December 13, 2022 • 34 mins
Miami Dolphins Tales From The Deep A native of Philadelphia, Ritchie Owens attended Lehigh University before Washington selected him in the fifth round of the 1995 NFL Draft. The 6-6, 285-pound defensive end would go on to play for four teams in eight seasons, including two with the Dolphins, delivering one of the most productive years of his career in 1999 during which time he tallied 8.5 sacks, 57 tackles, 6 passes defensed, forcing and recovering a fumble. A Fine Arts major in college, Owens built a post playing career in graphic design and software development. Contributors to this episode include Sean “DJ Prec” Todd and Dolphins Productions. Theme song created and performed by The Honorable SoLo D.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're now diving and this is strictly for them true
fans Dolphins number one one. Of course, y'all just on
(00:22):
the nearest ones to welcome back to the fish tank
right here on the Miami Dolphins podcast Network SETH Levitt,
DJ Priest is in the back making sure we sound good.
And I don't know all of us look prettier than others,
but he's here. And of course my man O J.
McDuffie juice. You know, I'm feeling okay, except but usually
you call me the guy with the best hands in
(00:44):
podcast business. Man that you you that's kind of left you, man,
what's going on? Bro? That's all that? Do you want
me to remind f I figured we had established that.
I didn't know we needed to remind him again. But
after listeners might want to hear if you don't want
to hear about my hands in the podcast, you know
what I mean? So definitely the guy would We'll do
all of them right, the best hands in the podcast business,
(01:04):
the toughest podcaster the game Marino ever played with. Well,
my favor my personal favorite is the guy who got
completely just worked over in the Pokemon Battle with the
United Way Man. I mean that was I was learning.
I was learning. Yeah, there was definitely a serious learning curve. Well,
(01:25):
you just alluded to him. So we're gonna welcome him in.
Richie Owens, Big, Richie Owens, Welcome to the fish Tank.
Thank you, thank you, good to be here, Good to
see you guys after. I feel like, just whence the
last time you saw Richie? For me, it had to
be when you finished playing here for sure, So you
guys are right around the same time, wasn't it now?
(01:50):
The last time I saw Richie he didn't have this
beautiful pink curtain behind him and his lockers. So what's
going on here? Man? Well, I am actually broadcasting live
from my from my list my office. My main king
is much more um wear pink dog don't don't. I mean, dude,
(02:12):
I got two pink shirts and dude, it's not this
one but too. You should have warned one. But it
looks good solid one's playing, so I love it. So Richie, man,
you're a Philly kid. You're you're attending Lincoln High School
before moving on to Lehigh University. And from what we read,
you know that transition from high school to Lehigh wasn't
(02:33):
necessarily a smooth what what what are we? What are
we reading here? Oh? It was a rough one. Um
now fault though, frankly, I um. I was a really
good student in high school, straight as all thirty through
the board. I know I had some missteps, but I
picked that stuff up. And this is really again through
my own misgivings. I when I got to the school.
When I got to le High, it was my first
(02:54):
time out on my own. I really didn't understand the
concept of really kind of button down and studying and
kind of because it was on me, it wasn't on
someone else to wake me up and getting me off
the class. If I didn't feel like going to class,
I wouldn't go things like that, didn't study and stayed properly.
Let me say that I didn't discover the joys of
a tutor until probably my senior junior year, when I
(03:18):
finally got my proverbial head out of my asking, you know,
got my act together. So because of one person, that's
that's Kenny Joseph. We played where teammates together at Ellie
High and we were roommates for a bed and he's
you know, he is instrumental in getting me together, getting
helping me get my act together and get myself right
for school and finally graduate. So Dr likns to he
(03:40):
who was the president of university. So dealing with the
president was I can't say that I had that. You
probably had that kind of pull up state man. No way,
I I done with Joe, and Joe don't dealt with
all the other guys, you know what I mean. Well,
he was kind of like the president. It was kind
of like the president. So one more thing I want
to touch on and Lee, I um, was your major?
You studied graphic design, and I think that's an important
(04:04):
part of your story, especially in your post football career,
and we'll get to all of that. In fact, I
think it's, you know, part of the reason why we
had to make an adjustment here on the schedule for
for this interview. But talk about your choice of major
and just your artistic interests in general. Sure, sure, it
was actually you know, it's funny, it was actually fine
art with a emphasis and graphic design. It was just
(04:24):
art has just always been a part of my life.
I started very early in my life. Can be going
and drawing after school clubs, drawing and painting things like that,
and I decided when I heard the word, and mind you,
it wasn't graphic designer back then, it was commercial artists.
So i've when I first heard about heard that term
and figured out what it was, I said to myself,
this is what I want to do. It really was.
(04:46):
It was, I said, I want this is what I
want to do for my life. I want to do
art and I can get paid for it, and um,
you know, sidestep eight years in the NFL. But you know,
it was just one of those situations where I, you know,
on my skills, I had to feed a little bit.
There are times and opportunities to do things during my
career I just unfortunately gonna have time for. But once
(05:08):
I finished, you know, I said to myself, I em
I floated around for a little bit trying to get
into sports broadcasting for a bid, almost made it, you know,
and then just why am I not putting my degree
to use and why am I not doing something that
I love? Anyway? And uh, I ended up taking a
position at UM well it was then serious home improvement products,
serious and UM but I worked as a software developer
(05:33):
slash graphic designer, and there we did we did their
their presentation there their sales force presentation where they go
out to people's homes and instead of bringing these giant
sample catalogs and sample books, that they did was just
bring their laptop. So we did the graphics, We coded
it up and make sure that it ran properly on
there on all their machines. And once that, once the
(05:55):
unpleasantness ended there before it actually ended, I funk. I
actually saw the writing on the wall pretty early. Me
and my one of my coworkers and I parted one
of my one of my best friends. Um, I started
to go back to school because my son started having
he's a severely autistic so he started having some some
really some real problems. So I had to figure out
(06:16):
how can I help him. You know, this is like
years and in mind you he's eighteen now, so this
is probably his six team, so years and years of therapies,
costly therapies, things that insurance did pay for it, in
terns didn't pay for it. And it's like at some
point something just clicked in my head and I said, well,
you know what, why am I relying on somebody else
(06:37):
who doesn't even know him to try to help him.
So I went back to school or to get my
my master's and instructional design and technology for the learning
and uh, I just graduated past December. I was working
at a place in higher education designing courses and such,
and then another opportunity came along that I had to take,
which is why we're doing this. People. We have to
(07:00):
pay a company called KPMG. It's a professional services from
mainly like accounting and things like that. I work in
mine own the interior firm facing side. We're basically learning
development and so I've kind of made a pivot away
from the design world, but I'm still very much any
Even with what I do now, it's still graphic design
(07:21):
is still very much part of it, and it's still
very much part of my life. So you know, it's
with an eye towards building custom learning solutions for special
these kids. That's my ultimate goal. So once I finished
my PhD, which I just started this year. It verses
in psychology, um learning technology, and psychology. Hopefully I'll be
(07:42):
able to build something and understand from the backside of
the condition as opposed to trying to force him through
a peg, and maybe I can do something to coax
him through the whole you know what I mean. So
that's that's awesome, man, It's kind of fascinating in a
lot of ways. Juice, you're going to get your PhD
as well, right, I know, I'm we're gonna do that together.
(08:05):
Now you know what I thought. I thought Dr Juice
didn't sound right, man, So Dr Yeah, I went to
so I still best hands and podcasting. I meant to
say that, Yeah, he's got that a lot. I mean,
Dr Richie Old was coming moving for I like that, man.
I love it. Bro, That's amazing, and I love where
it's coming from. It's funny. I don't even think about that.
(08:26):
I'm just like, because my goal is just trying to help,
you know, help my son. Right, So it was like
my good friend he actually lives in Hawaii. Now he
likes us, he says, So now I'm not to Dr
Richie all the time, and I'm like, damn right, yeah,
absolutely absolutely, don't you forget it. Let's talk about after
your your Lee High days. Man, you're drafting the fifth
round by Washington and uh and by your second season,
(08:49):
you mean, your full time starter, you rack up eleven sacks,
but then something happens. But I hear you feel like
you were being misused. You're asked put on a bunch
of wade, you know, and from what I understand and
which I don't, I don't know if I believe it
is for what I understand, people say you developed a
bad attitudes. Every the richie I know was one of
the nicest guys I ever played with. Uh, but damn,
(09:09):
everything kind of falls apart from there. And was to
talk about that a little bit, Well, I you know,
you have to take responsibility for your own actions, and
I did. I'm not even real I didn't develop a
bit of an attitude. However, there you know, that's another Unfortunately,
that's kind of another when it comes to he says,
he said, he said things in football, who has a
(09:32):
lot of platform to coach or a player, which I
discovered down the line, a lot of things about that
sort of dynamic of that relationship. I did. I did
develop a bad attitude. I did feel like I was
not being treated in the manner and as a player
in terms of best use case scenario. I didn't feel
at the time, I didn't feel it was my forte
(09:52):
to move inside and play. Which was funny because when
I got to Miami I played inside, but I mean
I was getting killed inside initially, and I had to
put weight on so from day one, which was interesting.
And there was from what I understand, I don't know
this for a fact, so this is just hearsay. You know,
there were behind the scenes things going on that I
(10:15):
didn't know. But the one thing I didn't know was
after they drafted me, they spent the next three years
trying to replace me and could so I would, you know,
that's a you know, this is something I've grown into
and in terms of the attitude, in terms of kind
of knowing my value, in terms of knowing my worth internally,
which is if you can't be you know, we're all
(10:36):
grown man. If you can't be honest with me, you
can't say, hey, you got a problem with me, you
got a problem with playing, you got something I'd rather
you hear it here. You know, I wish you know
what they're saying, youth is wasted on the young. You know.
It's like everybody says, I had known then what I
know now, but it's it's so true, and it's it
was it was just it just turned into a bad
situation of personality conflicts between me and certain coaches, and
(11:00):
I would I happen to be the most vocal about it. Um,
not for any other reason. And sometimes I just don't
know when to keep my mouth shut, to be quite
honest with you, to it if you want, But why
would I let somebody. You know, if you're a grown
man and I'm a grown man, and I may be
younger than you, but if we're both grown men, we
(11:20):
can't talk like grown man and you have to go
behind some of the back talk to the press and
say this, that and the other thing. And then I
hear something secondhand, third hand, and it's like, oh, I
didn't even over all that, you know what I mean.
So you know, there's a lot more I can go into.
But you might have some one of these coaches on
this show one day, so more of Richie said this.
(11:42):
So let's say, um, you know, un plus, you grow
up and move on from it. But you know, in
terms of revisiting it, yeah, I did develop a bit
of attitude, But again I don't think it was unwarranted.
But I probably could have. When they say picky battles,
I probably could have stood to pick my battles. We
learned that, we learned that don't mean man, I learned that.
Now I'm still learning that. And you know what I
mean that being married? Being married, it's like one of
(12:05):
the I don't I still can I It's not in
the sewing room for crying out loud, Juicy's in the
sewing room. This is for a sense of soliditude because
if my son comes down, you're he just he likes
getting on my computer. That's computer. I built my own computer.
It's I got my giant thirty five in screen. He
(12:25):
wants to get on my my computer into YouTube. Plus
you know it's just to my office is too open,
but but I do have a much better backdrop in
that office. So all right, well we're gonna we're gonna
move on from the bad attitude Richie and get the happy,
go lucky Ritchie that we got to know because uh,
you know, the season was lost for you. You you
tore your a c L I think, and um, you
(12:46):
know there's a lot going on there, but you end
up signing with the Dolphins, and so why Miami? And
then how different were things you know, from what was
clearly a situation that was difficult and challenging. How how
different were things when you got here because, as Drews said,
you're one of the happiest guys I knew. Well, you know,
I have to say that transition that because this is
(13:09):
all part of the spectrum here. Because that last year
in Washington, coming off of the knee injury I had,
I do have to say I had a lot of
people in my corner. Um, you know, the trainers, the strength,
the Strength team that those guys took really good care
of me. I wouldn't came back in half as good
a shape as I did without their help. So I
(13:31):
do have to kind of acknowledge that. And when I
got down to Miami, it was, um, well, let me
let me backtrack and say, tell you why I chose
Miami one reason. And if anybody says, you know, everyone
says anything about this guy, I will totally just slap him.
Because Jimmy Johnson, he called my house, he called my agent,
(13:53):
well I think he called me first. You know, It's like,
we're gonna get you down here, and I'm like, well,
that's you know, that's that's contracts. The coach. I don't
handle contracts though, but he and this is where I say,
in terms of being honest, at least with me. I
it's something that I appreciated. I felt that he was
very upfront with me. I felt that the coaching staff
(14:15):
was up front with me from the start. Um, this
is what's gonna happen. Carrie got Debt another another great
guy who who really should have probably coached there a
little longer than he did. But you know, this is
what how we're playing on using and this is what
we're playing doing. You will play, you won't start, You
have an opportunity to probably work into the rotation. Blah
(14:36):
blah blah. I appreciate that level of honesty and understanding
how they rotated and how they played. I felt that
that kind of that the way I played in style
that I played working in well with that. Also, Um,
I had just lost a boatload of weight, so I
had gotten myself back down into what I considered playing shape,
(14:57):
and um it was good because you like, Jason was
was the tall thing guy, Lorenzo was a tall thing guy.
Kenny was tall, a little little, little little stouter, but
still you know Tracy. So it's a stable of taller,
more athletic defensive alignment. So I just felt like I
would fit in a lot better with them athletically fit
(15:18):
in a lot better their scheme, getting up to feel
chasing quarterbacks down, running around and having fun. Yeah, I
like that a lot, man. I mean, I'm glad you
live a few hours away, man, because you'd be slapping
sh out of me right now. If the way I
like the way, I just like Jimmy Johnson. So that's
a whole other podcast episode. No, No, I get it, though,
I don't like I said, I just I appreciate the
(15:39):
fact when if you could be honest with me. I
don't understand. Not everybody's honest with everybody at a time,
but in terms of my own particular situation, I was.
I appreciated that because what happened after he left turned
into a ship show. And you know, it's um who
knows how things can turn out. I think things things
turned out halfway decent. I'm mean, they ended awfully, but
(16:01):
don't they always, you know, they always been awful. Nobody
ever wants to leave the way that they want to,
so I get it. Very few get to go on
their own terms. You're exactly right, especially when people come
in and think they're gonna change the way that the
game is played and they end up just ruining people's careers. Man,
all right, we wanted a lot of careers have been
(16:22):
really we wanted. We're gonna move on. We're gonna talk
a little bit more about that. About that. Yeah, as
you know, you started fourteen or sixteen games, you know
in Miami opposite JT on the hell of a defensive line.
You rested eight and a half sacks in the regular season,
another one and a half against the Seattle game, and
the playoffs that when we went way out there, which
was a fun trip. But now you're you're a key
(16:45):
contributor to the defense. How refreshing was that compared to
your experience in Washington? It was so odd because I
was always been like, okay, when the other shoe come
to drop kind of guy, because you know, when I
came into Washington, God bless them. Got s s sol
Uh Bob Kumelo as he passed away a number of
years ago. He didn't drafted me. But he was a
(17:07):
freaking psychopath. How he in the defensive line, he was
he was a psycho And it was just his philosophy
was just I'm gonna scream match you until you do
what I do it right and That's really not how
I'm built. It never has been. Not that I avoid conflict,
but it's just like if I see a better way
to do something, I'm gonna generally I'll say, hey, can
(17:28):
we just do this? And but then to come down
to Miami, word, you know, like Carrie just listened, actually
respected what I had to say, and it was like wow,
and because even when I was doing well in Washington,
it was still you're horrible player, and you this is
what I told. This is a direct quote. By the way,
(17:50):
this guy's better off the liver with pizzas than he
just playing football. Wow. That was told to me on
the sideline. I'll forget it. What game, but that was.
That was so, you know, getting to Miami and actually
can contribute it. But then you contribute and didn't have
to be complimented on it or first my you know good,
you know, hell of play with you, you know, or
(18:11):
the biggest compliment I ever got, and uh, then we
can quickly scatter away from this. But the biggest compliment
I got was remember when King got injured for a
few weeks, and I was when I got got to
start because he got injured. His his non football injury,
and I didn't. I didn't want to put fro the room,
you know, I didn't want to. But when I when
(18:35):
I got to start, and I got and I played well,
and I continued playing well, and I was playing inside
and outside. There were series and this is what somebody
told me this and I saw it in the paper
none the nonger years later, because I think somebody sent
me to the clip. But I forget how many weeks
in But a reporter asked Jimmy, Sorry, sorry, Jay, but
(18:56):
it's okay. That's why we talked about Jimmy a lot.
And show Man I said, I'm over to work it now.
I'm good report of X them, um, you know, given
the injury to Kiddy and how you know, what do
you think of Richie's play? And and he said, let
me tell you something about Kenny, about Kenny Mixon. He said,
Richie Owens is the best was the best thing that
we could have done in the off season, or something
(19:16):
of that nature. So it's so it was interesting and
different to be actually complimented. You know. It's like one
of those weird situations like if you have a dog
and you're constantly kicking it and it just expects to
be kicked and you just toughen up and say, well,
this is just what it is. If I gotta fight
every day, that's just what it's going to be. But
to come here, it was just it was a very
(19:37):
refreshing time up until the following season. So I hear that.
I hear that. So so this is what's fascinating to me.
And I don't want to get too far off the
rails just because of the time limitations. But you know,
every guess that comes on here because there's a lot
of crossover with different eras, and that's what's so cool
about this show and even just what you know, the
Jimmy Johnson conversation or um you're talking about Carrie Go Dead.
(20:02):
You know, there are certain coaches like you had this
amazing relationship, which is wonderful. It's so great that it
worked for you, and it's great for the team that
it worked for you. You know, Ricky Williams when he
was on the show, used the term match and fit.
Everything in football is about matching fit. And so there
are people who came in and they had these horrible
experiences with certain coaches, and then there's certain guys that
just it was a wash out. You know, like there's
(20:22):
certain you know, I cam Cameron. You know we had
Cam Cameron, I think Cleo Lemon and and uh Greg
cama Rio. They loved Cam Kramerman. But beyond that, it
kind of was a one in sixteen or one in
fifteen season. So it is fascinating to me that, you know,
it just clearly was not a fit for you in Washington.
Now what's interesting is those are the guys that brought
you in, So like what due diligence was done or
(20:44):
wasn't done? You know, o J might have it. O
J was brought in by coach Schula. There was a
transition to another coaching staff, and so sometimes that there
isn't a matching. But when when the team that brings
you in it doesn't connect, that is really weird. But
I am very happy that the team that went out
did their diligence and decided we want to sign this
guy as a free agent, that they got the guy
that they wanted. And then, you know, because when that
(21:06):
doesn't happen, you really scratch, you do. It's um, I
don't even know if I call it a match and fit,
because look, we all get it's a it's a high
profile job, whether you're coaching or whether you're playing. At
some point you have to mature and just be an adult.
You know. It's at the point you have to say,
I'm not gonna be this backbiting staff, somebody in the back,
(21:29):
talk to the media behind somebody back kind of person,
or screwing one of my teammates. Over All that said that,
at some point you gotta be you gotta grow up.
I mean, granted, look, when you give a twenty something
year old half million million knowledge, you know, there's a
certain level of I don't want to grow up. I mean,
I you know, I'm you're playing a game. You're getting
(21:51):
paid to play a game too. It's not for play
a game. But I'm frankly, I'm still I'm a fifty
year old child. I have no intention on growing up.
But there's still a level of maturity that you have to.
You know that you have to kind of embrace when
you're dealing with somebody, but you just have to kind
of understand how to deal with people who aren't like you,
and instead of writing them off, you know, and being
(22:13):
adult about it, just grow up and say, hey, this
is now this is this isn't working for me? For example, Well,
I'm sure we'll get to it, because there's a lot
of things afterwards. There's still honestly still sticking my crawl
because I don't feel felt could have been handled differently.
But so well, let's let's uh, let's dig in a
little bit more to that that season. Well, one of
(22:34):
the guys you played opposite of us, the guy who
signs my paychecks, right, we were talking about Jason Taylor earlier.
And it's interesting because in that ninety nine season, you
guys were the starting defensive ends essentially. You know, you
started fourteen of sixteen games. You had eight and a
half sacks. J t actually had the worst statistical season
of his career. That was where people were questioning, can
this guy play? Which is funny to look at now,
(22:56):
first of all ballot Hall of Famer, but he had
two and a half sacks that he But then then
you were there the next year and he had fourteen
and a half sacks. How quickly could you tell that
he might have been just a little bit of a
different kind of athlete, you know, Getting ready for this,
getting in mindset of talking about football, I went back
and watched some old games even and I never like
(23:16):
people should tell him I had a nose for the ball,
and I never really knew what understood what that meant
until I can see it from the outside. Now here's
there's there's there's a guy who was always around the ball,
who no matter what, like even if he didn't look
to play, he was the guy. He was still the
next guy in. He was just there. So it's like,
but yeah, he is, he is. He is definitely one
(23:38):
of the most talented defensive events that I've ever that
I've ever seen and played with. So it's funny you
bring that up though, because uh and one of one
of the statistics with j T. You know, he's got
the most funmal returns for touchdowns in the history league
in any position. He's got six and nine total touchdowns,
which is the most by defensive n in the history
of the game. His first touchdown ever juice there and
(23:59):
and it's also funny because it was against Brian Greasy.
But the season opener, We're playing Denver and uh, j T,
Mrs Greasy Trace comes running out there and then Richie
just blastsom for an eighteen yard sack. The ball comes
rolling over there, Johnny on the spot, j T scoop
that thing up and scores. That's that's his first ever touchdown.
So you know, did j T call and say, hey, man,
(24:21):
you know, appreciate the layup? I guess that's right, would
scores and sist. He just had to be He had
a really he had a keen nose for the ball.
He was always around, always around the ball, and that's
what that's what you want, and that's it's it's just
so hard because for me looking at the defensive line
that I was blessed to be a part of, for
those for that year. Really, it's that's why so hard
(24:42):
for me to single out one person, regardless of where
they ended up. Ennis were a bunch of amazing men,
and I feel blessed to have been a part of
that group. To be quite honest with you, let's talk
about you know, you know Richie, I love that man.
Let's let's talk about that group a little bit. You
mentioned Trade, you mentioned, we mentioned Kenny when he got hurt.
Of course we talked about j T. But you got
(25:04):
Marinzo Bromeo gardener talk talk about that D line. That's
quite a group right there. Bro, dude, I can't even imagine. Like,
I didn't know what I was getting into when I
came came down to Miami, but I knew that I
was gonna have a good time. I knew it was
you know, it was Miami for getting the sax and
you had to fit that again. It was Miami for goodness,
(25:26):
say Miami for goodness sake. So when I first walked
into the locker room, I got I got there early,
like I always like to like to do. At that
point in time, I got there about seven am, went
to the training room, got on one of the windmill
bikes to warm up my knees. So and this is
kind of a little west Side so I'm in there.
(25:46):
Dan Dan walks in and he comes up to me
and says, hey, how you doing, dam Rudo? I said, mother,
I love that. I like it was like you're you're
actually introducing yourself to me. I know him. But then
later in the locker room, first person, the biggest human
(26:08):
being I ever saw at that point in time, Darryl
Gardner walks into the locker room and I looked at
him and waned, you he wasn't the defensive tackles that
I'm used to see him Washington kind of shorter, stouter fellows.
This guy looked like he could have played just at
some kind of large end if he really wanted to.
And it was amazing. I was just like, this guy
(26:28):
is huge. So from day one they welcomed me. It
was so nice, like it was just such an interesting
And that's not to say the guys in Washington want
to welcome me, but it's just such a it was
such an interesting feeling to come in and be instantly
welcome and instantly kind of embraced, you know what I mean.
So these I mean, they were just they were really
a bunch of guys that, like, you know, people always ask,
(26:51):
you know, what what team did you enjoy playing playing
moves for? And I saying Washington because it was like
they were the guys that brought me in so sentimentally
was Washington. But in terms as a player and where
I where I grew the most as a player and
the human being was definitely Miami. Those guys were just
you know, and I hope they're all doing well. You know,
you can't capture lightning in the bottle twice. And I mean,
(27:12):
damn it, that was that was a very special group
of guys. So and like I said, I'm very very
happy and very blessed have been part of it. It
really was you said something there that caught my attention.
You said you grew as a player, but also as
a person in Miami the most. Why do you say
that or why do you feel that? Well, just a
lot of things really just um, I think I learned
(27:34):
more how to keep my mouth shut when the situation
was wasn't turning out how I expected. I think, um,
I learned to turn inward and kind of you know,
for lack of better expression, let people make fools of
themselves and not try to fix it or not trying
to call somebody on their own vs. Because it's um
(27:57):
you know, And that's I think that's a maturity level
and that's a maturity process. At least it was for me,
because I found, generally speaking, people want to say what
they want, act the way they want, and there's no
fixing it. You can't fix it, you can't make it
better for somebody. All you can do is kind of
just say okay, well, LUSA, I understand what the animal
I'm dealing with now, Richie, do you know I'm listening
(28:18):
to some of these experiences and even that, right, just
kind of that self reflection. Uh, and then your interests.
I don't know what the percentage of professional football players
are that studied art and design. Fear fine art, fine art,
Thank you very much. UM. Do you do you think
you are kind of an outlier in an NFL locker room?
It's interesting, you know, we talked, we talked to Ricky
(28:40):
before we thought. You know, there's certain you hate to
stereotype anybody because everyone's an individual, but there are certain
things that, um, you know, there's certain similarities and characteristics
and traits that that are are more common in the
locker room, and then there's some folks that stand out.
Do you think that you were a bit of an
outlier in a in a locker room and you were
in different one? I unfortunately, I think that. Let me
(29:04):
to answer you a question, I'll just say yes to
a certain extent. Um you know, I I I'm not
gonna say I don't want to go so far because
I feel like it's almost kind of arrogant to say
I was so different, because that's like now these people
want say the different meaning they're special, right me? Or
how I operated. I think that I had a bunch
(29:25):
of different interests, um varied interests. I think my upbringing
had a lot to do with that. I listened. I
was an artist. I listened to rap music. I listened
to country music. I listened to blue grass, I listened
to classical music. I had friends of all ILKs. I really,
you know, without being an overly spiritual or religious person.
(29:50):
I've always tried to live my life in that aspect
of just treating people how I wanted to be treated.
And I think that's probably what offend in my life
at this point. That's p would cant offend me the
most is if you if I'm giving you respect and
I'm treating you a certain way, and I don't get
that in return, So that's probably yeah. I can't sit
(30:10):
here and say, oh, so you know, hey, you know
this is a big rich you know, I'm was so different.
But I mean I just had different interests and you
know sometimes that sometimes we used to teach me about that,
but it was really good fun. So at that point
it was all good fun. I mean they knew, you know,
I had my interests, and that was one thing I've
(30:31):
never I've never shifted on the The things that I
was interested in was the things I did. You don't
have to you don't have to be into it, but
I'm never going to tell anyone that they shouldn't either.
So that's good stuff and I love it. Okay, Richie,
we're gonna let you get out of here. But we
know great defensive players defensive vent and you know, been
really tested until he has to survive a two minute drill.
(30:53):
And you know they like depend their ears back and
get at some people. So so we're gonna put two
minutes on the clock. D J Priests gonna do that
for us, and we're gonna offer we're gonna fire off
some questions for you and and you know, see how
you make out, man. We'll see how these how the
defensive guys if they can get their butts off the field. Man.
So I want to start off with the first question,
big said. DJ Priest is gonna put two minutes on
the clock for us, and we definitely what thousand saying,
(31:15):
appreciate the time though this has been so good. All right,
you're ready, Yeah, Usually defensive don't need any time. Ouse.
We're not gonna ask you that question. Every offensive guys
asked for how many time outs do I have? But
you know, so you want to clock to run. So
here we're run out as much as we can. All right,
as we stayed as we stayed it earlier. You're a
graduate of Lincoln High School in Philly. Do you know
(31:36):
what famous action hero also attendant Lincoln? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
And I think your school was even highlighted in some
of the Rocky movies that said, how about that? Very cool?
All right? Anyone who has worked with you knows that
Richie Owen smile. We're seeing it here on the camera
in front of that beautiful think curtain. And at one
(31:58):
point in your NFL career you actually wore braces. What
is the funniest thing an opponent or a teammate ever
said about you wearing braces as an NFL player? Nobody
said anything funny about the braces, the roots I got
the braces, I got down so bad I had. I
needed a lot of dental worker early in my life.
(32:21):
When my teammates told me earlier, he said, Chi looks
like she needs it two about four as a toothpick man.
That still sticks today. All right, Ritchie, you're the hero
of your own online comic My Knees. Oh God, that
follows moments in your everyday life. If you were to
(32:42):
capture a moment from your dolphin's career in that comic,
what would it be? Oh, there's several that I could
put on, but wouldn't because I don't want to put
people's business out there like that. Um, there's two or
three that I still felt it was almost like a
soap popular So I'm sorry. I don't want to just
are two distinct instance. Okay, we'll leave it there, We'll
(33:06):
leave it there. Well, Well, one last question. You spent
eight years as a graphic designer for Serious Hope Improvement products.
As you told us earlier, each member of your starting
Dolphins defensive line, if each of them was a power tool,
what tool would they be? So I want to know
you j T, Daryl Gardner, and Timbo Good. Okay, Daryl
is probably a probably a circularsault. Okay, Tim I would
(33:28):
say that he was a not a jackhammer, but an
impact drill. And Uh I would say Jason is a
Jason's a planer. Interesting. What about you? Oh me, I
consider myself probably like a ranch or something. As saying
(33:49):
I got that power. But let's just say, um, let's
just say okay, we're going with the cordless drill. I
love it. That's the two minute drill. He is rich
the Owens or rich Owens depends on his mood and
what you're brave enough to say. Man, it was so
good to see you, and that big old smile yours, man,
thank you so much is so good. I wish this
(34:10):
could be going wrong with but actually have a meeting.
We gotta get you out of here. We can't get
your fire. Hey, Ritchie, thanks for diving in. Man, you're
now diving into the fifty stating that with Steth living
(34:31):
Oh Jill, And this is strictly for them, true fan
fans number one one of course, y'all. This how all
the nearest do
You're now diving and this is strictly for them true
fans Dolphins number one one. Of course, y'all just on
(00:22):
the nearest ones to welcome back to the fish tank
right here on the Miami Dolphins podcast Network SETH Levitt,
DJ Priest is in the back making sure we sound good.
And I don't know all of us look prettier than others,
but he's here. And of course my man O J.
McDuffie juice. You know, I'm feeling okay, except but usually
you call me the guy with the best hands in
(00:44):
podcast business. Man that you you that's kind of left you, man,
what's going on? Bro? That's all that? Do you want
me to remind f I figured we had established that.
I didn't know we needed to remind him again. But
after listeners might want to hear if you don't want
to hear about my hands in the podcast, you know
what I mean? So definitely the guy would We'll do
all of them right, the best hands in the podcast business,
(01:04):
the toughest podcaster the game Marino ever played with. Well,
my favor my personal favorite is the guy who got
completely just worked over in the Pokemon Battle with the
United Way Man. I mean that was I was learning.
I was learning. Yeah, there was definitely a serious learning curve. Well,
(01:25):
you just alluded to him. So we're gonna welcome him in.
Richie Owens, Big, Richie Owens, Welcome to the fish Tank.
Thank you, thank you, good to be here, Good to
see you guys after. I feel like, just whence the
last time you saw Richie? For me, it had to
be when you finished playing here for sure, So you
guys are right around the same time, wasn't it now?
(01:50):
The last time I saw Richie he didn't have this
beautiful pink curtain behind him and his lockers. So what's
going on here? Man? Well, I am actually broadcasting live
from my from my list my office. My main king
is much more um wear pink dog don't don't. I mean, dude,
(02:12):
I got two pink shirts and dude, it's not this
one but too. You should have warned one. But it
looks good solid one's playing, so I love it. So Richie, man,
you're a Philly kid. You're you're attending Lincoln High School
before moving on to Lehigh University. And from what we read,
you know that transition from high school to Lehigh wasn't
(02:33):
necessarily a smooth what what what are we? What are
we reading here? Oh? It was a rough one. Um
now fault though, frankly, I um. I was a really
good student in high school, straight as all thirty through
the board. I know I had some missteps, but I
picked that stuff up. And this is really again through
my own misgivings. I when I got to the school.
When I got to le High, it was my first
(02:54):
time out on my own. I really didn't understand the
concept of really kind of button down and studying and
kind of because it was on me, it wasn't on
someone else to wake me up and getting me off
the class. If I didn't feel like going to class,
I wouldn't go things like that, didn't study and stayed properly.
Let me say that I didn't discover the joys of
a tutor until probably my senior junior year, when I
(03:18):
finally got my proverbial head out of my asking, you know,
got my act together. So because of one person, that's
that's Kenny Joseph. We played where teammates together at Ellie
High and we were roommates for a bed and he's
you know, he is instrumental in getting me together, getting
helping me get my act together and get myself right
for school and finally graduate. So Dr likns to he
(03:40):
who was the president of university. So dealing with the
president was I can't say that I had that. You
probably had that kind of pull up state man. No way,
I I done with Joe, and Joe don't dealt with
all the other guys, you know what I mean. Well,
he was kind of like the president. It was kind
of like the president. So one more thing I want
to touch on and Lee, I um, was your major?
You studied graphic design, and I think that's an important
(04:04):
part of your story, especially in your post football career,
and we'll get to all of that. In fact, I
think it's, you know, part of the reason why we
had to make an adjustment here on the schedule for
for this interview. But talk about your choice of major
and just your artistic interests in general. Sure, sure, it
was actually you know, it's funny, it was actually fine
art with a emphasis and graphic design. It was just
(04:24):
art has just always been a part of my life.
I started very early in my life. Can be going
and drawing after school clubs, drawing and painting things like that,
and I decided when I heard the word, and mind you,
it wasn't graphic designer back then, it was commercial artists.
So i've when I first heard about heard that term
and figured out what it was, I said to myself,
this is what I want to do. It really was.
(04:46):
It was, I said, I want this is what I
want to do for my life. I want to do
art and I can get paid for it, and um,
you know, sidestep eight years in the NFL. But you know,
it was just one of those situations where I, you know,
on my skills, I had to feed a little bit.
There are times and opportunities to do things during my
career I just unfortunately gonna have time for. But once
(05:08):
I finished, you know, I said to myself, I em
I floated around for a little bit trying to get
into sports broadcasting for a bid, almost made it, you know,
and then just why am I not putting my degree
to use and why am I not doing something that
I love? Anyway? And uh, I ended up taking a
position at UM well it was then serious home improvement products,
serious and UM but I worked as a software developer
(05:33):
slash graphic designer, and there we did we did their
their presentation there their sales force presentation where they go
out to people's homes and instead of bringing these giant
sample catalogs and sample books, that they did was just
bring their laptop. So we did the graphics, We coded
it up and make sure that it ran properly on
there on all their machines. And once that, once the
(05:55):
unpleasantness ended there before it actually ended, I funk. I
actually saw the writing on the wall pretty early. Me
and my one of my coworkers and I parted one
of my one of my best friends. Um, I started
to go back to school because my son started having
he's a severely autistic so he started having some some
really some real problems. So I had to figure out
(06:16):
how can I help him. You know, this is like
years and in mind you he's eighteen now, so this
is probably his six team, so years and years of therapies,
costly therapies, things that insurance did pay for it, in
terns didn't pay for it. And it's like at some
point something just clicked in my head and I said, well,
you know what, why am I relying on somebody else
(06:37):
who doesn't even know him to try to help him.
So I went back to school or to get my
my master's and instructional design and technology for the learning
and uh, I just graduated past December. I was working
at a place in higher education designing courses and such,
and then another opportunity came along that I had to take,
which is why we're doing this. People. We have to
(07:00):
pay a company called KPMG. It's a professional services from
mainly like accounting and things like that. I work in
mine own the interior firm facing side. We're basically learning
development and so I've kind of made a pivot away
from the design world, but I'm still very much any
Even with what I do now, it's still graphic design
(07:21):
is still very much part of it, and it's still
very much part of my life. So you know, it's
with an eye towards building custom learning solutions for special
these kids. That's my ultimate goal. So once I finished
my PhD, which I just started this year. It verses
in psychology, um learning technology, and psychology. Hopefully I'll be
(07:42):
able to build something and understand from the backside of
the condition as opposed to trying to force him through
a peg, and maybe I can do something to coax
him through the whole you know what I mean. So
that's that's awesome, man, It's kind of fascinating in a
lot of ways. Juice, you're going to get your PhD
as well, right, I know, I'm we're gonna do that together.
(08:05):
Now you know what I thought. I thought Dr Juice
didn't sound right, man, So Dr Yeah, I went to
so I still best hands and podcasting. I meant to
say that, Yeah, he's got that a lot. I mean,
Dr Richie Old was coming moving for I like that, man.
I love it. Bro, That's amazing, and I love where
it's coming from. It's funny. I don't even think about that.
(08:26):
I'm just like, because my goal is just trying to help,
you know, help my son. Right, So it was like
my good friend he actually lives in Hawaii. Now he
likes us, he says, So now I'm not to Dr
Richie all the time, and I'm like, damn right, yeah,
absolutely absolutely, don't you forget it. Let's talk about after
your your Lee High days. Man, you're drafting the fifth
round by Washington and uh and by your second season,
(08:49):
you mean, your full time starter, you rack up eleven sacks,
but then something happens. But I hear you feel like
you were being misused. You're asked put on a bunch
of wade, you know, and from what I understand and
which I don't, I don't know if I believe it
is for what I understand, people say you developed a
bad attitudes. Every the richie I know was one of
the nicest guys I ever played with. Uh, but damn,
(09:09):
everything kind of falls apart from there. And was to
talk about that a little bit, Well, I you know,
you have to take responsibility for your own actions, and
I did. I'm not even real I didn't develop a
bit of an attitude. However, there you know, that's another Unfortunately,
that's kind of another when it comes to he says,
he said, he said things in football, who has a
(09:32):
lot of platform to coach or a player, which I
discovered down the line, a lot of things about that
sort of dynamic of that relationship. I did. I did
develop a bad attitude. I did feel like I was
not being treated in the manner and as a player
in terms of best use case scenario. I didn't feel
at the time, I didn't feel it was my forte
(09:52):
to move inside and play. Which was funny because when
I got to Miami I played inside, but I mean
I was getting killed inside initially, and I had to
put weight on so from day one, which was interesting.
And there was from what I understand, I don't know
this for a fact, so this is just hearsay. You know,
there were behind the scenes things going on that I
(10:15):
didn't know. But the one thing I didn't know was
after they drafted me, they spent the next three years
trying to replace me and could so I would, you know,
that's a you know, this is something I've grown into
and in terms of the attitude, in terms of kind
of knowing my value, in terms of knowing my worth internally,
which is if you can't be you know, we're all
(10:36):
grown man. If you can't be honest with me, you
can't say, hey, you got a problem with me, you
got a problem with playing, you got something I'd rather
you hear it here. You know, I wish you know
what they're saying, youth is wasted on the young. You know.
It's like everybody says, I had known then what I
know now, but it's it's so true, and it's it
was it was just it just turned into a bad
situation of personality conflicts between me and certain coaches, and
(11:00):
I would I happen to be the most vocal about it. Um,
not for any other reason. And sometimes I just don't
know when to keep my mouth shut, to be quite
honest with you, to it if you want, But why
would I let somebody. You know, if you're a grown
man and I'm a grown man, and I may be
younger than you, but if we're both grown men, we
(11:20):
can't talk like grown man and you have to go
behind some of the back talk to the press and
say this, that and the other thing. And then I
hear something secondhand, third hand, and it's like, oh, I
didn't even over all that, you know what I mean.
So you know, there's a lot more I can go into.
But you might have some one of these coaches on
this show one day, so more of Richie said this.
(11:42):
So let's say, um, you know, un plus, you grow
up and move on from it. But you know, in
terms of revisiting it, yeah, I did develop a bit
of attitude, But again I don't think it was unwarranted.
But I probably could have. When they say picky battles,
I probably could have stood to pick my battles. We
learned that, we learned that don't mean man, I learned that.
Now I'm still learning that. And you know what I
mean that being married? Being married, it's like one of
(12:05):
the I don't I still can I It's not in
the sewing room for crying out loud, Juicy's in the
sewing room. This is for a sense of soliditude because
if my son comes down, you're he just he likes
getting on my computer. That's computer. I built my own computer.
It's I got my giant thirty five in screen. He
(12:25):
wants to get on my my computer into YouTube. Plus
you know it's just to my office is too open,
but but I do have a much better backdrop in
that office. So all right, well we're gonna we're gonna
move on from the bad attitude Richie and get the happy,
go lucky Ritchie that we got to know because uh,
you know, the season was lost for you. You you
tore your a c L I think, and um, you
(12:46):
know there's a lot going on there, but you end
up signing with the Dolphins, and so why Miami? And
then how different were things you know, from what was
clearly a situation that was difficult and challenging. How how
different were things when you got here because, as Drews said,
you're one of the happiest guys I knew. Well, you know,
I have to say that transition that because this is
(13:09):
all part of the spectrum here. Because that last year
in Washington, coming off of the knee injury I had,
I do have to say I had a lot of
people in my corner. Um, you know, the trainers, the strength,
the Strength team that those guys took really good care
of me. I wouldn't came back in half as good
a shape as I did without their help. So I
(13:31):
do have to kind of acknowledge that. And when I
got down to Miami, it was, um, well, let me
let me backtrack and say, tell you why I chose
Miami one reason. And if anybody says, you know, everyone
says anything about this guy, I will totally just slap him.
Because Jimmy Johnson, he called my house, he called my agent,
(13:53):
well I think he called me first. You know, It's like,
we're gonna get you down here, and I'm like, well,
that's you know, that's that's contracts. The coach. I don't
handle contracts though, but he and this is where I say,
in terms of being honest, at least with me. I
it's something that I appreciated. I felt that he was
very upfront with me. I felt that the coaching staff
(14:15):
was up front with me from the start. Um, this
is what's gonna happen. Carrie got Debt another another great
guy who who really should have probably coached there a
little longer than he did. But you know, this is
what how we're playing on using and this is what
we're playing doing. You will play, you won't start, You
have an opportunity to probably work into the rotation. Blah
(14:36):
blah blah. I appreciate that level of honesty and understanding
how they rotated and how they played. I felt that
that kind of that the way I played in style
that I played working in well with that. Also, Um,
I had just lost a boatload of weight, so I
had gotten myself back down into what I considered playing shape,
(14:57):
and um it was good because you like, Jason was
was the tall thing guy, Lorenzo was a tall thing guy.
Kenny was tall, a little little, little little stouter, but
still you know Tracy. So it's a stable of taller,
more athletic defensive alignment. So I just felt like I
would fit in a lot better with them athletically fit
(15:18):
in a lot better their scheme, getting up to feel
chasing quarterbacks down, running around and having fun. Yeah, I
like that a lot, man. I mean, I'm glad you
live a few hours away, man, because you'd be slapping
sh out of me right now. If the way I
like the way, I just like Jimmy Johnson. So that's
a whole other podcast episode. No, No, I get it, though,
I don't like I said, I just I appreciate the
(15:39):
fact when if you could be honest with me. I
don't understand. Not everybody's honest with everybody at a time,
but in terms of my own particular situation, I was.
I appreciated that because what happened after he left turned
into a ship show. And you know, it's um who
knows how things can turn out. I think things things
turned out halfway decent. I'm mean, they ended awfully, but
(16:01):
don't they always, you know, they always been awful. Nobody
ever wants to leave the way that they want to,
so I get it. Very few get to go on
their own terms. You're exactly right, especially when people come
in and think they're gonna change the way that the
game is played and they end up just ruining people's careers. Man,
all right, we wanted a lot of careers have been
(16:22):
really we wanted. We're gonna move on. We're gonna talk
a little bit more about that. About that. Yeah, as
you know, you started fourteen or sixteen games, you know
in Miami opposite JT on the hell of a defensive line.
You rested eight and a half sacks in the regular season,
another one and a half against the Seattle game, and
the playoffs that when we went way out there, which
was a fun trip. But now you're you're a key
(16:45):
contributor to the defense. How refreshing was that compared to
your experience in Washington? It was so odd because I
was always been like, okay, when the other shoe come
to drop kind of guy, because you know, when I
came into Washington, God bless them. Got s s sol
Uh Bob Kumelo as he passed away a number of
years ago. He didn't drafted me. But he was a
(17:07):
freaking psychopath. How he in the defensive line, he was
he was a psycho And it was just his philosophy
was just I'm gonna scream match you until you do
what I do it right and That's really not how
I'm built. It never has been. Not that I avoid conflict,
but it's just like if I see a better way
to do something, I'm gonna generally I'll say, hey, can
(17:28):
we just do this? And but then to come down
to Miami, word, you know, like Carrie just listened, actually
respected what I had to say, and it was like wow,
and because even when I was doing well in Washington,
it was still you're horrible player, and you this is
what I told. This is a direct quote. By the way,
(17:50):
this guy's better off the liver with pizzas than he
just playing football. Wow. That was told to me on
the sideline. I'll forget it. What game, but that was.
That was so, you know, getting to Miami and actually
can contribute it. But then you contribute and didn't have
to be complimented on it or first my you know good,
you know, hell of play with you, you know, or
(18:11):
the biggest compliment I ever got, and uh, then we
can quickly scatter away from this. But the biggest compliment
I got was remember when King got injured for a
few weeks, and I was when I got got to
start because he got injured. His his non football injury,
and I didn't. I didn't want to put fro the room,
you know, I didn't want to. But when I when
(18:35):
I got to start, and I got and I played well,
and I continued playing well, and I was playing inside
and outside. There were series and this is what somebody
told me this and I saw it in the paper
none the nonger years later, because I think somebody sent
me to the clip. But I forget how many weeks
in But a reporter asked Jimmy, Sorry, sorry, Jay, but
(18:56):
it's okay. That's why we talked about Jimmy a lot.
And show Man I said, I'm over to work it now.
I'm good report of X them, um, you know, given
the injury to Kiddy and how you know, what do
you think of Richie's play? And and he said, let
me tell you something about Kenny, about Kenny Mixon. He said,
Richie Owens is the best was the best thing that
we could have done in the off season, or something
(19:16):
of that nature. So it's so it was interesting and
different to be actually complimented. You know. It's like one
of those weird situations like if you have a dog
and you're constantly kicking it and it just expects to
be kicked and you just toughen up and say, well,
this is just what it is. If I gotta fight
every day, that's just what it's going to be. But
to come here, it was just it was a very
(19:37):
refreshing time up until the following season. So I hear that.
I hear that. So so this is what's fascinating to me.
And I don't want to get too far off the
rails just because of the time limitations. But you know,
every guess that comes on here because there's a lot
of crossover with different eras, and that's what's so cool
about this show and even just what you know, the
Jimmy Johnson conversation or um you're talking about Carrie Go Dead.
(20:02):
You know, there are certain coaches like you had this
amazing relationship, which is wonderful. It's so great that it
worked for you, and it's great for the team that
it worked for you. You know, Ricky Williams when he
was on the show, used the term match and fit.
Everything in football is about matching fit. And so there
are people who came in and they had these horrible
experiences with certain coaches, and then there's certain guys that
just it was a wash out. You know, like there's
(20:22):
certain you know, I cam Cameron. You know we had
Cam Cameron, I think Cleo Lemon and and uh Greg
cama Rio. They loved Cam Kramerman. But beyond that, it
kind of was a one in sixteen or one in
fifteen season. So it is fascinating to me that, you know,
it just clearly was not a fit for you in Washington.
Now what's interesting is those are the guys that brought
you in, So like what due diligence was done or
(20:44):
wasn't done? You know, o J might have it. O
J was brought in by coach Schula. There was a
transition to another coaching staff, and so sometimes that there
isn't a matching. But when when the team that brings
you in it doesn't connect, that is really weird. But
I am very happy that the team that went out
did their diligence and decided we want to sign this
guy as a free agent, that they got the guy
that they wanted. And then, you know, because when that
(21:06):
doesn't happen, you really scratch, you do. It's um, I
don't even know if I call it a match and fit,
because look, we all get it's a it's a high
profile job, whether you're coaching or whether you're playing. At
some point you have to mature and just be an adult.
You know. It's at the point you have to say,
I'm not gonna be this backbiting staff, somebody in the back,
(21:29):
talk to the media behind somebody back kind of person,
or screwing one of my teammates. Over All that said that,
at some point you gotta be you gotta grow up.
I mean, granted, look, when you give a twenty something
year old half million million knowledge, you know, there's a
certain level of I don't want to grow up. I mean,
I you know, I'm you're playing a game. You're getting
(21:51):
paid to play a game too. It's not for play
a game. But I'm frankly, I'm still I'm a fifty
year old child. I have no intention on growing up.
But there's still a level of maturity that you have to.
You know that you have to kind of embrace when
you're dealing with somebody, but you just have to kind
of understand how to deal with people who aren't like you,
and instead of writing them off, you know, and being
(22:13):
adult about it, just grow up and say, hey, this
is now this is this isn't working for me? For example, Well,
I'm sure we'll get to it, because there's a lot
of things afterwards. There's still honestly still sticking my crawl
because I don't feel felt could have been handled differently.
But so well, let's let's uh, let's dig in a
little bit more to that that season. Well, one of
(22:34):
the guys you played opposite of us, the guy who
signs my paychecks, right, we were talking about Jason Taylor earlier.
And it's interesting because in that ninety nine season, you
guys were the starting defensive ends essentially. You know, you
started fourteen of sixteen games. You had eight and a
half sacks. J t actually had the worst statistical season
of his career. That was where people were questioning, can
this guy play? Which is funny to look at now,
(22:56):
first of all ballot Hall of Famer, but he had
two and a half sacks that he But then then
you were there the next year and he had fourteen
and a half sacks. How quickly could you tell that
he might have been just a little bit of a
different kind of athlete, you know, Getting ready for this,
getting in mindset of talking about football, I went back
and watched some old games even and I never like
(23:16):
people should tell him I had a nose for the ball,
and I never really knew what understood what that meant
until I can see it from the outside. Now here's
there's there's there's a guy who was always around the ball,
who no matter what, like even if he didn't look
to play, he was the guy. He was still the
next guy in. He was just there. So it's like,
but yeah, he is, he is. He is definitely one
(23:38):
of the most talented defensive events that I've ever that
I've ever seen and played with. So it's funny you
bring that up though, because uh and one of one
of the statistics with j T. You know, he's got
the most funmal returns for touchdowns in the history league
in any position. He's got six and nine total touchdowns,
which is the most by defensive n in the history
of the game. His first touchdown ever juice there and
(23:59):
and it's also funny because it was against Brian Greasy.
But the season opener, We're playing Denver and uh, j T,
Mrs Greasy Trace comes running out there and then Richie
just blastsom for an eighteen yard sack. The ball comes
rolling over there, Johnny on the spot, j T scoop
that thing up and scores. That's that's his first ever touchdown.
So you know, did j T call and say, hey, man,
(24:21):
you know, appreciate the layup? I guess that's right, would
scores and sist. He just had to be He had
a really he had a keen nose for the ball.
He was always around, always around the ball, and that's
what that's what you want, and that's it's it's just
so hard because for me looking at the defensive line
that I was blessed to be a part of, for
those for that year. Really, it's that's why so hard
(24:42):
for me to single out one person, regardless of where
they ended up. Ennis were a bunch of amazing men,
and I feel blessed to have been a part of
that group. To be quite honest with you, let's talk
about you know, you know Richie, I love that man.
Let's let's talk about that group a little bit. You
mentioned Trade, you mentioned, we mentioned Kenny when he got hurt.
Of course we talked about j T. But you got
(25:04):
Marinzo Bromeo gardener talk talk about that D line. That's
quite a group right there. Bro, dude, I can't even imagine. Like,
I didn't know what I was getting into when I
came came down to Miami, but I knew that I
was gonna have a good time. I knew it was
you know, it was Miami for getting the sax and
you had to fit that again. It was Miami for goodness,
(25:26):
say Miami for goodness sake. So when I first walked
into the locker room, I got I got there early,
like I always like to like to do. At that
point in time, I got there about seven am, went
to the training room, got on one of the windmill
bikes to warm up my knees. So and this is
kind of a little west Side so I'm in there.
(25:46):
Dan Dan walks in and he comes up to me
and says, hey, how you doing, dam Rudo? I said, mother,
I love that. I like it was like you're you're
actually introducing yourself to me. I know him. But then
later in the locker room, first person, the biggest human
(26:08):
being I ever saw at that point in time, Darryl
Gardner walks into the locker room and I looked at
him and waned, you he wasn't the defensive tackles that
I'm used to see him Washington kind of shorter, stouter fellows.
This guy looked like he could have played just at
some kind of large end if he really wanted to.
And it was amazing. I was just like, this guy
(26:28):
is huge. So from day one they welcomed me. It
was so nice, like it was just such an interesting
And that's not to say the guys in Washington want
to welcome me, but it's just such a it was
such an interesting feeling to come in and be instantly
welcome and instantly kind of embraced, you know what I mean.
So these I mean, they were just they were really
a bunch of guys that, like, you know, people always ask,
(26:51):
you know, what what team did you enjoy playing playing
moves for? And I saying Washington because it was like
they were the guys that brought me in so sentimentally
was Washington. But in terms as a player and where
I where I grew the most as a player and
the human being was definitely Miami. Those guys were just
you know, and I hope they're all doing well. You know,
you can't capture lightning in the bottle twice. And I mean,
(27:12):
damn it, that was that was a very special group
of guys. So and like I said, I'm very very
happy and very blessed have been part of it. It
really was you said something there that caught my attention.
You said you grew as a player, but also as
a person in Miami the most. Why do you say
that or why do you feel that? Well, just a
lot of things really just um, I think I learned
(27:34):
more how to keep my mouth shut when the situation
was wasn't turning out how I expected. I think, um,
I learned to turn inward and kind of you know,
for lack of better expression, let people make fools of
themselves and not try to fix it or not trying
to call somebody on their own vs. Because it's um
(27:57):
you know, And that's I think that's a maturity level
and that's a maturity process. At least it was for me,
because I found, generally speaking, people want to say what
they want, act the way they want, and there's no
fixing it. You can't fix it, you can't make it
better for somebody. All you can do is kind of
just say okay, well, LUSA, I understand what the animal
I'm dealing with now, Richie, do you know I'm listening
(28:18):
to some of these experiences and even that, right, just
kind of that self reflection. Uh, and then your interests.
I don't know what the percentage of professional football players
are that studied art and design. Fear fine art, fine art,
Thank you very much. UM. Do you do you think
you are kind of an outlier in an NFL locker room?
It's interesting, you know, we talked, we talked to Ricky
(28:40):
before we thought. You know, there's certain you hate to
stereotype anybody because everyone's an individual, but there are certain
things that, um, you know, there's certain similarities and characteristics
and traits that that are are more common in the
locker room, and then there's some folks that stand out.
Do you think that you were a bit of an
outlier in a in a locker room and you were
in different one? I unfortunately, I think that. Let me
(29:04):
to answer you a question, I'll just say yes to
a certain extent. Um you know, I I I'm not
gonna say I don't want to go so far because
I feel like it's almost kind of arrogant to say
I was so different, because that's like now these people
want say the different meaning they're special, right me? Or
how I operated. I think that I had a bunch
(29:25):
of different interests, um varied interests. I think my upbringing
had a lot to do with that. I listened. I
was an artist. I listened to rap music. I listened
to country music. I listened to blue grass, I listened
to classical music. I had friends of all ILKs. I really,
you know, without being an overly spiritual or religious person.
(29:50):
I've always tried to live my life in that aspect
of just treating people how I wanted to be treated.
And I think that's probably what offend in my life
at this point. That's p would cant offend me the
most is if you if I'm giving you respect and
I'm treating you a certain way, and I don't get
that in return, So that's probably yeah. I can't sit
(30:10):
here and say, oh, so you know, hey, you know
this is a big rich you know, I'm was so different.
But I mean I just had different interests and you
know sometimes that sometimes we used to teach me about that,
but it was really good fun. So at that point
it was all good fun. I mean they knew, you know,
I had my interests, and that was one thing I've
(30:31):
never I've never shifted on the The things that I
was interested in was the things I did. You don't
have to you don't have to be into it, but
I'm never going to tell anyone that they shouldn't either.
So that's good stuff and I love it. Okay, Richie,
we're gonna let you get out of here. But we
know great defensive players defensive vent and you know, been
really tested until he has to survive a two minute drill.
(30:53):
And you know they like depend their ears back and
get at some people. So so we're gonna put two
minutes on the clock. D J Priests gonna do that
for us, and we're gonna offer we're gonna fire off
some questions for you and and you know, see how
you make out, man. We'll see how these how the
defensive guys if they can get their butts off the field. Man.
So I want to start off with the first question,
big said. DJ Priest is gonna put two minutes on
the clock for us, and we definitely what thousand saying,
(31:15):
appreciate the time though this has been so good. All right,
you're ready, Yeah, Usually defensive don't need any time. Ouse.
We're not gonna ask you that question. Every offensive guys
asked for how many time outs do I have? But
you know, so you want to clock to run. So
here we're run out as much as we can. All right,
as we stayed as we stayed it earlier. You're a
graduate of Lincoln High School in Philly. Do you know
(31:36):
what famous action hero also attendant Lincoln? Oh? Yeah, yeah,
And I think your school was even highlighted in some
of the Rocky movies that said, how about that? Very cool?
All right? Anyone who has worked with you knows that
Richie Owen smile. We're seeing it here on the camera
in front of that beautiful think curtain. And at one
(31:58):
point in your NFL career you actually wore braces. What
is the funniest thing an opponent or a teammate ever
said about you wearing braces as an NFL player? Nobody
said anything funny about the braces, the roots I got
the braces, I got down so bad I had. I
needed a lot of dental worker early in my life.
(32:21):
When my teammates told me earlier, he said, Chi looks
like she needs it two about four as a toothpick man.
That still sticks today. All right, Ritchie, you're the hero
of your own online comic My Knees. Oh God, that
follows moments in your everyday life. If you were to
(32:42):
capture a moment from your dolphin's career in that comic,
what would it be? Oh, there's several that I could
put on, but wouldn't because I don't want to put
people's business out there like that. Um, there's two or
three that I still felt it was almost like a
soap popular So I'm sorry. I don't want to just
are two distinct instance. Okay, we'll leave it there, We'll
(33:06):
leave it there. Well, Well, one last question. You spent
eight years as a graphic designer for Serious Hope Improvement products.
As you told us earlier, each member of your starting
Dolphins defensive line, if each of them was a power tool,
what tool would they be? So I want to know
you j T, Daryl Gardner, and Timbo Good. Okay, Daryl
is probably a probably a circularsault. Okay, Tim I would
(33:28):
say that he was a not a jackhammer, but an
impact drill. And Uh I would say Jason is a
Jason's a planer. Interesting. What about you? Oh me, I
consider myself probably like a ranch or something. As saying
(33:49):
I got that power. But let's just say, um, let's
just say okay, we're going with the cordless drill. I
love it. That's the two minute drill. He is rich
the Owens or rich Owens depends on his mood and
what you're brave enough to say. Man, it was so
good to see you, and that big old smile yours, man,
thank you so much is so good. I wish this
(34:10):
could be going wrong with but actually have a meeting.
We gotta get you out of here. We can't get
your fire. Hey, Ritchie, thanks for diving in. Man, you're
now diving into the fifty stating that with Steth living
(34:31):
Oh Jill, And this is strictly for them, true fan
fans number one one of course, y'all. This how all
the nearest do
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