February 3, 2021 • 55 mins
Steve Wyche and Jim Trotter are joined by the Super Bowl-bound defensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Todd Bowles. Ready to coach in the biggest game of his life, Bowles discusses his team's progression, and how it plans to stifle a seemingly unstoppable Kansas City Chiefs offense (1:59). The conversation deviates from the X's and O's of the game and Bowles dives into the racial inequity for opportunity among black coaches in the NFL (20:05). The trio discuss a several more topics, including how a summer of COVID could affect the future of NFL offseasons (36:05), Tom Brady's communication and leadership skills (38:32), and some fun stories about Bowles time coaching at HBCU programs, Morehouse College and Grambling State (42:15). Huddle and Flow is part of the NFL Podcasts Network.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
All right in the Super Bowl week, here at the
Huddling Flow podcast, brought to you by Into It, the
proud sponsors of Quickbook, Turbo Tax and Mint. I am
Steve White, joined by my guy Jim Trotter. We are
two thirds of the Howard Mob. The other third, Thomas Warren,
is back in the house and we also joined. We
have an honorary Bison Jim Steve Manny also helping out
(00:36):
of the ones in the two, Thomas has the one,
Steve's got the twos and Jim. This is a really
really special episode that we have today. Go ahead, let
let him know, let her know what time it is.
You know whether we we say that every week because
it seems like it just gets better and better and
and and one of the great things, yeah for us
about this podcast is we're able to bring on people
(00:56):
that we really want to talk to and hear from,
and they never are failed to bring it. And today
it is Todd Bowls, the defensive coordinator the Tampa Bay Bucks,
who was gracious enough to take time out of his
week um in terms of preparing to face the Kansas
City Chiefs to join us on Huddle and Flow and
(01:17):
Todd brings it. Todd brings it. So for those of
you we go, we go to places with this interview, Jim,
we do, and and there'll be some like in New
York and whatnot they say they only know Todd. Is
this stern guy, serious guy and whatnot. But um, Todd
actually had us busting up a few times. So it's
that kind of interview. Um. It deals with the serious,
(01:40):
it deals with the fun, and I think the audience
will enjoy it. Yeah, no need for us to talk. Actually,
she knows because Todd does that masterfully. So Jim, let's
not waste any time. Let's bring on the Buccaneer defensive
coordinator Todd Bowls. Jim, Now we're joined by our special guest,
(02:02):
a good friend of ours and someone we know well,
and that's Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowls. Todd, thanks for
joining Jim and I on the Huddling Flow podcast. You
need to be here, guys, you know, Todd, we gotta
thank you here. You know, it's Super Bowl week, you
got your defense, you're getting it ready for the game.
So to take time out to spend it with us,
(02:22):
We're truly appreciative. I'm appreciative one. You guys are the stars.
I'm just happy to be here already. Man, you know
we're coming, all right, Todd, we'll speaking of that time.
How you know you you're you guys are in a
real unique situation in terms of you know, you're hosting
(02:44):
your your you get to go home at night, right,
You're not having to deal with all of the festivities
and stuff of a Super Bowl. How has the preparation
been with the off week and this week? Knowing that
there's not as much fanfare or anything around this game
as they normally would be. That's been a strange part
because it's at home and you don't see it because
(03:05):
of the pandemic, so you don't get to go out
and see all these festivities going on. It's been kind
of like a normal game week. You know, last week
was really a normal game week. This week because of
media blitz and everything else, is kind of picked up
a little bit. But from a practice standpoint, we're kind
of doing the same thing we've been doing all year,
which is, you know, it's it's great because you get
to go home and sleep at night. You know, you
(03:26):
want the guy to enjoy a Super Bowl if it
was somewhere else like l A or Vegas or anywhere else.
But because of these times when we're at home, it's
really been almost like a normal practice week. Tell what
what's been preparator, What has your preparation been like in
terms of install those sorts of things. When you've got
two weeks between a game. When you do your meeting
(03:47):
potatoes last week, we did all that last week because
you know, this week, with all the obligations for everybody,
that was gonna be kind of tough. So you do
your meeting potatoes like a week ago, and then this
week you just try to find tune everything and not
a would think it, and make sure the guy the
fresh and some guys get banged up, get a little healthy,
and you just continue to just work away and get
(04:07):
ready for Sunday, tod what and you know it was
you know, Devin White talked about this and the fact
that you guys played the Chiefs in the week twelve.
You've got some tape, you do have some familiarity with
personality and tendencies and stuff other than just tape, but
just knowing how certain guys react to certain situations. In
that situation with you guys, coming back after falling behind quickly.
(04:29):
What is having played them fairly recently, how does dad
apply to the prep and what to expect on Sunday.
I don't think it applied at all. It was one game,
you know, just like we beat Green Bay early in
the year. The championship game was completely different. The fact
that we played them and they're a great team. Everybody's
played them. They played their division twice and they beat
(04:49):
everybody there. So you know, we just got to correct
our mistakes and play our type of ball game and
hopefully get them to play our type of ball game.
They got a lot of talent, they have great are
they wanted last year. It's hard for us to get
back here just this one year and they've gone back twice,
so you know, they're mentally tough and very well. Coach
(05:10):
go three does a great job. But those guys, the
enemy Spags, all those guys do a great job and
they've been here, so this will be new for us,
so they allowed to be a little calmer. We've got
a lot of younger guys, so they'll be a little
more excited, and they should be. It's a super Bowl.
You know, it's hard to get to this point, but
I think once the game starts, whoever executes the best
gonna win. Tell what's your biggest takeaway from that first meeting. Uh,
(05:35):
they got by us in the first quarter. I thought
we panicked a little bit early on and they ran
by us, and they made some plays. We made some mistakes,
but a lot of it was due to the play
they were making, not because we made mistakes. And you know,
we learned from that hopefully as the season went on,
we corrected some things and trying not to let it
happen on Sunday. But I think it made our younger guys,
(05:58):
especially in the back end, mentally offer. You know, I
thought that shocked them a little bit after the game,
and it's you know, you play a game every week,
you gotta get rid of it. Twenty four hour rule.
Whether you want to lose, blowout, close game, you gotta
get rid of it. And I thought as the season progressed,
the older guys like Sue and JPP and Shack and
Lavante help those guys mature from games like that and
(06:21):
understand to take it more professionally and try not to
let that happen again by doing a little things. And
I think that's helpless a well. How much has it
also helped the fact that there are certain things you
can't simulate in practice. For instance, it's difficult to simulate
Tyreek's Hills speed or suddenness if you will, um or
maybe some of the motion in terms of the efficiency
(06:43):
that the chief shoes and whatnot. Having seen it once before,
do you think that that gives your guys a better
understanding and a better appreciation of what it is that
they are about to face and how to handle that. Well,
I think from a speech standpoint, you know how fast
they are. You can't simulate that practice. We don't have
those type of guys. But it's not just him. They
(07:03):
got Hardman, and they got Watkins, and they got a
bunch of guys that can run very fast. So but
they have seen the speed, so we understand we gotta
play fast to start the game out. Hold up all
here to Scotty Miller chirping it, he could beat Tyreek
Hill eight. Todd, they want to talking about if they
(07:24):
want to go on the dirt road somewhere after the season.
Wait wait, if they do, Todd, who are you putting
your money on. I'm gonna put my money on either
of them, they go play the horrible hold up Scott.
(07:55):
So Scotty's not Tyreek on the Scott team. All Scotty
has to take normal rip see you know this guy
have to take main rips and getting ready for the
ball game. You can't do any of that, okay, all right,
but tell me there's And it's funny when I when
I watch the Chiefs, and we always talk about the
speed on the outside and the pre snap motion, but
it looks like a lot of their blocking schemes up
(08:15):
front are also to trick you to get off of
your keys, like some of the you know, the ghost
stuff that they do with Kelsey coming back, you know,
to to block on the opposite side, and some of
the things like that. Is that is disruptive in terms
of trying to keep guys disciplined, at least early on.
With some of the stuff that they do during the
actual play itself. It is because there they do it
(08:38):
a lot faster than all the other teams. They have
faster guys, a little more crisp when they do those
type of things, So it really gets your eyes going
one way or the other. We've seen it all year
and everybody doing it. You know the Rams are doing it.
The Saints have done some, but they do it at
such a fast pace with their guys with such speed
and have so many things off of it that you
(09:00):
know they can get you if you're not on top
of your game. Tom, When did this did this season
start to click for you guys? Defensively? I know there
was a point mid season where it seemed like things
weren't just right, and then all of a sudden, you
guys found that rhythm, and particularly in the playoffs. Um,
you guys have been bringing it. What's there a point
(09:20):
for you where this unit went to another level? Was
there anything that happened that contributed to that? Now, we
started out fast. The first six seven weeks, they were
playing great, and as guys got banged up and nicked up,
I thought they didn't know how to play with injuries
very well, and a lot of guys were nursing some
things and trying to fight and play throom. So I
(09:41):
thought we had about three or four weeks where we
didn't play well, and then as guys started getting healthier
and understanding what was at stake and just trying to
have mental toughness and talking to the older guys. You know,
they started clicking again, and everybody was very selfless and
trying to do their job and not anybody else's job.
And then things started coming together. And the more they
(10:02):
saw it clicking and working, more excited they got. Kind
of brought us to this point. So we know your
stages are a little nicked, but overall your secondary When
I've been watching this postseason, they are bringing smoke. I mean,
whether it's not letting receivers off the line of scrimmage,
whether it is tackling with with just absolute fury. How
(10:22):
important is it for those guys to be disciplined yet
play with that type of physicality in a game like this.
It's extremely important to be disciplined in this ball game
as we as we know from the first game, they
can run right by you. The physicality. You know, I
think the biggest thing about Kansas City. They scare you
because the run after catch they get the yack yards.
(10:45):
You know, Tyree can turn of three or four yard
into a sixty yard game. He saw it against Buffalo.
It's like watching a Madden game. So you know, everybody
getting to the ball and making sure he only gets
about three or four yards after the Cats and not
twenty to fifty is is a big thing in the game.
That's probably just as important as a ball going over
your head. Tom One thing we know about you. You'd
(11:08):
like to bring some pressure, um, but I'm interested. Their
offensive line appears to be so banged up. And maybe
I'm biting the cheese here. You know, coaches always say
don't bite the cheese, but I look at how their
offensive line is banged up. How does that influence in
terms of how you go about attacking that unit? Attacking
that offense, Well, that's so banged up. They made it
(11:30):
to the Super Bowl. You are there with that look
when you lose your starting left tackle, your other tackles
banged up. But I mean they are banged up now,
so go figure they can't be all right. No, I'm
not biting that cheese at all. We're expecting to see
(11:52):
their best. They've got great players over there. The line
is probably not as known as the skilled guys, but
they do all the dirty word and they played tough ball.
And if you haven't knowed him and the running play,
they're always pushing the pile. There's not a play that
goes by with that off on the blind isn't pushing
the running back forward and pushing the pile. So I
know that coach very well. So we gotta play a
(12:14):
good ball game. You can't even know. I should have
known you weren't on bite on Man. I should have
known if he wanted to Jim. But about Patrick Mahomes,
I mean he he seems to always have some type
(12:37):
of exit route, whether it's scrammed with two guys on him,
just to dump it off to a running back who
lost the block, whether you know, to run the ball himself.
How difficult is it? Because he doesn't just extend plays,
but he makes things happen even when he's in trouble.
It's tough because he has the most canny ability to
(13:00):
get the snap of the ball and see his escape
route right when he's getting the ball. He knows if
there's more than four guys coming, he knows who's slow
and who's fast, and who's gonna go inside on the move,
And if there's a different certain game working, he knows
he can get out of it with certain things. If not,
he'll back up a couple of steps and buy even
(13:21):
more time until he does see it. So he has
two or three options that he can do. He can
run sit side, and he can throw it down field
and when he's running he's very accurate. Or he can
sit back there in the pocket and he can let
the guy get further down the field so where the
backers get far enough in past protection to where he
can run the football and it's not by accident or
(13:42):
anything that you can see it because it happens every
week and he does a great job and that that's
tough to do. Ty, can you speak to what impact
Lavante David has had on on Devin White in that
relationship between the two. I think he really taught him
from a mental stamp and how to watch tape and
how to be a pro and I understand angles and
(14:05):
pass drops. And Devon is a great player, no doubt
about it. Devin comes and he hunts and he loves
to play the game. He's a ton of energy. Leamonta
is like the big brother that's letting his little brother
shine some. You know, if there's a play to be made,
Devon probably has more wild plays, but Lamante has just
as many plays, and he does. Lavonte is probably technically sound.
(14:26):
Devin's running hit, you know, he's the cow to run
down the hill and chase all of all. He's the
guy to run down the hill, chase all the cows,
and Lavonte will go down and take his time and
go one by one. But mentally they challenge each other
every day, and it's great to see him practice. Who
has the best hands, who has the best get off,
who has the best Devon will challenge you on anything.
(14:48):
You know, I don't care what position. I can get
off the ball better than you, shack, I can catch
better than the secondary. I mean, He's a bundle of
energy and Lavante is the only one that keep him
under reps the owner. It looks like Devon loves to
chat to out there on the field, Am I right?
(15:09):
So he loves the game. You know, he's an old
school player. He loves to play the game. He's mentally
he reminds me of a younger Ray Lewis. Not physically
because Ray was one of the greatest I've ever seen
play the game, but mentally just the energy he brings
per play, and he's working towards that mentally, just getting
guys around him to gravitate and make plays. He has
(15:30):
that type of energy. I did not say the player,
because Ray is one of my favorite players of all time,
and I will take that to the grave because I've
seen him in his prime and I can't name one
or two guys to do that better. But Devin has
a lot of energy to bring to the game, you know, Todd,
players often talk about being on this stage, the biggest
stage there is in football, and what it means to
(15:52):
play under those lights. For you, as coaches, can you
speak to what it means for a coach to have
an opportunity to participate in a game like this. I
think it's a great thing to get there. These are
hard to come by as coaches. You know, you can
go your whole career, and I've been as a player,
you know, I've even Scott up for Green Bay when
(16:12):
they went, but they go. As a coach, you hold
your excitement and because you gotta win the game to
be really excited before your eggshale. But it's a great
accomplishment because you work hard and everybody has families and
everybody's sacrifice. It's just like players do and they get
to this point. You know, it's a gratification to a
(16:33):
certain degree, but at the same time, you gotta finish
the doub TDD when you went with Washington. That was
the the Doug Williams game, right, was what I mean?
You know, look that to me. You know, I was
at Howard University at the time, and I just know
how that it's impacted us the city, so many black folks.
You know, it's still held, you know, it's made Doug royalty. Right.
(16:55):
What was it like as a player to just kind
of experience that whole ride and then especially at that
second quarter when Doug put on a show like he
did to win m v P honors. I don't know
if I enjoyed it as much as a player, because
it was my second year. I was starting pretty safety
and I was like three years old, and I saw
(17:16):
a dog every day of practice, and we knew how
good he was because he killed us when he was
a scout team quarterback. Our scout team team was better
than or just as good as I heard you on it.
So now go ahead and say go ahead and say
Doug was better than Raider. Can. I think Doug had
(17:39):
a little bit more poising. We saw our whole scout
team was pretty pretty good with Doug and Brian Mitchell
and Clarents Burdan and Derek Holloway and Mark the rest day,
Raleigh Mackenzie. I mean, we had guys. Our scout team
was like unbelievable Frank White, but we had these scouts
(18:00):
that was like second to none. So we saw him
every day. We saw him every day do it every day.
And when we started out bad, they got a touchdown
on the first drive and we were downtend nothing. But
once he got going, it kind of happened so fast
and we it was it was unbelievable to see in person.
(18:21):
We didn't realize the magnitude of what he was doing
at the time, but because we were in the game,
but I mean, it was outstanding at that second quarter
was like I mean, it was it just clicked from there,
and you know, just going in a halftime, we went
in the same tunnel as those guys. You could tell
they were defeated. But when real, real quick, when you
look back on it now, though, I mean, I know
(18:41):
you should in the moment because you were twenty two,
you really didn't understand it. But now looking back at
like the historical impact and you and Doug are still tight.
You know what what I mean, what what is you
like now looking back on that, well, it's it's it's
unbelievable now to see how big it was and how
humble he is as a person. You know, that's still
(19:04):
the same guy he was back then. It said a
lot for African Americans back then, for it was real
tough back then. We think it's tough now, it's even
tougher back then. For him to break that mold, and
you know, to get to say he was going to
Disney World. I mean that commercial and I was in
that by the way, probably Bob I was walking next
to him. You did it on purpose, right, you knew
(19:30):
what was coming. You still next to him, right, they
showed a whole different shot like, hey, there, I am
came on, would make sure replace So magnitude of what
he did and how he is as a person till
this day, it's so understated. But he did more for
(19:52):
us people of color than I could ever imagine at
this stage in my career. And I know Jim Brown
and all those guys play and everybody has done a
lot of things. But while I was in that moment,
I thought he was a guy that did a lot,
you know. As a segue, there Um Todd when we
talk about people of color and how difficult things are.
(20:14):
We can talk about the head coaching profession now in
the NFL, over the last four hiring cycle, there have
been twenty seven vacancies. Only three of those vacancies have
gone to two black men. And I wonder from your standpoint,
like Steve and I talked a lot about it on
this show, about the unfairness, the inequities, all of these things,
(20:36):
and people will always say to us, why do you
guys talk about race all the time? Why do you
talk about race? And in part, we do it because
we feel like coaches such as yourself, I don't want
to put words in your mouth, but some of them
feel they can't speak about it for fear that it
might impact their abilities to climb the ladder, the coaching ladder,
and so we feel like we have to give them
(20:57):
a voice. And I wonder if you can speak to
just what the climate is like, what minority coaches are
feeling right now when you watch these openings come up,
and yet by every objective standard, you can make the
argument that black men are being passed over for these
jobs who are qualified and capable. What are those conversations
(21:21):
like for you all in the coaching community, well, there's
a lot of frustration, especially with college coaches trying to
make the jump to the league and NFL coaches alike.
And you know, all you can do at the end
of the days as coaches to set an example you
can be, to try to be the best you can
be at your job, to show them hard work, to
show them dedication, to show them you can do all
(21:44):
the things the right way. And then if you get
a break that way, that's great, But you can't make
any progress if you're not working hard and doing the
right thing to be a good coach. You know, it's
we're African American. That's been well documented. We wake up
every day with in the mirror. I see I don't
need to go to the beach to get a tan there,
(22:05):
and I'm proud of that. I'm proud of who I
am or what I am, as well as the other
coaches are. But you know, you try to talk to
the guys and you try to have seminars and you
try to tell them just to be don't look to advance,
look to be the best you can be at your
job so somebody can notice you and give you a
hand to move up. And it's been tough. It's been tough,
(22:26):
and it's like you said, it's been twenty seven of them,
it's only been three, but it's been tough, and the
needles gotta move more. I think they keep asking us
what's wrong, and everybody knows what's wrong. We can't solve
the problem. Everybody else can solve the problem. Until those
people start speaking up, that needle is not gonna move
(22:48):
very much. So I mean, we all we can do
is coach and be the best we can be the
enemy left, which myself a bunch of others. There's there's
a lot of good coaches in this league, as there
are a lot of other coaches in this league that
are from racist. But you can't until they start making
it move the needle and say that's coach Bowls. You
(23:08):
you don't want to say that's coach Bowls, he's a
black guy. You just want to say that, Well, we
got here by coaching football, not because of the Believe me,
Bruce says not going to hire any charity cases. I
guarantee he's not gonna hire any charity cases. And we
work our herd, we bust our tail. We've been in
the league as long as everybody else and a few
(23:29):
of us got breaks. More of us need breaks. Uh,
I was fortunate to have one at one time. There's
a lot of other guys that need breaks. And you
kind of go from there. You coach would be the
best coach, and you coach to win and get in
the game like you are. Like we're in this weekend
and I'm proud of that. I'm proud of the guy
that's done it. All the coaches on our staff, male, female,
(23:52):
African American, Caucasian, it doesn't matter. We all got there.
We have one common cause. But until everybody else stopped
asking us what's wrong. When everybody knows what's wrong, but
you say, we don't want to speak up for fear
of our job. There's a lot of broadcasters that they
want to speak out for fear of their job, and
they happening and they understand everything that's happening, but they
(24:14):
want to hear from us to write their story. You
have to at some point writes our own story and
see you're here, and now you're here when I think
we'll start moving if we say it and you see it,
because we live it. We're disgruntled or we'll have a
problem or we're bitter or something like that. Nobody wants
to hear us talk common sense. But you know, again,
(24:38):
at the end of the day, it's only thirty two
of them. Everybody's fighting, and they're only gonna give certain
ones away, and certain teams have whether it's chemistry, whether
it's a field, whether they want to do a certain
thing for their team or have a certain field for
a guy. You know, that's they're prerogative right now. And
I don't think anybody anything can be done to change
(24:59):
anybody's one. When you have a million dollar, billion dollar corporation,
you get to pick who runs it, regardless of what
anybody thinks. You're not gonna cave under any pressure to
do that for anybody. I think the more people get
out that get in front of them and open their eyes.
And I don't know how that's become impossible because it's
(25:20):
only a select few that they select from us. But
until you put more people out there and keep putting
them out there, it's gonna be the same. It's a
slow moving process. Uh, it's not moving as fast as
we want. It may not move as fast as the
next generation once, but it's moving beyond what it was,
(25:40):
and it's not what it is or what nobody would like.
But you have to sit there and just work at
it every day there, every days, be frustrated their days
as you lash out and every day. But at the
end of the day, as coaches, we got in the
game because we love the coach fall and as long
as you carry that first, everything else has to come
(26:03):
after that. And we understand what we represent, who we represent,
but how we represent them is probably more important. And
that's just to be stand up guys and trying to
be the greatest coaches we can be. Toddle, I want
to read you something that Jimmy Ray Jr. Who we
all know and respect. He's been a mentor to a
lot of people, UM, a lot of black coaches in
(26:25):
this league and in terms of creating paths. I talked
to him about this UM last week and I asked him,
how optimistic are you that we're going to see change,
that this this this playing field will be leveled. I
want to read you what he said and just kind
of get your thoughts in terms of how optimistic you
are that things will change. And what he said to me,
(26:47):
I said, do you see change. Do you see things
getting better? And he said not in my lifetime. No,
I don't. He said, there's too much rationalization going on
and too much more acceptance in society of white privilege
and white supremacy. He said, we've got our hands full
right now trying to save the democracy. NFL football is
a blip on the radar, so I don't see it.
(27:09):
I would like to hope that that would be the case,
but it's so disingenuous, so in bred, so deeply embedded
in systemic racism, that it has no chance. I ask you,
as a coach who's in this game now, how optimistic
are you that we're going to see change in the
near future. I think we're gonna see change in the
(27:31):
near future. I can't tell you how much it might
be one or two better than what it was, but
you will see change in the future. Again, they hired
three African American general managers. Uh man, that's a start,
you know, that's a start. I don't. I think it's
got to be more of starts for everything. I think
(27:55):
they have to be more African American pensive, quality control
guys and quarterback coaches. I think that there's not enough
of them, but those are all the guys that are
getting the jobs. I think there need to be more
sprinkled than there. As there are quarterbacks coming, you'll see
a lot of us as defensive coordinators. You don't see
that many on the offensive side of the ball, whether
(28:17):
it's a quarterback coach or an offensive quality control guy.
I think it's it's going to move, and again, I
don't know how fast. Again, these positions are gonna move slowly,
but they will move, and they're starting to move. You're
not gonna look for results next week and say that's
what I was talking about. You know, it's gonna be
(28:38):
glacier progress, as one of my coaches always say, And
you gotta pushing, and you've gotta keep going forward the
right way. And it may not. It may be in
our lifetime, it may not. You know, you don't know
those things, and you don't know who's in what's head
and who's in somebody's head. As people get older and
owners sale teams to different owners, there may be a
(28:59):
break in the system, or there just may be something
that happens. So you hold out hope and in the meantime,
you just do your job and you try to do
what you can to go forward through make sure everybody's
getting the right example that you're setting by being in
that position. So, Jim and and she here, I'm talking
about glacial progress, because that's the same as if our
(29:20):
parents told us. It's the same as if we heard
in the eighties and nineties, and now it's resurrected itself
in the um. So I want to I want to
add this kind of to the equation. Because you interviewed
in Philly and you interviewed in Atlanta. How much did
being on the defensive side of the ball? How much
when when you were getting questioned and asked about would
(29:42):
you how you lead teams, whatnot? Where do you did
you think if you were handicapped being on the defensive
side of the ball. Because I've spoken to some guys
who were defensive minded coaches, so who got interview for
head coaches, and they said some teams could not get
off the offense aspect of the interview. Well, that's all
I asked you as a defensive coach, and all they
ask you because you're a defensive guy. All they want
(30:04):
to know is, really who is the coordinated who's the
offense where the type of offense with you run and
that that kind of puts us behind because in the
day where the rules have changed and the league has
kind of spread out and opened up, it's become more offense.
How many points can you score and that that type
of thing, So the defensive coaches kind of get a
backseat to begin with. So it's not even the color
(30:26):
thing there. It's a defensive coach that gets probably slided
more than an offensive coach. As you can see, it
was like five guys on offense, two guys on defense.
This cycle around, and you say it's going to change
every couple of years, but lately it hasn't been, and
it's become all offense because it's all about the quarterback.
You know, it's about the quarterback. They want somebody on
(30:47):
offense to run the quarterback. Defensive guys know about the quarterback.
And one there are plenty of defensive coaches as one,
a bunch of Super Bowls, Belichick, Dungee, tomlinselves, you can
go on the on there a bunch of guys currently
Carol is one of them, the other guy, A lot
of guys as one super Bowls, and nobody sees that
(31:09):
the defensive coach can understand what the offense needs and
what the offense is doing to recognize that offensive coaches
trying to put up fifty or sixty points and they
let the defensive side slide. But nobody cares about that
because they're putting up points, and then you kind of
go from there. I mean, so it's a little different
as a defensive coach going in on an interview and
(31:32):
that that makes it a little tough. But this is
the time we're living in. All you can do is
try to be a great defensive coach, so you can
change minds and try to bring it back a little
bit to the defensive side of the ball. I wanted
to ask you, m you can prepare as much as possible,
as best as possible to be a head coach in
this league, and yet you will not know. There are
(31:54):
some things you just won't know until you sit in
that chair. And I wonder if you could speak to,
for say, young coaches who are out there who are
trying to get there, maybe what were some of the
things that once you got an opportunity to be a
head coach that you look back now and say, Man,
I wish I would have known that then you know
what I know now. I think going in you have
(32:15):
to ask the questions of what that team brings to
the table for you, not just what you bring to
the table for them. You know, as coming in as
a head coach, somebody offers you a job and you're
so excited to take it and look at it that
you forget to see if it's the right fit. Because
it's your first time. You don't think you'll get another one,
(32:36):
But you need to see what the organizations about. You
need to spend time with the GM, spend time with
the people in the building to make sure it's the
right fit for you. You need to ask all the
questions about support staff and your coaches and everything else,
and how are they gonna accommodate those guys, And what
(32:57):
kind of team are we trying to bring in? Is
early rebuild or are we trying to save money? Are
we trying to spend money. You need to ask all
those questions going in, just like you're the interviewer and
not the interviewee. You know, after they get through their questions,
it's your turn of interview. I don't think I did
as much of that as I thought I should. Have
going into that the first time around. So I think
(33:19):
when guys, you know, for us to take jobs, we
don't get off for many So we have to take
what's coming right off the top and you try to
make the best of a situation. But you know, most
guys will get head jobs are taken over teams that
in some way, shape or form, we're broken. So you
have to ask the right questions and make sure it's
the right fit. And you may never get that job,
(33:41):
but you have to decide that once you know everything.
You know, if you know everything, you still take it.
I think that's a good thing, but you have to
at least ask those type of questions. We always say
on here Steve right, all money ain't good money. Jobs
you know, you know and you said this one day, uh,
at the immediate day that having gone through being a
(34:05):
head coach with the Jet, there's a lot of things
you've learned. We heard so many coaches say, hey, that
first time around, if I would have only known this,
this and this is which I know now if you
get another shot, it's like kind of piggybacking off of
what were you You were just saying what would be
some of the immediate things that you've got to have
(34:27):
your antenna's up about going in and what will you
know a lot better be, you know, towards roster building
and things like that that will help you succeed the
next time around. I don't know a lot about the
roster building part, as far as the salary as I concerned,
and who will be expendable and who wouldn't, And get
rid of the guy early as supposed to keeping them
(34:48):
a year too late. And understanding the building and who
you have to answer to and how things are running
the building. As a head coach, you don't only have
to address the team. You have to make sure the
building is running properly. You're the voice and you're the
face of everything, whether it's the media, the building business side.
You carry a lot of weight and you should treat
(35:10):
everybody the same with respect. Whether it's the cafeteria people,
whether it's the maintenance workers, maintenance workers, whether it's the
business people. You treat everybody exactly the same, but you
grasp the whole building. Coming in, you know, as a
head coach or a new one not coming in, you
know you have to do these things, but you don't
know to what extent until you really get in the building,
(35:32):
until you have to see what you what kind of
culture you have to create. You have to create the
culture of the building, not just the team, but you
have to change and entire basically change the entire city
around and give them hope and give them some positivity
and make the right moves to make sure that you're
successful so they can be successful. And I think going
(35:54):
in for the second time around, you know that right
off the top, but I don't know what I'm walking
into right off the top, and I'll know within ten
fifteen minutes of the interview. Uh what kind of situation
it would be? Mm hmm, Todd, when you um when
we talk about these things, I wonder we had JC Tredder.
(36:15):
We read JC Tredder, the president of the nfl p
A a few weeks back or a month back, whatever
it was. He wrote that what this season with COVID
has taught him is that the off season isn't as
necessary as teams have made it out to be in
terms of on field workouts, those sorts of things. I wonder,
from a coaching standpoint, would you agree with that standpoint
(36:38):
that that COVID has taught us this year that you
don't necessarily have to have these guys out on the
field in the off season to have a successful season
um or to be able to install the things that
you want to install. I think COVID has taught us
for the most part. UH, spending time with your kids
(37:02):
has been the biggest thing COVID has taught us. But
from a coaching standpoint, the younger guys need to work.
You know, the older guys, some of them don't want.
As they go through training camp a couple of years,
they're going through the same routine. It's wearing, tearing their bodies.
But the development of the younger guys are crucial. As coaches,
(37:23):
we don't really have to say in all this, but
I think the younger guy's development are very crucial. And
you don't see it on game day because everybody's taking
the fundamentals going down on every team, so it looks
like a normal game, but it's really not because you
don't develop them as as quickly as they would develop.
You know, I'm not saying they need all of it,
(37:45):
but they definitely need some of it, and they need
a portion of it. But again, as coaches, we don't
have to say that between the NFLPA and the NFL
to bridge that gap right there. But you know, we
got it going, and it took a lot of work
from everybody, and it was tough. You know, it's tough
to zoom. It's bad enough to meet with people in
(38:05):
person and trying to have walked through this so on
zoom where they need to land on the sofa pillow
one way and they're sitting there looking at you or
the dogs running around or something like that. That's to
do for a couple of months. It really it's tough
to do because when you get them back in the building,
you're starting back at square one anyway, because they don't
(38:27):
see it from a fundamental standpoint. But I think it's
very crucial for the younger guys have an off season,
if I say, for for years you had to come
up with game plans to try to stop Tom Brady.
You saw how good he was. When you see him
now on your side working in practice and working in
(38:48):
the meeting rooms and just being around him, what are
maybe some things that you didn't know about it and
just what can you tell us that just makes him
so different and so special. This may sound crazy, the
biggest thing I found about Tom other than his work
ethic and his diligence and his precision to be the best,
(39:12):
he makes everyone else feel important, to feel like superstars.
You know, you have superstars that will sign some autographs
and walk off. You have guys that will beat to
themselves and everything else. He can laugh at himself, and
he can go up to a scout team guy or
walk off with the defensive guy on offensive guy, and
they can talk football. And by the time you finished
(39:34):
talking to him, you will feel like he would feel
like you will feel like you're helping him as opposed
to him helping you. I mean, he had the most
uncanny knack for his people. Skills are outstanding. His way.
The way he includes everyone and everything that they do
(39:54):
and channels it into football and to what they do
is like nothing I've ever seen. Mean, the person in
football far outweighs the player in football, and it's a great,
great player. So I think that's helped a lot of
guys on our team become professionals. I think it's helped
them train better. I think it's helped them see the
(40:16):
game better. I think it's helped their focus better on
both sides of the ball, and I think what he
brings to the table from that you can't you know,
you can't pay enough money for. And the fact that
he is a great player and he can't throw the
football on top of that, it just makes an extra
special you know, to speaking of that, can you speak
(40:38):
One of the things I know about Tom from talking
to former teammates in New England is that he is
demanding when it comes to practice. He is competitive, He's meticulous,
and he is demanding. And one thing we know about
great players, and I don't say this in a negative,
it's a positive because I think every great player has
ego for time to come in of his stature and
(41:00):
everything else. And to have Byron Leftwich, who was once
someone who competed against him now to coach him, what
does it say about the job that Byron left which
is done to be able to manage ego expectations, the
demands that Tom puts on not only teammates but also coaches.
(41:20):
I don't think he gets enough credit for for navigating
all those waters as effectively as he has from a
coaching standpoint. Can you speak to that about the job
that he has done dealing with that Byron is the
most common one over there. I think with all the
new people, Dyrom that Shady and Worth and coming in
(41:42):
and Antonio Brown coming in at different times to put
all those pieces together, and I still to get to
the super Bowl and going through all the ups and downs,
and Kingston stay the course. Brian has a way of
evan flow where he can calm the warders of everybody.
And on top of that, he's one of the most
intelligent guys I've ever been around. He understands the game,
(42:05):
he knows the game, he can explain the game and
teach the game, and he just has a way of
time all the pieces together, and I think that says
a lot about him. I can't say enough good things
about Bron. Yeah, I feel like he hasn't gotten his due.
I mean, let alone the fact he didn't get an
interview during the cycle. But I think back to that
(42:25):
championship game and the decision to go for it on
fourth down before the end of the half, and then
the play after that, the touchdown pass, and I remember
watching it on the broadcast and everything was about Bruce's
decision and his guttiness to go for it on fourth
and almost as if Bruce made the play call about
what they would do there, and then what they would
(42:47):
do coming out of that first down in terms of
throwing the deep ball down the field to Miller, And
I'm like, wait a minute, Latron Leftwich calls the plays
and one of the reasons they decided to go for
it on fourth down is because they said they believed
they had a good play that would work in that situation.
So I guess that's that's my way of trying to
shine a light or illuminate left with a little bit
(43:09):
more and say, as you mentioned earlier about broadcasters, we
have to be more diligent in terms of shining a
spotlight where it needs to be focused. And I just
think that this guy hasn't gotten enough credit for what
he's been able to do with this offense um, particularly
this year, and he did a lot with it last
year as well. You know, it just got overshadowed by
(43:31):
a quarterback with through thirty interceptions and the team not
making the playoffs. But I think he's done a tremendous
job in the last two years. Now, I'm off my soapbox, really,
I had It's hard when you have a head coach
who was a great offensive coordinating has a great offensive
mine is hard when you bring in the legendary quarterback.
So obviously the conversation is going to be there. But
behind the scene, Iron does all the grunt work and
(43:54):
he makes those plays on Sunday, so he does deserve
the credit. But I understand because of the two guys
at a big larger than life than him. But I
think he's his time is gonna becoming real soon. I
could have sworn you're gonna say it was hard being
overshadowed by a wide receiver who's faster than Tyreeko. Didn't
(44:17):
say anything man about Tariki when he ran by us
the first game. You know, I would ask you what
was going through your mind in that first quarter time,
But I think this is a this is a g
rated show, so I won't do that. Hey, I'll tell
you that. Okay, So you know, Jim and I both
Howard guys who gotta regarding me some HBC you loving here.
(44:40):
So Doug Williams got you started in coaching, bringing you
down the Moore House and then taking you down to Grambling.
What was that experience like coaching at the HBCU, where
you probably had to coach like five different positions right
line the field. More House and he as we were
(45:01):
both scouted at the time. We both he was scouting
in Jackson, Bell scouting in Green Bay. We both had
the East Coast, and he said, he's gonna get into coaching,
but I could be a defensive coordinator. I never coached before,
so you gotta be kidding me. I'm like, it was
like a hundred people that would coach for you and
go coaching. The harp that said no, I'm not taking
that job. He wouldn't stop. He asked me about five times.
(45:22):
So I finally said yes. I said, okay, everybody said
I can coach, so let me test it out. But
my first job was defensive coarter at more House and
the first day of practice in the spring, we could
go out and I'm coaching the linebackers. I'm doing pass
throughout drills and the guy had his head turned so
he just he couldn't even see me out with the quarterback.
(45:42):
I said, let me see your eyes when you dropped.
He said, huh, said let me see your eyes when
you dropped. He literally took his helmet off and walked
up to me almost about that said he said, okay.
I said, no, like there we went the special things.
(46:04):
Put the ball like kickoff team without that. I told him,
put the ball in the middle of the field. I'll
put it on the hogs. Put the ball in the middle.
I literally put the ball in the middle. He picked
it up on the thirty five and he walked into
the midfield. Walk. See you got some literally you got
some literal learners. Down at moor House man time out why,
(46:24):
I told Coach Rose to take open. I walked on
the doug with down the end zone and I walked
over down there that the doug. I can't do it.
So after practice, I think, I said in my office
and I sat at the wall for like four hours.
(46:45):
Back then, you know, I think love Jones was out
back then and cool that Dean Farris had this song
called hopeless Like. But then I regrouped and I came
back and it was actually one of the most fun
times I've ever had. We didn't have too many great athletes,
(47:06):
but they were highly intelligent and they would run through
a brick wall for me and I had a great
time at Morehouse and then go on to Grandma. It
was just the opposite I had a ton of athletes.
They were great athletes, and that made me like the
punishment guy. So not from Louisiana. So Doug said, you
(47:26):
got can go home. You're off on Friday. So Where'm
I go. I'm from New Jersey. You gotta tell me
ahead of time. I get a ticket. So I did
a bump of odd jobs. You know, I drove the
Deltas to a step in convention. I was like security
at a juvenile concert with Master p and them came
up with what I didn't hope, but no juvenile master
(47:58):
pea concert was one of the best times I ever had.
Oh my god, how old were you? How old were you?
I don't be about thirty or thirty five. Maybe I
learned the music first and then I yes, yes, preach
(48:29):
you and Jim Jim would have been the same way.
But stand up at the basketball game, Oh my god,
and they started playing uh me an accident and the
party don't stop. At the whole I was like, oh
my god, I look at you now. Now you're coaching
(48:53):
in the Super Bowl. Right now, you're coaching the Super Bowl.
Hey man, hey Todd, that the night before the game,
you gotta sit up there and get the guys all
rolled up. I used to do security at the Master
Pity concert, and now I'm here. You can make it.
It was funny. So I want to ask you this.
I know we're having fun here, but on a serious note,
(49:16):
what is it about coaching that you love so much?
I love the excess and nots. You know, for me,
it's all about getting into somebody to say it. I
love the challenges and every week what they represent. Sometimes
you go out of the quarterback, sometimes you go out
to the linement, sometimes you go at the running back.
Sometimes you go after the receivers, or sometimes you try
(49:37):
to put yourself in the head of the offensive coordinator
and become a coordinator. And it's a challenge every week
and you have to I like the mystique of it,
like the mysteriousness of it. I like the game approach.
From that standpoint, it's very challenging. It's like playing chess
ten times over and I'm a horrible chess player. I'm
(49:57):
learning how to play chess. I would chess board in
my office and I think I only made one move
probably in a year and a half, and it's just
sitting there. But I love the gymnastics of it, of
thinking three or four or five steps ahead, and that's
how I try to coach, and I think it's something
that drives me every day. And football has been probably
(50:19):
a part of my life since I've been born, and
it's got me to where I am right now, and
I just love doing it and I'll continue to do it.
That's awesome. Great if you if you played chess after
my guy put the football on the middle of the
field on the Moorhouse, you would have played like seventy
two games instead of just making one move. Ay, Todd,
(50:40):
Hey man, we appreciate this. This has been a blast.
This has been like a stone colde don Corney, you say,
a stone cold blast. So man, look, we want to
wish you luck on Sunday. We really appreciate you take
some time out of a busy week to spend with
Jim and I. No problem at all. Guys, Come on, Steve,
(51:08):
how many people out there actually knew that Todd Bowls
was a security guard at a juvenile Masterpiece concert or
was the chauffeur for the Deltas. I mean, we learned
something new every time we do one of these shows.
But I can honestly say that was something I never
(51:29):
expected to hear. He did not see that coming. We didn't,
Hey man, I could just see Todd because he did.
So He's like, so just kind of this quiet, steady dude,
run a security and you know juveniles up there talking
about shake itself. But even better than nasty. The story
(51:50):
is about starting out and coaching at More House. I mean,
I just it was all I could do not to
just slam my computer down, you know, just laughing. Just
as you said on the show, his players were literal learners.
When he says, I want to see your eyes when
(52:10):
you drop back, and he walks up to him and
takes his helmet off and bugs his eyes so time
can see. I just jim, if that dude played one snap,
have been done? Done for the day. If I'm the coach,
I'm done for the day, you know see, And look
(52:34):
it's kind of music to our ears because you know,
we're from the Mecca. We're arrogant Howard Night, and you
know people from More I'm a More houseman and we're
like so you know, so like you know, so when
we hear that stuff and ads on the adds, so
come on, ste come on now, Yeah, we gotta respect
our morales. Brothers love him. Look, we love him. But
(52:58):
you know that was just another intensive So I mean,
I'm sure that's gonna be a real prideful moment when
they when they hear this, like, I'm a morehouse man.
Who is that kid who took off his hel mid show,
tied his eyes? No? No, no, who is who is
the kid who picked up the ball and carried it
to midfield? In the middle of the field the dude.
(53:19):
The dude probably owns like fifteen banks somewhere exactly. Go ahead,
So I'm good, you know I figured that part out.
But it's funny, you know when we have an interview
like this, that when we're talking to the guy who
was trying to stop Patrick Mahomes, who is trying to
stop the most high powered offense in the NFL and
spending all of his days like this, and we end
(53:41):
up talking about are he was driving the Deltas to
his step show, bro, this is the best podcast in
the world, man, you know, you know, it's a beautiful
thing to have that kind of freedom in latitude. Steve,
it really is. This is it? What Jim? Why don't
you go ahead and bring us home? U as we prepare,
we're gonna we were due or double dipping. We're gonna
have a second buccaneer all a little bit later this
(54:03):
week to Jim Yes, sir, and this one teas. He's
one of my favorites too, just um. A classy, intelligent
gentleman and one of the greatest players who ever play
in the NFL. That's Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Brooks
who lives in Tampa. Um. We'll talk to him about
the super Bowl matchup as well as being a co
host of you know, the super Bowl in your hometown.
(54:26):
So we just want to say to you again, as
we always do, thank you for listening, Thank you for subscribing.
We appreciate your support. Please leave us messages in terms
of what it is you would like to hear, who
you would like us to have on, what topics you
would have liked you would like addressed. That way, we
can continue to give you more of what you're funking for.
(54:51):
And yeah, we can also continue to give you more
of what you're funking for thanks to our sponsor into It.
Much love to them for taking the I'm and the
money and effort to keep us rocking and roll. Remember
into it, the proud makers of Turbo tax, QuickBooks and mint. Alright, Giam,
we're gonna ready to get get rock and rolling. I
mean that interview just asked me on another plane. Thank you,
(55:14):
Todd Bowls. Thank you are to our producers Stephen Manny
on the ones, Thomas Warren on the twos for Jim Trotter,
and I'm Steve White. Were the Howard Mob and we
are out
All right in the Super Bowl week, here at the
Huddling Flow podcast, brought to you by Into It, the
proud sponsors of Quickbook, Turbo Tax and Mint. I am
Steve White, joined by my guy Jim Trotter. We are
two thirds of the Howard Mob. The other third, Thomas Warren,
is back in the house and we also joined. We
have an honorary Bison Jim Steve Manny also helping out
(00:36):
of the ones in the two, Thomas has the one,
Steve's got the twos and Jim. This is a really
really special episode that we have today. Go ahead, let
let him know, let her know what time it is.
You know whether we we say that every week because
it seems like it just gets better and better and
and and one of the great things, yeah for us
about this podcast is we're able to bring on people
(00:56):
that we really want to talk to and hear from,
and they never are failed to bring it. And today
it is Todd Bowls, the defensive coordinator the Tampa Bay Bucks,
who was gracious enough to take time out of his
week um in terms of preparing to face the Kansas
City Chiefs to join us on Huddle and Flow and
(01:17):
Todd brings it. Todd brings it. So for those of
you we go, we go to places with this interview, Jim,
we do, and and there'll be some like in New
York and whatnot they say they only know Todd. Is
this stern guy, serious guy and whatnot. But um, Todd
actually had us busting up a few times. So it's
that kind of interview. Um. It deals with the serious,
(01:40):
it deals with the fun, and I think the audience
will enjoy it. Yeah, no need for us to talk. Actually,
she knows because Todd does that masterfully. So Jim, let's
not waste any time. Let's bring on the Buccaneer defensive
coordinator Todd Bowls. Jim, Now we're joined by our special guest,
(02:02):
a good friend of ours and someone we know well,
and that's Buccaneers defensive coordinator Todd Bowls. Todd, thanks for
joining Jim and I on the Huddling Flow podcast. You
need to be here, guys, you know, Todd, we gotta
thank you here. You know, it's Super Bowl week, you
got your defense, you're getting it ready for the game.
So to take time out to spend it with us,
(02:22):
We're truly appreciative. I'm appreciative one. You guys are the stars.
I'm just happy to be here already. Man, you know
we're coming, all right, Todd, we'll speaking of that time.
How you know you you're you guys are in a
real unique situation in terms of you know, you're hosting
(02:44):
your your you get to go home at night, right,
You're not having to deal with all of the festivities
and stuff of a Super Bowl. How has the preparation
been with the off week and this week? Knowing that
there's not as much fanfare or anything around this game
as they normally would be. That's been a strange part
because it's at home and you don't see it because
(03:05):
of the pandemic, so you don't get to go out
and see all these festivities going on. It's been kind
of like a normal game week. You know, last week
was really a normal game week. This week because of
media blitz and everything else, is kind of picked up
a little bit. But from a practice standpoint, we're kind
of doing the same thing we've been doing all year,
which is, you know, it's it's great because you get
to go home and sleep at night. You know, you
(03:26):
want the guy to enjoy a Super Bowl if it
was somewhere else like l A or Vegas or anywhere else.
But because of these times when we're at home, it's
really been almost like a normal practice week. Tell what
what's been preparator, What has your preparation been like in
terms of install those sorts of things. When you've got
two weeks between a game. When you do your meeting
(03:47):
potatoes last week, we did all that last week because
you know, this week, with all the obligations for everybody,
that was gonna be kind of tough. So you do
your meeting potatoes like a week ago, and then this
week you just try to find tune everything and not
a would think it, and make sure the guy the
fresh and some guys get banged up, get a little healthy,
and you just continue to just work away and get
(04:07):
ready for Sunday, tod what and you know it was
you know, Devin White talked about this and the fact
that you guys played the Chiefs in the week twelve.
You've got some tape, you do have some familiarity with
personality and tendencies and stuff other than just tape, but
just knowing how certain guys react to certain situations. In
that situation with you guys, coming back after falling behind quickly.
(04:29):
What is having played them fairly recently, how does dad
apply to the prep and what to expect on Sunday.
I don't think it applied at all. It was one game,
you know, just like we beat Green Bay early in
the year. The championship game was completely different. The fact
that we played them and they're a great team. Everybody's
played them. They played their division twice and they beat
(04:49):
everybody there. So you know, we just got to correct
our mistakes and play our type of ball game and
hopefully get them to play our type of ball game.
They got a lot of talent, they have great are
they wanted last year. It's hard for us to get
back here just this one year and they've gone back twice,
so you know, they're mentally tough and very well. Coach
(05:10):
go three does a great job. But those guys, the
enemy Spags, all those guys do a great job and
they've been here, so this will be new for us,
so they allowed to be a little calmer. We've got
a lot of younger guys, so they'll be a little
more excited, and they should be. It's a super Bowl.
You know, it's hard to get to this point, but
I think once the game starts, whoever executes the best
gonna win. Tell what's your biggest takeaway from that first meeting. Uh,
(05:35):
they got by us in the first quarter. I thought
we panicked a little bit early on and they ran
by us, and they made some plays. We made some mistakes,
but a lot of it was due to the play
they were making, not because we made mistakes. And you know,
we learned from that hopefully as the season went on,
we corrected some things and trying not to let it
happen on Sunday. But I think it made our younger guys,
(05:58):
especially in the back end, mentally offer. You know, I
thought that shocked them a little bit after the game,
and it's you know, you play a game every week,
you gotta get rid of it. Twenty four hour rule.
Whether you want to lose, blowout, close game, you gotta
get rid of it. And I thought as the season progressed,
the older guys like Sue and JPP and Shack and
Lavante help those guys mature from games like that and
(06:21):
understand to take it more professionally and try not to
let that happen again by doing a little things. And
I think that's helpless a well. How much has it
also helped the fact that there are certain things you
can't simulate in practice. For instance, it's difficult to simulate
Tyreek's Hills speed or suddenness if you will, um or
maybe some of the motion in terms of the efficiency
(06:43):
that the chief shoes and whatnot. Having seen it once before,
do you think that that gives your guys a better
understanding and a better appreciation of what it is that
they are about to face and how to handle that. Well,
I think from a speech standpoint, you know how fast
they are. You can't simulate that practice. We don't have
those type of guys. But it's not just him. They
(07:03):
got Hardman, and they got Watkins, and they got a
bunch of guys that can run very fast. So but
they have seen the speed, so we understand we gotta
play fast to start the game out. Hold up all
here to Scotty Miller chirping it, he could beat Tyreek
Hill eight. Todd, they want to talking about if they
(07:24):
want to go on the dirt road somewhere after the season.
Wait wait, if they do, Todd, who are you putting
your money on. I'm gonna put my money on either
of them, they go play the horrible hold up Scott.
(07:55):
So Scotty's not Tyreek on the Scott team. All Scotty
has to take normal rip see you know this guy
have to take main rips and getting ready for the
ball game. You can't do any of that, okay, all right,
but tell me there's And it's funny when I when
I watch the Chiefs, and we always talk about the
speed on the outside and the pre snap motion, but
it looks like a lot of their blocking schemes up
(08:15):
front are also to trick you to get off of
your keys, like some of the you know, the ghost
stuff that they do with Kelsey coming back, you know,
to to block on the opposite side, and some of
the things like that. Is that is disruptive in terms
of trying to keep guys disciplined, at least early on.
With some of the stuff that they do during the
actual play itself. It is because there they do it
(08:38):
a lot faster than all the other teams. They have
faster guys, a little more crisp when they do those
type of things, So it really gets your eyes going
one way or the other. We've seen it all year
and everybody doing it. You know the Rams are doing it.
The Saints have done some, but they do it at
such a fast pace with their guys with such speed
and have so many things off of it that you
(09:00):
know they can get you if you're not on top
of your game. Tom, When did this did this season
start to click for you guys? Defensively? I know there
was a point mid season where it seemed like things
weren't just right, and then all of a sudden, you
guys found that rhythm, and particularly in the playoffs. Um,
you guys have been bringing it. What's there a point
(09:20):
for you where this unit went to another level? Was
there anything that happened that contributed to that? Now, we
started out fast. The first six seven weeks, they were
playing great, and as guys got banged up and nicked up,
I thought they didn't know how to play with injuries
very well, and a lot of guys were nursing some
things and trying to fight and play throom. So I
(09:41):
thought we had about three or four weeks where we
didn't play well, and then as guys started getting healthier
and understanding what was at stake and just trying to
have mental toughness and talking to the older guys. You know,
they started clicking again, and everybody was very selfless and
trying to do their job and not anybody else's job.
And then things started coming together. And the more they
(10:02):
saw it clicking and working, more excited they got. Kind
of brought us to this point. So we know your
stages are a little nicked, but overall your secondary When
I've been watching this postseason, they are bringing smoke. I mean,
whether it's not letting receivers off the line of scrimmage,
whether it is tackling with with just absolute fury. How
(10:22):
important is it for those guys to be disciplined yet
play with that type of physicality in a game like this.
It's extremely important to be disciplined in this ball game
as we as we know from the first game, they
can run right by you. The physicality. You know, I
think the biggest thing about Kansas City. They scare you
because the run after catch they get the yack yards.
(10:45):
You know, Tyree can turn of three or four yard
into a sixty yard game. He saw it against Buffalo.
It's like watching a Madden game. So you know, everybody
getting to the ball and making sure he only gets
about three or four yards after the Cats and not
twenty to fifty is is a big thing in the game.
That's probably just as important as a ball going over
your head. Tom One thing we know about you. You'd
(11:08):
like to bring some pressure, um, but I'm interested. Their
offensive line appears to be so banged up. And maybe
I'm biting the cheese here. You know, coaches always say
don't bite the cheese, but I look at how their
offensive line is banged up. How does that influence in
terms of how you go about attacking that unit? Attacking
that offense, Well, that's so banged up. They made it
(11:30):
to the Super Bowl. You are there with that look
when you lose your starting left tackle, your other tackles
banged up. But I mean they are banged up now,
so go figure they can't be all right. No, I'm
not biting that cheese at all. We're expecting to see
(11:52):
their best. They've got great players over there. The line
is probably not as known as the skilled guys, but
they do all the dirty word and they played tough ball.
And if you haven't knowed him and the running play,
they're always pushing the pile. There's not a play that
goes by with that off on the blind isn't pushing
the running back forward and pushing the pile. So I
know that coach very well. So we gotta play a
(12:14):
good ball game. You can't even know. I should have
known you weren't on bite on Man. I should have
known if he wanted to Jim. But about Patrick Mahomes,
I mean he he seems to always have some type
(12:37):
of exit route, whether it's scrammed with two guys on him,
just to dump it off to a running back who
lost the block, whether you know, to run the ball himself.
How difficult is it? Because he doesn't just extend plays,
but he makes things happen even when he's in trouble.
It's tough because he has the most canny ability to
(13:00):
get the snap of the ball and see his escape
route right when he's getting the ball. He knows if
there's more than four guys coming, he knows who's slow
and who's fast, and who's gonna go inside on the move,
And if there's a different certain game working, he knows
he can get out of it with certain things. If not,
he'll back up a couple of steps and buy even
(13:21):
more time until he does see it. So he has
two or three options that he can do. He can
run sit side, and he can throw it down field
and when he's running he's very accurate. Or he can
sit back there in the pocket and he can let
the guy get further down the field so where the
backers get far enough in past protection to where he
can run the football and it's not by accident or
(13:42):
anything that you can see it because it happens every
week and he does a great job and that that's
tough to do. Ty, can you speak to what impact
Lavante David has had on on Devin White in that
relationship between the two. I think he really taught him
from a mental stamp and how to watch tape and
how to be a pro and I understand angles and
(14:05):
pass drops. And Devon is a great player, no doubt
about it. Devin comes and he hunts and he loves
to play the game. He's a ton of energy. Leamonta
is like the big brother that's letting his little brother
shine some. You know, if there's a play to be made,
Devon probably has more wild plays, but Lamante has just
as many plays, and he does. Lavonte is probably technically sound.
(14:26):
Devin's running hit, you know, he's the cow to run
down the hill and chase all of all. He's the
guy to run down the hill, chase all the cows,
and Lavonte will go down and take his time and
go one by one. But mentally they challenge each other
every day, and it's great to see him practice. Who
has the best hands, who has the best get off,
who has the best Devon will challenge you on anything.
(14:48):
You know, I don't care what position. I can get
off the ball better than you, shack, I can catch
better than the secondary. I mean, He's a bundle of
energy and Lavante is the only one that keep him
under reps the owner. It looks like Devon loves to
chat to out there on the field, Am I right?
(15:09):
So he loves the game. You know, he's an old
school player. He loves to play the game. He's mentally
he reminds me of a younger Ray Lewis. Not physically
because Ray was one of the greatest I've ever seen
play the game, but mentally just the energy he brings
per play, and he's working towards that mentally, just getting
guys around him to gravitate and make plays. He has
(15:30):
that type of energy. I did not say the player,
because Ray is one of my favorite players of all time,
and I will take that to the grave because I've
seen him in his prime and I can't name one
or two guys to do that better. But Devin has
a lot of energy to bring to the game, you know, Todd,
players often talk about being on this stage, the biggest
stage there is in football, and what it means to
(15:52):
play under those lights. For you, as coaches, can you
speak to what it means for a coach to have
an opportunity to participate in a game like this. I
think it's a great thing to get there. These are
hard to come by as coaches. You know, you can
go your whole career, and I've been as a player,
you know, I've even Scott up for Green Bay when
(16:12):
they went, but they go. As a coach, you hold
your excitement and because you gotta win the game to
be really excited before your eggshale. But it's a great
accomplishment because you work hard and everybody has families and
everybody's sacrifice. It's just like players do and they get
to this point. You know, it's a gratification to a
(16:33):
certain degree, but at the same time, you gotta finish
the doub TDD when you went with Washington. That was
the the Doug Williams game, right, was what I mean?
You know, look that to me. You know, I was
at Howard University at the time, and I just know
how that it's impacted us the city, so many black folks.
You know, it's still held, you know, it's made Doug royalty. Right.
(16:55):
What was it like as a player to just kind
of experience that whole ride and then especially at that
second quarter when Doug put on a show like he
did to win m v P honors. I don't know
if I enjoyed it as much as a player, because
it was my second year. I was starting pretty safety
and I was like three years old, and I saw
(17:16):
a dog every day of practice, and we knew how
good he was because he killed us when he was
a scout team quarterback. Our scout team team was better
than or just as good as I heard you on it.
So now go ahead and say go ahead and say
Doug was better than Raider. Can. I think Doug had
(17:39):
a little bit more poising. We saw our whole scout
team was pretty pretty good with Doug and Brian Mitchell
and Clarents Burdan and Derek Holloway and Mark the rest day,
Raleigh Mackenzie. I mean, we had guys. Our scout team
was like unbelievable Frank White, but we had these scouts
(18:00):
that was like second to none. So we saw him
every day. We saw him every day do it every day.
And when we started out bad, they got a touchdown
on the first drive and we were downtend nothing. But
once he got going, it kind of happened so fast
and we it was it was unbelievable to see in person.
(18:21):
We didn't realize the magnitude of what he was doing
at the time, but because we were in the game,
but I mean, it was outstanding at that second quarter
was like I mean, it was it just clicked from there,
and you know, just going in a halftime, we went
in the same tunnel as those guys. You could tell
they were defeated. But when real, real quick, when you
look back on it now, though, I mean, I know
(18:41):
you should in the moment because you were twenty two,
you really didn't understand it. But now looking back at
like the historical impact and you and Doug are still tight.
You know what what I mean, what what is you
like now looking back on that, well, it's it's it's
unbelievable now to see how big it was and how
humble he is as a person. You know, that's still
(19:04):
the same guy he was back then. It said a
lot for African Americans back then, for it was real
tough back then. We think it's tough now, it's even
tougher back then. For him to break that mold, and
you know, to get to say he was going to
Disney World. I mean that commercial and I was in
that by the way, probably Bob I was walking next
to him. You did it on purpose, right, you knew
(19:30):
what was coming. You still next to him, right, they
showed a whole different shot like, hey, there, I am
came on, would make sure replace So magnitude of what
he did and how he is as a person till
this day, it's so understated. But he did more for
(19:52):
us people of color than I could ever imagine at
this stage in my career. And I know Jim Brown
and all those guys play and everybody has done a
lot of things. But while I was in that moment,
I thought he was a guy that did a lot,
you know. As a segue, there Um Todd when we
talk about people of color and how difficult things are.
(20:14):
We can talk about the head coaching profession now in
the NFL, over the last four hiring cycle, there have
been twenty seven vacancies. Only three of those vacancies have
gone to two black men. And I wonder from your standpoint,
like Steve and I talked a lot about it on
this show, about the unfairness, the inequities, all of these things,
(20:36):
and people will always say to us, why do you
guys talk about race all the time? Why do you
talk about race? And in part, we do it because
we feel like coaches such as yourself, I don't want
to put words in your mouth, but some of them
feel they can't speak about it for fear that it
might impact their abilities to climb the ladder, the coaching ladder,
and so we feel like we have to give them
(20:57):
a voice. And I wonder if you can speak to
just what the climate is like, what minority coaches are
feeling right now when you watch these openings come up,
and yet by every objective standard, you can make the
argument that black men are being passed over for these
jobs who are qualified and capable. What are those conversations
(21:21):
like for you all in the coaching community, well, there's
a lot of frustration, especially with college coaches trying to
make the jump to the league and NFL coaches alike.
And you know, all you can do at the end
of the days as coaches to set an example you
can be, to try to be the best you can
be at your job, to show them hard work, to
show them dedication, to show them you can do all
(21:44):
the things the right way. And then if you get
a break that way, that's great, But you can't make
any progress if you're not working hard and doing the
right thing to be a good coach. You know, it's
we're African American. That's been well documented. We wake up
every day with in the mirror. I see I don't
need to go to the beach to get a tan there,
(22:05):
and I'm proud of that. I'm proud of who I
am or what I am, as well as the other
coaches are. But you know, you try to talk to
the guys and you try to have seminars and you
try to tell them just to be don't look to advance,
look to be the best you can be at your
job so somebody can notice you and give you a
hand to move up. And it's been tough. It's been tough,
(22:26):
and it's like you said, it's been twenty seven of them,
it's only been three, but it's been tough, and the
needles gotta move more. I think they keep asking us
what's wrong, and everybody knows what's wrong. We can't solve
the problem. Everybody else can solve the problem. Until those
people start speaking up, that needle is not gonna move
(22:48):
very much. So I mean, we all we can do
is coach and be the best we can be the
enemy left, which myself a bunch of others. There's there's
a lot of good coaches in this league, as there
are a lot of other coaches in this league that
are from racist. But you can't until they start making
it move the needle and say that's coach Bowls. You
(23:08):
you don't want to say that's coach Bowls, he's a
black guy. You just want to say that, Well, we
got here by coaching football, not because of the Believe me,
Bruce says not going to hire any charity cases. I
guarantee he's not gonna hire any charity cases. And we
work our herd, we bust our tail. We've been in
the league as long as everybody else and a few
(23:29):
of us got breaks. More of us need breaks. Uh,
I was fortunate to have one at one time. There's
a lot of other guys that need breaks. And you
kind of go from there. You coach would be the
best coach, and you coach to win and get in
the game like you are. Like we're in this weekend
and I'm proud of that. I'm proud of the guy
that's done it. All the coaches on our staff, male, female,
(23:52):
African American, Caucasian, it doesn't matter. We all got there.
We have one common cause. But until everybody else stopped
asking us what's wrong. When everybody knows what's wrong, but
you say, we don't want to speak up for fear
of our job. There's a lot of broadcasters that they
want to speak out for fear of their job, and
they happening and they understand everything that's happening, but they
(24:14):
want to hear from us to write their story. You
have to at some point writes our own story and
see you're here, and now you're here when I think
we'll start moving if we say it and you see it,
because we live it. We're disgruntled or we'll have a
problem or we're bitter or something like that. Nobody wants
to hear us talk common sense. But you know, again,
(24:38):
at the end of the day, it's only thirty two
of them. Everybody's fighting, and they're only gonna give certain
ones away, and certain teams have whether it's chemistry, whether
it's a field, whether they want to do a certain
thing for their team or have a certain field for
a guy. You know, that's they're prerogative right now. And
I don't think anybody anything can be done to change
(24:59):
anybody's one. When you have a million dollar, billion dollar corporation,
you get to pick who runs it, regardless of what
anybody thinks. You're not gonna cave under any pressure to
do that for anybody. I think the more people get
out that get in front of them and open their eyes.
And I don't know how that's become impossible because it's
(25:20):
only a select few that they select from us. But
until you put more people out there and keep putting
them out there, it's gonna be the same. It's a
slow moving process. Uh, it's not moving as fast as
we want. It may not move as fast as the
next generation once, but it's moving beyond what it was,
(25:40):
and it's not what it is or what nobody would like.
But you have to sit there and just work at
it every day there, every days, be frustrated their days
as you lash out and every day. But at the
end of the day, as coaches, we got in the
game because we love the coach fall and as long
as you carry that first, everything else has to come
(26:03):
after that. And we understand what we represent, who we represent,
but how we represent them is probably more important. And
that's just to be stand up guys and trying to
be the greatest coaches we can be. Toddle, I want
to read you something that Jimmy Ray Jr. Who we
all know and respect. He's been a mentor to a
lot of people, UM, a lot of black coaches in
(26:25):
this league and in terms of creating paths. I talked
to him about this UM last week and I asked him,
how optimistic are you that we're going to see change,
that this this this playing field will be leveled. I
want to read you what he said and just kind
of get your thoughts in terms of how optimistic you
are that things will change. And what he said to me,
(26:47):
I said, do you see change. Do you see things
getting better? And he said not in my lifetime. No,
I don't. He said, there's too much rationalization going on
and too much more acceptance in society of white privilege
and white supremacy. He said, we've got our hands full
right now trying to save the democracy. NFL football is
a blip on the radar, so I don't see it.
(27:09):
I would like to hope that that would be the case,
but it's so disingenuous, so in bred, so deeply embedded
in systemic racism, that it has no chance. I ask you,
as a coach who's in this game now, how optimistic
are you that we're going to see change in the
near future. I think we're gonna see change in the
(27:31):
near future. I can't tell you how much it might
be one or two better than what it was, but
you will see change in the future. Again, they hired
three African American general managers. Uh man, that's a start,
you know, that's a start. I don't. I think it's
got to be more of starts for everything. I think
(27:55):
they have to be more African American pensive, quality control
guys and quarterback coaches. I think that there's not enough
of them, but those are all the guys that are
getting the jobs. I think there need to be more
sprinkled than there. As there are quarterbacks coming, you'll see
a lot of us as defensive coordinators. You don't see
that many on the offensive side of the ball, whether
(28:17):
it's a quarterback coach or an offensive quality control guy.
I think it's it's going to move, and again, I
don't know how fast. Again, these positions are gonna move slowly,
but they will move, and they're starting to move. You're
not gonna look for results next week and say that's
what I was talking about. You know, it's gonna be
(28:38):
glacier progress, as one of my coaches always say, And
you gotta pushing, and you've gotta keep going forward the
right way. And it may not. It may be in
our lifetime, it may not. You know, you don't know
those things, and you don't know who's in what's head
and who's in somebody's head. As people get older and
owners sale teams to different owners, there may be a
(28:59):
break in the system, or there just may be something
that happens. So you hold out hope and in the meantime,
you just do your job and you try to do
what you can to go forward through make sure everybody's
getting the right example that you're setting by being in
that position. So, Jim and and she here, I'm talking
about glacial progress, because that's the same as if our
(29:20):
parents told us. It's the same as if we heard
in the eighties and nineties, and now it's resurrected itself
in the um. So I want to I want to
add this kind of to the equation. Because you interviewed
in Philly and you interviewed in Atlanta. How much did
being on the defensive side of the ball? How much
when when you were getting questioned and asked about would
(29:42):
you how you lead teams, whatnot? Where do you did
you think if you were handicapped being on the defensive
side of the ball. Because I've spoken to some guys
who were defensive minded coaches, so who got interview for
head coaches, and they said some teams could not get
off the offense aspect of the interview. Well, that's all
I asked you as a defensive coach, and all they
ask you because you're a defensive guy. All they want
(30:04):
to know is, really who is the coordinated who's the
offense where the type of offense with you run and
that that kind of puts us behind because in the
day where the rules have changed and the league has
kind of spread out and opened up, it's become more offense.
How many points can you score and that that type
of thing, So the defensive coaches kind of get a
backseat to begin with. So it's not even the color
(30:26):
thing there. It's a defensive coach that gets probably slided
more than an offensive coach. As you can see, it
was like five guys on offense, two guys on defense.
This cycle around, and you say it's going to change
every couple of years, but lately it hasn't been, and
it's become all offense because it's all about the quarterback.
You know, it's about the quarterback. They want somebody on
(30:47):
offense to run the quarterback. Defensive guys know about the quarterback.
And one there are plenty of defensive coaches as one,
a bunch of Super Bowls, Belichick, Dungee, tomlinselves, you can
go on the on there a bunch of guys currently
Carol is one of them, the other guy, A lot
of guys as one super Bowls, and nobody sees that
(31:09):
the defensive coach can understand what the offense needs and
what the offense is doing to recognize that offensive coaches
trying to put up fifty or sixty points and they
let the defensive side slide. But nobody cares about that
because they're putting up points, and then you kind of
go from there. I mean, so it's a little different
as a defensive coach going in on an interview and
(31:32):
that that makes it a little tough. But this is
the time we're living in. All you can do is
try to be a great defensive coach, so you can
change minds and try to bring it back a little
bit to the defensive side of the ball. I wanted
to ask you, m you can prepare as much as possible,
as best as possible to be a head coach in
this league, and yet you will not know. There are
(31:54):
some things you just won't know until you sit in
that chair. And I wonder if you could speak to,
for say, young coaches who are out there who are
trying to get there, maybe what were some of the
things that once you got an opportunity to be a
head coach that you look back now and say, Man,
I wish I would have known that then you know
what I know now. I think going in you have
(32:15):
to ask the questions of what that team brings to
the table for you, not just what you bring to
the table for them. You know, as coming in as
a head coach, somebody offers you a job and you're
so excited to take it and look at it that
you forget to see if it's the right fit. Because
it's your first time. You don't think you'll get another one,
(32:36):
But you need to see what the organizations about. You
need to spend time with the GM, spend time with
the people in the building to make sure it's the
right fit for you. You need to ask all the
questions about support staff and your coaches and everything else,
and how are they gonna accommodate those guys, And what
(32:57):
kind of team are we trying to bring in? Is
early rebuild or are we trying to save money? Are
we trying to spend money. You need to ask all
those questions going in, just like you're the interviewer and
not the interviewee. You know, after they get through their questions,
it's your turn of interview. I don't think I did
as much of that as I thought I should. Have
going into that the first time around. So I think
(33:19):
when guys, you know, for us to take jobs, we
don't get off for many So we have to take
what's coming right off the top and you try to
make the best of a situation. But you know, most
guys will get head jobs are taken over teams that
in some way, shape or form, we're broken. So you
have to ask the right questions and make sure it's
the right fit. And you may never get that job,
(33:41):
but you have to decide that once you know everything.
You know, if you know everything, you still take it.
I think that's a good thing, but you have to
at least ask those type of questions. We always say
on here Steve right, all money ain't good money. Jobs
you know, you know and you said this one day, uh,
at the immediate day that having gone through being a
(34:05):
head coach with the Jet, there's a lot of things
you've learned. We heard so many coaches say, hey, that
first time around, if I would have only known this,
this and this is which I know now if you
get another shot, it's like kind of piggybacking off of
what were you You were just saying what would be
some of the immediate things that you've got to have
(34:27):
your antenna's up about going in and what will you
know a lot better be, you know, towards roster building
and things like that that will help you succeed the
next time around. I don't know a lot about the
roster building part, as far as the salary as I concerned,
and who will be expendable and who wouldn't, And get
rid of the guy early as supposed to keeping them
(34:48):
a year too late. And understanding the building and who
you have to answer to and how things are running
the building. As a head coach, you don't only have
to address the team. You have to make sure the
building is running properly. You're the voice and you're the
face of everything, whether it's the media, the building business side.
You carry a lot of weight and you should treat
(35:10):
everybody the same with respect. Whether it's the cafeteria people,
whether it's the maintenance workers, maintenance workers, whether it's the
business people. You treat everybody exactly the same, but you
grasp the whole building. Coming in, you know, as a
head coach or a new one not coming in, you
know you have to do these things, but you don't
know to what extent until you really get in the building,
(35:32):
until you have to see what you what kind of
culture you have to create. You have to create the
culture of the building, not just the team, but you
have to change and entire basically change the entire city
around and give them hope and give them some positivity
and make the right moves to make sure that you're
successful so they can be successful. And I think going
(35:54):
in for the second time around, you know that right
off the top, but I don't know what I'm walking
into right off the top, and I'll know within ten
fifteen minutes of the interview. Uh what kind of situation
it would be? Mm hmm, Todd, when you um when
we talk about these things, I wonder we had JC Tredder.
(36:15):
We read JC Tredder, the president of the nfl p
A a few weeks back or a month back, whatever
it was. He wrote that what this season with COVID
has taught him is that the off season isn't as
necessary as teams have made it out to be in
terms of on field workouts, those sorts of things. I wonder,
from a coaching standpoint, would you agree with that standpoint
(36:38):
that that COVID has taught us this year that you
don't necessarily have to have these guys out on the
field in the off season to have a successful season
um or to be able to install the things that
you want to install. I think COVID has taught us
for the most part. UH, spending time with your kids
(37:02):
has been the biggest thing COVID has taught us. But
from a coaching standpoint, the younger guys need to work.
You know, the older guys, some of them don't want.
As they go through training camp a couple of years,
they're going through the same routine. It's wearing, tearing their bodies.
But the development of the younger guys are crucial. As coaches,
(37:23):
we don't really have to say in all this, but
I think the younger guy's development are very crucial. And
you don't see it on game day because everybody's taking
the fundamentals going down on every team, so it looks
like a normal game, but it's really not because you
don't develop them as as quickly as they would develop.
You know, I'm not saying they need all of it,
(37:45):
but they definitely need some of it, and they need
a portion of it. But again, as coaches, we don't
have to say that between the NFLPA and the NFL
to bridge that gap right there. But you know, we
got it going, and it took a lot of work
from everybody, and it was tough. You know, it's tough
to zoom. It's bad enough to meet with people in
(38:05):
person and trying to have walked through this so on
zoom where they need to land on the sofa pillow
one way and they're sitting there looking at you or
the dogs running around or something like that. That's to
do for a couple of months. It really it's tough
to do because when you get them back in the building,
you're starting back at square one anyway, because they don't
(38:27):
see it from a fundamental standpoint. But I think it's
very crucial for the younger guys have an off season,
if I say, for for years you had to come
up with game plans to try to stop Tom Brady.
You saw how good he was. When you see him
now on your side working in practice and working in
(38:48):
the meeting rooms and just being around him, what are
maybe some things that you didn't know about it and
just what can you tell us that just makes him
so different and so special. This may sound crazy, the
biggest thing I found about Tom other than his work
ethic and his diligence and his precision to be the best,
(39:12):
he makes everyone else feel important, to feel like superstars.
You know, you have superstars that will sign some autographs
and walk off. You have guys that will beat to
themselves and everything else. He can laugh at himself, and
he can go up to a scout team guy or
walk off with the defensive guy on offensive guy, and
they can talk football. And by the time you finished
(39:34):
talking to him, you will feel like he would feel
like you will feel like you're helping him as opposed
to him helping you. I mean, he had the most
uncanny knack for his people. Skills are outstanding. His way.
The way he includes everyone and everything that they do
(39:54):
and channels it into football and to what they do
is like nothing I've ever seen. Mean, the person in
football far outweighs the player in football, and it's a great,
great player. So I think that's helped a lot of
guys on our team become professionals. I think it's helped
them train better. I think it's helped them see the
(40:16):
game better. I think it's helped their focus better on
both sides of the ball, and I think what he
brings to the table from that you can't you know,
you can't pay enough money for. And the fact that
he is a great player and he can't throw the
football on top of that, it just makes an extra
special you know, to speaking of that, can you speak
(40:38):
One of the things I know about Tom from talking
to former teammates in New England is that he is
demanding when it comes to practice. He is competitive, He's meticulous,
and he is demanding. And one thing we know about
great players, and I don't say this in a negative,
it's a positive because I think every great player has
ego for time to come in of his stature and
(41:00):
everything else. And to have Byron Leftwich, who was once
someone who competed against him now to coach him, what
does it say about the job that Byron left which
is done to be able to manage ego expectations, the
demands that Tom puts on not only teammates but also coaches.
(41:20):
I don't think he gets enough credit for for navigating
all those waters as effectively as he has from a
coaching standpoint. Can you speak to that about the job
that he has done dealing with that Byron is the
most common one over there. I think with all the
new people, Dyrom that Shady and Worth and coming in
(41:42):
and Antonio Brown coming in at different times to put
all those pieces together, and I still to get to
the super Bowl and going through all the ups and downs,
and Kingston stay the course. Brian has a way of
evan flow where he can calm the warders of everybody.
And on top of that, he's one of the most
intelligent guys I've ever been around. He understands the game,
(42:05):
he knows the game, he can explain the game and
teach the game, and he just has a way of
time all the pieces together, and I think that says
a lot about him. I can't say enough good things
about Bron. Yeah, I feel like he hasn't gotten his due.
I mean, let alone the fact he didn't get an
interview during the cycle. But I think back to that
(42:25):
championship game and the decision to go for it on
fourth down before the end of the half, and then
the play after that, the touchdown pass, and I remember
watching it on the broadcast and everything was about Bruce's
decision and his guttiness to go for it on fourth
and almost as if Bruce made the play call about
what they would do there, and then what they would
(42:47):
do coming out of that first down in terms of
throwing the deep ball down the field to Miller, And
I'm like, wait a minute, Latron Leftwich calls the plays
and one of the reasons they decided to go for
it on fourth down is because they said they believed
they had a good play that would work in that situation.
So I guess that's that's my way of trying to
shine a light or illuminate left with a little bit
(43:09):
more and say, as you mentioned earlier about broadcasters, we
have to be more diligent in terms of shining a
spotlight where it needs to be focused. And I just
think that this guy hasn't gotten enough credit for what
he's been able to do with this offense um, particularly
this year, and he did a lot with it last
year as well. You know, it just got overshadowed by
(43:31):
a quarterback with through thirty interceptions and the team not
making the playoffs. But I think he's done a tremendous
job in the last two years. Now, I'm off my soapbox, really,
I had It's hard when you have a head coach
who was a great offensive coordinating has a great offensive
mine is hard when you bring in the legendary quarterback.
So obviously the conversation is going to be there. But
behind the scene, Iron does all the grunt work and
(43:54):
he makes those plays on Sunday, so he does deserve
the credit. But I understand because of the two guys
at a big larger than life than him. But I
think he's his time is gonna becoming real soon. I
could have sworn you're gonna say it was hard being
overshadowed by a wide receiver who's faster than Tyreeko. Didn't
(44:17):
say anything man about Tariki when he ran by us
the first game. You know, I would ask you what
was going through your mind in that first quarter time,
But I think this is a this is a g
rated show, so I won't do that. Hey, I'll tell
you that. Okay, So you know, Jim and I both
Howard guys who gotta regarding me some HBC you loving here.
(44:40):
So Doug Williams got you started in coaching, bringing you
down the Moore House and then taking you down to Grambling.
What was that experience like coaching at the HBCU, where
you probably had to coach like five different positions right
line the field. More House and he as we were
(45:01):
both scouted at the time. We both he was scouting
in Jackson, Bell scouting in Green Bay. We both had
the East Coast, and he said, he's gonna get into coaching,
but I could be a defensive coordinator. I never coached before,
so you gotta be kidding me. I'm like, it was
like a hundred people that would coach for you and
go coaching. The harp that said no, I'm not taking
that job. He wouldn't stop. He asked me about five times.
(45:22):
So I finally said yes. I said, okay, everybody said
I can coach, so let me test it out. But
my first job was defensive coarter at more House and
the first day of practice in the spring, we could
go out and I'm coaching the linebackers. I'm doing pass
throughout drills and the guy had his head turned so
he just he couldn't even see me out with the quarterback.
(45:42):
I said, let me see your eyes when you dropped.
He said, huh, said let me see your eyes when
you dropped. He literally took his helmet off and walked
up to me almost about that said he said, okay.
I said, no, like there we went the special things.
(46:04):
Put the ball like kickoff team without that. I told him,
put the ball in the middle of the field. I'll
put it on the hogs. Put the ball in the middle.
I literally put the ball in the middle. He picked
it up on the thirty five and he walked into
the midfield. Walk. See you got some literally you got
some literal learners. Down at moor House man time out why,
(46:24):
I told Coach Rose to take open. I walked on
the doug with down the end zone and I walked
over down there that the doug. I can't do it.
So after practice, I think, I said in my office
and I sat at the wall for like four hours.
(46:45):
Back then, you know, I think love Jones was out
back then and cool that Dean Farris had this song
called hopeless Like. But then I regrouped and I came
back and it was actually one of the most fun
times I've ever had. We didn't have too many great athletes,
(47:06):
but they were highly intelligent and they would run through
a brick wall for me and I had a great
time at Morehouse and then go on to Grandma. It
was just the opposite I had a ton of athletes.
They were great athletes, and that made me like the
punishment guy. So not from Louisiana. So Doug said, you
(47:26):
got can go home. You're off on Friday. So Where'm
I go. I'm from New Jersey. You gotta tell me
ahead of time. I get a ticket. So I did
a bump of odd jobs. You know, I drove the
Deltas to a step in convention. I was like security
at a juvenile concert with Master p and them came
up with what I didn't hope, but no juvenile master
(47:58):
pea concert was one of the best times I ever had.
Oh my god, how old were you? How old were you?
I don't be about thirty or thirty five. Maybe I
learned the music first and then I yes, yes, preach
(48:29):
you and Jim Jim would have been the same way.
But stand up at the basketball game, Oh my god,
and they started playing uh me an accident and the
party don't stop. At the whole I was like, oh
my god, I look at you now. Now you're coaching
(48:53):
in the Super Bowl. Right now, you're coaching the Super Bowl.
Hey man, hey Todd, that the night before the game,
you gotta sit up there and get the guys all
rolled up. I used to do security at the Master
Pity concert, and now I'm here. You can make it.
It was funny. So I want to ask you this.
I know we're having fun here, but on a serious note,
(49:16):
what is it about coaching that you love so much?
I love the excess and nots. You know, for me,
it's all about getting into somebody to say it. I
love the challenges and every week what they represent. Sometimes
you go out of the quarterback, sometimes you go out
to the linement, sometimes you go at the running back.
Sometimes you go after the receivers, or sometimes you try
(49:37):
to put yourself in the head of the offensive coordinator
and become a coordinator. And it's a challenge every week
and you have to I like the mystique of it,
like the mysteriousness of it. I like the game approach.
From that standpoint, it's very challenging. It's like playing chess
ten times over and I'm a horrible chess player. I'm
(49:57):
learning how to play chess. I would chess board in
my office and I think I only made one move
probably in a year and a half, and it's just
sitting there. But I love the gymnastics of it, of
thinking three or four or five steps ahead, and that's
how I try to coach, and I think it's something
that drives me every day. And football has been probably
(50:19):
a part of my life since I've been born, and
it's got me to where I am right now, and
I just love doing it and I'll continue to do it.
That's awesome. Great if you if you played chess after
my guy put the football on the middle of the
field on the Moorhouse, you would have played like seventy
two games instead of just making one move. Ay, Todd,
(50:40):
Hey man, we appreciate this. This has been a blast.
This has been like a stone colde don Corney, you say,
a stone cold blast. So man, look, we want to
wish you luck on Sunday. We really appreciate you take
some time out of a busy week to spend with
Jim and I. No problem at all. Guys, Come on, Steve,
(51:08):
how many people out there actually knew that Todd Bowls
was a security guard at a juvenile Masterpiece concert or
was the chauffeur for the Deltas. I mean, we learned
something new every time we do one of these shows.
But I can honestly say that was something I never
(51:29):
expected to hear. He did not see that coming. We didn't,
Hey man, I could just see Todd because he did.
So He's like, so just kind of this quiet, steady dude,
run a security and you know juveniles up there talking
about shake itself. But even better than nasty. The story
(51:50):
is about starting out and coaching at More House. I mean,
I just it was all I could do not to
just slam my computer down, you know, just laughing. Just
as you said on the show, his players were literal learners.
When he says, I want to see your eyes when
(52:10):
you drop back, and he walks up to him and
takes his helmet off and bugs his eyes so time
can see. I just jim, if that dude played one snap,
have been done? Done for the day. If I'm the coach,
I'm done for the day, you know see, And look
(52:34):
it's kind of music to our ears because you know,
we're from the Mecca. We're arrogant Howard Night, and you
know people from More I'm a More houseman and we're
like so you know, so like you know, so when
we hear that stuff and ads on the adds, so
come on, ste come on now, Yeah, we gotta respect
our morales. Brothers love him. Look, we love him. But
(52:58):
you know that was just another intensive So I mean,
I'm sure that's gonna be a real prideful moment when
they when they hear this, like, I'm a morehouse man.
Who is that kid who took off his hel mid show,
tied his eyes? No? No, no, who is who is
the kid who picked up the ball and carried it
to midfield? In the middle of the field the dude.
(53:19):
The dude probably owns like fifteen banks somewhere exactly. Go ahead,
So I'm good, you know I figured that part out.
But it's funny, you know when we have an interview
like this, that when we're talking to the guy who
was trying to stop Patrick Mahomes, who is trying to
stop the most high powered offense in the NFL and
spending all of his days like this, and we end
(53:41):
up talking about are he was driving the Deltas to
his step show, bro, this is the best podcast in
the world, man, you know, you know, it's a beautiful
thing to have that kind of freedom in latitude. Steve,
it really is. This is it? What Jim? Why don't
you go ahead and bring us home? U as we prepare,
we're gonna we were due or double dipping. We're gonna
have a second buccaneer all a little bit later this
(54:03):
week to Jim Yes, sir, and this one teas. He's
one of my favorites too, just um. A classy, intelligent
gentleman and one of the greatest players who ever play
in the NFL. That's Hall of Fame linebacker Derrick Brooks
who lives in Tampa. Um. We'll talk to him about
the super Bowl matchup as well as being a co
host of you know, the super Bowl in your hometown.
(54:26):
So we just want to say to you again, as
we always do, thank you for listening, Thank you for subscribing.
We appreciate your support. Please leave us messages in terms
of what it is you would like to hear, who
you would like us to have on, what topics you
would have liked you would like addressed. That way, we
can continue to give you more of what you're funking for.
(54:51):
And yeah, we can also continue to give you more
of what you're funking for thanks to our sponsor into It.
Much love to them for taking the I'm and the
money and effort to keep us rocking and roll. Remember
into it, the proud makers of Turbo tax, QuickBooks and mint. Alright, Giam,
we're gonna ready to get get rock and rolling. I
mean that interview just asked me on another plane. Thank you,
(55:14):
Todd Bowls. Thank you are to our producers Stephen Manny
on the ones, Thomas Warren on the twos for Jim Trotter,
and I'm Steve White. Were the Howard Mob and we
are out
Popular Podcasts
Cold Case Files: Miami
Joyce Sapp, 76; Bryan Herrera, 16; and Laurance Webb, 32—three Miami residents whose lives were stolen in brutal, unsolved homicides.  Cold Case Files: Miami follows award‑winning radio host and City of Miami Police reserve officer  Enrique Santos as he partners with the department’s Cold Case Homicide Unit, determined family members, and the advocates who spend their lives fighting for justice for the victims who can no longer fight for themselves.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.