November 4, 2022 • 13 mins
In this episode of the Packers POV podcast, tackle Yosh Nijman talks about his passion for music, playing days at Virginia Tech and his off-the-field goals.
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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 Rodgers, and we are
here inside historic lambeau Field. This is a one of
one guest, a state champion shot putter and award winning
choir singer who became a thirty two games starter on
Virginia text offensive line at six ft seven, fourteen pounds,
(00:30):
introducing Green Bay Packers tackle Yosh Nieman. How's it going,
Yosh doing well? Thanks for having me today. So happy
to have you and have been really excited to get
a chance to talk to you. I think the music
thing is of interest. Can you pinpoint any moment when
music felt like more than just music? I think it's
been like that since I was a kid. Um. I
(00:51):
remember when I was younger and my mom had a
plethora of CDs. I used to go to UH I
can't remember what the stories called, but it was store
in New York City that like you can buy like
a whole bunch of CDs and cassette tapes and different stuff.
And I remember my mom had like a few artists
like my dad was a big fan of Earth winning
fire and a lot of music down in that time,
(01:12):
and my mom like had me listening to Michael Jackson
at a young age. So just seeing all the stardom
and performing and everything, I kind of like fell in
love with like the music and pretty much performance and
everything around that. And then, um, by the time I
got to high school, my teacher was Bunts. It was
her first year when it was my first year in
Columbia High School and Maypleo, New Jersey, and she kind
of like was like on me as far as music
(01:34):
because she thought I had a great voice to the
point of my senior year at joint selective choir and uh,
kind of took that level of choir to like the
next level with a group of other kids are very
talented and singing. And how did you make that transition
and rise into a selective choir? What was it about
your voice that stood out? Um? She said, I was
like a great baritone and I was fairly new to it,
(01:56):
but I remember going through like rehearsal and it was
like so good, sounds so good. Um. There was times
where like we saw a song called Vidom Corpus, like
by William Bird, probably like in the fifteen hundreds this
like the sixteenth century. And I remember there was a
time where we've heard the song and I remember she
was like, if you have to excuse yourself because you
(02:17):
know the music, which is so good, like people would
just like tear and I would just like I never
experienced something like that before, where like people can be
emotionally pulled, like within seconds of listening to music. So
once I went to college, I kind of like wanted
to stay plugged in, and that's when I got involved
with the FO studio, like using a demo version and
started playing around self teaching myself how to use the
(02:38):
plug ins and whatnot. That's incredible, And you're referring to
your ability to make music now as a hobby. That's
something that's stuck with you. But shout out to Miss Bonds.
I'm grateful for her because I think that was probably
like one of the coolest parts of my life actually
growing up. Just like the choir in high school, that's
really neat as far as singing goes, obviously you've got
(02:59):
some ability. Dance is another segue in the similar genre
that you became famous for here in Green Bay this
past season. Yeah, so it kind of happened during the
Steelers game. I didn't necessarily thought I would be calling
on camera doing it, but then that, you know, the
next following day, like everyone like kind of pointed out
as snap. But then the guys were like, yoh, that's
(03:20):
pretty cool. So I don't necessarily like dance a lot
around the guys, but maybe more so this year coming up.
The robot is of course the dance that got you
famous locally. But is there a dance you're most proud
of that you've learned? Um, I would say like, I
kind of just like freestyle dance. Like my two sisters,
(03:42):
Sarah and Hannah, I'm the middle child, they both were
in uh special dancing in high school. They would dance
to a lot of different pieces. I remember my oldest
sister when I was a freshman, she graduated two thousand
eleven UM. In her senior year, she danced with a
lot of her other class. Smith's two songs like Adele.
(04:03):
I think when our twenty one album came out and
I was like, the first time I've ever heard of Dell,
and I thought to myself and like, this would be
an excellent song to dance to be yet alone like
a great song. So I mean, I would say I
used I listened to like a lot of music as
a kid, hip hop in particular, but you know, electronic, um,
indie alternative, but like that style of music A dell.
(04:23):
I kind of like, I was like, okay, I never
really heard this before, but you know this is a
beautiful melody, beautiful voice. You know, this is awesome and
the dancing is phenomenal. You're the middle in between a
younger sister and her older sister. What's that dynamic? Like, um,
it's fun. We you know, I guess now since that
we're older. Um my little sister just turned twenty, my
(04:44):
older sisters twenty nine, so we're kind of all like
in the same decade. Like you know, um, I think,
you know, the last few years has been awesome because
you know, we're much older now. We took a trip
to California, went to Disneyland and kind of went on
some of the West Coast beaches and just like you know,
hung out and talked about things that you know, we
didn't get a chance to on the phone during like
(05:05):
the time I was playing as of this age, you know,
as all being adults, like we all kind of support
each other and what we want to do as far
as our careers and like try to lean on each
other as siblings. That's really special that you have that
bond with both of them. It doesn't always work that way, yeah,
but they're very supportive of them. And your mom is
another person that's very supportive in your life, obviously attending
(05:29):
a lot of your games. Uh, you know, dating back
to high school and even here in Green Bay. What
has that relationship been like for you. Um My mom
has kind of been like my cornerstone, Like anytime I
really need some like real life um my mom and
dad both anytime I need some real life adult advice,
(05:50):
even when I don't want to hear it, I come
down and kind of sit and think, I'm like, okay,
like my parents were right in the sense of that,
because you know they want the best for you, so
you know, taking it a little bit more seriously. I
know as kids, everyone's like like forget what you have
the same mom, But I think, like, you know, becoming
a man, Uh, you just kind of have to see
like what's important, especially like what your parents say, if
(06:12):
you know, if they have their head on straight, or
if I have my head on straight to really taking consideration,
like you know that someone that's been through what you've
been through already, and like consider what they're saying. Do
you have one person that you go to football stuff
with and then one person that you go to relationships
off the field stuff with or how does that work?
I was saying, more so on my dad's side, we
(06:34):
talked a lot of football. Um My, my mom and
I we talked football too, but more so the like
relationship side, and my dad and I we we get
into it with all sports. Um My dad's a big
Knicks fan, Giants fan, Yankees fans, so the Knicks haven't
been doing too well, so he always like, you know,
we talked about that a lot. But yeah, my dad's
(06:54):
more so on the sports side. My dad and I
would talk a lot of sports. And I want to
transition from that time in New Jersey where you grew
up and then transition from Columbia High School down to
Virginia Tech and you get out there and your Week
one opponent is the unanimously ranked number one team in
the country, Ohio State. Yes, I go. I go in
(07:17):
on the third series and like I would say, I
don't think I had any time to be anxious or
I have butterflies or anything like. It was just like, okay,
from whatever I actually remember from practice, I'm just gonna
do that. Um. I think it went pretty well though,
But it was quite an experience given the fact that
we were the Virginia Tech was the only team to
beat Ohio State in two thou fourteen once they won
(07:38):
the championship, and we were the next team to play
after they won the championship, so it was like highly anticipated.
But that was like one of those games where I
was for ever remember just you know, after the first touchdown,
I just remember screeching and I was like if this
is what college football is about, and like wow, like
this is amazing. I think I would say I fell
in love with football like a little bit more than
(07:59):
I did before. From the experience. You ended up starting
thirty two games at Virginia Tech, switching from left tackle
to right tackle over the course of your time there.
And then the draft comes around and you get undrafted.
But you get a call on May three from the Packers.
What was that like? It was It was a relief
(08:21):
because then like for me, I knew I could still
have an opportunity to play football. I just didn't want
the opportunity to like to be missed. So like just
like learning the history of the Packers and like the
years of winning in the traditionary is kind of like
an honored beer in play. So like every given Sunday
is really like a privilege to really wear the G.
You're twenty six years old, You've got a ton of
(08:43):
accomplishments already under your belt. Every game you started last
season the Packers won. What's still out there for you? Well,
I kind of had to give glory to guide for that.
I mean that's a crazy stat um. Everything that I
still set my mind on think, I just wanna, like,
you know, for this team, I just want to perform
(09:05):
the best I possibly can so we can reach our goals. Um.
You know a lot of times, you know, you have
coaches through your career just playing football say like you
know you're you're a part of the bigger picture. And
I think, like playing here, like you really feel you
know that you are part of a bigger picture, like
an organization and everything that stands behind the G. You know,
(09:27):
you don't want to taint that image, you know, So
like as a players like you kind of like want
to almost be flawless, and I think the guys here
kind of like elevated my game in that sense. You've
mentioned the belief factor and how coaches and players might
have that in you and what it does to you.
Who is that person off the field for you? I
(09:49):
would say my high school coach, coach Green, Kevin Green. Um,
when I was in high school, he kind of was like,
I wouldn't say hard on me, but like he kind
of was that I had made me really start taking
football seriously in the sense of like, you know, I
can get education doing it. Um, that's the kind of
a person from me off the field. You've had a
couple of examples of that that you've mentioned, of people
(10:13):
really guiding you to that next step. There's also been
some adversity tied into that too, for anyone that might
be going through their own form of adversity. What advice
might you have, UM, that's you know, dark times come,
but they don't always stay like as storms, you know,
rain storms, thunderstorms. They'll probably be for a night, but
(10:33):
the next morning, you know you're going to see the sun.
So whatever you're potentially going through, no, it's not gonna
last forever, have faith that you will get through it.
That mindset is beautiful. Is there anything that helps you
jolt out of some kind of cloud like that and
get right? Music? Man, music, dancing? Are it kind of
(10:54):
keeps the clarity for me? Usually if I'm like going
through something, for me, it's like I put that aside
and just focus on creativity to keep my mind off
that or at least stay grounded and that That is
a perfect way to describe you, in my opinion, is
someone who's very grounded. Who is that role model that's
(11:15):
taught you that ability? Um? I would say like my
parents for sure. Um, I know, you know, raising three
kids is not exactly the easiest, especially me being a
knucklehead as a kid. But my parents really, I think
over the years, or at least being an adult, I
kind of see how they kept themselves grounded through a
lot of adversity, and like, you know, I guess they
(11:38):
taught me, you know, ways to be creative when I
was a kid and not too strict to where it's
like I couldn't do this, I couldn't do that, and
like they kind of let my mind wander and really
focus on the things that I think I would like
and want to do when I got older. So looking
at my parents growing up and the things that they've
done or did for me to do the same to
keep me grounded in that sense, if we take that
(11:59):
less than that you learn from your parents and pass
that down to the next generation, what would you say
to kids that may see you in the spot you
are now but not know if they have it in
them to get to this point whatever like they want
to do, continue it no matter how hard it gets,
I would say, because I think at a young age
(12:20):
is important to establish sacrifice and grit even before being
an adult. I kind of feel like that kind of
rolls into adulthood. Sticking to something I know back in
high school, Like my high school wasn't the best in football,
but me and some of my buddies really stuck to
it all the way at the end. Even if you
want a game, I'm like, were we crazy? Like a
(12:42):
lot of guys are just like, oh, let's forget about it,
but you know, we kind of like stuck to something
that you know, it wasn't a positive outlook, but we
were optimistic about it the whole way through. And I
think in life, like you're not always going to get
you know, the things that you want done, but you
have to establish some kind of consistency to get to
(13:02):
where you need to go. So I think you know,
running the course of being consistent and what you want
to do even if it gets really hard to that point.
What are some off the field goals that you want
to stick to off the field goals, I definitely want
to be more interconnected with the community and to be
(13:26):
a you know, positive light for people and be someone
that brings inspiration for people. I think you've done that
just by who you are. Forget all of the on
the field accolades, Yosh, thank you so much for taking
the time to sit down with us. Of course it's
been there's a pleasure of being in it, and thank
(13:46):
you for listening to Packers p o V. To learn
more about what Yosh is doing off the field, visit
his Instagram account art of Josh 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 Rodgers, and we are
here inside historic lambeau Field. This is a one of
one guest, a state champion shot putter and award winning
choir singer who became a thirty two games starter on
Virginia text offensive line at six ft seven, fourteen pounds,
(00:30):
introducing Green Bay Packers tackle Yosh Nieman. How's it going,
Yosh doing well? Thanks for having me today. So happy
to have you and have been really excited to get
a chance to talk to you. I think the music
thing is of interest. Can you pinpoint any moment when
music felt like more than just music? I think it's
been like that since I was a kid. Um. I
(00:51):
remember when I was younger and my mom had a
plethora of CDs. I used to go to UH I
can't remember what the stories called, but it was store
in New York City that like you can buy like
a whole bunch of CDs and cassette tapes and different stuff.
And I remember my mom had like a few artists
like my dad was a big fan of Earth winning
fire and a lot of music down in that time,
(01:12):
and my mom like had me listening to Michael Jackson
at a young age. So just seeing all the stardom
and performing and everything, I kind of like fell in
love with like the music and pretty much performance and
everything around that. And then, um, by the time I
got to high school, my teacher was Bunts. It was
her first year when it was my first year in
Columbia High School and Maypleo, New Jersey, and she kind
of like was like on me as far as music
(01:34):
because she thought I had a great voice to the
point of my senior year at joint selective choir and uh,
kind of took that level of choir to like the
next level with a group of other kids are very
talented and singing. And how did you make that transition
and rise into a selective choir? What was it about
your voice that stood out? Um? She said, I was
like a great baritone and I was fairly new to it,
(01:56):
but I remember going through like rehearsal and it was
like so good, sounds so good. Um. There was times
where like we saw a song called Vidom Corpus, like
by William Bird, probably like in the fifteen hundreds this
like the sixteenth century. And I remember there was a
time where we've heard the song and I remember she
was like, if you have to excuse yourself because you
(02:17):
know the music, which is so good, like people would
just like tear and I would just like I never
experienced something like that before, where like people can be
emotionally pulled, like within seconds of listening to music. So
once I went to college, I kind of like wanted
to stay plugged in, and that's when I got involved
with the FO studio, like using a demo version and
started playing around self teaching myself how to use the
(02:38):
plug ins and whatnot. That's incredible, And you're referring to
your ability to make music now as a hobby. That's
something that's stuck with you. But shout out to Miss Bonds.
I'm grateful for her because I think that was probably
like one of the coolest parts of my life actually
growing up. Just like the choir in high school, that's
really neat as far as singing goes, obviously you've got
(02:59):
some ability. Dance is another segue in the similar genre
that you became famous for here in Green Bay this
past season. Yeah, so it kind of happened during the
Steelers game. I didn't necessarily thought I would be calling
on camera doing it, but then that, you know, the
next following day, like everyone like kind of pointed out
as snap. But then the guys were like, yoh, that's
(03:20):
pretty cool. So I don't necessarily like dance a lot
around the guys, but maybe more so this year coming up.
The robot is of course the dance that got you
famous locally. But is there a dance you're most proud
of that you've learned? Um, I would say like, I
kind of just like freestyle dance. Like my two sisters,
(03:42):
Sarah and Hannah, I'm the middle child, they both were
in uh special dancing in high school. They would dance
to a lot of different pieces. I remember my oldest
sister when I was a freshman, she graduated two thousand
eleven UM. In her senior year, she danced with a
lot of her other class. Smith's two songs like Adele.
(04:03):
I think when our twenty one album came out and
I was like, the first time I've ever heard of Dell,
and I thought to myself and like, this would be
an excellent song to dance to be yet alone like
a great song. So I mean, I would say I
used I listened to like a lot of music as
a kid, hip hop in particular, but you know, electronic, um,
indie alternative, but like that style of music A dell.
(04:23):
I kind of like, I was like, okay, I never
really heard this before, but you know this is a
beautiful melody, beautiful voice. You know, this is awesome and
the dancing is phenomenal. You're the middle in between a
younger sister and her older sister. What's that dynamic? Like, um,
it's fun. We you know, I guess now since that
we're older. Um my little sister just turned twenty, my
(04:44):
older sisters twenty nine, so we're kind of all like
in the same decade. Like you know, um, I think,
you know, the last few years has been awesome because
you know, we're much older now. We took a trip
to California, went to Disneyland and kind of went on
some of the West Coast beaches and just like you know,
hung out and talked about things that you know, we
didn't get a chance to on the phone during like
(05:05):
the time I was playing as of this age, you know,
as all being adults, like we all kind of support
each other and what we want to do as far
as our careers and like try to lean on each
other as siblings. That's really special that you have that
bond with both of them. It doesn't always work that way, yeah,
but they're very supportive of them. And your mom is
another person that's very supportive in your life, obviously attending
(05:29):
a lot of your games. Uh, you know, dating back
to high school and even here in Green Bay. What
has that relationship been like for you. Um My mom
has kind of been like my cornerstone, Like anytime I
really need some like real life um my mom and
dad both anytime I need some real life adult advice,
(05:50):
even when I don't want to hear it, I come
down and kind of sit and think, I'm like, okay,
like my parents were right in the sense of that,
because you know they want the best for you, so
you know, taking it a little bit more seriously. I
know as kids, everyone's like like forget what you have
the same mom, But I think, like, you know, becoming
a man, Uh, you just kind of have to see
like what's important, especially like what your parents say, if
(06:12):
you know, if they have their head on straight, or
if I have my head on straight to really taking consideration,
like you know that someone that's been through what you've
been through already, and like consider what they're saying. Do
you have one person that you go to football stuff
with and then one person that you go to relationships
off the field stuff with or how does that work?
I was saying, more so on my dad's side, we
(06:34):
talked a lot of football. Um My, my mom and
I we talked football too, but more so the like
relationship side, and my dad and I we we get
into it with all sports. Um My dad's a big
Knicks fan, Giants fan, Yankees fans, so the Knicks haven't
been doing too well, so he always like, you know,
we talked about that a lot. But yeah, my dad's
(06:54):
more so on the sports side. My dad and I
would talk a lot of sports. And I want to
transition from that time in New Jersey where you grew
up and then transition from Columbia High School down to
Virginia Tech and you get out there and your Week
one opponent is the unanimously ranked number one team in
the country, Ohio State. Yes, I go. I go in
(07:17):
on the third series and like I would say, I
don't think I had any time to be anxious or
I have butterflies or anything like. It was just like, okay,
from whatever I actually remember from practice, I'm just gonna
do that. Um. I think it went pretty well though,
But it was quite an experience given the fact that
we were the Virginia Tech was the only team to
beat Ohio State in two thou fourteen once they won
(07:38):
the championship, and we were the next team to play
after they won the championship, so it was like highly anticipated.
But that was like one of those games where I
was for ever remember just you know, after the first touchdown,
I just remember screeching and I was like if this
is what college football is about, and like wow, like
this is amazing. I think I would say I fell
in love with football like a little bit more than
(07:59):
I did before. From the experience. You ended up starting
thirty two games at Virginia Tech, switching from left tackle
to right tackle over the course of your time there.
And then the draft comes around and you get undrafted.
But you get a call on May three from the Packers.
What was that like? It was It was a relief
(08:21):
because then like for me, I knew I could still
have an opportunity to play football. I just didn't want
the opportunity to like to be missed. So like just
like learning the history of the Packers and like the
years of winning in the traditionary is kind of like
an honored beer in play. So like every given Sunday
is really like a privilege to really wear the G.
You're twenty six years old, You've got a ton of
(08:43):
accomplishments already under your belt. Every game you started last
season the Packers won. What's still out there for you? Well,
I kind of had to give glory to guide for that.
I mean that's a crazy stat um. Everything that I
still set my mind on think, I just wanna, like,
you know, for this team, I just want to perform
(09:05):
the best I possibly can so we can reach our goals. Um.
You know a lot of times, you know, you have
coaches through your career just playing football say like you
know you're you're a part of the bigger picture. And
I think, like playing here, like you really feel you
know that you are part of a bigger picture, like
an organization and everything that stands behind the G. You know,
(09:27):
you don't want to taint that image, you know, So
like as a players like you kind of like want
to almost be flawless, and I think the guys here
kind of like elevated my game in that sense. You've
mentioned the belief factor and how coaches and players might
have that in you and what it does to you.
Who is that person off the field for you? I
(09:49):
would say my high school coach, coach Green, Kevin Green. Um,
when I was in high school, he kind of was like,
I wouldn't say hard on me, but like he kind
of was that I had made me really start taking
football seriously in the sense of like, you know, I
can get education doing it. Um, that's the kind of
a person from me off the field. You've had a
couple of examples of that that you've mentioned, of people
(10:13):
really guiding you to that next step. There's also been
some adversity tied into that too, for anyone that might
be going through their own form of adversity. What advice
might you have, UM, that's you know, dark times come,
but they don't always stay like as storms, you know,
rain storms, thunderstorms. They'll probably be for a night, but
(10:33):
the next morning, you know you're going to see the sun.
So whatever you're potentially going through, no, it's not gonna
last forever, have faith that you will get through it.
That mindset is beautiful. Is there anything that helps you
jolt out of some kind of cloud like that and
get right? Music? Man, music, dancing? Are it kind of
(10:54):
keeps the clarity for me? Usually if I'm like going
through something, for me, it's like I put that aside
and just focus on creativity to keep my mind off
that or at least stay grounded and that That is
a perfect way to describe you, in my opinion, is
someone who's very grounded. Who is that role model that's
(11:15):
taught you that ability? Um? I would say like my
parents for sure. Um, I know, you know, raising three
kids is not exactly the easiest, especially me being a
knucklehead as a kid. But my parents really, I think
over the years, or at least being an adult, I
kind of see how they kept themselves grounded through a
lot of adversity, and like, you know, I guess they
(11:38):
taught me, you know, ways to be creative when I
was a kid and not too strict to where it's
like I couldn't do this, I couldn't do that, and
like they kind of let my mind wander and really
focus on the things that I think I would like
and want to do when I got older. So looking
at my parents growing up and the things that they've
done or did for me to do the same to
keep me grounded in that sense, if we take that
(11:59):
less than that you learn from your parents and pass
that down to the next generation, what would you say
to kids that may see you in the spot you
are now but not know if they have it in
them to get to this point whatever like they want
to do, continue it no matter how hard it gets,
I would say, because I think at a young age
(12:20):
is important to establish sacrifice and grit even before being
an adult. I kind of feel like that kind of
rolls into adulthood. Sticking to something I know back in
high school, Like my high school wasn't the best in football,
but me and some of my buddies really stuck to
it all the way at the end. Even if you
want a game, I'm like, were we crazy? Like a
(12:42):
lot of guys are just like, oh, let's forget about it,
but you know, we kind of like stuck to something
that you know, it wasn't a positive outlook, but we
were optimistic about it the whole way through. And I
think in life, like you're not always going to get
you know, the things that you want done, but you
have to establish some kind of consistency to get to
(13:02):
where you need to go. So I think you know,
running the course of being consistent and what you want
to do even if it gets really hard to that point.
What are some off the field goals that you want
to stick to off the field goals, I definitely want
to be more interconnected with the community and to be
(13:26):
a you know, positive light for people and be someone
that brings inspiration for people. I think you've done that
just by who you are. Forget all of the on
the field accolades, Yosh, thank you so much for taking
the time to sit down with us. Of course it's
been there's a pleasure of being in it, and thank
(13:46):
you for listening to Packers p o V. To learn
more about what Yosh is doing off the field, visit
his Instagram account art of Josh Take care and see
you next time.
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