Perspectives - David Garrard

In this episode of Perspectives, Brian Sexton sits down with former Jacksonville quarterback, David Garrard.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
David Garrard lives his life like he played the game. Big, bright, enthusiastic,
and willing to drop his shoulder into a linebacker or
pick up the microphone and talk to the canvas. In
the introductory conference call on the day he was drafted,
the youthful quarterback accidentally challenged the starter, despite the fact
that Mark Brunelle was a three time pro bowler. That's

(00:23):
the way it is with David. What do you want
to know, what you need him to do? Put him
in coach, He's ready to play. This is Perspectives, the
story of the Jaguars first twenty five seasons as told
by the people who built the franchise from the ground up.
This is David Garrard. Gerrard arrived as a fourth round pick,

(00:43):
but love the situation he was in the air, apparent
to Brunell, with time to learn the offense and figure
out the pro game. He was challenged by the hard
charging Tom Coughlin, but he knew it would make him better.
Everything changed in the flink of an eye. Less than
a year later, Coughlin was gone and Byron Luckwich was
the future. What happened, you know? It was? It was

(01:06):
really interesting because I had just played Byron in the
g m A C Bowl that ended up being sixty
sixty one. We were up thirty to eight at halftime
and they came back and one in like three overtimes
or something like that, and I thought, Okay, well, at
least I'm done with all that. I don't have to
worry about that anymore. And then the Jacks draft him
the next year, so now I gotta deal with him

(01:28):
like longer, and potentially, you know, I don't know who's
gonna how it's gonna all the shake out because we're
all here. Am I gonna be odd man out? And
you know these guys are just gonna battle for one
and two? Um, I think, And hopefully I felt like
I showed them enough to, like, you know, maybe keep
me around and and see how that works. But the
dynamics of the quarterback room was really interesting because you know,

(01:52):
Mark continue to carry himself and do everything like the
starter and you know, making Byron go, you know, get
coffee and grab my pads and that kind of stuff.
It was a little different with me because he made
me do like thirty times more stuff for him, I think,
being a first rounder and you know, the franchise kind

(02:16):
of starting to evolve into this being your team, and
Mark still wanted to get a little bit out of
him that way. But you know, um, the dynamic was
still pretty good. You know, Buyron didn't come in and
and you know, try to push Mark out of the
room or make him feel like, you know, this is
gonna be my team here pretty soon. You he came

(02:37):
in and he learned as much as he could. He
probably felt like he knew a little bit more than
you know, um, a rookie comes in with. But you know,
he was a pretty bright guy. You know, he understood
the game. Uh, you know, there's still some things you
gotta learn when you get to the NFL, and and
and Mark knew all those things. And I was still
trying to learn some of those things from Mark. But um,

(03:01):
when I never felt like, man, this is awkward. I
never felt like, you know, these guys are gonna clash
at any moment. You know, Mark's a pretty upstanding guy.
And then Byron being just young, you know himself, he
knew that he couldn't come in and just start roughling feathers. Now,
once that year was over with, of course, everything changed,
and uh, but I was just happy I was still here.

(03:23):
Though he only had one year with Coughlin, David knew
instantly how different Jack del Rio was going to be.
I loved Coughlin. I thought, this is a hard nosed guys,
gonna let you know exactly how he feels. He's not
gonna beat around the bush. He's not going to um,
you know, keep things to himself. And then all of
a sudden, you don't know why you're not getting playing

(03:44):
time or you're not here anymore. You know exactly what's
on his mind. And uh, I remember, um, it's just
probably halfway through the season and they had brought in
Kent Graham uh to to to be the backup. He
was a little bit more of a veteran presence that
The story that I got was, if Mark goes down
for a long period of time, then we're gonna get

(04:06):
you out there and start grooming you to be the quarterback.
If he's out for like a game or two, then
we'll let Kent step in and just feel that time,
because you know, you need more time on task than then, um,
you know for a rookie. So I thought, that's cool.
You know, everything's flying by me anyway. So but uh,
Tom stops me to halt one day and he says, hey, Dave, uh,

(04:29):
you know, if you want to get more film study
and you can, uh you can sleep in my office there.
I can get a caught and roll it in for you.
You can sleep right there and watch film all night long.
And at that moment, I thought, man, if this is
the NFL, I'm not sure if this is what I
want to do. If I want to be sleeping in
my head coach's office all night watching the film. I said,

(04:49):
you know, a coach, I think about that. I appreciate that.
And I never got back to him on that one.
And then uh, another one was just just how I
never had a coach that would just ride players the team,
like would be on you for everything, not just on

(05:10):
the field stuff, not just you know, film study stuff.
I'm talking about, Are your socks pulled up like this
should be? Are your laces laced walking down the hallway
like they should be? It was everything, and um, at
times my rookie year, I thought, man, as I was
going over the Heart Bridge coming into work, thinking I

(05:32):
don't know if I can do this. This is this
is tough, you know, because I know that I'm not
necessarily having um the same kind of joy when I
was in Pop Warner in high school because I never
had a coach that But now looking back, I could
see what he was instilling in people and and put

(05:53):
it in guys, because you know, if you give guys
an inch, you know, the saying, they'll take a mile,
you know, And he was not want to give that inch.
Definitely wasn't given a mile. So but then when um,
uh coach del Real got here, I thought, Wow, this
is like a breath of fresh air, you know, because
he's a he's a former player, guy that I a

(06:15):
player that I used to watch when I was a kid,
and uh, he just came in with, Hey, let's have fun,
let's do our jobs, let's get it done. We're gonna
have fun at the same time, you know. And that's
kind of a little bit more of my personality. So
for me, I thought, well, this is this is beautiful. Okay,
you know, Byron might be the starter right now, but

(06:37):
I can come in and still compete and work hard
under this guy because I feel like he gets what
I am more about as a as a player and
what I'm looking for, And um, you know, kind of
making me feel a little bit more comfortable around here
and in the facilities. Dave watched and waited and waited,

(06:57):
and still saw opportunity intact and Bill so much so
that he signed a contract extension instead of hitting free agency.
Gard saw something in Jacksonville he couldn't pass up. My
agent was was talking to me before the Jacks were
trying to renew me up for I guess it was
a four year deal and uh, he's like, this is

(07:19):
good money for backup, but I feel like you could
go somewhere else and compete, you know, just go into
free agency that kind of stuff. And I thought, man,
I'm having the best opportunity to play here because you know,
Byron hasn't been healthy for a season and I'm playing
all the time. So I said, no, I like it here.
My wife likes it here. Um still Florida. So let's

(07:42):
let's just let's just stick it out here. Let's you know,
sign this deal. And so I did, and I continue
to play. I continue to get opportunities to thousand and six. Um,
I finished the last I want to say, five games,
five or so games there, and uh, we were, you
know right there competing and then we you know, had

(08:03):
a three game slide there at the end. And at
that point, I thought, oh man, you know, going into
the next offseason, I hope that they keep me around
because you know, we didn't finish strong. I didn't play
my best, and um, I just thought, just come back.
Just put your head down, compete, work, get in the

(08:24):
film room, don't relax, you know, do everything. Don't get
to the point where you're you know, uncomfortable because of
last year. Let's move forward. And uh and I did,
and I started to even exude more uh confidence as
you know, um one of the leaders on the team.
I knew other guys were not that happy about Byron

(08:47):
and some of the things that he was doing. So
I said, you know what, don't worry about all that.
You just handle what you can handle them. So that
I just wanted to be more of a leader at
that point and not trying to take you know, his job,
you know, from like underneath them where you know, I'm
trying to be slying the background and I got my
own group of guys over here I'm trying to lead.
I mean, just just come off as a leader and

(09:08):
do your job. And so going into two thousand and
seven season, I thought, okay, have an opportunity to play
in the preseason. Byron is the starter. He's playing against
the ones. I'm playing against the two, so I'm playing
against a bunch of backups. I should be able to
dominate these guys. And when I would get out there,
it would feel like everything was so slow because I

(09:32):
was playing a bunch of backups, And I thought, if
I could just put the ball where it should be,
hopefully my guys catch it and make plays. And that's
how it was turning out. And then we got to
that Green Bay game and I remember during practice that
week we were going over certain looks, certain things, and
the look was exactly like uh coach Cutter had drew

(09:52):
it up. And I thought, man, all I gotta do
is just make the throw here. And we got like
a thirty yard game and I was I made a
few of them, and I thought, Okay, I'm having a
pretty good game here. I feel good going into this season.
And uh so then we got back and that was
the third game. We know, you know, we didn't know
who was gonna play much in the fourth game, so

(10:14):
I just thought, you know, I've done what I needed
to do to at least still be on the team.
And uh, I remember when they were making those those
last cuts, you know, even after the fourth game. The
funny story is is I was in the players lounge sleeping.
I was just trying to catch up on some rests.
Been a long last couple of days, and um, like

(10:36):
somebody came in there and woke me up and said, Dave,
where you been? Man? Everybody's looking for you. I'm like,
am I late? You know I shouldn't be late. Hopefully
guys didn't let me just sleeping here through the meeting
or the start of the meeting. He says, No, they
named you the starting quarterback. They cut Byron. I'm like,
make it out here. Of course, it's this cut day.
Everybody joke around, ha ha ha. So I'm kind of rubbing,

(11:00):
you know, the um the sleep out of my eye,
and I'm walking into the main locker room and you know,
everybody's kind of like a buzz going in there, like
the world. So I sit down in my locker just
I think we had about twenty minutes or so for
the meet and start, and um, more guys come up
to me, Dave. Man, they're looking for you. They got

(11:20):
the media that coach wants to talk to you. What
do you want to talk to me about? He not
be cutting me out, I'm telling you. He's like, They're like, no, no,
you're they cut Byron. Look at this locker, this stuff
is gone. I'm like, are y'all serious? I mean, now
my heart is just racing. I'm like, y'all see, you
better stop messing with me. So I walked down to

(11:40):
um to del Rio's office and he sits me down
in there and he's like, Dabe, yeah, you probably here
by now, but we're letting Byron go and we're gonna
name you the starter. You've done everything possible and and
you know, we're very happy with this decision, but now
it's time for you to go out and lead this team.
I'm just like, what, alright, let's go. That's exactly what

(12:03):
I said in my mind, let's go. So turn around,
he said, I'm gonna I'm gonna cancel our team meeting.
You get home, go tell Mary everything that's going on.
I'm sure she's got a bunch of questions for you too.
And uh, And that's what I did, And it was
the absolute truth, and it was a miracle year. The

(12:24):
first game is kind of a big game because it's
my first one as a starter for the team, and
it was Tennessee Titans and we lost, and but it
was like a one lost some minutes. So we were
competing right there, and I played decent. You know, in
those moments, you gotta kind of check yourself. Okay, I

(12:44):
played pretty decent. That's not how I normally think about
things when we lose. But I was like, Okay, wasn't
my fault that we lost, So hopefully I can still
have this job, you know, the next week. And then
we win, and then we win and things are looking
really good, and I think, okay, you know what, I
am feeling really good about things every week. I feel

(13:07):
like we've got a chance. And I remember, we get
up to play the Colts, and I believe it's Thursday night.
I believe, And uh, I'm thinking, okay, they rarely blitz.
I got an opportunity here. If I can get the
ball out of my hands fast enough, because the White
Freney is coming. If I can get the ball out

(13:29):
of my hands fast enough, we can make some plays
because their defense plays pretty soft and we were just
diving them up, Peyton's coming down. He's diving us up,
of course, and it's a really good game. And then
I get hit scrambling to the sideline. Guy grabs my
ankle to tackle me, and he does, but then he

(13:50):
keeps rolling with my ankle and I felt things crunching
in there ended up being a high ankle sprain, and
I thought, gosh, man, and this can't be happening because
I don't want to lose this momentum. Plus, we probably
could have won this game. And uh, so I was
out for two games, and um my backup Quinn Gray.

(14:14):
I'm like, dude, you can do this. You got this.
You know strong arm, you can get out to this.
So he won the he won one of the next
two games, and uh and so then I was able
to come back against the um the Chargers, which they
were San Diego Charges at that time, and I just
right back into a group, you know, and I'm thinking, okay,

(14:36):
you know, I'm I'm not rusty, I'm not missing much.
I had a good game there, and I started thinking
by that point, I started thinking there's some destiny on
this team right now, because for whatever reason, Gerald Sensiball
he turns to me and and I can't remember the
actual game that we had just played, but we're in

(14:57):
our team meeting and he turns around, looks, I got man.
He says, hey, man, it just it doesn't matter how
we win. You're just always gonna get us a win,
aren't you Like, it doesn't matter how you do it,
We're just always gonna get a win. I said, it's
what it feels like, It's what it seems like. Yea,
I'm gonna keep doing what I can. And he turns

(15:18):
around and we just go through the rest of the
team meeting. But that's how it was all year. And
then when you get to the first Pittsburgh game, I mean,
I'm thinking, okay, I have no clue about Pittsburgh and
the rivalry that they have here. I just know that
there was a big rivalry and Pittsburgh is pretty dog

(15:39):
on good. So I'm thinking, where where it's gonna be
a snowy game, it's gonna be cold, and we're kind
of built for this. You know, our running game is
pretty special. Fred Taylor is pretty special. So I thought,
if I could just not screw things up, we got
a good chance here, and we're getting that game up
there and we're doing really well, and I'm thinking, okay,

(16:06):
it's not like it was just those other games that
we were doing okay, and we're actually pretty good. And
of course, just like in the playoff game, a mistake here,
a mistake here brings them back closer to coming back
and winning the ball game. But then just a few
plays down the line and we finished it strong. We

(16:28):
finished it with a touchdown. And I remember in that game,
I had to do this special fun play that we
put in where I would roll out and Dennis North
cut would run down the sideline and do a couple moves.
So I needed like ten minutes for him to do
all these moves, and so I had to like buy

(16:48):
so much time, got all kinds of time, and he's
gonna turn and fired the ball looking for Dennis North
but then I just launched the ball and it floated.
It seemed like forever, and it came down right into
his hands. Knock that far reaching and John touchdown fifty
five yards and the track wards are piling it on
and I thought, man, this is a lot of fun.

(17:11):
And we went on to win that game, and then
we went to the playoffs. In that first game, back
up there in Pittsburgh, and I thought, can we do
this again? You know, everybody keeps saying it's hard to
beat one team twice, especially within three weeks, and da
da da da, And I'm thinking, you're doing right. It
probably is pretty hard to do that, you know, to

(17:31):
be the team like that, because they're super motivated. I mean,
even though you're super motivated, they're really motivated. And it's
in their place again and it's the playoffs, so we
get there. I'm just soaking it all in. I'm not
I'm almost you know in my kawhi Leonard Mote. I'm
just I'm not too high, I'm not too low. I
try not to get too excited. That's how I've kind

(17:53):
of always played ball. And so I'm up there and
I'm thinking, we have a great opportunity. We've got a
lot of scale players. Uh Mojo starts us off strong,
bring the ball back down the field, and I'm thinking, man,
we're gonna do something again here. And then bang bang
bang more more touchdowns. And of course, like I said,

(18:15):
in the second half, they started to come back. A
few mistakes, but on our end, on my end, and
I remember that last interception I had. I thought, Okay,
I'm screwing things up here. I've got to somehow bring
us back here on this drive because if if I don't,
we might not get the ball back. And I remember
a third and forever and and I knew Ernest Wolford

(18:39):
had a special route that he had to run. And
I just had to get the ball up just enough
to hit him in the hands with it. And we did,
and it kept the drive going. And I I thought
to myself, we can just get in field goal range.
We don't have to even get that close because Scobie
can boot it. And we got, you know, to that

(19:00):
almost last possession there, and it's third and two and
they call it time out. Coach cutters on the sideline
and he's like, Dave, let's try this pass play. It's
a real quick pass. Just see if we can get
the first down. And um, if you like Marcedes in
a flat, get it to him. If you don't, you know,
just airmail it. And I thought, Coach, is only two yards,

(19:22):
you know, just call a quarterback drawer or something. I
can get us two yards. I don't have to put
the ball in the air, you know, And uh, he said, no, no,
let's just try it because we we you might have
something pop, you might have the corner route pop. And
I was like, God, now you want me throw a
corner route? So we're in that moment and I didn't
like it. I think it was Paula Malo or somebody

(19:44):
grabbed Marcedes a little bit and I thought that's just
too close for comfort. So I just airmailed it. And uh,
I thought, Okay, now he's gotta give me the ball.
He's gotta give me this chance. I know I can
get it, and uh they call the quarterback draw there
and I tried to sell it as much as possible.
And James Harrison, he's so crafty, so strong, he snuck

(20:06):
right inside the cliff Barnes and thank the Lord, Clif
blocked him so well that it looked like a hold.
He blocked him so well that I wasn't able to
sneak through there and get the two yards. And when
I got through, I was like, oh wow, there's nobody here.
Oh here's the safety. Okay, let me just protect the
ball and just get hit and go down. Got the
first down and then he misses me, so I'm thinking,

(20:28):
now there's really nobody else here and there's the end zone.
Let's go score. And so I'm running for the end
zone and then I said, oh, you know what, I'm
not that fast. He's actually already caught me. So so
he caught me. A few yards later, I go down
and I'm like, we're in field goal range. Can we
just bring Scoobie out now? And they're like no, let's
just you know, eat the clock a little bit. Let's

(20:49):
try to line the ball up. And I'm like, man,
you guys are taking so many chances. Just bring Scoobie
out here so we can just kick this thing through
the field goal, through the uprights. And uh so we do.
We we light it up. I'm telling everybody a huddle.
Whoever he gets the ball, I'm like protected, two hands, protected,
like it's your baby. We need this. Let's get school
be out here on the field and we do. The

(21:11):
defense comes out in place excellent to shut them down.
And uh I just thought, man, I cannot believe we
just won a playoff game with me as the starting quarterback.
I just thought that is super cool. And uh So, then,
but that's not the end. Now we gotta go play
those boys up north, the Patriots and I'm thinking, Okay,

(21:34):
I mean, we've done it all year. We can do
it again. We can do this if a few things,
if we can make some plays on defense, if I
can not lose the game like I was doing in
the second half of the Pittsburgh game, and um, everybody

(21:54):
doesn't let the moment get too big, and we come out.
We come out fire, We come out making place. We
we had certain design plays that we hadn't not having
our offense that we designed just for those guys, and
they were working. I mean, I had this incredible lucky
play where I'm getting thrown to the ground and I

(22:15):
just heaved the ball to Matt Jones in the back
of the end zone and I'm not gonna lie. My
knee was probably down. They didn't call it, and he
catches it for a touchdown, and I'm like, there is
something going on here. We We're gonna go all the
way if we win this one. And uh. It was
back and forth the whole game, which I thought was

(22:38):
really cool because Tom Brady was on fire that game.
But man, we were still doing things offensively. We had
a few players get away from us right before the
half there that kind of put us back and in
the second half it was just too much to recover from.
We were still back and forth with him, but they
were just up enough to where we could not get

(23:00):
over the top. And um, I just thought, Man, this
is an opportunity that we're gonna get again next year,
and we're gonna come out and take advantage of it. Man,
good change some things that two thousand seventeen wasn't super,
but it was special. They were talented in some spots,
merely tough in others, but it all came together for

(23:22):
their playoff run and that doesn't happen more often than
it does. Yeah, you know, it was like you said,
it was just so dynamic. Those guys from uh you
know a little bugs that never say anything to just
wasp that were just killers, you know, that just would
just ready to take a hit from from um big

(23:44):
John Henderson getting slapped before each game and you know,
all this kind of stuff and Baby just ready to
take someone's head off every game, and their personalities in
the locker rooms. You know, it was. It was a
lot going on and the way that we were still

(24:05):
able to win through it all, and um, the one
thing we didn't have a whole lot of drama. You know,
we didn't have the he said, he said, or you know,
we didn't have those things. You might have had a
lot of big personalities, but they were all pulling in
the same direction. And who knows how and why things

(24:28):
you know, turned out the way they did. Like moving
forward from that, some guys weren't here anymore. Some guys
were injured. I remember going into the first game against
Tennessee again the next season, first game, and uh, Vince
Minaway gets hurt right at the beginning of the game,
not even in the game, before the game ever started,

(24:51):
and that really through our offensive line and myself, you know,
it really got to us. And then we we made
and plays in that game that you know was just
terrible and that just kind of have the tones set
almost for the season. We didn't know that, but that's

(25:11):
how the season just continued to go. And then I
remember a couple other injuries in that in that year.
Now you started to get the drama. I believe Mike
p was having problems with um some of the coaches
and and uh, you know, guys were talking in the
locker room and some guys aren't happy and Dale Rio's
taken away ping pong tables and you know pool tables,

(25:35):
you know. So it was a lot more drama going
on in that season than um than we had previous.
Something else happened in two thousand seven. Gerrard worked for
the Giant Wars, but he also worked for his family.
In the spring of two thousand and eight, after a
lifetime of challengers and adversity and illnesses and doubters, David

(25:56):
earned the kind of life changing check that every player pack,
every person dreams of. Everything led up to that moment
in in Pittsburgh, honestly, you know, because we were there
in the playoffs, and like I said, I had had
a few plays there that sucked and brought the Steelers
back into the game, and I thought, Man, our opportunity

(26:18):
to win here is, you know, dwindling. We still got
a chance. And as long as there's a chance, I'm
going to continue to fight and I'm gonna, uh, you know,
if I can get the ball in my hands, I'm
gonna do something to try to help us to win here.
And then to make that play that run you know,
kind of almost sealed the deal for a new uh contract,

(26:41):
and I thought, man, I have somehow done this now.
I know that I was working my butt off and everything,
and I'm telling you that destiny that was there was
really just you know, helping me continue to fight through
a lot of different circumstances that you know, some guys

(27:02):
would have not been able to make it through. And
I know my wife, she got me after the game
and she's like, baby, you did it. You did it.
You know, you know this contract that you were able
to go to the next game, like, it can't me
any better. We just had our son earlier in the season.
I mean, everything was just happening positively for us in

(27:25):
that moment. And then to get in the uh Patriots
game and to not have a setback where um, you know,
I play terrible or I'm I'm just out there. I'm
actually keeping us in the game. I'm helping us, you
know with big plays. You know, I'm leading the team.
I'm giving us a chance to win to really, you know,

(27:48):
kind of fortify my opportunity to get this new contract
to help us move on in the playoffs. And I
thought at that point, it's gotta be a done deal.
And I remember my agent throughout the offseason was negotiating
with um Paul vance, and you know, he was just like,

(28:09):
we're getting closer, but there's just some language that we
gotta work on, and there's this and and that. I'm like, well,
let me listen in on some of the the contract talks.
And he's like, you don't want to do that. You
don't want to do that. I'm like, why not? You know?
They love me this they gotta He's like, it's different
when you're negotiating. They're going to tell you everything that's
wrong with your guy, and I gotta tell them everything
that's right with your guy. And so I got to

(28:31):
listen in on a few little and they were like,
um my agent was like, hey, we're trying to get
him up there where Tony Romo is, and you know
he deserves it. Da da da da. You know, he was,
you know, top three with the QBR and all that
kind of stuff this year. And they're like, Tony Romo,

(28:52):
you think he's as good as Tony Romo? Man, get
out of here are you saying? And I'm like, oh, wow,
you know you want me to be your quarter back? Right?
This is what I'm thinking in my mind. And he's like, Dave,
don't take offense to any of that. That is just
what they have to do two and you know, so
I said, okay, you handle it from here on. I
don't want to listen anymore. And uh. But we eventually

(29:13):
worked it out and got it done, and I was
just happy to still being able to play here in Jacksonville.
It you know, it was my team. Um, it's where
I was drafted. It's the team that believed in me.
And I love the fans here. I loved everything about it.
I love that it was a a small market and

(29:36):
a small team some something that we could make relevant
because two thousand and seven we were on Sports Center
just as much as everybody else, because after halfway through
the season, they were like, we got a team down
here in Jacksonville that's starting to make some noise. And
I love that. Um, the the small guy, small town

(29:57):
making it big kind of story. It's just how I
was brought it up. And we thought the same thing
at East Carolina. You know, it's hard being a pirate.
Nobody's gonna respect you. You're gonna have to go out
there and earn your respect. And so, UM, I thought,
now my family life, everybody I can I don't have
to worry about that anymore. I don't have to worry
about contracts and all that kind of stuff. Now I

(30:19):
can just move forward and be the leader of this team,
be the quarterback that they need me to be. And um,
you know, I was happy about that. Most fans and
most media forget twenty The Jaguars started losing in two
thousand and eight, and for the most part, it continued
until two thousand and sixteen, with the exception of a

(30:41):
three and four start turned on a dime in Dallas,
actually four of them thrown by David against the Cowboys,
and before you knew it, they were often running. In
November before the Jaguars could catch their breath, they dripped
off five wins in six games and sat on the
very edge of a division title. In late December, they
had a chance to get back on the big stage,
but stumbled on the stairs. Well, we were eight in

(31:03):
five and we are heading to Indianapolis, and I'm thinking,
in my mind, we have an opportunity to go out
here win it in their place, and that would help us.
That was gonna win the division for us, beating them
at their place. And we had a great game plan.
We were doing everything necessary. We were making plays. You know,

(31:25):
I wasn't blowing anything or always think about what I'm doing,
of course, but uh, I remember we got to a
crucial third down. I think it was like third and
ten or eleven or something like that, and I had
a pass to one of my receivers. We had a
play drawn up for him. It was like a corner

(31:45):
post move. And I got to my step, I got
to my drop, got to my point. I let the
ball go and I thought, man, this is money. And
somehow that ball sailed right over his fingertip where he
got a fingertip on it, and the guy picked the
ball off, and I thought, how was that ball too tall? Well,

(32:07):
you go back and look at the film. That's the
steps weren't all correct for him. I was a little
fast on my end and in the timing just didn't
work out. But that was how close we were from
when in the conference. Basically you know we were. It
was the division was right there for us, and we

(32:30):
could not pull it off. And and that year did
not have the same destiny kind of feel that we
had earlier. You know, we we we won some games
that we probably shouldn't have won, but we also lost
a bunch of games that we shouldn't have lost, and
uh and and I did get hurt throughout that that
season a couple of times, and um, I just remember thinking, man,

(32:52):
this is this sucks because um it was it was
right there for us, and then we just never rebounded
from that. I got hurt playing the Giants and they
fell out my wrist on a non throwing hand and
it just swoll up like a balloon. I had jammed

(33:14):
my finger on my throwing hand. In that Colts game. DWIGHTE.
Freney wanted to come in and try to knock the
ball out of my hand, and my fingers collided with
his hand and actually attendant popped off, and so my
hand was jacked up. And the way that we finished
that year was against the Washington Redskins at home, or

(33:34):
the way I I finished it was our Washington Redskins
in our last home game started snowing, which was really weird.
But I could not function as a quarterback, could not
barely could throw the ball like I wanted to, and um,
I threw a pick and then I was pulled out
of the game because I could not function anymore. But

(33:54):
that was the last throw that I had was a pick, which, um,
if you go back and look at it, my first
pass was the picks though the nice good career, they're
sandwiched in between two picks. The near miss in two
thousand ten would be his swan song. In a twist
of irony, the Jaguars drafted a quarterback in two thousand eleven,

(34:15):
and Guard was cut in September a suddenly and shockingly
has left which had been four years earlier. Yeah, you know,
they drafted laying. I just thought, you know what, it's
gonna take him a few years to you know, get
me out of this spot. I'm gonna, you know, keep
fighting just like I always have, you know. And Uh,
I was feeling pretty good going into training camp. Um,

(34:35):
but I could never get my my rhythm like I
wanted to. I could never I could. I wasn't making
all of the same plays that I was normally making
in in practice, and something just felt off. And um,
you know, right before I think it was after the
first game. I'm not sure when I got hurt with

(34:56):
my back, but my back and and that was you know,
not trying to blame it on that, but that was
something that was causing me some pain. Over the last
um over two thousand tennesse season and into that training camp.
You know, my my disc was bulging in my back.
That was causing me pain down my legs, and um,

(35:17):
I just remember it doesn't matter. I can still run around,
I can still throw. That shouldn't stop me. My. You
know I should be you know, able to make my plays.
And um, I missed I think three games that that
preseason played in the last one ran around fine, showing
that I was healthy enough and that I you know,
going too the year as a starter. What happened was,

(35:39):
um that you know that week that the the few
days after you finished that last fourth preseason game, you
get a couple of days off. Well, we had had
a couple of days off that UM weekend. But then
that Monday, we did like a little quick practice, nothing serious,
I think, just helmets, um, but I could not control
the ball. I probably had four intercepts and in that

(36:01):
hour and a half practice, and I thought, man, something's
not right. But I thought, you know what, put that
behind me. The season starts. You know this week Wednesday,
we'll be back out here and you know I can
just move forward that way. Well, the luncheon was Tuesday,
and um, in my mind, now that's what basically did

(36:23):
me in that that last practice. Jack must have went
to bed that night and just thought, there's no way
I can go out there with this guy. If he
can't complete simple throws on the practice field, There's no
way I can go. And we've got this young kid here.
You know, I did this a few years ago where
I got the veteran out of here or you know,
the starter and put the other guy in that was

(36:44):
kind of unknown, and uh, maybe I can do this again,
Maybe I can find lightning in a bottle again. And um,
of course that didn't work out the way that he
thought it, and for me, it just started a a
slew of injuries, you know, over the next few years.
And yeah, I had you know, I had warned my

(37:05):
my body out, you know, I was up until that
high ankle sprain that I had playing the Colts. That
was the first time I had missed any games since
I played started playing as a Pop Warner kid. I
had never been hurt enough to where I missed any
games in high school and college didn't matter. I didn't

(37:27):
miss I was very durable and the way that I played,
you wouldn't think that. You would think, Okay, he's got
to have had some games missed because the kid runs
around like he's a fullback. And um, so I just
believe I just wore my body down over time, and
you know, it's it's just part of life. I got
a call from the Jack's or a text from Jack's

(37:47):
um secretary. It was like, hey, coach wants to meet
with you in his office, and I'm thinking, okay, he
wants to go over some stuff for the week and uh,
you know, make sure that we can get some of
those plays that we had yesterday behind this. Maybe he
wants to show me on film, like you know, hey,
we can't have this kind of stuff. So I'm walking
down there in my suit and everything because i'm you know,
still dressed up from the luncheon and him and um

(38:12):
Gene are in there, and I can tell the mood
in the room is just like real somber. I'm like,
what in the world is going on here? He's like, Dave,
you know, um, unfortunately, we're gonna you know, move on
from you and let you go. And and I was like,
what is he talking about? This can't be real. I
was like, but we just had the luncheon. You know.

(38:33):
He's like, you know, just for reasons, you know, we
we just didn't do it before. It's not the best
way to do it. I understand that. Not like the
best way to do it. It's clearly not the best
way to do It's the absolutely worst way to do it,
you know. But I said, that's fine, you know, coach,
don't worry. You know, there won't be any problems or
anything if I see you in the streets or anything.

(38:55):
And I said that, you know, there's not I don't
I don't have any ill will uh towards you anything. Um.
It was definitely a tough time because it was definitely
out of the blue, you know. Um. And I remember
seeing Dirk in the hallway afterwards and he was, you know,
you know, he was teary eyed. I was teary eyed,
and he's like, I'm not sure what's going on her day.

(39:18):
But uh, you know, You've always got my support and
I'm always you know, there with you. So true to
his nature, David always happy and optimistic, knows he lived
his dream. You know, just unbelievable because I was a
guy that got drafted from East Carolina, small school, and
I just thought, Okay, I'm not your prototypical quarterback. You know,

(39:41):
I'm I'm a little on the short side and I'm
on the bigger side. You know, I'm built more like
a linebacker or a fullback. But I can throw. And um,
I just thought, if I could just get five or
six years in the NFL, man, that would be I
would be happy. H I'm already you know, reaching my

(40:02):
dreams by playing in the NFL, But if I could
just last for five or six years, that would be huge.
And um, you know, as years go on, I'm thinking, man,
I can do this for a long time. And to
have the opportunities that I did, even when Mark was
here and when Byron was the starting quarterback, I was

(40:23):
able to still show my worth and still show that
I can make plays on this in this at this level.
And when you know, I got my opportunities to be
a starter for an extended period of times, I was
able to show that I can make a lot of
plays and I can do a lot of things, and
the fans were always there there supporting me along the way. Um.

(40:49):
It was it was huge. You know. It's something that
always sticks with me and always will stick with me,
you know, especially with being able to google things. Now
my kids are always googling stuff and they still can't
believe that that was me running around out there. You know, Daddy,
they can't barely walk up the stairs holding you anymore,
but yeah, that was me running around. Um, it's it's

(41:10):
pretty special.