November 19, 2022 • 48 mins
Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff talks to Mike Silver about the Detroit Lions' current win streak and their recent victory over the Chicago Bears. Goff opens up about his text message to Sean McVay, the head coach of his former team after the Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl. Goff and Silver discuss the upcoming matchup between the California Golden Bears (their alma mater) and their rival, the Stanford Cardinals. They also talk about the eccentricities of Lions head coach Dan Campbell, some of Goff's favorite teammates, and the story of his recent engagement to his fiancé, model Christen Harper. #volume
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. Well, it's a big week here at Open
mic h for a lot of reasons, including a very
important one we'll be getting into soon with our next guest.
He is fresh off a dramatic victory at Soldier Field. Uh.
(00:24):
He is the quarterback of the Detroit Lions, and he
is a fellow cow Golden Bear Jared Goff. There you go, Hey,
thanks for the intro. Man, I like my bubble head
right there. We got some another good cal ones there.
So big game this week, obviously, and it'll be fun
to watch. He guys will notice that Aaron Rodgers has
been placed behind you right now. And you know I
(00:46):
love Aaron. But you guys did play a couple of
weeks ago, Lambeau and you did get the better of him,
or your team did at least. So that's how we
got a roll. And by the way, that helmet up
there was actually a Jared helmet that was given to
me by you know, because it's good. I'm sure sure
people at the university were happy with that expenditure of
(01:08):
funds that somehow I ended up with with an actual
call help there you go. It's a real deal right there,
It's the real deal, and we will be getting into
some cow stuff because when I tell our origin story,
I think people will be amused. And you'll notice that
my voice has already gone before big game this year.
(01:28):
So not good? Not good? Are you are you going?
I am going, It's gonna be a big weekend. I'm
staying at the Claremont with my wife were apparently we
have like an outdoor. They're calling it a suite, but
it's really not. I think it's like a bunch of
seats at the top with a tent over it and
possibly beers the most important part. So yeah, we're gonna
(01:52):
We're gonna go big. And and one reason why is
this is one of those years where it truly is
a one game season. It's been a been a rough
year for the Bears and also a rough year for Stanford,
which kind of what I'm putting my my stock in.
Are your parents going, you know they maybe, um, they're
not coming out here this weekend, so they may be
out there going, Yeah, all right, I'll tech I'll text
(02:14):
your parents and see if we can get some some
pregame in our post game and going on you and
it'll be good. But let's start with a game that
I stopped part of yesterday and listened to part of
because I had to drive from Tahoe to Santa Clara.
A long story, but uh it sounded. At one point
I had the Lions radio broadcast on, and and I
(02:36):
know what it's like as a Colt fan. You know,
you're so used to things going bad that when something
happens and a game starts turning in a bad way,
you know, you just start going on, Man, here we go.
And you guys were down fourteen points and I could
I could hear in their voices that they were they
(02:56):
were super bummed, and then all of a sudden, here
came the Lions. How much fun did you have in Chicago? Yeah?
I mean it was really fun. It was my first
road win as a Lion, Dan Campbell's first road win
as a head coach, and uh, for us to get
it in that fashion, it is. It's fun. Man. It
was a divisional game and a game that we needed.
We needed kind of everything to go our way in
(03:17):
those last three or four drives, and they did. Um.
And in a season where the balls and bounced our
whale all the time, and there's been some inopportune things happening.
You know for this game to happen that way following
a win prior against the Packers, it's kind of like,
all right, you know, we can do this thing, and
we've got some stuff going now, and I feel pretty
good about it. You guys were down fourteen, you tied
it up. Jeffer Couda took one of the house, and
(03:40):
I was feeling like, Wow, they're taking over the game.
But the next thing I heard, Justin fields apparently it's
like the fastest man ever on a football field. What
what's it like? What's it like being on the other
side by when he hits that gear? Yeah, it's not fun.
He's fast, man, He's so he's so fast, you know,
I've seen Lamar around, Lamars as fast as I believe
(04:01):
anybody has ever played the quarterback position. But Justin's right there. Man.
He's fast, and he can be strong. You can break tackles.
UM and they've kind of committed to it. They've kind
of committed to run the ball, run the ball with
him and um doing their thing with him. And I
thought we had a really good plan defensively. He broke
one long run, but other than that, UM, I thought
we did a pretty damn good job bottling him up
on defense and had a good rush plan on defense,
(04:22):
and it was kind of fun to see that cat
and mouse game that they were playing from the sidelines.
But um, yeah, he's a hell of a player man,
and and and a guy that can certainly change the
game with one player. So he goes sixty seven yards.
They missed the extra points, so now you're down six
and you basically have to take the ball down um
and win the game. And you know, I know you
(04:43):
love your teammates and you know him well, and all
their strikes you could lay out. For me as a
casual fan, I'm always like, if a guy that is
that Tom Kennedy and I don't really know who he is,
I have a little worried for you. But that dude
was like did he catch a forty f a yard
passed on that drive? Yeah? They started playing a little
bit man coverage there towards the end in the fourth quarter,
(05:05):
and uh, we had a great, great play call on there,
and he was the primary versus man and ran a
great route, made a great catch and and the rest
was history for him. But he's a guy that we've
kind of always relied on even last year at times
he's been around and we got you know, has not
made our team through training camp, but a guy that
every year we're kind of like, man like, how do
we find a way to keep him? How do we
find a way to get him on the field? And um,
(05:26):
just kind of always where you needed to be reliable. Um,
good hands, smart, you know, he does all the right things.
And and in that case it was man coverage and
he beat you know, a pretty damn good corner you
know versus man coverage and got himself open and it
was a good play. You guys win the game. I'm
a little worried because there's the thing going on in
your division where another quarterback who has been winning a
(05:46):
lot has been taken off the shirt where in the chains?
So you didn't do anything that's gonna embarrass both of us, right? No? No,
I did not. Once. Once we went seven and or all,
I'll do that. We wanted to um kirk kirk and
do whatever he wants. He can do no wrong. Right now,
they want eight in a row. So um, once we
went seven or ow and five more, I'll take my
(06:06):
shirt off and do some fun stuff like that. This
is not on my question list, But that just did
Jefferson catch against the Bills insane? Yeah, And I was
I didn't see the whole game, obviously, we were playing,
but I saw the end of it. It's just pieces
of it. And and like that game was over twice
and they made those great plays, and that's just the
way it goes though, you know, sometimes that's the way
it ends. But that catch was unbelievable. For fourth and eighteen.
(06:29):
He kind of threw it, you know, into the middle
of coverage and and he made a great play. Man.
I remember Kurt Warner telling me when he got to
the Cardinals. You know, they keep telling me, just throwing
up to Larry even if he's nevered it. But but
I don't do it that way. I throw the open guy.
And so eventually he came around and just started throwing
it up for Larry and right it went well with
(06:49):
special players, man, you can do that, and it certainly
worked for those guys. You guys have you know, had
heartbreaks over the years, the Lions, you it's been it's
been something that's kind of ingrained in the culture there,
for better or not, for better or worse for worse. Um,
and obviously you guys are trying to put all that
(07:11):
behind you and and change it. When something like yesterday happens,
which is your second of a row, do you feel
it's starting to change when you when you win a
game like that. Yeah, I think. I think we've had
moments over a mile two years here where you kind
of have felt it, you know, switch and and the
culture is shifting and things are going your way. But
yesterday was was the greatest example of that. I think
(07:33):
as a team who's been through so much, so much adversity,
to be down fourteen in the fourth quarter and not
just lay down and say, oh, this is just how
it goes to be. Like no, no, we're different now.
We just want our you know, gaming and the Packers
we kind of got off that losing streak. We're a
little bit different now. Okuda gets to pick six, you know,
I believe, the first of his career. Um, and you
know things you start to seeing things change a little bit.
(07:54):
You know, we we get on that drive, Tom Kennedy
obviously makes the play there. Um we finished that drive
and then they make they make a stop on defense.
So you know, a complimentary full team fourth quarter there
that we needed to win and and and something that
we can kind of look back on and be like,
all right, guys, like we did it when we had
to have it, and we were at our best and
and and then showed up there and we can continue
to do that when we need to. So afterwards, did
(08:17):
we get in the locker room? Did you get manly
Dan Campbell or did you get like choked up Dan Campbell? Manly? Manly?
You know it's a we was hopefully uh, you know,
starting to start to get a little bit more used
to the winning feelings. So uh, manly Dan Campbell. And
either way though, he's always fun to be around. If
it's choked up or manly, he's he does a good
job in those post games. We know it's real. Yeah,
(08:42):
all right, let's go back into your past a little bit. Actually,
let's go back into open mic celestious pass. We debuted
over the summer. At our first guest was Sean McVeigh,
your former coach, and um, you know, he made a
point of telling us that after the Rams won the
Super Bowl that one of the coolest texts he got
was from you. Um, was that one of your friends
(09:03):
like steal your phone as a prank. Or it is not.
Actually that was really I texted I, I know how
hard it is, man, I just wanted them to know that,
you know, a great job, congratulations, and I know how
hard it is. And even though things ended between us,
you know, not great and whatever it's, it's still a
great accomplishment and happy for a lot of those guys. Yeah,
(09:25):
and I know we hug out. You know, had to
get a Super Bowl week last year, and you know,
I know how you feel, you were it's your former teammates.
You know, a lot of love for a lot of
people in that organization. I know you're a big Stafford
fan and so obviously you're not sitting there going I
hope you know, those guys lose every game, but still
kind of a you know, the NFL is tough, bad,
(09:47):
It's a competitive business and stuff changes fast, no no doubt,
you know, and again like when whenever that was a
few you know, six months ago whatever. You know, of course,
it's probably easier for me if they lose, just publicly.
But again, I've got a lot of friends and relationships
there and then they got Super Bowl ring good for them,
and um, you know, I've got a lot of you know,
bright future ahead of me where I can chase one
(10:08):
as well. So that's that's really what you focus on,
and uh, congratulate them and move on to the next year.
You know, looking back at your RAMS tenure, you accomplished
some amazing things. You know, I'll never forget be it
at the championship game and the loudest place I've ever
been in New Orleans and you guys being down early.
You know, my one of my personal favorites was that
(10:31):
playoff game in Seattle your last year. You know, you
you had broken your thumb. You'd had it hastily repaired surgically,
but probably wasn't perfect. And uh you ended up entering
a playoff game in the first quarter on the road
against the A team you recently played, but you didn't
(10:51):
have any reps that week. How how hard was that experience? Yeah,
it was. It was definitely different. Um, I think throughout
my career that's as out as I've been of myself
handling a situation and um, you know, not having reps
and and kind of being in a weird position, um
with with the team and everything, and and and Wolf
is gonna start and I'm gonna be the backup my thumbs,
(11:13):
you know, halfway good, and um, I'm having to go
in there and and and you know, try to win
a game. And we did, and it was a lot
of fun. There's no fans there. It would have been
a lot more fun with their fans there. But uh,
it was fun to get that win and and to
enjoy that with my teammates, and to be proud of
the way that I was able to play and and
and handle it coming off of that surgery. For whatever reason,
maybe because you've had so much success at a young age,
(11:35):
people seem to highlight it when you don't. And you know,
I'm a little sensitive to it, knowing you as well
as I do. I've been around Jimmy Garoppolo, especially this year,
a lot, and he gets it too. And I covered
his game last night and he made some big time
throws on third down, and like you, he's pretty good
(11:56):
at just you know, Hey, it is what it is.
I'm just gonna play through it. Uh. Do you feel
like a kinship with him in that way? You know?
I don't. I don't know. I I'm friendly with Jimmy.
I haven't spent much time with him outside of the
football field, but um, he's a good player, man, and
they've got some good things going right now. And UM,
you know, I think it is it is cool for
(12:17):
it to see him. They know, they tried to replace him,
and unfortunately Trey got hurt, and now he comes back
and gets to kind of show everyone, you know, you
know obviously who who he is and what he can do.
And UM always been a fan of his as a
fan of his game. I think his releases as quick
as anybody in the league. And UM does a lot
of great things, and I root for him. Yeah, I
wonder with him like when you lose your job and
(12:38):
you think it's over and then you end up being
back there. You know, I don't know if you have
I don't give a police mentality more. But he sure
seems like he's just I'm sure he does. I mean,
why wouldn't he. It's you know, he's kind of proven
a lot of people wrong, maybe internally as well, so
it's it's a good thing for him. And UM, you know,
he's a he's a good player. And you know, I
(12:58):
hope if if we get chance to play them, you know,
hopefully they don't play well. But otherwise, you know, music
a player I mean, I think theoretically there's one team
that started one in six in NFL history and made
the playoffs, the nineteen seventy Bengals. Uh. Now there's seventeen games,
there's seven playoffs. Birds. Do you think it's possible that
(13:22):
you guys could be the second? Of course, that's what
we're doing it for. You know, we've we've been on
the right side of these last two games and kind
of put ourselves, you know, in in in scratching distance
of it and and have to continue to win. We've
got some tough games coming up, but it's one game
at a time, and uh, you know, at least you know,
we we can we can see it. It's not like
(13:42):
it's unattainable, you know, it's it's it's there for us
if we continue to win. Sure, it's a it's a
tall mountain to climb, but um, it allows us to play,
you know, show up to work every day and be
excited about it, know when there is still the goal
and reach. All right, it's a big game week, as
we noted, and uh, rough season for our alma mater
this year. It happens, you know, it kind of happens
(14:04):
a lot there. But I digress. Uh, and um, you
know it would feel a whole lot better uh to
win on Saturday, obviously. Uh, Stanford is not the Stanford
that you had to play against three times when they
were really rolling. Uh they are, they're struggling, like cal so, Um,
(14:25):
we'll see what happens. But I just want to tell
our origin story and they get your impressions. So, you know,
I was in your first game. You know, I immediately
got to an argument with some of my friends about
you know, they were saying, hey, man, this new coach
has a great system. I was like system, this guy
(14:45):
could sling, you know. And I think I, you know,
proclaimed that you were gonna be a high first round
draft pick in my you know, euphoria. So that one age,
well I was getting you, weren't You were totally sober, right,
I actually I had my kids with me. I think
I might have been sober for that one. I will
(15:07):
not be on Saturday, although I I just so you know,
I'll be. I'm sober enough during a game because I
need to. I live and die with every play that
brings that bring and that brings us to so. Uh,
this is okay, this is what I'm remembering yes, So
so we're we're watching this game now. A couple of
(15:28):
things were going on. Besides the fact that Stamford was
really good. Um, Calin had success starting with the opener
at Northwestern with your backup who was a good runner
coming in as a change of pace to catch them
off guard. That was that was happening in this game.
But like in the red zone and again I was like,
(15:50):
we have a future first overall pick caliber quarterback. I
don't want to see you out on any down. Uh,
and so that was frustrating me. Then I got super
frustrated because, um we were down twenty four points either
late third quarter early fourth quarter and it being cal
on one drive. This has to be on record. Three
(16:12):
touchdowns that we apparently scored were called We're called back
on replay. Yeah, three plays in a row at home
in rivalry games, and you know, so that's buying boggling.
We also lost our best guy in the secondary on
the first play trying to target on a targeting call.
(16:34):
This wasn't wasn't going well. But on each occasion when
we appeared to score a touchdown down twenty four, we
went for one or we prepared to go for one
until it was overturned. And on a mathematical level that
really offended because it was it was unlikely that we
were gonna, you know, get eight plus eight plus eight.
(16:56):
But just just to clarify for everybody, we scored RAND
the field goal unit out replay, no touchdown. Scored the
next play field goal unit, out replay, no touchdown, a
third time in a row. RAND the field goal unit out,
no touchdown. So it was and it was down. It
didn't score. Yeah, we didn't. I think we got stopped.
And then that was It was unbelievable. So you know,
(17:18):
the math got me crossed up. And after the game,
I did drink a lot, That's what I remember. Yeah,
and I infamously went on a Twitter Twitter tirade against
then coach Studdy Dyke's who I've since become good buddies
with the made up with h and by the way,
has an incredible, incredible TCU team right now. But so,
(17:41):
so here's what happened. So um our mutual friend Maddie
Kerr and her mom, Marco Um old friend of mine.
They were sitting with the my wife and daughter who
went to cal She came over and some other people
and I was melting down, and Marco kept saying, hey,
you know, I want you to meet Jared and his family,
(18:02):
you know, because your parents went to call at the
same time that Leslie and I did, and you gotta
meet He's such a great kid, You're gonna love him.
And I was I was having none of it. I
was like, I can't, I don't want to talk to anyone.
I want to go, you know, crawl to a hole.
So eventually she convinced me and our crew to come
to the player parking a lot at Clark Kerr and uh,
(18:25):
and that's when the meltdown happened. First, your mom still
I can't believe your mom even speaks to me, because
I was losing my mind. Your dad, I think, was
more on my level. He had had a couple and
was laughing. And then you, I, you were unbelievable. You
were like cool and handled it and optimistic and and
(18:46):
able to kind of ride the tide. What what do
you remember about the mess that was me? I think
I think, if I remember correctly, you were already there
and I kind of like you were talking to my
parents and I kind of got there like five minutes later,
and I remember my mom or dad be like, you
gotta meet this guy. He's a huge he's he's a
huge supporter of cal And at that point, you were
already in the middle of, you know, just spewing whatever
(19:09):
hatred you were you were going through. And I'm look
all right, like, yeah, we'll get it handled. I'll let
Sunny know for you that you feel that way and whatnot.
And uh, I'm glad you and him have made up,
because I think it was a little shaky there for
a little bit. But um, I think from that day on,
I knew that you were a loyal Calbert supporter and
and hopefully a loyal supporter of mine. And uh, it
(19:30):
was a good way to good way to be introduced. Well,
the way Sunny that I made up it was funny,
it was awkward. So uh that next uh, late January,
the Seahawks were going back to the Super Bowl and
I was doing a big NFL Network feature on Mars
Shawn and Oakland and where he came from. And when
(19:53):
it came time to interview his mom and some other people, um,
she wanted to do it at the stadium, and they
set us up at the University Cloud beautiful setting and
I did all these interviews. So when I got to
the stadium, uh KP was there. Kevin Parker, who was
(20:13):
a you know, key part of the program at the time,
and the first thing he said is, hey, I'm suddenly
wants you to come up and say hi to him
later and I was like, okay, uh, you know the
PR guy Kyle, but crazy, same thing. He goes, Hey,
coach Dikes was hoping if you have a break, you
could go to his office. So I'm like, oh man,
so um I walked down there. Finally, Uh they introduced us. Shakes,
(20:38):
his shakes my head. I go to his office and
I just looked at him and I go, I hate
Stanford and when we lose to them, I just lose
my bleeping mind, you know. And he laughed and we
were gonny for taking the initiative. Then all, yeah, it
was good on Stundy. And I mean it was one
of those things where like I had to say something,
(21:00):
it just would have been too brutal if I was
just like, oh, hey, how's it going. And then yeah,
we were able to bond on that, and uh, you know, look,
um it's you know, they were trying to get the
defense right the whole time you were there and you
did some incredible things. And that next year in the
Big Game, I thought you played a perfect game, but
(21:21):
you know, we couldn't tackle Christian McCaffrey and you had
a good one that day. Yeah. Then Justin Wilcox came
and the defense immediately got way way better. But then
we kind of kind of had some offensive issues that
we're still working through. So, um, someday we'll have it
all day. Definitely, definitely, definitely in my lifetime, hopefully in yours. Yeah,
(21:47):
And that's and so that's my next question. Um, you know,
there's been no Rose Bowl in my lifetime, and uh,
we've been close a couple of times, and I'm not
sure if it's ever gonna happen. What will happen first
in your lifetime? Cal going to the Rose Bowl or
the Lions winning a Super Bowl? Oh man, Uh, what
(22:08):
will happen first? Um, Well, considering Cal's probably eliminated from
Rose Bowl contention this year, I'll just say I'll say,
Lions to the Super Bowl. Yeah, because you're because you're
gonna keep the dream blow our chance this year. We've
got plenty of plenty of road in front of us,
and um, just mathematically that's the better that's the better
(22:28):
chance there for us. You know, it's interesting. I don't
know how this conference stuff is gonna play out, but
one scenario I've dreamed of is if we were left
as the pack two with like us in Arizona, babe,
maybe we could go to the Rose Bowl. Yeah, and
also like we did loose to Colorado this year, so
(22:50):
we would have to be the pack one I think
for us to to be guaranteed of that championship. But yeah, man,
they're they're working through it. You know. I know it's hard,
and I got a lot of face faith and Justin
and um, I think he's the right guy. You know
what what that means and what we'll have to be seen,
But I think he's got what it takes. And UM
really do like him. Yeah, I'm with you, and uh,
(23:12):
you know it's uh, we pride ourselves not taking the
easy road to cal as you know, and you and
you were poured into that right so like my kids,
you were uh you know, you were afflicted with having
to be a cal federally. Did you have any brutal
beveries as a kid of like your heart big broken
(23:33):
or I've got I've got a great one. I was.
It was it was my tenth birthday and Cal was
playing Oregon State and you remember, I know what gave
you met again and I was watching, I was sitting
in the living or I'll never forget I was sitting
in the living room watching the game. Uh L s
U had lost earlier in the day. They were number
(23:53):
one and Cal was number two. And if Cal wins
this game against Oregan State, which they most likely should
have their number one in the country, and you know,
it's it's an amazing day. Um. And you know whatever
there happened, you know that didn't go their way towards
the end there. And I remember watching the end of
that and started crying ten years old, and you know,
going in whatever way I did. And Kevin Riley, it
(24:15):
was a quarterback the time I had a Kevin Riley jersey. Um.
And I've gotten to know him through being at Call
a little bit and and just you know, busting his
balls about that game, and um, I thought he was
a great college quarterback and one of my favorites growing up. Um.
But yeah, I'll never forget that day. It was on
my tenth birthday. Or at least my tenth birthday party,
acause I had all my friends there in the living
room watching it. I'm glad you mentioned that game because
(24:39):
we were on this great run with Jeff Tepford, who
recruited you, uh Cal and uh you know, you know four.
We were the number three team in the country coming
out of the regular season. The Rose Bowl wanted us,
but due to a combination of like eight things that
no longer exists, including the then Texas coach Back Brown whining,
(24:59):
we didn't go the Rose Bowl. Uh. Two years later,
we would have gone to the Rose Bowl had they
not in the first year of replay spotted to Sean
Jackson's foot grazing the sideline I think against Arizona, and
otherwise we would have ended up as underspud of conference champions. Instead,
we lost s C and didn't go. So now it's
(25:21):
oh seven, and this we were, Cal was number one
of the country. Not officially, I may have been may
be like thirteenth birthday then, because if it's oh seven,
yeah it was twelve or thirteen. But I can understand
why you thought ten because you probably cried like I
did cry. That's why I probably leaned on towards ten. Yeah. Yeah,
And by the way, I cried when I met you,
(25:42):
but probably i'd probably just dried the tears. Uh yeah.
And so Cal was number one of the country for
like an hour, even though we technically weren't. And in
that game, our starting quarterback, Nate long Shore, got hurt.
So Kevin Ridley, a true freshman um, came in and
ball had a great game. But I mean it's his
(26:03):
first time in that role. And it came down to
a play at the end where we were down three
and in range of an easy field goal, time outs
and there were still about twenty seconds to go. The
only thing he couldn't do was what he did was
he kind of the pocket collapse and he ran for it,
didn't make it. We madly ran the field goal team
(26:26):
out of the field and couldn't get a kick off,
so um, and I think it was fourth down so
we couldn't spike, so um. You know, he got a
lot of grief for that. I always thought, Hey, Kevin
Riley was the reason we were. He was great. He
was great man. He was great for I think what
he started for two or three years he was Yeah,
and you know, in two thousand and nine, his last year,
he played an incredible big game at Stanford. We were
(26:47):
big underdogs and uh in the Harbor Era and beat
them down there. Um so yeah, okay, that's good. So
I'm glad that you've experienced. Uh, you know what we've
all experienced. Um, you know, cal we always stayed never easy,
and you know, everything from parking to registering for classes
(27:09):
to about nine nineteen thousand other things. It's hard, but um,
you know, it hardens us. It gets us ready for
the real world. Uh. You certainly more than most almost steady.
First overall, Pick had a kind of a rough road
in college in terms of dealing with adversity. Do you
think all of that hardens you and made you more resilient,
(27:31):
No doubt. Yeah. It was always uh a part of
my journey and a part of what will allowed me
to handle tougher situations as I got into the NFL. UM.
You know, I think about all the way back to
high school. I had so much success in high school
we did as a team. Um that when we went
one and eleven as a as a freshman, it was
like WHOA, Like, this is a lot harder than maybe
I ever thought football could be um and kind of
(27:54):
you know, harden me a little bit there, and then
we go five and seven the next year and just
miss a bowl game. In that last game, it's b
y u um and you get a little bit more there,
and then you're ready for some stuff when when your
moments called and you're able to make some place. And
we went eight and five and won the bowl game
there and then yeah, like you mentioned going into my
rookie year in the NFL, it goes back to four
and twelve and you're like, all right, I've kind of
done this, I've handled this, and um, it's not foreign
(28:16):
territory and you're ready for it and you are harden
for it. I remember your rookie year. Like the signature
image that always stands out to be is, uh, you're
in Seattle. You're trying to make a play. You know
you're not you're not a runner, but you're trying to
make a play, and you go, you go for the pilot.
And our mutual friend, Richard Sherbet, who went to the
(28:37):
other school in the rivalry, he gave you like a
little welcome to the NFL love tap there. Yeah, yeah,
you know he you watched that that clip and cam
Chanceller was behind him, who probably actually may have killed me.
So Richard was doing doing me a favor by getting
me out of bounds before cam Chancellor could get me.
That's actually a great observation because not like I ever
(29:00):
want to be hit by Richard Shervian, but Cam Chancellor
would would be another degree of uh yeah, that wouldn't
have been fun. I want to talk about something even
more important than cal which I know it's as odd
that I would say that, but you gotta get You
got engaged to your now fiance Kristen over the summer. Uh.
(29:20):
First of all, congratulations, thank you very cool. Secondly, condolences
to her, but that's a separate subject. She knows what
she's getting into, I think. But still, um, how did
the pressure how did the proposal pressure compare like you know,
going into lambeau Field or something to harder, way harder.
(29:42):
You know. It's uh, the actual like planning of it.
I actually enjoyed. I like doing that type of stuff
and it was fun for me to kind of plan
and get everything ready. The day of was really really hard,
was like, uh, you know, I did it at night
at whatever, seven o'clock, or something. And for the hours
leading up to that, you know, it was just me
and her hanging out, and I was just you know,
(30:02):
very very to myself that day. You know, my I
wasn't eating much, I wasn't drinking much. I was just
trying to, you know, think about what I was gonna
say and how to make this perfect for her. And
ultimately it was a great day and a great night
for us. And uh, she said yes, which helps, And um,
it was a lot of fun. I mean, I feel
like you had a good chance, but you never know
until you hear the yes. That's right, that's right. Uh.
(30:25):
Did you have the ring in your pocket all day? No? No,
I had it in uh, in my suitcase or bag.
And um, but yeah, once you put in your pocket
gets very real. I probably had in my pocket for
about an hour. Uh. And and once I once I
did that and I put it in my pocket, it
was it was no good time and there was no
turning back. I remember still that stress of having it
(30:45):
in the pocket. And you know, thirty one years later,
here we are or more actually because we were engaged
for a while. But did did you take a knee? Yeah?
We were on the beach um and yeah, of course
I did. So that's that's even better. The victory formation
that is that is that is uh, you know, I've
gotten to do victory formation quite a bit. You only
(31:06):
get one proposal, hopefully, um and uh you know it's
it went really well. Um. Important question though, not to
inject any controversy into this beautiful relationship, but does Kristen
understand that the kids will be Golden Bears? She does? Yeah,
she does. She's she has she has no allegiance any
(31:27):
any college either other way, so she will be she'll
be rooting for the Golden Bears as well as her
kids one day. Okay, well, I'm not saying she should
have like nine kids to increase the odds of class
of class of twenty. I don't know what it would
be like twenty forty or something. Who knows. There you go,
and uh and definitely, uh, you know, whatever whatever they
(31:49):
decided to do, they'll be great kids. But if they
decide to say, play major college sports, I'll be cool
with it. There you go, that's right. Just you know,
just throw that out there. Um, when you stuff against
there the first time and you faced off a couple
of times since, uh, that was a cool thing for
Cal fans, just to see the bear on bear matchup.
(32:09):
You know, when you have watched Darren over the years,
you know, do you kind of fanboy out on him,
just player to player, you know, aside for the fact
that you compete against him and know him, you know,
the first time probably, Um, I'm trying to think back
when it was. I've played on a handful of times now.
I think it was that one at the coliseum where
(32:30):
I was that the first time. Yeah, maybe maybe, yeah, maybe,
I you know, I was was watching what they were
doing a little bit. Um, you know, I'm in the
division with him now. I played him quite a I
played him quite a bit and passed even before Detroit,
and so no, not anymore. He's he's he's become a
friend of mine and the guy that um, you know,
I love watching on tape and and obviously he's an
incredible player, but um, it is it is cool for
Cal fans. I do see some of the messages on
(32:52):
Twitter and and Instagram whatnot of people being fired up
that we're playing each other, and uh, you know, it
is rare. You know, I don't know how many how
many schools have it. I know Alabama got a few now,
but besides ilimon Us, I don't know how many schools
get that pretty regularly. Yeah, I was wondering there was
maybe gonna be a scenario where David's webb was gonna
get elevated when Daniel Jones was hurt. They were going
(33:14):
to London against the Packers, of like, could we slap
into one more cal on Cal? But yeah, yeah, By
the way, I will note for our for anyone who's
still listening to me, which you know, thank you first
of all, um. In that matchup, you had a cal
on cal quarterback matchup. I was there at the coliseum.
(33:34):
Beautiful day, great Packer contingent, great Rams contingent. The game
was decided. This is I didn't make this up. When
a Stanford graduate Time Montgomery was told don't return this
last kickoff because Aaron has a chance to drive the
Packers down the field and win the game. And he
(33:56):
defied that coaching point, ran it out, bump old and
you guys recovered and won the game. Yeah, that was
That was a hell of the way to go. And
I talked about that game quite a bit because we
were seven and oh coming into that game and It
was kind of one of those years where you kind
of seen the Vikings do it a little bit this year,
where like, these things keep going their way and for
(34:16):
whatever reason, it's belief, it's whatever. For that season for us,
things just kept going our way and that was certainly
one of them. Were like, wow, all right, we'll take it.
Um it went that way. But Tie. Another memory of Ties,
he scored four touchdowns against me in the first half
of a cal Stanford game. Uh, my freshman year. He
had four in one half, which is pretty hard to do. Yeah,
(34:38):
that was. That was really fun day. Um, you you
hit your shoulder, I I'll send you a picture after this.
There was there's a photo of me laying backwards on
my rental car I had, like an orange Corvette or
something or Mustang and uh and the yeah, it was.
That was not fun. Uh. But you know, by the wait,
(35:00):
have you seen in the in the stadium because this
started during COVID when they had the cutouts attending Big
Game two years ago. They've now put like what maybe
as a permanent thing in one of the corridors of
the stadium with all these cutouts and somehow I'm in it,
which is you know I'm there Chris Pine and you
know Colin Morrikawa and you and many other luminaries. But well, yeah,
(35:27):
congratulations Mike. That's pretty big. Thank you, thank you. So
I'll be there in in many forms at memorial on Saturday. Um,
let's talk about it sc guy because he's your teammate
now and he's he's pretty dark good. We didn't know
much about um run St Brown. Uh, you know coming out.
(35:49):
You know, he's got brothers. I thought he'd be a
pretty good player and that he just burst on the
scene last year. What happened there? Like and how good
is he? Yeah, I think as soon as he showed
up last year as a rookie, you kind of saw like, oh,
this guy's here to play, and he's here to play
right now. Like he's not he's not waiting around. He's
he can he knows he can handle it mentally and physically.
(36:10):
He's got the tools, so, um, you know right away
you can see he's got it. And then just the
work he puts in. Man, he works as hard as anybody.
And Uh is constantly asking questions, is constantly talking to me,
and we're constantly communicating on what we're seeing and he's
starting to grow in that mental side of the game
where he can understand defenses and and truly understand leverages
to give himself, you know, the best chance as possible.
(36:31):
But um, a guy I'm lucky to play with. Man.
I've I've had a lot of good receivers in my
past and he's right up there with them, And um,
I feel lucky to play with him. Every day we
step out on the practice field, and I feel like
he's gonna stay driven. He's one of those games. Very Oh,
he's very internally motivated. Every I mean, he he'll he'll
he'll run sprints by himself. He'll he'll you know, catch
balls by himself off the jukes machine. He's he's the
(36:53):
real deal man and he'll play as long as he
wants to. And uh is A is a stud and
we're lucky to him. Thinking of potential studs, we're all
excited about the Jamison Williams possibilities. Where are you with that?
And what gets you fired up about? Yeah? Yeah, hopefully soon.
You know, they don't really put a hard, hard deadline
(37:13):
on it. But I know he's progressing well, and I
know he's on his way, and hopefully that he's able
to get on the field soon, and I know he
wants to be. I know he's kind of chomping at
the bit. And um, you know it's certainly we give
our offensive boost and and and be fun to be
fun to throw it around with him and see what
he can do. Uh where were you when you heard
about the Hockinson trade? And you know, I don't know,
(37:34):
I was sitting. I was sitting right where I'm sitting
right now. Um, And yeah, it sucks, you know, I think, uh,
it sucks personally. You know, obviously, from a business standpoint,
things are gonna happen. Um, from a football standpoint, things
are gonna happen. But you know, he's he's a close
friend of mine, a guy that I from close to
over the last two years. And um, obviously a great
player and a guy that was you know, helping helping
(37:56):
me personally, you know, getting get himself open and and
and and doing good things. But at the same time,
you know, those guys have a job to do upstairs,
and um, they think it was in the best interests
of our team, and we go with it. You know,
We've we won two since that. And is it because
he's gone, No, but you know, certainly those other tight
ends have have stepped up and done a good job.
And um, he's had a success in Minnesota. So I
(38:18):
always wish him the best and he's he's one of
my favorites I've played with, and um, you know, I
think he's gonna have a hell of a career in
a hell of a time Minnesota. Yeah, that's a good point.
Lions fans were like, man, once we got rid of
Hawkins and and he's like, I'm on a eight in
one team now, Like I'm okay, yeah, now he's doing
well man, and and and everything from everyone i've heard
over there, they they love him, and um as they
(38:39):
as they should, and um, he's gonna do a great job.
Did you text your former offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell and
be like, dude, come on, uh you know I hadn't yet.
I will at some point. They're they're on such a
role right now. And I just actually saw the news
that he had another child, so I was gonna text
him soon. I may text him actually tonight after thinking
about that. But um, yeah, no, they're they're doing it.
(39:01):
They're doing a hell of a job over there, and
I'm a big fan of Kevin's and uh, he's doing
a great job. Another child probably you know, we'll get
recruited by San Diego State. You know. I don't know
if we can get in on that, but we can,
we could try. Um. We all like to have fun
with the Dan Campbell thing, myself certainly especially he kept
(39:22):
biting and teeth kicking and wearing the racing helmet and
all that. Um, what what has he done internally that
gets you guys like, is there a moment where he
said something or did something that you know in the
locker room it just played amazingly. He's yeah, I mean countless, countless, countless.
(39:43):
I don't know if I can point to one. He's
just I think the number one. He's just so genuine.
Everything he says is so genuine. And and we've been
to the depths of of hell and back, you know,
and and and still are crawling our way out in
a lot of ways. But uh, seeing seeing guys that
have to be leaders in those situations, um, and seeing
how they handle it is a true judge of character
(40:05):
and a true judge of leadership. It's easy to lead
when you're winning. It's easy to leave and when everyone's
doing well in your offense is doing well and the
defense again you know, interception, that's easy. A think one
can do that. I think, you know, as as hard
as we've had it in the last couple of years,
seeing him continue to stand in front of the room
and speak genuinely and and speak with positivity and optimism
(40:25):
and um energy and this is every single day, it's
it's it's truly impressive and um definitely somebody that I've
tried to draw some leadership uh skills from and and
and seeing his way of doing it well, you and
I have a mutual friend. He's he worked for a
major media outlet and uh I asked him if you
wanted to submit any questions right before we got on,
(40:48):
and and uh he did have one. His question is,
what's the manliest thing you've ever seen Dan Campbell do? Oh,
the manliest thing you know I've I haven't him work out,
but I would imagine that would be pretty manly because
he's still yoked up and he's still uh you know,
do that the manliest thing? Um? You know? He I
(41:09):
don't know. Uh, I wish I could say he had
seen him throwing something across the room or something. But
he's as big as his personality is. Man, he's very
subdued and um, you know he's not like a he's
not like a temper guy. You know, he's very controlled
and very uh uh you know, meaningful with what he's saying. Um.
(41:30):
You know, I'm sure if we had him run a
ten yard out he could still do it. Um, catch
it and turn up field and put the pads on.
We joke all the time, we'd love to get our
coaches and paths. We've got so many guys that used
to play. Get Douce in the backfield, get Brunel playing quarterback,
get Dan a tight end. Let's see these guys do
what they're telling us to do. And um, but now
I I gosh, I wish I had a better answer
for you. But um, you know, he doesn't walk around
(41:52):
with like a turkey leg or like the blocking sled
or you know, he he wakes up manly, dude. It's
a dude, built, built, built, pretty good. And uh, you
can still probably play if you wanted to. What percentage
of the time does he have caffeine in his hand?
Is it always? Is it always coffee? Uh? Yeah, as
(42:15):
far as I know, he didn't seem like he'd deal
with like you know, espresso Drakes or those you know
fancy Yeah. No, I think we asked at one time.
I think it's black. I think it's just straight black
and uh maybe a touch of screamer sugar, but I
think it's just straight black. I love it. Um. There
is a little controversy raging right now, um that some
(42:37):
players have spoken up about turf. Yeah, and you know,
you have to play on it, so I could sit
here and bemoan and all I want. But you know,
how much better is it to play on grass than
than what turf is now? Yeah, it's way better. I
mean it's not it's it's night and day. And and
that's a reason. There's a reason why you know, all
(42:57):
these uh facilities have grass fields, you know, because they
want to keep their guys healthy and uh, they they're
able to maintain it. Um. And there's also a reason
why in the stadiums it's turf, and and typically it's
because they can host other events there and um, you know,
whether it be concerts or final fours or whatnot, that's
harder to do on grass, right, Um. So yeah, of
(43:20):
course we won't want to play on grass. I want
to play on grass. Everybody wants to play on grass. Uh,
how that would happen? I don't know the ins and
outs of that. You know it would. It would be
a lot of money and a lot of things happen.
Of course, they can afford it. We can do it.
You know that the owners can do it if they
want to. But at the same time, you know they've
got they've got numbers to hit two outside of football. Um.
(43:42):
And that's not something that I you know, and a
cheering for, but it's the reality of the situation. Um.
But with that being said, there their cash cow is
us and their cash cow is us on the field
and being healthy and um to protect their investment. Um,
it's sure it would be nice to have some more grass.
You've got a running back, Jamal Williams, who every time
I watch him speak publicly, I just either laugh or
(44:05):
want to hang out with him. Uh does that guy
keep you laughing in the locker room all the time?
He's the best. He's the best. He's one of my
favorite teammates. And uh, he's He's a lot of fun man.
He's very serious too though when it when it when
it's time to be serious and it's time to run
and it's time to um, you know, talk to the team.
He's very he's very serious guy. But you know, nine
(44:25):
percent of time he's having fun. He's enjoying life and
he's keeping things light and fun. And you've got a
first time play caller, offensive coordinator and Ben Johnson, so
you guys are kind of going through this this stuff together. Uh,
you know, how's that relationship for you? And what do
you like about it? It's been so good, man, It's
been so fun for me to have a guy like
(44:46):
him who's who's so open and uh, you know, willing
to willing to take anything I say and and kind
of go with it. And you know, if I if
I bring something up he doesn't like it, he'll tell
me why he doesn't like it, and so be it.
But you know a lot of times I'll say something
and he'll go, know what I like that and and
find a way to get in the game plan. And um,
you know, the way he thinks is if if you
know it's if it's my idea, I'm definitely gonna make
(45:07):
it work. So uh, you know, we we we collaborate,
you know, quite a bit early on in the week,
and then as the week goes on, it's it's really
all him. But um, you know, I think he's really
hitting his stride now and and me and him have
such a great relationship where we can talk about anything, football,
non football, anything, but uh the meat and potatoes is
us talking football, and he's he's a very good listener
(45:29):
and um allows me to be myself. Have you had
any good sideline spats yet with him and I? Uh no,
not really. Uh, you know, it's as you go on.
I I know now you know what his personality is
on game day. Uh, he's very calm, very very calm,
and um, you know it's it's very collaborative between him
and I. We haven't had any spats yet. That doesn't
(45:51):
mean they're not coming. Uh. Those always, you know, tend
to come up when when the games pressure turns on. So, uh,
we'll see. But him and I have been on the
same page quite a bit this year and see things
the same way. So it's it's been fun to be
careful of the lip readers. They got Jimmy earlier this
year at Denver. That's right, that's right. I saw that.
I mean I you could always deny it though, it's
(46:13):
just liberating whatever you say. You could you could. Yeah,
he could have been saying anything. Who knows? Who knows?
So okay, well you can read my lips. I will
be all in on every play this coming Saturday at
Memorial Stadium. Uh, the most beautiful place on earth in
our suite. Uh, and we'll be you know, we'll be
(46:35):
a we'll be a wholesome crowd. Would you like to
be FaceTime? Cal is not one the big game in
Berkeley since two thousand and eight. That's a terrible, terrible stats.
So if who won last year? I know this is bad.
I should know this. We won by thirty points last year.
And who won the year before? Well it was the
COVID year. It shouldn't have been played. Uh, Stanford was
(46:56):
up seven, Cal drove down dramatically and had an extra
point blocked. So Stanford, that's right. And then before the
year before. So we've won two in a row of
the real ones and two out of three. But but
I just you know, winning in Berkeley it will be
an explosion of you four UF all goes well, So
(47:18):
would you would you like to be facetimed? And at
one point, like on the field at Henry's. Uh like wait, pregame,
pre game. Yeah, I'll be busy Saturday. We gotta travel
to New York. So pre game I'm not sure what
time the games at, but I'd love to take a
look at Strawberry Canyon. Uh and and and be down
(47:39):
there with you guys. Okay, you are going to get
a pregame FaceTime and uh and you will feel the
spirit because one thing, as you know that Cal, we
will always win the pre celebration. You know cal Calo
Cal comes big. Uh. In the event we don't win
the game, we have to win something. So we're gonna, right,
(48:00):
We're gonna We're gonna win preak. That will be a
fun day. Then you guys are gonna have fun. It'll
be great. Okay. And then when you leave the lights
the super Bowl, there will be a blue and gold contingent. Uh.
You know there is all right, Matt, thank you so
much for joining us. And uh uh we'll keep the AX,
(48:22):
get the ax, baby, keep the Ax Bill Bears. Thanks Mike,
The volume. Well, it's a big week here at Open
mic h for a lot of reasons, including a very
important one we'll be getting into soon with our next guest.
He is fresh off a dramatic victory at Soldier Field. Uh.
(00:24):
He is the quarterback of the Detroit Lions, and he
is a fellow cow Golden Bear Jared Goff. There you go, Hey,
thanks for the intro. Man, I like my bubble head
right there. We got some another good cal ones there.
So big game this week, obviously, and it'll be fun
to watch. He guys will notice that Aaron Rodgers has
been placed behind you right now. And you know I
(00:46):
love Aaron. But you guys did play a couple of
weeks ago, Lambeau and you did get the better of him,
or your team did at least. So that's how we
got a roll. And by the way, that helmet up
there was actually a Jared helmet that was given to
me by you know, because it's good. I'm sure sure
people at the university were happy with that expenditure of
(01:08):
funds that somehow I ended up with with an actual
call help there you go. It's a real deal right there,
It's the real deal, and we will be getting into
some cow stuff because when I tell our origin story,
I think people will be amused. And you'll notice that
my voice has already gone before big game this year.
(01:28):
So not good? Not good? Are you are you going?
I am going, It's gonna be a big weekend. I'm
staying at the Claremont with my wife were apparently we
have like an outdoor. They're calling it a suite, but
it's really not. I think it's like a bunch of
seats at the top with a tent over it and
possibly beers the most important part. So yeah, we're gonna
(01:52):
We're gonna go big. And and one reason why is
this is one of those years where it truly is
a one game season. It's been a been a rough
year for the Bears and also a rough year for Stanford,
which kind of what I'm putting my my stock in.
Are your parents going, you know they maybe, um, they're
not coming out here this weekend, so they may be
out there going, Yeah, all right, I'll tech I'll text
(02:14):
your parents and see if we can get some some
pregame in our post game and going on you and
it'll be good. But let's start with a game that
I stopped part of yesterday and listened to part of
because I had to drive from Tahoe to Santa Clara.
A long story, but uh it sounded. At one point
I had the Lions radio broadcast on, and and I
(02:36):
know what it's like as a Colt fan. You know,
you're so used to things going bad that when something
happens and a game starts turning in a bad way,
you know, you just start going on, Man, here we go.
And you guys were down fourteen points and I could
I could hear in their voices that they were they
(02:56):
were super bummed, and then all of a sudden, here
came the Lions. How much fun did you have in Chicago? Yeah?
I mean it was really fun. It was my first
road win as a Lion, Dan Campbell's first road win
as a head coach, and uh, for us to get
it in that fashion, it is. It's fun. Man. It
was a divisional game and a game that we needed.
We needed kind of everything to go our way in
(03:17):
those last three or four drives, and they did. Um.
And in a season where the balls and bounced our
whale all the time, and there's been some inopportune things happening.
You know for this game to happen that way following
a win prior against the Packers, it's kind of like,
all right, you know, we can do this thing, and
we've got some stuff going now, and I feel pretty
good about it. You guys were down fourteen, you tied
it up. Jeffer Couda took one of the house, and
(03:40):
I was feeling like, Wow, they're taking over the game.
But the next thing I heard, Justin fields apparently it's
like the fastest man ever on a football field. What
what's it like? What's it like being on the other
side by when he hits that gear? Yeah, it's not fun.
He's fast, man, He's so he's so fast, you know,
I've seen Lamar around, Lamars as fast as I believe
(04:01):
anybody has ever played the quarterback position. But Justin's right there. Man.
He's fast, and he can be strong. You can break tackles.
UM and they've kind of committed to it. They've kind
of committed to run the ball, run the ball with
him and um doing their thing with him. And I
thought we had a really good plan defensively. He broke
one long run, but other than that, UM, I thought
we did a pretty damn good job bottling him up
on defense and had a good rush plan on defense,
(04:22):
and it was kind of fun to see that cat
and mouse game that they were playing from the sidelines.
But um, yeah, he's a hell of a player man,
and and and a guy that can certainly change the
game with one player. So he goes sixty seven yards.
They missed the extra points, so now you're down six
and you basically have to take the ball down um
and win the game. And you know, I know you
(04:43):
love your teammates and you know him well, and all
their strikes you could lay out. For me as a
casual fan, I'm always like, if a guy that is
that Tom Kennedy and I don't really know who he is,
I have a little worried for you. But that dude
was like did he catch a forty f a yard
passed on that drive? Yeah? They started playing a little
bit man coverage there towards the end in the fourth quarter,
(05:05):
and uh, we had a great, great play call on there,
and he was the primary versus man and ran a
great route, made a great catch and and the rest
was history for him. But he's a guy that we've
kind of always relied on even last year at times
he's been around and we got you know, has not
made our team through training camp, but a guy that
every year we're kind of like, man like, how do
we find a way to keep him? How do we
find a way to get him on the field? And um,
(05:26):
just kind of always where you needed to be reliable. Um,
good hands, smart, you know, he does all the right things.
And and in that case it was man coverage and
he beat you know, a pretty damn good corner you
know versus man coverage and got himself open and it
was a good play. You guys win the game. I'm
a little worried because there's the thing going on in
your division where another quarterback who has been winning a
(05:46):
lot has been taken off the shirt where in the chains?
So you didn't do anything that's gonna embarrass both of us, right? No? No,
I did not. Once. Once we went seven and or all,
I'll do that. We wanted to um kirk kirk and
do whatever he wants. He can do no wrong. Right now,
they want eight in a row. So um, once we
went seven or ow and five more, I'll take my
(06:06):
shirt off and do some fun stuff like that. This
is not on my question list, But that just did
Jefferson catch against the Bills insane? Yeah, And I was
I didn't see the whole game, obviously, we were playing,
but I saw the end of it. It's just pieces
of it. And and like that game was over twice
and they made those great plays, and that's just the
way it goes though, you know, sometimes that's the way
it ends. But that catch was unbelievable. For fourth and eighteen.
(06:29):
He kind of threw it, you know, into the middle
of coverage and and he made a great play. Man.
I remember Kurt Warner telling me when he got to
the Cardinals. You know, they keep telling me, just throwing
up to Larry even if he's nevered it. But but
I don't do it that way. I throw the open guy.
And so eventually he came around and just started throwing
it up for Larry and right it went well with
(06:49):
special players, man, you can do that, and it certainly
worked for those guys. You guys have you know, had
heartbreaks over the years, the Lions, you it's been it's
been something that's kind of ingrained in the culture there,
for better or not, for better or worse for worse. Um,
and obviously you guys are trying to put all that
(07:11):
behind you and and change it. When something like yesterday happens,
which is your second of a row, do you feel
it's starting to change when you when you win a
game like that. Yeah, I think. I think we've had
moments over a mile two years here where you kind
of have felt it, you know, switch and and the
culture is shifting and things are going your way. But
yesterday was was the greatest example of that. I think
(07:33):
as a team who's been through so much, so much adversity,
to be down fourteen in the fourth quarter and not
just lay down and say, oh, this is just how
it goes to be. Like no, no, we're different now.
We just want our you know, gaming and the Packers
we kind of got off that losing streak. We're a
little bit different now. Okuda gets to pick six, you know,
I believe, the first of his career. Um, and you
know things you start to seeing things change a little bit.
(07:54):
You know, we we get on that drive, Tom Kennedy
obviously makes the play there. Um we finished that drive
and then they make they make a stop on defense.
So you know, a complimentary full team fourth quarter there
that we needed to win and and and something that
we can kind of look back on and be like,
all right, guys, like we did it when we had
to have it, and we were at our best and
and and then showed up there and we can continue
to do that when we need to. So afterwards, did
(08:17):
we get in the locker room? Did you get manly
Dan Campbell or did you get like choked up Dan Campbell? Manly? Manly?
You know it's a we was hopefully uh, you know,
starting to start to get a little bit more used
to the winning feelings. So uh, manly Dan Campbell. And
either way though, he's always fun to be around. If
it's choked up or manly, he's he does a good
job in those post games. We know it's real. Yeah,
(08:42):
all right, let's go back into your past a little bit. Actually,
let's go back into open mic celestious pass. We debuted
over the summer. At our first guest was Sean McVeigh,
your former coach, and um, you know, he made a
point of telling us that after the Rams won the
Super Bowl that one of the coolest texts he got
was from you. Um, was that one of your friends
(09:03):
like steal your phone as a prank. Or it is not.
Actually that was really I texted I, I know how
hard it is, man, I just wanted them to know that,
you know, a great job, congratulations, and I know how
hard it is. And even though things ended between us,
you know, not great and whatever it's, it's still a
great accomplishment and happy for a lot of those guys. Yeah,
(09:25):
and I know we hug out. You know, had to
get a Super Bowl week last year, and you know,
I know how you feel, you were it's your former teammates.
You know, a lot of love for a lot of
people in that organization. I know you're a big Stafford
fan and so obviously you're not sitting there going I
hope you know, those guys lose every game, but still
kind of a you know, the NFL is tough, bad,
(09:47):
It's a competitive business and stuff changes fast, no no doubt,
you know, and again like when whenever that was a
few you know, six months ago whatever. You know, of course,
it's probably easier for me if they lose, just publicly.
But again, I've got a lot of friends and relationships
there and then they got Super Bowl ring good for them,
and um, you know, I've got a lot of you know,
bright future ahead of me where I can chase one
(10:08):
as well. So that's that's really what you focus on,
and uh, congratulate them and move on to the next year.
You know, looking back at your RAMS tenure, you accomplished
some amazing things. You know, I'll never forget be it
at the championship game and the loudest place I've ever
been in New Orleans and you guys being down early.
You know, my one of my personal favorites was that
(10:31):
playoff game in Seattle your last year. You know, you
you had broken your thumb. You'd had it hastily repaired surgically,
but probably wasn't perfect. And uh you ended up entering
a playoff game in the first quarter on the road
against the A team you recently played, but you didn't
(10:51):
have any reps that week. How how hard was that experience? Yeah,
it was. It was definitely different. Um, I think throughout
my career that's as out as I've been of myself
handling a situation and um, you know, not having reps
and and kind of being in a weird position, um
with with the team and everything, and and and Wolf
is gonna start and I'm gonna be the backup my thumbs,
(11:13):
you know, halfway good, and um, I'm having to go
in there and and and you know, try to win
a game. And we did, and it was a lot
of fun. There's no fans there. It would have been
a lot more fun with their fans there. But uh,
it was fun to get that win and and to
enjoy that with my teammates, and to be proud of
the way that I was able to play and and
and handle it coming off of that surgery. For whatever reason,
maybe because you've had so much success at a young age,
(11:35):
people seem to highlight it when you don't. And you know,
I'm a little sensitive to it, knowing you as well
as I do. I've been around Jimmy Garoppolo, especially this year,
a lot, and he gets it too. And I covered
his game last night and he made some big time
throws on third down, and like you, he's pretty good
(11:56):
at just you know, Hey, it is what it is.
I'm just gonna play through it. Uh. Do you feel
like a kinship with him in that way? You know?
I don't. I don't know. I I'm friendly with Jimmy.
I haven't spent much time with him outside of the
football field, but um, he's a good player, man, and
they've got some good things going right now. And UM,
you know, I think it is it is cool for
(12:17):
it to see him. They know, they tried to replace him,
and unfortunately Trey got hurt, and now he comes back
and gets to kind of show everyone, you know, you
know obviously who who he is and what he can do.
And UM always been a fan of his as a
fan of his game. I think his releases as quick
as anybody in the league. And UM does a lot
of great things, and I root for him. Yeah, I
wonder with him like when you lose your job and
(12:38):
you think it's over and then you end up being
back there. You know, I don't know if you have
I don't give a police mentality more. But he sure
seems like he's just I'm sure he does. I mean,
why wouldn't he. It's you know, he's kind of proven
a lot of people wrong, maybe internally as well, so
it's it's a good thing for him. And UM, you know,
he's a he's a good player. And you know, I
(12:58):
hope if if we get chance to play them, you know,
hopefully they don't play well. But otherwise, you know, music
a player I mean, I think theoretically there's one team
that started one in six in NFL history and made
the playoffs, the nineteen seventy Bengals. Uh. Now there's seventeen games,
there's seven playoffs. Birds. Do you think it's possible that
(13:22):
you guys could be the second? Of course, that's what
we're doing it for. You know, we've we've been on
the right side of these last two games and kind
of put ourselves, you know, in in in scratching distance
of it and and have to continue to win. We've
got some tough games coming up, but it's one game
at a time, and uh, you know, at least you know,
we we can we can see it. It's not like
(13:42):
it's unattainable, you know, it's it's it's there for us
if we continue to win. Sure, it's a it's a
tall mountain to climb, but um, it allows us to play,
you know, show up to work every day and be
excited about it, know when there is still the goal
and reach. All right, it's a big game week, as
we noted, and uh, rough season for our alma mater
this year. It happens, you know, it kind of happens
(14:04):
a lot there. But I digress. Uh, and um, you
know it would feel a whole lot better uh to
win on Saturday, obviously. Uh, Stanford is not the Stanford
that you had to play against three times when they
were really rolling. Uh they are, they're struggling, like cal so, Um,
(14:25):
we'll see what happens. But I just want to tell
our origin story and they get your impressions. So, you know,
I was in your first game. You know, I immediately
got to an argument with some of my friends about
you know, they were saying, hey, man, this new coach
has a great system. I was like system, this guy
(14:45):
could sling, you know. And I think I, you know,
proclaimed that you were gonna be a high first round
draft pick in my you know, euphoria. So that one age,
well I was getting you, weren't You were totally sober, right,
I actually I had my kids with me. I think
I might have been sober for that one. I will
(15:07):
not be on Saturday, although I I just so you know,
I'll be. I'm sober enough during a game because I
need to. I live and die with every play that
brings that bring and that brings us to so. Uh,
this is okay, this is what I'm remembering yes, So
so we're we're watching this game now. A couple of
(15:28):
things were going on. Besides the fact that Stamford was
really good. Um, Calin had success starting with the opener
at Northwestern with your backup who was a good runner
coming in as a change of pace to catch them
off guard. That was that was happening in this game.
But like in the red zone and again I was like,
(15:50):
we have a future first overall pick caliber quarterback. I
don't want to see you out on any down. Uh,
and so that was frustrating me. Then I got super
frustrated because, um we were down twenty four points either
late third quarter early fourth quarter and it being cal
on one drive. This has to be on record. Three
(16:12):
touchdowns that we apparently scored were called We're called back
on replay. Yeah, three plays in a row at home
in rivalry games, and you know, so that's buying boggling.
We also lost our best guy in the secondary on
the first play trying to target on a targeting call.
(16:34):
This wasn't wasn't going well. But on each occasion when
we appeared to score a touchdown down twenty four, we
went for one or we prepared to go for one
until it was overturned. And on a mathematical level that
really offended because it was it was unlikely that we
were gonna, you know, get eight plus eight plus eight.
(16:56):
But just just to clarify for everybody, we scored RAND
the field goal unit out replay, no touchdown. Scored the
next play field goal unit, out replay, no touchdown, a
third time in a row. RAND the field goal unit out,
no touchdown. So it was and it was down. It
didn't score. Yeah, we didn't. I think we got stopped.
And then that was It was unbelievable. So you know,
(17:18):
the math got me crossed up. And after the game,
I did drink a lot, That's what I remember. Yeah,
and I infamously went on a Twitter Twitter tirade against
then coach Studdy Dyke's who I've since become good buddies
with the made up with h and by the way,
has an incredible, incredible TCU team right now. But so,
(17:41):
so here's what happened. So um our mutual friend Maddie
Kerr and her mom, Marco Um old friend of mine.
They were sitting with the my wife and daughter who
went to cal She came over and some other people
and I was melting down, and Marco kept saying, hey,
you know, I want you to meet Jared and his family,
(18:02):
you know, because your parents went to call at the
same time that Leslie and I did, and you gotta
meet He's such a great kid, You're gonna love him.
And I was I was having none of it. I
was like, I can't, I don't want to talk to anyone.
I want to go, you know, crawl to a hole.
So eventually she convinced me and our crew to come
to the player parking a lot at Clark Kerr and uh,
(18:25):
and that's when the meltdown happened. First, your mom still
I can't believe your mom even speaks to me, because
I was losing my mind. Your dad, I think, was
more on my level. He had had a couple and
was laughing. And then you, I, you were unbelievable. You
were like cool and handled it and optimistic and and
(18:46):
able to kind of ride the tide. What what do
you remember about the mess that was me? I think
I think, if I remember correctly, you were already there
and I kind of like you were talking to my
parents and I kind of got there like five minutes later,
and I remember my mom or dad be like, you
gotta meet this guy. He's a huge he's he's a
huge supporter of cal And at that point, you were
already in the middle of, you know, just spewing whatever
(19:09):
hatred you were you were going through. And I'm look
all right, like, yeah, we'll get it handled. I'll let
Sunny know for you that you feel that way and whatnot.
And uh, I'm glad you and him have made up,
because I think it was a little shaky there for
a little bit. But um, I think from that day on,
I knew that you were a loyal Calbert supporter and
and hopefully a loyal supporter of mine. And uh, it
(19:30):
was a good way to good way to be introduced. Well,
the way Sunny that I made up it was funny,
it was awkward. So uh that next uh, late January,
the Seahawks were going back to the Super Bowl and
I was doing a big NFL Network feature on Mars
Shawn and Oakland and where he came from. And when
(19:53):
it came time to interview his mom and some other people, um,
she wanted to do it at the stadium, and they
set us up at the University Cloud beautiful setting and
I did all these interviews. So when I got to
the stadium, uh KP was there. Kevin Parker, who was
(20:13):
a you know, key part of the program at the time,
and the first thing he said is, hey, I'm suddenly
wants you to come up and say hi to him
later and I was like, okay, uh, you know the
PR guy Kyle, but crazy, same thing. He goes, Hey,
coach Dikes was hoping if you have a break, you
could go to his office. So I'm like, oh man,
so um I walked down there. Finally, Uh they introduced us. Shakes,
(20:38):
his shakes my head. I go to his office and
I just looked at him and I go, I hate
Stanford and when we lose to them, I just lose
my bleeping mind, you know. And he laughed and we
were gonny for taking the initiative. Then all, yeah, it
was good on Stundy. And I mean it was one
of those things where like I had to say something,
(21:00):
it just would have been too brutal if I was
just like, oh, hey, how's it going. And then yeah,
we were able to bond on that, and uh, you know, look,
um it's you know, they were trying to get the
defense right the whole time you were there and you
did some incredible things. And that next year in the
Big Game, I thought you played a perfect game, but
(21:21):
you know, we couldn't tackle Christian McCaffrey and you had
a good one that day. Yeah. Then Justin Wilcox came
and the defense immediately got way way better. But then
we kind of kind of had some offensive issues that
we're still working through. So, um, someday we'll have it
all day. Definitely, definitely, definitely in my lifetime, hopefully in yours. Yeah,
(21:47):
And that's and so that's my next question. Um, you know,
there's been no Rose Bowl in my lifetime, and uh,
we've been close a couple of times, and I'm not
sure if it's ever gonna happen. What will happen first
in your lifetime? Cal going to the Rose Bowl or
the Lions winning a Super Bowl? Oh man, Uh, what
(22:08):
will happen first? Um, Well, considering Cal's probably eliminated from
Rose Bowl contention this year, I'll just say I'll say,
Lions to the Super Bowl. Yeah, because you're because you're
gonna keep the dream blow our chance this year. We've
got plenty of plenty of road in front of us,
and um, just mathematically that's the better that's the better
(22:28):
chance there for us. You know, it's interesting. I don't
know how this conference stuff is gonna play out, but
one scenario I've dreamed of is if we were left
as the pack two with like us in Arizona, babe,
maybe we could go to the Rose Bowl. Yeah, and
also like we did loose to Colorado this year, so
(22:50):
we would have to be the pack one I think
for us to to be guaranteed of that championship. But yeah, man,
they're they're working through it. You know. I know it's hard,
and I got a lot of face faith and Justin
and um, I think he's the right guy. You know
what what that means and what we'll have to be seen,
But I think he's got what it takes. And UM
really do like him. Yeah, I'm with you, and uh,
(23:12):
you know it's uh, we pride ourselves not taking the
easy road to cal as you know, and you and
you were poured into that right so like my kids,
you were uh you know, you were afflicted with having
to be a cal federally. Did you have any brutal
beveries as a kid of like your heart big broken
(23:33):
or I've got I've got a great one. I was.
It was it was my tenth birthday and Cal was
playing Oregon State and you remember, I know what gave
you met again and I was watching, I was sitting
in the living or I'll never forget I was sitting
in the living room watching the game. Uh L s
U had lost earlier in the day. They were number
(23:53):
one and Cal was number two. And if Cal wins
this game against Oregan State, which they most likely should
have their number one in the country, and you know,
it's it's an amazing day. Um. And you know whatever
there happened, you know that didn't go their way towards
the end there. And I remember watching the end of
that and started crying ten years old, and you know,
going in whatever way I did. And Kevin Riley, it
(24:15):
was a quarterback the time I had a Kevin Riley jersey. Um.
And I've gotten to know him through being at Call
a little bit and and just you know, busting his
balls about that game, and um, I thought he was
a great college quarterback and one of my favorites growing up. Um.
But yeah, I'll never forget that day. It was on
my tenth birthday. Or at least my tenth birthday party,
acause I had all my friends there in the living
room watching it. I'm glad you mentioned that game because
(24:39):
we were on this great run with Jeff Tepford, who
recruited you, uh Cal and uh you know, you know four.
We were the number three team in the country coming
out of the regular season. The Rose Bowl wanted us,
but due to a combination of like eight things that
no longer exists, including the then Texas coach Back Brown whining,
(24:59):
we didn't go the Rose Bowl. Uh. Two years later,
we would have gone to the Rose Bowl had they
not in the first year of replay spotted to Sean
Jackson's foot grazing the sideline I think against Arizona, and
otherwise we would have ended up as underspud of conference champions. Instead,
we lost s C and didn't go. So now it's
(25:21):
oh seven, and this we were, Cal was number one
of the country. Not officially, I may have been may
be like thirteenth birthday then, because if it's oh seven,
yeah it was twelve or thirteen. But I can understand
why you thought ten because you probably cried like I
did cry. That's why I probably leaned on towards ten. Yeah. Yeah,
And by the way, I cried when I met you,
(25:42):
but probably i'd probably just dried the tears. Uh yeah.
And so Cal was number one of the country for
like an hour, even though we technically weren't. And in
that game, our starting quarterback, Nate long Shore, got hurt.
So Kevin Ridley, a true freshman um, came in and
ball had a great game. But I mean it's his
(26:03):
first time in that role. And it came down to
a play at the end where we were down three
and in range of an easy field goal, time outs
and there were still about twenty seconds to go. The
only thing he couldn't do was what he did was
he kind of the pocket collapse and he ran for it,
didn't make it. We madly ran the field goal team
(26:26):
out of the field and couldn't get a kick off,
so um, and I think it was fourth down so
we couldn't spike, so um. You know, he got a
lot of grief for that. I always thought, Hey, Kevin
Riley was the reason we were. He was great. He
was great man. He was great for I think what
he started for two or three years he was Yeah,
and you know, in two thousand and nine, his last year,
he played an incredible big game at Stanford. We were
(26:47):
big underdogs and uh in the Harbor Era and beat
them down there. Um so yeah, okay, that's good. So
I'm glad that you've experienced. Uh, you know what we've
all experienced. Um, you know, cal we always stayed never easy,
and you know, everything from parking to registering for classes
(27:09):
to about nine nineteen thousand other things. It's hard, but um,
you know, it hardens us. It gets us ready for
the real world. Uh. You certainly more than most almost steady.
First overall, Pick had a kind of a rough road
in college in terms of dealing with adversity. Do you
think all of that hardens you and made you more resilient,
(27:31):
No doubt. Yeah. It was always uh a part of
my journey and a part of what will allowed me
to handle tougher situations as I got into the NFL. UM.
You know, I think about all the way back to
high school. I had so much success in high school
we did as a team. Um that when we went
one and eleven as a as a freshman, it was
like WHOA, Like, this is a lot harder than maybe
I ever thought football could be um and kind of
(27:54):
you know, harden me a little bit there, and then
we go five and seven the next year and just
miss a bowl game. In that last game, it's b
y u um and you get a little bit more there,
and then you're ready for some stuff when when your
moments called and you're able to make some place. And
we went eight and five and won the bowl game
there and then yeah, like you mentioned going into my
rookie year in the NFL, it goes back to four
and twelve and you're like, all right, I've kind of
done this, I've handled this, and um, it's not foreign
(28:16):
territory and you're ready for it and you are harden
for it. I remember your rookie year. Like the signature
image that always stands out to be is, uh, you're
in Seattle. You're trying to make a play. You know
you're not you're not a runner, but you're trying to
make a play, and you go, you go for the pilot.
And our mutual friend, Richard Sherbet, who went to the
(28:37):
other school in the rivalry, he gave you like a
little welcome to the NFL love tap there. Yeah, yeah,
you know he you watched that that clip and cam
Chanceller was behind him, who probably actually may have killed me.
So Richard was doing doing me a favor by getting
me out of bounds before cam Chancellor could get me.
That's actually a great observation because not like I ever
(29:00):
want to be hit by Richard Shervian, but Cam Chancellor
would would be another degree of uh yeah, that wouldn't
have been fun. I want to talk about something even
more important than cal which I know it's as odd
that I would say that, but you gotta get You
got engaged to your now fiance Kristen over the summer. Uh.
(29:20):
First of all, congratulations, thank you very cool. Secondly, condolences
to her, but that's a separate subject. She knows what
she's getting into, I think. But still, um, how did
the pressure how did the proposal pressure compare like you know,
going into lambeau Field or something to harder, way harder.
(29:42):
You know. It's uh, the actual like planning of it.
I actually enjoyed. I like doing that type of stuff
and it was fun for me to kind of plan
and get everything ready. The day of was really really hard,
was like, uh, you know, I did it at night
at whatever, seven o'clock, or something. And for the hours
leading up to that, you know, it was just me
and her hanging out, and I was just you know,
(30:02):
very very to myself that day. You know, my I
wasn't eating much, I wasn't drinking much. I was just
trying to, you know, think about what I was gonna
say and how to make this perfect for her. And
ultimately it was a great day and a great night
for us. And uh, she said yes, which helps, And um,
it was a lot of fun. I mean, I feel
like you had a good chance, but you never know
until you hear the yes. That's right, that's right. Uh.
(30:25):
Did you have the ring in your pocket all day? No? No,
I had it in uh, in my suitcase or bag.
And um, but yeah, once you put in your pocket
gets very real. I probably had in my pocket for
about an hour. Uh. And and once I once I
did that and I put it in my pocket, it
was it was no good time and there was no
turning back. I remember still that stress of having it
(30:45):
in the pocket. And you know, thirty one years later,
here we are or more actually because we were engaged
for a while. But did did you take a knee? Yeah?
We were on the beach um and yeah, of course
I did. So that's that's even better. The victory formation
that is that is that is uh, you know, I've
gotten to do victory formation quite a bit. You only
(31:06):
get one proposal, hopefully, um and uh you know it's
it went really well. Um. Important question though, not to
inject any controversy into this beautiful relationship, but does Kristen
understand that the kids will be Golden Bears? She does? Yeah,
she does. She's she has she has no allegiance any
(31:27):
any college either other way, so she will be she'll
be rooting for the Golden Bears as well as her
kids one day. Okay, well, I'm not saying she should
have like nine kids to increase the odds of class
of class of twenty. I don't know what it would
be like twenty forty or something. Who knows. There you go,
and uh and definitely, uh, you know, whatever whatever they
(31:49):
decided to do, they'll be great kids. But if they
decide to say, play major college sports, I'll be cool
with it. There you go, that's right. Just you know,
just throw that out there. Um, when you stuff against
there the first time and you faced off a couple
of times since, uh, that was a cool thing for
Cal fans, just to see the bear on bear matchup.
(32:09):
You know, when you have watched Darren over the years,
you know, do you kind of fanboy out on him,
just player to player, you know, aside for the fact
that you compete against him and know him, you know,
the first time probably, Um, I'm trying to think back
when it was. I've played on a handful of times now.
I think it was that one at the coliseum where
(32:30):
I was that the first time. Yeah, maybe maybe, yeah, maybe,
I you know, I was was watching what they were
doing a little bit. Um, you know, I'm in the
division with him now. I played him quite a I
played him quite a bit and passed even before Detroit,
and so no, not anymore. He's he's he's become a
friend of mine and the guy that um, you know,
I love watching on tape and and obviously he's an
incredible player, but um, it is it is cool for
Cal fans. I do see some of the messages on
(32:52):
Twitter and and Instagram whatnot of people being fired up
that we're playing each other, and uh, you know, it
is rare. You know, I don't know how many how
many schools have it. I know Alabama got a few now,
but besides ilimon Us, I don't know how many schools
get that pretty regularly. Yeah, I was wondering there was
maybe gonna be a scenario where David's webb was gonna
get elevated when Daniel Jones was hurt. They were going
(33:14):
to London against the Packers, of like, could we slap
into one more cal on Cal? But yeah, yeah, By
the way, I will note for our for anyone who's
still listening to me, which you know, thank you first
of all, um. In that matchup, you had a cal
on cal quarterback matchup. I was there at the coliseum.
(33:34):
Beautiful day, great Packer contingent, great Rams contingent. The game
was decided. This is I didn't make this up. When
a Stanford graduate Time Montgomery was told don't return this
last kickoff because Aaron has a chance to drive the
Packers down the field and win the game. And he
(33:56):
defied that coaching point, ran it out, bump old and
you guys recovered and won the game. Yeah, that was
That was a hell of the way to go. And
I talked about that game quite a bit because we
were seven and oh coming into that game and It
was kind of one of those years where you kind
of seen the Vikings do it a little bit this year,
where like, these things keep going their way and for
(34:16):
whatever reason, it's belief, it's whatever. For that season for us,
things just kept going our way and that was certainly
one of them. Were like, wow, all right, we'll take it.
Um it went that way. But Tie. Another memory of Ties,
he scored four touchdowns against me in the first half
of a cal Stanford game. Uh, my freshman year. He
had four in one half, which is pretty hard to do. Yeah,
(34:38):
that was. That was really fun day. Um, you you
hit your shoulder, I I'll send you a picture after this.
There was there's a photo of me laying backwards on
my rental car I had, like an orange Corvette or
something or Mustang and uh and the yeah, it was.
That was not fun. Uh. But you know, by the wait,
(35:00):
have you seen in the in the stadium because this
started during COVID when they had the cutouts attending Big
Game two years ago. They've now put like what maybe
as a permanent thing in one of the corridors of
the stadium with all these cutouts and somehow I'm in it,
which is you know I'm there Chris Pine and you
know Colin Morrikawa and you and many other luminaries. But well, yeah,
(35:27):
congratulations Mike. That's pretty big. Thank you, thank you. So
I'll be there in in many forms at memorial on Saturday. Um,
let's talk about it sc guy because he's your teammate
now and he's he's pretty dark good. We didn't know
much about um run St Brown. Uh, you know coming out.
(35:49):
You know, he's got brothers. I thought he'd be a
pretty good player and that he just burst on the
scene last year. What happened there? Like and how good
is he? Yeah, I think as soon as he showed
up last year as a rookie, you kind of saw like, oh,
this guy's here to play, and he's here to play
right now. Like he's not he's not waiting around. He's
he can he knows he can handle it mentally and physically.
(36:10):
He's got the tools, so, um, you know right away
you can see he's got it. And then just the
work he puts in. Man, he works as hard as anybody.
And Uh is constantly asking questions, is constantly talking to me,
and we're constantly communicating on what we're seeing and he's
starting to grow in that mental side of the game
where he can understand defenses and and truly understand leverages
to give himself, you know, the best chance as possible.
(36:31):
But um, a guy I'm lucky to play with. Man.
I've I've had a lot of good receivers in my
past and he's right up there with them, And um,
I feel lucky to play with him. Every day we
step out on the practice field, and I feel like
he's gonna stay driven. He's one of those games. Very Oh,
he's very internally motivated. Every I mean, he he'll he'll
he'll run sprints by himself. He'll he'll you know, catch
balls by himself off the jukes machine. He's he's the
(36:53):
real deal man and he'll play as long as he
wants to. And uh is A is a stud and
we're lucky to him. Thinking of potential studs, we're all
excited about the Jamison Williams possibilities. Where are you with that?
And what gets you fired up about? Yeah? Yeah, hopefully soon.
You know, they don't really put a hard, hard deadline
(37:13):
on it. But I know he's progressing well, and I
know he's on his way, and hopefully that he's able
to get on the field soon, and I know he
wants to be. I know he's kind of chomping at
the bit. And um, you know it's certainly we give
our offensive boost and and and be fun to be
fun to throw it around with him and see what
he can do. Uh where were you when you heard
about the Hockinson trade? And you know, I don't know,
(37:34):
I was sitting. I was sitting right where I'm sitting
right now. Um, And yeah, it sucks, you know, I think, uh,
it sucks personally. You know, obviously, from a business standpoint,
things are gonna happen. Um, from a football standpoint, things
are gonna happen. But you know, he's he's a close
friend of mine, a guy that I from close to
over the last two years. And um, obviously a great
player and a guy that was you know, helping helping
(37:56):
me personally, you know, getting get himself open and and
and and doing good things. But at the same time,
you know, those guys have a job to do upstairs,
and um, they think it was in the best interests
of our team, and we go with it. You know,
We've we won two since that. And is it because
he's gone, No, but you know, certainly those other tight
ends have have stepped up and done a good job.
And um, he's had a success in Minnesota. So I
(38:18):
always wish him the best and he's he's one of
my favorites I've played with, and um, you know, I
think he's gonna have a hell of a career in
a hell of a time Minnesota. Yeah, that's a good point.
Lions fans were like, man, once we got rid of
Hawkins and and he's like, I'm on a eight in
one team now, Like I'm okay, yeah, now he's doing
well man, and and and everything from everyone i've heard
over there, they they love him, and um as they
(38:39):
as they should, and um, he's gonna do a great job.
Did you text your former offensive coordinator Kevin O'Connell and
be like, dude, come on, uh you know I hadn't yet.
I will at some point. They're they're on such a
role right now. And I just actually saw the news
that he had another child, so I was gonna text
him soon. I may text him actually tonight after thinking
about that. But um, yeah, no, they're they're doing it.
(39:01):
They're doing a hell of a job over there, and
I'm a big fan of Kevin's and uh, he's doing
a great job. Another child probably you know, we'll get
recruited by San Diego State. You know. I don't know
if we can get in on that, but we can,
we could try. Um. We all like to have fun
with the Dan Campbell thing, myself certainly especially he kept
(39:22):
biting and teeth kicking and wearing the racing helmet and
all that. Um, what what has he done internally that
gets you guys like, is there a moment where he
said something or did something that you know in the
locker room it just played amazingly. He's yeah, I mean countless, countless, countless.
(39:43):
I don't know if I can point to one. He's
just I think the number one. He's just so genuine.
Everything he says is so genuine. And and we've been
to the depths of of hell and back, you know,
and and and still are crawling our way out in
a lot of ways. But uh, seeing seeing guys that
have to be leaders in those situations, um, and seeing
how they handle it is a true judge of character
(40:05):
and a true judge of leadership. It's easy to lead
when you're winning. It's easy to leave and when everyone's
doing well in your offense is doing well and the
defense again you know, interception, that's easy. A think one
can do that. I think, you know, as as hard
as we've had it in the last couple of years,
seeing him continue to stand in front of the room
and speak genuinely and and speak with positivity and optimism
(40:25):
and um energy and this is every single day, it's
it's it's truly impressive and um definitely somebody that I've
tried to draw some leadership uh skills from and and
and seeing his way of doing it well, you and
I have a mutual friend. He's he worked for a
major media outlet and uh I asked him if you
wanted to submit any questions right before we got on,
(40:48):
and and uh he did have one. His question is,
what's the manliest thing you've ever seen Dan Campbell do? Oh,
the manliest thing you know I've I haven't him work out,
but I would imagine that would be pretty manly because
he's still yoked up and he's still uh you know,
do that the manliest thing? Um? You know? He I
(41:09):
don't know. Uh, I wish I could say he had
seen him throwing something across the room or something. But
he's as big as his personality is. Man, he's very
subdued and um, you know he's not like a he's
not like a temper guy. You know, he's very controlled
and very uh uh you know, meaningful with what he's saying. Um.
(41:30):
You know, I'm sure if we had him run a
ten yard out he could still do it. Um, catch
it and turn up field and put the pads on.
We joke all the time, we'd love to get our
coaches and paths. We've got so many guys that used
to play. Get Douce in the backfield, get Brunel playing quarterback,
get Dan a tight end. Let's see these guys do
what they're telling us to do. And um, but now
I I gosh, I wish I had a better answer
for you. But um, you know, he doesn't walk around
(41:52):
with like a turkey leg or like the blocking sled
or you know, he he wakes up manly, dude. It's
a dude, built, built, built, pretty good. And uh, you
can still probably play if you wanted to. What percentage
of the time does he have caffeine in his hand?
Is it always? Is it always coffee? Uh? Yeah, as
(42:15):
far as I know, he didn't seem like he'd deal
with like you know, espresso Drakes or those you know
fancy Yeah. No, I think we asked at one time.
I think it's black. I think it's just straight black
and uh maybe a touch of screamer sugar, but I
think it's just straight black. I love it. Um. There
is a little controversy raging right now, um that some
(42:37):
players have spoken up about turf. Yeah, and you know,
you have to play on it, so I could sit
here and bemoan and all I want. But you know,
how much better is it to play on grass than
than what turf is now? Yeah, it's way better. I
mean it's not it's it's night and day. And and
that's a reason. There's a reason why you know, all
(42:57):
these uh facilities have grass fields, you know, because they
want to keep their guys healthy and uh, they they're
able to maintain it. Um. And there's also a reason
why in the stadiums it's turf, and and typically it's
because they can host other events there and um, you know,
whether it be concerts or final fours or whatnot, that's
harder to do on grass, right, Um. So yeah, of
(43:20):
course we won't want to play on grass. I want
to play on grass. Everybody wants to play on grass. Uh,
how that would happen? I don't know the ins and
outs of that. You know it would. It would be
a lot of money and a lot of things happen.
Of course, they can afford it. We can do it.
You know that the owners can do it if they
want to. But at the same time, you know they've
got they've got numbers to hit two outside of football. Um.
(43:42):
And that's not something that I you know, and a
cheering for, but it's the reality of the situation. Um.
But with that being said, there their cash cow is
us and their cash cow is us on the field
and being healthy and um to protect their investment. Um,
it's sure it would be nice to have some more grass.
You've got a running back, Jamal Williams, who every time
I watch him speak publicly, I just either laugh or
(44:05):
want to hang out with him. Uh does that guy
keep you laughing in the locker room all the time?
He's the best. He's the best. He's one of my
favorite teammates. And uh, he's He's a lot of fun man.
He's very serious too though when it when it when
it's time to be serious and it's time to run
and it's time to um, you know, talk to the team.
He's very he's very serious guy. But you know, nine
(44:25):
percent of time he's having fun. He's enjoying life and
he's keeping things light and fun. And you've got a
first time play caller, offensive coordinator and Ben Johnson, so
you guys are kind of going through this this stuff together. Uh,
you know, how's that relationship for you? And what do
you like about it? It's been so good, man, It's
been so fun for me to have a guy like
(44:46):
him who's who's so open and uh, you know, willing
to willing to take anything I say and and kind
of go with it. And you know, if I if
I bring something up he doesn't like it, he'll tell
me why he doesn't like it, and so be it.
But you know a lot of times I'll say something
and he'll go, know what I like that and and
find a way to get in the game plan. And um,
you know, the way he thinks is if if you
know it's if it's my idea, I'm definitely gonna make
(45:07):
it work. So uh, you know, we we we collaborate,
you know, quite a bit early on in the week,
and then as the week goes on, it's it's really
all him. But um, you know, I think he's really
hitting his stride now and and me and him have
such a great relationship where we can talk about anything, football,
non football, anything, but uh the meat and potatoes is
us talking football, and he's he's a very good listener
(45:29):
and um allows me to be myself. Have you had
any good sideline spats yet with him and I? Uh no,
not really. Uh, you know, it's as you go on.
I I know now you know what his personality is
on game day. Uh, he's very calm, very very calm,
and um, you know it's it's very collaborative between him
and I. We haven't had any spats yet. That doesn't
(45:51):
mean they're not coming. Uh. Those always, you know, tend
to come up when when the games pressure turns on. So, uh,
we'll see. But him and I have been on the
same page quite a bit this year and see things
the same way. So it's it's been fun to be
careful of the lip readers. They got Jimmy earlier this
year at Denver. That's right, that's right. I saw that.
I mean I you could always deny it though, it's
(46:13):
just liberating whatever you say. You could you could. Yeah,
he could have been saying anything. Who knows? Who knows?
So okay, well you can read my lips. I will
be all in on every play this coming Saturday at
Memorial Stadium. Uh, the most beautiful place on earth in
our suite. Uh, and we'll be you know, we'll be
(46:35):
a we'll be a wholesome crowd. Would you like to
be FaceTime? Cal is not one the big game in
Berkeley since two thousand and eight. That's a terrible, terrible stats.
So if who won last year? I know this is bad.
I should know this. We won by thirty points last year.
And who won the year before? Well it was the
COVID year. It shouldn't have been played. Uh, Stanford was
(46:56):
up seven, Cal drove down dramatically and had an extra
point blocked. So Stanford, that's right. And then before the
year before. So we've won two in a row of
the real ones and two out of three. But but
I just you know, winning in Berkeley it will be
an explosion of you four UF all goes well, So
(47:18):
would you would you like to be facetimed? And at
one point, like on the field at Henry's. Uh like wait, pregame,
pre game. Yeah, I'll be busy Saturday. We gotta travel
to New York. So pre game I'm not sure what
time the games at, but I'd love to take a
look at Strawberry Canyon. Uh and and and be down
(47:39):
there with you guys. Okay, you are going to get
a pregame FaceTime and uh and you will feel the
spirit because one thing, as you know that Cal, we
will always win the pre celebration. You know cal Calo
Cal comes big. Uh. In the event we don't win
the game, we have to win something. So we're gonna, right,
(48:00):
We're gonna We're gonna win preak. That will be a
fun day. Then you guys are gonna have fun. It'll
be great. Okay. And then when you leave the lights
the super Bowl, there will be a blue and gold contingent. Uh.
You know there is all right, Matt, thank you so
much for joining us. And uh uh we'll keep the AX,
(48:22):
get the ax, baby, keep the Ax Bill Bears. Thanks Mike,
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