December 10, 2020 • 39 mins
Longtime Falcons center Todd McClure recalls his toughest (and funniest) battles in the trenches, the Michael Vick years and playing for a lot of different coaches with Matt Tabeek on Bird Noises presented by Bose.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And today we are joined with a thirteen year that
a player that has played under one, two, three, four, five,
six seven different coaches. I'm right with the Falcons, with
the one and only Todd McClure. Todd, thanks so much
(00:23):
for covering some time out and joining Bird Noises. Oh man,
I appreciate you guys calling me. Always enjoy talking about
and all the good, good old days, good time, good
old days. Absolutely. Well, man, you've seen it all, you've played.
You know, I was sitting there going through your your
career and you know the first thing that stood out
(00:46):
was just a longevity. And you've probably got so many
different stories. You played under Dan Reeves, Wade Phillips, Jim
Moore Junior, Bobby Petrino, trying to Emmett Thomas yep. Yeah,
and then Mike Smith. Um you were you were parted
some some great teams and you know a couple of
(01:09):
that weren't great. But man, what a career now. Yeah,
I was definitely blessed, you know over my fourteen years,
my rookie character, my ACL and training camp and um,
you know it was I didn't think my journey was
gonna get started. Then I thought it was over with
already because I didn't know what the what the Falcons
were gonna do. You were you were a seventh round pick, right,
(01:31):
you were like the two hundred and thirty seventh pick overall.
I mean, I know you were picked late, right, so
you were thinking yeah, yeah. Luckily for me, you know,
I had I had good OTAs, I had good uh
workouts and everything going up to training camp. So I
showed a little bit of my ability. I didn't know
if we're just gonna wave me or put me on
(01:52):
our Luckily they put me on hour, which gave me
another chance for another camp. Yeah. Um, well, let's just
jump right into your your your Falcon's days, because I mean,
you were part of some of the greatest teams Enfranchise history. Um,
not only that you had literally a front seat. You
(02:13):
were literally I was sitting here, Todd, I was going
through I was trying to figure out how many snap
counts you had in your career, how many times you've
snapped at the ball, how many times you were If
you had to guess right now, how many of those
snaps were quarterback, under center or shotgun. If you had
to break it up just gestimation, what would it be? Oh, man,
(02:36):
I wouldn't know where to start percentage wise, because I
have I came up with a number. Actually, you came
up with a number because I know Michael Vicker were
understander Lodge, just because of our West Coast style offense.
Maybe okay, okay, well what do you think? Oh? Well,
I don't I don't have a I don't have a
(02:58):
number as far as percentage of quarterback under center versus shotgun.
I have just an actual snap count, which I came
up with about thirteen thousand, five huninety eight snaps. That's
just regular season. That's not counting postseason or all those
training camp, hot, sweaty days in training again, a lot
of snaps. Yeah, when you think about it, like a
(03:20):
lot of snaps. I was very fortunately the battle snap
of that many times. And you had some great quarterbacks
hands owner center, under your your your rear end there too.
You had Chris Chandler, Michael Vick, Brad is it Brad Johnson? Yeah, no,
Doug sorry, Michael Vick, Joey Harrington, and of course the
(03:41):
one and only Matt Ryan, that's right. Johnson also Sea
was in there. And there's a few other guys, you know,
Byron leftfoot to down nat OFFENSEI Tampa. There's a bunch
of guys when you think about it, you know, but
there's a cost that really out for me. Yeah, so
I'm gonna I'm gonna put you on the spot right
(04:02):
off the top here. Who was who was there? Who
was your favorite quarterback to play with him? You know? Uh,
people ask me that a lot, um and I can't
give you one favorite. You know. Uh love Matt Ryan,
love Michael Vic. Both of those guys were different styles. Uh.
Both of those guys had a huge part and some
(04:25):
of my best years as a Falcons. Uh, the big
years were exciting. You know, you never knew what was
gonna happen. Every time I snapped in the ball. He
was just so electric. H Matt Ryan was more student
of the game. I knew the day the first day
he stepped into the huddle. I'm like, all right, this
guy he's gonna be pretty good. What did he What
(04:46):
did he do in that huddle that first day? What?
What was it that you just said, Oh, this guy's different.
You know, it's all about confidence with young quarterbacks. Um,
and we've had guys come in you know, they're nervous.
Obviously they're they're around. You know, you step into the huddel.
You got guys like, I know not at the time, Tony,
Tony guns out done. You know, guys that have been
(05:07):
there a long time and done it, and uh, it
could be it could be a big stepping stone for
some guys. But Matt stepped in like he was the biggest,
baddest dude around. You know a lot of it. Let's go. Yeah,
I knew he was gonna be a field general from
that first day. Yeah, there's some story that where he
in his first his first huddle that he looked right
(05:29):
at Roddy White and said, you better go bleep and
go get this one. Probably probably because he wanted to
look good on the first pass attempt. Who wouldn't. Um, So,
being a center for a guy like Michael Vick versus
a guy like Matt Ryan did it? Did one of
(05:49):
them make your job any harder because maybe the unpredictability
were vic Did you have to play different or just
have a different mindset with any of these guys? Little
day from mindset like because you just you never knew
where he was gonna be in the pocket. Um, he
can be outside the last ash and from one play
outside to write the next. But you know, it made
(06:11):
a job a little harder because you had to sustain
blocks a little longer, and you might have to, you know,
move your body in different situations to just never knew
he was gonna beat. But it also made our job easier.
You know, if you got beat at the line of scrimmage,
he was gonna make guys miss. Yeah. Uh, they're just
a complete different style. Uh. I can't imagine, you know,
and I love Yes, Um, what's your favorite Mike Vic moment?
(06:39):
Or let me and then I want to ask you
about inside the huddle in the game. But um, what's
your favorite Mike Vic moment? I think to me, there's two. Uh.
The first one that stands out is when Chris Chandler
got hurt. I think we were at Candlestick Park playing
Uh uh San Franciso, I think I never going this one. Yeah,
(07:01):
you probably heard it TV out. Vic comes in the huddle.
So we're all sitting there just kind of talking. We're
backed up to the end zone and we're sitting there waiting.
He takes his helmet off and pulls out a two
but chapstick and just put it on his lips, puts
it back in his head as his hold on, and
we're like, all right, this dude's not nervous, you know,
(07:22):
he just took chapstick out his fricking helmet. Did anybody
say anything? Did anybody look at him and go or
did anybody just kind of make I counted, or anybody
just say did you just take chapsick? Did it was anything? Said? Yeah,
I Keenanforny was playing next to him. We both looked
at each other like did you just just see that? You know,
so we knew who was gonna be okay with that
(07:44):
guy behind the chapstick moment? And what was the other one?
The other one was a Green Bay game when we
went up to lambeau Field and the playoff the first
and be a Lambeau h when Vic rows out to
uff and I believe it was h Bea Miller had
him right at the sideline to look like he was
(08:05):
gonna take a sack or even go out of bounds.
He fought away from that sack and made a big
play down the field, just you know, remember the coming down.
That's the magical us and I think for the Falcons
franchise in that game, Oh for sure. I think if
there's any images of that game, that's that's the one
that kind of stands out the meta. Oh yeah, the
(08:28):
overtime really had a chance and he went out to
head to walk off for the runoff. So yeah, right there, Yeah,
that's right. It was a runoff. Yeah, that was that
was crazy. He split two defenders on the run to
It was just incredible. It was. Um, that's some good stuff.
And so uh yeah, I know, I got my my
(08:48):
camera too. I sit there, I'm in a meeting sometimes
I got the UM. Let me ask you about coaches
because you know that's been a hot topic around here
this season unfortunately, you know, the Falcons after Week five
parted ways with with Dan Quinn. You, as I noted
at the top, Um, you played for a number of
(09:10):
head coaches here right. Let me ask you because you
had a couple mid season changes too, with Petrino and
Dan Reeves. Um, what's it like for a player to
go through a mid season coaching change? You know, it's um,
the situations are different. Coach Reas was a guy as
respected you know by everybody on the team. He was
(09:32):
in old school mentality, Uh, you knew what you're gonna get,
you know, but as we know, it's, uh, what have
you done later? Type of business? Uh. I think we're
all a little stocked with coach Revees being let go.
You know. Players loved and loved playing for him, Um,
you know, and it's it's tough, I think for that
(09:53):
interim guy to step in also, and what I saw
my career with those interim guys, so they kind of
pulled the reins back a little bit, loosen things up
a little bit around Aaron and try to let guys
go play. Um. The Petrino deal, Uh, I wish it
would have happened months sooner, you know. And he left.
That was just as a h worst season as a player,
(10:18):
not not play on the field, but just everything around it.
You know. He was a missable guy to Brown and
I think everybody was relieved when he quit and left us,
you know, because we were just tired of dealing with it. Yeah,
what is your h if you had to you know,
when you think back to the Petrino year, I want
to say I almost said years, But when you think
(10:38):
it back to the Petrino year, that that whole thing
with Camp and uh, in that year. What is you know,
does what stands out? Is it? Is it the you
know because I've talked to it for a couple former
players that we're on there were teammates with you. Um,
you know what stands out? You know the bizarre? Is
there anything this? Is there a bizarre story or just
(10:58):
is there something is a story that hadn't been told
about just that whole regime or at that time. That
just stands out for you, you know from from what
I hear. You know, he thought he was coming in
and gonna have Michael Vick as a starting quarterback. Well
everything happened with Mike. You know, now Mike's gone, and
then we're out looking for quarterbacks. So he's trying to
(11:20):
run system and they brought in to be a quarterbacks
coach basically and being you know, the offensive coordinator. And
now he had to go out and get Burne left
Foots and Joey Harrington and guys that didn't fit that
scheme that he wanted to run. And he was just
a middle person to be around. You know, way wouldn't
(11:41):
even look at you, you know, uh, his own players.
So he in at college dictator mentality. I try to
think like Nick Saban, you know, you think he uh
rules iron fists and that's kind of how Petrino came
into professional room and as weren't used to that, and
(12:03):
you know, it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy. Year. Do
I sense an LSU guys a little animosity or an
Alabama guy? You know what I'm getting at? You know,
I know, I know, I just I couldn't resist. You
had a heck of a career at at LSU two
(12:23):
you were what you were, two time all SEC and
all American too, right, Yeah, sir, Yeah, sir, we had
some good there when I was there, a lot of talent. Yeah. Um.
And we'll get into what you're doing now in a minute.
But I love these Falcons stories. So as a center,
we talked a little bit about playing with you know,
Matt behind him and Mike behind you. Um, as a center, Um,
(12:49):
we're just moment in the huddle outside of the chapstick moment.
Oh shoot uh that's a tough one. All right, Well
we can go back to that. Yeah, I'll try to
think about that while the time. Um, what about as
far as the guy that you just did not like
to face or a guy you just it was a
(13:10):
miserable day. Just a guy that every time he turned
around out of the huddle and you had to look
across and you're just going, Lord, I just did you
ever have a guy that you just didn't like playing against? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
And I get that that question all the time. And
I think people want to hear me say Warren's out.
But it wasn't Warren's out. It was Chris Jenkins. He
played with Carolina Panthers and went on to play York Jets. U. Yeah,
(13:34):
I was six four or six five three, three hundred
twenty pounds and yeah, and I knew every time I
played him, I had to be on my a game.
I studied every time we played them. I studied film
more than I did any other time, just trying to
get some little tips, some little key on him. And uh,
(13:54):
he was a guy I couldn't relax on him and
I hadn't playing him. Who if you were keeping score,
did you did you? Uh? If this was a boxing match,
did you did you? Did you win? I earned a
lot of respect from him. You know, I had some
of my best games against against him. You know, when
(14:14):
the other guys struggle with him, Uh, but I was mentally,
I was at a trying to play at a high
level when I played against him. Yeah, who was the
biggest talker you played against? Who? Oh my god? You
know towards the end of his career. Uh. I don't
(14:35):
know if a lot of people today go ahead, sorry, Yeah,
I was gonna say he wasn't much of a like
a trash talker. He just never quit talking, you know,
saying funny things. And uh he was a beast also.
Uh uh Sue talked a little bit, you know. Uh
just was a dirty player when we played against him.
(14:58):
Who was it again? Okay, okay, yeah, yeah, a bad
moment with him and then South Lawren South. I was
gonna say, I was hoping you'd said, yeah, man he
backed up too? Yeah did? Um I have a Warren
step story, but I can't share it here. Um. I
was an intern at Tampa when he during his rookie year.
(15:22):
But uh uh what what kind of things people? I
don't know if a lot of people today remember, you know,
old dudes like me and you remember John RANDALLD. But
you know I didn't need to call you old on
I I'm old, But a lot of people today younger
people they don't remember him. Uh, what were some of
the bizarre things that he said. Yeah, you come up
(15:46):
to the line of scrammage and he knew everybody's name.
Get on our offensive line and he'd line up over
the right guard and he say, McClure, McClure, you better
get over here, You better get over here. You know,
there's different things like that. He was making all ww
wrastling noises. Oh, yeah, that's right. He used to make
the noises. Yeah. Fun, fun guy to play against, you know.
(16:11):
Uh not you weren't blocking when you're lined up on him. Yeah,
were talented and and what kind of things with more
in zaps Idi. Yeah, he would say, like you said,
there's things you can't say. There's things on here I
probably can't say, think about your mother or anything like that. Well,
(16:33):
we were in Tampa. It was towards the end of
the season. I think he had already an elected to
Pro Bowl, and uh, we were talking about I think
I might to try to cut him one time, getting
around his knees, and he didn't like that too much.
And uh, he asked me I was gonna be doing
in January? And uh, I said, Man, I don't know
what you're talking about. They said, Well, I'm gonna be
sipping on pineapples and hose in Hawaii at the Pro Bowl,
(16:56):
or are you gonna be sitting at home? You know,
just this different stuff like that. Yeah, that's Warren Zap.
That's the word I remember. Oh that is rich Um,
that's good stuff. What about as far as teammates, is
there is there a guy that you played with that
you were just you can't see Michael Vick, but uh um,
(17:18):
is there a guy that you just when you were
in the huddle you're like, I'm glad he's on my team,
or or when you were on the sideline watching the defense, going, man,
I am glad he's wearing black and red. Yeah, I'm
gonna try not to single out guys on the offense
because I played with so many and understandable you think
(17:39):
about it, war done, just true player. Oh my gosh,
Alice made the plays when we when we needed to
Rolly White. Uh man, you go all the way down,
Matt Ryan, Michael Vick. But the first name that popped
out of my head defensively was in his heyday, John
Abraham coming off that edge piece and our tackle saying
(18:03):
I'm glad I'm not out there trying to block third down,
you know, because he was the easiest, the best practice
player to go against, because John didn't go hard at practice.
You know, he just kind of third and long is
what John Abraham lived for. Yeah, he was beast out
there that that he was. Um, were you when you
(18:26):
think about some of the great defensive tackles and the
defensive ends that you faced, did you know did something
stick out? Is there? There's just there's something different about
how they're kind of wired, do you think or no?
When you think back, Yeah, absolutely, Uh, there's something a
little different there. The fast switched muscles. Uh, their their
(18:50):
ability to react instead of I have a predetermined rush
as guys that would react off what you do to him. Yeah,
you look at like Aaron Donald right now. That's just
you know he's giving the lineman. Heck, it's he knows
the countermove, he knows what moved to come to based
off for what you was into him, right and all
(19:10):
the greats they have that you know, it's all for instinct.
What do you think you I'm sitting here looking back.
You played on twenty twelve team. I'm gonna go backwards.
I'm not ranking them, but twenty twelve, you guys were
thirteen and three, twenty eleven, ten and six, twenty ten,
thirteen and three, two thousand and eight, eleven and five,
(19:31):
two thousand and four, eleven and five, you were in
the playoffs one, two, three, four, five six times? What
was your favorite team? Man, it's tough and a lot
of time. I know I'm asking a play favorites today. Yeah,
a lot of years run together for me. But the
(19:52):
year when Bick was that quarterback, I'm guessing this was
four maybe Vic bordone, Algae Crumpler, Uh, two thousand and four,
two thousand and four, Vick, Vick, Dunn and Crumpler were
you're leading eating uh pastor Russian receivers. Pretty Bryan Finneran,
(20:13):
you know, was there and he was gonna make the
eat it on third down. Uh. That team and then
our twelve team that went to an NFT championship, you know,
Uh yeah, that was some of my best friends on
that team and guys I'm still keeping in touch with um.
That was a fun. Turner Michael Turner said that that team, too,
(20:36):
was was a team that easily could have won it all. Uh,
disappointing they didn't, but definitely had the talent too. Absolutely
team you know, the offense defense you don't always have
that locker room chemistry. But yeah you guys in Bounce yep,
yes did Yeah, great team. Um. What you know you
(20:58):
talked about just some of your memories old school Dan Reeves,
and I love that stuff. He was you know, he
every time he talked, he sounded like a like a
Texan and uh, you know, you know you always remind
me of his cowboy days. Um. And then you had
Wade Phillips, mister Fixett, and then you had the fiery
Jim Mora obviously Petrino and then Mike Smith. What's what's
(21:22):
your favorite do you any like favorite moments with any
of those coaches are just funny moments or just moments
that a lot of people don't realize or noah because
it was practice or whatever. But just what's your favorite
moment with some of those guys? Yeah, you know, I'll
go back to coach Reeves and he was old school.
You know, there was a whole lot of fun going on.
(21:43):
You know, it was about coach like Marty Schanenheimer, guys
that had that old school mentality. Yeah, you know, after practice,
I can remember running gas or until I thought I
wasn't no bad to go anymore. So when when coach
More came in and we run it all practiced faster boat,
I thought that was just great. You know, I'll go
(22:03):
out here and practice horrible, gonna have to run at
the end. Um. You know, I remember the first thing
I think about Jim Morris coming in after a loss
and just completely tearing the locker room up, you know,
throwing pictures off, alling different stuff like that. He was
a firing coach. Uh, and he was the guy that
you know, he liked to hang out in the locker
(22:24):
room with us and just just talk. You know. He
was a player's coach. He didn't take your picture down, duddy. Nah,
I don't think so. I don't know the picture. Yeah,
he was. That was the reputation with him, right. He was.
He was. He was a guy that could go from
(22:44):
two to ten pretty quick, and he was fiery and
he was intense, absolutely absolutely And then you know, uh,
when when Smith Smitty got here, not a lot of
people he wasn't. He was known an NFL circles, but
nationally not a really well known name. Now he wasn't
for being honest. You know, when I heard we were
(23:05):
hearing Mike Smith, I had to look him up, you know,
just his background, and he was a guy that came
in and had some good, really good coaches under him.
You know, he just kind of drove the ship and
I had good coordinators, good good position coaches, and you know,
he's a guy by playing for you know, he's gonna
(23:25):
reward if he did good things, you know, and he
was turning enough to to take control of some of
the situations that would come up in the NFL season. Uh.
I love Smithy. Smithy's one of my guys and still
keep in touch with him. And I just hated the
way it kind of all ended for him, you know.
But I think that last year okay, yeah, you were
(23:46):
Your last year was thirteen. His last year was fourteen. Yeah, okay, Um,
you know, after such a long career, in being a
seventh round pick and having the career you did, Um,
what was was it? Obviously it was it must have
been a tough was a tough decision. I sometimes you
(24:06):
ask the obvious question, you get a surprising answer. But
when you decided, you know, it was there. You know
you were done? What was that like? What was that
process like? Because not roun a lot of guys, Let's
face it, they played thirteen seasons in the NFL. Well, Um,
for being honest, it wasn't truly my decision. I wanted
(24:29):
to play here. You know, my contract was up, and uh,
I'm and stuff that he'd go in a different direction.
You know, I felt like I had one more good
year in me. Hey, guys going back for me? I think, uh,
Tony and Matt Ryan and uh coordinators and all those guys.
Dirk was there, Dirk Cutter, those guys wanted me back.
(24:50):
But you know, I understand, you know, you gotta make decisions,
and you know they knew I couldn't play forever, so
they made that decision. Um, but did you thought about
you could think about playing with another team? I did.
I thought about it, and uh, you know I had
a few teams called me. Uh the Falcon actually called
me back in the middle of that seat, and uh
(25:13):
never called me back after that. I almost went to
Saint Louis at that point, and you see it happened
all the time. I was a little bit pissed, so
I tried to make some phone calls to get with
the Saints, just to try to look at Brett for
if he gets like, oh, Green Bay, I'm gonna play
with Minnesota and prove them wrong. You know. But but
looking back at it now, you know, I'm I'm glad.
(25:36):
I'm happy with my career. Uh no real, no real grudges,
you know, but I wish I could have played one
more year because I thought that team that we had
coming back was gonna be uh professional, and they had
they had enough year after that. Yeah, yeah, uh yeah.
I just I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you
(25:56):
about the end and what was kind of going through
your head and if you had had chances to playoffs
where and and He's just you know, it's just curious
if you know you actually did toy with the idea. Um,
so here we are. You know, we talked about going
through those transitions and everything like that. Um, this team
(26:18):
you've been through, you've been through this. You know, where
do you think from a player's perspective? You know, you said,
you know, the interims usually come in and loosen things
up and and and that kind of thing. You know.
Raheem Moorse he came in he had a lot of
games left. He had eleven games left. Um, that you
(26:39):
don't see that a lot, So you do you pay
attention closely to the team and and and uh, you
know as far as like you know, as far as
talking to people, and where do you think this team
is from? You know, a player's mindset right now. You know,
it's been a tough year. It's been a weird year
with with the pandemic. And I try to think about that.
(27:00):
You know, you're looking when when a team starts struggling.
And then I couldn't imagine. I went to the game
when the Falcons played the Saints in New Orleans and
with six thousand people and stands. You know, you don't
get a truth when you watch a game on TV.
You don't get the true feel of the game until
you go watch one in person. I mean there's just
no energy. You know. All the crowd noises is fake. Yeah,
(27:23):
it's fake. It's it's a totally different feel. And you know,
I can't imagine why when things are going good, you
don't have that external motivation to keep you going. The
crowd's not there. Uh, it's a different situation, you know. Um,
And I think with the Falcons, you know they're they're
not missing many pieces. You know, they put up in offensively. Um,
(27:46):
I guess you start to wonder about Julio. How much
longer does he have? You know, because he's a special player. Um,
you know, and I know everybody expected that team to
be better than that they put out there. I think
you look back at I think it was a Dallas game.
If they go into the game, I think this season
(28:09):
may even be a little different right now. It's all
about momentum, you know, and they yeah, it's this team
is snake bitten is a term that's thrown out there
a lot, but yeah, a lot of a lot of
close ones and it's just yeah, it makes you wonder. Um.
So you mentioned Julio being a special player. Let me
(28:31):
ask you this because there's another special player on this
team that doesn't get talked talked a lot about and
you would appreciate this person. It's at center Alex mac Um. Right,
he's had a heck of a career and you know,
no one knows when you know when he's going to decide.
You know, enough is enough? But what do you think
(28:53):
the job that he's done? And as a fellow center
when you look at him and his body of work
and just what he's you know, every singday. What are
your thoughts on Alex Mack. Oh, he's tremendous man, love
Washington play. He's a guy after my own heart that
has a passion for the game. Like you said, you
don't hear about it much. They don't talk about him
because he's out there doing doing his job every day.
(29:17):
Towards the end of my career, he was just coming
to the league with Cleveland, and if we ever played
a common opponent, I always went and watched Alex to
see how he handled different guys or how he handles
certain situations because I felt like we had a similar
playing style. I wish I had the motor that he has.
You know. I love the way he finished the blocks
(29:37):
and you always see him around the pile. But I
have the utmost respect for Alex Mack for his body
of work and what he's done as in Atlanta Falcon.
That leads me to my question about Alex Mack with
you too, is is Alex MCA hall of Famer? I
think so. I definitely think he is. Uh, you know,
(29:59):
what he's done, level he's played at even when he
was at Cleveland, when he's been to Atlanta. You think
about some of the centers that have gone into the
Hall of Fame. I think he's definitely worthy of, you know,
being fitted for that gold jacket. Is Matt Ryan a
Hall of Famer? Yes? Is Julio Jones a Hall of Famer?
(30:22):
No doubt? Am I forgetting anybody? Um? What do you
think of it? What do you think of Grady Jared's career?
Right now? You can mentioned Aaron Donald. Wow. Yeah, Grady
Jared's a guy that I would have hated to play against. Uh,
his motor does stop. You know, I didn't mind playing
against some big guys like like Sue. I could go
(30:45):
around less. You know, they were gonna go hard four
or five plays a game. You know, maybe more than that,
maybe ten twelve plays a game. You were gonna have
to be on your a game. Guy like Grady Jared,
you better be ready to play every snap. As the comment, yeah,
I hate it against guys that we're max effort guys.
Grady Jared's a max effort guy that that is an
impact guyls did players actually too, when you're doing when
(31:10):
you're studying during the week. Do you say that to yourself?
You're like, Okay, this guy's is that? Is that one
of the things that's talked about, like is you're prepping
like this guy's a max effort get this guy doesn't stop.
Or this guy in these situations watch out he pins
his ear back when it's third down, watch out, uh
second and long watch out, but you know other otherwise,
(31:32):
you know, just just be on guard kind of thing.
Did you actually have those kind of conversations. Yeah. Absolutely.
And when we would get you know, the scouting report
at the beginning before every game, you know, we had
our advanced scouts would give us a breakdown on each guy,
you know, uh be like getting the phone booth. High
motor guy you know, uh really only goes hard on
(31:54):
third down. Yeah. Interesting. You probably remember guy Kyle Williams.
He played with the Buffalo Bills, and he was another
guy I hated playing because you cannot set up between
the whistles, you cannot set up right. He was gonna
beat you. And that's why he had such a long
career in Buffalo. That love that. Um, all right, well
(32:18):
you've been awesome. Um, there's a few more things I
just want to ask you. Um, I want to do
a little word association with you. So what's the first
word that pops into your mind when I say Matt Ryan?
Professional work done? That's that? What what is it? I said?
(32:40):
Class act? Oh yeah, that's a good one. Michael Turner,
the Burner, just big plays. I can remember big runs.
You said one word big play. That's two words. So
we'll good with that. That's all right. We can do too,
um Michael Vick Electric Uh oh yeah. Roddy William Football.
(33:13):
Just love playing Roddy. You know, he was a he
was a kid, uh playing a professional athletes game. He
loved it. He had a passion for it. Uh loved
his approach on game. Hey you better be ready. Ardy
was bringing his best. And here's kind of a one
from left field. Harry Douglas. He was an entertain We
(33:36):
loved Harry was a locker room guy, you know, kept
us all laughing. And he was the same guy. He
was a true competitor. Uh. He played that slot and
he played bigger than his body size. You know, he
wasn't afraid of anybody. Yes, real fiery. Uh did you
(33:57):
know that reminds me of uh Michael Jenkins. He was
talking about a fine system with the receivers, you know,
for drop balls, for for different for different different things,
and we won't get into the list. Um, were you
aware of these the judge and Joy in the fining system? Yeah,
we may may or may not have started in the
(34:18):
offensive line room. Yeah, we had a white board and
I know it's probably legal now and I don't know
if it's legal, man, but what boards? We had a
white board? Okay, yeah, yeah, you know, kept but we
had you know, at the end of the year, there
was some pretty big fines. Pay it out. White boards.
White boards aren't illegal, you're good? No, well, some things.
(34:45):
But the good thing we we we gave his offensive line.
We gave all of ours a charity. So, uh, that's good.
It worked out good. I can't imagine what was on there.
Um yeah, just pancake blocks, right, things, you know, things
like that. Yeah, yeah, I don't think. I don't think
I could tell you half of them. But the names
(35:06):
of things where you can tell me when we get
off the air. Here, we want to we want to
keep this show going. Um, did you have any super
You're just you're kind of making my mind water here,
But did you have any superstitions at all as a player? Um,
did you not like your certain you know, there were
(35:28):
certain guys that just they didn't like their pants washed
because they shrink. Or in quarterbacks, would you know there's
a center up in Cleveland. I won't mention his name
who didn't like to have his pants washed because he
he didn't like the way they felt, and the in
some quarterbacks Vinnie Tuto Bertie uh you know offered you
(35:49):
know money, uh to you know, get the interns to
snatch the pants to have him washed because he didn't
like the way his hands, you know, felt and smelt. Um,
did you have any kind of superstitions? Were there anybody
on the team that kind of had some You just
were like, oh, that's different. Now. I was. I wouldn't
say superstitious, Uh, but I was. I had a routine, yeah,
(36:13):
you know, especially during home games. You know, I got
there at a certain time. I taped my wrist, I
take my fingers, had my ankle tape taped at a
certain time. Uh. You know, it was all routine. And
I felt like if I ever got rushed or something
thrown out of whack, you know, I just didn't feel comfortable.
But uh, you know I was. Yeah, definitely a routine guy,
(36:36):
creature habit. Yeah, uh no, weird no weird stories though. Okay,
all right, well back, uh Baker that played with us
was a tackle and it didn't matter where we were,
what game it was, he was going to throw up
(36:58):
right before we went out. You know, just something about
the nerves when they started kicking in. Uh No, he
just was a guy. How do we get worked up
right before kickoff? We are one year in high school? Uh,
our starting quarterback, he threw up before every game and
if he didn't throw up, we got we got concerned
(37:18):
he's not gonna play well. And that's yeah, we're going
We're going out before the game starts. And I remember
one year we came out and everyone was talking like,
oh no he didn't throw up, We're in trouble. So
good stuff. Man, this has been great and I would
love to have you back. Um, and I know you
(37:41):
were hitting time here, but there's one question I gotta
ask you. Usually I ask at the top of the show,
but I'm gonna ask you now what be brutally on us?
And I know you will be because you have been
You've been awesome, But um, what do you think of
the name Bird Noises. That's the name of this podcast.
(38:01):
I like it, you like it? Good? Yeah? Is there
is there something about it that you know? It's a
it's a podcast about football mostly everything else. So it's
we said, you know, it's it's got to have a
weird different name to cut through the noise. But well,
you got it right there. I think that's a different
now um Cielo from Goody Mob. I wanted to call
(38:26):
it burg Um. I'm trying to think of some other names.
Jesse Tuggle loves the name. He loves the name. Uh
some of the coaches that came on said it needs
some juice, but uh yeah, go with it. Man like it,
go with it. Definitely getting well, you'll make Dan gadd,
our digital director, really happy. He's gonna he's gonna be
(38:47):
a big Todd McClure fan. Now, So well, hey, listen,
I really appreciate you coming on, and uh, Merry Christmas
and happy holidays to you and your family. And uh, um,
did you got all your shopping done yet? Or no, no,
not yet. I had started. My wife normally handles at all,
(39:07):
but I was just talking to one of my guys
and I couldn't get started here pretty quick. I'm normally
last minute. You know I'm about to get You're not alone,
You're not alone time. Thanks so much man. Now, thank
you for having me anytime. Man, y'all give me a
home
And today we are joined with a thirteen year that
a player that has played under one, two, three, four, five,
six seven different coaches. I'm right with the Falcons, with
the one and only Todd McClure. Todd, thanks so much
(00:23):
for covering some time out and joining Bird Noises. Oh man,
I appreciate you guys calling me. Always enjoy talking about
and all the good, good old days, good time, good
old days. Absolutely. Well, man, you've seen it all, you've played.
You know, I was sitting there going through your your
career and you know the first thing that stood out
(00:46):
was just a longevity. And you've probably got so many
different stories. You played under Dan Reeves, Wade Phillips, Jim
Moore Junior, Bobby Petrino, trying to Emmett Thomas yep. Yeah,
and then Mike Smith. Um you were you were parted
some some great teams and you know a couple of
(01:09):
that weren't great. But man, what a career now. Yeah,
I was definitely blessed, you know over my fourteen years,
my rookie character, my ACL and training camp and um,
you know it was I didn't think my journey was
gonna get started. Then I thought it was over with
already because I didn't know what the what the Falcons
were gonna do. You were you were a seventh round pick, right,
(01:31):
you were like the two hundred and thirty seventh pick overall.
I mean, I know you were picked late, right, so
you were thinking yeah, yeah. Luckily for me, you know,
I had I had good OTAs, I had good uh
workouts and everything going up to training camp. So I
showed a little bit of my ability. I didn't know
if we're just gonna wave me or put me on
(01:52):
our Luckily they put me on hour, which gave me
another chance for another camp. Yeah. Um, well, let's just
jump right into your your your Falcon's days, because I mean,
you were part of some of the greatest teams Enfranchise history. Um,
not only that you had literally a front seat. You
(02:13):
were literally I was sitting here, Todd, I was going
through I was trying to figure out how many snap
counts you had in your career, how many times you've
snapped at the ball, how many times you were If
you had to guess right now, how many of those
snaps were quarterback, under center or shotgun. If you had
to break it up just gestimation, what would it be? Oh, man,
(02:36):
I wouldn't know where to start percentage wise, because I
have I came up with a number. Actually, you came
up with a number because I know Michael Vicker were
understander Lodge, just because of our West Coast style offense.
Maybe okay, okay, well what do you think? Oh? Well,
I don't I don't have a I don't have a
(02:58):
number as far as percentage of quarterback under center versus shotgun.
I have just an actual snap count, which I came
up with about thirteen thousand, five huninety eight snaps. That's
just regular season. That's not counting postseason or all those
training camp, hot, sweaty days in training again, a lot
of snaps. Yeah, when you think about it, like a
(03:20):
lot of snaps. I was very fortunately the battle snap
of that many times. And you had some great quarterbacks
hands owner center, under your your your rear end there too.
You had Chris Chandler, Michael Vick, Brad is it Brad Johnson? Yeah, no,
Doug sorry, Michael Vick, Joey Harrington, and of course the
(03:41):
one and only Matt Ryan, that's right. Johnson also Sea
was in there. And there's a few other guys, you know,
Byron leftfoot to down nat OFFENSEI Tampa. There's a bunch
of guys when you think about it, you know, but
there's a cost that really out for me. Yeah, so
I'm gonna I'm gonna put you on the spot right
(04:02):
off the top here. Who was who was there? Who
was your favorite quarterback to play with him? You know? Uh,
people ask me that a lot, um and I can't
give you one favorite. You know. Uh love Matt Ryan,
love Michael Vic. Both of those guys were different styles. Uh.
Both of those guys had a huge part and some
(04:25):
of my best years as a Falcons. Uh, the big
years were exciting. You know, you never knew what was
gonna happen. Every time I snapped in the ball. He
was just so electric. H Matt Ryan was more student
of the game. I knew the day the first day
he stepped into the huddle. I'm like, all right, this
guy he's gonna be pretty good. What did he What
(04:46):
did he do in that huddle that first day? What?
What was it that you just said, Oh, this guy's different.
You know, it's all about confidence with young quarterbacks. Um,
and we've had guys come in you know, they're nervous.
Obviously they're they're around. You know, you step into the huddel.
You got guys like, I know not at the time, Tony,
Tony guns out done. You know, guys that have been
(05:07):
there a long time and done it, and uh, it
could be it could be a big stepping stone for
some guys. But Matt stepped in like he was the biggest,
baddest dude around. You know a lot of it. Let's go. Yeah,
I knew he was gonna be a field general from
that first day. Yeah, there's some story that where he
in his first his first huddle that he looked right
(05:29):
at Roddy White and said, you better go bleep and
go get this one. Probably probably because he wanted to
look good on the first pass attempt. Who wouldn't. Um, So,
being a center for a guy like Michael Vick versus
a guy like Matt Ryan did it? Did one of
(05:49):
them make your job any harder because maybe the unpredictability
were vic Did you have to play different or just
have a different mindset with any of these guys? Little
day from mindset like because you just you never knew
where he was gonna be in the pocket. Um, he
can be outside the last ash and from one play
outside to write the next. But you know, it made
(06:11):
a job a little harder because you had to sustain
blocks a little longer, and you might have to, you know,
move your body in different situations to just never knew
he was gonna beat. But it also made our job easier.
You know, if you got beat at the line of scrimmage,
he was gonna make guys miss. Yeah. Uh, they're just
a complete different style. Uh. I can't imagine, you know,
and I love Yes, Um, what's your favorite Mike Vic moment?
(06:39):
Or let me and then I want to ask you
about inside the huddle in the game. But um, what's
your favorite Mike Vic moment? I think to me, there's two. Uh.
The first one that stands out is when Chris Chandler
got hurt. I think we were at Candlestick Park playing
Uh uh San Franciso, I think I never going this one. Yeah,
(07:01):
you probably heard it TV out. Vic comes in the huddle.
So we're all sitting there just kind of talking. We're
backed up to the end zone and we're sitting there waiting.
He takes his helmet off and pulls out a two
but chapstick and just put it on his lips, puts
it back in his head as his hold on, and
we're like, all right, this dude's not nervous, you know,
(07:22):
he just took chapstick out his fricking helmet. Did anybody
say anything? Did anybody look at him and go or
did anybody just kind of make I counted, or anybody
just say did you just take chapsick? Did it was anything? Said? Yeah,
I Keenanforny was playing next to him. We both looked
at each other like did you just just see that? You know,
so we knew who was gonna be okay with that
(07:44):
guy behind the chapstick moment? And what was the other one?
The other one was a Green Bay game when we
went up to lambeau Field and the playoff the first
and be a Lambeau h when Vic rows out to
uff and I believe it was h Bea Miller had
him right at the sideline to look like he was
(08:05):
gonna take a sack or even go out of bounds.
He fought away from that sack and made a big
play down the field, just you know, remember the coming down.
That's the magical us and I think for the Falcons
franchise in that game, Oh for sure. I think if
there's any images of that game, that's that's the one
that kind of stands out the meta. Oh yeah, the
(08:28):
overtime really had a chance and he went out to
head to walk off for the runoff. So yeah, right there, Yeah,
that's right. It was a runoff. Yeah, that was that
was crazy. He split two defenders on the run to
It was just incredible. It was. Um, that's some good stuff.
And so uh yeah, I know, I got my my
(08:48):
camera too. I sit there, I'm in a meeting sometimes
I got the UM. Let me ask you about coaches
because you know that's been a hot topic around here
this season unfortunately, you know, the Falcons after Week five
parted ways with with Dan Quinn. You, as I noted
at the top, Um, you played for a number of
(09:10):
head coaches here right. Let me ask you because you
had a couple mid season changes too, with Petrino and
Dan Reeves. Um, what's it like for a player to
go through a mid season coaching change? You know, it's um,
the situations are different. Coach Reas was a guy as
respected you know by everybody on the team. He was
(09:32):
in old school mentality, Uh, you knew what you're gonna get,
you know, but as we know, it's, uh, what have
you done later? Type of business? Uh. I think we're
all a little stocked with coach Revees being let go.
You know. Players loved and loved playing for him, Um,
you know, and it's it's tough, I think for that
(09:53):
interim guy to step in also, and what I saw
my career with those interim guys, so they kind of
pulled the reins back a little bit, loosen things up
a little bit around Aaron and try to let guys
go play. Um. The Petrino deal, Uh, I wish it
would have happened months sooner, you know. And he left.
That was just as a h worst season as a player,
(10:18):
not not play on the field, but just everything around it.
You know. He was a missable guy to Brown and
I think everybody was relieved when he quit and left us,
you know, because we were just tired of dealing with it. Yeah,
what is your h if you had to you know,
when you think back to the Petrino year, I want
to say I almost said years, But when you think
(10:38):
it back to the Petrino year, that that whole thing
with Camp and uh, in that year. What is you know,
does what stands out? Is it? Is it the you
know because I've talked to it for a couple former
players that we're on there were teammates with you. Um,
you know what stands out? You know the bizarre? Is
there anything this? Is there a bizarre story or just
(10:58):
is there something is a story that hadn't been told
about just that whole regime or at that time. That
just stands out for you, you know from from what
I hear. You know, he thought he was coming in
and gonna have Michael Vick as a starting quarterback. Well
everything happened with Mike. You know, now Mike's gone, and
then we're out looking for quarterbacks. So he's trying to
(11:20):
run system and they brought in to be a quarterbacks
coach basically and being you know, the offensive coordinator. And
now he had to go out and get Burne left
Foots and Joey Harrington and guys that didn't fit that
scheme that he wanted to run. And he was just
a middle person to be around. You know, way wouldn't
(11:41):
even look at you, you know, uh, his own players.
So he in at college dictator mentality. I try to
think like Nick Saban, you know, you think he uh
rules iron fists and that's kind of how Petrino came
into professional room and as weren't used to that, and
(12:03):
you know, it wasn't easy. It wasn't easy. Year. Do
I sense an LSU guys a little animosity or an
Alabama guy? You know what I'm getting at? You know,
I know, I know, I just I couldn't resist. You
had a heck of a career at at LSU two
(12:23):
you were what you were, two time all SEC and
all American too, right, Yeah, sir, Yeah, sir, we had
some good there when I was there, a lot of talent. Yeah. Um.
And we'll get into what you're doing now in a minute.
But I love these Falcons stories. So as a center,
we talked a little bit about playing with you know,
Matt behind him and Mike behind you. Um, as a center, Um,
(12:49):
we're just moment in the huddle outside of the chapstick moment.
Oh shoot uh that's a tough one. All right, Well
we can go back to that. Yeah, I'll try to
think about that while the time. Um, what about as
far as the guy that you just did not like
to face or a guy you just it was a
(13:10):
miserable day. Just a guy that every time he turned
around out of the huddle and you had to look
across and you're just going, Lord, I just did you
ever have a guy that you just didn't like playing against? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
And I get that that question all the time. And
I think people want to hear me say Warren's out.
But it wasn't Warren's out. It was Chris Jenkins. He
played with Carolina Panthers and went on to play York Jets. U. Yeah,
(13:34):
I was six four or six five three, three hundred
twenty pounds and yeah, and I knew every time I
played him, I had to be on my a game.
I studied every time we played them. I studied film
more than I did any other time, just trying to
get some little tips, some little key on him. And uh,
(13:54):
he was a guy I couldn't relax on him and
I hadn't playing him. Who if you were keeping score,
did you did you? Uh? If this was a boxing match,
did you did you? Did you win? I earned a
lot of respect from him. You know, I had some
of my best games against against him. You know, when
(14:14):
the other guys struggle with him, Uh, but I was mentally,
I was at a trying to play at a high
level when I played against him. Yeah, who was the
biggest talker you played against? Who? Oh my god? You
know towards the end of his career. Uh. I don't
(14:35):
know if a lot of people today go ahead, sorry, Yeah,
I was gonna say he wasn't much of a like
a trash talker. He just never quit talking, you know,
saying funny things. And uh he was a beast also.
Uh uh Sue talked a little bit, you know. Uh
just was a dirty player when we played against him.
(14:58):
Who was it again? Okay, okay, yeah, yeah, a bad
moment with him and then South Lawren South. I was
gonna say, I was hoping you'd said, yeah, man he
backed up too? Yeah did? Um I have a Warren
step story, but I can't share it here. Um. I
was an intern at Tampa when he during his rookie year.
(15:22):
But uh uh what what kind of things people? I
don't know if a lot of people today remember, you know,
old dudes like me and you remember John RANDALLD. But
you know I didn't need to call you old on
I I'm old, But a lot of people today younger
people they don't remember him. Uh, what were some of
the bizarre things that he said. Yeah, you come up
(15:46):
to the line of scrammage and he knew everybody's name.
Get on our offensive line and he'd line up over
the right guard and he say, McClure, McClure, you better
get over here, You better get over here. You know,
there's different things like that. He was making all ww
wrastling noises. Oh, yeah, that's right. He used to make
the noises. Yeah. Fun, fun guy to play against, you know.
(16:11):
Uh not you weren't blocking when you're lined up on him. Yeah,
were talented and and what kind of things with more
in zaps Idi. Yeah, he would say, like you said,
there's things you can't say. There's things on here I
probably can't say, think about your mother or anything like that. Well,
(16:33):
we were in Tampa. It was towards the end of
the season. I think he had already an elected to
Pro Bowl, and uh, we were talking about I think
I might to try to cut him one time, getting
around his knees, and he didn't like that too much.
And uh, he asked me I was gonna be doing
in January? And uh, I said, Man, I don't know
what you're talking about. They said, Well, I'm gonna be
sipping on pineapples and hose in Hawaii at the Pro Bowl,
(16:56):
or are you gonna be sitting at home? You know,
just this different stuff like that. Yeah, that's Warren Zap.
That's the word I remember. Oh that is rich Um,
that's good stuff. What about as far as teammates, is
there is there a guy that you played with that
you were just you can't see Michael Vick, but uh um,
(17:18):
is there a guy that you just when you were
in the huddle you're like, I'm glad he's on my team,
or or when you were on the sideline watching the defense, going, man,
I am glad he's wearing black and red. Yeah, I'm
gonna try not to single out guys on the offense
because I played with so many and understandable you think
(17:39):
about it, war done, just true player. Oh my gosh,
Alice made the plays when we when we needed to
Rolly White. Uh man, you go all the way down,
Matt Ryan, Michael Vick. But the first name that popped
out of my head defensively was in his heyday, John
Abraham coming off that edge piece and our tackle saying
(18:03):
I'm glad I'm not out there trying to block third down,
you know, because he was the easiest, the best practice
player to go against, because John didn't go hard at practice.
You know, he just kind of third and long is
what John Abraham lived for. Yeah, he was beast out
there that that he was. Um, were you when you
(18:26):
think about some of the great defensive tackles and the
defensive ends that you faced, did you know did something
stick out? Is there? There's just there's something different about
how they're kind of wired, do you think or no?
When you think back, Yeah, absolutely, Uh, there's something a
little different there. The fast switched muscles. Uh, their their
(18:50):
ability to react instead of I have a predetermined rush
as guys that would react off what you do to him. Yeah,
you look at like Aaron Donald right now. That's just
you know he's giving the lineman. Heck, it's he knows
the countermove, he knows what moved to come to based
off for what you was into him, right and all
(19:10):
the greats they have that you know, it's all for instinct.
What do you think you I'm sitting here looking back.
You played on twenty twelve team. I'm gonna go backwards.
I'm not ranking them, but twenty twelve, you guys were
thirteen and three, twenty eleven, ten and six, twenty ten,
thirteen and three, two thousand and eight, eleven and five,
(19:31):
two thousand and four, eleven and five, you were in
the playoffs one, two, three, four, five six times? What
was your favorite team? Man, it's tough and a lot
of time. I know I'm asking a play favorites today. Yeah,
a lot of years run together for me. But the
(19:52):
year when Bick was that quarterback, I'm guessing this was
four maybe Vic bordone, Algae Crumpler, Uh, two thousand and four,
two thousand and four, Vick, Vick, Dunn and Crumpler were
you're leading eating uh pastor Russian receivers. Pretty Bryan Finneran,
(20:13):
you know, was there and he was gonna make the
eat it on third down. Uh. That team and then
our twelve team that went to an NFT championship, you know,
Uh yeah, that was some of my best friends on
that team and guys I'm still keeping in touch with um.
That was a fun. Turner Michael Turner said that that team, too,
(20:36):
was was a team that easily could have won it all. Uh,
disappointing they didn't, but definitely had the talent too. Absolutely
team you know, the offense defense you don't always have
that locker room chemistry. But yeah you guys in Bounce yep,
yes did Yeah, great team. Um. What you know you
(20:58):
talked about just some of your memories old school Dan Reeves,
and I love that stuff. He was you know, he
every time he talked, he sounded like a like a
Texan and uh, you know, you know you always remind
me of his cowboy days. Um. And then you had
Wade Phillips, mister Fixett, and then you had the fiery
Jim Mora obviously Petrino and then Mike Smith. What's what's
(21:22):
your favorite do you any like favorite moments with any
of those coaches are just funny moments or just moments
that a lot of people don't realize or noah because
it was practice or whatever. But just what's your favorite
moment with some of those guys? Yeah, you know, I'll
go back to coach Reeves and he was old school.
You know, there was a whole lot of fun going on.
(21:43):
You know, it was about coach like Marty Schanenheimer, guys
that had that old school mentality. Yeah, you know, after practice,
I can remember running gas or until I thought I
wasn't no bad to go anymore. So when when coach
More came in and we run it all practiced faster boat,
I thought that was just great. You know, I'll go
(22:03):
out here and practice horrible, gonna have to run at
the end. Um. You know, I remember the first thing
I think about Jim Morris coming in after a loss
and just completely tearing the locker room up, you know,
throwing pictures off, alling different stuff like that. He was
a firing coach. Uh, and he was the guy that
you know, he liked to hang out in the locker
(22:24):
room with us and just just talk. You know. He
was a player's coach. He didn't take your picture down, duddy. Nah,
I don't think so. I don't know the picture. Yeah,
he was. That was the reputation with him, right. He was.
He was. He was a guy that could go from
(22:44):
two to ten pretty quick, and he was fiery and
he was intense, absolutely absolutely And then you know, uh,
when when Smith Smitty got here, not a lot of
people he wasn't. He was known an NFL circles, but
nationally not a really well known name. Now he wasn't
for being honest. You know, when I heard we were
(23:05):
hearing Mike Smith, I had to look him up, you know,
just his background, and he was a guy that came
in and had some good, really good coaches under him.
You know, he just kind of drove the ship and
I had good coordinators, good good position coaches, and you know,
he's a guy by playing for you know, he's gonna
(23:25):
reward if he did good things, you know, and he
was turning enough to to take control of some of
the situations that would come up in the NFL season. Uh.
I love Smithy. Smithy's one of my guys and still
keep in touch with him. And I just hated the
way it kind of all ended for him, you know.
But I think that last year okay, yeah, you were
(23:46):
Your last year was thirteen. His last year was fourteen. Yeah, okay, Um,
you know, after such a long career, in being a
seventh round pick and having the career you did, Um,
what was was it? Obviously it was it must have
been a tough was a tough decision. I sometimes you
(24:06):
ask the obvious question, you get a surprising answer. But
when you decided, you know, it was there. You know
you were done? What was that like? What was that
process like? Because not roun a lot of guys, Let's
face it, they played thirteen seasons in the NFL. Well, Um,
for being honest, it wasn't truly my decision. I wanted
(24:29):
to play here. You know, my contract was up, and uh,
I'm and stuff that he'd go in a different direction.
You know, I felt like I had one more good
year in me. Hey, guys going back for me? I think, uh,
Tony and Matt Ryan and uh coordinators and all those guys.
Dirk was there, Dirk Cutter, those guys wanted me back.
(24:50):
But you know, I understand, you know, you gotta make decisions,
and you know they knew I couldn't play forever, so
they made that decision. Um, but did you thought about
you could think about playing with another team? I did.
I thought about it, and uh, you know I had
a few teams called me. Uh the Falcon actually called
me back in the middle of that seat, and uh
(25:13):
never called me back after that. I almost went to
Saint Louis at that point, and you see it happened
all the time. I was a little bit pissed, so
I tried to make some phone calls to get with
the Saints, just to try to look at Brett for
if he gets like, oh, Green Bay, I'm gonna play
with Minnesota and prove them wrong. You know. But but
looking back at it now, you know, I'm I'm glad.
(25:36):
I'm happy with my career. Uh no real, no real grudges,
you know, but I wish I could have played one
more year because I thought that team that we had
coming back was gonna be uh professional, and they had
they had enough year after that. Yeah, yeah, uh yeah.
I just I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you
(25:56):
about the end and what was kind of going through
your head and if you had had chances to playoffs
where and and He's just you know, it's just curious
if you know you actually did toy with the idea. Um,
so here we are. You know, we talked about going
through those transitions and everything like that. Um, this team
(26:18):
you've been through, you've been through this. You know, where
do you think from a player's perspective? You know, you said,
you know, the interims usually come in and loosen things
up and and and that kind of thing. You know.
Raheem Moorse he came in he had a lot of
games left. He had eleven games left. Um, that you
(26:39):
don't see that a lot, So you do you pay
attention closely to the team and and and uh, you
know as far as like you know, as far as
talking to people, and where do you think this team
is from? You know, a player's mindset right now. You know,
it's been a tough year. It's been a weird year
with with the pandemic. And I try to think about that.
(27:00):
You know, you're looking when when a team starts struggling.
And then I couldn't imagine. I went to the game
when the Falcons played the Saints in New Orleans and
with six thousand people and stands. You know, you don't
get a truth when you watch a game on TV.
You don't get the true feel of the game until
you go watch one in person. I mean there's just
no energy. You know. All the crowd noises is fake. Yeah,
(27:23):
it's fake. It's it's a totally different feel. And you know,
I can't imagine why when things are going good, you
don't have that external motivation to keep you going. The
crowd's not there. Uh, it's a different situation, you know. Um,
And I think with the Falcons, you know they're they're
not missing many pieces. You know, they put up in offensively. Um,
(27:46):
I guess you start to wonder about Julio. How much
longer does he have? You know, because he's a special player. Um,
you know, and I know everybody expected that team to
be better than that they put out there. I think
you look back at I think it was a Dallas game.
If they go into the game, I think this season
(28:09):
may even be a little different right now. It's all
about momentum, you know, and they yeah, it's this team
is snake bitten is a term that's thrown out there
a lot, but yeah, a lot of a lot of
close ones and it's just yeah, it makes you wonder. Um.
So you mentioned Julio being a special player. Let me
(28:31):
ask you this because there's another special player on this
team that doesn't get talked talked a lot about and
you would appreciate this person. It's at center Alex mac Um. Right,
he's had a heck of a career and you know,
no one knows when you know when he's going to decide.
You know, enough is enough? But what do you think
(28:53):
the job that he's done? And as a fellow center
when you look at him and his body of work
and just what he's you know, every singday. What are
your thoughts on Alex Mack. Oh, he's tremendous man, love
Washington play. He's a guy after my own heart that
has a passion for the game. Like you said, you
don't hear about it much. They don't talk about him
because he's out there doing doing his job every day.
(29:17):
Towards the end of my career, he was just coming
to the league with Cleveland, and if we ever played
a common opponent, I always went and watched Alex to
see how he handled different guys or how he handles
certain situations because I felt like we had a similar
playing style. I wish I had the motor that he has.
You know. I love the way he finished the blocks
(29:37):
and you always see him around the pile. But I
have the utmost respect for Alex Mack for his body
of work and what he's done as in Atlanta Falcon.
That leads me to my question about Alex Mack with
you too, is is Alex MCA hall of Famer? I
think so. I definitely think he is. Uh, you know,
(29:59):
what he's done, level he's played at even when he
was at Cleveland, when he's been to Atlanta. You think
about some of the centers that have gone into the
Hall of Fame. I think he's definitely worthy of, you know,
being fitted for that gold jacket. Is Matt Ryan a
Hall of Famer? Yes? Is Julio Jones a Hall of Famer?
(30:22):
No doubt? Am I forgetting anybody? Um? What do you
think of it? What do you think of Grady Jared's career?
Right now? You can mentioned Aaron Donald. Wow. Yeah, Grady
Jared's a guy that I would have hated to play against. Uh,
his motor does stop. You know, I didn't mind playing
against some big guys like like Sue. I could go
(30:45):
around less. You know, they were gonna go hard four
or five plays a game. You know, maybe more than that,
maybe ten twelve plays a game. You were gonna have
to be on your a game. Guy like Grady Jared,
you better be ready to play every snap. As the comment, yeah,
I hate it against guys that we're max effort guys.
Grady Jared's a max effort guy that that is an
impact guyls did players actually too, when you're doing when
(31:10):
you're studying during the week. Do you say that to yourself?
You're like, Okay, this guy's is that? Is that one
of the things that's talked about, like is you're prepping
like this guy's a max effort get this guy doesn't stop.
Or this guy in these situations watch out he pins
his ear back when it's third down, watch out, uh
second and long watch out, but you know other otherwise,
(31:32):
you know, just just be on guard kind of thing.
Did you actually have those kind of conversations. Yeah. Absolutely.
And when we would get you know, the scouting report
at the beginning before every game, you know, we had
our advanced scouts would give us a breakdown on each guy,
you know, uh be like getting the phone booth. High
motor guy you know, uh really only goes hard on
(31:54):
third down. Yeah. Interesting. You probably remember guy Kyle Williams.
He played with the Buffalo Bills, and he was another
guy I hated playing because you cannot set up between
the whistles, you cannot set up right. He was gonna
beat you. And that's why he had such a long
career in Buffalo. That love that. Um, all right, well
(32:18):
you've been awesome. Um, there's a few more things I
just want to ask you. Um, I want to do
a little word association with you. So what's the first
word that pops into your mind when I say Matt Ryan?
Professional work done? That's that? What what is it? I said?
(32:40):
Class act? Oh yeah, that's a good one. Michael Turner,
the Burner, just big plays. I can remember big runs.
You said one word big play. That's two words. So
we'll good with that. That's all right. We can do too,
um Michael Vick Electric Uh oh yeah. Roddy William Football.
(33:13):
Just love playing Roddy. You know, he was a he
was a kid, uh playing a professional athletes game. He
loved it. He had a passion for it. Uh loved
his approach on game. Hey you better be ready. Ardy
was bringing his best. And here's kind of a one
from left field. Harry Douglas. He was an entertain We
(33:36):
loved Harry was a locker room guy, you know, kept
us all laughing. And he was the same guy. He
was a true competitor. Uh. He played that slot and
he played bigger than his body size. You know, he
wasn't afraid of anybody. Yes, real fiery. Uh did you
(33:57):
know that reminds me of uh Michael Jenkins. He was
talking about a fine system with the receivers, you know,
for drop balls, for for different for different different things,
and we won't get into the list. Um, were you
aware of these the judge and Joy in the fining system? Yeah,
we may may or may not have started in the
(34:18):
offensive line room. Yeah, we had a white board and
I know it's probably legal now and I don't know
if it's legal, man, but what boards? We had a
white board? Okay, yeah, yeah, you know, kept but we
had you know, at the end of the year, there
was some pretty big fines. Pay it out. White boards.
White boards aren't illegal, you're good? No, well, some things.
(34:45):
But the good thing we we we gave his offensive line.
We gave all of ours a charity. So, uh, that's good.
It worked out good. I can't imagine what was on there.
Um yeah, just pancake blocks, right, things, you know, things
like that. Yeah, yeah, I don't think. I don't think
I could tell you half of them. But the names
(35:06):
of things where you can tell me when we get
off the air. Here, we want to we want to
keep this show going. Um, did you have any super
You're just you're kind of making my mind water here,
But did you have any superstitions at all as a player? Um,
did you not like your certain you know, there were
(35:28):
certain guys that just they didn't like their pants washed
because they shrink. Or in quarterbacks, would you know there's
a center up in Cleveland. I won't mention his name
who didn't like to have his pants washed because he
he didn't like the way they felt, and the in
some quarterbacks Vinnie Tuto Bertie uh you know offered you
(35:49):
know money, uh to you know, get the interns to
snatch the pants to have him washed because he didn't
like the way his hands, you know, felt and smelt. Um,
did you have any kind of superstitions? Were there anybody
on the team that kind of had some You just
were like, oh, that's different. Now. I was. I wouldn't
say superstitious, Uh, but I was. I had a routine, yeah,
(36:13):
you know, especially during home games. You know, I got
there at a certain time. I taped my wrist, I
take my fingers, had my ankle tape taped at a
certain time. Uh. You know, it was all routine. And
I felt like if I ever got rushed or something
thrown out of whack, you know, I just didn't feel comfortable.
But uh, you know I was. Yeah, definitely a routine guy,
(36:36):
creature habit. Yeah, uh no, weird no weird stories though. Okay,
all right, well back, uh Baker that played with us
was a tackle and it didn't matter where we were,
what game it was, he was going to throw up
(36:58):
right before we went out. You know, just something about
the nerves when they started kicking in. Uh No, he
just was a guy. How do we get worked up
right before kickoff? We are one year in high school? Uh,
our starting quarterback, he threw up before every game and
if he didn't throw up, we got we got concerned
(37:18):
he's not gonna play well. And that's yeah, we're going
We're going out before the game starts. And I remember
one year we came out and everyone was talking like,
oh no he didn't throw up, We're in trouble. So
good stuff. Man, this has been great and I would
love to have you back. Um, and I know you
(37:41):
were hitting time here, but there's one question I gotta
ask you. Usually I ask at the top of the show,
but I'm gonna ask you now what be brutally on us?
And I know you will be because you have been
You've been awesome, But um, what do you think of
the name Bird Noises. That's the name of this podcast.
(38:01):
I like it, you like it? Good? Yeah? Is there
is there something about it that you know? It's a
it's a podcast about football mostly everything else. So it's
we said, you know, it's it's got to have a
weird different name to cut through the noise. But well,
you got it right there. I think that's a different
now um Cielo from Goody Mob. I wanted to call
(38:26):
it burg Um. I'm trying to think of some other names.
Jesse Tuggle loves the name. He loves the name. Uh
some of the coaches that came on said it needs
some juice, but uh yeah, go with it. Man like it,
go with it. Definitely getting well, you'll make Dan gadd,
our digital director, really happy. He's gonna he's gonna be
(38:47):
a big Todd McClure fan. Now, So well, hey, listen,
I really appreciate you coming on, and uh, Merry Christmas
and happy holidays to you and your family. And uh, um,
did you got all your shopping done yet? Or no, no,
not yet. I had started. My wife normally handles at all,
(39:07):
but I was just talking to one of my guys
and I couldn't get started here pretty quick. I'm normally
last minute. You know I'm about to get You're not alone,
You're not alone time. Thanks so much man. Now, thank
you for having me anytime. Man, y'all give me a
home
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