December 10, 2025 • 26 mins
Former Warren Central High School and Indianapolis Colts quarterback, Jeff George, joins the show to share his concerns about Philip Rivers trying to play football again after not playing in the last five years. Jeff also reveals that he still believes Anthony Richardson has the ability to be a franchise quarterback. Jake also asks Jeff about his initiative, Christmas QB with Jeff George.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the favorite band, at least one of them.
Of Jeff George is going to join us just a
couple of minutes from now. Fascinating story, Jeff George. You've
heard me mention it before, and I thought he could
give really good perspective, not just on the Philip Rivers
(00:21):
signing and you know the things that go into that,
but also in addition some of the things that he's
got going on for Christmas, because he's doing a new initiative,
the Christmas Quarterback, and I love the idea of it
because I've got a love for Indy and one thing
(00:41):
that I know about Jeff is that he has one
of the things that people say to me, and I
don't this comes off the wrong way, you know, it's
not something that I and I I grew up here,
I know no other than like this town, right and so,
(01:02):
but I have a great love for Indy, and I
do take it as a compliment when people that I
talk to about the radio show will say like, hey,
you know, I know how much you love Indianapolis, and
I do. I've got a great love for this city
and try to let that be known just having grown
up here and one of the guys. I know that
has a huge love of Indianapolis, and I think people
(01:23):
have been able to figure out over the course of
this show that he is somebody that you know, I've
developed a friendship with over the years. Joins us now
on the job a house peel and poor guest line,
and he's going to be known as the Christmas Quarterback.
Coming up, we'll get into exactly what that means and
what that entails. But let me welcome Jeff George to
the program. Jeff, how are you.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I'm doing great, Jake, always good to be on your show.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Well, I appreciate it. I and we got a lot
to get to here, and I'm sure you knew that
this was one of the things that I wanted to
discuss from the from the beginning, and that's this, you know.
I remember when your playing career was coming to an end,
and you had a couple of stops there in the end.
I remember Seattle and Chicago come to mind, where you
(02:10):
were later in your career, right, and then Minnesota was
another one that I believe you may have had to
work out with or try out with some five years
or so after your you know, your last game had
been played when you look at the situation right now
with Philip Rivers and the Colts, he's forty four years old.
I'm curious as somebody who I know was working out
(02:30):
and keeping your arm in shape at that same agent.
By the way, happy birthday. You just had a birthday
the other day. That's right, okay, So what do you
What was your reaction when you heard that Philip Rivers
is going to be back with the Colts.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I mean my reaction was, where are my cleats and
my football? I mean, let's go throw some round. I know,
don't tease me that way. I feel, you know, you
signed somebody that's kind of close to my age, and
I'm thinking myself, I can I still do? And I
think I can. So I don't know. I mean, I
was talking to something. I was on Fox the Morning
(03:09):
News this morning, and I was jokingly but then I
got to think and I picked up my phone. I said, Hey,
it's Carly Ersay. She's calling me. I want to know
what kind of asking me if I'm in shape? And
I said, of course I'm in shape. You know, are
you still at fifty sixth Street? I know the drive
really well, so I'll be there at ten o'clock. But yeah,
(03:29):
so yeah, I mean it's crazy. You know, I think
forty five years old, five years out of the league,
you know, coaching your kids high school football team. You
know that's awesome, But really with how many games left
when the four four games less regular yp, I mean, really,
how much can you bring to the team that I
know they need somebody and I know there's not much,
(03:52):
you know with trade deadline being over with not really
sure you know what you can do, but is that
really going to help the team? Me personally, I would
concentrate on getting Ar healthy, seeing what he can do,
use this as a platform for him to see if
he's going to be part of your program, uh, part
of the team you know, the next few years, and
at the same time help you get to the playoffs.
(04:14):
And if i'm ar, I'm thinking, you know what a
better situation for me to go out there and show
that I can still play? And if it's not here
in Minneapolis, I can you know, there's many teams out
there that need quarterbacks. I can be a franchise guy.
So you know, great for Philip Rivers, I've been there.
I understand. You know you still you know, if you
(04:35):
get a call and you get a chance to you know,
make you know, a couple of million for four weeks, great,
go do it. But if I'm the Colts, I'm really
I don't see an upside to it, really to what
can you bring is that you know, in shape is
the difference being in shape compared to the football shape?
Is my arm? You know, it's not going to be
(04:56):
starting quarterback. Ready, I have him and you know you
can throw as much as you want up the game ready,
that's you know, that's a different, different situation. But I
just don't unless it's like just to be a mentor
to the young rookie Raley Leonard. You know, that's great too,
But I would think that with four weeks left, if
(05:16):
you're the head coach, you're you're you're stichen. You know,
I'm the mentor. I'm mentoring this young corter, but I've
been with him all year. I don't know what uh
you know, uh again, I'm not trying to put down
Philip Rivers. I think it's great for him, but I
just don't know what it adds to the team with
four weeks left in the season.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Jeff, you would know, you know, like in if you
look back at the year, and I'm talking about maybe
like the Seattle Chicago Times, right when you were out
there and you were a veteran player at that point
and who had not been on the field for a
while as an NFL player, and a guy that's thrown
a ga billion passes for a million yards and led
the league in passing yardage for a year. But then
(05:56):
having a little bit of time off and going back
out onto a field, is it like riding a bike
or is the game moving faster than it is that
you recall when you had last played it.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
When you do that, the game really never seemed fast.
You know. The toughest part was in my situation in
Seattle and Chicago. You know, if you want to continue playing,
you know, you just you know you're at one stop
and then the next year you might be somewhere else.
And that's kind of I just wanted to keep playing.
I wanted to try and get on a playoff caliber team.
(06:28):
And this is what they told me. We're bringing you
in to if we get to the playoffs and we
have an injury. We got confidence in you that you've
been there and you can just step right in. You
you played under a lot of offenses. We think you
can learn it and learn the offense within a couple
of weeks. And I remember sitting down with Mike Holmgren
(06:50):
when I went to Seattle, and that was kind of
that situation. They had goals and dreams and they had
a good team and Matt Hasselback was their guy. And
it wasn't a situation where I was going in competing
with Matt. It was like, all right, if Matt gets
if we able to get the playoffs, and Matt gets hurt,
we got confidence in you. You've had six seven weeks
(07:10):
to learn the offense. I think I went in there
with twelve weeks ago in the season and learned the
offense in a couple of weeks, and I was ready.
So if he went down, I was ready. So that's
kind of what they brought me in for, you know,
for the playoff run if Matt went hurt. And it's
kind of if Matt got hurt, and the same thing
was with Chicago. It was I think I went in
(07:33):
there right around a week before Thanksgiving when I was
with the Bears, and who was the guy that Rex
Grossman was recorded He went down with a knee or
an achilles or something, a leg injury. And they had
Chad Hutchinson at the time, and Lovey Smith was the coach,
and he kind of brought me in the same time,
(07:56):
same thing and said, hey, we're going to try and
make a playoff run. Got a great defense, quarterback went down.
But you know, we need a veteran guy. We don't
need you to play these first couple of games, two,
three games. We just need to you get ready physically,
get in shape, get your arm ready, and if we
are able to get a get in the playoffs and
something happens to to the guy that's playing right now,
(08:18):
we're so confident in you that you can lead us
the rest of the way. So you know, I guess
that's with the situation here. But with four weeks with
with Philip, you know he's been here. I understand the
friendship that he's had with Styching when he was out
in San Diego, when Philip was still playing the San
Diego I get all that, and kind of knows the offense.
(08:40):
But I'm telling you, the body is just that forty
five and five years out, you can do all you want.
I'm just not sure what that brings to the team,
so I would focus on Riley Leonard. I would definitely
for I don't know what ar situation, how healthy he is,
whether he can play or not, but I would make
(09:01):
darn sure that I'm doing everything possible trainers, doctors, and
I imagine they are, but I would make darn sure
to get him in there, because if he can play,
that brings us a totally different element to the game.
You're so used to, Daniel Jones. Teams are preferring against that.
Now you've got to prepare against Ar and what he
(09:22):
brings the table. To me, that's the route that you
should go. But again, it's all about whether he's healthy
or not.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Jeff George, my guests on the job House peeling poor
guest line. Before we get to Jeff, what you've got
going on here in your post playing career. One other
thing about Philip Rivers, and that is, as a guy
who has played this position and played it deep into
your career, when he gets out there, and let's just
say that they get him out there on Sunday against Seattle, okay,
for the sake of the discussion, or they wait for
(09:50):
San Francisco. But when he's out there, Philip rivers. What
is it that Jeff George's trained eye is going to
look for early on and say whether or not you
can tell well that he's comfortable or uncomfortable in his return.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Well, it's really just about you never lose the football
part of it. Your mind, your mind strong or whatever.
You know more than than anybody out there, but me
is the physical part of it. It's kind of like
with Daniel Jones when he dropped back and he he planted,
and you know, he just knew that it was an
achilles right when you saw that. So me, I would
(10:24):
I would be watching his pocket, how he moves in
the pocket, you know, his foot speed, how quick he is.
You don't have to be real, you know, you know,
like you're twenty five again, but you do have to
take care of you have to watch you your hamstrings,
your your growings and your achilles and you know that
kind of stuff. Just any type of little movement that
(10:45):
you that you're not comfortable with that you're used to.
I mean, wearing cleat. Wearing cleat is is is something
that you're not used to. I mean I remember going out,
you know, when I was trying to uh, you know,
come myself and I was running wind springs on the
on the field with cleats, and the first day I
put cleats on, I could have swore I tore my
calf because my body wasn't used to wearing. Uh. So
(11:10):
little things like that you just have to you have
to worry about, you know, everything else, the mind, the football,
learn the offense. I mean that's second hand. You're gonna
know that. But uh, it's just a physical part of it. Man,
I just don't know. Uh that's tough because I've been
through it, and uh, it takes more than just a
couple of weeks to figure out whether I'm ready or not.
(11:31):
It's a whole year of training, off season training, getting
your your your different muscles, part of your body, getting
used to, uh being able to go out there day
in and down that you know, Sundays are easy. It's
the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. It's when you're gonna
be hurting the most. And can I does my body
recover like it used to from Monday or you know,
(11:53):
after a game on Sunday, I'm ready to go on Monday. Well,
now you know you're forty, you're in your forties. I
mean it's going to take you five days just to
feel deepent enough to get back out there on Sunday
after practicing Monday through Friday. So what I would look
for is somebody to answer your question. Is just his
pocket presence, how he's moving in the pocket, you know,
and getting out of the pocket once you know, if
(12:14):
you're getting pressured. You know, it's not like you're gonna
have the luxury of just sitting back there making your
reads and checking, you know, throwing the ball to X,
Y and Z and they're not open. You know, where's
my backs, where's my check down? You get all that,
But once the pocket classes, can I get out of
the pocket and make a play. And you know, once
you make that sudden movement, you know, I feel a
little funny in my calf, My my my growing, my amstering,
(12:38):
my keelees, that's what you start to worry about. So
I'm not you know, he's definitely mentally he's prepared, but
the physical part of it, I'm just not so sure of.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Jeff George is my guest Jaba house peeling poor guest line.
All right, Jeff, I'm going to I'll present it this way, Okay,
for those that and I think most people know now
that you and I've known each other for a long time,
but to know you for a long time, I knew
you publicly and then later personally. Okay, now, you and
(13:10):
I were talking recently about the show because we watch
all these you know, weird shows on you know, land
Man and everything else and Andy Griffins, Oh, don't.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Get man, I can talk all day on that. I
can wait for Sundays or Saturday night.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
It is pretty awesome, right, don't.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Follow me, don't bother me from midnight to one fifteen.
That's my new football adrenaline is Land Man.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
It is great right now. And so Chad Powers, and
I think I'm I thought I was the only person
that watched this show. I think you've watched it also,
but Eddie has also watched it. But for those that
don't know, Chad Powers is about a guy that was
a quarterback that's looking for a second chance at revamping
his career and so he basically misses doubt, fires himself.
(13:56):
He goes kind of incognito and in disguise. The reason
I mention it Jeff the playing career of Jeff George,
The Jeff George the quarterback, the guy that played at
Warren and broke a lot of hearts of other schools
around Central Indiana, went to Purdue and then frankly upset
a lot of people when you transferred from Purdue, even
(14:16):
though I understand it the leaon Burtinnett coaching change and
the stylistic change of Fred Acres coming in and all
of that. But the Jeff George that I knew as
the quarterback was a private guy that did a lot
of things privately that I didn't know at the time.
That was raising money, that was helping families, that was
involved with his family and his church. And now we're
(14:37):
starting to see that publicly in terms of Jeff George
being out there and finally kind of loving back Indianapolis
and trying to get Indianapolis to get involved also in
that reciprocal love. Why now, what's different now about Jeff George,
if anything, in the initiatives of what we're going to
talk about.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Oh, I think when you're playing in the playing days
and the way I was brought up, Man, I mean,
I I'm like you said, I I am involved in
my church. I try and live the right life. Although
I'm not perfect by no means. But when you're playing,
you you know, just the right thing to do is
just go about your business, go about your job and
(15:19):
the private stuff, the raising money, the that to me,
that's that should you know, it should not be advertised.
And even to this day, I still have an issue
with I'm working through that, but it's not something you
have right and I'm not trying to promote you know,
be uh a better uh you know, win people over.
(15:41):
You know, you're the like Marror, you don't and that's fine.
Earlier in your career you try and do everything right
and you want everybody to love you, and you want
to go out there and win games, and if you
win games, people are going to love you. But when
when it's the difficult times and you're losing and things
going on, you just you just want to go about
your business. Being an NFL quarterback, it takes up so
much of your time. You don't have a lot of
(16:01):
time to do other stuff. But at the same time,
the time, the time that you do have, you want
to give back. And Inny and App was so special
to me, you know that we talk about all the time.
And that's why you know, I live here. You know
most of the time I have, you know, houses of
other places, but here's home being a Hoosier. I'm proud
(16:22):
to be a Hoosier. But at the time, I wasn't.
I didn't. I wasn't trying to promote myself because that's
not what you're supposed to do. You there's so many
people out there around the city and other places that
do so much good for the city and community that
those are the people that really deserve all the credit.
(16:42):
And and you know, being a quarterback, you're giving a
platform and you need you need to take advantage of that.
And I didn't really take advantage of that when I
was playing. I just wanted to do stuff privately, secretly,
because that's who I am. That's why. But now that
I'm out of football, and the more I think about it,
I don't have that football platform like I used to,
(17:03):
you know, being on TV, being recognized. So now I'm
Chad Powers. It's the good you're kind of a you
know some if some people have no clue once you
take that helmet off, they don't they don't know who
you are. So if I can kind of change a
little bit and go out and do things that that
help that help, especially at Christmas time. And you know,
(17:26):
we did this last Saturday. We did we were able
to sponsor fifty families and each family got five hundred
bucks to go shop at Walmart. And uh, just seeing
the impact that that had on the families and the
kids and being there and the kids crying and the
mothers and father just life. Just what hasn't been good
to them lately for whatever reason. It's just life. And
(17:48):
to be able to help and see the impact that
has on those families that just less fortunate, that that
just need a little need a little helping hand, a
little boost to get them back on track. If I'm
able to do that and promote, if somebody sees my
story and wants to help and donate and help two
(18:12):
or three other families, then I feel like I'm obligated
to do I have to do that. You know, it's
I don't It's it's not the player, the quarterback trying
to you know, be somebody. You know, go out hey,
wherever you're going, you need cameras with you advertising, Hey,
I'm here, I'm there. I'm doing this for charity. Those
days over, you know, I didn't need the publicity, but
(18:35):
now I need the publicity, not for me, but for
those families that need a little help, need the boost.
So I'm kind of just trying to help them, not
help me, help them have a better Christmas. Have to
let that kid or those kids wake up and you
know to eight nine, ten presents that that they might
(18:56):
not be able to afford or to have. So that's
kind of I don't know if I'm explaining of that
well enough, but that's kind of what I'm doing it for. Well,
I think for me, for the families, to help publicize
those families that need it more than anybody.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Jeff to me, the thing I think that jumps out
is this, Okay, you know christmasqb dot com by the way,
and I'll get everybody the information on how they can
do this. It's very simple. You can go to Christmas
qb dot com and you can simply make a monetary
donation and that goes towards the goal of helping out
two thousand foster and vulnerable families here at Christmas and
(19:32):
just letting and notably, you know, kids have that special
Christmas and it's not even necessarily about making sure there's
tons of gifts under the tree. But rather about having
a family being able to wake up and together see
that a community is there, and that they are noticed
and that they are seen. I think that is so
(19:53):
important and I was curious of this. I know, in
knowing you, how much fa family means to you. You know,
it's hard to talk to Jeff George and bring up, say,
for example, your mom without hearing you get emotional about
it and what that has meant to you and your
brothers and your dad. How old were you when you realized,
(20:14):
as all of us do, that the great childhood that
you were afforded was not something that all families fortunately
were able to have.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Well that's a good question. Uh maybe, uh, just because
you're not you know, probably in college once I when
I started doing some little charity work. You really don't
know how what people's lives or how their impacted or
what they're going through until you actually dig deep into
(20:45):
wanting to help out. So I didn't really you know,
I just kind of thought everybody had the same kind
of life as me. You know, east side kid, you know,
going to Washington Square, you know, playing a little league baseball,
you know, all through you know, and going to junior
high and high school, and I just kind of thought
that's the way the life was that everybody night. You know,
my mom and dad were great. You know, my dad
(21:05):
was a high school teacher, a coach. Learned everything from him,
not just about sports, but just about how to be
a man, how to treat people, how to love. It's
all about love. And then you have my mom, it's just,
you know, was the quarterback of the family that didn't
walk by anybody without telling them that she loved them.
We'd be downtown and we'd be walking by, you know,
(21:28):
homeless people sitting on the you know, in downtown, and
she would go up to, you know, homeless people and
hug them, and you know, we were all we'd always say, Mom,
you know why you're doing that? Why And she just said,
you know, they, you know, a hug or just to
tell him that that I love him might go along
way with them, and she and she genuinely, I don't think,
meant that. So, you know, you learn I learned from
(21:49):
my parents. I learned just how to love, how to
show love for other people, and how to give, be
a giver and uh, you know, just but I didn't
realize that until I started getting involved with communities when
I was in Champagne, Illinois and doing things on Mondays
and Tuesdays and going through the community and you know,
serving and you know, a lot of times you said,
(22:10):
it's not monetary. A lot of times it's just going
being there talking to people. And so, how was your
day to day or what did you do today? Or
how can I help you? Or you know, do you
watch the game on Saturday? When I was only did
you watch the game? You talk about the game and
just being there and showing that you care. Uh, And
then if you're able to be able to help somebody
(22:32):
family monetary wise, then that's just a bonus. So to
answer your question, I didn't realize it until probably college,
but I had in you and I talk of this
all the time, and we had the best childhood. And
that's kind of why I'm driven now. I want to
make sure that that experiences those feelings that you and
(22:52):
I have growing up, you know Stony Brook, you know,
more in Central or Central wherever East. Would that those
kids have that same feeling when they wake up in
the morning and when they're twenty five years old, man,
and they have that feeling of of what we had
when we were kids. I mean, that's all it is.
(23:14):
That's all about, That's what it's just trying to make
somebody feel better, feel like that there's something that they
have that they can wake up and look forward to
the next morning. And that's kind of what the Christmas
Quarterback's about, just helping each family just you know, give
them something that they they haven't had a long time.
And if it's Christmas, we're trying to build, not just
(23:36):
for Christmas. Christmas is special, but we want to try
and get to two thousand families within the next year
and you know, be able to donate you know, a
half a million dollars of those families and then just
continue the process. You know, I've been so blessed unfortunate
in my life, and I think it's time that I
really hit this hard, like this is my job, this
(23:58):
is what I want to do. And uh wasn't able
to do that obviously when you're playing, But now you
know how many Landmans can I watch on you know,
you know, so I got to figure out, you know,
so what's that drive? What's that adrillin from adrenaline for me?
And that's this, you know, and I when when you
(24:19):
see families and you see those kids and you see
the smiles and the tears. Tears of joy, not sad.
There's tears of joy knowing that I was able to
just you know, help that one family, and God willing
be able to help two thousand families and hopefully more
and just build a brand. I mean, that's to me,
that's that's what it's all about. Again.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Jeff won't tell you this, but I will over a
million dollars for families over the last quarter century from
Jeff George and now partnering with local ministries, local groups,
and you can get involved to be a Christmas quarterback.
CHRISTMASQB dot com is the website that is Christmas QB
dot com. Most of you on this radio station have
my cell phone number. If there is ever a time
(25:00):
where you think to yourself, I forgot to write that down.
R you know, tell me more about it. Text me
anytime and I will get you all of the information
so that you can help. Jeff and helping out the
goal of two thousand families that need a little boost
this year at Christmas and something that is an ongoing initiative.
Jeff fall In by saying this for our listeners, and
I mean it sincerely. I have mentioned it before on
(25:20):
the air, I will mention it again. I will never
forget when I had my heart attack and I look
down and I had a voicemail from you, and you
left me a very kind voicemail offering your help in
any way. And you are one of those dudes, without
question in my mind, for the people that you're friends with,
they can call you anytime, day or night with anything
(25:42):
that is needed and you will be there, just so
long as it's not between midnight and one fifteen on
Saturday night when Landman comes on. Right, that's the bottom line, right.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Well, that's right, Jay. I appreciate your kind words always,
and you know how much I love you, and I
appreciate all this you do. People don't know what you do.
They hear your voice, your legendary voice, but behind the
scenes you're you're You're like me, You're a giver, you
want to help, and I appreciate everything that you're involved
with as well.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Jeff, we appreciate it as always. Look forward to talking
to you again and helping out with the Christmas Quarterback Man.
Max appreciate it, Jeff George joining us on the Java
House peel and poor guest line
This is the favorite band, at least one of them.
Of Jeff George is going to join us just a
couple of minutes from now. Fascinating story, Jeff George. You've
heard me mention it before, and I thought he could
give really good perspective, not just on the Philip Rivers
(00:21):
signing and you know the things that go into that,
but also in addition some of the things that he's
got going on for Christmas, because he's doing a new initiative,
the Christmas Quarterback, and I love the idea of it
because I've got a love for Indy and one thing
(00:41):
that I know about Jeff is that he has one
of the things that people say to me, and I
don't this comes off the wrong way, you know, it's
not something that I and I I grew up here,
I know no other than like this town, right and so,
(01:02):
but I have a great love for Indy, and I
do take it as a compliment when people that I
talk to about the radio show will say like, hey,
you know, I know how much you love Indianapolis, and
I do. I've got a great love for this city
and try to let that be known just having grown
up here and one of the guys. I know that
has a huge love of Indianapolis, and I think people
(01:23):
have been able to figure out over the course of
this show that he is somebody that you know, I've
developed a friendship with over the years. Joins us now
on the job a house peel and poor guest line,
and he's going to be known as the Christmas Quarterback.
Coming up, we'll get into exactly what that means and
what that entails. But let me welcome Jeff George to
the program. Jeff, how are you.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I'm doing great, Jake, always good to be on your show.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Well, I appreciate it. I and we got a lot
to get to here, and I'm sure you knew that
this was one of the things that I wanted to
discuss from the from the beginning, and that's this, you know.
I remember when your playing career was coming to an end,
and you had a couple of stops there in the end.
I remember Seattle and Chicago come to mind, where you
(02:10):
were later in your career, right, and then Minnesota was
another one that I believe you may have had to
work out with or try out with some five years
or so after your you know, your last game had
been played when you look at the situation right now
with Philip Rivers and the Colts, he's forty four years old.
I'm curious as somebody who I know was working out
(02:30):
and keeping your arm in shape at that same agent.
By the way, happy birthday. You just had a birthday
the other day. That's right, okay, So what do you
What was your reaction when you heard that Philip Rivers
is going to be back with the Colts.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
I mean my reaction was, where are my cleats and
my football? I mean, let's go throw some round. I know,
don't tease me that way. I feel, you know, you
signed somebody that's kind of close to my age, and
I'm thinking myself, I can I still do? And I
think I can. So I don't know. I mean, I
was talking to something. I was on Fox the Morning
(03:09):
News this morning, and I was jokingly but then I
got to think and I picked up my phone. I said, Hey,
it's Carly Ersay. She's calling me. I want to know
what kind of asking me if I'm in shape? And
I said, of course I'm in shape. You know, are
you still at fifty sixth Street? I know the drive
really well, so I'll be there at ten o'clock. But yeah,
(03:29):
so yeah, I mean it's crazy. You know, I think
forty five years old, five years out of the league,
you know, coaching your kids high school football team. You
know that's awesome, But really with how many games left
when the four four games less regular yp, I mean, really,
how much can you bring to the team that I
know they need somebody and I know there's not much,
(03:52):
you know with trade deadline being over with not really
sure you know what you can do, but is that
really going to help the team? Me personally, I would
concentrate on getting Ar healthy, seeing what he can do,
use this as a platform for him to see if
he's going to be part of your program, uh, part
of the team you know, the next few years, and
at the same time help you get to the playoffs.
(04:14):
And if i'm ar, I'm thinking, you know what a
better situation for me to go out there and show
that I can still play? And if it's not here
in Minneapolis, I can you know, there's many teams out
there that need quarterbacks. I can be a franchise guy.
So you know, great for Philip Rivers, I've been there.
I understand. You know you still you know, if you
(04:35):
get a call and you get a chance to you know,
make you know, a couple of million for four weeks, great,
go do it. But if I'm the Colts, I'm really
I don't see an upside to it, really to what
can you bring is that you know, in shape is
the difference being in shape compared to the football shape?
Is my arm? You know, it's not going to be
(04:56):
starting quarterback. Ready, I have him and you know you
can throw as much as you want up the game ready,
that's you know, that's a different, different situation. But I
just don't unless it's like just to be a mentor
to the young rookie Raley Leonard. You know, that's great too,
But I would think that with four weeks left, if
(05:16):
you're the head coach, you're you're you're stichen. You know,
I'm the mentor. I'm mentoring this young corter, but I've
been with him all year. I don't know what uh
you know, uh again, I'm not trying to put down
Philip Rivers. I think it's great for him, but I
just don't know what it adds to the team with
four weeks left in the season.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Jeff, you would know, you know, like in if you
look back at the year, and I'm talking about maybe
like the Seattle Chicago Times, right when you were out
there and you were a veteran player at that point
and who had not been on the field for a
while as an NFL player, and a guy that's thrown
a ga billion passes for a million yards and led
the league in passing yardage for a year. But then
(05:56):
having a little bit of time off and going back
out onto a field, is it like riding a bike
or is the game moving faster than it is that
you recall when you had last played it.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
When you do that, the game really never seemed fast.
You know. The toughest part was in my situation in
Seattle and Chicago. You know, if you want to continue playing,
you know, you just you know you're at one stop
and then the next year you might be somewhere else.
And that's kind of I just wanted to keep playing.
I wanted to try and get on a playoff caliber team.
(06:28):
And this is what they told me. We're bringing you
in to if we get to the playoffs and we
have an injury. We got confidence in you that you've
been there and you can just step right in. You
you played under a lot of offenses. We think you
can learn it and learn the offense within a couple
of weeks. And I remember sitting down with Mike Holmgren
(06:50):
when I went to Seattle, and that was kind of
that situation. They had goals and dreams and they had
a good team and Matt Hasselback was their guy. And
it wasn't a situation where I was going in competing
with Matt. It was like, all right, if Matt gets
if we able to get the playoffs, and Matt gets hurt,
we got confidence in you. You've had six seven weeks
(07:10):
to learn the offense. I think I went in there
with twelve weeks ago in the season and learned the
offense in a couple of weeks, and I was ready.
So if he went down, I was ready. So that's
kind of what they brought me in for, you know,
for the playoff run if Matt went hurt. And it's
kind of if Matt got hurt, and the same thing
was with Chicago. It was I think I went in
(07:33):
there right around a week before Thanksgiving when I was
with the Bears, and who was the guy that Rex
Grossman was recorded He went down with a knee or
an achilles or something, a leg injury. And they had
Chad Hutchinson at the time, and Lovey Smith was the coach,
and he kind of brought me in the same time,
(07:56):
same thing and said, hey, we're going to try and
make a playoff run. Got a great defense, quarterback went down.
But you know, we need a veteran guy. We don't
need you to play these first couple of games, two,
three games. We just need to you get ready physically,
get in shape, get your arm ready, and if we
are able to get a get in the playoffs and
something happens to to the guy that's playing right now,
(08:18):
we're so confident in you that you can lead us
the rest of the way. So you know, I guess
that's with the situation here. But with four weeks with
with Philip, you know he's been here. I understand the
friendship that he's had with Styching when he was out
in San Diego, when Philip was still playing the San
Diego I get all that, and kind of knows the offense.
(08:40):
But I'm telling you, the body is just that forty
five and five years out, you can do all you want.
I'm just not sure what that brings to the team,
so I would focus on Riley Leonard. I would definitely
for I don't know what ar situation, how healthy he is,
whether he can play or not, but I would make
(09:01):
darn sure that I'm doing everything possible trainers, doctors, and
I imagine they are, but I would make darn sure
to get him in there, because if he can play,
that brings us a totally different element to the game.
You're so used to, Daniel Jones. Teams are preferring against that.
Now you've got to prepare against Ar and what he
(09:22):
brings the table. To me, that's the route that you
should go. But again, it's all about whether he's healthy
or not.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Jeff George, my guests on the job House peeling poor
guest line. Before we get to Jeff, what you've got
going on here in your post playing career. One other
thing about Philip Rivers, and that is, as a guy
who has played this position and played it deep into
your career, when he gets out there, and let's just
say that they get him out there on Sunday against Seattle, okay,
for the sake of the discussion, or they wait for
(09:50):
San Francisco. But when he's out there, Philip rivers. What
is it that Jeff George's trained eye is going to
look for early on and say whether or not you
can tell well that he's comfortable or uncomfortable in his return.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Well, it's really just about you never lose the football
part of it. Your mind, your mind strong or whatever.
You know more than than anybody out there, but me
is the physical part of it. It's kind of like
with Daniel Jones when he dropped back and he he planted,
and you know, he just knew that it was an
achilles right when you saw that. So me, I would
(10:24):
I would be watching his pocket, how he moves in
the pocket, you know, his foot speed, how quick he is.
You don't have to be real, you know, you know,
like you're twenty five again, but you do have to
take care of you have to watch you your hamstrings,
your your growings and your achilles and you know that
kind of stuff. Just any type of little movement that
(10:45):
you that you're not comfortable with that you're used to.
I mean, wearing cleat. Wearing cleat is is is something
that you're not used to. I mean I remember going out,
you know, when I was trying to uh, you know,
come myself and I was running wind springs on the
on the field with cleats, and the first day I
put cleats on, I could have swore I tore my
calf because my body wasn't used to wearing. Uh. So
(11:10):
little things like that you just have to you have
to worry about, you know, everything else, the mind, the football,
learn the offense. I mean that's second hand. You're gonna
know that. But uh, it's just a physical part of it. Man,
I just don't know. Uh that's tough because I've been
through it, and uh, it takes more than just a
couple of weeks to figure out whether I'm ready or not.
(11:31):
It's a whole year of training, off season training, getting
your your your different muscles, part of your body, getting
used to, uh being able to go out there day
in and down that you know, Sundays are easy. It's
the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. It's when you're gonna
be hurting the most. And can I does my body
recover like it used to from Monday or you know,
(11:53):
after a game on Sunday, I'm ready to go on Monday. Well,
now you know you're forty, you're in your forties. I
mean it's going to take you five days just to
feel deepent enough to get back out there on Sunday
after practicing Monday through Friday. So what I would look
for is somebody to answer your question. Is just his
pocket presence, how he's moving in the pocket, you know,
and getting out of the pocket once you know, if
(12:14):
you're getting pressured. You know, it's not like you're gonna
have the luxury of just sitting back there making your
reads and checking, you know, throwing the ball to X,
Y and Z and they're not open. You know, where's
my backs, where's my check down? You get all that,
But once the pocket classes, can I get out of
the pocket and make a play. And you know, once
you make that sudden movement, you know, I feel a
little funny in my calf, My my my growing, my amstering,
(12:38):
my keelees, that's what you start to worry about. So
I'm not you know, he's definitely mentally he's prepared, but
the physical part of it, I'm just not so sure of.
Speaker 1 (12:48):
Jeff George is my guest Jaba house peeling poor guest line.
All right, Jeff, I'm going to I'll present it this way, Okay,
for those that and I think most people know now
that you and I've known each other for a long time,
but to know you for a long time, I knew
you publicly and then later personally. Okay, now, you and
(13:10):
I were talking recently about the show because we watch
all these you know, weird shows on you know, land
Man and everything else and Andy Griffins, Oh, don't.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Get man, I can talk all day on that. I
can wait for Sundays or Saturday night.
Speaker 1 (13:25):
It is pretty awesome, right, don't.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Follow me, don't bother me from midnight to one fifteen.
That's my new football adrenaline is Land Man.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
It is great right now. And so Chad Powers, and
I think I'm I thought I was the only person
that watched this show. I think you've watched it also,
but Eddie has also watched it. But for those that
don't know, Chad Powers is about a guy that was
a quarterback that's looking for a second chance at revamping
his career and so he basically misses doubt, fires himself.
(13:56):
He goes kind of incognito and in disguise. The reason
I mention it Jeff the playing career of Jeff George,
The Jeff George the quarterback, the guy that played at
Warren and broke a lot of hearts of other schools
around Central Indiana, went to Purdue and then frankly upset
a lot of people when you transferred from Purdue, even
(14:16):
though I understand it the leaon Burtinnett coaching change and
the stylistic change of Fred Acres coming in and all
of that. But the Jeff George that I knew as
the quarterback was a private guy that did a lot
of things privately that I didn't know at the time.
That was raising money, that was helping families, that was
involved with his family and his church. And now we're
(14:37):
starting to see that publicly in terms of Jeff George
being out there and finally kind of loving back Indianapolis
and trying to get Indianapolis to get involved also in
that reciprocal love. Why now, what's different now about Jeff George,
if anything, in the initiatives of what we're going to
talk about.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Oh, I think when you're playing in the playing days
and the way I was brought up, Man, I mean,
I I'm like you said, I I am involved in
my church. I try and live the right life. Although
I'm not perfect by no means. But when you're playing,
you you know, just the right thing to do is
just go about your business, go about your job and
(15:19):
the private stuff, the raising money, the that to me,
that's that should you know, it should not be advertised.
And even to this day, I still have an issue
with I'm working through that, but it's not something you
have right and I'm not trying to promote you know,
be uh a better uh you know, win people over.
(15:41):
You know, you're the like Marror, you don't and that's fine.
Earlier in your career you try and do everything right
and you want everybody to love you, and you want
to go out there and win games, and if you
win games, people are going to love you. But when
when it's the difficult times and you're losing and things
going on, you just you just want to go about
your business. Being an NFL quarterback, it takes up so
much of your time. You don't have a lot of
(16:01):
time to do other stuff. But at the same time,
the time, the time that you do have, you want
to give back. And Inny and App was so special
to me, you know that we talk about all the time.
And that's why you know, I live here. You know
most of the time I have, you know, houses of
other places, but here's home being a Hoosier. I'm proud
(16:22):
to be a Hoosier. But at the time, I wasn't.
I didn't. I wasn't trying to promote myself because that's
not what you're supposed to do. You there's so many
people out there around the city and other places that
do so much good for the city and community that
those are the people that really deserve all the credit.
(16:42):
And and you know, being a quarterback, you're giving a
platform and you need you need to take advantage of that.
And I didn't really take advantage of that when I
was playing. I just wanted to do stuff privately, secretly,
because that's who I am. That's why. But now that
I'm out of football, and the more I think about it,
I don't have that football platform like I used to,
(17:03):
you know, being on TV, being recognized. So now I'm
Chad Powers. It's the good you're kind of a you
know some if some people have no clue once you
take that helmet off, they don't they don't know who
you are. So if I can kind of change a
little bit and go out and do things that that
help that help, especially at Christmas time. And you know,
(17:26):
we did this last Saturday. We did we were able
to sponsor fifty families and each family got five hundred
bucks to go shop at Walmart. And uh, just seeing
the impact that that had on the families and the
kids and being there and the kids crying and the
mothers and father just life. Just what hasn't been good
to them lately for whatever reason. It's just life. And
(17:48):
to be able to help and see the impact that
has on those families that just less fortunate, that that
just need a little need a little helping hand, a
little boost to get them back on track. If I'm
able to do that and promote, if somebody sees my
story and wants to help and donate and help two
(18:12):
or three other families, then I feel like I'm obligated
to do I have to do that. You know, it's
I don't It's it's not the player, the quarterback trying
to you know, be somebody. You know, go out hey,
wherever you're going, you need cameras with you advertising, Hey,
I'm here, I'm there. I'm doing this for charity. Those
days over, you know, I didn't need the publicity, but
(18:35):
now I need the publicity, not for me, but for
those families that need a little help, need the boost.
So I'm kind of just trying to help them, not
help me, help them have a better Christmas. Have to
let that kid or those kids wake up and you
know to eight nine, ten presents that that they might
(18:56):
not be able to afford or to have. So that's
kind of I don't know if I'm explaining of that
well enough, but that's kind of what I'm doing it for. Well,
I think for me, for the families, to help publicize
those families that need it more than anybody.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Jeff to me, the thing I think that jumps out
is this, Okay, you know christmasqb dot com by the way,
and I'll get everybody the information on how they can
do this. It's very simple. You can go to Christmas
qb dot com and you can simply make a monetary
donation and that goes towards the goal of helping out
two thousand foster and vulnerable families here at Christmas and
(19:32):
just letting and notably, you know, kids have that special
Christmas and it's not even necessarily about making sure there's
tons of gifts under the tree. But rather about having
a family being able to wake up and together see
that a community is there, and that they are noticed
and that they are seen. I think that is so
(19:53):
important and I was curious of this. I know, in
knowing you, how much fa family means to you. You know,
it's hard to talk to Jeff George and bring up, say,
for example, your mom without hearing you get emotional about
it and what that has meant to you and your
brothers and your dad. How old were you when you realized,
(20:14):
as all of us do, that the great childhood that
you were afforded was not something that all families fortunately
were able to have.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Well that's a good question. Uh maybe, uh, just because
you're not you know, probably in college once I when
I started doing some little charity work. You really don't
know how what people's lives or how their impacted or
what they're going through until you actually dig deep into
(20:45):
wanting to help out. So I didn't really you know,
I just kind of thought everybody had the same kind
of life as me. You know, east side kid, you know,
going to Washington Square, you know, playing a little league baseball,
you know, all through you know, and going to junior
high and high school, and I just kind of thought
that's the way the life was that everybody night. You know,
my mom and dad were great. You know, my dad
(21:05):
was a high school teacher, a coach. Learned everything from him,
not just about sports, but just about how to be
a man, how to treat people, how to love. It's
all about love. And then you have my mom, it's just,
you know, was the quarterback of the family that didn't
walk by anybody without telling them that she loved them.
We'd be downtown and we'd be walking by, you know,
(21:28):
homeless people sitting on the you know, in downtown, and
she would go up to, you know, homeless people and
hug them, and you know, we were all we'd always say, Mom,
you know why you're doing that? Why And she just said,
you know, they, you know, a hug or just to
tell him that that I love him might go along
way with them, and she and she genuinely, I don't think,
meant that. So, you know, you learn I learned from
(21:49):
my parents. I learned just how to love, how to
show love for other people, and how to give, be
a giver and uh, you know, just but I didn't
realize that until I started getting involved with communities when
I was in Champagne, Illinois and doing things on Mondays
and Tuesdays and going through the community and you know,
serving and you know, a lot of times you said,
(22:10):
it's not monetary. A lot of times it's just going
being there talking to people. And so, how was your
day to day or what did you do today? Or
how can I help you? Or you know, do you
watch the game on Saturday? When I was only did
you watch the game? You talk about the game and
just being there and showing that you care. Uh, And
then if you're able to be able to help somebody
(22:32):
family monetary wise, then that's just a bonus. So to
answer your question, I didn't realize it until probably college,
but I had in you and I talk of this
all the time, and we had the best childhood. And
that's kind of why I'm driven now. I want to
make sure that that experiences those feelings that you and
(22:52):
I have growing up, you know Stony Brook, you know,
more in Central or Central wherever East. Would that those
kids have that same feeling when they wake up in
the morning and when they're twenty five years old, man,
and they have that feeling of of what we had
when we were kids. I mean, that's all it is.
(23:14):
That's all about, That's what it's just trying to make
somebody feel better, feel like that there's something that they
have that they can wake up and look forward to
the next morning. And that's kind of what the Christmas
Quarterback's about, just helping each family just you know, give
them something that they they haven't had a long time.
And if it's Christmas, we're trying to build, not just
(23:36):
for Christmas. Christmas is special, but we want to try
and get to two thousand families within the next year
and you know, be able to donate you know, a
half a million dollars of those families and then just
continue the process. You know, I've been so blessed unfortunate
in my life, and I think it's time that I
really hit this hard, like this is my job, this
(23:58):
is what I want to do. And uh wasn't able
to do that obviously when you're playing, But now you
know how many Landmans can I watch on you know,
you know, so I got to figure out, you know,
so what's that drive? What's that adrillin from adrenaline for me?
And that's this, you know, and I when when you
(24:19):
see families and you see those kids and you see
the smiles and the tears. Tears of joy, not sad.
There's tears of joy knowing that I was able to
just you know, help that one family, and God willing
be able to help two thousand families and hopefully more
and just build a brand. I mean, that's to me,
that's that's what it's all about. Again.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
Jeff won't tell you this, but I will over a
million dollars for families over the last quarter century from
Jeff George and now partnering with local ministries, local groups,
and you can get involved to be a Christmas quarterback.
CHRISTMASQB dot com is the website that is Christmas QB
dot com. Most of you on this radio station have
my cell phone number. If there is ever a time
(25:00):
where you think to yourself, I forgot to write that down.
R you know, tell me more about it. Text me
anytime and I will get you all of the information
so that you can help. Jeff and helping out the
goal of two thousand families that need a little boost
this year at Christmas and something that is an ongoing initiative.
Jeff fall In by saying this for our listeners, and
I mean it sincerely. I have mentioned it before on
(25:20):
the air, I will mention it again. I will never
forget when I had my heart attack and I look
down and I had a voicemail from you, and you
left me a very kind voicemail offering your help in
any way. And you are one of those dudes, without
question in my mind, for the people that you're friends with,
they can call you anytime, day or night with anything
(25:42):
that is needed and you will be there, just so
long as it's not between midnight and one fifteen on
Saturday night when Landman comes on. Right, that's the bottom line, right.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Well, that's right, Jay. I appreciate your kind words always,
and you know how much I love you, and I
appreciate all this you do. People don't know what you do.
They hear your voice, your legendary voice, but behind the
scenes you're you're You're like me, You're a giver, you
want to help, and I appreciate everything that you're involved
with as well.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Jeff, we appreciate it as always. Look forward to talking
to you again and helping out with the Christmas Quarterback Man.
Max appreciate it, Jeff George joining us on the Java
House peel and poor guest line
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The Brothers Ortiz
The Brothers Ortiz is the story of two brothers–both successful, but in very different ways. Gabe Ortiz becomes a third-highest ranking officer in all of Texas while his younger brother Larry climbs the ranks in Puro Tango Blast, a notorious Texas Prison gang. Gabe doesn’t know all the details of his brother’s nefarious dealings, and he’s made a point not to ask, to protect their relationship. But when Larry is murdered during a home invasion in a rented beach house, Gabe has no choice but to look into what happened that night. To solve Larry’s murder, Gabe, and the whole Ortiz family, must ask each other tough questions.