March 2025: Matt Spaeth Joins!

Chip Scoggins, Ryan Burns and Justin Gaard are joined by one of the all-time great Gophers Matt Spaeth! Matt talks to the guys about some of his favorite memories as a Gopher and in the pros, stories from his recrutiment  and a lot more! 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Glenn Mason said a long time ago at the University
of Minnesota, you need.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
A Pair and a Spare.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Thank you, PJ. It is time for another edition of
the Pair and a Spare podcast. I'm justin Guard from
the fan. We've got Chipskoggins from the Star Tribune, Ryan
Burns from Gopher Illustrated dot com. We're presented as always
by our great partners at Jack's Cafe Jaxcafe dot com.
As we go through the show today, guys will outline
details on a big Dinky toon Athletes event we're going
to be doing Saturday, April twelfth at Jack's Cafe. We'll

(00:25):
give you infos. The show goes on as well as
on our social media channels. But because it is the
off season, and every time we want to do a
show or I want to do a show, I ask
you guys if we're available, should we do something? Should
we do an episode? Chip, You're always locked in, you
write it in your planner.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Burns.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
He's always like, Eh, what we talk about? What are
we going to talk about? What are we gonna do?

Speaker 4 (00:46):
The of the trio.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
I know that I'm very busy.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
You know, I've got one job living in his wife's
house and multiple cats like you, of all people like
you'd think you'd want to talk to somebody other than
your cats. But so we're mixing it up. We're mixing
it up. We're not gonna make Burnsy create his own
weather and talk about all the spring practice previews that
are at Gopher Illustrated dot com right now. But we're
gonna this was the Chipschogins creation. It's a Chipskogins production.

(01:15):
So what are we going to do today? Chipschoggin's on
the Parent podcast.

Speaker 5 (01:19):
Yeah, we're gonna welcome in our first the very first
inaugural guest of parents far we've been doing this.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
W Is this our fourth.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Season, we're like in the middle of three, three and four.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, so first guest that we've had.

Speaker 5 (01:30):
And we want to do this kind of regularly throughout
the offseason here to bring on some former players, maybe
a coach or too, to uh talk go for football
and this guy.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
So I was thinking about it.

Speaker 5 (01:40):
I've had a chance to cover Gopher football almost a
quarter century now and I and I've said this publicly
and I'll see.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
And tell Yeah, that's right. You can see the gray hair.

Speaker 5 (01:51):
Yeah, This guy is a top ten player easily in
my twenty five years of covering Go for Football, probably
the toughest player I've uh ever seen play and is
a major award winner, All American, two time All Big
Ten tight end, and one of the great ambassadors and

(02:13):
great people Go for Football.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Matt's faith, well.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
Look at that, and there he is. He just appears
Matt's faith.

Speaker 6 (02:21):
Very good, very good. So you got my email with
the intro.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
I wrote books.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
What did he miss? Because I've got, you know, freshman,
you know All Big.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
Ten, something about a Macward. I don't know what that is.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
You've got All American first Team, two time All Big Ten,
Super Bowl champ. You guys are gonna talk Gophers. I
just want like fifty Mike Tomlin stories. So we're gonna
get to those.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
Sleep on Heath Miller stories, haven't we gotta? We gotta
get to some of those.

Speaker 6 (02:49):
I can tell you about Heath, but Heath is a
This comes from straight love of Heath Miller because it
sounds bad, but it's a compliment that Heath is the
most annoyingly perfect and beings walked the face of the earth.
And so that's what I had to live up to
my whole professional career.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Yeah, there's a lot of guys like that.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
There's a lot of guys like Eric, one of those
guys Like when Eric Decker's around, it's like, how come
more people don't go shirtless with their overalls, you know,
their bib overalls because they don't look like Eric Decker.
Like It's it's just how it's going to go. Well, Chipper,
you lead the way on this. You can as well.
I've got a bunch of questions I want to ask,
But you guys go and we'll we'll just take it

(03:30):
wherever we go. And you've got like four hours, right, Matt,
that's what.

Speaker 6 (03:34):
Four hours are at school.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
So yeah, mine too. We'll open the year book and
just see what comes out. But Chipper, where do you
want to start it off?

Speaker 5 (03:41):
Yeah? So I had a good fortune of covering Matt's
entire career from freshman the senior and two And I
would say, Matt, two things.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
I don't know if there are moments, but two.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
Things about your career stand out to me as kind
of the the face of them. And really the first
one is your senior year two thousand and six. I
don't know if people know this that we wrote it
at the time, but you had a significant shoulder injury.
I think it was a Grade five shoulder separation. I

(04:16):
remember Tony Brinkhouse telling me that when you took your
shirt off in the training room, your entire shirt was
shoulder was black and purple. And doctor everybody told them
Matt to shut it down or three and six, the
things going nowhere, and Matt said, no, I'm going to
finish out the season. They had to win the last
three games. You no, Iowa was in there, I think
Michigan State, but.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
He played the last three games. I don't know how.
And it wasn't like they were going to the Rose
Bowl or even the out Back Bowl. It was just
to get bowl eligible. And I don't know how you
did it, but you finished the season.

Speaker 5 (04:47):
They won three straight games, and you know, Matt was
a NFL prospect that had the combine all those things
to look forward to his NFL future, but he put
those things on hold and said I'm want to finish
it out and then had.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Surgery after season.

Speaker 5 (04:58):
So, man, what was that experience like and and how
did you kind of gut through that?

Speaker 2 (05:03):
You know, those final months.

Speaker 6 (05:08):
You know, Glenn Mason always talks to me, talks about me,
I should say, is like the toughest guy I've ever coached.
And he did that while I was playing, and I
look back on it sometimes and I think it was
this such a good thing. You know, it was great
at the time, but it kind of kind of set
the stage for me to, uh to, you know, for
something I always live up to. So I always felt

(05:28):
like I always had to play through injuries, but that
I think that was just who I was. You know,
I am a I am a team guy first. I
always always was, I always will be. It wasn't about me.
I could care less, you know. I I never judged
my performance by numbers or stats. You know, after a game,
if I played well, I played well, and I could

(05:48):
have had zero catches and I was happy, but we won,
or I played well or I did my part. Going
back to that injury, I initially had actually injured my
shoulder in training camp and it was a grade three separation,
and to be honest, the grade three hurt way worse
than the grade five. That was. That was painful. That
took me out of camp for a little while, and

(06:09):
then it was we played in DSU and that's when
I reinjured my shoulder. And I remember it happening, and
I remember the hit, but it didn't feel like a
whole lot, to be honest with you, And I went,
you know, went home after the game and you can
kind of go out with your buddies and and I
just remember, it's funny that you say Tony Brenkhaus told

(06:30):
you this, because I remember his younger brother was on
the team and at the end of the night he
came up and like gave me like this big bear
hug squeeze. That's when I realized. I was like, what
is that? Like, something ain't right? And so I went home,
woke up the next morning. First thing, I went into
the training room and I'm like, something ain't right here,

(06:53):
you know what I mean. They're like, all right, take
your shirt off. So I just remember taking my shirt
off and there's like three or four trainers standing there
and they were all just like, oh, because because when
my when my shoulder went from you know, like a
third degree is just like a separation. It's at the
tendon or ligament whatever is stretched. Mine completely let go

(07:16):
and actually my collarbone it is what it's a ligament
that holds your collarbone down and in place. When that
let go, the collarbone actually shot up and punctured my
trap muscle. So I was like swollen in black and
blue from like the bottom of my ear down to
like below my shoulder. And I don't know, I don't

(07:36):
know what, you know, looking back, like, I don't know
what made me want to, you know, continue to play
or whatever. But it's just who I was, you know,
It's just it was team first. It wasn't about me,
you know, I wanted to be out there. I I
do think I have a high tolerance for pain unfortunately sometimes,
but it was there was no question to me I

(07:57):
was going to do it.

Speaker 2 (07:58):
Yeah, I mean it was. It was amazing. And then
the other thing.

Speaker 5 (08:04):
Senior year, Big House, third and ten Kopodo's on the sideline,
he's out. I think Tony Mortenson's in.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Yeah, you call a run and play to the right.

Speaker 5 (08:14):
I don't know what the thought process there. You're probably
not thinking we're gonna get sixty one yards from Gary Russell.
But the blocking on that I think I think Tony
Brinkhaus had the first one and the guy was stretching
to try to get him, and then you and Jared
Elson on the outside. I don't know who you had
your arms off, but you're driving that guy back and
just the lane that you created for Gary Russell to

(08:35):
go sixty one yards and set up the winning field
goal there and first time you beat Michigan in forever.

Speaker 6 (08:42):
Years, I think, yeah, So that.

Speaker 5 (08:44):
That that block kind of I think symbolizes your career
in that best blocking tight end in college football.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
And I mean, what a moment is that the.

Speaker 5 (08:55):
Best block of your career? Is that highlight that that
play right there?

Speaker 6 (08:59):
I mean, that play really stands out because honestly, going back,
like we owed Michigan right we had my freshman year,
I believe we were up twenty one or something something
a lot in the fourth quarter we lost. We you know,
we had rushed for more yard here Michigan had given
up in school history and lost the game. And then

(09:19):
the next year, my sophomore year, we were in the
Big House again and it wasn't as but we were
up in the fourth quarter I believe like by seven,
ended up losing, And to be honest, going back to
that play, I don't I think we were just trying
to run out the clock because it was it was tied,
if I believe, Yeah, twenty four. It was late in
the game and we just happened to spring a big run.

(09:41):
So would I say that's my best block now, But
it's maybe one of the more memorable ones, just because
it was it was historic for us at the time.
You know, we hadn't beat them, and like I said,
twenty one or twenty two years and we did it.
And who I was blocking, I don't know, but I'm
going to say it was Lamar Woodley, even though I
don't know that because I end up being a teammate
of Lamars and we were in the same draft class,

(10:03):
and I love Lamar and and he always so the
story goes, Mike Toumman always says that he drafted me
because he was scouting Woodley and he said I was
the only guy that could handle him. Now Woodley says
it's the opposite. But I confronted within the last year
and it was it was. It was the other way around.

(10:25):
So I'll say it's Woodley even though I don't well.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
And Woodley is the one that gave Cooper concussion in
that game.

Speaker 6 (10:31):
I think, Yeah, Woodley was a tremendous player and Uh,
you know, he was a teammate of mine for a
long time in in the pros. And it's funny. I
actually went up last year to ann Arbor to the
Michigan game with a buddy here in Pittsburgh. We drove
up and we went to Woodley's tailgates and it was great.
So that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
So I want to keep it in that two thousand
and six season because you end up winning the Mackie
Award best tightle in college football. Yet I look at
the stats from that season, Matt and Ernie Wheelwrights on
that team, go for legend a young Eric Decker. But
do you know who led the team and receiving touchdowns
by a long margin?

Speaker 6 (11:10):
I have no idea, to be honest, it was Logan.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
Pain with nine. So what animosity was there between you
and Koupada and his best buddy Logan Pain here that
we couldn't get the Mackie Award winner to have more
receiving touchdowns than four at the end of the season.

Speaker 6 (11:25):
So all I had, well, I missed a couple of games. Now,
I mean, Logan was a great player, Logan was Logan's
a good buddy of mine. I was down at the
ball game with Logan and Tony and Steve Schadell, and
Logan was a great player, and I actually think Logan
would have had a little more of an NFL career

(11:45):
if he didn't get hurt. But Logan was a hell
of a player. We had, you know, we had weapons,
and so a lot of our past game was obviously
predicated on the run because we were handing the ball
so much. So we were we were run the ball,
run the ball, run the ball, and play action. So
those receivers had a lot of a lot of opportunities,
even though they they would tell you that they probably
hated the system because they only ran a few different

(12:07):
routes and we didn't throw the ball very much. But
when we threw the ball, those guys were wide open.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
So yeah, that's where I wanted to go. Like a
tight end. Now you see what it's become in the NFL.
Like they're not always expected to block right a whole lot.
And I'm guessing that was the opposite in a Glen
Mason offense. When you pull up and here a tight end.
No wonder your shoulder got mangled. If you're you know,
having to block fifty times a game. So what was

(12:31):
that like just maybe throughout your entire career coming in
from high school. I'm sure you blocked a lot in
high school. I'm sure you were physical in high school.
But we're going to run the ball here. These guys
behind us, whether it's Barbara Maroney, Russell, whoever it is,
they're going to get the ball and we need you
to spring holes for them.

Speaker 6 (12:44):
Well, GUARDI I don't know if you know this, but
I played linebacker in high school.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
I just saw you played basketball and I wanted to
talk about that. Yeah, I want to know what kind
of hooper you were.

Speaker 6 (12:53):
I was a six seven, two hundred and ten to
fifteen pound middle linebacker in high school.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
So you were good with blocking, you were okay?

Speaker 6 (13:00):
I had two I had one job in high school,
and that was seaball get ball. I stood in the
middle of the field. I read run, I read pass,
and I read trap and those were my only three things.
So when I got to Minnesota, they recruited me. I
was getting recruited for different positions by different schools, some
tight ends, mostly defensive end. They they, I think just

(13:21):
did me the favor of starting me at linebacker in
training camp. My freshman year and there was I mean,
like I said, I read three things in college, so
when they started talking about curl, the flat, the hook
and this guy out and these coverages and different things,
it was so beyond me. I think I lasted two
days at linebacker in college, which is fine, but then

(13:42):
they moved me to defensive end, which was a position
I never played. I red shirted, and to be honest
with you, my freshman year was not fun or easy
because I played defensive end and I was just a
guy and you start to have like that moment of
realization that like, okay, and maybe maybe football, maybe I'm
not as good at football as I thought that was right,

(14:04):
and I'm just another guy. It's you know, I just
didn't have great feelings about it. And thankfully, I talk
about this all the time. I'm so lucky and fortunate
that they switched me to tight end going into my
second year, because I can remember, like the very first
day of practice. I have a vivid memory of this
of practice ending and just being like, oh my gosh,

(14:27):
like that was so much better. And I remember guys,
you know, other tight ends or other teammates just coming
up to me and they're like, hey, like, you did
pretty good. I get pretty good and I was like yeah,
I was like I felt nice. You know, But I
just talked to coach Mason about this a couple of
weeks ago, and like, how you know, I just think
about what could have been or would have been if

(14:49):
they never switched me, you know, like that probably happened
so much. Guys get played out of position, and they
could have looked at me like, well, maybe Matt's not
that great, but we'll continue to develop them. We don't
have a lot of depth that defensive end or whatever.
Maybe by you know, his senior year, he'll be able
to contribute a little bit. So I'm lucky and fortunate
in so many ways that they did switch me to
tie end man.

Speaker 5 (15:10):
Why did first of all, what what size did you
come in at and as a freshman? And was it
something you approach him or is it just their idea
to switch you?

Speaker 6 (15:18):
No, it was their idea to switch me. And going
back to that, is you spend that whole year kind
of doubting yourself, right, like like oh, like I said,
not real good at this, and then and then you
get the call they're like, hey, we're gonna switch you.
It was a phone call, I remember, and and it
just kind of confirms why you believed it yourself, like yep, yep,

(15:39):
they don't don't get at it either, you know what
I mean?

Speaker 3 (15:42):
I was right, I suck.

Speaker 6 (15:44):
That was That's the truth. That's exactly how I felt.
And so, like I said, it was, you know, it
was a little bittersweet until that first practice and it
was like, oh my gosh, this is where I belong.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
Yeah, what size were you when you came in? Do
you remember?

Speaker 6 (15:57):
I was like to twenty five probably when I first Yeah, well.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Then you get to the tail end of your career
and I think, what were you to sixty to seventy?

Speaker 6 (16:07):
I was, to be honest with you, at one point
in my college career, I was two seventy, which was
too big for me. You know. I played most of
my professional career at around two fifty eight to two
sixty two.

Speaker 4 (16:18):
So how does a guy go from two twenty five
to two sixty two seventy burns?

Speaker 6 (16:23):
I was on the I was on the gain Weight Club,
the Breakfast Club my entire career.

Speaker 4 (16:28):
So what was that like forty five hundred calories a
day or what was it?

Speaker 6 (16:31):
Well, listen. I'm not I'm not knocking anybody, because I
think this has evolved and gotten a lot better over
the years with like nutrition and what to eat and stuff.
But it was like I had to keep a food journal.
I had to write down everything I ate. I had
to turn it into our strength coach. I had to
get up early and eat breakfast in his in his
office every morning. And he didn't care what you ate

(16:52):
as long as it was like high calories, right, Like
I could say, yesterday, I ate two frozen pizzas. I
went to McDonald's for launch, and YadA, YadA, all this stuff,
and he'd be like great, and we had the shakes.
We had these shakes and there was it came in
like a you know, like a milk carton type thing
where you like the old school milk cartons where you
got to open them up and it was like this
thousand some calorie shake and you when you drank that,

(17:15):
you could pretty much set a timer and you'd be
running to the bathroom like shortly after. It was so
so that's how I gained so much weight. It wasn't
always it wasn't always the best way, I don't think,
but uh, you know, I think nowadays that you know,
if I was going through it, it would it would be
done differently and better. But that's how it was.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
I think Tom Brady used a lot of those principles
for the tradout the exact option. Even remember frozen Pizza
was a big part of the TV twelve to allow
him to play the forty five. We're kind of bouncing
all over. But how'd you get to you? You know,
Saint Michael. Obviously now it's like a burgeoninge suburb. Back
in our day for for a first ring suburb, guy Matt,

(17:53):
it felt like Saint Michael Albertville was like, you know,
Fargo to someone like me. Now it's you know, in
the same conference. Is that an attack and all these things.
So take us through just kind of the recruiting process
and how you decided to come to the U of M.

Speaker 6 (18:08):
Yeah, so, you know, you start the recruiting process has
probably changed a lot too, but you start just getting
letters and I remember getting my first letter, and I
want to believe it was like my first moment was
from Ohio State. And then also more and more letters
start coming in, and then you start getting calls and
you get you know, visits to your high school and
recruiting was a whirlwind. I was I was confused. I

(18:30):
didn't know what I wanted to do. My dad played
football in Nebraska. Nebraska was recruiting me. Everybody thought I
was going to go to Nebraska because of that. I
actually have a great story about Nebraska recruiting, if you
guys want to hear it.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 6 (18:46):
Yeah, my dad obviously played football in Nebraska, like I said,
and Nebraska's recruited me, and they do the home visit right,
And in hindsight, I actually understand this and I get
this because this is the way it has to be done.
But they came to my house, the head coach, I
actually don't remember who it was even at the time,
head coach and a position coach. We were sitting at

(19:06):
my uh the island at my parents' house, and they
were basically told me that like, hey, there's there's a
guy like we'd like your son, but there's this other
guy we want more and if we get him, we
probably won't have a spot for your son. And if
we don't get him, then we have a scholarship for
your son. And my dad just sat there and he
looked at him. He said, you guys can leave now,
this is over. And I don't even I don't even

(19:28):
think he said it that nice. But I don't want
to say the words on the podcast, but yeah, he
threw Nebraska out of our house. When they said that,
I was kind of like, you know, maybe playing maybe
we have like I was playing b and he just said,
this is over.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
You guys get out, thanks for coming, Thanks for coming,
because you guys were at the Nebraska game two years ago, right,
I think that's the last time that we talked.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
Yeah, down down on the field. Yeah that's cool, that's funny. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah, those coaches are like, well, I guess we'll head
back to Lincoln. And it didn't work out so well.

Speaker 6 (19:58):
It work out so good. And you know, from my dad,
like you know, obviously he played at Nebraska, but he's
a Minnesota kid, and I mean he was tickled that
I ended up going to Minnesota. But anyways, going back
to recruiting, I'll be honest with you, for a while,
I didn't think I was going to go to Minnesota.
I actually thought I was going to go to Wisconsin.
I hate to say that right now, but I was

(20:20):
close to pulling the trigger, and Minnesota essentially just convinced me.
They're like, just take it to take a visit here,
you know what I mean? And I went and I
loved it, and I think, like everything I thought in
my head that I was not going to like about it,
I was like, I like this, you know what I mean,
So chose Minnesota and don't regret it for a second.

Speaker 5 (20:41):
I mean, you came into when there was no facility
playing at the Metrodome. I mean, it was a totally
different program than what you see.

Speaker 6 (20:48):
Now, way different, way different, you know. But and honestly,
like those things, they don't mean much to me, you
know what I mean, Like it was it was about
other stuff for me. I even not to get off subject,
but I remember like then coming out after college and
you got to choose an agent, and it was similar
where like you get all these agents coming in and
they talk to you about stuff that doesn't matter, you know, like, oh, hey,

(21:11):
we're gonna send you to for two months to train
here and we'll put you in look at the look
the pictures of this apartment, and we'll get you this
car to drive while you're there. And I'm like, this
is two months of my life, like this means nothing
to me, Like I want to talk like big picture stuff,
you know what I mean, Like that's not important to me.
So it was similar in the in the ways and
how I how I chose or went about it that

(21:32):
the I know it's important to kids, and but it
wasn't important to me. That's fascinating.

Speaker 5 (21:39):
M What when you were recruiting, what we're other schools
looking at you for different positions or was there over
there we don't know what you are, but we'll get.

Speaker 6 (21:49):
You on kind of Yeah, it was it was pretty
much always like you know, off tight end or defensive end.
I can't you know, I know everybody kind of had
a different idea. I couldn't go back and remember like
which school was this or that?

Speaker 1 (22:03):
So when you can't, when your shoulders mangled and you
beat Iowa, can you actually lift the Floyd of Rosedale
or do you need help to get the trophy in
two thousand and six?

Speaker 6 (22:13):
No, I mean if you can play, if you can
go out and play a football game, you can you
can lift a trophy, especially with that adrenaline.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
So that's what I was wondering, because that was that
was such a fun game, and obviously you needed it,
and you know, Iowa was, you know, coming off just
a year or two from you know, a couple of
big ten titles. You know, they were obviously rolling. It's
always a big rivalry game. But to beat them in
the metronome to be Bowl eligible, Like, what do you
remember about that game?

Speaker 6 (22:37):
Not much? To be honest with you, I really don't.

Speaker 1 (22:40):
Want me to take you through the whole thing. I remember,
I was there, I was, I was there for a
lot of it.

Speaker 6 (22:44):
You know. I just had this conversation with the guys
down at the bowl game, and like I say, it's like,
not not in an arrogant way, but you know, a
lot of like those guys, College was the last games
they played. Sure, so they remember those things, and they
remember the detail was a lot more than me. I
went on and played you know, one hundred and some
more games that added my memory, you know what I mean,

(23:06):
certain things I remember, but I don't remember a lot
of like the details. And I don't think it's anything
to do with like the head thing or concussions. I
really don't. I just think I, you know, played so
many more games after that that they always remember the details.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
Sorry, sorry, that's right. Yeah, that's you're not gonna get.

Speaker 6 (23:29):
And I'm like, oh yeah, I forgot about that.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
So here's the way.

Speaker 5 (23:34):
If you remember this, who who was the toughest college
player you win against head of block?

Speaker 6 (23:41):
Probably two guys stick out Erasmus James because I played
against him when I was you know, he was a
senior and I was probably you know, I can't remember
freshman or sophomore, but he was a beast. And I
know it never if I can drafted him right the
high and I know it never really panned out up
for him, but he.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Aaron Rodgers was available, by the way.

Speaker 6 (24:02):
And don't worry, it's fine.

Speaker 3 (24:05):
Erasmus was the right Williams all worked out.

Speaker 6 (24:11):
But he was tough. I mean, he was incredible in college.
And then the guy that was just tougher and heck
was Matt Roth from Iowa. He was a white defensive
hand and he was like the he was like the
epitome of like a you know, a character on a
football movie where he was just a meathead and big
and strong and mean and angry. And we used to run.

(24:34):
So you guys remember this. Probably we would do like
this thing where I've split out wide and then motion
in and cracked the I would do it, and uh
we did it. We were you know, we did it
sparingly but enough. And I remember going against Iowa and
running that and normally, you know, they're they're tilted in
at the defensive or the offensive tackle, and you kind
of come in and almost like blindside him a little bit,

(24:55):
and he got in his three point stance and he
angled right out right out at me, and he was
just you know, kind of down in his stands, just
like like looking at me like I'm going to kill you, you
know what I mean, Like a me that stands out
for sure.

Speaker 5 (25:09):
I remember I remember thinking like when I see you
go in motion do that, you'd see that defense ends
started to turn his head.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
To look coming he was coming.

Speaker 6 (25:17):
Yeah. I remember a couple of different times in practice
where we would practice that over and over and over
and I was about to like pass out, and I
would just be like like looking at Mitch, like are
you kidding me? Like like like I'm just sprinting. I'm
just splitting out and sprinting in and hitting the guy, sprinting,
you know, running out, sprinting in and cracking a guy, like,

(25:38):
why do we need to practice this so much?

Speaker 4 (25:41):
Well, now you're gonna make me ask about Mike Cheryl's
because you went against him every day in practice leading
tackler from that six team. I just saw him at
the boat Show a couple of weeks ago. You had
to block him every day for years? What was the
Mike Cheryl's experience?

Speaker 6 (25:54):
Like, I love Mike, and uh, I'll be honest with you.
Mike and I got into a lot of corel a practice.
I can imagine like we I mean, if there was
anybody that I butted heads with, but it was all love,
Like That's how I was. I mean I had guys
like that in and even in the NFL that were teammates
that I you know, it was like it would it

(26:14):
would get physical, it'd get chippy, it'd get you know,
not nice out on the practice field. But afterwards I
was fine, And I liked Mike, and so I think
Mike's a great guy. He was a great player. He
was man, talk about a guy that's maximized, you know,
Like I think Mike would be the first to tell
you like his his his abilities were not great. He

(26:37):
wasn't he wasn't like big. I mean, I'm not saying
he was small, but he wasn't fast, like, he didn't
have like the attributes. But he was a hell of
a football player, you know what I mean. And he
just maximized everything you know that he had to his
full it's ability. But we got into it a lot
at practice. That's fun.

Speaker 4 (26:53):
Man.

Speaker 5 (26:53):
Do you ever something to think about like those teams?
Just the talent you guys had, particularly on offense. I
mean you and Esselinger and Cederstrom and Bubba uh obviously
Marony Barber. I mean, there was some high end talent
on that offense, you know your time.

Speaker 6 (27:06):
Yeah, And you know, honestly, that's probably why we were
always so good on offense and and you know our
deepen struggle to night. I'm not knocking those guys, but
I think Mitch had the pick of the litter when
it came to guy. That's probably how I got switched
to tight.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
End, you know, came in as a safety.

Speaker 6 (27:21):
Yeah. You know what's crazy. I was thinking about this too,
with Greg going into the NCAA Hall of Fame. Is
my my freshman year. Me, Greg and Mark Setterstrom were
all roommates wild So there you go. Once again, when
you talk about like my freshman year, you know, you
expect big things of yourself, and here's my two roommates

(27:43):
starting as true freshman you know, all stars and uh,
and then there's me, you know what I mean. So
but I went on to live with Greg for you know,
three three and a half years, and he didn't red shirt,
so I said, another year. But I have I give
a lot of credit to I guess my development too, Greg,
because Greg was like like Heath in the Pros for me,

(28:05):
where like he was the rabbit I chased, and Greg
was a consummate professional. Nobody worked harder, nobody took better
care of himself. Here's another story. You know, Greg was
all world. And I remember after maybe like my sophomore
or junior year where I was playing tight end and
having success and Greg was going to go on to
do great things. And you know, Greg, we'd get up
and do the summer workouts six am summer workouts, which

(28:28):
were hillacious, right, and most guys you'd go back and
you'd sleep for four hours because they were so hard.
Greg would come back, take a little nap, eat or whatever,
and he'd go for a run. And I remember trying
to do that with him a couple of times, and
we would run the bus route from you know, like
from campus to Saint Paul Campus. And I remember running
with him and after like probably not very long, I

(28:50):
was like, go ahead, where's the bus? Get the apartments?
I mean, but he was incredible, man, he was so
he was He was the best athlete probably of our
whole team, you know, and definitely the most well conditioned.

Speaker 5 (29:06):
I remember you talk about a guy came in nobody
wanted right as ndis you were here, and.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
You know it might have been a two star.

Speaker 5 (29:12):
And I remember Maroney telling me one time that you
guys would turn on tape and the running back would
be down the field. Here comes this and you're flying
down the field to get one more block, just crawl
and trying to you know that that guy played hard
every yeah, every play.

Speaker 1 (29:27):
So what were those running backs like? We chip just
mentioned a lot of them. Obviously, you know, Barbara and
Maroney are forever going to go down in history together.
And even having you know, Lawrence here, I think it
was this past season right when he held up the jersey,
or maybe the season before with Mary and who's obviously
no longer with us. I mean, what a what a
wild time those two had, And when you guys got
it rolling, it was just it was over at the Metrodome.

(29:49):
A lot of those games you can tell early like
this team's not they're not here for this, Like they're
not here for this physicality.

Speaker 6 (29:55):
And you know, think about like Thomas to Pay or yeah,
even Gary Russell, Like Gary was one of my favorite
backs to block for because you knew, you knew where
Gary was going and it was downhill and and and
we we had just such a plethora and even like
a mere Pinnix who was just lost in the shadows,
and also he gets his opportunity and you know, so, yeah,

(30:17):
we had We had incredible backs. And the one thing
I'll always remember about Marion is when I first got
to campus and we were doing summer workouts and guys
have their shirt off. Marian had muscles that I didn't
even know existed. Yeah, I mean it, like he had
muscles that snapped on top of his muscles that probably
nobody else has. He was just a freak and such

(30:40):
a good guy. All those guys were such good guys
and you know, fairly humble and down to earth, and yeah,
we had. It was it was fun and we had
a great o' line that made those guys look good.
But those guys made us look good too.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
You know, I probably told you this, guys, but Marian
is one of those guys that you heard about before
you saw him. You know, there's like the Joe Mauer.
You heard about this kid from Saint Paul and then you,
as Chip knows, we were all in the class of
two thousand and one. He highlighted three great athletes from
the class of two thousand and one. Matt, he tells me,
I was the fourth. I didn't make the cut in

(31:13):
two thousand and one. It was Marry, and it was
Fits and it was Joe. Right, Yeah, those were the three.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
But Marian Barber is the kid.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
You're at Conquered Elementary School and your buddies come back,
you know, from fourth grade football, and they go there's
this kid whose dad played for the Jets, like he
must have had like four hundred yards and you're like, oh, okay,
that's cool. Well it's pizza day down here at the Capito.
That's from like why Zeta Dowe Dinah. You just heard
about guys like Mary right, I mean, those are the
legendary stories.

Speaker 6 (31:37):
Yeah, I'm Mary was something else. That's for sure.

Speaker 3 (31:40):
Give us a May story. We need a Mace story.

Speaker 1 (31:42):
We need a series of May stories now to use
it at later dates. Because he's got a different version.
I've learned of every story between former players and him.
His version always makes himself look a lot better. So
we got to find the filter somewhere in the middle
of some Mace stories.

Speaker 6 (31:58):
It's funny you say that because that, you know, leading
up to this, I was trying to think of some
Mas stories and it was like, either that's not that
great or yeah, thatsate. It was hard for me. It
was hard for me. I love coach Mason, you know
he was I don't know. I thought he was a

(32:20):
great coach, great guy, Still talk to him. I could
probably tell you some more Mitch Browning stories than I
could have of Glenn Mason. But Mason was our head coach, right,
so he was. He was around, but you know not
you don't connect with them necessarily on the on quite
the level of like your position coach or your sportinator,
which Mitch was. Mitch was my coordinator and my position coach,

(32:42):
So I could probably tell you a lot more about Mitch.

Speaker 5 (32:47):
Yeah, I mean I always said that the way you guys,
that scheme that Mitch and and May's came up, Mitch,
I mean that zone blocking.

Speaker 2 (32:55):
You guys ran that to perfection. I mean.

Speaker 5 (32:59):
It was MIT's just kind of like a mad scientist
with this or kind of what was he like in
constructing that scheme.

Speaker 6 (33:07):
He was a perfectionist, is what he was. And we
it wasn't like we wasn't like we had some you know,
crazy scheme that nobody else ran. We just ran it
better than everybody else, and we worked it. You know,
Mitch was old school. I was lucky, you know, I
had I had coach Browning in college and then you
know my tight end coach in the NFL. They were

(33:28):
the same guy in a lot of ways. They were
old school, they were hardcore, they were tough, and they
you can never place them, you know what I mean. Yeah,
and they just demanded perfection. And you know, when you're
playing for him at the time, it's not easy right
in some in some instances, but you look back on

(33:49):
it and you're so grateful and thankful to have coaches
like that. And so Mitch, we just we worked, we
worked hard. We worked it all the time. Technique. I mean,
Mitch was such a big technique guy, and you've got
to have your technique down, you know. On you know,
football is such a like the greatest team sport because
there's eleven guys out on the field and everybody has

(34:11):
to do their job to be successful. But you you
don't worry about the guy next to You've got to
trust the guy next to you, and you've got to
take care of your business. And so we were so
honed in on the details and the technique that it
just worked.

Speaker 5 (34:24):
Yeah, I'm always fascinating with guys when football players talk
about technique and like it just seems like such a
chaot of play, just such chaos of bodies and slat
you know, but they're like one for one hand to
hear that if you're you're done.

Speaker 2 (34:38):
Is it? Is it really that?

Speaker 6 (34:39):
Absolutely? Absolutely yeah, Because you know, at certain levels of
football you can get away with just dominance, right, and
some guys can right even throughout because maybe they're just
that physically dominant. But everybody is good, Like I even me,
I think about myself, like every guy I went again store,

(35:00):
you know, was probably lifted more weights, was stronger, ran
a faster forty We could jump higher, everything like that.
But I had great technique and I had heart, and
I honestly think the one thing that set me apart
was like this desire. It was every every single play
of every single practice, it was it's me or this

(35:21):
guy whoever I'm blocking, and it's and it's either either
he's gonna win or I'm gonna win. But it and
it ain't going to be him, you know what I mean.
It doesn't matter how tired you are or how you're
feeling or if you're hurting. It is a war every
time on a single play basis, and it is you
versus him.

Speaker 5 (35:41):
I remember talking to you when Cokeef was coming out,
and do you think that that your mindset, because you know,
the idea of a tight end in football has changed
from you got to be this athletic sleep pass catching.
You know, you're this offensive weapon. I remember calling you
and asking, It's like, is there still a place for
a guy that cooke keefan in?

Speaker 3 (35:59):
If you like?

Speaker 5 (36:00):
Absolutely, because there's a lot of him in you like
just going to figure out a way to get it done.

Speaker 6 (36:06):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (36:06):
I mean you think that's why you survived I mean,
obviously you're talented, but I mean that helped you suvice
so long in the NFL that as as the position changed,
that you still were going to do your job really
at a high.

Speaker 6 (36:17):
Level, no doubt, no doubt. And I'm so thankful to
have even come to Pittsburgh where they valued a guy
like me, because it's it's different, right, Like different schemes,
different teams the way they use their tight end, and
you see a lot of like just like you said,
the more receiving type, a lot of these tight ends
don't block. And if they do, it ain't it ain't
great that there are teams that value it. And that's

(36:40):
and I remember talking to co about that is like
you find you know, you'll you'll have like carve out
a niche, you know what I mean, and and and
embrace your niche and master your craft because certain teams
still have a desire for that and still need that.
And if you're reliable, you know too, and they can
count on you to block defensive ends and outside linebackers.

(37:02):
In the NFL, you have a role and you can
play a long time, and you might not ever have
the huge contract like some of these guys, but who
cares well.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
Many people are saying that Matt Spath walks so that
Darnel Washington could run now for the Pittsburgh Steelers. So
you mentioned coke Keef. I mean, we could talk Max Williams,
we could talk Brevan span Ford. Are there any Gopher
tight ends throughout the years since you've graduated that you've
been like, Yeah, I would have loved to block next
to that guy.

Speaker 6 (37:30):
M It's a good question, great question, Burns.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
He finally got one from you.

Speaker 6 (37:37):
Wow, probably co Man. Could you imagine co and I
lining up next to each other? That would have been fun.
That would have been fun.

Speaker 4 (37:47):
Would you have grown a mullet with him? Walked pre
game with bare feet on, no matter what the surface
is and the temperature, with him.

Speaker 6 (37:54):
I'm a barefoot guy. I could have probably done that,
but I definitely want to throw out a mullet.

Speaker 4 (37:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (38:00):
Some guys can do it. Some guys can't, you know
what I mean. I'm not one of them.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
Yea, co Keith the first guy to say the F
word on the Gopher Sports Network after.

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Really after they beat Wisconsin. Yeah, after they beat Wisconsin,
I think his final home game. So and then Tyler
Nuban did it a couple of years later, so it's
some kind of a trend.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
Everything's getting loose.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
You mentioned Pittsburgh obviously, was there this is we'll start
the NFL discussion Matt with the cliched welcome to the
NFL moment? I mean, did you have one of those?
Was it weird walking into the facility, the first thing
going all right, yeah, I'm here, like this is I'm
in the National Football he gets time to go.

Speaker 6 (38:34):
Yeah, And honestly, I did have that, and I don't
know if it ever stopped. Because you're in the NFL
in college football too, especially now, you're just under such
a microscope, you know what I mean, so like everything
you do is watched and judged and critiqued. So I

(38:54):
never kind of stopped walking on eggshells, if that makes sense. Like, yeah,
I know what you're saying is like to welcome to
the NFL moment. But it was kind of like I
always had like this, like you know, nervousness inside me
or something like that, because it's you're always competing and
you're always you know, every year, they're drafting new guys,
and they're drafting guys to replace you and every year

(39:16):
you're fighting for your job, and every game that you're
out there, you're being watched, judge, critiqued by tons of people,
you know what I mean. So I don't think that
ever really stopped for me.

Speaker 5 (39:27):
You ever heard guys talk about that professional anxiety that
they felt like that that profession, that league. It's like
you're they're just waiting to replace you, right, So you
have to like even on practice day, you can't.

Speaker 6 (39:42):
The level at your competition. And this goes back to
what I said earlier about just like taking it one
play at a time and just wanting to win every play.
You really realize that when you get to the NFL,
because if you don't give it your le even on
like a non padded day, or you're going against the
practice squad guy, guess what, those practice squad guys are

(40:03):
good and anybody you're going against, if you don't give
it your all in every single play, they will make
you look stupid.

Speaker 5 (40:10):
Yeah, hey man, we watch Hard Knocks and I'm always
fascinated behind the scenes, you know, like in the film
room when they're watching these coaches are just like ripping
them to shreds. What is that like to be in
that film room after a game where you're just getting
annihilated by your coach or I mean, I'm sure there's
stress of the positives, but the stuff you did wrong,
what's that like?

Speaker 6 (40:28):
Oh, it's tough. It is tough, and you know, like
right like you know, after a game and you're going
into film the next day, whether it was going to
be you know, good or bad, yeah, and you have
a good feeling, but they're still like in any game,
whether you even if you played good, there's still going
to be a play. And I know coach Tomlin would
kind of like go through kind of like the sequence

(40:50):
of the game and we won't see all the plays,
but it'd be kind of like bigger plays or you know,
moments throughout the game that he thought, you know, tilted
it one way or another. And I just remember you
sitting that room and you just be like, you know,
like your bad play and like where it was in
the game. Please don't show that, you know, like in
your in your Then you break up and you watch
it like individually with like your position coach at least

(41:13):
we did, but man, you're just you're just dreading and
then all of a sudden, like maybe you get to
a point of the game where you know that that
play has been like already ran and uh and he's
not shown it and you're just like.

Speaker 3 (41:27):
Relief.

Speaker 6 (41:29):
So you you it's not good because when you do that,
and I liked us doing that because we did it
as a team and and you know, we held everybody
accountable and everybody held you accountable. But that's why those
you know, those good moments were great to be to
be recognized, but the bad moments, when you're called out
aren't the aren't the easiest. I remember in college when

(41:50):
I was like, I don't remember what game, but it
was very early, you know, my freshman year that I
actually played, and it was the same thing. You know,
you're walking up to like the meetings, and I probably
played good and I was feeling pretty good about myself
and so you're you're feeling good going into the meeting
because you know whether you did good or bad. And uh,
I just remember Coach Browning, I'm walking and he's like

(42:12):
I didn't see him, and also here eighty nine and
I stopped. I just like froze and I just like
turned around and he's like, you know, like chewed me
out for like a certain play, like what the hell
are you doing on this? And I was just like, oh,
like I you know what, feeling great about my performance?
Really bad? And uh and then all of a sudden,

(42:33):
I remember just like like like frozen, and I look
at him and he just kind of cracks a little
smile and that's what That's when I figured Mitch browning
out and like, uh, you know, like I said, he
was tough. He was you know, he was hard to please,
but he demanded perfection and I love him for it.
And I knew right then and there that like, all right,
Mitch and I got a special relationship.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
Yeah, you're a made man.

Speaker 6 (42:53):
But then he kind of like, but you did for good,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (42:58):
So what's the time? What's the Tomlin secret?

Speaker 4 (43:01):
I was about to say, you came into the NFL
with Tomlin and then you obviously played for him for
a long time. What like, what's Mike Tomlin about?

Speaker 6 (43:10):
He is just like as real and forthright as you
can get. And that is such an unbelievable thing. You
always know where you stand good, bad, are indifferent, And
it sounds crazy like maybe you wouldn't want to know good,
you know, if it's bad, but like you go some
places and I played you know another team and won't
name them, but like you never knew where you stood,

(43:32):
and it was there was always I felt like secrets
or things going behind you know, on you know, going
on behind your back, and you know, in Pittsburgh, everything
was just out there and you always knew where you stood.
And coach Tomlin is just he's he's a leader, you know,
and he when he walks into the room, I'm telling you,
I don't know if you guys have ever sat I
mean obviously you've seen press conferences and different things, but

(43:54):
him as a as a speaker, I mean, you are
glued in the entire time and he is talking. So
he's I love him, you know, I really do.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
Chip were you were?

Speaker 1 (44:06):
You were probably were you on the Gopher beater or
mountains When he was hired as defensive coordinator.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
I was, I was on the Gopher beat.

Speaker 5 (44:12):
My Viking's buddies who are It's said he would have
his you know, you'd talk to him or like, yeah,
this guy's.

Speaker 6 (44:18):
Not gonna be here long.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
He's gonna be a head coach pretty quickly.

Speaker 1 (44:20):
The first press conference, so he got hired in two
thousand and six, I'm twenty four years old. I'm standing
in the old Winter Park meeting room and they introduced
Mike Tomlin. You know, this thirty four year old from
Tampa that worked for Dungeee. And I'm standing there and
I'm twenty four. I don't know anything about anything, and
I'm listening to him. I'm like, huh, this guy's like
ten years older than me, Like he's thirty four, and

(44:43):
like he just had a presence.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
And then the defense got good.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
And I remember saying with Paul Allen during the season,
because I was working with him, are we worried Tomlin's
won and done here? Because in PA is like, no chance,
no chance. I'm like, well, the defense is really good,
and I know if he gets an interview, he's winning
the interview.

Speaker 3 (44:59):
Oh yeah, Oh it's a wrap.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
And so next thing you know, he's thehead of the
Pittsburgh Steelers and he's still there. But presence was the
word even that I could pick up just from being
in that little media room chip where I'm like, this
guy is as impressive a person as I've ever seen.
And I still think about it almost twenty years later.

Speaker 6 (45:17):
Yeah, and he's still the same way. He is still
the same way. Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (45:21):
What was he like before a game the most before
the game to getting you guys ready?

Speaker 2 (45:24):
Was he great? No settings? Or is it more just
the day to day?

Speaker 6 (45:29):
I mean it was it was a you know, meetings
throughout the week, daily basis, and then kind of like
his he didn't do a lot of talking in like
the locker room before a game. It was it was
like our Saturday night meetings at the hotel was when
he kind of came in and gave his thing, which
was which was always the last thing of the night.
So that always made it hard to go go back
and go to sleep, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (45:50):
So you're ready to run through the wall with you.

Speaker 6 (45:52):
He had his big game music, so it's big games.
We would he would give his little talk and then
he would shut off the lights and he would play
Phil Collins in the Air tonight. So oh yeah, yeah,
it was incredible.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
When those drums hit.

Speaker 6 (46:06):
Oh yeah, hey, I now play that song sometimes when
I'm dropping my girls off for school today.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
You gotta get them. Yeah, it's a big you gotta
test you got to school today?

Speaker 3 (46:20):
Totally.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
Yeah, we played the music so so does he play
is like in the air tonight? Is that playing before
the Super Bowl in Tampa against Arizona. I was actually
at that game, crazy enough.

Speaker 6 (46:32):
So all the time, but like you know, kind of
towards the end of the year and getting into playoffs
maybe and like like I said, that's when we'd start
to do it.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
You know.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
The one I love is at Pittsburgh.

Speaker 5 (46:42):
I know, I remember covering games there and the Viking
sideline with nuts.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
I remember Jared Allen's when they play sticks. Yeah, what's
what's the song? Retegrade?

Speaker 5 (46:51):
Oh my god, the place goes nuts when all us
old guys.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
Yeah, you were lit hot, Yeah, you're feeling it. You're
holding your phone up with the eighteen year old up
came alive there normally.

Speaker 6 (47:01):
For for a long time. That was a great thing
because they always wait to do it, you know, when
the defense has taken the field in the fourth quarter.
But I do remember there was a year where it
was like it was cursed. You know, we'd be like winning.
You always we need is like a stop they'd play,
they'd play Renegade and every time that year the team
would go like the other offense would go like ninety
yards for a touchdown. It is always it wasn't always great.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Yeah, super Bowl? What what was that day?

Speaker 6 (47:29):
Like?

Speaker 2 (47:29):
What was the experience like? And did you sleep the
night before?

Speaker 6 (47:34):
No? No, I actually didn't sleep very much before any games.
And even in college, guys, I had I played a
lot of games on like zero sleep really, and that's
why I like when I talk about like the.

Speaker 3 (47:46):
Stress, frozen pizza, that frozen pizzas and zero like of football.

Speaker 6 (47:51):
And when when when my time was done, everybody asked me, like,
what are you what are you looking forward to? I'm
like sleeping, just sleeping and relaxing. But so no, probably
not much sleep. And you're nervous, right, you're going You're
playing in the biggest game in the world, right and
everybody's watching, so it is nerve wracking. The experience is incredible.

(48:14):
I was fortunate to play in two. We won one,
lost one, so you kind of obviously wish you would
have won both, but you get to experience both both
sides of it, and when you win, there's nothing greater,
you know, And the things I remember are, you know,
after the game and being down on the field and
the confetti raining down on you and you go and
you find your family and you get them down on

(48:35):
the field, and then you go to the locker room
and there's a big celebration in the locker room, and
then to the after party and it's all it's all incredible,
and then you know you're playing one where you lose,
and it it's just all for nothing. It is literally
all for nothing. There's not a worst feeling in the
world because you just I mean, you think about you.
Your preparations started long before, but you start a training

(48:56):
camp in late July, right now here you are in February,
and all that work and effort. You know, the way
you feel, maybe it's not, but the way you feel
is it was all for nothing.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (49:07):
How long does it take you?

Speaker 5 (49:09):
I always tak you about the losing Super Bowl team,
like how long that next day when they wake up,
or how long does it take you to get over
the disappointment or the frustration or.

Speaker 6 (49:17):
What I would say. It's different for guys, different guys,
And honestly, it probably really goes back to like your performance.
Right me, personally, the super Bowl we won, I didn't
play very good. I've never watched that Super Bowl since
really I refuse to. It was my second year, I

(49:40):
don't know, I just didn't. I was not happy with
my performance and I've never watched it. And so then
you fast forward to the second super Bowl two years later,
and I played great and because I knew, like, I'm
not going through this again, right, and I was super
happy with my performance, but we lost. So I always
think in any game, it's it's harder, right if you

(50:06):
feel like you did something, and it's a team game,
and there's a lot of stuff that goes on, right,
But when you don't perform well and you lose, you
feel like you lost it for your team. But if
you go out and you play well and your team loses,
you can kind of walk off with your head high, right, like, Okay,
it didn't work out, but you know, I feel like
I did my parts and I played well. So I

(50:27):
feel like I maybe got over that one faster than
maybe some guys, right, because I knew that at least
I did my part. You know, where if we would
if I would have the first one, if I would
have not played well and we were lost, then I
would have just you wouldn't have been able to convince
me that it wasn't my fault that we lost. You know,
that's just how that's how we're wired, you know what
I mean, That's how we are. So there's you know

(50:49):
I have when it comes to the two Super Bowls,
I kind of wish it was the opposite, but it
is what it is.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
So you're very grateful for Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes
in the day.

Speaker 6 (51:00):
But Harrison Harrison.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
The before halftime right the ninety nine yard fumble, that
was an interception. Interception.

Speaker 6 (51:08):
That's what it was funny because when you go back
and you watch some of these things, he didn't even
do the right thing. He was supposed to be rushing.
He was supposed to be rushing the passer, and he
just decided to drop in the coverage and they threw
it right to him. Isn't that crazy football?

Speaker 3 (51:22):
That's why coaches go crazy. Man.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
You work, like you said, you work for a whole
off season on everything. The Super Bowl, Harrison goes, I'm
gonna do my own thing, and it worked out. If
it doesn't, it could be talking about something else.

Speaker 3 (51:33):
That's crazy. That's great, man.

Speaker 5 (51:34):
I want to I want to ask you just about
college football and college sports right now in il transfer
portal revenue share.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
When you look at it, what do you think?

Speaker 6 (51:48):
I think it is what it is, you know what
I mean like? And I mean that in the sense
that it's so different and it's I think it'd be
easy to sit here and say I don't like it
or I pick it apart. But there's a lot good
to it too, right, And I think there's things that
they got to kind of figure out or iron out
as they navigate this new world. But it's still college

(52:11):
football and it's still great, right, And it's different, but
it's still awesome. And so I think it's great that
some of these kids are getting money and getting paid
and a lot of them need it, and and then
there's some there's some negative to it, right, And I
can tell you I I wouldn't want to be a
coach in this in this world, but I still think

(52:32):
it's a great sport and it's a great that greatly.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
A couple of things for you.

Speaker 5 (52:38):
Your favorite road venue that you played in in college,
and what was any memorable things you got shouted at
you at on the road?

Speaker 6 (52:48):
Well, Iowa is the you know, it's the meaning anywhere
you go, right, there's hostility and you get used to
it from like the students and the kids and yelling
and saying mean things. But I where they're literally right
behind you and it's like grown adults and they say
the meaniest thing.

Speaker 3 (53:03):
So true it is.

Speaker 6 (53:06):
It is brutal. Yeah, they are. They are next level
when it comes to that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
There's a lot of wives sitting in shame next to
husbands that are scrowing twenty two year old.

Speaker 6 (53:19):
And they're so close to you, so you yeah, and
they're they're downright ruthless. I can say, like when you
hear that stuff, oh yeah, that stuff don't phaze me
at all. I thought it was funny. And you just
you kind of like sit there and you're you're you're
on the bench, you know, if the defense is out
there and you're sitting next to your offensive guys and
you kind of just like look over at each other
and smile and laugh and get golden.

Speaker 4 (53:41):
Well, then your first big purchase was on your NFL money,
whether that was when you got drafted, whether that was
in the free agency contract where you were like, I'm
gonna go spend some of this adult money that i
got from the NFL.

Speaker 6 (53:54):
You know what, Burnsley, I'm kind of boring when it
comes to that.

Speaker 4 (53:57):
What are you tell me you went and bought forty
acres like my dream?

Speaker 3 (54:00):
What?

Speaker 6 (54:00):
No, like my my rookie season. I I you know,
I bought a townhouse. But it wasn't nothing spectacular or
super nice. I'll be honest with you. I was so different.
Like you go through these rookie symposiums and all this
like rookie kind of like meetings and trainings, and they're
sitting there telling you about like you should save twenty

(54:21):
percent of every every paycheck, and I'm like twenty percent,
Like I'm saving like eighty percent. You know, you know,
I was probably wired a little, you know, differently than
other guys. I saved most of my money, and so
I did buy a townhouse, and I did buy, you know,
a truck. I've always I've driven driven a truck, you know,

(54:43):
ever since I got into the NFL. And that's all
I need, you know what I mean? So there ain't
there ain't been a lot of crazy splurges.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
Is it a lift kidded f three fifty or what
are you rolling around in?

Speaker 6 (54:54):
Just one fifty? It is a limited the one I'm
driving now you go listen. But there's no left, there's
no I don't like that stuff. I'm pretty basic. I
will say this, this is recently here in the last
few years, I did restore nineteen sixty nine Dodge Charger.
So that's probably my great splurge. So and that that

(55:17):
was fun and it is awesome. And never restore a car.
They always say, because you go over budget.

Speaker 1 (55:25):
Pretty fast, burnsy to your wife and you have separate
checking accounts. Yes, that's good for her. That's what you
got because you're spending MAT's money. I'm worried about what
you Yeah, I mean you've got dollar signs in your eyes.

Speaker 3 (55:40):
That's crazy.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Anything else I got, like two last things, just kind
of get an update on what you're up to, map,
But anything else you guys want to touch.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
On, you can finish this out.

Speaker 3 (55:50):
What are you up to, Matt, besides restoring cars?

Speaker 6 (55:54):
I have a family. I have two kids. They take
a lot of my time, two daughters six and nine,
Aubrey and Kenley. And I also since I've retired and
I got into real estate, so I do it. I'd
say I take it very serious in the sense, but
I'm also maybe not your typical agent where I'm you know,
pounding pavement every weekend. It's I have the good thing

(56:17):
about playing in the NFL is you get to meet
a lot of great people, a lot of cool, interesting, rich, powerful,
significant type people that you whatever you want to say.
And and I've realized that real estate, like anything, is
a people business, and it is a sphere, and it
is a networking business, and that is who I am. Like,
I am just I'm social. I like people people like me,

(56:40):
I you know what I mean. So when I got done,
I was like, well, I do you know what I mean? Like,
I was retired at thirty two, and I always say like,
I was like, oh, you retired. I retired from football
at thirty two, right, I retired from life, you know
what I mean? So I had to do something, and
I didn't really know what I wanted to do, and
I was trying to figure it out. And finally I
was just like, you know what, I'm tried this. I'm
gonna give my real estate license, easy to get, low

(57:02):
barrier to entry, you know, not a lot of costs involved,
and I'll try it, and if I don't like it,
I check it off the list and I move on
to the next thing. And at least maybe I learned
some valuable life lesson type stuff, right, you know, because
we all need housing, whether you're buying, renting or whatever,
you learn some valuable stuff. But I've really enjoyed it.
It's like I said, I've I've been blessed here. And

(57:24):
you know, I have teammates I do business for, and
you know, I've gotten to know some cool people. I
don't do, I would say, compared to your typical agent,
I don't do front of transactions, but the ones I
do are pretty big. Yeah, you know what I mean.
It's fun, so I like it.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
There's a competitiveness to it too, right, there's a lot
of competitive nature to.

Speaker 6 (57:43):
Yeah, like the rush of negotiating and you know, putting
something together and and then it's fun and like it's
it's a people business and it's a problem solving business.
Like that's pretty much what it is. And I like
that aspect. And you every transaction is different. There's obstacles,
there's hurdles in everyone, and you've got to come up
with unique ways to keep both parties together and get

(58:06):
to the finish line, you know, And that's what it is.
It's just problem solving.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Are you one of those agents that when you walk
in to the open house, they like do a crackback
block on Matt Roth And hey, we've had a lot
of interest Best in Final in ten minutes and I
haven't even taken my shoes off at the door. It's like,
I don't even know if I I can't give you
Best in Final. I don't even know if I'm pre
approved yet. I just my wife wanted to see the pool, Like,
what are we going to do here? Are you one
of those guys that just meets them in the hole

(58:31):
and says Best Final by six?

Speaker 6 (58:33):
Not at all? Not at all? And you rarely find
me at open houses either.

Speaker 3 (58:37):
Yeah, I would think I can sense that by your answer.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
So you're you're not putting cookies out on the island
with water bottles in your business cards.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
Hey, Matt, I'd love to see you down there at
the bull game.

Speaker 5 (58:47):
You know, Mitch Browning called and you're there above a
brinkhouse and Shiel and Steve Davis, and I know you're
still close with Koop and.

Speaker 4 (58:55):
I if only you want to came out to the barn.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
I know, I know we had a beer.

Speaker 3 (59:00):
You can't get back to the ball games Matt, I
don't get it. We can't get him to.

Speaker 6 (59:03):
The I'll tell you what, guys, I had so much
fun down there. That was my first experience of just
going to a bowl game as a fan. And obviously
you play in your family and friends and people go
and they rave about you know, the Gopher tailgates or
the get togethers, and you never get to experience it
right because you're playing. And uh, you know, Bubba called me,

(59:24):
you know, text me or call me a couple of
two three weeks before and he was like, hey, he's like,
you know, me and Steve and and Logan are meeting
down in Charlotte for the bowl game. You have any interest?

Speaker 3 (59:34):
And I was like I do now.

Speaker 6 (59:37):
So it was awesome. I mean, just to see those
guys again and you know, reconnect and you know, and
just hang out and do the do the fan thing
and go to the Gopher bars. I had a blast.

Speaker 4 (59:50):
I can't imagine that. Well, I was there with with
you that night. You don't get to walk around in
an entire bar without somebody looking up at six seven
and saying you look familiar, or hey, let's take it picture.
Because that's how that happened. Plenty down in Charlotte.

Speaker 6 (01:00:03):
Yeah, there's a little bit of that. And I also
think there's a lot of people that had no clue
who I was. And I'm fine with that too, to
be honest with you, I just enjoyed it. I liked
being around go for people. I'm trying to think who
was Who's the senior tight end this year, Burns? Is
it like Gears or who's Jesus Gears?

Speaker 3 (01:00:20):
James?

Speaker 6 (01:00:21):
Oh, no, it was it was the calire Up crew.
I'm sorry. Yeah, so I I, you know, I at
that bar that you were at, and I see this
crew kind of sitting in the corner and they all
have Nick Cali Up jerseys on, and I was like,
you know what, I'm gonna go talk to them who
I was? You know what I mean, It's awesome. And
I just was like, hey, I'm Matt and I used
to play tight end here. So I saw you guys
as jerseys and I figured I'd come over and talk

(01:00:43):
to you and ended up being awesome. You know. I'm
just trying to chatting with them and they're like, oh, so, like,
you know, when did you play?

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
And you know we were good? And I was like,
I have the media guy here. Oh yeah, Macki Award winner.

Speaker 2 (01:00:58):
Let me show you my Mackie Award.

Speaker 6 (01:01:00):
I'm starting to be.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
Super Bowl rigging. Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to follow.

Speaker 6 (01:01:05):
So there there's a good mix. Obviously, that's awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
Well, this was fun, man, Thanks for doing this, Thanks
for thanks for opening up the yearbook. And uh, it
is cool, like I will see this with Darryl Thompson
and you know this, but you know you're going to
be doing these bull trips hopefully for the next fifty
years with these guys, right like that, That is the
cool part.

Speaker 6 (01:01:23):
When I thought about that, we should, we should try
to do this, and obviously it's you know, we all
have young families too at this point, so it depends
on what what the Bowl game is and when when
it is. You know, if it's if it's December twenty sixth,
you know, we're probably not going. But this year was
awesome because it was so late, and so we talked
about trying to make that an annual thing. But that'll
obviously just be kind of dependent on on when they

(01:01:46):
play it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Really, well, that's kind of what I say.

Speaker 3 (01:01:49):
That's what I say, right Chip, It's basically Rose Bowler,
he's not going. It was essentially, what.

Speaker 2 (01:01:57):
You know, I'm going to Nashville and.

Speaker 1 (01:01:58):
Nashville Yeah, well we know you guys all the players
are going to Nashville.

Speaker 6 (01:02:01):
To the former players one, it would be nice to
go back. I did tell my wife, I said, no
matter what, if they ever go to the rose Ball,
we're going. So yeah, that's non negotiable.

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
So that's right. Anything else fellas, Yeah, Matt, we appreciate it.

Speaker 6 (01:02:17):
Mean all time, great fun.

Speaker 5 (01:02:20):
His name up there, deserves to be in the M club.
There's nobody. And I'll say this, I mean I've told
matth privately. I mean, there's no better ambassador for Go
for Football than mass Faith. I mean, look at what
he did both on the field but off the field,
the way he carried himself, the way you sacrificed his
body to help that program get to a bowl game.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
He's everything you want as a Go for Football representative.
So we really appreciate it.

Speaker 6 (01:02:41):
Ay, Chip, I'll tell you one more last little story.
And I've got to be careful not to get myself
in trouble here. But you know, I grew up in
Saint Michael, but I'm originally from Monoman, Minnesota. Right. My
My family's from small town northern Minnesota. And I can't remember,
and I don't even know if this isn't my mission,
but I'll preface this because this is the truth. Where

(01:03:02):
it wasn't nothing came from GOP football to to reach
out to this guy. It was through a family member
from of when Koy was being recruited, right, Yeah, and
uh it was there was some sort of connection with
one of his high school coaches and my sister in law,
I think, honestly. And it was when you know, towards
the end there, when when all the big schools were

(01:03:24):
coming in and he was on the fence, right. And
I'm not saying this like I'm not tooting my own
horn that I had anything to do with him staying
at Minnesota. But I just reached out to him and
I said, you know what, You're going to make the
right decision no matter what you do, but you can
accomplish everything you want to do at the University of Minnesota.

(01:03:44):
And I improve and I went from not nearly as
highly recruited as you, but I had choices to go
other places, and I chose to stay home. And I
went on to accomplish this, this, this, and this, and
you can do that too, you know what I mean.
So I love go for football. I got a tongue,
a ton of pride, and I wish nothing but the
best for him.

Speaker 3 (01:04:04):
Nobody talks. Oh hold on, nobody talks.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
We're gonna cut that and we're gonna send that to
every coach at the University of Minnesota that they can
send to their respective recruit. Ben Jonson's On Plitzey, Bob Motskow, Bradfrost,
they all get that.

Speaker 6 (01:04:16):
Be careful. I don't know that. I don't know if
that was some but that was a violation. I don't
think it was because they didn't like I said. They
did not. They did not tell me.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
It's nothing's a violation anymore. Yewive.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
If we get put on probation for that, it wasn't
gonna happen anyway. That was awesome, man, Thanks so much.
It's always great to see a Huntington bank when you
come back. Thanks for everything on the show toa we
love it, and we'll see in the next ball game.
Maybe you can be the one to convince Chip to
come to a bowl game that's supposed to just taking
phone calls from you guys at you know, midnight from
the ball games.

Speaker 3 (01:04:48):
We'll do it. We'll do it.

Speaker 6 (01:04:48):
The phone calls did you get that night?

Speaker 2 (01:04:50):
By the way, about eight for Mitch.

Speaker 1 (01:04:55):
He was asleep, Chip with the sleep dude. He'd had
his milk and cookies would have been too.

Speaker 6 (01:05:00):
I wasn't there.

Speaker 3 (01:05:02):
Thanks Matt, appreciate you you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
That's Matt Spade Jack's Cafe j a xcafe dot com.
We'll talk to you guys next week on The Pair
and a Spare podcast.