June 27, 2023 • 36 mins
Before he was a football coach in college and the NFL, Steve Fairchild was a player. He wasn’t recruited out of high school, but after spending a couple of successful seasons at San Diego Mesa Community College, big schools started calling. He opted for Colorado State University and proved to be a great fit at quarterback. He was 2nd Team All-WAC behind Jim McMahon and added a number of scholastic accolades.
He started coaching soon after getting his graduate degree from CSU and landed back at San Diego Mesa. Over the next 34 years, Steve coached every offensive position aside from the O-line with nearly a dozen teams. He was also the Offensive Coordinator at a few stops. His lone head coaching job came at his alma matter CSU when he took over for the fired Sonny Lubick in 2008. Taking over for a legend is tough and Steve’s overall record of 16-33 didn’t help his longevity. He was fired in 2011. It wasn’t the first time he was fired as a coach, and he learned a lot every time he was let go.
These days, Steve still coaches but on a much more personal level with his Fairchild QB Training where he works one on one with aspiring young quarterbacks.
Hosted by Susie Wargin
He started coaching soon after getting his graduate degree from CSU and landed back at San Diego Mesa. Over the next 34 years, Steve coached every offensive position aside from the O-line with nearly a dozen teams. He was also the Offensive Coordinator at a few stops. His lone head coaching job came at his alma matter CSU when he took over for the fired Sonny Lubick in 2008. Taking over for a legend is tough and Steve’s overall record of 16-33 didn’t help his longevity. He was fired in 2011. It wasn’t the first time he was fired as a coach, and he learned a lot every time he was let go.
These days, Steve still coaches but on a much more personal level with his Fairchild QB Training where he works one on one with aspiring young quarterbacks.
Hosted by Susie Wargin
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You know, if you get fired, you can blame people, you can
go in the domps, you cando a lot of things negative, or
you can just say this is anopportunity to move on and to do something
better with my life, do somethingmore fun, do something new. And
I always approached that way. Welcometo Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired
a podcast featuring conversations with professional athletesand coaches who have been gracious enough to
(00:21):
tell their stories of changes, setbacks, and moving forward. I'm your host,
Susie Wargin. I got to knowthis episode's guest when Steve Fairchild took
over as the head coach of ColoradoState's football program in two thousand and eight.
At the time, I was hostingthe CSUE Coaches Show at the NBC
affiliate in Denver. We would recordthe show on Sunday mornings and it ran
later on Sunday nights. I hadbeen used to Steve's predecessor, Sonny Lubick,
(00:45):
who you can basically give one questionand he fills thirty minutes. Steve
was a little different now. Hewould talk a lot during our commercial breaks,
but when the red light came on, me didn't quite talk as much
as Sonny. In fact, onetime Steve told me if I wanted to
talk more that it would be great. I reminded him it was called the
Steve Fairchild Show and not the SusieWarton Show. Regardless, we had a
(01:06):
great time and I loved getting toknow Steve and his wife Nancy. Eventually,
Steve was fired from CSU, oneof a few firings he'll talk about,
but he has a great outlook ongetting fired and where that can take
a person. He's coached teams forover thirty years and these days focuses more
one on one with his Fairchild QBtraining, which you'll hear all about ladies
(01:26):
and gentlemen, like he was duringthe commercial breaks. Full of stories.
Steve Fairchild got traded fired Retired podcastwith Susie Wargin. Hello, Steve Fairchild,
It's good to see you. It'sso good to see you. You
walked in the lobby and I said, you have not changed since I did
your Coaches show some twenty years ago. I wish, I wish that was
(01:49):
the case. You look fantastic.Well, thank you you do too,
and just say thank you to youknow your friendship and how good you were
to Nancy and I and we reallyappreciate it. Oh, it was fun.
I did your Coaches show and youwere the head coach at CSU and
at that time, because let's see, that was eight and two eleven.
So our daughter Samantha, she waslike six seven eight, and she would
come with me sometimes on Sunday morningsand she would drop pictures, yeah,
(02:13):
and make pictures for you guys,really cute. Whether or not you ever
put those up, you always saidyou did. They were on the refrigerator
and Nancy can attest to it,which I just thought was great. I
was like, you do not needto put these on your refrigerator. No.
So it's good to see you.Yeah, it's good that you guys
are back. You've got family hereand grandkids here. Now we'll talk about
that, but let's kind of goback to your beginnings because you've got such
(02:34):
an interesting employment history, shall wesay, yeah, very colorful employment history.
But it started you were born inIllinois, at some point made your
way to San Diego because that's whereyou went to high school. So talk
a little bit about when you guysmade that move to the West coast.
You know, it was almost immediatelyafter I was born, so I don't
remember anything about Illinois. I doremember growing up in San Diego obviously,
(02:58):
and went to high school there,and you know, it was a great
place to grow up. And hada career playing in high school football and
wanted to continue but was not beingrecruited. And back then, one of
the avenues that was, you know, done by a lot of people was
go to the community college level,which I did and was fortunate enough to
play for Mike Martz, who wasended up being the head coach at the
Greatest Show on Turf. So Mikewas at the community college. Mike that
(03:20):
was his very first coaching job,so it was, and it was it
was a really cool time in football. It was right around the eighties and
everything was developing from a two backoffense to a one back offense and people
weren't afraid to throw first at thatpoint in time, so you know,
and then playing for him, whichhe was such a great even back then,
but obviously throughout his career a greatoffensive mind was a real blessing.
(03:42):
So I was able to run upsome numbers and then have some pretty good
years and then got recruited and endedup going to Colorado State. Well,
and how interesting because I did notknow that about Mike Martz. How your
career's then really intertwined later on.Oh he was a mentor. Yeah,
he was a guy that you know, I could always ask questions to.
He In fact, he got meinto coaching. I graduated from CSU,
(04:02):
and it was it was kind ofa funny year because you know, as
a kid, you play youth football, you play high school football, you
play college football, and you're you'rea part of the team, and you're
a part of football, you know, for ten twelve years, and then
all of a sudden comes to anend. And I went to graduate school
at CSU in economics, and Iknew right away that was the only season
I did not participate or become partof a team. And I said,
(04:26):
you know, I need to getinto coaching. I need to continue this.
So and Mike was one to helpme. I actually went back and
got his first coaching job at thejunior college. That's how I started,
no kidding, Yeah, wow,So it was football always kind of your
main love, Steve, or didyou have other sports you played growing up
in San Diego? It's like probablyevery kid I played a lot of sports,
football was the one that you know, I was able to have the
(04:46):
most success in. And you know, I grew up, you know,
I lost my dad when I wasten, and I grew up in a
single parent home, and so coacheskind of I think they kept me out
of trouble. But they were thepeople I looked up to. Your father
figures, yeah, you know,just were such a big part of my
life. And I was fortunate tohave, you know, even at the
high school level and community college level. Even besides coach Mark's just a lot
(05:09):
of wonderful people that helped me alongthe way, you know, and I
tried to pay back some but youknow, you can never pay it back.
The way it comes to you,is that something that fueled you in
coaching was having that experience growing up? Do you think, yeah, I
do, you know, to behonest with you, that was the only
thing I wanted to do, andso I started down that road. Like
any profession I think all of us, you know, you learn as you
(05:30):
go. Nobody's already made product whenwe start. And you know, I
coached for thirty four years and liketo think I got better along the way,
but it was a fantastic way tohave a career, raise a family,
and kind of see the country alittle bit a little bit. Yeah,
you lived in eighteen houses, Steve, Yeah, a lot of it.
I said, they're going to takeme out of this one in a
(05:53):
box forever. Yeah. Now,what about the quarterback position? Was that
always your main position? And howdid you get started with that? You
know, it's what I played,and obviously it always did interest me.
Just having the ball in your handevery play and then starting to coach,
you study the mechanics a little bitbetter and just the way to attack the
(06:13):
position, play the position. SoI've always enjoyed it. It's been something
I think was my area of expertise, and most of my jobs were as
a quarterback coach or an offensive coordinator. I had some other jobs, but
sometimes you take jobs to break intoa level of coaching. My first Division
one job, I had to becomea tight end coach and that coordinator,
and then my first job in theNFL. The only way I'd get into
(06:34):
the NFL was be a running backcoach, so I took that. But
for the most part, yeah,the quarterback thing was something that interests me,
and I did the nice part aboutbeing a quarterback is that you're almost
one step down from being the offensivecoordinator because you do have to know what
every other position is doing, nodoubt, no doubt no. And that's
what I think. You know,having that through high school and through college
(06:55):
kind of whether you want to admitit or not, kind of pushes you
into the coaching realm. I thinkit's certainly did for me absolutely. What
went into your decision, Steve toplay at Colorado State? You know,
I was coming out of junior college. You know, it's funny, I
didn't get one offer coming out ofhigh school, and then I got a
lot of offers coming out of juniorcollege. You know, when you come
out of high school, you're notimmatur, but you're not as matur as
(07:15):
two years later down the road.So the recruiting and the wining and dining,
I think that affects kids and thelevel of football and the size of
the stadium and all that stuff.But I think when you come out of
a community college, you realize youonly have two years left, so you're
looking more for fit and where canI start. You know, It's funny,
back then you could sign conference lettersof intent prior to a letter of
intent. The first thing I signedwas with Michigan State. I signed to
(07:39):
be a conference letter of intent withthem and was planning on going there,
and then it just it didn't feelright in CSU, felt like the better
fits. So I ended up inFour Collins and that might have been one
of the best decisions I ever made. Oh yeah, yeah, who was
your coach? SARCARCELINI played for SARKand Mark Driscoll was the offense or actually
the quarterback coach. So Charlie Army, who ended up having a career as
(08:01):
general manager of the Rams, wasour offensive coordinator. There's you know,
a lot of people along the waythat you you know, you kind of
played for or got to know,and it's that's what's great about the profession.
I'm sure it's that way in everyprofession, but it certainly was that
coaching is so intertwined. Yeah,and even in the college and the NFL
level, it's interesting how many kindof go back and forth. And your
career did the same thing too,mostly college, but you had your stints
(08:24):
in the NFL as well, right, you know, I'd always aspired to
get in the NFL, and myfirst job with the Bills I took and
I left a great job. That'swhen I was working for Sonny and we
had an eight year run there,or at least I was there for eight
years of it. And you lookback on coach Lubick, the remarkable things
he did, not just as acoach, but as a person, and
I'd argue maybe the most influential personto ever be involved in Colorado State athletic
(08:46):
percent in some ways. Yeah,you know, he put that good feeling
about sports back on the map thereand he was great to work for and
we were winning and everything was good, and you think, why am I
leaving this job? But you know, to get the NFL sometimes you got
to just do things and absolutely,and that's that was. You know,
it's hard to leave. I betit was. Okay, we're gonna come
back to that because I kind ofwant to go through your your coaching tree
(09:09):
so people can understand, but Ialso want to bring up one thing.
When you were at CSU as aplayer, you were second team All Whack,
right behind Jim McMahon. Yeah,I mean that's I know, you
think back to, Okay, whenJim McMahon was at b YU and there
you were right behind him. DidJim won a Super Bowl? So I
was a distant second. But yeah, back then, you know, BYU
won the thing every year and theyjust cranked out quarterbacks. And I did
(09:31):
have a chance. I'm jumping aroundon you, and that's okay. I
did have a chance to coach atSan Diego State in nineteen eighty six and
we won the whack and b yuwould won it ten straight years. Wow.
And it came down to the lastgame of the year and we beat
him and we had a great footballteam. They're a great football team.
But yeah, I was a secondteam I'll conference behind Jim McMahon. That's
so funny. And then a lotof scholastic accolades as well. You were
(09:54):
you were a student athlete, Yeah, big time. You talk about coaches
mentoring you. I had some peoplein the university as professors that you know,
I wasn't sure what I wanted todo. You know a lot of
times you talk to people nowadays,they go into college and they're they're pretty
focused and kind of you know,laser eye on what they wanted to do.
I graduated, I didn't know whatI wanted to do, but I
had some really great professors, anddoctor Bob Keller's one of them that just
(10:18):
took me aside. And you know, school all of a sudden became really
important and you thank people like that, you know. Oh yeah, they
get so many along the way,and I was fortunate. I had a
number mine at Cholera State was doctorAnne Gill. She's the one that took
me aside. And and after Igraduated and tried a semester of grad school,
she took me aside and said,what are you doing? Well?
Yeah, and I was just hadthis eye opening moment and she saved me
(10:41):
and put my career in the rightdirection, A special special Yeah, I
saw it firsthand as a coach there. How I got you did the student
athletes. But I'll tell you this. My wife and I both went to
CSU. She did not graduate.I had a chance to jump on this
coaching thing and she wasn't done withher degree. So we went off into
the sunset and come back. Youknow. However, many years later she
(11:03):
went back to school and got herdegree. When I was a head coach
there. Nancy did, Oh mygosh, she got a degree. And
doctor Gill played a big part ofthat. Wow. You know, she
made Nancy feel like, hey,this is an awkward you can do this,
and she did it and it wasone of the greatest things she's ever
done. Wow, that's really cool, Advanctor Gil that was a big help.
She's a special woman, that's forsure. Wow. All right,
(11:24):
so you do get into coaching,you said, after you get your graduate
degree in economics, you go backto your community college in San Diego and
as Mike there or you took hishe had left. Yeah. In fact,
at that point in time, Ithink he was the offensive coordinator Arizone
State. But yeah, he kindof brokered me into getting into that coaching
job, which was a big help. It was a start, and it
was a different start. You knowa lot of people back then and nowadays
(11:46):
started as graduate assistance. You didn'thave to do that, you know.
I mean it was a lower level. But you came into coaching and you
had a position in your calling playsand now on the same token, I
was doing the laundry, I wassweeping the stadium after the games, were
doing everything. Yeah, it wasa community college after oh doubt. But
it was start and it was funand it was very hands on and I'm
(12:09):
glad I went that route. Whatwas the first few things that you learned
as a coach that you didn't mayberealize as a player or appreciate as much
as a player. We could probablytalk days on that. Yeah, and
it's something I think I learned throughoutmy career. Probably still am learning it
now just doing what I do asa you know, a quarterback coach with
kids. But at the end ofthe day, I think you realized it's
(12:31):
more than the xes and os.It's more than you know what you know
and that sort of thing, andit's just kind of a relationship with with
kids people. Yeah, and justrealizing that's the commodity and putting that first.
And so from the community college inSan Diego, you go to Ferris
State. Yeah, and Ferris wasI'll tell you what, that was a
shock because my wife and I wereliving in San Diego. We took a
(12:54):
job at Farris State for eleven thousanddollars. We had to move ourselves across
the country in the middle of janiwhere and we went into Big Rabbids,
Michigan with ten feet of snow onthe ground. And my wife looked at
me and said, what are wedoing so when we got a lot of
coaches talk about that reaction from thewife. So we got through that one
and that Everything else was easy.But great job. Worked for a guy
(13:16):
named Dan Underwood. Dan had beenat Arizona Stay with Mike Martz, so
that's how I got to know Dan. But here I was as the offensive
coordinator, was having a blast.But to get into Division one, I
left there to be the tight endcoach at San Diego State, which you
know, lasted a year and wewon. That was nineteen eighty six when
we beat BYU. But I couldn'tstay there. I wanted more than the
tight end jobs. So once Igot into Division one, I left there
(13:39):
and went to New Mexico to bethe quarterback coach, right, And you
were there for a few years,and then you had your first fire.
I got fired there, which youknow, when you're young, you take
it personal. And then as youthe more you're in the profession and the
more you see it happening not justto you but to other people, colleagues,
friends, you realize it's part ofthe game. And was it the
whole staff or just it was theoffensive staff, you know, And I've
(14:01):
been fired a lot of different ways. I've been I've been fired myself.
I've been fired as a head coach. I've been fired as part of the
staff or part of an offense staff. But I think that, you know,
Mike Shephard was a head coach.I think he would agree that,
you know, he was buying anotheryear or two. Sometimes it happens and
you know, go to the AD and say give me another year.
I'm gonna get rid of my offensivestaff. That that sort of thing.
But that was a good job too. You know, Marvin Lewis was on
(14:24):
that staff. Marvin was the headcoach at the Bengals. Yeah, there's
some really good coaches on that staff. We just weren't very good. And
that happens sometimes, you know,you just you know, sometimes you're not
resourced the way or you don't recruitthe way you should, and the next
thing, you know, you're notwinning enough games. From New Mexico getting
fired, you go back to SanDiego State University. Not as a tight
end coach this time. No,because I again, now some of the
(14:48):
people I had worked for in Newyou know, Dan Underwood went to San
Diego State. I was al Luganvillenow was a head football coach. But
the big connection there was a friendof mine that I had known but never
worked with. In his name's DaveLay. Dave was on that staff who
later went on to Colorado State andwas Sonny Luick's offensive of course, that's
right, okay. And I waslike, I know, I know that
name from somewhere. Yes, SoDave hired me and I worked for Dave.
(15:11):
Dave was a great offensive mine,just a great offensive mine. And
then when Sonny got the Colorado Statejob, he hired Dave and I off
of the San Diego State staff togo there. So and that was a
funny move too, because you're leaving, you know, we had Marshall Falk
and I mean some great football downYeah. And my wife said, why
are we leaving? Colorado State's notthat good a job. Yeah, I
(15:31):
said, well, it just feelsright, And it did with urban Meyer
and the staff he had and theguys that were on that staff and you
know, mostly Sonny, but justa lot of good people and a lot
of good things happened. And ohmy god, that was a great eight
year run. The win against Arizonawhen they were number six and ninety four
deserts Warm. I mean, therewere some really good good times in the
mid nineties and now that never thoughtthree years prior to that that you know,
(15:54):
CSU can be ranked fourteenth or fifthrands, be winning bowl games or
at least playing Michigan in a bowlgame. And so I think the whole
look at CSUE football got rewritten.And you know what really helped that was
at Thurday night games. Yes,you know, we started the Whack started
to get a lot of Thursday nightgames. Had to bring in lights for
them, but we had them.But the exposure, you know, I
(16:15):
talked to people about that today andthey, you know, they still say,
you know when the Whack had thatgame every the ESPN Thursday night game.
Yeah, and it really helped.I remember how cool it was when
you could look out at Hughes andwe weren't used to night games, and
it looked like there was a hugeUFO out in the middle of nothing at
the finals because they had the lightsup and you're like, whoa, that
place looks crazy. But those werefun games, they were great, and
(16:37):
they did definitely put CSU on themap, that's for sure. So you
leave csue and you get the jobas the running backs coach at the Bill.
So what kind of happens in thattransition. I got very lucky,
to be honest with you. Iwanted to get in the NFL. I
wanted to be a quarterback coach,and that's getting in the NFL's a very
difficult thing to do, especially ifyou I didn't have any connections. But
I was lucky that Greg Williams hadbeen the defensive coordinator for the Titans.
(17:00):
He got the job in Buffalo.They were looking for a running back coach.
They interviewed a number of people andit just didn't go well. And
they realized as they got their offensivestaff together, they maybe they were looking
at the wrong type of guy,and they kind of changed what they were
looking for. And I had neverbeen a running back coach, so it's
hard to say, hire me inthe NFL to do something I've ever done.
(17:21):
But you know, I ended upgoing there and talking to him and
it seemed like the right fit,and uh, you know, and that
was a real difficult move because Ihad kids, right But which, by
the way, is really it endedup being really cool. We you know,
the weather's awful but it's it's acollege atmosphere. Yeah, it's big
time. And but I had kidsthat were starting to they weren't little kids
(17:41):
anymore, you know, they werein junior high and uprooting them is difficult.
Now was the first time I lookedat it and said, you know
this, you know, there's there'sa lot more components to this than just
my profession and what I'm looking for. And I feel like that sometimes now
when sports media and the general fanbase and everybody, it's easy to say,
I don't like this guy. Iwas talking to somebody the other day
(18:03):
and I don't like Dan Hawkins,you know, you know, and or
Hackett that just got fired, andyou forget there's a real personal side to
it and selling a house and uprootingkids, and it does become personal.
You know, you can't take itthat way. But we shouldn't be so
easy to jump on guys. Iagree, there's way more to it,
and that's kind of what this podcastis about, Steve, is to more
humanize players and coaches so that peopleunderstand, yes, there's good money in
(18:27):
this profession, but money doesn't solveall of the regular logistics that go along
with moving around eighteen houses. Right, how many people buy and sell eighteen
houses in their lifetime? You know, I will say this towards the end,
we got smart, but that's apain in the butt sometimes, you
know, and you bring up themoney thing, and I got two thoughts
(18:48):
on that, so don't let meforget this. But when I first got
into coaching, you could take ajob, and this is back in the
early eighties, and even if youweren't good, you were in the last
five years because there's no TV money. But he was getting paid. You
know. It was just a goodold boy. You know, you played
golf in the summer and you madeyour salary. Then once the TV thing
hit, the salaries got big,but the impatience got there and people start
(19:11):
to get fired real fast. Andthat's a great point. Yeah, and
that's what happened. But you know, you talk about pro athletes and coaches,
I think sometimes you know, justme talking with the lay person out
there. So I don't know thisto be true. But you know,
everybody knows what Nick Saban makes andin those type people, but the professions
not like that. I mean,you hear about the elite money, but
(19:33):
most of those NFL guys they're init for three or four years and they're
not making that money, right,And so every pro athlete is not rich,
and every coach is not rich,and just the ones you hear about,
and that's a very small amount,exactly. Yeah, it's the rest,
especially in football, you have sucha huge team. You've got your
tier of you know, four orfive guys making a boatload of the money,
and it's all the rest of theguys that are fighting for their contracts
(19:55):
every year. And as an assistanton a staff, you're always at the
mercy of whatever happens with the headcoach, with the GM, with the
ownership. There's so many layers toit. Whereas a lot of people go
to work and they kind of knowwhere they are and they're a pretty good,
good shape. It's more stable.So, yeah, what kind of
hours did you typically work? Wereyou a get in early, stay late?
(20:15):
Yeah? I think during the season. No one thing I liked about
the job, particularly in college,is it was cyclical. You know,
you grinded six months out of theyear. You were you know, in
at seven or eight and stay tillnine or ten. But and it depends
on how your head coach is andhow much you know, how you structure
your day and so forth. Butbut you do. You work long hours
and to a point where you know, you start to get in your fifties
(20:37):
and you think, maybe this mightnot be the healthiest lifestyle in the world,
you know. And but in collegethen you did some traveling with recruiting,
you did some offseason studies and notworking as many hours. You know,
there are some fun things about it, but it is a grind,
and the NFL is a year round. Now there's about a six week break
and that's it. Yeah. Now, the one thing I did like about
the NFL, I'll never forget thefirst summer break in Buffalo. They said,
(21:02):
we're going to take five weeks off. Have your scripts written because when
we show up back here July whatever, twenty fifth, we're going to camp.
And so we were out of therewhatever it was June tenth, and
I was used to the normal summerin college where you were always back in
the office checking on things and people. That thing was a ghost town for
five weeks. So the one thingabout the NFL is that when they shut
it down, they shut it down. They did shut it down. Don't
(21:22):
have to get on Facebook and dorecruiting and all that. When you're off,
you're off. So I like thatpart of it, but it's only
five weeks. It is I'll tellyou what they say that about players,
but it's with new coaches as well. That first season. I mean in
college, when you hit Thanksgiving,you've got two more games and maybe a
bowl game, and there you knowyou've been bar that season. You've just
(21:44):
turned the corner. Now yeah,you know, you're like wow, And
now they've extended the season to seventeenand so I'm like, wow, worse
two weeks into January and if wego farther, we're all the way halfway
through February, which if that happens, you're in great shape. It's fun,
but it is it's a long run. It definitely is okay. So
after you're with the Bills, yougo to the Saint Louis Rams three to
(22:04):
five. Mike Martz is there,I'm assuming at your time, Ka,
And that was my chance to getout of the running back realm and get
into the quarterback coach coordinators were offensivecoordinator as well. Eventually I was,
but that was a that was adifferent type of job for a while.
Mike was the coordinator. Mike wasthe you know, I had a chance
to work with some just tremendous offensiveminds, and I can't tell you how
(22:25):
good fearless, play caller, greatplay design, creative guy. You know.
I had a chance to work withNorth Turner and Kevin Gilbride and those
guys. They're all great. They'reall great. But you know, Mike
was special, and so he wasgoing to do it as he should.
So I was kind of like,you know, I was playing b when
you know, hey, I'm gonnawatch some more film on third down,
go ahead and take this meeting orwhatever. You know. But it was
(22:45):
fun, it was learning. Youknow, I walked into that offensive room
the first time, and you talkabout Hall of Fame. Yeah, who's
in there. Kurt Warner's in there, Marshall Falk, Orlando Pace, Tory
Holt, Isaac Bruce and you're justlooking at these guys. This is unbelievable.
Yeah, And so it was alot of fun to have those kinds
of tools. As a coach hasto just be like you're like a kid
(23:08):
in the Candy Story. Yeah,we were. I mean it was like
and you could design things and peoplejust you know, as soon as you
got a match up on a runningback, you knew you you're gonna win
that. As soon as they didn'troll the coverage, tory hole, you're
gonna win that. You know.Yeah, it was neat. It was
a lot of fun and we didhave a lot of fun. That was
Mike's son, Matt. I can'tremember when he was at CSUE because his
son played at the issue. Yeah. I helped get his son there and
(23:30):
he, you know, he wasa walk on linebacker. Yeah, when
I was the offensive coordinate was sunny. Okay, so that was that long
ago. I couldn't remember when thatwas all right, Oh wow, that
was a while ago. So thenyour second firing comes when you are with
the Rams. Was that a matterof the whole staff got fired? Okay?
You know you could see it coming. I had not been to a
super Bowl, but they had beento a super Bowl, and my three
years there we were in the playoffstwice. But then you could see it
(23:52):
was headed in the wrong direction.So they ended up firing the whole you
know, Mike and the whole staff. So our last game was against Dallas.
We went down there. Parcels wasa head coach and we won,
and then you know, we lookedat each other and said, you know,
hey, goodbye, probably the endof it. Sean Payton was the
offensive coordinator, and I was talkingwith Sean before the game because Sean and
I had worked together at San DiegoState. Sean said, you know,
(24:15):
I've got something going and I said, well, I got something going in
the wrong direction. Here. CanI call you in a couple of days?
So I did. I did.I did call him, and I
did interview down there. In fact, Bill Kohler was on that staff.
Bill Kohler was there too. Yeah, Bill was with me. Bill and
I got on the plane flew downthere together. We interviewed in New Orleans,
but it was post Katrina. Itdidn't feel right for me and we
(24:37):
both Bill and I both went tothe Bills. So we went back to
the Bills. I was the offensivecoordinator. Bill was a D line coach
and he just retired. What acharacter that guy is? Well, Bill,
Now Bill's you know, I wastrying to do some of this.
But Bill's over in Switzerland now.See, Yeah, Jan and Bill went
over to Switzerland. He's coaching forNorm Chow in that ELF Legow. Yeah,
(24:59):
so they good for him. They'dtake retire guys. I can't do
it because of my quarterback business,But I thought about what would you do
it? Would Nancy do it?Oh? Yeah? You know what I
was doing when I retired. Iyou know, you throw a bunch of
stuff against the wall just to seewhat sticks. So one of the things
I did was I kind of putit out there that I would go anywhere
in Europe if you pay the transportationand a place for me to stay,
(25:22):
I won't charge you, and I'llcoach do whatever you want. And that's
a great deal for somebody. Yeah. So I ended up going to Germany's
place called Brysik Hall, and there'sa documentary on that team if you can
find it. I don't know whichwhat network, but it's a it's a
really a cool documentary. But Iwent over there and spoke and then from
there i'd met some people. SoI've done some work in Mexico City.
(25:42):
And then Nancy and I went andlived in Vienna for two weeks. Oh
Vien Vikings and all this was allpre COVID, and then COVID hit and
it kind of whined down. Now, now what they did was they took
the elite teams over there. Europeanfootball is popular, and they took the
elite teams and put them in onecom So now they want you to come
coach. So guys like Bill andyou know Norm Chowing, those guys are
(26:03):
over there coaching. I don't wantto do it for four months, right,
that's a long time. Yeah.I liked the two week gig,
but it feels like a vacation,but kind of work in kind of vacation.
It was both. That's funny,all right. So back to now
your coaching career. You get firedin Saint Louis. You then go back
to the Bills as an offensive coordinatorfor a couple of seasons for Dick Drawn,
and then you get your chance tobe the head coach at Colorado State
(26:26):
University right after Sunny's let go.Yeah, Sonny was let go, which
you know that's still a controversial thing. Yes, I wasn't sure because I'd
been on his staff. But Iwas also I know I was either fifty
or I was going to be fifty, and somebody was talking to me about
a head coaching job, and Ihad not been a head coach, and
as I went through the profession.I wanted different levels. I wanted college,
(26:48):
NFL, I wanted to do differentthings, and head coach kind of
became something that I thought, ifyou get a chance to do it,
let's do it. And so Ileft the NFL. Had I not done
that, you know, I probablywould have never gotten another chance to be
in that position. I took it. And they always say, don't follow
the guy the legend. I certainlydid. But it was good. You
know, there was a lot ofthings that you know, happened, some
(27:11):
good, most of it wasn't good. We didn't win. You know,
I got fired. I should havebeen fired. I would have fired me
in a sixteen and thirty three record. However, it was worth it,
and I know I in my heartI left that place. You know,
that roster was good and we'd kindof been doing the right thing. It
just, uh, it was toughjog back then. I mean TCU was
in the league. Yes, Utah, I mean Utah beat Alabama in the
Sugar Bowl the year we were there. There were some up and running programs
(27:34):
that were they were hard to catch, absolutely, and you know, obviously
we didn't catch them. So doyou ever look back and try and kind
of put your finger on what wasit that didn't quite go right? Or
was it just a variety of youknow, I think you know, there's
a little bit here, a littlebit there. And you know, one
of the things I've always thought,when something bad happens, you know,
it's not somebody else's fault. Youalways got to look in the mirror and
(27:55):
say, you know, what wouldI have done different? There's there's a
lot of things I could have donedifferent, done better. But I was
the first time head coach. Iwas, Yeah, that is way different.
I don't think people understand that.And we look at you brought up
Nathaniel Hackett. It is so differentto go from a coordinator position to being
the head coach CEO of everything.I don't know how you say anything about
Nathaniel Hackett. I mean, youknow, you get some injuries, it's
(28:15):
his first year. I'm not advocatingthat he should be here, but I'm
just saying, you know, thatwas a little quick. Yeah, and
I love Sean Payton and Sean verytalented. He'll do a great job.
But you know, sometimes it iswhat it is, and that's what it
was for me with CSU at theend of the day, there just wasn't
enough winning going on. And youknow, I look back, there was
I don't know if I have thenumber right, but it was in the
twenties. The number of people onthat roster that ended up in NFL camps
(28:40):
not necessarily draft picks, and therewere some draft picks right, some very
good players, but there was alot of very good football players in And
I'd like to think, you know, back in the day before the TV
money, the gentleman at Virginia Tech, forever Frank Biemer. It took him
seven years to get that thing going, but when he got it going,
that was something. And I'm surehe was learning his way into the job.
(29:00):
But nowadays that wouldn't happen, rightbecause of the TV money. It
is about wins and losses as faras your job goes. But you bring
up the fact you have twenty plusguys that go into NFL camps and the
players that you helped to influence,and I go back to what you said
at the very beginning, with thecoaches that were so important to you.
Do you take pride in that?And you're spoken of in very high regard.
(29:21):
I would say that was the stopwhere I did the worst. Really
yeah, and I love what Ido now. I go out on a
football field. It's not about winningand losing. It's about teaching kids,
you know, youth football, highschool kids, sometimes guys trying to go
to the NFL. But you're outthere teaching them how to work. You're
out there just trying to make thembetter. When I was a head coach,
(29:41):
I was trying to be the headcoach, the offensive coordinator, the
whole nine yards, and you justthe lower down the poll it gets the
less you are good at it,and you need to be. Yeah,
you know, obviously I wasn't ina lot of areas. And if I
could do it again, what Ihire an offensive coordinator? Maybe when I
step back and still say, thisis about the process, not about the
(30:02):
wins and losses. And a lotof people say that, but that's you
know, when your job's coming up, that's hard to do. Hard to
tell an ad about the process.Yeah, yeah, exactly so, but
no, it's you know, Ilook back and my wife always says,
you know, would you wanted tostay? And initially I said, yeah,
you know, we'll make good money, and I like this job.
And I think, you know youand I went to school here. I
think I can make this a goodplace. And but you know, when
(30:23):
I got fired, we went toSan Diego. We lived in Coronado,
you know, work for the Chargers, and that was such a great setting
and thing to do. And thenwe ended up going to Charlottesville, which
was a very special place at theUniversity of Virginia. So we had some
opportunities that came up after that.And that's the way I think. You
know, maybe I'm getting philosophical onyou here, but you know, if
(30:44):
you get fired, you can blamepeople, you can go in the dumps,
you can do a lot of thingsnegative, or you can just say
this is an opportunity to move onand to do something better with my life,
do something more fun, do somethingnew. And I always approached it
that way. Yeah, and that'swhat you did. Every time. I
will say this. I saw youthe Broncos played the Chargers. I think
it was a Monday night game,and I saw you on the field there.
(31:04):
I don't know if you remember this, but I saw you and you
just looked like the weight of theworld was off your shoulders. And I
was like, Steve Fairchild looks likehe's in a whole different universe now than
when I did your coaches show.Yeah, what a difference. I mean
you could tell you're in a ina better headspace. And again you got
to move on and move forward.I look back and I'm lucky. I'm
(31:26):
fortunate, and I'm in a greatplace now. And not everything's going to
work out the way you want it, but that's the way life is.
Right, So after all of yourcoaching endeavors, you do finally come back
here, both of your daughters arehere, You've got some grandkids here,
and you've started a business, rightthe fair Child Quarterback Fairchild Fairchild QB Training.
There we go. You know,like I said before, when I
(31:48):
when I retired, I was throwna lot of things out there. You
know. I wrote some draft thingsfor people online, you know, NFL
Draft Bible, like, taught somefootball courses for Sports Management Worldwide, which
is an agency up in Portland.You know, did some teaching, did
some writing. You know. It'sfunny too, there's people in the media
that will they'll hire you to writedraft reports because they can't look at all
(32:10):
the tape. So when they geton the camera on TV. They may
say this running back, but theyhaven't looked at them enough. You did
all their homework for them. Yougive them, they'll pay you to give
them, like four lines, wow, like dozen have top ends? Be
great in line runner hurt too much, very and you were doing that for
people. Did that a little bit? Yeah, but then you know,
(32:31):
like I said, the European thingwas there, the teaching, But at
the end of the day, themost fun thing has been just to get
out on the field for you know, our quarterback sessions with youth and high
school and potential pro guys, andthat's been a lot of fun. I'm
still doing it and I'm going tocontinue to do as long as I'm healthy.
It's brilliant that you're doing that becauseyou have a wealth of knowledge having
(32:52):
been to so many different places andso many things that you can tap into.
And then the athlete changes throughout theyears. I'm sure that these guys
that you're working with are so differentthan the ones you worked with in the
nineties or in the two thousands,no doubt, no doubt. And sometimes
you get them where you start withthem in seventh grade and you watch them
go all the way and you know, I've had some guys go on and
(33:12):
playing college that you're thinking, Wow, that's cool. He was a little
kid, you know. And it'sa good gig. And like I said,
I'm going to continue to do it. How can people find out if
they have aspiring quarterbacks? How canthey find out about you? I've got
a website, Fairchild QB Training dotcom. So okay, yeah, and
you're very good on social media.You post on Twitter and Instagram all the
time. I'm like, look atSteve go. You know. I had
(33:35):
to my daughters help me with that. So but yeah, I try to
take a picture and you do.You do very good, You do very
good. All right. And soLindsay and Jill they're here now, and
you've got four grandkids right yeah,back, we've got two at the house
right now. I'm going to goback to take them to the pool.
Oh yeah, my wife and Ithere's two younger ones we watch. And
that's been kind of neat too,because raising kids is one thing, and
then when you raise your kids kids, you're not raising them, but when
(33:58):
you become a part of that processwith it, but you can give them
back. You don't have them allthe time. You can really kind of
slow down and watch, you know, when they first start taking steps and
so forth. It's it's just beena slower observation of it than we're enjoying
it. Nancy really is and soit's been fun. Oh. My dad
always said, he's like, man, I love having grandkids way better than
you and your brother. And I'mlike, what that's supposed to me?
(34:22):
There is some truth, there is. I think there's some truth to that.
Yeah, And Nancy's doing well,doing great. We're doing just a
ton of traveling. We got ourhealth and we've got the you know,
the time and the money to doit. So we're we're trying to get
around the world as much as wecan, as often as we can.
So it's good. That's great,All good. And I love getting to
know Nancy. When you would comedown for the Coaches Show, she would
come with you, and you know, Carol Joe used to do that with
(34:42):
Sonny too, and Sonny would say, and you said the same thing.
This is the only time we getlike this hour drive to and from Fort
Collins and so much time we're probablygonna chat this whole week. It's precious
time during the season. Nothing betterthan riding down to your show after a
win. Yeah, those were goodtimes. Those were good times. Okay,
last question, Steve, and youkind of answered this already talking about
how to approach getting fired, Butwhat do you tell people when they have
(35:06):
things that happen in life that area setback or are something that's kind of
a negative and just trying to moveforward? And you've seen that happen with
a lot of your athletes too theyears too. You know, number one,
you realize that it's a part oflife. We look at these people
out there that we think are very, very successful, and they are,
but they've had some roadblocks and somebumps in the road. We all do,
(35:27):
so it's not exclusive to you thatsomething bad is happening. It's just
the way it is. And Ithink how you approach it, that's a
cliche, but you know how youdeal with it. But I always looked
at it as an opportunity. Iwas going to get to go somewhere and
do something new and make the bestof it. And I think it works
out when you take that approach.It does. Thanks for coming in,
appreciate you inviting. Absolutely. Youtried to tell me that you don't think
(35:47):
you're relevant anymore, and I highlydisagree with you. You are extremely relevant
and always have been, so Iappreciate all of our friendship throughout the years.
Yeah, thank you very much,Steve Fairchild. You know, I
do believe him that they actually hungup those pictures on the fridge that Samantha
colored for them. That's just thekind of people he and Nancy are.
Well, if you're hearing this,you have listened to the entire episode,
(36:08):
and first of all, thank you. Secondly, I hope you enjoyed this
episode. If you did, dome a favor, please rate and review
on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Newepisodes of Cut, Traded, Fired,
Retired come out every Tuesday on nearlyevery podcast platform. Get social with the
podcast on Twitter and Instagram at CTFRpodcast, and check out the website CTFR
(36:30):
podcast dot com. I'm your host, Susie Wargin. Again, thank you
for listening, and until next time, please be careful, be safe,
and be kind. Take care
You know, if you get fired, you can blame people, you can
go in the domps, you cando a lot of things negative, or
you can just say this is anopportunity to move on and to do something
better with my life, do somethingmore fun, do something new. And
I always approached that way. Welcometo Cut, Traded, Fired, Retired
a podcast featuring conversations with professional athletesand coaches who have been gracious enough to
(00:21):
tell their stories of changes, setbacks, and moving forward. I'm your host,
Susie Wargin. I got to knowthis episode's guest when Steve Fairchild took
over as the head coach of ColoradoState's football program in two thousand and eight.
At the time, I was hostingthe CSUE Coaches Show at the NBC
affiliate in Denver. We would recordthe show on Sunday mornings and it ran
later on Sunday nights. I hadbeen used to Steve's predecessor, Sonny Lubick,
(00:45):
who you can basically give one questionand he fills thirty minutes. Steve
was a little different now. Hewould talk a lot during our commercial breaks,
but when the red light came on, me didn't quite talk as much
as Sonny. In fact, onetime Steve told me if I wanted to
talk more that it would be great. I reminded him it was called the
Steve Fairchild Show and not the SusieWarton Show. Regardless, we had a
(01:06):
great time and I loved getting toknow Steve and his wife Nancy. Eventually,
Steve was fired from CSU, oneof a few firings he'll talk about,
but he has a great outlook ongetting fired and where that can take
a person. He's coached teams forover thirty years and these days focuses more
one on one with his Fairchild QBtraining, which you'll hear all about ladies
(01:26):
and gentlemen, like he was duringthe commercial breaks. Full of stories.
Steve Fairchild got traded fired Retired podcastwith Susie Wargin. Hello, Steve Fairchild,
It's good to see you. It'sso good to see you. You
walked in the lobby and I said, you have not changed since I did
your Coaches show some twenty years ago. I wish, I wish that was
(01:49):
the case. You look fantastic.Well, thank you you do too,
and just say thank you to youknow your friendship and how good you were
to Nancy and I and we reallyappreciate it. Oh, it was fun.
I did your Coaches show and youwere the head coach at CSU and
at that time, because let's see, that was eight and two eleven.
So our daughter Samantha, she waslike six seven eight, and she would
come with me sometimes on Sunday morningsand she would drop pictures, yeah,
(02:13):
and make pictures for you guys,really cute. Whether or not you ever
put those up, you always saidyou did. They were on the refrigerator
and Nancy can attest to it,which I just thought was great. I
was like, you do not needto put these on your refrigerator. No.
So it's good to see you.Yeah, it's good that you guys
are back. You've got family hereand grandkids here. Now we'll talk about
that, but let's kind of goback to your beginnings because you've got such
(02:34):
an interesting employment history, shall wesay, yeah, very colorful employment history.
But it started you were born inIllinois, at some point made your
way to San Diego because that's whereyou went to high school. So talk
a little bit about when you guysmade that move to the West coast.
You know, it was almost immediatelyafter I was born, so I don't
remember anything about Illinois. I doremember growing up in San Diego obviously,
(02:58):
and went to high school there,and you know, it was a great
place to grow up. And hada career playing in high school football and
wanted to continue but was not beingrecruited. And back then, one of
the avenues that was, you know, done by a lot of people was
go to the community college level,which I did and was fortunate enough to
play for Mike Martz, who wasended up being the head coach at the
Greatest Show on Turf. So Mikewas at the community college. Mike that
(03:20):
was his very first coaching job,so it was, and it was it
was a really cool time in football. It was right around the eighties and
everything was developing from a two backoffense to a one back offense and people
weren't afraid to throw first at thatpoint in time, so you know,
and then playing for him, whichhe was such a great even back then,
but obviously throughout his career a greatoffensive mind was a real blessing.
(03:42):
So I was able to run upsome numbers and then have some pretty good
years and then got recruited and endedup going to Colorado State. Well,
and how interesting because I did notknow that about Mike Martz. How your
career's then really intertwined later on.Oh he was a mentor. Yeah,
he was a guy that you know, I could always ask questions to.
He In fact, he got meinto coaching. I graduated from CSU,
(04:02):
and it was it was kind ofa funny year because you know, as
a kid, you play youth football, you play high school football, you
play college football, and you're you'rea part of the team, and you're
a part of football, you know, for ten twelve years, and then
all of a sudden comes to anend. And I went to graduate school
at CSU in economics, and Iknew right away that was the only season
I did not participate or become partof a team. And I said,
(04:26):
you know, I need to getinto coaching. I need to continue this.
So and Mike was one to helpme. I actually went back and
got his first coaching job at thejunior college. That's how I started,
no kidding, Yeah, wow,So it was football always kind of your
main love, Steve, or didyou have other sports you played growing up
in San Diego? It's like probablyevery kid I played a lot of sports,
football was the one that you know, I was able to have the
(04:46):
most success in. And you know, I grew up, you know,
I lost my dad when I wasten, and I grew up in a
single parent home, and so coacheskind of I think they kept me out
of trouble. But they were thepeople I looked up to. Your father
figures, yeah, you know,just were such a big part of my
life. And I was fortunate tohave, you know, even at the
high school level and community college level. Even besides coach Mark's just a lot
(05:09):
of wonderful people that helped me alongthe way, you know, and I
tried to pay back some but youknow, you can never pay it back.
The way it comes to you,is that something that fueled you in
coaching was having that experience growing up? Do you think, yeah, I
do, you know, to behonest with you, that was the only
thing I wanted to do, andso I started down that road. Like
any profession I think all of us, you know, you learn as you
(05:30):
go. Nobody's already made product whenwe start. And you know, I
coached for thirty four years and liketo think I got better along the way,
but it was a fantastic way tohave a career, raise a family,
and kind of see the country alittle bit a little bit. Yeah,
you lived in eighteen houses, Steve, Yeah, a lot of it.
I said, they're going to takeme out of this one in a
(05:53):
box forever. Yeah. Now,what about the quarterback position? Was that
always your main position? And howdid you get started with that? You
know, it's what I played,and obviously it always did interest me.
Just having the ball in your handevery play and then starting to coach,
you study the mechanics a little bitbetter and just the way to attack the
(06:13):
position, play the position. SoI've always enjoyed it. It's been something
I think was my area of expertise, and most of my jobs were as
a quarterback coach or an offensive coordinator. I had some other jobs, but
sometimes you take jobs to break intoa level of coaching. My first Division
one job, I had to becomea tight end coach and that coordinator,
and then my first job in theNFL. The only way I'd get into
(06:34):
the NFL was be a running backcoach, so I took that. But
for the most part, yeah,the quarterback thing was something that interests me,
and I did the nice part aboutbeing a quarterback is that you're almost
one step down from being the offensivecoordinator because you do have to know what
every other position is doing, nodoubt, no doubt no. And that's
what I think. You know,having that through high school and through college
(06:55):
kind of whether you want to admitit or not, kind of pushes you
into the coaching realm. I thinkit's certainly did for me absolutely. What
went into your decision, Steve toplay at Colorado State? You know,
I was coming out of junior college. You know, it's funny, I
didn't get one offer coming out ofhigh school, and then I got a
lot of offers coming out of juniorcollege. You know, when you come
out of high school, you're notimmatur, but you're not as matur as
(07:15):
two years later down the road.So the recruiting and the wining and dining,
I think that affects kids and thelevel of football and the size of
the stadium and all that stuff.But I think when you come out of
a community college, you realize youonly have two years left, so you're
looking more for fit and where canI start. You know, It's funny,
back then you could sign conference lettersof intent prior to a letter of
intent. The first thing I signedwas with Michigan State. I signed to
(07:39):
be a conference letter of intent withthem and was planning on going there,
and then it just it didn't feelright in CSU, felt like the better
fits. So I ended up inFour Collins and that might have been one
of the best decisions I ever made. Oh yeah, yeah, who was
your coach? SARCARCELINI played for SARKand Mark Driscoll was the offense or actually
the quarterback coach. So Charlie Army, who ended up having a career as
(08:01):
general manager of the Rams, wasour offensive coordinator. There's you know,
a lot of people along the waythat you you know, you kind of
played for or got to know,and it's that's what's great about the profession.
I'm sure it's that way in everyprofession, but it certainly was that
coaching is so intertwined. Yeah,and even in the college and the NFL
level, it's interesting how many kindof go back and forth. And your
career did the same thing too,mostly college, but you had your stints
(08:24):
in the NFL as well, right, you know, I'd always aspired to
get in the NFL, and myfirst job with the Bills I took and
I left a great job. That'swhen I was working for Sonny and we
had an eight year run there,or at least I was there for eight
years of it. And you lookback on coach Lubick, the remarkable things
he did, not just as acoach, but as a person, and
I'd argue maybe the most influential personto ever be involved in Colorado State athletic
(08:46):
percent in some ways. Yeah,you know, he put that good feeling
about sports back on the map thereand he was great to work for and
we were winning and everything was good, and you think, why am I
leaving this job? But you know, to get the NFL sometimes you got
to just do things and absolutely,and that's that was. You know,
it's hard to leave. I betit was. Okay, we're gonna come
back to that because I kind ofwant to go through your your coaching tree
(09:09):
so people can understand, but Ialso want to bring up one thing.
When you were at CSU as aplayer, you were second team All Whack,
right behind Jim McMahon. Yeah,I mean that's I know, you
think back to, Okay, whenJim McMahon was at b YU and there
you were right behind him. DidJim won a Super Bowl? So I
was a distant second. But yeah, back then, you know, BYU
won the thing every year and theyjust cranked out quarterbacks. And I did
(09:31):
have a chance. I'm jumping aroundon you, and that's okay. I
did have a chance to coach atSan Diego State in nineteen eighty six and
we won the whack and b yuwould won it ten straight years. Wow.
And it came down to the lastgame of the year and we beat
him and we had a great footballteam. They're a great football team.
But yeah, I was a secondteam I'll conference behind Jim McMahon. That's
so funny. And then a lotof scholastic accolades as well. You were
(09:54):
you were a student athlete, Yeah, big time. You talk about coaches
mentoring you. I had some peoplein the university as professors that you know,
I wasn't sure what I wanted todo. You know a lot of
times you talk to people nowadays,they go into college and they're they're pretty
focused and kind of you know,laser eye on what they wanted to do.
I graduated, I didn't know whatI wanted to do, but I
had some really great professors, anddoctor Bob Keller's one of them that just
(10:18):
took me aside. And you know, school all of a sudden became really
important and you thank people like that, you know. Oh yeah, they
get so many along the way,and I was fortunate. I had a
number mine at Cholera State was doctorAnne Gill. She's the one that took
me aside. And and after Igraduated and tried a semester of grad school,
she took me aside and said,what are you doing? Well?
Yeah, and I was just hadthis eye opening moment and she saved me
(10:41):
and put my career in the rightdirection, A special special Yeah, I
saw it firsthand as a coach there. How I got you did the student
athletes. But I'll tell you this. My wife and I both went to
CSU. She did not graduate.I had a chance to jump on this
coaching thing and she wasn't done withher degree. So we went off into
the sunset and come back. Youknow. However, many years later she
(11:03):
went back to school and got herdegree. When I was a head coach
there. Nancy did, Oh mygosh, she got a degree. And
doctor Gill played a big part ofthat. Wow. You know, she
made Nancy feel like, hey,this is an awkward you can do this,
and she did it and it wasone of the greatest things she's ever
done. Wow, that's really cool, Advanctor Gil that was a big help.
She's a special woman, that's forsure. Wow. All right,
(11:24):
so you do get into coaching,you said, after you get your graduate
degree in economics, you go backto your community college in San Diego and
as Mike there or you took hishe had left. Yeah. In fact,
at that point in time, Ithink he was the offensive coordinator Arizone
State. But yeah, he kindof brokered me into getting into that coaching
job, which was a big help. It was a start, and it
was a different start. You knowa lot of people back then and nowadays
(11:46):
started as graduate assistance. You didn'thave to do that, you know.
I mean it was a lower level. But you came into coaching and you
had a position in your calling playsand now on the same token, I
was doing the laundry, I wassweeping the stadium after the games, were
doing everything. Yeah, it wasa community college after oh doubt. But
it was start and it was funand it was very hands on and I'm
(12:09):
glad I went that route. Whatwas the first few things that you learned
as a coach that you didn't mayberealize as a player or appreciate as much
as a player. We could probablytalk days on that. Yeah, and
it's something I think I learned throughoutmy career. Probably still am learning it
now just doing what I do asa you know, a quarterback coach with
kids. But at the end ofthe day, I think you realized it's
(12:31):
more than the xes and os.It's more than you know what you know
and that sort of thing, andit's just kind of a relationship with with
kids people. Yeah, and justrealizing that's the commodity and putting that first.
And so from the community college inSan Diego, you go to Ferris
State. Yeah, and Ferris wasI'll tell you what, that was a
shock because my wife and I wereliving in San Diego. We took a
(12:54):
job at Farris State for eleven thousanddollars. We had to move ourselves across
the country in the middle of janiwhere and we went into Big Rabbids,
Michigan with ten feet of snow onthe ground. And my wife looked at
me and said, what are wedoing so when we got a lot of
coaches talk about that reaction from thewife. So we got through that one
and that Everything else was easy.But great job. Worked for a guy
(13:16):
named Dan Underwood. Dan had beenat Arizona Stay with Mike Martz, so
that's how I got to know Dan. But here I was as the offensive
coordinator, was having a blast.But to get into Division one, I
left there to be the tight endcoach at San Diego State, which you
know, lasted a year and wewon. That was nineteen eighty six when
we beat BYU. But I couldn'tstay there. I wanted more than the
tight end jobs. So once Igot into Division one, I left there
(13:39):
and went to New Mexico to bethe quarterback coach, right, And you
were there for a few years,and then you had your first fire.
I got fired there, which youknow, when you're young, you take
it personal. And then as youthe more you're in the profession and the
more you see it happening not justto you but to other people, colleagues,
friends, you realize it's part ofthe game. And was it the
whole staff or just it was theoffensive staff, you know, And I've
(14:01):
been fired a lot of different ways. I've been I've been fired myself.
I've been fired as a head coach. I've been fired as part of the
staff or part of an offense staff. But I think that, you know,
Mike Shephard was a head coach.I think he would agree that,
you know, he was buying anotheryear or two. Sometimes it happens and
you know, go to the AD and say give me another year.
I'm gonna get rid of my offensivestaff. That that sort of thing.
But that was a good job too. You know, Marvin Lewis was on
(14:24):
that staff. Marvin was the headcoach at the Bengals. Yeah, there's
some really good coaches on that staff. We just weren't very good. And
that happens sometimes, you know,you just you know, sometimes you're not
resourced the way or you don't recruitthe way you should, and the next
thing, you know, you're notwinning enough games. From New Mexico getting
fired, you go back to SanDiego State University. Not as a tight
end coach this time. No,because I again, now some of the
(14:48):
people I had worked for in Newyou know, Dan Underwood went to San
Diego State. I was al Luganvillenow was a head football coach. But
the big connection there was a friendof mine that I had known but never
worked with. In his name's DaveLay. Dave was on that staff who
later went on to Colorado State andwas Sonny Luick's offensive of course, that's
right, okay. And I waslike, I know, I know that
name from somewhere. Yes, SoDave hired me and I worked for Dave.
(15:11):
Dave was a great offensive mine,just a great offensive mine. And
then when Sonny got the Colorado Statejob, he hired Dave and I off
of the San Diego State staff togo there. So and that was a
funny move too, because you're leaving, you know, we had Marshall Falk
and I mean some great football downYeah. And my wife said, why
are we leaving? Colorado State's notthat good a job. Yeah, I
(15:31):
said, well, it just feelsright, And it did with urban Meyer
and the staff he had and theguys that were on that staff and you
know, mostly Sonny, but justa lot of good people and a lot
of good things happened. And ohmy god, that was a great eight
year run. The win against Arizonawhen they were number six and ninety four
deserts Warm. I mean, therewere some really good good times in the
mid nineties and now that never thoughtthree years prior to that that you know,
(15:54):
CSU can be ranked fourteenth or fifthrands, be winning bowl games or
at least playing Michigan in a bowlgame. And so I think the whole
look at CSUE football got rewritten.And you know what really helped that was
at Thurday night games. Yes,you know, we started the Whack started
to get a lot of Thursday nightgames. Had to bring in lights for
them, but we had them.But the exposure, you know, I
(16:15):
talked to people about that today andthey, you know, they still say,
you know when the Whack had thatgame every the ESPN Thursday night game.
Yeah, and it really helped.I remember how cool it was when
you could look out at Hughes andwe weren't used to night games, and
it looked like there was a hugeUFO out in the middle of nothing at
the finals because they had the lightsup and you're like, whoa, that
place looks crazy. But those werefun games, they were great, and
(16:37):
they did definitely put CSU on themap, that's for sure. So you
leave csue and you get the jobas the running backs coach at the Bill.
So what kind of happens in thattransition. I got very lucky,
to be honest with you. Iwanted to get in the NFL. I
wanted to be a quarterback coach,and that's getting in the NFL's a very
difficult thing to do, especially ifyou I didn't have any connections. But
I was lucky that Greg Williams hadbeen the defensive coordinator for the Titans.
(17:00):
He got the job in Buffalo.They were looking for a running back coach.
They interviewed a number of people andit just didn't go well. And
they realized as they got their offensivestaff together, they maybe they were looking
at the wrong type of guy,and they kind of changed what they were
looking for. And I had neverbeen a running back coach, so it's
hard to say, hire me inthe NFL to do something I've ever done.
(17:21):
But you know, I ended upgoing there and talking to him and
it seemed like the right fit,and uh, you know, and that
was a real difficult move because Ihad kids, right But which, by
the way, is really it endedup being really cool. We you know,
the weather's awful but it's it's acollege atmosphere. Yeah, it's big
time. And but I had kidsthat were starting to they weren't little kids
(17:41):
anymore, you know, they werein junior high and uprooting them is difficult.
Now was the first time I lookedat it and said, you know
this, you know, there's there'sa lot more components to this than just
my profession and what I'm looking for. And I feel like that sometimes now
when sports media and the general fanbase and everybody, it's easy to say,
I don't like this guy. Iwas talking to somebody the other day
(18:03):
and I don't like Dan Hawkins,you know, you know, and or
Hackett that just got fired, andyou forget there's a real personal side to
it and selling a house and uprootingkids, and it does become personal.
You know, you can't take itthat way. But we shouldn't be so
easy to jump on guys. Iagree, there's way more to it,
and that's kind of what this podcastis about, Steve, is to more
humanize players and coaches so that peopleunderstand, yes, there's good money in
(18:27):
this profession, but money doesn't solveall of the regular logistics that go along
with moving around eighteen houses. Right, how many people buy and sell eighteen
houses in their lifetime? You know, I will say this towards the end,
we got smart, but that's apain in the butt sometimes, you
know, and you bring up themoney thing, and I got two thoughts
(18:48):
on that, so don't let meforget this. But when I first got
into coaching, you could take ajob, and this is back in the
early eighties, and even if youweren't good, you were in the last
five years because there's no TV money. But he was getting paid. You
know. It was just a goodold boy. You know, you played
golf in the summer and you madeyour salary. Then once the TV thing
hit, the salaries got big,but the impatience got there and people start
(19:11):
to get fired real fast. Andthat's a great point. Yeah, and
that's what happened. But you know, you talk about pro athletes and coaches,
I think sometimes you know, justme talking with the lay person out
there. So I don't know thisto be true. But you know,
everybody knows what Nick Saban makes andin those type people, but the professions
not like that. I mean,you hear about the elite money, but
(19:33):
most of those NFL guys they're init for three or four years and they're
not making that money, right,And so every pro athlete is not rich,
and every coach is not rich,and just the ones you hear about,
and that's a very small amount,exactly. Yeah, it's the rest,
especially in football, you have sucha huge team. You've got your
tier of you know, four orfive guys making a boatload of the money,
and it's all the rest of theguys that are fighting for their contracts
(19:55):
every year. And as an assistanton a staff, you're always at the
mercy of whatever happens with the headcoach, with the GM, with the
ownership. There's so many layers toit. Whereas a lot of people go
to work and they kind of knowwhere they are and they're a pretty good,
good shape. It's more stable.So, yeah, what kind of
hours did you typically work? Wereyou a get in early, stay late?
(20:15):
Yeah? I think during the season. No one thing I liked about
the job, particularly in college,is it was cyclical. You know,
you grinded six months out of theyear. You were you know, in
at seven or eight and stay tillnine or ten. But and it depends
on how your head coach is andhow much you know, how you structure
your day and so forth. Butbut you do. You work long hours
and to a point where you know, you start to get in your fifties
(20:37):
and you think, maybe this mightnot be the healthiest lifestyle in the world,
you know. And but in collegethen you did some traveling with recruiting,
you did some offseason studies and notworking as many hours. You know,
there are some fun things about it, but it is a grind,
and the NFL is a year round. Now there's about a six week break
and that's it. Yeah. Now, the one thing I did like about
the NFL, I'll never forget thefirst summer break in Buffalo. They said,
(21:02):
we're going to take five weeks off. Have your scripts written because when
we show up back here July whatever, twenty fifth, we're going to camp.
And so we were out of therewhatever it was June tenth, and
I was used to the normal summerin college where you were always back in
the office checking on things and people. That thing was a ghost town for
five weeks. So the one thingabout the NFL is that when they shut
it down, they shut it down. They did shut it down. Don't
(21:22):
have to get on Facebook and dorecruiting and all that. When you're off,
you're off. So I like thatpart of it, but it's only
five weeks. It is I'll tellyou what they say that about players,
but it's with new coaches as well. That first season. I mean in
college, when you hit Thanksgiving,you've got two more games and maybe a
bowl game, and there you knowyou've been bar that season. You've just
(21:44):
turned the corner. Now yeah,you know, you're like wow, And
now they've extended the season to seventeenand so I'm like, wow, worse
two weeks into January and if wego farther, we're all the way halfway
through February, which if that happens, you're in great shape. It's fun,
but it is it's a long run. It definitely is okay. So
after you're with the Bills, yougo to the Saint Louis Rams three to
(22:04):
five. Mike Martz is there,I'm assuming at your time, Ka,
And that was my chance to getout of the running back realm and get
into the quarterback coach coordinators were offensivecoordinator as well. Eventually I was,
but that was a that was adifferent type of job for a while.
Mike was the coordinator. Mike wasthe you know, I had a chance
to work with some just tremendous offensiveminds, and I can't tell you how
(22:25):
good fearless, play caller, greatplay design, creative guy. You know.
I had a chance to work withNorth Turner and Kevin Gilbride and those
guys. They're all great. They'reall great. But you know, Mike
was special, and so he wasgoing to do it as he should.
So I was kind of like,you know, I was playing b when
you know, hey, I'm gonnawatch some more film on third down,
go ahead and take this meeting orwhatever. You know. But it was
(22:45):
fun, it was learning. Youknow, I walked into that offensive room
the first time, and you talkabout Hall of Fame. Yeah, who's
in there. Kurt Warner's in there, Marshall Falk, Orlando Pace, Tory
Holt, Isaac Bruce and you're justlooking at these guys. This is unbelievable.
Yeah, And so it was alot of fun to have those kinds
of tools. As a coach hasto just be like you're like a kid
(23:08):
in the Candy Story. Yeah,we were. I mean it was like
and you could design things and peoplejust you know, as soon as you
got a match up on a runningback, you knew you you're gonna win
that. As soon as they didn'troll the coverage, tory hole, you're
gonna win that. You know.Yeah, it was neat. It was
a lot of fun and we didhave a lot of fun. That was
Mike's son, Matt. I can'tremember when he was at CSUE because his
son played at the issue. Yeah. I helped get his son there and
(23:30):
he, you know, he wasa walk on linebacker. Yeah, when
I was the offensive coordinate was sunny. Okay, so that was that long
ago. I couldn't remember when thatwas all right, Oh wow, that
was a while ago. So thenyour second firing comes when you are with
the Rams. Was that a matterof the whole staff got fired? Okay?
You know you could see it coming. I had not been to a
super Bowl, but they had beento a super Bowl, and my three
years there we were in the playoffstwice. But then you could see it
(23:52):
was headed in the wrong direction.So they ended up firing the whole you
know, Mike and the whole staff. So our last game was against Dallas.
We went down there. Parcels wasa head coach and we won,
and then you know, we lookedat each other and said, you know,
hey, goodbye, probably the endof it. Sean Payton was the
offensive coordinator, and I was talkingwith Sean before the game because Sean and
I had worked together at San DiegoState. Sean said, you know,
(24:15):
I've got something going and I said, well, I got something going in
the wrong direction. Here. CanI call you in a couple of days?
So I did. I did.I did call him, and I
did interview down there. In fact, Bill Kohler was on that staff.
Bill Kohler was there too. Yeah, Bill was with me. Bill and
I got on the plane flew downthere together. We interviewed in New Orleans,
but it was post Katrina. Itdidn't feel right for me and we
(24:37):
both Bill and I both went tothe Bills. So we went back to
the Bills. I was the offensivecoordinator. Bill was a D line coach
and he just retired. What acharacter that guy is? Well, Bill,
Now Bill's you know, I wastrying to do some of this.
But Bill's over in Switzerland now.See, Yeah, Jan and Bill went
over to Switzerland. He's coaching forNorm Chow in that ELF Legow. Yeah,
(24:59):
so they good for him. They'dtake retire guys. I can't do
it because of my quarterback business,But I thought about what would you do
it? Would Nancy do it?Oh? Yeah? You know what I
was doing when I retired. Iyou know, you throw a bunch of
stuff against the wall just to seewhat sticks. So one of the things
I did was I kind of putit out there that I would go anywhere
in Europe if you pay the transportationand a place for me to stay,
(25:22):
I won't charge you, and I'llcoach do whatever you want. And that's
a great deal for somebody. Yeah. So I ended up going to Germany's
place called Brysik Hall, and there'sa documentary on that team if you can
find it. I don't know whichwhat network, but it's a it's a
really a cool documentary. But Iwent over there and spoke and then from
there i'd met some people. SoI've done some work in Mexico City.
(25:42):
And then Nancy and I went andlived in Vienna for two weeks. Oh
Vien Vikings and all this was allpre COVID, and then COVID hit and
it kind of whined down. Now, now what they did was they took
the elite teams over there. Europeanfootball is popular, and they took the
elite teams and put them in onecom So now they want you to come
coach. So guys like Bill andyou know Norm Chowing, those guys are
(26:03):
over there coaching. I don't wantto do it for four months, right,
that's a long time. Yeah.I liked the two week gig,
but it feels like a vacation,but kind of work in kind of vacation.
It was both. That's funny,all right. So back to now
your coaching career. You get firedin Saint Louis. You then go back
to the Bills as an offensive coordinatorfor a couple of seasons for Dick Drawn,
and then you get your chance tobe the head coach at Colorado State
(26:26):
University right after Sunny's let go.Yeah, Sonny was let go, which
you know that's still a controversial thing. Yes, I wasn't sure because I'd
been on his staff. But Iwas also I know I was either fifty
or I was going to be fifty, and somebody was talking to me about
a head coaching job, and Ihad not been a head coach, and
as I went through the profession.I wanted different levels. I wanted college,
(26:48):
NFL, I wanted to do differentthings, and head coach kind of
became something that I thought, ifyou get a chance to do it,
let's do it. And so Ileft the NFL. Had I not done
that, you know, I probablywould have never gotten another chance to be
in that position. I took it. And they always say, don't follow
the guy the legend. I certainlydid. But it was good. You
know, there was a lot ofthings that you know, happened, some
(27:11):
good, most of it wasn't good. We didn't win. You know,
I got fired. I should havebeen fired. I would have fired me
in a sixteen and thirty three record. However, it was worth it,
and I know I in my heartI left that place. You know,
that roster was good and we'd kindof been doing the right thing. It
just, uh, it was toughjog back then. I mean TCU was
in the league. Yes, Utah, I mean Utah beat Alabama in the
Sugar Bowl the year we were there. There were some up and running programs
(27:34):
that were they were hard to catch, absolutely, and you know, obviously
we didn't catch them. So doyou ever look back and try and kind
of put your finger on what wasit that didn't quite go right? Or
was it just a variety of youknow, I think you know, there's
a little bit here, a littlebit there. And you know, one
of the things I've always thought,when something bad happens, you know,
it's not somebody else's fault. Youalways got to look in the mirror and
(27:55):
say, you know, what wouldI have done different? There's there's a
lot of things I could have donedifferent, done better. But I was
the first time head coach. Iwas, Yeah, that is way different.
I don't think people understand that.And we look at you brought up
Nathaniel Hackett. It is so differentto go from a coordinator position to being
the head coach CEO of everything.I don't know how you say anything about
Nathaniel Hackett. I mean, youknow, you get some injuries, it's
(28:15):
his first year. I'm not advocatingthat he should be here, but I'm
just saying, you know, thatwas a little quick. Yeah, and
I love Sean Payton and Sean verytalented. He'll do a great job.
But you know, sometimes it iswhat it is, and that's what it
was for me with CSU at theend of the day, there just wasn't
enough winning going on. And youknow, I look back, there was
I don't know if I have thenumber right, but it was in the
twenties. The number of people onthat roster that ended up in NFL camps
(28:40):
not necessarily draft picks, and therewere some draft picks right, some very
good players, but there was alot of very good football players in And
I'd like to think, you know, back in the day before the TV
money, the gentleman at Virginia Tech, forever Frank Biemer. It took him
seven years to get that thing going, but when he got it going,
that was something. And I'm surehe was learning his way into the job.
(29:00):
But nowadays that wouldn't happen, rightbecause of the TV money. It
is about wins and losses as faras your job goes. But you bring
up the fact you have twenty plusguys that go into NFL camps and the
players that you helped to influence,and I go back to what you said
at the very beginning, with thecoaches that were so important to you.
Do you take pride in that?And you're spoken of in very high regard.
(29:21):
I would say that was the stopwhere I did the worst. Really
yeah, and I love what Ido now. I go out on a
football field. It's not about winningand losing. It's about teaching kids,
you know, youth football, highschool kids, sometimes guys trying to go
to the NFL. But you're outthere teaching them how to work. You're
out there just trying to make thembetter. When I was a head coach,
(29:41):
I was trying to be the headcoach, the offensive coordinator, the
whole nine yards, and you justthe lower down the poll it gets the
less you are good at it,and you need to be. Yeah,
you know, obviously I wasn't ina lot of areas. And if I
could do it again, what Ihire an offensive coordinator? Maybe when I
step back and still say, thisis about the process, not about the
(30:02):
wins and losses. And a lotof people say that, but that's you
know, when your job's coming up, that's hard to do. Hard to
tell an ad about the process.Yeah, yeah, exactly so, but
no, it's you know, Ilook back and my wife always says,
you know, would you wanted tostay? And initially I said, yeah,
you know, we'll make good money, and I like this job.
And I think, you know youand I went to school here. I
think I can make this a goodplace. And but you know, when
(30:23):
I got fired, we went toSan Diego. We lived in Coronado,
you know, work for the Chargers, and that was such a great setting
and thing to do. And thenwe ended up going to Charlottesville, which
was a very special place at theUniversity of Virginia. So we had some
opportunities that came up after that.And that's the way I think. You
know, maybe I'm getting philosophical onyou here, but you know, if
(30:44):
you get fired, you can blamepeople, you can go in the dumps,
you can do a lot of thingsnegative, or you can just say
this is an opportunity to move onand to do something better with my life,
do something more fun, do somethingnew. And I always approached it
that way. Yeah, and that'swhat you did. Every time. I
will say this. I saw youthe Broncos played the Chargers. I think
it was a Monday night game,and I saw you on the field there.
(31:04):
I don't know if you remember this, but I saw you and you
just looked like the weight of theworld was off your shoulders. And I
was like, Steve Fairchild looks likehe's in a whole different universe now than
when I did your coaches show.Yeah, what a difference. I mean
you could tell you're in a ina better headspace. And again you got
to move on and move forward.I look back and I'm lucky. I'm
(31:26):
fortunate, and I'm in a greatplace now. And not everything's going to
work out the way you want it, but that's the way life is.
Right, So after all of yourcoaching endeavors, you do finally come back
here, both of your daughters arehere, You've got some grandkids here,
and you've started a business, rightthe fair Child Quarterback Fairchild Fairchild QB Training.
There we go. You know,like I said before, when I
(31:48):
when I retired, I was throwna lot of things out there. You
know. I wrote some draft thingsfor people online, you know, NFL
Draft Bible, like, taught somefootball courses for Sports Management Worldwide, which
is an agency up in Portland.You know, did some teaching, did
some writing. You know. It'sfunny too, there's people in the media
that will they'll hire you to writedraft reports because they can't look at all
(32:10):
the tape. So when they geton the camera on TV. They may
say this running back, but theyhaven't looked at them enough. You did
all their homework for them. Yougive them, they'll pay you to give
them, like four lines, wow, like dozen have top ends? Be
great in line runner hurt too much, very and you were doing that for
people. Did that a little bit? Yeah, but then you know,
(32:31):
like I said, the European thingwas there, the teaching, But at
the end of the day, themost fun thing has been just to get
out on the field for you know, our quarterback sessions with youth and high
school and potential pro guys, andthat's been a lot of fun. I'm
still doing it and I'm going tocontinue to do as long as I'm healthy.
It's brilliant that you're doing that becauseyou have a wealth of knowledge having
(32:52):
been to so many different places andso many things that you can tap into.
And then the athlete changes throughout theyears. I'm sure that these guys
that you're working with are so differentthan the ones you worked with in the
nineties or in the two thousands,no doubt, no doubt. And sometimes
you get them where you start withthem in seventh grade and you watch them
go all the way and you know, I've had some guys go on and
(33:12):
playing college that you're thinking, Wow, that's cool. He was a little
kid, you know. And it'sa good gig. And like I said,
I'm going to continue to do it. How can people find out if
they have aspiring quarterbacks? How canthey find out about you? I've got
a website, Fairchild QB Training dotcom. So okay, yeah, and
you're very good on social media.You post on Twitter and Instagram all the
time. I'm like, look atSteve go. You know. I had
(33:35):
to my daughters help me with that. So but yeah, I try to
take a picture and you do.You do very good, You do very
good. All right. And soLindsay and Jill they're here now, and
you've got four grandkids right yeah,back, we've got two at the house
right now. I'm going to goback to take them to the pool.
Oh yeah, my wife and Ithere's two younger ones we watch. And
that's been kind of neat too,because raising kids is one thing, and
then when you raise your kids kids, you're not raising them, but when
(33:58):
you become a part of that processwith it, but you can give them
back. You don't have them allthe time. You can really kind of
slow down and watch, you know, when they first start taking steps and
so forth. It's it's just beena slower observation of it than we're enjoying
it. Nancy really is and soit's been fun. Oh. My dad
always said, he's like, man, I love having grandkids way better than
you and your brother. And I'mlike, what that's supposed to me?
(34:22):
There is some truth, there is. I think there's some truth to that.
Yeah, And Nancy's doing well,doing great. We're doing just a
ton of traveling. We got ourhealth and we've got the you know,
the time and the money to doit. So we're we're trying to get
around the world as much as wecan, as often as we can.
So it's good. That's great,All good. And I love getting to
know Nancy. When you would comedown for the Coaches Show, she would
come with you, and you know, Carol Joe used to do that with
(34:42):
Sonny too, and Sonny would say, and you said the same thing.
This is the only time we getlike this hour drive to and from Fort
Collins and so much time we're probablygonna chat this whole week. It's precious
time during the season. Nothing betterthan riding down to your show after a
win. Yeah, those were goodtimes. Those were good times. Okay,
last question, Steve, and youkind of answered this already talking about
how to approach getting fired, Butwhat do you tell people when they have
(35:06):
things that happen in life that area setback or are something that's kind of
a negative and just trying to moveforward? And you've seen that happen with
a lot of your athletes too theyears too. You know, number one,
you realize that it's a part oflife. We look at these people
out there that we think are very, very successful, and they are,
but they've had some roadblocks and somebumps in the road. We all do,
(35:27):
so it's not exclusive to you thatsomething bad is happening. It's just
the way it is. And Ithink how you approach it, that's a
cliche, but you know how youdeal with it. But I always looked
at it as an opportunity. Iwas going to get to go somewhere and
do something new and make the bestof it. And I think it works
out when you take that approach.It does. Thanks for coming in,
appreciate you inviting. Absolutely. Youtried to tell me that you don't think
(35:47):
you're relevant anymore, and I highlydisagree with you. You are extremely relevant
and always have been, so Iappreciate all of our friendship throughout the years.
Yeah, thank you very much,Steve Fairchild. You know, I
do believe him that they actually hungup those pictures on the fridge that Samantha
colored for them. That's just thekind of people he and Nancy are.
Well, if you're hearing this,you have listened to the entire episode,
(36:08):
and first of all, thank you. Secondly, I hope you enjoyed this
episode. If you did, dome a favor, please rate and review
on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Newepisodes of Cut, Traded, Fired,
Retired come out every Tuesday on nearlyevery podcast platform. Get social with the
podcast on Twitter and Instagram at CTFRpodcast, and check out the website CTFR
(36:30):
podcast dot com. I'm your host, Susie Wargin. Again, thank you
for listening, and until next time, please be careful, be safe,
and be kind. Take care
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