October 21, 2022 • 15 mins
In this episode of the Packers POV podcast, punter Pat O'Donnell talks about the recent arrival of his second child, lessons learned from his father and becoming a wedding officiant.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, and welcome to Packers p o V, a podcast
that aims to shine a light on the human behind
the helmet. I'm your host, Taylor Rogers, and we are
here inside historic Lambeau Field. This guest is a relatively
new arrival to the Green and Gold, but not to
the Gridiron. He's been booming kicks down in Chicago for
the past eight years, owning the Bears team record for
(00:27):
punting average. In college, he earned first team honors from
two different conferences, the A c C and Big East.
Introducing Green Bay Packers punter Pat O'Donnell. How's it going, Pat,
Thanks for having me man, I'm in the studio with
you in Lambeau This is awesome. It's really a special feeling,
even just to walk through the Bowl on the way
(00:47):
down here. No, it's so historic. And you know, you
referenced me being in Chicago and it was always a
game that I love coming to. I know it's a
huge rivalry, but the stadium is amazing. It's just nothing
like it. It's a really cool place. And speaking of
Green Bay, I want to start with the fact that
you are now a father of two. I am. I
don't know when that happened. It's just like I snapped
my fingers and I have two kids. So I have
(01:09):
a daughter, uh twenty month old and now I have
a three week old son. So I got one of each.
So I asked the why. I said, we've done. You
feel good about this? So she's like, I don't know.
I might want to go for three, but that might
be down the road a little bit. So we tried
to plan it out close in the age. But it's
been great so far. Well, congratulations, that's huge news. Yeah, big,
big news. Appreciate that. How has that been so far?
(01:32):
Obviously it's in the early stages. But what's the biggest
change going from one child to two? People say, you know,
it's harder to go from one to two in a
sense of my daughter now is at twenty months and
she's like running around, she wants to do activities and
she's still trying to fully grasp at the baby's going
to be there every day versus like it's just like
(01:52):
a visitor and you know she's gonna get all the
attention again. So it's a lot of me with her.
You know, when I'm not in the build thing, so
I get to hang out with her and do activities
and as you know, it's pet rock stage for three
week old, like you just eats, sleep and poops. So
he's pretty mellow right now, which is probably more my personality. Uh.
My wife is very social and bubbly, and uh, we'll
(02:15):
see how that develops for him. It sounds like your
daughter is taking well to a new edition in the household.
She is. I think she's doing the best she can.
She's fully like this morning, she said, like baby baby,
and she's like pointing to like we have this little
Fisher Price swing and he usually kind of chills out
in there in the mornings and I get to see
him and see her. But they had a late night
(02:37):
last night, so she didn't get a whole lot of sleep,
and he was kind of up, so she was a
little confused, but he said, no, mommy is in the
other room, and I think she's going to have a
lot of my wife's personality. You know, she's he goes
on the park. Uh, you know, Titletown is awesome. We
kind of get to hang out over there, and she
loves hanging out with the kids, and she always introduced
herself like hello, and I love seeing that because is
(03:00):
she's such a a cool kid, and I'm glad and
proud that, you know, introduces herself to other kids, and
other kids kind of stare at her, but it is
what it is, right. You rather have your kid, uh
be the nice, friendly, outgoing kid. One of the things
that has brought out your personality is your podcast Locker
Room Dad's that you do with your buddy Josh Brinz. Oh,
(03:20):
what is one thing that you've learned conducting that podcast
as a host that you didn't know going in. I
didn't realize like how many guys really want to talk
about their family, and a lot of us don't get
the opportunity, uh, in our day to day jobs. You know,
the mom is essentially all the focus and the dads
don't really get to connect. And it's cool to ask
questions the wathery're going through, the struggles, maybe some advice.
(03:44):
One of the biggest things that we do try to
talk about is is travel. You know, some tips and
tricks that can help families that are traveling or are
things that could just help anybody on a daily basis.
So it's really cool to connect with a lot of
my teammates, some guys across the league, and we're just
gonna keep it going and keep lighthearted and fun. Mason
Crosby is one of those names of five. Yeah, I mean,
(04:04):
it doesn't get much better than that, right, father of five.
He's got to have a lot of wisdom and a
lot of stories. I'm sure right. He definitely does have
talked to him in the past, and obviously he has
some light to shed on different stages of fatherhood. Is
he's got Nolan now, who is a little older, Yeah, exactly,
And you're bringing up Nolan is is really cool because
he loves my daughter Palmer because they just hang out
(04:27):
and I think she has like her first crush on him,
and it's like really weird for me to see as
a dad, But no one's such a good kid, and
you know, he takes her. You know, they have a
playground at their house, and we got to spend two
or three weeks when we were trying to transition and
look for a place to live, and it's it's really
cool that we got to connect with Crosby's. Are there
any early adventures that you've gotten a chance to do
(04:49):
off the field in the you know, Wisconsin area, You
know what, so I actually had the opportunity of going
to Door County. That's one of the places that we
wanted to visit. Awesome, and I think A. J. Dillon
he's actually my neighbor, so he had a lot of
recommendations and connections up there, so I got to experience it.
I went to the farm. I don't know if you've
been to the farm. It's like a petting zoo essentially,
(05:11):
and my daughter loved it. The the goats run up
to you, and he got little milk bottles and you
can feed the goats and whatnot, or have a corn
in your hand and feed the sheep and the cows
and whatnot. So it was a cool experience to see
her interact with animals. That's really cool. It sounds like A. J.
May have given you the key for the day exactly.
I mean, he's the mayor, right everybody knows out of
Door County. So I'm fortunate enough to uh be neighbors
(05:35):
with him, and he's such a great resource for me to,
you know, experience those things in a short amount of time.
His family as well as growing he recently got married.
Have you guys gotten a chance to get to know
the Dylan's just a little bit. Yeah, we actually have
It's it's really cool to see his in laws come
over and he invites me over, and uh, my wife
is now close with his wife, and it's really cool
(05:56):
for her to connect with the wives, you know, and
in the locker room and uh, to see like how
their personalities click. It sounds like she's got a chance
to sort of become a part of the Green Bay
Packers organization by way of you. Obviously her social demeanor
helps a little bit. But what's that been like for
you guys for these first few months. Yeah, the first
few months honestly have been really easy for us. There
(06:17):
is the people here have been so welcoming, especially knowing
the Crosby's. They they've been here quite some time, and
they opened a lot of doors for us, and having
a j across the street, and you know, just the
wives of the coaches reach out and be a resource
for her anything that she needs, um, which I think
is super important especially when you have kids and the
number one thing is you know, getting a pediatrician or
(06:40):
getting the right doctor, because we were pregnant at the
time and she was looking for the right doctor or whatnot.
So we actually went with Dr Windburn, which which is
she's super fun and super cool and lighthearted, and she
made the whole process and pregnancy really fun, uh for
my wife because I've heard you she was like a
comedian and like I met her and I was like
waiting for these jokes, and then as soon as my
(07:01):
wife went into labor, she started cracking all these jokes
and had her laughing, which is super hard to do
for those that don't really understand like what that process
is like. But it's I think it's just a testimony
to the people here in Green Bay. No, that's incredible.
It sounds like she's got the comedic timing thing down
because she waits for the right opportunity to insert her
(07:21):
punch lines right. And I'm like, I know you're super
tired your own call all the time, and like I'm
judging you in your comedic act front and center. But no,
it's it's really cool to have the opportunity to meet
all these different people across Green Bay that you wouldn't
necessarily interact with on a daily basis, right being in
the locker room and you just get to see all
the great people in Green Bay. I can't stress that
(07:43):
enough because people don't understand. Because I was a little
thrown by how nice people were here and they just
want to help you, And I said, I'm from Florida,
and it's a little standoffish, you know, it's like, what
does this person want from me? You know what I mean?
So it's it's a cool changeup for me. Do you
remember one quick delivery punchline that she made in the room?
(08:03):
You know, I don't know if it's appropriate for this podcast.
It was along the lines of something like that's what
she said, like it was something happening, and I don't
know it was. The timing was impeccable, so she she's fantastic.
That's outstanding. And what's been sort of one of the
main takeaways you've learned from now having a family of four?
(08:23):
You know what, I think, it's allocating my time appropriately
because when I was a younger player, I was honestly
afraid to deviate any type of time to something else,
Like I was like all into football and I didn't
understand really how to allocate my time elsewhere. And now
having a family is just spending time with them in
(08:45):
the off day when they wake up from the now
like I get it in from nine o'clock to twelve
o'clock and then having the rest of the day with them.
You've got a great training ground in your own father,
who you learned a ton from. He was a big
role model in your life and was often the guy
supporting you and having your back all the way through
your come up process. You know, University Cincinnati, Miami. You
(09:08):
picked up football late in high school. It sounds like
he was a little bit of that jet fuel that
started you on your journey. Yeah. He actually had me
really young into sports. He he always said that he
wanted me to involved in sports to keep me out
of trouble. And he was a coach, so he actually
coached me up until a certain point. I think it
was around ten years old, and then he coached my sister.
(09:30):
He said, I can only get you so far. But
he was the type of guy to to do anything
for you, and he loved impacting the youth as well.
And he always taught me to uh to pay it
forward essentially, and those are the camps I do in
the off season. I just paid tribute to him and
all the different people that have helped me in the
past or people that I've played with just pour out
(09:50):
into these young kids and have the opportunity to interact
with the NFL athletes, which is really cool. So yeah,
I I I thank my dad a lot for showing
me the way how to be a man and helping
other people along the way. Your dad coached Terry is
what he was called in Florida. He was really someone
that you described as a fighter. He had an eleven
(10:12):
year about with cancer, went through chemo. What did you
learn about your family during this stage of your guy's
life together? Uh? Yeah, it was. It was honestly tough.
If anybody knows families that are going through cancer or
the treatments, and a lot of people don't really know
what to do when people are going through that process,
and honestly, it's treating them like nothing ever happened. Like
(10:34):
people don't want to feel pity and remorse. They just
want to treat you or feel treated like they always
did with them, you know, remember the good times, tell stories,
check in on them, because that's how my dad was.
He wasn't the type of person that wanted people to
feel bad for him, Like he appreciated when people reached out,
but to answer your question. I think the tight knit
bond that our family does have I just only got stronger.
(10:55):
So it's just me and my sister mom. So my
sister would do the same thing. She would come anytime
she had free weekends or what not to see my dad,
and she was luckily in Florida. So I'm very thankful
for that because she kind of kept me updated along
the way, because you don't really understand, like I'm in
college and playing football, I'm doing academics. But she kind
of kept me up to date on everything. And my
(11:15):
mom did the same thing. And I'm really thankful that
they were actually with him. You know, for the eleven
year stretch. You and your sister have developed a really
close relationship. I understand you were actually an efficiant at
her wedding. I don't know where you're getting this information,
but man, you're good. Yeah. I I got approached by
her and her fiance at the time to officiate the wedding,
(11:36):
and I was a little taken back because I want
to make sure that everything went smooth for her and
her fiance. But after thinking it over for like twenty
four hours, I say, can I sleep on this? You
know what I mean? Like, I just want to make
sure I can actually do this. And I had a
good friend, Nick Foles, who actually recently officiated a wedding,
and he kind of walked me through the steps and
made me feel a little bit more comfortable officiating and
(11:58):
you know, going through the process because it was somewhat
of a big wedding. It wasn't like a backyard wedding
with two people with three people, but no, it's a
really cool experience and it was a great honor for
me to uh officiate that. Did you approach it with
any punchlines or ice breakers? How did you do that? Yeah?
So there was some funny moments in my whole skit
(12:18):
if you will, or like the choreographed routine. But my
sister I wanted to fly through the rehearsal so fast
that I wanted to make sure that she was understanding,
like when to you know, you recite the vows, the
original vows, if you will, And she messed up and
the rehearsal and I said, okay, make sure you look.
(12:38):
She's like yeah, yeah, yeah, I gotta I gotta got it.
And she actually messed it up the day of the
wedding because I wasn't done, you know, reciting the vowels,
and she jumped the gun if you will, and I said,
it's just it was just like the rehearsal and you
messed this part up too. Why don't you ever listen
to me? And like everyone laughed, and it was a
special moment, especially like having my dad not be able
to attend. Uh, it was cool for me to essentially
(13:01):
be involved in the wedding and not necessarily take a
little bit away of you know, the missing piece, but uh,
just to show how close our family actually is. You
talk about your dad not being present there at that ceremony,
but you and your sister have to feel a kind
of strength from what he was able to teach you.
What stands out from what he taught you, I think
(13:23):
it was a couple of weeks before he passed. He
always said, just make sure you take care of the family.
And that's something that I've carried with me every single
day since and I always check in on them, make
sure they're doing okay. So I would say definitely that
just be the man that they need, be the rock
of the family and keep everyone together. You now have
an opportunity to pay it forward. You've got two children
(13:47):
and a life of lessons that your father taught you
as a coach but also as a man. What is
something that you want to pass along to your children. Yeah,
I would say the work ethic part that he instilled
in me at a young age is something that I
definitely want to pass on. He kept me involved in
sports when when I was really young, and I love sports,
(14:09):
so I really didn't question it. And now I really understand,
like what it means as a young kid to have
structure and to learn life experiences and things from doesn't
necessarily have to be football. It could be soccer, basketball,
whatever it is, but dedicating your time to something to
be the best that you possibly can be, and sometimes
(14:30):
like those days is not enough and you have to
be okay with adversity and failing and then learning from
that as you go. So I think sports teaches you
a lot about life. Sometimes it's not fair, sometimes the
ball doesn't bounce your way, but I think is really
important to instill that in my kids are people that
you know I can help along the way is you
(14:51):
just need to keep your nose to the grindstone and
just work as hard as you possibly can and hopefully
like that's it's enough, right. I would definitely say he
instilled a lot of um structure in my life. Pat,
thank you so much for taking some of your time
and chatting with us. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me,
and thank you for listening to Packers p o V.
To learn more about Pat and his family's efforts off
(15:13):
the field, visit gitland golf dot com. Take care and
see you next time.
Hello, and welcome to Packers p o V, a podcast
that aims to shine a light on the human behind
the helmet. I'm your host, Taylor Rogers, and we are
here inside historic Lambeau Field. This guest is a relatively
new arrival to the Green and Gold, but not to
the Gridiron. He's been booming kicks down in Chicago for
the past eight years, owning the Bears team record for
(00:27):
punting average. In college, he earned first team honors from
two different conferences, the A c C and Big East.
Introducing Green Bay Packers punter Pat O'Donnell. How's it going, Pat,
Thanks for having me man, I'm in the studio with
you in Lambeau This is awesome. It's really a special feeling,
even just to walk through the Bowl on the way
(00:47):
down here. No, it's so historic. And you know, you
referenced me being in Chicago and it was always a
game that I love coming to. I know it's a
huge rivalry, but the stadium is amazing. It's just nothing
like it. It's a really cool place. And speaking of
Green Bay, I want to start with the fact that
you are now a father of two. I am. I
don't know when that happened. It's just like I snapped
my fingers and I have two kids. So I have
(01:09):
a daughter, uh twenty month old and now I have
a three week old son. So I got one of each.
So I asked the why. I said, we've done. You
feel good about this? So she's like, I don't know.
I might want to go for three, but that might
be down the road a little bit. So we tried
to plan it out close in the age. But it's
been great so far. Well, congratulations, that's huge news. Yeah, big,
big news. Appreciate that. How has that been so far?
(01:32):
Obviously it's in the early stages. But what's the biggest
change going from one child to two? People say, you know,
it's harder to go from one to two in a
sense of my daughter now is at twenty months and
she's like running around, she wants to do activities and
she's still trying to fully grasp at the baby's going
to be there every day versus like it's just like
(01:52):
a visitor and you know she's gonna get all the
attention again. So it's a lot of me with her.
You know, when I'm not in the build thing, so
I get to hang out with her and do activities
and as you know, it's pet rock stage for three
week old, like you just eats, sleep and poops. So
he's pretty mellow right now, which is probably more my personality. Uh.
My wife is very social and bubbly, and uh, we'll
(02:15):
see how that develops for him. It sounds like your
daughter is taking well to a new edition in the household.
She is. I think she's doing the best she can.
She's fully like this morning, she said, like baby baby,
and she's like pointing to like we have this little
Fisher Price swing and he usually kind of chills out
in there in the mornings and I get to see
him and see her. But they had a late night
(02:37):
last night, so she didn't get a whole lot of sleep,
and he was kind of up, so she was a
little confused, but he said, no, mommy is in the
other room, and I think she's going to have a
lot of my wife's personality. You know, she's he goes
on the park. Uh, you know, Titletown is awesome. We
kind of get to hang out over there, and she
loves hanging out with the kids, and she always introduced
herself like hello, and I love seeing that because is
(03:00):
she's such a a cool kid, and I'm glad and
proud that, you know, introduces herself to other kids, and
other kids kind of stare at her, but it is
what it is, right. You rather have your kid, uh
be the nice, friendly, outgoing kid. One of the things
that has brought out your personality is your podcast Locker
Room Dad's that you do with your buddy Josh Brinz. Oh,
(03:20):
what is one thing that you've learned conducting that podcast
as a host that you didn't know going in. I
didn't realize like how many guys really want to talk
about their family, and a lot of us don't get
the opportunity, uh, in our day to day jobs. You know,
the mom is essentially all the focus and the dads
don't really get to connect. And it's cool to ask
questions the wathery're going through, the struggles, maybe some advice.
(03:44):
One of the biggest things that we do try to
talk about is is travel. You know, some tips and
tricks that can help families that are traveling or are
things that could just help anybody on a daily basis.
So it's really cool to connect with a lot of
my teammates, some guys across the league, and we're just
gonna keep it going and keep lighthearted and fun. Mason
Crosby is one of those names of five. Yeah, I mean,
(04:04):
it doesn't get much better than that, right, father of five.
He's got to have a lot of wisdom and a
lot of stories. I'm sure right. He definitely does have
talked to him in the past, and obviously he has
some light to shed on different stages of fatherhood. Is
he's got Nolan now, who is a little older, Yeah, exactly,
And you're bringing up Nolan is is really cool because
he loves my daughter Palmer because they just hang out
(04:27):
and I think she has like her first crush on him,
and it's like really weird for me to see as
a dad, But no one's such a good kid, and
you know, he takes her. You know, they have a
playground at their house, and we got to spend two
or three weeks when we were trying to transition and
look for a place to live, and it's it's really
cool that we got to connect with Crosby's. Are there
any early adventures that you've gotten a chance to do
(04:49):
off the field in the you know, Wisconsin area, You
know what, so I actually had the opportunity of going
to Door County. That's one of the places that we
wanted to visit. Awesome, and I think A. J. Dillon
he's actually my neighbor, so he had a lot of
recommendations and connections up there, so I got to experience it.
I went to the farm. I don't know if you've
been to the farm. It's like a petting zoo essentially,
(05:11):
and my daughter loved it. The the goats run up
to you, and he got little milk bottles and you
can feed the goats and whatnot, or have a corn
in your hand and feed the sheep and the cows
and whatnot. So it was a cool experience to see
her interact with animals. That's really cool. It sounds like A. J.
May have given you the key for the day exactly.
I mean, he's the mayor, right everybody knows out of
Door County. So I'm fortunate enough to uh be neighbors
(05:35):
with him, and he's such a great resource for me to,
you know, experience those things in a short amount of time.
His family as well as growing he recently got married.
Have you guys gotten a chance to get to know
the Dylan's just a little bit. Yeah, we actually have
It's it's really cool to see his in laws come
over and he invites me over, and uh, my wife
is now close with his wife, and it's really cool
(05:56):
for her to connect with the wives, you know, and
in the locker room and uh, to see like how
their personalities click. It sounds like she's got a chance
to sort of become a part of the Green Bay
Packers organization by way of you. Obviously her social demeanor
helps a little bit. But what's that been like for
you guys for these first few months. Yeah, the first
few months honestly have been really easy for us. There
(06:17):
is the people here have been so welcoming, especially knowing
the Crosby's. They they've been here quite some time, and
they opened a lot of doors for us, and having
a j across the street, and you know, just the
wives of the coaches reach out and be a resource
for her anything that she needs, um, which I think
is super important especially when you have kids and the
number one thing is you know, getting a pediatrician or
(06:40):
getting the right doctor, because we were pregnant at the
time and she was looking for the right doctor or whatnot.
So we actually went with Dr Windburn, which which is
she's super fun and super cool and lighthearted, and she
made the whole process and pregnancy really fun, uh for
my wife because I've heard you she was like a
comedian and like I met her and I was like
waiting for these jokes, and then as soon as my
(07:01):
wife went into labor, she started cracking all these jokes
and had her laughing, which is super hard to do
for those that don't really understand like what that process
is like. But it's I think it's just a testimony
to the people here in Green Bay. No, that's incredible.
It sounds like she's got the comedic timing thing down
because she waits for the right opportunity to insert her
(07:21):
punch lines right. And I'm like, I know you're super
tired your own call all the time, and like I'm
judging you in your comedic act front and center. But no,
it's it's really cool to have the opportunity to meet
all these different people across Green Bay that you wouldn't
necessarily interact with on a daily basis, right being in
the locker room and you just get to see all
the great people in Green Bay. I can't stress that
(07:43):
enough because people don't understand. Because I was a little
thrown by how nice people were here and they just
want to help you, And I said, I'm from Florida,
and it's a little standoffish, you know, it's like, what
does this person want from me? You know what I mean?
So it's it's a cool changeup for me. Do you
remember one quick delivery punchline that she made in the room?
(08:03):
You know, I don't know if it's appropriate for this podcast.
It was along the lines of something like that's what
she said, like it was something happening, and I don't
know it was. The timing was impeccable, so she she's fantastic.
That's outstanding. And what's been sort of one of the
main takeaways you've learned from now having a family of four?
(08:23):
You know what, I think, it's allocating my time appropriately
because when I was a younger player, I was honestly
afraid to deviate any type of time to something else,
Like I was like all into football and I didn't
understand really how to allocate my time elsewhere. And now
having a family is just spending time with them in
(08:45):
the off day when they wake up from the now
like I get it in from nine o'clock to twelve
o'clock and then having the rest of the day with them.
You've got a great training ground in your own father,
who you learned a ton from. He was a big
role model in your life and was often the guy
supporting you and having your back all the way through
your come up process. You know, University Cincinnati, Miami. You
(09:08):
picked up football late in high school. It sounds like
he was a little bit of that jet fuel that
started you on your journey. Yeah. He actually had me
really young into sports. He he always said that he
wanted me to involved in sports to keep me out
of trouble. And he was a coach, so he actually
coached me up until a certain point. I think it
was around ten years old, and then he coached my sister.
(09:30):
He said, I can only get you so far. But
he was the type of guy to to do anything
for you, and he loved impacting the youth as well.
And he always taught me to uh to pay it
forward essentially, and those are the camps I do in
the off season. I just paid tribute to him and
all the different people that have helped me in the
past or people that I've played with just pour out
(09:50):
into these young kids and have the opportunity to interact
with the NFL athletes, which is really cool. So yeah,
I I I thank my dad a lot for showing
me the way how to be a man and helping
other people along the way. Your dad coached Terry is
what he was called in Florida. He was really someone
that you described as a fighter. He had an eleven
(10:12):
year about with cancer, went through chemo. What did you
learn about your family during this stage of your guy's
life together? Uh? Yeah, it was. It was honestly tough.
If anybody knows families that are going through cancer or
the treatments, and a lot of people don't really know
what to do when people are going through that process,
and honestly, it's treating them like nothing ever happened. Like
(10:34):
people don't want to feel pity and remorse. They just
want to treat you or feel treated like they always
did with them, you know, remember the good times, tell stories,
check in on them, because that's how my dad was.
He wasn't the type of person that wanted people to
feel bad for him, Like he appreciated when people reached out,
but to answer your question. I think the tight knit
bond that our family does have I just only got stronger.
(10:55):
So it's just me and my sister mom. So my
sister would do the same thing. She would come anytime
she had free weekends or what not to see my dad,
and she was luckily in Florida. So I'm very thankful
for that because she kind of kept me updated along
the way, because you don't really understand, like I'm in
college and playing football, I'm doing academics. But she kind
of kept me up to date on everything. And my
(11:15):
mom did the same thing. And I'm really thankful that
they were actually with him. You know, for the eleven
year stretch. You and your sister have developed a really
close relationship. I understand you were actually an efficiant at
her wedding. I don't know where you're getting this information,
but man, you're good. Yeah. I I got approached by
her and her fiance at the time to officiate the wedding,
(11:36):
and I was a little taken back because I want
to make sure that everything went smooth for her and
her fiance. But after thinking it over for like twenty
four hours, I say, can I sleep on this? You
know what I mean? Like, I just want to make
sure I can actually do this. And I had a
good friend, Nick Foles, who actually recently officiated a wedding,
and he kind of walked me through the steps and
made me feel a little bit more comfortable officiating and
(11:58):
you know, going through the process because it was somewhat
of a big wedding. It wasn't like a backyard wedding
with two people with three people, but no, it's a
really cool experience and it was a great honor for
me to uh officiate that. Did you approach it with
any punchlines or ice breakers? How did you do that? Yeah?
So there was some funny moments in my whole skit
(12:18):
if you will, or like the choreographed routine. But my
sister I wanted to fly through the rehearsal so fast
that I wanted to make sure that she was understanding,
like when to you know, you recite the vows, the
original vows, if you will, And she messed up and
the rehearsal and I said, okay, make sure you look.
(12:38):
She's like yeah, yeah, yeah, I gotta I gotta got it.
And she actually messed it up the day of the
wedding because I wasn't done, you know, reciting the vowels,
and she jumped the gun if you will, and I said,
it's just it was just like the rehearsal and you
messed this part up too. Why don't you ever listen
to me? And like everyone laughed, and it was a
special moment, especially like having my dad not be able
to attend. Uh, it was cool for me to essentially
(13:01):
be involved in the wedding and not necessarily take a
little bit away of you know, the missing piece, but uh,
just to show how close our family actually is. You
talk about your dad not being present there at that ceremony,
but you and your sister have to feel a kind
of strength from what he was able to teach you.
What stands out from what he taught you, I think
(13:23):
it was a couple of weeks before he passed. He
always said, just make sure you take care of the family.
And that's something that I've carried with me every single
day since and I always check in on them, make
sure they're doing okay. So I would say definitely that
just be the man that they need, be the rock
of the family and keep everyone together. You now have
an opportunity to pay it forward. You've got two children
(13:47):
and a life of lessons that your father taught you
as a coach but also as a man. What is
something that you want to pass along to your children. Yeah,
I would say the work ethic part that he instilled
in me at a young age is something that I
definitely want to pass on. He kept me involved in
sports when when I was really young, and I love sports,
(14:09):
so I really didn't question it. And now I really understand,
like what it means as a young kid to have
structure and to learn life experiences and things from doesn't
necessarily have to be football. It could be soccer, basketball,
whatever it is, but dedicating your time to something to
be the best that you possibly can be, and sometimes
(14:30):
like those days is not enough and you have to
be okay with adversity and failing and then learning from
that as you go. So I think sports teaches you
a lot about life. Sometimes it's not fair, sometimes the
ball doesn't bounce your way, but I think is really
important to instill that in my kids are people that
you know I can help along the way is you
(14:51):
just need to keep your nose to the grindstone and
just work as hard as you possibly can and hopefully
like that's it's enough, right. I would definitely say he
instilled a lot of um structure in my life. Pat,
thank you so much for taking some of your time
and chatting with us. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me,
and thank you for listening to Packers p o V.
To learn more about Pat and his family's efforts off
(15:13):
the field, visit gitland golf dot com. Take care and
see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.