September 25, 2024 • 55 mins
"Stew and the Crew" is hosted by Jonathan Stewart, the Carolina Panthers' all-time leading rusher, and Jeremy Kelley, Director of Legends Affairs. Together, they invite legendary guests to delve into the intricacies of the game and life after football. Panther legend, Ryan Kalil, joins the guys to discuss his growing production company, playing for Southern California during the early 2000's, what it was like to watch Reggie Bush in person, the 2015 Super Bowl team, and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
With the thirteenth pick in the two thousand and eight
NFL draft.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Karen Lenton han the select.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Jonathan Stewart gives to Stewart, He leaves touchdown. Stewart oh
rough tough right, angry man out at elbows, knees.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Stewart hesitates, accelerates. That's what I'm talking about. Fits the
smash ball.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Football contain Stuart cat running around, Stewart jump over a
tackler at the tenth flows up, lower's his shoulder, keeps running.
No one will touch him. Jonathan Stewart house does it?
You talk about explosive plays in the run game. It's
like the fourth of July around here.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Right now you are listening to Stu and the crew,
Now to Jonathan Stewart's and Jeremy Kelly.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
All right, ladies and gentlemen, you are listening to the
Stu and Crewe. This is a special episode because I
have a teammate that's not just my teammate. I call
him my very close friend.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
PAC twelve brothers, even though PAC twelve is no longer.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
In some words, but thirteen year, thirteen year NFL career
veteran second round draft pick fifty ninth overall went to
the USC Trojans, the Trojan horse Man, who you know,
turned out to be somewhat of a Hall of Famer
(01:24):
soon to be maybe, I don't know. There's been a
lot of talk about it.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Hell of an intro.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I mean, my man's had one hundred and forty five
career starts as a Panther, two time first team All Pro,
first second team All Pro, five time pro bowler, made
the NFL Top one hundred list three times, twenty twelve,
twenty fourteen, twenty sixteen, obviously member of the twenty fifteen team,
(01:59):
who I believe is a very crucial reason why we
ended up where we ended up. Ended his career with
the New York Jets, because I believe he was there
to scout out some opportunities and understand the lay of
the land for his future, his future job, and his
(02:21):
future career with Mortal Media. Oh yeah, Mortal Media. You
want to know what Mortal Media is?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I think they want to know who the guest is.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Well, I'm building it up. Mortal Media is a production company,
a movie production company, all the things, all right, Ryan Khalil,
Ladies and gentlemen, He's a father he's a husband.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, California boy, you know.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
You look incredibly handsome with the most phenomenal beard you've
ever played.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Oh man, this beard. Let me tell you about this beard.
He used to didn't have a beard.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The rumor is it rivaled Ryan Fitzpatrick's beard a elite company.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
They got pretty epic. We had a couple of those
playoff runs that none of us were shaving, and they
got pretty gruy.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Greg was part of that crew too, wasn't he. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Uh, I remember. I remember the Minnesota Viking game when
we were in Minnesota, and I remember looking at your
beard and how cold it was. It was like minus
something maybe like maybe not minus I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
It was just very cold.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Oh, this is when they were playing at the university, Yeah,
the stadium.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
I remember looking at your beard, specifically you and Mike Rimmers,
and your beards were frozen. It was legit like icicles
forming on their beard.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
I remember, in my entire career, from nine years old
all the way up until that point, I never wanted
a game to finish faster than that game. I just
remember my hurt so bad I couldn't onto the ball.
It was the first time I ever wore a glove
on my snaphand. That was miserable, Jason.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Different for.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
The California boy. It gets cold up there now.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, it was frizzy. I remember, like, legitimately, I might
have cuddled up on cuddled up with you were you
did you have Did you have one of those coats
at all during that game?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
No?
Speaker 4 (04:26):
It was it was It was definitely.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
I definitely had a coat.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Yeah, but it was tovert and I was like just
cuddled up on Tovert bro. I felt like I felt
like a little kid.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Man.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
I couldn't stand it. I can't remember the guy.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
One of the guys was a tough guy. I don't
need it. I'll stay I'll stay ready. And then they
ended up getting sick that week. Remember that I forgot
who it was. I just remember us killing him in
the locker room bringing the suit.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Was it?
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Uh man, couldn't be, wouldn't swollen?
Speaker 5 (04:59):
B He was definitely a defensive guy.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Yeah, I don't know, but it was too cold to
be playing games. I didn't even go out for warm ups.
But you know, I think that game. After that game,
we all looked at each other in the eyes and said, hey,
we we we quit today and we're not gonna quit
the rest of the season. And that carried over game,
(05:26):
and that carried over into twenty fifteen when we went
to the Super Bowl. Because it was a really pitiful game.
We went to the Saints the following week and whooped
them like like a whooping pie.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Right. But yeah, man, it's great to have you. Great
to have you.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Man.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
We've been We've been chasing you down. I've been chasing
you down.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
We're trying to get you back in the fold man,
all the way from all the way from LA But
you're a busy man like going on these days. We're
going to dive into that a little bit here, but
but first let's take it back. I know he gave
you the introduction of the USC. I think it's uh,
I think that's Ohio State.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
I think call me the USC Trojan Horsemen.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well, I think you should change your Instagram handle that.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, that is strange now that I think about it.
I mean, I don't even care because I went in
the University of Oregon. Uh So if I butchered it,
it's okay because I'm a duck. But I get it.
The Trojan Man rode on the horse, right, or they
came the Trojan people. You're going came into the horse,
the big the big horse.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
No, no, false, no, they know they were the Trojan
people were tricked with the Trojan horse.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Is there it is, see see the inside the horse.
They were inside the horse, not the Trojan people. The
Trojan people got tricked by the people on the horse.
That's what you're saying. A lot of people might not
know the story, so it's good that he's explaining it today.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Two thousand and three BCS national title, A heck of
a college career.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Oppressive. You were there.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
You guys had an incredible team. Reggie Bush been in
the news a lot lately, your teammate, Yeah, we're taking
it back right. Obviously, you have a football pedigree. Dad
was drafted, Dad played in the USFL. Brother played in
the league. And you go to USC at a time
that's you know, a team that is arguably one of
(07:30):
the best teams of all time. It's up there in
the conversation for sure, some of the most one of
the most talented rosters college football he's ever seen.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Man dominant.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
What was your experience like in LA during that time.
I mean, you guys were at another level.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
You know, it's interesting. I got lucky in the time
that I came to SC because I was not a
highly recruited kid coming out of high school. And luckily
for me, SC was just starting to have a resurgence,
so they were good enough where they could start grabbing
some five star guys, but also they were kind of
trying to fill the roster with blue collar guys like myself.
And you know, people forget Pete Carroll was not a
(08:04):
first choice at I see, he was like their sixth choice.
I think a lot of SC fans at the time
were not excited about having him. When I was getting recruited.
They just lost to Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl,
So you know, two years later, SIE would never have
looked at me because once they started going on those runs,
I mean, they could sign anybody they wanted, so I
(08:24):
you know, really, when you talk about sports, obviously a
lot of hard work is involved, but the luck part
that I think a lot of people talk about, there
are moments in your careers where luck does play a
huge role, and so I was incredibly blessed that I
got to come in right at that time and be
part of those teams, and yeah, it just it was
(08:48):
incredibly exciting, especially at that time because the NFL teams
had left Los Angeles, so we kind of were the
pro team in southern California and so when we got rolling,
it was fun. It was exciting. The call Seum such
a storied venue, but then also being there in Hollywood,
(09:10):
all the celebrities were coming out, all the musicians were
coming out.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Yeah, talk about some of the celebrity friends that you uh,
you know created or not created, but you know had
you know, I know Will Ferrell talk about that like
just you know, being a college kid and having you know,
these celebrities just basically adore you guys everywhere you go.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Well else do you know? I've told you this story before.
I in college. Obviously we were rolling and I was
playing well, but the knock on me was always even
into my NFL career, was always I was undersize. I
was always too small, and so I just didn't know.
I didn't know if an NFL career was possible. You know,
when you get on a roster, you start slotting yourself
(09:55):
amongst your peers. Who's better than you, who's not better
than you? Everybody does it and I remember guys I
thought were gonna be all pro Hall of famers at
the next level either weren't getting drafted or getting cut
like after the second or third year. And so even
though I wasn't in the league yet, I got to
see from afar how cut throat of a business it was.
And I always had aspirations to get into storytelling and
(10:19):
specifically producing film and television, and so SC was always
the perfect place to do that, one of the most
prestigious film schools in the country. But when we were winning,
all the Hollywood folks started coming around and into the
locker room, and so I was on a b line,
and some of my heroes were in there, so like
George Lucas was in there, in Spielberg and you know,
(10:40):
all these famous actors, and so after games, you know,
most of the guys got excited because the game was
in the locker room, or like Snoop Dogg was there.
But I would get excited when I saw George Lucas,
and I would I'd be on a bee line right
to him, introduce myself, trying to pick their brains, trying
to hustle to see if maybe there was like an
(11:01):
intern opportunity in the off season, and so I got
a couple of those. So that's what I was doing,
planning for life after football from college. And then there
was a scout for the Bears that came down to
talk to me, and I was and he was kind
of asking me what my plans were to train for
the Combine, and I was telling him I was kind
of torn and split on, you know, pursuing a career
(11:22):
in the league. And and so he took me out
to coffee and he started listing all these incredible centers
over the years that were all different kinds of sizes
and most guys that were really undersized who had great
pro careers, and just sort of said, hey, he's like,
I've watched a lot of centers. You you have incredible technique.
Don't worry about your size. A lot of that stuff
(11:42):
will come, but if you're in the right system and offense,
you don't need to worry about that. And and so
that really gave me the confidence to go, you know what,
I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna try it, I'm going
to see what happens. I'll never get this opportunity again.
And ended up going to the combine tested really well
and then played really well in the in the Your Bowl,
and then the rest was history.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
I mean, you have guys like Reggie Bush and Lyndell
White that you're blocking for, You have everybody watching you, right,
darn right. This guy gave you advice of a lifetime
and still some confidence.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
But that's a good point though. That's the other thing,
and you know, obviously it's not the right thought process.
But when you're a kid and you're looking at all
these incredible players on your team, you know, the ego
wants to tell you like, yeah, I'm a big part
of this. But then you're also like, yeah, but we
didn't block anybody in that play, and Reggie just took
it for sixteen. Maybe you could plug and play anybody
(12:38):
in this offense and we'd probably still get the same results.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
How How I mean? I mean, you know it's easy.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
You know, you say his name, you see you see
number five on a USC uniform, Like you know what
you're thinking about, right, He's just one of those guys
generational time.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I mean, I've seen number five anywhere and I think
about reggieation.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Right as a running back? Yeah, you can pay how much?
Do that? Right.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
So for for you as a lineman, how often did
you get caught just standing and watching what he was
doing as opposed to finding work downfield? Because as a receiver,
I had I had this running back in high school
who oddly modeled his game. He loved Reggie Bush, and
he was I can say he's still one of the
best athletes I've ever played with. And he would do
(13:22):
things and make people missing spaces that I'm now like,
I'm stop blocking, but I'm watching just to see what
he is going to do.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Did you get did you did you catch yourself?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Just like you know your coaches like, look at here
we are, We got our offensive lines watching our running
back Fenn for himself.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, there's no doubt that would happen.
But I think we had incredible assistant coaches at SC
and and uh they did a great job making sure
everybody was finishing plays and getting involved. And the thing
about somebody like Reggie you knew every play he could
extend it even when it looked like the play was
going to be dead. He he was so special and
(14:01):
how he could keep going. So you sort of got
conditioned to keep running down field and try to get
more blocks and happened a lot. So there's a lot
of highlights of reggies that are exciting to watch because
you know you're getting in them because you you know,
you make your initial block and then you're running down
field knowing he's going to reverse field and maybe come
back and you get some extra So I had a
(14:21):
couple of those, and I'm so appreciative of all those
reps because I took that to the next level. And
then I got to play with guys like Jonathan and
DeAngelo who were doing the same thing, their own version
of it, their own style of it, but again like
extending plays, and and then I tried to, especially as
I got older and more of a leadership role, try
(14:42):
to get other guys to kind of do the same thing.
And so I think it's really a culture thing. But
obviously the culture part of it's easy when you have
incredible players to sort of extend plays.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
For did you see the Panthers game this past week?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I did.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Yeah, see Robert Hunt? How destroy that guy? How How
happy are you when you see the club? How happy
are you when you see linemen? You know put in
that type of effort, you know, especially run blocking, right
you love to run block in comparison to pass block,
because it's just finish a guy. There's like no no
(15:21):
real rules besides just punish him, right. How how good
is it to see that?
Speaker 5 (15:27):
I mean, yeah, it's always It's It's funny when you
get done playing, you think like you're going to be
a fan and watch watch the game, but you still
end up watching the game like you are in the
film room watching position. You're watching the box. Fantasies helped
Fantasy Football's help a little bit kind of play watch.
But yeah, it's it's always exciting. And obviously when the
(15:48):
Panthers are on, I always try to watch the front
and see what guys are doing what and and yeah,
it's it's uh, every Offen Slimy gets excited by that
kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Yeah, speaking of finish can play, I realized how fast
Ryan Khalil was against the New York Giants. Yes, it
was a game where we basically ended, you know, the
medal of the old stadium that the New York Giants
played in Meadowlands. We played the last game there, Carolina
(16:20):
Panthers against the New York Giants. And it was about
fourth quarter and I was gassed, but I was still running.
I'm still running back. Ryan and Khalil were The play
got called back, but it was like a thirty yard
run and around like the twenty yard point of that run.
(16:40):
Ryan Khalil sprints passed me and just blocks, just like
blocking down field like a maniac and just like and
it just goes to show you you're talking about the
USC program, right and just the culture, Like you're not
just drafting guys based on their ability. You're drafting guys
(17:01):
based off of their culture. Where are they come where
are they where are they coming from? Is it a
winning culture? Is it winning mentality?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Like? What?
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Because I don't want a guy that's going to come
into this locker room with all the physique, all the
potential in the world, but I can't get through to him. Finish,
finish the block, finish the play, like play until the
whistle blows. Right, those are super like tangible things for
(17:29):
a championship caliber type team. And I mean, you look
at the product that we saw in this last this
last game. You know, Andy Dalton comes into a situation
where he's been there before, obviously, but he comes into
a situation and the offense and the defense. They just
(17:50):
change their their motor and I love to see that
because they I feel like this weekend, are you going
to be here this week for Legends weekend? I am not?
Speaker 5 (18:02):
No, sure, I am. I'm coaching ten.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
You tax that's important. You got to make sure you
do that. Coach, we'll talk about that. But but it's
just awesome to see, like for the fans because a
lot of the fans like, it's been six six years
or so since we've actually had this type of feeling. Yeah,
we won last year in December, and we won a
(18:28):
game in twenty twenty two that was very convincing. But
watching this last game, it was convincing on all levels,
all aspects of the game. The cadence. Uh, the way
that guys are finishing downfield. You play a team called
the Raiders and you have their coach question guys on
their team. That's the way you want to play football?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
But uh, what I want to start to finish?
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Yeah, dominant, start to finish, that's for sure. Where are
we at?
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Yeah, you're right, you're right. I think I think culture
is important, and I think I think it takes more
than one or two guys. You really need a group
of guys to buy in and then you can get
everybody else to kind of follow suit. When it's one
or two, it's really hard. And you know, in terms
of like drafting a guy or signing a free agent,
(19:19):
I think it's important where they came from. Culture. Obviously,
potential is incredibly important, and a lot of coaches always
believe that they can sort of turn a guy or
they can they can kind of take them to the
next level if they can just get their hands on
them and they can get some time under their roof.
But I do feel like that, while that's true, it
(19:40):
can't be possible unless you've instilled that in your room
to begin with. Because I know, even as good as
those st SC teams were, and as good as that
culture was, you know, I still didn't know what it
meant to be a pro in the National Football League.
And so for me, I came in to a room
(20:01):
that had a great balance of up and coming guys
and veteran guys, and guys who were the exact example
you wanted a young guy to see how to be
a professional day in and day out, whether it was
how you watch film, how you train, how you take
care of your body, the kind of attitude you have
(20:21):
how to you know, the psychological part of the game
doesn't get talked about a lot, but having a great
mentor who can really help you through that, especially when
you're young and you're struggling, or you get benched or
you have a bad game. I've seen lots of guys
go right off the edge and that's it, no return.
They don't know how to recover. And I almost had
(20:44):
that happen to me. I had a situation my rookie
year where I came into play center, the center that
they had actually ended up being healthy. We had a
guard suspended, so they moved me to guard, and I
convinced them and myself that I could play guard. Never
played guard before in my life. And had an okay
(21:07):
first game and then an awful second game, and so
they benched me right after that game, and I could
have easily gotten the tank. I started feeling sorry for myself.
I started feeling like a victim. But I had guys
like Jordan Gross and Jeff Handgardner and even guys like
Jake DeLoone who really kind of sat me down and
helped me through the self talk and through the mental
(21:29):
part of it and it's not the end of the world,
and teach me how to come back and how to
keep fighting and how to fix and correct those mistakes.
But also, you know, not get too high and not
get too low emotionally. And that was such a huge
pivotal moment in my career that I took with me
forever and you know, obviously expanded on my own, but
(21:50):
also tried to pay that forward to other guys. Not
everybody has that. I know lots of young guys who
have gone into locker rooms and the culture either in
that entire locker room or that specific position group was
not great. It was more of a mercenary attitude, and
everybody was kind of out for themselves and nobody was
there to help anybody, and it was easy to blame
(22:11):
people and point fingers, so you get it. Caught up
in that kind of culture, it's easy to sort of
have the whole thing fall apart. So yeah, I agree
with you. I think obviously where you come from is
super helpful if you come from a program that gives
you a leg up. But I also feel like, you know,
if you can get a handful of guys to really
buy in to whatever the messaging is whatever the goals
(22:33):
and mission statements are, it's really infectious. And then when
you start winning, it only compounds that out even more.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, right, I want to lean in man.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
You you've had some success obviously at the both collegiate
level and obviously at the pro level. I mean, three
times in the NFL Top one hundred, obviously multi year
pro bowler, first year eligible for the gold jacket, right, like,
big deal, big deal. But really, and you know what,
congratulations too on that man that deserves, that deserves, that
(23:04):
deserves a clap the NST.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
It's a deep list. It's how it goes. Man.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
But but when you break it down to the positions
and you talk about centers, you're up there. I mean,
and as we you know, as a cool part about
my job that I really enjoy as a director of
legend affairs is you kind of become a bit of
a historian of football in general. Right, So you know,
when I look at the list of Hall of Famers
Kevin Wise, the guys that are at the center position,
(23:31):
you know, there's guys there that you know, the Bruce
Campbell's of the world that you look at. And then
when you pull names, you start to look at where
you stack up. You're right there, So we got, we got,
we got. That's not even across your fingers. I think
it's just not a it's more of a a win
as opposed to an if man. So, but coming back
to I hate to bring it up, but I got
(23:52):
to bring it up right. Two thousand and five National
Championship Game and I think about twenty fifteen Super Bowl
right to reach the heights and the pinnacles at both levels.
What have you pulled from those experiences? And we're talking
about culture, you're talking about adversity, you're talking about perseverance.
(24:13):
What have you pulled from those and turned into fuel
and learned from those experiences?
Speaker 5 (24:23):
I think probably letting go of things you can't control,
which is really hard. You know, we were such a
results driven culture.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
And.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
Obviously the goal is always the wind. You put in
so much work, you go on an incredible run and
then to come up short right at the end. I mean,
it's heartbreaking, and I don't think that ever leaves, but
I think over time it gets easier to walk away
from it knowing that you gave everything you had and
(24:57):
there was nothing more you can do. And I think
that's all. That's all what you that's sort of how
I gauge success, you know what I mean. I think
having regret telling yourself, I could have done more, I
could have done this better. I think that's where you
don't want to be ever in any circumstance. By the way,
even in games that we've won, you know, there's been
guilt where you know, I wish I would have played better,
(25:18):
I would have done more, I would have been more prepared.
And so those are all learning lessons and you can
either choose to learn from them or be the same,
and you probably won't have that long of a career.
But I think for those big games specifically, you know,
the two things I took away from him are one,
it's incredibly hard to win in college but especially in
(25:41):
the National Football League. And it doesn't matter how good
your team is. That it matters who plays the best
on any given Sunday. And so I think it's why
the game is so immensely popular is because you don't
know on any given Sunday who's going to come, who's
going to show up, and who's not. You have a
good idea. The Vegas guys are pretty good at figuring
(26:04):
that out. But you still tune in because you know,
you show up for the human part of it, which
is who had who's going to have the grid, who's
going to have the heart to fight into into uh
and to make plays for your for yourself and your teammates.
But yeah, it's it's frustrating because we were such a
dominant team that year and I really feel like, you
(26:26):
play them nine more times we win, We beat those guys. Uh,
But they played a great game. They had a great
scheme coming in. We knew that, especially defensively. I thought
our defense played lights out and offense was just off.
We picked the wrong day to be off. But yeah,
(26:47):
and then you know, lost one of those at the
collegiate level, and that was a game we were dominating, dominating,
and then they found their rhythm and came back and
didn't stop fighting. And obviously then Vince Young was a
pretty special player in his own right. And uh, yeah,
that was one of the most memorable, memorable games I've
(27:08):
ever played in and and uh and as equally frustrating
and uh and heartbreaking as as a Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
What have you done since the Super Bowls? Since you retired?
I'll say since you retired, because I think, you know,
the year that we lost to the Broncos, like there
was I still haven't seen the whole entire game, but
you know, obviously I played what two three more years
(27:39):
after the Super Bowl, so I was able to compartmentalize
a little bit. But once you retire, it all kind
of hits you like a ton of bricks, like, whoa,
I was in the super Bowl and we didn't win.
I'll never get a chance to do it again. And
(28:02):
I think when that moment kind of settled in, like
where you're so close, like if you're in college, you're
a good player, like the USC game Texas, you lose
that game, but there's you can see some type of
light right like Okay, well I'm getting drafted, go to
the team, be able to go to Super Bowl. Make
(28:24):
it right, you know, like in on a good note.
That's everybody's dream and aspirations, like what did you do
when you retire to help you mold this this mindset?
You know what I'm saying because I know for myself
(28:45):
when I actually sat down and started thinking about childhood, college,
where I'm at now, my kids, what do I want
to do in the future, all these things just kind
of come at once, and it can be so overbearing, Like,
what was your process like in finding out that understanding
(29:06):
of where you can cope with football?
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Well, on the retirement side, you know, my retirement with
the Panthers was really hard because I, you know, coming
up on twelve years, it was into my contract, we
were having some conversations of extension, and I just I
was starting to feel it physically, you know. And I
(29:33):
just I had such a special relationship with the Panthers
and the community in my time there, and I felt
so blessed to be the rare sort of player that
gets to stay in one place for such a long time.
And I just I just started having these weird thoughts
of not wanting to stay at the party too long
(29:53):
and be remembered as like an old guy who was
physically falling apart and hanging on for dear life. And
so I just made the decision, you know what, I
think I gave enough to this team, and I think
I did everything I wanted to do, and I think
it's time to go. And so I sort of like
quietly told the team, I think this is going to
(30:15):
be it. And then obviously you know, somebody put it
out there that this was going to be my last year,
so I embraced it. I didn't think I was going
to get like a Kobe Bryant farewell tour or anything
like that, but it was so fun to like force
myself to really enjoy every moment, every meeting, every practice,
so that being out there, it actually made that last
(30:36):
season special, even though we didn't really get the results
we wanted. But then what happened was I went I
moved back to California, which was always the plan because
I wanted to pursue the entertainment stuff and also I
just like I got nervous that if I hung around,
I was going to regret retiring too soon. So I
(30:57):
felt like, if I moved out of town, we give
it a shot. If we didn't like it, we could
always come back to Charlotte. But that was really hard
because I really loved the community. I really loved where
we lived. I loved where the kids went to school. Obviously,
all the friends that I made were staying like yourself
and the Olsen's and Luke and TD and so on.
(31:18):
But then when we went back a couple months went by,
I was feeling good. And then I could start hearing
rumblings of guys getting ready to come back for spring
ball and all that, and I started to really kind
of go in a hole about it, and I started
to really have doubts about, Man, did I mess up?
Should I not have done that? And so I started
calling guys who I knew retired and asking them and
(31:41):
I probably should have done this before I decided to
hang it up. But most of the most of the
guys sort of had the same theme, which was if
you're questioning whether you should have retired or not, then
you probably shouldn't have. So I remember talking to my
agent and just saying, hey, I'm pretty sure I'm done,
(32:02):
but in case somebody has a crazy offer, like I'm
I'm I'm going to stay here and start losing weight
and hang it up. But I didn't do that. I
kept lifting like I was getting ready for the season,
just in case. And then sure, and how close to
training camp the Jets called, and I think my agent
had said something to him, and I was still like,
(32:22):
I don't know, man, this sounds crazy. I just hung
it up and now I'm gonna do the Brady thing
and come back, you know. But but I talked with
Joe Douglas a few times the GM at the Jets
of the time, and I just really really enjoyed my
conversations with him, and I liked the idea of getting
(32:43):
to come in and help some young guys out and
try to build a culture there. And you know, there
was sort of some promises about my practice schedule and
taking care of me that yeah, that never ended up
coming into flis lies.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
That's what's wrong with the organization practice.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
I think I practiced more with the Jets than I
did the last five years I did with the Panthers.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
Same here with the New York Giants.
Speaker 5 (33:13):
Ran at the relationships you build somewhere, in the trust
you build when you go to a new place, regardless
of your resume, you know, there's always the kind of
like handshake deals, and then when you get there and
things aren't going well, people start people start going back
on their on their word. But but it was fine.
I mean, I have no bad blood with the Jets,
(33:34):
but yeah, that's sort of what happened. And then after
that season, I was like, okay, you know, I got
banged up, hurt my knee and went home in December
and but that was the closure I needed. That was like, Okay,
I'm spent, I'm done. There's no more football left to me. So,
(33:54):
you know, while not how I sort of drew it
up and wanting to kind of finish my career at
the Panther, it was incredibly helpful for me, you know,
physically and spiritually to kind of leave it all out
and actually really empty the tank and then come home
and then yeah, I just I started to put my
head down and I started dabbling in the production stuff.
(34:17):
While probably like my last five years in Carolina, very
very subtly, mostly in the off season. You know, a
couple of things we were working on sort of hit
the trades. But it wasn't until I finished playing that
I hit the ground running and really started hustling and
taking meetings and doing it full time. But at that
point I'd met enough people and kind of figured out
(34:39):
how to be somewhat dangerous, you know, I sort of
like was teeing up because another piece of advice I
got was, when you get done playing, just hit the
ground running with whatever it is you're passionate about or
excited about, you know, whether that's working out or a
hobby or another career you want to pursue, because I've
heard a lot of guys say, you know, when they
(34:59):
get one plane, they go take a year off, and
then they kind of get stuck, like almost like in
a weird purgatory thing where they can't quite they can't
quite aim, but they can't quite move on. And I
heard that from a lot of guys that I really
respected and trusted, and so I really took that to
heart and just sort of just sort of started going
one hundred miles an hour and we were starting to
(35:21):
gain traction, and then COVID hit and all of a sudden,
I was like, you know, producing from home on Zoom
and we had stuff getting ready to go into production,
a TV show, a movie, but everything was at home.
And I remember my family sort of being like, well,
you do you produce from your computer? Why did we
have to move out here, Charlotte, And I didn't have
(35:46):
I had no response. I was like, you're not wrong,
But I also didn't know there was gonna be pandemic,
a world pandemic. But yeah, so that's you know, things
now going somewhat back to normal. And and Blake Griffin,
my partner in the production company, we Uh, we got
a bunch of stuff we've sold in the last year,
(36:07):
a couple more things getting ready to go into production.
Sign a first look deal at Sony Pictures. So we're
doing some cool projects with them. And yeah, it's been fun.
It's different. Uh, it's sort of like being a GM producing.
You're like you're kind of in charge of putting all
the pieces together, finding the head coach, finding the coordinators,
drafting the players. You got an owner, you got an
(36:30):
answer to So I got a lot of respect for
the GM and in that role, and and uh, you know,
I still feel like a rookie. I still feel like
I'm sort of trying to find my stride and and
uh and learn a ton. But you know, we're we're
making progress and and uh and kind of doing our
own terms. And it's been really rewarding and really fun.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Learning more about your story doesn't doesn't surprise me. See
the successes you've had. Right as you talked about that
coffee with a scout when you're coming out of college
and you knew already movies production, right, creating that was
something that you loved, right, and you had a mentality
(37:12):
and we talked about it just maybe an episode or
two ago about some of the college players that don't
have ambition to go to the NFL. And I always
thought that to be very odd. I thought that's why
you played college football. Right, So but again having the
foresight of this is what I want to do for
(37:33):
you as a college athlete. But then to go on
and have a successful career, and then you get to
this crossroads, now do I want to retire?
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Do I not? The tough thing to have.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
And somebody gave you great advice, right, I've always heard
somebody say, and I've repeated it to any athletes, when
you're sitting at the table with your family and friends,
you want there to be no what ifs, and you
can look around that table and nod your head and
say I'm good. Then you're good, right, And so it
sounds like you got a rendition of that, and you've
(38:04):
moved on and you've been thriving and you're continuing to
do something. We got to get you to produce something
with us out here. We gotta get you back here. Man,
I've heard some things produced. He's already produced a lot.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
We gotta we gotta get you back.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
A couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Well, well, well we can.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
We talked to the big fellow DT can dig in
the pocket right now. We'd love to see you back
in town though, Man, and it's gonna happen, I know that,
but to see the transition happen and hear about the
transition and now everything that you got going on with
Blake in your production company. Man, tell us about a
project you got coming up, anything that you can share
(38:47):
with no n d as. Tell us about something that
maybe we can look forward to here.
Speaker 5 (38:52):
Yeah, we have we Blake and I we've been dying
to get into animation forever, and animations the longest of
any kind of medium, and so we sold a couple shows,
I mean, heck a few years ago, one just recently
with some with some cool name stars attached to them,
(39:15):
which we can't discuss yet, but there'll be some announcements
in the trades soon. But those have been incredibly fun.
They just take forever. Animation takes forever. So that'll be
the sort of next slate oft stuff. We're gonna start
getting into more unscripted sports projects. We've kind of been
avoiding it. I think we've wanted to really focus on
(39:37):
the fiction side of stuff. Blake's a big comedy nerd.
I love, you know, fanboy genre stuff like like The Rocketeer,
which is a project we're working on with Disney. So yeah,
we're finding our balance because these projects take so long
and it's such a hard thing to crack, you know,
even though you can keep going along on something in
(39:58):
the development process and get right to the end and
either the timing is not good or the budget's not right,
or you just can't find the stars to fill it
that get the studio excited. There's there's a multitude of
reasons why things don't go or why things go and
they don't end up being great, So we're trying to
avoid that. And obviously, you know, because the success of
(40:21):
turning over things and getting them green lid and getting
them made is so low and so hard, you try
to sort of have a slate of projects that give
you a higher chance of getting things going, so you're
constantly working on stuff, But then you also don't want
to You also don't want to overextend yourself and have
so many projects going on that you can't really be
(40:43):
a master of any of them. So I think Blake
and I have really kind of figured out that balance
of like what our bandwidth is and how many projects
we can be working on while not sort of allowing
any project to not have enough attention on it. So
so yeah, there's a handful of stuff. Sorry, that's not
the answer you were looking for.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
We'll take it.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
I will say, I.
Speaker 5 (41:07):
Have this Vince Von. I have this Vince Von project
I've been working on forever. Vince is one of my
all time favorite people. He's been so incredibly supportive and
integral into getting this thing made. I got to that's
something I'm excited to announce soon. But but yeah, we're
we're in it. We're we're grinding.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
I got a story about Vince Vaughn. So back in
the day, like two thousand and ten or eleven, good
buddy of mine from back home in Washington. And in
Washington there they have casinos, right, you know, the Indian casinos,
(41:46):
And Vince Vaughn was doing a stand up at one
of the at the casinos. And so I'm playing black
jack and lo and behold is large human since next
to me and throws a couple of wads of cash
on the table, and it's Vince Vaughn. And I played
and I played and I played black black jack. I
(42:08):
like to play black jack one on one with the dealer,
and Vince Vaughn sat down. I'm like thinking to myself, clearly,
this guy doesn't get it. I'm playing two hands against
the one person dealer and he just sits at the table.
That's like, you don't do that right. But Vin' Vaughn
sat down. I was like, Oh, this is Vin's von.
I was like, hey, so nice to meet you. I
(42:30):
love all your work. I felt like a straight up
nerd bro. So if you chat with him soon, let
him know that you had a teammate that felt embarrassed
as he played black jack with Vince Vaughn.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Did you did you come up? I did?
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Okay, So yeah, probably own money. Probably because we'll go back.
Of all your teammates in Carolina, who would you be
most likely to cast for a movie?
Speaker 5 (43:07):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Man?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Yeah one. Well I'm putting you on the spot right now. Well,
I got I got a fun fact for you. It's
me and Charles Johnson got to be in Hello Tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
TV show.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I'm not familiar.
Speaker 4 (43:22):
It's a TV show that was on Apple TV.
Speaker 5 (43:25):
Apple TV show that's right, that.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Ryan Khalil produced me, okay, awesome, I knew I didn't
know you had.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
My name was Johnny Zapp. I was a baseball player
back in the day. What was the time frame, Like
the fifties or sixties.
Speaker 5 (43:41):
Was like an al It was like an old nineteen fifties,
like a futuristic nineteen fifties.
Speaker 4 (43:46):
Yeah, And I had like a during that time. It
was perfect because I was like growing my hair up
before I got dreads. And I just remember the lady
when doing our makeup and our hair stuff. She's like,
I'm gonna cut the bottom part of your facial hair off,
just give you a mustache. It's like, oh great. So
I felt like I was legitimately in the fifties.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
Bro. And he hasn't casted you since you know it's out.
Speaker 4 (44:12):
Hey man, it's you know, it is a great it's
the it's the movie biz.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Bro.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Sometimes you got it, sometimes you don't.
Speaker 5 (44:18):
He's got an amazing job. He was he was asked
to be an incredible baseball player, which we all know
is not true. And I acted. I mean, I really
believed this guy could hit a baseball. Yeah, So hats
off to you, buddy.
Speaker 4 (44:34):
That the whole week, that whole day was amazing because
you set us up in the hotel. I felt like
a movie star. I legitimately felt like he's a professional man.
So kudos to everything you're doing. Man, I love to
see all this come to question.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
We won't make you answer that question. Hence you already
had a couple of guys in the movies, and we'll
give you. We'll give your past there.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
I'll say Luke.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
Would be an easy one.
Speaker 5 (44:59):
Yeah, Luke. I wouldn't ask him to do much. He'd
just be the extra pretty Uh. I don't say which.
Speaker 4 (45:07):
Like a romance movie for Luke.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Yeah, yeah, he could be.
Speaker 5 (45:11):
He could be the love interest i'd cast in a comedy.
Oh yeah, uh, he'd be guy who rants number three.
Uh and then uh, I won't say his name, but
you know who it is and you can't say it either.
But if I was casting a horror movie, who was Yep,
(45:36):
let's see, let's see, let's always pull up.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
He's gonna let's go.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
Wow, wow wow.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
You guys would have You guys would have been the
most muscular baseball players in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
Johnny Zapp was that guy. He was He was one
of the.
Speaker 5 (45:57):
Kind every time this guy's bad average, terrible, absolutely terrible.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
Oh man, I can't wait for him to see that.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
That's amazing, great poll, great poll right there. Yeah, but oh.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Well, well, well we hope we might have to We
hope that you can get some other stuff off the
ground here and we can get a couple couple of
guys back into the in front of the cameras at
the outstanding.
Speaker 4 (46:25):
I think that would actually do the world some jet.
The world needs that. We need to talk about the money.
The money needs to be spent to Ryan Khalil and
Mortal Media to create something wonder.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
We need some long form content. We'll get it up.
Speaker 4 (46:43):
Yeah, we all in the house, baby, We are right here.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Got enough guys in Charlotte. Travel budget will be low.
Come back for a couple of weeks. Yeah, we'll find
some studio space for you. We'll make it happen. All
right there, it is, what's in the contract? What do
you send it to my agent?
Speaker 4 (47:03):
If you had any advice right now for any of
the guys that are currently in the Panthers locker room
right now, right with everything that's transpired over the last
several years, everything that you just talked about as far
as life after football, your family, man, you're coaching, Like,
(47:25):
if you had anything to just kind of share with
a young guy, you know, maybe your younger self, Right,
what would that be with everything that you've experienced so far.
Speaker 5 (47:39):
I think it would be it'd probably go back to culture.
I think culture is so incredibly important, and I think,
you know, if if you want to win, if you
want to be part of a winning team, then you
need to be the change. And it really does start
with yourself. It's so easy an NFL locker room, especially
(48:01):
when things aren't going well, to huddle with other guys
and to start pointing fingers and to start complaining and
to start acting like you have all the answers. And
this is the reason why, and that's the reason why.
The harder thing to do is to have faith and
to trust and to show up every day even when
things aren't going right, and to stay the course and
to keep getting better and to keep having a positive
(48:23):
attitude and to try to bring guys along and enjoy
your time. So I think, you know, I probably had
a couple of those seasons, especially younger in my career.
It took me a long time. So if I could
travel back in time and tell my younger self anything,
it would be to avoid the groups, to avoid the
individuals who sort of like you know, revel and misery,
(48:47):
and to be the person who is the positive change
and to be the person who's delight that comes in
every day and gets guys excited to go to work,
because it's incredibly hard in the NFL going through NFL
Sunday and then coming in on Tuesday and trying to
get yourself hyped again for the week, knowing that especially
(49:07):
you know, you start the week off full pads and
you're trying to correct stuff from last week. You're trying
to prepare for the next week. You've got a lot
of coaches who are who are in high pressure situations,
who a lot of people are breathing down their next
they have bosses, and you're sort of you're sort of
you know, coach would the coaches would always say the
shit comes downhill, and you would feel it, you know
(49:28):
what I mean. It starts with the owner, head coach,
to the coordinators, to the position groups. So I just
towards the end of my career, I started having more
grace for position coaches, especially in the shit they had
to go through each and every week and the fights
that they had to have to protect their guys but
also keep them accountable and try to get them better. Yeah,
(49:52):
it's easy to feel sorry for yourself. It's easy to
to sort of read what everybody thinks about the team,
what everybody, what everybody these opinions are, and to kind
of jump on those trains. It's much harder to silo
yourself away from all the noise and to keep the faith.
And it's funny we had some of that our Super
Bowl run year when when KB went down, we thought, oh,
(50:18):
that's a rap on our offense, like our best receivers done,
like that's it, and guys started talking and I'll never
forget there was a handful of guys, including Luke, who
really started the positive talk early. But it would have
been so easy for all of us to kind of
huddle at training table and to start talking about the
sky is falling and to listen to the pundits who
(50:39):
are on TV that were watching saying, well, that's a
rap for the Panthers, like they're going to struggle this season.
And we did it, and all it did was create
opportunity for other guys who never got a shot, so
you just never know. You never know. But nobody ever
saw us. And even I don't know if you remember,
even when we started winning, they still wouldn't give us credit.
They still kept it said. Noise was like, this is
(51:00):
a fluke. The teams they're playing are not very good,
Like these guys are paper tigers. They would say it
every single.
Speaker 4 (51:06):
Week, the worst fifteen and one, they the worst.
Speaker 5 (51:10):
Thirteen one teams. They kept trying, and the more they
did that, the tighter we got, the better positive talk
we had. So I think it just goes to show
how powerful that is. And so that would be my
advice is to not listen to the noise, to give
the people in your circle the benefit of the doubt,
and to trust the process and not and also not
(51:34):
have not carry with you the residue or the hangover
from past seasons, you know what I mean. It's really
easy when you've had a couple bad seasons to get
into the here we go again, to really treat each
and every season like it's its own special thing, and
to not bombard it with any kind of baggage that
you're bringing from your own experiences or the experiences of
(51:56):
other teams. But that's hard to do. That's easier said
than done, but it takes yourself to do it. And
then you recruit a couple guys and you just keep
conditioning guys around you, and then guys either get pissed
and go, Okay, well you're not a realist. I'm going
to talk to somebody else, or they buy in and
they start sort of they start emulating how you're sort
of going about it, especially if you're a respected veteran.
(52:20):
But yeah, that's.
Speaker 4 (52:21):
Uh, that's well said, man. Because I remember my rookie year.
I don't know if you remember this, but it's been
it was. It was more than one time. I was hurt.
I had come up. I came into the Carolina Panthers
locker room hurt off of surgery and as a rookie,
(52:43):
being a being in a new environment and being a
number one draft pick, there's a lot of pressure, right,
But having guys like you that continuously came in, came
over on the sideline while I'm standing there, like just
talking to me, like hey, man, like you know, how's
(53:04):
everything going? Like I remember I legit, like wondered, like
why is he so nice to me right now? Like
why why is this guy talking to me and why
is he being so nice? And because there were certain
guys on the team that weren't that way right. There
are certain guys on the team that looked at me
like we drafted you.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
You hurt what you're.
Speaker 4 (53:26):
Doing here the le But it was infectious and what
that does is it builds trust. Like I can say,
from day one, I trusted Ryan Khalil, and it's important
because he's our center, he's one of our leaders. And
if you got guys like that in leadership roles, not
(53:49):
just as a voice in the locker room, but positionally,
it's huge. And so just wanted to say that out
loud and just appreciate you for your time today.
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Man.
Speaker 4 (53:58):
Really enjoyed talking and hearing you know, just your perspective,
and I'm sure the listeners will too. So thanks for
tuning in to to stew in the Crew with Ryan Khalil.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
Great episode, NFL, great.
Speaker 4 (54:13):
Future Hall of Famer, number one in your heart. That's
all we have to that's all we have to think about.
Big Teddy Bear, best best beard in the world.
Speaker 5 (54:26):
Thetro is way better than.
Speaker 4 (54:29):
Oh by the way, Also, this is the outro's just
if you see Ryan, if you ever see Ryan, if
you see Ryan Khalil on a beach with the shirt
off today, he is in physique. This physique is amazing.
He's in great shape. It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
He's rogue. Thanks for coming on, brother, all right man,
alright bye about that bell,
With the thirteenth pick in the two thousand and eight
NFL draft.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Karen Lenton han the select.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Jonathan Stewart gives to Stewart, He leaves touchdown. Stewart oh
rough tough right, angry man out at elbows, knees.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Stewart hesitates, accelerates. That's what I'm talking about. Fits the
smash ball.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Football contain Stuart cat running around, Stewart jump over a
tackler at the tenth flows up, lower's his shoulder, keeps running.
No one will touch him. Jonathan Stewart house does it?
You talk about explosive plays in the run game. It's
like the fourth of July around here.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Right now you are listening to Stu and the crew,
Now to Jonathan Stewart's and Jeremy Kelly.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
All right, ladies and gentlemen, you are listening to the
Stu and Crewe. This is a special episode because I
have a teammate that's not just my teammate. I call
him my very close friend.
Speaker 5 (00:52):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
PAC twelve brothers, even though PAC twelve is no longer.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
You know.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
In some words, but thirteen year, thirteen year NFL career
veteran second round draft pick fifty ninth overall went to
the USC Trojans, the Trojan horse Man, who you know,
turned out to be somewhat of a Hall of Famer
(01:24):
soon to be maybe, I don't know. There's been a
lot of talk about it.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Hell of an intro.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I mean, my man's had one hundred and forty five
career starts as a Panther, two time first team All Pro,
first second team All Pro, five time pro bowler, made
the NFL Top one hundred list three times, twenty twelve,
twenty fourteen, twenty sixteen, obviously member of the twenty fifteen team,
(01:59):
who I believe is a very crucial reason why we
ended up where we ended up. Ended his career with
the New York Jets, because I believe he was there
to scout out some opportunities and understand the lay of
the land for his future, his future job, and his
(02:21):
future career with Mortal Media. Oh yeah, Mortal Media. You
want to know what Mortal Media is?
Speaker 1 (02:28):
I think they want to know who the guest is.
Speaker 4 (02:29):
Well, I'm building it up. Mortal Media is a production company,
a movie production company, all the things, all right, Ryan Khalil,
Ladies and gentlemen, He's a father he's a husband.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Yeah, California boy, you know.
Speaker 5 (02:52):
You look incredibly handsome with the most phenomenal beard you've
ever played.
Speaker 4 (02:57):
Oh man, this beard. Let me tell you about this beard.
He used to didn't have a beard.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
The rumor is it rivaled Ryan Fitzpatrick's beard a elite company.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
They got pretty epic. We had a couple of those
playoff runs that none of us were shaving, and they
got pretty gruy.
Speaker 4 (03:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Greg was part of that crew too, wasn't he. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:16):
Uh, I remember. I remember the Minnesota Viking game when
we were in Minnesota, and I remember looking at your
beard and how cold it was. It was like minus
something maybe like maybe not minus I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
It was just very cold.
Speaker 5 (03:30):
Oh, this is when they were playing at the university, Yeah,
the stadium.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
I remember looking at your beard, specifically you and Mike Rimmers,
and your beards were frozen. It was legit like icicles
forming on their beard.
Speaker 5 (03:47):
I remember, in my entire career, from nine years old
all the way up until that point, I never wanted
a game to finish faster than that game. I just
remember my hurt so bad I couldn't onto the ball.
It was the first time I ever wore a glove
on my snaphand. That was miserable, Jason.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Different for.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
The California boy. It gets cold up there now.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, it was frizzy. I remember, like, legitimately, I might
have cuddled up on cuddled up with you were you
did you have Did you have one of those coats
at all during that game?
Speaker 1 (04:25):
No?
Speaker 4 (04:26):
It was it was It was definitely.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
I definitely had a coat.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Yeah, but it was tovert and I was like just
cuddled up on Tovert bro. I felt like I felt
like a little kid.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Man.
Speaker 4 (04:36):
I couldn't stand it. I can't remember the guy.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
One of the guys was a tough guy. I don't
need it. I'll stay I'll stay ready. And then they
ended up getting sick that week. Remember that I forgot
who it was. I just remember us killing him in
the locker room bringing the suit.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Was it?
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Uh man, couldn't be, wouldn't swollen?
Speaker 5 (04:59):
B He was definitely a defensive guy.
Speaker 4 (05:03):
Yeah, I don't know, but it was too cold to
be playing games. I didn't even go out for warm ups.
But you know, I think that game. After that game,
we all looked at each other in the eyes and said, hey,
we we we quit today and we're not gonna quit
the rest of the season. And that carried over game,
(05:26):
and that carried over into twenty fifteen when we went
to the Super Bowl. Because it was a really pitiful game.
We went to the Saints the following week and whooped
them like like a whooping pie.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Right. But yeah, man, it's great to have you. Great
to have you.
Speaker 5 (05:45):
Man.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
We've been We've been chasing you down. I've been chasing
you down.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
We're trying to get you back in the fold man,
all the way from all the way from LA But
you're a busy man like going on these days. We're
going to dive into that a little bit here, but
but first let's take it back. I know he gave
you the introduction of the USC. I think it's uh,
I think that's Ohio State.
Speaker 5 (06:07):
I think call me the USC Trojan Horsemen.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
Well, I think you should change your Instagram handle that.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, that is strange now that I think about it.
I mean, I don't even care because I went in
the University of Oregon. Uh So if I butchered it,
it's okay because I'm a duck. But I get it.
The Trojan Man rode on the horse, right, or they
came the Trojan people. You're going came into the horse,
the big the big horse.
Speaker 5 (06:35):
No, no, false, no, they know they were the Trojan
people were tricked with the Trojan horse.
Speaker 4 (06:40):
Is there it is, see see the inside the horse.
They were inside the horse, not the Trojan people. The
Trojan people got tricked by the people on the horse.
That's what you're saying. A lot of people might not
know the story, so it's good that he's explaining it today.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Two thousand and three BCS national title, A heck of
a college career.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Oppressive. You were there.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
You guys had an incredible team. Reggie Bush been in
the news a lot lately, your teammate, Yeah, we're taking
it back right. Obviously, you have a football pedigree. Dad
was drafted, Dad played in the USFL. Brother played in
the league. And you go to USC at a time
that's you know, a team that is arguably one of
(07:30):
the best teams of all time. It's up there in
the conversation for sure, some of the most one of
the most talented rosters college football he's ever seen.
Speaker 4 (07:36):
Man dominant.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
What was your experience like in LA during that time.
I mean, you guys were at another level.
Speaker 5 (07:42):
You know, it's interesting. I got lucky in the time
that I came to SC because I was not a
highly recruited kid coming out of high school. And luckily
for me, SC was just starting to have a resurgence,
so they were good enough where they could start grabbing
some five star guys, but also they were kind of
trying to fill the roster with blue collar guys like myself.
And you know, people forget Pete Carroll was not a
(08:04):
first choice at I see, he was like their sixth choice.
I think a lot of SC fans at the time
were not excited about having him. When I was getting recruited.
They just lost to Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl,
So you know, two years later, SIE would never have
looked at me because once they started going on those runs,
I mean, they could sign anybody they wanted, so I
(08:24):
you know, really, when you talk about sports, obviously a
lot of hard work is involved, but the luck part
that I think a lot of people talk about, there
are moments in your careers where luck does play a
huge role, and so I was incredibly blessed that I
got to come in right at that time and be
part of those teams, and yeah, it just it was
(08:48):
incredibly exciting, especially at that time because the NFL teams
had left Los Angeles, so we kind of were the
pro team in southern California and so when we got rolling,
it was fun. It was exciting. The call Seum such
a storied venue, but then also being there in Hollywood,
(09:10):
all the celebrities were coming out, all the musicians were
coming out.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
Yeah, talk about some of the celebrity friends that you uh,
you know created or not created, but you know had
you know, I know Will Ferrell talk about that like
just you know, being a college kid and having you know,
these celebrities just basically adore you guys everywhere you go.
Speaker 5 (09:32):
Well else do you know? I've told you this story before.
I in college. Obviously we were rolling and I was
playing well, but the knock on me was always even
into my NFL career, was always I was undersize. I
was always too small, and so I just didn't know.
I didn't know if an NFL career was possible. You know,
when you get on a roster, you start slotting yourself
(09:55):
amongst your peers. Who's better than you, who's not better
than you? Everybody does it and I remember guys I
thought were gonna be all pro Hall of famers at
the next level either weren't getting drafted or getting cut
like after the second or third year. And so even
though I wasn't in the league yet, I got to
see from afar how cut throat of a business it was.
And I always had aspirations to get into storytelling and
(10:19):
specifically producing film and television, and so SC was always
the perfect place to do that, one of the most
prestigious film schools in the country. But when we were winning,
all the Hollywood folks started coming around and into the
locker room, and so I was on a b line,
and some of my heroes were in there, so like
George Lucas was in there, in Spielberg and you know,
(10:40):
all these famous actors, and so after games, you know,
most of the guys got excited because the game was
in the locker room, or like Snoop Dogg was there.
But I would get excited when I saw George Lucas,
and I would I'd be on a bee line right
to him, introduce myself, trying to pick their brains, trying
to hustle to see if maybe there was like an
(11:01):
intern opportunity in the off season, and so I got
a couple of those. So that's what I was doing,
planning for life after football from college. And then there
was a scout for the Bears that came down to
talk to me, and I was and he was kind
of asking me what my plans were to train for
the Combine, and I was telling him I was kind
of torn and split on, you know, pursuing a career
(11:22):
in the league. And and so he took me out
to coffee and he started listing all these incredible centers
over the years that were all different kinds of sizes
and most guys that were really undersized who had great
pro careers, and just sort of said, hey, he's like,
I've watched a lot of centers. You you have incredible technique.
Don't worry about your size. A lot of that stuff
(11:42):
will come, but if you're in the right system and offense,
you don't need to worry about that. And and so
that really gave me the confidence to go, you know what,
I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna try it, I'm going
to see what happens. I'll never get this opportunity again.
And ended up going to the combine tested really well
and then played really well in the in the Your Bowl,
and then the rest was history.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
I mean, you have guys like Reggie Bush and Lyndell
White that you're blocking for, You have everybody watching you, right,
darn right. This guy gave you advice of a lifetime
and still some confidence.
Speaker 5 (12:16):
But that's a good point though. That's the other thing,
and you know, obviously it's not the right thought process.
But when you're a kid and you're looking at all
these incredible players on your team, you know, the ego
wants to tell you like, yeah, I'm a big part
of this. But then you're also like, yeah, but we
didn't block anybody in that play, and Reggie just took
it for sixteen. Maybe you could plug and play anybody
(12:38):
in this offense and we'd probably still get the same results.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
How How I mean? I mean, you know it's easy.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
You know, you say his name, you see you see
number five on a USC uniform, Like you know what
you're thinking about, right, He's just one of those guys
generational time.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I mean, I've seen number five anywhere and I think
about reggieation.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
Right as a running back? Yeah, you can pay how much?
Do that? Right.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
So for for you as a lineman, how often did
you get caught just standing and watching what he was
doing as opposed to finding work downfield? Because as a receiver,
I had I had this running back in high school
who oddly modeled his game. He loved Reggie Bush, and
he was I can say he's still one of the
best athletes I've ever played with. And he would do
(13:22):
things and make people missing spaces that I'm now like,
I'm stop blocking, but I'm watching just to see what
he is going to do.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Did you get did you did you catch yourself?
Speaker 2 (13:31):
Just like you know your coaches like, look at here
we are, We got our offensive lines watching our running
back Fenn for himself.
Speaker 5 (13:40):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, there's no doubt that would happen.
But I think we had incredible assistant coaches at SC
and and uh they did a great job making sure
everybody was finishing plays and getting involved. And the thing
about somebody like Reggie you knew every play he could
extend it even when it looked like the play was
going to be dead. He he was so special and
(14:01):
how he could keep going. So you sort of got
conditioned to keep running down field and try to get
more blocks and happened a lot. So there's a lot
of highlights of reggies that are exciting to watch because
you know you're getting in them because you you know,
you make your initial block and then you're running down
field knowing he's going to reverse field and maybe come
back and you get some extra So I had a
(14:21):
couple of those, and I'm so appreciative of all those
reps because I took that to the next level. And
then I got to play with guys like Jonathan and
DeAngelo who were doing the same thing, their own version
of it, their own style of it, but again like
extending plays, and and then I tried to, especially as
I got older and more of a leadership role, try
(14:42):
to get other guys to kind of do the same thing.
And so I think it's really a culture thing. But
obviously the culture part of it's easy when you have
incredible players to sort of extend plays.
Speaker 4 (14:53):
For did you see the Panthers game this past week?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I did.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
Yeah, see Robert Hunt? How destroy that guy? How How
happy are you when you see the club? How happy
are you when you see linemen? You know put in
that type of effort, you know, especially run blocking, right
you love to run block in comparison to pass block,
because it's just finish a guy. There's like no no
(15:21):
real rules besides just punish him, right. How how good
is it to see that?
Speaker 5 (15:27):
I mean, yeah, it's always It's It's funny when you
get done playing, you think like you're going to be
a fan and watch watch the game, but you still
end up watching the game like you are in the
film room watching position. You're watching the box. Fantasies helped
Fantasy Football's help a little bit kind of play watch.
But yeah, it's it's always exciting. And obviously when the
(15:48):
Panthers are on, I always try to watch the front
and see what guys are doing what and and yeah,
it's it's uh, every Offen Slimy gets excited by that
kind of stuff.
Speaker 4 (15:57):
Yeah, speaking of finish can play, I realized how fast
Ryan Khalil was against the New York Giants. Yes, it
was a game where we basically ended, you know, the
medal of the old stadium that the New York Giants
played in Meadowlands. We played the last game there, Carolina
(16:20):
Panthers against the New York Giants. And it was about
fourth quarter and I was gassed, but I was still running.
I'm still running back. Ryan and Khalil were The play
got called back, but it was like a thirty yard
run and around like the twenty yard point of that run.
(16:40):
Ryan Khalil sprints passed me and just blocks, just like
blocking down field like a maniac and just like and
it just goes to show you you're talking about the
USC program, right and just the culture, Like you're not
just drafting guys based on their ability. You're drafting guys
(17:01):
based off of their culture. Where are they come where
are they where are they coming from? Is it a
winning culture? Is it winning mentality?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Like? What?
Speaker 4 (17:08):
Because I don't want a guy that's going to come
into this locker room with all the physique, all the
potential in the world, but I can't get through to him. Finish,
finish the block, finish the play, like play until the
whistle blows. Right, those are super like tangible things for
(17:29):
a championship caliber type team. And I mean, you look
at the product that we saw in this last this
last game. You know, Andy Dalton comes into a situation
where he's been there before, obviously, but he comes into
a situation and the offense and the defense. They just
(17:50):
change their their motor and I love to see that
because they I feel like this weekend, are you going
to be here this week for Legends weekend? I am not?
Speaker 5 (18:02):
No, sure, I am. I'm coaching ten.
Speaker 4 (18:04):
You tax that's important. You got to make sure you
do that. Coach, we'll talk about that. But but it's
just awesome to see, like for the fans because a
lot of the fans like, it's been six six years
or so since we've actually had this type of feeling. Yeah,
we won last year in December, and we won a
(18:28):
game in twenty twenty two that was very convincing. But
watching this last game, it was convincing on all levels,
all aspects of the game. The cadence. Uh, the way
that guys are finishing downfield. You play a team called
the Raiders and you have their coach question guys on
their team. That's the way you want to play football?
Speaker 1 (18:49):
But uh, what I want to start to finish?
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Yeah, dominant, start to finish, that's for sure. Where are
we at?
Speaker 5 (18:57):
Yeah, you're right, you're right. I think I think culture
is important, and I think I think it takes more
than one or two guys. You really need a group
of guys to buy in and then you can get
everybody else to kind of follow suit. When it's one
or two, it's really hard. And you know, in terms
of like drafting a guy or signing a free agent,
(19:19):
I think it's important where they came from. Culture. Obviously,
potential is incredibly important, and a lot of coaches always
believe that they can sort of turn a guy or
they can they can kind of take them to the
next level if they can just get their hands on
them and they can get some time under their roof.
But I do feel like that, while that's true, it
(19:40):
can't be possible unless you've instilled that in your room
to begin with. Because I know, even as good as
those st SC teams were, and as good as that
culture was, you know, I still didn't know what it
meant to be a pro in the National Football League.
And so for me, I came in to a room
(20:01):
that had a great balance of up and coming guys
and veteran guys, and guys who were the exact example
you wanted a young guy to see how to be
a professional day in and day out, whether it was
how you watch film, how you train, how you take
care of your body, the kind of attitude you have
(20:21):
how to you know, the psychological part of the game
doesn't get talked about a lot, but having a great
mentor who can really help you through that, especially when
you're young and you're struggling, or you get benched or
you have a bad game. I've seen lots of guys
go right off the edge and that's it, no return.
They don't know how to recover. And I almost had
(20:44):
that happen to me. I had a situation my rookie
year where I came into play center, the center that
they had actually ended up being healthy. We had a
guard suspended, so they moved me to guard, and I
convinced them and myself that I could play guard. Never
played guard before in my life. And had an okay
(21:07):
first game and then an awful second game, and so
they benched me right after that game, and I could
have easily gotten the tank. I started feeling sorry for myself.
I started feeling like a victim. But I had guys
like Jordan Gross and Jeff Handgardner and even guys like
Jake DeLoone who really kind of sat me down and
helped me through the self talk and through the mental
(21:29):
part of it and it's not the end of the world,
and teach me how to come back and how to
keep fighting and how to fix and correct those mistakes.
But also, you know, not get too high and not
get too low emotionally. And that was such a huge
pivotal moment in my career that I took with me
forever and you know, obviously expanded on my own, but
(21:50):
also tried to pay that forward to other guys. Not
everybody has that. I know lots of young guys who
have gone into locker rooms and the culture either in
that entire locker room or that specific position group was
not great. It was more of a mercenary attitude, and
everybody was kind of out for themselves and nobody was
there to help anybody, and it was easy to blame
(22:11):
people and point fingers, so you get it. Caught up
in that kind of culture, it's easy to sort of
have the whole thing fall apart. So yeah, I agree
with you. I think obviously where you come from is
super helpful if you come from a program that gives
you a leg up. But I also feel like, you know,
if you can get a handful of guys to really
buy in to whatever the messaging is whatever the goals
(22:33):
and mission statements are, it's really infectious. And then when
you start winning, it only compounds that out even more.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, right, I want to lean in man.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
You you've had some success obviously at the both collegiate
level and obviously at the pro level. I mean, three
times in the NFL Top one hundred, obviously multi year
pro bowler, first year eligible for the gold jacket, right, like,
big deal, big deal. But really, and you know what,
congratulations too on that man that deserves, that deserves, that
(23:04):
deserves a clap the NST.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
It's a deep list. It's how it goes. Man.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
But but when you break it down to the positions
and you talk about centers, you're up there. I mean,
and as we you know, as a cool part about
my job that I really enjoy as a director of
legend affairs is you kind of become a bit of
a historian of football in general. Right, So you know,
when I look at the list of Hall of Famers
Kevin Wise, the guys that are at the center position,
(23:31):
you know, there's guys there that you know, the Bruce
Campbell's of the world that you look at. And then
when you pull names, you start to look at where
you stack up. You're right there, So we got, we got,
we got. That's not even across your fingers. I think
it's just not a it's more of a a win
as opposed to an if man. So, but coming back
to I hate to bring it up, but I got
(23:52):
to bring it up right. Two thousand and five National
Championship Game and I think about twenty fifteen Super Bowl
right to reach the heights and the pinnacles at both levels.
What have you pulled from those experiences? And we're talking
about culture, you're talking about adversity, you're talking about perseverance.
(24:13):
What have you pulled from those and turned into fuel
and learned from those experiences?
Speaker 5 (24:23):
I think probably letting go of things you can't control,
which is really hard. You know, we were such a
results driven culture.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
And.
Speaker 5 (24:35):
Obviously the goal is always the wind. You put in
so much work, you go on an incredible run and
then to come up short right at the end. I mean,
it's heartbreaking, and I don't think that ever leaves, but
I think over time it gets easier to walk away
from it knowing that you gave everything you had and
(24:57):
there was nothing more you can do. And I think
that's all. That's all what you that's sort of how
I gauge success, you know what I mean. I think
having regret telling yourself, I could have done more, I
could have done this better. I think that's where you
don't want to be ever in any circumstance. By the way,
even in games that we've won, you know, there's been
guilt where you know, I wish I would have played better,
(25:18):
I would have done more, I would have been more prepared.
And so those are all learning lessons and you can
either choose to learn from them or be the same,
and you probably won't have that long of a career.
But I think for those big games specifically, you know,
the two things I took away from him are one,
it's incredibly hard to win in college but especially in
(25:41):
the National Football League. And it doesn't matter how good
your team is. That it matters who plays the best
on any given Sunday. And so I think it's why
the game is so immensely popular is because you don't
know on any given Sunday who's going to come, who's
going to show up, and who's not. You have a
good idea. The Vegas guys are pretty good at figuring
(26:04):
that out. But you still tune in because you know,
you show up for the human part of it, which
is who had who's going to have the grid, who's
going to have the heart to fight into into uh
and to make plays for your for yourself and your teammates.
But yeah, it's it's frustrating because we were such a
dominant team that year and I really feel like, you
(26:26):
play them nine more times we win, We beat those guys. Uh,
But they played a great game. They had a great
scheme coming in. We knew that, especially defensively. I thought
our defense played lights out and offense was just off.
We picked the wrong day to be off. But yeah,
(26:47):
and then you know, lost one of those at the
collegiate level, and that was a game we were dominating, dominating,
and then they found their rhythm and came back and
didn't stop fighting. And obviously then Vince Young was a
pretty special player in his own right. And uh, yeah,
that was one of the most memorable, memorable games I've
(27:08):
ever played in and and uh and as equally frustrating
and uh and heartbreaking as as a Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (27:16):
What have you done since the Super Bowls? Since you retired?
I'll say since you retired, because I think, you know,
the year that we lost to the Broncos, like there
was I still haven't seen the whole entire game, but
you know, obviously I played what two three more years
(27:39):
after the Super Bowl, so I was able to compartmentalize
a little bit. But once you retire, it all kind
of hits you like a ton of bricks, like, whoa,
I was in the super Bowl and we didn't win.
I'll never get a chance to do it again. And
(28:02):
I think when that moment kind of settled in, like
where you're so close, like if you're in college, you're
a good player, like the USC game Texas, you lose
that game, but there's you can see some type of
light right like Okay, well I'm getting drafted, go to
the team, be able to go to Super Bowl. Make
(28:24):
it right, you know, like in on a good note.
That's everybody's dream and aspirations, like what did you do
when you retire to help you mold this this mindset?
You know what I'm saying because I know for myself
(28:45):
when I actually sat down and started thinking about childhood, college,
where I'm at now, my kids, what do I want
to do in the future, all these things just kind
of come at once, and it can be so overbearing, Like,
what was your process like in finding out that understanding
(29:06):
of where you can cope with football?
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Well, on the retirement side, you know, my retirement with
the Panthers was really hard because I, you know, coming
up on twelve years, it was into my contract, we
were having some conversations of extension, and I just I
was starting to feel it physically, you know. And I
(29:33):
just I had such a special relationship with the Panthers
and the community in my time there, and I felt
so blessed to be the rare sort of player that
gets to stay in one place for such a long time.
And I just I just started having these weird thoughts
of not wanting to stay at the party too long
(29:53):
and be remembered as like an old guy who was
physically falling apart and hanging on for dear life. And
so I just made the decision, you know what, I
think I gave enough to this team, and I think
I did everything I wanted to do, and I think
it's time to go. And so I sort of like
quietly told the team, I think this is going to
(30:15):
be it. And then obviously you know, somebody put it
out there that this was going to be my last year,
so I embraced it. I didn't think I was going
to get like a Kobe Bryant farewell tour or anything
like that, but it was so fun to like force
myself to really enjoy every moment, every meeting, every practice,
so that being out there, it actually made that last
(30:36):
season special, even though we didn't really get the results
we wanted. But then what happened was I went I
moved back to California, which was always the plan because
I wanted to pursue the entertainment stuff and also I
just like I got nervous that if I hung around,
I was going to regret retiring too soon. So I
(30:57):
felt like, if I moved out of town, we give
it a shot. If we didn't like it, we could
always come back to Charlotte. But that was really hard
because I really loved the community. I really loved where
we lived. I loved where the kids went to school. Obviously,
all the friends that I made were staying like yourself
and the Olsen's and Luke and TD and so on.
(31:18):
But then when we went back a couple months went by,
I was feeling good. And then I could start hearing
rumblings of guys getting ready to come back for spring
ball and all that, and I started to really kind
of go in a hole about it, and I started
to really have doubts about, Man, did I mess up?
Should I not have done that? And so I started
calling guys who I knew retired and asking them and
(31:41):
I probably should have done this before I decided to
hang it up. But most of the most of the
guys sort of had the same theme, which was if
you're questioning whether you should have retired or not, then
you probably shouldn't have. So I remember talking to my
agent and just saying, hey, I'm pretty sure I'm done,
(32:02):
but in case somebody has a crazy offer, like I'm
I'm I'm going to stay here and start losing weight
and hang it up. But I didn't do that. I
kept lifting like I was getting ready for the season,
just in case. And then sure, and how close to
training camp the Jets called, and I think my agent
had said something to him, and I was still like,
(32:22):
I don't know, man, this sounds crazy. I just hung
it up and now I'm gonna do the Brady thing
and come back, you know. But but I talked with
Joe Douglas a few times the GM at the Jets
of the time, and I just really really enjoyed my
conversations with him, and I liked the idea of getting
(32:43):
to come in and help some young guys out and
try to build a culture there. And you know, there
was sort of some promises about my practice schedule and
taking care of me that yeah, that never ended up
coming into flis lies.
Speaker 4 (33:01):
That's what's wrong with the organization practice.
Speaker 5 (33:03):
I think I practiced more with the Jets than I
did the last five years I did with the Panthers.
Speaker 4 (33:08):
Same here with the New York Giants.
Speaker 5 (33:13):
Ran at the relationships you build somewhere, in the trust
you build when you go to a new place, regardless
of your resume, you know, there's always the kind of
like handshake deals, and then when you get there and
things aren't going well, people start people start going back
on their on their word. But but it was fine.
I mean, I have no bad blood with the Jets,
(33:34):
but yeah, that's sort of what happened. And then after
that season, I was like, okay, you know, I got
banged up, hurt my knee and went home in December
and but that was the closure I needed. That was like, Okay,
I'm spent, I'm done. There's no more football left to me. So,
(33:54):
you know, while not how I sort of drew it
up and wanting to kind of finish my career at
the Panther, it was incredibly helpful for me, you know,
physically and spiritually to kind of leave it all out
and actually really empty the tank and then come home
and then yeah, I just I started to put my
head down and I started dabbling in the production stuff.
(34:17):
While probably like my last five years in Carolina, very
very subtly, mostly in the off season. You know, a
couple of things we were working on sort of hit
the trades. But it wasn't until I finished playing that
I hit the ground running and really started hustling and
taking meetings and doing it full time. But at that
point I'd met enough people and kind of figured out
(34:39):
how to be somewhat dangerous, you know, I sort of
like was teeing up because another piece of advice I
got was, when you get done playing, just hit the
ground running with whatever it is you're passionate about or
excited about, you know, whether that's working out or a
hobby or another career you want to pursue, because I've
heard a lot of guys say, you know, when they
(34:59):
get one plane, they go take a year off, and
then they kind of get stuck, like almost like in
a weird purgatory thing where they can't quite they can't
quite aim, but they can't quite move on. And I
heard that from a lot of guys that I really
respected and trusted, and so I really took that to
heart and just sort of just sort of started going
one hundred miles an hour and we were starting to
(35:21):
gain traction, and then COVID hit and all of a sudden,
I was like, you know, producing from home on Zoom
and we had stuff getting ready to go into production,
a TV show, a movie, but everything was at home.
And I remember my family sort of being like, well,
you do you produce from your computer? Why did we
have to move out here, Charlotte, And I didn't have
(35:46):
I had no response. I was like, you're not wrong,
But I also didn't know there was gonna be pandemic,
a world pandemic. But yeah, so that's you know, things
now going somewhat back to normal. And and Blake Griffin,
my partner in the production company, we Uh, we got
a bunch of stuff we've sold in the last year,
(36:07):
a couple more things getting ready to go into production.
Sign a first look deal at Sony Pictures. So we're
doing some cool projects with them. And yeah, it's been fun.
It's different. Uh, it's sort of like being a GM producing.
You're like you're kind of in charge of putting all
the pieces together, finding the head coach, finding the coordinators,
drafting the players. You got an owner, you got an
(36:30):
answer to So I got a lot of respect for
the GM and in that role, and and uh, you know,
I still feel like a rookie. I still feel like
I'm sort of trying to find my stride and and
uh and learn a ton. But you know, we're we're
making progress and and uh and kind of doing our
own terms. And it's been really rewarding and really fun.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Learning more about your story doesn't doesn't surprise me. See
the successes you've had. Right as you talked about that
coffee with a scout when you're coming out of college
and you knew already movies production, right, creating that was
something that you loved, right, and you had a mentality
(37:12):
and we talked about it just maybe an episode or
two ago about some of the college players that don't
have ambition to go to the NFL. And I always
thought that to be very odd. I thought that's why
you played college football. Right, So but again having the
foresight of this is what I want to do for
(37:33):
you as a college athlete. But then to go on
and have a successful career, and then you get to
this crossroads, now do I want to retire?
Speaker 1 (37:40):
Do I not? The tough thing to have.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
And somebody gave you great advice, right, I've always heard
somebody say, and I've repeated it to any athletes, when
you're sitting at the table with your family and friends,
you want there to be no what ifs, and you
can look around that table and nod your head and
say I'm good. Then you're good, right, And so it
sounds like you got a rendition of that, and you've
(38:04):
moved on and you've been thriving and you're continuing to
do something. We got to get you to produce something
with us out here. We gotta get you back here. Man,
I've heard some things produced. He's already produced a lot.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
We gotta we gotta get you back.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
A couple of years ago.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Well, well, well we can.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
We talked to the big fellow DT can dig in
the pocket right now. We'd love to see you back
in town though, Man, and it's gonna happen, I know that,
but to see the transition happen and hear about the
transition and now everything that you got going on with
Blake in your production company. Man, tell us about a
project you got coming up, anything that you can share
(38:47):
with no n d as. Tell us about something that
maybe we can look forward to here.
Speaker 5 (38:52):
Yeah, we have we Blake and I we've been dying
to get into animation forever, and animations the longest of
any kind of medium, and so we sold a couple shows,
I mean, heck a few years ago, one just recently
with some with some cool name stars attached to them,
(39:15):
which we can't discuss yet, but there'll be some announcements
in the trades soon. But those have been incredibly fun.
They just take forever. Animation takes forever. So that'll be
the sort of next slate oft stuff. We're gonna start
getting into more unscripted sports projects. We've kind of been
avoiding it. I think we've wanted to really focus on
(39:37):
the fiction side of stuff. Blake's a big comedy nerd.
I love, you know, fanboy genre stuff like like The Rocketeer,
which is a project we're working on with Disney. So yeah,
we're finding our balance because these projects take so long
and it's such a hard thing to crack, you know,
even though you can keep going along on something in
(39:58):
the development process and get right to the end and
either the timing is not good or the budget's not right,
or you just can't find the stars to fill it
that get the studio excited. There's there's a multitude of
reasons why things don't go or why things go and
they don't end up being great, So we're trying to
avoid that. And obviously, you know, because the success of
(40:21):
turning over things and getting them green lid and getting
them made is so low and so hard, you try
to sort of have a slate of projects that give
you a higher chance of getting things going, so you're
constantly working on stuff, But then you also don't want
to You also don't want to overextend yourself and have
so many projects going on that you can't really be
(40:43):
a master of any of them. So I think Blake
and I have really kind of figured out that balance
of like what our bandwidth is and how many projects
we can be working on while not sort of allowing
any project to not have enough attention on it. So
so yeah, there's a handful of stuff. Sorry, that's not
the answer you were looking for.
Speaker 1 (41:04):
We'll take it.
Speaker 4 (41:05):
I will say, I.
Speaker 5 (41:07):
Have this Vince Von. I have this Vince Von project
I've been working on forever. Vince is one of my
all time favorite people. He's been so incredibly supportive and
integral into getting this thing made. I got to that's
something I'm excited to announce soon. But but yeah, we're
we're in it. We're we're grinding.
Speaker 4 (41:25):
I got a story about Vince Vaughn. So back in
the day, like two thousand and ten or eleven, good
buddy of mine from back home in Washington. And in
Washington there they have casinos, right, you know, the Indian casinos,
(41:46):
And Vince Vaughn was doing a stand up at one
of the at the casinos. And so I'm playing black
jack and lo and behold is large human since next
to me and throws a couple of wads of cash
on the table, and it's Vince Vaughn. And I played
and I played and I played black black jack. I
(42:08):
like to play black jack one on one with the dealer,
and Vince Vaughn sat down. I'm like thinking to myself, clearly,
this guy doesn't get it. I'm playing two hands against
the one person dealer and he just sits at the table.
That's like, you don't do that right. But Vin' Vaughn
sat down. I was like, Oh, this is Vin's von.
I was like, hey, so nice to meet you. I
(42:30):
love all your work. I felt like a straight up
nerd bro. So if you chat with him soon, let
him know that you had a teammate that felt embarrassed
as he played black jack with Vince Vaughn.
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Did you did you come up? I did?
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Okay, So yeah, probably own money. Probably because we'll go back.
Of all your teammates in Carolina, who would you be
most likely to cast for a movie?
Speaker 5 (43:07):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Man?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Yeah one. Well I'm putting you on the spot right now. Well,
I got I got a fun fact for you. It's
me and Charles Johnson got to be in Hello Tomorrow.
Speaker 4 (43:20):
TV show.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
I'm not familiar.
Speaker 4 (43:22):
It's a TV show that was on Apple TV.
Speaker 5 (43:25):
Apple TV show that's right, that.
Speaker 2 (43:27):
Ryan Khalil produced me, okay, awesome, I knew I didn't
know you had.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
My name was Johnny Zapp. I was a baseball player
back in the day. What was the time frame, Like
the fifties or sixties.
Speaker 5 (43:41):
Was like an al It was like an old nineteen fifties,
like a futuristic nineteen fifties.
Speaker 4 (43:46):
Yeah, And I had like a during that time. It
was perfect because I was like growing my hair up
before I got dreads. And I just remember the lady
when doing our makeup and our hair stuff. She's like,
I'm gonna cut the bottom part of your facial hair off,
just give you a mustache. It's like, oh great. So
I felt like I was legitimately in the fifties.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
Bro. And he hasn't casted you since you know it's out.
Speaker 4 (44:12):
Hey man, it's you know, it is a great it's
the it's the movie biz.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Bro.
Speaker 4 (44:16):
Sometimes you got it, sometimes you don't.
Speaker 5 (44:18):
He's got an amazing job. He was he was asked
to be an incredible baseball player, which we all know
is not true. And I acted. I mean, I really
believed this guy could hit a baseball. Yeah, So hats
off to you, buddy.
Speaker 4 (44:34):
That the whole week, that whole day was amazing because
you set us up in the hotel. I felt like
a movie star. I legitimately felt like he's a professional man.
So kudos to everything you're doing. Man, I love to
see all this come to question.
Speaker 2 (44:50):
We won't make you answer that question. Hence you already
had a couple of guys in the movies, and we'll
give you. We'll give your past there.
Speaker 1 (44:56):
I'll say Luke.
Speaker 4 (44:57):
Would be an easy one.
Speaker 5 (44:59):
Yeah, Luke. I wouldn't ask him to do much. He'd
just be the extra pretty Uh. I don't say which.
Speaker 4 (45:07):
Like a romance movie for Luke.
Speaker 1 (45:10):
Yeah, yeah, he could be.
Speaker 5 (45:11):
He could be the love interest i'd cast in a comedy.
Oh yeah, uh, he'd be guy who rants number three.
Uh and then uh, I won't say his name, but
you know who it is and you can't say it either.
But if I was casting a horror movie, who was Yep,
(45:36):
let's see, let's see, let's always pull up.
Speaker 4 (45:39):
He's gonna let's go.
Speaker 1 (45:46):
Wow, wow wow.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
You guys would have You guys would have been the
most muscular baseball players in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
Johnny Zapp was that guy. He was He was one
of the.
Speaker 5 (45:57):
Kind every time this guy's bad average, terrible, absolutely terrible.
Speaker 2 (46:05):
Oh man, I can't wait for him to see that.
Speaker 1 (46:09):
That's amazing, great poll, great poll right there. Yeah, but oh.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Well, well, well we hope we might have to We
hope that you can get some other stuff off the
ground here and we can get a couple couple of
guys back into the in front of the cameras at
the outstanding.
Speaker 4 (46:25):
I think that would actually do the world some jet.
The world needs that. We need to talk about the money.
The money needs to be spent to Ryan Khalil and
Mortal Media to create something wonder.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
We need some long form content. We'll get it up.
Speaker 4 (46:43):
Yeah, we all in the house, baby, We are right here.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Got enough guys in Charlotte. Travel budget will be low.
Come back for a couple of weeks. Yeah, we'll find
some studio space for you. We'll make it happen. All
right there, it is, what's in the contract? What do
you send it to my agent?
Speaker 4 (47:03):
If you had any advice right now for any of
the guys that are currently in the Panthers locker room
right now, right with everything that's transpired over the last
several years, everything that you just talked about as far
as life after football, your family, man, you're coaching, Like,
(47:25):
if you had anything to just kind of share with
a young guy, you know, maybe your younger self, Right,
what would that be with everything that you've experienced so far.
Speaker 5 (47:39):
I think it would be it'd probably go back to culture.
I think culture is so incredibly important, and I think,
you know, if if you want to win, if you
want to be part of a winning team, then you
need to be the change. And it really does start
with yourself. It's so easy an NFL locker room, especially
(48:01):
when things aren't going well, to huddle with other guys
and to start pointing fingers and to start complaining and
to start acting like you have all the answers. And
this is the reason why, and that's the reason why.
The harder thing to do is to have faith and
to trust and to show up every day even when
things aren't going right, and to stay the course and
to keep getting better and to keep having a positive
(48:23):
attitude and to try to bring guys along and enjoy
your time. So I think, you know, I probably had
a couple of those seasons, especially younger in my career.
It took me a long time. So if I could
travel back in time and tell my younger self anything,
it would be to avoid the groups, to avoid the
individuals who sort of like you know, revel and misery,
(48:47):
and to be the person who is the positive change
and to be the person who's delight that comes in
every day and gets guys excited to go to work,
because it's incredibly hard in the NFL going through NFL
Sunday and then coming in on Tuesday and trying to
get yourself hyped again for the week, knowing that especially
(49:07):
you know, you start the week off full pads and
you're trying to correct stuff from last week. You're trying
to prepare for the next week. You've got a lot
of coaches who are who are in high pressure situations,
who a lot of people are breathing down their next
they have bosses, and you're sort of you're sort of
you know, coach would the coaches would always say the
shit comes downhill, and you would feel it, you know
(49:28):
what I mean. It starts with the owner, head coach,
to the coordinators, to the position groups. So I just
towards the end of my career, I started having more
grace for position coaches, especially in the shit they had
to go through each and every week and the fights
that they had to have to protect their guys but
also keep them accountable and try to get them better. Yeah,
(49:52):
it's easy to feel sorry for yourself. It's easy to
to sort of read what everybody thinks about the team,
what everybody, what everybody these opinions are, and to kind
of jump on those trains. It's much harder to silo
yourself away from all the noise and to keep the faith.
And it's funny we had some of that our Super
Bowl run year when when KB went down, we thought, oh,
(50:18):
that's a rap on our offense, like our best receivers done,
like that's it, and guys started talking and I'll never
forget there was a handful of guys, including Luke, who
really started the positive talk early. But it would have
been so easy for all of us to kind of
huddle at training table and to start talking about the
sky is falling and to listen to the pundits who
(50:39):
are on TV that were watching saying, well, that's a
rap for the Panthers, like they're going to struggle this season.
And we did it, and all it did was create
opportunity for other guys who never got a shot, so
you just never know. You never know. But nobody ever
saw us. And even I don't know if you remember,
even when we started winning, they still wouldn't give us credit.
They still kept it said. Noise was like, this is
(51:00):
a fluke. The teams they're playing are not very good,
Like these guys are paper tigers. They would say it
every single.
Speaker 4 (51:06):
Week, the worst fifteen and one, they the worst.
Speaker 5 (51:10):
Thirteen one teams. They kept trying, and the more they
did that, the tighter we got, the better positive talk
we had. So I think it just goes to show
how powerful that is. And so that would be my
advice is to not listen to the noise, to give
the people in your circle the benefit of the doubt,
and to trust the process and not and also not
(51:34):
have not carry with you the residue or the hangover
from past seasons, you know what I mean. It's really
easy when you've had a couple bad seasons to get
into the here we go again, to really treat each
and every season like it's its own special thing, and
to not bombard it with any kind of baggage that
you're bringing from your own experiences or the experiences of
(51:56):
other teams. But that's hard to do. That's easier said
than done, but it takes yourself to do it. And
then you recruit a couple guys and you just keep
conditioning guys around you, and then guys either get pissed
and go, Okay, well you're not a realist. I'm going
to talk to somebody else, or they buy in and
they start sort of they start emulating how you're sort
of going about it, especially if you're a respected veteran.
(52:20):
But yeah, that's.
Speaker 4 (52:21):
Uh, that's well said, man. Because I remember my rookie year.
I don't know if you remember this, but it's been
it was. It was more than one time. I was hurt.
I had come up. I came into the Carolina Panthers
locker room hurt off of surgery and as a rookie,
(52:43):
being a being in a new environment and being a
number one draft pick, there's a lot of pressure, right,
But having guys like you that continuously came in, came
over on the sideline while I'm standing there, like just
talking to me, like hey, man, like you know, how's
(53:04):
everything going? Like I remember I legit, like wondered, like
why is he so nice to me right now? Like
why why is this guy talking to me and why
is he being so nice? And because there were certain
guys on the team that weren't that way right. There
are certain guys on the team that looked at me
like we drafted you.
Speaker 1 (53:25):
You hurt what you're.
Speaker 4 (53:26):
Doing here the le But it was infectious and what
that does is it builds trust. Like I can say,
from day one, I trusted Ryan Khalil, and it's important
because he's our center, he's one of our leaders. And
if you got guys like that in leadership roles, not
(53:49):
just as a voice in the locker room, but positionally,
it's huge. And so just wanted to say that out
loud and just appreciate you for your time today.
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Man.
Speaker 4 (53:58):
Really enjoyed talking and hearing you know, just your perspective,
and I'm sure the listeners will too. So thanks for
tuning in to to stew in the Crew with Ryan Khalil.
Speaker 1 (54:10):
Great episode, NFL, great.
Speaker 4 (54:13):
Future Hall of Famer, number one in your heart. That's
all we have to that's all we have to think about.
Big Teddy Bear, best best beard in the world.
Speaker 5 (54:26):
Thetro is way better than.
Speaker 4 (54:29):
Oh by the way, Also, this is the outro's just
if you see Ryan, if you ever see Ryan, if
you see Ryan Khalil on a beach with the shirt
off today, he is in physique. This physique is amazing.
He's in great shape. It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
He's rogue. Thanks for coming on, brother, all right man,
alright bye about that bell,
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