Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, let's just start off real quick. Out of
the gate.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Patriots Patriot wa. We've had a few Patriots on this
week at Radio Row. In your era, how would you
define the patriot way?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Oh Man, great question.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
I think I kind of came in that Second Dynasty era, right,
So we lost like a lot of that veteran leadership
like Vrabel McGuinness Bruski, but we.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Still had Tom, we still had Slate.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
We set a bunch of key pieces that experienced that
and they brought that level of accountability, which I think
is was a calling card in New England and then
also just a meritocracy.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
You got what you earned up.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
There, and that's exactly what guys like me, guys like
Julian Edelman, that's what we needed, you know, because we
weren't coming from big football factories that just spit out,
you know, big time football guys. What we were scrappy.
We knew how to work, we knew how we knew football,
and so you know, having those you know, accountability and
(01:09):
meritocracy guys can guys can work up from like relatively
you know, rocky beginnings.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, so what was your college journey?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
My college journey like to get to college.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, tell me, tell me, tell me your recruiting process.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah. So uh yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Sophomore year of high school, I was a bigger kid
Southeastern Pennsylvania, like pretty good football, started getting some letters
and I got like fully deep in my My first
visit was Michigan, went to the Big House on junior Day,
and I was like, oh my god, this is the
best thing in the world, the biggest stadium in the
in the country.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Like I'm I'm a Michigan man.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Through and through right, but I'm also like a six
to two and a half, you know, slow white kid
from BA enough to like, you know, make tackles all
the time. So so I went to you know, I
sprinkled myself around, went to Virginia, I went to like
some other schools, and then as time went on, less
(02:10):
and less people started like showing interest. I never got
any Division one offers, and so I said, you know what,
if I can't play big time football in college, I'm
gonna get the best education I can. So I focused
Ivy League, chose between Brown and Princeton, took visits to both,
and I just felt like I connected with the guys
at Brown a little bit more and that was that
(02:30):
was my journey.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
You know Joe Linta, no, oh wait Linta.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, he's a little younger than me, but I know
the name. Yeah, I don't know him super much.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
His dad's my brother.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Just signed with his agency. And the kids, TJ and
Nick Linta, I know they played.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Yeah, the Linton name. I definitely know. They were younger
than me.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Okay, yeah yeah, small world, Yeah, okay, so Ivy and
like one of my best friends for coming out, you know,
I knew I was.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I would go to a camp, I'd torch everybody.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, they'd weigh me.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
See I'm a white guy and be like, yeah, I
can't do it.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And I was like, I'm and I'm sending out emails
like My mom is a champ. She has three sons.
All three played Division Warnerable at the same screen. She's
very proud of it. She has a gloated Yeah you
want to talk about she let you go right. And
it was a hard, dude, It was a hard journey.
I got my walk on spots to Fresno State. But
(03:29):
one of my best friends to this day, his version
of my Fresno State was Stanford.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Now in the process.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Of this went out, do the whole Ivy League trail,
the whole thing, bro And they really warned him about
these camps. I think he went to Princeton. I know
he went to Yale and Harvard. He was gonna go
to Yale, but then Stanford came in and gave him
walk on Scot and his parents went there, and.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So you knows a lot closer to Fresnoe than over there.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Anyways, they really emphasized I remember him telling about how
like they warned you.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Not all people go to these games.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, and you still have to go to school, huh,
out of Ivy League basically, so.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
It ain't gonna be wake up Saturday morning.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, seeing Oklahoma sooners, you know, there's there's a different
type of balance here. How hard was that balance between
ball in school and the IVY League.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
I mean, it definitely taught me a lot. Man Like
it was.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
It was sobering because I got through high school with
relative ease. I'd say, didn't have to try all that much.
I always kind of like did what I needed to
do to to get a's ended up like, you know,
doing really well in high school. But then when I
got to Brown, I'd say one semester, I was like,
you know what, I got this like I might be
(04:46):
I might be that guy, right, But I'd say after that, dude,
it was I was just like grasping for air, you know,
like I just had no I had no business being there,
to be totally honest, but uh, but so that managing
the time it was it was hard, but I really
dialed it in. I'd say, like sophomore year, I kind
(05:08):
of got really good at not.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Necessarily like learning the material.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
But learning how to get work done efficiency, yes, and
like what what's the best systems for me to be
able to produce on test day or produce on you know,
Saturday mornings for football. Like I just got very dialed
into in like a systematic approach to life. That way,
I could like best optimize what I needed to do.
(05:34):
But whether it was in football or whether it was academically.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I just I've been on a big book kick lately,
and I didn't read a sixth grade I read Hunger Games.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
And then I had like a like a twelve year gap, okay, and.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Then when I finished playing ball, and you know, my
Olympic journey ended, I was in this rut and I
just started going book after book after book, and you know,
my mom was like, hey, there's this guy named Stephen Covey.
He wrote The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and
it was the first book backs at Hugger Games. So
I'm reading it. I'm like, you know what, I'm so
(06:10):
used as a football player. I've taken notes religiously. We
had coaches that were saying writing crystallized as you're thinking.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And I bought into that early and fast.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And they're like, you know, they would talk about going
to a cult's practice and sitting in the meeting groom
with Peyton Manning's going over inside zone and he's diligently
writing notes about like an a gap handoff, like this
is fate Manning, You're ten, Come on, man, And.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
He stood up and just said, like this is why
I do my process.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Stuck with me. So going back to the book, I said,
you know what, I'm not going to just open up
this book. I don't have the attention span to do so,
and I need to be able to have a cheat
sheet of I'm not gonna lie. I don't know if
I got hit in the head too many times in
my life, but my memory is like, I'm not Crystal crude.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
There's guys.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
My grandpa will tell me stories about his fourth grade
literature class.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And then I'm terrible.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I'll meet somebody for the fourth time and I'll be like, well,
I forget those other three like it'll.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Come back to me.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
But I can't just boom boom boom boom boom. I
don't know, man, So I started writing down has to
fit on one piece of paper and all the important
as you're reading, as I'm reading, and I'll do a
recap and be like, all right, this is anyways.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Seven habits of highly effective people.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Man, there's just the biggest thing that I learned out
of that book. Takeaway why was if there's something you
can do and it's gonna take you less than five minutes,
just do it right now, just do it right now.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And I'm at work in my onion job.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Man, I get to work, I'll write down everything I
need and I know I need to do. Stare at
it and be like, what could be? Let's crossed something off?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Right? Now, good to go.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
But finding a way to be efficient at an early
age is key. And I didn't play in the I League,
although Fresno State is considered the Harvard of the West.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Fancy you ask in Yale?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
But finding your flow because especially now with these things,
but you could you could be mindlessly.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
I hope you're looking at breaking the juice if.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You are, like, you gotta find your process in your system.
And I think in ball school and ball, it's like, Okay,
I know I got a class at this time. I
know I got ball at this time. You don't have time,
You have no time for anything. You might have a
Saturday night during spring ball where you could go do
some boys.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Once you're done with ball, you know this. We're so
used to the structures.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Some some guys I got buddies who.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I got some guys who.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So when I was done, I was like, how can
I take that same approach of being so dedicated to
the consistent attention to detail of kicking anything I'm doing? Yeah,
and now be a good husband and father? Businessman yeah, hat.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Designer, podcast host Golfer emit.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah you blink in the days over man, huh, years
go by?
Speaker 1 (09:16):
So when ball was over? Yeah, how hard was that
for you to adjust?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And what do you think is the biggest trait you
took from your experience of playing ball to what you
do now?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Man, great question.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
I love I love how you like circulated that. Yeah,
but it was I mean all good like that people
need to falc.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
You know, the lack of the lack of regulation in
your daily schedule, I think is one of the hardest
things for athletes to like, you know, come around to, because,
like you said, I mean, every day we'd walk into
a facility and essentially just look at exactly where we
needed to be.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
At what time.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
And it's like so easy to live your life that way.
You know, you get so wrapped up in like living
week by week and day by day you could start
to compartmentalize everything in your life and then all of
a sudden that's all gone. Yeah, And so I mean
I still feel like I struggle at times. I've been
out five years, just like kind of regaining the traction
(10:18):
in those like self regulation patterns, you know, like trying
to figure out, all, right, what is my goal, how
do I get there, and what are the daily steps
I need to take to get there.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
So after I retired, I retired.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Right into like the April of twenty twenty, so right
into COVID and that's shut down the world, right, So
I big time like poured into my kids. I had
three kids at the time. My wife was pregnant with
our fourth, and I was just like dad, you know,
and that I knew what I needed to do. It
(10:52):
was kind of like its own like little training camp schedule,
if you will, because it was like, all right, they're
gonna wake up at this time, They're gonna need like
diaper changes, they're gonna need to eat, they're gonna need
to do all it. So I just started falling into
that pattern. Then I took some courses through the nfl
PA and got some like Entrepreneurial Street cred and then
(11:12):
bought my own business, open up a second one and uh.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
And now I'm working for the PA.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
So like just trying to stay busy, trying to always
kind of like redefine myself, find find a new niche
that I can like get into dabbling in real estate now,
and just trying to like, you know, find my way
because at times like there is I'll wake up and
I'm like where do I go today?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
You know?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I wish I wish I could just look at my
TV screen and be like, oh, I got meetings this, this,
this time. But it's not that easy anymore. But I
think we can do as athletes. We know the recipe
for like what.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
We know the recipe.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Yeah, And and it's just sometimes it's hard to get
yourself back in that for whatever reason. There's a lot
of tight influence when you're done playing the game and
you just kind of got to be true to yourself
and authentic with yourself and you know know what you
need to get done, and we and we.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Have the right tools, we know how to do it.
So just got to remember that.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
It's and again I'll say it again, like the consistent
attention to detail is everything in order to have any execution.
And I say consistent because every once in a while
look at New Year's resolutions. There's times in year there's
ebbs and flows in life where somebody lights a fire
under your You go out, you buy a new notebook,
you go get a new pair of shoes. I'm gonna
(12:35):
go get a brand new fit. I'm gonna get a
gym workout, and like whatever it is, and you get
burnt out because you go too fast.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Everybody wants to get.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Fired up on New Year's Eve to better themselves. What
about June twenty second.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, right, and.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
If you could say to yourself, I need to go
get this work incident. As a football player, you know,
you might not have workouts on Saturday. You might be like,
you know what, man, I gotta go get a rollout in.
I gotta get a light lifting. I gotta get a
little sweat. I should probably cold some I don't want to.
Maybe I'm punk over. I don't know, peope, I got homework.
Maybe i'm you know, my mom's in towns. Yeah you
(13:10):
got you have to get it in and being able
to say, you know, waking up it's a little cold outside. Yeah,
waking up not really feeling it, like flipping that switch.
It's saying no, I don't and then not saying I
got to, saying I get to today. It's just like
(13:30):
not everybody has it, but at the same time.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
You do have it.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
You just got to pull that Yeah, you gotta pull
that dog out and erase the inner absolute as.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
It's funny you brought up like the cold.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
I mean, I always a lot of guys, you know,
in the off season, they go to California or Texas
or Florida, Arizona to train.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I grew up like the greater Philadelphia area.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
I used to always just go home suffer through the
winter outside training and snow and stuff, because I felt.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Like gave me that edge.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
It was big time on diligent and consistent workouts, doing
what I needed to do to like callous my body.
That's what that was always my mindset. I don't want
to be I don't or not that I didn't want
to be, but I didn't need to be like the
most explosive athlete, the fastest guy on the field, but
I did need to be like as durable as possible,
(14:24):
So calcifying my traps, get them real big, get my
legs nice and strong and be able to run through
contact all that, And so I used to just suffer,
like honestly put my put myself through like suffering workouts
in the off season just so I could come back
like that much mentally tougher than everybody.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
And know that I was at.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
The Jersey Shore training when it was literally now when
next to the water, and like it's you know that
Rocky insidbero. Yeah, yeah, I mean growing up in Philly,
like that was that was my movie?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
What's the grittiest, just the most workout you've done to
say I'm gonna get that edge, Like what's how far
have you gone?
Speaker 4 (15:06):
How far have you pushed? So I was real good
at the two twenty five bench test. Right, I most
ever got was forty nine?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
When I was training, like all all coming up through
high school and stuff, I trained with this professional he pushed,
So I was real good at the two twenty five
bench test.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Right, I most ever got was forty nine. Okay.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
When I was training, like all all coming up through
high school and stuff, I trained with this professional boxer
from out of Boston that settled in the Greater phil area.
We ended up meeting when I was a sophomore, and
for whatever reason, he thought it's a good idea to
get this dude very good at endurance benching.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
So we used to do so.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
See, Yeah, we'd we'd pile all the tens on each
side of the bar and just lay down on the bench.
Were not allowed to lift your back off the bench
and just wrap it out racket. They'd strip a ten,
wrap it out rackets all the way down and then
all the way back up, so like a reverse pyramid
type style and I mean I remember, like for days
(16:12):
not being able to straighten out my arms. Yeah, but
you know, throwing up doing the whole thing. Like I mean,
I'm a soccer for that kind of stuff, like endurance,
because it's all mental.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
It really is all.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Everything's mental.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Everything.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
We had a we had a couple of Navy Seal
circumstances happened in our time at Fresno State.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
They came to us, woke us.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Up at we had to be at the facility at
like four point thirty. This is a new coaching staff too.
This is a winter ball of a new coaching staff.
I think they're trying to They're trying to see what
do I got here?
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Yeah, who's who's who's the lead in the situation's gonna out?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Huh?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Who's a diability?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It's not that cold and Fresnoe compared to Philly in January,
it was pretty cold. They gave us a hoodie and sweatpants,
like no logos on it. I'm just like, bro, okay, Yeah,
we walked to our pool, like our our aquatics center, right,
and these Navy Seals dudes are waiting for us. Yeah
(17:14):
they I don't they must. They had to have picked
the teams on purpose. Long story short. It was a
series of exercises they created, like sugar cookies and all that,
But the biggest one is we had to tread water
as a team for ten minutes and then you did
a different exercise, and then it was another ten minutes.
Now we have some guys who can't swim, and they're
(17:37):
raising their hand going, you can't swim. It was accompetators
like teammate and team b all these obstacles buh blah blah.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
And I'll never forget that.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
We had this big not gonna put him on blaster
right now, couldn't swim.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And there's one thing he is, you can't swim. He
can't swim, and he's letting you know he can't.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I'm five eight one sixty two. Yeah, don't get me wrong,
but you didn't lock it in right now.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah, And I said, this is what I damn near
drowned myself. I stood at the bottom of the pool.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
You lift them up.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah, his legs out, boy went up, down, went up,
down down. I thought, I was this guy is three fifty.
I was supposed to have another guy. And we went
into the pool with the hoodie.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Next, it's probably the same company.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
The next element of it is we did have number.
We just had our number on the sweatshirts. You had
to switch numbers. You had to switch sweatshirts with somebody
while treading water. Yeah, he called out who switches with it?
And they're kind of keeping notes of like who's the
two that can't swim, and they're making them so they
(18:45):
want the weakest links to come together and the shongest
links that raised up the weakest links.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Literally, it felt like, yeah, bro, I thought, I thought,
an ambience is gonna have to come.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I'm going, these guys are going we're trying to take
sweatshirts off.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah, you couldn't, like you couldn't let the sweatshirt not
be touched by a person. Long story short, I don't.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Know why my head went to that, because I was
thinking about my most thing and I saw my buddy,
he's he played in the league for a little bit.
He was here and anyways, I'm not I'll die before
I dude, I've I've almost blocked out.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I've blocked out many times.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
When are you puke and you're spinning and you can't
see like a big squad, a big heavy deadlift competing
on the versa climber.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Ye, like.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I'll die.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
And you know when I was done playing ball and
I attempted to do this tam Usa bob.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Slid, I really had to flip a switch because.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
It's not football anymore. I'm learning a whole new sport
and there's no like popcorner. There's no pub, there's no JV,
there's no varsity like nope, your training at a Olympic
level in a team USA facility.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
In a right dangerous sport too.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
People die all the time going eighty downhill.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
And honestly, it just it.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
You were talking about callous seeing your body. Like my shoulders.
I still have like permanent scars on both my shoulders
just because you can run into.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
These walls eighty miles an hour. It's ice in SMIT, Like, yeah,
that's it. You're getting the hardest hits I've ever taken
in my life.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah, I've been in this broken ribs, knocked out, unconscious,
all that, and.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I just went back, though.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I always would go back to like that swimming day
and being a farm kid.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
My dad.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
The only reason I'm good a sports because my dad
made us work on the being in fourth grade out there,
no one speaks English. Man. You're moving pipes in a field.
You know, we're got a phone. You get dropped off
with a sack, lunch and a little old school eterade contained.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
That you bring up football practice. I'll see you at lunch.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Eleven.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Man, it's one hundred and five out no one speaks English.
Water's running like we're racing, and that's real. It builds
that in dirts.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I'll never free man.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Like there's a day where you're I'm like thinking in
my head, like there's no way this is legal, and.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Then you do it and you're like I could do that.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, And I think you just keep we keep testing
our mind and our because your body could do things
you never Yeah, I'd like to play college football. It's like, yeah,
well if you do this, that and the other. It's like,
do what you work with what you got, make the
best of it.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Anyway, it's still to me to go up on a
tangent the.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Dude, I love it.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
You know what you you know, you kind of reminded
me of I went through this whole phase. I still
kind of believe this that that physical like strength, you know,
like how much can you squat? Is not so much
like about your body mechanics and like the true makeups
of your muscle as it is like how how mentally
(21:45):
ready are you to like suffer for that period of
time in which you need to do that perform this feat.
Like I mean, because I think about it all the time,
Like how can someone do you know, squat six seventy
one day and then the next day they hit like
six eighty five, Like their body didn't change, no, but
(22:05):
like for some reason they were in the right mental
state to like get down and get up and just
you know, move on with their life.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Well, I've also had situations where and I'll be the
first to admit, you know, you got your you got
your pr, yeah, and you're going to beat that pr.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And like I had a plateau.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I was weighing like one, I was weighing like one
fifty seven, one fifty eight. My software yere at president state,
and I couldn't bench, Like I couldn't rep to seventy five.
I get it down, I get it right, and I
couldn't lock it out. Yeah, Like it became a thing
where because I came in and my you know, I
(22:45):
got strong as college football.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
And gets you right absolutely, And I was like, I.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Can't get over this ump.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
And I told my dad my dad played running back
at Presto Stae, Like, I can't get over this plateaued
I felt like, and I'm thinking, I'm like, okay for
being how much I weigh like pound for I have,
I have a really that's a that's assault a respectable
bench press.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I'm betching more than some of the are tight.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And eventually I told my my guys at my rack,
I said, listen to me, it was a heavy day.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I said, I'm not gonna look at the weight today.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, I don't want to see what it is. Sometimes
you just get onto the bar like I gotta get up.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
You will.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
But me sliding on the two plates twenty five, You're like, bro,
like that's kind of that's kind of a big wheel there. Man,
Like I don't I don't know if I can slam squad.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I used to do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
It was like can I hit I gotta hit that
four oh five just because I want. I just wanted
the four plate, yeah, you know, And and it's like, ah,
like I remember one.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
It's like my junior it was like three ninety five
and I'm like, come on, bro, let me get that
four club, Like I.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Just just just want to So it is psychological. But
I had a straight the editioning coach. His name was
Joey Bose. He's now the head straight inditing coach of
the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Dog.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yeah, my freshman year, you know, if you didn't hit
your reps, he looked at you like you're kind of
sometimes if he did, he might throw it out you
and like, yeah, I never had I've never been like
it's always like, okay, you know, we're gonna work on
the mechanics, and sometimes all you need is something as
simple is like, but speaking of like the two twenty
five thing, we used to do this thing.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
It was called it's called twenty fifteen ten.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Put one thirty five on the bar, yep, one thirty
five on the bar.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
You twenty reps a squad, great depth.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, you take you'd get like thirty seconds ten fifteen
fifteen reps. Then you go to do ten and it
wasn't ten. It was till failure. And like there's guys
who will hit one hundred and seventeen, but and listen,
(24:53):
you do enough.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Squats and lack of acid.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
You're gonna it used to be called we come in
there he goes.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Boys squat till we drop, and it's like, and talk
about you.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
If you don't take an ice path, Yeah, regardless, you
can't sit on the toilet.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I can't do anything like that.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
But I had a good mindset that he taught us
on that two twenty five thing, because I was.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Like a ten rep guy.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
And again I was like, I get to seven a
he said, do this, go to count of five, one, two, three,
four five. Now give me two one two.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
I'm not seven.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Give me a single, a single because if you tell me,
but just get it up one more time, like you
could do it. And I think about that all the time.
That's how I sell advertisement tele to bring the Jews.
I don't say, oh, it's I shouldn't it says, I
shouldn't say, like it's twenty six thousand dollars for the year.
I say, for five hundred dollars a week, you get this, this, this,
and this. If I if you're a company and I
say it's twenty six thousand dollars for the year, big number,
(25:53):
big number for five hundred dollars a week you get
all this.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Hell. Yeah, that's a nice way to.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
The way we think about things. It's it you know
it at school?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Okay, Yeah, all I need is twenty one minutes after
it's gonna take a couple of minutes to get readjusted.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah that's fifteen. Like I really won't here.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
For another hour old right, Yeah, it's but having the
ability in your mind to turn that switch on. Yeah,
and you know, I don't know if you know I
got some wires crossed or anything, but.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
It is a thing where absolutely are you approached something
determine your success?
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Oh yeah, tell you did you know Moses Cabrera when
you were there?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
He's a president mistake guy.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
He was our head strength coach in New England like
my last five years. He was an assistant before when
I first got there, and he was.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Always my guy. Dude.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Yeah, and and tough as nails, like exactly the mentality
you just spoke of, like like if you didn't do
what you came into doing it in the NFL, dude,
you get a lot of guys in the in the
strength realm that like you know, they're doing they're doing
their own little thing and they're you know and and
Moses was always like a you got it in here
(27:03):
in squat, Yeah, you got to get in here and
like sweat, like let's like let's work in here and
that's why we're here, right. And some guys didn't do that,
but he used to, like, you know, call people out.
Very personable, but he'd call people out and be like, no,
you're not doing the right thing.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Sometimes you need a little chin chat you do.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
There's nothing like a good strength coach.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
I'm telling you, nothing like if you get a good one,
it'll change your life.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
I was blessed. I had some great strength coaches. Honestly.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
The one who's currently at President of State, he had me,
had all both my brothers like invited him to my wedding,
like I golf with him, get beers with him.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
He lives right by me like I and I.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
If I have any advice, I've been asked this on
podcasts when I'm getting interviewed and they and they said,
you know, what's something in college football that as a recruit.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
You would recommend to high school athletes? And I said, when.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
You're going on these visits, the jerseys and all that,
go into the weight room and meet the strain coach.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Get a vibe.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, because you don't know it, but you're with the
strength coach, the straight staff more than anybody.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
They see you in the January Matt drills, they see
you in spring ball.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
They're warming you up every day pregame.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
They're getting you right, like me being the first one
out of all of my brothers, like no idea, yeah, no,
our high school like card Yeah, math teacher, trying the lights.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
On of the weight river.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
There was just a waits in that low low caliber.
We're not Saint John Bosco. Yeah, and uh no, man,
a great strength coach. You're going from a mental perspective,
especially like yeah, and there's nothing better when you get
you get that first big push like yeah, yo, my
my ex wit up twenty hours and I go muscled,
And you got little definitions like right, what was your
(28:46):
what was your you know, when it became time to
go to the league, what was your process? Like were
you expecting a certain round, were you expecting a certain team?
Speaker 1 (28:55):
How'd that go?
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Uh? Dude?
Speaker 4 (28:57):
So again, I was the process of getting in the
NFL was hugely humbling for me coming out of Brown.
There was four of us that we had a really
good team my senior year or junior year, and then
my senior year we did all right, but had a
couple of prospects. One guy got drafted was not me.
One guy got signed to the Titans was not me.
(29:19):
One guy got a rookie mini camp try out with
the Pats wasn't me. I ended up waiting till the
monday after the draft, got a call from Cleveland to
come out as a three four outside linebacker. I played
dan in college. Okay, went did that, didn't even make
it to Sunday. They let me go on Saturday, like
we've seen enough, dude, Like and uh, I mean I was.
(29:42):
I was a fish out of border. I played with
my hand in the dirt my entire college career, and
now I'm standing up on two feet, deathly afraid of
getting beaten pass coverage because I knew I was slow.
So every every time the ball was snaped, I'd take
it like two steps back and they'd be running stretch
right at me and I'm giving up the edge.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
It was a mas So I go back home.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
I barely got an agent, you know, I had to
like essentially like talk him into representing me. He was
a local guy that, you know, knew a family I
knew growing.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Up, you know.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
So I'm all three of my my buddies that I
played in college with, They're all in teams in camps.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I'm home, I'm doing nothing.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah. I end up, I'm living at my parents' house.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
I had just graduated from Brown and I get a
Facebook message from a guy that was a GM of
the Oklahoma City Yard Dogs of the AFL, and he says, hey,
I'd like you to come down and try out.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
So I'm like, you know what, Like, I'm not doing
anything else.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
So I borrow money from my parents, get a flight
to Oklahoma City, do a workout in an indoor soccer
little facility down there, and they signed me. And I
spent five weeks making two hundred bucks a week in
taco taco bell meal tickets, living in an apartment that
they provided with boarded up windows because it just hailed
in Oklahoma crazy, And I'm like, yeoh, is this is
(31:02):
this really what I'm doing with an IVY degree. End up,
that season ends and then I'm back at home doing
the same training, like trying to stay ready, but no
prospects at all.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Uh, this is like July and this.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Is a whole year.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Well no, no, no, no, no, yes, this is twenty ten.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
I graduated in May, did my thing in Oklahoma City
for like maybe the month of June. I'm in July
living or I'm I'm at the Jersey Shore and I
get a text from my agent like, hey, I got
your workout. It's with the Florida Tuskers of the UFL,
which is not the UFL that exists now but once removed. Uh.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
And he's like, hey, it's as a fullback.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Like just go down there, do the workout, and like
you know, we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
And so I go down there.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Jay Gruden's a head coach, got a bunch of NFL
guys on the roster. They try me out as a
as a fullback. I do the drills and they signed me.
And then four weeks later, the starting fullback gets Vertigo
going out to Vegas for our game and I'm the
start and fullback and then finished that year.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
It was a nine week season.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
We lost in the championship game to Jeff Garcia, I think,
and wow, yeah, he was playing quarterback for the Omaha Nighthawks.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
I believe.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Oh, they had a running back he got he was
he was a great or great running back at Ohio State.
Got into some trouble in the NFL. Oh my god,
his name's for Maurice something. But anyways, Yeah, we had
some guys in that league. Like it was like my
starting quarterback. My running backs were Dominique Rhodes from the
(32:42):
Colts who won a Super Bowl. Maurice Hicks played for
the Niners. Avion Caisson played for the Cowboys. Like, we
had some guys, you know, Uh, Dante Culpepper was in.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
The league, Jeff Garcia obviously.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
So it was it was a great experience. That season
ends and I go right from there. It was in December,
right from there to Cincinnati on their practice squad for
a year and a half and then in twenty twelve
they cut me after camp and I went to New
England and then eight years there.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Rest is history.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Becoming a fullback though after not playing that in colge
like when it first, I mean, just that's a different
side of the ball, yeah, you know, and you know,
offensive terminology, I think a little more difficult. The defense,
there's a lot of as a fullback, you know, maybe
you could simplify it down, you gotta worry with the
guy on the outside is always doing necessarily. But still,
(33:35):
was that what was the initial like butterflies?
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Oh yeah, dude, absolutely, And that's what was nice about
like having that buffer year in the UFL and then
and then ultimately having like a couple of years on
practice squad is I got a lot of time, a
lot of reps right just doing it, watching guys, seeing
how they do it, trying to.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Be like that. What I quickly.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Found out though, was I was always very like very
aware of my lack of straight ahead speed, and when
I was on the offense side of the ball as
opposed to defense, I knew where I had to be.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
I knew where I had to go, So I was playing.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
And making the first move as opposed to reacting on
defense totally. So I felt like that ended up playing
to my strength for sure, because I could, you know, like,
I know where this place is supposed to hit.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I know what I got to see, you know, in.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Order to like there's an option.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Yeah, So that like, and I guess my football IQ
was good enough like early on to really like figure
that out and be ahead of the game on each
play as opposed to like playing defense and and just
trying to react and then making up for my lack
of straight ahead speed.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
So I mean the fullback position I think needs to
be utilized more and more.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
It is, man, I think there's a lot of there's
a lot of teams, especially in the playoffs, that you
know when it comes when it comes down to it,
like and you can put like five hundred pounds in
the backfield and two tight ends on the field, Like
teams don't want to see that in January, you know.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Like these guys are beat up.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Yeah, they don't want to They don't want to be
playing iso block like from a guy.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
That's just like drain's coming right, And you see.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
That in like Detroit.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
Obviously their playoffs didn't go that the way they wanted,
but like teams are still out there like slugging it out. Man,
the Ravens, like the Ravens backfield, Yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
I mean it's over five hundred pounds back there with them.
You know.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Ricard's three something, three ten maybe three h five.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
I don't know what he plays that.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Derek skate like, yeah, I when he's running one of
his seventy yarders, I'm like how does this do that
big in that fast? Yeah, he's he's I saw yesterday.
I should have taken a picture.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Of them, but yeah, he was one of the dudes.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
He's my wife's My wife had him been Fantasy football
one year and she's like, ove there.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
I'm like, yeah, great pick babe. You know yeah, how did.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
You decide your what's your swagger was gonna be as
a fullback? Uh, I'd say, because you embraced that.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
I did.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
I you know what, I really loved I coming up,
I was a big fan of Carney from the Saints
in the Rams, and I remember watching a little thing,
whether it was like I don't know if it was
thirty for thirty back then, but so a little thing
on the ESPN.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
That had it.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
It was a like a documentary style show about Steven
Jackson and Carney and their relationship and how they were
like best buds. It was like a like a like
a brotherhood almost right. And so when I got to
the league and I was like, and I got a
stable of backs that I'm gonna I'm gonna block for
like I want to be their brother. I want them
(36:48):
to be guys like someone that I want me to
be someone to them, like they can come to for anything.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
And you know, I'm like they're like low key bodyguard
at times.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Yeah, So I to take on like that identity, like
just be there, be like the face of our running
game a little bit. And because I I was always
like you know, coming into the league, I never had
much of an ego in the locker room, like I
just I wanted. I was happy to be there because
(37:20):
my journey there like shouldn't have happened.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
But so I was like a quieter type. I wasn't
like much of a rah rah guy.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
But when I like stuck somebody and you get that
like electricity in your veins and you can just feel
like it is the greatest feeling.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
That's the juice.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Yes, that is the fact.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
That's literally what I'm talking about. When I say that's
the juice.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
You come off the sideline and I can't even like
contain how excited I am. And I'm like telling everybody
I love them, and I'm like, you know, they got
me on on Christmas Eve. If I we played the
Jets one year, beat them, beat the doors off from
forty four to three on Christmas Eve, Christmas, but we
ran we ran a bunch of goal line runs and
(38:03):
I'm blocked for the Gerrett blunt and they caught me
on like on his mic, you know, tell him how
much I love him. I block them for block for
my whole life, I said. And I'm just like so giddy,
you know, with excitement because I'm like sticking guys in
the home or on top. And uh so that was
my identity, man. I just I really embraced like the
you know, the the lack of glory in that role.
(38:25):
The like I wanted to be a battering ram for
these guys so they can score and have fun and
and get collect checks. Like I was just happy to
be there, man, Like I just want to play football
and hit somebody and lead a little bit.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
And yeah, yeah, man, that's what football's about.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
It's so it's it's it's so hard because like once
it's over, like, yeah, you can't mimic you can't that.
It's the closest thing to war there possibly is. And
when you got a band of brothers that really come
together and do something special, it's hard to win football games.
And when you do, it's like it was your will
(39:00):
run face. It's just like it's elite.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yeah, I got asked the super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Yeah, we're here this week. It's Radio row.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Obviously. I don't think people understand how big the super
Bowl is. Like it's an event.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
It's it's the biggest sporting event easily in the United
States every year.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
The joy of winning a ring.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
Yeah, how was it?
Speaker 4 (39:22):
Oh man, it's I'll never forget the first one. People
ask me a lot, like what was your favorite super Bowl?
And I'll never get over the first feeling of walking
on onto like a super Bowl field, The electricity you feel,
the amount of pride you have running out listening to
the national anthem, Like, I mean, it's it's what every
(39:44):
little football player when they start playing at six seven
years old everything to them.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
It's everything, even all the.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
Way up from high school college, Like it's it's an
American Like.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
It is one of the most American things you could accomplish.
Speaker 4 (39:59):
Yeah, And and to like realize that in warm ups,
like I could buy right now thinking about it. Yeah,
realizing like how much work you had to go through
the ups and downs and ebbs and flows at the season,
but not only that season, the season before.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
In your whole life. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
Yeah, and then it ultimately gets you, you know, on
this field that's all painted up with the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Logos, and dude, it is it is like electric. Yeah, electric.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
And then and then ultimately that's like just pregame and
then the game goes on and it's it's a crazy
long game with all the TV stops and the and
the super Bowl or the halftime show. Super Bowl halftime
shows like twice as long, three times as long as
a normal halftime. So you end up like playing damn
there two games, you know, and the way that we
(40:52):
won each of our Super Bowls, the third one was
like a little bit of a you know, we had
we had a little bit of work and against the Rams, Okay,
we won thirteen to three. It was a boring game,
but I loved it. We were running the ball real well.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
You were there for the falcons one, right, yeah.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Yeah, And that's and that's wild. I mean, just for
everything to go the way it went in our favor.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
Someone had to flip a switch. Yeah, tell me when
it was you guys are down twenty eight to three.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah, I saw bourbon shit. There was a flag with it, yes, yeah,
of course, I was like, that's so random.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
That all right, who flipped the switch and said we
need to go win this thing.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
I mean, you got to point the finger there at Tom,
I mean, and he just cool as the other side
of the pillow, always very confident. Like I remember Jules
walking around saying like, hey, we're gonna win this game,
like we're gonna win this game, and you're like, dude,
because it wasn't even like a halftime thing. We were
down twenty one to three at halftime. Yeah, then we
(41:53):
come out and they score and we're down twenty eight
to three, and the third quarter we're like seven minutes
left and it's like, yeah, how can how can this happen?
Speaker 3 (42:01):
It's like no way.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
But then you know, we're just like people start believing
and more and more plays are being made. And it
wasn't like a like a flip of switch and now
all of a sudden the Patriots are here.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
It was like a slow process.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
You know, we get the sack fumble, we we got
a sack that knocked them out of.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Field goal range everything, and that's that's cool.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
And honestly, I got so much joy out of watching
the mood of the Falcons change because they were hyped
over there in the third quarter, like you couldn't you know,
Arthur Blanks down there, you know, we're like, all right,
the opposite way for them. It was so much fun
to watch them like start to shrink over there, and honestly, yeah,
(42:46):
so like who flipped the switch? Nobody really like we
just started doing everything in the right time and things
went our way. But Tom was a big part of
that because I don't think we'd have the belief that
it could not and if not for TV, you know,
like and I said that the Bill when I went
back after I retired and we were kind of like
(43:07):
in that quarterback limbo and knowing them a little bit,
and I was like, you just need somebody that that
guys can believe in, because that's so big going into
a game. Having a guy that you're like, yes, this
guy's gonna put us in position to win and having
that belief is like damn near as important as any
preparation because you need guys that that can you know,
(43:27):
a guy that can galvanize everybody to go out there
and try to win games on Sunday because it's hard,
like you said, when you got a guy, a bunch
of guys that believe anything can happen.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Man, anything can happen. Bro James, I appreciate you, and
we could go on and on and on. I I
definitely to Fresle want to hold it, you know, take
oh Bro, you're chilling, You're chilling.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
It got deep real quick and I'm like, you know what, I'm.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Glad, guys said, He's like, you would go for an
hour right now? I like, really, chop wood, carry water, baby.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
I couldn't be.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
I couldn't be a bigger supporter, man, So thanks for
having me on that.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
Man. You
All right, let's just start off real quick. Out of
the gate.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Patriots Patriot wa. We've had a few Patriots on this
week at Radio Row. In your era, how would you
define the patriot way?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Oh Man, great question.
Speaker 4 (00:15):
I think I kind of came in that Second Dynasty era, right,
So we lost like a lot of that veteran leadership
like Vrabel McGuinness Bruski, but we.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Still had Tom, we still had Slate.
Speaker 4 (00:29):
We set a bunch of key pieces that experienced that
and they brought that level of accountability, which I think
is was a calling card in New England and then
also just a meritocracy.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
You got what you earned up.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
There, and that's exactly what guys like me, guys like
Julian Edelman, that's what we needed, you know, because we
weren't coming from big football factories that just spit out,
you know, big time football guys. What we were scrappy.
We knew how to work, we knew how we knew football,
and so you know, having those you know, accountability and
(01:09):
meritocracy guys can guys can work up from like relatively
you know, rocky beginnings.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Yeah, so what was your college journey?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
My college journey like to get to college.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, tell me, tell me, tell me your recruiting process.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah. So uh yeah.
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Sophomore year of high school, I was a bigger kid
Southeastern Pennsylvania, like pretty good football, started getting some letters
and I got like fully deep in my My first
visit was Michigan, went to the Big House on junior Day,
and I was like, oh my god, this is the
best thing in the world, the biggest stadium in the
in the country.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Like I'm I'm a Michigan man.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
Through and through right, but I'm also like a six
to two and a half, you know, slow white kid
from BA enough to like, you know, make tackles all
the time. So so I went to you know, I
sprinkled myself around, went to Virginia, I went to like
some other schools, and then as time went on, less
(02:10):
and less people started like showing interest. I never got
any Division one offers, and so I said, you know what,
if I can't play big time football in college, I'm
gonna get the best education I can. So I focused
Ivy League, chose between Brown and Princeton, took visits to both,
and I just felt like I connected with the guys
at Brown a little bit more and that was that
(02:30):
was my journey.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
You know Joe Linta, no, oh wait Linta.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
Yeah, he's a little younger than me, but I know
the name. Yeah, I don't know him super much.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
His dad's my brother.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Just signed with his agency. And the kids, TJ and
Nick Linta, I know they played.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Yeah, the Linton name. I definitely know. They were younger
than me.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Okay, yeah yeah, small world, Yeah, okay, so Ivy and
like one of my best friends for coming out, you know,
I knew I was.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I would go to a camp, I'd torch everybody.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yeah, they'd weigh me.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
See I'm a white guy and be like, yeah, I
can't do it.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
And I was like, I'm and I'm sending out emails
like My mom is a champ. She has three sons.
All three played Division Warnerable at the same screen. She's
very proud of it. She has a gloated Yeah you
want to talk about she let you go right. And
it was a hard, dude, It was a hard journey.
I got my walk on spots to Fresno State. But
(03:29):
one of my best friends to this day, his version
of my Fresno State was Stanford.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Now in the process.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Of this went out, do the whole Ivy League trail,
the whole thing, bro And they really warned him about
these camps. I think he went to Princeton. I know
he went to Yale and Harvard. He was gonna go
to Yale, but then Stanford came in and gave him
walk on Scot and his parents went there, and.
Speaker 1 (03:52):
So you knows a lot closer to Fresnoe than over there.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Anyways, they really emphasized I remember him telling about how
like they warned you.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Not all people go to these games.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah, and you still have to go to school, huh,
out of Ivy League basically, so.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
It ain't gonna be wake up Saturday morning.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, seeing Oklahoma sooners, you know, there's there's a different
type of balance here. How hard was that balance between
ball in school and the IVY League.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
I mean, it definitely taught me a lot. Man Like
it was.
Speaker 4 (04:25):
It was sobering because I got through high school with
relative ease. I'd say, didn't have to try all that much.
I always kind of like did what I needed to
do to to get a's ended up like, you know,
doing really well in high school. But then when I
got to Brown, I'd say one semester, I was like,
you know what, I got this like I might be
(04:46):
I might be that guy, right, But I'd say after that, dude,
it was I was just like grasping for air, you know,
like I just had no I had no business being there,
to be totally honest, but uh, but so that managing
the time it was it was hard, but I really
dialed it in. I'd say, like sophomore year, I kind
(05:08):
of got really good at not.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Necessarily like learning the material.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
But learning how to get work done efficiency, yes, and
like what what's the best systems for me to be
able to produce on test day or produce on you know,
Saturday mornings for football. Like I just got very dialed
into in like a systematic approach to life. That way,
I could like best optimize what I needed to do.
(05:34):
But whether it was in football or whether it was academically.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I just I've been on a big book kick lately,
and I didn't read a sixth grade I read Hunger Games.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
And then I had like a like a twelve year gap, okay, and.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Then when I finished playing ball, and you know, my
Olympic journey ended, I was in this rut and I
just started going book after book after book, and you know,
my mom was like, hey, there's this guy named Stephen Covey.
He wrote The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and
it was the first book backs at Hugger Games. So
I'm reading it. I'm like, you know what, I'm so
(06:10):
used as a football player. I've taken notes religiously. We
had coaches that were saying writing crystallized as you're thinking.
Speaker 1 (06:18):
And I bought into that early and fast.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
And they're like, you know, they would talk about going
to a cult's practice and sitting in the meeting groom
with Peyton Manning's going over inside zone and he's diligently
writing notes about like an a gap handoff, like this
is fate Manning, You're ten, Come on, man, And.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
He stood up and just said, like this is why
I do my process.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Stuck with me. So going back to the book, I said,
you know what, I'm not going to just open up
this book. I don't have the attention span to do so,
and I need to be able to have a cheat
sheet of I'm not gonna lie. I don't know if
I got hit in the head too many times in
my life, but my memory is like, I'm not Crystal crude.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
There's guys.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
My grandpa will tell me stories about his fourth grade
literature class.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
And then I'm terrible.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I'll meet somebody for the fourth time and I'll be like, well,
I forget those other three like it'll.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Come back to me.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
But I can't just boom boom boom boom boom. I
don't know, man, So I started writing down has to
fit on one piece of paper and all the important
as you're reading, as I'm reading, and I'll do a
recap and be like, all right, this is anyways.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Seven habits of highly effective people.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Man, there's just the biggest thing that I learned out
of that book. Takeaway why was if there's something you
can do and it's gonna take you less than five minutes,
just do it right now, just do it right now.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And I'm at work in my onion job.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Man, I get to work, I'll write down everything I
need and I know I need to do. Stare at
it and be like, what could be? Let's crossed something off?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Right? Now, good to go.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
But finding a way to be efficient at an early
age is key. And I didn't play in the I League,
although Fresno State is considered the Harvard of the West.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Fancy you ask in Yale?
Speaker 2 (08:12):
But finding your flow because especially now with these things,
but you could you could be mindlessly.
Speaker 1 (08:19):
I hope you're looking at breaking the juice if.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
You are, like, you gotta find your process in your system.
And I think in ball school and ball, it's like, Okay,
I know I got a class at this time. I
know I got ball at this time. You don't have time,
You have no time for anything. You might have a
Saturday night during spring ball where you could go do
some boys.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Once you're done with ball, you know this. We're so
used to the structures.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Some some guys I got buddies who.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
I got some guys who.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
So when I was done, I was like, how can
I take that same approach of being so dedicated to
the consistent attention to detail of kicking anything I'm doing? Yeah,
and now be a good husband and father? Businessman yeah, hat.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Designer, podcast host Golfer emit.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah you blink in the days over man, huh, years
go by?
Speaker 1 (09:16):
So when ball was over? Yeah, how hard was that
for you to adjust?
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And what do you think is the biggest trait you
took from your experience of playing ball to what you
do now?
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Man, great question.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
I love I love how you like circulated that. Yeah,
but it was I mean all good like that people
need to falc.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 4 (09:36):
You know, the lack of the lack of regulation in
your daily schedule, I think is one of the hardest
things for athletes to like, you know, come around to, because,
like you said, I mean, every day we'd walk into
a facility and essentially just look at exactly where we
needed to be.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
At what time.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
And it's like so easy to live your life that way.
You know, you get so wrapped up in like living
week by week and day by day you could start
to compartmentalize everything in your life and then all of
a sudden that's all gone. Yeah, And so I mean
I still feel like I struggle at times. I've been
out five years, just like kind of regaining the traction
(10:18):
in those like self regulation patterns, you know, like trying
to figure out, all, right, what is my goal, how
do I get there, and what are the daily steps
I need to take to get there.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
So after I retired, I retired.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Right into like the April of twenty twenty, so right
into COVID and that's shut down the world, right, So
I big time like poured into my kids. I had
three kids at the time. My wife was pregnant with
our fourth, and I was just like dad, you know,
and that I knew what I needed to do. It
(10:52):
was kind of like its own like little training camp schedule,
if you will, because it was like, all right, they're
gonna wake up at this time, They're gonna need like
diaper changes, they're gonna need to eat, they're gonna need
to do all it. So I just started falling into
that pattern. Then I took some courses through the nfl
PA and got some like Entrepreneurial Street cred and then
(11:12):
bought my own business, open up a second one and uh.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
And now I'm working for the PA.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
So like just trying to stay busy, trying to always
kind of like redefine myself, find find a new niche
that I can like get into dabbling in real estate now,
and just trying to like, you know, find my way
because at times like there is I'll wake up and
I'm like where do I go today?
Speaker 3 (11:39):
You know?
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I wish I wish I could just look at my
TV screen and be like, oh, I got meetings this, this,
this time. But it's not that easy anymore. But I
think we can do as athletes. We know the recipe
for like what.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
We know the recipe.
Speaker 4 (11:52):
Yeah, And and it's just sometimes it's hard to get
yourself back in that for whatever reason. There's a lot
of tight influence when you're done playing the game and
you just kind of got to be true to yourself
and authentic with yourself and you know know what you
need to get done, and we and we.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Have the right tools, we know how to do it.
So just got to remember that.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
It's and again I'll say it again, like the consistent
attention to detail is everything in order to have any execution.
And I say consistent because every once in a while
look at New Year's resolutions. There's times in year there's
ebbs and flows in life where somebody lights a fire
under your You go out, you buy a new notebook,
you go get a new pair of shoes. I'm gonna
(12:35):
go get a brand new fit. I'm gonna get a
gym workout, and like whatever it is, and you get
burnt out because you go too fast.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
Everybody wants to get.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Fired up on New Year's Eve to better themselves. What
about June twenty second.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Yeah, right, and.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
If you could say to yourself, I need to go
get this work incident. As a football player, you know,
you might not have workouts on Saturday. You might be like,
you know what, man, I gotta go get a rollout in.
I gotta get a light lifting. I gotta get a
little sweat. I should probably cold some I don't want to.
Maybe I'm punk over. I don't know, peope, I got homework.
Maybe i'm you know, my mom's in towns. Yeah you
(13:10):
got you have to get it in and being able
to say, you know, waking up it's a little cold outside. Yeah,
waking up not really feeling it, like flipping that switch.
It's saying no, I don't and then not saying I
got to, saying I get to today. It's just like
(13:30):
not everybody has it, but at the same time.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
You do have it.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
You just got to pull that Yeah, you gotta pull
that dog out and erase the inner absolute as.
Speaker 3 (13:40):
It's funny you brought up like the cold.
Speaker 4 (13:42):
I mean, I always a lot of guys, you know,
in the off season, they go to California or Texas
or Florida, Arizona to train.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I grew up like the greater Philadelphia area.
Speaker 4 (13:53):
I used to always just go home suffer through the
winter outside training and snow and stuff, because I felt.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Like gave me that edge.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
It was big time on diligent and consistent workouts, doing
what I needed to do to like callous my body.
That's what that was always my mindset. I don't want
to be I don't or not that I didn't want
to be, but I didn't need to be like the
most explosive athlete, the fastest guy on the field, but
I did need to be like as durable as possible,
(14:24):
So calcifying my traps, get them real big, get my
legs nice and strong and be able to run through
contact all that, And so I used to just suffer,
like honestly put my put myself through like suffering workouts
in the off season just so I could come back
like that much mentally tougher than everybody.
Speaker 3 (14:44):
And know that I was at.
Speaker 4 (14:45):
The Jersey Shore training when it was literally now when
next to the water, and like it's you know that
Rocky insidbero. Yeah, yeah, I mean growing up in Philly,
like that was that was my movie?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Are you kidding me?
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
What's the grittiest, just the most workout you've done to
say I'm gonna get that edge, Like what's how far
have you gone?
Speaker 4 (15:06):
How far have you pushed? So I was real good
at the two twenty five bench test. Right, I most
ever got was forty nine?
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
When I was training, like all all coming up through
high school and stuff, I trained with this professional he pushed,
So I was real good at the two twenty five
bench test.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Right, I most ever got was forty nine. Okay.
Speaker 4 (15:31):
When I was training, like all all coming up through
high school and stuff, I trained with this professional boxer
from out of Boston that settled in the Greater phil area.
We ended up meeting when I was a sophomore, and
for whatever reason, he thought it's a good idea to
get this dude very good at endurance benching.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
So we used to do so.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
See, Yeah, we'd we'd pile all the tens on each
side of the bar and just lay down on the bench.
Were not allowed to lift your back off the bench
and just wrap it out racket. They'd strip a ten,
wrap it out rackets all the way down and then
all the way back up, so like a reverse pyramid
type style and I mean I remember, like for days
(16:12):
not being able to straighten out my arms. Yeah, but
you know, throwing up doing the whole thing. Like I mean,
I'm a soccer for that kind of stuff, like endurance,
because it's all mental.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
It really is all.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Everything's mental.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Everything.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
We had a we had a couple of Navy Seal
circumstances happened in our time at Fresno State.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
They came to us, woke us.
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Up at we had to be at the facility at
like four point thirty. This is a new coaching staff too.
This is a winter ball of a new coaching staff.
I think they're trying to They're trying to see what
do I got here?
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Yeah, who's who's who's the lead in the situation's gonna out?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Huh?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Who's a diability?
Speaker 2 (16:52):
It's not that cold and Fresnoe compared to Philly in January,
it was pretty cold. They gave us a hoodie and sweatpants,
like no logos on it. I'm just like, bro, okay, Yeah,
we walked to our pool, like our our aquatics center, right,
and these Navy Seals dudes are waiting for us. Yeah
(17:14):
they I don't they must. They had to have picked
the teams on purpose. Long story short. It was a
series of exercises they created, like sugar cookies and all that,
But the biggest one is we had to tread water
as a team for ten minutes and then you did
a different exercise, and then it was another ten minutes.
Now we have some guys who can't swim, and they're
(17:37):
raising their hand going, you can't swim. It was accompetators
like teammate and team b all these obstacles buh blah blah.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
And I'll never forget that.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
We had this big not gonna put him on blaster
right now, couldn't swim.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
And there's one thing he is, you can't swim. He
can't swim, and he's letting you know he can't.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
I'm five eight one sixty two. Yeah, don't get me wrong,
but you didn't lock it in right now.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah, And I said, this is what I damn near
drowned myself. I stood at the bottom of the pool.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
You lift them up.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah, his legs out, boy went up, down, went up,
down down. I thought, I was this guy is three fifty.
I was supposed to have another guy. And we went
into the pool with the hoodie.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Next, it's probably the same company.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
The next element of it is we did have number.
We just had our number on the sweatshirts. You had
to switch numbers. You had to switch sweatshirts with somebody
while treading water. Yeah, he called out who switches with it?
And they're kind of keeping notes of like who's the
two that can't swim, and they're making them so they
(18:45):
want the weakest links to come together and the shongest
links that raised up the weakest links.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Literally, it felt like, yeah, bro, I thought, I thought,
an ambience is gonna have to come.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I'm going, these guys are going we're trying to take
sweatshirts off.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
Yeah, you couldn't, like you couldn't let the sweatshirt not
be touched by a person. Long story short, I don't.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Know why my head went to that, because I was
thinking about my most thing and I saw my buddy,
he's he played in the league for a little bit.
He was here and anyways, I'm not I'll die before
I dude, I've I've almost blocked out.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
I've blocked out many times.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
When are you puke and you're spinning and you can't
see like a big squad, a big heavy deadlift competing
on the versa climber.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
Ye, like.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I'll die.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
And you know when I was done playing ball and
I attempted to do this tam Usa bob.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Slid, I really had to flip a switch because.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
It's not football anymore. I'm learning a whole new sport
and there's no like popcorner. There's no pub, there's no JV,
there's no varsity like nope, your training at a Olympic
level in a team USA facility.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
In a right dangerous sport too.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
People die all the time going eighty downhill.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
And honestly, it just it.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
You were talking about callous seeing your body. Like my shoulders.
I still have like permanent scars on both my shoulders
just because you can run into.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
These walls eighty miles an hour. It's ice in SMIT, Like, yeah,
that's it. You're getting the hardest hits I've ever taken
in my life.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
Yeah, I've been in this broken ribs, knocked out, unconscious,
all that, and.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
I just went back, though.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
I always would go back to like that swimming day
and being a farm kid.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
My dad.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
The only reason I'm good a sports because my dad
made us work on the being in fourth grade out there,
no one speaks English. Man. You're moving pipes in a field.
You know, we're got a phone. You get dropped off
with a sack, lunch and a little old school eterade contained.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
That you bring up football practice. I'll see you at lunch.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
Eleven.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Man, it's one hundred and five out no one speaks English.
Water's running like we're racing, and that's real. It builds
that in dirts.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
I'll never free man.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
Like there's a day where you're I'm like thinking in
my head, like there's no way this is legal, and.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Then you do it and you're like I could do that.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
Yeah, And I think you just keep we keep testing
our mind and our because your body could do things
you never Yeah, I'd like to play college football. It's like, yeah,
well if you do this, that and the other. It's like,
do what you work with what you got, make the
best of it.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Anyway, it's still to me to go up on a
tangent the.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Dude, I love it.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
You know what you you know, you kind of reminded
me of I went through this whole phase. I still
kind of believe this that that physical like strength, you know,
like how much can you squat? Is not so much
like about your body mechanics and like the true makeups
of your muscle as it is like how how mentally
(21:45):
ready are you to like suffer for that period of
time in which you need to do that perform this feat.
Like I mean, because I think about it all the time,
Like how can someone do you know, squat six seventy
one day and then the next day they hit like
six eighty five, Like their body didn't change, no, but
(22:05):
like for some reason they were in the right mental
state to like get down and get up and just
you know, move on with their life.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Well, I've also had situations where and I'll be the
first to admit, you know, you got your you got
your pr, yeah, and you're going to beat that pr.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And like I had a plateau.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I was weighing like one, I was weighing like one
fifty seven, one fifty eight. My software yere at president state,
and I couldn't bench, Like I couldn't rep to seventy five.
I get it down, I get it right, and I
couldn't lock it out. Yeah, Like it became a thing
where because I came in and my you know, I
(22:45):
got strong as college football.
Speaker 3 (22:46):
And gets you right absolutely, And I was like, I.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Can't get over this ump.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
And I told my dad my dad played running back
at Presto Stae, Like, I can't get over this plateaued
I felt like, and I'm thinking, I'm like, okay for
being how much I weigh like pound for I have,
I have a really that's a that's assault a respectable
bench press.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I'm betching more than some of the are tight.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And eventually I told my my guys at my rack,
I said, listen to me, it was a heavy day.
Speaker 1 (23:13):
I said, I'm not gonna look at the weight today.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, I don't want to see what it is. Sometimes
you just get onto the bar like I gotta get up.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
You will.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
But me sliding on the two plates twenty five, You're like, bro,
like that's kind of that's kind of a big wheel there. Man,
Like I don't I don't know if I can slam squad.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
I used to do the same thing.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
It was like can I hit I gotta hit that
four oh five just because I want. I just wanted
the four plate, yeah, you know, And and it's like, ah,
like I remember one.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
It's like my junior it was like three ninety five
and I'm like, come on, bro, let me get that
four club, Like I.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Just just just want to So it is psychological. But
I had a straight the editioning coach. His name was
Joey Bose. He's now the head straight inditing coach of
the Cincinnati Bengals.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Dog.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Yeah, my freshman year, you know, if you didn't hit
your reps, he looked at you like you're kind of
sometimes if he did, he might throw it out you
and like, yeah, I never had I've never been like
it's always like, okay, you know, we're gonna work on
the mechanics, and sometimes all you need is something as
simple is like, but speaking of like the two twenty
five thing, we used to do this thing.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
It was called it's called twenty fifteen ten.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Put one thirty five on the bar, yep, one thirty
five on the bar.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
You twenty reps a squad, great depth.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Yeah, you take you'd get like thirty seconds ten fifteen
fifteen reps. Then you go to do ten and it
wasn't ten. It was till failure. And like there's guys
who will hit one hundred and seventeen, but and listen,
(24:53):
you do enough.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Squats and lack of acid.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
You're gonna it used to be called we come in
there he goes.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Boys squat till we drop, and it's like, and talk
about you.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
If you don't take an ice path, Yeah, regardless, you
can't sit on the toilet.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I can't do anything like that.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
But I had a good mindset that he taught us
on that two twenty five thing, because I was.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Like a ten rep guy.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
And again I was like, I get to seven a
he said, do this, go to count of five, one, two, three,
four five. Now give me two one two.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
I'm not seven.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Give me a single, a single because if you tell me,
but just get it up one more time, like you
could do it. And I think about that all the time.
That's how I sell advertisement tele to bring the Jews.
I don't say, oh, it's I shouldn't it says, I
shouldn't say, like it's twenty six thousand dollars for the year.
I say, for five hundred dollars a week, you get this, this, this,
and this. If I if you're a company and I
say it's twenty six thousand dollars for the year, big number,
(25:53):
big number for five hundred dollars a week you get
all this.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
Hell. Yeah, that's a nice way to.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
The way we think about things. It's it you know
it at school?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Okay, Yeah, all I need is twenty one minutes after
it's gonna take a couple of minutes to get readjusted.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Yeah that's fifteen. Like I really won't here.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
For another hour old right, Yeah, it's but having the
ability in your mind to turn that switch on. Yeah,
and you know, I don't know if you know I
got some wires crossed or anything, but.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
It is a thing where absolutely are you approached something
determine your success?
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Oh yeah, tell you did you know Moses Cabrera when
you were there?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
He's a president mistake guy.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
He was our head strength coach in New England like
my last five years. He was an assistant before when
I first got there, and he was.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
Always my guy. Dude.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
Yeah, and and tough as nails, like exactly the mentality
you just spoke of, like like if you didn't do
what you came into doing it in the NFL, dude,
you get a lot of guys in the in the
strength realm that like you know, they're doing they're doing
their own little thing and they're you know and and
Moses was always like a you got it in here
(27:03):
in squat, Yeah, you got to get in here and
like sweat, like let's like let's work in here and
that's why we're here, right. And some guys didn't do that,
but he used to, like, you know, call people out.
Very personable, but he'd call people out and be like, no,
you're not doing the right thing.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Sometimes you need a little chin chat you do.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
There's nothing like a good strength coach.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
I'm telling you, nothing like if you get a good one,
it'll change your life.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
I was blessed. I had some great strength coaches. Honestly.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
The one who's currently at President of State, he had me,
had all both my brothers like invited him to my wedding,
like I golf with him, get beers with him.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
He lives right by me like I and I.
Speaker 2 (27:41):
If I have any advice, I've been asked this on
podcasts when I'm getting interviewed and they and they said,
you know, what's something in college football that as a recruit.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
You would recommend to high school athletes? And I said, when.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
You're going on these visits, the jerseys and all that,
go into the weight room and meet the strain coach.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
Get a vibe.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yeah, because you don't know it, but you're with the
strength coach, the straight staff more than anybody.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Yes, sir.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
They see you in the January Matt drills, they see
you in spring ball.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
They're warming you up every day pregame.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
They're getting you right, like me being the first one
out of all of my brothers, like no idea, yeah, no,
our high school like card Yeah, math teacher, trying the lights.
Speaker 1 (28:24):
On of the weight river.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
There was just a waits in that low low caliber.
We're not Saint John Bosco. Yeah, and uh no, man,
a great strength coach. You're going from a mental perspective,
especially like yeah, and there's nothing better when you get
you get that first big push like yeah, yo, my
my ex wit up twenty hours and I go muscled,
And you got little definitions like right, what was your
(28:46):
what was your you know, when it became time to
go to the league, what was your process? Like were
you expecting a certain round, were you expecting a certain team?
Speaker 1 (28:55):
How'd that go?
Speaker 3 (28:56):
Uh? Dude?
Speaker 4 (28:57):
So again, I was the process of getting in the
NFL was hugely humbling for me coming out of Brown.
There was four of us that we had a really
good team my senior year or junior year, and then
my senior year we did all right, but had a
couple of prospects. One guy got drafted was not me.
One guy got signed to the Titans was not me.
(29:19):
One guy got a rookie mini camp try out with
the Pats wasn't me. I ended up waiting till the
monday after the draft, got a call from Cleveland to
come out as a three four outside linebacker. I played
dan in college. Okay, went did that, didn't even make
it to Sunday. They let me go on Saturday, like
we've seen enough, dude, Like and uh, I mean I was.
(29:42):
I was a fish out of border. I played with
my hand in the dirt my entire college career, and
now I'm standing up on two feet, deathly afraid of
getting beaten pass coverage because I knew I was slow.
So every every time the ball was snaped, I'd take
it like two steps back and they'd be running stretch
right at me and I'm giving up the edge.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
It was a mas So I go back home.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
I barely got an agent, you know, I had to
like essentially like talk him into representing me. He was
a local guy that, you know, knew a family I
knew growing.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Up, you know.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
So I'm all three of my my buddies that I
played in college with, They're all in teams in camps.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I'm home, I'm doing nothing.
Speaker 3 (30:22):
Yeah. I end up, I'm living at my parents' house.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
I had just graduated from Brown and I get a
Facebook message from a guy that was a GM of
the Oklahoma City Yard Dogs of the AFL, and he says, hey,
I'd like you to come down and try out.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
So I'm like, you know what, Like, I'm not doing
anything else.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
So I borrow money from my parents, get a flight
to Oklahoma City, do a workout in an indoor soccer
little facility down there, and they signed me. And I
spent five weeks making two hundred bucks a week in
taco taco bell meal tickets, living in an apartment that
they provided with boarded up windows because it just hailed
in Oklahoma crazy, And I'm like, yeoh, is this is
(31:02):
this really what I'm doing with an IVY degree. End up,
that season ends and then I'm back at home doing
the same training, like trying to stay ready, but no
prospects at all.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
Uh, this is like July and this.
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Is a whole year.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Well no, no, no, no, no, yes, this is twenty ten.
Speaker 4 (31:23):
I graduated in May, did my thing in Oklahoma City
for like maybe the month of June. I'm in July
living or I'm I'm at the Jersey Shore and I
get a text from my agent like, hey, I got
your workout. It's with the Florida Tuskers of the UFL,
which is not the UFL that exists now but once removed. Uh.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
And he's like, hey, it's as a fullback.
Speaker 4 (31:44):
Like just go down there, do the workout, and like
you know, we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 3 (31:49):
And so I go down there.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
Jay Gruden's a head coach, got a bunch of NFL
guys on the roster. They try me out as a
as a fullback. I do the drills and they signed me.
And then four weeks later, the starting fullback gets Vertigo
going out to Vegas for our game and I'm the
start and fullback and then finished that year.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
It was a nine week season.
Speaker 4 (32:09):
We lost in the championship game to Jeff Garcia, I think,
and wow, yeah, he was playing quarterback for the Omaha Nighthawks.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
I believe.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
Oh, they had a running back he got he was
he was a great or great running back at Ohio State.
Got into some trouble in the NFL. Oh my god,
his name's for Maurice something. But anyways, Yeah, we had
some guys in that league. Like it was like my
starting quarterback. My running backs were Dominique Rhodes from the
(32:42):
Colts who won a Super Bowl. Maurice Hicks played for
the Niners. Avion Caisson played for the Cowboys. Like, we
had some guys, you know, Uh, Dante Culpepper was in.
Speaker 3 (32:53):
The league, Jeff Garcia obviously.
Speaker 4 (32:56):
So it was it was a great experience. That season
ends and I go right from there. It was in December,
right from there to Cincinnati on their practice squad for
a year and a half and then in twenty twelve
they cut me after camp and I went to New
England and then eight years there.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
Rest is history.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Becoming a fullback though after not playing that in colge
like when it first, I mean, just that's a different
side of the ball, yeah, you know, and you know,
offensive terminology, I think a little more difficult. The defense,
there's a lot of as a fullback, you know, maybe
you could simplify it down, you gotta worry with the
guy on the outside is always doing necessarily. But still,
(33:35):
was that what was the initial like butterflies?
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Oh yeah, dude, absolutely, And that's what was nice about
like having that buffer year in the UFL and then
and then ultimately having like a couple of years on
practice squad is I got a lot of time, a
lot of reps right just doing it, watching guys, seeing
how they do it, trying to.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Be like that. What I quickly.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Found out though, was I was always very like very
aware of my lack of straight ahead speed, and when
I was on the offense side of the ball as
opposed to defense, I knew where I had to be.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
I knew where I had to go, So I was playing.
Speaker 4 (34:11):
And making the first move as opposed to reacting on
defense totally. So I felt like that ended up playing
to my strength for sure, because I could, you know, like,
I know where this place is supposed to hit.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
I know what I got to see, you know, in.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Order to like there's an option.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
Yeah, So that like, and I guess my football IQ
was good enough like early on to really like figure
that out and be ahead of the game on each
play as opposed to like playing defense and and just
trying to react and then making up for my lack
of straight ahead speed.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
So I mean the fullback position I think needs to
be utilized more and more.
Speaker 4 (34:50):
It is, man, I think there's a lot of there's
a lot of teams, especially in the playoffs, that you
know when it comes when it comes down to it,
like and you can put like five hundred pounds in
the backfield and two tight ends on the field, Like
teams don't want to see that in January, you know.
Speaker 3 (35:06):
Like these guys are beat up.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
Yeah, they don't want to They don't want to be
playing iso block like from a guy.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
That's just like drain's coming right, And you see.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
That in like Detroit.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
Obviously their playoffs didn't go that the way they wanted,
but like teams are still out there like slugging it out. Man,
the Ravens, like the Ravens backfield, Yeah, yeah, I know.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
I mean it's over five hundred pounds back there with them.
You know.
Speaker 4 (35:31):
Ricard's three something, three ten maybe three h five.
Speaker 3 (35:34):
I don't know what he plays that.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Derek skate like, yeah, I when he's running one of
his seventy yarders, I'm like how does this do that
big in that fast? Yeah, he's he's I saw yesterday.
I should have taken a picture.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Of them, but yeah, he was one of the dudes.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
He's my wife's My wife had him been Fantasy football
one year and she's like, ove there.
Speaker 1 (35:54):
I'm like, yeah, great pick babe. You know yeah, how did.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
You decide your what's your swagger was gonna be as
a fullback? Uh, I'd say, because you embraced that.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
I did.
Speaker 4 (36:10):
I you know what, I really loved I coming up,
I was a big fan of Carney from the Saints
in the Rams, and I remember watching a little thing,
whether it was like I don't know if it was
thirty for thirty back then, but so a little thing
on the ESPN.
Speaker 3 (36:25):
That had it.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
It was a like a documentary style show about Steven
Jackson and Carney and their relationship and how they were
like best buds. It was like a like a like
a brotherhood almost right. And so when I got to
the league and I was like, and I got a
stable of backs that I'm gonna I'm gonna block for
like I want to be their brother. I want them
(36:48):
to be guys like someone that I want me to
be someone to them, like they can come to for anything.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
And you know, I'm like they're like low key bodyguard
at times.
Speaker 4 (36:58):
Yeah, So I to take on like that identity, like
just be there, be like the face of our running
game a little bit. And because I I was always
like you know, coming into the league, I never had
much of an ego in the locker room, like I
just I wanted. I was happy to be there because
(37:20):
my journey there like shouldn't have happened.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
But so I was like a quieter type. I wasn't
like much of a rah rah guy.
Speaker 4 (37:27):
But when I like stuck somebody and you get that
like electricity in your veins and you can just feel
like it is the greatest feeling.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
That's the juice.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Yes, that is the fact.
Speaker 2 (37:38):
That's literally what I'm talking about. When I say that's
the juice.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
You come off the sideline and I can't even like
contain how excited I am. And I'm like telling everybody
I love them, and I'm like, you know, they got
me on on Christmas Eve. If I we played the
Jets one year, beat them, beat the doors off from
forty four to three on Christmas Eve, Christmas, but we
ran we ran a bunch of goal line runs and
(38:03):
I'm blocked for the Gerrett blunt and they caught me
on like on his mic, you know, tell him how
much I love him. I block them for block for
my whole life, I said. And I'm just like so giddy,
you know, with excitement because I'm like sticking guys in
the home or on top. And uh so that was
my identity, man. I just I really embraced like the
you know, the the lack of glory in that role.
(38:25):
The like I wanted to be a battering ram for
these guys so they can score and have fun and
and get collect checks. Like I was just happy to
be there, man, Like I just want to play football
and hit somebody and lead a little bit.
Speaker 3 (38:37):
And yeah, yeah, man, that's what football's about.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
It's so it's it's it's so hard because like once
it's over, like, yeah, you can't mimic you can't that.
It's the closest thing to war there possibly is. And
when you got a band of brothers that really come
together and do something special, it's hard to win football games.
And when you do, it's like it was your will
(39:00):
run face. It's just like it's elite.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Yeah, I got asked the super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Yeah, we're here this week. It's Radio row.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
Obviously. I don't think people understand how big the super
Bowl is. Like it's an event.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
It's it's the biggest sporting event easily in the United
States every year.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
The joy of winning a ring.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
Yeah, how was it?
Speaker 4 (39:22):
Oh man, it's I'll never forget the first one. People
ask me a lot, like what was your favorite super Bowl?
And I'll never get over the first feeling of walking
on onto like a super Bowl field, The electricity you feel,
the amount of pride you have running out listening to
the national anthem, Like, I mean, it's it's what every
(39:44):
little football player when they start playing at six seven
years old everything to them.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
It's everything, even all the.
Speaker 4 (39:50):
Way up from high school college, Like it's it's an
American Like.
Speaker 1 (39:56):
It is one of the most American things you could accomplish.
Speaker 4 (39:59):
Yeah, And and to like realize that in warm ups,
like I could buy right now thinking about it. Yeah,
realizing like how much work you had to go through
the ups and downs and ebbs and flows at the season,
but not only that season, the season before.
Speaker 3 (40:15):
In your whole life. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (40:17):
Yeah, and then it ultimately gets you, you know, on
this field that's all painted up with the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (40:22):
Logos, and dude, it is it is like electric. Yeah, electric.
Speaker 4 (40:29):
And then and then ultimately that's like just pregame and
then the game goes on and it's it's a crazy
long game with all the TV stops and the and
the super Bowl or the halftime show. Super Bowl halftime
shows like twice as long, three times as long as
a normal halftime. So you end up like playing damn
there two games, you know, and the way that we
(40:52):
won each of our Super Bowls, the third one was
like a little bit of a you know, we had
we had a little bit of work and against the Rams, Okay,
we won thirteen to three. It was a boring game,
but I loved it. We were running the ball real well.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
You were there for the falcons one, right, yeah.
Speaker 4 (41:08):
Yeah, And that's and that's wild. I mean, just for
everything to go the way it went in our favor.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
Someone had to flip a switch. Yeah, tell me when
it was you guys are down twenty eight to three.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
Yeah, I saw bourbon shit. There was a flag with it, yes, yeah,
of course, I was like, that's so random.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
That all right, who flipped the switch and said we
need to go win this thing.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
I mean, you got to point the finger there at Tom,
I mean, and he just cool as the other side
of the pillow, always very confident. Like I remember Jules
walking around saying like, hey, we're gonna win this game,
like we're gonna win this game, and you're like, dude,
because it wasn't even like a halftime thing. We were
down twenty one to three at halftime. Yeah, then we
(41:53):
come out and they score and we're down twenty eight
to three, and the third quarter we're like seven minutes
left and it's like, yeah, how can how can this happen?
Speaker 3 (42:01):
It's like no way.
Speaker 4 (42:03):
But then you know, we're just like people start believing
and more and more plays are being made. And it
wasn't like a like a flip of switch and now
all of a sudden the Patriots are here.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
It was like a slow process.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
You know, we get the sack fumble, we we got
a sack that knocked them out of.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
Field goal range everything, and that's that's cool.
Speaker 4 (42:23):
And honestly, I got so much joy out of watching
the mood of the Falcons change because they were hyped
over there in the third quarter, like you couldn't you know,
Arthur Blanks down there, you know, we're like, all right,
the opposite way for them. It was so much fun
to watch them like start to shrink over there, and honestly, yeah,
(42:46):
so like who flipped the switch? Nobody really like we
just started doing everything in the right time and things
went our way. But Tom was a big part of
that because I don't think we'd have the belief that
it could not and if not for TV, you know,
like and I said that the Bill when I went
back after I retired and we were kind of like
(43:07):
in that quarterback limbo and knowing them a little bit,
and I was like, you just need somebody that that
guys can believe in, because that's so big going into
a game. Having a guy that you're like, yes, this
guy's gonna put us in position to win and having
that belief is like damn near as important as any
preparation because you need guys that that can you know,
(43:27):
a guy that can galvanize everybody to go out there
and try to win games on Sunday because it's hard,
like you said, when you got a guy, a bunch
of guys that believe anything can happen.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
Man, anything can happen. Bro James, I appreciate you, and
we could go on and on and on. I I
definitely to Fresle want to hold it, you know, take
oh Bro, you're chilling, You're chilling.
Speaker 3 (43:46):
It got deep real quick and I'm like, you know what, I'm.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
Glad, guys said, He's like, you would go for an
hour right now? I like, really, chop wood, carry water, baby.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
I couldn't be.
Speaker 4 (43:54):
I couldn't be a bigger supporter, man, So thanks for
having me on that.
Speaker 3 (43:57):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
I appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
Man. You
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