July 10, 2025 • 55 mins
Carl with Lisa and Hollis sits down with Dante Culpepper to trace his journey from a small Florida town to UCF and the NFL. Dante opens up about overcoming academic setbacks, mastering the Viking offense alongside Randy Moss, and achieving that legendary 2004 “zone” season. He offers practical leadership lessons, reveals what today’s quarterbacks get right (and wrong), and explains the importance of QB–OC chemistry. Plus, hear his candid takes on Aaron Rodgers, LeBron James, and coaching upheavals in pro sports. Off the field, Dante shares his real estate ventures, six-kid household, and how he copes with personal tragedy. This episode blends insider football wisdom with genuine life advice—perfect for sports fans and aspiring leaders alike.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 4 (01:01):
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Speaker 5 (01:12):
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Speaker 7 (01:20):
Welcome to Let's Talk with carl Lee and frequent guest
hosts Hollis Lewis and Lisa Odie, where sports culture and
community intersect. Join the crew as they dive into engaging
conversations with guests from all walks of the sports life.
Let's Talk as proudly presented by Attorney Frank Walker, Real Talk,
Real Experience, Real Results, Frank Walker Law dot com and
(01:41):
by the all new historic Choyer Diner in downtown Charleston
one line at Koyerdiner dot Com. Let the conversation begin
on Let's Talk.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Hello, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 8 (01:52):
Missus Carley with Let's Talk, and I have my co
host Hollis Lewis, Hello, Lisa Odie, Hello, and ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Today.
Speaker 8 (02:04):
I have to say that I am like super happy
and actually kind of star struck a little bit because
I have I have. I have a great quarterback that
I'm holding on to the name. I know some folks
may already know, because I know that Hollis couldn't hold
it all right, So we have Dante called Pepper on
(02:31):
our show today.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Hey, man, how you doing.
Speaker 9 (02:34):
What's up? Car?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'm I'm great.
Speaker 8 (02:38):
And in case you didn't know, like I said, I
have Hollis Lewis, what's up?
Speaker 9 (02:42):
Bro?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And Lisa Odi?
Speaker 10 (02:44):
Hey, Dante, Hello, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 8 (02:48):
So you know I have I have this introduction for you,
but I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of wait on it
because here's one of the questions that I have been
or let me say, how you have impressed me? Okay,
and I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable, but I
know you know, everybody knows athletes and for the most part,
(03:12):
high profile, which I consider you as being a high
profile athlete. In most cases, they can be funny, you
know what I'm saying, Like they don't want to necessarily
always chat with anybody. And man, when we were together
this past trip that we had up there with with
(03:33):
Buddy Becker, br I watched you. You know, you you
signed anything and everything that somebody brought to you, and
you were cordial.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
You were cordial to the other players.
Speaker 8 (03:48):
And I just want to give you, like huge, huge
props because I know a ton of players who are
just not that way, and they don't even maybe have
what you had.
Speaker 9 (04:00):
Man, I appreciate your car, man, but you gotta look
at it like this. I'm I'm from o Calli, Florida, Man,
a small country town here in Florida, and I remember
growing up and we didn't have a whole lot of
pro athletes and celebrities around. So I mean, I look
at mysels like anybody else. First of all, you know,
I don't look at I'm busitan anybody anybody. And so,
(04:23):
you know, I guess it goes back to how I
was brought up and and how I was always taught
to treat people how I want to be treated, you know.
So that's kind of what it is. But I appreciate you, bro.
Speaker 8 (04:34):
Well, yeah, I just I just had to get that out. Hollis,
And let me just give you a little background on Hollis.
Hollis is one of the leaders in black quarterbacks here
in West Virginia. It took us, it took us a
while to kind of get black quarterbacks here, but Hollis
Hollis was one of those. I coached him at West
(04:56):
Virginia State and he and he played at uh.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
G W, which was which was not.
Speaker 8 (05:01):
There was not a lot of black folks there, but
he had the opportunity to be one of our first
black quarterbacks. So I'm sure he's got a lot of
questions for you in regards to that.
Speaker 9 (05:14):
But U, man, it was my pleasure to much respect,
much respect man.
Speaker 8 (05:22):
You know, I always had fun watching you at UH
at UH for the Minnesota Vikings because you know, at
that time we was all about Randy Moss. We was
watching every single game, so and by proxy watching you.
But the question I had, I want to go back
because you know, I actually lived in Central Florida for
a while so familiar with the areas. So you going
to UCF during that time, it wasn't a nationally recognized program.
(05:46):
You had opportunities, but similar to Randy Mars, you ended
up and maybe a lower division than your talented warranted.
So you were able to lift that program up. In
today's college football landscape, do you think that's possible? Do
you think guys would sort of take that route? And
just like I said, you were a four year starter
or excuse me, played four years at UCF and really
(06:07):
was I would say responsible for lifting that program up
to national prominence.
Speaker 9 (06:12):
Hey, man, I appreciate that. But but I tell you, man,
I have some real dogs on my team with me, Man,
some showing up dogs that worked just as hard as me,
and some of them probably harder than me.
Speaker 8 (06:21):
Man.
Speaker 9 (06:21):
So I I, you know, the quarterback get a lot
of credit for when we have some sense. But also
know you get blamed well you don't have some I know,
I know how that goes. You know that too, But man, yeah, man,
UCF was you know, the story of how I got
there was h I was highly recruited coming out of
going into my senior year of high school. And once
(06:45):
my transcripts got out, pretty much my phone went from
ringing off the hook every day to not ringing at all.
And and so it was because I wouldn't taking care
of my business in the classroom. I was a little immature,
and you know, it was a wake up call for me.
So during that time when nothing my phone wasn't ringing,
(07:08):
it was one school that kept in contact with me,
and that was Coase Paul Linsbery at UCM. He was
offer the linement coach and he recruited to since the
Florida area. So he what he did was he looked
at my transcripts and he came and took me out
of class one day and he and he, you know,
he didn't know me very well, but he said, Dante,
I looked at the transcripts, and then there's a possibility
(07:30):
if you do these things right here, you can be
elg by the end of your senior year and those
things and tell me to I had to go back
and take over some of my freshman classes and get
aids at them. And I did that. And you know,
he did this a lot knowing I was, you know,
one type again eligible. He didn't know I was. I
could have signed with anybody still. But because he did that,
(07:53):
and and at the time, like I said, it was
kind of like I was at a low point. I
was like, dang, you know, I didn't know, you know,
I could have played baseball or whatever. I really, I
really wanted to be the first one about saying to
go to college. And so I h once I got
once I became eligible, I you know, see spurry your
(08:13):
little hopes by me bout all these you know, top coaches.
At the time, it was like a light switch picked
back on and they were calling me again, like it
like it never happened. For that whole summer, nobody would
come it. So I say, you know what, I'm gonna
go to U see up because I know these these
people care about me more than just me playing football
(08:36):
for them, and I would be a good hand. So
that's why I ended up at you.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
That's that's amazing.
Speaker 8 (08:41):
So and I think that's part of the story that
maybe gets missing, that you actually got eligible and you
could have just to what you just said, you could
have win anywhere else, but you chose to go to UCF.
So it wasn't like you had to go. You chose
there after you know, they showed you the concern and
love for you.
Speaker 9 (08:58):
Yeah, and these coaches didn't really they would motivate me
because they told me. I ain't gonna say with coach,
but a few of them told me stuff like, you know,
why do you want to go play in front of
five thousand people when you could play in front of
eighty five thousand every week on national TV and stuff
like that. They didn't realize they was just motivate me
to work harder and improve them. Wrong.
Speaker 11 (09:19):
Oh hey, Dante, thanks so much for coming on the
podcast this evening with us. I was pumped all day
for this conversation, so I'm pretty excited to be speaking
with you right now. I just want to fast forward
to the year two thousand and four in your NFL career.
That was your most successful season in the league. I
believe you set the single season record for most total
(09:43):
yardage produced by an NFL quarterback. And also I'm sure
Carl remembers this, Vikings reached the playoffs for the second time.
Speaker 10 (09:51):
Under your watch.
Speaker 11 (09:52):
Looking back on that year, what are your thoughts and
it's impact on your career for future reference?
Speaker 10 (09:59):
What was what? What did that do? Was that a
turning point in your career in the NFL?
Speaker 9 (10:05):
I wasn't say a turning point. I mean we we
had a lot of success on offense, and I like
to say, I uh, it was my third year with
coach Scott Lenahan, who was my officeve coordinator, and he
and I were on the same page. I'm telling you,
it was like I knew what he was thinking every
time he would call a play. I knew why he
(10:26):
was calling it, and I knew what to look for,
and I you know, I became a master of that offense.
And and I think that attributed to a lot of succession. Obviously,
I had, you know, players like Randy Marson, Nate Burton
and Marcus Robinson and Kelly Campbell and also Mo Williams,
Michael Benett, Ontario Smith will do more guys that were great,
(10:48):
great football players around me. And I had great office
in linement as well, Matt Burke and the crew. So man,
it was it was. It was an amazing season offensively
for us, and and I think we were just cooking
and all still of the is because, like I said,
the office coordinator myself, it was our third year together
and I had never been with office office coordinator more
than a year at time, so you know, it was
(11:09):
it was. It was a combination of those things, but
it was a great It was a great year. We
put up a lot of points and you know, we
we made it difficult for defenses to stop us. But yeah,
it was great, and you know, it's just unfortunately, you know,
the next year, I got hurt. But yeah, and Lanta
had left, you know, because Atlanta had left you know
that that season and went to take a job in
(11:31):
Saint Louis as well. So it combinations of things, but
it was it was a good year, and I'm I
was happy to be able to put forth the numbers
and had success.
Speaker 8 (11:41):
We had Sure, Dante, it when I look at your
your height and weight, it says six four to sixty. Yeah,
I have to I'm gonna have to assume at some
point somebody was trying to tell you to play something else.
Speaker 9 (11:59):
Yeah, well, hey, to be honest with you. Thenny Green,
my first day in Minnesota, my very first day there,
they got me scared. I was I was about sixty four.
I was two sixty six my very first day. And
Denny Green, he said, Lady said, Dante, I'm gonna tell
you right now, I'm not concerned with and wait. I
(12:22):
know you're gonna take your business and be prepared. I
just want to make sure that you physically and be
in the best shape that you possibly can be in.
He said, it's not gonna be a problem. I said, no, sir,
I don't have a problem. And he never bothered me
and buy my weight that I never but he did
tell me if he said, I just want you a
hundred two seventy five. So really that was my they
want him so sometimes the way I was wearing two,
(12:44):
even though four, I was like two seventy. But I
was my body fan was low. I was just a big,
big physical fans through that. I worked hard and all season,
so I was preparing my body for the season and
trying to prevent injuries and stuff like that. But I
never you know, even I was a bigger guy people.
(13:06):
I had a high school coach that didn't try to
move me. They let me pay quarterback. And in high school,
you know, my senior year, I was I was, I
was thinking I was about two forty five, two fifty,
you know. Yeah, so I was always a big kid.
In college, you know, coach Mike cruz ach h he
(13:26):
was my office coordinator and then became the head coach,
and he never bothered me about obviously changer. So it
was I was lucky that I had coaches that didn't
try to change my position. I was very lucky that
I had good coaches as well.
Speaker 8 (13:40):
And I'd say too that your quarterback skills had to
have been visible to them for them to even not
not to bother you and or let you just go,
because in most cases there's no way that that no
one's going to be in that position unless they've got
(14:00):
some skill set that coaches can actually literally.
Speaker 9 (14:04):
Sit yes, But I will say that a couple of
couple of colleges, and I'm gonna just say at the
University of Florida was one of them, and there's a
couple other ones like ron Zuk was the office with
the defense coordinator at the time at Florida my senior year,
and his very first question to me, he was like, hey,
you ever't played defense? I was like, I was looking
(14:29):
at him sideways. ID.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
So, So when you get to Minnesota and obviously, and
I believe Randy Moss was already there, how exciting? How
excited were you to be able to have a receiver
of that caliber where because you had a big you
had a big arm, and you can just really just
let it go with a guy like Randy Moss.
Speaker 9 (14:54):
Yeah, I mean I was excited. Denny. Denny told me
what they they called me. I was at the draft
and about to be honest with you, I had no
idea I was going to go to Minnesota because you know,
I didn't talk to Minnesota one time. From the time
my last came out senior year in college until the draft,
I didn't even speak to Minnesota one not a scout
not a call, and I'm gonna tell you interesting story. Man. Uh,
(15:18):
Danny Green called me and I was in the in
the green room at the draft. He called me, and
of course it was, hey, do you want to be
in Minnesota, Miking? And I'm like, of course I want
to be What I'm gonna say, no, Yeah, I didn't care.
You know, I knew that Rand the grun An was there,
Jeff George, but I didn't care because I wanted to
you know, life gonna dream of getting drafted and playing
(15:39):
in the NFL. So, you know, he drafted. But he
when I got to Minnesota, he told me the story
of how he even heard about me when Denny was
you know, he he came up under Bill Walsh and
he said about two years before that, when I was
going to my junior year, he said, uh, Bill wall
gave him a call and told him he needed to
(16:01):
check out this kid in Florida by his name of
Donthe Coben.
Speaker 7 (16:03):
Wow.
Speaker 9 (16:05):
Yeah, So he told me he had led me since
then and then they traded up. I don't know if
y'all remembered it, but they traded because they had like
the twenty pigre late in the first round, but they
traded up to the eleventh fig because Tampa, who I
thought I was going to go through coach Guntry. I
met with him about five times before the draft, and
I thought it was a lot that I was going
to go to Tampa. And Coach Green moved up as
(16:28):
surprised everybody, and drafted me. And he didn't want me
to go to Tampa because at the time we were
in the same visitor. Now this is Danny Green telling
me all this, you know, and I'm like, all right, coach,
So he pulls me in there. He takes you to
the draft board and he told me all the players
that they had rated. And not only did he have
me the number one quarterback in the draft that year,
(16:50):
he had me raised the number one player in the draft.
So he was like, he was really high on me,
and he said he needed a quarterback they can get
the ball out there to Randy and he thought that
I fit the mold for So that's how I even
got to Minnesota. And Coach Green will always be one
of my guys, and I appreciate him drafting me.
Speaker 8 (17:08):
Yeah that and not only and I failed to mention
not only Randy Moss was there, but Chris Carter was
there too, so you had sort of that duality of
those great receivers with two different skill sets and two
different sets of experience. So that always helps out as
a quarterback.
Speaker 9 (17:22):
Oh man, it was big for me. Man it having
two guys like that on the outside that that are
going to make plays when they afford the opportunity to
make the play. That's really what it's all about. And
I just had to put the ball with it need
to beat man and it. You know, sometimes it looks easy,
but you know, we but we prepared very very well
and and uh, you know we were able to put
up some good numbers. Yeah.
Speaker 11 (17:43):
So so Dante, I have a question, and Hollis just
kind of touched on this. Having receivers like Chris Carter
and Randy Moss in your you know, in your field
to throw to. What was it like trying to because
you know, people view the quarterback as the leader of
the team and you know, being in kind of in
charge of the offense, what was your approach to leadership
involving Chris and Randy, Like, what kind of a relationship
(18:06):
did you have with those guys out on the field.
Speaker 10 (18:09):
Was it kind of a.
Speaker 11 (18:10):
Mutual thing or did you feel comfortable enough to tell
them this is what we're going to do or was
it mutual?
Speaker 9 (18:15):
Yeah, I would tell you. My rookie year, I kind
of was like a sponge around there because I didn't
play my rookie year, so I got to watch Jeff
George around the Cunningham and watch how they prepare, and
I didn't I you know, obviously they had a job
to do as well, so I wasn't you know, I
didn't want to be this kids just bothering them and
(18:38):
picking their brain all the time. So I was kind
of like a sponge just you know, even the meeting rooms,
of course they would ask and just how they prepared themselves.
And I learned a lot from those guys. But dealing
with Randy and Chris that the season that coach after
my rookie year, Coach Green calls me, I think in
like March and tells me, hey, I'm going to announce
that you're going to be outside quarterback. And I was like,
(18:58):
all right, Coach, I'm ready. I felt like I was
ready my rookie year. After after probably about two weeks
of training camp, I thought I could have started. I
thought I had a girl. I felt like that, but
I had to wait. So so every every week during
my rookie year, I was the scout team quarterback, and
I treated practice like it was my game every day.
And I'm gonna who really got me ready? John Randall Man,
(19:21):
That dude, hey were he was painting faith in practice,
you know what I'm saying. So practice for me was
intense my rookie year. So Randy and Chris got to
see my skills set every day going against our first defense.
So I think I kind of won those guys over
a little bit. But then that off season when I
(19:42):
was name a starter, I came down to Chris's UH
training facility down in Voca Raton, Florida, and I lived
down there and trained with them every day. So they
got to see how hard I worked. You know, I wasn't.
I didn't. I came in. I didn't. I'm the type
of guy I didn't want nobody to give me nothing.
I want to earn it. So I earned never respect
and that it was a natural thing. And then and
(20:03):
once we got back up there the training camp, you know,
it was just I just stepped in and and and
they were just they were just receivers on the team.
To me, you know, at the times, like I had
a job to do, and they know, they know, everything
came to the quarterback, and you know, we we'd have
our you know, a little spats here and there, but
they know I would, you know, if I had Yeah,
(20:26):
if we had to come, we had to come to blows.
I was willing, you know what I'm saying. So we
we Luckily we never had to do that. But they
understood and they looked in my eyes and they knew
what I was made of. So I never had any
real problems with any one of those guys.
Speaker 8 (20:42):
What's interesting to me is like I had I had
a year with Chris, and.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Chris is a different breed. He he like like like
for me, like we would go if going one on
one and all that kind of stuff. Like he was.
He was the kind of guy that.
Speaker 8 (21:04):
Could really get to you, get get you, like, get
you upset, get you to the point where like you're like.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Well, bro, let's just let's just throw blows.
Speaker 8 (21:14):
And so I'm wondering, how did you And again kind
OF's the same somewhat of the same question. But Chris
to me was a different guy. Like, what, like, how
did you manage to pull him in to it being okay?
Like when you didn't throw to him, you know, because
I know he wanted every ball.
Speaker 9 (21:37):
Hey, can y'all hear me? Yeah we can hear Okay,
I'm on the turn fight. That was breaking up a
little bit. But yeah, Chris Man. Let me tell you,
I love Chris Man. But Chris, you know, he had
a lot of success, and you know, he he's the
type of guy that you just gotta be stirring with him. Man. Yeah,
that's what I did. And you know, in my rookie year,
(22:00):
he got to realize that the Vikings. I was brought
into a situation where the team was fifteen and one
the year before in the offenses, and so a lot
of people was like, why we draft a quarterback? We
need somebody, we need to help on defense. You know.
So I felt like, I really Chris was one of
the guys I really had to show, all right, why
(22:22):
I'm here and through it all. You know, I'm happy
that we were able to give them the same pace.
But at first, you know, Chris wasn't He wasn't somebody
that I really liked particularly, and I know he really
he felt like it was the end of his career
and he didn't have time to groom a guy. So
(22:43):
I knew I had to be ready, you know what
I'm saying. But one thing for sure, it was going
to be respectful, you feel me. So Chris knew. He
knew the type of dude I was from working out
with me, and a few times we in the heat
of battle, you know, I have to remind him like, man,
let's let's be respectful or now we can go we
(23:07):
can go there if you want to. And he never
really wanted to go there. So so that's how That's
how it was, man. So he ended up being good.
So we ended up being good.
Speaker 8 (23:15):
Yeah, And I think I think in most cases you
always do kind of patch it up, but it is,
it is super tense, and I don't know if people
really realize whether it's quarter quarterback, receiver, offensive or defensive
line secondary. Like you chatting, you know, there's guys that
are chatting saying stuff like, hey, you guys got to
(23:35):
get a sight. You know, we were back here trying
to you know, and then some all of a sudden,
one I'm gonna turn around and say something to you,
and you kind of gotta be try to be like
you bold. But but I know when I was there,
there was nothing I could do with any of those
none of those d linemen. But Johnny Randall is a
special dude. He was a He was a special player.
Speaker 9 (23:54):
You know, we went at it.
Speaker 8 (23:56):
Man.
Speaker 9 (23:56):
He his intensity every day. Yeah, got me, got my
feet right, got me really at the speed of the game.
I had to adjust a little bit from college and
being there every day going against him definitely helped me
and I and I appreciated him for that, you know,
because he was he was a He was a high
level competitor, and I was the same way, and I
(24:17):
wanted to win no matter how how it happened. Throwing
the run of it didn't matter.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, that's what's up.
Speaker 8 (24:23):
So you know, I'm gonna go I know we jumping
all over the place here, but I'm gonna go a
little off script. And now you you were synonymous with
with your famous celebration.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
To get your role on celebration, you was not.
Speaker 8 (24:37):
Only did you you sort of popularized it outside of
the hip hop community, but you were also in one
of at the time, one of my favorite groups videos,
the Big Timer. So you know, you know, being a
kid from central Florida and kind of going through everything
you went to and just having that level of a
fun and celebrity.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
How was that experience for you?
Speaker 9 (24:58):
It was great. Man. Know Slim, Slim Williams and Baby Williams.
You know I met I met Slim. They're the owners
of Owners of Cash Money Records. And I met Slim
when they first were coming on the scene because one
of one of my wife's cousins played for the Saints
and his his girlfriend at the time was a girl
(25:20):
from New Orleans. So they when they broke up her
that that girl became she was friends with Slim, and
some kind of way he found out that, uh that
I was friends with well my girlfriend and her with friends.
So he invited me to that one of their first
shows when it came to Florida. So I ended up
(25:42):
going to the show in Miami and we hit off
and we became good friends. And you know, they had
a song and it because gets the roll on. So
one day I was leaving and he calls me. He's like, hey,
Pep man, when you call touchdown, may see you get
the rollover. That's and that's how I have it. Man,
and I just I did after every touchdown. It was
(26:03):
my celebration. Man. It was fun though. But those du
you know, awesome. Man. I had a great time, you know,
hanging out with them.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
That's what Hey.
Speaker 11 (26:11):
So Dante's speaking of youth and reliving your days back
when you were rookie quarterback. Thinking about the current NFL
with with so many young quarterbacks starting. You've got, you know,
names like c. J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Jayden Daniels. What
are your thoughts on the current crop of young quarterbacks
in the league. How do you how do you feel
(26:31):
about their play?
Speaker 9 (26:33):
I love it. I love it. You know, it's a
different it's a different game, obviously, it's a more it's
an offensive game, and it's great. It's very exciting. I love,
you know, the run pass option that they do, the
R pos. I love that, you know, kind of wish
we'd had a little bit of that when I was playing. Yes,
you know, and I think, you know the quarterback you know,
(26:58):
coming up when I was young. You you're getting labeled
as a running quarterback, right.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (27:04):
It's a negative thing. But I love you know, I
love Jayson, I love Jalen Hurst, I love you know,
I mean I think Lamar Jackson is absolutely fantastic, and
my homes is Off obviously a great player. It's a
lot of great players. I love my man up in
the Buffalo. He's definitely something who's somebody. I love that
(27:28):
I watched him play man. I mean, it's just the
quarterback play is phenomenal. Guys are very accurate and then
they get to showcase the athleticism and move to change
in different ways. I think that's exciting and uh, I
love to watch them.
Speaker 8 (27:44):
And I think just to touch on that, you know,
being a quarterback, you know, coming up in the in
the nineties, it was sort of that distinction either you
was a running quarterback or you was a passing quarterback.
Even though we had guys like Steve Young and John Elways,
it was still like you were still category is either
one or the other. So as your game of all,
particularly because I know you did a lot of running college,
(28:05):
but you also did your first.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Running in the in the NFL.
Speaker 8 (28:08):
Was that something you were like conscious of or you
were just you were just out there playing ball.
Speaker 9 (28:14):
I'm playing ball. I was. I was definitely constantly mean
because you know, my coach always say, man, get down,
get down, you know, but I you know, I was
squadding five fifty and you know, I was running up
for five man, and I went, I wasn't. I felt
like I was going. I felt like I was either
going to make a guy in there or punishing. Yeah,
that was my mentality, you know what I'm saying. So
(28:35):
you know, I my main goal was to move the
change if I wanted to put up in position to
get points, whether it's running or throwing. You know, I
never said, you know, I don't want to run on
this play, because the defense a lot of times dictated,
you know, how you got to most the change sometimes.
So I just wanted to be like a Swiss Army
(28:55):
Knight to be able to, you know, be two different
ways with maybe come you.
Speaker 8 (29:02):
Had you had thirty four rushing touchdowns and and as
negative as a running quarterback title could be. Brother, that's
that's that's an amazing that's an amazing number for a quarterback.
Speaker 9 (29:17):
Yeah, oh yeah, thank you y'all put them. I didn't.
It didn't matter to me. It only mattered that we
got the points. You know, I remember that year, the
year I had ten touchdowns in one year, right, So
but I could have had twenty because Moe Williams had
ten touchdowns also from the had about eight or nine
from the one yard line. I could have quarterback sticked
(29:38):
all of him. But he you know, he's always tell me, man,
let me get the touchdowns. So I know, so I'll
tell her. I said, you better get on first to
seke it down because the third time.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
And you had and you had it.
Speaker 9 (29:53):
It was a good thing, man. And I just always
wanted to get the points that didn't. I wasn't. I
didn't care about who got it to be, but I
just wanted to make sure we put us in some
positions to try to win games.
Speaker 8 (30:04):
Right as one hundred and eighty five pound cornerback, Bro,
you had two thousand and six hundred and fifty two
rushing yards.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Bro, you can't come over there by.
Speaker 8 (30:15):
Me like you like you got to go the other
way or something, because I'm gonna have miss that.
Speaker 9 (30:21):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
That's that's a that's a ton of yards.
Speaker 9 (30:23):
Man. Yeah, man, I hate, I gotta tell you I'm
signing to I was trying to put it in a
position to get points and win, man. That's all it
was about. It wasn't. I never was a stat chaser.
Like that. I didn't care if I threw for three
hundred or three for one hundred. I don't care if
I've ran for twenty or for one hundred. Didn't matter
to me. I only cared about the point in the
win loss call. That's really that mattered.
Speaker 8 (30:46):
Yeah, And I just had one more question to that
as far, because you said something earlier about not necessarily
having a consistent offensive coordinator at least in your time
in the NFL, and I want you to just to
articulate to people how difficult that can be because at
the point that you can like master office, you get
to know you are you and the OC are on
(31:07):
the same page. Then you leave, you got to start
all over. I know Jayalen Hurts and a lot of
the young guys are going through that now. So how
difficult is that?
Speaker 9 (31:15):
Just as a professional, it is very imperative importance for
the office coordinator and the quarterback to be on the
same page. Is I can't even put in the work
how important it is because it's it's it's like it's
like night day. If you don't if you're not on
the same page, if you don't know why the office
(31:35):
of Coordinator is calling up certain play in a certain situation.
Your your thought process isn't right. And I mean from
I had good I'm not saying I didn't have any
other Girlmin's coordinators, but we I don't think we were
in sync like I was with Scott Lanahan, you know,
and and it just was clicking, man. And I noticed
(31:56):
that when I when he left, it was it was
like I was sometimes I feel I was out there alone,
you know, And that's a that's a tough thing when
you're out there quarterback. You don't if you don't have
your eyes up there, you know, being able to tell
you because obviously if most quarterbacks are not all quarterbacks
have the ability to change the play at any time anyway.
(32:16):
But if you want to, you want to know why
he's calling what he's calling. And it's a rhythm thing too,
you know, the rhythm thing, and you know, you pay quarterback.
And if you can't get in the rhythm, which office coordinator,
it could be some day it could be a lot
of three and outs. And that's the worst thing ever
to give a three outs.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
And I think people don't really like they can't conceptualize
that they they I think they made for people who
never didn't play the position. They're just looking on field
and how that manifests. But to have that all firs
of coordinator, because I mean, if you're really clicking, then
y'all can even finish each other sentences.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Y'all.
Speaker 8 (32:50):
It's almost like you can look at him, he can
look at you and you notice set. You know, to
play like it ain't even got to be articulated, and
people don't understand, like if you don't have that, or
if you're in conflict or you're thinking one way and
he's thinking another, then it just messes up the timing
and rhythm of not only just the office, but it
can do damage to the whole team as well.
Speaker 9 (33:11):
Definitely, definitely, man, it's very important to just as the
OC or who's not. It ain't got to be who's
ever calling the play. Yeah, you know, OC, don't call
the play the head coach officer, but you've got to
be in sync with that that person as a quarterback.
And in my career, the success the years I was
very successful, it was when I kind of knew why
(33:32):
he was calling something, when he was calling it and
what we were trying to accomplish.
Speaker 11 (33:36):
Yeah, So Dante I'm going to go on a different
path here.
Speaker 10 (33:40):
It's kind of an opinion question.
Speaker 11 (33:42):
So I want to I want to talk about a
person that I know, Carl admires a lot.
Speaker 10 (33:47):
That's Aaron Rodgers coming off.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
So Dante's backdropp This is she's a Packer fan. Okay,
Well you don't have to tell him that.
Speaker 11 (33:57):
Yeah, so so so Dante. He's you know, he's coming
off a major injury. He's entering his twenty first season,
and he's signed with the Steelers. You've experienced a major
injury like that and tried to continue your career with
the Dolphins, Raiders and Lions after the Vikings, correct after
(34:20):
you had your knee injury. So what do you think
fans should expect from Aaron Rodgers in Steeler Country? Do
you think he'll be successful in twenty twenty five or
do you feel like he should just have already ridden
off hto the sunset?
Speaker 10 (34:33):
What are your opinions on him?
Speaker 9 (34:35):
I'm going to tell you, with his skill set, if
they can keep him off the ground, and with the
receivers they have, and I mean, he's a very accurate quarterback.
He's obviously he knows the game. Had it out. It's
an interesting thing. I think he gets I mean, they
come down to and they protected and not get him
(34:58):
in because of you know, you know, you get him
here a few times. You know, you know, he's not
he's not a young guy anymore. So that's that's you know,
it might take him longer the hell and there's different
factors than that, so they could protect him and keep
him off the ground. I think they can definitely have
a lot of success because his armors definitely has a pop,
a lot of pop left in and he's a very
(35:19):
very accurate quarterback, and he's pritpo and he knows the game.
So with those things, if he if he they gotta say,
if they healthy, they can definitely have a lot of
success with that team.
Speaker 8 (35:31):
And see and and to that point, like I you know,
I played, you know with Tommy Kramer, you know, and
he toward the end of his career, and then I
was able to play in Minnesota for long enough to
see other players, other quarterbacks who were getting towards the
end of their career.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
It's interesting to me when you start talking about.
Speaker 8 (35:54):
Because because because Tommy, Tommy didn't have to do a
whole lot of anything like he just knew the position
like he he just knew what he was gonna need
to do.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
He could just get.
Speaker 8 (36:06):
Out there and and he could just see it and
and and people talk a lot about the game slowing down, yep.
So when the game slowed down for you, was it
a situation to where you were like, Okay, I can
I'm seeing all this, I can make this check, I
(36:27):
can make all these changes in the cause of what
I could. I could pretty much do what I want
because you could see and you understood the game as
a whole, and it was just like you were looking
at it and seeing it.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Oh, he's getting ready to go do this. It's cover three,
it's cover four.
Speaker 8 (36:42):
You know you could you tell me a little bit
about when you got to that place and how comfortable
it made you feel.
Speaker 9 (36:49):
I'm gonna tell you, man, it's an amazing thing to be.
I call it the zone. When you're in the zune.
Like you know, my first year, three touchdowns that year,
But I went in the zone. You know, I was
out there, I was playing, I was having success. And
then and you know, my next few years it was
kind of up and down. But then you know, three, well,
(37:11):
coach manand came on two, and we about halfway through
that year week got on the same page. And then
three I was I was kind of it was slowing down,
but if what I hadn't got totally there. But oh four,
I'm telling you, man, I felt like I don't know
if y'all ever watched the Marvel moves and Spider Man
when everything when everything slow down, and he knew me
(37:31):
so fast that everything is really slow to him. That's
how I felt that. I felt like I was a superhero.
I really felt like everything was slow to me, and
it was like I could see it before it happened.
And and I I like to call that when you're
in the zone and it's like you can't be stopping
and that that is an amazing thing to be in
the zone and you're you know, athletes know know what
(37:53):
that is, man. And when you're in the zone, man,
it's like no matter what you do, you you you're
a step ahead of everything else. You know, it is
an amazing feeling. And it is a fantastic feeling. You know.
That's the best way I can describe it. Being in
the zone. You know, it is like you're just to
everybody else, You're moving faster, you're doing this great and
these awesome things, but to you, it's like everything is slow, right,
(38:17):
It's just amazing.
Speaker 8 (38:18):
And that's and that's crazy because you had the Spider
Man reference and being a quarterback and being on the zone,
that ball feel like it's on the string. You really
feel like you just you can really pit it anywhere
you want to pit it. Everybody else is just moving
like they're just walking, and you just at full speed
all the time.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
So that's definitely an amazing feeling.
Speaker 9 (38:38):
You know.
Speaker 8 (38:39):
And I you know, I think I think to have
some success, at at least at the professional level, I
think everybody has to have a time or a place
where they're in that zone. Because if you don't, I
don't know how you make it, you know what I'm saying,
Because like you, you got to go against this guy
(38:59):
that guy all the time, and at some point you
got to get to a point where you were saying, oh,
it don't matter, I can just I can just do
this because I can remember just in you know, playing
corner in eighty seven. It was like it was it
was easy for me to you know, cover this guy,
(39:20):
cover that guy, and I won't throw names out because
people will be like, oh, he ain't never cover that guy.
But it just got it did It just got comfortable
and you, like you said, you're in that zone man,
and it's and it's great.
Speaker 9 (39:35):
Yeah, it's a it's an amazing feeling. And you said
it right, man. You just it's no matter what they
try to do, you a step ahead or teach me
like it's a it's tough, you know. And I've been
on the other end of that when people no matter
what what you try to do, it doesn't work. You know. Yeah,
the word day. But man, being in the zone is
(39:56):
a great feeling, man. And and I would to everybody
who's an athlete to feel that feeling because it's an
awesome feeling.
Speaker 11 (40:05):
So Dante, what what are you currently doing now that
your football crew is ever what? What what is your
focus now as far as your hobbies your business kind
of aspects.
Speaker 9 (40:15):
Well, I lived out in uh South Florida and Fort
l my wife and I for a while. We were
at a trucking business and we got out of that
and now we're just building our real estate portfolio, you know,
just to you know, we have some properties at our
hometown and we're just building and and and just trying
(40:36):
to you know, make that as successful as possible. But
other than that, we we had six kids, and my
kids are in the house still. He's fourteen and he's
playing a little quarterback now. And yeah, he says he
wants it, but I told him, you know, he's one
(40:57):
thing to say it. But you gotta you gotta, you
gotta be an everyday thing. You got to be for
who you are, you know, you know, do you sit
ups every day? So stuff like that. I'm on them.
And my other two boys are in college. They play
college basketball. They're actually in the transfer port now and
they're looking for up a place to play. So hopefully
they have a team. You know, they signed somewhere soon.
(41:17):
So you know, that's that's what. My brothers are thirty
and twenty eight, and we have three grandkids, three baby girls. Yeah,
so you know that, you know, been my my my
girls in high school and we have a beautiful family.
And that's that's what. I'm just a dad now, you know,
(41:39):
I drop off.
Speaker 10 (41:40):
Superdad pick up.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
I got a GRANDSONID so I know how that works, man.
Speaker 9 (41:48):
Yeah. Yeah, Unfortunately, you know, my my baby girl was
killed in a car accident in twenty twenty and she
was ten years old. Yeah, yeah, I've every day man,
so you know, you know, you know, life, life happens,
you know, and you keep pushing forward. And but I'm
I'm happy, and uh, I appreciate you know, I was
(42:09):
lucky to to start dating my wife when I did.
I got a good girl.
Speaker 8 (42:14):
Man.
Speaker 9 (42:14):
She's uh, she's been there every step of the way
with men, and uh she's been a definitely a huge
support of me. And uh and and how you know
we get to you know, continue to grow and and
be grandparents and and uh, you know, it's just enjoying life,
you know, That's what it's about.
Speaker 8 (42:33):
Well, bro, like I said, I I'm gonna go back
to the opening and and just let you know. And
you you again, you just impressed me every single time
I got a chance to have you be.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
I'm around you, listen to you.
Speaker 8 (42:49):
You You're a genuine brother to me that I think
that your success, you're all the greatness that comes with you.
I don't I don't even know if you even care
about that at this point, because it doesn't come off.
Did you just come off as a genuine person that
just that just will sit and talk with.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Anybody no matter what.
Speaker 8 (43:12):
And I and and like I said, for your for
you to be Dante Calpepper, nobody's thinking that, Like, hey,
I can sit there and talk with him and he'll
talk back to me. And I saw it. I saw
it firsthand, man, So I'm super impressed. And I appreciate
you coming on the show. And uh we'll let you
go now, and uh, thank you, man, and get your
(43:34):
role on.
Speaker 9 (43:37):
Hey, David, thank you all for what Man. I gotta say.
I'm equally impressed with you, card Man. I appreciate your
big brother and uh, man, just keep in touch with me, man,
and hopefully we can play some golf. Tom.
Speaker 8 (43:48):
I gotta get my golf game. I gotta get my
golf game up New York. I seen you on Instagram
and he was looked like he was hitting about three hundred.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
I've seen that one.
Speaker 9 (43:59):
I'm right hit a three hundred, but it won't go straight.
It'll go straight, so he can get some lessons.
Speaker 8 (44:07):
I'm searching for lessons, man, I'm searching for the lessons
before I get back out there because I and I
can't say I played pretty decent before, but I hadn't
played for for like two three years and and bro,
I already know how that's gonna look. So I gotta
five fee somebody, thank you by somebody to help me out.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
But I'll get back with you.
Speaker 8 (44:29):
Man, We'll get we'll get in touch, and we'll stay
in We'll stay in touch.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
I'll say that for sure.
Speaker 9 (44:34):
Man, Thank you all for having me.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Thank you for many All right, cats the kittens?
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Have you heard?
Speaker 3 (44:40):
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(46:01):
Carl Lee. This is Let's Talk with Carl Lee. Now
back into the conversation.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
All right, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 8 (46:08):
I hope you enjoyed that part of the show, and
I think we got a little bit more time, I think,
and Holliston's got a he's got he's got something he's
got to get off his chill.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (46:17):
So first of all, I just think Dante Copever, he
was just so genuine answered all the questions, just gave
us great detailed insight on you know, his life and everything.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
So that was awesome.
Speaker 8 (46:27):
But just you know, now we're entering to NBA free agency.
You know, there's been a lot of talk about the
collective bargaining agreements and different things of that nature, and
Kevin Durant.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
Want to move again.
Speaker 8 (46:38):
So now we have Lebron he originally signed, but I
still think he has the option to opt out or
he has some options. So I think he was He's
possibly do about fifty four million dollars, but I don't
I think he can still move if he if he
wanted to. So I mean, just what are your general thoughts.
You know, he's played twenty plus years, he got his
son in the league. Is it like he's won four championships,
(47:01):
won every championship? Why where he went? Is it time
to go or would you think he'd be damaging his
legacy by possibly going to a different team.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
I think yes, I think.
Speaker 8 (47:11):
If he goes to another team, I don't think he
can play. He's not getting better. Okay, let's let's just
make this clear. He he's not gonna get that. Age
is not going to allow you.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
To get any better.
Speaker 8 (47:25):
Okay, And so I'm not a Lebron fan anyway, So
so so I could be I could be a little
prejudice in here, but.
Speaker 4 (47:34):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
I don't really. I don't think he is.
Speaker 8 (47:38):
He is doing anything necessarily for the NBA. I don't
think you know what I'm saying, Like, everybody knows Lebron,
everybody knows who he is. Everybody knows he's played on
fifty five teams. So what I mean, what is there
what is there to be left to do?
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Yeah? What is there left for him really to do?
Speaker 11 (47:58):
Yeah, I'm you know, I'm gonna go back to what
Hollis said about it, would it possibly damage his legacy?
Speaker 10 (48:05):
I think we're beyond that with him. So yeah, I
think he could. I think he he can do.
Speaker 11 (48:10):
I think it's up to Lebron to decide. Of course
he is, he calls the plays, the shots for his career.
But I think it's up to him what he wants
to do and how to how to bow out gracefully
on his career. And I don't think it's going to
hurt his legacy in the least amount of yeah, amount
of anyway. But you know who's undefeated, father Tom, and
we know that's catching up with him. So you know,
(48:31):
I think that he would be better off probably bowing
out sooner than later. But I don't think anything's going
to diminish his accomplishments in the NBA.
Speaker 8 (48:41):
Yeah, I would say, you know, I'm a Laker fan,
and most certainly obviously him being on the roster taking
up that much cap space. I don't know if it's
not going to help us build. But I think for
his maybe own personal legacy, I don't think you want
to go out and you don't make the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
I think last year they didn't. We didn't make the playoffs.
Speaker 8 (48:59):
So I think maybe in his mind, like at least
even if we don't win a championship, I at least
want to go out on a playoff team. I don't
want to go out not making the playoffs. But let
me I know we ain't got much time. But let
me ask you another question. Tom Thibodeau, former head coach
of the New York Knicks. He gets them almost to
the Dance Eastern Conference championship and they let him go right,
(49:21):
What do you guys think about that sort of move?
When you when you, and then again in for context,
this is the first time they had been there in
like twenty maybe thirty years, This first time they've been
relevant in a very long time. I'm gonna say this, Okay,
somebody in the system, whether it's a player, whether it's
(49:42):
somebody somebody in the structure, does not like him. Yeah,
you think it's I think it's personal. I mean, but
he's known to be a grinder. He's known to like
he's playing his he hey guys, and they're gonna grind
out each and every night. You knowing to be a
hard like he plays coach is hard. I'm a star player,
(50:05):
I'm your I'm your main player. I don't and I
don't necessarily know who that is. I'm not I'm not
pointing a finger. I'm just saying, but I'm going seeing
management and saying, look, this dude's pushing, he's yelling and screaming.
He's doing all this kind of stuff that I that
I don't like and the team don't like. And I
think the reason we didn't get all the way was
because of him.
Speaker 11 (50:24):
Do you really think there's a player on that team
that has that kind of leverage.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
He said player or I said player or management.
Speaker 8 (50:30):
Somewhere somebody is not liking who he is as a
person and how he's coaching.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Because he showed your results. He showed you, he showed
the result.
Speaker 10 (50:41):
That's what I mean.
Speaker 11 (50:42):
Yeah, and in the NBA, but it is ruthless. I mean,
unless you get to the to the level of the championship,
the NBA Championship game, you're it's not good enough, at
least for the fans. I mean, you said there's a
Lakers fan, and you were pretty much, but you.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
Don't fire.
Speaker 8 (50:59):
But but what I'm saying is like being a Laker fan,
we've we've had championships this century. Yeah right, if you're
a nick fan, you have been nowhere since like Patrick Ewing,
since like the Spree, well maybe Allen Houston teams, Like
this is the first time you've been to this level.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
This guy, well, well Mike Brown got hired.
Speaker 8 (51:18):
He again, he but with Mike Brown, he's won championships
as a head coach, one championships as an assistant. But
he's also been fired four times as the head coach.
Speaker 10 (51:27):
So it's like, I'm just a carousel, don't you.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Yeah, I just don't.
Speaker 8 (51:30):
But but if again, if you're coaching you had that
level of success, it's just hard for me to justify
why you were fired other than to your point, it's
just being purely personal.
Speaker 11 (51:41):
Yeah, it's did you have that kind of leverage in
the NFL car fired?
Speaker 12 (51:46):
No, that was I was on the end result of that.
I mean because and again, even players, you can get
cut for the like when I got cut from the
Vikings and went to the Saints. The whole reason that
I got cut was because me and the dB, the
new dB coach, Danny Green's buddy.
Speaker 2 (52:06):
Was the dB coach, and he.
Speaker 8 (52:08):
Ain't know nothing about He didn't know nothing about dB
play like, he knew nothing. And we're in the meetings laughing,
and you know, and me and him and had conversation
and he said to me, you don't know how to backpedal.
You or he he said, you back pedal too high.
Now you're a scout becoming a dB coach. I've been
(52:30):
playing my entire career. I'm in year eleven, right, and
you're telling me I don't know how to back credit.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
How do I not laugh?
Speaker 8 (52:38):
So that's why I'm sure, that's the reason why I
got cut because I just couldn't respect him and I
didn't show him respect because we just didn't get along.
And I'll even go a step further. All within two years,
our whole entire secondary got cut.
Speaker 10 (52:59):
And it was because of the new Yeah, the new
dB coach.
Speaker 8 (53:03):
Yeah yes, and Denny Green brought it. I mean, that
could be an example of just kind of what's going on.
It's just like I said, it's just it's just amazing,
like in this support environment, when you have success and
then you just like you just let go the next year.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
It's just I don't know, it's it's.
Speaker 8 (53:18):
It's money and you and you gotta you gotta be
what that person wants.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
You to be. And sometimes that sometimes that's tough.
Speaker 11 (53:27):
Yeah, but then that person should be held responsible if
they if they fire you know what I mean, Like
they fire a coach that that is is not he
hasn't reached the pinnacle, but he's pushing them closer. And
then you fire this guy and you bring somebody else
in that takes the steps backward. Somebody needs to be
held accountable for that. Don't you think I.
Speaker 2 (53:45):
Would think so?
Speaker 8 (53:46):
But but but it depends on who that person is
and what his connections is.
Speaker 10 (53:50):
It's true too, Jerry, James and Dallas.
Speaker 2 (53:54):
I he owns it.
Speaker 8 (53:56):
So yeahs all right, Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna
get out of here and we appreciate you, and uh
we'll see again next week.
Speaker 7 (54:06):
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You gotta work.
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Cry never mind who talking, guy this day line, don't talk.
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Speaker 4 (01:01):
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Welcome to Let's Talk with carl Lee and frequent guest
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Let's Talk as proudly presented by Attorney Frank Walker, Real Talk,
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(01:41):
by the all new historic Choyer Diner in downtown Charleston
one line at Koyerdiner dot Com. Let the conversation begin
on Let's Talk.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Hello, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 8 (01:52):
Missus Carley with Let's Talk, and I have my co
host Hollis Lewis, Hello, Lisa Odie, Hello, and ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Today.
Speaker 8 (02:04):
I have to say that I am like super happy
and actually kind of star struck a little bit because
I have I have. I have a great quarterback that
I'm holding on to the name. I know some folks
may already know, because I know that Hollis couldn't hold
it all right, So we have Dante called Pepper on
(02:31):
our show today.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Hey, man, how you doing.
Speaker 9 (02:34):
What's up? Car?
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I'm I'm great.
Speaker 8 (02:38):
And in case you didn't know, like I said, I
have Hollis Lewis, what's up?
Speaker 9 (02:42):
Bro?
Speaker 2 (02:42):
And Lisa Odi?
Speaker 10 (02:44):
Hey, Dante, Hello, Hello, Hello.
Speaker 8 (02:48):
So you know I have I have this introduction for you,
but I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of wait on it
because here's one of the questions that I have been
or let me say, how you have impressed me? Okay,
and I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable, but I
know you know, everybody knows athletes and for the most part,
(03:12):
high profile, which I consider you as being a high
profile athlete. In most cases, they can be funny, you
know what I'm saying, Like they don't want to necessarily
always chat with anybody. And man, when we were together
this past trip that we had up there with with
(03:33):
Buddy Becker, br I watched you. You know, you you
signed anything and everything that somebody brought to you, and
you were cordial.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
You were cordial to the other players.
Speaker 8 (03:48):
And I just want to give you, like huge, huge
props because I know a ton of players who are
just not that way, and they don't even maybe have
what you had.
Speaker 9 (04:00):
Man, I appreciate your car, man, but you gotta look
at it like this. I'm I'm from o Calli, Florida, Man,
a small country town here in Florida, and I remember
growing up and we didn't have a whole lot of
pro athletes and celebrities around. So I mean, I look
at mysels like anybody else. First of all, you know,
I don't look at I'm busitan anybody anybody. And so,
(04:23):
you know, I guess it goes back to how I
was brought up and and how I was always taught
to treat people how I want to be treated, you know.
So that's kind of what it is. But I appreciate you, bro.
Speaker 8 (04:34):
Well, yeah, I just I just had to get that out. Hollis,
And let me just give you a little background on Hollis.
Hollis is one of the leaders in black quarterbacks here
in West Virginia. It took us, it took us a
while to kind of get black quarterbacks here, but Hollis
Hollis was one of those. I coached him at West
(04:56):
Virginia State and he and he played at uh.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
G W, which was which was not.
Speaker 8 (05:01):
There was not a lot of black folks there, but
he had the opportunity to be one of our first
black quarterbacks. So I'm sure he's got a lot of
questions for you in regards to that.
Speaker 9 (05:14):
But U, man, it was my pleasure to much respect,
much respect man.
Speaker 8 (05:22):
You know, I always had fun watching you at UH
at UH for the Minnesota Vikings because you know, at
that time we was all about Randy Moss. We was
watching every single game, so and by proxy watching you.
But the question I had, I want to go back
because you know, I actually lived in Central Florida for
a while so familiar with the areas. So you going
to UCF during that time, it wasn't a nationally recognized program.
(05:46):
You had opportunities, but similar to Randy Mars, you ended
up and maybe a lower division than your talented warranted.
So you were able to lift that program up. In
today's college football landscape, do you think that's possible? Do
you think guys would sort of take that route? And
just like I said, you were a four year starter
or excuse me, played four years at UCF and really
(06:07):
was I would say responsible for lifting that program up
to national prominence.
Speaker 9 (06:12):
Hey, man, I appreciate that. But but I tell you, man,
I have some real dogs on my team with me, Man,
some showing up dogs that worked just as hard as me,
and some of them probably harder than me.
Speaker 8 (06:21):
Man.
Speaker 9 (06:21):
So I I, you know, the quarterback get a lot
of credit for when we have some sense. But also
know you get blamed well you don't have some I know,
I know how that goes. You know that too, But man, yeah, man,
UCF was you know, the story of how I got
there was h I was highly recruited coming out of
going into my senior year of high school. And once
(06:45):
my transcripts got out, pretty much my phone went from
ringing off the hook every day to not ringing at all.
And and so it was because I wouldn't taking care
of my business in the classroom. I was a little immature,
and you know, it was a wake up call for me.
So during that time when nothing my phone wasn't ringing,
(07:08):
it was one school that kept in contact with me,
and that was Coase Paul Linsbery at UCM. He was
offer the linement coach and he recruited to since the
Florida area. So he what he did was he looked
at my transcripts and he came and took me out
of class one day and he and he, you know,
he didn't know me very well, but he said, Dante,
I looked at the transcripts, and then there's a possibility
(07:30):
if you do these things right here, you can be
elg by the end of your senior year and those
things and tell me to I had to go back
and take over some of my freshman classes and get
aids at them. And I did that. And you know,
he did this a lot knowing I was, you know,
one type again eligible. He didn't know I was. I
could have signed with anybody still. But because he did that,
(07:53):
and and at the time, like I said, it was
kind of like I was at a low point. I
was like, dang, you know, I didn't know, you know,
I could have played baseball or whatever. I really, I
really wanted to be the first one about saying to
go to college. And so I h once I got
once I became eligible, I you know, see spurry your
(08:13):
little hopes by me bout all these you know, top coaches.
At the time, it was like a light switch picked
back on and they were calling me again, like it
like it never happened. For that whole summer, nobody would
come it. So I say, you know what, I'm gonna
go to U see up because I know these these
people care about me more than just me playing football
(08:36):
for them, and I would be a good hand. So
that's why I ended up at you.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
That's that's amazing.
Speaker 8 (08:41):
So and I think that's part of the story that
maybe gets missing, that you actually got eligible and you
could have just to what you just said, you could
have win anywhere else, but you chose to go to UCF.
So it wasn't like you had to go. You chose
there after you know, they showed you the concern and
love for you.
Speaker 9 (08:58):
Yeah, and these coaches didn't really they would motivate me
because they told me. I ain't gonna say with coach,
but a few of them told me stuff like, you know,
why do you want to go play in front of
five thousand people when you could play in front of
eighty five thousand every week on national TV and stuff
like that. They didn't realize they was just motivate me
to work harder and improve them. Wrong.
Speaker 11 (09:19):
Oh hey, Dante, thanks so much for coming on the
podcast this evening with us. I was pumped all day
for this conversation, so I'm pretty excited to be speaking
with you right now. I just want to fast forward
to the year two thousand and four in your NFL career.
That was your most successful season in the league. I
believe you set the single season record for most total
(09:43):
yardage produced by an NFL quarterback. And also I'm sure
Carl remembers this, Vikings reached the playoffs for the second time.
Speaker 10 (09:51):
Under your watch.
Speaker 11 (09:52):
Looking back on that year, what are your thoughts and
it's impact on your career for future reference?
Speaker 10 (09:59):
What was what? What did that do? Was that a
turning point in your career in the NFL?
Speaker 9 (10:05):
I wasn't say a turning point. I mean we we
had a lot of success on offense, and I like
to say, I uh, it was my third year with
coach Scott Lenahan, who was my officeve coordinator, and he
and I were on the same page. I'm telling you,
it was like I knew what he was thinking every
time he would call a play. I knew why he
(10:26):
was calling it, and I knew what to look for,
and I you know, I became a master of that offense.
And and I think that attributed to a lot of succession. Obviously,
I had, you know, players like Randy Marson, Nate Burton
and Marcus Robinson and Kelly Campbell and also Mo Williams,
Michael Benett, Ontario Smith will do more guys that were great,
(10:48):
great football players around me. And I had great office
in linement as well, Matt Burke and the crew. So man,
it was it was. It was an amazing season offensively
for us, and and I think we were just cooking
and all still of the is because, like I said,
the office coordinator myself, it was our third year together
and I had never been with office office coordinator more
than a year at time, so you know, it was
(11:09):
it was. It was a combination of those things, but
it was a great It was a great year. We
put up a lot of points and you know, we
we made it difficult for defenses to stop us. But yeah,
it was great, and you know, it's just unfortunately, you know,
the next year, I got hurt. But yeah, and Lanta
had left, you know, because Atlanta had left you know
that that season and went to take a job in
(11:31):
Saint Louis as well. So it combinations of things, but
it was it was a good year, and I'm I
was happy to be able to put forth the numbers
and had success.
Speaker 8 (11:41):
We had Sure, Dante, it when I look at your
your height and weight, it says six four to sixty. Yeah,
I have to I'm gonna have to assume at some
point somebody was trying to tell you to play something else.
Speaker 9 (11:59):
Yeah, well, hey, to be honest with you. Thenny Green,
my first day in Minnesota, my very first day there,
they got me scared. I was I was about sixty four.
I was two sixty six my very first day. And
Denny Green, he said, Lady said, Dante, I'm gonna tell
you right now, I'm not concerned with and wait. I
(12:22):
know you're gonna take your business and be prepared. I
just want to make sure that you physically and be
in the best shape that you possibly can be in.
He said, it's not gonna be a problem. I said, no, sir,
I don't have a problem. And he never bothered me
and buy my weight that I never but he did
tell me if he said, I just want you a
hundred two seventy five. So really that was my they
want him so sometimes the way I was wearing two,
(12:44):
even though four, I was like two seventy. But I
was my body fan was low. I was just a big,
big physical fans through that. I worked hard and all season,
so I was preparing my body for the season and
trying to prevent injuries and stuff like that. But I
never you know, even I was a bigger guy people.
(13:06):
I had a high school coach that didn't try to
move me. They let me pay quarterback. And in high school,
you know, my senior year, I was I was, I
was thinking I was about two forty five, two fifty,
you know. Yeah, so I was always a big kid.
In college, you know, coach Mike cruz ach h he
(13:26):
was my office coordinator and then became the head coach,
and he never bothered me about obviously changer. So it
was I was lucky that I had coaches that didn't
try to change my position. I was very lucky that
I had good coaches as well.
Speaker 8 (13:40):
And I'd say too that your quarterback skills had to
have been visible to them for them to even not
not to bother you and or let you just go,
because in most cases there's no way that that no
one's going to be in that position unless they've got
(14:00):
some skill set that coaches can actually literally.
Speaker 9 (14:04):
Sit yes, But I will say that a couple of
couple of colleges, and I'm gonna just say at the
University of Florida was one of them, and there's a
couple other ones like ron Zuk was the office with
the defense coordinator at the time at Florida my senior year,
and his very first question to me, he was like, hey,
you ever't played defense? I was like, I was looking
(14:29):
at him sideways. ID.
Speaker 8 (14:35):
So, So when you get to Minnesota and obviously, and
I believe Randy Moss was already there, how exciting? How
excited were you to be able to have a receiver
of that caliber where because you had a big you
had a big arm, and you can just really just
let it go with a guy like Randy Moss.
Speaker 9 (14:54):
Yeah, I mean I was excited. Denny. Denny told me
what they they called me. I was at the draft
and about to be honest with you, I had no
idea I was going to go to Minnesota because you know,
I didn't talk to Minnesota one time. From the time
my last came out senior year in college until the draft,
I didn't even speak to Minnesota one not a scout
not a call, and I'm gonna tell you interesting story. Man. Uh,
(15:18):
Danny Green called me and I was in the in
the green room at the draft. He called me, and
of course it was, hey, do you want to be
in Minnesota, Miking? And I'm like, of course I want
to be What I'm gonna say, no, Yeah, I didn't care.
You know, I knew that Rand the grun An was there,
Jeff George, but I didn't care because I wanted to
you know, life gonna dream of getting drafted and playing
(15:39):
in the NFL. So, you know, he drafted. But he
when I got to Minnesota, he told me the story
of how he even heard about me when Denny was
you know, he he came up under Bill Walsh and
he said about two years before that, when I was
going to my junior year, he said, uh, Bill wall
gave him a call and told him he needed to
(16:01):
check out this kid in Florida by his name of
Donthe Coben.
Speaker 7 (16:03):
Wow.
Speaker 9 (16:05):
Yeah, So he told me he had led me since
then and then they traded up. I don't know if
y'all remembered it, but they traded because they had like
the twenty pigre late in the first round, but they
traded up to the eleventh fig because Tampa, who I
thought I was going to go through coach Guntry. I
met with him about five times before the draft, and
I thought it was a lot that I was going
to go to Tampa. And Coach Green moved up as
(16:28):
surprised everybody, and drafted me. And he didn't want me
to go to Tampa because at the time we were
in the same visitor. Now this is Danny Green telling
me all this, you know, and I'm like, all right, coach,
So he pulls me in there. He takes you to
the draft board and he told me all the players
that they had rated. And not only did he have
me the number one quarterback in the draft that year,
(16:50):
he had me raised the number one player in the draft.
So he was like, he was really high on me,
and he said he needed a quarterback they can get
the ball out there to Randy and he thought that
I fit the mold for So that's how I even
got to Minnesota. And Coach Green will always be one
of my guys, and I appreciate him drafting me.
Speaker 8 (17:08):
Yeah that and not only and I failed to mention
not only Randy Moss was there, but Chris Carter was
there too, so you had sort of that duality of
those great receivers with two different skill sets and two
different sets of experience. So that always helps out as
a quarterback.
Speaker 9 (17:22):
Oh man, it was big for me. Man it having
two guys like that on the outside that that are
going to make plays when they afford the opportunity to
make the play. That's really what it's all about. And
I just had to put the ball with it need
to beat man and it. You know, sometimes it looks easy,
but you know, we but we prepared very very well
and and uh, you know we were able to put
up some good numbers. Yeah.
Speaker 11 (17:43):
So so Dante, I have a question, and Hollis just
kind of touched on this. Having receivers like Chris Carter
and Randy Moss in your you know, in your field
to throw to. What was it like trying to because
you know, people view the quarterback as the leader of
the team and you know, being in kind of in
charge of the offense, what was your approach to leadership
involving Chris and Randy, Like, what kind of a relationship
(18:06):
did you have with those guys out on the field.
Speaker 10 (18:09):
Was it kind of a.
Speaker 11 (18:10):
Mutual thing or did you feel comfortable enough to tell
them this is what we're going to do or was
it mutual?
Speaker 9 (18:15):
Yeah, I would tell you. My rookie year, I kind
of was like a sponge around there because I didn't
play my rookie year, so I got to watch Jeff
George around the Cunningham and watch how they prepare, and
I didn't I you know, obviously they had a job
to do as well, so I wasn't you know, I
didn't want to be this kids just bothering them and
(18:38):
picking their brain all the time. So I was kind
of like a sponge just you know, even the meeting rooms,
of course they would ask and just how they prepared themselves.
And I learned a lot from those guys. But dealing
with Randy and Chris that the season that coach after
my rookie year, Coach Green calls me, I think in
like March and tells me, hey, I'm going to announce
that you're going to be outside quarterback. And I was like,
(18:58):
all right, Coach, I'm ready. I felt like I was
ready my rookie year. After after probably about two weeks
of training camp, I thought I could have started. I
thought I had a girl. I felt like that, but
I had to wait. So so every every week during
my rookie year, I was the scout team quarterback, and
I treated practice like it was my game every day.
And I'm gonna who really got me ready? John Randall Man,
(19:21):
That dude, hey were he was painting faith in practice,
you know what I'm saying. So practice for me was
intense my rookie year. So Randy and Chris got to
see my skills set every day going against our first defense.
So I think I kind of won those guys over
a little bit. But then that off season when I
(19:42):
was name a starter, I came down to Chris's UH
training facility down in Voca Raton, Florida, and I lived
down there and trained with them every day. So they
got to see how hard I worked. You know, I wasn't.
I didn't. I came in. I didn't. I'm the type
of guy I didn't want nobody to give me nothing.
I want to earn it. So I earned never respect
and that it was a natural thing. And then and
(20:03):
once we got back up there the training camp, you know,
it was just I just stepped in and and and
they were just they were just receivers on the team.
To me, you know, at the times, like I had
a job to do, and they know, they know, everything
came to the quarterback, and you know, we we'd have
our you know, a little spats here and there, but
they know I would, you know, if I had Yeah,
(20:26):
if we had to come, we had to come to blows.
I was willing, you know what I'm saying. So we
we Luckily we never had to do that. But they
understood and they looked in my eyes and they knew
what I was made of. So I never had any
real problems with any one of those guys.
Speaker 8 (20:42):
What's interesting to me is like I had I had
a year with Chris, and.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
Chris is a different breed. He he like like like
for me, like we would go if going one on
one and all that kind of stuff. Like he was.
He was the kind of guy that.
Speaker 8 (21:04):
Could really get to you, get get you, like, get
you upset, get you to the point where like you're like.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
Well, bro, let's just let's just throw blows.
Speaker 8 (21:14):
And so I'm wondering, how did you And again kind
OF's the same somewhat of the same question. But Chris
to me was a different guy. Like, what, like, how
did you manage to pull him in to it being okay?
Like when you didn't throw to him, you know, because
I know he wanted every ball.
Speaker 9 (21:37):
Hey, can y'all hear me? Yeah we can hear Okay,
I'm on the turn fight. That was breaking up a
little bit. But yeah, Chris Man. Let me tell you,
I love Chris Man. But Chris, you know, he had
a lot of success, and you know, he he's the
type of guy that you just gotta be stirring with him. Man. Yeah,
that's what I did. And you know, in my rookie year,
(22:00):
he got to realize that the Vikings. I was brought
into a situation where the team was fifteen and one
the year before in the offenses, and so a lot
of people was like, why we draft a quarterback? We
need somebody, we need to help on defense. You know.
So I felt like, I really Chris was one of
the guys I really had to show, all right, why
(22:22):
I'm here and through it all. You know, I'm happy
that we were able to give them the same pace.
But at first, you know, Chris wasn't He wasn't somebody
that I really liked particularly, and I know he really
he felt like it was the end of his career
and he didn't have time to groom a guy. So
(22:43):
I knew I had to be ready, you know what
I'm saying. But one thing for sure, it was going
to be respectful, you feel me. So Chris knew. He
knew the type of dude I was from working out
with me, and a few times we in the heat
of battle, you know, I have to remind him like, man,
let's let's be respectful or now we can go we
(23:07):
can go there if you want to. And he never
really wanted to go there. So so that's how That's
how it was, man. So he ended up being good.
So we ended up being good.
Speaker 8 (23:15):
Yeah, And I think I think in most cases you
always do kind of patch it up, but it is,
it is super tense, and I don't know if people
really realize whether it's quarter quarterback, receiver, offensive or defensive
line secondary. Like you chatting, you know, there's guys that
are chatting saying stuff like, hey, you guys got to
(23:35):
get a sight. You know, we were back here trying
to you know, and then some all of a sudden,
one I'm gonna turn around and say something to you,
and you kind of gotta be try to be like
you bold. But but I know when I was there,
there was nothing I could do with any of those
none of those d linemen. But Johnny Randall is a
special dude. He was a He was a special player.
Speaker 9 (23:54):
You know, we went at it.
Speaker 8 (23:56):
Man.
Speaker 9 (23:56):
He his intensity every day. Yeah, got me, got my
feet right, got me really at the speed of the game.
I had to adjust a little bit from college and
being there every day going against him definitely helped me
and I and I appreciated him for that, you know,
because he was he was a He was a high
level competitor, and I was the same way, and I
(24:17):
wanted to win no matter how how it happened. Throwing
the run of it didn't matter.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, that's what's up.
Speaker 8 (24:23):
So you know, I'm gonna go I know we jumping
all over the place here, but I'm gonna go a
little off script. And now you you were synonymous with
with your famous celebration.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
To get your role on celebration, you was not.
Speaker 8 (24:37):
Only did you you sort of popularized it outside of
the hip hop community, but you were also in one
of at the time, one of my favorite groups videos,
the Big Timer. So you know, you know, being a
kid from central Florida and kind of going through everything
you went to and just having that level of a
fun and celebrity.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
How was that experience for you?
Speaker 9 (24:58):
It was great. Man. Know Slim, Slim Williams and Baby Williams.
You know I met I met Slim. They're the owners
of Owners of Cash Money Records. And I met Slim
when they first were coming on the scene because one
of one of my wife's cousins played for the Saints
and his his girlfriend at the time was a girl
(25:20):
from New Orleans. So they when they broke up her
that that girl became she was friends with Slim, and
some kind of way he found out that, uh that
I was friends with well my girlfriend and her with friends.
So he invited me to that one of their first
shows when it came to Florida. So I ended up
(25:42):
going to the show in Miami and we hit off
and we became good friends. And you know, they had
a song and it because gets the roll on. So
one day I was leaving and he calls me. He's like, hey,
Pep man, when you call touchdown, may see you get
the rollover. That's and that's how I have it. Man,
and I just I did after every touchdown. It was
(26:03):
my celebration. Man. It was fun though. But those du
you know, awesome. Man. I had a great time, you know,
hanging out with them.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
That's what Hey.
Speaker 11 (26:11):
So Dante's speaking of youth and reliving your days back
when you were rookie quarterback. Thinking about the current NFL
with with so many young quarterbacks starting. You've got, you know,
names like c. J. Stroud, Bryce Young, Jayden Daniels. What
are your thoughts on the current crop of young quarterbacks
in the league. How do you how do you feel
(26:31):
about their play?
Speaker 9 (26:33):
I love it. I love it. You know, it's a
different it's a different game, obviously, it's a more it's
an offensive game, and it's great. It's very exciting. I love,
you know, the run pass option that they do, the
R pos. I love that, you know, kind of wish
we'd had a little bit of that when I was playing. Yes,
you know, and I think, you know the quarterback you know,
(26:58):
coming up when I was young. You you're getting labeled
as a running quarterback, right.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (27:04):
It's a negative thing. But I love you know, I
love Jayson, I love Jalen Hurst, I love you know,
I mean I think Lamar Jackson is absolutely fantastic, and
my homes is Off obviously a great player. It's a
lot of great players. I love my man up in
the Buffalo. He's definitely something who's somebody. I love that
(27:28):
I watched him play man. I mean, it's just the
quarterback play is phenomenal. Guys are very accurate and then
they get to showcase the athleticism and move to change
in different ways. I think that's exciting and uh, I
love to watch them.
Speaker 8 (27:44):
And I think just to touch on that, you know,
being a quarterback, you know, coming up in the in
the nineties, it was sort of that distinction either you
was a running quarterback or you was a passing quarterback.
Even though we had guys like Steve Young and John Elways,
it was still like you were still category is either
one or the other. So as your game of all,
particularly because I know you did a lot of running college,
(28:05):
but you also did your first.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
Running in the in the NFL.
Speaker 8 (28:08):
Was that something you were like conscious of or you
were just you were just out there playing ball.
Speaker 9 (28:14):
I'm playing ball. I was. I was definitely constantly mean
because you know, my coach always say, man, get down,
get down, you know, but I you know, I was
squadding five fifty and you know, I was running up
for five man, and I went, I wasn't. I felt
like I was going. I felt like I was either
going to make a guy in there or punishing. Yeah,
that was my mentality, you know what I'm saying. So
(28:35):
you know, I my main goal was to move the
change if I wanted to put up in position to
get points, whether it's running or throwing. You know, I
never said, you know, I don't want to run on
this play, because the defense a lot of times dictated,
you know, how you got to most the change sometimes.
So I just wanted to be like a Swiss Army
(28:55):
Knight to be able to, you know, be two different
ways with maybe come you.
Speaker 8 (29:02):
Had you had thirty four rushing touchdowns and and as
negative as a running quarterback title could be. Brother, that's
that's that's an amazing that's an amazing number for a quarterback.
Speaker 9 (29:17):
Yeah, oh yeah, thank you y'all put them. I didn't.
It didn't matter to me. It only mattered that we
got the points. You know, I remember that year, the
year I had ten touchdowns in one year, right, So
but I could have had twenty because Moe Williams had
ten touchdowns also from the had about eight or nine
from the one yard line. I could have quarterback sticked
(29:38):
all of him. But he you know, he's always tell me, man,
let me get the touchdowns. So I know, so I'll
tell her. I said, you better get on first to
seke it down because the third time.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
And you had and you had it.
Speaker 9 (29:53):
It was a good thing, man. And I just always
wanted to get the points that didn't. I wasn't. I
didn't care about who got it to be, but I
just wanted to make sure we put us in some
positions to try to win games.
Speaker 8 (30:04):
Right as one hundred and eighty five pound cornerback, Bro,
you had two thousand and six hundred and fifty two
rushing yards.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Bro, you can't come over there by.
Speaker 8 (30:15):
Me like you like you got to go the other
way or something, because I'm gonna have miss that.
Speaker 9 (30:21):
Bro.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
That's that's a that's a ton of yards.
Speaker 9 (30:23):
Man. Yeah, man, I hate, I gotta tell you I'm
signing to I was trying to put it in a
position to get points and win, man. That's all it
was about. It wasn't. I never was a stat chaser.
Like that. I didn't care if I threw for three
hundred or three for one hundred. I don't care if
I've ran for twenty or for one hundred. Didn't matter
to me. I only cared about the point in the
win loss call. That's really that mattered.
Speaker 8 (30:46):
Yeah, And I just had one more question to that
as far, because you said something earlier about not necessarily
having a consistent offensive coordinator at least in your time
in the NFL, and I want you to just to
articulate to people how difficult that can be because at
the point that you can like master office, you get
to know you are you and the OC are on
(31:07):
the same page. Then you leave, you got to start
all over. I know Jayalen Hurts and a lot of
the young guys are going through that now. So how
difficult is that?
Speaker 9 (31:15):
Just as a professional, it is very imperative importance for
the office coordinator and the quarterback to be on the
same page. Is I can't even put in the work
how important it is because it's it's it's like it's
like night day. If you don't if you're not on
the same page, if you don't know why the office
(31:35):
of Coordinator is calling up certain play in a certain situation.
Your your thought process isn't right. And I mean from
I had good I'm not saying I didn't have any
other Girlmin's coordinators, but we I don't think we were
in sync like I was with Scott Lanahan, you know,
and and it just was clicking, man. And I noticed
(31:56):
that when I when he left, it was it was
like I was sometimes I feel I was out there alone,
you know, And that's a that's a tough thing when
you're out there quarterback. You don't if you don't have
your eyes up there, you know, being able to tell
you because obviously if most quarterbacks are not all quarterbacks
have the ability to change the play at any time anyway.
(32:16):
But if you want to, you want to know why
he's calling what he's calling. And it's a rhythm thing too,
you know, the rhythm thing, and you know, you pay quarterback.
And if you can't get in the rhythm, which office coordinator,
it could be some day it could be a lot
of three and outs. And that's the worst thing ever
to give a three outs.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
And I think people don't really like they can't conceptualize
that they they I think they made for people who
never didn't play the position. They're just looking on field
and how that manifests. But to have that all firs
of coordinator, because I mean, if you're really clicking, then
y'all can even finish each other sentences.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
Y'all.
Speaker 8 (32:50):
It's almost like you can look at him, he can
look at you and you notice set. You know, to
play like it ain't even got to be articulated, and
people don't understand, like if you don't have that, or
if you're in conflict or you're thinking one way and
he's thinking another, then it just messes up the timing
and rhythm of not only just the office, but it
can do damage to the whole team as well.
Speaker 9 (33:11):
Definitely, definitely, man, it's very important to just as the
OC or who's not. It ain't got to be who's
ever calling the play. Yeah, you know, OC, don't call
the play the head coach officer, but you've got to
be in sync with that that person as a quarterback.
And in my career, the success the years I was
very successful, it was when I kind of knew why
(33:32):
he was calling something, when he was calling it and
what we were trying to accomplish.
Speaker 11 (33:36):
Yeah, So Dante I'm going to go on a different
path here.
Speaker 10 (33:40):
It's kind of an opinion question.
Speaker 11 (33:42):
So I want to I want to talk about a
person that I know, Carl admires a lot.
Speaker 10 (33:47):
That's Aaron Rodgers coming off.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
So Dante's backdropp This is she's a Packer fan. Okay,
Well you don't have to tell him that.
Speaker 11 (33:57):
Yeah, so so so Dante. He's you know, he's coming
off a major injury. He's entering his twenty first season,
and he's signed with the Steelers. You've experienced a major
injury like that and tried to continue your career with
the Dolphins, Raiders and Lions after the Vikings, correct after
(34:20):
you had your knee injury. So what do you think
fans should expect from Aaron Rodgers in Steeler Country? Do
you think he'll be successful in twenty twenty five or
do you feel like he should just have already ridden
off hto the sunset?
Speaker 10 (34:33):
What are your opinions on him?
Speaker 9 (34:35):
I'm going to tell you, with his skill set, if
they can keep him off the ground, and with the
receivers they have, and I mean, he's a very accurate quarterback.
He's obviously he knows the game. Had it out. It's
an interesting thing. I think he gets I mean, they
come down to and they protected and not get him
(34:58):
in because of you know, you know, you get him
here a few times. You know, you know, he's not
he's not a young guy anymore. So that's that's you know,
it might take him longer the hell and there's different
factors than that, so they could protect him and keep
him off the ground. I think they can definitely have
a lot of success because his armors definitely has a pop,
a lot of pop left in and he's a very
(35:19):
very accurate quarterback, and he's pritpo and he knows the game.
So with those things, if he if he they gotta say,
if they healthy, they can definitely have a lot of
success with that team.
Speaker 8 (35:31):
And see and and to that point, like I you know,
I played, you know with Tommy Kramer, you know, and
he toward the end of his career, and then I
was able to play in Minnesota for long enough to
see other players, other quarterbacks who were getting towards the
end of their career.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
It's interesting to me when you start talking about.
Speaker 8 (35:54):
Because because because Tommy, Tommy didn't have to do a
whole lot of anything like he just knew the position
like he he just knew what he was gonna need
to do.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
He could just get.
Speaker 8 (36:06):
Out there and and he could just see it and
and and people talk a lot about the game slowing down, yep.
So when the game slowed down for you, was it
a situation to where you were like, Okay, I can
I'm seeing all this, I can make this check, I
(36:27):
can make all these changes in the cause of what
I could. I could pretty much do what I want
because you could see and you understood the game as
a whole, and it was just like you were looking
at it and seeing it.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Oh, he's getting ready to go do this. It's cover three,
it's cover four.
Speaker 8 (36:42):
You know you could you tell me a little bit
about when you got to that place and how comfortable
it made you feel.
Speaker 9 (36:49):
I'm gonna tell you, man, it's an amazing thing to be.
I call it the zone. When you're in the zune.
Like you know, my first year, three touchdowns that year,
But I went in the zone. You know, I was
out there, I was playing, I was having success. And
then and you know, my next few years it was
kind of up and down. But then you know, three, well,
(37:11):
coach manand came on two, and we about halfway through
that year week got on the same page. And then
three I was I was kind of it was slowing down,
but if what I hadn't got totally there. But oh four,
I'm telling you, man, I felt like I don't know
if y'all ever watched the Marvel moves and Spider Man
when everything when everything slow down, and he knew me
(37:31):
so fast that everything is really slow to him. That's
how I felt that. I felt like I was a superhero.
I really felt like everything was slow to me, and
it was like I could see it before it happened.
And and I I like to call that when you're
in the zone and it's like you can't be stopping
and that that is an amazing thing to be in
the zone and you're you know, athletes know know what
(37:53):
that is, man. And when you're in the zone, man,
it's like no matter what you do, you you you're
a step ahead of everything else. You know, it is
an amazing feeling. And it is a fantastic feeling. You know.
That's the best way I can describe it. Being in
the zone. You know, it is like you're just to
everybody else, You're moving faster, you're doing this great and
these awesome things, but to you, it's like everything is slow, right,
(38:17):
It's just amazing.
Speaker 8 (38:18):
And that's and that's crazy because you had the Spider
Man reference and being a quarterback and being on the zone,
that ball feel like it's on the string. You really
feel like you just you can really pit it anywhere
you want to pit it. Everybody else is just moving
like they're just walking, and you just at full speed
all the time.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
So that's definitely an amazing feeling.
Speaker 9 (38:38):
You know.
Speaker 8 (38:39):
And I you know, I think I think to have
some success, at at least at the professional level, I
think everybody has to have a time or a place
where they're in that zone. Because if you don't, I
don't know how you make it, you know what I'm saying,
Because like you, you got to go against this guy
(38:59):
that guy all the time, and at some point you
got to get to a point where you were saying, oh,
it don't matter, I can just I can just do
this because I can remember just in you know, playing
corner in eighty seven. It was like it was it
was easy for me to you know, cover this guy,
(39:20):
cover that guy, and I won't throw names out because
people will be like, oh, he ain't never cover that guy.
But it just got it did It just got comfortable
and you, like you said, you're in that zone man,
and it's and it's great.
Speaker 9 (39:35):
Yeah, it's a it's an amazing feeling. And you said
it right, man. You just it's no matter what they
try to do, you a step ahead or teach me
like it's a it's tough, you know. And I've been
on the other end of that when people no matter
what what you try to do, it doesn't work. You know. Yeah,
the word day. But man, being in the zone is
(39:56):
a great feeling, man. And and I would to everybody
who's an athlete to feel that feeling because it's an
awesome feeling.
Speaker 11 (40:05):
So Dante, what what are you currently doing now that
your football crew is ever what? What what is your
focus now as far as your hobbies your business kind
of aspects.
Speaker 9 (40:15):
Well, I lived out in uh South Florida and Fort
l my wife and I for a while. We were
at a trucking business and we got out of that
and now we're just building our real estate portfolio, you know,
just to you know, we have some properties at our
hometown and we're just building and and and just trying
(40:36):
to you know, make that as successful as possible. But
other than that, we we had six kids, and my
kids are in the house still. He's fourteen and he's
playing a little quarterback now. And yeah, he says he
wants it, but I told him, you know, he's one
(40:57):
thing to say it. But you gotta you gotta, you
gotta be an everyday thing. You got to be for
who you are, you know, you know, do you sit
ups every day? So stuff like that. I'm on them.
And my other two boys are in college. They play
college basketball. They're actually in the transfer port now and
they're looking for up a place to play. So hopefully
they have a team. You know, they signed somewhere soon.
(41:17):
So you know, that's that's what. My brothers are thirty
and twenty eight, and we have three grandkids, three baby girls. Yeah,
so you know that, you know, been my my my
girls in high school and we have a beautiful family.
And that's that's what. I'm just a dad now, you know,
(41:39):
I drop off.
Speaker 10 (41:40):
Superdad pick up.
Speaker 2 (41:44):
I got a GRANDSONID so I know how that works, man.
Speaker 9 (41:48):
Yeah. Yeah, Unfortunately, you know, my my baby girl was
killed in a car accident in twenty twenty and she
was ten years old. Yeah, yeah, I've every day man,
so you know, you know, you know, life, life happens,
you know, and you keep pushing forward. And but I'm
I'm happy, and uh, I appreciate you know, I was
(42:09):
lucky to to start dating my wife when I did.
I got a good girl.
Speaker 8 (42:14):
Man.
Speaker 9 (42:14):
She's uh, she's been there every step of the way
with men, and uh she's been a definitely a huge
support of me. And uh and and how you know
we get to you know, continue to grow and and
be grandparents and and uh, you know, it's just enjoying life,
you know, That's what it's about.
Speaker 8 (42:33):
Well, bro, like I said, I I'm gonna go back
to the opening and and just let you know. And
you you again, you just impressed me every single time
I got a chance to have you be.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
I'm around you, listen to you.
Speaker 8 (42:49):
You You're a genuine brother to me that I think
that your success, you're all the greatness that comes with you.
I don't I don't even know if you even care
about that at this point, because it doesn't come off.
Did you just come off as a genuine person that
just that just will sit and talk with.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
Anybody no matter what.
Speaker 8 (43:12):
And I and and like I said, for your for
you to be Dante Calpepper, nobody's thinking that, Like, hey,
I can sit there and talk with him and he'll
talk back to me. And I saw it. I saw
it firsthand, man, So I'm super impressed. And I appreciate
you coming on the show. And uh we'll let you
go now, and uh, thank you, man, and get your
(43:34):
role on.
Speaker 9 (43:37):
Hey, David, thank you all for what Man. I gotta say.
I'm equally impressed with you, card Man. I appreciate your
big brother and uh, man, just keep in touch with me, man,
and hopefully we can play some golf. Tom.
Speaker 8 (43:48):
I gotta get my golf game. I gotta get my
golf game up New York. I seen you on Instagram
and he was looked like he was hitting about three hundred.
Speaker 2 (43:57):
I've seen that one.
Speaker 9 (43:59):
I'm right hit a three hundred, but it won't go straight.
It'll go straight, so he can get some lessons.
Speaker 8 (44:07):
I'm searching for lessons, man, I'm searching for the lessons
before I get back out there because I and I
can't say I played pretty decent before, but I hadn't
played for for like two three years and and bro,
I already know how that's gonna look. So I gotta
five fee somebody, thank you by somebody to help me out.
Speaker 2 (44:27):
But I'll get back with you.
Speaker 8 (44:29):
Man, We'll get we'll get in touch, and we'll stay
in We'll stay in touch.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
I'll say that for sure.
Speaker 9 (44:34):
Man, Thank you all for having me.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Thank you for many All right, cats the kittens?
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Have you heard?
Speaker 3 (44:40):
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(46:01):
Carl Lee. This is Let's Talk with Carl Lee. Now
back into the conversation.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
All right, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 8 (46:08):
I hope you enjoyed that part of the show, and
I think we got a little bit more time, I think,
and Holliston's got a he's got he's got something he's
got to get off his chill.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (46:17):
So first of all, I just think Dante Copever, he
was just so genuine answered all the questions, just gave
us great detailed insight on you know, his life and everything.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
So that was awesome.
Speaker 8 (46:27):
But just you know, now we're entering to NBA free agency.
You know, there's been a lot of talk about the
collective bargaining agreements and different things of that nature, and
Kevin Durant.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
Want to move again.
Speaker 8 (46:38):
So now we have Lebron he originally signed, but I
still think he has the option to opt out or
he has some options. So I think he was He's
possibly do about fifty four million dollars, but I don't
I think he can still move if he if he
wanted to. So I mean, just what are your general thoughts.
You know, he's played twenty plus years, he got his
son in the league. Is it like he's won four championships,
(47:01):
won every championship? Why where he went? Is it time
to go or would you think he'd be damaging his
legacy by possibly going to a different team.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
I think yes, I think.
Speaker 8 (47:11):
If he goes to another team, I don't think he
can play. He's not getting better. Okay, let's let's just
make this clear. He he's not gonna get that. Age
is not going to allow you.
Speaker 2 (47:23):
To get any better.
Speaker 8 (47:25):
Okay, And so I'm not a Lebron fan anyway, So
so so I could be I could be a little
prejudice in here, but.
Speaker 4 (47:34):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
I don't really. I don't think he is.
Speaker 8 (47:38):
He is doing anything necessarily for the NBA. I don't
think you know what I'm saying, Like, everybody knows Lebron,
everybody knows who he is. Everybody knows he's played on
fifty five teams. So what I mean, what is there
what is there to be left to do?
Speaker 2 (47:56):
Yeah? What is there left for him really to do?
Speaker 11 (47:58):
Yeah, I'm you know, I'm gonna go back to what
Hollis said about it, would it possibly damage his legacy?
Speaker 10 (48:05):
I think we're beyond that with him. So yeah, I
think he could. I think he he can do.
Speaker 11 (48:10):
I think it's up to Lebron to decide. Of course
he is, he calls the plays, the shots for his career.
But I think it's up to him what he wants
to do and how to how to bow out gracefully
on his career. And I don't think it's going to
hurt his legacy in the least amount of yeah, amount
of anyway. But you know who's undefeated, father Tom, and
we know that's catching up with him. So you know,
(48:31):
I think that he would be better off probably bowing
out sooner than later. But I don't think anything's going
to diminish his accomplishments in the NBA.
Speaker 8 (48:41):
Yeah, I would say, you know, I'm a Laker fan,
and most certainly obviously him being on the roster taking
up that much cap space. I don't know if it's
not going to help us build. But I think for
his maybe own personal legacy, I don't think you want
to go out and you don't make the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (48:56):
I think last year they didn't. We didn't make the playoffs.
Speaker 8 (48:59):
So I think maybe in his mind, like at least
even if we don't win a championship, I at least
want to go out on a playoff team. I don't
want to go out not making the playoffs. But let
me I know we ain't got much time. But let
me ask you another question. Tom Thibodeau, former head coach
of the New York Knicks. He gets them almost to
the Dance Eastern Conference championship and they let him go right,
(49:21):
What do you guys think about that sort of move?
When you when you, and then again in for context,
this is the first time they had been there in
like twenty maybe thirty years, This first time they've been
relevant in a very long time. I'm gonna say this, Okay,
somebody in the system, whether it's a player, whether it's
(49:42):
somebody somebody in the structure, does not like him. Yeah,
you think it's I think it's personal. I mean, but
he's known to be a grinder. He's known to like
he's playing his he hey guys, and they're gonna grind
out each and every night. You knowing to be a
hard like he plays coach is hard. I'm a star player,
(50:05):
I'm your I'm your main player. I don't and I
don't necessarily know who that is. I'm not I'm not
pointing a finger. I'm just saying, but I'm going seeing
management and saying, look, this dude's pushing, he's yelling and screaming.
He's doing all this kind of stuff that I that
I don't like and the team don't like. And I
think the reason we didn't get all the way was
because of him.
Speaker 11 (50:24):
Do you really think there's a player on that team
that has that kind of leverage.
Speaker 2 (50:27):
He said player or I said player or management.
Speaker 8 (50:30):
Somewhere somebody is not liking who he is as a
person and how he's coaching.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Because he showed your results. He showed you, he showed
the result.
Speaker 10 (50:41):
That's what I mean.
Speaker 11 (50:42):
Yeah, and in the NBA, but it is ruthless. I mean,
unless you get to the to the level of the championship,
the NBA Championship game, you're it's not good enough, at
least for the fans. I mean, you said there's a
Lakers fan, and you were pretty much, but you.
Speaker 2 (50:58):
Don't fire.
Speaker 8 (50:59):
But but what I'm saying is like being a Laker fan,
we've we've had championships this century. Yeah right, if you're
a nick fan, you have been nowhere since like Patrick Ewing,
since like the Spree, well maybe Allen Houston teams, Like
this is the first time you've been to this level.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
This guy, well, well Mike Brown got hired.
Speaker 8 (51:18):
He again, he but with Mike Brown, he's won championships
as a head coach, one championships as an assistant. But
he's also been fired four times as the head coach.
Speaker 10 (51:27):
So it's like, I'm just a carousel, don't you.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
Yeah, I just don't.
Speaker 8 (51:30):
But but if again, if you're coaching you had that
level of success, it's just hard for me to justify
why you were fired other than to your point, it's
just being purely personal.
Speaker 11 (51:41):
Yeah, it's did you have that kind of leverage in
the NFL car fired?
Speaker 12 (51:46):
No, that was I was on the end result of that.
I mean because and again, even players, you can get
cut for the like when I got cut from the
Vikings and went to the Saints. The whole reason that
I got cut was because me and the dB, the
new dB coach, Danny Green's buddy.
Speaker 2 (52:06):
Was the dB coach, and he.
Speaker 8 (52:08):
Ain't know nothing about He didn't know nothing about dB
play like, he knew nothing. And we're in the meetings laughing,
and you know, and me and him and had conversation
and he said to me, you don't know how to backpedal.
You or he he said, you back pedal too high.
Now you're a scout becoming a dB coach. I've been
(52:30):
playing my entire career. I'm in year eleven, right, and
you're telling me I don't know how to back credit.
Speaker 2 (52:37):
How do I not laugh?
Speaker 8 (52:38):
So that's why I'm sure, that's the reason why I
got cut because I just couldn't respect him and I
didn't show him respect because we just didn't get along.
And I'll even go a step further. All within two years,
our whole entire secondary got cut.
Speaker 10 (52:59):
And it was because of the new Yeah, the new
dB coach.
Speaker 8 (53:03):
Yeah yes, and Denny Green brought it. I mean, that
could be an example of just kind of what's going on.
It's just like I said, it's just it's just amazing,
like in this support environment, when you have success and
then you just like you just let go the next year.
Speaker 2 (53:16):
It's just I don't know, it's it's.
Speaker 8 (53:18):
It's money and you and you gotta you gotta be
what that person wants.
Speaker 2 (53:23):
You to be. And sometimes that sometimes that's tough.
Speaker 11 (53:27):
Yeah, but then that person should be held responsible if
they if they fire you know what I mean, Like
they fire a coach that that is is not he
hasn't reached the pinnacle, but he's pushing them closer. And
then you fire this guy and you bring somebody else
in that takes the steps backward. Somebody needs to be
held accountable for that. Don't you think I.
Speaker 2 (53:45):
Would think so?
Speaker 8 (53:46):
But but but it depends on who that person is
and what his connections is.
Speaker 10 (53:50):
It's true too, Jerry, James and Dallas.
Speaker 2 (53:54):
I he owns it.
Speaker 8 (53:56):
So yeahs all right, Well, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna
get out of here and we appreciate you, and uh
we'll see again next week.
Speaker 7 (54:06):
Let's Talk with Carl Lee as presented by Attorney Frank
Walker and the all new Historic Choir Diner. Come in
on episodes, ask the crew questions or suggest topics on
our Facebook page search forward Let's Talk with Carl Lee,
and remember to light the page to become part of
the conversation. Subscribe by searching Let's Talk with Carl Lee,
wing your favorite podcast service and tune in Thursday evenings
(54:26):
at seven or Sunday nights at eight for Let's Talk
with Carl Lee.
Speaker 5 (54:31):
If you follow us it dun for get back up
for your feet, anything will be a win, yup, even defeat.
That's say, shits a bath for you wise Vinetary Sweet
couldn't play with big kids.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
I had to sit in.
Speaker 6 (54:41):
The street and watch from a distance.
Speaker 2 (54:43):
But nova time I grew.
Speaker 5 (54:44):
If I put in the work, in no time, I'm
doing everything that I worked and prayed I'm mokay. If
you ask me, how did I do what I'm gonna say.
You gotta work, Ry Shine, just mine, gotta show everybody
is my time here.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
You gotta work.
Speaker 6 (54:59):
Cry never mind who talking, guy this day line, don't talk.
Speaker 4 (55:03):
You gotta work. You gotta work. You gotta work. You
gotta work. You gotta work. You gotta work.
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