Chase Vaughn

He started playing football as a junior at Smoky Hill High School. He made varsity as a senior. Chase Vaughn turned some heads in that short time and received three small offers at Division II and NAIA schools. He accepted one for Adams State and was there for 2 years until CSU-Pueblo started a football program. He took a leap of faith and transferred. Good move.  

In his first game, Chase had 4 ½ sacks and when he graduated, he held the Thunderwolves’ sack record. NFL scouts were checking him out, but his name wasn’t called on draft day, nor did any teams call afterwards to invite him as a free agent. At that point, the grind began between different leagues including the Arena League and the CFL. After a few years of being cut and racking up the balance on a credit card with tryout fees and plane tickets, Chase was noticed by a Broncos scout and signed a contract with Denver.  

He suffered an injury his first season and when John Fox was fired, he figured he was done. But Gary Kubiak’s group kept him around for another season and he took the opportunity to slow down and appreciate how far he’d come.  

After football, Chase became a firefighter for the Aurora Fire Department and provides an insightful analogy between playing football and fighting fires. While he used to thrive on adrenaline running down the field on special teams, he now thrives on running into burning structures and being there for people on their worst days.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Finally, after Game four, theybrought us all into this room because the
US players and coaches weren't getting paidat that time, and they said,
we have announcement to make The leagueis folding. Our owner has gone filed
for bankruptcy. You guys aren't gettingpaid. Go home. I'm probably the
only one not surprised. That's theway my career has gone. I'm like,
oh, of course, okay,yeah, oh check that off on

(00:20):
my Bengo card list. League wentunder. Cool, got it? How
else can I get cut? Youknow what ensued after that was one of
the most hysterical moments in my lifebecause it was mass chaos. People were
stealing laptops. There's this chaos.People are jumping up grabbing projectors off the
ceiling in our Vegas facility. Ohmy gosh. I'm sitting there watching like,
oh, this is crazy, andthe first thing that's in my head

(00:42):
is like, I want my helmet, my pads in my jersey. Welcome
to Cut, Traded, Fired,Retired a weekly podcast featuring conversations with professional
athletes and coaches who have experienced beingcut, traded, fired, and or
they're retired. I'm your host,Susie Wargen. Some guests on this podcast
or household names. Others like ChaseVaughan are not, but they should be

(01:06):
because some of those non household namesoftentimes have the best stories of how they
fought to stay relevant in their sport. Chase is no exception. He grew
up in Aurora and attended Smoky HillHigh School, where he only played football
for two years. He didn't evenplay varsity football until he was a senior,
yet he still got a few scholarshipoffers. They weren't much, but
he took a five hundred dollars scholarshipto go to Adams State. When Coshu

(01:30):
Pueblo started a football team, Chaseleft Alamosa and created quite the stir on
the defensive side of the ball forthe thunder Wolves. He didn't get drafted
in the NFL, but spent severalyears bouncing between different professional leagues, including
Arena and the CFL. Yes,he was cut off and even kind of
got fired when a league folded,but at some point he got noticed by

(01:52):
a scout for the Broncos, andwhile his stint in orange and Blue wasn't
as long as he would have liked, he had signed a contract was playing
in his home town and was alsoplaying with Hall of famers like Peyton Manning
and DeMarcus Ware. After football,Chase became a firefighter and offers an incredible
comparison between playing football and fighting fires. Get ready for some great stories and

(02:14):
amazing perseverance, ladies and gentlemen.Chase Vaughn cut Traded Fired Retired podcast with
Susie Wargen. Hello, Chase Vaughn, Hey, thank you for having me.
Absolutely, you're doing good. Youlook great. You look like you
could still play. Oh, thankyou, thank you. I think I
got you know, I could bea third down pass rusher, you know,

(02:35):
for about two or three games,and that's probably it. That's it.
Yeah, you're a firefighter these days, so you have to stay in
shape for that. So absolutely,that's what makes you look like you're still
in football shape. You've got agreat story, You've got a lot of
Colorado roots. You're still in Coloradoand just one of those I talked about
this as we walked in the door, those grinder guys that just kept giving

(02:58):
it, giving it and giving it. So I think you're a great story
for people that local kids. Andthen also just the fact that you just
kept trying and I love it.So let's kind of go back with you
to You're born in Richmond, Virginia. When did you get out to Colorado
because you ended up at Smoky HillHigh School. Yeah, so my mom
randomly actually graduated from Smokey as well. She did. Yeah, my grandpa

(03:20):
was a military and was at BuckleyAir Force Base, so they were out
here for a while. Then wemoved to Virginia. That's when I was
born, and then we ended upcoming back here. Yeah, when I
was about three or four years old, and though, okay, been here
ever since. So yeah, mymom graduated from Smokey, my sister graduated
from Smokey, and I graduated fromSmokey And that's cool. I wasn't playing
like that. It just worked out. Is your sister older or younger?

(03:43):
Older? Older? Okay? Sohow did you get into sports and when
did football become your sport? Myentire life actually was basketball and baseball,
and really, yeah, I thoughtfor sure that was going to be it.
And when I got to high school, baseball fell off and I was
like, okay, basketball is it. I'm going to focus on basketball.
But I was more of a lowpost kind of player, and then I

(04:05):
kind of stopped growing as much,so it didn't work out. You know.
I kind of first saw like,oh, okay, the future is
you know, not too bright there. Even though I was good, but
my height wasn't gonna work out.So yeah, I just had a couple
of friends, you know, seeme in the weight room, like,
dude, you should try to playfootball. You used to play football,

(04:25):
And I had never played football before, and I'm like, you know,
yeah, why not, you know, ever, you start till high school,
didn't start till my junior year inhigh school. Yeah, whoa,
Yeah, that was my first yearplaying football, and uh, it was
it was a learning experience. Ididn't didn't know how to put my pads
in the little pant slots and everything. Yeah, you know, oh my

(04:46):
god. It was a rough learningexperience. But you know, I was
always a great athlete, you know, growing up, so that that was
never the problem. But just justactually learning football and learning the rules and
and techniques and how to play it, uh was interest. So what was
the hardest part? Was it learningplays? Or I think it was learning
how to get hit and understand thatlike it hurts, you know, and

(05:09):
uh, yeah, like coming frombasketball and baseball. You know, I
used to hate getting hit by apitch. You know, that was terrible.
And then basketball, you know,you get slapped on the wrist,
You're like, I'm fould you know, and you know, football is like
exactly football. Every play is likeyou're getting beat up, beat up,
beat up, beat up. Andso that was an interesting transition. I
want to be a wide receiver andI thought, okay, I'm fast,

(05:30):
I can jump high well Smoky Hill. At that time, we ran the
double wing, so that didn't youdon't catch a lot of passes that way.
Didn't get to catch a lot ofpasses. So they, you know,
it put me at running back.That didn't go great. My high
school coach at the time, SteveCarroll, said, you know you have
long legs. We're gonna put youat defensive end. I have no idea
what the correlation between those two are, but whatever, you know, I

(05:53):
was like, okay, you know, sounds good. And then you become
the hitter as opposed to the hit. E Yeah, And I learned that
that was a little easy year whereyou could control dishing out the pain rather
than taking the pain. And Iwas just kind of a natural at it
didn't really have a lot of passrush moves, but I just used my
athleticism to go around offensive linemen andkept getting some sacks. And yeah,

(06:14):
you got a lot of sacks.That's amazing, Chase. So you switched
over to defense during your junior year, all right, and then that's all
you played probably your senior year.My senior year, I did play both
ways. So I played a littletight end. Didn't really play much wide
receiver, but a lot of tightend. We had eleven guys like that
basically played, so we all playedboth ways. In Wow, we were
kind of struggling with numbers. Soyeah, I played tight end, I

(06:36):
played defensive end. I was onspecial teams. We never came off the
field. That was the old likethe last of the old school way of
playing high school football. But yeah, that probably taught you a lot,
didn't it. It did, Andit carried over honestly into college too,
because you know, I ended upgetting a scholarship to Adam State. It

(06:56):
was five hundred dollars scholarship, youknow, two hundred and fifty bucks a
semester. Careful, I know,right, but it was I was just
so happy that I was able tocontinue my absolutely yere but you know,
even there in my freshman year notred shirting, I was on special teams
and still playing on defense, andjust that constant you know, not getting
rest sometimes like I was used toit coming from Smokey and how we did

(07:18):
things. So it helped me out. Were there any other scholarship you've got
besides Adam State or were they theonly ones? Adam State, New Mexico
Highlands and Kansas Wesleyan. Kansas Wesleyanwas you know an AIA very small Salina,
Kansas. You know, it waslike, ah, you know,
not really for me. New MexicoHighlands was coming off of zero to ten

(07:38):
season. I'm like, we wentone to nine my senior year at Smoky
Like I'm done losing, They're donethat. Yeah. Yeah, Adams was
like the best that I had rightthere, and it was still decently close
to home where you know, stilla little bit of a dry but enough
that if I need to get home, I can get home, you know,
and a day without a flight exactly. Yeah. Yeah, it's amazing
that you received three scholarship offers havingonly played football for two years in high

(08:01):
school. Yeah, and then Ishould add on that was one year of
varsity. So my senior year wasmy only year of varsity. Yeah.
Yeah, and that goes to showwhat a great athlete you were in general
too. Yeah wowbsolutely. Okay,So you're at Adam State then for a
couple of years, and then CSUPueblo starts a football program in two thousand
and eight. Yeah, and youhigh tail it to Pueblo. Yeah.

(08:24):
That was probably one of the hardestdecisions of my life. You know,
I wasn't necessarily happy, you know, at Adams, but at the time,
as a sophomore there, I wasall conference. You know, I
had a starting spot, you're playing, I was playing, and everything was
good, and I kind of hadthis like, well do I take a
leap of faith and go to what'sa bigger city what I thought was going

(08:46):
to be a more involved fan base. But I'm losing my starting spot,
not a guaranteed scholarship, and atthat time, if you transferred in conference,
you're going to have to sit outa year, and so that was
the understanding, and you know,I just remember thinking, like, you
know, I got to make achange. You know, if you're you're
not happy and that that happens alot. I think with young kids in
college going to college, they gethomesick or you know, it's not what

(09:07):
they thought it was. And Ifeel like that was happened to me and
I needed to change. So Itook the risk, jumped ship, and
it actually worked out. They somepeople joked it was a Chase Vaughn rule
that year because so many of ustransferred from Adams that year that they actually
lifted the rule and allowed us toplay the next year. Yeah, the

(09:28):
Chase Vaughn rulled pretty much so andso it worked out and that I was
still able to play that next seasonat CSU Pleblo. Then wow. And
that was their first season of havinga football program too, so it's almost
kind of like they're an expansion team. So you get the transfer thing.
It's not like you're just transferring totransfer, you're also helping to build a
program. Yeah. And I wasone of I believe four people that had

(09:50):
played in a college football game thatfirst year at CESCHU Pleblo. So yeah,
definitely the only all conference guys.Yeah, I feel a lot of
pressure. And you played right awaybecause in your a first game, you
went in and you had four anda half sacks in front of ten thousand
some people and your fan base wasthere and you were playing, Yeah,
sacks. But you know, that'sthe way I think, you know,

(10:13):
my thought process, Like, Ialways think back to that in the three
and a half or so sacks thatI missed that I could have had,
it could have been a really epicgame. But still it was. It
was a pretty epic game. Thatwas awesome. I mean, that's what
I wanted from the college football experience. You know that the ten thousand people
doesn't sound like a lot, butpacked into the thunder Bowl, it was
so loud. Oh, so unbelievablyloud. I was so nervous. I

(10:37):
threw up before that game when afew could go before. It was so
nervous. You know, anybody thatknows anything about the city of Pueblo,
they love football. Their high schoolgames get ten thousand plus to them.
Oh yeah, it's amazing. Theytake it very serious down there, and
they travel to Broncos games. Imean, there are some dedicated Broncos fans
in Pueblo that come up every singlehome game. Absolutely absolutely, It's a

(10:58):
great football city and that was oneof the things that appealed to me,
and that first game was amazing.That was pretty cool. Talk about coach
Riston because I know he has beenvery special to a lot of players throughout
the years. I can't say enoughgood things about him. Something about me,
Maybe it's my upbringing, maybe beinglike an Aurora kid, you know,
I always had like a little Idon't want to say issues with like

(11:20):
authority, you know, but especiallywhen it came to coaches, I had
a hard time trusting coaches. AndI remember when I'm sitting there and cch
Plebo's library and coach has since talkedto me about what he wants this program
to be. It got to apoint in the conversation where he wasn't like
talking to me. He was basicallyjust relaying this like vision he had of
this football program. So I'm likesitting here listening to this guy talk about

(11:43):
this vision or this dream that hehad about what he sees this program becoming.
And he just laid out like,we're going to be a contender for
not just the armac, We're gonnabe a national championship contender. There's gonna
be this beautiful, big stadium.Because at that time, there was just
a hole in the ground. WhenI was thinking about going there, it's
going to be packed full of fans. And he, you know, anybody
knows coaches and knows like he startedtearing up, you know, he was

(12:05):
so passionate about it. And Iremember looking at that guy, like,
man, this dude really believes this. You know, I think I'll run
through a wall for this guy.And sure enough, you know, I
bought in, bought in with everythingat that moment, and he took such
great care of me. Man.I love Coachrists and to death. And
his vision came true. Everything hetold me came true. And it just

(12:26):
goes to show you, like,you know, if you have a plan
for something, and you have agreat vision for something, like you can
make it happen. And I'm soit was the greatest decision in my life,
like making that jump, that leapof faith with him, and I
owe a lot to coach Rists.Isn't that amazing how you'll make those decisions
in life? And you think,what if I hadn't, What if you'd
stayed at Adam State, How differentyour life would have been? Yeah,
completely different. It's a weird.Yeah, absolutely absolutely was there one thing

(12:54):
that that kind of made you makethat decision to go to c Issue Pueblo.
I remember talking to my mom aboutit. Coach Risen had had said
all these things, and I wasso invested in it, but then there
was still that unknown, and Ihad worked so hard to get that starting
spot at Adams and to increase myscholarship, and the new coach coming in
was promising me even more scholarship,and that was always my goal too,

(13:16):
not just to win, but toyou know, eventually have my school paid
for with football. It's like,I got this five hundred dollars. I
can change that. I know I'mgood enough to and just talking to my
mom about it, I just rememberthinking, like, Mom, I'm just
I'm not sure if this is theright decision, you know, going into
the unknown about this. And shewas like, you know, if you're
unhappy, you owe it to yourselfto try to make yourself happy. Life's

(13:37):
too short to stay in a spotthat you're you're just unhappy in. She's
like, you got to do itand have faith in your your skills and
ability that you're going to be allright, even if you go to Pleblo
and you don't get a starting spotand you have to earn it again,
like you're capable of doing that.And I was like, okay, all
right, Mom, I'll do it, and it was it was It was
a cool conversation with my mom becausemy mom was not for me playing football,

(14:01):
and to this day it was neverstill doesn't want me to play football,
you know, like it. Sheonly went to my games to like
because she was afraid I was goingto get hurt and she felt like she
needed to be there. So shewasn't like too big on me playing.
But that was the some of thebest advice she ever gave me, and

(14:22):
it worked out. It was absolute. Yeah. So you finish up your
career at Cushu Pelo, you leavethere with the sack record. Does it
still stand? No, it does. It actually has been broken. My
single game sack record has been brokentwice. Darius Allen. I believe Morgan
Fox also broke. Okay, MorganFox is still playing in the NFL.
Yeah, you know, obviously myall time sack record eventually, Darius Allen,

(14:45):
I think still has it, sookay, yeah, I'm not There's
some great players that have come outof there, like there's no way your
record still stands. When you werethere, I know, I think I
would have had a shot because itwas only two years there. Yeah,
you know, had you been thereall four, all four, it might
still have a shot for to bestand But it's you know, it's d
Line University. Man, we producean offensive lineman. Ryan Jensen came out

(15:05):
of there, my man Jensen.Yeah, and he's been a guest on
the podcast. He's great. Ilove talking to like people from the RMAC.
You got that little chip because you'renot quite you know, the D
one, and then when they makeit big, it's awesome. Yeah,
it is. It's great. Soin twenty ten, you're done with school,
you're undrafted, and tell me yourstory there as far as what you

(15:26):
did to try and get into theNFL. At that point. You eventually
got there, but boy took along time. Oh man, this is
where the dark tragic tale kind ofbegins. Uh, you know, tragic
tale. Yeah, it was.It was rough because I you know,
I had a lot of teams cometo Pueblo to speak to me. Just
about every single NFL team came andI met with and had good conversations with

(15:46):
and right around the draft talking tomy agent. It seemed like it was
going to be the Broncos, theTitans. I think there was another team
there that was like interested, andI'm like, okay, I feel good
that I'm going to be signed undrafted. Draft came and went. The day
after the draft came and went.The day after that came and went,
and the phone wasn't ringing and talkingto my agent, He's like, the

(16:07):
last I heard talking to the Broncos. It was between you and some guy
at University of Texas, and theywent with the guy at University of Texas,
and I was like, oh,man, and you mentioned the chip
on your shoulder being a D twoguy, you know, I was a
Division two All American. And Iremember the person that they went with.
He had something like eight career tacklesthere, you know, yeah, and

(16:27):
played special teams and everything, buthe was a D one player at University
of Texas. I was a Dtwo All American and they went a different
route, and I remember thinking like, well, is it over? Is
it just like that? Is itdone? And I had a long hard
look at myself in the merit forprobably about a week of thinking like I
didn't expect it to just be justabruptly like that when no shot and I

(16:52):
decided that I wasn't going to letit go that easy. And there was
open trials for different leagues at thattime, UFL was starting up, the
CFL held open triouts and all aroundthe North America and arena was a different
kind of arena than it is now. It was still a viable way of
making pretty decent money at that time. They all had open tryouts. So

(17:14):
I opened up a credit card andI started buying plane tickets, started playing
these trial fees, and I wenton a tour. So you had to
pay a fee to try out atall these places. Yeah, yeah,
And that's the other thing about them. A lot of them are seeen as
money grabs for these teams. ButI felt like I just had to be
seen, you know. I knewbeing an athlete, I would run well,

(17:36):
I would test well, that Icould put up good numbers. And
I did. And it was theUFL, the Las Vegas Locomotives that I
ran my fastest forty I think Iran four or five to one for them,
and that got me on their radarand finally got me a contract somewhere.
And that's where it started. Wow, what did it cost about to
try out? And they were probablyall a little bit different. Yeah,

(17:56):
anywhere from fifty two two hundred dollarstrial. Yeah, so kind of dependent.
And then obviously you know the flightthere, hotels, once you're there,
food there, feeding yourself. Soby the time you get on with
the locomotives, what's your credit cardbill? Close to uh probably about seven
eight thousands? Yeah, credit carddebt coming round of college. No job,

(18:18):
Yeah, that was a risk.That's rough, had to bet big.
Did your contract negate that or wasit close? Hopefully you got some
of that back. Oh well,it gets worse. Well, I go
to the Locomotives. I was sohappy to be signed. It was.
It was such a cool experience.You know, Jim fossils a head coach.
You know, you got a yeah, big time head coach. And

(18:40):
I had these players on that squad, you know a lot of former NFL
guys towards the end of their career, like Jeff Garcia, Dante Culpepper.
Was right, it had so many, so many these players I grew up
watching. I was one of therare, like no experience, actual rookies
in there. There was a fewof us, but it was typically catered
to those kind of guys, andI had kind of everything working against me.

(19:02):
Plus I had to learn football.I learned that I got away with
a lot by just being a goodathlete playing D two, so much so
that I didn't understand that my knowledgeof actual defenses and coverages was very limited.
It became a blessing in disguise.I didn't go straight to the NFL,
and I learned this later because Iwasn't ready. Honestly, I wasn't

(19:22):
ready sintally, athletically, yes,absolutely, strength wise absolutely, mentally,
I wasn't there yet. And Ilearned a lot that first camp with the
UFL because my head was spinning justtrying to learn the defense. And that
was the other thing. They signedme as a regular outside linebacker in a
four to three, So I gofrom being a pass rusher to now I'm
just like being a regular linebacker havingto cover tight ends and stuff. Stuff

(19:45):
I didn't really do in college,stuff that I was athletic enough to do,
but just wasn't used to. Soit was a learning curve, and
long story short, I ended upgetting cut. That was the first many
times that I got cut. Yeah, and was that a result of you
not being in the right place becauseof the plays or What really got me
was the speed of the game.I had seen fast wide receivers, seen

(20:07):
fast running backsport. That wasn't youknow, anything different to me. You
know, I'm fast myself, butthe speed of old lineman at that next
level. Yeah, when I sawmy first professional counterplay, I had no
idea what was happening before I gothit in the side of my head and
like was on the ground and Iwas like, what was that? You
know? And I remember going backto my hotel room and just watching a
film in slow motion, like seeinghow fast that went. That was something

(20:30):
D two didn't really have, likeRyan Jensen's rarity, Yeah, one hundred
percent of rarity. In the Dtwo. You didn't always see old lineman
like him, you know, fastand strong. But then you get to
the pros and even on that UFLlevel and all of these old linemen run
like four eight, four, nineto five. Oh, you know,
and there they all can move andthey're all three hundred plus pounds and six
four sixty five. Like that wasdifferent. They're very mobile beasts. Yeah,

(20:53):
that exactly, you know, likeI said, the skill position is
normal. I played against Danny Woodheadand you know, one of the most
dominant college football players of all time. You know, my good buddy Augustine
aj Ran four two three. Youknow, he was fast. I was
used to speed there, but yeah, the old lineman. That was tough.
And then also understanding not just whatI'm supposed to do on a defense,

(21:15):
like as far as like the playcall, but where I fit into
a defense, you know, likewhy I have this zone rather than I
just have the zone. I'm justgonna be here in this space, you
know, but understanding why that wassomething I learned from that training camp,
and Fossil even said it. Youknow. Athletically, yeah, I was
there, absolutely, I was there, but just mentally there was so much
I had to learn because I wasso raw. And that's eventually why I

(21:37):
got cut that first time. Didhe cut you? Did he have a
talk with you? Yeah? Yeah, And it's kind of awkward because he
basically he's cut me, cut metwice, you know, but you know,
so I had this long talk withhim twice. But uh yeah,
you know, and that's that's essentiallywhat it was. They said, if
the UFL was was different. Theywere trying to get a name out there.
They wanted those former players, theyneeded those things names. Yeah,

(22:00):
yeah, they said it absolutely.I would have been in there to develop,
but they didn't really have time todevelop people, right, so that
kind of squeezed me out. Theyneeded the Jeff Garcias, they needed all
those guys, the Dante Culpepper's toget the eyeballs on that league. Yeah,
all right, So from there yougo to the Colorado Ice Yeah,
which is here. Yeah, andthat was four Collins slash levelin of Colorado

(22:22):
right there. That was something.The IFL was very interesting and then something
people do you either need the gamefilm to kind of keep progressing, or
you've come to terms with your footballcareer that this is the peak, you
know, because you can pay Ithink at that time two hundred and fifty
bucks a game before taxes, andthat's if you win. If you lost,

(22:45):
I believe it was less. Ithink we got like one eighty or
so. And keep in mind Istill have, you know, eight thousand
something dollars in credit card debt.But I needed to do it because obviously
my CSU level film No was good. I'm now a ye ish, you
know, removed from it and ithad less weight and I needed this film.
So I signed with the i FL, and uh, that was interesting

(23:07):
to get the least. I gotmy film. Five games there. I
played very well. It's a blendbetween arena and like outdoor football, so
it's kind of like indoor football withoutdoor rules. I was able to,
you know, still do some ofthe things that I was good at outdoors
and showing that athleticism. And fromthere I got enough film for that five
games. I was able to getthere and get out again, you know,

(23:27):
pretty quickly. I didn't have tolike stay there long and you went
back to Las Vegas. I wentback to Las Vegas, Jim Fossil,
you know, so they knew whatI was capable of, and so I
was. I was very much sostill on their radar and the fact that
I was still playing in the iFL. So they brought me back again.
And I when I say, likeI was gonna come back ready,

(23:48):
I knew exactly what I needed todo and what I needed to learn to
be where I needed to be.And I I came in there like dialed
absolutely dialed man like memorized the playbookfrom the last season, Like I mean,
I was, I was ready,I was being vocal, I was
stepping up, trying to call playsand everything, and got cut again after

(24:11):
how long after training camp, Iknow, Yeah, And that was that
one hurt. I was so unbelievablyconfident because of how dowed I was,
to the point like I drove mycar to Vegas. I actually like packed
my car full of stuff, youknow, because I was like, I'm
going to be here long term,you know, I know it. And
I had a phenomenal camp. Everythingwas going good, and I was probably

(24:33):
still second string. They had alittle role carved out for me, you
know, as an occasional pass rushertoo, so knowing what I could do.
And this is where like the businessside came into it. There there
was a guy from the the CFL, and it's not his fault. They
were waiting on him to sign asa linebacker and he signed in camp late,
and him being a veteran having someprevious experience there, Yeah, you

(24:57):
were on the outside looking at it, even though I had a good training
camp. And that's where the businessside of it hit me, because then
in that second meeting with coach FossilI'm like, what else could I did?
Man? You know, I hada great camp. I came in
ready. I improved everything I neededto improve upon, and he agreed.
He was like, no, there'snothing else you can do. Sometimes it's
just numbers games. That was whenhe gave me the you know, I

(25:22):
know when I look at somebody,I know, someone who's going to be
successful in football and someone's who's goingto be successful in life, and you're
gonna be successful in life. AndI remember like looking at him like I
don't know if that was a compliment, you know, like I was looking
like, well, okay, Ithink is that okay? I guess something.
I'm not gonna this. Is itlike him saying like I'd cut you

(25:44):
twice as probably, you know,probably gonna be it. I left there
very angry. I remember I didn'teven wait. I went home, immediately
packed my car up and told mymom's I'm coming home. She's like,
it's like four pm. You're gonnabe here, like you know earlier.
I was like I don't care.I'm like, I'm not going to sleep
tonight. I'm mad. I thinkI made that whole drive in silence.

(26:04):
I was so angry. Yeah.Wow, I was so angry. It's
me. I like tear up thinkingabout it. Just it was so disheartening.
I bet it was. And that'sa long drive. It's a long
drive. It was a long maddrive of me questioning things. So what
did you think on that drive,Chase, as you're coming home? Are
you thinking that? Okay? IfJim Fossil says you're going to be successful

(26:26):
in life, do I just moveon now and I get going with life
or do I still have football left? It's tough because I knew I was
good. I knew I was good, and I knew the things that made
that you can consider bad about mefrom the previous stint. Like I fixed.
I fixed everything, so now Ican cover. You know, now
I know how to play zone.Now I know how to read the run,

(26:49):
read and react to the run.And I'm still a great pass rusher.
I feel like I solved everything andI'm still at my peak. You
know, I was still progressing.I was getting faster, I was getting
stronger. And another thing that Ihad to my benefit, I was so
young coming out of se issue level. I turned twenty one in the middle
of my senior year. Yah.Wow, so I was young, and
I just couldn't logically get over thefact that I'm good. I can't give

(27:12):
this up. I know that I'mgood, and I'm I'm still young.
So that was the thing. Eventhough at that time I had nothing else
going for me and everything says like, go get a job and start paying
these bills and just leave it asit is, you know. I just
couldn't get over that in my head, and so I kept going on the
tryouts. Yeah, and you goup to Canada, I go up to

(27:36):
Canagary. Yeah. And this wasto me was a huge I thought was
a step up at that time fromthe UFL. I'll never forget. The
director of Player of Personnel hit meup on Facebook and said, hey,
did you get cut from the UFLAnd I was like yeah, and just
kind of had a conversation with himabout it, and he's like, I've
had my eye on you for abit and we actually have a spot open.

(27:56):
We need a pass rusher and thekind of defense we run what you
did at CSU level. I'm like, thank god, Yeah, let's go
and uh yeah, and I signedwith Calgary and that was that, man,
because I went from a very darkplace and now I'm going to the
Canadian Football League and that's legit.And I was, so I was so
unbelievably happy. So another good thingthat I didn't just quit and just call

(28:19):
it done. I stayed ready andI was ready for that and went to
Campbec Calgary. Well, and there'sa few people that we know very well,
Doug Flutey and guys like that thathave gone to the CFL and then
go on to do great things.So I think when that opportunity comes,
you're like, hey, I couldbe the next Doug Flutie. Absolutely absolutely.
I mean in Calgary too, LikeDwayne Johnson was played up there,

(28:40):
and I know he had a briefstint up there, but his pictures all
over the locker room and the facilities. Yeah, and the CFL, like
has been around for a long,long time, long time, and so
it just felt legit and official andestablished. Not nothing against the UFL at
the time, but the UFL wasnew and it was still figuring things out.
But then I felt like I wasa legit league. And and so

(29:00):
how'd that year go? Well,so interesting the business side of things.
And this is why I said,this is a long, dark, tragic
tale come to camp. I havea great camp. Everything's going great.
But what I learned the CFL atthat time, the way their CBA,
I guess, was negotiated, rookiesdidn't get paid during training camp. I

(29:21):
was like, all right, I'mdoing this, Like what's that minimum on
that eight thousand dollars credit card bill? I'm like, okay, so all
right, I just got to geton the roster and I'll start getting my
money. And I'm a credit cardbill is still there at this time,
I think student loans are coming in, you know, and like things are
piling up, and I'm like justpiecing together, like just trying to pay
bills and stuff. So I'm like, okay, just get through this camp.

(29:41):
You're good, you got this,You'll get paid. That was one
of the hardest training camps I've everbeen a part of in my entire life
from a physical or mental standpoint ofphysical mentally, the game up there is
actually, I believe, very easy. It's very finesse. It's a lot
less you know pound, It's veryfinesse. But what made it so hard

(30:02):
physically there was we had two aday's basically every single day except our rest
day was a one a day,so I'm not really a rest a It
wasn't really a rest day. Andthen the weather Calgary in the summer,
beautiful, I love Calgary, butrainy, so it was wet all the
time. Your practice gear was wetfrom the one practice to the next practice,
and people were dropping with getting sickand injuries were piling up. And

(30:26):
that's when I learned another side ofthe business. There, you're one of
these rookies. You get hurt,cut, done, it's over. And
that worked to my favor for abit because it started thinning the pack that
the back finned pretty quickly. Andeven though I was significantly beat up,
I you know, I just Ihung in there. I hung in there.
I hung in there. They didn'teven know about this at the time,

(30:48):
but I like dislocated my big toeon my left foot and it was
possibly broken. I didn't know itat the time, but I dislocated it,
got it popped back in myself,kept my mouth shut about it,
continue to play preseason games to thepoint like they had me, you know,
slotted in there, possibly starting oppositeof their all star defensive end that
they had, and and everything wasgoing good, and I did great in

(31:10):
that camp, and then you know, camp's over, and conversations I'm having
like well, you know, nextweek we'll talk about the game plan and
thinking I'm in there, and thenI get a call and it's like,
hey, you need to come bringyour playbook and I'm like what And again,
side of a business that people don'tknow about Canada, they have to

(31:30):
have so many Americans and Canadians onthe roster a ratio there. And this
is what I was told that,like, even though you did everything you
need to do to make the squadand you should be on the squad,
we have too many Americans and wewant we want to carry more Americans in
the skill position area because we canfind Canadian d lineman and Canadian old lineman

(31:52):
essentially, is what I was told. I'm like, so there's nothing else
I could have did in camp.No, no, But I'm like,
you got to be kidding me,Like okay, and they're like, but
you know, we have a practicesquad. We're gonna send you home,
but expect to be back up herein a couple of weeks. Okay,
cool, all right, I candeal with that. So I went home

(32:14):
again, long long ride home andI'm just like, I'm in disbelief.
At this point, I was like, Okay, in meantime, I'll just
work. You know, I gota degree in exercise science also, so
I'm gonna start working at a gym, you know, personal trainer, and
I'll be in and out, beback up there. One week, turn
to two weeks, turn the threeweeks, turn the four weeks, and
the whole time I'm in constant contactwith the player of personnel guy. He's

(32:35):
like, yeah, I'll just hangin there. We're gonna get you back
up. Hanging there, We're gettingyou back up. It never happened.
Oh, it never happened. Sonot only was I not paid or didn't
get paid from any of that that, I just owned none of it because
you didn't get paid in training camp, none of it. Oh, I'm
also hurt right now, my foot, my toes aret and you have no
insurance. I have no insurance,i have no job to go get my

(32:59):
foot looked at. I'm out,completely out of pocket for all of that.
And I had to do it becauseit was my whole foot was swollen.
My toes still messed up to thisday from that, and so now
medical bills on top of all ofthat, and I'm working in the gym.
Cool. I got a job,and but you know, you have
to build your clientele up, youknow, in a gym, So that
that started out slowly, but Iwas able to like pay at least minimums

(33:21):
on things. Again that patchwork wayof like making ends meet, and I'm
just like, this is just isit just not meant for me, meant
for me, And it's hard tobuild a client base when you are thinking
in the back of your head,I'm going to be going back up there
in a couple of weeks, soI don't want to really like get a
whole bunch of people going and thendesert them exactly. And then also I
don't, you know, I don'twant to like over extend myself so much,

(33:43):
like you know that I'm in thisgym, you know, twenty four
to seven. I know I'm justgonna be gone, you know. So
that was always in the back ofmy head, like, oh, you're
gonna be here temporarily, and itjust really became permanent. It became permanent,
and every day was so long,so I'm thinking that call is coming.
It didn't come. My agent hadnothing for me you know, and
oh, Chase, so frustrating.It was frustrating because again it was two

(34:04):
straight camps that I did everything thatI needed to do and I played well,
and every coach looked me out.You're like, it's just a business
and a numbers thing, man,Like, you did what you need to
do and that's just how it worksout sometimes. Sorry, it kills me
that you were because you were anAmerican. Yeah, you couldn't stay in
the CFL. That's like, Imean, I've heard every excuse, but
that's the first time I've heard thenationality be an issue. Yeah, yep,

(34:28):
yep. Oh, oh my gosh. Okay, So then after your
experience with the CFL in twenty thirteen, you get on with the Spokane Shock.
Yeah. So the Spokane Shock theArena Football league I had known for
a long time. Arena didn't reallyfit the type of football the way I
played football. Arena football and arenafootball rules is again very you know,

(34:52):
brute pounding strength. You know,you're in small quarters. You can't really
use a lot of speed athletics themthat I used to to win pass rushes.
That was my thing. But Igot a contract offer and I have
nothing else going for me, andthe Spokane Shop was a phenomenal organization,
like they're they're really good, greatfan base in Spokane. I had never

(35:14):
been there before, but just verypassionate fan base, just kind of like
Peplo, like they sell out thereeverything. So I was like, all
right, I guess I'm doing this. I guess I'm going to Arena.
I'm gonna have to figure it out. I feel like defenses just get beat
up an arena ball because it's sooffense oriented. I mean, the wide
receivers get a running start. Yes, yeah, it's what do you want

(35:35):
me to do? What do youwant me to do? Also, like
how am I supposed to like turnthe corner on this tackle when we're like
you're pass rushing on a guard.Basically it's so weird. Yeah, it's
very different, but you gotta adapt. You gotta adapt. And so they
have me playing defensive end and alsowhat they called a mac linebacker. So
the defensive end I had to nowlearn how to play hands on. I

(36:00):
had to play with a certain powerto me because I couldn't use my speed.
That was basically handicapped in not beingable to do what I do best.
So that did help me develop myskills. It helped me develop a
bull rush. It helped me develop, you know, how to engage with
an offensive linement and then get offof them with the move. So I
did get better in that. Inthat aspect, the mac linebacker is the

(36:22):
dumbest thing I have ever seen insports. Essentially, you start, you
know, maybe five yards off theball. They have what's called a fullback,
which is another three hundred and fiftypounds. Offensive lineman start five yards
off the ball, snap the ball. You both run into each other.
Common sense tells me, I'm justgonna swim move this guy. Why would

(36:44):
I run into this big dude?And so like, swim move, swim
move, swim move, and allthrough training camp was working great. Yeah,
swim move, swim move, swimmove, and they're okay, you're
doing good doing this. But youknow, we want you to play the
position. We want you to runinto that guy. We just want you
to run into him. I'm like, but if I can swim him and
not have to hit him every time, doesn't that make more sense? Yeah,
and you could do that sometimes,but if we want you to hit

(37:06):
him, and they want the dramaof the hit. I don't know.
To be honest with you, Idon't say weird, weird concept. It
is weird. But when a coachtells you that's what they want, that's
what you need to do to makethis team. You need to start,
and you're trying to pay some billsand make some money, you do it.
Put your head down and go directlyinto that guy. Don't even you
don't even have to use hands ifyou don't want to. That's when my
coaches told me, So I'm justgonna go helmet straight, helmet into this,

(37:29):
Okay, all right? So Idid it, and I understood the
environment I was gonna be in,so I beefed up. I beefed up
for it. I went from abouttwo forty five two fifty and I got
up to two seventy. Wow.I put on a lot of weight because
I knew this was gonna be abeating on me. And if that's what
they wanted me to do, that'swhat I'm gonna do. So ran into

(37:50):
him, ran into him, raninto him. You know, when I
was playing defensive end, try towork my move's hands on and I make
the team. I'm sitting there,you know, I'm sitting there at the
end of the camp and I'm like, well, this phone's gonna ring any
minute and I'm going home. Andit didn't ring, and I actually made
the team. I was like,holy crap, nothing, okay, okay,

(38:12):
cool, And now I was actuallykind of like I went into it
like not too thrilled about being there, and I was actually very happy because
I actually made a squad and themoney was decent. I was making decent
money and I could I started payingdown my credit card bill and everything,
and for years, after three yearsafter going into four barons on my student
loans and stuff, and I couldstart paying some stuff off and making good

(38:37):
money. I had great time withmy teammates up there. One of my
roommates was a college rival, MarkScheichel. He went to a school of
mines and we were always like oneand two in sacks in college and we
hated each other from AFAR. Butthen we ended up there and roommates,
and we had this moment, youknow, we walked into our new apartment
after making this team, and helooks at me, He's like, do

(38:57):
you like video games? I waslike, I do like video games.
He's like, I think we justbecame best friends. I was like all
right, you know, and likewe're cool from there and it just created,
you know, a life around friendor mark cycle and it was great
again making good money, I wasn't. It was hard to me beat to
be good, though really good atI was serviceable, but it just wasn't
my type of game, right,So I wasn't very good. And that

(39:20):
was the biggest thing from Arena,Like there was no future there for me.
It just wasn't my brand of football. And I was making the best
with what I had at that time, but there wasn't a future there for
me. And that was the onlynegative part of there. And just knowing
that and knowing that, well,maybe this is my peak, you know,
maybe this is it. That's whenI started having that conversation with myself
that like, even if I getanother contract in Arena, I don't think

(39:42):
I'm gonna do this. Talk aboutbeing beat up. If you can imagine
trying to play that brand broken wrist, concussions, multiple, multiple multiple concussions.
I was very beat up over thecourse of that year. But again,
it was a great year and itwas great experience, and it gave
you the confidence to keep going.It gave me the confidence to somewhat that
keep going. Yeah, I guesswe could get to that part. Spokane

(40:05):
ended, you know, and Icame back home and it's one of those
things like, okay, you know, it was a one year deal.
I can go try to play Arenafootball. I had some other offers there
San Jose and stuff. Was interested. I didn't like Arena. It just
wasn't for me. And that's whenI was like, if that was my
peak, I'm not going to scratchand claw to just play Arena. I'm
not doing it. And that's whenI decided I think I was done.

(40:27):
I came back. Keep in mind, I'm significantly beat up. The way
the UFL, the CFL, andArena and IFL lined up. There was
a period of time in about twoyears that I went from training camp season
straight to another training camp, straightto another training camp, straight into a
season. And I had been playingfootball continuously for probably about a year and
a half two years because of theway their seasons were staggered, yeah,

(40:49):
with no break. So I wasI was significantly beat up. I came
home and I had an opportunity toget a job, a regular job,
good paying job, and I tookit for a national Jewish hell hospital,
the Tobacco Quick Line one eight hundredQuit. Now. I was a tobacco
quit coach, So basically, youcall the hotline, you get connected with
me. I'd coach you through quittingsmoking, making healthy lifestyle choices, maybe

(41:14):
even lose a little weight here,and things like that. It was a
good paying job, and I wassitting in a cubicle. I was paying
all my bills and everything. Ihad a nice apartment right off Colorado Boulevard,
and I'm like, oh, Iguess this is this is it.
I had a good run. Wow. And that lasted about two months.

(41:35):
That mentality lasted about two months beforethat little splinter in the back of my
head that like, you're too good, you should be playing kept growing and
growing and growing, and I'll neverforget. I was on a call with
somebody, you know, and they'retalking about their cigarettes, and I'm sitting
there listening. It's probably like thethirtieth call I've taken that day. I
had this moment, put my endof the phone on mute, and I

(41:57):
just stood up and looked around.I looked around at the office full of
cubicles and people in there, andI said to myself, I'm the biggest,
strongest, fastest person in here forno reason. I don't think I'm
supposed to be here. I wassupposed to be doing something else, and
the only other thing I could thinkof that it could be has to be
football. So I got back withLauren Lando and started training again. Wow.
The cool part about that story isthe day that I got back decided

(42:22):
to go back with Laurenlando and Irejoined my football conditioning group that we had
was the last day of my wife'sinternship there. That was the day I
met my wife, which is prettycool. Yeah, that is very cool.
Yeah. Yeah, So you talkabout things happened for a reason.
Yeah, that was supposed to happen. I was supposed to go back to
football. That is really cool,Chase. That's some divine intervention right there.

(42:45):
Absolutely absolutely. And not only that, like those couple months off of
not doing anything football wise, Ihealed. I forgot what we did.
That felt like, yeah, tobe completely healthy. All of a sudden,
I felt great again, and myvertical was going back up, my
speed was coming back, my strengthwas coming back, and I was like,
oh, I was just beat up. You know. Yeah, sometimes
sitting at a desk is good foryou. Absolutely doing all the bad things

(43:07):
that you've been doing. It neededto happen. It absolutely needed to happen.
Yeah, wow, Okay, Sothen how does your opportunity come with
the Broncos started looking great, youknow, and workouts with Lauren, and
Lauren has a lot of contacts,a lot of connects, and one of
the scouts at that time, hisname is Champ Kelly. I believe he
watched one of our workouts we werehaving and you know, noticed me like,

(43:29):
who's this guy? And Lauren toldhim like, let's chase fawn.
You know, he's played here,he's played here, he's played here.
And Champ Kelly the scout for thebroncause at the time, it's like where's
he from? And Lauren's like,he's from here. He lives five minutes
away from your facility. And Iguess Champ gave him a look like send
me his film, like how dowe not know about this guy? And
Champ Kelly saw my film, sentmy film up to la and it sounds

(43:50):
like hey had the same conversation likewhere's he from? Like he's from here.
He lives down the street, andhow did we not know about him?
Oh? My god, bring himin for a workout. Of course.
I had a conversation with my agent. I'm like, how did they
not know about me? Those?Right, because they were one of the
ones that came and talked to youwhen you were down at Peblo. This
whole time, I was thinking like, oh, that would be the obvious
that my agent would be hitting themup and like let and he wasn't doing

(44:14):
that, so that was hard tohear. But whatever, you know,
I gotta I got a try outat least, and I was like,
this is it. I have mytrial. I'm having my fair shot.
If I don't get signed from thistry out, whatever, I got this
tryout, Yes, thank you,thank you God. I could let this
go if I don't get it.Yeah. I was ready. I was
feeling good. I was fully healthy, you know, I was back down

(44:36):
to like my good playing weight abouttwo fifty. I was fast. And
I walked into this tryout. Youknow Chica, Hans Lway and and you
know Coach Fox, all these people, and I was just you know,
smiling from ear to ear. I'min the facility team, right, I'm
in the facility the Denver Broncos.I'm here finally and stretching out there.
Yeah, go stretch out. Weget started. A minute. There's one

(44:57):
other linebacker that's gonna be joining you. He's gonna be having a try out
with you, and I'm like,okay, cool. I'm like, I
don't care who this guy is.I'm gonna beat him and walks in low
foot to Tufu, former pro bowlerfor the Seattle Seahaps. Yeah, I
knew exactly who he was when hewalked in, and I'm like, oh
crap, this is who I'm goingagainst. And that's exactly what went through
my head. I was like thatadversity is coming again. And I was

(45:19):
like, well, you know what, of course they're going to sign a
pro bowler over some undrafted now fiveyears six years removed from college. Dude.
I'm like, it is what itis. I'm gonna go out and
I'm gonna give him hell try myhardest, and I'm gonna have a smile
about it. And I had theworkout of a lifetime. I absolutely crushed
it, absolutely crushed it. Iknew it about like halfway through that,

(45:40):
like I'm doing it. I'm crushingthis. I'm like in the zone,
like we're going through drills. They'rethrowing us like passes just see. I
don't know can catch. I'm onehanded catching things. I can't catch very
good. But like I put iton that day, one handed catches all
these like great grabs and everybody's like, whoa, who's this guy? And
they told coach Riston, you wentinto that workout that day and you watched

(46:01):
it, and I told you oneof those guys was a Pro Bowl player.
You would one hundred percent thought itwas Chase one whoa And that was
the that was such a high compliment. And the workout gets done, everybody's
like, hey, that was great. You know, great job, great
job. Yeah, well you knowyou'll be hearing from us. I'm like
okay, sure, okay, okay. And guy helping run the workout came

(46:22):
up to me and he was like, yeah, let me verify we have
your contact in phone. I waslike, okay, verifying it. He's
like, all right, rookie,Minnie camp is coming up on this date.
So I was like, I don'tsee why you're not going to be
there, So be ready for that. Make sure that date is clear.
Let me check my calendar. Yeah, it's clear. Yeah, technically I
had work because I was still workingat National Jewish Health. There you go.

(46:43):
Yeah, so I had to callhim sick. That became a news
story, call him sick, andyeah, I'm sick today. I'm out
with the flu. And I wasactually a rookie Minnie camp. Yeah.
I remember midway through Rookie Minni Camp, like after day one, I started
out linebacker and they had an injuryon D line and it was a conversation
like Chase can pass us too?Put him at a D line And it

(47:05):
was like because of what I didat Pleblo, then because of going to
the UFL and having some film there, you know, from playing a regular
linebacker, then everything came together,you know that, like I could do
all of all those different experiences.Yeah. Yeah, they moved me to
d N and I played that goodand then I got the contract. What's
crazy is I left one more stintout from the UFL. There there's one

(47:27):
more. There was a third stint. Oh yeah, after Calgary, you
went back to Las Vegas again.But I went back to Las Vegas twice,
three times, totally. Yeah,cut twice the third time. So
this story is so I went outof order there. But I always often
forget about this because it was avery brief, brief thing. The UFL
was close to folding and there wasa lot of talk that it was gonna
fold, so a lot of playerswere opting out of going to it.

(47:51):
So it seemed like I was justkind of like this last like thot,
like let's just bring Chase back.And at first I'm like, absolutely not.
You guys cut me twice. No, I'm not going there. You
cut me a third time, Imight burn this facility of the ground.
You know, I don't know whatyou don't want me back there. I
eventually went and it was one ofthose like they flew me out and like
camp magically started like two days later. It was very rush like. It

(48:14):
was very clear this was probably goneunder at that point, so we had
like a brief like like shortened kindof training camp. I get there.
I made the team, eyes Ishould have. I made the team.
I don't know how many people actuallygot cut. It might have been everybody
there might have made the team,but whatever, I'll take it. We
played four games and realized we hadn'tbeen paid yet, and so we're four

(48:36):
games in the season. Every gameeveryone's like, well, we were getting
paid, you'll be doubled up nextweek. Just the league is going through
some thing shifting things around. Finally, after game four, it's one of
my favorite stories to tell because it'sone hundred percent tru they brought us all
into this room because US players andcoaches weren't getting paid at that time.
So they brought us into the roomand they said, we have announcement to
make The league is folding. Ourowner has gone file with the banker.

(49:00):
See, you guys aren't getting paid. Go home. I'm sitting there.
I'm probably the only one not surprised. That's the way my career is gone.
I'm like, oh okay, yeah, oh check that off on my
Bengo car list. League went under? Cool, got it? How else
can I get cut? You knowwhat ensued after that was one of the
most hysterical like moments in my lifebecause it was mass chaos. Players like,

(49:20):
what what do you mean We're notgoing to pay? Coaches like so
we're not getting paid either, andeverybody resorted to just like mob just like
my mental people were still in laptops. There's just chaos. People were jumping
up grabbing projectors off the ceiling inour Vegas facility. Oh my gosh.
And I'm sitting there and watching like, oh this is crazy. And the
first thing that's in my head islike, I want my helmet, my

(49:44):
pads, in my jersey. Andso I'm like sprinting like through this chaos,
getting like bumped by people and I'llnever forget. Like one of my
old position coaches like bumps into meand in the hallway, and I look
at him and I realize it's him. He's got two laptops and he's like
sprinting away, like like right,what is happening. So I'm like making
my way. I get to theweight room, like fighting through this mass
chaos of players just taking stuff andcoaches taking stuff, and there's this dog

(50:08):
pile on all like the jerseys,and I'm pushing people off trying to find
my jersey. I found my homejersey. Someone took my away jersey.
I got my helmet, I gotmy shoulder pads. I'm running out to
my car. I passed through theweight room. I'm like I gotta grab
something. I grab a forty fivepounds dumb bell, like out to the

(50:29):
parking lot. I get to theparty, I'm like, how am I
going to get this dumbell back toDenver? I just drop it right where
it's at, like in the parkinglot, throw my stuff in the car,
like run back in there. It'scleaned out. I was able to
get a banner off the wall,like a UFL banner, and that was
that. It was absolutely saying.It was like a scene out of a
movie. Yeah, if someone directsthis movie, I have it all in

(50:50):
my head and it would be absolutelyhysterical. Wow. So anyway, that
needless said, that was my lastlittle brief stint in the UFL. That's
how the UFL ended. It wentunder, had a mass lawsuit, huge
lawsuit against the corner UFL, andwe eventually, I think it was towards
the end of my season in theArena Football League. We eventually settled the
lawsuit and you get some money.We got some money, not as much

(51:12):
as we thought, but it's justhow it goes. I was I wasn't
expecting to get anything, but Igot something from that. And like with
that and with what I was makingArena, I was able to like steady
myself a little bit with bills andthen having a normal job for a bit
too. I was able to getto a decent spot with bills and student
loans where I was a little morecomfortable. But yeah, I forgot to
mention it. That's why one ofthe best parts of my story. It's

(51:36):
crazy. But then all that happenedand over the Broncos. So I know,
yeah, so you spend a coupleof seasons with the Broncos. Dream
come true. And I remember signingthat contract after Ricky Minicamp. I can't
it's just the weirdest mentality. Isigned the contract, you know, shake
hands with everybody, Congratulations, greatjob, and I'm expecting that, like
before I get out of the door, I'm getting cut. It's just because

(51:58):
it's happened so often. It's justhow it is. I remember getting in
my car in the parking lot andI sat there in the parking lot the
Broncos facility of Valley Yet yeah,for about twenty minutes before it like really
hit me, like oh my God, like I I did it and just
just uncontrollably cried, you know,uncontrollably cried my eyes out. I was

(52:20):
I'm tearing up now. To thinkingabout it. That was that was a
long long process to to get somethingthat I thought that I I was good
enough to have a long time ago, and to finally get it, it
was great. It was just suchthis huge relief off my shoulders. It
was this huge relief, and itwas it was finally confirmation of what I've

(52:42):
always known that I was good enough, that I was good enough from you
know, it's five hundred dollars scholarshipto where I'm at now. I knew,
I knew I could be there,and finally I was proven that I
was right. I knew I wasright. That was a great moment.
Had a moment with my my grandparentswho my grandparents never had that conversation with
me that like, probably should geta job. You know, my mom
always had that tough conversation, youneed to go get a job, Chase

(53:05):
it is what it is. Butmy grandparents never doubted me. And I
went immediately over my grandparents' house andyou know, we hugged and we all
cried. Yeah, it was great. I was That was a great,
great moment. And then it wentright back to business for me, and
I'm like, I'm here now,I have all these other goals, and
that's just how I work. Ididn't basket it too long. I have
all these other goals. So,yeah, glad you enjoyed the moment I

(53:27):
did. Ye did, And Ineeded to do that because I didn't do
that enough. I always thought,like not that I was entitled to that
next moment. I guess yeah,that I was kind of intaled in that
next moment. That work, ifyou work hard enough that you're gonna get
that next moment because you deserve it. That is not true. That is
not at all true that I learnedfrom my my career. Yeah, but
you know I was there and couldn'thave been happier at that moment. That's

(53:49):
awesome. How does it end withthe Broncos and then you have one more
season with Winnipeg before you call yourcareer. Yeah, so you know,
again, new day, new adversity. But at I'd seen all kinds of
adversity. So we got to likepreseason my first year there, and I
tore my knee. Yeah, Iknow the exact play. It was me,
Jacob Tammy. We were engaged,both our feet got tangled and my

(54:13):
knee kind of weirdly just went straightinto the ground. I heard it pop,
jump back up, didn't feel anypain. I was like, oh,
I don't know. I guess myknee just kind of popped. And
sure enough, about two hours later, because I was the last play of
practice, of course, two hourslater, my knee swelled up. I
was like, oh that's not good. Put ice on my knee. So
swelling went down. Went to ourworkout, squatted like three eighty five ten

(54:36):
times, you know, still doinggood. I'm like, knee felt weird,
but you know, not enough thatwas impacting me. And then to
finish the workout, we were rollingout our it bands on a foam roller.
I started rolling out my IT bantwelve out of ten pain. I
mean, I jumped up like whatwas that like? And I knew from
my exercise science degree that you know, your IT ban and your knee it

(54:58):
crosses a lot of ligaments. Yeah, And I was like, oh no,
So I went into Greek and Itold Greek, you know, I
think I might to pop something.Man at practice and he did some tests.
Did a CL no, fine,you know MCL like little pain or
cocon maybem saying he was like,let me try one more. Did the
PCL test twelve out of ten painagain, and yeah, turned turned out
I tore my PCL and that wasthat. That ended that season. I

(55:22):
had never been all the adversity I'vehad, I had been hurt, you
know, this whole thing. I'dbeen hurt. I've never been injured.
Looking at the bright side though,we mentioned like being in that moment and
basking that moment. Like I said, I had that that hour or so
or two hours where I enjoyed it, and then I was right back to
business. Everything was business for me, and I was just I'm motivated to
not just make this team, butbe a pro bowler and win a Super

(55:45):
Bowl. That's what I want todo. And now I had to stop,
and I had to stop, andI had to watch. It's a
good thing that it happened, becausethat truly allowed me to soak in my
environment of where I was having tosit there and just watch that season just
and I'll never forget my kind ofmoment that I had coming in early for
treatment and a lot of players camein early. You know, I got

(56:06):
my breakfast, I sat down atthe table, you know, the Mark
Square comes sits down with us wherewe're having breakfast. Uh Peyton comes and
sits down. Wes Welker comes tosits down, and like all of a
sudden, I meeting my eggs.I look up, I look around me
at this table I'm sitting at,and I remember putting my fork down and
just sitting back and we're just havinga normal conversation like normal people at its.
People don't understand, like, yeah, you put football players on a

(56:28):
pedestal. They're all just normal people, you know what I mean. And
we're having this normal conversation. Iremember sitting back and thinking like, holy
crap, Chase, like you're atthe table, you know. Von Miller
comes up, jokes around, stealsomebody's potato or something before he leaves,
you know. And that was mymoment that I soaked in that, Like
I sat back, put my forkdown. I just looked around and I
soaked it in. Like I'm anold rookie at this point with knee injury.

(56:51):
It's probably over, I thought atthat moment, But you were at
the table. I was at thetable. I soaked it in. And
the crazy thing about it, itended up not being over. I ended
up resigning. They end up signingme back the next year. Yeah,
I was having a good enough campand everything that I know, del Rio
and Fox like me. Uh.It turns out was well liked by everybody
upstairs, which was so cool tohear that I got signed back. Now,

(57:14):
then del Rio and Fox got fireda couple of weeks after I signed
back. That was unfortunate for me, but again I was expecting to be
back. So the fact that Igot a year two, you know,
and got in there and got tobe healthy and again I went into that
that second season now with that mentalityof enjoy and basking this the riding's on

(57:36):
the wall. You're not one ofKoby X guys, you know. Yeah,
you're gonna get cut. You know. It is what it is.
Uh, there's probably nothing you cando but enjoy that you're here. Enjoy
that you're here. You've been justbefore and if this is the end,
this is a fitting end to yourstory. I remember before the Seattle preseason
game, We're in Seattle. Ilove being a visiting team, man,
I just love that. And soSeattle. I have so much respect for
that fan base, passionate, youknow, I love passionate fan bases,

(57:59):
right, And i'mmember our hotel,our team hotel. You open your window
and there was this big construction siteright next to the hotel and they had
hung this giant twelfth Man flat,So like you open your window and all
you see the flat. I'm like, I love that level of pettiness.
I love it and just being inthat Seattle Stadium healthy and I got this
second shot to still be out hereand doing it. I had my uniform

(58:20):
laid out, you know, onthe ground in the locker room beforehand,
and I'm just staring at it,you know, the Vaughan on the Broncos
jersey and everything, and I'm lettingit soak in the Mark Square. It
comes up to me, He's like, hey, yeah, take a picture
of that. Take a picture.You know. It's like, hey,
I know, it's like, yougot to enjoy these moments, man,
got to enjoy these moments. Iwas like, yeah, you're one hundred
percent right. And I still havea picture on my phone, you know,
I still have that picture on myphone. And I'm We're running out

(58:43):
there for pregame and the stadium's fillingup, and I'm crying, you know,
underneath my visor it's raining. I'mcrying. I can't see anything.
I'm dropping every pass in pregame warmup because I'm blind. That second season,
it was about enjoying the experience.I enjoyed it, and I was
eventually cut and it was okay.I hugged Wade Phillips. Wade Phillips was
great to me. It was agreat guy. I hugged him, and

(59:05):
I met a lot of great teammates. Left there with really no no regrets.
I do wonder if me and JacobTammy didn't get tangled up, how
that would have went. But Ican't control that. You can't, is
what it is. Yeah, Iwas at peace at that moment if my
football career was done. Winnipeg camecalling and said, you were in one
of the best pass rush rooms inprobably the history of the NFL, and

(59:31):
we sen your film, we knowyou could play. You want to come
up here? And I was like, how much? You know? All
right, yeah, we'll do it. Yes, I need no price,
you know, my my now wife. But we were serious at the time,
and I know the strain that itputs on of leaving and absolutely so
the price was good enough. Iwas like, Okay, let's do this.

(59:52):
And I went back up there.I actually signed a two year contract,
played well. Going back to Canadianfootball, it just seems so easy
coming from especially that level, tryingto match the level of von Miller and
de Marcus Ware and Wolf and MalikJackson and all. You know, when
you playing that level and then yougo to the CFL. It was so
unbelievably easy for me. In practice, it was so easy, and I

(01:00:13):
felt so relaxed go through that seasonand my exit interview, we got big
things playing for you. I'm like, yeah, cool, Okay, fine,
I've heard it all. You knowyou should based on how I played,
you should. And fast forward acouple of months, train train,
train train, getting ready to goback to Winnipeg in a couple of weeks
and I'm at a Rockies game andmy phone rings and it's, uh,

(01:00:34):
my Winnipeg head coach like, hey, uh we're gonna cut you. One
of these guys we've been waiting onfor a while became available. And I
was like, okay, you know, like sounds good, wow, you
know, hung up the phone.My wife, Whitney. He's like,
who's thats like those WINNI Fery's justgot cut and she's like kind of She
rolls her eyes. He's like,Okay, you know we've been through it.
You're like so used to it bynow so used. Oh my gosh,

(01:00:55):
desensitized, sanitize. You know.I'm at peace with my career.
But that was the moment I realized, like they cut to me about two
weeks before camp the NFL Draft,I think either just happened or was about
to happen. There's no chance ofany CFL team signing me, no chance
of going back to the NFL.I'm not doing Arena. And I remember
telling my wife. I was like, it's over. I was like,

(01:01:15):
this is it. And we chaersedour beer up in the restaurant and right
field at Coors Field and I waslike that's a rap. Wow. She's
like you you had a hell ofa run. I was like, I
did, you did? I wassmiling, Wow, Oh my gosh.
So as we wrap up, nowyou're a firefighter with the Aurora Fire Department.

(01:01:38):
How long we've been doing that?And what made you go into that?
So I'm at year going on yearseven now, wow, which is
crazy. So back in between theCanadian Football League and Arena Fotball League,
when I was working that job atthat gym, a Denver firefire walked in.
I wish I could remember his name, and we struck off a conversation
about football, and you know,I was still playing football at that time,

(01:01:58):
and he played a little football andhe asked me. He was like,
you ever thought about being a firefighterwhen everything's done? And I said,
dude, all of respect to youfirefighters, man, I don't think
I can run into a burning building. I don't got it. You know,
I don't think I got that inme. And he kind of laughed
and he was like, you knowwhat, man, I used to think
the same thing. But running intoa burning building, I get the same

(01:02:19):
feeling I got when I put myfootball helmet on and ran down on kickoff.
I was like, hmm, youknow, just planting the seed in
my head. Yeah, And Ithought about that over the course of the
years there. Actually this past weekend, I was actually down giving a speech
to the Plable Firefighter Department at theirawards bank. Now I talked about this
in the speech about when I reallyanalyzed what that meant. Now, you

(01:02:42):
know, when you think of kickoffin the NFL, it's different now,
but it was the most dangerous playin football, and that's why they changed
all these rules and stuff. Butyet I did it without thinking. I
put my helmet on, I randown the field one hundred and fifty percent,
not thinking of the consequences with thejob to do when I run into
a fire. Now I put myfirefighting gear on, and I run into
a fire one hundred and fifty percent, not think about the consequences of what

(01:03:07):
I'm doing, not thinking about thedangers. I thought about, why is
that like? What allowed me todo that as a firefighter? And when
I pieced it together, I calledit three levels of faith. The first
level, of course, my faithin God or whatever everybody's faith in a
higher being is, or faith inthe energies of the universe. With me,
it's God. And it was thefaith that how many times I fell
down, I was able to getback up. Now, how many times

(01:03:27):
I got knocked out, I wasgoing to be able to get back up
again. That was the first level. But even then that's not enough confidence
to play the game of football,I think, or to be a firefighter
and do the things you do asa firefighter, So you need the second
level. And the second level isa faith in your leadership like a faith
in your coaches, or with firefighting, it's a faith in your lieutenants and
your captains that they know what they'redoing. They've seen this situation before and

(01:03:52):
they're not going to put you ina position to get hurt. So it's
faith in your leadership and your coachesand everything that they know what's best for
you, going to do what's bestfor you. And then the third level
of faith. And it took mea whole career to realize this, but
it's a faith in yourself. It'sa faith that you're good and you know
that you're good, and that you'vetrained hard enough, that you've watched enough
film, that you've learned enough,that you've put in the time in the

(01:04:15):
weight room that any beating that youtake that you can take it. It's
having that faith in yourself is thatthird level. So when you combine all
those levels of faith, it allowsyou to do something that maybe ninety nine
percent of the rest of the worldisn't able to do because it's so dangerous,
and it allows you to do thatand do that at full speed without
thinking twice about it. And that'swhat I connected from football to firefighting.

(01:04:39):
That allowed me to realize I canbe a firefighter. I can do this
and you love it. I loveit. I love it, you know,
I love the again. You havethe team kind of atmosphere. Yes,
you have the accountability of having tobe in shape. And also it's
not a cubicle and it's a lockerroom any way. Yeah, you guys
are. It's a brotherhood that isunlike a a lot of other brotherhoods and

(01:05:00):
probably the most similar brotherhood there isto a locker room. And the thing
that you miss the most. Youdon't miss the game as much as you
miss your boys. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely, as an absolute fact.
You miss those moments, you missingit at the table and looking up and
seeing three Hall of famers, youknow, sitting there you miss you know,
I'd see shu Plevlo going to GoldenCorral for the twentieth time in the

(01:05:20):
season, you know, with yourboys, you know you miss those things
and ver ight, Yeah, youmiss playing football, not at all.
I don't miss anything about the actof playing football. I miss all those
things in between, the little thingsin between it. And now you get
it with your house, with theat the fire station. Absolutely, that
is really cool. My story alsotaught me that you are where you are
for a reason. And the momentthat I went back and started playing football

(01:05:43):
again and met my wife and thenChamp Kelly ended up being there, and
it taught me that, like,even if your situation is bad, you're
not happy with your situation, youare there for a reason, and every
call we get you have that legitreason why you're there. You're there to
help somebody, Like somebody's worst dayof their life. I'm there for that

(01:06:03):
now, and it's just confirmation that, like, this is the spot I'm
supposed to be. Oh, that'sso cool. Wow, Chase, great
story. And usually I wrap upwith the question of what do you tell
people when they're down, but youjust answered the whole thing. Oh my
gosh, what an awesome story.Thank you for coming in. This was
really cool to hear everything that youwent through. I mean, I know

(01:06:25):
you from a little snapshot of whenyou were with the Broncos and didn't know
all of the the in depth details, and then just what you're doing now
is so commendable. And we've gotfirefighters in our family and so I just
the first responders. There's just somuch respect and love for so it's cool.
Thank you so much, really cool. Thank you for having me.
Yeah, it's been great. Morepeople need to hear your story. I

(01:06:45):
love telling it. That's awesome,all right, thanks Chase, thank you,
Thanks so much, Chase. Ifyou've made it this far, thank
you. If you liked this episodeor any others, please share it with
someone who might enjoy it or needwords of wisdom. New episodes of Cut,
Traded, Fired, Retired are releasedon Tuesdays. You can get social
with the podcast on Twitter and Instagramat ctfur podcast, and check out the

(01:07:09):
website ctfurpodcast dot com. I'm yourhost, Susie Wargen. To find out
more about me, visit susiewargin dotcom. Thanks again for listening, and
until next time, please be careful, be safe, and be kind. Take care