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July 9, 2025 • 13 mins
Nebraska Football Legend Harrison Phillips
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Got a very special guest here right at the top
of the four o'clock hour, a guy who was born
here in Omaha, guy who played for Millard West in
the Omaha area and then went to Stanford, had a
great collegiate career, was drafted into the NFL by the
Buffalo Bills, now placed for the Minnesota Vikings, and he's
going to be back for a pretty big event this week,
and he's joining us on the phone line. Welcome Harrison

(00:20):
Phillips to the show. Harrison, thanks so much for calling
in man.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, absolutely, I appreciate you guys having me on.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
So let's go ahead and let's talk about the reason
we're talking. First, we'll dig into some of what you
got going on and what's going on in the pros here.
But there is an awesome new facility that is going
to have a big grand opening, and you're going to
be a part of kind of showing this to people
and having the opportunity to kind of highlight this opening
this week. Tell me about ETS performance in this new

(00:49):
facility in West Omaha.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, for sure. So I've been involved with ETS for
a little over a year now, but really it goes
the backstory is even further than that. When I first
got signed for agency to Minnesota, was able to, you know,
meet my teammates like Adam Feelen, CJ. Ham Kirk cousins,
all who are ETS owners, and Adam even helped start
ETS when it first came out. And so these have

(01:11):
been around for a long time. There's thirty plus of
them across the country. And what differentiated them compared to
other opportunities that it has been pitched to me or
shown my way is I was able to go into
some of these Minnesota locations and see some seventh graders
and eighth graders who you know, didn't seem to have
the it, you know, they didn't see you know, they
were just kind of figuring out how to become athletic,

(01:33):
how to be functional, how to put on mass, how
to gain speed. And then a year later or two
years later, I would come back and I would see
these guys now freshmen in high school starting on their
girls' basketball team, or their softball team, or their football team,
and I could see real real time that the kids
were loving the training that they were doing. But I
could also see that it was real, it was smart training,

(01:54):
and I'm a proponent. I'm a firm believer that I've
actually suffered some injuries because of poor training that I
had when when I was younger. And you know, there
was so much success here in Nebraska, the Council Bluff,
the Lincoln, Omaha area because of the Huskers in the nineties,
and a lot of people just wanted to copy and
paste the programming that they had doing it to those guys. Well, hey,
you know, twenty one and twenty two year old men

(02:16):
lifting weights, that's not the same plan that my eleven
year old daughter should have or my eight year old
son should be doing. And so I thought there was
a need that I didn't have. I was googling bodybuilding
workouts and YouTube and people the NFL players to hear
what they were doing. And ETS has done it the
right way. They'd have hundreds and hundreds of Division I athletes,
I think fifty plus professional athletes now that have trained

(02:38):
through the ETS locations. So when I invited them to
come down to Omaha, I thought it was just a
marriage of a perfect storm.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, really cool stuff. Harrison Phillips of the Minnesota Vikings,
Omaha native joining us on the phone line here. This
is a facility, which is, like you mentioned, kind of
targeted to kids that aren't quite in college yet. It
could be you know, people who are in elementary school
all the way up to high school. For people who
are kind of trying to understand okay, so is my

(03:06):
kid a good fit for this? Like how would they know?
Like it would be a way for them to understand, Okay, yeah,
this is something that I think would be good supplemental
training for my kid.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
You know, I think the answer is yes, no matter what.
And obviously that's the sales pitch. But we do meet
every athlete individually. So why we're a little bit unique
as opposed to maybe a different gym you go to,
is because ETS has so many locations across so many states.
You can go look up the Adam Steele and workout
that he did in the summer of twenty and seventeen,

(03:36):
and you can see what he was doing, what his
workout was, and obviously that's cool to see. Hey, what
were these NFL players like Blake Cashman, who's the starting
linebacker for the Vikings. He went to ETS through high school.
So some of my football players want to say, well,
what did he do when he was in high school
that I should be doing that got him to where
he's at. But also, you know, we have so many
thousands of athletes that have come through. We're able to

(03:59):
look up the fourteen year old who's coming off of
an ACL injury and what was her plan like in
order to get back to play at a high level.
And yeah, we're working with kids eight years old. We're
working with seventeen year olds trying to you know, fine
tune their skills before they go off to Division one
to play their sports. And it's also not sports specific training.

(04:20):
So in your group, you're in your class. You know,
you sign up for a class, and you know your
membership base. You go on your app and you sign
up for as many classes as you want, and you
stop by and you might have eight or ten other
kids with you of all different sports, and so you're
able to build that community. And you're also really just
trying to get your student or you're you're a child.

(04:40):
I don't know if my eight year old son or
daughter is going to grow to six foot two and
weigh two hundred and fifty pounds or run a four
to four, but I do know that we could put
a skill set in front of them to just increase
their athletic baseline and kind of see how close we
can get to their ceiling.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Really cool stuff. Harrison Phillips joining us on the phone line.
You're on eleven ten KFABA. Opening of this thing is
on Saturday, eleven am to two pm at ETS performance
located in West Omaha. It's West Oma, but it's in
Elcorn and you can check that out. We'll tell you
exactly the address in a second, Harrison, I wanted to
talk a little bit about the NFL and kind of

(05:16):
you know, Minnesota, your situation right now. One of the
things that I find so fascinating is it feels like
every single year the like to stay in the league,
you have to be so on your game. I mean,
there are some guys that are just naturally really skilled
and talented, but man, the NFL, a lot of guys
get hurt, a lot of guys get banged up. It's
tough to stay at an elite level in this league.

(05:38):
And I think one of the real surprises of the
NFL season last year was how good your team was.
Can you take me through kind of what you were
seeing from your goggles, you know, as now a veteran
in the NFL playing for a team that didn't have
a lot of expectations that ended up blowing every possible
expectation out of the water.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yes, that's a good comment. We were a very talented
team last season, all the way across the board, except
for the question that quarterback, and that was a question
from outside people. If you were inside on O'Neill drive
at the Vikings facility, you would see that we had
two really solid options at quarterback. Now, JJ went down
early and that limited our scopes towards Sam. But as

(06:17):
a player who's played against Sam in college he beat
me in the Pack twelve championship, I know how talented
he was. And everyone you mentioned the NFL is super
tough with injuries and with turnover. It's also about situations
and coaches, and you know there's politics involved, and so
for us to finally have a good opportunity for Sam
to show what he could be in the NFL was
great and early on. You know, every year I say

(06:38):
we're going to be a great team, but you know,
I really felt that finishing training camp, seeing what Sam
was doing, seeing how the rest of our team was
responding to his leadership, and I knew we were going
to hit the over on whatever they said we were
going to win that season. And then I would say
it was one of the most fun I had because
when all the outside noise was so pessimistic against us,
you know, winning football games almost felt stress free because

(07:00):
as people have counted this out so much, so I
enjoyed the beginning part of that season tremendously. And you know,
this season is almost a similar story. Now. There's a
higher expectation because people believe in JJ and we have.
We made so many offseason moves that we, you know,
became an even more talented team. And you know, I
think all the outside media is just saying, well, you know,

(07:21):
JJ is a good quarterback. This team is going to
be very, very very good. And I'm optimistic about our
season and I'm really excited for JJ, you know, now
that he's healthy to be able and lead the platoon,
and you know, all the new members that we added
on the defense, I'm hoping that we can even improve
our on our ranks last year.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
We're speaking with defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings in
Omaha native Harrison Phillips, and of course JJ McCarthy going
to get his first crack at being the starting quarterback,
but it was a top ten draft pick. The year
before you mentioned about kind of what ETS performance is
doing and trying to get kids ready for that next level,
and it feels like the NFL draft, the combine football

(07:59):
especially has been this machine. And that leads also into college.
You went to a big college in Stanford. Now with
conference realignment, all the money that's been you know, flowing
into the sport, you have nil, all stuff that I'm
sure you would have loved to have the opportunity to
have as part of your career. How do you know
you're still you know, a younger guy, but still a
guy that's a veteran in this sport. How do you

(08:21):
now kind of reflect on your time in college versus
what college looks like for a lot of these other kids.
You know, Stanford's having to go to the East Coast
to play almost all of their conference games and all
these kids are bouncing around through the transfer portal and
within il money. How do you kind of explain what
you're seeing after your experiences to what the collegiate experience

(08:41):
seems to be like.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
Now, that's a lot and I have a lot of
different opinions on this, and it's difficult because football worked
out for me. You know, I know I still have
to hit my you know, the ceilings and the goals
that I hope I just set for myself. But in
the grand scheme of things, you know, I made a
decent amount of money to support my family and football
was an So anyway, all just to say is that

(09:03):
I'm very, very happy that I was in college when
I was now would having a little bit of money
so my parents and my girlfriend could come watch me play,
or that I could go out to Chipotle and get
some burritos after practice. Yeah, I would have loved that.
But I think that the integrity of the game is
now is now changed. And one of the reasons growing
up that I loved watching college football more than the

(09:26):
NFL was because those guys were together for four to
five years as walk on players or as you know,
counted out players that earned their role at a school
and was doing it with the guy they loved and
lived with and roomed with and trained with for four
straight years, and those bonds are insane. In the NFL,
you know, you get forty five new players every year,
and then you know, the cream of the crop rises.

(09:47):
I barely play. I've only been in Minnesota four years,
and I think I'm the third or second longest ten
yured defensive player out of you know, the forty something
we got. I mean, the turnovers crazy in the NFL,
and sometimes you can feel that guys have to go
hitting centives and they're contrast, they're going to be free agents.
Do I do my exact job or do I try
to make some plays so that I can get paid.
And that's happening in college, and it's happening every single

(10:10):
year because you're a free agent every single season. And
so when it's third and one with the game on
the line, and my job as a noseguard is to
just anchor this double team and don't get moved, and
I'm not going to make the play, but that's my job.
All of a sudden, those thoughts start creeping in of well, hey,
if I make a stop right now, this sponsor is
going to look at me, This other school is going
to see this, this is going to be on Sports Center.

(10:30):
I can go make another one hundred thousand dollars. Those
human thoughts creep in, and I just think it's running
the integrity of the game. I'm saying all this to
say I also believe players need to be compensated. Like
I told you, my family, my girlfriend who is now
my wife, could not come see me play. My parents
could not come to Stanford to get a flight and
afford to see me play. And you know that's not

(10:52):
right either. So you know, those are some of my opinions.
I don't have an answer for you. Those are just
some scattered thoughts. And like I said, because of my situation,
I am happy that I got to play when college
football still felt like a brotherhood and a competitive college football.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah, Harrison Phillips joining us just to come like, follow
up quickly. Stanford now is playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
It's very strange. Would you have liked the extra travel?
I know it feels more like the pros than it
ever has before, But or do you miss kind of
those regional rivalries and the history that the Pac twelve

(11:29):
had when you were playing in it?

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Yeah? I missed the history. You know. It's tough. Football
is obviously the main driver people are thinking about, But
what about these guys who are traveling significantly more because
they play on Tuesdays? Thursdays and Saturdays, and how are
they doing five hour flights and three hour time changes?
And they got classes and they're studying the baseball, swimming, softball,

(11:51):
So there's so many other sports that the ripple effects
are even worse for I personally don't enjoy five hour
flights that don't fit on playing too well. And so
you know, it is what it is, and I'm you know,
still supporting the program at Stanford. I had a call
with Frank Reichen with Andrew Luck a couple of times
this offseason. We're trying to turn some things around over there.

(12:11):
But again, just that whole landscaping has changed. And now
that I have a son, I know this is still
eighteen years away, but I'm a little nervous for what
the landscape will look like eighteen years from now. And
it's going to creep into the high school level. I
already see it where people are trying to poach kids
to different high schools and offer them, you know, certain
things and certain deals, and you know, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Yeah, it is really quite interesting. A great insight from
a guy who's achieved an awful lot. So real quick,
I got sixty seconds left here. Harrison can you give
me one more plug for how people can check you out,
see what you got going on at ETS Performance in
Elcorn this weekend.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah, for sure. Come out on Saturday. I think it's
kind of nine to two. There's different groups coming throughout
the day of different ages. It's also open house. You
guys can just drive out there, Google us, or look
it up on my Instagram or my Facebook and you'll
find us. Come stop by, say hi or again on
the website or on my Facebook or on my Instagram.
You can go and sign up a kid. If you
know anybody in your neighborhood, any siblings, any sons, daughters

(13:07):
that you want to have him, come out and actually
get a little free combine. We'll get him a vertical
jump and some force plate numbers and show them what
it's like to train as a true athlete. Stop by.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
It's going to be awesome. Man, it's this Saturday out
there in Elcorn Ets Performance the West Omaha location, Harrison Phillips.
This is a true honor for me to get a
chance to chat with you. Hopefully we get to talk
again in the future. Good luck. Training camp starts I
know just in a few weeks and hopefully we see
you and the Vikings doing really well this year. Thanks
all right, how cool is that? Harrison Phillips, Omaha native
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