Bradlee Van Pelt - Part 2 - Cut Traded Fired Retired

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I broke as a footballer in Houston. At that time, I was done
living in that situation trying to forceme as a quarterback onto people. It
wasn't working, and I knew itwasn't working because basically the coaches stop.
Believe is very apparent. Welcome toCut Traded, Fired, Retired. I'm
your host, Susie Wargen, andI'm not going to go through the usual

(00:21):
introduction on this one because this episodeis part two of two with Bradley Van
Pelt. It is very helpful tolisten to part one so you can hear
and learn about the early years ofBVP, from growing up to his time
at Colorado State University. Part twocovers Bradley's time in the NFL, his
life now as a husband and fatherof five, and his reconnection with CSU

(00:42):
and others from his past ladies andgentlemen. Bradley Van Pelt the later years
from when he got drafted in twothousand and four to today, Cut Traded,
Fired, Retired Podcast with Susie Wrgin. So, in two thousand and
four, you go into the draft. You're in a draft class with Eli
Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Yeah,Big Ben, and Philip Rivers, Yeah,

(01:03):
Philip Rivers, JP Lossman, whichwas a big he was a Buffalo
bill. Yeah, I wasn't itvery big draft class, like a class
where it's like those are your prototypicalbig dudes sit in the pocket and that's
not really Van Pelt, No,it's not. And I but you still
get drafted in the seventh round.I do, and I'm lucky. Of
course I thought I was going thefirst day like I was. Of course
Bradley was not only that we caneven take a step back because we're in

(01:26):
the podcast, we have time writingstories. Of course, So going into
the training for the NFL Combine,I was still being myself the way I
approached I had no agent. Iwas one of the only attendees of the
combine NFL Combine that had no agent. And this is where I think my
father his thoughts and maybe his someissues started really becoming evident. Is I'm

(01:49):
now getting bad advice or no advicebecause the people that were trying to advise
me either didn't know what they weretalking about or weren't being heard because we
were going around. My dad decided, Hey, the best thing is I'd
ever trusted my agent we're gonna andI'm thinking, okay, kind of like
your agent. Then in a way, well, he was more of my
dad was Yeah, he was moreof my advisor and someone I trusted because

(02:12):
I mean, you know, he'sfourteen year veteran, like he's like,
you know, arguably can be inthe Hall of Fame. It's a resume,
yeah, a great resume, andhe knows all these people like he's
a first name basis with anyone asanyone in the NFL at that time,
right, it's Brad van Pelt stilltoday, a lot of coach still know
my dad. He's like, Ididn't trust my agent's different. So we're
gonna go this route. What we'regonna do is we're gonna get you know,
my friend who's someone I trust.He's going to be like your agent,

(02:34):
and then we're gonna go get someonethat has the agent credentials and we're
gonna work as like a team.So the guy that's going to write the
contract and be the actual real agenton paper is not going to be the
advisor. He's going to work throughme and Gary, a very close family
friend. Sounds good to me.Dad and me, we weren't doing things
normal to this point, So whywould why would I think about it?
Well, that's a problem because notgetting the truth and getting bad advice right

(02:58):
started kind of settling in because thebad advice was more like no advice someone
like sitting down, going you're notdoing what you need to do. You
think you know what you're doing,Bradley, but you're not. You're actually
creating a problem for yourself and you'resetting yourself up to maybe even not even
get drafted. I didn't think likethis. I was going in the first
round, like if anyone knows anything, I am a talent. I need
to be in the NFL. Andyou know what, I'm waiting for that

(03:19):
coach because at that time, I'dstill never seen a quarterback coach, still
never had proper coaching from a quarterbackperspective. I was still as a raw
and as self taught as you got. But I got all the way to
the top being a self taught,determined kid, and then to me that
was enough now, you know Soyeah, So that that led into the
draft because I just didn't do theright things. I was coming off with

(03:40):
my broken hand, and then Iat that time started seeing my first coach
because I knew, like, wellI might as well see, but this
is coming off of broken hand.It was just like the wrong All this
stuff was like the pieces were notlike the puzzle was like, you've got
a problem here. But I stillnothing was fitting. But in my mind
it will work out. Because it'sworked out. I'm right here and then
I go in the NFL combine.This is a great story, Susie,

(04:01):
my buddy, I have some buddiesfrom Michigan State that went on and had
success at other schools. They hadto transfer, and actually carl State I
tell that story too, But CarralState didn't want to bring one of my
buddies here for Michigan State because Iwas off the rails a little bit at
that time, and they're like,we don't need another Vanpelt. But he
went on and ended up being allbig twelve full back and they ended up
realizing, geez, we should havetaken your vice, Vampa. I said,
I'm not crazy. I just attimes, you know, could get

(04:25):
a little you know, different.But I go in the NFL draft and
we're in the combine, and ofcourse I'm sitting here coming off a broken
hand. I'm with my buddy andI'm like, hey, Trav, his
name's Travis. I go, hey, Trav. We're all excited, right
because we both left Michigan State,got through it. We're both at the
NFL Combine. We're living our dreams, and we're like, this is awesome.
We just got there. We bothshowed up at the same day,

(04:45):
which is rare because the way theNFL Combine works, it's staggered, right,
so not everyone shows up the sametime. It's staggered, so you
have people come through it. Butfor some reason, it worked out that
Travis and I both showed up atthe same day, and I said,
hey, man, let's go graba beer. He's like really, I'm
like, yeah, Trav, let'sgo grab a beer. Okay, draft
falls, you know. He's like, he's my buddy. So we go
across the street from and we're inIndianapolis and we go into the bar.

(05:06):
Well, this is the NFL Combine. There's probably a hundred scouts in there.
I didn't care, walked right inthere, sat at the table.
We're in an NFL combine. Theday we're training stuff. The next day
I'm ordering beers, big mugs ofbeer, and I in hindsight, I
remember sitting there drinking and people lookingat me, going, whatever people are
talking about, he's really guys andthese guy's different like he's OT. But

(05:27):
I wasn't trying to do it tobe different. I was just doing what
I did, and I thought completelynormal. I'm an adult, I'm over
twenty one. I'm gonna have abeer. Nothing illegal. I'm not doing
anything illegal. Yeah, you knowwhat, it doesn't matter if I'm gonna
be training tomorrow. What do theseguys have me? That's my thought,
and so I took that throughout theNFL combine. Later that night, I'm
with my buddy Travigo Trav because there'sthis there's a pool. The way it

(05:49):
worked, there is a pool andthere's there's a courtyard with all of these
doors right around the pool. Sure, so I had this bright idea,
right like, thinking this is fun. As they Trav watched this riding,
like what do you do? SoI start going and doing cannonballs in the
pool, trying to splash water ontothe doors. And these are the doors
where you have meeting rooms right withthis is where you go and you meet

(06:12):
with the coaching staff. And I'msitting here as I'm doing this, I
am thinking this is like the coolest, funniest thing. I'm out there being
myself and it's harmless. So ifI looked at it from my angle,
I wasn't doing anything that was harminganyone. Having a beer wasn't harming anyone.
Trying to splash water through cannonballs ontothese doors wasn't harming anyone. I

(06:33):
was being myself. But people nowwere really starting to go, what is
wrong with PIM? We have reallyuse as different as they claim. This
guy's different. So that was thebeginning of the transition in the NFL and
a lot of hard facts right,because that's when things were really presented me
in different ways. But I evenif they're presenting to me, I still
don't take it. It took manyyears for me to really understand what was

(06:55):
trying to get presented to me deliveredbecause I was still in my La La
land, didn't have a great combineby any means, and didn't care because
it was just gonna work out.It's gonna work out. I'm gonna be
drafted in the first day, andI'm gonna get coaching, and I'm on
the track. I'm gonna find success. I've made it here. I started
believing myself too much, and soyou don't get drafted the first day.
I don't, and I'm shocked.But a lot of people around me aren't.
But I'm shocked. Sure, butI did get called. So this

(07:15):
is what's interesting. I get calledby the late Bill Walsh, coach Bill
Walsh. Bill Wash calls me thirdround. I'm sitting right in draft day
being by your phone, and thisis again, you know, you know
me a little bit, so you'rekind of you're not surprised by these stories.
He gets on the phone and Iget a phone number, and the
idea is like, hey, pickup your phone, right, yea.
So I pick it up and thevoice comes back says, Hi, Bradley,

(07:39):
this is coach Bill Washing. OhHi Bill. Silence, silence.
Not that he expected to be calledcoach back. I just said Hi Bill,
because I'm sitting there thinking, okay, I kind of know Bill Washes
and so Hi Bill, silence.Huh. Okay, Bradley. I'm being
an advisor and he's got into business. I'm being an advisor, right,

(08:01):
it's for forty nine ers. I'mbeing an advisor and we're looking at you.
But I'm gonna be honest with you. We're not looking at you as
quarterback. I'm looking at you asa defender. When I was at you
know, back in the day whenI was I think he was at Stamforhen,
I was with John Lynch. Rightwhen I was with John Lynch,
he's a quarterback, and I seethe same talent. I think you're the
next Lynch. You could be anotherJohn Lynch. And he's like, so,

(08:22):
what do you think about that?And I go, I don't know,
Bill, I'm not to think aboutthis. He said it just like
that. This is my recollection.This is how I did it, because
well because it wasn't you know whatthis was? Here it is again,
I'm gonna be a quarterback. Whyam I? Why aren't people not coaching
me? All I need is someoneto sit there and be like he's a
project, but he will pay off. This is how it was back in

(08:43):
the day. And I'll think aboutI'll get back to you. Right He's
like, you do that, AndI never got back to him. This
is the third round, right,third round, first day, And I
told my you know, I toldmy agent said, I'm a quarterback.
I came this far I'm going tobe a quarterback. Your agent that wasn't
really your agent. The agent wasn'treally my agent, that's like. And
then I'm like yeah, and he'slike and I told him the store and
he's sitting there going, oh mygod, because you know, the agent
that was actually right in the contract, real agent was just like all right,

(09:07):
like because he didn't really care.On was like, right, do
what you want to do. AndI said, no problem, I'm gonna
find a team. And so Ididn't think anything of it. I was
just like, I was a littledisappointed, and I was kind of like,
this sucks, right, because butwhatever the next day, so what's
just wait? And I went tobed that night and I remember going to
the beach. Actually it was funnybecause it's draft day and at that time,
people all around me knew it wasdraft weekend, and everyone was like,

(09:30):
we're at the beach and there's peopleand I was just kind of doing
what I do. I was justdoing what I did, like I was
confident, but also getting a littlenervous, right because it was unnerving at
that time. But hey, nextday was a new day, right,
and I was going to be draftedand I was going to be an NFL
player, and the Broncos, well, they get into the seventh round and
you get to the end of thedraft and I'm about to go on drafted

(09:52):
and it was like, wow,what happened. That's when I think the
first time was like, what happened? What's going on? The story about
getting drafted? And I don't knowthe real story, but I know a
lot of some of the pieces isI think I was even though I was
drafted, and I got a phonecall from Gary Kubiak, coach Kubiak,
but I believe, I want tobelieve that it was actually it was a

(10:13):
sweetheart pick from owner Pat Bowlan.It wasn't that the necessarily the staff or
anyone, because they drafted Matt Makwho was championship quarterback Lsu Nick Saban,
and they had you know, JakePlumber, Danny Kanell. But hey,
the last pick they had in theseventh round, I think it was seven
B. It was like the seventhround. Yeah, as a story goes,

(10:33):
it was Pat Bowland that drafted me. But the next pick in the
draft was the New York Giants,and the New York Giants were not going
to let me go on drafted theywere going to bring me and interesting because
on hindsight, I'm like, thatwould have been pretty neat. I mean
they drafted Eli Manning, didn't reallydraft because you know San Diego, you
know Philip Rivers that thing. Butat the end of the day, they
would have taken me, and atthat time I probably have been a lot
more likely to be a defender orsomething because at that time it would have

(10:56):
been Eli Manning and very obvious thatyou are not going to be yeah quarterback
here, but you can play footballand you're coming here under this guise or
will just cut you. But Igo to the Broncos and I'm drafted,
and I get on the phone andyou know, the Bradley in my head
was like, what wasn't too shakenbecause I was drafted. I was like,
why, it's a scare, butthis is okay, I'm gonna deal
with it. I still wasn't didn'tget the message because I'm telling you,

(11:16):
Stuos because here's here's like the stuff. He's unbelievable, right that I can
tell now. So going into thedraft, because I had no advice,
I scheduled a trip I scuba diveand I was scuba diving at the time,
and I had a trip to theCayman Islands. So I scheduled this
and the people that were, youknow, scheduling with me, were older,
right because I there are a lotof my dad's friends. And this

(11:39):
is where it started getting issues inmy life with my my father and a
lot of his friends. I ranwith an older crowd and I had a
trip scheduled, and no one thought, you know, after you get drafted,
like you got to like football,you got many cansall stuff, shouldn't
been doing crazy things. It didn'tdawn on Bradley. So Bradley had a
trip. So I get drafted andI could have loved this one. Get

(12:01):
drafted and they send me my playbooks. So coach Kubiak callee, Hey,
we're gonna send you a playbook.We got rookie mini camp on these days,
and I said, great, I'llbe there. He's like, Okay,
we're gonna get called and we're gonnahave these travel ations, set up
flights and you're gonna be in here'sa mini camp. Get ready, kid,
And of course it was literally likethat because I was a seventh b
like we're bringing you in. Idon't know why we got all these great
quarterbacks, but hey, you're alocal here and you're bringing down a lot

(12:22):
of excitement. Show up for minicamp ready, And I said great.
I get off the phone and Igo call my buddy older right, Roger,
and I go, Roger got aproblem. He's like, what's the
problem? I go, I gota mini camp. I go, but
we're gonna be in the Cayman Islands. And he's like, what are you
gonna do? I go, I'mgonna go to the Cayman Islands. He's
like, okay, because this isyou know, people that were aiding a

(12:43):
beddy mean and again not bad people, they just were Okay, it sounds
good my dad. Because I didn'ttell my dad everything else doing at that
time, and it need to.And so I get the playbook and I
go to the Cayman Islands and he'slike, why are you gonna get back
off the camons. I go,well, this is the plan. They're
gonna call me, okay me emailis gonna call and I'm going to tell
them that I'm in the Cayman Islandsand they have to fly me back.

(13:05):
And that's the plan. Okay,that's the plan. So I go to
the Cayman Islands. So I'm sittinghere and they have I still have pictures
around here. I am in theCayman Islands, scuba diving, studying my
playbook with my shirt off. I'msitting here this NFL play but I've never
seen anything like this, seas.These are great. I can tell these
stories seller. I love it.Yeah, because they're just like some of
these are just just they're hard tobelieve they are because even I'm looking back,

(13:26):
I blew off, like why virtuallythat's how That's how they felt.
Yeah. So I'm sitting here studyingmy playbook and I'm throwing football. So
I'm with a couple older guys,right, and so what i'd have to
do in between dives? Right andother? Justifying that you're still studying and
working out. Yeah. So mydad finds this out. I didn't tell
him I was going, but hefell I was there, and he gets

(13:46):
kind of like, I remember thesewords in my father. I wish he
was here telling you stories too,because it would be fun. I remember
him saying. So He's like,so, what's more important getting a tan
or doing well in METI caamp andI'm sitting there going, I don't know
both like and I remember thinking thisbecause that's what he said. My dad
said this, like because he foundout I was doing. It's like it
was blown away. It's like,oh my god, because it was his
friends. And he at this timestarted going, Okay, this is a

(14:09):
problem because you're now with my friends, which were friends, and these are
you know, simple small town people, right that were great people still are
my you know, mentors and friendstoday. They weren't doing anything bad.
But again we weren't getting this adviceright that we were listening. They were
just going along with They're going alongwith it, dudey were having fun.
These are the people that you know, joined me in college and came out
and I said this. So I'mthrowing football to them in Cayman Islands,

(14:30):
like literally on the beach as I'msitting there between dives, studying my playbook,
going life is good. I'm gettinga tan and I'm studying for football.
So Broncos called me. They're uhtravel agents, and they go,
all right, so you're gonna becauseI was and stund so you're gonna,
Santa Barbara, You're flight Leves like, go, ah, I'm not in
Santa Barbara. They go, okay, well where are you. I'm I'm
in I'm in Grand Cayman. Theygo, excuse me, the go I'm

(14:54):
like yeah, I'm They go,will you leave tomorrow? I go,
yeah, we need to shape flight. And this is like last minute.
I didn't think anything of it,right, I mean again, this is
four way before internet and all thatkind of Yeah, it was. And
not only that, it was justthis like you're dealing, like they're dealing.
They've never they okay when you toget back to you? Because I

(15:15):
thought it was just like a snap. I mean I got the concept roughly
that last minute changing but flights andthe costs, so I know that they
probably put down that phone and said, hey, we need to alert someone.
Because it wasn't like on a bigdeal, We're flying out of Los
Angeles out of Santa Barbara. It'slike we have to now schedule out of
the Cayman Islands and it's gonna costgod knows what. You leave them tomorrow,

(15:37):
so no big deal. Because againI had my playbook. I was
kind of throw some football. I'mready to go to Mini caamp I show
up at Mini caamp and it waskind of one of these. I recall
the look on the coach's faces waslike, f this guy, you're already
in the I'm in the doghouse.And not only that, they go out
there and they say, okay,let's go do the drills. I couldn't

(15:58):
HANDLEFF. I couldn't hand off theright direction. I remember being told,
do you just take a knee?You don't even know the playbook van Pelt
take a knee. So I justtook a knee. Paul Ricky camp.
Now I did individual drills. Icouldn't do anything team, so they still
had me there. It's still atevaluate as a draft right. It was
in the draft class. I justtook a knee, and I'm sitting there
thinking, huh, this isn't good. Like that's kind of one was like,

(16:19):
oh, this is kind of aproblem. But yeah, no big
deal, Like no big deal.Like it's still not sinking in security of
what's going on, not at all. Because not only did I show up
back in Denver, but I decidedto sign a lease with my best buddy
and go I'm gonna live in Lodo. I'm gonna live in a brand new
apartment downtown, no big deal,like this is great. And I remember
telling the coaches and this just that'swhen they were like Doug Valley, like

(16:42):
south of the Tech Center. Ohyeah, They're like you what you live
where? I'm like, I livein downtown Denver. And I remember like
Coach Kubiak probably just you know,looking at me, kind of going in
disbelief, and I think Coach Shannon, there's other bigger things. Member.
It wasn't like they're wrapped up inBradley's business per se, but it was

(17:03):
more of like this is odd,but you know what, He's gonna run
and run himself out, no bigdeal. And that's kind of how it
was. He'll take care of himselfexactly. He's basically is taking care of
himself because we go into so weget out of the Ricky Minnie camp,
I do my thing. So I'mtraining there, but I'm still aloof to
the reality that's happening around me.And so you know, Matt Mok's,

(17:25):
you know, great quarterback, youknow, Jake Plummer, Danny Carroll,
and here I am basically like talentedkid, but coming to the end,
probably especially here, And that's howit was It really was that way all
the way until the last game againstthe Arizona Cardinals, the last preseason game,
with literally eight minutes left, myfate had been set. I didn't

(17:48):
play in any other preseason games.I was four string quarterback. You had
created your exit plan, absolutely absolutely, and not only that I signed the
least like things were. It wasvery apparent to me that things were not
going well because I wasn't even playingpractice. It was like kind of like
a Michigan State thing again, butdifferent because it wasn't necessarily that I couldn't
throw a football because at that timeI started, I was a little more

(18:08):
refined because I started getting a littleI did start seeing quarterback coach and I
started what looked like to be moretraditional quarterback skills. But you had Jake
Plumber's fourth court. I mean,they didn't have room for me. But
you know what, you know,csu kid was going to play in the
last game, and let him geta little film, right exactly, and
what I like to think, like, let him just show, let him

(18:29):
just show people that he ain't cut. And that's how it was. And
it wasn't like they put me inall. You know, the second half
and it literally put me in Ithink it was eight minutes left in the
fourth quarter and we were down bysixteen points or something, and something happened,
right, something happened. And it'sstrange because there was no reason why
it should have happened like that becauseI knew, I mean, I wasn't
practicing a regular, wasn't like butit worked, and all of a sudden

(18:52):
it went like crazy. Like afterthat game, it was like, I
know, the coaching staff and eventhe players because they came up to him
and they said, we had likeno idea. You were like throwing you
zip the ball, throwing spot likewe never even seen this. But I
was just like that what you kindof get like you know you're wrong,
Like I'm back. And so Iremember getting that call and it was really

(19:15):
strange because it was tough for thembecause they wanted to release me. I
know it, but it was hardbecause other teams were I think then they
saw because they didn't know what washappening behind the scenes, right, They
didn't know that I was in theCayman Islands. They didn't know kind of
the concept that I was like kindof off there. They might have talked
in the coaching circles. But therewas other teams. They saw that me
play and they're like, well,we'll pick him up. We can't lose,

(19:36):
and what can you lose at timesbecause obviously he's talented, but they
said coach I remember Coach Shannan.He's like, okay, we're gonna offer
you a practice squad, right,And I don't normally do this, but
because this is what the practice squadsalary is. But you know the salary.
You can't have any salary in thepractic squad and we're gonna give you
X dollars because we want you tosay yes the idea. And he was

(19:57):
right. If they would have justoffered me a practice squad at the minimum
practice squad, I would have said, hey, thanks buddy, I'm out
and I'm gonna go to the Steelers. I knew there was other people talking
like I'm out, but he wassmart enough and I think to say,
I'm gonna offer him just a littlebit more because he probably wants to play
here. And and I think atthat time what they saw was Jake was
a mobile quarterback and Bradley is mobile. Maybe he can turn into something And

(20:19):
so that's kind of how that's wholelike, you know, from the draft
to the you know, the rookiecamp to the preseason. Because but this
time I had proven I think alot of my critics wrong again, which
only emboldened me to be myself right, which again right, absolutely yeah,
And it just even though I knewthere was I knew there was an inkling

(20:41):
of issues I had to address,and I said, I'm on the team.
Everything's good, I have my quarterbackcoach, right, I'm gonna be
just fine. And so that's howit was. And it wasn't just fine
my rookie year at all. Itwasn't just fine. But in my mind
I was like, I'll just proveeveryone wrong. I will find a way
through this, and that kind ofyou know, it worked. But it
did work because I had, youknow, I was laid a few times
my rookie year to practice, Iwas living downtown, I was running with

(21:04):
the crowd. That again, itwasn't like bad stuff, but it wasn't
people that were giving me good advice. At this time, I still didn't
have I think my rookie year,I still didn't have a real agent,
So you still are not getting anyadvice that's good advice. And the people
that are giving you advice are peoplethat would, you know, say bring
you to Cayman Islands and other peopleI lived with that were just my college

(21:26):
friends. Like so, yeah,it was just a bad environment for me.
But I still was finding a waythrough it, and I was still
training hard. I mean I stilldid everything. I still like, I
was still very focused. It wasn'tlike my football focus was gone. Is
that everything in my life that contributedto the overall focus was out of whack.
But hey, I'm on the team, I'm proving people wrong, and
you know what, I'm going tobe a starter here. One day,

(21:47):
I just kind of felt that,like I'm going to be a starter here
and I'm going to find my waythrough because I'm also going to calm down,
Like I started thinking, like it'sgoing to be a slow process,
right, growing up, calming downand being a professional. Now, did
you over those next? Absolutely?Absolutely did so. Now, the rookie
year was tough year, but thesecond year is a big deal. Moved
out of downtown Denver, was morefocused, saw my quarterback coach. The
whole off season was a great offseason for me because I had a quarterback

(22:11):
coach in San Francisco, and Ilived back there, and I was humming
like I felt. So I cameinto mini camp and I was competing against
Danny canal A, Matt Mak,not Jake per Se for the start,
but I was competing for a backupposition and I was playing good and I
ended up being the backup. Sothat shows right there that now I'm legitimate

(22:32):
in my mind, like I'm absolutelylegitimate. Luckily for me, I think
I convinced Gary the way I seeit as I convinced Gary Kubiak, not
coach Shanahan, because you know Gary, I think Gary's the one that stuck
his neck out. This is againmy belief is Gary stuck his neck out
and said, hey, I thinkyou know, like the kids ain't perfect,
but look at what we're seeing.We're seeing this development because I actually
had a quarterback coach, and Iactually was practicing what normal quarterbacks would do

(22:57):
or had probably been doing since highschool. I wasn't getting coaching from a
fundamental standpoint, but what I wasgetting was I was getting the best coaching
from ex's and o's right, MikeShanahan, Gary Kubiak, and I was
seen and I was being forced atthis time. There was not like playing.
This was either vanpel can hang ornot. And intellectually they found out
that I could hang because we hadto memorize our playbooks and we had to

(23:18):
repeat our playbooks. I mean,we had some really crazy tests that people
would be blown away to know whatwe had to do to make sure that
our coaches knew that we knew theplays inside and out and that we could
not only rehearse some physically, butmentally verbally, like inside and out,
because that's because how to run thatoffense. And I passed, and this
is what I did, and soI showed enough talent and I was let

(23:41):
me tell you that second year whenI won the backup and the Broncos were
doing great. Yes, I wasstill Bradley, but things were starting to
really come down to be an evenkeel because to me, this was my
training to be a starter. Istill probably again, I still was out
there smoking cigars at steakhouses. Iwas still known to be Bradley. I'd
show up to CSU games, buteverything else to me was really getting focused

(24:06):
on football. Jake was taking meunderneath his wings. I couldn't ask for
any better situation than that that Iwas in, and I thought it's gonna
happen. And I was also contentwith not being the starter for years like
I was at that time Jake havingthe season he was his age, my
age. This was like a Steveyoung Joe Montana in my mind, where
I could be in this position foryears, happy knowing that I'm gonna get

(24:32):
my chance to be a starter inmy later twenties, because I was in
my mid mid twenties and later.So we went in and we, you
know, we had a great season, and we lost to Ben Roethlisberger in
the AFC Championship, and it wasa huge letdown because we definitely were super
Bowl caliber team and that was reallylike, wow, that's unfortunate. But
I didn't play a lot of football, and so in hindsight, this was
also the issue is they weren't puttingme in. So even though I was

(24:57):
content knowing that everything was there,everything was great, there was actually lurking
issues. Issues were they weren't actuallygetting me playtime even when they could have
all the time, even if Iwas taking snaps at the end of the
game just to get in, getcomfortable, be out there run out there.
Yes, I scored a touchdown.They got me in some kind of
this is like pre Wildcat like wewere talking about my stock in the city.

(25:17):
Yeah, so it wasn't that Iwasn't in some of these kind of
game plans, but the reality wasanything to really get Van Pelt more playtime
because he's going to be the eventualstarter was actually not I think talked about
behind the scenes. I think behindthe scenes they were talking about who's going
to be the franchise quarterback, right, And we found that out in the
draft. So I woke up inthat draft and that was a shock.
I mean, Jake Plumber and Jake'sa good friend of mine still, But

(25:41):
for me, because Jake had alreadybeen a starter for eight years, you
know, that was different story.But for me going into my third year,
it was like the same kind offeeling I got. I remember waking
up is when my brother passed awayand I had like ten phone calls on
my and I kept ignoring him becauseI didn't. I was like, I
just want to ignore it, rightbecause I don't. It was the same
way my phone's blowing up, blowingup, and I'm ignoring it and then

(26:02):
eventually when I took a phone,goes the same kind of feeling like what
I just so hard for me tounderstand because in my mind things had gone
so well. I was doing sowell, Jake had done so well,
and you're telling me they're bringing inthey traded up. And then a lot
of stuff started going because there's astory that I was a part of that
I didn't know I was a partof about all this kind of how it

(26:25):
transitioned into Jake Cutler getting to gettinto Denver. So that was a So
I went on a long hike inDenver, went up into the mountains and
just took a long hike, andI knew at that time. I said,
Okay, things are very different.Yeah, because you know, not
that I can't play quarterback another team, but this situation is ending for me
and likely ending for Jake one wayor another. And wow, And then

(26:48):
it started going what happened? AndI started thinking about the last few months,
and I'm like, huh, wow, is this really how it works?
And so that was really so youdidn't even realize those last few months
they weren't priming you to be thenext starting quarterback. You just kept picking
in your head, this is mydestiny of what I'm going to do well.
And then Jay Cutler comes in andyou're like, wait, so this

(27:08):
is the story, Susie again thesestories, No, this is awesome,
good stories. So I had myquarterback coach. So going into the second
year, my quarterback coach who wasout of Arinda, California. After we
completed the season, coach Shanahan callsme into his office and says, you
know, Bradley, I would likeyou to go see Phil Simms. And

(27:29):
I said that's pretty cool. Andhe's like, and I'll pay for it.
And I said, hey, thatworks for me. That's cool.
Phil played with my father and ChrisSimms was his boy and he's in the
NFL at the time. And Isaid that sounds good to me. He's
like, so I'm gonna pay forit. You're gonna go out, you
know, here's Phil's Memory's gonna call. You're gonna go out and train with
Phil. And I said great.But I had a quarterback coach and that
was really tough for me because Iprobably wasn't the best at communicating. But

(27:51):
I now got asked by my headcoach to go up to New York and
train with Phil Sims in New Jersey. But great because that's for my dad's
team and that's Phil Simms, andI said, hey, this is this
is cool. So I went outthere. And the issue, and this
goes back to the fundamentals of quarterbacking, is that the throwing style that I
was being taught that I was actuallygetting a little kind of refined in.
Phil Simms has a little different throwingstyle. It's a little different mechanically speaking.

(28:12):
And so I go with Phil andwe get a talk just to catch
up about my father. My dadat that time was still alive, so
he tells me stories. And actuallyPhil's wife and my father were very good
friends. So it's kind of likethis, you know, feeling like you're
a part of the family though Inever knew Phil. But I'm training and
I'm actually training with Chris Sims.His boy too, was there, and
we had you know, we hadsome receivers and we're in the bubble and
were the Giant stadium in the bubble. But I'm throwing and we were filming

(28:34):
and all this stuff, and Iand I'm learning this new style throwing.
It's how Phil and Phil actually wascoaching. You know he would at that
time, I believe he was stillwith Tom Brady coaching. Again, very
of these private things about just mechanicallyspeaking. So I'm sitting here going,
okay, hey, this works.I didn't necessarily tell my other coach,
and I went silent, and Iregret that because, you know, I'm
thinking, I'm just doing what Ineed to do. This is what you

(28:57):
know, my coach is asking me, because maybe he believes in Phil systems.
So I go out there numerous timeswith Phil. We're training and I'm
watching it, and you know,it's a little different. So it takes
a little while because the way youuse your lower body and the way you
throw and how you build strength andhow you whip balls and such took some
time. So we're driving back andforth and I remember him saying, you

(29:19):
know, we're talking about, Hey, who do you know? Phil?
I said, who do you thinkis the best quarterback draft? Right?
And you think it's like Jay Cutler. By the way, at this time,
I never knew who Jay Cutler wasbecause you know, he wasn't he
was at Vanderbilt. I guess hewas a talent, but the way I
looked at it, is I didn'tlook at college football. I was the
backup. Like literally, I hadno idea who this guy was. I
didn't even know because it wasn't somethingthat was on a radar. We were

(29:42):
a super caliber team. Like Iwas in my world like everything's going as
planned even better now, Like I'mjust like life is calm down, I've
learned my lessons, I'm training,I'm starting to really everything's going great.
So I'm training with Phil Simms andI come back and that's kind of what
But when I woke up that dayin the draft and all reflected in the

(30:03):
last couple of months, and Igo, wow, this is what happened.
I got sent to Phil Simms forevaluation. I didn't get sent to
Phil Simms to refine. I gotsent to Phil Simms to get evaluated because
coach Shanahan put a lot of emphasison Phil's analysis and his own. So

(30:25):
while I thought I was doing somethingthat I needed to do, because coach
asked me, you know it wasa good thing because it's Phil Simms,
I was ultimately getting graded and Iwas getting be evaluated. So no one
knows this besides my friends. BecauseTed Sunkquist, gm All these people,
I can just sit down at tableand I could just point to them and
tell you, I know, that'sjust how would it be Mike Shanahan's same
thing. Now again, who isBradley? You're right, I'm a virtually

(30:47):
nobody. But these stories are real, and I was there and I know
what happened, and they could saywhatever they want to say. I'll just
tell them what the truth is.And they could say, oh, Jay
this, Jay that, and Jaythis, that's fine, but the truth
is right. That he came in. It was very off. They paid
him money, he can throw theball. They traded up they thought he
was the franchise quarterback. So Itook a slant. I was very hurt
by that. I felt very cheated. At that time, Gary Kubiak left

(31:10):
to go to Houston. That washis first year. So now I lost
Gary Kubiak, and Gary Kubiak,which I felt was a big supporter and
I believe would have maybe not havemade that decision, but he was gone.
So now you have Jake Cutler comingin, and I did not take
kindly to this. So I tooka very negative slant to this, and
I entered my third season with theDenver Broncos. Very angry because this was
obvious that I'm gonna go compete.But I'm pissed because this is so blatantly

(31:36):
obvious from my standpoint that I'm noteven considered to be a starter, but
now I have to fight for survival. Jake had his own worries, right,
But Jake, again, he hadbeen a starter, and that's different.
He made his millions and millions andmillions of dollars, and I was
sitting there thinking, this is myprofession. I haven't even got a chance,
and I had amazing camps. Iremember because I remember the percentages,
because everything's tracked in percentages. I'mgoing head to head. There is nobody

(31:59):
that can tell me any thing,including and out of Jake was here to
say the same thing. I wasrefined. I was kicking butt like Bradley
Van Pelt was turning into a realquarterback because I was spending a shit ton
of time playing like focusing on quarterback. But the problem was this, you
got a multimillion dollar kid next toyou that can throw a ball, and
he was talented. There's no questionhe's talented. But it was obvious that

(32:19):
even though they say I was competing. You're not because now you have only
so many reps that are now nowthey're not going to just Jake and me.
Now you're going into a multimillion dollarfirst round pick. He's getting a
lot of reps. Well, yeah, because all of their investment is on
him. They have no investment inyou, no investment. And so for
my even though I kicked butt,it became obvious that even going in the
preseason. So the way it turnedout is I had a really I would

(32:42):
say a lackluster preseason. And thisis where you start getting this whole orchid.
People can orchestrate what they want coaches, and I firmly believe it because
I was a part of it.People don't see I didn't have a great
why everything because now I'm running withdifferent teams, the guys I was running
with, it all got thrown intoyou know, this very like unknown and
I wasn't getting the reps. Iwas getting angry because it became obvious that

(33:04):
he was there thinking about he's goingto be a potential starter. I'm not
necessarily even considered to be a backup, though as could be if I played
my cards right. A third string. So this came into Bradley this is
a case, and I just Itook it. And I started having struggles
with coach Shanahan and my offensive coordinatorbecause basically I wouldn't even look at him.
I'd go and play. But itwas just like, fu, this
is the same thing that Jake Palmerdid right later that year, same kind

(33:24):
of thing, but I did itearlier because I was just so angry that
the way it was like, youreally think you know more? You know
what they think? Yeah, wedo no more, we are better.
And by the way, this remindsyou of the stuff I saw at Michigan
State in early Colorail State. Yeah, and look at it. He's just
better than you. Let's go lookat here. And I'm like, no,
no, no, this is orchestrated. You basically are putting someone in

(33:44):
that's talented. I get it,but I'm getting less and less reps.
And now you're pointing and I'm playingnow not with second string people in first
string. I'm not playing with athird string people with the bubble guys.
Yeah yeah, Now, this wholeidea on how you play together as a
team's disappearing. But it's on thefilm. Look Van Belt and and I'm
sitting there going, Okay, Iget it now. And that's where the
anger started coming in the first time. It was the first time it wasn't

(34:05):
about disappointment. It was this isstarting to really piss me off. Yeah,
because I'm starting to see this atthe highest level, how you can
orchestrate coaches can orchestrate kids' success ordemise because they know better. I'm not
the only one that happened too.That happens all the time, but most
people don't want to talk about itbecause coaches here they have a tight knit
network. A lot of it isyou know, you're not going to bad

(34:25):
mouth a lot of other coaches becausethey might hire you one day. It's
kind of a bunch of bs.And it's kind of why you don't find
me around football and stuff, becausea lot of this stuff angers me because
once you're in it and you seeit and how they can do it.
But they get touted all these coachesas visionary. They don't talk about all
the kids' lives. They railroaded allthe stuff they did for their own personal
success because a lot of these people, I hate to say it, a

(34:47):
lot of these coaches never played afreaking lick in their life, true of
anything they didn't. So they're theones right now that are in control the
architect of their lives. And thereyou're just a pawd And that really angered
me. Se what angers me today? You can tell it's something I'm very
I don't like because it's not theway I believe things should be. It's
the way they are, but it'snot the way they should be. They

(35:08):
just shouldn't be that way because there'sa lot of players out there that can
play good football that spend their wholelife training, but there's some freaking ding
dong coach or two of them thatthink that they know better. But the
statistics say the coaches don't better becauseyou know what, the coaches aren't that
good at picking really good football players. And it shows once again, and
so many guys have talked about thisabout the business of the NFL and how

(35:30):
it becomes. You become disenfranchised atsome point because you're like I am,
I'm just a pawn in this gamethat I have dreamt about being forever and
you think it's going to be differentthan you get there and you're like,
wow, and I think railroading isa great term to use, because you
do guys get railroaded all the time. Yeah, Jake Plumber, I mean
later that year, you talking aboutthe Broncos later that year. You know,

(35:50):
Jake's a friends. I'm not goingto in specific stories that I know,
and I've talked to Jake and he'stold a story yeaheah. I'm glad
to see what he did. Imean, he paid a lot of money
to stay retired. It's amazing hestood up for what he thought was right.
And believe he's I think he's comfortablewith a decision. But it just
showed that at that time, thedecisions that were meeting went with the Broncos
under Mike Shanahan and Ted Sunquist werevery interesting. This was not Gary Kubiak,

(36:14):
right, these are these and whateverhappened and that was a demise.
Yeah, they picked it up andsome good things happened. But for the
couple of years, right, itwent really bad. And it reminded me
of stuff I saw at Michigan State. It reminded me what could have happened
at Colorado State. Maybe, youknow, if some people were on the
staff so and that kind of spunme out a little bit and that was
a difficult because then I got angry. And that's what I think was the

(36:37):
beginning of the end with me onthe NFL, because I started losing my
composure and I started cracking, partlybecause of I think of the anger and
frustration. For the first time,I wasn't a kid anymore. They released
you in September of six. Youget on with Coubs right in November of
two thousand and six. You playa little bit of time in Houston,
right a couple months, and thenthe next year you're there. But then

(36:57):
they release you in the next year. Yeah, the story there. You
know, I'm going to stand thesteam of stories, you know, but
it's similar, and again it's justmy story. And so Sage Rosenfels gets
hurt. He's the backup to DavidCarr. And you know, I played
David Carr in college. I playedBen Roethsberg in college. Right, So
he's in Freso State, so youknow they're having a tough time. Sage
gets uh. So I get acall up and this is interesting, I'm

(37:20):
actually in Minnesota. So how itwent is I'm in Minnesota by this time,
I actually read a real agent.I had a real agent going into
my third year, and this wasgoing in my fourth year. So I
had a real agent, a youngerguy, and I was in Minnesota training
with them because I had been releasedand I was training, staying in shape,
throwing footballs with other professionals. Iguess you'd call it in Minnesota.
Minneapolis. My agent lived there,so I lived. To my agent.

(37:43):
We get a call. Of coursehe's excited. I'm excited, but I'm
also not because what it was is, Hey, Houston called, they want
to bring you in, Sage Rosenfellerbroke his hand and want you to go
back up David Carr. I toldmy agent, Matt, I don't think
that's the best idea. What doyou mean I go. I just I
need to go somewhere right that thinksof me as a true quarterback. Houston
didn't bring me on as a quarterbackwhen I got released from Denver. Gary

(38:07):
Kuback didn't bring me on after theBroncos released me at the end of preseason.
This is midway through the season,so obviously either he didn't have room
or maybe we don't want Vampere Vampeldoesn't have room on the team. Yeah,
So Why am I going to ateam now just to be on a
team when I'm a backup? Yeah, as an athlete, as a backup,
when he didn't really want me asbackup. I don't need to be

(38:28):
a band aid kind of thing.I need to be somewhere because after this
whole Cutler thing, it was like, I need to be with an organization.
Not that I'm the starter, butthat says this guy can play quarterback.
We're going to train him. Hedoesn't cost a lot of money,
so it wasn't like I was asalary cap thing. But he's gonna you
know, we believe it. Ifeel wanted, Bradley, that's the thing,
don't We all want to feel wantedin different So I didn't feel wanted.

(38:49):
But he's like Bradley, He's like, you're crazy. You go down
there. And I said, okay, I'll go down there. So I
went down there and it ended upbeing fine, but it got weird because
I'm down there again. I'm sureany stories I so Gary Kuback, I
know home, and you know I'velived this, by the way, for
years. I haven't talked about it. These are like dreams. Some people
know this. I still live thisin my mind. Twenty years later,
it's like I wake up, Iam not done playing football in my head.

(39:09):
I don't know why, but it'slike the game. When I close
my eyes, the game turns backon. And it's kind of sad for
me because I know it's not real, and I know I can't do anything
about it because I can't stop it. It's there. So something got burned
into me and it really has affectedme for twenty years because it's like I
can't turn it off, and thoughI don't want to be around it,

(39:30):
I'm assuming about you almost. Yeah, I think you could probably say haunts
me because it's something that I wasin control of kind of I wasn't in
control of other times because you know, I felt I got railroaded, I
made bad decisions I could have donebetter. So a lot of these things
like and I spent my whole lifelike that was my life. Like and
I still train. I mean,I'm still in great shape, and you
are. You look like you couldplay I do. I go in and

(39:51):
out of I go in and outof like even better shape because it's like
I'm training. So it's weird inmy head at night, it's like I'm
still training to play football, andI've done that for twenty years. I
I haven't put on a uniform fortwenty years. That's kind of how it
is. And it's less than twentyyears, but call eighteen. It's strange,
and it's it does haunt me becauseI don't know if it was,
you know, something I haven't cometo terms with. I don't know if

(40:13):
they're I need to just like burythe hatchet or I need to go see
someone. But the story is justso much involved because you know, I
go to Houston, it's like partof it. I remember Gary Kubiak thinking,
okay, good, you know,I'm back with Kubes, even if
I was a little reluctant to gothere, and you know, my agent
says, it's you know you gotto go, So I'm going there.
And David Carr pretty much i'd sayhe had a horrible NFL career, right,
And I go down there and GaryKuback's a new team. But there

(40:34):
was people I knew on the teamthat came down from Denver, so I
felt like I knew people. Yeahthere, it used to be CSU South.
It was we had David Anderson,we had was there for a bit
we did. We had Mike Brizell, We had cecil Sap like I think
at that time. We had RonDaine from Denver like so I knew this
cast character. We had Charlie Adamsright, another wide receiver for the Broncos
that friends with, so I feltgood. But I remember this and I

(40:55):
saw a different light from coach GaryKubiak. I never saw he was a
head coach now, and his mannerismswere completely different. Instead of being an
offensive coordinator who kind of you know, hide, you know, not hide,
but who was underneath coach Anahan,which is a big shadow, which
is a huge shadow. But hedid well, and now he's the head
coach and there's a lot more demands. He's talking defense. I remember coming

(41:15):
up to me and he's like,vampel if you don't hold the ball right
here and you don't hit that.And this is like during one of these
plays, I'm the backup, soit means I'm running only scout for right
the first team defense, but I'malso getting a lot, you know,
pretty good amount of rep still,you know, with the team. And
I just remember this is when thecracks really started developing for me. The
first time that had ever felt thesecracks, not mentally but actually physically like

(41:35):
you'd call the yips. It wasthe pressure started getting to this idea,
and he said, you're on thefirst bus out of here. And coach
Gary Kuback might not remember this becausehe's coached a lot of people and he's
had a lot of success, right, and he's a he's a good guy.
And I think he was just basicallysaying like, you're at your end
of the road and if this isthe way you do it, and if
you don't hit this quarterback and youdon't keep this ball up here, and
I the first time I was sittingthere going I never felt that. I'd

(41:58):
never felt that kind of like pressuredwhere if something goes wrong, I'm on
the next bus out of here.And you know what he might be this
is real because the team was losingDerek Carr. I mean we were I
mean it was a pretty poor situation. Yeah, but I got through it.
And I think you know when Igot through it is I got through
that moment. So we're playing NewEngland, and where we go to New

(42:20):
England, we're playing Tom Brady.I'm the backup and coach Kuback never said
anything like he I'm gonna get youplaying time or anything during when I was
at Houston. But there was agame where we were getting beat. I
want to say, we're getting beatforty two to zero at halftime. No,
maybe was it was it thirty five, It was a start. I'd
have to go look back the exactIt was a blowout. It was a
blowout, but this is halftime.So Gary Kubiak runs by me as we
run in the tunnel and he's like, get ready van Pelt, You're going

(42:42):
in. And I'm sitting here thinking, here it is. Now, it's
not the situation you really want togo into because you're looking at like,
hey, there's a lot of problemsand I'm not going into a great situation.
But I'm like, I'm going in. Any know what the story is.
He never put me in, neverput me in, So he came
out of the tuddle. I thinkI'm going in. I'm like, here
it is. I'm gonna go throwkind of pride, mean little pressure,
right, but I'm gonna go figureit out. I can't do any This

(43:04):
isn't the thing. I can't doany worse right than what I see on
the field, Car went back inhalf. I never even went in.
That was when I think that wasanother turning point right there, because it
happened a lot of these things starthappened rapidly, and it really shook me
because not only I like really feellet down now, like tremendously, but
now I'm thinking, if you don'tthink I can do any better than that,

(43:29):
then what do you think of me? This is where they're kind of
like this anger, this kind oflike resentment started building and then this pressure.
I'm sitting there going, this isridiculous. If you think I can't
play any better than that, thenguys are controlling. This is the orchestration.
So I remain and I go throughthe season and I just go,
hey, well you know what,I'm still on you know, oh yea,

(43:49):
I'm gonna be on the stat Ihate things are gonna be good.
Well that's until they go and theyget Matt Shobb, Michael Vick's backup.
When they bring in Matt Shab,knowing doesn't come very apparent that obviously they
don't eve think i'd be back becauseit's like, now you're competing. Derek
Carr is gone, it's Jay Cutlerall over again, kind of lesser paid,
but still the same concept. Butyou have Sage rosen Fels, you
have me, And at that timethey drafted I guess a kid out of
Boise State, I forget his name, and to me, I had lost

(44:13):
respect. The anger was getting tothe point. I remember we had coach
Mike Sherman come in, who wasyou know, Green Bay guy, and
coached Brett Farv. I was pissedagain. But now I was feeling this
pressure and it was a really badcombination for me because I was getting less
reps than I ever got. ButI'm also at Houston, which I think
is a very difficult place to playoutside when it's really sweaty in your quarterback,

(44:34):
it's very difficult. I'm under thisimmense pressure I've never felt. I'm
angry now I'm starting to resent thesepeople because I'm starting to see this orchestration
of how they can railroad people whothey just don't think can do it.
But yet people like you know,David Carr can literally just have their most
horrendous performances, but the backup can. I mean, so this is I
was done, chances keep getting Iwas done, So I go on that

(44:55):
preseason. I'm pissed. I'm playingOkay, I'm still out there playing,
I'm still seeing I'm doing good.I'm training hard, extremely hard. It's
probably in the best shape of mylife at that time. And I was
always in great ship, but thiswas like I was exceptional. I was
like running around and I still hadcoaches in Houston come up to me.
This is going into my fourth season, come up to me and say,
Vampell, you know this defensive thing, and this is kind of like,

(45:15):
it's amazing to think in my fourthyear in the NFL, going into it,
I still have people want to comeand talk to me about playing defense.
It's because when I was out theretraining with everyone, They're like,
I don't know this guy. Wegot to let him play foot in a
place, we will find a playfootball. And I'm sitting here, going
just let me play churd like justI just need to play quarterback. And
so there's this one iconic moment thatand I think was kind of maybe the

(45:37):
end for me. Is Mike Shermancomes up. I'm stretching right, and
he's coached, he's won Super Bowls, Brett fav and I'm stretching he comes
up to me and he goes,you know, you know vampell is I
want to see you do well.And he's like, you know what I
think I need you to do isI think you just need to go out
there and not worry and just goplay. Don't worry, just go throw
the ball, don't think about justthrow it. Play And in my head

(46:00):
because at that position, I wasand I remember this like because he said,
can you use the term like BrettFavre's like when Brett Farva, I
mean you would just shake it off, you just go play and go throw.
And you used Brett Favre in sucha way that to me, I'm
like, yeah, because Brett Favrecan throw interceptions and miss people. But
this is nose my head because atthat time when I told you the Darry

(46:21):
Kubiak is like, if you don'tkeep the ball and throw it over here,
that was serious. If you don'tthrow all the time good balls,
you're out. Now I have myoffensive coordinator coming and telling me that I
should act like Brett Favre and playbasically with inhibition. Just go play.
The problem is when you know thatyou can't make mistakes, that you're gonna
get pulled out. The pressure justyou can't do the same time I am.

(46:45):
The pressure got to the point whereif I did anything wrong, I
was literally taken out. But Ihave coaches telling me to play relaxed.
So I go in and I haveprobably the worst game of my career in
high school college and it is.It was one of the last. It
was the third preseason game. Eventhough I thought, you know, because
coach Kubiak told me he was goingto keep me all four games to play,

(47:06):
I had the worst. I literallythrow the ball into the dirt.
I have, I mean, agame that looks like I can't play quarterback.
I got the official yips. Itcracked. So I called my agent.
I felt I was getting released.And then I called one of my
mentors. These are really different peoplein my life that were, you know,
more from some a religious background,and I said, I think I
need to hang up my boots.They're like Bradley. And I called my

(47:28):
dad. Dad was still alive.With this time. I said, I
something tells me this something's happened.Because I threw the balls in the ground,
like I got the yips, LikeI literally I couldn't throw like something
happened to me, and I said, I just think I need to quit.
My agent talked me out of it. He's like, Bradley, you
don't give the ball away. Say. He's like, let other people take
the ball away. Don't give theball away, the concept being you don't

(47:49):
quit. Let other people tell youwhen it's not done. But I felt
in my heart that I needed toget ahead of it, and I needed
to go in the office and sayI'm done, go ahead on your terms,
yeap, going on my terms.Because I sat there because what happened
was is that we still had anotherpreseason game, and I was told,
hey, we saw Vampelt last preseasongame pull it out. He just needs
to get through it. But Ifelt something is different, and I felt
that they saw it because I wasat odds the coaches. I was at

(48:10):
odds with Gary Kubiak because again Iknew it was very much like, you're
trying to give me a chance,what you say, but this is not
really a chance, this is nobelief. I'm only here what out of
historical kind of connection. So theycalled me and ended up releasing me,
and it made me feel like God, I should have just got ahead of
it. I should have just goneand quit, hung up my boots and
my terms and said not here,not now. Something's happened and I don't

(48:30):
like it. So I got releasedand I felt very good because it was
very hard for me to be inthat position. And I just was like,
I feel great. I felt great. I felt so good. I
was like, this is how it'sgoing to be. Life has to move
on. I'm done with football.I'm done with football, even though I
got released and had a horrible game. If everybody, I'm done, I
know what I can do, andI'm not going to look back. And

(48:52):
my dad was like, because Iwent back and I ended up meeting my
wife, there's a lot of goodthat happened. The way it worked for
me is I it must have beenan cards. Okay, I wanted to
play football, but I ended upmeeting one of the most important people outside
of my parents in my life.And it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't
been released. I could go onand on. My wife would be like,
probably teering up. I don't saythis stuff right, but she knows

(49:13):
because I've told her I go.I guarantee I wouldn't have met you if
I wasn't released, and I didn'tcome up here clearheaded on a transition out
of football, even though I wasn'tdone with football really, but I was.
I was done with that situation.I was done. But I was
done why, I kind of becauseI ended up training, Like a lot
of these things, don't know.I went back and I trained, and
I, you know, a coupleof years later, I had to try
out with the New York Giants andI played football in Europe. So I

(49:35):
wasn't done. But what it didis I think at that time I was
done living in that situation trying toforce me as a quarterback onto people.
It wasn't working, and I knewit wasn't working because basically the coaches stopped
believing. It was very apparent atthat time that I could not find a
way through. I could not finda way through. Even if I was
a better cork than I've ever been. I worked harder than I'd ever been.

(49:58):
I was more disciplined than I everbeen. It got to the end
of the road, in my opinion. Now, my agent thought it was
crazy that I hung up my boots, because you take a break, you
go retrain somewhere calm down, finda new staff, just recalibrate yourself.
Get out of this network, becauseremember I was still a part of the
Gary Kubiak My Champion network. Gofind a whole different coaching tree, start
fresh. But I was like,no, I don't want to start fresh

(50:20):
er. Now He's like, let'sgo to Canada. Said I don't want
to go to Canada. I goI need to take a break because something
happened in me at Houston. Iuse the term broke. I broke as
a footballer in Houston and then endedup meeting my wife, which again so
I look at it as being likea great turn of events. Even though
football never left me, and asyou know, I have like you know,
nightmares and it kind of mean mehaunts me. So that's kind of
the you know, that's the accumulation. And that was Houston and so that

(50:44):
was the end of that. Andyeah, I mean, even though I
played more football and there's good storiesbehind it, I retrained went to the
you know, with New York Giantsand was very disappointed how that turned out.
But all in all, I knewthat the decision I made when I
left that day at Houston was goingto be. You know, one of
the most important decisions I made inmy life was one of the biggest decisions.
Wow, I made. Okay,so let's go. You meet your
wife, I do, and wheredo you guys meet? So we meet,

(51:06):
so people well know that wine isa very big passion in my life.
When I left Houston, my decisionat that time was I'm going to
get into the wine business, inparticular retailing. So I was very interested
in retailing just to kind of likea subset of the industry that was interesting
to me. So some friends ofa friend said, hey, let's set
you up with this group of peopleup in Sanine's Valley and Solving, which

(51:29):
is again the wine country of SantaBarbara, Horse Country of Santa Barbara.
There's a wine bar you might beable to buy into or buy And at
that time I was like, that'sexactly what I want to do. I'm
going to go get into it,studying it like I'm passionate. Let's go.
And there was a girl working there. She was younger than me.
She was twenty one. She waswhat they said at the time was the
niece of one of the owners.And it's funny she was twenty one,

(51:51):
but she had braces on, whichis fine because you know, it was
like no big deal. But shewas so young, because at that time
I felt so old, right,I've been through a lot. I was.
I think I was twenty seven,and here's a girl who's twenty one
with braces on and literally looks likea twenty one year old braces on,
Like just young, right. Ididn't think anything of it. It was
like, hey, that's nice.My life was all over the country,
like you know, I wasn't internationalat that time, but it was very

(52:13):
much. It was all over AndI'm sitting in this little wine bar talking
wine with the owners. And thenI decide, hey, puming to buy
into it, might as well work. They said, that's a good idea.
You can work here. Say sogreat. You know this is like
my first job out of football.I was like perfect. They go,
well, this is you know whatyou get. I don't care got getting
paid. I was like whatever,I'll work for whatever. And so I
started working there and she happened tobe My wife's name's Rachel, and Rachel

(52:34):
was actually she's She's a funny,amazing girl. She was going back to
college because she got very angry thatshe wasn't kum loud, so she wanted
to go back to take a couplemore classes right to become kum loud.
And at that time I was like, that's interesting, Like you're going back,
like you don't have to right toretake some courses. I'm like okay,
and then you know whatever, Heycool. And so the attraction wasn't

(52:55):
necessarily immediate there. I mean itwas attraction. Hey, you're a nice
girl, you sweet, but you'retwenty on my life, like I got
a life, right, and itain't here in solving. But after working
and being around her, I thinkthere ended up being a mutual attraction.
And my mom, you know,she comes in. She claims that she
saw right away, right, shesaw the mannerisms of me change, though
I don't really call it that way, but she said it was kind of

(53:17):
like a body language stuff. Sothat's kind of that was how I met
her. But the interesting thing andone surprised a lot of people. You
know, it wasn't like you fallin love and you end up getting married.
That wasn't That wasn't me at all. I'd only had truly one girlfriend
up to that point, even thoughi guess I dated girls. Yeah,
you weren't a guy that like you. I didn't know, and I didn't
have girlfriends. That was. Inever had a girlfriend who was up here,

(53:37):
I mean all of my years,never had a girlfriend. My only
girlfriend was down at to see you, and who'd lived in Denver at that
time. She was my only girlfriendmy life was my high school sweetheart,
my girlfriend, and who i'd stillhad you know, some relations with.
It was the only love, theperson that knew me, that knew my
story that I felt completely normal around, absolutly. So that was kind of
how I was, And it's kindof, you know, something that people

(53:59):
didn't understand in me that you know, I didn't trust a lot of people.
I mean, I trusted for themost part, but when it comes
to my personal feelings and kind ofthe things I was fearful of, I
didn't put a lot of faith inpeople. Didn't do people like you for
who you are or for what youhave done in all of these other true
me, the true me, andshe knew the true me, which is
again true me is a good hardworkingguy. But it's more of my story
and the kind of the things thatwere I was sensitive about maybe self conscious

(54:20):
about I think she knew exactly theinside. She didn't. She knew not
what everyone else saw about me.She knew the real me. And so
this new girl, Rachel, mywife, you know, she was gonna
go get a master's. So shewas moving down south to go get a
master's. And I'm like, hey, great, that's pretty neat. Go
have a good time. Of course, she was like, so what are
we doing. I'm like, Idon't know, like but just friends,

(54:42):
Like I'll come see you. Imean, this time we started, I
guess you'd quote and you'd say dating, though I didn't use the term.
She was blown away. I meanshe was kind of like what but she
went with it because I was thisformer NFL quarterback and I'm a little older
than her, and you know,and she's like, okay, I guess
and whatever, and so we justkind of have very loose relationship. She
goes down being her master's in Irvine, California, and I decided, you

(55:05):
know, and I don't know ifit was for her, I said I
should keep training. So this iswhen I decided, Right around this time,
after a year of being out offootball, I go, you know,
I talking to my my dad wasstill alive at this time. I
go, you know what, I'mgonna retrain. You know, I'm not
done, but this is the difference. I'm not gonna go as quarterback.
I'm not going I'm gonna retrain.So I go retrain. I get an
amazing shape. I mean, andthis is now training front being quarterback.
This is training to be So Igo out actually to del Mar. So

(55:28):
what happens with my wife, whichis cool, is that I go down
to del Mar, California, whichis in San Diego, and I decide
I'm gonna live there and I'm gonnatrain out of San Diego, even though
I was training Santa Barbara. Godown there to an institute and this is
where Drew Brees went to and LadanumTomlinson. So it's very well known people's
i'ms Todd Durkin. So I'm gonnago down there and hang out Todd Dirk
and hang out the other professionals.I'm gonna train. And by the way,

(55:49):
it's kind of convenient. I got, like, you know this girl,
I know she's kind of like anhour up the road. That was
my thought, but I very muchstill had my life around the country.
I had my friend, like shewas just someone now that was included in
my life that I spent time withand that's kind of the way it was
because she masters. And then atthat time I went and trained and got
to try out with the New YorkGiants, and I thought I did well.

(56:12):
I was seeing other people, Iknow, they go vampelt Man,
You're and they decide not to takeme, and I was kind of like,
this is strange because I'm now likeeven better. Shit, I mean
again, like I am just ripping, like and that was only twenty something.
I'm thinking, if you can't putme on, specially if you can't
find a position for me, nottrying to be quarterback. I'm not trying
to be quarterback, but if you'retelling me, and I'm just but this
time, I'd already left football,so I know this concept of being broken

(56:35):
and kind of leaving it really does. And I thought, you know what,
oh well, I think my fortywasn't what they wanted it. And
I just so I was like,oh fuck, back back to the forty.
Oh my god, Like I getit, Like there's football speed,
there's track speed, and then there'sjust kind of like when there's like there's
all these different types of speeds,right, agility speed. So I decided
at this time this is when kindof interesting. I go, you know
what, I've retrained to play football. Okay, I have a loud football

(56:59):
to come back. I'm happy withit. Wine's still very much my passion.
You know, this is Italian footballteam keeps calling me. This makes
sense. I love wine. I'venever been overseas. I should just go
play football in Italy. And Igo, that's what I'm gonna do.
So I called these team back whowas trying to get a hold of me,
and they go, you want tocome out. I'm like, yes,

(57:21):
I do, and they go,oh, this is good, you're
and so I'm like, I'm goingto Italy and I was like, this
is cool, and I was eventhough I was very frustrated the NFL thing,
and I said, you know,and I didn't want to go play
Canna because the idea was like I'mleaving my life. I'd already began,
the transition had already kind of thefrustration had worn off. And I even
though the New York Giant tryout,you know, it didn't go the way

(57:42):
I wanted but I was just like, you know what, I didn't expect
it anymore, Like I get it, like it is what it is.
Go around your life. I gottabe the architect of my life. This
is kind of where this concept startreally coming in because now I'm outside of
football. Now I could, forthe most part control because football is so
controlled in so many different phases.There's only thirty two teams. There's coaches
right there. We talked about thatcan really architect your success or your failure
very easy, and I said,okay, architect of my life. I'm

(58:05):
going to Italy. I'm gonna golearn Italian, I'm gonna go play football
with the Italians. I'm gonna drinkwine. I'm gonna go see the sites
of Rome like they said I'm gonnado. And everyone's like, that's amazing.
I said absolutely, And that wasreally the beginning of my next life,
the life I'm still living. Itturned out wonderfully. I mean football
again, different football. I didn'ttake football seriously. We practice at night,
So from a football standpoint, itwasn't like great football because you know

(58:30):
you're not practicing training your right.But the concept of being cultured and now
going and meeting new people, beingsuper uncomfortable in a different culture, but
learning to manage really was eye opening. It in very like kind of a
big growth period. Back to mywife. The nice thing is I kept
saying in touch there. It wasn'tlike I was done with her, and
so I said, hey, youwant to come visit me. She's like

(58:51):
yeah, So she came out andvisited me, and I said, I
very much do my own thing,but she came out. So we always
were like together. And then whenI'm in Italy and is a good story
suasion, I know I got toend with the stories because they'll keep going
because you're going to find that thestory is something like I don't know how
I get involved in this, SoI play in the game. And there's
a lot to be said about Italyand that part of my life because I'm

(59:13):
thinking, I'm trying to stay inItaly for several years, not so I
can run away stuff, but Iwanted to become fluent in Italian. And
the experience from wine is very empoweringbecause still very much in wine. Knowing
that wine was going to be ahuge part of my life. It's important
to walk these vineyards, learn Italian, like it's very rare, you know,
and not a lot of people speakItalian. It's not like Spanish.
And so I'm there playing football,not having the best season, but again

(59:34):
I'm also trying to go see abunch of things in games. It's not
your only reason you're there, No, my only reason. So there's a
team. This just really funny.There's a team in England and there's a
coach that hears them out there,and there's this persistent coach, guy named
Guy. And Guy decides to bringhimself and five other football players to Bergamo,
Italy, where I lived and Iplayed out of to come and see

(59:59):
the team because it was a wellknown team called the Bergamullions, and to
meet Bradley. He didn't really saythat to the team, but the idea
was he was coming out there torecruit me. And I found that because
he very obvious after he was there, because all you want to do is
come talk, because you want toknow, Hey, look I got a
team in England. You're all theway out here. Yeah, I think
you should, you know kind ofconsider I'm like I'm sitting there thinking and
I don't really know about this,right, like going to England. I'm

(01:00:22):
like, going, No, Iwant to stay here in Italy. He
has the idea is I'm gonna stayhere in Italy and work, and I'm
kind of but this just actually cameout of the Great Recession, so this
was just after it. It waspretty tough and being in, you know,
an outsider in Italy. I setit up to where I could stay
in Italy. But there's this bigbutton. This is kind of where oh
my god, you know when youdon't know, Well, there's this concept
about having a visa. Well Bradleydidn't know this, and the Italian teams

(01:00:49):
all these people are very they don'ttalk about you because they don't want to
pay. This is a big process. So though you can get a visa
to play, it's a very costlyprocess. But you can only have your
on a ninet day. If you'rea trild to Europe and right area shankin,
you have ninety days. Well Inever knew this, absolutely never knew
this. So of course I'm inItaly and I'm overstayed ninety days, like
by far because I'm playing football thereand this English team, right, So

(01:01:12):
we get to the end of seasonand I go Okay, you know,
I'll come check it out. Goyou want to fly me to England.
I've never been to England. I'mlike, sure, where where is it?
Oh? The Midlands? Where?What's the Midlands? We play?
I live in Nottingham, but weplay out of Leicester. I'm like,
okay, whatever, book me aticket. You know, after a football
game, I don't want to tellthe coaches or the bergelm alliance. This
is not what I need to tellmy current team, not because they're you

(01:01:32):
know, wrong with it. It'slike we're in a football season. We're
at the tail end. It waslike a playoff game or something, right,
And so I fly out and Ileave as I'm leaving customs and I
have a bag because I all mystuff in my apartment. I'm leaving customs,
and the customs agent says, andthey're broken English, right, why

(01:01:52):
are you here still? I go, what do you mean? She's like,
you have been here, I don'tknow for one hundred and something that
that have days? Was this isover your ninety days. I'm kind of
thinking, like, so, what'sthe big deal? Like, I'm leaving
right, No, I'm leaving nobig n like and she goes, you
are not allowed back. If youtried to come back, we will take
your passport. I'm going I'm sittinghere thinking, so she gives me a

(01:02:16):
passport back. I'm going, what'sgoing on here? She just said I
can't come back. So I flyto England. I go talk to guy
and I say, this guy picksme up with his wife and there which
you're still friends who just as amatter of fact, I was just in
England a month and a half agoand saw these people and I said,
look, we have a problem.I'm not allowed back to Italy. He's

(01:02:37):
like, you know, he's inEurope. At that time, England didn't
have Brexit, so they were stillpart of the Shenghen And he's like,
yeah, yeah, you have ninetydays. I go, well, I
didn't know that, and I go, I have a problem. All my
stuff's there. I I'll have thisduffel back and I'm in England so I
had to perform the team. Thisis a big deal because now I can't

(01:02:58):
come back to Italy. I'm inEngland. I'm like, so, guy,
I don't know, we better makekind of like I don't know what's
the deal. And I said,well, the conditions are if I don't
go back to California, So theystill go back home, right. It's
like, so my stuff's there andI'll figure it out. But I said,
this is what we need to do. I'll stay here and play football
for you, but I need youto help me get a job here because
I don't want to just play football. I want to you know, Wine
is and he knew it, andhe's like, okay, so I'm going

(01:03:19):
to contact some people and I'm goingto help you out. He's a persistent
guy, go get her. Sohe made it work. So I ended
up playing football the British Football League, the British called baffa British American Football
League. I'm living in England,living with guy and his wife Kate,
and then my wife my girlfriend atthe time, she just finishes her master's.
Right, it's now I've been acouple of years since, you know,
and I go, why don't youcome out? She's like, she's
a Jewish girl. She's like,I'm not really gonna we don't live before

(01:03:39):
getting married. I'm like, oh, but why don't you just come out
and live with me in England.I'm kind of stuck in England kind of,
but I get a job with SkySports. This is what's really neat
all, this kind of architects.So it's I'm working for the called the
English wine Producers as well, soI'm kind of have like an internship and
playing football. And I said,once't you you finish your masters, come
live with me out here. Sureenough, she agreed to it, and

(01:04:00):
that was a big deal because Iknew my wife was very much wanting more
in the relationship. But this wasalso nice for me because I think at
that time was when I really startedwanting more in the relationship as well,
Like I'm not going to hang outand travel with a girl and stay with
a girl day in day out ifI don't really want to be with her.
So that's not my style. Itjust wasn't wasn't me, but this
was different, and she came outand so she was my partner in Europe.

(01:04:23):
In England. No, she onlystayed for three months. I ended
up staying there afterwards. She hadto go back because after three months of
her just doing nothing, hanging out, traveling with me around was like,
okay, and you get back youkind of have something going here, So
that that was my Europe and soI had a job with Sky Sports and
ended up coming back to the UnitedStates and resuming my relationship with my wife
still at that time just probably startedcalling her my girlfriend because her family was

(01:04:46):
getting very after three years. Waslike, okay, this is kind of
kind of something happening here. Yeah, yeah, and this isn't you won't
even call your girlfriend. It's like, this is kind of one of these
things like this is when actually oneof her uncles and it's a great story.
Doctor Kaslow's brother another doctor. Calldoctors right the family, We say,
doctor kasle get all these heads turnsfunny and I do it all the
time, right, they'll turn theiread. I just joke. I don't
have doctors in my family, soI like doctor Kazlow's everyone turns their head,

(01:05:10):
like all these brothers. But heput his hand on my shoulder and
I was at a party at hishouse. I used to call her my
girlfriend, dish. This was likemy transition. And he put his hand
on my shoulder and he said girlfriend. I said girlfriend. That was
the beginning. Dropped the ish.This is kind of like joke. You're
twenty and you're at this time,I think I was thirty. He's sitting
there in very well respected family andthis is my niece. And you know,

(01:05:32):
doctor Kazl, my father in law, he wouldn't have done that.
It's not his, but this washis good brother that you said girlfriend.
So then that was my official secondgirlfriend. So there's kind of the story
of my wife. There's again there'sall these little side fun stories. Again,
it revolves traveling and a lot againsta lot of odds. Because you
know, if she didn't want tocome out and live with me in England
and she's like, no, I'mI gonna do it, I probably would

(01:05:53):
have been like, yeah, notfor me. Like, you're looking for
a life partner, people that aregonna ride, roll with you, ups
and downs, travel with you,get in arguments, but get out of
argument, you know, come outof it. And that's kind of what
I found. It was through alot of trials, tribulations, travels with
her and so now here you areand you guys have been married for how
long? I actually base it offof my boy. So you's eight,
so I know we're having our ninthwedding anniversary. You go, So that's

(01:06:15):
that's my wife. My wife's likethat's good. You know. I'm like,
yeah, so I've been nine yearsand five kiddos. Well, I've
just had our fifth kid and she'sa little, beautiful little girl, healthy
girl. She's five months now,right, which keeps you very busy.
Your wife's a professional and you keepi mean everybody kind of piles into to
help out at home, and youstill keep doing the things that you're doing.
Yeah. Still the architect of mylife. You know, I've been
in and out of different occupations.Still very much wine centric, went back,

(01:06:39):
got a graduate degree, got anMBA, which is fun nice,
got into technology a little bit inthe Peninsula which is San Francisco, and
traveled the world. We lived backin Germany, as I told you,
for the company, just you know, kept just doing interesting, fun things,
and then settled back down right now. Because five kids, it really
it started dawning on us. Itwas only after that, I think the
fifth kid, that was like,okay, how are we going to do

(01:07:01):
this? Because I have my ambitions, professional ambitions stuff my wife does she's
a professional, and we had purchaseda dental practice for her. It was
like, okay, we got tobalance kids that have needs. They have
to get to soccer practice, theyget sick, they get sick, they
have to get school. Okay,okay, this is real life, Like
this is time to really be agrown up. I've felt like I grown
up for a long time, butnot like this to where you really now

(01:07:26):
have different souls and heartbeats that arebeating inside of me and that sense.
Even though I kind of felt itas my first couple came along, it
didn't really settle in until now.And now it's like settle like, Okay,
this is serious. You know.We got a bunch of kids,
we got businesses, we have assets, interest, all this stuff. We
have the minor responsibility that I've beenpretty good at shaking off for years and

(01:07:46):
just kind of yeah, kind ofdo this do this? Like I never
wanted responsibility to drag me down orto curtail my life. That's why I
probably didn't seek responsibility through relationships,through you know, owning certain assets are
required responsibility. I was like,I'm going to just live my life right
and have fun and I'm not doinganything wrong. Again, I'm not like
a whacko. I'm not hurting anyone. I'm just doing this, doing your

(01:08:09):
own, doing my thing. Sonow I'm here and coming back. So
yeah, it's kind of this timewhen you know you said you saw me
again, I think it all startfalling in, like, Okay, this
is kind of the rhythm. Ithink I'm going to be in for a
long period of my life because there'sno more moving my family to Germany.
I could, there's opportunities, butwe have a business. My wife settled,
My kids are in school, andmy wife's like and I'm like,

(01:08:30):
oh, you're right, it's notabout Bradley anymore. It's about other people.
It's true. So that's the Ithink kind of like a good transition
of coming back here is because thishas just happened recently in my life to
where it's really a settling effect,which is great, and it's a good
time for you to come back becauseI feel like CSU is reaching out more
and more to the alumni, tothe guys that come in and they have

(01:08:53):
you come in and they do theram walk, they have you come in
and talk to guys. You hada big talk before the showdown. Yeah,
I gotta spend time with the team. I never I haven't talked that
much football and looked in the eyesof football players like that for twenty something
years. Was it cool? Itwas? It was? It was very
very cool, very special. Iwas very appreciative of, you know,
the coaching staff and the people thatput it together because they put a lot

(01:09:15):
of faith in me in the sensethat we're gonna bring this guy out.
Yes, we met him once inIrvine because there was a lot of interesting
you know how I went and metCoach Norvell and Joe Parker, and that
was very much like an off thecuss, Like they didn't had no idea
I'd show up or anything right,like get ready, he ain't showing up,
Like you haven't seen the guy aroundhere? Yeah, I see her
like you really made it, AndI'm like yep. And I just had

(01:09:35):
a daughter too, I had myfifth daughter. So it was like there
was a good excuse. I hada built an excuse to be like,
sorry, it's far away, Ijust had a daughter. I maybe I'll
see you. The odds of mecoming out the CUCSU game or even coming
here hadn't I gone to Irvine butprobably slimmed to none because I would just
go back in and do what Iwas doing. But because I met them
and I felt that it was genuine, and you kind of get a sense
like, Okay, you guys aregenuine and you really want me. And

(01:09:58):
then he called me. Actually itwas funny. We were touring in Europe
recently and that's when I got thephone call from coach Norvel and they say,
after you know, we talked aboutman, we want you to come
back. I want you to comeback. Can you please come back,
speak to the team, spend timewith the team. And I'm like,
spend time. He's like, yeah, stay with the team, stay with
us. Like okay, I meanI'm sitting on vacation, you know,
and Sardania, you know, soakingup the sun and going, okay,

(01:10:21):
I'll commit. And I told mywife, I said, this is what
I'm gonna do. I'm gonna goout there. She's like, I think
it's wonderful. I go, andI think they're genuine. It's not like
me going to you know, rawraw rally session. It's actually I'm there
to go talk to the kids.I don't know what I'm gonna say.
I don't know you know, exactlyhow it's going to go down, but
I'm gonna go out there. Ifeel that it could be a good time.
Don't know if the team never lookedat these guys. I haven't really

(01:10:43):
because there's fifteen new players, LikeI couldn't even tell you the quarterback,
like all these things. But I'mgonna go out there and be a little
uncomfortable and sure enough as Bradley doesstuff. Even they were like, the
whole idea is even gonna show upat the ram Walk at the CU was,
you know, like they weren't sureI was even going to show up
because just getting to Colorado and travelingaround was like I did my own thing.
They wanted to drive me here.I said, nope, I'm gonna
take care of it. I'm gonnatake Ubers everywhere. I'm gonna do it

(01:11:05):
my way. But I show upto the ram Walk the day before the
game. They were like, wow, you made it so it's real.
I'm like, yep. And sothat was That was a good time.
And then I stayed with the teamand I got to settle in and talk
to them and a lot of thestuff was from my heart, but it
was very directed. Like I thoughtreally hard for the first time in years
about what could I say the kids? What's your message? What my message

(01:11:26):
would be And it's not a raw, raw message. It's not you know,
go punch him in the mouse,be tougher than them. Do this.
Like my thoughts on it are youknow, kind of cerebrald What can
I tell a twenty year old kidthat would make sense that he can actually
do now to help him win agame, because there's so many variables that
are set, and coaching staff set, the venue set, the time set,
the kids and the team are set. Like you know, you've worked
out or you haven't worked out yourstrength set. There's not these superhuman things

(01:11:49):
you can do. But what youcan do is you can try to get
them to think about a few thingsthat actually make a big difference when it
comes game time and the day before. So if you have these kind of
thoughts in your head, that tome is going to be the most powerful
thing that I could give them.And I think it got translated correctly.
I found that out because I sawhim some yesterday and the coaches got it,

(01:12:11):
and so it went it well becauseI got to talk to him at
Raalmock. But then I got totalk to him again later that night and
I got to go up in thepodium and this is before you know,
the CU game and no one's givingthem a shot, and I'm like,
I don't know. I feel guyslike, if you think about these things,
you give yourself a better opportunity.And it turned out well. I
don't think what I said was likechanged the game per se, but I
think enough people heard what I hadto say and the coaches that it kind

(01:12:34):
of rang a tune similar to whatCoach Norvell has been saying. Similar,
but it came from a former playerthat people know I have the accolades right
like, and I'm not an idiot. The message got across and I got
to repeat the message a few timespeople during the game, and I think
it's it's a good message that whenI come back and talking to the athletic
director Joe and even coach Norvel,it's like, Yeah, what you say

(01:12:55):
is that's impactful, that's real.It makes a difference coming from a former
athlete. Yeah too. You mightbe saying the exact same thing as coach
Norvel, but because it's coming fromyou, it's like your parents. Your
parents can tell you all this andthen all of a sudden, the uncle
comes up and puts a hand onyour shoulders. Like, Hey, guess
what real friend, Yeah, andyou say it in a different way,
and I think I said it ina different way. And that's what the
key is is different person, differentway, and that really makes what I

(01:13:16):
think coach Novel and other people aresaying more impactful. So it's the combination.
And so it's been good and Ibelieve, I believe that's really important
those points I point out to theteam, And it also reminded me too.
I go, you know, there'sI have a lot of football and
wisdom, and a lot of it'snot just exis and o's, as I
tell people. A lot of it'sjust about the approach you take sometimes in

(01:13:36):
situations, how to like either getthrough the situation or when you know you're
in a really bad situation. BecauseI've been through a lot of these,
I've been through the good ones andthe bad ones, and so I do
have a lot, and so Ihave to find a way in the future
here to translate some of this wisdom. I think I have to kids that
need it now. I don't youknow, and not a lot of kids
need this, but there are alot of kids out there that are in

(01:13:56):
certain situations that have extreme amount oftalent on and off the field. They
need to be able to have someonethat they can call up. And I'm
not saying I'm like, this guyis going to start fielding calls. I
don't you think people want to callme. But I do know that there's
people out there that get it,and I do think I have a unique
perspective on life now in football lifeas well, absolutely well. And that
leads perfectly into my last question,and that would be what do you tell

(01:14:16):
people, whether it's an athlete oranybody else. And you've got five young
kiddos that are going to be comingup meeting advice at some point, what
do you tell them when there's theups and downs? Because you did it
to a very very different drummer,your own drummer. Sometimes that's good,
sometimes it's not. That's a goodThat's a loaded question, I know.
I guess my response to you anythingis you know where you have to know
the situation you're in. I don'thave a generic response because I think a

(01:14:41):
lot of responses, for the mostpart, have to be directed to a
particular situation. So if you knowthe situation and you know some of the
backstore, you know some of theelements or variables in it, then you
can craft a pretty good response,right and advice. So there's really no
this is my generic answer, butI do think on one thing i'd think
I would tell kids, especially ifthey're situations or the kids here is you
know you're doing this for a reason, all of it. You're training for

(01:15:02):
a reason, You're here for areason. You really got to figure out
that reason. Are you doing itfor fame, you're doing it for money,
doing it for yourself, you're doingit to be cool? Like what
are you doing it? And ifyou could figure out why you're really doing
it, it's gonna help you answera lot of questions that you need to
answer personally. You know, whateverit is is okay. If you're doing
it for money, I get itbecause I actually played football a lot for
the money at one time. DidI play for the stardom? Yeah?
I did for a lot of ninetime. But so there's a lot of

(01:15:23):
like what are you doing it for? I never did to be cool,
I never did to get girls.I never did all that stuff. But
that's okay if you did, becausethen at least you understand how to approach
situations. Because I would say ifa kid, and this is a hypothetical
because you got me on it andsomeone said, hey, you know,
honestly, Bradley, I don't careabout being a start in the nf I
don't care about making the NFL.I just you know, it's fun being
on the team because gives me status, because I get better treatment at school,

(01:15:45):
because I get preferendial. I'll belike, good, So now you
know this is how you exist.Don't get frustrated to coaches, right except
that you're going to not play.So you could craft that message to where
they're like, okay, I'm okaywith that. Okay if I'm you know,
not starting, because I'm not gonnaput my self confidence in the fact
that I'm starting, because really I'mon the team because of these other benefits
and that will allow me to havesuccess on the team, not get disgruntled,

(01:16:06):
not get angry, because really thebenefit I'm trying to take out of
this, right is this. Andyou know, so that's kind of the
that's my tangent on that question.So I like this, So, did
you play to be a starting quarterback? Absolutely? I played to win championships.
That's why I never wanted to bea backup. So when people ask
me, why weren't you just abackup, I said because I couldn't be

(01:16:28):
a backup because it ate at meevery day, because I wanted to be
on the field plane. I wantedto be a championship quarterback. I felt
I had the talent. I feltthat. I believed that I still will
always believe it. No one doesn'tmatter what coach had, how many Super
Bowls's won, could ever tell methat I didn't have the talent and the
capability. And so being a backupwas not in the cards for me because
it ate at me and I couldnot collect money and go home and feel.

(01:16:51):
So that's why football didn't work outfor me. I could not be
backup. Didn't work. You know. I wanted to be the quarterback,
the starter, the championship quarterback thatwas down history and we'll look at my
dad and be like, hey,you know we're both you know, all
pros kind of thing. That wasthe goal. Just didn't get there.
This was awesome. Well thanks forletting me talk, because I'm sitting here
look at my phone going well,I don't know, I feel better.

(01:17:12):
I tell my friend, this isliterally my friends here. Josh He's like,
dude, you're gonna be there likean hour. I go, I'm
gonna be there ten minutes. Igo, what could we talk about?
Josh? He's like, you're gonnabe there. I'm looking this. It's
been like three hours, right,it's been three hours. So what happened
is is I'm sitting here thinking Ididn't really know how the podcast is.
I didn't know if it was verydirect, like, hey, what do
you think about? Cso asked that. You never asked any of those questions.
It's never about so what do youthink about? The chances are yeah,

(01:17:33):
no, this is all about you. Yeah. So I didn't know
that. So I didn't know thiswas And when I when you said here,
we're gonna go from the start.This is, you know, three
hours ago, I go, sorry, no, that's fine because I think
you know, it's actually nice.It's nice because after all these years,
I don't think I've ever given norhave I been asked right. And I've
been asked in different ways, butit's not It's never been the venue right

(01:17:53):
or the time to get into thislong talk because I don't think and I
know we're still talking about I don'treally think people care to hear my story.
I don't know what they do.No, I know, but this
is me, this is part ofit. I am not wrapped up in
myself. I think I have prettyunique stories. I think there's some fun
stories, there's some heartbreak stories,there's lost stories. I've been there,

(01:18:15):
I've felt this the highs and lows, and but I don't feel that it's
necessary for me to go tell peoplemy story. I don't need a microphone.
I just want to live my lifeand live it and then one day
when it comes up, you go, what have you been up to?
Well, this is the story.Yeah, and the football story is unique
in that transition. So I'm gladthis came about because it needs to at

(01:18:35):
least be told in a way thatpeople kind of can get it, like
yes, get it, and notjust part of it. At least be
like, Okay, now I knowhow it really happened and how you're made
Yeah thoughts, yeah, yeah,no, AND's And that's one of the
cool things about this. And I'vehad so many of my guests say that
we're like, nobody's ever asked meabout my story. And I think that

(01:18:57):
now podcasting gives you that venue oflike we can sit here for ten minutes,
or we can sit here for threehours. And you know some guys
that it does it goes a littlebit faster, and other guys, I
hit the record by way, Well, well I'm glad we have the time.
Hit the record, and I,of course I went off. You
know, you asked me a question, and I go off in the tangent.
So I really, I think Isaid in the beginning, I don't
know what Tangents'm gonna go off onbecause it sparks this new like side story

(01:19:19):
or this new not new story,but it sparks the idea, hey,
there's there's more to this story.Now there is, and I need to
tell it because again, you wouldn'treally know the whole story. And of
course it's still not enough time allin your life too, and I don't
really know, and I would liketo know because it makes me think too,
I don't know a lot about you. I've known you for years,
and so I'm also that type ofguy where I feel, especially after I

(01:19:41):
tell my story and talk to myself, it's like, what about you?
Right, what about what's Susie?Like? I don't know you grew up.
You know what I'm saying exactly.Yeah, you know what, next
time, we're gonna have a conversationwhen I come back to interview me.
Yeah, I'm you, So wecan interview. It doesn't have to be
on podcasts, because I don't know. If you want to, you know,
have a podcast about your story,that's your choice. We're gonna go
sit down, right, and we'regonna go sit down and have you know,

(01:20:01):
a lunch or something. We gonnahave some wine. I like wine
and you probably know the great wines, so yeah, I mean, yeah,
I've been privy to some good stuffand I know my way around a
little bit. Yeah, but yes, we'll go and I would like to
hear more about because that would bereally cool because I think it also brings
me more in touch, in connectionwith the people of my past, and
when I come back, I'm gonnafeel more inclined to want to see people

(01:20:25):
because I'm gonna know more about them. I talked to Caleb Haney last night
and he's like, that's the longestI've ever talked to Bradley ever, for
like ten seconds. Broke a record. The guy. Yeah, it's just
you're getting to know some of thepeople again, and it means a lot
to them, and it's obviously meaninga lot to you to kind of reconnect
some dots from the past. That'svery true. And my wife is very
happy I'm doing this. I'm andI'm happy. But boy, it's taking

(01:20:47):
twenty years or so, and that'sokay to do it. I would say,
actually about ten years since i've maybebeen back when you went into the
Hall of Fame. Yeah, Ithink so right around I think it might
have been right around that time.Yeah, And I think actually I might
have been back again. But asI told the coaches, I didn't tell
anyone, so I might have beenback once. And I went to a
game and like hit and just satthere. And that's why I remember that,
because somebody's like, you had apicture of so you were in the

(01:21:09):
stands somewhere. Yeah, So peoplehave like see us, like where's wall.
No, They're like, we've Ithink we've seen it somewhere, but
he like he's gone, but hewas sitting over here. But it's really
strange. We're not sure if itwas him. And I remember, like
I think I did that once andI just felt really uncomfortable and I'm like,
this is just not like how Iwant to do it. And I
think that's when I was like,I just don't need to go back right,

(01:21:30):
And but the timing's right, andI feel a lot more comfortable and
everyone's been so just so nice,and let's go rams right, let's go
get against them. And I justasked you literally last night if you wanted
to do this today. So thankyou for the time today, because I
know you've got family here, you'vegot friends, and so this was super
cool and well, people are gonnalove hearing it. Well, thank you,
and I appreciate you having me onand giving me the opportunity and asking

(01:21:50):
asking the questions that a lot ofpeople don't ask. You. Well,
you're very welcome. Thank you.It's what I like to do. Wow,
right, BVP is no longer awell there's still some mystery to him.
Thanks for checking out Bradley's conversation.Remember to follow and download this podcast
wherever you listen to podcasts, andkeep up on new releases by following on
Twitter and Instagram at CTFR podcast andalso on the website at ctfrpodcast dot com.

(01:22:15):
I'm your host, Susie Wargen Tofind out more about me, visit
susiewargin dot com. Until next time, please be careful, be safe,
and be kind. Take care,

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Bradlee Van Pelt - Part 2

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Bradlee Van Pelt - Part 2