NFL Players: Second Acts hosts Peanut Tillman and Roman Harper sit down with legendary Raiders wide receiver Tim Brown for a candid reflection of his Hall of Fame career. Starting with his iconic NFL debut kick return touchdown in 1988, Brown recounts the highs and lows of his 17-year professional campaign -- all but one of which being in silver and black. From vouching to have the team part ways with former coach Bill Callahan to his innate skills as a kick returner, Brown shares anecdotes that are seldom told publicly. The Hall of Famer even speaks of a time when he pleaded with then-Dallas Cowboys WR Michael Irvin in an effort to land with his hometown team. All that and more on the latest episode of the NFL Players: Second Acts Podcast!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I told Michael, Michael, I want to Copley. Don't you
(00:01):
come down here? He hating you. Michael was like, you
told me, I'm going to tell Jerry right now.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
That was in ninety three.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Me and Jerry we all at the Pro Bowl, and
I made made the mistake. I went to Micah. I said, Mike, Man,
look man, I want to come home and play. Say
I play second fiddle, and that's not what it's all about.
I just want to be Oh no, oh, you know Michael. Oh,
you ain't coming down here. You ain't coming down. What's up, everybody?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm Peanut Toliming, and this is the NFL Player's Second
Acts podcast with me, as always my trusted co host,
mister Roman Harper.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
What's up?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
You know? What's up?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Man?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm really really excited about this one.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I played with this guy on video games for many,
many years, Like this.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Is video games. I actually played against the guy.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I mean, you're older than me. It is all good.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
I'm really looking forward to this and this is one
of the greatest of all time. Uh, Peanut, please introduce
our next guest because.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Uh. He's a Hall of Famer. Yeah, he's a Heisman
Trophy winner at Notre Dame. He is one of ten
players to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame
and won the Heisman Trophy nine time Pro bowler. Ladies
and gentlemen, please welcome to the podcast, mister Tim bro.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Sure, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Appreciate your love
with this. Thomas getting mad, I mean so good. Good
to be here. Guys, welcome to the pod. Brother, thank you,
appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Saw you about a month ago. I saw you in
Notre Dame. I went to the Notre Dame spring game.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
How often do you go back to South Ben.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Oh, man, I try to get back for all the
warm games.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Okay, before we hold you.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So last year I had I missed a couple of
the warm games and so I had to go back
to Florida State game, which was okay, but then they
make the playoffs. So I'm now back there in December,
you know. So did you come down?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Did you travel it all with the with the playoff
games in New Orlean?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, I went to UH I didn't go to the
Georgia game, but I went to the other three games.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah it was man, Yeah, it was great, incredible.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
It was, I mean, shout out to Notre Dame and
everything they're doing really really cool. I did not understand
the new helmet situation with the true gold dome, like
it is sweet.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
What is that like?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The gold dome? Like they have this this brighter gold.
It's not like the dull gold.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah, we wore the dull guess now they have this shiny,
real shiny gold, sparkly and all this kind of little
flashy as flashy as Notre Dame gets. That's all you're
going to get right there. You're not getting it with
flash Is.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
It true that you considered becoming a pastor after you're
done playing football?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah? Bro, that that's not over though. I mean that's tastes. Look,
I mean I'm at a church now. My past is
ninety three years old, and you know, he's doing all
he can to hang in there. But you know, and
there's going to be a serious transition that's going to
happen there, and so I mean, there are some things
I'm gonna have to do before that. But I mean,
(03:04):
if he was to say to me, which I believe
he is gonna say to me, hey, Tim, I want
you to you know, have something to do with this,
then it would be something I'd be more than happy
to look into. I like that. You put it out there,
speaking speaking into resistance. I like it. Look, brother, this
is you know I come from. My grandfather was a preacher,
(03:24):
my uncle was a pastor, mama's a missionary in the church.
Brother big brother's a deacon in the church. So it
wouldn't be you know, people who know me, know the family. Yeah,
they'd be like, oh, Timmy, pa okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
it wouldn't be like he what Timmy. It's like family business,
right exactly. I like that.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
So I know, I said a little bit in the intro,
and this is like one hell of an accomplishment. I
don't think I knew this, but you're you're one of
ten players to have won a Heisman and being a
Pro Football Hall of Fame. How special is it to
be on that small list?
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Well, you know, for me, it's even smaller because I'm
the only receiver right to accomplish it. So at this
particular point, so you know, I know for me, and
I tell people all the time, Look, I know I
won the Heisman not because of being a receiver, because
I didn't have quarterback that threw me the ball, but
it was because of returning punts and kicks and all
that kind of stuff. But Marcus Allen is always on me.
(04:24):
You only scoring seven touchdowns. I was like, yeah, markets,
but I wasn't driving over to power one yard like
you were getting twenty five touchdowns. I was actually making
people miss, you know, doing some real work, right. But yeah, man, Look,
I when I was going into the Hall of Fame,
I had a buddy here and he's an old country guy. Yeah,
and he came up to me and hate Timmy, Did
(04:47):
you know that you're only the night guy to win
the Heisman being the home I was like, Lee, man,
what are you talking about. That's thirty guys have done that.
And literally, on my way to my instronment speech, I
googled it up. Yeah, and they only had eight because
they hadn't added me, and of course we had a
charge what'son after me? And I was shocked. I was
really like, you got to be kidding me. Only nine
(05:08):
guys have but when you look at it, when you
look back, yeah, only nine guys have accomplished it. So no,
I mean it's something that it's one of those things
that when people here say it. They almost paused for
a second later, isn't rial So you're talking about I
have all the people who have won the Heisman in
the Hall of Fame. You only have ten guys. So yeah,
it's definitely something to be proud of. It's always a shock.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
And when you google yourself when someone shot shooting, like, wait,
I thought I knew everything about way I did.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Well, let me see this. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
This is something that I learned personally as well about you,
is that you're you're talking in third person.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You're doing it as well. Uh, at Notre Dame you
were Timmy Brown and you go by Timmy Brown. Now
obviously when the.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
People that know you, Yeah, but in the NFL, we
only knew you as Tim Brown, right right right? So
how when did the the m y get dropped? Did
well extend?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Today?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
They called me testing out Timmy? That's what they called me. Yeah,
so I think all my Notre Dame boys, man, if
I if I down them up right now and they'll
be like, hey, Timmy, when do you you know we're
we going? You know, that's just that's just what they
all call me. And my family calls me Timmy mostly
everybody else calls me tim you know. So it's another
big deal for me. I think the more people I
(06:26):
think they know me or know me, they call me timmy,
you know what I mean. So I look at it
as a term of the NFL.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Did did you make this decision?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Oh no, no, no, no they did. Uh yeah, you know,
like Marcus Allen calls me Timmy. You know, most of
the guys I played what they call me timmy, you know.
But people outside of that, they all call me tim So, uh,
you know, I don't trip either way, you know, but
when somebody calls me Timmy, I usually turn pretty quickly
because that's somebody who that's if I need to get
(06:56):
your attention in a crowd of people. Hey timn Hey
tim Hey Timmy. You say Timmy, be like, who is
that brother calling me Timmy? Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Could you take us.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Back to your very first NFL touchdown and you actually
scored on the very first time you touched the ball?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, you know, I got to give you a little
background to that. So imagine this. So I my last
year Notre Dame, you know, you know, once I realized,
you know, this thing is about to happen. I walk
into the Porsche dealership and I get this seventy thousand
dollars nine to twenty eight. That's for porch, right, black
on black, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Make sure it makes sure we look at You can't
you can't, you can't.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
In no, I mean, come on, Bro. So you know
I you know, I don't know when we get drafted, right,
So yeah, get drafted by LA. So I'm like, oh,
this is like really good. Right, I'm about to be flashing.
So I'm in a minicamp and James Loughton, Yeah, asked
me a question. He said, hey, what kind of car
do you have? Oh, James man Bro, I got this
(08:00):
black twenty four s for twenty es fort porch. He said,
don't bring it out here. And I was like, James bro,
this is his main for LA.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Bro.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I'm gonna be on the beach and man had beats
somemrow you know what I mean. He was like, don't
bring it out here. He said, you got boys in
this locker room who's been in the league for eight, nine,
ten years, driving penty at Grandam's or whatever, and now
you're going to be this flashy rookie coming in here
with this car and you haven't done anything. He was like,
don't do it. So I went bought to be a
fourteen thousand dollars Nissa pat five to Bacato training caut
(08:38):
So to your point, that game, the first when I
returned to open the kickoff of the game, Now you said,
have you asked for a touchdown? Twenty twenty five mins?
All burdy, he's James came to me during the game
(09:00):
said you can bring that porchaquelle before you. He said,
these boys can't say you had done this because you
don't did something, you know what I mean? And uh so, yeah,
I mean, but that moment, man, you know, of course
a lot of people were saying, hey, Timmy, what you
did in college, You're not going to be able to
do an NFL, you know, so how are you going
to adjust to that? And so I think to be
able to do that right off the bat, so to
(09:21):
shut a lot of people up, you know, at least
they couldn't say, you know, he never did it, because
I did only kick return already I ever had in
my career, because the next year I got hurt returning
kicks and the only one you ever had your career.
I do that. The only kick return now I should
have had one versus Seattle. I got tackled at the
two yard line, started celebrating. The guy came from the
other side, didn't see him, didn't see him, and uh
(09:44):
that I did that. Yes, on Monday night football too,
So it was it was pretty right after no of course,
not no, no, no. It was like only like three
seconds left because they tried to swip kick it and
I got the ball and took it up, you know,
and there's only two seconds. So we had to kick
a field goal, a ninety year field goal. It got
missed it. He missed the ninety yr field goal. I
(10:05):
can tell that still bothers you not getting that touched
on the way, Yeah, I could tell that bothers, no doubt. Well,
you know you think at the time, well there are
gonna be many of these, you know. But yeah, the
next year, opening game of the year, I tear my
knee up versus San Diego and that was it. I
never I returned punts, but I never returned kicks again.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
So coming from college going to the league, there were
a lot of naysaarers I said, you wouldn't be able
to do what you did in.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
College in the league.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Did that ever.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Hurt your confidence or did you ever stop believing in yourself?
I didn't, Man, I really thought that I was born
to return punts and kicks. I mean, I thought that
that was something that was innate in me. That you
put me in the right situation. You got you give
me ten guys in front of me who want to work,
then we're going to make something happen. You know, my
ability to make people miss had a little speed those combinations,
(10:59):
I think, And I was tough enough to get hit
on a pump return and you know, not whine about it,
and you know, and go do what you have to do.
So I just thought, man, that you know, if I
can just you know, be on the field and make
this stuff happen, you know, when they want when they
kick me the ball, Hey, I'm going to make this
(11:19):
thing happen. You know, It's just going to be a
situation where I'm not going to shy away from it
any of that. You know, it's going to be. It's
a situation. It's what I want, It's what I want
to do, is how I want to do it. And
I didn't care what people said about me. I really didn't.
I mean, I remember it, you know, because you you
sort of put it on the wall. But at the
(11:41):
same time, man, you know, it's a situation where it's football. Yeah,
they're bigger, faster and all that. I get it. But
now I got up my game. I have to be able.
So I don't think I ever let it, you know,
bother me to that point. But certainly I always wondered
why people wouldn't let me go play and then talk.
Why you're gonna talk first without seeing me do something,
(12:02):
you know, and say, well, he you know, he can't
do this because you know we just saw it, you know,
But they want to talk before they even see you
do anything on the field.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
My I think my and I think I might have
shared this with you one time. But the very first game,
it was Week five, two thousand and three, I got
my very first start and we played Chicago, played the Raiders, right,
and my position coach he walks over. I'm in the
weight room and he was like, hey, listen here, you
going against Tim Brown. You're going against Jerry Rice, two
(12:32):
future Hall of famers.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Don't be in there. F and up and he walked
out the door. And I was like, okay, Like I
was stoked. I was, you know, I'm like, I finn
to get my start out.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I fig up Dad, Hey, hey, pops, I'm going against
sim Rider Rice And he was like, Okay, what you
gonna do.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
It's like, I'm gonna just try to play a good game,
you know. And we we had the game. We in it.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I think it was like twenty four twenty one. I
think I wrote it down somewhere twenty four twenty one,
but uh, yeah, we we I don't know if you
remember the game, but it was it was. Yeah, that
was a bad year for us. We were I mean
we were coming off the Super Bowl year. Yeah, it
was just everything. Man Callahan just flipped everything on his head.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Man, it was ridiculous. So, I mean that was a
year we were ready to get. Week five, we were
already like, hey, can we get this out overweight because
this is this is not gonna work. I think the
next week we played Green Bay on Monday night and
they beat us fifty two to six. And that was
the night the week before the couple of days great,
uh Brett Fag's father died. Yeah, yeah, and yeah, I
(13:42):
remember having a conversation with Al Davis that night, going big, God,
I think it's over, Yeah, I think you know. I
actually told him, look, you probably should fire this guy
because he's trying to tell your organization that one you
know what I mean? And uh so, uh it was
it was head the other way man. I mean, it's
so so sad because we had made we had the
(14:03):
MC Championship in two thousand, we had the Tuck Game
in two thousand and one. Yeah, Tom Brady, Yeah, Tom Brady,
and then we have then we make it to the
to the to the super Bowl in two thousand and two,
and we we were bringing back the same but they
just changed the whole office. They changed. We couldn't audiboy anymore,
we couldn't do anything. So it was just ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
So I want to go back because you you said
something earlier, and I don't know how many other times
I'm actually have the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
To ask you this.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
You said, like I knew I was put on this
dirt pretty much to be a punt returner and a
kick returner. Well, at what point did you know you're
gonna be a Hall of Fame wide receiver, because that's
what you're known for. Yeah, now the other skills of
what got you there, and maybe talk about how you
had to work at that part because it maybe didn't
come as natural.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, I'll tell you what, man, that's a very good point.
I mean, because I would think that, you know, I
always want to talk about the punk returny kick return.
I always, you know, because I returned. I'm noticed a
man the history of League of return to punt for
a touchdown, the oldest man in the history of the
league to return a punt period at thirty eight years old,
you know. So I don't want to talk about that.
(15:08):
People were like, yeah, we see you return punts, so
let's talk about It's like, bro, let's talk about this
one second. I probably could't have made the Hall of
Fame doing that. So but so so I get hurt.
My second year, Al Davis tells me that you're going
to be the best punk returner, third down receiver to
ever play the game, but you're not going to play
(15:29):
on first and second down. Really. Yeah, So in ninety
ninety one and ninety two, I didn't didn't start a game.
I never played on first and second I only played
when it was thirty you know, because back then it
was two receivers and then you bring your third receiver
on on third down, and that was my role. So
I made the Pro Bowl again as a I made
(15:49):
Propo as a rookie returning punts and kicks, made it
again in ninety one returning punts and kicks returning punts,
and then in ninety two, Murvin Fernandez, who I was
playing behind, got hurt. He got hurt the seven eight
game of the year, and I think I put up
like forty nine fifty catches the rest of the year,
(16:10):
and they was like, we choose him. So in ninety
three I led the AFC in receptions. It was the
first year I made the Pro Bowl as a as
a receiver. And then after that, man, I think I
had nine ten years, one thousand yards and you know,
eighty seventy five catches or whatever, you know, one hundred
(16:31):
and ninety six. What up starts it? It was something
ridiculous like that. But it wasn't to answer your question,
It wasn't until a year fourteen or thirteen fourteen something
like that, somebody came to me and said, hey, if
you catch another pass or something, then hey, you may
be looked at as a Hall of Famer, and I
(16:54):
was like, well what. And I remember going to and
I had never looked at the numbers. I didn't know
where I was. And when I looked, I was like
top twelve and like catches and touchdowns yeah, and yards,
And I was like, well, okay, you know, And so
(17:16):
it must have been like year thirteen because fourteen and
fifteen I had really good years. Made the Pro Bowl
again in year fifteen as a receiver, so you know,
and by then now I'm top ten and everything, you know,
and so so you know, at that point, everybody's said, oh,
you're going to be a Hall of Famer. You know,
(17:38):
by the time I go top ten. And once I
got my one hundred touchdown catch, which didn't come until
my seventeenth year, were playing the Raiders. I'm playing for
the Buccaneers, but we're playing the Raiders in Oakland, and
I scored my one hundred touchdown catch. So I you know,
at that point, you know, not that you think you're
a lock. But I finished my career two two three
(18:02):
two and touches two in touchdowns, two and catches and
three in yards or some but I was two two three,
so you're thinking, hey, yeah, I'm gonna be a first
ballot guy. You know, you know so. But yeah, so
I think, man, But it really wasn't until late in
my career. But you have to understand this too. I
was so focused, man, on trying to win a championship. Yeah,
(18:25):
I mean, I was, That's all I you know, And
I tell people all the time, and I tell you know,
you know, these young folks all the time. Look, you
don't play a team sport to get individual awards, right,
you know, the individual awards, you know, they get you
through the day. You know, they make you, you know,
(18:47):
not you know, go crazy because you can look up
at your wall and you got a heisman Jophy at
a Hall of Fame bus. You know, it makes you
feel okay about yourself. But when you think about your career, yeah, man,
you know what I mean. The one that I mean
nineteen ninety, Bo Jackson gets hurt in the divisional playoff game,
(19:08):
you know what I mean, And so we go to
the FC Championship game with no Bo Jackson. You know,
Marcus Allen and now David's are fighting, so we don't
We barely play Marcus Allen in the AFC championship game.
We of course we're gonna get a buzz wok. We
got Buffalo killed us. You know, we don't make it
again until two thousand rich Gannon the first series, second
series of the game, Big Sarah Gussa falls under, breaks
(19:29):
his shoulder. He's out, you know. So now we got
three quarterbacks trying to play, you know, and you know
the Tuck rule game, you know what I mean, you.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Know what I mean, right, nobody even heard of his
rules until that happens.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
It's so crazy, man. And then you know, we get
to the Super Bowl and it's the last week that
there's not a break in between the AFC champions the
championship game and Super Bowl, so we have to go
right from the FC championship game. We're in San Diego
the next next Monday afternoon. We're in San Diego already, right,
So we had our game plans, man, and in a
(20:06):
game you know, we had the biggest offensive line in
football at the time, Tampa had the smallest, the best.
But then yeah, he walked with the Tijuana Yeah kick,
this is why so And the game plan was, Hey,
we're gonna we're gonna make them feel this heat, right,
and we're gonna you know, so that's a weird practice
(20:27):
all week. On Friday morning, they changed the game plan,
change the game plan. They changed the game plan completely.
They changed the game plan. So now the center Barrett
is freaking out because he's like, coach, I don't have
time to get all my my reads and all this
stuff and what what we you know, what we're talking
about doing. Now, I'm good for what we practiced, but
(20:49):
this and that night, you know, he had a problem anyway,
you know, and had a little bit too much of drink,
ended up in Tijuana, and you know, he still couldn't
play in the game. And that's that's what we're really
mad about. Because they had him back in time, you know,
Saturday afternoon. The game wasn't til you know, Sunday night,
(21:09):
so he had plenty of time to get him right,
and they chose not to play him. And you know,
so you go into the game thinking, you know, it's
a lot of distractions, a lot of you know, that's
the one game you don't want distractions, right, absolutely not.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
So listen, can we go back because kind of like Rome,
I might not be able to ask this question. Two
of the two of the greatest athletes of all time,
Jim Thorpe and Bo Jackson. And obviously I'm not I'm
wasn't around when Jim Thorpe was around.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
But Bo Jackson.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
As a kid, the baseball, the breaking the bat, running
up the wall, throwing a guy out from center field
at home plate. Then watching what he did, you know,
at Auburn, and when he gets drafted, he's playing running
back for the for the Raiders.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
What was it like having a front row seat just
kind of watching him do his thing? Yeah? It was freaky,
It really was. I mean, you know, you know, I
probably I played with Rocket, Yeah, Rocket was You've been
around fast, You've been around, yeah, you know, but this
was a different kind of speed. My rookie year. Now
(22:19):
I come out, I'm four three five of what come
coming out. So I had never played with a guy
that when he broke, I couldn't go catch him. Let's go,
you know what I mean. So we're playing at Denver Broncos.
We got to play sixteen Bob TREYO. Never forget it.
I come down in motion. My job is to get
the safety and if things go right, Bo Jackson should
be coming off my butt right. So I come down. Bam,
(22:40):
I had the safety. Bo Jackson comes off my butt right,
I'm about to go catch boat. That's what I'm about
to do. I put my head Dawn Fellas and I'm digging.
And when I looked up, it was cartoonish. Bro how
fast he was cartoonish? So I just read the field.
(23:01):
So I was asking my god, I said, was I
running in mud? They was like, don't ever run behind
Bo Jackson. Whatever you do, don't ever run behind them.
And when you watch it on film, man, I mean,
this is a guy that you know when they they
clocked him at what they call the running forty at
three point seven six, you know, from the thirty to
(23:21):
thirty when he was already running. You know, I think
he ran like a four to one or something. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
It's real video footage of it. But everybody heard about that.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, I've heard it's real. I can tell you it's
real because I've never been on the field with somebody
who was so explosive, who had the ability to outrun
out physical everybody on the field. One story I'm gonna
tell you guys. I can tell you many. I'll tell
you this what so you know he talked to the
third person. He stuttered really bad back in the day. Thankfully,
(23:52):
now he's good and he jokes about it too. But
we're at the meeting and they're installing plays right, and
he's in the back of the room and uh, all
of a sudden, you hear bo Bo bow don't won't
no blocking right, And everybody's like, oh, you know, nobody
want to move right, and uh, he stands up Boat
(24:16):
Bow don't won't blocking. So everybody's like the coach, like
the time, I know you guys, gon take a break
right right right. So when we come back, they had
put this play in, uh triple right, U X tight,
uh bowl reverse right right. So they say, Timmy, we're
gonna put you at the X right, you know, make
(24:37):
them think there's some special play coming, and we want
you to just run across the field, don't block anybody,
just run all the way to the the corner end zone.
We just run right. And what we're gonna do, We're
gonna pisch the ball to bowl left and then we're
gonna let bow reverse field and it's not gonna be
any blocking for both. So Bo just he's just gonna
(24:58):
outrun or if you got it this way, and unfortunately
I bought Mike Harden uh for the Broncos got in
his way. I saw you remember that play. I saw
that that was reverse. That was boul reverse left at
that boy because he's running that way.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
But that that's what you know. He did not want
block it. He wanted people out of his way, and
he would just run over people, you know. So I mean,
I don't think there are many running backs in the
history of the game. Yeah, who are going to set
up and say I don't want to block it. So
we're gonna take a short break and we'll be back
in a minute.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
So let's let's get into the let's transition into your
your your second act after after football. So you're now
the commissioner of the new Arena Football League and new athletes,
new rules, new teams.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
What are some of the new rules some of the teams? Like,
what what's making the Arena League fun again? Well? You know,
I think for these kids, man, and you know, hate
call them kids, but they are what they are. It's
an opportunity, bro, It's an opportunity to get one more
pattern the back, one more handclap, you know, because all
(26:08):
of them have a story of why they didn't make it,
why they didn't do this or do that. And I
think what what the Arena League is doing for them
is giving them the opportunity to get in the community,
you know, because all of our teams, the kids are
expected to get in the community and connect with some
(26:28):
nonprofit or whatever. And they're doing that and they've been
well received doing it, you know. So and you know,
they may not, you know, they're not Immi Smith or
Tim Brown or whatever. You know. You know, they're not
you know us, but people respect them because they were
in a jersey, you know what I mean. And they're
giving them entertainment, entertainment on Saturday night, you know. So
(26:50):
you know, we we did six man football last year.
We're going to move to seven man this year. But
we're trying to speak the game of twenty second play clock,
make it really wide open, you know. And it worked,
it worked really well for us, you know. And but
we thought with seven on seven and being a big
deal and going to be a part of the Olympics
coming up, that we should probably go to seven on
(27:12):
seven to give some connection to the fans more so
than just you know, a real football whatever. So yeah,
so I think from that standpoint, man, it's been great.
You know, we're in you know, Hot Springs and Springfield,
Missouri and Dluth, Minnesota, and you know, Kansas City and
places like that. It's you know where we are at
(27:32):
this particular point. But you know it's gonna get bigger
and better man Old Claire, Wisconsin.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
So yeah, we're six teams this year, hope to get
to twelve next year. And what the owner wants to
do is, you know, have six teams on the East coast,
six teams up here down here, and then let those
six play and then you know, play around robin playoffs
and make this thing happen. So it's been fun for me, man,
(28:00):
know it's fun for me. It's not a money gig
per se, but it's an opportunity for me to you know,
pad a couple of kids in the back and carry
some kids. And you know, we have made some calls
up to uh, the UFL about a couple of kids,
you know, because you know, and that's what I bring
to the table more than anything, you know. Boot Moose
(28:21):
Johnson is the commission don't know if he's a commissioner,
he's some he has some prominent role there, and uh
so we we've connected, you know, on trying to, you know,
get some kids up to his level. So you know,
it's fun, you know, trying to trying to you know, wait,
I get it, man. You know so many of us
and I don't know what your you got story is,
(28:43):
but so many of football players walk away from the game,
not like they want to, you know. I mean they
tell me. Less than two percent of us stand up
to a mic and say, hey, today, I've talked from NFL.
You know, everybody else is hurt, they get cut or
whatever whatever. And and but at least we played NFL, right,
you know, at least we could say that these guys
(29:04):
are having to do that out of high school or
out of college or whatever, you know. And I think
for them to have this one last opportunity to to
come out there, man, like I said at the beginning,
to get a handclap or to get a pat on
the back, it's worth it to him. And they're not
making a lot of money at all.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Yeah, you know, so do you think this is a
I mean, I know you just said it's kind of
like a pipeline or you make a couple of calls
to the UFL. Do you think the new Arena League
could be a pipeline to the NFL. Have you seen
some guys with that talent that that can play up there?
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Not really, not really. I think, you know, a guy
may show something to plays, but then you see why
why he's in the in the Arena League, you know,
because so, but the one kid I call about, this
kid man was and come to find out, I didn't notice,
but he was in Kansas City's training camp and decided
(30:00):
he wanted to be a track guy. So he left
to train and then wanted to come back. You know,
the league. Don't play that, You're not You're not. Yeah,
I don't know, right. So, and but this kid was
extremely talented, you know what I mean. I thought that,
but I knew why he was where he was because
(30:22):
of what he had done, you know what I mean.
And so I think I think he is in the
uf L. I can check on that. But but this
kid was was pretty good. But I hadn't really seen
anybody that, uh, you know, if I saw a defensive
lineman and we only got you know this year, we're
it's gonna be one on one offense you know, one
office along one defensive that's gonna be pretty interesting. Uh
(30:43):
but you know, so we see a lot of dB
type guys and and and receivers and all that. So
that's basically what I'm looking at.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
So after you retired, you did TV, and so did
doing TV like help you smooth out that transition? Because
you talked about it, less than two percent or two
percent actually get to retire from football on their own terms.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Football usually retires.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
All of us at some point, and so you know,
everybody has to deal with the transition in different ways.
And that's why we like to have this conversation with
some of the greats. How did do and TV help
alleviate or help you.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
In your transition? So let me let me go back
a little bit. So when I tore my knee up,
the doctor told me, Tim man, this is really bad.
You know, this is something that we don't see. I
tore my mediocollateral off the bone and my post seria
crucier exploded. Right, So they literally brought my hamstring down,
tied it all it or not, and said, hey, let's
(31:39):
see what we got. And but he told me, he said,
if you make it five years it's going to be
a miracle, you know. So and he even said this,
he said, uh, this is your second here, this is yeah,
this is my second year. Yeah. Oh wow, I didn't. Yeah.
So he said that great note of day education you have,
(32:01):
you may need to think about using it. Right. So
I'm in the I'm in the hospital room. Bro, he
just you know, he just walked out the room. I'm
having surgery in a few minutes. And this is what
this man tell me. Right. So the great thing about
that brother is it started my transition then, because I
realized this man just told me I got five years.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
You know.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
So I started a shoe company. I had a shoe
company kind of had a company called pro Moves. Who
Marcus Allen wore my shoes, Willie gaulf Eddie Anderson, Steve
Berline gonna wore my shoes. You know. We were selling
in foot Locker and Athletic Express. We were selling all
over the place until one of these big companies. Man,
they did they did me dirty, bro, they did me dirty.
(32:45):
We didn't have no we didn't have no brothers doing
you know, I could have had what's his name, Jackson,
but he was he was too much money at the
times ain't paying. But so yeah, we got ran out
of man, literally ran me out of ran me out
of every I mean, went to Footlock and said, hey,
(33:06):
either you want our shoes or you're going with these
pro moves which one. And they was like, and they
had told me Footlock had told me, hey, this is
gonna be a problem because they told me this too.
This was ninety two. They said, the world is not
ready for a minority shoe company. This was before the
timberlands and all that stuff. We had Timbolans, before tibulus.
We used to say they took our tibulus. But yeah,
(33:30):
so you know you had all that to you had
all that to to to transpire. Man. So when I
got to year five, I was like, I feel great,
you know what I mean. You know what I mean.
So now all of a sudden, I'm thirty and I
was like, I feel good. I said, you know so.
But I was always thinking today could be today, Today
(33:55):
could be to day that you know, my negro out again,
you know what I mean. So I think from that standpoint,
my positions started so early. When I got to the
point where it was really time, I want to want
to do when to say it was easy, because leaving,
leaving your boys, leaving the locker room is never an
easy decision at all.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
But but let me tell what happened to me. So
I'm I'm retired. I'm working for a Fox Sports net. Uh,
me and Eddie George and uh the only white cornerback
in the league at the time, you know what I mean? Yea,
why y'all know that because he's because he's the only
white guy they got one. But I'm just saying, at
(34:37):
that time, the Seahorn, Right, So, so we we have
the show Man, so much fun and whatever. So we're
we're taping on Thursday nights, right, Well, and this was
the first year that the NFL started playing on Thursday nights.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
It just so happened the Raiders were playing New England, right,
And I didn't play for the Raiders my last year.
I played for Tampa Bay. Right, the Raiders came out
the locker room, brother, and I broke out in a
cold sweat. I mean, I couldn't talk. I mean I
was just like, I was like in a panic movement.
I couldn't I could not figure out why I was
(35:16):
sitting where I was sitting and not on the not
coming out that locker room. I couldn't figure it out,
and they were talking to dude, we're gonna call paramedics
if you don't saying you know. And finally after a
couple of minutes, I was able to say, hey, I'm
you know, and I had I got up, man, and
I had to walk around the room and tell myself,
you chose to be here, this is where you need
(35:37):
to be. You know. I had to literally talk to
myself because I couldn't figure it out. I mean, I
had that moment, brother, Literally I thought I had lost
my mind because I was in a place that I
wasn't supposed to be. I was supposed to be right there,
Come am I here, You know what I mean? And
so you know, if I go through that, If I
went through that, I certainly understand how other guys go
(35:58):
through this transition thing too, man. But thankfully for me,
you know, because of that injury, it got me to
thinking about my transition a lot sooner than maybe a
lot of other players. Do you know, so did that
make it easier? The entrepreneur?
Speaker 3 (36:14):
The five year talk right there or in your fifth
year or having only five years left. Did that make
it easier to was it the eighty one Logistics Group?
Did they make it easier to be a part of that?
And I also see that you are a minority fuel
transport company you work with that as well. Did that
make all like just getting in the business, but that
makes that easier for you?
Speaker 1 (36:33):
So anyone LG is eighty one Logistics Group, So that
is the whole minority fuel. So I just started that
just I mean eight years now we've been doing that.
But and that just came about because some brother came
up to me and said, you know, when I say brother,
I'm I mean black. This was the white brother came
(36:54):
up to me and say, look, man, I need your help.
You know, there are a lot of companies who need
minority vendors or whatever, and they're none here. So take
a look into it. I had just gone into the
Hall of Fame the year or two prior. This was sixteen.
I actually signed up in seventeen. But and so one
of the head guy at one of the largest field
(37:19):
transporting companies in the country was also is also the
CEO of the largest trucking trucking company in the company.
And I had done a lot of events with seven
eleven and so the CEO there, man, I called him up,
you know, had his number eight. Man, this is what
I'm looking at doing. He was like, Tim, if I
can help you, I'll help you. So they were going
(37:41):
to help us with supply. I had the transport, so
I thought, I'm about to go solve this minority deal.
But it was a lot of you know, even before
what's happening now. And we got out of the DEI
business before all this happened because we saw it coming down,
because it was it's not real business anyway, right, it's
all a front business. So uh so we started doing
(38:02):
things internationally. So that's that's that's going well for me.
But yeah, I mean, look man, yeah, I think that,
you know, because I started everything so early that I
didn't have that moment of of well, I didn't have
consistent moments of oh my god, what am I gonna do?
How am I gonna do this whatever? Whatever? You know,
(38:22):
I was able to push through it because I started
when I was twenty three. Yeah, you know, I started
thinking about it when I was twenty three, you know,
and I think from that standpoint, you know, it just helped,
you know, you never would think a catastrophic injury would
help you with your transition, but in this case, it did.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
It does it gave me one of my best friends.
I tore my acl he toy is too well and
we became best friends. Cauld we just react.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Well, that's just what happened. Yeah, we're gonna take a
short break and we'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (38:53):
I want to ask you something because you've always stood
out to me, not only because your speed, not only
because you played for the Raiders, and everybody has an
opinion of Out the Raiders, whether you.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Like him, love whatever, he got, an opinion of.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
The the finger tape because you were one of the
only receivers when all the receivers start going from buttneked
hands to receiving gloves, you still just did the heavy
taped hands.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
And oh school, and your fingers look good today because
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
So, I've seen Tory Holt's fingers. I don't know if
you've seen it.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Gang signs.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
He's got some of the worst. Ready, Yeah, he's got
some of the worse. And so shout out to Tori.
I mean, I love you, yeah, absolutely, But could you
made me talk to us about how that came about
why the finger tape and how you just stayed with
it and never put on the gloves.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
So I was not a glove guy, right, I was
never a glove guy, but never never, not even never.
I mean only time I would put him on is
when we played in super cold weather, right, So I
know it. It may have happened at Penn State once
or twice when I got in the league. I think
in ninety we went to Buffalo and I put him
(40:05):
on or whatever, but this is what happened. So I'm
returning punts, right, and I have on gloves, and I'm
in Buffalo at the time, and Tasker, man, I hate
that hate that guy. I love hate him, but I
hated him. You know, I'm trying to, you know, catch
(40:27):
the ball and slide the ball back in the pocket,
and then that split second is you gotta it's got
to happen quick well with gloves, because the gloves are
so tacified. You actually got to use your offhand to
push the ball. I mean, all this is happening like that. Well,
if Tasker is there, all it takes to him just
storing his hand in the mix, and you fumbled the
(40:48):
ball and I fumbled the ball, and then a couple
of weeks later, I fumbled again on the punt and
I had on gloves and that was it. Because of
my mind, it couldn't.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Be it's the gloves, gloves. It's not Timmy.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
It's got can never be his fault. It's got to
be gloves. So I I had dislocated my middle fingers
in my rookie year, so I was already taping those
under my gloves. I was taping my middle fingers. And
so the first game or two, I think, I went
out and I just had those two fingers saving I
was like, well, we do, you might as well tape
(41:23):
them all right, And so I just saw taping both
joints on both on both hands and cold or not.
I never went back to never go back to the
gloves because I would wear those that little warmer and
I had to hand warmer things in there, and they
were really you know, cheat code, to be honest with you,
because it would get wet and your hands would almost
(41:44):
get sticky. But that's between us, right, yeah and all
your listen now. But yeah, so I mean I never
had an issue again, you know, so, uh when when? Uh,
Fitzgerald passed me and something don't whatever, you know, he
(42:06):
passed me everything. But his people tagged me in a
post that they had and they said, today, uh, Fitzgerald
passes Tim Brown and d and we're sending his gloves
to the Hall of Fame. Right. So I hit him
back and said, I didn't have any.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Gloves never flex on the one sign. Oh yeah, what
do you say to that? You don't You can't say
nothing respect disrespect? Yeah, say what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
I with you.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
You don't have to because I gotta be smart because
I think you hit that beat. Yeah, that was It
was like a slight, silent dig.
Speaker 4 (42:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
So uh, I just want y'all to know. I may
could have sent some old tape, yeah, but I know
you have to go.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
And I know peanuts got one last question.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
But I want to know this from you because once again,
I'm not gonna be able to ask you this all
the time. And I want to get this on tape
because I want evidence of it. Your Tim Tim Brown's
top five NFL receivers of all time.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Go, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Now I want to know, because like you could be
in there for some I want to know your top five,
and it's okay to say yourself.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Look, I prefer to put yourself in there.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Look, Jerry, I don't care what people say about whoever.
There's never going to be anybody who has all the records,
the longevity and the championships. There's nobody's gonna do that.
Somebody may get more championships, they may get more catches,
they ain't not gonna play twenty years, so you can
throw that out. But so I think, you know, no
(43:45):
matter what you say about whoever, whoever, Jerry is number one.
I think Randy Moss changed the game, no doubt. I
think he changed the game. I think when he came
in all of a sudden, these small forwards who wasn't
doing anything on the bat spoke, hey, I know somebody
you know, So I think he changed the game. I
(44:08):
think Terrell Warrence was the hardest playing receiver that I've
ever seen play the game. I mean, he played the
game at such a physical level. I saw him and
Charles Woodson go at it, uh you know, at a game,
and you would think that I mean they were, I
(44:30):
mean because Chaws never backed off of them. They were
and it was like, man, this Charles Man great you
look up, Well they brother had twelve or like one fifty.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Yeah, it's like how did that that? I Woson was
on on the whole.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
But but I just think he's the most physical, uh
guy that that ever that ever played the position. It
gets a little tougher for me. Yeah, you know, I
love Chris, and you know I think Chris was great.
(45:04):
Uh but Chris was a great possession receiver. You know
Chris Carter. I mean he he was great around the
end zone. He was great around you know, could always
make the plays. But he wasn't gonna get you a
five yard and turn it into fifty. You know, he
was not that guy. You know. But look, man, uh,
(45:25):
I I joke with these guys all the time when
we get together because everybody want to talk about it.
I was like, hey, look who would have traded with
Tim Brown? Who would have traded with me?
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Jerry?
Speaker 1 (45:37):
I was traded with you bro traded all day two
Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Sign me up. You know what
I mean? I had to trade with Randy Moss. Chris
Carter should be a part of that. You got Randy
Moss or Chris Carter ed reed, Yeah, hey, sign me
up with that, you know what I mean. Michael Irvin, Oh,
of course I put Michael in there. Everybody Michael, Hey,
(45:59):
I tried to line up for that. I told Michael, Michael,
I want to complay. Don't you come down here. Michael
was like, glad you told me. I'm going to tell
Jerry right now. That was in ninety three. Me and
Jerry we all at the Pro Bowl, and I made
made the mistake. I went to Michael. I said, Mike, Man,
look man, I want to come home and play. Say
I'll play second fiddle. And that's not what it's all about.
(46:21):
I just want to be oh no, oh, you know, Michael,
you ain't coming down here, you ain't coming there. So
uh yeah. So you know, I just think Michael, Michael
when I think that physicality thing. He was up there too.
He was a beast of a guy. Uh But I
would have traded places with any of those guys, but
nobody wanted to trade places, you know what I mean?
(46:42):
And uh so you know, people say all time, Tim,
what would you have done if you hey, hey, I'm
not trying to go down that road. The biggest compliment
compliment I think I was ever given was by Jerry Rice.
And he didn't do it publicly. It was just me
and him, and he came up to me and he
said it was in a practice. You know. This was
(47:04):
about five games into his first year there, and he
came up to me and he hugged me and he said, man,
he said, I don't know how you did what you did,
but he said, the fact that you did what you did,
you know, makes me respect you even more. And you know,
it was almost what I'm serious more was like, but
(47:26):
I got to practice, man, I can get the practice.
But because you know, because he realized at that time
that the Raiders organization was a little different. They did things,
you know, compared to you know, what they had done.
And so, you know, I think when you get that
kind of you know, pat on my back or you know, nods, man,
(47:47):
you make you realize, Okay, you know I did all
I could do. My boys recognize it. You know, when
your boys recognized that, you know, forget anybody else, you know,
forget everybody else. You know, Uh, the media don't ever
have to say it, you know. Uh, I got a
I got a cousin man a couple of years younger
than me. And he, you know, of course, followed my
(48:08):
whole He was in l A when I got to
l A. And he he has DVDs with every one
of my catches on my whole career DVDs.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Brother, that's the worst.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
That's yeah, you ain't got nothing to play it on.
Well and uh so, and he is like a big
time music type guy. He does all this stuff, so
he has a platform. And every once in a while
he'll go Tim Brown heavy and he'll just lay it out,
you know, he'll do all the stats and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (48:37):
Man.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
And and uh I was Chris Man, just back off,
but just it's okay. He said, no, no, they need
to know. They need no cousin need to know. Cus
So anyway, but I didn't finish my five, but I'm
gonna be in that top five. So I respect that.
I respect that. I respect I was at three, but
I'll put Michael in there. But look, man, the fact
(48:58):
of the matter is again, that had twenty quarterbacks. Bro.
It's like you played for Chicago twenty quarterbacks. You know,
there's not gonna be another Hall of Famer to make
it to the league. Betwenty I think Chris Fitzgerald was
at fifteen, sixteen and something like that. But I mean
seven head coaches, you know, thirteen you know, office court,
(49:20):
you know what I mean. But we got it done.
You know that. That's the whole deal. Brother, And I
think from that, you know, whether or not anybody ever
puts me in the top five, I always get the
honorable mentioned, right, I always get the you know, the
top five, the honorble mentioned Tim Brown, you know what
I mean, right, But it's all good. My last question
(49:40):
is Mount Rushmore. It's four people.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
If you had four people to put on Tim Brown's
personal Mount Rushmore, who would those four people be? Just
during my time or it's just an influence who you know,
from the time you were born to today?
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Right, you got four people?
Speaker 1 (50:05):
Probably? Number one, if I can do it as a combo,
would be my parents, my mom and dad, you know,
but special people. You know. My mom is still a
live thankfully. My dad passed a few years ago. You know.
I can get into many stories about why. But you know,
(50:27):
just I think that's a number number one for me.
Number two, my big brother Man over oversaw all this, right,
he's eight years older than me. He you know when
I thought taking money from colleges was a good thing
(50:51):
at sixteen years old, because they'd be in my basketball games.
They tell me, go go see Peanut in the corner,
Go see Roman over here. Roma got fifteen hundred dollars.
You know, Peanut got. I'm thinking, I'm I'm balling, I'm
big balling. Yeah, you know. But he was the one
to take the money from me and get the money back,
you know, because we weren't going to be those people,
right man, you're looking back on that, it was like, man,
(51:15):
that's that took something that took deep inside of you
man to be able to to have that kind of mentality. Uh.
He over oversaw all the agent thing you know when
you coming out, and just enabled me just to go play.
I didn't have to worry about that. And plus I
got kid folks, you know I have to worry about.
(51:35):
So I would have to put him in in that too.
I didn't think it would be my pastor. Yeah, you know,
I think at an age man, where I was ready,
I had a pocket full of money, I was in
la I was ready for it, and my pastor kept
(51:55):
telling me God has only put you in this position,
so you can turn it around and give it back
to him. I was like, Pastor, what I want to
hear man today? Many to live? Just tell me to
go ahead, man, going out there, but not see you
when you get back, you know. But he constantly told me,
(52:16):
and I don't think. I think without that my walk
would have started even later than what it did, because
I think I would have always said with Pastor, you
told me passor you told me I could do. You
told me, you told me. But because he didn't, I
think when I was starting my transition at twenty five
twenty six, I always had his ringing in my ear
(52:40):
that yeah, and so so from a spiritual standpoint, I
don't think I would be the man I am a
day if I had, you know, if I those words, yeah,
And I think numberfore man, and I don't mean for
her to be number four. But my wife came into
(53:00):
the situation in the heat of it, yeah, you know.
And if she would have came in doing this rolling
a deck telling me what to do, it would have
been I think a different tim would have would have
shown on the field. And instead she came in and said,
(53:20):
what do you need me to do? You know right,
I need you out of the house on Saturday afternoon.
I'm good with that. Matter of fact, I'm going shop
in San Francisco, So I'm really good with that. You know.
She was good with that, you know what I mean.
But I think that she was so humble about making
(53:42):
sure that I had what I needed and it wasn't interrupting,
you know, because come to find out, you know, at
thirty you're thinking, okay, well by the end, well I
played that was thirty eight, Yeah, so long time, So
you know what I mean. And so I just think
her ability to understand and respect the fact that I'm
not trying to be some crazy guy, but I just
(54:05):
need this is what I need, and this is what
I gotta have you do, And and she was she
was willing to do that. I mean, I we we
did vows of twenty five years a couple of years ago,
and and I didn't make it through it.
Speaker 2 (54:23):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
Yeah, I didn't make it through it because I was
trying to explain to her how important that was and
how what we're standing on today we may not be
standing on if you would have been a different girl,
you know what I mean. And so I think for sure,
you know, I have to have on Mount Rush school
though she's more than she's more than qualified. We can
(54:46):
edit all this.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
We'll edit all this and make her number one. Yeah,
We're gon edit all this and make her number one.
I think My last quick follow is is it true
that your mom always wanted you to not play football?
Speaker 1 (54:58):
Did she try to get you to quit?
Speaker 2 (54:59):
Very true?
Speaker 1 (55:00):
Very true. I mean she never knew that I was playing.
You know, I was my freshman year. You know, you
played football at four o'clock in the afternoon, so you know,
if I got home at five thirty six o'clock with
no big deal. My second year, I made the varsity
football team. But I was in a marching band my
freshman year, so she wasn't tripping on that. But then
(55:23):
I had like the best first four weeks, you know,
and they named me Sophomore Sensation or whatever, and so
all of her friends, like Timmy's in the paper. So
she's looking at life section, what did you do? What
did you do? And I was like, Mama, maybe you
should look at a sports page. But she saw that
and she was again, my mom is a deeply religious one. Yeah,
and felt like that football and sports in general, what's
(55:46):
the Devil's workshop and she hadn't want me or any
of her kid has been involved with and all the
kids had played I was the youngest of five. Everybody
had played sports. But it just seemed like to me,
to her that this thing with me was a bit
a bit deeper. And uh yeah. So so Notre Dame
came and they said, uh, well this is a five
(56:08):
year academic scholarship. So he had to practice one week,
but if he chooses not to play football, he'll still
have a scholarship. And she was like, oh, this is great,
this is great, Timmy.
Speaker 2 (56:22):
You know, I don't know anybody that gets to go
to school and decide whether, you know, we just go pay.
Speaker 1 (56:29):
For this is crazy. So anyway, but yeah, man, and uh,
of course, my rookie, you have a great year break
Gale says. The records all this stuff. The second I
get hurt, oh you know, it was oh yeah, you
gotta retire now. And I know I got to go back.
I prove that I could do, you know, and uh
but yeah, every year I would come home and I
stayed with them until almost I got married, and uh
(56:52):
but every year I came home, she was like, well
are you are you are you gonna retire now, It's like, oh,
we're gonna keep going. So but she she's good. She's
good now. You know she was happy when I retired
at almost thirty nine years old. I love that.
Speaker 4 (57:05):
Yeah, so well, Tim, Man, appreciate you. Yeah, Man, thanks
so much for such man joining us.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
Man.
Speaker 4 (57:11):
Look, I just really appreciate anytime we get great ones
around us because you naturally pour into us, and then
we get to go out here and share these stories
with all of our viewers and listeners out there, and
it's really pouring.
Speaker 2 (57:22):
Back into them.
Speaker 4 (57:23):
The same thing that your pastor told you when you
first got out to LA, because I've been in that
LA lifestyle too, so I totally get it. In respect
it man, I really appreciate it. And you are definite
top five of all time. So congratulations to that with
all your quarterbacks too. All right, thanks Tim again, and
for all of our viewers and listeners out there. Wherever
you pick up your podcast was Apple podcast, iHeartRadio app
(57:46):
make sure you give us a five star rating, leave
a review, make sure you comment, like, subscribe, and also
you look us up on the NFL Channels.
Speaker 1 (57:54):
YouTube YouTube channel. There we go. If trying to get
that right.
Speaker 4 (57:57):
And now make sure you tell a friend to tell
a friend to do what Pe done. My friend, check
us out, man Pina's get us up out of here.
Speaker 3 (58:02):
Hey I'm Penut, That's Roman and that's Timmy And this
is the NFL Player's second X podcast were out
I told Michael, Michael, I want to Copley. Don't you
(00:01):
come down here? He hating you. Michael was like, you
told me, I'm going to tell Jerry right now.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
That was in ninety three.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Me and Jerry we all at the Pro Bowl, and
I made made the mistake. I went to Micah. I said, Mike, Man,
look man, I want to come home and play. Say
I play second fiddle, and that's not what it's all about.
I just want to be Oh no, oh, you know Michael. Oh,
you ain't coming down here. You ain't coming down. What's up, everybody?
Speaker 3 (00:31):
I'm Peanut Toliming, and this is the NFL Player's Second
Acts podcast with me, as always my trusted co host,
mister Roman Harper.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
What's up?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
You know? What's up?
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Man?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
I'm really really excited about this one.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
I played with this guy on video games for many,
many years, Like this.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Is video games. I actually played against the guy.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
I mean, you're older than me. It is all good.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
I'm really looking forward to this and this is one
of the greatest of all time. Uh, Peanut, please introduce
our next guest because.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
I don't want to.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Uh. He's a Hall of Famer. Yeah, he's a Heisman
Trophy winner at Notre Dame. He is one of ten
players to be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame
and won the Heisman Trophy nine time Pro bowler. Ladies
and gentlemen, please welcome to the podcast, mister Tim bro.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Sure, thank you very much. Appreciate that. Appreciate your love
with this. Thomas getting mad, I mean so good. Good
to be here. Guys, welcome to the pod. Brother, thank you,
appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Saw you about a month ago. I saw you in
Notre Dame. I went to the Notre Dame spring game.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
How often do you go back to South Ben.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Oh, man, I try to get back for all the
warm games.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
Okay, before we hold you.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
So last year I had I missed a couple of
the warm games and so I had to go back
to Florida State game, which was okay, but then they
make the playoffs. So I'm now back there in December,
you know. So did you come down?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Did you travel it all with the with the playoff
games in New Orlean?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, I went to UH I didn't go to the
Georgia game, but I went to the other three games.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Yeah it was man, Yeah, it was great, incredible.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
It was, I mean, shout out to Notre Dame and
everything they're doing really really cool. I did not understand
the new helmet situation with the true gold dome, like
it is sweet.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
What is that like?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
The gold dome? Like they have this this brighter gold.
It's not like the dull gold.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah, we wore the dull guess now they have this shiny,
real shiny gold, sparkly and all this kind of little
flashy as flashy as Notre Dame gets. That's all you're
going to get right there. You're not getting it with
flash Is.
Speaker 4 (02:37):
It true that you considered becoming a pastor after you're
done playing football?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Yeah? Bro, that that's not over though. I mean that's tastes. Look,
I mean I'm at a church now. My past is
ninety three years old, and you know, he's doing all
he can to hang in there. But you know, and
there's going to be a serious transition that's going to
happen there, and so I mean, there are some things
I'm gonna have to do before that. But I mean,
(03:04):
if he was to say to me, which I believe
he is gonna say to me, hey, Tim, I want
you to you know, have something to do with this,
then it would be something I'd be more than happy
to look into. I like that. You put it out there,
speaking speaking into resistance. I like it. Look, brother, this
is you know I come from. My grandfather was a preacher,
(03:24):
my uncle was a pastor, mama's a missionary in the church.
Brother big brother's a deacon in the church. So it
wouldn't be you know, people who know me, know the family. Yeah,
they'd be like, oh, Timmy, pa okay, yeah, yeah, yeah,
it wouldn't be like he what Timmy. It's like family business,
right exactly. I like that.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
So I know, I said a little bit in the intro,
and this is like one hell of an accomplishment. I
don't think I knew this, but you're you're one of
ten players to have won a Heisman and being a
Pro Football Hall of Fame. How special is it to
be on that small list?
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Well, you know, for me, it's even smaller because I'm
the only receiver right to accomplish it. So at this
particular point, so you know, I know for me, and
I tell people all the time, Look, I know I
won the Heisman not because of being a receiver, because
I didn't have quarterback that threw me the ball, but
it was because of returning punts and kicks and all
that kind of stuff. But Marcus Allen is always on me.
(04:24):
You only scoring seven touchdowns. I was like, yeah, markets,
but I wasn't driving over to power one yard like
you were getting twenty five touchdowns. I was actually making
people miss, you know, doing some real work, right. But yeah, man, Look,
I when I was going into the Hall of Fame,
I had a buddy here and he's an old country guy. Yeah,
and he came up to me and hate Timmy, Did
(04:47):
you know that you're only the night guy to win
the Heisman being the home I was like, Lee, man,
what are you talking about. That's thirty guys have done that.
And literally, on my way to my instronment speech, I
googled it up. Yeah, and they only had eight because
they hadn't added me, and of course we had a
charge what'son after me? And I was shocked. I was
really like, you got to be kidding me. Only nine
(05:08):
guys have but when you look at it, when you
look back, yeah, only nine guys have accomplished it. So no,
I mean it's something that it's one of those things
that when people here say it. They almost paused for
a second later, isn't rial So you're talking about I
have all the people who have won the Heisman in
the Hall of Fame. You only have ten guys. So yeah,
it's definitely something to be proud of. It's always a shock.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
And when you google yourself when someone shot shooting, like, wait,
I thought I knew everything about way I did.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Well, let me see this. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:39):
This is something that I learned personally as well about you,
is that you're you're talking in third person.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
You're doing it as well. Uh, at Notre Dame you
were Timmy Brown and you go by Timmy Brown. Now
obviously when the.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
People that know you, Yeah, but in the NFL, we
only knew you as Tim Brown, right right right? So
how when did the the m y get dropped? Did
well extend?
Speaker 2 (06:04):
Today?
Speaker 1 (06:05):
They called me testing out Timmy? That's what they called me. Yeah,
so I think all my Notre Dame boys, man, if
I if I down them up right now and they'll
be like, hey, Timmy, when do you you know we're
we going? You know, that's just that's just what they
all call me. And my family calls me Timmy mostly
everybody else calls me tim you know. So it's another
big deal for me. I think the more people I
(06:26):
think they know me or know me, they call me timmy,
you know what I mean. So I look at it
as a term of the NFL.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Did did you make this decision?
Speaker 1 (06:34):
Oh no, no, no, no they did. Uh yeah, you know,
like Marcus Allen calls me Timmy. You know, most of
the guys I played what they call me timmy, you know.
But people outside of that, they all call me tim So, uh,
you know, I don't trip either way, you know, but
when somebody calls me Timmy, I usually turn pretty quickly
because that's somebody who that's if I need to get
(06:56):
your attention in a crowd of people. Hey timn Hey
tim Hey Timmy. You say Timmy, be like, who is
that brother calling me Timmy? Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Could you take us.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Back to your very first NFL touchdown and you actually
scored on the very first time you touched the ball?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Yeah, in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, you know, I got to give you a little
background to that. So imagine this. So I my last
year Notre Dame, you know, you know, once I realized,
you know, this thing is about to happen. I walk
into the Porsche dealership and I get this seventy thousand
dollars nine to twenty eight. That's for porch, right, black
on black, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Make sure it makes sure we look at You can't
you can't, you can't.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
In no, I mean, come on, Bro. So you know
I you know, I don't know when we get drafted, right,
So yeah, get drafted by LA. So I'm like, oh,
this is like really good. Right, I'm about to be flashing.
So I'm in a minicamp and James Loughton, Yeah, asked
me a question. He said, hey, what kind of car
do you have? Oh, James man Bro, I got this
(08:00):
black twenty four s for twenty es fort porch. He said,
don't bring it out here. And I was like, James bro,
this is his main for LA.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
Bro.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
I'm gonna be on the beach and man had beats
somemrow you know what I mean. He was like, don't
bring it out here. He said, you got boys in
this locker room who's been in the league for eight, nine,
ten years, driving penty at Grandam's or whatever, and now
you're going to be this flashy rookie coming in here
with this car and you haven't done anything. He was like,
don't do it. So I went bought to be a
fourteen thousand dollars Nissa pat five to Bacato training caut
(08:38):
So to your point, that game, the first when I
returned to open the kickoff of the game, Now you said,
have you asked for a touchdown? Twenty twenty five mins?
All burdy, he's James came to me during the game
(09:00):
said you can bring that porchaquelle before you. He said,
these boys can't say you had done this because you
don't did something, you know what I mean? And uh so, yeah,
I mean, but that moment, man, you know, of course
a lot of people were saying, hey, Timmy, what you
did in college, You're not going to be able to
do an NFL, you know, so how are you going
to adjust to that? And so I think to be
able to do that right off the bat, so to
(09:21):
shut a lot of people up, you know, at least
they couldn't say, you know, he never did it, because
I did only kick return already I ever had in
my career, because the next year I got hurt returning
kicks and the only one you ever had your career.
I do that. The only kick return now I should
have had one versus Seattle. I got tackled at the
two yard line, started celebrating. The guy came from the
other side, didn't see him, didn't see him, and uh
(09:44):
that I did that. Yes, on Monday night football too,
So it was it was pretty right after no of course,
not no, no, no. It was like only like three
seconds left because they tried to swip kick it and
I got the ball and took it up, you know,
and there's only two seconds. So we had to kick
a field goal, a ninety year field goal. It got
missed it. He missed the ninety yr field goal. I
(10:05):
can tell that still bothers you not getting that touched
on the way, Yeah, I could tell that bothers, no doubt. Well,
you know you think at the time, well there are
gonna be many of these, you know. But yeah, the
next year, opening game of the year, I tear my
knee up versus San Diego and that was it. I
never I returned punts, but I never returned kicks again.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
So coming from college going to the league, there were
a lot of naysaarers I said, you wouldn't be able
to do what you did in.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
College in the league.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Did that ever.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
Hurt your confidence or did you ever stop believing in yourself?
I didn't, Man, I really thought that I was born
to return punts and kicks. I mean, I thought that
that was something that was innate in me. That you
put me in the right situation. You got you give
me ten guys in front of me who want to work,
then we're going to make something happen. You know, my
ability to make people miss had a little speed those combinations,
(10:59):
I think, And I was tough enough to get hit
on a pump return and you know, not whine about it,
and you know, and go do what you have to do.
So I just thought, man, that you know, if I
can just you know, be on the field and make
this stuff happen, you know, when they want when they
kick me the ball, Hey, I'm going to make this
(11:19):
thing happen. You know, It's just going to be a
situation where I'm not going to shy away from it
any of that. You know, it's going to be. It's
a situation. It's what I want, It's what I want
to do, is how I want to do it. And
I didn't care what people said about me. I really didn't.
I mean, I remember it, you know, because you you
sort of put it on the wall. But at the
(11:41):
same time, man, you know, it's a situation where it's football. Yeah,
they're bigger, faster and all that. I get it. But
now I got up my game. I have to be able.
So I don't think I ever let it, you know,
bother me to that point. But certainly I always wondered
why people wouldn't let me go play and then talk.
Why you're gonna talk first without seeing me do something,
(12:02):
you know, and say, well, he you know, he can't
do this because you know we just saw it, you know,
But they want to talk before they even see you
do anything on the field.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
My I think my and I think I might have
shared this with you one time. But the very first game,
it was Week five, two thousand and three, I got
my very first start and we played Chicago, played the Raiders, right,
and my position coach he walks over. I'm in the
weight room and he was like, hey, listen here, you
going against Tim Brown. You're going against Jerry Rice, two
(12:32):
future Hall of famers.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Don't be in there. F and up and he walked
out the door. And I was like, okay, Like I
was stoked. I was, you know, I'm like, I finn
to get my start out.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I fig up Dad, Hey, hey, pops, I'm going against
sim Rider Rice And he was like, Okay, what you
gonna do.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
It's like, I'm gonna just try to play a good game,
you know. And we we had the game. We in it.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
I think it was like twenty four twenty one. I
think I wrote it down somewhere twenty four twenty one,
but uh, yeah, we we I don't know if you
remember the game, but it was it was. Yeah, that
was a bad year for us. We were I mean
we were coming off the Super Bowl year. Yeah, it
was just everything. Man Callahan just flipped everything on his head.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
Man, it was ridiculous. So, I mean that was a
year we were ready to get. Week five, we were
already like, hey, can we get this out overweight because
this is this is not gonna work. I think the
next week we played Green Bay on Monday night and
they beat us fifty two to six. And that was
the night the week before the couple of days great,
uh Brett Fag's father died. Yeah, yeah, and yeah, I
(13:42):
remember having a conversation with Al Davis that night, going big, God,
I think it's over, Yeah, I think you know. I
actually told him, look, you probably should fire this guy
because he's trying to tell your organization that one you
know what I mean? And uh so, uh it was
it was head the other way man. I mean, it's
so so sad because we had made we had the
(14:03):
MC Championship in two thousand, we had the Tuck Game
in two thousand and one. Yeah, Tom Brady, Yeah, Tom Brady,
and then we have then we make it to the
to the to the super Bowl in two thousand and two,
and we we were bringing back the same but they
just changed the whole office. They changed. We couldn't audiboy anymore,
we couldn't do anything. So it was just ridiculous.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
So I want to go back because you you said
something earlier, and I don't know how many other times
I'm actually have the opportunity.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
To ask you this.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
You said, like I knew I was put on this
dirt pretty much to be a punt returner and a
kick returner. Well, at what point did you know you're
gonna be a Hall of Fame wide receiver, because that's
what you're known for. Yeah, now the other skills of
what got you there, and maybe talk about how you
had to work at that part because it maybe didn't
come as natural.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, I'll tell you what, man, that's a very good point.
I mean, because I would think that, you know, I
always want to talk about the punk returny kick return.
I always, you know, because I returned. I'm noticed a
man the history of League of return to punt for
a touchdown, the oldest man in the history of the
league to return a punt period at thirty eight years old,
you know. So I don't want to talk about that.
(15:08):
People were like, yeah, we see you return punts, so
let's talk about It's like, bro, let's talk about this
one second. I probably could't have made the Hall of
Fame doing that. So but so so I get hurt.
My second year, Al Davis tells me that you're going
to be the best punk returner, third down receiver to
ever play the game, but you're not going to play
(15:29):
on first and second down. Really. Yeah, So in ninety
ninety one and ninety two, I didn't didn't start a game.
I never played on first and second I only played
when it was thirty you know, because back then it
was two receivers and then you bring your third receiver
on on third down, and that was my role. So
I made the Pro Bowl again as a I made
(15:49):
Propo as a rookie returning punts and kicks, made it
again in ninety one returning punts and kicks returning punts,
and then in ninety two, Murvin Fernandez, who I was
playing behind, got hurt. He got hurt the seven eight
game of the year, and I think I put up
like forty nine fifty catches the rest of the year,
(16:10):
and they was like, we choose him. So in ninety
three I led the AFC in receptions. It was the
first year I made the Pro Bowl as a as
a receiver. And then after that, man, I think I
had nine ten years, one thousand yards and you know,
eighty seventy five catches or whatever, you know, one hundred
(16:31):
and ninety six. What up starts it? It was something
ridiculous like that. But it wasn't to answer your question,
It wasn't until a year fourteen or thirteen fourteen something
like that, somebody came to me and said, hey, if
you catch another pass or something, then hey, you may
be looked at as a Hall of Famer, and I
(16:54):
was like, well what. And I remember going to and
I had never looked at the numbers. I didn't know
where I was. And when I looked, I was like
top twelve and like catches and touchdowns yeah, and yards,
And I was like, well, okay, you know, And so
(17:16):
it must have been like year thirteen because fourteen and
fifteen I had really good years. Made the Pro Bowl
again in year fifteen as a receiver, so you know,
and by then now I'm top ten and everything, you know,
and so so you know, at that point, everybody's said, oh,
you're going to be a Hall of Famer. You know,
(17:38):
by the time I go top ten. And once I
got my one hundred touchdown catch, which didn't come until
my seventeenth year, were playing the Raiders. I'm playing for
the Buccaneers, but we're playing the Raiders in Oakland, and
I scored my one hundred touchdown catch. So I you know,
at that point, you know, not that you think you're
a lock. But I finished my career two two three
(18:02):
two and touches two in touchdowns, two and catches and
three in yards or some but I was two two three,
so you're thinking, hey, yeah, I'm gonna be a first
ballot guy. You know, you know so. But yeah, so
I think, man, But it really wasn't until late in
my career. But you have to understand this too. I
was so focused, man, on trying to win a championship. Yeah,
(18:25):
I mean, I was, That's all I you know, And
I tell people all the time, and I tell you know,
you know, these young folks all the time. Look, you
don't play a team sport to get individual awards, right,
you know, the individual awards, you know, they get you
through the day. You know, they make you, you know,
(18:47):
not you know, go crazy because you can look up
at your wall and you got a heisman Jophy at
a Hall of Fame bus. You know, it makes you
feel okay about yourself. But when you think about your career, yeah, man,
you know what I mean. The one that I mean
nineteen ninety, Bo Jackson gets hurt in the divisional playoff game,
(19:08):
you know what I mean, And so we go to
the FC Championship game with no Bo Jackson. You know,
Marcus Allen and now David's are fighting, so we don't
We barely play Marcus Allen in the AFC championship game.
We of course we're gonna get a buzz wok. We
got Buffalo killed us. You know, we don't make it
again until two thousand rich Gannon the first series, second
series of the game, Big Sarah Gussa falls under, breaks
(19:29):
his shoulder. He's out, you know. So now we got
three quarterbacks trying to play, you know, and you know
the Tuck rule game, you know what I mean, you.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Know what I mean, right, nobody even heard of his
rules until that happens.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
It's so crazy, man. And then you know, we get
to the Super Bowl and it's the last week that
there's not a break in between the AFC champions the
championship game and Super Bowl, so we have to go
right from the FC championship game. We're in San Diego
the next next Monday afternoon. We're in San Diego already, right,
So we had our game plans, man, and in a
(20:06):
game you know, we had the biggest offensive line in
football at the time, Tampa had the smallest, the best.
But then yeah, he walked with the Tijuana Yeah kick,
this is why so And the game plan was, Hey,
we're gonna we're gonna make them feel this heat, right,
and we're gonna you know, so that's a weird practice
(20:27):
all week. On Friday morning, they changed the game plan,
change the game plan. They changed the game plan completely.
They changed the game plan. So now the center Barrett
is freaking out because he's like, coach, I don't have
time to get all my my reads and all this
stuff and what what we you know, what we're talking
about doing. Now, I'm good for what we practiced, but
(20:49):
this and that night, you know, he had a problem anyway,
you know, and had a little bit too much of drink,
ended up in Tijuana, and you know, he still couldn't
play in the game. And that's that's what we're really
mad about. Because they had him back in time, you know,
Saturday afternoon. The game wasn't til you know, Sunday night,
(21:09):
so he had plenty of time to get him right,
and they chose not to play him. And you know,
so you go into the game thinking, you know, it's
a lot of distractions, a lot of you know, that's
the one game you don't want distractions, right, absolutely not.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
So listen, can we go back because kind of like Rome,
I might not be able to ask this question. Two
of the two of the greatest athletes of all time,
Jim Thorpe and Bo Jackson. And obviously I'm not I'm
wasn't around when Jim Thorpe was around.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
But Bo Jackson.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
As a kid, the baseball, the breaking the bat, running
up the wall, throwing a guy out from center field
at home plate. Then watching what he did, you know,
at Auburn, and when he gets drafted, he's playing running
back for the for the Raiders.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
What was it like having a front row seat just
kind of watching him do his thing? Yeah? It was freaky,
It really was. I mean, you know, you know, I
probably I played with Rocket, Yeah, Rocket was You've been
around fast, You've been around, yeah, you know, but this
was a different kind of speed. My rookie year. Now
(22:19):
I come out, I'm four three five of what come
coming out. So I had never played with a guy
that when he broke, I couldn't go catch him. Let's go,
you know what I mean. So we're playing at Denver Broncos.
We got to play sixteen Bob TREYO. Never forget it.
I come down in motion. My job is to get
the safety and if things go right, Bo Jackson should
be coming off my butt right. So I come down. Bam,
(22:40):
I had the safety. Bo Jackson comes off my butt right,
I'm about to go catch boat. That's what I'm about
to do. I put my head Dawn Fellas and I'm digging.
And when I looked up, it was cartoonish. Bro how
fast he was cartoonish? So I just read the field.
(23:01):
So I was asking my god, I said, was I
running in mud? They was like, don't ever run behind
Bo Jackson. Whatever you do, don't ever run behind them.
And when you watch it on film, man, I mean,
this is a guy that you know when they they
clocked him at what they call the running forty at
three point seven six, you know, from the thirty to
(23:21):
thirty when he was already running. You know, I think
he ran like a four to one or something. It's ridiculous.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
It's real video footage of it. But everybody heard about that.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, I've heard it's real. I can tell you it's
real because I've never been on the field with somebody
who was so explosive, who had the ability to outrun
out physical everybody on the field. One story I'm gonna
tell you guys. I can tell you many. I'll tell
you this what so you know he talked to the
third person. He stuttered really bad back in the day. Thankfully,
(23:52):
now he's good and he jokes about it too. But
we're at the meeting and they're installing plays right, and
he's in the back of the room and uh, all
of a sudden, you hear bo Bo bow don't won't
no blocking right, And everybody's like, oh, you know, nobody
want to move right, and uh, he stands up Boat
(24:16):
Bow don't won't blocking. So everybody's like the coach, like
the time, I know you guys, gon take a break
right right right. So when we come back, they had
put this play in, uh triple right, U X tight,
uh bowl reverse right right. So they say, Timmy, we're
gonna put you at the X right, you know, make
(24:37):
them think there's some special play coming, and we want
you to just run across the field, don't block anybody,
just run all the way to the the corner end zone.
We just run right. And what we're gonna do, We're
gonna pisch the ball to bowl left and then we're
gonna let bow reverse field and it's not gonna be
any blocking for both. So Bo just he's just gonna
(24:58):
outrun or if you got it this way, and unfortunately
I bought Mike Harden uh for the Broncos got in
his way. I saw you remember that play. I saw
that that was reverse. That was boul reverse left at
that boy because he's running that way.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
But that that's what you know. He did not want
block it. He wanted people out of his way, and
he would just run over people, you know. So I mean,
I don't think there are many running backs in the
history of the game. Yeah, who are going to set
up and say I don't want to block it. So
we're gonna take a short break and we'll be back
in a minute.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
So let's let's get into the let's transition into your
your your second act after after football. So you're now
the commissioner of the new Arena Football League and new athletes,
new rules, new teams.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
What are some of the new rules some of the teams? Like,
what what's making the Arena League fun again? Well? You know,
I think for these kids, man, and you know, hate
call them kids, but they are what they are. It's
an opportunity, bro, It's an opportunity to get one more
pattern the back, one more handclap, you know, because all
(26:08):
of them have a story of why they didn't make it,
why they didn't do this or do that. And I
think what what the Arena League is doing for them
is giving them the opportunity to get in the community,
you know, because all of our teams, the kids are
expected to get in the community and connect with some
(26:28):
nonprofit or whatever. And they're doing that and they've been
well received doing it, you know. So and you know,
they may not, you know, they're not Immi Smith or
Tim Brown or whatever. You know. You know, they're not
you know us, but people respect them because they were
in a jersey, you know what I mean. And they're
giving them entertainment, entertainment on Saturday night, you know. So
(26:50):
you know, we we did six man football last year.
We're going to move to seven man this year. But
we're trying to speak the game of twenty second play clock,
make it really wide open, you know. And it worked,
it worked really well for us, you know. And but
we thought with seven on seven and being a big
deal and going to be a part of the Olympics
coming up, that we should probably go to seven on
(27:12):
seven to give some connection to the fans more so
than just you know, a real football whatever. So yeah,
so I think from that standpoint, man, it's been great.
You know, we're in you know, Hot Springs and Springfield,
Missouri and Dluth, Minnesota, and you know, Kansas City and
places like that. It's you know where we are at
(27:32):
this particular point. But you know it's gonna get bigger
and better man Old Claire, Wisconsin.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
So yeah, we're six teams this year, hope to get
to twelve next year. And what the owner wants to
do is, you know, have six teams on the East coast,
six teams up here down here, and then let those
six play and then you know, play around robin playoffs
and make this thing happen. So it's been fun for me, man,
(28:00):
know it's fun for me. It's not a money gig
per se, but it's an opportunity for me to you know,
pad a couple of kids in the back and carry
some kids. And you know, we have made some calls
up to uh, the UFL about a couple of kids,
you know, because you know, and that's what I bring
to the table more than anything, you know. Boot Moose
(28:21):
Johnson is the commission don't know if he's a commissioner,
he's some he has some prominent role there, and uh
so we we've connected, you know, on trying to, you know,
get some kids up to his level. So you know,
it's fun, you know, trying to trying to you know, wait,
I get it, man. You know so many of us
and I don't know what your you got story is,
(28:43):
but so many of football players walk away from the game,
not like they want to, you know. I mean they
tell me. Less than two percent of us stand up
to a mic and say, hey, today, I've talked from NFL.
You know, everybody else is hurt, they get cut or
whatever whatever. And and but at least we played NFL, right,
you know, at least we could say that these guys
(29:04):
are having to do that out of high school or
out of college or whatever, you know. And I think
for them to have this one last opportunity to to
come out there, man, like I said at the beginning,
to get a handclap or to get a pat on
the back, it's worth it to him. And they're not
making a lot of money at all.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Yeah, you know, so do you think this is a
I mean, I know you just said it's kind of
like a pipeline or you make a couple of calls
to the UFL. Do you think the new Arena League
could be a pipeline to the NFL. Have you seen
some guys with that talent that that can play up there?
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Not really, not really. I think, you know, a guy
may show something to plays, but then you see why
why he's in the in the Arena League, you know,
because so, but the one kid I call about, this
kid man was and come to find out, I didn't notice,
but he was in Kansas City's training camp and decided
(30:00):
he wanted to be a track guy. So he left
to train and then wanted to come back. You know,
the league. Don't play that, You're not You're not. Yeah,
I don't know, right. So, and but this kid was
extremely talented, you know what I mean. I thought that,
but I knew why he was where he was because
(30:22):
of what he had done, you know what I mean.
And so I think I think he is in the
uf L. I can check on that. But but this
kid was was pretty good. But I hadn't really seen
anybody that, uh, you know, if I saw a defensive
lineman and we only got you know this year, we're
it's gonna be one on one offense you know, one
office along one defensive that's gonna be pretty interesting. Uh
(30:43):
but you know, so we see a lot of dB
type guys and and and receivers and all that. So
that's basically what I'm looking at.
Speaker 4 (30:50):
So after you retired, you did TV, and so did
doing TV like help you smooth out that transition? Because
you talked about it, less than two percent or two
percent actually get to retire from football on their own terms.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
Football usually retires.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
All of us at some point, and so you know,
everybody has to deal with the transition in different ways.
And that's why we like to have this conversation with
some of the greats. How did do and TV help
alleviate or help you.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
In your transition? So let me let me go back
a little bit. So when I tore my knee up,
the doctor told me, Tim man, this is really bad.
You know, this is something that we don't see. I
tore my mediocollateral off the bone and my post seria
crucier exploded. Right, So they literally brought my hamstring down,
tied it all it or not, and said, hey, let's
(31:39):
see what we got. And but he told me, he said,
if you make it five years it's going to be
a miracle, you know. So and he even said this,
he said, uh, this is your second here, this is yeah,
this is my second year. Yeah. Oh wow, I didn't. Yeah.
So he said that great note of day education you have,
(32:01):
you may need to think about using it. Right. So
I'm in the I'm in the hospital room. Bro, he
just you know, he just walked out the room. I'm
having surgery in a few minutes. And this is what
this man tell me. Right. So the great thing about
that brother is it started my transition then, because I
realized this man just told me I got five years.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
You know.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
So I started a shoe company. I had a shoe
company kind of had a company called pro Moves. Who
Marcus Allen wore my shoes, Willie gaulf Eddie Anderson, Steve
Berline gonna wore my shoes. You know. We were selling
in foot Locker and Athletic Express. We were selling all
over the place until one of these big companies. Man,
they did they did me dirty, bro, they did me dirty.
(32:45):
We didn't have no we didn't have no brothers doing
you know, I could have had what's his name, Jackson,
but he was he was too much money at the
times ain't paying. But so yeah, we got ran out
of man, literally ran me out of ran me out
of every I mean, went to Footlock and said, hey,
(33:06):
either you want our shoes or you're going with these
pro moves which one. And they was like, and they
had told me Footlock had told me, hey, this is
gonna be a problem because they told me this too.
This was ninety two. They said, the world is not
ready for a minority shoe company. This was before the
timberlands and all that stuff. We had Timbolans, before tibulus.
We used to say they took our tibulus. But yeah,
(33:30):
so you know you had all that to you had
all that to to to transpire. Man. So when I
got to year five, I was like, I feel great,
you know what I mean. You know what I mean.
So now all of a sudden, I'm thirty and I
was like, I feel good. I said, you know so.
But I was always thinking today could be today, Today
(33:55):
could be to day that you know, my negro out again,
you know what I mean. So I think from that standpoint,
my positions started so early. When I got to the
point where it was really time, I want to want
to do when to say it was easy, because leaving,
leaving your boys, leaving the locker room is never an
easy decision at all.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (34:14):
But but let me tell what happened to me. So
I'm I'm retired. I'm working for a Fox Sports net. Uh,
me and Eddie George and uh the only white cornerback
in the league at the time, you know what I mean? Yea,
why y'all know that because he's because he's the only
white guy they got one. But I'm just saying, at
(34:37):
that time, the Seahorn, Right, So, so we we have
the show Man, so much fun and whatever. So we're
we're taping on Thursday nights, right, Well, and this was
the first year that the NFL started playing on Thursday nights.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
It just so happened the Raiders were playing New England, right,
And I didn't play for the Raiders my last year.
I played for Tampa Bay. Right, the Raiders came out
the locker room, brother, and I broke out in a
cold sweat. I mean, I couldn't talk. I mean I
was just like, I was like in a panic movement.
I couldn't I could not figure out why I was
(35:16):
sitting where I was sitting and not on the not
coming out that locker room. I couldn't figure it out,
and they were talking to dude, we're gonna call paramedics
if you don't saying you know. And finally after a
couple of minutes, I was able to say, hey, I'm
you know, and I had I got up, man, and
I had to walk around the room and tell myself,
you chose to be here, this is where you need
(35:37):
to be. You know. I had to literally talk to
myself because I couldn't figure it out. I mean, I
had that moment, brother, Literally I thought I had lost
my mind because I was in a place that I
wasn't supposed to be. I was supposed to be right there,
Come am I here, You know what I mean? And
so you know, if I go through that, If I
went through that, I certainly understand how other guys go
(35:58):
through this transition thing too, man. But thankfully for me,
you know, because of that injury, it got me to
thinking about my transition a lot sooner than maybe a
lot of other players. Do you know, so did that
make it easier? The entrepreneur?
Speaker 3 (36:14):
The five year talk right there or in your fifth
year or having only five years left. Did that make
it easier to was it the eighty one Logistics Group?
Did they make it easier to be a part of that?
And I also see that you are a minority fuel
transport company you work with that as well. Did that
make all like just getting in the business, but that
makes that easier for you?
Speaker 1 (36:33):
So anyone LG is eighty one Logistics Group, So that
is the whole minority fuel. So I just started that
just I mean eight years now we've been doing that.
But and that just came about because some brother came
up to me and said, you know, when I say brother,
I'm I mean black. This was the white brother came
(36:54):
up to me and say, look, man, I need your help.
You know, there are a lot of companies who need
minority vendors or whatever, and they're none here. So take
a look into it. I had just gone into the
Hall of Fame the year or two prior. This was sixteen.
I actually signed up in seventeen. But and so one
of the head guy at one of the largest field
(37:19):
transporting companies in the country was also is also the
CEO of the largest trucking trucking company in the company.
And I had done a lot of events with seven
eleven and so the CEO there, man, I called him up,
you know, had his number eight. Man, this is what
I'm looking at doing. He was like, Tim, if I
can help you, I'll help you. So they were going
(37:41):
to help us with supply. I had the transport, so
I thought, I'm about to go solve this minority deal.
But it was a lot of you know, even before
what's happening now. And we got out of the DEI
business before all this happened because we saw it coming down,
because it was it's not real business anyway, right, it's
all a front business. So uh so we started doing
(38:02):
things internationally. So that's that's that's going well for me.
But yeah, I mean, look man, yeah, I think that,
you know, because I started everything so early that I
didn't have that moment of of well, I didn't have
consistent moments of oh my god, what am I gonna do?
How am I gonna do this whatever? Whatever? You know,
(38:22):
I was able to push through it because I started
when I was twenty three. Yeah, you know, I started
thinking about it when I was twenty three, you know,
and I think from that standpoint, you know, it just helped,
you know, you never would think a catastrophic injury would
help you with your transition, but in this case, it did.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
It does it gave me one of my best friends.
I tore my acl he toy is too well and
we became best friends. Cauld we just react.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Well, that's just what happened. Yeah, we're gonna take a
short break and we'll be right back.
Speaker 4 (38:53):
I want to ask you something because you've always stood
out to me, not only because your speed, not only
because you played for the Raiders, and everybody has an
opinion of Out the Raiders, whether you.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Like him, love whatever, he got, an opinion of.
Speaker 4 (39:05):
The the finger tape because you were one of the
only receivers when all the receivers start going from buttneked
hands to receiving gloves, you still just did the heavy
taped hands.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
And oh school, and your fingers look good today because
you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
So, I've seen Tory Holt's fingers. I don't know if
you've seen it.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Gang signs.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
He's got some of the worst. Ready, Yeah, he's got
some of the worse. And so shout out to Tori.
I mean, I love you, yeah, absolutely, But could you
made me talk to us about how that came about
why the finger tape and how you just stayed with
it and never put on the gloves.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
So I was not a glove guy, right, I was
never a glove guy, but never never, not even never.
I mean only time I would put him on is
when we played in super cold weather, right, So I
know it. It may have happened at Penn State once
or twice when I got in the league. I think
in ninety we went to Buffalo and I put him
(40:05):
on or whatever, but this is what happened. So I'm
returning punts, right, and I have on gloves, and I'm
in Buffalo at the time, and Tasker, man, I hate
that hate that guy. I love hate him, but I
hated him. You know, I'm trying to, you know, catch
(40:27):
the ball and slide the ball back in the pocket,
and then that split second is you gotta it's got
to happen quick well with gloves, because the gloves are
so tacified. You actually got to use your offhand to
push the ball. I mean, all this is happening like that. Well,
if Tasker is there, all it takes to him just
storing his hand in the mix, and you fumbled the
(40:48):
ball and I fumbled the ball, and then a couple
of weeks later, I fumbled again on the punt and
I had on gloves and that was it. Because of
my mind, it couldn't.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Be it's the gloves, gloves. It's not Timmy.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
It's got can never be his fault. It's got to
be gloves. So I I had dislocated my middle fingers
in my rookie year, so I was already taping those
under my gloves. I was taping my middle fingers. And
so the first game or two, I think, I went
out and I just had those two fingers saving I
was like, well, we do, you might as well tape
(41:23):
them all right, And so I just saw taping both
joints on both on both hands and cold or not.
I never went back to never go back to the
gloves because I would wear those that little warmer and
I had to hand warmer things in there, and they
were really you know, cheat code, to be honest with you,
because it would get wet and your hands would almost
(41:44):
get sticky. But that's between us, right, yeah and all
your listen now. But yeah, so I mean I never
had an issue again, you know, so, uh when when? Uh,
Fitzgerald passed me and something don't whatever, you know, he
(42:06):
passed me everything. But his people tagged me in a
post that they had and they said, today, uh, Fitzgerald
passes Tim Brown and d and we're sending his gloves
to the Hall of Fame. Right. So I hit him
back and said, I didn't have any.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
Gloves never flex on the one sign. Oh yeah, what
do you say to that? You don't You can't say
nothing respect disrespect? Yeah, say what you're saying.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
I with you.
Speaker 1 (42:39):
You don't have to because I gotta be smart because
I think you hit that beat. Yeah, that was It
was like a slight, silent dig.
Speaker 4 (42:47):
Right.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
So uh, I just want y'all to know. I may
could have sent some old tape, yeah, but I know
you have to go.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
And I know peanuts got one last question.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
But I want to know this from you because once again,
I'm not gonna be able to ask you this all
the time. And I want to get this on tape
because I want evidence of it. Your Tim Tim Brown's
top five NFL receivers of all time.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Go, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
Now I want to know, because like you could be
in there for some I want to know your top five,
and it's okay to say yourself.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Look, I prefer to put yourself in there.
Speaker 1 (43:23):
Look, Jerry, I don't care what people say about whoever.
There's never going to be anybody who has all the records,
the longevity and the championships. There's nobody's gonna do that.
Somebody may get more championships, they may get more catches,
they ain't not gonna play twenty years, so you can
throw that out. But so I think, you know, no
(43:45):
matter what you say about whoever, whoever, Jerry is number one.
I think Randy Moss changed the game, no doubt. I
think he changed the game. I think when he came
in all of a sudden, these small forwards who wasn't
doing anything on the bat spoke, hey, I know somebody
you know, So I think he changed the game. I
(44:08):
think Terrell Warrence was the hardest playing receiver that I've
ever seen play the game. I mean, he played the
game at such a physical level. I saw him and
Charles Woodson go at it, uh you know, at a game,
and you would think that I mean they were, I
(44:30):
mean because Chaws never backed off of them. They were
and it was like, man, this Charles Man great you
look up, Well they brother had twelve or like one fifty.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
You know.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Yeah, it's like how did that that? I Woson was
on on the whole.
Speaker 3 (44:43):
You know.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
But but I just think he's the most physical, uh
guy that that ever that ever played the position. It
gets a little tougher for me. Yeah, you know, I
love Chris, and you know I think Chris was great.
(45:04):
Uh but Chris was a great possession receiver. You know
Chris Carter. I mean he he was great around the
end zone. He was great around you know, could always
make the plays. But he wasn't gonna get you a
five yard and turn it into fifty. You know, he
was not that guy. You know. But look, man, uh,
(45:25):
I I joke with these guys all the time when
we get together because everybody want to talk about it.
I was like, hey, look who would have traded with
Tim Brown? Who would have traded with me?
Speaker 2 (45:37):
Jerry?
Speaker 1 (45:37):
I was traded with you bro traded all day two
Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Sign me up. You know what
I mean? I had to trade with Randy Moss. Chris
Carter should be a part of that. You got Randy
Moss or Chris Carter ed reed, Yeah, hey, sign me
up with that, you know what I mean. Michael Irvin, Oh,
of course I put Michael in there. Everybody Michael, Hey,
(45:59):
I tried to line up for that. I told Michael, Michael,
I want to complay. Don't you come down here. Michael
was like, glad you told me. I'm going to tell
Jerry right now. That was in ninety three. Me and
Jerry we all at the Pro Bowl, and I made
made the mistake. I went to Michael. I said, Mike, Man,
look man, I want to come home and play. Say
I'll play second fiddle. And that's not what it's all about.
(46:21):
I just want to be oh no, oh, you know, Michael,
you ain't coming down here, you ain't coming there. So
uh yeah. So you know, I just think Michael, Michael
when I think that physicality thing. He was up there too.
He was a beast of a guy. Uh But I
would have traded places with any of those guys, but
nobody wanted to trade places, you know what I mean?
(46:42):
And uh so you know, people say all time, Tim,
what would you have done if you hey, hey, I'm
not trying to go down that road. The biggest compliment
compliment I think I was ever given was by Jerry Rice.
And he didn't do it publicly. It was just me
and him, and he came up to me and he
said it was in a practice. You know. This was
(47:04):
about five games into his first year there, and he
came up to me and he hugged me and he said, man,
he said, I don't know how you did what you did,
but he said, the fact that you did what you did,
you know, makes me respect you even more. And you know,
it was almost what I'm serious more was like, but
(47:26):
I got to practice, man, I can get the practice.
But because you know, because he realized at that time
that the Raiders organization was a little different. They did things,
you know, compared to you know, what they had done.
And so, you know, I think when you get that
kind of you know, pat on my back or you know, nods, man,
(47:47):
you make you realize, Okay, you know I did all
I could do. My boys recognize it. You know, when
your boys recognized that, you know, forget anybody else, you know,
forget everybody else. You know, Uh, the media don't ever
have to say it, you know. Uh, I got a
I got a cousin man a couple of years younger
than me. And he, you know, of course, followed my
(48:08):
whole He was in l A when I got to
l A. And he he has DVDs with every one
of my catches on my whole career DVDs.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Brother, that's the worst.
Speaker 1 (48:20):
That's yeah, you ain't got nothing to play it on.
Well and uh so, and he is like a big
time music type guy. He does all this stuff, so
he has a platform. And every once in a while
he'll go Tim Brown heavy and he'll just lay it out,
you know, he'll do all the stats and all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (48:37):
Man.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
And and uh I was Chris Man, just back off,
but just it's okay. He said, no, no, they need
to know. They need no cousin need to know. Cus
So anyway, but I didn't finish my five, but I'm
gonna be in that top five. So I respect that.
I respect that. I respect I was at three, but
I'll put Michael in there. But look, man, the fact
(48:58):
of the matter is again, that had twenty quarterbacks. Bro.
It's like you played for Chicago twenty quarterbacks. You know,
there's not gonna be another Hall of Famer to make
it to the league. Betwenty I think Chris Fitzgerald was
at fifteen, sixteen and something like that. But I mean
seven head coaches, you know, thirteen you know, office court,
(49:20):
you know what I mean. But we got it done.
You know that. That's the whole deal. Brother, And I
think from that, you know, whether or not anybody ever
puts me in the top five, I always get the
honorable mentioned, right, I always get the you know, the
top five, the honorble mentioned Tim Brown, you know what
I mean, right, But it's all good. My last question
(49:40):
is Mount Rushmore. It's four people.
Speaker 3 (49:44):
If you had four people to put on Tim Brown's
personal Mount Rushmore, who would those four people be? Just
during my time or it's just an influence who you know,
from the time you were born to today?
Speaker 2 (49:59):
Right, you got four people?
Speaker 1 (50:05):
Probably? Number one, if I can do it as a combo,
would be my parents, my mom and dad, you know,
but special people. You know. My mom is still a
live thankfully. My dad passed a few years ago. You know.
I can get into many stories about why. But you know,
(50:27):
just I think that's a number number one for me.
Number two, my big brother Man over oversaw all this, right,
he's eight years older than me. He you know when
I thought taking money from colleges was a good thing
(50:51):
at sixteen years old, because they'd be in my basketball games.
They tell me, go go see Peanut in the corner,
Go see Roman over here. Roma got fifteen hundred dollars.
You know, Peanut got. I'm thinking, I'm I'm balling, I'm
big balling. Yeah, you know. But he was the one
to take the money from me and get the money back,
you know, because we weren't going to be those people,
right man, you're looking back on that, it was like, man,
(51:15):
that's that took something that took deep inside of you
man to be able to to have that kind of mentality. Uh.
He over oversaw all the agent thing you know when
you coming out, and just enabled me just to go play.
I didn't have to worry about that. And plus I
got kid folks, you know I have to worry about.
(51:35):
So I would have to put him in in that too.
I didn't think it would be my pastor. Yeah, you know,
I think at an age man, where I was ready,
I had a pocket full of money, I was in
la I was ready for it, and my pastor kept
(51:55):
telling me God has only put you in this position,
so you can turn it around and give it back
to him. I was like, Pastor, what I want to
hear man today? Many to live? Just tell me to
go ahead, man, going out there, but not see you
when you get back, you know. But he constantly told me,
(52:16):
and I don't think. I think without that my walk
would have started even later than what it did, because
I think I would have always said with Pastor, you
told me passor you told me I could do. You
told me, you told me. But because he didn't, I
think when I was starting my transition at twenty five
twenty six, I always had his ringing in my ear
(52:40):
that yeah, and so so from a spiritual standpoint, I
don't think I would be the man I am a
day if I had, you know, if I those words, yeah,
And I think numberfore man, and I don't mean for
her to be number four. But my wife came into
(53:00):
the situation in the heat of it, yeah, you know.
And if she would have came in doing this rolling
a deck telling me what to do, it would have
been I think a different tim would have would have
shown on the field. And instead she came in and said,
(53:20):
what do you need me to do? You know right,
I need you out of the house on Saturday afternoon.
I'm good with that. Matter of fact, I'm going shop
in San Francisco, So I'm really good with that. You know.
She was good with that, you know what I mean.
But I think that she was so humble about making
(53:42):
sure that I had what I needed and it wasn't interrupting,
you know, because come to find out, you know, at
thirty you're thinking, okay, well by the end, well I
played that was thirty eight, Yeah, so long time, So
you know what I mean. And so I just think
her ability to understand and respect the fact that I'm
not trying to be some crazy guy, but I just
(54:05):
need this is what I need, and this is what
I gotta have you do, And and she was she
was willing to do that. I mean, I we we
did vows of twenty five years a couple of years ago,
and and I didn't make it through it.
Speaker 2 (54:23):
That's good.
Speaker 1 (54:23):
Yeah, I didn't make it through it because I was
trying to explain to her how important that was and
how what we're standing on today we may not be
standing on if you would have been a different girl,
you know what I mean. And so I think for sure,
you know, I have to have on Mount Rush school
though she's more than she's more than qualified. We can
(54:46):
edit all this.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
We'll edit all this and make her number one. Yeah,
We're gon edit all this and make her number one.
I think My last quick follow is is it true
that your mom always wanted you to not play football?
Speaker 1 (54:58):
Did she try to get you to quit?
Speaker 2 (54:59):
Very true?
Speaker 1 (55:00):
Very true. I mean she never knew that I was playing.
You know, I was my freshman year. You know, you
played football at four o'clock in the afternoon, so you know,
if I got home at five thirty six o'clock with
no big deal. My second year, I made the varsity
football team. But I was in a marching band my
freshman year, so she wasn't tripping on that. But then
(55:23):
I had like the best first four weeks, you know,
and they named me Sophomore Sensation or whatever, and so
all of her friends, like Timmy's in the paper. So
she's looking at life section, what did you do? What
did you do? And I was like, Mama, maybe you
should look at a sports page. But she saw that
and she was again, my mom is a deeply religious one. Yeah,
and felt like that football and sports in general, what's
(55:46):
the Devil's workshop and she hadn't want me or any
of her kid has been involved with and all the
kids had played I was the youngest of five. Everybody
had played sports. But it just seemed like to me,
to her that this thing with me was a bit
a bit deeper. And uh yeah. So so Notre Dame
came and they said, uh, well this is a five
(56:08):
year academic scholarship. So he had to practice one week,
but if he chooses not to play football, he'll still
have a scholarship. And she was like, oh, this is great,
this is great, Timmy.
Speaker 2 (56:22):
You know, I don't know anybody that gets to go
to school and decide whether, you know, we just go pay.
Speaker 1 (56:29):
For this is crazy. So anyway, but yeah, man, and uh,
of course, my rookie, you have a great year break
Gale says. The records all this stuff. The second I
get hurt, oh you know, it was oh yeah, you
gotta retire now. And I know I got to go back.
I prove that I could do, you know, and uh
but yeah, every year I would come home and I
stayed with them until almost I got married, and uh
(56:52):
but every year I came home, she was like, well
are you are you are you gonna retire now, It's like, oh,
we're gonna keep going. So but she she's good. She's
good now. You know she was happy when I retired
at almost thirty nine years old. I love that.
Speaker 4 (57:05):
Yeah, so well, Tim, Man, appreciate you. Yeah, Man, thanks
so much for such man joining us.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
Man.
Speaker 4 (57:11):
Look, I just really appreciate anytime we get great ones
around us because you naturally pour into us, and then
we get to go out here and share these stories
with all of our viewers and listeners out there, and
it's really pouring.
Speaker 2 (57:22):
Back into them.
Speaker 4 (57:23):
The same thing that your pastor told you when you
first got out to LA, because I've been in that
LA lifestyle too, so I totally get it. In respect
it man, I really appreciate it. And you are definite
top five of all time. So congratulations to that with
all your quarterbacks too. All right, thanks Tim again, and
for all of our viewers and listeners out there. Wherever
you pick up your podcast was Apple podcast, iHeartRadio app
(57:46):
make sure you give us a five star rating, leave
a review, make sure you comment, like, subscribe, and also
you look us up on the NFL Channels.
Speaker 1 (57:54):
YouTube YouTube channel. There we go. If trying to get
that right.
Speaker 4 (57:57):
And now make sure you tell a friend to tell
a friend to do what Pe done. My friend, check
us out, man Pina's get us up out of here.
Speaker 3 (58:02):
Hey I'm Penut, That's Roman and that's Timmy And this
is the NFL Player's second X podcast were out
Hosts And Creators
Charles “Peanut” Tillman
Roman Harper
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