August 7, 2023 • 14 mins
Wayne Larrivee sits down with former Green Bay Packers tight end Jermichael Finley to talk about his breakout game from the '09 season (2:23), how Mike McCarthy led the Packers to Super Bowl XLV (6:11), and his relationship with Aaron Rodgers (7:35).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
For more than a century, the Green Bay Packers have
been a benchmark for football excellence. Thousands of players have
helped pave the way, and we're here to tell you
their stories. I'm Wayne Laravie. This is the Packers alumni
Spot White. Jermichael Finley was a talented tight end and
(00:28):
a colorful personality who came to the Packers in the
third round of the two thousand and eight NFL Draft
out of Texas, A long way from Green Bay. Ah.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Man, it was a crazy ordeal coming from Texas and
being a Texas boy and then going to the University
of Texas, which is a big city in Austin. I
got that call from Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy. I
was like, Green Bay, Wisconsin, We're going from hot to cold.
And I got a phone call from a buddy. It
was like, you better bring every Nintendo game you got
(01:03):
because it ain't nothing to do here but play football.
I was like, this is the best sound for me.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
You came out of school early. I mean you were young, right,
you gave up your last two years of college eligibility,
very young, very young kid, and tell me about your
growing pains when you got here. What was the biggest
thing about being in a pro team now suddenly compared
to what you experienced.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
It was very difficult surrounding myself with men that already
had a full blown family. Coming in as a kid
getting millions of dollars, it was very It was very difficult,
and especially getting the hype and the accolades, and you
know what I mean, coming into the stardom that the
Green Bay Packers is as a franchise, It was very difficult.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I want to ask you about. Let me take you
back to one of the high points early in your
career when you burst on the scene, when people outside
of Texas started to know Jeremichael Finley. You were the
third leading receiver in two thousand and nine, but you
had a breakout postseason game in the Desert against the Cardinals.
Six receptions a buck fifty nine franchise postseason record for
(02:11):
receiving yardage. Tell me about that game against the Cardinals,
the Packers and Cardinals playoff game that went to overtime
before the Cardinals eventually won out of defensive play. But
tell me about your day. What was it like?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
It was awesome. It was just hitting a stride too
during the course of that season. At the end of
it the eleventh hour and McCarthy came to my locker.
It was like, big fellow, we needed this game. So
that hit me as a young kid like me. Let
me tap into it. The head man came by my
locker and took his time out before the pregame warm ups,
and you know, man, gave me some love and gave
(02:45):
me just that strength to go out and play. My
heart is in man, what a game that was. It
was a big time shootout, man, And I just done
what I'm usually doing, and I was playing football.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Two Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Kurt Warner was on his
way to the Hall of Fame and Aaron Rodgers will
eventually be there. But so you had an inclination that
this could be a big day for you, right, I
mean you were in the game plan.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Absolutely. I'm a big visual guy. So when I went
to bed at night, I try to visualize what I'm
gonna do the next day. And I tell my kid
that now, which is in high school and on varsity,
but I'm like, visualize what you're gonna do the next day,
and visualize all these things and scored, jumping over people,
and so happened. I went out there and put that
onto the field and man, what a game that was.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
It was incredible, it was was it one of those
days where just everything clicked? Are you guys as a unit?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
It did click?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
And the hard part about that is and me being
a tight end and you know, I mean a alert
and a decoy sometimes for the six guys that we
did have touching the ball within Greg Jennings, the Drivers
and James Jones, it was hard to get the ball.
So when Aaron Rodgers threw me the ball, I had
to seize the moment and take full advantage of it.
(04:03):
So that's when I did that game.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Arguably, Finley was one of the most talented tight ends
in the history of the Green Bay franchise, even though
he played just six seasons for the Packers, catching two
hundred and twenty three passes for two seven hundred eighty
five yards and twenty touchdowns twenty ten. You guys come
into the season with high hopes. I'll never forget the
(04:30):
welcome back lunch.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Out you're at Green Bay as it was a big time.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
It was really big. You guys are one of the
favorites going into that season. Yes, sir, but it didn't
work out quite as smoothly as everyone thought. Some close
losses early and a lot of injuries, of which you
were one. Tell me about that, and as you watch
that team evolve into a super Bowl team without all
you guys, what was that like?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
It was a big time man. Not my injury, but
the way the guys and the way mc harty as
a coach got the whole team together and he put
it all back together. As far as the injuries, we
had nineteen injuries that year. Bit like a lot of
injuries and just not we had Nick Barnett was hurt
that year, the linebacker, and it was just one of
(05:17):
those years. Well it was just our year, I mean
with the injuries too. Also, I got hurt Week four
in Washington off of I mean, a routine playing injury
is going to happen, and just when it's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
You know. It's interesting, j Mike, because you mentioned McCarthy
and I had learned some things in following that team.
I've told people and I tell them this to this day,
that team does not win the Super Bowl without Mike
McCarthy doing some of the things that he did, like
what you just described behind the scenes, Yes, to get
(05:52):
that team over them, because I think by midway through
the season, with you and Barnett and eight starters out, yeah,
I honestly leave that team was starting to think, well,
it's just not our year, right, season's over, season's kind
of over. Just not our year. But tell me give
me another example of what he did with you guys.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And he was a guy and it was a big
game plan guy. I mean, if you had the injury here,
I was out here. He was always putting a game
plan together where we would succeed. He's a big time
classroom guy. And that's what I respect about McCarthy. You
wouldn't sit in the ex's and o's on the field
or whatnot. Is when the doors are closed upstairs within
(06:31):
the organization where McCarthy goes to work. And he's a
hell of a game planner.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And he's also he kind of has a way of
like most great head coaches, of just nudging you the
right way, the right thing, coming in yes, patting on
the back, say we need you, big fellow.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
And that, and that's the thing he'd done really well.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
And I call him mc McCarthy and mac Brown they
are player coaches where they come down and launch and
breakfast and just talk and just sit you have coffee.
I remember he used to come in. I used to
come in the facility and Mike McCarthy would say, big fellow,
I need to know what you're thinking today. Come upstairs
and have some coffee. He was just that type of coach.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
He's the kind of guy. I've told people this this
week a lot. McCarthy's the kind of guy you pull up,
sit up next next to in the bar, yep, and
just talk. Maybe not even about football, you know, you
just talk. He's that kind of guy he is.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
And like I said, McCarthy was the guy in twenty
ten for us.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You had an interesting relationship with the quarterback. Tell me
about that.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Man it was, you know, I mean, I was that guy.
I was very passionate, really didn't mean any ill will
any flack about it.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I was just that guy that really loved the game.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And now that I look back in my back to
my heyday, and I'm like, why just I couldn't shut
my mouth. I mean, but at the end of the day,
I love the game and I work so hard an
offseason that it was just it wasn't. I mean, it
was just that was just me. That was my personality
and that's what that's what made me who I am.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
To get on the same page, you and Aaron often
would meet Saturday night on the road before the gay
tell us about those meetings.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Man, that was it was pretty awesome because the thing
about them meetings were they wasn't about football, and I
loved that part. It was more about how you're doing,
how's your family? And I'll ask him, how are you doing?
How are your family? So we'll we get off the field.
And then at the eleventh hour of the meeting, that's
when we would go over steps. If he got five steps,
I'm gonna take three, you know. I mean, we'll go
(08:34):
over the steps and whatnot. But he was an awesome guy. Man,
He's a he's a big time leader. Uh And today
I love Aaron Rodgers. I can't wait to see him.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
It sounds to me like a lot of leaders in
the moment, okay, when you're learning and coming up. He's
a demanding task master, isn't he.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
He is demanding, very very smart human being. And that's
and that's what you gotta expect with Aaron Rodgers. And
when we played with the dynamic crew we have. When
you went on the field with Aaron Rodgers is like
going to calculus class. You got to like you got
to do math and you got to play football. So
that was the difficult part with the McCarthy's, the scheme
(09:11):
he had and the things he taught Aaron Rodgers, because
I don't think Aaron Rodgers would have been Aaron Rodgers
without McCarthy. So, like I say, I think, I think
playing with Aaron Rodgers is it's a difficult task.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, it's not easy. There's a lot of You were
coming into your own you were having a nice career.
In the Cleveland Browns game Week seven, twenty thirteen, I
saw the hit. It was describing the game, and you know,
it looked like any other hit. But yeah, you weren't
getting up and tell us about that moment in the
Browns game where you got hit.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Oh, I thought it was a routine play.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Man twelve connected on that play tons of times, and
that play was just unfortunate that the safety came down.
I mean, I've been I just tried to protect myself
and so and I took that hit legitimately a hundred
times and I took that hit, and right when I
took that hit, I just went numb. The stadium went quiet.
(10:09):
I couldn't hear the fans, and I'm like, holy crap,
this is me this time. I didn't seen players get
hurt tons of times and didn't get up. I'm like,
I'm that guy that praised for that guy. I'm like
looking up in this guy. I'm like, oh crap, this
is me this time. And it was one of those
It was one of those feelings where I'm like, oh man,
it's my career.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Over instantaneously, just like that.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
And that's why I go tell guys right now, when
you walk in this locker room or any locker room
run the National Football League, this is a blessing, you
know what I mean. It's any given Sunday now, everybody's
getting bigger, faster, stronger.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
A blessing that can be taken away at a moment's notice.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
And that's what I experienced. Where now I tell my kids,
I got all boys. That's what's crazy, is that every
time we step on the basketball court, football field, anything
seized a moment. Take it all in because this thing
can be taken at any time.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Let me ask you from a business standpoint, you had
I guess, were you coming up on an option year
in your contract or whatever. You had somebody around you,
or you decided we better ensure this guy, and you
had a ten million dollar insurance policy. But the policy
(11:27):
stipulated that if you ever set foot on the football
field again as a player, the policy was defined was
tell me about that situation and was it still It
had to still be gut wrenching to leave the game,
even though you knew you had the financial security, but
to leave the game that it was that desire that
will doesn't care about money, you know what I mean.
(11:50):
So it had to be hard.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
It was very tough at the time. My agent, Blake Barrett's,
my wife Courtney, we said in the room that year
before we even started the season, and I saw myself.
I looked at a couple of film that I had
previous year before the year I got hurt. I was like, man,
I'm playing reckless. I mean, what can we do to
(12:13):
put in place for this following year to protect myself?
And so we started doing a lot of research and
was looking at the Lords of London and so I
protected my ear, my fingers, my toe, my hand, all
my whole body basically, And so happened. I had got
a career ending injury and that was the top of
the lords in London amount that I can get. So
(12:35):
I was like, take me through the roof in the
mount give me the ten million dollar policy. And so
happened that injury happened that year that I signed that policy.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Wow fortuitous, to say the least.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Man it was. I thought I was dreaming for a second.
It didn't it didn't seem real. It seemed it didn't
seem real at all.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
But you still wanted to play, and you still checked
out some opportunities I did.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
I did.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I went to the Seahawks with Snyder and he was like, man,
I oh, I know you. I know you can play,
I know your desire, I know your work at it,
I know all the things you bring to the table.
We're gonna give you a shot. So I was like,
hold on, let me go get an X ray and
the m R on my neck. And so I went
(13:22):
to go do that and I came back. I still
had a bruise on my spinal corps and I was
on a treadmill and Snyder was like that you're done.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I was like, no, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
So I went to the Pittsburgh Citizen and tried them
out and that was my doctor and doctor Maroon. So
you know the doctors, they have egos. It's like, I
fixed your neck, Pittsburgh Silis would love you here. So
I went on my own and got my own m R.
I was like, I'm not healthy enough to play in
the National Football League. So after that I just called
it and just took my policy.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah. Wow, still tough.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Huh, very very very tough.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Today. Finlay, wife Courtney, and five boys live in the
Dallas Fort Worth area, where Jermichael started an organization called
Elevate You, player Development for kids aiming to make football
and sports a career.
For more than a century, the Green Bay Packers have
been a benchmark for football excellence. Thousands of players have
helped pave the way, and we're here to tell you
their stories. I'm Wayne Laravie. This is the Packers alumni
Spot White. Jermichael Finley was a talented tight end and
(00:28):
a colorful personality who came to the Packers in the
third round of the two thousand and eight NFL Draft
out of Texas, A long way from Green Bay. Ah.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Man, it was a crazy ordeal coming from Texas and
being a Texas boy and then going to the University
of Texas, which is a big city in Austin. I
got that call from Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy. I
was like, Green Bay, Wisconsin, We're going from hot to cold.
And I got a phone call from a buddy. It
was like, you better bring every Nintendo game you got
(01:03):
because it ain't nothing to do here but play football.
I was like, this is the best sound for me.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
You came out of school early. I mean you were young, right,
you gave up your last two years of college eligibility,
very young, very young kid, and tell me about your
growing pains when you got here. What was the biggest
thing about being in a pro team now suddenly compared
to what you experienced.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
It was very difficult surrounding myself with men that already
had a full blown family. Coming in as a kid
getting millions of dollars, it was very It was very difficult,
and especially getting the hype and the accolades, and you
know what I mean, coming into the stardom that the
Green Bay Packers is as a franchise, It was very difficult.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
I want to ask you about. Let me take you
back to one of the high points early in your
career when you burst on the scene, when people outside
of Texas started to know Jeremichael Finley. You were the
third leading receiver in two thousand and nine, but you
had a breakout postseason game in the Desert against the Cardinals.
Six receptions a buck fifty nine franchise postseason record for
(02:11):
receiving yardage. Tell me about that game against the Cardinals,
the Packers and Cardinals playoff game that went to overtime
before the Cardinals eventually won out of defensive play. But
tell me about your day. What was it like?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
It was awesome. It was just hitting a stride too
during the course of that season. At the end of
it the eleventh hour and McCarthy came to my locker.
It was like, big fellow, we needed this game. So
that hit me as a young kid like me. Let
me tap into it. The head man came by my
locker and took his time out before the pregame warm ups,
and you know, man, gave me some love and gave
(02:45):
me just that strength to go out and play. My
heart is in man, what a game that was. It
was a big time shootout, man, And I just done
what I'm usually doing, and I was playing football.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Two Hall of Fame quarterbacks, Kurt Warner was on his
way to the Hall of Fame and Aaron Rodgers will
eventually be there. But so you had an inclination that
this could be a big day for you, right, I
mean you were in the game plan.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Absolutely. I'm a big visual guy. So when I went
to bed at night, I try to visualize what I'm
gonna do the next day. And I tell my kid
that now, which is in high school and on varsity,
but I'm like, visualize what you're gonna do the next day,
and visualize all these things and scored, jumping over people,
and so happened. I went out there and put that
onto the field and man, what a game that was.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
It was incredible, it was was it one of those
days where just everything clicked? Are you guys as a unit?
Speaker 3 (03:41):
It did click?
Speaker 2 (03:41):
And the hard part about that is and me being
a tight end and you know, I mean a alert
and a decoy sometimes for the six guys that we
did have touching the ball within Greg Jennings, the Drivers
and James Jones, it was hard to get the ball.
So when Aaron Rodgers threw me the ball, I had
to seize the moment and take full advantage of it.
(04:03):
So that's when I did that game.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Arguably, Finley was one of the most talented tight ends
in the history of the Green Bay franchise, even though
he played just six seasons for the Packers, catching two
hundred and twenty three passes for two seven hundred eighty
five yards and twenty touchdowns twenty ten. You guys come
into the season with high hopes. I'll never forget the
(04:30):
welcome back lunch.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Out you're at Green Bay as it was a big time.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
It was really big. You guys are one of the
favorites going into that season. Yes, sir, but it didn't
work out quite as smoothly as everyone thought. Some close
losses early and a lot of injuries, of which you
were one. Tell me about that, and as you watch
that team evolve into a super Bowl team without all
you guys, what was that like?
Speaker 2 (04:55):
It was a big time man. Not my injury, but
the way the guys and the way mc harty as
a coach got the whole team together and he put
it all back together. As far as the injuries, we
had nineteen injuries that year. Bit like a lot of
injuries and just not we had Nick Barnett was hurt
that year, the linebacker, and it was just one of
(05:17):
those years. Well it was just our year, I mean
with the injuries too. Also, I got hurt Week four
in Washington off of I mean, a routine playing injury
is going to happen, and just when it's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
You know. It's interesting, j Mike, because you mentioned McCarthy
and I had learned some things in following that team.
I've told people and I tell them this to this day,
that team does not win the Super Bowl without Mike
McCarthy doing some of the things that he did, like
what you just described behind the scenes, Yes, to get
(05:52):
that team over them, because I think by midway through
the season, with you and Barnett and eight starters out, yeah,
I honestly leave that team was starting to think, well,
it's just not our year, right, season's over, season's kind
of over. Just not our year. But tell me give
me another example of what he did with you guys.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And he was a guy and it was a big
game plan guy. I mean, if you had the injury here,
I was out here. He was always putting a game
plan together where we would succeed. He's a big time
classroom guy. And that's what I respect about McCarthy. You
wouldn't sit in the ex's and o's on the field
or whatnot. Is when the doors are closed upstairs within
(06:31):
the organization where McCarthy goes to work. And he's a
hell of a game planner.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
And he's also he kind of has a way of
like most great head coaches, of just nudging you the
right way, the right thing, coming in yes, patting on
the back, say we need you, big fellow.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
And that, and that's the thing he'd done really well.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
And I call him mc McCarthy and mac Brown they
are player coaches where they come down and launch and
breakfast and just talk and just sit you have coffee.
I remember he used to come in. I used to
come in the facility and Mike McCarthy would say, big fellow,
I need to know what you're thinking today. Come upstairs
and have some coffee. He was just that type of coach.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
He's the kind of guy. I've told people this this
week a lot. McCarthy's the kind of guy you pull up,
sit up next next to in the bar, yep, and
just talk. Maybe not even about football, you know, you
just talk. He's that kind of guy he is.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
And like I said, McCarthy was the guy in twenty
ten for us.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
You had an interesting relationship with the quarterback. Tell me
about that.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Man it was, you know, I mean, I was that guy.
I was very passionate, really didn't mean any ill will
any flack about it.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
I was just that guy that really loved the game.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And now that I look back in my back to
my heyday, and I'm like, why just I couldn't shut
my mouth. I mean, but at the end of the day,
I love the game and I work so hard an
offseason that it was just it wasn't. I mean, it
was just that was just me. That was my personality
and that's what that's what made me who I am.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
To get on the same page, you and Aaron often
would meet Saturday night on the road before the gay
tell us about those meetings.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
Man, that was it was pretty awesome because the thing
about them meetings were they wasn't about football, and I
loved that part. It was more about how you're doing,
how's your family? And I'll ask him, how are you doing?
How are your family? So we'll we get off the field.
And then at the eleventh hour of the meeting, that's
when we would go over steps. If he got five steps,
I'm gonna take three, you know. I mean, we'll go
(08:34):
over the steps and whatnot. But he was an awesome guy. Man,
He's a he's a big time leader. Uh And today
I love Aaron Rodgers. I can't wait to see him.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
It sounds to me like a lot of leaders in
the moment, okay, when you're learning and coming up. He's
a demanding task master, isn't he.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
He is demanding, very very smart human being. And that's
and that's what you gotta expect with Aaron Rodgers. And
when we played with the dynamic crew we have. When
you went on the field with Aaron Rodgers is like
going to calculus class. You got to like you got
to do math and you got to play football. So
that was the difficult part with the McCarthy's, the scheme
(09:11):
he had and the things he taught Aaron Rodgers, because
I don't think Aaron Rodgers would have been Aaron Rodgers
without McCarthy. So, like I say, I think, I think
playing with Aaron Rodgers is it's a difficult task.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
Yeah, it's not easy. There's a lot of You were
coming into your own you were having a nice career.
In the Cleveland Browns game Week seven, twenty thirteen, I
saw the hit. It was describing the game, and you know,
it looked like any other hit. But yeah, you weren't
getting up and tell us about that moment in the
Browns game where you got hit.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Oh, I thought it was a routine play.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Man twelve connected on that play tons of times, and
that play was just unfortunate that the safety came down.
I mean, I've been I just tried to protect myself
and so and I took that hit legitimately a hundred
times and I took that hit, and right when I
took that hit, I just went numb. The stadium went quiet.
(10:09):
I couldn't hear the fans, and I'm like, holy crap,
this is me this time. I didn't seen players get
hurt tons of times and didn't get up. I'm like,
I'm that guy that praised for that guy. I'm like
looking up in this guy. I'm like, oh crap, this
is me this time. And it was one of those
It was one of those feelings where I'm like, oh man,
it's my career.
Speaker 3 (10:29):
Over instantaneously, just like that.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
And that's why I go tell guys right now, when
you walk in this locker room or any locker room
run the National Football League, this is a blessing, you
know what I mean. It's any given Sunday now, everybody's
getting bigger, faster, stronger.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
A blessing that can be taken away at a moment's notice.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
And that's what I experienced. Where now I tell my kids,
I got all boys. That's what's crazy, is that every
time we step on the basketball court, football field, anything
seized a moment. Take it all in because this thing
can be taken at any time.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Let me ask you from a business standpoint, you had
I guess, were you coming up on an option year
in your contract or whatever. You had somebody around you,
or you decided we better ensure this guy, and you
had a ten million dollar insurance policy. But the policy
(11:27):
stipulated that if you ever set foot on the football
field again as a player, the policy was defined was
tell me about that situation and was it still It
had to still be gut wrenching to leave the game,
even though you knew you had the financial security, but
to leave the game that it was that desire that
will doesn't care about money, you know what I mean.
(11:50):
So it had to be hard.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
It was very tough at the time. My agent, Blake Barrett's,
my wife Courtney, we said in the room that year
before we even started the season, and I saw myself.
I looked at a couple of film that I had
previous year before the year I got hurt. I was like, man,
I'm playing reckless. I mean, what can we do to
(12:13):
put in place for this following year to protect myself?
And so we started doing a lot of research and
was looking at the Lords of London and so I
protected my ear, my fingers, my toe, my hand, all
my whole body basically, And so happened. I had got
a career ending injury and that was the top of
the lords in London amount that I can get. So
(12:35):
I was like, take me through the roof in the
mount give me the ten million dollar policy. And so
happened that injury happened that year that I signed that policy.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Wow fortuitous, to say the least.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Man it was. I thought I was dreaming for a second.
It didn't it didn't seem real. It seemed it didn't
seem real at all.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
But you still wanted to play, and you still checked
out some opportunities I did.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
I did.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
I went to the Seahawks with Snyder and he was like, man,
I oh, I know you. I know you can play,
I know your desire, I know your work at it,
I know all the things you bring to the table.
We're gonna give you a shot. So I was like,
hold on, let me go get an X ray and
the m R on my neck. And so I went
(13:22):
to go do that and I came back. I still
had a bruise on my spinal corps and I was
on a treadmill and Snyder was like that you're done.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I was like, no, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
So I went to the Pittsburgh Citizen and tried them
out and that was my doctor and doctor Maroon. So
you know the doctors, they have egos. It's like, I
fixed your neck, Pittsburgh Silis would love you here. So
I went on my own and got my own m R.
I was like, I'm not healthy enough to play in
the National Football League. So after that I just called
it and just took my policy.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
Yeah. Wow, still tough.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Huh, very very very tough.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Today. Finlay, wife Courtney, and five boys live in the
Dallas Fort Worth area, where Jermichael started an organization called
Elevate You, player Development for kids aiming to make football
and sports a career.
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