November 5, 2020 • 56 mins
Former Falcon and Georgia Bulldogs star quarterback D.J. Shockley talks about baseball being his first love, how he almost wound up playing at Florida State, being picked by the Falcons, meeting Michael Vick on his first day, what Matt Ryan is really like, the bizarre Bobby Petrino era and more with Matt Tabeek on Bird Noises presented by Bose.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
After several passing conversations about coming out of the show,
I finally finally gets welcome DJ Shockley to Bird Noises
presented by Bows in Atlanta Falcons podcast about football and
mostly everything else. Well, first off, the reason it's been
kind of a long time coming because you've had some
(00:24):
really really extensive, just great guests, and I really got
pushed down the line. That's that's what happened. Like you've
had you've had rapped superstars and you know, all these
different celebrities on the Bird Noises. So now comes a
little old Shocks. So now I'm starting to packing order. Well,
I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but
we've got some pretty big names coming up. So see
(00:49):
say I must. You know, I've been trying to meet
you on you know, you know that's fat. That's great
to see him, my man. Yeah, no doubt, Yeah, getting
me on and uh, we got a lot to talk
about and talking about that. Um, we're going to talk
about some of your UGA days, some North Playton High School, UM,
(01:10):
your work as a sideline and studio analyst for SEC
Network and some other things you're doing. Um, and then
I want to get into your Falcons days and some
of the players and characters and coaches you played with
an under and then we'll wrap it up with these
current falcons. And I want to get your want want
(01:32):
you to put your cap on and give me some
assessments there. But first DJ, I gotta ask you the
all important question. You gotta be brutally honest. That's the
only stipulation here. We can beat things out here. So
if you know the key is to be brutally brutally honest.
What do you think of the name Bird Noises? And
(01:55):
you won't hurt name bos feelings? Dan Gadz. You know what,
I actually I like it, man, It's it's different. I mean,
you try to think about a multiple ways to have
a play on the falcons and uh, there's so many
different birds out there. And then you know it's a
(02:15):
podcast I mean Bird Noises and we're talking with because
I mean, I like it. I mean, it's it's unique
to me. You know, it's not something that I look
at it say now, I don't really aint feeling that
I actually like Bird knowses man. When when you when
you first told me, but I was like, that's all right, cool,
it's good. But you know, some people hate it, some
people love it. Jesse Tuggle loves it. That's why people
(02:38):
got opinions. Man, they can have other people, but that's
what they say. It's like everybody got one. Celo wanted
to call it Cela from Goody Mob. He wanted to
call bird And just so you know, every time that
you the name bird Noises, we get this screaming fucking effect.
(03:00):
So really, so when I when I say bird Noises through,
that's gonna happen. And if I say, hey, I'm glad
to be on Bird Noises podcast with you, it's gonna
be cool. So I like the fack falcons. Our producer,
mister Sam Larson is the one who takes care of that.
So there you go. That was pretty bad. We also
(03:22):
keep tabs off. How many times you say? We kind
of keep track of that stuff? Too cool. It's fun,
it's been it's been fun so far. Well let's move on.
For those who don't know who, or don't remember, or
don't follow the University of Georgia just totally understandable. I
don't know, that's that's crazy. I mean, who doesn't follow
(03:44):
that's crazy. I've gotten quite the education in the last
since twenty seventeen. I've I've learned more about EGA in
the last four years. Um, in the state by state.
And I remember when I was at w vuw UH
a certain game against Uga Sugar Bowl. You want bring out,
(04:05):
bring it up right now, bring up about yourself. You
were highly touted and quite the prospect coming out of
North Clayton High School and College Park. I didn't realize
how how highly touted you were. Um. I was just
kind of going through the list here USA Today, All
(04:28):
USA Team, Max Effinger's one twenty five Parade, All American,
the AJC Super Southern, one hundred, Top fifteen, Georgia. I mean,
it just goes on and on and on. I had
him food Man. I don't know, Man, I guess you
know I had him food Man. There wasn't nobody else
in that year. I don't know what what happened. I mean,
(04:49):
it might have been only QB that actually did something.
I don't know. Man, Are you pretty good? Man? You
were the number one athletic quarterbacks went out too. Um.
It's funny how they kind of differentiate the quarterback too. Um,
you also played football, basketball, track. I'm kind of looking
up at my cheat sheet here, But uh, what was
your first levee? Was it football? Truly? My first love, No,
(05:13):
was baseball. I thought I would be playing in MLB
playing baseball. I actually got drafted by the Marlins like
a I was like a like fifteen No, I really
like thirteen round or something like that in baseball. But
it was during the time where I really love football,
but I love baseball grown up. And what deterred me
from playing baseball was this. At my high school, I
(05:35):
was probably the best picture we had on our team.
So I would pitch like literally every other day. So
every other day when I'd be pitching, my arm would
just be throbbing because it's hurt and I'm throwing all
these different pitches turn balls. And we didn't have no
other pictures. We only had like two other pictures and
I was the other one. So I was pitching every
(05:57):
other day and I was like, dude, there's no way
I can't and continue on this line and my arm
is gonna feel like this. So I say, once I
go to college time, I was gonna play football. But
I love, love, absolutely love baseball. I didn't want to
know that. Well, you know, whoever's updating DJ Shockley's Wikipedia page.
(06:17):
Better put that in there. I need to get together. Yeah, man,
I love a state, all county. Won't worry where you
uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah all the above. Dad, I was,
I was a picture. Yeah, I was a picture. Shortstop
got drafted play shortstop was like a I was like
a two hole hitter. So you know, I was a
base hit kind of guy. And of course in high school,
(06:40):
has some little speed so I could run and get
on base. So I love baseball. Man. Then I ran
track in high school only to make me faster, and
my dad listeners. Now, my dad would put me into
track meets, and you know, and every track meet there's
different heats. They have the fastest heat, the slowest heat.
So I would be kind of in the middle, but
my dad would put me in the fastest heat and
(07:01):
I would get just blowed out, and I'd be so angry.
Why you put me in these heats? He's like, because
if you can see the guys back, you're gonna be
trying to catch them. So you're trying to catch them,
gonna get faster. So yeah, I didn't like it at
the time. Coming in freaking six and seven places, football
cracks yeah, he was my coach. That was interesting growing up.
(07:25):
When I first got to high school. My mom wasn't
a fan of it. She was like, you're gonna be
too hard on him, and he was. I mean, he
kind of went overboard on trying to show that there
was no favoritism. So I would like throw a touchdown
and it would be great. He'd be like, yeah, but
your feet weren't right so that wasn't good enough or
(07:46):
you know. So there were times it was really hard
on me, but ultimately it made me into the player
I was. He used to go to all these different
camps all over the place and all that kind of stuff.
So that's how I became like a student of the
game I watched playing when I was in high school.
We got to college is pretty good. So definitely a
student of a game in high school. So I'm guessing
that you were recruited in multiple sports too, just besides
(08:10):
Georgia too. Talk about that a little bit. What other
schools were you really looking hard? Too hard at? Sorry
besides Uga, because I know at one point too, I
read somewhere I was doing my homework on you. I
knew that Ralph Fregent at Maryland and my guy Bobby
Bowden find West Virginia at Florida State at the time,
(08:35):
wanted you down there in Tallahassee. So what was the
recruiting process like for you and where were you what
other schools were you looking at, and were you really
close to possibly going someplace outs other than George. I
know it worked out for you, but yeah, and to
be honest, because I wasn't going to Georgia. I was
going to Florida State. I was coach Rick was at
(08:56):
Florida State at the time, and I wanted to play
for him. He was a guy that had Charlie I
mean Charlie Ward, he had Chris Winky, so he had
two different styles of quarterback and I was like, this, dude, No,
how's the coach quarterback? So I wanted to play for him. Uh.
I love North Carolina because the campus was just beautiful.
They had really really beautiful facilities. So I love North Carolina. Uh,
(09:17):
Florida State. So those are really the top three. Florida State, Georgia,
and North Carolina where my top three. Of course, you know,
I made recruited by everybody around the country. My dad
actually went to an HBCU. He went to Florida and them.
So he made me go to a visit to an
HBCU just to you know, see how it is and say, hey,
you did do it even though you knew I was
gonna go to uh one of those major you know,
(09:39):
power five. Did you not think did you think all
about going to an HBCU at all? Or no? Was it? Uh?
And what ones? Now? Okay, No, I won't go. No,
I won't gone. Now. At that time, I wanted to
play major college football somewhere, and uh, you know I
was gonna go to one of those schools. So I
was really close to going to Florida State until coach Rick,
(10:00):
you know, a couple maybe maybe like a month before signing,
chose to go to Georgia. And the same day he
was at Georgia, I mean the same day he took
the job at Georgia. He's in my living room and
I never remember. This is a pretty funny story. When
he's at Florida State, he was recruiting me. We went
to their team gala. He says, you know, shock, Florida
State would be in the great the best place for you,
(10:20):
and you'll come here. You thrive. You do great. And
I was like, all right, cool, I would love Yeah,
that's still it. So then he leaves goes to Georgia.
The same day he takes the Georgia job, He's sitting
in my living room and he said, shock, you know what,
Georgia would be the best place for you. Everything would
be great. You thrive. And that was like, coach, you
said the same thing about Florida State. So, uh, I
always love telling that story. It's a pretty funny story
(10:43):
and to this day we still get a kick out
of it. So recruiting was fun. Man being recruited by
everybody in the country. Recruiting story being a grad assistant
at Marshall when Billy Donovan was there. We we got
Jason Williams, you know, white Chocolate to come. Yeah, and uh,
you know, I've got friends at West Virginia that you know,
(11:04):
I got to know and and and roomed with. And
they told me some crazy recruiting stories. Um, what's the
craziest pitch or weirdest thing or you know how they
do these things where you walk in they had the
locker set up for you where they put your name
up in the stadium. What was the coolest or craziest
or weirdest thing that happened to you during the process.
(11:27):
So I'm not gonna tell you this, but this this
this particular school. When I got there, obviously it's laid out,
you know campus. You know, they got every everybody and
their mother was there. You have school, SEC, school, SEC.
So they have everything laid out for you. Everything's great. Um.
(11:49):
You go to obviously go to the locker room. They
got all you the usual stuff in the locker and
then I go into the stadium and first off they
got they got you know, your highlights playing all over
the big ball and your name all up and lights
all that kind of stuff. But the craziest thing was
they had my name in the engine like you like
(12:09):
paint it, like you have like the Atlanta Falcons in
the end zone, like they had in the end zone.
It was I didn't. I didn't. I was. I mean,
at that time, you know, I'm just taking it all in,
you know, So I thought that was pretty cool. It
was crazy. I couldn't believe that they actually went that
far with it. Um. But it was like towards the
(12:30):
end of signing and you know, they're trying to have
the biggest pitch ever, you know, so I thought I'll
allow you on Instagram and Twitter and every place I can.
I stock you everywhere. But I know, no, right now,
if you were to if that was we were to
do it all over again, dude, verhere, no doubt, no doubt,
(12:53):
no doubt. I'm posting that everywhere. I mean, that's that
don't happen too often, man, I mean I look at
all the stuff they do now. Man, they got they
got like photoshoots for these kids now. Uh, It's it's
crazy the things they do in college. Not to get
these kids to kind of come the coach ever come
into your living room or busy in high school and
just and you're sitting there going he said what You
(13:16):
don't have to say what, Harry who or whatever? But
have you ever had one of those moments? Oh yeah,
you had the coaches come in that hit you with
some of the in your windows, like you know, whatever
you need, man, we'll take care of you, you know,
or you know, we got X, Y and Z how
to make your your time here really really nice? You know,
(13:38):
of course, you know we'll take care of this, this
and that, and you know you focus on all in
school you know, but you don't have to worry about
having to do this and that. So yeah, yeah, yeah,
those are a couple of instance where you're laugh a
little flag there, whoa. But then but then some people
are like, what else can you give me? What else
can I get? One of my buddies who went to
(13:59):
West Virginia, Yeah, I won't name him or the school.
Uh it was a big ten school. Uh. On his
recruiting trip, he walked in and he stayed over night,
and when he opened the door, they had like roses
all over the bedroom and he was like, what is
going on with a little dot scene. You can take
(14:19):
us to the Rose Bowl. The story gets way more
interesting after that, but I can't go there. Um yeah,
I mean does he have like you know, uh, have company?
Have company at all? I mean things like that. I
mean I don't know. I'm just saying I don't know company,
like you know coaches come in and say hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(14:40):
that's what I mean. So you majored in speech communications
at ug E. Had you not played football, would you
want to do if football was an option for you?
What what do you do? You know? What was crazy
is I don't think people noticed, But I love animals, man,
I didn't know. I think somewhere another I would have been.
(15:01):
I would have been, uh some of the animal feels somewhere.
My my wife, Uh, she's always on me about how
I like to just sit there and watch the Animal
Planet or uh, you know, I love going to the
zoo stuff. I mean a little weird stuff that you
never think that I will be a fan of. But
I love animals, man. I'm a big animal guy. So
I think I would be something animal feel doing something
(15:23):
giants so far as and stuff like that. Yeah you're not,
Yeah I'm talking whatever, But like I do love pretty
you can always telling their toddo, which is probably a
good thing. Um when you go through it just massive, man,
And then you watch them, You're like, you can see
(15:45):
what these dudes can do. Man, And they move so fast.
I know they always tell you anath to open your
window and the ostriches and the monkeys are coming by.
But I'm always there, like, come on, put the window
down a little bit. I know, I don't know, I
don't know. I got to feed drafts or managed pretty cool,
you know a little safar So yeah that's cool, all right,
I can see you with like the hat on the
(16:07):
Safari hat. Yes, sir, I know that you're thriving right now.
I think you're still with the are you still You're
still with the SEC network and you're doing stuff for
Atlanta Falcons dot com not Falcons dot com. So, uh,
ACC Sideline analysts still too. That was well, no, that
(16:28):
would see That's what I did it when I first
got started. Yeah, I started with the ACC and uh
did sideline first for one year and then the last
three years I've been with ESPN sec Net. You might
want to update your LinkedIn page. By the way, um
and ninety two nine the games have done work with radio. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(16:53):
yeah yeah. So I love a little bit of both
Man radio TV. Yeah, universally, just you know, everybody, everybody
can't be well, you know, just doing this the podcast
and and I worked with you a little bit doing
a little when I first do it, started doing the
Falcons Audible podcast. It's not easy, it's not you know.
(17:14):
I was a I was a news ad journalism major.
I was a writer. Um did not go down broadcasting.
And then I worked at CBS Sports, but I was behind.
I was I worked with the producers. I was behind
the scenes. Um, but you know, I've always had a
ton of respect for a TV talent. I worked with
Pete Risco, Brady Quinn Um and you know, on and
(17:36):
on and on, and uh, anybody I forgot, I'm sorry,
but it's it's it's tough, and they put in a
ton of work and a ton of practice. And you know,
some of these guys they just you know, they've gone
from like eighteen takes to to two takes and they
just work and work and work at it. But uh,
(17:58):
well that's why. That's why, you know, you should feel
special because I got a lot going on throughout the week,
and and and Beach said, hey, can you come on
the podcast, And I'm saying, absolutely, I come on, Bird Noises,
I'm all about that. So yeah, man, pull aside to time,
aside for my guy and so we can have a
(18:18):
good time. Man. So uh yeah, man, Yeah, you know
what's it's fun though, because I looved I enjoy the
part of when the red light comes on, you have
to be on and that's the part of I still
get Butterfly like I did when I played, So it
still gives me that nervous energy whenever I'm in front
of in front of people, So uh, it keeps me
(18:39):
on my toes. How much did you know going into
it that you were gonna have to put in the
amount of time and hours like in preparation, studying and
game film or did that come natural because you had played?
Is that? Is that something that comes natural to you
when you like break down, you know offenses and defenses
and tendencies, and well, I assumed you you had to
(19:01):
do some type of prep for games and all that,
But I didn't know everything that didn't tail because I
wasn't into it. And I don't think people understand, like
when when people see these guys or see people on
TV on Saturday calling games that starts on the previous Sunday,
Like you're going through tape, you're going through notes, you're
going through tons of film, and then you're you're trying
(19:23):
to make sure you can pronounce everybody's name the right way.
I mean, there's a lot of things, a lot of
things that go into it. But I think being a
quarterback has helped me because I see the game a
certain way and I can describe it a certain way,
and over the years, that's just how I watch it,
so it's not something that's something I had to learn.
So it's it's it's it's fun to do manum. But
(19:46):
like I said, it is a lot of work each
and every week. But the payoff is on that Saturday
or Sunday when you're calling games or you know, you
get a chance to see some unfold and you know,
people watch the game and say, hey, man, we enjoy
it here and you call it and yes, great insight.
So it been your what was what's been your favorite
memory safar or your best call or your just favorite
(20:07):
game that you've been associated with working You got one
off top of your head, oh man, because I'm gonna
ask you the question. Man, We've had we uh, I
had a Bowl game, um and I can't remember where
it was, but someone where they had a red field
and I thought it was really cool, uh that they
(20:29):
had this red field. They were actually really good. It
threw it all over the place and we had one
of our best games, I thought, because the game was close,
came down to the end. But then there's also one
game that I thought was pretty cool. Was I last
year I had George. I mean I had Alabama and
I had a God, who was it might have been
it was somebody who ran the triple option and they
(20:49):
had they had Alabama down at halftime and we're calling
the game. Nobody really expected to be one those type
of games, thought to be over in the first quarter,
and at halftime, my phone is just going crazy, like, dude,
you got the game of the week. You got the
game of the weekend. Everybody's watching now, even like our
head exectit ESPN were like, hey, keep it going, You're
doing great, so h that's definitely pretty cool. And then
(21:11):
the last one was this year, I got a chance
to call my first Georgia game in three years and
hadn't had a chance to do it since I've been
with ESPN, and actually was a pretty good game. Georgia
was stars. Also, tons of people, tons of people were
locked in on it, and uh, it's always cool to
have your you'all, mamartin. I had people who uh called
(21:33):
me out to we say, hey, I couldn't tell if
you went to Georgia or Acasol anywhere, so uh, it
was a huge compliment that, uh I didn't have the
the Georgia homer in my yea someone who's rooting for
the other team. Go, Oh my gosh, it sounds like
it's the the Bulldogs broadcasting station here. Good stuff. What's
(21:55):
what's your long term goal? Man? You uh, you want
to just are you happy right where you're at? Or
do you want to do you see yourself doing some
you know, major network stuff where our NFL stuff one day? No, man,
you know what I'm I'm I'm never complacent, to be honest,
I'm never uh in a spot where I want to
stay where I am. I want to continue to climb
the ladder. I want to continue to one day possibly
(22:17):
calling national championship games or calling you know, games in
the college football playoffs, or every weekend you're calling the
primetime game. That's where ultimately I would love to be
because they put the best there obviously, So that's where
I would want to strive to be where every week
I'm calling one of the games that everybody wants to
see and then wants the end of the year comes around, Hey,
(22:38):
this is a guy we want to calling the biggest
games of the year. So that is the goal. I
will continue to drind for that and continue doing We'll
just we'll get big time big. I'm always here from
Burton Nois and man, believe that I'm always here. Well, listen,
speaking of the big time you made, the big time
you played, you were you were drafted by the Falcon
(23:00):
the seventh round pick and two twenty third overall two
thousand and six NFL Draft, and you know, I don't
remember sixth that well, but you were projected to go
higher and by some of these outlets, right, well, how
high did you did you hear yourself going from different places?
(23:27):
I heard third, fourth round, And I think the main
thing was this guy had a really, really great one year,
and I think for a lot of scouts, for a
lot of teams, people just wanted to see more. People
wanted to see me do it for two years, three years.
And then now you look around the National Football League.
Now you see guys who come out in one year.
(23:50):
I you know, I ain't gonna say over and shot town.
I mean, that's the biggest knock on people, is, hey,
this guy had one year in college and it hasn't
panned out for him. So I think that's the biggest
thing that kind of held me back was this guy's
got one year. He played really well that one year,
but we don't know if it's a fluke. We don't
know if it's just you know, he had good guys
around him or what. So they getting drafted was pretty cool. Um.
(24:15):
I remember Draft day getting a call from the Falcons
and sending them the voicemail US. You know, I'm from
Atlanta on and raised in Atlanta. I'm like, just, man,
why people keep calling me? They know they know the
draft is coming up? Why they keep calling me something?
I said the voicemail second time? Second time he called back,
I was like, dang, the same numbers called me back
(24:37):
and I pick up the phone. I say hello, and
it's Jim Moore. He says, hey, sho you want to
be in Atlanta Falcon And I was like, yes, that
is probably the coolest thing that you can hear. Is
a coach on the other end saying hey, you want
to be a soul and soul and be a part
of to kind of he can get pretty excited pretty quick.
(24:58):
Did He didn't make any comments about going to voicemail
or anything, okay Na Na, because I think I think
they expected They've had it happened a few times, you know.
I mean, sometimes guys don't answer, maybe don't have servemys
whatever may be. So they call again and again, Well
you played two thousand and six. I'm kind of looking
(25:21):
up my outs here two thousand and six to two
thousand and nine. But it's kind of interesting the period
you played. You know, I'm sitting here thinking about your
you know, it's four years, but I'm sitting there thinking
about everything that happened with the Falcons while you were there.
It is crazy. I'm sitting there thinking about it. I
didn't know where to start with you. Yeah, but we'll
(25:42):
start right there with you. Way, you had four head
coaches Mora Oh six, Bobby Petrino and Emma Thomason seven,
and then Mike Smith and oh wait, you don't know. Yeah,
And what's crazy is people say, yeah, you got these
different head coaches, but as an author of guys at QB,
I had four different coordinators. What that means, that's four
(26:05):
offensive So one guy who was on the Falcon squad
right now, Greg Knapp, was the offensive coordinator. They drafted me.
So to this day, I give coach Nap a lot
of credit. I mean, I always think him when I
see him because he was the one guy who was
in my bandwagon. The whole time through the draft process
(26:25):
and everything. That's what made me think the Falcons weren't
gonna draft me because Coach Napp came to Georgia, he
did all these workouts with me, like he was only hard,
and I was like and I was always told, whichever
team shows you the most interest, no way they drafted.
So I was like, no way, no way, I stay
at home. So, uh it was. It was cool. So
I I had coach had napped, and I had Coach
(26:48):
Petrino obviously come in there. And uh so I had
West Coast offense my first year, which was crazy. West
Coast offense was you know, fifteen word plays all that
kind of stuff. So it was, um, we'll get into
that in a second. Um. But when you came when
you when you came out, well, one thing I forgot
(27:10):
to ask is where did you grow up a Falcons fan?
I grew up with a Falcons fan. I wasn't a
die hard Falcons fan. I mean the other teams, am
I gonna get you in trouble? Well? Now, growing up,
I mean, obviously I had like a forty nine. I know,
I know, I know, I had uh some I had
(27:32):
a forty nine Ers, and I had Cowboys stuff because
I just love that starter coach, and I think everybody
had those kind of growing up. So, uh, I love
the Falcons, man, But uh, you know, I just tell
you truth. I just I watched everything growing up. So,
like I said, I wasn't even really like a Georgia
fan really growing up either. I just you know, I
watched him because I was in state. But you know, yeah,
(27:55):
when I was a kid, and you know, we lived
in ann Arbor As first games, I satur up and
you know, the Big House, and so you know, you'd
watch some Lions games and then you moved to New
York and you're going to Giants games and Jets games.
So yeah, I just watched a lot of different teams. Um,
so I feel either all right, So going back to
your Falcons days, you know there's been a lot made,
(28:18):
obviously over what's going on with these current Falcons with
a midseason coaching change with eleven games to go, you
went through a midseason coaching change. You went from Jim Moore.
Within the next year, Um, you know, you had Bobby
Petrino and Emmett Thomas. I mean, do we do we
really call it a coaching change or like a coaching league.
(28:38):
That's kind of that's kind of what it was. Michael
Jenkins on here twice and he had had some choice
words for it, Um, But you also had a front
seat too, and I want to ask you about this too,
Michael Vick's last year in the Falcons uniform and Matt
Ryan's first year the Falcon It was like, so you've
(29:02):
you've seen a lot of you know, as far as
like a sliver of a really interesting, bizarre historic section
of Falcon's history. You were there, you can see for it.
So yeah, go ahead. Now I was gonna ask about Petrino.
Let's let's just talk about that mid season change and
just how bizarre was it. Um. You know, we've heard
(29:23):
a lot of different stories as far as like what
he said after the game and then the breaking news
and uh, you know he had apparently made plans to
go to Arkansas. How tell me you know from your
perspective what that whole thing was like? Unbelievable, man. I
mean the fact that you got grown men obviously already
(29:46):
who already uh trying to find a way to buy
into what you're telling, and they're given everything you got
this is their livelihood. This is how they you know,
feed their families. So they're given everything they got. Regardless
of if you like the coach tree Sha or not.
This is your livelihood, so you give everything you got.
I remember, I think he was playing on the Monday
night or something. We lose the ball game. He's in
(30:08):
the locker room giving us this raw ross speech after
the game. We gotta give him everything again. We gotta
stick together, we gotta continue to fight. I'm sure you've
heard it, and we're all like, all r yeah, yeah, yeah. We'
gonna get back to work. We're gonna, you know, try
to turn this thing around, finish strong, and I'll never forget.
The next Monday, I'm downtown with a couple of teammates,
one in particular, Diagelo Hall. We get we get a
(30:33):
text message. As soon as we see it, We're sitting
in a little restaurant and we look up and all
we see is him doing the pig sue wee. And
as soon as we see it, our phones go crazy
and it's the PR staff say don't talk to anybody,
don't say anything, don't give any interviews. Within thirty seconds,
I see the Agelo Hall outside on the phone and
(30:56):
then I look up. I look up on the screen
and it says on the line, we have to get
into right, And oh yeah, Denzel didn't no, no, no,
he wasn't about the rules then, so he is going
in on Petrino on the line on the call. So, uh,
that was the weirdest thing ever in the coming in
the next morning and seeing the note in the scraping
(31:19):
in the locker room. I mean it was it handwritten it.
I don't even remember. It was ripped up so fast
that uh. I think everybody makes sure nobody else saw
it because we don't want any more remnants of him
in our building. So uh, it was. It was. It
was something ridiculous and simple and not even worth it.
(31:42):
Like it's like, you know, it's like you've been with
your girlfriend for five years and you send a text
to break up with it. That's kind of like it
what it is, and you're like, that's what I get
after all this we put into it. You can see
me a text. That's kind of what. I can't think
of another situation. It's probably happened somewhere, you know, high school,
small college, maybe even major college, but I can't think
(32:04):
of any situation that was even remotely close to that
with a coach leaving. I know there's been some nasty breakups,
but that's just bizarre. It's unreal. Man, I had never
seen but he didn't think about it somebody. And that's
the thing. No, no, and this profession and this profession
(32:26):
just outright quit on you. And that's what happened. You
quit on the next man. And as guys in that
locker room and this sport, quitting is just something that
is not saying, it's not done, and anybody who does
it is looked at as disrespectful, to be honest, and
so he was real disrespectful to everybody in that organization.
(32:49):
And the and the sad part about it was we
had Arthur Blake come in and he said, you know what,
I talked to this guy the night before the Monday
night game because I knew all this seculation was coming up.
He had to go into the booth that night and
talk to that crew was calling the game because he
knew they was gonna ask him. And he said, be
honest with me. If you're leaving, just letting me know,
(33:12):
because I don't want to go on national TV and
say Hey, you're our guy, and we're all in on you,
and the next day or next week something happens and
I look stupid. So when Arthur came in and told
us he lied to him too, we knew this was
a guy who just didn't have respect for anybody, especially
not us. That's just not good. Yeah, Michael Jenkins said
(33:33):
that mister Blank got him to come back to at
least talk to the coaches in person, So that must
have been a little awkward. I'm sure they didn't care
even because you gave up on them too, Like it's ridiculous,
Like I don't think we wouldn't want to hear from him.
So he just o man. And I think I think
(33:56):
I think since that day, since that day, a lot
of people in this organization, uh kind of uh turned
it back to that guy get a chance to coach
again in the NFL after that, probably probably that he
is a he's a college may coach because he was.
He treated us as guys who have been in the
(34:18):
league for ten fifteen years, grown men, like kids, Like
you're telling the guy who has three kids at home
that he can't talk to the pregame meal. That's dudes.
One going for that. So that's just one of many
things that happened. Uh and in that locker room that
guys weren't really I'm gonna ask you here and at
(34:39):
the end to put on your analyst cap real quick.
You can give me like a cliff Notes summary here.
But yeah, as I mentioned, you got to watch Michael
Vicks last year, and then there was the bizarre year
after that, the offseason with Peter at the gates and
all that stuff. But yeah, and U, if you had
(35:00):
to sum up Michael Vick his career, his career here,
just him as an athlete, how would you do that
in a few sentences? I would say A. I would
say a guy who changed the culture and a guy
who changed the mindset of the city of Atlanta. To
(35:25):
be honest, like I guarantee you to this day, even
though with the other teams he played for, whenever you
say Michael Vick's name, first you think of that falcon
on his helmet, and I think, I think that's probably
bigger than anything that he has done or anything that
he has you know, did while he's with the team
or now that people relate Michael Vick to the Atlanta Falcons.
(35:49):
Man there are a lot of things that go with that.
But I remember my first ever meeting of Michael Vick
was when I walked into the Falcons for silly. The
first person I saw is Michael Vick. He was coming
out of the training room. He comes around the corner.
I come around the corner and he dashed me up.
He's talking to me. He knows my name. And after that,
(36:12):
I was like, Michael Vick, know who I am? Man?
I mean, I mean as a guy, you know, I'm
just coming from college. I just did some good thing.
But in the day, this is a dude that everybody
in the world knows. Like. He wasn't just the face
of the Falcons. He was the face of the freaking
National Football League. And the first person you meet is
that guy and he's talking to you, and he's you know,
(36:34):
he wants to hang out with you. You're in the
same meeting rooms with him, you call the same place.
Like for a guy like me, I was like, this
is the ultimate. Oh I was, I mean, come on,
I mean I remember, I remember dudes on our team
will come up to him one of the sign stuff,
and you know, he was there's people look at people
(36:56):
the National Football league at superstars, but then there's also
some guys who are just a little bit above where
everybody else is. Like everybody knows Tom Brady. You look
at Tom Brady and say he's not just your average
player in the National Football League. That's how Mike was
so to be on the sideline with him to see
some of the stuff that he talked about, the end
(37:18):
game and stuff that he wanted to do. I remember
there was a play in the game one time we
were in Philly or some things weren't going good. He
was hating with the offensive coordinated was calling. He said,
he came to the signline, he was hot. He looked
over he said, next time, I'm just gonna take off.
So we go on the field. He'd go back on
the field. The first play, he just takes off for
sixty yards. And I'm like, this dude can do this
(37:40):
whenever he won't versus the best in the whole entire world.
That tells you how good this dude is. And it
was just a matter of whenever he wanted to, he
can get it done. So it was it was crazy.
I'm sure you know this. I went to West Virginia
and we played West or Virginia Tech every year and
that broke my heart. Yeah, he was just you sit
(38:02):
there and watching going you can't stop him. In college
he was ridiculous. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was. It
was dumb man, It was. It was crazy to be
a part of, uh, watching him. Have you ever seen
another teammate come in and command that kind of like
you know, guys asking for autographs? Is that? Does that
(38:23):
happen a lot? Does that happen today? And you mentioned
Tom Brady, but that doesn't happen a lot, does it?
Or does it? Yeah? I think the next closest guy
was when Tony Gonzalez came to Atlanta. I think Tony
gazazz was the next closest thing to Mike because everybody
(38:43):
knew that you're looking at a guy who is absolutely
going to where Yeah, So so to watch him every
single day, to be in a locker room with him,
you kind of looked at him like, damn, this dude
is already there, like it don't matter what do you
do here? Like you understood greatness when you saw it.
So Tony Gonzalez was a guy you looked at It
(39:05):
was like, yeah, he had a crazy working I'm glad
I know this guy, oh man. I mean that's where
I got all MYNJ to be honest, because when absolutely, absolutely,
whenever he wasn't on the field, he was like, Chocolate's throw,
let's catch. And of course the ones are out there,
(39:25):
I'm not with the ones. You know this is you
know Matt's here, so you know I'm the backup. And
you know, whenever Matt's in the game and he's not
in the game, he wants to catch. And it was
it was crazy how many guys fared off of it.
I mean you see it now with Julio, you see Calvin,
you see when Rody was there. I mean, Jake did it.
I mean he kind of set the standard for whenever
(39:46):
you're not doing anything, you need to be catching balls,
tucking it away, turn it up, and you know go.
So whatever you see guys on the sideline throwing and
catching and tucking and throwing away, it's a direct result
of Tony Gonzalez because he did it every single I
mean walk throughs, it didn't matter. He did it every
single day. And that's why or great for a reason. Wow. Yeah,
(40:08):
Now as far as your time to you know, what
was it like when Matt got here. You know, he's
he's obviously the face of the franchise now, but he's
he's gonna go down is the franchise all time best
quarterback and he I think he owns just about every
single record right now. Um, what was that like when
(40:29):
he came in? Um? Was it kind of like did
he have to earn it? Or you know, I know,
I know what happened his first past sixty two comments,
sink to Janka, look at you calling out to play
backside skinny post. It was cool, man. I tell you,
Matt was a different kind of guy coming in because
(40:51):
he was you just knew he was more mature. Um
as a rookie coming in and I remember him coming
in and ja keeping his head down, asking tons of
questions like I have been there for two years by
now and obviously knew a little bit about how the
league goes and how you prepare all your work, and
(41:12):
he has questions every day. He was early, he was late.
He worked hard in the weight room. And that's why
I tell people all the time, like people look at
back and say, oh, he's he's such a skinny guy.
Does he ever live ways? I said, trust me, this
dude gets after it in the locker room, I mean
in the weight room, and people just couldn't believe. I was, like,
he's one of the most hard working dudes I have
(41:32):
ever played with. He studies, his studies his butt off,
and even to this day, we still have conversations about
what happens every single week and he doesn't take any
week for granted. He doesn't take any team for granted,
which is pretty cool. And the fact that he wants
everybody around him to play at a high level. And
(41:53):
I think you've been around him just as much as
I have. Now you understand his work as you understand
that he wants to be great, and you can see
the competitor in his dude every single game, like he
is still giving you everything he got. It doesn't matter
if he's making one hundred million dollars or he's making
one dollar. This dude's gonna give everything he's got. And
(42:13):
that's what you gotta love. And that's why he's been
around for thirteen years and playing at a high level.
And like you mentioned about him all those records, because
this guy prepares every single week and doesn't take a
week off. Yeah, I've been around him, but not quite
like you. You have seen him in practice, You've seen
(42:35):
him in huddles. You've seen maybe not in the same huddle,
but you know he's like on the sideline in the
meeting rooms. What he's like in the huddle, what he says,
what he expects from guys, how he gets on guys,
and he doesn't care who you are. That's well, document's
been caught on TV with the bikes. What is you
know when you talk about that, some of the fans
(42:55):
sometimes get on him a little bit, but then you
you you hear just on Thursday night there was a
live mic and he got on somebody talk about Matt
Ryan a little bit more of the competitor his face,
you know, is he like that a lot more than
we see. Yeah, dude, don't want to lose it nothing.
I'm gonna be honest, dude, don't want to lose it nothing.
We would have competitions every single day, whether it was
(43:18):
practice meetings, who can answer the most questions in our
meeting rooms? Like there was competition and everything we did.
And the one thing that people have to realize about
Matt is he is very cognitant of Obviously, those mics
are out there He's cognitive of what he says because
he still wants to be a roll bottle for kids.
He's still he's got two young boys himself. But then
(43:41):
that competitive edge, when I tell you, is any When
I tell you, the dude can get angry. The dude
can lay into you if you're not doing what is right.
Like you know, I've seen him literally come into a
huddle and literally address all eleven guys within a play
and tell him this is what you, X, Y, and
Z have to do, this is what we need to do,
this is what we're gonna do. Make sure you're here
(44:02):
do that. I mean, he is the most competitive guy.
And I think the one thing that people may not
see and don't understand is he is the most detailed
oriented guy that I've been around. When I say detail,
I mean the nuances of every single thing from when
I hand it off. I gotta make sure I hold
the backside in with my play face. I gotta make
(44:22):
sure if I hand it off with my left hand,
my right hand is on my hip so the backside
end can't see if this runner pass like those are
those are the type of things that you may lose
when you're watching the game or stat line, the small
things that matter, and he's such a detail oriented guy
and making sure that everybody's on the same page separate,
(44:42):
especially is wide out and being in spot. That's interesting.
And before we kind of move on from that there,
you know, I had a mind a podcast with Dirk
Cutter and Mike Malarkey and they were talking about that
first play and Malarkey was talking about his very first
huddle when he told the roddy and on his first
play but in practice. But you know the one, the
(45:05):
one uh time he was caught on TV that everyone
talks about. I think it was a Monday night in
Tampa Bay when he said get and sat. Remember that one?
Oh yeah, yeah, he was yelling at Mohammed Sanil and
Matt came out and said, no, I was telling Julio
(45:25):
to get f and sat And I was like, We're
all like, wow, okay, yeah, you know he doesn't. Yeah, yeah, well, well,
I think when you have another superstar like Julio, he
has guarded the respect of a Julio to baby to
talk to him, ye kind of in that fashion because
he understands where he's coming from. He's not coming at
(45:47):
him to degrade him, or be grade him or what him.
It may be. He wants something to happen the right way,
and if you're not doing it to that level of
that standard, he's gonna let you know. And you mentioned it,
it's anybody, and that's that's what your leader has to do.
Your leader cannot be a friend to get on somebody's
ass when they need to, and Matt will do it.
(46:08):
And that's a perfect, perfect example of him getting on
Julio saying, yeah, I know you want the best receivers
in the game, but on this particular play, yeah, you
need to get yours. And that's the fimes, to the
to the rookies, second year players, whatever. If Matt's gonna
sit there and tell Julio to get at been set,
then hey, I better I better have my you know
(46:28):
what together? Um, all right, So before I ask you
about these twenty twenty Falcons, I just want to, uh,
you know, there's I know we're kind of rolling on
time here, but so many names that you've played with.
And so what I want to do is I had
like twenty names and I narrowed I can only narrow
it down to twelve. So because there's just so many
(46:52):
characters here. So what I want to do is I
just want to ask you. I'm gonna I'm gonna say
their name, and if you can just give me a
word and we'll just go through these pretty question as quick.
As soon as you give it to me, we'll move on.
Just tell me the first word that comes to mind
when I when I name this player one of your
former teammates. Okay, you can say name, you can say
a word, or you can say a phrase, and then
(47:13):
as soon as you say we'll move on. It's kind
of rapid fire here, Okay, be brutally honest, all right.
Michael Vick, Matt Ryan, Uh, the best work done, most
(47:40):
laid back guy you ever meet. Michael Turner, oh Man.
First thing I think about a two always ultimangelal hall
(48:02):
angry at times. That's perfect. Um, Keith Brooking, freaking yellow
jacket lawyer, Milloya oh Man, Uh, Jonathan Becker, Uh, John
(48:29):
Abraham Cooler, Matt Bryant, Uh Ice really man, Yeah, he's
called it. Um. All right. So we've talked about you know,
(48:52):
you've gone through a lot of coaching changes and and
you've been through a midseason coaching change, and uh, this
team with five games in on October eleventh, made a
change from dan Quinn and TD Thomas to Mitroff after
that Carolina game, and Raheem Morris was named interim coach
with eleven games ago, which is a lot of games.
(49:14):
You know you were when you were here. Emmett Thomas
had three games. So Raheem now is two and one
and they are two and six now at the midway point,
they could you know, I don't want to get into
they could be three and ozho or they should be
five and three or whatever, you know, because of the Cowboys,
(49:36):
Bears and the Lions game. I won't get into any
of that. But give me a quick assessment of where
this team is right now and what you're looking at.
You know, what do you make of them heading into
the second half? Considering they play the Bucks twice, Saints twice,
they got some AFC West teams the Chargers, Raiders and
(49:58):
Broncos Broncos this weekend, and then they also got the Chiefs.
So how what are what are realistic expectations too? Um?
And how do you think it will play out? First off,
I say what you said is kind of uh, it's realistic, UM,
as far as where they were just the Cowboys and Bears. Like,
(50:20):
this is a team that's been in every single ball
game Seattle. You know, they played you pretty tough. It
was tough to win that one, but every other ball
game you were either winning or you had a chance
to win the ball game. So this is a team
literally well you know the Green Bay that first half
they had the goal line stand and right right, I mean,
(50:44):
I'm saying like there are opportunities in a ball game
where you know, obviously you can say that in any game,
but I think you're literally six seven players away from
being at the top and being one of those things
that everybody's still talking about now. On the other hand,
and you've only played the Carolina Panthers and you split
those games, and you mentioned you still got to you
(51:06):
got Tampa, and you got the Saints. Now there's gonna
be tough games, no doubt, but you've always played those
games really good. You've always Last year one of the
main reasons why Coach Coin stayed around because hey, you
went in two Wallens or a team who you know
going to the playoffs, and like this is about and
San Francisco, two playoff teams that you know, everybody looked
(51:29):
at the Falcons as a team that just gave up.
But this is a team that continue to fight. So
there's still a lot of good football left. You can
still usually win this division. Now now it's it's tough,
like we mentioned, because of you know, the way both
teams are playing in your division. Who you still have left.
But this is the football team that has the weapons
(51:49):
on offense defense looks like the last couple of games.
You're not giving up those biggest closer plays dudes, and
not just running wide open there having been all those
crazy buss like you saw in the first few ball games.
This is a ball club that I believe if they
continue to execute, and that's what they weren't doing in
the first few games, execute at a higher level and
each guy do their job. And I say that because
(52:11):
when you turn on the field, you got so many
dudes who are trying to do other stuff or trying
to be better for somebody else instead an give me
an example of somebody that's so let's just say in
a secondary. Let's say in the secondary, if you know
one guy hasn't been playing up to part and if
(52:33):
you're a safety and you know, hey, this guy's got
a really good receiver over here, and I'm closed to
be in the middle of the field. But I'm gonna
give a little bit more help to this side of
the field to help my other counterpart. But I'm supposed
to be in the middle of the field. Now. If
I go over here and help him and I give
up another player on the other side where I should be,
then hey, I'm trying to do too much. I'm trying
(52:55):
to compensate for somebody else. Those are little examples that
you can see throughout a ball game that each guy
just does their own job and says, hey, I trust
you to do yours, then you'd be good to go.
So I still think there's tons of football though. I mean,
like you mentioned, there's two and one. I'm sure Rahein
went into uh this, you know, part of the season
say hey, we gotta everybody know break it down into quarters,
(53:17):
and hey, they're two and one in this quarter already.
You can't continue to play well. No, you got some
tough games down the stretch, but hey, you played well
in a lot of football games. If you can continue
down that tree, you got a chance to uh make
people say, oh, what was this new team that's playing here.
You know, I watched the Chargers played, um, both the
Bucks and the Saints. I watched the Bucks and the
(53:41):
Giants last night. Yeah. Where I'm going with this is
is that you know, yes, they're having good seasons, the
Saints in the Bucks, but they're beatable. They're beatable. You
believe that, right, And I mean it sounds cliche, but
really absolutely all teams are beatable. Yeah. I mean you
(54:02):
look at some of the mistakes that Daniel Jones made
in that game when they had to lead and they
had Tampa down and they were holding Tampa the field
goals early in the ball game, and you were up
fourteen to three. If you keep the pedal down, I
guess what, you got a chance to win this ball game.
You got a chance to put this team away. I
mean the Saints, you know, last week, had a you know,
(54:22):
it took him the overtime to to to go get
a winning you know, they could have lost that ball game.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean you got some
you got some really good quarterbacks, but you also got
some teams that are failing as well. Yea, Chicago really
well and you know, just kind of sputtered at the end.
(54:42):
But uh, I'm with you, so let me ask you
this before you wrap this up. DJ, I'm just really
glad to get you on here. M give me give
me any bold predictions for the second half finally games,
Oh man, that's I'm gonna say. Uh, A bold prediction
(55:06):
is I'm gonna say the Falcons are gonna beat the Chiefs.
That's what I'm Yeah, I like the problem to beat
the Chiefs. Uh. And Arrowhead on the road. I mean
Fox played really well on the road. We struggle at home,
but we played really well at times on the road
to US. So I mean, hey, I mean, you know
what I'm saying. So we'll see, man, But I like
(55:27):
I like the Falcons chances. Man, you know, there's been
a way, there's been a way that people have slowed
down Patrick Mahomes in that offense. There have been games
where he's thrown four under two hundred yards. So there's
a chance you slow him down if you know, you
do all the right things. Of course that's a big,
big if. But I'm gonna say they go into the
arrow headn't get a win versus Kansas City, and you
(55:48):
know division games, we know how that can go. So
ain't no, ain't no prediction made in there. We know
you can be old and whatever and when. And I
like that you came out today. I appreciate you having me, man.
It's been fun being on Bird Noises Man enough. Uh,
you've had some stellar guests so far, so I appreciate
(56:08):
you even wanted me to be a part of that.
We gotta I gotta go. There's a lot more stories,
uh you have I can tell and so we gotta
get you back on. But maybe we can do towards
the end of the season, if that's cool with you.
It'd be great. Always cool with me, man, all right,
it was great, Senior, and uh, thanks for coming on Choker. Yeah,
I appreciate your beat. Bird Noises
After several passing conversations about coming out of the show,
I finally finally gets welcome DJ Shockley to Bird Noises
presented by Bows in Atlanta Falcons podcast about football and
mostly everything else. Well, first off, the reason it's been
kind of a long time coming because you've had some
(00:24):
really really extensive, just great guests, and I really got
pushed down the line. That's that's what happened. Like you've
had you've had rapped superstars and you know, all these
different celebrities on the Bird Noises. So now comes a
little old Shocks. So now I'm starting to packing order. Well,
I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but
we've got some pretty big names coming up. So see
(00:49):
say I must. You know, I've been trying to meet
you on you know, you know that's fat. That's great
to see him, my man. Yeah, no doubt, Yeah, getting
me on and uh, we got a lot to talk
about and talking about that. Um, we're going to talk
about some of your UGA days, some North Playton High School, UM,
(01:10):
your work as a sideline and studio analyst for SEC
Network and some other things you're doing. Um, and then
I want to get into your Falcons days and some
of the players and characters and coaches you played with
an under and then we'll wrap it up with these
current falcons. And I want to get your want want
(01:32):
you to put your cap on and give me some
assessments there. But first DJ, I gotta ask you the
all important question. You gotta be brutally honest. That's the
only stipulation here. We can beat things out here. So
if you know the key is to be brutally brutally honest.
What do you think of the name Bird Noises? And
(01:55):
you won't hurt name bos feelings? Dan Gadz. You know what,
I actually I like it, man, It's it's different. I mean,
you try to think about a multiple ways to have
a play on the falcons and uh, there's so many
different birds out there. And then you know it's a
(02:15):
podcast I mean Bird Noises and we're talking with because
I mean, I like it. I mean, it's it's unique
to me. You know, it's not something that I look
at it say now, I don't really aint feeling that
I actually like Bird knowses man. When when you when
you first told me, but I was like, that's all right, cool,
it's good. But you know, some people hate it, some
people love it. Jesse Tuggle loves it. That's why people
(02:38):
got opinions. Man, they can have other people, but that's
what they say. It's like everybody got one. Celo wanted
to call it Cela from Goody Mob. He wanted to
call bird And just so you know, every time that
you the name bird Noises, we get this screaming fucking effect.
(03:00):
So really, so when I when I say bird Noises through,
that's gonna happen. And if I say, hey, I'm glad
to be on Bird Noises podcast with you, it's gonna
be cool. So I like the fack falcons. Our producer,
mister Sam Larson is the one who takes care of that.
So there you go. That was pretty bad. We also
(03:22):
keep tabs off. How many times you say? We kind
of keep track of that stuff? Too cool. It's fun,
it's been it's been fun so far. Well let's move on.
For those who don't know who, or don't remember, or
don't follow the University of Georgia just totally understandable. I
don't know, that's that's crazy. I mean, who doesn't follow
(03:44):
that's crazy. I've gotten quite the education in the last
since twenty seventeen. I've I've learned more about EGA in
the last four years. Um, in the state by state.
And I remember when I was at w vuw UH
a certain game against Uga Sugar Bowl. You want bring out,
(04:05):
bring it up right now, bring up about yourself. You
were highly touted and quite the prospect coming out of
North Clayton High School and College Park. I didn't realize
how how highly touted you were. Um. I was just
kind of going through the list here USA Today, All
(04:28):
USA Team, Max Effinger's one twenty five Parade, All American,
the AJC Super Southern, one hundred, Top fifteen, Georgia. I mean,
it just goes on and on and on. I had
him food Man. I don't know, Man, I guess you
know I had him food Man. There wasn't nobody else
in that year. I don't know what what happened. I mean,
(04:49):
it might have been only QB that actually did something.
I don't know. Man, Are you pretty good? Man? You
were the number one athletic quarterbacks went out too. Um.
It's funny how they kind of differentiate the quarterback too. Um,
you also played football, basketball, track. I'm kind of looking
up at my cheat sheet here, But uh, what was
your first levee? Was it football? Truly? My first love, No,
(05:13):
was baseball. I thought I would be playing in MLB
playing baseball. I actually got drafted by the Marlins like
a I was like a like fifteen No, I really
like thirteen round or something like that in baseball. But
it was during the time where I really love football,
but I love baseball grown up. And what deterred me
from playing baseball was this. At my high school, I
(05:35):
was probably the best picture we had on our team.
So I would pitch like literally every other day. So
every other day when I'd be pitching, my arm would
just be throbbing because it's hurt and I'm throwing all
these different pitches turn balls. And we didn't have no
other pictures. We only had like two other pictures and
I was the other one. So I was pitching every
(05:57):
other day and I was like, dude, there's no way
I can't and continue on this line and my arm
is gonna feel like this. So I say, once I
go to college time, I was gonna play football. But
I love, love, absolutely love baseball. I didn't want to
know that. Well, you know, whoever's updating DJ Shockley's Wikipedia page.
(06:17):
Better put that in there. I need to get together. Yeah, man,
I love a state, all county. Won't worry where you
uh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah all the above. Dad, I was,
I was a picture. Yeah, I was a picture. Shortstop
got drafted play shortstop was like a I was like
a two hole hitter. So you know, I was a
base hit kind of guy. And of course in high school,
(06:40):
has some little speed so I could run and get
on base. So I love baseball. Man. Then I ran
track in high school only to make me faster, and
my dad listeners. Now, my dad would put me into
track meets, and you know, and every track meet there's
different heats. They have the fastest heat, the slowest heat.
So I would be kind of in the middle, but
my dad would put me in the fastest heat and
(07:01):
I would get just blowed out, and I'd be so angry.
Why you put me in these heats? He's like, because
if you can see the guys back, you're gonna be
trying to catch them. So you're trying to catch them,
gonna get faster. So yeah, I didn't like it at
the time. Coming in freaking six and seven places, football
cracks yeah, he was my coach. That was interesting growing up.
(07:25):
When I first got to high school. My mom wasn't
a fan of it. She was like, you're gonna be
too hard on him, and he was. I mean, he
kind of went overboard on trying to show that there
was no favoritism. So I would like throw a touchdown
and it would be great. He'd be like, yeah, but
your feet weren't right so that wasn't good enough or
(07:46):
you know. So there were times it was really hard
on me, but ultimately it made me into the player
I was. He used to go to all these different
camps all over the place and all that kind of stuff.
So that's how I became like a student of the
game I watched playing when I was in high school.
We got to college is pretty good. So definitely a
student of a game in high school. So I'm guessing
that you were recruited in multiple sports too, just besides
(08:10):
Georgia too. Talk about that a little bit. What other
schools were you really looking hard? Too hard at? Sorry
besides Uga, because I know at one point too, I
read somewhere I was doing my homework on you. I
knew that Ralph Fregent at Maryland and my guy Bobby
Bowden find West Virginia at Florida State at the time,
(08:35):
wanted you down there in Tallahassee. So what was the
recruiting process like for you and where were you what
other schools were you looking at, and were you really
close to possibly going someplace outs other than George. I
know it worked out for you, but yeah, and to
be honest, because I wasn't going to Georgia. I was
going to Florida State. I was coach Rick was at
(08:56):
Florida State at the time, and I wanted to play
for him. He was a guy that had Charlie I
mean Charlie Ward, he had Chris Winky, so he had
two different styles of quarterback and I was like, this, dude, No,
how's the coach quarterback? So I wanted to play for him. Uh.
I love North Carolina because the campus was just beautiful.
They had really really beautiful facilities. So I love North Carolina. Uh,
(09:17):
Florida State. So those are really the top three. Florida State, Georgia,
and North Carolina where my top three. Of course, you know,
I made recruited by everybody around the country. My dad
actually went to an HBCU. He went to Florida and them.
So he made me go to a visit to an
HBCU just to you know, see how it is and say, hey,
you did do it even though you knew I was
gonna go to uh one of those major you know,
(09:39):
power five. Did you not think did you think all
about going to an HBCU at all? Or no? Was it? Uh?
And what ones? Now? Okay, No, I won't go. No,
I won't gone. Now. At that time, I wanted to
play major college football somewhere, and uh, you know I
was gonna go to one of those schools. So I
was really close to going to Florida State until coach Rick,
(10:00):
you know, a couple maybe maybe like a month before signing,
chose to go to Georgia. And the same day he
was at Georgia, I mean the same day he took
the job at Georgia. He's in my living room and
I never remember. This is a pretty funny story. When
he's at Florida State, he was recruiting me. We went
to their team gala. He says, you know, shock, Florida
State would be in the great the best place for you,
(10:20):
and you'll come here. You thrive. You do great. And
I was like, all right, cool, I would love Yeah,
that's still it. So then he leaves goes to Georgia.
The same day he takes the Georgia job, He's sitting
in my living room and he said, shock, you know what,
Georgia would be the best place for you. Everything would
be great. You thrive. And that was like, coach, you
said the same thing about Florida State. So, uh, I
always love telling that story. It's a pretty funny story
(10:43):
and to this day we still get a kick out
of it. So recruiting was fun. Man being recruited by
everybody in the country. Recruiting story being a grad assistant
at Marshall when Billy Donovan was there. We we got
Jason Williams, you know, white Chocolate to come. Yeah, and uh,
you know, I've got friends at West Virginia that you know,
(11:04):
I got to know and and and roomed with. And
they told me some crazy recruiting stories. Um, what's the
craziest pitch or weirdest thing or you know how they
do these things where you walk in they had the
locker set up for you where they put your name
up in the stadium. What was the coolest or craziest
or weirdest thing that happened to you during the process.
(11:27):
So I'm not gonna tell you this, but this this
this particular school. When I got there, obviously it's laid out,
you know campus. You know, they got every everybody and
their mother was there. You have school, SEC, school, SEC.
So they have everything laid out for you. Everything's great. Um.
(11:49):
You go to obviously go to the locker room. They
got all you the usual stuff in the locker and
then I go into the stadium and first off they
got they got you know, your highlights playing all over
the big ball and your name all up and lights
all that kind of stuff. But the craziest thing was
they had my name in the engine like you like
(12:09):
paint it, like you have like the Atlanta Falcons in
the end zone, like they had in the end zone.
It was I didn't. I didn't. I was. I mean,
at that time, you know, I'm just taking it all in,
you know, So I thought that was pretty cool. It
was crazy. I couldn't believe that they actually went that
far with it. Um. But it was like towards the
(12:30):
end of signing and you know, they're trying to have
the biggest pitch ever, you know, so I thought I'll
allow you on Instagram and Twitter and every place I can.
I stock you everywhere. But I know, no, right now,
if you were to if that was we were to
do it all over again, dude, verhere, no doubt, no doubt,
(12:53):
no doubt. I'm posting that everywhere. I mean, that's that
don't happen too often, man, I mean I look at
all the stuff they do now. Man, they got they
got like photoshoots for these kids now. Uh, It's it's
crazy the things they do in college. Not to get
these kids to kind of come the coach ever come
into your living room or busy in high school and
just and you're sitting there going he said what You
(13:16):
don't have to say what, Harry who or whatever? But
have you ever had one of those moments? Oh yeah,
you had the coaches come in that hit you with
some of the in your windows, like you know, whatever
you need, man, we'll take care of you, you know,
or you know, we got X, Y and Z how
to make your your time here really really nice? You know,
(13:38):
of course, you know we'll take care of this, this
and that, and you know you focus on all in
school you know, but you don't have to worry about
having to do this and that. So yeah, yeah, yeah,
those are a couple of instance where you're laugh a
little flag there, whoa. But then but then some people
are like, what else can you give me? What else
can I get? One of my buddies who went to
(13:59):
West Virginia, Yeah, I won't name him or the school.
Uh it was a big ten school. Uh. On his
recruiting trip, he walked in and he stayed over night,
and when he opened the door, they had like roses
all over the bedroom and he was like, what is
going on with a little dot scene. You can take
(14:19):
us to the Rose Bowl. The story gets way more
interesting after that, but I can't go there. Um yeah,
I mean does he have like you know, uh, have company?
Have company at all? I mean things like that. I
mean I don't know. I'm just saying I don't know company,
like you know coaches come in and say hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(14:40):
that's what I mean. So you majored in speech communications
at ug E. Had you not played football, would you
want to do if football was an option for you?
What what do you do? You know? What was crazy
is I don't think people noticed, But I love animals, man,
I didn't know. I think somewhere another I would have been.
(15:01):
I would have been, uh some of the animal feels somewhere.
My my wife, Uh, she's always on me about how
I like to just sit there and watch the Animal
Planet or uh, you know, I love going to the
zoo stuff. I mean a little weird stuff that you
never think that I will be a fan of. But
I love animals, man. I'm a big animal guy. So
I think I would be something animal feel doing something
(15:23):
giants so far as and stuff like that. Yeah you're not,
Yeah I'm talking whatever, But like I do love pretty
you can always telling their toddo, which is probably a
good thing. Um when you go through it just massive, man,
And then you watch them, You're like, you can see
(15:45):
what these dudes can do. Man, And they move so fast.
I know they always tell you anath to open your
window and the ostriches and the monkeys are coming by.
But I'm always there, like, come on, put the window
down a little bit. I know, I don't know, I
don't know. I got to feed drafts or managed pretty cool,
you know a little safar So yeah that's cool, all right,
I can see you with like the hat on the
(16:07):
Safari hat. Yes, sir, I know that you're thriving right now.
I think you're still with the are you still You're
still with the SEC network and you're doing stuff for
Atlanta Falcons dot com not Falcons dot com. So, uh,
ACC Sideline analysts still too. That was well, no, that
(16:28):
would see That's what I did it when I first
got started. Yeah, I started with the ACC and uh
did sideline first for one year and then the last
three years I've been with ESPN sec Net. You might
want to update your LinkedIn page. By the way, um
and ninety two nine the games have done work with radio. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(16:53):
yeah yeah. So I love a little bit of both
Man radio TV. Yeah, universally, just you know, everybody, everybody
can't be well, you know, just doing this the podcast
and and I worked with you a little bit doing
a little when I first do it, started doing the
Falcons Audible podcast. It's not easy, it's not you know.
(17:14):
I was a I was a news ad journalism major.
I was a writer. Um did not go down broadcasting.
And then I worked at CBS Sports, but I was behind.
I was I worked with the producers. I was behind
the scenes. Um, but you know, I've always had a
ton of respect for a TV talent. I worked with
Pete Risco, Brady Quinn Um and you know, on and
(17:36):
on and on, and uh, anybody I forgot, I'm sorry,
but it's it's it's tough, and they put in a
ton of work and a ton of practice. And you know,
some of these guys they just you know, they've gone
from like eighteen takes to to two takes and they
just work and work and work at it. But uh,
(17:58):
well that's why. That's why, you know, you should feel
special because I got a lot going on throughout the week,
and and and Beach said, hey, can you come on
the podcast, And I'm saying, absolutely, I come on, Bird Noises,
I'm all about that. So yeah, man, pull aside to time,
aside for my guy and so we can have a
(18:18):
good time. Man. So uh yeah, man, Yeah, you know
what's it's fun though, because I looved I enjoy the
part of when the red light comes on, you have
to be on and that's the part of I still
get Butterfly like I did when I played, So it
still gives me that nervous energy whenever I'm in front
of in front of people, So uh, it keeps me
(18:39):
on my toes. How much did you know going into
it that you were gonna have to put in the
amount of time and hours like in preparation, studying and
game film or did that come natural because you had played?
Is that? Is that something that comes natural to you
when you like break down, you know offenses and defenses
and tendencies, and well, I assumed you you had to
(19:01):
do some type of prep for games and all that,
But I didn't know everything that didn't tail because I
wasn't into it. And I don't think people understand, like
when when people see these guys or see people on
TV on Saturday calling games that starts on the previous Sunday,
Like you're going through tape, you're going through notes, you're
going through tons of film, and then you're you're trying
(19:23):
to make sure you can pronounce everybody's name the right way.
I mean, there's a lot of things, a lot of
things that go into it. But I think being a
quarterback has helped me because I see the game a
certain way and I can describe it a certain way,
and over the years, that's just how I watch it,
so it's not something that's something I had to learn.
So it's it's it's it's fun to do manum. But
(19:46):
like I said, it is a lot of work each
and every week. But the payoff is on that Saturday
or Sunday when you're calling games or you know, you
get a chance to see some unfold and you know,
people watch the game and say, hey, man, we enjoy
it here and you call it and yes, great insight.
So it been your what was what's been your favorite
memory safar or your best call or your just favorite
(20:07):
game that you've been associated with working You got one
off top of your head, oh man, because I'm gonna
ask you the question. Man, We've had we uh, I
had a Bowl game, um and I can't remember where
it was, but someone where they had a red field
and I thought it was really cool, uh that they
(20:29):
had this red field. They were actually really good. It
threw it all over the place and we had one
of our best games, I thought, because the game was close,
came down to the end. But then there's also one
game that I thought was pretty cool. Was I last
year I had George. I mean I had Alabama and
I had a God, who was it might have been
it was somebody who ran the triple option and they
(20:49):
had they had Alabama down at halftime and we're calling
the game. Nobody really expected to be one those type
of games, thought to be over in the first quarter,
and at halftime, my phone is just going crazy, like, dude,
you got the game of the week. You got the
game of the weekend. Everybody's watching now, even like our
head exectit ESPN were like, hey, keep it going, You're
doing great, so h that's definitely pretty cool. And then
(21:11):
the last one was this year, I got a chance
to call my first Georgia game in three years and
hadn't had a chance to do it since I've been
with ESPN, and actually was a pretty good game. Georgia
was stars. Also, tons of people, tons of people were
locked in on it, and uh, it's always cool to
have your you'all, mamartin. I had people who uh called
(21:33):
me out to we say, hey, I couldn't tell if
you went to Georgia or Acasol anywhere, so uh, it
was a huge compliment that, uh I didn't have the
the Georgia homer in my yea someone who's rooting for
the other team. Go, Oh my gosh, it sounds like
it's the the Bulldogs broadcasting station here. Good stuff. What's
(21:55):
what's your long term goal? Man? You uh, you want
to just are you happy right where you're at? Or
do you want to do you see yourself doing some
you know, major network stuff where our NFL stuff one day? No, man,
you know what I'm I'm I'm never complacent, to be honest,
I'm never uh in a spot where I want to
stay where I am. I want to continue to climb
the ladder. I want to continue to one day possibly
(22:17):
calling national championship games or calling you know, games in
the college football playoffs, or every weekend you're calling the
primetime game. That's where ultimately I would love to be
because they put the best there obviously, So that's where
I would want to strive to be where every week
I'm calling one of the games that everybody wants to
see and then wants the end of the year comes around, Hey,
(22:38):
this is a guy we want to calling the biggest
games of the year. So that is the goal. I
will continue to drind for that and continue doing We'll
just we'll get big time big. I'm always here from
Burton Nois and man, believe that I'm always here. Well, listen,
speaking of the big time you made, the big time
you played, you were you were drafted by the Falcon
(23:00):
the seventh round pick and two twenty third overall two
thousand and six NFL Draft, and you know, I don't
remember sixth that well, but you were projected to go
higher and by some of these outlets, right, well, how
high did you did you hear yourself going from different places?
(23:27):
I heard third, fourth round, And I think the main
thing was this guy had a really, really great one year,
and I think for a lot of scouts, for a
lot of teams, people just wanted to see more. People
wanted to see me do it for two years, three years.
And then now you look around the National Football League.
Now you see guys who come out in one year.
(23:50):
I you know, I ain't gonna say over and shot town.
I mean, that's the biggest knock on people, is, hey,
this guy had one year in college and it hasn't
panned out for him. So I think that's the biggest
thing that kind of held me back was this guy's
got one year. He played really well that one year,
but we don't know if it's a fluke. We don't
know if it's just you know, he had good guys
around him or what. So they getting drafted was pretty cool. Um.
(24:15):
I remember Draft day getting a call from the Falcons
and sending them the voicemail US. You know, I'm from
Atlanta on and raised in Atlanta. I'm like, just, man,
why people keep calling me? They know they know the
draft is coming up? Why they keep calling me something?
I said the voicemail second time? Second time he called back,
I was like, dang, the same numbers called me back
(24:37):
and I pick up the phone. I say hello, and
it's Jim Moore. He says, hey, sho you want to
be in Atlanta Falcon And I was like, yes, that
is probably the coolest thing that you can hear. Is
a coach on the other end saying hey, you want
to be a soul and soul and be a part
of to kind of he can get pretty excited pretty quick.
(24:58):
Did He didn't make any comments about going to voicemail
or anything, okay Na Na, because I think I think
they expected They've had it happened a few times, you know.
I mean, sometimes guys don't answer, maybe don't have servemys
whatever may be. So they call again and again, Well
you played two thousand and six. I'm kind of looking
(25:21):
up my outs here two thousand and six to two
thousand and nine. But it's kind of interesting the period
you played. You know, I'm sitting here thinking about your
you know, it's four years, but I'm sitting there thinking
about everything that happened with the Falcons while you were there.
It is crazy. I'm sitting there thinking about it. I
didn't know where to start with you. Yeah, but we'll
(25:42):
start right there with you. Way, you had four head
coaches Mora Oh six, Bobby Petrino and Emma Thomason seven,
and then Mike Smith and oh wait, you don't know. Yeah,
And what's crazy is people say, yeah, you got these
different head coaches, but as an author of guys at QB,
I had four different coordinators. What that means, that's four
(26:05):
offensive So one guy who was on the Falcon squad
right now, Greg Knapp, was the offensive coordinator. They drafted me.
So to this day, I give coach Nap a lot
of credit. I mean, I always think him when I
see him because he was the one guy who was
in my bandwagon. The whole time through the draft process
(26:25):
and everything. That's what made me think the Falcons weren't
gonna draft me because Coach Napp came to Georgia, he
did all these workouts with me, like he was only hard,
and I was like and I was always told, whichever
team shows you the most interest, no way they drafted.
So I was like, no way, no way, I stay
at home. So, uh it was. It was cool. So
I I had coach had napped, and I had Coach
(26:48):
Petrino obviously come in there. And uh so I had
West Coast offense my first year, which was crazy. West
Coast offense was you know, fifteen word plays all that
kind of stuff. So it was, um, we'll get into
that in a second. Um. But when you came when
you when you came out, well, one thing I forgot
(27:10):
to ask is where did you grow up a Falcons fan?
I grew up with a Falcons fan. I wasn't a
die hard Falcons fan. I mean the other teams, am
I gonna get you in trouble? Well? Now, growing up,
I mean, obviously I had like a forty nine. I know,
I know, I know, I had uh some I had
(27:32):
a forty nine Ers, and I had Cowboys stuff because
I just love that starter coach, and I think everybody
had those kind of growing up. So, uh, I love
the Falcons, man, But uh, you know, I just tell
you truth. I just I watched everything growing up. So,
like I said, I wasn't even really like a Georgia
fan really growing up either. I just you know, I
watched him because I was in state. But you know, yeah,
(27:55):
when I was a kid, and you know, we lived
in ann Arbor As first games, I satur up and
you know, the Big House, and so you know, you'd
watch some Lions games and then you moved to New
York and you're going to Giants games and Jets games.
So yeah, I just watched a lot of different teams. Um,
so I feel either all right, So going back to
your Falcons days, you know there's been a lot made,
(28:18):
obviously over what's going on with these current Falcons with
a midseason coaching change with eleven games to go, you
went through a midseason coaching change. You went from Jim Moore.
Within the next year, Um, you know, you had Bobby
Petrino and Emmett Thomas. I mean, do we do we
really call it a coaching change or like a coaching league.
(28:38):
That's kind of that's kind of what it was. Michael
Jenkins on here twice and he had had some choice
words for it, Um, But you also had a front
seat too, and I want to ask you about this too,
Michael Vick's last year in the Falcons uniform and Matt
Ryan's first year the Falcon It was like, so you've
(29:02):
you've seen a lot of you know, as far as
like a sliver of a really interesting, bizarre historic section
of Falcon's history. You were there, you can see for it.
So yeah, go ahead. Now I was gonna ask about Petrino.
Let's let's just talk about that mid season change and
just how bizarre was it. Um. You know, we've heard
(29:23):
a lot of different stories as far as like what
he said after the game and then the breaking news
and uh, you know he had apparently made plans to
go to Arkansas. How tell me you know from your
perspective what that whole thing was like? Unbelievable, man. I
mean the fact that you got grown men obviously already
(29:46):
who already uh trying to find a way to buy
into what you're telling, and they're given everything you got
this is their livelihood. This is how they you know,
feed their families. So they're given everything they got. Regardless
of if you like the coach tree Sha or not.
This is your livelihood, so you give everything you got.
I remember, I think he was playing on the Monday
night or something. We lose the ball game. He's in
(30:08):
the locker room giving us this raw ross speech after
the game. We gotta give him everything again. We gotta
stick together, we gotta continue to fight. I'm sure you've
heard it, and we're all like, all r yeah, yeah, yeah. We'
gonna get back to work. We're gonna, you know, try
to turn this thing around, finish strong, and I'll never forget.
The next Monday, I'm downtown with a couple of teammates,
one in particular, Diagelo Hall. We get we get a
(30:33):
text message. As soon as we see it, We're sitting
in a little restaurant and we look up and all
we see is him doing the pig sue wee. And
as soon as we see it, our phones go crazy
and it's the PR staff say don't talk to anybody,
don't say anything, don't give any interviews. Within thirty seconds,
I see the Agelo Hall outside on the phone and
(30:56):
then I look up. I look up on the screen
and it says on the line, we have to get
into right, And oh yeah, Denzel didn't no, no, no,
he wasn't about the rules then, so he is going
in on Petrino on the line on the call. So, uh,
that was the weirdest thing ever in the coming in
the next morning and seeing the note in the scraping
(31:19):
in the locker room. I mean it was it handwritten it.
I don't even remember. It was ripped up so fast
that uh. I think everybody makes sure nobody else saw
it because we don't want any more remnants of him
in our building. So uh, it was. It was. It
was something ridiculous and simple and not even worth it.
(31:42):
Like it's like, you know, it's like you've been with
your girlfriend for five years and you send a text
to break up with it. That's kind of like it
what it is, and you're like, that's what I get
after all this we put into it. You can see
me a text. That's kind of what. I can't think
of another situation. It's probably happened somewhere, you know, high school,
small college, maybe even major college, but I can't think
(32:04):
of any situation that was even remotely close to that
with a coach leaving. I know there's been some nasty breakups,
but that's just bizarre. It's unreal. Man, I had never
seen but he didn't think about it somebody. And that's
the thing. No, no, and this profession and this profession
(32:26):
just outright quit on you. And that's what happened. You
quit on the next man. And as guys in that
locker room and this sport, quitting is just something that
is not saying, it's not done, and anybody who does
it is looked at as disrespectful, to be honest, and
so he was real disrespectful to everybody in that organization.
(32:49):
And the and the sad part about it was we
had Arthur Blake come in and he said, you know what,
I talked to this guy the night before the Monday
night game because I knew all this seculation was coming up.
He had to go into the booth that night and
talk to that crew was calling the game because he
knew they was gonna ask him. And he said, be
honest with me. If you're leaving, just letting me know,
(33:12):
because I don't want to go on national TV and
say Hey, you're our guy, and we're all in on you,
and the next day or next week something happens and
I look stupid. So when Arthur came in and told
us he lied to him too, we knew this was
a guy who just didn't have respect for anybody, especially
not us. That's just not good. Yeah, Michael Jenkins said
(33:33):
that mister Blank got him to come back to at
least talk to the coaches in person, So that must
have been a little awkward. I'm sure they didn't care
even because you gave up on them too, Like it's ridiculous,
Like I don't think we wouldn't want to hear from him.
So he just o man. And I think I think
(33:56):
I think since that day, since that day, a lot
of people in this organization, uh kind of uh turned
it back to that guy get a chance to coach
again in the NFL after that, probably probably that he
is a he's a college may coach because he was.
He treated us as guys who have been in the
(34:18):
league for ten fifteen years, grown men, like kids, Like
you're telling the guy who has three kids at home
that he can't talk to the pregame meal. That's dudes.
One going for that. So that's just one of many
things that happened. Uh and in that locker room that
guys weren't really I'm gonna ask you here and at
(34:39):
the end to put on your analyst cap real quick.
You can give me like a cliff Notes summary here.
But yeah, as I mentioned, you got to watch Michael
Vicks last year, and then there was the bizarre year
after that, the offseason with Peter at the gates and
all that stuff. But yeah, and U, if you had
(35:00):
to sum up Michael Vick his career, his career here,
just him as an athlete, how would you do that
in a few sentences? I would say A. I would
say a guy who changed the culture and a guy
who changed the mindset of the city of Atlanta. To
(35:25):
be honest, like I guarantee you to this day, even
though with the other teams he played for, whenever you
say Michael Vick's name, first you think of that falcon
on his helmet, and I think, I think that's probably
bigger than anything that he has done or anything that
he has you know, did while he's with the team
or now that people relate Michael Vick to the Atlanta Falcons.
(35:49):
Man there are a lot of things that go with that.
But I remember my first ever meeting of Michael Vick
was when I walked into the Falcons for silly. The
first person I saw is Michael Vick. He was coming
out of the training room. He comes around the corner.
I come around the corner and he dashed me up.
He's talking to me. He knows my name. And after that,
(36:12):
I was like, Michael Vick, know who I am? Man?
I mean, I mean as a guy, you know, I'm
just coming from college. I just did some good thing.
But in the day, this is a dude that everybody
in the world knows. Like. He wasn't just the face
of the Falcons. He was the face of the freaking
National Football League. And the first person you meet is
that guy and he's talking to you, and he's you know,
(36:34):
he wants to hang out with you. You're in the
same meeting rooms with him, you call the same place.
Like for a guy like me, I was like, this
is the ultimate. Oh I was, I mean, come on,
I mean I remember, I remember dudes on our team
will come up to him one of the sign stuff,
and you know, he was there's people look at people
(36:56):
the National Football league at superstars, but then there's also
some guys who are just a little bit above where
everybody else is. Like everybody knows Tom Brady. You look
at Tom Brady and say he's not just your average
player in the National Football League. That's how Mike was
so to be on the sideline with him to see
some of the stuff that he talked about, the end
(37:18):
game and stuff that he wanted to do. I remember
there was a play in the game one time we
were in Philly or some things weren't going good. He
was hating with the offensive coordinated was calling. He said,
he came to the signline, he was hot. He looked
over he said, next time, I'm just gonna take off.
So we go on the field. He'd go back on
the field. The first play, he just takes off for
sixty yards. And I'm like, this dude can do this
(37:40):
whenever he won't versus the best in the whole entire world.
That tells you how good this dude is. And it
was just a matter of whenever he wanted to, he
can get it done. So it was it was crazy.
I'm sure you know this. I went to West Virginia
and we played West or Virginia Tech every year and
that broke my heart. Yeah, he was just you sit
(38:02):
there and watching going you can't stop him. In college
he was ridiculous. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was. It
was dumb man, It was. It was crazy to be
a part of, uh, watching him. Have you ever seen
another teammate come in and command that kind of like
you know, guys asking for autographs? Is that? Does that
(38:23):
happen a lot? Does that happen today? And you mentioned
Tom Brady, but that doesn't happen a lot, does it?
Or does it? Yeah? I think the next closest guy
was when Tony Gonzalez came to Atlanta. I think Tony
gazazz was the next closest thing to Mike because everybody
(38:43):
knew that you're looking at a guy who is absolutely
going to where Yeah, So so to watch him every
single day, to be in a locker room with him,
you kind of looked at him like, damn, this dude
is already there, like it don't matter what do you
do here? Like you understood greatness when you saw it.
So Tony Gonzalez was a guy you looked at It
(39:05):
was like, yeah, he had a crazy working I'm glad
I know this guy, oh man. I mean that's where
I got all MYNJ to be honest, because when absolutely, absolutely,
whenever he wasn't on the field, he was like, Chocolate's throw,
let's catch. And of course the ones are out there,
(39:25):
I'm not with the ones. You know this is you
know Matt's here, so you know I'm the backup. And
you know, whenever Matt's in the game and he's not
in the game, he wants to catch. And it was
it was crazy how many guys fared off of it.
I mean you see it now with Julio, you see Calvin,
you see when Rody was there. I mean, Jake did it.
I mean he kind of set the standard for whenever
(39:46):
you're not doing anything, you need to be catching balls,
tucking it away, turn it up, and you know go.
So whatever you see guys on the sideline throwing and
catching and tucking and throwing away, it's a direct result
of Tony Gonzalez because he did it every single I
mean walk throughs, it didn't matter. He did it every
single day. And that's why or great for a reason. Wow. Yeah,
(40:08):
Now as far as your time to you know, what
was it like when Matt got here. You know, he's
he's obviously the face of the franchise now, but he's
he's gonna go down is the franchise all time best
quarterback and he I think he owns just about every
single record right now. Um, what was that like when
(40:29):
he came in? Um? Was it kind of like did
he have to earn it? Or you know, I know,
I know what happened his first past sixty two comments,
sink to Janka, look at you calling out to play
backside skinny post. It was cool, man. I tell you,
Matt was a different kind of guy coming in because
(40:51):
he was you just knew he was more mature. Um
as a rookie coming in and I remember him coming
in and ja keeping his head down, asking tons of
questions like I have been there for two years by
now and obviously knew a little bit about how the
league goes and how you prepare all your work, and
(41:12):
he has questions every day. He was early, he was late.
He worked hard in the weight room. And that's why
I tell people all the time, like people look at
back and say, oh, he's he's such a skinny guy.
Does he ever live ways? I said, trust me, this
dude gets after it in the locker room, I mean
in the weight room, and people just couldn't believe. I was, like,
he's one of the most hard working dudes I have
(41:32):
ever played with. He studies, his studies his butt off,
and even to this day, we still have conversations about
what happens every single week and he doesn't take any
week for granted. He doesn't take any team for granted,
which is pretty cool. And the fact that he wants
everybody around him to play at a high level. And
(41:53):
I think you've been around him just as much as
I have. Now you understand his work as you understand
that he wants to be great, and you can see
the competitor in his dude every single game, like he
is still giving you everything he got. It doesn't matter
if he's making one hundred million dollars or he's making
one dollar. This dude's gonna give everything he's got. And
(42:13):
that's what you gotta love. And that's why he's been
around for thirteen years and playing at a high level.
And like you mentioned about him all those records, because
this guy prepares every single week and doesn't take a
week off. Yeah, I've been around him, but not quite
like you. You have seen him in practice, You've seen
(42:35):
him in huddles. You've seen maybe not in the same huddle,
but you know he's like on the sideline in the
meeting rooms. What he's like in the huddle, what he says,
what he expects from guys, how he gets on guys,
and he doesn't care who you are. That's well, document's
been caught on TV with the bikes. What is you
know when you talk about that, some of the fans
(42:55):
sometimes get on him a little bit, but then you
you you hear just on Thursday night there was a
live mic and he got on somebody talk about Matt
Ryan a little bit more of the competitor his face,
you know, is he like that a lot more than
we see. Yeah, dude, don't want to lose it nothing.
I'm gonna be honest, dude, don't want to lose it nothing.
We would have competitions every single day, whether it was
(43:18):
practice meetings, who can answer the most questions in our
meeting rooms? Like there was competition and everything we did.
And the one thing that people have to realize about
Matt is he is very cognitant of Obviously, those mics
are out there He's cognitive of what he says because
he still wants to be a roll bottle for kids.
He's still he's got two young boys himself. But then
(43:41):
that competitive edge, when I tell you, is any When
I tell you, the dude can get angry. The dude
can lay into you if you're not doing what is right.
Like you know, I've seen him literally come into a
huddle and literally address all eleven guys within a play
and tell him this is what you, X, Y, and
Z have to do, this is what we need to do,
this is what we're gonna do. Make sure you're here
(44:02):
do that. I mean, he is the most competitive guy.
And I think the one thing that people may not
see and don't understand is he is the most detailed
oriented guy that I've been around. When I say detail,
I mean the nuances of every single thing from when
I hand it off. I gotta make sure I hold
the backside in with my play face. I gotta make
(44:22):
sure if I hand it off with my left hand,
my right hand is on my hip so the backside
end can't see if this runner pass like those are
those are the type of things that you may lose
when you're watching the game or stat line, the small
things that matter, and he's such a detail oriented guy
and making sure that everybody's on the same page separate,
(44:42):
especially is wide out and being in spot. That's interesting.
And before we kind of move on from that there,
you know, I had a mind a podcast with Dirk
Cutter and Mike Malarkey and they were talking about that
first play and Malarkey was talking about his very first
huddle when he told the roddy and on his first
play but in practice. But you know the one, the
(45:05):
one uh time he was caught on TV that everyone
talks about. I think it was a Monday night in
Tampa Bay when he said get and sat. Remember that one?
Oh yeah, yeah, he was yelling at Mohammed Sanil and
Matt came out and said, no, I was telling Julio
(45:25):
to get f and sat And I was like, We're
all like, wow, okay, yeah, you know he doesn't. Yeah, yeah, well, well,
I think when you have another superstar like Julio, he
has guarded the respect of a Julio to baby to
talk to him, ye kind of in that fashion because
he understands where he's coming from. He's not coming at
(45:47):
him to degrade him, or be grade him or what him.
It may be. He wants something to happen the right way,
and if you're not doing it to that level of
that standard, he's gonna let you know. And you mentioned it,
it's anybody, and that's that's what your leader has to do.
Your leader cannot be a friend to get on somebody's
ass when they need to, and Matt will do it.
(46:08):
And that's a perfect, perfect example of him getting on
Julio saying, yeah, I know you want the best receivers
in the game, but on this particular play, yeah, you
need to get yours. And that's the fimes, to the
to the rookies, second year players, whatever. If Matt's gonna
sit there and tell Julio to get at been set,
then hey, I better I better have my you know
(46:28):
what together? Um, all right, So before I ask you
about these twenty twenty Falcons, I just want to, uh,
you know, there's I know we're kind of rolling on
time here, but so many names that you've played with.
And so what I want to do is I had
like twenty names and I narrowed I can only narrow
it down to twelve. So because there's just so many
(46:52):
characters here. So what I want to do is I
just want to ask you. I'm gonna I'm gonna say
their name, and if you can just give me a
word and we'll just go through these pretty question as quick.
As soon as you give it to me, we'll move on.
Just tell me the first word that comes to mind
when I when I name this player one of your
former teammates. Okay, you can say name, you can say
a word, or you can say a phrase, and then
(47:13):
as soon as you say we'll move on. It's kind
of rapid fire here, Okay, be brutally honest, all right.
Michael Vick, Matt Ryan, Uh, the best work done, most
(47:40):
laid back guy you ever meet. Michael Turner, oh Man.
First thing I think about a two always ultimangelal hall
(48:02):
angry at times. That's perfect. Um, Keith Brooking, freaking yellow
jacket lawyer, Milloya oh Man, Uh, Jonathan Becker, Uh, John
(48:29):
Abraham Cooler, Matt Bryant, Uh Ice really man, Yeah, he's
called it. Um. All right. So we've talked about you know,
(48:52):
you've gone through a lot of coaching changes and and
you've been through a midseason coaching change, and uh, this
team with five games in on October eleventh, made a
change from dan Quinn and TD Thomas to Mitroff after
that Carolina game, and Raheem Morris was named interim coach
with eleven games ago, which is a lot of games.
(49:14):
You know you were when you were here. Emmett Thomas
had three games. So Raheem now is two and one
and they are two and six now at the midway point,
they could you know, I don't want to get into
they could be three and ozho or they should be
five and three or whatever, you know, because of the Cowboys,
(49:36):
Bears and the Lions game. I won't get into any
of that. But give me a quick assessment of where
this team is right now and what you're looking at.
You know, what do you make of them heading into
the second half? Considering they play the Bucks twice, Saints twice,
they got some AFC West teams the Chargers, Raiders and
(49:58):
Broncos Broncos this weekend, and then they also got the Chiefs.
So how what are what are realistic expectations too? Um?
And how do you think it will play out? First off,
I say what you said is kind of uh, it's realistic, UM,
as far as where they were just the Cowboys and Bears. Like,
(50:20):
this is a team that's been in every single ball
game Seattle. You know, they played you pretty tough. It
was tough to win that one, but every other ball
game you were either winning or you had a chance
to win the ball game. So this is a team
literally well you know the Green Bay that first half
they had the goal line stand and right right, I mean,
(50:44):
I'm saying like there are opportunities in a ball game
where you know, obviously you can say that in any game,
but I think you're literally six seven players away from
being at the top and being one of those things
that everybody's still talking about now. On the other hand,
and you've only played the Carolina Panthers and you split
those games, and you mentioned you still got to you
(51:06):
got Tampa, and you got the Saints. Now there's gonna
be tough games, no doubt, but you've always played those
games really good. You've always Last year one of the
main reasons why Coach Coin stayed around because hey, you
went in two Wallens or a team who you know
going to the playoffs, and like this is about and
San Francisco, two playoff teams that you know, everybody looked
(51:29):
at the Falcons as a team that just gave up.
But this is a team that continue to fight. So
there's still a lot of good football left. You can
still usually win this division. Now now it's it's tough,
like we mentioned, because of you know, the way both
teams are playing in your division. Who you still have left.
But this is the football team that has the weapons
(51:49):
on offense defense looks like the last couple of games.
You're not giving up those biggest closer plays dudes, and
not just running wide open there having been all those
crazy buss like you saw in the first few ball games.
This is a ball club that I believe if they
continue to execute, and that's what they weren't doing in
the first few games, execute at a higher level and
each guy do their job. And I say that because
(52:11):
when you turn on the field, you got so many
dudes who are trying to do other stuff or trying
to be better for somebody else instead an give me
an example of somebody that's so let's just say in
a secondary. Let's say in the secondary, if you know
one guy hasn't been playing up to part and if
(52:33):
you're a safety and you know, hey, this guy's got
a really good receiver over here, and I'm closed to
be in the middle of the field. But I'm gonna
give a little bit more help to this side of
the field to help my other counterpart. But I'm supposed
to be in the middle of the field. Now. If
I go over here and help him and I give
up another player on the other side where I should be,
then hey, I'm trying to do too much. I'm trying
(52:55):
to compensate for somebody else. Those are little examples that
you can see throughout a ball game that each guy
just does their own job and says, hey, I trust
you to do yours, then you'd be good to go.
So I still think there's tons of football though. I mean,
like you mentioned, there's two and one. I'm sure Rahein
went into uh this, you know, part of the season
say hey, we gotta everybody know break it down into quarters,
(53:17):
and hey, they're two and one in this quarter already.
You can't continue to play well. No, you got some
tough games down the stretch, but hey, you played well
in a lot of football games. If you can continue
down that tree, you got a chance to uh make
people say, oh, what was this new team that's playing here.
You know, I watched the Chargers played, um, both the
Bucks and the Saints. I watched the Bucks and the
(53:41):
Giants last night. Yeah. Where I'm going with this is
is that you know, yes, they're having good seasons, the
Saints in the Bucks, but they're beatable. They're beatable. You
believe that, right, And I mean it sounds cliche, but
really absolutely all teams are beatable. Yeah. I mean you
(54:02):
look at some of the mistakes that Daniel Jones made
in that game when they had to lead and they
had Tampa down and they were holding Tampa the field
goals early in the ball game, and you were up
fourteen to three. If you keep the pedal down, I
guess what, you got a chance to win this ball game.
You got a chance to put this team away. I
mean the Saints, you know, last week, had a you know,
(54:22):
it took him the overtime to to to go get
a winning you know, they could have lost that ball game.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean you got some
you got some really good quarterbacks, but you also got
some teams that are failing as well. Yea, Chicago really
well and you know, just kind of sputtered at the end.
(54:42):
But uh, I'm with you, so let me ask you
this before you wrap this up. DJ, I'm just really
glad to get you on here. M give me give
me any bold predictions for the second half finally games,
Oh man, that's I'm gonna say. Uh, A bold prediction
(55:06):
is I'm gonna say the Falcons are gonna beat the Chiefs.
That's what I'm Yeah, I like the problem to beat
the Chiefs. Uh. And Arrowhead on the road. I mean
Fox played really well on the road. We struggle at home,
but we played really well at times on the road
to US. So I mean, hey, I mean, you know
what I'm saying. So we'll see, man, But I like
(55:27):
I like the Falcons chances. Man, you know, there's been
a way, there's been a way that people have slowed
down Patrick Mahomes in that offense. There have been games
where he's thrown four under two hundred yards. So there's
a chance you slow him down if you know, you
do all the right things. Of course that's a big,
big if. But I'm gonna say they go into the
arrow headn't get a win versus Kansas City, and you
(55:48):
know division games, we know how that can go. So
ain't no, ain't no prediction made in there. We know
you can be old and whatever and when. And I
like that you came out today. I appreciate you having me, man.
It's been fun being on Bird Noises Man enough. Uh,
you've had some stellar guests so far, so I appreciate
(56:08):
you even wanted me to be a part of that.
We gotta I gotta go. There's a lot more stories,
uh you have I can tell and so we gotta
get you back on. But maybe we can do towards
the end of the season, if that's cool with you.
It'd be great. Always cool with me, man, all right,
it was great, Senior, and uh, thanks for coming on Choker. Yeah,
I appreciate your beat. Bird Noises
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