September 9, 2025 • 43 mins
Bobby Pesavento entertained the idea of football once when he was in middle school. When he couldn’t up seed the coach’s quarterback son, he moved on to basketball. Then one day in high school, his football buddies asked him to throw some passes their way when their quarterback didn’t show up for spring practice. A football coach saw his arm talent and recruited him to start playing football.
It didn’t take long for the kid from Indiana to get noticed by Division 1 schools. He made a few visits, including to Northwestern where Gary Barnett was the head coach. Coach Barnett was honest with him, and told him he wouldn’t play much. So, Bobby opted to attend Miami, Ohio where he played for two seasons.
After realizing he wasn’t meant to be a Redhawk, Bobby came home and his high school coach encouraged him to go to a junior college. Fort Scott Junior College proved to be a springboard into another round of Division 1 offers including one to the University of Colorado… to play for Coach Barnett. Bobby’s claim to fame as a Buff included a huge upset against Nebraska in 2001 (the “62-36” game) and unexpectedly beating Texas in the Big 12 Championship game.
After college, Bobby spent time in the Arena League for a few years, then entered the real work where he’s been an insurance broker for over 20 years. He is also a girl dad and is a sideline reporter for the CU Buffs Radio Network.
Listen to Bobby’s story and conversation with Susie Wargin on the Cut Traded Fired Retired Podcast.
To learn more about the host Susie Wargin, visit www.SusieWargin.com
It didn’t take long for the kid from Indiana to get noticed by Division 1 schools. He made a few visits, including to Northwestern where Gary Barnett was the head coach. Coach Barnett was honest with him, and told him he wouldn’t play much. So, Bobby opted to attend Miami, Ohio where he played for two seasons.
After realizing he wasn’t meant to be a Redhawk, Bobby came home and his high school coach encouraged him to go to a junior college. Fort Scott Junior College proved to be a springboard into another round of Division 1 offers including one to the University of Colorado… to play for Coach Barnett. Bobby’s claim to fame as a Buff included a huge upset against Nebraska in 2001 (the “62-36” game) and unexpectedly beating Texas in the Big 12 Championship game.
After college, Bobby spent time in the Arena League for a few years, then entered the real work where he’s been an insurance broker for over 20 years. He is also a girl dad and is a sideline reporter for the CU Buffs Radio Network.
Listen to Bobby’s story and conversation with Susie Wargin on the Cut Traded Fired Retired Podcast.
To learn more about the host Susie Wargin, visit www.SusieWargin.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The funny thing about the Arena League is they paid
(00:02):
for your living, so it was like a frat house.
They'd go rent like thirty apartments in one apartment complex,
Oh my gosh, and everybody lived there. It was like
being in college again. The year here for the Crush.
We lived at the Breakers.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I don't know if it still exists.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I haven't been there forever, but there used to be
like a bar inside the Breaks, right.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You could go and almost like a country club. You
could be like, well, I'm an apartment one fifteen.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And so at the end of the first month, Elway
came in and he goes, guys, you got to start
paying for your own stuff.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Welcome to cut. Traded, Fired Retired a podcast feature in
conversations with professional athletes and coaches in a variety of sports.
I started this podcast for a lot of reasons, including
being able to preserve stories, learn from experiences, and find
strategies and motivation. I'm your host, Susie Wargen. Bobby Passaveno
didn't grow up playing football. He tried it in eighth
(00:55):
grade and then quit when he couldn't replace the coach's
son at his favorite position, quarterback. Instead, Bobby turned to
the hardwood and figured he'd just played basketball during his
time at Lake Central High School in Saint John, Indiana.
That was until a football coach randomly spotted him throwing
footballs to some wide receivers. He was immediately recruited to
the football team his sophomore year. By his senior year,
(01:18):
Bobby was getting letters from several Division I schools. He
visited a few, including Northwestern, where Gary Barnett was the
head coach, but then opted for a school where he
thought he'd get playing time, Miami, Ohio. After a couple
of seasons there, thanks weren't quite the same with the RedHawks,
so he went to Fort Scott Junior College, where he
turned some heads and the Division one schools came calling again.
(01:39):
That included coach Barnett, who was now in Boulder. One
visit to see you, and Bobby was hooked. He had
some incredible games as a starter for the Buffs, including
upsetting Nebraska and the regular season in two thousand and
one and beating Texas in the Big Twelve championship that
same year. After college, he had a training camp in
Buffalo and then turned to the Arena League, where he
(02:00):
spent a few years between Denver, Austin and Bakersfield. Then
football was done and real life began. These days, Bobby
has a successful twenty plus year career as an insurance broker.
He's a girl dad to two as well as a
radio sideline reporter for the CU Buffs Radio Network. Ladies
and Gentlemen. Bobby Pasoveno Cut Traded, Fired, Retired podcast with
(02:24):
Susie Wargen Bobby Pasevno, how are you?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I'm great, Susan, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Absolutely, It's so funny. I think that we've probably had
a lot of crossing of paths through the years, but
we've never actually met, so this is cool.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, great to meet you.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I'm sure we've been in the same room a lot
of times and didn't even know it.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, And I have a lot of CSU representation on
the podcast, so I try and do my best to
grab some buffs every once a while make sure we
get the black and Gold in there too. So this
is fun. We're going to go through your You've got
some great stories. You've been in and out of so
many different teams, college and pros, so you've got a
lot of those ups and downs. That we like to
(03:02):
kind of go through. And now you're living a great
life as a girl dad and here in Colorado. So
we'll get to that too, But let's start out growing
up in Indiana. You go to Lake Central High School
in Saint John, Indiana, and I read that you did
not start playing football till you were a sophomore in
high school. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
That's correct?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Never you know, what's kind of funny, I actually played
as an eighth grader. They had like a pop Warner
team in our town. I didn't want to play any
other position but quarterback. Of course, the coach's son played quarterback,
so I didn't get to play. So after the first game,
I quit playing football and never thought I would play
it again. Being an Indiana kid, you know, basketball was
(03:39):
the passion. Oh yeah, and what you do. So it's
kind of an ironic story.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I was. It was my freshman year.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
The spring of my freshman year of high school, we
had like an open gym for basketball, so I was
playing hoops with the team. The guys in the field
house were throwing footballs around. The guy that was supposed
to be the quarterback didn't show up that day, so
my best friend grabbed me. He knew I could throw
a ball, but I didn't know how to drop back
or anything. So he was like, will you come over
here and just like throw us routes when you're not playing?
(04:06):
And I said, yeah, of course. High school coach walked
in and he looked at me and he said, dude, what,
like why aren't you Where have you been playing? And
you know, it just I just never really crossed my mind.
But he he kind of worked on me to come
out in the summer and and be around the game.
And once I, like I said, I had the physical
ability to throw a ball where I wanted to throw it,
but once I started learning football and getting in meeting
(04:28):
rooms and figuring out, like how much more the game
is mentally than it is physically, Like, I was just
enthralled with it and I loved every.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Second of it.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Well, and you must have been a very quick learner
because your senior year you were second team All state,
so you hadn't even played the game that long or
that position, and you were able to grasp it pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, you know, I was blessed with some God given
abilities to throw it and run and be a good athlete.
I think my high school coach every day, right, that
he pushed me really hard. Right, He kind of put
me under his wing and took his time to coach
me up and help me learn the game.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
That's awesome. I love that. Okay. So, then as you're
a senior in high school and now you're got this
ability and you're getting recognized for it, when does it
start to be maybe a thought in your head that
I could take this to the next level and play
at the college level.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
I think it was after my junior season. You know,
letters started coming in, phone call started happening.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
All of a sudden.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I was like, wow, okay, this could actually be something
I can do.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Did you give up basketball that much?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I never? No, no, no. I still played it all the
way through high school.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Loved basketball, still loved basketball, but being a kind of
a late starter and a late bloomer in the game.
Sure letters came from really big schools, but you know,
back then, unless your phone was ring and a letter
didn't really make a difference. You were just on a
mailing list and things were showing up in your mailbox.
But yeah, it was lucky to be recruited by some
really good coaches. I mean where I grew up in Indiana, right,
(05:49):
I was kind of surrounded by Purdue and Northwestern on
the Chicago side.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
So did you make visits there?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Only official visit was to Miami Ohio, where I ended up.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
That's the only one you took.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, I did a bunch of of like game day
visits to Purdue in Northwestern two coaches that were one
who ended up playing for coach Barnett, but they were
very honest and upfront with me, which I appreciated. You know,
they just said, hey, we really like you, but you're
not our first choice. We have other guys that we're
going to offer first. And Miami Ohio was made me
(06:19):
an offer.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
And how ironic that Gary recruited you when he was
at Northwestern and I played for him.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
And well, I wanted to go to Northwestern really really bad,
being from where I grew up and it only being
you know, about an hour away from my hometown. So
but yeah, you know, blessed to get a scholarship and
ended up playing college football.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
But that's not where you stayed. So freshman year you
red shirt and this is before Ben Roethlisberger gets there,
because I was looking at that going, Wow, it was
big Ben there, No, not much. He got there in
like two thousands, so's you're not that much older than
him a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
It was a good experience. I just didn't love Oxford.
It's a beautiful town, but it just it just didn't
feel like the place I I was supposed to be interesting. Okay,
and the guy that recruited me left before he ever
showed up.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
He got a job in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So you know, all those things change in the world
of sports. In college football.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So you played your sophomore year or your I guess
your freshman year.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Your retro freshman year. Yeah, I played a little bit
as any competitor. I thought I should have been the starter.
I wasn't the starter, so that I'm sure rubbed me
the wrong way and help guide my decision to want
to leave there. So yeah, I decided to transfer. And
you know the crazy thing is is twenty five years
ago there was no transfer portal. There was no I mean,
there was so much more skin Internet was even tracking
(07:36):
where guys were.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
No. This is nineteen ninety nine that you went to Jucos.
So yeah, there's not a whole lot at that point.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, So I went back home and was honestly just
going to go to uh A one double A school
Illinois State, so I didn't lose my year of eligibility
and I could go play right away. And back to
my high school football coach. He talked me into you know,
I didn't know anything about junior college football. Probably ignorantly,
I just thought it where got It's where get the
guy went that didn't get great and didn't qualify.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Oh yeah, they didn't even have sports, like you just
think it was a place you go if you can't
get true.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, high school coach, you know, he sold me on
the fact that there are these Kansas you know, obviously
Texas and California are really strong. But he's like, there's
a league in Kansas where a lot of guys go,
and since you're a qualifier, you know you can you
just show up and play. So I went to Fort
Scott sight unseen.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
So that's in Kansas. Yeah, okay, I didn't even know
where that was. Yeah, exactly, Scott Community College a.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Two hours south of Kansas City, Miller nowhere. And the
coach just took a liking to me and said, hey,
we need a quarterback and they didn't have anybody really
coming back, so it worked out great time. And I
had a young guy as an offensive coordinator that just
wanted to throw it every down, so that helped me,
you know, put up numbers and look good. I think
(08:54):
the craziest thing about the situation is back then probably
still I have no idea, but there used to be
a residency rule where you either had to when you
were transferring that you had to spend a year at
that juco or you had to complete thirty hours. So
I took thirty hours in the fall semester.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
In the fall semester.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, so I got there in the summer and I
wanted to be wherever I was, you know, whatever d
one school I was going to end up at for
the spring semester. Oh, so I had to take play
football and take thirty hours.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
How did you do that, Bobby? That's insane?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
It was well, probably a good thing.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It was in Fort Scott, Kansas, and there was nothing
against Fort Scott, but there was zero distractions, so it
was pretty easy to just go to school all day
and go to practice.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Not a lot of women and drink anything like that,
to do.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Very little distractions there.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I think there was a Windy's and about other than that,
there wasn't much going.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Oh my gosh, how funny. Okay, so you get done
with that, get a lot of experience obviously, and then
how do you get to Boulder?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
So Coach Barnett was one of the first guys that called.
Once I ended up at Fort Scott and started playing
and putting up pretty good numbers.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
It was a cool situation.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
A lot of teams, I mean I visited all Auburn, Alabama, Minnesota,
cal Arizona State.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
This was that was a springboard for you.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, I didn't know this was an option, right that
you could go here and you get your visits all.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Back like you oh you do?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Oh yeah, you get to.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Go on official visits again, all the stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Even if you'd taken your five, you could have done
another five. Oh that's cool.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah. So honestly, I loved Auburn.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
It was incredible, such a cool college town in the
n SCC and everything that was going on there. But
I just always had this great relationship with Coach Barnett
dating back to high school. They recruited me pretty hard
and I really built a great relationship with Sean Watson,
who was the quarterback coach and offensive coordinator when I
was there, and I think that as great as it well,
I mean I was at the Iron Bowl Auburn, Alabama
(10:43):
on my trip to Auburn, right, which is just you know,
when you're in that environment, I was ready to say yes,
you know, but I was going the next weekend to
Boulder for the Colorado Nebrassa game. That was my trip
and the bus didn't win that game, but that environment
and you know, like we all live in Colorado for
a reason because it's beautiful and the mountains, you know,
and being from a Midwest kid, you know, we never
(11:06):
really traveled West. We would always travel. This my first
time to Colorado. Yeah, so I know it's very cliche.
I came over the hill on thirty six and saw
the valley and all the stuff. But I was like, wow,
this is this is pretty neat. And then growing up
as a kid when CU was with coach McCartney and
win a national championship, you know, they were on ABC
every Saturday. So even in Indiana, I was watching Ralphie
(11:29):
run out and so when I actually saw that and
the gold helmets and all the things behind it. I
was like, Okay, this is and everything just felt right
when I was in Boulder for that trip. So as
hard as it was to not go to Auburn, it
just it made all the sense to come here.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, did you commit that weekend?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I didn't remember. No, no, no, I yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
We ran into some issues around what would transfer. You know,
you hear all the stories that Boulder doesn't accept a
lot of credits from other schools, and very little of
the Miami, Ohio credits transferred.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
And in Miami ho was.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
A really good academic school, interesting and I don't remember
how many of the junior college ones I don't remember,
but there was, you know, some fear there that it
might not be enough to transfer in to qualify to
get into the school. Okay, and Auburn was like on
trimesters back then, so they were like, well, you can
come right now, and so it was just ah, it
(12:23):
was a very interesting time. But luckily they figured it
out and got the enough credits to move over for
me to make that commitment.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I wait.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I waited essentially to answer your question until it was
confirmed that I could get in.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, to see you.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Was this all happening like during your winter break, because
then you're trying to figure out where you go in
the spring, right.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I mean, well, we ended probably like the first weekend
of December, I think, okay, football wise, so there was
you know a few weeks in there that they were
working all that out to figure out if I was
going to be able to have enough credits to get
into some.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Oh my gosh, how stressful it was. And you're what
twenty one twenty.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I wasn't twenty one yet, probably nineteen or t Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Wow, that's a lot, all right. So you get to
Boulder then and things go pretty well for you in
two thousand and two thousand and one, but you don't
start starting until Craig Oaks gets hurt in one. But
you play a lot of games. I was asking you
before if you played in the Showdowns, which you did
play in both of those.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
In two thousand my junior year, you know, Zach Colvin
and I had a good competition through springball and camp,
and they named Zach the starter. He started the first
two games of the year, but I came in and
played in both of them, and then I started I
think the next four, I believe before they put Craig in.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
But well, you were all three that year.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, that was that would have been Craig's true freshman year.
Oh okay, all right, but we struggled. I mean, we
we had a lot of talent, but you know, I
think we were three and eight that year and we
just didn't We only had three seniors, so we didn't
you know, we weren't a player led team. And at
that time, and coach Barnett says things that just resonate
with me. I get it, it probably doesn't resonate with all athletes,
but you know, he said, you want to be a
(13:56):
player led team because if you're a player led team,
then coaches can take you somewhere that you can't go.
Coach led team, that's where you are if the players
aren't doing it. So it was hard in two thousand,
just because we only had those three seniors. We knew
we were really good and we were in all the games.
We just when you don't have that leadership and it
comes to the fourth quarter, it's hard. So yeah, you
(14:18):
flip over to one difference, and I just kind of
accepted the fact that I was I was the number
two Guy Craig was a heck of a football player,
and it was just I was gonna do everything I
could just to support the GUIDs and be there and
be ready and get my degree and move on with life.
But you know, injuries happen and opportunities come up. And
(14:39):
luckily I could have sat around and pouted and felt
sorry for myself and and not prepared like I was
the starter, because when those injuries happened and I was
forced to play, things went really well for us and
me and we ended up having a heck of a season.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
They did go really well for you. Yeah, you upset
Nebraska that year, you upset Texas in the Big twelve
championship game, and then you also up playing in the
Fiesta Bowl too. I mean, that's what a way to
go out.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, we got hot at the right time.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I think everybody remembers Nebraska sixty two thirty six that year,
and you flip from two thousand to two thousand and one.
I think we had twenty seniors in two thousand and one.
Oh and we were a player led team like our
senior class, like coaches didn't have to say much.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
I mean, well, when you look at the difference between
the two showdowns. I mean, CSU dominated two thousand and
then it was flipped in oh one.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
We had a lot of guys that played in the
NFL off of that team too, so and we were
really good and we had good leaderships. So then Nebraska game.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I still.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I was walking in the mall with my girls the
other day and some guy walked by and just said
sixty two thirty six. Didn't stop me, No, don't do anything,
just said sixty two thirty six. So you know, I
don't think that will ever.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Ever lose its place in history for CU fans, you know,
so awesome.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I love that and to turnaround and go down like
everybody talks about the Nebraska game. But it was really
cool because we played Texas earlier that year and they
whipped our butts. We went to Austin and that was
the first game I started. We were in it for
the first half, and the second half just got ugly.
So the fact that we got to play them again
and we got to do it in Texas Stadium, it
(16:12):
was a really neat experience because there was one little
sliver of black and gold in that stadium and the
rest was just that nasty, burnt orange surrounding that place,
and they were a great football team. I mean, they
had a lot of great guys that ended up playing
for a long time. So but to go down there
and to do it in Texas against Texas was really cool.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
And then all the arguments started about should we be
in the Rose Bowl? Should Nebraska be in the Rose Bowl?
Should Oregon be in Everybody had a pretty good argument.
I think it was three hundreds of a point maybe
that we were in third in the BCS back when the.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Computer did all this stuff and spit it out and
Nebraska got to go play. I mean, not that.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Listen, that Miami team might have been one of the
best college football teams ever put together that won the
national championship that year.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
So I'm not saying we.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Would have gone to the Rose Bowl and done anything different,
but we really felt like we deserved to be in there.
We felt like we were the hottest team in college
football at that time. Granted, we had two losses because
we stepped on our foot in the first game of
the year against Fresno State, so I understand, but I
think now that there's the real life personal touch of
(17:18):
voting and not just the computer spinning it out.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Now, I really do think so, I bet you're right. So,
you know, we didn't.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
It sucks to say this twenty five years later, but
we weren't prepared and it wasn't the coach's fault. We
weren't prepared for the festival because not that we weren't
honored to be there, but.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
You felt like you should.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
We didn't want to be there.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, and so we started slow, fought back, but just
could never get in that game against those guys. You know,
it's a shame that we lost the last game of
the season. Nobody ever wants to do that. But it
was a heck of an experience and just those back
to back weekends of Nebraska and Texas. There's nothing in
my football career that ever compared to that.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Wow, that's really cool. Okay. So then you finish out
and you graduate in two thousand and two, don't get drafted, Nope,
but you get to go to Buffalo Bills. Yeah the
training camp.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, Luckily they signed me and brought me in and
I you know, was the lowest guy in the totem pole,
so taking all the reps when nobody else wanted to
take a rep. But I was lucky to be there,
lucky to go through it. But you know, my NFL
life was very very short lived.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
What happened with that? What was your cut story?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
It wasn't a surprise to me, you know what I mean,
they had some veteran guys there that they weren't going
to keep me. It was just very simple, you know
what you see. It was coach wants to see him,
bring your playbook, and you know, here you go. We
thank you for being here, but we're going in a
different direction.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
So then what does Bobby Pasvno do Oh gosh, I mean,
you get into the Crush the next year, But what
do you do now it's fall? Do you stay in shape?
Do you hope other teams call?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Actually I came back to Boulder. They let me hang
around practice and coach the guys and be there on
Saturday on the sidelines until I kind of figured out
what the next step was. And so then when the
Crush came into the league and they said we're gonna
bring a handful of guys in to work out and
see who we want to sign. I was lucky enough
to be one of those guys. Yeah, so, I mean
(19:14):
we were terrible that first year. We were awful.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
I think I was not the Arena Bowl year.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
No, no, no, I don't know if we won one
or two games. They honestly can't remember, but we weren't
very good.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
But what a different game though, too, And I want
to hear your thoughts on that, on how you went
from playing you know, outdoor ball to indoor arena ball.
It's just so different.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
It's everything you've ever learned forget about it. I mean,
it's get your feet down as fast as you can
and just get the ball out. You know, there's no
drop back, there's really no rhythm in it. It is
just get away from the line and get exactly It
was fun. I went down after the year of the
Crush and spent two years in Austin with the arena
team there. Ended up playing a good amount down there.
(19:53):
It was a great experience, right. I got to be
a kid for longer than I thought I was going
to be able to and and play a game, and
you know, make a little bit of money doing it.
Nothing that's going to be write home about. But at
least we could go out to eat and hang out
and have fun and you know, I got to experience Austin, Texas,
which is.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
A really cool city.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
It's a cool city, and I got to experience before
it was what it is today, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
So you also went to the Bakersfield Blitz.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Right, was that Bakersfield, California?
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
So inland from LA like over the mountains there.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Okay, And that's also arena Yeah, so you did all
arena ball?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Never played anything outdoors after after college, well yeah, after Buffalo,
so but yeah, it was fun. Very thankful that I
got to play a game for as long as I did,
and didn't, you know, have to grow up until later
in my twenties. So it was a cool experience, you know,
something that a lot of people don't get to do.
So I'm very grateful for it and have tried to
(20:50):
take all that experience and kind of rolled into the
rest of life.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Go forward.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Absolutely, So what are some of your takeaways then from
when you were playing arena ball? And I'm trying to
think that season went. It was an off season from
the NFL, right, wasn't it like more?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
We would always kick off the weekend after the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
That's right, and so you do that and then when
you're with the Crush that first year, you don't come
back to the Crush like what are you doing in
all that time? Because you only get paid when there's games.
You're not getting paid the rest of the time.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
So after that first year with the Crush, I actually
went back to Indiana and helped coach the high school
football team that I played on. Oh wow, that's cool,
just because I didn't really know what was going to happen.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Right, So you know, the funny thing about the Arena
League is they paid for your living, so it was
like a frat house. They'd go rent like thirty apartments
in one apartment complex.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Oh my gosh, and everybody lived there. So it was
like being in college again.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Because everybody's coming from someplace else.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Absolutely, and you're not making enough money where you're going
to uproot your family or whatever you're doing to come
there for six months sod.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
You live like an apartment in Austin for two years
then like that.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Yeah, oh wow, the year here for the Crush, we
lived at the Breakers.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Oh and the funny here's a funny story. So I
don't know if it still exists.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I haven't been there forever, but there used to be
like a bar inside the Breakers, right, you could go
and almost like a country club. You could be like, well,
I'm in an apartment one fifteen. Yeah, and so at
the end of the first month, l Way came in
and he goes, guys, you got to start paying for
your own stuff, like you just can't keep charging it to.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
So that was yeah. And then in Austin, the same thing. Yeah,
we all lived in the same.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Place in college town like that. How fun.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
That was a really cool experience, especially talk about place
where they love football, right, even though I beat Texas
and then I came down there to be the quarterback
of the Austin Wranglers. Like they were the nicest, were
the most embracing.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
People about that.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
And the cool thing about there actually was, you know,
they don't have any professional sports teams, so we were
the only I mean, if we were professional whatever, but
you know, we were.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
The only one.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
So they really rallied around it and they embraced it
and they loved it.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
That's cool. Where'd you guys play?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
We played in the Erwin Center where UT plays basketball.
It may not even be called Erwin center anymore, but
that's what it was called, all right. So we played
right on campus where the basketball arena was.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
How different was it to try and get used to
how that field was set up? All the timing's just different.
It's just so different, like you said, through everything that
you know out the window, but it's so small compared
to what you're used to outside.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
It's so difficult.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And they used to go in motion right away, running
before the plays even started. So yeah, it definitely took
time to figure out because you're making such different throws,
trying to fit the ball in very small places compared
to the outdoor game. So it was a big learning
curve and that's probably why the first year with the
Crush we weren't very good because we had a lot
of guys. I mean not that we didn't have guys
(23:47):
that came from the arena league, but that original staff
wasn't a lot of arena football coaches, so they didn't
really get how to call the game and how to
prepare for the game. So it was a big learning curve.
But as a quarterback, it's a great game to play,
you know. I Mean the bad thing is is I
feel like I got hurt every season just because you know,
the field is so condensed that there's people at your
(24:09):
feet all the time, and so a lot of lower
leg knee injuries just because they're always falling down around
you because that field is.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
So small and probably rock hard too because you're in
basketball and hockey arena.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's not there's nothing nice about it. Yeah,
and yeah it was. It was a fun game to play.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
It was very interesting.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I always look back and kind of joked that it
was kind of like the NASCAR football right. It's kind
of like a carnival going on in there, and every
play the cheerleaders are on the field and they're throwing
stuff and the DJ kicks on. It was just so
different than the structure of what I.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Was used to, especially with Gary Barnett.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah right, that would never fly with Gary.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
All right, So after you're done with football, how did
you know that you were kind of done your last
year with the Blitz. Did you just go all right,
I can't keep doing this anymore, or teams just stop calling.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I think it was a combination of tired of being
hurt and not making enough money to be hurt.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Honestly, Yeah, did they cover health insurance.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, but you know, these are
long lasting injuries for guys that and we weren't making
enough money for it to be worth that. So it
was a combination of that, and a combination of not
that I was old, but getting older and realizing that.
I think it was more watching guys who were like
thirty five that were still playing arena football and now
(25:31):
trying to figure out what they were going to do
with their life. And I didn't want to do that.
I wanted to get somewhere where I had a good
network of folks and a community that I could put
myself into and try to find a career and move on.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
With my life. Smart.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
If it was NFL money, I would have done it
till they kicked me out, right, But this was not
that different.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, no, it's very different. What were you making kind
of on average?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Well, you know, for years it was it was a
structure where everybody made the same game check. My first
year it changed, but it was a very little amount.
And then it was all incentive based, right, So if
you were a quarterback, you'd get I don't even know,
two hundred dollars for every touchdown pass or you know,
it was all incentive based. And then there was a
(26:14):
big influx of guys because NFL Europe went away.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Oh, so then there was the same time, there was
a bunch.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Of dudes that now came in to play arena football
and they were used to getting paid. You pay me
what you pay me, no matter if I play well
or if I play like crap on game day. So
it shifted. So there was probably and I was also
lucky that there was the NBC deal and the ESPN
deal when I was playing, So there was an influx
of capitals around the league. There was probably three or
(26:40):
four guys that was making low six figures, but then
there was like a shelf, right there was there was
these guys that were the main dudes, and then it
just fell very very far down to the next level.
They invested money and probably the quarterback, the best receiver,
the best lineman, and then you know, probably the best
TV that didn't go both ways and the weird rules
they had.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Back right, Yeah, and the biggest names because they needed
names to get seats and butts and people watching on TV.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah, so what you could make a living.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
With some coupon cutting, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Totally yeah, but we were out. You know, we didn't
have like marketing teams. So we would go to practice
and then you know in Austin, we'd be on Sixth
Street at night, like in bars, like trying to you know,
market the team. Would you really oh yeah, like we
I mean they they would set up places for us
to go. We just weren't like wandering around, but we
(27:30):
kind of had to do it on our own, right,
Like the dance team and some of the guys would
go there and try to get people interested in the team.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
You just like meet people or just sign them up
for no.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, we would just be there and they would I
mean they were smart. They they they signed a couple
of ut guys that were pretty big names. So there
was a following initially just because of those guys. But no,
we were just kind of out mingling with the people
and trying to get them to come to football games.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Like can you imagine Bonix out of much come to
a Broncos game? Already there? Thank you exactly. Okay, so
then you are done with football, how do you start
to get into the real world and what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, I kind of just thought about where I wanted
to live, and as great as it was growing up
in the Midwest, I didn't really have a desire to
go back there. So being in college here and having
success playing football here in college, I felt like Denver
would be the smartest place to come back to.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
So that's what I decided to do.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
I came back and just started, you know, really reaching
out to a lot of SeeU donors and you know,
people that had great connections.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
What was your degree in I was a communications major,
So there we go.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Yeah, we have that in common exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
So yeah, I just found a couple of people that
I really built good relationships with. And at the end
of the day, I mean I felt completely backwards into
the industry I'm in and have been in for almost
twenty years now. But you know, just met a really
good person that said, I think you can be good
at this.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I'll teach you. I'll coach you.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
And you know, I work in the insurance industry on
the broker side of things, and they hire a lot
of athletes because they are coachable. Right, you don't need
to know insurance inside out, but yeah, we'll teach you
how to do it. And you have a network and
you have relationships you don't mind being in front of people, right, Like,
you've heard no a million times in your life, so
that's not a big deal to hear it one more time.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
So yeah, very fortunate that, you know, I had some
really good people connect the right dots and get involved
in that industry. And you can't believe I'm still in it.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
But now after this many years, you have a clientele
and you've got a base, and you can just make
things almost kind of work on their own. I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I mean it's always hard. We're always pushing and you
chasing and trying to get more. But it's been good
to me. And you know, we talk coming up the elevator, right,
Like jobs that you love to do that can support
your family and create autonomy and give you time to
do other things that you enjoy doing. I can't ask
to be doing anything different.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
There's a lot to be said for being self employed.
There's a lot to be said for being employed by
a company where you get a regular paycheck too, that's
always nice. But the self employed is good because then
you are allowed to be you know, do things with
your family. And speaking of you got two adorable little girls,
and so you get to be a girl dad with
them and hang out with them more, which is it's
a big deal. I have people all the time like,
(30:12):
why'd you leave nine News, and because I wasn't getting
enough time with my kids and that those hours were
killing me. So going into real estate and then doing
what I do with the iHeart gave me all that
time that I needed.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
It's perfect.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Now they're out of the house, and now I'm like, Okay,
what else can I do because now I'm bored start
a podcast.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
I love it, you know, I mean, it's the best
thing you get to do, right, and being a girl
dad's awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Probably in my head I always thought I wanted a
boy like being an athlete, but I couldn't ask for
anything better. And they're you know, they're eight and almost ten.
So there they got a lot to say these days.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Oh just wait, Yeah, I got a twenty two year
old and she still has a lot to say.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Usually it has nothing to do with what's going on,
but they have a lot to say. So it's a
great experience and it's it's a lot of fun. It's
the best thing I get to do of all the
cool things I've done. This is being a Dad's the best.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Thing I get to do.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
That's awesome. I love it. Are they into dance or
anything like that? Are you going to competitions? Now?
Speaker 1 (31:04):
You know, they're not into the competitive world of dance
yet we're fortunate that they have cheer at their school,
which is awesome. Also very fortunate. They're cheerleading coach and
gym teacher. It's a Broncos cheerleader, so they haven't you know.
So it's so they're into that. You know, they're not
overly into sports yet. They're girly girls, which is okay,
But yeah, cheer and dance is their world and they
(31:26):
love it and it's fun to watch them.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
It is the things they do and it helps them
get all that energy out too, which is yeah okay.
And then you also now work on the broadcast, the
radio broadcast for the CU Bops. How long have you
been doing sidelines.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Gosha, This is eight years? I really yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
It all started when rest his Soul Larry Zimmer got
sick and couldn't travel anymore. They started grabbing guys. Mark
Johnson grab guys and we're like, hey, can you come
do the color for this away game? Because we're just
they're just trying to piecemeal it together.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
So, I honestly don't remember what year that was, but
I should.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
That's when it first started.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
So I did a couple of the away games in
the booth doing.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
The color with Mark.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Did you like doing that?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
I did.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I never understood how much preparation it took to do
that job. Yeah, And so when Gary said I want
to do this full time and they said you can
do the sidelines, I said, that's perfect.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
People always said they're like, do you over to be
in the booth, And I'm like, oh, hell no, the
sidelines are great. Yeah, I don't want to go there.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
No, No, it's a lot up there in the booth,
a lot going on. And you go to these stadiums
and most of those rooms aren't very big. You've got
a bunch of people packed in there and there's nowhere
to go.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
You're big.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Mark Johnson's big, so yeah, that takes a lot of space.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Dave and Rick have the same issue. They're both big
guys for the Broncos broadcast. And then you've got a spotter,
you've got a statistician, you've got a producer and engineer,
and that's a lot of people fitting in a very
small area, especially the older stadiums and college stadiums I'm
sure are very small.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Some of them are amazing and then some of them
are just awful.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
So you find out who has the donors and who
actually like asked somebody like, what do you think I
think we should do with this booth?
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Right?
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah, so's it's a lot of fun, right, It's a
great way for me to be around football, be around
see you, which I'm obviously I bleed black and gold
and I love it. So just fortunate that they keep
asking me to come back and do it.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
That's how I feel with the Broncos sidelines too.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Well, so since we're both sideline people, what do you
kind of do during the game as far as like
what do you look for? And I'm always curious because
you know, it used to be sidelines we're just for
talking about injury, and sometimes there's no injury, So if
you want to get airtime, you've got to figure out
other things to talk about and observe what's going on.
But I'd like to know from your football mind, what
are some things that you watch for on the sidelines.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah, I think the hardest part about being on the
sidelines is the vantage point isn't that great?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
It's not.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
People think it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
When you're up.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
You know, when you're in the booth and you're looking
down over it, you can actually see everything that's going on.
So it makes it a little difficult to actually have
a true kind of football thought about, you know, because
you're not really only seeing what's happening right in front
of your face. So Coach Barnett and I have in
such a good relationship and knowing each other for so long,
it's really cool because he can be like, Bobby, here's
what I saw, like, did you see anything different? Like
(34:08):
from your advantage point, because him knowing that I can't
see as well as he can from his angle. So
a lot of it is I'm a big team guy,
so I love being there watching him come off the
sideline and see how they react to pay, whether good
or bad. So I kind of feed that up to
the you know, the guys in the booth, just to say,
you know, hey, that you can tell the heads are
(34:29):
down and somebody needs to get over here and light
a fire under these guys, or you know, because you
could you find out really easily who the leaders are
when you're when you're on that sideline when they come
off and things aren't.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Going, who's dapping, who's you know, patent butts and things,
or who's not doing it?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
So, you know, I try a lot of times to
try to get in the end zone to have that
view because I feel like I can see all twenty
two guys a lot interesting than standing wherever on the
thirty yard line.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Of this story on either side.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, so I try to get there as much as
I can to get a much more a football vantage point.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
But usually I go.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Over there and then that it doesn't connect up to
the booth and they can't hear what I'm saying or
you know, whatever's going to technical problem, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Familiar with those. We don't thankfully we don't have them
very often, but they do happen.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
You know, the best part for me is I think
it's so fun to go to these opposing schools and
be in different stadiums, and you know, I usually go
down there probably forty five minutes before kickoff, like once
my part of the pregame shows over and just seeing
like that college football atmosphere from all these different places
and how they take the field and all the stuff
that they do prior to kick off that I never
(35:39):
got to see because we were stuck in a locker room.
Oh true, before we you know, ever took the field.
You know, they kept us away from all the things
that that opposing team was doing it in their home stadium.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Who's the most impressive or who's whose stadium do you
like to go to the most?
Speaker 1 (35:54):
As much as it pains me to say this, uh,
Lincoln the Raska. So that's a cool game day experience.
And they are really great people. I mean they always
talk about how nice they are and they clap when
the opposing team leaves and they and they really are
that way. But just everything about that place and how
loud it is and how crazy it is is pretty
cool to experience. Oregon's a lot of fun. You know
(36:17):
when they start doing the jump around in the third quarter,
that's really cool to see. There's some different you know,
like you think about some schools that you go to
UCLA and like, I get it, the Rose Bowl on
the Rose Bowl Day is pretty special.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
But you know, like nobody really goes to UCLA games
it's kind of a drag.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
You know, it's obviously it's not close to anything that
school wise, so I get that part. So that's kind
of a letdown, you know. You ever see, Washington's a
great place to see a football game.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
I'm going there this weekend watch CSU play in Washington
and I keep and Dave's told me a Husky Stadium
is one of the most beautiful stadients. He's called the game.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Are you gonna seegate salegates?
Speaker 3 (36:54):
They call it gate, Yes, we're gonna sail gate. I
didn't even know there was a thing.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Yeah, it's pretty neat.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah, it's right there on water.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
It's so beautiful. It's a really cool place. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Yeah, you know, like Arizona State at night, there's something
different about being in the desert there at night and
those those kids, you know, they've been partying all day
in Tempe or Scottsdale and they roll into the stadium.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I mean that's a different energy.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
I really love that part of it being around.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
You know, like we went to Texas Tech last year
and just got bombed by Tortilla's all game long because
of that goofy thing that they do.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
In love. I really.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
I really enjoy that part of it, just being in
the moment and not having to care about throwing a
football or making a play.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
You could to soak it in. Yeah, and the college stadiums.
I think the college vibe is even more different than
an NFL vibe. There are definitely NFL stadiums that I
like going to or things that they do that even
though I don't like them as being the opposing team,
they're just cool. And as much as I don't like
Kansas City, when you drive up in those buses and
everybody's already out and they're cooking and they're flipping you off,
(37:55):
and you know, it's just one of those things and
they're so loud. And then in Buffalo, same thing. I mean,
they're all just outside beforehand, doesn't matter what the temperature is,
they're out there, and so there's cool traditions. And then
you go to other places and they're like, eh.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Right, yeah, there's no energy.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
No nothing. They're playing bad music and pregame and you're like, what.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Are you doing?
Speaker 3 (38:15):
You're an NFL team, are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (38:17):
I'm really excited.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
We go to West Virginia this year in Morgantown, I've
never been, but I've heard it is one of the
coolest college towns and game day experiences, So I bet
I'm really looking forward to that this season.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
That's very cool. Okay, all right, Bobby, So we've gone
through your whole entire life now. So my last question
I always ask all my guests are how do you
and did you kind of get through all of your
ups and downs with your career? Like when there was
a stop and I mean you went through to three
different colleges and you had all the arena teams, you
got cut in Buffalo? How do you go past that?
(38:53):
What will you tell your daughters when they come to
this point? You know they're going to be teenagers and
have things like this, and so how will you counsel them?
What do you tell people?
Speaker 2 (39:00):
You know?
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I look at it as this, We're all going to
fail at something multiple times, probably right, and there's no
reason to feel sorry for yourself. Pick yourself back up,
dust yourself off, and just do better than whatever you did,
learn from it, and do better the next time you
do it. Right, I think that's step number one. Step
number two, You've got to have some self confidence, right
If somebody's knocking you down over and over again and
(39:22):
telling you you're not good enough. You got to still.
So I never stopped believing in my abilities. Right when
I wasn't the starter at cu Or, I got benched
in my junior year, and then Craig was the starter
of my senior year. I never just sat there and said, oh, okay,
I can't play football. I just said I'm in a
situation where I'm not the guy right now, and I
better be ready to be the guy because something's going
(39:43):
to happen. So that goes back to your confidence and preparation.
If you prepare like you're the backup, you're gonna play
like a backup, So you better prepare like you're the starter.
So you know, I think those are two things that
you can take away and use anywhere in life. You know, absolutely,
like I make mistakes as a dad, either I learned
from them and do better the next time, or I
(40:05):
get worse.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
I know this is a probably a football thing, but
it works in life too. You never stay the same
every day, you get better or you get worse every day.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
What are you gonna do?
Speaker 1 (40:15):
So I kind of approach every day with that mindset.
I can either be lazy and not want to work hard,
and I'm gonna get worse. I might not notice it,
but you're gonna get a little worse. Or I can
make a choice that I'm gonna do something to be
better today.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
You know.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
I try to instill that with my girls or when
I'm talking to other athletes. You can't hang your head.
You can't be the guy that pouts. You can't be
the one that you know. Even if you're not number one,
you could be number one in sprints, you could be
number one in the classroom, you could be number one
in the weight room, you can be number one in
the meeting rooms, and your teammates will respect you for that.
Oh yeah, for being that type of person and that
(40:51):
type of competitor.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
So gosh, I feel like there's a very long winded answer.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
To your question.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
But yeah, I mean that's just how I that's how
I've approached it. Always right, like you to be ready
no matter what.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Because you could be number one on the football field
in a split second, absolutely, and that you've got to
be ready for it. And if you don't take advantage
of the opportunity, then your host.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
And then you know, I think for athletes. Right, you
take the hard work and the discipline and the time
management and you roll that into the rest of your life,
and it creates success because not everybody gets to do
what we got to experience.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
So you better take.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Something from it and use it in the rest of
your life for your advantage. Then just sit around and
I feel like I run into too many guys that
played a sport that just think things should be handed
to them because they played a sport, and that's just
not life.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
That's not true.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
So you better take something that you learn from playing
a game and transfer it into the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Absolutely great advice, Thank you. Yes, yeah, would you ever
coach again? I know you don't probably don't have time
now with family and everything like that, But at some
point would you want to coach?
Speaker 2 (41:52):
I think it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I think that I would probably have a hard time
because today's athlete is so different the way I wanted
to be treated as an athlete. So I don't know,
that's that's a hard question for me. I enjoy like,
if if somebody grabs me and goes, hey, my kid
plays quarterback, can you come watch them?
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (42:11):
All about that right? Fundamentally, look at the person and
see if we can tweak some things and make them better.
But I don't think I would do well around today's
athlete just being.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Or the parents.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Well, it's a probably it's a combination of both, right.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
I mean I was joking with my mom the other day,
Like the summertime when I was a kid, you didn't
know where I was for twelve hours.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
It was just get out of the.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
House, come home when the street lights turn on.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Please survive and come back right now. It's I would
probably have a hard time just because you know, I
liked to be coached hard. I liked somebody to be
honest with me. And if I sucked, tell me I sucked.
Don't tell me that things are going to get better.
They're not unless I do something about it.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Right.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
We coddle too much?
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah, and so yeah, I don't think I would approach
I couldn't approach it the coddling way, So I don't
know how well I would do it.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
You might get chewed up and spit out very long.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Yeahah ya, a lot of parents upset with me.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
That's funny, all right, Bobby, this was so fun. Thank
you for coming in. Appreciate the time, and and good
luck with everything.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
I appreciate, enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
I love that we're sideline brotherren here at a two
levels here. So all right, thank you, thank you, thank you, Bobby.
New episodes of Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired I released on
Tuesdays on nearly every podcast platform. Get social with the
podcast on Twitter and Instagram at ctf our podcast and
check out the website ctfurpodcast dot com. I'm your host,
(43:36):
Susie Wargen. To find out more about me, visit Susiewargen
dot com. Thanks so much for listening, and until next time,
please be careful, be safe and be kind. Take care
The funny thing about the Arena League is they paid
(00:02):
for your living, so it was like a frat house.
They'd go rent like thirty apartments in one apartment complex,
Oh my gosh, and everybody lived there. It was like
being in college again. The year here for the Crush.
We lived at the Breakers.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I don't know if it still exists.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
I haven't been there forever, but there used to be
like a bar inside the Breaks, right.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You could go and almost like a country club. You
could be like, well, I'm an apartment one fifteen.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
And so at the end of the first month, Elway
came in and he goes, guys, you got to start
paying for your own stuff.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Welcome to cut. Traded, Fired Retired a podcast feature in
conversations with professional athletes and coaches in a variety of sports.
I started this podcast for a lot of reasons, including
being able to preserve stories, learn from experiences, and find
strategies and motivation. I'm your host, Susie Wargen. Bobby Passaveno
didn't grow up playing football. He tried it in eighth
(00:55):
grade and then quit when he couldn't replace the coach's
son at his favorite position, quarterback. Instead, Bobby turned to
the hardwood and figured he'd just played basketball during his
time at Lake Central High School in Saint John, Indiana.
That was until a football coach randomly spotted him throwing
footballs to some wide receivers. He was immediately recruited to
the football team his sophomore year. By his senior year,
(01:18):
Bobby was getting letters from several Division I schools. He
visited a few, including Northwestern, where Gary Barnett was the
head coach, but then opted for a school where he
thought he'd get playing time, Miami, Ohio. After a couple
of seasons there, thanks weren't quite the same with the RedHawks,
so he went to Fort Scott Junior College, where he
turned some heads and the Division one schools came calling again.
(01:39):
That included coach Barnett, who was now in Boulder. One
visit to see you, and Bobby was hooked. He had
some incredible games as a starter for the Buffs, including
upsetting Nebraska and the regular season in two thousand and
one and beating Texas in the Big Twelve championship that
same year. After college, he had a training camp in
Buffalo and then turned to the Arena League, where he
(02:00):
spent a few years between Denver, Austin and Bakersfield. Then
football was done and real life began. These days, Bobby
has a successful twenty plus year career as an insurance broker.
He's a girl dad to two as well as a
radio sideline reporter for the CU Buffs Radio Network. Ladies
and Gentlemen. Bobby Pasoveno Cut Traded, Fired, Retired podcast with
(02:24):
Susie Wargen Bobby Pasevno, how are you?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I'm great, Susan, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Absolutely, It's so funny. I think that we've probably had
a lot of crossing of paths through the years, but
we've never actually met, so this is cool.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, great to meet you.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
I'm sure we've been in the same room a lot
of times and didn't even know it.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, And I have a lot of CSU representation on
the podcast, so I try and do my best to
grab some buffs every once a while make sure we
get the black and Gold in there too. So this
is fun. We're going to go through your You've got
some great stories. You've been in and out of so
many different teams, college and pros, so you've got a
lot of those ups and downs. That we like to
(03:02):
kind of go through. And now you're living a great
life as a girl dad and here in Colorado. So
we'll get to that too, But let's start out growing
up in Indiana. You go to Lake Central High School
in Saint John, Indiana, and I read that you did
not start playing football till you were a sophomore in
high school. Is that right?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
That's correct?
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Never you know, what's kind of funny, I actually played
as an eighth grader. They had like a pop Warner
team in our town. I didn't want to play any
other position but quarterback. Of course, the coach's son played quarterback,
so I didn't get to play. So after the first game,
I quit playing football and never thought I would play
it again. Being an Indiana kid, you know, basketball was
(03:39):
the passion. Oh yeah, and what you do. So it's
kind of an ironic story.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
I was. It was my freshman year.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
The spring of my freshman year of high school, we
had like an open gym for basketball, so I was
playing hoops with the team. The guys in the field
house were throwing footballs around. The guy that was supposed
to be the quarterback didn't show up that day, so
my best friend grabbed me. He knew I could throw
a ball, but I didn't know how to drop back
or anything. So he was like, will you come over
here and just like throw us routes when you're not playing?
(04:06):
And I said, yeah, of course. High school coach walked
in and he looked at me and he said, dude, what,
like why aren't you Where have you been playing? And
you know, it just I just never really crossed my mind.
But he he kind of worked on me to come
out in the summer and and be around the game.
And once I, like I said, I had the physical
ability to throw a ball where I wanted to throw it,
but once I started learning football and getting in meeting
(04:28):
rooms and figuring out, like how much more the game
is mentally than it is physically, Like, I was just
enthralled with it and I loved every.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Second of it.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Well, and you must have been a very quick learner
because your senior year you were second team All state,
so you hadn't even played the game that long or
that position, and you were able to grasp it pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Yeah, you know, I was blessed with some God given
abilities to throw it and run and be a good athlete.
I think my high school coach every day, right, that
he pushed me really hard. Right, He kind of put
me under his wing and took his time to coach
me up and help me learn the game.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
That's awesome. I love that. Okay. So, then as you're
a senior in high school and now you're got this
ability and you're getting recognized for it, when does it
start to be maybe a thought in your head that
I could take this to the next level and play
at the college level.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
I think it was after my junior season. You know,
letters started coming in, phone call started happening.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
All of a sudden.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
I was like, wow, okay, this could actually be something
I can do.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Did you give up basketball that much?
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I never? No, no, no. I still played it all the
way through high school.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Loved basketball, still loved basketball, but being a kind of
a late starter and a late bloomer in the game.
Sure letters came from really big schools, but you know,
back then, unless your phone was ring and a letter
didn't really make a difference. You were just on a
mailing list and things were showing up in your mailbox.
But yeah, it was lucky to be recruited by some
really good coaches. I mean where I grew up in Indiana, right,
(05:49):
I was kind of surrounded by Purdue and Northwestern on
the Chicago side.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
So did you make visits there?
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Only official visit was to Miami Ohio, where I ended up.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
That's the only one you took.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Yeah, I did a bunch of of like game day
visits to Purdue in Northwestern two coaches that were one
who ended up playing for coach Barnett, but they were
very honest and upfront with me, which I appreciated. You know,
they just said, hey, we really like you, but you're
not our first choice. We have other guys that we're
going to offer first. And Miami Ohio was made me
(06:19):
an offer.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
And how ironic that Gary recruited you when he was
at Northwestern and I played for him.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
And well, I wanted to go to Northwestern really really bad,
being from where I grew up and it only being
you know, about an hour away from my hometown. So
but yeah, you know, blessed to get a scholarship and
ended up playing college football.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
But that's not where you stayed. So freshman year you
red shirt and this is before Ben Roethlisberger gets there,
because I was looking at that going, Wow, it was
big Ben there, No, not much. He got there in
like two thousands, so's you're not that much older than
him a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
It was a good experience. I just didn't love Oxford.
It's a beautiful town, but it just it just didn't
feel like the place I I was supposed to be interesting. Okay,
and the guy that recruited me left before he ever
showed up.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
He got a job in the NFL.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
So you know, all those things change in the world
of sports. In college football.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
So you played your sophomore year or your I guess
your freshman year.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Your retro freshman year. Yeah, I played a little bit
as any competitor. I thought I should have been the starter.
I wasn't the starter, so that I'm sure rubbed me
the wrong way and help guide my decision to want
to leave there. So yeah, I decided to transfer. And
you know the crazy thing is is twenty five years
ago there was no transfer portal. There was no I mean,
there was so much more skin Internet was even tracking
(07:36):
where guys were.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
No. This is nineteen ninety nine that you went to Jucos.
So yeah, there's not a whole lot at that point.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, So I went back home and was honestly just
going to go to uh A one double A school
Illinois State, so I didn't lose my year of eligibility
and I could go play right away. And back to
my high school football coach. He talked me into you know,
I didn't know anything about junior college football. Probably ignorantly,
I just thought it where got It's where get the
guy went that didn't get great and didn't qualify.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
Oh yeah, they didn't even have sports, like you just
think it was a place you go if you can't
get true.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, high school coach, you know, he sold me on
the fact that there are these Kansas you know, obviously
Texas and California are really strong. But he's like, there's
a league in Kansas where a lot of guys go,
and since you're a qualifier, you know you can you
just show up and play. So I went to Fort
Scott sight unseen.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
So that's in Kansas. Yeah, okay, I didn't even know
where that was. Yeah, exactly, Scott Community College a.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Two hours south of Kansas City, Miller nowhere. And the
coach just took a liking to me and said, hey,
we need a quarterback and they didn't have anybody really
coming back, so it worked out great time. And I
had a young guy as an offensive coordinator that just
wanted to throw it every down, so that helped me,
you know, put up numbers and look good. I think
(08:54):
the craziest thing about the situation is back then probably
still I have no idea, but there used to be
a residency rule where you either had to when you
were transferring that you had to spend a year at
that juco or you had to complete thirty hours. So
I took thirty hours in the fall semester.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
In the fall semester.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
Yeah, so I got there in the summer and I
wanted to be wherever I was, you know, whatever d
one school I was going to end up at for
the spring semester. Oh, so I had to take play
football and take thirty hours.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
How did you do that, Bobby? That's insane?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
It was well, probably a good thing.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
It was in Fort Scott, Kansas, and there was nothing
against Fort Scott, but there was zero distractions, so it
was pretty easy to just go to school all day
and go to practice.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Not a lot of women and drink anything like that,
to do.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Very little distractions there.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
I think there was a Windy's and about other than that,
there wasn't much going.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
Oh my gosh, how funny. Okay, so you get done
with that, get a lot of experience obviously, and then
how do you get to Boulder?
Speaker 1 (09:49):
So Coach Barnett was one of the first guys that called.
Once I ended up at Fort Scott and started playing
and putting up pretty good numbers.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
It was a cool situation.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
A lot of teams, I mean I visited all Auburn, Alabama, Minnesota,
cal Arizona State.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
This was that was a springboard for you.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
Yeah, I didn't know this was an option, right that
you could go here and you get your visits all.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Back like you oh you do?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
Oh yeah, you get to.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Go on official visits again, all the stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Even if you'd taken your five, you could have done
another five. Oh that's cool.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Yeah. So honestly, I loved Auburn.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
It was incredible, such a cool college town in the
n SCC and everything that was going on there. But
I just always had this great relationship with Coach Barnett
dating back to high school. They recruited me pretty hard
and I really built a great relationship with Sean Watson,
who was the quarterback coach and offensive coordinator when I
was there, and I think that as great as it well,
I mean I was at the Iron Bowl Auburn, Alabama
(10:43):
on my trip to Auburn, right, which is just you know,
when you're in that environment, I was ready to say yes,
you know, but I was going the next weekend to
Boulder for the Colorado Nebrassa game. That was my trip
and the bus didn't win that game, but that environment
and you know, like we all live in Colorado for
a reason because it's beautiful and the mountains, you know,
and being from a Midwest kid, you know, we never
(11:06):
really traveled West. We would always travel. This my first
time to Colorado. Yeah, so I know it's very cliche.
I came over the hill on thirty six and saw
the valley and all the stuff. But I was like, wow,
this is this is pretty neat. And then growing up
as a kid when CU was with coach McCartney and
win a national championship, you know, they were on ABC
every Saturday. So even in Indiana, I was watching Ralphie
(11:29):
run out and so when I actually saw that and
the gold helmets and all the things behind it. I
was like, Okay, this is and everything just felt right
when I was in Boulder for that trip. So as
hard as it was to not go to Auburn, it
just it made all the sense to come here.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, did you commit that weekend?
Speaker 2 (11:45):
I didn't remember. No, no, no, I yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
We ran into some issues around what would transfer. You know,
you hear all the stories that Boulder doesn't accept a
lot of credits from other schools, and very little of
the Miami, Ohio credits transferred.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
And in Miami ho was.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
A really good academic school, interesting and I don't remember
how many of the junior college ones I don't remember,
but there was, you know, some fear there that it
might not be enough to transfer in to qualify to
get into the school. Okay, and Auburn was like on
trimesters back then, so they were like, well, you can
come right now, and so it was just ah, it
(12:23):
was a very interesting time. But luckily they figured it
out and got the enough credits to move over for
me to make that commitment.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
I wait.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
I waited essentially to answer your question until it was
confirmed that I could get in.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Yeah, to see you.
Speaker 3 (12:37):
Was this all happening like during your winter break, because
then you're trying to figure out where you go in
the spring, right.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
I mean, well, we ended probably like the first weekend
of December, I think, okay, football wise, so there was
you know a few weeks in there that they were
working all that out to figure out if I was
going to be able to have enough credits to get
into some.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
Oh my gosh, how stressful it was. And you're what
twenty one twenty.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
I wasn't twenty one yet, probably nineteen or t Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
Wow, that's a lot, all right. So you get to
Boulder then and things go pretty well for you in
two thousand and two thousand and one, but you don't
start starting until Craig Oaks gets hurt in one. But
you play a lot of games. I was asking you
before if you played in the Showdowns, which you did
play in both of those.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
In two thousand my junior year, you know, Zach Colvin
and I had a good competition through springball and camp,
and they named Zach the starter. He started the first
two games of the year, but I came in and
played in both of them, and then I started I
think the next four, I believe before they put Craig in.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
But well, you were all three that year.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
Yeah, that was that would have been Craig's true freshman year.
Oh okay, all right, but we struggled. I mean, we
we had a lot of talent, but you know, I
think we were three and eight that year and we
just didn't We only had three seniors, so we didn't
you know, we weren't a player led team. And at
that time, and coach Barnett says things that just resonate
with me. I get it, it probably doesn't resonate with all athletes,
but you know, he said, you want to be a
(13:56):
player led team because if you're a player led team,
then coaches can take you somewhere that you can't go.
Coach led team, that's where you are if the players
aren't doing it. So it was hard in two thousand,
just because we only had those three seniors. We knew
we were really good and we were in all the games.
We just when you don't have that leadership and it
comes to the fourth quarter, it's hard. So yeah, you
(14:18):
flip over to one difference, and I just kind of
accepted the fact that I was I was the number
two Guy Craig was a heck of a football player,
and it was just I was gonna do everything I
could just to support the GUIDs and be there and
be ready and get my degree and move on with life.
But you know, injuries happen and opportunities come up. And
(14:39):
luckily I could have sat around and pouted and felt
sorry for myself and and not prepared like I was
the starter, because when those injuries happened and I was
forced to play, things went really well for us and
me and we ended up having a heck of a season.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
They did go really well for you. Yeah, you upset
Nebraska that year, you upset Texas in the Big twelve
championship game, and then you also up playing in the
Fiesta Bowl too. I mean, that's what a way to
go out.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Yeah, we got hot at the right time.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
I think everybody remembers Nebraska sixty two thirty six that year,
and you flip from two thousand to two thousand and one.
I think we had twenty seniors in two thousand and one.
Oh and we were a player led team like our
senior class, like coaches didn't have to say much.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
I mean, well, when you look at the difference between
the two showdowns. I mean, CSU dominated two thousand and
then it was flipped in oh one.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
We had a lot of guys that played in the
NFL off of that team too, so and we were
really good and we had good leaderships. So then Nebraska game.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I still.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
I was walking in the mall with my girls the
other day and some guy walked by and just said
sixty two thirty six. Didn't stop me, No, don't do anything,
just said sixty two thirty six. So you know, I
don't think that will ever.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Ever lose its place in history for CU fans, you know,
so awesome.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I love that and to turnaround and go down like
everybody talks about the Nebraska game. But it was really
cool because we played Texas earlier that year and they
whipped our butts. We went to Austin and that was
the first game I started. We were in it for
the first half, and the second half just got ugly.
So the fact that we got to play them again
and we got to do it in Texas Stadium, it
(16:12):
was a really neat experience because there was one little
sliver of black and gold in that stadium and the
rest was just that nasty, burnt orange surrounding that place,
and they were a great football team. I mean, they
had a lot of great guys that ended up playing
for a long time. So but to go down there
and to do it in Texas against Texas was really cool.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
And then all the arguments started about should we be
in the Rose Bowl? Should Nebraska be in the Rose Bowl?
Should Oregon be in Everybody had a pretty good argument.
I think it was three hundreds of a point maybe
that we were in third in the BCS back when the.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Computer did all this stuff and spit it out and
Nebraska got to go play. I mean, not that.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Listen, that Miami team might have been one of the
best college football teams ever put together that won the
national championship that year.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
So I'm not saying we.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Would have gone to the Rose Bowl and done anything different,
but we really felt like we deserved to be in there.
We felt like we were the hottest team in college
football at that time. Granted, we had two losses because
we stepped on our foot in the first game of
the year against Fresno State, so I understand, but I
think now that there's the real life personal touch of
(17:18):
voting and not just the computer spinning it out.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Now, I really do think so, I bet you're right. So,
you know, we didn't.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
It sucks to say this twenty five years later, but
we weren't prepared and it wasn't the coach's fault. We
weren't prepared for the festival because not that we weren't
honored to be there, but.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
You felt like you should.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
We didn't want to be there.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah, and so we started slow, fought back, but just
could never get in that game against those guys. You know,
it's a shame that we lost the last game of
the season. Nobody ever wants to do that. But it
was a heck of an experience and just those back
to back weekends of Nebraska and Texas. There's nothing in
my football career that ever compared to that.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Wow, that's really cool. Okay. So then you finish out
and you graduate in two thousand and two, don't get drafted, Nope,
but you get to go to Buffalo Bills. Yeah the
training camp.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah, Luckily they signed me and brought me in and
I you know, was the lowest guy in the totem pole,
so taking all the reps when nobody else wanted to
take a rep. But I was lucky to be there,
lucky to go through it. But you know, my NFL
life was very very short lived.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
What happened with that? What was your cut story?
Speaker 1 (18:26):
It wasn't a surprise to me, you know what I mean,
they had some veteran guys there that they weren't going
to keep me. It was just very simple, you know
what you see. It was coach wants to see him,
bring your playbook, and you know, here you go. We
thank you for being here, but we're going in a
different direction.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
So then what does Bobby Pasvno do Oh gosh, I mean,
you get into the Crush the next year, But what
do you do now it's fall? Do you stay in shape?
Do you hope other teams call?
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (18:50):
Actually I came back to Boulder. They let me hang
around practice and coach the guys and be there on
Saturday on the sidelines until I kind of figured out
what the next step was. And so then when the
Crush came into the league and they said we're gonna
bring a handful of guys in to work out and
see who we want to sign. I was lucky enough
to be one of those guys. Yeah, so, I mean
(19:14):
we were terrible that first year. We were awful.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
I think I was not the Arena Bowl year.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
No, no, no, I don't know if we won one
or two games. They honestly can't remember, but we weren't
very good.
Speaker 3 (19:22):
But what a different game though, too, And I want
to hear your thoughts on that, on how you went
from playing you know, outdoor ball to indoor arena ball.
It's just so different.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
It's everything you've ever learned forget about it. I mean,
it's get your feet down as fast as you can
and just get the ball out. You know, there's no
drop back, there's really no rhythm in it. It is
just get away from the line and get exactly It
was fun. I went down after the year of the
Crush and spent two years in Austin with the arena
team there. Ended up playing a good amount down there.
(19:53):
It was a great experience, right. I got to be
a kid for longer than I thought I was going
to be able to and and play a game, and
you know, make a little bit of money doing it.
Nothing that's going to be write home about. But at
least we could go out to eat and hang out
and have fun and you know, I got to experience Austin, Texas,
which is.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
A really cool city.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
It's a cool city, and I got to experience before
it was what it is today, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
So you also went to the Bakersfield Blitz.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Right, was that Bakersfield, California?
Speaker 3 (20:20):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (20:21):
So inland from LA like over the mountains there.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Okay, And that's also arena Yeah, so you did all
arena ball?
Speaker 2 (20:27):
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Never played anything outdoors after after college, well yeah, after Buffalo,
so but yeah, it was fun. Very thankful that I
got to play a game for as long as I did,
and didn't, you know, have to grow up until later
in my twenties. So it was a cool experience, you know,
something that a lot of people don't get to do.
So I'm very grateful for it and have tried to
(20:50):
take all that experience and kind of rolled into the
rest of life.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
Go forward.
Speaker 3 (20:55):
Absolutely, So what are some of your takeaways then from
when you were playing arena ball? And I'm trying to
think that season went. It was an off season from
the NFL, right, wasn't it like more?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
We would always kick off the weekend after the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
That's right, and so you do that and then when
you're with the Crush that first year, you don't come
back to the Crush like what are you doing in
all that time? Because you only get paid when there's games.
You're not getting paid the rest of the time.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
So after that first year with the Crush, I actually
went back to Indiana and helped coach the high school
football team that I played on. Oh wow, that's cool,
just because I didn't really know what was going to happen.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Right, So you know, the funny thing about the Arena
League is they paid for your living, so it was
like a frat house. They'd go rent like thirty apartments
in one apartment complex.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Oh my gosh, and everybody lived there. So it was
like being in college again.
Speaker 3 (21:47):
Because everybody's coming from someplace else.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Absolutely, and you're not making enough money where you're going
to uproot your family or whatever you're doing to come
there for six months sod.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
You live like an apartment in Austin for two years
then like that.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Yeah, oh wow, the year here for the Crush, we
lived at the Breakers.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
Oh and the funny here's a funny story. So I
don't know if it still exists.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
I haven't been there forever, but there used to be
like a bar inside the Breakers, right, you could go
and almost like a country club. You could be like, well,
I'm in an apartment one fifteen. Yeah, and so at
the end of the first month, l Way came in
and he goes, guys, you got to start paying for
your own stuff, like you just can't keep charging it to.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
So that was yeah. And then in Austin, the same thing. Yeah,
we all lived in the same.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
Place in college town like that. How fun.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
That was a really cool experience, especially talk about place
where they love football, right, even though I beat Texas
and then I came down there to be the quarterback
of the Austin Wranglers. Like they were the nicest, were
the most embracing.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
People about that.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
And the cool thing about there actually was, you know,
they don't have any professional sports teams, so we were
the only I mean, if we were professional whatever, but
you know, we were.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
The only one.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
So they really rallied around it and they embraced it
and they loved it.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
That's cool. Where'd you guys play?
Speaker 1 (23:06):
We played in the Erwin Center where UT plays basketball.
It may not even be called Erwin center anymore, but
that's what it was called, all right. So we played
right on campus where the basketball arena was.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
How different was it to try and get used to
how that field was set up? All the timing's just different.
It's just so different, like you said, through everything that
you know out the window, but it's so small compared
to what you're used to outside.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
It's so difficult.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
And they used to go in motion right away, running
before the plays even started. So yeah, it definitely took
time to figure out because you're making such different throws,
trying to fit the ball in very small places compared
to the outdoor game. So it was a big learning
curve and that's probably why the first year with the
Crush we weren't very good because we had a lot
of guys. I mean not that we didn't have guys
(23:47):
that came from the arena league, but that original staff
wasn't a lot of arena football coaches, so they didn't
really get how to call the game and how to
prepare for the game. So it was a big learning curve.
But as a quarterback, it's a great game to play,
you know. I Mean the bad thing is is I
feel like I got hurt every season just because you know,
the field is so condensed that there's people at your
(24:09):
feet all the time, and so a lot of lower
leg knee injuries just because they're always falling down around
you because that field is.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
So small and probably rock hard too because you're in
basketball and hockey arena.
Speaker 1 (24:21):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's not there's nothing nice about it. Yeah,
and yeah it was. It was a fun game to play.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
It was very interesting.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I always look back and kind of joked that it
was kind of like the NASCAR football right. It's kind
of like a carnival going on in there, and every
play the cheerleaders are on the field and they're throwing
stuff and the DJ kicks on. It was just so
different than the structure of what I.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Was used to, especially with Gary Barnett.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
Yeah right, that would never fly with Gary.
Speaker 3 (24:50):
All right, So after you're done with football, how did
you know that you were kind of done your last
year with the Blitz. Did you just go all right,
I can't keep doing this anymore, or teams just stop calling.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I think it was a combination of tired of being
hurt and not making enough money to be hurt.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Honestly, Yeah, did they cover health insurance.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, but you know, these are
long lasting injuries for guys that and we weren't making
enough money for it to be worth that. So it
was a combination of that, and a combination of not
that I was old, but getting older and realizing that.
I think it was more watching guys who were like
thirty five that were still playing arena football and now
(25:31):
trying to figure out what they were going to do
with their life. And I didn't want to do that.
I wanted to get somewhere where I had a good
network of folks and a community that I could put
myself into and try to find a career and move on.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
With my life. Smart.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
If it was NFL money, I would have done it
till they kicked me out, right, But this was not
that different.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, no, it's very different. What were you making kind
of on average?
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Well, you know, for years it was it was a
structure where everybody made the same game check. My first
year it changed, but it was a very little amount.
And then it was all incentive based, right, So if
you were a quarterback, you'd get I don't even know,
two hundred dollars for every touchdown pass or you know,
it was all incentive based. And then there was a
(26:14):
big influx of guys because NFL Europe went away.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Oh, so then there was the same time, there was
a bunch.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Of dudes that now came in to play arena football
and they were used to getting paid. You pay me
what you pay me, no matter if I play well
or if I play like crap on game day. So
it shifted. So there was probably and I was also
lucky that there was the NBC deal and the ESPN
deal when I was playing, So there was an influx
of capitals around the league. There was probably three or
(26:40):
four guys that was making low six figures, but then
there was like a shelf, right there was there was
these guys that were the main dudes, and then it
just fell very very far down to the next level.
They invested money and probably the quarterback, the best receiver,
the best lineman, and then you know, probably the best
TV that didn't go both ways and the weird rules
they had.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Back right, Yeah, and the biggest names because they needed
names to get seats and butts and people watching on TV.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Yeah, so what you could make a living.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
With some coupon cutting, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Totally yeah, but we were out. You know, we didn't
have like marketing teams. So we would go to practice
and then you know in Austin, we'd be on Sixth
Street at night, like in bars, like trying to you know,
market the team. Would you really oh yeah, like we
I mean they they would set up places for us
to go. We just weren't like wandering around, but we
(27:30):
kind of had to do it on our own, right,
Like the dance team and some of the guys would
go there and try to get people interested in the team.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
You just like meet people or just sign them up
for no.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah, we would just be there and they would I
mean they were smart. They they they signed a couple
of ut guys that were pretty big names. So there
was a following initially just because of those guys. But no,
we were just kind of out mingling with the people
and trying to get them to come to football games.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
Like can you imagine Bonix out of much come to
a Broncos game? Already there? Thank you exactly. Okay, so
then you are done with football, how do you start
to get into the real world and what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, I kind of just thought about where I wanted
to live, and as great as it was growing up
in the Midwest, I didn't really have a desire to
go back there. So being in college here and having
success playing football here in college, I felt like Denver
would be the smartest place to come back to.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
So that's what I decided to do.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
I came back and just started, you know, really reaching
out to a lot of SeeU donors and you know,
people that had great connections.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
What was your degree in I was a communications major,
So there we go.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Yeah, we have that in common exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
So yeah, I just found a couple of people that
I really built good relationships with. And at the end
of the day, I mean I felt completely backwards into
the industry I'm in and have been in for almost
twenty years now. But you know, just met a really
good person that said, I think you can be good
at this.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
I'll teach you. I'll coach you.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
And you know, I work in the insurance industry on
the broker side of things, and they hire a lot
of athletes because they are coachable. Right, you don't need
to know insurance inside out, but yeah, we'll teach you
how to do it. And you have a network and
you have relationships you don't mind being in front of people, right, Like,
you've heard no a million times in your life, so
that's not a big deal to hear it one more time.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
So yeah, very fortunate that, you know, I had some
really good people connect the right dots and get involved
in that industry. And you can't believe I'm still in it.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
But now after this many years, you have a clientele
and you've got a base, and you can just make
things almost kind of work on their own. I'm sure.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
I mean it's always hard. We're always pushing and you
chasing and trying to get more. But it's been good
to me. And you know, we talk coming up the elevator, right,
Like jobs that you love to do that can support
your family and create autonomy and give you time to
do other things that you enjoy doing. I can't ask
to be doing anything different.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
There's a lot to be said for being self employed.
There's a lot to be said for being employed by
a company where you get a regular paycheck too, that's
always nice. But the self employed is good because then
you are allowed to be you know, do things with
your family. And speaking of you got two adorable little girls,
and so you get to be a girl dad with
them and hang out with them more, which is it's
a big deal. I have people all the time like,
(30:12):
why'd you leave nine News, and because I wasn't getting
enough time with my kids and that those hours were
killing me. So going into real estate and then doing
what I do with the iHeart gave me all that
time that I needed.
Speaker 2 (30:23):
It's perfect.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
Now they're out of the house, and now I'm like, Okay,
what else can I do because now I'm bored start
a podcast.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
I love it, you know, I mean, it's the best
thing you get to do, right, and being a girl
dad's awesome.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Probably in my head I always thought I wanted a
boy like being an athlete, but I couldn't ask for
anything better. And they're you know, they're eight and almost ten.
So there they got a lot to say these days.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Oh just wait, Yeah, I got a twenty two year
old and she still has a lot to say.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Usually it has nothing to do with what's going on,
but they have a lot to say. So it's a
great experience and it's it's a lot of fun. It's
the best thing I get to do of all the
cool things I've done. This is being a Dad's the best.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
Thing I get to do.
Speaker 3 (30:58):
That's awesome. I love it. Are they into dance or
anything like that? Are you going to competitions? Now?
Speaker 1 (31:04):
You know, they're not into the competitive world of dance
yet we're fortunate that they have cheer at their school,
which is awesome. Also very fortunate. They're cheerleading coach and
gym teacher. It's a Broncos cheerleader, so they haven't you know.
So it's so they're into that. You know, they're not
overly into sports yet. They're girly girls, which is okay,
But yeah, cheer and dance is their world and they
(31:26):
love it and it's fun to watch them.
Speaker 3 (31:28):
It is the things they do and it helps them
get all that energy out too, which is yeah okay.
And then you also now work on the broadcast, the
radio broadcast for the CU Bops. How long have you
been doing sidelines.
Speaker 2 (31:39):
Gosha, This is eight years? I really yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
It all started when rest his Soul Larry Zimmer got
sick and couldn't travel anymore. They started grabbing guys. Mark
Johnson grab guys and we're like, hey, can you come
do the color for this away game? Because we're just
they're just trying to piecemeal it together.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
So, I honestly don't remember what year that was, but
I should.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
That's when it first started.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
So I did a couple of the away games in
the booth doing.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
The color with Mark.
Speaker 3 (32:09):
Did you like doing that?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
I did.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
I never understood how much preparation it took to do
that job. Yeah, And so when Gary said I want
to do this full time and they said you can
do the sidelines, I said, that's perfect.
Speaker 3 (32:21):
People always said they're like, do you over to be
in the booth, And I'm like, oh, hell no, the
sidelines are great. Yeah, I don't want to go there.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
No, No, it's a lot up there in the booth,
a lot going on. And you go to these stadiums
and most of those rooms aren't very big. You've got
a bunch of people packed in there and there's nowhere
to go.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
You're big.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
Mark Johnson's big, so yeah, that takes a lot of space.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Dave and Rick have the same issue. They're both big
guys for the Broncos broadcast. And then you've got a spotter,
you've got a statistician, you've got a producer and engineer,
and that's a lot of people fitting in a very
small area, especially the older stadiums and college stadiums I'm
sure are very small.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Some of them are amazing and then some of them
are just awful.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
So you find out who has the donors and who
actually like asked somebody like, what do you think I
think we should do with this booth?
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Right?
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah, so's it's a lot of fun, right, It's a
great way for me to be around football, be around
see you, which I'm obviously I bleed black and gold
and I love it. So just fortunate that they keep
asking me to come back and do it.
Speaker 3 (33:15):
That's how I feel with the Broncos sidelines too.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:17):
Well, so since we're both sideline people, what do you
kind of do during the game as far as like
what do you look for? And I'm always curious because
you know, it used to be sidelines we're just for
talking about injury, and sometimes there's no injury, So if
you want to get airtime, you've got to figure out
other things to talk about and observe what's going on.
But I'd like to know from your football mind, what
are some things that you watch for on the sidelines.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah, I think the hardest part about being on the
sidelines is the vantage point isn't that great?
Speaker 2 (33:43):
It's not.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
People think it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (33:45):
When you're up.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
You know, when you're in the booth and you're looking
down over it, you can actually see everything that's going on.
So it makes it a little difficult to actually have
a true kind of football thought about, you know, because
you're not really only seeing what's happening right in front
of your face. So Coach Barnett and I have in
such a good relationship and knowing each other for so long,
it's really cool because he can be like, Bobby, here's
what I saw, like, did you see anything different? Like
(34:08):
from your advantage point, because him knowing that I can't
see as well as he can from his angle. So
a lot of it is I'm a big team guy,
so I love being there watching him come off the
sideline and see how they react to pay, whether good
or bad. So I kind of feed that up to
the you know, the guys in the booth, just to say,
you know, hey, that you can tell the heads are
(34:29):
down and somebody needs to get over here and light
a fire under these guys, or you know, because you
could you find out really easily who the leaders are
when you're when you're on that sideline when they come
off and things aren't.
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Going, who's dapping, who's you know, patent butts and things,
or who's not doing it?
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
So, you know, I try a lot of times to
try to get in the end zone to have that
view because I feel like I can see all twenty
two guys a lot interesting than standing wherever on the
thirty yard line.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
Of this story on either side.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, so I try to get there as much as
I can to get a much more a football vantage point.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
But usually I go.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
Over there and then that it doesn't connect up to
the booth and they can't hear what I'm saying or
you know, whatever's going to technical problem, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Familiar with those. We don't thankfully we don't have them
very often, but they do happen.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
You know, the best part for me is I think
it's so fun to go to these opposing schools and
be in different stadiums, and you know, I usually go
down there probably forty five minutes before kickoff, like once
my part of the pregame shows over and just seeing
like that college football atmosphere from all these different places
and how they take the field and all the stuff
that they do prior to kick off that I never
(35:39):
got to see because we were stuck in a locker room.
Oh true, before we you know, ever took the field.
You know, they kept us away from all the things
that that opposing team was doing it in their home stadium.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Who's the most impressive or who's whose stadium do you
like to go to the most?
Speaker 1 (35:54):
As much as it pains me to say this, uh,
Lincoln the Raska. So that's a cool game day experience.
And they are really great people. I mean they always
talk about how nice they are and they clap when
the opposing team leaves and they and they really are
that way. But just everything about that place and how
loud it is and how crazy it is is pretty
cool to experience. Oregon's a lot of fun. You know
(36:17):
when they start doing the jump around in the third quarter,
that's really cool to see. There's some different you know,
like you think about some schools that you go to
UCLA and like, I get it, the Rose Bowl on
the Rose Bowl Day is pretty special.
Speaker 2 (36:31):
But you know, like nobody really goes to UCLA games
it's kind of a drag.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
You know, it's obviously it's not close to anything that
school wise, so I get that part. So that's kind
of a letdown, you know. You ever see, Washington's a
great place to see a football game.
Speaker 3 (36:44):
I'm going there this weekend watch CSU play in Washington
and I keep and Dave's told me a Husky Stadium
is one of the most beautiful stadients. He's called the game.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Are you gonna seegate salegates?
Speaker 3 (36:54):
They call it gate, Yes, we're gonna sail gate. I
didn't even know there was a thing.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Yeah, it's pretty neat.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah, it's right there on water.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
It's so beautiful. It's a really cool place. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Yeah, you know, like Arizona State at night, there's something
different about being in the desert there at night and
those those kids, you know, they've been partying all day
in Tempe or Scottsdale and they roll into the stadium.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
I mean that's a different energy.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
I really love that part of it being around.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
You know, like we went to Texas Tech last year
and just got bombed by Tortilla's all game long because
of that goofy thing that they do.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
In love. I really.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
I really enjoy that part of it, just being in
the moment and not having to care about throwing a
football or making a play.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
You could to soak it in. Yeah, and the college stadiums.
I think the college vibe is even more different than
an NFL vibe. There are definitely NFL stadiums that I
like going to or things that they do that even
though I don't like them as being the opposing team,
they're just cool. And as much as I don't like
Kansas City, when you drive up in those buses and
everybody's already out and they're cooking and they're flipping you off,
(37:55):
and you know, it's just one of those things and
they're so loud. And then in Buffalo, same thing. I mean,
they're all just outside beforehand, doesn't matter what the temperature is,
they're out there, and so there's cool traditions. And then
you go to other places and they're like, eh.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Right, yeah, there's no energy.
Speaker 3 (38:11):
No nothing. They're playing bad music and pregame and you're like, what.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Are you doing?
Speaker 3 (38:15):
You're an NFL team, are you kidding me?
Speaker 2 (38:17):
I'm really excited.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
We go to West Virginia this year in Morgantown, I've
never been, but I've heard it is one of the
coolest college towns and game day experiences, So I bet
I'm really looking forward to that this season.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
That's very cool. Okay, all right, Bobby, So we've gone
through your whole entire life now. So my last question
I always ask all my guests are how do you
and did you kind of get through all of your
ups and downs with your career? Like when there was
a stop and I mean you went through to three
different colleges and you had all the arena teams, you
got cut in Buffalo? How do you go past that?
(38:53):
What will you tell your daughters when they come to
this point? You know they're going to be teenagers and
have things like this, and so how will you counsel them?
What do you tell people?
Speaker 2 (39:00):
You know?
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I look at it as this, We're all going to
fail at something multiple times, probably right, and there's no
reason to feel sorry for yourself. Pick yourself back up,
dust yourself off, and just do better than whatever you did,
learn from it, and do better the next time you
do it. Right, I think that's step number one. Step
number two, You've got to have some self confidence, right
If somebody's knocking you down over and over again and
(39:22):
telling you you're not good enough. You got to still.
So I never stopped believing in my abilities. Right when
I wasn't the starter at cu Or, I got benched
in my junior year, and then Craig was the starter
of my senior year. I never just sat there and said, oh, okay,
I can't play football. I just said I'm in a
situation where I'm not the guy right now, and I
better be ready to be the guy because something's going
(39:43):
to happen. So that goes back to your confidence and preparation.
If you prepare like you're the backup, you're gonna play
like a backup, So you better prepare like you're the starter.
So you know, I think those are two things that
you can take away and use anywhere in life. You know, absolutely,
like I make mistakes as a dad, either I learned
from them and do better the next time, or I
(40:05):
get worse.
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
I know this is a probably a football thing, but
it works in life too. You never stay the same
every day, you get better or you get worse every day.
Speaker 2 (40:14):
What are you gonna do?
Speaker 1 (40:15):
So I kind of approach every day with that mindset.
I can either be lazy and not want to work hard,
and I'm gonna get worse. I might not notice it,
but you're gonna get a little worse. Or I can
make a choice that I'm gonna do something to be
better today.
Speaker 3 (40:29):
You know.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
I try to instill that with my girls or when
I'm talking to other athletes. You can't hang your head.
You can't be the guy that pouts. You can't be
the one that you know. Even if you're not number one,
you could be number one in sprints, you could be
number one in the classroom, you could be number one
in the weight room, you can be number one in
the meeting rooms, and your teammates will respect you for that.
Oh yeah, for being that type of person and that
(40:51):
type of competitor.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
So gosh, I feel like there's a very long winded answer.
Speaker 3 (40:54):
To your question.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
But yeah, I mean that's just how I that's how
I've approached it. Always right, like you to be ready
no matter what.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Because you could be number one on the football field
in a split second, absolutely, and that you've got to
be ready for it. And if you don't take advantage
of the opportunity, then your host.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
And then you know, I think for athletes. Right, you
take the hard work and the discipline and the time
management and you roll that into the rest of your life,
and it creates success because not everybody gets to do
what we got to experience.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
So you better take.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Something from it and use it in the rest of
your life for your advantage. Then just sit around and
I feel like I run into too many guys that
played a sport that just think things should be handed
to them because they played a sport, and that's just
not life.
Speaker 2 (41:36):
That's not true.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
So you better take something that you learn from playing
a game and transfer it into the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Absolutely great advice, Thank you. Yes, yeah, would you ever
coach again? I know you don't probably don't have time
now with family and everything like that, But at some
point would you want to coach?
Speaker 2 (41:52):
I think it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
I think that I would probably have a hard time
because today's athlete is so different the way I wanted
to be treated as an athlete. So I don't know,
that's that's a hard question for me. I enjoy like,
if if somebody grabs me and goes, hey, my kid
plays quarterback, can you come watch them?
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (42:11):
All about that right? Fundamentally, look at the person and
see if we can tweak some things and make them better.
But I don't think I would do well around today's
athlete just being.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Or the parents.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Well, it's a probably it's a combination of both, right.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
I mean I was joking with my mom the other day,
Like the summertime when I was a kid, you didn't
know where I was for twelve hours.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
It was just get out of the.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
House, come home when the street lights turn on.
Speaker 1 (42:35):
Please survive and come back right now. It's I would
probably have a hard time just because you know, I
liked to be coached hard. I liked somebody to be
honest with me. And if I sucked, tell me I sucked.
Don't tell me that things are going to get better.
They're not unless I do something about it.
Speaker 2 (42:50):
Right.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
We coddle too much?
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah, and so yeah, I don't think I would approach
I couldn't approach it the coddling way, So I don't
know how well I would do it.
Speaker 3 (43:00):
You might get chewed up and spit out very long.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
Yeahah ya, a lot of parents upset with me.
Speaker 3 (43:06):
That's funny, all right, Bobby, this was so fun. Thank
you for coming in. Appreciate the time, and and good
luck with everything.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
I appreciate, enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
I love that we're sideline brotherren here at a two
levels here. So all right, thank you, thank you, thank you, Bobby.
New episodes of Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired I released on
Tuesdays on nearly every podcast platform. Get social with the
podcast on Twitter and Instagram at ctf our podcast and
check out the website ctfurpodcast dot com. I'm your host,
(43:36):
Susie Wargen. To find out more about me, visit Susiewargen
dot com. Thanks so much for listening, and until next time,
please be careful, be safe and be kind. Take care
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.