October 15, 2025 • 50 mins
In this new NFL Players: Second Acts pod episode, Browns Hall of Famer Joe Thomas joins Peanut Tillman and Roman Harper for a conversation packed with grit, humor, and insight from one of the most durable players in NFL history. Thomas breaks down what it was like to block for 23 different quarterbacks, play 10,000+ consecutive snaps, and allow only 30 sacks across his legendary career.
He reflects on his joy for playing in Cleveland despite losing seasons, his intense gameday routine, and the toughest defenders he ever faced. Joe also shares what life after football looks like — from his health and mindset after retirement to his newest passion as a beef farmer.
Whether you’re a Browns fan or just love great football stories, this episode is a masterclass in consistency, leadership, and resilience.
The NFL Players: Second Acts podcast is a production of the NFL in partnership with iHeart Media.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do you remember your first nap against the Steelers? Yeah?
(00:03):
And how that play? I think I pancaked him. Now,
I don't remember exactly, so this might not be completely true,
but I'm pretty sure I pancaked him, and you know,
gave him one of those like standing over the top
things that you get a flag for. Now like that,
Welcome to the NFL. How about you? Welcome to the NFL.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well, don't tell James I said that is scary as hell. Dude?
Have you seen him on Instagram? If I saw him
on the street, I'd still call him mister Harrison.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
What's up?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Everybody on peanuts to him? And this is the NFL
Player's Second Act podcast and with me as always as
my trustee co host Roman. I am on one.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Harm No, You're You're definitely on one. I'm clearly we're
gonna have a good one right here, because I guess
has good energy. Peanut has good energy.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You got the energy.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I have good energy to a nap.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I had to rest my mind for a couple of minutes,
but I just shut it off, get it back going.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Who we got? Hey?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
First ballot, Hall of Fame, ten Pro Bowls, like ten
straight Pro Bowls six First Team All Prolls, Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome to the Pop missus Jill Thomps.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you very much, thank
you very much.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Welcome to the Pop.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
We appreciate you coming on. I like the hat.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
What hat is that?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Thank you? Well, I'm glad. Yes, this is the hat
that we're not now selling for my farm, my Hall
of Fame beef hat. And it actually fits my giant melon.
So for those of you guys out there that got
the big head, this is the hat for you.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I like that. I like that.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Was it the olive green?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I like the green?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I like I like the green. My farm is in
southwest Wisconsin, outside of Bosco Bell. It's about an hour
west of Madison.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
He even said that like a way Wisconson.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Like, well, you know, I've been in Wisconsin and then
high Oh my whole life. So you catch a little
I just never left.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
No, what do you sell at your farm?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So we're selling all beef products, right, we were raised
beef cattle, so obviously steaks and things like that, but
also beef jerky, beef stick, summer sausage, all the good stuff.
Oh yeah, you.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Literally after this, you're gonna have to give me the
card I found.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I got one of my bag. Don't worry, I'm always selling, right.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I literally just bought like almost three four hundred pounds
of beef from a butcher and I think they were
in Montana somewhere. They ship it to me, but.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Ship right to your door. I might deliver it right,
depending on how this interview goes. Okay, Yeah, we're raising
the best stops not too far from Milwaukee. Perfect, that'll
be easy. I'll come deliver it myself with bells on.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, because we did a ragnar run. We did it.
You guys convince in Chicago to Madison.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
You're in from Chicago to Madison one year, one day,
twenty four hours, four hours, and so.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, significant others convinced us. Somehow I got drug into this.
This is not what I do, is all right, So
we're doing it this year again.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
That doesn't last time. Yeah, I did go to That
was my only experience of Madison. Those it was really
really cool. The water it was really nice. The weather
was actually decent too, so.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Hopefully it was summertime. It was.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah, but it still got cold, still got cold.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, it's a nice cool. It's cool. It's not cold
in the summer, right, It's where you want to be.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I'm from Alabama, so I felt cold cold to be
all right. I want to ask you first thing, what
were the emotions that you were going through when you
saw country music star Morgan Wallen rocking the Joe Thomas
seventy two Jersey back in Wisconsin.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Wisconsin, Whompton but similar. It was interesting because me and
my family were big Morgan long fans. Yes, obviously one
of the biggest, if not Jersey. I didn't know any
of it, and I found out through a text message
that it was happening. I was at the concert. We
had our four childre my youngest is six. Reese. We
(04:02):
love you very much, although in that moment we didn't
love you so much. So there was a little raindel
a had to be any of the show, so it
kind of got pushed back. And then when they started,
we made it till like ten forty five or so,
and it was a Sunday, so like kids had stuff
going on on Monday, and my daughter would not stop
crying she was so tired. My six year old, Oh,
and finally, after like thirty minutes of it, my wife's like,
(04:23):
we just got to leave, Like she's not gonna make it.
Like we've already seen a lot of the show. It's great.
So I throw over my shoulder. I'm carrying her to
the car. We just get right outside of Camp Randall Stadium.
We hear the concerts still going on, and all of
a sudden, my phone is just blowing up like crazy,
and yeah, I got an Apple Watch on, so I'm like
kind of peeking to see who's hitting me up? Why
am I getting so many messages at eleven o'clock on
(04:44):
Sunday night? Yeah, And like the picture pops up and
I go, you've got to be kidding me. I go,
Annie Morgan Wong. He's singing right now, he's wearing my jersey,
and we're walking out of the stadium, and I was like,
should we tell the kids because they're going to hate
their sister forever. But it was a really cool moment
in hindsight, because I think that picture of him wearing
(05:05):
my jersey, which was completely a surprise. My wife like
got a little commemorative ticket printed out and put it
up in the office, and I'm like that's forever gonna
bond me and make me think of my daughter. Maybe
in the moment there was the next emotions, but like
it's just cool we had that memory and it's going
to stick out, probably even more if you're just sitting
there enjoying the concert the way it was.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Well, you got a great story out of it, exactly.
And you know the Cleveland Browns as an organization, you
know they when you were went into the Hall of Fame,
they they put up a whole list of numbers to
kind of support you in your career, right, and the
number twenty three of the number of quarterbacks that you
blocked four doing your eleven year career. How many out
(05:47):
of these twenty three do you think you can name.
I've seen you on another show you did good ESPN.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
I did a show once, ye, but that was like
six years ago.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Let's test the marine at the.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Beginning and then the end is okay, But in the middle,
like some of those middle years, and.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I went through the LIS, I was like that I
didn't even know he played there.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
You didn't even know he was in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Probably it's kind of similar to me in Chicago with
all the quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
We then you have twenty three but hi, Joe, Yeah,
pressures on.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So we started with Charlie Fry, Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn,
Seneca Wallace, Yeah, Jake Delome, Josh McCown, Colet McCoy, Austin Davis,
Robert Griffin the third.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I didn't know that he'd played for you guys.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Ye. Yeah. Terrelle Pryor took a couple snaps at quarterback
in emergency situations. Charlie Whitehurst touchdown, Jesus, Jesus, clipboard Jesus.
Also yes, clipboard Jesus touchdown Jesus and South different guy,
same level of fame. I all forgot about. I was
waiting for my mind. I'm like, did I play with Johnny? Yes?
(06:53):
I did. I have a lot of scars still from
those man Zel days. Ryan Hoyer Yeah, actually called decent
season there, seven and nine. Bruce greg Kowski, Brandon Whedon,
he was Dad Lewis, Josh Johnson one of my favorite
crazy how long he played in the He's still playing.
You're seventeen way outlived, Ken Dorsey, Cody Kessler, yep USC
(07:17):
third round pick. I think uh.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Armani Edwards was on the list. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
It's may have been concussed in that game. I don't
remember it happened.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
And the other one is, uh, Deshaun Kaiser.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Deshaun Kaiser, yes, sah, he was our starter My last
season is ish Yeah, so not bad. You know, I
haven't gone through that list in a while, and there's
a lot of names on there, not as many Hall
of famers, not as many, not as many guys.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
You know, do you know your very first guy?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, it was Charlie Frye because I had him for
exactly one half of football. He was our starting quarterback.
He was our captain, local guy. They benched him at
halftime of Week one and they traded him the next
day to Seattle, and I've never seen him since. That's awesome,
as youre welcome to the NFL moment any By the way,
I guys, your captain, he's not gonna be here anymore.
(08:10):
We just got rid of it.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And your last was just shn Kaiser, So you already
hit that one on that, Hi. It's a good job
bad ten three hundred and sixty three. That's the number
of consecutive snaps you played, which is insane. That's I
don't even know how you how you even get ten thousand,
three hundred and sixty three snaps? What is your body
(08:32):
feel like? Having played ten thousand, three hundred and sixty
three consecutive.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Snaps considering that was ten and a half seasons, yep,
never missed a play. I feel okay by that standard. Yeah,
I just had my hip replaced like three ish months ago.
But I'm feeling great okay with swimming and yoga and
play a little basketball.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
So you already got the hip done.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Got the hip done, it was felt way better. It
was really really bad and it was really affecting my back,
which I didn't realize they were so linked together. But
I was having really really bad back problems and the
hip was hurting. But since I did the hip, the
back is feeling great, so I just have to monitor it.
I don't know what it's like for you guys, but
there's certain parts of my body, like the outside of
my left knee, just because of the position that I
(09:14):
was in all the time, that's way worse than other parts.
Like like I said, I can play basketball like it's
not like competitive, but I can run back and forth
and it feels great because that motion is fine, But like,
if I get into that position that I played in
for ten thousand plus snaps, that's the time when I'm
starting to feel it. Look, man, do you remember your
(09:36):
first You remember your first snap against the Steelers? Yeah,
and have that play. I think I pancaked him. No,
I don't remember exactly, so this might not be completely true,
but I'm pretty sure I pancaked him, and you know,
gave him one of those like standing over the top
things that you get a flag for. Now you like that?
Welcome to the NFL. How about you? Welcome to the NFL.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Well, don't tell James I said that.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Feel scary as hell?
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Dud. Have you seen him on Instagram? If I saw
him on the street, I'd still call him mister Harrison.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Dude is always in the gym.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
He is always in debo and congrats, because you know,
I judge people in their basketball post football careers as
like do you play half quarter or do you play
full court?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
We do full court.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
So the fact that you're like, no, I do full court,
like I much respect do you? Anytime you can get
a little sand bag layup like that's right, never matter.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I don't jump for rebounds, Like, I don't do any
of that. I just shoot the outside shots, you know,
like jogged back shoot half ass defense. Yeah, just get
a sat.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Do you play basketball? I feel like you can't hoop.
Don't be disrespectful. Yes, I feel like you can't hoop.
I ain't never seen.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Bottle locker room fights started over you can't play basketball.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Don't be disrespectful. I've never seen you hoop either. I
can't dunk.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, I can't dunk. When the last time you've dunked?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Probably within probably like the last three or four months.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
No, I mean, dude, I'm a finger roll guy at
this point. I'm straight finger roll ice man. Yeah, I
got another number for you, zero point zero zero four.
That's is your sacks allowed percentage. I don't know if
you knew that, did you?
Speaker 1 (11:17):
I didn't know that, but if I was going to guess,
I was probably going down that either sacks or holds,
so neither.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
So you were really good at avoiding both. So out
of your six hundred six thousand, six hundred and eighty
pass block snaps, I mean dude, they did a really
good job of writing down your resume, you only allowed
thirty sacks responsible for. I don't know if they were
all even your fault actually asked, Yeah, yeah, do you
even remember the first sack that you probably gave up.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
It's weird. Sacks are weird because like it's kind of
your fault. It's kind of that guy qua. Yeah, Yeah,
quarterback was maybe a little deep. It was definitely in
that game against the Steelers or James Harrison, because they
had six sacks in the first half, so I'm sure
that of them was by my fault.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Was there ever a team that you played or a
defense that you went against, or a decordinator and he
just confused the shout of you with the defense and
what they would do. Is there is there a game
or a team that just kind of gave you problems?
Like every time you play, we're just like we got
to be on rp's and q's because this quarterback or
excuse me, this uh decoordinator, he knows how to mess
(12:24):
with us.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah, Rex Ryan Baltimore because they had all those Hall
of famers on defense, and so he could get away
with calling anything, like he didn't have to worry about
covering guys up or covering areas of the field because
he knew if he was sending the house like they
were getting home Minterrell, Suggs, Jared Johnson, Ray Lewis, Helodi
not on the middle of Trevor Price. Like every one
(12:45):
of those dudes was Pro Bowlers and Hall of Famers,
And so I remember a very specific play that really
screwed us, and it was not very nice of Rex
because it was on accident. But they had ten guys
in the field, and as you guys know, like on
the offense and we're looking to block something in pass protection,
we're counting, right, where's our receivers. Who's covering those dudes?
Where's the safeties? If they're over the top right now,
(13:07):
I know that guy's a threat. We got to count
them in our count. Well, they had two cornerbacks over
two receivers. The safety was pushed this way, so nobody
else was over there. So Hank Freyley was our center,
a great offensive line coach now in the NFL, and
Hank was looking out there and so he took the
protection the other way. Well, they only had ten on
the field, but we didn't count how many guys they had.
(13:28):
We were just looking the structure of the defense, their
safety right before the snap came off the sideline because
I'm sure the decordinator or whoever on the sideline was there,
really got ten. So he comes on the field after
like we've already pointed to going the other way, we're
about to snap the ball, and then now they blitzed
the nickel corner over there, so was the.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Count we're going the other way?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
He was on account for you can't blitz there's nobody
topping to you, right, So it was that where I
was like, I know that was on accident, but that
was not very nice. Pretty no idea and no chance
to be able to pick up that blitz.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
No way, all right? So who's like a defen edge?
Who was somebody that I know? You didn't give up
a lot? So I won't use the word struggle, but
like maybe you knew, all right, this is going to
be a day.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah. Well, my entire career was James Harrison and Terrell
Suggs in the AFC North, so I was playing those
guys twice a year. Justin Smith was in Cincinnati my
first and he was so yeah, he wasn't yet big
enough to play on the inside like he did for
the forty nine ers and so just in the AFC North,
it was a struggle every single week. But then the
(14:32):
Marcus ware Dwight for any of those or two other
guys that always.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Just separates these great pass rushers or guys that are like, okay,
because is it because they have multiple moves, is they
still have to speak the power string which one guy?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, you always got to have one thing that you
do really really well. But I think the things that
make a defensive end really really tough to block is
a guy that can beat you to the inside, he
can beat you outside and then he can run you over. Yeah,
because if you can only you two of the three,
I can kind of set on the other ones. And
then if you're trying to, like if you don't have power,
I can set soft, and then if you try to
bull rush me, I can just kind of catch myself
(15:08):
after that absorb it. But if I'm worried about man
Duight Freeney, like he's got this killer spin move and
I'm sitting on that and then he runs up the field, okay,
I can transition. But then if he if I'm sitting
on the inside and he turns into a bull rush,
he's too strong and too fast and into your body
too quickly that you can't recover exactly because he's like, yeah,
(15:34):
so that guy was a beast, but yeah, if you
can beat a guy inside outside and then you can
run them over, Like those are the dudes.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
I'm gonna make sure I write that down.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Ye yeah, tell your friends. But there's not many guys
that are like that that can do all three things
really well.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And so the league is coming out with a new
offensive Lineman awards called a Protector War.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah you get excited.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
I feel like every time we ask a guess this,
especially a line, and they go, yeah, it's about why
do you thinks about time that we start showing our
love soar and some love to the offensive lineman.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Well, because when these guys are up for the Hall
of Fame, we don't have to talk about point zero
zero four sacks per play and oh he played a
lot of snaps and like he had a lot of
quarterbacks and don't you feel bad for him? Like you
can be like, hey, he wont protect her of the
Year four times.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It's a great like wow.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
You know, like as an on lineman, most of our
stats are things that we do that are bad and
it's like, how many times did he avoid the bad thing? Okay,
that makes you pretty good. But it's cool as an
offensive lineman to get get flowers every now and then
and something as an award, or get some recognition for
doing something good, even though it's you know, a season
(16:41):
long award, and certainly in every season there's gonna be
a lot of guys that are deserving. But I think
it's great to shine the light on the big fellows
every now and then.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
So if the league were to come to you today,
right now and say, Joe, do you get to design
the award? How would you design it?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Hmm, that's a great question. Maybe it's an old lineman
like arms around his brothers in the locker room having
a beer after the game. I don't think they would
allow that. But I think the ones that I always
love are like when you see the offensive line pictures
and he's got like a snarl on his face and
snop bubbles coming out of his nose and he's pointing
out there. You know, I think those are kind of cool.
So something like that where a guy's in his stance
(17:16):
kind of.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Like cool something. What would you name it?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
The protector of the year.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Okay, that's just enough. Okay, hey we're taking a POLLI okay,
we're taking a polly.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I guess I hadn't thought about the name because I
thought it already was decided.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
So tell me this. We we like to ask guys
what's their welcome to the NFL moment? You already did that,
so I want you to tell me what was your
welcome to Cleveland moments? Playing in Cleveland, it's a little different.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
It is it is. I'll give you two real quick. One.
When I showed up, they were excited. The fans were pumped.
And usually if you're an offensive lineman drafted in the
top five, the fans are like, oh hey, so we
should have the quarterback or should have drafted the receiver,
Like how about somebody? That's exciting, you know. But as
soon as I got there, you could feel that Cleveland
(18:09):
Browns fans understood the game. They respected line play. There
was that blue collar nature to the fan base that
really appreciates good line play. So that was really cool.
That was definitely a welcome to Cleveland, just understanding what
this fan base is all about. And then the other
welcome to Cleveland moment was my rookie year. We're playing
the Buffalo Bills Jim Leonard, he's playing safety for him,
(18:32):
and we call it the Snowball. Though it was not
a remarkable game by NFL history standards, but it snowed
seven inches between warm ups being finished and middle of
the second half. So it went from like, not exactly
a day like today, but it might rate it might
snow a little bit too. Wow, it's snowing so hard
(18:53):
that I can't see across the field and I can't
see the dudes in the other color jersey. And the
film was so bad because it was snowing so hard.
We didn't even watch the film because there was so
much snow between the lens and the field. It just
looked like you were watching like a white screen, like
you didn't have the right.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah, okay, how was it so you were here in
that Lebron James era?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
How was it like living here going to the games?
Just the Lebron James effect or whatever? Like, how was
sports in Cleveland during that time?
Speaker 1 (19:23):
It was awesome. I mean, Cleveland loves its sports. It's
a pro sports town. You know, people talk about New
York being a pro sports town, which it is. But
Cleveland has that same level of passion where they're following
their baseball team, they're following their basketball, they're following their
football team, and that's their identity. That's what they do.
Like I'm a Cleveland fan. I love the Guardians, I
(19:43):
love the Browns, I love the Cavaliers. And that's the passion.
That's what people talk about on the street. If you're
going to go get your shoe shine at the airport,
that's what the shoeshine guy is going to be talking
to your They live and breathe pro sports. And when
Lebron was there, obviously he's the biggest athlete in the
world probably at that time, and we were the center
(20:05):
of the athletic world because the stuff he was doing
was remarkable and the fans were coming from all over
the country to watch him play. It was awesome. It
was really really cool. You have a chance to meet him,
I did, Yeah, I got him a few times. He
was a super nice guy and he grew up in Akron,
but he was a Cowboys fan, but he still had
love for the Browns, which is really cool. So like
(20:27):
even though he would come to like we played the
Cowboys in my second season, and he had all Cowboys
stuff on, you know, but he still had a lot
of love for the local team and the other players.
And I felt, even though he was such a superstar,
he showed a lot of respect, which he didn't have
to because he's better than all of us, had everything
he does, but he showed a lot of respect for
common athletes and like what you go through and the
(20:48):
perseverance and the stresses, and I always thought that was
really neat.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Yeah, game day, we all have OCD. We all have
our routines and what we want to do. I have
my rituals and my OCD on game day. By you
were eleventh year, it was taking you four hours or
four hours to get ready for pregame. What the hell
is a pregame ritual for you?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
A lot of it was in the training room with
the trainers, like trying to find enough duct tape and
band aids to put me together. I mean I was
wearing like two back braces, but before you could even
put the back braces on, you got to put the
back plaster on. Before you can put the back plaster on,
you gotta get the massage and the their gun and
got to get in the hot tub. So it was
just a matter of getting the body warmed up and
(21:35):
then putting the protective pieces of equipment in place, like
in that order that makes sense. And then you know,
still got knee braces and knee leaves. And I was
a guy that was super anal about everything, and so
I would take my wrists, take my gloves and my wrists,
put my thumb guards on there, take.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
The risk first. What's that would you do? Like a
risk first?
Speaker 1 (21:54):
That left first, so my right was free right in
case I needed to do anything. But like with my shoes,
I would spray that QDA, the quick drying adhesive on
the bottom of my feet, and then I put my
socks on. I'd spray my calves so my socks wouldn't
slide down. I'd spray the bottom of my socks so
they wouldn't slide in my shoes. Like, I was anal
to the max, so I had a lot of things
(22:15):
that I was trying to put together. And I was
a guy that saw a lot of time in the
training room before the game started.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I know you sprayed the socks.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
If you would have tried it, you would have been
a believer. I don't even know who taught me that.
I feel bad not given the proper sources the sighting,
but it made such a difference because the worst thing,
especially playing in like a hot game, is when your
socks get wet and your shoes get wet and then
your feet start sliding, even just a little bit, it
just throws you off. And I hated that.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
So at what point, when you're going through this process,
you're like, all right, they I think this is a lot.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Did you ever even think like, you know what, man,
like I'm doing too much.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I don't know what to take away? What do I
not do? Like my shoes and I slide and get
yeah right, And you know I was okay. I didn't
have anything else going on on Sunday, Nay.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
What did you enjoy more? Run blocking or pass blocking?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Run blocking is a lot more fun, but since we
were losing a lot, I got a lot more comfortable
pass blocking all the time. I mean that's why I
had almost what almost seventy percent of my plays were passes.
And so when you do something over and over and
over and over again, like you get pretty good at it,
you get pretty comfortable. And being that as linemen, we
get paid the pass block like I enjoyed run blocking more,
(23:30):
of course, but I realized that I was going to
get paid for my pass blocking.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
What is your opinion on like jump sets, like jump
setting as an offensive tackle, Like they don't.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Explain what a jump set is.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Jump sets like they kind of fire out like it's
a run, and you kind of it's just throwing off
the timing, so you're not always feel like the old
lineman always on the defense, they're always just kicking back,
and I just feel like you get a full speed
start all the time if you're at defensive end or
edge player, and sometimes it's just I feel like it
just throws the timing off of a defensive lineman if
(24:00):
you kind of jump set them every now and then.
What was your opinion on that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Absolutely, I mean I wanted the biggest tool belt in
the game. I wanted to be able to do everything
right because if you're going against a guy who's got
a really good inside move, like I'm going against Miles here,
let's say like I'm probably not going to jump them
all that much because it's like two cars coming at
each other on a back road highway, Like you're not
going fifty five now you're going one hundred and ten. Yeah,
(24:25):
so it's harder to react when somebody is making an
inside move if you are jump setting him. But like
you go against a guy who's a rhythm pass rusher,
he's used to taking his three or four steps, putting
his foot in the ground point of contact, and then
he's making his move. If you jump set him, you
disrupt that timing. A lot of times it's almost like
they give up and they have to restart their engine
and then never have time to get to the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Yeah, okay, okay, so that's when you wanted. So when
you have rhythm pass rushers, yeah, a lot of times
that's when you'd use the jump set.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
And then sometimes it's specific to the scheme. You know,
if you're a play action team and you're doing a
lot of play action, you're going to get more of
that if you're running more quick game, and you probably
see a lot more in college because they're doing a
lot more like just quick throws on po's stuff like
that where hey, they want you guys to get the
hands down of the defensive line, so you need to
get on them quickly because it might be just a
quick slant and if you're setting off now the defensive
(25:14):
line sees the quarterback stop his drop, gets his hands
in the air, knocks the ball on toughest.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
D lineman to block versus the run d end or
D Lineman, just d Lineman, D lineman.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Ted Washington thankfully, Kevin Why had the same thing. He's like, dude,
nobody's four hundred ten pounds, Like, I don't know how
you move that guy. And most of it was blow
his chest, yes, blow the waist, blow the chest, and
so God would kind of hang down between his knees.
You weren't getting under that. Guys that I actually blocked.
(25:52):
Holod Nada would be the next guy think about, because
when you saw him on the goal line, it was
like you better run the other way or this is
not working, no matter if we got a double team
or not. He is three sixty. He gets off the
ball lightning quick, and he can put his head down
and he's way stronger than any human being in the
stadium right now.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Ted Washington was my welcome to the NFL moment. Really,
I'd love to hear that he was.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
It was awful.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
In Chicago.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Absolutely hated Ted Washington. We I get I get I
get hayes, I get dumped in the shower, I get
taped up.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
They throw me in a coltel. Whatever. That's my haze.
I take it.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Whatever's cool.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
The next day, I go in our locker room and
I had to go on our trainer equipment manager for something.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
And I try to leave and I.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Was like, sorry, guys, I didn't mean to come into
you know, the vet locker room. Sorry, I'll process. I'm
gonna go to a long way. So Olin steps in
front of one of the doors and I was like, oh,
my fault, I'm gonna go the other way. So I
try to go a long way now now. So then
Big Ted walks up and he was like, hey, you're
gonna get in his laundry bend and I'm gonna push
(27:01):
you around and you're gonna make noises like you're driving
a car. And I was like, so, my my manhood
kicked and I was just like, man, hell no, my
pride kicked in. And then all the other vests as.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Like, hey, look, look, look, look look at you the
little rook.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
So I'm just like, no, man, y'all got me yesterday, respectfully, sir,
Like I'm good, Like I'm not doing that. Y'all got
me yesterday with respect trying to be respectful. He's like,
you're gonna get your chest and launch and I'm gonna
push you around. Thomas, I kid you not. I had
to think about my life. It was like I was
cause I was finna crash. I was like, hey, I'm
a man first, but I had to swallow my pride.
(27:38):
I was like, I'm the new guy. I shouldn't have
come in here. So I literally get in this laundry
band and he pushes me around the locker room and
I have to make these sounds and he is like
ramming it in the walls. He's ramming it in the
lockers and everyone is laughing. It was so embarrassing. So
then he squats down and he picks up the laundry
(28:00):
with me in it with some clothes too, picks me
up and then he just throws it me the close
the bind We fly across the room. I rolled over
and I was like, appreciate it, big Ted, thanks, and
I go out and I went all the other rookies
and they're like, where was you at?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Fool?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I was like, man, big Ted trip it. And then I,
you know, I explained it to him, and then like
literally like the next day or a week later, he
got traded to the New England Patriots, and I was like,
thank god, I was so happy. But he went on
and he got a Super Bowl ring, so it kind
of worked out for.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I had a real brief welcome to the NFL moment
with Ted, and it was right after I got drafted.
I was there taking a tour of the building and
you know, like after you get there, you got a
scout taking around or whatever, just showing you locker room,
equipment room, whatever. And Ted's standing there at the door
to the locker room and I was like, oh, I'm
trying to be nicely. Hey, nice to meet you. I'm Joe.
And he looked at me like this. He was like,
(28:54):
don't touch me, rookie, and I just kept walking. I was.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Sorry, I'm surprised you even talk to you.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
We had on our team.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
He'd be like, Hey, tell the rookie Joe that he
needs to go get some whatever. And then the ve black, Hey,
rook Ted said you need to go do it, and
you'd be like right there. But Ted would not talk
to you for a whole year. He just would not
talk to you, and he was just like, like, I
(29:23):
was so happy when.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
They get this is like old school too, like he
was he was an old school Yeah, yeah, an old
school Vets And when we came in, it was probably
more guys that were like, you know, ten eleven twelve
year guys that have been in the NFL versus now
you don't have as many ten twelve year guys just
in locker rooms that were around or raised by ten
(29:45):
twelve fourteen year guys. So that part of it is
just completely different, and it's pretty entertaining. I mean, that
was a good story. Peenis was it was Ted Washing.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I ain't seen a minute, but again, Ted, you got
me Ted, it was I respect it.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I respect I read another article and you talked about
how important it is for offensive alignment to have ankle mobility.
Cause you explain why that's so important for the offensive
lignment position.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
So a lot of people think knees hips that's where
you need to bend, but really, as alignment, to be
able to create force through the ground, you got to
have your heel in the ground. Yeah, like you're squatting, right,
you don't squat on your toes otherwise. Now, or when
you're running, Like, if your ankles are tight and they're
flexed right, they don't absorb that energy and you're able
to spring off of them. So if your heels are
(30:34):
in the ground and you're able to bend your ankles,
the further you can get your knee over your toe
is the more power you're able to create. And that's
the most important thing as an offensive alignment. Be able
to create that power, that starting strength that you got
to have, and then as you're past protecting, being able
to stick your heels in the ground, take a stand
(30:54):
when you're being bull rushed, and then having that mobility
in your ankles to be lower than the that's trying
to beat you.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Okay, So let's own a transition this conversation into the
second act. Hands how we got the name info Player
second X podcast. So have this amazing career, Hall of
Fame career comes to an end, you have the transition
you do something else outside of football.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
How did you.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Get into the farming space?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Like?
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Where did that?
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Where did that come from?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Not exactly sure. I grew up in Brookfield, Wisconsin, which
is a suburb of Milwaukee. I drove past farms, but
it was never a farmer. And I had grandparents great
grandparents that were on the farm, but like no direct
relative that was a farmer. But I was always a
country boy. I grew up getting dirty and going fishing
and hunting and camping with my family. That's just kind
(31:44):
of what we did. So I always dreamed of owning
a piece of land that I could take the family
and friends too someday and make memories. Go camp, go fish,
go hunt, do those things. So in twenty twelve I
bought a farm and then we were raising cash crop.
But that's not crazy because I wasn't the one riding
the tractor. I'd hired that out.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
When you bought this farm or the land, Oh how
big is the land?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
How much land do you have?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
That's a personal question. Okay, big enough to get lost, Okay,
big enough to get lost.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
But is everything already done or you just you have
to Like you bought the farm from another person. Is
everything kind of set up for you already? Or do
you have this like star from scratch.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
It's it's set up, But there's always a ton of
stuff you want to do, Like you move into somebody's house,
like you're thinking about I'd like to change this reatt
that they rip out the shrubs here and do things
like that. So I always liked working on the farm
and like getting dirty. And I've been buying all the
equipment to skidloaders and the excavators and the tractors and
stuff because I always wanted to be able to do
that myself. Yeah, but when I bought it, I was
(32:43):
in the middle of a plane in the NFL still,
so I didn't have that time.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
To do it.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
So we hired a lot of that out. So it
wasn't until twenty eighteen that I ended up getting into
cattle and on the advice of my children and my
wife who said, Daddy, wouldn't it be fun if we
have pet cows at the farm. And I was like,
oh my god, how am I going to have time
for this. I don't know anything about raising cattle. But
then I was like, Okay, I love to eat beef.
(33:07):
I can't eat my other pets. So these are a
great option for getting the kids more pets because I'm
going to make them happy. We're going to get some
cows out in the farm, and then at the end
of the day, we're gonna have some delicious beef that
we know how it was raised, we know what it ate,
and I know that this is probably the healthiest, most
nutritious beef that I could possibly feed family and friends.
So I was all on board and kind of took
(33:28):
off from there.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
And you brought up something you talked about fishing, And
I want to know this because I've never got to
sit down and talk to you, but you had one
of the coolest draft, Like you were one of the
first guys that like like you were fishing when you
got the call. Like I remember this very vividly, like
watching your draft process and you're like fishing, like knowing
that you were going to be Why did you decide
(33:53):
that that's what you were going to do, knowing that
you're probably going to get called very early?
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Well, because my dad and I would go fishing every
Saturday morning as a kid growing up. We'd go out
in Lake Michigan and go salm and fishing, wake up
at like three am, and get out in the water
by five. And that was our tradition. That's what we did,
that's what I love to do. And this was back
when the draft was just two days and start Saturday morning,
and so my agent told me like, hey, you know,
(34:19):
the NFL wants you to come to the draft in
New York, and I respectfully told them, but I'm going
to be fishing with my dad, so it's going to
be hard to be in two places at one time.
And I really never wavered from that because the draft
was starting to become a big deal, but they still
only invited five guys at the time, And for me,
I was not a flashy guy looking to buy a
new suit and go to the draft. Like I didn't
(34:41):
have dreams as a kid of the moment of me
being on stage being drafted, Like I dreamed of playing
in the NFL, like a lot of kids would play football.
But to me, that wasn't the game. That wasn't my goal.
That was just finding the answers to the test, finding
out how you did, and then figure out where's my
next team going to be. So it wasn't an event
for me that I've all always wanted to be at
and I'd much rather go fishing with my dad.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
So you talked about a dream to play in the NFL.
Was it a dream to be beyond just being in
the NFL? And what was that dream?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
So I went to school for business. I was in
the real estate program at Wisconsin, and so I kind
of always thought that I maybe played college football after
I was already there, and then go work in commercial
real estate or some type of business. I didn't really
have a concrete idea exactly what I wanted to do,
but I was always getting ready for that moment because
(35:32):
I never looked too far into the future and thought, oh, yeah,
I'm going to play in the NFL. I don't have
to worry about this stuff. When I was in college,
I just loved being in Madison. I mean, it was
a number one party school a few times when I
was there, and I had great friends, great teammates. I
love playing for the Badgers. I was in Madison. We
got lakes all over the place, so I'd go fishing
on my days off, and I just really loved where
(35:52):
I was, and so I never really thought too far
down the line about you know, what's next. And it
really wasn't even until the end of my junior year
when scouts started asking me if I was gonna come
out for the NFL draft, until I realized, like, oh man,
I might have an ability to keep doing this thing
for a little while.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
It was kind of his story by him telling me
that reminds me of you when we were talking one day.
My story is I always wanted to play in the NFL,
Like I thought about it all the time. I knew
I was gonna get drafted. I worked so hard for it.
Freshman sophomore, took these classes like I had a plan.
I'd set out a goal if in order to get drafted,
here's what the things and steps that I have to do.
(36:32):
You and I were talking one day, and you go, man,
it wasn't until I was.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Going to my senior senior year.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I was on All American and we went to it
was a playball All America and then you read a
stat or you read a little blurb of one of
the scouts. It was like, oh, yeah, Roome blah blah blah,
he could be a second round pick, and you were like, damn,
I could probably play it.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
I was like you, I was just enjoying my college lifestyle.
I was just doing my thing.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
And I think that to me that that's crazy to
think to not think that you two were as good
as you were at the respective schools that you went to.
And I went to a I don't want to say
a terrible school, but we just didn't have a really
good program at the time, and that was the only
thing I thought about, was just like leaving school and
making it to the league and y'all had resources and
(37:21):
equipment and I mean y'all, just y'all had really good
programs and facilities. But it was just like, no, I
just I'm enjoying my time and I like where I
am and it's it's a good space, and like I
just couldn't. Yeah, just I'm it's weird, weird to me.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
For me, I was always like, no matter what happens next,
it's not going to change what I'm doing today, Like
I'm still going to go out and practice as hard
as I can, train as hard as I can. Like
it's different maybe now in the NIL space where you
need agents and you need people to contract advisors and
things like that. Back then, it was like I don't
even want to talk to any agents, Like I just
want to play as well as I can right now,
(37:58):
enjoy it, and then we'll see what happens when it's
all said and done. But if I worry about what's
happening two three years from now, it might affect what
I'm doing right now, and I'm not going to focus
on being the best team at the night right right.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
So one of the things that you and I have
in common, you had one winning season your entire time
in Cleveland. You came from a winning program at Wisconsin
or Wisconsin. Yeah, you have a winning season. You know
what a successful winning program looks like. And then you
(38:28):
come to Cleveland and then it's just lost after loss
after loss. How mentally tough was it to stay engaged
and still perform at a high level while still having.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
A looking season. It's weird as a alignment, maybe similar
to being a dB that like, it doesn't really matter
what the score is. It doesn't really matter what your
record is. Like, I got to block that guy that
Terrell Suggs over there that wants to rip my quarterback
in half. I better help my buddy out back there,
because it's gonna get really ugly. And so I never
really looked at the score. Losing sucks, Don't get me wrong.
(39:02):
It was really really tough to be on all those
losing teams and to be in the game in the
fourth quarter when you're down by twenty and you're thinking
about situations like Okay, well we're in the two minute
drill for the last part of the game all fourth quarter.
But it was in my mind it was like, all right,
how do I handle this situation. I was always trying
to think about it like that rather than thinking about, oh, man,
doesn't this suck. I can't believe we're losing again. But
(39:25):
it did wear on me quite a bit, especially towards
the end, because we were kind of making a run
in the middle of my career when Brian Hoyer was
our quarterback, Kyle Shannon was our offensive coordinator. We went
seven and nine, we were in the playoff mix for
a little while, and then after that we just had
even worse season after worst season, and you saw that
I was getting close to ten eleven years in the NFL.
(39:47):
Looking at the roster, I don't think we're going to
do it, you know, And that one really kind of
wore on you, because as a competitor, I think you're
always convincing yourself, this is how we're going to win
this game. Yeah, right, You're going in that game with
confidence because that's how you have to be to get
the most out of yourself. We're gonna win the season.
That's why you trained so hard in the off season, right,
and so when you constantly are fooling yourself like that,
(40:09):
it wears on you after a while.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
Did you ever think about not being in Cleveland?
Speaker 1 (40:15):
I never did. There was a couple of times. There's
a couple of times when teams had inquired about trading
for me, and there was rumors in the media. The
year the Broncos won the Super Bowl, Peyton Manning loss
has left tackle Ryan Clady, who was a Pro Bowler,
and everybody in Denver knew that they were Super Bowl contenders,
and so they were really trying hard. They almost had
(40:37):
a deal done right before the trade deadline to trade
for me. But I always loved Cleveland. I always felt
like I was a Cleveland or you know, my three
of my four kids are born there. It's the Midwest.
My dad's family's all from Ohio, and as soon as
I got there, like I mentioned, like, it just felt
like home to me. And I really wanted to always
be part of the turnaround because I thought that story
would be so special.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Did you because it kind of sounds like me I was.
I was born in Chicago, got drafted by Chicago all
my family and friends. I was born, you know, ten
minutes from the stadium. They all my relatives, They still
all my aunties, kem folks, they all still live in
the city. I played my twelve years. But I was
(41:18):
scared to leave because I got so comfortable. And then
when I finally went to clear excuse me, I finally
went to Charlotte, it was like a breath of fresh air,
and it was just like, man, I should have left
two years ago. I shouldn't have re upped. I should
have just hit free agency and just but and I
know we didn't have a good team, and I knew
we were in the rebuilt phase. But I was such
(41:41):
a staple guy and I just was I personally was scared.
I was comfortable. Do you think you were just too
comfortable and just didn't want to go.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
I'm sure that feeling comfortable is maybe part of it,
because feeling comfortable playing really high level football, like that's
what you want to do as a lineman. But also
I just felt a deep connection to the organization, and
I felt that I was like a servant to the
organization a little bit, where I want this thing to
turn around because it would mean so much to these people,
(42:11):
to these fans who I felt like had given me
a lot, and same thing with the organization. And so
even at the end, even like the last year year
and a half, when I just knew we weren't very good,
I put the perspective in my mind, like I can
be here helping these young dudes that maybe can be
the team that turns it around and wins a championship.
So that was sort of my motivation there right at
the end. I mean, we drafted Miles Garrett number one
(42:33):
overall my last season, and it was like, Okay, how
can I help him become the greatest defensive end in football?
How can I help Joel Botonio, who's my left guard?
How can I help David and Joku who is our
rookie tight end? Like I was thinking about, how can
I help those guys and build a foundation with culture,
with attitude, with leadership and showing these guys the right
(42:53):
way to be a professional that maybe then they're the
group turns it around, and then I can feel good
in my own little way like when they do win
it all, when they do turn it around, that I
was there in the beginning, made you made that your
mission exactly. I want to talk about you about your media. Yeah,
so you retire, you go straight into.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
It, Like how was that transition, how did that happen
so fast? And ultimately how much did you like or
love it or hate it.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
It's a little like the story of me getting into
my farm and Six Springs Farms. Like I didn't really
ever set out to be in the media. Yeah, most
people don't be a farmer. Yeah, it kind of found
me because when I retired, I didn't really have a
clear idea of what I wanted to do. I knew
I had a lot of interest and passions, but you're
not putting anything into all those when you're playing, because
(43:47):
you're putting every bit of energy that you have into
your job into being a great professional football player. But
my agent, Peter Schaeffer at the time kind of really
pushed me and encouraged me and said, hey, you know what,
I've got a lot of me outlets that are asking
for you to just come out an audition, like there's
no pressure, just go out, do a couple of shows
and just see if you like it. And he always
(44:09):
gave me really good advice throughout my career. I had
a lot of trust in his opinion on things, and
so I was like, I might as well at least
go out there and take a few auditions and see
if I like because how do I know if I
like or I don't like something unless I try it. Yeah,
I like that? Did you like it? I did? Actually,
you know, I really enjoyed it because I realized, like,
as soon as I retired and I was away from
the game, how much I love football, Which is kind
(44:31):
of weird because when you're doing it, it's just such
a grind. Every day is exactly the same, and you're
you get in your routine and you're just grumpy a lot,
especially you get older. But like it's comfortable. Yeah I'm
grumpy and I'm comfortable. Just what you do, just how
you do it. That's how you get it done. It's
how you go out and practice and be the best
version of yourself. But as soon as you're away from
the game, you're like, man, I need football as a
(44:53):
part of my life. Yes, I know coaching is not
the answer because I want to have a little balance
between work and life. I got these young kids, I
got a farm, I got a lot of things I
like to do, So how do I stay around the game?
How do I still get an excuse to leave the
family and go watch a game on the sideline? Yea,
and media was the perfect outlet for that.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
It is. I just like it because it allows us
to love the game, but it doesn't control our emotions
with wins losses.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Joe Thomas has had an amazing life, completely successful on
the field off the field. If you had to pick
four people that have helped you shaped you into the
man you are today and you got your own personal
Mount Rushmore, who would those four people be.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
I'd say my dad first, right. He gave me the
values that I still am trying to instill in my children,
The relationship that we had, you know, the interests that
I have being outside fishing, hunting, camping, like how to
treat my kids, my family, how I'm trying try to
be considerate and caring to the people around me, being
(45:57):
a servant in my community. Those are things from my dad.
George Warhop he was my offensive line coach that I
had for a long time in Cleveland. Multiple head coaches,
they always kept him because he was such a great
offensive line coach. Really taught me a lot about like discipline,
and structure and technique and the details, so I really
(46:19):
owe a lot to him. I'd say my son, Jack,
who has been a big part of just who I'm
trying to become and trying to be as a father
and making sure that I can give him the same
type of upbringing that my dad gave to me. So
that's three and four. I'd have to say my wife.
I don't know if that's a legal answer. She was
(46:44):
definitely my rock when I was playing, and she was
the person that I leaned on when I was struggling
mentally with the losses and the feelings sometimes of hopelessness
that you get when you're on a team that's not
doing very well. And she's also been a good balance
when I'm like, go, go go, let's go, let's do this,
let's do this, like I'm gonna take this job and
take that job, and I'm gonna travel all over the
(47:05):
place like doing media, and she's like, Hey, you're retired now.
Your kids and your family they should be the priority.
So make sure that you cut out plenty of time
for them, because when you were playing, you didn't have
that time to be able to spend with the family,
and so make sure you do that right now and
you don't over commit yourself to other things.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
Joe, what you brought up your wife and I love that.
I want to know one piece of advice that she
did give you that sticks with you when you were
struggling with some of the mental stuff and things of
that nature.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
She was really the one person that would say, hey,
just talk to me about it. I don't have to
solve your problems because I'm the problem solver. Like if
she's got problems, she comes to me. She doesn't like
that because I'm like, all right, let's fix this. All right,
this is what we're gonna do that.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
They don't want that.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
Yeah, And so she saw she saw that I was
the guy that was always trying to fix it and
in this situation, it's not fixable. And maybe I needed
to take her perspective sometimes on the problem of hey,
just talk to me, Just allow the emotions to come out,
tell me why it's making you feel that way, and
then we don't have to say anything else. When it's
all over, you're gona feel a lot better about it.
(48:10):
And so just having that person that was always that
that rock when you felt like you were sort of
crumbling inside was really really important.
Speaker 3 (48:17):
That's all I like it. I like that.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Woy Joe, You're off the hot seat, baby, that's it.
It wasn't too hot for he was.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
It wasn't too bad. I can survive that. We're going
to get some of that the Hall of Fame beef.
They don't have to get you guys some because we
raised one full blood Japanese Woggi beef.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
We raise American waggu that's like the A five stuff
you pay like, yeah, fifty bucks an ounce for like
at the Vegas steakhouses. Yeah yeah uh. And then we
raise certified angus. So we raised some awesome, awesome, high
quality animals and beef sticks jerky for the kids, Like yes,
they go bananas. My wife puts them in their lunches
and that's a good snack because it's so hard to
get kids eat protein. That's what I've found. They all
(48:54):
they want to do is eat chips, popcorn.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Wasted is wasted calories, wasted couch.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
And the kids are all athletes, so it's like, hey,
you need protein. It's a building block of the cell.
Let's go, you know. And so we finally found that
way that we can get that protein in throughout the day,
and turns out we just had to buy them some
pet cows and then we had to eat them. I
like it. I like it.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
I like I appreciate that. We appreciate you. Understand why
Pland loves you dog. I get it, bro hey man.
All of our viewers and listeners out there, thank you
for always tuning in, especially wherever you pick up your podcast.
Continue to listen to us. Tell a friend to, tell
a friend to do whip it, Tell a friend yes
with us Apple Apple Podcast, iHeartRadio app. Wherever you pick
(49:36):
up your podcast, Thank you so much for always tuning in.
Give us a like, share, comment, subscribe. Make sure you
still can go out there and check us out. In
other episodes on the NFL's.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
YouTube channel, I'm Peanut to him and Mike got Roman Harper,
Hall of Famer Joe Thomas and this is the NFL
Player's second Acts podcast. We are out print.
Speaker 3 (49:58):
Take that
Do you remember your first nap against the Steelers? Yeah?
(00:03):
And how that play? I think I pancaked him. Now,
I don't remember exactly, so this might not be completely true,
but I'm pretty sure I pancaked him, and you know,
gave him one of those like standing over the top
things that you get a flag for. Now like that,
Welcome to the NFL. How about you? Welcome to the NFL.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Well, don't tell James I said that is scary as hell. Dude?
Have you seen him on Instagram? If I saw him
on the street, I'd still call him mister Harrison.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
What's up?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Everybody on peanuts to him? And this is the NFL
Player's Second Act podcast and with me as always as
my trustee co host Roman. I am on one.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Harm No, You're You're definitely on one. I'm clearly we're
gonna have a good one right here, because I guess
has good energy. Peanut has good energy.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
You got the energy.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I have good energy to a nap.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I had to rest my mind for a couple of minutes,
but I just shut it off, get it back going.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Who we got? Hey?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
First ballot, Hall of Fame, ten Pro Bowls, like ten
straight Pro Bowls six First Team All Prolls, Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome to the Pop missus Jill Thomps.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you very much, thank
you very much.
Speaker 3 (01:18):
Welcome to the Pop.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Man.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
We appreciate you coming on. I like the hat.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
What hat is that?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Thank you? Well, I'm glad. Yes, this is the hat
that we're not now selling for my farm, my Hall
of Fame beef hat. And it actually fits my giant melon.
So for those of you guys out there that got
the big head, this is the hat for you.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
I like that. I like that.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Was it the olive green?
Speaker 3 (01:35):
I like the green?
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I like I like the green. My farm is in
southwest Wisconsin, outside of Bosco Bell. It's about an hour
west of Madison.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
He even said that like a way Wisconson.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Like, well, you know, I've been in Wisconsin and then
high Oh my whole life. So you catch a little
I just never left.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
No, what do you sell at your farm?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
So we're selling all beef products, right, we were raised
beef cattle, so obviously steaks and things like that, but
also beef jerky, beef stick, summer sausage, all the good stuff.
Oh yeah, you.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Literally after this, you're gonna have to give me the
card I found.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
I got one of my bag. Don't worry, I'm always selling, right.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
I literally just bought like almost three four hundred pounds
of beef from a butcher and I think they were
in Montana somewhere. They ship it to me, but.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
Ship right to your door. I might deliver it right,
depending on how this interview goes. Okay, Yeah, we're raising
the best stops not too far from Milwaukee. Perfect, that'll
be easy. I'll come deliver it myself with bells on.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, because we did a ragnar run. We did it.
You guys convince in Chicago to Madison.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
You're in from Chicago to Madison one year, one day,
twenty four hours, four hours, and so.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, significant others convinced us. Somehow I got drug into this.
This is not what I do, is all right, So
we're doing it this year again.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
That doesn't last time. Yeah, I did go to That
was my only experience of Madison. Those it was really
really cool. The water it was really nice. The weather
was actually decent too, so.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Hopefully it was summertime. It was.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Yeah, but it still got cold, still got cold.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
Yeah, it's a nice cool. It's cool. It's not cold
in the summer, right, It's where you want to be.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I'm from Alabama, so I felt cold cold to be
all right. I want to ask you first thing, what
were the emotions that you were going through when you
saw country music star Morgan Wallen rocking the Joe Thomas
seventy two Jersey back in Wisconsin.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Wisconsin, Whompton but similar. It was interesting because me and
my family were big Morgan long fans. Yes, obviously one
of the biggest, if not Jersey. I didn't know any
of it, and I found out through a text message
that it was happening. I was at the concert. We
had our four childre my youngest is six. Reese. We
(04:02):
love you very much, although in that moment we didn't
love you so much. So there was a little raindel
a had to be any of the show, so it
kind of got pushed back. And then when they started,
we made it till like ten forty five or so,
and it was a Sunday, so like kids had stuff
going on on Monday, and my daughter would not stop
crying she was so tired. My six year old, Oh,
and finally, after like thirty minutes of it, my wife's like,
(04:23):
we just got to leave, Like she's not gonna make it.
Like we've already seen a lot of the show. It's great.
So I throw over my shoulder. I'm carrying her to
the car. We just get right outside of Camp Randall Stadium.
We hear the concerts still going on, and all of
a sudden, my phone is just blowing up like crazy,
and yeah, I got an Apple Watch on, so I'm like
kind of peeking to see who's hitting me up? Why
am I getting so many messages at eleven o'clock on
(04:44):
Sunday night? Yeah, And like the picture pops up and
I go, you've got to be kidding me. I go,
Annie Morgan Wong. He's singing right now, he's wearing my jersey,
and we're walking out of the stadium, and I was like,
should we tell the kids because they're going to hate
their sister forever. But it was a really cool moment
in hindsight, because I think that picture of him wearing
(05:05):
my jersey, which was completely a surprise. My wife like
got a little commemorative ticket printed out and put it
up in the office, and I'm like that's forever gonna
bond me and make me think of my daughter. Maybe
in the moment there was the next emotions, but like
it's just cool we had that memory and it's going
to stick out, probably even more if you're just sitting
there enjoying the concert the way it was.
Speaker 3 (05:24):
Well, you got a great story out of it, exactly.
And you know the Cleveland Browns as an organization, you
know they when you were went into the Hall of Fame,
they they put up a whole list of numbers to
kind of support you in your career, right, and the
number twenty three of the number of quarterbacks that you
blocked four doing your eleven year career. How many out
(05:47):
of these twenty three do you think you can name.
I've seen you on another show you did good ESPN.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
I did a show once, ye, but that was like
six years ago.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
Let's test the marine at the.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
Beginning and then the end is okay, But in the middle,
like some of those middle years, and.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
I went through the LIS, I was like that I
didn't even know he played there.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
You didn't even know he was in the NFL.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
Probably it's kind of similar to me in Chicago with
all the quarterbacks.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
We then you have twenty three but hi, Joe, Yeah,
pressures on.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
So we started with Charlie Fry, Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn,
Seneca Wallace, Yeah, Jake Delome, Josh McCown, Colet McCoy, Austin Davis,
Robert Griffin the third.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I didn't know that he'd played for you guys.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
Ye. Yeah. Terrelle Pryor took a couple snaps at quarterback
in emergency situations. Charlie Whitehurst touchdown, Jesus, Jesus, clipboard Jesus.
Also yes, clipboard Jesus touchdown Jesus and South different guy,
same level of fame. I all forgot about. I was
waiting for my mind. I'm like, did I play with Johnny? Yes?
(06:53):
I did. I have a lot of scars still from
those man Zel days. Ryan Hoyer Yeah, actually called decent
season there, seven and nine. Bruce greg Kowski, Brandon Whedon,
he was Dad Lewis, Josh Johnson one of my favorite
crazy how long he played in the He's still playing.
You're seventeen way outlived, Ken Dorsey, Cody Kessler, yep USC
(07:17):
third round pick. I think uh.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Armani Edwards was on the list. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
It's may have been concussed in that game. I don't
remember it happened.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
And the other one is, uh, Deshaun Kaiser.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Deshaun Kaiser, yes, sah, he was our starter My last
season is ish Yeah, so not bad. You know, I
haven't gone through that list in a while, and there's
a lot of names on there, not as many Hall
of famers, not as many, not as many guys.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
You know, do you know your very first guy?
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Yeah, it was Charlie Frye because I had him for
exactly one half of football. He was our starting quarterback.
He was our captain, local guy. They benched him at
halftime of Week one and they traded him the next
day to Seattle, and I've never seen him since. That's awesome,
as youre welcome to the NFL moment any By the way,
I guys, your captain, he's not gonna be here anymore.
(08:10):
We just got rid of it.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And your last was just shn Kaiser, So you already
hit that one on that, Hi. It's a good job
bad ten three hundred and sixty three. That's the number
of consecutive snaps you played, which is insane. That's I
don't even know how you how you even get ten thousand,
three hundred and sixty three snaps? What is your body
(08:32):
feel like? Having played ten thousand, three hundred and sixty
three consecutive.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Snaps considering that was ten and a half seasons, yep,
never missed a play. I feel okay by that standard. Yeah,
I just had my hip replaced like three ish months ago.
But I'm feeling great okay with swimming and yoga and
play a little basketball.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
So you already got the hip done.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Got the hip done, it was felt way better. It
was really really bad and it was really affecting my back,
which I didn't realize they were so linked together. But
I was having really really bad back problems and the
hip was hurting. But since I did the hip, the
back is feeling great, so I just have to monitor it.
I don't know what it's like for you guys, but
there's certain parts of my body, like the outside of
my left knee, just because of the position that I
(09:14):
was in all the time, that's way worse than other parts.
Like like I said, I can play basketball like it's
not like competitive, but I can run back and forth
and it feels great because that motion is fine, But like,
if I get into that position that I played in
for ten thousand plus snaps, that's the time when I'm
starting to feel it. Look, man, do you remember your
(09:36):
first You remember your first snap against the Steelers? Yeah,
and have that play. I think I pancaked him. No,
I don't remember exactly, so this might not be completely true,
but I'm pretty sure I pancaked him, and you know,
gave him one of those like standing over the top
things that you get a flag for. Now you like that?
Welcome to the NFL. How about you? Welcome to the NFL.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
I like it.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Well, don't tell James I said that.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Feel scary as hell?
Speaker 1 (10:01):
Dud. Have you seen him on Instagram? If I saw
him on the street, I'd still call him mister Harrison.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Dude is always in the gym.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
He is always in debo and congrats, because you know,
I judge people in their basketball post football careers as
like do you play half quarter or do you play
full court?
Speaker 1 (10:19):
We do full court.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
So the fact that you're like, no, I do full court,
like I much respect do you? Anytime you can get
a little sand bag layup like that's right, never matter.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
I don't jump for rebounds, Like, I don't do any
of that. I just shoot the outside shots, you know,
like jogged back shoot half ass defense. Yeah, just get
a sat.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Do you play basketball? I feel like you can't hoop.
Don't be disrespectful. Yes, I feel like you can't hoop.
I ain't never seen.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Bottle locker room fights started over you can't play basketball.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Don't be disrespectful. I've never seen you hoop either. I
can't dunk.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, I can't dunk. When the last time you've dunked?
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Probably within probably like the last three or four months.
Speaker 3 (11:00):
No, I mean, dude, I'm a finger roll guy at
this point. I'm straight finger roll ice man. Yeah, I
got another number for you, zero point zero zero four.
That's is your sacks allowed percentage. I don't know if
you knew that, did you?
Speaker 1 (11:17):
I didn't know that, but if I was going to guess,
I was probably going down that either sacks or holds,
so neither.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
So you were really good at avoiding both. So out
of your six hundred six thousand, six hundred and eighty
pass block snaps, I mean dude, they did a really
good job of writing down your resume, you only allowed
thirty sacks responsible for. I don't know if they were
all even your fault actually asked, Yeah, yeah, do you
even remember the first sack that you probably gave up.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
It's weird. Sacks are weird because like it's kind of
your fault. It's kind of that guy qua. Yeah, Yeah,
quarterback was maybe a little deep. It was definitely in
that game against the Steelers or James Harrison, because they
had six sacks in the first half, so I'm sure
that of them was by my fault.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Was there ever a team that you played or a
defense that you went against, or a decordinator and he
just confused the shout of you with the defense and
what they would do. Is there is there a game
or a team that just kind of gave you problems?
Like every time you play, we're just like we got
to be on rp's and q's because this quarterback or
excuse me, this uh decoordinator, he knows how to mess
(12:24):
with us.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Yeah, Rex Ryan Baltimore because they had all those Hall
of famers on defense, and so he could get away
with calling anything, like he didn't have to worry about
covering guys up or covering areas of the field because
he knew if he was sending the house like they
were getting home Minterrell, Suggs, Jared Johnson, Ray Lewis, Helodi
not on the middle of Trevor Price. Like every one
(12:45):
of those dudes was Pro Bowlers and Hall of Famers,
And so I remember a very specific play that really
screwed us, and it was not very nice of Rex
because it was on accident. But they had ten guys
in the field, and as you guys know, like on
the offense and we're looking to block something in pass protection,
we're counting, right, where's our receivers. Who's covering those dudes?
Where's the safeties? If they're over the top right now,
(13:07):
I know that guy's a threat. We got to count
them in our count. Well, they had two cornerbacks over
two receivers. The safety was pushed this way, so nobody
else was over there. So Hank Freyley was our center,
a great offensive line coach now in the NFL, and
Hank was looking out there and so he took the
protection the other way. Well, they only had ten on
the field, but we didn't count how many guys they had.
(13:28):
We were just looking the structure of the defense, their
safety right before the snap came off the sideline because
I'm sure the decordinator or whoever on the sideline was there,
really got ten. So he comes on the field after
like we've already pointed to going the other way, we're
about to snap the ball, and then now they blitzed
the nickel corner over there, so was the.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Count we're going the other way?
Speaker 1 (13:46):
He was on account for you can't blitz there's nobody
topping to you, right, So it was that where I
was like, I know that was on accident, but that
was not very nice. Pretty no idea and no chance
to be able to pick up that blitz.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
No way, all right? So who's like a defen edge?
Who was somebody that I know? You didn't give up
a lot? So I won't use the word struggle, but
like maybe you knew, all right, this is going to
be a day.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Yeah. Well, my entire career was James Harrison and Terrell
Suggs in the AFC North, so I was playing those
guys twice a year. Justin Smith was in Cincinnati my
first and he was so yeah, he wasn't yet big
enough to play on the inside like he did for
the forty nine ers and so just in the AFC North,
it was a struggle every single week. But then the
(14:32):
Marcus ware Dwight for any of those or two other
guys that always.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Just separates these great pass rushers or guys that are like, okay,
because is it because they have multiple moves, is they
still have to speak the power string which one guy?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah, you always got to have one thing that you
do really really well. But I think the things that
make a defensive end really really tough to block is
a guy that can beat you to the inside, he
can beat you outside and then he can run you over. Yeah,
because if you can only you two of the three,
I can kind of set on the other ones. And
then if you're trying to, like if you don't have power,
I can set soft, and then if you try to
bull rush me, I can just kind of catch myself
(15:08):
after that absorb it. But if I'm worried about man
Duight Freeney, like he's got this killer spin move and
I'm sitting on that and then he runs up the field, okay,
I can transition. But then if he if I'm sitting
on the inside and he turns into a bull rush,
he's too strong and too fast and into your body
too quickly that you can't recover exactly because he's like, yeah,
(15:34):
so that guy was a beast, but yeah, if you
can beat a guy inside outside and then you can
run them over, Like those are the dudes.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
I'm gonna make sure I write that down.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Ye yeah, tell your friends. But there's not many guys
that are like that that can do all three things
really well.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
And so the league is coming out with a new
offensive Lineman awards called a Protector War.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Yeah you get excited.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
I feel like every time we ask a guess this,
especially a line, and they go, yeah, it's about why
do you thinks about time that we start showing our
love soar and some love to the offensive lineman.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Well, because when these guys are up for the Hall
of Fame, we don't have to talk about point zero
zero four sacks per play and oh he played a
lot of snaps and like he had a lot of
quarterbacks and don't you feel bad for him? Like you
can be like, hey, he wont protect her of the
Year four times.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It's a great like wow.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
You know, like as an on lineman, most of our
stats are things that we do that are bad and
it's like, how many times did he avoid the bad thing? Okay,
that makes you pretty good. But it's cool as an
offensive lineman to get get flowers every now and then
and something as an award, or get some recognition for
doing something good, even though it's you know, a season
(16:41):
long award, and certainly in every season there's gonna be
a lot of guys that are deserving. But I think
it's great to shine the light on the big fellows
every now and then.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
So if the league were to come to you today,
right now and say, Joe, do you get to design
the award? How would you design it?
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Hmm, that's a great question. Maybe it's an old lineman
like arms around his brothers in the locker room having
a beer after the game. I don't think they would
allow that. But I think the ones that I always
love are like when you see the offensive line pictures
and he's got like a snarl on his face and
snop bubbles coming out of his nose and he's pointing
out there. You know, I think those are kind of cool.
So something like that where a guy's in his stance
(17:16):
kind of.
Speaker 3 (17:17):
Like cool something. What would you name it?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
The protector of the year.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
Okay, that's just enough. Okay, hey we're taking a POLLI okay,
we're taking a polly.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
I guess I hadn't thought about the name because I
thought it already was decided.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
So tell me this. We we like to ask guys
what's their welcome to the NFL moment? You already did that,
so I want you to tell me what was your
welcome to Cleveland moments? Playing in Cleveland, it's a little different.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
It is it is. I'll give you two real quick. One.
When I showed up, they were excited. The fans were pumped.
And usually if you're an offensive lineman drafted in the
top five, the fans are like, oh hey, so we
should have the quarterback or should have drafted the receiver,
Like how about somebody? That's exciting, you know. But as
soon as I got there, you could feel that Cleveland
(18:09):
Browns fans understood the game. They respected line play. There
was that blue collar nature to the fan base that
really appreciates good line play. So that was really cool.
That was definitely a welcome to Cleveland, just understanding what
this fan base is all about. And then the other
welcome to Cleveland moment was my rookie year. We're playing
the Buffalo Bills Jim Leonard, he's playing safety for him,
(18:32):
and we call it the Snowball. Though it was not
a remarkable game by NFL history standards, but it snowed
seven inches between warm ups being finished and middle of
the second half. So it went from like, not exactly
a day like today, but it might rate it might
snow a little bit too. Wow, it's snowing so hard
(18:53):
that I can't see across the field and I can't
see the dudes in the other color jersey. And the
film was so bad because it was snowing so hard.
We didn't even watch the film because there was so
much snow between the lens and the field. It just
looked like you were watching like a white screen, like
you didn't have the right.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Yeah, okay, how was it so you were here in
that Lebron James era?
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:14):
How was it like living here going to the games?
Just the Lebron James effect or whatever? Like, how was
sports in Cleveland during that time?
Speaker 1 (19:23):
It was awesome. I mean, Cleveland loves its sports. It's
a pro sports town. You know, people talk about New
York being a pro sports town, which it is. But
Cleveland has that same level of passion where they're following
their baseball team, they're following their basketball, they're following their
football team, and that's their identity. That's what they do.
Like I'm a Cleveland fan. I love the Guardians, I
(19:43):
love the Browns, I love the Cavaliers. And that's the passion.
That's what people talk about on the street. If you're
going to go get your shoe shine at the airport,
that's what the shoeshine guy is going to be talking
to your They live and breathe pro sports. And when
Lebron was there, obviously he's the biggest athlete in the
world probably at that time, and we were the center
(20:05):
of the athletic world because the stuff he was doing
was remarkable and the fans were coming from all over
the country to watch him play. It was awesome. It
was really really cool. You have a chance to meet him,
I did, Yeah, I got him a few times. He
was a super nice guy and he grew up in Akron,
but he was a Cowboys fan, but he still had
love for the Browns, which is really cool. So like
(20:27):
even though he would come to like we played the
Cowboys in my second season, and he had all Cowboys
stuff on, you know, but he still had a lot
of love for the local team and the other players.
And I felt, even though he was such a superstar,
he showed a lot of respect, which he didn't have
to because he's better than all of us, had everything
he does, but he showed a lot of respect for
common athletes and like what you go through and the
(20:48):
perseverance and the stresses, and I always thought that was
really neat.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Yeah, game day, we all have OCD. We all have
our routines and what we want to do. I have
my rituals and my OCD on game day. By you
were eleventh year, it was taking you four hours or
four hours to get ready for pregame. What the hell
is a pregame ritual for you?
Speaker 1 (21:14):
A lot of it was in the training room with
the trainers, like trying to find enough duct tape and
band aids to put me together. I mean I was
wearing like two back braces, but before you could even
put the back braces on, you got to put the
back plaster on. Before you can put the back plaster on,
you gotta get the massage and the their gun and
got to get in the hot tub. So it was
just a matter of getting the body warmed up and
(21:35):
then putting the protective pieces of equipment in place, like
in that order that makes sense. And then you know,
still got knee braces and knee leaves. And I was
a guy that was super anal about everything, and so
I would take my wrists, take my gloves and my wrists,
put my thumb guards on there, take.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
The risk first. What's that would you do? Like a
risk first?
Speaker 1 (21:54):
That left first, so my right was free right in
case I needed to do anything. But like with my shoes,
I would spray that QDA, the quick drying adhesive on
the bottom of my feet, and then I put my
socks on. I'd spray my calves so my socks wouldn't
slide down. I'd spray the bottom of my socks so
they wouldn't slide in my shoes. Like, I was anal
to the max, so I had a lot of things
(22:15):
that I was trying to put together. And I was
a guy that saw a lot of time in the
training room before the game started.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
I know you sprayed the socks.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
If you would have tried it, you would have been
a believer. I don't even know who taught me that.
I feel bad not given the proper sources the sighting,
but it made such a difference because the worst thing,
especially playing in like a hot game, is when your
socks get wet and your shoes get wet and then
your feet start sliding, even just a little bit, it
just throws you off. And I hated that.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
So at what point, when you're going through this process,
you're like, all right, they I think this is a lot.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Did you ever even think like, you know what, man,
like I'm doing too much.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
I don't know what to take away? What do I
not do? Like my shoes and I slide and get
yeah right, And you know I was okay. I didn't
have anything else going on on Sunday, Nay.
Speaker 3 (23:01):
What did you enjoy more? Run blocking or pass blocking?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Run blocking is a lot more fun, but since we
were losing a lot, I got a lot more comfortable
pass blocking all the time. I mean that's why I
had almost what almost seventy percent of my plays were passes.
And so when you do something over and over and
over and over again, like you get pretty good at it,
you get pretty comfortable. And being that as linemen, we
get paid the pass block like I enjoyed run blocking more,
(23:30):
of course, but I realized that I was going to
get paid for my pass blocking.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
What is your opinion on like jump sets, like jump
setting as an offensive tackle, Like they don't.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Explain what a jump set is.
Speaker 3 (23:40):
Jump sets like they kind of fire out like it's
a run, and you kind of it's just throwing off
the timing, so you're not always feel like the old
lineman always on the defense, they're always just kicking back,
and I just feel like you get a full speed
start all the time if you're at defensive end or
edge player, and sometimes it's just I feel like it
just throws the timing off of a defensive lineman if
(24:00):
you kind of jump set them every now and then.
What was your opinion on that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Absolutely, I mean I wanted the biggest tool belt in
the game. I wanted to be able to do everything
right because if you're going against a guy who's got
a really good inside move, like I'm going against Miles here,
let's say like I'm probably not going to jump them
all that much because it's like two cars coming at
each other on a back road highway, Like you're not
going fifty five now you're going one hundred and ten. Yeah,
(24:25):
so it's harder to react when somebody is making an
inside move if you are jump setting him. But like
you go against a guy who's a rhythm pass rusher,
he's used to taking his three or four steps, putting
his foot in the ground point of contact, and then
he's making his move. If you jump set him, you
disrupt that timing. A lot of times it's almost like
they give up and they have to restart their engine
and then never have time to get to the quarterback.
Speaker 3 (24:45):
Yeah, okay, okay, so that's when you wanted. So when
you have rhythm pass rushers, yeah, a lot of times
that's when you'd use the jump set.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
And then sometimes it's specific to the scheme. You know,
if you're a play action team and you're doing a
lot of play action, you're going to get more of
that if you're running more quick game, and you probably
see a lot more in college because they're doing a
lot more like just quick throws on po's stuff like
that where hey, they want you guys to get the
hands down of the defensive line, so you need to
get on them quickly because it might be just a
quick slant and if you're setting off now the defensive
(25:14):
line sees the quarterback stop his drop, gets his hands
in the air, knocks the ball on toughest.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
D lineman to block versus the run d end or
D Lineman, just d Lineman, D lineman.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Ted Washington thankfully, Kevin Why had the same thing. He's like, dude,
nobody's four hundred ten pounds, Like, I don't know how
you move that guy. And most of it was blow
his chest, yes, blow the waist, blow the chest, and
so God would kind of hang down between his knees.
You weren't getting under that. Guys that I actually blocked.
(25:52):
Holod Nada would be the next guy think about, because
when you saw him on the goal line, it was
like you better run the other way or this is
not working, no matter if we got a double team
or not. He is three sixty. He gets off the
ball lightning quick, and he can put his head down
and he's way stronger than any human being in the
stadium right now.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Ted Washington was my welcome to the NFL moment. Really,
I'd love to hear that he was.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
It was awful.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
In Chicago.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Absolutely hated Ted Washington. We I get I get I
get hayes, I get dumped in the shower, I get
taped up.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
They throw me in a coltel. Whatever. That's my haze.
I take it.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Whatever's cool.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
The next day, I go in our locker room and
I had to go on our trainer equipment manager for something.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
And I try to leave and I.
Speaker 2 (26:39):
Was like, sorry, guys, I didn't mean to come into
you know, the vet locker room. Sorry, I'll process. I'm
gonna go to a long way. So Olin steps in
front of one of the doors and I was like, oh,
my fault, I'm gonna go the other way. So I
try to go a long way now now. So then
Big Ted walks up and he was like, hey, you're
gonna get in his laundry bend and I'm gonna push
(27:01):
you around and you're gonna make noises like you're driving
a car. And I was like, so, my my manhood
kicked and I was just like, man, hell no, my
pride kicked in. And then all the other vests as.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Like, hey, look, look, look, look look at you the
little rook.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
So I'm just like, no, man, y'all got me yesterday, respectfully, sir,
Like I'm good, Like I'm not doing that. Y'all got
me yesterday with respect trying to be respectful. He's like,
you're gonna get your chest and launch and I'm gonna
push you around. Thomas, I kid you not. I had
to think about my life. It was like I was
cause I was finna crash. I was like, hey, I'm
a man first, but I had to swallow my pride.
(27:38):
I was like, I'm the new guy. I shouldn't have
come in here. So I literally get in this laundry
band and he pushes me around the locker room and
I have to make these sounds and he is like
ramming it in the walls. He's ramming it in the
lockers and everyone is laughing. It was so embarrassing. So
then he squats down and he picks up the laundry
(28:00):
with me in it with some clothes too, picks me
up and then he just throws it me the close
the bind We fly across the room. I rolled over
and I was like, appreciate it, big Ted, thanks, and
I go out and I went all the other rookies
and they're like, where was you at?
Speaker 3 (28:15):
Fool?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
I was like, man, big Ted trip it. And then I,
you know, I explained it to him, and then like
literally like the next day or a week later, he
got traded to the New England Patriots, and I was like,
thank god, I was so happy. But he went on
and he got a Super Bowl ring, so it kind
of worked out for.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
I had a real brief welcome to the NFL moment
with Ted, and it was right after I got drafted.
I was there taking a tour of the building and
you know, like after you get there, you got a
scout taking around or whatever, just showing you locker room,
equipment room, whatever. And Ted's standing there at the door
to the locker room and I was like, oh, I'm
trying to be nicely. Hey, nice to meet you. I'm Joe.
And he looked at me like this. He was like,
(28:54):
don't touch me, rookie, and I just kept walking. I was.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Sorry, I'm surprised you even talk to you.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
We had on our team.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
He'd be like, Hey, tell the rookie Joe that he
needs to go get some whatever. And then the ve black, Hey,
rook Ted said you need to go do it, and
you'd be like right there. But Ted would not talk
to you for a whole year. He just would not
talk to you, and he was just like, like, I
(29:23):
was so happy when.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
They get this is like old school too, like he
was he was an old school Yeah, yeah, an old
school Vets And when we came in, it was probably
more guys that were like, you know, ten eleven twelve
year guys that have been in the NFL versus now
you don't have as many ten twelve year guys just
in locker rooms that were around or raised by ten
(29:45):
twelve fourteen year guys. So that part of it is
just completely different, and it's pretty entertaining. I mean, that
was a good story. Peenis was it was Ted Washing.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I ain't seen a minute, but again, Ted, you got
me Ted, it was I respect it.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I respect I read another article and you talked about
how important it is for offensive alignment to have ankle mobility.
Cause you explain why that's so important for the offensive
lignment position.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
So a lot of people think knees hips that's where
you need to bend, but really, as alignment, to be
able to create force through the ground, you got to
have your heel in the ground. Yeah, like you're squatting, right,
you don't squat on your toes otherwise. Now, or when
you're running, Like, if your ankles are tight and they're
flexed right, they don't absorb that energy and you're able
to spring off of them. So if your heels are
(30:34):
in the ground and you're able to bend your ankles,
the further you can get your knee over your toe
is the more power you're able to create. And that's
the most important thing as an offensive alignment. Be able
to create that power, that starting strength that you got
to have, and then as you're past protecting, being able
to stick your heels in the ground, take a stand
(30:54):
when you're being bull rushed, and then having that mobility
in your ankles to be lower than the that's trying
to beat you.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Okay, So let's own a transition this conversation into the
second act. Hands how we got the name info Player
second X podcast. So have this amazing career, Hall of
Fame career comes to an end, you have the transition
you do something else outside of football.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
How did you.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Get into the farming space?
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Like?
Speaker 2 (31:21):
Where did that?
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Where did that come from?
Speaker 1 (31:23):
Not exactly sure. I grew up in Brookfield, Wisconsin, which
is a suburb of Milwaukee. I drove past farms, but
it was never a farmer. And I had grandparents great
grandparents that were on the farm, but like no direct
relative that was a farmer. But I was always a
country boy. I grew up getting dirty and going fishing
and hunting and camping with my family. That's just kind
(31:44):
of what we did. So I always dreamed of owning
a piece of land that I could take the family
and friends too someday and make memories. Go camp, go fish,
go hunt, do those things. So in twenty twelve I
bought a farm and then we were raising cash crop.
But that's not crazy because I wasn't the one riding
the tractor. I'd hired that out.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
When you bought this farm or the land, Oh how
big is the land?
Speaker 3 (32:06):
How much land do you have?
Speaker 1 (32:07):
That's a personal question. Okay, big enough to get lost, Okay,
big enough to get lost.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
But is everything already done or you just you have
to Like you bought the farm from another person. Is
everything kind of set up for you already? Or do
you have this like star from scratch.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
It's it's set up, But there's always a ton of
stuff you want to do, Like you move into somebody's house,
like you're thinking about I'd like to change this reatt
that they rip out the shrubs here and do things
like that. So I always liked working on the farm
and like getting dirty. And I've been buying all the
equipment to skidloaders and the excavators and the tractors and
stuff because I always wanted to be able to do
that myself. Yeah, but when I bought it, I was
(32:43):
in the middle of a plane in the NFL still,
so I didn't have that time.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
To do it.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
So we hired a lot of that out. So it
wasn't until twenty eighteen that I ended up getting into
cattle and on the advice of my children and my
wife who said, Daddy, wouldn't it be fun if we
have pet cows at the farm. And I was like,
oh my god, how am I going to have time
for this. I don't know anything about raising cattle. But
then I was like, Okay, I love to eat beef.
(33:07):
I can't eat my other pets. So these are a
great option for getting the kids more pets because I'm
going to make them happy. We're going to get some
cows out in the farm, and then at the end
of the day, we're gonna have some delicious beef that
we know how it was raised, we know what it ate,
and I know that this is probably the healthiest, most
nutritious beef that I could possibly feed family and friends.
So I was all on board and kind of took
(33:28):
off from there.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
And you brought up something you talked about fishing, And
I want to know this because I've never got to
sit down and talk to you, but you had one
of the coolest draft, Like you were one of the
first guys that like like you were fishing when you
got the call. Like I remember this very vividly, like
watching your draft process and you're like fishing, like knowing
that you were going to be Why did you decide
(33:53):
that that's what you were going to do, knowing that
you're probably going to get called very early?
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Well, because my dad and I would go fishing every
Saturday morning as a kid growing up. We'd go out
in Lake Michigan and go salm and fishing, wake up
at like three am, and get out in the water
by five. And that was our tradition. That's what we did,
that's what I love to do. And this was back
when the draft was just two days and start Saturday morning,
and so my agent told me like, hey, you know,
(34:19):
the NFL wants you to come to the draft in
New York, and I respectfully told them, but I'm going
to be fishing with my dad, so it's going to
be hard to be in two places at one time.
And I really never wavered from that because the draft
was starting to become a big deal, but they still
only invited five guys at the time, And for me,
I was not a flashy guy looking to buy a
new suit and go to the draft. Like I didn't
(34:41):
have dreams as a kid of the moment of me
being on stage being drafted, Like I dreamed of playing
in the NFL, like a lot of kids would play football.
But to me, that wasn't the game. That wasn't my goal.
That was just finding the answers to the test, finding
out how you did, and then figure out where's my
next team going to be. So it wasn't an event
for me that I've all always wanted to be at
and I'd much rather go fishing with my dad.
Speaker 3 (35:03):
So you talked about a dream to play in the NFL.
Was it a dream to be beyond just being in
the NFL? And what was that dream?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
So I went to school for business. I was in
the real estate program at Wisconsin, and so I kind
of always thought that I maybe played college football after
I was already there, and then go work in commercial
real estate or some type of business. I didn't really
have a concrete idea exactly what I wanted to do,
but I was always getting ready for that moment because
(35:32):
I never looked too far into the future and thought, oh, yeah,
I'm going to play in the NFL. I don't have
to worry about this stuff. When I was in college,
I just loved being in Madison. I mean, it was
a number one party school a few times when I
was there, and I had great friends, great teammates. I
love playing for the Badgers. I was in Madison. We
got lakes all over the place, so I'd go fishing
on my days off, and I just really loved where
(35:52):
I was, and so I never really thought too far
down the line about you know, what's next. And it
really wasn't even until the end of my junior year
when scouts started asking me if I was gonna come
out for the NFL draft, until I realized, like, oh man,
I might have an ability to keep doing this thing
for a little while.
Speaker 2 (36:09):
It was kind of his story by him telling me
that reminds me of you when we were talking one day.
My story is I always wanted to play in the NFL,
Like I thought about it all the time. I knew
I was gonna get drafted. I worked so hard for it.
Freshman sophomore, took these classes like I had a plan.
I'd set out a goal if in order to get drafted,
here's what the things and steps that I have to do.
(36:32):
You and I were talking one day, and you go, man,
it wasn't until I was.
Speaker 3 (36:36):
Going to my senior senior year.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
I was on All American and we went to it
was a playball All America and then you read a
stat or you read a little blurb of one of
the scouts. It was like, oh, yeah, Roome blah blah blah,
he could be a second round pick, and you were like, damn,
I could probably play it.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
I was like you, I was just enjoying my college lifestyle.
I was just doing my thing.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
And I think that to me that that's crazy to
think to not think that you two were as good
as you were at the respective schools that you went to.
And I went to a I don't want to say
a terrible school, but we just didn't have a really
good program at the time, and that was the only
thing I thought about, was just like leaving school and
making it to the league and y'all had resources and
(37:21):
equipment and I mean y'all, just y'all had really good
programs and facilities. But it was just like, no, I
just I'm enjoying my time and I like where I
am and it's it's a good space, and like I
just couldn't. Yeah, just I'm it's weird, weird to me.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
For me, I was always like, no matter what happens next,
it's not going to change what I'm doing today, Like
I'm still going to go out and practice as hard
as I can, train as hard as I can. Like
it's different maybe now in the NIL space where you
need agents and you need people to contract advisors and
things like that. Back then, it was like I don't
even want to talk to any agents, Like I just
want to play as well as I can right now,
(37:58):
enjoy it, and then we'll see what happens when it's
all said and done. But if I worry about what's
happening two three years from now, it might affect what
I'm doing right now, and I'm not going to focus
on being the best team at the night right right.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
So one of the things that you and I have
in common, you had one winning season your entire time
in Cleveland. You came from a winning program at Wisconsin
or Wisconsin. Yeah, you have a winning season. You know
what a successful winning program looks like. And then you
(38:28):
come to Cleveland and then it's just lost after loss
after loss. How mentally tough was it to stay engaged
and still perform at a high level while still having.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
A looking season. It's weird as a alignment, maybe similar
to being a dB that like, it doesn't really matter
what the score is. It doesn't really matter what your
record is. Like, I got to block that guy that
Terrell Suggs over there that wants to rip my quarterback
in half. I better help my buddy out back there,
because it's gonna get really ugly. And so I never
really looked at the score. Losing sucks, Don't get me wrong.
(39:02):
It was really really tough to be on all those
losing teams and to be in the game in the
fourth quarter when you're down by twenty and you're thinking
about situations like Okay, well we're in the two minute
drill for the last part of the game all fourth quarter.
But it was in my mind it was like, all right,
how do I handle this situation. I was always trying
to think about it like that rather than thinking about, oh, man,
doesn't this suck. I can't believe we're losing again. But
(39:25):
it did wear on me quite a bit, especially towards
the end, because we were kind of making a run
in the middle of my career when Brian Hoyer was
our quarterback, Kyle Shannon was our offensive coordinator. We went
seven and nine, we were in the playoff mix for
a little while, and then after that we just had
even worse season after worst season, and you saw that
I was getting close to ten eleven years in the NFL.
(39:47):
Looking at the roster, I don't think we're going to
do it, you know, And that one really kind of
wore on you, because as a competitor, I think you're
always convincing yourself, this is how we're going to win
this game. Yeah, right, You're going in that game with
confidence because that's how you have to be to get
the most out of yourself. We're gonna win the season.
That's why you trained so hard in the off season, right,
and so when you constantly are fooling yourself like that,
(40:09):
it wears on you after a while.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
Did you ever think about not being in Cleveland?
Speaker 1 (40:15):
I never did. There was a couple of times. There's
a couple of times when teams had inquired about trading
for me, and there was rumors in the media. The
year the Broncos won the Super Bowl, Peyton Manning loss
has left tackle Ryan Clady, who was a Pro Bowler,
and everybody in Denver knew that they were Super Bowl contenders,
and so they were really trying hard. They almost had
(40:37):
a deal done right before the trade deadline to trade
for me. But I always loved Cleveland. I always felt
like I was a Cleveland or you know, my three
of my four kids are born there. It's the Midwest.
My dad's family's all from Ohio, and as soon as
I got there, like I mentioned, like, it just felt
like home to me. And I really wanted to always
be part of the turnaround because I thought that story
would be so special.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Did you because it kind of sounds like me I was.
I was born in Chicago, got drafted by Chicago all
my family and friends. I was born, you know, ten
minutes from the stadium. They all my relatives, They still
all my aunties, kem folks, they all still live in
the city. I played my twelve years. But I was
(41:18):
scared to leave because I got so comfortable. And then
when I finally went to clear excuse me, I finally
went to Charlotte, it was like a breath of fresh air,
and it was just like, man, I should have left
two years ago. I shouldn't have re upped. I should
have just hit free agency and just but and I
know we didn't have a good team, and I knew
we were in the rebuilt phase. But I was such
(41:41):
a staple guy and I just was I personally was scared.
I was comfortable. Do you think you were just too
comfortable and just didn't want to go.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
I'm sure that feeling comfortable is maybe part of it,
because feeling comfortable playing really high level football, like that's
what you want to do as a lineman. But also
I just felt a deep connection to the organization, and
I felt that I was like a servant to the
organization a little bit, where I want this thing to
turn around because it would mean so much to these people,
(42:11):
to these fans who I felt like had given me
a lot, and same thing with the organization. And so
even at the end, even like the last year year
and a half, when I just knew we weren't very good,
I put the perspective in my mind, like I can
be here helping these young dudes that maybe can be
the team that turns it around and wins a championship.
So that was sort of my motivation there right at
the end. I mean, we drafted Miles Garrett number one
(42:33):
overall my last season, and it was like, Okay, how
can I help him become the greatest defensive end in football?
How can I help Joel Botonio, who's my left guard?
How can I help David and Joku who is our
rookie tight end? Like I was thinking about, how can
I help those guys and build a foundation with culture,
with attitude, with leadership and showing these guys the right
(42:53):
way to be a professional that maybe then they're the
group turns it around, and then I can feel good
in my own little way like when they do win
it all, when they do turn it around, that I
was there in the beginning, made you made that your
mission exactly. I want to talk about you about your media. Yeah,
so you retire, you go straight into.
Speaker 3 (43:16):
It, Like how was that transition, how did that happen
so fast? And ultimately how much did you like or
love it or hate it.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
It's a little like the story of me getting into
my farm and Six Springs Farms. Like I didn't really
ever set out to be in the media. Yeah, most
people don't be a farmer. Yeah, it kind of found
me because when I retired, I didn't really have a
clear idea of what I wanted to do. I knew
I had a lot of interest and passions, but you're
not putting anything into all those when you're playing, because
(43:47):
you're putting every bit of energy that you have into
your job into being a great professional football player. But
my agent, Peter Schaeffer at the time kind of really
pushed me and encouraged me and said, hey, you know what,
I've got a lot of me outlets that are asking
for you to just come out an audition, like there's
no pressure, just go out, do a couple of shows
and just see if you like it. And he always
(44:09):
gave me really good advice throughout my career. I had
a lot of trust in his opinion on things, and
so I was like, I might as well at least
go out there and take a few auditions and see
if I like because how do I know if I
like or I don't like something unless I try it. Yeah,
I like that? Did you like it? I did? Actually,
you know, I really enjoyed it because I realized, like,
as soon as I retired and I was away from
the game, how much I love football, Which is kind
(44:31):
of weird because when you're doing it, it's just such
a grind. Every day is exactly the same, and you're
you get in your routine and you're just grumpy a lot,
especially you get older. But like it's comfortable. Yeah I'm
grumpy and I'm comfortable. Just what you do, just how
you do it. That's how you get it done. It's
how you go out and practice and be the best
version of yourself. But as soon as you're away from
the game, you're like, man, I need football as a
(44:53):
part of my life. Yes, I know coaching is not
the answer because I want to have a little balance
between work and life. I got these young kids, I
got a farm, I got a lot of things I
like to do, So how do I stay around the game?
How do I still get an excuse to leave the
family and go watch a game on the sideline? Yea,
and media was the perfect outlet for that.
Speaker 3 (45:13):
It is. I just like it because it allows us
to love the game, but it doesn't control our emotions
with wins losses.
Speaker 2 (45:20):
Joe Thomas has had an amazing life, completely successful on
the field off the field. If you had to pick
four people that have helped you shaped you into the
man you are today and you got your own personal
Mount Rushmore, who would those four people be.
Speaker 1 (45:36):
I'd say my dad first, right. He gave me the
values that I still am trying to instill in my children,
The relationship that we had, you know, the interests that
I have being outside fishing, hunting, camping, like how to
treat my kids, my family, how I'm trying try to
be considerate and caring to the people around me, being
(45:57):
a servant in my community. Those are things from my dad.
George Warhop he was my offensive line coach that I
had for a long time in Cleveland. Multiple head coaches,
they always kept him because he was such a great
offensive line coach. Really taught me a lot about like discipline,
and structure and technique and the details, so I really
(46:19):
owe a lot to him. I'd say my son, Jack,
who has been a big part of just who I'm
trying to become and trying to be as a father
and making sure that I can give him the same
type of upbringing that my dad gave to me. So
that's three and four. I'd have to say my wife.
I don't know if that's a legal answer. She was
(46:44):
definitely my rock when I was playing, and she was
the person that I leaned on when I was struggling
mentally with the losses and the feelings sometimes of hopelessness
that you get when you're on a team that's not
doing very well. And she's also been a good balance
when I'm like, go, go go, let's go, let's do this,
let's do this, like I'm gonna take this job and
take that job, and I'm gonna travel all over the
(47:05):
place like doing media, and she's like, Hey, you're retired now.
Your kids and your family they should be the priority.
So make sure that you cut out plenty of time
for them, because when you were playing, you didn't have
that time to be able to spend with the family,
and so make sure you do that right now and
you don't over commit yourself to other things.
Speaker 3 (47:24):
Joe, what you brought up your wife and I love that.
I want to know one piece of advice that she
did give you that sticks with you when you were
struggling with some of the mental stuff and things of
that nature.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
She was really the one person that would say, hey,
just talk to me about it. I don't have to
solve your problems because I'm the problem solver. Like if
she's got problems, she comes to me. She doesn't like
that because I'm like, all right, let's fix this. All right,
this is what we're gonna do that.
Speaker 3 (47:49):
They don't want that.
Speaker 1 (47:50):
Yeah, And so she saw she saw that I was
the guy that was always trying to fix it and
in this situation, it's not fixable. And maybe I needed
to take her perspective sometimes on the problem of hey,
just talk to me, Just allow the emotions to come out,
tell me why it's making you feel that way, and
then we don't have to say anything else. When it's
all over, you're gona feel a lot better about it.
(48:10):
And so just having that person that was always that
that rock when you felt like you were sort of
crumbling inside was really really important.
Speaker 3 (48:17):
That's all I like it. I like that.
Speaker 2 (48:18):
Woy Joe, You're off the hot seat, baby, that's it.
It wasn't too hot for he was.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
It wasn't too bad. I can survive that. We're going
to get some of that the Hall of Fame beef.
They don't have to get you guys some because we
raised one full blood Japanese Woggi beef.
Speaker 3 (48:33):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (48:33):
We raise American waggu that's like the A five stuff
you pay like, yeah, fifty bucks an ounce for like
at the Vegas steakhouses. Yeah yeah uh. And then we
raise certified angus. So we raised some awesome, awesome, high
quality animals and beef sticks jerky for the kids, Like yes,
they go bananas. My wife puts them in their lunches
and that's a good snack because it's so hard to
get kids eat protein. That's what I've found. They all
(48:54):
they want to do is eat chips, popcorn.
Speaker 3 (48:57):
Wasted is wasted calories, wasted couch.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
And the kids are all athletes, so it's like, hey,
you need protein. It's a building block of the cell.
Let's go, you know. And so we finally found that
way that we can get that protein in throughout the day,
and turns out we just had to buy them some
pet cows and then we had to eat them. I
like it. I like it.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
I like I appreciate that. We appreciate you. Understand why
Pland loves you dog. I get it, bro hey man.
All of our viewers and listeners out there, thank you
for always tuning in, especially wherever you pick up your podcast.
Continue to listen to us. Tell a friend to, tell
a friend to do whip it, Tell a friend yes
with us Apple Apple Podcast, iHeartRadio app. Wherever you pick
(49:36):
up your podcast, Thank you so much for always tuning in.
Give us a like, share, comment, subscribe. Make sure you
still can go out there and check us out. In
other episodes on the NFL's.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
YouTube channel, I'm Peanut to him and Mike got Roman Harper,
Hall of Famer Joe Thomas and this is the NFL
Player's second Acts podcast. We are out print.
Speaker 3 (49:58):
Take that
Hosts And Creators
Jamie Erdahl
Jason McCourty
Kyle Brandt
Peter Schrager
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