Behind the Buccaneers: Carl Nassib

Go under the helmet with your favorite Buccaneers players and listen in on the conversation with the Behind the Buccaneers podcast.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Either Bucks fans. I'm Carmon by Tally and I'm here
to take you under the helmet with some of your
favorite Bucks players in the Behind the Buccaneers podcast. So
we started the series on Buccaneers dot com as a
casual conversational Q and a well now you get to
hear the conversations for yourself today. Come on into the

(00:21):
weight room at a vent Health training center with me
where I caught up with Bucks outside linebacker Carl Massid.
We're doing an interview in the gym though, because you're
in the gym because I have no life. I have
no life, so I get bored and I'm gonna work out. Yeah.
Despite coming from a football family, Carl never had his
path carved out for him when it actually came to football.

(00:43):
He was so undersized coming out of high school in Malvern, Pennsylvania,
that he was barely recruited and instead found himself walking
on at Penn State when just two eighteen pounds six
ft six not exactly the model build for a guy
hoping to play defensive end at a Power five school.
Let's just say Carl ended up taking the hard vote
to the NFL. I don't know if you say I

(01:04):
took I mean it was just given to me. I said,
I would have rather chose an easy way. Yeah. Well, yeah,
I love being a walk on I represent walk on you.
Last I tried to. Oh yeah, walk on you. He
hashtags it on Instagram seriously, which he just got again.

(01:25):
By the way, you should follow him at Karl Nassa anyway.
With the body type that he had, basketball, which Carl
also played in high school, almost seemed more of a
natural fit in retrospect, football was the right direction, sure,
but back then, why stick to the pigskin if it's
such an uphill climb? Was my favorite sport of all

(01:45):
time all time? Why is that? I know your dad
played your brother brother. Basically, It's just the best team
sport that there is. And you know, throughout the years
I've been had a lot of teammates, and my favorite
thing is, like I could be, you know, butt heads
of the teammate every single day, but as soon as
you got on a football field, you're you're like brothers

(02:07):
out there. And I just have like a few people
in my mind that like we did not get along
at all. Maybe we were just adversaries in every sort
of the way, and but when we got on the field,
it was just you know, we were out there fighting
for the same same cause and he's on the same team.
Was one of that's one of my favorite things about football.
Carl's entrance into the league was a little bit less

(02:27):
of an uplook climb. After a season that saw him
win the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and
set a school record for single season sacks, Carl was
drafted in the third round of the NFL Draft by
the Cleveland Browns. He spent two seasons in Cleveland before
being released right before the regular season in When he
was then picked up by the Bucks. Was that surprise

(02:49):
for you to get ut? Oh no, it wasn't. Um,
everybody's on the shop and block every single camp, especially
when you have a new general manager, new you know,
a lot of stuff, lot of changing parts. Um, it's
just with the NFL, you gotta roll with the punches
and you know, every opportunity you get you have to
make the best of it. And uh, everything happens for reasons. Well,

(03:09):
and then you did. I mean last year it was
I feel like you came out of note Like a
lot of people felt like you came out of nowhere anyway,
because I had a lot of help. I had so
much help I coach Buck really improved my game a lot.
Um Gerald was such a great influence. She is such
a great influence and just so thankful for those guys.
And uh Danny Curry was a great influence. Just had
a lot of vets and I just want to keep

(03:30):
getting better. And now I gotta chalk up all that
to them. That's that's very nice to me to say,
you're not You're not giving yourself any credit, though I
don't deserve much of it. This was immediately following a
rise to Hard Knocks infamy, because while most players approached
a white board to draw out xs and o's and
meeting rooms, cameras showed Carl instead illustrating compound interest for
his teammates. It's kind of this thing, Um well, I

(03:54):
think there are a lot of guys in the NFL,
most of them that are being really smart with their money,
and then there were just a few guys who were
making a couple don't have decisions here and there, And
that's just the overall impression. When I did his interviews,
I just kind of wanted to try and squash that
impression and show show people that you know, we're not
dumb jocks and that we're smart with their money and
being responsible. Carl has appeared on CNBC just recently, in fact,

(04:15):
and has carried his financial advice into the Bucks locker
room too. And something I've noticed since you've gotten here
is I feel like anytime there's like a kids event,
that you are always there, whether it's a school visit,
whether it's special Olympics you're participating. Yeah, we have a
lot of guys. Will Golson is the best. He I
want to even shout out he is. He is the

(04:35):
best person I've been around. I'm sure there are other
great guys too, but he does such a fantastic job
um giving back in the Tampa community and the surrounding counties.
I'm just trying to follow him and do as much
as I can. And I don't think people volunteer enough.
I just think it's such a rewarding experience a volunteer
and you know, be a service to other people. Well,

(04:58):
I don't think this is necessarily for you. I stumbled
across an article from Penn State where you It was
more about you putting on weight and how you were
constantly the gym and eating pole and all this other
stuff apparently to put on all the weight. But you apparently, Um,
somebody sent in a note to your coach that said
that you were really nice to a little girl in
a Chipotle one time. I can ask him, my friends,

(05:19):
I really loved interacting with complete strangers. I like making
you know, I feel like that's one of the dead things,
you know, society Right now, people are afraid to go
talk to random people. Um, you don't want to talk
to like I mean, I'm not promoting kids to go
talk to strangers. I'm just saying I'd like to meet
new people. And when I was in college, I was
at Chipole and I had a sling because I banged
up my shoulder and a little uh, a little girl.

(05:42):
Her name is Abby. She's fantastic. She's my biggest fan.
So you still keep in touch with her. Our mom's
keep in touch. Yeah. She came to a couple of
basic Yeah, she's she's a very special person and uh yeah,
and I, uh, you know, just make conversation with her.
And apparently it touched her, you know, her mom and um,
she reached out and then we gave her tour the
facility and it was it was fantastic, and that was

(06:04):
just one of the great ways. You know, football makes
you know, people's lives a lot happier, and that's why
I love it. Well, there you have a folks, Carl Nasso.
You'll see him on the field in a little bit
of a different role this year as an outside linebacker
in Todd Bowles's aggressive system. It's a role he's already
having fun with, just judging from these offseason practices. Yes,

(06:25):
even though he's not even allowed to hit people. One
thing I noticed was that what Carl was always one
to celebrate his teammates making a big play, he was
even more vocal in antagonizing the offense prior to the
play actually happening, chirping, if you will, a chirp that
probably stems from the chip that comes with being from
walk on you. Thanks for listening to this first edition

(06:47):
of the Behind the Buccaneers podcast. You can read the
full transcript on Bucks dot com. Oh and make sure
you're following Carl on Instagram. Like I said before, and
I told him I plug his Instagram, so I'm doing
it twice at Carl a massive If you feel like
you want to keep up with me or what I'm doing,
or even have some thoughts or feedback. I have all
the social media at CARMI V C A R M

(07:10):
I E V on Twitter and Instagram, and I also
have a new Facebook page where you can get it
on the conversation with me that way. Look out for
more of these features coming over the next few weeks
as we all anxiously await training camp. In the Talks