Lots to Say: Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell and Tennis Champ Andy Roddick

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is
a production of the NFL and iHeart Podcasts.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
We got lots, just said.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
We got lots to save.

Speaker 4 (00:20):
Becker here and we.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Hope you say because we got lost to.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Say, yeah we got lost, just say Here's that.

Speaker 5 (00:34):
We have two individually of our very close friends on
this show, which is pretty cool. So Kevin O'Connell, head
coach of the Minnesota Vikings, will be up for a
few minutes, who not only was your teammate, but yeah,
you guys are super close, right that it's super cool.
I gotta spend some time with them with us tagging
along with you. And then this weekend on ESPN there's

(00:58):
the Pickleball Slam and we'll talk to Andy Roddick, the
former number one US Open champion. He's on later in
the show, and him and I been super close. He
was a Grims in my wedding, so this would be
a fun episode for that. He was why I went
to the first two Super Bowls that I went to
because he needed friends and I was a friend and

(01:18):
so he The weird thing about internationally that's not domestic
is that he was never home. He's allayso other countries.
So he'd come in for just a couple of months
and then we just go do stuff. And so it
was Super Bowl time and he was like, let's go.
You want to go to Miami tomorrow. We went and
watched the Colts and Saints.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Yeah, drew crazy game. That was the game.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
I think about the game with this kid with that
with that phones. Yeah, and then we went to watch
the Patriots lose to the Giants. The one that you were.

Speaker 4 (01:48):
Not No, that was after we lost in two thousand
and seven. That next one was what two thousand and eleven, twelve,
and I.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Don't know years something like that. Yeah, I don't know years.

Speaker 5 (01:58):
Give me one moment, because again, by the time people
hear this is Wednesday, the last thing they want to
hear is analysis on a game that happened three days ago.
Give me one moment or takeaway from the game or
the weekend that you think our audience would like to hear,
and then I'll do the same.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
One takeaway from the game. I mean, when you watch
Patrick Mahomes, he never got comfortable. I think it was
just the dominance of that defensive line for the Philadelphia Eagles.
I mean anytime you're a quarterback and your sense of
urgency has to go up because you're just getting pounded
and you're feeling that. And that's exactly what happened. They

(02:35):
controlled that game and took over that game. So that
was one thing this weekend. When we went down to
the super Bowl in New Orleans, it was awesome. I mean,
the collection of people and talents and also legends of
the game is always fun, but it's also those relationships
that you have, like you know, we're there and you
meet people and you saw Dion and that was really
cool to see you guys interact. But for me it

(02:58):
was guys like Kevin O'Connell who is a teammate of
mine and stuff. And then that night after we went
to the Commissioner's Center going out with him and he's like,
come on, you're coming with me. Cass I was like,
where are you going? He's like to meet meet up
with Sean McVeigh. I was like, well, oh, I shouldn't
be here with the meeting of the minds and all
that stuff. But it was great because it didn't even matter.
I felt maybe out a place at first ago I went,

(03:18):
I went, so I go over there, I'm hanging out
with these guys, go to the DraftKings party, do all that,
and it was just cool because you just pick up
where you left off and so it's all about relationships
and that was a cool moment for me to be
able to reconnect with those guys.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
That's cool. Yeah, did you know mcvadel.

Speaker 6 (03:34):
I didn't know that McVeigh.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
I've met him before, but on that type of level
where we're just kind of hanging out, he's a great dude.
And the energy that you see like in his interviews
and on Sunday, I mean, he's got that same energy
when he's just hanging out.

Speaker 5 (03:46):
You're so much more normal of a human and like
likable of a human than I am in real life.
Because before I give my one or two things, I
take away from it.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
So we.

Speaker 6 (04:00):
You and I.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
We went to the commissioners is it a ball? What
do they call it?

Speaker 4 (04:03):
I think a dinner, Missioner's dinner, but it's it's really
it's fancy. Because it's fancy, it's a massive event.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
So we go.

Speaker 5 (04:09):
I immediately I feel uncomfortable in my own skin all
the time, and so we go and I'm like, I
don't know anybody, and you're You're super kind, You're just
a good dude, and so you're like making me feel comfortable.
You're like, this is Bill Belichick, and I'm not Bill Belichick,
but I already this is just how I live my life.
I'm like, I'm out of place, nobody wants me here.
I'm going to get out of here.

Speaker 3 (04:29):
So I escaped. In like twenty minutes. I text you.
I was like, hey, man, I felt awkward. I went home.
Then I think that's you.

Speaker 6 (04:34):
Did I know?

Speaker 3 (04:35):
I literally did.

Speaker 6 (04:36):
I was looking for you.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
I feel in the way I didn't just smoke.

Speaker 5 (04:38):
I feel like I'm bothersome nobody wants me around. I
have nothing to add, and but I think that's super
cool of you to just go. I'm going to go
be a part of a group, even if I'm not
super close to everybody, because me, I just feel like
everybody hates me and I'm going to go home.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
Oh my goodness, is that really how you view yourself? Obviously,
obviously you did leave a twenty minutes in.

Speaker 5 (05:02):
And then I didn't even text you until I got
so far away I couldn't come back in case you
did go, Like, no, where did you go like I left.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
I just feel awkward all the time.

Speaker 5 (05:12):
And again to your credit of being like and I'm
not just saying this because we're together, like Matt's a good,
like wholesome, good, friendly looking out for people kind of dude,
because we'd be standing there and people would be like,
who is this guy even here? And you would like
say something to brag on me, so they'd be like, oh,
that's cool to have something to talk about with me,

(05:33):
because otherwise why am I even in there? And then
I would feel awkward at that and I would leave,
just go a different part of the room.

Speaker 6 (05:39):
You're like, okay, enough about me, help me.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
I just disappear. So I appreciate the love that you
showed me.

Speaker 5 (05:46):
I just am not really able to be loved very
well because I am an awkward situation.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
In general, that the thing was cool, the event was cool.

Speaker 6 (05:55):
It was cool.

Speaker 3 (05:56):
The thing one of the takeaways was how massive Whitworth was.

Speaker 6 (06:01):
Dude, I thought the same thing.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
I've talked.

Speaker 5 (06:03):
I've talked to him on Zoom, I've had him, I
stood next to him. Yes, it's a basketball player. That's
a monster lineman. He looks like a wrestler.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
It's crazy. How big he is.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
I met him for the first time this weekend and
I thought the same exact thing. I mean, when you
walk up to me, he's probably all six or eight
in a land of giants. He's the giants of the giants.
He's massive, and he's got a presence about himself. And
even when he speaks, you're like, that's a.

Speaker 5 (06:29):
Dude, that's a d a warm presence.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Andrew a warm guy.

Speaker 5 (06:34):
But he was a gladiator two hundred years ago that
nobody beat until he got so old.

Speaker 4 (06:41):
Yeah, he either quit or he got his freedom. He
got his freedom.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
It was that to me. That's what I think of
how big Andrew Whitworth was.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
I know, and you think about him all those years
he played with my buddy Carson Palmer, then he goes
to the Rams. But I mean, I guess I didn't
realize it until you see him in person.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
And again, a lot of people are big, a lot
of people.

Speaker 4 (07:05):
Big, but he was like a giant amongst giants, and
you go, wow, Okay, now I get it.

Speaker 5 (07:11):
My current takeaway is I feel bad for the AFC
because Mahomes is already competitive. Mahomes is already obviously a
champion who is wired a bit different, but now he's embarrassed.
And I think the difference is if the Chiefs would
have lost a close game like they won the last.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
One against the Eagles. I think you see the Chiefs,
Patrick Mahomes, the organization go and that sucked. We're gonna
work hard.

Speaker 5 (07:36):
You got an embarrassed Mahomes now, who's already got a
screw loose, meaning he's so competitive. Right now you have
that same screw that has made him arguably the second
greatest quarterback of all time HM and he's embarrassed. That's
a bad mix for everybody else.

Speaker 6 (07:54):
Bad combination.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
And then you look at from an organizational viewpoint, right
from the front office to the coaching staff. They were
able to watch that game and know, hey, this is
exactly where we got to get better offensive line, we
gotta get more weapons, we gotta get a running game going,
whatever it might be. And they're going to diagnose that
and attack it full, Oh my god, full force. You know,

(08:16):
let's take off the gloves. Patrick Mahomes is going to
come back more motivated than ever. And I agree with you.
I think that that's a big takeaway from that game.

Speaker 5 (08:24):
Embarrassment is such a raw nerved emotion. It's different than
anger or sadness. That is, I have something to prove again,
and he hasn't had anything to prove in a long time, right,
which is why his excellence is so rare for someone
to stay at the top, because it's easy to continue

(08:45):
as is while everybody else tries to get better or
even relax five to seven percent, that's not going to happen.
It's going to get ugly because I think he when
you're embarrassed, which he is, that's that is a different
nerve than any of the other negative or positive emotions
that make you want to be better.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
Right, motivational factor behind that, right underdog again, that's crazy,
And that's the cool part for a lot of these
guys is, as you said, seventh straight AFC Championship games,
this is their fifth super Bowl in four years or
whatever it might be. They've won three of those things.
And so now he gets embarrassed. And some of those guys,
they just operate, their mind operates differently, and they need

(09:27):
just that extra motivation of a they're doubting me. They're saying, oh, well,
I can't get the Brady's thing, and this occurrence right
here is one of those that takes him once again
to the next level.

Speaker 5 (09:38):
It's going to be ugly for the AFC. Kevin O'Connell
before we get them on what kind of guys.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
He incredible person And it starts with person and then
you take it to the professional side, and that correlates
with who he is as a coach and how he
gets players to respond. He's motivational, he understands the locker room,
he does all the things right. And then I heard
him speak this last week and that the Vikings had
an owner's dinner like or cocktail already four to six.

(10:06):
I went over there, I got invited, got to see
him speak amongst this whole group of their support staff
and everybody else, and I was like, dude, you should
be on the public public speaking circuit.

Speaker 6 (10:18):
You're amazing. But his messaging is.

Speaker 4 (10:20):
So crystal clear, and I'm just happy for him because
I know the type of person he is and good
things happen to good people and that he's a great
example of it.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
So, Kevin O'Connell, we want to break and go to him?
Or are we going to go to him?

Speaker 6 (10:32):
Now?

Speaker 3 (10:33):
Let's go straight to him.

Speaker 7 (10:34):
All right?

Speaker 5 (10:34):
Here he is the head coach of the Minnesota Biking
the coach of the year, and that's the year.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
That's super cool. Former teammate of yours who was first?

Speaker 4 (10:43):
I was first, He was the young buck. It was
my fourth year when he came. He came in really
to replace me, to be honest with you. They drafted
him in like the second or third round. Come in
and say, Castle's on his last year of contract. He
hasn't played, Okay, we got to get the next young
guy in here.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
Yeah, you still liked each other.

Speaker 6 (10:59):
Yeah, it really.

Speaker 4 (11:00):
Worked out for me because Brady went down in the
first game. Maybe if it was later in the season,
they would have already switched to him. So I was like,
thank you so much, thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (11:07):
Here he is Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
All right, right now we've got a good friend of mine,
Minnesota Vikings head coach and NFL Coach of the Year
Kevin o'conin.

Speaker 3 (11:21):
Yeah, maybe first applause of the whole show here.

Speaker 6 (11:25):
I mean we needed that, keV.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
You go to the Honors Honors dinner and all that stuff,
and the guy that presents the award to you for
NFL Coach a Year is coach Belichick.

Speaker 6 (11:38):
What did that mean to you?

Speaker 4 (11:39):
Was that a little surreal to have him up there
and actually presenting four the award?

Speaker 7 (11:44):
Yeah, you know it was first and foremost. It's great
to be home with you guys, big fans, mainly of you, Bobby,
but Matt. But yeah, talk about surreal. I mean I
did not know he was going to be there. Seventeen
years ago this coming April he called me and welcome
to me into the National Football League. He also, you know,

(12:08):
eventually he told me I was no longer allowed to
stay in New England, but not before he taught me
a lot of stuff and he's been one of the
huge mentors of my career. And he's told me multiple
times how proud of me he is of being on
the journey that I'm on, and he's always available anytime
I need him. So to accept that award for him

(12:29):
amongst some of those other coaches in the category was
just you know, remarkable for me and life coming full
circle for sure.

Speaker 4 (12:38):
Now you check the box with the NFL Coach a here,
But does it have special meaning to you? Like, what's
this award mean to you? And I don't want to
hear this is an organizational award. I want to hear
the Ricky Bobby version of ipiss excellence. I'm amazing, Like
talk to me. I mean, because it's a major achievement
and you did it in such a short period of time.

Speaker 7 (12:56):
Yeah, it's pretty simple, Matt. If you ain't first your lasts,
it's very simple, Noll. In all reality, though, I know
you you don't want to hear that. But when you
come to a place as a first time head coach,
you're not thinking about Coach of the Year awards. You're
just thinking about how do I be the best possible
coach I can be? And I interviewed. I'll never forget

(13:19):
the first interview I had. It was with the Denver
Broncos and it was six hours in person. It was long,
and I remember walking out of that interview feeling like
I really believed what I was saying, Like this wasn't
an example of me having to kind of bes my
way through something. I had been around great people. I'd
learned a lot of football, and I learned a lot

(13:40):
of you know, things about culture and team dynamics and
what I thought would be the best way for me
to authentically lead every day. And then I think there's
always a part of it that the former player in
me looks back on my failures as a player, and
what better way to you know, Never, you're never going
to get a second chance at that playing career, but

(14:01):
I can certainly hopefully have an impact in prolonged careers
players that maybe are in my situation or at other
positions that we'll respond to the atmosphere we built here,
the coaches that I've hired here, and getting to you know,
be a part of a first class organization. So that's
kind of what that award means is it's full circle

(14:23):
to having people recognize obviously from winning some games, but
people recognizing what we've been able to build here in Minnesota.
And now it's about no longer worrying about an individual
awards for me or Justin Jefferson winning Offensive Player of
the Year, or you know, our guys be making All
pros or Pro Bowl teams like we had I think

(14:44):
seven of them this year make the Pro Bowl team.
Now it's about trying to play in that last game
and what do we do to maintain what we've built
doing it our way, which we're very proud of, but
now we just got to do it in a championship way,
bringing all those good things along with us.

Speaker 5 (15:00):
Gigantic elephant, let me just pet the elephant. What's up
with the quarterback situation?

Speaker 3 (15:07):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (15:08):
Oh, we lost him now I can't hear you.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
It's a perfect question.

Speaker 4 (15:12):
At the elephant again, at the elephant again, gigantic O.

Speaker 7 (15:16):
No, this was such a good question. There's no doubt
in my mind.

Speaker 5 (15:19):
Yeah, well, I'll be the one. What can you say
about the quarterback situation?

Speaker 7 (15:25):
You guys muted?

Speaker 6 (15:26):
Are we muted? Man?

Speaker 3 (15:28):
This is what I do when people ask me.

Speaker 6 (15:29):
I think you a question.

Speaker 3 (15:30):
I think he's doing such a great job.

Speaker 7 (15:32):
Yes, No, there we go. You're back. You're muted there
for a second.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
Okay, So the question is, what's up with the quarterback situation?

Speaker 7 (15:43):
Oh you're still muted? No? You know, really, what it
is is. I was just down there at the Super
Bowl answering this question a lot, and I was in
a meeting, you know, with our full staff and personnel
right before I jumped on here with you guys, and
we're talking about some really good problems. And what I

(16:05):
mean by that is we had a quarterback come to
our organization in his first year and win fourteen games
and transitioning from Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold really stepping
in and really trusting us with his career at this
point in his quarterback journey, to commit to what he
committed to, working every single day and just trying to,

(16:26):
you know, take advantage of what we tried to build,
which is a pretty unique quarterback environment here, and I
thought he made the most of it. I'm so proud
of what Sam was able to do. And I've said
this over the you know, a couple other offseasons since
I've been here, But we have a quarterback now who's
played himself into probably being the marquee quarterback in the
free agent class, which is significant. And we've got some

(16:50):
conversations and some dialogue that will lead the way in
regard to Sam. But I care about him greatly. I'm
so proud of him, so happy for him, and we're
going to work through that together with Sam to ultimately
find the best outcome. But you guys are well aware
that we drafted JJ McCarthy tenth overall for a reason.
It was a very you know, pretty historical in my mind,

(17:12):
draft class last year, and I think those guys that
were able to play last year demonstrated that across the board,
and it just so happened that JJ McCarthy was off
to an unbelievable start, so with Sam Darnold was very competitive.
They that competition really contributed to our team being a
team worthy of winning fourteen games because those two guys

(17:34):
were battling it out. And then JJ gets hurt, played
great in the first preseason game, showing a lot of
the things that we were excited about when we drafted him.
And then I'll never forget the phone call that I
got telling me as I was watching the tape the
next day that he was going to go need to
have his knee looked at because it was a little sore.
And from then on from there it turned into a

(17:55):
season ending thing that we had to be ultimately smart
with a young player who we feel has incredible upside
and he's healthy now, he's going to go through a
full offseason as he kind of completes the last phases
of working through that injury from last season. Can't wait
to get to work with him. He's around here all
the time. He's a guy that just eats sleeps and

(18:17):
breathes football and loves everything about the possibility of being
the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings. And then we also,
you know, brought in Daniel Jones late in the year,
which is a former six pick in the draft and
at a different point in his quarterback journey. And can't
speak highly enough about what it was like to be
able to have that time with Daniel, who's also a
free agent. So, you know, looking at it, I feel

(18:39):
like we've got two pretty significant free agents that were
in our building, in our quarterback room that we've got
to work through what that all looks like. And those
guys at the same time have to do what's best
for their careers and they're going to have plenty of
opportunities because I feel like people think, especially for Sam
having spent a year in this building, they could be

(19:00):
getting the best version of him, and same with Daniel
Jones having spent time in this building. So we take
a lot of pride in that, and those are, like
I said, to start, good problems to have.

Speaker 4 (19:09):
You know, when you talk about the quarterback position, since
you've been with the Minnesota Vikings, you've had a lot
of different guys step in and have to play. Obviously,
her cousins was there, but he's had some injuries.

Speaker 6 (19:18):
Other guys stepped in.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
But does that give you confidence moving forward with whoever's there?
You're kind of the quarterback whisperer, so to speak, that
you'll get these guys to play at a high level.
And what do you contribute that to. Is it just
your beautiful mind that you have?

Speaker 7 (19:33):
No You and I both know that's not true, Matt.
I think what it really is is, you know, kind
of a magnified version of what we try to do
for all of our players here is figure out what
they do really well, figure out how we can make
them the most comfortable by preparation and a lot of
work and time on task that there's no way to

(19:55):
cheat it. It takes real work, it takes real time together.
And ultimately my favorite part about getting to be the
head coach of this team is I also get to
be the play caller, so I get to be in
those guys here on game day. I get to support them,
I get to help uplift them. So that my goal
each and every season, each and every game is regardless

(20:16):
of who's playing quarterback, those guys think they have an
edge because of the fact that they have the support
of our entire organization, our great players. We've got great
skilled players. We've got, you know, Brian O'Neil and Christian
Darsol on the offensive line. We've got Brian Flores running
the defense with a whole lot of impact players. And
then we've got an offensive system that I believe wholeheartedly in.

(20:40):
As we continue to improve it and improve it, it's
always going to be centered around the quarterback position, and
how do we help those guys have production, build confidence,
and continue to layer upon the success they have early
as hopefully it sustains to the end of the season
and beyond. And I think Sam would be the first

(21:00):
one to say that he enjoyed his time from the
moment he arrived here, sitting in my office, laying out
a plan together collaboratively, so that it was him and
I every step of the way, with Josh McCown as
his position coach, Wes Phillips as the coordinator, and most importantly,
his teammates. But make no mistake about it, Sam Darnold

(21:21):
deserves the credit for what he was able to accomplish
this year, and that's why I feel so fortunate to
have had this time with them, and and we do
not know what the future holds at this point. That's
the unique part of the NFL is it's you know,
things that are the rules are set up in a
way that that I think helps to contribute to year
over year. You've got to reinvent yourself as a team.

(21:43):
That's players, that's coaches, that's front office, that's everybody that
supports the players. And that's why it's you know, everybody's
goal as of you know about nine thirty the other night,
you know, Eastern time, that everybody now feels like it's
a brand new journey to try to get right that
to that moment that we saw the Philadelphia Eagles experience.

Speaker 5 (22:03):
Final two questions. You can tell a lot about somebody
with how somebody talks about him when they're not around.
And so Matt and I talking about you, and you
were not there. We hadn't even run into you yet,
and Matt was talking about just like what kind of
quality human you were not as a coach yet, he
was just talking about you being like a guy like
he trusted that had great values, and he talked about

(22:23):
the difference in playing alongside you but also then coming
to see you coach and your communication style and how
it had to change because you're now a coach, you're
a leader of men instead of being one of the men.
What was the learning process like in learning how to
communicate different as a head coach versus a quarterback.

Speaker 7 (22:43):
Yeah. I think it's a great question, and the only
real answer to it for me, Bobby, was I learned
from some really good coaches that you had to authentically
be yourself first and foremost. And who I am as
a person is a person that cares about people. I
care about people. I tried to make sure that every

(23:04):
interaction I have with folks, whether it's in this building
and or long before that, I want them to be
positive interactions. And I want I want people to genuinely think,
uh that that I'm a good person because it matters
to me. It matters to me to wake up and
be that same person every single day. So when you
get into a leadership role, you better lead in an

(23:25):
authentic way. So that's what is very natural to me.
Now there is an element to it where the other
two factors are being competent in your abilities and and
and other folks having confidence in you to be the
guy in front of them. And I put a lot
of time into you know, how I talk to my team,

(23:46):
the messaging ultimately, how I want reflections of me amongst
my coaching staff, and really trying to get guys to
understand that this is the most competitive, uh, you know,
industry in the world, The National Football League. I mean
it is the greatest professional league on the planet because
I think fans of the fact that it is so
competitive and it is, you know, a league where your

(24:11):
best is required on a weekend and week out basis,
otherwise the results aren't gonna come and and then you've
got to go back to work and find a path
to do that. But each and every year, fan bases
and fans of the NFL know that it's going to
be exciting. They know, you know, they know what they're
they're going to get each and every year. But I
think for us on the leadership side of things, you've

(24:31):
got to acknowledge that. But then you've got to figure
out the way you want to operate. Does culture matter?
And I'm talking real, like real culture, not the stuff
where there's just a bunch of signs on the wall,
not the stuff where you you know, you just try
to you know, you know, live within different sayings and
things like that. I think that's part of it. And
if that's authentically the way some people lead, I'm sure

(24:52):
they're great at that. But for me, it's people. For me,
it's building relationships. For me, it's when things get difficult,
I want to be the guy. I want to be
the first guy in the fight, not because any other reason.
Then I feel like I owe it to the people
that I care about. And I hope when I'm done
coaching that when people ask, the first thing about me

(25:14):
that they enjoyed having me as a head coach was
I know that guy cared about me. I know he ultimately,
in a very difficult world, a very competitive world, he
still was able to make it about people. Uh and
and and the fact that every day we expected his
best and we expected him to be able to get
the best out of us and everybody around us because
who he authentically was every day. That's probably the best

(25:36):
way I can explain it, And it sounds probably simple,
but it's the only way I know.

Speaker 3 (25:43):
Man, he's done this before I'm ready.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
I'm I'm ready to run to the wall, but I'm
ready to vote, and I'm just shocked that he's never
called me, like maybe to come up and help coach
do anything. He's like, no, Cas, you're my buddy. You're
definitely never coaching Andre. Hey, you talk about people. You're
at the super Bowl this week. What was the coolest
interaction or somebody that you met there that you're like
that was? That was pretty cool that I got to
got to see him, her, whatever it might be, anybody.

Speaker 7 (26:08):
You know, outside of of seeing you and Bobby at
Radio Row, where I didn't quite squeeze on your schedule,
I know it was very I know it was very packed,
you know, so I got I got penciled in for
for Tuesday afternoon, York. Thankful for but you know, it
was obviously great to see you, Matt. All jokes aside.

(26:30):
I do cherish the time we get to spend together. Uh,
you got to be around you know, maybe me and
and my one of my greatest mentors who's actually six
months younger than I am, and Sean McVeigh, somebody who
I have so much respect for. We want a super
Bowl together that will ultimately be something that sticks with

(26:50):
me forever. But you know, I would I would, uh
you know, you know, I would probably say just all
the countless players that came before us, you know, whether
it's seeing at NFL Honors Dion Sanders or the players
going into the Hall of Fame Ladanian Tomlinson, who is
a teammate of mine. You know, seeing Jared Allen, a
great Minnesota Viking go in, Uh, seeing seeing Terry Bradshaw's

(27:14):
and Peyton Mannings and just these these these people that uh,
you know you looked up to for so long for
your entire you know, young in young life, as you
became a lover of football. Uh, to get to be
in that environment on such a big stage. Although I
wasn't fortunate enough to coach in the game year, there's
certainly a lot of things you can take away from

(27:36):
being around so many great people. And uh, I did
really enjoy my experience down there for sure.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
Like coach, we appreciate the time.

Speaker 5 (27:44):
Looking forward to seeing what you guys do in the draft,
and congratulations on a great season and great to spend
some that that eight seconds that we spent together.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
I'll never forget. I'll cherish it forever.

Speaker 6 (27:53):
Coach.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
Over the weekend, Uh, yeah, go vis ho coach school Viking.

Speaker 7 (27:58):
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate you and Bobby. Best of luck
as you continue to take on this challenge of sitting
next to this guy.

Speaker 6 (28:04):
It is a child.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
It is a challenge, all right, coach, thank you, Thanks guys,
you're the best Vine.

Speaker 6 (28:09):
Thank you.

Speaker 5 (28:29):
With the draft coming up as a player, are you
hoping they don't draft your position?

Speaker 4 (28:34):
Oh, it's always in the back of your mind. Like
I was with the Minnesota Vikings and I'm coming up.
They just resigned me to come back for a two
year deal, and I'm sitting there going, Okay, I'm I
know I'll maybe I'll be the bridge guy. But I
was still young enough to where I thought, Okay, they're
gonna give me the opportunity. I'm sitting there not expecting
them in round one to take a quarterback. Nobody said anything,

(28:56):
and the next thing you know, they draft Teddy Bridgewater
like twenty.

Speaker 6 (28:59):
First overall something like that. I remember sitting there going,
what the You know you're.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
Sitting there because you're not anticipating it, but then you
know it gives you this charge, like okay, I got
to get ready to go.

Speaker 3 (29:12):
It's competition. I gotta go earn my.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
Spot and it just flips a switch in you that
you got to get going again, because every year you
never know where you stand in the front office, doesn't
communicate with you, and especially even when I was in
New England when we drafted Kevin O'Connell, you know, you
don't know which direction they're going, what they're thinking in
the background, what's being said about you behind closed doors.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
So, especially for a guy that was a.

Speaker 4 (29:37):
Seventh round draft pick, no real standing with the team
at that point, you're always going, man, they could take
a quarterback, and when they do, it's a little nerve
wracking because they could be drafting your replacement. And so
it just again you go one of two ways, Like
you can get pissed off and some guys might say,
well I want to trade or whatever it might be.

Speaker 6 (29:56):
For me, it was always like, well, I'm on the cusp.

Speaker 4 (29:58):
Anyway, I got to grind right now, and so it
was just that extra motivational factor to go out and
get myself in the right mindset.

Speaker 5 (30:05):
My curiosity has always been do they at all communicate
that It sounds like in your situation they didn't. Either
they didn't communicate it and they knew or they didn't communicate.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
It, and like Bridgewater fell, because.

Speaker 5 (30:18):
The most famous one in my mind is Aaron Rodgers
when they drafted Jordan Love and he was somewhat openly
pissed through his people because he wanted a wide receiver
and they drafted a quarterback to sit behind him a bit.
But really there's not a lot of communication between the
front office and the players at what they're aiming to do.
Do you think that's because their minds might change based

(30:39):
on what's taken ahead of them, or it's just not
healthier to have those discussions.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Well, I think in the back of their mind they
probably have had their staff meetings, player personnel departments come
in GM, everybody's had these discussions. But again, when you're
sitting at price, say fifteen twenty one, and even further back,
you're looking at best available, you're looking at fit, you're
looking at need, and so it's not always the need

(31:04):
that you're looking at, going oh, we absolutely have to
get a quarterback in the first round. Some of these teams,
when you're drafting in the top ten, you're like, Okay,
we know we need a quarterback, we know we need
a wide receiver. But I think that it's not communicated
because they truly don't know. Well, if we get here
at eighteen and so and so's taken off the board
who we thought is high value for us at the
quarterback position, but now he's gone. Now we're going to

(31:27):
transition to our next high value pick that at least
we believe is this defensive end out of wherever it
might be, We're going to go with him. So I
understand why they don't always communicate it because it's such
it's such a fluid process of picking the right player
at the right time and then what happens before you
in the draft.

Speaker 5 (31:45):
I guess you could also be a liar pretty easily unintentionally,
because you are trying to communicate fluidity, which is almost impossible,
right And if you're like, we're going to do this,
and if this doesn't happen, we'll do this and this,
but all three of those don't happen, or there's an
opportunity to present itself you did not see. It could
come across as disingenuous or dishonest, when really it was
just you making the best decision for the team.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
That would make more.

Speaker 5 (32:08):
Sense than you just want to hide it because I
think that's what I want to do. I just want
to hide it and surprise everybody the night of right.

Speaker 4 (32:14):
Well, I always used to love the calls from like
your quarterback coach, your offensive coordinator, even sometimes the GM
and like, hey, Maddie, we love you.

Speaker 6 (32:22):
This is not a reflection on you.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
How long do I make that call?

Speaker 6 (32:25):
Do you have to get It's.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
Pretty soon after, like within ten and fifteen minutes, where
you're still kind of boiling a little bit, like, honey,
you grab me a drink real quick. I need to
calm myself down. But then they're they kind of try
to reass assure you, but at the same time they're
very open, Like we liked him coming out. We thought
it was good value. Look he's coming in, he's going
to learn on you. But at the same time, you

(32:46):
got to get ready to compete. So they set the
standard and you understand the expectation level, and so from
there you just kind of you swallow your pride a
little bit, You take a minute to digest it, and
then it's back to work.

Speaker 5 (32:57):
Tennessee Titans had the number one overall pick. They just
said they're open to shopping it now that they want
to shop it. But they're open to shopping it, which
to me as they probably would lean towards shopping it
right if you're advertising that right, the organization needs a
lot of pieces they do.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
They do a quarterback, offensive line, alpha wide receiver.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Would you trade the pick for the Titans? Well, that's
the tricky part.

Speaker 4 (33:22):
I think being the number one overall pick is it
takes a lot.

Speaker 6 (33:27):
Of draft capital to come up to that.

Speaker 4 (33:29):
Even if you're at say four or five, maybe you
don't give up as much. Maybe you're the Raiders at six,
maybe you're the Raiders at six, but it's still going
to take your six pick overall, maybe a number one
next year, maybe a second.

Speaker 6 (33:42):
You know, it's it's high value draft pick.

Speaker 4 (33:44):
So if anybody views that player that they see at
number one as their guy, then they're gonna have to
give up a lot.

Speaker 6 (33:51):
And the Tennessee Titans know it.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
But I'm in favor of it because, like you said,
there's so many holes, and you also have there's that
evaluation process that goes through that GM in the front
office mind. Well, if we do go down to six,
the guy that we really want to take, say it's
an offensive tackle or somebody like that, will he still
be there? Like where are the needs of these other
teams in front of us? So it's this cat and
mouse game and also your kind of rolling the dice

(34:14):
because if you go to six and the real guy
that you had your heart set on is not there,
then you kind of blew your opportunity. But there's a
lot of good value players at that point. But you've
got to get a player. Anytime you're drafting the top ten,
you got to get a game changer. You got to
get a guy that's going to come in and be
a dude on your team and be an impact player
right away.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
I was watching Cam Newton talk about when he was
drafted number one overall and not even sure if he
saw the clip, but he was like, it's tough because
you're number one and you go to the number one team,
not because you know selfishly because you're the best player,
but really because the team sucks, right, And he was
talking about going into a locker room with fifty two
other losers and losing culture. And he then talked about

(34:57):
if it was talking to Travis Hunter, if you're a
wide receiver and heck, a wide receiver in a cornerback,
you can only affect so much.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
Right, I can.

Speaker 5 (35:05):
Affect a lot, But if you're a wide receiver or
a cornerback, you can only affect so much because you're
only one of six people who can get the ball. Right,
you're only one defensive player who's on a number one
wide receiver. So if you're the number one overall pick
and you're the Titans, I mean, you probably either get
a quarterback or leave.

Speaker 6 (35:26):
Right, you'd think.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
So, it's also a draft class that's probably a little
bit less valued than what the draft classes were even
last year a few years ago. And so you've got
to make that determination. Are we stretching right now? Are
we reaching for this draft pick because we know we
need a quarterback? But in any other draft class, even
if you can do your comparisons to the last year's

(35:51):
draft class, is he better than Drake May? Is he
better than some of these guys that were taking Jaden
Daniels for instance, Caleb Williams. Would we have put him
in the same category if he was compared to those guys?
And then you have to say, Okay, we do believe that,
we believe he is worthy of a number one pick,
because I think the problem for some of these organization

(36:12):
is they know they need a quarterback, they desperately need
a face of the franchise, but they reach for a
guy that might be a twelve to fifteen realistically versus.

Speaker 6 (36:23):
The number one.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
If you're the number one overall, dude, you're a Trevor
Lawrence of the world. You're a Jaden Daniels or Caleb
Williams of the world. You're those first two draft picks.
If you're a quarterback, you're a franchise changing player that
should be the face of that franchise if you do
what they expect you to do.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
Yeah, it sucks. You're the best and you have to
go to the worst.

Speaker 6 (36:42):
Oh.

Speaker 4 (36:43):
I think about that all the time. It's such a
cool opportunity, right, I guess you want to be fine,
You've got there, You've made it, you're the number one
player in the draft.

Speaker 6 (36:54):
But then all of a sudden, you.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
Go, oh, I'm.

Speaker 4 (36:57):
Going to Jacksonville or Chicago or whoever it might be
where you know, Wait, this team's won over many games
over the last few seasons. Maybe have a new coach,
whatever it might be. You're going into circumstances that are
different from where you came because I guarantee where those
guys have come from, they've had a tremendous amount of success,

(37:19):
probably haven't ever faced the adversity that they're about to
face in their first season in the NFL. And they've
got a team that doesn't know how to win yet.
And so when you're the quarterback also you're an extension
of the coaching staff, how do you go and present yourself.
You're going to face more adversity probably in that first
year than you've ever faced in your life.

Speaker 6 (37:37):
How do you deal with that? And are you used
to dealing with that?

Speaker 4 (37:40):
Are you going to go into a shell or are
you going to continue to rise to the occasion. So
there's all those different factors, particularly at the quarterback position,
because you have a microscope on you the entire time
that everybody's going to pass judgment on you too quickly.

Speaker 5 (37:54):
What's interesting to me is for the Chiefs at thirty
one is that it's a very robust running back class.
They need offensive linemen, well, they need healthy offensive lineman,
and they they need a number one running back right
And I think we see the value again with the

(38:15):
Saquon who totally changed the equal Now he's a game
changing player. But there were a few running backs this
year that actually had a far greater impact, or at
least we noticed it, because for the last few years
it's like running backs or diamond doesn't right.

Speaker 6 (38:30):
They devalue the running back position.

Speaker 5 (38:31):
I think you saw, especially with Saquon, the revalue of
the running back. At least it's safer to draft a
running back earlier without being embarrassed if it doesn't work right.
And I wonder if Kansas City takes advantage of that
first second round and grabs one of the now the
quarterback class, meh, get two or three second tier, you

(38:54):
got three or four. There's about fourteen good running backs
in this year's class. If you were Kansas City, what's
the focus.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
I think you've got to look at your offensive side
of the ball and say, we've got to stab a
game branking running back, somebody that puts fear of them,
because even when you watch that Super Bowl, they sat
back in too high defense and a lot of that
had to do with offensive line, the defensive front that
they have for the Eagles, but they were three point
four yards of carrier or something like that versus no blitzing.

(39:22):
It was a six man box and they couldn't get
it done. They know that they have to be better
in that area. So if you can go out and
get a guy that not only is good in the
run game, but obviously good in the past game as well,
he's another threat and somebody that they have to worry about,
and that opens everything else up.

Speaker 6 (39:39):
When you start to run the.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
Football effectively, well, they have to change their defensive structure.
They can't sit in too high defense. They have to
commit another guy to the run game, and now you
get more one on one opportunities. So they understand it.
I know Andy Reid understands that, but that's a huge
value pick for them because they need to go out
to get somebody at the running back position along with

(40:00):
kind of suring.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Up that left offensive tackle for them.

Speaker 5 (40:05):
Think they feel pretty good wide receiver this year too.
I think Rashi Rice, although wasn't able to place her,
I think there was This was one of those years
where you see a player really start to understand his
role and then get a lot better in it, and
I think she Rice did that until he got hurt.
Even Xavier Worthy like he's he got to He actually
ran routes near the end of the year.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Yeah, he was a flyer too.

Speaker 4 (40:27):
Yeah, He's one of those guys that just blows the
top off the coverage because everywhere he is you have
to account for him with your safety.

Speaker 5 (40:33):
And at first, that's really all you had to worry about,
was him just running as fast as he could. But
as the season, even before they had Hopkins, there's like
two or three games before they had Hopkins.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
And it is really their only option.

Speaker 5 (40:43):
Hollywood Brown wasn't back yet, and because of necessity, he
had to learn to be a bit of a better
wide receiver. And I think his long term growth as
a wide receiver that a couple in a few weeks
is going to help him tremendously moving forward, because he's
not just going to have to be the guy that runs.

Speaker 3 (41:00):
He's always going to be the guy that can that
they have to look out for, like Tyreek.

Speaker 5 (41:05):
But because of a few really difficult weeks with only
I mean with really nobody else, he had to learn
how to be a better wide receiver. I think that
plays well for that offense in the future as well.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
One hundred percent agree, because there's no substitutes for speed,
especially elite speed like you have. And then if you
can double down and be a route runner. We talk
about that, understanding the nuances of different defense, how.

Speaker 6 (41:28):
To get off, because I think getting off pressman, it's
an art form for wide receivers.

Speaker 4 (41:33):
You learn your different releases, give them different looks and
at the same time how to come out of your
breaks and different subtle changes of speed.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
That's what makes those guys special.

Speaker 4 (41:43):
And when you have elite speed, you're the DB's always
fearful that you're going to run past them, so they
try to stay on top of you. But then you
change up those little those little nuances and how you
run a comeback. You know, it might be a stutter
at five yards and explode up thinking your stop goo,
and then you come out of your rank. That's what
why Randy Moss was so incredibly effective. He wasn't the
most refined route runner. He was a long strider, but

(42:05):
they were so fearful that he was going to go
right past them that they would back off. And then
that makes everything else. Pitch and catch.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
We have Andy Roddick about to come on with us.

Speaker 5 (42:31):
Andy Roddick again, former number one tennis player in the world,
major champion, a friend of mine for a long time
I went to a you know, I got to go
to my first Super Bowls because of him.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
It is so cool.

Speaker 5 (42:42):
And then I got to do that this year with
my guys. He's like the grandpa my guys.

Speaker 6 (42:46):
That's pretty cool.

Speaker 4 (42:47):
They took me to the games, and I took my
guys to the games. He's like their grandpa. I mean,
where's the smiles all around for the whole crew. I mean,
it's pretty cool that you're in that position where you
can rally the troops and be like, hey, guys, let's
go to a Super Bowl.

Speaker 5 (43:00):
Yes, I didn't have enough tickets at first, there were
one ticket short, odd man out, but it turned out
when I did NFL Honors the TV show that they
were like, he here's a couple of extra tickets. They
gave me two tickets for doing the show on Fox,
and because I was just gonna buy Kevin one because
he completed the Scavenger Hunt challenge.

Speaker 4 (43:21):
To get that was solid. By the way, do you
want to tell him about the Scavenger Hunt?

Speaker 6 (43:25):
Sure?

Speaker 5 (43:26):
So I have five guys total that we travel around
and shoot stuff, and so these are my guys who
work on the radio show. And so at five total,
but I only have four tickets, and so with the
four tickets, I told all five of them, one of
them is mine, So I'm not even in this. But
between the four of you, there are three tickets left.
And we competed, we played, and I wanted it to

(43:48):
be even for everybody who played Connect four, played bop It,
played Operation and read our video guy who's video guy
in this show, Eddie, who's my comedy partner, and we
played music raging idiots. They won their games and Kevin,
our producer, kept losing. He lost every game.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Over and over.

Speaker 5 (44:09):
So but he still had to work because we went
and we did the show the days before the super
Bowl on Thursday and Friday, so he still had to go.
So he was the whole time. He didn't have a
Tat's the only one that didn't have a ticket on
the trip, so I can't. I was not because I'm
I had my word. I said, I'm not just going
to give anybody a ticket like this is going to
be real, because if I don't tell the truth, then

(44:30):
why would they believe me later?

Speaker 6 (44:31):
Right? True? So I got to make them earn it.

Speaker 5 (44:34):
I said, one more option, you want to do a
Scavenger on he goes I'm in So he had to
like it, find a ball, get it signed by somebody.
He had to have get a video made by somebody,
make you know, saying listen to the podcast. He had
to get somebody that we recognized with her own eyes
would walk up and do an interview. And so I
didn't recognize Cam Hayward at first because he's a defensive lineman.

(44:57):
I then did, but when he was walking up, it
was just a massive.

Speaker 4 (45:00):
Dude, You're a massive You're like whoa, wha, whoa. So
we had to be honest. We didn't give that to him.
Oh you did not know? That was okay.

Speaker 5 (45:07):
The next day though, in a gold jacket, Trill Davis
walks up.

Speaker 6 (45:11):
I was there when that happened.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
Immediately, boom boom boom. So we went to the game.
He got his golden ticket, He got his golden ticket,
and yeah, it was. It was. It was super cool.
I'll tell you this.

Speaker 5 (45:22):
This game was different than the other ones, but just
simply because of Eagles fans.

Speaker 6 (45:26):
Really was it packed Eagles fans.

Speaker 5 (45:28):
It was loud and obnoxious, and Super Bowls, for the
most part, are not extremely fan driven. It's a way
expensive ticket. Yep, like very corporate, absolutely, and because most
people can't who can afford a ticket like that, just
like that has a normal job, and so it's very corporate.

(45:49):
But those Eagles fans, I don't know what they sold
or who they beat up or who they stole from. Uh,
they it was packed. It was like seventy five percent
Eagles fans. Really it felt like a real game because
they were so loud and that made it That made
it cool. And so yeah, we had a great time.
And then we were trying to leave after the game,
and so we go to the private airport to fly
back because I got to be on the air the

(46:10):
next morning at five am. So this is Sunday night
into Monday morning, and this is gonna be a champagne problem.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
I want everybody know, this is not a real problem.

Speaker 5 (46:19):
This champagne problem with private airport and you have to
like reserve your slot. Who knew to get out? You
can't just go because there are so many and so
we have a great slot. They opened airspace at like
ten thirty. Who knew they had to Who knew they
closed air space?

Speaker 6 (46:36):
I had no idea.

Speaker 5 (46:37):
I figured it would be limited over the city, but
who knew they closed everything, but they did. They reopened
it at like ten or ten thirty, and so they
start to slowly let people onto their planes. We had
a good slot at ten forty seven. However, Trump still
hadn't left yet, and nothing moved brutal nothing moves if
Air Force one doesn't move. And I completely understand and

(46:59):
I agree, but it was annoying because we're just like
sitting there, like we wasn't at the anymore, so like, look,
let's go, we.

Speaker 6 (47:08):
Need can we please go?

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Let's get someone call him. They have a cell phone number.

Speaker 5 (47:12):
We finally got home at like I got to bet
about two am champagne problem and had to be able
like five to do the show. And we take this
on Tuesday. The show we're doing now Tuesday afternoon for
a Wednesday morning release. So I mean, I haven't have muchlee.
I know, I'm not complaining about it, but overall it
is a great experience for me because I got to
let my guys do it.

Speaker 7 (47:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (47:30):
I just love the competition and all that. Oh me too, Yeah,
I just remember watching Kevin and I get there and
he's like got this look in his eyes, just pure determination.

Speaker 3 (47:39):
He's like, I gotta get a signature.

Speaker 6 (47:40):
I gotta get something else.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
Oh I saw him in action.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
Yeah, I saw him in action, like scanning the crowd,
walking up and down, talking to people, and I'm laughing.

Speaker 6 (47:48):
I'm going, what are you doing.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
He's like, dude, I gotta get a tickets.

Speaker 4 (47:50):
The only way, Bobby said, if I get a signature,
if I get somebody that they recognize to come on
the show, I'm good to go.

Speaker 6 (47:57):
And so you were grinding. It was the greatest.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
The hardest part was trying to work while doing that. Yeah,
because at the end of the day, I was working,
he was working. He was there working.

Speaker 8 (48:04):
So it was like getting guests up there, making sure
you guys are good, and then as soon as the
interview would start, maybe I'd go run off for two seconds,
come back.

Speaker 6 (48:09):
And he doubled up, doubled down, baby.

Speaker 5 (48:12):
So that was my favorite part, Like to see the
game through my kid's eyes, and that's what Andy was
able to do for me because Andy grew up like
a normal His brother was this tennis.

Speaker 3 (48:23):
Star, his older brother.

Speaker 5 (48:25):
That's right if John was the one that was supposed
to be the tennis star, and so Andy was just
the kid, his little brother, and was around tennis a
lot and then began to grow. And Andy's a crazy.

Speaker 3 (48:39):
Hard worker, you could tell that, just grind it out,
and so.

Speaker 5 (48:46):
He would have access because his brother, and then slowly
started to be Oh, this guy's awesome.

Speaker 3 (48:53):
I mean he went pro seventeen.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
See that's a crazy part about tennis. You'll see a
fifteen year old or a seventeen year old. They're all
phenoms if you're playing at that level. Is why he
didn't go to college. He won the US Open at
night eighteen.

Speaker 5 (49:06):
He you know, comes from a normal working class, middle
class family and he ended up moving down to Florida
and you know, going to one of those academies because he.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
Was so good.

Speaker 5 (49:19):
They eat, sleep, breathe tennis right all the time. Him
and Marty Fish, who's a player, they lived together, and
Andy and I became really close in Austin, who did
some charity stuff together, and then we just became friends
because both of us we are kind of private and
pretty awkward ish.

Speaker 4 (49:37):
Really, I never look at you as awkward. You keep
using that word awkward, but go ahead.

Speaker 5 (49:43):
Oh, I'm not awkward working We've had two pers so
they last couple of times we've done something I would
say non professionally as like human beings. The last time,
which we talked about earlier, I left because I was like,
I feel weird.

Speaker 4 (49:59):
Yeah, that was a moment for me. When I got
that text. I was like, you're already gone. I'm here
like walking around looking at ex executives that cut me.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
This is why it's so nice to meet you.

Speaker 6 (50:08):
You cut me.

Speaker 5 (50:09):
This is where I throw it though, like put them
a freaking mic on. I'm imaginary right, real life. So
I think there was a bond over us SO and
I would travel with them, you know, I'd go to
some tennis tournaments with them. I went to the He
called me the day before he announced his retirement. He
didn't really have a plan to retire, and he called
me and he goes, I think I'm gonna retire tomorrow. I

(50:30):
was like, from tennis in general. He is like yeah,
he said, it's a US Open. You should just come
up because this is my last tournament.

Speaker 6 (50:36):
How old was he when he retired.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
If I were guessing thirty thirty, two thirty, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (50:44):
See, that's the crazy part about tennis players too, is
because you have to look would you guys look that up.

Speaker 4 (50:49):
You start younger, but then you're done thirty thirty one.
Kind of similar to football, I guess in some ways.
I was thirty six. I was lucky to play for
as long as I did, but it's not like you
got to go through college thirty.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
He was thirty thirty years old, I remember.

Speaker 5 (51:02):
And then he's coming on in one seconds a podcast
called Serve you can check it out, and he's playing
this pickleball thing on ESPN this weekend.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
But he calls and.

Speaker 5 (51:12):
I'm like, all right, well, I'm broke at the time,
and he's like, you just need to get up here.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
So I got a Southwest flight the day before. I
spend like four hundred bucks on a one way ticket,
and he's playing is it Flushing and that?

Speaker 5 (51:26):
I think that's the New York it's the Arthur ash
Stadium and maybe, and it's outdoors, and it's his last tournament.
And he's one of my best friends. He you know,
when I got married. He is a groovesman. And so
I go up and I'm having to work at the
same time because everything I do, I always have to
work that radio show.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
It has to happen.

Speaker 5 (51:45):
And so I would work all day and then I
would go over and try to watch him. And he
was supposed to play like once or twice and lose
because he was at the end of he kept freaking
winning and so I'm just I'm in New York and
it kept raining.

Speaker 3 (51:56):
I was I feel like I.

Speaker 5 (51:57):
Was there for three months and at long. And if
it rains, they cancel everything because it's outside. You can't
play on a wet court.

Speaker 3 (52:05):
Oh, they don't have to fight through the elements.

Speaker 5 (52:07):
They don't or they don't have ripped up everything yea
in their legs and so and then finally he loses.
His career is over. But he just kept winning, and
I was like torn. I was like, dude, I want
you to keep winning all the way a thegain, but
I was like, I gotta go home. I love you,
I gotta go home. I really hope you win this.
So and now he outwardly talks about people that claim

(52:30):
pickleballs as hard as tennis and how big a losers
they are, because he's like, it's not the same. And
he plays pickleball a little bit, but he definitely not much.
And the first tournament he played like one a million
dollar thing.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
It's so stupid.

Speaker 6 (52:42):
I mean, yeah, it's so stupid.

Speaker 3 (52:44):
I just want to it's so stupid.

Speaker 4 (52:45):
That's a pretty good deal right there. And if you're
athletic enough, obviously tennis background helps a lot from hand
eye coordination, what you're doing and how you do all
those things. But when you go out and you're like, yeah,
I don't play, but I'll play in this tournament stupid
and goes out and wins, it's a pretty good deal.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
I love him. Here he is what is it? Is
it Flushing Meadows?

Speaker 7 (53:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (53:06):
Yeah, Flushing, New York at their ash Stadium.

Speaker 5 (53:08):
With their like seventy two times for six matches because
we kept getting out there and kept raining us out.
I knew nothing about tennis growing up, but I was
the guy with the best equipment even though I didn't play,
because I got all.

Speaker 6 (53:18):
This free cred. I can't play tennis to save my life.

Speaker 3 (53:21):
Celi Ja here he is former number one. Andy Roddick
on is Andy Roddick who.

Speaker 4 (53:29):
Loves loves pickleball. Yeah, I played pickleball this morning. I'm
not gonna lay.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
He is the biggest advocate, right, I mean, you stand
for pickleball.

Speaker 6 (53:38):
Yeah, I do.

Speaker 8 (53:40):
I've figured out that I'm kind of for anything where
you improve every seven and a half minutes automatically.

Speaker 4 (53:46):
So he makes fun of pickleball. Yeah, yeah, I can
see that. I mean, he was the best tennis player
in the world, but he.

Speaker 5 (53:53):
Also okay, question, and I want to talk about this
event that's happening this weekend, because I did not know
you were playing in it. Again, I remember the first time.
This is just a quick little story. I get a
text for Randy going, hey, you play ball. This is
two years ago. I was like, yeah, he goes something,
something goes cool. We just brief and he goes, oh,
by the way, I'm playing in a tournament for a
million dollars coming up in a couple of days. Never

(54:13):
played before my life. That's literally what he said to me.
I mean that that's a paraphrase. And then he goes
and plays and wins the thing. And so my instant
question was is it so easy to play pickleball when
you were so good at tennis?

Speaker 7 (54:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 8 (54:30):
I think I think it translates, right, I mean I think, like, yeah,
it definitely translates. I mean, I'm playing other people this
weekend who were also way better than me at tennis
and way more accomplished, so.

Speaker 2 (54:42):
You know they're also a little older.

Speaker 8 (54:45):
But yeah, I mean I generally think if if you
ask someone did you play college tennis and they say yes,
that they'll you know, generally be better than my neighbor
Bob at pickleball.

Speaker 3 (54:55):
Don't use my name, because I feel like that was
a shot at me.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Sorry my neighbor.

Speaker 4 (54:58):
Uh Gregory, Okay, fair enough, fair, fair fair, but pickleball.
When you when you started playing pickleball, how going to
take you to pick up on the roles because I'm
still just completely messing.

Speaker 6 (55:08):
I don't know the.

Speaker 4 (55:10):
Kitchen, all that stuff. I'm just sitting there going, what
the hell are you guys talking about?

Speaker 8 (55:14):
Yeah, like if I was commissioner for a day. It's
like the amount of stuff that they name a certain
thing you have to switch sides on return depending on
your evens and odds. It's like, bro, I didn't I
didn't go to college. I don't want to do I
didn't come out here to do like math, right. I mean,
it's just there's so much stuff that doesn't really make sense.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
You'll see me.

Speaker 8 (55:35):
I have to play this Sunday and after every single point,
which I did the first time he played two years ago.
I will be looking at the ref saying, am I
supposed to stand here right now?

Speaker 5 (55:45):
See, I feel like you're downplaying a little bit because
you enjoy it more than you because you were very
I think pickleball guy got on your nerves at first,
which I can totally understand because if I were tennis guy,
pickleball guy would get on my nerves. I'm pickleball guy.
That would get like with people comparing the two. But
now I think you enjoy it, but you've committed so
hard to being tennis guy who recreation plays pickleball, but

(56:10):
like talks about it like I don't really know the rules,
but you really want to be pickleball guy.

Speaker 3 (56:14):
Any truth to that?

Speaker 8 (56:16):
No, the zero truth to that. So I literally so
I played that deal two years ago, hadn't played again,
which is how much I love it. I hadn't played
again until about a month ago. And so now I have,
you know, these practices scheduled, and the whole thing, I
my thing is what one part of what you said

(56:36):
is absolutely right, like comparing it in any way, shape
or form to tennis. And also these statistics that drive
me crazier like it's the fastest growing sport. I'm like, yeah, well,
if you have seven people that play and then twenty
one people play, you're the fastest growing sport. Like that
doesn't really do much for sports that have been around
for you know, one hundred years. But listen, I get

(56:58):
the value of it at a club level, like the
real estate, the fact that there's not an intimidating barrier
to entry. And I'm not saying that's sarcastic that I
really mean it. It has a lot going for it. Watching
it on TV is this weird thing because it seems
like the better you get, the slower the TV product becomes,
which is not true for any other sport.

Speaker 4 (57:19):
So when you go to these ternaments and you play
in this pickaball tournament, is it just your competitive competitive
juices start.

Speaker 6 (57:25):
To go and you're like, Okay, look, I know, I
know I can go out there and dominate, but like,
at the end of the day, would you would to win?

Speaker 9 (57:31):
Right?

Speaker 8 (57:32):
Yes, absolutely, I was legit when we did a thing
two years ago, I was on. So also, all of
these things are kind of an excuse and you'll you'll
understand this, I'm sure in some way, shape or form.
It's all an excuse to hang out with my idol.
Who's Andre Agasi, right, If Andrea wants to play pickle
I'm like, hell, yeah, let's play pickaball. That sounds great,
Like I just completely sell he could he could want

(57:53):
to like bake a cake, and I'd be like, yeah,
I just kind of want to spend time with my idol.
But yeah, absolutely am I going to go out there.
And I was legit nervous during the first one because
I didn't want to lose a mac and.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
Roe right, Like, who wants that guy trashed.

Speaker 8 (58:05):
Tucking you forever? So yes, yes I can. I can
kind of love hate it and also want to win.

Speaker 2 (58:12):
When when when we get out.

Speaker 3 (58:13):
There, you ever jump into some pick up pickleball?

Speaker 7 (58:19):
Is there?

Speaker 2 (58:19):
I can't tell if you're joking.

Speaker 5 (58:21):
Well, okay, if I'm at the why and all of
a sudden Kobe shows up, I'm like, well that's kind
of wild. Kobe Bryant is jumping into a twenty four
hour fitness basketball game.

Speaker 8 (58:34):
See now, that's so what your I know I never have,
And that's where I would fear someone's like grandfather beating
my ass in pick a ball like that. That that
that what you just said scares me.

Speaker 6 (58:48):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (58:48):
You know what I'm always fascinated with is the journey
for you guys in tennis. You guys start at much
younger ages than other athletes you become professional. Talk to
me about your regimen of just when you start playing
playing tennis, right, and then you go to probably one
of those academies or something like that, What did your
daily routine look like? Because that fascinates me because you
guys are some of the hardest working people I've ever seen.

Speaker 8 (59:12):
Yeah, it's it's a little weird, and I just think
individual sports are also a little bit weird, you know,
just generally.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
But like high school, it was woke up.

Speaker 8 (59:22):
I would have a practice in before school at seven thirty,
so you'd wake up at like five, you'd basically practice.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
All day with school.

Speaker 8 (59:28):
Then you'd go to bed at nine, and then you'd
wake up and do it again the next day. You know,
So you're looking at six, seven, eight hours a day
on court. It's not really a super like healthy existence,
you know. For for all the players that make it,
I think they're players that don't and are.

Speaker 2 (59:46):
Left with like not a lot of life skill, not
a lot of something to kind of look back on.
So I'm not sure.

Speaker 8 (59:51):
It's kind of like the healthiest existence. You're pretty isolated
and it's feast or famine. Right, You're either there's one
hundred jobs in the world basically where you make money, right,
because if you don't play in the Grand Slams, then
you're not making money, right. There's no alternate to wur
there's no secondary leagues, and so it's a it's a
bit of a weird deal.

Speaker 2 (01:00:10):
But yeah, you have to be a bit.

Speaker 8 (01:00:13):
Of a kind of an isolated psychopath to do well
almost if you're too easy going. And that's what used
to drive me crazy about losing to Roger all the time,
is how balanced he seemed.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
While the rest of us were like psychos. That that
that that was annoying.

Speaker 5 (01:00:27):
How odd was it to be way more famous in
other countries because tennis was much more popular than in America.

Speaker 2 (01:00:34):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 8 (01:00:35):
It's like it's like it's like when en Sinc had
a song in Germany first, and then they would come
home to their quiet.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
Yeah, it's strange. I mean, it's you.

Speaker 8 (01:00:43):
Know, you know, I can speak to it is like
an NFL here dominates everything, so if you're not you know,
NFL or NBA, you kind of aren't you know, even
an athlete. And then you go to you know, Australia
where they're doing the national news from the tennis venue
during during the tournament, and where you know, London, where
people you know will wait for three days for an
average ticket to the to the stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
So it actually would great.

Speaker 8 (01:01:06):
I think it was kind of like best case scenario,
you know, where you you travel home to your piece
as opposed to you know, kind of traveling to your
piece to work.

Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
I actually thought it was great.

Speaker 4 (01:01:18):
So when you win one of these major tournaments, right,
I'm used to that locker room, right, you got a
lot of people to celebrate with, But would you guys
go out and rage with the group that you're with, Like,
tell me you just beer showers something I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
Yeah, so I'll tell you this. When when I won
the US Open, I had also turned twenty one, like
five days earlier. So that was a mess. That was
an absolute mess of a night.

Speaker 8 (01:01:43):
But yeah, you're you know, you're drinking, and tennis is
it's an individual sport, but your team still really matters,
and maybe even more so because you know, I'm assuming
this wasn't the case for you in football, but.

Speaker 2 (01:01:58):
You know I don't.

Speaker 8 (01:02:00):
I spent two hundred and fifty nights a year with
my PT and my coach right there. It's dinner, whether
it's all of our treatment is done like in a
hotel room and not you know, a venue or a
practice facility. So it's kind of strange. I spent seventy
percent of my life for twelve or thirteen years with
these people who were there specifically for my orbit, so

(01:02:23):
the bonds are strong.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
But yeah, it is.

Speaker 8 (01:02:26):
It is kind of weird celebrations aside. It's even weirder
when you're about to go play like a Wimbledon final,
and you're the only two people in a locker room
and you're only ten yards away from each other for
most of the day leading in right, so all your
prep work is with a witness, and your witness is
the person you're playing against. So that at the time
it just seemed normal, And then as I have some
space from it, I'm like that that's super weird.

Speaker 5 (01:02:48):
The different kinds of courts you would play on in tennis,
clay and clay, the bald in balance is hard, which
wasn't as advantageous to you because you were a power hitter.
Grass and then hard courts and the hard court I
think you probably prefer the most right because the harder
you hit, the faster the ball reacts.

Speaker 8 (01:03:09):
It's the way it bounces. So if you were to
take a if you had like a this boarrior football
listeners to tears, if you if you were to like
throw a ball across like a wood lamond desk, you
with skid, right, And so that's what I was looking for.
I was looking for that skid whereas clay because of
you know, the way it hits. It hits and checks,
so it slows everything down a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:03:30):
So I wanted a little bit of skid to it.

Speaker 8 (01:03:32):
It's I guess it's not dissimilar to like you think
of like the early aughts rams right where they're in
a dome and they're going to run through you, but
all of a sudden, you give them some snow and
you give them something else to deal with, and it
changes the dynamic of of of everything. You know that
that's kind of the surface dependency that we we deal
with in tennis. I like grass the most. It just
sucked that the guy that I was trying to beat.

(01:03:53):
Also like grass the.

Speaker 4 (01:03:54):
Most, well, it is your favorite venue that you would
compete at.

Speaker 8 (01:03:59):
Our cathedral is are like Wrigley Field, Senway is is Wimbledon.
It's it's it's They have all those traditions, but you
don't feel like they're just for the sake of tradition.
It's weird, like every event, every major year is kind
of like a microcosm of where it's played. You know,
you get to Australia, it's summertime there, everyone's in a
good mood, just crushing beers around the grounds. Everyone's generally happy.

(01:04:21):
You go to you know, the French Open and there's
just not quite enough room to move around, so everyone's.

Speaker 2 (01:04:26):
Kind of in a bad mood. You go to London,
it's that way US Open.

Speaker 8 (01:04:28):
It's like fireworks and music and it honestly looks like
an NFL production a little bit, but it is kind
of representative of like that New York City of things.
I'm always partial like you walk into to this day,
I'll walk into the All England Club and kind of
lose my breath a little bit.

Speaker 5 (01:04:43):
One of the things that one of the memories that
I have of when you were home, because you'd be
gone nine months of the year to be home for
two or three and that's when we would actually spend
time together. But I remember people would just come to
your house and knock on the door and you'd have
to pee in a cup like that. I remember the
drug testing and that's not even when you're on the road,
because I wasn't with you very rarely was I with

(01:05:04):
you on the road, but they would come to your
house and not because and the drug testing was so stringent.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
Is that is that still happened now? And is that
Olympic drug testing you had to do then?

Speaker 2 (01:05:14):
Yes?

Speaker 8 (01:05:15):
So, well it's it's so we're involved in a lot
of different stuff. And this is one of the things
that sucks about playing in a million different countries. So
you could land somewhere and this is on the road
and I'll get to the home piece of it in
a second, but you could land somewhere and you could
be tested by you know, the French Federation for whatever reason,
just because you're playing at Roland Garros. You could be
tested by the IOC wata it i A. And that's

(01:05:37):
before we get to the actual tour and so and
they also wait it, right, So the the better you are,
the more you kind of get get tested. But we
are on the IOC program and you remember the gymnasts
got her metal taken away, you know however many Olympics
ago because she had SUDA fed And so that's what
we're dealing with, is like you can have you know,
athletes foot foot powder and test positive for it. And

(01:05:59):
I actually make the argument on our podcast Serve that
why are we testing for thresholds of things like the
egos fianceek just got. She's now cleared, but she had
a contaminated bottle of melatonin and the levels.

Speaker 2 (01:06:14):
That she tested positive positive.

Speaker 8 (01:06:15):
For were so low that, you know, every scientist and
every tribunal said they didn't actually affect performance. And then
so I'm going, why are we testing for thresholds that
don't actually affect performance?

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
But it's twofold, right, because.

Speaker 8 (01:06:30):
You never really look across the person you're playing and say,
you know, they're most likely getting away with something, you know,
because our drug testing is so stringent, and also it
leads to a lot of kind of flimsy cases where
it's it kind of comes down to being unlucky, which
I don't think should ever dictate the decision on penalties
or suspension.

Speaker 3 (01:06:49):
But they would just show up, like you again at
your house at five and the.

Speaker 8 (01:06:53):
More we had to Yeah, so we had to every
single day, we had to have like an hour that
we had to be available for testing. Now that doesn't
mean you got tested every day. It means on those
fifteen or twenty at home tests a year, you still
had to be available for when they didn't come. So
I would always choose five to six in the morning
because that's the only time I could guarantee that i'd

(01:07:13):
be home. But yeah, they'd knock on your door. And
then if you have you know, I think it's three
failed tests, then it's automatic suspension, not failed tests, sorry,
absent tests. So if you weren't there, So to give
like life context when I'm trying to explain it to people,
I said, if if my wife and I wanted to
go we were in Austin at the time, we wanted
to go up to San Antonio to the Riverwalk, we

(01:07:34):
would have to check in get our room number. I
would have to email our lady, who would then email
the doping authorities just in case they wanted to stop
by a room at five or six in the morning
to test.

Speaker 4 (01:07:45):
And was it always the creepy guy that would come
in and make you like face him and stare at
you while you're going to the restroom, like.

Speaker 3 (01:07:51):
Where it's a pretty invasive procedure.

Speaker 6 (01:07:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there were.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
There weren't a lot. There weren't a lot of secrets
in that room.

Speaker 5 (01:07:59):
Was it a like a part of your life too,
where you couldn't take certain things or supplements in medicine
that had nothing to do with performance in any way,
but because of what was in it, you were like, well,
I'm not even going to mess around with that.

Speaker 8 (01:08:12):
Yes, I was like kind of scared of supplements honestly,
and it was supplements through food. And you have to
understand that we call it aspirin in on the legal
forms that you're sending to your trainers or whatever. It's
like aspirin is spelled with you know, four x's, twenty
seven vowels, a Y and something else that you would
never recognize, right, So you you actually have to have

(01:08:33):
someone who's well versed in just generally kind of smarter
than I have ever been.

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
Take a look at these things.

Speaker 8 (01:08:40):
And so it's a pretty intimidating prospect all around, and
it's gotten a little sideways now in tennis because you
see the headlines where it's like she outsack fails doping tests,
and it's like, well, yeah, she had melatonin, you know,
which like I went on I think the next day,
I'm like, I've had melatonin this week, you know, like
four times. So it's a slippery slope in this culture
where we kind of deal in headlines, it's oftentimes a

(01:09:03):
bad look for tennis. And then once you kind of
get into the details of a given case, it's not
like someone's just like smoking Balco and putting like anabolic
steroids into their bodies that would be caught immediately, right,
So the upside just isn't there. I just I have
a hard time believing that these athletes like Center and
fianceec would take on these risks for minimal benefit.

Speaker 4 (01:09:26):
When I look at the environment of a tennis stadium,
it's very traditional, it's stoic, it's quiet. Yeah, do you
think that you guys would still be able to perform
the same way if the crowd was just into it
every swing, every serve, you know, like loud, rambunctious, or
do you think that that's got to be the environment.

Speaker 6 (01:09:44):
That you guys play in.

Speaker 2 (01:09:46):
Yeah, well so we have. It's a question.

Speaker 8 (01:09:49):
I could asked a lot, and I'm all for, Like,
I want crazier stuff in tennis, right, I think it
needs to change the way we cover it needs to change,
so I'm not stuck in the mud. The difference is
is if you're in baseball, you can't hear someone pitch, right.
Someone doesn't hear you throw. You don't hear someone catch.
The impact of the ball is my first clue as

(01:10:10):
to what's coming, right, like the way it's hit, whether
it's you know, underspin or top or flat or like
I can tell instantly on a serve and at that
point you have, you know, a quarter of a second
to react. But my first tell is how it sounds
coming off the racket. So yeah, we could play, but
I don't think the quality of product would be as
good because you would be taking away, you know, basically

(01:10:32):
our first clue as to what's coming.

Speaker 3 (01:10:36):
You think I could beat you a pickle ball? Now?

Speaker 8 (01:10:38):
No, And I think I actually, I actually, I'm glad
you brought that up. I think no, But I've also
invited myself over to try to play many times, and
I think that you just like being the best pickaball
player in your group of friends, so you won't let
me come.

Speaker 6 (01:10:54):
Are you the best?

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
Yeah? Yeah, no, Yah, heels like his pickle crew.

Speaker 8 (01:10:59):
But I don't know that he would want me to
come in because I think he's established dominance inside of
his group.

Speaker 3 (01:11:05):
Yeah. I think there's a bit of a bit of
truth to that.

Speaker 5 (01:11:07):
However, I someone that comes in for an exhibition doesn't
count against my record, you know, if he's not like
part of the.

Speaker 3 (01:11:15):
Crew, that's just an exhibition match.

Speaker 5 (01:11:16):
And but yeah, Andy and I've been friends for a
long time. We have friends like that we're very close
to separately, and that they and even our very mutual
close friend. It's like, I don't know, Bobby, I think
you could really push him. So you think there's no
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:11:33):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:11:34):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
You don't think there's any show.

Speaker 8 (01:11:35):
I don't you play more than I do. You're more
well versed in it, you know more stuff than I do.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
I don't know. I would take that bet.

Speaker 4 (01:11:44):
I would double down on that bet. I kind of
want to see I want to see this. I want
to see this. I'm just gonna go with the professional.

Speaker 5 (01:11:50):
I'm not even saying player. I'm not even saying it's true.
I don't know that it's true.

Speaker 4 (01:11:54):
You know you've got confidence that problem like this, I
have irrational confidence.

Speaker 2 (01:11:59):
There's the easiest thing ever, Bobby.

Speaker 8 (01:12:00):
Let's let's let's find the charity of a given choice
and we'll just do it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:03):
No problem.

Speaker 5 (01:12:04):
You're acting like I'm sitting here screaming I'm going to
beat you. I have not said that.

Speaker 4 (01:12:08):
No, but he just said challenge accepted. He said challenge,
except I said I don't don't.

Speaker 8 (01:12:12):
I don't know either, But like, I think it's worth
an afternoon of finding out, because the curiosity is killing
me at this point.

Speaker 5 (01:12:18):
I think another thing that will be funny is if
we hop in a little tournament and we don't say
I'm just like, hey, I'm gonna play in a little
charity tournament.

Speaker 3 (01:12:25):
I show up with a Randy Rogers and I think
that would be fun.

Speaker 8 (01:12:31):
I owe you, I owe you a million times for
a million things. So say the word and I'm in.

Speaker 3 (01:12:36):
Did you have a favorite NFL team growing up?

Speaker 2 (01:12:40):
Yeah, I mean I was.

Speaker 8 (01:12:40):
I was a Texas kid in like the early nineties,
so you know, you kind of watch the Cowboys and
the Akman's and the Smiths and the Urbans, and you
know kind of those years of those teams versus and
then kind of when the Niners came to eat their lunch,
you know, ninety four ninety five, that that was kind
of my peak NFL fandom beyond like a fantasy, self

(01:13:02):
serving perspective.

Speaker 5 (01:13:03):
A favorite player growing up up as in football.

Speaker 8 (01:13:09):
Probably Emmett Smith. I think I feel like that's the
only jersey that that I ever had. I think that
that favorite players aged well too, right, like nothing weird
has happened with him, which I think is good.

Speaker 5 (01:13:21):
Yeah, and that's that's tough nowadays because everything now and yes.

Speaker 3 (01:13:24):
Yeah, everything exists.

Speaker 6 (01:13:25):
Did you actually watch the Super Bowl at all?

Speaker 2 (01:13:30):
Yeah? I did.

Speaker 8 (01:13:32):
It was I'm curious, obviously you know this this backwards,
but it's just you kind of remember those moments where
there are these like.

Speaker 2 (01:13:40):
Legendary mythical players and.

Speaker 8 (01:13:42):
Teams, and you remember the first time that they got beat,
like really beat right, like not like close, but like beat,
And I was I was stunned. And you know, I'm
sure as many of us were. But you know, you're
the expert. I couldn't see one part of the game
where where where they weren't beaten soundly, and it was

(01:14:03):
it was weird to see because you know they're they're
one of the best teams ever. And it just goes
to show you it's what makes sports beautiful. It doesn't
matter what you've done, it matters what you're doing that day.
And that's that's that's why I love sports. It's like
the ultimate reality show.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
Pick a Ball Slam three.

Speaker 5 (01:14:19):
The duel in the Desert is happening Mandalay Bay in
Vegas on Sunday, so ESPN will televise it. You can watch.
I will be watching. I'll be rooting for you, and
you win money. Right, this is our thing. You're competing
for prize money.

Speaker 8 (01:14:35):
We so this one is not the purse like last time.
But the way that I understand it is that we
get paid X which is not nothing, and then if
we win, we get to net We basically become the
champs and get another get another payday. So we're basically
playing for the next one. Uh, we get to kind

(01:14:55):
of hold court.

Speaker 2 (01:14:55):
If if we.

Speaker 6 (01:14:56):
Win, let's go. I know you're gonna be doing your scouting.

Speaker 5 (01:14:59):
I don't need, guess, I don't I don't need I
don't need a scout. I'm gonna play them on clay
though I want. I'm to get all right, good luck,
Love you buddy, talk to you soon, and thanks for
coming on with us.

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
All right, guys anytime. Thank you.

Speaker 5 (01:15:15):
By the way, this podcast is called Served, and if
you're a tennis fan, check out Served. It really is
a fantastic podcast. He's one of the smartest guys I know.
He won't act like it, but he's one of the
smartest guys I know.

Speaker 3 (01:15:24):
Period in all forms. So check out Served. With Andy rotting.

Speaker 5 (01:15:42):
We just had Andy Rottick go on. I think there
was a little bit of static or something. They gave him,
like a little list in the audio.

Speaker 3 (01:15:48):
He doesn't talk with. I don't even know how that
went through.

Speaker 5 (01:15:51):
But if there was like a stat that that's you know,
I don't know who that's on.

Speaker 3 (01:15:56):
If he hears that, he's gonna think we did it.
We did it. It wasn't nice. Koc was on and
he was good, so yeah, but then he got muted
as the question about the quarterback, He's like, I can't
hear that was perfect.

Speaker 4 (01:16:08):
I thought he was doing it on purpose, and then
he's like, no, really, I can't hear you, And then
he finally came back on.

Speaker 6 (01:16:14):
That was great.

Speaker 3 (01:16:15):
Yeah, it's been a fun show.

Speaker 5 (01:16:17):
And you know, up until the draft, we'll definitely stay
in the mix here and talk in NFL. It will
spread our wings a little bit, have some music. You know,
we're kind of finding our legs as well. One quick note,
Roddick had the world record for a long time for
the best of service, like one fifty eight or.

Speaker 3 (01:16:36):
Something, whatever it was.

Speaker 5 (01:16:37):
I'm absurd and I thought, if he hits it to
me ten times, I can get one of them back
over the net. That's the bet that made him just one.
So I said, if you hit me ten Yes, this
already took place. Yeah, it was in Sports Illustrated went yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:16:57):
Okay please.

Speaker 5 (01:16:58):
And I do not fancy myself an incredible athlete, not
even an above average athlete. I think I'm an average
ridge athlete with a high IQ.

Speaker 3 (01:17:08):
And a great work ethic.

Speaker 5 (01:17:10):
I think that's how I would define any success that
I had, because again, not super tall, not super fast,
pretty smart.

Speaker 3 (01:17:18):
High motor, high energy. Yeah yeah, big motor, high technician, technician.

Speaker 5 (01:17:23):
So I freaking trained, and I thought it wasn't even
that I had to like score a point on him.
It was just get it back over the net and play.

Speaker 6 (01:17:32):
Okay, this is that's ten serfs.

Speaker 3 (01:17:35):
Ten serves.

Speaker 5 (01:17:35):
Yeah, hand eye coordination pretty good, even though my ride
eye doesn't work at all, Like it's never worked, so
I've had to learn how to do everything. I left eye,
but since I've never had a right eye, it doesn't matter.
Like it's nothing hurt. I'm ready to go, and people
are like that gonna be hard. I was like, I
don't know the difference, so I'm not. I've not lost anything, right,
Let's go bring.

Speaker 6 (01:17:52):
It show up.

Speaker 5 (01:17:53):
How many serves do you think until I A touched
it and be did or didn't get it over?

Speaker 4 (01:18:01):
I think you touched the ball probably one out of
ten times, but the probably your eighth one.

Speaker 5 (01:18:07):
You think I touched it at eight and you don't
think there's any chance I got it back over the net.

Speaker 6 (01:18:11):
I'm gonna be honest with you. Absolutely not.

Speaker 5 (01:18:13):
Yeah, he could have hit a thousand at me. I
wouldn't even touched it. I never touched it. I was
trying to give you the best I know, and I
appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:18:21):
I'm could go with one out of ten, but I'm
really I can't wait to hear the results because it
would have absolutely blown my mind.

Speaker 3 (01:18:27):
I never touched it, and if you actually returned one.

Speaker 5 (01:18:30):
It was then when and I would train with him
a little bit and I would see but I would
do a really hard session with him, But then he'd
have two more workouts that day. So you're one of
those guys. So I'm not gonna hear that from you
because you're that guy too. But it was when I
then saw the work and the athleticism, because a lot

(01:18:50):
of guys are great athletes.

Speaker 3 (01:18:51):
They'll put in the work right.

Speaker 5 (01:18:52):
A lot of guys work hard, and maybe they don't
have the athleticism. I saw them together and I thought
that I could have been here for ten days, I
would have never touched one. After the first four, which
stunned me. They were so fast, like it scared one
hundred and fifty five miles an hour. It scared me.
Then he knew I was so scared. It was like
when you're throwing one hundred and three mile an hour

(01:19:13):
gas and then you hit somebody with.

Speaker 3 (01:19:14):
The change up.

Speaker 6 (01:19:14):
Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:19:15):
Then he started to hit cut serves at like half
the speed. It was like an alien had landed. Then
on nine to ten, I.

Speaker 5 (01:19:24):
Was so frazzled, he just said, And dude, I was gone,
I'm done. And so then Sports Illustrated they covered it,
did a story, and it was embarrassing because I didn't
even get close.

Speaker 6 (01:19:37):
I mean, I can't even imagine.

Speaker 4 (01:19:38):
I mean, I think about that, and you watch these
professional tennis matches and you see these men and women
like serving the ball one hundred and twenty to one
hundred and thirty fifty one hundred and fifty five in
his case, or fifty eight, and you go, that is
absolutely absurd to even put the tennis racket on it,
let alone return it and then create this volley back

(01:19:58):
and forth.

Speaker 6 (01:19:59):
I thought.

Speaker 4 (01:19:59):
The other fascinating part listening to him when I asked
him about the crowd, You know, would you rather than
be a like oysterous and screaming in this?

Speaker 3 (01:20:07):
He said, I'd love that.

Speaker 4 (01:20:08):
But I didn't even realize how detail woron they are
with their mind. If I knew as soon as it
came off the racket, if it was a cut serve,
if it was a power serve, I that never even
I never processed that.

Speaker 6 (01:20:22):
In my mind.

Speaker 3 (01:20:23):
Can you play pick a ball?

Speaker 4 (01:20:25):
I mean, I can play, but I'm not I'm not good.
I played this morning, went out there. Now, we had
a bunch of average jows out there, and we were
all getting to know the game. But I've got enough
hand eye coordination where I can.

Speaker 6 (01:20:39):
I can.

Speaker 4 (01:20:39):
I can hold my own a little bit, I wouldn't.
I kind of want to come over here and get
on the court with you, big fellow.

Speaker 3 (01:20:46):
I just wonder if you're sandbagging or not.

Speaker 4 (01:20:48):
No, I promise you I'm not saying bagging because I'm competitive.

Speaker 3 (01:20:50):
I want to win. I want to go pro.

Speaker 4 (01:20:53):
Do you well, I'm not there yet because every time
the ball comes up in the air and it looks
like that soft like soft pitch softball, and I go
to slam it and I just ricochet thirty yards out
of the court, and I'm so pissed at myself, and
I slammed my paddle against my thigh. I'm just like,
oh my gosh, this should be easier, it should be easier.

Speaker 5 (01:21:15):
I don't think I am anywhere near going pro, but
I think I'm gonna.

Speaker 3 (01:21:19):
I think I wanna do like Andy work with a trainer.

Speaker 6 (01:21:21):
Yeah, let's do this.

Speaker 3 (01:21:23):
Why not.

Speaker 5 (01:21:23):
I got a whole freaking machine over there that shoots
balls at you.

Speaker 3 (01:21:26):
But then it got winter.

Speaker 5 (01:21:27):
I bought it and it got winter, and I have
an outdoor court, so I never really get to play
with him.

Speaker 6 (01:21:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:21:31):
The guy that really intimidates me is when they're up
at the net.

Speaker 6 (01:21:34):
You know you're.

Speaker 4 (01:21:34):
Serving, and then you gotta get it back over but
they're already standing there like, okay, d bring it. And
we played with somebody in my buddy Marcus today. He's
six ' eight so his wingspan is here, so I
was like, do I try to flop it over his head?
Every time I try to flop it, it's gone in
the next county. But it's a great game, great workout,
a lot of fun.

Speaker 5 (01:21:54):
And the seat the floor is very high, meaning anybody
that able bodied can get in and.

Speaker 6 (01:22:02):
Just play right.

Speaker 3 (01:22:03):
It's like golf, but more active. It's like golf, but
way easier to start it is.

Speaker 6 (01:22:09):
It's way easier. That's a good point.

Speaker 5 (01:22:11):
Like golf, golf sucks for me because it's really hard.
I like to play golf, but it's really hard. I
feel like I could be okay at pickle ball in
a week a day, a day learning the.

Speaker 4 (01:22:22):
Rules, right, if you just have enough hand eye coordination,
because you your movement patterns aren't extreme unless you're like
really hustling and your guy is being Lazi or whatever
it is. So you can get to balls in a
small space. It's not like you're running all over a court.
So he definitely could be competitive if you just give
a little effort.

Speaker 3 (01:22:41):
That Kevin involved a little bit, played a little last year. Yeah, yeah,
I'm looking forward to it again.

Speaker 2 (01:22:45):
But like you said, the.

Speaker 5 (01:22:46):
Weather got bad, and right when you got good weather,
good man, I was moving up on the charts.

Speaker 6 (01:22:51):
Is that always the case.

Speaker 3 (01:22:52):
We have a championship belt, do you.

Speaker 6 (01:22:54):
I'm guessing your name's on it.

Speaker 3 (01:22:56):
No, I don't put my name on it. Just a winner.
It's just the winner.

Speaker 4 (01:22:58):
It's kind of like I get I get a championship belt,
but it says Dad of the Year. I get a
plaque made and I just put my name on it
every year. My kids don't know the difference. Like I've
won five years in a row. Guys, I'm the dad
of the year.

Speaker 3 (01:23:10):
Also the only dad in the house. But yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 6 (01:23:13):
That's why I'm always winning.

Speaker 5 (01:23:14):
Oh, Read's getting pretty good thanks to Kevin O'Connell. Coach
of the Year, thanks to Andy Roddick. Please hit subscribe,
go to the lots to say podcast feed, hit subscribe.
That would be super cool if you did. We got
big shows coming up in the next few weeks. I'm
just saying that because I literally have no idea because
everything from the Super Bowl burnt everybody out.

Speaker 3 (01:23:34):
Every show's big. Yeah, good point.

Speaker 4 (01:23:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:23:37):
Show of the year on our feed. It's like that
of year on our feed. We have show of the Year,
Thank you, guys. Executive Princer Kevin O'Connell. Different, Kevin O'Connell,
by the way, different Kevin, K and K Yeah, Reid
ahead of audio video that what you are?

Speaker 3 (01:23:53):
Who's better pickleball? You two read is and me and Reid? Yeah,
oh well no I beat you last time. Yeah, he's
got good though.

Speaker 4 (01:24:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:24:01):
Reads dropped about all right.

Speaker 5 (01:24:03):
And gotten pretty good, dropped that winter Wait yeah, Reads
had a visual that's Matt Castle on Bobby Bones. We've
had lots to say, see you guys next week.

Speaker 4 (01:24:10):
Bye.

Speaker 9 (01:24:10):
Everybody lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle
is a production of the NFL, and iHeart Podcasts.

Speaker 1 (01:24:23):
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Bobby Bones

Amy Brown

Lunchbox

Eddie Garcia

Morgan Huelsman

Raymundo

Mike D

Abby Anderson

Scuba Steve

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Lots to Say: Vikings HC Kevin O'Connell and Tennis Champ Andy Roddick