one
off a tackle, but like, oh they just push it on,
that should only amp you up. So it only turns
you up that much more so now when you throw
the all of its alignment into the quarterback and he
looks at you. Not now they're they have to call
this act. They're upset, they're sick about it, and you
(14:54):
love that. Has it felt different than any other way
because Shan's such a big personality, Um, you know, has
it Has it felt different with the probably not? I
mean as much as you know Sean and like, this
is the game plan, this is how we want to
you know as I guess, yeah, I say not not
as much. In terms of the the energy that you're
gonna get off of a quarter of head coach, it
(15:17):
would probably just be again that that shift of a
defensive mindy head coach versus offensive mindy head coach, where
you know, Sean Payne is paying at tution to the
minutia of the white out splits, so you know the
details of the tight end, whether he's off the ball,
off the ball, whatever that is. He's over here, like, hey,
you're at you're at six yards you know you need
me seven you know, six and a half or whatever
(15:38):
it is. And there's some super hyper and focus there.
You got a defensive mindy head coach. Now it's like, hey,
linebacker needs to rotate over here, it needs to be
at the thirty where there whether this is it's the
same focus again. Now we're just getting a little bit
more love and you gotta love to love and and
his peat Carmichael as offensive cord there calling it similarly
to Sean from what you could tell in training camp
(15:59):
going against the one and stuff man, that see, the
only difference you're gonna catch for me, maybe it was
when it was that that melting pot of Sean Pete
drew and that was you know, now it's just Peton
Jamison and I'm sure they got their on new connection.
But no, you're not gonna you're not gonna catch any
drop off. Like I said, we don't really have drop off,
we have nothing, but this is how we're setting up
(16:21):
to attack this Sunday. We're focused this way and this
is we're going to go for it. We're not sitting
back on Hey this is a rebuilding year, or hey
this is we got to get new to the adjustment here.
We're all we're all cylinders going. So my daughter Natalie
and I started a podcast in another calibrad would pass
it down and one of our very first shows, we
(16:43):
had you and your father Steve Jordan's uh six time
Pro Bowl tight end for the Minnesota Vikings for those
Covens out there. Pretty pretty good little NFL player and
very very smart dude, and we had great conversation and
it was you know, it was right after the Ors
Floyd murder and a summer of unrest was going on
and there was a lot going on. Um. One of
(17:06):
the things that struck me, you know, that your dad
said was he was concerned at the time that the
energy you know about fighting racial and social injustice and
police brutality and all those things, that it wasn't going
to be able to be sustainable in its form. And
he he talked about having to do the hard work
(17:26):
day and day out, which he likened to blocking and tackling,
which I thought was a great analogy. I know you've
been very involved on the grassroots level since then. We
can get into that. But do you think the energy
has changed? Was he was his concern founded in terms
of has it fallen off that that momentum that we
had that summer. That's a yes and no. No. I
(17:49):
think the initial reactions were so strong that you want
to catch that tied away. But I think that because
of those those reactions there was some long term change
that is being implemented at your level. Now you're more
aware of it, You're more conscientious of decisions that are
being made of your surroundings. UM. And that alone is
an effect that you would only hope would happen. UM.
(18:09):
There is no such thing that you know things are
going unturned, that you know some of these murders are
getting thrown underneath the rug. Everyone is is quite aware
of what's happening. Um. You can't try to blind eye
to it. And that is one of the biggest parts
of it is you could be like, you know, you
point an instance and nobody would say anything, or you
point like, hey, we need help, we need you know,
(18:31):
we need to do something, but there wasn't those grass
roots organizations get enough attention. And now that they've been highlighted,
you know, I love the work that I've been able
to do here with the present City Corps UH teaming
up with you know, teaming up with the New Orleans
New Orans pd UM and just sort of taking these
small groups and and introducing them to the community viewers,
introducing them to what they're going to be available to
(18:52):
available to within New Orleans itself. And it's just it's
just these small organizations that's helped build up and eventually
a catacorismic change, but you won't notice it. They would
just continue building. It'll hopefully just absorb into our Neuse
soune on norths. We don't have to worry about the
bull that is happening on the streets at times. We
don't have to worry about these policing entities not doing
the damn job. And there's a great four part docuseries
(19:15):
for those of you who haven't seen it on NFL
that ran on NFL Network that details Crescent City, Core
and and CAM and all this great work. How about
in the locker room specifically, you guys had some very
open conversations. Uh, you know, like I think every team
did when all you know, it was during COVID, so
(19:37):
a lot of it was zoomed, but a lot of
a lot of people said a lot of things. And
I know, you know, talking to some white players that
really kind of opened their eyes. They understood it intellectually before,
but they didn't really have a you know, intimate sense
of the experience that some of their friends and teammates were.
(19:57):
We're living and had lived. Has the locker room changed
since then? You know, are are these conversations still kind
of being a half? Yeah, the conversations are always gonna happen.
I mean, no matter what you feel about it. You know,
as a white player, you're never gonna know how it
is to walk in the middle of the night, and
you know, in a in a southern territory. I mean,
(20:18):
you know, even even as a West Coast kid, I
feel like there was some naivety. They're just you know,
sort of being Hey, you know, I'm from Arizona, went
up to North California, where you know, you don't really
hear too much about it, you know, you don't you know,
you're not aware of what's really going on. Then you're
get in the South and you know, you get pulled
over one time you fully understand, like what do you like?
(20:39):
What do you mean? Like are we serious right now?
And you have these situations that happened, and you're like,
all right, you know, I do have to be aware
where I'm at. I do have to know exactly where
I'm going up where, what I'm doing. You know, what
I have on me, what I'm what, whatever I'm caring
is is giving off sort of an aggressive nature. Whatever
it is that I have to be aware that I
(21:01):
have to humble myself when I'm being pulled over. You know,
It's not like I can't just talk the way I
want to it whatever it is. Um, but I have
you know, at the end of day, I'm six ft
four pounds and I can be a problem if I
if I wanted to be, UM, and I'm perceived as
a problem before long before I ever am. So there's
there's a certain way that you have to carry yourself.
(21:21):
In the poacht, you learned that. I guess that's that's
an adulthood situation. Um, that I that I could say
that I was able to be shielded from for for
a long bit. Well, I mean it's you know, it's
it's nice. You know, I don't have to necessarily have
the kind of conversations with my kids that you and
your wife NICKI do with your son Tank, because as
(21:43):
you pointed out to be back then, you know, he's
going to be a big black, you know person, indeed
be big. This is what you have to deal with.
How old is he now? Seven? Seven? Have you have
you had to have you had to have that talk yet?
With him? I mean yes and no. So we've had
(22:05):
we've had the talk. We haven't had to go as
deep as I think my parents did with me when
I was younger, but we've had this time many times
because whenever you get into that public school area and
you're that much bigger than the next person. I mean,
he's seven, but he looks like he's you know, nine
or two. You know, he's got a fullhead on everybody.
He's a lean kid, but he doesn't know his own strength,
so he's you know, he played with his friends and
(22:26):
they get mauled. So these things are going to be
called out, whatever it is, and you have to address
them as they come, you know, Drew Brees, your legendary
teammate at the time, said some things about his opposition
to kneeling for the anthem, and it caused a bit controversy,
and you you took it head on. You talked to him,
(22:46):
you talked about it publicly, and you know, really shared
your feelings and perspective. Did things get awkward during that time, No, No,
not at all. I mean, if I've learned anything over
over my years, it's sometimes you get comfortable in your
own lane, or you get you get in this idea
(23:08):
that you know, I'm not affecting the outside world. It's
like you don't really know what's affecting somebody until you
actually walk a day in their shoes. And no matter
what you do, you can't walk a day in my shoes,
you know. So for him, there was a there was
a moment where he, you know, Drew Brees, whole family,
you served in the military, and he's able to wrap
(23:29):
himself up and hey, this is how I felt about
my grandfather, you and everything about that. And at the
same time, you're deflecting, you know, the what we've already explained.
But we've sort of already gone through what we felt
was the team moment. So those those moments of vulnerability
is where you can see change, you can see actual
growth from and that's you know, that's to be expected.
You talked to him and he's not defensive about it.
(23:52):
He's open to you know, whether it's a you know,
make a mistake or not, it's this is what I said,
this is what I had meant, and these were the
outs that I that I need to convey to you know,
the public. And from there, you know, there's again there's growth.
Whether you the statements after words are just words to me,
but it was the actions after it was it was
(24:12):
the money. You putting the money without there's putting the
time and effort and watching documentaries, just putting the time
to have these conversations with guys like me, with guys
like the Maorio, guys like you know, Malcolm Jako, and
guys like Ben Watson. It was it was the effort
after that that showed me that you know, you know,
a curse and by their actions and by their heart
and I know you had family members in the military.
(24:34):
I mean it's very it's a very nuance. Those uncles. Yeah,
I mean, everybody, everybody has some sort of military connection.
You know, Grandpa was in the army, Uncle and the navy,
um all served and you know you're proud of it.
I go and us to tours myself and I love
you know, everything that our truth to do for our nation. Um.
And even talking with someone who's like, you know, they
(24:55):
understand what the idea for kneeling is, they understand there's
not dispectful. The only you know, efforts that it seemed
to be found at kneeling were people who are adverse
to not opening up their ears and let alone open
up their hearts. So understanding what people's plates were. Have
you have you checked out this story coming out of Mississippi.
(25:16):
Brett Farve, one of the great quarterbacks of all time,
is accused of, you know, doing a deal basically with
the governor that would funnel five million dollars of welfare
funds to build a college volleyball jym where his daughter
was playing in Mississippi. Uh what what? What are your
(25:38):
thoughts on that? What? Like I think like I think
I saw a shadis sharp addressed And it was like,
you know, when you're taking wellfare of dollars for you're
taking money from people who are you know, are underserved.
That's something that you don't have to talk to you
and you make her about like we talked about, you know,
(26:00):
what we want to do. Like everything that you know
I do is I've seen my father do, and I've
seen you know, my teammates do. Serving the community. It
just doesn't follow a line with what we want to do.
So and that's what he's doing. That's what he's doing.
I'm not even addressing that. I know that I want
to help my community as much as I can. I
know I want to help you know, my kids community.
(26:21):
I want to help the surrounding community that I'm in
as much as I can. And taking dollars that you
know you got just because you're gonna take him from
a governor or whatever the situation is, just to take
them from you. Say, wellfare like, what are we doing?
What are you doing? This supposed to go to? We're
supposed to go to at the end of the day,
Be a good person, Be be a better person of
(26:42):
your community. Um, you know, your dad's one of the
great dudes, you know, very active in the Players Union,
went to Brown has had a great post football career
in the business world. I know he was into discipline
at all that and you guys have a great relationship hip. Um,
(27:02):
he's a competitive guy who went to six consecutive Pro Bowls,
So I know when you went to your first one,
he was like, man, I'm so proud of your son.
Probably when you went to your third, he was like,
this is so great. You just got your seventh selection,
which beats him. Did you get a congrats? Yeah, of course.
(27:23):
In fact, now it's just I'm coming in, and it's
not it's not a discussion of like if he's gonna
come in or if I'm going to pay for it now,
and that's just on my tap to be clear, I'm
coming in on your tap. And then you know, he
gave me, he gave me happy DNA to be where
I met, so who might have whom you know, it's
just he's not he's not he's not mad that he's
(27:46):
in the second place now with the family. Oh no,
I mean that's what he's supposed to do. It's supposed
to take one step farther. You know, I expect if
take place football to go. You know, I won't put
those infectations on him. But if he goes for eight
or nine foot bowl I'm just gonna noide my head.
I'm just like you know, And that's why I had
him to improve the legacy. And if he decides to
(28:07):
be a taxidermist, great, I guess I'll just be over
there and looking for my next my next pill. I'm
just I'm just hoping he goes to the greatest university
on earth and goes to a Rose Bowl. That's that's
the number one consideration right now. You'd say that, But
are we even gonna have a pack by the time
he gets in college? Is a rose is gonna be
(28:27):
automatic bid? If you win the pack, it's gonna be
a pack. It's gonna be. It's gonna be. It's gonna
be what Cal and Stanford left. No, Stanford is probably
gonna get the Ivy Leagues. The big tent is gonna
absorb half the pack. Uh, A sec may take a
pack school because apparently traveling is not the common sense
for anybody. It's gonna be a living nightmare. This is
(28:48):
my plan. Cam. If it could just be the pack
to stay with Arizona and Cal or Stanford and Cal
and we keep the Rose Bowl bid, we we might
win that. We can win the pack too. Maybe maybe
not that's that you said that. You know, I got
a firm belief in the cal this year. You know, after,
hopefully after this year they go back to to Nike,
(29:09):
because it's I feel like I blamed the whole demise
of our ball program on us being an unarmored. You
have to look, as Prime said, look good, play good,
play good. They play good, and an armor wasn't paying good.
By the way, I'm not getting knock on armarm I
would stick up. I would stick up for them, But
there's been some disconnect between the company and the university.
(29:30):
So I think probably I'm gonna allow any of that too,
because you know, listen, I will say this. Um. You know,
there's cow's up into a Rose Bowl in my lifetime
and we've I mean, we have outperformed on Sundays what
we've accomplished on Saturdays for the most part. We still
have many of the league's best players, including you, um,
(29:54):
and it's and it's amazing. So um, you know, sometime
in my lifetime I will experience that, baby. But in
the meantime about Sundays, I'm very very proud. You you know,
there's in the NFC after one week, people are like man,
the NFC has got nobody know. The Packers don't look good,
the Rams don't look good. The Nighters got beat by
(30:16):
the Bears, the Cowboys got beat. Could you guys kind
of like sneakily get in this mix and be, you know,
the NFC champs by the time this is all said
and done. Hey, I'm I'm gonna worried about this week
and next week and by week fourteen, fifteen sixteen. I'm
gonna let the Cards delay when they make Um. I'm
(30:37):
not gonna look ahead because I think that we have
a hell of a challenge in front of us on Sunday.
And from there, I don't know. We got Carolina and
then and then we got London. That's this is the
deepest I've ever known my schedule. After London, I don't
know what happens. I know we got another team game
before bye week, so we're only gonna take this one
week at a time. I'm gonna say we have Tom Brady,
(30:58):
Little for Nett, Mike Evans, Julio Jones, Chris Godwin, Russell Gauge,
Kyle Rudolph, Camon Bread. You see what I'm doing here.
These names that have been here but we have our
work cut out for us in terms of what we
have to do on defense. Is there a I mean,
I know you love sacking any quarterback obviously. Is there
(31:19):
a quarterback you just love to hit or sack more
than any other? I would like to say I love
any and every quarterback equally. You know, as long as
they're willing to hold the ball, pat the ball, maybe
do a seven yard to nine yard dropped, I'm willing
(31:40):
to love them all um and give them big bear
hugs on site. And the design now granted in this
day and age, I have to then immediately after this
bear hug, I have to roll mid air not to
land on their shoulders or hips or body, because this
league is is heading towards putting pillows down as you
(32:02):
hit quarterbacks. But yes, I enjoy each and every quarterback
in the East time. It's like it's like the first time.
It's just great. Is it more of a nightmare having
to play against like a Labar Jackson or Russell Wilson
or Josh Allen who is going to be moving a
moving target as opposed to someone who will sit back
(32:24):
in the pocket. Each each side of quarterback has their
you know, their strengths and weaknesses. Against the lamar you have,
you know, against the Mariota's, you know, you have to
be able to be aware of where the quarterback is.
You're not actually caring about what offensive linemen are doing
because you're worried about, Hey, I can't let this quarterback
escape and it hurt us with his feet, So it
(32:45):
takes away from our pastors moves. But when you're facing
a guy like Tom Brady, who has the fastest release
in the game and has seen every defense and isn't
afraid to check down every play if he has to, Like,
he doesn't get hit much, and there's a reason for
that because the ball gets off fast. He's not moving,
he's not beating you know, my seven year old in
a race. But what he's not gonna do is allow
(33:06):
you to get a chance to hit him. So I
don't know what's worse the fact that you can't really
have your high rush pastress moves on on a mobile quarterback,
or you could beat the tackle all you want, and no,
you're still not gonna get there to the quarterback. At
the end of the day. We're just gonna have to
do our job. Did you watch the first body that
gave it the season with Russell Wilson's return to uh Seattle.
(33:29):
Of course, of course, you know you gotta, we gotta
this good Monday night game. In fact, we'll be watching
the Thursday night Get to night. You know, you gotta love,
you gotta love these games. You learn a lot, just
like you know, what I thought was in it was,
uh just a regular down from Jamie's turned out to
be an intentional grounding because the referees didn't see Jarve's
not going out a lot, you know, a lot like
(33:50):
you know, listening to Peyton Manning on on the Manning Cast,
you know, dropped the thirty six? What are we doing?
What are we doing with you know, the Denver Broncos
having a minute left not using it to get whatever.
You know, they go for sixty three yards field goal
instead of trying to get to you know, a more
manageable kick. You're living and learn, but I know we don't,
(34:12):
we don't talk about it. Take me through that that
from the Jordans living room or whichever room you were in,
if there were a Jordan cast, what you know, it's
it's fourth and five. There's like a little board a
minute ago. They got three time outs there at the
forty six yard line. What what were you saying? I said,
all right, they're gonna put it in us hands. They're
(34:34):
going to, you know, try and try and make this
fourth and five or converted. You know, they got plenty
of time. And then they didn't. And I said, oh,
they got a lot of trust in this kicker. That
is this is different. And then and then he missed, yeah, yeah,
we have you give a quarterback quarter million, quarter billion dollars.
I just figured you you let the quarterback do what
(34:54):
he does best. And I mean it's not like they
hadn't been touching the red zone. They hit the red
zone on a lot. They just had interception red zone
force bundle. So you know, that's their their team. Me,
I'm just gonna worry about what what me and my
team are gonna do Sunday. Did you see the video
of Arthur Smith, the Falcons coach, kind of walking out
of the press conference. Yes, and no. I've seen a
couple of clips of Argus minute. I saw him talking
(35:16):
about how he wouldn't be a part of media earlier
than I need to be. And in the next five years,
maybe we'll discuss it. Um it will be this year,
it will be next year. So um you think that afterwards.
I have no idea. They didn't rise up to their occasion,
so whatever he said. He said, Um, I do know,
actually yeah, I do know about about to n out.
(35:39):
It's about the before meetings are happening. Oh, I'll tell
you what Cam you are as always someone who makes
uh thirty seven minutes seem like thirty seven seconds. You're
the best, and uh, thank you for being part of
open mic and we will see you very soon in person, alright, perfect,
appreciate you might eight
Well, we're back at open mic and this is a
treat and I want to go back to the spring
of twenty eleven, A long time ago. I had one
of my coolest journalistic experiences. There was a young defensive
lineman coming out of cal named Cam Jordan's. Uh. He
was getting some pre draft hype, and somehow I got
(00:26):
myself invited to what was basically a job interview. It
was Cab Jordan's, his agent Doug Hendrickson, yours truly, and
then Falcons general manager Thomas de Bittrof at a restaurant
in San Francisco having a great dinner and uh, talking
about you know, all things Cam. The Falcons had the
(00:48):
twenty seven pick in that draft, so it looked like
they might not be able to get them unless they
made a move. They did make a move, but they
didn't get him, and here you are, Cab still a
member of the New Orleans Saints. I'll say they might
not have had to make a move. I mean, I
think about you know, where Atlantic overall pick. You know,
(01:10):
I thought I was going top fifteen and and it
didn't go that way that I thought. Um Atlanta was
talking and I was like, you know, Atlanta is not
a bad division being and we knew that NFC Salad
was gonna be a great division for me. I just
didn't know where I was gonna end up. Luckily, I
ended up with the Saints and we started never looked back.
I mean, they went Julio Jones. They just said twenty seven.
They jumped up, they grabbed Julio. Um, you know, I
(01:31):
couldn't blame him at that San Francisco they went out
of Smith, So you know, I thought Tampa and Tampa
they went um, you know, they went for a defensive
end named Agent Claiborne, not Cam Jordans. So I just
may have overestimated myself. Well, it is funny how the
football gods did this because the Falcons they went up
and got Julio. Okay, we you know, we get that
(01:53):
he's he was a game changer, but you ended up
on the Saints. And I feel like there's some thing
going on with the Saints and Falcons, like maybe some
sort of animosity back and forth. Do you do you
use any of that to fuel you or you're like, man,
the Falcons took me out to dinner. It didn't take me. No,
(02:14):
I can't again I can't blame him. They went, WHOA Jones,
that's gonna be you know, he's gonna be a Hall
of Famer the moment he decides to wrap it up. Um,
you can't argue that. You know, you think about all
the D line that went out in eleven. Draft class
is probably just gonna go down as the greatest draft
class ever in my mind, and you can't really argue.
You can argue with tell me, you know two thousand
(02:35):
fourteen or whatever it is Aaron Donald's class win, and
I'm sure they've got some great ones, but in my mind,
there's no higher class in two GLOUSD eleven. Think about
the D linement alone that went. You know you had
von Miller, who is the current sack sack leader. Um,
what you got a hundred seventeen sacks currently you've got
you know, uh, number three overall. Marcella Darius was a
nose tap of like tin sacks, multiple Pro Bowls at
(02:57):
that position. Um, I think you know I went to also.
I wanted to be in the Bay. I thought San
Francisco at seven, but they went Altin Smith out of Missouri. Um,
and you couldn't argue that first ever, the forty like
fastest ever the forty five sacks, which I think was
only beat out by Daniel Hunter. But I mean just
super talented. Um. Then of course you go from there J. J. Watt,
(03:17):
you know three three times d p o y. Uh,
You've got Ryan Carrigan. A problem between the two was
Robert Um. I'm gonna say, yeah, so so you had
you Robert quinn Um. Then you've got you know, but
another two or three got Corey legit Um, who was
he out of Corey was out of the University of Illinois.
(03:39):
Then you know, you got Angel Claybourne out of Iowa.
Then you had uh myself or then they had Phil
Taylor from Baylor. Then you had myself, Then you had
Mohammed Workerson, and then you had Cam Hayward. I mean
not alone. I'm just saying that the amount of Pro
Bowls just between d. Lineman doesn't even add in guys
like A. J. Green and Pat p and you know
(04:01):
Cam Newton. It was it was uh yeah, So I
want to stay on the Falcons for a second. Um,
you opened your season against the Atlanta Falcons. Wasn't looking
wasn't looking good. In the fourth quarter, you were down
sixteen points to the Atlanta Falcons. Right, is there any
team you'd rather be down a lot of points to
(04:23):
in the fourth quarter that the Atlanta Falcons, I mean,
history would say no. Um, if you if you look
at their last Super Bowl appearance and now last game,
you'd say, if you're down by more than two times
of downs, it's okay. You can find you can scrap
your way out there. You know you can out tough
them and outlast them. But because it happened to Hims
so earlier this year, they still have a chance to
(04:45):
still piece some things together and figure it out so
that by the time we play them, we're gonna catch
their best shot. Again. We always just catch the team's
best shots. Like whatever you know we think we're gonna
break down on film, they always do something that deviates
from that plan. You feel like it just is what
it is. We're the saying we're the big brothers of
the NFC South, And whether you're going to admit it
or not, yere in year out since I've been here Carolina,
(05:07):
even when they took took the division about three years,
their their target was US Atlanta wants to beat us
at Atlantis wants to win the division. Even Atlanta bunch
to Super Bowl, their target was to beat us and
and our minds. You know, Pampa Bay is another team
that we got coming up, and they're the same thing.
I feel like in my mind, we're the ones that
are targeted. I don't know if there's a rivalry between
anybody except us in Atlanta, but in the NFC South,
(05:29):
we get everybody's best shot for whatever you so Atlanta,
I looked this up since five times in the NFL
team has been up by fifteen or more and lost
three of those five are I think the model which
they're they're they're like, they're like team model. Slogan anthem
(05:51):
that they pump out there is rise Up. I think
they have to live up to their expectations. Do you
let them know as it's happening in that last week,
in that moment, are you like, guys, that's happening again,
you're choking? This is what you do? Or not? Oh?
Not at all. We're focused on about what the Saints
are doing. Now. Granted we have a little bit of
(06:12):
animosity that was going on. Sure, you know, they even
had a chance where the refs, you know, called Jarvis
Landry out of bounds even though he was inbounds, and
then they hit us with an intentional grounding from Jameis
Winston when it should have just been a regular clock
because he was clearly inbound. But the rough caussette. Otherwise,
you know, they're just you know, they're always giving up
second chances, and that may cause a little bit more
(06:34):
animosity necessary. You know, you had number eighty nine push
up my guy Marshawn, and Marshawn would shove him back,
and then he did a whole I don't know what
acting classes he took, but he did like a whole
front flip like he was some sort of stunt double.
It was impressive the amount of rotation he got. Um,
but you know they got him. They gave him another
set of downs and is able to do this cake
and then we blocked that too. So either, no matter
(06:57):
what happens, we know that we can trust our guys
in building fight and play all sixty minutes. So I'm
sensing a little animosity toward the Falcons for you, which
I would expect having been in New Orleans for so long.
You know, you've been there more than a decade. But um,
you know, let's go to Tampa because you played them
week two. I saw that Todd Bowles apparently told his
(07:19):
players this week, hey, guys, it's not a rivalry if
if both teams don't win. And he's referring to the
fact that you've beaten him in the regular season during
the Brady era, you know, very resoundingly. But I also
know that that playoff game, in which is the most
important of all, they were able to take that from
you guys to win the Super Bowl. So does that
(07:41):
alone make it a rivalry. I'm gonna let you figure
that one out. If you win one out of five times.
I don't even know what my record is in the
last less let's call it eleven years because the twenty
third time I played him, But a lot like other teams,
I feel like, again they're they're targeting us for a reason,
and we have to rise to this challenge each every Sunday.
(08:02):
You know, we have to be able to play our
best ball because they have a phenomenal, you know, a
phenomenal set of weapons on the offensive side, with Julio Jones,
now with Kyle Rudolph, with you know, the mainstay of
of Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, you know letter and four
Nett and then you know Jamis Leaves and they bring
in the what I can't even say, the winning is quarterback,
(08:23):
but quarterback with six rings at the time getting his
seventh ring with Temple. So you replace the number one
overall pick with the greatest quarterback, the most accomplished quarterback
of our era and tom Blee. So what else? What
else can you do? At this point, we know we
have to we have to put up our best game.
We have no room for her. By the way that
(08:45):
Leonard Fournette kind of got Michael Parsons on that block
when he wasn't looking. I know you've seen the video.
It's a chip. Yeah, it's a chip. It's there's been
clear times where are running back and slip out and
give you a chip. It's a part of the game,
you know. Um if anything I've seen, I've seen some
up here about you know, we should take the chip
(09:06):
blocks away. I'm like, get me back being able to
just hit the quarterback and not have to worry about
where my hand is placed or if I slapped his ankle,
or god forbid, I hit him going full speed and
I didn't turn and rotate out of my own way
to land on a quarterback, like, let's just let's just
make the game what it used to be fun. You know.
We had Von Miller on this program and he told
(09:28):
a story about their playoff game this last January. Uh,
they were killing him and he started trash talking Tom
Brady a little bit, and then as soon as he
did that, the comeback started and Vaughan was like, what
did I do? I will never do this again. Um,
have have you trash talk Tom Brady? Ever? Can you
(09:50):
trash Tom tell Brady? Like point, you know, maybe Von
can't because he's a Super Bowl m v P himself,
But I don't have the accolades to be like, hey Tom,
this is what we're gonna do. And he was like, yeah,
I'm on seven Super Bowl rings. Touchet Like, there's no
there's no one aspect you could be like, yeah, Tom,
you're soft your quarterback, You're gonna be soft Like you
(10:11):
can't ever be like, yeah, you're not making all the throws.
I've shown you. I can make every throw. We're going
to disguise of defense. I've seen every defense. You have
been this league for twenty three years now. I'm proud
of your dozen he's been for twenty three Could I
could I, you know, talk a little trash with him?
Sure about maybe some gray hairs, maybe, I don't know,
Like what else? You don't talk to him Like you're
(10:33):
not You're not that fast. We knew this already, Like,
what are you gonna say? You could be like, you're
only gonna make thirty seven point five million a year
when you retire off TV. Yeah, you're only going to
eclipse your entire career salary in the first eight years
of your analysts deal or whatever you sign, or you're
you're gonna eclipse that with your crypto deal that you signed.
(10:55):
Who knows, you know? Like at this point, Um, quarterback
money has always been different, and we never really cared.
You know, that's not gonna help you win this game.
What's gonna help you win this game is is us
playing our best ball and we're getting the Saints de Wie.
That's all we really care about. Let's talk about your quarterback.
You've been a big Jamis Winston fans since he arrived.
(11:16):
You publicly campaigned during free agency to get him back. Um,
what is it that has made you so excited about Jamis?
Come on? I was. I was excited with James. I
remember probably his second or third year in the league.
I saw him an offseason. I was talked to him.
I was like, eventually going to have to just come
and join this black and gold. Man. He's like, now
(11:37):
you could come joint tample. Oh, man, like we got
something you don't over there. You know we've got an
oc that it gets you right now. Um, And you
know he came over here, he took a year behind
h Drew, and then he took some time behind Taystom,
and then when it was his time, he stepped up
and shine even brighter than he was when he was
in in that red. Um. You know, it was a
(11:59):
quarterback who for five tho yards and everybody was all,
you know, negative about it, like, oh you thret interceptions.
Let's say, do you know how how quarterbacks are able
to throw for five thousand yards? There's plenty quarterbacks get
hundred forty five hundred, but to break that five thousand barriers,
the man stop. So that being said, you learned from
Drew Brees for a year, you clean up some of
(12:20):
those mistakes you learned from Sean Payton. You you get
get with our o c Um. There's so many things
that that can happen that can be great. Um, and
I think that he's capitalized on those, you know, when
he's playing his former team, does that you know you
think that gets the juices flowing a little bit extra
in this coming game, I think so, I mean for him,
(12:43):
it probably will for us. Again at the defense, we've
got to we've got to control what we can control.
We've gotta handle what we're able to handle. Um, we're
trying to get back to playing our football, you know,
stopping the run first, because I think this last game
with our running back, Mariotta running back, you know, Cordourel
Patterson also, you know, the we didn't know what Drink
(13:06):
London was capable of, and we knew Kyle Pitts was
a wide receiver. That has created mismatches. I think that
they've done great things over there. Uh, and they ended
up running for you know, a hundred twenty yards on
the ground from Cordorea Patterson. That can't happen in our defense.
We know better than that. You know, We've we've got
to be able to tune back into what we're great at,
and that's top of the run first. And then getting
after the pass. You've had Dennis Allen as your defensive coordinator.
(13:29):
You had him in one he was coming off a
rough first time stand as a head coach with the Raiders. Um,
how has he been as head coach? And has it
been what you expected? He's been exactly what we expected. Um,
that's somebody that you know was gonna be aggressive in
terms of our defense, and then from there you knew
(13:50):
that you were going to be able to attack. Uh,
you know, I guess the biggest change would be, like,
I've never had a defensive minded head coach, So I'm
just like actually getting the love that I feel like
defense is always deserved. You know, like in practice, if
we don't run our stuff right now, it's hey, let's
run this beat. Previously it's just like, hey, you know,
(14:11):
we'll watch that on film. Or you know, now now
we count I try to make the biggest joke is
now we finally count sacks on on two minute drills.
You know, like if you got an offer of my
head coach and they're never gonna call them, there's two
minutes or know that he would have invaded that. Stop it.
Let's stop the madness, you know, like, let's just counting
for what they are and let's go from there. That's
how we're gonna get better. So you were denied tons
(14:32):
of practice sax in the Sean Payton era. It sounds like, oh,
plenty plenty, But that made me better as a pastors
because you know, like if you get a clean one
off a tackle, but like, oh they just push it on,
that should only amp you up. So it only turns
you up that much more so now when you throw
the all of its alignment into the quarterback and he
looks at you. Not now they're they have to call
this act. They're upset, they're sick about it, and you
(14:54):
love that. Has it felt different than any other way
because Shan's such a big personality, Um, you know, has
it Has it felt different with the probably not? I
mean as much as you know Sean and like, this
is the game plan, this is how we want to
you know as I guess, yeah, I say not not
as much. In terms of the the energy that you're
gonna get off of a quarter of head coach, it
(15:17):
would probably just be again that that shift of a
defensive mindy head coach versus offensive mindy head coach, where
you know, Sean Payne is paying at tution to the
minutia of the white out splits, so you know the
details of the tight end, whether he's off the ball,
off the ball, whatever that is. He's over here, like, hey,
you're at you're at six yards you know you need
me seven you know, six and a half or whatever
(15:38):
it is. And there's some super hyper and focus there.
You got a defensive mindy head coach. Now it's like, hey,
linebacker needs to rotate over here, it needs to be
at the thirty where there whether this is it's the
same focus again. Now we're just getting a little bit
more love and you gotta love to love and and
his peat Carmichael as offensive cord there calling it similarly
to Sean from what you could tell in training camp
(15:59):
going against the one and stuff man, that see, the
only difference you're gonna catch for me, maybe it was
when it was that that melting pot of Sean Pete
drew and that was you know, now it's just Peton
Jamison and I'm sure they got their on new connection.
But no, you're not gonna you're not gonna catch any
drop off. Like I said, we don't really have drop off,
we have nothing, but this is how we're setting up
(16:21):
to attack this Sunday. We're focused this way and this
is we're going to go for it. We're not sitting
back on Hey this is a rebuilding year, or hey
this is we got to get new to the adjustment here.
We're all we're all cylinders going. So my daughter Natalie
and I started a podcast in another calibrad would pass
it down and one of our very first shows, we
(16:43):
had you and your father Steve Jordan's uh six time
Pro Bowl tight end for the Minnesota Vikings for those
Covens out there. Pretty pretty good little NFL player and
very very smart dude, and we had great conversation and
it was you know, it was right after the Ors
Floyd murder and a summer of unrest was going on
and there was a lot going on. Um. One of
(17:06):
the things that struck me, you know, that your dad
said was he was concerned at the time that the
energy you know about fighting racial and social injustice and
police brutality and all those things, that it wasn't going
to be able to be sustainable in its form. And
he he talked about having to do the hard work
(17:26):
day and day out, which he likened to blocking and tackling,
which I thought was a great analogy. I know you've
been very involved on the grassroots level since then. We
can get into that. But do you think the energy
has changed? Was he was his concern founded in terms
of has it fallen off that that momentum that we
had that summer. That's a yes and no. No. I
(17:49):
think the initial reactions were so strong that you want
to catch that tied away. But I think that because
of those those reactions there was some long term change
that is being implemented at your level. Now you're more
aware of it, You're more conscientious of decisions that are
being made of your surroundings. UM. And that alone is
an effect that you would only hope would happen. UM.
(18:09):
There is no such thing that you know things are
going unturned, that you know some of these murders are
getting thrown underneath the rug. Everyone is is quite aware
of what's happening. Um. You can't try to blind eye
to it. And that is one of the biggest parts
of it is you could be like, you know, you
point an instance and nobody would say anything, or you
point like, hey, we need help, we need you know,
(18:31):
we need to do something, but there wasn't those grass
roots organizations get enough attention. And now that they've been highlighted,
you know, I love the work that I've been able
to do here with the present City Corps UH teaming
up with you know, teaming up with the New Orleans
New Orans pd UM and just sort of taking these
small groups and and introducing them to the community viewers,
introducing them to what they're going to be available to
(18:52):
available to within New Orleans itself. And it's just it's
just these small organizations that's helped build up and eventually
a catacorismic change, but you won't notice it. They would
just continue building. It'll hopefully just absorb into our Neuse
soune on norths. We don't have to worry about the
bull that is happening on the streets at times. We
don't have to worry about these policing entities not doing
the damn job. And there's a great four part docuseries
(19:15):
for those of you who haven't seen it on NFL
that ran on NFL Network that details Crescent City, Core
and and CAM and all this great work. How about
in the locker room specifically, you guys had some very
open conversations. Uh, you know, like I think every team
did when all you know, it was during COVID, so
(19:37):
a lot of it was zoomed, but a lot of
a lot of people said a lot of things. And
I know, you know, talking to some white players that
really kind of opened their eyes. They understood it intellectually before,
but they didn't really have a you know, intimate sense
of the experience that some of their friends and teammates were.
(19:57):
We're living and had lived. Has the locker room changed
since then? You know, are are these conversations still kind
of being a half? Yeah, the conversations are always gonna happen.
I mean, no matter what you feel about it. You know,
as a white player, you're never gonna know how it
is to walk in the middle of the night, and
you know, in a in a southern territory. I mean,
(20:18):
you know, even even as a West Coast kid, I
feel like there was some naivety. They're just you know,
sort of being Hey, you know, I'm from Arizona, went
up to North California, where you know, you don't really
hear too much about it, you know, you don't you know,
you're not aware of what's really going on. Then you're
get in the South and you know, you get pulled
over one time you fully understand, like what do you like?
(20:39):
What do you mean? Like are we serious right now?
And you have these situations that happened, and you're like,
all right, you know, I do have to be aware
where I'm at. I do have to know exactly where
I'm going up where, what I'm doing. You know, what
I have on me, what I'm what, whatever I'm caring
is is giving off sort of an aggressive nature. Whatever
it is that I have to be aware that I
(21:01):
have to humble myself when I'm being pulled over. You know,
It's not like I can't just talk the way I
want to it whatever it is. Um, but I have
you know, at the end of day, I'm six ft
four pounds and I can be a problem if I
if I wanted to be, UM, and I'm perceived as
a problem before long before I ever am. So there's
there's a certain way that you have to carry yourself.
(21:21):
In the poacht, you learned that. I guess that's that's
an adulthood situation. Um, that I that I could say
that I was able to be shielded from for for
a long bit. Well, I mean it's you know, it's
it's nice. You know, I don't have to necessarily have
the kind of conversations with my kids that you and
your wife NICKI do with your son Tank, because as
(21:43):
you pointed out to be back then, you know, he's
going to be a big black, you know person, indeed
be big. This is what you have to deal with.
How old is he now? Seven? Seven? Have you have
you had to have you had to have that talk yet?
With him? I mean yes and no. So we've had
(22:05):
we've had the talk. We haven't had to go as
deep as I think my parents did with me when
I was younger, but we've had this time many times
because whenever you get into that public school area and
you're that much bigger than the next person. I mean,
he's seven, but he looks like he's you know, nine
or two. You know, he's got a fullhead on everybody.
He's a lean kid, but he doesn't know his own strength,
so he's you know, he played with his friends and
(22:26):
they get mauled. So these things are going to be
called out, whatever it is, and you have to address
them as they come, you know, Drew Brees, your legendary
teammate at the time, said some things about his opposition
to kneeling for the anthem, and it caused a bit controversy,
and you you took it head on. You talked to him,
(22:46):
you talked about it publicly, and you know, really shared
your feelings and perspective. Did things get awkward during that time, No, No,
not at all. I mean, if I've learned anything over
over my years, it's sometimes you get comfortable in your
own lane, or you get you get in this idea
(23:08):
that you know, I'm not affecting the outside world. It's
like you don't really know what's affecting somebody until you
actually walk a day in their shoes. And no matter
what you do, you can't walk a day in my shoes,
you know. So for him, there was a there was
a moment where he, you know, Drew Brees, whole family,
you served in the military, and he's able to wrap
(23:29):
himself up and hey, this is how I felt about
my grandfather, you and everything about that. And at the
same time, you're deflecting, you know, the what we've already explained.
But we've sort of already gone through what we felt
was the team moment. So those those moments of vulnerability
is where you can see change, you can see actual
growth from and that's you know, that's to be expected.
You talked to him and he's not defensive about it.
(23:52):
He's open to you know, whether it's a you know,
make a mistake or not, it's this is what I said,
this is what I had meant, and these were the
outs that I that I need to convey to you know,
the public. And from there, you know, there's again there's growth.
Whether you the statements after words are just words to me,
but it was the actions after it was it was
(24:12):
the money. You putting the money without there's putting the
time and effort and watching documentaries, just putting the time
to have these conversations with guys like me, with guys
like the Maorio, guys like you know, Malcolm Jako, and
guys like Ben Watson. It was it was the effort
after that that showed me that you know, you know,
a curse and by their actions and by their heart
and I know you had family members in the military.
(24:34):
I mean it's very it's a very nuance. Those uncles. Yeah,
I mean, everybody, everybody has some sort of military connection.
You know, Grandpa was in the army, Uncle and the navy,
um all served and you know you're proud of it.
I go and us to tours myself and I love
you know, everything that our truth to do for our nation. Um.
And even talking with someone who's like, you know, they
(24:55):
understand what the idea for kneeling is, they understand there's
not dispectful. The only you know, efforts that it seemed
to be found at kneeling were people who are adverse
to not opening up their ears and let alone open
up their hearts. So understanding what people's plates were. Have
you have you checked out this story coming out of Mississippi.
(25:16):
Brett Farve, one of the great quarterbacks of all time,
is accused of, you know, doing a deal basically with
the governor that would funnel five million dollars of welfare
funds to build a college volleyball jym where his daughter
was playing in Mississippi. Uh what what? What are your
(25:38):
thoughts on that? What? Like I think like I think
I saw a shadis sharp addressed And it was like,
you know, when you're taking wellfare of dollars for you're
taking money from people who are you know, are underserved.
That's something that you don't have to talk to you
and you make her about like we talked about, you know,
(26:00):
what we want to do. Like everything that you know
I do is I've seen my father do, and I've
seen you know, my teammates do. Serving the community. It
just doesn't follow a line with what we want to do.
So and that's what he's doing. That's what he's doing.
I'm not even addressing that. I know that I want
to help my community as much as I can. I
know I want to help you know, my kids community.
(26:21):
I want to help the surrounding community that I'm in
as much as I can. And taking dollars that you
know you got just because you're gonna take him from
a governor or whatever the situation is, just to take
them from you. Say, wellfare like, what are we doing?
What are you doing? This supposed to go to? We're
supposed to go to at the end of the day,
Be a good person, Be be a better person of
(26:42):
your community. Um, you know, your dad's one of the
great dudes, you know, very active in the Players Union,
went to Brown has had a great post football career
in the business world. I know he was into discipline
at all that and you guys have a great relationship hip. Um,
(27:02):
he's a competitive guy who went to six consecutive Pro Bowls,
So I know when you went to your first one,
he was like, man, I'm so proud of your son.
Probably when you went to your third, he was like,
this is so great. You just got your seventh selection,
which beats him. Did you get a congrats? Yeah, of course.
(27:23):
In fact, now it's just I'm coming in, and it's
not it's not a discussion of like if he's gonna
come in or if I'm going to pay for it now,
and that's just on my tap to be clear, I'm
coming in on your tap. And then you know, he
gave me, he gave me happy DNA to be where
I met, so who might have whom you know, it's
just he's not he's not he's not mad that he's
(27:46):
in the second place now with the family. Oh no,
I mean that's what he's supposed to do. It's supposed
to take one step farther. You know, I expect if
take place football to go. You know, I won't put
those infectations on him. But if he goes for eight
or nine foot bowl I'm just gonna noide my head.
I'm just like you know, And that's why I had
him to improve the legacy. And if he decides to
(28:07):
be a taxidermist, great, I guess I'll just be over
there and looking for my next my next pill. I'm
just I'm just hoping he goes to the greatest university
on earth and goes to a Rose Bowl. That's that's
the number one consideration right now. You'd say that, But
are we even gonna have a pack by the time
he gets in college? Is a rose is gonna be
(28:27):
automatic bid? If you win the pack, it's gonna be
a pack. It's gonna be. It's gonna be. It's gonna
be what Cal and Stanford left. No, Stanford is probably
gonna get the Ivy Leagues. The big tent is gonna
absorb half the pack. Uh, A sec may take a
pack school because apparently traveling is not the common sense
for anybody. It's gonna be a living nightmare. This is
(28:48):
my plan. Cam. If it could just be the pack
to stay with Arizona and Cal or Stanford and Cal
and we keep the Rose Bowl bid, we we might
win that. We can win the pack too. Maybe maybe
not that's that you said that. You know, I got
a firm belief in the cal this year. You know, after,
hopefully after this year they go back to to Nike,
(29:09):
because it's I feel like I blamed the whole demise
of our ball program on us being an unarmored. You
have to look, as Prime said, look good, play good,
play good. They play good, and an armor wasn't paying good.
By the way, I'm not getting knock on armarm I
would stick up. I would stick up for them, But
there's been some disconnect between the company and the university.
(29:30):
So I think probably I'm gonna allow any of that too,
because you know, listen, I will say this. Um. You know,
there's cow's up into a Rose Bowl in my lifetime
and we've I mean, we have outperformed on Sundays what
we've accomplished on Saturdays for the most part. We still
have many of the league's best players, including you, um,
(29:54):
and it's and it's amazing. So um, you know, sometime
in my lifetime I will experience that, baby. But in
the meantime about Sundays, I'm very very proud. You you know,
there's in the NFC after one week, people are like man,
the NFC has got nobody know. The Packers don't look good,
the Rams don't look good. The Nighters got beat by
(30:16):
the Bears, the Cowboys got beat. Could you guys kind
of like sneakily get in this mix and be, you know,
the NFC champs by the time this is all said
and done. Hey, I'm I'm gonna worried about this week
and next week and by week fourteen, fifteen sixteen. I'm
gonna let the Cards delay when they make Um. I'm
(30:37):
not gonna look ahead because I think that we have
a hell of a challenge in front of us on Sunday.
And from there, I don't know. We got Carolina and
then and then we got London. That's this is the
deepest I've ever known my schedule. After London, I don't
know what happens. I know we got another team game
before bye week, so we're only gonna take this one
week at a time. I'm gonna say we have Tom Brady,
(30:58):
Little for Nett, Mike Evans, Julio Jones, Chris Godwin, Russell Gauge,
Kyle Rudolph, Camon Bread. You see what I'm doing here.
These names that have been here but we have our
work cut out for us in terms of what we
have to do on defense. Is there a I mean,
I know you love sacking any quarterback obviously. Is there
(31:19):
a quarterback you just love to hit or sack more
than any other? I would like to say I love
any and every quarterback equally. You know, as long as
they're willing to hold the ball, pat the ball, maybe
do a seven yard to nine yard dropped, I'm willing
(31:40):
to love them all um and give them big bear
hugs on site. And the design now granted in this
day and age, I have to then immediately after this
bear hug, I have to roll mid air not to
land on their shoulders or hips or body, because this
league is is heading towards putting pillows down as you
(32:02):
hit quarterbacks. But yes, I enjoy each and every quarterback
in the East time. It's like it's like the first time.
It's just great. Is it more of a nightmare having
to play against like a Labar Jackson or Russell Wilson
or Josh Allen who is going to be moving a
moving target as opposed to someone who will sit back
(32:24):
in the pocket. Each each side of quarterback has their
you know, their strengths and weaknesses. Against the lamar you have,
you know, against the Mariota's, you know, you have to
be able to be aware of where the quarterback is.
You're not actually caring about what offensive linemen are doing
because you're worried about, Hey, I can't let this quarterback
escape and it hurt us with his feet, So it
(32:45):
takes away from our pastors moves. But when you're facing
a guy like Tom Brady, who has the fastest release
in the game and has seen every defense and isn't
afraid to check down every play if he has to, Like,
he doesn't get hit much, and there's a reason for
that because the ball gets off fast. He's not moving,
he's not beating you know, my seven year old in
a race. But what he's not gonna do is allow
(33:06):
you to get a chance to hit him. So I
don't know what's worse the fact that you can't really
have your high rush pastress moves on on a mobile quarterback,
or you could beat the tackle all you want, and no,
you're still not gonna get there to the quarterback. At
the end of the day. We're just gonna have to
do our job. Did you watch the first body that
gave it the season with Russell Wilson's return to uh Seattle.
(33:29):
Of course, of course, you know you gotta, we gotta
this good Monday night game. In fact, we'll be watching
the Thursday night Get to night. You know, you gotta love,
you gotta love these games. You learn a lot, just
like you know, what I thought was in it was,
uh just a regular down from Jamie's turned out to
be an intentional grounding because the referees didn't see Jarve's
not going out a lot, you know, a lot like
(33:50):
you know, listening to Peyton Manning on on the Manning Cast,
you know, dropped the thirty six? What are we doing?
What are we doing with you know, the Denver Broncos
having a minute left not using it to get whatever.
You know, they go for sixty three yards field goal
instead of trying to get to you know, a more
manageable kick. You're living and learn, but I know we don't,
(34:12):
we don't talk about it. Take me through that that
from the Jordans living room or whichever room you were in,
if there were a Jordan cast, what you know, it's
it's fourth and five. There's like a little board a
minute ago. They got three time outs there at the
forty six yard line. What what were you saying? I said,
all right, they're gonna put it in us hands. They're
(34:34):
going to, you know, try and try and make this
fourth and five or converted. You know, they got plenty
of time. And then they didn't. And I said, oh,
they got a lot of trust in this kicker. That
is this is different. And then and then he missed, yeah, yeah,
we have you give a quarterback quarter million, quarter billion dollars.
I just figured you you let the quarterback do what
(34:54):
he does best. And I mean it's not like they
hadn't been touching the red zone. They hit the red
zone on a lot. They just had interception red zone
force bundle. So you know, that's their their team. Me,
I'm just gonna worry about what what me and my
team are gonna do Sunday. Did you see the video
of Arthur Smith, the Falcons coach, kind of walking out
of the press conference. Yes, and no. I've seen a
couple of clips of Argus minute. I saw him talking
(35:16):
about how he wouldn't be a part of media earlier
than I need to be. And in the next five years,
maybe we'll discuss it. Um it will be this year,
it will be next year. So um you think that afterwards.
I have no idea. They didn't rise up to their occasion,
so whatever he said. He said, Um, I do know,
actually yeah, I do know about about to n out.
(35:39):
It's about the before meetings are happening. Oh, I'll tell
you what Cam you are as always someone who makes
uh thirty seven minutes seem like thirty seven seconds. You're
the best, and uh, thank you for being part of
open mic and we will see you very soon in person, alright, perfect,
appreciate you might eight
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