In Episode 3 of The Exchange presented by WynnBet Nick Mangold and Mark Sanchez are joined by former Jets quarterback Vinny Testaverde. 2:50 - Secret to the longevity of Vinny's career 5:40 - Vinny's decision to sign with the New York Jets in free agency 9:00 - The close calls of making AFC Championships 10:15 - Vinny's favorite memories about playing with the Jets
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome into the Exchange with yours truly, nickmngle, my good buddy,
Mark Sanchez. We got an exciting one for episode two.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Let's go have a little uh longevity, Longevity Javity is.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I think it'll be. It's gonna be a lot of fun.
I've never met him before, which is interesting. Sit right here, baby,
pop on in and we're gonna have a nice little chat.
But I was thinking longevity. Thanks me to you know,
the older players and who you got to play with
long time? Who is? I have one lined up and
I think it's probably gonna be yours too. Who is
(00:42):
like the fan of your favorite your favorite oldest player?
Fanic is definitely amazing, so like it has to be
ten year plus. Oh that you played with Witten? Pretty awesome. Yeah,
in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
The one year I was in Dallas was pretty awesome. Okay,
Fanico would probably be another one. Brandon Moore was another one.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
You're blanket on I think, would you say Brew?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Oh, come on, idiot, Yeah, I just forget Brew.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
That's terrible. He was the oldest one we played with.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I'm sorry, that's bad. Yeah I remember he turned forty. Yeah,
Oh my god, yeah I remember on Hard Knocks. It's
closer to age to his daughter, and he's like, don't
even think about it.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, I was watching it. I knew each other. I
was like, I got a lot of we got a
lot of Hard Knocks things to go through because, oh
my gosh, I rewatched it with my son and there's
a lot of things about it. He was one of
them loved it. The other one got really bored. Really yeah. Interesting.
I think he expected me to be on the screen
the whole time. Yeah, so when I wasn't, I was like, well,
this is stupid.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
He wanted more on me too.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm sure, I'm sure probably, but yeah, you know, like
and so you know brew a thousand stories. Yeah, I
assume our good buddy Vinny test Erdy is going to
have a thousand stories. Really cool because it's you get
that long of time you have.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Brooklyn guy, Long Island guy, like playing here for the Jets.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
That's a big Groundly I had eleven years. I still
have a ton of stories. Yeah, so I can only
imagine guys that play I mean for twenty years, yeah,
twenty one years.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So I think, Oh, the Heisman Trophy, you don't I
don't know why I don't associate him as much with
the Heisman Trophy and you should.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
But yeah, why not?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I don't know, Maybe it's just me.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Probably probably that checks out. But well, I think we've
teased it up enough. I think we should bring them there.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, I think come on.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Man, let's go on, let's get to the video.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Twenty one seasons, two hundred and thirty three games. Play
until you're forty four?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Forty four?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I don't know how you did it. What was the
secret to the longevity? Man?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well, I think a lot of it was, you know,
staying healthy. You got to be a little bit lucky
in that department, as you know, both you guys know,
but you know, just kind of taking care of yourself,
if you know, physically, with your diet, mentally, I'm just
trying to do the right things to prepare yourself each
week get ready to play, whether it was you know,
(03:09):
studying game film or you know, taking care of your
body in the training room. We had some great, great trainers.
I was fortunate to be around a lot of good people.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
When you play that long, How different was your routine
from when you started to later on, like new technology,
new stretches, new Yeah, well, anything at the end that
you're like, man, I wish I had that when I was.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
That's a really good question. I wish I had some
of the stuff they have now back then, you know,
because I was still trying to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I'm on your cold tubbing and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Not at first. You know, when you're twenty three, twenty
four to twenty five, it's like, yeah, I'm beat up
on Sunday, Sunday night, Monday. By Tuesday, you're ready to go.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
When I was thirty five, you know, then you're ready
to go by Thursday Friday. And I was forty one,
forty two, it's like, am I going to be ready
to go this week? You know, same amount of abuse,
but it just took longer to get over it, and
so you really dedicated your time more to you know,
cold tubs in the training room, getting massages, how you
you diet looked, and definitely you know what you did
(04:03):
in the weight room to stay strong and healthy.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I'm curious if did you think you were going to
go anywhere else? You were the number one overall pick
Heisman Trophy winner in eighty six, eighty seven, yeah, eighty seven.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Sorry, well, drafting eighty seven, he eighty six, You're correct,
that was I'm getting so old I can't even remember.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
That's when I was born. Did you think you were
going anywhere else other than Tampa? Do you have any
draft stories like or was it lead pipe block all
the way?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah? No, I remember being I played at the University
of Miami, and I remember some of my teammates towards
the end of our season just kind of laughing saying,
good luck you're going to Tampa because they had only
won two four games in two years, two seasons. So yeah,
they they figured I was going there, and I figured
as well, and it was. It was a tough start
(04:53):
to my career.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Now you brought you brought up University of Miami, So
being a o Higo State guy, I need to know
you're thoughts. In two thousand and two National championship? Was
it past interference? A man?
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I'll tell you what I know. We won that game.
That's all I can tell you. Someone wanted Yeah, well
you guys definitely have the trophy, but it might have
been a bad call.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That was my freshman year.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Good for you, that was why it was good for you.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You know, you got to bring up the high state
things every once in a while.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Especially, Yeah, we got to share the Smurry trophy.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
You got to ruin the show every once in a while.
Calmed down, we're back, all right, We're back.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
That's what we keep saying that Miami too.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
It's coming. It'll come around, it always does. I'm curious, Okay,
how did you end up with the Jets?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Why? Here?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Was it a Brooklyn thing? Like you're obviously from Brooklyn.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Like, yeah, born and raised, raised, but born in Brooklyn,
raised on Long Island. Uh. I was always a big
Jets fan as a kid. Really had the opportunity to
go play for Bill Belichick in Cleveland. After Wow, I
played with the Jets. I was I'm getting the story
messed up here. After I played in Tampa Bay, I
went to play for Bill Belichick in Cleveland. Okay. After
(06:06):
we left Cleveland, I went to Baltimore with the team,
and Bill was released and fired and he went with
Parcels and they wound up in New York with the
Jets for like a day or something, right, well, no,
they were together, Oh he was here right right? Okay, Okay,
So after my time was up in Baltimore, Bill Belichick
(06:27):
got me to come to New York with Parcels as
the head coach. So that's how I got to New
York because I played as a player for Belichick.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Wow, how was he? How was he any good Belichick stories?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
You know?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
He was great. He's him and Parcels are two of
my favorite coaches. Bill Is you know, he's he has
his teams ready and prepared every single week. He's not
going to leave any stone unturned. And I really, as
a quarterback, appreciate how he approached the game and how
he made sure all the players were responsible for what
(07:01):
they had to do that Sunday because a lot of
a lot of times on other teams sometimes the quarterbacks
responsible for what the other guys are doing and it
makes our job as a quarterback tougher. But Parcels and Belichick,
they had them dialed in.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Then there was.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Always that feeling when you're going to play them, like
you better be on, you better to be ready, you
know what I mean. Definitely, don't give them any free ones,
don'tive them any cheap ones exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
But did you have a lot of family still in
Long Island?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
All my family?
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, so you had a lot of tickets then were
you playing, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Free buying pretty much.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah, yeah, matter of fact, I think I still owe
the jets of money. But yeah, it was Uh, it
was really fun to come back home and play in
front of my family and friends. At the same time,
it's you know, it could be a distraction, and that's
what one of the things I was afraid of. And
I kind of told them, you got tickets, but I'm
not going to come and have dinner with you every night.
I can't do it. Right. But we had we had
(07:51):
a great run in ninety eight AFC Championship game, and
you know, had we won that game, we had a
lead going into the second half and we had two
bad breaks in the second half. One was a kickoff,
but it was so windy that day. Uh, the guys
lost track of the ball and the kickoff and we
fumbled it away. But had we won that game, we
go into uh playing the Super Bowl against the Atlanta Falcons,
(08:12):
who we destroyed that same year. So we were confident
that had we gotten past the Broncos, sounds familiar like
this story, you guys, hear the story many familiar right.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Rember that because we would have played Green Bay and
we beat them or no, they beat us earlier in
the year. We beat them like nine to six. It
was a terrible game. Yeah, but Rex was like, you know,
we got that. He felt good about going into that game, like, oh, I.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Know you do, right, it's just the ones that got away, right,
that's the worst.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Ones that get away, I know. And as I'm sitting
here at them, so I have AFC quarterback, AFC Championship quarterback,
AFC Championship quarterback, and it's weird, like it's that history
of it, you know, all together. And so we haven't
been back since, but you know, hopefully good times are coming.
But it's just it's one of those things, especially for
us going back to back. They get when when we
(09:09):
missed out on the first one and then we had
the run and we get back there, we're like, all right,
this is our time. This is just kind of assume
you're going right back, and yeah, you assume after the
second one, you're like, all right, well we know how
to get there, Like now we just got to get
a home. Yeah, not the significant are you still invested
as much as being a Jets fan growing up and
then having played for the Jets and now being down
in Tampa, Like, are you still invested in the Jets?
(09:30):
Are you falling every week? Like what's your what's your
fan passion? Because you also played on other teams too, so.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
That Yeah, So I've played on seven different teams, seven
teams total, and uh, you know, out of all the teams,
the Jets have been my favorite. You know, I grew
up on Long Island and they were my childhood teams.
So you know, in my heart, I'm always a Jets fan.
And you know, watch both of you guys play in
many games and always pulled for you guys. I don't
get up here as often as I like, but uh,
(09:57):
you know, I'm always checking out the scores and seeing
where where they yeah, you know, where they are in
the division, in the conference.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Your favorite memory as a Jet either in that the
playoff run in ninety eight.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Or in you know, I have a few few really
good memories with the Jets. One is the Monday Night Miracle.
We're down twenty four points going in the fourth quarter
against the Dolphins of all teams, right, and they're you know,
they're talking away, and you know, I'm just you know,
I try and always be humble and not say a word,
and here we come. We're coming back. We're coming back.
(10:31):
All of a sudden, we get the lead. I throw
a touchdown the Jumbo Elliott, who's right, you know, that's
a little bigger than you. He's a big boy. So
I throw a touchdown. I go to pick him up
and about blew out my back, you know. So not
that I do the touchdown, but the memory is that
I almost blew up my back trying to pick up Jumbo.
But that's the kind of stuff that I remember, you know.
I remember playing against Seattle with Parcels and it's late
(10:56):
in the game and I run like a check with
me two plays to pass or quarterback sneak and they
play two wide three. So I tap the center, you know,
and we go. We're in the five yard line and
I barely get the ball over the goal line. They
didn't have instant replay back then, by the way, had they.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Had it, you might not got it.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
It definitely was not a touchdown. So we're all celebrating,
you know, we're and guys are hitting me in the
head and I'm like, you know, I got a concussion, right.
All of a sudden, I get this shove in my back.
I'm on the numbers on the out on the field
and it's parcels and I'm thinking, what's he doing now
you're congratulating me. He's just get your ass in the
huddle and call another play, you know. So those are
(11:35):
the things that stick with you all these years and
all the games you played in. It's the silly stuff
like that.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, what's this I hear about you?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Play cards?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Your poker guy, black track guy. I used to play
a little bit, but I don't really play too much anymore.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I mean, there's like legendary stories about you being like
a car try.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
No, yeah, no, I mean, you know, it's like it's
like playing golf with your buddies. You know, you you
bet a couple of bucks and the money always changes hands,
but nobody really at the end of the day, nobody.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Really really wanted.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah, but it's all you know.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Shark would say, you know, he's going to lure me in,
So I do remember where nobody really loses.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
We're going after your ass.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Another good story has nothing to do with football.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Right, We're going to Japan to play in a preseason game.
It's like a fourteen hour flight and me and Jason
Fabini offensive lineman, Anthony Beck tight end, and I think
it was Wank Rebett our receiver. We played cards for
fourteen hours all the way out, just NonStop.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
How was it playing out there?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Pretty cool? Too far?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Yeah, it's definitely too far to play a preseason game,
but we had we had. It was good to go
see how they live on the other side of the world,
you know what, different different culture, of different different things
to take in. And it was fun. But I wouldn't
make that a regular trip.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I could barely fly to the West coast.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Hey, you never come visit.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
I know it's a long flight. So I was with
him in New York obviously and saw the celebrity of
the starting quarterback for the New York Jets and all
the people that he attracted to. Did you have a
favor did you have like a favorite celebrity that you
were able to meet or someone that that came out
to a game.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
You're like, oh my god, that is amazing your time
here in New York, man, I wish I had a
good story for you, I really do. I don't really
nothing comes to mind, yuh, you know, just I mean
today I met a guy on the field, Mark Sanchez,
that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
We did.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I never met before.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
He's not that cool. Yeletown it really let down.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Did you go to any Broadway shows?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Uh? Actually I did as a kid growing up, because
I you know, I grew up on Long Island as
a play.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
No.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
I really didn't take advantage of my time as a
player here in New York. I you know, honest to god,
I was just so focused, laser focused in on what
I had to do. I didn't let anything, you know,
distract me from I mean, that's kind of bored.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Ring.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
You know, it's kind of boring.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
You have a favorite steakhouse when you're here? Uh?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah, we used to go to a place called rus
Chris Chain. Okay yeah, uh over on Long Island and
one right by a hofstra Uh no, it's uh in
near Oyster Bay Cove. Uh that area we.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Used to go there was They put one in like
right around the corner.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So okay, yeah, perfect, Yeah, we used to go. I'll
take all lineman out. And you know you guys used
to run up our bill. You know, I'm sure you did,
saying right, Mark, Yeah, God.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Sent me back, coach. You guys earned it. They did
they definitely did. Are we going quick fire?
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, we've actually just been banging through, so we're down
to somewhere. Taxi subwere taxi? Uh?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Taxi?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Really?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah? Uber?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yeah? My kids had to show me how to do that.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Are you an uber guy or a left guy?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I'm an uber guy?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
What's your rating? Uh?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
So they rate you as a passenger, you know, like
if you get have a couple too many pops you
throw up in the car, you get a bad rating.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
No, I must have a good rating because you know
you're probably quiet. I'm in, I'm out. You don't even
know I'm there.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
I love it. Would you rather go to a Broadway
show or a movie?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
A movie?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Really?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Really? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Favorite movie of ALTI movie? I loved Rocky as a kid. Yeah,
all the Rocky series. Yeah, you know you like the
new ones, the underdog?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
You know?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Do you like the ones?
Speaker 3 (15:29):
They're okay? I like the older one with you know,
Sebastos Stallone and them.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Uh you know which Rocky was your favorite?
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Por the first one? You know, I mean I wasn't
expecting what I what I saw, and you know, just
an underdog and even though he doesn't win, he comes
back and he's fighting and perseverance that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
So I like it.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
That's awesome, what a guy.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
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Speaker 1 (16:30):
Uh. So that was Vinny test already. That was awesome
first time meeting him. Yeah, My first time was cool. Yeah,
And it was what I found interesting which I didn't
realize and I would love to have had longer with him,
is we had a lot of.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Overlap player wise, player wise, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So getting different stories out of them and would have
been if we had more time, been a lot of
fun plank.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
For Belichick parcels like it's pretty.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Sweet, it was pretty cool. I bet he's I bet
he's got a lot more Parcels stories that he's holding.
Yeah close, you didn'tive us everything.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
No, he's got some good ones.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
It is weird though, the AFC Championship, Like did you
feel a special bond once he started talking.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
About it, It's like we share this heartbreak, yes, you know,
and oh it's either one, right, like either one? I
feel like the indie one. We were up at halftime
and then Peyton just went on a heater and got
after Peyton. Yeah, and what we were I don't know
(17:28):
if you were in the room when Tom Moore told
us who was the coordinator at the time, and Rex
was like, he's like, damn, I couldn't get your number
in the second half, Like I don't know what change,
but something changed. You guys weren't the same team. You
started dialing up stuff that I wasn't totally anticipating. And
he said Peyton was calling everything he said the second half,
(17:50):
Peyton just did his.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Own Dealton, Peyton just Peyton.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Thanks a lot, and then god, we just started so
oh slow at the Steelers. Tone didn't touch the ball
in the first quarter.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Well, talking to when Willie Cloone came here talking to him,
he was on team. He was like, because we knew,
like we always say, like we had three more minutes,
we wouldn't And Willie was like, yeah, we knew that too.
We were just didn't feel like we lost.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
It felt like we ran out of time.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, we ran out of time. Like and that sticks
on a happier note, like a twenty one year career.
Seems like he's doing great. He looks great.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
He looks his kids playing ball, Yeah, his kids. A
quarterback played at Miami, I think. But good player and
still still trying to do either XFL or USFL. I
think he said XFL. Yeah sounds right. So hopefully things
work out for him. But what a good guy. And
he's gonna be the captain for the Monday night opener.
(18:58):
It's pretty sweet. Yeah cool, big fan of Annie from
Afar And now I can say I.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Know him, Yeah, I know. Now I'm talking about that
is I'm pretty pumped. It's kind of funny that he was.
He was here in five, I got here in six.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeh.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Damn seventeen years later, Oh man, thank you. Yeah, two
years younger than me, which is the funny thing of
our whole stupid relationship. That was a good one. I
like that.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Be sure to rate, review, follow, and listen on the
iHeartRadio app on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
And thanks for listening. Thank you, good work.
Welcome into the Exchange with yours truly, nickmngle, my good buddy,
Mark Sanchez. We got an exciting one for episode two.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Let's go have a little uh longevity, Longevity Javity is.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I think it'll be. It's gonna be a lot of fun.
I've never met him before, which is interesting. Sit right here, baby,
pop on in and we're gonna have a nice little chat.
But I was thinking longevity. Thanks me to you know,
the older players and who you got to play with
long time? Who is? I have one lined up and
I think it's probably gonna be yours too. Who is
(00:42):
like the fan of your favorite your favorite oldest player?
Fanic is definitely amazing, so like it has to be
ten year plus. Oh that you played with Witten? Pretty awesome. Yeah,
in Dallas.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
The one year I was in Dallas was pretty awesome. Okay,
Fanico would probably be another one. Brandon Moore was another one.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
You're blanket on I think, would you say Brew?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Oh, come on, idiot, Yeah, I just forget Brew.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
That's terrible. He was the oldest one we played with.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
I'm sorry, that's bad. Yeah I remember he turned forty. Yeah,
Oh my god, yeah I remember on Hard Knocks. It's
closer to age to his daughter, and he's like, don't
even think about it.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, I was watching it. I knew each other. I
was like, I got a lot of we got a
lot of Hard Knocks things to go through because, oh
my gosh, I rewatched it with my son and there's
a lot of things about it. He was one of
them loved it. The other one got really bored. Really yeah. Interesting.
I think he expected me to be on the screen
the whole time. Yeah, so when I wasn't, I was like, well,
this is stupid.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
He wanted more on me too.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm sure, I'm sure probably, but yeah, you know, like
and so you know brew a thousand stories. Yeah, I
assume our good buddy Vinny test Erdy is going to
have a thousand stories. Really cool because it's you get
that long of time you have.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Brooklyn guy, Long Island guy, like playing here for the Jets.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
That's a big Groundly I had eleven years. I still
have a ton of stories. Yeah, so I can only
imagine guys that play I mean for twenty years, yeah,
twenty one years.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So I think, Oh, the Heisman Trophy, you don't I
don't know why I don't associate him as much with
the Heisman Trophy and you should.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
But yeah, why not?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I don't know, Maybe it's just me.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Probably probably that checks out. But well, I think we've
teased it up enough. I think we should bring them there.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, I think come on.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Man, let's go on, let's get to the video.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Twenty one seasons, two hundred and thirty three games. Play
until you're forty four?
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Forty four?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I don't know how you did it. What was the
secret to the longevity? Man?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well, I think a lot of it was, you know,
staying healthy. You got to be a little bit lucky
in that department, as you know, both you guys know,
but you know, just kind of taking care of yourself,
if you know, physically, with your diet, mentally, I'm just
trying to do the right things to prepare yourself each
week get ready to play, whether it was you know,
(03:09):
studying game film or you know, taking care of your
body in the training room. We had some great, great trainers.
I was fortunate to be around a lot of good people.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
When you play that long, How different was your routine
from when you started to later on, like new technology,
new stretches, new Yeah, well, anything at the end that
you're like, man, I wish I had that when I was.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
That's a really good question. I wish I had some
of the stuff they have now back then, you know,
because I was still trying to figure it out.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
I'm on your cold tubbing and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Not at first. You know, when you're twenty three, twenty
four to twenty five, it's like, yeah, I'm beat up
on Sunday, Sunday night, Monday. By Tuesday, you're ready to go.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
You know.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
When I was thirty five, you know, then you're ready
to go by Thursday Friday. And I was forty one,
forty two, it's like, am I going to be ready
to go this week? You know, same amount of abuse,
but it just took longer to get over it, and
so you really dedicated your time more to you know,
cold tubs in the training room, getting massages, how you
you diet looked, and definitely you know what you did
(04:03):
in the weight room to stay strong and healthy.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
I'm curious if did you think you were going to
go anywhere else? You were the number one overall pick
Heisman Trophy winner in eighty six, eighty seven, yeah, eighty seven.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Sorry, well, drafting eighty seven, he eighty six, You're correct,
that was I'm getting so old I can't even remember.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
That's when I was born. Did you think you were
going anywhere else other than Tampa? Do you have any
draft stories like or was it lead pipe block all
the way?
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah? No, I remember being I played at the University
of Miami, and I remember some of my teammates towards
the end of our season just kind of laughing saying,
good luck you're going to Tampa because they had only
won two four games in two years, two seasons. So yeah,
they they figured I was going there, and I figured
as well, and it was. It was a tough start
(04:53):
to my career.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Now you brought you brought up University of Miami, So
being a o Higo State guy, I need to know
you're thoughts. In two thousand and two National championship? Was
it past interference? A man?
Speaker 3 (05:05):
I'll tell you what I know. We won that game.
That's all I can tell you. Someone wanted Yeah, well
you guys definitely have the trophy, but it might have
been a bad call.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
That was my freshman year.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Good for you, that was why it was good for you.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
You know, you got to bring up the high state
things every once in a while.
Speaker 3 (05:23):
Especially, Yeah, we got to share the Smurry trophy.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
You got to ruin the show every once in a while.
Calmed down, we're back, all right, We're back.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
That's what we keep saying that Miami too.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
It's coming. It'll come around, it always does. I'm curious, Okay,
how did you end up with the Jets?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Why? Here?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Was it a Brooklyn thing? Like you're obviously from Brooklyn.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Like, yeah, born and raised, raised, but born in Brooklyn,
raised on Long Island. Uh. I was always a big
Jets fan as a kid. Really had the opportunity to
go play for Bill Belichick in Cleveland. After Wow, I
played with the Jets. I was I'm getting the story
messed up here. After I played in Tampa Bay, I
went to play for Bill Belichick in Cleveland. Okay. After
(06:06):
we left Cleveland, I went to Baltimore with the team,
and Bill was released and fired and he went with
Parcels and they wound up in New York with the
Jets for like a day or something, right, well, no,
they were together, Oh he was here right right? Okay, Okay,
So after my time was up in Baltimore, Bill Belichick
(06:27):
got me to come to New York with Parcels as
the head coach. So that's how I got to New
York because I played as a player for Belichick.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Wow, how was he? How was he any good Belichick stories?
Speaker 1 (06:40):
You know?
Speaker 3 (06:40):
He was great. He's him and Parcels are two of
my favorite coaches. Bill Is you know, he's he has
his teams ready and prepared every single week. He's not
going to leave any stone unturned. And I really, as
a quarterback, appreciate how he approached the game and how
he made sure all the players were responsible for what
(07:01):
they had to do that Sunday because a lot of
a lot of times on other teams sometimes the quarterbacks
responsible for what the other guys are doing and it
makes our job as a quarterback tougher. But Parcels and Belichick,
they had them dialed in.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Then there was.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Always that feeling when you're going to play them, like
you better be on, you better to be ready, you
know what I mean. Definitely, don't give them any free ones,
don'tive them any cheap ones exactly.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
But did you have a lot of family still in
Long Island?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
All my family?
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Yeah, so you had a lot of tickets then were
you playing, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Free buying pretty much.
Speaker 3 (07:29):
Yeah, yeah, matter of fact, I think I still owe
the jets of money. But yeah, it was Uh, it
was really fun to come back home and play in
front of my family and friends. At the same time,
it's you know, it could be a distraction, and that's
what one of the things I was afraid of. And
I kind of told them, you got tickets, but I'm
not going to come and have dinner with you every night.
I can't do it. Right. But we had we had
(07:51):
a great run in ninety eight AFC Championship game, and
you know, had we won that game, we had a
lead going into the second half and we had two
bad breaks in the second half. One was a kickoff,
but it was so windy that day. Uh, the guys
lost track of the ball and the kickoff and we
fumbled it away. But had we won that game, we
go into uh playing the Super Bowl against the Atlanta Falcons,
(08:12):
who we destroyed that same year. So we were confident
that had we gotten past the Broncos, sounds familiar like
this story, you guys, hear the story many familiar right.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Rember that because we would have played Green Bay and
we beat them or no, they beat us earlier in
the year. We beat them like nine to six. It
was a terrible game. Yeah, but Rex was like, you know,
we got that. He felt good about going into that game, like, oh, I.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
Know you do, right, it's just the ones that got away, right,
that's the worst.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Ones that get away, I know. And as I'm sitting
here at them, so I have AFC quarterback, AFC Championship quarterback,
AFC Championship quarterback, and it's weird, like it's that history
of it, you know, all together. And so we haven't
been back since, but you know, hopefully good times are coming.
But it's just it's one of those things, especially for
us going back to back. They get when when we
(09:09):
missed out on the first one and then we had
the run and we get back there, we're like, all right,
this is our time. This is just kind of assume
you're going right back, and yeah, you assume after the
second one, you're like, all right, well we know how
to get there, Like now we just got to get
a home. Yeah, not the significant are you still invested
as much as being a Jets fan growing up and
then having played for the Jets and now being down
in Tampa, Like, are you still invested in the Jets?
(09:30):
Are you falling every week? Like what's your what's your
fan passion? Because you also played on other teams too, so.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
That Yeah, So I've played on seven different teams, seven
teams total, and uh, you know, out of all the teams,
the Jets have been my favorite. You know, I grew
up on Long Island and they were my childhood teams.
So you know, in my heart, I'm always a Jets fan.
And you know, watch both of you guys play in
many games and always pulled for you guys. I don't
get up here as often as I like, but uh,
(09:57):
you know, I'm always checking out the scores and seeing
where where they yeah, you know, where they are in
the division, in the conference.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Your favorite memory as a Jet either in that the
playoff run in ninety eight.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Or in you know, I have a few few really
good memories with the Jets. One is the Monday Night Miracle.
We're down twenty four points going in the fourth quarter
against the Dolphins of all teams, right, and they're you know,
they're talking away, and you know, I'm just you know,
I try and always be humble and not say a word,
and here we come. We're coming back. We're coming back.
(10:31):
All of a sudden, we get the lead. I throw
a touchdown the Jumbo Elliott, who's right, you know, that's
a little bigger than you. He's a big boy. So
I throw a touchdown. I go to pick him up
and about blew out my back, you know. So not
that I do the touchdown, but the memory is that
I almost blew up my back trying to pick up Jumbo.
But that's the kind of stuff that I remember, you know.
I remember playing against Seattle with Parcels and it's late
(10:56):
in the game and I run like a check with
me two plays to pass or quarterback sneak and they
play two wide three. So I tap the center, you know,
and we go. We're in the five yard line and
I barely get the ball over the goal line. They
didn't have instant replay back then, by the way, had they.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Had it, you might not got it.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
It definitely was not a touchdown. So we're all celebrating,
you know, we're and guys are hitting me in the
head and I'm like, you know, I got a concussion, right.
All of a sudden, I get this shove in my back.
I'm on the numbers on the out on the field
and it's parcels and I'm thinking, what's he doing now
you're congratulating me. He's just get your ass in the
huddle and call another play, you know. So those are
(11:35):
the things that stick with you all these years and
all the games you played in. It's the silly stuff
like that.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Yeah, what's this I hear about you?
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Play cards?
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Your poker guy, black track guy. I used to play
a little bit, but I don't really play too much anymore.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I mean, there's like legendary stories about you being like
a car try.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
No, yeah, no, I mean, you know, it's like it's
like playing golf with your buddies. You know, you you
bet a couple of bucks and the money always changes hands,
but nobody really at the end of the day, nobody.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
Really really wanted.
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah, but it's all you know.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Shark would say, you know, he's going to lure me in,
So I do remember where nobody really loses.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
We're going after your ass.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Another good story has nothing to do with football.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Right, We're going to Japan to play in a preseason game.
It's like a fourteen hour flight and me and Jason
Fabini offensive lineman, Anthony Beck tight end, and I think
it was Wank Rebett our receiver. We played cards for
fourteen hours all the way out, just NonStop.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
How was it playing out there?
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Pretty cool? Too far?
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Yeah, it's definitely too far to play a preseason game,
but we had we had. It was good to go
see how they live on the other side of the world,
you know what, different different culture, of different different things
to take in. And it was fun. But I wouldn't
make that a regular trip.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I could barely fly to the West coast.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Hey, you never come visit.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
I know it's a long flight. So I was with
him in New York obviously and saw the celebrity of
the starting quarterback for the New York Jets and all
the people that he attracted to. Did you have a
favor did you have like a favorite celebrity that you
were able to meet or someone that that came out
to a game.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
You're like, oh my god, that is amazing your time
here in New York, man, I wish I had a
good story for you, I really do. I don't really
nothing comes to mind, yuh, you know, just I mean
today I met a guy on the field, Mark Sanchez,
that was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
We did.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
I never met before.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
He's not that cool. Yeletown it really let down.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Did you go to any Broadway shows?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
Uh? Actually I did as a kid growing up, because
I you know, I grew up on Long Island as
a play.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
No.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
I really didn't take advantage of my time as a
player here in New York. I you know, honest to god,
I was just so focused, laser focused in on what
I had to do. I didn't let anything, you know,
distract me from I mean, that's kind of bored.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
Ring.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
You know, it's kind of boring.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
You have a favorite steakhouse when you're here? Uh?
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Yeah, we used to go to a place called rus
Chris Chain. Okay yeah, uh over on Long Island and
one right by a hofstra Uh no, it's uh in
near Oyster Bay Cove. Uh that area we.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Used to go there was They put one in like
right around the corner.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
So okay, yeah, perfect, Yeah, we used to go. I'll
take all lineman out. And you know you guys used
to run up our bill. You know, I'm sure you did,
saying right, Mark, Yeah, God.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Sent me back, coach. You guys earned it. They did
they definitely did. Are we going quick fire?
Speaker 1 (14:40):
Yeah, we've actually just been banging through, so we're down
to somewhere. Taxi subwere taxi? Uh?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Taxi?
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Really?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Yeah? Uber?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
Yeah? My kids had to show me how to do that.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Are you an uber guy or a left guy?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I'm an uber guy?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
What's your rating? Uh?
Speaker 3 (14:58):
What is that?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
So they rate you as a passenger, you know, like
if you get have a couple too many pops you
throw up in the car, you get a bad rating.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
No, I must have a good rating because you know
you're probably quiet. I'm in, I'm out. You don't even
know I'm there.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
I love it. Would you rather go to a Broadway
show or a movie?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
A movie?
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Really?
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Really? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Favorite movie of ALTI movie? I loved Rocky as a kid. Yeah,
all the Rocky series. Yeah, you know you like the
new ones, the underdog?
Speaker 2 (15:27):
You know?
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Do you like the ones?
Speaker 3 (15:29):
They're okay? I like the older one with you know,
Sebastos Stallone and them.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Uh you know which Rocky was your favorite?
Speaker 3 (15:35):
Por the first one? You know, I mean I wasn't
expecting what I what I saw, and you know, just
an underdog and even though he doesn't win, he comes
back and he's fighting and perseverance that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
So I like it.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
That's awesome, what a guy.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
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Speaker 1 (16:30):
Uh. So that was Vinny test already. That was awesome
first time meeting him. Yeah, My first time was cool. Yeah,
And it was what I found interesting which I didn't
realize and I would love to have had longer with him,
is we had a lot of.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Overlap player wise, player wise, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
So getting different stories out of them and would have
been if we had more time, been a lot of
fun plank.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
For Belichick parcels like it's pretty.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Sweet, it was pretty cool. I bet he's I bet
he's got a lot more Parcels stories that he's holding.
Yeah close, you didn'tive us everything.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
No, he's got some good ones.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
It is weird though, the AFC Championship, Like did you
feel a special bond once he started talking.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
About it, It's like we share this heartbreak, yes, you know,
and oh it's either one, right, like either one? I
feel like the indie one. We were up at halftime
and then Peyton just went on a heater and got
after Peyton. Yeah, and what we were I don't know
(17:28):
if you were in the room when Tom Moore told
us who was the coordinator at the time, and Rex
was like, he's like, damn, I couldn't get your number
in the second half, Like I don't know what change,
but something changed. You guys weren't the same team. You
started dialing up stuff that I wasn't totally anticipating. And
he said Peyton was calling everything he said the second half,
(17:50):
Peyton just did his.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Own Dealton, Peyton just Peyton.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Thanks a lot, and then god, we just started so
oh slow at the Steelers. Tone didn't touch the ball
in the first quarter.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Well, talking to when Willie Cloone came here talking to him,
he was on team. He was like, because we knew,
like we always say, like we had three more minutes,
we wouldn't And Willie was like, yeah, we knew that too.
We were just didn't feel like we lost.
Speaker 2 (18:24):
It felt like we ran out of time.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, we ran out of time. Like and that sticks
on a happier note, like a twenty one year career.
Seems like he's doing great. He looks great.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
He looks his kids playing ball, Yeah, his kids. A
quarterback played at Miami, I think. But good player and
still still trying to do either XFL or USFL. I
think he said XFL. Yeah sounds right. So hopefully things
work out for him. But what a good guy. And
he's gonna be the captain for the Monday night opener.
(18:58):
It's pretty sweet. Yeah cool, big fan of Annie from
Afar And now I can say I.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Know him, Yeah, I know. Now I'm talking about that
is I'm pretty pumped. It's kind of funny that he was.
He was here in five, I got here in six.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Yeh.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Damn seventeen years later, Oh man, thank you. Yeah, two
years younger than me, which is the funny thing of
our whole stupid relationship. That was a good one. I
like that.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Be sure to rate, review, follow, and listen on the
iHeartRadio app on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
And thanks for listening. Thank you, good work.
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