September 27, 2022 • 31 mins
They have to be fast, powerful and know how to play the offense and defense of the opposing team every week. On top of all that, they have to play against their teammates! On this episode of the NFL explained. podcast, Yam and M Rob tell you all you need to know about life on an NFL team's practice squad.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
NFL Explained is a production of the NFL in partnership
with I Heart Radio. It's a brand new edition of
the NFL Explained podcast. Mike yam joined by a Super
Bowl champ. I've been having so much fun with you
on these shows. In the saddle. You good, I'm excellent.
(00:27):
My Buffalo Bills one week one, my rebuilt Seattle Seahawks
one week one. So I'm pumped up. Of course you
should be. You have been the flag bearer for those
squads on Total Access when I've been able to work
with you. But look at the end of the day,
where you're all huge NFL fans, and what we try
to do on this podcast is really educate people around
different aspects of the game. Now when you watch on
(00:50):
a Sunday, there's so many things that are happening, even
just away from football that I think fans aren't always
aware of. You got stadium operations, broadcast teams are all
watching the games, the technology around some of it. M
Rob though, I think there's another piece that doesn't get
enough love when we talk about what actually happens on
the football field. You were on the fifty three man roster,
(01:11):
You're not necessarily worried about your role, but maybe just
a little bit, but look at the end of the
day to get ready. We keep hearing this phrase and
it was big. If anyone watched Hard Knocks with the Lions,
you know this idea of the practice squad. So today
on the NFL Explained podcast, we're gonna look at life
on that practice squad to paint the picture of what
(01:31):
it's actually like for some of these players in the
conversations behind the scenes about guys that do still need
to help out their squad. Well, first of all, I
want our listeners to understand the fifty three guys or
the forty six, because that's what's actually eligible to play
on game day. The forty six plus the third string
quarterback forty six they go out there that you see
on television every Sunday. There's a lot more that goes
(01:53):
into that team taking the field than just those guys
going to meetings and going on the practice field. There's
a whole group of guys the practice squad that their
task which showing the squad the other team. Meaning if
you're trying to service your defense right, the practice squad
has to recreate the opponent's offense. And do their plays,
kind of be their players and give the starting defense
(02:15):
a good look and vice versa. Right scout defense they
have to be in the right defense, is the right shelves,
the right things that the players do. And these practice
squad players, they're not only the good teams. What they
do with their practice squad players, they still use the
same verbage that they use in their schemes offensively and defensively,
So you provide an element of cross training to it.
(02:37):
But there hasn't been a Super Bowl champion team that's
happened throughout history that hadn't had a practice squad. They're
very important. You actually touched on something that's really important.
It's something that we will dive deep into. When you've
mentioned verbage. Now you know, we did have our episode
about play calling and why that's significant. If you're in
a practice squad, that doesn't mean you're gonna be playing
(02:57):
for that team. You might actually end up on another roster.
There are some rules and regulations around some of that stuff,
which we'll get to coming up here on this podcast.
But you touched on an NFL roster. It's made up
of fifty three spots, but each team can have up
to sixteen other players on the practice squad. Now that
number is actually increased from ten in twenty twenty, and
(03:17):
it was in response to the pandemic, but it was
voted on by the NFL and the nfl PA to
keep those expanded rosters, which I think is actually kind
of level. Means some extra jobs and some less tough
decisions for teams as they're trying to navigate some of
those rosters. But right now, of the six team players
on the practice squad, six of them can have unlimited
experience in the NFL, and ten players need to have
(03:40):
two or fewer accrued seasons in the league. In additional
all that in, the NFL actually randomly selects a division
each year whose team can each add one additional international
player to their practice squad as part of the International
Player Pathway program. Currently, all four teams in the a
f C South have added international players in accordance with
(04:01):
the international program, but none have actually made the fifty
three man roster. To me, it is pretty cool. It's
one of these big initiatives that the NFL has had,
and it does open up the door to get some
of these players who don't necessarily have that college experience
an opportunity to really thrive and learn how to play.
But how do these extra players, how do they help
NFL teams? Well, I'm glad you explained how the practice
(04:24):
squad rosters are made up. You know, ten of those guys,
ten of the sixteen or guys that have been on
NFL rosters for two or less years. Right, that's a
big deal. That's really with the practice squad as for
as development. What was added was the six players with
unlimited experience. And I say that's important because I got
to a point in my career where I was no
(04:44):
longer eligible for the practice squad and if sixteen guys
with that extra six was added when I was, you know,
thinking about retirement, I may still be playing. Because at
the end of the day, practice squad ain't a terrible job.
Like it's not like I tell people all the time.
If your team is playing away, you may work three
days that week. You come in Monday, you're watching the
(05:05):
previous weeks games, so you really didn't have much to
do with that. You know that that week game, so
you're not looking at the film with with that type
of eye where you're evaluating yourself. So you may come
in get a lift, and then you go home. Tuesdays
the player's day off, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of those
days that you work, and if the team is playing away,
oftentimes they travel on Friday. If they change time zones
(05:26):
and you don't travel, you stay at home. So you
get paid. And I know we're gonna go on how
much these guys get paid every single week. But you're
gonna get paid X amount of dollars for three days
of work. It's a pretty good gig. And for me,
I was on that fifty three man roster and I
was a fullback, and most rosters, if you have a fullback,
it's only one, it's only one on the roster. So
(05:47):
in days and weeks, especially late in the season, Mike,
where you know, Coach Carroll was trying to take care
of us right where we went wearing past as much
I knew, I still had to have a physical job
during the week. If I did not get my neck
and my shoulders some type of contact, I would get
a stinger on Sunday and it would totally mess my
(06:08):
game up. And so we had a practice squad. Player's
name was Mike Morgan. Okat he went to sc played
with Pete Carroll, always been on Pete Carroll's teams, but
he was one of our practice squad guys. And this
is what I loved about mikey Mo. We called him
mikey Mo. Mike would be coming off the field and
I would say, hey, Mike, look, man, I need you
to go put on some pads. Bro Like, I know,
(06:28):
we just practiced for two hours. I know you're tired.
You're on the show scout team for offense, the Show
Scout team for defense. You're running on special teams giving
us the show. You are just as tired as I am.
But I need to bang, man, I need I need
this contact. Could you go in, put on your helmet
and show the pass? And I need about fifteen reps
of us just running into something a little bit. I
(06:48):
know it sounds a little weird, but I played fullback.
That was my job and if I didn't have that
during the week, I couldn't do my job on Sunday.
So practice squad players are vital, and oftentimes the championship teams,
the practice squad guys go above and beyond to make
sure that their guys are ready to play on Sundays.
Kind of fascinating to hear something like this because it
almost sounds like a de facto coach. And hear me
(07:11):
out on this because you know, I spent a lot
of time in my career also covering basketball, and you'd
hear this where basketball player would need to say to
a coach like, Hey, can we show up six am?
Can you meet me at the gym? I need someone
to rebound for me. And look, it's different because most
coaches aren't gonna trap it up. Look on time at practice.
I will tell you about that on another episode. I
actually do want to hear that story. But that's that's
(07:33):
pretty cool how many of those guys actually embrace it,
because I got to think from a mental standpoint, most
of these guys feel like, hey, I can really contribute.
I should be playing on Sundays. And in a lot
of ways, it's just about getting the dudes who are
going to be playing ready. Yeah, you know, I'm not
gonna go and say names. But when I played for
the San Francisco forty Niners, it just showed a difference
(07:55):
in the culture of the teams at the time. Now
this was back in you know, the two thousand nine
two thousand and eight seasons when I played for the
San Francisco forty Niners got to the Seahawks. But when
I was with the forty Niners, we weren't a very
good football team for four years. Every practice squad guy
we got, you can tell they were just using the
practice squad as a mode to get another job somewhere else.
(08:18):
They didn't really want to be there. They wouldn't want
to stay after, they wouldn't want to do the extra
to get us ready. And then as a player, you
don't want to say, man, I'm gonna go to the
coach and tell a coach that you you don't want
to do that. But at the end of the day,
you sometimes you need practice squad guys to do a
little bit extra. And yeah, it's a testament to the cultures.
And when I was in San Francisco before coach Harball
(08:38):
got there, we had a losing culture and practice square
guys didn't do the extra. When I got to Seattle,
it was a testament to what John Snyder and and
the type of guys that John Snyder and Pete Carroll
actually brought into the building. There was never a guy
that turned me down for the extra work. There was
never a guy that I knew that turned Russell okung
or somebody offers the lineman down for extra work. So clearly,
(08:59):
and you alluded to it there, these guys are are
not doing it for free. They are being compensated. There's
some rules regulations around some of this stuff, which we'll
get to, but you have any idea and Rob, what
some of those checks look like? No, Okay, So when
I played, I think a practice squad got got about
nine K for the year. You know what I'm saying.
(09:20):
And so yeah, so nine d K for sixteen seventeen
weeks and you only work in three days a week. Man,
that's a pretty good gig. It's it's not it's not bad.
It's it's good if you can get it, and especially
if it leads to a job on a fifty three
man rosters. So here's what we got for you. As
far as the weekly paycheck, the c b A actually
dictates a fixed amount of money for practice squad players,
(09:40):
but salary guarantees, bonuses and incentives are actually barred from
being part of practice squad contracts. We should know what
the salaries. By the way, the practice squad guys do
not hit the team's salary cap. Rookies and second year
players who are on the fifty three man roster for
eight or fewer games as a rookie actually received the
same weekly pay and for the two season, that's eleven thousand,
(10:04):
five hundred dollars per week. Now that's going to increase
each year untill twenty thirty when they could make sixteen thousand,
seven hundred and fifty dollars a week. Keep hearing about inflation.
Let's roll here. May see that means of a rookie
or a player in their second years on the practice
squad for all eighteen weeks of the NFL season, they'll
make an annual salary of two hundred and seven thousand dollars,
(10:27):
which is really not chump chains. That's not bad. That's
some decent coins there. I know it's on Aaron Rodgers money.
But the point is like that's still you're you're a
professional player at that point. If you are a second
year player and that was on the fifty three man
roster for eight or more games as a rookie, the
pay scales a little different each week. There's a minimum
and a maximum pay scale in twenty two, you can
(10:49):
be paid a minimum of fifteen thousand, four hundred and
up to nineteen thousand, nine hundred a week. So it's
a arrange really over the course of the year of
two hundred and seventy seven thousand to about three hundred
and sixty thousand. So once again there's some cash to
be made for some of these players. It is some
cash to be made. And what I used to tell
practice squad guys all the time, it's live bro. This
(11:12):
is an opportunity for you to save your money and
invest it right to money principles. Right, save some of
your money so that you have something for when you
You never know when your last player is gonna be
in this league, So save a little bit of that
money invested so you can grow it. Like there were
times when I was just listening to with Larry Allen
when I was in San Francisco, just listening to him
talk to his financial people, and it helped a lot.
(11:34):
Helped me get out of the two thousand and eight
two thous financial crisis and helped me thrive in that
environment just listening to Big Homie and what he was doing.
So again, save your money and also have an opportunity
to grow it. How many guys did you play with
that word? Understood that they probably weren't going to be
playing on Sundays, but at the same time, knew that
(11:55):
they had some legs right, like, they had an ability
to be a practice squad player, and just sort of
embrace that and knew, this is my path to being
successful and making some of those connections that you're talking about,
the ones that you've seen in the National Football They
actually make it from the practice squad. Actually, you know,
guys that don't get drafted go to a practice squad,
get on the active roster, and never go back to
(12:16):
the practice squad. The reason why they like that is
because they're cut a little bit differently, they're able to
get on the practice squad. Understand Look, this doesn't necessarily
mean that I'm not good enough to play in the
National Football League. Oftentimes guys are on practice squad because
of the guy in front of them making a lot
more money. It's a business decision, but the team wants
to keep you in their circumforts of influence, so they
(12:37):
put you on the practice squad, and the guys that
are enthusiastic about it usually come off on the better side.
Welcome back to the NFL, explains Mike m and m
Rob with you. I'm gonna ask you to We had
just had an episode where we were talking about college
(12:58):
players and more specifically, which universities do the best job
of creating NFL talent, which, by the way, it's a muscle.
Listen to episod haven't you can go and check it out.
I want you to flash back to your day as
a Penn State because I've been around this a lot
and I think it is still one of the coolest
things that happens in college football, and I think we
have someone of an equivalent on the NFL side. You
(13:19):
know that moment when a dude goes from non scholarship
walk onto all of a sudden getting that scholarship, and
how the entire team erupts. I would imagine when a
guy has been on the practice squad and all of
a sudden gets that call from the general manager and
he's got an opportunity. It's got a feel kind of similar, right, yeah, man, Well,
first of all, first of all, when a practice squad
(13:41):
god gets called up. The first thing and again our
listeners have to understand, Okay, oftentimes because of injury. Because
of the way that the NFL weeks go, sometimes these
guys don't find out until late in the week. Sometimes
they don't find out till the Thursday or Friday before
Sunday game. Yeah, they were taking reps through the week
and they thought it was a chance. But the business
(14:04):
of football happened, and so now they get their chance.
First thing happens is they go straight to their locker,
they get on their phone and they call a mom. Mom,
guess what. I know. You've been watching our team every
single week for the last ten weeks, and you haven't
seen me because I've been sitting next to you or
I've been on the phone with you. But this week
(14:25):
you can see me run out of that tunnel. I
may not get a care, I may not get a play,
but I will be dressed up. I mean. And what
happens is, oftentimes in God's family, mama calls the cousins
and the grandmama said, and you might have a thousand
people now just from that one call, just from that
call up from that player. Now have a thousand people
(14:45):
from one town watching the game. And to me, that's
the beauty of our game. That's the beauty of football.
So there's two ways to handle that. One you silence
your notifications on your phone, or you just walk around
and you stick that phone up in the air. Good
keep coming, keep it coming. There is also some financial incentive,
clearly from from being elevated um the practice squad to
(15:06):
the active roster. So keep this in mind here three
times for regular season and an unlimited number of times
in the postseason. Any player who are elevated from a game,
they get one seventeen of the minimum salary. Got seventeen
games that you're gonna be playing, right, We can do
the math figure that out. Now. The rookie minimum salary
for the twenty two season is seven hundred and five
(15:26):
thousand dollars. Does that hold up? Is that for real? Yo?
That is real? That's the rookie minimum. Do you know
what the rookie minimum was? What do you got? Home?
Ye got another when I was in the league, three
hundred and five thousand dollars. And guess what when I
first got to the service school for then is the
big team meeting with all the veterans and stuff there,
they acted like I got so much money? Like they
(15:48):
acted like that oh Man. When I was a rookie,
whee only got a hundred some thousand. And I'm sitting
there like, Bro Larry Allen, Man, you'll make ten million,
and you're talking about my two hundred thousand, oh Man,
seven hundred thousand. Well, now you sound like the old
man who says, get the ball off my line. So
just to be fair here, you sound exactly like the
Vets did when they hear a number like that. So
(16:10):
the seven thousand dollars that comes out to about forty
one K when the game is over. So that's that's
what your game check is, which is not bad. So
there is some incentive there. I would imagine that I
would say plays with your head, but it's probably even
more than that. Like, that's a huge chunk of change.
I mean, there's people in this country that are making
forty one k, sadly and trying to survive. You get
(16:31):
that in the one game check. I'll sign me up,
sign me up. And again, like I said before, it's
an opportunity for these guys to inject some capital into
their life too. Again, I tell people all the time
when rookies first come into the NFL, that first signing
bonuses for what you did in college. I mean it
really is. You haven't proved anything in the National Football
League to get that extra money quite yet. And for
(16:53):
a young guy that's been on the practice squad all
year to get caught up and be able to get
this financial boost, man, it's pretty cool. And I think
the NFL does one thing that I think is really
important for some of these practice squad players, and I
think it incent to vises teams from sort of grooming
their own players. It's maybe the best way to think
about a couple of workarounds for teams who are trying
(17:14):
to balance that fifty three man roster. How teams can
elevate up to two players from their practice squad to
their active roster per week. That allows them to increase
their roster size from fifty three tote. Okay, you know
what I'm saying, but m rob, when the game is over,
players automatically get reverted to the practice squad after getting
elevated for that game. Now, teams can instead sign practice
(17:35):
squad players to active roster contracts rather than elevating them
on a game to game basis. So this allows teams
to keep their players on their active roster and eligible
to playing games a little bit longer. But it also
would subject players to waivers upon release, which is not
the case with players who are simply elevated for a
given game. That waiver wire game once again not the
(17:57):
reference hard knocks, but I think that they do the
best job of giving everyone a real life glimpse of
what this actually is. How many times have we seen, Hey,
we hope this guy is able to clear waiver so
we can bring him back to the practice squad. And
that conversation happens all the time. It happens all the time,
and it's easy for us, especially us here in the media,
and you know, our fans to sit and say, oh, man,
(18:18):
you just got waived. They said they want you back.
Just relax, you'll be fine. Well, first of all, there's
a financial degradation there. Okay, I could be on the roster,
but now I'm not. I'm on the practice squad. There's
a little bit of difference of of pay there. But also,
at the end of the day, as a player, in
your mind, you think you're good enough to be on
(18:38):
the active roster. You think you're good enough for this
team to win games with. And I ain't gonna lie.
It is a little bit of a a gut me
feel like he's knocked down a little bit like, oh man,
I'm on the practice squad. But again, like I said before,
the ones who take it in stride, the ones who
understand that, look, this doesn't define me, This is just
my situation Temporarily, those guys end up being successful. So
(18:59):
it's a small fraternity of players that have been able
to play in the NFL. These are really small circles.
Coaches who end up with one team and that coaching
tree from various other spots. You know, everyone's on the
phone with each other. You know that there's preseason games
for some of these players who don't make that active
fifty three man roster. They're on a practice squad, but
they got film. So what happens when a guy goes
(19:21):
down and all of a sudden you're in need. You
might get a call as a practice squad player and
get your shot. There are plenty of examples that m
Rod that I know you have practice squad player to
NFL stardom. We will unveil some of those names coming
up next on the NFL Explained podcast. Michael Rob' siting
(19:45):
Mike Yam with you back here on the NFL Explained podcast. Now,
we touched on this a little bit earlier. Just because
you're on the Bill's practice squad one week doesn't mean
you might be playing for I don't know, the Chiefs
in another week. Yeah, that potentially could happen, But there's
some rules and regulations around stuff like that. Any practice
squad player can get signed to another team's fifty three
man roster, but the CBA bands practice squad players from
(20:08):
being signed with his team's next opponent later than four
pm Eastern Time on the sixth day prior to the
game and no full moon. Sorry, trying to stay with you. Okay, okay,
that's a lot man specific it is, and and rightfully so,
because even on bye weeks there's some issues. They're right.
(20:29):
Practice squad players must sign at least ten days prior
to the game. After a conference championship game, practice squad
players on Super Bowl teams may not sign with their
teams super Bowl opponent. So if you're a practice squad
player who signs to another fifty three man roster, yeah,
they're guaranteed three weeks of salary even if they are
released before then, Yes, I'm me for that. Why would
(20:50):
a team go after another squad's practice player? Maybe, and
it has nothing to do with need well, um, so
I can equate it to Okay, I got cut from
the San Francisco forty Niners the last week. It cuts
after the fourth preseason game. That was we had four
preseason games and was only a week after the fourth
preseason game to the regular season. I got cut on
(21:12):
a Saturday. Okay, I had to clear waivers because nobody
was gonna pick up my rookie salary or whatever. I
cleared waivers and then the Seattle Seahawks picked me up
Sunday night. Like Sunday after four I had to clear
waivers after twenty four hours. The first opponent for the
Seattle Seahawks for the San Francisco forty Niners, it was
(21:32):
the weirdest thing ever. I had just led a stretch
six days earlier against Patrick Willison to kill spikes. Now
wearing a different helmet going up against them and yams,
it definitely wasn't advantage for the Seahawks. I literally stood
up in the defensive meeting room. But Gus Bradley, who
he's the d C for the Colts, I think right now,
and I gave every signal, I gave every code word
(21:55):
I gave. I literally was running practice as the d C,
telling them exactly what was going on. And I remember
coach Singletary, Mike Singletary, he was in San Fransco, forty
Niners coach the time. He had a press conference a
couple of days after I guy released and he said,
I don't care who Seattle has, they can know our
entire offense. They still have to stop us. And then
(22:15):
we went out there and I say all that to say,
you damn straight. It is a competitive advantage to bring
somebody's practice squad guy in. They know the offense, they
know the defense, they know the scheme, they know co words,
hand signals, all of that. That's why you see, as
you read earlier, the NFL put all those rules up
so that you can't just go to your next opponents.
(22:38):
It's sort of fascinating to me because you even touched
on that's the top of the show. You're in meetings
doing everything, You're doing everything is if you're preparing for
the game, you're doing everything. And to me, if you
have a quarterback that's on the practice squad. That's a
very valuable dude. I mean quarterbacks think a little differently,
and at the end of the day, the practice squad
quarterback is also in the regular quarterback meeting room hearing
(23:00):
all the stuff that the starting quarterback is hearing. It's
pretty it's pretty cool. How many examples you give when
it's the reverse you were on the roster and the
team that you were playing for said, you know what,
by the way, when you said, like clear waivers, you
know what I'm thinking fantasy football staring at you between
raivers and fantasy football. Like all of us you know
(23:25):
at home GMS, we know exactly what that experience. Just like,
please don't want pick up this dude, Please don't want
pick up this dude. I need this guy for Sunday. No,
no signals and inside information. But did that happen frequently
when you were actually on the roster hearing what was
coming your way? And no it didn't. It didn't necessary.
So you're saying, if like we had a guy that
we knew our opponent or somebody we're going to play
in a couple of weeks, took that guy off of
(23:47):
all practice squad. Yeah, there were a couple of times.
I can't necessarily remember where it made a difference because
at the end of the day, especially when I was
with the Seattle Seahawks. Pete he's a psychology major man,
so he was one of those guys he never really
cared what the other team was doing. It was literally
always about what we did, so we couldn't cared less
what they knew. Uh, did you text Coach Singletary or
(24:09):
call him after? I wanted to, but I wouldn't. At Petty,
I knew I was going to be in the media
one day, and I knew I was gonna have to
keep that relationship with coaching, even though even though he
cut me, so you know that, you know there's something there.
And we did a podcast a couple of years ago together,
one of the podcasts on here on NFL Network, and
he kept it real. Yeah, Mike, I cut you, So
(24:30):
what what're you gonna do about it? I'm like nothing,
It's all good, Coach, I love you, you know. Speaking
of those cut situations, can I tell you how? And
I would imagine if they went really bad hard knocks
with steal But over the years, just watching these dudes
get cut a the amount of gratitude that they have
for that experience and not they don't. It doesn't come
(24:51):
across like they're salty about it, like I'd be so
pissed and I would be petty about it. I'm not
gonna lie like I would be, forget petty about it.
What I've learned about the young person now, First of all,
they used the word love a little bit more than
what we did in our generation. They understand things. They
accept everybody and who who they are. Um. But these
young people, you know, when I came into the league,
(25:12):
we always wanted security. Security was obviously financially, but we
also wanted long term deals when we wanted to know
I could be with this team for four or five
years or whatever. These kids don't care. You know, They're
okay with I can play here this year, I can
play their next year. You know. I hope some schools
in the recruiting process and kids love to be recruited
the process of it. They don't necessarily like making a decision.
(25:34):
They like to be courted, They like to be flown
places and all that. It's the same with practice squad players.
Kind of interesting now. Earlier here on the podcast, I
made reference to dudes who are practice squad players that
all of a sudden found some success in the NFL.
I got some names. What's that? Uh? James Harrison? People
(25:55):
almost broke my hip, Mike at a Pro Bowl. You
won't even hit like that at a Pro Bowl. It's
like return, I'm gonna kick off from jogging down. We
hit a little bit or whatever, and I'm like, man,
good job. He was like, yeah, good job. Been robbed. Man.
I got a lot of respect for you. And he
slapped me on my ass bro and my hill on
(26:16):
my left side. But I almost couldn't play no more.
He's that strong, seriously, But I'm not making that up, Okay,
can I This is probably inside baseball. I don't know
if it's gonna get added out of the podcast. I'm
gonna tell this story anyway. It reminds me of what
you and I just went through on Total Access. Jason
Peters another guy. Yeah, Danny would have Tony Richardson to god.
(26:42):
Smith is another name. I'll throw one your way. Arian
Foster and Foster dude might have been the best outside
zone runner of this generation. Really, I mean, it's beautiful
as poetry emotion. Oh my goodness, Gary Kubiak outside zone offense.
It's literally with Kyle Shanahan and what they do now.
(27:03):
Arian Foster as the general manager of Yammers Boys, which
that's my fantasy squad. He he was, he was to
do that really helped me out in a master too.
You know, I got a fas that's my guy. Hey.
One other thing, and I don't know if I brought this.
I probably should have brought this up because we're talking
about compensation. You mentioned the guys that helped you out
on the practice squad any like, did you guys do
(27:25):
stuff because we always hear about, you know, quarterbacks like
purchasing Rolex Is for their offensive lineman or you know,
however stories like that, anything come to mind. Well, we
we would always if you had a practice squad guy
in your group. So if we were running backs and
we had an extra guy, an extra practice squad guy
in our group, we would always take our fine money
because I mean as a runner, literally, if you take
(27:47):
a six inch step when your toes are wrong, it's
a twenty dollar fine. Like if you fumble inside the
tin yard line, that's a critical phone. That's different than
a fumble inside and between the things like it's crazy.
It's five dollars when it's it's all if you If
the guy you're blocking sacks the quarterback, that's another fire.
(28:07):
So at the end of the year, this you know,
during Christmas time, this pot of money, it's few grant. Okay,
we would always take that money and have a boy's
night out with my practice squad guy. Ask them what
is it that you just gotta have for Christmas, whether
it's a four wheel or whatever the case may be,
and we just go get it for him. If we
didn't have a practice squad guy in our meeting room,
(28:30):
oftentimes there's a practice squad guy in the offensive linement room,
and so you go do that for that guy. Any
memorable moment, guy's face just lights up, like because we
don't actually legit. I don't know if I've seen those
on social media, like fe like social media thing. Well,
because a lot of times guys keep that in the
house because again, this is the practice squad guy. People
(28:50):
don't always understand how important they are to a championship team.
That's why I'm glad we had this episode about it,
because these guys get the starters ready and so you
don't I don't I don't think they would post it,
and they may look at it as a negative, But
at the end of the day, these guys get us, right. Uh.
I can't think of an individual necessary moment, but I
think there was one in Seattle. For get the offensive
(29:13):
lineman name off the top of my head. He didn't
play much after that year. I think it was during
the season, and we got him a four wheeler. We
got him some bottles of champagne, and this dude thought
that he had won the lotter. We cried and everything.
He called his mom or whatever it was. It was
a pretty cool deal. That's awesome. Those are those moments, right,
I mean, that's that's the equivalent of the you're you're
(29:35):
on scholarship. There you go, that's what that is. One
last thing here and you've experienced this. Your super Bowl
champ you get in that rank, your practice squad. Guy,
Do they get the ring? The short answer is yes,
they do get the ring. The teams have the ability
to give them rings of lesser value. No, man, I
don't know. I know. I know the Super Bowl forty
(29:57):
eight winner that we were everybody got the same ring.
And actually I was a part of the committee that
Pete put together to helped design the ring and we
actually you know that that that subject came up and
we actually was like, oh, hell no, no, these guys
are players like us. Yeah, And once again that's the
teams have the option. Not every team, to your point,
has to go down that path. Similar in appearance is
(30:20):
the phrase that people would use, you know, you can't,
you can't do it, you can't do it. Um. Look,
I know we've gotten some messages about this podcast. I
have had an absolute blast doing it with you. It's
been a ton of fun. If you have some topics,
some questions, I'm keeping tabs. I don't know if you
(30:40):
realize that anytime someone tweets me with a question, I
copy and paste it because we do these mouth bag
episodes every once in a while at Real Mike Rob
at Mike Underscore a game, if you have a question
fired off to us, will look, we have a whole
research team here. You think I know all the stuff
that I just sent this podcast kidding me Like, no,
I don't all your stories. Like that's that's your life,
(31:01):
So you've got to go and do it. But I
always appreciate you guys following the show, sharing the show,
and more importantly just checking us out whenever you can.
Thanks for listening. That, of course, is life on the
Practice Squad Export
NFL Explained is a production of the NFL in partnership
with I Heart Radio. It's a brand new edition of
the NFL Explained podcast. Mike yam joined by a Super
Bowl champ. I've been having so much fun with you
on these shows. In the saddle. You good, I'm excellent.
(00:27):
My Buffalo Bills one week one, my rebuilt Seattle Seahawks
one week one. So I'm pumped up. Of course you
should be. You have been the flag bearer for those
squads on Total Access when I've been able to work
with you. But look at the end of the day,
where you're all huge NFL fans, and what we try
to do on this podcast is really educate people around
different aspects of the game. Now when you watch on
(00:50):
a Sunday, there's so many things that are happening, even
just away from football that I think fans aren't always
aware of. You got stadium operations, broadcast teams are all
watching the games, the technology around some of it. M
Rob though, I think there's another piece that doesn't get
enough love when we talk about what actually happens on
the football field. You were on the fifty three man roster,
(01:11):
You're not necessarily worried about your role, but maybe just
a little bit, but look at the end of the
day to get ready. We keep hearing this phrase and
it was big. If anyone watched Hard Knocks with the Lions,
you know this idea of the practice squad. So today
on the NFL Explained podcast, we're gonna look at life
on that practice squad to paint the picture of what
(01:31):
it's actually like for some of these players in the
conversations behind the scenes about guys that do still need
to help out their squad. Well, first of all, I
want our listeners to understand the fifty three guys or
the forty six, because that's what's actually eligible to play
on game day. The forty six plus the third string
quarterback forty six they go out there that you see
on television every Sunday. There's a lot more that goes
(01:53):
into that team taking the field than just those guys
going to meetings and going on the practice field. There's
a whole group of guys the practice squad that their
task which showing the squad the other team. Meaning if
you're trying to service your defense right, the practice squad
has to recreate the opponent's offense. And do their plays,
kind of be their players and give the starting defense
(02:15):
a good look and vice versa. Right scout defense they
have to be in the right defense, is the right shelves,
the right things that the players do. And these practice
squad players, they're not only the good teams. What they
do with their practice squad players, they still use the
same verbage that they use in their schemes offensively and defensively,
So you provide an element of cross training to it.
(02:37):
But there hasn't been a Super Bowl champion team that's
happened throughout history that hadn't had a practice squad. They're
very important. You actually touched on something that's really important.
It's something that we will dive deep into. When you've
mentioned verbage. Now you know, we did have our episode
about play calling and why that's significant. If you're in
a practice squad, that doesn't mean you're gonna be playing
(02:57):
for that team. You might actually end up on another roster.
There are some rules and regulations around some of that stuff,
which we'll get to coming up here on this podcast.
But you touched on an NFL roster. It's made up
of fifty three spots, but each team can have up
to sixteen other players on the practice squad. Now that
number is actually increased from ten in twenty twenty, and
(03:17):
it was in response to the pandemic, but it was
voted on by the NFL and the nfl PA to
keep those expanded rosters, which I think is actually kind
of level. Means some extra jobs and some less tough
decisions for teams as they're trying to navigate some of
those rosters. But right now, of the six team players
on the practice squad, six of them can have unlimited
experience in the NFL, and ten players need to have
(03:40):
two or fewer accrued seasons in the league. In additional
all that in, the NFL actually randomly selects a division
each year whose team can each add one additional international
player to their practice squad as part of the International
Player Pathway program. Currently, all four teams in the a
f C South have added international players in accordance with
(04:01):
the international program, but none have actually made the fifty
three man roster. To me, it is pretty cool. It's
one of these big initiatives that the NFL has had,
and it does open up the door to get some
of these players who don't necessarily have that college experience
an opportunity to really thrive and learn how to play.
But how do these extra players, how do they help
NFL teams? Well, I'm glad you explained how the practice
(04:24):
squad rosters are made up. You know, ten of those guys,
ten of the sixteen or guys that have been on
NFL rosters for two or less years. Right, that's a
big deal. That's really with the practice squad as for
as development. What was added was the six players with
unlimited experience. And I say that's important because I got
to a point in my career where I was no
(04:44):
longer eligible for the practice squad and if sixteen guys
with that extra six was added when I was, you know,
thinking about retirement, I may still be playing. Because at
the end of the day, practice squad ain't a terrible job.
Like it's not like I tell people all the time.
If your team is playing away, you may work three
days that week. You come in Monday, you're watching the
(05:05):
previous weeks games, so you really didn't have much to
do with that. You know that that week game, so
you're not looking at the film with with that type
of eye where you're evaluating yourself. So you may come
in get a lift, and then you go home. Tuesdays
the player's day off, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of those
days that you work, and if the team is playing away,
oftentimes they travel on Friday. If they change time zones
(05:26):
and you don't travel, you stay at home. So you
get paid. And I know we're gonna go on how
much these guys get paid every single week. But you're
gonna get paid X amount of dollars for three days
of work. It's a pretty good gig. And for me,
I was on that fifty three man roster and I
was a fullback, and most rosters, if you have a fullback,
it's only one, it's only one on the roster. So
(05:47):
in days and weeks, especially late in the season, Mike,
where you know, Coach Carroll was trying to take care
of us right where we went wearing past as much
I knew, I still had to have a physical job
during the week. If I did not get my neck
and my shoulders some type of contact, I would get
a stinger on Sunday and it would totally mess my
(06:08):
game up. And so we had a practice squad. Player's
name was Mike Morgan. Okat he went to sc played
with Pete Carroll, always been on Pete Carroll's teams, but
he was one of our practice squad guys. And this
is what I loved about mikey Mo. We called him
mikey Mo. Mike would be coming off the field and
I would say, hey, Mike, look, man, I need you
to go put on some pads. Bro Like, I know,
(06:28):
we just practiced for two hours. I know you're tired.
You're on the show scout team for offense, the Show
Scout team for defense. You're running on special teams giving
us the show. You are just as tired as I am.
But I need to bang, man, I need I need
this contact. Could you go in, put on your helmet
and show the pass? And I need about fifteen reps
of us just running into something a little bit. I
(06:48):
know it sounds a little weird, but I played fullback.
That was my job and if I didn't have that
during the week, I couldn't do my job on Sunday.
So practice squad players are vital, and oftentimes the championship teams,
the practice squad guys go above and beyond to make
sure that their guys are ready to play on Sundays.
Kind of fascinating to hear something like this because it
almost sounds like a de facto coach. And hear me
(07:11):
out on this because you know, I spent a lot
of time in my career also covering basketball, and you'd
hear this where basketball player would need to say to
a coach like, Hey, can we show up six am?
Can you meet me at the gym? I need someone
to rebound for me. And look, it's different because most
coaches aren't gonna trap it up. Look on time at practice.
I will tell you about that on another episode. I
actually do want to hear that story. But that's that's
(07:33):
pretty cool how many of those guys actually embrace it,
because I got to think from a mental standpoint, most
of these guys feel like, hey, I can really contribute.
I should be playing on Sundays. And in a lot
of ways, it's just about getting the dudes who are
going to be playing ready. Yeah, you know, I'm not
gonna go and say names. But when I played for
the San Francisco forty Niners, it just showed a difference
(07:55):
in the culture of the teams at the time. Now
this was back in you know, the two thousand nine
two thousand and eight seasons when I played for the
San Francisco forty Niners got to the Seahawks. But when
I was with the forty Niners, we weren't a very
good football team for four years. Every practice squad guy
we got, you can tell they were just using the
practice squad as a mode to get another job somewhere else.
(08:18):
They didn't really want to be there. They wouldn't want
to stay after, they wouldn't want to do the extra
to get us ready. And then as a player, you
don't want to say, man, I'm gonna go to the
coach and tell a coach that you you don't want
to do that. But at the end of the day,
you sometimes you need practice squad guys to do a
little bit extra. And yeah, it's a testament to the cultures.
And when I was in San Francisco before coach Harball
(08:38):
got there, we had a losing culture and practice square
guys didn't do the extra. When I got to Seattle,
it was a testament to what John Snyder and and
the type of guys that John Snyder and Pete Carroll
actually brought into the building. There was never a guy
that turned me down for the extra work. There was
never a guy that I knew that turned Russell okung
or somebody offers the lineman down for extra work. So clearly,
(08:59):
and you alluded to it there, these guys are are
not doing it for free. They are being compensated. There's
some rules regulations around some of this stuff, which we'll
get to, but you have any idea and Rob, what
some of those checks look like? No, Okay, So when
I played, I think a practice squad got got about
nine K for the year. You know what I'm saying.
(09:20):
And so yeah, so nine d K for sixteen seventeen
weeks and you only work in three days a week. Man,
that's a pretty good gig. It's it's not it's not bad.
It's it's good if you can get it, and especially
if it leads to a job on a fifty three
man rosters. So here's what we got for you. As
far as the weekly paycheck, the c b A actually
dictates a fixed amount of money for practice squad players,
(09:40):
but salary guarantees, bonuses and incentives are actually barred from
being part of practice squad contracts. We should know what
the salaries. By the way, the practice squad guys do
not hit the team's salary cap. Rookies and second year
players who are on the fifty three man roster for
eight or fewer games as a rookie actually received the
same weekly pay and for the two season, that's eleven thousand,
(10:04):
five hundred dollars per week. Now that's going to increase
each year untill twenty thirty when they could make sixteen thousand,
seven hundred and fifty dollars a week. Keep hearing about inflation.
Let's roll here. May see that means of a rookie
or a player in their second years on the practice
squad for all eighteen weeks of the NFL season, they'll
make an annual salary of two hundred and seven thousand dollars,
(10:27):
which is really not chump chains. That's not bad. That's
some decent coins there. I know it's on Aaron Rodgers money.
But the point is like that's still you're you're a
professional player at that point. If you are a second
year player and that was on the fifty three man
roster for eight or more games as a rookie, the
pay scales a little different each week. There's a minimum
and a maximum pay scale in twenty two, you can
(10:49):
be paid a minimum of fifteen thousand, four hundred and
up to nineteen thousand, nine hundred a week. So it's
a arrange really over the course of the year of
two hundred and seventy seven thousand to about three hundred
and sixty thousand. So once again there's some cash to
be made for some of these players. It is some
cash to be made. And what I used to tell
practice squad guys all the time, it's live bro. This
(11:12):
is an opportunity for you to save your money and
invest it right to money principles. Right, save some of
your money so that you have something for when you
You never know when your last player is gonna be
in this league, So save a little bit of that
money invested so you can grow it. Like there were
times when I was just listening to with Larry Allen
when I was in San Francisco, just listening to him
talk to his financial people, and it helped a lot.
(11:34):
Helped me get out of the two thousand and eight
two thous financial crisis and helped me thrive in that
environment just listening to Big Homie and what he was doing.
So again, save your money and also have an opportunity
to grow it. How many guys did you play with
that word? Understood that they probably weren't going to be
playing on Sundays, but at the same time, knew that
(11:55):
they had some legs right, like, they had an ability
to be a practice squad player, and just sort of
embrace that and knew, this is my path to being
successful and making some of those connections that you're talking about,
the ones that you've seen in the National Football They
actually make it from the practice squad. Actually, you know,
guys that don't get drafted go to a practice squad,
get on the active roster, and never go back to
(12:16):
the practice squad. The reason why they like that is
because they're cut a little bit differently, they're able to
get on the practice squad. Understand Look, this doesn't necessarily
mean that I'm not good enough to play in the
National Football League. Oftentimes guys are on practice squad because
of the guy in front of them making a lot
more money. It's a business decision, but the team wants
to keep you in their circumforts of influence, so they
(12:37):
put you on the practice squad, and the guys that
are enthusiastic about it usually come off on the better side.
Welcome back to the NFL, explains Mike m and m
Rob with you. I'm gonna ask you to We had
just had an episode where we were talking about college
(12:58):
players and more specifically, which universities do the best job
of creating NFL talent, which, by the way, it's a muscle.
Listen to episod haven't you can go and check it out.
I want you to flash back to your day as
a Penn State because I've been around this a lot
and I think it is still one of the coolest
things that happens in college football, and I think we
have someone of an equivalent on the NFL side. You
(13:19):
know that moment when a dude goes from non scholarship
walk onto all of a sudden getting that scholarship, and
how the entire team erupts. I would imagine when a
guy has been on the practice squad and all of
a sudden gets that call from the general manager and
he's got an opportunity. It's got a feel kind of similar, right, yeah, man, Well,
first of all, first of all, when a practice squad
(13:41):
god gets called up. The first thing and again our
listeners have to understand, Okay, oftentimes because of injury. Because
of the way that the NFL weeks go, sometimes these
guys don't find out until late in the week. Sometimes
they don't find out till the Thursday or Friday before
Sunday game. Yeah, they were taking reps through the week
and they thought it was a chance. But the business
(14:04):
of football happened, and so now they get their chance.
First thing happens is they go straight to their locker,
they get on their phone and they call a mom. Mom,
guess what. I know. You've been watching our team every
single week for the last ten weeks, and you haven't
seen me because I've been sitting next to you or
I've been on the phone with you. But this week
(14:25):
you can see me run out of that tunnel. I
may not get a care, I may not get a play,
but I will be dressed up. I mean. And what
happens is, oftentimes in God's family, mama calls the cousins
and the grandmama said, and you might have a thousand
people now just from that one call, just from that
call up from that player. Now have a thousand people
(14:45):
from one town watching the game. And to me, that's
the beauty of our game. That's the beauty of football.
So there's two ways to handle that. One you silence
your notifications on your phone, or you just walk around
and you stick that phone up in the air. Good
keep coming, keep it coming. There is also some financial incentive,
clearly from from being elevated um the practice squad to
(15:06):
the active roster. So keep this in mind here three
times for regular season and an unlimited number of times
in the postseason. Any player who are elevated from a game,
they get one seventeen of the minimum salary. Got seventeen
games that you're gonna be playing, right, We can do
the math figure that out. Now. The rookie minimum salary
for the twenty two season is seven hundred and five
(15:26):
thousand dollars. Does that hold up? Is that for real? Yo?
That is real? That's the rookie minimum. Do you know
what the rookie minimum was? What do you got? Home?
Ye got another when I was in the league, three
hundred and five thousand dollars. And guess what when I
first got to the service school for then is the
big team meeting with all the veterans and stuff there,
they acted like I got so much money? Like they
(15:48):
acted like that oh Man. When I was a rookie,
whee only got a hundred some thousand. And I'm sitting
there like, Bro Larry Allen, Man, you'll make ten million,
and you're talking about my two hundred thousand, oh Man,
seven hundred thousand. Well, now you sound like the old
man who says, get the ball off my line. So
just to be fair here, you sound exactly like the
Vets did when they hear a number like that. So
(16:10):
the seven thousand dollars that comes out to about forty
one K when the game is over. So that's that's
what your game check is, which is not bad. So
there is some incentive there. I would imagine that I
would say plays with your head, but it's probably even
more than that. Like, that's a huge chunk of change.
I mean, there's people in this country that are making
forty one k, sadly and trying to survive. You get
(16:31):
that in the one game check. I'll sign me up,
sign me up. And again, like I said before, it's
an opportunity for these guys to inject some capital into
their life too. Again, I tell people all the time
when rookies first come into the NFL, that first signing
bonuses for what you did in college. I mean it
really is. You haven't proved anything in the National Football
League to get that extra money quite yet. And for
(16:53):
a young guy that's been on the practice squad all
year to get caught up and be able to get
this financial boost, man, it's pretty cool. And I think
the NFL does one thing that I think is really
important for some of these practice squad players, and I
think it incent to vises teams from sort of grooming
their own players. It's maybe the best way to think
about a couple of workarounds for teams who are trying
(17:14):
to balance that fifty three man roster. How teams can
elevate up to two players from their practice squad to
their active roster per week. That allows them to increase
their roster size from fifty three tote. Okay, you know
what I'm saying, but m rob, when the game is over,
players automatically get reverted to the practice squad after getting
elevated for that game. Now, teams can instead sign practice
(17:35):
squad players to active roster contracts rather than elevating them
on a game to game basis. So this allows teams
to keep their players on their active roster and eligible
to playing games a little bit longer. But it also
would subject players to waivers upon release, which is not
the case with players who are simply elevated for a
given game. That waiver wire game once again not the
(17:57):
reference hard knocks, but I think that they do the
best job of giving everyone a real life glimpse of
what this actually is. How many times have we seen, Hey,
we hope this guy is able to clear waiver so
we can bring him back to the practice squad. And
that conversation happens all the time. It happens all the time,
and it's easy for us, especially us here in the media,
and you know, our fans to sit and say, oh, man,
(18:18):
you just got waived. They said they want you back.
Just relax, you'll be fine. Well, first of all, there's
a financial degradation there. Okay, I could be on the roster,
but now I'm not. I'm on the practice squad. There's
a little bit of difference of of pay there. But also,
at the end of the day, as a player, in
your mind, you think you're good enough to be on
(18:38):
the active roster. You think you're good enough for this
team to win games with. And I ain't gonna lie.
It is a little bit of a a gut me
feel like he's knocked down a little bit like, oh man,
I'm on the practice squad. But again, like I said before,
the ones who take it in stride, the ones who
understand that, look, this doesn't define me, This is just
my situation Temporarily, those guys end up being successful. So
(18:59):
it's a small fraternity of players that have been able
to play in the NFL. These are really small circles.
Coaches who end up with one team and that coaching
tree from various other spots. You know, everyone's on the
phone with each other. You know that there's preseason games
for some of these players who don't make that active
fifty three man roster. They're on a practice squad, but
they got film. So what happens when a guy goes
(19:21):
down and all of a sudden you're in need. You
might get a call as a practice squad player and
get your shot. There are plenty of examples that m
Rod that I know you have practice squad player to
NFL stardom. We will unveil some of those names coming
up next on the NFL Explained podcast. Michael Rob' siting
(19:45):
Mike Yam with you back here on the NFL Explained podcast. Now,
we touched on this a little bit earlier. Just because
you're on the Bill's practice squad one week doesn't mean
you might be playing for I don't know, the Chiefs
in another week. Yeah, that potentially could happen, But there's
some rules and regulations around stuff like that. Any practice
squad player can get signed to another team's fifty three
man roster, but the CBA bands practice squad players from
(20:08):
being signed with his team's next opponent later than four
pm Eastern Time on the sixth day prior to the
game and no full moon. Sorry, trying to stay with you. Okay, okay,
that's a lot man specific it is, and and rightfully so,
because even on bye weeks there's some issues. They're right.
(20:29):
Practice squad players must sign at least ten days prior
to the game. After a conference championship game, practice squad
players on Super Bowl teams may not sign with their
teams super Bowl opponent. So if you're a practice squad
player who signs to another fifty three man roster, yeah,
they're guaranteed three weeks of salary even if they are
released before then, Yes, I'm me for that. Why would
(20:50):
a team go after another squad's practice player? Maybe, and
it has nothing to do with need well, um, so
I can equate it to Okay, I got cut from
the San Francisco forty Niners the last week. It cuts
after the fourth preseason game. That was we had four
preseason games and was only a week after the fourth
preseason game to the regular season. I got cut on
(21:12):
a Saturday. Okay, I had to clear waivers because nobody
was gonna pick up my rookie salary or whatever. I
cleared waivers and then the Seattle Seahawks picked me up
Sunday night. Like Sunday after four I had to clear
waivers after twenty four hours. The first opponent for the
Seattle Seahawks for the San Francisco forty Niners, it was
(21:32):
the weirdest thing ever. I had just led a stretch
six days earlier against Patrick Willison to kill spikes. Now
wearing a different helmet going up against them and yams,
it definitely wasn't advantage for the Seahawks. I literally stood
up in the defensive meeting room. But Gus Bradley, who
he's the d C for the Colts, I think right now,
and I gave every signal, I gave every code word
(21:55):
I gave. I literally was running practice as the d C,
telling them exactly what was going on. And I remember
coach Singletary, Mike Singletary, he was in San Fransco, forty
Niners coach the time. He had a press conference a
couple of days after I guy released and he said,
I don't care who Seattle has, they can know our
entire offense. They still have to stop us. And then
(22:15):
we went out there and I say all that to say,
you damn straight. It is a competitive advantage to bring
somebody's practice squad guy in. They know the offense, they
know the defense, they know the scheme, they know co words,
hand signals, all of that. That's why you see, as
you read earlier, the NFL put all those rules up
so that you can't just go to your next opponents.
(22:38):
It's sort of fascinating to me because you even touched
on that's the top of the show. You're in meetings
doing everything, You're doing everything is if you're preparing for
the game, you're doing everything. And to me, if you
have a quarterback that's on the practice squad. That's a
very valuable dude. I mean quarterbacks think a little differently,
and at the end of the day, the practice squad
quarterback is also in the regular quarterback meeting room hearing
(23:00):
all the stuff that the starting quarterback is hearing. It's
pretty it's pretty cool. How many examples you give when
it's the reverse you were on the roster and the
team that you were playing for said, you know what,
by the way, when you said, like clear waivers, you
know what I'm thinking fantasy football staring at you between
raivers and fantasy football. Like all of us you know
(23:25):
at home GMS, we know exactly what that experience. Just like,
please don't want pick up this dude, Please don't want
pick up this dude. I need this guy for Sunday. No,
no signals and inside information. But did that happen frequently
when you were actually on the roster hearing what was
coming your way? And no it didn't. It didn't necessary.
So you're saying, if like we had a guy that
we knew our opponent or somebody we're going to play
in a couple of weeks, took that guy off of
(23:47):
all practice squad. Yeah, there were a couple of times.
I can't necessarily remember where it made a difference because
at the end of the day, especially when I was
with the Seattle Seahawks. Pete he's a psychology major man,
so he was one of those guys he never really
cared what the other team was doing. It was literally
always about what we did, so we couldn't cared less
what they knew. Uh, did you text Coach Singletary or
(24:09):
call him after? I wanted to, but I wouldn't. At Petty,
I knew I was going to be in the media
one day, and I knew I was gonna have to
keep that relationship with coaching, even though even though he
cut me, so you know that, you know there's something there.
And we did a podcast a couple of years ago together,
one of the podcasts on here on NFL Network, and
he kept it real. Yeah, Mike, I cut you, So
(24:30):
what what're you gonna do about it? I'm like nothing,
It's all good, Coach, I love you, you know. Speaking
of those cut situations, can I tell you how? And
I would imagine if they went really bad hard knocks
with steal But over the years, just watching these dudes
get cut a the amount of gratitude that they have
for that experience and not they don't. It doesn't come
(24:51):
across like they're salty about it, like I'd be so
pissed and I would be petty about it. I'm not
gonna lie like I would be, forget petty about it.
What I've learned about the young person now, First of all,
they used the word love a little bit more than
what we did in our generation. They understand things. They
accept everybody and who who they are. Um. But these
young people, you know, when I came into the league,
(25:12):
we always wanted security. Security was obviously financially, but we
also wanted long term deals when we wanted to know
I could be with this team for four or five
years or whatever. These kids don't care. You know, They're
okay with I can play here this year, I can
play their next year. You know. I hope some schools
in the recruiting process and kids love to be recruited
the process of it. They don't necessarily like making a decision.
(25:34):
They like to be courted, They like to be flown
places and all that. It's the same with practice squad players.
Kind of interesting now. Earlier here on the podcast, I
made reference to dudes who are practice squad players that
all of a sudden found some success in the NFL.
I got some names. What's that? Uh? James Harrison? People
(25:55):
almost broke my hip, Mike at a Pro Bowl. You
won't even hit like that at a Pro Bowl. It's
like return, I'm gonna kick off from jogging down. We
hit a little bit or whatever, and I'm like, man,
good job. He was like, yeah, good job. Been robbed. Man.
I got a lot of respect for you. And he
slapped me on my ass bro and my hill on
(26:16):
my left side. But I almost couldn't play no more.
He's that strong, seriously, But I'm not making that up, Okay,
can I This is probably inside baseball. I don't know
if it's gonna get added out of the podcast. I'm
gonna tell this story anyway. It reminds me of what
you and I just went through on Total Access. Jason
Peters another guy. Yeah, Danny would have Tony Richardson to god.
(26:42):
Smith is another name. I'll throw one your way. Arian
Foster and Foster dude might have been the best outside
zone runner of this generation. Really, I mean, it's beautiful
as poetry emotion. Oh my goodness, Gary Kubiak outside zone offense.
It's literally with Kyle Shanahan and what they do now.
(27:03):
Arian Foster as the general manager of Yammers Boys, which
that's my fantasy squad. He he was, he was to
do that really helped me out in a master too.
You know, I got a fas that's my guy. Hey.
One other thing, and I don't know if I brought this.
I probably should have brought this up because we're talking
about compensation. You mentioned the guys that helped you out
on the practice squad any like, did you guys do
(27:25):
stuff because we always hear about, you know, quarterbacks like
purchasing Rolex Is for their offensive lineman or you know,
however stories like that, anything come to mind. Well, we
we would always if you had a practice squad guy
in your group. So if we were running backs and
we had an extra guy, an extra practice squad guy
in our group, we would always take our fine money
because I mean as a runner, literally, if you take
(27:47):
a six inch step when your toes are wrong, it's
a twenty dollar fine. Like if you fumble inside the
tin yard line, that's a critical phone. That's different than
a fumble inside and between the things like it's crazy.
It's five dollars when it's it's all if you If
the guy you're blocking sacks the quarterback, that's another fire.
(28:07):
So at the end of the year, this you know,
during Christmas time, this pot of money, it's few grant. Okay,
we would always take that money and have a boy's
night out with my practice squad guy. Ask them what
is it that you just gotta have for Christmas, whether
it's a four wheel or whatever the case may be,
and we just go get it for him. If we
didn't have a practice squad guy in our meeting room,
(28:30):
oftentimes there's a practice squad guy in the offensive linement room,
and so you go do that for that guy. Any
memorable moment, guy's face just lights up, like because we
don't actually legit. I don't know if I've seen those
on social media, like fe like social media thing. Well,
because a lot of times guys keep that in the
house because again, this is the practice squad guy. People
(28:50):
don't always understand how important they are to a championship team.
That's why I'm glad we had this episode about it,
because these guys get the starters ready and so you
don't I don't I don't think they would post it,
and they may look at it as a negative, But
at the end of the day, these guys get us, right. Uh.
I can't think of an individual necessary moment, but I
think there was one in Seattle. For get the offensive
(29:13):
lineman name off the top of my head. He didn't
play much after that year. I think it was during
the season, and we got him a four wheeler. We
got him some bottles of champagne, and this dude thought
that he had won the lotter. We cried and everything.
He called his mom or whatever it was. It was
a pretty cool deal. That's awesome. Those are those moments, right,
I mean, that's that's the equivalent of the you're you're
(29:35):
on scholarship. There you go, that's what that is. One
last thing here and you've experienced this. Your super Bowl
champ you get in that rank, your practice squad. Guy,
Do they get the ring? The short answer is yes,
they do get the ring. The teams have the ability
to give them rings of lesser value. No, man, I
don't know. I know. I know the Super Bowl forty
(29:57):
eight winner that we were everybody got the same ring.
And actually I was a part of the committee that
Pete put together to helped design the ring and we
actually you know that that that subject came up and
we actually was like, oh, hell no, no, these guys
are players like us. Yeah, And once again that's the
teams have the option. Not every team, to your point,
has to go down that path. Similar in appearance is
(30:20):
the phrase that people would use, you know, you can't,
you can't do it, you can't do it. Um. Look,
I know we've gotten some messages about this podcast. I
have had an absolute blast doing it with you. It's
been a ton of fun. If you have some topics,
some questions, I'm keeping tabs. I don't know if you
(30:40):
realize that anytime someone tweets me with a question, I
copy and paste it because we do these mouth bag
episodes every once in a while at Real Mike Rob
at Mike Underscore a game, if you have a question
fired off to us, will look, we have a whole
research team here. You think I know all the stuff
that I just sent this podcast kidding me Like, no,
I don't all your stories. Like that's that's your life,
(31:01):
So you've got to go and do it. But I
always appreciate you guys following the show, sharing the show,
and more importantly just checking us out whenever you can.
Thanks for listening. That, of course, is life on the
Practice Squad Export
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