September 26, 2023 • 32 mins
After a stellar career at Notre Dame, he was projected to be a high first round NFL draft pick in 2007. Brady Quinn and his family were invited to New York and his handsome face became a staple for camera “cutaways” during the draft broadcast. The cutaways increased as Brady dropped farther and farther into the first round and eventually NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell asked Brady if he and his family would like to move to his Green Room. They happily did.
Brady was drafted 22nd overall by the Browns where he got his first NFL start and first benching. Cleveland traded him to the Broncos where he never played a regular season snap in his two seasons with Denver. He signed with the Chiefs in 2012, then in 2013, spent time with the Seahawks, Jets and Rams. He retired in 2014 after a short training camp sting with the Dolphins and went straight into broadcasting with zero experience.
He's been a quick learner. These days he is a daily co-host on the Fox Sports national radio show “Two Pros and a Cup of Joe” as well as an anchor on Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff. He dabbles in a number of other broadcasting ventures and when at home, he’s husband to USA Olympic gymnast Alicia Sacramone and father to their four children.
Brady was drafted 22nd overall by the Browns where he got his first NFL start and first benching. Cleveland traded him to the Broncos where he never played a regular season snap in his two seasons with Denver. He signed with the Chiefs in 2012, then in 2013, spent time with the Seahawks, Jets and Rams. He retired in 2014 after a short training camp sting with the Dolphins and went straight into broadcasting with zero experience.
He's been a quick learner. These days he is a daily co-host on the Fox Sports national radio show “Two Pros and a Cup of Joe” as well as an anchor on Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff. He dabbles in a number of other broadcasting ventures and when at home, he’s husband to USA Olympic gymnast Alicia Sacramone and father to their four children.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
That day wasn't a day where Ilike suffered in any way. The toughest
thing about the green room was,you know, I knew what I signed
up going on to New York.You know, my parents didn't. My
family didn't. They weren't accustomed tobeing in the spotlight. And that's the
only reason why when Roger Goodell came, I think it was somewhere on like
pick thirteen fourteen, it was like, hey, if you want to come
and use, you know, mygreen room. Welcome to Cut, Traded,
(00:22):
Fired, Retired, a weekly podcastfeaturing conversations with professional athletes and coaches
who have experienced being cut, traded, fired, and or they're retired.
I'm your host, Susie Wargen.Anyone watching the NFL Draft in two thousand
and seven remembers how uncomfortable the broadcastbecame when Brady Quinn, who was on
site in New York, was slidingfarther and farther down the first round.
(00:44):
The cameras would cut to him aftereach pick when his name wasn't called,
and eventually Brady and his family wentto a green room and they were out
of camera shot. The quarterback wasstill chosen in the first round at number
twenty two by Cleveland, and thatwas Brady's first real taste at the business
of the NFL. He became abit of a journeyman for several teams,
including two years with the Broncos,where he never played a snap. These
(01:07):
days, Brady's flourishing with a nationalradio show, part of Fox's Big Neon
Kickoff, and many other broadcasting duties. I was able to catch up with
Brady when he was in town fora CEU football game, and the green
room trailer that we use didn't quitehave the best acoustics, so my apologies
in advance for that. Nothing's quitelike being in the studio, Ladies and
(01:27):
gentlemen. Brady Quinn, Brady freakingQuinn. Finally it has Yeah, like
a year ago I contacted you,but you're busy. Yeah, but now
the epicenter of everything is bolder Andso now you've been here a couple of
times and we get to catch up. I love it. Do you have
a reolder I could speak with aboutbuying property out? Are you there?
(01:49):
You go? You need to helplook for a property here in Boulders.
I think we're gonna be back intwo weeks, probably Okay, yeah,
I know it's going to be yournew home away from home. Yes,
yeah, this place is awesome.It is awesome, isn't it. Yeah,
well, thank you. This isfantastic. You spend a couple of
years with the Broncos, which technicallyqualifies you for the podcast because I have
some kind of a Denver tie witheverybody, or a Colorado tie. So
(02:09):
so it's great. So we're gonnastart back at the beginning. Brady,
you were a Columbus Ohio guy.Ohio owns you and loves you, and
that's where you are cherished. Whatdid you do growing up besides football?
And when did football kind of becomeyour main sport? I grew up always
playing you know, football, baseball, basketball, there's my three sports.
And sports was obviously huge part ofjust my lifestyle, like especially in the
(02:30):
Midwest, when things would get coldand turns snowy, you go and inside
play basketball. I think I wrestledwhile I was young, didn't really like
that quite as much playing basketball,so you know, transition quickly to that.
And then my dad from the youngestage, whether it was skipping rocks
or just playing catch whatever, healways had me throwing something so a naturally
quarterback, naturally pitcher catcher in baseball, like just kind of came to me
(02:53):
at a very very young age.So that was really start of it.
That was what kept me busy outsideof my parents make me have a job
and helping out my dad picking upnails and things on that different job site
because he was a homebuilder. Iwas always busy, you know, outside
of school, just with different sports. And you're the only boy, your
sandwiched in between two girls, Sohow is that Growing up? It was
awesome for me because I was soblessed to have an older sister that was
(03:15):
that perfect first child. Every singleclassroom I walked into, everyone knew about
Laura. And because Laura was sucha good student, she was so sweet,
she was so kind, and itwas actually kind of like big shoes
of field because I was like,oh no, no, I have to
be this guy after her, becausethat's the expectation. She really set the
bar high. I was a tremendousstudent. And then Kelly and I really
(03:36):
connected from an athletic standpoint. Shewas a super super athlete, Like a
lot of people don't understand the magnitude, you know, she was on track
to be on the national team forUS. When soccer she had was like
a three time GATORAD State Player ofthe Year. Like everything Lebron did in
high school she did, but thatwas how accomplished she was. Unfortunately,
when she went to UVA, shetore Racel twice same and ees, so
it really impacted her soccer career.But you know, grew up at two
(03:59):
s. There's positive and negatives toit, right, Like you're looking for
other buddies. Ironically, like myclosest group of friends, you know,
it was all guys who did havebrothers, like only had sisters, so
we all kind of bonded with eachother like we were brothers. But you
know, you also get to hangaround some of your sisters. You know,
cute friends, right, you gotthat, You got some that are
younger and so kind. It kindof works out, especially as a young
age. Yeah, a lot tochoose from there. So when did football
(04:21):
really become kind of your staple inhigh school? In your junior and senior
years, you know, for overtwo thousand yards and that's when you really
got noticed. My sophomore year inbaseball, we had one states I had
played on varsity, kind of playedup. We had a really really good
team. I kind of thought,okay, like baseball is going well,
maybe that's what I'm gonna do atthe next level in college. And then
that that fall we had a newhead coach, Mark krabstre He came in
(04:43):
and we kind of found ourselves.Throughout the course of the season. There
was a game in Grove City,Ohio that we kind of was a two
minute drive, last second, youknow, drive to go basically win the
game, and that really catapulted usinto the playoffs, which when led to
a playoff run which was the furthestour high school I ever been at that
point. We lost in the StateSTEMIs to San Xavier. But then it
was like all these offers started pouringin, all these schools wanted me to
(05:05):
come visit, and so different thanhow it is today. You know,
back then you had to go,like you had to go see these places.
There wasn't like Nike camps weren't big. Under Armoor camps weren't big.
You know, you would travel aroundlike my mom and I put in a
ton of miles. We had likea caravan where we were following Ted Gid
Senior, who was a head coachat Cleveland. Glenville used to have this
(05:27):
big bus, and Dante Whitner,who was a first round pick, his
son Ted Gid junior in corn OhioState. We were following all these guys
and we basically went all throughout theSouth and come back up through and all
throughout the North Midwest, came outto Colorado visit the campus here. I
had some family out here, sothis was like as far west as I
could come and probably feel comfortable becauseI'm a mama's boy. Sure, and
(05:47):
so it was probably after that juniorseason where I was like, Oh,
this is gonna be the ticket,and then maybe I can play baseball as
well, because I really love justplaying every sport. Didn't even allow you
or say that you could do thatwhen you were talking to him. Notre
Dame would have let me. Indianaactually came on there like you can play
both, you can do whatever youwant. A couple of the max smaller
schools too, that had initially comein for baseball and also football, They're
(06:09):
like, do whatever you want.Notre Dame would have probably allowed me to
walk on. It just never workedout the way I had hoped to.
I didn't envision myself playing so quickly. I mean I played in every game
starting my true freshman year and startedmy fourth game, you know, moving
on the rest of my career.So I never had spring ball when you
grow up in the Midwest, soI wanted to experience that. My coach
gets fired after the second year,so we have a new system, so
(06:30):
I'm learning that that next spring ball, and then after my junior year of
college, you know, that wasconstantly maybe going to the NFL. So
there was no thought whatsoever. Imean, Charlie Weiss wouldn't let me think
about essentially doing anything other than footballat that point. Yeah, that tree
does not go beyond football. Idon't think not at that point. I
mean, when you're literally having tomake the decision we're not even want to
come back to school or go intothe draft. At that point, it's
(06:53):
kind of decided for you. Youbring up Charlie Weiss. He comes in
after two years at Notre Dame.What kind of a difference did his coaching
style I'll make for you, Well, it was a complete one eighty.
I went to go play for TyWillingham, and Ty Willingham was the type
of man that you would never hearhim cuss. He was a man of
strong faith and he would share thatwith you and just had a completely different
way of teaching and the way hewent about being a leader. And then
(07:15):
when Charlie came in, almost aone eighty as far as the style,
you know, very much similar toBill Parcels. He was gonna trying to
push your buttons. He was fromJersey, so you know, he kind
of uses some colorful language at times, and he would make sure to let
you know when you weren't doing itthe right way, and he'd stay in
front of everyone. And that washis different style, right because he always
felt like if he was in ateam meeting and he could get on you,
(07:39):
he didn't have to do it toguys who maybe weren't as mentally strong,
because they felt it too. They'relike, oh, man, if
he's chewing him out, I don'twant to be the next guy. So
that was more of his style ofit. And honestly, I kind of
fed to it because I've never beenone who's enjoyed just some and saying hey,
great job, great job. Imean, that's honestly, it's kind
of problem with broadcasting, right,Not every show good or great when I
(08:03):
know it wasn't. And so I'mthe type we're like, you don't need
to tell me anything if I'm doingmy job. What I want to hear
every time those constructive criticism, likeI want you to say, this is
what you needed to better and thisis why, this is how. And
Charlie was like that. I reallyleaned on that. I really gravitated towards
that. That was a good changefor you. It was a good change,
I mean, and the style ofoffense was a good change. He
(08:24):
gave me more control. I gotto do everything. I was making the
calls in the line of scrimmage controlat all and that played more to my
preparation, my process of getting readyfor the game and helping me feel more
confident when I was out there inthe field, which is a big piece
of it as well. So you'rethere for four years, you double major
right finance and poly side. Yeah, so you fit all that in.
It was tough, I mean,and I really was basically done going into
(08:46):
my senior fall. I went upto early summer school every summer, and
my goal was when I got toNotre Dame and made that decision was it's
either gonna work or it's not.I'm either going to be hopefully having a
Hall of Fame career or I'm notand I'm not even going to play and
start and all that. So Iwanted to have a foundation of my educational
background that would allow me to goback get my MBA or get my j
(09:07):
D MBA, and whether it wasI want to practice law or try to
get into the finance world. Ihad a well rounded education. So that
was my goal, and honestly,like my career ended up following somewhere in
between. The weird thing is likeyou always prepare for like best worst case
scenario. No one prepares for like, well I was if you fall somewhere
in between. Yeah, well Iwas. If you played for like eight
(09:28):
years and you're thirty, Like atthat point, you're not like thirty eight
thirty nine where you're like, Okay, I'm done. I've played for a
long time. I've made enough whereI don't really have to do anything,
and I probably still would have alwayswanted to do something after. But it's
also not like the guys who knewright away, hey, I'm done with
football. I have to move onwith that next step in my life,
and now I have eight years tobuild into that professional or more stabilized.
(09:50):
I was at a point where Iwas like, Man, I'm transitioning into
what I'm like the old guy anymorenow when you're like, look at all
your other friends and their careers they'rebuilding. So it was unique at that
point as far as transitioning out ofthe NFL, how it kind of happened,
and just a lot of the thingsthat kind of shape where I'm at
now. Well, let's start goingthrough that then, and we'll talk about
first of all, the draft.You're projected to be a top ten draft
(10:11):
pick in two thousand and seven.I think everybody saw the broadcast and you're
there and then you just keep slippingand then they put you in another room,
and I just I was like,oh my gosh, I mean,
my heart just hurt for you.I didn't know you back then at all,
But what was that like and howdid you mentally come out of that?
When the Browns picked you at twentytwo. I'd always start off by
(10:33):
this like that day wasn't a daywhere I like suffered in any way,
Like, okay, could I thinkeverybody suffered before you just got my ass
kicked in the sugar bowl by LSU. Like that's suffering. Like I tore
my PCL and I had to hideit throughout or try I thought I should
hide it thought the entire process.So like that was warm difficult than sitting
in that green room. The toughestthing about the green room was, you
(10:56):
know, I knew what I signedup for going on to New York.
You know, my parents didn't.My family didn't. They weren't acustomed to
being in the spotlight. And that'sthe only reason why when Roger Goodell came,
I think it was somewhere on likepick thirteen fourteen, it was like,
hey, if you want to comeuse you know, my green room.
That was his first draft. SoI don't think he's allowed them to
do that ever since we left.And it's probably because we've left his green
room with a ton of chipole Isitting around the side of it. But
(11:18):
you know, at one point Ilooked back and I was like, you
know, I don't think my familyfeels comfortable being on Cama anymore, and
so let's get them out of this. I think I did an interview with
Susie Colbury. I remember that andthen ended up going kind of sitting with
him until I was eventually drafted.But there's not like a regret, you
know. I mean people are alwayslike, well, what would you have
rather done? I'm like, well, I have family members who went to
New York, had an unbelievable time. They'll never go back again in their
(11:41):
life. They're not the type ofpeople who are like, all right,
let's like frequent a big city andknew that kind of experience. So it
wasn't a day where I like suffered. It was a day where I was
like, of all the things thatwere said to me throughout the entire process,
in the draft, I was finallyable to find out what was true,
what was real, And it kindof relates back to when I chose
a good Notre Dame. One ofthe things that I was really drawn to
(12:03):
you with Coach Willingham was he didn'tpromise me anything. He wasn't one of
those guys who had to sell me. He just said the only thing I'm
going to promise he was a chanceto compete. And I'm like, masthm
was truthful thing anyone said the entiretime this process, and that was one
of those small things that in theend, when you're talking about like my
final three real house day, MichiganNotre Dame, it was the most honest
thing anyone that'd send to me betweenthose three schools, and then you compile
(12:26):
the religious portion of it, youcan pile all these are the things that
you're looking for, the education,athletics, it just seemed like a better
fit. And so that was kindof the tough part about the draft was
is like you don't know who's sayingwhat to you, and everybody hear yeah,
you don't get the pick, theyget to pick, and so you
don't know what's real what's not.And when Cleveland traded up, it's like,
okay, well, now I knowthere was genuine interest. And you
(12:48):
know, Phil Savage told me thenight before the draft, he said,
hey, if you enjoyed Thomas,what they were gonna take Joe at three?
And so I knew what to expect, at least from Cleveland. It
was Miami that was really the morecontroversial one, based on what I was
communicated to me to night before thedraft. So you sign a five year
deal with Cleveland, you stay inOhio, you end up debuting that rookie
season, the last game of theyear, I believe, yeah, it
was. It was vers San Franciscowas forty nine ers, which was one
(13:09):
of the teams I kind of grewup rooting for Cleveland and San Francisco.
What was your debut? Like,well, so cold, Like I was
so cold, and Derek Anderson andhurting his throwing hand and so you kind
of get thrusted in and my feetfelt like cinder blocks, and I'll never
forget. I think Mike Nolan wasthe defensive coordinator back then, and they
brought on the very first play wehad a little it was like a little
(13:33):
quick flash fake to the tailback andtrying to get the full back in the
flat. They brought a double cornerblitz. I remember, like from under
centator, like getting into my fakeand getting my drop and thinking like,
oh my gosh, I'm moving soslow right now. This is awful.
I think the ball ended up gettinglike tipped by the guy who was blitzing.
I was trying to like fit itin over top of him. Ended
up being incomplete. It was like, Oh, I just hope I can
(13:54):
get warm enough to be able tomake a few throws. Unfortunately, converted
a few third downs. We wereknocking on the door how to drop in
the end zone and ended up settlingfor a fuel goal. But I was
like, okay, we wanted toend with points. We ended with points.
Even though it was like one drivein Week seventeen of the season.
It gave me all the confidence headinto that offseason. Absolutely. Yeah,
And then you bring up Derek Anderson, He's who you're backing up then continuing
(14:16):
throughout the next couple of years.Right going into your third year, Romeo
Cornell's fired. Yeah, Romeo Cornellgot fired. Eric Mangini came in and
we had a quarterback competition. SoI got to start that third season.
And it was unfortunate because the seasonbefore I felt really come from that offense.
You know, first game played prettywell versus Denverrun Thursday night. We
didn't get the win. Obviously,nice to come back win by Jay Cutler
(14:37):
at the time, but it feltgood about where we were at. And
then we're on Monday night football playingthe Bills. I break my right indext
finger and you know, I tryto play the next week, really can't
throw effectively, and they're like,hey, let's shut it down. We're
gonna put pins in your finger andbeing cast it up and unfortunately not being
able to come back this season.So that was that. And then once
the coaching change happens, You're going, all right, I've been through this
before in college, right, what'sthis like in the NFL. So for
(15:00):
me, it was tough because allthe people who were advocates for you,
who traded up to take you,they're gone, like they're gone, and
you've got a new head coach,a new general manager that only lasted eight
weeks, you know, George betweenus, he got fired like immediately,
and I'm going, Okay, whatthe heck is happening right now? And
so it was tough. Like thatyear was tough. You know, I
started for the first time in mylife. I got benched. We were
(15:22):
not a good football team. Weknew pretty early on that season wasn't good.
Derek came in, he didn't playvery well. And so I'm sitting
there and meanwhile, you know,the business side of things is eating at
you. Because I had a bigbonus in my contract, I sat out
just the amount of time I neededto to not be able to earn it.
Those sorts of things like at thetime, it's more of the competitive
side of me wanting to play.As I look back on it, you
(15:43):
think you hate to think that likethat was why they did it. Yeah,
it doesn't make you wonder if that'scourse. And obviously the media was
aware of it. And that's oneof the things that the longer I played,
the more I understood how was abusiness And when we're talking about millions
and millions of dollars and not havinga chance to even make the playoffs that
see and of course they're gonna tryto save where they can. Those sorts
of things were frustrating. And obviouslyI traded after that season to Denver,
(16:06):
so it was really didn't matter atthat point as a move point. But
it was tough kind of dealing witha lot of the ups and downs of
that third year. Yeah, dealingwith some of those things. How did
the benching happen? Who tells you? And how do you get through that
mentally when you're benched? It wastough. I mean, I was six
for eight. We're playing on Baltimore, sixth for eight, and I made
one poor decision drop back and oneof the things we're playing against Edd Reid
and the Ravens. They discuss coveragewell and had I stopped out on the
(16:29):
backside a little nine yeard stop routeto Braylon Edwards. And so as I
started drop back first three steps andI'm confirming what I thought pre snap.
Safety look at you're starting to movingthe little field. I know I'm gonna
have a post I safety want onone the on the week side, and
I like that matchup. So asI kind of turned to plant and throw
because you're gonna hit your fifth step, you're turning and you're putting that ball
in a spot timing, I kindof get a feeling because I can't see
over early over the left tackle overJoe and the d end that the quarterbacks
(16:52):
kind of squatting. And then asthe ball releases from my hand, I'm
like, oh no, I don'tknow it was McCalister who it was,
but he had played just off enoughto give a feel for that. But
really, here's playing a cloud coverageand the safety ended up working in the
middle and then back over the deephalf. And in that case, you
know, Brylan should have converted it. I never should have looked there.
Whatever. That's that sort of stuffhappens, but one play. And then
(17:12):
once that pick happened, we wenta halftime. They were like, hey,
we're gonna sit you down. We'regonna put in Derek, and Derek
threw three interceptions in the second half. So I'm thinking like, Okay,
I'm gonna get my shot next week. And of course that doesn't happen,
and I'm sitting there a thing tomyself. You gotta be kidding me,
So, you know, I kindof just sit through what was a tough
(17:33):
stretch, you know, where you'retrying to prepare, You're trying to give
everything mentally physical you can to beready for the next opportunity. But it's
hard. And I think in momentslike that, you lean on your faith,
you leave on your foundation of youknow, those moments early on in
your life where whether it was highschool, you know, when I wasn't
quite yet the guy until I wasthe guy and then everyone's like, oh
wow, this is like a legitstate title contender, or even when I
(17:56):
was nine years old and people didpick me initially beyond the A team and
travel base, well, right,they picked me to be on the B
team, and every time we playedthat eight team we'd whoop their ass Caeson
language. But but those are thethings that stick with you, and you
have to remind yourself of that inorder to be able to be mentally tough
enough to handle and say, Look, there's a lot of people out there
that don't believe in you, butthis has always been the case. There's
always gonna be doubters. You've gotto continue to keep having the mental fortitude
(18:18):
and strength to understand that. Likewhen you get that an extra opportunity,
you keep working, you're gonna beable to succeed. And it doesn't help
that it's in front of your homestate at that point. And then the
trade comes to Denver. How doesthat go down? Yeah, I got
a call from I forget who thegeneral manager was included at the time.
He probably got fired after like alot, but honestly, I've never met
him, so I thought it waslike a prank call. I didn't think
(18:40):
it was real until Josh McDaniels calledme and I was like, oh,
I just got traded. I waslike, this is how this works.
Like I thought my agent would contactme first or something, and someone let
me know and I call it myagent efforts. I'm like, did I
just get traded? And he's likeyeah, He's like they just reached out.
So it's funny that the year beforebefore I went to year through with
Cleveland, my agent did tell methere's a cop teams who are trying to
bring me on then, so Iknew that Cleveland might have been shopping me
(19:04):
or talking about it. But atthat point, you know, Mike Holmgren
came on in Cleveland and we'd hada really good conversation and I wasn't really
sure what was going to happen,but I knew they probably we're gonna do
something because they felt like Eric Mangini, who was the head coach, and
I like working at work together,you know, from that point moving forward.
So it was surprising in some waysthat how it happened. I wasn't
(19:25):
surprised that it did happen, ifthat makes sense. Sure, And so
you know, I was packed upmy car, I was all packed up.
I had a foot injury my thirdyear, had a list frank injury.
So I was literally working with aphysical therapist about what had a job
to Cleveland for the offseason workhouse.So Josh calls me and I'm like okay,
and I was at the time,I was with my now wife.
She starts breaking down, crying andshe's not sure, like what's gonna happened?
(19:48):
Yeah, and I'm kind of lookingat her saying, look, we'll
figure this out, you know,like everything else. But let me go
out there and you just find aplace to live and start working out and
started getting with them guys and startkind of learning the offense, and so
it it was a whirlwind. Honestly, there's not many professions you can be
in where you all of a suddenone day find out you got to change
jobs, go somewhere else. Andthen I always say, learning an offense
it is like learning a new language, and so it's it's like I was
(20:10):
learning a language that I used touse back in college. But how Josh
mcninos ran that was very different thanhow Charlie did. So it's kind of
two different offenses. In essence.Josh ran things very different than anybody.
Yeah. Yeah, there's that's awhole different podcast though, Brady. So
you back up Kyle Orton that year, then the next year is the Tim
Tebow craziness we had Kyle. Initially, the interesting thing was going in the
(20:33):
second year with the lockout, andso no one was really around each other.
You know, we were Brian Dawkinshad set up us working out a
Valor Christian with long Landau. Iwas the only one there the whole time,
you know, working out with theguys, smalling the guys, going
through the offense. You know atthat time, Adam Gaze, who was
our quarterback coach, I would juststumble into his house and grab on our
installs and all that, which Idon't think they're supposed to do, but
(20:56):
yeah, he obviously wanted us tobe good and compete. So you know
we'd be out there throwing sessions withDecker and Too Marius and all those guys,
and Kyle thought he's being traded Ithink the Miami that year, and
then Tim was off thewing whatever hewas doing training, and so you know,
I'm kind of sitting there thing tomyself like, all right, this
is a good opportunity when I getmy opportunity. And I thought I had
a good preseason, and you knowthere were some times early in that year
(21:17):
where I think Kyle went down inTennessee and they were like, hey,
start warming up now, Kyle endup going back into the game, so
I didn't work out. But thenit was like the following week when they
just made the change, I thinkversus San Diego at half time, and
that was one of those moments whereI'm like, going, what happened here
that I wasn't told about? Yeah, so you know obviously, and then
what takes place takes place. ThenKyle ended up getting traded that season,
(21:37):
tim ends up having kind of animprobable run with how things worked out,
how our team played. It wasjust, you know, you try to
be the best teammate you can inthat scenario because you want to help out
your team. You want to seehim have success and win. But the
tough thing for me it was alwayslike I was never really a backup,
and I didn't want to be abackup. And I think that was one
of the things where could I haveplayed longer and kept trying to be a
back in the league. Sure,I just didn't really have much of a
(21:59):
desire. Some injuries played a rolein some of that too, you know,
that was largely my decision to leaveDenver. I had the opportunity to
sign back when Paydon signed twenty twelve, but I told Adam Gaze at the
time, and I told Coach Foxat the time that I wanted an opportunity
to go play, and I thoughtKansas City might present the best opportunity to
given the situation there, And itdid ultimately, but it was unfortunately after
(22:21):
we were one in five, whensix whatever it was where at that point,
you know, and I knew thissort of Cleveland like once you're gonna
put team in a position in thatport now like guys are maybe making some
more business decisions and they're a littlebit more you know, concerned about their
individual well being since the team's probablynot making the playoffs. We're winning a
Super Bowl for that matter. Solook, you live and you learn.
You know what would have made moresense to come back back up paid and
learned from him in Denver for twoyears. Of course, it would have
(22:44):
tugged on my heart forever though,having to sit and watch, you know,
I didn't want to be the guyto sit, and I would have
rather got my ass kick competing,which I did that year, especially pie
paidman Denver. But I would ratherbeen the guy getting his ass kicked still
playing than the guys sit on thesidelines. I was just always making you
never played a game in Denver,I know, and that it was hardbreaking
because I felt so good about theroster. Like everyone always asked, like,
(23:06):
what were some of the best placesyou play? It was like Denver,
I mean that roster, the organization. Pat was such a good owner,
even at that point it wasn't ashe was then he was, and
Joe Ellis and everyone and just itwas such a special place. I knew
as soon as I get traded there, like you could feel the difference between
Cleveland and Denver from top down,from creaking the training room, flipping the
equipment room, like all of it. You felt that, you know,
(23:26):
rich Tune our strength coach, andand eventually people came in after Luke Richardson
and Lauren Landol people like that.You just knew they always try to hire
the best people for you, doctorLahey, Craig Rosscoff, like you have
access to all these guys that guyswould die for. That one hurt me
the most because I was like,man, I always say what if,
Like what if I would have gotmy shot in Denver. We even had
this whole game plan for that Pittsburghgame, you know, ends up being
(23:48):
like everything's about the Wildcard game.To throw it at de Marius Thomas by
Tim, people don't realize, likeTim wasn't sort of thorn watch in that
game. Like we had a wholethird down package in third downs and then
we and the problem was during thatweek game point I told him. I
said, I can't just coming outthe third downs because then everyone knows exactly
what we're doing. And I said, you have to sprinkle it any throughout
for a second down. So wehad packages when team and I were both
(24:08):
in at the same time, hewas in the backfield next and he was
split out. I mean, wehad all kinds of things we had planned
for that we had enough success onfirst and second down and kind of played
tight and close from They just neverwanted to pull the trigger. So you
know, it is what it is. You know again, you can always
look back at second guess. Butlike I said, like I would have
rather, you know, taken thechance to go play and get that opportunity
(24:29):
than regret like his saying, like, all right, I gotta wait two
more years because you're not gonna You'renot gonna be playing fund of pay Manning.
Look who was waving off backups allthe time. We were trying to
come in with their drumming people.So we've all seen the video of him
flipping off Gary and they, yeah, exactly, all right. So you
go to Kansas City, as youmentioned, you do play there. You
end up going to Seattle the Jetsand the Rams, and then you have
(24:51):
a little bit of time with theDolphins. So you kind of go through
a few teams. When did youfinally go all right, I'm done.
I gotta go on and use thisdouble major or get into TV, which
would started doing some of Yeah.So the interesting thing was coming off the
twenty twelve season in Kansas City.You know, we had a tragic event
with Jyvon Belcher and that was oneof those things that happens in your life
and you don't have the chance tofully understand the magnitude of how it impacted
(25:14):
you until after the season. Andso I was in such a tough spot
get the chance to go out toSeattle. It's actually Mad Night competed in
a quarterback workout, and as soonas I saw Mad I was like,
oh well, I was like,Pete's gonna pick his quarterback. When a
couple of Nass championship with him,there's no ways gonna pick me. He
end up picking me from that workout. It was such a refreshing environment and
that team was so special. Allthe personalities, you know, Richard Sherman
(25:36):
and Red Bryant, you know,Cliff April, like all the guys I
played against, maybe new from college, but also just in that locker room,
the way they handled themselves, MarshawnLynch, who's the man, Mike
rob I mean, there's so many, so many good guys. It like
changed my outlook on football at thatpoint, even in the league. It
picked me back up and having likebetter spirits about energy at a little bit
a little bit. Yeah, andlook they ended releasing me at the end
(25:57):
of it. That was tough.But immediately got called by the Jets and
they're like, hey, we don'tWe're not gonna have some of the full
season, but we need the atleast for this period of time and maybe
half the season. I said,that's fine. You need to cut and
release with them a couple of times, didn't you just one just one minutes?
And so there's a thing called afet minimum. So basically the reason
why they did that was they couldthen not have to guarantee my salary for
the rest of the season because Isigned a fet minimum deal there and if
(26:18):
they release you before week one thensigned you back, then they can kind
of take you week to week ifyou want. So that was what they
chose to do, and I kindof knew they were doing it. It
was disappointing, but that's the decisionthey made. It was out of my
control at that point. I wasI was too busy trying to learn like
an old school Marty morning Wig offense, which I had had. And then
look when they released me, immediatelygot picked up by the Rams back in
there in Saint Louis, and thenI heard a two disc in my back.
(26:41):
So at that point, based onthe complications, I tried to wait
get shot, see if the epiduralsto help it go away didn't. It
took me a long long time.Even in the summer of like twenty fourteen,
Lions Bears, other teams reached out. I I wasn't ready, and
I came to the point where I, like, I realized that I'm not
going to be one hundred percent.I'm not ever going to feel like I
used to feel. So the Dolphinshad calling. They were a local when
(27:02):
I knew Joe Philipin who was thehead coach, and you know, he
was kind of, hey, youcan stay at home. You don't need
to do this and that. Atthe time, I had signed a deal
to get into broadcasting, and itwas really largely because Jeff Fisher from the
time I was kind of hanging aroundthe team and all that through my rehab
was like, hey, you shouldlook in the TV. It might be
something you want to do a postcareer, and so I kind of looked
into it. I had some opportunities. I didn't have any background for I
(27:22):
didn't want to do it. Itjust kind of got thrown in my lab.
Had you didn't like any quarterback showsor anything like? Nothing? Really
nothing right. I basically the secondor third day I was in camp with
the Dolphins, I'm like, hey, I called Jacob Allman a Fox and
I said, I'm not getting anyreps. I'm like, I'm gonna get
cut. They brought me in asa camp arm kind of lined to me
on the front end of this.I said, you know, keep that
spot there for me because I wasgonna call games for them. So I
(27:45):
got cut The next week, I'min the booth calling a TCU Minnesota game,
which tried to be a good game, but I hadn't no idea what
I was doing. I said,look, I need to I need to
know two things. Where's the newbutton so I can cough for you know,
say whatever now I get hot,you know hot on air? And
then where's the talk back button totalk ab to my producer? And I
just kind of learned on the fly. And I was fortunate enough where Fox
invested in me. They saw upsidethere, that's amazing, and they kind
(28:07):
of kept me ever since. Nowyou're I mean you do overnights or overnights
for us here, they're not foryou on the East Coast with the radio
show with two pros and a cupof Joe, and then you do all
your stuff on Fox TV. Whatdo you like between TV and radio?
Different at different Yeah, yeah,I mean like every day I'm talking with
Jonas and LaVar and so they're kindof like it's like hanging on in the
locker room. Look in between practiceor between games where you're just talking about
(28:30):
stuff. It's fun, it's free, it helps it to me, sharpens
me for TV, or like Digital. I worked for CBS Sports HQ for
digital. It helps me then havea much better idea of where I want
to go when I have to talkin a quick SoundBite, which is something
that's hard to do in the media. You know, when a lot of
people just work in radio and thenthey're asked to go and something else.
It's like, well, you geta guy in your ear telling you,
(28:51):
hey, fifteen seconds, It's like, well, how do you say something
impactful in fifteen seconds? It's tough. Yeah, And so you better be
able to do radio where if you'retalking for a minute, I can try
to condense that down at twenty twentyfive seconds and that works on TV to
me. Once I got into doingall of it, I realized that they
all compliment one another and they allwork off one another, and like doing
college helps me then prepare for thedraft. And so then people are like,
(29:14):
who do the draft but are partof the NFL are like I don't
know about of his players, likecome talk to me or come help me
with this, and you're like,I got your covered. And then you
follow these guys at the Pro.When you following the Pro and then you
kind of have a background of knowledgeof them once they at the NFL level,
so it all just works hand inhand. So it's it's kind of
like I don't have a favorite.I just kind of feel like it's all
football. It's all fun. Ohthat's great. And then along the way,
you and your wife have had fourkiddos. You have a brand new
(29:34):
one this year. You have threegirls, and your little guy was just
born, right, Yeah, alittle Kavanaugh just born. So it's been
that's been probably the biggest adjustmin Ithink I've ever had. We adjusted well
to our third girl, having thefourth and it being a boy, and
just not that he's like that different. He's been a great baby. It's
just it's a lot. I mean, you realize when you're solo with all
four, like I was out ofnumber before. Now it's like we've got
(29:56):
a seven year old, we've gota six month old, and they're so
are a part and what they wantto do and what they can do and
everything in between. Yeah, you'rejust pulling so many different directions. That
makes it tough. That's fun,all right, Brady, last question,
and I appreciate all the time,and you alluded to this a little bit
earlier when you talk to people andthey're going through tough times, and you've
gone through so many of those upsand downs in your career. What do
you tell them? I think thebiggest thing is hopefully they have, at
(30:18):
least from my perspective, they havea foundation of spiritual out of your faith
and whatever you believe, whatever youbelieve in, because that ultimately, when
it's all said and done, whenwe all meet our creator at some point
in time, that's where you haveto find peace with the decisions you made,
the choices you made. To me, it starts there as far as
what you believe, and then youkind of work from there off the foundation
(30:41):
of beliefs of Okay, I startoff by saying, what can I do
to change my circumstances? So Itry to be accountable and responsible for my
actions and then my choices as faras how I can change my scenario or
get out of this rut, orfigure out how to improve and get better.
Before I want to look at mycircumstances, I rely on my faith.
I look inward. The next thingis I try to then look outward
(31:06):
at what can I do to helpeveryone else out of around me? Because
if I can help someone else that'sin the end going to benefit me in
some way. And so you're notdoing it in a selfish way. You're
doing it because you know it's whatyou really should do. I mean,
that's what I've been taught with myparents and obviously through my faith. But
I just think it ends up comingback twice as strong. It's just kind
(31:26):
of a faith, a foundation ofthat. It's an inward and then outward
look of how you can help thepeople out around you. And I think
when people start doing that and theystart listening to the people and trying to
really get to know how they canhelp them excel or help them succeed,
it becomes contagious. It's like peoplethen start wanting to invest in you as
well and understand there's like it's morethan just like a partnership, right,
(31:47):
It's bigger than an agreement. It'smore of a bond. And that's where
I think in a lot of adversitythat we face, too many people isolate
themselves on islands, or too manypeople want to point the finger. I
think those three things, at leasthow I see them, always kind of
help me kind of take a stepback and a better perspective with it.
I love it. Hey, thankyou. I know that you are short
(32:07):
on time and on sleep, soI really really appreciate this. This is
awesome, Brady, me too,all right, you bet? Thanks,
Thank you, Brady. New episodesof Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired
come out every Tuesday. Please followand download this podcast wherever you listen to
podcasts, and you can keep upon new releases by following on Twitter and
(32:28):
Instagram at CTFR podcast and also onthe website CTFR podcast dot com. I'm
your host, Susie Wargin. Tofind out more about me, visit Susiewargin
dot com. Thank you so muchfor listening, and until next time,
please be careful, be safe,and be kind. Take care.
That day wasn't a day where Ilike suffered in any way. The toughest
thing about the green room was,you know, I knew what I signed
up going on to New York.You know, my parents didn't. My
family didn't. They weren't accustomed tobeing in the spotlight. And that's the
only reason why when Roger Goodell came, I think it was somewhere on like
pick thirteen fourteen, it was like, hey, if you want to come
and use, you know, mygreen room. Welcome to Cut, Traded,
(00:22):
Fired, Retired, a weekly podcastfeaturing conversations with professional athletes and coaches
who have experienced being cut, traded, fired, and or they're retired.
I'm your host, Susie Wargen.Anyone watching the NFL Draft in two thousand
and seven remembers how uncomfortable the broadcastbecame when Brady Quinn, who was on
site in New York, was slidingfarther and farther down the first round.
(00:44):
The cameras would cut to him aftereach pick when his name wasn't called,
and eventually Brady and his family wentto a green room and they were out
of camera shot. The quarterback wasstill chosen in the first round at number
twenty two by Cleveland, and thatwas Brady's first real taste at the business
of the NFL. He became abit of a journeyman for several teams,
including two years with the Broncos,where he never played a snap. These
(01:07):
days, Brady's flourishing with a nationalradio show, part of Fox's Big Neon
Kickoff, and many other broadcasting duties. I was able to catch up with
Brady when he was in town fora CEU football game, and the green
room trailer that we use didn't quitehave the best acoustics, so my apologies
in advance for that. Nothing's quitelike being in the studio, Ladies and
(01:27):
gentlemen. Brady Quinn, Brady freakingQuinn. Finally it has Yeah, like
a year ago I contacted you,but you're busy. Yeah, but now
the epicenter of everything is bolder Andso now you've been here a couple of
times and we get to catch up. I love it. Do you have
a reolder I could speak with aboutbuying property out? Are you there?
(01:49):
You go? You need to helplook for a property here in Boulders.
I think we're gonna be back intwo weeks, probably Okay, yeah,
I know it's going to be yournew home away from home. Yes,
yeah, this place is awesome.It is awesome, isn't it. Yeah,
well, thank you. This isfantastic. You spend a couple of
years with the Broncos, which technicallyqualifies you for the podcast because I have
some kind of a Denver tie witheverybody, or a Colorado tie. So
(02:09):
so it's great. So we're gonnastart back at the beginning. Brady,
you were a Columbus Ohio guy.Ohio owns you and loves you, and
that's where you are cherished. Whatdid you do growing up besides football?
And when did football kind of becomeyour main sport? I grew up always
playing you know, football, baseball, basketball, there's my three sports.
And sports was obviously huge part ofjust my lifestyle, like especially in the
(02:30):
Midwest, when things would get coldand turns snowy, you go and inside
play basketball. I think I wrestledwhile I was young, didn't really like
that quite as much playing basketball,so you know, transition quickly to that.
And then my dad from the youngestage, whether it was skipping rocks
or just playing catch whatever, healways had me throwing something so a naturally
quarterback, naturally pitcher catcher in baseball, like just kind of came to me
(02:53):
at a very very young age.So that was really start of it.
That was what kept me busy outsideof my parents make me have a job
and helping out my dad picking upnails and things on that different job site
because he was a homebuilder. Iwas always busy, you know, outside
of school, just with different sports. And you're the only boy, your
sandwiched in between two girls, Sohow is that Growing up? It was
awesome for me because I was soblessed to have an older sister that was
(03:15):
that perfect first child. Every singleclassroom I walked into, everyone knew about
Laura. And because Laura was sucha good student, she was so sweet,
she was so kind, and itwas actually kind of like big shoes
of field because I was like,oh no, no, I have to
be this guy after her, becausethat's the expectation. She really set the
bar high. I was a tremendousstudent. And then Kelly and I really
(03:36):
connected from an athletic standpoint. Shewas a super super athlete, Like a
lot of people don't understand the magnitude, you know, she was on track
to be on the national team forUS. When soccer she had was like
a three time GATORAD State Player ofthe Year. Like everything Lebron did in
high school she did, but thatwas how accomplished she was. Unfortunately,
when she went to UVA, shetore Racel twice same and ees, so
it really impacted her soccer career.But you know, grew up at two
(03:59):
s. There's positive and negatives toit, right, Like you're looking for
other buddies. Ironically, like myclosest group of friends, you know,
it was all guys who did havebrothers, like only had sisters, so
we all kind of bonded with eachother like we were brothers. But you
know, you also get to hangaround some of your sisters. You know,
cute friends, right, you gotthat, You got some that are
younger and so kind. It kindof works out, especially as a young
age. Yeah, a lot tochoose from there. So when did football
(04:21):
really become kind of your staple inhigh school? In your junior and senior
years, you know, for overtwo thousand yards and that's when you really
got noticed. My sophomore year inbaseball, we had one states I had
played on varsity, kind of playedup. We had a really really good
team. I kind of thought,okay, like baseball is going well,
maybe that's what I'm gonna do atthe next level in college. And then
that that fall we had a newhead coach, Mark krabstre He came in
(04:43):
and we kind of found ourselves.Throughout the course of the season. There
was a game in Grove City,Ohio that we kind of was a two
minute drive, last second, youknow, drive to go basically win the
game, and that really catapulted usinto the playoffs, which when led to
a playoff run which was the furthestour high school I ever been at that
point. We lost in the StateSTEMIs to San Xavier. But then it
was like all these offers started pouringin, all these schools wanted me to
(05:05):
come visit, and so different thanhow it is today. You know,
back then you had to go,like you had to go see these places.
There wasn't like Nike camps weren't big. Under Armoor camps weren't big.
You know, you would travel aroundlike my mom and I put in a
ton of miles. We had likea caravan where we were following Ted Gid
Senior, who was a head coachat Cleveland. Glenville used to have this
(05:27):
big bus, and Dante Whitner,who was a first round pick, his
son Ted Gid junior in corn OhioState. We were following all these guys
and we basically went all throughout theSouth and come back up through and all
throughout the North Midwest, came outto Colorado visit the campus here. I
had some family out here, sothis was like as far west as I
could come and probably feel comfortable becauseI'm a mama's boy. Sure, and
(05:47):
so it was probably after that juniorseason where I was like, Oh,
this is gonna be the ticket,and then maybe I can play baseball as
well, because I really love justplaying every sport. Didn't even allow you
or say that you could do thatwhen you were talking to him. Notre
Dame would have let me. Indianaactually came on there like you can play
both, you can do whatever youwant. A couple of the max smaller
schools too, that had initially comein for baseball and also football, They're
(06:09):
like, do whatever you want.Notre Dame would have probably allowed me to
walk on. It just never workedout the way I had hoped to.
I didn't envision myself playing so quickly. I mean I played in every game
starting my true freshman year and startedmy fourth game, you know, moving
on the rest of my career.So I never had spring ball when you
grow up in the Midwest, soI wanted to experience that. My coach
gets fired after the second year,so we have a new system, so
(06:30):
I'm learning that that next spring ball, and then after my junior year of
college, you know, that wasconstantly maybe going to the NFL. So
there was no thought whatsoever. Imean, Charlie Weiss wouldn't let me think
about essentially doing anything other than footballat that point. Yeah, that tree
does not go beyond football. Idon't think not at that point. I
mean, when you're literally having tomake the decision we're not even want to
come back to school or go intothe draft. At that point, it's
(06:53):
kind of decided for you. Youbring up Charlie Weiss. He comes in
after two years at Notre Dame.What kind of a difference did his coaching
style I'll make for you, Well, it was a complete one eighty.
I went to go play for TyWillingham, and Ty Willingham was the type
of man that you would never hearhim cuss. He was a man of
strong faith and he would share thatwith you and just had a completely different
way of teaching and the way hewent about being a leader. And then
(07:15):
when Charlie came in, almost aone eighty as far as the style,
you know, very much similar toBill Parcels. He was gonna trying to
push your buttons. He was fromJersey, so you know, he kind
of uses some colorful language at times, and he would make sure to let
you know when you weren't doing itthe right way, and he'd stay in
front of everyone. And that washis different style, right because he always
felt like if he was in ateam meeting and he could get on you,
(07:39):
he didn't have to do it toguys who maybe weren't as mentally strong,
because they felt it too. They'relike, oh, man, if
he's chewing him out, I don'twant to be the next guy. So
that was more of his style ofit. And honestly, I kind of
fed to it because I've never beenone who's enjoyed just some and saying hey,
great job, great job. Imean, that's honestly, it's kind
of problem with broadcasting, right,Not every show good or great when I
(08:03):
know it wasn't. And so I'mthe type we're like, you don't need
to tell me anything if I'm doingmy job. What I want to hear
every time those constructive criticism, likeI want you to say, this is
what you needed to better and thisis why, this is how. And
Charlie was like that. I reallyleaned on that. I really gravitated towards
that. That was a good changefor you. It was a good change,
I mean, and the style ofoffense was a good change. He
(08:24):
gave me more control. I gotto do everything. I was making the
calls in the line of scrimmage controlat all and that played more to my
preparation, my process of getting readyfor the game and helping me feel more
confident when I was out there inthe field, which is a big piece
of it as well. So you'rethere for four years, you double major
right finance and poly side. Yeah, so you fit all that in.
It was tough, I mean,and I really was basically done going into
(08:46):
my senior fall. I went upto early summer school every summer, and
my goal was when I got toNotre Dame and made that decision was it's
either gonna work or it's not.I'm either going to be hopefully having a
Hall of Fame career or I'm notand I'm not even going to play and
start and all that. So Iwanted to have a foundation of my educational
background that would allow me to goback get my MBA or get my j
(09:07):
D MBA, and whether it wasI want to practice law or try to
get into the finance world. Ihad a well rounded education. So that
was my goal, and honestly,like my career ended up following somewhere in
between. The weird thing is likeyou always prepare for like best worst case
scenario. No one prepares for like, well I was if you fall somewhere
in between. Yeah, well Iwas. If you played for like eight
(09:28):
years and you're thirty, Like atthat point, you're not like thirty eight
thirty nine where you're like, Okay, I'm done. I've played for a
long time. I've made enough whereI don't really have to do anything,
and I probably still would have alwayswanted to do something after. But it's
also not like the guys who knewright away, hey, I'm done with
football. I have to move onwith that next step in my life,
and now I have eight years tobuild into that professional or more stabilized.
(09:50):
I was at a point where Iwas like, Man, I'm transitioning into
what I'm like the old guy anymorenow when you're like, look at all
your other friends and their careers they'rebuilding. So it was unique at that
point as far as transitioning out ofthe NFL, how it kind of happened,
and just a lot of the thingsthat kind of shape where I'm at
now. Well, let's start goingthrough that then, and we'll talk about
first of all, the draft.You're projected to be a top ten draft
(10:11):
pick in two thousand and seven.I think everybody saw the broadcast and you're
there and then you just keep slippingand then they put you in another room,
and I just I was like,oh my gosh, I mean,
my heart just hurt for you.I didn't know you back then at all,
But what was that like and howdid you mentally come out of that?
When the Browns picked you at twentytwo. I'd always start off by
(10:33):
this like that day wasn't a daywhere I like suffered in any way,
Like, okay, could I thinkeverybody suffered before you just got my ass
kicked in the sugar bowl by LSU. Like that's suffering. Like I tore
my PCL and I had to hideit throughout or try I thought I should
hide it thought the entire process.So like that was warm difficult than sitting
in that green room. The toughestthing about the green room was, you
(10:56):
know, I knew what I signedup for going on to New York.
You know, my parents didn't.My family didn't. They weren't acustomed to
being in the spotlight. And that'sthe only reason why when Roger Goodell came,
I think it was somewhere on likepick thirteen fourteen, it was like,
hey, if you want to comeuse you know, my green room.
That was his first draft. SoI don't think he's allowed them to
do that ever since we left.And it's probably because we've left his green
room with a ton of chipole Isitting around the side of it. But
(11:18):
you know, at one point Ilooked back and I was like, you
know, I don't think my familyfeels comfortable being on Cama anymore, and
so let's get them out of this. I think I did an interview with
Susie Colbury. I remember that andthen ended up going kind of sitting with
him until I was eventually drafted.But there's not like a regret, you
know. I mean people are alwayslike, well, what would you have
rather done? I'm like, well, I have family members who went to
New York, had an unbelievable time. They'll never go back again in their
(11:41):
life. They're not the type ofpeople who are like, all right,
let's like frequent a big city andknew that kind of experience. So it
wasn't a day where I like suffered. It was a day where I was
like, of all the things thatwere said to me throughout the entire process,
in the draft, I was finallyable to find out what was true,
what was real, And it kindof relates back to when I chose
a good Notre Dame. One ofthe things that I was really drawn to
(12:03):
you with Coach Willingham was he didn'tpromise me anything. He wasn't one of
those guys who had to sell me. He just said the only thing I'm
going to promise he was a chanceto compete. And I'm like, masthm
was truthful thing anyone said the entiretime this process, and that was one
of those small things that in theend, when you're talking about like my
final three real house day, MichiganNotre Dame, it was the most honest
thing anyone that'd send to me betweenthose three schools, and then you compile
(12:26):
the religious portion of it, youcan pile all these are the things that
you're looking for, the education,athletics, it just seemed like a better
fit. And so that was kindof the tough part about the draft was
is like you don't know who's sayingwhat to you, and everybody hear yeah,
you don't get the pick, theyget to pick, and so you
don't know what's real what's not.And when Cleveland traded up, it's like,
okay, well, now I knowthere was genuine interest. And you
(12:48):
know, Phil Savage told me thenight before the draft, he said,
hey, if you enjoyed Thomas,what they were gonna take Joe at three?
And so I knew what to expect, at least from Cleveland. It
was Miami that was really the morecontroversial one, based on what I was
communicated to me to night before thedraft. So you sign a five year
deal with Cleveland, you stay inOhio, you end up debuting that rookie
season, the last game of theyear, I believe, yeah, it
was. It was vers San Franciscowas forty nine ers, which was one
(13:09):
of the teams I kind of grewup rooting for Cleveland and San Francisco.
What was your debut? Like,well, so cold, Like I was
so cold, and Derek Anderson andhurting his throwing hand and so you kind
of get thrusted in and my feetfelt like cinder blocks, and I'll never
forget. I think Mike Nolan wasthe defensive coordinator back then, and they
brought on the very first play wehad a little it was like a little
(13:33):
quick flash fake to the tailback andtrying to get the full back in the
flat. They brought a double cornerblitz. I remember, like from under
centator, like getting into my fakeand getting my drop and thinking like,
oh my gosh, I'm moving soslow right now. This is awful.
I think the ball ended up gettinglike tipped by the guy who was blitzing.
I was trying to like fit itin over top of him. Ended
up being incomplete. It was like, Oh, I just hope I can
(13:54):
get warm enough to be able tomake a few throws. Unfortunately, converted
a few third downs. We wereknocking on the door how to drop in
the end zone and ended up settlingfor a fuel goal. But I was
like, okay, we wanted toend with points. We ended with points.
Even though it was like one drivein Week seventeen of the season.
It gave me all the confidence headinto that offseason. Absolutely. Yeah,
And then you bring up Derek Anderson, He's who you're backing up then continuing
(14:16):
throughout the next couple of years.Right going into your third year, Romeo
Cornell's fired. Yeah, Romeo Cornellgot fired. Eric Mangini came in and
we had a quarterback competition. SoI got to start that third season.
And it was unfortunate because the seasonbefore I felt really come from that offense.
You know, first game played prettywell versus Denverrun Thursday night. We
didn't get the win. Obviously,nice to come back win by Jay Cutler
(14:37):
at the time, but it feltgood about where we were at. And
then we're on Monday night football playingthe Bills. I break my right indext
finger and you know, I tryto play the next week, really can't
throw effectively, and they're like,hey, let's shut it down. We're
gonna put pins in your finger andbeing cast it up and unfortunately not being
able to come back this season.So that was that. And then once
the coaching change happens, You're going, all right, I've been through this
before in college, right, what'sthis like in the NFL. So for
(15:00):
me, it was tough because allthe people who were advocates for you,
who traded up to take you,they're gone, like they're gone, and
you've got a new head coach,a new general manager that only lasted eight
weeks, you know, George betweenus, he got fired like immediately,
and I'm going, Okay, whatthe heck is happening right now? And
so it was tough. Like thatyear was tough. You know, I
started for the first time in mylife. I got benched. We were
(15:22):
not a good football team. Weknew pretty early on that season wasn't good.
Derek came in, he didn't playvery well. And so I'm sitting
there and meanwhile, you know,the business side of things is eating at
you. Because I had a bigbonus in my contract, I sat out
just the amount of time I neededto to not be able to earn it.
Those sorts of things like at thetime, it's more of the competitive
side of me wanting to play.As I look back on it, you
(15:43):
think you hate to think that likethat was why they did it. Yeah,
it doesn't make you wonder if that'scourse. And obviously the media was
aware of it. And that's oneof the things that the longer I played,
the more I understood how was abusiness And when we're talking about millions
and millions of dollars and not havinga chance to even make the playoffs that
see and of course they're gonna tryto save where they can. Those sorts
of things were frustrating. And obviouslyI traded after that season to Denver,
(16:06):
so it was really didn't matter atthat point as a move point. But
it was tough kind of dealing witha lot of the ups and downs of
that third year. Yeah, dealingwith some of those things. How did
the benching happen? Who tells you? And how do you get through that
mentally when you're benched? It wastough. I mean, I was six
for eight. We're playing on Baltimore, sixth for eight, and I made
one poor decision drop back and oneof the things we're playing against Edd Reid
and the Ravens. They discuss coveragewell and had I stopped out on the
(16:29):
backside a little nine yeard stop routeto Braylon Edwards. And so as I
started drop back first three steps andI'm confirming what I thought pre snap.
Safety look at you're starting to movingthe little field. I know I'm gonna
have a post I safety want onone the on the week side, and
I like that matchup. So asI kind of turned to plant and throw
because you're gonna hit your fifth step, you're turning and you're putting that ball
in a spot timing, I kindof get a feeling because I can't see
over early over the left tackle overJoe and the d end that the quarterbacks
(16:52):
kind of squatting. And then asthe ball releases from my hand, I'm
like, oh no, I don'tknow it was McCalister who it was,
but he had played just off enoughto give a feel for that. But
really, here's playing a cloud coverageand the safety ended up working in the
middle and then back over the deephalf. And in that case, you
know, Brylan should have converted it. I never should have looked there.
Whatever. That's that sort of stuffhappens, but one play. And then
(17:12):
once that pick happened, we wenta halftime. They were like, hey,
we're gonna sit you down. We'regonna put in Derek, and Derek
threw three interceptions in the second half. So I'm thinking like, Okay,
I'm gonna get my shot next week. And of course that doesn't happen,
and I'm sitting there a thing tomyself. You gotta be kidding me,
So, you know, I kindof just sit through what was a tough
(17:33):
stretch, you know, where you'retrying to prepare, You're trying to give
everything mentally physical you can to beready for the next opportunity. But it's
hard. And I think in momentslike that, you lean on your faith,
you leave on your foundation of youknow, those moments early on in
your life where whether it was highschool, you know, when I wasn't
quite yet the guy until I wasthe guy and then everyone's like, oh
wow, this is like a legitstate title contender, or even when I
(17:56):
was nine years old and people didpick me initially beyond the A team and
travel base, well, right,they picked me to be on the B
team, and every time we playedthat eight team we'd whoop their ass Caeson
language. But but those are thethings that stick with you, and you
have to remind yourself of that inorder to be able to be mentally tough
enough to handle and say, Look, there's a lot of people out there
that don't believe in you, butthis has always been the case. There's
always gonna be doubters. You've gotto continue to keep having the mental fortitude
(18:18):
and strength to understand that. Likewhen you get that an extra opportunity,
you keep working, you're gonna beable to succeed. And it doesn't help
that it's in front of your homestate at that point. And then the
trade comes to Denver. How doesthat go down? Yeah, I got
a call from I forget who thegeneral manager was included at the time.
He probably got fired after like alot, but honestly, I've never met
him, so I thought it waslike a prank call. I didn't think
(18:40):
it was real until Josh McDaniels calledme and I was like, oh,
I just got traded. I waslike, this is how this works.
Like I thought my agent would contactme first or something, and someone let
me know and I call it myagent efforts. I'm like, did I
just get traded? And he's likeyeah, He's like they just reached out.
So it's funny that the year beforebefore I went to year through with
Cleveland, my agent did tell methere's a cop teams who are trying to
bring me on then, so Iknew that Cleveland might have been shopping me
(19:04):
or talking about it. But atthat point, you know, Mike Holmgren
came on in Cleveland and we'd hada really good conversation and I wasn't really
sure what was going to happen,but I knew they probably we're gonna do
something because they felt like Eric Mangini, who was the head coach, and
I like working at work together,you know, from that point moving forward.
So it was surprising in some waysthat how it happened. I wasn't
(19:25):
surprised that it did happen, ifthat makes sense. Sure, And so
you know, I was packed upmy car, I was all packed up.
I had a foot injury my thirdyear, had a list frank injury.
So I was literally working with aphysical therapist about what had a job
to Cleveland for the offseason workhouse.So Josh calls me and I'm like okay,
and I was at the time,I was with my now wife.
She starts breaking down, crying andshe's not sure, like what's gonna happened?
(19:48):
Yeah, and I'm kind of lookingat her saying, look, we'll
figure this out, you know,like everything else. But let me go
out there and you just find aplace to live and start working out and
started getting with them guys and startkind of learning the offense, and so
it it was a whirlwind. Honestly, there's not many professions you can be
in where you all of a suddenone day find out you got to change
jobs, go somewhere else. Andthen I always say, learning an offense
it is like learning a new language, and so it's it's like I was
(20:10):
learning a language that I used touse back in college. But how Josh
mcninos ran that was very different thanhow Charlie did. So it's kind of
two different offenses. In essence.Josh ran things very different than anybody.
Yeah. Yeah, there's that's awhole different podcast though, Brady. So
you back up Kyle Orton that year, then the next year is the Tim
Tebow craziness we had Kyle. Initially, the interesting thing was going in the
(20:33):
second year with the lockout, andso no one was really around each other.
You know, we were Brian Dawkinshad set up us working out a
Valor Christian with long Landau. Iwas the only one there the whole time,
you know, working out with theguys, smalling the guys, going
through the offense. You know atthat time, Adam Gaze, who was
our quarterback coach, I would juststumble into his house and grab on our
installs and all that, which Idon't think they're supposed to do, but
(20:56):
yeah, he obviously wanted us tobe good and compete. So you know
we'd be out there throwing sessions withDecker and Too Marius and all those guys,
and Kyle thought he's being traded Ithink the Miami that year, and
then Tim was off thewing whatever hewas doing training, and so you know,
I'm kind of sitting there thing tomyself like, all right, this
is a good opportunity when I getmy opportunity. And I thought I had
a good preseason, and you knowthere were some times early in that year
(21:17):
where I think Kyle went down inTennessee and they were like, hey,
start warming up now, Kyle endup going back into the game, so
I didn't work out. But thenit was like the following week when they
just made the change, I thinkversus San Diego at half time, and
that was one of those moments whereI'm like, going, what happened here
that I wasn't told about? Yeah, so you know obviously, and then
what takes place takes place. ThenKyle ended up getting traded that season,
(21:37):
tim ends up having kind of animprobable run with how things worked out,
how our team played. It wasjust, you know, you try to
be the best teammate you can inthat scenario because you want to help out
your team. You want to seehim have success and win. But the
tough thing for me it was alwayslike I was never really a backup,
and I didn't want to be abackup. And I think that was one
of the things where could I haveplayed longer and kept trying to be a
back in the league. Sure,I just didn't really have much of a
(21:59):
desire. Some injuries played a rolein some of that too, you know,
that was largely my decision to leaveDenver. I had the opportunity to
sign back when Paydon signed twenty twelve, but I told Adam Gaze at the
time, and I told Coach Foxat the time that I wanted an opportunity
to go play, and I thoughtKansas City might present the best opportunity to
given the situation there, And itdid ultimately, but it was unfortunately after
(22:21):
we were one in five, whensix whatever it was where at that point,
you know, and I knew thissort of Cleveland like once you're gonna
put team in a position in thatport now like guys are maybe making some
more business decisions and they're a littlebit more you know, concerned about their
individual well being since the team's probablynot making the playoffs. We're winning a
Super Bowl for that matter. Solook, you live and you learn.
You know what would have made moresense to come back back up paid and
learned from him in Denver for twoyears. Of course, it would have
(22:44):
tugged on my heart forever though,having to sit and watch, you know,
I didn't want to be the guyto sit, and I would have
rather got my ass kick competing,which I did that year, especially pie
paidman Denver. But I would ratherbeen the guy getting his ass kicked still
playing than the guys sit on thesidelines. I was just always making you
never played a game in Denver,I know, and that it was hardbreaking
because I felt so good about theroster. Like everyone always asked, like,
(23:06):
what were some of the best placesyou play? It was like Denver,
I mean that roster, the organization. Pat was such a good owner,
even at that point it wasn't ashe was then he was, and
Joe Ellis and everyone and just itwas such a special place. I knew
as soon as I get traded there, like you could feel the difference between
Cleveland and Denver from top down,from creaking the training room, flipping the
equipment room, like all of it. You felt that, you know,
(23:26):
rich Tune our strength coach, andand eventually people came in after Luke Richardson
and Lauren Landol people like that.You just knew they always try to hire
the best people for you, doctorLahey, Craig Rosscoff, like you have
access to all these guys that guyswould die for. That one hurt me
the most because I was like,man, I always say what if,
Like what if I would have gotmy shot in Denver. We even had
this whole game plan for that Pittsburghgame, you know, ends up being
(23:48):
like everything's about the Wildcard game.To throw it at de Marius Thomas by
Tim, people don't realize, likeTim wasn't sort of thorn watch in that
game. Like we had a wholethird down package in third downs and then
we and the problem was during thatweek game point I told him. I
said, I can't just coming outthe third downs because then everyone knows exactly
what we're doing. And I said, you have to sprinkle it any throughout
for a second down. So wehad packages when team and I were both
(24:08):
in at the same time, hewas in the backfield next and he was
split out. I mean, wehad all kinds of things we had planned
for that we had enough success onfirst and second down and kind of played
tight and close from They just neverwanted to pull the trigger. So you
know, it is what it is. You know again, you can always
look back at second guess. Butlike I said, like I would have
rather, you know, taken thechance to go play and get that opportunity
(24:29):
than regret like his saying, like, all right, I gotta wait two
more years because you're not gonna You'renot gonna be playing fund of pay Manning.
Look who was waving off backups allthe time. We were trying to
come in with their drumming people.So we've all seen the video of him
flipping off Gary and they, yeah, exactly, all right. So you
go to Kansas City, as youmentioned, you do play there. You
end up going to Seattle the Jetsand the Rams, and then you have
(24:51):
a little bit of time with theDolphins. So you kind of go through
a few teams. When did youfinally go all right, I'm done.
I gotta go on and use thisdouble major or get into TV, which
would started doing some of Yeah.So the interesting thing was coming off the
twenty twelve season in Kansas City.You know, we had a tragic event
with Jyvon Belcher and that was oneof those things that happens in your life
and you don't have the chance tofully understand the magnitude of how it impacted
(25:14):
you until after the season. Andso I was in such a tough spot
get the chance to go out toSeattle. It's actually Mad Night competed in
a quarterback workout, and as soonas I saw Mad I was like,
oh well, I was like,Pete's gonna pick his quarterback. When a
couple of Nass championship with him,there's no ways gonna pick me. He
end up picking me from that workout. It was such a refreshing environment and
that team was so special. Allthe personalities, you know, Richard Sherman
(25:36):
and Red Bryant, you know,Cliff April, like all the guys I
played against, maybe new from college, but also just in that locker room,
the way they handled themselves, MarshawnLynch, who's the man, Mike
rob I mean, there's so many, so many good guys. It like
changed my outlook on football at thatpoint, even in the league. It
picked me back up and having likebetter spirits about energy at a little bit
a little bit. Yeah, andlook they ended releasing me at the end
(25:57):
of it. That was tough.But immediately got called by the Jets and
they're like, hey, we don'tWe're not gonna have some of the full
season, but we need the atleast for this period of time and maybe
half the season. I said,that's fine. You need to cut and
release with them a couple of times, didn't you just one just one minutes?
And so there's a thing called afet minimum. So basically the reason
why they did that was they couldthen not have to guarantee my salary for
the rest of the season because Isigned a fet minimum deal there and if
(26:18):
they release you before week one thensigned you back, then they can kind
of take you week to week ifyou want. So that was what they
chose to do, and I kindof knew they were doing it. It
was disappointing, but that's the decisionthey made. It was out of my
control at that point. I wasI was too busy trying to learn like
an old school Marty morning Wig offense, which I had had. And then
look when they released me, immediatelygot picked up by the Rams back in
there in Saint Louis, and thenI heard a two disc in my back.
(26:41):
So at that point, based onthe complications, I tried to wait
get shot, see if the epiduralsto help it go away didn't. It
took me a long long time.Even in the summer of like twenty fourteen,
Lions Bears, other teams reached out. I I wasn't ready, and
I came to the point where I, like, I realized that I'm not
going to be one hundred percent.I'm not ever going to feel like I
used to feel. So the Dolphinshad calling. They were a local when
(27:02):
I knew Joe Philipin who was thehead coach, and you know, he
was kind of, hey, youcan stay at home. You don't need
to do this and that. Atthe time, I had signed a deal
to get into broadcasting, and itwas really largely because Jeff Fisher from the
time I was kind of hanging aroundthe team and all that through my rehab
was like, hey, you shouldlook in the TV. It might be
something you want to do a postcareer, and so I kind of looked
into it. I had some opportunities. I didn't have any background for I
(27:22):
didn't want to do it. Itjust kind of got thrown in my lab.
Had you didn't like any quarterback showsor anything like? Nothing? Really
nothing right. I basically the secondor third day I was in camp with
the Dolphins, I'm like, hey, I called Jacob Allman a Fox and
I said, I'm not getting anyreps. I'm like, I'm gonna get
cut. They brought me in asa camp arm kind of lined to me
on the front end of this.I said, you know, keep that
spot there for me because I wasgonna call games for them. So I
(27:45):
got cut The next week, I'min the booth calling a TCU Minnesota game,
which tried to be a good game, but I hadn't no idea what
I was doing. I said,look, I need to I need to
know two things. Where's the newbutton so I can cough for you know,
say whatever now I get hot,you know hot on air? And
then where's the talk back button totalk ab to my producer? And I
just kind of learned on the fly. And I was fortunate enough where Fox
invested in me. They saw upsidethere, that's amazing, and they kind
(28:07):
of kept me ever since. Nowyou're I mean you do overnights or overnights
for us here, they're not foryou on the East Coast with the radio
show with two pros and a cupof Joe, and then you do all
your stuff on Fox TV. Whatdo you like between TV and radio?
Different at different Yeah, yeah,I mean like every day I'm talking with
Jonas and LaVar and so they're kindof like it's like hanging on in the
locker room. Look in between practiceor between games where you're just talking about
(28:30):
stuff. It's fun, it's free, it helps it to me, sharpens
me for TV, or like Digital. I worked for CBS Sports HQ for
digital. It helps me then havea much better idea of where I want
to go when I have to talkin a quick SoundBite, which is something
that's hard to do in the media. You know, when a lot of
people just work in radio and thenthey're asked to go and something else.
It's like, well, you geta guy in your ear telling you,
(28:51):
hey, fifteen seconds, It's like, well, how do you say something
impactful in fifteen seconds? It's tough. Yeah, And so you better be
able to do radio where if you'retalking for a minute, I can try
to condense that down at twenty twentyfive seconds and that works on TV to
me. Once I got into doingall of it, I realized that they
all compliment one another and they allwork off one another, and like doing
college helps me then prepare for thedraft. And so then people are like,
(29:14):
who do the draft but are partof the NFL are like I don't
know about of his players, likecome talk to me or come help me
with this, and you're like,I got your covered. And then you
follow these guys at the Pro.When you following the Pro and then you
kind of have a background of knowledgeof them once they at the NFL level,
so it all just works hand inhand. So it's it's kind of
like I don't have a favorite.I just kind of feel like it's all
football. It's all fun. Ohthat's great. And then along the way,
you and your wife have had fourkiddos. You have a brand new
(29:34):
one this year. You have threegirls, and your little guy was just
born, right, Yeah, alittle Kavanaugh just born. So it's been
that's been probably the biggest adjustmin Ithink I've ever had. We adjusted well
to our third girl, having thefourth and it being a boy, and
just not that he's like that different. He's been a great baby. It's
just it's a lot. I mean, you realize when you're solo with all
four, like I was out ofnumber before. Now it's like we've got
(29:56):
a seven year old, we've gota six month old, and they're so
are a part and what they wantto do and what they can do and
everything in between. Yeah, you'rejust pulling so many different directions. That
makes it tough. That's fun,all right, Brady, last question,
and I appreciate all the time,and you alluded to this a little bit
earlier when you talk to people andthey're going through tough times, and you've
gone through so many of those upsand downs in your career. What do
you tell them? I think thebiggest thing is hopefully they have, at
(30:18):
least from my perspective, they havea foundation of spiritual out of your faith
and whatever you believe, whatever youbelieve in, because that ultimately, when
it's all said and done, whenwe all meet our creator at some point
in time, that's where you haveto find peace with the decisions you made,
the choices you made. To me, it starts there as far as
what you believe, and then youkind of work from there off the foundation
(30:41):
of beliefs of Okay, I startoff by saying, what can I do
to change my circumstances? So Itry to be accountable and responsible for my
actions and then my choices as faras how I can change my scenario or
get out of this rut, orfigure out how to improve and get better.
Before I want to look at mycircumstances, I rely on my faith.
I look inward. The next thingis I try to then look outward
(31:06):
at what can I do to helpeveryone else out of around me? Because
if I can help someone else that'sin the end going to benefit me in
some way. And so you're notdoing it in a selfish way. You're
doing it because you know it's whatyou really should do. I mean,
that's what I've been taught with myparents and obviously through my faith. But
I just think it ends up comingback twice as strong. It's just kind
(31:26):
of a faith, a foundation ofthat. It's an inward and then outward
look of how you can help thepeople out around you. And I think
when people start doing that and theystart listening to the people and trying to
really get to know how they canhelp them excel or help them succeed,
it becomes contagious. It's like peoplethen start wanting to invest in you as
well and understand there's like it's morethan just like a partnership, right,
(31:47):
It's bigger than an agreement. It'smore of a bond. And that's where
I think in a lot of adversitythat we face, too many people isolate
themselves on islands, or too manypeople want to point the finger. I
think those three things, at leasthow I see them, always kind of
help me kind of take a stepback and a better perspective with it.
I love it. Hey, thankyou. I know that you are short
(32:07):
on time and on sleep, soI really really appreciate this. This is
awesome, Brady, me too,all right, you bet? Thanks,
Thank you, Brady. New episodesof Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired
come out every Tuesday. Please followand download this podcast wherever you listen to
podcasts, and you can keep upon new releases by following on Twitter and
(32:28):
Instagram at CTFR podcast and also onthe website CTFR podcast dot com. I'm
your host, Susie Wargin. Tofind out more about me, visit Susiewargin
dot com. Thank you so muchfor listening, and until next time,
please be careful, be safe,and be kind. Take care.
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