June 28, 2020 • 26 mins
John Eisenberg talks to former Ravens quarterback Kyle Boller, who was relieved to leave the NFL and doing well after carrying the weight of high expectations on his shoulders.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Greetings, and welcome to What Happened to That Guy? A
Ravens podcast about former players and life after football. I'm
your host, John Eisenberg. If you listen to the first
two episodes featuring Jermaine Lewis and Peter Bullware, I want
to thank you. To show my appreciation, I'm going to
take you behind the curtain here at the start of
(00:31):
episode number three. My subject is Kyle Boehler, the former
first round draft pick and starting quarterback who in two
thousand and three was handed the keys to the Ravens offense,
practically the keys to the entire franchise. Actually he was
twenty two years old. As you may know, he didn't
quite live up to expectations, but he was in Baltimore
(00:53):
for six years. He started forty two games, signed two contracts,
and he ranked second in franchise history in most of
the major passing statistical categories, trailing only Joe Flacco. I
thought it would be interesting to find out what Kyle
is up to now, how he's doing, so I called him,
and here's where I'll take you behind the curtain and
(01:15):
let you see and hear how the sausage gets made,
so to speak. Here at the Baltimore Ravens podcast network.
Here's a raw recording of the start of my phone
conversation with Kyle five. Is that good? Yeah? Hello? Hey?
(01:38):
Is this Kyle y? Hey, it's John Eisenmerre calling from Baltimore. Hey, John,
how are you doing, Buddy good? How are you doing?
I'm doing good? Man. Is this a good time for you? Yeah?
I got to take the old wife car into the
dealership today, so jump on earlier, better for me. Thanks
for doing this. I really appreciate it. Yeah, no problem
at all. Interviewing athletes on the phone is one of
(02:00):
the basic requirements of writing and talking about sports. When
people ask me for a job description, what I do?
I tell them A. I drive to and from airports. B.
I talked to athletes on the phone and c in
between doing those other two things. Occasionally I write. I've
(02:20):
interviewed hundreds of sports figures on the phone, athletes, coaches,
former athletes, owners. Most were cooperative, but some were, shall
we say, not quite as enthusiastic about the conversation as me.
Don't get me wrong, they weren't outright rude, but it
was clear they would rather be doing something other than
(02:42):
talking to a guy with a bunch of questions. They
looked forward to the point where we wrap things up.
Kyle Boehler, you may have noticed, could not have been
more enthusiastic or pleasant. He is thirty eight years old,
now happily married with two young kids. He made quite
a bit of money in football Tom Brady money, but
enough that he doesn't have to get up every morning
(03:03):
and hustle off to an office job. He lives in
San Diego, a beautiful place. In between taking his two
kids to school in the morning and picking him up
in the afternoon. He plays a lot of golf. When
we spoke, I envisioned him sitting in his kitchen morning
sunlight streaming in blue skies and flowers outside a classic
California scene. Bowler was, still is, and will always be,
(03:27):
a California kid, so to speak. He grew up in
Burbank near Los Angeles. He played his college ball at
cal Berkeley. When he settled down, he married, wait for it,
a former Miss California. You heard him right. I'm doing good, man,
doing really good. One of the reasons Kyle Bowler is
(03:52):
doing so well now, no question is he isn't in
the NFL anymore. I started tap a football and I
was six years old. For me, the day that I
did retire, it was one of the best days of
my life. The world was lifted off my shoulders. When
you play that long, I was mentally, physically and emotionally
burnt out of it. Never got cut, never got traded.
(04:13):
I was like, you know what, I'm gonna glad on
my own terms. Did you hear what he said the
day he retired was one of the best days of
his life. You go through so much as a player
from an emotional and physical and mental standpoint. For me,
once that all ended, I knew that I didn't really
have to do that anymore. It was just freeing for
(04:34):
me of anything I've ever done in my whole life.
Was like, all right, chapter's kind of done now, and
now I'm ready for the next chapter. I might be wrong,
but I don't think that many players feel the same
way about the end of their careers. Playing in the
NFL is rough stuff, no question, but the pay is
good and you're in the brightest spotlights. It's exciting. There
(04:54):
are definitely some privileges. Most guys are in no hurry
to give it up. In fact, they dres At the end,
all I've ever done is played football. They can't imagine
doing anything else. Buller didn't say this, but I got
the feeling his ten years in the league felt like
a hundred to him. The whole time he faced a
rugged opponent that harassed him like a Pro Bowl pass rusher.
(05:17):
Only his opponent wasn't intangible. Something he couldn't see or touch.
That opponent was the burden of great expectations. In the
two thousand and three NFL Draft, the Ravens took two
guys in the first round as the number ten and
(05:38):
number nineteen overall selections. The Ravens were coming off a
season in which they went seven and nine with Chris
Redman and Jeff Blake at quarterback. They were looking for
new blood, a young guy who could grab the position
Bible lapels and make it his own. They were looking
for a star. With the first of those first round picks,
(06:00):
number ten overall, they took a linebacker from Arizona State.
His name was Terrell Suggs. They had considered trading up
to get a quarterback they liked Byron Leftwich from Marshall,
but they couldn't make it happen. An hour or so
later into the first round, they did trade up, sending
a pair of high draft choices to the New England
(06:21):
Patriots for the number nineteen overall pick, which they used
to select Bowler. The Sugs pick was a home run.
He would end up playing for the Ravens for sixteen years,
setting a franchise record for sacks that may last forever.
A lot of experts think he'll make the Pro Football
Hall of Fame. It wouldn't surprise me in the least,
(06:42):
But at the time, the Bowler pick was a bigger deal,
a much bigger deal, breaking news. The Ravens have a
new quarterback, But who was he? Only Baltimore fans who
closely followed the draft had ever heard of Bowler. He
played on the West Coast. His cow teams never won
a conference title, never went to a bowl, didn't play
on national TV. They were one and ten when Bowler
(07:05):
was a junior. Bowler, though, piled up big numbers impressive statistics.
In four seasons as col starter. He passed for sixty
four touchdowns in almost eight thousand yards, and he saved
the best for last. He was really good as a senior.
The Ravens scouted him and fell in love. Here's Brian Billick,
their head coach at the time, who had led the
(07:26):
Ravens to a Super Bowl victory just a few years earlier.
Whatever box you want to check when you evaluate a quarterback,
and there's a lot of different people that'll have different
perspectives on that. He checked off every box you could
ever want. Strong arm, good athlete, smart, kid, loved the game,
had a certain personality that people were drawn to, you know,
(07:48):
in terms of that leadership, had plenty of want everything
about it. It just for whatever reason, the sum of
the parts didn't equal the whole. Ouch. That's tough stuff
right there, that last sentence. The sum of the parts
didn't equal the whole. I think it calls for a
deep dive into exactly what went on. Just months after
(08:11):
he was drafted, Bowler opened the two thousand and three
season as the Ravens starting quarterback. There was no apprenticeship,
no time for him to stand on the sidelines and
learn the pro game while he watched others play. The
Ravens had three quarterbacks, Chris Redmond and Anthony Wright, two veterans,
and Bowler, a rookie. Bowler got the job or he
(08:32):
was very confident young man. The one thing with Kyle,
when you take a guy that high in the draft,
you got to play him. And that's my personal belief
as well. You don't learn anything standing on the sideline
as a rookie other than how to get to the
stadium and where to eat afterwards. He came in with
an organization that had been starved at the quarterback position
for a long time. The expectations very high. He came
(08:53):
to a team that was very good. It is tougher
for a young quarterback to come onto a team that
is new and struggling, because then they can struggle with
you and you build, compared to the pressures that even
though you're a rookie and you're going to start, we
expect to win. That was the pedigree here. We had
been Super Bowl champs, We had a good enough defense
in a running game that we expected to win. That's
a different environment for a young quarterback to have to
(09:15):
step into, compared to one like a Baker Mayfield where
he can go out and just play and just throw
it up because what what are we going to lose
another game? You know? Who cares? Kyle came into a
more difficult situation in that regard. At the time, Bowler
was proud and excited to begin his NFL career as
a starting quarterback on a winning team. When he looks
(09:38):
back now, though, he sees the opportunity as the beginning
of his struggles. From the get go, I got thrown
it right away. I was never ready to play, but
obviously Bryan Bill thought I was ready to play. Aside
from the fact that he doesn't feel he was ready
to be an NFL starting quarterback, a couple of other
things who are working against him. He believes there was
(09:59):
no mentor on a roster, no successful older quarterback to
show him the ropes. Also, while the Ravens were a
winning team, their style of play wasn't a perfect fit
for a quarterback with a big arm, a guy who
wanted to air it out, having to gone to a
place where you don't have any veteran there. I mean,
I love Chris Revan to death, but if I would
have had a Steve McNair to learn from on how
(10:20):
to watch tape and what an NFL quarterback schedule and
routine is, you know, it would have been very helpful.
And then you're coming into a team back in two
thousand and three that was heavily defensive predicated basically, just
don't lose the game. That's touch to like handcuff a
quarterback and be like, you know we're gonna run the
ball two times and then they're gonna have third and eight.
You know we're gonna have this vanilla offense. But just
don't lose the game. Buller started the Ravens first nine
(10:44):
games in two thousand and three. There were some struggles
typical of a rookie. He threw three interceptions in a
Week four loss to Kansas City. Bowler takes the snap,
fakes to Lewis, he sets he's throwing the bomb for
Heat double cover d Jenet's intercepted to Weeks later, he
passed for three hundred yards and three touchdowns against the Bengals.
He's thrown the bomb for Travis Taylor or and he's
(11:06):
got it, stays in bounds ten five touchdown. Ravens. Bowler
with the bomb to Travis Taylor seventy three yards. A
couple of so so performances followed, and then he got
hurt in Week nine. A thigh injury ended his season,
but it didn't end the Ravens season, Anthony Wright took
over at quarterback. The offense picked up. This was the
(11:29):
year Jamal Lewis ran for more than two thousand yards.
The Ravens rode Lewis Right and their defense to a
division title. But despite that success with Right, the Ravens
stuck by Bowler. They had drafted him in the first round.
They still believed you'd develop into a starter they could
ride for years. They gave him back the starting job
(11:50):
in two thousand and four, and this time he stayed healthy.
Started all sixteen games. The Ravens went nine to seven,
just missed the playoffs, and Bowler well, he didn't flop,
but he didn't knock any one out. He finished the
season with twenty five hundred passing yards, thirteen touchdowns, eleven interceptions,
and a quarterback rating of seventy point nine that's below
(12:10):
the league average. The next year, he got hurt right
away in Week one, and the Ravens season went south.
While he was out and Right played quarterback. There were
two and six when Bowler came back in November. In
his first game back, he threw three interceptions in a
loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars near the end of the
two thousand and five season, he had his best games
(12:32):
in a Baltimore uniform, playing the Green Bay Packers on
Monday Night Football. He passed for three touchdowns in a
forty eight to three romp, easily out dueling a pretty
decent quarterback named Brett Farve. Third and goal from the two.
Bowler quick drop, close up for heap. He's got a touchdown,
bowl or the heap, but two yards score and the
Ravens take the lead. The next week, he threw for
(12:54):
three touchdowns again as the Ravens beat the Minnesota Vikings
on Christmas Night. Vikings lead the game seventeen ten. Bowler
has it, blitzes on fires down the middle. Clayton break catch,
He's gone all the way, five touchdown Mark Clayton, Bowler
throw a laser all of the medal. But after those
two great performances, he ended the season with another clunker,
(13:16):
throwing a pair of interceptions and no touchdowns in a
loss to the Cleveland Browns. That offseason, the Ravens traded
for Steve McNair, an accomplished and winning veteran quarterback who
led the Tennessee Titans to great heights. There was no
doubt what it meant Bowler's time as the number one
quarterback was over, which is tough because you bring him in,
(13:38):
you nurture him, and you can figure they're all in.
But it was part of the combination of where he
was and what his development was, how good a team
we thought we were because those windows do exist, and
to have that veteran presence of Steve McNair and we
went thirteen and three that year, and so it bore
out pretty good. To have that added experience and abilities
(14:00):
of a Steve McNair on a team that we thought
the window existed for us to be pretty good. I
think that was part of it as well. Obviously Bowler
was bummed. Part of him wondered if he should ask
to be traded, but he kept quiet and became the
number two quarterback, McNair's backup, which gave him a front
row seat to one of the Ravens best seasons ever.
With McNair under center, they went thirteen and three, won
(14:23):
the AFC North earned the number two seat in the
AFC playoffs. It all ended with a thud, a bitter
home loss to the Indianapolis Colts in a divisional playoff game.
But regardless, the move to McNair and away from Bowler
was an unqualified success. I think kind of do what
they gotta do, and I felt like I could never
really get on track. I mean I was given that chance.
(14:45):
I played all sixteen games, and that's the big learning
curve year. They're starting to bring some guys in. I mean,
we got Derek Mason that came in that I feel
like he really helped me out, Like i'ming a veteran
receiver in there. You know, Jonathan Ogen was still there,
so we still had some guys who were kind of
building that offensive piece. But yeah, once McNair was able
to get in there, I mean Bill had decided that
was the best opportunity to do that. Yo, what do
(15:05):
you do? Like out of my control, Like I could say,
I want to get trade here, I want to do
this so you can just see the backup and be
the team guy and do your job. And we had
a really I think we're thirteen and three that year.
I always think that could have been me and there playing,
but that's just not the way that it went down.
He had one final shot in two thousand and seven,
when McNair suffered an injury in the season opener. Initially,
(15:27):
things went well in early October. The Ravens were four
and two, seemingly set up for another playoff run, but
they completely fell apart, losing nine straight games at one point.
During the collapse, Bohler went back to the bench. He
took his last snap for the Ravens on December sixteenth,
two thousand and seven, and an infamous loss to the
(15:47):
previously winless Miami Dolphins. I'm not making excuses. It was rough.
I had some really good times to Baltimore, b else
had some really bad times. I feel like I kind
of was always just trying to keep my head above
It was kind of up and down with injuries, which
doesn't help because you can't get that consistency, and then
you're fighting obviously, you're fighting the fans and the media
(16:08):
sometimes looking back now, which I was a little bit
more mentally tough. I let some of the media and
the fans get to me. You know, I tell my
son or I give my son advice as he grows up,
only believe the people that are in your close circle.
You have to be so mentally strong these days with
media and all that kind of stuff, because otherwise it'll
tear you down. It's not worth it. And I know
(16:29):
that for sure because I played for ten years and
I let it get to me. And I probably could
have played in fifteen years if I didn't let some
of that stuff bother me. From Baltimore, Buller moved on
to the Saint Louis Rams in two thousand and nine,
and then spent two years with the Oakland Raiders. He
was by now established as a number two quarterback, the
(16:49):
kind you kept around for insurance. He signed with the
San Diego Chargers, his hometown team, in twenty twelve, but
one day of training camp convinced him it was time
to walk away. It's very bizarre, right, I went and
talk to the cow football team at all in water
and a couple of weeks ago, and these guys are
(17:10):
trying to aspire to be where I was. I mean,
it played its almost ten years in the NFL, and
it started a bunch of games and I live my
dream and I'm sitting there telling these guys and hey,
the best day of my life was when I stopped
playing football. And so it's super bizarre, but it really
was like, all right, chapter's kind of done now. And
now I'm ready for the next chapter. Maybe it's super bizarre,
(17:32):
but at the time it was nothing to shed tears about.
Not in this case. At the time, Bowler was almost
giddy about his career ending. My number one thing off
the get go is like, listen, I'm gonna play golf
and I'm gonna hang out with my kids and hang
out my family. That was the initial reaction to like
being retired. I don't listen any coaches, have to listen
to anybody tell me where to be at any time,
(17:52):
and I get to spend a lot, a bunch of
time with my family. He was a young man, just
thirty one. He'd given a little bit of thought to
what he might want to do after football, but honestly
not a lot of thought, and one reason for the
delay was some advice he received from, of all people,
Ravens owner Steve Bischotti. Buller can't recall exactly which year
it was that Bashotti came and spoke to the team.
(18:15):
Buller's second or third year in Baltimore, he guesses, so
two thousand and four or two thousand and five, It
doesn't really matter. What mattered in the long run was
what Bashotti said Steve Bischotti came and spoke to the
team and after the practice and basically just told guys like, listen,
you have an opportunity here to play football. I know
a lot of guys you're gonna have opportunities to start
businesses and to start restaurants and gyms and different things.
(18:37):
I'm just telling you right now, me as a business
guy like I will crush you in anything that you
get into because I get to spend twenty four hours,
seven days a week doing business. You guys are doing sports.
It happens so often to guys where they'll invest in
something a restaurant or this kind of stuff while they're playing,
and they'll they'll end up getting screwed because they're not there,
Like they don't understand what is to run a business.
(18:59):
You know. The advice that I took from when he
spoke that day after practice was just focus on what
you're doing now and what you can control, and give
one hundred and ten percents of your football, and then
there'll be life after football where you can spend all
that time on the business. When I started my own business,
you know, I was able to spend the time to
kind of do that. It took him a couple of years,
but Bohler eventually settled on what he wanted to do.
(19:21):
He'd watched his father in law beat cancer. He and
his wine were into being healthy, eating right. With help
from more experienced people in the health food industry, the
kind of mentors he'd lacked in football, he developed a
nutritional bar and put it on the market. It was
tougher than it sounds. The recipe had to be just right.
Bowler worked to get the bar into stores. The competition
(19:44):
was fierce, and I learned a ton, but you know,
I kind of threw myself in there. And unfortunately, it's
a super saturated industry and it's hard to sell healthy
stuff sometimes, and you know, I learned a lot. I
got to do that for about three years, but unfortunately
I had to let it go for a bunch of
different reasons. My goal originally was to do the bar
and then grown into a bunch of other healthy, natural products.
(20:05):
But you know, in that business, if you're starting a
bar company, any listeners out there, good luck, there's so
many There's so many things that go into it from
shelf life to have to produce a ton of them
and then get rid of a ton of them at
the same time. But you know, it is what it is.
I learned a ton from it. Basically got my business
degree just by throwing myself in and said, you do
(20:26):
go to business school. Yeah, it was, it was good.
The end of his nutritional bar business put him back
in the position of wondering what he'd do next, and
he's still in that position. He doesn't lack for ideas.
I've dabbled on a couple of different things, believe it
or not. It's actually putting together my own podcast right now.
And I have a relationship with a lot of other athletes,
(20:46):
and I always feel like people sometimes don't really understand,
you know, what it is to be an athlete. People
can put you on a pedestal as like you're this
different person, but we're all the same, you know. We
all wake up and brush our teeth and you know,
have families and deal with sele and stuff like that.
So I thought it would be cool to spring guys
on my show and just talk about what it is
like kind of behind the curtain. That's kind of a
(21:07):
little side project that I'm working on right now. But
it's tough, you know, when you go from playing football,
especially being an NFL quarterback. It's a real transition for
guys to find out what their next passion is. And
you know, I've had time to sit in my office
on my green sport and you know, try and go
over this and that, and you know, but sometimes it's
not as easy as it's like, hey, what do you
(21:28):
want to get into? And you've got to kind of
just navigate through that to figure out what it is.
I've done some real estate stuff, and you know, I
definitely stay busy. I've made some good financial excisions. I've
been smart with my money. You know, I'm not forced
to go grab a job and make a couple hundred
grand a year. I have the luxury of being able
to really focus on what I want to get into.
(21:49):
I'm in that position. That's not the case for a
lot of guys. You know. It's an eighty percent of
the guys after five years of being in the NFL
or bankrupt and seventy five percent are divorced. You know,
I'm definitely not that category. I listened to Steve Ashatti,
what he talked. It always shocked me. I think the
day that he talked there's probably half of the guys there,
Like how every single guy wasn't there listening to this
(22:09):
multi successful guy speak to the team one. That one
always kind of shocked me. But yeah, I mean, I'm
I'm in a good place. Okay, let's go behind the
curtain again. Here's a rough cut from my conversation with
Brian Billick about Bowler. He's a great guy. He's happy
(22:30):
in life, he's married and kids. He is I think,
and it took a while to unpeel this as we spoke.
I think he's a little I don't know if I
can use bitter the word, But he looks back on
it like it's not his favorite memory what happened here?
No one, it wouldn't be because it didn't go well
and and for a lot of different reasons, and and
you'd expect that. But yeah, he is a good young
(22:50):
man and he takes on his responsibility. I'd take responsibility
for it. Of whatever, you know, I could have done
differently to make it, make it happen for him. Maybe
we'd ahead different career if he weren't put in a
position where he had that responsibility, in that expectation early.
You know, like you said, it's the good news, bad news.
The good news is, gosh, they think highly enough that
I'm a top twenty pick in the NFL draft. The
(23:13):
bad news is, oh my god, now I got to
perform like a top twenty pick in the NFL draft.
It's hard to believe that sixteen years have passed since
the Ravens drafted Bowler and made him their starting quarterback.
The fact that he's still not even forty tells you
he was really young then in those years when he
was at the center of the storm. I try not
to think about it too much sometimes when the draft
(23:34):
stuff comes around and he Sometimes it's so funny because
there's so many people that are such haters, people that
will try and say that I was the worst draft
pick that Baltimore Ravens ever had. And I kind of
laughed for myself. If I'm the worst draft pick that
the Ravens ever had, then why the hell did they
sign me to two contracts? Not one, but two. People
(23:55):
Forget I restructured my contract. They could have got rid
of me after whatever another two year extension to my
original deal. When you hear some of the comments, I mean,
I had a good relationship with Brian Billick, but some
of the stuff, like listening to him talk about on
the TV and saying, oh, I still have a job,
it wasn't for me, and blah blah blah. It's like
it's almost laughable to me. The fact that Bowler tries
(24:18):
not to think about his NFL career too much says
something about how it went. But don't misunderstand where he's
coming from. He is proud that he made it that far,
proud of what went right, and no doubt he would
do it all again. Physically, I have my deal. I
get really bad sciatica in my back. Some of the
mornings I'll start filling the shoulders and I mean I
had three three shoulder surgeries. But for the most part,
(24:42):
you know, I'm a pretty healthy guy. I'm very active.
You know, I work out a lot now and probably
stronger than I've ever been. You know, I eat a
lot better and healthier than I ever used to do.
I'm in a good place, man. I You know, I
live in a beautiful city in San Diego and have
a beautiful family and supportive life and you know, two
great kids. His life is good. It was all worth it,
you know what I mean. Playing you have you'r up
(25:03):
year down. You know, I started tackle football six and
my dream was grown up to play on Monday night football.
And you know I was able to do that many
times against some really good teams. And even though there
was there was a struggle for me, I still got
nine credited seasons in and met some really great people
along the way. I mean, I still have a great
relationship with ste Bichell and guy looked up, look to
look up to a business and and the way he's
(25:24):
raised his kids in the organization that he's built. So
I've got a lot of good things out Baltimore. And
you know, obviously I'll always told it could spot in
my heart for there twenty percent of the fans hate me.
Good for them, I don't know. There's a lot of
people in Baltimore that do appreciate me, and you know
I have to have been good to me. There you
(25:45):
have it, episode three of what Happened to That Guy?
I want to thank Kyle for agreeing to talk and
being so candid. He knew it wouldn't be a warm
stroll down memory lane, but he went for it anyway,
which I appreciate. You can find out more about him
in his career at Baltimore Ravens dot Com slash What
Happened to that Guy? Another new episode of the podcast
(26:08):
will drop in two weeks, and they'll keep coming every
other week for the rest of the twenty nineteen season.
I hope you keep listening. If you like what you're hearing,
don't hesitate to leave a five star rating or write
a review. Also subscribe to it so you don't miss
any episodes. All that helps. This podcast and The Lounge,
the excellent weekly podcast from my colleagues Ryan Make and
(26:30):
Garrett Downing, are part of the Baltimore Ravens podcast network.
You can tell people just search for that wherever you
get your podcasts, Baltimore Ravens Podcasts and network, and everything
will come up. This is John Eisenberg. I'll talk with
you again in two weeks.
Greetings, and welcome to What Happened to That Guy? A
Ravens podcast about former players and life after football. I'm
your host, John Eisenberg. If you listen to the first
two episodes featuring Jermaine Lewis and Peter Bullware, I want
to thank you. To show my appreciation, I'm going to
take you behind the curtain here at the start of
(00:31):
episode number three. My subject is Kyle Boehler, the former
first round draft pick and starting quarterback who in two
thousand and three was handed the keys to the Ravens offense,
practically the keys to the entire franchise. Actually he was
twenty two years old. As you may know, he didn't
quite live up to expectations, but he was in Baltimore
(00:53):
for six years. He started forty two games, signed two contracts,
and he ranked second in franchise history in most of
the major passing statistical categories, trailing only Joe Flacco. I
thought it would be interesting to find out what Kyle
is up to now, how he's doing, so I called him,
and here's where I'll take you behind the curtain and
(01:15):
let you see and hear how the sausage gets made,
so to speak. Here at the Baltimore Ravens podcast network.
Here's a raw recording of the start of my phone
conversation with Kyle five. Is that good? Yeah? Hello? Hey?
(01:38):
Is this Kyle y? Hey, it's John Eisenmerre calling from Baltimore. Hey, John,
how are you doing, Buddy good? How are you doing?
I'm doing good? Man. Is this a good time for you? Yeah?
I got to take the old wife car into the
dealership today, so jump on earlier, better for me. Thanks
for doing this. I really appreciate it. Yeah, no problem
at all. Interviewing athletes on the phone is one of
(02:00):
the basic requirements of writing and talking about sports. When
people ask me for a job description, what I do?
I tell them A. I drive to and from airports. B.
I talked to athletes on the phone and c in
between doing those other two things. Occasionally I write. I've
(02:20):
interviewed hundreds of sports figures on the phone, athletes, coaches,
former athletes, owners. Most were cooperative, but some were, shall
we say, not quite as enthusiastic about the conversation as me.
Don't get me wrong, they weren't outright rude, but it
was clear they would rather be doing something other than
(02:42):
talking to a guy with a bunch of questions. They
looked forward to the point where we wrap things up.
Kyle Boehler, you may have noticed, could not have been
more enthusiastic or pleasant. He is thirty eight years old,
now happily married with two young kids. He made quite
a bit of money in football Tom Brady money, but
enough that he doesn't have to get up every morning
(03:03):
and hustle off to an office job. He lives in
San Diego, a beautiful place. In between taking his two
kids to school in the morning and picking him up
in the afternoon. He plays a lot of golf. When
we spoke, I envisioned him sitting in his kitchen morning
sunlight streaming in blue skies and flowers outside a classic
California scene. Bowler was, still is, and will always be,
(03:27):
a California kid, so to speak. He grew up in
Burbank near Los Angeles. He played his college ball at
cal Berkeley. When he settled down, he married, wait for it,
a former Miss California. You heard him right. I'm doing good, man,
doing really good. One of the reasons Kyle Bowler is
(03:52):
doing so well now, no question is he isn't in
the NFL anymore. I started tap a football and I
was six years old. For me, the day that I
did retire, it was one of the best days of
my life. The world was lifted off my shoulders. When
you play that long, I was mentally, physically and emotionally
burnt out of it. Never got cut, never got traded.
(04:13):
I was like, you know what, I'm gonna glad on
my own terms. Did you hear what he said the
day he retired was one of the best days of
his life. You go through so much as a player
from an emotional and physical and mental standpoint. For me,
once that all ended, I knew that I didn't really
have to do that anymore. It was just freeing for
(04:34):
me of anything I've ever done in my whole life.
Was like, all right, chapter's kind of done now, and
now I'm ready for the next chapter. I might be wrong,
but I don't think that many players feel the same
way about the end of their careers. Playing in the
NFL is rough stuff, no question, but the pay is
good and you're in the brightest spotlights. It's exciting. There
(04:54):
are definitely some privileges. Most guys are in no hurry
to give it up. In fact, they dres At the end,
all I've ever done is played football. They can't imagine
doing anything else. Buller didn't say this, but I got
the feeling his ten years in the league felt like
a hundred to him. The whole time he faced a
rugged opponent that harassed him like a Pro Bowl pass rusher.
(05:17):
Only his opponent wasn't intangible. Something he couldn't see or touch.
That opponent was the burden of great expectations. In the
two thousand and three NFL Draft, the Ravens took two
guys in the first round as the number ten and
(05:38):
number nineteen overall selections. The Ravens were coming off a
season in which they went seven and nine with Chris
Redman and Jeff Blake at quarterback. They were looking for
new blood, a young guy who could grab the position
Bible lapels and make it his own. They were looking
for a star. With the first of those first round picks,
(06:00):
number ten overall, they took a linebacker from Arizona State.
His name was Terrell Suggs. They had considered trading up
to get a quarterback they liked Byron Leftwich from Marshall,
but they couldn't make it happen. An hour or so
later into the first round, they did trade up, sending
a pair of high draft choices to the New England
(06:21):
Patriots for the number nineteen overall pick, which they used
to select Bowler. The Sugs pick was a home run.
He would end up playing for the Ravens for sixteen years,
setting a franchise record for sacks that may last forever.
A lot of experts think he'll make the Pro Football
Hall of Fame. It wouldn't surprise me in the least,
(06:42):
But at the time, the Bowler pick was a bigger deal,
a much bigger deal, breaking news. The Ravens have a
new quarterback, But who was he? Only Baltimore fans who
closely followed the draft had ever heard of Bowler. He
played on the West Coast. His cow teams never won
a conference title, never went to a bowl, didn't play
on national TV. They were one and ten when Bowler
(07:05):
was a junior. Bowler, though, piled up big numbers impressive statistics.
In four seasons as col starter. He passed for sixty
four touchdowns in almost eight thousand yards, and he saved
the best for last. He was really good as a senior.
The Ravens scouted him and fell in love. Here's Brian Billick,
their head coach at the time, who had led the
(07:26):
Ravens to a Super Bowl victory just a few years earlier.
Whatever box you want to check when you evaluate a quarterback,
and there's a lot of different people that'll have different
perspectives on that. He checked off every box you could
ever want. Strong arm, good athlete, smart, kid, loved the game,
had a certain personality that people were drawn to, you know,
(07:48):
in terms of that leadership, had plenty of want everything
about it. It just for whatever reason, the sum of
the parts didn't equal the whole. Ouch. That's tough stuff
right there, that last sentence. The sum of the parts
didn't equal the whole. I think it calls for a
deep dive into exactly what went on. Just months after
(08:11):
he was drafted, Bowler opened the two thousand and three
season as the Ravens starting quarterback. There was no apprenticeship,
no time for him to stand on the sidelines and
learn the pro game while he watched others play. The
Ravens had three quarterbacks, Chris Redmond and Anthony Wright, two veterans,
and Bowler, a rookie. Bowler got the job or he
(08:32):
was very confident young man. The one thing with Kyle,
when you take a guy that high in the draft,
you got to play him. And that's my personal belief
as well. You don't learn anything standing on the sideline
as a rookie other than how to get to the
stadium and where to eat afterwards. He came in with
an organization that had been starved at the quarterback position
for a long time. The expectations very high. He came
(08:53):
to a team that was very good. It is tougher
for a young quarterback to come onto a team that
is new and struggling, because then they can struggle with
you and you build, compared to the pressures that even
though you're a rookie and you're going to start, we
expect to win. That was the pedigree here. We had
been Super Bowl champs, We had a good enough defense
in a running game that we expected to win. That's
a different environment for a young quarterback to have to
(09:15):
step into, compared to one like a Baker Mayfield where
he can go out and just play and just throw
it up because what what are we going to lose
another game? You know? Who cares? Kyle came into a
more difficult situation in that regard. At the time, Bowler
was proud and excited to begin his NFL career as
a starting quarterback on a winning team. When he looks
(09:38):
back now, though, he sees the opportunity as the beginning
of his struggles. From the get go, I got thrown
it right away. I was never ready to play, but
obviously Bryan Bill thought I was ready to play. Aside
from the fact that he doesn't feel he was ready
to be an NFL starting quarterback, a couple of other
things who are working against him. He believes there was
(09:59):
no mentor on a roster, no successful older quarterback to
show him the ropes. Also, while the Ravens were a
winning team, their style of play wasn't a perfect fit
for a quarterback with a big arm, a guy who
wanted to air it out, having to gone to a
place where you don't have any veteran there. I mean,
I love Chris Revan to death, but if I would
have had a Steve McNair to learn from on how
(10:20):
to watch tape and what an NFL quarterback schedule and
routine is, you know, it would have been very helpful.
And then you're coming into a team back in two
thousand and three that was heavily defensive predicated basically, just
don't lose the game. That's touch to like handcuff a
quarterback and be like, you know we're gonna run the
ball two times and then they're gonna have third and eight.
You know we're gonna have this vanilla offense. But just
don't lose the game. Buller started the Ravens first nine
(10:44):
games in two thousand and three. There were some struggles
typical of a rookie. He threw three interceptions in a
Week four loss to Kansas City. Bowler takes the snap,
fakes to Lewis, he sets he's throwing the bomb for
Heat double cover d Jenet's intercepted to Weeks later, he
passed for three hundred yards and three touchdowns against the Bengals.
He's thrown the bomb for Travis Taylor or and he's
(11:06):
got it, stays in bounds ten five touchdown. Ravens. Bowler
with the bomb to Travis Taylor seventy three yards. A
couple of so so performances followed, and then he got
hurt in Week nine. A thigh injury ended his season,
but it didn't end the Ravens season, Anthony Wright took
over at quarterback. The offense picked up. This was the
(11:29):
year Jamal Lewis ran for more than two thousand yards.
The Ravens rode Lewis Right and their defense to a
division title. But despite that success with Right, the Ravens
stuck by Bowler. They had drafted him in the first round.
They still believed you'd develop into a starter they could
ride for years. They gave him back the starting job
(11:50):
in two thousand and four, and this time he stayed healthy.
Started all sixteen games. The Ravens went nine to seven,
just missed the playoffs, and Bowler well, he didn't flop,
but he didn't knock any one out. He finished the
season with twenty five hundred passing yards, thirteen touchdowns, eleven interceptions,
and a quarterback rating of seventy point nine that's below
(12:10):
the league average. The next year, he got hurt right
away in Week one, and the Ravens season went south.
While he was out and Right played quarterback. There were
two and six when Bowler came back in November. In
his first game back, he threw three interceptions in a
loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars near the end of the
two thousand and five season, he had his best games
(12:32):
in a Baltimore uniform, playing the Green Bay Packers on
Monday Night Football. He passed for three touchdowns in a
forty eight to three romp, easily out dueling a pretty
decent quarterback named Brett Farve. Third and goal from the two.
Bowler quick drop, close up for heap. He's got a touchdown,
bowl or the heap, but two yards score and the
Ravens take the lead. The next week, he threw for
(12:54):
three touchdowns again as the Ravens beat the Minnesota Vikings
on Christmas Night. Vikings lead the game seventeen ten. Bowler
has it, blitzes on fires down the middle. Clayton break catch,
He's gone all the way, five touchdown Mark Clayton, Bowler
throw a laser all of the medal. But after those
two great performances, he ended the season with another clunker,
(13:16):
throwing a pair of interceptions and no touchdowns in a
loss to the Cleveland Browns. That offseason, the Ravens traded
for Steve McNair, an accomplished and winning veteran quarterback who
led the Tennessee Titans to great heights. There was no
doubt what it meant Bowler's time as the number one
quarterback was over, which is tough because you bring him in,
(13:38):
you nurture him, and you can figure they're all in.
But it was part of the combination of where he
was and what his development was, how good a team
we thought we were because those windows do exist, and
to have that veteran presence of Steve McNair and we
went thirteen and three that year, and so it bore
out pretty good. To have that added experience and abilities
(14:00):
of a Steve McNair on a team that we thought
the window existed for us to be pretty good. I
think that was part of it as well. Obviously Bowler
was bummed. Part of him wondered if he should ask
to be traded, but he kept quiet and became the
number two quarterback, McNair's backup, which gave him a front
row seat to one of the Ravens best seasons ever.
With McNair under center, they went thirteen and three, won
(14:23):
the AFC North earned the number two seat in the
AFC playoffs. It all ended with a thud, a bitter
home loss to the Indianapolis Colts in a divisional playoff game.
But regardless, the move to McNair and away from Bowler
was an unqualified success. I think kind of do what
they gotta do, and I felt like I could never
really get on track. I mean I was given that chance.
(14:45):
I played all sixteen games, and that's the big learning
curve year. They're starting to bring some guys in. I mean,
we got Derek Mason that came in that I feel
like he really helped me out, Like i'ming a veteran
receiver in there. You know, Jonathan Ogen was still there,
so we still had some guys who were kind of
building that offensive piece. But yeah, once McNair was able
to get in there, I mean Bill had decided that
was the best opportunity to do that. Yo, what do
(15:05):
you do? Like out of my control, Like I could say,
I want to get trade here, I want to do
this so you can just see the backup and be
the team guy and do your job. And we had
a really I think we're thirteen and three that year.
I always think that could have been me and there playing,
but that's just not the way that it went down.
He had one final shot in two thousand and seven,
when McNair suffered an injury in the season opener. Initially,
(15:27):
things went well in early October. The Ravens were four
and two, seemingly set up for another playoff run, but
they completely fell apart, losing nine straight games at one point.
During the collapse, Bohler went back to the bench. He
took his last snap for the Ravens on December sixteenth,
two thousand and seven, and an infamous loss to the
(15:47):
previously winless Miami Dolphins. I'm not making excuses. It was rough.
I had some really good times to Baltimore, b else
had some really bad times. I feel like I kind
of was always just trying to keep my head above
It was kind of up and down with injuries, which
doesn't help because you can't get that consistency, and then
you're fighting obviously, you're fighting the fans and the media
(16:08):
sometimes looking back now, which I was a little bit
more mentally tough. I let some of the media and
the fans get to me. You know, I tell my
son or I give my son advice as he grows up,
only believe the people that are in your close circle.
You have to be so mentally strong these days with
media and all that kind of stuff, because otherwise it'll
tear you down. It's not worth it. And I know
(16:29):
that for sure because I played for ten years and
I let it get to me. And I probably could
have played in fifteen years if I didn't let some
of that stuff bother me. From Baltimore, Buller moved on
to the Saint Louis Rams in two thousand and nine,
and then spent two years with the Oakland Raiders. He
was by now established as a number two quarterback, the
(16:49):
kind you kept around for insurance. He signed with the
San Diego Chargers, his hometown team, in twenty twelve, but
one day of training camp convinced him it was time
to walk away. It's very bizarre, right, I went and
talk to the cow football team at all in water
and a couple of weeks ago, and these guys are
(17:10):
trying to aspire to be where I was. I mean,
it played its almost ten years in the NFL, and
it started a bunch of games and I live my
dream and I'm sitting there telling these guys and hey,
the best day of my life was when I stopped
playing football. And so it's super bizarre, but it really
was like, all right, chapter's kind of done now. And
now I'm ready for the next chapter. Maybe it's super bizarre,
(17:32):
but at the time it was nothing to shed tears about.
Not in this case. At the time, Bowler was almost
giddy about his career ending. My number one thing off
the get go is like, listen, I'm gonna play golf
and I'm gonna hang out with my kids and hang
out my family. That was the initial reaction to like
being retired. I don't listen any coaches, have to listen
to anybody tell me where to be at any time,
(17:52):
and I get to spend a lot, a bunch of
time with my family. He was a young man, just
thirty one. He'd given a little bit of thought to
what he might want to do after football, but honestly
not a lot of thought, and one reason for the
delay was some advice he received from, of all people,
Ravens owner Steve Bischotti. Buller can't recall exactly which year
it was that Bashotti came and spoke to the team.
(18:15):
Buller's second or third year in Baltimore, he guesses, so
two thousand and four or two thousand and five, It
doesn't really matter. What mattered in the long run was
what Bashotti said Steve Bischotti came and spoke to the
team and after the practice and basically just told guys like, listen,
you have an opportunity here to play football. I know
a lot of guys you're gonna have opportunities to start
businesses and to start restaurants and gyms and different things.
(18:37):
I'm just telling you right now, me as a business
guy like I will crush you in anything that you
get into because I get to spend twenty four hours,
seven days a week doing business. You guys are doing sports.
It happens so often to guys where they'll invest in
something a restaurant or this kind of stuff while they're playing,
and they'll they'll end up getting screwed because they're not there,
Like they don't understand what is to run a business.
(18:59):
You know. The advice that I took from when he
spoke that day after practice was just focus on what
you're doing now and what you can control, and give
one hundred and ten percents of your football, and then
there'll be life after football where you can spend all
that time on the business. When I started my own business,
you know, I was able to spend the time to
kind of do that. It took him a couple of years,
but Bohler eventually settled on what he wanted to do.
(19:21):
He'd watched his father in law beat cancer. He and
his wine were into being healthy, eating right. With help
from more experienced people in the health food industry, the
kind of mentors he'd lacked in football, he developed a
nutritional bar and put it on the market. It was
tougher than it sounds. The recipe had to be just right.
Bowler worked to get the bar into stores. The competition
(19:44):
was fierce, and I learned a ton, but you know,
I kind of threw myself in there. And unfortunately, it's
a super saturated industry and it's hard to sell healthy
stuff sometimes, and you know, I learned a lot. I
got to do that for about three years, but unfortunately
I had to let it go for a bunch of
different reasons. My goal originally was to do the bar
and then grown into a bunch of other healthy, natural products.
(20:05):
But you know, in that business, if you're starting a
bar company, any listeners out there, good luck, there's so
many There's so many things that go into it from
shelf life to have to produce a ton of them
and then get rid of a ton of them at
the same time. But you know, it is what it is.
I learned a ton from it. Basically got my business
degree just by throwing myself in and said, you do
(20:26):
go to business school. Yeah, it was, it was good.
The end of his nutritional bar business put him back
in the position of wondering what he'd do next, and
he's still in that position. He doesn't lack for ideas.
I've dabbled on a couple of different things, believe it
or not. It's actually putting together my own podcast right now.
And I have a relationship with a lot of other athletes,
(20:46):
and I always feel like people sometimes don't really understand,
you know, what it is to be an athlete. People
can put you on a pedestal as like you're this
different person, but we're all the same, you know. We
all wake up and brush our teeth and you know,
have families and deal with sele and stuff like that.
So I thought it would be cool to spring guys
on my show and just talk about what it is
like kind of behind the curtain. That's kind of a
(21:07):
little side project that I'm working on right now. But
it's tough, you know, when you go from playing football,
especially being an NFL quarterback. It's a real transition for
guys to find out what their next passion is. And
you know, I've had time to sit in my office
on my green sport and you know, try and go
over this and that, and you know, but sometimes it's
not as easy as it's like, hey, what do you
(21:28):
want to get into? And you've got to kind of
just navigate through that to figure out what it is.
I've done some real estate stuff, and you know, I
definitely stay busy. I've made some good financial excisions. I've
been smart with my money. You know, I'm not forced
to go grab a job and make a couple hundred
grand a year. I have the luxury of being able
to really focus on what I want to get into.
(21:49):
I'm in that position. That's not the case for a
lot of guys. You know. It's an eighty percent of
the guys after five years of being in the NFL
or bankrupt and seventy five percent are divorced. You know,
I'm definitely not that category. I listened to Steve Ashatti,
what he talked. It always shocked me. I think the
day that he talked there's probably half of the guys there,
Like how every single guy wasn't there listening to this
(22:09):
multi successful guy speak to the team one. That one
always kind of shocked me. But yeah, I mean, I'm
I'm in a good place. Okay, let's go behind the
curtain again. Here's a rough cut from my conversation with
Brian Billick about Bowler. He's a great guy. He's happy
(22:30):
in life, he's married and kids. He is I think,
and it took a while to unpeel this as we spoke.
I think he's a little I don't know if I
can use bitter the word, But he looks back on
it like it's not his favorite memory what happened here?
No one, it wouldn't be because it didn't go well
and and for a lot of different reasons, and and
you'd expect that. But yeah, he is a good young
(22:50):
man and he takes on his responsibility. I'd take responsibility
for it. Of whatever, you know, I could have done
differently to make it, make it happen for him. Maybe
we'd ahead different career if he weren't put in a
position where he had that responsibility, in that expectation early.
You know, like you said, it's the good news, bad news.
The good news is, gosh, they think highly enough that
I'm a top twenty pick in the NFL draft. The
(23:13):
bad news is, oh my god, now I got to
perform like a top twenty pick in the NFL draft.
It's hard to believe that sixteen years have passed since
the Ravens drafted Bowler and made him their starting quarterback.
The fact that he's still not even forty tells you
he was really young then in those years when he
was at the center of the storm. I try not
to think about it too much sometimes when the draft
(23:34):
stuff comes around and he Sometimes it's so funny because
there's so many people that are such haters, people that
will try and say that I was the worst draft
pick that Baltimore Ravens ever had. And I kind of
laughed for myself. If I'm the worst draft pick that
the Ravens ever had, then why the hell did they
sign me to two contracts? Not one, but two. People
(23:55):
Forget I restructured my contract. They could have got rid
of me after whatever another two year extension to my
original deal. When you hear some of the comments, I mean,
I had a good relationship with Brian Billick, but some
of the stuff, like listening to him talk about on
the TV and saying, oh, I still have a job,
it wasn't for me, and blah blah blah. It's like
it's almost laughable to me. The fact that Bowler tries
(24:18):
not to think about his NFL career too much says
something about how it went. But don't misunderstand where he's
coming from. He is proud that he made it that far,
proud of what went right, and no doubt he would
do it all again. Physically, I have my deal. I
get really bad sciatica in my back. Some of the
mornings I'll start filling the shoulders and I mean I
had three three shoulder surgeries. But for the most part,
(24:42):
you know, I'm a pretty healthy guy. I'm very active.
You know, I work out a lot now and probably
stronger than I've ever been. You know, I eat a
lot better and healthier than I ever used to do.
I'm in a good place, man. I You know, I
live in a beautiful city in San Diego and have
a beautiful family and supportive life and you know, two
great kids. His life is good. It was all worth it,
you know what I mean. Playing you have you'r up
(25:03):
year down. You know, I started tackle football six and
my dream was grown up to play on Monday night football.
And you know I was able to do that many
times against some really good teams. And even though there
was there was a struggle for me, I still got
nine credited seasons in and met some really great people
along the way. I mean, I still have a great
relationship with ste Bichell and guy looked up, look to
look up to a business and and the way he's
(25:24):
raised his kids in the organization that he's built. So
I've got a lot of good things out Baltimore. And
you know, obviously I'll always told it could spot in
my heart for there twenty percent of the fans hate me.
Good for them, I don't know. There's a lot of
people in Baltimore that do appreciate me, and you know
I have to have been good to me. There you
(25:45):
have it, episode three of what Happened to That Guy?
I want to thank Kyle for agreeing to talk and
being so candid. He knew it wouldn't be a warm
stroll down memory lane, but he went for it anyway,
which I appreciate. You can find out more about him
in his career at Baltimore Ravens dot Com slash What
Happened to that Guy? Another new episode of the podcast
(26:08):
will drop in two weeks, and they'll keep coming every
other week for the rest of the twenty nineteen season.
I hope you keep listening. If you like what you're hearing,
don't hesitate to leave a five star rating or write
a review. Also subscribe to it so you don't miss
any episodes. All that helps. This podcast and The Lounge,
the excellent weekly podcast from my colleagues Ryan Make and
(26:30):
Garrett Downing, are part of the Baltimore Ravens podcast network.
You can tell people just search for that wherever you
get your podcasts, Baltimore Ravens Podcasts and network, and everything
will come up. This is John Eisenberg. I'll talk with
you again in two weeks.
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