October 7, 2025 • 46 mins
This week on Stew and the Crew, J-Stew is joined by Panther legend, Fozzy Whittaker, to swap stories from their days of being teammates, discuss embracing positivity to get through adversity, highlight the importance of family, share their thoughts on the Panthers first 5 weeks, and so much more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're the thirteenth pick in the two thousand and eight
NFL draft.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Caroen lenon half the collect Jonathan Stewart gives to Stewart,
he leaves touchdown.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Stewart oh rough tough right, angry man out at elbows, knees.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Stewart hesitates, accelerates. That's what I'm talking about. Fit the
spash Moll football contain Stuart Cant running around.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Stewart jump over a tackler at the tenth flows jump
Laura's his shoulder, keeps running.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
No one will touch him. Jonathan Stewart house.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Does it you talk about explosive plays in the run game.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's like the fourth of July around here. Right now
you are listening to Stu and the crew. Welcome to
the stew and the Crew. We back at it. Week six.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Got a special guess for you guys, the one and
only Boswit Fozzie Whitaker, Ladies and gentlemen. He's not just
only a seven year vet. He is now a analyst
for the SEC Network. But more importantly, he's one of
(01:03):
my good friends, one of my best favorite teammates. He
was a guy that kept the energy light, kept things interesting,
but he brought the positive positivity, but he always kept
it real somehow. But Fozzi Whitaker, Man, I'm so glad
that you're here. It's been since twenty nineteen. We were
(01:26):
talking downstairs in the lobby as we were coming up.
It's been twenty nineteen, so that's been six years. Yeah,
too long, too long. But you want to know something,
We ain't missed the beat. We ain't missed the beat.
We's down there, we's down there completing sentences. They're like,
it was crazy, but that's how you know you got
(01:47):
special relationships and bonds with people.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Man. But glad to have you here, dude.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Absolutely, Man, it's a pleasure. Always great being back in
the Queen City. Obviously catching up with you and some
of the guys that we played with together. And like
you mentioned, that bond and the special type of relationship
that we created during my time here, it's it's truly
one of a kind and something that I cherish even
(02:13):
to this day. And man, the kiddos wanted to come
to Charlotte with me. They was like, Hey, we gotta
go to U's. Like, no, y'all got too so y'all
stay y'all little tills at home. But It's always good
to catch up with you, my brother, and see the facility,
all the changes that have been made, and obviously seeing
where this team continues to go this season.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, man, I always reminisce when I see some stuff.
When I see stuff on Instagram or memes, whatever be,
we'd be sitting be sending stuff to each other. That
being hitting home.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I gotta I gotta say one thing, and it probably
at least once a month. There's a conversation in my
household about when we went to Krispy Krean. There was
obviously there are several times we went to Chrispy kreen
but obviously the one same famous moment that Hot and
Ready was was pretty famous that went viral before viral
(03:06):
was even a thing. To be honest, we might have
kicked off the viral sokka. We might have dad trains
and dads like.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
That turned pictures on the sideline. Yeah, we did all that.
We started a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
But the story that always comes up is this spider
that brought into your car and.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
You you was you was listen, give give us give
me your version of that story, okay, because I'd be
arguing with Kenya all the types of if you are listening,
this is how it went down.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
All right. So we went to go eat after practice out.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
And and I forgot where we went to. We got wings.
We went to Buffalo Whi Wing. Buffalo Wi Wings, that's
what it was. So we got Buffalo Wi Wings. Were
walking back to your car, d Loo and told drove
together and Dlo's truck and then me and Kenyon har
premium custom super customized, very very beautiful, very nice. And
(04:11):
then we rode in your car. You had your audie,
me and Kenyon. Kenyon was sitting in the front seat.
I was sitting in the back seat. But on the
way to both of our vehicles, Kenyon was walking underneath
trees and walking in between trees. He was swerving in
and out. And it was the summertime, right during summertime,
because it was training camp. We were out in Spartanburg,
and you said, hey, you walking under those trees. Don't
(04:34):
you bring no bug into my car?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And Kenyon said, man, I ain't gonna bring no bug
in your car. And we get in the car getting
ready to go get out dessert with Krispy Kreme. That
was a custom that the running backs always had to do.
Because that hot and Ready sign was on.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
We got it.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
We should have gotten a sponsorship, a much greater sponsorship.
Now that we're here, right, we still got a chance.
N I l baby, come on, baby, but we go.
D Loo and Tobart they in the in the very
customized car in front of us. They're ordering for however
many Tobert HoTT and Ready boxes he got, we were waiting.
(05:22):
He got at least two boxes. Yeah, yeah, at least
and that's just for him. Uh, but we're waiting and
behind them, I'm in the back seat, in the middle seat,
so I can see everything in front of me. Stu driving,
and then Kenyon and a passenger while Dlo and Tobert
are ordering at the box. Kenyon looks down and said oh.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Stu said, oh what.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Kenyon felt something crawl on his neck said oh. He
jumps out of the car. Yeah, like no hesitation. No,
there's nobody moved. There's nobody that I've seen move faster
getting out of a seatbelt, opening the door in five
yards away. Then I seen Kenyon move until I saw
(06:10):
the way Kenyon sprinted out and you sprinted out with
the same exact speed. But guess what, ladies and gentlemen.
We were in the lane to order the car was
not put into park, and lo and.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Behold, I jump out the driver's seat, Ladies and gentlemen.
I was driving an Audie and we was going in
a drive through lane in Crispy Kreams and de'angelo Williams
until October were parked right in front of us. And
as I see the young man Kenyon Barner jump out
of his seat, I knew what time it was. He
didn't need to say anything because I said, do not
(06:47):
get your butt in this car with that spider on you.
Because I didn't know there's a spider on you. You said,
it ain't no spider on me. So I gave you
the benefit of the doubt, right and lo and behold
he jumped out. And guess what I did. I jumped
out too, joked out the car. Okay, because I ain't
trying to be run those spotters. Okay, Now this is
this is pre married ste pre father stew So my
(07:10):
instincts as far as protection and protecting the people that
are around me, that wasn't That was enough. It went
out the dough in the same way you went. I
went out the dough. But so I'm in the back seat.
He in the back seat yelling, hey, hey, car ry,
we are rolling. And so immediately I realized the car
(07:34):
was in drive, and I hear a boom.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
And luckily we.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Wouldn't like in drive, like we wouldn't go in at
certain miles for hour or anything. But we hit the
back of the Agelo's car. He was nice enough to
not really give me any any uh, you know he
was He wasn't mad, but we all was dying laughing
in the drive through of Krispy Kremes and Spartanburg.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Sparkle City is what they call it.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Don't forget about told having the window down. He heard
the car hit the Angelo's truck, but rolled the window
up like somebody was mugging him or something.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Shoot, that's going over here.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
I gotta roll the window up, nah man. But I
got back in the car and I put it, you know,
I put the brake on it. And so sometimes that
happens sometimes the bees like that. You know, you have
your fears, but I want to let you know I
did overcome my fear of spider. Yeah, so when I
see a spider, I kill it. I kill it with
my hand, No, with you hand. Yeah, and you've come
(08:46):
along with It's because of fatherhood, man, you've come along
with you know when you become a stapers.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, when you become a father, it's just changed your
whole mindset, Like it's either it's either my kids or
you're the spider.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Gotta go, Spider, Gotta go, Spider got Oh man, that
was a good story. Dog.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
You were so you were undrafted, and I love your
story because there's a lot to unpack there in my
in my eyes. You know, you were under you were
an undrafted rookie to the Cardinals practice squad. You've gone
through so much adversity, right, you know going back to
(09:30):
college you had in the knee injury in twenty eleven,
and the expectations going into that season for you they
were high, right, But I really want to tap into
something a little deeper. Your positivity, your energy, your outlook.
Where does that come from? Is that just the Whittaker way?
(09:52):
Like like let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, I think you know me just about as well
as anybody else would. And you know how spiritually based
I am, and the way my mom brought up myself
and my two older brothers was God has a plan,
and that plan is for all of us to prosper.
Whether we go through adversity or whether we go through
(10:16):
the fun and the good times, It's all still a
part of the main goal of what God wants us
to experience and eventually what those experiences in turn turn
us to become and be more human but also living
christ Like in the image of his son. And I
truly took the moment of my knee injury in college.
(10:39):
I took that as a sign of I hadn't grown
enough and it took me time to get through that.
Right in the middle of my injury. That was not
what I was thinking. Hindsight Its hindsight. He's twenty twenty now.
But the first thing I thought, and I'm sure a
lot of people also think, was like, why me. I
felt like I've been doing the things that I needed
(10:59):
to do. I felt like I was headed down the
right track. I'm one of the hardest working individuals on
the football team. I was selected as a captain of
the football team my senior year at Texas.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Like why did it have to be?
Speaker 1 (11:12):
I was having my best season in college as well,
and it was like, why did I have to go
through this at that time, and my mom used to
always remind me that God gives some of the worst
or strongest trials and tribulations to his strongest soldiers, And
for me, I kind of took that personally of a
thought process of like, Okay, if other people went through this,
(11:35):
how would they.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Respond and react?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
And if I was fortunate enough to play college football,
what would my next steps be? And who or what
type of person would I look back and say I
was proud of becoming after my injury. And I think
that put things into perspective. And after a day of
kind of wallowing and trying to figure out what my
(11:59):
next plan is path was going to be, I don't
get drafted, and I have another moment of where I'm like, man,
I don't know what my future is going to be.
I've been working hard. I have to figure out how
to tap back in into what got me there to
begin with. In the opportunity to even be present at
college football, right, that's significant in and of itself, to
be able to play at a university like the University
(12:21):
of Texas, let alone for four years and starting my
senior year and having some big time plays, and so
I got back to the humility of it all. Thanks
to my wife now who was my girlfriend at the time, Jasmine,
my mom, my two brothers. They always kept telling me,
you know, put your head down, put faith in God,
but continue to go to work. And that's exactly what
(12:41):
I did. And I think that has transpired into the
type of person that I am today. And I've learned
from it and that has allowed me to say, hey,
my path is going to be what it is. God
already has set my path. But at the end of
the day, how I look at it. I can look
at it from a negative perspective or I can look
at it from the positive perspective. And I typically would
(13:02):
choose the positive perspective because.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Why be negative? I always think, like, what do you
get out of being negative? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I understand complaints, I understand bad things happen, but why
stay in that?
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah? You got a choice.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
And it's the same way, right if we running gassers,
you got a choice. Do I want to sprint full
speed each gaser and try to get better or do
I want to just you know, go out and half
run the gassers and just say it's done, right? And
I think that choice was something that I had continuously
made from the decisions that my mom had raised in us.
(13:41):
If you do something, you're gonna do it one hundred percent, right,
whether that's cleaning the bedroom. Whenever I was a little
kid before, I had to go out and play. So
if I didn't clean my room and it wasn't done
to the liking of my mother's approval, then I had
to come back inside and I had to go clean
in and I lost privileges for the rest of the day.
If I didn't clean the dishes, if I didn't wash clothes,
(14:01):
if I didn't run with great effort on the track,
if I didn't run with great effort on the football field. Right,
my mom would tell me that and she'd be like,
and then whatever you do, you got to give it
a hundred percent. And I've taken that to heart of like, hey,
I'm gonna stay positive and I'm gonna give my positivity
one hundred percent. And even whenever there are times where
I falter, I got to lean back on something and
(14:23):
that's the plan that God has for me, and then
it kind of resets me and then I'm ready to
rock and roll. So I think that's the premise of
how I was able to overcome my injury stay positive,
but then at the same time, like have motivation in
my mind and in my mindset of who I want
to be and where I'm trying to go and who
I want to become.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, that's beautiful, man, because you know, for those that
are listening, Fozzy goes undrafted and that positive mindset and
the things that he was brought up with, such as
going one hundred percent and everything that he does got him,
you know, on some teams, So the Chargers, right, the Browns,
(15:04):
and then finally your land where you supposed to be.
All right, twenty fourteen, My boys, a Carolina Panther. Take
us back to that time when you became, when you
were sought after to be a Carolina Panther. What did
(15:24):
you know about the Panthers then? What was exciting? What
was the DNA like, what was the differences between that
Panther team and the teams that you've experienced before.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, so the first thing that stood out to me
and how my journey even happened there. Right, I've another
trial that I had to go through, right. I was
released from Arizona after you know, the season ended, and
I'm thinking you know, it's my first NFL stop.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I'm practice squad. Okay, next year I'll.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Get a chance to go, you know, be on the
squad and make the fifty three man roster and so
kind of make some Hey, well, their Zona Cardinals were
not great that year, so they fired the entire staff,
brought in a new staff. Typically, whenever that happens, holdovers,
whether it's personnel, whether it's players, whether it's whatever, they
end up getting let go. So I got let go
(16:17):
and lo and behold the relationship that I created with
Ken Wizenhunt, who was the head coach at the time.
He becomes the offensive coordinator at the San Diego Chargers.
He picked me up and said, hey, I want you
to come with me to San Diego. Want you to
be a part of that mission.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Let's weigh in on that. Yeah, yeah, your relationship with
a coach. Explain how that came to be. Was there
intentionality behind that or is that just you being who
you are every time you show up to the facility
people can depend on that.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I had no.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Idea what was going on, And the crazy part about
it was literally I still had to recover throughout the
course of the beginning of that football season in twenty thirteen,
where or twenty twelve, I'm sorry where I wasn't able
to get picked up on a team. So, like I
talked about, draft day passed, I didn't get selected obviously
(17:14):
I was still too injured. No team was like, hey,
we're not gonna take on dead weight for a guy
that's not gonna have a chance to play this season.
So draft day comes and goes, Training camp comes and goes,
preseason comes and goes, all throughout the season, comes and goes.
The third to last week of the season, so what
is that You get a bye week? So there were
(17:36):
seventeen weeks, so that would have been week fourteen. Week fourteen,
they contact my agent. This is December. They contact my
agent and say, hey, we want to bring Fozzi in
for a workout to see how his knees healing up
and to see where his conditioning level is.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
My agent calls me. I'm like, let's go.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
What flight we own already. I don't even need to
pack too much stuff. Blah blah blah. My agent says,
if they like you, they'll sign you. So make sure
you pack a couple of clothes so that you can
make it through the next two weeks, to be honest,
So I work out, you know, work out with the
running back coach and the offenseve coordinator at the time,
(18:16):
and you know, I felt like I did good, but
I had no clue. They gave me no feedback. They said,
all right, we'll see you later, sent me back home.
I had no idea what to expect.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah. I was just like, well, at.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Least I got a chance to I was I was anxious.
I just was like, well, I did what I could,
though there was nothing more that I could do. I
showed them everything that I was. I gave them one
hundred percent of me if they wanted me, like, that's
that's all I could do. And so I was happy
I got the opportunity and it made my dream and
(18:49):
realization of Okay, maybe I can make it to the NFL,
Like that's what I've been pursuing. And I finally first
got an opportunity. And whether anybody else called me back
and I never played it down in the NFL, that
was enough to validate all the hard work that I
put in rehabbing and then getting my mind right and
my body right and kind of going through finding a job,
(19:10):
trying to make ends meet all throughout that season, just
just to secure myself an opportunity for that moment. And
once that moment came, I just had to do what
I could so I don't hear nothing. And then literally
a week later, my agent calls me and say, hey,
they want to sign you to the practice squad. They
released a different individual. You're gonna fly out there and
(19:30):
you're gonna be there for the last two weeks and
then we hope to sign a futures contract. So fly
out do what I need to do for practice, and
those two weeks, like I said, it's literally the last
two weeks of the season. I want to say the
Cardinals as that team that year, we may have won
three games, so there was no hope of anything, Like
(19:52):
there were no playoff implications, there were no division winning
championship implications.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Like everybody knew it's the season is done.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
He was going going back hole and I was going
hard in practice out there, mixing them up. Bro probably
got some people five the best scout team running back
I could be.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
You probably got fired because it's late in the season.
A nobody trying to ain't nobody trying to go now
I know that right once. I was a vet in
the NFL, like I knew what time it was. People
were shots A nice guy, but God chase him hard.
I remember Dan Williams defensive tackle. I was going too
hard for his liking and scout team one day, but
(20:36):
he put me on my butt, like I'm trying to
run through the middle. We just playing, I want to say,
we were playing the Raiders, so we were preparing for
I think it's like Darren McFadden was playing.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
That's the running back. So I was like, i gotta
run like Darren McFadden, like I'm getting I'm getting squad right, man.
He put me on my butt so hard.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
That's the hardest I've ever been hit in the NFL,
and it was in practice because I was trying to
give the best look I could. Was gonna go one
hundred percent. It's my first time really being in football action,
and over a year I tore my knee up November
of twenty one of eleven. I'm sorry twenty eleven. So
it's like I've gone literally thirteen months without playing real football.
(21:17):
And that was the first time I got to go
out there and play with a group of individuals and
compete and organize football. So I was acting like it
was my game day. It was my game day reps,
and man it was awesome. I'm trying to outrun Pat p.
I'm trying to I'm trying to run routes on Adrian Wilson,
Like these are all phenomenal individual right, they playmakers, dudes.
(21:40):
And that's whenever I was just like, Okay, cool, this
is what it's supposed to feel like. It was my
first kind of introduction. I think that's what set me
apart in Ken wizen Hunt's mind of like, hey, this
is a guy that I can work with. I don't
know what he's going to become. I still had a
knee brace on, so I wasn't out here maximum, but
I'm out there giving it all I could. Yeah, And
(22:02):
I think that's what stood out. And I hadn't talked
to coach wizen Hunt like ever. I was a practical
god in week fourteen, so it's like, what does he
really have to say to me other than like, hey,
get the look right? And so it also went to
show people are watching my actions more than I even realized.
My actions are conveying to everybody around me.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, just doing the right thing.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Yeah, and you're doing the right thing for yourself, right,
and eventually you're realizing you do the right thing for yourself.
It helps the broad a picture, absolutely right, And that
brought a picture, got you to Carolina. So going back,
what was your what was your your first take? Like,
what was your expectations of the Carolina Panthers back then?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
So going going there again? So released by Arizona. Almost
same thing happened in Cleveland where whole new regime. They
drafted two running backs in the NFL Draft and then
the following day I get the boot.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
So draft is in April, and.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Terrence West was one of them, and I cannot remember
who the other one was, but they drafted to one
in the fifth round, I think one in the fourth round.
Maybe it was fourth and fifth round of or fifth
and sixth round. But they had a plan of the
type of body type that they wanted to utilize, and hey,
do what you gotta do. So I'm released after the
(23:32):
draft in April, and then May goes by, don't hear nothing.
And then June goes by, don't hear nothing. July comes
around and my agent says, hey, training camp is about
the time that you may hear calls because injuries happen.
You never want to be in a situation like this.
But the Panthers had drafted Tyler Gaffney from Stanford, phenomenal player.
(23:57):
He tore his ACL on the third day of camp.
As you know you were there, you saw it. After
the third day of training camp, my agent caused me say, hey,
Panthers want to bring you and another guy in. Ironically,
the other guy's names Glasgow Martin. He played running back
at Baylor, who I played against at Texas. We both
were training together during the summertime in preparation for each
(24:20):
of us seeking an opportunity to go play in the NFL.
And I get to call from my agent. You must
have was running your sprints harder than him had to
had to. It's funny, he wrote. He wrote a kind
of memoir about that, and he had a podcast video.
But ironically we both just trained. I'll get to it,
but we come out. Skip is our freaking guy that's
(24:43):
running us, obviously the running back coach. He calls us
out and say, hey, I want you all to go
through drills blah blah blah blah blah, and me and
Glasgow been running these drills and work out and we've
been doing well, and we probably necking neck. Glasgow a
little bit bigger than me too, so physical size, he
probably looked like the better option to be able to
(25:04):
handle banging of being an NFL running back. But what
Coach Skipp did at the end was had us run
routes and had and he threw the ball and we
had to go get or he brought a quarterback to
throw the ball. Coach, so he had a quarterback come
over and throw some routes to us and I was
(25:26):
able to catch the ball possessive, run my routes better
than what Glasgow was used to doing, and we go back.
Glasgow used to ask me why do I catch routes
after we do our workouts in the summertime. Every time
He's like, why do you always work on your routes
in your hands? And I just told him, Bro, that's
that's the type of back I want to be. I
want to be multiple, and I want to be utilized
(25:47):
in any way possible. And he had actually dropped a
couple of the passes whenever we were with Coach Skipp
doing that workout, And I think that was probably the separation,
the fastest separation, and I talked to skip later down
the line, and skip. You know how skippy is he
straight to the point he told me, he said, whenever
(26:07):
they asked, okay, which back do you own, skip seid,
I want a little fast one.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
I want a little fast guy.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
I want the little fast one. And so that ended
up being how I got on the roster. In my
first mindset was like, Bro, Carolina is like one of
the ideal places I wanted to be. I knew you,
and d Low was already here. I knew Tobert was
coming off of a Pro Bowl appearance. Cam was obviously here.
The mindset for this team revolved around the identity of
(26:33):
the running back. It's like, I know Smitty was also
that dude. But in order to be one of the
physical teams and one of the teams that controlled the
line of scrimmage, you gotta have some dogs at running back,
and that's what you all were. But in order to
be a championship team with them, mentally, you gotta have
a defense. Yeah, And I go back and obviously the
(26:55):
forty nine Ers game in the playoffs in twenty thirteen,
that's something that sticks out to me. But I saw
the type of teen chemistry that you all had and
it didn't obviously work out in the favor of the
Panthers in that moment, but I could feel just from
watching like there was something there, something special and getting
(27:15):
that opportunity. When my agent called me, I was like, bro,
this is the spot I'm supposed to be at.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
And I get here.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
First day, I see Cam in the cafeteria. He say, Hey,
what's your name? I said, Fozzi. He said Bobby like Bouchet,
like Bouchet, and literally my name from Cam Newton for
the next five years was Bouchet. That's how That's how
he came up with I didn't know that's how it was.
(27:44):
That's how I first day and like literally yes, finished
the workout, coach said, hey, we're gonna sign you. I showered, like,
got dressed, went into the cafeteria for the first time
I ain't met nobody, and then introduced see Cam. He
I get introduced to him and boom, say my name Fazzi.
(28:07):
He said, oh, Bobby like Bouche. No, no, no, Fazzi.
He's like, all right, I call you like the water boy.
And then obviously I was introduced to everybody, and I
understood how strong of a bond that running back room
isn't that kind of separated us from the other groups.
And we stuck together obviously, and I knew what it was,
(28:27):
what it meant to be a part of something so special,
And that was kind of my first impressions. Like Cam,
he's he's bigger than I thought in person.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I didn't know he was that big.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
He's also has a commanding presence about himself, but he's
also very funny and relatable. And then the running backs
are a type of group that I envisioned myself being
around because you hear so many times it's a business
in the NFL, like, oh, you know, is everybody worry
about their family and they going about their business.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
It's one thing to be able to break down a
huddle and say family, yes, But it's another thing to
actually feel it and embody it, embody it.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
And every day that was and y'all and y'all accepted
me open arms. I didn't feel that same acceptance whenever
I was in Arizona, and maybe because I was there
in week fourteen or whatever the case may be. In Cleveland,
I knew one of the other players Chris Obanaya and
he and I played together at Texas, but it's it
was not a close knit group. It was close in
(29:30):
San Diego.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
I had a good feeling in the group.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Was a strong group with Ronnie Brown and Ryan Matthews
and Danny Woodhead.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Those are good dudes, yeah, really good dudes.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
But it wasn't until I got here that I realized
it was something different about the culture. And I think
that was a Ron Revere thing. And I know the
running backs we all embodied that as well. But Coach
Revere had set a culture across the team that resonated
with me, and it was the best experience out of
all four organization that I was a part of in
the NFL.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Yeah, I'm glad you hit on that, because you know,
part of the reason why it was such a good room,
a good team is because the guys like you, Yeah,
like I legit recall every you can call if there
is a moment that I was injured, banged up, we losing,
(30:24):
I'm going through problems outside of the facility. Fozzy Tobert,
these was like my brothers. Like I was able to
lean on them and they were there to be leaned on.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
But and vice versa. You know what I'm saying it.
But but ladies and gentlemen, envision this.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
You walk into working whatever your day job is, and
there's a cafeteria and there's this there's this gentleman that's
just always consistent.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
He's wearing his same workout outfit with the same socks
pulled up, got his cut off, you know, and he's
sitting down in the cafeteria at a table and he's
got a drink and it looks like a cocktail. And
it is a cocktail because it's pineapple cranberry.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Just remember that orange juice. That's it a apple juice.
And I do recall there.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
We had some umbrellas at one point did And there's
an umbrella laying in the drink, okay, And he's just
sitting there watching watching ESPM, catching up on all the games.
And you walk in and he looks right at you
and he smiles. He says, Hey, dog gotta find out island.
(31:50):
Dog gotta find that Hey. And then on good days
like hey that island.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Feel good? Right.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
But it's just it's just the energy man like I
just I thank you for being I thank God for
allowing your path to cross mind because without that type
of energy, who knows where we would be as an organization. Right,
Guys like you that show up, put in the work,
(32:25):
don't complain and encourage your teammates to keep pressing forward.
Like you don't have you could easily buy into the
woe was me category and hearing your story from all
of this, it goes back to how you were brought up, right,
(32:46):
So fast forward. Now you got kids, you got your parents,
you're married, you are an analyst. You know, there's so
much more life after football, Right, But that mindset as
(33:08):
a parent, what about what about your experiences as a
football player? What about the experiences as a as a
guy that has grown up in the Whitaker family has
prepared you to take on the biggest challenge of your life?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Yeah, and raising these kids is an absolute biggest challenge
that I faced. At my son eleven years old now,
he actually still remembers coming to the games and being
in the locker room.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
His name is Frost.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
He is probably the biggest I guess student to the
teachings that I'm trying to create. And what I'll try
to create is literally emulate exactly what my mom did. Right,
If I'm gonna do something, make sure I'm doing it
one hundred percent of the time. I also want him
to see that in me. I want him to know
if I'm taking part of something, I'm not going to
(34:01):
do it fifty percent, seventy even ninety percent, like I'm
gonna give it to just do and the respect that
it deserves, and I'm gonna treat it as such to
make sure that whenever he looks up and says, hey,
my dad used to tell me do everything one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
That's what my dad did.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
So I want to be somebody like that or somebody
that emulates the type of work ethic and the type
of mindset that he has. It has not been all
peaches trying to incorporate that and trying to pull that
out of my son without wanting it more than he does. Right,
And whether that's in sports, whether that's in school with
(34:40):
his grades, and whether that's just being.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
A good person.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Right, we all treat people, yeah, all right, We're all
going to fall short in some area and sometimes multiple
areas are different parts of our lives. But if we
go back to our base foundation of foundational teachings, I
want it to be ingrained in his core, that that's reset,
not the opposite being his base core in the reset
(35:04):
of like just trying to get by. And so I
see him continuously taking strides. And yesterday is a perfect example.
I coach his tackle football team. He's in sixth grade.
We're playing Pop Warner. We have wind sprints at the
end of practice. Right, we got to do conditioning just
like every other team does. And my son has talked
(35:24):
about not wanting to run and condition just like any
other kid. Was that's an eleven year old kid. Don't
nobody try, Don't nobody want to do that, Don't nobody
care for doing that. Especially this is week seven for
us in the football season, so we're nearing the end.
And his mindset yesterday was like, Hey, I'm gonna be
the fastest version of myself. And he ran the fastest
(35:49):
I've ever seen him run. And we had eight gassers, like,
just run down as fast as you can. Gonna give
you maximum recovery because we got a bye week this Saturday,
so you don't have a game, and then you're gonna
goun run it right back maxim recovery. And we're going
to do that eight times, and out of all eight,
I saw him sprint every single one to the best
of his ability. He had never done that before. He'd
(36:11):
take a couple reps off. Maybe he gives you. If
we did eight, maybe he gives you four. So what
you're saying is he clicked at least it's starting to start.
Now it's starting to click. He's starting to be a
better big brother to his little sister. Like you can
see how it all culminates together. And then the grades
are also reflecting what we are teaching my wife and
(36:33):
I and so I see it happening, and that gives
me the validation that I got to double down in
what I'm doing because it's starting to work. Well, let
me keep doing that and let me keep raising the bar.
So he sees what it's like to continue to strive
for excellent or strive for greatness. And I think that's
where I start, you know, feeling like, Okay, what I'm
(36:53):
doing is not in vain, similar to my process to
get into the Arizona Cardinals. Right what I'm doing is
not is not going unnoticed, and that same way with
my daughter.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
That's that, you know, and the reason why I wanted
to ask that question because I feel like we have,
we have the blessing of experiencing, you know, athletics from
the form of football in such the most dramatic way.
We practice way more than we play, right, we develop
(37:24):
way more than we play. And you know, as a parent,
you start to see like the patience that's needed for
true development. You can't overnight it, you can't mark a
way of it. It has to be you know, it
has to be intentional, and it has to be thought out,
(37:45):
and it has to be whatever the kid is. If
this kid, you have two kids, they're both completely different
people all the way, not just because their boy and girl,
because their personalities are different.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Absolutely, that's the way God made them.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
So going back to this Carolina Panther football team, Dave
canel is some company come in next, came came in
last year, first year, this is our second year now,
and you have an organization that has been built, you know,
on the run game, on playing defense, but not just
(38:21):
playing defense like I'm talking Ben don't break, I'm talking
coming down here.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
The linebackers. This is line. If this was a university,
to be linebacker.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
You absolutely absolutely and then on the on the offensive
side of the ball is the trenches. We move and
create new line of scrimmages. So that way our line,
so that way our running bas can get to the second.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Level and do what they do they Dan and Dave,
I feel like have the recipe.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
And as a guy that is living in Texas watching
these games on TV and it has been keeping up
with the Carolina Panthers, do you see things coming around
for the for the organization as far especially coming off
of his last game. You know, you had the Miami
Dolphins one and three, giving up six hundred you know,
(39:15):
six hundred plus your rushing yards, and you're supposed to
do what you're supposed to be doing. But it's easily
to slip the crack. It's easy to out out out
think yourself, right, It's easy to be the guru like
coach gurus, you know, and and and and shoot yourself
in the foot. But like, give me your take on
(39:38):
where the Carolina Panthers are right now and where they
can go and the trajectory.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, and I think coach Canalis has done a great job.
Obviously the things that were going on prior to his
time taking over, you kind of inherited some of those
issues and he's trying to correct with where he sees
is the best opportunity for this team to continue to
strive and reach the excellence that we were able to
(40:05):
experience and back in the early two thousands that those
Panther teams were able to experience. And I think he
has those foundational core guys and he's doubled down on that,
which I truly love Year two, like, these are the
people I want in my locker room. These are the
way that I see the success happening, and it happens
by doing it and following the process. In the same
(40:26):
way you mentioned when you're rearing a child and you
got to raise him up, or you're building a team
and you're trying to find out what the culture is.
It takes time and the process to be able to
follow through on that. Whether you take some wins, whether
you take some losses, it's all teachable moments, and I
think that's where we are now. Year one was obviously
(40:47):
a big teachable moment. We're all those involved in the
locker room.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Year two.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Early in the season, we got basically the first quarter done.
We're like looking at Okay, we took some lumps, but
we've also showcase who he can be whenever we fully
buy into what this culture and what this organization is
all about. And I think last week's win, or I
guess a couple of days ago, the win that they
just had against Miami, that's indicative of those guys not
(41:17):
laying in self doubt, not laying in self pity. Right
after you lost to New England, everybody could have been like, Oh,
that's it, Oh you know, that's okay, here we go
again type of mindset, right, but they doubled down on
what their core foundational pieces. And whenever you get a
guy like Rico Daudell to be able to come in
and supplement as well, Hey, the identity the running backs
(41:40):
got to show up and be a part of who
this offense is. And he was a perfect embodiment of
his number, being called ready to go and showing what
the Carolina Panther pride is all about in playing that position.
And so whenever you start experiencing that success, and you
saw it against Atlanta, whenever the first home game rolled around,
you win thirty zero, I say, it's actually harder to
(42:02):
score zero points than it is to probably blow somebody
out through thirty to zero. Like, I think it's harder
to lose thirty to zero than it is to win
thirty to zero. And that's indicative of this team coming
together defending the vault, right, they had to come into
the bank and say, hey, this is our spot, this
(42:23):
is our time. And then they were able to take
some of those same types of feelings and then incorporate
that in the win against Miami. And if you can
continue to do that, double down, believe, and then galvanize
this team in the way that you need to galvanize it,
you can overcome everything. Like last Sunday was not perfect, right,
you throw an interception, you had to sack, fumble, like
(42:45):
gave up touch that like.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Could have beat them by twenty.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Absolutely it wasn't perfect, and you still were able to
do that overcoming a seventeen point deficit and then just
looking like you were the better team the entire time.
And that's that come with you know, more time together,
understanding the culture that coach Canalis want to continue to implement,
and then believing in one another. And I think that's
(43:08):
what separated us from teams that we played against, was
our culture and value was always in each other It
wasn't in anybody else. It wasn't in personal gain, it
wasn't in kind of superficial things that were happening off
the field. It was because we wanted to make a
play for TD, We wanted to make a play for Luke,
(43:29):
we wanted to make a play.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
For We knew each other's families.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
We was playing not just for your family, but I'm
playing for young kids like Jeff, I'm playing for.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Frost right right, let's out there, chucks, Like we got
people that we depend on, and our brothers in arm
also want us to succeed so that the people that
are depending on us are also succeeding. And that was
kind of universal around And I'm starting to feel that
(43:57):
same type of intentionality with where this team is. And
if they can continue to double down in that culture
and in that family value, and then you have performances
like ric o'dowdell, then that also helps bring more Dubs
to the city and then change kind of the perception
nationally and the narrative nationally about where Carolina is and
where they're eventually headed to. Yeah, well, man, it was
(44:21):
good to have you on this show. Hey, I'm so
happy to be so good to see you too.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Man.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
Yeah, well, before we go, I want you to finish
these sentences. All right, Football gave me blank. Football gave
me life life.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
It gave me life, and what I mean by that
is the meaning within the life and the lessons that
I learned through football. They can all be attributed to
Whenever I was playing in Pop Warner, never I was
playing in middle school, never I was playing in high school,
college and the professional even covering it now. It gave
me the work ethic, the values, what I wanted to
(45:03):
see in myself, what I want to see in my kids.
It all revolved around the identity of football and the
people that surrounded and make football what it is today.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Wow, so gave me life, gave them life after God.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
Of course God really gave well if you didn't know that,
right boy, Family gave me blank.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
Family gave me my soul. So if football gave me life,
family is my soul. It's the internal makeup and the
genome of how I want to be perceived as and
how I want my perception to.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Actually be reality.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
So and on that note, ladies and gentlemen, that's Sposi Whitaker.
We'll see you next week, go Panthers, hopefully beat them.
Dallas Cowboys. Rico Dauda, by the way, has rushed for
about four hundred and six yards AH in Bank of
American Stadium, Let's go in four games. That's that's including
(46:09):
the games that he's been dressed in Cowboys uniform.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
So we need to continue that that run. But yeah, man,
good to have your dog and stay tuned for the
next episode.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Keep pounding
We're the thirteenth pick in the two thousand and eight
NFL draft.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Caroen lenon half the collect Jonathan Stewart gives to Stewart,
he leaves touchdown.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Stewart oh rough tough right, angry man out at elbows, knees.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Stewart hesitates, accelerates. That's what I'm talking about. Fit the
spash Moll football contain Stuart Cant running around.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Stewart jump over a tackler at the tenth flows jump
Laura's his shoulder, keeps running.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
No one will touch him. Jonathan Stewart house.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Does it you talk about explosive plays in the run game.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
It's like the fourth of July around here. Right now
you are listening to Stu and the crew. Welcome to
the stew and the Crew. We back at it. Week six.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
Got a special guess for you guys, the one and
only Boswit Fozzie Whitaker, Ladies and gentlemen. He's not just
only a seven year vet. He is now a analyst
for the SEC Network. But more importantly, he's one of
(01:03):
my good friends, one of my best favorite teammates. He
was a guy that kept the energy light, kept things interesting,
but he brought the positive positivity, but he always kept
it real somehow. But Fozzi Whitaker, Man, I'm so glad
that you're here. It's been since twenty nineteen. We were
(01:26):
talking downstairs in the lobby as we were coming up.
It's been twenty nineteen, so that's been six years. Yeah,
too long, too long. But you want to know something,
We ain't missed the beat. We ain't missed the beat.
We's down there, we's down there completing sentences. They're like,
it was crazy, but that's how you know you got
(01:47):
special relationships and bonds with people.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
Man. But glad to have you here, dude.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Absolutely, Man, it's a pleasure. Always great being back in
the Queen City. Obviously catching up with you and some
of the guys that we played with together. And like
you mentioned, that bond and the special type of relationship
that we created during my time here, it's it's truly
one of a kind and something that I cherish even
(02:13):
to this day. And man, the kiddos wanted to come
to Charlotte with me. They was like, Hey, we gotta
go to U's. Like, no, y'all got too so y'all
stay y'all little tills at home. But It's always good
to catch up with you, my brother, and see the facility,
all the changes that have been made, and obviously seeing
where this team continues to go this season.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Yeah, man, I always reminisce when I see some stuff.
When I see stuff on Instagram or memes, whatever be,
we'd be sitting be sending stuff to each other. That
being hitting home.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I gotta I gotta say one thing, and it probably
at least once a month. There's a conversation in my
household about when we went to Krispy Krean. There was
obviously there are several times we went to Chrispy kreen
but obviously the one same famous moment that Hot and
Ready was was pretty famous that went viral before viral
(03:06):
was even a thing. To be honest, we might have
kicked off the viral sokka. We might have dad trains
and dads like.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
That turned pictures on the sideline. Yeah, we did all that.
We started a lot.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
But the story that always comes up is this spider
that brought into your car and.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
You you was you was listen, give give us give
me your version of that story, okay, because I'd be
arguing with Kenya all the types of if you are listening,
this is how it went down.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
All right. So we went to go eat after practice out.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
And and I forgot where we went to. We got wings.
We went to Buffalo Whi Wing. Buffalo Wi Wings, that's
what it was. So we got Buffalo Wi Wings. Were
walking back to your car, d Loo and told drove
together and Dlo's truck and then me and Kenyon har
premium custom super customized, very very beautiful, very nice. And
(04:11):
then we rode in your car. You had your audie,
me and Kenyon. Kenyon was sitting in the front seat.
I was sitting in the back seat. But on the
way to both of our vehicles, Kenyon was walking underneath
trees and walking in between trees. He was swerving in
and out. And it was the summertime, right during summertime,
because it was training camp. We were out in Spartanburg,
and you said, hey, you walking under those trees. Don't
(04:34):
you bring no bug into my car?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (04:37):
And Kenyon said, man, I ain't gonna bring no bug
in your car. And we get in the car getting
ready to go get out dessert with Krispy Kreme. That
was a custom that the running backs always had to do.
Because that hot and Ready sign was on.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
We got it.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
We should have gotten a sponsorship, a much greater sponsorship.
Now that we're here, right, we still got a chance.
N I l baby, come on, baby, but we go.
D Loo and Tobart they in the in the very
customized car in front of us. They're ordering for however
many Tobert HoTT and Ready boxes he got, we were waiting.
(05:22):
He got at least two boxes. Yeah, yeah, at least
and that's just for him. Uh, but we're waiting and
behind them, I'm in the back seat, in the middle seat,
so I can see everything in front of me. Stu driving,
and then Kenyon and a passenger while Dlo and Tobert
are ordering at the box. Kenyon looks down and said oh.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Stu said, oh what.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Kenyon felt something crawl on his neck said oh. He
jumps out of the car. Yeah, like no hesitation. No,
there's nobody moved. There's nobody that I've seen move faster
getting out of a seatbelt, opening the door in five
yards away. Then I seen Kenyon move until I saw
(06:10):
the way Kenyon sprinted out and you sprinted out with
the same exact speed. But guess what, ladies and gentlemen.
We were in the lane to order the car was
not put into park, and lo and.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
Behold, I jump out the driver's seat, Ladies and gentlemen.
I was driving an Audie and we was going in
a drive through lane in Crispy Kreams and de'angelo Williams
until October were parked right in front of us. And
as I see the young man Kenyon Barner jump out
of his seat, I knew what time it was. He
didn't need to say anything because I said, do not
(06:47):
get your butt in this car with that spider on you.
Because I didn't know there's a spider on you. You said,
it ain't no spider on me. So I gave you
the benefit of the doubt, right and lo and behold
he jumped out. And guess what I did. I jumped
out too, joked out the car. Okay, because I ain't
trying to be run those spotters. Okay, Now this is
this is pre married ste pre father stew So my
(07:10):
instincts as far as protection and protecting the people that
are around me, that wasn't That was enough. It went
out the dough in the same way you went. I
went out the dough. But so I'm in the back seat.
He in the back seat yelling, hey, hey, car ry,
we are rolling. And so immediately I realized the car
(07:34):
was in drive, and I hear a boom.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
And luckily we.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Wouldn't like in drive, like we wouldn't go in at
certain miles for hour or anything. But we hit the
back of the Agelo's car. He was nice enough to
not really give me any any uh, you know he
was He wasn't mad, but we all was dying laughing
in the drive through of Krispy Kremes and Spartanburg.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Sparkle City is what they call it.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
Don't forget about told having the window down. He heard
the car hit the Angelo's truck, but rolled the window
up like somebody was mugging him or something.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Shoot, that's going over here.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
I gotta roll the window up, nah man. But I
got back in the car and I put it, you know,
I put the brake on it. And so sometimes that
happens sometimes the bees like that. You know, you have
your fears, but I want to let you know I
did overcome my fear of spider. Yeah, so when I
see a spider, I kill it. I kill it with
my hand, No, with you hand. Yeah, and you've come
(08:46):
along with It's because of fatherhood, man, you've come along
with you know when you become a stapers.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
Yeah, when you become a father, it's just changed your
whole mindset, Like it's either it's either my kids or
you're the spider.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Gotta go, Spider, Gotta go, Spider got Oh man, that
was a good story. Dog.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
You were so you were undrafted, and I love your
story because there's a lot to unpack there in my
in my eyes. You know, you were under you were
an undrafted rookie to the Cardinals practice squad. You've gone
through so much adversity, right, you know going back to
(09:30):
college you had in the knee injury in twenty eleven,
and the expectations going into that season for you they
were high, right, But I really want to tap into
something a little deeper. Your positivity, your energy, your outlook.
Where does that come from? Is that just the Whittaker way?
(09:52):
Like like let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, I think you know me just about as well
as anybody else would. And you know how spiritually based
I am, and the way my mom brought up myself
and my two older brothers was God has a plan,
and that plan is for all of us to prosper.
Whether we go through adversity or whether we go through
(10:16):
the fun and the good times, It's all still a
part of the main goal of what God wants us
to experience and eventually what those experiences in turn turn
us to become and be more human but also living
christ Like in the image of his son. And I
truly took the moment of my knee injury in college.
(10:39):
I took that as a sign of I hadn't grown
enough and it took me time to get through that.
Right in the middle of my injury. That was not
what I was thinking. Hindsight Its hindsight. He's twenty twenty now.
But the first thing I thought, and I'm sure a
lot of people also think, was like, why me. I
felt like I've been doing the things that I needed
(10:59):
to do. I felt like I was headed down the
right track. I'm one of the hardest working individuals on
the football team. I was selected as a captain of
the football team my senior year at Texas.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Like why did it have to be?
Speaker 1 (11:12):
I was having my best season in college as well,
and it was like, why did I have to go
through this at that time, and my mom used to
always remind me that God gives some of the worst
or strongest trials and tribulations to his strongest soldiers, And
for me, I kind of took that personally of a
thought process of like, Okay, if other people went through this,
(11:35):
how would they.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Respond and react?
Speaker 1 (11:38):
And if I was fortunate enough to play college football,
what would my next steps be? And who or what
type of person would I look back and say I
was proud of becoming after my injury. And I think
that put things into perspective. And after a day of
kind of wallowing and trying to figure out what my
(11:59):
next plan is path was going to be, I don't
get drafted, and I have another moment of where I'm like, man,
I don't know what my future is going to be.
I've been working hard. I have to figure out how
to tap back in into what got me there to
begin with. In the opportunity to even be present at
college football, right, that's significant in and of itself, to
be able to play at a university like the University
(12:21):
of Texas, let alone for four years and starting my
senior year and having some big time plays, and so
I got back to the humility of it all. Thanks
to my wife now who was my girlfriend at the time, Jasmine,
my mom, my two brothers. They always kept telling me,
you know, put your head down, put faith in God,
but continue to go to work. And that's exactly what
(12:41):
I did. And I think that has transpired into the
type of person that I am today. And I've learned
from it and that has allowed me to say, hey,
my path is going to be what it is. God
already has set my path. But at the end of
the day, how I look at it. I can look
at it from a negative perspective or I can look
at it from the positive perspective. And I typically would
(13:02):
choose the positive perspective because.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Why be negative? I always think, like, what do you
get out of being negative? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I understand complaints, I understand bad things happen, but why
stay in that?
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yeah? You got a choice.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
And it's the same way, right if we running gassers,
you got a choice. Do I want to sprint full
speed each gaser and try to get better or do
I want to just you know, go out and half
run the gassers and just say it's done, right? And
I think that choice was something that I had continuously
made from the decisions that my mom had raised in us.
(13:41):
If you do something, you're gonna do it one hundred percent, right,
whether that's cleaning the bedroom. Whenever I was a little
kid before, I had to go out and play. So
if I didn't clean my room and it wasn't done
to the liking of my mother's approval, then I had
to come back inside and I had to go clean
in and I lost privileges for the rest of the day.
If I didn't clean the dishes, if I didn't wash clothes,
(14:01):
if I didn't run with great effort on the track,
if I didn't run with great effort on the football field. Right,
my mom would tell me that and she'd be like,
and then whatever you do, you got to give it
a hundred percent. And I've taken that to heart of like, hey,
I'm gonna stay positive and I'm gonna give my positivity
one hundred percent. And even whenever there are times where
I falter, I got to lean back on something and
(14:23):
that's the plan that God has for me, and then
it kind of resets me and then I'm ready to
rock and roll. So I think that's the premise of
how I was able to overcome my injury stay positive,
but then at the same time, like have motivation in
my mind and in my mindset of who I want
to be and where I'm trying to go and who
I want to become.
Speaker 3 (14:41):
Yeah, that's beautiful, man, because you know, for those that
are listening, Fozzy goes undrafted and that positive mindset and
the things that he was brought up with, such as
going one hundred percent and everything that he does got him,
you know, on some teams, So the Chargers, right, the Browns,
(15:04):
and then finally your land where you supposed to be.
All right, twenty fourteen, My boys, a Carolina Panther. Take
us back to that time when you became, when you
were sought after to be a Carolina Panther. What did
(15:24):
you know about the Panthers then? What was exciting? What
was the DNA like, what was the differences between that
Panther team and the teams that you've experienced before.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Yeah, so the first thing that stood out to me
and how my journey even happened there. Right, I've another
trial that I had to go through, right. I was
released from Arizona after you know, the season ended, and
I'm thinking you know, it's my first NFL stop.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I'm practice squad. Okay, next year I'll.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
Get a chance to go, you know, be on the
squad and make the fifty three man roster and so
kind of make some Hey, well, their Zona Cardinals were
not great that year, so they fired the entire staff,
brought in a new staff. Typically, whenever that happens, holdovers,
whether it's personnel, whether it's players, whether it's whatever, they
end up getting let go. So I got let go
(16:17):
and lo and behold the relationship that I created with
Ken Wizenhunt, who was the head coach at the time.
He becomes the offensive coordinator at the San Diego Chargers.
He picked me up and said, hey, I want you
to come with me to San Diego. Want you to
be a part of that mission.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Let's weigh in on that. Yeah, yeah, your relationship with
a coach. Explain how that came to be. Was there
intentionality behind that or is that just you being who
you are every time you show up to the facility
people can depend on that.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I had no.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Idea what was going on, And the crazy part about
it was literally I still had to recover throughout the
course of the beginning of that football season in twenty thirteen,
where or twenty twelve, I'm sorry where I wasn't able
to get picked up on a team. So, like I
talked about, draft day passed, I didn't get selected obviously
(17:14):
I was still too injured. No team was like, hey,
we're not gonna take on dead weight for a guy
that's not gonna have a chance to play this season.
So draft day comes and goes, Training camp comes and goes,
preseason comes and goes, all throughout the season, comes and goes.
The third to last week of the season, so what
is that You get a bye week? So there were
(17:36):
seventeen weeks, so that would have been week fourteen. Week fourteen,
they contact my agent. This is December. They contact my
agent and say, hey, we want to bring Fozzi in
for a workout to see how his knees healing up
and to see where his conditioning level is.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
My agent calls me. I'm like, let's go.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
What flight we own already. I don't even need to
pack too much stuff. Blah blah blah. My agent says,
if they like you, they'll sign you. So make sure
you pack a couple of clothes so that you can
make it through the next two weeks, to be honest,
So I work out, you know, work out with the
running back coach and the offenseve coordinator at the time,
(18:16):
and you know, I felt like I did good, but
I had no clue. They gave me no feedback. They said,
all right, we'll see you later, sent me back home.
I had no idea what to expect.
Speaker 2 (18:27):
Yeah. I was just like, well, at.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
Least I got a chance to I was I was anxious.
I just was like, well, I did what I could,
though there was nothing more that I could do. I
showed them everything that I was. I gave them one
hundred percent of me if they wanted me, like, that's
that's all I could do. And so I was happy
I got the opportunity and it made my dream and
(18:49):
realization of Okay, maybe I can make it to the NFL,
Like that's what I've been pursuing. And I finally first
got an opportunity. And whether anybody else called me back
and I never played it down in the NFL, that
was enough to validate all the hard work that I
put in rehabbing and then getting my mind right and
my body right and kind of going through finding a job,
(19:10):
trying to make ends meet all throughout that season, just
just to secure myself an opportunity for that moment. And
once that moment came, I just had to do what
I could so I don't hear nothing. And then literally
a week later, my agent calls me and say, hey,
they want to sign you to the practice squad. They
released a different individual. You're gonna fly out there and
(19:30):
you're gonna be there for the last two weeks and
then we hope to sign a futures contract. So fly
out do what I need to do for practice, and
those two weeks, like I said, it's literally the last
two weeks of the season. I want to say the
Cardinals as that team that year, we may have won
three games, so there was no hope of anything, Like
(19:52):
there were no playoff implications, there were no division winning
championship implications.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Like everybody knew it's the season is done.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
He was going going back hole and I was going
hard in practice out there, mixing them up. Bro probably
got some people five the best scout team running back
I could be.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
You probably got fired because it's late in the season.
A nobody trying to ain't nobody trying to go now
I know that right once. I was a vet in
the NFL, like I knew what time it was. People
were shots A nice guy, but God chase him hard.
I remember Dan Williams defensive tackle. I was going too
hard for his liking and scout team one day, but
(20:36):
he put me on my butt, like I'm trying to
run through the middle. We just playing, I want to say,
we were playing the Raiders, so we were preparing for
I think it's like Darren McFadden was playing.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
That's the running back. So I was like, i gotta
run like Darren McFadden, like I'm getting I'm getting squad right, man.
He put me on my butt so hard.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
That's the hardest I've ever been hit in the NFL,
and it was in practice because I was trying to
give the best look I could. Was gonna go one
hundred percent. It's my first time really being in football action,
and over a year I tore my knee up November
of twenty one of eleven. I'm sorry twenty eleven. So
it's like I've gone literally thirteen months without playing real football.
(21:17):
And that was the first time I got to go
out there and play with a group of individuals and
compete and organize football. So I was acting like it
was my game day. It was my game day reps,
and man it was awesome. I'm trying to outrun Pat p.
I'm trying to I'm trying to run routes on Adrian Wilson,
Like these are all phenomenal individual right, they playmakers, dudes.
(21:40):
And that's whenever I was just like, Okay, cool, this
is what it's supposed to feel like. It was my
first kind of introduction. I think that's what set me
apart in Ken wizen Hunt's mind of like, hey, this
is a guy that I can work with. I don't
know what he's going to become. I still had a
knee brace on, so I wasn't out here maximum, but
I'm out there giving it all I could. Yeah, And
(22:02):
I think that's what stood out. And I hadn't talked
to coach wizen Hunt like ever. I was a practical
god in week fourteen, so it's like, what does he
really have to say to me other than like, hey,
get the look right? And so it also went to
show people are watching my actions more than I even realized.
My actions are conveying to everybody around me.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Yeah, just doing the right thing.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Yeah, and you're doing the right thing for yourself, right,
and eventually you're realizing you do the right thing for yourself.
It helps the broad a picture, absolutely right, And that
brought a picture, got you to Carolina. So going back,
what was your what was your your first take? Like,
what was your expectations of the Carolina Panthers back then?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
So going going there again? So released by Arizona. Almost
same thing happened in Cleveland where whole new regime. They
drafted two running backs in the NFL Draft and then
the following day I get the boot.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
So draft is in April, and.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Terrence West was one of them, and I cannot remember
who the other one was, but they drafted to one
in the fifth round, I think one in the fourth round.
Maybe it was fourth and fifth round of or fifth
and sixth round. But they had a plan of the
type of body type that they wanted to utilize, and hey,
do what you gotta do. So I'm released after the
(23:32):
draft in April, and then May goes by, don't hear nothing.
And then June goes by, don't hear nothing. July comes
around and my agent says, hey, training camp is about
the time that you may hear calls because injuries happen.
You never want to be in a situation like this.
But the Panthers had drafted Tyler Gaffney from Stanford, phenomenal player.
(23:57):
He tore his ACL on the third day of camp.
As you know you were there, you saw it. After
the third day of training camp, my agent caused me say, hey,
Panthers want to bring you and another guy in. Ironically,
the other guy's names Glasgow Martin. He played running back
at Baylor, who I played against at Texas. We both
were training together during the summertime in preparation for each
(24:20):
of us seeking an opportunity to go play in the NFL.
And I get to call from my agent. You must
have was running your sprints harder than him had to
had to. It's funny, he wrote. He wrote a kind
of memoir about that, and he had a podcast video.
But ironically we both just trained. I'll get to it,
but we come out. Skip is our freaking guy that's
(24:43):
running us, obviously the running back coach. He calls us
out and say, hey, I want you all to go
through drills blah blah blah blah blah, and me and
Glasgow been running these drills and work out and we've
been doing well, and we probably necking neck. Glasgow a
little bit bigger than me too, so physical size, he
probably looked like the better option to be able to
(25:04):
handle banging of being an NFL running back. But what
Coach Skipp did at the end was had us run
routes and had and he threw the ball and we
had to go get or he brought a quarterback to
throw the ball. Coach, so he had a quarterback come
over and throw some routes to us and I was
(25:26):
able to catch the ball possessive, run my routes better
than what Glasgow was used to doing, and we go back.
Glasgow used to ask me why do I catch routes
after we do our workouts in the summertime. Every time
He's like, why do you always work on your routes
in your hands? And I just told him, Bro, that's
that's the type of back I want to be. I
want to be multiple, and I want to be utilized
(25:47):
in any way possible. And he had actually dropped a
couple of the passes whenever we were with Coach Skipp
doing that workout, And I think that was probably the separation,
the fastest separation, and I talked to skip later down
the line, and skip. You know how skippy is he
straight to the point he told me, he said, whenever
(26:07):
they asked, okay, which back do you own, skip seid,
I want a little fast one.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
I want a little fast guy.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
I want the little fast one. And so that ended
up being how I got on the roster. In my
first mindset was like, Bro, Carolina is like one of
the ideal places I wanted to be. I knew you,
and d Low was already here. I knew Tobert was
coming off of a Pro Bowl appearance. Cam was obviously here.
The mindset for this team revolved around the identity of
(26:33):
the running back. It's like, I know Smitty was also
that dude. But in order to be one of the
physical teams and one of the teams that controlled the
line of scrimmage, you gotta have some dogs at running back,
and that's what you all were. But in order to
be a championship team with them, mentally, you gotta have
a defense. Yeah, And I go back and obviously the
(26:55):
forty nine Ers game in the playoffs in twenty thirteen,
that's something that sticks out to me. But I saw
the type of teen chemistry that you all had and
it didn't obviously work out in the favor of the
Panthers in that moment, but I could feel just from
watching like there was something there, something special and getting
(27:15):
that opportunity. When my agent called me, I was like, bro,
this is the spot I'm supposed to be at.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
And I get here.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
First day, I see Cam in the cafeteria. He say, Hey,
what's your name? I said, Fozzi. He said Bobby like Bouchet,
like Bouchet, and literally my name from Cam Newton for
the next five years was Bouchet. That's how That's how
he came up with I didn't know that's how it was.
(27:44):
That's how I first day and like literally yes, finished
the workout, coach said, hey, we're gonna sign you. I showered, like,
got dressed, went into the cafeteria for the first time
I ain't met nobody, and then introduced see Cam. He
I get introduced to him and boom, say my name Fazzi.
(28:07):
He said, oh, Bobby like Bouche. No, no, no, Fazzi.
He's like, all right, I call you like the water boy.
And then obviously I was introduced to everybody, and I
understood how strong of a bond that running back room
isn't that kind of separated us from the other groups.
And we stuck together obviously, and I knew what it was,
(28:27):
what it meant to be a part of something so special,
And that was kind of my first impressions. Like Cam,
he's he's bigger than I thought in person.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
I didn't know he was that big.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
He's also has a commanding presence about himself, but he's
also very funny and relatable. And then the running backs
are a type of group that I envisioned myself being
around because you hear so many times it's a business
in the NFL, like, oh, you know, is everybody worry
about their family and they going about their business.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
It's one thing to be able to break down a
huddle and say family, yes, But it's another thing to
actually feel it and embody it, embody it.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
And every day that was and y'all and y'all accepted
me open arms. I didn't feel that same acceptance whenever
I was in Arizona, and maybe because I was there
in week fourteen or whatever the case may be. In Cleveland,
I knew one of the other players Chris Obanaya and
he and I played together at Texas, but it's it
was not a close knit group. It was close in
(29:30):
San Diego.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
I had a good feeling in the group.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Was a strong group with Ronnie Brown and Ryan Matthews
and Danny Woodhead.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Those are good dudes, yeah, really good dudes.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
But it wasn't until I got here that I realized
it was something different about the culture. And I think
that was a Ron Revere thing. And I know the
running backs we all embodied that as well. But Coach
Revere had set a culture across the team that resonated
with me, and it was the best experience out of
all four organization that I was a part of in
the NFL.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Yeah, I'm glad you hit on that, because you know,
part of the reason why it was such a good room,
a good team is because the guys like you, Yeah,
like I legit recall every you can call if there
is a moment that I was injured, banged up, we losing,
(30:24):
I'm going through problems outside of the facility. Fozzy Tobert,
these was like my brothers. Like I was able to
lean on them and they were there to be leaned on.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
But and vice versa. You know what I'm saying it.
But but ladies and gentlemen, envision this.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
You walk into working whatever your day job is, and
there's a cafeteria and there's this there's this gentleman that's
just always consistent.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
He's wearing his same workout outfit with the same socks
pulled up, got his cut off, you know, and he's
sitting down in the cafeteria at a table and he's
got a drink and it looks like a cocktail. And
it is a cocktail because it's pineapple cranberry.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Just remember that orange juice. That's it a apple juice.
And I do recall there.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
We had some umbrellas at one point did And there's
an umbrella laying in the drink, okay, And he's just
sitting there watching watching ESPM, catching up on all the games.
And you walk in and he looks right at you
and he smiles. He says, Hey, dog gotta find out island.
(31:50):
Dog gotta find that Hey. And then on good days
like hey that island.
Speaker 2 (32:01):
Feel good? Right.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
But it's just it's just the energy man like I
just I thank you for being I thank God for
allowing your path to cross mind because without that type
of energy, who knows where we would be as an organization. Right,
Guys like you that show up, put in the work,
(32:25):
don't complain and encourage your teammates to keep pressing forward.
Like you don't have you could easily buy into the
woe was me category and hearing your story from all
of this, it goes back to how you were brought up, right,
(32:46):
So fast forward. Now you got kids, you got your parents,
you're married, you are an analyst. You know, there's so
much more life after football, Right, But that mindset as
(33:08):
a parent, what about what about your experiences as a
football player? What about the experiences as a as a
guy that has grown up in the Whitaker family has
prepared you to take on the biggest challenge of your life?
Speaker 1 (33:25):
Yeah, and raising these kids is an absolute biggest challenge
that I faced. At my son eleven years old now,
he actually still remembers coming to the games and being
in the locker room.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
His name is Frost.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
He is probably the biggest I guess student to the
teachings that I'm trying to create. And what I'll try
to create is literally emulate exactly what my mom did. Right,
If I'm gonna do something, make sure I'm doing it
one hundred percent of the time. I also want him
to see that in me. I want him to know
if I'm taking part of something, I'm not going to
(34:01):
do it fifty percent, seventy even ninety percent, like I'm
gonna give it to just do and the respect that
it deserves, and I'm gonna treat it as such to
make sure that whenever he looks up and says, hey,
my dad used to tell me do everything one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
That's what my dad did.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
So I want to be somebody like that or somebody
that emulates the type of work ethic and the type
of mindset that he has. It has not been all
peaches trying to incorporate that and trying to pull that
out of my son without wanting it more than he does. Right,
And whether that's in sports, whether that's in school with
(34:40):
his grades, and whether that's just being.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
A good person.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Right, we all treat people, yeah, all right, We're all
going to fall short in some area and sometimes multiple
areas are different parts of our lives. But if we
go back to our base foundation of foundational teachings, I
want it to be ingrained in his core, that that's reset,
not the opposite being his base core in the reset
(35:04):
of like just trying to get by. And so I
see him continuously taking strides. And yesterday is a perfect example.
I coach his tackle football team. He's in sixth grade.
We're playing Pop Warner. We have wind sprints at the
end of practice. Right, we got to do conditioning just
like every other team does. And my son has talked
(35:24):
about not wanting to run and condition just like any
other kid. Was that's an eleven year old kid. Don't
nobody try, Don't nobody want to do that, Don't nobody
care for doing that. Especially this is week seven for
us in the football season, so we're nearing the end.
And his mindset yesterday was like, Hey, I'm gonna be
the fastest version of myself. And he ran the fastest
(35:49):
I've ever seen him run. And we had eight gassers, like,
just run down as fast as you can. Gonna give
you maximum recovery because we got a bye week this Saturday,
so you don't have a game, and then you're gonna
goun run it right back maxim recovery. And we're going
to do that eight times, and out of all eight,
I saw him sprint every single one to the best
of his ability. He had never done that before. He'd
(36:11):
take a couple reps off. Maybe he gives you. If
we did eight, maybe he gives you four. So what
you're saying is he clicked at least it's starting to start.
Now it's starting to click. He's starting to be a
better big brother to his little sister. Like you can
see how it all culminates together. And then the grades
are also reflecting what we are teaching my wife and
(36:33):
I and so I see it happening, and that gives
me the validation that I got to double down in
what I'm doing because it's starting to work. Well, let
me keep doing that and let me keep raising the bar.
So he sees what it's like to continue to strive
for excellent or strive for greatness. And I think that's
where I start, you know, feeling like, Okay, what I'm
(36:53):
doing is not in vain, similar to my process to
get into the Arizona Cardinals. Right what I'm doing is
not is not going unnoticed, and that same way with
my daughter.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
That's that, you know, and the reason why I wanted
to ask that question because I feel like we have,
we have the blessing of experiencing, you know, athletics from
the form of football in such the most dramatic way.
We practice way more than we play, right, we develop
(37:24):
way more than we play. And you know, as a parent,
you start to see like the patience that's needed for
true development. You can't overnight it, you can't mark a
way of it. It has to be you know, it
has to be intentional, and it has to be thought out,
(37:45):
and it has to be whatever the kid is. If
this kid, you have two kids, they're both completely different
people all the way, not just because their boy and girl,
because their personalities are different.
Speaker 2 (37:59):
Absolutely, that's the way God made them.
Speaker 3 (38:01):
So going back to this Carolina Panther football team, Dave
canel is some company come in next, came came in
last year, first year, this is our second year now,
and you have an organization that has been built, you know,
on the run game, on playing defense, but not just
(38:21):
playing defense like I'm talking Ben don't break, I'm talking
coming down here.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
The linebackers. This is line. If this was a university,
to be linebacker.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
You absolutely absolutely and then on the on the offensive
side of the ball is the trenches. We move and
create new line of scrimmages. So that way our line,
so that way our running bas can get to the second.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Level and do what they do they Dan and Dave,
I feel like have the recipe.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
And as a guy that is living in Texas watching
these games on TV and it has been keeping up
with the Carolina Panthers, do you see things coming around
for the for the organization as far especially coming off
of his last game. You know, you had the Miami
Dolphins one and three, giving up six hundred you know,
(39:15):
six hundred plus your rushing yards, and you're supposed to
do what you're supposed to be doing. But it's easily
to slip the crack. It's easy to out out out
think yourself, right, It's easy to be the guru like
coach gurus, you know, and and and and shoot yourself
in the foot. But like, give me your take on
(39:38):
where the Carolina Panthers are right now and where they
can go and the trajectory.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
Yeah, and I think coach Canalis has done a great job.
Obviously the things that were going on prior to his
time taking over, you kind of inherited some of those
issues and he's trying to correct with where he sees
is the best opportunity for this team to continue to
strive and reach the excellence that we were able to
(40:05):
experience and back in the early two thousands that those
Panther teams were able to experience. And I think he
has those foundational core guys and he's doubled down on that,
which I truly love Year two, like, these are the
people I want in my locker room. These are the
way that I see the success happening, and it happens
by doing it and following the process. In the same
(40:26):
way you mentioned when you're rearing a child and you
got to raise him up, or you're building a team
and you're trying to find out what the culture is.
It takes time and the process to be able to
follow through on that. Whether you take some wins, whether
you take some losses, it's all teachable moments, and I
think that's where we are now. Year one was obviously
(40:47):
a big teachable moment. We're all those involved in the
locker room.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Year two.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Early in the season, we got basically the first quarter done.
We're like looking at Okay, we took some lumps, but
we've also showcase who he can be whenever we fully
buy into what this culture and what this organization is
all about. And I think last week's win, or I
guess a couple of days ago, the win that they
just had against Miami, that's indicative of those guys not
(41:17):
laying in self doubt, not laying in self pity. Right
after you lost to New England, everybody could have been like, Oh,
that's it, Oh you know, that's okay, here we go
again type of mindset, right, but they doubled down on
what their core foundational pieces. And whenever you get a
guy like Rico Daudell to be able to come in
and supplement as well, Hey, the identity the running backs
(41:40):
got to show up and be a part of who
this offense is. And he was a perfect embodiment of
his number, being called ready to go and showing what
the Carolina Panther pride is all about in playing that position.
And so whenever you start experiencing that success, and you
saw it against Atlanta, whenever the first home game rolled around,
you win thirty zero, I say, it's actually harder to
(42:02):
score zero points than it is to probably blow somebody
out through thirty to zero. Like, I think it's harder
to lose thirty to zero than it is to win
thirty to zero. And that's indicative of this team coming
together defending the vault, right, they had to come into
the bank and say, hey, this is our spot, this
(42:23):
is our time. And then they were able to take
some of those same types of feelings and then incorporate
that in the win against Miami. And if you can
continue to do that, double down, believe, and then galvanize
this team in the way that you need to galvanize it,
you can overcome everything. Like last Sunday was not perfect, right,
you throw an interception, you had to sack, fumble, like
(42:45):
gave up touch that like.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
Could have beat them by twenty.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Absolutely it wasn't perfect, and you still were able to
do that overcoming a seventeen point deficit and then just
looking like you were the better team the entire time.
And that's that come with you know, more time together,
understanding the culture that coach Canalis want to continue to implement,
and then believing in one another. And I think that's
(43:08):
what separated us from teams that we played against, was
our culture and value was always in each other It
wasn't in anybody else. It wasn't in personal gain, it
wasn't in kind of superficial things that were happening off
the field. It was because we wanted to make a
play for TD, We wanted to make a play for Luke,
(43:29):
we wanted to make a play.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
For We knew each other's families.
Speaker 3 (43:32):
We was playing not just for your family, but I'm
playing for young kids like Jeff, I'm playing for.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Frost right right, let's out there, chucks, Like we got
people that we depend on, and our brothers in arm
also want us to succeed so that the people that
are depending on us are also succeeding. And that was
kind of universal around And I'm starting to feel that
(43:57):
same type of intentionality with where this team is. And
if they can continue to double down in that culture
and in that family value, and then you have performances
like ric o'dowdell, then that also helps bring more Dubs
to the city and then change kind of the perception
nationally and the narrative nationally about where Carolina is and
where they're eventually headed to. Yeah, well, man, it was
(44:21):
good to have you on this show. Hey, I'm so
happy to be so good to see you too.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
Man.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
Yeah, well, before we go, I want you to finish
these sentences. All right, Football gave me blank. Football gave
me life life.
Speaker 1 (44:41):
It gave me life, and what I mean by that
is the meaning within the life and the lessons that
I learned through football. They can all be attributed to
Whenever I was playing in Pop Warner, never I was
playing in middle school, never I was playing in high school,
college and the professional even covering it now. It gave
me the work ethic, the values, what I wanted to
(45:03):
see in myself, what I want to see in my kids.
It all revolved around the identity of football and the
people that surrounded and make football what it is today.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Wow, so gave me life, gave them life after God.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
Of course God really gave well if you didn't know that,
right boy, Family gave me blank.
Speaker 1 (45:30):
Family gave me my soul. So if football gave me life,
family is my soul. It's the internal makeup and the
genome of how I want to be perceived as and
how I want my perception to.
Speaker 2 (45:45):
Actually be reality.
Speaker 3 (45:47):
So and on that note, ladies and gentlemen, that's Sposi Whitaker.
We'll see you next week, go Panthers, hopefully beat them.
Dallas Cowboys. Rico Dauda, by the way, has rushed for
about four hundred and six yards AH in Bank of
American Stadium, Let's go in four games. That's that's including
(46:09):
the games that he's been dressed in Cowboys uniform.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
Let's go.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
So we need to continue that that run. But yeah, man,
good to have your dog and stay tuned for the
next episode.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
Keep pounding
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