October 25, 2023 • 42 mins
Welcome to Unbreakable! A mental health podcast hosted by Fox NFL Insider Jay Glazer. On today’s episode, Jay sits down with Seattle Seahawks General Manager John Schneider. John shares some incredible stories, how he deals with the stress of being an NFL GM and why it’s so important to use a positive approach. Plus, his unique relationship with coach Pete Carroll and so much more. This is a chat you don't want to miss!
Follow, rate & review Unbreakable with Jay Glazer here!https://link.chtbl.com/unbreakablewithjayglazer
#fsr #crshow
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental health podcast
helping you out of the gray and into the blue.
Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome into Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with Jay Glazer.
I'm Jay Glazier, and today we have a first, and
I say first, the first of this type of guests
to general manager for the NFL. We've had on head coaches,
We've had on players, We've had on fighters, we have
on veterans. We have on celebrity chefs in the past,
and rock stars and actors and actresses, but never in
(00:37):
NFL GM, which is weird going to work in the NFL.
But before I get with him, if you're like many people,
you may be surprised to learn that one in five
adults in this country experienced mental illness last year. You
have far too many failed to receive the support they need. Carolyn.
Behavioral health is doing something about it. They understand that
behavioral health is a key part of whole health, delivering
compassionate care that treats physical, mental, emotional, and social needs
(01:02):
in tandem. Carol, and behavioral health raising quality of life
through empathy and action. All right, again, Welcome into Unbreakable
Mental Health Podcast with Jay Glazer. I'm Jay Glazer, and
this right here is John Schneider, the general manager of
the Seattle Seahawks, somebody I've known for a long time.
I met him in Kansas City in the nineties and
(01:23):
here he is as a Super Bowl champion and one
of the most respected executives in the National Football League,
and I wanted to have him come on here. A
love the guy, but be like, people don't realize, you know,
as the leader of a team, what these guys, the
general managers have to deal with as far as mental health,
(01:44):
as far as different players, how they deal with their families,
and how this job has changed over the years. Now
we talk so much about mental health. This wasn't really
the case two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago,
thirty years ago when Schneids here first got involved. So,
first of all, Buddy, thank you for joining the Unbreakable Podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Jay, how about this, hey, be honest, be honest. Are
you more excited to come on this show or when
you won a Super Bowl and straight and was interviewing
you guys on the podium.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I think I'm going to go with straight. And interviewing
us on the podium.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Are you sure about that?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah? Yeah, and I and I know and I do,
I do appreciate you know, you have me on everything.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
But you know, I'm gonna lean that way.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
At the time.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I'm gonna give you a chance to reconsider that, Tony.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You know, it's funny when you're describing that, right, because
when you're describing that, your introduction and everything, you know, uh,
and again thanks for having me on. But you know,
it's basically like managing their general fashion. You know, you're
not trained for specific issues that come away to come
across your desk. So that's an interesting way to look at.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
It, right. Well, but here's the thing. General managers, right,
your job, for the most part, you get brought to
a team to get players to get talent, but that's
not really the job. You got to deal with every
freaking problem that comes with ross every player's desk, every
coach's desk, every player's wife, their issues, their families. They're
(03:07):
probably so when you first got the job as general manager,
what years.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
That it was twenty ten, but yeah, but I was
in it was in a leadership role at a very
young age with the with Marty Schottenheimer at the Redskins. Yeah,
and we were in we were in our.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
House for eight months, so that it was amazing experience.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, Dance Sider, Yes, you're gonna, you're gonna, You're gonna,
You're gonna join Marty Schottenheimer.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
That guy never gets fired.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Dan Snyder, he never fires anybody.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
We went, we went, we went eight, We went eight
and eight missed the playoffs by one game Brian Irlacker
on a fake field goal and we got fired. Yeah,
it was a great experience. Yeah, but yeah, no, so yeah,
so and my and my oldest son was born, you know,
eight days after that, but that's neither here nor there.
(04:00):
So yeah, so but then so they went back to uh,
Green Bay. I was in the leadership role in Green
Bay for a number of years, my second time in
Green Bay, working with Ted Thompson and uh, you know,
Mike McCarthy came on board and that that whole group
of guys, which was awesome. I have family in Green Bay, So.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Getting back there and then and then was there eight years,
came back.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Out for Seattle, partnered up with Pete and we've we've
been blessed to be here for fourteen years.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
But what point in the job did you realize. And
I say this to head coaches all the time, and
or aspiring head coaches in aspiring general managers, be careful what
you wish for, because you think you guys are about
coaching players and getting talent and stuff and the stuff
that's about to come across your desk. There is no
amount of schooling that could prepare you for.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
That, no, exactly, you know, and especially you know with
the mental health issue, right, I mean, you know, I
think I've told you before. I mean, I you know,
I didn't see myself, you know, as much as we
focus on development here and empathy and and the whole
you know, the lob thing was really you know, started
as with with d Q dan Quinn and like love
you know, love our brothers, right, and uh, you know,
(05:08):
as much empathy and as you know, as much falling
on the culture as we have built here and everything.
You know, I never saw myself. I mean, we pride
ourselves on our people skills and and uh our empathy levels,
but I never envisioned myself, you know, in my hotel
room in Dallas holding a six foot hugging a six
foot five you know, three hundred and thirty five pound man,
it's you know, having you know, having a breakdown and
(05:31):
you know these you're you're not prepared. You're not prepared
for those things. You know, how do you get prepared for?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Like how did you is it just learned on the
flyers just go yeah the ability other experts?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah, after that, yes, but you know, the initial the
initial times that I've gone through with the players and
or their their family members, it's really like, hey, you know,
just just how do we help you know, our whole
our whole program is like, you know, how can we
make you know, people be the best they could possibly be,
enable people to do their best, enable them to do
their jobs. And so that's just a natural like hey,
(06:06):
you know, tell me what you're going through. Be a
good listener. It's okay to get help. You know. I
had an employee, you know, probably three weeks ago that
you know, it's just I could just tell what was down,
you know, like, hey, look like you know, we got
to talk and you know started, you know, he started
bringing me through the process and tell me what was
going on, just to be there and listen and then
(06:27):
to say, hey, you know those barriers that we've had
like you know, existed when you and I were growing up.
They don't.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
They don't exist anymore. We have all we can, we can,
we can get help, we.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Can talk to each other. You know, I think just
being able to you know, just basic you know, humanity,
being a good person and trying to you know, trying
to listen to people and help them with their issues
and then steer them to the.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Clinicians and to the experts.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
And because at a certain point, you know you're saying before,
at a certain point, you know, kind of like a start,
it's a starting point. I can help you and listen
to you. But then you know, we to move on here.
You need to go see this person and this person,
this person, and then yeah, I always tell people, you know,
guys like myself are put in this job for evaluating
football players and you know, negotiating with agents and that
(07:12):
sort of thing. But then you know, once you are
in that leadership role, people that have never really been
around an office setting and worked with trainers and doctors
and you know, the coaches on daily basis, and the
sports science people in the video and the fields people
and the cafeteria. You know, if you've never been around that,
and I was very blessed at a very young age
(07:33):
to do that in Green Bay. But if you haven't
been around that, you don't you're evaluating all these people.
You're not just evaluating football players. You know, I'm evaluating
you know, Jay and and And.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
What that means is how can I help Jay.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
That doesn't mean I'm evaluating him, doesn't mean I'm judging him.
It means I have to know my fellow employees as
much as I possibly can and make them be, to
help them be the best that they possibly can be.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
But you also have to know Jay and Jay's family
and Jay's pressures and Jay you know, the outside influences
of Jay and all those different things that again, like
you guys didn't sign up for. There was one GM
will call me once whose player just right off the
reservation had a really bad mental health breakdown, and he's
just like, hey, I know you've helped a lot of
players vets where do we go? What do we do?
(08:18):
And that wasn't too long ago, and you know there's
not a lot of I mean, I think in the CBA,
you guys are only required to have a mental health
professional on site.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Two days a week, which no, exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
So the NFL is so far behind this. I don't
say it's a wild West, but it's like you're kind
of learning as you go.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Absolutely. You know, we went to Sam Rams and our
sports science director and I went to New Zealand several
years ago, probably like eight years ago now, and spent
time with the All Blacks and several of the rugby
teams over there. There was one team right there now, Yeah, yeah,
I mean there was. There was. There was one team
in particular that they only had thirty four players and
(08:56):
they had basically what you and I would refer to.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
As sticks player development people.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
And you know, so you think of it like, you know,
most NFL teams have one we have we have three here.
But you know, to your point about you know, trying
to get to learn Jay and his outside stressors and everything,
having a diverse group of people in that in that
realm is so important.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah. I mean, look again, like I said, the stuff
that comes across your desk, there's player arrest, there's drugs,
there's you know, issues with family members, issues with family
members get arrest. Yet people having mental health breakdowns when
you have no idea about it, you think they're they're
fine in front of you, and then all of a
sudden there's an issue in the locker room. Again, you
have to deal with all this, So you've got to
(09:39):
be the leader, right And I always say this, And look,
I came and talked to the Seahawks and I said
this in front of all of you guys, said, man,
the leader's got to take care everybody else. But who
takes care of the leaders? So when you, John Schneider,
are having a bad mental health day, do you let
people see it? Or do you say nope, I got
(09:59):
to make sure that I'm kind of running the ship
in a certain way. And then like, how do you
deal with it when you've got to be there for
everybody else?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
You know, I'm sure there's days that you know, after
a loss or something where I'm probably not totally on
top of my game, but or if we're going through
a real stressful negotiation or something like that. But you know,
I would say, first and foremost my faith, right, I mean,
I really rely on my faith heavily. And I have
a really really strong teammate and my wife, Tracy, and
we've been through a lot together. We've been together for
(10:27):
twenty seven years. You know, we're really close and I
can I can share anything with her, and she could
tell when I need to calm down a little bit,
or she knows who my stressors are and I can
confide in her. We have a very open policy here
in terms of you know, we call it just no walls,
and so you know, being able to have other people.
(10:47):
We interact with people so much on a daily basis
that people are feel free to say, hey, everything going okay, John, Like,
can't take any can't take anything off your plate. And
so you know, we've stressed that since since we walk
in those doors, and two ten, I would say, Jay,
the first of all, I'm so proud of everything that
you've done with with within this arena. And then you know,
take all the TV stuff and the you know, the.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Tight suits and the big fat ties and stuff like that,
take that stuff out of it.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Just coming up here and talking to the guys, you know,
that meant a lot to a lot of players. And
you know, they see you and they see a certain
realm and and we need, we need more powerful advocates
like yourself. So good on you, man. You know I
proud I.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Am, And that's exactly what I mean too, Like you're
the top guy in that building, but you also like
this big fun personality over there even when you're struggling.
Do you do you fake it and always have that
big personality around people or do you show it when
you're going through it?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Because you know me, I always faked it. I put
the right. When I first came out with my mental
health issues, people were shocked, like, what, You're the laughing,
joking guy. I'm like, yeah, I'm a laffy joking guy
because I'm hot trying to hide the pain that I'm at.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah. Yeah, I would say that. There's uh, specific times
as a leader where you it's you have to fake
it and people could say no, I'd be you know
bs and you Yeah, there's times you have to just
power through it and fake it. I don't know if
fake it fakes the right word, but the right but yeah,
you need to hide it and power through things because
(12:16):
people can't. You can't let people, you know, see things
affect you in a certain manner. You know. One of
the things that's really cool about being here and you know,
working for this organization and working with Pete is that
he is such a positive individual. I think everybody knows that.
And he's he's just his brain's just on fire, you know,
(12:42):
twenty four hours a day. And if I do get
in a rut, if I'm having a you know, one
of those days, it's like a and it's really it
really is more of like a a situational thing. Like
I said earlier, it's it's it's you know, it could
be a just a really bad negotiation or a bad
conversation with an agent or you know, something where you know,
he notices my point and he'll.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Be like, you know, hey, Johnny.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
You know he's like he's awesome, Like Johnny, like come on,
come on my office, We've got going on. And then
you know he notices and and and uh, I can
I can flip pretty quick with that. We did have
a day though, Jay, my first day and the job
todd li Wiki. Do you remember talking Yeah, of course, yeah,
he runs the crack and now and he'll probably deny this,
but you know, we we we go through all we
(13:25):
go through all the press conferences and everything, and we
get done with all that stuff and I'm at my
desk and he's like, hey, by the way, you know,
our cap we gotta we gotta take twenty million in
cash off that cap by September first. And you're like,
I don't know, and you neglected to tell me that
before you offered me the job.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Day one sucked.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Oh and then and then rich Gannon had me on
his should like right after that. So I'm sitting there. Luckily,
I was like on it was like on the radio,
and I had my trash can sitting like right in
front of me, Like what do I get myself into
like anxiety level off the chain right now? Yeah? Am
I gonna if I can get sick in my trash? Can?
You know? I'm on the radio? What is cool? Though?
(14:14):
This is a cool lesson. It's a cool kind of
lesson though, because he and he said to me that
day and then he came back there and he was like, yeah, Bride,
I threw that at you. You know, come out to
my office, like can you come up and talk to
me real quick? And great leader, great phenomenal people skills
as you well know. I went up and he's like,
when you're most effective, like what is that? What does
that look like for you? And I was like, well,
I you know, I make to do list and I
(14:35):
you know, I get my to do list and I'm
bank bank bank bank, and I'm in a flow and
then I'm in my my my jam, I'm in my
flow state, and you know, I know where to go.
He's like, well, when was the last time you made
a to do list? I was like, wow, good point,
It's been like three days now, because there was so
much stuff going on at a time, and the other
part of it was I hadn't prayed a lot either
(14:55):
in that period, and so I'm like, wait, wait, wait,
let's just get back to basics here, you know what
I mean, Like, Okay, twenty million dollars, you know, no
big deal. Time.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I think it's a great lesson here for people, though,
Like there are certain habits that we always need to
practice every day, and when you get away from them,
that's when you get in trouble. And I found myself
to it, like I now have a new practice every
single morning before I ever look at my phone, because
our phone's nothing my problems, Like none of us actually
are the error to two billion dollars from a Nigerian prince.
(15:30):
That's not actually going to happen on our phone, right,
So there's nothing good that happens on our phone. So
before I ever ever ever look at my phone, now,
I do this ten minutes of breath work, I do
this five minute meditation, I do a quick little workout,
and I do this gratitude list, so it's like, you know,
twenty minutes a day. And at night too, I make
(15:51):
sure I do this three minute prayer to God every
single night, and I do this new like little meditation
I learned at night. But when I life gets too
busy for me and I realize I don't practice them
every day, that's when the roommates in my head really
start barking and not talking nicely to each other. And
I've got to like make sure I've got to get
back to doing this. I have to make sure I
do it every single day. So that's a great.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Lesson, absolutely good for you, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
And I think what happens with a lot of people
in your position, any any position of pressure and stress
and where you think there's too few hours in the day,
it's real easy to neglect your mental health and physical health.
Figure there's just not enough time and hours in the day.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
And yeah, we get lost. Yeah, and we talked about
this here, Jay, you know, I don't know if you've
ever seen, you know, some of our things in the building,
but you know, our football operation, and we try to
keep it, you know, as simple as we possibly can
so that we have our open lines of communication.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
It's just easy. It's really plan, communicate.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
And work right. We have to plan and we have
to we have to have a good vision.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
And this is what my point is.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
This is what brings us back to our basics and
brings us like, Okay, we know what's coming, right, and
you try to take the fear and anxiety out of it.
We're going to plan, We're going to over communicate because
when people tell you some really good communicators, not true,
you know, like, okay, we're amazing communicators.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
We constantly have to work in our communication skills right.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And then just the work we pride ourselves on being
an organization that you know, doesn't come across like we're
smarter than everybody else. Everything. We're just gonna We're just
gonna outwork you. And that's really kind of what brings
us everybody here, like back to plan, communicate, work, and
then that's how we roll.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
How do you compartmentalize? And what I mean by that
is you get players they get arrested, you get players
who get suspended for drugs. You get players who get
the life saving stolen from them. You've got you know,
coaches who have issues that you have to sideline. And
for an office people, how do you compartmentalize when those
things come across your desk? Because they're also human things.
(17:52):
These are people you care about, these are people who
do it's nothing, they work for you. It's a different
level when you split and sweat and bleed together in
there for common goal of something great. How do you
compartmentalize that? Oh?
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Man, I want to know, am I am I? Am? I?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Am?
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I on your counch right now? I didn't know we
were getting a couch.
Speaker 5 (18:11):
I know if you are a couch of charge of
your fucking asked five hundred an hour.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
No, it's just from a general manager's perspective, how do
you compartmentalize?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
There's all you basically kind of walked through it. There's
always different buckets, and so you know, they're all individuals.
Everybody's totally different, right, Every situation is different. If I'm
reading a domestic violence report, okay, that's this one is
completely different than this one, And what does this one
look like? And then you know, who do I talk
to about, you know, helping? How are we helping.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Everybody that's involved in that situation?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
First? Right, same thing with whether it's somebody that has
issues with a family member or you know, a loss
of life or you know, hey, okay, how are we
helping them? And Moe Kelly's are a player about my castle?
He's amazing at it, but yeah, he's somebody that when
you say, how do you deal with it? I can
confide in him about, you know, certain things and and
(19:09):
and asking you know, hey, am I looking at this correctly?
You know, how do you feel about it? And then
you know we can discuss that. And all these situations
are so different, are George, you know George and security
you know, we we just we just have to open
up and communicate, you know, what our crisis plans are
and all that. And then you know Dave Pearson's part
of that as well. And so you know, I think
(19:29):
it's really when I look at it, you know, with
all those different situations, it's like, first and foremost, how
do we help the player as a family? Okay? You know,
is everybody is everything? Okay? Is the crisis, like for
the time being, I know things could get worse for
the time being. Is everybody safe? Is everybody okay? You know,
if it's a.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Dui, if there was an accident, is the other the
other people okay?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
You know, as the player okay, the people that were
involved in the accident is there? You know, are they okay?
And then you know, really it's it's like we talked about,
there's no training for it. It's just your what your level,
what your level of empathy is, and what your level
of you know, how quickly you can make decisions. And really,
you know, you joke around about the big personality and
(20:12):
that sort of thing, and and I do pride myself
on trying to be like a fun you know, we're
going to work with tails off, but we're going to
have a lot of fun. You know. It is one
of those things where you know that does kind of
help lighten the mood, and it helps other people as
much as it helps me.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
You know personally, I wrote in my book I'm Breakabell.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
What are the three pillers I use for my depression?
Anxiety is laughter? Right, So we happen to get through
the grade to the blue. So I think it's it's
definitely a great tool for us.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Absolutely absolutely, And I you know, I've had personal experiences
too when when it comes to you know, high anxiety
levels where you know, I have that level of empathy
for players when they're going through those sort of you know,
rough anxiety times. You know, you know I went through one.
When you know when my son Ben was diagnosed with
(21:01):
oughts to him he was three years old, It's like, Okay,
it just rocks your world, right, Okay, how are we
going to get through this? So there's you know, I'm
not a mental health expert, but as long as you
could point people into the experts, right, But also just
right away that initial conversation of having like Okay, I
get where you're coming from. Everybody's experienced things like this.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, before I shift to something else, you just brought
up benet because I wanted to bring this up. So
tell everybody about Ben's artwork, because I have Ben's all
over my house.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Okay, Yeah, Ben is autistic.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
He's now twenty hells been twenty one, twenty one years old,
and up until a couple of years ago, they didn't
know that Ben has this unbelievable talent so I want
you to tell people really quick about this, and then
the website where to go buy, Like, folks, go on
this website right now. Give the website first.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
It's small Ego art dot com. And it's small Ego
art dot com because he talks in a very serious manner.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
He talks like he talks like one of the older
guys from the Muppets that sat up on that uh
and theater.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
At the two Bratchy guys yees yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
And so you know, if you say, Ben Man, that's
a great piece of art, like, please don't say that
that it's not that's not appropriate.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
You know, you don't know. I don't have a very
big ego. And so you know, Tracy runs off you know,
runs the Business Forum and my wife Terracy and and
so they just came up with it one day, like
about small Ego art dot com. Ben He's like, yeah,
small ego Art. That's cool. I like him because they
kind of look like yes, album covers.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You know, folks, you got to look at these things.
He is a genius. It looks like one day he
sat there and said, yeah, I'm gonna go check out
a Jackson Pollock book. And then just became Jackson Pollock overnight.
But you had no idea he was able to do
that before him, right, Like.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
He always loved art, and then he really he really
started once he graduated from high school. He really got
into art classes and then kind of just started just
leading in Nicole Nichols, who's his mentor, and she brought
him down this really cool path of one of her
best friends, Rachel's is a is an artist here and
in the Northwest, and they just started, you know, bouncing
(23:02):
stuff off each other.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
And zooming all the time and yeah, and so it
just really really took off.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
So uh, it's fun. Obviously, we're super proud of them.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
It's incredible. I have four of his art in my house.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yeah cool, Yeah, Yeah, that's also it's.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
My fireplace, one of the flying Rack and then one
over another. It's unbelievable, folks. You got to go on
and look.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
But don't but don't tell him, Yeah, don't, don't, don't
don't say that to him.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
We get a feature on it last year.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
I was supposed to be there and I ended up.
Of all weeks I got COVID couldn't come out there,
which was, oh my gosh, So again I want to
go back for somebody who wants to be a general
manager of the NFL where he says, oh, at school's job. Ever,
what's the most stressful thing about being a GM in
the NFL.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
For me personally? It's it's uh, probably uh the bigger negotiations.
Fortunately or unfortunately. We have a salary cap and we
don't have fully guaranteed contracts in the NFL like the
NBA and Major League Baseball and and uh, you know, hockey,
So we have a lot of different silos to negotiate
and within each one of these contracts. So as much
(24:05):
as we try to talk to the guys about like, hey,
this this is business, this isn't personal, it's still it's
still hard when you're you know, at some point you
have to kind of like place yeah, yeah, and you
know we've we've all been to negotiations when it's it's
your world and what that looks like. So I would
say that's probably that's probably the most stressful thing for
me personally because I love trying to help people. I
(24:27):
love trying to like help people, you know, advance any
way they possibly can, so to say tell somebody like, well,
you know, you're not quite this, you're not quite that
this number and that number, and and that that's probably
the hardest. Also, you know, letting people go especially cap
casually guys. You know, when you just you know, you
build relationships with with with guys and they've built really strong,
(24:48):
strong relationships in the building and in the community, and
then you know, you have to have that really ugly
conversation and then you just you know, you hope and
pray that that time heals all wounds.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Do you take that homework through you or do you
just now say to yourself that's part of the business.
Or is it always affect you?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
No, I think it's always stays with It always stays
with you, and I do, yeah, I take it home.
And you know, I talked to Tracy about it. And
my brother is eight years older than me, and I
had a team and negotiators for a long time at
American Express, and so we would always share those things too,
like what he was going through, and for that that
helped a lot.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I think the other interesting part now is just the evolution.
So like I got a buddy played in the NFL
who took a four game suspension, saying that he had
a drug issue when actually had a mental health break down.
But you'd rather have people thought he was on drugs
than that mental health issues. Well, wasn't that long ago
(25:44):
that it happened. So I think if you look now,
at least inside teams, right, there's still guys hiding it.
I think now it's a lot more open, right for
your players and for people upstairs there say Okay, I'm struggling,
I'm going through something like that stigma has definitely been
taken away. What what are kind of some of the
things that you guys now do that you wouldn't have
(26:04):
done five years ago?
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Oh? Man, I think there's a ton of them. Jay,
I don't know really how to begin, but.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Just that alertness.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I was I was just talking to an ad about
this this weekend. We were actually talking about mental health
and how do we help people right because we can't
you know, in the NFL, we can't make people get
help right. And so in the college world, you know,
they can get directly of their parents and and sit
with the kids and really try to help. But you know, what,
what are the alerts is what you know? So is it?
(26:34):
You know, Eric in equipment, is it you know, is
it Sam and sports science? Is it? You know the
people in the cafeteria that are noticing guys just being
down and you know we we had a cool thing,
you know, so like what was that? What does our
collective look like in terms of how we're helping and noticing?
And then can we go through mo or you know,
(26:54):
the position coach or something to say, hey, you know
everything cool? Like, you know, is there anything you want
to talk about or you know, instead of just putting
our heads down and just grinding through the work week, is.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
There anything you'd like to see implement it does not implement?
You ever changed? Or like I'll give example, Like for
me personally, I would love to see a Yeah, a
mental health expert at least one to be on every team,
like because you've got to build relationships not just two
days a week, but also that their office like down
next to the weight room or over by the cafeteria
(27:25):
where everybody could see you instead of upstairs away from
everybody where a lot of places at give me some
ideas that you would love to see.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah, I think, you know, I think just what we
had talked about earlier with you know, the player development
staff having some background uniqueness, like every having different backgrounds,
so you know, different individuals feel comfortable just going to
somebody and talking to them.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
And we have a bigger, more diverse staff of what type?
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And obviously, like you said, you know,
a full time you know clinician. But you know we
have you know, we have sixty nine guys on our team.
We'll have one hundred and twenty hundred and forty guys
through here, you know, a year.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
So it's hard, it's it's hard to build up that,
you know, those relationships.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
You know, we did a really cool thing this year.
We made our fifty three when we cut down from
from nine to fifty three, we just really focused on
like this is just another day.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
This is you know, we understand this is disappointing that
you're not making.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
A team per se, but you know, we we have
to go to fifty three players. We're really gonna have
sixty nine players and we're gonna try to get you
back on our practice squad. And this is what you
did well, bang bang bang bang bang.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Instead of like how you see on I don't want
to say ballers, but what's the.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Hard heart hard knocks, We're like, take your take your
iPad to the general manager's office. We tried making it
really positive, and honestly, it really helped because then the
next morning the guys showed up, they're like, hey, okay,
here we go, but happy back in the building. And
so it really was the approach like that positive because
that's a huge you know, as you very well know,
(29:00):
you know, going you know, ninety players down in fifty three.
Those guys are man, they're looking around like you know,
they start counting numbers. They're anxious, they're very worried, they're concerned.
So okay, look like we're gonna have a plan. We're
planned for you. We don't know if it's gonna happen
that you'll be back here right away, but at some
point we'd like to get you back come through the building.
You know, we'll talk to other teams about you if
your agent wants us to that sort of thing. Just
(29:22):
like making it more more more positive approach, and uh,
those guys really helped out with it. E K Mo
Suit just everybody in the building. We really focused on
our poor interns were like, oh man, you know we
had their two interns are like we're okay, you gotta
go get that guy and that guy, and we're like, okay,
but you gotta be you got They're kind of like.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
You said, your interns to be the turk to go
get these guys.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Oh my god, you gotta get. You gotta start, you
gotta start somewhere.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
When you have a player that you know, just one
that big, that's it should not play in the NFL,
doesn't have it, are you very very honest with them saying,
hey man, this is just not your career or are
you more of like, hey, this is just in the
place for you go try somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Yeah, it's a it's a great question. It never it
never gets to that jay because we don't We're not
going to bring people through the building that just can't play,
like there there is there they have to have.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
We're emphasizing the positives on these guys all the time, like.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
What do you what are the redeeming qualities and can
we accentuate those qualities as well as helping them with
their deficiencies. So it never comes down so you can't play.
It's more like, hey, you know how we talked about
you know, we talked about this in the spring, buddy,
Like when you get the preseason, you really gotta you
really got to be a ball around special teams, like
you got to come through and unfortunately it didn't happen.
(30:43):
You know, now you you improved in this area, this area,
this area, and then and that's great, but you need
to you know your next stop as close as it
gets to what you're saying, like where you can't you
know they they may not play again. Make sure when
you get back with another club you really get with
the special teams coaches and you really bought you buy
in there and or you know whether it could be passed.
(31:03):
It could be passed pro it could be you know,
studying on the defensive. Soidey, it's just it varies by position.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
You have a better approach than I do.
Speaker 5 (31:11):
Well, I hate no now, No, we're not talking about
college reports where it just says reject.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Hey, that's a long time, okay. So here's my philosophy,
right and training players in mixed martial arts for all
these years, I've always had this philosophy. You got ten
percent of the world. Man, they are fucking gangsters. They
are Chuck O'Dell and Aaron Donald James Harrison and man
they are ballers, right.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
And John I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I get Josh Snyder. Randy was gonna bring those two upright, Yeah.
And then ten percent they are just there's a certain
way I use I'm not going to use the ear
but just they're fucking wissist. They're just they're just not there.
They don't have that. They just don't have that in them.
And then the other eighty percent can get coached one
way or the other, can get coached toward being in
that top percent, or can actually get affected and go
(32:02):
bounce down to that bottom ten percent. And there's been
a couple of players we've trained over the past and
I have called their gems in like the first ten minutes,
I'm like, Nope, no shot, Like what am in the
like throw that bottom teen percent? No chance? Like we
sent them out there for you to teach them hand
violence and teach them that fighter mentality and like and
I'm telling you turned down a fighter, no chance. So
(32:22):
it's like I but I I just think, like, hey,
the quicker I can tell you, the better off you are.
Let's I'm not saying you're a bad person. It's just
just a sport. Of violence is not for you, that
is it?
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Yeah, it's all for you.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
No, you're describing performance indicators, right, so yeah, you gotta
be hitting these performance indicators. And if you're not hitting them,
but let's let's discuss it too. You know, Pete and
I released a guy here in two thousand and shoot,
the year the year we won the Super Bowl, we
released we released a player and he's like, well, what's
my performance plan? Like what do I need to work on?
And we were like wow, you know, he's like, well,
(32:55):
usually you know when people get like, oh, you know,
you get a performance plan, So we like, you know what,
we need to be hitting all these guys up, like hey,
you need to be working on this, this, this, this,
So you're just not so they're not caught off guard,
you know, they know what's going on, and like anything
you're talking about the performance markers, you have to let
all people want to know is like where do they
need to get better?
Speaker 4 (33:15):
That's in any industry, marketing, ticketing or whatever. What can
I do to get better? What's you know what, what
what's my performance point? But as long as you're discussing.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Us with those people, then you're that would think you're
evaluating this guy, those people you sit in that bottom
ten percent. Yeah, well you're not messing with them anymore.
They're moving on right right right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Just like yeah, well, so you're not going to put
them in a sport of violence one. That's just it's
just not who they are. It's just not portant. And
there's nothing I could possibly do to get them to that,
even that from the eighty percent to the ten percent
into that group to write right, to compete on that,
to compete in a game of.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Violence, right exactly?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
How about me like trying to dance around how I
would normally talk about it? What if I because you
know I've called you the past, Like, guys, I got
this guy right now. Holy fuck, he's driving me nuts,
and I just start going.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
No, no, no, you don't flare him yet. Give him
another day. And this was his first day at work.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Give him another day. I tell you what was great
one time because I've seen also, like football players, I'm
fireders have, social media has gotten bigger and bigger. They
tend to too often fight or play to not lose
because they don't want to be a meme or they
don't want to see bad social media out on them
instead of just fighting to go go just go fuck it,
let's go right. So Randy Gatour actually changed the way
(34:40):
I coached a few years ago, and he's like, Hey,
we can't tell guys anymore what we don't want. Don't
tell him what you don't want, just tell him what
you do want. So if this guy keeps dropping his hand,
don't tell him not to drop his hand anymore. Just
tell him keep that hand up and why, over and
over and over and over. Just don't say anymore, hey, man,
stop dropping your hand. So he to the way I coach,
(35:00):
and I thought it was pretty interesting.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
I love it, No, I love it right and then yeah,
and then focus but like focusing on those positives.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, because that's what people need. And I think also
there's so much negativity on social media now that even
like a style of coaching that old you know negativity
that man, it's just not gonna work anymore. These kids
and these young men, they need to be loved up
with more positivity now than ever before because we see
so much hate in our world. If you're on social
media a.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Lot, so I love that's what you know, working with Pete,
you know, like you can see him, coach Carol, you
can see him lift people up right. I always tell
I always tell people when when I'm asked about him,
I'm like, you know, I would say his ability and
still confidence in people.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Is probably his number one quality.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yes, he's super positive. Obviously he's got the football stuff
just knocked out of the park. But his ability and
is still confidence in people. You know, I don't know
if you saw our Giants game on Monday Night Football
a couple of weeks ago or a week and a
half ago or whatever, and you know Gino got hurt.
She was gonna come in the game, and he's right,
He's right there with Drew just like punching him in
(36:03):
the chest and like, let's go, man, you get to go.
You get to go play again. Isn't it cool? Instead
of being like, oh god, here we go.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
I got one question before I let you go. But
also what I love here about just you know, I'm
a Pete. Pete is like a huge practical joker and
think I'm the level of insider that I am because
I know what goes on in that building. You never
know when a practical joke is going to be like,
you know, change up a day and I've been in
your facility now like three different times where Pete I know,
is targeted me for a joke and they'd be like, hey,
(36:32):
Pete wants to see in his office. I'm like, now,
screw you. I'm not going up to see Pete. No,
no shot, no chance, zero chance I'm going to see you.
And he's like no, no, no. I'm like, oh, Pete
already know what you guys arend trying to absolutely not.
I'm not going up there, but he is.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
I do think it's one of his best qualities is
keeping that shilling in that building no matter what, no
matter if you guys are struggling, and if you guys
are winning, you at least have that levity in there,
which is great.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Yeah, we have the scooters. We have like the scooters
in the building. And I'm like, when do we get
the scooters? I don't remember anybody asked to me about scooters,
Like do we really want players riding scooters around? I don't.
But he's like, Johnny, it's a blast. It's a blast.
I'm like, okay, as long as let me get shurt
on him, and he'll be like like cruiser around. He'll
likeit right down the hall, just combusting right through here.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Before I let you go, I asked every one of
my guests this questions, give me your unbreakable moment in life,
like the thing that could have should have broken you
but didn't, and as a result, you came to the
other side of the tunnel stronger forever. That's a good question,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Job, That's a really good question. Yeah, I'm I'm going
with I'm going with Ben. You know, Ben's uh his
autism diagnosis, because you know, he was interacting with us
and then had his MMR injection and went the other
way and then was just off by himself in a corner,
(37:50):
playing with you know, his talmas, the train stuff and
just just totally went into a different world. And and that,
you know, the divorce rate is is like and you know,
I think that getting through that and uh, really relying
on our faith and Tracy and not working together as
a team.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
Was like, Wow, we can we can get through this,
you know, and we can.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Yeah, we can, we can. We can do anything. You know,
we can get through this stuff. That's you know, it's
not you know, I mean there's been a couple that
could have gone the other way. I was, you know,
twenty five years old working for Marty Schottenheimer, like sitting
across from in his office because Terry Bradway, my boss,
would like he had hired me as a a pro
director there.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
But he loved like Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson, he
loved going college scouting.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
All the time. But he would leave and I'm like,
wait a second, I'm.
Speaker 5 (38:37):
Sitting with Marty Shottenhmer's office, and like four years ago,
I was like at my college house watching the watching
these guys play at TV.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Make this is Marty shott never So I'm like, I
was pretty stressed out.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Yeah, you're at the moment with Ben is.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Yeah, yeah, you never know.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
And I've talked to you on Tracy about this. Don't
try and figure life out. You never know why things
happen in life. But with you two raising a trial
with autism and how much you've turned it around to
help so many other families with children with autism, that's
the best thing you've done in your life.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Not when you're saying no, I appreciate you saying that.
And Tracy's I mean, she's she's really dove into that
and it's been it's been awesome. It's been really really
eye opening, but it's been awesome. But yeah, clearly that's uh,
you know you how did you? How did you say that? Again?
Speaker 4 (39:29):
What was That's your unbreakable moment?
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Yeah, breakable, that's the made you unbreakable. And people don't
know the other end of that is Snide was interviewing
for a GM job when he got news that Ben
was diagnosed with autism and just left, went home and
just went back to his family. Obviously didn't take the job.
So there's been a lot that you that this is
man's it's a lot, it's heavy, it's a lot you
(39:53):
have to go through. But what you guys have done
with it, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Shit, you're saying that, how many how many unbreakable moments
to do that me?
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Yeah, oh, Snike, Mine was my lungs deal when I
almost died, you know, from the double aspiration eight years ago. Yeah,
when I went when I was in critical I was
in critical care for a week, in oxygen tach for
a month, and they told me I was the worst
case of someone aspirating that they that have ever survived.
(40:24):
The wildest thing about that, I woke up on a
gurney at Teter Sinai and Randy Couture he was my
emergency contact because my dumbass was like, all right, I'm
gonna get my back. I'm just going influence this epidro
procedure to them take these little fragments off the disc
and then hey, won't be in pain, so we'll go
train later. So what's actually did? Once? So Randy's my
emergency contact and I wake up honest gurney and Randy
(40:48):
Gaturre is standing over me, and I'm like, well, if
I'm dead, i ate in heaven because his ass wouldn't
be here. That wasn't good. But look in my ambreakal
moment did lead me to go say, hey, I've got
to now. God has given me this lease on life
where I now have to go do more of my
(41:08):
life to help others. And this podcast is part of that,
this book is part of that. M VP was part
of that. My other charities that have started is part
of that. It's being of service. I had to do
more with this life than what I had done up
to that point. And same for you, man, like you
had a situation where you and Tracy it was really hard.
There's a lot of challenges raising a child with autism.
(41:29):
For you to use it to help others, not everybody
does that. So again it's it's my favorite thing about
you guys, man.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
I love you. I appreciate it. And in Jay the
giving back. You know, I I heard a sermon one
day where this guy where the priest, was talking about
depression and then a number of his in his opinion,
the number one cure for depression is giving service. Absolutely,
if you keep if you're constantly giving back and being
(41:57):
of service, yes, then that was his to him, that
was his number one cure.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Buddy. I appreciate you joining me. Thank you for vulnerable.
I am going to charge you five hundred dollars for
laying on my couch today, so thank you for that.
I'm not a therapist, but I am going to charge
you five hundred dollars for today. Thank you for joining me. Steinds.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
I appreciate it, brother, But you do play one on TV.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Josh Sneider, not the one from Dukes of Hazard, but
the general manager of the Seattle Seahawks
This is Unbreakable with Jay Glacier, a mental health podcast
helping you out of the gray and into the blue.
Now here's Jay Glacier.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome into Unbreakable, a mental health podcast with Jay Glazer.
I'm Jay Glazier, and today we have a first, and
I say first, the first of this type of guests
to general manager for the NFL. We've had on head coaches,
We've had on players, We've had on fighters, we have
on veterans. We have on celebrity chefs in the past,
and rock stars and actors and actresses, but never in
(00:37):
NFL GM, which is weird going to work in the NFL.
But before I get with him, if you're like many people,
you may be surprised to learn that one in five
adults in this country experienced mental illness last year. You
have far too many failed to receive the support they need. Carolyn.
Behavioral health is doing something about it. They understand that
behavioral health is a key part of whole health, delivering
compassionate care that treats physical, mental, emotional, and social needs
(01:02):
in tandem. Carol, and behavioral health raising quality of life
through empathy and action. All right, again, Welcome into Unbreakable
Mental Health Podcast with Jay Glazer. I'm Jay Glazer, and
this right here is John Schneider, the general manager of
the Seattle Seahawks, somebody I've known for a long time.
I met him in Kansas City in the nineties and
(01:23):
here he is as a Super Bowl champion and one
of the most respected executives in the National Football League,
and I wanted to have him come on here. A
love the guy, but be like, people don't realize, you know,
as the leader of a team, what these guys, the
general managers have to deal with as far as mental health,
(01:44):
as far as different players, how they deal with their families,
and how this job has changed over the years. Now
we talk so much about mental health. This wasn't really
the case two years ago, five years ago, ten years ago,
thirty years ago when Schneids here first got involved. So,
first of all, Buddy, thank you for joining the Unbreakable Podcast.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, thanks for having me on.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Jay, how about this, hey, be honest, be honest. Are
you more excited to come on this show or when
you won a Super Bowl and straight and was interviewing
you guys on the podium.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
I think I'm going to go with straight. And interviewing
us on the podium.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Are you sure about that?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah? Yeah, and I and I know and I do,
I do appreciate you know, you have me on everything.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
But you know, I'm gonna lean that way.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
At the time.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I'm gonna give you a chance to reconsider that, Tony.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You know, it's funny when you're describing that, right, because
when you're describing that, your introduction and everything, you know, uh,
and again thanks for having me on. But you know,
it's basically like managing their general fashion. You know, you're
not trained for specific issues that come away to come
across your desk. So that's an interesting way to look at.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
It, right. Well, but here's the thing. General managers, right,
your job, for the most part, you get brought to
a team to get players to get talent, but that's
not really the job. You got to deal with every
freaking problem that comes with ross every player's desk, every
coach's desk, every player's wife, their issues, their families. They're
(03:07):
probably so when you first got the job as general manager,
what years.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
That it was twenty ten, but yeah, but I was
in it was in a leadership role at a very
young age with the with Marty Schottenheimer at the Redskins. Yeah,
and we were in we were in our.
Speaker 4 (03:22):
House for eight months, so that it was amazing experience.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
Yeah, Dance Sider, Yes, you're gonna, you're gonna, You're gonna,
You're gonna join Marty Schottenheimer.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
That guy never gets fired.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Dan Snyder, he never fires anybody.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
We went, we went, we went eight, We went eight
and eight missed the playoffs by one game Brian Irlacker
on a fake field goal and we got fired. Yeah,
it was a great experience. Yeah, but yeah, no, so yeah,
so and my and my oldest son was born, you know,
eight days after that, but that's neither here nor there.
(04:00):
So yeah, so but then so they went back to uh,
Green Bay. I was in the leadership role in Green
Bay for a number of years, my second time in
Green Bay, working with Ted Thompson and uh, you know,
Mike McCarthy came on board and that that whole group
of guys, which was awesome. I have family in Green Bay, So.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Getting back there and then and then was there eight years,
came back.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Out for Seattle, partnered up with Pete and we've we've
been blessed to be here for fourteen years.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
But what point in the job did you realize. And
I say this to head coaches all the time, and
or aspiring head coaches in aspiring general managers, be careful what
you wish for, because you think you guys are about
coaching players and getting talent and stuff and the stuff
that's about to come across your desk. There is no
amount of schooling that could prepare you for.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
That, no, exactly, you know, and especially you know with
the mental health issue, right, I mean, you know, I
think I've told you before. I mean, I you know,
I didn't see myself, you know, as much as we
focus on development here and empathy and and the whole
you know, the lob thing was really you know, started
as with with d Q dan Quinn and like love
you know, love our brothers, right, and uh, you know,
(05:08):
as much empathy and as you know, as much falling
on the culture as we have built here and everything.
You know, I never saw myself. I mean, we pride
ourselves on our people skills and and uh our empathy levels,
but I never envisioned myself, you know, in my hotel
room in Dallas holding a six foot hugging a six
foot five you know, three hundred and thirty five pound man,
it's you know, having you know, having a breakdown and
(05:31):
you know these you're you're not prepared. You're not prepared
for those things. You know, how do you get prepared for?
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Like how did you is it just learned on the
flyers just go yeah the ability other experts?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Yeah, after that, yes, but you know, the initial the
initial times that I've gone through with the players and
or their their family members, it's really like, hey, you know,
just just how do we help you know, our whole
our whole program is like, you know, how can we
make you know, people be the best they could possibly be,
enable people to do their best, enable them to do
their jobs. And so that's just a natural like hey,
(06:06):
you know, tell me what you're going through. Be a
good listener. It's okay to get help. You know. I
had an employee, you know, probably three weeks ago that
you know, it's just I could just tell what was down,
you know, like, hey, look like you know, we got
to talk and you know started, you know, he started
bringing me through the process and tell me what was
going on, just to be there and listen and then
(06:27):
to say, hey, you know those barriers that we've had
like you know, existed when you and I were growing up.
They don't.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
They don't exist anymore. We have all we can, we can,
we can get help, we.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Can talk to each other. You know, I think just
being able to you know, just basic you know, humanity,
being a good person and trying to you know, trying
to listen to people and help them with their issues
and then steer them to the.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Clinicians and to the experts.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
And because at a certain point, you know you're saying before,
at a certain point, you know, kind of like a start,
it's a starting point. I can help you and listen
to you. But then you know, we to move on here.
You need to go see this person and this person,
this person, and then yeah, I always tell people, you know,
guys like myself are put in this job for evaluating
football players and you know, negotiating with agents and that
(07:12):
sort of thing. But then you know, once you are
in that leadership role, people that have never really been
around an office setting and worked with trainers and doctors
and you know, the coaches on daily basis, and the
sports science people in the video and the fields people
and the cafeteria. You know, if you've never been around that,
and I was very blessed at a very young age
(07:33):
to do that in Green Bay. But if you haven't
been around that, you don't you're evaluating all these people.
You're not just evaluating football players. You know, I'm evaluating
you know, Jay and and And.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
What that means is how can I help Jay.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
That doesn't mean I'm evaluating him, doesn't mean I'm judging him.
It means I have to know my fellow employees as
much as I possibly can and make them be, to
help them be the best that they possibly can be.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
But you also have to know Jay and Jay's family
and Jay's pressures and Jay you know, the outside influences
of Jay and all those different things that again, like
you guys didn't sign up for. There was one GM
will call me once whose player just right off the
reservation had a really bad mental health breakdown, and he's
just like, hey, I know you've helped a lot of
players vets where do we go? What do we do?
(08:18):
And that wasn't too long ago, and you know there's
not a lot of I mean, I think in the CBA,
you guys are only required to have a mental health
professional on site.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Two days a week, which no, exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
So the NFL is so far behind this. I don't
say it's a wild West, but it's like you're kind
of learning as you go.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Absolutely. You know, we went to Sam Rams and our
sports science director and I went to New Zealand several
years ago, probably like eight years ago now, and spent
time with the All Blacks and several of the rugby
teams over there. There was one team right there now, Yeah, yeah,
I mean there was. There was. There was one team
in particular that they only had thirty four players and
(08:56):
they had basically what you and I would refer to.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
As sticks player development people.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
And you know, so you think of it like, you know,
most NFL teams have one we have we have three here.
But you know, to your point about you know, trying
to get to learn Jay and his outside stressors and everything,
having a diverse group of people in that in that
realm is so important.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Yeah. I mean, look again, like I said, the stuff
that comes across your desk, there's player arrest, there's drugs,
there's you know, issues with family members, issues with family
members get arrest. Yet people having mental health breakdowns when
you have no idea about it, you think they're they're
fine in front of you, and then all of a
sudden there's an issue in the locker room. Again, you
have to deal with all this, So you've got to
(09:39):
be the leader, right And I always say this, And look,
I came and talked to the Seahawks and I said
this in front of all of you guys, said, man,
the leader's got to take care everybody else. But who
takes care of the leaders? So when you, John Schneider,
are having a bad mental health day, do you let
people see it? Or do you say nope, I got
(09:59):
to make sure that I'm kind of running the ship
in a certain way. And then like, how do you
deal with it when you've got to be there for
everybody else?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
You know, I'm sure there's days that you know, after
a loss or something where I'm probably not totally on
top of my game, but or if we're going through
a real stressful negotiation or something like that. But you know,
I would say, first and foremost my faith, right, I mean,
I really rely on my faith heavily. And I have
a really really strong teammate and my wife, Tracy, and
we've been through a lot together. We've been together for
(10:27):
twenty seven years. You know, we're really close and I
can I can share anything with her, and she could
tell when I need to calm down a little bit,
or she knows who my stressors are and I can
confide in her. We have a very open policy here
in terms of you know, we call it just no walls,
and so you know, being able to have other people.
(10:47):
We interact with people so much on a daily basis
that people are feel free to say, hey, everything going okay, John, Like,
can't take any can't take anything off your plate. And
so you know, we've stressed that since since we walk
in those doors, and two ten, I would say, Jay,
the first of all, I'm so proud of everything that
you've done with with within this arena. And then you know,
take all the TV stuff and the you know, the.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
Tight suits and the big fat ties and stuff like that,
take that stuff out of it.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Just coming up here and talking to the guys, you know,
that meant a lot to a lot of players. And
you know, they see you and they see a certain
realm and and we need, we need more powerful advocates
like yourself. So good on you, man. You know I
proud I.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Am, And that's exactly what I mean too, Like you're
the top guy in that building, but you also like
this big fun personality over there even when you're struggling.
Do you do you fake it and always have that
big personality around people or do you show it when
you're going through it?
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Because you know me, I always faked it. I put
the right. When I first came out with my mental
health issues, people were shocked, like, what, You're the laughing,
joking guy. I'm like, yeah, I'm a laffy joking guy
because I'm hot trying to hide the pain that I'm at.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah. Yeah, I would say that. There's uh, specific times
as a leader where you it's you have to fake
it and people could say no, I'd be you know
bs and you Yeah, there's times you have to just
power through it and fake it. I don't know if
fake it fakes the right word, but the right but yeah,
you need to hide it and power through things because
(12:16):
people can't. You can't let people, you know, see things
affect you in a certain manner. You know. One of
the things that's really cool about being here and you know,
working for this organization and working with Pete is that
he is such a positive individual. I think everybody knows that.
And he's he's just his brain's just on fire, you know,
(12:42):
twenty four hours a day. And if I do get
in a rut, if I'm having a you know, one
of those days, it's like a and it's really it
really is more of like a a situational thing. Like
I said earlier, it's it's it's you know, it could
be a just a really bad negotiation or a bad
conversation with an agent or you know, something where you know,
he notices my point and he'll.
Speaker 4 (13:02):
Be like, you know, hey, Johnny.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
You know he's like he's awesome, Like Johnny, like come on,
come on my office, We've got going on. And then
you know he notices and and and uh, I can
I can flip pretty quick with that. We did have
a day though, Jay, my first day and the job
todd li Wiki. Do you remember talking Yeah, of course, yeah,
he runs the crack and now and he'll probably deny this,
but you know, we we we go through all we
(13:25):
go through all the press conferences and everything, and we
get done with all that stuff and I'm at my
desk and he's like, hey, by the way, you know,
our cap we gotta we gotta take twenty million in
cash off that cap by September first. And you're like,
I don't know, and you neglected to tell me that
before you offered me the job.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Day one sucked.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Oh and then and then rich Gannon had me on
his should like right after that. So I'm sitting there. Luckily,
I was like on it was like on the radio,
and I had my trash can sitting like right in
front of me, Like what do I get myself into
like anxiety level off the chain right now? Yeah? Am
I gonna if I can get sick in my trash? Can?
You know? I'm on the radio? What is cool? Though?
(14:14):
This is a cool lesson. It's a cool kind of
lesson though, because he and he said to me that
day and then he came back there and he was like, yeah, Bride,
I threw that at you. You know, come out to
my office, like can you come up and talk to
me real quick? And great leader, great phenomenal people skills
as you well know. I went up and he's like,
when you're most effective, like what is that? What does
that look like for you? And I was like, well,
I you know, I make to do list and I
(14:35):
you know, I get my to do list and I'm
bank bank bank bank, and I'm in a flow and
then I'm in my my my jam, I'm in my
flow state, and you know, I know where to go.
He's like, well, when was the last time you made
a to do list? I was like, wow, good point,
It's been like three days now, because there was so
much stuff going on at a time, and the other
part of it was I hadn't prayed a lot either
(14:55):
in that period, and so I'm like, wait, wait, wait,
let's just get back to basics here, you know what
I mean, Like, Okay, twenty million dollars, you know, no
big deal. Time.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
I think it's a great lesson here for people, though,
Like there are certain habits that we always need to
practice every day, and when you get away from them,
that's when you get in trouble. And I found myself
to it, like I now have a new practice every
single morning before I ever look at my phone, because
our phone's nothing my problems, Like none of us actually
are the error to two billion dollars from a Nigerian prince.
(15:30):
That's not actually going to happen on our phone, right,
So there's nothing good that happens on our phone. So
before I ever ever ever look at my phone, now,
I do this ten minutes of breath work, I do
this five minute meditation, I do a quick little workout,
and I do this gratitude list, so it's like, you know,
twenty minutes a day. And at night too, I make
(15:51):
sure I do this three minute prayer to God every
single night, and I do this new like little meditation
I learned at night. But when I life gets too
busy for me and I realize I don't practice them
every day, that's when the roommates in my head really
start barking and not talking nicely to each other. And
I've got to like make sure I've got to get
back to doing this. I have to make sure I
do it every single day. So that's a great.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Lesson, absolutely good for you, you know.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
And I think what happens with a lot of people
in your position, any any position of pressure and stress
and where you think there's too few hours in the day,
it's real easy to neglect your mental health and physical health.
Figure there's just not enough time and hours in the day.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
And yeah, we get lost. Yeah, and we talked about
this here, Jay, you know, I don't know if you've
ever seen, you know, some of our things in the building,
but you know, our football operation, and we try to
keep it, you know, as simple as we possibly can
so that we have our open lines of communication.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
It's just easy. It's really plan, communicate.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
And work right. We have to plan and we have
to we have to have a good vision.
Speaker 4 (16:52):
And this is what my point is.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
This is what brings us back to our basics and
brings us like, Okay, we know what's coming, right, and
you try to take the fear and anxiety out of it.
We're going to plan, We're going to over communicate because
when people tell you some really good communicators, not true,
you know, like, okay, we're amazing communicators.
Speaker 4 (17:10):
We constantly have to work in our communication skills right.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And then just the work we pride ourselves on being
an organization that you know, doesn't come across like we're
smarter than everybody else. Everything. We're just gonna We're just
gonna outwork you. And that's really kind of what brings
us everybody here, like back to plan, communicate, work, and
then that's how we roll.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
How do you compartmentalize? And what I mean by that
is you get players they get arrested, you get players
who get suspended for drugs. You get players who get
the life saving stolen from them. You've got you know,
coaches who have issues that you have to sideline. And
for an office people, how do you compartmentalize when those
things come across your desk? Because they're also human things.
(17:52):
These are people you care about, these are people who
do it's nothing, they work for you. It's a different
level when you split and sweat and bleed together in
there for common goal of something great. How do you
compartmentalize that? Oh?
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Man, I want to know, am I am I? Am? I?
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Am?
Speaker 3 (18:07):
I on your counch right now? I didn't know we
were getting a couch.
Speaker 5 (18:11):
I know if you are a couch of charge of
your fucking asked five hundred an hour.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
No, it's just from a general manager's perspective, how do
you compartmentalize?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
There's all you basically kind of walked through it. There's
always different buckets, and so you know, they're all individuals.
Everybody's totally different, right, Every situation is different. If I'm
reading a domestic violence report, okay, that's this one is
completely different than this one, And what does this one
look like? And then you know, who do I talk
to about, you know, helping? How are we helping.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
Everybody that's involved in that situation?
Speaker 3 (18:48):
First? Right, same thing with whether it's somebody that has
issues with a family member or you know, a loss
of life or you know, hey, okay, how are we
helping them? And Moe Kelly's are a player about my castle?
He's amazing at it, but yeah, he's somebody that when
you say, how do you deal with it? I can
confide in him about, you know, certain things and and
(19:09):
and asking you know, hey, am I looking at this correctly?
You know, how do you feel about it? And then
you know we can discuss that. And all these situations
are so different, are George, you know George and security
you know, we we just we just have to open
up and communicate, you know, what our crisis plans are
and all that. And then you know Dave Pearson's part
of that as well. And so you know, I think
(19:29):
it's really when I look at it, you know, with
all those different situations, it's like, first and foremost, how
do we help the player as a family? Okay? You know,
is everybody is everything? Okay? Is the crisis, like for
the time being, I know things could get worse for
the time being. Is everybody safe? Is everybody okay? You know,
if it's a.
Speaker 4 (19:47):
Dui, if there was an accident, is the other the
other people okay?
Speaker 3 (19:51):
You know, as the player okay, the people that were
involved in the accident is there? You know, are they okay?
And then you know, really it's it's like we talked about,
there's no training for it. It's just your what your level,
what your level of empathy is, and what your level
of you know, how quickly you can make decisions. And really,
you know, you joke around about the big personality and
(20:12):
that sort of thing, and and I do pride myself
on trying to be like a fun you know, we're
going to work with tails off, but we're going to
have a lot of fun. You know. It is one
of those things where you know that does kind of
help lighten the mood, and it helps other people as
much as it helps me.
Speaker 4 (20:27):
You know personally, I wrote in my book I'm Breakabell.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
What are the three pillers I use for my depression?
Anxiety is laughter? Right, So we happen to get through
the grade to the blue. So I think it's it's
definitely a great tool for us.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Absolutely absolutely, And I you know, I've had personal experiences
too when when it comes to you know, high anxiety
levels where you know, I have that level of empathy
for players when they're going through those sort of you know,
rough anxiety times. You know, you know I went through one.
When you know when my son Ben was diagnosed with
(21:01):
oughts to him he was three years old, It's like, Okay,
it just rocks your world, right, Okay, how are we
going to get through this? So there's you know, I'm
not a mental health expert, but as long as you
could point people into the experts, right, But also just
right away that initial conversation of having like Okay, I
get where you're coming from. Everybody's experienced things like this.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yeah, before I shift to something else, you just brought
up benet because I wanted to bring this up. So
tell everybody about Ben's artwork, because I have Ben's all
over my house.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Okay, Yeah, Ben is autistic.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
He's now twenty hells been twenty one, twenty one years old,
and up until a couple of years ago, they didn't
know that Ben has this unbelievable talent so I want
you to tell people really quick about this, and then
the website where to go buy, Like, folks, go on
this website right now. Give the website first.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
It's small Ego art dot com. And it's small Ego
art dot com because he talks in a very serious manner.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
He talks like he talks like one of the older
guys from the Muppets that sat up on that uh
and theater.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
At the two Bratchy guys yees yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 5 (22:01):
And so you know, if you say, Ben Man, that's
a great piece of art, like, please don't say that
that it's not that's not appropriate.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
You know, you don't know. I don't have a very
big ego. And so you know, Tracy runs off you know,
runs the Business Forum and my wife Terracy and and
so they just came up with it one day, like
about small Ego art dot com. Ben He's like, yeah,
small ego Art. That's cool. I like him because they
kind of look like yes, album covers.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
You know, folks, you got to look at these things.
He is a genius. It looks like one day he
sat there and said, yeah, I'm gonna go check out
a Jackson Pollock book. And then just became Jackson Pollock overnight.
But you had no idea he was able to do
that before him, right, Like.
Speaker 3 (22:42):
He always loved art, and then he really he really
started once he graduated from high school. He really got
into art classes and then kind of just started just
leading in Nicole Nichols, who's his mentor, and she brought
him down this really cool path of one of her
best friends, Rachel's is a is an artist here and
in the Northwest, and they just started, you know, bouncing
(23:02):
stuff off each other.
Speaker 4 (23:03):
And zooming all the time and yeah, and so it
just really really took off.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
So uh, it's fun. Obviously, we're super proud of them.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
It's incredible. I have four of his art in my house.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yeah cool, Yeah, Yeah, that's also it's.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
My fireplace, one of the flying Rack and then one
over another. It's unbelievable, folks. You got to go on
and look.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
But don't but don't tell him, Yeah, don't, don't, don't
don't say that to him.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
We get a feature on it last year.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
Yeah, that's right, that's right.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
I was supposed to be there and I ended up.
Of all weeks I got COVID couldn't come out there,
which was, oh my gosh, So again I want to
go back for somebody who wants to be a general
manager of the NFL where he says, oh, at school's job. Ever,
what's the most stressful thing about being a GM in
the NFL.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
For me personally? It's it's uh, probably uh the bigger negotiations.
Fortunately or unfortunately. We have a salary cap and we
don't have fully guaranteed contracts in the NFL like the
NBA and Major League Baseball and and uh, you know, hockey,
So we have a lot of different silos to negotiate
and within each one of these contracts. So as much
(24:05):
as we try to talk to the guys about like, hey,
this this is business, this isn't personal, it's still it's
still hard when you're you know, at some point you
have to kind of like place yeah, yeah, and you
know we've we've all been to negotiations when it's it's
your world and what that looks like. So I would
say that's probably that's probably the most stressful thing for
me personally because I love trying to help people. I
(24:27):
love trying to like help people, you know, advance any
way they possibly can, so to say tell somebody like, well,
you know, you're not quite this, you're not quite that
this number and that number, and and that that's probably
the hardest. Also, you know, letting people go especially cap
casually guys. You know, when you just you know, you
build relationships with with with guys and they've built really strong,
(24:48):
strong relationships in the building and in the community, and
then you know, you have to have that really ugly
conversation and then you just you know, you hope and
pray that that time heals all wounds.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Do you take that homework through you or do you
just now say to yourself that's part of the business.
Or is it always affect you?
Speaker 3 (25:06):
No, I think it's always stays with It always stays
with you, and I do, yeah, I take it home.
And you know, I talked to Tracy about it. And
my brother is eight years older than me, and I
had a team and negotiators for a long time at
American Express, and so we would always share those things too,
like what he was going through, and for that that
helped a lot.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
I think the other interesting part now is just the evolution.
So like I got a buddy played in the NFL
who took a four game suspension, saying that he had
a drug issue when actually had a mental health break down.
But you'd rather have people thought he was on drugs
than that mental health issues. Well, wasn't that long ago
(25:44):
that it happened. So I think if you look now,
at least inside teams, right, there's still guys hiding it.
I think now it's a lot more open, right for
your players and for people upstairs there say Okay, I'm struggling,
I'm going through something like that stigma has definitely been
taken away. What what are kind of some of the
things that you guys now do that you wouldn't have
(26:04):
done five years ago?
Speaker 3 (26:06):
Oh? Man, I think there's a ton of them. Jay,
I don't know really how to begin, but.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
Just that alertness.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
I was I was just talking to an ad about
this this weekend. We were actually talking about mental health
and how do we help people right because we can't
you know, in the NFL, we can't make people get
help right. And so in the college world, you know,
they can get directly of their parents and and sit
with the kids and really try to help. But you know, what,
what are the alerts is what you know? So is it?
(26:34):
You know, Eric in equipment, is it you know, is
it Sam and sports science? Is it? You know the
people in the cafeteria that are noticing guys just being
down and you know we we had a cool thing,
you know, so like what was that? What does our
collective look like in terms of how we're helping and noticing?
And then can we go through mo or you know,
(26:54):
the position coach or something to say, hey, you know
everything cool? Like, you know, is there anything you want
to talk about or you know, instead of just putting
our heads down and just grinding through the work week, is.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
There anything you'd like to see implement it does not implement?
You ever changed? Or like I'll give example, Like for
me personally, I would love to see a Yeah, a
mental health expert at least one to be on every team,
like because you've got to build relationships not just two
days a week, but also that their office like down
next to the weight room or over by the cafeteria
(27:25):
where everybody could see you instead of upstairs away from
everybody where a lot of places at give me some
ideas that you would love to see.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah, I think, you know, I think just what we
had talked about earlier with you know, the player development
staff having some background uniqueness, like every having different backgrounds,
so you know, different individuals feel comfortable just going to
somebody and talking to them.
Speaker 2 (27:47):
And we have a bigger, more diverse staff of what type?
Speaker 3 (27:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And obviously, like you said, you know,
a full time you know clinician. But you know we
have you know, we have sixty nine guys on our team.
We'll have one hundred and twenty hundred and forty guys
through here, you know, a year.
Speaker 4 (28:01):
So it's hard, it's it's hard to build up that,
you know, those relationships.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
You know, we did a really cool thing this year.
We made our fifty three when we cut down from
from nine to fifty three, we just really focused on
like this is just another day.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
This is you know, we understand this is disappointing that
you're not making.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
A team per se, but you know, we we have
to go to fifty three players. We're really gonna have
sixty nine players and we're gonna try to get you
back on our practice squad. And this is what you
did well, bang bang bang bang bang.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Instead of like how you see on I don't want
to say ballers, but what's the.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Hard heart hard knocks, We're like, take your take your
iPad to the general manager's office. We tried making it
really positive, and honestly, it really helped because then the
next morning the guys showed up, they're like, hey, okay,
here we go, but happy back in the building. And
so it really was the approach like that positive because
that's a huge you know, as you very well know,
(29:00):
you know, going you know, ninety players down in fifty three.
Those guys are man, they're looking around like you know,
they start counting numbers. They're anxious, they're very worried, they're concerned.
So okay, look like we're gonna have a plan. We're
planned for you. We don't know if it's gonna happen
that you'll be back here right away, but at some
point we'd like to get you back come through the building.
You know, we'll talk to other teams about you if
your agent wants us to that sort of thing. Just
(29:22):
like making it more more more positive approach, and uh,
those guys really helped out with it. E K Mo
Suit just everybody in the building. We really focused on
our poor interns were like, oh man, you know we
had their two interns are like we're okay, you gotta
go get that guy and that guy, and we're like, okay,
but you gotta be you got They're kind of like.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
You said, your interns to be the turk to go
get these guys.
Speaker 3 (29:44):
Oh my god, you gotta get. You gotta start, you
gotta start somewhere.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
When you have a player that you know, just one
that big, that's it should not play in the NFL,
doesn't have it, are you very very honest with them saying,
hey man, this is just not your career or are
you more of like, hey, this is just in the
place for you go try somewhere else.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Yeah, it's a it's a great question. It never it
never gets to that jay because we don't We're not
going to bring people through the building that just can't play,
like there there is there they have to have.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
We're emphasizing the positives on these guys all the time, like.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
What do you what are the redeeming qualities and can
we accentuate those qualities as well as helping them with
their deficiencies. So it never comes down so you can't play.
It's more like, hey, you know how we talked about
you know, we talked about this in the spring, buddy,
Like when you get the preseason, you really gotta you
really got to be a ball around special teams, like
you got to come through and unfortunately it didn't happen.
(30:43):
You know, now you you improved in this area, this area,
this area, and then and that's great, but you need
to you know your next stop as close as it
gets to what you're saying, like where you can't you
know they they may not play again. Make sure when
you get back with another club you really get with
the special teams coaches and you really bought you buy
in there and or you know whether it could be passed.
(31:03):
It could be passed pro it could be you know,
studying on the defensive. Soidey, it's just it varies by position.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
You have a better approach than I do.
Speaker 5 (31:11):
Well, I hate no now, No, we're not talking about
college reports where it just says reject.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Hey, that's a long time, okay. So here's my philosophy,
right and training players in mixed martial arts for all
these years, I've always had this philosophy. You got ten
percent of the world. Man, they are fucking gangsters. They
are Chuck O'Dell and Aaron Donald James Harrison and man
they are ballers, right.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
And John I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I get Josh Snyder. Randy was gonna bring those two upright, Yeah.
And then ten percent they are just there's a certain
way I use I'm not going to use the ear
but just they're fucking wissist. They're just they're just not there.
They don't have that. They just don't have that in them.
And then the other eighty percent can get coached one
way or the other, can get coached toward being in
that top percent, or can actually get affected and go
(32:02):
bounce down to that bottom ten percent. And there's been
a couple of players we've trained over the past and
I have called their gems in like the first ten minutes,
I'm like, Nope, no shot, Like what am in the
like throw that bottom teen percent? No chance? Like we
sent them out there for you to teach them hand
violence and teach them that fighter mentality and like and
I'm telling you turned down a fighter, no chance. So
(32:22):
it's like I but I I just think, like, hey,
the quicker I can tell you, the better off you are.
Let's I'm not saying you're a bad person. It's just
just a sport. Of violence is not for you, that
is it?
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Yeah, it's all for you.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
No, you're describing performance indicators, right, so yeah, you gotta
be hitting these performance indicators. And if you're not hitting them,
but let's let's discuss it too. You know, Pete and
I released a guy here in two thousand and shoot,
the year the year we won the Super Bowl, we
released we released a player and he's like, well, what's
my performance plan? Like what do I need to work on?
And we were like wow, you know, he's like, well,
(32:55):
usually you know when people get like, oh, you know,
you get a performance plan, So we like, you know what,
we need to be hitting all these guys up, like hey,
you need to be working on this, this, this, this,
So you're just not so they're not caught off guard,
you know, they know what's going on, and like anything
you're talking about the performance markers, you have to let
all people want to know is like where do they
need to get better?
Speaker 4 (33:15):
That's in any industry, marketing, ticketing or whatever. What can
I do to get better? What's you know what, what
what's my performance point? But as long as you're discussing.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Us with those people, then you're that would think you're
evaluating this guy, those people you sit in that bottom
ten percent. Yeah, well you're not messing with them anymore.
They're moving on right right right, yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:36):
Just like yeah, well, so you're not going to put
them in a sport of violence one. That's just it's
just not who they are. It's just not portant. And
there's nothing I could possibly do to get them to that,
even that from the eighty percent to the ten percent
into that group to write right, to compete on that,
to compete in a game of.
Speaker 3 (33:53):
Violence, right exactly?
Speaker 2 (33:56):
How about me like trying to dance around how I
would normally talk about it? What if I because you
know I've called you the past, Like, guys, I got
this guy right now. Holy fuck, he's driving me nuts,
and I just start going.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
No, no, no, you don't flare him yet. Give him
another day. And this was his first day at work.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Give him another day. I tell you what was great
one time because I've seen also, like football players, I'm
fireders have, social media has gotten bigger and bigger. They
tend to too often fight or play to not lose
because they don't want to be a meme or they
don't want to see bad social media out on them
instead of just fighting to go go just go fuck it,
let's go right. So Randy Gatour actually changed the way
(34:40):
I coached a few years ago, and he's like, Hey,
we can't tell guys anymore what we don't want. Don't
tell him what you don't want, just tell him what
you do want. So if this guy keeps dropping his hand,
don't tell him not to drop his hand anymore. Just
tell him keep that hand up and why, over and
over and over and over. Just don't say anymore, hey, man,
stop dropping your hand. So he to the way I coach,
(35:00):
and I thought it was pretty interesting.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
I love it, No, I love it right and then yeah,
and then focus but like focusing on those positives.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Yeah, because that's what people need. And I think also
there's so much negativity on social media now that even
like a style of coaching that old you know negativity
that man, it's just not gonna work anymore. These kids
and these young men, they need to be loved up
with more positivity now than ever before because we see
so much hate in our world. If you're on social
media a.
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Lot, so I love that's what you know, working with Pete,
you know, like you can see him, coach Carol, you
can see him lift people up right. I always tell
I always tell people when when I'm asked about him,
I'm like, you know, I would say his ability and
still confidence in people.
Speaker 4 (35:40):
Is probably his number one quality.
Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yes, he's super positive. Obviously he's got the football stuff
just knocked out of the park. But his ability and
is still confidence in people. You know, I don't know
if you saw our Giants game on Monday Night Football
a couple of weeks ago or a week and a
half ago or whatever, and you know Gino got hurt.
She was gonna come in the game, and he's right,
He's right there with Drew just like punching him in
(36:03):
the chest and like, let's go, man, you get to go.
You get to go play again. Isn't it cool? Instead
of being like, oh god, here we go.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
I got one question before I let you go. But
also what I love here about just you know, I'm
a Pete. Pete is like a huge practical joker and
think I'm the level of insider that I am because
I know what goes on in that building. You never
know when a practical joke is going to be like,
you know, change up a day and I've been in
your facility now like three different times where Pete I know,
is targeted me for a joke and they'd be like, hey,
(36:32):
Pete wants to see in his office. I'm like, now,
screw you. I'm not going up to see Pete. No,
no shot, no chance, zero chance I'm going to see you.
And he's like no, no, no. I'm like, oh, Pete
already know what you guys arend trying to absolutely not.
I'm not going up there, but he is.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
I do think it's one of his best qualities is
keeping that shilling in that building no matter what, no
matter if you guys are struggling, and if you guys
are winning, you at least have that levity in there,
which is great.
Speaker 3 (36:54):
Yeah, we have the scooters. We have like the scooters
in the building. And I'm like, when do we get
the scooters? I don't remember anybody asked to me about scooters,
Like do we really want players riding scooters around? I don't.
But he's like, Johnny, it's a blast. It's a blast.
I'm like, okay, as long as let me get shurt
on him, and he'll be like like cruiser around. He'll
likeit right down the hall, just combusting right through here.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
Before I let you go, I asked every one of
my guests this questions, give me your unbreakable moment in life,
like the thing that could have should have broken you
but didn't, and as a result, you came to the
other side of the tunnel stronger forever. That's a good question,
isn't it.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Job, That's a really good question. Yeah, I'm I'm going
with I'm going with Ben. You know, Ben's uh his
autism diagnosis, because you know, he was interacting with us
and then had his MMR injection and went the other
way and then was just off by himself in a corner,
(37:50):
playing with you know, his talmas, the train stuff and
just just totally went into a different world. And and that,
you know, the divorce rate is is like and you know,
I think that getting through that and uh, really relying
on our faith and Tracy and not working together as
a team.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
Was like, Wow, we can we can get through this,
you know, and we can.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
Yeah, we can, we can. We can do anything. You know,
we can get through this stuff. That's you know, it's
not you know, I mean there's been a couple that
could have gone the other way. I was, you know,
twenty five years old working for Marty Schottenheimer, like sitting
across from in his office because Terry Bradway, my boss,
would like he had hired me as a a pro
director there.
Speaker 4 (38:30):
But he loved like Ron Wolf and Ted Thompson, he
loved going college scouting.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
All the time. But he would leave and I'm like,
wait a second, I'm.
Speaker 5 (38:37):
Sitting with Marty Shottenhmer's office, and like four years ago,
I was like at my college house watching the watching
these guys play at TV.
Speaker 4 (38:45):
Make this is Marty shott never So I'm like, I
was pretty stressed out.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Yeah, you're at the moment with Ben is.
Speaker 3 (38:50):
Yeah, yeah, you never know.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
And I've talked to you on Tracy about this. Don't
try and figure life out. You never know why things
happen in life. But with you two raising a trial
with autism and how much you've turned it around to
help so many other families with children with autism, that's
the best thing you've done in your life.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Not when you're saying no, I appreciate you saying that.
And Tracy's I mean, she's she's really dove into that
and it's been it's been awesome. It's been really really
eye opening, but it's been awesome. But yeah, clearly that's uh,
you know you how did you? How did you say that? Again?
Speaker 4 (39:29):
What was That's your unbreakable moment?
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Yeah, breakable, that's the made you unbreakable. And people don't
know the other end of that is Snide was interviewing
for a GM job when he got news that Ben
was diagnosed with autism and just left, went home and
just went back to his family. Obviously didn't take the job.
So there's been a lot that you that this is
man's it's a lot, it's heavy, it's a lot you
(39:53):
have to go through. But what you guys have done
with it, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (39:57):
You know.
Speaker 4 (40:00):
Shit, you're saying that, how many how many unbreakable moments
to do that me?
Speaker 2 (40:04):
Yeah, oh, Snike, Mine was my lungs deal when I
almost died, you know, from the double aspiration eight years ago. Yeah,
when I went when I was in critical I was
in critical care for a week, in oxygen tach for
a month, and they told me I was the worst
case of someone aspirating that they that have ever survived.
(40:24):
The wildest thing about that, I woke up on a
gurney at Teter Sinai and Randy Couture he was my
emergency contact because my dumbass was like, all right, I'm
gonna get my back. I'm just going influence this epidro
procedure to them take these little fragments off the disc
and then hey, won't be in pain, so we'll go
train later. So what's actually did? Once? So Randy's my
emergency contact and I wake up honest gurney and Randy
(40:48):
Gaturre is standing over me, and I'm like, well, if
I'm dead, i ate in heaven because his ass wouldn't
be here. That wasn't good. But look in my ambreakal
moment did lead me to go say, hey, I've got
to now. God has given me this lease on life
where I now have to go do more of my
(41:08):
life to help others. And this podcast is part of that,
this book is part of that. M VP was part
of that. My other charities that have started is part
of that. It's being of service. I had to do
more with this life than what I had done up
to that point. And same for you, man, like you
had a situation where you and Tracy it was really hard.
There's a lot of challenges raising a child with autism.
(41:29):
For you to use it to help others, not everybody
does that. So again it's it's my favorite thing about
you guys, man.
Speaker 3 (41:36):
I love you. I appreciate it. And in Jay the
giving back. You know, I I heard a sermon one
day where this guy where the priest, was talking about
depression and then a number of his in his opinion,
the number one cure for depression is giving service. Absolutely,
if you keep if you're constantly giving back and being
(41:57):
of service, yes, then that was his to him, that
was his number one cure.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Buddy. I appreciate you joining me. Thank you for vulnerable.
I am going to charge you five hundred dollars for
laying on my couch today, so thank you for that.
I'm not a therapist, but I am going to charge
you five hundred dollars for today. Thank you for joining me. Steinds.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
I appreciate it, brother, But you do play one on TV.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Josh Sneider, not the one from Dukes of Hazard, but
the general manager of the Seattle Seahawks
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.