May 31, 2022 • 37 mins
Original Houston Texans offensive lineman Steve McKinney has found a lively second career away from the gridiron. He caught up with Texans TV's Drew Dougherty about life in the business world, his fondest memories in the NFL, beating the Cowboys 19-10, and much more.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, this is a fun one because we've got an
og literally figuratively, but we got Steve McKinney, offensive guard,
offensive lineman, original texts. I mean, all these things that
you can say, but Steve, you played for the team
two thousand and two to two thousand and seven. You'd
already been in the league for four years prior with
the Indianapolis Colts. And we're gonna get into that. But
(00:21):
first things first, how are you doing and where are
you these days? What's going on? Well, I am, I'm
doing great. First of all, you know, post COVID life
is uh is much better. And yeah, um, you know,
I've been been doing McDonald's now for about twelve years
since I got out of got out of football. So
that's pretty much all I do. Man, I do. I
do McDonald's and help my son train to be where
(00:46):
I'm at one day. And how's that going. It's going
pretty good. You know, he's only in eighth grade, but uh,
you know, he has he has the desire and the
work ethics, so you know, the rest is in God's hands.
I guess. Yeah, that's good stuff. You're born in Galveston,
you went and played your high school ball clear Lake.
Where are you these days? Specifically, where are you living? Okay? Yeah,
(01:07):
I live in Montgomery. Actually moved out to Montgomery. You know,
went to high school in clear Lake Centerville prior to that.
Actually small town, how about that? And you know, when
I was playing with the Texans, we lived over in Friendswood,
mostly because it was an area I was familiar with,
having you know, grown up in clear Lake. And uh, yeah,
(01:28):
we moved out to Montgomery. Man, right after I got
done playing, I bought the bought the McDonald's down there
in Madisonville twenty ten, and uh couldn't couldn't be driving
from Friendswood to Madisonville every day, So we moved out
to Montgomery, which is only about an hour away. You know.
That's how that's how we ended up. There are planted
roots and it's been good. You know, it's a very
it's a nice community, you know, good people, so on
(01:50):
the edge of the piney woods. And I, uh, you know,
I went to school in Dallas for a bit and
lived in Dallas for a bit, so I guarantee I
stopped at that uh McDon donalds and Madisonville time or
two as clause, I think I think you got one
in Huntsville too, right, and that one's not mine? No, okay, okay, sorry,
one of these days hopefully I'll get that one. But
uh yeah, we got we got the one in Madisonville,
(02:12):
and I got you know, a few and Montgomery area
and kind of all over Euston. At this point, we're
pretty pretty spread out. That's fantastic. How did you get
into that because obviously you're in the NFL for a
decade basically, and how do you transition from playing football
to to be in a franchise? E Well, I learned
literally in my rookie year up in Indianapolis U that
(02:34):
NFL stands for not for long and that you better
have a second career planned out before before that day comes.
And so I started researching, you know, businesses and and
franchises and things that I could get into, from you know,
dry cleaners to hair salons to subways or whatever. And
(02:55):
McDonald's was always one of my first. But I looked
into them pretty quickly and realized that if you're not
one hundred percent involved in the day to day and
running the business yourself, that they're not gonna they're not
gonna let you get in so I waited and the
day after I retired or was retired, you know, because
most of us don't retire, we just get retired. Yeah,
(03:16):
So that when that day came, that was the first
place I applied for and actually got rejected, and waited
a few months, and applied again, got rejected, waited a
few months, and applied again. After meeting with a gentleman
that I knew, um from A and LM that used
to own some McDonald's and so you know, he kind
(03:39):
of he kind of opened the door run blastly. He
opened the door for me to to get an interview,
and I flew. I flew out to Arizona, met with
the O West Division president, you know, me and my
wife Tiffany, and uh just really sold him on the
fact that hey, we're not I'm not looking to be
an investor. I'm not looking to you know, put my
money someplace safe. You know, I want to run it.
(04:00):
I want to be involved. I want to do whatever
it takes to own and running McDonald's. And you know,
I was able to get into program and took me
about a year and a half. Drew It's a it's
a brutal program. Yeah, but they train you top to bottom. Man,
you learn how to do everything in a restaurant, which
is great because I didn't know how to do any
of it. I knew how to snap a football and
(04:20):
you know, block defensive linemen, but you know, when it
came to run in a restaurant operationally and in the
business side of it, you know, I was clueless. So
it was it was a great training program. I learned
a lot, very humbling, I'm not gonna lie, you know,
because you work in the restaurant. You know, you're putting
on a crew uniform, you're taking orders in the drive through,
You're making French fries and hamburgers and dealing with upset
(04:43):
customers and everything that goes into to working in fast food.
And I remember one time a guy came through. It
was right after I had just finished playing and I
was in the drive through over at the Fairmont McDonald's
right there, all forty five and but way eight and
um he worked at Fox News. Actually it was a
(05:03):
guy that you know, I'd been a cameraman and interviewed
me and stuff like that in the past. He looked
at me like, man, you know, you've really fallen some
hard times though, right, So I said, no, yeah, I'm
in the I'm in the training program. You know, I'm
trying to try to own one of these one day.
So but it was funny because I would get those
(05:24):
looks from customers from time to time, you know that
really followed the Texans and knew who I was, and
they look at me and double take, wait, what are
you doing here? It was it was very humbly at times,
but man, it was It's it's been worth it, you know,
it's paid off. A been a blessing to me and
my family. So we love McDonald's. That's great. I don't
know much about that that end of the business, but
(05:46):
I've heard stories like yours, like when you become a franchise,
especially with them, it's a pretty, like you said, grueling process.
Now I do know. I waited tables at the Mason
Jar in Houston for two summers, and back then, when
I was more of a jackass, I thought, this is
like overwhelming. So just like that small portion of the
(06:08):
food service industry I have a lot of respect for,
so I can't imagine having to run the entire thing.
And was there a was there a more you talk
about some of the folks senior in the drive through.
But was there was there another moment where you said,
humbling that really were you were just like, what the
absolute hell am I doing this for? Like, surely that
came up a time or two, right, Oh man, it did. Yeah,
(06:29):
I'm not gonna lie. I mean when you're when you're
doing that for a year plus and you're not getting paid, right,
this is all for free and for you know, training,
You're getting paid through the training. But there were plenty
of times, you know where I'm working a you know,
late night shift and you know it's ten to eleven
o'clock at night and I'm walking around the parking a lot,
you know, picking up pieces of trash here and there,
(06:49):
and you know, getting home barely seeing my family and
stuff like that. And there was times where I was like, man,
is this is this really worth it? You know? This
is this is a lot you know here, There's probably
other things I could be doing. You know, I could
go get a job, work for a big company or something,
you know, work my way up the ladder, you know.
So there were there were moments where I had those thoughts,
you know, but I just kept pressing through. My wife
(07:10):
just kept pushing me. And you know when because everybody
has those weak moments, everybody when things get tough, you know,
you you you question things. But I powered through it,
and you know, thank god I did, you know, because
there was there was a light at the end of
the tunnel. And there's times throughout that training where you
can't see that light. You have no idea how much
longer you have. There's no there's no hey, you know
(07:32):
step one, two, three, and you're finished at this date.
There is not none of that. You know, you're kind
of at their mercy as you're going through this training.
So there was there was months where I was just
clueless as to win this whatever end and um, you know,
very challenged mentally and physically, but I persevered, you know,
and I think the NFL and football and all my
training really helped me with that, that mental toughness aspect
(07:55):
of it of just just grinding through it and just
embracing the grind and just pushing through the tough times. Yeah,
if you can make it through a training camp in
Houston or you know, summer summer drills at in college station,
you can you can definitely make it through that, I'm sure. Yeah,
let's talk about your days as an Aggie. You know,
I'm sort of around your age, graduated high school ninety six,
(08:18):
so I remember the Aggies were bullies, man in the
mid nineties, early nineties, late eighties, still at the end
of the Southwest Conference and you're kind of there as
they switch over into the Big twelve. You were there
with RC Slocum, Who, Holy moly, that guy can coach.
And what was it like going to Texas A and
M when they were at that, you know, at the
(08:39):
peak of those powers. I guess you could say now Andrew.
For me, it was just kind of like a dream
come truer because I grew up from the age of
one through sixteen in Centerville, Texas, about an hour from
College Station. Yea, my grandfather went to A and M.
We were big Aggies growing up. We'd go to games
every Saturday, very you know, probably made it the most
(09:02):
home games growing up. So I just had a I
bled my roon bottom line, you know, I was a
big A and M fan from birth. So for me,
I remember it. It kind of the light switch kind
of went on in about seventh I think seventh grade.
I remember because up until that point Drew. I just
wanted to be in the band. I just wanted to
play trombone or tuba or something in the band, you know,
(09:24):
because I thought that was the coolest thing ever. I
didn't really think a kid out of Centerville, you know,
could ever actually step on the Kyle field in a
uniform and play football. So but I remember in seventh grade,
I was watching Anyone play Hawaii on their opening game,
and that's when it just really clicked in my head.
I'm like, you know what I want to I'm gonna
play football at A and L and that From that
(09:45):
day on, that became my goal and I worked towards
that and my junior year. After my junior year, right
before my senior year, it was back in those days,
colleges couldn't call you. And they called me on the
day that they were allowed to call me at midnight
and called me, and they didn't offer me. At that time,
(10:09):
I was hoping they would, but they didn't offer me.
But the fact that they had called me, they were
my first call, you know, made me feel good and
felt like I had a chance. And then I think
it was you know, probably a week or two later.
You know, some of these other big schools and started
offering scholarships and then sure enough, if here comes to
the A and M offer, and uh, you know, I
jumped right on it. And I'm not gonna say that.
I was, like any eighteen year old, you're getting confused, right,
(10:32):
So I committed to A and LM. And you know,
a couple of months later, you know, Notre names pushing
hard for me, and that this was Notre Dame was
a bunch of bullies too. You know, they were ranked
number one in the country all season. That was here
they lost to Boston College on that last second field goal.
The Rudy year, they had just beaten Florida State number
(10:54):
one of the week exactly. So I mean I was,
you know, Rudy had just come out in the theaters,
you know, like I went up there on a visit
and saw a touchdown Jesus and met the actual Rudy,
and I'm like, how can I how can I not
go to Notre Dame. You know, that's just crazy, you know,
And so I ended up committing to Notre Dame after
after growing up and ague my entire life. You know,
(11:14):
my parents were like, yeah, they were trying to be
supportive but I think they were kind of, you know,
a little heartbroken inside. You know, they didn't really share
that with me. But luckily I'm sitting there watching A
and LM and Notre Dame played in the cotton ball
day here. Hell of a game, hell of a game.
And I was committed to Notre Dame during that game,
by the way, but I was rooting for A and
(11:35):
LM for some reason. And that's that's kind of what,
you know, made me realize that, you know, I gotta
go where my heart's at. You know, Yeah, Notre Dame
may be the cool, new shiny object that you know,
makes me look cool to everybody, but the reality is
is that A and M was where my heart was.
And so I realized that watching that football game and
A and M lost, and I still wanted to go there.
(11:57):
So I did end up committing and and signing there,
thank god. And it was fun. Man. I had a
great experience at A and LM. It's a dream come
true running out on Kyle Field. Um. You know, even
to this day, I go back to games and just
love the atmosphere, love the love the community, love the
love the university. So yeah, fun place with you know,
(12:19):
so many fun traditions and they got something building now too.
With Jimbo Fisher did that game. There was there was
like a hook and ladder to Leland McElroy that didn't
almost what was is that? How that ended? How that ended?
It was? It was set up beautifully and unfortunately the
guy that caught the ball that was supposed to throw
the hookum hit as he was throwing it, so he
(12:41):
just throw it off and he missed it. But if
he'd caught it in stride, he'd have been gone. So
that was That was a pretty exciting game. Kids. If
you don't know who Leland McElroy is, think like Tyreek
Hill or Reggie Bush kind of like that. I mean,
he was that guy was electric. That guy was electric. Yeah,
he was so I remember I remember watching him in
(13:03):
the off season. We'd run forties, right, and they'd have
these electronic timers or whatever, you know, electronic start, electronic finish.
You know that's going to make you slow when you
do that, and he was I'd never seen anybody run
that fast. I think he ran like a four three
one or something on that. I was just like goodness,
I mean you could hear it. It's like just yeah,
(13:25):
and he had the football moves to match it too.
He wasn't just a fast like he was a good
he was a good football player. He was quick, but yeah,
his straight line speed was just unbelievable. Yeah. All right,
So great career at Texas A and M. And then
you're drafted in the same draft by the same team
that picks Peyton Manning overall first overall. I mean, that's
(13:49):
a hell of a draft by the Colts to get
him to get you. I mean, that's that's some pretty
good stuff. But there's some growing pains early on, obviously,
when you have a new new quarterback in place, but
you're you're there as they're on the rise. Was that
like it was first of all? First stop? What was
draft Day? Like? Tell me that? Oh my gosh, Draft Day? Well,
draft day was kind of up up and down because
(14:10):
I was one of those guys that before the combine
I was like, Okay, you know, hopefully I'll be a
you know, fourth fifth round draft pick somewhere around in
that range. Right. Well, I went to the combine and
just killed it. I think I had like the third
fastest forty, the fastest five ten five shuttle, second on
bench press first or second on vertical jumps. I was
(14:32):
like in the top three in every category, with good
game film to match all that too. Yeah, so my
stock really started to rise, you know, like you see
guys do. So I'm getting flown around, you know, I'm
flying to Saint Louis. I'm meeting with Dick Vermeil. He's like, man,
we're gonna take you in the second round. Did he cry?
Did he cry? Now? He didn't cry. That's good. It's good.
He later made me cry during the draft. But he
(14:56):
was like, yeah, we're gonna you know, they had like
the thirty fifth pick. There was only thirty thirty teams
back then, and you know, he's like, yeah, we're gonna
we're gonna try to get this running back in the
first round. And uh, you know we're gonna draft you
in the second round. I'm like, man, that sounds great,
you know, I'm excited. Uh. And then Tampa Bay was
was real heavy on me, and I'm thinking, well, you know,
Saint Louis doesn't drafting Tampa Bay will. So the draft
(15:18):
day comes, Saint Louis doesn't get their running back into
first round, so they're running back they wanted gets picked
the pick before, and so they end up drafting Grant Winstrom. Yeah,
good right, layer out of Nebraska, and I don't you know,
they ended up passing on me in the second round,
got their running back I think in the second round,
and then Tampa Bay, you know, ended up drafting somebody else,
(15:42):
and so here, you know, the round three comes around,
I'm like, well, for sure, you know this round nothing.
You know, It's like, you know, my head's like, what
is happening? You know? Am I just falling down the
draft boards? Blah blah blah. So that was back when
the first three rounds was on Day one on Saturdays. Yeah, yeah,
and then Sunday rounds four through seven. So the last
(16:02):
pick in the third round, ninety second pick, didn't get
my name called, and I'm like, you know, I'm having
all these thoughts and I'm like, man, I'm gonna fire
my agent blah blah blah, and he just like, what
what do you want me to do? You know, I'm
not the one getting drafted here. I can't make them
draft you. So it was the longest longest wait between
(16:23):
picks of anybody in that draft, and the very next day,
Indianapolis calls me before the draft starts, say we're taking
you with the first pick, and I'm like, y'all don't
even have the first pick. And he's going, well, we're
trading up, and I'm like, awesome, you know, let's good.
I didn't know anything about Indianapolis. I don't even think
I knew who their coach was. I certainly didn't know
(16:43):
who the line coach was. But they drafted me with
the first pick in the fourth round, ninety third overall,
and I was extremely excited. You know, Peyton Manning, you
knew we were gonna struggle, but you also knew that
we were going to build something really cool because he
was just too talented to a player. And you saw
(17:03):
that especially right away with Peyton, because he just had
that leadership quality right even as a rookie. You could
see it. You know, he was he was putting in
the extra hours, coming in on his days off, studying film,
meeting with coaches, going over game plans. And we went
three and thirteen my rookie season. I think I had
(17:25):
like three or four tackles because Peyton led the league
in interceptions, so he got really really good at the
pursuit drill as offensive. I mean we had we had
to practice it during the season. You know, it's bad
if you have your offensive lineman practicing pursuit drill and
tackling drills because we'd given up so many pick sixes.
But you know, the second year was when everything just
(17:48):
turned around and we went from three and thirteen to
thirteen and three in one season, and it was amazing.
I can tell you. I learned that season that if
you practice hard every day all from period one to
period twenty four, if you practice one hundred percent, you're
(18:08):
going to you're gonna see the results. Because that's what
we did. Our practices were so hard, so intense. Every
day was a fight. Every day was a battle, and
we made each other better all season. We pushed each other.
And then winning you learned that winning, just like losing,
is contagious. And the more we won, the more we
kept winning, the more we expected to win. The year before,
(18:32):
we would be in situations where maybe we're up by
four points late in the fourth quarter and you still
had that like, oh no, here here it comes again.
You know, we lose. We lost again last second, you know,
And then the next year it was the exact opposite.
We had that mentality of no matter what the score was,
we were going to figure out a way to win,
and it just kind of it just kind of snowballed
(18:54):
throughout the whole season, and I think we won like
ten in a row, and it was it was a
lot of fun. Now we got to the playoffs, and
what really screwed us was that we had to buy
because we were rolling. You lost that momentum. We lost
the momentum man because I'll tell you what, our offense
came out and just didn't look the same. We just
(19:14):
didn't have the same explosiveness that we had had all season.
You know, we just weren't making the big plays we've
been making all season. He give give Tennessee credit. They're
a good team, obviously, but we should have beat them,
you know, we should have beat them, and we just
didn't play anywhere near our potential. So so now playing
(19:35):
with Manning, obviously, that guy was very He's always been very,
very polished. But from the time you met him to
now and whenever you've interacted with him late lately, how
much more polished has he gotten? How much more worldly
has he gotten? Or has it not been too I
mean what's it been like seeing his progression over the years.
I mean, he's just he just became. I mean he
(19:56):
was always a superstar, especially in Indianapolis, you know, but
he started getting the national commercials. You know, we would
tease him and jack with him, but we just knew
him differently, right as a teammate, you know, we knew
a different side of him that the public knew. Um,
he always had a great personality. He was always kind
of a cut up. You know, he loved to cut up,
loved to prank, prank people, and um, we'd prank each
(20:20):
other and had some had some pretty good ones over
the years. But he always had kind of a good
fun personality. But one of those types where you knew
when when it was time to be serious and when
it was time to have fun. You know. It was
not am not sure how to act around him. You know,
it was very very clear with his intentions. But yeah,
just watching his progression over the years is he's he's
(20:41):
a pretty funny guy. You know, he's got a real
good dry sense of humor and uh, you know funny
way about him. I Mean I cracked up at his
commercials all the time. His Saturday Night Live appearance is
still epic. You know, the one where he's paying the
kids with the balls, you know, I mean that's just
like classic Payton right there. Really is. Yeah, his little
(21:02):
his little I love, you know, the little interactions he
has with Tom Brady and stuff. And you know, speaking
of Tom Brady, I gotta tell you this story. Drew
so we were playing New England one year. I think
it was two thousand, two thousand and one, I can't remember.
So Drew Bledsoe had gotten hurt the week before us, right,
(21:24):
and so we're like, oh, we're gonna go down there
to New England. We'll crush these guys. You know, who
the hell is this guy? Who's their backup? Is Tom
Brady character, you know, nobody's ever even heard of. I'm
sitting in the hotel room the night before the game.
I'm watching the local news and here's Tom Brady, you know,
with his little hat on those Payne Stewart hat, doing
an interview and I'm sitting there watching. I'm like this
(21:46):
guy serious, Like, oh who is this guy? We're gonna
put a dork, you know, we're gonna crush these dudes. Well,
he just proceeded to light us up. The next day,
I think they dropped like forty four on us and
just they killed us and we we went and they're
fully expecting to win that game easily and walked out
of there losing my probably thirty points, and it was
(22:08):
the restless history. You know. Tom Brady just skyrocketed from
there all the way to a Super Bowl winning that year.
So I saw it at the beginning firsthand. I'm like,
I don't know who that guy is, but he's pretty good.
So as somebody who grew up around these parts, you know, Centerville,
clear Lake, all that stuff, and you're in the NFL
(22:31):
and you're still early in your NFL career, how much
did you notice when you saw a businessman from Houston
named Bob McNair, you know, acquired the rights and hey,
Houston is going to get a franchise the oilers left
while you were in college. But how much were you
paying attention to that and cognizant of that. I was
probably paying attention to it more than anybody really in
(22:53):
the whole country, because I knew the second they got
I knew exactly a bobbing there as I knew the
second he got the franchise, and I knew the second
they were going to play in the year two thousand
and two, and just so happens, that was the same
season I was going to be an unrestricted free agent.
And were you lining that up in your mind in
(23:14):
nineteen ninety nine when it got yeah, yeah, I was like, Wow,
I was drafted in ninety eight, right. I knew that
the Colts that the most had four years of my
rights unless they put the franchise tack on me, which
you know I didn't wouldn't expect them to do that
to a left guard at the time. But as soon
as I saw ninety nine there, you know, first year
(23:35):
is gonna be two thousand and two, I'm like, I'm
going to be an understricted free agent most likely, and
you know so, and that was always kind of in
the back of my mind. I'm like, unless Indianapolis, like really,
just you know, backs up a Brinks truck. Um, you know,
that's gonna be my first priority is trying to get
get to Houston. So when I did become an unrestricted
(23:56):
free agent, I had some other offers, you know, I
had some other few other teams that were that were
on me, but Houston was our first call. I told
my agent. I said, look, I said, just get me
the best deal you can get me in Use and
that's where I want to be. You know, if they
don't want me, or you know, they're not willing to,
you know, pay close to what other people were playing,
then we can talk. But I said, anything close, anything
(24:19):
even in the ballpark of what anybody else is offering,
Houston's where I want to end up. So he knew that,
and you know, obviously the rest is history because it
all worked out. You know, this this was this is
where I want to be. This is home, you know,
win or lose. You know, I knew it would be
tough sledding in the beginning, but at the end of
the day, you know, I wouldn't trade it for anything.
(24:40):
You know, Euston Houston's home and getting to play for
your hometown team. There's nothing like it. There really isn't.
There's nothing like it. What was it like because the
expansion you're a free agent, so you were you were
outside of that expansion draft. A lot of those guys
came in and they really went defense heavy, and yeah,
that was a good de those first few years you
(25:01):
were with the Texans really really good defense, and they
were really good veterans on that team. What was that like,
you know, being in the locker room with all the
with those vets, but also having a lot of young
guys and a lot of guys who were sort of
on the fringes of the NFL because of you know,
you're an expansion team. What was that like being in
that soup of people like Gum both people and trying
(25:22):
to figure out, Hey, this is what we got to
do because you talk earlier about you got to practice
one hundred percent and you'll see the improvement. I don't
imagine that everyone had that same mindset just because they
hadn't experienced that, like you What was that like now,
you're right, Drew, I mean it was it was. It
was different because I went from being you know, when
you're you're in Indianapolis. You know, I'm a second, third,
(25:44):
fourth year player. Yeah, I guess you're a veteran, but
you're not really quite a you know, one of the
team leaders. You know, I'm on a team with you know,
guys that have been in the league eight, nine, ten,
twelve years all over the place, right, and you go
to Houston and you look around the locker room and
you're like, holy crap. You know, I'm one of the
oldest guys in here. You know, I'm in and you're
still a young man. You're still a young man in
(26:04):
the world. I mean, you're in your mid twenties, late
twenties at that point exactly. You know, so you're in
your you're you're kind of thrust into a role that
you're not used to being in. Um and that's what
it was like for me, especially on the offensive side
of the defense. They did have some you know, pretty
veteran players and some experience, you know, Aaron Glenn, Gary Walker,
Seth Payne, uh, you know, guys like that, Kylie Wong.
(26:27):
But on offense, it was just me and you know,
maybe a guy like Corey Bradford's you know, coming in
as a receiver but still a young guy. You know.
We didn't have those a nine year tenure vets that
had you know, started multiple seasons in the NFL. We
just that was it. Tony Vaselli would have been that guy,
but he was hurt the whole time. Yeah, he never
(26:47):
really played. So, yeah, I was kind of thrust into
a role where I had to kind of be the
veteran voice in the room in a leadership role on
the offensive side of the ball. So, uh, but it
was it was difficult because there was a lot of
young players and talented but young, and in the NFL,
experience goes a long ways because I don't care how
(27:09):
talented you are. If you're not if you're not experienced
and you don't understand the league and how it works,
there's definitely a learning curve. And you get too many
of those guys around you, it's kind of like a McDonald's.
You know, I don't mind one high school kid on
this ship, but when you got three or four, you
gonna have some issues. It's just the nature of the business.
(27:29):
It takes you back. Like that lineup. It's like, I've
kind of been down this path in a way, right,
So I'm walking in and I walk in, I see that.
I'm like, guys, but no, you can't schedule that many
high school kids. So that's kind of what we were.
You know, I look around, I see three or four
rookies and the starting offense. I'm going this is you know,
this is gonna be a problem, right. So, but uh,
(27:51):
but it was fun. You know, we we had some
we had some great moments, and we had some I
tell you, you know, we got to talk about this
Dallas game because ye to it. You're leading me into it. Man.
That was the That was the That was the one
drew you know, all the games I played in Houston,
that was the one that will always stick with me.
And people asked me, like, what was your favorite game
(28:12):
you ever played? It was that one. Because we went
into camp with I think a hundred guys and almost
you know, probably barely any of them had ever started
in the NFL. Most over were rookies. Most of them
were guys that you know, been cut from other teams,
and you know, none of us had ever played together.
And we went into camp and whittled that hundred people
(28:36):
down to fifty three. And we went into the Dallas
scrimmage because they came down and practiced against us, and
then we scrimmaged them, which is kind of weird. You know,
never I've never scrimmaged against the team that we played
in the first game of the season, but that's what
we did. And I remember we were we were scrimmaging
them over there at the uh Stadium. Yeah, over Robertson
(28:57):
ed Robertson stadium, and I got thrown out the scrimmage
because he got a little chippy. And at the time,
we had a we had a left guard whose name
was Jeremy McKinney. Okay, so we had Jay McKinney and
then we had s McKinney at center and we were,
you know, we were bullying up this nose guard pretty good,
(29:18):
and Jeremy, I guess, you know, kind of got a
late cheap shot on him at some point. I didn't
see it, didn't know anything about it, but you know,
he got a little cheap shot on him. Well, the
next play, this nose guard, he just sees McKinney, right,
we all were similar size, you know, we're both white guys.
So he just and he was a sixty six. I
(29:39):
was seventy six, and so he thinks I'm the one
that did it. So the next play he takes it
out on me, you know, and he shoved grabs my
face mask and shoves me, shoves my head up and
tries to drive me back. And I'm going like, what
is happening? You know, what is this guy doing? Passed
the play and plays over. He's still, you know, pushing
my face masks and me and him, you know, I
throw him down. We go at it and I'm and
(30:00):
so it ended up we had a good fight and
it was a big long play, which was the funny thing.
It was about like a fifty yard play down the field,
So everybody's running down the field and it's just me
and this guy down here on the off scrapping it up,
just having a w W slam fist. Nobody's there, So
it was like the longest fight in NFL history before
(30:21):
it gets broken up. And yeah, I ended up getting
tossed out of it. And then we come back the
I don't know a week or two later, and then
I got now I gotta play this guy in a
real game. So yeah, we went at it pretty good.
It was very chippy during the game and probably the
most satisfying feeling of my life walking off that field
after that win. That placed those fans. I've heard it's
(30:45):
the loudest that the stadium's ever been. I mean, you
played in loud places in college in the Colts RCA,
Doome got rocking. I mean, where did it compare? How
did it compare with all those spots I'm gonna tell
you the when we came out of the tunnel before
the game, the announcement that was the loudest that and
when we got the safety at the very end. Yeah,
(31:06):
the two loudest times I've ever in my life heard
a football stadium period. The kind of loudness that makes
the hair on your neck just kind of vibrate, right, man,
That's how loud it was. And I don't think it's
ever been that loud since then, if I'm being honest,
because that I don't know that it can be louder
(31:27):
than that, you know, I think you might have hit
peak loudness because think about it. I mean, there was
there was all this pent up frustration of just having
nothing for what six years, and then there was a
build up to it because I was thinking, well, what
must it have been like when the oilers started? Like
you got to go back ask like the AFL and
it was in the early sixties and football wasn't as
popular then as it. I mean, there's nothing like it, really,
(31:49):
you know. I mean, how could you possibly come close
to that? You know? And I don't think you could,
you know, if unless you maybe want a Super Bowl
at home something that, you know, the fans are so
split and Super Bowls, you know, I just don't say
I could ever be that loud. Yeah, it had to
be like ancle something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When when an
(32:10):
AFC title game on the last second, Bill goal to
get that kind of noise again. Now, you're a pretty
uh you're a good guy as far as talking with
the media and and you know, converse it. We're having
a good conversation here. And according to Mark Vandermere, who
was he's actually over my shoulder here, um on the
other side of the walk. He was excited that I
(32:33):
was interviewing you because he said, you need to bring
this up, Drew. He said he's the first Texan to
have his own radio show. And I was like really,
He's like, oh, yes, how much fun was was stuff
like that in the early days when you're when you're
doing those things. It was, I mean, it was so
much fun. Honestly, I'd never really done my own radio
radio show, just just interviews and things like that over
(32:55):
the years. But the nice thing about coming to Houston
is that there was a huge demand for content, right anything. Texans,
you know, fans were just so hungry for content, and
I was. I don't I don't even remember exactly how well.
I think I had a cousin that worked up at
six ten and he maybe kind of floated it to
(33:15):
me and I was like, yeah, that sounds cool, man,
let's do it, you know, and you know, kind of
things progress from there um and ended up on with
John and Lance and I think we had a great show,
you know, and I think I did it with Man.
I don't know if I ever did this. I can't
remember if I did a show with Vandamror, but I'd
always like, stay on because he came on right after it,
right I'd stay all at him and chop it up
every once in a while and stuff like that. So
(33:38):
it was it was a lot of fun. It was
one of those shows. You know, this was back before
social media and things like that, so they didn't they
didn't take everything you said and take it out of
context and cut it up and you know try to
you know, shame you and make you look bad. So
we probably got away with saying saying things I probably
wouldn't say nowadays. You know, used to talk about hog
(33:58):
hunting and you know, just kinds of random stuff. But
it was it was a lot of fun. Yeah. I
always always try to do my best to talk about
anything except football when I was those and those usually
make for the best shows. I mean, those are fun.
And for the record, there's nothing wrong with hog hunting it.
We need to encourage that hogs firel hogs or a
big scourge on our nation. It was probably more about
(34:19):
the way I killed it than Yeah, there are some
creative ways that can be done. Yeah. Um, So who
do you keep in touch with from your play days?
I know I've been on the sidelines at a Houston
Texans training camp practice in years past, and I've been
I've had you on one side and Seth Pain on
the other, and it's it's pretty colorful, funny conversation and
(34:39):
I've enjoyed those times. But who are you you keep
in touch with from your Texans playing days? Well, that's
definitely one of them. Um, Chester Pitts, it's a good one. Yeah,
Fred Weary, you know those are my old line boys there. Yeah,
we hung out a lot good dudes while I was there. Yeah,
I still I still am real close with those guys
(34:59):
outside of texts and stuff. Um, you know, Jeff Saturday,
a bud from Indianapolis eating a little bit. You know,
Peyton so big time. He's almost like trying to, you know,
be friends with the president. You know, they're so busy,
they get they're so popular in demand. You know, it's
you're not gonna have too much, too much contact with them.
But you know we were text back and forth every
(35:19):
now and then. That's awesome. David Carr, you know, I
don't keep up with him as much, but we definitely
have exchanged texts over the years and stuff like that.
He's actually done real well for himself too. I mean
you see him, you know, on the NFL network and
he's actually turned into a pretty good commentator and whatever
he does. I don't think he does color analysts on games,
(35:41):
I don't believe, but he's definitely on the NFL network
a lot and doing some pretty good, pretty good stuff there.
And then of course Derek Carr, right, you know, how
fun is that for you seeing him, because you know,
we talk with people who were here in the early
days of the franchise and they all kind of giggling
like he was just a little kid and he was
throwing on the side, like how cool has that been
for you to see him accomplish what he has. It
(36:04):
has been real cool, you know, because I do remember
him as just a little sixth and seventh grader and
I knew he was gonna be good. You know, I
didn't know. You never know they're gonna make it all
the way to the NFL and be good. But you
knew he was gonna be talented because he was in
seventh grade throwing the ball fifty yards already, So I mean,
it was it was just it was just a matter of,
you know, the right opportunities matching up, because you know,
(36:25):
I knew he was gonna have the talent and obviously
going to have the family support and training and knowledge
and stuff. But it is pretty cool watching this progression
in college and to the NFL, the to becoming a
starter and you know, making the Pro Bowl and now
he's you know, signed these big contracts and stuff. So
I'm happy for him. He's real good, dude, he really is.
Him and David both. That's great. Well, Steve Leus, wrap
(36:48):
it up. What's the next for you? Man? Man, I'm
just I'm just doing my thing and I'm just gonna
try to try to keep growing this McDonald's business and
accumulate as many as I can, and then pay him
off one of these days and retire and you know,
maybe get better at golf, but you go, hopefully watch
my son play football a lot over the next four
years or eight or twenty whatever. Yeah, hopefully in about
(37:10):
see nine years you and I are, we're doing a
preview on your son. He's the newest Texans draft pick
and he's coming up in the online. That'd be fun.
I don't know if I could even handle that, you know,
much excitement for him? I bet? I bet well, Steve,
this has been a lot of fun. It's always cool
catching up with you. You're somebody from the days before
I got here, and I always love hearing the stories
(37:31):
about what it was like. And you're a stand up dude,
and I just really appreciate the time. Man, thanks so
much for coming on, Thanks Jai, thanks for having me. Man.
All right, Steve McKinney, where are they now?
Well, this is a fun one because we've got an
og literally figuratively, but we got Steve McKinney, offensive guard,
offensive lineman, original texts. I mean, all these things that
you can say, but Steve, you played for the team
two thousand and two to two thousand and seven. You'd
already been in the league for four years prior with
the Indianapolis Colts. And we're gonna get into that. But
(00:21):
first things first, how are you doing and where are
you these days? What's going on? Well, I am, I'm
doing great. First of all, you know, post COVID life
is uh is much better. And yeah, um, you know,
I've been been doing McDonald's now for about twelve years
since I got out of got out of football. So
that's pretty much all I do. Man, I do. I
do McDonald's and help my son train to be where
(00:46):
I'm at one day. And how's that going. It's going
pretty good. You know, he's only in eighth grade, but uh,
you know, he has he has the desire and the
work ethics, so you know, the rest is in God's hands.
I guess. Yeah, that's good stuff. You're born in Galveston,
you went and played your high school ball clear Lake.
Where are you these days? Specifically, where are you living? Okay? Yeah,
(01:07):
I live in Montgomery. Actually moved out to Montgomery. You know,
went to high school in clear Lake Centerville prior to that.
Actually small town, how about that? And you know, when
I was playing with the Texans, we lived over in Friendswood,
mostly because it was an area I was familiar with,
having you know, grown up in clear Lake. And uh, yeah,
(01:28):
we moved out to Montgomery. Man, right after I got
done playing, I bought the bought the McDonald's down there
in Madisonville twenty ten, and uh couldn't couldn't be driving
from Friendswood to Madisonville every day, So we moved out
to Montgomery, which is only about an hour away. You know.
That's how that's how we ended up. There are planted
roots and it's been good. You know, it's a very
it's a nice community, you know, good people, so on
(01:50):
the edge of the piney woods. And I, uh, you know,
I went to school in Dallas for a bit and
lived in Dallas for a bit, so I guarantee I
stopped at that uh McDon donalds and Madisonville time or
two as clause, I think I think you got one
in Huntsville too, right, and that one's not mine? No, okay, okay, sorry,
one of these days hopefully I'll get that one. But
uh yeah, we got we got the one in Madisonville,
(02:12):
and I got you know, a few and Montgomery area
and kind of all over Euston. At this point, we're
pretty pretty spread out. That's fantastic. How did you get
into that because obviously you're in the NFL for a
decade basically, and how do you transition from playing football
to to be in a franchise? E Well, I learned
literally in my rookie year up in Indianapolis U that
(02:34):
NFL stands for not for long and that you better
have a second career planned out before before that day comes.
And so I started researching, you know, businesses and and
franchises and things that I could get into, from you know,
dry cleaners to hair salons to subways or whatever. And
(02:55):
McDonald's was always one of my first. But I looked
into them pretty quickly and realized that if you're not
one hundred percent involved in the day to day and
running the business yourself, that they're not gonna they're not
gonna let you get in so I waited and the
day after I retired or was retired, you know, because
most of us don't retire, we just get retired. Yeah,
(03:16):
So that when that day came, that was the first
place I applied for and actually got rejected, and waited
a few months, and applied again, got rejected, waited a
few months, and applied again. After meeting with a gentleman
that I knew, um from A and LM that used
to own some McDonald's and so you know, he kind
(03:39):
of he kind of opened the door run blastly. He
opened the door for me to to get an interview,
and I flew. I flew out to Arizona, met with
the O West Division president, you know, me and my
wife Tiffany, and uh just really sold him on the
fact that hey, we're not I'm not looking to be
an investor. I'm not looking to you know, put my
money someplace safe. You know, I want to run it.
(04:00):
I want to be involved. I want to do whatever
it takes to own and running McDonald's. And you know,
I was able to get into program and took me
about a year and a half. Drew It's a it's
a brutal program. Yeah, but they train you top to bottom. Man,
you learn how to do everything in a restaurant, which
is great because I didn't know how to do any
of it. I knew how to snap a football and
(04:20):
you know, block defensive linemen, but you know, when it
came to run in a restaurant operationally and in the
business side of it, you know, I was clueless. So
it was it was a great training program. I learned
a lot, very humbling, I'm not gonna lie, you know,
because you work in the restaurant. You know, you're putting
on a crew uniform, you're taking orders in the drive through,
You're making French fries and hamburgers and dealing with upset
(04:43):
customers and everything that goes into to working in fast food.
And I remember one time a guy came through. It
was right after I had just finished playing and I
was in the drive through over at the Fairmont McDonald's
right there, all forty five and but way eight and
um he worked at Fox News. Actually it was a
(05:03):
guy that you know, I'd been a cameraman and interviewed
me and stuff like that in the past. He looked
at me like, man, you know, you've really fallen some
hard times though, right, So I said, no, yeah, I'm
in the I'm in the training program. You know, I'm
trying to try to own one of these one day.
So but it was funny because I would get those
(05:24):
looks from customers from time to time, you know that
really followed the Texans and knew who I was, and
they look at me and double take, wait, what are
you doing here? It was it was very humbly at times,
but man, it was It's it's been worth it, you know,
it's paid off. A been a blessing to me and
my family. So we love McDonald's. That's great. I don't
know much about that that end of the business, but
(05:46):
I've heard stories like yours, like when you become a franchise,
especially with them, it's a pretty, like you said, grueling process.
Now I do know. I waited tables at the Mason
Jar in Houston for two summers, and back then, when
I was more of a jackass, I thought, this is
like overwhelming. So just like that small portion of the
(06:08):
food service industry I have a lot of respect for,
so I can't imagine having to run the entire thing.
And was there a was there a more you talk
about some of the folks senior in the drive through.
But was there was there another moment where you said,
humbling that really were you were just like, what the
absolute hell am I doing this for? Like, surely that
came up a time or two, right, Oh man, it did. Yeah,
(06:29):
I'm not gonna lie. I mean when you're when you're
doing that for a year plus and you're not getting paid, right,
this is all for free and for you know, training,
You're getting paid through the training. But there were plenty
of times, you know where I'm working a you know,
late night shift and you know it's ten to eleven
o'clock at night and I'm walking around the parking a lot,
you know, picking up pieces of trash here and there,
(06:49):
and you know, getting home barely seeing my family and
stuff like that. And there was times where I was like, man,
is this is this really worth it? You know? This
is this is a lot you know here, There's probably
other things I could be doing. You know, I could
go get a job, work for a big company or something,
you know, work my way up the ladder, you know.
So there were there were moments where I had those thoughts,
you know, but I just kept pressing through. My wife
(07:10):
just kept pushing me. And you know when because everybody
has those weak moments, everybody when things get tough, you know,
you you you question things. But I powered through it,
and you know, thank god I did, you know, because
there was there was a light at the end of
the tunnel. And there's times throughout that training where you
can't see that light. You have no idea how much
longer you have. There's no there's no hey, you know
(07:32):
step one, two, three, and you're finished at this date.
There is not none of that. You know, you're kind
of at their mercy as you're going through this training.
So there was there was months where I was just
clueless as to win this whatever end and um, you know,
very challenged mentally and physically, but I persevered, you know,
and I think the NFL and football and all my
training really helped me with that, that mental toughness aspect
(07:55):
of it of just just grinding through it and just
embracing the grind and just pushing through the tough times. Yeah,
if you can make it through a training camp in
Houston or you know, summer summer drills at in college station,
you can you can definitely make it through that, I'm sure. Yeah,
let's talk about your days as an Aggie. You know,
I'm sort of around your age, graduated high school ninety six,
(08:18):
so I remember the Aggies were bullies, man in the
mid nineties, early nineties, late eighties, still at the end
of the Southwest Conference and you're kind of there as
they switch over into the Big twelve. You were there
with RC Slocum, Who, Holy moly, that guy can coach.
And what was it like going to Texas A and
M when they were at that, you know, at the
(08:39):
peak of those powers. I guess you could say now Andrew.
For me, it was just kind of like a dream
come truer because I grew up from the age of
one through sixteen in Centerville, Texas, about an hour from
College Station. Yea, my grandfather went to A and M.
We were big Aggies growing up. We'd go to games
every Saturday, very you know, probably made it the most
(09:02):
home games growing up. So I just had a I
bled my roon bottom line, you know, I was a
big A and M fan from birth. So for me,
I remember it. It kind of the light switch kind
of went on in about seventh I think seventh grade.
I remember because up until that point Drew. I just
wanted to be in the band. I just wanted to
play trombone or tuba or something in the band, you know,
(09:24):
because I thought that was the coolest thing ever. I
didn't really think a kid out of Centerville, you know,
could ever actually step on the Kyle field in a
uniform and play football. So but I remember in seventh grade,
I was watching Anyone play Hawaii on their opening game,
and that's when it just really clicked in my head.
I'm like, you know what I want to I'm gonna
play football at A and L and that From that
(09:45):
day on, that became my goal and I worked towards
that and my junior year. After my junior year, right
before my senior year, it was back in those days,
colleges couldn't call you. And they called me on the
day that they were allowed to call me at midnight
and called me, and they didn't offer me. At that time,
(10:09):
I was hoping they would, but they didn't offer me.
But the fact that they had called me, they were
my first call, you know, made me feel good and
felt like I had a chance. And then I think
it was you know, probably a week or two later.
You know, some of these other big schools and started
offering scholarships and then sure enough, if here comes to
the A and M offer, and uh, you know, I
jumped right on it. And I'm not gonna say that.
I was, like any eighteen year old, you're getting confused, right,
(10:32):
So I committed to A and LM. And you know,
a couple of months later, you know, Notre names pushing
hard for me, and that this was Notre Dame was
a bunch of bullies too. You know, they were ranked
number one in the country all season. That was here
they lost to Boston College on that last second field goal.
The Rudy year, they had just beaten Florida State number
(10:54):
one of the week exactly. So I mean I was,
you know, Rudy had just come out in the theaters,
you know, like I went up there on a visit
and saw a touchdown Jesus and met the actual Rudy,
and I'm like, how can I how can I not
go to Notre Dame. You know, that's just crazy, you know,
And so I ended up committing to Notre Dame after
after growing up and ague my entire life. You know,
(11:14):
my parents were like, yeah, they were trying to be
supportive but I think they were kind of, you know,
a little heartbroken inside. You know, they didn't really share
that with me. But luckily I'm sitting there watching A
and LM and Notre Dame played in the cotton ball
day here. Hell of a game, hell of a game.
And I was committed to Notre Dame during that game,
by the way, but I was rooting for A and
(11:35):
LM for some reason. And that's that's kind of what,
you know, made me realize that, you know, I gotta
go where my heart's at. You know, Yeah, Notre Dame
may be the cool, new shiny object that you know,
makes me look cool to everybody, but the reality is
is that A and M was where my heart was.
And so I realized that watching that football game and
A and M lost, and I still wanted to go there.
(11:57):
So I did end up committing and and signing there,
thank god. And it was fun. Man. I had a
great experience at A and LM. It's a dream come
true running out on Kyle Field. Um. You know, even
to this day, I go back to games and just
love the atmosphere, love the love the community, love the
love the university. So yeah, fun place with you know,
(12:19):
so many fun traditions and they got something building now too.
With Jimbo Fisher did that game. There was there was
like a hook and ladder to Leland McElroy that didn't
almost what was is that? How that ended? How that ended?
It was? It was set up beautifully and unfortunately the
guy that caught the ball that was supposed to throw
the hookum hit as he was throwing it, so he
(12:41):
just throw it off and he missed it. But if
he'd caught it in stride, he'd have been gone. So
that was That was a pretty exciting game. Kids. If
you don't know who Leland McElroy is, think like Tyreek
Hill or Reggie Bush kind of like that. I mean,
he was that guy was electric. That guy was electric. Yeah,
he was so I remember I remember watching him in
(13:03):
the off season. We'd run forties, right, and they'd have
these electronic timers or whatever, you know, electronic start, electronic finish.
You know that's going to make you slow when you
do that, and he was I'd never seen anybody run
that fast. I think he ran like a four three
one or something on that. I was just like goodness,
I mean you could hear it. It's like just yeah,
(13:25):
and he had the football moves to match it too.
He wasn't just a fast like he was a good
he was a good football player. He was quick, but yeah,
his straight line speed was just unbelievable. Yeah. All right,
So great career at Texas A and M. And then
you're drafted in the same draft by the same team
that picks Peyton Manning overall first overall. I mean, that's
(13:49):
a hell of a draft by the Colts to get
him to get you. I mean, that's that's some pretty
good stuff. But there's some growing pains early on, obviously,
when you have a new new quarterback in place, but
you're you're there as they're on the rise. Was that
like it was first of all? First stop? What was
draft Day? Like? Tell me that? Oh my gosh, Draft Day? Well,
draft day was kind of up up and down because
(14:10):
I was one of those guys that before the combine
I was like, Okay, you know, hopefully I'll be a
you know, fourth fifth round draft pick somewhere around in
that range. Right. Well, I went to the combine and
just killed it. I think I had like the third
fastest forty, the fastest five ten five shuttle, second on
bench press first or second on vertical jumps. I was
(14:32):
like in the top three in every category, with good
game film to match all that too. Yeah, so my
stock really started to rise, you know, like you see
guys do. So I'm getting flown around, you know, I'm
flying to Saint Louis. I'm meeting with Dick Vermeil. He's like, man,
we're gonna take you in the second round. Did he cry?
Did he cry? Now? He didn't cry. That's good. It's good.
He later made me cry during the draft. But he
(14:56):
was like, yeah, we're gonna you know, they had like
the thirty fifth pick. There was only thirty thirty teams
back then, and you know, he's like, yeah, we're gonna
we're gonna try to get this running back in the
first round. And uh, you know we're gonna draft you
in the second round. I'm like, man, that sounds great,
you know, I'm excited. Uh. And then Tampa Bay was
was real heavy on me, and I'm thinking, well, you know,
Saint Louis doesn't drafting Tampa Bay will. So the draft
(15:18):
day comes, Saint Louis doesn't get their running back into
first round, so they're running back they wanted gets picked
the pick before, and so they end up drafting Grant Winstrom. Yeah,
good right, layer out of Nebraska, and I don't you know,
they ended up passing on me in the second round,
got their running back I think in the second round,
and then Tampa Bay, you know, ended up drafting somebody else,
(15:42):
and so here, you know, the round three comes around,
I'm like, well, for sure, you know this round nothing.
You know, It's like, you know, my head's like, what
is happening? You know? Am I just falling down the
draft boards? Blah blah blah. So that was back when
the first three rounds was on Day one on Saturdays. Yeah, yeah,
and then Sunday rounds four through seven. So the last
(16:02):
pick in the third round, ninety second pick, didn't get
my name called, and I'm like, you know, I'm having
all these thoughts and I'm like, man, I'm gonna fire
my agent blah blah blah, and he just like, what
what do you want me to do? You know, I'm
not the one getting drafted here. I can't make them
draft you. So it was the longest longest wait between
(16:23):
picks of anybody in that draft, and the very next day,
Indianapolis calls me before the draft starts, say we're taking
you with the first pick, and I'm like, y'all don't
even have the first pick. And he's going, well, we're
trading up, and I'm like, awesome, you know, let's good.
I didn't know anything about Indianapolis. I don't even think
I knew who their coach was. I certainly didn't know
(16:43):
who the line coach was. But they drafted me with
the first pick in the fourth round, ninety third overall,
and I was extremely excited. You know, Peyton Manning, you
knew we were gonna struggle, but you also knew that
we were going to build something really cool because he
was just too talented to a player. And you saw
(17:03):
that especially right away with Peyton, because he just had
that leadership quality right even as a rookie. You could
see it. You know, he was he was putting in
the extra hours, coming in on his days off, studying film,
meeting with coaches, going over game plans. And we went
three and thirteen my rookie season. I think I had
(17:25):
like three or four tackles because Peyton led the league
in interceptions, so he got really really good at the
pursuit drill as offensive. I mean we had we had
to practice it during the season. You know, it's bad
if you have your offensive lineman practicing pursuit drill and
tackling drills because we'd given up so many pick sixes.
But you know, the second year was when everything just
(17:48):
turned around and we went from three and thirteen to
thirteen and three in one season, and it was amazing.
I can tell you. I learned that season that if
you practice hard every day all from period one to
period twenty four, if you practice one hundred percent, you're
(18:08):
going to you're gonna see the results. Because that's what
we did. Our practices were so hard, so intense. Every
day was a fight. Every day was a battle, and
we made each other better all season. We pushed each other.
And then winning you learned that winning, just like losing,
is contagious. And the more we won, the more we
kept winning, the more we expected to win. The year before,
(18:32):
we would be in situations where maybe we're up by
four points late in the fourth quarter and you still
had that like, oh no, here here it comes again.
You know, we lose. We lost again last second, you know,
And then the next year it was the exact opposite.
We had that mentality of no matter what the score was,
we were going to figure out a way to win,
and it just kind of it just kind of snowballed
(18:54):
throughout the whole season, and I think we won like
ten in a row, and it was it was a
lot of fun. Now we got to the playoffs, and
what really screwed us was that we had to buy
because we were rolling. You lost that momentum. We lost
the momentum man because I'll tell you what, our offense
came out and just didn't look the same. We just
(19:14):
didn't have the same explosiveness that we had had all season.
You know, we just weren't making the big plays we've
been making all season. He give give Tennessee credit. They're
a good team, obviously, but we should have beat them,
you know, we should have beat them, and we just
didn't play anywhere near our potential. So so now playing
(19:35):
with Manning, obviously, that guy was very He's always been very,
very polished. But from the time you met him to
now and whenever you've interacted with him late lately, how
much more polished has he gotten? How much more worldly
has he gotten? Or has it not been too I
mean what's it been like seeing his progression over the years.
I mean, he's just he just became. I mean he
(19:56):
was always a superstar, especially in Indianapolis, you know, but
he started getting the national commercials. You know, we would
tease him and jack with him, but we just knew
him differently, right as a teammate, you know, we knew
a different side of him that the public knew. Um,
he always had a great personality. He was always kind
of a cut up. You know, he loved to cut up,
loved to prank, prank people, and um, we'd prank each
(20:20):
other and had some had some pretty good ones over
the years. But he always had kind of a good
fun personality. But one of those types where you knew
when when it was time to be serious and when
it was time to have fun. You know. It was
not am not sure how to act around him. You know,
it was very very clear with his intentions. But yeah,
just watching his progression over the years is he's he's
(20:41):
a pretty funny guy. You know, he's got a real
good dry sense of humor and uh, you know funny
way about him. I Mean I cracked up at his
commercials all the time. His Saturday Night Live appearance is
still epic. You know, the one where he's paying the
kids with the balls, you know, I mean that's just
like classic Payton right there. Really is. Yeah, his little
(21:02):
his little I love, you know, the little interactions he
has with Tom Brady and stuff. And you know, speaking
of Tom Brady, I gotta tell you this story. Drew
so we were playing New England one year. I think
it was two thousand, two thousand and one, I can't remember.
So Drew Bledsoe had gotten hurt the week before us, right,
(21:24):
and so we're like, oh, we're gonna go down there
to New England. We'll crush these guys. You know, who
the hell is this guy? Who's their backup? Is Tom
Brady character, you know, nobody's ever even heard of. I'm
sitting in the hotel room the night before the game.
I'm watching the local news and here's Tom Brady, you know,
with his little hat on those Payne Stewart hat, doing
an interview and I'm sitting there watching. I'm like this
(21:46):
guy serious, Like, oh who is this guy? We're gonna
put a dork, you know, we're gonna crush these dudes. Well,
he just proceeded to light us up. The next day,
I think they dropped like forty four on us and
just they killed us and we we went and they're
fully expecting to win that game easily and walked out
of there losing my probably thirty points, and it was
(22:08):
the restless history. You know. Tom Brady just skyrocketed from
there all the way to a Super Bowl winning that year.
So I saw it at the beginning firsthand. I'm like,
I don't know who that guy is, but he's pretty good.
So as somebody who grew up around these parts, you know, Centerville,
clear Lake, all that stuff, and you're in the NFL
(22:31):
and you're still early in your NFL career, how much
did you notice when you saw a businessman from Houston
named Bob McNair, you know, acquired the rights and hey,
Houston is going to get a franchise the oilers left
while you were in college. But how much were you
paying attention to that and cognizant of that. I was
probably paying attention to it more than anybody really in
(22:53):
the whole country, because I knew the second they got
I knew exactly a bobbing there as I knew the
second he got the franchise, and I knew the second
they were going to play in the year two thousand
and two, and just so happens, that was the same
season I was going to be an unrestricted free agent.
And were you lining that up in your mind in
(23:14):
nineteen ninety nine when it got yeah, yeah, I was like, Wow,
I was drafted in ninety eight, right. I knew that
the Colts that the most had four years of my
rights unless they put the franchise tack on me, which
you know I didn't wouldn't expect them to do that
to a left guard at the time. But as soon
as I saw ninety nine there, you know, first year
(23:35):
is gonna be two thousand and two, I'm like, I'm
going to be an understricted free agent most likely, and
you know so, and that was always kind of in
the back of my mind. I'm like, unless Indianapolis, like really,
just you know, backs up a Brinks truck. Um, you know,
that's gonna be my first priority is trying to get
get to Houston. So when I did become an unrestricted
(23:56):
free agent, I had some other offers, you know, I
had some other few other teams that were that were
on me, but Houston was our first call. I told
my agent. I said, look, I said, just get me
the best deal you can get me in Use and
that's where I want to be. You know, if they
don't want me, or you know, they're not willing to,
you know, pay close to what other people were playing,
then we can talk. But I said, anything close, anything
(24:19):
even in the ballpark of what anybody else is offering,
Houston's where I want to end up. So he knew that,
and you know, obviously the rest is history because it
all worked out. You know, this this was this is
where I want to be. This is home, you know,
win or lose. You know, I knew it would be
tough sledding in the beginning, but at the end of
the day, you know, I wouldn't trade it for anything.
(24:40):
You know, Euston Houston's home and getting to play for
your hometown team. There's nothing like it. There really isn't.
There's nothing like it. What was it like because the
expansion you're a free agent, so you were you were
outside of that expansion draft. A lot of those guys
came in and they really went defense heavy, and yeah,
that was a good de those first few years you
(25:01):
were with the Texans really really good defense, and they
were really good veterans on that team. What was that like,
you know, being in the locker room with all the
with those vets, but also having a lot of young
guys and a lot of guys who were sort of
on the fringes of the NFL because of you know,
you're an expansion team. What was that like being in
that soup of people like Gum both people and trying
(25:22):
to figure out, Hey, this is what we got to
do because you talk earlier about you got to practice
one hundred percent and you'll see the improvement. I don't
imagine that everyone had that same mindset just because they
hadn't experienced that, like you What was that like now,
you're right, Drew, I mean it was it was. It
was different because I went from being you know, when
you're you're in Indianapolis. You know, I'm a second, third,
(25:44):
fourth year player. Yeah, I guess you're a veteran, but
you're not really quite a you know, one of the
team leaders. You know, I'm on a team with you know,
guys that have been in the league eight, nine, ten,
twelve years all over the place, right, and you go
to Houston and you look around the locker room and
you're like, holy crap. You know, I'm one of the
oldest guys in here. You know, I'm in and you're
still a young man. You're still a young man in
(26:04):
the world. I mean, you're in your mid twenties, late
twenties at that point exactly. You know, so you're in
your you're you're kind of thrust into a role that
you're not used to being in. Um and that's what
it was like for me, especially on the offensive side
of the defense. They did have some you know, pretty
veteran players and some experience, you know, Aaron Glenn, Gary Walker,
Seth Payne, uh, you know, guys like that, Kylie Wong.
(26:27):
But on offense, it was just me and you know,
maybe a guy like Corey Bradford's you know, coming in
as a receiver but still a young guy. You know.
We didn't have those a nine year tenure vets that
had you know, started multiple seasons in the NFL. We
just that was it. Tony Vaselli would have been that guy,
but he was hurt the whole time. Yeah, he never
(26:47):
really played. So, yeah, I was kind of thrust into
a role where I had to kind of be the
veteran voice in the room in a leadership role on
the offensive side of the ball. So, uh, but it
was it was difficult because there was a lot of
young players and talented but young, and in the NFL,
experience goes a long ways because I don't care how
(27:09):
talented you are. If you're not if you're not experienced
and you don't understand the league and how it works,
there's definitely a learning curve. And you get too many
of those guys around you, it's kind of like a McDonald's.
You know, I don't mind one high school kid on
this ship, but when you got three or four, you
gonna have some issues. It's just the nature of the business.
(27:29):
It takes you back. Like that lineup. It's like, I've
kind of been down this path in a way, right,
So I'm walking in and I walk in, I see that.
I'm like, guys, but no, you can't schedule that many
high school kids. So that's kind of what we were.
You know, I look around, I see three or four
rookies and the starting offense. I'm going this is you know,
this is gonna be a problem, right. So, but uh,
(27:51):
but it was fun. You know, we we had some
we had some great moments, and we had some I
tell you, you know, we got to talk about this
Dallas game because ye to it. You're leading me into it. Man.
That was the That was the That was the one
drew you know, all the games I played in Houston,
that was the one that will always stick with me.
And people asked me, like, what was your favorite game
(28:12):
you ever played? It was that one. Because we went
into camp with I think a hundred guys and almost
you know, probably barely any of them had ever started
in the NFL. Most over were rookies. Most of them
were guys that you know, been cut from other teams,
and you know, none of us had ever played together.
And we went into camp and whittled that hundred people
(28:36):
down to fifty three. And we went into the Dallas
scrimmage because they came down and practiced against us, and
then we scrimmaged them, which is kind of weird. You know,
never I've never scrimmaged against the team that we played
in the first game of the season, but that's what
we did. And I remember we were we were scrimmaging
them over there at the uh Stadium. Yeah, over Robertson
(28:57):
ed Robertson stadium, and I got thrown out the scrimmage
because he got a little chippy. And at the time,
we had a we had a left guard whose name
was Jeremy McKinney. Okay, so we had Jay McKinney and
then we had s McKinney at center and we were,
you know, we were bullying up this nose guard pretty good,
(29:18):
and Jeremy, I guess, you know, kind of got a
late cheap shot on him at some point. I didn't
see it, didn't know anything about it, but you know,
he got a little cheap shot on him. Well, the
next play, this nose guard, he just sees McKinney, right,
we all were similar size, you know, we're both white guys.
So he just and he was a sixty six. I
(29:39):
was seventy six, and so he thinks I'm the one
that did it. So the next play he takes it
out on me, you know, and he shoved grabs my
face mask and shoves me, shoves my head up and
tries to drive me back. And I'm going like, what
is happening? You know, what is this guy doing? Passed
the play and plays over. He's still, you know, pushing
my face masks and me and him, you know, I
throw him down. We go at it and I'm and
(30:00):
so it ended up we had a good fight and
it was a big long play, which was the funny thing.
It was about like a fifty yard play down the field,
So everybody's running down the field and it's just me
and this guy down here on the off scrapping it up,
just having a w W slam fist. Nobody's there, So
it was like the longest fight in NFL history before
(30:21):
it gets broken up. And yeah, I ended up getting
tossed out of it. And then we come back the
I don't know a week or two later, and then
I got now I gotta play this guy in a
real game. So yeah, we went at it pretty good.
It was very chippy during the game and probably the
most satisfying feeling of my life walking off that field
after that win. That placed those fans. I've heard it's
(30:45):
the loudest that the stadium's ever been. I mean, you
played in loud places in college in the Colts RCA,
Doome got rocking. I mean, where did it compare? How
did it compare with all those spots I'm gonna tell
you the when we came out of the tunnel before
the game, the announcement that was the loudest that and
when we got the safety at the very end. Yeah,
(31:06):
the two loudest times I've ever in my life heard
a football stadium period. The kind of loudness that makes
the hair on your neck just kind of vibrate, right, man,
That's how loud it was. And I don't think it's
ever been that loud since then, if I'm being honest,
because that I don't know that it can be louder
(31:27):
than that, you know, I think you might have hit
peak loudness because think about it. I mean, there was
there was all this pent up frustration of just having
nothing for what six years, and then there was a
build up to it because I was thinking, well, what
must it have been like when the oilers started? Like
you got to go back ask like the AFL and
it was in the early sixties and football wasn't as
popular then as it. I mean, there's nothing like it, really,
(31:49):
you know. I mean, how could you possibly come close
to that? You know? And I don't think you could,
you know, if unless you maybe want a Super Bowl
at home something that, you know, the fans are so
split and Super Bowls, you know, I just don't say
I could ever be that loud. Yeah, it had to
be like ancle something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When when an
(32:10):
AFC title game on the last second, Bill goal to
get that kind of noise again. Now, you're a pretty
uh you're a good guy as far as talking with
the media and and you know, converse it. We're having
a good conversation here. And according to Mark Vandermere, who
was he's actually over my shoulder here, um on the
other side of the walk. He was excited that I
(32:33):
was interviewing you because he said, you need to bring
this up, Drew. He said he's the first Texan to
have his own radio show. And I was like really,
He's like, oh, yes, how much fun was was stuff
like that in the early days when you're when you're
doing those things. It was, I mean, it was so
much fun. Honestly, I'd never really done my own radio
radio show, just just interviews and things like that over
(32:55):
the years. But the nice thing about coming to Houston
is that there was a huge demand for content, right anything. Texans,
you know, fans were just so hungry for content, and
I was. I don't I don't even remember exactly how well.
I think I had a cousin that worked up at
six ten and he maybe kind of floated it to
(33:15):
me and I was like, yeah, that sounds cool, man,
let's do it, you know, and you know, kind of
things progress from there um and ended up on with
John and Lance and I think we had a great show,
you know, and I think I did it with Man.
I don't know if I ever did this. I can't
remember if I did a show with Vandamror, but I'd
always like, stay on because he came on right after it,
right I'd stay all at him and chop it up
every once in a while and stuff like that. So
(33:38):
it was it was a lot of fun. It was
one of those shows. You know, this was back before
social media and things like that, so they didn't they
didn't take everything you said and take it out of
context and cut it up and you know try to
you know, shame you and make you look bad. So
we probably got away with saying saying things I probably
wouldn't say nowadays. You know, used to talk about hog
(33:58):
hunting and you know, just kinds of random stuff. But
it was it was a lot of fun. Yeah. I
always always try to do my best to talk about
anything except football when I was those and those usually
make for the best shows. I mean, those are fun.
And for the record, there's nothing wrong with hog hunting it.
We need to encourage that hogs firel hogs or a
big scourge on our nation. It was probably more about
(34:19):
the way I killed it than Yeah, there are some
creative ways that can be done. Yeah. Um, So who
do you keep in touch with from your play days?
I know I've been on the sidelines at a Houston
Texans training camp practice in years past, and I've been
I've had you on one side and Seth Pain on
the other, and it's it's pretty colorful, funny conversation and
(34:39):
I've enjoyed those times. But who are you you keep
in touch with from your Texans playing days? Well, that's
definitely one of them. Um, Chester Pitts, it's a good one. Yeah,
Fred Weary, you know those are my old line boys there. Yeah,
we hung out a lot good dudes while I was there. Yeah,
I still I still am real close with those guys
(34:59):
outside of texts and stuff. Um, you know, Jeff Saturday,
a bud from Indianapolis eating a little bit. You know,
Peyton so big time. He's almost like trying to, you know,
be friends with the president. You know, they're so busy,
they get they're so popular in demand. You know, it's
you're not gonna have too much, too much contact with them.
But you know we were text back and forth every
(35:19):
now and then. That's awesome. David Carr, you know, I
don't keep up with him as much, but we definitely
have exchanged texts over the years and stuff like that.
He's actually done real well for himself too. I mean
you see him, you know, on the NFL network and
he's actually turned into a pretty good commentator and whatever
he does. I don't think he does color analysts on games,
(35:41):
I don't believe, but he's definitely on the NFL network
a lot and doing some pretty good, pretty good stuff there.
And then of course Derek Carr, right, you know, how
fun is that for you seeing him, because you know,
we talk with people who were here in the early
days of the franchise and they all kind of giggling
like he was just a little kid and he was
throwing on the side, like how cool has that been
for you to see him accomplish what he has. It
(36:04):
has been real cool, you know, because I do remember
him as just a little sixth and seventh grader and
I knew he was gonna be good. You know, I
didn't know. You never know they're gonna make it all
the way to the NFL and be good. But you
knew he was gonna be talented because he was in
seventh grade throwing the ball fifty yards already, So I mean,
it was it was just it was just a matter of,
you know, the right opportunities matching up, because you know,
(36:25):
I knew he was gonna have the talent and obviously
going to have the family support and training and knowledge
and stuff. But it is pretty cool watching this progression
in college and to the NFL, the to becoming a
starter and you know, making the Pro Bowl and now
he's you know, signed these big contracts and stuff. So
I'm happy for him. He's real good, dude, he really is.
Him and David both. That's great. Well, Steve Leus, wrap
(36:48):
it up. What's the next for you? Man? Man, I'm
just I'm just doing my thing and I'm just gonna
try to try to keep growing this McDonald's business and
accumulate as many as I can, and then pay him
off one of these days and retire and you know,
maybe get better at golf, but you go, hopefully watch
my son play football a lot over the next four
years or eight or twenty whatever. Yeah, hopefully in about
(37:10):
see nine years you and I are, we're doing a
preview on your son. He's the newest Texans draft pick
and he's coming up in the online. That'd be fun.
I don't know if I could even handle that, you know,
much excitement for him? I bet? I bet well, Steve,
this has been a lot of fun. It's always cool
catching up with you. You're somebody from the days before
I got here, and I always love hearing the stories
(37:31):
about what it was like. And you're a stand up dude,
and I just really appreciate the time. Man, thanks so
much for coming on, Thanks Jai, thanks for having me. Man.
All right, Steve McKinney, where are they now?
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