Damion McIntosh: It Was a Crazy Time

Damion McIntosh joined the Miami Dolphins in 2004 with the hopes of blocking for one of the most productive rushing attacks in the NFL. A Ricky Williams retirement and Dave Wannstedt resignation changed things in an hurry, but Damion would go on to play and start at left tackle in 43 of the team’s 48 games over the course of his three seasons with the Fins.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're now diving who.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Set down with Seth living? Oh? Jay, Well, and this
is strictly for I'm.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
A true number one of course, y'all. This ain't the
order never sports talk that might have been.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
That Pach Tank.

Speaker 4 (00:25):
Welcome back to the Fish Tank, presented by iHeartRadio right
here on the Miami Dolphins Podcast Network, Seth Lovitt and
the man with the best hands in the podcast business.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
He is Oj McDuffie. Juice, how we feeling today?

Speaker 5 (00:36):
Feeling great, Big Seth, always feeling great.

Speaker 6 (00:38):
You know how I feel about, you know, my side
of the football again, you know, And it seems like
lately Big Seth has been my side of football man,
which is the best side of football.

Speaker 5 (00:46):
Uh, you know that, we all know. So I'm feeling
really good about this one man. And another Mac in
the building.

Speaker 4 (00:51):
So I like that another Mac in the building. Yeah,
it just it's been one big fella after the next.
We are putting together quite a front here to keep
us protected.

Speaker 5 (01:00):
Juice.

Speaker 4 (01:00):
We want to keep their hands off of us, us
little guys. But Damien McIntosh, a local guy, South Florida guy,
MacArthur Mustang dives into the fish tank for the first time.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
Max how you feeling, man.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Good gentlemen, how are you doing great? To be great?

Speaker 4 (01:14):
To have it?

Speaker 5 (01:15):
You know, it's like MiG Seth, you know, it's like
it's it's funny.

Speaker 6 (01:18):
You get an opportunity and you get on me all
the time about how many names I dropped from the
from the suite, from their long.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
My god, Yeah, it's unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
It's like.

Speaker 6 (01:28):
Last time I was in there, you know, I heard
Damien and Damien talking a lot, you know, chopping it up,
having it, having a good time man, and I said, Man,
we gotta get we gotta get McIntosh in the tank.

Speaker 5 (01:39):
Man. Sure enough, bro, we got it. We got big
fella in the tank.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Well, I am glad you did, because it's one of
my favorite stories when I think back to my days
working for the team.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
I don't even know if you know this side.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Of the story, Like it's you're involved, Damien, but it's
I don't know if you know this part of it
through my lens, And it really was towards the end
of my ten you're working for the team. So March
two thousand and four was the free agency period. I
ended up leaving in July of oh four. But you know,
so i'd been there. This would have been my ninth
season if I had stayed on. Rick Spielman had just

(02:13):
been named general manager after four years with the club,
and like I said, we're in the.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Free agency period, but also in the off season.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
Every year the league has these annual meetings, and it's
not just the owners and the big timers. All the
different levels of the organization have meetings, and so the
PR meetings were taking place. Harvey didn't feel comfortable taking
the whole crew. I don't remember where they were, but
it was out of state, and he didn't feel comfortable,
just like not having a PR representative from the organization

(02:40):
back there because it.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Was free agency. And Rick was like, no, it'll be fine,
we don't have anything going on. Well, Harvey and Neil leave,
they leave me behind.

Speaker 4 (02:47):
It's almost like you know when your kids kind of
getting that teenage and you're like, Okay, we trust them
enough to leave them home alone. Don't throw any damn parties,
but we know you're not going to burn a house
down kind of a thing. So it was that kind
of a deal. And then Rick comes walking in. I'm
sitting in my cubicle. He goes, hey, we're gonna sign
Damian McIntosh. And I'm like, oh, the lineman, Yeah, san Diego.
He's like, yeah, we're gonna sign him. Go ahead and

(03:09):
schedule a press conference. I said, are you sure we're
gonna schedule? You know, because once I announced this, he said, yep, absolutely,
we're good. I said, well, let me let Harvey know.
I'll start working on a press release. I'll work on
a media advisory. So I call Harvey, right, Juice, and
he's at the meetings. He goes, all right, all right,
it's like, tell him what's gonna happen. I write up
the announcement that hey, at two thirty pm today and

(03:30):
Davy the Dolfins are gonna have a free agency announcement,
right Juice.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
See Mac you remember this right?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
You remember that was a crazy situation. Yeah. Yeah, So
I do all that.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
I send it out, Juice, I email it. Harvey still
made us facts. We had to call everybody, Hey, free
agency sign and can you tell us who it is? No,
I can't get into who it is? And some is
it Damian McIntosh because you know, they start to sniff,
and I'm like, just come on out here at two
thirty pm. Well, like Forty five minutes later, Rick comes
back in the office. He says, hey, cancel it.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
I'm like, cancel what. I'm like, cancel what.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
He goes, there's a thing with the physical and we're
going to get it worked out. But I'm like, Rick,
I just asked you and he sent it out. So
I try to call Harvey to tell him he's not
answering his phone. Now I don't think we were texting
back then, and so then I send out another advisory
the two thirty press conference has been canceled. I was like,
can I say anything. He's like, nope, just say it's
been canceled. So now it's a buzz across the league,

(04:25):
like one of the Dolphins doing it's a clown show.
All the PR guys are asking the Harvey like, what
the hell is your guy doing?

Speaker 3 (04:31):
He's what the fuck is coming on over there? He's
calling me and I'm like, man, talk to your general manager.
So that was my experience. Sorry for the six minutes.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
You know, there isn't even a question here, but I
just every time I think of you, this is my
first introduction to doing it.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
What was going on on your end?

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Like all of that I could fill in the holes
for that hole situation. All right, So that was my
last year. I did pleading my fourth year in San Diego,
and I got injured in the middle of the year
and we were treating it as a high ankle spring.
So I was playing with it and they would treat
me as high ankle spring, and you know, on me,

(05:11):
I'll do anything get back on the field. So it
was probably close to the second to third to the
last game of the last game of the season, and
I saw something pop in my ankle and I was
done for the rest of the year after that. Okay,
I was under the assumption that I only had a

(05:33):
high ankle spring the whole time. That's what the team
doctors were telling me in San Diego and everything. So,
you know, free agency start man. First thing, I'm in
Oakland and Oakland's like, hey, we only bought you a
one one way ticket. We're gonna get this deal done.
I was like, all right. It was first there free agency.
I was in Oakland. I was like, all right, I'm

(05:56):
about to be a Raider, I guess, and stay in
the division. I played four years there. I'm very familiar
with everybody, So I said, I think about doing that. Well,
their their their team doctor told me I failed the physical.
I looked at them, like, well what is it and say, hey,

(06:17):
your ankle, you you have torn ligaments. Boy. My agent,
you know, told me, hey, listen, the Raiders want you
to see a specialist down in Houston. I was like,
all right, And all this time I'm just trying to
go with the flowing and whatever needs to be done,
get it done, and then get myself situated with the team.
So at the same time, the Raiders like, okay, We're

(06:37):
going to send you down to this this specialist down
in Houston. I get told by my agent, hey, Miami
told you, hey, don't sign anything. We want you here.
And in my head, you know, I was like, oh,
I get to come home. Yeah, I'm like, make it happen.
I rather play down there than open. So let's go.
And I was told and from what I know, they

(06:57):
already knew about my ankle and went down there and
spoke and said yeah, and we'll get it. We'll get
we'll take care, we'll fix it. And I said, all right, no,
prom so I said whatever we need to do, just
I'd rather be here at home. And then I found
out about the press conference. Then I also about it
being canceled, and it was because And the funny thing

(07:19):
is I signed the contract and then I had to
go in and resign a different restructured contract. Wow. So
all of it it was viewed one way, but I
don't know if somebody didn't speak to somebody, and yeah,
either way, I wanted to be here. I said, listen,
just get it done, whatever needs to be done. And

(07:41):
eventually we got it done. No press conference, but I
was happy enough. I was happy just to be here.
But yeah, that was what was going on, and soon
soon I signed. You know, I went to Houston, same
specialists and got my ankle fixed and did whatever I can.
The cool thing was that same year I still played

(08:03):
and started at left tackle. I missed one game, which
was the first game, did what I had to do.
I'm you know, I always found myself confident as long
as I'm able, if i'm if, even if i'm a
certain percentage, if I'm able, I'm gonna go out there
and do my best and it's gonna be with confidence.
So that whole, that whole man, that was special because

(08:25):
you know, I'm sitting here like, oh, I'm a press conference,
and all of a sudden, I was told, oh, it's canceled.
It was explained to me, and I was like, all
had no problem, but yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
No problem for you.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
I had the entire like every PR person in the
league was all in one conference room looking at Harvey, like,
what the hell is going on over there?

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Who's back there?

Speaker 4 (08:43):
And oh so he got embarrassed in front of his
peers and he's calling me, and I'm like, Harvey, I
asked Rick, I double checked with Rick. The general manager
tells me to send something out. I'm sending it out, like,
you know, don't get on me. So thanks a lot.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
Rick.

Speaker 6 (09:02):
Well, you know, well thankfully, you know you and Big Seth,
you know, you survived that little mishappening and you know,
and you know you did finally sign.

Speaker 5 (09:09):
And while you're in here, you know.

Speaker 6 (09:11):
Rehabing an injury, you're back in South Florida and preparing
to be a Miami Dolphin. And while I don't, you know,
want to put words in your mouth, I don't want
to do that. I have to imagine at this point
you're excited to come, you know, come in and block
Ricky Williams. Of course, just a few months later, Ricky retires,
the team finds himself and definitely in a tail spend
and they wants that and stepping down as.

Speaker 5 (09:30):
A head coach. All this is going on. What the
world is going through your head at this point, that's
so much going on really fast in Miami.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
Here in his face, I did tell you it was
crazy time on Johnson. I did so. I knew when
I got the call from Miami. In my head, you know,
of course I'm my way out the foot. Yes, I
get to play a home But the main thing was,

(09:58):
at the time, Miami was always a playoff team, and
my four years in San Diego, I didn't sniff a
playoff at all, right, and I blocked. I love playing
with Ladanian and this was a young Ladanian when we
had got him. So Ladenians what two years younger than me.
So when he came, I was like, all right, cool,
but you know things were changing and they they offered

(10:22):
me but it's a short term deal, and I was like,
you know what. And then and then when I found
out about my ankle, I didn't trust the medical staff,
so I was like, you know, what is better for
me to go home? It's a playoff team. Ricky's there.
So in my head, I was like, ain't gonna drop off.
I got I left one great running back to another
great run day. I'm ready to rock, and all that

(10:46):
stuff happened. I'm seeing I'm seeing coach Wanstead gone, Ricky gone.
I don't even know how many quarterbacks we went through.
I think that's that. That thing that year we had
Gus Farot or I'm not even sure we had was
that the following year? Okay?

Speaker 3 (11:02):
Oh four?

Speaker 2 (11:03):
That was?

Speaker 3 (11:05):
That was j Ajeely?

Speaker 5 (11:07):
Right?

Speaker 2 (11:07):
That was that a j Feely? Oh yeah, that's right.
I remember all of that. Yes, hey, listen, I love
my teammates, but we had some special ones there. But yeah,
aj stuff like that, I mean. And the cool thing
is I played with Junior was here, say, I loved Junior.

(11:28):
Junior was a great mentor of mine. I came into
the league, I got drafted by San Diego in two thousand.
Junior and Rodney Harrison were the guys that mentored me
and really got me in the mindset to be a professional,
you know, not like I was a whik. I was
always I was very studious and I was quite but
I was very confident what I did. But I listened,

(11:50):
especially to older guys, and when I got to San Diego,
it's a lot of older guys, so I wanted to
soak up their wisdom and main thing I said, listen,
how can I stain up a meaningful career? And they
taught me how to present myself, how to come to work,
what to do, and I try to I try to
represent that every time. And having junior here was also

(12:13):
a great attraction for me to come home. It was
it made the move for me easier and just as
far as a new team, new scheme, just new faces,
but a few familiar faces, which made it a much
easier move. You know, I reminisced because that time coming
here was a great experience. I never got the chance
to play at home other than you know, high school.

(12:35):
Coming out of high school, I was going to sign
with UM. I had committed to Dennis Erickson in O four,
I had won the best lineman the war I did.
I was going both ways and just I was just
having fun. To me, it's like street ball. I just
having fun. And coach Ericson put me off and said, son,

(12:56):
you have a full scholarship, but I want you to
go and take your visit. I took my visits, but
in my head, I was like, I'm staying home. I'm
going to you know. Well, that's when coach Herrickson in
ninety five, Coach Harrison went to the Seattle Seahawks and
then the program went on probation. I ain't gonna say names,
sat and you till green Up left a mess. Every

(13:19):
time it come down to being at home, something just
went wrong. So I ended up going to Kansas State.
Me and my parents, we really liked the presence and
the friend and what we heard from coach Bob Stoops
who recruited me. He was DC Coach Snyder was a

(13:39):
great coach at the time. Me coming our high school disciplinarian.
Everything was structured and I went into a structured program.
It also helped that there was a lot of other
Florida kids there, And I was surprised because in the Midwest,
I never I never been to the Midwest, Sorry o J.

Speaker 5 (13:57):
I n and raised in the Midwest. I guess all.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
That cold weather, that's probably why my whole face is
white like this now. But I went out there that
was a whole different experience from me. But being around
guys that were from the same area that made the
transition there from high school here in South Florida a
lot better. And we did. We did real well during
my days from ninety five to ninety nine and at

(14:24):
k State, and I think we were really represented, you know.
And I felt proud being we down here in Florida
have a thing where we want to show out, and
me being a Florida athlete. That was my main my
main thing that every time I went out there, you

(14:45):
could tell, like, hey, that kid, he from the dirty,
he from down south.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
From Broward Man, and they just dated's Broward too.

Speaker 5 (14:55):
He's a four kid.

Speaker 6 (14:58):
I was a Broward three oh five when I first
got down here, David, we want to talk about my
age all the South Florida.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
Was three five when I got Are you talking about
Saint Thomas Universe? Is not where the facility was that?
Or you guys already moved to Davy by then.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
He got a cup of coffee.

Speaker 5 (15:11):
There you go, Seth.

Speaker 2 (15:13):
You always want to see.

Speaker 5 (15:14):
Yeah, I experienced Saint Thomas.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
I did for for three days. Three days.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
Thomas.

Speaker 4 (15:19):
He tried to claim it like he went to war
or something from the hood man too funny. Well, I'm
gonna I'm gonna get us back to that old four
off season, and uh, you know, we always try to
do a little digging. And I reached out to different
guys that I knew, both that were part of the
support staff and so on and so forth.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
And I talked to my guy Ben Westby. He's the best,
and he tells his story. He said, you know that
you were rehabbing that ankle through camp and we went
as a team to Houston to do the whole inner.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
Squad practice thing. And while you guys were out there,
I guess there was some specialists and you were going
to drive.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
To see you remember this, he's pointing, and so juice there.

Speaker 4 (15:58):
So Westby and Mac are driving in a rental car
to go to to get a second opinion from a doctor.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
And somehow these knuckleheads stop on the train tracks and
the train's coming.

Speaker 2 (16:12):
Is a crazy year.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
Oh no, you guys were getting you had a driver.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Driver.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
What happened?

Speaker 2 (16:22):
And mind you, the doctor for Houston was a specialist
that did the surgery on my anchor. He was the
specialist that he was the the guy, the national guy
that that did. You know, everybody recommended and that's and
that's who did it. And and I didn't even know
he was the Houston Texans. So I'm like, oh, was

(16:48):
were you supposed to work on me?

Speaker 3 (16:51):
But I don't know what happened in the train tracks.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
I was real silent. Listen. I'm the type I like
to be on control, so I wasn't driving, so yeah,
I was already nervous. And then when the guy stopped
on the track, yeah, I was like, what the hell
is going on? Why are you stopping on it? And

(17:15):
and Ben had the same face, and it was crazy.
It was crazy.

Speaker 4 (17:20):
Ben said that he was like, hey, dude, like you
gotta punch this thing, like get off these tracks. And
you know, in his mind, the train went flying by
your rear bumper just as you guys took it off,
you know the movie.

Speaker 2 (17:33):
Yeah, it's bad omens. You know, I don't know. I want.
I'm glad I signed, but man, yeah, I felt like
I had some kind of hex on me.

Speaker 5 (17:46):
Somebody, well, you know, thinking of that hex us.

Speaker 6 (17:48):
Let's continue talking about that old four season, Big said,
I mean talking about it, I mean the Ricky deal,
Dave leaving Jim Bates taking over the quarterback issue.

Speaker 7 (17:56):
A J.

Speaker 6 (17:56):
Phelly just mentioned a little bit. I mean, it just
felt like it was one thing after the next. It
had to be challenging, especially that position where you know,
continuity is critical for you guys personally.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Me, I had experienced because I mean I didn't have
my fourth season in San Diego, my very first rookie year.
I didn't play, you know, but I experienced and really
got a feel for the nuances how NFL players established
celles and in and out of game situations. And we
were one in fourteen.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
I'm sorry, Yeah, had lost that year.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
In two thousand. Right, I'm around a bunch of veterans
and I'm watching them. They still come to work. Everybody's
still busting their tail during practices, and I'm working my
tail off giving them a scout look and everything. At
that time, I wasn't starting, you know, And I think
the last three games I played special teams, so I
was active the last three. But I got to experience,

(18:52):
all right, listen this. I just went from a program
in college where we never lost no more than maybe
one game out of the whole year. And we look forward,
we we're trying to get national champ you know, now,
g sound weird. It was Case State. But we know
it's prove ourself. It's in the books. We won a
lot of games.

Speaker 5 (19:13):
Google.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
He said, yeah, you can google that. That's in the books.
I think we were been in Penna State too. I'm sorry,
but they all five of them years I was there.
You know what, Now we gotta do some research work
that down to ninety nine. I promise.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
Gators were doing it.

Speaker 5 (19:34):
I think that ninety five years. John is the year.
I think they went twelve and oh that year for sure.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
He was a freshman. Juice, he was a freshman.

Speaker 2 (19:42):
I get it. I get it. That was a freshman.

Speaker 5 (19:46):
You got it saying we're gonna get this, We're gonna
get there, write down right.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
But I learned a lot, you know what I'm saying.
I've been in a successful program. Then I also seen
the loads in San Diego. Like I said, all four
years there never been to the playoffs. We've improved and
I went. I saw an older team to where we
kind of converted into a younger team the following year.
On my second year, I ended up being the start
and left tackle and held it for three years straight.

(20:13):
You know, we brought in quarterbacks like Doug Flutie. We
drafted Drew, so Drew was behind him, you know. So
I had a mix of different guys that I battled
with and seeing the nuances of how a season go right.
Had a two head coaches. First two years was Mike Riley,

(20:35):
My last two years was coach Shottenheimer. Marty. I love Marty.
He was awesome, awesome coach, one of my favorites. So
going to Miami and going through that first season and see,
I always kept level headed because you know, the season
is always like this and you can't get caught up
in the pressure because you're gonna feel there's obvious pressure

(20:58):
in the building because the gold is win and we're
not doing that. Hey, it trickles down from top to
bottom and you got to be real with it. But
you got to be professional and be able to handle it. Now,
can everybody handle it? No, We had guys. We had
a lot of guys, a lot of transition. Like I said, Ricky,

(21:19):
we were expecting Ricky. Ricky was in there, he got suspended. Okay.
We had a bunch of guys at our running back remembers.
One of my good friends, Sammy Morris was one of
them and we had some other guys, great guys. We
had a veteran defense, you know, Sammy Knight. Of course,
you had Madison certain Yeah, a great group of guys.

(21:42):
But they're getting older, right, so if we're not doing
our end on offense. It was an older group. Junior,
Zach jt all them guys, Tim was there, boeings so
and Larry Chester. You know, I love these guys. It's
my boys. So we tried to really scrap it out

(22:03):
that year. We didn't go to playoffs. Wasn't new to me,
but I wanted to. You know, I expected to do better.
I said, all right, listen, this team should have the
foundation now. Granted, too many transitions ended up to where
we just kept spinning that wheel and couldn't get passed,
you know, in some progressive type of thing where we

(22:24):
were winning on a consistent basis. Now the fun and
then we had coach Bates takeover. I think he did awesome.
I not lie because I was really geared. Even though
I had ankle reconstruction earlier that year. I was geared
to come back, and I got myself ready. I played

(22:46):
a quarter in the last preseason game, just just to
tune up and they said, no, we want to hold
you back on game one. No problem. You know, I
fully supported that there was a young tackle Smith, Smitty Smith.
Uh Way, you guys drafted him out of Memphis.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
Don't put that on me.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
I I love Way, I love Way, but there's there's competition.
I wish Wade would have played a different position, but
for some reason, he was in the same position that
I was brought. I got brought in for you guys.
So I try to be ways mentor, but you know,
a competition is competition. So eventually, you know, that second

(23:33):
game I ended up playing, and I wanted to get
into groove and really be part of the group. You know,
we had a good, good group of linemen. That group
right there I really liked. Had some young boys Seth
McKinnie and some other ones that came in and we
try to really make it uh blend and Jail. We

(23:56):
had some quarterback changes. You know, was Jay Feedlers. He
was there for a minute.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
Fact he got hurt, got banged up, and that's when
you got he got banned and then.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
A j which was special.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
But I got got glue injury at some point during the.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
I got a story about that too. That was no
glue was it was on his glue. But I remember
he had a huge bruise on his on his on
his glue, and he made a good play. He threw
the ball and he got completed. And I remember I
was back there and one of the players slept her

(24:39):
right on his I heard the loud. He sounded like
Mariah Carey. He hit that note.

Speaker 5 (24:48):
You had the reaction, Yeah, the reaction. I think the
reacting went viral, for things went viral. Maigs sense.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
But I mean, we try to be gretty, trying to
make the best of it. I didn't even remember, maybe
so block at Jim. I don't even know what our record.

Speaker 3 (25:02):
Was that year, but it was four and twelve, so
you block. Yeah, absolutely, hey it was.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
It was three games better than your first season in
San Diego, So you know things were looking up. Let's
move off four because oh four was a disaster. We're
gonna move off of four. We can't, you know, there's
no two ways around it. Warn twelve, Jim Bates did
an admirable job, was not chosen as the next head coach,

(25:30):
and they went to the college ranks, which at that
time was something that was not I mean it was
almost unheard of, but Nick Saban was ready to test
the waters.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
I think, really Jimmy was the only guy that had come.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
From college and go to the pros. Well, I guess
Barry Switzer took Jimmy's teams and had success. But so
the Dolphins tried to replicate that they got a guy
who had a national championship in college.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
They bring in Nick Saban. Yes, we're gonna talk about
the time, you know, and so I and actually, well
let's let's start about.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Street.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Okay, Well, tell us about the history.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
And then was there.

Speaker 7 (26:05):
Where I was going to Is it Michigan State history? No, no, no,
it's a recruiting, recruiting out of high school, out of
high school. So you know, as I was being recruited,
and I told you, Miami told me go ahead and
take my visits. So the schools that were recruiting me,
Michigan State was one of them, and coach Saban was
the head coach at the time there.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
So I knew nothing about anything north of Florida. You know,
I'm a West Indian kid, so anything south Florida and
down that That's what I was about at the time.
So to me, it was like a field trip to
go fly away up there and see another part of
the country that I'm like, oh and it's cold. So

(26:46):
so my host was Plexical Bearers, so so they matched
me on what plex Plex showed me. It was awesome.
I was enjoying the scenery. Now was I ready to
make a decision right then and there? Especially so soon?
And in my head I was going to Miami. But
you know, I ain't gonna set out, you know, tell

(27:06):
any other schools at right at the time, you know,
I was to myself, I'm not like these kids with
Twitter and let their business now. I kept to myself. Anyways,
I met coach Saban the day I flew in and
I said in his office and you know, it was
great and he was talking to me. I said, Coach,
this is this is an awesome experience. You know, I've

(27:27):
never been in the Midwest. I see myself out here.
I would definitely go home and speak with my parents
about this. This is definitely going to be on top
of my list. So he looked at me and he said,
you're not going to commit right now, And I said,
I was a yes, sir, no, sir. You know, I'm

(27:48):
not an arrogant kid. At that time. I was yes, sir, no, sir,
very humble kid and respectful. I said, Sir, I would
like to go home and speak, you know, go over
my parents and there'll be a decision that you know,
I always run it through my parents, and that's how
I was brought up. And he did not like that.

(28:08):
He's like, I mean, I ain't gonna cuss, but he
looked at me. He cussed. I'm just telling you tell
me who I think I am doing. I think I'm
some boy, big shot. Do you know? He flew me
home that same day.

Speaker 3 (28:24):
I didn't get him out of here.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
So when I got home, I told my mom, anybody
from Michigan State call here. I'm not interested. Now. Granted
I've never done that before, and I felt, I felt,
I felt hurt, right, you know, that was my first experience.
I didn't even know who Nick Saban was, you know
what I'm saying. So I'm like, uh, I was like, listen, man,

(28:51):
I got I got brought up to Florida State. Coach
Rick recruited me. Mark Rick, he was a OCO at
Florida State, and he brought me up there three times,
one official and two unofficial, and they would recruit me hard.
And I had Miami and I guess Pitt University. They
trying to sell me on Johnny Major's come back. I'm like,

(29:12):
who this is him coming back for retirement. And he
was old then, so you know, I had schools, I
had options. I'm sitting there like, why how did I
just I was like and in my head, I was like,
did I say something wrong? So I felt really embarrassing,
hurt of that, that whole confrontation. Now, granted, I said,

(29:34):
all right, that chapter is done, right, lo and behold
that was in ninety five, ninety four, ninety.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
Five, right, Yes, there's a decade later.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
There'll go two thousand and five. And I see Nick
Saban walking down the hallway. I was like, oh my gosh.
So I'm like, you don't remember me? And Nick? This
is right when they hired him. And he's walking and
I'm walking past him, and I didn't want to say nothing,
so I kind of was gonna say, good morning, coach.
That's about it. He stops, he looks at me, he goes,

(30:06):
I remember you, and he walks off ship. I said,
I'm getting cut. I'm getting cut, and it's not because
my performance, I'm getting cut off of all grievouses.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
I didn't come to Michigan State.

Speaker 5 (30:29):
Can I tell you?

Speaker 6 (30:30):
Can I interject real quick, big Seth and Man, please
please you know Misigan State was one of the schools
that was recruiting me out of out of out of
Ohio as well. This brings back some full circle right
here because I was honorary captain one year and Nick
was the head coach and introduced myself. He said the
exact same thing to me. I remember you, that's on everything.

(30:54):
I wouldn't I wouldn't, I wouldn't give Michigan State a visit.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
He was pissed off.

Speaker 5 (30:58):
Man seemed like he's more a game.

Speaker 2 (31:00):
You take it personally. He took it person That is hilarious.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
It's hilarious.

Speaker 4 (31:06):
Well, man, I was gonna ask if if what the
perception was meant the reality, but apparently it did. And
so now this is funny. The thing I'm gonna ask
you is not funny. There was a story that that
came out and it didn't. I don't even know if
you were there, but it happened one of your guys
on the line, and so I want.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
To ask you this there.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
It is so because Heath Evans and I'm on, you know,
I'm only bringing this out. Heith Evans made it publicly.
So you were yeah, because they said there were four
or five linemen.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
Maybe you were all together heat and and Gino dropped
from from heat exhaustion.

Speaker 3 (31:42):
Yea in the hall.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
Gena, Now you gotta you gotta, you gotta know Gino.
Gino go one hundred miles per hour. Yeah, right, and
he ain't gonna tell you you're hurting. So of course
it's it's mindy, it's hot. We out there two days
we grinded. Gino collapsed while we were walking into the facility.
He's right at the doorstep and I hate to say,

(32:05):
but yeah, Coach Saban walked right over him, didn't even
look just walked over like stepped over him like like
Alan Iverson and walked down the hall and then tend
to ask what happened to Gino after he walked over,
instead of just seeing the situation right, It just felt disconnect.
He was not a personal person. I understand that, but

(32:27):
a lot of guys was really they felt their their
perception and they didn't have a lot of respect. They
really didn't have no respect for him, you know what
I'm saying. So so it became a very awkward situation
after that. I'm not going to say he did it
on purpose, but his personality is a little more It's

(32:50):
hard to swallow, especially at that level. You know, I've
been around great coaches, and like I said, Marty Schenheimer,
I love him. He was so personal. You know, he
come over even if you're doing bad, He's gonna, you know,
hug you up and say, hey, listen, you need to
do that, and coach you up. But he'll come at you.

(33:11):
But at the same time, you feel you want that
information from him and you want to hear from whereas
saving you're trying to avoid him as much as possible.
It's a different you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (33:24):
It's a difference one when you want to Johnson man,
you would want to avoid them cats man, you know
you don't.

Speaker 5 (33:29):
It's hard. It's a tough locker. You're there all day.

Speaker 6 (33:33):
But when you kind of duck somebody all the time
because of their personality, it's a tough deal all day long.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
Agreed, agreed, you know, And you had coaches like that
and anybody that was under the parcels tree they normally
and saving was definitely under that tree. I've heard the
same thing with Bill Parcells or the old Giants court
head coach that was a Jaguars head coach, Coach Coughlin.
They all had the same It's that same resume where

(34:06):
you know, hey, when you go play for them, listen,
you bet there's all business, all business, no doubt about it.
There's nothing wrong with it. But it's gonna be. They're
not gonna make it comfortable. They want an uncomfortable environment.
You gotta know that going in there. So it's either
you're able to handle it or you don't.

Speaker 6 (34:26):
You know, well, Mac, I mean it's moving forward. That
two thousand and five season got off to a similar
start as a year before. But then but then after
three and seven start, you know, something really click with
you guys. You guys went six straight to close out
of the year. What changed and how fun was that
for things to start rolling the right way? And of
course we had drafted Ronnie Brown and Ricky was back

(34:48):
and you got an opportunity to block for those guys.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
So what it changed that point, Well, you know, it's
starting to have some momentum to have some continuity, some
you know guys really been able to be able to
ain't drives. You were you you witness it, and we
were able to really you know, flourish as a whole
team offense, defense, special teams. Right. We brought in some
guys that were key guys. Ronnie got Ricky back Ricky

(35:13):
and that they played a key role. We had pretty
solid quarterback playing. We were we're still in the merryle
Go round. I think we had Joey Harrington, my boy,
my boy, cal Pepper.

Speaker 3 (35:26):
That was that was six?

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Was that six?

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, so yeah, you still had I'm gonna ask you
about that situation.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
But this came I think my I think my saving years.
It's this cloudy situation. I was just trying to survive.
Mind you, those were my what my fifth, sixth, and
seventh year in the league. So I'm just trying to
make sure I do my job and don't I already

(35:53):
felt I was already on the edge. And you know,
you on a pirate shipping, you're about to get pushed
off that plank. I was on that edge. I was like, oh, listen,
I do won't give him no reason to push me off.
I really want to stay home.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
Apparently you know my reason back like eleven years earlier,
you gave me the reason.

Speaker 2 (36:15):
Listen, I'm gonna stick to it. I was a good kid.

Speaker 5 (36:18):
That's too funny.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
So as we said finish that year strong, six in row,
everybody was feeling really good, like this is the team
we should have been.

Speaker 3 (36:29):
It's absolutely going to be the team that we're going
to be in the sixth season. It was kind of cool.

Speaker 4 (36:34):
We had Jason Garrett on earlier this year, who was
the quarterbacks coach, gave us an unbelievable kind of detail
of the decisions that were being made at the quarterback position,
and what the team decided was Gus was good, but
there were so many other great parts around this team
that they needed to be a step above where Gus

(36:55):
was at. Wanted to sign a big free agent quarterback
and they had a choice. They had a choice between
Drew Brees or between Dante Culpeper.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
And that's what you just said. You just said the
words that I want to ask you, my old teammate,
So we know what happened.

Speaker 4 (37:09):
History's there. Dolphin fans are sick every time we bring
this up. Jason Garrett told us an incredible story as
to how the decision was made. And I also in
defense of the doctors, understand that Drew Brees is his
tear of his rotator cuff was like historically bad and
so I get all of that, and he probably overcame
the odds. It was probably an admarition. What happened anominally

(37:29):
what happened with him and great for him. Did anybody
come to you and say, hey man, you were just
with this kid. Did anybody say tell us about Drew Brees?

Speaker 2 (37:40):
Did that stuff? You didn't want?

Speaker 5 (37:47):
You didn't want to be up there? Mack, No, I
don't want.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
For three years, I was incognito. But I knew Drew.
Would you know when we drafted Drew and granted Drew's
second pick, Ladani was the first pick, Drew his second.
But the way Drew handed himself, how he holds himself,
you knew he was a leader. You knew he always

(38:11):
he held himself that way. That's why he spoke. He
never wavered from that, so he knew it was in faith.
That's why he was when he walked down as a rookie.
He always wanted to prove, you know, get himself better.
And he led by example, and he learned under the
tutolage of Doug Flutie, who also was always out there. Granted,
him being short made it real hard for me to

(38:32):
block because he was scrambling like crazy. But Drew wasn't exacting, No,
he wasn't. So it was almost the same. Whether it
was him or Doug. Drew always had command of the offense,
you know what I'm saying, Whether his rookie year or
even years after, you could see it, and it just manifested.

(38:54):
And I think that was his main quality. Now, Granted, physically, yeah,
he wasn't the strongest, he wasn't the tallest, but he
was very efficient. He's gonna he's gonna execute a play,
the player's gonna get executed, and we're gonna move the ball.
That would have been a great quality if we were
able to have Drew. Yes, they did not. The doctors

(39:17):
did not want him here. I don't know why, but
he ended up doing great things in New Orleans, which
I knew he was gonna do.

Speaker 6 (39:24):
I didn't know he was gonna, you know, to like
Marino level. I don't think anybody did. I don't think
anybody did. Yeah, I think he used to be successful.
You know what I'm saying. That was no question because
he was a positive.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
Everybody gravitated to him and and he was a leader
of men, you know what I'm saying. So I knew
success it oozed out of him. He's a great guy.
He's a great guy in the locker room. He was easy.
I mean, like I said, he was a leader. And
when I say leader, it's not someone that you like,
oh I gotta follow, it's like you want to follow,

(39:58):
you see what I'm saying. And when you want to
do something for some reason, the group, it just shows
and it shines and it and it just looked like
a confident group. So and you were just talking about
what was it the five season? I think Gus Gus
had that same thing. We were. We were comfortable and
consistent with Gus, which ooh's confident. And I think when

(40:22):
we made that run we almost made the playoffs, we
felt good about that. We had stability. Now the following year,
you know, no gusts another change. After you don't got
used to somebody that was consistent, you don't know what
you're gonna get. And the next year is what it was.

Speaker 5 (40:40):
I hear that man well, you know, we're not gonna
talk about that next year.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
I don't think beat him up enough about it.

Speaker 5 (40:47):
We're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna come out of this sweating.
We're just gonna.

Speaker 6 (40:53):
We just want to hold you for a few more minutes, man,
because you've been even super grace with the time. Man,
But we have to ask you this, this, this was
one question. We never know what we're going to find
out when we when we start prepping, when Seth starts
prepping for an episode, and then doing this research, this one,
I mean, this one we uncovered with super Special Man.

(41:13):
Seth mentioned at the top of the show that you
went to MacArthur High School and then that you played
college ball in Kansas State where at one point you
were a defense alignment. If I am not mistaken, I
mean you were a defense alignment said at one point, right, okay,
And so as a freshman, there was another guy in
your meeting room, all big twelve, but there was another

(41:35):
guy in your meeting room by the name of John nine. Oh,
at least that's what we thought his name was. Tell
us about that unbelievable story.

Speaker 7 (41:44):
How you know that story?

Speaker 3 (41:46):
Research? We don't just show up for the got a
little bit.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Oh, y'all did a deep time. Alright, alright, so right,
all right, this is my this is my first year
at k State. We had a good little of course. Yeah.
When I got there, I saw other recruits coming from
other places. You know, I'm trying to measure up to

(42:14):
you know, what's out there, because again, all I knew
was Florida, and all I could think of was Florida.
We up here and everybody, I'm sorry, that's just how
we thought.

Speaker 5 (42:25):
Look before.

Speaker 6 (42:28):
Let me let you know, living down here all this time, man,
I definitely put I put Florida at the top of
the food chain.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
Bro. That's what damn sure see is in your is
in your blood. Once it had got in your blood,
you became a Florid.

Speaker 5 (42:41):
Right.

Speaker 6 (42:43):
And watching Florida football continues, it's like, yes, it's nothing
like what we did. I think Ohio is like number four.
I'll take number four. Is that cool? Florida, Texas, California. Yeah,
you're consistent the fifty states. They said, that's doing pretty good.
Fifty states A go ahead, Mac, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (43:02):
So I see this, I see this. You know, big
guy and you know he had a country twang. I
ain't used to hear in Twain. I'm from South Florida.
It'd been different if I if I grew up in
North Florida, where the twang at. But we didn't have
Twains down here, right, So I'm here in the Twain
and he's like, yeah, my name is Johnny Not and

(43:24):
I'm like, okay. So John was a real dinner and
he was there done. I'm talking about right at the beginning,
when you just when we just got there and I
see I was like, oh man, we got size, we
got I'm like, okay, we can we can make a run.
We could be you know, and and from the guys
that they had there, I said, okay, we could be special.

(43:45):
John was a character. And the funny thing is, you
know he had all the physical tools, this and that.
But I knew he was in I hate said book
spark and he was always in I saw mis study hall.
He was one of them permanent people in there. It's
bad that we knew that and we just got that's

(44:06):
not funny. But I mean some dudes that they need
to stay there, they really do. I have a team,
they said, need to stay there all four years. Yes,
John was there for a hot minute, and all of
a sudden the season started. Yeah we end up. I'm
getting used, and all of a sudden the boy is gone.

(44:26):
Nobody don't know where's John. I don't know. Ain't nobody
know where he went? Nobody knew nothing disappear. Okay, I
don't even know what happened to John. Now years don't
went by. I think I heard his name talking about
he was on practice squad or something with the chiefs.
I like, who's that? I said, Oh, on that John?

(44:48):
Not what the hell you went? Cause I didn't know
where he went. I didn't know if he transferred. I
don't know. I didn't know anything. And that was brief.
I just saw like something clipping or something. And one
of my boys said, hey, ain't that Johnny. I'm like,
that looked like him. Okay. Now this is the time

(45:08):
that Facebook is starting to roll around. I get a
message d Mac, what's up?

Speaker 5 (45:14):
And I look.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
I'm like, I'm looking at the name on Facebook. I'm like,
I don't know who this is? Who is Jaron Avery?

Speaker 4 (45:21):
Who is this?

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Who is this? And I see the face? I said, boy,
you look for me? And I had to think bam,
like okay, and he goes, d Matt, you might you
might know me as John Not And I said, I said,
oh okay. I said, I said, now what are you doing?

(45:44):
And he goes, yeah, I got a story to tell you.
I was like, okay, what's up? And then he tells
me a whole spiel and I get the background and
find out what happened. He went there on a false name,
on somebody else's name some situation. He's from Baltimore area,
I think, and he took a name of somebody and

(46:09):
he was being recruited through that name, and I think
it had to do something with his learning disability.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
Correct. So he was dyslexic apparently, and so he had
to take all these remedial classes growing up, had no grades,
was being recruited as what was the name Jared Jared Ay,
Jared Avery.

Speaker 4 (46:30):
In his local area, and you know, he was six
five to eighty, the whole thing and the package, right,
But then they West Virginia or something. I read this
article and they were like, yeah, you're you're not going
to qualify anyway. No, so he goes to his best friend,
Johnny Not, who's five to ten in white.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
And took his name, took his identity, like they schemed
this thing up.

Speaker 5 (46:53):
They were together. He didn't steal it.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
They did.

Speaker 5 (46:55):
They decided to get it.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
He didn't steal it. He borrowed it in.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
Case they brought the man. I was like, this boy's
supposed to be prop forty back.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Man.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
He did a whole scheme and my job was dropped.
When he told me, I was like, he said, I
felt they were gonna catch on to me, so I
had to split and I couldn't tell nobody.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
I said, that's why you disappeared, just disappeared.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
He said, yeah, I couldn't. I couldn't keep the lie going.
I'm like, I just shook my haird I was like, dude,
I was like, you use somebody else's name, like this
is for real. I was like, this is a movie star.
You know this ain't real. This does sounds fictional to men.
But yeah, I'm surprised you knew that.

Speaker 3 (47:42):
I found that there was barely there.

Speaker 2 (47:44):
I found it was part of my Yeah, he was
part of my recruiting class, and he was oh Jay.
When I say he was barely there, it probably like
two months and he was gone. Granted. The reason why
I knew him because the boy he was, he was
he had a physical statue and he played D Lin
So I ain't never seen d Liman like him, Like,

(48:07):
I mean, I played d Lion, but I'm six ft.
He looked like he looked like, uh, like a Leon Lett,
a younger leon Lett body type.

Speaker 6 (48:15):
You know, was he really was he really a teenager
at that point. Maybe he wasn't even he maybe maybe
wasn't right.

Speaker 4 (48:22):
He was of age, everything was, but he just had
it wasn't even just that he didn't have the grades.
He had, as Max said, like a learning disability, and
so he could he couldn't read, He couldn't read or write.
But he he was smart enough to say, okay, I
can't go to schools that are within I think he
had taken Michigan State. I think he took the trip
to Michigan State. So he couldn't go there because they

(48:43):
knew the Avery kid. And then he couldn't go, and
so he he ends up being that's how he ends
up in Kansas State. But then there was no stats,
there's no film, there's nothing on Johnny Nott. And so
when he shows up to practice the first day at
six five to eighty and he's got all the techniques
and the swim moves and stuff, and it was like
something just doesn't.

Speaker 3 (49:02):
Seem have this skill set and everything, and.

Speaker 4 (49:07):
And then he disappears, goes to a D three school
and he's a D three All American as Jared Avery.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Yeah is that crazy? That why? Nobody knew nothing. But
we were looking, We're like, where's John Not that's all
we knew. That's all we knew. And the funny thing
is when we were coming in as a freshman class
and as a recruiting class period, because we had Juco guy.
Everybody at Highlight but John.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
Not no film.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
He's got nothing, none, none, didn't need it.

Speaker 4 (49:35):
Just walked into six five two eighty. You guys ever
seen The Usual Suspects? Yeah, spoiler alert if you haven't
seen The Usual Suspects.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
It was like a spine.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
It's like verbal can when it turns in. The guys
are so.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
Saying to fun, okay, that would happen. And I found
out many I got the I got the truth many
years later. But yeah, that was one of those those
things like all right, we don't this guy disappeared and
nobody know why. We're like, did the coaches kick him off.
Did he do something because he was like I said,

(50:08):
he was always he was a permanent fixture and study
all gone, permanent gone. So I know he had great situation.
I'm like, all right, whatever, you know, he need help,
that's all good. Ain't nobody gonna mess with you on that.
But then when you disappear, I'm like, ay, you do
something wrong because I want to know, so that way,
I don't do it, don't.

Speaker 4 (50:30):
That's a permanent that guy, Damien McIntosh is indeed Damien McIntosh.
All right, I'm gonna move into the final segment. But
before I do, Juice, you put me on the hunt.
You wanted me to do the research nineteen ninety five
to nineteen ninety nine, Penn State versus Kansas State.

Speaker 3 (50:45):
You ready for the results? Here we go, all right,
from ninety five to.

Speaker 5 (50:49):
Nineue, are you doing the moy Povich announcement here?

Speaker 3 (50:52):
I don't know nothing about moriy Povich.

Speaker 5 (50:54):
Okay, don't start talk.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
I'm just gonna give you the data.

Speaker 4 (50:57):
So Penn State won a total forty eight games from
ninety five to ninety nine. Total forty eight games. It's
an average of nine point six wins per season, and
their average finish was twelve point eighth in the ap F.
In the AP rankings average finish twelve point k State
from ninety five to ninety nine SAM featuring Damian McIntosh
and almost Johnny Knot was fifty two total wins average

(51:21):
of ten point four wins per year, and their average
finish was nine point sixth in the country. So ninety
five to ninety nine, k State did.

Speaker 3 (51:31):
Have a better run than Penn State. Dad bus and
passing judgement.

Speaker 5 (51:36):
If you do one more research, but bowl games they
go to, I'll have to do that.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
I'll tell you. No, we don't need to do no research.
I can tell you. Look, my ball rings are right there.

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Right all.

Speaker 6 (51:47):
He's got all five won, he won all those games.
You want to give you one fest Well, okay, no,
I got cotton. That's enough, dog, that's enough.

Speaker 2 (51:58):
We're gonna move.

Speaker 3 (51:59):
We're gonna keep it moving, keep it moving right there.
I want to tell you about one all right, Look.

Speaker 5 (52:05):
We end all.

Speaker 3 (52:07):
This is funny.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
We end every episode of this podcast the same way.
It's the fish tank two minute drill. I know our
offensive lineman like to get down the field fast, get
this thing punched in the end zone. So we're putting
two minutes on the clock. We're gonna hit you with
some fast paced questions, hopefully some fun questions. We'll see
if we can score a touchdown.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
Get you out of here.

Speaker 2 (52:24):
Sound good? Sounds good?

Speaker 5 (52:25):
All right? Clock ready back up here we go. All right.

Speaker 6 (52:28):
You were born in Kingston, Jamaica and moved to South
Florida to the age of four. Where can we find
the best Jamaican food in the Track County area?

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Diane, JAMAI be four. I love going Donna's. Donna's always
is solid. But don't buy the petty all right, for
patty pastry, I'm going to finger licking or taste. No,
actually I like finger licking, but I like taste right better.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
All Right, there it is, take it right from the man.

Speaker 4 (52:55):
Okay, next question, As we just said, born in Jamaica,
raised in South Florida. However, you owned a family water
sports business seventy seven Marine in Ohio. Help us understand
that choice.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
So I had a buddy of mind also, he was
a finance guy, and we became real good friends. He
pretty much got me into it, and it basically it
was just an investment, and I got to learn a
lot because I did a lot of I went with
him to a lot of functions and things of that
nature in the sporting boat industry, the inline sporting boat industry,

(53:33):
I learned a lot. I found it very fascinating, especially
at the tail end of my career. So I wanted
to get in something that I felt that was gonna
be interesting and fun to get into. That was one
of one of many investments. It was fun while it
lasted for a bit, but you know, I got into it.

(53:54):
He was from Dayton, Ohio, so we kind of I
just went with it and all right, we'll just we'll
basic it out there because I think y'all got more
lakes than us. So we went out that way and
it was cool. We were all over the place, and
and we we dealt with skiing antigue and some other brands.

(54:18):
But I really enjoyed learning a lot about that whole
That whole thing went while it lasted at the time.

Speaker 5 (54:26):
No doubt about it. Okay, keep it moving.

Speaker 6 (54:28):
Over the course of your career, you played for some
really high profile head coach. We've talked about a lot
of We talked about Marty Scharton Hunter, talking about Dave Wants,
that Nick Saban and also Herm Edwards. I love you
had a couple offensive coordinators in San Diego whose offense
fans are familiar with North Turner and Cam Cameron. If
all of these coaches, of all them sat down at

(54:49):
the same table for epic poker night, right, who was
the first guy to lose all their money? Who's the
guy that's gonna take all the cash home?

Speaker 2 (54:58):
The first one that's gonna lose all the money? He
can't hold his emotion, was coach shot, He's gonna drop
a tear on a dime when he can't hold his
face for nothing. And you already know and like, oh,
ild the one I don't trust is Herm because he
one of us, and I'm like, I like her. You

(55:21):
commanded respect in the room, but you still want us,
I can tell you. And when we not, when we're
not in the meat room, you talk like I don't
trust her in a poker game. So yeah, good.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
So Hern's taking home all the money for Marty's going home.
He's got nothing.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Emotions, especially if the raiders involved. He hate him.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
All right? Final question.

Speaker 4 (55:46):
You're giving this interview in the fish tank, and at
one point in your life you owned a three hundred
gallon saltwater aquarium. If you had to add some type
of exotic sea creature into our fish tank with me
and juice, what would fit best with the two of us?

Speaker 2 (56:02):
I would say, I love I love salt water tanks,
and I love the arrangements of coral reef type of fish,
the colors and just just how they are. Uh. I say,
maybe a parrot rasp fish would be great because it's
a color. But that that fish ain't nothing to you know,

(56:24):
play around with. They hold their home, but they're gonna
they're gonna show their colors. They showing they behind.

Speaker 3 (56:30):
So what we need is exactly what we need.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
I'm saying, Rash the parrot, the par of fish.

Speaker 4 (56:37):
The parrotfish in the fish tank with juice and says
that is the two minute drill is a McIntosh.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
This was a lot of funny.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
It was an honor o J. I briefly met you
when I was a kid out of high school when
I came out to training camp, and he was awesome.
He was a professional, even if I didn't know him.
He said, ex ample and and I am I am
honored to say that. You know, I'm an alumni you
know with you and I really appreciate you guys having

(57:08):
me on. I really enjoyed my time here Miami. I'm
glad I'm back home, and I'm glad I'm able to
do a lot of community service here as a dog,
as a former Dolphin alum, and I'm proud to do
that on a regular basis.

Speaker 5 (57:23):
Appreciate the kind word, Dammion Man, and thanks for diving
in man for sure that.

Speaker 1 (57:28):
Sir, you're now diving.

Speaker 3 (57:33):
Just like JUW said.

Speaker 4 (57:34):
Thanks for diving into the fish Tank presented by iHeartRadio.
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and don't be afraid to rate the show or leave
us a comment. We love your feedback, and remember you
can find us as well as Drive Time with Travis
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dot com. Time