Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
The very first event is the fortyyard dash. This is supposed to be
my best event. That moment wasa huge part of why I went undrafted
because coaches are looking at it like, Okay, this is his biggest opportunity.
What's he going to do when thelights turn on? And I tripped
in NFL? And so I wentfrom thinking I was going to be like
a fourth to seventh rounder end upgoing undrafted. Welcome to Cut, Traded,
(00:20):
Fired, Retired a weekly podcast featuringconversations with professional athletes and coaches who
have sat down to tell their storiesof setbacks and how they were able to
move forward. I'm your host,Susie Wurgen. This episode's guest is actually
the inspiration for this podcast. I'veknown Tyler Palumbus since the Broncos won Super
Bowl fifty and have loved listening toall of his football follies when he got
(00:42):
into radio after retiring from the NFL. One day, when I was listening
to one of his many tales,his radio co host and a longtime friend
of mine, Darren McKee, saidthis would make such a great book.
How I Got Cut? A lightbulb went off in my head and I
hatched a plan for the podcast.Now I've added a few words to the
titled just to be able to coveranything that can happen to a pro athlete
(01:02):
or coach. And here we area year into the podcast, and we
get to hear all of Tyler's greatstories in one place. He's a Denver
native that went to Cherry Creek HighSchool, played on the offensive line at
the University of Colorado, and wasan undrafted free agent in the NFL.
Tyler's got a few NFL teams onhis resume, including two stints with the
Broncos, and he topped off hiswild career with a Super Bowl victory.
(01:23):
Ladies and Gentlemen, Tyler Palumbus gottraded fired. Rick Tired Podcast with Susie
Wargin Tyler Palumbus, How you doing. I'm doing great, Susie. It's
good to be on with you.I feel like for years though we've always
been crossing pass but I don't thinkwe've ever done anything like this together.
(01:44):
So I've never gotten to sit andjust chat with you and talk about your
story and everything. So this isvery fun. Plus I need to tell
you, and I know I've toldyou this before, but not the full
story. That you are the inspirationfor the podcast. Well, you told
me that off air, and Ifound that hard to believe. Don't you
think that's hard to believe? Everykind of you? I who am?
I I'm a nobody. Well,I was a journeyman. I was perfect
(02:05):
for your podcast. Yes you are. You are the perfect topic for the
podcast. But the inspiration came fromwhen you and d Mac, who I
have known forever. He and Iworked at KBPI together. So I used
to listen to you guys all thetime. I am driving and actually have
this vision in my head. I'mdriving on two twenty five getting off on
Mississippi. You're telling some story aboutwhen you're with Washington and what happened,
and d Mac goes, that makea great book how I got cut?
(02:28):
And I'm like, how I gotcut? Well, I guess those stories.
I got the cuts, I gotthe trade. I've done it all.
I've been every mountaintops, I've beentold I'm terrible. I've done it
all. I love it well.And that's why I thought. I'm like,
well, I can't just do cutsbecause not everybody's been cut. So
I was like, okay, cutand traded then I brought it to my
program director at iHeart and he's like, well, why don't you do fired
(02:50):
so you can include coaches? Oh, great idea. And then I went
to Carl Mecklenburg and I said,hey, I've got this podcast I want
to have you on. It's calledCut, Traded, Fired. He's like,
I've never been any of those things, but I'm retired. You got
the right guy here, Okay,yeah, yeah, I know. You
fit everything just perfect. So let'sgo back Tyler to your beginnings. You're
born in Denver, Yeah, yournative. I am as local as it
(03:12):
gets. I grew up about tenminutes from where we are right now,
right Cherry Creek High School, wentto University of Colorado for college, and
then I came right back down thesame highway and played my first few years
of the Broncos. And then andthen the journey began, which we'll get
into it all, but just aquick two second recap played at SeeU came
(03:32):
back down the street. I wasan undrafted rookie. I had to fight
my way. I'm the roster,made the team my rookie year. I'm
a bike Shanahan guy through and through. It's the only reason why I played
eight years in the NFL. JoshM. Daniels comes in. I played
one year of hell with Josh.Literally the worst year of my life and
literal sense, I mean, Ihated my life. I was starting my
(03:53):
hometown. It was brutal. Thenmy journey kind of began because I was
I was not a Josh guy,so I got, oh my gosh,
I feel like I'm cutting straight intoit. Here you are. We haven't
even gone through your background. Soshould we go back? Yes, back
up, tell me what to do. I'm taking over your show. It's
okay. You're a radio guy.Now, that's what you do. That's
what we do. Welcome to radio. When did football become your thing?
(04:15):
So you know that's funny. Iwas a Baseball is life guy, That's
what That's what I was. Imean growing up all the baseball cash.
I swear, I played like ahundred games every single summer. Position picture
in first base, so the onlyplace where they put the big, awkward
guys that are not athletic, soso I could throw the ball. Baseball
was life. That's what I wantedto do until my freshman year of high
(04:36):
school. When I'm at Cherry Creekand I'm playing three sports. Baseball is
still the goal. And tell himon the mound and I'm throwing a curveball
and I hit the dude in theon deck circle. That's a true story.
I literally that ball slipped out.It was gonna be a hell of
a curveball, man, It wascoming all the way back from that on
(04:56):
deck circle. It was gonna beI literally had to dude deck circle.
I had a wild arm, Ihad a strong arm, but it just
wasn't coming together like I wanted ittoo. So I always joked that that
was a day that I knew thebaseball was not for me anymore, not
in the cars. But then ironically, then it went from baseball to basketball,
and basketball then became the next likepassion of what I wanted to do.
Well, turns out, if you'resix foot eight, you can barely
(05:18):
jump, and you only scored abouttwelve points a game, there's not much
of a future for you. Andcollege basketball and then football just kind of
it just kind of happened. Imean, don't get me wrong, I
always wanted to play football. Mydad played at University of Colorado, so
I always wanted to be like daddy, you know, And that was a
huge part of my story as ayoung kid. But it wasn't until I
(05:39):
guess into my sophomore maybe junior seasonof high school that I started to realize,
you know what, I'm a littlebit different than these other guys and
there is a future here. Interesting. What was that, like, how
did you kind of know that?Well, you know what, I guess.
I'm assuming you're on the line atthat point. Yeah. So my
freshman year of high school I playedtight end linebacker, and then my sophomore
(06:00):
year, I was playing tight endon the JV team during training camp and
they're like, well, you canplay tight end here, you can come
up and play offensive light on thevarsity. So I'm like, okay,
cool, let's go play. Yeah, of course, of course, And
so I got pulled up. Butpeople saw in me what I could not
see in myself. And really thatwas my entire career, from high school
(06:20):
to college to the NFL. Iwas a project. And you know,
I was six foot eight, onehundred and ninety five pounds by sophomore year
of high school playing on the offensiveyeah, bean Pole, absolutely, And
so I was not like a dominantforce by any means my first couple of
years in high school. But Ihad the size. I had that a
lot of saism, and coaches couldalways see something that they could build on
(06:44):
there, right Sure. Then youknow, at some point it started to
click. I started getting a bunchof offers, and you know, I'll
never forget getting my first offer,and I think my first one came from
Northwestern actually, and that was becausethere was a kid of Cherry Creek named
Date Bailey. He was a lefttackle that they were and they came and
watched the game. I was playingleft guard next to him, and they
saw me and they're like, hey, cool, we were there recruiting eight
(07:05):
we saw you. So I givehim ned a lot of credit because he
kind of put me on the map. He didn't end up that's cool.
Yeah, he didn't end up goingplay and he played basketball in college a
little bit, but he put meon the map. And so that's kind
of how it began. And thenhow many offers did you get? Do
you remember about how many? Yeah? I do? It was over twenty
five, Wow, Tyler, SoI could have played a lot of cool
(07:28):
places. You know. When hecame down to it, it was I
always knew I was gonna be boughtat the back of my heart, like
did you okay at the end ofthe day, I always knew that,
but I kind of made it moredifficult than it needed to be. Just
take some trips though, well becauseit because I wanted to enjoy it,
you know. Let me guess Miami. Yeah, no, I didn't go
to Miami, but I did gotoo. So the trips I took.
I went to Notre Dame, Iwent to Stanford, and those were kind
(07:49):
of looking at it from the academicpoint of ship. Notre Dame was great.
Stanford was terrible a football at thetime. I went to Nebraska,
of all places. My dad wasa buff and oh my gosh, quick
side story on that one. SoI'm getting recruited to see you, and
Eric b Enemy is recruiting me tosee you. I take a trip to
Nebraska and he calls me up andI'm like, I'm seventeen, eighteen years
(08:13):
old on this trip to Nebraska andhe is dog cussing me like you would
not believe, Like you dumb mother, If you're in Nebraska, what's it
gonna be. You want to bein Buffalo? You want to be a
Husker because it can't. People,we're not living in Poultice worlds. And
I hung up that phone and Iwas like, Dad, I think I
gotta go home. He's really badat me. He's really bad that I'm
on this trip. Oh my gosh, how funny. Yeah, yeah,
(08:37):
So I took those. So myfive visits were Nebraska, Arizona, Notre
Dame, Colorado, and Stanford.So those were kind of the ones that
he came down to, all forvarious different reasons. And ironically, I
mean I had I had plenty oftop twenty five schools that it offered me,
but Arizona was terrible. At thetime I fell in love with the
(08:58):
recruiting hostess. I thought I wasgetting a yeah, yeah, right,
right, as I'm sure about onehundred other guys called right, that's why
she's the hostess exactly exactly. Andthen the other schools, the academics and
everything. But I always do Iwas gonna be buff because Dad was there
and that's what I wanted to be. So ended up saying yes to see
you. I did that actually beforemy senior season. Really, I committed
(09:22):
before my senior season even began.But I kind of was still flirting with
other schools because it was fun.Well, yeah, and you're like,
again, you're seventeen. I meanyou're just there's no commitment. You're just
like whatever, sure, and youdon't really think about what it is.
And I mean every day you're you'recoming home from school and you're walking into
the bailbox and you've got ten fifteendifferent handwritten letters from all these coaches.
To this day, my mom kepteverything. She kept everything. That's cool.
(09:46):
Yeah, she passed away, butI've got this. She made a
scrap book. The thank you wordsare difficult. She made a scrap book
for me. And then I've gotthis case of all these letters that are
written that I've no idea what I'mgonna do with. Like I tried to
show it to my son one time. He's like, I don't care.
He's like letters one of those,Yeah, exactly exact letters. Oh that's
(10:07):
really cool, Tyler. Yeah,that'll be neat. Your kids will appreciate
that. Maybe we'll see I mighthave to pay him to look at it
or something. All right, Soyou have a good career at SEU.
You are all big twelve second team, you're seeing you're correct, But even
there, you know, like Imean it when I say it. I
was a project in high school.I was a project at the University of
Colorado. I didn't become a fulltime starter, so my redshirt sophomore year,
(10:31):
I red shirted, didn't play mytrue freshman year. It really wasn't
until my third year that I wascontributing in any way. And that year
I became like a rotational starter,so I was rotating every couple series with
a guy I was not very good. I was just play guard tackle.
Okay, so you know Gary Barnett, great coach. Worst thing Colored ever
did getting rid of Gary Barnett.But he did something kind of old school
(10:54):
that not very many coaches did.We had a strong and a week tackle,
so a split tackle. I wouldalways go away from the tight end,
so we would play right and leftside. We would rotate. It's
crazy looking back on it now,and I would be surprised if Gary would
still do that to this day.That would blow a lot of people's minds
these days, because you really haveto specialize one side or the other.
But it was great for me becausebecause even in the NFL, I go
(11:18):
undrafted. I think I'm gonna getdrafted. I got a great Combine story
I'll come back to. But Iturned into a swing tackle and I had
to earn my way onto the teamby being able to play everything. So
it was a huge blessing that Garydid that, that I was able to
play both on the right and theleft side. But you know, at
SEU, I knew I had achance to go on. But even like,
(11:39):
okay, I was second team AllBig twelve, which a lot of
kids would dream of doing. Anddon't get me wrong, I was proud
as hell to have accomplished that.But that wasn't like you're not going to
be a day one starter in theNFL, by what you mean. So
I mean you're all Big twelve ifyou're going to be a first round or
something like that. Yeah, AndI thought I was going to get drafted,
probably like fourth to seventh round typeof range. And I got invited
(12:01):
to the Combine. This was thebiggest opportunity of my life. You know,
you've got every head coach, everyGM, every scout in the entire
league there to watch you work out. And I was never like a big,
strong maawler. Even though I playedoffensive line. I was an athlete
like I was a basketball player thatplayed football. That's how I played in
the NFL. I wasn't going tomove a dude in north and south ten
(12:22):
yards. So actually the Combine wasa great opportunity for me to showcase my
athleticism. So I get invited tothe Combine, and I wanted to be
one of the fastest offensive linemen there. At the time, if you ran
a sub forty as an offensive linemen, you are flying. Nowadays about everybody
does that. But my goal wasto run like a four eight nine four
(12:43):
nine forty at the Combine. SoI know I'm gonna shine in a couple
areas. I'm gonna shine in thein the forty, I'm gonna shine in
my vertical leap, in the broadjob. But I'm gonna be just pass
bail like in the bench press.If I reached the pass line, I'm
cool, right, But I'm definitelyin a showcase. But so the very
first event is the forty yard dash. This is supposed to be my best
event. And I get out andI'm rolling, and turns out my feet
(13:07):
are go a little bit too fastand they can keep up with And I
swear it was like an eternity offalling, like like for it felt like
out thirty seconds. I could feelmy feet going and I'm running and I'm
trying to hold on, trying tohold on, and for about ten yards,
I'm stumbling and I finally slip andI fall and I slide underneath the
finish line. I will never forget. At that moment, I was like,
(13:31):
fake an injury. There has tobe a reason, Like there's gotta
be a reason why this happened,right, And I'm laying on the ground
and I'm like, my life isflashing before my eyes. I just failed
in front of everybody, and Ipopped up and I finished the day.
I didn't fake an injury, butlegitimately that was the if I'm being honest,
that was the first thought that wentinto my mind, fake something.
There has to be a reason whyyou did this. Well, the combine
(13:54):
turns out to be an utter disasterfor me. I did shine in the
vertical, and I think I hadthe second or the first best broad job,
but at the end of the day, it was the forty is what
they look at the most. Thatis the holy grail. So I come
back. You know, I'm localBoys doing Good University Colorado, goes to
the combine front page of the demopost sports section. When I get back
(14:16):
is a life size photo of meface playing them. So that's my welcome
hope. And I really do thinkthat moment was a huge part of why
I went undrafted, because coaches arelooking at it like, Okay, this
is his biggest opportunity. What's hegoing to do when the lights turn on?
And fell and I tripped and Ifell right, And so I went
(14:39):
from thinking I was going to belike a fourth to seventh rounder end up
going undrafted. You don't just sitaround waiting for a call and get some
calls. Yeah, it was acrazy story actually, So on draft day
my hopes being a fourth rounder disappeared. But in the fourth round, I
get a call from Seattle Seahawks.They're like, hey, we're next on
the clock. Congratulations, You're gonnabe a Seattle Seawks. So I hang
(15:00):
up the phone. You know,confetti's flying in the room, not literally,
but I'm just with my family andmy parents' house. We're all high
five and hugging each other, andyou look at the ticker. All of
a sudden, across the ticker,it says Red Bryant. It doesn't say
Tyler Plubs. It says Red Bryant. So I go from thinking I'm drafted
in the fourth round the Seahawks calledme, say congratulations, you're a Seattle
Seahawk, to seeing a different namecome across the ticker they called me right
(15:24):
after. You're like, hey,we're so sorry. We really wanted you,
but we heard that another team wasgonna select Red, so we took
him there. But We've still gottwo more picks in the draft. You're
still gonna be a Seahawk, right, So I'm like, okay, no
big deal, Like, yeah,I would have been awesome to be a
fourth rounder, but it's at leastI'm still going to be drafted. Well,
two more picks come and go,they never select me. You want
(15:46):
to talk about a roller coaster ofemotions on drafting, Yeah, I go
from thinking like, holy cow,I actually got drafted in the fourth round
to going undrafted all together. Well, it turns out to be one of
the biggest blessings that could have everhappened to me, because you know,
most guys, when you go undrafted, you're hoping to have a team that
calls, right, I actually havethirty one of thirty two teams offered me
(16:06):
a deal, which which meant itwas the best of all worlds, because
yeah, I got to hand pickwhat team was going to be the best
situation for me. My dad haddone all this work. You put together
this folder of all the tackle situationsthen, so knowing where you would have
chances. See exactly. So ifI go undrafted, let's be educated about
how to make a decision here,because most guys will get maybe one or
(16:29):
two teams that reach out. Tohave thirty one reach out, right,
So now I go from not beingdrafted to having an opportunity to hand select.
I narrow it down to about threedifferent teams. I've got Tony Dungee
on one phone from the Colts.I've got Tom Cable from the Raiders on
another line. And then I'm sittingthere talking to Mike Shanahan on my phone.
(16:51):
So my parents have got two phonesgoing. I've I've got three head
coaches on the line. Tony Dungeegets on the phone. He says,
Hey, Ty, don't know ifyou know much about me, but one
thing I am is I'm a manof my work. I'm telling you right
now, if you sign with theIndianapolis Colts, you'll be on this roster.
So I'm not gonna have to worryabout getting cut or anything, right,
And so I say, okay,thank you. I'm just gonna tell
(17:12):
my parents real quick. I puthim on hold, and I'm like,
hey, I guess I gotta tellthese other guys no, I'm going to
Indianapolis. So my dad says,well, hey, why don't you tell
Tom Cable and Mike Shanahan what hetold you and see what happens, right,
sort of negotiation. So then Igo to Tom Cable next and I'm
like, hey, coach Donjee promisedto be a roster spot. He's like,
hey, good luck see you seriously. It was that quick. I
(17:37):
ended up playing for Tom later andI love him. But then I got
on the phone with Mike Shanahan andI told him and he was just like,
Tyler, I'm not sitting here onhold because I don't want you come
to the broncos. You're gonna bea Broncho. So it's the hometown A
coach just promised to be a rosterspot. Best of both worlds. Ended
up getting a decent signing bonus outof it because I had so many teams
that were interrested and I got tohand pick my hometown team. So I
(18:00):
ended up being a huge blessing thatI went on drafted. But hard to
see that at the time. Imean the disappointment of seeing somebody else's name
when you think it should be yoursand you're like, wait, they type
that wrong, It's should be myname. You cannot describe the joy that
is going through your body as youget a call saying they're about to select
you, and then that's not myname. That is not my name on
that board right now. It's crazy. I was wild so undrafted free agent
(18:25):
in two thousand and eight. Youdebut Week one against the Raiders. Yeah,
so I always call him my freshmanyear, my rookie year, and
like it feels like your freshman yearthough all over again, just at a
higher level. That's a lot faster. Absolutely, I'm gonna tell you it
was a good thing. Mike promisedme a roster spot because I got my
butt whipped and training camp really mean, I was getting I was going up
(18:47):
against Elvis Dumerville every day. Iswear I might have beat him one time
out of fifty. I mean,I was just getting crushed, getting destroyed,
and honestly losing a lot of confidencebecause I'm like, I just went
from the big band on campus upand see you too. I don't know
if I fit in with these boys, right, I don't know if I
can do this. Mike saw somethingin me that quite frankly, I didn't
(19:07):
see him myself at the time.I was losing confidence, but he believed
in me. So I made theteam. Didn't have to go to practice
squad or anything. I made thefifty three man roster. My first year
in the NFL, I dressed forevery single game. I was the swing
tackle, which means at the rightor the left tackle goes down, I'm
the next band. Doesn't matter theposition. Well, Ryan Harris and Ryan
(19:29):
Clayty are the two tackles. RyanHarris is playing a right tackle, Claydy's
playing left tackle. They don't missa single snap the entire year. They
don't get a sprain towed, whichis so atypical of an offensive lineman.
Right, something's going to happen,but insane, right, So I know
the entire first year I played onspecial I did field goal and I was
on kickoff return back in the daywhen we're just the concussion dudes, just
(19:52):
line up and let somebody run fiftyyards full steam match. Yeah, we'll
take the concussion for you. SoI did that my first year. But
I didn't play a single snap myfirst year in the NFL, not one.
But then your second year you did. So my second year, probably
week four, week five, somethinglike that, We're out in Baltimore and
Ryan Harris finally goes down and Igotta tell you, I'm like, I'm
(20:15):
like, hallelujah, I'm not rootingfor failure for you out, but can
you give me like four plays onthe year? You know, like you
can come back. You can stillcome back. Yeah, get out of
the tech come back. Just giveme like four plays, you know.
Well, he goes down and Ithink it was like the second or the
third play of the game, andI got thrust in the lineup. I
was tinkling down my pants. There'sno question about it. I mean,
I honestly like, now I'm gettingcomfortable. I'm like, I'm never gonna
(20:38):
play. I'm just I'm gonna getpaid to be a backup. This isn't
so bad. You know, I'mhealthy, but now I got to go
in there. I gotta actually dosomething. And by the grace of God,
I have no idea how this happens. But I've got twelve Suggs lined
up to the right of me,and I've got ray Lewis as the linebacker
up in front of me right,and so I've got a tight end next
(20:59):
to me. I had a comboblock with the tight end on Treill Suggs,
and then I had to climb upto ray Lewis. I swear I
pancacked his butt. I mean heprobably tripped by like twelve different dudes and
somehow landed on top of him.But my very first play in the NFL,
I'm laying on top of ray Lewisand I'm like, holy cow,
what just happened. I'm laying ontop of ray Lewis right now. And
(21:22):
then I ended up playing. Istarted eight ten games that year and got
my opportunities, so wow. Youknow, Ryan was always going to be
the starter. I was just fillingin for him. But I played a
lot that year. And then Mikegets cut. I'll never forget when you
got cut or when he gets cut. You can't fired. Sorry, I'm
thinking a players terms here, right, Yes, yeah, Mike gets fired
(21:44):
weird, Yeah it was, Imean it was, I don't know.
You were probably covering the team.I was. It wasn't on my radar.
Mike Shanahan was about to get fired. But now I'm playing for a
guy that didn't bring me in,doesn't believe in me. And Josh McDaniel,
right, and the Josh McDaniels,I'm not kidding who. Everybody hated
their life. The coaches hated theirlives, the secretaries hated their lives.
I mean, the players hated theirmade everything very miserable. It was the
(22:06):
most brutally year of my life.I mean, I'm starting in my hometown
living the dream, and I'm legitimatelythinking about retiring in my second year in
the NFL. Like, that's howbad it was. I played one season
for him, he ends up cuttingme in my next training camp. Honestly,
at that point, I'd lost allconfidence. I really didn't think I
belonged in the NFL. Did hesay anything to you or who was it
(22:29):
that cut you? How did thatstory go down? Well? No,
Josh didn't give anybody the time ofthe day. Okay, I really don't
even think I saw him. BrianXanders was the GM, so he let
me know. I turned in mystuff and packed my bags and I got
out of there. Was one ofthe last days of camp. It was
August twenty four. It wasn't finalcutting was it was the week before that.
There was one preseason game left,so I got caught right before that,
(22:53):
and I end up going on waivers, which means any team in the
NFL can claim your current contract.There's twenty four hours where they can claim
you. I got claimed by HoustonSeattle in Detroit. You have to go
to the team with the worst record. You don't have a choice. So
I end up in Detroit. Atthis point, I don't have much belief
for myself. I'm in Detroit.I'm like, what am I doing?
Like the skyscrapers, buildings are likeall the windows are blowing out, Like
(23:15):
this place is crazy? What amI doing here? I hated football,
I hated being there. I wasin Detroit for six days and I got
traded to Seattle. So did youactually do any practicing with them? So?
I did one week and I dressedfor one preseason game, but I
didn't play in it because I didn'tknow I didn't know the offense, I
didn't know anything right and how weird. Yeah, and then I got traded
(23:36):
to Seattle and that was the bestthing that ever happened to me because then
I went out to another spot wherecoaches believed in me. It was fun.
It was the complete opposite of JoshMcDaniels. Pete Carroll was like,
you know, every meeting starts witha funny YouTube clip. You've got music
blasting one eighty compared to Josh McDanielsone eight. And this is when I
played for Tom Cable. Oh soTom was then in Seattle when he was
(23:59):
with the Raiders. Obviously, Okay, ended up playing for Tom Cable.
He believed in me, found thelove of the game again, and that's
when I kind of realized, Okay, I could actually make a career out
of this. So interesting that you'restill the same player. It's just the
fact that the people that are runningthe show. That's completely what will make
or break somebody in pro sports.And as far as like making a team
(24:21):
better or making an individual better,it's all your people that you have at
the top of your coaches are soimportant. Absolutely. I mean it's really
not that different than any area oflife. I mean somebody can see bosses
in any kind of Somebody has tosee something in you. Yeah, and
oftentimes, if you're really gonna makeit, they got to see something in
you that maybe you don't even knowexists yet. Because I wasn't a first
(24:41):
rounder, I didn't have the confidenceof a first rounder. Right, You
couldn't walk around like your stuff.He no, yeah, absolutely, So
I go out to Seattle and thegame becomes fun again. I wasn't a
full time starter. I did startlike eight games filling in for Russo Okum
who got hurt. That's why theytraded for me, because Jeremy Bates was
the offensive coordinated in Denver. Thengoes to Okay. He knew I knew
(25:03):
his system. He needed a dayone starter. I filled in and I
played good football. Whereas I wasstarting in Denver, I did not play
good football. But now I'm playinggood football, and now I'm enjoying things.
Who's your quarterback there? So MattHasselback, Oh, Hassleback was okay
at houseback was the first year andhe was incredible. One of the best
human beings on this play. Really, I mean, I'm a nobody.
(25:26):
I get traded there. I don'tknow anybody in the locker room. He
walks out to me within ten minutesof me walking into that locker room,
walks over, shakes my hand,says, hey, I'm Matt Hasseble Like
like, I don't know who heis? Like like, yeah, I
know you are. It's like,I'm Att Hassleback. Why don't you and
your wife come over for dinner tonight? So it invites me over for dinner.
(25:47):
We get to know their family,get to know Matt, and it
was just Seattle was an incredible experiencefor it. That's cool and that makes
a huge difference too. That welcomingfrom other players as well. And that's
all about the culture. Right.So you were there through basically a season
and a half? Did I didone? You played twenty ten and then
a half of twenty eleven? Okay, and then they waive you they did
(26:07):
what happens there? So now Iget a call this crazy cut story.
Oh my gosh, so I am. It's a Tuesday. Of course,
everything happens on Tuesday Tuesday, andin Seattle there was we called it roster
turnover Tuesday. If you survived Tuesday, you're like, halleluish Tuesday. Oh
yeah, oh yeah. It wascrazy out there. So I'm actually speaking
(26:27):
at the middle of the Seahawks askedme if i'd go speak in the middle
school. You're doing a community SoI'm sitting there with another guy's name is
Brenno, and I'm talking to anentire auditorium full of kids, and my
phone rings like three times and Ifinally look at it and I see it's
the Seahawks number, and I justflashed my phone at Brenno. I give
(26:48):
him a look. I'm like,why am I getting a call on a
Tuesday? This is not good,right, yeah, I tell him.
I'm like, dude, I'm gettingcut. Well, we did like a
breakout room and then we moved fromthe auditorium to the breakout room, and
I'm back my mind. I'm like, I don't have time to call him
back yet, but I know I'mabout to get cut. I'm doing this
thinking community service for your team rightnow, because you're not waited until like
this was over or something. Sohe's like, now, you're fine.
(27:11):
They wouldn't do that to you rightnow. They wouldn't do that to you
right now. I get in thecar and I put it on speaker phone
so you could listen, and they'relike, hey, Tyler, we know
you're actually out speaking for us rightnow. You've always been so incredible in
the community for us. We're sograteful for everything you've done. We need
to let you go. But it'sjust going to be a one weekend thing.
We need a defensive back. Soone of our defensive backs got hurt.
(27:32):
I was like number fifty three onthe roster, and that's what happens
when you're fifty two fifty three.You're the guy that rotates in and out.
And so they said, don't packyour bags, you're gonna be back
next weekend. Well, that gamegoes by. This ends up being the
longest period I was unemployed in theNFL in my eight years. The first
weekend goes by, they call meback. They're like, hey, we
still didn't get enough bodies back healthy. We need one more week. Don't
(27:53):
pack your bags, don't go anywhere. Give me the same exact fields.
So you're actually you're cut. You'renot on a or anything like that.
I went on waivers from the firsttwenty four hours, but nobody claimed and
nobody claimed you right, Oh wow, okay, so, which was different
than my first experience when three teamsclaimed me. Nobody claims me. I'm
unemployed, but I'm still out therein Seattle, and Seattle's given me this
(28:15):
whole speech. But now I'm startingto call bs on it. I'm like,
all right, if you want doyou want me or not? You're
gonna bring me back or not.I'm not gonna do this forever. I'm
actually working out. I get acall from Mike Shanahan. He's out in
Washington now. He says, hey, ty, Mike Shanahan here. You
want to Kep playing for the Redskins. So I'm like, yes, yes,
I do. Like Mike brought meinto this league. I know he
believes in me. He's like,okay, good, I already bought you
(28:37):
a flight. It leaves in onehour. I didn't even have time to
go pack up the bags, backup the house or anything. I literally
went straight to the airport, flewto Washington, DC. And that's when
my career really began. I'm inyear four at that point, and I'm
holding on. I'm just trying toget a career as a backup. Right
well, I go out to Washington. Mike had always seen something in me
that he believed in. I becamea full time starter. Started four years
(29:00):
out there. I was in mypersonal prime. But we were in DC
and it was sucked. It wasa show. Like as far as the
team or living there, Okay,that was Dane Dan Snyder. We had
the RG three experience, and Ilike Robert today. He's been very good
to everybody. But things went sidewaysbetween Robert and offensive line. Things went
(29:22):
sideways between Robert and the organization andthe head coach and the offensive line coach
and Robert, and there was justdrama everywhere, drama everywhere you looked.
Somehow we're having success in the middleof this, and Robert actually ends up
winning Offensive Rookie of the Year thatyear. But it was drama central and
that's tough to get over, toget through and to try and when you
have that many people and then youget side drama going, you get there's
(29:44):
just too much, too much stuffgoing on, and like always in the
NFL, things are not easy.Even though I'm the full time starter.
I went from trying to make theteam my rookie year to be in a
backup to trying to hold on tothe number fifty three spot on the roster
too. Now I'm just trying tohold on to starting spot. I know
that this thing isn't gifted to meforever, and I got to hold onto
this thing. It was a toughenvironment. That fan base was tough.
(30:07):
That was right when Pro Football Focusstarted. And I think Pro Football Focus
does a decent job now, butwhen they began, it was terrible.
You know, they're putting out allthese grades on everybody. I end up
having the best personal year of mycareer, but Pro Football Focus somehow ranks
me is like the second worst righttackle in the NFL. So the fan
base all jumps onto this. Iactually end up getting an extension the year
(30:29):
the Pro Football Focus ranked me asthe second worst right tackle. Well,
the fan base jumped on that.They hated my guts. They thought I
was the problem. Robert's getting liketwelve sacks a game. I'm garried out
at like a ninety three percent.He's responsible for all the sacks. But
you know it's all an offensive line, right of course We're getting crushed.
And then ironically, the very nextyear right after I got my contract extension.
(30:52):
Pro Football Focus has been ranked asthe second best right tackle in the
NFL. Guess what happened that year? I got bitched. The year that
they had to be raised like thewar I got a contract extension. Year
they had me ranked the best.I got benched because I wasn't playing very
good football. Now the journey startsall over right now. So when you
are getting killed by fans, areyou reading articles, are you hearing them
at games? You know where you'rekind of getting it from. Well,
(31:15):
you try your best to block itout, and it's impossible. Everybody's like,
oh, I don't read the media, I don't even know what you
gets bull crap. We know whatyou're saying, Well, we know exactly
what you're saying, right, AndTwitter was just that was a bad place
to be, and that was probablyjust starting about them. Yeah it was
twelve. Yeah. Literally, therewas a game that I gave up two
(31:36):
sacks. One of them was onme, one of them was not.
But I gave up two sacks.Trending in the city of DC was hashtag
Columbus hang yourself. That was trendingon Twitter. Yeah, no jokes that's
a true story. So it wasa really weird time for me where I
know I'm I'm having success, Iknow I'm playing good football, the team's
(31:57):
a disaster, the owner's a disaster, and the fan base hates me.
So it was just a really weirdperiod of my career where I was super
proud of what I was doing.I was super proud of the film I
was putting out, But everything elseit's hard. It's hard, right,
I Mean, the only thing Ihad going for me is I had a
coach that believed in me, andI loved him and he loved me,
and that kept me going, youknow. But my period as a starter
(32:21):
was limited. I was never goingto be a pro bowler. I was
just trying to hold on. Peoplesee professional athletes and they don't think about
all of the things that can behappening. And they also don't think about
the fact that it's trending hashtag hangyourself. Come on, really, like,
how would you like to have tohappen at your job? If I'm
like, no, that's not funat all. And does it come with
(32:43):
the territory? Yeah, but itdoesn't make it an easier No, No,
it's really hard. It's hard tohear people say stuff like that.
Well, we all want to beright, we all want to be especially
when you're proud of what you're puttingout. Exactly. Yes, if you
knew you sucked and you didn't givea crap, that's a different story.
But you were proud of I toldyou I would. When I was starting
in Denver, I was not playinggood football. I knew I wasn't playing
(33:04):
good football. Would have been deserved, yeah, exactly. And ironically I
was loved here because I was thehometown kid. We love it when the
hometown kids play for this team.Exactly. So even when I wasn't playing
great football, I was loved inDenver and I was hated out in DC.
That's crazy. So you get bench, So Jay Gruden bench as you
Yep. I told Mike this.I was like, what are you gonna
(33:27):
stop? I keep getting you firedjobs? I know, right exactly exactly.
Jay does take over. I endup getting benched in a game with
Kirk Cousins. We're playing out inArizona, and we both got bench in
a half time. We go outthe next week we're in Minnesota. We
went from starters to backups. Andthat's a humbling place to go, right.
Yeah, I understood why I gotbenched. I still thought I was
(33:50):
the best option on the team,but I knew it was a possibility that
it could be coming. We're outthere in Minnesota, and that was right
when they're building their new stadiums.So we were playing at the University of
Minnesota. Yeah, and Kirk andI are sitting on the bench and we're
like it's all over, like like, oh my gosh, we just got
benched. I'll never forget this conversationto this day because Kirk is like,
he's probably more down than I am. He turns me, He's like,
(34:13):
it's all over. We're never gonnabe starters. I'm like, Kirk,
I'm in year six right now,it's probably over for me. You're a
quarterback. You're gonna be okay,pal, It's about about three hundred million
dollars later for Kirk Cousins. Ifeel like I deserve a little cut of
that for the pep talk. Igave up probably good pep talk. Oh
my gosh, how funny he thoughthe was done then hadn't he was started?
That's crazy. I do get cut. Then I go to free agency.
(34:36):
In my entire career, I waswith Mike. Mike brought me in,
then Josh took over. But thenI went to Seattle. That was
because of Mike, because Jeremy Bateswas out there. Then Mike brings me
to Washington, and now I'm afree agent and Kyle Shanahan goes to Atlanta
to become the offensive coordinator. Iwas trying to figure out where Atlanta came
in, how that connection was.It was Kyle Okay. I had two
(34:58):
brief stints in my career that I'dbarely even count on my resume. Brief
stint with the Lions six days,yeah, exactly, and then Atlanta was
a little bit more than that.It was the off season. And then
I think I got cut in Weekthree, and so I'm in year eight
at this point. And one timein your career as a vested veteran,
if you are on the opening dayroster week one and you get cut after
(35:20):
that, you can collect your salary. You can only do it one time,
no matter how many games you've played. Just have to be on the
game one. If you're on theroster on game one, your salary becomes
guaranteed. So I get cut inweek three. My kids are getting older,
they're in school. Got to makea decision. Are they going to
keep moving twice a year? AmI going to leave my family behind?
Am I going to go live somewhereelse while they're in school in Denver?
(35:43):
And I'm actually thinking, it's beena good career, tired of moving around.
Time to get the kids settled,let them be in their own schools
year round. And I was actuallythinking about retiring right then and there,
because I knew I got to collectmy entire year's salary, right I knew
I had opportunities, but mentally Iwas worn down. Starting to check out
a little bit. Yeah, I'mstarting to check out a little bit.
And this is September of twenty fifteen. Yeah, you got it. So
(36:05):
I buy a flight. I've gota house in Denver. Denver was always
that was always home base. We'dalways come back here in the off season,
owned a home here, I'm fromhere, this is home. So
bought a flight back after I gotcut by Atlanta. And I'm not kidding
you. Within an hour of bookingthat flight, I'm actually like, I
think I'm gonna retire. I don'tknow for sure, but I think I'm
gonna retire and I get a callwith an hour of book in that flight.
(36:29):
It's like, hey, Ti,John Elway, you want to play
for the Bronchos. Like, well, I got a house there, I
already booked a flight. Say anyway, right, might as well, Like
you don't even to buy my flight, I'm already coming right. Well,
that's twenty fifteen and I was abackup at this point, year eight in
the NFL. It's been an incrediblecareer. I got to be at the
(36:50):
right place at the right time,got to come home for my second stint
with the Broncos, and we wenta Super Bow, win a super Bowl.
Yeah that next February, it's SuperBowl fifty. How about that?
That is I go from thinking I'mgoing to retire to winning a Super Bowl.
That's insane, Tyler, I know, And what a great way to
finish it. I mean it wasgreat because although I was not a starter
in twenty fifteen, I played alot. We had a weird it was
(37:12):
a weird year. Yeah. Youknow. Offensive line is one of the
spots where you got five guys andthey play those are just your guys.
They play every single snap of theseason and blessseff that goes wrong. Well,
that year, we had question marksat guard, we had question marks
at tackle. We were rotating guysall over the place. We were rotating
Max Garcia and Evan Mathis on theinside, We're rotating me with Michael Schofield
(37:34):
and Ryan Harris. Ryan and Iare like doppelgangers everywhere we went. We
were competing for the same jobs.He always won, but we're always competing
for the same jobs. I'm nowteammates with Ryan again. We're both on
our second stint with the Broncos.Yeah, I end up getting to play
a lot that year, and wewon a super Bowl. That's pretty amazing.
Well, and that's where I gotto know you. It was at
(37:55):
the Super Bowl party. I knewof you before, but then that night
really met you and that was,oh my gosh, what a great memory.
Yeah, that party was so funand just that whole experience was unbelievable.
Holy cow, I mean you kiddingme. I've got my kids on
the field. My daughter's doing snowangels in the confettie. She's running around.
(38:15):
She's collected the confetti and she's putit in my helmet. And I'm
just kind of laughing at it.I didn't even think anything of it at
the time, but so glad shedid it. To this day, I've
got that confetti you do. It'sactually framed with the photo of my family
down on the field, my kid'splaying and everything. Oh that's cool.
I've got that confetti frame to myoffice to this day. So you do
retire. Then after the Super Bowl? You were done then, right?
(38:37):
Or did you have anything? Didyou have an inkling to I mentally was
done, And I always wonder like, if Atlanta hadn't cut me that year,
if I was playing somewhere else,what i've kept going? And I
think I probably would have. ButI came home interesting, I was in
my hometown. I was living inmy own house. I didn't want to
move anymore. And you won theSuper Bowl and we won the Super Bowl.
(38:59):
Go out on top? Right?Yeah? So so I retired and
I immediately I actually regret it now. I regret retiring because I look back
on it now and I'm like,first off, there's so much money.
Oh yeah, I had job offers. Most guys end without a job offer.
I had two offers that I couldhave kept going. But I walked
away Hindsight twenty twenty. Number onethe money, but number two, I
(39:22):
didn't realize how much I was goingto miss it, Like I was mentally
tired, but I didn't know howmuch I loved it, right and tell
it, tell it's gone. Didyou love the game or did you love
the locker room and the teammates.It's a good question, I would say
at that point, I missed thecommunity the most. I missed the guys.
I missed the locker room, thecards, the fun, the plane
(39:42):
rides, just all of it.You'll never be able to replicate a locker
room environment. I got into radio, which is which is what you do
as well, and it's probably asclose as you can get to not have
an HR around. I would agree, right right. They still come around
sometimes, but you can get awaywith a lot. Yeah, yeah,
And so radio kind of scratches thatitch a little bit, but there's nothing
(40:02):
like it. And I lost likefifty pounds right away, and I got
a call probably even though I hada couple job offers on the table,
I immediately lost that weight. Andnow we're in the like week three four
of the season, and I'm lookingat these chumps, and I'm like,
I'm better than you. What amI doing? Like, like, I'm
sitting at home, I'm watching youplay. I know I could still be
doing this. And I get acall from a guy named Champ Kelly.
(40:25):
So he was a scout with theBroncos. He goes to the Bears.
Well, we were good buddies,and it wasn't unusual for him to call
me and just shoot the you know, hangs out. So he calls me
about week four, week five,and I'm actually really missing the game at
this point, but I've already lostfifty pounds, so it's like too little,
too late, but he calls me. The last thing that enters my
mind is that he's calling to seeif I want to play football. He's
(40:46):
like, Hey, what are youdoing. I'm like, I'm sitting on
my patio drinking a beer. He'slike, well, what you been doing.
I'm like, honestly, nothing,I haven't been doing anything. So
like, you've been working out?No, not at all? How much?
Way do you lost fifty pounds?He's like really, because I'm calling
to see if you want a job. Wow, hold on, are you
being serious? You're really offering mea job right now. Had I not
(41:07):
lost fifty pounds already, I wouldhave taken it. But the ship had
sailed. Once you lose that weight, you can't get it back. Was
it hard for you to keep iton? Oh? Yeah, big time?
I mean I played. I wouldstart the season about three oh eight.
By the time the season was done, i'd be two ninety two ninety
five somewhere in that, which istiny for an offensive linement. I know
that's an enormous human being, butfor offensive line, I mean most guys
(41:30):
are three fifteen plus. They areright. What are you at now?
I mean you are like spelt,I am crets. I'll do a CrossFit,
which I always hated. I've beena CrossFit hat my entire life.
My sister's like a die hard CrossFitor I needed some way to work out
again, so I got into it. I'm actually enjoying it, but I'm
actually down to two thirty eight whoa, which which is small. But when
jam called, he even left mehanging. He's like, look, I
(41:52):
know you're not ready, but Iknow you. I trust you, and
if you want to play called mein a week. The first thing I
did inside and I was like,we gotta go get McDonald's. I need
you McDonald's like twelve meals a dayradio. Yeah, so you entertained it
for a little bit, oh ofcourse. But the ship at Seal,
it took me about five years togo from two hund forty pounds to three
(42:12):
hundred pounds. To put fifty poundsback on in a couple of weeks,
that'd be impossible. Impossible, Yeah, the right kind of fifty pounds that
you need, right, all right, So then when you do retire,
you get into, as you mentioned, radio, Yeah, and then the
journeyman career starts again. I knowa little, do I know? Radio
is like the exact same thing asbeing a professional athlete. You're gonna get
cut, you're gonna get traded,You're you're gonna work for every every station
(42:36):
in town which you have. You'veheard I literally have worked for every single
one of them. Yeah, youbrought up d mac earlier. When I
was playing. I went on dmcand al's show a couple of times.
D mac had always said to me, Hey, you're fantastic, get this.
If you'd never like to get intoit, let me know. I
hated the media absolutely. They weremy own are you all the offensive lineman
doing? Yeah, I mean they'rethe ones writing these terrible articles about me.
(42:58):
Oh yeah, especially with the experience. Yeah yeah, yeah, I
could see that I hated the media. Last thing I ever thought i'd be
doing is jumping back into the media. Well, I've only been retired for
a couple of months, and firstoff, I didn't make the type money
I could set on my butt therest of my life. I needed a
career. Mentally, I don't dowell with free time. I need a
routine. I need somewhere to be. So sitting on the porch one night
(43:19):
at like eleven o'clock at night andlike, well, I don't have any
real skill sets. I've never hada job. I've never written a resume.
What do I do? You know? I know football, so I
could coach, or I could gotalk about it and coaching the one missing
piece of my life. I dowish I could coach. Well, I
get you, you should, you'dbe an amazing coach. Well, I
(43:40):
actually dan Quinn offered me a job. I had a couple, like peon
entry level jobs in the NFL thatI could have grinded my way out and
worked through it. But The reasonI retired is because I wanted my kids
to live in their own house.You go into coaching, it's almost worse
than players. I mean you're movingevery A long stint for a coach is
three years in one city, right. Pull up any coach you want look
(44:01):
at their Wikipedia. You're gonna seeit different cities they lived in. I'm
not afraid of the hours. Thehours didn't bother me because I love football.
But the hours are insane. You'regoing to work at four thirty five
o'clock in the morning and you're notleaving until sometimes one o'clock in the morning.
Yeah, if you leave, ifyou sometimes they don't. A lot
(44:22):
of times they don't. And especiallyas the entry level guy, I mean,
you're the dude that doesn't ever sleep. Yeah, and you better be
there before the head coach comes in. You better be there when he leaves,
right. He wants to see youthere at all times. I do
wish I could coach. What abouthigh school? I did do high school?
I did that one year I coachedat Valor. I actually coached against
Dave Logan and my alumni Chero CreekHigh School at McCaffrey was the head coach.
(44:44):
Oh that's right, run instead,and we actually played Creek in the
state championship. We won. Itwas a weird feeling looking across the field,
seeing Dave over there, seeing allthe red and blue, and I'm
coaching for Valor High School and Iloved it at the time of my life.
Absolutely, the time my life.You know what. I want to
coach my own kids, and Iwant to be a part of their story.
Absolutely. I don't want to missmy own kids story to coach somebody
(45:07):
else maybe later. Yeah, allright, So the radio thing, what's
interesting. We have another tie inthere because you did Broncos sidelines. I
did, yeah for a little bit, So you and I have shared the
same job there. Yeah. ActuallyI got sidetracked there on the d Max
story. But oh yeah, Soit's like eleven o'clock at night. D
Mac had said, if you're everinterested, let me know. I didn't
have his phone number, I barelyknew him. It wasn't even I wasn't
(45:30):
even following him on Twitter. Soin order to send a DM, you
got to follow each other, right, So I followed him on Twitter,
I sent him at DM and Iwas like, hey, I don't know
if you meant it, but I'dlike to experiment with radio. He called
me at eleven thirty at night andhe's like, Hey, are you serious.
I think he'd be great at this. He set up a meeting for
me and Armand Williams, who wasthe program director at the Fan at the
(45:51):
time. The next morning, Ihad breakfast with Arman at six am.
At eight am, I was onair. Oh my gosh, that's the
way it worked. Doubt. Ididn't have a job, but I was
like a fill in gay right right. So I spent the first year in
radio kind of filling in for randomdifferent shows, which is a great way
to get in and kind of feelhow it is and especially if you're talking,
(46:13):
got to get used to doing thatmuch talking. Yeah, absolutely,
yeah, you know. It becamea valuable member of the fan at the
time, and I got an opportunityto go across the street to Kawa and
the news station Orange Blue. Atthe time. The one thing that was
missing is I thought I wanted toget into broadcasting. I wanted to call
games and I loved it. Iat the time of my life with that
also. But so I made thedecision to leave the Fan to go to
(46:36):
Orange Blue and Kaway to be onthe broadcast and call games with Dave and
Rick Lewis. And you've now gotthe job that I was doing. Did
you take that right after me?Was there something in between? I think
I trigger right after you? Youstole my job? I did still your
job? Thanks? Yeah, becauseI think that was my question I said.
I was like, where's Tyler?How come you're calling me with this?
(46:57):
And what happened to Tyler? Sothat was five years ago. I
got that. Yeah. In twentynineteen, I left the Fan. I
go over to KOA. I hada great I'm so nervous to tell Bob
call On armand Williams that I wasgoing to leave because they've been great to
me. They'd given me an opportunity. And Bob call was he was awesome.
He's like, hey, if youwant to get in broadcasting, go
go do it, Go try it. That's cool. And then he told
me, he said, just knowthat you've got a job for life over
(47:19):
here if you want it. SoI went across the street, did the
broadcasting. It was great. Timedidn't work out for various different reasons.
Went back to the Fan. Iended up doing a show with d MAC
for a few years doing the Drive, which is amazing. Now I'm over
at Altitude on my third radio stationin town, Dude Show with Scott Hayston's
joshed over and couldn't be happier.That's awesome. And you bring such a
great perspective, Tyler to your careereverything that you've done, and people love
(47:45):
you. Oh, thank you.You know they do. You know,
nobody has turned a board mediocre careerinto something bigger than me. There is
nobody that has had his average ofa career as I've had that has turned
into a relatively big babe. Thatis not Oh my gosh, it is.
But it's all because I'm local.It doesn't help. It helps a
lot. It helps a lot.You brought up your mom earlier and I
(48:07):
know you did charity events for yourmom. Are you still doing that?
I put together pedal with plum wasTopido varying Cancer much money. Yeah,
she got stayed four varying cancer andI was playing in Washington at the time,
and when we found out it waslike two days before training camp.
They told her at the time likeit might be months. This isn't looking
(48:28):
good. So I went to trainingcamp a couple of days after finding out,
and I'd never missed the practice ofmy life. And I told Mike
Shanahan. I was like, look, I gotta go home. I gotta
go see mom. And he wasawesome, bought me a first class ticket
to go home, said take asmuch time as you need. Well,
I went home thinking I was sayinggoodbye to my mom because I was going
to go to work and probably wasn'tgoing to get to see her again.
She went from being told it wasgoing to be months too she made it
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six years, got to see everysingle snap I ever played in my career,
was at the birth of all ofher grandchildren except for one. She
was at the Super Bowl, apart of everything that's really absolutely kicked ovarian
cancers, but for a long time. Unfortunately it did get her when it's
all said and done. It's themost lethal disease for women because unfortunately most
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women don't find out until stage threeor four. Right, we have no
idea, well, the signs andsymptoms are like I'm bloated, I'm cramped,
I can't poop, and so womenjust don't think anything of it,
and then when they find out onstage three and four. Most of the
times it's too late. So Istarted this Pedals Plums to Beat Ovarian Cancer
event. I took this year offbecause there's a lot of life change.
I changed stations. But in thethree years that we put it together and
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I'm bringing it back backs, weraised over a million dollars for a varying
cancer just community. Community showed up, they showed out. They supported me
like crazy, the way I'm lovedand supported in this town versus DC's insane
absolute pol or opposite. Yeah,nobody's hashtaging bad things for you here over
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a mill million dollars. I'm gladyou're gonna bring it back because I hadn't
heard anything about it this year,and I remember you usually do it when
there's a Bronchoes away game, becauseI want to. I want to go
bike with you. Yeah, becauseyou're biking like crazy and I'm like,
I want to bike with you.But it's so I started it right at
the peak of COVID. Yes,and I had this great idea, let's
start at bike race in the middleof COVID, Right, this is gonna
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go great. Well, my bosseswouldn't let me have anybody out there I
get it, I understand, butI was still holding out hope, like
maybe I can get people to comeout here. We'll do it right away,
we'll wear masks, we'll do everythingright. Well, the company wouldn't
let me do it, so thefirst year I couldn't raise money through other
writers. So I decided I hadto do something crazy by myself. So
I did. I did. Iwas going to write a one hundred miles
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in a circle around mile high,just the outer tarmac. I'm going to
go in a circle around there forabout eight hours. It was nuts.
It was the hardest thing I've everdone, way harder. I've done multiple
century rides. Now, that wasthe hardest one I've ever done because it's
like you're doing a power hour classthe whole time. Because it's uphill downhill.
Yes, and that hill doesn't lookthat bad until you're hitting it every
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twenty seconds yeah, And then allsaid it's kicking your butt, right.
So that year I did it bymyself. I think we raised like twenty
or thirty thousand dollars that year justfrom listeners that were supporting me. And
then the next year we opened itup to other people. So did three
years of it. I realized,normally human beings don't want to write it
one hundred miles, So we tookthat down from one hundred miles. We
did like seventy the next year,and then it was like sixty. That
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was kind of the sweet spot.Fifty sixty miles. Yeah, both people
are capable and willing to do that. Yeah, we'll bring it back next
year. Good. Well, Iwant to be a part of it.
Yeah, yeah, I would loveto be a part of it. Okay,
this has been amazing. Last questionfor you as you look back on
your career and ups and downs,when you talk to people, when as
your kids are getting older and theygo through those tough times, what's your
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advice to people and what are youtell them because you definitely had some moments
where self doubt was Failure is inevitablefor absolutely everybody. I I don't care
who you are. I mean,every now and then a Peyton Manning comes
through, But even Peyton Manning doesn'tend the way that he wants to in
It is inevitable. The best thingyou can do is find a mentor that
believes in you, and not everybody'sfortunate enough to find that. But if
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you do latch on and do notcross him. That's the best thing I
ever did. I never crossed MikeShanahan, So that's who you would consider
yours. Absolutely. Yeah. Igot in with Mike Shanahan. He believed
in me, and you got tobe able to ride the highs and the
lows. If you're going to becomea professional a well, shoot it.
If you're gonna be a high schoolathlete, you got to ride the highs
and the lows. So I don'teven think my son's ever gonna play football.
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A matter of fact, he cameto me a couple of weeks ago
and he almost had tears in hiseyes. And he loves golf, die
hard golfer. And golf and footballare the same season in high school.
And he came to me and he'slike, Dad, I think he was
nervous. Who's gonna let you down? Right? He's like, I don't
think I'm ever gonna play football becauseit's the same season as golf. I'm
like, buddy, great, goplay golf. First off, golf,
you get good at a young age, you get to play the rest of
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your life. I never get toplay football again. I don't get to
do that again. Golf's amazing forso many different reasons. I hope my
kids don't ever feel the pressure ofhaving to do anything like I did.
But I worry about that, sure, because it's now I wanted to be
like my dad. Yeah, Ithink it's natural. Tyler. Thank you
for the time better, thank youfor the inspiration. Oh my gosh,
I'm so happy you've invited me on. I'm sorry I took over your entire
(53:20):
No, it's okay, this isfun, and this is what people love
to hear. They love to hearthese stories. Just to remind everybody,
You're on the altitude from twelve tothree Monday on Friday Friday. I'm Scott
Ason's Josh Dover. We're having thetime of our lives, all right.
Thanks Tyler, Thank you, TylerPalumbus. That was fun. And thank
you again Tyler and d Mac forgiving me the idea for this very rewarding
project. New episodes of Cut,Traded, Fired, Retired come out every
(53:44):
Tuesday on nearly every podcast platform.Please follow, download, and review this
podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.You can also get social and find out
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website ctfr podcast dot com. Tofind out more about me, visit susiewartin
dot com. Thanks again for listening, and until next time, please be
(54:06):
careful, be safe, and bekind. Take care,