June 18, 2021 • 24 mins
An offseason that is underway could be like no other with all the question marks surrounding two specific characters.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Boom. He thought more minutes a week was enough. I
think again. He's the last remnants of the old republic,
a sole fashion of fairness. He treats crackheads in the
ghetto gutter the same as the rich pill poppers in
the penthouse. The clearing House of Hot takes break free
for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts
(00:24):
right now. It's never a dull moment on the Fifth
Hour with Ben Maller. But Ben is not in the
house today. I will be your solo host, David Gascon.
So that's right. If you did tune in for Big
Ben Mallory, he will be here shortly, but not right now,
in place of him. As a former offensive lignment of
the National Football he actually played ball at Notre Dame
(00:46):
that got his way to the Denver Broncos, played on
the great Super Bowl fifty championship team that one of
the best defenses in all the land. Ryan Harrison were
in the house. What's up, man? How you doing? David
good to join you, my friend. Yeah, it's good to
have you in here. There's a lot of chatter obviously
with the NFL off season's It's never a dull moment,
(01:06):
and we're gonna get to some of your background in
a few moments, but I have to jump into this
because you're knee deep in all of it. With the
National Football League. What's the sentiment out there right now
with with training camps right around the corner. A lot
of eyeballs on Drew Lock. But of course there's still
those rumblings about one Deshaun Watson in Houston, well DeShawn Watson,
(01:29):
but also Aaron Rodgers. I mean, half of this town
still believes Aaron Rodgers is going to be the quarterback,
and I'm kind of with them. I mean, I don't
know how the Packers saga ends, um, with the way
that everyone's behaved. Now, Aaron's gonna have to fork up
thirty million if he doesn't play this year, which at
the end of the day, David, I don't know. I
don't know what you can do to get me thirty
(01:50):
million dollars. Manage you, right, So I think eventually something
will come of it. But yeah, Drew Lock just did
not show progression last season, especially um and in a
big game for his career, the second game against the
Chiefs last year, through two interceptions that cost him the game,
and those are the kinds of mistakes that um that
(02:10):
coaches and fans are tired of seeing. And there's already
been some of the same. Yeah, it's it's frustrating to
look at when you have a quarterback in that kind
of situation. It's not like you're in a spot where
you have minimal talent around you. This isn't Sam Donald
in New York with the Jets. This is a guy
with potential Pro bowlers on the outside and a pretty
darn good defense, in particular at home. So when you
(02:34):
look at the situation in Denver right now, Ryan, and
you're calling the shots there, I mean, obviously you love
to have a guy like Aaron Rodgers. But if this
all plays out, and let's just say for argument's sake,
nothing serious happens to Deshaun Watson, would you more look
closer towards Aaron Rodgers or would you look immediate and
down the road with a guy like Deshaun Watson. What
(02:56):
would you rather have? Well, the Shawn Watson's fascinating from
a longevity perspective, right even with Aaron Rodgers, you're thinking, listen,
Tom Brady at forty three says hello, but you're thinking
maybe two to three more years for Aaron Rodgers, But
with Deshaun Watson, you've got ten to fifteen years, right,
(03:17):
And that's a different element if you're a team looking
at it. I don't believe anybody's gonna touch DeShawn Watson
with what's currently going on. Um and And but at
the same time, you still have an opportunity next year
for both quarterbacks. I mean, after this season, the guaranteed
money for Aaron Rodgers goes away. Um and and next
(03:37):
year you'll still have an opportunity to play for Deshaun Watson,
who doesn't want to be a part of the Texans
this year or next. So, um, those whether you could
take your shot now is one question depends on you know,
how do you and your fan base field. I don't
think any fan base is willing to accept the player
who has the kind of allegations that the shan has
at this time. Um and Aaron Rodgers, how does that end?
(03:57):
And and so in that case, Deshaun has far more
upside um. But Aaron Rodgers is the man right now
who hurt your locker room more. You know, just just
from the stories that I've heard, Uh, you know, uh,
it's Aaron Rodgers has been operating on a different level
than his teammates for a long time. And I understand
(04:18):
two as a champion myself. When when you are a champion,
you have a different dedication to how you know, to
the details, and you have a zero patience for people
who don't pay attention to those details. So I understand
how those things could be mistrewed. But you know, it's
always tough to bring an older guy into a locker room.
I mean, hey, I was a league dad, and when
you come into the NFL, you have guys who who say, hey,
(04:41):
you know, we uh, you know, we want to go
spend Friday night, Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night out.
And as a dad, you're in the NFL saying, well,
hey man, I want to make sure that you know,
I get nine hours of sleep and my latte is
ready in the morning. You know, it's a different life.
So it's always tough to bring older players into a
locker room and professional sports well, but being a former
(05:01):
offensive lineman, if you were in that situation with a
signal color of either Aaron Rodgers or Deshaun Watson's talents,
who would you be more inclined to block harder for
I'm not to say that you're gonna be bailing on
a play, but I would imagine that there's an extra
sense of urgency when you're blocking for Peyton Manning as
opposed to somebody else. Well, the urgency comes from the
(05:24):
the opportunity, right, It doesn't matter, um what what what
the quarterbacks doing do? You have an opportunity to win
a championship. And that's what made us so successful Super
fifties season. Who was the best team that I've ever
been a part of. We had guys who were ready
to play, who showing guys who were goofballs, who were
showing up at six five in the morning, you know.
And so at that point, you know, Peyton created a
(05:46):
lot of urgency at the line of scrimmage with his
dummy calls and his omas um. But you want to win,
and if you're with the team that wants to win,
that urgency comes out no matter who the quarterback is.
So going to that team than ryany He mentions the
greatest team were played on. Leading up to that season,
was there any thought that you guys can do what
you did? There was a hud percent belief that we
(06:09):
would do what we did. You know, Uh, Shannons Sharpe
came and spoke to us to start the to start
the season during training camp and he said, Hey, if
you're not here to win a championship, get the brief
out of here. And that was pretty much the tone
that we had from from day two of being together
in training camp. We knew it was possible. We knew
(06:30):
that this was probably Peyton's last year. Um, and a
lot of the team, you know, I I had come
from the Chiefs to come come back to Broncos. The Broncos,
A lot of the team had lost in Super Bowl
forty eight, which saved a lot of money, right, because
a lot of guys are like, hey, don't buy everybody
hotel room because if you lose, you're gonna be looking
at those people saying I got ten grand hotel rooms
sitting here looking at me at the face. Right. So, Um,
(06:51):
you had a lot of benefit and experience and a
ton of willingness. And that's what made us so successful.
Was that More on the offense, though, was it? The
defense is and the guys on the defensive side brought
the wood every single week. So when you have a
guy like DeMarcus where that puts a little bit more
pressure on other guys around him to actually perform up
to his level. Well, DeMarcus Ware also showed us the
(07:13):
way right how to behave I still drink plant based
protein shakes because De Marcus Ware told me to, so,
you know. And he would have dinners and events and
things that gave guys opportunities to get out of the house,
but also kept you in the nucleus and in the
in the world of hey, let's be successful, let's not
be stupid. All right, let's have some fun, but you're
(07:35):
asked better be in practice tomorrow morning. And having a
leader like DeMarcus Ware and the influence he had on
von Miller and then von Miller's performance that entire season,
not just that year. You know, Malik Jackson, Danny Trevathan,
Chris Harris, ju and you'r a keep to leave and
we had some real players, real players, and it was
a big difference. No flies on the best secondary ever
(07:57):
played for Oh, no question, no question at all. It's uh,
it's interesting just the way that the game has changed
so much, not only from the last five to ten years,
but from the last twenty or twenty five years. Do
you think we'll ever get that kind of similarity of
what we had. I mean, you could go back to
the earlier Bronco Championship teams. Those are play action, run
(08:20):
balanced teams. Do you think the game will ever morph
into something like that again, or do you feel like
it is going to be three and four and five
wide personnel with a lot of this read option stuff. Well,
you know, it's interesting. Not everybody can do with Patrick
Mahomes is doing. Kansas City Chiefs and I covered their
their Sunday night game against the Broncos, and I talked
(08:41):
to some of my former coach and I said, hey,
you guys are running two plays at the same time,
and they kind of laughed and they were like, well,
we haven't been called on it yet. You know, so
as much as everybody thinks they can do the run
pass option, not a lot of teams are gonna have
a called run play and a quarterback where you give
the green light to and say, hey, if you see
a matchup you like, let that ball rip. You know,
(09:01):
by the way, that quarterback has to get it down
field before that lineman gets on his third step. So
you're always gonna have play action pass. A lot of
football is you know, human nature when you when you
show a linebacker football and you give the right shoulder
read as a quarterback, and that running back comes over
and quickly the offensive lineman shows to the backer. He
(09:22):
has to think run and that's how you create plays.
So we're always gonna see an evolution and evan flow.
But the play action passed, the downhill run, the third
and one, the fourth thing goal, those are gonna be
staples of every championship team for now and forever. What's
the longevity look like for a guy like Lamar Jackson. Well,
Lamar Jackson has the decision to make. He has to
(09:43):
decide whether he's gonna be the best player he can
be or if he's gonna spend his time trying to
be a player that he's not. And and I've talked
to player, I've talked to players and coaches who are
on on the Ravens and one of the things that
last year and they're stretched. Uh. You know when the
coaches told me Lamar wanted Lamar Will wanted to be
a passer. He just wanted to be a passer, and
(10:03):
we lost games because of that, and if you look
at roster's not really build for it. And so Lamar
Jackson has to make that decision and say, hey, I
am Lamar Jackson. I can be a great passer, but
I'm not gonna be a Peyton Manning. I'm not gonna
be a Tom Brady. Same way Tom Brady is not
trying to be Lamar Jackson, right, And so if he
can just work within his skill set and maximize his potential,
(10:27):
the nuances on play action passes when he decides to run,
getting out of bounds, I mean, these are things that
are really going to allow him to win a championship
if he can commit to being different, and that's what
every champion is. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven
pm Pacific. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm
(10:50):
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
If you had a quarterback for the next five years,
would you rather have Russell Wilson or Justin Herbert? Russell Wilson, Uh,
Justin Herbert's got an unbelievable, arm I mean, where sweatpants
when he throws the deep ball. It's unbelievable. But Russell
Wilson has won, and so he knows that, you know,
(11:12):
a seemingly insignificant game in week seven is the difference
between home field advantage and not. Right. He also knows
what matters and what doesn't matter when you're going to
the Super Bowl. I mean, David, I had over two
ticket requests the week that we the week before we
went left for the Super Bowl. None of those people
were my friends, right, And so you have to do
(11:34):
a lot of success, as you know, is understanding, recognizing distractions,
and having total belief in yourself. And that's something that
Russell Wilson has perfected over his career. Can you take
me through that then? To Ryan? I mean, because you
played ball at the collegiate level in Notre Dame and
then you go to Denver and you bounce around the league.
What has that been like for you when when you
went from high school to college and started receiving a
(11:57):
ton of accolades and then you have the spotlight on
you and then you get to the show, you get
to the National Football League, how did you actually process that,
and did you have anyone help you along the way,
like hold your hand and say, hey, Ryan, this is
how you act like a professional? Eat, drink, sleep, the
whole smash. Well, a lot of it started with I
(12:17):
never played football for you, right. I played football because
it gave me an opportunity to maximize my skill set.
I mean, David, I've been taking people's lunch money since
high school. Has come faster than that, you know what
I'm saying, Like, let's go um. And so the big
thing for me is I never did it for anybody else,
and it never did it for external validation. But to
your point, there were dozens of veterans who who showed
(12:40):
me the ropes. You know. Um, I think about Wade Smith.
When I went to the Texas, they used to call
me the wandering because I didn't know where I was going,
and he literally showed me with the bathroom of the
meetings rooms where you know, you need people like that.
I also had a mental performance coach all ten years
I was in the NFL, and to really understand, um,
the process behind success. You know, you make the game
(13:02):
winning catch, the game winning block, the game winning kick
the same way you make any block, kick or pass
or cats right, if you're catching the ball, you look
the ball into your hands and you squeeze it when
it hits your fingers. I mean, when you focus on
the process, you reduce anxiety over So I add people
that would talk to me in that athletic realm, people
(13:23):
that you know taught me that not every coach is
a good coach. And the year we won Super A fifty,
we had a mental performance coach on on our staff
that really helped, you know, helped us identify external versus
internal validation. Am I playing football to make David happy?
Am I playing football because I want to have fun?
To rip someone's face off? Because now it really doesn't
(13:43):
matter whether David wants tickets or if David wants to
come to the after party. Those are things that will
figure themselves out. That's not why I'm here. And that's
a very different player to play against. And so I
absolutely needed great coaches that the great coaches that I
did have, the veterans I have, And I also needed
to make sure that I remembered why I love the
football and had nothing to do with other people's opinions.
(14:04):
On that note, because you had that kind of help
and you had that kind of support, did other players
seek you out for that kind of inspiration, that kind
of comfort, and that kind of I guess advice along
the way, of course, you know. I mean one of
the things you know that I wrote about in my
in my book Mindset for Mastery, is that when you
choose your mindset, when you decide that you're there for
(14:27):
yourself and not other people, you're going to scare the
crap out of people. Right, There's a lot of players
in the NFL are getting paid to lose. They didn't
win a championship, they didn't go to the playoffs, and
they still got paid. What do you do? And so
you start to notice the people who don't get affected. Hey,
if a coach is ripping my ass, Hey if I
did something wrong, great, But I'm not always I'm not
gonna take everything that coach is saying as as improvement. Right,
(14:50):
There's gonna be some personal attacks. There might be some
some attacks on you know, your physical capabilities. That has
nothing to do with the fact that I'm gonna go
out here the next play correct my mistake and help
us win a game. And when you start being around
people who are not thrown off by someone's anger or
by someone's angs. Do you gravitate towards those people. You
gravitate towards people who move when things go wrong. And so,
(15:15):
whether it was in the game that we were losing,
after a loss, making sure you still are having fun
and appreciating the ride, I was very lucky to be
a leader in the in the last three offensive line
rooms that I was in. It's the old thing, right,
showing me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser,
exactly right, you know. But but you also have to
you also have to understand. When I was at the
(15:36):
Steelers that we won the Super Bowl, I believe we
lost four straight games at one point, and everybody's head
was down, like, hey, listen, you're gonna lose some games.
That cannot stop you from believing that you're gonna win
a championship. And you gotta have fun, you gotta smile,
you gotta stay loose and UH and those things make
a difference. You. You brought the book, and I want
to talk about that at at some decent length real quick.
(15:58):
What inspired you to you to actually write it? Mindset
for Mastery UH to available on Amazon and you know,
when I look at my tenure NFL career, the difference
between people who are successful and who are not are
people who choose their mindset. And when you win the
Super Bowl, everything you believe about yourself comes true for
other people, but you have to believe that first. So
(16:20):
from getting knocked out of my cleats in college to
you know, learning the lessons that I learned in the NFL,
I wanted to share that with people because, David, we
talk about failure less than we talk about sex, and
I want to tell you the failure is the most
common thread to every success story. Here's how I failed,
Here's how I built my way out of it. Each
of us choose our mindset every day, choose yours with
(16:41):
the words I am, I can, I will. When you've
had those situations of doubt, what do you do? I
mean best practices? Because the rounity is we've you know,
in the sports talk world, and you are like you
were in the show with us. You know, for last
year year and a half, we've been through the coronavirus
as pandemic. There's no sports going on. People are losing jobs,
(17:03):
they're losing loved ones, they're isolated, um, take me through
that for you, not only as a professional in the
media world, but even just as as an individual that
has an impact on the local community. What have you
done during that time? Well, you know, one, I am alive, right, Like, hey,
you know, to have an opinion means you're alive. Good
(17:26):
for you, right, and for a lot of us, for
six hundred thousand of us, that that's not the case, right,
So I would say I would literally say things like,
I am alive. I'm grateful, I have a job, I
am employed. You know, I am responsible for myself and
my family. I'm gonna make choices that are what's best
for them, not what anybody else thinks about. I can,
(17:46):
you know, I can attack every day with opportunity. I
can read, I can learn, I can you know, mitigate
my risk to to get COVID. I can tell stories,
um that are similar to what you'll see in in
the last dance, or I can relate, you know, a
sports topic to something people are talking about in their
real life. I will have fun doing it. I will
(18:06):
make sure I make people laugh doing it. So that's
how I choose my mindset, That's how I walk into
any everything from parenting to living, to being a professional.
And once you set a framework, I mean, there's study
after study that shows our brain believes in the words
we say out loud, right, and when you envision and
visualize your success, it usually happens. So I'm I'm a
(18:29):
big believer in Hey, you know you could when you
go against von Miller, David, because you're no doubt gonna
put on the pads this year now that coronavirus as
you football ready, when you when you're facing von Miller
on third and nine, you better believe you're gonna block
his ass, right, what's your choice? And and so I
just take that to my life often of Hey, I
could choose to be upset, I could choose to wallow
(18:51):
and anger or frustration, but that's not productive. What can
I do? How can I move forward? What way will
I decide? Here we go? You brought up the last Dad,
So that was something I think most of the sports
world watched during the summer of last year. If there's
a guy on that championship team with the Broncos in
Super Bowl fifty, that you could say, I don't want
to say exactly, but you can kind of put in
(19:13):
that same picture as a Dennis Robins saying, hey, he'll
probably leave for a series, go to Vegas, party his
ass off with some strippers, and then come back and
do his thing. Who would that have been on that
Bronco team. Thankfully we didn't have a guy like that.
I will tell you after we won the Super Bowl.
I mean I was in Vegas when Darth Vader came
(19:35):
from the club at the at the win and had
a fifteen thousand dollar bottle of champagne and afro Jack
started playing on the DJ boot and that was crazy, right, Um,
But we didn't have guys like that. And I mean
we had guys that got it in, don't get me wrong,
but it was time to play. It was time to play.
And and also you know, um yeah, I think it's
(19:56):
part of the interesting thing about the Last Dance and
that senior you're talking about. You know, Coach Jackson was
talking to Michael and robmin Of like, hey, Robin needs
a break. Coach Kobayak was not gonna do that. You know,
Coach Kobyak is not gonna go to Peyton and say, hey, Peyton,
you know Ryan Harris needs a break. He's gonna go
to Vegas for a couple of days of practice, like,
you know, we'll see him soon. Like that's not happening
(20:18):
on that team that we were on. But I mean
there's a Dennis Rodman on every team and every family,
isn't there. Yeah, no doubt about it. Ryan, It's been
a lot of fun having you on UM. Since you
are in the media scope right now, what do you
actually do? I mean you're on radio, but do you
do public speaking or you're outside of that. Are you
on anything else with the with the Broncos or what
do you do? What? Yeah, I got a sports talk
(20:40):
show weekdays here in Denver, and uh I do all
the Nor Dame football radio broadcast. I do some West
with One radio broadcasts, and uh I might do some
might do some TV work for Telemundo this year on
their NFL package because uh I speak into Spanish. So
it's all fun, man, and more than anything, you know,
I'm a husband, I'm a father, and uh and being
(21:01):
financially literate and doing the right things with my money
really set me up to do the things I enjoy
now in retirement. Speaking of retirement, and many people might
not know this, but I had a little bit of
a hint on it. I don't know what your playing
weight was exactly. I don't know if your weight is now.
But being six five and amongst all those other things,
you're also a surfer. So what the hell is it
(21:24):
like you getting out a board right now? Especially when
you come down to southern California. Oh? Man, I love it.
I was just in Huntington Beach. Man. Uh, I need
a nine foot board first of all. Okay, so be
honest here, I need one of those storm breakers or
whatever they're called. Um, but I love it, man. I
love getting out in the water. I love hitting the wave,
(21:44):
and if anybody serves, they know it's. Uh it's a
feeling unlike any other, and it's something that I think
about every day. I was gonna say, were you watching
some old school point break, like looking at some Johnny
Utah instructional videos to get up on the board or what?
I still remember watched point Break? I don't think I
wanted kidding movie. Yeah, but you know, one of the
(22:06):
off seasons in the NFL, I went to Maui and uh,
I got on, I got surfed my first wave, and
it just felt like God's hand was throwing me towards
the shore and saying have fun. It was just an
incredible feeling. And then later on dropping into my first wave,
it was just such a such an awesome experience, and
uh something, I just I literally, David, I was, I was.
(22:28):
I was in l a surfing and I surfed through
lunch down in uh down in um uh southern California,
Orange County over there. So I just I'm crazy about it.
I love it, and I love the and I love
the looks too. And people see one a black surfer,
a huge black surfer. You know, you get some of
those what the hell is this guy doing here? But uh,
(22:51):
I love the looks, but I love the waves even better.
So does that mean that you have the bug that
you'll start traveling, maybe to Australia or New Zealand or
somewhere in Europe to try to catch some waves one day?
The minute, the minute these kids are at college. You know,
I'm out of here, David. Let's go man, let's let's
serve the world. Brother, Why the hell not? Well, listen,
(23:12):
if if you do do that, and when you do
do that, I need you at least promised me this,
because it's it's it's it's culture. When you when you
grew up in the nineties. Is that you just need
to pop in or find an old school VHS tape
and just look Patrick Swayzy Kiano reeves Gary Busey point Break,
(23:32):
not the remixed version of it, the original version of
point Break. I can promise you ride you won't be disappointed,
and you might be feeling on nostalgic too, because uh,
this is back of the day when Gary Busey was.
It was actually pretty decent, and of course Patrick Swayzy
was was alive and well yeah before you started ripping
(23:52):
out and yourkin systems and stuff like that. Why you
gotta threatened me with a good time, David. I'll check
it out for sure. And uh hey, and anybody who's
listening who has a surf yet get yourself a lesson.
Check it out, no doubt about it. Ryan, One last
time before we let you go, a mindset of Mastery
ore again. Can everyone find that for you? Yeah, you
can check it out on Amazon dot com Mindset for Mastery,
(24:16):
or visit my website Ryan here at sixty dot com.
And and if I can be of service or resource,
please reach out for sure. For sure, Ryan appreciate the
time today. Have a good weekend, man, and I'm sure
we'll catch up against some time before the NFL regular
season gets underway. Thanks David serves up. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Ben Meller Show weekdays at
(24:37):
two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two
am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
the I Heart Radio app.
Boom. He thought more minutes a week was enough. I
think again. He's the last remnants of the old republic,
a sole fashion of fairness. He treats crackheads in the
ghetto gutter the same as the rich pill poppers in
the penthouse. The clearing House of Hot takes break free
for something special. The Fifth Hour with Ben Maller starts
(00:24):
right now. It's never a dull moment on the Fifth
Hour with Ben Maller. But Ben is not in the
house today. I will be your solo host, David Gascon.
So that's right. If you did tune in for Big
Ben Mallory, he will be here shortly, but not right now,
in place of him. As a former offensive lignment of
the National Football he actually played ball at Notre Dame
(00:46):
that got his way to the Denver Broncos, played on
the great Super Bowl fifty championship team that one of
the best defenses in all the land. Ryan Harrison were
in the house. What's up, man? How you doing? David
good to join you, my friend. Yeah, it's good to
have you in here. There's a lot of chatter obviously
with the NFL off season's It's never a dull moment,
(01:06):
and we're gonna get to some of your background in
a few moments, but I have to jump into this
because you're knee deep in all of it. With the
National Football League. What's the sentiment out there right now
with with training camps right around the corner. A lot
of eyeballs on Drew Lock. But of course there's still
those rumblings about one Deshaun Watson in Houston, well DeShawn Watson,
(01:29):
but also Aaron Rodgers. I mean, half of this town
still believes Aaron Rodgers is going to be the quarterback,
and I'm kind of with them. I mean, I don't
know how the Packers saga ends, um, with the way
that everyone's behaved. Now, Aaron's gonna have to fork up
thirty million if he doesn't play this year, which at
the end of the day, David, I don't know. I
don't know what you can do to get me thirty
(01:50):
million dollars. Manage you, right, So I think eventually something
will come of it. But yeah, Drew Lock just did
not show progression last season, especially um and in a
big game for his career, the second game against the
Chiefs last year, through two interceptions that cost him the game,
and those are the kinds of mistakes that um that
(02:10):
coaches and fans are tired of seeing. And there's already
been some of the same. Yeah, it's it's frustrating to
look at when you have a quarterback in that kind
of situation. It's not like you're in a spot where
you have minimal talent around you. This isn't Sam Donald
in New York with the Jets. This is a guy
with potential Pro bowlers on the outside and a pretty
darn good defense, in particular at home. So when you
(02:34):
look at the situation in Denver right now, Ryan, and
you're calling the shots there, I mean, obviously you love
to have a guy like Aaron Rodgers. But if this
all plays out, and let's just say for argument's sake,
nothing serious happens to Deshaun Watson, would you more look
closer towards Aaron Rodgers or would you look immediate and
down the road with a guy like Deshaun Watson. What
(02:56):
would you rather have? Well, the Shawn Watson's fascinating from
a longevity perspective, right even with Aaron Rodgers, you're thinking, listen,
Tom Brady at forty three says hello, but you're thinking
maybe two to three more years for Aaron Rodgers, But
with Deshaun Watson, you've got ten to fifteen years, right,
(03:17):
And that's a different element if you're a team looking
at it. I don't believe anybody's gonna touch DeShawn Watson
with what's currently going on. Um and And but at
the same time, you still have an opportunity next year
for both quarterbacks. I mean, after this season, the guaranteed
money for Aaron Rodgers goes away. Um and and next
(03:37):
year you'll still have an opportunity to play for Deshaun Watson,
who doesn't want to be a part of the Texans
this year or next. So, um, those whether you could
take your shot now is one question depends on you know,
how do you and your fan base field. I don't
think any fan base is willing to accept the player
who has the kind of allegations that the shan has
at this time. Um and Aaron Rodgers, how does that end?
(03:57):
And and so in that case, Deshaun has far more
upside um. But Aaron Rodgers is the man right now
who hurt your locker room more. You know, just just
from the stories that I've heard, Uh, you know, uh,
it's Aaron Rodgers has been operating on a different level
than his teammates for a long time. And I understand
(04:18):
two as a champion myself. When when you are a champion,
you have a different dedication to how you know, to
the details, and you have a zero patience for people
who don't pay attention to those details. So I understand
how those things could be mistrewed. But you know, it's
always tough to bring an older guy into a locker room.
I mean, hey, I was a league dad, and when
you come into the NFL, you have guys who who say, hey,
(04:41):
you know, we uh, you know, we want to go
spend Friday night, Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night out.
And as a dad, you're in the NFL saying, well,
hey man, I want to make sure that you know,
I get nine hours of sleep and my latte is
ready in the morning. You know, it's a different life.
So it's always tough to bring older players into a
locker room and professional sports well, but being a former
(05:01):
offensive lineman, if you were in that situation with a
signal color of either Aaron Rodgers or Deshaun Watson's talents,
who would you be more inclined to block harder for
I'm not to say that you're gonna be bailing on
a play, but I would imagine that there's an extra
sense of urgency when you're blocking for Peyton Manning as
opposed to somebody else. Well, the urgency comes from the
(05:24):
the opportunity, right, It doesn't matter, um what what what
the quarterbacks doing do? You have an opportunity to win
a championship. And that's what made us so successful Super
fifties season. Who was the best team that I've ever
been a part of. We had guys who were ready
to play, who showing guys who were goofballs, who were
showing up at six five in the morning, you know.
And so at that point, you know, Peyton created a
(05:46):
lot of urgency at the line of scrimmage with his
dummy calls and his omas um. But you want to win,
and if you're with the team that wants to win,
that urgency comes out no matter who the quarterback is.
So going to that team than ryany He mentions the
greatest team were played on. Leading up to that season,
was there any thought that you guys can do what
you did? There was a hud percent belief that we
(06:09):
would do what we did. You know, Uh, Shannons Sharpe
came and spoke to us to start the to start
the season during training camp and he said, Hey, if
you're not here to win a championship, get the brief
out of here. And that was pretty much the tone
that we had from from day two of being together
in training camp. We knew it was possible. We knew
(06:30):
that this was probably Peyton's last year. Um, and a
lot of the team, you know, I I had come
from the Chiefs to come come back to Broncos. The Broncos,
A lot of the team had lost in Super Bowl
forty eight, which saved a lot of money, right, because
a lot of guys are like, hey, don't buy everybody
hotel room because if you lose, you're gonna be looking
at those people saying I got ten grand hotel rooms
sitting here looking at me at the face. Right. So, Um,
(06:51):
you had a lot of benefit and experience and a
ton of willingness. And that's what made us so successful.
Was that More on the offense, though, was it? The
defense is and the guys on the defensive side brought
the wood every single week. So when you have a
guy like DeMarcus where that puts a little bit more
pressure on other guys around him to actually perform up
to his level. Well, DeMarcus Ware also showed us the
(07:13):
way right how to behave I still drink plant based
protein shakes because De Marcus Ware told me to, so,
you know. And he would have dinners and events and
things that gave guys opportunities to get out of the house,
but also kept you in the nucleus and in the
in the world of hey, let's be successful, let's not
be stupid. All right, let's have some fun, but you're
(07:35):
asked better be in practice tomorrow morning. And having a
leader like DeMarcus Ware and the influence he had on
von Miller and then von Miller's performance that entire season,
not just that year. You know, Malik Jackson, Danny Trevathan,
Chris Harris, ju and you'r a keep to leave and
we had some real players, real players, and it was
a big difference. No flies on the best secondary ever
(07:57):
played for Oh, no question, no question at all. It's uh,
it's interesting just the way that the game has changed
so much, not only from the last five to ten years,
but from the last twenty or twenty five years. Do
you think we'll ever get that kind of similarity of
what we had. I mean, you could go back to
the earlier Bronco Championship teams. Those are play action, run
(08:20):
balanced teams. Do you think the game will ever morph
into something like that again, or do you feel like
it is going to be three and four and five
wide personnel with a lot of this read option stuff. Well,
you know, it's interesting. Not everybody can do with Patrick
Mahomes is doing. Kansas City Chiefs and I covered their
their Sunday night game against the Broncos, and I talked
(08:41):
to some of my former coach and I said, hey,
you guys are running two plays at the same time,
and they kind of laughed and they were like, well,
we haven't been called on it yet. You know, so
as much as everybody thinks they can do the run
pass option, not a lot of teams are gonna have
a called run play and a quarterback where you give
the green light to and say, hey, if you see
a matchup you like, let that ball rip. You know,
(09:01):
by the way, that quarterback has to get it down
field before that lineman gets on his third step. So
you're always gonna have play action pass. A lot of
football is you know, human nature when you when you
show a linebacker football and you give the right shoulder
read as a quarterback, and that running back comes over
and quickly the offensive lineman shows to the backer. He
(09:22):
has to think run and that's how you create plays.
So we're always gonna see an evolution and evan flow.
But the play action passed, the downhill run, the third
and one, the fourth thing goal, those are gonna be
staples of every championship team for now and forever. What's
the longevity look like for a guy like Lamar Jackson. Well,
Lamar Jackson has the decision to make. He has to
(09:43):
decide whether he's gonna be the best player he can
be or if he's gonna spend his time trying to
be a player that he's not. And and I've talked
to player, I've talked to players and coaches who are
on on the Ravens and one of the things that
last year and they're stretched. Uh. You know when the
coaches told me Lamar wanted Lamar Will wanted to be
a passer. He just wanted to be a passer, and
(10:03):
we lost games because of that, and if you look
at roster's not really build for it. And so Lamar
Jackson has to make that decision and say, hey, I
am Lamar Jackson. I can be a great passer, but
I'm not gonna be a Peyton Manning. I'm not gonna
be a Tom Brady. Same way Tom Brady is not
trying to be Lamar Jackson, right, And so if he
can just work within his skill set and maximize his potential,
(10:27):
the nuances on play action passes when he decides to run,
getting out of bounds, I mean, these are things that
are really going to allow him to win a championship
if he can commit to being different, and that's what
every champion is. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven
pm Pacific. Be sure to catch live editions of The
Ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm
(10:50):
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
If you had a quarterback for the next five years,
would you rather have Russell Wilson or Justin Herbert? Russell Wilson, Uh,
Justin Herbert's got an unbelievable, arm I mean, where sweatpants
when he throws the deep ball. It's unbelievable. But Russell
Wilson has won, and so he knows that, you know,
(11:12):
a seemingly insignificant game in week seven is the difference
between home field advantage and not. Right. He also knows
what matters and what doesn't matter when you're going to
the Super Bowl. I mean, David, I had over two
ticket requests the week that we the week before we
went left for the Super Bowl. None of those people
were my friends, right, And so you have to do
(11:34):
a lot of success, as you know, is understanding, recognizing distractions,
and having total belief in yourself. And that's something that
Russell Wilson has perfected over his career. Can you take
me through that then? To Ryan? I mean, because you
played ball at the collegiate level in Notre Dame and
then you go to Denver and you bounce around the league.
What has that been like for you when when you
went from high school to college and started receiving a
(11:57):
ton of accolades and then you have the spotlight on
you and then you get to the show, you get
to the National Football League, how did you actually process that,
and did you have anyone help you along the way,
like hold your hand and say, hey, Ryan, this is
how you act like a professional? Eat, drink, sleep, the
whole smash. Well, a lot of it started with I
(12:17):
never played football for you, right. I played football because
it gave me an opportunity to maximize my skill set.
I mean, David, I've been taking people's lunch money since
high school. Has come faster than that, you know what
I'm saying, Like, let's go um. And so the big
thing for me is I never did it for anybody else,
and it never did it for external validation. But to
your point, there were dozens of veterans who who showed
(12:40):
me the ropes. You know. Um, I think about Wade Smith.
When I went to the Texas, they used to call
me the wandering because I didn't know where I was going,
and he literally showed me with the bathroom of the
meetings rooms where you know, you need people like that.
I also had a mental performance coach all ten years
I was in the NFL, and to really understand, um,
the process behind success. You know, you make the game
(13:02):
winning catch, the game winning block, the game winning kick
the same way you make any block, kick or pass
or cats right, if you're catching the ball, you look
the ball into your hands and you squeeze it when
it hits your fingers. I mean, when you focus on
the process, you reduce anxiety over So I add people
that would talk to me in that athletic realm, people
(13:23):
that you know taught me that not every coach is
a good coach. And the year we won Super A fifty,
we had a mental performance coach on on our staff
that really helped, you know, helped us identify external versus
internal validation. Am I playing football to make David happy?
Am I playing football because I want to have fun?
To rip someone's face off? Because now it really doesn't
(13:43):
matter whether David wants tickets or if David wants to
come to the after party. Those are things that will
figure themselves out. That's not why I'm here. And that's
a very different player to play against. And so I
absolutely needed great coaches that the great coaches that I
did have, the veterans I have, And I also needed
to make sure that I remembered why I love the
football and had nothing to do with other people's opinions.
(14:04):
On that note, because you had that kind of help
and you had that kind of support, did other players
seek you out for that kind of inspiration, that kind
of comfort, and that kind of I guess advice along
the way, of course, you know. I mean one of
the things you know that I wrote about in my
in my book Mindset for Mastery, is that when you
choose your mindset, when you decide that you're there for
(14:27):
yourself and not other people, you're going to scare the
crap out of people. Right, There's a lot of players
in the NFL are getting paid to lose. They didn't
win a championship, they didn't go to the playoffs, and
they still got paid. What do you do? And so
you start to notice the people who don't get affected. Hey,
if a coach is ripping my ass, Hey if I
did something wrong, great, But I'm not always I'm not
gonna take everything that coach is saying as as improvement. Right,
(14:50):
There's gonna be some personal attacks. There might be some
some attacks on you know, your physical capabilities. That has
nothing to do with the fact that I'm gonna go
out here the next play correct my mistake and help
us win a game. And when you start being around
people who are not thrown off by someone's anger or
by someone's angs. Do you gravitate towards those people. You
gravitate towards people who move when things go wrong. And so,
(15:15):
whether it was in the game that we were losing,
after a loss, making sure you still are having fun
and appreciating the ride, I was very lucky to be
a leader in the in the last three offensive line
rooms that I was in. It's the old thing, right,
showing me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser,
exactly right, you know. But but you also have to
you also have to understand. When I was at the
(15:36):
Steelers that we won the Super Bowl, I believe we
lost four straight games at one point, and everybody's head
was down, like, hey, listen, you're gonna lose some games.
That cannot stop you from believing that you're gonna win
a championship. And you gotta have fun, you gotta smile,
you gotta stay loose and UH and those things make
a difference. You. You brought the book, and I want
to talk about that at at some decent length real quick.
(15:58):
What inspired you to you to actually write it? Mindset
for Mastery UH to available on Amazon and you know,
when I look at my tenure NFL career, the difference
between people who are successful and who are not are
people who choose their mindset. And when you win the
Super Bowl, everything you believe about yourself comes true for
other people, but you have to believe that first. So
(16:20):
from getting knocked out of my cleats in college to
you know, learning the lessons that I learned in the NFL,
I wanted to share that with people because, David, we
talk about failure less than we talk about sex, and
I want to tell you the failure is the most
common thread to every success story. Here's how I failed,
Here's how I built my way out of it. Each
of us choose our mindset every day, choose yours with
(16:41):
the words I am, I can, I will. When you've
had those situations of doubt, what do you do? I
mean best practices? Because the rounity is we've you know,
in the sports talk world, and you are like you
were in the show with us. You know, for last
year year and a half, we've been through the coronavirus
as pandemic. There's no sports going on. People are losing jobs,
(17:03):
they're losing loved ones, they're isolated, um, take me through
that for you, not only as a professional in the
media world, but even just as as an individual that
has an impact on the local community. What have you
done during that time? Well, you know, one, I am alive, right, Like, hey,
you know, to have an opinion means you're alive. Good
(17:26):
for you, right, and for a lot of us, for
six hundred thousand of us, that that's not the case, right,
So I would say I would literally say things like,
I am alive. I'm grateful, I have a job, I
am employed. You know, I am responsible for myself and
my family. I'm gonna make choices that are what's best
for them, not what anybody else thinks about. I can,
(17:46):
you know, I can attack every day with opportunity. I
can read, I can learn, I can you know, mitigate
my risk to to get COVID. I can tell stories,
um that are similar to what you'll see in in
the last dance, or I can relate, you know, a
sports topic to something people are talking about in their
real life. I will have fun doing it. I will
(18:06):
make sure I make people laugh doing it. So that's
how I choose my mindset, That's how I walk into
any everything from parenting to living, to being a professional.
And once you set a framework, I mean, there's study
after study that shows our brain believes in the words
we say out loud, right, and when you envision and
visualize your success, it usually happens. So I'm I'm a
(18:29):
big believer in Hey, you know you could when you
go against von Miller, David, because you're no doubt gonna
put on the pads this year now that coronavirus as
you football ready, when you when you're facing von Miller
on third and nine, you better believe you're gonna block
his ass, right, what's your choice? And and so I
just take that to my life often of Hey, I
could choose to be upset, I could choose to wallow
(18:51):
and anger or frustration, but that's not productive. What can
I do? How can I move forward? What way will
I decide? Here we go? You brought up the last Dad,
So that was something I think most of the sports
world watched during the summer of last year. If there's
a guy on that championship team with the Broncos in
Super Bowl fifty, that you could say, I don't want
to say exactly, but you can kind of put in
(19:13):
that same picture as a Dennis Robins saying, hey, he'll
probably leave for a series, go to Vegas, party his
ass off with some strippers, and then come back and
do his thing. Who would that have been on that
Bronco team. Thankfully we didn't have a guy like that.
I will tell you after we won the Super Bowl.
I mean I was in Vegas when Darth Vader came
(19:35):
from the club at the at the win and had
a fifteen thousand dollar bottle of champagne and afro Jack
started playing on the DJ boot and that was crazy, right, Um,
But we didn't have guys like that. And I mean
we had guys that got it in, don't get me wrong,
but it was time to play. It was time to play.
And and also you know, um yeah, I think it's
(19:56):
part of the interesting thing about the Last Dance and
that senior you're talking about. You know, Coach Jackson was
talking to Michael and robmin Of like, hey, Robin needs
a break. Coach Kobayak was not gonna do that. You know,
Coach Kobyak is not gonna go to Peyton and say, hey, Peyton,
you know Ryan Harris needs a break. He's gonna go
to Vegas for a couple of days of practice, like,
you know, we'll see him soon. Like that's not happening
(20:18):
on that team that we were on. But I mean
there's a Dennis Rodman on every team and every family,
isn't there. Yeah, no doubt about it. Ryan, It's been
a lot of fun having you on UM. Since you
are in the media scope right now, what do you
actually do? I mean you're on radio, but do you
do public speaking or you're outside of that. Are you
on anything else with the with the Broncos or what
do you do? What? Yeah, I got a sports talk
(20:40):
show weekdays here in Denver, and uh I do all
the Nor Dame football radio broadcast. I do some West
with One radio broadcasts, and uh I might do some
might do some TV work for Telemundo this year on
their NFL package because uh I speak into Spanish. So
it's all fun, man, and more than anything, you know,
I'm a husband, I'm a father, and uh and being
(21:01):
financially literate and doing the right things with my money
really set me up to do the things I enjoy
now in retirement. Speaking of retirement, and many people might
not know this, but I had a little bit of
a hint on it. I don't know what your playing
weight was exactly. I don't know if your weight is now.
But being six five and amongst all those other things,
you're also a surfer. So what the hell is it
(21:24):
like you getting out a board right now? Especially when
you come down to southern California. Oh? Man, I love it.
I was just in Huntington Beach. Man. Uh, I need
a nine foot board first of all. Okay, so be
honest here, I need one of those storm breakers or
whatever they're called. Um, but I love it, man. I
love getting out in the water. I love hitting the wave,
(21:44):
and if anybody serves, they know it's. Uh it's a
feeling unlike any other, and it's something that I think
about every day. I was gonna say, were you watching
some old school point break, like looking at some Johnny
Utah instructional videos to get up on the board or what?
I still remember watched point Break? I don't think I
wanted kidding movie. Yeah, but you know, one of the
(22:06):
off seasons in the NFL, I went to Maui and uh,
I got on, I got surfed my first wave, and
it just felt like God's hand was throwing me towards
the shore and saying have fun. It was just an
incredible feeling. And then later on dropping into my first wave,
it was just such a such an awesome experience, and
uh something, I just I literally, David, I was, I was.
(22:28):
I was in l a surfing and I surfed through
lunch down in uh down in um uh southern California,
Orange County over there. So I just I'm crazy about it.
I love it, and I love the and I love
the looks too. And people see one a black surfer,
a huge black surfer. You know, you get some of
those what the hell is this guy doing here? But uh,
(22:51):
I love the looks, but I love the waves even better.
So does that mean that you have the bug that
you'll start traveling, maybe to Australia or New Zealand or
somewhere in Europe to try to catch some waves one day?
The minute, the minute these kids are at college. You know,
I'm out of here, David. Let's go man, let's let's
serve the world. Brother, Why the hell not? Well, listen,
(23:12):
if if you do do that, and when you do
do that, I need you at least promised me this,
because it's it's it's it's culture. When you when you
grew up in the nineties. Is that you just need
to pop in or find an old school VHS tape
and just look Patrick Swayzy Kiano reeves Gary Busey point Break,
(23:32):
not the remixed version of it, the original version of
point Break. I can promise you ride you won't be disappointed,
and you might be feeling on nostalgic too, because uh,
this is back of the day when Gary Busey was.
It was actually pretty decent, and of course Patrick Swayzy
was was alive and well yeah before you started ripping
(23:52):
out and yourkin systems and stuff like that. Why you
gotta threatened me with a good time, David. I'll check
it out for sure. And uh hey, and anybody who's
listening who has a surf yet get yourself a lesson.
Check it out, no doubt about it. Ryan, One last
time before we let you go, a mindset of Mastery
ore again. Can everyone find that for you? Yeah, you
can check it out on Amazon dot com Mindset for Mastery,
(24:16):
or visit my website Ryan here at sixty dot com.
And and if I can be of service or resource,
please reach out for sure. For sure, Ryan appreciate the
time today. Have a good weekend, man, and I'm sure
we'll catch up against some time before the NFL regular
season gets underway. Thanks David serves up. Be sure to
catch live editions of The Ben Meller Show weekdays at
(24:37):
two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. Be sure to catch
live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays at two
am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and
the I Heart Radio app.
Host
Ben Maller
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